Anime Weekend Atlanta 10
This is gonna be a long one...make sure you're comfortable.
FRIDAY
Despite my auto accident (and due to the fact I woke up insanely early to avoid any lines), I managed to make it to the event around 11:00-ish, and was registered by 11:30. I hung around for about fifteen minutes at the artists' area, as I met a friend of mine from the Art Institute who had a spot at one of the tables. After that I decided to check out the dealer's room for about an hour, browsing the booths, meeting friends, and trying to decide on what the best possible deal would be (I only had about $40 give-or-take on me to spend). I ultimately ended up purchasing a Master Grade Gundam Freedom model kit from the Bandai booth before making my way back towards the convention area.
Totally Lame Anime / Galaxy Express 999
Between about 1:15 & 3:30, I pretty much hovered between the Totally Lame Anime panel and the Galaxy Express 999 screening. Given how 999 was what got me into anime in the first place, it was kind of a special event to be able to see it again, but the Totally Lame Anime thing was just too funny to leave alone. When I first stepped in, they were going off on Angel Cop and poking fun at how the show made the Jews out to be the villains. They then went on to show clips from (and mock ruthlessly) the likes of Mad Bull 34, M.D. Geist 1 & 2, some sentai anime where the characters dressed in American football costumes and fought monsters in a giant quarterback-looking mech, an anime adaptation of one of Jack London's works (ninja dog!), and some horrific Italian Titanic movie with rapping animals. Absolutely hilarious stuff.
I then wandered around with a friend of mine & his sister (who was cosplaying as Chii), until 4:00, when they started screening...
Tokyo Mew Mew 1 & 2
Cute show...very cute. The fansubs looked like some ancient VHS set, but that didn't bother me. I was more irritated by the fact that all the giant nerd-heads in the way kept me from seeing many of the subtitles.
Y'know, now that I've finally seen a bit of Mew Mew, I don't think it's so bad that 4Kids got it. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of material they'd really need to edit (unless, of course, they tried doing a Cardcaptors and made a move to downplay the female lead).
Wandered around again for about an hour after Mew Mew. None of the screenings & panels were really all that interesting at 5:00.
Writing for Manga Part I
Still on a scripting high from the class I took last quarter at the Art Institute, I figured this would be a really enlightening experience on how to script a comic book/manga. It was done by some guys from Imbrium Studios, which is apparently a studio that specialises in "American manga." It was certainly entertaining, but ultimately told me very little in the way of revealing, new information. Not enough for me to attend the second part on Saturday, anyway.
Mari Iijima Concert
One event I was really looking forward to on Friday was the Mari Iijima concert. And y'know, I think she has a new fan. Her music was absolutely beautiful, and the whole concert had a very intimate feel to it; before every song, she would go on at length about some of the personal stories behind their creation & meaning. When she got to "Do You Remember Love?" the entire audience went nuts.
Regrettably I was pulled away after the first hour.
Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magical-te 1 & 2
The Excel Killer hath arrived. Being a big SoulTaker fan, and given how Komugi was my favourite character from that series, I knew I'd like this show. But damn, if it didn't exceed expectations. Absolutely hilarious, with some genuinely clever parody thrown in, to boot. By the time it got to the Gatchaman spoof in the second episode, the entire audience was rolling in laughter.
I can't help but be unnerved at the number of 40-something males in the audience, though. For a show about a seventeen-year old cosplaying magical girl, that is. I pray it's just my own dirty mind making things up.
SaiKano 1 & 2
Wow, from spastically funny to soberingly tragic. I finally got my first taste of Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, and I love it. My only regret is that the fucking bone-chilling, sub-zero temperature they had the viewing room set to made concentrating on the screen hard to do. I almost had to walk out midway, I was so bloody cold (I was going to stay for Tokyo Godfathers after SaiKano, but by the end of the second episode I'd had enough).
Once I had warmed up (as bad as the DDR room smelled from nerd-funk, it certainly helped me to thaw out), I pretty much drifted between Karaoke OK!, Japanese Animation Hell, & Midnight Madness. Karaoke OK!'s pretty self-explanatory (worst rendition of the X TV opening EVER, though there was a friend of mine who did a decent Janne d'Arc cover), but JAH & Midnight were pretty much just random clips for comedic purpose. Nothing really that great, though. Saturday's Panel of DOOM!! did it much better. Watched a couple episodes of the twelve-hour Naruto marathon before heading home for the night.
