KAC Bulletin

So, here's an update on what KAC has been up to and what all we can expect from the KAC in the coming weeks -

1. KAC now has an HQ! Reetam's house at Garia (which till now has hosted 3 meets, Feb 2011, March and April 2012) shall be KAC's base of operations from now on. This definitely does not mean that all meets have to be compulsorily held there. Meets can be held anywhere that is convenient, but the purpose of the HQ is to always have a backup location for meets and other KAC activities from now on. :)

2. KAC members participated in numbers in the Feel Japan Event . There are so many pictures and so much to write that it's taken us a month to write a post about it, but it'll be up soon XD. FJ was an amazing success thanks to all the anime lovers who worked non stop to make it happen. We look forward to more such events in the future, and more participation from KAC members, irrespective of which city it is held in.

3. Radio KAC was launched yesterday, on the 27th April. With this, we become the pioneer of a unique initiative whereby we try to reach out to anime lovers with (primarily but not just) Anime Music. Radio KAC would be helmed by jobless KAC members for the time being and will be on air as frequently as possible. For now it is just songs (and song requests too!), but we see Radio KAC as a Pandora's Box of opportunities for connecting with anime lovers around the country. Few things bring people together like music does, and Radio KAC will sometime in the near future have live events, Japanese lessons and a host of other stuff. We are only limited by our imaginations (and to an extent, money :P). But for Radio KAC to flourish, we would need all the support we can get. Visit Radio KAC (and there is also a widget on the right of this page, check it out!), click Like on the RadioKAC page (I'm assuming that you would definitely LOVE RadioKAC), but most importantly, spread the word!

4. A Design for KAC contest is currently underway. Details can be found here. The contest tentatively ends at the end of May. There will be prizes, so go ahead and give it a shot!

KAC is always expecting it's members to step up and make KAC even more awesome.We have amazing members, and that is why we hold contests and that is why we love to showcase our members. We intend to have a lot more events and a lot more contests in the future (replete with custom made KAC goodies we shall soon unveil). We would love to see our members participate more, and would love to hear their opinions, their views and their suggestions. KAC exists for it's members, and we hope you all are enjoying this joyride called KAC as much as I am.

BANZAI!

The April 2012 Kolkata Anime Club Meet

Date: 22nd April
Location: Reetam's house, Garia.
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This meet was originally supposed to be held at Mani Square, so that it's close to members from North Kolkata (for a change), but my (Reetam's) sudden decision to come to Kolkata helped the admins convince the others that having the meet at my place instead was a better idea. Of course, the turnout of this meet was not expected to be much, and having it so far down in South Kolkata didn't help things either. Still, we decided to go on ahead with the meet and hope for the best.

ADG was the first to arrive at my place on the day of the meet. I had to go out for a few hours, so I handed the keys over to him and left him in charge. By the time I came back, it was close to 1 PM, and I was greeted by a gaggle of ladies in my room, Sayanee and Nia and Aakansha. ADG went out to bring Roopkatha from her home around the same time.. Soon, Aesha arrived followed by ADG & Roopkatha and later, Nilakash. Sunny also landed up, surprisingly managing to find his way to my place on his own. I was also excited to hear that Abhishek Jain was gonna come to the meet (I don't think he had come to any meet since the 3rd KAC meet last year). This was also the first meet for Oishi (who came down with her dad whom we carted off to another room before continuing with our meet).

This meet probably had the shortest screening ever, with only an episode of Daily Lives of High School Boys was screened. Soon after, Sunny, Nilakash & ADG went out to get food (it was late afternoon by then) and the rest of us lazed around, too tired to do much in the heat. Roopkatha had to leave before lunch arrived since she had a curfew at home, but it was great to have her over, only if for a few hours, Sayanee went with her to accompany her to the bus-stand. They fetched Abhishek Jain from the bus-stop & brought him over. (Apparently) coincidentally, Promit made his arrival almost as soon as the food was brought.

                 Sunny the Hero                                          Them pretty ladies, Aakansha and Oishi

Lazing about on the terrace (Reetam, Aesha, Oishi and Nia)

The laziness continued post lunch. Oishi, unfortunately, also had to leave (she had a tuition to attend), but she gifted KAC an awesome hand drawn poster before she left. We didn't feel like watching any more anime at that time, so Nilakash and I decided to play some music. We didn't play any anime tracks, but it was a fun session nevertheless, and the other members seemed to have a good time too.

