My Otaku Life

I went to Sac Anime today on a day pass ($25!!!). For the first few hours, I was like “this sucks” aside from the Giant Robot character battle panel. Spoiler – Gurren Lagaan won. What made the con blow though is exactly what I was told by cosplay blogger bad ass, Maridah (who I am sure known by those of you who follow blogs/cosplay), the venue is overcrowded. And it’s not so much as that it’s overcrowded that makes it blow, it’s who it’s overcrowded by. Tons and tons of Jr-high to early high school teenbopper screaming, glomping, fangirls. If I was some sick pedaphile, this might have been heaven for me, but unfortunately, I am not. Not old enough to drink, not old enough for me. And I don’t want what I am about to say be taken the wrong way, but seriously, is there really a need for these 14 year old girls to be shrieking at every god damed naruto cosplayer in fangirl delight ? And this brings me to another issue. Cosplay is supposed to be fun, I know that and I get that. I think its awesome. But for christ sakes, do we really need a 1 out of 2 ratio on cosplay being some form of naruto ? I don’t want to bash or anything, but I love to see the things people come up with and make, and I find your typical naruto cosplay doesn’t really do either. Whatever the case though, I am having trouble expressing what I want to express. I am dozing off quite a bit as type this. So we will continue Good night.

It would seem there is some debate on just how great this anime was. I thought it was, well, great! I can see why some others may have found the flick to be less than great though. Some of these reasons are actually what appealed to me most. One such thing was the back and forth time skip device that was used. In previous titles such as Jinki Extend, I found this to be a rather confusing part of the story, which in the end detracted from my interest from the anime. However it was properly used in BRS. Of course, there was a great deal of clarity involved. There was no question as to the time frame in which you were watching, as it was very distinct in going from Mato+Reality to Black Rock Shooter+ Otherworld.

Who likes bondage ?

The other problem others may find with the anime is that since it is short, it’s difficult enough to pick up an emotional attachment to the characters, let alone feel the bonds that tie the girls together. You really aren’t given much of a chance to be sucked into their sentimental mood. You only really get to experience this through their first meeting and a bit of a montage, before the bonds begin to drift.

Smile - Smile

BRS vs HTT ?

My Yuri sense is tingling

Another problem some may find is that while there is plenty of action sequences, the action sequences were a bit broken up. Refer back to the time skipping device.

However none of these were problems or issues in my eyes. Despite some criticism from others, I felt the anime as whole flowed very well. I too wish it could have been a standard 12 episode series. I think that would have covered the areas of character attachment. However I think this also would have created a great deal more problems that wouldn’t be as forgiving. There would have to be a lot of changing that really wouldn’t make this story work. In fact, if they had stringed the series out to be a full length tv series, I see it being more of a darker, adult oriented Nanoha. Nanoha= Black Rock Shooter Fate=Dead Master.

I also have to give much praise Yomi voice actress, Miyuki Sawashiro. Yomi is the kind of character I really like to hear her voice. She has done a lot of loli type characters (ex. Aruru from Utawaremono) but she sounds so heavenly doing a mature character like Yomi (or Durarara’s Celty).

Yomi

Anyways, overall, I enjoyed it. Also small note to say that today, July 27 was also my birthday, and that I also was the lucky winner of one Black Rock Shooter figma the other week, which should be here…. someday ? I plan to buy the Dead Master figma to go with it too… someday. Anyways, as it is july 27, it is also Starcraft 2 day. So /signing off.

Because Video Games make me a bad blogger, I know I will never do detailed separate entries for my AX trip as planned. So I am going to cram it into one big post because I have video games to play and plenty of anime to be watching.

