Category Archives: English Language Modern Visual Fandom

January 10, 2013

Run, Con, Run

By omo

Chihaya Mi...er, plays football

If you ever read my con introspective posts and reports you might wonder just how much effort I expend at cons. Here’s a somewhat objective measurement.

Since early 2012 I’ve been towing around a Japanese 3DS. While all I play on it is New Love Plus, I also enjoy the built-in games gratis from Nintendo. This means I get that “shoot people’s face” game as well as the Streetpass minigames, which gets a boost via the coins you get by walking while the 3DS is suspended. That provides me with a count of how many steps I take every day once I get back to the hotel after a day at a con. I’m trusting the 3DS pedometer to be relatively accurately, and from my own experience, it is pretty good.  (And of course you want to carry your 3DS, in suspended mode, at a con. Because that’s where the magic of Streetpass happens.) Maybe it undercounts, according to some people online, but I’ve not read anything authoritative.

Here is Gizmodo’s blog post of CES 2013 as the reporters wore various personal devices that kept track how much energy they’ve expended. To sum it up, here are their most active day and how many steps they took:

Casey Chan: 14,839

Brent Rose:  15,170

Peter Ha: 15,440

As for me? The only one I have on record was:

Ax 2012: 23,159

I’ve taken it easy at cons, I have done cons where I got home I lost like 6 pounds because I power-walked all weekend long while averaging 2 meals a day. Both are fun, one is more painful than the other. I probably get more sleep than the average press guy at CES, because there’s less smooching to be done and I sure don’t have to bang up a billion posts every day. But that’s usually what it takes to do my itinerary. It’s also easy to see why at AX you’d walk that much, simply because the way the con is set up, and things in California are just more spread out versus the East coast cons I visit. I think AX2012 was also the one con that I’ve gotten more press-y than any other con, just out of the number of 3rd party obligations. Anyway, a lot of walking was to be had.

Off hand I’m pretty sure there was at least a one con that I got over 30k steps in a day. Oh well.

Do you walk nearly this much at an anime con? I guess it really depends on the venue–I mean if I walk around AnimeNext’s complex (the con center and the hotel) it might take 1500 steps. It’s not that big. It might be 3000 steps to circle LACC. But even for a large con a lot of people don’t do much other than to pace through the AA and the dealer’s room, and sit in some panels or screenings. It’s not exactly the most active sort of thing. But on the flip side that’s not what kids do at cons either, just old people. When’s the last time you were a part of a Caramelldansen train? (Dead meme is dead, almost.)

2 comments | posted in Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom

January 9, 2013

Angel Beats & Organ Donation

By omo

When I read this article, I thought about Angel Beats. Because, like, it is actually tackling a subtle notion about afterlife and more importantly explaining how what we believe the afterlife to be, that directly impacts the way we look at ourselves right now, and how we live this one.

I mean, it’s a very tangible thing when it comes to organ donation. Some philosophies enable people to donate more willingly than others, after death. And in term, that impacts actual lives of people who can use the help. I think Angel Beats is, from this perspective, an ingenious way to tackle a fairly thorny problem. And it didn’t even had the time to be preachy… Oh who am I kidding?

Hinata & Yui

 

5 comments | posted in Angel Beats, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture

January 3, 2013

Robotic;Notes Is Google’s Ingress

By omo

What is Ingress? It’s Google’s first real video game. “Real” because it’s not their first game, just the first one that is actually a game product, not some bonus feature. For the uninitiated, it’s a game you play on your smartphones (Android ones for now)–it loads up this simple map with various landmarks, you go to these landmarks, and you can do the game stuff at these landmarks. The point is to create “fields” by creating lines between various landmarks, and the sides with the most number of people under their fields win? Something like that. The other point is to follow the chain of clues provided by the various Google Ingress social network entities and figure out the larger narrative behind the game. The game is currently in invite-only beta. You can find out more about the game here.

The Ingress world of Manhattan

There’s a pretty interesting interview that came out today related to this, where the game lead discusses his ideas behind Ingress. You can read it here. Basically, John Hanke (a bit like a SF name if I might say) describes how these new mobile games not only lift player out of the couch, but also melt them within the bigger world, outdoors. The game (and the increasingly small, portable and geo-aware devices that run the game) integrates this experience, and not isolate the player from the external environment like a bubble.

Well, you probably get what I’m trying to go with this with Robotic;Notes. IRUO plus Airi is basically what Ingress is. The Kimijima Reports are like the nonsense from Ingress’s in-game “intel” items or what you might find here or here. There isn’t an elaborate unlock mechanism–at least not the kind you expect from Robotic;Notes, just Googlers’ nerd-grade ciphers. I don’t think we’re looking at a doomsday scenario with XM and the enlightened versus the resistance  the way that Robotic;Notes is, playing up with its potential mechanical, time-traveling hijinks with solar flares.

