~A Look at Anime to Come~ Fall 2010

Wait what happened to Summer 2010 you ask? Basically I was too busy with real life stuff. We threw an event that I made a lot of decorations for in July and since then there's been plenty of travel and birthday parties to tend to. Now that fall is on it's way and things are calming down again it's time to get back to being a hermit for me and watching current airing anime. Looking at this countdown site and some charts here and there, I've put together this little look of anime to look forward to for fall.

* means I'm looking forward to it... There's not much... Lets start with some season 2's!

~SEQUELS~

*Sora no Otoshi­mono 2

I love this show to bits. It's loaded with fan-service and the story is pretty darn cliche but I love all the characters to no end because they make me laugh.

*Yumeiro Patissiere 2

Ichigo Amino keeps up with her dream to be a great pastry maker! The show started off pretty meh to me but grew on me a lot as episodes flew by. Now I can't wait each week to see a new one. HAPPY HAPPY MACAROON FUN FUN GO!

*Arakawa Under the Bridge 2

The wacky cast is back for more adventures under the bridge they call home.

Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan 2

S1 wasn't that great but it wasn't too terrible either. I'll watch it for the sake of completion.

Let­ter Bee 2

I hope there's less crying...

*A Cer­tain Magical Index 2

Unlike most, I really enjoyed Index 1 and disliked Railgun. So I'm quite pleased that this is being made and hope it's just as entertaining as its S1.

Motte To Love-Ru

I know nothing about this show as I haven't seen the first one and have no intention of getting around to it this year or ever probably. Maybe when I run out of anime. Could be sooner than later. Bottom line. This is the only anime I will not be watching.

~NEW~

*Psychic Detect­ive Yakumo AKA Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Well his red eye there gives him a special ability to see ghosts and spirits! Makes me think of Natsume Yuujinchou but with more mystery attached to it because he wants to help them get to the afterlife.

Panty and Stocking with Gar­ter­belt

Idol angels sent to Earth to fight ghosts... The animation looks totally interesting so I'm game.

Bak­u­man

Lots of manga fans are looking forward to this one. I have a feeling it may fall flat for me. But if the characters win me over it could be amazing. Boys helping each other make a manga just doesn't seem all that interesting to me. But if it is mixed with great characters and some comedy, it'll win me over like Doujin Work did.

The World God only Knows AKA Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai

About a guy who is good at playing games and winning 2D girls hearts... Righto. This one has a lot of hype around it like Bakuman but I'm skeptical about this one not being all that great.

*Iron­man

Hope it actually comes out this time I'm a fan of the live action movies and read a few comic here and there. So it shall be interesting to see in come to life in anime form.

Inva­sion! Squid Girl AKA Shinryaku! Ika Musume

Moe teaches you not to pollute the oceans or squid loving girls will come for you! lol I can't even begin...

MM!

This one makes me think of B Gata H Kei but it's the males turn to be all weird and perverted. (Like "normal") Instead of making it known like the girl in B Gata H Kei he tries to hide it.

Yosuga no Sora

Harem...

Togainu no Chi

Makes me think of Bus Gamer but I think this will actually go somewhere. Probably not far but I can hope. Survival, crime, war. I hope for lots of action and blood. The, from what I can tell, all boy cast seems interesting to me as well XD

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

I like detectives so it was only a matter of time before moe got it's hands on it.

Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto

Interesting robots I'll say that much. Kinda creepy actually. The idea sounds so generic though but there's a lot of people from a tonne of series I love working on this so who knows.

Otome Yokai Zakuro

"It’s the Meiji Era in a slightly alternate Japan" This sentence is so hilarious to me because looking at the picture above... DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO SAY "slightly alternate" XD I'm not sure who the target audience is here because of the "fox" ear girls and pretty boys in uniforms. It probably will be slow and boring but could be interesting if given a chance.

My Little Sis­ter Can’t Be This Cute AKA Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Lolicon bait. Sure to be a hit with most loli fans.

Sore­demo Machi wa Mawatteiru

A maid who wants to be a detective... oh why? Could have some laughs, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls

Maybe not quite Queen's blade since it's about "school girls". So I'll go with perhaps it's going to be what the Real Bout High School anime should have been!