Nilakash takes KAC by storm

Awestruck members recording the performance (Promit, ADG, Aesha and Sayanee)

The meet was supposed to be wrapped up early since many of the members had other work, and once the music session was over, we decided to not waste much time and continue with our Anime quiz. This time around, Sayanee and I had prepared the questionnaire. Though most of the questions proved a little too tough for the members, we found Nia on a roll, answering one question after another, leaving her closest competitors far behind. The most fun part of the quiz was probably the Music round, where anime songs/OSTs were played and members were asked to recognise which anime it belonged to. This led to a lot of animated expressions and jumping and outrageous answers from the members, but it sure was a ton of fun. Nia, unsurprisingly, came out as the winner, and ADG was a distant 2nd. Nia claimed a Fate/Zero poster as her prize, and ADG a poster from Another.

 

Winners of the quiz

And with that, we were done with the meet. It was a fun meet as usual, but contrasted to the epic meet of Feb, this meet was kinda more toned down, and in many ways more intimate. There was not much planning done and we all kind of went with the flow. But it still turned out pretty awesome.

 

And it's group photo time!

 

The awesome poster that Oishi gifted us

Minutes from the meet:

• Oishi was the first timer to the meets, and wowed us with her drawing skills. Her thick note book filled with posters had all of us wide eyed in admiration. the Detective Conan poster that she gifted KAC was a beautiful piece of work.
• We found out that both Oishi and Roopkatha are classical singers. I could not convince either of them to sing a word, though.
• Nilakash was the other new member that we had in this meet. He turned out to have tastes similar to me in anime and in music. It was really fun playing with him, and I do hope we get to play a lot more in the future.
• This time around, Hizibizi stayed till the end of the meet. (It is always a surprise to see KACs resident pervmaster such a quiet and nice person IRL :)
• Sunny was awesome, since he treated everyone to free food (which, incidentally, was his birthday treat). :3

Kill Me Baby review

I was asked to write a review, so, here goes nothing. Unlike the other writers, I won't be breaking stuff up. You'll get the idea as we go on.I haven't been watching a lot of anime recently; however there were a couple of series that caught my attention.


Kill me Baby tells the heartwrenching story of one Yasuna, and her best friend, Sonya. Sounds pretty normal, doesn't it? Well, it is, until you find out that Sonya happens to be an assassin. Much to the chagrin of those around her, Sonya's assassination skills don't quite do what they're supposed to. As if that weren't bad enough, Sonya's joined by Agiri, a trained ninja, specialised in confusing people with elaborate 'ninjutsus'.

Now before we move on, I'd like to take a moment to state that comedy happens to be one of the most subjective things known to man; you might find it funny, rude, or even offensive. As such, writing a review for a comedy anime is quite a tough job. In addition, the animation for Kill Me Baby isn't top tier, it's one of JC Staff's side projects after all, but they do manage to squeeze laughs into every scene (Some of them have been copied directly from the 4koma strip, or so I've been told).

The story isn't anything new. If you've watched Mitsudomoe, you'll recognize the setting almost immediately. A funny airhead, an serious girl, and Sonya. (Sonya keeps reminding me of Mortal Kombat, aww yeah). The story's simple. Very, very simple. Character development is nearly 0 (which in fact, is a very good thing). No elaborate battles and stuff, yeah, you can put those arms down now, no charging spirit bombs over 10 episodes any more. I do feel a little bad over Yasuna breaking her wrists and neck, though :(

The soundtrack's okay, not too bad, the OP is kinda wtf, and the ED is well, catchy. The best part of the whole show, is the unused redhead, voiced by Kugimiya Rie. The world can use more of her. She's the best, seriously. All your VA's can lick Rie's feet. The BGM reminds me of my kindergarten days, which suits the show well.

All in all, KMB, isn't a bad anime. It's definitely suited for people who want a short and light anime to kill time with, without scowling at the screen every 30 seconds trying to figure out wth is going on and why that ninja fox in an orange suit's trying to grope that emo guy. It's childlike, that's all I can say about it.

Rating: (7+1)/10.
+1 thanks to Kugyuu. (I'd give +2, but the other guys would kill me)

KAC Showcase : April - It's COSPLAY time!

KAC shall be showcasing its members on this blog every month from now on. This is part of our attempt to familiarise ourselves with some of the outstanding talent that KAC has, and give our awesome members some well deserved attention for making this place so fun and colourful. ^_^

For the month of April, we have chosen to showcase one of our newer members, Rhea Chowdhury.

Rhea currently works as an editor in Kolkata.

She is being featured here for the stunning cosplay that she did at the Cool Japan Festival 2012 held in Mumbai, where she dressed up as an ANBU (from the anime/manga Naruto).

A small interview of Rhea-san :

How did you make this costume?

