Roundtable Includes:
Genericon XXVI’s Con-Chair Ani-Gamers’ & OtakuUSA’s Evan Minto
Convention VIP Vertical Inc.’s Ed Chavez
Ani-Gamers’ & OtakuUSA’s Ink
Ani-Gamers’ Dave Estrella
Convention Featured Panelist Walt Amos
Convention Featured Panelist Reverse Thieves’ Alain Mendez
Convention Guest Sci-fi Author Tim Maughan

Please note that I, Vincenzo Averello, was given a press pass by the convention free of charge. However, in no way does the convention effect the content of the podcast.

If you want to have faith in humanity, taking a look at Anime Fans Give Back should help. Last year the folks over at the One Piece Podcast organized the anime community and raised over $30,000 for the relief effort after the earthquake. The better news is that this was not a one-time event. This year on March 10th (just a few weeks away) there will be another 24-hour marathon of podcasting and guests. I am sure you are all thinking that AGC is making an announcement that they will be participating this year. I don’t think that will be happening, we’re small and they want people to tune in to hear people that are interesting

This does not mean that I will be listening to the event. I plan on listening for as much as I can that day and making a donation. Yes, this is to raise more money for disaster relief and with a new goal of $50,000 I hope that all our readers will at least put a little bit towards this massive goal. I look forward to this so far they have a great line-up ready with a number of big guests and I am sure that more will be announced as we get closer to the event. I hope that all of you follow this group and at least catch a little of this fantastic event. I will be sure to talk about this afterwards and if by some chance any of us end up in this I will be sure to make you know either with a post or via with Twitter feed.

Anime Fans Give Back Website

I have to warn you know, this post is not meant for people who haven’t  seen Eden of the East so if you haven’t please stop reading and watch the series, its only 11 episodes you can do it I believe in you.

So I’ve only just finished the series so clearly I haven’t seen the movies, I will get to them but I want to talk about the TV show for now. Clearly, this show is more aimed at a Japanese audience that an American one but I hope I was still able to glean some information from the show about its message. The show both challenges and defends the post-college age people who haven’t been able to find jobs and become reclusive and totally connected through the internet. These people are NEETs (Not involved in Employment, Education, or Training). The message I get from the show is that most people (who are older and in-power) find them as a blight on society who have done nothing but drain the resources and waste time, and of course it is the NEETs’ own fault they are like this.

The show presents a different sort of image of the NEETs, yes they are very technologically literate, yes they use it a lot, yes they are not good with the opposite sex but they are very intelligent. At the end of the series there is a major crisis that cannot be solved by one person but through an internet message board they are able to solve this issue that would have destroyed much of Japan. This is only one aspect of these people but another is that before they show starts they had been put to work briefly to prevent a smaller (but still major crisis) that happens in Japan, they are shown to have felt self-worth and pride when they were helping people get through this crisis.

Sadly, I doubt that this was seen by people who are in power that it could really challenge their perceptions but I can hope that it would. This show has a similar message to the Occupy movements of this past fall, these are people who are out of work and have no major prospects for work and some of given up and are just going to not care anymore. This is the show that says that at the end has a simple message, if you treat people with dignity and humanity, they will be more productive and change.

So a new year started and a new batch of anime started up with it. In my free time of winter break that is almost ending I have watched a ton of anime. So far I have watched some of what’s come out in the past few days. Here’s what I thought about what we’ve seen so far. All of these shows are streaming legally. If nothing is mentioned assume it is on Crunchyroll

Brave 10- This is a show about a group of 10 Japanese people have to be gathered together and fight something, I didn’t quite get that other than one of the girls is a berserker of sorts. There are some ninja/samurai fights which looked cool but there is a the usual stupid humor between main guy and the girl. I might watch episode two if I find the time.

Moretsu Pirates- I fear this might be the best thing that I see this season. I say that I fear because the show isn’t great. I wish it was, I would like for there to be a good new sci-fi show but I don’t think this is going to be great. I had fun watching this show, the set-up is this girl is the daughter of two pirates. I felt to me like a 90s anime. Also the ages of characters is not evident at all from character designs. This show has a ton of potential but it comes with tons of warning flags of there being dumb romance hijinks. I will be watching the next few episodes. The start of the show made it feel like a space opera but it had a lot to do with this school, it could be played well, it could kill it.

