ACen (Yeah yeah, a little late)

ACen was quite the interesting convention, I'll give it that, I felt the schedule was a little lacking, the only few panels I was interested in half I didn't get to go to, and the other half were not as good as I hoped they would be. I do have to give it up for their staff thought.

I had never been to ACen before this year, let alone anywhere near Chicago. I had to go to an industry meet & greet there and had no idea where the hotel was I was supposed to go to. One of their staff members ended up walking me over, which I thought was very nice of him. I have other stories about them going out of their way to help out a few other members of my party, one with some lost items, and I must say, that they just have a very good staff.

Good staff can really make or break a convention, and often good staff goes unrecognized. Usually all you hear about is horrible experiences between con-goers & staff, and trust me, we have all had our share.

I'm still working on a new website for this blog, I want to split it up between conventions, anime, and blogging information, just have yet to find the right layout yet. If anyone can suggest something good, I would appreciate it!

Who's Excited for a Deadman?

If there is one series I am geeking out about this season, it's hands-down Deadman's Wonderland. This show, premiering tomorrow is one of the best manga I have read in quite some time. A dark tale, it's hard to say anything without giving anything away. So very very mild episode 1 spoiler ahead.

Everyone dies.....it starts as a regular school day with the main character talking with his friends, and then everyone gets gory bloody killed, and that was just chapter 1. If you've seen the preview you already know this. I'm not a fan of movies like Saw or anything but I really enjoyed this manga, so I really am hopeful that they don't utterly destroy this. More report Sunday when I review this.

Tomorrow is about a new cute series A Channel, and what it's doing right!!

Also, sorry about the disappearance as of late, I kind of got distracted by a four-legged creature that has entered my life. I got a cat, and it seems to like to sleep in all the wrong places...also it's an evil, Mountain Dew stealing demon...meaning I love it dearly and it fits in perfectly at my house.

Oreimo, Beelzebub, and Japanese Politics...Oh My!

There are a few anime this season that I treat as real gems. Oreimo and Beelzebub are two of them. This week aired Oreimo's 13th episode also considered apart of the "True Ending." Although I am not a huge Kuroneko fan, this episode was worth watching just because of Saori & a certain boob grabbing scene followed by foolish fantasies. I've taken the pleasure of turning this scene into an animated gif.

Beelzebub I'm excited about still has 13 more episodes until it is finished. I'm happy because this has become quite a special gem to me. Although episode 11 was a little disappointing, it did have it's highlights. As a friend pointed out though it seems that they are censoring baby Beelzebub a bit more, could this have something to do with that new bill that has been passed in Japan? Otherwise I felt you could really see the relationship between Oga & his baby companion really seems to become visibly stronger in this episode. They have definitely become more in-sync with each other. All I can leave you with is two thumbs up for this series.

Finally I am working on a project to get a complete information guide together about Japanese Bill 156 which is banning different types of anime, and has raised concern about how vague the bill is written. I'm hopeful to get together enough information not only to post here, but to create a panel that I can take to different conventions to discuss.

Fireball Charming

The new series Fireball Charming coming out spring season on Disney Japan sparked my interest because the commercial didn't really give anything away about what the show was about. Wikipedia also did not have much information on it, but I finally found out more about this rather peculiar series.

First off, it's actually a squeal. The original series was a 13 episode series called just "Fireball" that originally aired 2008. The plot summary, according to Anime News Network was simply: "Random sketches during a war between robots and humans." Each episode is 2 minutes long.

I sat down and was able to find a torrent of it, and found it entertaining. I think my favorite would be episode 10 - Final Stop. Maids with stealth units for the win.

So after seeing this I am still excited for Fireball Charming. They will still be short 2 minute shows. It definitely shall be interesting.

Lots of dramatic poses through the series, and it really makes you wish they would actually delve deeper into this slight skimmed back-story of what is going on in the series. (IE the war against the humans, who her father is, ect)

It was never licensed in the USA, so here is the link to the torrent I found of it:
http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/2817907/DATS-Fireball-01-13-h264

April Fools Day & Actual Real News

Photo From Japanator

Some of the anime world decided to grace us with their attempts at gag's this year for April Fools day. Tokyopop announced this afternoon Lady Gaga is doing a live action Sailor Moon. Japanator replaced all their news stories today with hand drawn images. Youmacon's site boasted a change in direction to You-Ma-Con a convention dedicated to moms, complete with My Little Ponies & the promise of daycare.

Honoring tradition AnimeCons.com released no news today. Good marketing practice if you ask me. It relieves the angst of gag-press releases.

In something that I wish was a joke, FUNimation now has it's own channel (on Demand) with Charter. It's $6.99 a month. But the real kicker is that it promises "Up to 50 hours of new programming each month." Hmmm....so in an average 30 day month, there is 720 hours. With FUNimation you get 50 hours of new stuff, and you get 670 hours of the same crud you have probably already seen. Thats if there is 24 hour programming and it turns out not to be just an "on demand" channel. So you do the math. I would think it wouldn't be that worth it. But then again I'm someone who doesn't usually watch dubbs of anime, because I'm usually watching it as it comes out in Japan.

I can only assume that a majority of their programming is going to be dubbs. And you know it's going to be chock full of all the "regular" stuff. Meaning you are going to have One Piece, FMA, Ouran, and the such.

Spring Anime Season

Here is the list of anime I shall be checking out this spring season:

30-sai no Hoken Taiiku: A Thirty-Year Old's Health and Physical Education

This just sounds hilarious....when I read the plot for it I know I have to find a fansubber for it. Plot: "A guide book teaching shy men around 30 how to date and have sex with women."

Fireball Charming

Not much is known about this anime as of yet. The trailer is kinda confusing, but gonna check it out anyway.

Deadman Wonderland

OMG, this is the series I am fangirl squealing about this time around. I love the manga so I'm excited to see what this has in store.

Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai: Under the Innocent Sky

Meh, its pased off of a Eroge, my favorite subber is doing it, so I'll check it out. I'm opening my horizons to Eroge since playing My Girlfriend is the President to America.

Astarotte no Omocha!: Astarotte's Toy

Sounds like it's gonna be one of those fanservice type shows. There's a magical land, harems a succubus.

...and of course I will be continuing Beelzebub (words can't even describe how awesome this series is) with another 12 episodes rounding out the series at 24 episodes, and trying to get caught up with Bleach. (Ha, that's a laugh, I'm on what, Ep. 66 of 315.)

Lilpri - Every Girl is a Princess

I'm always sad when a series ends, specially if it was a good one that really pulled me in.

Despited being marketed as a children's anime Lilpri was an adorable story that really captured my heart. I have to say the ending left me crying. It was cute, sad, and not till the very last second made you happy.

Their final song was adorable, and reminded every girl that she was a princess and that you can live up to your dreams.

The whole series is available now on Crunchyroll. I know it will most likely never receive an American release, so other than fansubs it's the only way to watch it!