Mr. Almighty and Some Sheep

No, I’m still here…just thinking. Haven’t had much to say as of late. Lots of things swirling around in my head, would like to take a nap–maybe go on a trip once I’ve taken care of everything that needs to be taken care of. Until then, must run onward through the mud.

Sawako Kick!

I built a desk, it took five hours. I’m both proud and embarrassed by that fact. Go me.

Now I’ve already seen Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden, and it happens to be one of my favourite series. However, what lessens its appeal is it’s being consistently, gratuitously ecchi. If it weren’t for that, it’d be a much better series, as the story, in my opinion, is a good one. I partly wanted to read the manga in response to criticism made over the anime series’ treatment of the ending. I was curious as to how the original played out by comparison. There are many whom were greatly disappointed with the manner in which the series ended, and thought the series deserved a ‘new ending.’ I, on the other hand, found it an intriguing ending, but I won’t get into the details of it.

I will only say that I was not among the disappointed masses, however, by way of my curiosity to learn of the manga’s original course of the events in the story, I decided to read the manga (and to do so from page one). So I’ll go through all 47 chapters, reaching the end when I reach it, no rush. However, in the first chapter alone I am noticing things that make the manga and the anime, err, different. The scenes have so far played out in a near identical manner, but from scene one, the ecchi is only expanded upon. Mahoro is fond of saying, “Ecchi nano wa ikenai tomoimasu!” And yet it’s everywhere all the same. :-/ (It’s not that it ruins the story, but it can be confusing at times.)

Nearly Identical, Aren't They? But can you notice the difference?

While I was reading what I know to be an opening scene of the first episode of the anime (the first chapter of the manga) in which a bus with Mahoro and Suguru on it is hijacked, one of the hijackers in the manga spouts an additional demand (not in the anime) at the busload of hostages. He first shouts at Mahoro, “Hey, you! Strip!…Take your clothes off!” She looks startled and confused (so was I), he then turns to the other hostages with the same demand, “The rest of you girls too!…All of you! Get naked now!” Now, this was not in the anime, and I’m rather glad at that, it’s entirely nonsensical, nudity for the sake of nudity even before the first scene is through.

So, wtf is up with that? If they were able to cut the, “Hey, You! Strip” from the anime without losing anything, in my opinion, it wasn’t anything close to being relevant to the storyline. Even the character poses are nearly identical, the only difference is, in one you can see a lot more than in the other. I’ve already finished the first volume of the manga, and have seven left to go. Looks like it’ll be ecchi, probably more so than the anime, which is nothing that I’m particularly thrilled about, but I’ve been waiting to see how the manga shows the story’s ending for some time, and I really don’t want to skip to the last volume to find out. Also looking forward to a new Mahoromatic special is coming out in a few weeks, that’s over six years after the final Summer Special of the series was released. I hope it’s good.

Well, it’s been a day or so since the end of NYAF 2009, and looking back, a couple of immediate thoughts come to mind, (1) It’s a damn good thing I’ve seen Soul Eater, and (2) It’s a damn good thing I really like Soul Eater. There’s nothing particularly different about NYAF as far as cons go, the usual stuff applies, anime (tons of that), manga, (some of that) cosplay (not as much as expected), panels (interesting ones at that), screenings (and special events), and all that good stuff. Better look back at the program guide.

At the Door...

Friday – Okay, so, showed up a little over an hour into the con and after a quick walk-through of the show floor, I headed back over toward the front where the FUNimation booth was. In fact, it’s just about the first one you come to when you walk onto the convention floor. FUNimation’s promotion of their Soul Eater 2010 dub release was well-promoted throughout the con, like the  chalk mural by the entrance (worked on from Friday to Sunday until completion. Really, really, impressive art really.)

Now’ I’ve been pretty much opposed to the FUNimation decision to dub the series from the start, and even more so when I learned of some of the VO artists that were chosen for the characters. My favourite English VO artist, Laura Bailey (Hello…I’m Tohru Honda), was selected to voice Maka. Bailey is great, but I couldn’t see her voicing Maka (my suspicions were put to the test on Saturday), as it is I was already hugely impressed with Chiaki Omigawa’s voicing of Maka in the Japanese dub.

However, my thoughts regarding her Soul Eater role aside, Bailey is still my favourite English VO artist, and the rest of the chosen cast includes some other good name artists, too. So, I made my way to the FUNimation booth to meet Bailey the rest of the cast. It was nice meeting them and all, but I’ve got to say, I probably wouldn’t have even gone over if Bailey weren’t there. But, because she was, I was first in line to meet them, and got a nice poster signed by the Soul Eater VO cast.

