Boku no Hero Academia : Season 1 Review

A dynamic, inspiring start to a great new series:

A friend recommended I watch 'Boku no hero academia' aka 'My Hero Academy', having not read the manga I had given it an initial uninterested passing glance in the Shonan Jump store. However, I'm glad I took the time to sit and enjoy the crazy twists and turns that follows the growth of the aspiring hero in the making, 'Izuku "Deku" Midoriya'. The initial episode left me somewhat wanting but before I knew it I had binge watched the final 5 episodes in tense anticipation of what was to come.
A very solid 1st season that blew away my preconceptions and left me eager for Season 2, due at the end of March 2017.

Deku dreams of becoming a super hero, having grown up idolising the hero, 'All Might'. Unfortunately he finds himself part of the 20% that can't develop a quirk (aka power or mutation). Despite this, after an unexpected rescue from non other than All Might himself, his circumstances change and he manages to attend the prestigious U.A. Hero Academy.

Deku fits the standard Shonen manga role of being a clear underdog amongst his super hero peers, yet has a strong heart and will to succeed through hard effort. This is in clear contrast to his natural gifted rival 'Katsuki Bakugou', an confident egotistical hothead with the quirk of creating explosions, matching his volatile personality. Initially one dimensional and easy to hate, the show does a great job of revealing his flaws, having you empathise with his poor pride and anger management, making him a much more rounded rival overall.

Boku no hero academia has such a diverse and quirky dynamic set of characters, everyone is sure to have a favourite. Ranging from the pure and innocent 'Ochako Uraraka', with the power of levitation, to 'Shouto Todoroki', the prodigy with the power to wield both ice and fire. One of my favorite classmates ended up being the calm and straight talking  'Tsuyu Asui' who resembles a toad in both her features and quirk abilities!

The fantastic character design helps flesh out the cast further with Uraraka and Deku's rounded and kind features that contrast strongly against the raging glare and sharp feature of Bakugou. Every hero has a distinct silhouette, attitude and voice that fits them perfectly. A personal favourite amongst the teaching staff is 'Shouta Aizawa', a scruffy unkempt and lazy teacher with bloodshot eyes. He later reveals himself to be a professional in his field and really proves his worth, he is also voiced by Junichi Suwabe who did a fantastic job as Worick in the GANGSTA series.

We can't ignore the greatest super hero of them all, the No. 1 All Might!, he is every part the muscle pumped American hero dream, complete with perfect smile, yet he also has a deep surprising backstory. Hiding a crippling secret, that reveals to us that even the strongest of us have moments of weakness where we need a helping hand. The bond he forms with the younger heroes is especially fun to watch, especially as he attempts to guide Deku through what it means to be a super hero. He often has a hand in the funniest scenes in the series.

The character interaction really helps to diversify the cast and highlight their relationships with one another, such as the Deku's mother showing her support, the teacher and student mentor bonding or the raucous banter between students. Occasionally broken up with comedic scenes and inappropriate behaviour from the tiny classmate Minoru.

The heroes were well thought out and explored, but sadly the main villains felt like wasted potential. Introduced midway through the season their appearance led to the story taking quite a dark and brutal turn. The main villain  'Tomura Shiguraki' has an interesting character design as well as an unhinged personality, it was a great chance to have a deep and twisted backstory for him but this was unfortunately only touched upon. The same could be said regarding the rest of his villain entourage. None the less, it is clear at the end of Season 1 that the villains will have a much bigger role in Season 2 but it would have made the already impressive concluding scenes have much more substance. The final fights in particular were intense, full of surprise and awe inspiring moments. 

Despite this, in just 13 episodes, they did a great job of developing a well rounded and developed protagonist in the form of Deku, with a strong supporting cast that could equally enjoy the spotlight. This gives the story a strong foundation to build upon and launch - all quirks blazing, into Season 2.
I look forward to seeing what obstacles and villains are revealed to challenge the upcoming heroes in Season 2, if the manga artwork is anything to go by, it will be well worth the wait!

Tau and AvidyaJP play Gauntlet Part 2

Tau and AvidyaJP play Gauntlet - Grim reaper run.

Hey everyone long time no see!
I recently went to see Dir en grey on their Kisou tour so while I finish writing up that report, please check out the 2nd part of mine and Tau's gauntlet run on his channel!

This time the grim reaper chases us throughout the level, we become less inept, I shoot more food, take more unnecessary health and plenty of banter in between. Enjoy!