For­tune Arterial

Has a Vampire in it... Harem... Eroge Visual Novel... It has already failed for me.

Kur­age­hime

I don't know about this one. It feels like it's going to be this seasons Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei but instead of a male it's a female. Throw in some otaku stuff of course.

Nougyou Musume AKA Agricultural Girls

 

This is going to be short 3 minute episodes about some girls that love to grow things. Hope it's good cause it looks adorable.

There's a bunch of ova's coming out but who knows when most really come out and well there's a lot of them that I haven't seen their series or really want to see. I'm looking at you Hidamari Sketch. >.<

At this point I have no idea which titles I'm going to blog. Suggestions welcome ^_^ Overall I'm kinda meh with this line up. I generally never complain about such things because there's always SOMETHING to look at. When only 2 new shows out of like 20 or so that I'm really interested in are airing it's kinda a let down.

Gundam, K-On, & Elementhunters Mashup

Cute

An Anime Convention in my own Backyard – Anime North 2010

Well more like one about 8 hours away from where I live. Hilarious how Anime Boston is closer to me and it's out of the country. Anyway, Anime North is Canada's largest anime convention. Somewhere on twitter after it all I saw someone say that there was total attendance of about 18, 500. Which, when I really think about it, that's pretty darn good considering last year it did seem a little smaller (about 16,000 I think). Anime North was my first anime con and that was last year. So really I'm kinda still a con goer noob but either way I find them fun. It was interesting going back again this year knowing what to expect a little more.

We decided to go in late Thursday night from Quebec, Canada and make our way to Toronto. We drove all through the night which worked out to be the best option for us because during the day would have sucked with all of the crazy traffic, let alone all the weird construction randomly spread out through the highways. It's always good getting there a day before or early the day of so you can relax a bit before a super busy weekend. Like in Boston I have friends in Toronto so we stayed with them for the weekend. It was great being with them for the entire weekend (and Monday) especially since these friends are into anime too and came with us to the con. All pictures in this post were taken by my friend. ^_^" I have no issues with Toronto except the crazy traffic that turns a 10 minute drive into a 30 minute one but at least the drivers around us weren't crazy.

Unlike many other con's where it's all in one building, Anime North is spread out between about 4-5 different buildings and there just happens to be very busy roads in the way of each, not to mention the highway it's self. It was A LOT of walking and I'm not made for walking sadly because of my back problems so it was highly inconvenient to attempt to go anywhere other than the double tree hotel and the main hall where all the big events / dealers were. Friday night (because during the day we got there late and mainly just wondered around looking at cosplayers) we did manage to get across the highway (likely because I had a lot to drink and I feel less back pain when in that state...) We checked out some gaming rooms and the Nominoichi, basically a huge garage sale but for anime stuff. I didn't find anything I liked there because we got there late. Generally you show up for those kind of things right when doors open to see all the stuff and get first dibs. After that we made our way back to the main area.

Otakubaloo = The Parking Lot Rave. It was basically a small enclosed patio taken over by a dj booth. My boyfriend was booked to play at this the following night so we decided to check it out Friday as well. Right beside this stage, indoors, there was the Friday Night J-Rave and I gotta say outside was WAY better. The stage set up indoors was to say the least lackluster. They had so much fog in there you couldn't even see the stage unless you were like 3 meters away. The lighting sucked and I'm pretty sure the "DJ's" that were in there were just playing tracks off of winamp... It was ungodly hot in there as well. Would it have really hurt to put some large industrial fans in there? After some night shenanigans in the hentai rooms we went back home.

