Category Archives: Conventions and Concerts

August 26, 2011

Seras Victoria’s Contribution to American Cosplay

By omo

I admit, slutty cosplay tumblrs sometimes brighten my mornings. More often, they’re just a chore. In any event, they can be informative.

I think this article speaks the truth, from a certain point of view. Unfortunately as someone who just look at pictures of cosplay and occasionally visit conventions where cosplay is prominent, I realize that both the viewing of said images and the act of creating and donning a costume and then putting that, pic or in the flesh, in the public, it is a personal thing. In other words, they operate in different contextual spaces.

As an anime fan outside of Japan, one thing that is probably becoming an eternal chip on my shoulder is the issue of context. And well, if we can forgive the silly tagline right off the bat:

Too often in cosplay photography, the subject becomes an object. Cosplayers are fairly bad at doing anything other than looking sexy (?) and photographers focus too strongly on simply making cosplayers look good. I think we can do better than that.

and forget for a moment that this is utmost hypocritical–the objectification of the subject matter and then whining about how they’re not objectifying it the way he likes them–there’s probably some stuff to learn here.

The rest of the post goes on and talk about cosplay photography in the “in-character” school of thought. That in itself is harmless except it’s couched in this douchy context that I can’t really touch without ripping it to shreds. Or maybe it’s just from my point of view, it can be a pretty hilarious troll post that is made of fail. But hey, here I am writing about it.

And by “in-character” I simply mean the ongoing school of thought where when you cosplay, it is an important goal to become, to liken to the character you are cosplaying as. And by school of thought I mean there’s always a rival, but not always contrary, camp who think of cosplay as a matter of fashion and identity. I believe they generally co-exist, and sometimes they are one and the same, but on some issues that is just not the case.

The context is simple. Cosplay (let’s take your average semi-porn adult-ish cosplay on DVD at Comiket as example) is often tied to costume play in the context of erotic acts. Play your typical and modern nukige and you get what I’m saying. That is by far not the context of what cosplay is commonly known as today. It just used not to be the case. For cultural ambassadors and exporters of cool, cosplay as the more semi-pro, Japanese-content-oriented context (think of those World Cosplay Summit things), is what they would like it to be. In America, cosplay is more like, “hey let’s go to this party where people dresses up,” which is probably a step above “trick or treat” but usually not pro nor even semi-pro. Or even semi-semi-pro.

None of that is a problem. It’s like someone whose notion of basketball is from the NBA and then he goes and criticize youtube videos of kids playing on the street. I mean, com’on; you can do it, but it’s mean and unsportsmanlike. But at the same time, the difference between NBA level of play and some kids on the playground is much larger than your average, veteran hall cosplayer versus even a semi-pro that has won in a con masquerade of a reasonably size contestant pool. I mean, you can win a trip to Hawaii for two at even this second-rate US con. If you are dedicated, the gap between a pro cosplayer and Joe Schmoe is not an insurmountable gap, a gap that can be overcome in a few years. Not a gap that required you to be playing ball since you were 6 years old because your body peaks and become non-competitive by age 30, or something nuts like that.

Instead of basically telling people to tell a story with their cosplay photography, which is what Akira is doing, I’m just going to talk about what I learned from those dreadful “photo sets” and Asian-style semi-pro cosplay photography: the nature of zettai ryouiki and fashion. In other words, I’m telling you how to objectify people from photographs (and people in general) in a preferred way. Just like him, I’m going to skip the nitty gritty on how to actually do it; this isn’t really a how-to post. It’s more about the theory behind a working slit on your legs. Right. [You can follow the links below for the how-to.]

Just so we’re on the same page; by zettai ryouiki I mean the way of fashion in which you stress the segment of your outfit by showing thigh while hiding the area below, usually via a combination of socks or boots plus a short skirt. Is this more interesting? I think so. There’s been some amount of ink spilled over the years about how to do zettai ryouiki right. I’m not talking about that precisely; I want to talk about how to do zettai ryouiki right in 3D—how to apply it as a fashion item.

Truth is, anime characters are rarely identified by the length of their legs. It is typically across-the-board artistic choice for stylistic reasons or as a signature for a particular artist. But for typical human beings that is a major point of differentiation. Shape, length, size, contour, color, texture, and much more, all play a role in crafting a suitable wear to apply zettai ryouiki in the way that is best for what you’re gunning for. For example, it even comes down to the type of heel (or not) that you wear, it will impact the way your leg muscles are pulled and give your zettai ryouiki a different look. I don’t think I’ve seen an anime that illustrated this little detail yet.

On top of that, for everyday dress, zettai ryouiki is a practicality problem typically due to the additional wares involved: sock glue, garter belts, uncomfortable bands on your socks, matching the length of your skirt with your socks, what have you. Plus it is not exactly a conservative look (although it can be downplayed and be reasonably conservative). So don’t push it unless you can pull it off, as I would recommend generally.

But one of the big reason behind why I want to talk about zettai ryouiki is how flexible and robust it is. The nature of the beast is that you’re seeing more “outfit” than “flesh.” The hardest cosplay to do right is characters like Yoko Ritona, because she’s more skin than clothes. Have you seen any good Japanese Yoko cosplays? Nowhere near as many as westerners, simply because skin-y cosplay require the body type and shape to already be very close to what your image of the character to be. And plastic surgery is typically not an option, nor is it desirable in these situation. Now comes zettai ryouiki: because the act of zettai ryouiki gives you the option to cloth yourself while still injecting that ounce of excitement, that inch of your thigh, pretty much anyone can do it as long as their thighs are remotely presentable as everything else can be covered up. So, it’s great to be a zettai ryouiki fan–even the most shapeless or fattest cosplayer can pull it off with some thought, and it wouldn’t look super terrible (unless that’s what they were gunning for).

In terms of the logic behind zettai ryouiki and personalizing it for wear, I think of it as a form of addition by subtraction. Imagine someone who wears pants. Now if you can cut away a piece of that person’s pant legs, where would you cut it? It’s like the running FF11 joke about brass subligars, or hot pants. But much more modest and subtle.

Operationally, because human beings are not like computer-painted animation, you’re allowed a pretty big range for operable zettai ryouiki. In the cosplay context, typically the cosplayer is gunning for the iconographic affect, and not as much as how it looks on the person. By this I mean if you are cosplaying a character with zettai ryouiki, you will want to have zettai ryouiki in your costume. The precise ratio of skin to sock to skirt and where that line is drawn on the cosplayer’s legs will vary and compromise on the basis that human proportions vary from anime character proportions. Some people will try to make the outfit look like the character, others will make the outfit suit the cosplayer. Sometimes you can do both. And again, I want to talk about zettai ryouiki because rarely will you be unable to do either.

