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Anime Expo is a big con -- the biggest in the US, with some 35,000 people attending -- and so it can be a little overwhelming to go to for the first time. So, in going through it myself for the first time, I'll walk you through some of the do's and don'ts as the con progresses.
First up is where we spent a lot of our time: the Dealer's Room and the Artist's Alley. This is the area where you'll lose all that money you were planning on saving for things like parking, food, or your significant other. This is the black abyss from which a strong will is the only thing that will save you.
Have you ever wanted to just get away from it all? To be able to put your worries aside and envelope yourself in the persona of some other, much happier and carefree person? Or thing?
Well, now you can! In Taiwan, at least, and what better place to travel to in order to get away from all that stress? Why Taiwan, you ask? Well, because that's where the Hello Kitty Castles are, of course!
Yes, it would seem as though there are a number of color-coded Hello Kitty "castles" no in operation (they look more like small-ish two story cottages to me, but then again I am a large and successful part-time American blogger who owns a mansion and a yacht, so my idea of a "castle" may be a bit more grand and involve a few other things like bloody moats, corpse filled dungeons, several impossibly structured towers and at least one portcullis packed tight with the skewered skulls of the heathen masses.)
Anyway, um, where was I? Oh, yes, Hello Kitty. Um, cute, isn't it?
So far, Anime Expo has taken a toll on our wallets, and while I admit a good portion of that has been my hotel parking and beer, nothing drains wallets faster than the show floor. For example Brad spent nearly $200 on various games, music, and copious amounts of Anime. That's not to say that we're not bargain hunters, and while most products are over-priced at these conventions, we sometimes find some amazing deals. Below are some awesome pictures of our haul from the first day, and we decided to include pictures of our snacks we picked up at Little Tokyo before the con on Wednesday.
If you read this fine website, you probably know that Central Park Media filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy after nearly 20 years of releasing anime and manga to US fans. If you didn't know this and were attending Anime Expo this weekend, you may have come across their self-obituary in the program guide. Here's some of the letter to fans below:
It has been a wonderful twenty years working to find great anime and manga to bring to the attention of American fandom.
As the Bible says:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Right, guys. There was a time and season for Night Shift Nurses as well, right? Oh, and La Blue Girl. God bless you for that, CPM. Anyway, you will be missed, Central Park Media.
Are you ready for some manly man singing?! I don't know what it is about Japan and making musicals based on anime. I have nothing to complain about, especially since I saw a Prince of Tennis musical myself. For some reason, I find it amusing that manly characters are going to be on stage prancing around while singing.
The musical was announced some time ago but they finally revealed some pictures of the actors in costume. Kubota Yuki (who played Atobe Keigo in the later Prince of Tennis musicals) will be playing Date Masamune and Kataoka Shinwa (who was Go-On Blue in Engine Sentai Go-onger) will be playing Sanada Yukimura. You can see the other cast members on the official website, as well as practice updates on the blog. The musical will run from July 1st to July 12th. Ther are more pictures over at the Dengeki website.
Being a huge fan of Kotomo Aoki's work, it's quite exciting to see that another one of her manga series will be getting a live-action film. If you're unfamiliar with this mangka, she's the same person who did Boku wa Imouto ni Koi o Suru, a story about incest love, which has a live-action film.
BokuKimi is a twelve volume manga that is about Mayu meeting her first love, Takuma, in the hospital. Takuma was constantly hospitalized because of his heart condition. Mayu happened to be the daughter of the doctor who was taking care of Takuma and thus they met. From then on, they became extremely close and made a promise to each other. However, there was some unfornate news about Takuma's future because of his heart problem. The series is currently being scanlated for anyone who is curious about the story. Mayu will be played by Kotomi Aoki and Takuma will be played by Masaki Okada. The movie will be coming out in October 24th so it's going to be a long while until I'm able to see it.
You know what a dakimakura is, right? A long body pillow that usually pictures a character from an anime series in various states of undress, which is for "decor" (which is a nice way of saying "dry humping"). Some male versions exist, thank the stars, and I have to admit I might consider doing illicit things to it were in to find its way into my bedroom.
Alafista spotted these portable pretties over on Akibablog, and you can go there to see a few more photos. I really like the idea of having a little squishy portable version, but at the same time, using one is more like saying you are a fan of dakimakura than actually having a portable one. Hugging it would be pretty much impossible, not to mention how nuts you would look if someone caught you rubbing your junk on a cellphone charm.
What a tease. A corn chip that combines the power of Gaiten and Frito Lay comes in a fun looking bag that depicts a nice slice of meat being dipped in a garlic soy sauce: this should be good, right?
Wrong. I yelled and jumped back at the initial smell of these Gaten Snack Ninniku (garlic) corn chips. I went from hungry to being scared to eat in one sniff flat. I made my co-workers smell them, and they all jumped back with similar reactions. Sure, it's garlic, and I should have expected something strong, but by the image on the bag, I was expecting something a bit meatier tasting, and less...well, garlicy. And then I ate one.
Oh God. A film of rotten death spread through my mouth and into my throat with the first bite. Swallowing seemed wrong, and my senses of taste and smell did their best to revolt against the muscles and parts involved with the swallowing process. What does it taste like? "Garlic" isn't enough to describe. Our own Tim Sheehy may have said it best when he said that it tastes like "someone pissed in a bag of Funyuns." It tasted as wrong as it smelled.
