For my first weekend, I decided to catch two movies based on Japanese manga, but are quite possibly as different as two live-action adaptations can be. The first is the Korean take on the boys’ love manga Antique Bakery, and the second is the Japanese remake of the classic anime / manga series Be a Man! Samurai School.

Antique

The 2008 Korean film simply titled Antique is based off of the boys’ love title by Fumi Yoshinaga. Readers of my blog might remember the time I read Yoshinaga’s series Gerard & Jacques as an experiment to see what I would think about reading yaoi (NSFW link). Antique Bakery is significantly less pornographic than Gerard was, and the idea of homosexuality is more a comical sub plot than the central theme.

The movie adaptation relocates the setting from Japan to Korea and changes the names of all the characters to Korean names, but other than that, the film sticks to the original story pretty faithfully. Jin-Hyuk quits his day job to open a fancy bakery shop for reasons buried deep in his psyche. Having no talent (or taste) in pastries himself, he hires the best chef he can find, his former admirer and now gay heartbreaking hottie Sun-Woo. Shortly there after, Jin-Hyuk hires his personal bodyguard and a former champion boxer to help run this crazy shop. Hilarity ensues with this colorful cast of characters until Jin’s past finally catches up with him, and he is forced to face the demons he has buried so long ago.

The most interesting part of this film is how very non-conventional the cinematography is, especially for an Asian film. The camera flies all over the place and zooms in and out at random moments, plus there are frequent cuts between very odd angles. This filming actually gives the movie a very playful tone just as colorful and sugar coated as the pastries on the screen. And then on top of all of that, there is a full-out musical production stuck in the middle of the film that is as whimsical and extravagant as the opening of Moulin Rouge.

The overall tone of the movie was very lighthearted, which really downplayed the boys’ love element that I was expecting going in. Only one of the leads, Sun-Woo, was gay while the other, Jin-Hyuk, was 100% straight. This lead to a very cartoonish courtship between the two, like Sun-Woo was Pepé Le Pew and Jin-Hyuk was the cat with the white stripe painted on his back.

I can probably also give credit to the film festival audience for this pleasantness as well. While I was expecting every female in the audience to go fangirl nuts over the boy-on-boy make out scenes, they really kept quiet over it. Instead, the audience paid close attention to the subtitled dialogue and laughed at every funny line. The only unconventional reaction through out the film was a loud moan heard as the gooey filling of a chocolate lava cake dribbled out onto a porcelain white plate.

Mmm… chocolate lava cake…

So even with a base in boys’ love and yaoi, Antique was quite a delightful film, and it served as a good pallet cleanser for the film I saw right after it…

Be a Man! Samurai School

Now, come on. The freaking movie is called Be a Man! Samurai School. You can tell that this isn’t going to be your soft and girlie movie about pastries and men loving each other, right? This is going to be about kicking ass and taking names!

Yes, true to its name, Be a Man! is the live action adaptation to the tongue-in-cheek classic shonen action series by Akira Miyashita. It follows a class of first year students enrolled at the Man-school to learn how to.. BE A MAN! The path to manhood involves some manly endurance tasks such as fighting while hanging off the side of a cliff, holding still for hours over a vat of boiling oil, and one scene where a dude fights a bear in the wild.

Yes, a one-on-one fist fight with a freaking grizzly bear.

Awesome!

Now if the idea of a “tough guy high school parody” sounds very familiar to the recent anime series and live-action movie Cromartie High School, that’s because, well, it is. Watching Samurai School reminded me a lot of Cromartie, but I think the key difference between the two is that Cromartie found its humor in being ridiculous. It threw in random classmates such as a robot, a gorilla, and Freddie Mercury, and then had the students battle alien invaders. Be A Man, however, found its humor in just pure male stupidity.

This film is stupid, but it’s brilliantly stupid. It shows that if the world is divided among the brains versus bronze, you might not want to be part of the latter. One scene shows how the class is unable to solve even the simplest of math problems. Hanging on the walls of the classroom are student-made calligraphy samples of the simple Chinese character for man, “otoko.” However, even the elementary-level Chinese character proves to be too difficult for one of the students, so up hangs a “otoko” calligraphy written in preschool-level Japanese characters.

One of the scenes I loved the most was one where a Samurai School student is asked out on a date with a very cute schoolgirl. As expected, the neanderthal of a man is very awkward and simple when it comes to dating. When he ends up getting his heart broken by the girl after the date, he sadly walks away with his male classmates by his side. This cliched and over-dramatic parting shot shows an important lesson in every man’s life - bro’s before hoes.

Bro’s before hoes… hmm… maybe it’s not so much different than Antique Bakery after all.. :-P

* * *

So two very different manga adaptations brought to the big screen, but each one obviously influenced from the cartoonie nature of the comics they came from.

The fun continues this weekend with a very special double feature showing of the live action adaptations of 20th Century Boys. If you’re in New York City for the Fourth of July, then I strongly encourage you to check this out at the Japan Society. The first film starts at 11:45 am and there will be free beer and snacks served in between both films. I’ll be there, so you should be too! (^_^)

An English dub consisting of actual lines of Shakespeare and next episode previews written in iambic pentameter? That sounded interesting.

And so he showed off two clips from the show, and sure enough, the dub did appear quite impressive. Many people in the audience left the panel eager to see more of this show and its unique dub.

So now that I’ve had a chance to watch the series, does it live up to the hype surrounding it?

Well, yes, but not in the ways that I thought it would.

Romeo x Juliet takes the old Shakespearean classic about the star-crossed lovers and sets it into a world more appropriate to anime. The entire house of Capulet has been slain by Lord Montague, and the sole survivor is young Juliet. The poor girl is kept hidden away disguised as an orphaned boy her whole life. When she grows older, she spends her days as a masked crime fighter protecting the streets of Neo Verona, when she finally meets the dashing Romeo and his flying horse.

Yes, Romeo has a flying horse, just like in the original play by Shakespeare. ;-)

As expected, the two leads fall madly and deeply in love with each other. But on Juliet’s 16th birthday, she learns about how her family fell at the hands of the Montagues, and how it is now her destiny to seek vengeance for the sake of her name. Will their love prevail in this fantasy remake or will they meet the same tragic end that we’ve come to expect from this centuries-old tale?

First and foremost, I must talk about the unique dub that FUNimation created and has hyped up about so much. The clips that were shown at that AnimeNEXT panel were taken from the second episode of the series, and indeed, the dub in that episode is absolutely fantastic. Almost every line from start to finish in this episode is so brilliantly thought out to recreate the feeling of watching a Shakespearean-inspired story. Even little subtleties like having Juliet yell, “Never you mind!” when she’s mad rather than simply saying, “nevermind!” brings this ambitious idea to full realization.

From the perspective of an English-speaking anime viewer, I think this is the first time I have ever felt the dialogue actually matter while watching an anime show. The art of language just doesn’t translate from Japanese to English, so FUNimation took it upon themselves to adapt life and creativity back into this script.

But unfortunately, and I really mean unfortunately, this adaptation turns out to be a major disappointment in the long run. For some reason, only the second and ninth episodes are written in this way. The Shakespearean language quickly goes away after the episode is over, and only comes back for the poetic “next episode” previews and sporadic moments through out the rest of this 12-episode volume. They’ll surprise you with the occasional rhyming couplet thrown in here and there, but besides that, all you really have is just a same-old same-old dub translation that you’d find in any other series.

Where did it go? Why didn’t they stick with it?

I could understand that adapting a show like this in this way was probably not an easy task to accomplish. The Japanese script was in no way intended to fit into Shakespearean language, and there are many places where the lip flaps would not allow the right amount of syllables to be spoken in this way. But they made it look so easy within those two episodes! I really don’t see why they didn’t continue with it beyond that.