Saturday of every con is generally the day everyone shows up fully in their cosplay. There was easily thousands of new people to look and take pictures of. I love just walking around (or sitting in a heavy traffic spot) just to see the cosplayers. Laugh at really bad ones and stare in awe at some amazing ones. For the rest of the day we popped in and out of The Double Tree's panels and sat through The 404s. They are comedy improve from all across Canada that preform every year at Anime North. I find them to be quite funny and they have many shows throughout the weekend. My favourite is the 18+ showing at night in one of the huge stage rooms. There are generally more "sexual" jokes and a lack of pants for this performance. Highly amusing. My bf had to leave early during their late performance to go and preform at Otakubaloo. We joined him a little later to see a nice crowd dancing away to what he was playing. One thing I really liked about Otakubaloo on Saturday was that a lot more of my friends showed up to see my bf play. The promoter had put this really cool video projector on the side of the buildings wall showing a lovely mix of anime shots that was maybe 30 minutes or slightly longer. It was fun trying to pick out who came from what anime.

After Otakubaloo we made our way back into some hentai panels. These were highly amusing because people were generally in there just to make fun of it. There were of course a lot of people just sleeping in there and I'm pretty sure there was one dude jerking off  in one of the corners. lol... Nothing really beats one guy getting pissed off at everyone when they were laughing during Bible Black. He kept going on and on about how the story was SO good and that's why he was in there. Yeah ok there buddy! XD The best part during one of these shows was when the guy was getting a blow job from this chick and just before he came she switched to using her hands and there was this dramatic dodge she did while his sperm sprinkled past her face... LOL the room erupted with laughter for a good 5+ minutes afterwards. After we had our fill of hentai giggles we wandered on home, stopped to get some food along the way. One thing I noticed is that Toronto has sweet potato fries everywhere. Certainly makes up for their lack of good poutine.

Sunday was a slow day for us and there wasn't anything interesting going on anyway so we arrived late. We checked out the dealers room to see if anyone had anything good to offer but for the most part there was nothing interesting. My boyfriend did get something he's been waiting so long to get. He bought a Cactar from Final Fantasy. It was slightly over priced in my opinion but well worth all the joy that little guy has brought us since then. We were going to get the Tonberry as well but we thought one silly purchase was enough for the weekend.

Overall this con is fun but very unorganized. I enjoy it because it's in Canada and I get to see a lot of my Ottawa and Toronto friends in one place. The lack of anyone really interesting from the industry was a little disappointing but not overly concerning to me. I look at this con more so to see friends, cosplayers, and enjoy music more than anything else. It really drives me crazy how everything is so separated too. I was spoiled with Anime Boston having everything in once large building. The volunteers again this year were very rude. Do NOT get kids of volunteer if they aren't mature enough to handle a situation with a lot of people around. I do not need to get yelled at by some kid because I wandered through an out door even though that door was NOT labeled as an out door and the 10's of people in front of me were doing the same. If you want to do crowd control think it through properly damn-it.

Anyway good con and lots of good times were had. Of course I shall return next year. Here is a thread on the forum site for Anime North with a lot more pictures from the con.^__^

School’s Out! June 25-28 Anime-Planet: Monthly Marathon

Along with Anime-Planet, hosted by myself , this Monthly Marathon Event is School's Out! Click on the image below to see the anime list.

I'm going to finish watching Tenshi na Konamaiki because I started it way back when I went to Anime Boston and never picked it back up again. I was going to watch it more on the way to and fro from Anime North (post coming for that in a few days I swear) but I actually ended up sleeping the entire time we were driving. I do remember being totally blown away by how good this series was in those first 15 episodes I did manage to get through. I can't wait to watch more!

Inspired and Effected by Anime: Growing up with Sailor Moon

Inspired and Effected by Anime is a series that is going to be random stories about how these particular anime series have effected my life and even inspired change to the way I do things. There are no spoilers in this post. But in all honesty does anyone really care about a Sailor Moon spoilers at this point? XD

I remember getting up early every morning just to watch some Sailor Moon with my sister before we wandered off to school. After school of course was Dragon Ball before we even knew about Sailor Moon, among plenty of others added to the watching list as the years rolled by. But Sailor Moon was special.

My sister adored the show way before I even got into it. My best friend and I would make fun of her to no end about watching it and we even came up with a hilarious spoof song for the intro. I wish I could remember it today because it would make my sister so mad when we would sing it at her. My friend and I were kinda bullies sometimes but never really bad ones. Especially since we were older than my sister. You know how older siblings are when they have friends around to show off in front of.

