Anime Pulse Podcast

Well, the weekend is over, and so is StarFest 2008, Denver, CO.

I was flying solo this weekend, as my co-host had to work. So since my car isn’t running, and I didn’t feel like riding my motorcycle 50 miles each way each day (Max had some teeth out, so I had to come back at night to give him his meds), I hitched a ride with Jason and Heather Martin from ArtPlayMix.com. Getting in was no problem. I went up and told them who I was, the lady looked, unsuccessfully, for a list of press people, gave up and just gave me the worth-more-than-it-weighs-in-gold “All Access” badge, and I was on my way.

Turns out Anime Pulse drove the most traffic to the StarFest site out of any sites doing banner ads for them. Since I “won”, they gave me two free autograph/photograph tickets, which I immediately used for Adam Baldwin (see pic below.. Oh Yeah!).

There were a lot of cosplayers, especially Empire. And I lost count of the number of Browncoats wearing Jayne’s stupid hat. The dealers room had a lot of good geekery schwag, and I managed to find one dealer who had two small boxes of Anime keychains. But that was the only Anime stuff there. There were some Anime cosplayers, which was nice to see.

The video room. They had one Anime video room, that was really good. They showed lots of new stuff and, to my approval, they actually showed fansubs. This meant that there were actually people in the rooms, as some stuff they might not have seen yet. Although I had already seen them, I stopped in for a couple episodes of the first season of Code Geass and Spice and Wolf.

Prior to the costume contest they had a Sci-Fi Parody Skit hour, which was great. They had a Sci-Fi match game, with horrible jokes, then a Star Wars play/musical and then a Star Wars TNG/Terminator: SCC play/musical. They were hilarious. See the pics.

Adam Baldwin had a Q&A panel, that absolutely packed the main events room. Prior to him coming out from behind the curtain, the MC had all the Browncoats in the room stand up. Then the “leader” of the Browncoats had apparently arranged to sing the “Hero of Canton” but didn’t know the words past the chorus! I was so offended. I could have gotten up there and sang every single verse, and I didn’t even need to prepare. Seriously, why not actually do a bit of study if you’re going to do something like that for Adam Baldwin. But luckily Adam is an awesome guy. He came out, make some jokes, did some background on himself and his career, and then started the Q&A session. I didn’t stay much past the start of that, since it’s filled with people going “I love you man, thanks for coming, blah blah blah”, and finally a question, maybe.

Attendance was good, the hotel seemed pretty packed. The only real problem I had with this con was traffic. They needed to get some of the NDK people in charge of that, because it was horrible. They thought it was a good idea to set up characture booths and photo op booths (see the storm troopers/Darth Vader and R2-D2 pics for what I’m talking about) right in the middle of the major funnel points, causing huge traffic jams from the second the con started to the end of the night. It never cleared out. It got so bad I would loop all the way around the long way just to avoid it. Whoever thought that was a good idea should have their head examined.

So, traffic issues aside, all the staff was very friendly, the attendees were in good cheer, the weather cooperated and the guests were great. In my humble opinion StarFest 2008 was a success, and I would go back another year in a heartbeat. Download Now on the AP review scale for StarFest… Oh yeah, and Adam Baldwin put his arm around me, so yeah, awesome.

Sakura-con 2008: Days 2&3 summary

Sakura-con 2008 Day 2 started off well. I had breakfast with a friend who lives in Seattle while Batou slept in. Then we went and caught some of Yutaka Izubuchi’s Q&A panel. After that we went to theOtaku.com meetup.

A funny thing happened on the way to the meetup. Batou and I grabbed a snack in the lobby of the convention center. While we were eating he finished his sandwich and said he was going to see if he could figure out where a store where he could buy a tripod (he forgot his at home). So he walks 10 feet away to the information center. Someguy walks up just then. He tells me that the meetup is like 100 feet away, down a flight of stairs. So I ask him to grab Batou, and we turn around to find him gone. As in vanished. We look all around the immediate area, and wait for about 5 minutes, before I decide to move our stuff down to the meetup area. I call him and call him but he doesn’t answer his phone. Someguy does a lap around looking for him. Then MissAnonymous arrives and said she saw him going “up” the escalators. I am seriously going “WTF mate” right now. Someguy does another lap but no Batou, they go ahead and do the rest of the meetup and no Batou. Finally I give up and record the show with Someguy and we finish up the meetup. I head back to the hotel and Batou’s there. Apparently he had walked another 20 feet into the Kinko’s, which we didn’t think to look in, and then when he came back I was gone, so he went to the press room. Why? Because I had his bag, on which was his badge and in which was his cell phone. All of that did him a lot of good with me. So after I didn’t show up there looking for him he went to RadioShack to buy a tripod and then back to the room to try to call someone who could call me.

