Animazement ’08 The Second Day or Japanese to American TV a study in awesome

Most of the notes from my second day at Animazement consist of the programming block Japanese to American TV. The panels varied and attendees got to talk to talk with people from not only the American side of the industry but the Japanese side also. While I didn't attend all the panels I heard they were all quite good. Here's hoping Animazement continues this programming block next year.

    Because of my initial laziness I missed the one panel I really wanted to see today, History of the Industry with Yasuo Yamaguchi. Arriving at around twelve noons I was able to catch From the Director's Chair with Mitsuo Fukuda. While not a real big fan of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed I enjoyed a lot of the questions directed towards him and the subsequent answers he gave. The panel started with him showing some music videos for Seed and stating that this is pretty much all he is doing right now until his writer for the Seed movie gets better.

Some interesting things he mentioned during the panel.

• He's a contract director for Sunrise so essentially whatever Sunrise wants him to do he pretty much has to do it.
  
• He is a very hands on director or "dictator" in his own words.
  
• No other director at the time wanted to do the new Gundam show and the main reason he took the job was because he needed the money.
  
• After he finished Seed he plainly stated that he didn't want to do anything else at the time just stay home and lay in bed.
  

The panel ended and I found myself with a new appreciation for the man.

    The next panel in the same room is the Producer's Role with Michihiko Suwa. The first thing the man does is introduce him and the next thing he does is show us a video clip of shows that he is currently working on. As his intro video plays Suwa stands toward the door viewing his work. The impression one gets from him is that he's all business. Even in his denim jeans and jacket the man doesn't really give off a relaxed vibe. The feeling one gets from him is that he is all business. During the panel he discusses his job in the most straight forward way possible. His job is to license a show, find a director, staff, and production company to work with as well as sponsors for the show. As a man who has worked on some of the biggest and longest running series in anime it's hard not to think highly of him. Towards the end of the panel he shows us some promotional material for the new Case Closed movie, and a preview trailer for the new Yatterman TV show. His hope with Yatterman, besides big ratings, is that the show will attract both new viewers and their parents to watch the show with their kids. His hope is that parents can share in the experience of watching a character from their childhood and share that experience with their children as they enjoy the same character. The man always shows an air of confidence, even when answering questions he is quick to provide a response.

Of note some interesting things said by Suwa during the panel.

• He's the producer for the 7-7:30p.m. slot on YTV, the golden hour as it is better know.
  
• The reason both Case Closed and Yatterman are on the golden hour is because that is the time when most families are home and are most likely to watch TV together at that time.
  
• In Case Closed, Conan's seiyu reads off the sponsors for the show which is a rare occurrence in anime today.
  

    The next and last panel I attended was the Dragon Ball Z panel. The panelists on this panel were Kara Edwards, Kyle Hebert, Ryuusei Nakao, and special guest panelist Vic Mignogna. Not surprising that the panel room was packed to the back with people who wanted to hear their favorite voice actors from one of their favorite shows in person. The room was filled with energy not just from the fans but from the panelists as well. A lot was said during the panel more than I can write or remember but if there is no denying that this panel was just pure fun. Of particular note was Nakao, the Japanese voice of Frieza, and how funny his stories were.

The list of only a fraction of the stories told during this panel.

• Nako's kids were never impressed with the other characters that he got on DBZ until he got the role of Frieza. According to his children every other role he had on the show was a "weak character".
  
• Nakao once called, on the behest of his child a classmate in the voice of Frieza. The classmate's response was there was someone prank calling her.
  
• Vic Mignogna, the voice of Broly, has admitted that doing Brolys voice puts a serious strain on his voice. Once had done all the movies he thought he was done with Broly only to get a call saying that Broly would be in the new DBZ fighting game. Crying ensued (not really).
  
• Both Hebert and Edwards used to work on Radio Disney and that's how Edwards learned about the show.
  

    So I'm at the seiyu concert right now and as I write this the voice Ryuusei Nakao and Akira Kamiya are on the stage right now. I'm constantly surprised by Nakao as he is practicing singing on stage and tuning his guitar. An actor, singer and guitarist, a true renaissance man is he. I'm also surprised at the set of pipes on Kamiya. His singing voice is actually quite powerful. I'm going to stop writing so I can enjoy the show and will continue to take notes after the show.