Here's the thing: I adore Japanese corn chips. Give me Meiji's Kaaru corn puffs any day of the week. I expected good things, not spoiled death breath. Japanator does not recommend Gaten x Frito Lay's Ninniku corn snacks.
Oh my God. I forgot how much walking was involved with Anime Expo, especially since it has moved to the Los Angeles Convention Center. My feet are wrecked and my calves are burning with the heat of 1,000 Los Angeles suns. My savior? A delicious pork bun and a Pepsi. And then back to work.
Today is sort of the pre-crazy day, this being a weekday and all. All the hotness starts tomorrow, kicking off with the lovely ladies of Morning Musume. We were in their path earlier today. Angry security guards screamed at us to move as an entorague of unequalled size paraded down the hall. I stepped aside and smiled politely at the girls. Most head their noses in the air, but one looked at me and smiled, and that has kept me going throughout the day.
Some 40,000 attendees are expected for this holiday weekend, all coming to see 14 guests of honor and 50+ industry guests. The schedule is packed, so we expect to bring you lots more in the coming days.
We've put together a quick video of the hallway between the two exhibit halls here at AX for you. Hopefully this will hold you over until we get our real cosplay galleries together. We're quite proud of what we've put together for you.
Imagine your forehead. If you need help, use a mirror. Then imagine an IV bag, the same sort they use to administer fluids to hospital patients, along with its attendant tube and needle. Now take the imaginary needle and insert it into your forehead, allowing the IV bag's fluid to drain into your skin, making it stretch and inflate, not unlike a rubber balloon. Sound like something that should be banned by the Geneva Conventions? Well, it's all the rage among Japan's body modification enthusiasts.
The popularity of so-called "saline inflation" is expanding among Japanese with a taste for the bizzare, as the appropriately-named Bizarre Magazine reports. Mod-crazy moon people congregate in places such as Tokyo's "Department H" to have thin needles inject saline solution (normally used to irrigate wounds and for hydration) into the skin, causing it to inflate and deform. Foreheads aren't the only frontier, either. Limbs, hands and boobs are all fair game. Boys looking to get their tanuki on can even have their scrota inflated, though regular applications may see the stretching become permanent. Other variants include using food coloring to change the appearance of the bulges and poking them to change their shape, as with the "bagelheads" above.
Ah, deviancy. There are times I wish that defending peoples' freedom to do what they will was not the right thing to do. I may never look at a doughnut in the same way again. Hit the gallery to see what I just saw.
There's so many things I love about you, I'm not even sure where to begin. I know your obsessive love of polls always leaves my heart feeling a little sparkly, because you give me an excuse to ramble about the Japanese stars I love the most, and I fall a little more deeply into breathless admiration with you every time you give me a chance to do that.
Best of all, you seem to really like talking about people I hold in rather high regard, such as Mizushima Hiro and Eikura Nana. I'm not surprised to see Yoshitaka Yuriko top your hot female stars list either, since considering she's recently been confirmed as Tamaki Hiroshi's new girlfriend -- she's hot property.
I don't want to get so lightheaded in my love for you that I forget the list of all the winners, though:
I look forward to your next poll, so I can coo over it and promptly share it with the rest of the world and then become that much more obsessed with analysing the world of Japanese celebrities. Don't make me wait too long, ok?
The hammer falls on eroge makers and their customers this October, if leaked fax notices are to be believed. According to info leaked from notices sent to various developers and retailers, the new judgment criteria as listed earlier by the Ethics Organization for Computer Software (EOCS) will be applied starting sometime this coming October. The selling of rape games is to stop entirely, be they in downloadable or physical form.
Between now and September 1st, a gradual adjustment period will be in place, that will allow rape games "to a certain extent" to pass through the standard evaluation process, presumably to allow some current projects and upcoming releases to be finished rather than simply abandoned. A similar organization, the Computer Software Association (CSA) is expected to release its own criteria and plans later next week.
From the makers of The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police comes the next totally WTF movie to come exploding out of Japan in all its hastily cobbled together, no-budget CG glory. The movie? RoboGeisha!
The trailer alone is probably all you really need to see, and it's an instant classic. Full of absolutely hilarious Engrish, far-out robot weapons, elaborately bloody death moves and a soundtrack that just barely avoids litigation from whomever it is that now owns The Beatles' catalog.
There's really too much awesome going on in this long trailer to dissect here. I think that the "Geisha Transform" has to be the craziest thing I've seen in a long time. Or maybe the "Fried Shrimp" move? Or the acid "Tengu Milk attack?
Ever find yourself sitting in a long, boring meeting, all slumped over in your chair, aimlessly doodling away in the margins of the latest action-item report? Does your OCD kick in, compelling you to fill in all the closed letters, or build elaborate Q-Bert-like constructs blooming out of the corners?
That's the kind of stuff most of us do with our pens and our boredom, but this guy, Shohei Otomo, this guy takes the humble ballpoint pen and sheet of paper and turns them into a magical brush dipped in crazy-juice, bestowed upon him from the Ancient Ones, and an unspeakable canvas made of bleached flesh and high voltage electricity.
You can check out a few of the best (aka my favorite) images in the gallery, and more over on his site, a few of which are decidedly NSFW.
Also, I'd like to extend an open invitation to Otomo-san to create an original Japanator logo whenever he's got a few spare minutes or some down time on the next train ride.
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