(note: No Type-Moon Weekly News Round Up or All Points Bulletin this week)
Rejoice! It is Otakon time once again!
This year’s guests include a number of staff from GARO the Animation, Masao Maruyama, Yuichiro Hayashi, Yasuaki Iwase, Toru Kubo, and Romi Park. Other exciting guests include Shinji Takamatsu (director of Brave Police J-Decker, Gundam Wing, Gundam X, Daily Lives of High School Boys), Seiji Kishi (director of Hamatora, Persona 3 and 4 anime, Game of Laplace), Toshiyuki Toyonaga (voice actor of Mikado Ryugamine in the DURARARA!!, Flit in Gundam AGE, Mahiro in Blast of Tempest), and Ei Aoki (director of Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero).
With all those guests plus fan panels and other activities, Otakon promises (as always) to be a delightfully exhausting weekend.
We got panels, be sure to attend!
Sat. 7:00PM – I Hate Sports: A Sports Anime Panel
Panel 5
Sat. 9:30PM – New Anime for Older Fans
Panel 5
Our tentative schedule for the convention:
Friday
09:00 AM – The Nose Goes!!!: A FKMT Panel
10:00 AM – Shinji Takamatsu autograph session
10:15 AM – 70s Anime Funtime! panel
11:30 AM – MAPPA w/ Maruyama panel
12:45 PM – Kuro Fashion: African-American Influence in Animation and Japan panel
12:45 PM – I Love the 90s: Anime Edition panel
03:15 PM – Durarara!! Guest panel
04:30 PM – Shinji Takamatsu Q&A panel
04:30 PM – Garo: The Animation Official Panel
07:00 PM – The 3/11 Earthquake and Manga panel
08:15 PM – Feminism and Lesbian Representation in Yurikuma Arashi panel
08:45 PM – Skin Deep: A Historical Look at Diversity in Anime & Beyond panel
09:30 PM – Macross: The Walking Shadow panel
11:45 PM – Terror in Resonance: A Cultural Analysis panel
Saturday
09:00 AM – Fansite Bootcamp panel
10:15 AM – Awesome Women in Anime; 2.0. panel
11:30 AM – Seiji Kishi Q&A panel
12:00 PM – Maid Cafe Show
12:45 PM – The World Outside the Walls: Militarism and the Individual in Anime panel
02:00 PM – Aldnoah.Zero Guest panel
02:00 PM – Otakon is Alive with the Sounds of Anime panel
03:15 PM – Romi Park Q&A panel
03:15 PM – Sekai Project industry panel
05:45 PM – Shirobako and the Real Anime Industry panel
05:45 PM – Behind the Stand: Jojo’s Bizarre Discography panel
08:15 PM – The Wanderer’s History: The History Behind Rurouni Kenshin panel
08:15 PM – Bits of Victory – A Game Design Panel
10:30 PM – Anime Luminaries of Questionable Merit panel
11:45 PM – Twinfinite’s Shame-free Intro to Adult Visual Novels panel
Sunday
09:00 AM – The Ikuhara Trio: Analyzing Themes in Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum, and Yurikuma Arashi panel
10:15 AM – Art of Animation Featuring GARO panel
10:15 AM – Great Ugly Manga panel
12:00 PM – Breaking down the membership fee panel
12:45 PM – Discotek Media industry panel
So I just checked the statics for the site. Beside of course the United States, the country we have gotten the most traffic from this year is France. So on the off-chance we have a small but silent French readership (as opposed to people just coming to the site for pictures) I decided to write this post.
So Kate’s old advice is NEVER look at the guest listing for Japan Expo France because it will only cause you heartbreak when you see who they get every year. I normally follow her advice BUT I can’t help what I randomly see on Twitter. Anyone who has talked to me for more than a month usually notices that I will bring up Type-Moon and Hayate the Combat Butler whenever I can. Naturally that also means that I follow Kenjiro Hata, the author of Hayate, on Twitter. So I just saw a tweet from him about be excited to pack for his big trip to France. At first I was just glad he was getting out of the studio and having some fun. Mangaka stepping away from their titles is often good for their health and creativity. Then it hit me what time of the year it was. It was no a regular vacation. He was going to Japan Expo. A quick check proved my deduction was correct.
So here is where I ask for help. I can’t make it to Japan Expo. That is just crazy talk. BUT someone who regularly reads the blog might be going. So I have three requests.
1. Could anyone get me Kenjiro Hata’s autograph? I know that getting a mangaka’s autograph can eat up a chunk of your convention but I figure it can’t hurt to ask. He is probably my favorite mangaka. If I can’t meet him then getting his autograph would be the next best thing. I’m willing to do some sort of autograph exchange from anyone at Otakon his year if that makes the offer more tempting.
2. If that is too much all I would ask is that someone attend his panel and tell me what is said there. The more information about Kenjiro Hata, Hayate, and/or Seiyu’s Life! I could get the happier I would be.
3. If anyone attends one of his panels and does not have their own question during Q&A I would love if anyone could ask any of the follow questions:
I hate to have to beg like this but I am not sure if I will get another chance like this anytime soon. If it were anyone else I would not be so adamant about it. I admit this is a crazy shot in the dark but I would greatly appreciate any of this if someone had the ability to help me out.
Reverse Thieves 