Reunited at last, we headed out to the concerts. I had gotten a call about 10pm the previous night with the news that I had gotten interviews with Yutaka Izubuchi and Roland Kelts, but they happened to be at the exact same time as the Ali Project concert. We laid down some press smash (actually, that wasn’t necessary, all we had to do was ask) and found out that we could record the entire concert. Sweet! So we went and setup at the concert. I got to stay for the first song of Ketchup Mania’s set, and then left. Batou stayed to film the rest of the concerts.

I headed down to the press room and did my interview with Yutaka Izubuchi. Izubuchi-san is an idol of mine, seeing as RahXephon is my favorite Anime and he created it.

After that was the interview with Roland Kelts. Roland is a pleasure to talk to. We had actually been trying to do an interview with him since Cool Japan over at MIT, but his travel schedule had been so busy we weren’t able to work it out. We talked about his book “Japanamerica” and the differences between Japan and America regarding the Anime industries and philosophical/cultural differences between the two in how I.P. is treated. It was a great conversation, and if you haven’t already, you should listen to my recording.

Batou and I reunited again and we got some schwag signed by Ali Project, a CD and a T-shirt. Some lucky Anime Pulse subscriber will win those (premium subscribers are eligible for that, so subscribe now). After that we had a nice sushi dinner, and then went back to do some editing and uploading. We worked for a couple hours getting the interviews up and the concert video converted. Then we headed over to the Homecoming dance (read rave). That was a good time, and I even danced for a bit. Lucky for me Batou wasn’t able to get any good video of that. Then we worked again until about 2am before knocking off for the night.

Sunday we slept in, and after breakfast went to catch The Slants concert. They were pretty good. Then I went down to get Yutaka Izubuchi to sign my RahXephon official art book. I took the opportunity to get another picture taken. We also got some pictures of the girl band Scandal. After that it was off to collect our bags and catch the shuttle to the airport. I just finished watching the video of the Ali Project concert on the plane and it was awesome! Huge thanks to Batou for recording it for me and all of you.

Final thoughts. Sakura-con 2008 was a great success. It was a lot of fun. It was great to see all theOtaku.com listeners, and Rachael and Craig, AP listeners who found us at the con. Also a big thanks to the staff, especially Mira Utz, the press coordinator, who was very welcoming to us and got me those great interviews. I am very glad we went. Sakura-con gets a “Download Now!” rating on the Anime Pulse rating scale.
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*Yawn*.. I didn’t get home until after 1am from the airport, and since I still had to upload the pictures I am posting all of this now. Hope you enjoy.

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Sakura-con 2008: Day 1 summary

So Batou and I didn’t get into Sakura-con until 2pm because our plane was delayed out of Denver for two hours, and then the shuttle driver skipped our stop. Idiot. Anyways, we got there in time to catch some of Penny Arcade’s panel. Then we spent some time getting a feel for the center and going through the Exhibition hall. There is a really good selection of stuff here, especially if you want swords or cat ears for some reason. Then we met up with Someguy, MissAnonymous and friends for a quick snack, as we hadn’t eaten since basically 8am Pacific time. We snapped some cosplay photos, took a quick video and then headed to the “State of the Industry” panel. Derek Stephen Prince (Voice Actor), Roland Kelts (Author of Japanamerica) and Lilian Diaz-Przbyl (Editor from Tokyopop).

So here we are, at a State of the Industry panel, and not a single person from management in the Anime industry. We have a VA, an author and an editor from a Manga label. It started off positively with Lilian telling the person who first brought up the fact that the Japanese can watch Anime for free on TV in Japan, that it was a “fatuous argument” (fatuous is a synonym for foolish). So she called him an idiot without anyone knowing. But I could rant about this woman for a long time. Then they trotted out the age-old argument that Geneon, CPM and ADV’s issues are all due to illegal downloading, and not, say, bad business practices and decisions.