DIR EN GREY 2016/10/02 「TOUR 16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO __________ [mode of DUM SPIRO SPERO]」なんばHATCH Review

DIR EN GREY 2016/10/02 「TOUR 16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO __________ [mode of DUM SPIRO SPERO]」なんばHATCH

Setlist:

01. 狂骨の鳴り "Kyōkotsu no Nari"

02. THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB

03. DIFFERENT SENSE

04. LOTUS

05. Midwife

06. 滴る朦朧 "Shitataru Mōrō"

07. 蜜と唾 "Mitsu to Tsuba"

08. DIABOLOS

09. 流転の塔 "Ruten no Tō"

10.「欲巣にDREAMBOX」あるいは成熟の理念と冷たい雨 "'Yokusō ni Dreambox' Aruiwa Seijuku no Rinen to Tsumetai Ame" 

11. Unraveling

12. Cause of fickleness

12. DECAYED CROW

EN

01. VANITAS

02. Un deux

03. 新曲 New song!

04. 詩踏み "Utafumi"

05. 激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇 "Hageshisa to, Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami"

Dir en grey have been delivering some fantastic tours recently as part of their 'From Depression' series, focusing on a single album for each tour. With 80% or so of the set list being solely from a single album, it is a fantastic way to revisit old eras of songs revamped in their new style. Having enjoyed the fantastic VULGAR album tour in Tokyo, which I sadly didn't get round to blogging (my apologies!)  I hastily snapped up a ticket for the Dum Spiro Spero tour in Osaka's Namba Hatch. Whereas the VULGAR tour was lighter and punchy in tone with a lot of shorter, frantic and funky tracks, Dum Spiro Spero is an entirely darker and different beast, I must admit before the tour I viewed it as possibly my least favourite album but after seeing it live I found myself appreciating it in an entirely different way.

Namba hatch is a fantastic venue, the sound is amazing and the atmosphere is very intimate, the standing area is all on one gradual slope, unlike some of the Tokyo venues that have standing areas divided by stairs or barriers, so it is very seamless to move back and forward if you wish. The sloping area makes it great for even shorter people to see as they can position themselves further back. It is super close to Namba station too. I unfortunately had a super late ticket number in the late 1600's so I arrived at the venue shortly before doors opened, the joys of the Japanese lining system! I was worried the T-shirts would be sold out but luckily they still had Medium in stock. All of the designs were really solid this time, the t-shirt I bought has the image above printed on it, occasionally the merch stand is hit and miss but the Dum Spiro Spero styles are pretty wearable both in and out of gigs! But on to the show...

As we were waiting, I noticed they didn't have the usual generic rock songs playing but had a kind of 'music box' version of several Dir en grey songs which was beautiful to hear. Then suddenly the instrumental album opener 狂骨の鳴り kicked in. It's a really dark ominous track that played out against a backdrop of dark imagery, beetles scuttling over skeletal images etc. Then band members walked out in their usual order sporting a modest, dark look. Shinya was wearing a combination of white and black, looking pretty smart! Whereas Die and his super long flowing hair had a black suit with a casual black vest underneath. Toshiya looked freaking amazing with black paint streaked across his eyes, a black tux vest and I didn't realise until halfway through the gig that he was wearing a skirt/kilt similar to the new PV. Kaoru had a full black suit with red joker-esque facepaint and frankly, looked badass. Finally Kyo came out with short bleached blonde hair, and older style black bow tie, black hair and white shirt...he almost had a film noir look about him.

The backing screen cut to a clear closeup of Kyo's face shown from a camera planted on his mic, reminiscent of the shows they did in the States for the GHOUL tour. The focus was solely on Kyo throughout their performance of THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB, his white contact lenses staring into the camera and the souls of the crowd. This song is pretty long, a common theme for the album and unlike the VULGAR tour, is very atmospheric and dark. It's a bit of a slow choice for an opener though! Kyo showcased his vocal range from high pitches eerie wails, haunting growls and verse melodies. The amount of range he shows on this album is pretty insane and definitely pushes him to his limits. The band swiftly kicked into one of my most favourite and brutal tracks on the album DIFFERENT SENSE. The crowd answered in full and began headbanging and fist pumping manically, a lot of this album's songs have unpredictable transitions and heavy thrashing so fist pumping was the order of the day, much easier to keep with the flow. I love this song for the solos and Die and Kaoru didn't disappoint, especially with the dual solo midway through, epic. What surprised me was Toshiya's deep growling backing vocals as Kyo did the main harmonic singing. Along with Shinya's powerful, thunderous drumming it felt like the band was a solid five, with each member contributing to the performance equally.

