Tiger and Bunny

Tiger and Bunny: a new anime about super heroes that compete in a popularity contest as they fight crime in the city. I first found out about Tiger and Bunny through people's artwork on Deviant Art. The casual outfits of Tiger and Barnaby are what caught my interest. They're jazzy! I want a nice hat and vest like Tiger and Barnaby's jacket is hot (not to mention his hair). Their hero suits look cool too. Heck, all the heroes' suits look good!

I've watched three episodes of the anime so far. I'll watch the other episodes after the DVD is released in Canada (if it ever gets released). It took me awhile to get used to the thought of a hero competition in the anime; I found it ridiculous in the beginning. I accepted the concept by the second or third episode only because Barnaby's hair is gorgeous, Tiger's strong sense of heroism, Blue Rose' Pepsi NEX ad, Fire Emblem, and Origami Cyclone's appearances. ... I'm also curious about the storyline.








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Toronto Music Garden

I have a group of friends I call 'Teahousers'. I gave them that name because we used to hang out at bubble tea cafés every time we met up in the two years after high school graduation. We usually have a get-together every 6 weeks and between those weeks we plan for the next meeting. During our last meeting, we visited the Grindhouse to try out kangaroo burgers. On the same day, we walked to the Toronto Music Garden at Queens Quay. There weren't any functions in the garden that day and it was raining in the morning.


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"Treeline catering" was painted on the walkway along Queens Quay. I searched the words on Google's search engine and the first website on the list was treeline-events.com.

I was surprised to find a fancy birdhouse at Queens Quay near the Music Garden. It was standing in the middle of a fenced area, so I couldn't get a close look at it.


It took us awhile to find the garden because we were distracted by boats. (We were hoping to see one that looks like a pirate ship.) We knew where the garden was a little later because of a sign. The plants in the music garden looked almost too perfect: it was eerie yet beautiful. Most of the pathways were spirals, which was neat. The spiral pathways made plants like the maple trees and low lying flower buds noticeable. What I liked most about the garden were the textures and colours of the plants. There was even fungi!


_{The welcome sign facing south}













After walking around the garden, we walked to Ann Tindal Park and there was a black-crowned night heron. My friends and I didn't know what the bird was called until we asked a passerby that stopped to look at the bird.



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Toronto Music Garden

Daria

I was on YouTube last month watching anime music videos when a Daria video showed up on the recommended videos list. I don't know how Daria is connected to any anime music videos unless they used its theme song, but it was there.

Daria is an animated series that used to air on YTV (if I remember correctly). The series is about a high school girl named Daria who is an outcast in her suburban town and often finds it hard to fit in because of her analytic perspectives on the people around her.

Seeing Daria on YouTube made me want to watch the whole series again. I searched for the DVD set on the website of major DVD distribution companies and found that HMV was selling the complete series of Daria. I bought the box set and watched it. I later learned that the box set also contained both of Daria's movies (bonus!).

I grew up watching a few episodes of Daria, but I never really understood it back in the day. After watching the box set and movies, I caught on the sarcastic remarks that some of the characters used to make.

If you ever have the time and money to spend, I suggest watching the series if you don't mind shows with all talk and no action. My younger sister enjoyed the sarcastic remarks, but she couldn't sit through all the episodes. (It's probably because she has little patience.)

For a more detailed description of Daria the animated series, visit Wikipedia.

Shift in Weather Patterns?

I was watching a horror movie with my family yesterday when a thunder storm hit. There was lightning and hail. Small drops of ice were pelting at the window behind us.

It's the second week of June in Toronto, Canada and there have already been about 3 thunder storms in the last 2 weeks. I don't recall any thunder storms in June in the last 4 years. It's a bit strange to me, but I guess it's normal.

With all the human activities around the world releasing and changing chemical and physical properties in the overall environment, there's bound to be a shift in the atmosphere's patterns. By human activities I mean factories, running vehicles, chemical products, landfills, construction, restaurants, and, well, I guess almost everything. There are always leftovers in everything that people do: like leaving footprints behind after walking through mud.

I remember there was a moment of summer snow last year and the year before. Snow in the summer! Here in Toronto, we usually have snow in the winter. Will there be snow this year too? I'll have to wait and see. For now, I will enjoy the passing storms and a possible swirl of wind.





The tree in my front yard fell from the base of its trunk during a windy day. The town's tree caretakers (if that's what they're called) took the tree away hours after it fell.

