Otaku no Podcast » anime expo

Episode #0034 – The Japan Travel Extravaganza, Part 2

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:22:05 +0000

Our Japan Travel Extravaganza continues! In today’s episode, myself, co-host Danny Barer and the fine folks from TJX: The Japan Xperience talk about our suggestions for places to see and things to do while in Japan.

Sponsor: GoToMeeting with HD Faces makes it easy to collaborate online anytime. Try it Free! Use the promo code “PODCAST”

Today’s Theme: “I am a Love Beginner (T_T)” (恋のビギナーなんです（T_T） Koi no Beginā Nan Desu (T_T)?) by Rie Yamaguchi; ED to the second season of Is this a Zombie? (aka Kore wa zombie desu ka?). Watch Season 1 on FUNimation’s website (season 2 will start streaming later this spring)

Links:

FanimeCon, May 25-28, San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA
AM2, June 15-17, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA
Anime Five Cities (website, Twitter), date and location TBA
Anime Expo, June 29-July 2, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
Otakon, July 27-29, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD
AnimeNEXT, June 8-10, Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset NJ
Anime North, May 25-27, Toronto Congress Center, Toronto ON CA
Anime Central, April 27-29, Hyatt Regency O’Hare/Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL
San Diego Comic-Con International, July 12-15, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

More upcoming anime cons

Pop Japan Travel
Pop Japan Travel makes its grand return with the Amazing All-Japan Alpha+Omega Adventure Tour!

TJX: The Japan Xperience

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

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Episode #0033 – The Japan Travel Extravaganza, Part 1

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:53:51 +0000

Today we begin a series of episodes which I am calling “The Japan Travel Extravaganza!” And as its name implies, we will be talking about travel to Japan, and the various things you can see and do while there. You’ll find out that it’s alot easier and cheaper to do than you might have thought.

Newsflash: Pop Japan Travel (whom we interviewed in this episode) are back and have announced their latest tour!

Sponsor: GoToMeeting with HD Faces makes it easy to collaborate online anytime. Try it Free! Use the promo code “PODCAST”

Today’s Theme: “***Passionate” (***パショナート ***Pashonāto?) by Iori Nomizu; OP to the second season of Is this a Zombie? (aka Kore wa zombie desu ka?). Watch Season 1 on FUNimation’s website (season 2 will start streaming later this spring).

Links:

Our Picks:

Urusei Yatsura (sadly AnimEigo lost the license and it is now out of print)
Planetes
One Piece

Planetes
$34.35

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Mikunopolis CD, DVD and Blu-ray releases are coming soon; pre-order today!

Donald Burr — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:05:35 +0000

Those of you that missed Mikunopolis, the awesome Vocaloid concert that took place at this year’s Anime Expo, listen up! The release dates for the concert videos have been set!

But first, the bad news. These are only going to be released in Japan. Why they chose to do this, I have no idea. If rumors are to be believed, Sega is doing this deliberately to punish those who illegally uploaded video from the concert. (Please note that we attended Anime Expo as official members of the press and that our videos were shot from the press area with permission.) Actually, the first rumors indicated that they would not be releasing the concert footage at all. Whether these rumors are true or not, we don’t know; but the reality of the situation is that if you want ‘em, you’re gonna have to import ‘em.

And now, the good news. This is going to be a multi-media release – it’s coming out in CD, DVD and Blu-ray! Each will include all of the songs performed at the concert. In addition, the DVD and Blu-ray releases will feature some extras, including a special booklet, photo of Hatsune Miku, and a “making-of” video.

The CD will be released on November 30, at a price of ¥3,150 (about US$40) and the Blu-ray and DVD will follow on December 21, at ¥6,300 (about US$80) for the DVD and ¥7,350 (about US$95) for the Blu-ray. (Welcome to the world of Japanese media pricing.)

(Important note: the Blu-rays are region free (meaning that they will play in any Blu-ray player anywhere in the world); however the DVD release is Region 2, meaning that, unless you live in Japan, you will need a “region-free” DVD player (or a “region free” hack for your computer-based DVD player) in order to play it. Fortunately region-free DVD players can be easily obtained.)

You can pre-order them today from Play-asia (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) and CDjapan (CD, DVD, Blu-ray).

Note: We have applied to become a CDjapan affiliate. So please use the CDjapan links

Click for J-List now!

Episode #0026 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Maki-san of Obitsu

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:25:53 +0000

We conclude our Anime Expo 2011 interviews with a chat with Maki-san from the doll maker Obitsu. We talk about Obitsu’s products as well as their plans for the future.

This concludes our series of Anime Expo 2011 interviews, but is not the end of our AX 2011 coverage. There are still some videos that we’ll be putting up, as well as photos, so keep an eye on our YouTube channel as well as our photo gallery.

Today’s Theme: “Kawaru Mirai,” by Choucho. OP to the Summer 2011 anime Heaven’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memochou), now streaming on the Anime Network.

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Episode #0025 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Peter Payne of J-List

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:39:52 +0000

Our Anime Expo 2011 interviews continue! Today we interview Peter Payne, founder and head honcho of one of my favorite online sellers of stuff, J-List. Be sure and check out their incredible catalog over at J-List (includes adult/NSFW products) or J-Box (just the PG-rated ones).

Today’s Theme: “Sweet Drop,” by Puffy AmiYumi, OP to the Summer 2011 anime Usagi Drop (Bunny Drop). Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership today!

Click for J-List now!

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Episode #0024 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Taliesin Jaffe

The Ghost in the Machine — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:38 +0000

Our Anime Expo 2011 interviews continue! Today we interview the multitalented Taliesin Jaffe, where we talk about some of his various projects, as well as a road trip of epic proportions. J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: Episode #0025 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Peter Payne of J-List Episode #0026 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Maki-san of Obitsu Episode #0023 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo

Episode #0023 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo

The Ghost in the Machine — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:05:18 +0000

We begin our Anime Expo 2011 interviews with a chat with webcomic artist Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo.

I recently made a guest appearance on the Nigorimasen podcast. Go listen to it today!

Today’s Theme: “Stone Cold” by FictionJunction. OP for the Summer 2011 anime Sacred Seven. Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!

No related posts.

Episode #0022 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 2)

The Ghost in the Machine — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:56:09 +0000

We conclude our coverage of Anime Expo 2011 with part 2 of our usual panel-style review/wrapup of doom. Anime Expo 2011 coverage will be coming out over the next few weeks, as I have tons and tons of audio, video and photos to go through, not to mention all of the news and announcements that came out at the con!

