With so many premieres, I felt like I neglected the fans panels a little this year at Otakon. Since panels is usually the biggest draw for me, I feel a bit guilty. There was a great variety, but one only has so much time. Still beyond our own two panels I did squeeze a few others in over the weekend.

I consider a healthy dose of fan panels part of a balanced convention diet. At some cons my entire schedule is filled with nothing but fan panels with the occasional guest panel if they have an interesting Japanese guest. Plus, as I become more active in the fan community I begin to know more of the people doing fan panels so I sometimes just stop in to support my friends who often do very intelligent panels (or at least entertaining panels). Fan panels have this passionate rawness that makes them unique and special. Sometimes that means you go to some real stinkers but such is the price you pay for some incredibly unique and eye-opening content.

I wrapped up a very busy Friday with Otakon Game Show. I ran into a lot of familiar faces who were waiting to take the qualifying quiz earlier in the day and once I heard Hisui made it on, I knew I had to check it out. It was a packed panel 6 where I was greeted with high energy and a handout with instructions on how to play along with your cellphone. This is what really set this game show apart and it actually worked really well. You simply sent a username to a special number by text (or you could use web if you had it), then subsequently sent your answer of 1, 2, 3, or 4 from then on. While the contestants where contemplating, the audience was doing its own deductions. This also seemed to cut down on people shouting out answers. There was even a leader board and small prizes for the crowd. I made it into the top slots for both rounds, which kinda makes me want to try out for the real show next year! This actually ended up being an unexpected highlight of the con.

Although I have been meaning to do so for a while, I finally got around to trying to be a participant on an anime game show. To be a contestant on the Otakon Game Show you had to complete a 15 question quiz mostly (but not entirely) made up of questions about anime from the last decade. Some questions were multiple choice or fill in the blank but there was one matching puzzle. I apparently knew enough to get into the top 4 positions even if I referred to Rolo from Code Geass as Lelouch’s fake brother. When the other three contestants and I  got on the stage, they had a pretty slick set up that used Buzz! controllers for the contestants while the audience could use their phones to answer alongside us. The setup was mostly like Jeopardy! but there was no penalty for missing a question. The categories were usually pretty amusing including a “Is it a magical girl show, a hentai, both, or neither?” category and a “Name that shower scene” category. And basically I got schooled. I started out strong but as time went on I firmly took last place. Even though I came in 4th I still got a nice assortment of prizes (and traded away my Soul Eater box set for a copy of Armitage III box with another contestant.) Everyone who participated was a good sport and I hope they had a good time. I know I enjoyed myself despite my somewhat embarrassing performance. Also since I could not recognize the Chun-Li shower scene, I was asked to turn in my manhood by several people. What people do not realize is that I never had it in the first place. You can watch my shame here and see me have to run off to the bathroom halfway through the show.

On the more educational side, I attended Daryl’s Remembering Satoshi Kon panel and the Anime and Manga Studies panel. The Satoshi Kon one is just what it sounds like, a celebration of Kon’s body of work which was cut short. The panel was extensively full of fans of the director already so Daryl smartly kept introductory information to a minimum. Instead the focus was on themes and motifs as well as some discussion of Kon’s otaku characters and their evolution. Kon himself was quite a fan and one of the clips goes on to show this perfectly as he tries on traditional samurai armor under the guise of research. While this was a celebration, it was also quite melancholy knowing Kon is no longer with us. Even more academic was the Anime and Manga Studies panel which featured people currently doing research or PhDs relating to the subjects. This panel was less formal than it sounds which was a good thing. Each panelist gave good advice and anecdotes about their work. Subjects that were discussed included anime and manga not being subordinate to another field of study; how not speaking Japanese can affect research; and how studying anime and manga contributes to the fan community. It certainly would give people curious about studying anime and manga a good place to start.

The rest of the weekend saw me going to two different styles of fan panels. First there were the highbrow intellectual panels. I went to the Ani-Gamers’ Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing which is one of their war-horse panels. Evan manages to keep it fresh by always having a different person in the third seat and this time it was Elliot Page alongside himself and Ink. The discussion was fairly lively and there was one young gentlemen in the front who was extremely engaged in the conversation. At first I assumed he was totally against the idea of the panel but it was eventually clear that he was just passionate. They had to limit the audience to three responses to each topic or they could have been there all night. Charles Dunbar and Ed Sizemore weighed in their feelings as well. I would have spoken up but I was just on the panel at AnimeNEXT so I already used my Toaru Majutsu no Index, Type-Moon, and Macross 7 analogies enough as it was. While Fandom & Criticism went off without a hitch the Cyborgs, Cybernetics and Metal Men was plagued with problems. The lady running the panel had a Mac that refused to cooperate with the projector so no matter how much the staff tried. But she was a champion and still did a good panel despite no longer having her visual backup. She started with a quiz on the truth and lies about real world cybernetics that showed that while we don’t live in the Ghost in the Shell universe we might not be that far off. She went into the controversies that cybernetics bring up in real life and what they reflect in modern society about our hopes and anxieties for the future.  The interaction between the audience and the panelist was good and I would like to see the panel again when everything was working. Even though he was a guest, I am throwing Roland Kelts’ Japan’s Intellectual Property Problem panel in this section. He started with a look at what IP is and how the Japanese and American view the protection of such rights is very different. This of course has led to many conflicts which is only exasperated by the fact that American anime fandom is a fandom built on piracy. Of course someone in the audience had to make the defense of piracy argument but in his defense he was much more polite and rational than most people on the Internet with that same stance. Christopher Macdonald was in the audience and piped up that physical media sales are in a major decline and streaming video profits are still chump change for most titles. If nothing else the conversation about the revenue sharing licenses explains why ANN retires certain streams after a while.

And of course, we ran our own panels, too. I was quite worried about Best Manga You Never Read having a Friday 9AM time slot because of past years with panelists and attendees being able to get in the building early. No need to worry though, Otakon was on top of it! We were able to pack panel 4 that morning. This was also a bit frightening to be honest. Once again this panel focused on TokyoPop titles that are either forgotten or sold so badly as to be canceled. Unfortunately, since the panel was first thing were weren’t able to scope out what series were in the dealer’s room. Some titles got crowd reactions like Sgt. Frog but for the most part I think we were able to give people new things to check out. The crowd was smaller, but still attentive, for Investigating Detective Anime. This was our third time running it so we are finally getting the hang of it. This is an introductory panel so we are still contemplating doing something a bit more advanced as some point. There was a lot of good questions and discussion after we finished our presentation, too.

I did not just go to high-minded panels where academics pondered complex concepts from ivory towers while smoking pipes and drinking brandy. I also went to some down and dirty fun panels. I unfortunately started my fun panel run with the Let’s Play Ero-ge! panel. I was hoping to learn about a few obscure but story rich porn game titles. The problem was this panel had two distinct sections. One was very strong and one was very weak. The part that I cared the most about was weak: the actual explanation of eroge was slapdash and shallow. They really only mention three titles and their guide to finding and installing games was full of important holes. They did not even mention how to use AppLocale which is vital in the installation and use of Japanese games and is often the most tricky part of getting into eroge. The strongest part of the panel was when they played Yume Miru Kusuri while selected audience members dubbed the dialog. At this point, the audience was really having fun and the panel worked well. They should just drop the pretense of being educational and just make the whole panel a “Lets dub some eroge” panel. It would be more honest and far more popular. On a lighter note, I saw the Gyaru Culture Revealed panel. The panelists looked at both the Gal culture in Japan and how there is a small but vibrant Gal community in the U.S. as well. It was informative look at the history of Gal culture and how western fans have made it their own. They even did a makeup demonstration. They were obviously big fans of the Gal lifestyle and it showed.

Having to choose between the many mecha panels, I went to the What Makes Gundam Great panel to meet up with some friends I don’t normally see. The panel was mostly interesting to me as a way of gauging the pulse of the Gundam fan community. Even though it was an introductory panel, almost everyone in the room was a decently hardcore fan. So as the panelist went through the Gundam series you got a good sense of what was popular and what had its haters. Of course Zeta got nothing but cheers but what else to you expect from an audience of hardcore Gundam fans. The two shows that got the most hate were SEED and AGE. I already talked about Age at length on the blog but I did get an interesting insight about SEED. The guy running the panel mentioned that SEED was very popular among non-mecha fans. Is SEED’s more mainstream popularity why it gets all the hate it does from the hardcore Gundam fans or is that putting the cart before the horse? Of course there was one guy with a very Nazi like uniform and a Zeon flag shouting “Sieg Zeon!” the whole panel. You know, just in case someone had not been scared off by crazy Gundamn fans by the point. And from one form of insanity to another I went to Anime’s Craziest Deaths. I was going to go to the Manga Gamer panel but since some my suitemates were holding me a place in line I decided to go to Anime’s Craziest Deaths. I was a bit depressed after losing the Aniplex raffle so watching people being eviscerated picked up my mood. Daryl’s clip show panels are usually very entertaining and this was no exception. It was full of bloody goodness with people dying in the most spectacular manner. It was heavily 80′s-centric but that is when you tended to get your most entertainingly gratuitous deaths. I would be curious to see it again in a few years to see what Daryl adds and removes as the panel evolves.

Fan panels are the heart of conventions and Otakon goes to such lengths to create a quality fan experience. This fan produced programing is what sets them apart from the other big conventions around. While there were some questionable scheduling decisions, there was a robust amount of panels to attend all times of the day. A great job was done by all! Thanks everyone for coming out! Please fill out the feedback form from Otakon if you have time.

I think I went to a good selection of fan panels this year. This did not stand out as a the best line-up Otakon has ever had, but I don’t think it was as weak as I heard some people say it was. I had a good time and most of the panels I did not like were mostly a matter of not being what I wanted rather than being flat-out bad panels. Of course I always miss out on panels due to various running around. I am curious if anyone went to any of the following panels: The Weirdest Games You’ve Never Played, Deculture! A Macross Panel, Mythbusters: Anime Edition, Underrated Mecha Anime, Toei Tokusatsu, or the Madoka panels. If you saw those panels, would you kindly leave me a comment on what you thought? I would appreciate it.

TOP SECRET – FOR GIN’S EYES ONLY

Subject: The Progress of the Detective Duo known as the Reverse Thieves in the Aniblog Tourney.

Briefing: It seems that despite the combined efforts of various low-level agents of the Organization, Hisui and Narutaki have progressed to the third round of the Aniblog Tourney. Our attempt to kidnap Kohaku in hopes of using her as leverage to force the Reverse Thieves out of the tournament merely lost us the lives and more importantly the resources of ten skilled agents. The three assassins we sent after Narutaki were equally ineffectual and have aroused his suspicions more than before.

My cover is still intact despite a close call in Berlin. I cannot observe them too closely or I will surely compromise my surveillance. I have filed the following information on their former cases in hopes that there is some clue to their weaknesses within: The Reverse Thieves Dossier for the Aniblog Tournament

Conclusion: I fear that every report puts them one step closer to uncovering the truth. It is my opinion that only you can dispatch these two meddlesome gumshoes. The longer they are in the tournament the greater the chance they will discover our involvement in the proceedings. We cannot assume that no matter how well camouflaged our involvement that detectives of their prowess will not discover something that would be detrimental to our overall goals.

Until your response I will send as many agents as possible to the Aniblog Tourney in order to thwart their efforts.

Here is the link to the voting for Round 3.

~Vermouth

Continuing our whirlwind of guest spots on podcasts we made an appearance on the Animeshon Podcast. We discuss one of the most personal and controversial topics you can talk about in anime (that is not fan-subs): which era of anime is the best. We proposed our known belief in the importance of all eras of animation, each having something amazing to offer and things best forgotten in equal measure. All though we do talk quite a bit, we barely scratch the surface of the questions that were asked of us despite everyone on the podcast making some really insightful points. As always these type of discussions are interesting because everyone seems to have their own take on everything.

Animeshon – S2 Ep8 – Nostalgia

Considering this is a lazy Saturday we assume that a majority of our traffic will be from the Aniblog Tournament with the rest being people looking for pornographic doujinshi and Berserk season 2. If you haven’t heard of the games, it is a little something being put on by Scamp, you can get full details here. It’s a gathering of all kinds of anime blogs, variety abound, and it’s a great way to find something new or different to read. For those kindly souls checking out Reverse Thieves for the first time, we give you this handy guide to this humble detective-themed blog.

• We like a variety of genres, decades, and series from Original Gundam to Aishiteruze Baby and everything in between, sample it in our IN THE YEAR 2000(…through 2009)! post.

• There are some meaty editorial articles like our bit about death in anime, the movement towards realism, and some posts on visual novel logos or more recently a little piece about Shinra in Durarara!!

• This is a tag-team blog, but we do go solo on occasion like Narutaki’s post about screentone use in OEL and Hisui’s thoughts on the popularity of childhood friends and incest in anime.

• We cover cons and special events like Otakon 2009 (be warned of its lengthy nature) and the New York International Children’s Film Festival’s theatrical screening of Summer Wars.

• Fandom experiments like the Otaku Diaries crop up in our pursuits to know our fellow fans better and we enjoy the random cross-blogging project like Secret Santa.

• We recently started a podcast, The Speakeasy, our first episode was about strong female characters.

• You shouldn’t be surprised to know that we like to check out detective related series, we have a listing of detective anime and manga, and a feed dedicated to all our detective related posts.

• If you are curious about anything else we have a meticulous filing cabinet in the sidebar plus archive and index pages for you to peruse.

Other than that we hope everyone involved with the tournament finds some great new blogs to read and maybe a new appreciation for the anime blogging community.

Cast your vote in the polls!

So now we have a few ideas about where we like to take our next project, but we’d love some input. Two big things that jumped out at us were women in fandom and anti-fandom. The women in fandom one seems rather obvious, but when we thought about how few women we really got to survey in our Otaku Diaries (only 11), we felt like there wasn’t enough information about them coming to the surface. Then there is anti-fandom, the act of being devoted to the hardcore hatred of a series. This phenomenon of actively disliking a show and/or its fans has been ever present especially in anime fandom. But if someone else has an even more spectacular idea, we are all ears!

#0091
Anime has been a part of my life for this long; I can’t imagine not being entranced by anime.

Speculating on the future can be very tricky and the more complex the system you are trying to predict the harder it becomes to be accurate as anyone who understands chaos theory and the butterfly effect will attest. But as anime fans we continually try to speculate on the future of our hobby. What shows will come out next season, what trends will become prominent, what fads will fade away, what will get licensed outside of Japan, who will be voice actors on what shows, and a multitude of other topics are constantly a part of otaku conversations. We may be wrong and we may be right in varying amounts but we are always trying to see if we can guess where this crazy train called anime and manga is going.

In an surprising turn of events everyone said they’d more than likely still be watching anime in 10 years.  . . . well, I should hope so! This is the OTAKU Dairies afterall. But beyond the initial response, I found something interesting and possibly (unintentionally) pessimistic. A number of fans responded in the conditional form of  “yes, . . . if there are still good shows.” or something similar to that effect. At first it seems like an obvious response, but at the same time it makes me think “what makes you unsure there will be good shows?” However, it must be said that many more people said plainly “yes,” “absolutely,” and “why wouldn’t I?” And then there were a few in the affirmative but with a theory that they would be a more casual fan in the distant future. So while the short answer was a resounding aye, the things ticking below the surface were still diverse.

#0094
Even if I get married, have kids, move, get a new job, or the such there will always be room in my life for anime.

I suppose that anyone willing to fill out a survey this long is in it to win it. Therefore everyone seeing themselves watching anime in the future should be unsurprising. I see this hesitancy to say anything without caveat being partially to do with the chicken little syndrome that tends to be a part of anime culture. There is always someone going around saying that anime as we know it is dying forever. Compounded with a weak economy and some turmoil in anime production companies in the present, it can be easy to make people wonder in 10 years down the line will they still be making shows that will interest them. F0r most people taking the survey there will always be something from them to watch but I understand where this fear comes from.

#0019
The people who are kids now don’t really seem to be growing up into fans like me over time. They seem to just grow out of it entirely, replaced by new kids just like they were.

#0034
Once the current recession passes and they figure out how to [make] money out of online distribution, I think the industry will stabilize at a level where there’s still plenty of good stuff being produced.

#0080
I think fandom will continue for all of eternity . . . there will always be a new generation to pick [up] where the last one left off. It may be possible that the “older” anime fans will dwindle but there will be people like me to pick up for them.

#0060
The advent of a generation that is internet savvy will only lead to more access to anime with less appreciation for it.

#0045
It will be a little less the “in thing to do” that it seems to be now, and fall back into the hands of the fans who loved and supported it from day one.

Asking what the future of anime fandom is is a very broad question to put to people because it partially depends on where you think anime fandom currently is; whether it is health or not or what that even means; and how you yourself fit into the whole scheme of things. I actually learned a lot from the answers in this section. One sentiment that really got me thinking was this theory that the gap between older fans and newer fans would continue go widen, age-wise. There was a prevalent idea that young fans are coming into anime fandom and then instead of becoming older fans they are becoming non-fans; they stick with it for a while but drop out soon after college. So while I didn’t myself think of this, I really found myself following the logic behind it and was able to apply it to what I’ve seen and experienced.

#0079
As long as acceptable strategies are found for legal distribution for new series shortly after their broadcast in Japan, fandom might contract for some time but never lose its appeal. Maybe.

#0029
. . . then in fifty years our fandom will die of old age like sci-fi fandom is about to do.

#0049
I think there’s going to be a point where things all balance out. The moe fans will have stuff to watch, and the not-moe fans will have plenty to chew on, too.

#0011
Some of the short term fans who liked it because it was trendy are starting to drop off from what I’ve seen, and the popularity is starting to diminish slightly.

#0021
. . . a majority of these young fans will eventually grow to become financially independent and upwardly mobile adults who will have children of their own creating a generation of people that are more receptive to anime and more likely to disseminate anime throughout the culture.

An important question is how long do most people stay in any hobby when push comes to shove.  All hobbies will have fans who come in and leave due to a wide variety of factors. Is the ebb and flow of anime fans any different than fans of stamp collection, basketball, or even American comics? I can’t say what if any the difference is but I would be curious to see the numbers. As long as there is a steady stream of new fans there will always be some people who stick around to mature and expand their tastes. Opinions on the future of anime fandom ranged in optimism. There were predictions of everything from growth to utter collapse. Most of the participants felt that the bubble of anime and manga had burst and that there was still some normalization in the market to take place. Everyone seem to agree that anime adapting to online distribution was the key. How effective that would be and how quickly and effectively it could be profitable was a major point of contention. Most participants agree that the casual viewers would ebb and flow but there would always be a dedicated fans base that always carry the torch.

#0040
If it’s an idiosyncratic ecchi harem show. I’m sure there’s a blueprint somewhere and they’re all using the same one.

So I gotta throw out a question that’s been nagging me, a good portion of anime fans denounce the harem genre. However, harem shows have proven time and again to be good sellers, they spawn tons of merchandise, and they make a ton of these stories! So who exactly is watching them? Are people just secretly doing so? Is there a large silent majority? I always wonder about this! Other than that it comes as no surprise that people are picky and have every right to be. This reared itself in the top 4 as fetish based things: harem, yaoi, moe, lolicon/shotacon. If anything divides people of course it is going to be these. Shonen fighting being high is both surprising and not, perhaps it shows up so high only because it is a very prevalent market. What was interesting to me was while reading through it seemed like for any person who said they watch everything, all the other people on the survey who had preferences made up for it three fold. Again in the genres that people will always give a chance, the numbers overall are lower because I think people don’t have a blind devotion to genres. Unless it is mecha apparently, this sentiment may be coming from the huge decline of mecha series in recent years. But really I see fans are being picky in what they exclude and include.

It seemed like no matter how beloved or hated any genre was there was someone else who had the exact opposite opinion. I have to wonder if the sales for harem and fan-service shows reflect the fact that while hardcore anime fans might by quick to dismiss those genres that casual fans are more willing to embrace them. The sheer number of mecha fans on the list clearly shows that our small sample size can lead to some misleading conclusions. I am certain that a large number of the participants coming from Anime World Order in part had to do with this unusually high mecha support. The high numbers for people always watching action shows and fantasy shows was unsurprising considering the best selling titles in the English speaking world. They seem to be the genres that comes as close to universally beloved as you can get. When people mentioned that they followed certain directors the three names that unsurprisingly came up consistently were Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii. If people followed one company it was almost invariably Studio Shaft. In fact almost no one else was even mentioned which I found most intriguing.

#0085
I’ll always give Gundam a chance, though in practice I come to like very few series. Any Nagai remake gets a chance automatically.

Of course there are no guarantees for anime’s future, but for the most part people believe the medium to be moving forward and still saw themselves as a part of the fandom for it. Whether or not everyone could agree on the future was impossible taking into account personalities and outlooks on the world. There was a little pessimism as I mentioned in an earlier paragraph, but really the fact that most people went out of their way to really deeply contemplate anime’s future position and its fandom says alot about how much they value it. So while few could agree on what genres should be ousted and what types of shows are always worth a look, it does go to show that anime includes something for just about everyone looking at the diverse collection of taste present in just these few fans.

I am always optimistic about the future of anime fandom myself. I know that due to a variety of factors people will drop out of fandom including some of the people who took this survey. Everything changes. Anime from every decade has a distinct look and feel as a whole; anime fans have changed in what they want, watch, and buy; and even how anime is distributed has changed radically over the decades. This will not stop. At the same time individual fans are changing as well. People grow older, their tastes change, the demands of their lifestyle are altered, and their experiences change how they interact with their hobbies as much as an external factors. But anime is vast and a varied enough adaptable beast that some fans will always stick with their love of Japanese cartoons. Individual otaku may come and go but the otaku spirit is here to stay.

