Two whole weeks without buying comics? I will probably go through severe withdrawal syptoms… :wasted:
Seriously, I’ll see about next year. If my trip to Japan doesn’t pan out then sure. There’s a few people I’m supposed to go with so it depends on what everyone else is up to by then.
So the NY Digitallife show, our very own mini gaming and technology show has been scrapped this year! Hella conveniant for me because A) It sucked last year and B) It was going to run at the same exact time and the same exact place as the NY Anime Festival and I was gonna attend both. LOL, the video games at the NY Anime Festival last year were better than what Digitallife had in '07. :looney: Anyway, here’s the E-mail I got from Digitallife. You can usually get in for free but I tend to pay anyway because hey, gotta support any type of gaming event we get. So now I’m getting a 6 dollar refund! Hooray, gonna hit up Burger King with my extra loot! 
*"The DigitalLife show scheduled for September 25-28 has been postponed. After reviewing plans for the show, the organizers weren’t confident that they could present a show experience that was consistent with the successes of prior years. Hopefully a bigger and stronger DigitalLife will return in 2009. We will make additional announcements about the future of the show when details are available.
Refunds for tickets already purchased will be issued to the credit cards that were used in the initial ticket-buying transaction. The refunds should appear on credit card statements within the next two weeks. For more information, please e-mail info@digitallife.com."
DigitalLife Show Management
info@digitallife.com*
who is gonna be at the anime festival?
Yoshitaka Amano (Gatchaman, Casshern, Final Fantasy series, Vampire Hunter D, that Wolverine and Elektra story written by Greg Rucka) is the main attraction this year. :woot:
Got this E-Mail today from the NY Comic Con peeps about the NY Television Festival that’s going on for a few more days. I’m not going with the NY Anime Festival next week and all but I’ll jot this down just in case anyone is interested -
*The next New York Comic Con isn?t until 2009, so where do you go to get your pop culture fix? The New York Television Festival! The NYTVF kicked off on September 12 and runs through September 17 and is a massive television event that?s essentially the Sundance of TV.
The NYTVF features panels on writing and producing for television and new media and screenings of the best independent content anywhere.
New York Comic Con is co-presenting the panel ?Writing for Video Games and Comic Books" on Tuesday, September 16 at 12:30, and we’d love for you to come! Panelists include the creator of Ben 10 and writers for video games including Gears of War 2, Ratchet and Clank, and The Resistance 2. You can reserve your ticket at http://www.nytvf.com/2008_boxoffice.htm.*
BRIAN BENDIS
JIM LEE
will be at the con!!!
the entire list is here
http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/guests.htm
I am so happy that I have Mighty Avengers # 1 so i can get Bendis and Cho to sign. I am considering getting this thing available for sale
Panel Discussions Of Baltimore Comic Con
Saturday, September 27, 2008
11am-12:30pm
DC Nation
Oa room (upstairs, room 307)
Join DC editor Dan Didio as he and special guests, discusses the current DC Universe, as well as hints to the future of the DC Universe.
11:30am-12:30pm
Web Comics
Tarnax IV room (upstairs, room 302-303)
Funny, timely, exciting, biting – all words that can describe the Web Comic, the most widely-available of the comic art form. Join Scott Kurtz, Danielle Corsetto, Scott Sava, and others as they discuss the ins, outs, ups, downs, and overall variety of this forum.
12:35pm-1:35pm
Marvel Q&A: A Cup of B
Oa room (upstairs, room 307)
Tom Brevoort and Brian Michael Bendis answers questions about the Marvel Universe. You should join them. He loves you.
12:35pm-1:35pm
Silent Devil/Ahmet Zappa
Tarnax IV room (upstairs, room 302-303)
Kingdom Comics, a new division of the Disney film studio, showcases their upcoming projects as they bring back some of Disney Studios classic characters!
1:40pm-2:40pm
Top Cow
Oa room (upstairs, room 307)
Join Filip Sablik as he talks Dragon Prince (did you get your Baltimore Comic Con exclusive yet?) Witchblade, Darkness, and all things Top Cow. Moo.