SATURDAY
Because of the dismal lack of parking, I missed the last half-hour of the FUNimation panel. No real loss though, as the panels I was really interested in came later in the day. Met up with some friends at the entrance and browsed the dealer's room for an hour before ducking into the Adult Swim panel.
Adult Swim panel
The AWA10 program said this would be a general Cartoon Network panel, and as such I had plans to ask about some of their recent questionable editing practices on Toonami (i.e. turning pistols into laser guns in Gundam SEED after eighteen episodes of...not). But it turned out to be a strictly-Adult Swim panel instead, and actually turned out much more entertaining than a general CN panel would've been. Nothing new information-wise, though it was nice to see trailers for some of Williams Street's newer titles (Tom Goes to Mayor is going to be freakin' awesome). I asked if their new "Adult Swim movie night" deal would include an encore of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, which got a "no comment" in response.
The program said there would be a Witch Hunter Robin panel after the Adult Swim one (by the way, finished rewatching WHR last night, and I have a whole new appreciation for the series), but it basically just turned out to be an interview with Kari Wahlgreen, the actress who played Robin in the dub. So instead of staying, I decided to wander around for a bit and check out what was going on in the other rooms.
VAT Awards
After an hour of wandering (which involved a stop at the dealer's room to buy a box of Pocky & bottle of strawberry Ramune), I went to the main room to see the AMV award presentation thingy. Basically, they ran the award-winning AMVs in all three classes and gave the creators the trophies. There're some seriously talented people in this thing. Some of the highlights included a Cowboy Bebop spoof on Kill Bill ("Kill Spike"), this absolutely fantastic Ah! My Goddess dance video, Naruto set to "United States of Whatever," a Trigun video set to a scene from Desperado ("So this Mexican walks in..." "...and he pulls out the biggest fuckin' hand cannon I've ever seen." etc., with Wolfwood as the guy doing most of the dialogue), and a Haibane Renmei video that I have to admit caused me to shed a couple tears. Generally great stuff all around.
ADV panel
Once the AMV awards were done, everyone cleared out and the ADV panel took place in the same room. Like the Adult Swim panel, it was generally uninformative, albeit very entertaining. I was kinda surprised when they announced Madlax, though, and especially surprised at how casual they were about it ("Yeah, given our track record on series about girls with guns, it should come as no surprise that we got Madlax"). After a couple release date announcements, they opened it up to Q&A, offering prizes to people with good questions. Lots of nice industry/licensing questions were asked, and I inquired as to release details concerning Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu & Elfen Lied (unless I'm misquoting David Williams, he said they were waiting on the Japanese DVD version of Elfen Lied before putting it out in R1...basically like Gantz where there's supposedly going to be new/redone footage). I got Chrono Crusade volume one for the question, which I'm more than happy with.
This one girl in the back asked the best question ever: "Have you heard the rumours about a live-action Evangelion?" (at this point the audience bursts into laughter) "And do you think it'll be any good?" (laughter easily doubles in volume). They gave her an honest answer and "punished" her with Super Milk-chan volume one.
Bandai panel
They sure picked a helluva spot for the Bandai panel. Nice, secluded, nearly impossible-to-find room. Bu~ut I found it, though. Bandai panel was lots of fun, and Jerry Chu's a man of great patience for being able to put up with as many Gundam questions as he got (which I felt guilty enough to supply about three of). Like the ADV panel, there were some nice industry tidbits, and we got to see a lengthy trailer for Fantastic Children.
Panel of DOOM!!
This is what Japanese Animation Hell & Midnight Madness should've been. It basically consisted of rapid-fire scenes of random hilarity, not all of which were anime-related but almost all of which were unbelievably funny. Highlights included bizarre Walker, Texas Ranger clips a la Conan O'Brien, bad Japanese sentai monsters (a cup ramen monster...), old 80s & early 90s public service announcements & TV shows ("crack is whack!" et al), the "too raunchy for daytime" bits out of Totally Lame Anime, and a complete mockery of Manga Entertainment's & ADV's DVD trailers ("People tend to get pissed off when you mispronounce 'manga' as 'main-guh,' but y'know I wonder where that came from..." ["MANGA ENT. PRESENTS..."] "Yeah, nothing says anime like cheap German industrial! Ah well, at least no one nowadays pulls stuff like this..." ["WHAT IS ANIME? ANIME IS...!"]).
