MANIFEST 2011 - COSPLAY!

Manifest 2011 was on last weekend! It was a HUGE event with many cosplayers attending. My friend Jimmy took many awesome photos on the day. He said I can share them on the CherriiPOP show. Thanks Jimmy!! Jimmy is an awesome photographer, you check out other cool photos of his on his website http://ageos.smugmug.com/

Looking at the photos, I just admire all the effort and detail the cosplayers put in their costumes. From the cool hairstyles, make-up and accessories like swords, fans. The detail adds that extra WOW factor to the whole look.

My favourite Manifest pictures are of groups of friends coming dressed up as the characters from the same Anime series. There is a cool picture of the sailor moon girls with tuxedo mask. There is another group photo with about 15 friends, all dressed up as characters from Bleach! – Very impressive. It would be so much fun to get your friends together and dress up as characters from a series. I would LOVE to do Naruto! But, I don’t think I will be able to convince my friends to dress up with me (LOL!). My favourite character from Naruto is ROCK LEE!! I would love to dress up as him.

























Did you attend Manifest 2011? I'd love to hear from you, share your experience and photos with the CherriiPOP by posting up photos!

Deathnote movie - US Remake with Gaspard Ulliel to star as Light

The highly successful Deathnote movies are getting the Hollywood treatment. Handsome french actor Gaspard Ulliel will star as the power crazed Light Yagami.

Deathnote is a popular manga series about a powerful notebook that kills people whose names are written in it. This book was accidentally dropped in to Earth from a different world by a death god. Light, a uni student stumbles across this book and sees the instructions on how to use it. He doesn't believe it, he tests it out by writing a criminal's name and finds out the criminal dies from the news. He tests it out again and finally believes the Deathnote's power. Light become crazed and wants to create a new world with no crime. He starts killing people like crazy and the genius detective L is on his tail.

I always shudder when I hear Hollywood is remaking a Japanese anime/movie. The Japanese Deathnote movies were brilliant! From script to set design and casting. Everything was believable and intelligent. I thought Kenichi Matsuyama and Tatsuya Fujiwara were brilliant in this cat and mouse game. Hollywood hasn't got a good record with Japanese film remakes, look at Dragon Ball Z, Speed Racer...

But! With the announcement that Gaspard is playing Light, I have hope that this film might be just as good as the Japanese one. Gaspard is a brilliant actor (one of my faavourites). He absorbs himself in the role and takes his art seriously. I have loved every movie I have seen him in. Gaspard can play complex characters (e.g. Hannibal) so I think he will bring an interesting dynamic and darkness to Light Yagami.

Now I'm quite curious to find out who will be playing the oddball genius detective L. I have no idea who they should cast. Maybe Johnny Depp. That would be an interesting combination.

Production hasn't started yet but they plan to release this film in 2012.

Let us know what you think about Gaspard being cast as Light.

The Best Bits of CherriiPOP – Wedding stories

There have been a lot of wedding stories covered on the show this year; they were quite popular stories on the show because I got a lot of comments about it. Here is a recap:




A few weeks ago I mentioned an interesting story about a Taiwanese woman marrying herself. She herself decided to put a ring on it. A wedding planner was hired and she invited her close friends and family to her wedding. I really admire that story because she is sending out a strong message to other 30 year old women that you don’t have to follow tradition and you should love yourself. Legally her marriage isn’t recognised, so in the future when she meets Prince Charming she can marry him without divorcing herself. It’s inspirational that she’s living life to her own rules!




On the date 10-10-10 this year, many couples around the world said ‘I do’, so venues were booked out in advanced. Why did so many couples choose this date? Well because it is an auspicious date since the day, month and year are the same. In Asia, people believe that when you get married on this date you will live a happy life together. In the past, the dates 08-08-08 and 09-09-09 were highly popular for weddings for the same reason. If you are planning to get married in the near future, then you might consider these auspicious dates 11-11-11 and 12-12-12.




The Last story is: A lot of adult Japanese men who have no luck in the love department have resorted to loving anime cartoon characters. These virtual girlfriends are printed images on pillowcases and these men will take their ‘girlfriends’ on dates to the movies, restaurants or special getaways. The men feel a lot of happiness in the relationship and feel that it is true love. Some men love their virtual girlfriends so much that they will marry them and have the whole wedding celebration as well. It’s a very interesting story and people who have an obsession with manga or anime characters are called ‘otaku’ in Japan.

The phenomenon of Japanese Cellphone Novels – They become Best Selling Novels, Have Movie and TV drama adaptations

Following on from the movie review of Koizora. Koizora actually started off as a cellphone novel that became a published novel, then a movie and then a TV drama followed.

So what is a cellphone novel? A story that is written through a number of text messages over a period of time. It can be subscribed by millions of readers. Koizora, had more than 20 million subscribers to the cellphone novel. Quite an astonishing number for a story told through SMS.

In 2007, out of the 10 best selling novels, five of them were originally cellphone novels. What is more amazing is the top 3 positions were occupied by first time cellphone novelists. Cellphone novels are pocketing sales that more experienced authors could only dream of. Initially, cellphone novels were dismissed by critics for its poor literary quality. However, due to its domination and success in mainstream literature the critics are silenced, and some say that cellphone novels should be classified with Manga and popular music.

It seems anyone can get in to writing cellphone novels, with over one million cellphone novels already listed. Cellphone novelist can type out their story on their phone anywhere: on the way to work or school, or whenever they have a short break. A lot of successful cellphone novels are love stories, written in the first person. When reading a cellphone novel it reads like a diary.

There is a lot of appeal in cellphone novels. You have to remember that you can’t fit a lot of information in a single SMS, so very simplistic language is used to tell the story. The simplistic language makes it easier to understand for the young generation in Japan, who find works by professional writers too difficult to understand because they use wordy or cryptic expressions. The text messages contain little plot or character development compared to traditional novels. Therefore, Cellphone novels have parallels to the popular graphic novels (manga). The phenomenon and success of cellphone novels is all due to a generation whose reading habits consist mainly of manga and use their mobile phones more than their computer.

I think the world will catch on to Cellphone novels because we use and rely on our phones more each day. It is an exciting new medium for story telling. I’ve decided to start my own cellphone novel to see what it is like. It’s called ‘Wilting heart’. You can check it out on twitter @wiltingheart or the blog: http://www.wiltingheart.blogspot.com/

I find writing the cellphone novel really appealing because I don’t need to dwell over details. I just need to write what is happening really. It’s quite a different experience. You guys should check it out and let me know what you think.