I am going be bluntly honest here with everyone. I only happened to watch rail-gun first while I was still on my highschoo/middle school fix of shows with comedy/sol about girls and rail-gun fit that. Aside from the five or six heavily action oriented episodes out of 25 "which I still happened to enjoy". I just found Rail-Gun to be overall title to watch with a huge cast of like-able characters and while having a kick-ass female lead misaka that doesn't take bull-sh** from no one. Something else I wish to point out is that I did not watch the first season of to aru no index until I realized that rail-gun was spin-off of the series. Finding this out peaked my interest even more to watch/read source the material index to see who tomua and index. The main reason for this was my interest was in the back stories/history for all of the characters which I'm a sadly huge sucker for, no matter how cheesy they end up being. This lead me into reading most of the source material such as the light novels, manga and watching more the index anime when the second season did come out. I do apologize for the TL;DR but it needed to be taken care of so do me favor and kiss my a** if you don't like it. Well I will keep you all informed on anymore index/rail-gun news developments that do happen later this month. I do wish to through up a tidbit of information for you all, if you wish to legally watch/stream index/rail-gun head over to funimations site and buy the Index season one dvd's later this year. I shall catch you all around later then, peace out~ So what is your personal experience with the rail-dex franchise?? Any characters you really like or dislike?? Just leave some feedback to let know! Index Stream Rail-Gun Stream
Well as some of you know I'm currently stage of moving into an apartment on the 13th of this month, out from a house I've been living in for nearly fourteen years now. I could sweat with the details but the sole reason has to do with foreclosure on the said house, my father running off leaving me and my mother in debt leaving me to help her out through a twenty four year shattered marriage nearly a year ago. Oh by the way don't you even dare to start fucking judging me because I live with my mother due to some assholes mid life crisis. Now the other lovely side to this having to blow through two thousand four hundred dollars of my savings that I planned on buying a used car and moving out on is just gone. So I'm stuck again with out any car but hell at least I'm working part-time at the dollar general to help pull my weight now. I've had so much built up anger and hate over the past year which is one of the reasons I really haven't been as activate as I should have been nor is my attitude in the "I give a fuck department". All of this ranting aside I'm just wanting to let everyone know since I'm moving to a new place I'll be with out any net accesses form four to seven days so I can't even work on projects/post I already had planned. I'm not gong to dwell anymore on my personal life for now. More or less I just needed to give you all a heads up of whats really going on and when I get back into my comfort zone this site will pick back up like it was last year. Well that sums up this lovely mess, I'll catch you all in week don't wait up for me~. -Cecil The Dark Knight~
As the header states this is probably one of my biggest flaws a person that I really need to work on. Hell it has been a damn month since I last posted here and I apologize for that. My lack of motivation isn't sadly unless I'm doing work at my job on a set schedule to do chores. Sadly even on days off or weeks I still have no motivation for doing any type of reviews for anime that stream, visual novels that read through, or even tech devices I mess around with but I just need a little push. This is something I really do need to work on if I'm going to run a successful blog/website however I do need your help to motivate, by just simply sending me a email, or leaving feed-back after-this post. I'm am just simply asking what type of material do you want to see covered here, reviews, news, creative writing and how frequent do you want to see said material? Well I hope to hear back from you guys soon, catch ya later~ -CecilTheDarkKnight~ Gmail
To wrap august up I've decided to a small Image dump in celebration of Hatsune's Miku's birthday. The famous fictional pop-idol is celebrating her 5th birthday her. Hatsune Miku is based off a 2004 synthesizer software called Vocaloid. Well I could keep info dumping on Miku but just read the hyper-link I posted, al enjoy some nice fan-art I dug around the net for her birth day celebration.
Well that should wrap-up things nicely, I really hope you all really enjoyed those pics. Please feel free to leave some feed back, also enjoy this video I uploaded to you-tube as well, catch you later.
Having run across many fun people on twitter, one person I have chatted with countless times is Deb Aoki. Among all of all the people I've talked to on manga, graphic novels and other kinds of comics, licensing issues and bootleg issues is far beyond my own expertise. So I decided to send her some interview questions based on the digital shift in the western market for manga, graphic novels, manga, comics or the state of illegal apps on Ios. I hope you enjoy reading these and give her shout out on twitter some time as a thank you.
1. How do you think the digital transition of manga
in the west is
being handled by online sites and tablet devices?
A: I think it's
going pretty well. After years of being at a virtual standstill, a lot is happening in the digital
publishing space for manga nowadays. This is largely thanks to 1) the
arrival of a lot of reasonably priced devices on the market, 2) the fact that
more and more people own them and 3) many have discovered that it's fun
to read comics on them. We're seeing a lot more manga becoming available
in English legally, digitally than ever before.
Granted, I only have an iPad, and iPhone, and a
laptop computer, so I can't say how good or poor the experience is on
other devices like Kindle, Nook, or Android tablets/phones, but I'm pretty
satisfied with what we have available today. VIZ Manga, Dark Horse
Digital, Yen Press, Kodansha Comics, Digital Manga, MangaUniversity,
plus JManga, and various indies like GEN Manga, ComicLoud, Manga Magazine, and
several comics sites and applications like ComiXology, Graphic.ly,
Panelfly, etc. are all offering manga online, in various ways. The selection is
still relatively small compared to all the manga that was published in
print in Japan and North America over the past few decades – but keep in
mind that the shift toward digital publishing is
The only downside is that buying digital manga
means having to use digital payment systems, which require a credit card.
The downside to this is that a lot of younger readers who enjoy manga simply
don't have credit cards – so it's not as easy for a teen or tween to buy
some of these digital-only titles / magazine subscriptions, whereas before,
you could just go to the bookstore or comic shop and buy what you like. Now,
if you don't have a credit or debit card, you have to ask your
parents to buy online comics, which I'd imagine must be a hassle.
