アニメ Republic

I have volunteered to work the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One coming up next weekend at the LAX Marriott. I’ll be working for Martin, who also runs the Ops department for Anime Los Angeles. It’s a different gig for me since I have usually done more programming stuff. Mainly with the anime video room at Anime Los Angeles and a little bit at LosCon. Should be an interesting and knowledgeable experience however.

Enjoy!!

ALA 6 was this past weekend at the LAX Marriott. It was almost a full week for me, arriving on-site on Wednesday for pre-day-zero set-up and leaving on Monday after final move-out. It was pretty fun with no major (really major that is) issues. Some problems of course, but all were handled in quick time. People do need to have a little more common sense and not walk down Century Blvd with their Airsoft guns out in the open.

For my little part of the con, things went oddly smoothly. Got set-up in our room on Thursday afternoon. Tested everything and even showed a few things before closing up around 10 PM. Opened up Friday morning and while we did have a minor problem with one of the DVD players, it was easily resolved since we had back-ups. We started on-time at 9 AM and ran until just after 3 AM late Friday (Early Saturday) night. Same went for Saturday. Sunday we ran until 4 PM and then cleared things up. Staying the extra night (Sunday night) was an extreme help as we were able to just pack up the video room and move things into our hotel room for the night. We then helped with the Tech dept. move-out and after that helped with Logistics load-out for the truck and POD. Thanks to whoever in Logistics ordered the pizza, that was a life-saver on Sunday night.

Other then running a little over (5 minutes or so) on Sunday, we were pretty much exactly on schedule the whole weekend. Pretty cool as far as I’m concerned. A very big thanks go to the folks who helped with the room this year (yay for having more then just two people!). Your help is very much appreciated as things would not have gone nearly as well with-out your help!

Here are a few pictures from the room including our slide-show monitor outside the room (showed ‘now playing’, ‘coming next’, etc. slides outside the room for people to see as they walked by) as well as our Rin display (thanks to Funimation for the cool promo items).

Planning for Anime Los Angeles 7 in 2011 begins in two weeks. Enjoy!!

Turns out this week my collection made the cut for the ‘Shelf Life’ article over at Anime News Network. It would be this week too since I have copious amounts of free time as I get ready for Anime Los Angeles in just 2 days. But it’s still pretty cool of course. The pics them selves are actually several months old and a number of minor changes have been made. Once I get a little more time I will update them with more current pics for the curious.

I also have a direct link to the pics on this site here as well.

More after ALA!

Enjoy!!

Well I have managed to avoid posting anything for over two months now, so I figured it was about time I updated the site. With that in mind it is a good time to do a quick round up of the major summer cons for this year.

The first of which was Anime Expo back in July. When I was not helping out at the Anime Los Angeles table in the dealers room or hanging at the evening Anime Los Angeles party suite I was either waiting in line for something (though the only really long line time wise for me was the AMV contest) or trying to avoid buying something. I did manage to dodge the bullet and escaped the dealer’s hall with only a couple of small purchases.

Anime Los Angeles had a pretty big presence at AX this year. My only regret is not staying up at one of the hotels thus having to bail out early each night. There was the familiar white ‘ALA’ tent over the table in the dealer’s hall where we sold badge ribbons to help cover the cost of the ribbons given away for free at ALA. Chaz also put on a really sweet room party each night in which people were invited to hang out and have dinner. This was real hot cooked food, not your ‘chips-in-a-bowl’ type of thing. We had a little adventure on Saturday night (I think) when Chaz asked myself and Steve to go on a supply run. Not knowing the area very well did not help as we darted around downtown LA in Chaz’s Scion (aka: the Saltine). While we didn’t get exactly what we were looking for, at least we didn’t hit anyone.

I think if we have the same situation next year in regards to Anime Los Angeles’s presence at the con, I will try and get a room up there for the main nights of the con. That way I can hang out longer and maybe have a whole conversation with Rich (who was admittedly working the con, so timing is something of an issue). Otherwise it was actually a pretty good con for me. The LA convention center is certainly growing on me as a new home for AX. And you know they are booked there through at least 2012 even though they like to make this big “announcement” at the end of each year.  Yeah, like they are signing contracts for the LA convention center for the following year that same weekend! Right.

