Daily Archives: Monday, August 6, 2007

Otakon continues streak of increasing attendence

Despite having the number of pre-registrations drop for the 2nd straight year (there were almost 3000 fewer pre-registrations in 2007 than 2005), Otakon 2007 once again continued the streak of every convention breaking the previous convention’s attendance record.

This year’s attendance, based on number of memberships to Otakorp, was once again a record at 22,852, an increase of 550 or roughly 2.5% over last year, which also reverses the trend of the percentage increase in attendance getting smaller each year, passing Otakon 2006’s growth rate of 1.4%

Anime Review: Someday’s Dreamers - 84.5%

The Essentials

Someday’s DreamersName: Someday’s Dreamers, Things that are precious to a Mage
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
Episodes: 12
Released: January 9, 2003 - March 27, 2003
Based On: Someday’s Dreamers manga series by Norie Yamada
Director: Masami Shimoda
Produced By: J.C. Staff and Rondo Robe
US Distribution By: Geneon

Major Japanese Cast

Yume Kikuchi: Aoi Miyazaki
Masami Oyamada: Junichi Suwabe
Go “Smiley” Kato: Hiroshi Iida
Milinda: Akiko Hiramatsu
Angela: Akeno Watanabe
Runa-chan: Sawa Ishige
Chief Ginpun: Kouji Tsujitani

Major English Cast

Yume Kikuchi: Kay Jensen
Masami Oyamada: Otto Towne
Go “Smiley” Kato: Dick Smallberries Jr.
Milinda: Stevie Bloch
Angela: Shereen Hickman
Runa-chan: Julie Maddalena
Chief Ginpun: Jake Martin

Scores

Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 10/10 (x 2 = 20 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 169/200 (84.5%)

Review

Someday’s Dreamers is about a girl named Yume who has come from the Japanese countryside to Tokyo to study to become a mage over the summer. She stays in the building that Masami, her mentor, owns, and which is also used to run his Salsa club along with his partners Go and Milinda. Yume also soon meets another mage apprentice, Angela, during her training.

This series lasts during the month that Yume trains and learns about the place mages have in society and the types of powers they are able to use when they are allowed to use them. When mages are apprentices, however, it appears that the governmental department that monitors mage activity is pretty lenient, and largely takes a “no harm, no foul” view on things.

Yume has to use her powers to solve little every day problems mostly - fixing up an old house or repairing some graffiti. In the world Yume lives in, mages aren’t really used, or even appear to have the ability, to take major actions, though I suppose a very powerful mage could do something quite destructive if they put their mind to it. Yume also has to sort through her own feelings about magic, and whether she believes it is actually useful or not.

I’m not sure what the best word would be to describe this series. It’s just a good wholesome slice-of-life series where Yume has to learn what her place in the world is as a mage. It may be a little slow paced or narrowly focused for some people, but if one likes a good story, you’ll probably like this show.

My only beef with it is that somethings that I was expecting to be explained a little more weren’t. First off, we kept hearing how much of a great mage Yume’s mother is, but we never really actually found out why this was the case, or the significance of Yume being assigned to Masami, since in the first episode it appeared to be significant, at least when Yume told Masami who her mother was. Second, in one of the episodes, Yume witnesses something mysterious: she sees something that only she, apparently, can see. However, this is never explained or explored further. However, I think these are more minor points and don’t damage the overall story all that much.

Getting into the technical aspects, the animation is pretty clean, though not terrific and the music is pretty good. I thought the English dubs were excellent as well. If you’re looking for a pretty simple slice-of-life show, you should check out Someday’s Dreamers.

First Watched: May 2007
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes

Two years of Anime

Two years ago today, I received the first disc in my then-new Blockbuster Online rental subscription. I stuck the disc into my DVD player, not really knowing what to expect. This was my first time, after all.

U.S. Manga Corp’s animated M.D. Geist flashed on the screen and then the music of Blurry Eyes by L’Arc~en~Ciel started playing on the DVD menu for Volume of DNA2, and thus my journey down the road of anime began.

I went back and looked at some of the stats I wrote up in the One Year post I did, well, one year ago, and this is what I came up with:

So, how far have I gotten in 1 year? I’ve rated 17 anime series or movies (of course, this site has only been up for the last 6 of those 12 months). I’ve completed 14 others, and I’m currently watching 9 more.

If my counting is correct, in the past year I have watched 503 anime episodes or movies for a total of something around 200 to 215 hours of shows (or between 8 and 9 days).

I own 9 anime series and part of another as well as 2 movies

Well, that list of 17 reviewed series has now turned into 55 reviewed series. 31 completed anime series has turned into 67 completed series, and the 40 series that I’ve seen in whole or in part has expanded to 83 series (not including series I’ve only seen 1 episode of).

My anime library’s has continued to grow as well, going from the 9 series and 2 movies from a year ago to 21 complete series and 4 movies with 2 series in progress.

At this time last year, I estimated I had watched 503 episodes or movies, for a total of 200 to 215 hours of total shows watched. Now, I estimate that I’ve seen (if my math is correct, and not counting series I’ve only seen one episode of) 1,167 episodes or movies for a total of 470 to 475 hours (or 19 to 20 days) of total anime hours (not counting watching a series more than once).

Actually, at this pace, within 2 or 3 full season series, I should break 500 hours of non-repeated anime hours watched. I’m not sure I should be happy or sad about that though lol.

In any case, I also came up with this list last time around too:

There are also several shows on my to-get list:

Not finished, but I know I’ll buy it
Cardcaptor Sakura - Sakura Book
I”s Pure

It’s either still too expensive or I just haven’t gotten around to buying it
Howl’s Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away

Licenced but not released
Rumbling Hearts (Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien)

Not licenced yet
I”s Pure
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Well, obviously Melancholy has been licensed, and so has Kashimashi, and those, incidentally, are the two series I’m in the middle of collecting. I”s Pure still hasn’t been licensed, and I have indeed bought the rest of the Cardcaptor Sakura series, as well as Rumbling Hearts. I still haven’t bought any of those 2 movies, though (the two new movies from last year are the two CCS movies).

At first, I thought my list this year would be smaller, but I guess it’s not, really:

I’m not sure if anything is in the “not finished but I know I’ll buy” category. If I had to pick a couple, I’d say Moonphase and Idolmaster Xenoglossia.

Other than that, in the “not licensed yet” category, I’d definitely put Kanon 2006, and I”s Pure would stay there, of course.

In the “too expensive to buy” category, I’d probably put Fullmetal Alchemist and Shakugan no Shana, and I just as well throw in Ah! My Goddess and Kaleido Star New Wings as well (though New Wings is coming out in a thinpack box set in September, so I should be able to afford it then).

In any case, that is my two year of anime wrapup post. I’ll probably put another post like this up next year…which will actually be the day before I would leave to go to Otakon 2008, now that I think of it. Otakon 2008 will essentially be a 3 year of anime celebration for me I guess.