But I think the manga publishers are aware of
this, and I think they are looking for some kind of solution. I feel like
they have been pretty responsive to fans' requests, so I see
continual, steady improvement day by day. .but keep in mind that the shift toward digital publishing is a
relatively new development
2. Do you think it's possible to create a free, yet
legal site
dedicated to reading manga or doujinshi online??
To be honest,
no. Not unless artists and publishers were willing to do it just for giggles / be willing to forgo getting
paid. I don't think people realize the expenses involved with publishing
manga, and how few people (in US book-buying market) actually
read / buy manga. Yes, there's a lot of people who read manga, but it's but a
fraction of the amount of people who read manga in Japan. Manga is a niche within a
niche of a niche – far fewer people read manga online than say, read
the NY Times online. While the NY Times makes some content available for
free, they do rely on subscribers too, not just ad venue.
Online advertising only brings in so much
revenue, and I don't see how just ads would generate enough money to pay for
expenses like translators, graphic designers, editors, artists, and stuff
like server/bandwidth expenses, R&D to continually improve the
websites/apps. If huge newspapers and large mainstream online magazines are
struggling to find ways to make digital publishing as profitable as print was,
then I don't think it's any easier for manga publishers to do it either.
Besides needing to pay the people who translate,
edit and do graphic design on the manga you like to read, any online
publisher also needs to get agreement from the Japanese licensors: the
publishers and comic creators. Without OK from these people, nothing
will happen – or at least nothing legit.
There are doujinshi websites – in fact, Digital
Manga is working with DL Site to make translated doujinshi available
online. But I don't think it will be free. There are free, all you can read webcomic sites
out there too. But if they're free, are the comics on there as
consistently good as the manga you buy from VIZ, Dark Horse, Yen Press, etc.? A
website can offer all the free manga/webcomics for free they like, but if
it's not any good, then that's no bargain for fans, now is it?
JManga is trying to offer a new strategy with
JManga 7 where they'll offer serialized chapters of new manga online to read
for free, with the hope that you'll pay for the complete volume later.
This is promising, so we'll see how it goes. But make no mistake – if the
vast majority of the JManga 7 readers only read the free content / don't
subscribe/pay for the premium content/early preview privileges, and don't buy
more JManga manga, then I don't think this experiment will last very long.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, manga publishing
is a business, not a charity. Manga publishers and artists deserve to
make money for bringing us great manga. There are too many reasons why
"free, all-you-can-eat" manga websites aren't financially feasible in
the current business climate for book publishers, not just manga publishers.
3. What are your thoughts on scanlations and the
amount of sites or
apps dedicated to hosting said illegal material?
I think
scanlation is something that started out with good intentions (I love this manga, I want other people to love it
too) that has just gotten way out of hand.
It's created this perception with some fans that
manga has no value, that you should never have to pay to read manga, that
it should always be free to read/consume and that anyone who draws,
writes, translates manga should do it simply for love, not money. That's
bullshit.
It aggravates me that the people who make money
off scanlations and those bullshit apps are not the original artists, or
even the people who do the translations. These websites DON'T pay the
artists/translators who create the content on their websites, but they profit
from hosting content that they didn't create by selling ads. Sure, it's
profitable to run this kind of website. They don't have to pay those
inconvenient expenses like paying licensing fees, or paying translators or graphic
designers a living wage.
I have a lot of friends who are comics creators
– heck, I'm a half-baked cartoonist myself. I don't know if you can ever
understand how it feels until someone you created is stolen, and is used
to make someone else (not you) money; money that you will never get a
share of. Worst of all, it's a situation that you'll likely never be able to
stop.
For me the bottom line is, did you get the
artists' permission to post that work? Are you sharing whatever revenue
you're making from your with the comics creators/artists and the editors,
translators, etc. who drew, wrote, edited, translated, scanned, cleaned up,
etc. those pages that you're posting on your website? If the answer is
no to both of those questions, then you're not doing the creators of
the manga you love so much any favors at all.
4. Do you think that people should be careful
importing risqué
manga such as kodomo no jikan or comic lo given recent issues lately?
Let's just say
I wouldn't do it.
Ryan Matheson spoke at Comic-Con, and the
manga/artwork that got him searched, arrested and thrown in jail for in Canada was
relatively mild. I think the political climate is such that it
doesn't make sense to take risks with importing potentially problematic
material.
The problem is that manga has a visual style
that often depicts characters as younger than they really are. And for people
who aren't familiar with manga/anime art styles, if they see a comic
character with large sparkly eyes and small build, it looks like a child. And
if that said character is seen doing 'grown-up' stuff – then well… you see
where this is going?
And come on. Is Kodomo no Jikan really that good
of a manga? I haven't read it myself, but I can think of tons more
interesting manga that I'd rather read, rather import from Japan. It's not
like there isn't smut to be had via US publishers (Digital Manga'sProject H Hentai imprint comes to mind). It's not worth it.
5. This goes back to question three do you think
that it would be
okay to import a manga from Japan then download the scanlations for your
personal use?
By visiting a
scanlation site, you're still supporting them, financially. Your presence on their websites = traffic, and
the more traffic a given website gets = they make more money from the
online ads posted on their site.
So even if you buy one copy of the manga, when
you visit a scanlation site, you're creating traffic to the site, which
= money for that website, and therefore, you're encouraging these sites to
continue. By allowing these sites to continue to make money, you're
facilitating making an unauthorized copy of said manga available
online, and making it available to many, many thousands of people who will never
buy a legal (Japanese or English) edition of that same manga.
Yes, some people will discover this manga via
reading it on a scanlation site, and may become a big fan that will buy the
manga through legal channels when it's available. But honestly, the
vast majority won't spend a dime on it. And that's more lost potential
sales that your purchasing of a single legal copy can't quite compensate for.