Today’s Theme: “Magia,” by Kalafina, the ED of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Links to things we talked about:

Stitcher SmartRadio app
Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel
California Conventions Blog
AM2 Con Blog Hacked, Con Still On
The Battle of the Cons: Anime Expo vs. AM2
AM2 Sets a Record in 1st Year Convention Attendance and Celebrates the End of Its 2011 Event with the All Girl J-Rock Band Scandal
Convention Report: AM2
So How Did AM2 Fare on the Same Weekend as AX 2011?
Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot
Pray for Japan (Facebook, Trailer on YouTube, Kickstarter)
Japan fundraiser brings kids into the fold
PIAPRO
Mikubook
Mikunopolis
Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel with video from Mikunopolis
OtakuVerse Zero
Culture Japan on Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!)
NicoNico
Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!)
Win MsGeek’s NicoNico T-shirt
Crunchyroll Dance Party
Gallery of Fantastic Art (GoFA)
Guidebook (get the free app on iTunes or Android Marketplace)
SCHED
AX Live (view past episodes on YouTube)
AMV contest winners
Masquerade Winners

Our Picks:

Donald – K-ON! Volume 1 ( DVD, Blu-ray); Volume 2 ( DVD, Blu-ray); Volume 3 due to be released sometime later this year; Highschool of the Dead (on DVD, Blu-ray and ); Midori Days; Haruhi AniPoke App for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (free on the ); Nagato AniPoke app ; Mikuru AniPoke app ; Ramen Fighter Miki on Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!); Square
Avi – Puella Magi Madoka Magica (license announced at Aniplex’s AX panel; due out sometime in October)
Michelle – Pray for Japan (Facebook, Trailer on YouTube, Kickstarter); Apple iPod touch 8GB MP3 Player (4th Generation – Latest Model) – Black; Otaku USA Magazine
Danny – The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya; Trigun: Badlands Rumble

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

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Did you miss Mikunopolis? We’ve got you covered!

Donald Burr — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:37:30 +0000

Are you sad that you missed out on what was quite possibly THE event of the new millennium? Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. We’ve uploaded our video from the Mikunopolis concert to our YouTube channel. Go check ‘em out today!

But first, the bad news. Unfortunately, the press weren’t exactly given the best seats in the house — I suspect they saved the best angles/camera positions for their own use. Also, due to the nature of on-camera microphones, the sound quality isn’t exactly world-class. (I did use a shotgun mic so the quality is probably a bit better than your garden variety camcorder.) Also, they only let us record the first 6 songs (the first 7 if you count Project DIVA desu), and while these first few songs were awesome, the ones that came later were even more spectacular.

And the good news? These videos will still give you a taste of how incredible this show was to behold. You’ll get to see and hear how terrific Miku and friends (and especially their backing band) were.

If you really wanted to see the live show in person and are bummed that you missed it, don’t fret! I have a feeling that Miku and friends will be returning to the States before too long. Keep an eye on the Mikunopolis site as I’m sure they’ll announce future concert dates and locations there. (Of course, as soon as we hear about any possible future Mikunopolis dates, we’ll be sure and tell you as well.)

Also, I understand that they will be releasing an official concert DVD (and Blu-Ray too, hopefully) later this year. We’ll definitely let you know about it when it goes on sale, so keep an eye on the Otaku no Podcast website as well as our Twitter and Facebook accounts. (Or, if you’re the impatient sort, you can get the Blu-ray of the Japanese concert today, thanks to our good friends at J-List/J-Box.)

Finally, this is by no means the end of our AX coverage; there is still tons more to come. Besides the second half of our recap/review podcast episode of Doom (which should be going up tonight), there are tons more interviews, video and photos, which will be going up over the next few weeks to come. So stay tuned!

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Episode #0021 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 1)

The Ghost in the Machine — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 23:48:20 +0000

We begin our coverage of Anime Expo 2011 with part 1 of our usual panel-style review/wrapup of doom. Anime Expo 2011 coverage will be coming out over the next few weeks, as I have tons and tons of audio, video and photos to go through, not to mention all of the news and announcements that came out at the con!

Today’s Theme: “Cagayake! GIRLS,” the theme to K-ON! Season 1, as performed by the Vocaloids. Be sure and check out the super-cool VOCA-ON! remake of the K-ON! opening animation with Vocaloid characters instead of the usual K-ON! girls!

Links to things we talked about:

Our Picks:

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

No related posts.

ChibiCast #0021 – Random-Updates-a-Gogo

Donald Burr — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:00:11 +0000

Random-Updates-a-Gogo J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: Possible trouble with AudioBoo and social media updates ChibiCast #0020 – The between episodes episode ChibiCast #0022 – The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom!

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Anime Expo 2011 videos are hitting the Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel

Donald Burr — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:10:11 +0000

First of all, yes, I am well aware that there are no Anime Expo Day 2-4 updates. I’m sorry, but I just wasn’t able to get them done. By the time we got back to our hotel room each night, it was too late and we were way too tired to write anything even remotely coherent. Besides, bandwidth was pretty much crap, so even if I did write something, it would be next to impossible to post it. This weekend we’re planning on getting together to record our Anime Expo review/recap episode of doom, panel-style as usual, so that will serve as our final AX update of doom.

But the AX coverage doesn’t stop there! Besides recapping the veritable cornucopia of new anime licenses, releases and other news to come out of AX, we will also be posting, over the next few weeks, audio, photos, and videos that we took while at Anime Expo. The first such fruits of our convention-going labor are now up on our YouTube channel. We were able to sit down and chat with MegaTokyo webcomic creator Fred “Piro” Gallagher and voice actor, director, script adapter, former child actor, and all-around multitalented guy Taliesin Jaffe about their various projects and other sundry topics.

Go check them out now!

Click for J-List now!

Anime Expo 2011 Day 0 & 1 Report

Donald Burr — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:12:20 +0000

Anime Expo 2011 Day 1 has drawn to a close. Actually we’ve been here since Thursday, aka Day 0. So at long last here is our writeup!

Day 0 was spent mostly getting here, followed by press interviews. We had the great honor of interviewing Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo fame, as well as the multi-talented Taliesin Jaffe. Those should be hitting the podcast feeds along with our inevitable panel discussion recap episode of doom.

We then trekked over to the LA Convention Center for press badge pick-up. We had a bit of difficulty finding it, but were eventually able to get there. Fortunately there was only a short line, not like the line of gargantuan proportions that was the pre-reg badge pickup line. Press badge pickup went pretty smoothly.

We were in a rather unique situation in that we are both press, as well as disabled. They weren’t really expecting this odd twist, and it took us a while to get referred to the proper people. Coordinating badge pickup, ticketing, etc. for the disabled is still one of their weak points; there was an awful lot of walking back and forth involved. However we can’t fault the staff, as everyone was friendly and willing to go the extra mile to help out. The AX staff is making a conscious effort to educate their staff and volunteers on good customer relations.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for convention center staff. For one thing there is still a definite shortage of them. Last year this lack of personnel led to a rather disastrous accident suffered by one of our panelists; fortunately, so far, knock on wood, we’ve escaped unscathed this year. However one run-in with con center staff left a decidedly sour taste in our mouth. Due to physical disability we had to take a taxi to the convention center, and as the driver was pulling up to the hall we wanted to exit at, a con center staffer rushed up and accosted us saying that we couldn’t even pull up there. This greatly angered our driver, so much so that he even offered to give us a reduced fare if we called him when we needed to return to the hotel.

We didn’t make it to the con until late afternoon, and as a result we missed a few industry panels, at which some rather interesting announcements were made.

First up, the NIS America panel, NIS America is a company better known for its English localizations of popular Japanese tactical role playing titles such as Disgaea and Phantom Brave. What many people don’t know (well, at least what I didn’t know until now) is that they also license some anime titles. And they came out with two rather interesting announcements in that vein. They announced that they have licensed Kimi ni Todoke and Dororon Enma-kun for North American distribution. Kimi ni Todoke came as a welcome surprise, and I so called this one in our 2010 wrap-up episode. KnT is an absolutely sweet, endearing story and one that anyone, not just shoujo fans, will heartily enjoy. Expect it to come out in two sets of 13 episodes each, with the first box shipping sometime in October, and the second one shipping at some unspecified later date. However, it’s the licensing of Emma-kun, a strange and rather poorly rated horror-comedy, and a rather old one at that (originally aired in 1973), that has the anime blogosphere flummoxed. Ain’t it Cool Anime News remarked, rather incredulously, that “that’s about the least expected anime license ever,” while Narutaki of the Reverse Thieves quips, “This might be the most poorly thought out license of the year.” There’s no news about release dates, only that they hope to have more information by next year’s Anime Expo. So don’t expect this one anytime soon.