Another key point about setting up a good zettai ryouiki is to understand how the sock/stocking/boots part work to accentuate your legs. I think a common mistake is when the coverage exceeds the knees, but just enough. Because human legs bend at the knee, it causes this double-break in the line of the legs, and it kind of neutralizes the impact. It’s like the difference of drawing two lines right next to each other versus far apart; it looks kind of like a double line instead of two distinct lines. You are no longer highlighting that absolute zone between the knee and the hemline.

That’s really all I have to say about it. A few months ago I was going to go all out and write a more practical guide about zettai ryouiki, since it’s the summer con season. The plan fell through and now I’m stuck thinking about zettai ryouiki all summer long (and getting my fair share of “samples” at cons to verify my hypotheses) and nowhere to write it down. Consider this blog post precisely the outcome of that.

Last thing: while I was going through my old con pictures, I noticed one thing: Sera Victoria cosplayers have got it right. Out of all characters, her cosplayers have consistently pulled off the zettai ryouiki more successfully on average than any other cosplays, and as far as I have pictures, that’s as back as it had dated (like, 2002 or 2001). Is she the first? Maybe, maybe not, but she is definitely not the last.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Modern Visual Culture

August 23, 2011

Making Doujinshi in America

By omo

I was walking through the artist alley at Anime Expo this year with Tom and the thought kind of came to me: in the US we sell crap as it is in the Artist’s Alley–character merchandise labeled with our favorite ideas, like t-shirts with sarcastic or funny phrases on them. In this case it also doubles as a stylistic option given the artwork on your hat or pin or the print you hang in your bathroom wall. [I’m so hanging that pretty neat Miku print I got last year in my new bathroom.]

The whole thing is more along the lines of an arts and craft show than a maniacs-of-franchise swap-a-thon, the latter being the case of Comiket, where fans flock to pick up their doujinshi or whatever. From a copyright perspective the differences between American and Japanese fans explain the nature of copyright enforcement in this practical application of law between the same two countries. At the same time, it feels like the American artist alley wares fill in a gap in the consumer market: the lack of licensed merchandise and goods at the right price.

Except that isn’t even quite the case anymore. There are licensed merchandise for a lot of this stuff available in the US. It may be hard to find sometimes, and there may be smaller gaps (licensed “sarcastic t-shirts” are hard to find and really expensive when you do; always make me a tad bit sad when I see those Jlist shirts) that are not fulfilled, but merch presence is by and large there in some way. What’s a fan to do in this context as a producer of stuff to sell? The thought came to me about doujinshi, then, as what market segment it really fills.

I mean in some ways there were always American fans putting together these coterie magazine like EX or that new Colony Drop zine or Super Rat’s zine. There are plenty of examples littered across the past 20 years. Even now, I know some folks I work with on Jtor also are interested in making that kind of stuff. There’s a particular attraction to that publishing format. I think especially today in America, where e-readers and tablet computing are truly the order of the day, there’s a rich visual space now available that would really suit publishing for this kind of material. (Not to mention that for photogs there’s also something a nice print offers that your monitor is definitely missing.)

It just makes me wonder why people don’t flock to this format in the artist alley. I suppose, comparing workflows, it’s way less work and pressure to just make prints of random stuff you draw or make buttons or whatever. In Japan people bust balls (often together!) trying to put together their 16-page manga or whatever before the various deadlines for the various doujinshi events. It feels like the former is run like a lemonade stand and the latter is run like an actual project.

I’m not really here to minimize the contribution and hard work of artist alley types or lemonade sellers. I’ve bought my fair share of things from them, and some of those arts and craft stuff are well worth of our money and attention (in fact, I want to highlight that here). And we all know lemonade makes a delicious summertime drink. The artist alley concept is fine to have these vendors and artists participate, and for the most part the notion of artist alley as we know it works perfectly, and each con’s add a piece of the local flavor and culture to the overall convention experience. But culturally, the con artist alley is a creatively dead space, full of two types of things: people making a quick dollar on derivative copyrighted works and well-known trademarks, and artful people making cool art stuff. Sure, there are still some people doing their original stuff here and there, but I mean, I want my US counterpart of the doujinshi market to be able to provide an environment where a Tsukihime or a Nyoro~n Tsuruya-san will be able to thrive. But I just don’t see that being ever possible with the way things are.

Where is this happening? Where everything else is happening: the intarwebs.

The mode of consumption, I wager, has completely screwed the pooch in terms of where “content” buyers go to shop. People who buy crap at the artist alley at an anime con are shopping for some kind of image-based good. They want merch; they’re not as interested in content. By this I mean we’re after just ideas, icons and signals; not narratives. For that we go buy anime or manga, even web comics, forums and fanfiction. If we want a cute story about Cirno, for example, we can go read a Japanese doujinshi. And I imagine any American doing the same thing is likely going to publish it online anyways. It’s like, you can’t make it as an artist in the artist alley; you make it as an artist somewhere else, and you use the artist alley like a dealer’s room: sell crap.

With that in mind, I’ll cop a line from Makoto Shinkai’s Otakon press panel (my version w):

With the changes to animation and computer technology, how have things changed in the past 20 years as an artist?

Shinkai: Today the circumstnaces are better, the hardware is better, and there’s the internet to help distribute. There’s better software. The truth is what you want to express in your work is still the basis of that. When you are creating it on your own, the effort goes into making it look good. So today even when the circumstances are better, if the artist doesn’t understand that you need to express through from what you want to show, then things hasn’t really changed much.

So how do today’s independent artists accomplish this, at least in the context of the artist alley situation? To me the solution is obvious for an organizational body. Tap into the fan-creation communities (lots of places) and make a call for self-published works in the long format. Work with an online print company to organize some kind of infrastructure where you can do, for example, print on demand, bulk, negotiate on infrastructural burdens and prices for those things. Set a deadline for submissions, screen the submission and assists authors and creators with their work, and submit the end results to the print-on-demand service. Be the go-between for the printer and the artists. Set a fix date (like a week) where people can buy the doujinshi from the site at a discount and they will be all shipped together at the end of the period. Market the hell out of the online event during that time. Debut all those submissions at the start of the week and take them down after it is over. If you’re awesome, you can also make them purchasable via e-reader/tablet-friendly format.

