Enter 2015 - happy new year world!

The 2014 has come to an end, welcome 2015!

My new new years resolutions is to eat less fried food and go to the gym regularly again.

I plan to change my career so hopefully I'll have some good vibes :-) stay kawaii guys and remember you have to make things happen and not wait for it to fall in your lap. Things don't work that way :-p

Best Mince Pies 2014

I have never been a Mince Pie fanatic and that is true still to this day. However come Christmas comes the madness of food shortages especially when it comes to Mince Pies a staple to any Christmas meal. SO on the road to Christmas I have sampled and recorded my thoughts on all the mince  pies I devoured.

LIDL - Snowy Lodge - Deep Filled Mince Pies

Lidl have been branded student shopping but over the years have expanded to branded goods and high quality food with a purse friendly price tag

The box had 12 mini mince pies for the price of just £1.89 with the lowest calorie count of 192 calories, 17g of sugar and 7.6g of fat per pie. But I normally eat two because of the size.

First Impressions

Small but nicely presented with cute holly pattern on top with light sugar dusting on top and brown edge. With a rich shortcrust smell as soon as you open the box.

The Taste


One bite into this pastry and you'll be asking for more! I was so impressed with the mince meat texture. The pastery was not too thick or thin  and had a great buttery ataste teamed with some double cream this makes my perfect dessert for xmas or not. The only fail was the size but great for dieting.

4.5 / 5
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Tesco - Christmas - Deep Filled Mince Pies

Tesco's own brand have always been hit and miss with me but lets see their standard for 2014.

These seem to be no different to previous years. Same box art and nutrition of 255 calories, 19.8g of sugar and 9.4g of fat.

First Impressions

As these pies are machine made, and looked a bit woky and two out of the box had mince seeping out. There is a great amount of sugar on top. The pie appears cooked evenly.

The Taste

Very crumbly and very sweet, I needed liquid to swallow. overall very indifferent about nthis pie. Didn't hate or love and definitely underfilled.

Overall tastes like a budget mince pie. More testing needs to be done before mass production Tesco.

2.5/5
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 Aldi - Holly Lane - Deep Filled Mince Pies

Rivaling Lidl will I get the same or a better result?

The first thing you notice is that the box is much smaller than the usual mince pie box and it's also not very Christmas themed. These have 236 calories, 22.1g of sugar and 8.3g of fat.

First Impressions

No sugar on top and the pie in general looks ugly, bumpy brown texture, and as you try to remove it from foil and edges break off.

The Taste

Despite the ugly pastry, it tastes soft, ie stale which can be fixed if you put in the oven but I certainly don't have time for that sort of nonsense. The box says there is lemon inside which I definately don't taste but there is a hin tof apple inside.

Overall

I preferred Lidl's by miles but my mother liked this humble and overwhelming pie but she normally preferrs over sweetened things which this wasn't also she drowned hers in double cream... The presentation let the pie down accompanied by a bog standard box with a lame product inside.
1.5/5
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 Mr Kipling's Exceedingly Good Mince Pies

I couldn't not try test one of the most popular cake brands out theree available in most shops and only for £1 for 6 pies.

The box boasts about having 100% natural flavours, no artificial colours and are all baked in Britain with 100% British wheat flour. At 253 calories and 9.2g of fat per pie, it is about average for a mince pie.

First Impressions

Well, this was a sad pie, there was hardly any filling inside the festive box.  There is a small amount of sugar sprinkled on top which didn't help the chewy taste. The edges of the pie are well browned and broke off.

 The Taste

The first bite was as expected, the pastry is crumbly but it stays intact. There is a buttery taste but that was lost in all the chewing to bit the pastry off which leads me believe it was undercooked I tried two pies from the same batch warm and cold and had the same disappointing result.

Too crumbly on top, undercooked at the bottom with chewy insides. An exceedingly bad pie.
1 / 5

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Sainsbury's Deep Mince Pies

This is my first time trying Sainsbury's brand  Mince Pies.

 This is another average pie at 259 calories and 9.5g of fat. These are "Butter enriched shortcrust pastry cases with a mincemeat filling". The pastry is stated to be 52%, mincemeat at 47% and sugar at 1% which sounds like a nice even ratio.

First Impressions

This looks nothing glamorous,  a little brown around the edges and mistletoe diesign on pie. It looks like a solid, well filled mince pie.


The Taste

Now, this one is a nice mince pie. The buttery shortcrust pastry is lovely, and a good amount of moist filling helps this go down easily.

The filling wasn't too sweet which balanced out the sweetness in the pastry. Next time more thought on the look of the pie would help.


3 / 5

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Sainsbury's Fresh Bakery

The fresh bakery stuff is something you get tempted into by smell and sometimes special over this by no means was cheap £3 for 4.

First Impressions

With no calorie or fat content you just dove in to the pie. It was flat and with a layer of icing sugar on top the plain supposed deep filled pies.

The Taste

Probably the driest mince pie of all.  It disintegrated into my plate and their was no sweetness in the pastry crust or the filling for that matter. I have no idea what I bit into but I left this pie half way.

My taste buds feel robbed.

0/5

What if Lego made a Pokecentre set?

So what if Lego made a Pokecentre set? It would probably be the best set ever and make millions in pounds due to the massive fanbase. Builder Savath_Bunny shared superb-looking Pokémon center on LEGO Ideas and filled it with the main characters, Pokémon starters and all the gadgets you can find in the games.

