Category: Events

Otakon 2011: The Convention Promised in Our Early Days

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July is the month of the big three in America. It contains Anime Expo, San Deigo Comic Con, and Otakon all back to back. Otakon always tries to equal or exceed Expo while trying to outdo itself as well. This leads to some wonderful shows for us out on the East coast. As if inspired by last year’s NYAF, this year Otakon is filled with premiere movies along with their normal stellar line up of guests and events. The crown jewel in the events is certainly Makoto Shinkai and his latest work Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. But there are also a slew of other spectacular guests among them a Hetalia contingent as well as Masao Maruyama and the Madhouse secrets he brings. As always there is a swarm of bloggers, podcasters, superfans, and BNFs including an international crew this year. We can’t guarantee this will be the best Otakon ever but it will undoubtedly be unforgettable. We recorded a micro-podcast (less than 12-minutes long) detailing our plans in case you don’t feel like reading this post.

Pre-Otakon podcast

Our tentative panel schedule:

Friday:

09:00: Best Manga You Never Read (That’s us!)
10:00: Japanamerica
11:00: Remembering Satoshi Kon
12:30: Bunkraku premiere
01:30: Journey through the CLAMP Universe
03:00: Angel ScandyS Q&A
04:00: Japan’s Apocalyptic Imagination in Anime, Manga and Art
05:00: Otakon Game Show: Qualification Quiz!
06:00: Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing
08:00: Otakon Game Show!
11:00: Bad Anime, Bad!!
12:30: Let’s Play Ero-ge!

Saturday:

09:00: Gyaru Culture Revealed: Destroying the Myths
10:00: Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below premiere
10:00: Masao Maruyama Q&A
11:00: Noboru Ishiguro Q&A
12:00: Mythbusters: Anime Edition
01:00: Special Surprise premiere
03:00 Investigating Detective Anime (That’s us!)
04:00: Vertical Industry Panel
05:30: Atsuhiro Iwakami Q&A
05:30: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos premiere
07:30: Underrated Mecha Anime
09:00: Bandai Entertainment After Dark!
11:00: Cyborgs, Cybernetics and Metal Men
12:30: Anime’s Craziest Deaths

Sunday:

09:00: Toei Tokusatsu, 35 Sentai & 40 Years of Kamen Rider
10:30: Japanese Directors & Producers
12:30: Japan’s IP (Intellectual Property) Problem
12:30: Kylee concert

Podcasting the Highlights of Summer

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For everyone who has a long trip to Otakon I have decided to give you another Pre-Otakon podcast for your journey. I returned to the Nigorimasen! podcast hosted by Tom alongside Patz from Insert Disc and Donald from Otaku no Podcast. It is like two podcasts in one as we talk about the 2011 Summer anime season in the first part and our Otakon plans in part 2. We start by gushing about the anime we loved this season and cursing the foul names of the anime that hurt us. Thankfully none of us sat through Titty Chop (aka Manyuu Hikenchou) so our brains were still intact for this podcast. After that we strategized for out Otakon battle plans. There is quite a bit to do and see in Baltimore this weekend so hopefully we will give you some good tips and make you aware of events you might have overlooked.

Nigorimasen Podcast #12: Low-Rent Victorique

AnimeNEXT 2011: Panels

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When it comes to panels AnimeNEXT has its own draw as a mid-sized convention. While they will not accept any darn panel they are pretty fast and loose with what they accept as long as you make a convincing argument. It makes it the perfect place to test out new panels, play with old ones, or try radially unusual topics. All four panels we ran were either new panels or majorly overhauled from the last time we ran them. At the same time the convention is big enough that most panels get a good draw no matter how esoteric. But don’t let me fool you into thinking AnimeNEXT is the amateur hour. There are some great high-level panels as well as wildly popular clip show presentations. AnimeNEXT has a solid enough panel lineup so that you always have something do.

AnimeNEXT is a place of familiar faces, even if you’ve never spoken to them directly. This is never more true than when attending panels. You get a variety of veterans who run a number of panels old and new. I like to think we are included in that bunch by this point as well. But there are also new people throwing their hats into the ring.

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