Anyway at that point we had only sat through the intro and like most intro's seem to be when changed into English, it was terrible. So how could the show be any good? We wondered, so one day we actually sat down and watched an episode. I couldn't even tell you which episode was my first but I know it was somewhere in the later half of the first series. You know the one with Queen  Beryl and when all the sailor scouts were found. Which ever episode it was, it left a very favourable taste in our mouths and we needed to see more.

These days I would never watch a series like that. Basically starting at the end and then going back to see how it all started. It bothered me a little at the time but well, when you are a kid, sometimes order doesn't really matter. Just how entertaining it is. Sailor Moon isn't all that complicated anyway being a magical girl show and all. Girl gets powers, must fight evil, and win the love of the guy she has a crush on. Oh and go to school too cause that's important to having no one find out you have super powers! That is what I assumed anyway even though they looked basically the same when transformed... lol

I remember taping (yeah you know VHS tapes!) almost every episode just so I could re-watch the series any time I wanted too. There would be tonnes of sleepovers that consisted of watching tape after tape of Sailor Moon all weekend, among some other shows for many years after it was finished airing. I started taping the newer episodes as well. This is hilarious to me because one of the sole reasons for the tapes was so I could pause on certain scenes and draw out what I saw. My best friend was WAY better at drawing than I was and could do it all from memory and even make up her own poses, where I of course needed the real thing right there in front of me. My sister too so I didn't feel all that bad. I really liked drawing Sailor Mercury since she is my favourite. If I had a scanner I'd post some of the better ones so everyone could laugh at them but I don't so you'll just have to imagine how "interesting" they turned out. I can't believe I still have those. At least I have SOMETHING from back then that didn't get tossed out.

Pictures above drawn by Tetiel. Very awesome and super cute!

I think out of all the Sailor Moon stuff there is we enjoyed watching Sailor Moon R the most. That's the one with the Black Moon Clan. A lot of my favourite characters along with some of the best scenes in the entire franchise come from this arc as well. Something always draws me to the baddies in anime I suppose. Especially when they are being super awesome in their rolls. Since we enjoyed this season so much we started to mock play with it. This was done between my sister and I. Sometimes my friend would be involved but not often. I remember spending hours making little transformation wands and learning the exact lines and movements for each transformation scenes and using their power scenes. We would spend hours upon hours in our basement playing around, making up new stories and adventures that the scouts and the Black Moon Clan would encounter. Again I wish I still had those wands but parents being parents threw them away.

It was nice when we were at the cottage to play around with this because there was so much more space and we could run around and climb trees. We were so energetic and close back then. Eventually we moved off of Sailor Moon and went at mock play with Mortal Kombat when the movie came out. LOL! After all, martial arts is a little more fun to run around and pretend you are doing than dancing up some magical girl pose. Not to mention playing with bamboo sticks pretending they are swords and staffs! Sometimes I wonder where that part of us went but then I remember, oh yeah, we grew up and moved away from each other. Looking back at times like this makes me happy that I had a sister that was so close in age to me because we could play together and not feel "uncool" about it. At least we still say stupid stuff and laugh at one another when we think back to this Sailor Moon time of our lives.

Like a lot of other anime fans out there, I have Sailor Moon to thank for helping me get more into anime. Sailor Moon was a great gateway anime to get me started with baby steps. Much like Dragon Ball was too. Sometimes I wonder why we didn't do the same kind of thing with Dragon Ball, but I suppose it could be that we are of course girls. Even if we were pretty tomboyish girls when we were young, there was still enough girlishness to us that drew us to Sailor Moon for play instead. Thank you Sailor Moon and thank you for helping me bond further with my sister too. We are magical girls at heart always. Good times!

Aniblog Tourney Thingy Round 2 – Vote For Me!

I told everyone earlier about Round one of this interesting little contest. What I didn't follow up on is that I made it to Round two!

So thanks everyone for voting for me and you are all needed once more to vote for me again so I could possibly make it to round 3 (Where I'll get slaughtered but it's still fun!)