    So the show is over and what can I say but so entertaining. I'm not going to go into detail into what was sung throughout the concert. Akira Kamiya is the crowd motivator. He's really good on the mic and knows what to say to get the crowd pumped. Personal favorite picks from the concert. Akira Kamiya sang a medley of Babel 2, Getter Robo, Yuusha Reideen, and Kinnikuman. Fellow seiyu Takako Furukawa sang a cover of Tonari no Totoro. At the end of the concert the Kamiya, Furukawa, Jouji Nakata, Kumiko Watanabe, Catlin Glass all got on stage to sing one last song. With Nakao on guitar and vocals he and Kamiya started the final song off. Not content to get almost every Japanese guest on stage he instead opted to get the whole audience to sing. It was a great experience and a truly fun event to go to. You know you're around like minded individuals when right next to you a young anime fan is singing to the theme of Getter Robo. It almost brought a tear to my eye. (Not really)

    Now since I have no interest in the Cosplay Contest I instead opted to go wander around the convention and ended up in the game room. From there I met up with Paul, a member of the East Coast Anime Society. He having no real interest in cosplay either we instead opted to talk about the convention and what we had done for the day. We stayed in the game room and were witness to one of the most excellent Smash Bros. Melee tournaments I had seen. It being my first one of course I was astonished. At the end of the tournament we went over to Rock Band were Paul decided to pick up the mic and impress the room with his almost perfect score on singing. After being challenged I decided it was time to go and with a farewell I made my way down to one of the last panels of the day.

    For those who don't know who Kyle Herbert is what is wrong with you. Instead of listing his many accomplishments in the world of voice acting I instead will just link to his IMDB page. Now the panel in question I am attending at this hour is Dub Your Own with your host Kyle Hebert. The panel ran late because Kyle was also a judge on the cosplay contest but in an act of coolness he actually came into the room announced he was going to be late and apologized for it then promised to be back as soon as possible. For some reason I just found that cool as hell. Now the workshop itself was Kyle allowing people to dub an anime clip. The whole point of this exercise was to show fans how hard it is to dub an anime much less a tiny scene. Now he always kept things moving and was always entertaining. He really stressed the whole point that in Japan doing voiceovers is mostly based on performance so when a lip flap doesn't match the words coming out the mouth it gets a pass. In America and other English speaking countries not matching a lip flap is a big no-no and is seen as weird. There is also the pressure for the voice actor to try and bring the voice of the character usually without actually seeing the video of the scene in question. It really was an entertaining and learning experience that really made me appreciate dub actors and the work they do a lot more. For more on Kyle Hebert is suggest you check out his website at KyleHebert.com and be sure to check out his podcast the Big Bald Broadcast also.

    Now the final panel I checked out for the day was J-Rock with the Amazing Iris-Chen. First thing I saw were two girls dressed up as Goth Lolitas playing music video clips. So I left ten minutes in. I was tired and hungry it was time for a midnight snack. Besides tomorrow is the final day of the convention got to get up early for that.

Animazement ’08 – Welcome to Animazement or Friday Firsts a triumphant return!

The following passage is from my notes taken during Animazement 2008. The notes have been cleaned up from their original form to give them more of a clear narrative. Other than that these are almost word for word of my experiences from the convention themselves. All notes were written either before, after or during a panel. I only hope that my writing can properly portray my exuberance at this con.

I left Fayetteville around eight-thirty a.m. and got to the hotel around ten. One of the first things I see is the long ass line for registration. So as I contemplate whether to wait in this line or go drop my stuff off at my very gracious friends house an angel from the heavens, well the registration table, tell me this is the line for pre-reg and that the line for new registration is actually shorter. So I and a handful of people rush to the front of a line that runs across the hotel. I quickly fill out the paperwork for registration and claim my badge. A feeling of warmth comes over me as my first ten minutes at the con are already getting off to a good start.

As I enter the hotel the first thing that comes to mind is the lack of smell permeating from the hotel. Or should I say the dreaded fan-boy funk, a smell I know all too well from coming in on Saturdays and Sundays. The lack of the smell I have gotten so used to fills me. It's not that I don't like being in a barely full hotel able to breathe through my nose it's just that the sensation feels almost so foreign to me. It's almost like I'm lost without the smell. It's like I know not what to do or what to think. Around that time I start to roam the hotel lobby as it's my first time there.