Would also love to hear other people’s picks for some of these categories as well! By the way, some of this stuff happens to have come out in years gone by but we first watched/read/whatnot this year so that’s why they’re here, I’ll hear no guff about it! I really enjoy this part of the year, all the posts seem to be more fun and this one is no exception.

Best Anime of 2009 or Show that Infuriates You to No End When Someone on MAL says “If you like this show you will love Dance in the Vampire Bund.”

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
The noitaminA is your go to animation slot when you are looking for something that is simultaneously different, mature, well produced, and smart. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is no exception to this rule. An exceptional look at ordinary people involved in an extraordinary but still extremely feasible situation. It is a superb mixture of intense character study and survival drama. I know some people feel the end is weak but I thought it did well in capping off this  powerful and thought provoking show.

Eden of the East
It is a little bit mystery, a little bit drama, and a little bit suspense wrapped around an intriguing concept. It’s a wonderful series to watch unfold and since Takizawa doesn’t remember what has happened there is a wonderful element of discovery that comes. Takizawa himself is a refreshing and mysterious guy but you always get the feeling, or I did, that he was a good guy even when things looked dubious. Also he loved dogs, can’t be bad. The game was able to engross and impress me from episode one and continued to do so throughout its broadcast.

Anime Man of the Year or You Must be Swift
as a Coursing River

Battler Ushiromiya
Have you ever wished Phoenix Wright could be the star of his own supernatural murder mystery anime? Well if so then someone heard your prayers. In Umineko no Naku Koro ni we have Battler Ushiromiya who is a clear homage to Phoenix Wright with dramatic finger pointing, manly crying, and split between having to do detective work and acting like a lawyer. He may have his flaws but no matter what he keeps marching forward despite numerous set backs and tragedies. Plus he is just plain cool whenever he is on the counterattack. His casual charm and iron clad will set the tone for the anime as much as they do the games it was based on.

Guin
After thinking this over way too much, I finally decided on Guin for a few reasons. First being that after more than 100 books about his quest on the bestseller list, Guin finally got an anime. Adding to that is that Guin may arguably be the most manly character animated in 2009. If you watch just the first episode, this will become obvious. I also read about Guin in novel formthe first time this year myself. And finally, and sadly, Guin’s creator Kaoru Kurimoto passed away in 2009, a woman who was still writing about her most popular creation.

Anime Woman of the Year or I am Woman Hear Me Roar

Canaan
Canaan is a competent kick arse girl with a gun. That is usually all that you need to sell me on a character. The fact that Canaan has her rather slick synesthesia ability which I thought was a very original superpower. She has a stoic and cool feel to her but it she still cares for the people she wishes to protect and gives her all to do so. I also think that her competence on the battlefield but her awkwardness in personal relationships gives her a good mixture of strength and weakness that make her a serious version of Sousuke Sagara. I also think makes her an interesting character to me.

Sawako
Picking a woman of the year became a lot easier the more I watched Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako has a special strength of character that uplifts you, just as she does to the many characters around her. She is humorous and endearing and you never doubt that she will succeed and grow in each new scenario she encounters. Sawako’s positive attitude, even after endearing so much isolation is a true testament to the human spirit and the ability to change.

Favorite Classic Manga Release or Get Off My Lawn and
Read This Manga Instead You Whippersnappers

Astroboy
I bring up Astroboy for several reasons. The first is the releaseof the critically acclaimed manga Pluto in the U.S. which is based on one of the most famous Astroboy stories. While Naoki Urasawa makes the story his own, there is much to be gained from reading the original story. The second is the release of the Astoboy CG movie. It might be weak but it shows the lasting legacy of the Mighty Atom. The third is the fact that premier Tezuka scholar and Astroboy fan Frederik L. Schodt was an excellent guest at Otakon 2009. If any of these things interest you I suggest you pick up Astroboy and see where it all began.

Swan
Okay, so this didn’t just start in 2009 but the fact that it is still being released is something to celebrate. Swan continually wows me with its style, layout, and melodramatic storytelling exemplary of 70′s shojo.

Worst Thing I Watched or My Eyes! The Goggles Do Nothing!

Queen’s Blade
Oh Queen’s Blade you are so bad that you are not even good at accomplishing the simple goal you set out to do. You want to be a dumb little fantasy adventure series with enough titillation to captivate an audience. You go far enough to be grossly excessive in your fan-service but pull back from being porn almost in a chicken sort of way. Also all the humor is rather misogynistic or bizarre. In fact much of the series is just utterly misogynistic. They decided to try to turn everything up to 11 including the breast size but they forgot not to turn the knob for bad up to 11 as well.

Akikan!
Akikan! has a lot more wrong with it than its stupid premise of soda drinks transforming into girls. All the characters are either annoying, creepy, losers, or all of these things in combination. The character designs are awful and the animation quality is way below sub-par. Akikan! is the type of show that makes you say “I didn’t know they made anime this bad anymore!”

Best Convention Guest or I Need to Get an Autograph
with a Haro On It.

The Tomino
As anyone who has read the blog for any amount of time has seen Narutaki and I have very similar tastes. But when it comes to what we are the most passionate about we tend to be very different. But there is one place where both of our passions are about equal and that is for mecha. And one of our favorite mecha directors is Yoshiyuki Tomino. It was amazing to be able to meet the man behind the real robot genre. He was as blunt and cranky as you expected him to be but he seemed to be genuinely appreciative of his fans which was nice to see. Seeing him was the highlight of the year.

Tomino
Tomino Con 2009 was the highlight of many a fan’s year! Obviously we are no exception. What more is there to say other than there is a reason we both put him!

Thing I Wish People Would Stop Talking About
or SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Kyoto Animation
I wish people would stop talking about Kyoto Animation fro two reasons. The first is the second season of Haruhi. Yes Endless Eight was a very silly idea that might have been one of the biggest missteps with an anime franchise we will ever see. If they stopped watching Kyoto Animation might have learned some sort of lesson. But it seemed like after a point people just started watching episodes just so they complain about it the day after. The second is K-On!. I wish people would just stop talking about K-On! because I did not think it was that good. Also because if I bring up K-On! we won’t hear Narutaki’s thoughts on K-On! and that would be less than pleasant believe me.

Studio Shaft
I am just tired of hearing the constant internet love letter to Studio Shaft. What little interest I had in them thanks to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei has promptly been washed away by masses of people decreeing they can do no wrong. The fact that Dance of the Vampire Bund is coming out next month just compounds my disinterest.

Series I Unexpectedly Liked or Chili and Chocolate

Mirai Nikki
Mirai Nikki is a much smarter and more entertaining manga than I first thought it would be. Mirai Nikki turns out to be the smart little thriller with a good mixture of action and psychological horror. The different diaries each had interesting powers and seeing how Yukiteru has to overcome them is fun an interesting because he has to out think his opponents and find the weakness in their diaries. Plus when the manga needs to turn the creepy factor on it does it quite well. It is a fast moving series I am am pretty sure the end is coming soon. I hope it ends as well as it has started and I look forward to Sakae Esuno’s next work. I will say that I am still a little scared by the huge Yuno Gasai fan-base who sort of scare me.

Taisho Baseball Girls
While I was saddened there were no more musical numbers after episode one, it was a wonderful little story of baseball and friendship with just a touch of romance in the mix. Koume is a great lead who is a warm girl on the edge of a modern age. And while Baseball Girls does explore some feminist themes, it does so with the right amount of force for these characters. This is a show I was happy to say was one of the best of 2009.

Favorite Opening or Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – Katayoku no Tori
The opening to Umineko no Naku Koro ni is just as epic as the opening to the game and that is no small feat. It has some great vocals with a mixture of Italian and Japanese by Akiko Shikata. The lyrics are a delightful insight into the story if you are paying attention. Also I love that after every arc you will notice that they have added something new to the opening. It keeps the introductions interesting without raising the budget significantly. I can’t wait to see the opening for whenever they make a Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru anime.

Eden of the East - Falling Down
Best opening has to go to Eden of the East for me because of its great combination of design and sound. What I loved most was the use of graphics more than animated sequences. And Oasis just rocks.

Best License Announcement or Time to Sell Some Blood

Fist of the North Star
It has been the common sentiment that Fist of the North Star is just one of those titles that would never sell in the U.S. after its previous failure and therefore would never be completed. Then it started streaming online which was mind blowing. Then Discotek Media picked it the DVD rights. For the longest time Fist of the North Star has been one of those series that is popular elsewhere in the world but not in the U.S. Now hopefully the small but dedicated fanbase will get what they have always hoped for.

Sengoku Basara
Not only was I personally super excited that this series got licensed, but it is also a smart choice by Funimation. Crazy fighters and over-the-top characters in an insane interpretation of feudal Japan animated by Production I.G. That is basically a winning combination for me right there. Did I mentioned choreographed dancing samurai in the opening? Fun times all around!

Best Short Manga or Sometimes I Would Like to Read a Manga Series Under 30 Books Long

Tanpenshu
Tanpenshu is a short story collection in two books by Hiroki Endo the author of Eden: It’s an Endless World! The stories are often self-indulgent as Subatomic Brainfreeze said when he commented on the blog but I feel if you are going to be self-indulgent do it in short story form. It is a great collection that shows Endo’s range as an artist and storyteller. It is a good mixture of funny stories with dark stories but all of them are mature tales. It is a great read if you are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary.

Palette of 12 Secret Colors
I have basically spent all year praising Nari Kusakawa up and down to anyone who would listen, this I will continue now. Palette of 12 Secret Colors features an exotic island where the birds and their “palette’s” (human partners) provide the colors of the world. Cello is training to be just that but with only middling success and a string of clumsy color accidents under her belt. As such see often talks with Dr. Guell and things go forward from there. These two have such a hilarious chemistry that it is infectious. It is lovely the way that romance and choosing a future are combined here with an emphasis on what loving someone means. With all of Nari Kurakawa’s series there are elements of magic combined with romance and humor topped with heaps of charm.

Most Horrible Piece of Merchandise or Things Too Tacky to Place Next to Your Big Mouth Billy Bass

1/8 Sheryl Nome NA Ver PVC Figure
I realize that one of Sheryl’s biggest appeals is that she has a smoking hot body. I don’t think anyone is going to disagree with that. So as expected you are going to get some rather risque figures of her. But this figure crosses the line from sexy to downright vulgar. Her outfit is a bit gratuitous but it’s nothing that is inappropriate for a sexy figure. The thing that makes this figure utterly reprehensible is Sheryl’s pose above that huge shell with the phrase Rise Up !! on the base of the figure. It is about as unsubtle as you can get. It just makes the figure so crass that I can’t see anyone but people who buy the figures with the clothing you can take off or the figures with the “real” breasts to buy one.

Char figures that you can put your own face on
I wish I was making this up. To be blunt, no one should want to see their own face in place of Char’s. NO ONE.

Funniest Series or The Best Medicine

Hyakko
I said it once and I will say it again. I really feel that Hyakko is an unappreciated series. It is an excellent school based comedy with wonderful characters, good comedic timing, and a lively sense of energy that can be all too lacking in slice of life series. Torako is a great energetic and spunky girl to interacts off the rest of the class quite well. These is also a good amount of male characters who get face time which are easily forgotten in certain shonen school comedies. Although the manga has not been licensed the anime is streaming for free.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
Yes, it is unintentionally funny but funny nonetheless. They have card duels (which is pretty funny itself) on motorcycles! Everyone in prison (there is a prison arc) has decks of cards which are used to decide who is boss! I am ready to marathon this show!

Favorite Mecha Anime or The Char Aznable Award for Excellence

Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z-Hen
As Narutaki joked if we did not include this series in the list several people we know would probably jump us and then force us to edit this list so it was included. Possibly multiple times and even in categories where it did not belong. But this is for a very good reason. This is Yasuhiro Imagawa firing on all cylinders. It is not just an excellent giant robot show it is an excellent show all together. It has great characters, a full structured plot that was mostly written out from the start with amazing twists and turns, more Go Nagai references than you can shake a stick at, and of course blood pumping robot fights. If you watch one hardcore mecha series this year it should be this one. I mean it has Rocket Punch! 100 Rapid Shots! and what more could you ask for?

Eureka Seven
Okay, yeah I am way behind on the Eureka Seven fan train, okay? I just watched it this year and it makes me wish I had done so much sooner! It was a wonderful combination of characters and their growing, changing relationships. Both the looks at love seen through Eureka and Renton plus Holland and Talho captured me almost instantly. And equally thrilling is the shows combination of mecha and surf culture, very fun and unique. To round it all out is a world of mysteries that are slowly, but surely, revealed. Eureka Seven had everything I wanted in spades.

If I Never See This Type of Character Again or Characters Who Will Be the First Against the Wall
When the Revolution Comes

Fake strong female characters
I am just sick in tired of female characters that are supposed to be strong but are anything but. I don’t need every female character to be strong but don’t sell me a false bill of goods. Don’t give me the strong swordsman who is just a princess waiting to be kidnapped with and armor and a sword instead of a dress. Also don’t give me weak women who pretend to be strong by being total monsters and they try to sell me on the being fine either. Made real strong female charaters or don’t make them all.

Teenage girl who has the brain capacity of an 6-year-old
I think that pretty much sums it up, but if I have to elaborate I will. I’m not saying every girl needs to be genius level intelligence or anything, but really could they atleast go an entire episode without falling down for no reason or perhaps talk at a level someone their age should? I see this more than should happen and really it leaves the worst taste in my mouth.

#0096
You cannot set foot in a convention without being ashamed of fandom.

This is sort of a follow up post to the Otaku! Threat or Menace? article. However, this time around we delve a little deeper into those little pieces of fandom make you just that much more otaku. And still another post will follow this one soon about that question of just what do otaku think of fandom past and present and where is it all headed. But here you will see that anime is this creature that affects people in different ways and has a draw for people that runs both shallow and deep. And amidst all that is the wonder how the community gets along at all!

I see more and more a very disturbing attitude among anime and manga fans. This idea that they are “too good to be anime and manga fans.” The idea that them and maybe a few other people are above the hoi polloi with their horrible taste, bad manners, and overall immaturity that makes people have a bad impression of the fandom. The problem is that so many fans now a days have this feeling it means at least some of them are wrong. Either the majority of anime fans are not as bad as they think or some of the people are that part of the problem see themselves above. We are going to try to see how prevalent and pervasive this feeling is in our participants.

#0039
I don’t really feel disgust towards fellow fans because I did the same things they’re doing. I can just hope that they try to turn themselves around as I’m slowly doing.

#0016
It generally goes along with adding ‘-chan’ to everyone’s name and asking boys to kiss each other.

#0094
Sports fans can be just as sad as anime fans. I just happen to be an anime fan so shitty anime fans piss me off more. I mean there are a laundry list of reasons to be proud of anime fandom and to be ashamed.

So, the sexy statistics. You might assume that anime fandom is made up of horrible people with sickly fetishes seeing how some people talk on the Internet. But overall most people had rather mundane tastes. Guys were unsurprisingly into large breasts and oral sex. In fact that was so mundane and ubiquitous we did not bother tracking it. The most common fetishes were uniforms and glasses which were popular with both sexes. We did have 4 self confessed lolicons, 2 people into futanari, and 2 people who said they preferred 2-D girls to real ones. But they were mostly the same people. So while there were people that get much negative attention they were in the minority. I was surprised that women went into very little detail about their fetishes in anime. Also there were only 2 women who said that she was into yaoi in the fetishes question despite the fact that several women said they were fujoshi. I had always assumed that we reached the point were women were just as comfortable talking about what turns them on as much as men but that might not be as true as I thought.

Okay, can I just say that large chests and oral sex are not fetishes. They mean you are a dude. It would be a fetish if you DIDN’T like those things, thus why we listed flat chests. The only real knowledge gained from this question was that most people are still run of the mill when it comes to their fetishes. Anime otaku aren’t just made up of a bunch of sexual deviants. But just the same with only a sampling for 40 people, prominent tastes like lolicon stand out with about a 10% cut. I, too, was blown away by the lack of yaoi mentions. I am not even sure why it happened because plenty of people mentioned yuri, so it’s not as if people just overlooked these things. However, with our sample of females being very low (only 11 participants) perhaps it just wasn’t large enough to show a more open manner with regards to sexual proclivities.

#0015
. . . being a yaoi fan I often feel quite ashamed of my fandom. I know that yaoi isn’t exactly high art, it’s a pandering genre meant to be instantly gratifying, and so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t attract the most intelligent people. Still, I wish that most young yaoi fans weren’t quite so loud and obnoxious, it really makes the rest of us look bad.

#0079
If I’m ashamed of any sort of fan, it’s the fans who hate what they don’t like with a passion equal to how they like what they like.

#0019
The behavior of other fans tends to irritate me . . . and it’s only recently that I realized that the “at least I’m not a fucking loser like THOSE PEOPLE!” defense is just a defense mechanism that redraws the line a lot. I’m so far over the line of normalcy without ever having crossed the line and become “one of those people” that the line I drew may as well have been meaningless.

Almost everyone who took the survey felt that other people in fandom disgusted them at some point but only a third of the people surveyed ever felt any disgust with themselves. These results can be used to paint two different pictures. The first is there is this small group of anime fandom that gives everyone else a bad name. The second is that there is circular finger pointing at everyone else who they think is the problem. The fact of the matter is both are true. There are people who are just outright embarrassing fans. Only the most lenient in the survey did not bring up people behaving badly at cons. The other problem is best summed up with “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” There are lots of fans who are overall good fans but have distinctly nasty habits. They see the bad habits of their peers but gloss over or ignore their own faults.

#0040
I’m a crusader against 4-chan culture. It’s disgustingly base and I’m a slave to the good and beautiful.

Most telling is that almost all fans were ashamed of other fans, but most not of themselves. So either most participants were upholding their high ideals of fandom or people don’t always see themselves as they actually are. The “it’s not me, it’s them” defense is what us and most other people probably think off the bat. However, that idea contrasts with much of the other answers we’ve gotten for other questions in the survey. People have been rather open about a myriad of personal things. Is it possible there is a disconnect when it comes to their fandom? Are people so caught up in it (otaku afterall) that they can’t really take a step back to evaluate that part of their lives? Or is it that other common happening of a few ruining this for the many?

#0014
Helped me be a better person? Find solace in a shared experience? Provided a comforting, reassuring presence when all around is chaos? . . . Been an inspiration helping me to discover new ways of seeing and thinking? Absolutely.

#0060
I don’t think there are too many good life lessons in anime. Sure, shooting a woman after sleeping with her may work for Golgo 13 but I’m thinking I just can’t pull it off in quite the same way.

Both the internet and cons have similar situations that become out of hand and can cast a shadow on anime fandom as a whole, and have cast a shadow as the opinions here express, which has many people fed-up. Biggest problem, as I see it, it too much information syndrome. And screaming it at the top of your lungs to anyone and everyone who is even remotely involved in your hobby. In a day and age where everyone is comfortable talking about anything, people just wish you wouldn’t. This coupled with, how many participants put it, the younger fans running wild in any anime meet up setting is making fellow fans cringe. But at the very same time, the internet and conventions is what has brought so many fans together. It even made doing this survey possible and as many people mentioned it allowed them to finally connect with others. More than a few people met friends and significant others through this very hobby. And as much as everyone complained about the anime community, almost everyone on the survey wants to continue to be apart of it. Just look at how many fans go one step further and create fan works or write about anime.

Overall I think this trend of anime and manga fans who hate anime and manga partially comes from this idea that people are surrounded by nothing but vile idiots. They enjoy anime and manga but see it as a fandom filled with people everyone should avoid. They get this attitude that they are above such things so they are thereby separated from what they dislike in fandom. But the answer is not to separate yourself from the community. It is to see the value it what makes anime and manga fandom great and and trying to encourage what is wonderful and productive anime being an otaku.

#0029
. . . it has provided a way for people in high school to stereotype me, which makes it hard for me to break through barriers and befriend new people. Pretty much I am know as the “anime kid,” so it takes some effort to convince other kids that I’m a normal, rather friendly person, and not some sort of bumbling social reject.

#0030
I wouldn’t be friends with nearly as many people and it kind of gives me a sense of belonging.

Despite what people said about hating their fellow fans I think the evidence points to people not being a hostile as they might let on at times. 80% of the participants had tried to learn Japanese at some point. There seemed to be a genuine interest in learning about Japanese culture and the Japanese language. A good deal of the people had contributed to some sort of activity for the anime community to enjoy be it a blog, podcast, fanzine, AMV, fan fiction, or fan art. And most everyone else who did not do one of those at least partook in the efforts of someone else who did.

What I really took away from this part of the survey is a desire that everyone wants to be a better fan. Everyone recognizes bad behavior so it is only another step to seeing it, and correcting it, within ourselves. And more positively is that people want to be apart of their hobby, anime fans maybe more than others. With few means to actually communicate with or becoming involves in the creative process of anime, fans are looking to connect themselves in different ways, some fun and some thoughtful (some a little of both). Anime fandom has a huge, and vocal, community and people want to be apart of it even if there are deterrents to it.

As much as they complained about hating other fans they usually had kind words about the people they had connected to. Anime fans want to make connections to their fellow fans and often do. There was rumbling of displeasure with their fellows in most peoples surveys but they were also able to talk about what they liked and who they felt exemplify what had drawn them and kept them in the fandom. The people who took the time to fill out this massive survey obviously cared enough about anime fandom to make their voices heard and that if nothing else is a good sign of people who still care.

If there is one thing the internet has enough of, it is hate. Hate for shows, hate for people, and plenty of hate for characters. Unfortunately, we will be spreading such ire today. What would our former post be without its companion piece? However, I would like to point out this post isn’t about bad characters or poorly written development, it is about characters we dislike for inherent flaws in their personalities. I would even argue, if I can passionately oppose a character that means they are actually written rather fully. Once again we are trying to explore what, if anything, it means to dislike a character with such fervor. This, much differently from the previous post, can get a bit hairy and quite intense at times. But we will do our best to be respectful. Maybe.