Anime North 2011: Part 4

Sunday.

As we were heading to side entrance of the Toronto Congress Center in the morning, we caught a Gundam photoshoot. There was still a lot of cloud cover in the sky like Friday, which frustrated me. I like sunlight as my lighting!

We were still tired from the masquerade the night before. It ended late, but early on its account. The masquerade was fun to watch, so we didn't care much that we were tired.


<sub>The young ladies were in the masquerade the night before



Team Rocket's balloon deflated.It was also at the masquerade.</sub>

We found an underwear lying outside TCC while walking to the Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt photoshoot. Ariana commented on how Panty may have forgot it the night before. We didn't see it again later in the day.


<sub>The Muses from Disney's Hercules?



Panty and Garterbelt! I didn't notice that the Panty cosplayer had her underwear exposed until after looking through the pictures I took at AN.



Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt photoshoot



Two Panty cosplayers.



Durarara!! photoshoot</sub>

We wanted to go to the My Little Pony panel, but it was full. We went to the panel next door instead: Mythology in Anime/Manga.




I didn't like how the Mythology panel room was warm and crowded, so I left. Livia and Oie Lin followed, leaving Ariana in the panel. (Sorry Ariana, but I couldn't take the warmth). We went to eat ice-cream and met up again later at TCC.

I was very impressed with the Transformers display in the entrance to the dealer's room, so I took a picture of it before my last walk around the place. I like where the free transformers goods are placed.

Livia and I were waiting for the dealer's room's 5-minutes at--yes, at--closing prices when someone put their hand on our shoulders and slowly moved it towards our rear end. We turned around and there was Pedobear! I think he was trying to grope our butts, but my backpack was covering my ass. (It felt more like someone was trying to open my bag.) A wild Barnie suddenly appeared and attacked Pedobear with a hug. Pedobear hugged Barnie and they both moved their hands slowly towards each other's asses. I didn't get a whole picture because they were right next to me and there were a few people gathered around taking a picture of the two.



Before leaving the convention, I took a two more pictures:


<sub>Avatar the Last Airbender cosplay!


Arakawa Under the Bridge cosplay!</sub>

The end.

I thought I would experience a different side to Anime North than the usual walk-around-and-take-pictures this year, and I did. I never went to panels as much as I did at this convention. I usually go to one per convention because I spend most of my time bothering cosplayers and taking their pictures. It was fun sitting through panels like Lolita Fashion, Hetalia, and Military Realism (which I know I forgot to mention in previous posts). The masquerade (which I covered very little) this year was the first I've ever attended: I usually leave conventions early on Saturdays. I didn't get to take many pictures, but that's okay. Being able to spend time with Ariana, Livia, Oie Lin, Jimmy, Priyanka, and Russian Michael was nice and peaceful.

Conclusion: if you plan to cosplay something that requires a mask and normal-looking clothing, keep the mask on or else you'll look like a normal passerby.

(Yes, I got lazy posting about Anime North this time. There are many holes to the posts.)

All pictures available in this album:

Anime North 2011

Anime North 2011: Part 3

Saturday.

We arrived in the morning and picked up masquerade wrist bands at the Double Tree Hotel. We were going to check out the 4chan panel, but it turned out we were there too early: we learned that we lined up for the Anime North idol auditions. We decided to skip the auditions and the panel for another walk around the dealer's room.

On our way to the TCC building, we took a few pictures of cosplayers. We passed by a few impressive costumes: many that looked difficult to make and to get into. For instance, there were Ah my Goddess girls with a Sakura from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and a weregarurumon from Digimon. We even saw a Kamen Rider! Or at least I think it was a Kamen Rider...






<sub>Does anyone know what they are cosplaying from?



A robocop?



His character looks familiar. I will dub him Captain!



Wow.



It looks like this person dyed her own patterns on the fabric.</sub>

After browsing through the dealer's room and artist alley, we headed to the Sailor Moon and Pokémon photoshoot.


<sub>Sailor Moon Photoshoot!






Pokémon Photoshoot!



Her character is from Hellsing, right?</sub>





Around noon, my camera ran out of batteries. The battery icon showed that it had full batteries earlier in the day, but I guess it was just tricking me. Maybe it's getting old? Anyway, I took my last picture of the day on our way to get food. The sky looked dull, so I added a few clouds and other things in it.




<sub>Two Links, walking off to another adventure.

To be continued and finished in Part 4.</sub>
All pictures available in this album:

Anime North 2011