'Pikachu's Pokemon Center Visit' includes the following:

5 Minifigures:

Ash Ketchum
Misty
Brock
Nurse Joy
Professor Oak

5 Starter Pokémon:


Pikachu
Squirtle
Charmander
Bulbasaur
Eevee

This is an idea that may have come to life depending on the votes from fans. However, despite having 1,000+ votes the set will not be put into production. The Lego officials statement regarding it explains:

"We've looked into the possibility of producing a set based on this licensed property (Pokemon). Since the property is owned by a competitor, we've decided it’s neither a brand fit nor a strategic fit for the Lego Group to pursue a license, and so we will not consider Pokemon projects on Lego Ideas further," the toy company said. "We're sorry to be the bearers of this disappointing news."

Perhaps this is a good move, made the design can be worked on and characters can match the anime series or game characters. Either way it looks like independent creators have a better chance of making bespoke sets that bigger companies due to licensing. Though I never saw Nintendo as a competitor of Lego?

At least we can see the possibilities through the Lego ideas site.

Review: Action Jackson

Action Jackson probably the worst named Bollywood movie of 2014 (also copying an American movie) is an action 'masala' film directed by Prabhu Deva, who would recognised from Tamil movies and is a choreographer and is famous for his crazy dancing.

It features famous stuntman come actor Ajay Devgn in a double role, alongside Sonakshi Sinha, Yami Gautam and Manasvi Mamgai as the female leads. Kunaal Roy Kapur appears in a supporting role with Anand Raj portraying the main antagonist. Other reviewers have commented on the poor dialogue and excessive violence as I am now about to :-p

Vishi (Ajay Devgan) is a small time crook who would do anything for money. He is attracted towards Khushi (Sonakshi Sinha), and lots of toilet jokes ensue which i think were pointless and verging on cringe worthy than sexy.  Later Vishi's lookalike Jay is beaten up mistaken for Viski or Aj, I am still confused by this silly plot as they are both goons, nothing really differentiates them for each other apart from one has a Chinese tatoo. The tatoo is only there to include silly shirtless scenes and to showoff Devgan's body - which I'd expect no less from a stunt man. 

Vishi freaks out on seeing his lookalike but Jay reveals his real identity. In a flashback Jay reveals that he is a professional assassin AJ, who used to work for Bangkok based Don Xavier (Anand Raj). Xavier's sister Marina (Manasvi Mamgai) is been kidnapped by his rivals from where AJ single handedly rescues her. Marina falls for AJ but he rejects her as he is married to Anusha (Yami Gautam). Angered, Xavier tries to kill Anusha twice, which leaves her brutally injured. AJ escapes to India and get her treated.

In present time AJ requests Vishi to go to Bangkok disguised as AJ to fool Xavier and his sister, meanwhile AJ gets time to get his wife operated who is expecting a baby. Vishi agrees to help and goes to Bangkok along with his friend Moosa (Kunaal Roy Kapur). They manages to fool everyone for few days, but Xavier gets suspicions. Marina tortures Moosa to find out the truth. They later kidnap Anusha and her new born baby and calls AJ. It is then revealed that AJ and Vishi had already switched places and the person at Bangkok is the real AJ. In the climax AJ kills Xavier, Marina and their gang. He rescues Anusha and their baby before returning to India.

The music was done by Himesh which was shocking as most of the music was ok but nothing really catchy apart from Keeda which was filmed in Austria with Elvis impersonators for reasons unknown LOL! They introduced new actress Yami Gautam playing Anusha, AJ's giflfriend who has the cutest dimple on her face and is soft spoken and suit the role perfectly of being battered to a pulp.

Not a family friendly movie lots of brutal killing scenes and terrible dancing - I think a simple idea was ruined with flashy unnecessary special effects and awful dialogue. Glad mum paid for this ticket - I cannot get those 2.5 hours back of my life...

3/10

Review: Happy Ending

Happy Ending is a 2014 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. The film is produced by Illuminati Films and has an allstar cast including  Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D'Cruz and Govinda.

Since my mum has retired the only source of amusement apart from her daytime Indian/Pakistani dramas she insists we make the most of Orange Wednesday codes and watch a movie a week. That's nice 'she get's to see a free movie with her mum awwww.' NO NOT AWWW especially when you have to watch the mediocrity spewed from India.

In the 80's 90's my childhood was blessed with cinematic legends like Sholay, Kalia, Shaan, Bobby, Kuch Kuch Hota hai, Kubhi Kushi Kabhi Gham but now we have Westerneised trash - they aren't even copied properly thought he Indian version of Leon was pretty awesome, instead of the plant you had a scorpion and it was called Bichoo.

Nowadays we have nakedness, inappropriate top less scenes and awful comedy sequences. HOWEVER Happy Ending is not one of them. i had low hopes as my mum said it 'flopped' in Indian cinemas but I gave it a chance becuase of the trailers  - there was at least one redeeming song for me to mong out in - Haseena Tu Kamina Mein <3 p="">

Story

You follow writer Yudi (Saif Ali Khan) who wrote a best selling novel five and a half years ago but he is still living it up off that old fame and not a lot of money in LA. He hasbn't honoured his book deal and has his car repossessed and can't hold down a relationship as he likes casual flings. He parties with married friend Montu (Ranvir Shorey) making us assume he has no long term relationships including friendships. He also zones out and discusses life with his fat, bearded inner voice Yogi (also Saif). Suddenly, he is replaced by romance writer and hack Aanchal (Ileana D'Cruz), visiting from Mumbai.