I really hate fake strong female characters. They are female characters that the writers try to pass off as strong but are really just weak. Cecily Cambell from The Sacred Blacksmith is a prime example. We are supposed to believe that she is a strong swordswoman that can defend her self. But she mostly goes around being useless. This annoys me more that the standard token chick because at least you don’t have high expectations out of them. Another great example is Clarice from Claymore. Also belligerent women than are actually weak but the writers mistake being confrontational with strong. The fact that they kept portraying Sheryl Nome as a strong woman when she is clearly just fronting to hide her deep insecurities. The fact that people rally behind her as some sort of symbol of feminine strength really ticks me off. Also the fact that show never acknowledges any of Sheryl’s behaviors as anything but a virtue. This is in contrast to Ami Kawashima from Toradora whose same actions are seen as the weakness and defense mechanisms that they are. The other character that stood out to me as being horrible was Takumi Nishijo from Chaos;Head. He had to be one of the most unlikable protagonists I have ever seen. People usually complain about harem leads being generic and unsympathetic. Takumi has all the traits that make harem leads so hated and then either exaggerates those traits or has even worse traits on top of that. He is selfish, petty, lecherous, misanthropic, and just a disgusting human being. At least I felt some amount of sympathy for Tatsuhiro Sato from Welcome to the NHK. I have not one iota of good will towards Takumi and could not drag myself through a show with him as the lead.

I can be a harsh critic when it comes to character flaws, so where to draw the line was a little more difficult because once again this isn’t just about annoying characters, it is about characters that sort of epitomize traits that I dislike above all else. First up is a woman whose death I called for as each episode she further gathered my dislike, oh Flay Allster (from Gundam SEED), how I will always recall your attempts (and successes) at being a racist solipsist who uses her femininity in the worst ways with hatred. One must draw the line at trying to get nice guys killed. Squarely in the middle is Sakujun (from The Story of Saiunkoku) who has something not quite right about him from the moment you lay eyes on him. Sakujun acts in such a roundabout way that he takes advantage of good people so much so he borders, no, he is mentally abusive. He portrays the ultimate ends of using guilt and obligation to get what you want. And to round things out is Misa (from Death Note) whose ridiculous obsession with Kira makes her a gothic doormat. Her inability to see the things right in front of her is phenomenal and intensely frustrating as is her attempt to see anything Light does as love.

The oddity for me is Hinagiku Katsura from Hayate the Combat Butler. I normally adore characters like her. She has pink hair, she uses a sword, she is proud and confidante but kind and supportive and she loves someone from afar. But for some reason I really don’t like her as much as the rest of the cast. Unlike say Narutaki who actively hates Sanji I just don’t really like Hinagiku. I can’t put my finger on what exactly I dislike about her that stops me from liking her the way everyone else worships her. I do on the other hand get all worked up about her fandom that insists that the manga should be about her and that she is the best character ever. It is like everyone would rather be reading Hinagiku the Combat Student Council President. I myself like the lead characters as they are.

A character I have trouble understanding my dislike (this may be too tame of a word) for is Sanji (from One Piece). By all normal circumstances, he should rank rather high for me but it never happened. Sanji’s got a laid back style, he cooks, and he is a good fighter but something about his love sickness really doesn’t jive with me. And I also think this particular case has also boggled the minds of many of my close friends.

The challenge is the same as before. Take what we have given you and try and make an analysis of our character from the characters we hate. Also feel free to write in the characters you hate and what you think it means about you. I did find it a little harder to choose characters I hated than Narutaki. I think we both have affection for charters as deep as the other one. I think we also both like a wide variety of characters. The biggest challenge was for use to narrow out lists down to 3 characters. But for some reason I have a harder time hating characters.

I feel like just writing this helped me learn a bit about myself!

A good deal of us put a lot of love into the characters that we like and there is no denying that sometimes it can go over the top. But that is neither here nor there in this case. There are grand ideas abound! Specifically, I am constantly wondering just how much the characters people like actually say about them. And I move in wide circles from thinking it is the window to someone’s soul to convincing myself it means absolutely nothing, and then back again. It would be egregious not to mention that I am thinking about the personalities of characters rather than looks. Frankly, looks tell me nothing about anyone, sure I may be able to pick out another character they enjoy on the surface but it doesn’t delve very deep.  Now who a character is, there there might just be something to be learned about someone. To further matters along in a fun way, we will be giving you a glimpse at some of the characters that are near and dear to us. Happy analyzing!

The first character type I tend to like is the strong but kind women like Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku. I like female characters that don’t take gruff are supportive at the same time. They may practice tough love at times but they are always looking out for the people they care for. They also tend to be a bit devious when needed but not maliciously so. Other examples would include Maria from Hayate the Combat Butler and Forte from Galaxy Angel. The second type of character I tend to like is spunky tomboys like Allenby from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Fiery go getters that are as good as the guys if not better. They are not just boys in girl suits however. They should have a strong feminine aspect to them but they are just not fragile flowers that need to be protected. Paula Cis is another great example from After War Gundam X, as is Mion from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and certain green-eyed monsters also fall into this category as well. Girls who use swords or guns are super extra bonus points. I also tend to like goofy and relaxed male characters that will fight for those they care about like Hayate from Hayate the Combat Butler. They are characters that are laid back and gentle but can be fierce when needed to be. They also tend to be the types that never give up on their dreams no matter what happens. Justy Ueki Tylor from The Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Loran from Turn A Gundam are other great examples.

Where to begin (and who to pick) was a little more of challenge in some cases because this isn’t just about my favorite characters, it is about characters that sort of epitomize traits that draw me in. Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Hey, now wait a minute, I see a tall, blond first thing.” However, while you are right that Tamaki (from Ouran High School Host Club) does indeed fall into a looks category that I hold in high regard, it is everything else about him that puts him on this list. I have waxed poetic about Tamaki before so I will try to keep it focused here. Above all else Tamaki is a positive and optimistic spirit who the more you learn about the more you realize has an attitude not born by having an easy life but rather from a conscious decision to not let circumstances define him. He is not embittered by life, he wants life to be lively and fun and he makes it so, he wants people to be happy and so helps them be just that. Shining darkly in the middle is Arashi (from X/1999) who has remained a fixture in my fandom for many, many years. Since everything about her is wonderful, it is hard to pinpoint the best piece. But I suppose I would say she is committed to her duty and fiercely powerful but she has a woman’s heart. It’s very beautiful the way love sort of worms its way into her heart and changes her. If you know anything about X, then you know it is full to the brim with cruel fate and Arashi’s (though still in limbo in the manga) is no exception but she faces it with wisdom beyond her years. And sitting gruffly on the end is Manji (from Blade of the Immortal). What is most powerful about his character is the things he has done are not honorable but he did them because he thought he should. He is a man who knows regret but he doesn’t apologize. Manji is a killer and he makes no bones about, nor does he ever pretend he is a good guy, but even so he is seeking a bit of redemption without really expecting to get it. There are certainly other types of characters I like, but not necessarily with as much depth.

An atypical character that I like is Mihoshi Kuramitsu from Tenchi Muyo!. She tends to be way more ditzy and fragile then I like my women. She is sort of the stereotypical dumb blonde. She is hardly take charge or any sort of powerhouse except for being extremely lucky. But for some reason I really think she is a fun character. I feel like I have to like her for some reason deeper than her character design. Am I just shallow but refuse to admit it or is there some deeper significance to why I like her? I personally think she goes against my standard character preferences but maybe I am just missing something.

A character I have trouble understanding my affection for is Allelujah (from Gundam 00). He is shy, reserved, and soft-spoken but he is also technically psychotic. He has a traumatic past and really has rollercoaster ride of hashing it out. And still none of these traits really seem to scream, “this is Narutaki’s type of character!” As with Hisui, I feel like there is some reason beyond the shallow that I like him, but I just can’t pinpoint it.

Normally on Reverse Thieves we tend to talk among ourselves and then share with you our conclusion. This time we are going to let the readers do the talking. What do you think the characters we like say about Narutaki and I? Do you think that our character choices say anything at all about us? We would love to see what you think. Also feel free to write what types of characters you like and get us and your fellow readers to try out some pop psychology. Also we will try this again next week with the flip side: What do characters we hate say about us?

I feel like just writing this helped me learn a bit about myself!

Everyone’s question was would NYAF live up to, exceed, or fail compared to the two previous conventions? There was quite a bit of talking with the announcement that NYAF would join with NYCC for 2010 so there was also the question of what would NYAF do as its last year as an independent convention? Although those are all pressing questions my main question was if I was going to have fun? Was I going to be able to do as much as I wanted to? We were also running two panels one of which had a lot of people looking forward to it. The Bloggers Roundtable had some big names on the marquee but it was a the first time we ever ran the panel. I had the most expectations for the panel because I felt it could succeed or fail so much more than any of our previous panels. On top of all that I had two guests staying at my humble abode during the convention so I had to play host as well as press.

It was no secret that we were looking forward to New York Anime Festival, probably more than any other con previously thanks to a killer guest, director Yoshiyuki Tomino. This sent NYAF which I always enjoy but never as much as say Otakon right to the front of the line this year. That being said, the rest of the con experience remained the same though I was happy to see quite a few license announcements this year. Since NYAF’s space has basically stayed the same from its first year, there weren’t too many surprises but that also means it still has some of the same problems. Javits, is Javits, its a bit of a walk from the train, the hotels, and most food. Though it also means that for the most part events went off without a hitch and things seemed to be well in hand with the staff.

The convention for me started on Thursday night since most of my main convention group went to see the Eureka Seven movie. Although not officially a part of the convention experience it felt like a great way to spend an evening before the big show. The movie itself was bizarre. I will never forget the line, “I am an enemy alien spy robot” as long as I live. It was a visually appealing movie but otherwise a utter train wreck. I appreciated their attempt to do something new with the original story but their execution left something to be desired. Though I was happy to watch a film with my friends and be able to talk about it afterward because I often feel like I hardly watch any anime at anime conventions. On Friday morning my two guests the spectacular OGT, the amazing PatzPrime, plus the remarkable SDShamshel all met up and went to the Javits center early to get Tomino autograph tickets. We were all a little worried when we heard that people were already starting to line up at 7am. We finally arrived at 10 and got progressively worried when we saw how the VIP line was growing but we were able to get our autograph tickets. Since we got there before the con officially started getting our press badges was a snap. We all went for some delicious Go Go Curry before starting the convention. Starting the con with curry is a tradition I could get behind.

Once again, the staff of NYAF as far as tickets goes were on top of it. Not a moment more than one was I in line for my press badge, which incidentally looks very different this year. This goes for the weekend con badges and VIP ones as well and only half for individual day passes. I’m not sure what to make of them, on the one hand I really like the hard plastic but on the other hand the badges aren’t very fun. Maybe that sounds like a stupid complaint, but too bad, many of us have a grand time trying to guess what show or characters will appear on the badges before going to a con. The speculations can even spawn forum threads, so it has become a popular and expected part of anime conventions. And I was surprised to not at the very least see the badges sporting the logo from this year’s contest winner. Since I never made it to the convention center before opening time, I have no idea what the lines looked like but from the massive crowds on Saturday I can imagine there was a pretty good wait in the morning. However, panels seemed to be well organized in this regard though having a press badge prevented any problems for me. The Javits space allotted for NYAF was insufficient for Saturday but was tolerable on Friday and Sunday. Happily this mean the Tomino panel was rightfully full.

I had heard so many stories about Yoshiyuki Tomino but it is still hard to say what I was expecting. To be very brief, Tomino was quite chill from the moment he cut the Opening Ceremonies ribbon to the insistence that he finish answering all the fans who lined up to ask him a question at his Saturday panel. To expand more thoughtfully, Tomino in the past has made some pretty harsh remarks about all his works and most notably about Gundam but at this convention (and quite possibly because this year also marks the 30th anniversary) he seems to have accepted its value, its popularity, and become more content because of it. During his keynote, he remarked that he wanted Gundam to be remembered even more fondly than Star Wars. Tomino also gave the impression of being proud that he created something that is still watchable and relevant thirty years later then going on to discuss his use and philosophy of cinema which made Gundam the show it was. Though the audience may have been missing out on more wisdom from Tomino due to a poor translation at the Keynote, but thankfully at his Q&A this was corrected. The Q&A started off very lively as they showed a reel of Tomino’s work, many members of the audience sang along to the theme songs and of course there was mass cheering for many pieces on the screen (surprisingly Gundam ZZ had a rousing reception). Tomino then finally took center stage and got down to the nitty gritty of tackling fan questions. It was pleasing to see, after a couple of questions submitted online were answered, Tomino signaled that he would much prefer to answer those standing before him. He clearly understands how many people came from varying distances just to see him in the flesh, and frankly they should get the priority. The people helping to the run the Q&A went down the line hearing everyone’s question first, and making sure it was actually Tomino related. One could have probably heard the collected booing a mile away from the Keynote when a con-goer stood up and began to ask a question about Gundam 00. Tomino’s visit ended (not counting a final autograph session) with a showing of Ring of Gundam, his short 30th anniversary film. Tomino left the room with a standing ovation and there was little doubt that he made many a fan happy this past weekend.

I was expecting Tomino to be a man of very little words but for those few words to be extremely cranky and point blank. However, he  seemed genuinely happy and upbeat at the convention but you could tell that the cranky old man Tomino we all knew and loved was there. While his answers were always pleasant, he never seemed to be holding back. As expected there were a few lame question, a few rephrased and then repeated questions, and a few super egotistical questions from the attendees but overall selection was very good. Tomino mentioned that he always had regrets on all his series because he always felt they could be majorly improved in retrospect. But he also felt that feeling makes him always strive to do better in every project he works on. He said that one of the major themes of Gundam was that adults who were rigid in their mindsets were the enemy so therefore since he was super old that made him the super enemy now which got a good laugh out of the audience. Tomino seemed to have a fuzzy memory on any sort of details of the projects he had worked on. He thankfully remembered a little something about Sayla so I did get a partial answer to my question about what her role would be if she was in Zeta Gundam, he seemed to think he would have left things as is. I was also thrilled we got a good answer to the one Turn A Gundam question about why no newtypes appeared in the series. Tomino clarified the confusion by saying the people in Turn A would later become newtypes but the story couldn’t have been told as it was had they already evolved so. The way he dodged questions about Gunpla and his time at Mushi Productions told volumes but his actual feelings. When someone asked him about the possibility of Double Zeta Gundam compilation movies he stated that he was ignoring the fact that he was asked that question. Thankfully no one brought up Victory Gundam or Brain Powered. On a side note, during a reel of Tomino’s work they played almost every one except for Garzey’s Wing. I wonder if that was an accidental or deliberate oversight. Everyone who went to the Tomino panels and autographs sessions got a unforgettable experience out of it. Just look at that man’s face on the picture above. He seems down right giddy and it’s not just because he is holding a book with a page turned to Sochie although that is a good reason to be giddy.

So NYAF marked the first Bloggers Roundtable, it was an interesting experience, a learning experience if you will. You always have to have the first of these things and often times it has many flaws. Biggest being, there were just too many people but it’s such a difficulty because you want to get as many great people as you can! Also this panel was our first technical difficult in a while, and it was never actually corrected. We just did the best we could, and since the panel mainly involved talking it wasn’t a major issue. It started to get more lively as the panel continued, people got comfortable, and the discussions became more interactive. When first deciding what this panel was about, we thought asking only blogging questions might seem too blah (perhaps people wanted to know these bloggers on a more personal level), but they really engaged the audience so that would be the majority another time around I would think. In any case, it was fun and we did end up with plenty to talk about (even spilling over a bit since we were the last panel of the night).

Overall I think the Bloggers Roundtable went well despite the fact that it had major flaws. Several things will have to be changed if we ever run the panel again such as a maximum of five participants. I was a little worried that people would not have enough to say on certain questions but everyone had a good deal to share. In fact they often held back because of the size of the panel. We should also try to go to audience questions quicker, I was impressed by the number and quality of the questions from them. After this first round, we got a better understanding of what questions worked and what questions fell flat. Despite all the flaws I know I personally had a good time on the panel. I had fun hearing everyone’s answers and the playful banter of the panelists when things got rolling. I hope the audience had a good time, too. We even got a question from Zac “Answerman” Bertschy over the internet. I would definitely run this panel again if I could get people to do it. We will take what we learned from this attempt and make the panel even better.

We once again presented our Anime Recruitment panel with a good 30 or so people in the audience. This was a pleasant surprise considering the time slot of 4PM on Sunday, essentially the last panel slot for the convention, but hey someone has to go last. As always the Q&A portion where we answer any and all recommendation questions to the best of our abilities is the most fun and interesting part of the panel. This time around we were hit with some difficult requests like something gothic in style but with robots or a gore comedy. We were also called experts which was a little unnerving but kind of cool at the same time. Each time we do this panel we hone it just a little better and our ability to come up with a show for anyone increases. This is a panel that will be around for a long time with us because it goes over well and it is a lot of fun!

It is always fun to see a premiere at a convention. The ability to go a screening of something you will before everyone else is exciting. Much like Voices of a Distant Star it turns out that Cencoroll is the almost entirely a one man project done by Atsuya Uki. Cencoroll is the story on a bored teenager named Tetsu who has a shape shifting monster that is forced to do battle with another boy with a similar creature. Tetsu’s female classmate Yuki gets drawn into this conflict  when she discovers Tetsu’s secret. It was an amazing little piece especially since it was done by one person and used no CG. I had a very good look and feel. I am curious to see more work like Atsuya Uki. I would like to see him as the next Makoto Shinkai.

I didn’t really know much about Cencoroll till it was announced as a premiere title for NYAF. Then I began to hear things about it, most prominently that it was another one man show and put together without the use of CG. A fascinating part of this short was the discussion of what is acceptable in a short film verses a series. Cencoroll tells you virtually nothing about the why of its world or its premise but that was fine for a half hour jaunt. Beyond that, the relationship between boy, girl, and Cenco was well formed with some humor and moments of surprise. This 30-minute short ended up being a highlight of the convention.

There was a good amount of manga news and manga licenses at NYAF. While the manga market might not being growing anywhere as quickly as it used to it is not sickly from what I can see. I missed out on the Vertical panel because it was against Tomino but they announced four new manga titles, including Chi’s Sweet Home. More obscure titles were Peepo Choo from Felipe Smith that did the comic MBQ for Tokyopop before he started doing manga from Morning 2 in Japan; and Twin Spica and Needle which are two very different sci-fi manga. Tokyopop still seemed to be alive despite what everyone fears, for how long is another question. They admitted to switching to a cheaper paper company but had to switch back after a huge number of customer and retailer complaints. They had some new title announcements, including the next installment in the .hack line .hack//Link, so they still are in the game enough to get new manga. VIZ seemed to be doing extremely well as they announced not only some new manga but also anime and sci-fi novels. The most interesting announcement was that they will be streaming Inuyasha: The Final Act. I had a feeling that this was going to happen but it was never definite. I am curious how well this new fiction line is going for VIZ. All the other manga companies have been delaying or seemingly canceling their novel lines. Del Rey did not have a lot to say but they did pick up Rave Master. If there was any sure sign that Kodansha has cut off its ties to Tokopop it was the fact that they gave Samurai Deeper Kyo and now Rave Master to Del Rey despite the fact that both series had almost finished under Tokyopop.

The majority of the panels that I attended were industry related which in recent years have become fairly entertaining rather than tedious. Funimation always puts on a good show but I was shocked to find them making an announcement at NYAF. An announcement that personally made my draw drop, Initial D Fourth Stage. Actually, they have acquired all of Initial D and will be repackaging it. I nearly wept with joy. They also made mention of their upcoming ShoDojo site which is going to be a sort of social networking tool. The piece of the site that sounds fun is the ability to chat while watching streaming video. The launch of the site has been delayed but it could be another thing Funi does right for fans. Bandai didn’t have too much new stuff to say though they did have dates for things like the Eureka Seven movie on DVD (January 2010) and mentioning of things making the move to Blu-Ray such as the Escaflowne movie. These companies and others sat down on Sunday for, what has become a standard, State of the Industry panel moderated by Chris MacDonald of Anime News Network. There was not much new ground covered at this one, topics like watching digital media and reading digital media differing greatly as well as the difficulties in simulcasting (seemingly ignoring all the successful ones currently going on) were well discussed. One thing that leapt out thanks to so many anime companies finally doing streaming video is the inability to monetize such ventures, yet. It was pointed out that most likely their day will come but DVD/Blu-Ray is and will remain king for quite sometime.

I went to the How to Become Famous on the Internet panel which was an informative presentation on how to promote your work on the Net be it a blog, podcast, webcomic, or anything else that shows your skills as a artist or writer. It was pretty solid advice from panelists who knew their stuff. As always the most important thing is to go out there and honestly connect to other people. The How I Broke into the Anime and Manga Industries panel was nothing I did not know but I think it was a good wake up call for anyone who did not realize how hard it is. Kevin McKeever made it clear that it was extremely difficult to make your way into any entertainment industry because everyone else wants in as well. Sacrifice and the ability to deal with repeated failure is essential. The CPM Retrospective was a nostalgic look back on working at Central Park Media. I had heard quite a few stories from various people on how crazy Central Park Media and John O’Donnell could be for better and for worse. Although everyone spoke glowingly about their times at CPM is was obvious they took their fare share of lumps as often as had great times. It was a fitting tribute for a former major player in the anime industry.

