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Toonami Renaissance?

I owe a great deal of credit to Cartoon Network for making me the anime fan I am today. Of course, I also owe Sci-Fi (SYFY, or whatever they’re calling it this second) and Encore Action Channel as well, but let’s put them aside. When I was still a burgeoning anime fan, with only Ronin Warriors and the first two seasons of the Dragon Ball Z dub under my belt, Cartoon Network entered my life, and so did a programming block called Toonami (like a tsunami of cartoons!). It didn’t just affect me, but an entire generation of anime fans, and cartoon fans in general. read more

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The Tenchi Muyo Manifesto

Recently, I’ve been rewatching Tenchi Muyo!, which was a favorite for a while. Nowadays I don’t consider it a favorite, but I do have a certain fondness for it, even besides nostalgia. The original two OVAs were both humorous and endearing and there’s an immense world of possibilities in them. It really felt like it was going somewhere with it all, and for years waited with anticipation for a follow-up.  Sure, there were two TV series, three movies, and spinoffs, but it was the OVA that really inspired interest from me.  read more

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Falldog’s First Convention

So this weekend I visited my first convention, MAGFest 2012, held this year at the Gaylord Convention Center at National Harbor, MD.

So, what did I think? Well here, enjoy my random rantings…

  • I’d love to know the profit margin of an event like this. While I still haven’t decided whether the entry fees are justified ($40 for a single day, $55 for all three days) I really want to know more about the finances of this (and other) conventions. My badge tag was #9469, and working under the completely baseless assumption that there are 9468 paying folks before me, I’m going to baselessly assume they pulled in $378,760 (which I’m also going to assume is on the low end, considering the multitudes who paid $55. It’s also safer considering that not everyone had to pay for entry). That’s quite a pretty penny. I doubt the hotel charges too much, they probably made a bucket load on their own through room rental and parking fees. I was informed that most of the bands perform for free, but what about the guest speakers? How much of the equipment/games/tables/etc were donated v. rented? I suppose it’s just the information nerd in me coming through. Either way, I hope that margins are good enough to support holding the event at the same location next year.
  • The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center was awesome. Though I have gazed upon the Gaylord (who still uses that name in this day and age?) from the safe confines of Old Town Alexandria this was my first visit. The hotel and convention center was awesome. The large open air atrium was simply spectacular all decked out for Christmas. It’s the kind of place I would want to stay at if visiting the area. Unfortunately I can’t say too much about the National Harbor area. While it’s nice that it has easy access to I-495 it’s too touristy for my tastes, it lacks charm like Old Town across the river (sorry if I’m going too local for our random assortment of readers). Also, if someone knows, throughout some of the halls there are sections where the walls and ceiling were separated by foot wide aluminum plates… expansion joints, hidden fire doors?
  • Cat ears and or tails, really? While I can understand the random fetish nature of furries I don’t understand people who dress normally but throw on a pair of cat ears or a tail of some sort. If you feel so jealous of our furry underlings then please, commit all the way with your attire.
  • The same goes for welding glasses. And welding glasses on top hats, especially when the rest of your outfit isn’t remotely steampunkish. (On a site note, I saw a magazine for steampunk styles at Michaels. Is the fad officially over now?)
  • Cosplayers… could you at least not half ass it? I don’t really have the highest opinion of cosplayers. Now, I don’t have a problem with folks who want to dress up like their favorite character and have a good time. That’s fine, I can see how that would be fun. You lost me when a handful of folks became "professionals" and with the development of some of the most pretentious photography ever. "Oh, you’re Sephiroth? Well stand over against that wall, look to your right and think really hard about how much you hate Cloud." Okay, I’ve digressed from my main point which was cosplayers who half ass their costumes. I saw several folks who clearly spent time on their costumes, only to give up at the very end and wear tennis shoes or gardening gloves to complete the look. Go all in or not at all.
  • TURN THE MUSIC THE FUCK DOWN! This boggles my fucking mind. Scoping out the concert venue before the start of festivities I noticed a sign saying that they were selling ear protection. I was also witness to hotel room stashes and was even offered a pair later in the evening. At first I thought to my self, that’s silly, I’ve never needed ear protection at a concert before. Oh, how I was mistaken. The music was terribly fucking loud, and not just ‘I can’t hear what I’m thinking loud’ but ‘every other note is peaking’ loud. You have a relatively small, enclosed space, a crowd not normally characterized by their rambunctious audience attitude, and bands who’s main repertoire consists of video game covers. So take it down a notch. There’s no bloody need for things to be cranked to 11. Turn it down so the music comes through clearer and no one has to worry about tinnitus. Or at least start off low and turn it up as needed. I don’t know, it all seems so obvious.
  • There’s no crying at game conventions. Suck it up or go to your room. Or at least chat with all the passers by, pausing in an attempt to lend assistance.
  • The gaming areas were great but in need of refinement. Not only did MAGFest feature a decently sized LAN party but an even larger area for various board and table top games. So popular was the latter that finding a free table could be difficult at times. The hall next to it featured a vast array of electronic games ranging from networked consoles to pinball and classic arcade games. All very cool and a great experiance. Yet I couldn’t help feel that something was just not quite right, that something was missing. In general single player games seemed far too prevalent. Where was the row of several Cruising machines? Why did I only see one DDR machine and the soul iconic X-Men arcade game (apparently the source of some infamous yell, randomly bellowed out and echoed among he non-committed crowd like a poorly executed wave)? I figure they would want to foster more friendly competition. The designated area for Nintendo DS multiplayer games had the right idea. Most perplexing of the whole situation was the folks sitting around playing single player classics like Mario. I understand you like Mario, we all do, but we also have it at home.