Next up is Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment, who announced that it has acquired the license for more of the (original) Dirty Pair as well as Dirty Pair Flash, Gasaraki, and Martian Successor Nadesico, along with the Gekigangar 3 video. This is welcome news for us old school anime fans. I’m particularly looking forward to the re-release of Nadesico, as this is a great title for relative newcomers to the genre which I have been unable to recommend since it’s been out of print for a while.

At the Aniplex USA panel, we learned the exciting (but not terribly surprising, at least IMHO) news that Puella Magi Madoka Magica has been licensed. (Although this was suspected for a while now, since they registered the domain for an apparent US Madoka Magica website late last month, and the site went live early this morning and was noticed by sharp-eyed net stalkers.) This series has been generating quite a bit of controversy on the intarwebs, and has turned the whole magical girl genre on its ear, and it’s no surprise (at least to us) that it was snapped up — the only surprise was that it took them this long to do so. They also announced that they picked up the license for Blue Exorcist; the first of four DVD volumes will ship in October, with the remaining volumes tentatively scheduled for January, April and July of next year.

Viz announced that they will be releasing Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva as well as Bleach: Fade to Black – Kimi no Na o Yobu, joining the over 9,000 other Bleach properties out there. Bleach is due out on November 15 on both DVD and Blu-ray, while no details of the Professor Layton release have been announced yet.

Finally, FUNimation announced a veritable cornucopia of releases, including Deadman Wonderland, Steins;Gate, Baka to Test, B Gata H Kei (to be known as “Yamada’s First Time”), and Asobi no Iku yo! (previously known as “Bombshells from the Sky,” but apparently now to be called “Cat Planet Cuties.”) They also added DVD, Blu-ray, digital and broadcast distribution rights for the anime “C.” B Gata H Kei, in particular, is a fun and funny story about a girl, Yamada, and her quest to garner 100, ahem, “sex partners” before she graduates. Scandalous as this plot may sound, IMHO there is comparatively little hanky panky in the actual show — yes, maybe some mildly suggestive scenes, but nothing compared to a certain other infamous title. It plays out as more of a saucy and funny romantic comedy. Hopefully its US release won’t generate the same controversy it did back in Japan.

The one panel we did make it to was the Hatsune Miku Keynote, hosted by Hiroyuki Itoh and Wataru Sasaki of Crypton Future Media, the creators of Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloids, and the #1 music software distributor in Japan. To say that Crypton, et al created Vocaloid is somewhat of a misnomer; Vocaloid is a software speech synthesis engine developed by Yamaha, who licenses it to other companies (such as Crypton) who then take it and marry it with voice data to create a unique singing software. (Hatsune Miku was created based on voice data sampled from voice actress Saki Fujita.) Vocaloid, the software, is neither an anime, nor a character. In fact, Crypton’s earlier Vocaloid-based products were sold as plain old software, with no Hatsune Miku-like character. Hatsune Miku, in fact, was created as a marketing tool to make the software appeal to a wider audience. And boy, did it work. Hatsune Miku and friends now enjoy worldwide popularity thanks to events such as the Hatsune Miku concerts. This year’s Anime Expo marks the North American debut of the “Mikunopolis” concert; previously only highlights of this show were shown at the New York Anime Festival.

To be completely honest, they also owe their popularity to the Internet and the creative people that take these tools and make cool new things based on them. And they know this very well. In fact, in a move that’s completely counter to how agencies here in the west handle things (I’m looking at you, Hollywood, MPAA and RIAA!), Crypton freely encourages fans to take their works and make derivative works based on them. They directly attribute Hatsune Miku’s popularity to video sharing sites such as YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, which bridge the gap between those people who create and listen to music, normally independent and isolated. These sites facilitate what they call the “chain of creation” – where someone creates something, posts it for others to see, and then people see it and create their own derivative works – truly an example of the long tail philosophy at work. They’ve created a website, Piapro, to facilitate this sharing of music, lyrics, and video. There is only one hard and fast rule to this site: if you post something, you must let others derive from it; And if you modify something, you must acknowledge the original creator. A brilliant example of the Creative Commons license at work. Crypton themselves provide the original permission for people to derive from their content. (Not only do they tolerate people deriving from their work, they actively ENCOURAGE it.) Take, for example, MikuMikuDance, which we’ve written about before; a really powerful 3D animation program that could be sold for real money, yet is freely given away, to encourage fan creativity. They realize that increasing popularity leads to merchandising opportunities such as CDs, books, and even cookies(!). Of course there is the famous Sega Project Diva games, where they consciously made every effort to use user-generated content in the game — costumes, character designs, even loading screens. Compared to Hollywood’s top-down creation process, the Hatsune Miku universe demonstrates a more bottom-up approach, a new way to create work. And Crypton is very conscious of remaining sensitive to the creative community’s needs. Case in point: their newly-created social networking site Mikubook, a social networking site that allows users to recommend videos, illustrations and music to their followers, with emphasis on Vocaloid-related products. Users can also connect with other people easily, and can log in to the site using their existing Twitter or Facebook credentials. Although this site is still in an early beta phase (it was birthed only one month ago), work on it is progressing rapidly.

And finally, the highlight of our evening: the Anime Music Video contest. I say this all the time, but the entries just keep getting better and better. Unfortunately there were once again a few (in our opinion) mis-categorizations: some videos in drama that felt more like comedy, which, we think, is rather unfair to the rest of the competition in that category. And there was one video in particular that pretty much nailed it in terms of emotional content and matching the music’s mood with the anime content, but I just couldn’t vote for it because of a glaring technical error, a field order problem that caused all motion to appear strangely stuttery. This year also marked the debut of a new category, “Fun,” that is basically a catch-all for anything that doesn’t really fit anywhere else. Being a new category, however, its entrants were ineligible for the “Best of Show” prize. However (again in our opinion) some of the best (certainly the more funny) of the videos were in this category. There were also some, shall we say, not entirely safe for work entrants, especially in comedy. This has been a concern for some of our co-hosts in years past, in that exposing children to these type of videos might not be such a good idea. The AMV staff have finally acknowledged this, and are apparently going to make the AMV event an “18+” event starting next year.

That about does it for this update. Busy schedule tomorrow, including what could quite possibly be the highlight of the entire con, the Mikunopolis concert!

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Got questions for the AX Guests of Honor?

Donald Burr — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:12:52 +0000

Yes, it’s that time again, time for another Anime Expo. This time we’re actually going to try and bring you some actual coverage. To that end we have set up our new liveblog, which, after hours of experimentation, I have determined to be much easier (and much less vomit-inducing) than live video streaming.