If they had challenge themselves to stick with the Shakespearean adaptation through out the entire dub, we could potentially have seen the best English adaptation I have ever encounter. FUNimation teases us with how awesome this could have been in those two selected episodes, but sadly, they do not follow through on that promise.

But while FUNimation disappoints in adaption, the Japanese more than make up for it in the source material. As ridiculous at it may sound to have Juliet as a caped crusader or Romeo to have a flying horse in an adaptation of the classic play, I’ve really got to give the folks at Gonzo credit where credit is due -

They wrote one fantastic story!

From the very first moment of the first episode to the point that the series leaves off in the twelfth, I was hooked every minute of every episode. The settings and scenarios in this fantasy world lead to very entertaining action sequences. All the supporting cast members are notable and lovable, and they provide great drama and interest amongst themselves. And the pacing is the best I have ever seen in a serialized series. Every time the credits began to roll at the end of each episode, I found myself amazed that the full half hour had pass by so quickly like that. There’s never a single boring moment within this two-DVD box set.

But I think the reason why this story is so  good is the relationship between the ill-fated lovers. Gonzo kept the best aspects of the original story, and that is the tragic beauty of the two falling for each other despite being destine to be enemies. But on top of that premise, they made the two characters absolutely believable. Through the emotions they display on their animated faces and the actions they take within the story, you believe that these cartoon characters are actually in love with each other.

This is amazing storytelling, and I don’t think I could ever praise it enough in this review. You must watch this series and experience it for yourself.

* * *

The Good: Fantastic story filled with enough drama and action to keep you sucked in each and every episode.

The Bad: FUNimation could have potentially done great things with the English adaptation, but holds back for most of the series.

Final Verdict: There is no doubt that Gonzo has created a fantastic take off of the Shakespearean classic with Romeo x Juliet. This is one of the best releases so far this year, and truly a “must watch” series for any anime fan out there.

Ballad is not so much of a serialized series as it is a collection of short stories that Momo watches from the sidelines. Volume one includes a short prelude and three stories.

Each story generally centers around a person who has recently suffered the loss of someone close to them, so they become all too aware of the cute death god watching over them. They become too preoccupied in contemplating their own mortality to realize all the love and life that still exists around them.

Man, who would have thought that shojo could be this gloomy and depressing! (o_o)

As the reader, you will Immediately see that this series defies the typical makings of the shojo genre. Sure, Momo has an magical-girl style animal familiar, but that’s as far as it goes.

There are no androgynous pretty boys nor sparkly flowery background. The character designs look more like moé shonen romance than shojo designs. And the artist does not use the shojo-style commentary panels to talk about her dinner or pets, she uses it to show Momo cosplaying.

I did have to double check if this was supposed to be a shojo series, but sure enough, it originates from the shojo magazine Lala DX. The original novel, however, did run in a seinen prose anthology Dengeki Bunko. Because of this mixture of influences, the adaptation successfully crosses over between demographics, and I greatly admire it for that.

The English adaptation seems to fall flat at moments. One example would be a little conversation where a boy teases the way a girl refers to her father. In Japanese, there are many words you can use to address your family based on formality and maturity. So I assume that the boy was teasing the girl for being too immature in the word she used to speak to her father.

However, the translation sticks only to English words like “father”, “old man”, and “daddy”, which really don’t have the same implications that “otousan”, “chichi”, or “papa” have in Japanese. This ends up appearing like a pointless argument when used in this adaptation, and this conversation lasts for a couple of pages. I really wish that I had the original Japanese text just to figure out what the girl was being teased about. Perhaps the use of translation notes would have been better for this part?

Likewise, having a collection of short stories rather than one long serialized series means that each chapter needs to quickly go through a setup, story, climax, and conclusion with in a few pages. So as expected, the story is very condensed and goes by quickly. The narrative jumps all over the place at times, often being told non-linearly and often becoming too confusing for me to follow.

But perhaps the ambiguous narrative adds to the ultimate reason why I can, and do, fully recommend this series. Despite all the confusion, gloom, and depression building up through out each story, everything does come together for a satisfactory - and often surprising - conclusion.

I wasn’t too happy with the series while reading the first story, but after it ended, I found myself thinking, “Wow, I liked that ending. I REALLY liked that ending.” I felt a similar experience with the second story. By the time the third and final story came around, I was fully convinced that Izumi was a great and entertaining writer.

Yet even in that last story, she still managed to get me again with a surprising and excellent ending to finish off the volume. (^_^)

* * *

The Good: Well written storytelling with very satisfactory conclusions.

The Bad: English adaptation fails at times. Narrative a little difficult to follow.

Final Verdict: Ballad of a Shinigami defies the norm for shojo manga to present a great collection of stories about life and death.

But being able to see all these new releases has made me realize that lately the packaging from FUNimation has been a real crapshoot as far as quality goes. This comes from the company trying to cut costs in a dying DVD market and from trying to ship out the massive amount of new catalog they acquired from Geneon and ADV. The result seems to be that no two packages are alike. They’re all made up of different sizes, cases, structures, and designs.

But one such package I received from them recently was so incredibly bad that I simply could not do it justice describing it on Twitter. So please allow me to take you through a photo tour on what must be the worst anime packaging ever.

When I first encountered the boxset to The Law of Ueki, I see that it contains two double sized DVD jewel cases wrapped together in shrink wrap. I remove the wrap to find that the two cases are stuck together by some gluey adhesive, the kind that you’d find in a magazine when there’s a card or something that you can remove from the page. This makes the two cases easy to separate, so I pull them apart to discover…

They’re identical.

Front, back, spine… these two double-sized DVD cases are 100% identical. They both even have the same UPC bar code on the back.

Of course, my first thought is, “Crap! Somebody at FUNimation screwed up and sent me two copies of the same series!!!” (T_T)

So as I’m starting to figure out what I’m going to do with my extra copy of Ueki, I crack open the box to see what’s inside.

Holy crap, they’ve got a lot of DVDs crammed in there! In fact, when you combine both cases, you’d count 11 discs in total.

Hold on! Eleven DVDs divided among two cases… that doesn’t make sense, eleven is an odd number.

So I go back and count each case again.

Oh my god, this case has one more DVD than the other!

Oh my god, they’re all different DVDs!

Yes, the entire Law of Ueki series is made up of 11 DVDs, and they are spread across both cases. Both identical cases.

The first problem this presents is, “well, how do I know which case has the first half of the series and which case has the second half of the series?” Well, from the outside, you can’t. Again, both cases are 100% identical. If you were to place them on your shelf, it would look like you have two copies of the same series.

Okay, so I open up one case to see if it contains the first half of the series or the second half.

Don’t bother looking too closely, my dear reader, because you’re not going to find a volume number on the disc.

This is an 11-DVD series boxset, and not a single one of the discs are numbered.

Great, just freaking great. (-_-)

So I start looking around for some kind of episode guide to help me figure out which discs were which, but these cases are so full of DVDs that there’s no room for any inserts. Just when I thought all hope was lost…

Wait, what’s that behind the DVD? It looks like there’s something on the reverse side of the DVD sleeve.

There it is! There’s your episode guide! FUNimation was kind enough to give you a helping hand in figure out which DVD you’re supposed to start off with.

And all you have to do is remove the DVDs from the case to be able to read the it! (-_-)

It is as if the designers at FUNimation had specifically engineered this set to be as confusing and frustrating as possible to the end user. Just what were they thinking?