The only work Yudi now gets is from Bollywood single-screen superstar Armaan (Govinda) who insists he copies Hollywood movies and writes a multiplex-style rom-comedy.- ha ha sounds like my opening paragraphy abou the Indian movie industry. Meanwhile, Yudi's dentist and once-girlfriend Vishakha (Kalki Koechlin) is pursuing him obsessively and he realised he is in love (at last) with his competitor Aanchal.

I have to say as a writer I related to this movie well and enjoyed the comedy as it wasn't too cheesy and liked all the cameo roles including Kareena Kapoor (Saif's real life wife) and Preety Zinta as his female best friend. I'd rate this film as a 7/10 as Govinda always delivers even if his role was small his dancing was great. Rent this online or buy it as it was only in the cinema for a week.

Eastside stories: Love Strikes

Where: ICA London/ Belfast/Bristol/Dundee/Edinburgh/Newcastle upon Tyne/Nottingham/Sheffield
When: 31 January to 27 March 2014

Set one year after the drama series 'Moteki'. Hitoshi Ohne's romantic comedy, based on a hugely popular manga and TV series, became a massive hit in Japan and was selected for the Top Films of 2011 by The Japan Times, Kinema Jumpo and Eiga Geijutsu. The Japan Foundation chose this film to be part of their East side stories: Youth culture touring film festival.

Set one year after the conclusion of the Japanese drama series 'Moteki', the film Love Strikes! continues to follow 31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto. Following Yukiyo’s feelings remaining somewhat unresolved after the mini series. Love Strikes! retains the elements of comedy and honesty that were present in both the manga and drama series, all the while delving deeper into the emotional obstacles faced by the protagonist Yukiyo.

Yukiyo, a man with no aim in life starts a new chapter in his life by working as a writer for a news site. Suddenly, Yukiyo experiences 'moteki' – a period when a man becomes suddenly popular with woman. Magazine editor Miyuki, who he talks to on twitter, one day initaites a meet up. Miyuki turn's out to a be woman rather than a geeky bloke. Then Miyuki's friend Rumiko, beautiful shop assistant Ai and beautiful, but tough co-worker named Motoko all become interested in Yukiyo. He tries to calm down, but is shaken by the interests of these women.  So many women but who is the one for Yukiyo?

The idea of one man simply attempting to lose his virginity is hilarious. Director Hitoshi Ohne brings the same charm as he did from the series. Using elements of musical sequences, slapstick moments, and some tense scenes of Yukiyo’s interaction with women. The film pokes fun at Yukiyo’s circumstances as well as showing his gradual growth as an individual, with each womanly encounter he begins to understand people better.

Mirai Moriyama holds the film together, without his exceptional acting as well as flamboyant dancing to rival or better that of guest star's Perfume. he encompasses the sexually frustrated Yukiyo perfectly. His execution of internal dialogues really make the film brilliant. Considering the length of the film you get a glimpse into the love affairs he has. Nagasawa’s character of Miyuki is cute, and mysterious giving Yukiyo mixed signals constantly. Whereas Aso’s character of Rumiko is shy and confident at the same time.

Love Strikes! presents a hysterical look into one man’s journey to find that special someone whilst dabbling in moteki. The Japan Foundation did a great job with the selection and getting q&a's with the directors and actors.

The Little Prince Animated Movie

The Little Prince was originally a French novella published in 1943 by aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944).

The novella is both the most-read and most-translated book in the French language, and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France. Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects (as well as braille). It is one of the best-selling books ever published!

The narrator explains that, as a young boy, he once drew a picture of a boa constrictor with an elephant digesting in its stomach; however, every adult who saw the picture would mistakenly interpret it as a drawing of a hat. Whenever he explained the drawing people would tell him to give it up drawing and so something else.

Now an adult himself, the narrator has become a pilot, and, one day, his plane crashes in the Sahara desert, Here, he meets a young boy whom he refers to as "the little prince". The little prince asks the narrator to draw a sheep. The narrator first shows him his old picture of the elephant inside the snake, which, to the narrator's surprise, the prince interprets correctly.

Over eight days stranded in the desert, the narrator attempts to repair his plane and draws pictures for the little prince while he recounts the story of his life. The prince begins by describing life on his tiny home planet.

After many adaptations it is being adapted into an animated film, this time by Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne.

It releases in October 2015, France. Watch the trailer below.

Suikoden I & II releasing on Vita in USA

The cult classic JRPG game that hit the Sega Saturn but got noticed on PSone Suikoden 1 &2 has finally been re released in America. After years of petitioning to Konami and the with the help of the Suikoden Revival Movement. 

Game company Konami who have brought out legendary games such as Metal Gear Solid and Yu gi Oh series have always avoided porting Suikoden but never explained why. Today December 9th it has been released on PSN for the vita in USA and hopefully the EU will follow.

Suikoden Series

Originally created by Yoshitaka Murayama, he based it loosely on the classical Chinese novel, Shui Hu Zhuan by Shi Naian. Shui Hu Zhuan pronounced is centered around politics, betrayal and revolution. Mystical crystals known as True Runes are dispersed in the world and whoever posessed one of them is considered "108 Stars of Destiny".