The new poll closes in a few days and I'm only behind by a few votes! It's going to be another close one like the first time. So vote for me again and we'll see what happens! Don't forget to take a look around at all the other polls still opened. There's a lot of awesome other bloggers that could use some votes too. ^__^"

If anyone has some suggestions that would help make Oishii Anime just a little bit more interesting don't hesitate to leave a comment! I love feedback and that's what I've benefited the most from this little contest journey so far. From round 1 someone said things were a little hard to navigate so I added an anime search bar that you can quickly see all the anime covered in the bloggy. Also added picture on the side featuring the "Character of the Day" so that it is easy to tell when I have a new one up. I made a new blog roll page and have a random 10 awesome blogs show up on the main page that are different with every refresh. The old one was pretty long and getting a little crazy.

I'm heading off to Anime North in the next few days so look forward to a post about that when I get back. It's going to be a fun weekend because I know a lot more people going to this one, where when I went to Anime Boston I knew no one but did meet a few fellow bloggers which was awesome.

Anyway don't forget to vote for me!

Looking At The Ghibli Movies

Top 10 Ghibli Movies

Who doesn't like a list? Especially a list full of movies that almost everyone has seen because, well, it's Studio Ghibli! (Or at least should have seen ) I think it's rare to find an anime fan that knows nothing about Ghibli because even a lot of non anime fans have seen a movie or 2 from them. They are basically the Walt Disney of Anime. They put out amazing movies that try to appeal to the widest audiences.

1. Princess Mononoke - Seen this at least 20 times. All time favourite and I don't think anything can top it. Giant beast lords, a wild girl, and a prince. Add a really interesting story and side characters along with some amazing action. What's not to like?

2. Whisper of the Heart - This movie gives me such... I don't know how to really word it but I guess you could call it something like "tender moments" feeling. Everything about it I loved to bits and the end almost made me cry. It had really good music in it too.

3. Grave of the Fireflies - WW2 movies in general I really like and will almost always make me cry. This one was no exception and is due for another re-watch if I can bring myself to do it. Touching and very powerful.

4. The Cat Returns - An indirect sequel to Whisper of the Heart. It takes the cat character that was in that movie and gives it it's own. It's a marvelous tale and all cat lovers should watch it. It's sure to get a giggle or 2 out of you for sure.

5. Kiki's Delivery Service - It's actually been a really long time since I saw this movie. (Basically since I was a kid) It's probably time for a re-watch to see if it stands up to how awesome I rememeber it being. I remember laughing a lot and that there was a really cute cat.

6. Howl's Moving Castle - Tis about a castle that moves around! What more do I need.

7. Pom Poko - Is Ghibli's version of Once Upon a Forest. I generally really like movies that revolve around animals that can talk and wish to save their homes. These animals were very funny and creative in getting what they wanted.

8. Laputa: Castle in the Sky - Maybe I like floating or moving objects that shouldn't really be where they are or moving because I thought this place was pretty special. It was fun and had all the typical Ghibli characters in it that I have come to enjoy.

9. Spirited Away - I know a lot of people think this is the best Ghibli movie ever made but honestly, it just was average to me. I laughed once while watching it and yes of course it was that scene with her running down the staires and smacking right into the wall. That was awesome. I have good memories of watching it with my sister and rewinding that part over and over again to laugh at it with her. That memory is probably why it is at spot 9.

10. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea - I honestly expected a whole lot more out of this movie. It's really only on the list because I dislike all the other movies below even more.

Ponyo will most likely be booted out when The Borrower Arrietty comes out this summer but we'll see how much I like it. I have high hopes.

Others that didn't make it. Continuing the numbering order from above.

11. My Neighbor Totoro - Too many screaming kids. The only enjoyable thing about this movie for me was the Cat Bus. I do however completely understand why some (most) people love it to bits.

12. Porco Rosso - While the pig man was fun, I just didn't get into it as much as I thought I would. I still really like it when I see cosplayers at con's spotting the pig nose.

13. Gedo Senki - I fell asleep about 4 times before I could finish the movie. Enough said.

14. My Neighbors The Yamadas - A weird movie about a weird family. It was alright I guess but not very interesting or funny. I think it was trying to go for funny anyway.