This was followed by another single, LOTUS, again one of my favourites, Kyo's vocals were solid throughout, the chorus especially! Everyone was singing along and Die went nuts on the guitar. This was all accompanied by backing clips from the PV of the woman in the red kimono floating across. Next up, lasers, lots and lots of lasers for the performance of MIDWIFE. This song is pretty dark and irrational and has been at the core of their set lists as of late. It compliments the brutal tone of the Dum Spiro Spero album well, I do feel the song is a bit too intense with the shouts and screams when listening to the CD, but it works really well for a live show! As the band took a break, Kyo began the first of two acapellas, set against the glare of a dark red light, Kyo showed a mastery of ghoulish crows, heavy thumps and erratic zombie-esque panicked breaths, which with the echo effect worked really well to link MIDWIFE into the next two songs of the set. 滴る朦朧 is a really solid live song, especially with the mixture of dark growls of the chorus and high pitched verses set against the punching and melodic tones of the guitars. The latter part with the crowd chants feels very animalistic and tribal, which was fitting as a montage of faces coated in animal paint were shooting past on the video screen!

The next song was 蜜と唾 which is a REALLY heavy growly remake of a song from their very early GAUZE album. 4 big long screens obstructed the view of the band, showing only their silhouettes and projected onto them was a bunch of flashing, unsettling red lights and lasers. As Kyo growled his way through,the song the lyrics appeared menacingly on the screen, the lyrics are equally dark but I couldn't help but smirk when I saw the awkward lyrics of "1 sad sexually, 2 sad sexually" appeared on screen. All of the other English words had been turned into their katakana forms except those two lines haha!

DIABOLOS was next, in my opinion it was the weakest point of the whole gig. The song itself is really long, 9 minutes, and goes through many transitions, starting slow and atmospheric before becoming really heavy, but the song just doesn't flow well, I like the individual sections but put it all together and it seems a mess! It doesn't work well live either as it just kind of halts the momentum they built up. For 流転の塔 the big red screens were still up and the back lighting made the band look completely epic and huge in scale, it really complimented the song well.「欲巣にDREAMBOX」あるいは成熟の理念と冷たい雨 works great as a live song, the chugging riffs really compliment Kyo's vocals and it gets really heavy near the end which leads to a lot of headbanging and fist pumping! Unraveling was really impressive to watch, highlights of the PV showed in the background and Kyo did some pretty unique dance moves to the chorus, with the crowd singing along in unison, simply a fun song to watch! Cause of fickleness was definitely one of the highlights of the gig, tons of psychedelic visual effects, bright colours, was like riding on a crazy funfair attraction except everyone is yelling "Wake me up!". This song ROCKS live, it really reminds me of their Vulgar era, fast paced, punchy verses and choruses, it's impossible to not smile and shout along.  Everyone was happy as the Osaka crowd went nuts!
They ended the set with Decayed Crow, which as you can tell from the name, is brutal from start to finish, a massive head bang song to finish things off!

After a long wait, they came back out and played the absolutely gorgeous VANITAS, the guitar and vocals throughout are beautiful. Die switching between acoustic and electric guitars really adds to the song, not to mention the fantastic double solo at the end. This led straight into Un Deux which has been on almost every single one of their sets since Arche came out, using the same church video sequence as both the Arche and Vulgar tours. I can see why...it just works really well and they perform is flawlessly with the crowd singing along.

Next was a massive surprise, they played a NEW SONG! At the time I thought it was simply a Dum Spiro Spero song that I didn't recognise, I remember enjoying the hell out of it but sadly can't remember any details. If I had realised it was new I would have made better mental notes!
After the new song came their latest single 詩踏み, I freaking LOVE this song! I was grinning like a madman throughout. It works SO well live, with Kyo doing the manic arm flailing that he does in the PV before the crowd roars FALL, FALL, FALL, FALL! The pacing and the drumming is fantastic on this song and even better on stage. I really hope this becomes a regular song on their set list because its amazing.

