I once made the comment that one of the most worthless jobs in the world was Rock Concert Reviewer. By the time your review gets into the paper, the show, which the reader potentially did not see, has already moved on to the next venue and, possibly, the one after that. And just because they had a fabulous show in Kankakee is not a guarantee that they will have a fabulous show in Kokomo. Such is the nature of these live events.

And let’s say you and a pal can go see the show at the same time. You thought it was marvelous and you wet your pants. He thought it was too loud and too boring and he will wet YOUR pants. What does this all mean?

Overall, this was a pretty good con and certainly better than the last time I went, despite the rocky start and some on-going glitches. There were a few panels that I would have liked to have gone to and there were some things I missed altogether. They had a Steampunk Convention going on at the same time, but I had my hands full with anime, so I could never take it in. Also, the hotel was way the puddings out there, so it was bypassed. (more…)

Well, I did have plans to take in something on the last day, like an Adventure Time panel or Manga as Literature: Naruto (what?) but I just could not get my keester out of bed in a timely manner and the daughter was even worse than I. Since the viewing options were all shows I had seen or, if I hadn’t seen it, they were doing a 4 am presentation for it, I decided to take in both the Vendor’s Room and Artist Alley. You do need to bring home trinkets or souvenirs of your little sojourn to prove you were actually there and not pretending to be elsewhere and someone did the work for you. Also, I never had a genuine opportunity to really check it out on any other day. Yes, I was hoping for Going-Home Bargains. They had them, but either not what I wanted or not in quantities I could obtain.

I had to check out from my digs, but that was a great advantage. Since our hotel was well beyond beyond, I did not have that mad, chaotic, end-of-the-world crush that usually accompanies conventions and Get Away Day. Mine was reasoned, disciplined and mannered and I had free coffee. Also, with my car outside the room (yeah, I know, hotel vs motel), I could pack it right up and not have to wait for the Bell Captain to bring up the luggage dolly or fight with the elevators going down (as I knew two of the hotels had troubles with that). And I found an all-day lot for a good price to stow the car really close by. Now, with that part of the logistics taken care of, let’s go buy…something! (more…)

Whew! That was a really hard Saturday night/Sunday morning. The daughter really wanted to hit up the gaming room, so she got in at 3 am. Now, our hotel is about a block-plus away from the shuttle point, but I did not want her walking in a relatively safe area at that time, so she wakes me up to come retrieve her. That’s what a father does, even though it rumples my sleep. Well, she got in so late that I went to my early Sunday panels alone, permitting her to sleep….until noon!??!

I ventured out early, as I really wanted to grab that Admiral’s Guide to KanColle (Kantei Collection). Now, I am working on a review for this series, but it’s basically girls as battleships. I thought they would be taking about the series, but they talked about the online game. Well……..This was an odd panel, as the person who knew about the game was trapped in Phoenix AZ, so we communicated by Bluetooth. Too bad that it was a bit of a snoozer, as the person did not really explain how the game really worked. He was more focused on how you get in to play this game, even though it is Japan only, and not what steps you need to defeat your enemy. I ended up bailing on the end of it. (more…)

Saturday is usually the busiest day for an anime convention. Not all of the venues can take advantage of a Monday holiday (like Fanime! can), and since some folks can’t take off the whole run of it, they usually invest it all in one day. And if you have a Sunday to recover before heading back to the grind on Monday, there you have it. It’s just that EVERYONE showed up.

We had protesters. The first ones were the Religionists. They come to these venues to complain long and loud how these people are engaged in idolatry, as they dress up like Luffy or Edward Elric or Sailor Moon and have forsaken the Lord. The problem is they are not going to get a lot of folks on their side when they stand on their soapbox, waggling a sign at me and bray (and I quote) “If you have ever lied, stolen or looked with lust at someone, God sees you as a lying, thieving, adulterer-at-heart and hell is just because God is holy!” So I’m going to hell because I sold my immortal soul to Naruto? Like that idiot would know what to do with it? (more…)

OK, so I got myself ready for Fanime! They had a schedule up and ready at the site! Oh, boy! All I have to do is print it off……all I have to do is print it off…..all I have to do is…what the hell is wrong with this damn thing? They had a pocket schedule, so you knew when was when, but I could not get the flarping thing to print! I needed a special program, at a special website to print it off, but I kept blowing it. Why won’t you damn print? Am I that big of a Luddite? Or am I an anime dad and needing the daughter to do this? Uh…I had to have the daughter do this.

The plan was very simple: we’d leave here at 7 am or so for the 45 minute drive, getting to the venue at 8 am, as that is when the Registration Line opened. Now, since the first events didn’t start until 10 am, in case things took longer, we’d be prepared for that. The first part went well, as the daughter got her badge in about 30 minutes. Perhaps it was a madhouse on Day #0, as I could see the huge set-up for folks, and we avoided all that, even though there was a large amount of people. They fed through tidily; good job. Mine did not go as well. Aside from coming in as Press, I had the devil’s time finding the ProReg (Professional Registration) room. When I did find it, I was rather curtly told that they wouldn’t be open until 10 am. As Press, I do not expect to be treated better than regular people, but I should’t be treated worse. (more…)

As I have mentioned once before, if you are into anime, even just slightly, you should go to at least one convention, just to see what it is like. There is a calendar of events on the internet that you can get to, showcasing all the cons around the nation (and Canada! Yes, they like anime in Canada, eh?) both big and small, although I do recommend trying out the smaller ones first, so you get a better understanding as to what they are like. Don’t want to jump into the deep end too quickly. The lifeguard might not notice and you could sink to the bottom pretty fast.