Though the Suikoden games do not follow a sequence of events, some are set in the past in different region and some far ahead in the future. The entire series (except for Tierkreis and Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki) takes place within the same world among continuing and overlapping histories where you even bump into a few characters along your journey. In some cases, several characters appear in multiple installations which is very rare including Jeane the Blacksmith and Viki the ditsy teleporting magician - both integral to the story and team.

These 108 stars possess powers to be used inside and outside battle as Jeane is not always a playable character but makes and upgrades weapons in your castle/headquarters as such. Viki can teleport you to places you have traveled to in the past to save time and can also teleport pots and pans to attack the enemy at random (which sometimes backfires.)

Also by gathering all 108 stars of destiny you can change the threads of fate and unloack a happy ending, will you save one of your loved ones? The politics aspect initially put me off but the art work grabbed me and you get so engrossed with the development of characters it becomes something of a mission to train characters learn joint moves and making the most of different possible conversations and unlocking special scenes.

Tekken 7: New characters

The latest new character to be announced for the most anticipated fighting game of 2015, Tekken 7, is a break-dancing catgirl called Lucky Chloe.

During the Tekken 20th anniversary celebrations in Japan, Tekken chief Katsuhiro Harada revealed another new character to the roaster called Lucky Chloe. She has been added to the line up with Katarina, Claudio and Kazuya Mishima’s mother Kazumi.

There is very limited information on the characters at present but I will update when Harada -san discloses biographies. There is also an Middle Eastern character not named but wearing Arab attire.

Find out more about the controversy of Lucky Chloe on Ukanifest.

Claudio Katerina 

Lucky Chloe

Kazumi

Glitter pills to give your poo some sparkle

Want to poop gold? I mean, LITERALLY? Just swallow one of these glitter pills and all your glittery doo-doo dreams will come true. This product is totally for real-real and not just for play-play. The pill capsule will set you back $425, is filled with 24-karat gold leaf and dipped in gold.

It’s brought to us by Tobias Wong and Ju$tAnother Rich Kid. Their inspiration is the man who has absolutely everything. Yes, the man who has everything… except for glittery shit. The rest of us? Well, the rest of us are trying to make ends meet and hoping to poop as discreetly as possible.

However for the bargain hunters you can find good deals on Etsy: 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/122801349/glitter-pills

Setting you back £6.26 for 6 great for the festive season - make your janitors happy after that hardcore christmas party ! Any one tried it, leave me comments pleeeasse.

Fight the Dragon RPG Early Access -25% Off on Steam.

3 Sprockets’ multi award winning game Fight the Dragon (www.FighttheDragon.com) exits Steam’s Early Access program today, making it one of the select few games that entered early access, delivered the promised features and well beyond, and is now ready for full launch. Fight the Dragon is the premier action/RPG hybrid entirely comprised of community created adventures, over 4,000 of them so far, providing hundreds of hours of gameplay.  Players create these levels using the in-game Adventure Construction Kit, allowing complex levels to be built quickly and beautifully. Fight the Dragon is available on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/250560/

Fight the Dragon is a single player, couch co-op & online co-op action/RPG hybrid where players adventure across realms created by other players, collecting loot, gaining levels, and acquiring tickets to fight the mighty dragon. Each time the player fights the dragon they have a chance to win great prizes as well as do permanent damage to the dragon that carries over from fight to fight. In this way the heroes will eventually overcome the mighty beast, though can expect many failures along their way.

The crown jewel of Fight the Dragon is the Adventure Construction Kit. From within the game players construct entire adventures from a vast array of provided textures, props, enemies, traps, events and triggers. By utilizing the triggers system they can create complex cascade reactions and puzzles. Players can also create NPCs and NPC dialogue, allowing for story development within the levels themselves or even between levels if players choose to create campaigns that run in sequence. The game automatically scales the levels created to match the level of the players attempting to conquer it. Information on the ACK can be found at http://www.fightthedragon.com/#s2

Join in the fun of online co-op with up to four players, 2 player couch co-op, or single player adventuring.  Explore the realms of your friends, or strange lands made by strangers.

Find out more at www.FightTheDragon.com or on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/250560/

About 3 Sprockets

Based in Melbourne, Australia, 3 Sprockets is a small indie game studio that specialises in cross platform games that focus heavily on user generated content and online multiplayer.

Find out more at http://3sprockets.com

Muji's Sleep app causes a snore

The company MUJI, founded in 1980, is a Japanese based brand that brings simplicity to quality products at a lower price. From  high quality clothing and environmentally friendly products such as recycled books. They are known for avoiding wastage of products.

There supply of travel pots aren't just for consumers, companies buy in bulk to use for samples too. MUJI has developed their products from clothing, shoes, stationary, skin care, tights, bags, travel, and now an unusual phone app.

MUJI Sleep app was released on July 22nd, 2014, to help people unwind and sleep comfortably. The MUJI Sleep app uses binaural microphones recording various regions of Japan and using to make the person feel at home and ease. The sound transports the listener to different places. The six nature sounds that are included in the app: ocean waves, birds chirping, crackling bonfire, river, trees, and a waterfall. The Ayugaeri waterfall and the well-known ocean waves from Enoshima are well known sites included. In Japan, MUJI Sleep app is free to download and one of the most popular apps available.