- "Once I heard about the Cool Japan Fair, I absolutely HAD to go attend it. Everyone was really pumped up to cosplay. Hence, I had to cosplay too. But I wanted it to be an accurate one, even if it were to be simple. Shaival gave me the idea about being an ANBU and I loved the idea. Since, ANBU's are very powerful, yet they are pretty useless and hence underrated! X_X I thought it would be simple but I was wrong since making any costume perfect is a hard job, no matter how simple it is. ANBU had a lot of small props to take care of but since I would be a random ANBU, I could modify and customize some of the accessories. For the ninja shoes I preferred using boots. Got that from Esplanade. Black jeans from there too. And thankfully had a black tee to go under the white ANBU vest (which was full sleeve and I just cut off the sleeves and used it as the extension for the long fingerless gloves) . The weapons were from the NINJA kit that we already had. Except the FUMA SHURIKEN and the arm guards. Fuma shuriken was prepared using the cardboard. It was made by Shaival kun. He used black/silver fabric/poster colors. He worked VERY hard behind it and it turned out to be a kickass weapon! The arm guards were made from cardboard as well. White fabric paint on it. The masks were made by me with my mother's help We got two animal party masks (tiger) used spray white spray paint (two thick coats) Let them dry for about one whole day and then use a red marker to make the design on the mask. I changed the design a bit since the mask was not EXACTLY like the ANBU mask but it worked fine Got the fingerless gloves from a random store and used the torn sleeve for myself and for Shaival used black socks with the tip cut off. Now comes the VEST. I looked for a thick material at Gariahat and finally found it. Got hold of my talior and made him see anime ANBU images explaining how it is to be done. And he did a GREAT job didn't he? :P  So that's how we became ANBUs for one marvellous and memorable day." 

Is there any upcoming event, where you'll be cosplaying again? 

- “Currently, I am not working on any other cosplay. But I will cosplay again if there is another event like Cool Japan. If i have the time I would also cosplay for KAC with the other amazing members! ^_^”  

How has your experience with KAC been so far? 

- “Experience with KAC is AWESOME. Every member is warm and welcoming. They are also very encouraging. My cosplay was just for fun, but KAC took it to another level. I'll always be indebted to them for that. Arigatou KAC *bows*.

Thank you.
I love u guys.”

Some Pictures:

A note - We loved your cosplay at the Cool Japan Festival and we love having you here at KAC. We hope to see you at future meets. Let your cosplay be an inspiration for other KAC members in the future. We look forward to your future cosplays. :)

PRAY FOR JAPAN

EVENT : Photo exhibition, displaying the effects of the disaster that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011.

VENUE : ICCR, Hochimin Saranee, Kolkata, West Bengal.

DATE : 11/03/2012 to 16/03/2012

TIME : 10:30 am to 7:00 pm

2011 bore a black flag for Japan as nature brought her wrath unto them in the form of an earthquake and a tsunami. The earthquake Measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocentre at an underwater depth of approximately 32 km (20 mi). It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, travelled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. The earthquake moved Honshu 2.4 m (8 ft) east and shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in).

The tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents, primarily the ongoing level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents

On 12 March 2012, a Japanese National Police Agency report confirmed 15,854 deaths, 26,992 injured, and 3,155 people missing across twenty prefectures, as well as 129,225 buildings totally collapsed, with a further 254,204 buildings 'half collapsed', and another 691,766 buildings partially damaged.

A year after what is believed to be the most destructive Earthquake and Tsunami attack recorded in history, the world says a silent prayer for Japan and the numerous victims of the March 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami. Japan, a year later, is a different story. Filled with determination to move forward despite the tragedy, They have courageously taken steps to ensure a better tomorrow for her next generation.

The 11th march 2012 photo exhibition of Japan's struggles to rebuild told us that much. It was held at ICCR, Hochimin Saranee, Kolkata. The exhibition continued for a week, displaying the numerous pictures of the effects of Tsunami, the thoughts and prayers for Japan from different schools and institutions and two 15 minute movies on Japan after disaster and recovery..

The Consul General of Japan in Kolkata addresses the audience

People who attended the inauguration ceremony for the exhibition included many high profile personnel.

 

 

During the Exhibition

The banner for people to write their prayer for Japan's recovery.

 In hope...

When India tasted her own share of pain on 26th December, 2004, She had hoped no other country suffered the wrath of nature like that....but nature has struck again in the years that came after...she has struck over and over. Today, we stand united in pain, in courage and in mutual empathy, pledging ourselves to help whenever friends are in need. So say a Prayer for every victim who died. Pray for humanity.

Anime, March 2012.

Here's a look into some of the anime that ended on the latter half of March 2012:
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Bleach : After running for almost 9 years, Bleach anime ended with the 'Fullbring Arc'. Since the manga is still ongoing with the last arc, we hope the anime will be back to air after the manga has progressed further.

  

Gintama : The new Gintama series that ran during 2011-2012 (ep. 202-252) finally came to an end. This anime is probably on hiatus as well, since the manga is still ongoing and Gintama has gone on hiatus like this before.