1:40pm-2:40pm
DC Comics presents – The Return of Sgt. Rock! With Billy Tucci
Tarnax IV room (upstairs, room 302-303)
DC Comics is proud to present the return of Easy Company with the six issue miniseries, “Sgt. Rock - The Lost Battalion.” Join Sgt. Rock writer/artist and Shi creator Billy Tucci and special guest WW2 veterans Grant Hirabayashi, Joe Kelly Kuwayama, and Terry Shima for an intimate story and art preview of salute to the American soldier. Billy and Terry’s discussion and photos will also show the incredible lengths the creator has gone to uphold Rock’s honorable legacy by interviewing actual veterans, partaking in a massive World War II re-enactment, and visiting the beaches of Normandy!
2:45pm-3:45pm
Kirkman vs. Bendis: The Future of Comics
Oa room (upstairs, room 307)
What began as an open letter on the future of comics has turned into one of the hottest topics to hit the industry in decades. Now, the two main opposing forces in the discussion get together as Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis come face to face in a no-holds-barred debate! Don’t miss out on what promises to be the most talked about panel of the year!
2:45pm-3:45pm
Dark Horse
Tarnax IV room (upstairs, room 302-303)
Join Dark Horse Director of Publicity Jeremy Atkins and Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie for a first hand look at the future of comics. You will be given insight into the next chapter of the breakout hit series, The Umbrella Academy, as well as a look at what the future holds for all of your other favorite series and characters. With exciting announcements and inside info, you won’t want to be anywhere else.
3:50pm-5pm
DC Comics Presents: Men of Steel
Oa room (upstairs, room 307)
What is the future of the Superman Family? Join Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Jamal Igle, and Superman editor Matt Idelson as they give you a peek at what the next year holds for the Man of Steel and his family.
3:50pm-5pm
Comic Book Restoration and CGC
Tarnax IV room (upstairs, room 302-303)
Should restoration be considered for a comic? What does restoration do to the value of a comic? How will CGC grade a restored comic? These questions and more will be answered by Matt Nelson (Classics Incorporated) and Richard Evans (Bedrock City) as they give you insight into the do’s and don’ts of comic book restoration.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
11am-12pm
Jim Lee Art Seminar
The Batcave (upstairs, room 301)
Eight lucky fans will be hand-picked by Jim Lee to attend his one hour art seminar! A contest will determine the lucky participants. During the day Saturday, you will turn in a piece of original art at a designated area. Then, on Sunday at 10:30am, Jim will choose eight artists from the entrants who will follow him to the seminar room for this unique experience.
11am-12pm
Visionary
Earth 53 (upstairs, room 307)
VCS just announced the new Headlocked: The Tryout 3-Issue series, with covers by Ron Wilson, John Hebert and Jerry “The King” Lawler in his first comic work. They also just launched their digital publishing arm on Wowio and have even more news in the wings! Check out this panel with a bunch of VCS professionals to find out what this up-and-coming studio has planned into 2009! This will also include a focus on Visionary’s new submissions, and discussion of how to break into comics…the Visionary way.
11:30am-12:30pm
Boom!
The Savage Land (upstairs, room 302-303)
Join Boom! Studios Editor-In-Chief, Mark Waid, as he discusses the INCREDIBLE new projects coming soon from Boom!
12pm-1pm
Image Comics Show
Earth 53 (upstairs, room 307)
The Image Comics Show hits Baltimore as Robert Kirkman (WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE), Erik Larsen (SAVAGE DRAGON, IMAGE UNITED), Jimmy Palmiotti (Back to Brooklyn, The Pro), Richard Starkings (ELEPHANTMEN), and more give an exclusive glimpse into the future of Image Comics, featuring the public debut of all-new IMAGE UNITED art, along with many other announcements, surprises, and giveaways!
12:35pm-1:35pm
Spotlight on Wrightson (Villarrubia)
The Savage Land (upstairs, room 302-303)
Jose Villarrubia presents a Spotlight on his good friend, Living Legend, and Baltimore Comic-Con Guest of Honor, Bernie Wrightson!
1pm-2pm
Marvel: Your Universe
Earth 53 (upstairs, room 307)
Will you Embrace Change? Join the Marvel crew and accept your new Skrullian Overlords as you find out all you want to know about Secret Invasion and the rest of the Marvel Universe.