For stressful lifestyles this app would come in handy, it only requires 22.09 MB space so I downloaded the app on my android phone (also available on apple store). You swipe the screen to begin and swipe the screen to move between the sounds - so if the cherry birds are on the verge of making you explode move over to relaxing fireplace crackling.

Guided Fate Paradox Review

Being such a big Disgaea fan I had to try out their jrpg title Guided Fate Paradox playing on historical events retold and having to fix them.

Using thr lottery to pick someone to inherit the power of God to rectify the event blips, the unlikely hero is given a group of angels to guide and aid him on his quest.

Meet the cosplayer: Ivy Doomkitty

One of the extraordinary things that happened this year was Stan Lee, the creator of many of our favourite heroes such as Spiderman, X-men, Fantastic 4 announced his last UK appearance. Now this made London Film and Comic Con the convention of the year with phenomenal queues to meet the mastermind for photos, autographs and Q&A. One of the things he requested was a group of people as his entourage including the famous cosplayer Ivy Doomkitty. 

Ivy Doomkitty is an international Costumer/Cosplayer, Artist, Model, Gamer, based in L.A, USA. Ivy has been attending conventions for many years, before deciding to take the plunge by showing her fandom through cosplay. Ivy was recently featured as a GUEST JUDGE on several episodes of the Syfy Original Series, "Heroes of Cosplay".

She now uses this newfound passion to create her own costumes, currently over 30, and use them to bring to life her favourite characters from gaming and comics as well as creating a positive impact in the cosplay community. She strives to show others in the community that you can do something you love, regardless of gender, skin color, sexual orientation, body shape/size, etc, via her panel on that very subject,"So They Say You Shouldn't Cosplay". Because of this, Ivy has been invited to appear as a Guest, Judge, Panelist, and Host to various conventions and events all over the world.

She also was the Featured Cosplayer on the webseries, "Cospladies", a short documentary on the trials, tribulations, and love of cosplay. Ivy is also a member of the West Coast Avengers/Avengers Initiative, taking part in charity events in Southern California.

Ivy has written, moderated, and participated in panels, as well as judged and hosted Costume Contests. In the past, she has interviewed some incredible talent, including Stan Lee, Lou Ferrigno, Arthur Suydam, Michael Golden, and more.

In the past, she has written comic book reviews, co hosted Cosplay con, in addition to presenting and hosting the costume contest.

I was lucky enough to catch the beautiful model setting up her stall at Anime League's Cosplay desk and ask her a few questions about her time at the con.

Read more at Summer LFCC on Ukanifest:

http://www.ukanifest.co.uk/news/2014/7/18/summer-lfcc-with-ground-breaking-queues

Who is Di Depux?

Di Depux may sound familar to you? Long time etsy buyers know and respect this woman for being hot competition for the likes of acrylic Jewelery designers such Tatty Divine.

DI Depux is the stage name for the model/designer Despina Bournele, who is from Athens,Greece. She's been a graphic designer since 2000 and now running her own shop ''DI DEPUX'' to customers all over the world. She designs websites, photo editis and combined that with her love for making jewelry so she will add a new season range once in a while but focuses on her custom orders,

The customs vary from her many fonts of writing in English, Japanese and even Persian. She has lots of differet fonts and colour combinations perfect for gifts, cosplay, hen party trinkets and your own project.

She is very environmentally friendly and is actively following and promoting Leonardo DI Caprio's foundation to protect the Atlantic ocean harbouring 1000's of untouched sea life threatened by extinction by man kind.

She is also an avid anime and kawaii lifestyle fan so her designs often include characters such as Hello Kitty, Twin Stars, Sailor Moon and recently Ardley. SHe can also do custom designs based on your own imagination.

Di Depux has also released a range of bags featuring logos, custom names, themes from her new range on top made to a high finish making for a real boutique feel. Amongst doing this she still has time to look after her two boys. This definately a super kawaii mamma.

www.didepux.com

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http://www.twitter.com/didepux
http://www.facebook.com/didepux
http://didepux.blogspot.com
INSTAGRAM: @didepux

Writing for Afa Channel

Recently I was honoured to have been asked to write for Afa Channel - this is a massive convention based in Singapore headed by the likes of Danny Choo one of my idols. This event is split into several and tours different countries.

To keep up with updates, footage, interviews, cosplay and reviews they have a beautiful packed website for all your needs. At the moment I am doing cosplay features and the odd feature including my opinion of Pharrel William's new anime-video game video It Girl and My review of the anime Golden Girl.

This site has lots of enjoy so I recommend you peruse if you are an Otaku or want an honest opinion.

View my recent tribute to the now ended Manga, Naruto, with my cosplay photo set on the strong and beautiful Kunoichi (part 1):

http://www.afachan.asia/2014/10/cosplay-our-favorite-naruto-cosplays-part-1-the-beautiful-strong-kunoichi/

Keep dreaming high,

Aisha

Catfish: the series

Since the phenomenon of 'Catfish' the documentary, MTV commissioned Nev &Max to find some deluded people in America. For anyone who hasnta clue what this is - I am not discussing seafood!

Catfish is a coined term by Nev for people in love with fake online profiles. These fakes are referred to as catfish. Catfish go lure people into these deceiving relationshis for all sort of reasons. Fake photos to cover up their insecurities.THEY feel unattractive? Big, small, short, ethic, gay, straight - this would be simple but catfish can be - I have seen fake relationshis last for years to excite revenge aka public humiliatio. Obviously this grates on Nev & Max who actually want to help or uncover be not big up a fraud.