  • Divorce the “con” culture from the nature of the creative endavor but still put it in context of the fandom; use the internet instead.
  • Reach the people who are already interested in these expressive forms of discourse by marketing to specific grottoes on the internet
  • Create value for POD/publisher by bundling eyeballs online and attach their brand to the effort
  • Create value for buyers and artists by bargaining collectively and sell in bulk, reduce shipping charges
  • Provide the middleman for technical help and billing, education and generally assist artists in online sales.

There are a myraid of technical challenges along the way, but the biggest question in my mind is what would people want to buy? Doujinshi as we know it? Doujinshi as it is in reality (ie., a lot of text-based things)? Music? Games? I see things like, say, Altogether fitting this idea closely. Translating a doujin game is a very different process flow than running a lemonade stand. But what else? I think people would buy photo books of figures. Even more people might buy your garden variety cartoon for adults, but that runs into some problems. Who would buy some home-grown Touhou doujinshi? Is this like the field of dreams, where if someone builds a cheap, accessible way to create, sell and buy doujinshi, people will come?

And again, to address my previous point about artist alley, in reality it isn’t the fault of anyone that our American artist alleys are like that; it is just much easier and natural to do a lemonade stand than to manage a project on the scale of a properly-made doujinshi. It’s also much easier to run something like a dealer’s room than to manage something like Comiket. So rather than to change a thing that works, maybe I’m just looking for something that’s not offered by that space.

Though, this isn’t a chicken-and-egg problem. Comiket and its kin can’t exist without doujinshi, and doujinshi cannot exist without passionate creators and fans. So at the core of it all are dedicated fans who want to semi-formally communicate with each other (and also less-dedicated fans) about the stuff they love. Maybe that is the true test of the nature of America’s fascination with Japanese pop culture from the lens of anime, manga and games. I have no doubts that these people exist, I just don’t know if they can be organized enough to build on top of the same feelings and emotions that drives them.

Leave a comment | posted in Bishoujo Gaming, Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Figures and Models, Modern Visual Culture

August 9, 2011

Tribal Link Review

By omo

I don’t really do music reviews, but why not. I really enjoyed these covers, and this is just as good as any other excuse to listen to Makkun’s Abyss over and over again.

Release Date : 2011.07.29

TRIBAL LINK-R

1. Velocity of sound　Vo. Faylan
2. The Maze　Vo. Utatsuki Kaori
3. Jet Smash!　Vo. Momoi Haruko
4. Ever stay snow　Vo. nao
5. Lupe　Vo. Kawada Mami
6. Automaton　Vo. Okui Masami
7. Close to me…　Vo. Shimamiya Eiko
8. jihad　Vo. Sakakibara Yui
9. Permit ～Yurushi no Tou～　Vo. Satou Hiromi
10. Lilies line　Vo. Larval Stage Planning
11. Philosophy　Vo. Hashimoto Miyuki
12. FLY TO THE TOP　Vo. KOTOKO
13. Double HarmoniZe Shock!!　Vo. MAKO and Kawada Mami

TRIBAL LINK-L

1. IMMORAL　Vo.KOTOKO
2. Abyss　Vo. Okui Masami
3. blossomdays　Vo. Larval Stage Planning
4. birthday eve　Vo. Kuribayashi Minami
5. Suna no Shiro  -The Castle of Sand-　Vo. Kawada Mami
6. Anata dake no Angel☆　Vo. Sakakibara Yui
7. Jōshiki! Butler Kōshinkyoku　Vo. nao
8. Face of Fact　Vo. Utatsuki Kaori
9. For our days　Vo. MAKO
10. Collective　Vo. Faylan
11. Princess Brave！　Vo. Momoi Haruko
12. Leaf Ticket　Vo. Satou Hiromi
13. SHIFT -Sedai no Mukō-　Vo. Shimamiya Eiko

So for the uninitiated, I’ve Sound is a brand of trance/denpa style electronica stuff. It is just a bunch of Hokkaido-based musicians. Over the years they’ve tied up some female vocalists (utahime or whatever people call them) and among eroge and anime fans they have gotten some name recognition. KOTOKO is probably the most famous vocalist to make it out of it, but regardless of who, there’s like a 80% chance that Kazuya Takase, the founder and a big part of what I’ve really is, wrote the song. You can read about it on Wikipedia.

The two Tribal Link albums are a tie-in with an associated event that took place in early July, when the artists covering these I’ve classics teamed up for a day-night double-header anison marathon. You can read about its first initial announcement here; the show was on Nico live stream, so maybe a copy is floating around too. The recording on these two CDs are studio recordings though, and the arrangement is the standard version, not some remix. It all feels a little unpolished, but the main interest here is the sort of music. It’s kind of like how they still put up crossfade preview tracks for their stuff. It’s this kind of details that I like about I’ve. And it’s also kind of ghetto. But hey, they even have a Comiket booth.

Some more about the vocalists. Overall there are three categories: ex- or semi-ex I’ve Sound artists, current breed I’ve Sound artists, and totally not associated types. Tribal Link features all three groups, and it’s kind of a Lantis mash-up; I believe all the non-I’ve associated artists on these discs have Lantis distribution deals. For that matter, please remember Larval Stage Planning, the new-ish idol-pop trio from the brand, is doing an anison tie-in for the first time this season (Bakatest 2 OP).

And all this text is just to give you some background. Being able to appreciate the cover singers is the major draw, beyond that you’re definitely buying a Best-Of collection as well. Tribal Link is definitely for fans of both I’ve and the attached artists. I mean when you hook in the likes of Momoi and Yuinyan you’re going to get a certain group of people interested. Or the group who like like Faylan or Makkun. There are also some old-timers on the list, and one doing an appearance for possibly the first time: I’ve Sound’s MAKO.

[Yeah, I’ve’s is evil, but I’ve Sound’s is less. Then again, only crazy Japanese would have the word “larval” in anything that isn’t biology or SF horror.]

So, anyway, R first. Because I am backwards like that. I’ll try to link to clips when I see it.