In the end, you're still causing a net negative
effect to the artist / comic creator. Your math may differ from mine,
but that's how I see it.
6. To wrap this up what are some of your favorite
manga
series/genres and why?
Hm. I love all
kinds of manga. My first love is shojo manga, and that's probably my favorite. But I also enjoy seinen,
shonen, and josei manga. I like romances, comedies, action manga, slice of
life manga… literally, all kinds.
I like manga that teaches me something new while
entertaining me. I also love manga that shows a real mastery of the art.
I like manga that makes me laugh. And I'm a sucker for sports manga,
because I don't actually enjoy watching sports on TV, but I like the
drama and real-life action in these series that make me appreciate a sport I'd
otherwise never get into.
Some of my current faves include Blue Exorcist,
Kekkaishi, Ooku, Eyeshield 21, Cross Game, Slam Dunk, Drops of God, Chi's
Sweet Home, Yotsuba, Dorohedoro, A Drunken Dream, GoGo Monster,
Children of the Sea, Summit
of the Gods, and Skip Beat.
Hope that helps. Sorry to take so long to reply.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions or need anything else. Thanks! -Deb
About.com | Need. Know. Accomplish About.com is part of The New York Times Company Update: I did have a quick chat with Deb on twitter on Kodomo No Jikan and explained to her what kind of series it was. I think that she understands that it's not completely just smut or baseless sex acts/lolicon but she did help point out the usual truths on the matter. This is the said quote below from our conversation on Aug 30th there are just some titles that are too hot to handle in the US, and that's just how it goes. it's another reason to learn JP.
I've decided to have a little fun by making a page for my favorite meme OH DESIREthat originated in 4chan. The ending theme to the anime helped spark a huge load of photo-shopped images, you-tube videos and even some great copy-pasta that I'll share here with everyone. I realize that this meme is nearly dead by now but the DESIRE in my heart will never die.
If you got a chuckle out that parody copy-pasta I hope you enjoy this letter Kinzo left to his desired children.
Hey Siblings,
My name is Kinzo, and I hate every single one of you. All of you are greedy, retarded, no-lifes who spend every second of their day looking at stupid ass epigraphs. You are everything bad on Rokkenjima. Honestly, have any of you ever gotten any gold? I mean, I guess it's fun making fun of children because of your own insecurities, but you all take to a whole new level. This is even worse than jerking off to portraits in my hall.
Don't be a stranger. Just hit me with your best shot. I'm pretty much perfect. I am a self-taught human sorcerer, and I own an entire island. What hobbies do you have, other than "jack off to naked drawn Western people"? I also get tons of gold, and have a banging hot girlfriend (She just burned me; Shit was SO gold). You are all faggots who should just kill yourselves. Thanks for listening.
Pic Related: It's me and my witch
Well I hope you all enjoyed that little reminder of DESIRE that still lurks in my heart. I really wish that I could add more to this meme but sadly you need to DESIRE this to make it come back. I shall leave you with this you-tube clip everyone enjoy~
This is going to be a quick review based on my two hours of using the crunchy-roll app for the PlayStation 3. Please keep in mind that I am in no way affiliated with crunchy-roll, or Sony Entertainment of America. This review will not have any ass-kissing bias towards any said company, nor am I'm being payed to even review said app "although I need the damn money as it is." With this out of the way onwards with the review~
This is going to be a little unorthodox from every review I've done until now. I am just going to list the pro's and cons of crunchy roll's media app version 1.0. I will then proceed wrap this up with some final thoughts on what I think needs to be improved. Please keep in mind this is not the same as reviewing a piece of media/entrainment. If you really enjoy this style of review I will do more in the future but this is solely based on you the readers think of this style, well gets rolling~ PROS: 1. This makes anime more accessible and easier to use on the casual market. 2. This helps cut down on need of streaming devices you hook up to a TV or monitor. 3. You don't need a extra subscription to accesses said app "Xbox-live gold for example" 4. The quailty on most anime series is very decent. 5. New/existing members get a 30day free trial "This does exclude those who have already used their free trial if you are an existing member" 6. This is crunchy-rolls first game console app and if it succeds there might be more in the future.
CONS: 1. This app is only available to people that live in north america "Canada and the United States" as of now. 2. There are issues with lag/buffering on higher res shows that render some unwatchable. 3. This app has playback issues on certain series that will even cause this said app to completely crash. 4. You need to be premium anime member or drama member to use this app and login using your username from crunchy-roll. "you can not use this app unless you have crunchy roll paid subscription." 5. It is very hard to navigate through the menus on the ps3 controller.
So to basically sum this up the crunchy roll app, despite it's faults still has room for improvement and potential to grow, this is the first version of said app after all. Based on the huge demand for want of this app I can see an update coming pretty soon to fix some of these minor issues. The only thing I would change myself is the requirement to login with a premium membership, however they are still treading the water here on the consoles so give it time until then I rate the app as follows. User Interface: 3/5 Buffering/Streaming Rate: 2.5/5 Picture Quality: 3/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Design: 3/5 Overall: 3/5 -Cecil The Dark Knight~
Edit: An update was released on 8/8 to version 1.01 that did address some of these issues I stated in my review. I would have updated sooner if I was actually paying attention like a normal person.. but leaving that aside I highly suggest you update when you are able to since this helps address the streaming/buffering rate issues. I'll catch you all around later~
To kick my self off rolling again I found some questions that all visual novel/eroge fans should answer from one of the many blogs I read daily. I personally find this the easiest way to start up my blogging activities again. Below are just my honest answers to said questions. I'm also willing to admit that I'm a newbie in regards to non mainstream visual novels so don't get all pissy at me for not mentioning more obscure titles and always enjoy~
1.Who is your favorite female visual novel character? This is a really hard decision to make because there are so many female characters I do like. Since I'm only able to pick one it would be saber from fate/stay night.
