Anime Pulse

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.

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