The Anime Chop Shop

Secret Santa Project: Haibane Renmei

2009-12-24T15:09:00.008-06:00

The wonderful duo over at the Reverse Thieves had a great idea to do a Secret Santa for bloggers. It was a project to expand our viewing and hopefully, introduce us to shows that we might not had seen but might enjoy.

The show I selected as part of my "Secret Santa" was Haibane Renmei, a 13-part series from 2002 that chronicles the life of Rakka, a Haibane who is the newest edition to the girls living at Old Home - a place for Haibane, in the city of Glie.

So, what is Haibane Renmei about? Or, better yet, what the hell is a Haibane? Well, it can be best summed as follows - there is a world, not too unlike our own, where people live in a city that is bound by walls. Nobody is allowed to go outside these walls, and that seems to be a perfectly acceptable thing for everyone. Then there are the Haibane - they are born in big cocoons that randomly appear in a house, and within a few days of being 'hatched' - sprout wings, and are given a halo to wear around on their head, making them look like tiny angels. And, on top of this, we know that these people who are born in cocoons come from somewhere else, but we don't know where, and we are never told. They also retain none of the memories of their former lives, but retain all knowledge of simple cultural etiquette and day-to-day activities.

Make sense so far? Confused yet? Well, that isn't too surprising. I am as good as anyone about suspending a certain level of disbelief for a show, especially when it comes to anime, but Haibane Renmei feels like it was two really good ideas for two completely different series, and the creator decided to just slice them together and see how it would turn out. The result was disappointing, not because of a seeming lack of effort, but because it seems like the series was not executed correctly, and the storytelling suffers for it, though it is not without it's strong points.

One of the strong points of the show is the characters. They are diverse, the central component to the plot, complex, well-developed, and have personality. If the characters had been weak, then this show would have been nearly beyond the point-of-no-return if not outright miles on the other side. First there is Rakka, the protagonist and newest member of the Haibane. We learn about the world through her eyes and from there we begin to see the conflicts develop that will eventually become the focal point for the show. She is naive without being stupid, and seems to learn well without loosing her optimism, which is one of the characters strongest points.
Then there is Reki, the oldest Haibane in Old Home and a source of both wisdom and care for the other Haibane. She is kind and caring while also being stubborn as a mule, and it makes her perdicament later in the show make a bit more sense, albeit not much more so.
The rest of the Haibane characters are interesting enough on thier own merits, but the problem is they mostly take back seats after the first few episodes of exposition. The characters that are seen the most, and become the most vital to the plot are Rakka and Reki.

As stated earlier, the plot for Haibane Renmei is one half the stuff you've already been told - the mystery of this world, so much like ours yet so very different in the most subtle of ways. It actually intrigued me and I was hoping that by the end the world wouldn't be so veiled in subtle mystery. However, all we're basically told by the end is "sometimes, after a while, if they've been good, a Haibane gets to leave and go over the walls" - which is forbidden to anyone else, save for the mysterious Toga, who are never really explained well (or at all, really) but seem to know all the secrets of the world. They're like rude storytellers, leaving you on a cliffhanger without giving you a reason why they won't tell you anything or some kind of enticement to come back for more. Overall, this part of the show, the world and what the Haibane are, is well established but never really followed up on, and left me with a lot of questions that I felt like at least in part, should have been answered.

The latter half of the series felt shoehorned, and if the Haibane themselves had been developed better and the world had been better revealed, then it might not have been so bad and felt like a detraction from what was supposed to be the main story. Basically, Haibane leave at a certain point. The Day of Flight, as they refer to it. It's when a Haibane goes into the forest, and the only way to mark thier passage to whereeveritis they go, is a column of light.

Now, what brings the series up in dramatic action and encompasses the last bit of the show is this: when a Haibane is in a cocoon, they have a dream. If they remember that dream, then things are all fine and dandy. If they don't though - they are considered to be 'Sin-bound' and their wings turn all black. And a Sin-bound Haibane will not live a good life and on their Day of Flight will not be able to leave, but will instead retire into solitude to die alone. Rakka comes close to this, but realizes that admitting she is sinful and not worrying about being sinful or not was just a cycle so that if she just admits it and doesn't worry about it that she'll be ok and cleanse herself. Yeah, it didn't really make sense to me either.

Reki's time for her Flight is quickly approaching, but she is still a Sin-bound Haibane. In the series final episode, Rakka is able to help Reki break free from her despair and she is able to leave on her day to go to wherever the Haibane go. And...

