I produce this show out of my own pocket, primarily because of my love of all things anime and Japan. Unfortunately in this down economy, I need as much help as I can get. If you feel so inclined, a small donation to help offset my costs (server, bandwidth, equipment, etc.) would be much appreciated. Either make a purchase through one of our affiliates, bid on our eBay auctions, buy me something on my wish list, or use the handy donation button below.
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For last year’s Anime Expo, the staff did what I believe to be the first ever anime convention schedule smartphone app. Their iPhone app was indeed pretty cool, and there was much to like about it. Unfortunately their charging $1.99 for it (on top of all the other fee hikes associated with the convention) prevented me from giving a wholly glowing endorsement of it.
Well, if you’re the proud owner of an Android smartphone or tablet, and will be attending Anime Los Angeles this weekend, there’s an app for THAT as well. The ConDroyd for ALA 2011 app, to be precise. This app contains a full copy of the Anime LA schedule as well as the scheduled cosplay gatherings (something the official Anime LA program grid does not list). You can “star” any events that you are interested in seeing, and the app can be configured so that it alerts you any number of minutes before an event you’re interested in.
It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the AX iPhone app (no maps, dealer’s room listings, etc.) but one thing that it does have over the AX app is price – completely free.
So go check it out today! It’s available in the Android Marketplace; just search for “ConDroyd.”
Here is my Anime Los Angeles schedule. These are the things I might be interested in checking out and/or possibly get coverage for the podcast. Of course the standard disclaimers apply: I sometimes double- or even triple-book myself intentionally, the idea being that I am interested in multiple events at the same time slot and will probably make my final decision as to which one I want to go to 5 minutes before the time it starts; the usual “convention schedules are HIGHLY subject to change without notice”; and of course, I might be otherwise indisposed and unable to attend a given event due to my body suddenly pooping out on me and requiring an unplanned nap (or in other words, “the spirit is willing but the flesh (may be) weak”), or for some other unforeseen reason. And in between events, I’ll of course be roaming around the con in general, maybe peeking into dealer’s room and artist’s alley and various other places, and of course taking a ton of photos. Remember also that we will occasionally livestream events, if bandwidth, cell phone battery, and my laziness/inertia permit. If we do, you can watch on our Livestream page; we will also post announcements to our Twitter whenever we start livestreaming, so follow us there for the latest news). Anyway, check out my schedule below the cut.
First of all, greetings to everyone coming to us thanks to my appearance on Leo Laporte‘s Tech Guy radio show. Thanks for your visit, and I hope you enjoy your stay, and, more importantly, come back soon 🙂
Anyway, Anime Los Angeles has made their programming guide public. I’ll be going over the schedule myself this weekend and highlighting the events I’m interested in (and will post my calendar here once I’ve done so), but in the meantime, why don’t you head over there yourself now and check it out!
Anime Los Angeles is a small, very friendly fan-run convention in the Los Angeles area. (Although it’s not so small any more – attendance has risen lately and is now in the low thousands I’d say) But it’s still small and friendly. We’ve written and talked about it before. Anyway, it’s coming up next weekend — Friday through Sunday, January 7-9, 2011 to be precise — at the LAX Airport Marriott:
Los Angeles Airport Marriott 5855 W. Century Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045
Guests of Honor include Gina “Red String” Biggs, webcomic artist; Helen McCarthy, manga expert and author of the Osamu Tezuka book we recently featured in the 12 Days of Kurisumasu; Patrick Seitz, voice actor on many projects including Hetalia, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, and Hellsing; Taliesin Jaffe, ADR (dub) director; and, of course, the inimitable Tadao Tomomatsu, toastmaster and all around man about con. And, of course, there’s plenty of con staples, including a rather nice dealer’s room, artist’s alley, various panels and workshops, karaoke, various music acts, cosplay contest (aka masquerade), AMV contest, cosplay gatherings, gaming (both console and tabletop), and much much more.
Speaking of panels… (yeah, I bet you saw that one coming a mile away) the Otaku no Podcast crew will once again be doing our song and dance. If you’ve ever wondered how we do the thing that we do (namely this here podcast), come to “Anime Podcasting for Beginners” on Saturday, January 8, from 4 to 5 PM, in LP3 (Imperial A). And if you’ve ever had that experience where you excitedly hurry home from taking con pictures, only to find that you’ve ended up with a bag of hurt, get yourself to “Convention Photography 101” on Friday, January 7, from 3 to 4 PM, again in LP3 (Imperial A). (There will be swag…)
Of course, in between running our panels, eating, sleeping, and zoning out in general, there will be time to run around and maybe get some con coverage. But as I’ve learned countless times before, I’m not going to make any promises. Just keep an eye on our Twitter feed as well as the Otaku no Podcast website (especially the livestream page). You just might see some stuff go up. Maybe.