I wonder how Chiyomaru Shikura feels about Ingress. I guess this is sort of an eventual convergence of event–inevitable given the way the existing technology, adaptation trends, user experiences and media has portrayed the new ways people use these portable electronics. People starting and working from different sectors of life and industry might arrive at a similar conclusion when working independently. Well, I think there’s still the KillBallad angle to Robotic;Notes, and that could be pretty interesting as that plot thread resolves in the second half, let alone the giant robot they’re making along with the actual conspiracy being alluded to via the robots club, Frau’s mom and Gunvarrel.

The story to Robotic;Notes is, thankfully, multifaceted enough that it is only in the past few weeks that it resembled the puzzle-gathering RL game that Ingress is. Hopefully it’ll come out of it soon. But on the other hand, Ingress has real-life applications, which you can read about in this other interview from a Google Maps team guy on the future of maps. It’s no coincidence that Google’s Field Trip is made by the same team that did Ingress. Now they just need to figure out a way to integrate Airi/Kugyuu in my phone, telling me that the Greek restaurant near me is the #1 rated place in a 500-mile radius.

 

4 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Robotics;Notes

January 2, 2013

Year in Review 2012: N-listing

By omo

Let’s get to it.

Top 12 TV anime!

From A1 Pictures - Happy New Years

Continue reading

13 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Introspectives, Modern Visual Culture

December 18, 2012

Year in Review 2012: Introduction

By omo

Twenty-twelve is on its end and it’s time to submit to tradition and peer pressure. I’m not a big one on dates and what not but it’s always a good excuse to party and introspect; it’s not like we need an excuse to party anyway!

In a nutshell I liked 2012, when many of its anime offerings are actually rather good. We can start out on, say Eva Q, or Goro Miyazaki’s breakout film. Heaven is a place on earth. We could look at the seasonal offerings. I watched an episode of Lupin. I watched more K-ON. I watched more Strike Witches. There was Seitokai no Ichizon. Danshi Kokousei no Nichijou. There was high action from Fate/Zero’s exciting conclusion, to the drawn out visuals of Guilty Crown. We went to space with Space Bros and Rinne, and looked for the SISTER AMONG US while quoting Shakespeare in Zetsuen no Tempest, Waiting in the Summer. Well, it was more like winter, AMIRITE? One thing we did a lot of is go online and play games. There are just way too many of those anime this year. I still averaged about 20 series a season. On the related front of non-anime adaptations, there was even a Kenshin to go with the Kenshin OAV/film re-releases.

I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that TV anime has turned the corner. We are squarely in the post-moe era now. It doesn’t take Psycho-Pass to do this, although it is no coincidence that it is airing at the same time as Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai. I mean, seriously, when chuunibyou is a commercialized item, complete with a production committee, you know this trend is about to disintegrate into pay dirt and lose all actual cred as a fandom item. Nor is it a coincidence regarding the utterance of moe in Psycho-Pass–that lack of moe or anti-moe is the new dead thing. The rise of Urobuchi in the wake of his post-Madoka success was already a go-ahead signal for the major players to change gears. At least, if you are not a game developer.

Tapioka & Akira

Speaking of him, it is nice to see Urobuchi for once. The con circuit in 2012 was fun as usual, although AX felt a bit muted. In exchange I had a blast at all the other cons this year, even NYCC. I think it’s still good time to scale things back a bit personally. We’ll see what’ 2013 has in store–I hear Otakon has a big time guest lined up already, ready to go in January. Still, I think I’m probably most excited about the Otakon music fest being a regular item, although the vibe I got is more like it’s probably not going to be something you should count on. At least, not the way that AFA probably can bring home the mother lode of wota idols. Sphere is an awesome get, and those people in Singapore on that fated date can have all my jelly.

And yes, we outsiders party and don’t necessarily pay. It’s the way we’ve rolled for decades, and 2012 is no exception. But I think the one thing that remain after all this time is that I’ve partied enough. It’s time to take a vacation or something. Maybe I will. Or at least do something different. The industry is showing their first-born fruits of new media paradigms like SJ Alpha while their older siblings truck on. FUNi, AN, CR and even Aniplex all took a step forward in 2012.

The world is certainly changing. Maybe that fact alone will leave some with a bad taste in their mouths. But I’d like to think we’re definitely better off in 2012 than we were at any point in anime’s history, in the history of this fandom, on average.

Because, up next, we are ladies…?

Year in review 2012:

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Introspectives, Modern Visual Culture