Month: June 2011

AnimeNEXT 2011: Production I.G

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 Lucky for us AnimeNEXT has hosted people from the esteemed Production I.G studio back to back. Last year it was director Kenji Kamiyama and for 2011 key animator Satoru Nakamura along with storyboarder and episode director Koudai Kakimoto visited the New Jersey convention. They are key parts to what makes the studio unforgettable and known for good quality. While they weren’t announced till very close to the con, that didn’t prevent them from being a bright spot in the weekend.

Just like Otakon recently always has someone from Madhouse every year I wonder if we will regularly have a guest from Production I.G at AnimeNext. Production I.G is a great studio so if this remained a trend I would hardly be upset. Satoru Nakamura may not be as flashy a name as Kenji Kamiyama but he has a celebrated career in the animation industry and has worked on titles as diverse as Macross Plus and Steamboy to Hyper Doll and the U.S. cartoon Galaxy High School. Plus we got some amazing news out of the Production I.G panel that put Narutaki into a state of pure orgasmic bliss. One line alone was enough to make it all worth while.

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AnimeNEXT 2011: General Impressions

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AnimeNEXT has become something of a tradition at this point. Discussing it at the con I realized I’d been going since even before the move to Secaucus, let alone the move to Somerset. I haven’t been every year since my first one but nowadays it seems like I wouldn’t know it was summer until AnimeNEXT comes along. This year they celebrated their 10th anniversary and they’ve had many changes over that time. This year had some great moments but also some bumps as always.

When I went to Castle Point Anime Convention this year I stated I should put my money where my mouth is and do more panels. So at AnimeNEXT 2011 Narutaki and I did more panels than a busy Bob Vila. In fact we did a combined total of five panels this year. Four were Reverse Thieves originals and I also did a guest spot on an Ani-Gamers panel as well. I will go into that more when we talk about panels later in the week but it was unusual that Friday was my busy day  and Saturday was more of a casual day. I think that has a lot to do with the cosplay masquerade going on but it was mostly just a fluke of how the panels were divided up this year. Other than that the highlight of the convention was Satoru Nakamura who has some fairly impressive credentials as a key animator. This once again solidified AnimeNEXT 2011 as a strong midsized con that has many of the perks of the biggest cons in the US while having the more relaxed atmosphere of a local con. That always makes it a great con to attend and talk about.

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Gosick #021: The Prestige

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Victorique, Kazuya, Grevil go to dig up the grave of Nicole Leroux. Do the final fragments of chaos still exist for Victorique to provide definitive proof of who murdered Coco Rose? What does the alchemist Leviathan have to do with the current mystery even we thought his story was complete. Even if Victorique can solve the murder she is still trapped between the rock and the hard place that is the war between the Ministry of the Occult and the Science Academy. Is there any safe way out?

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