The artist alley was located in a much better spot this year, and it was really hopping! And most importantly, it was open until the convention closed up at 10PM. I saw some familiar faces among the artists but plenty of new people to go around. In fact, while I had set a strict no buying policy for myself at this con, I broke it in artist alley for a piece of Cloud fan-art by a very talented fellow, ningyee7. I was much better at resisting in the dealer’s room. There were visibly more booths but the merchandise itself didn’t seem to be too special or rare for the most part. I was also sad to not see Ultimate Doujinshi. While I avoided this section for most of Saturday, I did move through it a little and found it cramped but not wholly deadly. Still is there ever enough room in the dealers room anywhere?

One of the biggest draws of any convention has nothing to do directly with the convention itself and that is meeting with your friends who you do not normally get to see and to hang out with your regular friends in a dynamic setting. I think that meeting One Great Turtle in real life was almost as awesome as meeting Tomino and that is saying a lot. I also got to meet the infamous Wild Arms Heero. He was unsurprisingly normal and quite amusing in real life. It was extremely fun going out to karaoke, stores, arcades, and meals with people you have only met online. Hey, I even got to play Melty Blood: Actress Again on an arcade machine. Speaking of karaoke, I am always fascinated by other people’s song choices. I wish I had enough Japanese knowledge to sing the Japanese songs like many others but people had to settle for my lame renditions of Queen and the Police instead.

New York Anime Fest brought many familiar faces to NYC this time around, some of which I already knew and some I would meet for the very first time during this event. So instead of having a big dinner at this convention, the theme was karaoke with many bloggers in tow (and friends) on Friday night. My Japanese is about pre-school level but others among me belted out all kinds of fierce Japanese tunes including Holy Lonely Night from Macross 7! If I practice really hard maybe I can pull some opening off in the near future. But there was also plenty of English songs being sung,  most memorable being On A Boat from SNL. This was the latest night of con and really wrecked me for the rest of convention. There were also various dining and chatting experience a plenty during the con and after hours. NYAF overall became a rather large hang out and meeting convention.

I am always most interested in the Japanese guests and the panels at any anime convention. They tend to be my meter stick of how much fun. Tomino pretty much assured that NYAF won completely and utterly in the guest department. My now signed Turn A Artbook was worth the time and money I spent on the convention alone. I would have liked to have seen one other big named Japanese guest but that was hardly a requirement. I did enjoy several of the panels but for some reason I felt this years panels were lacking. The ones I went to were excellent but there was a good deal of dead space for me on each day. It did give me time to hang out with people and have leisurely meals but I would have rather had to decide to either have a leisurely meal or a quick bite to eat like at Otakon. I am also a little bummed out that next year there will not be a single solitary NYAF but instead it will be combined with NYCC. I liked having a anime convention and a comic convention in Manhattan. I could do my anime events at NYAF and my comics events at NYCC. Hopefully NYAF will not just be a name tacked on the NYCC but only time will tell. Still I will remember New York Anime Festival with fond memories.

While I don’t want to be running without a moment to spare at a convention, I found myself too often with time on my hands. If there was one of two more rooms for panels or workshops this problem would be solved. Also the lack of fan run panels is certainly getting better but still wish to see more of a fan presence in the presentations. It will be interesting to see how it combines with New York Comic Con in the coming year. So really the highlight and reason for NYAF 2009 for me was Tomino and everything else was just something I went to in between. It can’t be said enough that having a chance to see and hear speak a director of such importance is a rare chance which makes NYAF one of the most memorable anime events I may ever attend. As Dave said during the Bloggers Roundtable, “Tomino Con 2009 was great!”

Top 5 Tomino shows I want to watch that are not Gundam
5. Aura Battler Dunbine
4. Invincible Super Man Zambot 3
3. Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
2. Space Runaway Ideon
1. Combat Mecha Xabungle

 #0044
Otakudom is all that I am.

The story in this portion of the Otaku Diaries starts almost at the very genesis of the project itself. When we sent out an initial call for people to participate in the Otaku Dairies, one of the first places we put up a request was in the forums at MyAnimeList. Several people spoke up saying that while they were interested in the project they felt that is was detrimental to call the project the “Otaku Diaries” because of the negativity surrounding the word “otaku.” This negative reaction threw me off guard. I was aware that there was a growing backlash against the English definition of otaku but I never realized it was that strong on the Internet. This incident along with several other conversations encouraged us to add a few question about how the participants of the survey view the word “otaku.” We asked the participants what their thoughts were on the word, if they considered themselves otaku, would they admit to being otaku to others, and would they be more or less willing to date or be friends with people who called themselves otaku.

#0034
. . . I tend to be sympathetic to the otaku personality traits that are often thought of as negative, and of course while “otaku” covers a wide range of interests, it probably means there are more things the potential friend/date and I could enjoy doing together.

#0016
I think of it as a word that Japanophiles apply to themselves to sound even more “different.”

Even though we called this the Otaku Diaries, it was interesting to see how everyone reacted to the word “otaku.” As you can see, 1/4 of the people who answered our call proclaimed themselves not otaku even with us leading the charge of calling the participants in our survey just that. I, too, was thrown by many complaints early on in the titling of this experiment but some of that can be chalked up to the Internet being a place where people love to argue. Some but not all. From many answers, we can tell that people are becoming more aware of the history of the word “otaku” in Japan. However, be that as it may the majority of people still found the word positive in their current state or were atleast middling. Afterall, “otaku” is used quite frequently in American anime fandom, just look around, we just got back from Otakon, many of us read OtakuUSA, and you can even find a date on OtakuBooty. I think you’d be hard pressed to say that the use of “otaku” in these instances is being bandied about in a negative manner.

#0009
I used to think it was a positive label, now I’m convinced otherwise. I’ve yet to see a convincing argument that would make me change my mind. Otakudom is often synonymous with social ineptitude and derangement.

#0080
It shows how dedicated you are to what you love. Although there are some who have made the term less than desirable, I think the term should be associated with good.

Loanwords are an interesting thing. Usually a language utilizes a foreign word because the word fills a niche in the language adopting the word but on occasion when a word is taken up by another language the meaning changes. Some times this shift in definition is subtle and other times it is a complete reinvention of the word. “Otaku” is is a clear example of a subtle but profound shift in the meaning. To make a very long story short, “otaku” usually means hardcore anime fan in specific and dedicated fan in general. The main difference between its meaning in America and Japan is that the Japanese see it more as a mark of shame with a distinctly negative connotation and Americans generally see it as a badge of honor with a distinctly positive connotation. The majority in this instance still considers “otaku” to be a positive word. Though several people did mention that at one time or another they had had only a rose-colored view of the word but have since stricken the word from their vocabulary when talking about themselves.

#0079
. . . I’ve never felt the Americanized version of the term applied to me . . . but the label itself fits me fairly well.

#0081
When I think of otaku, I think of the definition that seems to be focused here: a strong anime fan. I feel like there’s already a connection made by sharing the same interests, so it would be easier to relate to someone who calls themselves an otaku by that meaning.

#0069
I don’t describe myself as an otaku anymore. Am I a fan, yes. Am I a big fan, yes. Am I obsessed, no.

“Otaku” is a rare word that has become defined by the person saying it in this survey. Some people even mentioned that based on who was using the word “otaku” and the way in which it was said can make it an insult. But at the same time there is a very real chasm dividing people about it. Many said with 100% certainly that it was a badge of honor, proof that you were a proud and knowledgeable fan. And then some participants insisted that they are just a “fan” and the word “otaku” holds no place in themselves. But is fan not short for fanatic, a word synonymous with extreme devotion and obsession? Just as that word has taken on a more broad appeal (though we certainly see news reports of “crazed fans”), maybe the word “otaku” in the anime community will continue to diversify itself.

#0019
Being called an otaku is an insult. It’s not something you want to be. At the same time, I am one. I wish I wasn’t, but I am.

#0067
I don’t ever use the word otaku to describe myself and rarely use it to describe others—to me it is derogatory, as it is in Japan.

#0045
There’s no shame to me in using it as a badge of honor to explain what and who you are. So using it in a description might even make me more inclined to meet or date them because it means at least a shared interest in that sort of thing.

Of note is that several people mentioned they found the word “otaku” negative but would still attribute it to themselves and even mention it in casual conversation. Essentially they are in so deep that they could not hide it. Contributors to the survey listed co-workers as the most common group of people they were reluctant to mention their anime hobby to. There were a wide variety of reasons from shame to not talking about their personal lives at work. Most people either assumed the people they would not tell about their anime fandom either did not care, would not get it, or would look down on them. This is hardly limited to anime and manga, in general people are more likely to hide their hobbies if society in general labels those activities as nerdy. Everyone on the survey would tell someone else they knew who was into anime though. This goes to show why anime conventions and Internet sites about anime are so popular. Once people feel they are safe, they are willing open up. I think people want to share their fandom with others but have been burnt in the past and therefore guard what they see as vulnerabilities.

#0063
I do identify myself as an anime fan . . . online fairly readily . . . and in real life it’s fairly obvious, too. . . . Basically if you’ve met me for more than 30-minutes, I’ve probably made myself clear.

#0094
I don’t really like to share much about myself in general let alone what nerdy hobbies I am into.

It’s also important to mention that the age range of people who kept their fandom private varied greatly. Many people have attributed an overzealous nature to younger fans, but here we saw that even those still in high school or recently graduated had just as many qualms with the word “otaku” and/or sharing that they were indeed anime fans with the rest of their social circle. Equally telling were people saying they would befriend someone calling themselves “otaku” and also many inferring that they would know from the start they would have something in common with the person. This was rather refreshing to me as I’ve mentioned I see a splintering in fandom. In earlier days if you met someone who liked anime you would more than likely have some common ground, but now with so many choices out there many feel liking anime is not enough to build on. Here we found the inclination to be very much alive.

#0015
I haven’t told my friends, I’m worried they either wouldn’t know what it is or just judge me. . . .

#0096
I have used the word “otaku” to describe myself. I usually have to explain what that is to my family and friends. . . . Despite its offenses in Japan, the word “otaku” has come to represent a group that I identify with in America.

I still think that a majority of anime fandom still has a decent self image. Most people who answered the survey saw at least some benefit of being an anime fan. They had some amount of pride in enjoying what they liked. Yes, there were some people who saw their fandom as an albatross around their necks but overall people saw it and something that enriched their lives even if it was just by being something entertaining that passed the time.

There were a lot of people who answered plainly, and proudly, “I am an otaku.” This seems to correlate with a continuing movement in the U.S. of geeks/nerds/dorks/what have you coming together and embracing the words that were once hurled at them. Taking back words is a way to show strength and also show you can accept yourself. As we explore self-image further in subsequent posts you’ll see what we have seen, probably much like the rest of the world, people’s self-worth lies somewhere in the middle ground. But just looking at the results here, that should be apparent.

The question that interests me most coming out of these particular results is how would anime fans answer this same question 5 or 10 years from now? How much is this movement to return otaku back to its original Japanese meaning going to catch on? Or is this movement a passing fad that will mostly be forgotten by all but the most die-hard advocates? Also some Japanese fans and creators have noted they enjoy that English fandom has a mostly positive spin on the word otaku. What effect will the constantly changing definition of the word in Japan have on the English speaking fandom? How strong is the idea for people to take the word back in Japan? Only time will truly tell us the answer.

Look for a new Otaku Diaries Post
the first Monday of every month!

If you have never been to Otakon, let me just say that it is like a whirlwind of anime, manga, costumes, music, fans, panels, guests, and friends. You are practically going non-stop from the moment you touch down in Baltimore. Maybe it is just the way my mind works, but it seemed to be ten-fold this year! The amount of things seen and done in just one day sound almost impossible. I distinctly remember some of us talking on Friday night about how things done that morning felt days in the past rather than just hours before. But I’m not complaining, I call Otakon the highlight of the summer for a reason! This year only went on to prove that statement further.

Otakon came and went in an amazing and thrilling blur. I remember the highlights but the details even a few days later are still sort of fuzzy in my head. So in many ways this con report is just as much for me as it is for anyone reading it. This is my chance to sort out what I felt and what I did in my own mind because there was just so much information to process. I was almost always doing something. In fact, I wore myself out so much there was two or three times I just had to stop and nap or get food even if it meant missing out on something awesome. At first I was worried that there were not going to be any Japanese guests worth talking about but in the last few weeks before the con they pulled some great guests out at the last second and turned my perception of how great this was going to be right around.

Friday
No Means No, Defense against Fanboys and Fangirls panel
Know Your Creators panel
Yutaka Yamamoto panel
Mobile Suit Gundam: Celebrating 30 Years panel
Anime Recruitment
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: History’s Future panel
Mecha Appreciation panel
Opening Ceremonies
Kikuko Inoue panel
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This!
MELL concert
Guess the Melons 18+ panel

Saturday
Gundam Model Building workshop
Funimation panel
MELL press conference
Maruyama, Ishiguro, Kikukawa, Matsubara press conference
Anime and Manga Studies panel
From Kenshiro to Kenshin: The Neo-Shonen Revolution panel
Fred Schodt panel
Fred Schodt autograph session
Return of the Anime Old Timers? panel
Otaku TV panel
The Problem with Otaku panel
Review Anime the Right Way panel

Sunday
Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes panel
Hidenori Matsubara panel
Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, with Fred Schodt panel
Naomi Tamura concert

Narutak, Kohaku, and I all met up at my apartment. The anticipation was practically visible! Before we left I got an early birthday present of some very choice pencil boards, one of manga art Hayate No Gotoku and a cute Gakuen Kino one. We fortunately got a ride to the MegaBus pick up in front of Penn Station. I must agree with Mike Dent, MegaBus rocks! I will never ride a Greyhound again unless forced to. The free WiFi was awesome and the ride was smooth and clean. We took over the back of the bus where we pretty much had a pre-Otakon party. The Baltimore public transportation was a little slower than we had first anticipate but we arrived at our hotel by about 6:30PM. Here we encountered the first and only real major problem of the convention: the Radisson overbooked the con rooms. They tried to throw us into a super small single when we had booked a double. Thankfully Narutaki is a master of getting what he needs and they eventually gave us a bigger room.

If you saw the amount of stuff being lugged to Otakon, you would think we were moving there. Heck, at the very least you would have thought everyone was a cosplayer bringing gear, but no. However to be fair, when I say we, I mean 9 people and also a lot of it was free stuff for our panels and food that was quickly eaten up. I wouldn’t say I was nervous about MegaBus, I had done some research, but a new experience is always a little worrisome in these cases. Though really with so many friends along, a misstep can easily turn into an adventure! Luckily we didn’t have to prove that rule as the bus was great, well-organized, and on time. While the bus stop is certainly far out from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the price tipped my hand and everyone seemed satisfied. I was a bit miffed at the Radisson because they have served me so well in the past. In the end, things turned out fine once a larger room was acquired, remember: calm persistence! I will just mention that I use quite a bit of the tips in our Con Survival guide and they serve me quite well.

Since getting into the hotel took a bit longer than expected, we had to rush over to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We met Clarissa from AWO, Patz Prime from the Gaming Dungeon, and Ed from Comics Worth Reading for the first time in real life. I wish I had gotten more time to talk to everyone there. I know they made a good impression on me. After dinner we saw the crazy long pre-registration line. I have never seen it anywhere that long. I was quite glad to be able to just stroll in and get my press badge. Some of our friends said the wait wasn’t too long. We all stayed up shooting the breeze since the first night is usually the first and last time everyone is in the same place at the same time before the trip home. I don’t know about everyone else but I was so amped up I hardly got any sleep.

Thursday night is the only planned dinner that I have, everything else is on the fly based on who I run into when the time is right. In fact, I wasn’t even going to do the usual Thursday thing, but hey everyone’s gotta eat so why not do it together! You would have found many voices from the internet at our table including Carl (Ogiue Maniax), Scott (Anime Almanac), Evan (Ani-Gamers), Keith and Joe (The Pokemon Times) who we traveled with plus the new faces that Hisui mentioned. It was quite a gathering! Every year it seems to be more and more true that a big part of Otakon is meeting up with people. I was planning on picking up badges before dinner but the unexpected delays prevented that from happening. Considering the line, there was no way our friends were getting badges before dinner anyway. Press Ops was fully operational so the slue of us were in and out in a matter of minutes. Most troubling was that a lot of our contact information didn’t seem to be entered in the database. This lack of communication seemed to fluctuate throughout the convention. However, there were no interviews in our future and I wish this was communicated to us rather than me finally giving up on the notion. Their twitter account was very informative though giving us little tidbits of info during the con including attendance numbers and the like. Also from talking to staff, it seems they got almost 10,000 badges out on Thursday night! While line management seemed to be handled, I did see people still waiting in line for non-pre-registered badges around 4PM on Friday.

No Means No, Defense against Fanboys and Fangirls was a fairly light panel and most of the advice was common sense. The girl who ran the panel was rather amusing and she had a good collection of pictures to go with each slide so everyone was having a good time. I missed the part were the audience shared their stories and I am sure there were some good stories because I had to get to the press briefing. I went to Know Your Creators with natural born enemies Daryl Surat and the Geek Nights guys it was an entertaining panel to watch just for the natural amount of underlying tension. Still they had a good mix of prolific and influential anime and manga creators, what they had done, and why you should care about them. They mentioned the panel would have new creators on it all the time so it is always worth checking out. It is a great panel for anyone who is just starting to get into anime but wants to go deeper into the art.

I was truly sad to miss out on Otakon’s opening animation last year, so I made it a priority this time around. Opening ceremonies was actually in the mid-afternoon of Friday, probably to make sure all the guests had arrived as well as having as many attendees already in the building. We were first shown a reel of all the guests with music and clips of the things they are best known for. Since the room was filled to capacity it was telling to see who people cheered for the most, not too surprising to me after so many years, but the American voice actors were easily who the crowd favored. Matt Smiechowski the con-chair talked to us a bit and then introduced some of the Japanese guests. Yutaka Yamamoto, Naomi Tamura, Yukio Kikukawa all said a brief hello to the crowd while Kanon Wakeshima made a surprise appearance. And at last we were privileged to see the Madhouse produced introduction to Otakon staring their two mascots, the con staff, and a deluge of references from anime and science-fiction. It had a lot of energy and we all laughed to see our favorites parodied so it was a nice way to officially open the convention up to what would be a memorable weekend. It was a sad moment at the end when were were informed the director Takuji Endou had passed away just a short while ago.

My first panel with a Japanese guest was Yutaka Yamamoto’s. He was quite amusing as he looks like a mild-mannered salary man. I was surprised by the detail he gave in his answers. I did not expect him to so frankly talk about his feud with Akiyuki Shinbo and his views on the industry. Japanese guests usually give very polite but ultimately empty answers. I noticed this year all the guests starting with Yamamoto were rather frank while still being polite and cautious. Some joker had to ask him about him getting fired from Lucky Star but Yamamoto gracefully deflected the question. Omo did a great transcript of the panel if you want to learn more. I also saw Kikuko Inoue that day. She was very charming and answered all the questions with a smile. I was a little miffed that I never got to ask her a question but the panel itself was enjoyable. We all got to hear her sing “My Heart Iidasenai, Your Heart Tashikametai,” “Cruel Angel Thesis,” and “Seikan Hikou.” That was without a doubt the highlight! Welcome Datacomp has all the highlights of the panel as well as some from Yutaka Yamamoto’s panel.

I seemed to hit a lot of robot related things on Friday. I had heard good things about the people who run the Gundam panel at cons, so this time I decide to catch it for myself. The Mobile Suit Gundam: Celebrating 30 Years panel was a quick run through of the major parts of the Gundam franchise that have been animated though they didn’t mention the MS IGLOO OVAs. The “celebrating 30 years” part of the panel consisted of talking about the 1:1 scaled Gundam recently erected in Japan as well as a little speculation about the coming Unicorn anime. It was lightning fast information with an anecdote thrown in here and there, so while I didn’t learn anything new, recent fans to the franchise would do well to attend this. I skipped out on the last half which was a quiz show. I also attended the Mecha Appreciation panel because everyone should really appreciate such things. This started off in rather a flurry as we all yelled out “Sieg Zeon!” The panelists were really knowledgeable especially regarding Go Nagai which got a lot of attention unsurprisingly. They went through an explanation of Super Robot vs. Real Robot (and something they deemed Super-Duper Robot!) There were many good laughs had at the expense of robots everywhere. They really got caught up in the 70′s shows so had to rush through the rest practically skipping present day series. They also lacked any visual materials which was a shame. I would love to see them do this again with a bit more organization, it was a lot of fun.

The two guys running the Legend of the Galactic Heroes: History’s Future panel were appropriately dressed as Wenli Yang and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Besides being dressed for the part they were quite knowledgeable making it a great intro to what Legend of the Galactic Heroes is and why you should care about it. I am pretty sure that most of the people who went to the panel were already LotGH fans but if they were not the panelists’ enthusiasm hopefully got them to check out a great space opera. Later at the convention I talked for a bit with the man cosplaying Reinhard. It turns out he is one of the people behind Hero Legends and is extremely knowledgeable about Gundam in addition to LotGH. I wish I had caught his name because he seems like someone you should check out whenever he does panels. I peeked into the Evangelion panel which looked to be going well but I was really starting to fall apart due to lack of food. So I went back to my room and got a snack that carried me to 7-11 to get a more substantial snack. I actually could feel my spirits rising as I digested food. I made sure for the rest of the con to never let myself get that hungry again.