  1. Velocity of sound is as much as a signature I’ve piece as they come, and I think Faylan did justice. The problem is more that her singing style doesn’t really mesh with the trance-ness of it all. It feels as if she’s just singing it like one of her own songs. Which is to say, maybe someone should vocode her or something, it could work much better. The end result, as is, is a good try but it probably disappointing the nature of Faylan’s music as hypothetically merging with I’ve Sound’s … sound.
  2. Disclaimer #1: I never really liked Utatsuki’s songs. The Maze is a pretty okay piece especially considering how the previous track was kind of disappointing. It’s pretty decent, even when considering the original.
  3. Momoi goes all moe-moe depna on Jet Smash! is something to be expected. But I think it’s the kind of thing that either works or not at all. Yeah, those refrain clauses are cute, and the fact that she tunes it to her singing voice for the rest works pretty well. I just don’t think it’s got as much crack as the original.
  4. Ever stay snow is a classic; that’s going to be a trend. I’m not sure if nao did it justice. And why am I so hung up on justice? I guess it’s partly because it’s not really that different than Shiho’s interpretation. I would say this is probably slightly more pleasurable to listen to than the original, but it’s got less of a bite. I never really got into her FripSide stuff either… No real opinion here.
  5. I definitely dislike Kawada less among the newer crop of I’ve Sound utahime. Well, she’s not exactly “newer” by 2011 standards. Her version of Lupe is really good though. I think I like it more than the original. I suppose it credits her for just better at this trancy stuff, versus the screechier KOTOKO take.
  6. Disclaimer #2: I am a big Makkun fan. Her involvement in Tribal Link is already worth the price of admission for the two albums. Automaton is surprisingly not as good as I think it should sound, but it’s still a very nice switch from Makkun’s normal fare. It’s also a bit more rocking compared to the typical I’ve track, which is closer to her usual style. Despite that, though, it feels like she’s taken over this song.
  7. The big sister of I’ve Sound continues to walk on. The big news from 2010 was how Eiko Shimamiya announced that she got cancer. It looks like things are doing better after a brief respite and with her recovery. Close to me is yet another classic track with some cool tricks on something otherwise pretty simple. Aside that these cool tricks involve Engrish, I think she nails it. It’s like, when KOTOKO does it, there’s this harpsichord feel; where as Eiko-neesan actually flows with it. With better Engrish, too.
  8. The title of the song, jihad, reminds me of a certain Sakakibara’s album cover… Heh. Disclaimer #3: I like her deep voice more than her denpa voice. In a lot of ways Yuinyan’s musical inventory is the kind of divide between the two sides of I’ve. Except instead of trance it’s kind of this half-image rock thing. Her rendition of jihad is exactly that kind, which works out pretty well for me. For that matter, Faylan would have hit a home run with this song. Yui Sakakibara was able to channel the sweeter side of her voice for this, even when staying with that rock style. Very nicely done.
  9. I think Hiromi Sato’s voice is pretty close to MELL’s, so her version of Permit ～Yurushi no Tou～ is pretty okay. The biggest difference, though, is how MELL is pretty champ for a soprano; she’s got that frame. Hiromi-shacho, OTOH, not as much. This song, being a ballad, shows the difference.
  10. Disclaimer #4: Larval Stage Planning what? I mean I know who they are, but I’m pretty much totally new to them, and they’ve done nothing impressive so far besides being able to sing the songs from I’ve. Lilies line doesn’t address my concerns, although they’re pretty cute-sounding in it. What I really need is an idol dancing style PV or something. And something less psychedelic than this.
  11. Philosophy is another classic piece. Personally this song accompanied me in a lot of the long trips I’ve taken over the past 10+ years. So hearing a softer version of it from Hashimoto was kind of nice. I’m not really familiar with Hashimoto’s stuff, aside from hearing it here or there. Unfortunately this song by itself doesn’t quite get me any more interested in her. It was nice though.
  12. For I’ve fans, KOTOKO doing FLY TO THE TOP is already a huge treat. More objectively, though, it’s basically MELL’s version with more sugar and less oomf. I did notice some funky background tracking for the vocals plus a little bit of it at the ending, that weren’t in the original, which is kind of cute. I think fans may be divided but more probably would prefer the original. I mean, after all, that’s what sets I’ve Sound apart from the rest–oomph over sugar. MELL’s got some real vocal chops that even the best of the best denpa princesses will have a hard time overcoming, so it’s not to KOTOKO’s discredit. In fact I think she’s done a good job all considering.
  13. MAKO is basically a lower and less sweet version of Kawada, so when they teamed up for Double HarmoniZe Shock!! I’m not sure if I would be able to tell them apart. I guess I still can if I pay attention, but the layering during the chorus isn’t going to give a lot of contrast…maybe that’s just like the original! Well, KOTOKO is really easy to tell for me. The big difference is probably how the original version is sugared-up plus that rocking track, and this version is just all rock. Kind of a preference thing as to which one you’ll like more, although this version is definitely not harmonized as cleanly.

So. L.

  1. IMMORAL is definitely the better way to kick off the album. KOTOKO does her usual job here, although I think her voice cuts through the melody a little too sharply. Kawada’s voice is notably less remarkable than KOTOKO’s, but I guess I’m just used to it on this song. I think it’s pretty much comparable, and what makes it tick for you will just be how much you like KOTOKO.
  2. I really dig this version of Abyss. (See previous disclaimers about Masami Okui.) However, in practice it is kind of a mysterious track because part of it is vocoded (or is it?). I can listen to the chorus and pre-chorus all day long though. It’s a pretty awesome song to begin with, now it’s just even more wonderful. Yay! I mean, to keep on splooging, the big thing that makes Makkun’s voice work in this song is that she has that fairly unique register at around the same pitch as KOTOKO’s, so it really shows when she draws it out. Not to mention her voice is just bigger, and it fits in this song. Also, Abyss would make a killer Faylan track, too.
  3. The LSP cover for L, blossomdays is slightly less catchy but probably for the better, because it’s more like denpa crossed with eurobeat and sings better. KOTOKO’s original rendition isn’t exactly the most inspired thing either, so I’m not sure how to feel about it. Maybe that’s just indifference talking.
  4. Minami Kuribayashi trades spot with Miyuki Hashimoto in L, with birthday eve. It’s a really, really staple I’ve Sound piece. In a way the arrangement kind of overruns Kurinoko’s vocals, which is too bad. Her vocals really fits the song when it isn’t busy overlapping with the synths. I don’t know what she or the sound engineer could do to make her voice stand out more. It’s kind of surprising because I really enjoyed it, despite it being not so great. I suppose that’s I’ve Sound in a nutshell lol. I hope someone gets her to do this song with a different arrangement in the future…
  5. I always thought Suna no Shiro  -The Castle of Sand- was hard to sing. I’m not sure if Kawada understands it, although it is pretty neat to hear her do it. That said, the original was kind of a mess, and so is this one. If there is one redeeming thing is that Kawada’s screeching is way easier to pick up than Eiko-neesan’s.
  6. While I do like her rock voice over her denpa voice, I think in this case I like Sakakibara’s denpa voice too! Anata dake no Angel☆ came across just as it should have been in the original, TBH! Maybe disclaimer #1 is in play more than #3!
  7. I wasn’t expecting much for Jōshiki! Butler Kōshinkyoku, nor am I big about nao, but this one is better than expected. I suppose that is not a surprise, but this song is a fun little tune and it’s hard to screw it up like this. Nao’s a good match.
  8. Who doesn’t like Face of Fact? I don’t know, but if we assume Utatsuki as the de-facto KOTOKO clone from I’ve vocal-wise, then as expected this version of Face of Fact is not really that different than the original. I like it almost just as much, I guess (see Disclaimer #1).
  9. MAKO’s For our days is probably as close of a fit as it gets if it has to be a song from I’ve that she didn’t do. The cool thing is how this song just stands out so much from the other tracks genre-wise. Even with that said, the chorus part was executed kind of normally, which is way less interesting than the rest of the song. It’s too bad, because her Verge tracks were some of my favorites.
  10. I’m less disappointed with Collective than with Velocity of sound. Faylan tears it up pretty well, and this is one of the rare cases that I think I like the cover more than the original. But, yes, I’m still kind of disappointed, in that to do Collective the way she’s doing it, Faylan needs more, well, oomph. But I think she’s half-redeemed herself at least.
  11. Princess Brave surprises nobody. Momoi is solid, and she delivers basically what anyone expects of her and this song. Which is good, and probably better than the original for some, just different. I’m neither ways about this piece, but the fast rhythm do work better for me with that denpa voice. I guess this is KOTOKO’s bread and butter these days.
  12. Shachou has a good voice for Leaf Ticket. Man, she needs duet with KOTOKO again. But that said, it’s kind of amazing to hear her sing a song that, well, doesn’t suck. At least for some reason I am under the impression that Hiromi Sato’s solo works tend to… not impress. Maybe I am wrong, maybe it’s just the one CD of hers that I own that sucked, but it’s good to hear her sing something more interesting.
  13. In a lot of ways I still think Shimamiya is the best vocalist in I’ve. All the popular utahime have a good voice, but there’s some special quality about hers that I find always intriguing.  SHIFT -Sedai no Mukō- is a slow, wrap-up piece that tend to be Lia’s forte, and Eiko-nee does just as good of a job I think. It’s probably the piece where the differences between cover and original is the smallest, across both L and R.