Before announcing the last song, Kyo did some MC to the crowd getting everyone to roar and scream in response.
"OSAKA!! OSAKAAAAAAAA! OSAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", "Otoko! Otoko! Otokooooooo! (Guys!)  Onna.....Onna.....Onna.....ONNA!!!! (Girls) and then had everyone from all sides of the venue.
What always gets me though is when he says "みんな一つになれるか！？" (Can everyone become one!?) Which when shouted over and over really makes your skin tingle and get hyped. The whole venue comes together and yells as one. 激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇 has been their standard closing song as of late and super appropriate since its on the album! As everyone was headbanging, fist pumping and singing along you could tell that Dir en grey are a band that are comfortable and confident in Osaka. All the members were smiling, even Kyo and the vibes of the venue gave you an atmospheric high. Sadly it had to end and Toshiya even got carried away and threw his bass into the crowd with adrenaline! He later apologised on Instagram saying he hoped that no-one got hurt!

Hearing Dum Spiro Spero in almost its entirety live again has changed my view of the album massively, it has been on repeat since I got home. Their next tour is for my favourite album, Kisou, sadly I haven't been able to get tickets through the usual sites since its so popular but hope I can get one elsewhere!
They have also just announced an Uroboros tour! I can't wait! Dir en grey is a band that just keeps giving.

Tau and Avidya play Gauntlet Part 1

A long time back when I went to visit my buddy Tau in Nagoya, we decided to do a straight play through of the newest Gauntlet game. I hadn't played a Gauntlet game since the Atari days so I was very, very rusty! As you can see in the first part of the video available now! Highlights include accidental food shooting, roll trolling and misplaced explosives. Hope you like it!

Summer Sonic 2016 Osaka, Day 2 - 21/08/2016

Summer Sonic is a 2 day music festival held in both Tokyo and Osaka on a weekend in August, with Tokyo and Osaka alternating the line-ups between both days. I have gone three years in a row and this year proved to be one of the best, for the Sonic stage at least!

I spontaneously bought a ticket for the Sunday in Osaka in the morning of the actual day, luckily there were some left, Tokyo was sold out! It is a bit pricey at 15,000 but the lineup was worth it in my opinion. The best way to access the festival is to catch the subway to Cosmosquare and then get a shuttle bus for 1000 yen. You could go via local bus for cheaper but it is a much longer and more uncomfortable route!

This year the site map for the festival was completely changed, there seems to be some local construction going on so maybe that is the cause. The mountain stage used to be for the heavier rock bands but they were now playing in the indoor arena on the Sonic stage. Mountain was relocated to the baseball stadium, which was pretty cool since the acoustics were good and you could choose seating if you wished, only downside is that toilets etc are not accessible from inside. The food and drink areas are now completely separate whereas they used to be part of the Ocean stage, which is nice since everyone eats together but if you are the type who appreciates beer and pizza nearby the music you might not appreciate it!
Speaking of Ocean stage, it has now been moved to the far end which feels like AGES away, about a ten minute walk from the Sonic stage, I heard many people voicing complaints about this and people adjusted their viewing schedules to avoid having to make long walks, which are especially taxing in this crazy heat! Lawson which used to be really close and convenient was also on the opposite side....so I hope they adjust the layout a little next year!
I basically spent most of the day in the Sonic arena so I didn't care though...!
I grabbed a quick photo with the pretty Summer Soni girls then headed headed towards the arenas.

But onto the music...!

The Struts - Mountain Stage.

1. Roll Up

2. Could Have Been Me

3. Kiss This

4. Put Your Money On Me

5. Where Did She

I arrived in the fierce heat near the end of their set. I had time to kill before the bands I really wanted to see so I decided to check them out. They seemed to be working the crowd well and instantly reminded me of older classic rock bands such as QUEEN and The Rolling Stones. Everyone was happily cheering and clapping along, a pretty good way to kick a festival off. At one point, the vocalist had everyone sitting on the floor ready to jump up at command so I guess everyone appreciated them! I won't listen to them again but worth a drop in if you see them on the line-up.

Billy Talent - Sonic Stage

Unfortunately I can't find a set list online but they definitely at least played...

Red Flag

Try Honesty

Line & Sinker

Fallen Leaves

Louder than the DJ and more...