Both of our panels took place on Friday which was actually quite nice since it meant we’d have the rest, and busiest, day of the con to concentrate on events. Panel Ops was efficient and quick, they even allowed us to leave some stuff in the room for later in the day. Anime Recruitment was held in the very panel room where it premiered in 2007 so it had a nostalgic feel to it! We had a good crowd, definitely more than 50 people, and a plethora of questions that we just plain didn’t have time to get to. With so much extra free stuff leftover it was kind of a free for all at the end. While I was happy with Anime Recruitment, nothing could have prepared me for I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! which was held in a very, very large panel in the new Hilton section. We easily had more than 250 people in the room . . . YIKES! Since this panel line-up changes every time we do it, I was a little uneasy. Plus, we were also doing this panel for the first time showing the openings for each show. But somehow we pulled it off and had a happy crowd by the end. We had zero time for questions so once again a mad dash that made us look like celebrity superstars was done in the pursuit of free swag. I can say though that I won’t ever be scared about doing a panel again, after that many people we can handle it!

Anime Recruitment went fairly well as it usually does. One day we will learn to be more snappy in our answers but I think we did okay in our Q&A section. As always people loved the free stuff. It was good I took the time to recharge myself before our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel because we were in a huge room and had an overwhelming turnout. It was the first time that we ran the panel with the openings before we started talking about the shows. We had to cut down the number of shows we talked about but I think that the shows we talked about had more impact this way. Whenever we run these panels I am always surprised by what people know already. The amount of reaction to Princess Nine caught me off guard. Shows how little I have my finger on the pulse of fandom!

One schedule conflict that came up was our panel butted up right next to the MELL concert and since we tend to be chatty after a panel it was inevitable that I was going to miss a bit of it. After we skedaddled we jogged over to the other side of the con where the concert was being held. Luckily the press area was near the stage and we were able to jump in rather easily. MELL started off in a very elaborate Victorian-esque costume dress and fan which made it a feat that she was able to move around so fluidly on stage. She did several numbers of heavy beats then exited the stage for a wardrobe change and returned in another white dress that was only slightly less complicated though it was missing the wide skirt. She sang some slower and more melodic pieces before amping it up with the Black Lagoon opening and others then rocking so hard she broke her dress! For her encore she came back on stage in a red kimono and started off by singing the opening from Rideback which was really the one thing I wanted to hear most of all. Easily one of the best parts of the convention, I would certainly love to see her back in the U.S. I was also able to attend her press conference where she was very gracious and talkative. I asked her about the process for doing an anime opening, she went on to explain that the production studio contacts her. After her manager has laid down some sound she then starts to work on the lyrics. MELL also mentioned that this was the first time she was invited anywhere because of her involvement in anime openings and endings. Afterward she was kind enough to even take a photo with me!

After the concert a bunch of us hooked up with Clarissa and had dinner with a big crew at a local sushi place. It was another delightful dinner and I got to meet Daniel Briscoe from The Anime Chop Shop. After that I tagged along with Gerald and Daniel as they went to the Guess the Melons late night panel. It was a game show where they showed you the cleavage of an anime, video games, or manga character and you had to use that to identify who they were. There was one guy on the panel who was pretty good at the fighting game girls were but other than that most of the people from the audience were more knowledgeable. Gerald would have schooled them all had he been picked to play.  It was a funny panel but I found it most amusing that despite being an 18+ panel there was no nudity. Even when they had a Queen’s Blade character! Daniel and I left about 3/4 of the way through because it was getting late.

If it was not absolutely clear that I am a mere amateur when building models, the Gundam Model Building workshop made this fact 100% obvious. The man giving the panel was extremely knowledgeable and skilled. He quickly went past where I was and went straight to advanced techniques to make your kits look both professional and unique. He mentioned he has a web page but I sadly did not stick around long enough to get his card. I popped in on the Otaku TV panel with Viga the Otagal of the site of the same name. She looked at various anime about otaku and then played clips to show how they each had a different look at fandom. She looked at shows like Genshiken, Cosplay Complex, Comic Party, and Welcome to the NHK. After relaxing for a bit I went to the always entertaining Return of the Anime Old Timers? panel. It was fun to see some of the first wave of anime fans tell about their experiences. I asked what shows they felt everyone else had over looked and people should check out. I was surprised that everyone on the panel said Sentou Mecha Xabungle.

There was a last minute press conference with 4 of the major Japanese guests at Otakon. One has to wonder why this was planned at the last minute to begin with. So entered Masao Maruyama, Noburo Ishiguro, Yukio Kikukawa, Hidenori Matsubara to a fairly empty press room. Maruyama and Ishiguro tried to slip in the back row and were amused by us and the rest of the press room pretend interviewing their interpreter. Once they were corralled on stage they were very talkative and each answered the questions with solid responses. Kikukawa talked a bit about the production of Legend of the Galactic Heroes going on to say that he thinks it went on so long because the top people at the studio just didn’t notice it. When a show was just staying in the middle they had free reign to do what they wanted. Matsubara mentioned that he would really like to do a Dororo anime and in addition to that Maruyama said they were considering the project very seriously at Madhouse. Ishiguro hinted at a project he has had in his heart for many, many years but fears he will never be able to make it. He also talked a bit about Nagahama Tadao, the long deceased director, and gave us some insights into how he worked. Near the end Ishiguro went on to talk at length about the lack of preservation for film in Japan and how envious he was of the care given to American films, even bad ones. The press conference went on longer than expected and was really diverse in the questions, good job press!

I took a little nap before catching the tail end of the Funimation Industry panel. The couches in front of the panel rooms at the Hilton are quite comfortable let me tell you. I got  in pretty much as they were announcing licenses so I got to hear what everybody really cares about. I was surprised that they got Eden of the East. Narutaki and I expected it to be picked up by Bandai. I was sort of shocked that they picked up Casshern Sins. I have heard it was an amazing series but I wonder how many people care. I will probably pick it up based on sdshamshel’s recommendation alone. I am still a little surprised no one has picked up Toradora! or Rideback yet but the con season still has a little while to go. I guess they have to save something for NYAF. 

Fred Schodt was one of the guests I was looking forward to the most. I read his book Manga! Manga! many years ago and have recently read both Dreamland Japan and The Astro Boy Essays making me a certifiable fan of the man. His Q&A was just that, there was very little introduction and for the people in the audience there seemed little need for it. From the moment the first question was asked it just went non-stop until the panel ended much too soon. He was very soft-spoken and patient with the audience which created a very comfortable atmosphere. Schodt started off by telling us the answer to a question a lot of us were asking each other over the weekend, “how do you pronounce Schodt?” apparently it is simply “shot.” Other highlights included Schodt’s telling of how he met Osamu Tezuka, what cultural parts are hardest to translate, and the Pluto manga which he is currently working on for VIZ. When asked about the rise in manga and anime studies, Schodt replied simply that people should read more and watch more, that was the most important part. He also seemed disinterested in writing another book about manga because the awareness had grown so much. I didn’t have a chance to ask if he would think about writing commentary on manga, but he did say he hoped to translate a biography about Tezuka in the future. Directly after his panel was an autograph session that I rushed over to and happily got my copy of The Astro Boy Eassys signed. 

I tried to get into Daryl Surat’s Anime’s Craziest Deaths panel which had a huge line on which I ran into Dave and Joel. We were eventually told that there was no way on God’s green earth we could get into the panel so we all went down to the video games room. Unsurprisingly, I hung out by the Type-Moon fighting games. It really made me want a PSP and Fate/Unlimited Codes. I then ran into Ko Ransom who mentioned that they shut down Anime’s Craziest Deaths for being a 18+ panel despite not being marked as such. Daryl argued that he came close to the border but never crossed the line. This would quickly become a constant topic of conversation. Yet again AWO almost gets kicked out of Otakon. That is why you have to love those guys. Maybe next year Clarissa will run a panel that will come close to the danger zone and they can have a hat trick. I sort of lost track of time browsing doujin so I was a little late for From Kenshiro to Kenshin: The Neo-Shonen Revolution. I missed the first third of the panel but it was rather good. Daryl was really well spoken and proved that he can be very even handed and moderate when he wants to be. He gave an excellent analysis of how shonen has changed over the years which I found fascinating. Not that I really have to tell anyone but Daryl is another person who you should go out of your way to see if you get the chance.

I attended Reviewing Anime the Right Way because quite frankly who know what we do on this blog? The panel consisted of Mike Toole of Anime Jump, AWO/OtakuUSA‘s Daryl and Clarissa, and ANN’s Bamboo Dong. Since all of these people get paid for their writings I was hoping to at most pick up some tips, and at least see an amusing panel. Throughout the session each person gave examples of how they work and talked about their own approaches to things like having your own voice and writing consistently. I wouldn’t say I was surprised that everyone said they take notes while watching shows but I know it is not something I subscribe to doing. Of course hearing that made me reconsider my position so we will see. I found the advice about how to avoid falling into the trap of just summarizing helpful as well as their suggestions to write too much and edit down rather than the other way around. They finished off the panel by mentioning how to get paid writing gigs and answering a few questions. So if you were just thinking of writing reviews for the first time it was worth a listen and a laugh.

I eventually fluttered over to Anime and Manga Studies which was an overview of how to look at anime and manga from an academic perspective. Alex Leavitt, who was on the panel, was surprised how many teachers and professors asked questions about ways to convince their school to let them do anime related programs. It was a good panel for anyone who wanted to start looking at anime from a more intellectual perspective. After that I headed over to the The Problem with Otaku also chaired by Alex. This panel looked at the word “otaku” and how it has evolved in Japan and the U.S. I did not learn much I did not already know but it was a good and even-handed discussion on a somewhat controversial topic in the U.S. that has inspired myriads of debate in the fan community. It definitely helped me organize my thoughts for our next Otaku Dairies article though!

As I mentioned previously, dinner plans during Otakon after Thursday just sort of happen by chance. So on Saturday evening a gathering emerged of some familiar fellows from previous dinners and some new faces like Alex Leavitt of Department of Alchemy who we’ve met briefly before and Link. The gang rounded up and headed over to the food court with the insane notion that since the masquerade was in full swing it wouldn’t be as crowded. Once it became apparent there wasn’t much room for us people grabbed food to go and we ate and talked leisurely outside one of the con entrances for a bit. Some of us headed for Mike Toole’s  Dubs That Time Forgot panel but to no avail! Wow, what a line!

Narutaki, Kohaku, and I all went back to the hotel to rest up for the Big Dave and Joel party. This was a good idea because me and Evan ended up there until about 3AM. Without a doubt I don’t think Otakon would feel right without going to Dave and Joel’s extravaganzas. It is a excellent chance to talk to everyone you would ever want to at a convention who was not a Japanese guest. Dave and Joel were charming and hysterical as always and everyone else was equally chill. Some people in attendance were the Ninja Consultants, Viga, AWO, Matt Burnett of For Tax Reasons, and Mike Toole after his panel. I was utterly drained by the time I left the party. It did take us a little while to get to bed because someone accidentally locked the deadbolt to the room so we had to keep calling people until someone unlocked. This always has to happen to someone during a con.

Early on Sunday morning was the Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes panel run by Alex Leavitt. His mission statement was to show us the history of anime with just openings and endings and to show how they have evolved over the years. We started with some classics like Astro Boy and Mazinger and even a hilarious English version of Mazinger! A little too much time was spent on the openings to Cutey Honey. He went on to talk about the lack of synchronization of animation with music which has changed in more recent times, the example he used was K-ON! Additionally he talked about experimental openings that don’t necessarily reflect the show at all like the opening to Honey and Clover. There was some weird scheduling conflict that seemed unknown to our host so the end of the panel was rather rushed along. While I liked the overall concept of the panel since I too am a big fan of openings, I think the examples could be more effective and diverse combined with more discussion. Also I wouldn’t mind seeing the focus possibly switched to the more experimental or innovative openings.

The Hidenori Matsubara panel maybe had a dozen people so we did a little roundtable discussion. Link and I both asked a bunch of questions sometimes following up each other’s inquiries. It was a shame more people did not attend because he was very open and talkative. I got to gush a little about Sakura Taisen and mention that I really liked Gemini Sunrise’s character design. He was willing to give some insight into the Rebuild of Evangelion movies as well. I was surprised how casual about the movies he was, according to him there is almost no chance that the 3rd and 4th movies will play together in theaters like originally planned. I did notice three things that Matsubara and Yamamoto both mentioned. Both had very vague definitions of moe when asked about moe. This leads me to believe that the Japanese are just as confused about moe as we are. Both felt there was an increasing trend among Japanese otaku to want nothing bad or horrible to happen to characters. And both conveyed a fondness for American conventions were they can sit and talk with fans. Why they don’t have these type of conventions in Japan is an eternal mystery. After the panel I got his autograph which made me happy. It was the best panel almost no one went to.

Since the panel with Matsubara ran on as late as it could I was a little late to the Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, with Fred Schodt panel. Schodt comes off as an amazingly scholarly asset to the anime and manga community in the U.S. And I must agree with Mike Toole’s assessment that he looks remarkably like Revolver Ocelot. It was a  good overview of Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy much like a live action version of his Astro Boy Essays book. At the end someone had to ask the age old question about whether or not Disney stole the idea of the Lion King from Tezuka’s Kimba. While Schodt has written and probably spoken about this numerous times over the years he didn’t bat an eyelash at the question and in fact answered quite succinctly. I think everyone came away with a little more knowledge after the panel.

Dave Wujcik/Copyright 2009 by Otakorp Inc.

There was a double concert session on Friday. No I’m not talking about Becca, I’m talking about the rockin’ tunes coming from the Otacafe where on Sunday you could find Carl, Big N of Drastic My Anime Blog, and Omo of omonomono singing! And then the Naomi Tamura concert rounded out the con with a very exciting performance. Naomi is best known, atleast to me, for her songs from Magic Knight Rayearth and I hadn’t really looked much further into her repertoire. She quickly proved to me that I should have as she had some very hard rock sounds to share with the audience in addition to her Rayearth more pop-rock pieces. I am happy to report that she ended her concert (minus the encore) with my favorite piece Yuzurenai Negai the first opening to Rayearth. I jumped up and down, I waved my hands, I screamed, and I clapped for the song I had been waiting for! I was very worried I wasn’t going to hear it because we had to catch a bus but the con gods smiled upon us. It was the perfect way to end the incredible weekend.

The dealers’ room was impressive as always. There was a wide variety of items and a huge amount of dealers. As per our Con Survival guide I only looked at what I had priced beforehand (expect doujin) so I was easily able to keep my spending under control. I mostly looked through the doujinshi because I did not see the Maria figure from Jun Planning. I got some good stuff and picked up a doujinshi for OGT I thought he would like. I also picked up a Nirvash kit as a birthday present for Patz, and then grabbed up some items for my travel companions that couldn’t get to the dealer’s room again which included a Souther Revoltech for Carl, and a Red Comet Gundam action base for Narutaki. Patz got me the Gundam Double X with G-Falcon as a birthday gift earlier in the convention. Did I mention that I love Paula Cis? It is only tangentially related but I figured I would bring it up again. I wish I had had a little more time to just look over the dealers’ room in hopes of finding something rare but my schedule was a little too jam packed for that. While my heart was sad my wallet was happy.

I really didn’t get a chance to spend as much time as I normally like to at the Artist Alley probably because there were so many events going on I barely even had time to eat let alone meander. However, I did make a point to check out the art auction and to see the very large Big O model that was for sale. A mere $9500.00 could net you that behemoth, atleast that was the starting price! I haven’t heard anything about what it sold for. There were other unique pieces like quilts and door shades as well as traditional paintings and the such. I am always amazed to see people willing to pay top dollar for prints, PRINTS, of stuff that you can buy right over in artist alley just because they are framed. They aren’t even numbered or have a limited printing. The alley itself seemed to a little less crowded but the artwork seemed to be a bit higher in quality over all.

I had a ton of fun with people I have known for years, people I know casually, people I only know through the Internet, and with people I just met for the first time. My biggest problem was usually deciding what to go to because there were too many good options. If your major problem is too much fun then that is always a good thing. Without a doubt Otakon once again proves that there are major benefits and experiences you can only get out of a big convention. I know that Narutaki and I are already planning to go next year.  If you are on the fence I suggest you attend as well. The only other conventions that are going to give you anywhere as much bang for your buck on the East coast are New York Anime Festival and Anime Weekend Atlanta. So I hope to see everyone I met at Otakon next year and I hope to see some new faces as well.

Otakon is a special convention that is not without its problems but they more than make up for it in enthusiasm for the fans themselves. With the new addition of the Hilton the convention seems poised to continue growing in the many years to come in Baltimore. Crowd control over all never seemed to be an issue for me and congestion seemed to be kept to a minimum. The events were top notch and very rarely started late, even the concerts were efficiently run on their time schedules! Being our first year as press we still have some things to get used to and learn. And while I would have liked better communication about interviews and the such, it didn’t wholly overshadow the experience. I can honestly say overall praise is what Otakon staff deserve this year! If I haven’t made it clear in my report then let me say plainly that Otakon was amazing, full of people and events that were second to none, and plans for next year have already started taking shape in my mind.

Top 5 Model Kits I would like
5. 1/144 PTX-003-SP1 Alteisen Riese & 1/144 PTX-007-03C Weissritter
4. Moebius Zero & Sky Grasper 1/144 Scale EX-15
3. MRC-F20 Mobile Sumo / Gold Type (1/100)
2. 1/100 MG Nu Gundam
1. 1/35 AT-05E Rodeo-Star

Narutaki and Hisui’s schedule:

Friday
Anime Through the Generations Panel
Anime’s Pirate Legacy Panel
Anime Princesses Rule Panel
Japanese Crime Fiction in Anime Panel
My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours Panel
These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes Panel

Saturday
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! Panel
Psychology of Anime
Vertical Panel
ParaPara Dance Workshop
Directing! Panel
Funimation Panel
Bad Anime, Bad! Panel
As the Otaku Grows Panel

Sunday
History of Manga Panel
Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions Panel
Anime Blogging Basics Panel

Aren’t cons exciting? No matter how many I go to, I always look forward to another one. This has become especially true in recent years as I meet more and more people from blogosphere and other outlets. AnimeNEXT usually kick starts my con season every year and this time around is no exception. It was one of those inbetween conventions that holds a special place because of the dates it usually lands on. There was a major location change this year so it the con had a bit of a unknown factor going in.

I have to agree with Narutaki. As I am more and more a part of the menagerie that is the anime community, I look forward to going to conventions more than ever. It is a great opportunity to see old friends, meet up with people you have only talked to on the Internet, and discover awesome people you have not yet met. I know people are always disappointed that I am not actually an emotionally dead red-headed magical maid when they meet me. Then again I am actually emotionally dead so that is something, right? AnimeNEXT also has very good panels thanks to some very knowledgeable old time fans attending every year. There is also a strong and growing blogging presence. Since the thing I like the most about anime conventions, besides Japanese guests, are the panels it is always nice to seem some quality lectures about fascinating topics.

So around 1PM I hopped on a train bound for the unknown (or New Brunswick, New Jersey) with two of three people I would spend a good portion of the convention with, Carl from Oguie Maniax and Ko from datacomp (the third, and missing, companion being Hisui). A short amount of train trouble later and we had arrived, kind of. As we were waiting for a shuttle from our hotel to pick us up, we were hit up for change a number of times. To be honest, I was rather unhappy with having to grab a hotel at the last minute but the location is just not conducive for commuting to three days in a row. They also seemed rather unhappy to have con goers in the hotel. I had to implicitly insist that we get a coffee maker in the room. In any case we checked in with relative ease and the room was decent enough. There was a small walking path to the convention that got a lot of use over the weekend. Getting panelist and press badges was virtually painless though they did spell our blog name wrong (REVERSE THIVES). Once all of these details were taken care it was time to dive in! 

Friday started off a quite the rainy day. I was stuck at work with various misfortunes until late so I myself did not arrive at the convention until after 9PM. The hotel would not send me a courtesy driver to pick me up from the train station so I had to take a cab. Upon further thinking I wonder if the fact that I mentioned I was going to AmineNEXT had anything to do with it. The woman I was talking with very suddenly changed her tone after that and overall the hotel seemed less amiable to AmineNEXT guests. A guest is a guest in my opinion and should be treated as such. After I got to the convention and got my press badge I was off to the panels. On a side note, I got the Keroro Gunso badge because the Code Geass badge did not have Euphemia. No pink princess equals no badge.

We peeked at the karaoke room and I was told their song selection and set-up was only so-so and we quickly exited. Not that I was planning on doing any anyway. We then headed to our first panel for the weekend: Anime Through the Generations. I was unsure what to expect here but it seemed like a place that interesting discussions might arise. I was surprised to see the panelists were fairly young. It ended up being basically a group discussion with large amounts of audience participation. Topics were thrown out and the fans answered along with the panelists. The room was a mix bag of older and younger fans. They also ran a panel on Sunday called Otaku Misconceptions and Perceptions. Not sure if it was their first times with these panels but it seemed that way. In group discussion panels its important to keep things on target and not to let the panel runaway with itself. I think if they just exert themselves a bit more this will be corrected. Would enjoy seeing these discussions again.

I stated off on a good foot by going to a trio of panels by Brian T. Price, Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon. They are knowledgeable guys and it is always a pleasure. They are well versed in a variety of subjects including anime, manga, history, literature, and philosophy. If you attend one of their panels you will always walk having learned something while still making it entertaining. First, Anime Princesses which looked at various strong female anime princesses who act like real princesses. I was really disappointed that I missed them talking about Princess Euphemia. Next, My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours which sounds much worse then it really was. It was mostly a discussion of tropes and ideas that were unique to anime. They realized that anime could be just as cliched as any other form of entertainment but sometimes a formula can uplift the medium. Last, These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes where they took a couple of scenes and tried to sell you on the series. I especially liked the series of super weapon scenes. My only real complaint was they often had a decent number of non-anime shows as they did anime ones in all of their panels. I would have liked to have seen just straight anime in their panels but they always picked shows worth watching. I had wanted to chat with the panelists but it was 2AM when all the panels were over so I went straight to bed. I hardly even saw my fellow roommates. Apparently they need more and 4 hours of sleep a night and went to bed way before I did.