1:40pm-2:40pm
Chaykin/Hughes
The Savage Land (upstairs, room 302-303)
Howard Chaykin and Adam Hughes. Need we say more?
2pm-3pm
For the Love of Comics
Earth 53 (upstairs, room 307)
Dan Didio talks comics! Join Dan in this unique forum to discuss what he likes about comics in general.
2:45pm-4pm
Turner - In Memoriam
The Savage Land (upstairs, room 302-303)
Join Frank Mastromauro as he hosts a tribute to Michael Turner, a truly singular talent and an all around great guy.
Thanks Akumatru. Please tell us about your experience in Baltimore when you get a chance. :tup:
So back from the first day of the NY Anime Festival! And here we go, you know the usual blog routine -
DAY 1
Capcom themselves didn’t come this year, like they did last year grrr… but there’s a few interesting things to note. Del Ray came down and to celebrate their translation of the Phoenix Wright manga they were giving out FREE rubber Phoenix Wright gavels, you know that hammer that the judge slams down in court ha ha! Oh and they had the first volume of the Phoenix Wright manga for sale. It officially drops next week so we got it early hooray! I’ve read about half of it, pretty cool. It’s a collection of short stories from different writers and artists. The time frame seems to be after the third game for the most part. Nice! 
And speaking of getting stuff a bit early, Funamation tried to get the third volume of the Devil May Cry anime prior to the show (they aquired the title from ADV) but it still wasn’t ready, so I have to wait a couple of weeks like everybody else for the official release. Ah well… 
Couldn’t get all of the details but a director of an upcoming Live Action Mega Man movie is coming on Sunday! I was super excited about that naturally! Until I found out that the movie was going to be based on the Mega Man Battle Network series! Ah man… I don’t hate that series or anything but I’m an old schooler and I care more about the first MM series, X, Zero, ZX and Legends, you know the original Mega Man continuity and not the Battle Network stuff. As a matter of fact, today I was wearing my Mega Man T-Shirt (hey, MM9 just came out!) and when the lady told me what movie they were making I pointed at me shirt and yelled “NO! NOT THAT MEGA MAN! THIIIIIIS MEGA MAN!!!” Eh I can’t be getting kicked out of the show on the very first day so I decided to walk away peacefully. 
I spoke to a Dark Horse rep at the show who was pimping their manga line. I told him how much I liked Berserk and I really loved reading volume 25 that dropped 2 days ago - man there was a Frog Horse demon there’s not much more I have to say about how great Berserk is! :rock: I commented on how we aren’t that far away from what Japan is up to in the series and he told me that we are just 8 months back. There’s a possibility we may catch up to Japan (the artist is slower than some manga artists, but Berserk of course has an insane amount of detail) and he said that’s where they run into problems. He then told me about how people always write to them that they want them to hurry up translating manga. The thing is it takes time and with every volume there are clearance issues they have to go through again and again, it’s part of a long boring process that most fans don’t really want to know about. He told me Dark Horse has even gotten DEATH THREATS telling them to hurry up translating Hellsing when, like the guy said it’s not entirely their fault! :looney:
As you can imagine I picked up a lot of stuff. I got the Devil May Cry 3 Dante figure from Revoltech for only 20 bucks! Like about a half hour after I got it, they raised the price to 25 ACK! Then there was the usual. Just me picking up wherever I left off on whatever anime, only getting stuff TAX FREE 'cuz that’s what cons are good for! So I got the fourth uncut Naruto box set, the third volume of the Witchblade anime and the last 3 volumes of Mobile G Fighter Gundam that I’ve been meaning to pick up since like forever… I was also able to find the three volumes of Sadamitsu The Destroyer that I’ve been looking for. That anime is based on a manga created by Masahiko Nakahira, best know for his Street Fighter manga. Pretty curious as to what an anime based on his work would look like! :woot:
A friend of mine picked up a figure of Akira from Project Justice AKA Rival Schools, only she was wearing her school outfit and not her usual biker outfit. Very nice! :lovin:
In the screening room they gave the first live action Death Note movie. I picked up the DVD when it dropped last week, but one of the friends I hung out with hadn’t so we went to go check it out. It was funny because we sat way in the back and talked throughout all of the parts that were exactly like the manga and anime but remained silent for all of the new stuff. :wgrin:
Next we attended a Gundam 00 panel and Brad Swaile was present! Let’s see, he voiced Amuro Ray in Gundam, Quatre in Gundam Wing, Mousse in Ranma 1/2, Yagami Light in Death Note and Nightcrawler in X-Men Evolution! During the panel they showed us a trailer for Gundam 00 but there was no sound due to a technical error! So Brad comedically did all the voices for the trailer along with his own sound effects, TOO FUNNY! Later of course they fixed the problem and we saw the trailer. Brad is playing Setsuna, the main character Gundam 00. :tup:
Some goodies from that panel. Someone asked if they had any info on upcoming Gundam video games but no one from there (Bandai reps) could answer because it wasn’t their department, they were mostly behind anime released in the US. Brad did chime in that Bandai gave him the go ahead to say that there is a Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 in the works and he will reprise his role as Amuro! :woot: He’s working on the English dub of that game right now. That is about all he was allowed to say about that game though.