Another : The thrill that each episode gave & the longing for more episodes after the series was over probably makes Another one of the best anime of Winter 2012 as per many. This is one of the better horror/mystery anime of recent times.

Brave 10 : This anime is set in the Sengoku Period, The animation quality & action sequences are more or less satisfactory. But, the main drawback for this series is perhaps the episode limit. Eight volumes of manga were squeezed into 12 episodes & thus quite a few proportions & sequences were cut off. Specially, the rushed final episode (12) might be a little disappointing for those who were following the manga. Overall, it's an anime one can give a try.

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List of winter 2012 anime/movie/ova:

Link (better resolution): Anime-Winter 2012

THE 2012 MANGA WORKSHOP

EVENT : Manga Workshop
VENUE : Kriyetic Comics & Graphics Studio, Purbalok, EM Bypass, Kolkata, West Bengal.
DATE: 25th and 26th February 2012.

Back in March 2010, Kriyetic comics & Graphics studio Link in collaboration with Comics India, Hoshobunkai, The consulate of Japan in Kolkata and NHK T.V  hosted the first ever five day long Manga and origami workshop in the heart of Kolkata. Manga and comics lovers across town swarmed in numbers to be a part of the event and meet a live mangaka for the first time and feast on all the mangas and posters on display. The workshop had ended with a live video conference with Chigusa Takaku, actress of  "The Japanese wife" by Aparna Sen, Speech and distribution of certificates.

YUKICHI YAMAMATSU

February 2012 saw the return of internationally acclaimed mangaka Yukichi Yamamatsu in his workshop on "How to Draw Manga" . Though a smaller version of the original workshop, it was by no means any less of an event. Fifteen participants turned up to be a part of a rare opportunity. With KAC members volunteering for the event, this blog is a small tribute to the event and to all those people who made it happen. :)

Below are a few pictures from the event, enjoy!!

The workshop in progress.

Participants

TheExhibition

KAC and Kriyetic comics members.

We look forward to many more such events in Kolkata in the future.

Team KAC.

LETS LEARN JAPANESE PART III

こんにちは みんな！！！

ひざしぶり です ね、

げんき だった の？

[Hi Everyone!!!
It's been a while, hasn't it!
Have been doing well?]

It is time to learn  にほんご again! ^__^.

Now, it has been a solid two months since the last lesson link, so I trust all of you have practised the two scripts enough to recognize the alphabets when you see them? If not, no worries! You can always keep on practising and come back to this lesson later. It won't disappear. ^_~.

IN THIS LESSON:

• We will learn how to write a few simple Kanji.
• We will learn to say a few simple sentences.
• We will learn grammar.

LETS GET STARTED!!

あたらしい ことば。

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• かべ - Wall
• ちず - Map
• こくばん - Black board
• ひきだし - Drawers
• どあ - Door
• かぎ - Key
• ようふくだんす - Wardrobe
• かんばん - Hording
•  ほんばこ - Bookshelf.

         

Press play to listen to the correct pronunciation. ^_^

HOW TO WRITE : 漢字 (かんじ)

• 日 - にち, ひ, び ,か (Day, Sun, Japan),
• 月 -  げつ、 がつ、 つき (Month, Moon),
• 山 -  やま、 さん (Mountain), and
• 人 -  ひと、 びと、 じん、 にん (Person, people).

Press Play to see how to write it. ^_^

THE "This", "That" and "That over there" factor.

Look at the picture given below.

•  これ is "this"When the item is close to you, you use これ .
  for eg : これ は なん です か。 (What is this?)
•  それ is "that"
  When the item is relatively far from you but is close to the 2nd person, you use "それ".
  for eg : それ は ほん です ね？ (That is a book isn't it?) 
•  あれ is "That over there" 
  When the item is far from both you and the 2nd person, you use " あれ ".
  for eg : あれ は なん でしょう？ (What could that be?)

Press Play to listen to the correct pronunciation.

Let's learn how to say a few simple sentences in Japanese. ^_^

• きょう は あつい です ね！
  そう です ね！ あつくて、 むしあつい です！
• あした、 どこ か へ あそび に いこう か？
  たのしそう ね、 うん！ そう しよう！
• Today's hot isn't it?
  You're right! It's hot and humid!
• Will you go hang out with me tomorrow?
  Sounds like its gonna be fun. Lets do it!
  

Press play to listen to the pronunciations. ^_^

PARTICLE REVISION

• は- pronounced as "wa", is a topic marker.
• が - pronounced as "ga", is a subject marker.
• か - pronounced as "ka", is an interrogatory symbol.

Yosh, this is for this edition, see you next time! ^__^

P.s - If you have and questions, please leave a comment!
Cheers.