A Sound Soul

After that I wandered around the floor for a while, ended up contributing to the Soul Eater-mania by picking up a Soul Eater wall scroll. Also, found the first volume of the Mahoromatic manga cheap, so I picked that up. (Never read the manga but had been planning on it, started it on the ride home that night, very umm, different.) Later headed over to the Aniplex panel, learned some interesting stuff about some upcoming and current series. After that checked out the AMV Contest, mostly disappointing. Apparently they didn’t get enough entries for a comedy category. :-( In the end, though, I found a new favourite video. (I’m sure it was a comedy video that snuck in by way of the special effects category, but it was great either way.)

After that I caught the US premiere of Cencoroll. The feature was shown in the main theatre, and it was packed. I almost left when I saw how long the line was to get in, but the film came recommended, and the convention floor was already closed, so I decided to check it out. It was worth the watch. Considered sticking around for the cosplay variety show afterward, but decided I could check out the masquerade on Saturday night instead. I made it back to the subway station just as the they were locking the gates at the turnstile, had I been a minute later, I would have had a very long walk ahead of me.  :-)

Saturday - Arrived slightly early for day 2. Actually ended up working against the overall plans in the end, because I ended up leaving pretty early too. So, showed up early to make it to the Yui Makino concert on time. The show, packed as expected, was very good. Yui voiced Misaki in Welcome to the NHK, and sang the second ending sequence for the series, Modokashii Sekai no Ue de. In between songs, when she spoke to the crowd in Japanese, my friend translated them for me, because I’m inept like that. :-) She sung a piece from Aria, and a couple of new pieces. It was all very good stuff, with lots of hand-waving, clapping, and moving around on the part of the crowd.

Courtesy of NYAF Flickr Pool Users

After that, I knew I’d be contributing once more to Soul Eater-mania by going to the premiere of the first three episodes of the series’ English dub in the main theatre. (There was a line to get it, and by the time the show started, the room seemed as packed as it was for the Yui concert.) I wasn’t expecting there to be so much interest, but there was, I have to say, I knew there was no way I was missing it. I was curious. I couldn’t imagine some of the chosen VO artists portraying how I knew some of the characters in the show to be, but I was open to it. As soon as I hear Maka (Bailey) and Soul (Solusod) speaking, I knew (for me at least) it just didn’t work. I was most turned off by her performance, as well as that of Soul, Death the Kid, and Shinigami-sama (whom they refer to in the dub as Lord Death; wtf? In between the first OP of the first episode and the rest, there was an onstage performance by cosplay performers from FUNimation that they had doing photo-ops at their booth the day before.

Only a small part, they actually had a cosplayer for each cast member.

The only voices that ended up being pretty decent were those of Liz and Patty, but not much else. It’s not that these artists couldn’t do it I think, just that this isn’t one of those shows that translates well to English. I think the same think applies to a show like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, a dub would kill the dialogue and the humor. So, chances are I won’t be watching the Soul Eater dub, but I might watch another few episodes to see how they handle them when the come out next year, Chrona and Excalibur come to mind. But I’m not in any great rush to see it. The cast, along with a producer, did a brief Q&A afterward. I made my way up to the front to get a good view. That ended at about 3; they handed out Soul Patches on the way out of the auditorium.

I made the trek home after that. I was planning on sticking around for some of the other panels and events through to 10, particularly interested in the ANN Panel, Spoiler: The Panel, AKB48 Concert Preview, and the Cosplay Masquerade. However, my friend wasn’t feeling too well, so I opted we head out. It was actually reminiscent of the last con I went to. Last con an ex and myself ended up getting exhausted Saturday evening (after all of Friday and Saturday), going back to the hotel, and going to sleep. Missed the cosplay masquerade then too. Well, maybe next time.

Sunday – I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to go or not, on Sunday. However, after leaving early on Saturday, I was leaning toward going. I wasn’t sure, up until after I got up, whether or not I would go. The evening before I thought I would try to make it to get a Yui Makino autograph, but I found out I had to show up hours early for only a slim chance to meet her. Didn’t seem worth it. (Sleeping is very high on my priorities list.) I ended up going though, and met a couple of non-guest of honour VO artists. I met Veronica Taylor, whom everyone probably remembers for her role as Ash in Pokemon, but I know her from her role as Yukino in Kare Kano. I Also met VO artist and producer Jamie McGonnigal there. It was nice to meet those two in place of Yui, I got a chance to talk to them, and didn’t have to show up hours before the convention opened to do it. :-)

After that I headed over to the VIZ Media panel to check out some of their new titles and info, turns out Monster is going to be aired on television in a couple of weeks. I might like to watch it then. Wandered around the floor for a bit after that, and found the rest of the Mahoromatic manga (save one volume), by looking through a few different vendors’ series. Also found a nice Welcome to the NHK shirt that I ended up getting. It’s interesting because normally I don’t think I would have gotten much of anything, shirts, etc. I have to be pretty interested to get a shirt, and, normally, I’m just not. I like the series though, and I thought the shirt was interesting.