And this is your opportunity to ask a question of one of the Guests of Honor. We’ll be in one-on-one interviews with Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo and Taliesin Jaffe, who’s been involved in one way or another with more anime projects than I can count; and we’re gonna try to get interviews with Danny Choo and Hiroyuki Itoh and Wataru Sasaki of Crypton Future Media (yes, the Vocaloid people). However there may be other opportunities to ask questions of the other Guests of Honor too.

So, got anything you want us to ask? Then post them in the comments here. We make no promises, but will do our best to get your questions answered.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Anime Expo 2011 programming schedules are now live!

Donald Burr — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:40:22 +0000

As Murphy’s Law would have it, mere hours after we released our latest episode, the fine folks at Anime Expo go and release their preliminary schedule. Would’ve loved to talk about it on the podcast, but what can you do? shrug Anyway, go forth and peruse the schedules for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. (You’ll need the free Acrobat Reader, as these are PDF files. Or Mac and iOS users can use their device’s built-in PDF support.)

Speaking of iOS devices, the AX staff are planning on releasing an updated app for the iPhone, and are also working on an app for Android devices as well. Keep an eye on the Anime Expo website as well as their Twitter for an announcement when those are ready.

We here at Otaku no Podcast have begun going through the schedules and have started filling out our convention schedule with events we are interested in. You can look at our convention schedule on the brand-new Con Calendar page.

Only 17 more days to go…!

Click for J-List now!

Episode #0020 – Convention Survival Guide, 2011 Edition

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:43:40 +0000

Well, the summer con season is in full swing, and as usual, we’re late to the party This week we give an update to our famous convention survival tips, which should hopefully help you have a more enjoyable con-going experience. And of course we bust out our favorite anime picks as well.

Today’s Theme Song: “FIGHT OR FLIGHT,” by Yū Kobayashi. Second ED to the anime Dragonaut: The Resonance.

Our Picks:

Michelle:
- There is a ton of anime available to watch online, completely legally and (oftentimes) for free. Some of our favorites include Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Crackle. Also, many anime distributors run their own streams.
- Animation Runner Kuromi
Me:
- K-ON!
- Clannad and Clannad: After Story
- Royal Space Force – Wings of Honneamise

Clannad: After Story – Complete Collection [4 Discs] -

Includes:Clannad After Story: Episode 11 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 10 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 9 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 8 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 6 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 4 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 18 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 17 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 16 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 15 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 14 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 13 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 12 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 1 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 3 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 2 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 24 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 23 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 22 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 21 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 20 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 19 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 5 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 7 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 11 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 10 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 9 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 8 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 6 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 4 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 18 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 17 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 16 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 15 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 14 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 13 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 12 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 1 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 3 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 2 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 24 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 23 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 22 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 21 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 20 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 19 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 5 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 7 No synopsis available.

TEST LINK: Clannad Complete Collection

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

ChibiCast #0020 – The between episodes episode

Donald Burr — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 03:00:07 +0000

The between episodes episode J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: Episode #0020 – Convention Survival Guide, 2011 Edition ChibiCast #0021 – Random-Updates-a-Gogo ChibiCast #0004 – last test message. yesrly.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Video #0006 – Convention Photography 101

Donald Burr — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:27:12 +0000

It’s happened to all of us – you get home, load up your con photos, and your reaction is “meh.” Fear not! The Otaku no Podcast crew will show you the tips and tricks you need to get those awesome Cosplay.com like shots.

This was the workshop I gave at Anime Expo 2010.

Be sure and check the Otaku no Podcast website for full show notes, including links to the products, books, etc. mentioned. http://otakunopodcast.com/photo/.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

“Anime Podcasting for Beginners” panel at Anime Expo 2010

Donald Burr — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:28:07 +0000

Here, at long last, is the final edited version of the podcasting talk I gave at Anime Expo 2010. It’s more or less similar to the one I gave at FanimeCon, which I already posted to the podcast feed some time ago (that is why this isn’t being posted out to the podcast feed), but this version is slightly altered (a few new/changed slides here and there), and I sound *slightly* less scatterbrained than I did at FanimeCon.

I’m currently working on editing the photography talk, and will post that to the feed later today.

Anime Podcasting for Beginners Panel @ Anime Expo 2010 from Otaku no Podcast on Vimeo.

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Buy one Anime Expo membership, get the second one half off… but only until September 30

Donald Burr — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:31:47 +0000

Are you still hemming and hawing, or procrastinating, or on the fence, or (insert other related idiom) about going to AX next year? Well you might want to hurry up on that. Anime Expo is currently running a buy one, get one half-off deal on 2011 memberships. But this deal runs out on Thursday, September 30 — that’s next week! So hurry it up already! Simply head on over to the registration website and use coupon code AXSept2010 when checking out.

2011 will mark Anime Expo’s 20th anniversary, and while they haven’t yet made any guest announcements, I’m sure they’ll be pulling out all the stops for this one. (And considering the star power that they managed to grab for this year’s event, this means that next year will be that much awesomer.)

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Episode #0013 (Part 2) – Anime Expo 2010

Donald Burr — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:16:59 +0000

NOTE: This is a 2-part episode. Be sure and download both parts! (In particular, most iTunes installations are set to only download the latest episode if it detects more than one new episode is available.)

Here at long last is our Anime Expo 2010 review episode of doom. I bring you but a small sampling of the news that came out of the convention, as well as our famous Panel Discussions of Doom(TM) where we talked about AX, what we liked, what we didn’t like, and our thoughts on the event. We’ve also got an interview with Ejen Chuang of Cosplay in America who recently put out an awesome cosplay photography book. And, as always, we bring you the freshest, coolest anime picks.

Today’s Opening Music: “Lion,” Megumi Nakajima & May’n. One of the opening themes of the excellent anime Macross Frontier.

AX 2010 Coverage – ANN and Japanator. AX 2010 Photo Galleries: ANN (cosplay, exhibit hall/around the con); Japanator (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6) Cosplay in America

Our picks:

Me – Highschool of the Dead, Evangelion 1.11 – You are Not Alone (DVD, Blu-ray), Cosplay in America, K-ON! (will be released by Bandai) Danny – Durarara!, Heroman Michelle – Hetalia Axis Powers, Eden of the East (DVD, Blu-ray)

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Episode #0013 – Anime Expo 2010

Donald Burr — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:34:20 +0000

Today’s Opening Music: “Lion,” Megumi Nakajima & May’n. One of the opening themes of the excellent anime Macross Frontier.

AX 2010 Coverage – ANN and Japanator. AX 2010 Photo Galleries: ANN (cosplay, exhibit hall/around the con); Japanator (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6) Cosplay in America

Our picks:

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Otakon bans vuvuzelas; the world rejoices

Donald Burr — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:00:48 +0000

I really, really hate the vuvuzela. The noise that those cursed “instruments” make sounds to me like a cross between a pair of yaks mating, and a pair of yaks dying an excruciatingly painful death. As I wrote previously, those abominations were all over the LA Convention Center during Anime Expo, and it seemed to me that practically every few seconds, the center was filled with that abominable noise. Really distracting, and even worse, a potential medical liability for those especially close to the offensive noisemaker.

