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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)

Evangelion

Funimation 2010, DVD, $16.89

Evangelion

Funimation 2010, Blu-ray, $18.40

Cosplay in America

Ejen Chuang. OptikNerve 2010, Hardcover, 272 pages, $40.00

Hetalia

Funimation Prod 2010, DVD, $25.99

Eden of the East

Funimation Prod 2010, DVD, $40.99

Eden of the East

Funimation Prod 2010, Blu-ray, $44.99

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:

Evangelion

Funimation 2010, DVD, $16.89

Evangelion

Funimation 2010, Blu-ray, $18.40

Cosplay in America

Ejen Chuang. OptikNerve 2010, Hardcover, 272 pages, $40.00

Hetalia

Funimation Prod 2010, DVD, $25.99

Eden of the East

Funimation Prod 2010, DVD, $40.99

Eden of the East

Funimation Prod 2010, Blu-ray, $44.99

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.

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…

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…

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*

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

Last Exile

Funimation Prod 2009, DVD, $29.86

Hayate the Combat Butler

Artist Not Provided. Bandai 2009, DVD, $21.86

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.

Related posts:Episode #0006 – We’re Not Dead! (Yet…) Anime Convention Alert: Anime Expo is THIS Weekend! It’s officially official, part deux: Looks like I’ll be at Anime [...] Related posts:

Otaku no Podcast » ax

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)

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

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.