The fact that I wrote a review on this probably tells you that I really enjoyed them. I think it is more an excuse to listen to some really classic I’ve hits, and even with the new covers they sound largely similar to their original incarnations. As a stand alone product, I’m not too excited about it; maybe if they had some real duets for the Tribal Link concerts, I would wish for a DVD or something. I probably don’t need any excuse to drown myself in Sapporo-based anison trance, but if you need it, you’ve got it here.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts

August 2, 2011

Otakon 2011 Wrap

By omo

I always want to keep my post-con posts brief, but it rarely happens. Let’s see how it goes this time.

Makoto Shinkai

He’s pretty cool. He does have an art/animator background when he first worked on video games before making the switch to independent anime production. I always forget this. The other thing that was a big realization for me was how much of his films are based on his real life experience. I mean this is something most people knew about him, but it is much more, lacking a better term, low level. Like in 5cm all the little ideas thrown in there are based on something he experienced in some way.

As a person, well, he’s pretty amiable I guess. He’s also young/nerdy enough to get all your references. Or should I say, bro enough? I mean, as I said earlier, he knows what To Heart is.

I’m not going to go through all the Q&A here, and I’m not even ready to do that…got to get through some transcription crap first. But in general people asked the same set of 10 questions for him, and he gave the same 10 answers. A lot of the time the question’s nuances gets dropped and he’s actually pretty good at dodging. He also has some kinda-bro moments, to contrast with another young animator who is probably better spoken (and even more bro), when being asked about those “state of the industry” questions. And there are the Hoshi o Ou Kodomo questions, which are mostly pretty good actually.

I only asked him 2 questions, once at a press panel and the other during his public panel. The latter one is a spoiler for Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, so I’m going to save that for later.

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo: Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below

This is the one premiere that I wanted to see. No offense to the new FMA film, I would have done you if I finished FMA:B (just a bit over half way through). Yes you are stand-alone. No I don’t want to wait in line.

Anyway, back to Hoshi o Ou Kodomo. The reviews for this film was varying and I get the vibe of the film even before heading to Otakon. But what I didn’t know is how it truly measures to Shinkai’s previous works. We all know that Hoshi no Koe, Kumo no Mukou, and 5cm/s, all have this same thematic thread going on. It turns out so does Hoshi no Ou Kodomo! This is something nobody really talked about. And I now see why.

In a lot of ways the same themes that I love from his previous work play in full in Hoshi. The problem is more in that the narrative impetus is still mired in a way that I found as a flaw to Kumo no Mukou. Except in Hoshi, he doesn’t even really try to create that overall build up of tension that actually made Kumo no Mukou passably engaging to watch.

I think Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is engaging in a different way: it is much better constructed as a movie based on a series of interrelated themes. However, there are probably too many thematic threads spreading throughout the movie. It can be a heavy thing to digest, and Shinkai did say he wanted to make something worth watching multiple times.

As for the Ghibli-isms, it is very well warranted. I don’t think the similarities are superficial either, but it’s probably not in the way you think they are similar. Basically, recall the start to Mononoke Hime; the purpose of Ashitaka’s trip: to observe and find a way to preserve something. In that very same sense, the plot device to Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is some kind of self-searching journey between two unlikely companions, each carrying the same philosophical conflicts as symbolized by their characters: San is the teacher, Ashitaka is Asuna, Eboshi is Shin. Or like I said elsewhere, Ikamusume and Jerid go on a self-searching journey to the center of Earth.

The characters’ introspective qualities aren’t something that can easily be externalized. In fact, other than Asuna, you don’t really see any of it until the climax of the film. In that sense, this film just had to carry the audience to that point in order to realize its message. To do so, all Hoshi o Ou Kodomo had to work with was some action scenes, its Ghibli-esque looks, and Shinkai’s trademark background porn. The fact that he was able to put his clouds on the ground is already impressive and an unfair trick, LOL. I was hoping he would play with the visuals in greater leaps when creating the underground world, as it is a bit plain. But it looks pretty for sure.

What do I think of it? I think Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is a great answer to the question posed in 5cm/s. As a film, it is pretty but despite trying I don’t think Shinkai has created something for the general public. It just isn’t that entertaining for people who don’t slurp up thematic circle-jerking in the blockbuster film format (ie., most people). The whole theme of separation between life and death and the externalization of a need to shrug off loneliness are things that just don’t communicate well to children I think. It takes a person who’s experienced them to some degree to really appreciate those ideas, and thankfully children are usually not such people. The other whammy is that these themes are just dense! To really explore them in the work makes the film drag and kind of not as focused as it could have been.