In my neck of the woods, we have Fanime!, which is a problem when you type it in too fast. It can easily come up as ‘famine’, so instead of getting snaps of people cosplaying as Dragon Ball Z, you see photos of starving people and cracked lands and many degrees of unpleasantness. (Curse you, SpellCheck!) Now, this one is run by fans, for fans, and that is nice, in one sense, as you certainly get a huge amount of zeal and enthusiasm that is sometimes lacking from the larger venues. But that can work against you as well, for no amount of passion can make up for a non-understanding of logistics. (more…)

As a bother-in-arms companion piece to “Denkigai no Hon’ya-san”, we have “Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun” (“Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun”), which tells the tale of a manga artist who is somewhat successful in his endeavor.

High school student Chiyo Sakura (red head up there) has a crush on schoolmate Umetaro Nozaki (the one off her left). When she confesses her love to him, he mistakes her for a fan and gives her an autograph. When she says that she always wants to be with him, he invites her to his house and has her help on some drawings. Chiyo discovers that Nozaki is actually the renowned manga artist Sakiko Yumeno. She then agrees to be his assistant in order to get closer to him. As they work on his manga Let’s Fall in Love, they encounter other schoolmates who assist them or serve as inspirations for characters in the stories. (more…)

Denkigai no Hon’ya-san (“The Electric Town’s Bookstore“) is one strange fish of a show. Having worked at Tower Records, when both Tower Records existed as a store and you could buy records and the like, I enjoyed this series thoroughly. All of these strange and eccentric characters are not only tolerated, but wanted, as, believe it or not, they know their stuff. But, on to the show.

Welcome to Akihibara (well, I think it is, as for the caliber of insane nonsense goes on in that place) and the store Umanohone (The Horse’s Bone; that what the strange logo on their apron is). This is a most magnificent manga store, covering four or five floors. I assume there are hordes and hordes of employees, but we contend ourselves with these seven, from left to right:

Fu Girl (her real name Koharu Yatsu) is a 16-year-old high school girl who is obsessed with zombies and even has prepared if one day there’s a zombie outbreak.
Sensei is an aspiring manga artist, working under the name “Jonatarou”. She dresses haphazardly, as she is not confident with her appearance and “girl meter”.
Umio, newest employee here. Normally used as the ‘straight man’, he prefers 2D girls to 3D girls and has passionate discussions about it
Kantoku, the shift manager. He often records his employees on his video camera, thus his nickname (“Director”). He has a boob and underwear fetish.
Hiotan is a part time clerk who doesn’t know that much about manga, but is drawn to boy-boy love books, although is loath to admit it to anyone.
Sommelier is that hulking guy. He never speaks but has a profound knowledge of manga, and can match people to the suitable manga for them to read.
Kameko (means ‘turtle’) always has a camera with her and takes constant pictures, but will not let her picture be taken. Oh, and don’t take off her hat, OK? (more…)

This is a show that got me major league ticked off as well. Looks, it’s barely the start of the new year and I don’t think anything is going to match the lever of outrage I feel about this series “Alice in Borderland”, because I feel cheated, cheated, cheated!

I mean, I had not seen a show with such an interesting plot and development since “Btooom!”, as it has the same caliber of idea, but since the dang thing only goes three episodes, what a total rip! I wanted a whole run, not a mere glancing at the menu and then asked to leave.

OK, the story, as it is, begins with these three slacker friends (left to right):

Daikichi Karube
Chōuta Segawa
Ryōhei Arisu

For some odd reason, they appear to be hanging around a deserted subway stop about 2 am. They have no place to go and all day to get there, so they are just chewing the fat. Arisu makes the comment that he’d like to go somewhere far away and not have to do anything and his pals agree. He has problems with his intolerable everyday life and yearns for something more, potentially something more interesting and daring. Suddenly, there is a fireworks show, which is quite strange. The explosions appear to be coming closer and closer and then……. (more…)

When I started doing these Short Run reviews, I asked myself “When is an OVA not an OVA?” After a couple of years, I came up with an answer that I can work with. It is an OVA if there is a full show that it can be tethered to. So, when “Attack on Titan” or “Sword Art Online” have their little things, those are OVAs, as there is a show that it can be tied to. If it is something like “Eiken” or “Jungre de Ikou”, it is a short run series, as there was no show for it to be based from and is a stand-alone short run.

Now, with all that being said, I comment about this short-run item, “Holy Knight”. It comes in at a mere two episodes but leaves a lot on the table, kind of like going to an All-you-can-eat smorgasbord and then, after getting all of it to your table, you get up and get out after one bite. What? You’re leaving that all behind? What gives? What gives, indeed.

The tale starts out simple enough. An entire village is killed off, save for the child, Lilith Kishimoto. There is something odd or special about these farm folk, thus triggering their massacre. Here’s where the first problem occurs. The raid appears to have taken place during mediaeval times, as we are wielding swords and wearing armor. When Lilith grows up, in what appears to be a span of 10 years, it is certainly the modern times, with cell phones and airplanes and Justin Bieber posters. Lilith has grown into the fine woman you see before you, but she has a task. This is a three part task. I can only tell you the first part, as the other parts are major plot points. (more…)