Oh and there was a really cool moment when someone gave Brad a copy of Ultimate X-Men and asked him to read one of Nightcrawler’s lines with his X-Men Evolution Nightcrawler voice! :amazed:
Blah blah blah THEN after all of that jibber jabber from Bandai we finally got to see the first 2 episodes of Gundam 00! It’s going to run on the Sci Fi channel monday nights BTW. Anywho, in the second episode in this series that takes place in the future they have, not to give too much away but a fake American President. He looks kind of like George W. Bush, only older with white hair and stuff and some more meat on his bones. There was a line where he says something like “We are finally on our way to fixing the economy!” And EVERYONE cracked up!
So at the end of the day we were supposed to see an hour of an anime called Ittikousen: Dragon Destiny, but something was wrong with that DVD. For whatever reason it wasn’t ready. Instead we saw a show called N.Y. Salad. It was a show done by Yoshitaka Amano who is this year’s guest of honor and is showing up tomorrow. Only this show was in straight up Japanese with no subtitles! As you can imagine, a lot of people bolted but hey man I paid my money, I’m staying to the end hell yeah! It was a very cute show, it was about well, pieces of a salad coming to life in a kitchen table. Did I mention this was in straight up Japanese? I just told myself, it’s Yoshitaka Amano’s stuff, he worked on Gatchaman and Casshern who are fighting against Capcom characters in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom… So… Well I just decided that I was watching a show about MVC2 Amingo’s ancestors and I was straight! Hey I was tired and hungry WORK WITH ME HERE! :looney: All in all it was an entertaining show, it looked like it was done with pencil lines and CGI. The episodes themselves were very short. In that one half hour they must of fit in about 10 small episodes. Things like this veggie is mad at that veggie, this one doesn’t like her hair, they all play musical instruments, stuff like that. I guess it didn’t really need to be subbed since you could understand most of it. Though yeah it was only a half hour, not the full hour we were supposed to get. Ah I got home earlier than I would have so there’s that!
That wraps up Day 1. I’ll talk about Day 2 tomorrow and if I get too tired and don’t get enough sleep than I’ll wrap everything up Sunday. YOSHITAKA AMANO TOMORROW HELL YEAH! *OOOOOH GATCHAMAN! GATCHAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! *:nunchuck:
Master Chibi under a friend’s name:
Sano, if you see a nun wielding guns there today, it’s me.
:3
LOL I may have seen you in the distance.
Announements
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080927-baltimore-cupofb.html
Sum
We it is was great and also insane. I was lucky enough to get signatures of my books from Cho, Bendis, Tucci, Slott, and Palimotti. I should have had all of the ATI books signed by slott. He was having conversation with alot of people while signing. I was shocked that I seen a Mr Terrific and Vixen of all people. Now Vixen was decent looking too. She had double d and a nice ass too. Im pissed that I left my camera home. I wasnt in the mood to drive back to my how. So I was like fuck it. Oh yeah Jim Lee was there but there was no chance in hell one was able to get him. His line was longer than Bendis and Cho combined. (im streching it but still) Lines were crazy long outside in comparison to last year. However I was disappointed that I couldnt get Infinite Crisis signed by Geoff Johns.