We ordered pizza to our hotel room and regained our strength before heading back for more convention going action. I missed a bit of the beginning of the Anime’s Pirate Legacy panel. Without having a panel description to consult I thought it was going to be about piracy’s history in anime fandom. It turned out to be a panel about pirate anime or atleast kind of. It started off fine talking about all kinds of shows from space pirates to traditional but at the half way mark it deteriorated. They ran out of titles so started talking about tangentially related shows like Gurren Lagann. They then showed the 12-minute OVA of it. There was also a lengthy discussion of Dragonball thrown in the middle. The same people ran a panel later called Japanese Crime Fiction in Anime which mostly consisted of Golgo 13 and a brief mention of City Hunter. This was rather a let down, they seemed very enthusiastic but certainly needed to do more research. The subject matter certainly interests me so I would love to see it revamped and done again. I then caught the tail end of Anime Princess before dropping off to sleep for the night.

Saturday stared with a delicious breakfast of instant Sukiyaki Udon otherwise know as the breakfast of champions. Then we wandered over panel room to give our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel and I had some coffee and trail mix. That was certainly important because I did not really wake up for the panel until about half way through. I think the panel went well and got a decent crowd considering how early in the morning we were scheduled. Carl was a new addition to the panel but he was an excellent speaker and brought some shows we we not have normally had in our lineup.

Despite our panel’s terrible time slot and also the omission of the panel description in the guide book, we had a decent turn out. The location of our panel room was a good spot right near the artist alley. We had almost 40 people listening to us babble on! It seemed like all of us including the audience were still half asleep till about half way through the panel then we hit our stride. Since this was only our second time running this panel it still had an uneasy quality to it. Also since we switched out a deal of shows for new ones, it wasn’t and probably won’t ever be as natural as Anime Recruitment comes off. Still I think the panel is getting there and will probably end up in our rotation of panels. We are updating it and presenting at Otakon, too. The Vertical panel was a little later. Their panel had no major new things to say, yet. Ed hinted all over the place and has so on his Twitter that there should be some upcoming manga licenses that will be buzzing. They mostly talked about their current catalog and also gave some things away. One thing that was awesome was these Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! notepads. I was also able to snatch up a copy of the book which doesn’t street until July!

After the panel I checked out the game room and watched some Tatsunoko vs Capcom. It looks like a fun game that I will have to get for the Wii when it comes out despite the fact that I am rather horrible at fighting games. I then went to the Psychology of Anime panel. Although it was listed as a workshop it was more of a talk. But it was certainly a fascinating. The lecturer showed how various psychological theories were used by anime to enhance their stories while other psychological theories could be applied to analyze different series. The guy running the panel was very good at getting the audience involved while making sure that it moved forward at a decent pace. It went over rather well and he promised he would run the panel next year with new material. At one point Narutaki and I went back to the hotel room to chill and eat and we got to see a sneak preview of the blogging panel. It was fun to see the powerhouse team working their magic. After shooting the breeze with everyone I tried to go to the Japanese Sweets and Snacks panel but it was all filled. I therefore went to Directing! Panel. It had Toshifuma Yoshida and Tom Wayland talking about directing anime DVDs in America. They answered questions about directing and the American side of the anime industry. I did not learn anything new but both panelists were friendly and well informed.

After the rain let up I went back to the con in time to catch the ParaPara Dancing Workshop. It was run by the same girls from last year who are from ParaPara NY. It was the same general set-up hosted in the “arena” area of the exhibition center. There are bleachers in the back for chilling out and watching what is going on. It is rather populated area since its one of the more open sections indoors. They upped the amount of dances from 3 to 5 over last year but I was quite done at 3. I am not good in the least but its a lot of fun and I highly recommend it at any convention. I tried to go to the Funi panel and as per usual it was packed to the gills for no reason under the sun. I promptly deserted and went to stick my head into the Restricted Rock Paper Scissors panel. I came in too late to actually play but Carl was able to join in. It’s a game from Kaiji where you use cards that are either rock, paper, or scissors. You try to beat other players and gain points. Obviously in Kaiji its a bit more cutthroat and you have more to lose! The panelists seemed surprised how many people showed up and it threw them off for the beginning. Once the game got underway things seemed to go fine. Though they seemed anxious to rush everyone out because the Masquerade was soon after.

Since the Funimation panel was in the same room as the Directing! panel, I fortunately had a seat for when everyone streamed in. I always find it funny that so many people show up to Funimation panels hoping to get free stuff but they never give anything away. I must have heard three separate conversations about free stuff before the panel. There were no big announcements but I did notice one thing. When the topic of picking up Central Park Media’s old licenses came up I did notice that the Funimation rep said they were interested in all of the titles including ones with pink-haired girls. I am glad to hear they are looking into getting Utena because I would certainly buy it again they they cleaned up the video from the mediocre job CPM did on the first 13 episodes.

After all this, somehow most every blogger we knew (and a few we hadn’t met yet!) came together to get some much needed grub. This ended up being perfect timing because a good portion of the con attendees were at the masquerade. After a game of musical cars we were all seated at the Ruby Tuesday’s a couple of minutes away. The table was large and you could essentially talk to everyone. I was sitting nearest to Carl, Brad from Japanator, Ko, Moy from 11-15% suki, and Super Rats from Happy Soda. Dinner was good, the place serves endless fries! Conversations were varied and laughter was plentiful. These dinners are really becoming one of the things I look forward to most at conventions.

The dinner round table was definitely one of the highlights on the convention. It is a nice chance to speak with people outside of the hectic environment of the con. It worked better than the dinner at NYAF because I got a much better chance to speak to everyone as opposed to speaking to a small group of people like the last time. I loved talking with the people at my table at NYAF but I was essentially cut off from the other 2/3 of the bloggers. Though I was seated closer to Omo from Omonomono, Trish from AnimeNEXT, Scott from Anime Alamanac, and Brad. Dinner with good conversation is always very nice. This time around, dinner topics ranged from anime to politics and everything in-between. I had a delicious buffalo burger and, of course, endless fries.

I’m pretty sure I experienced my first Bad Anime, Bad! panel at an AnimeNEXT a couple of years ago. It has certainly become popular, though I also wonder if that is because it was a little earlier than normal. Anyway, this time was solely devoted to the monstrosity known as Dracula Sovereign of the Damned which was brought over and dubbed by Harmony Gold so you can imagine where this is going. I had only seen pieces of this previously and admittedly he still cut parts during this showing as well. I can now see why it needed to be seen. Not only is the story bad, the dialogue is incredibly inept, and the voice acting even worse. It is one hilarious moment after the other and just when you think it can’t get worse it has . . . an explosive ending let’s say. It’s a show you don’t care about spoilers for but it just wouldn’t be as funny unless you see it for yourself!

After dinner I made the very poor choice of going to the As the Otaku Grows panel. I have gone to panels that I felt could use some polish but I had never been to a panel that was worthless. Until this panel. It was essentially what if Paul “Otaking” Johnson ran a panel about 90′s anime instead of 80′s anime. He basically ran a panel about why 90′s anime is the best ever and everything else is garbage. I had to leave the panel halfway through. It’s not the fact that he loved 90′s anime so much. Everyone is entitled to have a favorite time period in anime history. But I won’t stand for people saying that everything else is worthless. There are great, mediocre, and horrible anime from every time period and saying otherwise is both ignorant and closed-minded. The scary part was the audience mainly seemed to be agreeing with him! I wanted to stay and argue but I decided against it and just had fun elsewhere.

On the morning of our last day we finished off the last bit of food I had brought along. Yes, that is right, my con survival talking about how to save your pennies on food for the weekend in practice right here ladies and gents! In any case, my load was still pretty heavy thanks to a couple of purchases as well as some free books I had acquired. Checking out was also painless thank goodness. We headed over the con about a hour or so before the first panel began. This is a rather magical time that is kind of frighteningly quiet. We also took this time to get refunds for our badges since we were press. I also took this time to take one last look around the Artist Alley. It had a decent turn out this year with talent ranging from fan-art to crafts. I picked up a button of Kanda from D.Gray Man and contemplated a nice print of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle but decided against it.

Sunday started with an apple and cupcakes which is another power breakfast. I then attended the History of Manga panel. After some technical difficulty the panelist launched into his lecture. It was a good overview of the history of manga in America. He hit all the high and low points and it was very good for the amount of time that he had. I did notice he had a bit of more of an emphasis on OEL manga than I assumed he would have but it is not as if he neglected anything so I was fine. It was just an unusual choice. As Ko said you could tell he was an old school fan due to his obvious interest in furry titles like Fred Perry’s Gold Digger. Still it was an informative panel and a great introduction to how far manga has come in the U.S. The next panel was Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions. The panel started late as the members rushed to get to the room. The idea was interesting. It was panel about what how anime and manga fandom feels about itself and how does it think that other people perceive it. They seemed to have a list of topics they wanted to talk about but since it was a discussion panel with the audience their speaking points quickly got cast by the way side as the audience took over at many points. Still it was an interesting panel as I always like to see fandom’s views about itself.

Even with some crazy scheduling changes the Anime Blogging Basics panel ended up being our last event of the convention. Unfortunately with a sudden time change and room change the panel mostly consisted of other bloggers. Besides Carl, the panel was Omo from Omonomono, Moy from 11-15% suki, and Super Rats from Happy Soda. These guys put together a good outline and all seemed to work quite differently with different philosophies about blogging. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere for the most part. I think handouts would help for anyone who was actually wanting to get tips on starting to blog. Hisui also swooped in to ask some hard hitting questions!

The dealers room was nice but I am bit on a budget so decided that I was only going to look for two things. The only way I would buy anything else is if it so shocked me I had to buy it. I was looking for a model kit of the RX-78-2 Gundam or Nu Gundam and the Jun Planning version of the Maria figure from Hayate the Combat Butler. I never saw the Maria figure but I did stumble upon a prefect grade original Gundam. I was informed that it has light up eyes and I am merely a mortal so it was not easy to resist that siren’s call. But I eventually decided to wait for Otakon. There I will most probably get some form of Amuro’s Gundam. There was a bunch of nice stuff but nothing worth splurging on. I almost bought a Mylene pencil board for Mylene’s fan #1 but at $12 I decided against it. But I partially blame my mad net skills on that fact. 

The dealer’s room seemed larger than last year which is certainly a plus. There was also much more room to maneuver around making Saturday even pretty decent to go into the fray. Since I have a strategy when going in, it makes things less chaotic and makes me seem less like a maniac with no worries about money. I needed up with just a couple of purchases most happily is the one pictured above. When they guy was willing to go down to $10 I was in! But most dealer’s were not making deals, very sad times. I wanted to walk away with Athrun’s Aegis 1/100 scale but no dice. I also saw a decent amount of people selling doujinshi which keeps increasing every year it seems. Also I barely resisted getting some Record of Lodoss War pencil boards since I had never seen them they snuck up on me! As usual the dealer’s room is not my priority at cons but this one was manageable enough to be worth exploring.

AnimeNEXT is like spaghetti with plain sauce when there is no solid Japanese guest. It is satisfying but you feel like something major is missing. So just as a meatball would make the meal complete, likewise a Japanese guest would have rounded out this con. I like AnimeNEXT but I’m not sure I would go next year because it has shifted from being a New York City/New Jersey convention to being a New Jersey convention. The old convention site was super convenient to get to from New York City and there was no reason to have to stay overnight. Being so convenient, there was no reason not to go AnimeNEXT. Now that it is harder to get to, I am no longer 100% locked into going again. I will only go if two things change: if they move the convention back to the old site or if they have a have a decent Japanese guest. Otherwise I might as well spend a little extra and go to Anime Boston instead. AnimeNEXT is an excellent New Jersey convention but if I am going to an out of state convention I want more bang for my buck.

Once again AnimeNEXT proves that some of the best parts of conventions are the fan run panels and the people that you meet. Unfortunately, that is just not enough this time around. I have to agree with Hisui, this location is not New York City friendly mainly because the convention itself is not close to the train station. The train ride is a mere hour but then you have to get to the con. While the shuttle was super plush it just wasn’t running often enough for me to do it three days in a row. Also the location has very little food close by. Really this is a con for people with a car. And thanks to that fact I have to assume their attendance was down this year. I like NEXT, I always have a good time, and I want to go back but not if I have to stay in a hotel.

Top 5 panels I would like to attend (These might exists but I don’t see them enough)
5. The Hidden World of Light Novels
4. Secret Shopper: A Guide to the Best Otaku Stores in Japan
3. I Don’t Know These Characters: The Best Original Concept Doujinshi
2. More Than Just Option #3: JAM IT IN! – A Beginner’s Guide Visual Novels
1. You Have to Get This: A Guide to the Most Awesome and Wackiest Anime Merchandise

If you are willing to experience them, there are benefits to every size of convention. Castle Point Anime Convention is a small college con in New Jersey at the Stevens Institute of Technology. It was a Sunday only event from 10AM to 7PM with a MC Frontalot concert after.  I was invited to participate in a panel by Evan from Ani-Gamers. It’s not that hard to get to from New York City so I was only too delighted to help out while having a Sunday activity at the same time.

I started my short trip with the NYC subway to the PATH Train. After that it was only a few blocks to the campus which was very convenient. There was a on and off drizzle the whole day so not having to brave the elements too long was greatly appreciated. The path I took to the college due to me remembering the map oddly threw me off a bit so it took me more time to find registration. I got my ticket then ran into Evan on my way to the Otaku History panel. Otaku History was run by Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon. It reminded me of what they said during their guest spot on Anime World Order but there is always something new to say. They went over how anime fandom started in America and how is has grown and changed. Most of the focus was on the earliest days since those are what most people don’t know about. They had some cool old American anime fanzines and I learned the origin of incredibly long and descriptive anime titles.

Next up was our panel about how to start your own blog and/or podcast. At first it was just me and Evan. Ink Adam aka DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session came a little later but made a big splash when he arrived. Ink was dressed at as the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight from the Tick. There were not a lot of people and most of the people who showed were friends of one of the panelists. But it was Evan’s first panel so it was rather relaxed which is always nice. If anything we had a a little too much material so we did not do any Q&A. We hit all the most important points and I felt we were informative and entertaining. It was somewhat unpolished but that was my fault for not trying to organize a run through over Skype. Still Evan’s notes from the group Google Doc were well done so all we really had to do was expand. I rambled on a bit like I usually do whenever I am nervous. If any readers came, I would love to hear what could be improved on for next time.

Next was These Are a Few Of Our Favorite Scenes with Robert and Mike again. It was essentially I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel with clips. It was two hours long but they played fairly longs scenes to give you a good idea of the show they were selling you on. It was a good mix with new shows like X’amd and Heroic Age and old ones like CB Chara Nagai Go World and Space Battleship Yamato. There was distinct bias towards space opera but they did not try to hide it. They mentioned they made sure that all the titles were fairly easy to find. They used to play much more obscure stuff but then no one could find it. They also played some good non-anime titles, they seemed cool as well. Apparently the panel was originally going to be a panel about strong female princesses that had actual leadership roles titled Anime Princesses Rule, Disney Princesses Drool. However, they did not get a key DVD in time to make it. After the panel we all went into the hallway and had a grand ole roundtable. Got to hear some good stories and participate in some intelligent conversations.

As our conversation wound down Evan and I went to lunch. I twisted his arm into going to Five Guys Burgers mostly because I was interested in trying them after hearing about the chain from Dave and Joel. Just like they said it was satisfying but not spectacular. We talked about this and that. I might have talked his ear off a bit too much about Gundam but I am sort of on a kick.  After that we went to the dealer’s room. It was a small affair but for a one day convention it was decently stocked. I picked up a very nice Ryogi Shiki I had had my eye on for a while at 10% off. I almost got a Caren Ortensia figure but I kept myself in check. Evan picked up the Metropolis manga and a random volume of Astro Boy for ten dollars so it was a good trip all in all.

I finished off the day by attending the Gundam panel. It was by the same crew that ran the panel at New York Anime Festival 2008. It was essentially the same. Apparently they had plans to update the panel but time constraints prevented them from doing so. Still they are an entertaining bunch so it was a good time. The trivia section made me realize one thing: Even after watching a good deal of Gundam I will never be the type of person to memorize serial numbers. I then started my trek home and picked up some ice cream on the way.

Overall, it was an enjoyable little con. The major advantage of a small con like this was you could talk to everyone at the con if you were motivated to do so. This would be impossible to do even at a mid-sized con. This tends to give smaller cons a sense of community and comradeship. There were also several panels I did not get to attend which is always nice as it proves there was a good selection of things to do. I wish I had seen the translation panel, the obscure manga panel, and the Gundam customization workshop. Hopefully they will be run again at another con I attend. The convention was well run as I never ran into any major problems. A convention like Castle Point will never get a big name Japanese guest but you don’t go to a convention like Castle Point for that. You come for a little gathering of friends around your mutual interest in anime and manga and hopefully to discover someone or something interesting as well. Castle Point successfully provided that environment.

Narutaki and Hisui’s schedule

Thursday
ICv2 Conference
Pre-Con Party at Dave and Buster’s

Friday
NYCC Focus Group
News Flash Teen Girls Read Manga Panel
Teaching Comics Panel
MARVEL: X-Men Panel
The Business of Web Comics! LIVE!
MARVEL: Dark Reign Panel
Batman: The Brave and The Bold
Vertical Publishing Panel
Yatterman Premiere
Wonder Woman Premiere

Saturday
How Not to Break into Comics
Del Rey Manga Panel
Gabe and Tycho Spotlight Panel
MARVEL: Cup o’ Joe Panel
Yen Press Panel
Robot Chicken Panel
FUNimation Panel
Men Are From Kyrpton, Women Are From Paradise Island Panel
The Venture Bros. Panel
Bloggers Dinner

Sunday
VIZ Media Panel
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Panel!
Mondo MARVEL: 70th Anniversary Special Panel

So with 18 guests of honor (J. Michael Straczynski and Grant Morrison had to drop out), 6 living legends, 7 special guests, 32 featured guests, 79 artists and writers, 31 literary guests, 7 anime and manga guests, and 8 performance guests, plus dozens of premieres and sneak peeks for movies, video games, books, comics, cartoons, and TV shows. There had to be something for any type of nerd at NYCC 2009. Narutaki and I practically attended two different cons for the amount that we crossed paths. And we didn’t cover half of what was offered at the convention. In many ways it is the clearest example you can find of how our taste may vary when it comes to things outside of anime and manga.

Good lord, NYCC you never cease to wonder a person. The guest list was insane as proven by the statics mentioned above. The amount of panels to go to was overwhelming creating endless schedule conflicts as you are pulled in three directions at once. This was made twice as difficult because no one seemed to have the chart/grid of all the panels. Apparently there was one, no one we met ever saw it. It was also amusing how other bloggers seemed to only see one of us each day. No one could find me on Friday, likewise Saturday Hisui was missing till the end. Not only was there a ton to see and do there was also a huge amount of bloggers and friends to pal around with for the entire length of the con and after!

So my co-worker and me practically ran out of work to get to the Pre-Con party because they were giving away swag if you were one of the first 200 in. This ended up being mostly nothing worth having. Though I did keep the Ultimate Spider-Man 100 Project which has a ton of pics drawn by lots of artists. I was hoping Dave and Buster’s would have more Comic Con related stuff and atleast a discount on game credits! But we made our own fun. I played 88 games of skeeball and gave all the tickets to kids randomly. We bailed pretty early and went to dinner. My co-worker did get to speak with Joe Quesada for a minute though!

I was barely at the Dave and Buster’s party. It was just a good place to meet up with people after the ICv2 conference. I met with Scott of Anime Almanac and Dave of Subatomic Brainfreeze. I didn’t really spend any money at the arcade but I guess I am one of the reasons they are dying in America. Then again the Deal or No Deal game is not something that particularly makes me want to spend my money anyway. From what I understand the food at D&B’s is hideously overpriced and merely okay so we went to the nearly empty Applebee’s downstairs. I finally learned of Dave’s opinion of Type-Moon which made the whole convention a success. It was a good warm up for the upcoming convention.

I started the convention proper by attending the News Flash Teen Girls Read Manga Panel. It was a well run and Brigid Alverson from the Manga Blog was part of it. I did not learn anything new but it was a panel for librarians and store owners to learn about manga and its appeal to girls. All the panelists were quite knowledgeable and the panel was well run. The Teaching Comics Panel was putting me to sleep. It was basically was a panel for teachers and how they could teach language and theory behind making comics in their class. The high point was an exercise at the end: they had everyone draw one panel and then tried to make a complete comic out of it. Being interactive it woke me up to participate.

I came to the convention after the professionals panels (I worked a half day). I was sad to miss those few special hours but I took advantage of the early entrance into the exhibitors hall when I got there. It was certainly the most calm time for the convention. I always look forward to Marvel panels, they are always a good time. Luckily my first panel of the con was X-Men. It was amazing seeing so many creators up there at once, not the least of which were Chris Claremont, living legend himself, and current Uncanny writer Matt Fraction. They talked quite a bit about the upcoming Messiah War. They also hinted around at a lot of things like the new mutant child named Hope. And she has red hair and green eyes, don’t draw conclusions. . . but draw conclusions! Looks to be an exciting time to be an X-Men reader. A couple of hilarious moments occurred, as per usual. A guy stood up and asked Matt Fraction why he refused his friend request on about Xbox Live. Everyone was cracking up till we realized the guy was actually serious! Also a guy asked about Scarlet Witch, Jim McCann told him to ask at the next panel where Dan Slott would be. This seemed reasonable enough but the guy walked out and yelled “coward!” This then became a running joke at all the Marvel panels for the con.

