Beyond the Trailer: Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Disney's Beauty and the Beast (2017)

If you read my Cinderella review, I grew up watching Disney movies and had been one of those little girls who lived on fairy tales.  I still do in a way.

There had been two Disney movies in my childhood I would say really shaped me.  One is the Little Mermaid (1988), which I will probably talk about in more detail when the live action drops.  The other was Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Belle was particularly special to me in my later teens as it was the time when I really began noticing how different I was.  Instead of going out with other people my age, I preferred to stay in the library during recess and after school before the school bus took us home.

Belle is very important to me for more than just her beauty, she helped me remember that being the way I am is alright.  My love for books, my pursuit of cleverness and wit and simply being different.  That is why out of all the adaptations Disney has done lately, I knew I would be especially passionate about this one.  

Seriously Cute: PINK CRES. in Manila (09.09.2017)

This is an incredibly late post, but with the new direction my blog is going I thought it would be an appropriate start. 

On September 9th 2017, PINK CRES. came to the Philippines for the ASEAN-Japan Television Festival at Trinoma Mall.  

It is a three-piece group led by Miyabi is a former member of the now defunct group, Berryz Koubou which was one of the biggest groups of Hello!Project at that time.  

Being a fan of the group, of course I could not hold back my excitement to see the group perform in person.  An opportunity like this is rare, and quite possibly once in a lifetime considering the short lifespan of many of my favorite groups from Japan. 

Writing the Pages: Character Designs

Raven by Sukizuki Izuna

For a long time, I had been thinking about writing my own book.  Well, I have decided to stop dreaming and actually begin working on writing it.

At first, I had really no idea where to start.  There were so many factors that worried me.  What genre it should it be?  What would be my target audience?  Where the setting should be?  Am I really good enough?  The list goes on.

Fortunately, I am not alone.  I have a lot of friends willing to help me.

For a long time, I have been collaborating with a friend of mine who is also an incredible and creative artist.  She goes by the name Sukizuki, and if you think her art is familiar you might have seen that she did the winning art piece for a small contest I had a while ago.

We worked so well together that I asked if she would like to collaborate on my writing project, and to my pleasure, she agreed!

We began with character designs

Seriously Cute: MNL48 ... Finally!

Finally, it has been done.

It has been more or less two years since I first made my first post on the group.  To be honest, I have no idea how I feel about this now.  The group has been plagued with more controversies than I care to remember from the time the auditions first started.

Some easy to let go, others not.  However, I find that it is more of the management's fault that the girls themselves.

Am I the only one bothered that the final uniforms look nothing like the winning piece made in the competition?  These are cute as well, but it must be disappointing to the winner who was probably expecting to see the girls wear it.  I hope they at least use it for a future video.

Another thing that bothers me is what they said about indie groups.  They basically said that groups outside the 48G or indie/alternative groups are "Class A" or fake groups.  This was after the establishment of a handful of indie idol groups which have a boatload of potential.  As a big fan of indie groups and groups outside of the 48G, my first thought was that the management had no idea what they were saying or doing.  I might not be as knowledgeable as many people, but I know an insult when I see one and this was quite unnecessary.

I can't fault some of the girls who probably didn't understand what they were getting themselves into.  Anyway, I am still happy for those who made it though.

For now, I would like to talk about the girls themselves ... or at least a few of the stand-outs for the management ... and for myself.

Seriously Cute: MNL48 From Top 200 to Top 75 (01.27.2018)

MNL48 Top 200 Reveal
01.20.2018

Two years ago, I wrote an entry about my worries for this group.  However, it seems I was worried about the wrong things. 

I won't lie, there has been a lot of negativity going on in the MNL48 "Fandom".  With allegations of cheating (i.e. Boyfriend in MNL48 staff, vote-buying, like-for-like), allegations of management's manipulation of votes, and rule-breaking (i.e. Love Ban in particular), the group hasn't even debuted yet and the controversies are piling up.    

It doesn't help that some "fans" of the group have resorted to bullying by making fun of contestants' appearances, English and inexperience.   I have no desire at all to contribute to that.  I think there is enough of that in Facebook.    

That is why this post will focus on potential because there are girls that got in that I have my eye on and are why I can't say I completely give up on the group.  

Of course, they have a long way to go with so many of them unable to dance or understand teamwork as  many seem to be trying to out-do each other.  With so many girls, I can't really blame them.  However, it hasn't escaped my notice that their first performance was only the beginning, which is probably why I am going to try to be less critical.  I will talk about my favourites among the Top 200 but I also talk about who among my picks made it to the Top 75.

This is a list of my personal choices, if you have an Oshi I didn't include here I encourage you to make up your own list because these girls need all the love and support they can get in these grueling auditions.