Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

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Here is the Anime Boston con comic, which puts a lid on my Anime Boston 2008 coverage. Like last year, most of this stuff only really made sense in context, but whatever. I should also note these kinds of comics aren’t really what people said word-for-word– if you want that, listen to the podcasts. Expect a comic about noses next week.

Lots of stuff from the TAF, which actually took me by surprise for some reason. Unfortunately, I can’t be all too excited about much of it since I’m not all that pumped about this next season, even after seeing these trailers. I guess I’ll just bullet-point this stuff.

• The Golgo 13 trailer is good, but it has too many still images, which makes me worry for its budget.
• Crystal Blaze looked fine for the first minute, then in the last minute it took a nosedive– I’m afraid it’ll take itself seriously.
• DMC looks like it could be fun.
• Jigoku Shoujo is the same old thing, which means it should be moderately entertaining.
• Michiko to Hatchin is Manglobe’s new offering, and certainly looks more fun than Ergo Proxy. Approaching with some degree of caution, but I have high hopes for this one.
• I’m guessing this new Gurren Lagann footage is from the new music video project, and not from the new movie. Some of it looks quite interesting.
• I certainly hope the people in this video are cheering for something else going on in the hall, and not for Kanokon.

Reading that Ballad of a Shinigami novel that Seven Seas sent me. I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and should be done in a week or so. It’s a good light read, but doesn’t really have a distinct writing style that inspires me or anything. It’s not bad, but it kind of just makes me want to watch the anime again. Maybe I’m just not used to reading books that aren’t written by Patrick Macias.

So I guess Hayate is getting a second season, which is good news. It’s managed to keep my attention for 50 episodes, which is quite impressive. Let’s hope they don’t drop the ball with this next one!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s a wrap.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/…ime-second-season-leaked

TELL YOUR FRIENDS. TELL YOUR FAMILY.

Maybe I should elaborate more on that last post…

I have nothing against Clannad. It’s a good show! It has nice animation, good acting, decent direction and the writing isn’t totally horrible! And yes, considering the ending we got, I too felt a bit shortchanged! I do want to see the rest of the story, if only just to make sense of those few unexplained images in the opening, but– and this is a rather large but– can we please have Haruhi 2 first? I’m not even that much of a Haruhi-ist, but after Kanon and Clannad (I suppose KyoAni did take 6 months off for that Lucky Star thing…) I want some crazy SF adventures again!

I’ve noticed that Key shows are good for me in small doses. I love Air, even if it doesn’t make any sense at all; think Kanon is good solid entertainment; and even find Clannad to be an ok use of 23 minutes each week but… seriously. After a while one just grows tired of Key’s brand of writing and just wants something more off-beat and less vanilla. Sure, by Clannad Key’s writing is in its most matured state, but as a result it’s actually a little boring. Thusly, I’m growing rather pissed that KyoAni is wasting their talents on this sub-par story. That second half best be damn good stuff to make up for shit like Kyou’s EXISTENCE.

Conversely, I’ve heard reports from Haruhi novel nerds that the books skew in favour of Yuki, especially book 4 (the one suspected to be animated next.) I don’t like Yuki (but that’s another post entirely) so naturally I’m also approaching the rest of Haruhi with some degree caution, too. Instead of boring old Yuki, let’s focus on the adventures of Mikuru, guys! She’s clearly the best character! Give the girl some love!

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Japan. /me grumbles and watches Kodomo no Jikan DVD rips

Guys, remember this?

Well, I’ve finally coloured it. Woop woop.

Yeah Clannad’s a nice show and all, but jeeze KyoAni, I’m growing awfully tired of these Key adaptations. Air was awesome, Kanon was great if not a bit dumb and Clannad is fine but… kind of boring. Moar lite SF plz, less lukewarm teen romance. Shuffle! already does that a lot better than every Key thing ever, probably.

So, today I was bored during my New Media New Markets class. While teach was spouting off nothing in particular, I was googling for things. One of the things I googled for was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Under “images”, I came across this curious screencap.  I’ve recapped it since the original had a watermark.

This is from episode 4 of the first series. Just fresh off skimming episodes of Shuffle! Memories, I noticed an interesting parallel…

I wouldn’t put it past Shaft. It’s just such a good seiyuu_joke. And subtle, too. I didn’t even notice it when watching the episode.

Or maybe I’m thinking too hard.

My con experiences aren’t defined by events, but more by general emotions and feelings. As such, I can’t really write proper con reports, since I can barely remember what even happens event by event. I can however give you a general rundown of the kinds of things that went on in the Hynes on that cold weekend in March.

