and my uncle is taller than you
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Eroge Bus Episode 3
Join me for this month's episode of the Eroge Bus with guest blogger/podcaster @HisuiRT from The Reverse Thieves while we review Innocent Grey's Kara no Shoujo released by Mangagamer
Show Notes:
00:00 Intro - Skydive - Freefall
02:22 Opening words and introductions
10:41 Break - Internet Dramu
11:20 News:
August 24th: A TL patch for Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo – Anata wo Suki na Shiawase was released
August 25th: Analysis of Japanese sales of visual novels to date:
September 1st: Mangagamer releases a retranslation of Edelweiss
September 5th: Some drama, Amaterasu releases TL patch to MuvLuv Alternative and Shikkoku no Sharnoth despite Mangagamer’s talks about licensing MuvLuv.
September 6th: Fate/Extra CCC RPG planned for PSP release next spring
September 16th: TL patch for Rin ga Utau, Mirai no Neiro was released
September 16th: Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney game cast revealed
September 17th: TL patch for galaxy angel the end of enternel love is released.
September 21st: Aselia the Eternal goes Golden Master to ship in October
28:47 Break - Kara no Shojo OP
31:17 Kara no Shoujo review spoiler free
Preview picture of Kara no Shoujo 2:
51:18 Break
52:01 Kara no Shoujo discussion FULL OF SPOILERS
76:12 Break - Mayushii Dubstep
77:01 September Japanese game releases:
89:14 Outro - School Days - Kanashimi no Mokou e
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Eroge Bus Episode 2
Join me for this month's episode of the Eroge Bus as I talk with Kouryuu and Exedore of Mangagamer about Mangagamer. I apologize in advance for some of the noisy audio that occurs midway through.
Show Notes:
00:00 Intro - Freefall - Skydive
03:35 stuff no one cares about.
05:25 Break - Uguu!
05:37 News:
July 30th
August 11th
August 11th
August 13th
August 13th
08:32 Break - opening to Koihime Musou
10:28 Discussion about MangaGamer with Kouryuu and Exedore
43:04 Break - opening to DearDrops
44:33 August Japanese releases:
47:37 Closing - School Days OST - Kanashimi no Mukou e
Monday, August 1, 2011
Thank You: Otakon 2011
It's that time of the year where tens of thousands of anime fans gather in downtown Baltimore. Of course, this gathering is Otakon, the second largest anime convention in the US. Last year, I made a fairly critical look at the failings of Otakon. However, I am pleased to say that this year, most of my complaints have been addressed. So without further delay, let's get into the details.
The best badge!
It's Friday morning and I made sure to line up at around 7 AM to get into the convention center. I was quickly reminded that it's the summer and this year has been especially hot and humid. Needless to say, when the doors opened at around 8:20 AM, I was drenched in my sweat. That said, not only did they let people in the convention center on time, but also 10 minutes early! Holy cow! All along my goal was to be one of the first people to get into the dealer's room. This is the first time in 7 years that I decided to do that. My motivation was the Puella Magi Madoka Magica charity poster. We had no idea how many Otakon was selling. Their website implied that there were limited quantities. Noon came and the doors finally opened. With few people around, I was able to get a good look of the dealer's room this year. The quantity and variety of exhibitors was quite an improvement. I think most notable additions were probably the Bandai Entertainment and Sentai Filmworks booths in the industry section. Very little space was wasted on large and lavish displays. The usual dealers were in attendance plus a few new ones. Overall, I spent a good chunk of my time at the dealer's room.
Last year, Otakon's guest line-up was fairly lack-luster. This year, Otakon stepped up their game and offered a plethora of Japanese guests. Unfortunately, there was really too much to do and too much to see and I only managed to check out Atsuhiro Iwakami who was responsible for producing many Aniplex series such as Kara no Kyoukai, Bekemonogatari, Ore no Imouto Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai and most importantly the new Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He was a pretty cool dude and introduced Madoka to many people who never seen it. On Saturday, I managed to get his autograph on the limited edition Madoka poster. For a better coverage of Japanese guests, I recommend you check out Reverse Thieves' post on this matter.
Scout beat everyone to the front of the line. Must have used Bonk!
Last year, Otakon's guest line-up was fairly lack-luster. This year, Otakon stepped up their game and offered a plethora of Japanese guests. Unfortunately, there was really too much to do and too much to see and I only managed to check out Atsuhiro Iwakami who was responsible for producing many Aniplex series such as Kara no Kyoukai, Bekemonogatari, Ore no Imouto Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai and most importantly the new Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He was a pretty cool dude and introduced Madoka to many people who never seen it. On Saturday, I managed to get his autograph on the limited edition Madoka poster. For a better coverage of Japanese guests, I recommend you check out Reverse Thieves' post on this matter.
Atsuhiro Iwakami just signed my poster.
What would a convention be without major industry panels? There was fairly a good number of industry panels which is a good reflection of the recovery of the anime industry. The Funimation panel was fairly straightforward as usual. There was a Sunrise panel that showcased some of their newest and upcoming shows. Most suprisingly though, Bandai Entertainment threw a hell of a presentation with the voice actresses of K-On! singing fuwa fuwa time. A violinist and composer who was responsible for the soundtrack to Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya played one of the tracks from the soundtrack while on stage. As fun as the panels were, however, most of them were fairly disappointing in terms of announcements. Surprisingly, the best announcements came from the Bandai Industry panel who announced the acquisition of Nichijou and Gosick. Aniplex USA announced Oreimo. ...and Funimation picked up the Sora no Otoshimono movie.