I did pick up a poster that was signed by Tucci and 3 WW2 vets. :tup: Also I picked up a sketch from some local guy to give him some love. I’ll post the pics of the stuff that was signed.
Cho
Line wasnt too long
Bendis
Crazy and I mean Crazy long
Tucci
Quiet
Slott
Wasnt long
Palimotti
Kind of short but he also gave me a free copy of Jonah Hex and he signed it as well.
did you ask bendis if he was gonna jew up any characters?
Glad you had fun Akumatru! :tup:
I’ll talk about the other 2 days I spent at the NY Anime Fest tomorrow. Just came back from the mini after party and I’m a little on the drunk side ha ha! Had a great time. Took about a ton of pictures so it’s gonna take me a while to sort them all out. :lovin:
Watching Sadamitsu The Destroyer now. I didn’t know he was voiced by Yuji Ueda who is also the seiyuu behind Jin Saotome, Shoma of Project Justice / Rival Schools, Zappa in Guilty Gear Blanka and Balrog (Ninja) in SFZ3, Blanka in SF4 along with Sagara Sanosuke of Rurouni Kenshin, where my avatar and net name come from! Sadamitsu is really similar to Sagara Sanosuke too. :lovin:
More on the NY Anime con -
DAY 2
Saw the Gurren Lagann anime for the first time, cool show! They gave the first episode and episode 6! Episode 6 they didn’t air on TV because it was really adult with a bunch of guys trying to peak on girls showering naked in a hot spring so we all got to see it! No real nudity but some really perverted comedy!
There was a ‘Top Secret’ panel, but in the convention guide book to the con where they describe it they show a pic of the live action Dragon Ball Z movie. So I skipped it because, um, IMHO that movie’s not looking so hot and I’m naturally assuming the panel was about that. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised and the movie does turn out well, just don’t have my hopes up right now. :wonder:
I swear there’s a Robotech panel at every con I go to ha ha! They talked about the live action movie and cleared up the whole Tobey McGuire thing. Turns out, he has a production company that’s involved in the project. The same company that produced his Seabiscuit movie. It doesn’t mean that Tobey will be in the Robotech movie. Just that he is at the very least involved in the business side of things. He is a very big fan of Robotech though. Still, as of right now he hasn’t been confirmed to play Rick Hunter or any character in the movie at all.
So we found out that the screenplay for the live action Robotech movie is being written by Lawrence Kasdan, the same person who wrote the screenplay for Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Arc! :rock: Harmony Gold sent him like a big box of Robotech stuff including the entire series, books, toys and everything he needs to do his research for the project! HELL YEAH! :nunchuck:
Since Lawrence is still in the process of writing the screenplay we still have no idea what the story of the Robotech movie will be about. In continuity with the cartoon? A different continuity / reboot? Macross? Masters? New Generation? We really don’t know anything at this point.
The only question I asked is if they were ever planning to officially release Mospeada Love Live Alive. They said they can as it it not part of the Macross franchise of Japan. There’s an ongoing lawsuit between Tatsunoko and Big West in Japan that prevents a lot of Macross products coming to the US; the American franchise of ‘Robotech’ is seperate from most of that BTW. Kevin McKeever of Harmony Gold just said he’ll ask and try to find out what’s going on with Mospeada Love Live Alive.
After the panel, a fan came up to me and asked me what Mospeada Love Live Alive was because he’s never heard of it. So I told him that it served as a bunch of Yellow Belmont (Dancer) videos and was an epilogue to the Mospeada (Robotech New Generation in the US) saga. It’s on Youtube and online now so anyone can go check it out. Ah, gotta spread the Mospeada love. *“MOTORCYLE FREEEEAK! THAT’S YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!!!” * :karate:
After that the YOSHITAKA AMANO panel began! :woot: It was wall to wall and not everyone got their questions answered. So no I didn’t get to ask him anything about Gatchaman and Casshern being in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and how he felt about his characters getting their asses beat up by Ryu and Chun-Li, crap!
