Category: Conventions

Scheduling with my Anime NEXTel

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(note: No Ongoing Investigations this week.)

I have always enjoyed AnimeNEXT because for a mid-sized con it often goes that extra mile to feel like a top 10 North American anime convention, even when it is not. But one of the things that has saddened me recently is the lack of a blockbuster Japanese industry guest. 2013 is a return to form with Hiroshi Shimizu and Sayo Yamamoto which makes me remarkably happy. It is a Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine one-two punch. Hiro Usuda is also pretty fascinating and adds to the solid Japanese guest factor. On the American side, I am pretty sure Mike Toole will get some major crushes amount internet fandom.

Sadly, Narutaki is far too cool and busy to visit the plebeians in New Jersey in the flesh but she will be there in spirit. So here is my tentative schedule. I have highlighted my panels for anyone who want to see my solo work.

Friday
10:30 General Mecha Panel
12:00 Female Stereotypes in Shojo and Josei Manga
01:00 Directing an Anime
02:00 Creating a Manga From Start to Finish
03:00 Anime Pilots & Precusors
04:00 Conventions: 101
05:00 The Beautiful Backgrounds of Anime
06:00 Mike Toole’s Bad Anime By Great Creators
07:00 Awesome Animation Not From Japan
09:00 Vertical Industry Panel – 2013
10:00 The Measure of Man. The Nature of a Hero: A Fate/Stay Night Panel (18+) {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}
11:00 These are a Few of Our Favorite Scene

Saturday
10:00 Anime Under The Radar
11:00 Tales of the Strange (Visual Novels)
01:00 American Comics for Manga Fans
3:00 Kill Em All and Let Sunrise Sort them Out: A Yoshiyuki Tomino Panel {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}
04:00 Mike Toole’s Dubs that Time Forgot
05:00 Sayo Yamamoto Animation Panel
06:00 Post Apocalypse Manga: Surviving the Wasteland
07:00 Shoujo Manga For Men
08:00 Manga: Licensing, Acquisitions and Publishing
9:00 The 156,804,000 Yen Panel: Being a Better Otaku through Hayate {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}

Sunday
10:00 Jojo’s Posing School
11:00 10 years of Anime Fandom: A Retrospective
12:00 Sayo Yamamoto
01:00 Moon Stream, Sayo Yamamoto and Hiroshi Shimizu Autograph Session
02:00 The Good, The Bad & Ugly In Anime

Return of the No Brand Heroes

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The more anime bloggers you get to attend any given convention the probability that a podcast will occur increases exponentially for each writer that you add. So with that in mind it was almost inevitable that a podcast would come out of Genericon this year. I joined Evan Minto, Dave Estrella, Ink, Ed Chavez, Walt Amos, and Tim Maughan to talk about our experiences at the convention. Well we eventually start talking about Genericon. It takes a bit. But such is any large roundtable without Narutaki to run it like a regiment.

Genericon XXVI Roundtable

Genericon 2013

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I will begin this convention report with a bit of a confession. I have always felt like a C-Grade celebrity in the general anime community. I have enough of a career to have the equivalent of a  decent sized IMDB page but I am never going to attend the anime Oscars expect as a seat filler. So being asked to be a featured panelist at a smaller convention like Genericon might not be the starring role in a blockbuster or an awards bait show. I see it more a juicy role in a strong indy film. You might not get the same acclaim but it still feels very rewarding.

As one can guess with a name like Genericon the subject matters involved is going to be slightly esoteric. While the convention started as a science fiction convention it has expanded to include gaming, anime, comics, and other nerdy hobbies. So that means when you see all the Homestuck, My Little Pony, Adventure Time, and Dr. Who cosplayers they are not out-of-place. Oddly enough they were about as common as you would see at any anime convention. That alone seems like a very telling statement. But with Evan Minto as the convention chair this year there was a bit of an anime bias. But that has been present since I attended two years ago. And one of the guests of honor with year was Tim Maughan so the convention had both an anime related guest and a strong science fiction related guest all in one package. Kyle Hebert did add to the anime related content as well but he is no stranger to doing work with video games as well.

So the convention comes down to a simple question: Is the Generic brand equal to the quality of the commercial brand convention but lower price?

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