Recorder and Randsell- I can’t say much about a 3 minute show. It was a bit of a cute comedy show, there is not much to say other than the big joke being about the main character who is an elementary school student who looks 20 accidently getting arrested for being a child molester when talking to one of his friends.

The Knight in the Area- Yea for more average shows! It wasn’t bad, it was fun, it was about soccer. See I can like a thing about sports. I’m not just a nerd. This could be a good shonen show to check out if you are looking for something to check out with a boy being pushed to be more than he wants to be. I think this would be a show for people in the early-teen bracket. If time allows I will watch more.

Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne- I know that I want more mecha shows and this is what I got. If there were warning flags in Morestu Pirates than all of them were for this show. The main characters skirt falls down at least 3 times in 24 minutes. She is super involved in school and really helpful around town but still manages to be a bit of a goof-ball. This shows is pretty average and I can only handle some much average when the panties get old quick sorry this is not for me. If you like mecha and panties go for it. This has the same director as Moretsu Pirates, no wonder he put the warning flags for one show in the other. Streaming from Vizanime.

Another- I am not the biggest horror fan but this one has some cool mystery to it. It the story of a classroom where a girl died and her classmates could see it. Now a transfer student can see her. The animation of this looks good and it might make a good watch. Should time allow I will catch more of this.

Poyopoyo- another cute 3 minute or under show. In this case we have an adult family adopting a cat and in episode one saying how cute it is. Its not great and its not good, it has its moments, it’s a short show I might watch it each week.

Listen to Me, Girls, I’m your Fathers- I don’t know if this got better after the first 10 minutes and I don’t care to find out. This is just bad comedy, I can’t say anything good about the 10 minutes of viewing I had. Terrible, terrible, terrible, DO NOT WATCH!

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)- If you thought that Super 8 didn’t have enough about an awkward boy meeting an awkward girl, than this show is for you. Our show starts with boy testing out his camera when there is a large explosion in the distance. Here our boy has a camera and is trying to make a film with his high school friends when a transfer student. Well she moves in with in and some weird sci-fi is promised. Yet another show that might be good in the long run.

Picks so far: Moretsu Pirates, Waiting in the Summer, and The Knight in the Area

This week there were two big pieces of anime/manga news that really caught my eye. One is fairly old now (in the world of news but I haven’t really given my comments so, I figured I could still do it here) and the other is newer and could have a bigger effect on the medium in the long run.

Sadly, I cannot post my reference material here since it has been taken down from YouTube. This video was the trailer (or test footage, I my opinion) of Kenji Kamiyama’s (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East) was working on a theatrical version of Cyborg 009 that would be 009 Re: Cyborg. See these headlines really got me excited, I enjoyed GitS and am enjoying EotE. Way back when Cartoon Network showed the recent (well 2001) anime. I have the DVDs for this and will get to it someday (I have to the be the worst about watching things, but this blog keeps me from watching and reading things, hahaha). I really hope that people saw this video but given that it has now been listed as private, I don’t know if you will see the original trailer (below I’ve included a fan modification of the trailer with music from the 1960s anime). The original music really didn’t excite me too much. There are moments in this trailer that remind a lot of Kamiyama’s other works and I think that if he can do his thing with this (the original story of Cyborg 009 can be modernized well by him). I do not like this animation style whatsoever. I think it takes the best of both CG and tradition styles and forgets about them and creates a very awkward form. Part of me says that this might not be the final product and the end product could be very different. Also, even if this is a production trailer it might be only trying to show the character design (which I think looks really ugly, and doesn’t make the transition well). My hope is that this gets switched to traditional animation but I don’t think this will happen. Only time will tell and I hope that this makes its way over here in 2012/2013.

Crunchyroll News Article (009 Re:Cyborg)

Second bit of news is that Singapore has decided on the film that it will submit to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The choice was Tatsumi, which was based on Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life and other short stories. This is only the first step in what may help this film see a “wide” release. This is not saying the film is nominated but it means that there is a chance it will be nominated. I am now expert on international film at all so I cannot even speculate on its chances. I am not keeping my hopes up, last year Summer Wars failed to be nominated for Best Animated Picture and there has only been one animated piece ever nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. The trailer I saw really captured the style of Tatsumi and I hope to see this make it to the States in some form. The trailer and a video with the staff are included in the news article. My realistic hope is that this gets shown at films festivals next year so that it can get some press and maybe make it big.

Crunchyroll News Article (Tatsumi)