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Posted on August 15, 2009 by Zyl

Hontou ni Taihen desu and hontou ni sou omou, gattai da!

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Stripey in Akihabara (3) – WTB goth-loli yukata

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Stripey

One of my greatest regrets for this Tokyo trip was not getting this avante-garde goth-loli yukata for my beautiful wife. Having seen the actual outfit at the basement floor of Laforet (Harajuku), Wife-chan and I were immediately floored by seamless fusion of Japanese tradition with goth-lolita elements. I hate myself soo much for not insisting Wife-chan to try it on. In fact, I didn’t even ask about the price. So much for wanting to acquire goth-lolita fashion for my better half.

Even 2 weeks after our return, my thoughts continue to linger on those gorgeous threads and a brief online search unwittingly unveiled the pedigree of the designer : H. Naoto of some international acclaim; renowned for his fusion of Goth, Punk and Lolita elements in his works. A deeper search yielded his online store which revealed the goth-loli yukata to be a Naoto-Summer-Special that has long since been sold out. I cried buckets that evening when the realisation of never seeing my wife in that lolicious outfit crashed upon me. She would have been so PERFECT for it. It would have been S$550 VERY WELL SPENT. *SOB*

Naoto sensei’s work gives me hope that one day, we’d seen Tinkle’s line of apparel. I have no doubt that he was inspired by 2D art. Who would have thought the outlandish/overdesigned 2D gothloli fashion with its excessive frills and lace to translate so well into 3D. Already my day in Harajuku has supplied ample evidence (mainly from occasional Ama-lolitas gracing the sideway) of how the Lolita fashion is not only for 2D bishoujos.

Keeping fingers crossed for a restock… Sigh. Oh BTW, I can absolutely picture Shiki ~Kara no Kyoukai in this.

*Pardon the misleading title. “Akihabara” was kept for consistency’s sake.*

Posted in Vices (anime-related) | 12 Comments

Stripey in Akihabara (2) ~ Not everyone in seifuku is a bishoujo

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Stripey

It troubled me a great deal that I was paying more attention than I should to the seifuku when in Japan. Whenever a seifuku came into my field of view, it warranted a second look. Reflecting on this abnormality (while kneeling on a durian – a consequence of sharing too much with my beloved wife in the day), it dawned on me that I had to find a scapegoat fast my RL bishoujo radar has been poisoned by my penchant for 2D beauty.

My contact with the Japanese seifuku has mostly been limited to anime and works of highly esteemed 2D illustrators. But years of exposure to the seifuku has conditioned me to believe that –

Only a bishoujo can don the seifuku


Not just any seifuku but the Japanese seifuku in the various forms. That explains the chain of events that occurs in between the synapses in my brain when in Japan.

See seifuku -> ‘seifuku = bishoujo’ flag triggered -> Verifying against wife-chan commandments database -> Permission granted -> 2nd look executed.

Of course not everyone in a seifuku is a bishoujo and it shakes me to the core to think that my 2D passion has overridden common sense so easily. Extrapolating from that thought, I wonder what’s it like to be a Japanese high-schooler when Japanese eroge and porn feature the ‘schoolgirl’ so prominently. Never mind the occasional Singaporean otaku oddball who thinks seifuku = pretty girls, what’s it like to be in a society that has ‘seifuku’ as one of the pornographic genre? Maybe that’s why of my 2 Japanese cousins, the female adores Singapore while the male has sworn to never leave Japan. Personally, I think fables of short skirts in Tokyo are hugely exaggerated.

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Stripey in Akihabara (1) ~ Enough loli-porn to turn tanukis into zebras

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Stripey

One enlightenment I received from my 9 day Japan trip which ended yesterday was

Akihabara is the ‘creamiest’ place on Earth

Like any anime fan, Akihabara was heavily featured on my itinerary. Armed with a fat wallet (by church mouse standards) and a steely determination to acquire bishoujo goodness straight from the Source, I plunged deep into the psychedelic whirlpool of 2D frenzy that is Akiba only to realise the 2D passion is intimately intertwined with pornography. Zyl, my partner-in-crime comrade-in-anime had unknowingly set me a challenging task of acquiring one of the Nanoha StrikerS doujin. Now 2 things first –

1. I didn’t know doujin = porn.

Ok, that’s not true. I had known that there are doujins of the kind that honourable tanukis enjoy. But when one visits any doujin floor in Akihabara, you can’t help but think doujin = porn. Doujin suited for the general audience takes up only 10% of the shelf space.

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Clannad ~ After Story OVA – Kyou goodness

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Stripey

As a Ryou-turned-Kyou fan, this Fujibayashi-centric OVA is a dream come true. Ryou and Kyou represents the 2 classes of bishoujos I would have loved to date during my younger days – the gentle, kind, oh-so-bashful-she’s-cute type and the effervescent type whose energetic antics barely conceal their girlish charms. Traditionally, I’d bully the former and let the latter bully me but that’s not relevant to this entry except to impress upon the point that Ryou/Kyou are my types. Which is why I doubly feel Tomoya’s pain. Both are great girlfriend material although Ryou would make a lovely wife while Kyou, wonderful mistress.

Some would know that I enjoy ‘taboo’ love. Maybe ‘taboo’ is too strong a term. ‘Off-limits’ is probably more apt. Your best friend’s girlfriend, your childhood friend and of course your sister are some illustrations of ‘off-limits’. Of course in this case, it’s the sister’s boyfriend/girlfriend’s sister. I enjoy such romances because it almost certainly involves emotional struggle, leading to drama and hopefully, character development. And I have found all these elements to be well integrated and executed in Kyou’s OVA. Given the tight airtime, this OVA achieved a great deal in relating a bittersweet tale of maturing in love. I admire Tomoya a great deal for doing the right thing with Ryou. It was a courage I did not possess while younger and I live to reap the consequences of my evil deeds. (Come to think of it, I did marry ‘Kyou’ instead of ‘Ryou’…)

Sufficient to say, I enjoyed Kyou’s OVA tremendously seeing how authentic the portrayals of the pain and pleasure of love are. Heartily recommend to fans of the bishoujo-romance genre.

Posted in Clannad | 11 Comments