2. Who is your favorite male visual novel character? Hands down I pick Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko.
3. Which character is the cutest? Given her personality traits I would have to choose Rika Furude from Higurashi
4. Which Male or Female character is the hottest? Since I prefer the mature ladies I would have to go with Akiko Minase for Kanon
5. What is your favorite visual novel soundtrack (or song)? Out of all the visual novels I've played it would have to be clannad.
6. Which is your favorite visual novel opening animation? I'm going to have to go with Stein's;Gate PC port op.
7. What is your favorite scene in a visual novel? You all know how much of sick twisted bastard I can be so this is pretty easy for me. I choose the Corpse Party chapter five prologue which left with some soupy feelings.
8. What qualities in a VN character do you gravitate most towards? There is only one quailty I really search for and that's a main character who is actually given a personality or human traits/flaws.
9. Which character in a VN is most similar to you in terms of personality? I really hate to say this since I am unable to explain why but I'm alot like Matoko from School Days.
10. Who is your favorite VN Artist? Itaru Hinoue who did the first three classic key/visual arts games.
11. Who is your favorite VN writer? That would have to be R7 you dumb ass.
12. What is your favorite thing about visual novel/eroge? Overall it's the way in how the story is presented to you into a format that only works within this given form of media.
13. What is one thing you would eliminate from all VNs to make them more perfect? Childhood friends that never age.. dacopo I'm looking at you.
14. Do you think you’ll ever stop playing VNs? At this current state in my life I gotta go with no.
15. Are you open about the fact that you play VNs with people you know? Yes I'm actually open about the fact I play these type of games with my close family and online friends.
16. Which visual novel was the biggest let down for you? None as of yet.
Now that I have your
attention with the top three tsundere's from J.C. staff adaptions. I will let
it be known I will have at least six new post up before this week over
so look forward to them. I'm taking a short vacation so I can relax
while I type out some news articles, reviews and convention news from
the major cons this season.
Yes I also admit to being a lazy bastard on some
respects by not having done any reviews in two months so far, well all I
can say is just get the hell over it already! One of my biggest surprises I do have is that I'll be doing reviews on tech devices as well. Now this
should wrap up things here, I'll get these post done as soon as I can and host edits/hyper links on this page. Until we meet again I bid you all adieu~
First Edit: One thing you some you might have noticed is my massive overhaul on my school days review I did last year. The major reason for this is due in part that some of the mistakes have been bugging the hell out of me for the past year now and they need to be addressed to make the review seem more professional before submitting it to jast-usa. Just click the hyper-link below to read the updated review. School Days vn revised review Second Edit: I have a review coming out soon for the roku HD box and the crunchy-roll ps3 app so look forward to them
To show my support the localization company Funimation on bringing over series for physical release/digital and streaming. So I have decided to a monthly article on some of their up coming releases, contest and dub announcements to inform you all of any news you might not have picked up from ANN, CR News or any other anime news web-sites. So lets get started with the Dub-Cast announcement for last years scifi hit Stein's;Gate that legally streamed last year on crunchy-roll.
The said localization is going to feature some up and coming voice actor talent that is not from normal pool usually select on most shows expect for Christ Sabot. I actually think this is good idea to get some fresh talent out the door so we can hear some fresh new voices in dubbed anime. Even if you are not fan of dubbed anime this will give Stein's;Gate a chance to air on adult swim which is always good to bring in newer anime fans to this scifi hit.
Official Trailer~
Localization Team
CHARACTER
Actor
OKABE
J. Michael Tatum
MAKISE
Trina Nishimura
MAYURI
Jackie Ross
DARU
Tyson Rinehart
SUZUHA
Cherami Leigh
JOHN TITOR
Patrick Seitz
BRAUN
Christopher R. Sabat
NAE
Brina Palencia
RUKA
Lindsay Seidel
MOEKA
Jessica Cavanagh
-
-
ADR Director
Colleen Clinkenbeard
Line Producer
Colleen Clinkenbeard
Head Writer
John Burgmeier
ADR Engineer
Stephen Hoff
Well any-thoughts on the trailer, localization staff for this cult hit? I personally think that Okabe's voice is trying a bit to hard to make the character have low pitched voice. Other than that it seemed to be pretty decently done so far, but I will hold off on doing a dub review once I get the set on DVD and Blu-Ray set later this year when I get the money~
Funimation is also holding another survey to see what game system, phone or tablet device you own. This is to spread their new streaming app on a wider brand of devices like Roku to offer more people a chance with low income to watch anime. I have already filled out the current survey and by doing so you get put into a contest to win a DVD/bluray set of Funimation's choice. The survey ends July 31st so make sure to hop to it while you can with a chance to win a free set~
Now let's move on to pre-orders that up and available on Right-Stuf's website. One that has personally caught my attention is that A certain magical Index seems got be getting a DVD only release so far. I can not 100% confirm this matter but according to the listings on Right-Stuf it will be split in two DVD 13 epiosde packs which might not set well with some anime fans that want to watch the series in HD which is huge nit pick for anime fans now.
In other DVD/Bluray news you can pre-order Aria of The Scarlet Ammo, Shana I-II, Spice and Wolf and Shana season one-two complete sets now as well from Right-Stuf for under the forty dollar mark on each set. If any of you wish to pre-order any of these sets feel free to click on the hyper-links below. That should do it for this month, just leave any feed back, comments or suggestions you have for my next funimation news update~
Update:I can now officially confirm that Index season one will be DVD only given funimation's current release slate. I really can not say I'm surprised by this on any level all I know is that fan out lash will most likely be harsh because of decision. Regardless I will be buying DVD sets myself just to finally own a legal part of the franchise.