In other words, great if you like thoughtful films, not so great if you just want to have a good time.

Bandai’s K-ON! Live Event

I went to the play-acting concert performed by the four dub voice actresses of K-ON US release. It’s actually kind of fun and sort of modeled after the Japanese show. It’s largely MC, and some theatrics of a real band. Azusa was played by this cosplay-musician. But it doesn’t really matter; nobody actually played their instruments. At least they didn’t lip sync AFAIK.

Alexd got spotlighted to sing the ending to Kagayake Girls! For the unfamiliar, that is saying this line really fast and repeated:

“Shiny Shining Shiniest, Girls Be Ambitious Shine Shine Shine”

Vee held a mic to his face. It was LOLS. Also, we were the only two penlight holders in the crowd. Just as well.

Figure Collecting Panel

Due to various other tasks I arrived at the panel late. It was a pure Q&A kind of fare and VManOfMana just want to chat with the crowd, with Andy and Super Rats. They were swamped with curious talkers afterward the panel so I just grabbed a free figure from the free figure guy (he was there last year too?) and took off.

I couldn’t hear very well half the time because the questions don’t get parroted back to the crowd so a lot of people can’t hear what’s being asked. The Q&A is pretty simple otherwise, as the guys addressed the questions by topic. What is kind of disappointing is the lack of figures actually at the panel on display. On the other hand I think that iPad works well to quickly pull up pictures of a figure being talked abot.

The Ladies’ Choice to Hentai Panel

Why was I there? Because, also, I know the panel organizer. It’s probably the first time I sat through an entire 18+ panel actually about anime porn. I hope it will be the last.

The panel itself is pretty entertaining; the issue is more that I already have a good idea what they were going to talk about, since I also helped them with some of the materials. What I didn’t know is what they were actually going to say for each of the clips they screened. Personally, I was pretty tired by then: 12:30am on Saturday? If it was Friday I might have been okay, but I really wanted to just pass out then. And I suppose in a room full of people watching porn is something I’ve experienced in other contexts (I have an Otakon story for you about this!) so I was pretty okay just sitting and chilling for an hour.

It’s all fun and games. If anything my only complaint is that there was this tendency to joke about real life. The very last commenter from the crowd that night brought this point up very well–I mean, this is ero anime. What are we suppose to do with it again?

Atsuhiro Iwakami Producer Panel

IwakamiP is pretty neat, he has “the right attitude” regarding some of this stuff. Unfortunately his panel was way too short and nobody really asked any good questions that is fit for a producer. Maybe except Wah’s Shinbo dig and the state of the industry question. It’s on bayoab should you care to look.

If you also read bayoab’s log on the Aniplex panel, they deferred the answers to some licensing questions to Iwakami’s panel. I’m not sure what is suppose to happen there. Iwakami did say explicitly that he will take license requests. And somehow there wasn’t any at his panel. What’s up with that?

What did happen was screening of a HD Fate Zero trailer, and an explicit nod that it will be simulcasted. In fact he raised this point during the Q&A about how Osaka was the first region getting Madoka OTA on Thursday nights; Tokyo region didn’t get it the day after. If you recall, this means a lot of westerners were watching the fansub of the thing even before people living in Tokyo could see it. He is aware of this and want to, using bayoab’s words, guide a healthy relationship between content producers and fans. Because it can be kind of messed up.

After taking 6 or 7 questions, Iwakami turns around and polled the panel attendees as to what anime they’ve seen. It’s pretty amusing to see how 80%+ of people already saw Madoka, and at least a third saw Rakkyo and OreImo, etc.

For giveaways, they raffled away volumes 1-4 of Madoka on Blu, a couple T-shirts and a plushie of QB, and that Takeuchi sketch of Fate Zero Saber. You can see the picture here. And for reference, you can see the companion sketch to that here, as it was donated for auction. It’s kind of too bad we spent all this time drawing raffle tickets, because the panel really could use more time doing Q&A.

And there’s this sad yet hilarious anecdote about Hisui that I could tell, but it’s something you had to be there to witness. Saber is truly his waifu.

Bandai After Dark

I guess this is the proper Bandai industry panel? Before that panel, on the schedule there was a Sunrise industry panel too, in the same room. Not sure what the previous panel was all about, but you can read Digitalboy’s write-up for some clips. Or you can go back to bayoab.

Besides the cool bean licenses, I thought this year they did a good job. Not as great as last year’s, but still pretty good. Things kind of ran long though; we had Hiro Yura playing a track from Disappearence again; he set up a table for some post-panel sales too.  The loot this year is pretty cool, except as usual it was things you could have gotten as freebies if you bought certain things. Yea, maybe I should have bought those Haruhi character singles from RS?

The big personal note here is that I managed to get a copy of Shackles of Night single from Hiro after telling him how I didn’t get it last year, despite having paid for it. Baller dude!

Actually another cool note is how Johnny Bosh dropped by the panel and killed a lot of time trying to play something on Taka’s ukulele. Vee also sang along. It was kind of odd, and that act ate up a lot of time.

I think the best troll happened at this panel too, when Napton said some lucky winner was sitting on a chair with a gift certificate taped underneath it. Everyone then proceeded to reach around and tear off…some consumer safety sticker. Nice! If you remember last year’s Bandai After Dark, there were like a bunch of prizes given away this way. So he got us good. This year, tho, because of time and room-clearing reasons, they couldn’t do it.

Miku Live in LA: “MIKUNOPOLIS” Behind the Scenes

Like I said earlier, it’s 90% of coverage of things that happened at AX. Which is great if you couldn’t make it this year or can’t make it to all the vocaloid events (which is probably almost everyone). I’ll just talk about the notable and interesting bits.

They showed clips from Fox News coverage of the event. A couple of the Toyota commercials as well. Yeah, those Anons drew a loud reaction.

There was a slide during the presentation which contains the cover of the deck for the pitch of the Miku Live in USA Tour plan. Mr. ASCII Media Works EIC-san (who ran the panel) specifically told us to note that originally it wasn’t targeting LA or AX as the only event where Miku can appear. Which is probably good, as far as false hopes go. But who knows?

They also reported what sold and what didn’t at Mikunopolis booth. Basically everything sold out except coasters and phone charms. Not that surprises anyone.

The interesting thing for Otakon is that a new line of Miku merch is being pushed out. You can buy it now–Vocaloid tees: Miku, Len/Ren, Luka and Kaito. I bought the Len/Ren and Miku ones. More importantly they are not $40 like the Cospa ones. They’re not even $25; probably can be had for $15-20. The back of the shirt prints that they are Crypton produced. Which makes me wonder what was the big deal with those Viz license announcements…

At the end of the panel, Fukuoka-san did brisk business and sold some Wowaka CDs and that PV DVD that they were hawking. He put together a nice deck!