I went to the State of the Anime and Manga Industries Panel next, and I’ve got to say, had I gone to no other discussion panel, I would have wanted to have been at there. There were some relevant persons from different studios led by ANN’s editor in discussion. What they had to say pertinent, some of it common-sense, but a lot of it interesting. The anime and manga industries are having trouble, but so is every other facet of the entertainment industry. They’re trying to change distribution methods to suit the changing demands of the populations. I was sitting behind three different press members, because I was in the second row, all writing pieces, so I’ll link it.

Lastly, I went to the FUNimation panel to see some of their upcoming shows, nothing special. Well, interesting, but nothing that surprised me. They showed some of Spice & Wolf, but that was the only thing that I would have wanted to see. My final stop before leaving the con floor was at a booth which sold nothing relating to anime or manga. I got myself a signed Patrick Stewart screenshot. Wait, I take it back, he does have something to do with anime, doesn’t he? VO artist for Lord Yupa in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Lloyd in Steamboy. Well, I got it anyway. :-)

That’s it for NYAF’09. Next year, Who knows? It turns out NYAF is being merged with Comic Con, so, it’s not even going to have its own convention next year, either that or it’s going to be one, big, huge, mega-convention. But something tells me this has more to do with economics than anything else. Maybe Reed Exhibitors (or whoever makes the decisions) can’t afford to have both cons running at separate times anymore. I guess we’ll see.

I didn’t have to worry about taking too many photos, because you know, nowadays, there’s always somebody doing that. I was trying to take blurry photos with a phone (camera isn’t working quite right at the moment), but it looks like everything was documented. I’ll have to look through them at some point.

NYAF flickr Image Pool

24 hours to go

On an unrelated note:

A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair. “James, what’s wrong?” the friend asked. “Is it the work?”

Joyce indicated assent without even lifting his head to look at the friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always? “How many words did you get today?” the friend pursued. Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled face down on his desk): “Seven.”

“Seven? But James…that’s good, at least for you!” “Yes,” Joyce said, finally looking up. “I suppose it is…but I don’t know what order they go in!”

- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

That’s how I get about the craft sometimes.

Postal Worker Stole 30,000 Netflix DVDs

ROBERT SULLIVAN / AFP / Getty

Sending DVDs in the mail is cereal business. And Netflix does big business, so does  Blockbuster (although from what I hear, they’re really heading down for the count). Then you’ve got all those video game delivery services, hell, they’ve even got porn-by-mail that works the same way. :-/ There used to be video and DVD rental stores pretty much anywhere you went. I remember that, at one time, of the closest shopping centres to my home, they all had ‘em. Only recently they’ve all but one closed down. (Many years earlier all of the nearby local bookstores closed down too, but that’s another story altogether.)

Today, with the prevalence of on-demand services, and the ease of DVD-by-mail, it’s no wonder it’s become the norm. So, I’ve had Netflix for around a year now, and it’s definitely been better. Sometimes I’ll get through dozens of movies in a month, and sometimes just a few, never paying more than the usual monthly subscription. Once a DVD arrived broken, they sent a new one for free along with a free credit. They’re always doing that, giving free credits if it takes too long for a particular movie to arrive, or sending it from somewhere else, providing discounts when things don’t work quite right; it’s a damn good service. I tried out Blockbuster by mail for two weeks and it was a clusterfuck of a disaster. They had a seriously limited selection, with an annoying UI on there site. Of the few DVDs I did get, two from the same series came broken and, because I was on the trial service, I had to go out and purchase replacements to send back. So, I’d go with Netflix any day.

My point being, after stretching this out too far, is related to this story about the postal worker who stole 30k Netflix DVDs. Well, the one thing that’s always concerned me about sending DVDs in the mail is about whether or not they’ll make it back without being taken, as the Netflix mailing envelopes are rather conspicuously designed. However, the one thing that’s made me forget about this is the fact that nobody would know what to expect from that DVD (granted mass-stealing DVDs to sell them is different), but it would be a gamble for someone to just grab a DVD, on risk of felony charges, on the hopes that it’s a good catch. Had anyone tried to take my next incoming DVD, they’d find themselves with disc 2 of Beck, that’s five episodes behind. :-( The interesting thing about this postal worker, is that it doesn’t say what he intended to do with 30,000 DVDs, although one would think sell them. (Although without cases that would be rather hard.) The moral of the story, Don’t Date Robots!