I decided to pop into The Business of Web Comics! LIVE! panel with Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo. It was interesting to see under the hood of how big name web-comics make their money. It was a great panel if you wanted to draw your own web comic and hopefully make money off it one day. Robert Khoo lent the panel a serious and professional quality whereas Scott Kurtz make the panel entertaining and quite funny. Both had good insights for the audience. Scott Kurtz mentioned that most professional comic artists seem mystified by the concept of putting up their work for free then making money on merchandise only.

The Marvel fun just never stops! The Dark Reign panel was awesome. Probably my favorite comic writer now is Brain Michael Bendis so I was ready to here about all the coming plans for this crazy twist. Certainly keeping a lot under their hats but they love throwing out hints to get people all excited. One guy in the audience was going on and on about how Doctor Doom would never take a backseat to Norman Osborn. Doctor Doom then became the default answer for everything in the panel. Of course there is always one guy who stands up to say how much he DOESN’T like what is going on, as if the rest of us agree with him? Joe Quesada is really great at taking the wind out of their sails. He basically says, our sales are better when big events are going on, if people weren’t buying them believe me we wouldn’t be doing them. And that was that. In other great news, they are doing Dark Young Avengers!

I then went to the Batman: Brave and the Bold Panel. Since I don’t have cable at my apartment I was sadly unaware of this show which is a shame because it seems to be rather awesome. Batman teaming up with a variety of other superheros it seems to have a good amount of Batman style and action while retaining a tongue in cheek sense of humor. They really sold me on Aquaman. I think the line, “He thinks he is an awesome hero and does not realize you all think he is lame” really sold me. They then played a rather cool episode had Batman go to an alternate Earth where all the heroes were villains and all the villains where heroes. When the leader of this alternate Earth’s heroes is the Red Hood you know you have a Comic Con episode.

The Vertical panel and my first industry panel of the convention started off slightly depressing. They have very few books coming out in the next year and only four of which are manga, all Black Jack. They talked about some of their crafting series and about how the word “cute” in the title helps them sell better. I think proposed they start calling it Cute Black Jack. Luckily there was a bright spot, apparently they are getting new investment and teaming with a Japanese publisher who they have yet to reveal. I also asked about more Shinjuku Shark novels. They said they will at least do the third book but would like to do all ten. At the end they gave away signed copies of To Terra . . . by Keiko Takemiya! I didn’t win one and I was really jealous!

I attended the first half of the Vertical panel but I wanted to make sure I got to the Yatterman premiere on time. There I met up with Scott of Anime Almanac, Gia of Anime Vice, and John of Japanator. We had a nice conversation about various things including Kaiba. The audience that was not press seemed to be mostly made up of crazy Sho Sakurai fan-girls. This was made painfully obvious because anytime anything Sho related was mentioned or appeared on the screen the audience went nuts. The squeals when Yatterman No.1 kissed anyone was simply amazing. The movie itself felt like a Stephen Chow movie. It had that same mix of goofy comedy and over the top action that made it feel like a live action cartoon in every sense of the word. I think that Stephen Chow does it better but overall I enjoyed Yatterman. You just can’t go in expecting Ichi the Killer. It’s a dumb movie but it never wants to be anything else. I am sure Yatterman fans are going to get more out of it. There was some question and answer after the panel with Sho Sakurai and Takashi Miike.

My last excursion of the night was the Wonder Woman premiere. My friend and I also caught the last few minutes of the Futurama movie before it. It seemed reasonably funny. As we waiting, the IGN theater showed a bunch of looks at things on the screens like at a regular movie theater. We saw a first look at the G.I. Joe movie which will probably be awful. They also mention how they were really making it diverse but I saw about 80 white people in it and one black guy and one Korean guy so whatever. Apparently Cobra Commander won’t be in it?! We also saw some stuff about the upcoming Chun-li movie which looks worse than the G.I. Joe one. All the fights they showed where in the shadows probably because this girl playing Chun-li can’t fight worth a damn. Anyway, the Wonder Woman movie was really great! D.C. has really done some great animated productions over the years and this ranks up there with them. There was some adult humor and was more violent than I expected! Bruce Timm along with the director and writer did a Q & A after the showing. He said he thought this was the best yet, even better than Mask of the Phantasm. NO WAY, but it was still really good.

Saturday was my big day so there was quite a bit to do. I started with the How Not to Break into Comics panel. I was hoping it was going to have a lot of funny stories. It definitely had some good ones but it was mostly a very serious look at how to try to get a job in the comics industry. Apparently people constantly don’t put any contact information on their submission making getting back to them impossible. A very useful panel for anyone who is serious about doing their pitch right.

Bandai is going to be okay people! They are going to be doing a lot more online, including having Code Geass and Gundam 00 available. Also they picked up the Gundam 00 manga and novel! YAY! I am hoping they do similar packaging with Gundam 00 as they did with Code Geass with including manga in the awesome box. Looks like Hayate the Combat Butler will be released subbed only in 13 episode boxes. This seems like a smart move, plenty of fans wanting to pick that up but not enough to go through dubbing it. I’m sure they will have a few more announcements coming this year, all of them good.

Like many east coast residents I have never had to good fortune to get out to PAX so it was really awesome to be able to Tycho and Gabe at NYCC. You definitely see where the characters in the comics come from when they talk. I found it amusing that Gabe would constantly pick people from the audience to ask questions and Tycho would have to force Gabe to stop and let him pick someone from the audience on occasion. They were very personable and entertaining and had an excellent chemistry with each other and the crowd.  It also started the trend for Saturday, every panel I attended was standing room only.

Attended Del Rey panel with a good portion of the anime/manga blogging crew. They mentioned doing some “manga” versions of X-Men at NYAF 2008. But what I saw was quite unexpected. Emo-boy/Bishonen Wolverine? Turning X-Men into a reverse harem romance comedy? It just seems like a strange way to approach things. Wolverine is rather beloved. Oh, and he is a totally crazy, deadly, bad-ass. It was really off putting. The same goes for the X-Men story. While I like Kitty Pryde, as do all, and am glad to see her staring, this wasn’t what I had in mind. One of the great things about X-Men is their strong female cast which was mentioned in this panel. I asked about the decision to then exclude most of them in favor of this school comedy bit. It was basically like “well this is just what we decided to do.” I am clearly bias and not the target audience but come on!

I barely got into the Robot Chicken panel due to a good deal of madness. It was the least organized of all the lines I saw. Staff pulled the press out of the line to get us in, then security refused to let us. I eventually got in but had to stand along the wall after one of the other press guys pulled out an class-A ability to complain politely but loudly. It was worth it. The main question and answer consisted of Seth Green talking about everything with backup from Robot Chicken crew and the Cartoon Network representative trying reign things in. Seth answered all the question (other than being super precise about their budget) but once he started talking there was almost no stopping him. He told a hysterical story about dressing up as Spider-Man at San Diego Comic Con. It turned out that he received just as much attention as Spider-Man as he did without the costume. There was also a amusing story about how they bought a vintage Batmobile off eBay and the woman who sold it to them wrote them a letter about how glad she was it was going to a good home. They tried their best to use the car without damaging it but wound up having to trash it beyond all recognition. I also loved the Star Wars joke they could not use for the show. After the Q&A it took about five minutes to get Seth to stop talking so they could play a ten minute clip. I only watch Robot Chicken on DVD so I am not sure how much of it was new stuff and how much of it has already been on TV. It was definitely worth the hassle of getting in.

One of the key things that has made Marvel a fan favorite in recent years is their off the cuff interactions with fans. So one of the highlights of every convention, for Marvel fans, is the Cup o’ Joe panel with head man himself, Joe Quesada (and usually a few guests along). It is essentially just a panel to ask questions to Joe about anything comics related. This time around he had Jim McCann, Brian Michael Bendis, C.B. Cebulski, and Marvel’s publishing director with him to help out. There were actually a lot of questions directed at Bendis which is no surprise with Dark Reign in effect. Some memorable moments included a woman dressed as Black Cat, very well done, asking when she will get her own comic; a semi lengthy discussion about the rising price of single issue comics; and me telling stories about other Marvel panels with the guys sitting next to me.

Men Are From Kyrpton, Women Are From Paradise Island Panel was packed which for some reason surprised me. There was hardly a free seat in the room. I was tempted to go to the Dr. Who panel because hey, it’s Dr. Who but I was curious to see an analysis of gender in comics. The discussion was lively and the panelist did broaden the discussion as race and homosexuality started to come up. It was all interesting and the moderator let people go off on related tangents while making sure that everyone got back to the topic at hand. I really wanted to state that it’s important to keep in mind you can’t force sensitivity or diversity into a story. If people want stories about females, minorities, or gay characters you can request that they do so and hope that someone listens. If you force people to do it then the stories will come out as disingenuous and be horrible. The best solution is for people who really care to go out and write those stories themselves but not everyone has the time or ability to do so. It can be frustrating to not see the topics you want  addressed in a sensitive and entertaining manner. I am not sure what to say other than people have to be patient but politely vocal. Though I was unable to express this to the panelist because everyone was so engrossed.

So, so much anime and manga industry stuff on Saturday. Next up was Yen Press. Everyone was excited to see they grabbed Yotsuba&! People couldn’t be happier! Though the surprise was kind of spoiled by a flaky PowerPoint presentation. They gave books galore and it got a bit crazy. This also explained why when most industry panels and empty this one was packed. Soul Eater was clearly the crowd favorite, unfortunately for me and great for Yen Press. Funimation was right after that. I liked the new Funi media player plus they are getting a lot more series online for free. I am yet to check it out since but I plan to. They showed a lot of trailers and two dudes behind us were so annoying and loud yelling DBZ and Afro Samurai the entire time. I had a major headache after that. I also found it amusing that when people realized there would be no free stuff the room emptied fast before the panel was over.

I finished of Saturday with the Venture Brothers panel. It did not have as many panelists as last year but it was still fun. I came in just before it started so I had to sit all the way in the back. It was actually great because everyone just sat on top on their chairs to get a better view. Since they did not yet have a trailer for the fourth season, they played some deleted scenes from the third. The rest of the panel was Q&A. They kept bringing up that they killed number 24 but in their defense so did the audience. I enjoyed Doc Hammer and Jackson Public saying they were going to make sure to keep the murderous moppets around just because they were universally hated. The same Triana cosplayer that made such a big splash last year showed up again and invited the cast to have coffee with her. This of course set everyone on the panel and the audience off like nobodies business. And speaking of Triana the inevitable topic of the inexplicably popular friend Kim came up. The panelist all but said they would make sure she never came back just because people keep asking for her. I really hope they do the panel again next year because it is always one of the highlights.

My last panel was industry related, as a lot of Saturday was given to. CMX did a great job. I love this company anyway and they are truly one of the under appreciated manga publishers out there. They do a lot of good smaller manga, more obscure stuff. They did announce anything new but we got to see covers and interiors for upcoming releases. One was a mecha series that looked cool called Broken Blade! I asked them about the marketing strategy of releasing different series by the same author simultaneously rather than one after the other. It was as I hoped, they are trying to build a fan-base for the manga-ka. Also they hope you don’t feel like there is too long a break between titles if you are reading my series by the same manga-ka. I like this a lot and it does seem to help name recognition. They also seemed receptive to my and Kohaku’s opinion on some licenses, like Yoroshiku Master (which was my manga of the month recently!). This panel also became the unofficial gathering place for all the bloggers going to dinner.

I met up with everyone after the Venture Brother Panel. It took a bit of herding but we got everyone to go to dinner. At final count we had a group of 15 and had to be  separated into three groups. I was seated with Gia and John along with my old friend Eric. Gia and John were nice conversation. I was interested to find that John liked Diebuster more than Gunbuster despite seeing Gunbuster first. That is almost never the case although he made a convincing argument about the themes of Diebuster being more relevant to him. After dinner I went with Dave from Colony Drop and Carl from Ogiue Maniax to karaoke with some anime podcasters. It was awesome seeing Erin and Noah again and no one can ever get too much David Riley. Ed Chavez did an awesome rendition of Metamorphoze by Gackt. Seeing Dave and Carl back to back singing giant robot openings was quite awe inspiring especially King Gainer Over!. I was also quite happy that Carl did Century Color from Turn A Gundam. Mike Toole showed up later on to kick it up a notch. I was happy finally be able to sing karaoke with people who were not all gods but merely mortal men. It made me much more comfortable. I myself got home around 5 in the morning.

The bloggers dinner, as we are calling it, was definitely a highlight of the convention. Some of the people in attendance I had only just met at the con. There were also a few that I have hung out with before, and of course good friends too. After we split into our booths all after each other, I was with Kohaku, Carl, Dave, and Evan of Ani-Gamers. This led to many amusing discussions (and the showing of video clips when Dave’s phone felt like working). On the menu for talking was creepy teachers, never drinking Snapple again, giant robots, and Segata Sanshiro. At one point we heard what sounded like a intelligent conversation going on behind us but then we promptly put it out of our minds. I had a blast, laughed a lot, and ate a yummy cheeseburger. I took part of it home but then forgot to refrigerate it, I was rather sad about that. I went home early with Kohaku and Eric in toe.

I really only went to two panels on Sunday. I went to the VIZ panel with everyone else. The there were two big topics and several smaller announcements. First they talked more about Japanese science-fiction line. It seems to have a wide variety in the first four titles upcoming. This could open up new avenues for VIZ and anime fans if these do well. The big announcement was the licensing of Rumiko Takahashi’s new manga. As far as I can tell they licensed her new manga sight unseen. Rumiko Takahashi equals money no matter what she does. I am very curious what it is going to be about. Also it seems that this will be an almost simultaneous U.S.-Japanese release if they want it to be. I am curious how simultaneous the release will be.

What most excited me at the VIZ panel was the announcement for the Natsume Yuujinchou manga. If you have been keeping up with my ongoing investigations, I have a gushed about this series a few times. After this, Evan corralled a few of us and we headed to the press room to do a podcast for Ani-Gamers about the convention. On the way there we must have been yelled at five times for allegedly trying to cut the Joss Whedon line. Podcasting ensued with the likes of yours truly, Hisui, Scott of Anime Almanac, his friend Greg, Brigid of Manga Blog, and of course Evan himself. The conversation was lively and fluid covering topics like crowds, licenses, Yatterman and state of the industry. Go take a listen!

I then went to the Scott Pilgrim panel. I have heard quite a few good reviews of the series so I was interested to hear the author speak. Most of the audience wanted to hear about the upcoming movie but Bryan Lee O’Malley could not really say anything more than what was on the Internet. I have to say comics like Scott Pilgrim are OEL done right. American artists should take their interest in manga and let it influence their  art and their storytelling but not try to adapt the “manga style” wholesale. I can’t say the panel made me want to rush out and buy Scott Pilgrim but I will probably pick it up the next time I see it.

My final Marvel panel of the con was Mondo Marvel. It had a good number of writers and artists there. About 14 in all plus Seth Meyers and Bill Hader from SNL showed up much to the surprise of the audience. They are doing a one shot Spider-Man story called the Short Halloween. The crowd chuckled at the name in a knowing fashion which lead to Seth and Bill making the comment that this was the only crowd that would get that joke (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, there is a famous Batman story called the Long Halloween). They kind of stole the spotlight, unsurprisingly. One other cool announcement was The Marvels, it is will be taking us back to the origin of origins, the Marvel universe itself. We know certain characters came from experiments, accidents, etc. but we are going to get a look at how those organizations that caused these things came to be. Sounds like a really interesting project.

Sunday I finally got to spending some cash in the dealer’s room. I bought five Revoltech figures since it was buy three, get two free and there were only 20 dollars each. I got an Ingram, King Gainer, Gurren Lagann, Yotsuba, and Dark Saber. I was a little sad they did not have Revy but that was not unexpected. I almost got the two Valkyries but decided to have some restraint. I also went to the Yen Press both as they were giving away manga but it had been mostly picked clean. I got a copy of Black God three but not one or two.

The Exhibitors hall as always was giving away some free stuff, but seemed like less than last year. I did get a copy of the first issue and a poster of Watchmen which was cool. Sunday was the first time I set foot in artist alley and it was great! Comic cons version of this is a little different because there are actually famous comic artists and writers sitting right there! There are also amateurs, too. We saw Ryu Moto (who we have interviewed) and talked with him for a few minutes. He seemed really impressed with the convention as well. I happened by the Jim Lee booth and he was actually there! The line was also fairly short, what luck! If I had come by ten minutes later he would have been gone. I got two signatures plus he took a photo with me! This man started my love for American comics, it was a really amazing way to top of the convention.

After the con we met up with some friends. We went down to Kinokuniya and Book Off. I did not spend any money but I came very close to buying the new Kido Senshi Gundam-san manga. Mostly because it has Sayla on the cover but also because it looks funny. I learned about Blaster Knuckle and Jesus manga from Dave. Both of them seem like epically horrible, but therefore enjoyable, manga. Blaster Knuckle is about a African American in the south who has to fight flesh-eating KKK members with magical brass knuckles. I can’t casually find anything about the Jesus manga I saw at Bookoff but it was about an assassin codenamed Jesus. There is a manga called Jesus about the biblical Jesus, a romantic comedy called Jesus!, as well as another romantic comedy called Jesus Christ that was in Bessatsu Friend. I was dead tired by the end of it.

I think many of us were reluctant to have the convention end! So meeting up right after we were being kicked out seemed like a way to prolong the inevitable. And a good number of us spent even more money that we didn’t have! But really, Bookoff was having a sale, how could I resist? I was also lucky to make it out of Kinokuniya with any money at all considering Gackt was in three magazine this month. I only bought one, sigh. At about seven or so we parted ways and the magic was over. Leaving a con is like having been in another dimension for three days then coming back to reality. I came out of this con with great deals, hilarious stories, and some new friends. Overall it was one of the best, and best run, conventions I have ever been to. Next year I expect great things but I have to wonder if they can top my experience this year.

I don’t think I have ever been to a convention that was so jam packed with stuff to do. I really regret not being able to go to more anime and manga panels but that is what anime conventions are for. I wish I had been able to see Joss Whedon but I did not feel like hacking through the crowd to hear him talk on Sunday. I also regret not being able to see the Dr. Who panel but such is life. There were just so many to events attend!  There were dozens of minor problems but overall I had a blast. My greatest criticism is that next year it may be almost impossible for them to duplicate the sheer amount of things as they did this time around. NYCC is clearly become a force to rival San Diego. I am curious how the date change for NYCC 2010 will effect things but we shall cross that bridge when we get to it.

Top 5 Anime songs that must be sung at karaoke
5. Tobe! Gundam by Koh Ikeda
4. Cha-La Head-Cha-La by Hironobu Kageyama
3. Rinbu Revolution by Masami Okui
2. Yuusha-oh Tanjou! by Masaaki Endo
1. Ai wo Torimodose by Crystal King

Posted in Conventions, Events Tagged: anime industry, bloggers, fan community, fans on fans, manga industry, New York Comic Con, panels, press, Sho Sakurai, Takashi Miike, Yatterman ]]> http://reversethieves.com/2009/02/16/new-york-comic-con-2009/feed/ 6 reversethieves http://reversethieves.com/2008/07/03/animenext-2008/ http://reversethieves.com/2008/07/03/animenext-2008/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:29:13 +0000 reversethieves http://www.reversethieves.com/?p=104 ]]>

Hisui and Narutaki’s Saturday Schedule

New York Anime Festival Panel
Anime Dating Game (Cosplay)
ParaPara Dancing Workshop
Media Blasters
Gaijin in Japan
Anime and the Revolving Door of Culture Panel
Anime Recruitment

AnimeNEXT has been the convention to fill the void for the New York area since the death of BAAF (and now we have NYAF). So I have always had a fondness for it, for a small convention it has done pretty good for itself. I remember when it was still in the hotel that now houses MangaNEXT. But this year it just wasn’t quite up to the task, where are you Japanese industry guests? And you American industry?

I have always liked that AnimeNEXT was the good small local con. It’s big enough to get decent Japanese guests and a good selection of activities but small enough to really interact with the guest if you so choose. From what I can tell AnimeNEXT is not fully responsible for the lack of industry presence this year. Apparently the Japanese guests backed out at the last minute and they could not schedule new ones in time. I’m curious who they had coming. The American industry seems to be doing poorly enough that they are only focusing on major cons everyone has to attend and local cons that don’t require too much travel. Since Media Blasters and Del Rey Manga are local they showed up but for everyone else it was too much of a journey in these leans times.

As with most conventions, this one started out with a line. With all the horror stories about 6 hour line waits for registration I was a bit apprehensive. The line was no longer than normal, less than 30 minutes to get our tickets. And at least the line was in the shade and actually the weather on Saturday was really perfect for the event. Weather is extra important for NEXT because the convention is split into two buildings. I have always found this unfortunate but they really have no alternative, the convention center isn’t growing.

The line moved pretty quickly. If we had pre-registered we would have been done in seconds. I can’t say that we have ever had a problem at AnimeNEXT. For some reason anime conventions have yet to be as efficient as sci-fi/comic conventions. But I have been been lucky so far in avoiding major hassles. Also since they gave out the forms you had to fill out while you were waiting in line, it made everything run more smoothly. I have never had a big problem with the convention being split into two buildings. I definitely see how it can break the flow. But from what I saw, the cosplayers loved it because the strip between the two buildings was an active area of people hanging out. Ideally you have a situation like Otakon where the cosplay section is off to the side and the events are together in one continuous area. As you said though there really is no great solution without changing the venue.

However, we did miss the first panel we wanted to attend which was Tokyo Bound. I am always planning for my imaginary trip to Japan. So instead we headed for the dealer’s room because my next panel wasn’t for a while yet. Not too much to say about it, it was fine, good even. I found the two things I was looking for (doujin and a Kyrios 1/100 scale Gundam model) so I was pleased with the selection. There was no line for it which is indeed good management.

