From July 30 to August 1, thousands upons thousands of anime, manga and media fans converge around the Batimore Convention Center. Any decrease in the still recovering economy is disregarded as the attendence numbers continue to rise totalling 29,274 in unofficial numbers that includes dealers, staff and attendees.

This year’s guest list was as usual a varied one. The plethora of voice actors from the American industries includes Todd Haberkorn, Scott Freeman and Maile Flanagan among many others. Besides the beloved and honored Masao Maryuama as a guest, Madhouse also invited Hiroshi Koujina. Concerts were held throughout the weekend by the Yoshida Brothers and Home Made Kazoku as well as a special appearance by Yoshiki and Sugizo from X Japan. h.Naoto also graces the stage with his designs. This is only small part of the guestlist that were present that weekend, granting attendees the opportunities to speak with those that influence and create the Japanime culture we all love.
» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: a con in review”

Producer Ochikoshi Tomonori worked on Blood+, Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maiden as well as the currently airing Senko no Night Raid. Director Masunari Koji was the original creator for Kamichu! and directed many popular series including Fullmoon wo Sagashite, R.O.D. and Saber Marionette R. Character designer Ishihma Masashi was the key animator on Digimon Adventure the movie, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Honey and Clover and R.O.D. among others.
» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Welcome to the Space Show Press Conference”

The staff brought out musical instruments in preparation for Hayashi Yoshiki and Sugizo to step onstage. Yoshiki was on a sleek Yamaha grand piano and Sugizo held a beautiful violin. According to the records, the violin he was holding was an ESP brand Kranz EV-75. The first song was ‘Forever Love’.

» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: X Japan at the Masquerade and Press Conference”

The Eminence Symphony Orchestra is known for their performances of music from anime and video games. Founder and director Yura Hiroaki has worked on the music in Diablo III, The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk and the recent movie, The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi. The composer Kikuta Hiroki is known for his music in Secret of Mana series and went on to compose for many vdieogames. Shihori is part of the pop group, “Shihori and Asuka” and collaborated with Yoko Kanno on the song “Universal Bunny” from the Macross Frontier movie. She also created and sang the song, ‘Shakles of Night’ for this year’s Otakon animation from Production I.G.
» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Yura, Kikuta and Shihori Panel”

Maruyama Masao is not a new face to Otakon attendees, this being his 8th visit. However, it is his first time being honoary staff. He is known for being the head and founder of Studio Madhouse as well as producer for many anime series and movies including Rainbow – Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin which is currently airing in Japan. Koujina Hiroshi is the director of the aforementioned series, Rainbow as well as Kiba. He was also the key animator for Escaflowne: The Movie, Macross Plus and Pokemon Movie: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew among many others.

» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Press Conference for Maruyama Masao and Koujina Hiroshi”

Mitsuya Yuji-san is a veteran seiyuu known for voices of Uesugi Tatsuya (Touch,) Dr. Tofu (Ranma 1/2,) Virgo Shaka (Saint Seiya) among others. His dub work includes voicing Disney films: Timon from ‘The Lion King’ and Pleakley’ in ‘Lilo & Stitch’. He also was sound director for Rurouni Kenshin and recording director for Yu-Gi Oh!. The interpreter for the press conference was Toshifumi Yoshida-san.

» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Press Conference for Mitsuya Yuji”

When I entered the room, they were showing short trailers of upcoming releases, including Casshern Sins (8/17/2010,) Hetalia seasons one (9/14/2010,) Hetalia seasons two (10/12/2010,) and a personal favorite, Eden of the East (9/28/2010.)
» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Funimation Industry Panel”

Due to the sheer number of fans that Vic Mignogna has, the mini concert was held in panel 3, which was one of the largest panel rooms in the convention center with an addional autograph session held at the end. This was my first Vic concert and I must say, I enjoyed it. He is a good performer, a great singer and he engaged the crowd very well for being a one-person show with a keyboard. The concert started with ‘True Light’ in English from DNAngel. The animation flashed across the screen as Vic dances from the stage and up and down the catwalk. The second song was ‘Separate Ways’ by Journey, very upbeat and had everyone dancing (if they weren’t dancing already.) The ‘Brothers’ (Fullmetal Alchemist melody began to the cheers of the crowd…though it was was stopped immediately. He stated that he wasn’t going to sing that one as he sat at the keyboard.

» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Vic Mignonga’s Mini Concert”

The Madhouse panel was already well underway when I entered the room. Although the panel info spoke of there being both Maruyama-san and Koujina-san as panelists, only Maruyama-san sat at the front. Trailers and clips from the latest Madhouse projects were shown including Highschool of the Dead, Rainbow – Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin, Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail and of course the long awaited movie, Trigun: Badlands Rumble. (Funimation is hoping for theater-wide release of Trigun.) One of the most unique new projects was Tibetan Dog which is based off of a Chinese novel by Yang Zhijun. The character designer is none other than Monster creator, Urasawa Naoki with director Koujima Masayuki (who was also director on the Monster animation.) Maruyama-san mentioned that he traveled to Tibet for research. The story is simply about a boy growing up being a mix of Chinese and Tibetan…but nothing by Madhouse is truly simple.
» Continue reading “Otakon 2010: Madhouse Panel”

Finder vol. 1: Target in the Viewfinder
Story and Art: Ayano Yamane
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-186-7