Now before you soccer (or football, as it’s known in places outside of the US) fans get your knickers in a bunch, fear not. I have absolutely no problem with the vuvuzela, in its proper context — i.e. during the World Cup. What I don’t agree with, however, is its use outside of said venue — more specifically, at Anime Expo (really, any anime convention). Because the correlation factor between anime conventions and the World Cup is precisely 0.00. (yes, even if you’re cosplaying as someone from Captain Tsubasa. There ain’t no vuvuzelas in that work…)

Well, great news for all you Baltimoreans: in a shocking display of sanity and common sense, Otakon has banned the vuvuzela. Their announcement on the matter is short and sweet:

Absolutely no vuvuzelas or similar loud noisemakers are permitted within Otakon. Vuvuzelas and other noisemakers within convention buildings are subject to confiscation. Blowing a vuvuzela or similar noisemaker may lead to ejection from the convention.

Finally, a voice of sanity! Good on you, Otakon.

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Save $$$ on an Anime Expo 2011 4-day Pass — but only if you act quickly!

Donald Burr — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:02:02 +0000

Did you have so much fun at Anime Expo this year that you’ve resolved to definitely attend next year, come hell or high water? Or maybe you couldn’t make it this year because of financial reasons, but really want to try and go next year? Or maybe you’re a tightwad and want to try and save as much money as possible? (hey, gotta set aside as much as you can to buy anime after all…)

Well, if you act quickly, you can pre-register now for a full 4-day pass, for the amazingly low price of $45! Considering that this year’s regular pre-reg price for a 4-day pass was $75, and at-the-door pricing was a whopping $85, that’s quite a savings. But you only have until this Friday, July 9 to get this special pricing. So hurry up and reg, why don’tcha?! (Operators are standing by…)

Next year’s AX is sure to be even more awesome than usual, because it’s their 20th anniversary! Who knows what cool guests and other surprises they’ll pull out for this special occasion? I for one am dying to find out. The next 365 days are going to be unbearable…

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

And thus ends another Anime Expo… (Updated)

Donald Burr — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:41:00 +0000

I write this from our tiny hotel room at the Kawada, on the eve of AX Day 4, after an enforced 4 hour-ish nap. Anime Expo 2010 was another phenomenal event. Some among our panelists will disagree (and I’m sure they’ll elaborate during our inevitable Panel Review of Doom, which we’ll try to get to within the next week or two). Me, I still think AX has a place in the grand scheme of things, and I’ll keep on going. (But then again, I don’t mind the crowds, which I think is their main complaint with AX).

What I did have issue with is the sudden fee hikes. Pre-reg was a whopping $75 per this year, and while I don’t specifically recall last year’s pricing, I think that this year the increase was rather sharp and sudden. The general tone of the event was “nickel and dime.” People staying at con hotels were no longer given complimentary event tickets and were forced to purchase tickets to the events that they wanted to go to. They once again charged for shuttle service (although they did throw in free shuttle service as a last minute gesture to 4-day attendees, which I thought was a nice gesture.) The Meet the Guests reception tickets took a sharp increase ($50 as opposed to somewhere around $25-30 last year); I also hear that they cheaped out on the food. What did it for me was them charging $1.99 for the iPhone app. Good on them for making an iPhone app — and a fantastic app it was — as well as the SCHED system, which was quite usable from most other smartphones; but charging $1.99 for it along with all the other price hikes seemed a bit crass to me.

Speaking of shuttles, because of an incident that happened (more on that later) we were unable to use the shuttles for the majority of our stay; however according to friends, apparently the shuttles were once again running late fairly regularly. Also, honestly, some of those buses should really be put out to pasture. Seriously.

The staff, on the whole, was friendly and largely knew what they were doing; on those occasions when they didn’t, they went out of their way to work with us to find the solution to our problem. Their one weak point is still in the disabled services department. It was a challenge finding exactly where to go, and then trekking halfway across the convention center to get there. They should really integrate disabled services as part of the standard registration process. Also some staff were confused as to the meaning of the “priority access” badge inserts that us disabled attendees received. We were turned away from and/or denied priority seating at a few events because of this confusion. Fortunately once additional staffers who knew what was going on arrived, we were seated without further delay. I believe these may be the same as the “AX Premier” badges, so perhaps those people had trouble as well.

However, we did have issue with the convention center staff. Oh, the ones we interacted with were friendly enough. Our problem was that there just weren’t enough of them. Specifically security. This is thanks to some serious budget cuts at the LACC. As a result there was quite a bit of horsing around going on, which can be very dangerous, especially around stairs and elevators and the like. Sadly, this resulted in one of our panelists receiving a rather serious injury. Nothing permanent, thankfully, but it still involved a rather expensive and nasty trip to the hospital on the wrong side of town…

Another thing we had issue with… What the frak is it with the vuvuzelas? They were EVERYWHERE, and practically every 30 seconds I was hearing that most abhorrent noise that sounds like a cross between a pair of yaks in heat, and a pair of yaks dying an excruciatingly painful death. Super annoying! I seriously wanted to run up to every vuvuzela wielder, yank it out of their hands, and shove the thing… right up a very dark and personal space, if you catch my drift. This is frakkin’ Anime Expo, NOT the World Cup. And unless you’re cosplaying someone from Captain Tsubasa, they have no place here. Hell, even if you were cosplaying as someone from that series, I still think they’re inappropriate, because I don’t ever recall seeing them there. Gahhhh!!!!

This year marks the return of the Nokia Theater as the venue for the main events (AMV, Masquerade, and concerts). This was fantastic, as the Nokia Theater has excellent stadium-style sloped seating (makes taking pictures that much easier, less of a chance of someone’s head getting in your way), and their sound and video system is phenomenal. In 2008 (the last time Nokia Theater was used) we had some trouble with the staff not knowing at which events photography was allowed at — we were harassed for taking pictures at Masquerade. We also had trouble with getting disabled assistance and bag check. Not this year. The Nokia Center staff conducted themselves with professionalism and courtesy, and we weren’t hassled at all over photography or any other issue.

The events themselves were terrific. Each year I am constantly amazed at the creativity and talent of the AMV creators and the cosplayers. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the AMVs — we arrived after registration and badge pickup were closed for the day; however they rescreened all the videos on Saturday, and barring a minor technical glitch or two, it went off smoothly. Masquerade also went smoothly, and actually started more or less on time (shocking, I know). This year, rather than that same old masquerade host (whose jokes were honestly getting a wee bit old) Masquerade was hosted by a trio of MC’s. They handled their job admirably, although the female MC was a bit ditzy for my taste

However, the highlight for me has to be Friday’s concert featuring Megumi Nakajima and May’n. Fans of Macross Frontier will know these two names; Megumi Nakajima is the voice actress who provided both the speaking and singing voices for Ranka Lee , and May’n provided the singing voice for Sheryl Nome. I recently had the pleasure of watching Frontier (I wrote about previously) and the music from this show really stood out in my mind. Seeing these two perform on stage was a real treat. They performed many of the songs featured in Frontier, including a really rousing rendition of “Lion” (my favorite opening theme from the series), a heartfelt acoustic version of “Diamond Crevasse,” and a truly moving performance of the haunting Vajra theme “Aimo.” Sadly we missed the first half of the concert, but the part we did see was incredible. Japanator has a great writeup, including some awesome pictures.

