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

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At Comiket Day 3 Nippon Banzai levels get shot into overdrive and manifest in completely bias incoherent ramblings in line. At Comiket Day 4, fatigue levels get shot into overdrive and manifest in simple incoherent ramblings. But it’s like that guy said, it’s all about catching that moment, that instant in our lives.

And you can listen to it, if you want!

We did end up meeting Kono Azure. Missed Ryu Moto, though.

Guests

• Chris (Hen Da Ne)
• Anonymous

Songs

• Opening Song– “Yume no Naka E” by Inoue Yousui
• Ending Song– “Ending Chorus: Beginning of the Universe” by Hattori Takayuki

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Once upon a time, there was a Comic Market. Unlike the previous 75 Comic Markets before it, this one was a little different: I was in attendance.

This is the first half of a two-part series that covers my adventures–as well as the adventures of those with me–at Comic Market 76.

Guests

• Mouse
• Chris (Hen Da Ne)

Songs

• Opening Song– “My Pace Daiou” by Manzo
• Ending Song– “I’m Feeling You” by Capsule

Just taking a little shot I took at C76 and making it look cooler.

I still want to do some write-ups on both Comic Market and Wonder Festival, along with perhaps another piece on my time in Japan. There are however a million other real blog posts I want to do, and it’s difficult to find time between school and me doing silly impulse posts like this.

Hopefully I can throw together some quick NYAF impressions by tomorrow, though.

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Wonder Festival may be long over, but our Beauty Memories live on… in the form of a podcast! The content of this show is true to the title for the first 10 or so minutes (believe it or not, there was even more of just me talking that was edited out) but after that there’s a good review of the event overall between me and lastarial. We learned quite quickly that it would be impossible to catch any audio at the event itself.

We actually talked about a bunch of fascinating things in line, but I never know when to switch on the recorder. Oops.

Some old photos.

Guests

• Lastarial

Songs

• Opening Song– “Mr. Noone Special (Reprise)” by Cymbals
• Ending Song– “Muzak Cycle” by Cymbals

In order to convey the greatness of figures to more, let’s say, “normal” people, our buddy Danny Choo decided to hold (past tense, I believe it’s over) a figure display in hipster-haven Harajuku in an attempt to fulfill this goal. That was the Tokyo Figure Show. Near the end of the showing, he decided to throw a party, and me being who I am decided to attend.

I actually popped my head over to the display a few days before the party to take some photos without being surrounded by too many people. The figures on display covered a decent rage, but I noticed that posables–Figmas, Nendoroids, and the like–were clearly the favourite. Series wise, it skewed a lot towards Haruhi and Lucky Star, which makes perfect sense. The Figma of Danny’s mascot, Mirai, was on display, and it seemed pretty well made.

The party was pretty good. Since it was being held in what seemed like a display space sponsored by Vitamin Water, free Vitamin Water, as well as Vitamin Water cocktails were served for the low, low price of free. Danny’s actually a great MC–really funny, and does well to excite the crowd. There was one janken tournament for three Vocaloid figures, and afterwards he gave out free Petite Nendoroids to those who don’t already own figures. I asked if I could take one, and he said only if I write a report on this event.

But that’s not why I’m writing this report!

What I do want to write about are the two fascinating people I met there. The first one was a Japanese guy in his mid-30s who works for the figure site Amiami.com. It was neat talking to him because he was an oldschooler otaku, and he just happened to have lived in West Virginia of all places. It was pretty cool to hear his stories as a lone Japanese man in redneck country, but it was even more interesting drilling him for info about “The Good Old Days.” Had I known I was going to meet someone like this, I would have prepared questions, so I was kind of reduced to asking him about the general climate of fandom in the 80s and 90s, and what the popular shows were.

The most interesting thing I took from this conversation was his comments on fan culture then, and fan culture now. In the 80s and 90s, there wasn’t much in the way of licensed goods, so people had to make their own. As such, Comiket and Wonder Festival were born. Now-a-days there’s a ton of official merchandise, and it’s resulted in fans turning more into consumers, rather that creators. He also noted that otaku back-in-the-day had a more scholarly knowledge of their obsession, while people today don’t care as much. This is kind of the same story you hear when you talk to any older fans, but it was neat hearing it from an Actual Japanese Person.