Chemistry Concert

Not my kind of thing, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were selling penlights at their table. White ones, pretty powerful. Has a lot of modding potential… Not that I am going to.

As for their act, I think they are very good. It also feels like AAA back a few years ago–a lot of fanfare, but not a lot of relevance. Except Chemistry is actually kind of relevant, having done songs for a few popular shows. I’m only really familiar with that one FMA song and their Gundam UC contribution. The R&B duo are pretty pro.

Kylee Concert

I was late, and as a result I missed probably a good 3-4 songs. The show was barely 40 minutes long. It was still fun, even if I missed all the songs that I know except the one Heroman theme. She has a real band, and it worked out well besides that nobody was really moving. She seem like a well-groomed girl. She needed someone to open I think. Kind of ironic that I missed out on her doing Vacancy. Com’on! You only have so many songs.

Rave with DJ Saolilith

So while I lament not being able to hit up DJ Saolilith’s panel, I did get to see her set at the rave. I’m not sure if this is the second or third year that the con rave is located in Hall D, which is all the real musical guests play at (sans Hiro Yura &c). I got in just in time for Saolilith’s act, because somehow the queue didn’t empty out or something.

It’s the second time I’ve been to Otakon’s rave proper, ever. The first time was like… 1999? Maybe even earlier? Back then, the rave room didn’t smell like a giant funk pit; the AC works if you didn’t stand in the crowd. Friday night at 11:45, I was feeing a little tired but the hyper environment kept my spirits up.

I don’t think I can regirgitate Saori’s setlist here, but let’s just say when K-ON ED2 came on, I was already sold. Then there was the Nico kumikyouku stuff. And Love.EXE. And it really helps when I can recognize all but like, 3 tracks she spinned. Good times.

The first third of the songs I was standing towards the back of the hall, just to take in what’s going on. A breakdancing circle appeared soon enough and one of the people I came with peeled off to do that. Another couldn’t tolerate the environs anymore and headed out to a panel. Link and I eventually braved the front lines. Which is easy to do, since it’s a rave, not a concert; people aren’t packed up front.

At some point during the rave Saolilith pulled out a water gun on us. I think that was not necessary, but I got sprayed. I think the crowd was maybe 6-7 bodies deep only anyways, I was about 2 bodies away from the stage. For the encore (she did 1 song) she jumped down and did a little thing. I couldn’t see because she jumped into the denser side of the stage, which is opposite to where I was.

At least it wasn’t weird to wave my penlight around! That is one thing the con dance has right.

Eats

I ate the same thing Friday as I did Sunday: Cafe 100 for Breakfast, dinner at Sliders. Lunch was optionally something from Jimmy Johns, and like most other customers there I think they passed the Otakon test with flying colors. I’m inclined to dock them points for providing not-as-fresh-as-it-can-be bread (I see them hauling out of boxes en masse), but something had to give. It was good, but Potbelly’s is better, albeit more expensive, slower, and farther away. That is fine for the slower pace, Sunday PM last-meal, which is what we had. I picked up some coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts on Sunday to keep me awake throughout the day, but that’s about it.

Thursday routine was very routine: Pickles, Tir na Nog, Pickles. Food-wise, Pickles is actually the place to go on Thursday, simply because their happy hour is great stuff. Wings or nacho or pizza, it’s all pretty decent. Pitchers of beer made short work of all that. I got the Shephard’s Pie again. I also had a slice of Sicilian pepperoni pie at that Italian place inside the BoA skywalk area, it was good for what it was.

I’m not used to this cheap beer thing, but it was kind of nice being able to stumble into Bandai After Dark after having 4 drinks. For the same amount of money I probably could only pay for one by NYC standards.

Pickle’s fried pickles are still good.

Sliders dinner fare is relatively limited; it is really just a bar. But it was pretty delicious when I got the food there. Maybe I was just hungry at the time. Day 1 I had the chili dog set. Day 2 I had the Chesapeake chicken wrap. Both days we split the nachos. Their chili is pretty good.

Miscellaneous

Wah did two Omokage Lucky Hole songs; I missed the first one because it took place during a press event. The second time I followed up with STRAIGHT JET. HORRIBLY done STRAIGHT JET I might add. Wah’s performance is quite commendable though.

Yeah, that ice cold water really is only a dollar. I’ve only bought it from the dude once, a couple years ago. Inflation-free memes are the win.

What isn’t are tolls, parking and cost of fuel. Sigh.

Baltiport is a total jinx. Lance also needs to update the home page!

Guide book app is definitely a keeper. All cons should use it if they could. It’s actually not the most intutitive thing. For example, it was hard to set alarms manually–and there are plenty of times that you wish you could do it from your “to do” list. Or manually add to the schedule or something. How else are you suppose to keep track of booth events? Also, 1 hour is not enough for alarm. Some events need 2hr or more! There also needs a better way to slim out the main schedule, although I suppose manually scrolling up and down is not a major issue as long as there are not 100s of events to go through (Otakon got close to that). The ability to cross-reference dealer room locations is quite handy, and on that front it beats the pocket scheduler. For quick references, tho, not as fast.

Directors Panel

Just read SDS’s write-up.

Loot-related

I was in the dealer’s room for a net total of maybe an hour and a half. A third of that was waiting to get an autograph from Shinkai and chatting with people. A third of that was buying things from Bandai’s booth, the Otakon loots (Madoka charity poster and con shirt. I’ve gotten one every year, why stop now?), and checking out Kinokuniya. The last third was to buy those Vocaloid shirts.

At Kylee’s and DJ Saolilith’s autograph sessions, they were selling CDs. I got one from each of them, but they didn’t have the goods at the time. I gave them my address. I think the same company may be doing this stuff? I forget if Chemistry had their share of missing CDs. Yura didn’t.

Those CDs weren’t cheap, but considering the very weak dollar versus yen, it was okay. Kind of like how AAA distro was selling figures on Sunday; that Gift Saber Lily for $140? Are you for real? Bandai was selling some Lantis CDs that came with promo posters. I bit on one. Price was fair, all given.

Conclusion

I’d hit it again.

Every year there is something different or special about Otakon from my POV, and this year is no exception. Makes me wonder what next year has in store! Even if what is “different” or “special” can be positive and negative things. Like, I was talking to some folks after the con over IRC and I learned a few things about the charity auction results. Kind of neat, like how those wrist bands and badge add-ons totaled up a good third of the proceeds. Kind of not so neet of seeing that Saber sketch fall below a grand. Or Watsuki’s Sanosuke for about $300-400. Some futae no kiwami is called for somewhere.