I myself picked up some pretty sweet Gundam 00 figures of Sumeragi and Feldt for under 20 dollars a piece so I was very happy. I was looking at a nice Kaleido-Ruby figure but was a tad overpriced and out of my spending range anyway. I was sad when I heard the doujinshi dealers missed getting their big shipment so they was less selection than we could have hoped for. They still had a good selection but I’m curious what they could have had. I almost got a very nice Phoenix Wright art book but neither me or my roommate decided to get it. Ah well, there is always Otakon.

Anime Dating Game is one of those things we went to expecting it to be really bad. Cosplayers pretending to be contestants on the dating game? But it wasn’t, it wasn’t great either, but it actually had potential. The cosplayers just needed more rehearsal but the audience was eating it up. The only other thing is you have to familiar with all the characters or it isn’t as funny. I felt like the guy playing Ace for One Piece was the most memorable and well done. He had perfect timing with his “I have a smokin’ hot body” comment.

The problem is that they tried to improvise when no body there was an improv actor. Improvisational comedy is hard for professional actors let alone random untrained cosplayers. The way to do a skit like that is to write out a script and rehearse it several times before the con. I think that way you can get some real gems. Despite my critique, the audience really loved it. I think that the Anime Dating Game is merely an idea that if pulled off with more preparation could be so very good.

ParaPara Dance Workshop was one of the highlights. None of us have done it before and we thought what the heck? We have no real qualms about embarrassing ourselves. The girls running it were enthusiastic and encouraging, so bravo to them! Though for newbies they went a little fast on the steps. I only started to catch on to one song by the end. I would like to see the panel be longer so we could go over the steps more times or cut it down to two songs instead of three. It was a lot of fun, I will definitely do it at the next con I go to. A workout at an anime convention, who knew?

Ever since my mother watch Super Gals she always asks if I go to the ParaPara demonstration at cons; my mom is an odd woman. Overall, it was fun and the instructors seemed to be having as good at time as the audience. We were rather tired after the workshop and we only had to do half as much as the girls on stage. I’m not sure they could have lasted another hour. I think that you are right in they should have only taught the dances for two songs and slowed it down a little. That ParaPara Paradise song was rather infectious. I kept singing it to myself the whole day. On a related note, I think more cons should shell out for ParaPara Paradise machines they could be the next DDR.

Unfortunately, the Cutting Edge of J-music panel was canceled. Media Blasters, there isn’t much to say about it because they didn’t say much. Though I was glad to see some industry presence there. I know industry related stuff isn’t the biggest draw at cons so maybe it is just me feeling their absences but I was really disappointed. They don’t have to make announcement (we know they save them) but at least be there hyping stuff and giving out things. It is dark days!

The fact that Media Blasters ended their panel after a half an hour because they did not have much to say was a little bit frightening considering. I assume everyone is saving their big announcements for Anime Expo, San Diego Comic Con, and Otakon. I guess it is good that no one is over licensing themselves out of business, but it is a distinct sign that times are lean. I remember at previous AnimeNEXT conventions we would get one or two title announcements. Now we have almost no industry presence and no new news. With ADV’s current health I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

We did make our way to artist alley at some point. This was a completely new area for the convention, the parking lot under the hall. It was hot and sticky and smelly! There was no ventilation, awful. I don’t do well with heat and almost passed out in artist alley by the end of it. However the artists this year were great! And a lot of them too. I talked with two girls who work on show with Nickelodeon. One for a new show called Three Delivery and the other for Dancing Sushi. Their work was strong and playful, this snagged me and ended up being my only purchases from the alley.

The stink of unwashed gamer and otaku was quite strong. I did see a group doing the Haruhi dance, the Lucky Star dance, and Caramelldansen down there. I can’t see why anyone would want to dance in that pit of stench but to each their own. I liked a lot of the artists this year. They had a good mixture of art styles. I really wanted a Saber in a suit picture from Fate/Zero or a picture of the Straw Hat Crew. But I forgot to bring reference materials. Oh well, another thing to do at Otakon.

Are you trying to make me jealous by constantly mentioning Otakon? Hum. One of the first panels I knew I wanted to attend was Gaijin in Japan. I am just uber curious about anything like this. The guy running it really seemed to know a lot, have good advice, and great stories. But the poor guy needed a longer panel or some serious time management. He barely got into the actual living and working in Japan part before it was over. I did get some good resources including the site Gaijin Pot, oddly enough Japan is in need of IT people! Of course that doesn’t help me much.

He did seem very knowledgeable and interesting so it was a shame his panel was not longer. I did like his section about the different dialects and certain speech patterns in Japan. Kansai-ben and Osaka-ben are things you always getting an inkling of in anime but never understand the full ramifications of on Japanese society. I was also interested to learn about the Japanese bus system and how it differs from the Japanese train system.

I went to the Revolving Door panel alone but since it was run by the Bad Anime! Bad! guy I was assured that it would be interesting. It was basically a look into how Japan and America keep ping ponging influences on their media back and forth. One of their examples was how William Gibson wrote Neuromancer which heavily influenced Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell and Megazone 23 in return heavily influenced The Matrix. The Matrix went on to pioneer bullet time which is used in anime. The panel was a constant stream of the back and forth between the two styles of media. Although the panelists had notes and the panel never dragged, it was run in a very conversational manner. The audience was encouraged to participate in the discussion while the panelists kept the conversation on track.

We ended the night on a high note with a panel of our own! Anime Recruitment strikes again! I am becoming less nervous as we continue to do these and one day I will be totally comfortable. I was surprised to have no tech problems, I really think that is a first. Plugged in the laptop and it was there on the screen, boom! And the panel proceeded with success. There wasn’t as many people as I was hoping for. I had forgotten that at smaller cons there are few attendees who don’t attend the masquerade. Whereas at something big, there are always lots of people about. But everyone who came seemed to leave with new knowledge. Also there were these great girls in the front row who were very excited. It was a lot of fun!

I think the panel went well and everyone got something from it. We did as well as we could with what we were given. It seemed like certain people in the audience got as many new shows to watch as they got shows to show other people. Those two girls in the front were writing notes constantly. There was one guy in the audience who was cosplaying Sean from Streetfighter who had a girlfriend that totally seemed to be dragged along to the con against her will. By the end of the panel she seemed interested in Monster and all the Satoshi Kon movies we mentioned. If nothing else it proves to me that our panel works.

AnimeNEXT was still fun, but it is hard not to have a good time with friends along. Also the convention was well run, although we are still waiting for our refund. The people running NEXT do a good job they just had some bad luck this year. And while I did attend some panels I never normally would have (even liked them) it doesn’t quite make up for it.

As far as I can tell for Kohaku and Narutaki this was a TM Revolution concert with a comic convention thrown in at no additional cost. The comic convention was fun for both of them but I have a feeling they would have paid the same price just to see TMR and been just as happy. I myself had fun at the convention but I don’t think I had anywhere the near orgasmic time that they had with the convention.

Okay, that too! But hey I still would have gone to comic-con regardless of TMR. It just so happens that he was there and I was super excited about it. But since you brought him up I will say that the concert was a lot of fun and a good length, 90 minutes. It also, surprisingly, started on time. There were a couple of girls from Japan in front of us and they knew all the dances. Me and Kohaku tried to follow along but I think we just ended up looking silly. Not to mention I have about -5% rhythm. He played all of his songs from various anime (since most of the audience probably knew him from those more than anything else). He didn’t however play my favorite song. We also went to his panel which was basically useless and annoying. He had his own interpreter and the guy never really said anything or asked any good questions. It mostly consisted of him saying, You guys love TMR, right? insert audience cheering. Same went for his event at Kinokuniya which was on Sunday. The did play the b-side from his upcoming single release which was exciting! Also me and Kohaku were a mere three feet from him and he waved! We rule.

Although I did not attend the Bandai panel they did announce some very interesting things. The first was they had the license to Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann. I don’t think anyone was really surprised that Bandai is releasing Gundam 00. I think it has the potential to be the next Gundam Wing here in the states. It’s certainly not guaranteed but it is possible. Gurren Lagann on the other hand was out of left field. Nobody knew what has going to happen to Gurren Lagann after the whole ADV/Sojitz deal fell apart. I know there are a lot of people predicting even more doom and gloom for ADV now knowing that Bandai has stepped in and snatched away ADV’s guaranteed hit of the year. I’m not sure this is any more or less of a sign that ADV is on it’s way out but it is something worth watching.

Well, you know they had Gundam Seed on TV and no one cared. So I dunno. But I only care about getting my lovely Gundam 00 DVDs so I am a happy camper. I wonder if they will start coming out before the second half is done. I would really like them right now. RIGHT NOW. The whole Gurren Lagann fiasco kind of makes me chuckle. But really I would hate to see the death of another anime company in the near future. There have been few announcements and that just does not bode well. The bubble is bursting and quite frankly I’m not surprised.

Their second announcement is that Bandai hinted/practically said outright that is there is little to no chance of Gundam X and Turn A Gundam being licensed in the U.S. in the foreseeable future. It clearly shows that Bandai is being more conservative about its already somewhat cautious outlook towards Gundam in the states. I’m pretty sure that Bandai’s mishandling of certain Gundam series in the past has a lot to do with this. I’m looking right at the original Gundam and Zeta Gundam. I think it also shows even beyond Gundam that if you are an older series your chance are slim to none of getting licensed. More and more companies are realizing that the current market schemes are not working enough as it is. Old shows will not work at all with the current methods used in the U.S. The problem is this: they are basically giving up on older titles rather than trying to find better way to sell them.

That is not really an announcement, it’s more like a confession.

Viz announced that they will be releasing Vagabond in 3 volume omnibuses and that they will be releasing One Pound Gospel to usher in the first time release of the final fourth volume of the series. I’m sure that Narutaki is thrilled that he can finally start collecting Vagabond in a slightly cheaper format. I’m probably going to be a sucker and re-buy One Pound Gospel even though I have already bought the original three manga. Because if I don’t Rumiko Takahashi will surely starve to death, penniless, in the gutter.

It seems like every time I decide today is the day I will buy Vagabond the place I go will not have the first book. So as long as they can keep this in stock for more than ten minutes hopefully I can get myself a copy. I wonder how fans of Inu-Yasha like this series in comparisons, haha. I really like One Pound Gospel in fact, it was my first encounter with Rumiko’s work. I am down the middle about her series though.

Del Ray Manga said a lot but there were only two announcements that mattered to me. The first was the fact that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei was licensed and the second was more details on Del Ray attempt at making a manga version of the X-Men. I mean I can’t not buy, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, the manga representation of my life if I were a Japanese school teacher. Despair. Despair. Despair. I am in Despair because it so accurately captures my essence.The manga versions of the X-Men just looked so silly that I’m curious how they turn out. I mean they had a version of Beast that looked very much like a certain Studio Ghibli character that rides a cat bus. Plus Kitty Pride is the main character. That makes me happy. Oh and they are going to have a separate Wolverine comic. Gosh I wonder why? Wolverine is such a minor and unpopular character. It would be like giving M.O.D.O.K. his own comic and we all know that would never happen.

Yen Press had two of the most shocking announcements of the convention. The first was Yen Press has the license for the Haruhi manga and light novel series. People have been asking for the light novels since the first episode of Haruhi popped up on fan-sub so theoretically this will make a lot of people very happy. The only thing that might make people a little wary is that Yen Press had to bring in the big guns and get Little Brown and Company to license it with them. While that means they will have a much better chance of a better translation, it could also mean that they will insist on making the story as Americanized as possible. Now I don’t think they change Haruhi and Kyon from Japan to Holly and Kyle from California but they might try and reduce the number of Japanese references as much as possible. I’m sure we can all image how the internet is going to light up if they change a reference to Ayumi Hamasaki to Britney Spears.

Yen Press fills me with love. They are nice to talk to and they happen to be picking up some really great work. I will take this moment to say I love Spiral! Two thumbs up. I am definitely curious to see how the Japanese-isms for go over in the Haruhi books. Although with the covers they have, people are going to be mistaking it for manga at first glance. I doubt it will end up anywhere else in the bookstore. Also Ayu is 1000% more talented that Britney Spears. So there. Yes Press also brought Judith Park, a manhwa creator, to the convention. They gave away the first book in her series they are releasing and you could jump right in line to get it signed. Which we did. It took a while a we read a bit of the manga before we got up to her. She was drawing pictures for everyone! What a treat! And on the last day of the con, as an added bonus, all the books at their book were just 5 bucks! Score.

The second shocking announcement was that Yen Press is starting their own manga anthology line much like Shonen Jump USA. I think it is definitely something to watch. It looks like it has enough going for it that it might succeed but enough against it that it could crash and burn with force of a thousand suns. The anthology will be called Yen Plus and it will contain a mixture of manga, manhwa, and American comics. All the manga in the magazine will come from Square Enix for the first two years. So it will be running Soul Eater and Nabari No Ou. Narutaki and I are both assuming that those titles maybe the two shows that get the most chatter on the fun-sub circuit this season. Also Higurashi, Bamboo Blade, and Sumomomo will be seen. I like Higurashi, heck I made it my anime of the month, but I’m not sure how much fandom it has outside of a cult following. From what I know of Bamboo Blade it seems generally cute but I can’t see it as being a huge seller. Sumomomo Momomo looks very silly but other than the general story and that it has an anime I don’t know much about it. As I mentioned in our first article Svetlana Chmakova is the only OEL artist I like so I guess she is the best pick for the OEL section. I had never heard of Maximum Ride before the Comic Con but it seems wildly popular. I know next to nothing about manhwa so I don’t know how good or popular Pig Bride or Jack Frost are.

While I like the ideas of anthology series, I don’t buy the ones that are out now and this one seems an even less likely buy for me personally. But it is a nice way of sampling a whole lot of things at once. There are so many other resources for helping me with my choices. Beside that, the manga has either already finished or is far ahead in Japan which seems to take away some of the point of the monthly anthology. And while I do steal Shonen Jump USA from Hisui’s brother to read Bleach I find it more of an annoyance than anything else. I would rather my manga be coming out faster.

I remember Dallas Middaugh mentioning that the only way he felt that a new manga anthology could succeed in the U.S. was for it to have a popular title on Television and I have to agree with him. I feel in order for this magazine to succeed they need to get either Soul Eater and/or Nabari No Ou on Cartoon Network. The Maximum Ride manga will help the magazine greatly but I think it needs both of these factors to be financially viable.

Yes, James Patterson is insanely popular. Personally, I can’t understand why. And although I have never Maximum Ride, I’ve actually talked to quite a few people that thought it was quite terrible along with its sequel. But he does sell well, though I don’t know if that is just adults buying is younger literature. I suspect a good portion are.

I’m not sure if I’m the only person who did not know about this but it seems that Dark Horse has picked up the rights to CLAMP’s Clover and is releasing all four books in one 20 dollar collection. I wonder if this means that Dark Horse is going to pick up all of the old CLAMP series that TokyoPop’s licenses have run out on. I also wonder if this means that Dark horse is interested in building more than just a seinen line or if they just realize that CLAMP is money in the bank. It might also just be part of the deal for that new manga CLAMP is writing for Dark Horse starting in 2009.

As far as the dealers room went there wasn’t a whole lot of anime and manga related stuff to speak of. TokyoPop had a great big set-up but the price of manga was the same. There were quite a few industry booths displaying figures but most of it was not for sale. However Square Enix had some very nice pieces for sale but the most enticing stuff was the preview for the coming year of their figures. Like the amazingly beautiful Leneth from Valkyrie Profile at a whooping 420 dollars!

Comic Con is one of those professionally run conventions where it would be more surprising if it did not run smoothly. It had a wide vareity of comics, anime, and video game related subjects. A nerd paradise. If nothing else I really enjoyed the Venture Brothers panel. The Venture Brothers panel is always livey and fun. The fact that I got to see a preview of season 3 was just icing on the cake. All in all I think we both had a great time.

Everything went fine for me. Though I did see the IGN theater was running behind thanks to those pesky technical difficulties. But really the whole experience was wonderful! I definitely think it fills me up with geek culture, rather than just anime. I saw Stan Lee. STAN LEE. So if you have hobbies outside of anime in the nerd realm it is a perfect catch all.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Kaiba
Reading Dragon Eye
Listening to Chihiro Onitsuka

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Macross Frontier
Reading With the Light
Listening to DANZEN! Futari wa Precure by Mayumi Gojo

Top 5 things I did at Comic Con
5. Getting exclusive Marvel Civil War Minimates
4. Going to the Cup o Joe Panel
3. Getting my book signed by Shannon Hale
2. Going to the Stan Lee Panel
1. Seeing the T.M.R. concert

The Harold and Maude Award or Favorite Classic Manga Release:
To Terra
It is so rare to get older, 70′s titles. But I feel it is even rarer to find old shojo titles,
hopefully this will be changing in the next few years. It was nice find a serious, sci-fi story that had a solid story and characters. While looking at real world issues, it doesn’t losing any of its charm coming from the fantastical elements.

Ode To Kirihito
“Ode to Kirihito is moving, tender and engrossing. Also very, very odd.”
—Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman and Anansi Boys
If Neil Gaiman likes it, it has to be good. At 832 pages for $25 you definitely get your money’s worth with this classic Tezuka work. One of Tezuka’s more mature works, it follows the story of a doctor who contracts a disease that makes him more bestial than human. It then becomes his quest to restore his humanity and at the same time is a examination of what makes someone human.

Burn this Book or Worst Thing I Read:
Rurouni Kenshin: Voyage to the Moon
I think I was a bit spoiled because the first translated light novel I read was Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow, and it was well done. This one was either translated horribly or just not good to begin with, unfortunately I will never know. The characters seem odd in prose form; the movements were very stilted and awkward; the fight scenes were boring and matter-of-fact. There seemed to be zero that reminded me of the greatness of the manga series.

Pretty Face
“Rando struggles to be a good “big sister” to Rina as fate conspires to put him in one disastrous situation after another. When pants start coming off, and half-naked women start crawling all over him for the thinnest of reasons, Rando must use all his karate wiles to avoid being exposed as a complete weirdo. Meanwhile, will the mad Dr. Manabe succeed in his plan to remove the last remnants of Rando’s manhood…or will Rando remove Dr. Manabe’s brains with his fist? It’s 7.5 inches of manga heaven!”
-Ad copy for Pretty Face Book 2

I admit I have not read this per-say but all the ad copy for it makes it seem so very bad. It’s like the most messed up shonen romance show premise I have heard in a while. Even Boku to Kanojo no XXX and Midori Days seem sort of cute compared to Pretty Face. Maybe it’s really good but everything about it makes me not want to give it a chance.

Hot, Wet Nobu or Best News of the Year:
Death Note Movies
Death Note movies have been licensed and the third movie (all about L) is coming out in Japan! They may even get a big screen release here in the states. Really loved these two films and am anxious to watch them again and own them for myself! Also can’t wait for the new movie, surely only made because they realized too late that everyone really loved L in the series and not Light. Yay for L fan service!

ImaginAsia getting into Anime
ImaginAsia really seems to understand how to pick up and distribute older and/or niche series and actually make a profit. If anime companies are going to continue to license older series and distribute them on DVD, they just might have to do it how ImaginAsia has been doing it.

DearS Season 2 or Worst News of the Year:
Geneon closes down
Bye, bye Geneon. I for one am very sad to see you go. Especially in mid-release of some good shows! They did a quality job and picked up some beautiful, but not super marketable shows.

Okiku Furikabutte made into anime
I guess it would be too easy for me to pick Geneon’s death as well; so I’m going with Okiku Furikabutte being made into an anime. What I have seen of this show makes it seem like moe for girls. It is nothing but shota yaoi doujinshi fodder and a side order of actual baseball manga. The main character is a useless crybaby and everything seems to be designed to be eaten up by horrible Fujoshi.

Just Shut You Mouth Already or Things I Wish People Would Stop Talking About:
Nymphet Controversy
Kodomo no Jikan! It is a horrible thing but seriously what else is there to say about it that hasn’t been said yet? Could there be a week gone by where this topic isn’t broach yet again.

Why fan-subbers are saints and heroes
I know that part of the industry’s problems come from their inability and refusal to adapt to the fact that the internet changes everything; but that does not make every fan-subbing group a bunch of faultless white hats and untouchable heroes. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Fan-subbers can be cool and do a service to the American anime community but that does not forgive the bad groups that don’t follow the rules of proper fan-sub etiquette. It also does not mean that fan-subs are only good and that they don’t sometimes hurt American fans on certain levels.

Peanutbutter and Relish Sandwich or Show I Unexpectedly Liked:
Hayate the Combat Butler
Hayate no Gotoku! It just sounded kind of “eh.” But after a friend of mine described the first episode to me, I was laughing out loud, and I had to see it for myself. It’s so wacky and ridiculous that it infectiously makes you laugh. So, while it isn’t some earth scattering series that will change your life, you can bet you will have a lot of fun watching it.

Kekkaishi
I expected Kekkaishi to be a generic shonen fighting show. But I think it takes the tried and true shonen formula, then tweaks it enough to make it something that stands out from the pack. Kekkaishi’s focus on the romance while not making it overbearing is refreshing. Also every episode seems to add to the world and plot without seeming like a stall for time. Then the fact that the female character is not just a damsel in distress or eye candy. Added to them not pulling punches and killing characters. All this and more makes it a very unusual and refreshing show. Too bad no one cares.

Can You Stop Playing That Please or Favorite Opening:
“Sha la la -Ayakashi NIGHT” by Saeka Uura
This is a tough one. I really love the song in the Gundam 00opening (it is L’arc-en-Ciel afterall) and also loved the catchy tunes from Lovely Complex. But overall awes