Well with summer 2012 anime season starting up.. I have some bold and blunt statements to make. As of now I'm currently done with any new
anime this year unless they are sequels or ovas to series I already like. Now this doesn't mean I'm not going to give any shows shows a chance this season because so far I've caught the first episodes Yuru-Yuri 2, Tari Tari , Swords Arts Online, Muv-Luv Total Eclipse and Oda Nobuna which are aviavle for streaming at crunchy-roll, just check you local region for more details on the simulcast. Hell I'm so unpressed by most of the summer titles this sums up my feelings quite well.
The down-side is that despite some interest in these anime series they are more on a marathon list instead of week to week watch which will save me money in the long run from crunchy-roll's monthly simulcast bill. Maybe I'm getting a bit shewed at my older age, however I want something entertaining to watch, not something that will make me fall asleep for dire boredom. Well this should wrap up things nicely now, what are you all enjoying for summer 2012 so far or what are some of your biggest disappointments so far?? Also feel free to answer this question, why is most summer anime just so damn mediocre?? That should wrap things up everybody, I'll catch you all around later~
List of Ova's I Plan To Watch:
To love ru
darkness Oad Corpse Party: Missing Footage Code Geass: Nunally In Wonderland Sankera Oad Mysterious Girl Friend X Kiss x Sis Oad 7 Squid Girl Oad Listen To Me Girls Oad Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu:Finale Mystic Archives of Dantalian:Ibarahime
So how the hell is tatabanta and how does it relate to my blog?? Well quite simply it's a two thousand year old Asian holiday/tradition that Japan, China and South Korea still celebrate to this day. The legend or story of this holiday has been used countless times in manga, anime, visual novels, books and other forums of entertainment in Asia so I figured why not share a little on what this holiday is about. The story is actually pretty simple and kinda romantic, however due to lack of my own time I will just copy-paste Wikipedia's summary below under the fair-use clause.
Orihime (織姫Weaving Princess), daughter of the Tentei (天帝Sky King, or the universe itself), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川Milky
Way, lit. "heavenly river"). Her father
loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave
it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet
and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for
her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星Cow Herder Star) (also referred
to as Kengyuu (牽牛)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the
two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly
thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for
Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei
separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime
became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them
meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to
meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her
weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could
not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a
flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that
she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies
cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.
As you can plainly see it's really a simple story so every July 7th major Asian nations celebrate the reunion of Orihime and Hikoboshi under the star filled sky with festivals fireworks, parades by dressing up in traditional clothing known as yukata's. I bring this up again because one of the visual novels I am playing called Hoshizora no Memoria- Wish Upon a Shooting Star deals greatly with this old legend. It actually made me do research to find out what the hell was going on which I give that some huge props for making me do so.
I also regert not diving deeper into this legend when I was watching/reading other series but I have never seen such focus before on this legend being done, or maybe my brain just blocked it out for some reason...hmmm oh well. If you also happen to be fan of lucky star to day is the b-day of the Hiiragi Twins "Kagami & Tsukasa". Well With all of the info dumping out the way I figure that I'll share a few anime related pics and the OP to wish upon a shooting star I uploaded to you-tube, so sit back and enjoy everyone~
Anime Expo 2012 has come and gone. As one of the biggest and
most remarkable anime conventions in America, there are a lot of stories
to tell and a lot of pictures to share. This is only my second year attending
AX, but it was just as busy and crowded as I remember. However, unlike my attendance
in 2010, I tried a lot harder to attend more panels, see more guests,
meet more people and spend less time in the Exhibit Hall. I think I accomplished my goals, although I didn’t follow my schedule exactly
and I left with less autograph signatures than I wanted and left with more
things than I should have purchased.
Day 0:
I arrived in LA via carpool at about 5 pm and proceeded to
the convention center so I could stand in the pre-registration line to get my
badge. The line was ridiculously long as usual, stretching in a big zig zag
outside the convention center. Fortunately I only had to wait about an hour, so
it wasn’t too bad. Many people in line kept everyone’s spirits up by offering
numerous high-fives as we passed each other back and forth
to the door. Even on day 0 there are a few noteworthy cosplayers, I noticed two
girls in line behind me lugging a giant Pikachu outfit between them. After I
got through the line we took a quick look around the main entrance, where Danny
Choo’s itasha cars were already on display. I laughed when I realized the diver’s
seats were occupied by large Domo-kun plushies. I snapped a few pics and headed
home to rest up.
That's Mirai-chan with AX-tan, whose official name I can't remember.
Day 1:
Arriving about 11 am, my friends and I decided to try and
wait in the standby line to get tickets for the AMV contest (and free tickets
for the LiSA concert if they were available). After waiting for about an hour
with little progress we all decided to give up and move on to other things, when
we came back a few hours later to get in a different line, we recognized a
cosplayer who had been in line with us (we called him “Team Rocket Jesus")
still waiting for tickets. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait or else we’d have
spent half the day in that damn line. In case you haven’t figured it out
already, a large part of the AX experience is standing (or in some cases
sitting) in huge fucking lines.
See the kind of shit you have to put up with?
At 12:30 my friends and I attended the Ryo Horikawa panel.
For those of you that don’t know, he’s the voice of Vegeta in Japanese and also
the actor for Captain Falcon in the Super Smash Brothers games. Horikawa was an
interesting person to listen to, considering he’s been in the business for many
years you could tell he had a lot of experience with giving meaningful answers
to rather simple questions. One of the more interesting moments of the panel
was when he talked about the very old days of anime production. He described how
they had to record all the lines on tape that would roll consistently, which
meant they had to complete an entire episode in a single take and if anyone
messed up they would have to start ALL the way over from the beginning. There were
also a lot of questions about his work as Vegeta on DBZ and how he felt about
it.