Now I know that I should put the blame for the unnumbered DVDs on Geneon, that was something that they liked to do and FUNi is just repackaging their old DVDs. However, making the two separate cases identical and then hiding the episode guide behind all the DVDs, that’s all FUNi’s fault.

So shame on you, Mr. FUNimation, for making this blogger go nuts just trying to figure out which DVD to pop into his player first. Shame on you.

You know, for being called The Anime Almanac, I sure haven’t been showcasing a lot of anime as of late. The last anime review I did was of the first Lucky Star DVD from over a year ago. The last time I even directly talked about any anime show in particular was my analysis of Haré + Guu. Since then, I’ve been either writing editorials or con reports, or I’ve been reviewing manga and video games.

That’s why I am so glad that FUNimation stepped in and answered my call for anime review material. And boy, did they ever! They literally sent over more anime my way then I’ll ever have time to go over! So for my first of many weekly anime reviews, I selected the 13-episode horror/action series, Venus Versus Virus, a rescue title from ADV.

Venus Versus Virus is the story about the Virus Vanguard, a group of protectors that hunt down monsters known as the Virus, former humans possessed by demons, and inject them with a special vaccine. Tough-girl Lucia heads up the operation when she discovers Sumire, a shy and timid girl with the power to also see the virus.

But this new girl is special. When Sumire is injected with a taste of her own vaccine, she becomes the ultimate anti-virus that no monster can defeat. But this power comes with a price. Sumire loses all control of herself and lashes out against Lucia until the vaccine wears out. Can Sumire control this incredible power to contain the virus, or will she eventually destroy Lucia and the rest of the Virus Vanguard?

Okay, so the plot is nothing very special. The mixture of j-horror with action is one of the most cliched premises in anime, manga, and video games. The idea of having to hunt down demonic viruses sounded very familiar to the visual novel I recently reviewed called Lux Pain. Even the way that Sumire gains her special power - by shooting herself in the head with a vaccine injecting handgun - conjures up images of the Persona franchise of video games.

But what Virus lacks in originality, it makes up for in the visual department. Intended for a male audience, this series features a whole cast of wonderfully designed pretty girls wearing beautiful gothic-lolita style costumes. The designs are akin to Ken Akamatsu’s style of pretty girls, and would appear to have been from a harem romance title rather than a horror-action series.

One of the unsettling aspects about these pretty girls and their pretty designs is that they also apply it to most of the young male characters. One example of this would be Riku, the young lad with a huge crush on Sumire. The problem I had with Riku is that he looked like a girl. Not one of those androgynous pretty boys you would find in a shojo series, but one of those doe-eyed moé girls that make up the rest of the cast.

The series wins on most of the artistic choices it makes. A dark horror story has never looked this bright and colorful before. And the pretty character and costume designs are showcased in beautiful still-framed images during the show’s eye-catches, ending theme song, and “next episode” preview.

However, the series also misfires on some of these artistic choices, most notably the way it handles flashbacks. These scenes take place within an eyeball shaped framing, as if to imply that you, the viewer, are seeing the scene through the eyes of someone else. However, this frame actually takes up most of the screen leaving little room for the action, and the frame is usually brightly colored with some strange pattern. It looks ugly, really ugly, and is a pretty big distraction from the scene taking place.

It is a shame, because these flashback moments reveal another positive aspect of this monster-of-the-week serial, and that would be actual character depth. In the first episode, you are thrown into the middle of the action with both leads fighting the monsters. But as the series progresses, the background story is slowly revealed and the current situation becomes all too clear.

Aside from the main cast, all of the supporting characters also have their own unique story and charm. That timid Riku character has a running gag of trying to confess his love to Sumire with his out-going older sister cheering him on. Lucia’s somewhat adopted father, Soichiro, has an incredible back story on how he came to know the girl and run the Vanguard with her. And the tsundere little girl Laura ends up having her own interesting characteristics as well.

While the series itself is not outwardly sexual, there are a lot of strong sexual undertones that periodically appear through out the series. And each and every time it happens, it is creepy as hell.

The most obvious of these undertones is the lesbian tension between the two leads. Despite the fact that Sumire is seen with a older good looking boy through out the series, there is an undoubted attraction between her and Lucia. In fact, almost every schoolgirl in the series appears to have a crush on one another. Not to mention that the second episode revolves around a pair of twin siblings - a boy and a girl - who seem to have a… ahem… very deep love for each other.

Like I said, these undertones end up being creepy as hell. (o_o)

The Good: Pretty looking characters with gorgeous gothic-lolita costume designs.

The Bad: Some of the artistic choices fall flat. Underlining sexual tensions unsettling. Young male characters look just like the girls.

Final Verdict: Venus Versus Virus manages to take a cliche supernatural mystery plot and polishes it with enough eye candy and character depth to make it an enjoyable 13-episode anime series.

In my years of fandom, one of the most interesting people I have ever met has been Erica Friedman. As a lesbian and hardcore manga fan, Erica has become very vocal and passionate about the yuri subgenre of comics. She’s so into it that she writes in her Okazu yuri-blog many times each week, runs the occasional Yuricon in both America and Japan, and has even started her own independent publishing company called ALC Publishing.

The somewhat annual yuri anthology Yuri Monogatari is Erica’s pride and joy. A combination of short stories from both Japanese and Western manga artists, Monogatari offers a wide variety of “authentic yuri” manga compiled together from the queen of the genre herself.

So how does this compilation play out for a more mainstream manga fan such as myself? Well, I got to check out the latest volume, and I discovered that like pretty much every manga anthology, you’ve gotta take the good with the bad.

First off, let’s talk about the good, and I mean really good. The shiny gem in this anthology is the short “Miho-chan’s Memories” by Japanese artist Rica Takashima. If you recall, I had written a feature on Takashima and her Rica ‘tte Kanji comic last fall when she spoke at the MangaNEXT convention. Reading this short made me realize that Takashima needs to be more well known than she currently is. She is a truly unique and talented manga artist.

This short is a prequel to Rica ‘tte Kanji, and shows the early childhood of Rica’s future girlfriend, Miho. Even from early on, little Miho didn’t do what other girls did. She’d much rather play with action figures than with dolls. She prefers to wear boys close instead of frilly dresses. And she even gives herself a very short haircut. All the while, her family gets more worried over their daughter’s odd behavior.

Like in Kanji, Takashima tells this very simple story of sexual awakening using the most unbelievably adorable artwork imaginable. It’s so different from anything else out there, yet it’s charming and sweet enough not to offend anybody. If Hello Kitty ever began talking about hooking up with other female kitties, I imagine it would turn out like a Takashima comic.

Besides, everyone knows that there’s nothing more cute than chibi-lesbos. (^_^)

But even a work as great as Takashima’s short can be overshadowed by something completely bad, and “Sakura Gun (London)” by JD Glass sure comes close to doing it. I wish I could tell you what this story is about, I really do. However, I couldn’t figure out a damn thing that was going on. Something about lesbians, a fusion of Japanese and British cultures, some frog thingy, references to something called “American Goth”, Japanese sword fighting, avatars…

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I brought up this particular short to Erica to try to figure out what I was missing, and she told me that the comic was a tie-in to a series of novels that Glass had written. While it might be a good comic in the context of the world that Glass portrays in her written work, this short is absolute crap on its own. Unintelligible story mixed with in poor framing and way too much dialog and narration makes this one to jump over when you’re checking out this anthology.

Comparing Takashima’s work with Glass’s shows that there is a clear artistic difference between Japanese and Western artists in this anthology. From the point of view of this mainstream manga fan, the Japanese shorts are far better than the Western ones. But that’s not to say that all of the Western works are bad. In fact, my second favorite story in this anthology was “Speak Love” from the non-Japanese artist Greyscaled.