It has been a long time since I have seen these guys, about 7 years ago at Reading festival in the UK. They still know how to rock! Their set was one of the strongest of the day, consistent, crisp and on point! The backing vocals were really strong and had a great impact, bringing back a lot of memories, despite not listening to them for so long I found myself easily recalling the lyrics and shouting along. Ben on vocals has a really unique vocal style, all the band members contribute really well, really noticed the bass in the songs. They all looked super slick in their red shirts too, I think Jonny G on bass is my new man crush haha. The audience really got into it too, with a circle pit, friendly moshing and a few fans were even waving Canadian and red flags, was an awesome start for my Sonic stage day!

Acid Black Cherry - Sonic Stage

1.Black Cherry 

2.versus G 

3.少女の祈りⅢ 

4.罪と罰~神様のアリバイ~ 

4.ピストル 

5.SPELLMAGIC 

6.エストエム

As you walked around Summer Sonic you could see two distinct groups of fans, those who were here for Acid Black Cherry (ABC) and those who were here for Babymetal. I was here for both but it was ABC's announcement that finally edged me into getting a ticket. Their regular live shows sell out instantly so this was the best chance for many people to see them and it was DEFINITELY worth it. This was their first Summer sonic performance in 6 years! As soon as Billy Talent left a swarm of girls glad in ABC t-shirts, towels, wristbands and horns rushed to the stage and it became packed very quickly.

The band came out to a huge cheer and lots of girly screams of YASUUUU! The crowd vibe was very different from Billy Talent, before the fans were separated in their enjoyment, but for ABC there were many diehard fans and everyone was united as one. It's amazing how young Yasu still looks, he is like Hyde and Gackt who seem eternally ageless. The members all looked fantastic clad in black.
They kicked off with their classic Black Cherry and the crowd were jumping, fist pumping and singing in unison. For their heavier songs such as ピストル and Spell Magic everyone was thrashing their heads side to side and swinging back for a huge head bang tsunami all together, was an amazing feeling. The atmosphere was charged and alive.

You can tell that Yasu is very comfortable on the mic and his MC was fun, clear and enjoyable to listen to rather than just hoping they kick into another song. The only down points I noticed was that sometimes the pre-recorded backing vocals took away from the bands performance rather than amplify it, it might have been better with Yasu just singing without it. Also their set time was WAY too short, for such a big band I was really surprised that they had an early day slot instead of a later one, considering how many fans turned up...maybe next time! Definitely check out ABC if you haven't before!

At the drive in - Sonic Stage

1. Arc Arsenal

2. Pattern Against User

3. Sleepwalk Capsules

4. Invalid Litter Dept

5. Enfilade

6. Non-Zero Possibility

7. Cosmonaut

8. Quarantined

9. Napoleon Solo

10. Catacomb

11. One Armed Scissor

After getting some MUCH needed refreshment from some incredibly well stocked vending machines (they had staff constantly filling them all day!) I head back to the stage to check out At the drive in, I must admit I only knew a few songs and was mainly just sticking around for the later bands. This was my time killer slot.
To be honest, I really didn't like them. Unlike Billy Talent and ABC's sets which flew by time wise, At the Drive In's just dragged on and on. Having compared what I heard to their studio recordings just now, their live performances are much messier, the sounds all just blur together and it just sounds like a wall of noise. Nothing stands out, apart from their hit 'One Armed Scissor' no track made me think 'this is awesome, I need to look this song up!'. Cedric was much better in The Mars Volta than with this band, it seemed like a poor performance overall. His MC kind of sucked too, comparing the areas of the crowd to his balls and pubes might work if you are All Time Low but here it just seemed, immature, tackless and probably flew over a lot of the Japanese speaking crowds heads. They should have had a shorter set in my opinion. Won't see them again

Bullet for my Valentine - Sonic Stage

1. No Way Out

2. Skin

3. Your Betrayal

4. 4 Words (To Choke Upon)

5. You Want A Battle? (Here’s A War)

6. The Poison

7. Scream Aim Fire

8. Alone

9. Worthless

10. Tears Don’t Fall

11. Waking The Demon

BFMV has been another band I haven't seen for a long, long time since I lived in the UK. I used to listen to then a lot in High School and College and was curious to see if they could still perform well. They really did! Thrashing straight into No Way Out with lots of pyrotechnics they cemented themselves on stage early. They had a solid set throughout and hearing classics like 4 words, The poison and Tears Don't Fall brought back a lot of nostalgia. I have Scream Aim Fire on my running playlist because it fuels my energy and the live version was even better. A lot of headbanging went on! Their bassist was fantastic despite taking the position over in the last year, his vocals were brutal for the screaming choruses and he had a huge stage presence.