Oh yeah, there was that little matter of my two panels. They went off beautifully. Tech staff was extremely helpful and got us set up in a jiffy for both talks. And — THERE WERE PEOPLE!!! This especially shocked me at the 9 AM panel – with such an early schedule, on a Sunday morning, on lastday, and after a Saturday night’s drunken debauchery, I was expecting a rather miserable turnout. I was pleasantly surprised. There were at least 20 at the morning talk, and I’d say at least 50 at the afternoon talk. Everyone I talked to found the information extremely useful and they had some great questions. To those of you who attended, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The notes from the podcasting panel are already up; I’m still working on the photography panel notes (give me a few days – I still have to recover from AX) but they should be online by the end of the week.

What will probably take me a bit longer are pictures. I shot over 2,000 pictures around the convention and at Masquerade. (no, unfortunately I didn’t shoot OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND…) Those will take quite a while to properly edit. In the meantime, Japanator has started posting some of theirs (and awesome ones at that), which you can feast your eyes on here and here. (EDIT 2010-07-05: And here, and here as well.) (EDIT 2010-07-06: Last two AX cosplay photo galleries from Japanator are finally up here and here.) ANN has their own cosplay photo gallery, as well as a gallery of photos taken in the exhibit hall (dealer’s room) and around various parts of the con in general.

What will also take me a fair amount of time to digest is the news coming out of AX. I simply did not have the energy to attend every panel I wanted to. As I get the time, and as the fog of tiredness gradually lifts from my brain, I’ll go through the news items and latest releases and blog about the ones that interest me, adding my own spin on things; but in the meantime you can feel free to check out ANN’s and Japanator’s coverage of all things AX.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll crawl back into my cave and hibernate for a few more months…

My AX 2010 Schedule

Donald Burr — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:59:37 +0000

Here it is, in all its glory. Again, the usual “I am only human, and a pretty flaky one at that, so may not (most likely won’t) make it to every event I’ve highlighted, the mind is willing but the flesh is weak and all that” applies.

(Yes, I know, I’ve seemingly double- or triple-booked myself during certain times. No, I don’t have an army of evil robotic henchmen, nor do I have access to a cloning chamber, nor can I split myself off into 8 identical copies. (Although there are times when I really wish I could…) I just haven’t decided which of the given events I want to attend (and likely won’t make that decision until 2 minutes before the event, at which point I’ll say something like “Ehh, whatever, I’ll just go to X.”)

This should auto-update whenever I’ve made changes on Sched.

Make the most of your time at AX with these cool new scheduling tools

Donald Burr — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:46:03 +0000

When you look at your typical anime convention’s schedule, what do you do? Does your mind seize up with panic and indecision? Do you just say “screw it” and decide to “go with the flow” and just randomly drift between whatever events interest you? (One of my friends and co-hosts swears by this method and seems to have fun at whatever convention he goes to, so maybe it’d work for you too). Or do you whip out your maps, charts, and sextant, and begin plotting your convention course to military precision? Planning things down to the second isn’t necessarily the best idea either – there’s always things going on, events get changed/canceled, etc., so leaving some flexibility in your schedule is always a good idea. Still, being able to at least roughly sketch out what events you’re interested in seeing is helpful. What’s even more helpful is if you could share this information with your friends that you’re attending the convention with – after all, if several people are going to the same event, it would be easier (and perhaps more fun even) to group up with them. So yeah, having at least a basic plan of attack definitely helps. But dealing with paper schedules is such a pain. (besides, generally speaking, you don’t actually get the paper schedules until you’re actually at the convention, and it’s always a good idea to plan things out beforehand). Surely there must be some cool flashy Web 2.0 synergistic XML-based social networking-aware (insert various other random buzzwords here) tech tool to help you out with this?!

If you’re the proud owner of an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, well guess what, there’s an app for that. The new Anime Expo app, to be more precise. Armed with this app, you’ll have just about everything you’ll need to better navigate your way around the convention. Exhibitor listings and information; maps of the convention center, exhibit hall, and surrounding areas; the full programming schedule; listings of nearby businesses and restaurants; schedule updates and alerts; a “you are here” (location-based) feature to help you more easily meet up with friends; and fun little mini-games to pass the time while you’re in those Xbox Huge lines. The app is compatible with all mobile Apple devices, including the iPod touch and the iPad, and is available for $1.99 in the App Store. I will admit that their charging $1.99 for this app when they’re already charging for so many things at con seems a bit crass to me, but at least $1.99 isn’t too bad as things go.

What? You’re not part of the iCollective? No need to fret, because you’ve got SCHED. This Web-based tool will allow you to browse and search through the AX events schedule and mark down which events you’re interested in seeing. Once you’ve selected, you can either print out a paper-based schedule, or you can export your schedule to a variety of different formats (iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.). You can even link to your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, and find out what events your friends will be attending. SCHED even has a mobile-friendly version which will allow you to use the site from your smartphone without the need to install any special software or apps (I’ve tested this on Android and it works beautifully; it is also said to work on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Palm Pre). Find out more or sign up (it’s free) here.

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It’s officially official, part deux: Looks like I’ll be at Anime Expo as well!

Donald Burr — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:05:46 +0000

Looks like I’ll be pretty busy this summer. Not only will I be presenting a panel at FanimeCon, but today I found out that I will also be presenting not one, but TWO panels at Anime Expo!!

Anime Expo is, I would wager, one of the US’s largest anime conventions (44,000 attended in 2009), and is held every July 4 weekend in Southern California. This year’s event will be held Thursday-Sunday, July 1-4, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Unlike most fan-run anime conventions, AX (as the cool kids call it) is much more of an industry affair. Don’t get me wrong; you’ll still find plenty of traditional fan favorite events at AX (AMVs, masquerade, various fan-run panels and workshops, console and tabletop gaming, artist alley, etc.), not to mention a dealer’s room of epic proportions; however there is a decidedly industry-heavy focus to the live programming lineup. This is where you’ll see the industry heavyweights — Bandai, FUNimation, Tokyopop, et al — trotting out their latest offerings, and giving glimpses into their plans for the future. (There are also, I’m sure, quite a few “behind closed doors” industry meetings as well.) Keeping up with the news around AX time is difficult, what with all the announcements and press releases flying about. Many a hot property has had its world premiere in an AX film or video room — for example, at last year’s AX, FUNimation premiered the US release of Evangelion: 1.0 - You are (not) alone, the Eva reboot.

Unfortunately, this year’s AX is marred by controversy between the new management at AX’s parent organization and much of the convention staff, who resigned in protest, citing a long chain of grievances including excessive travel expenses (and other financial shenanigans), restructuring of the chain of command, inexperience with the anime industry and how to run a convention, unjust terminations of key staff positions, offending Guests of Honor and industry guests and refusing to honor their contracts, and heavy-handed censorship of staffers’ Internet postings. The other side naturally counters that their accusations are unjust, and all changes in staff, power structure, etc. were done to make AX and SPJA a more financially sound organization, and to increase attendance from both exhibitors/guests and attendees (whose growth has flatlined for the past few years). Which side is right? Well, one way or another, we’ll find out in a little less than two months.

Anyway, this year’s guest list does look pretty good, including such heavy-hitters as Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe, Kenji Kamiyama, Toshihiro Kawamoto, and musical guests Sophia, MELL, and AKB48 (huh… Morning Musume last year, AKB48 this year… the circle is now complete??!). There are also rumors that legendary expatriate otaku Danny Choo himself will be there, no doubt promoting his latest anime-related project Chinka. Of course, there will also be your usual convention fare, including a truly awe-inspiring dealer’s room, artist’s alley, AMV contest, masquerade, console and tabletop gaming, and various and sundry panels and workshops.

