Tomorrow, I'll be back at Steven's Institute of Technology in Hoboken for the second annual Castle Point Anime Convention (CPAC). Last year's convention was a significant event for Ani-Gamers: it was where we got our first interview, and where I met current staff writers Uncle Yo and Ink. This year, Ink and I will be back at the con, but this time we're running our own panel. "You Wanna Be a Blogger/Podcaster?," hosted by Ink, Hisui, DJ Ranma S, and I, will be about creating, maintaining, and promoting your own blog or podcast.
Meanwhile, our friends at C.R.A.Z.Y.O.T.A.K.U. are once again taking CPAC by storm with a panel in the Main Events Hall. Plus, Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon, two prominent anime fandom oldtimers, will be holding two panels at the con: "Otaku History 101" (about anime fandom in the "before time") and "These Are a Few of Our Favorite Scenes" (where they show awesome clips from anime both new and old). Unfortunately, Uncle Yo won't be in town, so the Ani-Gamers reunion isn't gonna happen.
Anyway, if you're planning on going to Castle Point this Sunday, come by our panel, which will be held from 11:00AM to 12:00 noon in Panel Room 1 (it's in the Babbio Center). And if you want to meet up with us, either say hi after the panel or drop a note right here in the comments.
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Ani-Gamers will once again be invading the East Coast convention scene, this time at the New York Comic Con this weekend, from Friday, February 6th to Sunday the 8th. As usual, Uncle Yo will be there to provide his popular comedy routine, and I will be there as press, killing myself with far too many events to report on.
If you're going to be at the convention, and you happen to see us, you'd better come over and say hi. I'll be meeting up with the folks from some other blogs like Anime Almanac, Anime Vice, Japanator, Manga.About.com, MangaBlog, and Reverse Thieves, so you'll probably see me next to them in the front row of every anime industry panel. Uncle Yo can be found... at his panel of course! It's on Saturday from 12:30PM to 1:00PM, so get over there to see his performance. (For those interested in finding us, I look like this, and Uncle Yo looks like this)
As for the content that I'll be getting out of NYCC, let's just describe it as NYAF08 on steroids. I've got over a dozen events I'll be going to that are directly related to the blog (half of which are industry news panels), so as long as I'm still alive by the end of the weekend, expect about a month's work of ongoing features thanks to Comic Con. For those attending, see you there! For those not attending, make sure to follow my Twitter for the occasional live updates, and use the NYCC09 tag for all con coverage.
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Gomen nasai minna-san! I just got back from a Japanese language immersion camp, where I learned the language for two weeks straight. While the camp was fun, I was pining to get back to Ani-Gamers and continue to provide AnimeNEXT coverage for whatever readers haven't given up on us yet.
So fear not, readers, I have returned. In the next week, I will be doing my best to give you a blast of my AnimeNEXT coverage in the forms of podcast episodes, write-ups, and a convention report. Thanks for sticking with us, and I hope to have everything back to speed in no time.
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Today's episode of the Joystiq Podcast featured the Photoshopping work of a very lucky anime and gaming writer who just might be named Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto. Joystiq's Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann, and Justin McElroy were nice enough to include my image (pictured on the left) of the three of them in their roles from Game of the Year 2008 Super Joystiq Podcast Brawl. Thanks to Chris, Ludwig, and Justin (okay, Griffin too) for posting the picture and shamelessly plugging Ani-Gamers.
The podcast is undoubtedly my favorite--and possibly the best--gaming podcast out there. Feel free to check out this week's episode, Over the Hill Edition.
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After a not-so-brief train ride home (don't miss your stop, Evan), I returned home from a long day at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, where the New York Anime Festival--the spiritual successor to the Big Apple Anime Fest--was held.
I won't give you the full details of what happened right now, seeing as I'll include that in a later con report, but I will say that I was able to meet (in some capacity) some truly amazing celebrities in the world of anime journalism, including Justin Sevakis, Chris MacDonald, Zac Bertschy, and Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network, Patrick Macias and (the one I was personally most excited about, due to his podcast) Daryl Surat of the new magazine Otaku USA.
The convention was really exciting, from the fascinating panels to the great choices of anime screenings to the massive dealer's room. Oh, and I of course gave into temptation and bought two things that have been on my mind lately: Daryl's god of all that is good in this world, "Golgo 13: The Professional" and the 4chan favorite "Yotsuba&!" Look out for my con report, which should be up in the coming week, as soon as I get those pictures in order. (On that note, belated pictures from AnimeNEXT '07 will be up eventually)
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Yeah, sorry about that two-day lapse in updates. (Right after announcing the daily updates too!) Some family came over for the weekend, and I ended up catching a virus they were carrying. Debilitated for a day, bogged down with missed work the next, I was sadly unable to update.
Today, though, I've got a tasty, Shampoo-flavored treat for you. That's right, a guest-Review of Samurai Champloo from my friend Space Cowboy over at the AnimeLeague Reviewers Scheme. More guest-Reviews are to come as the Scheme kicks up its production in the coming months. Good luck Arya and company!