Unusually they had a really long drum solo which I was expecting for a festival but it went down well. They had a huge number of fans in the audience and there was a lot of moshing. The entire left side became a circle pit several times. They have come to Osaka every year for the last 11 years, so lets hope they make it 12 in 2017!

BABYMETAL - Sonic Stage

1. BABYMETAL DEATH

2. ギミチョコ!!

3. あわだまフィーバー

4. Catch me if you can

5. META! メタ太郎

6. メギツネ

7. KARATE

8. Road of Resistance

9. イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ

BABYMETAL have finally made it to become the headline act for the Sonic Stage, they have gradually worked their way up, drawing bigger and bigger crowds each year. The entire arena was crammed full of people, many die hard fans. This was my third time seeing them at Summer Sonic and I was super happy since I had failed to get tickets for all of their 2016 shows. They have definitely grown, not just age wise but in terms of their performance, confidence and overall music. The live band were fantastic as ever, there was a distinct difference in volume and bass compared to BFMV, it was as if the organizers wanted to highlight that THIS was the main performance of the night. The bass shook me to the core and the lights were so bright it was almost blinding at times!

Su-metal's vocals have grown much stronger and she has grown into a strong front performer. No doubt having experience touring all over the globe has helped! Yuimetal and Moametal are still as energetic as ever, despite looking a lot older and more mature. The whole group has grown a lot in a number of ways. Devil horns were punching through the air and arms were raised high during the intro. I took a tiny video of Gimme Choco as I tried to catch a glimpse of the circle pit but was a little too late, then my phone died...!

There was a constant hive of excitement and energy in the audience, at one point there were two large circle pits happening on both sides. As well as the obligatory wall of death. The fun thing is, for Babymetal gigs everyone had a massive grin on their face, I saw one guy literally dancing as he ran around the pit, also the wall of death had people charging at each other but unlike western walls, people weren't out to throw elbows and smash someone over. Some metal fans might scoff that Babymetal isn't 'metal' but they really need to watch a show, sure the girls vocals might not fit the stereotype but the backing band is every bit as metal as any other well known metal band, if not more so.

Funnily, Su-metals MC was all in English, not sure why. It seemed a little rehearsed since her pronunciation is still very much Japanese but it was kind of cute. "Let us hear you...! Sing with us...!" haha. The only time they MC'd in Japanese was the give instructions for the whole stadium to do some mass coordinated mexican waves, which was pretty fun! The only downside to being in the Sonic arena was that there were no giant video screens, which considering a lot of the performance has a big emphasis on the matching dance moves, was a bit of a shame.

Overall it was a super fantastic day, I had a ton of fun and was definitely worth the money! Summer sonic is always a reliable, fun festival and I highly recommend you check it out next year!

Slice of life anime at McDonald's

Anime is a medium that allows for wild, out of this world visuals and story telling but some of the most popular stories of all are the slice of life stories, the tales of the regular highs and lows. They also make for great advertising for various products in the real world from educational courses to Disneyland!

Check out the youtube version below!

Studio Colorido have produced another endearing food advertisement, but this time related to recruitment. They were also the company behind the endearing miso soup commercials that I wrote about here. (click) As McDonald's is a huge name in Japan, the commercial features the vocal talents of AKB48 singers Rin Okabe and Yui Yokoyama, the video begins with a fresh first year college student names 'Sumire Hibino' noticing a help-wanted poster as she rides past. Soon enough, she’s working alongside 'Ikumi Hoshino', another senior college student working at the restaurant part-time.

Keep it together Sumire!

Ikumi embodies the helpful senpai (senior) concept that is prevalent throughout Japanese culture and guides Sumire through the various trials of starting a new service job. How to handle customer's requests for the trademark McDonald's smile as well as backing her up when she has trouble with a food order. Whispering to calm down and keep it together.

The animation is smooth and beautiful, they make the food look delicious too!

Strawberry Milkshake!

Sumire eventually grows into the role and offers great service herself, gaining the approval of those around her as well as job satisfaction. While you may think that this is glorifying the service industry as something more fabulous than it is. It does keep its roots grounded, it acknowledges that for many the service industry is often a spring board to future jobs, giving valuable work experience and soft skills. Ikumi senpai eventually moves on with a tearful goodbye. At the end, history repeats itself as Sumire welcomes a fresh recruit who goes by the name of Wakaba.