AX hasn’t gone totally industry, however, as there are still quite a few fan-run panels and workshops in the lineup – and yours truly, as it turns out, will be running two of said workshops (yes, I’m finally getting to the point of this long-winded post!). ”Anime Podcasting for Beginners” is basically the same song and dance I’ll be giving at Fanimecon (with changes based on my experiences there). If you’ve ever wanted to start your own anime or manga related podcast but just weren’t sure how, then this is the workshop for you! According to the preliminary scheduling info I’ve been given, this fine event will take place on Sunday, July 4, from 9:00 AM-10:00 AM (sorry folks, I have no say in the matter), in LP3. My second panel, “Convention Photography 101: How To Get The Shot (and make it look easy!)” will help you if you’ve ever had that experience where you take a bunch of pictures at con, excitedly hurry home and load them on your computer, but are greeted with only pain and misery (and a bunch of blurry or sub-optimal shots). We’ll show you how you can get that great shot, whether you’re armed with a crappy point and shoot or a DSLR with more knobs and buttons on it than the space shuttle. If you think that sounds familiar, yes we did talk about it on the podcast. (Unfortunately my friend Dave who was my co-host on that episode won’t be able to make it to AX.) That workshop will also take place on Sunday the 4th, at 12:30, in WS1. (Note: this is a new room and time!) So if you’ll be in the LA area come July 4 weekend, come on down!

Pre-reg for AX as well as hotel registration is online at the AX website.

Holy crap, that’s a lot of people!

Donald Burr — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:05:50 +0000

If you’re a long time listener of Otaku no Podcast, I’m sure you’ve heard certain of our panelists complaining about the large crowds at certain of the more high-profile anime/comic conventions. Indeed, when you look at the attendance figures for two recent events, Anime Expo (reportedly 44,000) and San Diego Comic-Con (reported by Wikipedia as “[n]early 140,000, at least 125,000″ but suspected to be much higher, perhaps as high as 250,000), you can’t help but be impressed by those numbers. Comic-Con attendance, in particular, has eclipsed the population figures of most small to mid-sized towns here in the USA.

But even that pales in comparison with the news I received today that, according to early estimates, Japan’s Comic Market (“Comiket”) welcomed a record 560,000 attendees at its Summer Comiket event this past weekend (August 14-16, 2009). Comiket’s organizing body reports that the high attendance figures also indicate a spike in new attendees, which should come as good news to the manga industry.

Think about that, people. FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY THOUSAND. Holy crap, that’s a lot of people! Sure makes our grousing and complaining sound petty and immature, doesn’t it?

Comiket, as it’s called by the cool kids, isn’t the same as your typical western Anime convention. For one thing, it’s frakkin’ HUGE. It dominates the entire Tokyo Big Sight, a massively huge (one might even say “Xbox huge”) convention center with a total floor space of 230,873 m². It’s almost exclusively devoted to manga, specifically doujinshi, essentially self-published manga. Most doujinshi “circles” (the groups who sell their doujinshi at Comiket) are unknown fans, though many well-known manga artists choose to publish doujinshi in order to publish outside of their usual publisher relationships. And they sell a TON of this stuff at Comiket – perhaps as many 20 acres (81,000 m² according to one source). It’s also known for its epic and legendary cosplay. There is plenty of photographic evidence to back this claim. Search for yourself. (I would post links, but there are really too many to post here, and I don’t want to make this article over 9,000 pages long!)

On our last episode I expressed my doubts as to whether my stamina would hold me through a Comic-Con. Well, after reading this, I don’t think I’ll be attempting Comiket anytime soon… perhaps ever. sweatdrop

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Anime Expo 2009 photos on Flickr

Donald Burr — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:53:38 +0000

Friend of the show Beep has set up a Flickr group to share your photos from Anime Expo 2009. A few of us have already started posting pictures there. If you’ve got pix from AX’09 you are welcome to share them as well. Or just click the link and check out all the cool cosplay.

Episode #0006 – We’re Not Dead! (Yet…)

Donald Burr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:49:02 +0000

Yes, it’s true, we’re still very much alive and kicking. Let’s just say that 2008 was the Year of Hell, and a lot of stuff happened in my life (most of it NOT good). Things aren’t quite at the levels they were before the Year of Hell, but at least the dust has settled and I’m in a more or less stable situation right now. So I figured it’s time to revive the show!

Today we bring you yet another of our big group discussions, this time talking about our experiences and thoughts on Anime Expo 2009, quite possibly North America’s largest anime convention, which happened this past July 4 weekend. We also give out some anime recco’s along the way. And, of course, go over this week’s anime news of interest.

This Week’s News:

Picks of the Week:

Donald – Galaxy Express 999, Last Exile, Shangri-La
Michelle – Chi’s Sweet Home, Chi’s New Address
Danny – Hayate no Gotoku (aka Hayate the Combat Butler), Shangri-La

Our Websites:

On the way to AX

Donald Burr — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:23:56 +0000

OK, We are on the road. (rails, actually) Expect to hit the LACC around 3 pm. Watch this space for more updates and announcements of live broadcasts.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Anime Convention Alert: Anime Expo is THIS Weekend!

Donald Burr — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:20:34 +0000

I should learn to never make promises. No sooner had I posted the last “we’re coming back soon, honest!” message, then I got slammed with a huge wall of work which pretty much left me with NO free time – not enough to even watch anime. (See, that’s the problem with freelancing in a tough economy: you take what work you can get, when you can get it, and count yourself lucky because you may not be so lucky next month.)

Of course, now that I actually have a break in my work schedule, my voice is now gone thanks to a freak summer cold I managed to catch. (I suppose I COULD do a podcast now, but you probably wouldn’t like it, as I sound something like a cross between Darth Vader without his breathing mask, and a 50 year old chain smoker.)

Anyway, the voice (and my cold) are finally healing up.. and just in time too… because Anime Expo is THIS WEEKEND!!! (Time sure flies, doesn’t it?)

Yes, Anime Expo, one of the world’s largest – certainly the West Coast’s largest – anime conventions, will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center THIS WEEKEND. Actually, the dates are Thursday July 2 through Sunday July 5. Some of the awesome Guests of Honor who will be making an appearance at this convention include:

Hiroyuki Imaishi – Recipient of the 12th Animation Kobe Director’s Award. Mr. Imaishi has worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and many more!
Daisuke Ishiwatari – Video game developer best known for creating the fighting game Guilty Gear. He also provides the in-game voice for the characters Sol Badguy and Order-Sol.
Yun Kouga – Revered manga artist who has garnered praise and acclaim for her current series Loveless. Ms. Kouga is also the character designer for the anime MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 00.
Yosuke Kuroda – Mr. Kuroda has been involved in numerous projects including Excel Saga, Gungrave, Hayate the Combat Butler!, Hellsing OVA, Love Hina, etc.
Seiji Mizushima – Famed director of the upcoming theatrical version of MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 00. Mr. Mizushima also worked on Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many more!
Moi dix Mois – Sound project headed by Mana, the consummate guitarist and leader of Malice Mizer.
Toshimichi Mori – Mr. Mori is currently working on the Aksys Games title BLAZBLUE as its director, lead artist and designer.
Toshiyuki Morikawa – Legendary voice actor who has in many popular anime roles, such as Bleach, Gundam X, Full Metal Panic, Initial D, Inuyasha, and many others.
Morning Musume – Famous not just for being the Japan’s top female group, but also for its unique approach with the shuffling of band members.
Yasuhiro Nightow – Creator of the highly popular TRIGUN manga that inspired the television anime series of the same title.
Atsushi Nishigori – Recipient of the 7th Annual Tokyo International Anime Awards. Mr. Nishigori has worked many titles and now serves as the character animation director for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann franchise.
Satoshi Nishimura – The director of the highly anticipated 2009 TRIGUN movie. Mr. Nishimura has also worked on many huge and popular titles, including Black Lagoon, Rurouni Kenshin, and Street Fighter Alpha.
Takashi Okazaki – The creator of the popular Afro Samurai manga. Mr. Okazaki has also done illustration works for Spider-Man 2 DVD & Blade III Sound Track CD.
Kari Wahlgren – Kari Wahlgren was first introduced to anime audiences as the Vespa-riding, guitar-bashing Haruko in “FLCL.”
…and tons more industry guests!