Originally Horikawa didn’t audition for the role of Vegeta (though he didn’t
explain under what circumstances he had been given the role) and he assumed
that because the character was a villain, he would die within the first 4
episodes after his appearance. But instead Vegeta became a very noteworthy
character in the DBZ universe and Horikawa was very appreciative that he got to
voice him for an extended period of time. I should mention that Horikawa
himself is very soft-spoken and gentle, if you saw the guy talk in person you
would never believe he was the voice of such an angry character like Vegeta. Horikawa
himself talked about how he isn’t a violent person but appreciates the
opportunity as an actor to play a character opposite his personality. Some
people at the panel requested lines and when he yelled you could
really hear the shift in his voice and personality – it was quite impressive. One
thing that Horikawa was surprised to discover was the American obsession with
the “Over 9000!” line that is infamous in anime meme history. Horikawa was
asked to do the line in English and did so almost perfectly – he tried to speak
English whenever he could really.
AX is not limited to anime cosplays, have some Bioshock
One of the other funny moments was when someone requested him to yell Goku’s name (Kakarot) in an angry voice, “as if you were
trying to kill him.” Unfortunately the interpreter didn’t quite understand the
question and Horikawa ended up yelling a threat instead (“I’m going to beat you
down!” “I’m going to kill you!”) to the person who asked the question, which
resulted in some heavy laughter when Horikawa immediately said “I don’t
actually kill people!” afterwards. One person did request that he do the “Falcon
Punch!” line, but unfortunately Horikawa didn’t really remember his work as
Captain Falcon and couldn’t do it in the right voice. At the end of the panel,
Horikawa took the opportunity to talk about a new project that he’s been working
on – an e-manga called Magical Dreamers. The interesting thing about this
project is that it’s essentially a “voiced” manga that’s available in both
English and Japanese. He showed us a demo video that switched the voices and
text between the two languages – it was really cool! Apparently it will be
available sometime this month, you can find the English site here.
Some cosplayers are actually cute
After the Horikawa panel I went to the Aniplex Industry
panel which consisted mainly of them going over releases that are currently
available (Madoka, Fate/Zero, Blue Exorcist) and what would be coming soon
(Garden of Sinners, Oreimo, Baccano and more). The only new announcement was
the dub of Blue Exorcist which didn’t sound too bad, but I really don't care for the
show so I can’t say I’m very excited for it. Overall Aniplex’s panel was
probably the dullest one I attended. The best part of the panel was hearing the
guy who ran it mispronounce certain things, like cousplay and o-ray-moh and
sayaki (as opposed to cosplay, ore imo and Sayaka).
Aniplex had a shitty panel, but a cool booth.
The final panel of the day was the Yuki Kajiura + Fiction
Junction panel. Unfortunately a lot of the questions consisted of: what is your
favorite song, or who is your favorite singer, or what inspired you to sing,
and stuff like that. It was interesting to hear the answers they came up with,
but most of them didn’t mention anything specific (which is typical of the
polite Japanese). The best questions were aimed specifically at Kajiura and
prompted her to talk at length about the process by which she composes her
music and how she decides in what language the lyrics should be in. Overall
Kajiura said that when she composes music, the style and feeling of the song is
what determines the lyrics – she doesn’t “decide” what language the singing
will be, but rather the song itself lends a certain musical quality which is
better suited to a specific language. She also talked at length about how she
sought out the vocal talent from the members of Fiction Junction and how each
of their voices provides a certain quality (in musical terms think alto, tenor,
etc) which helps her decide who should sing what song. I really wish this panel
had been longer, or that I had come up with an interesting question to ask, but
it ended too quickly.
I love .hack, so I couldn't pass up taking a pic of Elk.
Day 2:
Saturday is always the biggest, crowded and most enjoyable
day of AX. The schedule is packed with tons of panels and events and it really
forces you to pick and choose what you want to attend between many appealing
options. The first thing I did was attend the Tiger & Bunny panel, which started off with an introduction from the cast that included Yuri
Lowenthal (Baranby/Bunny), Tara Platt (Agnes), John Eric Bently (Fire Emblem),
Patrick Seitz (Sky High), Travis Wilingham (Rock Bison) and Laura Bailey (Dragon
Kid). Also in attendance was Japanese Producer Masayuki Ozaki. Ozaki had been
wearing the AX exclusive “Wild Tiger” t-shirt that was available for purchase
in the Exhibit Hall, but he pulled it off at the start of the panel to reveal
that he was in a complete Kotetsu cosplay, vest and everything. He also pulled
out Kotetsu’s trademark hat and put it on, which was met with plenty of crowd
cheering. They played a clip of the dub (which is currently complete up to
episode 14) that sounded amazing! All of the characters sounded great in the
roles, particularly Kari Wahlgren performing as Blue Rose. The only dub voice that
I think is lacking would be Wally Wingert who plays Wild Tiger/Kotetsu – he does
a good job at capturing the character’s personality but honestly he doesn’t
sound deep enough to match. After the clip, they took questions from the
audience and answered them. The dub cast had a lot of fun making jokes,
particularly about John who is “exactly like Fire Emblem” and they even
encouraged him to cosplay as the character one day. Perhaps my favorite moment
was when they were asked what powers they would have if they were a NEXT, Yuri
Lowenthal remarked “I would like to have the power of teleportation…so I could
teleport past the X Games this morning on my way here.” It was also fun to hear
John describe Fire Emblem as “the bomb diggity.” Overall this panel was a ton
of fun, but it’s hard to describe how well the actors managed to play with the
questions they were asked and make the panel a fun experience. A large part of
the excitement of panels like these is being able to be there in person and
hear the cast and audience react – relating it through text makes it seem
almost boring.
The T&B cast, if you look close you'll see Travis laughing his ass off.