...that's where it ends. What starts out as a show about this world and what these people are turns into a show about having faith in yourself, not being a liar, and asking people for help when you need it. Oh, and being nice, too. The series ends on that abrupt note, with Reki leaving and everyone seeming pretty happy about things. Even though the character who starts this whole part of the story goes on her Day of Flight, everyone and their mother freaks about about it.

I know it sounds like I probably hate this show. And I don't. But I don't like it much either. The animation quality seem to be a crap shoot from episode to episode, with some looking gorgeous and others looking like the budget had been cut (or saved for other episodes). The dialoge is actually pretty good, and I do like that some mystery is still present in the world for the entire show. Makes it more interesting that way and keeps me wondering what will come next. It's only a disappointment when none none of my questions were really answered.

On the whole, this is a hard show to grade. I like the characters, I like the designs for the show - the characters, the music, the setting, were all realy good. The characters are even well developed too. But the Haibane just arn't focused on enough as far as what they are or where they go or anything and that pretty irritating. The plot, as I said earlier, is one-half mystery show about this place and these people with wings and halos (which, by the way, they never even expalin why they have to get halos - they come out of a mold and just 'float' on your head - no reason given) and then a story about feelings and what it means to be friends and...*sigh*

The show has really big ups and really big downs. It's hard to recommend it without making it sound like I think this show is complete garbage. It's only 13 episodes, so it's not a whole lot outta your life if you wanna see it for yourself. And who knows, maybe if I re-watched it again things might make more sense and I might get more stuff that I could have missed. And maybe I will, someday. But for now, let me leave you with this:

Reverse Thieves, thank you for putting this together. It was a fun project and I look forward to similar events in the future! Thank you all so much and Merry Christmas!

Girls with Guns. And Violins. (Or: Gunslinger Gilr - The Viridian Collection)

2009-10-26T05:34:00.002-05:00

Gunslinger Girl is an interesting show. I say this for a number of reasons. To start with, its influences are numerous, one of the more noted ones being The Professional, staring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman in her first film role as a 12-year old who ends up befriending a hit man in order to get revenge on the crooked cop who murdered her family. While this show is most certainly different from that premise significantly, the basic concept still plays – as the description on the box lays out, this show is about several young girls, who were either injured or left for dead for various reasons are given a second lot at life through work with the Social Welfare Agency in Italy. In truth, these girls have all become subjects for experiments in cybernetic implants, advanced weapons training, and conditioning to develop the ultimate in both covert and effective assassins.

Sounds pretty intense, huh? Well, it is. The concept of small girls wielding firearms with the accuracy of trained professionals is pretty startling, especially in the very first episode when the youngest of the girls, standing innocently with her Amati violin case in the hall of a hotel, suddenly leaps into action, killing several members of a resistance movement in mere seconds.

The story centers around five girls and their handlers, which are collectively referred to as fratello (which means "Brother" in Italian). The handlers each train the girls in their own unique way, choosing which aspects to focus on in their training and how to help them develop outside of that as well. Some of them are more gentle, buying gifts or toys for their girl, while others are a bit more harsh and strict. It draws a very interesting dichotomy within the Social Welfare Agency, as each handler seems as unique as the girl he has been pared with.

Read Full Review @ AMN

Cellphones In Space! (Or: Voices of a Distant Star)

2009-10-26T05:26:00.003-05:00

I find it quite incredible sometimes, the level and quality of work someone can put out all on their own. Voices of a Distant Star is a piece like that. The entire production, while less than half an hour long, was all done by creator Makoto Shinkai on his Macintosh. If you think about it, that’s pretty incredible. Not only did he make this entirely on his own, but it was also picked up and released to the public. Makoto Shinkai went on to make other shows as well, similar in style to this – 5 Centimeters per Second being the most recent.Now, what is Voices about? How much can you really put into an OVA that’s less than half an hour? Well, the answer is quite a bit. The story centers around two young lovers, and how distance and time, while keeping them apart, doesn’t keep them far from each other’s thoughts or love.