“Speak Love” tells the story of a lesbian couple who seek therapy to help save their struggling relationship. The great thing about this story is that it is very well written. It’s filled with enough human drama to get you interested in the characters and then throws in a few plot twists to get you into the story. But on top of all of this, Greyscaled draws some of the sexiest female nude scenes I’ve ever seen. Great story and great visuals make this short a winner to me.

[Spoiler Alert - skip next paragraph to avoid a spoiler to one story]

Likewise another Western artist, Hope Donovan, creates the most OEL-looking short with her “Cause x Play” story. Taking place at Yuricon, this short tells the story of a cosplayer who finds the perfect partner character to pose with her for photos. This obvious match-made-in-yuri-heaven turns odd when we discover that this other woman is not actually a girl, just a pre-op tranny. This one really seemed to be the most mainstream selection in the anthology and truly made for the American manga fan. It reminded me a lot of Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon series, just with a pre-op tranny.

[End of Spoiler]

But this gender-bending theme turns completely over in Althea Keaton’s “For the Girl Who Has Everything”. This is the love story between manly lesbians, and it took me a while to figure out that it wasn’t about two gay men. It attempts to tell a beautiful story using ugly art for ugly characters using ugly language in an ugly setting. While Takashima takes a blunt-but-charming look at real lesbianism, Keaton takes a blunt-but-so-fucking-what-just-deal-with-it approach. It’s so incredibly counter-culture that even this liberal-minded reader couldn’t tolerate it, and I’m sure it would probably turn off a lot of other people as well.

So as you can see, this is truly a mixed bag of works from many different artists. When combined together like this, Monogatari makes a very interesting read. But it should be noted that ALC Publishers is an Independent publisher, so the overall production quality is not exactly up to the level we’re used to when reading more mainstream titles. Words don’t often fit properly into their bubbles and the flow and pacing of a lot of the Western shorts seems uneven and too congested. This might not be the most suitable book for a mainstream manga reader, but if you’re into the indie underground comic scene, this might be right up your alley.

The Good: Some of the selections are quite excellent, especially the shorts from Rica Takashima and Greyscaled.

The Bad: Some of the selections are complete and utter crap. Overall production quality sub par to more mainstream releases.

Final Verdict: Yuri Monogatari offers a wide range of art and story telling centered around the subject of sex and homosexuality. While it is a little extreme for the typical manga consumer, it offers a lot for fans of the indie and underground.

Because of that, the AnimeNEXT convention will always hold a special place in my heart, and I very eagerly anticipated returning to it for my second year. But so much has changed this time around since the convention packed up from Secaucus NJ and moved to a new location half-way across the state to Somerset. Did the convention continue to improve in this new venue, or did it miss its mark in this unfamiliar territory?

Here are a couple of highlights that defined my AnimeNEXT experience this year.

Volunteer Con Staff - You Get What You Paid For

I’ll start off with the negative aspects of the convention this year, and it started months before I even set foot in Somerset.

After I had gotten my first taste of the press badge and its magical powers at the convention last year, I knew that I would never go back to the old way of convention going ever again. It granted me all the access I wanted to get up close and personal with the industry and fan culture I loved so dearly. I am not going to be restricted from that again. So when Anime Boston denied me (and every other blogger) a press badge to their con this year, I said, “well screw them!” and didn’t go.

A few months ago, Narutaki of Reverse Thieves had mentioned that they had just gotten their press badge approval from AnimeNEXT the previous day. I figured that this meant that they had someone working PR, so I immediately sent an email to the convention’s publicity department. After weeks of no response from anyone at the convention, DJ Ranma S of Anime Jam Session Podcast had forwarded me an official looking press form he was told fill out. So I did and submitted to the email he suggested.

“Thank you,” the AnimeNEXT press rep had finally responded, “please wait for our response.”

And I did wait. I waited for a damn long time.

In the weeks that followed, I had also contacted Otakon and the New York Anime Fest and submitted them my application. Both conventions had responded to me within a week and both conventions had given my application their approval. But AnimeNEXT, the first convention of the con-season, remained dead silent this whole time.

I started getting anxious when there was only a month left until the con and I did not have my badge approval. I was going downright insane when there was only a week left before the con and I still did not have my badge approval. Was this going to be like Anime Boston again? Was I going to have to skip out on my hometown convention because for some unknown reason, they wouldn’t give me a press badge?

But a week before the convention, I had finally gotten my email confirmation and badge approval. Yes, I had finally gotten that coveted press badge, but they sure did take their sweet time doing it. This was a clear indication that the crew behind this convention did not have their act together. But as many of my fellow colleagues have told me when I gripe about it, “It’s a volunteer convention - you get what you pay for.”

“Is this where the FUNimation panel is going to be?” asked a Bleach cosplayer the morning of the Reverse Thieves panel. Along with giving my blogging buddies this horrible 9:00 AM Saturday morning time slot, the convention had also forgotten to include a description of the panel in the program. So the turn out for their panel was much lower than it should have been, I was a bit disappointed that even this cosplayer wasn’t there to see them.

But I still answered his question anyway. “I’m sure it has to be, this is the biggest panel room in the con and FUNimation is pretty popular… holy shit, you’ve got to be kidding me!” I turned to the con schedule to find that FUNimation was not going to be in the big panel room. In fact, Erica Friedman and her small independent publishing company ALC Publishers was going to be in the large panel room while the largest anime company in America was going to be in the smallest panel room.

Really, AnimeNEXT? Really?! Did no one take crowd size into consideration when they were planning out this schedule?

But I think the biggest casualty in this poor planning were the anime bloggers running the “Blogging Basics” panel on Sunday. On the day of their panel, the AnimeNEXT staff had moved them to a different panel room with an earlier time slot.

That meant that if you were actually interested in seeing the bloggers’ panel, you would have gone to the scheduled location only to see a sign that said that not only was the panel in a new location, but it had actually started 30 minutes ago. So sure enough, no one attended the panel besides other bloggers until 30 minutes later when a couple of new people walked in.

Volunteer staff or not, the folks running this convention need to seriously get organized and get their act together. I have never seen a con this poorly planned before.

The Power of Twitter

But to be fair among all my bitching, when I did check in for my press badge on Friday morning, their PR rep did apologize for the frustrating process.

“Well now that you’re here, would you like to interview any of the guests this year?” Well, Greg Ayres had canceled his appearance this year, so I wouldn’t be able to do my follow-up to that popular post from last year. So I declined any interviews for this convention.  “Then what the heck are you are going to do at the con?” he jokingly asks.

“I’m going to Twitter!”

And boy, did I Twitter!

Ever since the New York Comic Con of 2008, I had been “liveblogging” every convention I’ve gone to via my iPhone and the micro-blogging service Twitter. In order to make the experience more interesting, I created my Anime Almanac the Live website to better display the liveblogging tweets in a colorful way and to show the many pictures I upload.

The problem with this blogging method is that Twitter feeds tend to fade away after some time. It is very hard to read tweets that have happened in the past. So every time a convention requests a link to my convention coverage, I’ve got to tell them, “Well, you’re gonna have to take my word on this, but I totally Twittered the whole thing as it was happening.” But it was pretty hard to show them that in fact, I had been very busy reporting live from the con floor all weekend.

So starting with the NYCC last February, I came up with a new liveblogging idea. I would take my cache of tweets that I had left over from Anime Almanac the Live and generate a daily con report filled with my tweets, pictures, and the tweets of other people also attending the con. For NYCC, I just dumped out all the Tweets in chronological order and posted that online. For AnimeNEXT, I rearranged the tweets into sections and little story lines so that they would be much easier to read, just like a regular liveblog report.