Well over the span of two series I have seen one woman enter a relationship to find out it was an ex's girlfriend distracting her from the guy they were both fighting over. Say wut?

I particularly enjoyed the bi curious guy looking for a relationship with a lady boy who turned out to be a lesbian woman. Though her paid for him he was only interested in a trans gender experience showing what douchebags out there exsist.

Or how about the country bumpkin who thought he was dstomg a playboy model! This was all real except the model was in fact someone he knew. Make the model a few sizes bigger, he had no problem telling her he wasn't interested.

So after many tragic episodes I finally came across one exception where the people in the relationship ACTUALLY match their photos Lol. They hit it off and probably got married, I dont know, got bored yo watch it to the end.

So the moral of the story is to meet before you commit yourself to s potential fake relationship. Could be real but what's the harm in video chat or a meet up to confirm?

Kitsune Art Exhibition at Hyper Japan: who is #moonpride ?

Recently I attended the Christmas themed Hyper Japan market, (14th-14th November, at Olmpia) the focus was more on shopping for kawaii (cute), hand made gifts, anime merchandising, cultural souvenirs and Japanese food.

Upstairs nestled between the many lolita fashion stalls and anime merchandise was a wall filled with colourful illustrations dedicated to Sailor Moon. Kitsune Art had showcased many illustrations by 100 different artists on the wall. This was not all #moonpride had to offer.

Fiunder of Kitsune art Lucia and accompanied by Renee did 'live art' by painting dunnies from Kidrobot. This resulted in a gorgous Sailor Moon and all three cats; Luna, Artemis and Diana.

This was all sold and proceeding given to Plan B charity.

Now what is Kitsune Art?

Kitsune is Japanese for 'fox' - this is all headed by Lucia Fioretti.

Born in Italy, in a town near Venice and Treviso, she was surrounded by beautiful landscapes and constantly breathing the scent their glorious artistic heritage.
Drawing has been her passion but after much manga, anime, Disney's movies, comics and fairytales/fantasy/gothic books she decided to follow the path of imaginative art as a self taught artist.
Lucia's illustrations have been shown in some collective exhibitions in north Italy, Rome, Los Angeles and Now London - Hyper Japan.

Review: Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks

After much badgering from my fellow anime nerds I was obligated to try the Inzuma Eleven series of games since I was hearing more good things than bad - but the anime was so contrived I found it hard to take the game series seriously.

Inazuma Eleven was originally an anime released in 2013 using a combination of football (we're British we call it football not soccer)with magic. Starving to get into the championships. Overall not a favourite anime. However shortly after the first IE game came to DS. After a friend urged me to give this 3DS version a try after saying the magic world JRPG, this clearly is not an average sports game.

I half expected the game to be a mini Fifa but with anime cut scenes and Japanese VO. Being the first IE game on the 3DS I expected some sort of summary of the game or the story thus far, that doesn't happen you meet the man character and loads more across the world.


 Story wise your in the future, your the main character's grandson you bump into Team Ogre it’s here that we are suddenly thrown back to the present where the main character Mark Evens is training for the world cup after “his most recent victory” that is never elaborated upon.

The general jist is we follow him and his group of friends as they try to become the best players in the world, while also trying to save football against the antagonists. They are a team from 80 years in the future called 'Team Ogre' and come with the mission of destroying the Raimon Soccer Club. The game assumes that we the player are aware of the complex story and all of the character connections hates and friendships. Nope, so from what little details I remembered fro the anime I played clueless-ly to all the references. It's a shame since it's a JRPG and the crux of the game is storyline and talking.

I really enjoyed the game-play there is none other like this it's comprised of playing football and solving tasks, talking to people, finding items similar to Pokemon just no monsters! Also it's a 2D game and it's surprising easy on the eye and I liked that quality and I'm glad it wasn't 3D. Enjoying their over the top hair in chibi form! It was also cute that we could customise the equipment like we could in battles for other games, instead this is for stars to help football.


The main bulk of the game is the football matches play out with the typical rules of footie with a mix of 4v4 and 11v11 games, the player starts with the ball and uses the touch screen to control the players by dragging and tapping the screen. If the carrier comes into contact with a member of the opposite team, the game pauses and allows the player to choose their next action from a menu, they can try to dodge / charge, or they can perform a super move that will drain their SP. Every time a move is selected the game shows a short cinematic of the characters performing the action with a little number by each player showing their stats. I think it's a combination of stats and skill on the stylus.

Looking at the previous titles, not alot has changed in the game play mechanics. It's a an RPG but with spurts of football rather than fighting so it would be  an excellent game for the pre-teens to get some non violent gaming ingrained into their brains. The controls aren't easy well they are, the 3DS doesn't always interpret them the right way. So I'd say layer up your screen with a few protectors you don't want to rage scratch your precious 3DS.

I can see that Level-5 RPG had incorporated all the anime sequences well like the Professor Layton games but sadly IE did lack in other departments. The failure to integrate previous story-lines did leave me disorientated but I got the jist f what i needed to do and looked past story references and looked more towards graphics and strategy. Mixing sport with an RPG - who would of thought the unlike two could pair up to make something so fluid and enjoyable.  8/10 ~Aisha Anime~

Writing for Anifest

I totally missed the fact Anifest have added an introducing article on me on their team website.
They recently asked me to be on the team and I was ecstatic, will be nice to have a website hub again. I miss Animepicks immensely.