There is a very loose, simple plot that this story revolves around, but, this story is very simple, and is not really meant to be the focus of the OVA. It’s more a background for what is really the focus of the story – love. Mikako and Noboru are two young lovers who met in high school, and things seemed to be going very well for them, until an alien race attacked Mars. Filled with a sense of duty and a desire to explore, Mikako joins the military to take the fight to the aliens in space.This pretty much begins within the first five minutes of the OVA, leaving twenty minutes of intense space battle action with giant robots. Yes, you read that correctly, and I’ll do it again for good measure – there are giant robots and space battles. Awesome! A giant robot space battle anime! Right? Right? Well, not quite…You see, there are space battles, and giant robots—and they look great, especially considering the one-man production staff—but they fill only a small portion of the show. The aliens are from a very distant star system, and so the military forces are slowly making their way through the solar system, going to Pluto and beyond.

Read Full Review @ AMN

70% style and 29% Heart (Or: Air Gear - The Complete Box Set)

2009-10-26T05:20:00.003-05:00

Leave it to me to go in, expecting one thing, have my expectations met (in the worst way possible) and then have them absolutely shattered within the last five episodes of the show. What do I mean exactly? Well, what I mean is I went into Air Gear not expecting a whole lot, cause it was a show that hadn’t made a huge splash yet, and within the first few episodes, I saw that there was a reason for it – a half-thrown together plot with gratuitous fan-service inserted for no real reason other than just that – fan-service. While I don’t object to it as an idea, sometimes in this show, it goes a bit over the top. However, as the show went on, it got slightly better, the characters becoming more fleshed out and the plot developing from nothing into at least something, and while it doesn’t end a whole lot higher than it started, it did actually improve somewhat – a fact I found rather sad considering it happens within the last quarter of the show. It doesn’t take itself seriously very often either; but the odd thing is, it works. Overall the show ends up playing to its strengths a lot more and turns out to be a worthwhile investment, if not a serious one.

The show centers around Ikki Menami, your typical high school kid with his head in the clouds and always chasing the next pretty girl that walks by him. He isn’t the smartest guy in the world, but he makes up for it with his seemingly endless supply of spunk and heart. Sound familiar? If it does, that’s because Ikki begins as a very typical shonen character, and for a while no real depth is introduced to his character. He falls into the realm of generic action hero for a good portion of the show, but is redeemed further down the road by actually showing signs of learning from his mistakes, as well as displaying a times a creativity born from desperation that is all too endearing to him. Combine this with his steadfast dedication to his friends and protecting them, and Ikki, by the show’s end, becomes a character that most of us see inside of ourselves at time, and I think everyone eventually can empathize with him on some level. He wants to be the best, sure, but in the end, all he wants to do is ride with his friends, and I think that concept of just doing something we enjoy with the people we care about rings true to almost any audience member.

Read Complete Review @ AMN

Superbad with Zombies (Or: Zombieland)

2009-10-26T04:58:00.004-05:00

I'm a huge fan of zombie movies. I've seen a good amount of them, but never one quite like Zombieland. And that's for a number of reasons. It follows a lot of trends that have been established in the last five years or so, set by such pretentious indie crap such as and Napoleon Dynamite and Juno. Recently, this trend saw the creation of coming-of-age stories in the vein of the ever-so-popular SuperBad. Zombieland feels like SuperBad meets zombie movies, and it's sad that I think of it this way because that makes it seem like movies such as 'Bad are becoming their own genre, and while I appreciate some of those movies (SuperBad being one of them - I found it quite hilarious and quite poignant at the same time) - they are not their own genre. They have a certain style, but they aren't some new groundbreaking medium - just a different way of telling a story that has been copied several times since it came out, some to good effect, and others to bad.

And that is what makes Zombieland a frustrating movie for me. One the one hand, I enjoyed trying to do something new and different with the movie, and the different approaches it took in its presentation (the use of signs is really quite amusing). But on the other, it follows a formula that the above movies listed follow, and in that regard the movie is quite generic and bland, very little gore even despite the subject matter, and it's disappointing that people are beginning to make movies that have a style without and substance. Cheap imiations is a phrase that jumps to mind.

That being said, Woody Harrelson returns to form in a way in this movie, and he is one of the most enjoyable parts. A surprise cameo as well made the movie more bearable than it would have been otherwise, but in the end, a lackluster story attempting to represent high-school-coming-of-age-story is overdone and not done well very often, and when you take a fantastic genre such as zombies and remove all aspects of what makes it a good genre to begin with, what's left is Woody Harrelson proving he's still got it and a few one-liners. Disappointing overall, but not terrible. I wasn't upset I paid money to see it, but it wasn't nearly as good as one would have hoped.

Boys Will Be Boys (Or: 20th Century Boys Vol. 1)

2009-10-26T04:34:00.007-05:00

Have you ever wanted to be a hero? Have you ever wanted to do something great in your life, something that people would remember you by for the rest of their lives? That the world would remember you by for ages to come?

Well, in 20th Century Boys, it seems that ever day common individuals have a chance at that dream. We are dropped into the story as things are already unfolding, and the drama jumps back and forth, from 1997, with Kenji and friends in their 30's, living the hum drum of daily working life, to 1967, where Kenji and the boys lived the care free days of youth and were learning life lessons and growing up. Why this is important isn't all that clear, but the beginning pages of the book tell us what's going to happen, even if we don't know how it will happen - at the turn of the century, disaster will bear itself down upon the world, but through the brave efforts of certain individuals, the world is saved and is able to see the next century begin.

But what happened at the turn of the century?
Who saved the world from doom and destruction?
Who caused the disaster that had to be averted, if it was caused by a person at all?
Who lived? Who died?

These and many more questions are what the first issue of Viz Media's Boys gives you within just minutes of picking up the book. And by the end of it, you are left with even more questions and barely any answers. Characters are introduced, strange things are going on, and the connections between the boys' 60's childhood and the events unfolding in the 90's is at times obvious, subtle at others, but immensely important from the way things progress, and, as it is with most of our lives, the keys to our future lie in understanding our past.

If any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, then I urge you with all sense of immediacy to rush out and find a copy of this and pick it up. If you are left not wanting to go out and pick up every available volume following finishing this one, then I would be incredibly surprised. 20th Century Boys is a page turner that takes about 12 different genres and puts them into a blender, adds fantastic artwork with a creative storyteller at the helm, and the result is a smoothie of awesome that is delicious to the last page.

I admit to not being much of a manga reader, but I am glad I picked up this book, and have since bought another, which I am nearing completion. I understand this may not seem like much of a review, but come when I write about the second issue, I will explain more about what is going on. The first book is too much of a treat to even try and spoil, and what little bit I have given you is revealed within the first ten or so pages of the book.

Get this book. Now. You won't be disappointed.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit #2

2009-10-18T23:16:00.002-05:00

Death is not a subject most people are comfortable with even in concept. It’s the end of life, and chance of achieving unfinished goals or dreams. So one can only imagine that having to deal with it day in and day out would eventually wear upon an individual, especially if your interaction with death involves telling people when, exactly, they are going to die.

That’s the current predicament Social Welfare Worker Fujimoto finds himself in. His girlfriend can’t accept his detachment from the world, and he treats his job of delivering the death cards, or ikigami, as more of a hassle to him than anything else, even stopping to drop off a late movie rental on his way to deliver one to the next unsuspecting citizen. But his growing detachment from his world is a reflection of his inability to cope with death any other way, and at its heart, Ikigami feels like a manga that really wants you to question two very important things – how you deal with and accept the concept of death, and what you find most important in life. It’s very ironic in that the government wants to encourage that kind of behavior, and that’s why they instituted the program in the first place – a single person dies every day, completely randomly, in order to provoke more thoughtfulness and contribution to society from its citizens.

The problem is, because it is random, these aren’t bad people who are being killed – it’s normal, often very good people who simply are being used to make an example for others to follow. The stories told intertwine with Fujimoto’s life, and the reflection is a hopeful, but sad and dark story about what we really want from life, how we want to leave our mark on the world when we’re gone, and what people are willing to give up in order to hang on to just a few more minutes of life.

Read Full Review @: AMN

Basterds of the Inglorious Kind

2009-08-30T22:51:00.003-05:00

I finally got around to getting to see Inglorious Basterds, and it was most certainly worth it, although I think my opinion of the movie is a little different from most other peoples.

Why?

It was good. Had some absolutely amazing parts to it, but other parts of it I felt were a little lacking.

To further explain, I think these characters are some of the best Tarentino has ever put on the silver screen. They go a bit deeper than some of his other works (and a few even manage to make it up to the level of "The Bride" of Kill Bill fame) and some of the dialogue is pretty stellar. In fact, the opening scene for the movie is one of the best ever in recent cinema, but some of the other parts of the movie were a little less interesting than I would have perferred. For instance some characters get a bit more focus than others, but the ones who get less focus are still incredibly important to the plot and are not introduced very well; it left me wanting to see them more, but at the same time, the initial investment was really hard.

It's graphic to be sure, but a lot of the actually blood hitting the floors in this is sparse, but when it's there, it's intense. I liked that though - made the violence mean a bit more than in some of his pervious works, which I really liked. The film is one of his best (and some would argue it is his best) and he's definitely improved as a filmmaker. Worth going to see.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit #1

2009-08-24T17:11:00.005-05:00

Big Brother has picked up the dice. The stakes? Your life!

What if you had the ability to tell someone the exact time they were going to die? Even more, what if you were required by the government to tell that person exactly 24 hours before that time? Well, that’s the burden that Fujimoto bears on a day to day basis. He works for the government as a messenger delivering ikigami, or death notices, to people who are scheduled to be executed via random assignment at approximately 24 hours before their death.

Perhaps it would be good to back up a bit. See, at some point in the not-so-distant-past, the government decided that people needed motivation to enjoy life better somehow. They decided that the best way to do this was to play an ongoing game of Russian Roulette with its citizens, resulting in the National Welfare Act.

The way it works is as followers: Children are immunized when they enter grade school, and .01% of them (completely randomly assigned) get an immunization that contains a small capsule which lodges itself in their heart. Later on, between the ages of 18 and 24, the government, through an elaborate system in which no single person is ever aware who is going to die, determines who will die on the given day, and that information is sent to the messengers. The messenger delivers the ikigami to the individual at approximately 24 hours preceding their death. Finally, at the appointed time of death, the capsule erupts in the chosen individual’s chest, causing a heart attack and killing them. It is through this processes it is believed that people will begin to value life and seek to accomplish more, as they are unsure if they will die before they can reach any sort of potential with their lives.

Sounds a little insane, doesn’t it? And it is every bit as crazy as it sounds. Ikigami is visceral in its presentation, but all of this about random government assigned killings is really only half of the story. Each act in the book centers on an individual that has been given an ikigami, as well as Fujimoto. The stories unfold as the final hours approach for the selected individual’s death, and the audience gets to see how they choose to spend those last few hours.

Read Full Review Here

Otakon 2009: What Happens Next?

2009-07-24T23:19:00.007-05:00

When you think of things like BioShock¸ Legend of Zelda, and Team Fortress 2, what do you think of? Video games, or maybe more appropriately, a video game convention, such as E3 or even PAX. When you think of Star Trek, Ghostbusters, and Power Rangers, what do you think of? Possibly large scale sci-fi conventions or gatherings. When you think of the ShamWoW guy you think of...

Wait. What?

If you're asking yourself where all this is going, it's because all of the above was sighted, in multiple iterations, at Otakon this past weekend. And before I continue, I want to make something very clear. I'm not against any of these things (with the notable exception of the ShamWoW guy) being at an anime convention or in other conventions of similar vein. What I am pointing out is these things are not anime or manga related, and as such, it led me to question exactly why they are showing up at Otakon in such massive quantity.

I'm seeing a point now where anime has overlapped with so many other types of fandom (such as video games and other pop culture iconic figures and shows) that it has been blending into the convention scene for quite some time. And on a personal aside, I cannot comment whether I think this is good or bad for anime and manga in the US or not. It's really hard to tell. On the one hand, the 26,000+ attendees to Otakon this year show that the convention staff are doing something right. And they are. They ran a very smooth show that, while bumps and frustrations are bound to occur, they did as good a job as anyone could have keeping things in order, and my hat goes off to them.

But with this blending of other kinds of fandom and popular culture, both American and Japanese being added to the mix, what will anime and manga conventions be like in the next few years? While there are general sci-fi conventions, anime conventions, as well as massive, all-inclusive conventions that cover nearly every fandom, trying to comprehend how much could be detrimental to brain function. But these are all separate kinds of things, and I'm seeing a possible future not too far off where conventions are different in names alone. Otakon, DragonCon, San Diego Comic Con - will these all one day have the same kinds of things where, if you were to ask someone what the convention was about, they would answer "pop culture" instead of "anime" or "sci-fi" or "comics". I'm not so sure if that assertion is true, but it all begs the question of how is fandom, and convention culture, changing, and where is it going to go over the next several years.

This may all sound like doomsaying, but it is far from such. This was my first venture out to Otakon and it was an immensely enjoyable trip. I got to stay with some wonderful people that I am glad I work with, and hope to continue doing projects with them in the future; meet some absolutely fantastic people, and hopefully, some new friends in those people as well. I got to see people talk passionately about things they love, and by the end of it, they made other people, some who were just killing an hour between things, love it too. I saw amazing costumes that couldn't have taken less than hundreds of hours of work, all because they loved a particular character. This was a wonderful vacation, and I plan to work it into the yearly trips I make to things of this nature because it was simply too great to not go back.

Conventions have a certain aspect to them that can't be summed up with any word other than magical. Because they are really quite amazing - hundreds of people working for thousands of others to make sure things go off without a hitch, and if you think about it, there is a lot of stuff for a convention the size of Otakon or Anime Expo. And these things aren't cheap either - badges have to be made, space rented, guests secured, hotels paid for, etc. When you look at it all, conventions really are works of art when done correctly. In case you didn't know, the people working these don't make money off them either - everything they make goes right back into next year. It's truly beautiful to see something like this on so grand a scale, and to be surrounded by thousands of people who love this stuff as much as you do. No matter what, I always manage to learn something new at every single anime convention I go to. That's pretty special. It also spurs people on and motivates them in ways they sometimes don't expect at all - I know an associate of mine has definitely been emboldened by this trip to pursue what he loves, and really wants to do, and that kind of magic is hard to find in all but a few places.

So in the end, what is this whole "Convention for the Otaku Generation" all about? Well, that's a hard question to answer. It's moving, like so many others, away from strictly anime and more towards a gathering of pop culture and iconic media from both America and Japan. While I won't venture to guess how this will change, I can say that it was still worth hours of traveling and expenses paid just to be there for one day, let alone being able to make it for all three. It's a place where people come together once a year to celebrate their love for anime and manga. No matter your age, background, region, or even love or hate of a certain series, there is always going to be something for you and your love of anime and manga at a convention. I've never known someone to leave wishing they hadn't gone; So, I urge you to continue going, meeting new people and learning new things. Or, if you have never been, to give it try sometime - who knows - you might just find out you've been missing out on one of the best things you'll ever get to be a part of.

I know I have.

Otakon 2009: People and Panels

2009-07-20T14:17:00.013-05:00

So what’s all this about panels? Very much like Otakon itself, the roster of panels at the convention this year reflected a widening set of interests that encompass more than just anime alone. With things like Go lessons, musings on surviving as a gaijin in Japan, and Beyond Dungeons and Dragons showing up as regular panel discussion themes, the convention's become a crash course in Eastern popular and even high culture in general. But they don't call it the "convention of otaku generation" for nothing. So again, what’s all this about panels? Well, I'm going to give you the breakdown on the ones I was able to attend, and talk about the people who were responsible for them (I even got to meet some of them).

One of these groups of people were the minds behind the Anime World Order podcast. If you've never heard of these guys, or other blogs/podcasts I will mention, then you should go listen to them. Right now. Go ahead, I can wait; get an episode and finish reading this while it finishes downloading, and then listen to them (or in some cases, read them).

Now that you've done that, I'll assume you follow the same instructions for the other groups and people I'll mention. Moving On.

If you're asking yourself why you should bother, the answer is really quite simple. They're smart, they're funny, and more than anything else, they are passionate about this material. They love it, and dedicated a huge amount of time to trying to tell other people about it. Several of the panels they did covered a wide variety of topics, including (but not limited to) "Know Your Creators" which was done in conjunction with the guys from the GeekNights podcast and covered a lot of the creators/designer/directors that make a lot of classic and currently popular anime, "Anime's Craziest Deaths" (which unfortunately was shut down after just 15 minutes due to the 'content' of said panel but was none the less worth it), and "How to Review Anime the Right Way", which was done with people from Anime News Network and talked about how you could go about writing about anime and Japanese culture and if you want to be published or a professional, how to go about that as well.

There were also a few panels conducted by a man named Mike Toole, who ran AnimeJump before it become more or less defunct, and has been watching this stuff for a long time and has a great perspective on anime as a whole. He also writes for the Sci-Fi Channel and does a lot with Anime News Network. He did a panel which he has done at other cons before, was hugely popular, and you should go see it ever given the opportunity entitled "Dubs That Time Forgot" where he shows clips of dubs that are often humorously bad and have, as the title suggests, have been forgotten. This guy is great to talk to, really friendly, and very funny. Look him up and read his stuff. Finally, a man by the name of Frederik L. Schodt, writer of several books including The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (highly recommend read) a wonderful presentation on Osamu Tezuka and his most popular creation, Astro Boy. The man has been around anime a long time, and the knowledge he has to offer is nearly endless at this point. His panel was packed with standing room only, and I would have killed to be able to sit down with the man and pick his wonderful mind for all the things he's seen and learned. But sometimes, you just don't have the time. Maybe next year?

There was also a lot of industry coverage at Otakon this year, both from Japan and America. FUNimation had several announcements for new releases coming out over the next several months, the most notable of which being Eden of the East, which just finished its run in Japan recently, as well as a new release of all of Dragon Ball Z, completely uncut with both all the episodes of the series as well as all the movies and in its original presentation, fully restored, as the Dragon Box, the first of which will come out later this year. They also premiered the new Evangelion 1.0 - You Are (Not) Alone at Otakon as well, which was hugely popular and was followed up by a Q&A session with Mike McFarland, who provided voice work for the movie as well as worked on its production for American release. I'll talk about him more in a separate post I got the chance to sit down and round-robin interview him with a few of the members of the associated press.

The founder of studio Madhouse, Masao Maruyama was in attendance as well, and they gave a presentation of a large number of works they have in the pipes for the next few years, the most notable for American fans being a teaser for the new Trigun movie with potential talk of using the original cast as far as the Japanese audio track goes, as well as the very popular series Hajime no Ippo, a shonen show about a boxer, is going to be getting released here soon. Another noteworthy show is a show called Rideback, which all I could tell from the trailer involves really cool motorcycles that transform into robots, will be getting released here as well - and these only scratch the surface of what was presented to the audience over the course of the panel. Full details were not readily present for every title, but it is refreshing to know that a lot of these if not all of them are going to making their way stateside at some point.

Finally, there were the fan panels. I separate these because unlike the podcasters or the company panels, nobody probably has heard of these people, but that doesn't mean that what they had to show was any less worth going to. There were two hugely dedicated fans to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, a show which has not seen an American release and is nothing short of a tragedy for being such. They presented a brief history of the show, introduced major characters, and pumped up the audience, most of which had never heard of the show before, to seek out what little material they could find, and learn about this wonderful gem. They did all of this without spoilers, or making the panel boring, and overall, the presentation was fantastic.
Another exceptional fan panel I attended was on the last day, where the panelist gave a scholarly look at anime openings and endings to shows and talked about how they have changed over the course of the last thirty years or so. The panelist did a fantastic job of talking about the changes in the openings and endings as well as their incorporation to the show itself and how much meaning and important the music had to the show itself. Astro Boy, Cutie Honey, Haruhi, Evangelion...he hit a lot of the big ones as well as some lesser known shows, all to show the evolution of the opening and ending. Fantastic panels both of them.

And these were all just the panels I could attend. With so much to do in the day, and so many other things I wanted or needed to do, I simply couldn't make it to all the panels I wanted to go and see. But let this be a lesson to you: plan your days at Cons ahead of time. Get the schedule, and figure out what you want to go see, because you're going to have to make choices, and if you're not careful, you'll end up missing some of the absolute best stuff the convention has to offer. And talk to these people afterwards. Sometimes they are busy and don’t have much time to chat, especially if another panel has to set up in the same room they are in, but these people love the same stuff you do – don’t be shy to go up and ask questions, or just shake their hand, introduce yourself, and tell them how much you loved what they had to say. Because chances are, if you find yourself in the room at the end of one of these or other great tributes to fandom and this thing we all love known as anime – then chances are you did love what they had to say, or at the very least, learned something new, and you should tell them as such. Believe me, they’ll appreciate it, and you never know – you might even make a new friend out of the deal as well. And we all know, there’s not wrong with that.

Otakon 2009

2009-07-20T13:56:00.003-05:00

I had never been out to this legendary convention before, and, on a whim a few months ago, decided I was going. I was able to get Press access via Advanced Media Network, the company I work for doing reviews, and found a decent flight and could stay with a few friends. I had a substantial amount of travel woes both too and from the convention, and, were it not for how incredibly enjoyable the entire event was, these might have made the trip on the overall not enjoyable.

There is an incredible amount of material for me to cover, and if I make it all one post, then it will be both far too much to read at once and a lot of the information will be lost between coverage/opinions on the matter, so I'll be breaking it up into different posts that cover certain parts of the whote convention.