The result of this Twitter coverage lead me to meet two people I probably would not have met otherwise. After snapping a photo of anime producer and director Toshifumi Yoshida, he saw the photo and caption, and then replied back, “You misquoted me!” A few hours later, I met him for the first time in person at the bar. He instantly recognized my catgirl mascot image, and the quick online exchange lead to a great conversation starter between me the two of us.

But the biggest development that came from this Twitter coverage was with a college student from Long Island named Kim. Kim had been following my twitter feed for several months before the convention, and she would always give me very possible feedback whenever I liveblogged from an anime event that she was not able to attend. AnimeNEXT was her first con in a while, so she took that chance to join me and my live blogging by Twittering from her own phone and uploading her own photos.

Kim and I barely hung out while we were at the convention. We just quickly said, “Hi” to each other on Friday and then spent some time talking right before we all left on Sunday. However, if you read my daily reports, you will see a number of conversations and gags take place between the both of us through out the weekend. In fact, she ended up writing much more of my Saturday con report than I did.

I had the best live blogging experience ever at this convention, and luckily for me, Kim and everyone else who Twittered from AnimeNEXT will be joining me again to cover Otakon next month. I’m also hoping to get plenty more people on board with my Twitter coverage so that I will have even more different perspectives from the convention floor in Baltimore.

Getting Deep in Jersey

This was my second time going to Somerset for a convention, as AnimeNEXT’s sister convention MangaNEXT was held there last fall. The running theme I had noticed at MangaNEXT was people complaining about the new location. Everyone, from the guests to the attendees, just hated it. And as I had mentioned in my convention report, I believed that this was probably going to be a much bigger problem when the much larger AnimeNEXT convention rolled into town.

Yet much to my surprise, I did not hear a lot of complaints about the new location this time around. Sure, there were a number of gripes being tossed around, but the move was not nearly as prominent of a problem as it had been for MangaNEXT. So what exactly changed between now and last fall?

For one, I think that AnimeNEXT handled the public transportation issue quite well. When the con was in Secaucus last year, there was an easy public transportation option available for the people coming in from New York City. But with the location in Somerset, there was no bus or train near enough to be able to get the convention. You had to get there by either car or taxicab.

I knew this was going to be a major sticking point, so in my MangaNEXT convention report, I had made the suggestion that the con should run a shuttle bus from the nearest train station to help the NYC kids with that final mile to the con. And lo and behold, they did just that. The con ran a shuttle bus to-and-from the con during the peak travel hours every day all weekend long.

But since the new location was not that far away from my own apartment, I had no issue with the transportation. In fact, I loved the commute to get to the con every day. When I was talking about this observation to someone else at the convention, she had said, “Well, yeah, I’m sure that the people coming in from New York City are going to complain about the new location, but for the people already living in New Jersey, this must be a great move.”

And that’s when it hit me…

Up until this point, AnimeNEXT had always been a New York City convention. Even when it took place just over the Hudson in Secaucus, New Jersey, it was still pretty much a New York City convention. But with both the New York Anime Festival and the New York Comic Con becoming massively huge with in the past few years, AnimeNEXT had become overshadowed by everything else going on in the city. By moving just 30 minutes away from the city, the con had shed its image of being a New York City convention.

In fact, AnimeNEXT had become the first ever New Jersey convention. And when you put it into the context of it being a New Jersey convention, being placed smack dab in the middle of the state is an absolutely brilliant move. Sure, it might have been a pain in the ass for the city folk trying to get in. But for those of us Jersey otaku over here, this was finally our time to shine.

So despite many hiccups due to the poor planning from the volunteer con staff, I did have a good time at AnimeNEXT 2009. In fact, you can read about the entire thing in my four days of Twitter coverage. And just as long as the organizers can get their act together for next year, I look forward to seeing the only anime con in Jersey grow in the future.

On site today:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	Kim	animenext from AnimeNEXT
Narutaki from Reverse Thieves	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions
Greg	Kyle Hebert	Carl from Ogiue Maniax
Toshifumi Yoshida	Vince A

Sunday is the Day of Rest

Narutaki:
Awake! Last day of next.

OutOfTimeProd:
packing up our hotel room and getting ready for cosplay chess in main events

Scott:
Dear Bed, I owe you at least 3 more hours of sleep this evening once this convention is over. Love, Scott

DJ Ranma S:
Need coffee stat!

Narutaki:
Checking out and heading to the con.

Kim:
Up and packing for the noon checkout. My friends are dead to the world at the moment. No con for me until later.

Kim:
And of course I have to make the ultimate decision: to cosplay or not to cosplay?

Greg:
It’s Sunday. Day of con relaxation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dealers Room Excursion

animenext:
The Dealers Room and the Manga Library open now at 10:00am

Narutaki:
A little dealers room action then over to history of manga.

Greg:
Doh. Someone bought used vol. 1 of Initial D manga before me. Maybe staggering purchases across 3 days wasn’t such a good idea.

Scott:
Shut up, just shut up. You had me at, “boobs”.

Scott:
It’s so moé that you can practically hear her crying, “oni-chaaaan!”

Scott:
There are so many figures for the obscure Chocotto Sister.

Scott:
Either it’s because of the ecchi cover or because of the Neko Nyan Dance.

Narutaki:
Dealers arent makin deals! No 1/100 aegis for me this con.

Scott:
The only thing I bought in the dealers room. The power of Nekomimi Mode was too strong. (>_<)

Kim:
One last trip to the dealers room put me down $40.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cosplay Chess

Kyle Hebert:
Cosplay chess: civilized smackdown featuring anime vs video game characters….. http://yfrog.com/0ujmqpj

DJ Ranma S:
@Kyle Hebert After Cosplay chess, come to dealer’s room, got some great shirts! Next to kimono booth. :3

OutOfTimeProd:
Cosplay Chess was great! Got all the kills on tape! and then steampunk photo shoot at noon outside by the hotel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions

Scott:
Very enthused fangirl talk about otaku.

Scott:
A group of fangirls chattering about Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions.

Greg:
This panel discusses “otaku” and what it means. http://twitgoo.com/sk8g

Narutaki:
This otaku misconceptions panel is a little all over the place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ani-Bloggers

Scott:
Boy, AnimeNEXT kinda screwed up with the Anime Blogging panel.

Narutaki:
Waiting for the blog panel to start.

Scott:
Yeah, AnimeNEXT REALLY screwed up this Anime Bloggers panel. The only folks here are other bloggers.

DJ Ranma S:
@Scott I call shenanigans!

Greg:
Anime blogging: the secret panel no one knows about. o_o; http://twitgoo.com/sknn

Scott:
The bloggers.

Scott:
And the panel viewers… all of whom are already bloggers.

Scott:
“Protip: Don’t blog on Twitter.” Wait… what?!? (o_o)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bye-bye, AnimeNEXT

OutOfTimeProd:
@animenext had a great time! can’t wait for next year

Toshifumi Yoshida:
is done with his translation panel at . Probably stop by the office before closing ceremonies at 4:00pm.

Narutaki:
Leaving for the train. The end of a con is always a little sad.

Carl:
The girl i’m sitting next to on the shuttle bus is hot

Greg:
Well, AnimeNEXT was pretty fun, but they could organize it a little better. Still, I had a good time.

Scott:
So my final moments of AnimeNEXT was spent finally talking one-on-one with my co-liveblogger, @Kim.

Kim:
Had a great convo with @animealmanac. It was really nice talking to you!