Lilian basically monopolized the entire conversation with her whining about how these new kids these days with their lack of responsibility, etc, etc. Then when I asked about how they correlated their “OMGEZ downloading!! Industry Crisis!!” arguments with the fact that that morning at Funimation’s panel the Funimation rep said “There is no crisis, we’re doing just fine”, along with the fact that Gonzo just announced simultaneous subtitled releases along with Japanese TV releases online for free via BOST and Youtube. Of course, Lilian said that Funimation licensed DB and FMA and so they’re living the good life, and when I retorted that those are business decisions, not fansubbing issues, she hardly acknowledged it. Then she said that “Gonzo’s an innovator, I hope it works for them”. I then retorted that they’re doing the same thing as fansubbers (ie. giving it away free subtitled online) and she said “no, it’s not the same at all because it’s under the corporate umbrella”. Now that’s what I call a fatuous argument.

Anyways, while not really a “State of the Industry” panel, it was still an interesting conversation. I recorded it, so audio will be coming soon.

Then we went to the guest dinner. I was dressed to impress, so we got waved right in like VIPs, instead of waiting like everyone else, and had dinner and chatted for a couple hours with Jerry, Mike, Robert and Amber from Penny Arcade. Robert is their business manager and Amber runs PAX. They are great guys and that pretty much topped off the day. Then we hit a bar for a bit, caught the 2nd half of the AMV contest and looked in on the “Neko Dance”.

All in all, once we got there we had a great time, and so far are very happy we came. On today’s schedule is an individual interview with Izubuchi Yutaka (RahXephon, Lodoss, Gundam, Patlabor, Jin-Roh…..) and one with Roland Kelts, as well as theOtaku.com meetup and show recording. So if you’re in Seattle meet us at the lounge inside the main entrance at 1pm.

Thanks,

Ichigo

Anime Wasabi 2008: Recap

Well, Anime Wasabi 2008 has come and gone. I had a good time, and here is the run down.

Friday afternoon/evening was pretty quiet. It started off a bit disorganized, with some of the early panels not happening, no schedules, etc. But people were showing up, the artists were there, and the mood was friendly and mellow. Later in the evening the panels got better, Jan Scott-Frazier’s panel was a lot of fun, check out the audio in the previous post.

Saturday was a lot busier. Many more people showed up, I estimate between 750-1000. There were some good panels, including Kyle Hebert’s Dubbing 101 panel, the artist’s alley was hopping, and people were having lots of fun. Later in the evening it was time for the musical acts. There were a number of them, the biggest being the Royal Dead, a group from Japan consisting of a female vocalists and a male electric violinist. Their music was quite good, and the turnout was good. Their opening act, JFF, was a bit… less. The group of women sang but didn’t actually play their instruments, it was like guitar syncing? Anyways, Royal Dead was where it was at. Afterwards Kyle did his Hentai MST3K.

Sunday was quiet, Some how-to panels, Q&A panels and Jason Martin’s Breaking into Art (audio to follow) panel.

Some personal notes. I got a chance to spend some time with Jason and Heather of ArtPlayMix.com. They are a husband-wife team that do independent character design and illustrations. Their artwork is amazing, and they do shows where you can buy their art. You can also buy art direct from their site, so I highly recommend that you check it out. You might also be seeing some of their artwork decorating a new Anime-Pulse.com website in the months to come. They’re great people to spend time with, and they’re also local which is a big plus.

Overall impressions of the con were good. It was a first-year con, which comes with it’s own problems. Attendance was good considering that aspect. Hightower, the director, kept things running smoothly and was a real pleasure to work with. I didn’t see any unhappy guests or attendees at this con, which was nice to see. I hope that Anime Wasabi will return next year as well.

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The new server

StarFest 2008: Con Report

Sakura-con 2008: Days 2&3 summary

Sakura-con 2008: Day 1 summary

Anime Wasabi 2008: Recap

NDK 2007: Day 1

Ichigo guest hosts at Podtoid-san

2007 Podcast Awards

Anime Expo 2007 Promo

Why the site was down