So with Anime Expo being my first con, that was not a casual day trip, I was pretty novice at tackling the festivities. My first day was jam packed so tight, I had ZERO time for eating. I wen’t to the opening ceremonies, and caught the tail end of the red carpet ceremonies. The Opening Ceremony was pretty great. Got to see Danny Choo (AKA Tokyo Trooper) get down live on stage, as well as get floored with the rest of the crowd when Beni came out and spoke PERFECT English. She tricked us all by being a Japanese Pop star from SoCal. Asakaway Yuu also surprised a bit of people with her less than perfect English, but much higher than your typical engrish. She has a great understanding of the language. She also has great spelling and punctuation on her twitter (She tweets in English). It’s just her grammar that is a bit off.

After ceremonies, I immediately went to the exhibit hall as I had early entry with my primier fan. It was great. I got to use that benefit to secure myself a copy of the Gurren Lagann movie with one of those coveted tickets to the Konishi autograph session (Kamina seiyu). I also ran into Danny Choo and got my picture taken with the guy. Not posting the picture here, as to not contiminate my blog with my ugly mug. It’s already filled with my opinions and rants, that’s bad enough as it is. The picture is up for viewing some place else though. Find it, if you can =p

I then was able to attend the much anticipated May’n panel. I <3 May'n. But we already know this. She was my reason for going to AX. I was not allowed to ask my question for her doing the Q&A though. It was rejected by some evil staff member girl. Although people after me were allowed to ask a question that was very very similar to my own, but not quite. My question was regarding if she had any plans or interests in future collaborations with other performers. Such as the other members of JAM Project she has yet to take stage with (not counting animelo outride performances).

After this panel, It was off to Black Lagoon new season premiere thing. It was awesome. Then immediately following that, off to see one of the Seiyuus I love so much. Asakawa Yuu. She was one of the first, if not my actual first, seiyu I crushed on. It was a great honor to ask her about her work in hentai titles. Unfortunately, the answer I received was that "Asakawa Yuu" did no such titles. So she "doesn't know" if working on the titles Immoral Sisters and Viper GTS are more difficult or embarrassing to work on than a typical anime role. Afterwards I went to her signing and her sign the back of my badge rather than a dvd of the aforementioned titles.

I don't really recall the rest of the day's events. Things kind of get jumbled around and what not. But somethings I did attend include a JET panel and Stand up comic panel thing. I also wen't to the AMV contest (which I am sure was on day 1). There was also the Horie Yui panel and Megumi Nakajima panel (Where I was surprised to run into a girl I know from my anime club) I also caught the end of the Indecent Otaku comedy show, as well as attend the Danny Choo +Fakku "LA CGM" briefly. I left the CGM early to go to the May'n + Nakajima autograph session. This ended up being a let down though, as the end of line I was at, was cut off and told to come back for individual signings on day 4. Kind of wish I had skipped CGM and the autograph session to go watch the Trigun movie though. I heard it was awesome and there was so much applause.

Last day my only objective (after my special Konishi signing) was to secure an autograph from May'n. I was successful, but despite being one of the first to camp out for the line, I ended up being 84th (ish) in line. They need to work on line set up in the future. It sucked to get shafted like that. Afterwards I quickly went for Mell who had almost no line (even though she is so awesome!). Afterwards I went for Nakajima's autograph, but was again cut of at the wrong end of the line. /sigh

And that is the short and crammed version of my AX weekend. I will try to add up all my good pictures later. Here is a little cosplay photo I snagged of a nice Death Master (from Black Rock Shooter)

Day 0 goodies. I lost my program though =(

AX 2k10, fun times. It rocked my socks off, in more ways than one, as day 0 was a villainous day that shall live in infamy for the sprained foot I occurred as a result of my excessive walking and prereg line standing. Did I mention that I stood in line for more than 3 hours ? Because I did. You know what is wrong with that ? I wasn’t supposed to. You see, I was registered as a premiere fan, which holds one of the holy privileges of being able to say “Screw you prereg line”. Yea. I asked the volunteers who were charged with the prestigious duty of directing the magnificent hell-bringer that is the prereg line, where we premiere fans are to go for our “line” to get inside. They told me “everyone is in this line”. I waited 3 hours in which the standstill wreaked havoc on my poor wittle footsy and the sun colored my pale white skin a shade of red. Towards the end of my line time, I began to suffer some dizzy spells, likely due to dehydration kicking in. Fortunately at this time, one of the local street vendors capitalized on the opportunity to bring his ice chest of un-cold water to save us all, for a price. Only a mere $1. Thank you kind savior. I am in your debt.

