Right now, I'm loving Strike Witches, since I've been waiting for well over 6 months. So, I'm killing my attention span by timing the raw for Strike Witches, and going to release it with a couple of my buddies from Ayako fansubs under a different one-shot group. :D
I can't stand good anime being butchered by crappy streams, really. :P
While I'm timing away, my little cousin is watching my Gunslinger Girl DVDs. She's only in middle school, and I already introduced her to anime. :X
She's watched most of my collections already, including Kanon, Lucky Star, Sgt. Keroro, and more. :D
My other cousin(older than me) is watching Naruto with Chinese subs. He's loading as much animu into him before he leaves on Monday for training in the navy. He's pretty cool, but I won't get to see him for the next four years, or forever if he get's iced. :/
I'm wondering if I should go watch the local fireworks, or stay home and time this SW. It's good to have friends in the fansub community. You form another group for just a single show just like that. :D
Otherwise, Happy 4th of July, everyone.
I promise I'll get to my "Pulling an Izumi" entries soon. x.x
Highlights this year:
- Jesus and anti-anime protesters.
- Met "G-force" and "Son-neko", two of my best friends in the "Code Lyoko" Internet community.
- Comedy Club panel (with G-force as one of the comedians.)
- "MAD About Nico" panel.
I started out of the Thursday before the opening day of the con. Pre-registration comes every year, and this one was no different. Coming early ftw.
(© Piroko. All Rights Reserved.)
Coming in around 4:45 PM on Friday, my friends and I sis nothing but browse around, and take pictures of people cosplaying. I have to say, this year, everyone outdid themselves. Way better than last year. I was able to meet "Son-neko" and "G-force", two of my friends I've known since the early days when "Code Lyoko" was still on the Cartoon Network airwaves. The rest of the day was used to browse the Artist's Alley, Dealer's Room and Gamers Central. When night fell, I went back to my hotel room(I live 40 miles from the con, saving time and gas ftw), while all my friends get rides home. Got my laptop and dropped some greetings in IRC (Also got yelled by Ayako staff to edit moar :P) and showed my friends some of the day's pics.
Saturday started with getting up early and having a delicious breakfast at the hotel. That was interrupted with a barrage of calls from my friends, who were waiting for me at the con. We luld around the con floor, since the dealer rooms don't open that early. We spent most of the morning in the front, taking pictures of everyone codplaying(again, the best this year.) When the dealers room opened, I was able to buy "5 Centimeters per Second" and "Kanon" vol 5, along with a TMOHS t-shirt. :P
When we decided to stroll out before the "MAD about Nico" panel, we noticed an abnormal gathering in the front of the con center. Apparently, something new this year happened, Jesus protesters came to the convention, swaying people that people who watch anime are perverts and are going to hell and such, and to convert.
(© sklathill, used under Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic, Creative Commons License.)
They were soon taking over by cosplaying Jesus(who loved anime) and Anons rickrolling the protesters. :D
YT Links of the religious zealots: Link 1 | Link 2
(© Piroko. All Rights Reserved.)
The person gave us a good run-through about Nico Video and the MAD videos. Though, I already knew mostly what they were, he explained a lot about the history of MAD videos, and the lay-out of the Nico site.
Some videos he showcased at the panel:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm859467
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm879731
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2602667
After a really funny and enjoyable MAD panel, we rallied at the front to get a group picture. For the memories, for the luls.
From left to right: Friend, shadowrost, Piroko, chrctrnm, Friend, and Friend. :P
(© Piroko. All Rights Reserved.)
I also got to meet "G-force" and "Son-neko", two of my best friends on the Code Lyoko internet community.
G-force is best known for his best radioplays of the show, as well as annual performances at the "Comedy Club @ Fanime" panel each year.
Son-neko is best known for her awesome art of Code Lyoko. (She gave me these bookmarks as presents ^_^)
(© Piroko. All Rights Reserved.)
Throughout the con, I bought a lot of stuff, I'll just list a few.(Was also too lazy to take a picture of them all.)
- Nagisa figure from Clannad
- Haruka Amami figure from iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia
- Pastel Ink figure from Moetan
- Free HUGE Lucky Star poster
- VG Cats poster signed by Scott. :3
- TMOHS T-shirt
- 5 Centimeters Per Second and Kanon Vol. 5 DVDs
- Awesome Nekomimi hat(You can see me wearing it in the pic above.)
- More I can't even remember!
(All pictures © Piroko unless otherwise stated. Feel free to use my pictures, just remember to credit me!)
This little mini blog series I'm starting is called, "Pulling an Izumi", which has to do with Konata Izumi from Lucky Star. Basically, I <3 Lucky Star, and sometimes, without even noticing it, I did something at school or home that Konata did. Also, "Pulling an Izumi" title is something I thought up at the spur of the moment. Sorry if it's a cheesy name. :P
That come soon, as well as other blog posts regarding the cross-overs of life from anime to...reality, and basically how I wish things were real.
Let the "anti-Anime and reality" flames commence! :P *runs*
Currently airing at this time in Japan, is actually the best time to get into anime!
Whether new fan just getting into anime and figuring out your type, or hardcore fans, 2(-3) anime shows currently airing in Japan shows the community the 3 main types.
Going down the list:
Clannad - for Drama and Romance. (subbed by SS and Eclipse)
Sky Girls - for Loli, mecha, and action. (Subbed by Ayako)
Minami-ke - for slice-of-life, comedy, and school. (Subbed by Ayako)
I guess I could say that this is the perfect combination of three of the most popular anime themes/tags that are airing at this moment.
Of course, this is just merely stating my opinion, there's plenty others that are currently airing that could suffice all the themes and such. However, these are just the ones I'm viewing, and that I'm liking so far.
If you want some hardcore Mecha, then the also currently airing show of "Gundam 00", subbed by Conclave and Mendoi is good as well. (Also good for people who love sci-fi and future).
So, yeah, I'm not saying that these are the only ones that are good, I've just watched them and found them satisfactory. But, I just had to tell people and to get this off my chest. :P
As all of you Lucky Star fans know, 3 days ago(Sept 16, 2007) was the day for the last episode of Lucky Star airing in Japan.
This of course, being one of my most favorite shows ending with such a spetacular run, extremely saddens me. It only fuels my craving to go to Japan again next summer and get some Lucky Star gear.
a.f.k. is going about his own "mai peesu"(my pace) as usual. I went over to "Guerrand"'s over on Demonoid(anyways, my ratio on there is x.x;). Going to download 21-24(<- 24 is last episode!) from Guerrand and get a.f.k.'s as soon as he releases them.
The part in episode 24(last one) where they're looking down their school hallway one last time with some extremely light version of the OP, "Motteke! Sailor Fuku", sort of like a light piano, touching music. :P
I guess all I can do, seeing that Kyoani's slim chance of opening another Lucky Star season, is to rewatch all the episode to satisfy my bizzare craving, as well as get their OSTs and character albums.
As they say, "All good things come to an end".