15. Ocean Waves - Slice of Life... About a girl who wants to go to the countryside because she was born and raised in Toyko. While I completely understand that desire... In movie form it's boring.

16. Only Yesterday - Slice of Life... Coming of age tale... School kids...This is probably as worse as it gets for me in irritating plots that are overdone.

Oddly enough all these movies are rated 4/10. I think that is pretty good because I'm pretty harsh with my movie and ova ratings. This just goes to show while I'm clearly not a Studio Ghibli fangirl, I have enjoyed these movies enough not to give them complete crap ratings. (Even though I'm sure some people are to disagree with that statement. )

Shout outs to some that should be on the list but are not because of special reasons.

On Your Mark - It's simply a music video but if they ever made that into a movie it would instantly be in my top 10 list. I love the music in the video and the girl with wings is so pretty and cute! It's amazing how much story can get through in a 7 minute video.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind - This would be 3rd or 2nd if I included it. I don't because it was made before Ghibli was formed but it's one of the first anime movies I ever watched and one of the first manga I read too. Definitely a favourite anime movie. It was a gateway for the rest of Studio Ghibli movies so it really stands alone in a category of it's own for me.

Macross 7 The Flower Girl

What was her point exactly? I don't think anyone really knows honestly. She was just there in every single episode trying to give her flowers to Basara. Why? I guess to describe a devoted fan or something. Which I can relate to because I sat through Macross 7. I'm not saying the show is terrible, but considering how amazing the other series have been in the Macross franchise, I'd definitely say it was the weakest by far. Macross 7 basically lets loose and it lets the viewer know it.

Flower Girl really is amazing. She even managed to be a part of the specials Macross 7 put out.

I was amazed when I went through every episode of Macross 7 that she was in every single episode. There was a lot of down time or what?! Most of the time she was in a crowd waiting to hear Fire Bomber in a concert. Or she had her mouth opened in awe. I still can't figure out why she was there in the first place. Maybe because the creators thought she was a funny addition to the show that she was put in there. After all who doesn't like to play "Where's Wally" (Waldo in the USA) while watching tv?

Episode 31 didn't physically have her in the episode but she was in every picture that was taken of Basara for a magazine. Personally I think that's just a tad creepy and I wonder why there wasn't a little blurb about her in those magazines for being #1 fan. If the writers really wanted to be creative I think they should have done that. Why else was so much time invested in her?

Episode 45 something pretty big happens, but how our little Flower Girl knows about what just happened is a mystery to me. I really liked how such a little movement in her eyebrows can show such a deeper emotion of sadness.

Episode 49 the moment we were all waiting for in one way or another.

So after all that our sweet little Flower Girl accomplishes her sole purpose in Macross 7 and Basara tosses them aside! After all he did have slightly more important things to do.

Flower Girl is what happens when the writers are up at 4am in the morning brainstorming on no sleep. I can't say I enjoyed her character a lot because well... She was weird filler. I don't hate her as much as I did in the beginning either. At first it was like "Oh go away already Flower Girl." but it soon turned into "Will she do it this episode?" or "When will she show up and how?" It gave me something else to look forward to while watching Macross 7. I generally blocked everything out that didn't have to do with Gamlin or Max anyway. I don't understand why Flower Girl likes Basara so much but then again I was never a fan of his myself. Fans do crazy things!

Flower Girl proves she is #1 fan! Only #1 fans go to those limits for their obsession. Weather it's collecting everything and anything the person put out or watching/going to every single show. In a way, Flower Girl is like a lot of anime fans. Sometimes it's nice to obsess over one thing and learn all you can about it and own as much as you can.