By the end of Panel of DOOM!! though, I was starting to develop a headache from walking around so much on a bare minimal amount of sleep. Drifted around for an hour trying to get my wits about me again before the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 screening, but I unfortunately fell asleep about fifteen minutes into that. Woke up an hour later and my headache evolved into an unbearably splitting sort. Basically decided to call it a day at that point & head home.
SUNDAY
Got there late on Sunday and sadly missed the screenings of My Youth in Arcadia & Macross: Do You Remember Love?, but I did manage to catch a couple panels.
Anime's Big Questions
This was basically a discussion on the deeper themes (or lack thereof) in Japanese anime. The speaker basically said something to the effect of "a lot of 'deep' anime really aren't deep at all, they just use random symbolism and try to wing it." And y'know, he makes a good point.
Fred Patten panel
Bit of an embarassing goof on my part, I got names mixed up and thought this was the Mike Toole/Anime Jump! panel. I decided to stay though, and I can honestly say this turned into one of the single most enlightening experiences of the entire convention. Since there were only about four people at the panel (myself & Mr. Patten included), it basically turned into something closer to a one-on-one interview, with Mr. Patten & I providing most of the dialogue. Absolutely fascinating stuff about the early & modern domestic anime industry, the licensing process, the growth of the fanbase, industry trends, and so on. I hoped it might run long, but unfortunately Mr. Patten had other things to do once it was over.
At that point, Joel (who was giving me a ride back & forth to the con because of my inability to navigate Cobb County intersections) had to leave, so I called it a day early and went home. Overall, it was a helluva time, and I'm definitely doing it again next year (hopefully with a car of my own and/or a hotel room). As far as cosplayers go, there were a lot of Chii, Naruto characters, and Full Metal Alchemist military personnel. Also a high number of Robins, though only about half of them looked good. Other highlights included an Optimus Prime/Megatron duo, a Wing Gundam Zero who went all out with his costume (full wings, buster rifle, and even the chest piece lit up), the "Buy Zeon War Bonds" guy that shows up every year, and the usual AWA crop of Hellsing cosplayers of widely-varying quality (lotsa bad Alucard, medium-quality Seras, & good/great Integra & Father Anderson).
FRIDAY
Despite my auto accident (and due to the fact I woke up insanely early to avoid any lines), I managed to make it to the event around 11:00-ish, and was registered by 11:30. I hung around for about fifteen minutes at the artists' area, as I met a friend of mine from the Art Institute who had a spot at one of the tables. After that I decided to check out the dealer's room for about an hour, browsing the booths, meeting friends, and trying to decide on what the best possible deal would be (I only had about $40 give-or-take on me to spend). I ultimately ended up purchasing a Master Grade Gundam Freedom model kit from the Bandai booth before making my way back towards the convention area.
Totally Lame Anime / Galaxy Express 999
Between about 1:15 & 3:30, I pretty much hovered between the Totally Lame Anime panel and the Galaxy Express 999 screening. Given how 999 was what got me into anime in the first place, it was kind of a special event to be able to see it again, but the Totally Lame Anime thing was just too funny to leave alone. When I first stepped in, they were going off on Angel Cop and poking fun at how the show made the Jews out to be the villains. They then went on to show clips from (and mock ruthlessly) the likes of Mad Bull 34, M.D. Geist 1 & 2, some sentai anime where the characters dressed in American football costumes and fought monsters in a giant quarterback-looking mech, an anime adaptation of one of Jack London's works (ninja dog!), and some horrific Italian Titanic movie with rapping animals. Absolutely hilarious stuff.
I then wandered around with a friend of mine & his sister (who was cosplaying as Chii), until 4:00, when they started screening...
Tokyo Mew Mew 1 & 2
Cute show...very cute. The fansubs looked like some ancient VHS set, but that didn't bother me. I was more irritated by the fact that all the giant nerd-heads in the way kept me from seeing many of the subtitles.
Y'know, now that I've finally seen a bit of Mew Mew, I don't think it's so bad that 4Kids got it. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of material they'd really need to edit (unless, of course, they tried doing a Cardcaptors and made a move to downplay the female lead).
Wandered around again for about an hour after Mew Mew. None of the screenings & panels were really all that interesting at 5:00.