Aside from the many GoH, fan, and industry panels, there’s also the ever-popular Anime Music Video (AMV) contest, AX Idol singing/voice acting contest, Masquerade cosplay contest, various tea and masquerade balls, gaming (both console and table-top), dances, karaoke, concerts, maid cafe, film and video rooms, and of course, the always impressive Dealers Room.

Full 4-day passes are $65 ($70 at door), or $50 ($55 at door) for a two-day pass, or $30 ($35 at door) for single-day pass. A 4-day childs pass is $30, and children 5 and under are free. Online registration is still online and is highly recommended.

For more details, including links to the online registration, and complete details on events, schedules, guests, and more, check out the Anime Expo website at http://www.anime-expo.org/.

I’ll be on site during most of the convention (I’ll be getting in mid-day on the first day so will miss the first half day or so) and will do my best to bring you coverage from the convention. (I’m not making any promises, I’ll just leave it at “I’ll do my best.”) If I can, I’ll be broadcasting certain events live, either via Ustream/Stickam, or over our experimental streaming radio station, Otaku no Radio, so keep an eye on the website for more details. At the very least, I should have a post-con wrap up episode (including video highlights – if my camcorder, which was recently damaged, gets back from the repair shop in time) shortly after the convention ends.

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

Episode #0005 – Anime Los Angeles 4

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:54:20 +0000

I was able to make it to all 3 days of the Anime Los Angeles 4 convention. Once again, I have gathered together a panel of friends who were also able to make it to A-LA 4, and we give a summary of, and our review of, this convention. We also talk a bit about the upcoming Anime Expo convention, one of the largest anime conventions in the USA, which will be held from July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Finally, we talk about some of the anime that we’ve been watching recently, and give out some recommendations.

I didn’t have time to go through any anime/manga news, new releases, or upcoming conventions; I’ll put out a smaller “mini episode” with that information in it hopefully sometime later this week.

This week’s panelists:

Myself, Donald Burr Chad Page Michelle Klein-Hass Daniel Barer Amy Bowen

Our anime recommendations:

Me:

sola (Series has recently been licensed but is not yet available for purchase)

Chad:

Zettai Shonen Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Michelle:

Danny:

Cat’s Eye.

Amy:

Episode #0002 – Convention-al Wisdom

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:51:39 +0000

Like many things in life, anime and manga are best enjoyed among groups of like-minded individuals. There’s nowhere better to accomplish this than at an Anime Convention. This week, we’ll discuss what anime conventions are, and what you should expect to encounter at one. We’ll also bring you reviews and commentary on two of the biggest anime and comic conventions in the world: Anime Expo, and San Diego Comic-Con International (SDCCI), which both occurred this past July. If you missed them, don’t worry! There are plenty of conventions coming up in the next few months, and we’ll give you the skinny on those as well. This is a two-part series, so there will be even more convention talk next week, so stay tuned!

As a reminder, please check our web site:

http://otakunopodcast.com/

for show notes, news about the podcast, and other items of interest.

Also be sure and check out our forums, and leave a comment by email or voice mail.

Upcoming Anime Conventions:

(for even more, be sure and visit http://www.animecons.com/)

Animation on Display

http://www.aodsf.org/

August 25

Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco, CA

Little Tokyo Anime Festival

http://www.myspace.com/littletokyoanimefestival

August 25-26

Little Tokyo Shopping Center 2F, Los Angeles, CA

Anime Vegas

http://www.animevegas.com/

September 1-3

Cashman Center, Las Vegas, NV

MikomiCon

http://www.mikomicon.com/

September 7-9

CSU Northridge, Northridge, CA

Pacific Media Expo

http://pacificmediaexpo.info/

November 9-11

LAX Hilton, Los Angeles, CA

Japantown Anime Faire

http://www.myspace.com/jtaf

November 10-11

Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA

Anime Los Angeles

http://www.animelosangeles.org/

January 4-6, 2008

Burbank Airport Marriott, Burbank, CA

Convention reviews:

Anime Expo – http://www.anime-expo.org/

San Diego Comic-Con International – http://www.comic-con.org/

This week’s guest:

Danny Barer – http://barercave.blogspot.com/

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

No related posts.

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Episode #0033 – The Japan Travel Extravaganza, Part 1

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Episode #0026 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Maki-san of Obitsu

Episode #0025 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Peter Payne of J-List

Episode #0024 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Taliesin Jaffe

Episode #0023 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo

Episode #0022 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 2)

Did you miss Mikunopolis? We’ve got you covered!

Episode #0021 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 1)

ChibiCast #0021 – Random-Updates-a-Gogo

Anime Expo 2011 videos are hitting the Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel

Anime Expo 2011 Day 0 & 1 Report

Got questions for the AX Guests of Honor?

Anime Expo 2011 programming schedules are now live!

Episode #0020 – Convention Survival Guide, 2011 Edition

ChibiCast #0020 – The between episodes episode

Video #0006 – Convention Photography 101

“Anime Podcasting for Beginners” panel at Anime Expo 2010

Buy one Anime Expo membership, get the second one half off… but only until September 30

Episode #0013 (Part 2) – Anime Expo 2010

Episode #0013 – Anime Expo 2010

Otakon bans vuvuzelas; the world rejoices

Absolutely no vuvuzelas or similar loud noisemakers are permitted within Otakon. Vuvuzelas and other noisemakers within convention buildings are subject to confiscation. Blowing a vuvuzela or similar noisemaker may lead to ejection from the convention.﻿

Save $$$ on an Anime Expo 2011 4-day Pass — but only if you act quickly!

And thus ends another Anime Expo… (Updated)

My AX 2010 Schedule

Make the most of your time at AX with these cool new scheduling tools

It’s officially official, part deux: Looks like I’ll be at Anime Expo as well!

Holy crap, that’s a lot of people!

Anime Expo 2009 photos on Flickr

Episode #0006 – We’re Not Dead! (Yet…)

On the way to AX

Anime Convention Alert: Anime Expo is THIS Weekend!

Episode #0005 – Anime Los Angeles 4

Episode #0002 – Convention-al Wisdom

Absolutely no vuvuzelas or similar loud noisemakers are permitted within Otakon. Vuvuzelas and other noisemakers within convention buildings are subject to confiscation. Blowing a vuvuzela or similar noisemaker may lead to ejection from the convention.