The other person I met was Adrian Lozano, a frequent poster on the Macross World forums, as well as the behind-the-scenes man for the blog Otaku2. Talking with him was fun, even if our conversation just kind of degenerated into the strengths and weaknesses of Eva 2.0, and us talking about Colony Drop’s most dangerous contributor, Sean. He did weigh in with some interesting views of fanculture, as well as the way he’s changed as a fan over the years.

So yeah, overall it was a good time. A+++ would attend again. Probably needed more Vitamin Water cocktails.

There won’t be much here, but I just thought I’d mention that I did attend the opening reception for what is apparently an annual Kappa-themed art exhibit held in Ikebukuro. I forgot my camera, so there’s no pictures, but other people have taken care of that.

It goes without saying that a bunch of Kappa-centric works were on display. What was interesting was all the different ways in which people spun the theme. Works ranged from epic movie poster-esque paintings, to more traditionally rendered imagery, to Matt and Mr. Marugame’s Kappa Machinder! The sheer amount of pure creative force surrounding me for those 90 minutes was astounding.

Some socializing was also done. I’m not a terribly social person, but I did exchange words with the aforementioned Matt Alt, David Marx, and Jean Snow, along with a few other people who either don’t have websites, or I don’t know what their website is!

Overall it was good fun. The display will be up for a few more days–til the 21st–so stop by and take a look if you’re in the area!

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On July the 7th, 2009, omo, a mysterious man known only as “Alex”, and myself attended the once-in-a-century concert “Super Dimensional Tanabata Sonic” put on by Kanno Yoko and the Seatbelts. However, the podcast that was produced is mostly about the new Eva movie, and really unfocused rants about the concert. That’s just how we roll, here!

We also review Pepsi Shiso, and I eat a Chocolate Cornet.

For those afraid of spoilers, we do spoil the end of Eva 2.0, so when we say SPOILERS, skip to around the 19 minute mark and all should be good.

Some photos.

Guests

• Omo
• Alex
  

Songs

• Opening Narration– “Introduction” by Shigeaki Saegusa, from the Zeta Gundam soundtrack
• Opening Song– “What Planet Is This?” by Kanno Yoko and Seatbelts
• Ending Song– “Want It All Back” by Yamane Mai
• Closing Message– “SF Game Center” by Kanno Yoko

Original Post

In addition to spawning a blog post that is entirely too long, this whole Endless Eight business has also done well to create two comics, one which you see before you, and another of which is in the pipeline for next week. Yeah, I know I said I wouldn’t update this week, but this idea was too good not to draw. Well, I like it… Art turned out a bit too rough, oh well.

Nothing much to talk about, except for that Kanno Yoko + Seatbelts show I went to on the seventh. It was pretty rad. Just seeing people who I only hear via pirated mp3s and at times bought CDs on stage in front of me was pretty cool, and the energy for the most part was awesome. May’n and Nakajima Megumi were prettier than I remembered, and it was pretty hot seeing them on stage singing their hearts out. This of course applies to all the other female performers, but those two especially stood out. Yamane Mai was good, but for some reason it seemed as if I couldn’t really hear her to well over the background music, but seeing pieces of The Real Folk Blues and Gotta Knock a Little Harder live was pretty awesome. She shined the brightest when she did Blue though, which was concluded nicely by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Want It All Back was pretty good, too.

The best part was of course seeing Tank! performed live, along with What Planet Is This? It’s just badass to see a bunch of dudes in suits go at it with the horns and totally rock the joint. I will admit to being slightly less interested during the more mellow part of the concert, but that was mostly because it was songs I either didn’t care for or didn’t know. There was an encore that was about an hour long, and the best part of that as probably the orchestral segment, but in the end it was all good.

That’s about all I’ll say about that. Omo will probably have a better writeup eventually, and I’ll be posting a podcast from that day in a little while. It’s mostly just us talking about things that aren’t the concert, and once we talk about the concert, we say nothing any value. We did say stuff of value in real life, but I didn’t feel like recording it. That’s just how I roll.

Later!