A couple weeks later we went down to San Diego for Comic Con. Too many people, WAY too many people. We drove down and back each day as hotel rooms, while available, were $350/night and up. Sure, they are nice hotels, but I’m not spending that amount for a con hotel 1 ½ hours from our front door. Did I mention there were too many people? Yeah, well I only managed the dealer’s hall one day. Though I did actually get some cool (and oddly cheap; legit, I checked) Ikki Tousen figures from the UART table so that was cool.

Not sure what our plans will be for next year. We keep saying this is our last year, this is really our last year, this time we really mean it, etc. It will be a challenge though if there is no big draw (this year it was the big LOST panel mainly, though the True Blood panel was cool too). We’ll have to see what happens next year.

Last weekend was the Anime Los Angeles picnic at Yorba Regional Park which pulled in close to 100 people by the end of the day. The weather was great and so was all the food people brought. I got to talk with a couple people who offered to help out in this year’s anime video room as well so that was cool.

We now steam forward into the fall/winter season. I may head up to PMX depending on time and what kind of presence ALA will have there. Definitely will be at LosCon in November as we are hoping to do a ‘LOST’ themed room party and it looks like I will be helping in some fashion with either or both the anime video programming and anime panels for that con.  Then we power on ahead to January for ALA 6!

More as I get creative.

Enjoy!!

Anime Expo recently posted up their schedule for the 2009 convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center. After taking a look at it for a few minutes I realized that there were even less industry panels (from US based anime and manga publishers, as opposed to companies that are industry related but do not actually publish or release the stuff) then there had been last year. No longer do you see companies like Geneon, Central Park Media or even ADV as these are just a few examples of those who have folded up, reduced to just re-releasing old stuff or gone dormant.

In the past 18 months there has been a high number of what some people call “license rescues” of various anime titles. The sad fact is that, as noted by John Sirabella on the AnimeonDVD forums, these are less about rescuing anything and more about getting a cheap, already produced (translation, subtitles, dubbing, etc.) show that they can move quickly out the door in Stack-pak type cases. Sadly, it seems that gone are the days of higher end packaging that we once saw in abundance in the early 2000’s. While this doesn’t seem to be a big deal to many of today’s fans who appear to be in an ever increasing quest to find that “absolute zero” of price points, it is still somewhat disheartening.

Some folks have speculated that with the current state of the anime industry and these trying economy times in general that anime and manga in the US will shrink back to the levels it was in the mid-1980’s and prior. Given the degree of impact that technology has had on the anime market/fandom/industry over the past decade I doubt that will ever be the case. A few industry folks have claimed that the dreaded “fansubs” have caused all this economic tragedy. They fail to mention (or realize?) that fansubs have been around since the 1980’s. It’s the delivery method that has changed making it much easier to make and distribute these items. Baring a giant asteroid wiping us all out, technology will continue to improve and therefore as long as anime and manga are made in Japan, there will always be a high level of access available to pretty much anyone who wishes to put in even a minimal amount of effort. And of course you will also still see some amount of commercially released anime in whatever form is the hottest thing at the time whether it be Blu-ray, on-line streaming, crystal or digital projection into your own mind.

One thing I would love to see is anime companies stop trying to please all groups of fans. They try to release one product that will appeal to everyone and at the same time end up appealing to mostly no one. You will never get it cheap enough for the cheapest cheap-ass anime fan and you will never release the highest of high-end for the collector/fan-with-money with only one release. I would love to see companies try a two tier level to releasing anime in the US. If you are going to do “series sets”, as is common with main-line US TV DVD/BD releases, then consider this: two versions where one is ENGLISH AUDIO ONLY and priced VERY low (the Japanese companies will not care about this as there would be no Japanese audio track so what Japanese fan would EVER consider reverse-importing it!) being released as a mass-market item to the likes of Wal-Mart and Best Buy and others of the like. While the other version would be a mirror image of what is released in Japan (but with the obvious additions of English audio and subtitle options) and would be priced much higher – say about 20-30% less then what is charged in Japan, so even if a Japanese fan imported it back to Japan once they added in shipping costs it would be about the same as going down the street and buying it locally – reverse importation eliminated. The only group you haven’t pleased with this scenario is the cheap-ass whining “fans” who want everything in ultra perfect packaging with multiple language options on Blu-ray for $5 per season delivered to their home yesterday by a hot supermodel – naked.