For as much as I love to bitch, everyone I met seemed really nice and definitely were enjoying themselves. The staff members I interacted with were all very helpful, though some were a bit blunt at times, something I can’t fault them for considering the circumstances. One has to admire the folks who not only have to drive and commitment to put something like this together, but that patience to deal with thousands of tired/drunk/caffeinated nerds. read more

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Bandai Entertainment, R.I.P.

Yesterday, anime licensor/publisher Bandai Entertainment announced that they will no longer release DVDs or Blu-Rays. According to an interview at Anime News Network with Ken Iyadomi today, the decision was made in October by parent company Namco Bandai Holdings. February will be the last month they release anime and all planned releases for after then are cancelled. Cancelled titles include Yoshiyuki Tomino-directed Turn A Gundam. Their entire manga division is also cancelled. However, they will continue to handle licensing and sub-licensing for "group companies". Iyadomi added his gratitude to the fanbase for supporting the company.  read more

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Top 10 Shunsuke Kikuchi DB/Z Tracks

 

 

Few people talk about Shunsuke Kikuchi. While not the quality of say, Yoko Kanno’s contributions, or the emotional power of Hiroshi Miyagawa’s work, Kikuchi has been in the business of incidental music (that is to say, background music) for decades. Cutting his teeth on tokusatsu programs, Kikuchi got work scoring the anime adaption of the popular Akira Toriyama manga Dr. Slump. He is best known, however, for scoring the anime adaptation of Toriyama’s most popular work, Dragon Ball. Taking cues from old films, Kikuchi is a little Wang Fu-ling and a little Bernard Hermann. read more

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Audio: English: Tykes, Toys, Rude Little Boys: A Look At Shin Chan


With the Audio:English series, PenguinTruth takes a critical look at the English
dubs which grace some of anime’s most defining series in North America.

My last article was about my quality categories for anime English dubs. I set down general rules for what makes a dub "good", "tolerable", and terrible. Good dubs have accurate scripts and solid voice acting. Tolerable dubs are the ones that just sort of make it, but don’t impress. And terrible dubs are, well, pretty explanatory. Either they have terribly inaccurate scripts, or bad voice performances, or more usually, both. There are a fair number of dubs I could classify in any of those three categories. But one English dub I never know quite where to put is Funimation’s Shin Chan read more

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Tiger & Bunny – Episode 4 Review – Fear is Often Greater than the Danger

Tiger & Bunny is a new anime program current airing weekly in Japan and simulcast on Hulu and Viz Anime. Produced by Sunrise it’s  directed by Keiichi Satou (best known for his work on Big O). The series revolves around a couple of super heroes who fight crime while driving ad revenue and product placement for a hero themed television program.

Synopsis

Episode 4 of Tiger & Bunny is centered around the young Karina Lyle, best know as the hero Blue Rose. After a less than inspired performance she finds herself trapped in a quandary: pursue her dreams of being a singer or continue to protect the public as one of the cities’ most popular heroes? read more

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George Takei is a Dolt

(By ssoosay via Flickr)

Earlier in the week George Takei sat down with The Advocate to discuss his petition against Warner Brothers casting primarily white actors in an upcoming American adaption of the Japanese manga and anime classic, Akira. His main point is that Hollywood should cast more Asian-American actors in movie roles. A fair point on its own. However his arguments are full of curious inconsistencies. Take a look…

The manga and anime phenomenon is mostly white in this country. It originated in Japan, and, of course, it has a huge Asian fan following. But it’s the multi-ethnic Americans who are fans of Akira and manga.

Mr. Takei, I’m confused. The American fan base for manga and anime is mostly white, a reasonable statement considering whites make up 72.4% of the population… but the only fans of Akira (and manga?) are multi-ethnic? It don’t think you can find an anime or manga "fan" in this country who doesn’t like either of the Akira adaptions. Are you trying to argue that a movie should be cast based on its ethnic fan base? That makes sense on a commercial level I’m sure, but multi-ethnic Americans aren’t exactly Akira’s largest demographic. Hell, I’m pretty sure there are just as many people who have enjoyed the manga or movie and wouldn’t consider themselves to be traditional anime/manga fans. read more