Scott:
I’m back home now. I’ll write about my overall impression of the con and I’ll post up some YouTube videos in my “Highlights” post later this week.

Kim:
So I do believe over 70 ppl took my picture over the span of the weekend.

Kim:
But now I’m back in normal clothes waiting for brunch at ihop before hitting the road.

Kim:
I’ll give my overall con impressions when I get home. Until then, farewell Anime Next!

Narutaki:
On the train back to nyc with @Hisui @Carl and @kransomwastaken

DJ Ranma S:
Gotta love Staten Island traffic.

Vince A:
Unwinding after arriving home after

Narutaki:
Home from the con and already scanning stuff for our con report for next week.

Narutaki:
Also getting the new episode of Cross Game and making guesses about more Otakon guests.

Narutaki:
So basically finished one con and am planning stuff for the next.

On site today:

Kim	Scott from The Anime Almanac	animenext from AnimeNEXT
Jon I. from JANAiBlog	OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves
Greg	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Kyle Hebert
Toshifumi Yoshida	Carl from Ogiue Maniax	Ed Chavez from Vertical Inc.

The Early Worm Catches the Panel

Scott:
Awake with a slight hangover. Could be from the con or it could be from the booze. I’m betting that it was the booze.

Narutaki:
Woke up at 6. My con day is starting early!

Narutaki:
All set up for panel!

Scott:
@Hisui @Narutaki and @Carl start up their early morning panel.

Greg:
Day 2. Enjoying the “Can’t believe you haven’t seen this” panel.

Scott:
“Now come get free stuff!”

Narutaki:
Panel went well! Pretty good turn out!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scott’s Just Being Grumpy Today

Scott:
When you can’t afford a hotel room, please feel free to just sleep in the middle of the panel room.

Scott:
We promise not to draw boners on your face while you’re sleeping in the middle of a panel. We swear. :3

Scott:
Uh oh. People are already buzzing about the @funimation panel later today. It’s taking place in the same small room as yesterday.

Scott:
There is not going to be enough room to hold everybody. Poor planning, @animenext.

Scott:
At the “Anime Name That Tune” panel.

Greg:
Name that tune panel might play some music from yaoi. What?

Scott:
Their song selection are too obscure, not a lot of people can name it.

Jon I.:
@Scott Yeah I went to Anime Name That Tune last year. They always pick obscure stuff.

Scott:
If you stump the players too much, that leads to too much dead air. Too much dead air leads to boring panel. (-_-)

Scott:
They literally can’t guess 90% of the song. Fail. Fail. Fail. (-_-)

DJ Ranma S:
@Scott Most Anime Name That Tunels end up that way.

Scott:
“Anime Name That Tune” conestants bored out of their mind as no one knows these songs.

Scott:
And @Greg has his go at the contest. I think he has a good chance in winning.

Greg:
@Scott …and I lost. :/

Scott:
Somehow putting the artist alley in a narrow hallway has turned to be not quite such a good idea after all… (^^;)

Toshifumi Yoshida:
@Scott Artist Alley + Panel Room Hallway = Fail

Kim:
@Scott I completely agree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cat and Mouse

Kim:
Hee hee, just saw @Scott rush by. Where’s the fire?

Scott:
@Kim one word: restroom. (>_<)

Kim:
@Scott I give you points and a cookie for honesty

Scott:
Stalking @RedConfession. (-_-) <- sneaky eyes.

Kim:
@Scott *le gasp!* Good try hun, but that’s not me. That’s the other Trucy that was wandering around the con. I bumped into her.

Scott:
@Kim Really?!? D’oh! (>_<)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Chavez Makes His Industry Panel Debut

Ed Chavez:
In Jersey and @ animenext… Having a power lunch with my intern before showtime. Come say hi and be gentle

Scott:
All seated and waiting for @Vertical_Ed’s panel to start.

Greg:
At Vertical panel. I smell give-aways.

Narutaki:
Waiting for the vertical panel to start.

Scott:
@Ed Chavez gives out a cool “Sayonara Mr. Fatty” notepad and paper to help you track your weight.

Narutaki:
Got a copy of sayornara mr fatty w00t!

Scott:
@Ed Chavez is otaku, so he awkwardly talks to the @animenext audiance.

Scott:
Ed: “We’re hoping to evolve in the next few years. We’re hoping that you, the readers, will evolve and that the market will evolve as well.”

Scott:
… and @Ed Chavez calls Black Jack “BJ” during the panel as well… (–;)

Kim:
@Scott But he is known as BJ… Just because it has a negative connotation in America…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Other Panels

OutOfTimeProd:
at the cosplay dating game all ages, so its clean and then olympics for the otaku soon

Kim:
Wandered into the Breaking into anime panel.

Kim:
They just mentioned @crispinfreeman as a fanboy-turned-VA.

animenext:
Power Hour with Michelle Knotz and Bill Rogers in Panel 2 at 2:00pm

Greg:
Bill Rogers and Michele Knots present theri various voice roles. http://twitgoo.com/sb3c

Scott:
Voice actors Michelle Knotz and Bill Rogers. Knotz is about as A.D.D. as any anime fangirl.

Toshifumi Yoshida:
has finished the Breaking into Voice Acting panel and is now back in the “office” until the next panel.

Jon I.:
Heading back to the hotel room to relax a bit. FUNimation panel at 6!

animenext:
Anime Radio Panel with Kyle Herbert starts in Panel 3 at 4:00pm

Scott:
Hey! It’s @kylehebert!

Kyle Hebert:
Yay, Yoko! :) http://yfrog.com/9srbhj

DJ Ranma S:
@Kyle Hebert Dude, come to the dealer’s room for a birthday present! :D

Kim:
Now at the CN premier thing. They keep showing Death Note coms-oh, its Death Note 2.

Kim:
Um, and its over?

OutOfTimeProd:
went to see “Cartoon Network Premier”, but it was the second Death Note movie. Plus also, a conga line doesn’t last long.

animenext:
Cartoon Network premiere is cancelled

Kim:
There is nothing to do now. It’s so disappointing.

Scott:
Tom and @Toshifumi Yoshida talk about directing and producing in anime.

Scott:
Lol! @Toshifumi Yoshida to @funimation: “Please give me a job!”

animenext:
FUNimation Industry Panel In Panel 3

Narutaki:
Next up: funi panel which will surely be packed…For no reason.

Kim:
The @funimation guys are head bopping to the pussycat dolls.

Narutaki:
Deserted funi.

Scott:
FUNi said that they made a great profit last year and so far, their profits are looking even better this year.

Scott:
They’re also fully pimping out their video portal even though it is down at the moment.

Scott:
Adam S. pimping out @funimation’s latest releases.

Scott:
omg, omg, omg! Eva!!! (o_o)

Kim:
Wandered into the masquerade. This place is packed.

Kim:
The Bleach, Lady Marmalade dance was really well done.

Jon I.:
Carameldansen just refuses to die. I’ve heard the song at least 5 times so far this con.

OutOfTimeProd:
masquerade was only an hour long, they didn’t have enough skits and walk-ons.

Greg:
Masquarade was pretty diassapointing compared to what I saw at last mangaNEXT.

Kim:
The skits were great, really great. The AMV’s are ok. Some much better than others

animenext:
Check out these panels at 9:00pm Bad Anime Bad or As the Otaku Grows, and the Scavenger Hunt concludes

Jon I.:
At the Bad Anime Bad panel. I’ve heard this is really good.

Greg:
Time to witness the most vile anime made at “Bad Anime! Bad!” http://twitgoo.com/seo9

Scott:
Now onto the Bad Anime Bad panel, where everyone I know is in the audience.