The recruitment website itself highlights that this is an ideal job for those who do not have to support a whole household such as housewives, part timers and university students. Various characters from different backgrounds are shown who will no doubt be featured in future commercials!

I look forward to seeing their stories too!

Jobs for people of all ages

Cosplay overwhelms the streets in Osaka

Busy in an understatement, luckily there were pockets of space for photos etc.

Each year, the streets of Osaka in the geek district of Nipponbashi, also known as 'Den Den Town' (Electric town) are closed off to traffic to celebrate all things otaku. It is freaking. amazing.

On Sunday 20th March, 2016, the 12th annual 'Nipponbashi Street Festa' took place, the area is absolutely swarming with people, with the event getting bigger each year. The streets are filled with cosplayers, street photographers, tourists and general geeks a like. It's a great event to participate in or simply enjoy all the wonderful sites and high craftsmanship of the many cosplayers. Seriously, the quality of the outfits was phenomenal.

I was lucky enough to get many photos, I hope they prove and show off the cosplayers talent! I will try to name the characters where possible, the event is totally free so I highly recommend visiting next year! I had a giant grin on my face the entire time!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy!

Vega - Street Fighter

Crazy huge hair!

Hotaru - Dagashi Kashi

Great outfit

Amazing Monster Hunter group, impossible to get a good photo sadly, too many people!

Arale - Dr. Slump

Great Spirited Away group, love group cosplays.

Shirahoshi - One Piece

Love Live - Really popular series to cosplay this year. Fandom is nuts.

One of the best Clouds from FF7, best sword by far.

Fantastic Porco Rosso cosplay, but as the plane!

Great Idea

A Certain Scientific Railgun

Dragonball, lots of the male cosplayers were ripped! Diet inspiration!

More Love Live!

Deadpool!

Creep Ring

 One of the more awkward aspects of Cosplay events are these situations. Usually Schoolgirl character cosplays get an overwhelming amount of attention with swarms of photographers taking photos, usually much older guys. You can often see many of them pointing their cameras from a low angle to try and get a panty shot. Luckily new rules have stopped them being as invasive as they used to. Kinda of a weird situation, since the cosplayers also need their photos in order to spread their cosplay across the community. It's a shame some of the cosplays that are phenomenally made don't get as equal attention.

As you can see, nothing out-worldly, just a schoolgirl character? Maybe K-on/Love live.

Awesome Gundam group

Couldn't quite get her scythe in shot!

Attack on Titan, far less cosplayers than I expected.

Fantastic Evangelion duo

Shishio Makoto - Rurouni Kenshin

Gaki no Tsukai runners!

Monster Hunter

Mixture of characters, I was hyped about the One Punch Man's 'Sonic' in black.

Prison School

REALLY Impressive balloon Mario Karts

Such an amazing idea

Great Vash cosplay from Trigun, all his gun holsters etc. fully functioned.

Madoka Magica Maid version?

Evangelion - Race queen version

Doraemon Group

Really cute - Yokai watch?

Amazing Dead Master/Black Rock shooter cosplayers, advertising a cosplay armory company

One of my favorite cosplays of the day. 

Awesome

So much awesome.

Dirty Pair - Oldschool!

Another creep wall, look where the cameras are pointing...

She had TONS of attention

You see these uniforms on a daily basis...

Hestia - she is wearing one of those fake chest add-ons, not her real boobs, but effective for cosplay, and modesty!

Yup

Persona 4 - Chie

She really captured the character well!

Friend is a huge fan so I took several poses.

She could pose well too!

Well done overall!

Great Majin Buu, knows how to work with what you have!

AMAZING Rory Mercury from GATE.

Looks exactly like the character - Axe was insane too

Chun - Li - Streetfighter

Chun Li - Streetfighter

More Madoka

wut

Cloud's wig looked great. Sephiroth's foil sword, not so much - but better than what I could do!

Steins Gate! Tu-tu-ruuuu!

Great craftsmanship

Big group of Mechs!

Old school Transformers

Tanks too! Girls und panzer?

Well, that's the best of the bunch that I took! I hope you enjoyed, it was fantastic fun and a great cultural experienced. I loved how people of all ages took part and shows how much anime/manga is a part of life over here.
Inspired me to maybe do one myself next year, got a whole year to think of something!