Briefly he talked about a superhero idea he’s been working on for some time. A character named Tako Man (AKA Octopus man) who could scale walls with suction cups, camoflouge and would fight environmental enemies while living in New York and traveling across time in Washington Square park (the park closest to NYU). Thing is he’s always working and has never had enough time to see it through. :looney:
He said that he’s a big Neal Adams fan and years ago at a San Diego comic con when he first met him he got his signature and was happy just like any other fanboy!
Yoshitaka Amano also talked about the Vampire Hunter D novels he provides artwork for while Hideyuki Kikuchi writes the scripts. Since Hideyuki Kikuchi himself was at the con, first Yoshitaka took a look around the room to make sure he wasn’t present in the room. Once he was sure he said that Hideyuki is always incredibly late with his deadlines and Yoshitaka is always ahead of him with the artwork. Yoshitaka gets a general idea of what is going on in the plot a lot of the time and he works off of that. Of course, once the writer gets down to writing things out he changes events in the plot. So Yoshitaka said in one of the books there’s a drawing that shows something that didn’t happen in the story, at all!
BTW in our convention guide they included a short Vampire Hunter D story written by Hideyuki Kikuchi called “Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship.” Pretty creepy and there was blood and death, ME HAPPY! GIMME TEH BLOOOOOD!!! :badboy:
A slew of anime fans called Disorganization XIII hosted a bunch of panels from one about Kingdom Hearts, to another on Spoilers to one on Fan Fiction writing. The funniest moment was when they were speaking during the Fan Fic writing one, someone from the crowd yelled “OBJECTION!” and one of the guys from the panel quickly pulled out his cell phone and played the song from Phoenix Wright 1 to the crowd, you know the song that you hear after “OBJECTION” and things go crazy, SWEET! Hey man gotta shout out the Capcom moments when I can!
There was another fan panel assembled by Gundam fanatics where they went through the whole Gundam history, how it’s been recieved in the US and so forth. Nothing in the way of new info, just that they’ve been hearing a - **RUMOR DO NOT TAKE AS BIBLE/FACT/CANON ** - that for Gundam’s upcoming 30th anniversary they ‘may’ create an anime on the Gundam Unicorn series, well it’s called something like that. So far Unicorn has only been in Japanese novels - mostly text, very little artwork if any - so that novel series just won’t see the light of day here in the US. It’s based on the original Gundam continuity and is very popular in Japan. And naturally, there are toys for the Gundam in that story! :wow:
Also at the Gundam panel they played a Gundam Jeapardy game with members of the audience to test out their Gundam Trivia skills. The questions ranged from super easy to really freaking hard, I’m talking about remembering serial numbers of non Gundam robots hard!!! There was an entire category called “WTF TOMINO.” See, Yoshiyuki Tomino is the creator of Gundam and not to go into a whole Gundam discussion but this guy is out of his freaking mind with some of the things he’s done with the franchise! :looney: The final question under the ‘WTF Tomino’ category was “True or False: Tomino hates everybody.” And the correct answer was “True.”
There was another panel on researching anime. I discussed the book by Susan Napier “Anime: From Akira To Princess Mononoke” that I read in College with the panel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and I think everyone should read it as I told them, it’s just at there are times in the book where she overanalyzes things. To put this in perspective, there was an episode in the Ranma 1/2 anime where Ranma lost his memory and thought he actually was a woman. Napier went on and on and ON for pages and pages and PAGES = trying to analyze Japan’s gender issues with this one episode. LOL that was a freaking filler episode, just something the anime came up with to not outpace the manga. I didn’t think it needed to be looked at as deeply. The guys at the panel actually knew what I was talking about, agreed with me and laughed. :lol: They said that Napier wrote that book some time ago and she’s done other things since than. But yes, there is always the problem of overanalyzing anything when you are researching anime. It’s best sometimes to step back and take a look at the grand picture. Um, IMHO anime filler tends to be bad 90% of the time (even 90% is me being generous…) and doesn’t need to be discussed or analyzed… EVER. M’kay! :looney:
Watched some Code Geass episodes that I already watched on Cartoon Network before. Basically I was killing time until they gave the anime Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan since I never watched that before. Well something happened and Bokusatsu wasn’t there. Instead they had a filmogrophy based on the J-Pop band Gakt. Hmm, I only know of two Gakt songs, the intro and outro to the New Hokuto No Ken OVA so I wasn’t sitting around to watch a documentary on them… :wonder: And that’s when I bounced.