A Canadians first trip to Anime Boston

So I decided to go to this con at the very beginning of the year. We have friends that live in Boston so I figured it would be a lot of fun to visit them and go to a con other than Anime North. (which is the only other con I have been to) I gotta say I was highly impressed with Anime Boston and I do plan to attend again next year. Anime Boston 2010 was held on April 2-4. I'm aware that it's been a while but I've been busy since I got back with real life situations that has delayed my post a little. (ok a lot)

We drove down from Quebec, Canada on the 1st as we wanted to get settled in a head of time and enjoy in full what the weekend had to offer. Long car rides kill my back as well so having a day to rest before trying to marathon walk for a weekend was much needed. After it all, I was nice and sore for a week after but it was worth it. We had lovely weather while we were down there too which was nice because apparently it had been raining for a solid 2 weeks before we got there. Boston drivers will always scare me. Learn how to drive please! Unlike Anime North, everything at Anime Boston was in one building that you could easily walk from one place to the other. I REALLY liked this aspect of it as I saw way more things that I wanted to because I could find where everything was easily. The building seemed to go on forever. There was a lot of walking done.

I meet the author of The Anime Almanac and he was really nice. He introduced me to some others that he knew but I completely forget their names. I saw the author of JanaiBlog from a distance because I was too shy to go up and say hi the first time I saw him (sitting in the moe panel of course) and he left early when I was going to say hi to him after the FUNimation Industry Panel. Which was a very interesting panel to attend. I ended up going to a lot more panels than I thought I would but I gotta say all were really fun. There was a manga panel with one of the weirdest guys running it and I always wanted to argue with his points because for the most part he was way off. One of the best panels I attended was done by The Department of Alchemy called Impact of Evangelion. I meet him too but said nothing other than 'hi nice panels this weekend.' And basically ran away afterwards, I'm a really shy person heh.

The highlight of the con was a performance by the Video Game Orchestra! This alone was worth all the money spent in getting to Boston for the con. Another highlight of the con was the guest of honour Nobuo Uematsu. We attended every panel he was doing and it highly inspired my boyfriend to continue what he loves doing and that's making music. He even played with the VGO when they were preforming! The most memorable things he said was the answer to this question. "How did you come up with the opening theme to Final Fantasy?" His answer was that one of the guys came to him at the last minute and said we need a little diddy for the opening of the game. Can you do one please? He of course said ok and wrote a little tune in literally 5 minutes and it has become one of the most well known songs ever among video game players. I also enjoyed his response to "What was your first instrument?" He said it was the guitar and later he picked up the piano and said they are basically the same cords/notes wise but the piano is easier to use so he prefers it. LOL awesome! Here's the video we took of him playing with the VGO. (sorry about the sound quality)

Saturday night we ventured into the "rave" and I gotta say that was entertaining and fun. There was some pretty crazy stuff going on in there and the DJ was pretty awesome too. I'm generally not one for "8-bit" music but it was fun to hear and see everyone having a really good time. The only thing that wasn't so cool was seeing all the cracked out kids sitting on the floor outside of the entrance. LOL We got a really fun little video here of some kind of robot surfing the crowd. (again sorry about the sound quality)

The cosplay was like any others honestly. There was some really amazing ones and some not so amazing. I took some pictures but most didn't turn out very well so I'll link to a thread on the AB site that has a lot more pictures than I could have ever provided for those that are interested. I did cosplay myself but it wasn't 100% and honestly I just didn't have the money to get my hair done the right way. It's not like anyone would have recognized me anyway. I went as Nanako Yamamoto from Hanamaru Youchien and my boyfriend went as Naozumi Tsuchida. I made the aprons myself and I personally think they turned out really well.

The dealers room was about what I expected it to be. It was split into 2 rooms that were joined in the middle by a hallway. I was impressed at how much stuff there was but I honestly didn't see a lot of really amazing deals. I didn't end up getting anything because we ended up spending our money on parking. We drove there each day from just outside of downtown. I suggest not doing this and using public transit or walking if you can. Hell, get dropped off and picked up at the end of the day if you can. The parking costs were stupid but couldn't be avoided on this trip for us. Next year we shall be better prepared for that.

Anyway there's my review. Better late than never! Next up is Anime North in pretty much 2 weeks. I promise to have my report from that up way sooner than this one ended up being. Overall this was a very enjoyable experience and I'm sure I'll be back next year. ^__^

Macross Touhou Tribute

Basara's singing just got a whole lot more listenable! Thanks ExecutiveOtaku for pointing it out to me

Next Page »