It’s not a mystery by now that the con was sub-par. I mean, Anime Boston isn’t exactly known for its stellar guest list, which is part of the reason why I go to cons. I couldn’t care less for the guests this year, except for maybe The Pillows (who I ended up missing, anyway.) So before the con even started, I had nothing to be excited about (at least they had Imagawa last year!) However, even with my low expectations going in, I still got disappointed. The only thing that really made me sour was the lines though, but this sour feeling permeated throughout con by way of the various con goers, thusly putting something of a damper on things. Other than the line issue, the con didn’t have much in the way of interesting panels either, which I kind of expected. The only good panel was Mike Toole’s black and white anime panel, and the rest ranged from serviceable to garbage. The two industry panels I hit up, FUNi and ADV, were fine but nothing of note happened. There was a doujinshi panel which was almost horrible, but I kind of liked it since it was about doujinshi. Note to those panelists, though: when your attendance knows more than you do, there is a problem. It’s not all death and destruction, though. The Dealer’s Room managed to put a big ol’ hole in my wallet, and I hung out with various fun internet personalities, so that stuff almost made up for the crappiness of the con itself.

Seems interest in mainstream fandom has shifted towards Death Note, and for some reason I’m noticing more yaoi appreciation than ever before. Let’s hope it’s just a fad. Nothing wrong with Death Note, mind you. I just don’t see how people can make countless AMVs from the show given it consists entirely of talking, thinking and staring. Oh well, better than Naruto, I suppose. Or, god forbid, Bleach. But why is Kingdom Hearts so popular? That’s not even an anime! Oh, silly US fandom.

Overall I had a good time, despite the organization mishaps. That stuff did bleed into my enjoyment of the con, but not by much. By Sunday, I didn’t care anymore. I won’t be going back next year, but hopefully that’ll be because I’m in Japan studying abroad~

Loot

Podcasts

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

Photos

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

This is almost the last of my Anime Boston coverage. A comic, which has already been completed, will go up on Saturday, finishing off this series of madness.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)

• Me
• Seiya

Seiya and I geek out on the Final Day. Topics of discussion include second-hand towels, old magazines and trading figures.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)

• Me
• Zonaxx
• DS
• Zonaxx’s brother
• Zonaxx’s friend
• Magusman
• Random Wanderer
• Booth Guy A (Asian Hen Da Ne guy)
• Booth Guy B
• Booth Guy C
• Hinano
• jpmeyer
• Seiya
• Centimetre

A lot of random Dealers’ Room chatter in this one. Most of what I got with RW and Magus in there was unusable, so a bunch of it comes off as random one-off-exchanges. Oh yeah, I started to use my Navel bag on Saturday, and people kept asking me about it. Hinano and JP’s interview didn’t come out as audible as I had hoped, but you can mostly hear them…

Sunday coming next, and after that pictures + general evaluation + comic in the next week.

Only referring to Zonaxx’s bro and friend as such because I’m not sure if they want their names on the interwebz and I don’t know their net handles :x

It seems upon further investigation Big X isn’t really about fighting for the Nazis. But Big X is still a Nazi super weapon.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance) 

• Me
• FUNimation guy
• Magusman (MAGOOS)
• jpmeyer
• ADV guy
• Bandai guy
• Seiya
• With a special guest appearance by Trinora

That first question was at the FUNimation panel. I was also going to record something at Mike Toole’s panel, but lacked the balls to turn on the recorder around his godly presence.

Saturday’s going to be a nightmare to edit, but I’ll try to get it done today or tomorrow. Comic + general con evaluation to follow in the next week.

People emailed me to mention these things

Thing 1 is almost over, oops.

Thing 2 has just begun!

Yay

Original Post

Here is a comic. I forget if it’s good or not at this point. Pretty much speaks for itself.

Anyway, Anime Boston. First day sucked because 3.5 hours of it were spent in line. After that I met up with a few people, talked and bought some stuff. Went to a couple panels, too– FUNi’s industry thing and Mike Toole’s black ‘n’ white anime panel. Other than that, nothing of interest happened. Quite an underwhelming day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Oh yeah, the lines were crazy. My friend was in the normal reg line for 6 hours, and got to skip parts of it. Yeah. Anyway, hopefully a podcast of this madness will materialize in the near future.

Going to watch some bad anime (DRAGONZO) then go to bed. Later.

Oh, I guess they really did send me a book. I guess I’ll have to read/review it. May take a while, but I’ll hold up my end of the bargain.

I wrote a very sad song
when I woke up this morning
but I won’t let you listen to it
because it’s too sad a song

It’s a very sad story
maybe you noticed it too
it’s really very sad
but our love is over

like this
we held each other
we saw the same sunrise

I had a very sad dream
this morning before I woke up
I dreamt that I was singing a sad song
and you just kissed me

I’m really sorry
I’ve loved you so
but…

I’m really sorry
you’ve believed only me
but…

I’m really sorry
I’ve loved you so
but…

I’m really sorry
but in the end
we can forget everything

P5 Version
Alternate Version by Akiko Wada
YouTube

——

Lyrics taken from P5 Lyrics Database.

I heard the alternate version of this song first in a mix-tape-thing by Patrick Macias, and only heard P5’s when I was going through a torrent of their music later on (which I really should buy…) I have no idea who does the alternate version– if anyone knows, drop a comment.