Writing for Manga Part I
Still on a scripting high from the class I took last quarter at the Art Institute, I figured this would be a really enlightening experience on how to script a comic book/manga. It was done by some guys from Imbrium Studios, which is apparently a studio that specialises in "American manga." It was certainly entertaining, but ultimately told me very little in the way of revealing, new information. Not enough for me to attend the second part on Saturday, anyway.
Mari Iijima Concert
One event I was really looking forward to on Friday was the Mari Iijima concert. And y'know, I think she has a new fan. Her music was absolutely beautiful, and the whole concert had a very intimate feel to it; before every song, she would go on at length about some of the personal stories behind their creation & meaning. When she got to "Do You Remember Love?" the entire audience went nuts.
Regrettably I was pulled away after the first hour.
Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magical-te 1 & 2
The Excel Killer hath arrived. Being a big SoulTaker fan, and given how Komugi was my favourite character from that series, I knew I'd like this show. But damn, if it didn't exceed expectations. Absolutely hilarious, with some genuinely clever parody thrown in, to boot. By the time it got to the Gatchaman spoof in the second episode, the entire audience was rolling in laughter.
I can't help but be unnerved at the number of 40-something males in the audience, though. For a show about a seventeen-year old cosplaying magical girl, that is. I pray it's just my own dirty mind making things up.
SaiKano 1 & 2
Wow, from spastically funny to soberingly tragic. I finally got my first taste of Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, and I love it. My only regret is that the fucking bone-chilling, sub-zero temperature they had the viewing room set to made concentrating on the screen hard to do. I almost had to walk out midway, I was so bloody cold (I was going to stay for Tokyo Godfathers after SaiKano, but by the end of the second episode I'd had enough).
Once I had warmed up (as bad as the DDR room smelled from nerd-funk, it certainly helped me to thaw out), I pretty much drifted between Karaoke OK!, Japanese Animation Hell, & Midnight Madness. Karaoke OK!'s pretty self-explanatory (worst rendition of the X TV opening EVER, though there was a friend of mine who did a decent Janne d'Arc cover), but JAH & Midnight were pretty much just random clips for comedic purpose. Nothing really that great, though. Saturday's Panel of DOOM!! did it much better. Watched a couple episodes of the twelve-hour Naruto marathon before heading home for the night.
SATURDAY
Because of the dismal lack of parking, I missed the last half-hour of the FUNimation panel. No real loss though, as the panels I was really interested in came later in the day. Met up with some friends at the entrance and browsed the dealer's room for an hour before ducking into the Adult Swim panel.
Adult Swim panel
The AWA10 program said this would be a general Cartoon Network panel, and as such I had plans to ask about some of their recent questionable editing practices on Toonami (i.e. turning pistols into laser guns in Gundam SEED after eighteen episodes of...not). But it turned out to be a strictly-Adult Swim panel instead, and actually turned out much more entertaining than a general CN panel would've been. Nothing new information-wise, though it was nice to see trailers for some of Williams Street's newer titles (Tom Goes to Mayor is going to be freakin' awesome). I asked if their new "Adult Swim movie night" deal would include an encore of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, which got a "no comment" in response.
The program said there would be a Witch Hunter Robin panel after the Adult Swim one (by the way, finished rewatching WHR last night, and I have a whole new appreciation for the series), but it basically just turned out to be an interview with Kari Wahlgreen, the actress who played Robin in the dub. So instead of staying, I decided to wander around for a bit and check out what was going on in the other rooms.
VAT Awards
After an hour of wandering (which involved a stop at the dealer's room to buy a box of Pocky & bottle of strawberry Ramune), I went to the main room to see the AMV award presentation thingy. Basically, they ran the award-winning AMVs in all three classes and gave the creators the trophies. There're some seriously talented people in this thing. Some of the highlights included a Cowboy Bebop spoof on Kill Bill ("Kill Spike"), this absolutely fantastic Ah! My Goddess dance video, Naruto set to "United States of Whatever," a Trigun video set to a scene from Desperado ("So this Mexican walks in..." "...and he pulls out the biggest fuckin' hand cannon I've ever seen." etc., with Wolfwood as the guy doing most of the dialogue), and a Haibane Renmei video that I have to admit caused me to shed a couple tears. Generally great stuff all around.