The journey for AX actually began the night prior as friends and I set forth carpool, picking up others on the way and eventually splitting up into 2 cars. We actually showed up in LA at 4:30am on Day 0. From there on it was just cruising around the Hotel Area checking out where things were. I ended up doing most of my dining at the subway on Flower street, if you can classify eating there 2x as “most”. One of the things I did do on Day 0 aside from the hellacious wait line was checking out the massive library. Where I am from, my library is very small in comparison. It’s only 2 stories and has a basement. I was simply amazed at the size of the library. Even more amazed as I was walking around, I caught a glimpse of someone watching some Hentai on one of the computers in there !! I didn’t look long enough to try to identify what the man was watching ( I am sure I definitely could of though without any difficulty. Should I be proud of that ?) , as I felt that would be invading his privacy, even though it was some what in clear sight. (The computers were only kept in short cubicles, so tall people passing by like me have that clear sight). After killing some time here, I went to a Kinkos/Fedex to waste $2 at a computer printing up my confirmation email with my bar code, as I forgot to do this at home. Turns out, I didn’t even need that.

After taking care of this all, is when I began my journey to the LACC to wait in the line of suck. While in line, I ended up buying an Ice Cream from one of the illegal cart vendors. This was just another mistake onto actually waiting in this line when I didn’t have to, AND leaving my sunblock in my friends car. While the ice cream was delicious (it was one of those batman ones with gumball eyes), my hands became covered in sticky. This was absolutely annoying for me, since I had no way to wash my hands, and I am one of those types who washes their hands very often. Ugh, just when I think about how icky my hand felt /shiver. Then there was of course the mentioned above. The havoc that was wrought upon my foot though is something that I am still feeling. In all the walking and standing that I did day 0, I manage to sprain my foot. The pain is more so now, just between the bottom of my ankle and the bridge of my foot, kind of an odd spot. I was worried this would ruin my whole experience. It did a LITTLE bit, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from enjoying my time !!! So back on topic, I managed to endure those 3 hours and made it inside, only to find out “your over there”. I got to my badge pick up booth, which had NO line. I was kinda incoherent by then though, and had difficulty understanding the girl working the booth. I had been up for more than 30 hours at this point, and the last time I slept was only for about 4 hours to begin with. My state of mind was… well. gone. After I got my badge, I was then allowed to move 1 step over into the ticketing booth to receive my “preferred” seating tickets for opening ceremonies, amv contest, and of course. MAY’N!! WOOO! I didn’t know about the opening ceremonies tickets or amv contest tickets, so when the ticketing booth guy was trying to tell me about these free tickets, I thought they were trying to pass these off to me instead of my May’n ticket. Like I said, my thought process had begun to deteriorate. But after some clarification, I accepted the additional free tickets and headed back to my hotel room for some much needed rest (after I met up with my friend and picked my bags up from the car). Day 0 – done -

Next weekend. 4th of July weekend. I will be in attendance. Current plan is to leave late night June 29 and arrive in the early morning of the 30th. Then leave late night on the 4th. See you there!

So the following was written up in April, but due to technical reasons, I am only just now able to put up. Things are good again now though.

So here we are yet again, towards the end of another month of April. This means that most, if not all, spring anime’s have made their debut (+ an episode or 2). So now that I have watched most of the shows up to episode 2 or 3, I feel like I can finally start passing judgement without it feeling premature. So let’s get straight to it.

K-On – You have all no doubt been watching and reading other’s blogs on the show. (For example Sakanku) Frankly, this season so far, has been a tad boring. Boring can be good though. I did love Aria after all. But so far, this season has been met with much net conversation on the fact that the background characters are looking less like background characters, and more like side characters. I think part of this can stem from that whole “new member” debacle that occurred in recent months. The HTT does get a new member though, albeit, not quite what you would expect for a new member.