That wraps up Day 2. Day 3 description coming up! :wgrin:
DAY 3
RIE TANAKA panel hooray! I told her that I enjoyed her work as Ciel in the Rockman (Mega Man) Zero series and as Sylphie of Forgotten Worlds in Namco x Capcom and asked her what the difference was between working in anime than working on video games. She said it’s different because for video games they record their voices seperatly so she doesn’t see any of the other actors and for anime all of the actors are in the same room. She said sometimes the research for video game characters is much more extensive as she’ll get books and books and notes on characters from previous games and even material on the game she’s providing voices for. As a side note, she said she’s a big gamer herself and spent most of her time in college gaming away! The crowd applauded and she comedically asked why would they clap at something like that! She said she’s currently playing Final Fantasy XI even though nowadays she doesn’t have as much time to play games. Rie also said that whenever she’s on the train and gets to play her Nintendo DS she’s in heaven!
Aside from that, she quoted a lot of lines from Chii of Chobbits but I’ve only seen like one episode of that series so I’m the wrong person to ask about any of that. She sang a song from one ending theme that she worked on for us, I’m not sure which anime myself. The crowd was going bananas though so it was all good. :woot:
I kept checking the main floor to see if the director of the live action Mega Man Battle Network movie would show up. All I found out was that he was busy working on another movie at the time. They told me that if he did arrive he would be dressed as the Mega Man from the Battle Network franchise so he would be hard to miss! :wonder: Nah, he never showed up though, ah well…
There was a big panel on the state of anime and how things are going and stuff. They say that sales of DVDs have gone down tremendously thanks to people watching anime online and stuff. The anime DVD industry used to rake in 600 million a year and now it only makes 250 million. The interest in anime itself is on the rise, it’s just that a lot of people aren’t paying for it. They are however looking at different solutions like digital distributions and ways to get people to be able to afford anime at cheaper prices, things of that nature. I don’t want to go into a huge discussion here, but if you love something please support it in some way if possible if you wish for it to continue because it hurts everyone in the long run. When people don’t support products, creative studios take even less risks than usual and we just wind up getting the same crap over and over again. You know, kind of like what has happened with the music industry. Hell there’s less music albums being created right now and a lot of it is bad pop culture crap that they know some poor fool will buy. It’s a direct result of people downloading music illegaly. But this entire subject goes beyond the scope of what I did at the con, sooo…
They spoke about what was going on with Geneon. Essentially, Geneon was a division of a much larger company. So it’s not so much that Geneon ceased to exist, it’s just that they no longer have a division that puts out anime. And about ADV, even though Funimation aquired the rights to a lot of their anime they haven’t closed down for good just yet and are still in the game. I met a lot of the folks from ADV last year and they were really nice people, glad to see they are still around. SUPPORT ANIME! Oh and comic books too GOSH DARN IT! :woot:
Watched the anime Straight Jacket which was incredibly violent and then from there I saw Aria which was incredibly cute! Ah, I’ve seen it all. :wgrin:
Sunday they had an after party at a Japanese restaurant named Morimoto. In honor of Yoshitaka Amano and Hideyuki Kikuchi appearing at the con they were serving a special cocktail for one night only named the Vampire Hunter D! It was blood red and had a cherry in it. I only had one because they were charging THIRTEEN DOLLARS AND ONE PENNY for that drink man, what’s up with the free-ness? They served some pricey food, which also wasn’t free… Man someone fix the economy up please… ANYWAY… that was a pretty strong drink! It was like a Long Island Ice Tea or a Red Devil, you know one of those drinks that tastes sweet but can mess you up quick! After that one beverage I was wobling to the train station like a drunkard… Eh at least it was kind of worth the 14 bones (still gotta tip, old habit…) since I had my little high for the night. But shouldn’t a drink based on Vampire Hunter D make me feel like I drank blood you know, all energized, not woozy like I had blood drained from me? If it was me I would of tossed some old Guiness Stout in that Vampire Hunter D drink to keep you up but that’s just me. :looney:
Had a really great time! Friday is where I spent most of my loot because the merchandise available for sale was exactly the same all three days and come Sunday not a lot of people were dropping prices. I was happy since I did get to find whatever anime I was looking for and the Revoltech Dante figure I got rules, so can’t complain. Brad Swaile, Yoshitaka Amano and Rie Tanaka MAAAAAN it was quite a show! Can’t wait until next year! :party:
I’ll work on the pictures tomorrow. Still really tired from the whole con experience and catching up on sleep whenever I can… 
Yappity yap yap, Sano. All I care to know is, Was Jo Chen there and did you get her phone number for me?