Review by Kris

Akihito Takaba is a freelance photographer who got a hot tip and a huge scoop involving politicians and the criminal underworld but unfortunately the story was quashed. The crime boss Ryuichi Asami won’t have Takaba butting into his business so to intimidate Takaba he kidnaps and rapes him. But that won’t keep Takaba down. He’s determined to get the story one way or another. But he’ll need to watch out now that he’s entangled in Asami’s world. Not only is Asami after Takaba (he’s attracted to him) but it seems that Takaba’s caught the eye of the Chinese Mafia and their boss Fei Long. Man, poor kid! How will he handle these rough (but gorgeous) men? Also included are a few one shots: Love Lesson involves high school students, Plants in Love feature two classmates who find out their dads seem to be having an affair, and Risky Society is about a secret crime fighting group where the members have superpowers. Sorry for the poor synopsis but I really don’t want to give away the story.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Finder vol. 1: Target in the Viewfinder”

You Never Give Me Your Money
By Peter Doggett
Published by Harper
Review copy supplied by publisher
ISBN 10: 0061774464
ISBN 13 978 0061774461

Review by Lynn Loper

I remember reading a ‘making of the film story about Raging Bull years ago. Martin Scorsese said he put the comedian scene in first, because everybody knew that De Niro had put on a lot of weight for that part of the movie, and he wanted them to get the fat man out of their minds and watch the movie.

The prologue of “You Never Give Me Your Money” lays out the book for you. Time, death, lost hope, tangled relationships, pain. For some reason, it took me three days to get through it. Am I still that much of a Beatlemaniac? Probably. I still can’t sit still watching “A Hard Day’s Night.” I want to scream.
» Continue reading “Book Review: You Never Give Me Your Money”

Il Gatto Sul G vol. 3
Story and Art: Tooko Miyagi
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-062-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-062-4

Review by Kris

Riya’s life is spinning out of control. When we last left off Atsushi and Black Riya had attended Saki’s concert (for all info you need feel free to check out my reviews of volumes one and two) so Saki could witness for himself the dual personality. While at the concert Riya runs into Kousaka. Every time Riya has been around Kousaka he’s been in White mode but today he’s Black. He tries to pretend to be the White personality with disastrous results. Riya blows his own cover and then Kousaka gets angry and strikes Riya when Atsushi shows up. Atsushi and Riya head back home. Riya comes on to Atsushi to help dull the pain and initially Atsushi goes along with it until he truly discovers he loves Riya in a romantic way not familial way he initially started off with. Atsushi confesses his feelings and tells Riya that he doesn’t want to hurt him. Due to this shock Riya again reverts to White.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Il Gatto Sul G vol. 3″

Comic Con 2010, Day 4

Sunday, well, Sunday- the last day of Comic Con.

This isn’t me, but it could have been. Frankly, this zombie cutie looks better than I did on Sunday.

Today was very crowded and I was very tired.

So, I got up early-ish and caught the wonderful free bus shuttle at the Doubletree, which is closer than the tram and is free (the shuttle, not the hotel).

The first person I talked to on my way to Room 8 for the publishing panel with Gary Groth and some other guys, was a nice fanboy named Ken Rasicot, his first CC-SD, but he’d been to the ones on the east coast. He was waiting in a gigantic line to get a “limited signing” from Gullimero del Toro. He was loving the cool and cloudy SD weather and enjoying the con. I was tying to hear him over the violin player in the background. I’ve no idea why there was a violin player making noise this morning, but there it was.
» Continue reading “Comic Con 2010, Day 2″

I’m rushing to get this up because the internet is one of the many very fucked up things at La Pensione Hotel this year (more about that later). I’m on Cafe Italia and hoping they don’t close on me.

The lovely and talented Wendy Kee Lee took the pictures today because my camera battery was in my luggage, which was checked at the Santa Fe Depot. I’ll grab images when I have a less dodgy internet connection. For now, there are links. Oh, and also that thing you see me holding in the face of these artists in some of these photos is a tape recorder so I don’t have to remember so much or write down anything. Yay!
» Continue reading “Comic Con 2010, Day 1 (now with pictures)”

Catching Fire
By Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
ISBN13: 978-0-439-02349-8
ISBN10: 0-439-02349-1
Review copy purchased by reviewer

Reviewed By: Lauren Lapinski

Picking up almost one year after The Hunger Games, Catching Fire brings us right back into the life of Katniss Everdeen, who updates us on all that has happened since the end of the first book. We see how many things have changed for her since winning the Games and the perils she now faces. Containing less violence and fighting action than The Hunger Games, Book 2 picks up the slack with political intrigue as Katniss faces the consequences of her actions against The Capitol and President Snow.
» Continue reading “Book Review: Catching Fire”

Boleyn: Tudor Vampire
by Cinsearae S.
Published 2010
ISBN: 1451559496
Review copy provided by the author

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

This book has everything for the reader who loves horror, romance and historic fiction. It’s about Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second wife, for whom he created a whole new church just so he could divorce his faithful first wife, Katherine of Aragon, to marry her. The author supposes that when Henry got tired of Anne and had her convicted on a slew of made-up charges, among them witchcraft, she was not beheaded like a noblewoman, but hanged like a commoner. Or, as the blurb on the back cover of this fascinating book states, “The slightest tweak in history makes all the difference in the outcome…”
» Continue reading “Book review: Boleyn: Tudor Vampire”