After the panel I headed to the exhibit hall with the intent
of getting Steve Blum’s autograph on my Toonami poster. Sadly enough his line
was super long and the standby line had already formed outside – I waited for
about 2 hours before I gave up. At one point they moved us inside and the line was moving,
but it didn’t look like it was going to get to me by the time Steve had to
leave for his panel at 4:30. I regret giving up because I might have made it
through, but I can just send it to him in the mail to have him sign later
(information is available on his website) so it’s not a huge deal. I would’ve
liked to shake his hand, at least, but oh well. While I was outside I entertained myself
by watching a Madoka and Fate/Zero cosplay gathering across the street. I was
pleasantly surprised to see a Morning Rescue cosplayer participating in the
Madoka group, I hope everyone knew who he was.
The Madoka gathering, see if you can find MORNING RESCUE.
In the afternoon I attended the FUNimation industry panel
which was filled with all sorts of new announcements – most notably Michiko to
Hatchin, the Blood C movie and Ikkitousen. They talked a lot about what’s
coming out soon, I’m really excited about Panty & Stocking (for the dub)
and OblivionIsland. Beyond that, the panel ran long
and they ended up with no time for questions. So I put my bags away and braced
myself for the Fiction Junction concert, the highlight of the day if not the
entire convention.
Here's a shitty pic of the FUNi booth, it's one of the bigger ones.
Unfortunately there were no pictures or video for the FJ
concert, which I expected. I really wish I could have captured the awesomeness
that was seeing the group perform live. Not only was Yuki Kajiura there on
keyboard with the 4 singers of FJ, but they had also brought their bassist,
guitarist and violinist. Hearing them perform live was really something amazing
that I may never experience again. They played songs from a lot of popular
anime including .hack, Mai Hime, Madoka, Noir, Sacred Seven and Pandora Hearts.
My personal favorite songs were Stonecold and Parallel Hearts, which a lot of
people stood up for and pumped their hands to the beat. Unlike previous
concerts at AX (I was there for the May’n and Megumi concert in 2010), there
weren’t too many glow sticks in the audience which I think was due to the fact
that they didn’t sell them outside the concert as they usually do. Normally
concerts are held in the Nokia Theater next to the convention center, but this
year that venue was occupied by the X Games so it wasn’t an option for AX. Fortunately
the room we were in was huge and provided a great view for everyone in the
audience.
Saber cosplay now available in the Lily variety.
Visually the concert was very appealing as well, the lighting flashed
different colors and different designs were projected against the stage as the
Fiction Junction girls danced and sang their different parts. The guitar and
violin solos were always incredible whenever they reached those parts of the
songs, it was great to see all the members of the band so passionate. At the
panel the day before, Yuki Kajiura had said as a final remark that their
feelings would come across in their live concert and I really think that
statement held true. Everyone in the room could really feel the energy and
emotion that they put into their songs and the crowd responded – getting more
excited with every performance. Occasionally they would take short breaks and Yuki
would talk about the songs they were performing and how nice it was to be at AX
in front of American fans. At the very end of the concert they left the stage
and nobody in the audience moved, we all stood and clapped and demanded an
encore. After a few minutes of cheering – the entire FJ group once again came on
stage and prepped themselves for one last song. The final song of the night was
from the .hack soundtrack called “The World” it was a really fitting ending to
the concert and I was glad they were able to play for a full 2 hours. A truly unforgettable
experience.
so I heard you like megucas
Day 3:
The first panel of the third day was with Rikiya Koyama, the
voice actor for Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero among other characters. It was a very
exciting panel right from the start, because Rikiya ran into the room and circled the crowd giving them high-fives and getting us pumped up for the
panel. The panel was run by Aniplex who showed clips of different moments from
Fate/Zero and had Rikiya talk a little about his work with Kiritsugu and how
he felt about the character. He spoke at length about the fragileness of
Kiritsugu’s character and his struggle to become a hero only to meet with
suffering in the end. It was really interesting to hear him talk so deeply
about his character, everyone could tell that he really enjoyed being able to
play Kiritsugu and appreciated his depth as the main character of Fate/Zero. When
it was finally time for questions I quickly attempted to line up close to the
front, I was clutching a sheet of lyrics. My plan (mostly inspired by my
friends) was to ask Rikiya to sing the “24 song.” In Japan, the TV show 24 was dubbed
with Rikiya providing the voice of Jack Bauer and to promote the show there was a
set of commercials that involved him singing a song as Jack Bauer, which became
pretty famous on the internet:
ORE WA JACKU BAWAA
We wanted him to sing part of the song for us, and we weren’t
sure that anybody else was ready to ask so we came prepared. Unfortunately, the
Aniplex staff was screening the questions and when I told them what I planned
to do they told me they weren’t taking any requests and that I should just ask
a question instead, so with much regret I decided to leave the line. There were
a lot of questions for Rikiya about his role as Kiritsugu and how that compared
to Jack Bauer and his other live action roles (such as Neo from the Matrix). Eventually
they had to cut the line because they were running out of time, but they
allowed for one final question…much to our surprise it was someone else who
wanted him to sing the Jack Bauer song! They had slipped past the Aniplex staff
by simply stating they wanted to ask him about his role as Jack Bauer – and
Rikiya was happy to oblige, he sang two different parts of the song completely
from memory, but he had to remember them first. Afterwards he made another run
around the room before the panel ended, everybody was cheering "Ri-ki-ya! Ri-ki-ya!"
Blurry pic of Rikiya at his panel, he was a cool dude.