WHAT I DIDN’T PAY 1200 DOLLARS JUST FOR TWO TICKETS I WANT MY MONEY BACKSL:KFLKSDJGNLKDJLVKDJBV<LSDLKVXBV<Dv,vdx

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I can’t keep it a secret for any longer. Those who have a keen eye kept on my Flickr feed, or those who have the unfortunate knowledge as to what my face looks like and have seen it in photos taken by others will know that yes, I did find my way into one of Danny Choo’s swanky blogger parties.

I’m going to be honest here–I haven’t been reading Mr. Choo’s blog lately. I’ve become a busy guy–I don’t have much time to read blogs. As such, much like most of the other blogs livebookmarked in my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar Folder, I only click on things if a title on the RSS feed catches my eye. Because of this, I wasn’t really fully aware of the details of these parties Mr. Choo was holding beyond the fact that they existed until a friend of mine tipped me off. After some research, I came to the conclusion that an event like this could be fun, and summarily begged Danny for an invite.

CGM Night 5, held on the 15th of June was the first of these parties that I attended. Me, along with a friend went to see just how much trouble we could get into. Turns out there was a lot of trouble we could have gotten into, but we didn’t really get into it. We’re too good for that.

There was lots of geek-swank going on at this party. You couldn’t look anywhere without running into a Google or Firefox employee, along with a slew of other IT pros. The party was mostly a stage for networking and general socializing with other nerds, but there were some games and giveaways. I played janken for an eroge I’d never play, but it’s fine since I lost anyway. There was no one there that I really knew, but the atmosphere alone was interesting.

I did however know two people–Patrick “Son Goku” Galbriath, and–the man of the hour–Danny Choo. I exchanged some words with Patrick, and exchanged a bit more with Danny. They’re both cool guys, and probably better people to meet in real life than, say, me.

My friend and I came out rather satisfied with the experience, and both agreed that we wouldn’t mind going again. Of course, it’d probably be better if I could run into more people I know.

Once the party was done, we went out for Hoppy.

Since nothing really exciting happened here except for the performance, I’ll spare you guys the wannabe Gonzo journalism this time.

Going off of a tip from kransom, as well as a series of amusing youtube videos, I decided to pop down to Yokohama’s Chinatown yesterday to see a Gundam Kodan performance. That is, scenes from Gundam told in the Kodan style. I’m not sure how many Japanese people I’d offend by saying this was my first time watching a Kodan performance, but it was.

The venue was pretty small. The stage was a modest size, and the seating area (composed entirely of normal chairs, so they weren’t fastened down) was enough for about 20 to 30 people. Thusly, in retrospect the whole thing felt not dissimilar to a school play, but I’m under the impression that most nerd events in Japan are like this, especially ones like this that only weird people would care about. I must be especially weird, since I was the only foreigner in that small–but fairly packed–room to go see some crazy guy perform scenes from Gundam dressed in a kimono.

I got there a little late, but the performance hadn’t properly started yet. Minamihankyu, the man of the hour, was on stage with two girls dressed in Zeon outfits (in fact, all the staff were dressed like either Federation or Zeon soliders) and they were going on about something or other. A variety of Gundam theme songs, as well as First Gundam BGM were coming through the sound system to set the mood.

Once the clock struck 15:15, a woman came on as a warm up act told what I assumed was a chapter from the Tale of Genji. I’m just assuming because I couldn’t understand anything she was saying at all beyond “Genji.” Once that was over the man himself, Minamihankyu, took the stage clad in a green kimono with Zeon emblems all over it.

He opened with a short introduction about kodan, how he got into it, and more importantly how he got into Gundam. He made note that was 33, and Gundam this year is 30, so when the original aired he was just a 3-year-old boy. He went on to say that at one point in his life (I couldn’t tell when) he watched all of the original Gundam movies in one sitting, without sleeping or eating. Because he’s awesome. After about 15 minutes of that, he went into his performance.

This first thing he decided to do was most of episode 1 from the original series. Everyone laughed when all the famous lines came out, and people really went nuts when he started humming the appropriate BGM for the scenes he was doing. The most amusing parts were probably when he’d take on the role of one of the robots, and do something like the stealthy infiltration of Side 7, or one of the battle scenes. The battle scenes were especially hilarious because it’d just turn into him running around the stage making lots of noises.