Hopefully will be able to bring lots of great content to Anifest- more interviews, anime reviews, music reviews, game reviews and what not XD

WHAT IS UKANIFEST ?

 UKAniFest is an anime and Film event on an epic scale, like grind house for all things asian!!

We will  incorporate everything that the avid cinema lover / Asian film lover would want at a cinema festival...

Three films that incorporate how Asian, Korean and Japanese film has finally landed to the U.K.

WHEN AND WHERE??

This will be held in a small 'arthouse' venue in 2013 and at a major London cinema in 2014.

We will showcase one anime film, one anime to live action film and one movie premiere in 2013 and 2014 will see a premiere.

We also hope to have a dealers area in the cinema so you can purchase all your figures, anime and film related merchandise!

Colourful Review & Interview with director

This year’s Japan Foundation UK annual touring film programme used a variety of enlightening movies as an introduction to Japanese cinema through the framework of ‘youth’. Showcasing one anime in the mix showing how the adults of tomorrow have been portrayed in Japanese cinema

Colorful was released originally in Japan  2010, this animated feature film is directed by Keiichi Hara. Hara-san was famous for directing hit anime from our childhood such as Doraemon and was the longest running director for Shin-Chan, the anime are important as they were the first to hit the West in Japanese and English dub and make a bridge for more to become recognised worldwide.

This anime is based on a novel of the same title by Eto Mori. Hara-San tells us (in the Q&A) that he saw the script and liked the story and decided to make it into the anime alongside animation studio Ascension. For the beautiful soundtrack he tells us he commissioned a few music producers to come up with a soundtrack that was simple but not boring and chose Kow Otan. Otan was famous for working on lot of big titles in the anime and game world such as Gundam Wing (1995), Outlaw Star (1998), Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz  Cross Fire (1998), Cross Fire (2000), The SoulTaker (2001) to9 name a few.

The story revolves around a newly dead soul reaching a train station representing limbo, an Angel named Purapura approaches the soul and explains that he is 'lucky' and will have another chance at life. He is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy, Makoto Kobayashi, who recently committed suicide. Purapura watches 'Makoto' and advises him with hints to figure out the big sin 'Makoto' did.  The soul must figure out what his greatest sin in his former life within a time limit or else the soul will be ejected from the body and Makoto will die forever. Whilst trying to complete this task he is faced with making friends, understanding his family and their dark secrets. His crush at school isn't the cheery and happy go lucky person she makes out to be while creepy a classmate stalks him and he can't figure out why. Will this journey motivate him to want to live again?

This anime is not a typical slice of life, it holds deeper meaning, searching for ones identity and place in life. Also dealing with challenging situations and reacting within ones restraints. A movie with lot a of social behaviors explored, the nice and the grim.

Watch this interview with Hara-San and his take on Colourful, how he felt about the reception it received, how it felt to make popular anime that entered the West. Special thanks to the Japan Foundation for Showing this amazing animation and bringing Hara-San to answer the audiences questions.

For more news on anime, cosplay, games and Japanese culture follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Aisha Anime ^_^

Culture Japan Night London with Danny Choo

Culture Japan Night London with Danny Choo

Over the years, Japan Foundation have become well known for their hands on approach to showcasing Japanese culture by bring over great guests, providing top notch workshops and curating exciting film festivals. On Wednesday 5th March they had none other than Hackney born Japanese business/blogger sensation  (and son of famous shoe maker), Danny Choo, give a talk about what he’s been working on at Culture Japan Night London.

Armed with his mascot Mirai Suenaga Smart Doll, (was her Birthday on the 3rd March too) Danny Choo talked about a variety of different things such as the development of the doll, his website and culture japan show, as well as his insights into japanese culture and a few nuggets of information on how business is conducted in japan. During the talk, Danny mentioned that his current main focus is the smart doll project and to expand the functionality of the doll over the coming years. During its continued development, Danny and his team have wracked their brains to come up with a design that not only accommodates the necessary electronics within the limbs but also to make it cost effective to to help reduce the final cost of the doll to the consumer.

Mr Choo and Mirai doll!

Past models of the smart doll can be moved remotely using the controls on a Bluetooth paired Android Smartphone. Choo wants to go a step forward and make a walking, talking smart doll with artificial AI. As many are getting used to the likes of Siri on the iphone, imagine having a doll version of that which can talk and respond to your speech. The Mirai doll will have its own voice, but Danny hopes to make it possible for users to download and install additional “voice packs” utilizing the vocals of famous seiyuu voices which could really excite the Otaku consumer. An interesting facet of the production process of the dolls is that they are aimed at other countries rather than focusing on japan. When asked about the time delay from the manufacture of the dolls in Japan to when it would be available for overseas customers, he answered this was aimed exclusively for the rest of the  world not Japan!

Amongst talk of his latest doll projects he talked about anime and licensing from his experiences in interacting with several anime studios. Even when you’re in contact with the staff at a particular company and everything seems fine, things can sometimes turn sour if said company has a problem with how you may be utilizing their IP. Even things like the company not approving of your fan art of their anime could cause talk of lawsuits to be thrown around with shorter than a week’s notice.