After the Rikiya panel we headed for the Steve Blum panel, which
was also a lot of fun. There was a short intro reel that involved a bunch of
Steve’s different characters providing some of their most famous lines,
including Spike, Guilmon, Roger Smith and more. The entire panel basically
consisted of people asking Steve questions or requests for lines, it was really
neat to hear him talk about his roles and do performances live. Interestingly enough,
Steve talked about how he originally got into voice acting by doing monster
voices in the English dub of Guyver. Later on he booked more roles until
eventually he really felt the “fame” of being a voice actor when he got the
role of Spike which helped lead to Cowboy Bebop’s good reception. For me this
panel was another con highlight, it’s fun to listen to Steve speak as a person
and have fun with different people’s requests. His role as Amon in Korra was especially popular among the fans, and Steve seems to enjoy it himself quite a bit remarking that it was the only show he woke up "every Saturday morning" to watch.
A wild Steve Blum appears!
For every panel they have at AX, staff give out raffle tickets that are usually used for prize giveaways at the end of each panel, but also for exclusive
front-of-the-line privileges during the autograph signings. Sadly, I was never
one of the raffle winners at any of the panels I attended, but my friend was
lucky enough to win the autograph session raffle for Yuki Kajiura and Fiction
Junction! He didn’t bring anything for them to sign, but I had brought my copy
of the Tsubasa Chronicle OST (the first OST I ever bought) and he was generous
enough to take my copy and have it signed for me. I waited in line with him, in
the hopes that I could go through the line and watch my CD be signed, but I was
kicked out at the very last second for not being the actual winner. Argh! My
friend told me that when he got to Kaori, she saw the Tsubasa CD and remarked
that it was nostalgic. I wish I could have been there for it!
Signed swag is the best swag.
I spent the next 3 hours after the Kajiura signing waiting
in line for the Muv-Luv: Total Eclipse screening premiere. I was waiting in
line with some friends from Twitter and we were hoping to get good seats so we
wouldn’t have to worry about anyone’s head keeping us from reading the
subtitles. When the event started, the creator of Muv-Luv came out and talked
at length about the background of the series and what we could expect from the
story – he made sure that everyone in the audience knew that the main character
was half-Japanese and half-American and that America as a country would play an
important role in the series after Japan is overrun by the alien enemy. After
this we were all treated to a live concert featuring Minami Kuribayashi and Ayami
singing insert songs from the series.
Then we had the premiere of episodes 1
and 2 of Total Eclipse, which were pretty intense and fun to watch in a crowd
setting (particularly hearing the reactions to episode 2, where things get
brutal). It was nice to see on the big screen, and I enjoyed the episodes
despite the somewhat lackluster animation and generic story elements. Overall I
felt the highlight of the show was seeing the mech battles, along with the free mini-concert. After the screening we were also treated to a live performance of the ending theme before things wrapped up.
Second row seats, not bad except that dude's head in front of me.
Day 4:
The final day is the slowest and least exciting, it provides
ample time for everyone to wind down and take plenty of cosplay pictures and
explore the HUGE exhibit hall. I took the entire morning buying up things at
various booths and grabbing what free swag I could. I visited the FUNimation
booth and got some free postcards, got a free shirt and Saki minifig from
the Crunchyroll booth, got a command seal stamp (from Fate/Zero) at the Aniplex
booth, got a free promo card from the Bushiroad booth, got a free shonen jump
bag at the Viz booth and MORE! Seriously, I can’t even begin to describe the
sheer number of items you can find in the exhibit hall – figures, shirts,
pillows, doujinshi, models, games, visual novels, mousepads, you name it. I
spent more than I should on picking up things here and there – but I don’t
regret it.
Look at all that stuff that you can't afford.
The last thing I attended was the charity auction (and
closing ceremonies, but nothing really happened there except Danny Choo accidentally beaning
someone in the head with a set of Moekana cards). The charity auction is always
fun to watch, but I sometimes feel sorry for the people who are dedicated
enough to participate. Whenever you think an item is going to go for a certain
price it gets pushed up even higher and higher until it leaves everyone
cheering. The hot item this year was a sketch of Chihaya from Chihayafuru,
colored and signed by the Madhouse staff. It started at a solid $100 and became
an intense bid war for 5 minutes until it reached the final amount of $2000. Other
hot items included the sketches from Range Murata courtesy of the Gallery of
Fantastic Artists, which both went for over $1000 if I remember correctly. In
the end, I always feel like I should have saved all my money from the exhibit
hall to bid on one really cool item, but it rarely works out that way.
All of this was free stuff, includes a few preview DVDs!
Overall, AX 2012 was an awesome experience. I always leave
with the feeling that I could have done more, but when I look back I realize
how crazy I was for trying to go to so many things and buy so many things and
it leaves me exhausted just thinking about it. Honestly when you go to a
big con like AX you get charged with energy and it lets go on for days and days
until you come back and the excitement dies down and it leaves you exhausted. My
impression of 2012 was better than 2010, probably because I went to more things
and was interested in more of the actors and guests. However, from the
industry side I have to say things were a little disappointing.
There were a
select few announcements that I personally found exciting, but mostly I was
disappointed by the lack of new properties and buzz. FUNimation always has
something, but Aniplex and even NIS
hardly offered anything new. Although considering the state of the industry this really
doesn’t surprise me. I suppose the true winners of AX are Sentai Filmworks who
never had a panel and simply announced their acquisitions on a small white
board at their booth at set periods every day. It was fun to walk by and see
what they had gotten – but overall they are so focused on licensing new proprieties
that it makes me a little concerned for the future. Anyway, that’s about all I
have to say about AX 2012. Thanks for reading.
It's not like I wanted you to come to AX with me or anything baka!
Cecil here with a few fixes/updates .All of this content is provided by my good friend zoid9000 that i meet over twitter recently and has been a great help to provide this content to you all. I really appreciate all of his hard-work sharing his experience at ax-con and I hope you guys will do the same for me, just leave the typical feedback, comments or questions below and hopefully one day I can check out a convention~ Also check out this YouTube clip of Rojas from the funimation booth...This is how you promote a product.