Scott:
Yes, everyone is in the audience, so why aren’t you? ;-)

Kim:
At the pokemon panel. It got moved b/c there are so many of us.

Kim:
Pokemon panel went well. Some questions were too hardcore for my taste, but everyone had a lot of fun, and it was entertaining.

Scott:
@Kim I tried to say Hi to you before I went home, but you looked like you were too busy with your pokémons. ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s Just a Little Water

Narutaki:
Its starting to rain!

Kim:
Oh damn it’s raining.

OutOfTimeProd:
the skies look like they are about to open the flood gates and let out nature’s goodness

Kim:
Oh god, thanks to the rain all the Otaku are inside, clogging the halls.

Kim:
I’m so catching a cold in the morning having to wander back to the hotel in the pouring rain wearing boots I could no longer walk in

animenext:
Para Para Dance Workshop in the Arena

Narutaki:
Stopped raining, going to para para dance!

Narutaki:
Had fun dancing despite my inability to have rhythm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kim’s Cosplay Adventures

Kim:
*sigh* I went to sleep last out of all my friends but I’m the only one awake now. I really want to get going, but I can really ditch them?

Kim:
@Scott Argh! You are not making my decision to be a good friend easy! Oh fuck it, I’m having breakfast and leaving.

Kim:
Ok, heading out now.

Kim:
Some evil nurse chick from a video game killing some guy from a video game. It looks cool, though.

Kim:
Dark picture of me and the Apollo Justice I stumbled across.

Kim:
Amaterasu from Okami!

Kim:
Wound up in the AMV room. Two more pictures of me taken by very excitable ppl.

Kim:
Oh, it ended. Time to wander.

Kim:
Picture count up to about 6. And I’m just sitting in the lobby.

Kim:
Oh, found the obligatory Jesus cosplayer! Now, the real question is: this the same guy who wanders the cons or is there a small cult?

Kim:
I’m still up in the air if parents happily walking w/ their scantily clad cosplaying kid makes them the best or worst parents ever.

Kim:
What does everyone else think?

Kim:
The TK and Kari I took a pic of yesterday are really popular.

Kim:
A Nick cosplayer just came up to me, hugged me, then proceeded to sweep me off my feet. Literally. He does know he’s my dad, right?

Kim:
Ok, I think that Nick is a genuine rapist. He’s hit on every girl here. And has been hit or chased by half of them.

Kim:
Franny beating up the rapist Nick.

Kim:
But I passed 10 pics now, so it was worth it.

Kim:
The shadow girl from Revolutionary Girl Utena

Kim:
Oh, I forgot. We have a crossing guard now to help the otaku cross the busy road. And he’s quite nice too.

Kim:
The main area in the morning.

Kim:
People taking pictures in the hotel lobby.

Kim:
I has a cupcake.

Kim:
Franny, me, and Adrian.

Kim:
Jo & Amy from Bakuretsu Tenshi

Kim:
People at the Hattalia(?) photo shoot.

Kim:
My friend, @kuramasan as Ayame from Furuba and a Naruto guy.

Kim:
Sebastian and Ciel from Kuroshitsuji

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s an Addiction, Really…

Carl:
Thankfully the dealers room had no ogiue merchandise

Scott:
And of course, the first question for Knotz is from @Carl about - you ready for this? - about Oguie.

On site today:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	Kim	Jon I. from JANAiBlog
animenext from AnimeNEXT	Hisui from Reverse Thieves	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves
OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Greg	Erica Friedman from Okazu
funimation	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Toshifumi Yoshida
Kyle Hebert	Vince A	Carl from Ogiue Maniax

Getting There

Jon I.:
Getting ready to head off to AnimeNEXT

Vince A:
imeNext video control. Impressive… Ain’t it?

Scott:
Well, I’m awake. Maybe I should get myself ready for this whole @animenext thing.

Erica Friedman:
And now I am functionally AFK for @animenext for the next two days. (Hear that @MariKurisato?) Away From keyboard - not dead. :-)

Erica Friedman:
Drop by Con Row at AnimeNEXT Friday or Saturday to visit with us at Yuricon & ALC Publishing. Yuri Panel 6/13 at 6PM!

Erica Friedman:
Con Row at AnimeNEXT is past registration and around the corner, in front of the back door to the Expo Center, where the shuttle bus stops.

OutOfTimeProd:
Currently stuck in traffic on our way to AnimeNEXT and listening to Disney music, what a way to start the rainy weekend

Narutaki:
At work, leaving for AnimeNEXT around 1230.

Hisui:
@Narutaki At work. Not leaving until 7PM. ;_;

Scott:
I’ll probably be arriving at the con around 11-ish. No panels to go to until 12.

Kyle Hebert:
Got a first class bump, which definitely makes up for yesterday. Fingers crossed I will make it in time to still do the podcast panel. .

OutOfTimeProd:
Almost at AnimeNEXT, but we are now into the good Disney music.

Greg:
Arriving at animenext!

Greg:
Something tells me there will be a lot of walking.

Kim:
Finally up, and beginning my process to “become” Trucy. Next stop, AnimeNEXT!

Jon I.:
Just arrived at AnimeNEXT!

Scott:
Checked in. Getting myself organized before I start scoping out the con.

Scott:
Damn, it’s so hot and humid today… Hair = frizzy, sweat = profuse. (^^;)

Narutaki:
Off to meet @sdshamshel and @kransomwastaken to catch the train to AnimeNEXT!

My Badge Says What?!?

animenext:
AnimeNEXT registration opens in 10 minutes

animenext:
AnimeNEXT registration is now open

OutOfTimeProd:
just got to AnimeNEXT, and pick up my press badge. So that means one thing, INTERVIEWS!

Scott:
One thing I’ve got to give @animenext credit for, they’ve got the best press badges.

Jon I.:
Apparently I wasted money by buying a badge because Ernie got me a press badge.

Jon I.:
Ernie’s name is now Emie.

Scott:
Press passes are really misspelled, so says Car of Ugiue Maniax and @Narutaki of Reverse Thives.

Hisui:
@Scott Foolish Ugiue Maniax. They hired KARR, the evil KITT from Knight Rider. KARR is only going to give evil convention reports.

Panels

animenext:
Panels and workshops have begun

Kim:
Wound up at the super mario panel, as there really going on yet. And I’ve already been photographed 5 times– The power of Trucy.

Scott:
Super Mario Bros Super Trivia!

Scott:
Everybody, do the Mario!!!

Kim:
Wandered into the manga library, killing time until the dealers room opens.

Scott:
Retired college professor teaches @animenext con goers how to bid on animation cells off of Japanese auction sites.

Scott:
Animation cells in his collection.

Greg:
Collection panel: holy moly http://twitgoo.com/rfhf

Scott:
Checking out the dude’s collection.

Scott:
It’s @funimation’s Adam Sheehan.

Scott:
This room is too small for @funimation’s popularly.

funimation:
@Scott Uh oh. Hope it doesn’t become an issue for the fire marshall.

Scott:
Fans ask Sheehan about Funi’s online video service, but he had nothing new to say.

Scott:
The dub for Romeo x Juliet sounds fantastic.

Greg:
This is the first time I want to watch an anime dubbed thanks to funimation’s sneak peak of romeo x juliet.

Kim:
Now at the anime stand-up panel. Plz be funny.

Jon I.:
Watching a really bad comedian while sitting in a really comfy chair.

Kim:
The guy honestly began with an air france joke. Wow.

Kim:
This guy seems really nervous. And he doesn’t have any “stage” presence. And he’s kind of not funny at all.