Around the time I come out of my daze and actually start walking into the convention proper, who do I meet Chad "Macross-Junkie" Matich one of the head core members, if not the head, of E.C.A.S. sitting at the entrance checking people for badges. After a bit of small talk and since the convention hasn't officially even started yet I find myself sitting in the chair next to him checking badges and just generally making small talk. During the time we talk about the usual things such as anime, what's happening at the con, cute girls in cosplay and how you can look but not touch. So after a while of shooting the shit and checking con badges I start flipping through the con book. It's during this time that I finally decide on my first panel to attend for the day.

First panel and I'm about thirteen minutes early. Japanese Anime 2007 with Prof. Yasuo Yamaguchi, a producer and director who's worked on a plethora of titles over his career. One of the titles he's worked on that catches my ear is Getter Robo. I sit in an air-conditioned tent outside the hotel waiting in anticipation. For some reason the only thought that crosses my mind at this moment is that if I was a girl I would be wet right about now.

The panel wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it would be a one on one instead it turned out to be a state on the anime industry. Nothing I hadn't heard before but still interesting nonetheless. Some interesting things he mentioned that caught my attention

• A major reason for the decline of anime sales in Japan is Japan's low birthrate.
  
• He believes that anime DVDs in Japan are too high and should be brought down to global standards. (Finally a man who knows what, "anime fan want".
  
• Cute Fluffy Tank. I wasn't able to write down the Japanese name of this series but he described it as a low budget flash animation that originally was shown online then packaged into a DVD set that sold for an estimated ten dollars US and had sold around nearly I believe around 100,000 copies and up. He used this as an example to show that well the anime industry has it wrong. Not only is the DVD pricing to high but a major lack of creative shows and overflowing the market is killing the anime industry.
  

After that I then headed out to catch the tail end of the Sentaifest panel which was essentially a person showing sentai TV shows and movies. Now considering that I only caught the tail end of the panel I can't say if they even had discussed anything about sentai but from what I had walked into I was very disappointed. Showing clips to illustrate what sentai is would be okay but to just show off a movie strikes me as downright lazy. Even if it was Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai doesn't make it any more of an excuse.

Probably because every Animazement previous to this year I had never been able to make it on a Friday is most likely why I'm in such a good mood. Only thing to add to that is the fact that I finally attended opening ceremonies, although starting at 5:30 I would hardly call it opening (oh my, that was so witty). Highlights of opening ceremonies in my honest opinion having Akira Kamiya in his best Kenshiro voice tell the audience that "I have just pressed the Animazement pressure point in your body." Then after a rousing applause from the audience, spoke into the mic, "That we already are having fun." Only two words can truthfully describe that moment, frog king awesome. Of special note was the announcement of the evening that Animazement would no longer be held at the Sheraton Imperial hotel anymore. Instead starting next year the convention will actually be held in the Raleigh Convention Center. A bigger forum

The next panel I attend is of course the Participation Webcomic Fan Panel because I like webcomics. The panels theme is draw your own 4-Koma strip and then have it judged. The grand prize cake and for once the cake is not a lie. It was a panel of 4 Chan memes, Portal quotes and weird drawings by our panel of judges. All in all it was a fun panel to cool off and just have fun at. It also gave me a chance to try out my artistic skill again in a workshop. Needless to say maybe it's a good thing I stopped trying to pursue art as a career.

My favorite panel of the day easily was Anime Hell. Hell starts at 8:30 and doesn't end until 11:00 but the effects last well until the next day. What makes this panel so fun is that it's not just originally anime clips but instead a menagerie of European music videos, 70's disco movies starring Patrick Swayze, Super Pres, experimental Tezuka films, and scandalous babysitters? There is almost no video shown in this panel that won't be stuck in your head for days on end. A full list of the material can be found at this link right here.

Final panel on this wonderful Friday is the MST3K Fan Panel. What is the purpose of this panel but to show old MST3K movies. Now while I am a fan of MST3K myself I was kinda disappointed. I'm not afraid to admit that I was hoping that they would show an anime movie or ova and then actually do the commentary themselves. Instead they just showed to old MST3K movies instead. The movies were Gamera vs. Guiron and the Prince of Space! Now given the size of the room I'm not surprised that they couldn't do a full blown "original episode" but there was that part of me that wanted more. I left a bit more than halfway through the movie. I was tired I'd been up since 5 in the morning and I needed rest.

So as I travel to my friend's apartment to prepare for the next day of Animazement I can only hope tomorrow brings me as much fun as today did.