Enjoy!!

I have added a link in the ‘Recommended Sites’ section for long time friend and fellow old schooler Dave Merrill’s site ‘Let’s Anime’. You will find lot’s of cool aritcles and other interesting historical anime stuff there. Check it out!

Enjoy!!

This past weekend was the 20th year for Project A-Kon in Dallas, TX. It was held at the fine Sheraton (formerly the Adam’s Mark) in downtown Dallas where it has been for the past several years. It’s been getting a little crowded, but fortunately there has been a little down-turn in the anime industry and of course economy as a whole so it seemed to me at least that there were not too many more people than last year, if not about the same. I think many cons will start to see their attendance levels hitting a plateau and perhaps even lowering a bit in the coming years. They would be wise to plan for such possibilities.

Thursday was my travel day which started with the plane trip from Orange County to DFW. The flight was thankfully quite pleasant if not that roomy. As fun as it is, I can’t afford to spring for the First Class seats anymore in these trying economy times. I ran into one of the folks from Bandai’s card game division who happened to be on the same flight heading to the con and we ended up sharing a cab ride into the city. That was cool because I got to learn about another part of Bandai, make a contact for possible activities at Anime Los Angeles and also saved on the cab fare.

Getting to the hotel and checking in was pretty hassle free. It really helps if you don’t “fan-out” on the hotel staff. Standard room in the North tower, the only drawback being that it was on the 29th floor and as the con got underway so did the wait time for an elevator. I headed over to pick up my badge which didn’t take that long all things considered. Meet up with long-time friends Mike and Alicia and ended up spending the rest of the evening chatting in the lounge on the 38th floor.

Friday started late since we didn’t turn in until after 2 am but that was okay since there wasn’t too many panels I wanted to see. I ended up meeting another friend, Rich, in line waiting for one of said panels. Turns out we were in the same line for several minutes about 6 people apart before we realized it. Friday was another late night taken up in part by what has become something of a tradition for Rich and I. We find a table and a couple of chairs somewhere in the con with no signs or other identifiers and just sit there casually chatting. Invariably people will start coming up to us asking various questions about where things are, what times things are at and other info desk type questions. We’re cool of course and try to help out as best as possible because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s still fun.

Saturday was more of the same, including an even later start to the day allowing for the even latter crash time the night before of about 4 am.  We hung out in the 38th floor lounge for a while before heading to the hotel room to watch the cosplay on the con TV channel.  The channel was a little on the sketchy side due to some tech issues on the hotel side of things. But it was good for mocking. Then we went back down to the con to check things out and watch people hang around taking pictures and other fun stuff. We sat around the convention center for a while before heading back to the hotel room for a bit. I then headed back down to video room 3 where the Classic Anime Fest was running. This was the same one I had helped run last year since the person who normally does it wasn’t able to make it back then. That ended around 6 am which makes it the latest I have stayed up at a con in many, many years. I did think about just staying up but ended up crashing for a few hours before getting up and heading down to the con registration desk to see about getting a membership for next year. Since I was rather late I ended up with number 11.

After checking out of the hotel I hung out for a brief period before heading back to DFW for the plane ride back to the OC. Fortunately I was able to hone in on someone’s Super Shuttle ride, so that trip only cost me $17. The plane trip back was okay except that it was a full row this time. I really feel sorry for the guy in the middle seat, that’s why I try and book my seats early.

Project A-Kon will return in A-Kon 21 : Revenge of the Penguins to be held May 28 – 30, 2010 once again at the Sheraton in downtown Dallas, TX.

Enjoy!!

Well I managed to miss doing any updates in all of April for one reason or another so I am combining both the March and April new items into one update. This works out well in a way since there isn’t too much to cover.