Once our man had finished his attack on Side 7, there was a short intermission, followed by a guest interview segment. Three people were on–a game developer who seemed to have worked on Gundam MS SenSen 0079, a female Gundam doujin artist whose specialty was making cutout artwork of the robots, and the woman who had performed previously. I couldn’t get too much out of this since my Japanese comprehension is rather bad, but it was pretty cool to see that one artist cutout a Zaku at lightening speed. People made requests, and once she was done she’d give the final product the person who requested it, as well as one to a random person in the audience. I didn’t get one, unfortunately.

Another short intermission followed the guest segment, and the event ended with an encore by Minamihankyu. He concluded by reenacting the events after the Side 7 infiltration, meaning he got to say the famous “mistakes of one’s youth” line, as well as run around the stage as Char Aznable’s Zaku, this time dressed in an appropriately red Kimono, once again emblazoned with the Zeon emblem.

All said, it was great. I feel I got my money’s worth (2800 yen), but I still kind of wish there was more of him and less of other things. It was mostly worth the three hour round trip to Yokohama, but only because I got to sleep on the train.

The clock is about to strike 18:00. It’s a cool Spring evening in Nakano, and I’m outside the station orienting myself with this map I printed out from the UFOTable Cafe website, with the goal in mind being to see the Kannagi exhibit currently on display there.

This cafe is farther then I thought. Shit on the map always looks closer than it actually is. After constantly thinking I’m overshooting, I finally look up and find myself at the cafe.

I’m pretty surprised by the vibe as I walk in. The decor is pretty normal looking. In fact, if you didn’t happen to notice the giant display of lineart right across from you, or the table of promotional material right by the door, you’d think this is a normal place. After some waiting awkwardly, the waitress finally notices me tells me I can sit anywhere I please in that cheerful, Japanese service person tone.

I sit down. To my right is a couple on what looks like a date. On the other side is some dude reading manga, and a girl who seems to be studying for midterms. The music coming through the sound system ranges from blues, to jazz, to… is that Shibuya-kei? I’m not well versed in music beyond anime songs, but I’m sure I heard some Brazil 66 and Pizzicato Five. This is the quite the otaku hipster hangout.

After a rather long look through the “Drink+Food Menu”, I holler out the ol’ “sumimasen!” Moments later, the same waitress comes to inquire about my order. I get a curry and pineapple juice. Once my food comes, I ask the woman if I can photograph my curry and juice.

“Sure,” she says, “in fact, you can take photos all over the cafe, except for the exhibit, of course.”

“Is that so?” I reply back, slightly suprised.

This sure isn’t the typical otaku joint–in addition to playing normal music, photography isn’t totally kinshi. Though, I guess they don’t have any reason to charge you 700 yen for a photo with one of the girls. However, the prices certainly are that of an otaku joint. All the drinks are over 400 yen, and the curry in front of me is 880.

That said, the meal was rather filling, and I was quite surprised I could even swing dinner here at all. With my food finished, I go over to the display space. It’s split into two levels, with the lower level being comprised of completed promotional art shown along side its respective lineart, some books, figures, and nice prints of all the ending illustrations. Lots of great artists here; Naruko Hanaharu, Okama, Azuma Kiyohiko, the Type Moon and Key artists… I almost wish I could buy these things, but I’m not that nuts over Kannagi. I should note that these two levels are split in a one-storey building, so I have to be a giant gaijin and duck down to see anything without bumping my head.

The second level is even worse–at one point you have to duck under a ceiling vent to see the rest of the display. It’s not an annoyance or anything, just probably not good for one’s back. The second level is composed entirely of sequences taken from the show.

A lot of key moments are on display, a good few of which I remember. The display opens with shots from the opening, then picks out certain bits in chronological order from the show as you go along. What’s really amazing about this is that each drawing is a beautiful work of art. Even while still, each individual drawing has a lot of movement to it, and you really begin to see why the animation in Kannagi was as kinetic as it was. That said, this display of cleaned pencil drawings isn’t quite as impressive as a display of cels, but you do what you can in this age of digital animation.