Another difference in how the market for anime differs in Japan is that the average Japanese consumer for anime and manga are content with having to pay as much as £350 for a Blu-Ray set for a series, which most people overseas would call extortionate prices since many fans in the UK would expect to pay around £40-60 max for a full season on blu-ray in their local retailer or online. Therefore the Japanese industry rarely feel they need to bother with considering the western anime market when consumers in their home territory are already prepared to pay much higher prices for anime and than those abroad.

In reference to Danny’s appearances at events, the most noteworthy being the Culture Japan Con created by his company, many people in the audience asked if he had any plans to attend UK conventions. To this, he said he’d happily attend if he were invited and they didn’t clash with his other events. When quizzed further about future Culture Japan events, Danny mentioned that the next event is likely to be in Malaysia, where he held the Culture Japan Con last year. So if you are in demand of Mirai merchandise, it would be a great experience to save up your money and go to the next convention abroad perhaps?

At the end of the Q&A Danny happily chatted to people and insisted we all networked with each other and make at least one new friend. This was easy as there were a variety of people in the audience of all ages, including students, business owners and cosplay fans. After a sprint to take all the Mirai poster off the walls, people queued to get photos with Choo and interviews. We even had a few cosplayers in midst of the crowd to stand with Danny and the Mirai doll in all our group photos. Jade (@woodlandbunny), one of he cosplayers in attendance, even came dressed as Mirai Suenaga, accompanied by her doll companion, also dressed as Mirai.

The Parallax Play team got a short and snappy one with Choo about Games, anime and breasticles. Listen to the audio interview here.

This was a great event, free hosted by Japan Foundation, Danny was in high spirits joking around about how London has changed since his last visit four years ago and how the buses have still not improved since. To keep up with the latest info on Danny’s Culture Japan series, the Mirai smartdoll or his snippets of life in japan, check out his site at www.dannychoo.com

To find more details about future events at Japan Foundation go here: www.jpf.org.uk

Article originally written for Parallax Play.

LAGC 2014

Cosplay !

London Anime Convention with additional Gaming has set out in the same venue but with an extra building to accommodate the games and with a sponsorship of £1000 from Game, they had lots of offer.

With a whopping turn out of 2,000 people, LAGC really performed better than it’s predecessors with a more spaced out games area showcasing Game, Namco/Baindai, League of Legends and even card games.

The Otaku Fashion show was now overseen by new management and Boy Kitten selected models for their fashion input which had to be Japanese related. They had a mix of Sweet Lolita, punk and corsets with an array of models with variety of looks and sizes. The cosplay varied and they had some League of Legends mascots turn up alongside some popular anime series characters like Danganrompa and human-pokemon variations.

Otaku Fashion show with me

Alongside the Cosplay guests including Chiquitita Cosplay, Stacey Rebecca, Lisa Marie, Tabitha Lyons with Artyfakes. Chiquitita Cosplay, Stacey Rebecca, Lisa Marie, joined myself and Rebecca Moriarty on stage for the cosplay on TV panel, where we talked about the perceptions of cosplay, how staged TV is and how you film a lot of footage but alot can be used to convey the opposite.

Sweet Lolita's at Otaku fashion show :)

One of the joys LAC is famous for is bringing over fantastic voice actors. This year it was the friendly Coleen Clinkenbeard. Voicing many of our favourite characters like Yuko from xxxHolic, Trinity Blood – Esther Blanchett, One Piece – Monkey D. Luffy, Fairy Tail – Erza Scarlet, Summer Wars – Noriko Jinnouchi, Borderlands – Lilith,  Space Dandy – Scarlett and so much more. Despite being pregnant, she happily signed peoples posters, took photos with fans and did a great Q&A.

Chiquitita Cosplay, AlienQueen, Hariett and me

YY Kawaii decoden XD

The cosplay masquerade was an especially great show this year, with impressive character skits and on stage marriage proposal between Zelda and Link, people really got their monies worth with tutorials with ArtyFakes, performances from Ellie Monty, Maid’s of England and Abridgers.


Ai My Maid set up a pop up cafe at LAGC supplying some delicious cakes by D’s Karen’s Kakes and

Selling out fast on the Saturday, get your hands on one of these quality art pieces here: https://www.facebook.com/canime.ltd

Another highlight was YYKawaii run by Yik Yun the CEO who makes decoden phone cases and now mirrors to suit our kawaii needs. Using Japanese figures and cute accessories to make commissioned pieces too:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/YY-Kawaii

Charming Kitsune studio makes some of the highest quality animegao kigurumi masks out of Japan. You may have seen them at Hyper Japan and MCM not saying a word but posing for photos. They also offer skin suits to go with the heads. I took the opportunity to try one on and suprising it is comfortable, light weight and easy to navigate as the eye holes are reasonably sized.

Prices vary on the models: http://www.charmingkitsune.com/
Krafts, it’s great to see the anime community working side by side together. Great stalls around the venue include Caime selling there exclusive print canvases designed by the brothers themselves.

www.charmingkitsune.com/

As the evening went on the live music began on stage by the bar and people were partying hard. A great event to socialise, enjoy fashion, cosplay and buy merchandise.

This article was originally written for Animepicks.co.uk which is no more, photos belong to Caroline Mound photography.

Find out more about London Anime & Gaming Con here: http://www.londonanimecon.com/

For more events, news on anime, games, J fashion and Jculture follow me on Twitter and Facebook. ^_^ Aisha Anime