Kim:
My biggest peeve is he spends forever setting up his “skits” and it doesn’t need setting up. And he stops when he gets a new thought.

Jon I.:
Can’t stand this comedian. Going to watch To Heart.

Kim:
Ok we had to get out of there. Wandering now.

Narutaki:
At anime through the generations. Kinda just people telling stories, but entertaining.

Narutaki:
At the anime pirate panel. Talking about a few other shows but showing one piece clips mostly.

Narutaki:
Okay way too little pirateness going on.

Narutaki:
Anime princess panel going good.

Narutaki:
Checking out japanese crime fiction panel. Tech probs starting out.

Artist Alley

animenext:
The Art Show and Artist Alley is opening now

Jon I.:
Holy crap the Artist Alley here is actually good!

Scott:
Checking out the wares at the artist ally.

Narutaki:
Bought a kanda button at artist alley. Will probably commission her for a reverse thieves drawing.

Greg:
The art show has a lot of talented people showing their work.

Dealers Room

animenext:
The AnimeNEXT Dealers Room is now open

Jon I.:
Time for Dealer’s Room!

Scott:
Time to check out the dealers room.

Kim:
Dealers room!!! Oh, and I just saw an old friend running around in a sailor fuku. Its a guy.

OutOfTimeProd:
is in the dealers room right now doing a basic walk through, plus also everyone’s favorite swords’ salesman is here

Kim:
What is it with anime fans and cat ears? Sorry @Scott, I just don’t get it.

Scott:
Oh yeah, @funimation’s in the house!

Scott:
… and so is @TheAnimeNetwork

Jon I.:
FUNimation is giving away free toilet paper.

Kim:
I got my @FUNimation toilet paper, do you?

OutOfTimeProd:
dealers room walk through is goin well, very roomy and everyone’s favorite swordsmen is wearing rabbit ears

Jon I.:
Just spent $90 in the Dealers Room.

DJ Ranma S:
Ran into Sailor Moon Abridged crew… I approve. :D

Scott:
Body pillow cases… for those cold and lonely nights. ;-)

Greg:
@animealmanac. Not ronery enough

Scott:
Media Blasters proudly claims this land to be Yaoi Land.

DJ Ranma S:
Beatmani cosplay spotted.

Scott:
It’s @DJ Ranma S working his booth. He’s too busy to tweet, he tells me.

DJ Ranma S:
Honey-sempai!

Cosplay

Scott:
The King of the Cosmos

Scott:
Who you gonna call?

Kim:
Why did I not know my male sailor scout friend is famous on the internet? Am I the only one who didn’t know?

Kim:
Awesome Lelouch cosplay–so well done!

Scott:
Because two are ALWAYS better than one!

Kim:
Princess Tutu. And she could stand on her tip-toes and everything.

Kim:
At the doubletree pub laughing at the fact Lupin and Roxas are drinking it up at the bar. They look normal there.

Kim:
Omg, now Lupin and Roxas are playing pool.

DJ Ranma S:
There are a lot of Yokos here waiting to see Kamina AKA @kylehebert! :D #animenext

Scott Meets New People

Kim:
All right, heading back tot he con where there is no freaking wireless for me to check tweets. Talk to you all later!

Kim:
Also, @Scott, if you see me, stop me and say hi!!!

Scott:
@Kim I’m on the lookout for a Trucy. ;-)

Kim:
Yay, I finally met @animealmanc!!

Scott:
Oh ho! It’s @Kim in a very nice Gyakuten Saiban cosplay.

Kim:
@Scott Very nice. Thank you :) It was really nice to meet you in person.

Toshifumi Yoshida:
is sitting in the Main Events room at AnimeNext waiting for the Opening Ceremonies to start…

Scott:
“Hi. I’m @Toshifumi Yoshida and I drink.”

Toshifumi Yoshida:
@Scott Quote me properly! “Hi there. My name is Toshi, I produce anime…Squirrel! Hi there, my name is Toshi, I like to drink…”

Toshifumi Yoshida:
is in the “Office” for a few minutes before heading off to his first panel.

Toshifumi Yoshida:
has held “office hours” a bit too long perhaps… ^_^;

Scott:
Met with @Toshifumi Yoshida at that bar, of all places. It would have been nice if at least one of us was sober. (^^;)

Toshifumi Yoshida:
@Scott You have not seen me drunk. Not by a long shot. ^_^

Scott:
Uh oh, I just saw @Erica Friedman walk by with a cute little school girl… (o_o)

Scott:
One of the Marimite schoolgirls, no less. (o_o)

Erica Friedman:
@Scott In all honesty - she’s 19. But she is cute. :-)

Uncle Yo

Jon I.:
Waiting for Uncle Yo to start. He’s clearly superior to that “other guy”.

Kim:
We wound up at the Uncle Yo thing. He’s already lightyears better.

Greg:
Uncle yo. Being hilarious as usual. http://twitgoo.com/s3ki

Kim:
This guy is amazing. He knows what he’s talking about. And the references work so well.

Scott:
It’s Uncle Yo. Once I get the new iPhone, these pics will look so much better.

Kim:
“By your powers combined, I am Al Gore!”

Kim:
Everything this guy is saying is so true. God this is great. Go Uncle Yo!

Kim:
We all decided that Uncle Yo reminds us of Neil Patrick Harris. This is so great.

Jon I.:
Uncle Yo is back with new material… but he’s still doing the Naruto skit. Ugh.

Kim:
God I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.

Kim:
Holy shit, Uncle Yo just named all the Naruto characters in about a minute in song. OMG amazing.

Kim:
“Donald Duck and Sephiroth walk into a bar… And slaughter Hannah Montana!”

Kim:
Omg I want to throw puppies at Sephiroth now!

Jon I.:
Uncle Yo bashed Twilight and got a THUNDEROUS applause!!!

Kim:
Nothing made the crowd happier and louder than a potshot at Twilight.

Kim:
He’s now singing about First Person Shooters to Carmeldansen. Amazing. We all want to get a DVD if he has one.

Kim:
On the way back to the hotel to look for stuff on Uncle Yo.

FAKE?

animenext:
FAKE? Concert is starting now in AnimeNEXT Main Programming and Yu Gi Oh Abridged is in video programming

Scott:
Now standing in the front of the big FAKE? concert. This is gonna be fun.

Scott:
And the mosh pit assembles.

Greg:
So I am pretty close to the stage before the fake? concert. http://twitgoo.com/s4cy

Scott:
And Fake? takes the stage.

Scott:
This guy is cooler than you’ll ever be.

Scott:
And the crowd gets into it.

Scott:
Overheard from the front row: “Was this worth this worth the trip?” “Oh hell yeah!” Some folks are really into them.

Kim:
@Scott Damn you’re close.

Scott:
@Kim it’s like he’s spitting on me

Scott:
If you got your glowsticks, be sure to use ‘em.

Greg:
Fake? Was very good. Went tenporarily deaf after the concert ;]

Late-Night Entertainment

Kim:
Back to the con for the yaoi panel. Bet @Scott doesn’t have someone covering that, though.

Kim:
For the record, I’m not a crazed yaoi fangirl, but my friends are and seeing as I somewhat like it, I got dragged along.

Scott:
@Kim yeah, sure you aren’t some crazy yaoi fangirl. :-P

Greg:
Staying around for 18+ panels. Naughty fan art. http://twitgoo.com/s4t3

Kim:
Finally let in. There is a lot of estrogen in this room, even for me.

Kim:
Wow girls are scary about their anime. And Gravitation is so overrated. And they’re missing good old yaoi

animenext:
The Guests Uncensored Panel is starting now in Panel 1

Kim:
These are a very excitable people, these fangirls.