In fact the April order was the last open order I had with CD Japan. As everyone is tired of hearing about even more then Swine Flu, in these “trying economy times” things have been a little tight. Fortunately things like the down-turn in Region 1 DVD releases have helped me in that there is much less coming out and therefore much less that I am interested in buying. I have decided to take this as an opportunity to go on a “cash only” diet if you will. That basically means if I don’t have the actual cash, I don’t buy it. I even canceled the last pillow cover order I had open with CD Japan as there was just no way for me to really justify it. I still have about $100 in points and coupons with CD Japan and there are a few things in my “saved items” list that I may do one last order to blow out those points so I don’t lose them.

So, for the foreseeable future the Region 2 updates will be limited to only once in a great while. I have a couple ideas on how I may change the “philosophical format” of this site in order to keep things going and yet still try to avoid the whole “I ate a sandwich for lunch today and I don’t like tomatoes”  type postings. I have always tried to avoid the commentary style and just kept to the facts as much as possible since no one really cares what color socks I wore yesterday.

With that out of the way, here is a quick group shot of the two things I picked up in March. The first is the latest Ikki Tousen art book. I tried to scan a couple of pages but it turned out really, really bad so I ditched the idea. However, a wonderful fellow traveler of the Internets did a really great job in scanning the book. I have added those here for no other reason other than that I could.

The second item is the second and final volume in the Ichigo Mashimaro Encore OVA series. It is always good to have more Nobue, but with only two episodes it was way too short.

The April items come in at just one item, that being the final volume of Macross Frontier on Blu-ray. This volume came with a box (better in my opinion than the previous box) to hold the last half of the series. I didn’t pick up the intervening volumes as there was really no way I could justify it with-out any English options available. The only reason I got these was for the box, and even now that seems like it’s not really worth it. In fact the idea of picking up Region 2 releases with boxes for shows that might get licensed and released in Region 1 is now somewhat of a moot point as most companies (those that remain) have all but completely shifted to “economy” type packaging. Take for example Bamboo Blade which I picked up both boxes for in the hope of it getting picked up and released in Region 1. Funimation has announced that they have in fact licensed the series and will be releasing it sometime later this year. This is great except that they will be using their now standard two discs in a thin cardboard sleeve and that won’t even fill up one of the two boxes even with the whole series. So that tactic is no longer viable.

That’s all for this round. Off to help with the Anime Los Angeles presence at the SoCal Cosplay Picnic in Irvine tomorrow.

Enjoy!!

The round of items for February has a good mix of titles including a number of Blu-ray discs. Though the Akira and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence discs are in fact the US release versions, I decided to add them in just for the continuity. The main feature however is the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 BD box set from Japan. You can see the covers, booklet and TrueHD card here. I’ll probably still pick up the US release of Ghost in the Shell 2.0 BD due out later this year if it comes with an English audio track. If not though, I think I will just stick with this set. The set comes with both versions of the film plus a bonus disc. The original version disc has both English subtitles as well as English audio while the 2.0 version has English subtitles only.

Moving on we have the final volume for Ikki Tousen Great Guardians complete with First Press mini-poster, postcards, and pencil board. I have also included the Limited Edition version of the Great Guardians OP/ED CD which comes with a bonus DVD containing clean OP/ED sequences for the series. Also in the shot are a couple of card holders that were being offered at the same time. They turned out to be somewhat different then I had thought. Fortunately they were only around $8 each. Now we just sit back and wait to see if they decide to do a forth anime series.

Next up is the first volume in the new Kodomo no Jikan series. This comes with a box, booklet and plastic slip-cover for the DVD case. You can see the front covers here as well as the back cover of the box and DVD case plus the disc art for the DVDs and a sample page of the booklet here. I also included both pillow covers I picked up this month here though I already mentioned them separately. Here is the Ryomou front and back (or is it the other way around?) and here is the Zoku Satsuriku no Jango front and back.

Enjoy!!

Something I have been questing for quite some time now has been the deck of tarot cards released by then Pioneer as a mail-in offer for their release of the Sol Bianca OVA series (not to be confused with the two OVA/Movies that were released in the early 90’s).

You can see the whole deck here as well as a couple of shots I took of the deck I finally found recently on eBay here and here. I really don’t know much of anything about tarot, but this was one of those anime related rare treasure items that was released in limited quantities almost ten years ago that I just had to have.

Enjoy!!