Unfortunately, pre-reg is closed so you’ll have to register at-con. Prices are $50 for a full weekend, $25 for Friday only, $30 for Saturday only, and $20 for Sunday only. As part of their “Parent in Tow” system, any child 14 or under who pays for a full membership can bring a grown-up for free (doesn’t have to be a parent; could be a friend of the family, uncle, teacher, neighbor, etc.)
When Narutaki and Hisui of the Reverse Thieves announced the return of the Anime Secret Santa project, I was elated. When I participated in last year’s event, I had a great deal of fun, watched a pretty decent series I had never heard of before, and “met” a whole bunch of cool bloggers. I was so excited that I would be participating this year as well.
Unfortunately, this year, things didn’t exactly go as I had hoped…
My three Secret Santa picks were Ah! My Goddess, Saki, and Special A. Oddly enough I had just finished watching Goddess, and since I felt that it would be kind of “cheating” to review a series I had already watched anyway, eliminated it as a possibility. Saki I could easily watch online thanks to my Crunchyroll membership (best deal in town if you want to watch anime legally and help the production companies, in my book). It was also one that I had wanted to watch, so it wasn’t my first choice either (my feeling is that the spirit of Anime Secret Santa is to watch something I haven’t heard of or intended to watch). That left Special A, which was available on DVD and could also be streamed online at Amazon‘s video on demand service. Unfortunately I can’t afford any DVDs (or Amazon’s $1.99 per episode streaming service) at the moment, so that was out. (thanks to some slowdowns at work and needing to save up for next year’s cons, I am back in “broke otaku” mode.) So I was all set to watch and review Saki., but as the fates would have it, I have had an extremely busy and stressful end of year, and just could not get to it. And now here we are on Christmas Day, and I had a choice: marathon Saki and bang out a halfhearted review (which still probably wouldn’t be done until the middle of next week), or sit down and bang out a quick but heartfelt (is that the opposite of halfhearted?) review of Ah! My Goddess (which I at least watched already). I figured that doing a writeup on Goddess would be the less lame of the choices (but not by much). And here we are.
So, with all that out of the way, click on through the cut for my review of Ah! My Goddess.
So I was sitting around the other night after dinner, thinking of yet another method of blatantly self-promoting the various affiliate networks we’re on, when an idea hit me like a bolt out of the blue. (or maybe it was that attack of gas brought on by that super deluxe burrito? Who knows…) Why not have a “12 Days of Anime Christmas” – each day feature a really cool gift idea for that certain otaku in your life (perhaps even yourself)? “You’re brilliant!” I proudly thought to myself. “Why thank you!” came the inevitable response several seconds later. (At least I thought it was brilliant. In reality, i.e. outside of the crazy world that’s inside my head, everybody and their dog probably thought of this before I did. Oh well, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.)
So, starting on Tuesday, December 14, be sure and tune in to our Twitter or Facebook every day, and you will be greeted by a cool anime or otaku related gift pick. (You can also find them all up on the 12 Days of Kurisumasu page, in case you missed one — shame on you!) Are you making yourself sick agonizing over what to get your friends and loved ones? We’ve got you covered! And remember, this ain’t your father’s 12 Days of Christmas: every product I pick will be guaranteed to have some anime or Japan or otaku related connection. There’ll be no maids-a-milkin’ or lords-a-leapin’ or turtle doves or any of that crap. You don’t even have to sing the song!
(Yeah, I know, on second thought this is just a cheesy rehashing of my already-existing J-List Product of the Day. Only this time, it will actually be correctly named, since (come hell or high water) I actually intend on picking one product per day. At least until Christmas. After that, all bets are off.)
In accordance with our policy of openness, honesty and transparency, I present to you the Holiday 2010 edition of the Report from the Treasurer. Continue on past the cut for the gory details.
I’ve now been back home for a little over 48 hours, but am still recovering from PMX – I’m still horrifically tired and rather sore (thanks to having to shlep my stuff halfway across creation back and forth to our hotel). At least I’m not suffering the dreaded Convention Plague of Doom (knock on wood), thanks to regular infusions of Emergen-C (trust me folks, this stuff works wonders, it should be in every con-goer’s supply kit). Unfortunately, my return from PMX was greeted by a pile of work of epic proportions waiting for me to tackle it. Sigh. Which all means that it’ll be a while before I can complete the process of editing and posting the pictures and video I took while at PMX. (Yeah, I know, you’ve heard it all before. What can I say? *shrug*) In the meantime, please enjoy these PMX photo and video galleries I’ve managed to find on the internets. I’ll update this post as I find new ones. Also if you took photos or video at PMX, please tell us about it and we’ll add yours to the list.
(Updated 11/20/2010) I’ve finally started working on my PMX 2010 photos, and they’re slowly trickling up to Flickr. Check the photo gallery section on our website or visit our PMX 2010 Flickr set to check them out!
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I’ve now been back home for a little over 48 hours, but am still recovering from PMX – I’m still horrifically tired and rather sore (thanks to having to shlep my stuff halfway across creation back and forth to our hotel). At least I’m not suffering the dreaded Convention Plague of Doom (knock on wood), thanks to regular infusions of 