ADV panel
Once the AMV awards were done, everyone cleared out and the ADV panel took place in the same room. Like the Adult Swim panel, it was generally uninformative, albeit very entertaining. I was kinda surprised when they announced Madlax, though, and especially surprised at how casual they were about it ("Yeah, given our track record on series about girls with guns, it should come as no surprise that we got Madlax"). After a couple release date announcements, they opened it up to Q&A, offering prizes to people with good questions. Lots of nice industry/licensing questions were asked, and I inquired as to release details concerning Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu & Elfen Lied (unless I'm misquoting David Williams, he said they were waiting on the Japanese DVD version of Elfen Lied before putting it out in R1...basically like Gantz where there's supposedly going to be new/redone footage). I got Chrono Crusade volume one for the question, which I'm more than happy with.
This one girl in the back asked the best question ever: "Have you heard the rumours about a live-action Evangelion?" (at this point the audience bursts into laughter) "And do you think it'll be any good?" (laughter easily doubles in volume). They gave her an honest answer and "punished" her with Super Milk-chan volume one.
Bandai panel
They sure picked a helluva spot for the Bandai panel. Nice, secluded, nearly impossible-to-find room. Bu~ut I found it, though. Bandai panel was lots of fun, and Jerry Chu's a man of great patience for being able to put up with as many Gundam questions as he got (which I felt guilty enough to supply about three of). Like the ADV panel, there were some nice industry tidbits, and we got to see a lengthy trailer for Fantastic Children.
Panel of DOOM!!
This is what Japanese Animation Hell & Midnight Madness should've been. It basically consisted of rapid-fire scenes of random hilarity, not all of which were anime-related but almost all of which were unbelievably funny. Highlights included bizarre Walker, Texas Ranger clips a la Conan O'Brien, bad Japanese sentai monsters (a cup ramen monster...), old 80s & early 90s public service announcements & TV shows ("crack is whack!" et al), the "too raunchy for daytime" bits out of Totally Lame Anime, and a complete mockery of Manga Entertainment's & ADV's DVD trailers ("People tend to get pissed off when you mispronounce 'manga' as 'main-guh,' but y'know I wonder where that came from..." ["MANGA ENT. PRESENTS..."] "Yeah, nothing says anime like cheap German industrial! Ah well, at least no one nowadays pulls stuff like this..." ["WHAT IS ANIME? ANIME IS...!"]).
By the end of Panel of DOOM!! though, I was starting to develop a headache from walking around so much on a bare minimal amount of sleep. Drifted around for an hour trying to get my wits about me again before the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 screening, but I unfortunately fell asleep about fifteen minutes into that. Woke up an hour later and my headache evolved into an unbearably splitting sort. Basically decided to call it a day at that point & head home.
SUNDAY
Got there late on Sunday and sadly missed the screenings of My Youth in Arcadia & Macross: Do You Remember Love?, but I did manage to catch a couple panels.
Anime's Big Questions
This was basically a discussion on the deeper themes (or lack thereof) in Japanese anime. The speaker basically said something to the effect of "a lot of 'deep' anime really aren't deep at all, they just use random symbolism and try to wing it." And y'know, he makes a good point.
Fred Patten panel
Bit of an embarassing goof on my part, I got names mixed up and thought this was the Mike Toole/Anime Jump! panel. I decided to stay though, and I can honestly say this turned into one of the single most enlightening experiences of the entire convention. Since there were only about four people at the panel (myself & Mr. Patten included), it basically turned into something closer to a one-on-one interview, with Mr. Patten & I providing most of the dialogue. Absolutely fascinating stuff about the early & modern domestic anime industry, the licensing process, the growth of the fanbase, industry trends, and so on. I hoped it might run long, but unfortunately Mr. Patten had other things to do once it was over.
At that point, Joel (who was giving me a ride back & forth to the con because of my inability to navigate Cobb County intersections) had to leave, so I called it a day early and went home. Overall, it was a helluva time, and I'm definitely doing it again next year (hopefully with a car of my own and/or a hotel room). As far as cosplayers go, there were a lot of Chii, Naruto characters, and Full Metal Alchemist military personnel. Also a high number of Robins, though only about half of them looked good. Other highlights included an Optimus Prime/Megatron duo, a Wing Gundam Zero who went all out with his costume (full wings, buster rifle, and even the chest piece lit up), the "Buy Zeon War Bonds" guy that shows up every year, and the usual AWA crop of Hellsing cosplayers of widely-varying quality (lotsa bad Alucard, medium-quality Seras, & good/great Integra & Father Anderson).