That was last year.
Exactly, and I ain’t getting any younger, bub. I’m depending on you.
Anyway, Lawrence Kasdan writing the screenplay for the live-action Robotech movie makes it sound like there’s a chance it’ll be an interesting movie now. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite movie and Robotech is one of my favorite cartoons… The only way this combination could possibly fail me is if an army of rewriters attacks his script. I can picture it now… ROBOTECH: THE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE starring Kevin Kine as Captain Henry J. Gloval. Or somebody.
A couple months ago I found a bunch of Comico’s old Robotech comics and I bought 'em. Now I have a full run of The Robotech Masters Saga and a near-full run of The New Generation (I’m missing the final issue). I also have a handful of Macross Saga issues. The comics were cheap; like, I’m talking quarter bin/fifty-cent bin cheap. But I figured they were worth it because I can’t put a salary cap on a piece of my childhood distilled into comic book form. I’ve read some of them and flipped through 'em. Each issue is just a straight adaptation of a single episode of the show. The art quality varies from amateurish to more than competent, but the scripting doesn’t add a whole lot. On the other hand, the voice acting in the comics is much better.
Next up, a live action Gundam movie (one that doesn’t star obscure Canadian actors and have the word “G-Saviour” in the title). I can picture it now… MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: THE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE starring Kevin Kline as Char Aznable. Or somebody.
Hey I’d go see it. If live action Robotech makes any money than who knows.
Here’s my pics from the 2008 NY Anime Festival!
First up, here’s some stuff from the main floor! The Claymore anime is coming out in the US!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA201.jpg
Street Fighter comic book artist Omar Dogan designed these two characters for the upcoming Otakon convention!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA202.jpg
A few banners -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA203.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA204.jpg
There was a contest where you could win FREE tickets to the upcoming live action Mega Man Battle Network movie. Nah, I didn’t win or anything lol!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA205.jpg
The new Naruto game for the 360 was available for play.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA206.jpg
TOYS!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA207.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA208.jpg
And the biggest toy of all, a robot maid you could have a conversation with! WHOA…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA209.jpg
Eric Maruscak who does chalk murals for conventions attended the event! In honor of Yoshitaka Amano and Hideyuki Kikuchi attending he did this big Vampire Hunter D piece and it took him all three days of the convention to get it done! Check out his progress on Friday, Saturday and Sunday when he finished the drawing!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA210.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA211.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA212.jpg
The Jeapordy game from the Gundam fan panel I attended. Ha ha the ‘WTF TOMINO’ category still cracks me up!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA213.jpg
A whole lot of cosplaying! Here are the Capcom ones I spotted. Phoenix Wright characters!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA214.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA215.jpg
Okami!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA216.jpg
And of course, Street Fighter!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA217.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA218.jpg
Crimson Viper cosplay, already? Kewl!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA219.jpg
A few Marvel characters were there, even if they were based on the live action movie versions. First up is Tony stark. Check out his chest ha ha!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA220.jpg
Movie Spider-Man with Movie Mary Jane! Naruto’s Rock Lee also jumped into the picture and the rest of the people here are… people trying to get into Spider-Man 4 man I dunno LOL!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA221.jpg
And that’s enough yapping from me. Here are the rest of the cosplayers. Enjoy!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA222.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA223.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA224.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA225.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA226.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA227.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA228.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA229.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA230.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA231.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA232.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA233.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA234.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA235.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA236.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/futaenokiwami/NYA237.jpg
EDIT: I placed the pictures up on a Capcom Board also and here you can check out all of the photos just by scrolling down.