Heroman – Ok, I admit, I only watched the first episode. But to be honest, this doesn’t even feel like an anime to me. This feels more like a Cartoon Network action exclusive, much like Ben 10 or Megas XLR. I suppose it’s not a terrible anime if you look at it in that retrospect. But so far, some friends have declared their “Blehs” on the show. I might continue to watch this though. This anime btw, is the one that is being made as a joint effort with Stan Lee. Since Stan Lee has helped make it, he does make a cameo in the show (of course).

Five Leaves (or w/e it was called) This was the one I embeded the other day. I didn’t finish it. Because I fell asleep through it. It was boring. I plan to give it another shot. But I may have to rock a few rockstars (or monsters) to survive it.

Maid-Sama – This is the kind of shoujo styled anime I can enjoy. I classify this one as a fun watch.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – Super fun watch. At first I thought it reminded me a bit of KKM, but without the yaoi and toilet humor. Which in the end, isn’t that what KKM was all about ? Whatever though, this is a fun watch that took me by surprise as, well, seriously, look at the characters. I have never seen so much character recycle in an anime. Makes me wonder if Nick Simmons was involved. (HAHA! cwutididthar ?)

And Arakawa. Friend of mine dislikes the show. I freaking love it. This has got to be one of the most awesomely random awesome shows I have seen in a long time. WATCH IT!

I got bored of the maou anime after a few eps. Arakawa is still awesome. K-on is still moe. Maid-sama, not entirely to up date on it, but i try to keep up with it. Still a decent watch. Working is fun. (the anime, not my job)

Ok, way late on the posting.  But I went to Wondercon (on the saturday).    It was my first con, so I no doubt should have posted muuuuuuch sooner.  But I didn’t get to take any pictures, because I couldn’t find my camera, and my G1 is terrible at pictures.   I saw some pretty cool stuff.  Most of you have no doubt seen everything I saw in some videos though.   But I did get to go attent the Kick Ass Q&A panel. It was pretty kick ass, no pun(?) intended. Nick Cage had laryngitis so he sounded like Christian Bale batman, which is funny, because in the movie, he sounds like Adam West Batman.  There was also the matter of the which hero would you be question, where the cast began to one up each other.  Kick Ass co-writter says Superman, so he can kick peoples asses who deserved it.    Nick Cage follows and says “Silver Surfer, so he could surf the galaxy and kick supermans ass whenever he wanted.  Then Redmist actor Christopher Mintz (Aka McLovin) goes with “Galactis, so Silver Surfer would have to feed me planets.

I also hung out a bit in the teeny tiny anime viewing room. It was small. It was terrible. And OMG while most of it was subtitled… I had to sit through some Dragonaught dub.  As if that anime was terribad enough.

And speaking of animes.  Spring Season has hit.  I won’t go into detail on this post, because I am about to tear into some Five Leaves on hulu.   Watch it with me ! Embed code attack !!

In my line of work, it’s not uncommon to see some sort of critter off the side of the road. Usually these critters are of the Cat and Dog variety. Well driving in Davis, there is another critter I will on rare occasion see. Freaking Turkeys man ! Not sure why, but in the vicinity of where the cemetery is, one can sometimes find some Wild Turkeys roaming the streets. It really makes me wish I kept a camera handy more often. ( I could use my camera phone, but that is super bad. I blame a lack of flash). The turkey I saw yesterday was bigger than the usual I see. The thing was HUGE. Oddly enough though, I am not sure this was the weirdest animal encounter I have had. There was that one time with a possum roadkill in downtown davis. Although I guess seeing a possum would be less of a surprise than a turkey. But maybe that one time when a Deer came prancing out in front of my car just slightly out of town. It was my first and only time seeing a deer in my neck of the woods. Though apparently there is some kind of wild life habitat thing nearby. Either way though, still odd for me.