After going back and forth through the exhibit, I decide I have enough, pay for my meal, and head out the door. If you’re in the Tokyo area and happen to be a fan of such things, I highly recommend you check out this exhibit. It’s especially interesting if you’re an artist (or wannabe artist, like myself) and want to see what real pro work looks like, stripped of most of its polish. It’s also interesting if you want to see how all of the digital cartoons you watch start as pencil drawings. Go see it soon! I have no idea how long it’s going to be up for!

First, let us open with a story told in pictures along with some not-very-witty commentary.

It took me longer than I thought it would to get there. Not too long, but longer than expected. Resulted in me arriving 30 minutes late, but I knew I was running late right as I walked out the door.

There were a few other events in here as well, and one of them happened to be a Touhou event. There were people lined up all around the block. All of the events were rather small, but had enough people so that it wasn’t totally crowded. This Touhou event was the same size as the others, but about 100 times the amount of people wanted to get in.

The beginning of the massive Touhou line. You can’t really assess its size from this photo, though.

After some wandering around the Tokyo Trade Center for about 15 minutes, I finally found my way into the event space.

I would steal Shingo’s old joke about Japanese people having a horrible disease which causes their faces to get blurry whenever photographed, but he’s not around to call me on that.

Not quite Comiket. More like an Otakon artists alley.

Since I arrived late, I missed Bolze’s book. I had only found out that he was going to be in attendance hours prior, so I didn’t really care. He was nice enough to let me photograph his sexy Nagi illustration. Still can’t find his new book in doujin shops, though. I wonder if it was even a new release or just a reprint of old stuff. Since he was sold out, I’m guessing it was a new book but I’m too lazy to check.

I left after about 90 minutes, if I recall correctly, and the Touhou line was still alive and kicking. To make things even better, it had started raining while I was inside. Good thing I brought my umbrella, because when it rains in Japan, it’s always for the whole day, and it’s never, ever a light drizzle. I met up with kransom and penguinman a few moments later, in said horrifying Touhou line. After waiting for them to do their run, we went and acted like nerds in Akiba for a bit.

Here’s an ad for a DVD box only 2000 people bought.

My modest loot pile. I only bought that HinaxHamsterxTrapHayate book because the circle selling it had a free file you could take. I had forgotten my bag, so I needed something to hold my books, but I didn’t just want to take her file without buying anything, so I bought her book after some thought. If anyone wants it I’ll sell it to them for what I bought it for.

And now, some brief impressions.

Golden Week is prime time for otaku events. In fact, in the days prior to this one both Comic 1 and Comitia happened. I didn’t go to those–I didn’t want my first doujin event to be something big and scary. Thusly, I decided to skip those, and instead check out this small “Only”–as they call it in Japan–event for my (somewhat, season 2 is grating on my nerves) beloved Hayate no Gotoku.

The event was as small as I expected it to be. The quality of the books was generally fine, but there was some real homely stuff being sold. The best example was–and I really should bought it, in retrospect–was this horrible Hinagiku-centric copy-bon. The art was completely done in pencil, and looked as if it was drawn by a third grader. I think it was ero, too. Not sure. The guy was so desperate, yelling “please, take a look” at anyone who passed by. As such, his book was the first I looked at.

There was a line forming for something popular, so I just got in it on a whim. When I was about half-way into the line the big “our new issue is sold out” announcement was made, and everyone dispersed. I really had no idea what it was, but it looked fine from when I caught a quick glance at it earlier.

One thing that’s interesting about an event like this is that you get to the see the faces of people who make the books you buy. Well, that is if they’re not wearing a kaze mask. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you. What surprised me is how many not-horrible-looking women were behind some of the booths. Actually, a good number of the people I bought from were women. I’m not sure if they were actually the artists, though. On the same vein, some people I follow on pixiv were there, so it was cool to see what they looked like.

Overall, I had a fine time. It wasn’t the vigorous Comiket experience, but it was still nice in its own, chilled out way. As my first event, I thought it was good, but I really feel like tackling bigger events in the future. However, I think the only real big event coming up next is… Comiket.