Monthly Archives: June 2007

Otakon Schedule

No, the schedule isn’t out for the 2007 convention, but I was looking at the 2006 schedule (pdf) just to get a feel for what the schedule of the convention was like.

I knew that there would be a lot of stuff going at once, but I didn’t realize that 15 to 20 things were going on at once from 9am to past Midnight.  I was thinking about maybe taking the train from Aberdeen (where my hotel is) to Penn Station in Baltimore then taking the lite rail from there to the convention center.  It would probably cost about the same as gas for driving and parking would be.

However, while the trains start early enough to get in on time, the last train for Aberdeen typically leaves Penn Station around 9:15pm, so I’d probably want to hop on the lite rail somewhere around 8:30, depending on how the schedule works out.  That means I’d basically have to skip the last 4+ hours of stuff on Friday and Saturday.

Also, I kind of had to laugh or whatever at the fact that, at least last year, they showed the first 5 episodes of DNA2  on Friday afternoon (11:30 - 2:00).  Given the fact that I run about the only “active” DNA2 fan site (though I neglect it more than I should, not that there is exactly a lot of new stuff to put on it), I would have pumped that up for all it was worth if I had known about it.  It’s probably too much to ask for it to be shown two years in a row, though.

I also kind of have to laugh that they showed Kashimashi.  How exactly? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t licensed yet, so did the Japanese company that produced it show it, or do they actually show fansubs at Otakon?

Luckily, the convention looks like it ends early on Sunday (3:00 pm last year), which will work well because that’s around when a web conference I’m going to will start right next door in the Sheraton for work that same day.

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #30

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode 30Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #30 is now online! In this podcast, I re-review the anime OVA series Video Girl Ai.

This week’s Podcast Stats:
Time: 21:44
Download Size: 14.9 MB

This week’s opening theme:
“GO!” by FLOW
Fourth opening theme to Naruto

This week’s ending theme:
“Ureshii Namida” by Noriko Sakai
Opening theme to Video Girl Ai

You can listen to my podcasts in the following ways:

Flash Player:

Directly: http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/JABPEpisode30.mp3

You can also download or add my podcast-only RSS feed to your favorite reader or add my podcast using iTunes.

Enjoy!

Anime Credits - Bokurano ending

Anime Expo in 1 week

Anime ExpoWhile I’m not attending Anime Expo in Long Beach, it does start 1 week from today, and I’ll be paying attention to what things get licensed and the like there.

Of course, having just finished watching Kanon and with the news not too long ago that ADV Films registered the domain kanontv.com (for 3 years no less) has fueled speculation that they may announce a Kanon license at either Anime Expo or Otakon (I am, of course, hoping for Otakon since I’ll be there).

ADV has said in the past that they were going to wait to see how well Air did before they made a decision on Kanon, but given how well Kanon has been received in the US, maybe they decided that they didn’t need to wait. Or maybe they’re still waiting to see how Air does, but grabbed the domain while they still could. Air doesn’t even start it’s release until mid-August, meaning that if ADV does wait, any announcement on Kanon would have to be made after the summer convention season is already over.

And speaking of conventions and ADV licenses, why couldn’t they have waited a week to announce this: ADV Acquires 5cm Per Second.

Nagasarete Airantou 11 - delayed

Since I don’t know Japanese, or at least certainly not enough to understand a conversation, I kind of depend on fansubs when understanding an episode.  Unfortunately, this means if a fansubbing group gets behind, I get behind too, especially when there is only one group subbing a series that I’m watching.

That appears to be the case this week.  It doesn’t look like Episode 11 of Nagasarete Airantou is gonna get out on time today, so hopefully I’ll be able to put it up Sunday.  I already have screencaptures of it done and ready, so all I need to do is actually watch it subbed and write up a review.

Uguu

What happens when I watch Kanon non-stop
What I become after 30 hours of Kanon in 5 days

Well, I did good on my threat to not watch any anime for a few days after watching Kanon.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did watch Kanon again. Two more times. So assuming that a 24 episode series is 10 hours long, I’ve basically spent 30 hours in the last 5 days watching this series. And even on the third time through I still blubber. I think that’s a good sign of a well made series - when you’ve seen it before and you know what happens, but it still effects you anyway.

I was just thinking that watching this anime almost made me want to stick my copy of the Kana Imouto game back into my PC, though that game is so terribly depressing that I’d probably be depressed for the rest of the month if I tried playing it right after watching Kanon.