Still, a good time. Big shoutout to all the brothers and sisters out there for making things work the way they do. Even more appreciative of staffers as I get older, and the same faces I see at cons, fans or industry alike. And of course, the special visitors domestic or abroad.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, K-ON

July 31, 2011

Otakon 2011 Days 2 and 3: Shikai Con Baltiport 2.0 Ver.

By omo

I got a big kick out of those Baltiport badges. I probably could have begged Bandai’s Napton for one, but that joke is kind of a drag once I actually escape from Baltimore, which is… an effort to say the least.

[07/31 19:19] <omo> wee back
[07/31 19:19] <omo> to baltimore: 2.5hr, from balitmore: 4hr

And I had the foresight of the latest Google Maps app on Android PLUS local travel know-how to avoid some of the traffic. Sigh.

Day 2 is where most of the action is. Part of my own mismanagement caused me to miss out a potential epic chance for LULS when I knew LOAE was translating for DJ Saolilith. That would’ve been epic, and I could’ve made it to their panel if I ditched Hoshi o Ou Kodomo right when it ended. Or if Shinkai-kantoku didn’t take like 15 questions for the Q&A (and he wasn’t even supposed to?)

Comix Wave was pretty awesome at the con and they gave away some amount of swag for basically all of Shinkai’s events. During his proper Q&A they were giving away film strips from Kumo no Mukou. Film strips! And the nice producer-san there even helped screened the strips that they had so people walked away with strips that had character art in them.

Aniplex’s Iwakami (henceforth IwakamiP) gave away that Saber sketch at his panel, which led to some awesome-funny outbursts from this man. You had to be there. They also raffled away volumes 1-4 of Madoka BD, and a couple Cospa shirts or something. That’s, of course, on top of the charity posters that Aniplex helped produced. It’s too bad that IwakamiP was only here for 2 days, and left Sunday AM, because he had relatively a lot to say.

I also went through major-fail when I forgot about the Jtor meet-up. Part of what is fail about it is I was actually at the K-ON dub voice actresses live event at the time, which is something I could have totally skipped out for. FAIIILLLL. Just means if I see those guys next time I will have to buy drinks.

Tho the dub concert was actually okay. For a con concert that is premised on the notion of roleplay cosplay karaoke, it could have been a lot worse. I mean Kylee’s concert wasn’t a whole lot better, and that was a real, proper live.

Chemistry is pretty nice, but the crowd was, well, lamers. In retrospect the rave crowd was the best that I saw this year, for a live crowd. Then again, Otakon isn’t Wotakon. Still, Chemistry is too little too late and not even my kind of thing.

I didn’t get to spread the love of Tanto Cuore, except telling super rats about it while waiting for the directors panel. SDS dropped the best (broest?) question there. Link’s left-field question about Murata-kantoku’s favorite To Heart character is pretty good too, but it could have been even better if he followed up on Shinkai-kantoku, since he was chuckling like a nerd. There was also a cute question about their top recommended anime (of not their own) from probably Evan of Anigamers, IIRC.

Shinkai is a nerd, by the way. How did this nerd get so much tail is apparently the stories about their distances beyond the cloud down below the falling cherry blossom as trees grew money at 5cm/s. Or some such. He even likes Five Guys. Director Shinkai Makoto is surely an exemplary man.

I actually recorded the Sunday AM Otakon ritual panel for directors this year. But to save you the effort of hearing my kibitzing I’ll just paraphrase it here. And no, no promises about putting it up (I still owe you guys some Tutuuruus anyways), since I might never get around to it.

SDS:  So earlier, director Ishiguro was saying he doesn’t understand digital animation, and directors Murata and Shinkai work in digital animation. Can the two younger directors give some pointers to director Ishiguro?

Toshi: … uhh

SDS: Okay let me rephrase that, is there anything you can share about working between digital animation and analog animation?

Toshi and LOAE explain it to the directors. Murata and Shinkai chuckle nervously and Ishiguro just smirks.

Ishiguro: Yeah, since my last work I realize I need to learn more about digital animation. You must give me some pointers.

A long 10 seconds passed and the conversation between them started. Eventually some interesting information did actually come out. I forget who said what exactly but Shinkai was saying how he found it difficult to talk with people who worked on analog animation in expressing distances in pixels versus millimeters (eg., this object moves x pixels per frame versus this object moves y mm per frame). Ishiguro chimes in about how during Yamato, the ship would always move 1mm per 3 frames, because that’s the lowest speed setting on the machine. And then Shinkai explains it to him how it was hard to communicate how x mm doesn’t translate into pixel due to the scanning process, and it is difficult to convert between the two technical shorthands.

Hrm, that was kind of technical wasn’t it. To be fair, that was Ishiguro’s second time at this American panel nonsense. And to put it into perspective, Makoto Shikai is born in 1973. Kazuya Murata is born in 1964. Noboru Ishiguro… 1938. Calling him “dai-senpai” is politely undershooting here.

Evan’s question is a simpler sample of what went on. With Ishiguro on the panel you’re kind of stuck, especially given the three of them aren’t really that familiar with each other as far as I can tell. Each of them gave something simple and sure-fire. Ishiguro didn’t really namedrop anything “commercial” but rather a lot of animation he saw in the 70s and a lot of foreign stuff. Murata named Future Boy Conan. Shinkai talked about how he’s slowly working through the Legend of Galatic Heroes during dinners at home.

OK! Yeah, there are a lot more I can talk about just about Shinkai alone, but let’s save it for later.

Bandai After Dark had a soft pitch this year for prizes. The one embarrassing thing you had to do was live karaoke to Fuwa Fuwa Time, with romanji lyrics posted on the screen. I should’ve jumped at it. Winner got one of those dealer room banners with VA autographs. They also upped the general give-away: people got those Gurren Lagann straw bags, with random junk inside (set of GITS figures, yet still another Lucky Star seifuku t-shirt, and some random manga or CD). I didn’t think everyone got one of those, so the consolation prizes were just more GITS figures.

I sort of wish I had more time in the dealer’s room, but I already spent a ton of money there… Picking up a CD here, a penlight there (Chemistry was selling some pretty nice white ones), plus some t-shirts. MangaGamer’s got really slim picking at Otakon, it’s just sad to compare it to what they have at AX.

Okay, enough for now…I need the sleep. And while I’m at that, someone let me know what MangaGamer gave away at their panel? LOL.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom