Another Anime Convention Has Come And Gone...

No, seriously...AAC, otherwise known as Another Anime Convention, ended today.

I had a great time this year.  There was a lot to see.  Four panels/workshops alone on "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."  I'm still trying to understand this, but I will be writing something up on Examiner.com about it tomorrow night.

(Speaking of which, stories will be a little slow going this week because I'm booked all week at my other job as a substitute teacher, so having time to write and bring my son back and forth to different sitters this week is going to be a challenge to writing.)

Right now at Examiner.com I have some great pictures up from the con, as well as a starter story -- sorry for the lack of detail, but I'm going to be touching base with the chair at some point this week to get more details to add to it, and I needed something to be up there for the time being.

I was happy to see some "Madoka Magica" love there -- I bought a whole six pin set of the characters from the show, and took a picture of someone dressed as Kyubey.  She told me that people have been stopping her to get pictures telling her she looks "cute," not realizing that the character is "evil."

I do have some Masquerade videos up at the YouTube channel, although not all the skits because my camera died, and I have to check to see if the footage from the last two sketches that I took from my cell phone is still going to have sound towards the end of it -- I was having issues with the cell phone cutting the sound out towards the end of videos that I was taking, so I took the footage just in case it actually did work out. Another sketch/walk on will be up as soon as I re-edit it to be able to put it back up on YouTube -- first the download stopped, then it was rejected as a "duplicate."  Eventually I will have all the sketches either up or re-directed.

At some point in the next few weeks I will have interviews up for the voice actors that appeared at AAC this year -- Robert Axelrod, Quinton Flynn (of which I have some hysterical footage from his "Shenanigans" panel on Sunday that I will be posting up soon), Chris Cason, Christopher Smith, and Cynthia Cranz.  I'll be doing e-mail interviews with all five of them, so those will be up once the interviews have been conducted.

Overall, great con.  I love hanging out with fellow geeks. :-)  I will most likely be attending Queen City Kamikaze next, then Anime Boston in April.  So keep an eye out!

Another Anime Convention This Weekend!

Good news is that I will be at Another Anime Convention in Nashua this coming weekend, and you will see a lot of reports coming from the convention since I'm planning on being there for the entire three days.

I wasn't able to get my panel, though, which is a bummer.  But expect a series of stories on a non-anime property that seems to have the attention of the anime community, judging from the planned panels: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

On Friday, there is a panel planned as of this writing called, "Calling All Bronies!" (male fans of the show)  Saturday has two planned panels: Why Ponies are Awesome, and right after that in another room a panel with the title Survivng the My Little Ponypocalypse.  So I figured this fandom was ripe for a story package.

Whether I cosplay or not will depend on whether I can get my costume together in time -- most of the pieces I need still need to be purchased, so I have to get to the store this week and see if I can find them.

I'm still trying to perfect the technology for video, audio and such, so be patient as I try to put something together afterwards.  Plus, now that I'm a substitute teacher work is starting to pick up a bit.  So I will try to get something together afterwards by the end of the week.

Final Impressions: "Tiger and Bunny"

Warning: SPOILERS!


Last Chance: There will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven't watched it yet (as I encourage you to do), don't read this post!


25 episodes later...I stuck with this show, and was glad that I did.  A lot of excitement in its two halves -- while the first half focused on Barnaby's search for his parents' killer, the second was solely on Kotetsu's dealing with his powers declining and subsequent frame up by the true bad guy of the series -- his and Barnaby's boss, Albert Maverick.  And I felt like I didn't want to miss a moment of it.

The non surprise for me was how Kotetsu's daughter Kaede discovered she was now a NEXT.  I knew that was coming.  I thought that she would inherit her father's Hundred Power, but instead she can copy the powers of other NEXT she touches, which plays a huge part in later conflicts when she goes into the city to look for her father.

There were several avenues that I would have liked to have seen them explore in the series, such as getting more into the lives of some of the other superheroes that weren't featured in the show, such as Rock Bison, but they did a good job with this series.

The creators have said they have another project in the works.  Don't know if it's another anime or what, but we will see in November.  I hope it is, preferably one that focuses possibly on Kaede and her possible decision to be a hero like her father.

I Apologize for Not Writing Much Here...

Unfortunately in the real world I was kind of forced to panic about not having any type of work for awhile and was searching for a job.  So basically grown-up responsibilities kind of got in the way.

However, I got some cool stuff planned.

In a few weeks, I'll be going to Nashua to Another Anime Convention (AAC) for at least two days to cover it for Examiner.com, and I am hoping to also be able to host a panel on legal places online to watch anime.

I will also be covering Anime Boston for Examiner.com...I'm waiting for the request form for press passes to go up.  So my arrangements for that are going to be determined by a few factors that I am not going to reveal here until it gets closer to the time.  It may involve another story for Examiner.

In the meantime, I think starting in October I'm going to dedicate a whole month to "Neon Genesis Evangelion."  That's right, I said it -- a whole month dedicated to "Eva!"  Why, you may ask?  Because I can, that's why!  And also, I just watched the entire show for the first time this week, so I have a lot to discuss in regards to the show.  I'm not one to get heavily into mecha shows, but this one I liked because it went deeper than that.

I'll probably be doing some posts on another show that I have just been so inspired that I've been drawing fan art around it -- "Puella Maji Madoka Magica," or just "Madoka Magica."

So stay tuned to this space!

Trailer: "Eden of the East: Paradise Lost"

If I can get my hands on a copy of the film, you better believe there will be a review.

FUNImation has released a trailer for the last film in the "Eden of the East" series, "Paradise Lost."

"Eden of the East" is one of my favorite series right now, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends.  The film will be released as part of a DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack on August 2.

Attention: Interview with Spike Spencer is Now Up!

You can find it here and here.

It took a long time to get this interview, primarily because of schedules not meshing.  But we were finally able to do it this afternoon (Spike's morning).

There was one answer that I wanted to include in the second interview, but I felt my notes on it weren't good enough for me to quote him accurately.  I asked him about his part in "Excel Saga" as Shioji, the scientist with a "lolita complex." One thing I learned is that voice actors sometimes don't remember all the roles right away, especially when they are as busy an actor as Spike Spencer is (he also wasn't aware that Funimation was re-releasing it soon).  I felt that this was a safe enough spot to put it where I didn't have to quote him directly but at least give a flavor of where the conversation went on this.

I asked him about whether Shioji would be considered controversial now since the uproar over "Dance in the Vampire Bund" and the Tokyo Youth Ordinance Bill, and whether American audiences would go along with it.  He pointed out that he saw several people dressed up as Pedobear, so he's got a point there.

But it was a great overall conversation with him.  Make sure to read the articles over at The Examiner.

Attention: Interview with Brina Palencia Is Up

You can read parts one and two at Examiner.

I have to keep the articles short over there, so I didn't follow up about the prank she played on voice actor J. Michael Tatum at Anime Central 2010, and I figured that the song she sang was somewhat sort of self explanatory as to what exactly happened.

This is her telling the story behind what happened.  You might need to bring the volume up on your computer to hear what she's talking about.

Pretty funny story. :-)  But then voice actors are apparently known for pranking each other.

Here's one about voice actor Christopher Sabat (well known for doing various voices in "Dragonball Z" as well as "Speed Grapher," "Sgt. Frog," and others) playing a prank on another fellow actor:

Right now I'm in the process of making arrangements to interview with voice actor Spike Spencer, so hopefully you'll see that interview soon up at Examiner.