I remarked about the music in the show in my post on Monday. I don’t know if Kyoto created “improved” versions of the original game BGMs, but I downloaded the game soundtrack just to listen to it, and despite being game music from 1998, it still isn’t that bad.

My favorite track is probably “Her Cage,” which is the music that usually plays during scenes where Mai is at the school at night. It’s very hard to describe. It has a sort of mystical feeling to it. I get shivers up and down my back whenever I hear that song. “Afterglow” gives off sort of the same feeling as well.

Probably two of my other favorites, other than then opening and ending themes, are “The Glamour of the Days,” which is kind of the upbeat music you hear in the anime, and “Promise,” which is the music usually heard when Ayu does the intro to an episode and is basically a music box version of the musical theme heard through much of the music.

And on a side note, when I was searching around where to find a copy of the game soundtrack, I ran into a thread where one person was talking about how he didn’t like the 2006 series so far (I think this was only a few episodes in) because it wasn’t as funny as the 2002 version. Ummm…Kanon isn’t a comedy. Yes, there are humorous and lighter spots in it, but it is most definitely not a comedy, so I’m not sure “It wasn’t as funny” is necessarily a valid criticism of the show. Just thought I’d mention that. In any case, I thought the amount of comedy that was in it played very well.

More Otakon News

OtakonNow that we’re just one month from Otakon, the announcements of guests and other things are picking up. A few more guest announcements came in this week:

  • Kenji Kodama - Director of Cased Closed (aka Detective Conan), co-director of City Hunter, and key animator for Great Teacher Onizuka.
  • Michihiko Suwa - Producer for YTV. He has produced such series as CityHunter, Black Jack, and Magic Knight Rayearth and has overseen the production of Case Closed and Inu Yasha.
  • Aaron Dismuke - Most famous for doing the voice work of Alphonse Elric in Funimation’s release of Fullmetal Alchemist (to go along with Vic Mignogna who was announced as a guest a while ago, who did the voice of Edward Elric). He also does the voice of Ion Fortuna in Trinity Blood.

Otakon has also added a list of industry panels, including:

  • ADV Films
  • Bandai Entertainment
  • Bandai Visual USA
  • Funimation
  • Gaia Online
  • Geneon
  • Gonzo
  • Harmony Gold
  • Media Blasters, and
  • Tokyopop

Summer Anime

I’m glad other people know more what’s going on in Japan right now than I do. 21 months into watching anime and I’m still largely trying to catch up with what has already been released in the US for the past 10 years.

I’m currently watching four and blogging one spring anime currently. I may add another show to blog in the summer, though expect me to write those reviews different than Nagasarete Airantou as I’m still learning the best way to blog series. I’m also only taking one new series because I’m still not sure how much I can handle at once yet, so I thought that taking it slow first is better than biting off more than I can chew.

That said, what new shows will I watch?

Read More »

What I Want to See: Air

AirAfter watching Kanon and enjoying pretty much all 3 Kyoto Animation series that I’ve either finished or are in progress of watching, I thought I’d add a fellow Key visual novel-based series produced by Kyoto Animation to the list of what I want to see.

Reading a non-spoiler description of it on wikipedia and Anime News Network, Air sounds a little more unusual than most visual novels that I’ve heard of, though I guess I’ll see.

I almost kind of find it humorous that the things with some of the best stories that I’ve seen are all ero visual novel games. I’m not sure if it’s because people who play these visual novels justify the ero part by saying “but it has a good story too!” or if people who play those games are secretly all mushy-mushy.

When watching or playing anime or anime-like visual novel games, very few have caused me to blubber, but all three either visual novel, or anime based of visual novels have invoked that reaction.

I’ll see if Air is similar in this regard as well. It has a good rating on Anime News Network, so that’s a promising start. Unfortunately I have to wait until mid-August for the first DVD to come out.

Anime DVD and Manga releases for June 19 - 25

Anime

The Twelve Kingdoms Collection 1June 19, 2007
009-1 - Volume 1
Full Moon - Volume 5
Le Chevalier D’Eon - Volume 3
Tenchi in Tokyo - Box Set
Tetsujin 28th - Box Set
The Big O - Box Set
The Twelve Kingdoms - Box Set 1
The Twelve Kingdoms - Box Set 2
Yukikaze - Box Set

Manga

Emma manga Volume 4June 19, 2007
Drifting Classroom - Volume 6
Golgo 13 - Volume 9
Hana-Kimi - Volume 18
Inubaka - Volume 3
Monster - Volume 9

June 20, 2007
Emma - Volume 4
Moon Child - Volume 7

June 22, 2007
Iono the Fanatics - Volume 1