Sleeping Samurai Tournament – NYAF08. Pictures finally uploaded too!

I bumped into this Temari cosplayer at MangaNext this past weekend and as per her request, I’m posting this video link of her utterly destroying someone with in a (foam) sword fighting tournament at New York Anime Fest 2008.

That poor guy…

And on a side note, I finally uploaded pictures from New York Anime Fest 2008 weekend conveniently linked at the top of this page.  Enjoy!

Zenkaikon 2008 – Pictures Uploaded

Well, every con has to have a starting point.

Only in their second year, Zenkaikon managed to put up a decent show despite their very limited venue space.  You’d be disappointed if you expected a huge concert hall for the main events like the masquerade or the ‘Whose Line is it Anime?” comedy show, or even a room that’s much bigger than your kitchen.

So here are the highlights:

More Anime USA 08 Pics Uploaded

Came back from Philladelphia’s Zenkaikon, and so 50 more pictures from Anime USA 2008 has been uploaded to the pictures page as promised. Most of the pictures from this new batch are from the masquerade, thanks to xFei.

This year’s masquerade was a mixed bag. Although my standard has been set pretty high by New York Anime Festival — for their high stakes global competition and quality skits that bordered on poetic performance artistry — I definitely enjoyed myself at AUSA08’s cosplay contest because of gems like this ensemble Tenchi Muyo performance.  The whole cast was there, they were all in character, and the super goofy song about the hinderance of love — oddly enough — fit the nature of the series.

Be sure to check out YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/omegaxcn to see this skit.  You’ll also see my other favorite skit from the night — Harvest Moon!

I’ll be sure to get Zenkaikon pictures up within the next week, then hopefully the New York Anime Festival Pictures (stupid PhotoBucket problems).

1,000 Piece Chobits Jigsaw Puzzle

I went to my friend’s Byron’s house the other day where he was working on this massive 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Chi from Chobits that his girlfriend brought over.  His sister decided to handicap us by not letting us use the cover art as reference, so we had to use the visual cues from the back of the pieces to put this thing together.  After a 15 hour straight marathon with a four person team working on it, as well as one person to provide the background music via acoustic guitar, it came to completion.

One of the best things I’ve helped to accomplish in my sad, geeky life.

This took about 15 hours straight to complete without using the box cover art.

AUSA08 Quick update – Masquerade pics by the end of the weekend

I’ll be in Philly for the whole weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday, attend Zenkaikon, and eat lots of sushi, but I will have have pics from every masquerade skit and some more videos uploaded when I’m back. So please stop by again later!

Ciao!

Anime USA 2008 – Versailles -Philharmonic Quintet

AUSA has become my personal favorite anime convention (eat your heart out, Otakon). Sure, it doesn’t compete with the sheer size and scale of the big names like Anime Expo and Otakon, but it’s just like how I might rather have a small gathering of close friends as opposed to a big party where the entire neighborhood block is invited.

Although technically a small con, AUSA undoubtedly gets some great guests every year. One of the biggest draws to this year’s AUSA was the visual kei band Versailles coming straight from Japan. They put on a great performance, despite an atrocious five hour wait pass their originally scheduled performance time.

According to the con chair, there were some massive technical difficulty and sound problems with the band’s equipment. Because of miscommunication and translation problems between AUSA staff and the band’s management, AUSA did not have the adequate equipment to accommodate for the band’s very specific technical requests. Consequently, sound testing took five hours because of malfunction and feedback.

Still, I have to give props to the AUSA staff. In such a shitfest of a situation, they did their best to pass water to everyone who needed it in line, set up fans all over the hotel to keep the attendees cool, and they worked with the hotel to turn the air conditioning as cold as possible.

With a line that wrapped around half of an entire floor leading to a very hot stone fire exit staircase (about 3-4 stories), artists and dealers at the con no doubt suffered a blow in sales from would-be customers who weren’t willing to give up their spot in line.

Karaoke Videos Uploaded! – Anime USA 2008

Videos from the karaoke at AUSA08 have been uploaded.  You can watch everything by clicking the link below.  Youtube links are also provided.

Karaoke was a nice surprise for me.  Most of the performances were decent.  Of course you have the few who get nervous and struggle quite a bit, but the audience is always supportive to the point where most of them would come on stage and dance in the background.

Please enjoy! 

Anime USA 2008 – Picture Album is up. Videos coming soon.

I uploaded pictures from Anime USA 2008. More will be on the way soon, as well as videos.

To view the picture ablum, click the image below, or the tab above

More to come soon.  Look forward to it!

Me and Final Fantasy 8 Quistis at the Kabuki Ball

New York Anime Festival 2008 Overview

Manhattan traffic and unforgiving rain wasn’t enough to keep thousands of sailor scouts, ninjas, artists, and anime devotees from missing out on one of the biggest events in anime fandom. New York Anime Festival 2008 exceeded my expectations with their fantastic venue space, amazing guests of honor, and the best masquerade/cosplay contest I’ve ever witnessed in all my time spent at conventions.

After collecting my badge, I went to the main convention floor where I was greeted by a perky girl from the maid cafe bowing while saying “irashaimasu!” If that isn’t a good first impression, I don’t know what is. You gotta admire the organizers for their attention to detail in trying to make NYAF08 truly a celebration of Japanese pop culture.

The amount of space in the exhibition hall (or dealer’s room if you prefer) is nothing I’ve experienced at a con since Otakon. FUNImation, Tokyopop, Viz, and Anime News Network all had a very strong presence there from the industry side. However, it was Bandai entertainment who stole the show as promoted two of the biggest anime titles of the year: Code Geass and Gurren Lagaan.

They also have the official right to shamelessly play the Haruhi ED dance music on loop.

Maka and Liz Thompson in Soul Calibur 4

Soul Eater characters Maka and Liz Thompson using the Create-a-Character mode.