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I'm back from the beach, and ready for some hardcore website action. Well, not quite hardcore, but it's kind of enthiusiastic and stuff. As for the general goings-ons (going-ons, goings-on, whatever it is), I'd like to formally welcome The_Oracle into our blog staff. He has helped many a time with reviews and other content before, as well as moderating the forums, but he just recently joined our blog. You may have noticed him filling in for me for the past two weeks' Dojo Days. I loved the articles, and so he and I will be switching Dojo Day duties (alliteration ftw) in random order throughout the rest of the Dojo's life. Well, it's good to be back.
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Well, I'm off to the beach. Since this is *not* Italy, I should be able to grab some internet without missing any sights. I might post a bit on here or on the forums. But I'll essentially be gone for about two weeks from the blog/forums. So, like, don't let barbarians destroy Rome while I'm gone, okay? Oh...CRAP! They did already?
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I'm sure many of our nerdy readers out there went to a bookstore at midnight yesterday morning to grab a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I hope you all enjoy your book. Of course, being a Harry Potter fan myself, I will not post any spoilers of the book, or allow them on the Forums. (I actually finished the book last night) For anyone wishing to discuss theories, events of the book (always noted for spoilers of course) or their opinions on Deathly Hallows, feel free to post in Ani-Gamers' Deathly Hallows discussion thread.
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With E3 officially over, I finally posted my thoughts on the winners of categories such as "Best Video," "Best Game Company," and "Best Announcement." Come check out Ani-Gamers' E3 Wrapup, and make sure to come to the forums to discuss the show with fellow Ani-Gamers members in our E3 2007 thread.
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Hot on the heels of AnimeNEXT and AnimeExpo, the gaming world is throwing the Electronics Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, at us. This year's "Min-E3" is downsized, but the big name companies are still feeding us juicy information. Today, I'm going to slave over my computer to bring you as much E3 coverage as possible. The news will be posted in the general order that it was announced, and then the highlights will be summed up at the end. Get ready for Min-E3!
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Yesterday was quite fun, and I'll have a report from the Del Rey and Bandai panels that I attended, as well as funny stories and other information. Right now, I'm gearing up for Day 3, when I will be wearing a green AnimeNEXT shirt for those interested. As in the last post, My face looks like this.
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The RP Phantom and I just got back late last night from a long day at New Jersey's most popular anime convention: AnimeNEXT. The con was really a lot of fun, and we'll be there for the next two days of the con. (No, we are NOT cosplaying)
Since I'm sure no one is interested in my excursion into the dealer's room, I'll let you know about my panel and event adventures. Definitely the most exciting thing that I did was getting the signatures of and speaking to Gus Sorola (plays Simmons) and Kathleen Zuelch (plays Tex) from the popular web video series Red vs Blue. I also stopped in for a bit to "Introduction to Red vs Blue," in which fans asked questions of the two RvB guests. There was also an interesting and abstract "contour drawing" workshop. By far, the best panel was "Everything About DBZ," in which two Dragonball experts answered questions, which got increasingly insane and nerdy as the panel went on. They also explained the current confirmed details of the very cool Dragonball Online.
As usual for AnimeNEXT, the industry panels come on the next two days, but I doubt they will be giving out any megaton announcements.
There were some very funny occurences at the con, such as some guy turning up cosplaying as Jesus, and his subsequent battle with Lil Slugger. On the really weird side, there was some nerd dressed as the Great Saiyaman, who would refer to Gohan as "I" or "me" during DBZ conversations. Needless to say, he was responsible for most of the crazy arguments that went on at the DBZ panel.
Get ready for today's con report, since there's some major panels going on today. I'll take detailed notes just for you. If you are looking for me today, I'll be wearing a dark blue Rurouni Kenshin shirt, and I pretty much look like this. (I just happen to be wearing the same shirt in the picture as I will be wearing today)
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Yep, Vampt Vo is finally back from his vacation to the wonderful country of Italy. I hope you all didn't miss me too much. It seems that I've missed quite a bit of news, so I'll overview it for you.
- Gamespot sat down to play Geometry Wars: Galaxies on Wii and DS, and found that the game is very impressive, and allows for DS-to-DS and (more importantly) Wii-to-DS demo sharing.
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass releases on October 1st.
- At AnimeEXPO, FUNimation announces distribution rights to Darker than Black, while Geneon gets Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. Media Blasters announces distribution of the Genshiken OVA and Kujibiki Unbalance.
- Metroid Prime 3 has no online play, according to Retro Studios, and it has been delayed to an August 27th, 2007 release date.
- I missed a ton of SSB Dojo news, but I'll get that up soon.
On the personal end of things, this week is going to be absolutely amazing. Haruhi Volume 1 is here and waiting to be watched, while Volume 2 is on its way. AnimeNEXT us right around the corner, and with three days worth of tickets, it's sure to be fun. Oh yeah, and happy 4th of July to you Americans.
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Verily! Anyway. I'm going on vacation for about 9 days starting today, so don't expect many updates or forum posts. (if any at all) I'm trusting Kahuna, TheRpPhantom, and The Oracle to watch over Ani-Gamers while I'm gone. Where am I going? Well, let's just say that I might be meeting two plumber brothers while I'm there...
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A few weeks ago I created two Wikipedia articles about LELOLA[dot]net, an awesome anime fansite, and its semi-famous creator, Pan-Chan. Check them out, and if you're a Wikipedian with knowledge of Pan or LELOLA, add some info. (links: LELOLA and Pan-chan)
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