Typical Bandai Entertainment panel.
Despite the guest and industry heavy schedule, I managed to attend some fan panels. On Friday night, there was a Let's Play Eroge panel. It was a fairly entertaining panel. It was run by trio of girls so yaoi content was inevitable, and as an eroge panel it was quite mediocre. On Saturday, I attended the excellent Investigating Detective Anime panel which was presented by the Reverse Thieves. On Sunday, it was proven to me that the Touhou fandom is insane when I attended a Touhou panel. Finally, I wrapped up the convention with a Puella Magi Madoka Magica panel that went fairly in-depth into Madoka and was quite full of delicious spoilers.
There was also this Anime Amazons panel about strong female characters.
Every year of Otakon is remembered by something. For example, 2004 was known for Larc ~en~ Ciel's concert. 2010 was of course known for the massive fire alarm. And this year is known for the ice cold water man. His enthusiastic approach to selling water has turned him into an internet meme. His "I've got that ice cold water" jingle could be heard repeatedly during the weekend in the hallway repeated by con-goers. Hopefully this will replace the buttscratcher and marco-polos that are growing increasingly tiring.
In conclusion, Otakon really got their shit together for this year. They managed to finally get people in on time; managed to get a hold of interesting Japanese guests; made crowding seem like a non issue; got rid of the staggered schedule. Even the convention center improved. They put in new carpeting; put in new maps and signs; painted the doors and walls; and even opened up a food court in the dealer's room. Overall, Otakon 2011 has been very good.
I spent too much money.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
AnimeNEXT 2011
Damn those trees!
First Impressions.
This is my 3rd time at AnimeNEXT and not much has changed since last year. Coming in on Friday I noticed that there were quite a bit more people than usual. Picked up my badge pretty quickly and had plenty of time before the first set of panels. Usually Fridays are more laid back, but this year almost every good panel was scheduled on Friday and felt like I had fun non-stop the entire day. Lining up for popular panels seems to have become a norm at animenext.
This is justice!
Panels and Guests.
Although AnimeNEXT is only mid-sized con, it is able to attract some big names in the Japanese anime industry. Studio I.G.'s animator, Satoru Nakamura, and episode director, Koudai Kakimoto, were the guests of honor this year around which was quite awesome as they are responsible for working on Moribito and Eden of the East. There were no big name musical guests this year which was somewhat disappointing but the ones that were featured were still very cool.
I attended many panels which were mostly hosted either by the Reverse Thieves, Anigamers, or Charles Dunbar who run many high quality panels. Whenever you see their panels listed in the con guide, make sure you attend them. I've noticed that panels were not scheduled until after 11 AM which is pretty good for most people. But there were still some problems with panel rooms being too small for popular panels. In addition, they put panels in workshop rooms that had no projectors which caused problems to panelists that depended on powerpoint for their presentation. I noticed that AnimeNEXT seemed to have a shortage of panels, with a few of them being programmed for all three days to fill in time. If you have a great idea for a panel, now would be a great time to think about submitting it for next year's AnimeNEXT.
@hisuiRT, @Poetic_Ink, and @VamptVo presenting a panel
Dealers Room, Artist Alley, etc.
Since the convention is in the same location, the dealer's room is the same size as it was, crowding near the entrance was somewhat of an issue but once you leave the area it was pretty smooth to navigate. The variety of dealers wasn't as good as last year mainly due to the fact that AnimeNEXT was scheduled at the same time as another bigger convention. There were noticeably more booths for guests and such than before and Funimation, who's usually at AnimeNEXT, was completely absent.
They located the artist alley in a completely different place than last year. Last year the artist alley was in the double tree hotel. This year they moved it to right across the dealer's room next to the main events stage. This was a good decision as it enlarged the artist alley and allowed for more walking space.
Once again, the anime screenings and the video games were in the training center and the holiday inn hotel as last year. Unfortunately, this will always be the issue of the venue. Fortunately, I was not troubled by the detachment of screenings and video games as I never really had time to check them out.
I scored her at the con. She now protects my anime.
Closing words.
In short, AnimeNEXT continues to be one of the best anime conventions to attend in the North East US. This year, there was a significant increase in attendance and the convention will continue to grow. Although the convention will still take place in the same venue next year, I can foresee AnimeNEXT to outgrow the convention center and eventually move once more to a bigger venue. Hopefully, next year, the convention won't be scheduled on the same weekend as another bigger convention.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
They Sure Grow Up Fast: Zenkaikon 2011
Although I have only been to Zenkaikon for 2 years, even in a year's time it has grown a lot bigger. This year it was Zenkaikon's 5th year running and it grew from being in a small room to 2 floors of the Valley Forge Convention Center.
Unfortunately, the massive growth wasn't without some growing pains. Last year when the convention took place inside the Radisson Hotel next to the Valley Forge Convention Center, it was very crowded. The crowding made the small con experience feel like a big con despite having small con guests and events. Fortunately, the change of venue to the convention center solved the crowding problem and allowed the convention to grow comfortably to several thousand attendees. In addition, the convention is still in it's sophomore stage as the staff are still unable to work the A/V well enough to allow for panels to start on time.
The high growth can be attributed mostly to the location. This is the only anime convention in the Philadelphia / East Pennsylvania area. In addition, it also attracts con goers from New Jersey and even New York. Another anime convention was being organized to take place nearby, but these plans were eventually scrapped.
Of course I have to mention the earthquake/tsunami that ravaged North-East Japan because Zenkaikon did their part in raising money to help those in need.
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