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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Dark Crystal Age of Resistance ep 8 liveblog

“Prophets Don’t Know Everything”

That’s a funny line considering that the prophecy was exactly right in the Dark Crystal movie but Aughra comes up with another prophecy in the sequel comic which is also exactly right but she doesn’t understand it herself until it starts coming true. So, yes, prophets don’t know everything. But prophecy probably does.

Just a stream of thoughts.

Hey, this is a bummer. Aftermath of spider eradication of an entire gelfling tribe is a huge bummer. I’m brave enough to say it.

Aughra starts yelling at the spider that tried to take over her body last episode. And then helps patch it up anyway because she cares for all the creatures of Thra, even the jerks.

“It’ll leave a scar but scars are good. The mind forgets but scars remember.”

Apparently if the spider had succeeded in taking her over, its tiny brain would have exploded. Good to know!

LANDSTRIDER

Oh, its Seladon. And she’s seeing the wiped out village and going ‘serves you right you dinks’

Oh she’s trying to arrest Aughra for dunking on her. And then she’s like did your prophecies predict this?

Yes, she did. She tried to warn Maudra Fara but all Maudras are kind of dumb.

Oh, nice trick. She slipped her eye into Seladon’s pocket to spy on the castle.

“Don’t worry, Mother Aughra. I’ll convince the Lords to show mercy on you. And your treasonous pets.” Oh Seladon, you sure don’t have the right idea of your relationship with the Skeksis.

Hi SkekSil!

He’s explaining his evil plan to the science slaves with the sewed up mouths because he knows that they can’t tell on him. You’re a weird one, Sil.

Oh, he’s buying their double silence in exchange for him freeing them.

He’s going to get them to replace the General’s allotted vial of essence with a substitute so General will get weak.

The Hunter took off with Brea and Rian wants to go rescue her but Heretic is like NO GO GET THE GLAIVE YOU DUMB IDIOT

Aww Hup is injured and is out of action and so is the Archer.

Just Rian and Deet now.

The Heretic shows them a secret tunnel to the Breath of Thra. Which is something that Deet knows about.

Awwww Heretic and the Wanderer are wishing Rian and Deet luck and to not get killed. Because they want to be one one day.

... I really hope that they’re actually alive by the time of the movie and get to fuse.

So after all the discrimination that Deet has faced for being a Grotten she smugly reveals that Grottan have mean names for the other Gelfling too like Daylighter and Sky Baby. Which she reveals by teasing Rian. Okay then.

Deet: -grabs Rian and jumps down a pit-

Rian: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Deet: “Don’t do that it aggros the bats”

So the spiders just brought the Gelfling to the castle to be drained all in one batch? INstead of using them as an army to capture other Gelfling? Sure, guys, sure.

Scientist: “I have strapped countless Gelflings into these chairs. And I was equally unmoved by their screams!”

Oh the guard that sold out the other guards is getting drained too. Rewarded as a traitor deserves I see.

Scientist: “The only mercy I have to offer…. Is death!”

I have to say. The Gelflings exploding at the end of being drained. That feels like youre losing something somewhere along the process. Like waste heat but soul goo.

So Chamberlain is cut off from essence because the Emperor is mad at him. But I bet he’s going to get the General’s share on the dl. That sneaky.

Deet and Rian arrive at her home cave and WHOOPS its being attacked by spiders.

Everything is awful everywhere.

Oh geez. There’s that minor arachnophobia again.

OH GEEZ GELFLINGS BEING TAKEN OVER BY SPIDERS AGAIN

Scientist: “Keep up you lackadaisical lumps!” Good alliteration, Tek.

Scientist’s two assistants just made the swap.

So with entire villages being taken, I feel like the Skeksis are really in danger of overgrazing.

Emperor: “Look at you yelling and gorging! This essence was hard won by! Lets not drink it all at once! … JUST KIDDING DIG IN”

And another Skeksis bacchanalia.

Scroll-Keeper: “My eyes! They’re working again! I’ve forgotten how ugly you all are!”

Skeksis: -laugh uproariously-

Emperor: “.... what?”

Ritual-Keeper is going to make a new ritual for drinking essence. It will involve a lot of bathing. Just guzzling essence in the bath I guess.

Oh no, Seladon just arrived.

And the Skeksis are not responding well to her new look.

Seladon: “I’m here to ask you spare the Stonewood”

Emperor: “Uh…. no”

Seladon: “I understand but the other clans have remembered their place so surely they’ll be spared your wrath”

Emperor: “...... No”

And the Skeksis just straight up revealing that they have been draining Gelfling is what it finally takes for Seladon to realize sense-

NOPE SHE DECIDES TO KEEP OFFERING THEM TRIBUTE

Emperor: “Uhhhhhhhhhh….. No!”

And then she asked the Skeksis to spare her sisters if no one else. You can guess what the response is. Its a no and laughing.

And then they take her crown and mock her. Because nothing like insult to insult.

And then she asks for mercy and they tear her Skeksis cosplay apart and take her to be drained. Because. All of Seladon’s hopes and dreams have to be crushed. And also because we gotta get that reference to the movie in.

SkekSil is probably just glad its not him this time. Its usually him.

I’m glad Aughra is crying for Seladon because I’m not really.

She Tried and that’s about what I can say.

Also Aughra’s friend spider rescues her eye which falls out of Seladon’s pocket during the ruckus.

Back over at the caves, Deet’s home is destroyed. Her family is gone. She has two dads apparently. That’s neat but sucks that they’re drunk.

You know what I mean.

Oh hey its Deet’s brother Bobb’n! He’s controlled by spider!

Deet is trying to negotiate with the face hugging spider.

He just starting freaking out and hissing so I don’t think its going GIANT SPIDER OH GOD

And there goes spiderbrother.

And there goes Deet after Bobb’n.

NURLOC

DARKENED NURLOC HOH SHIT

ITS TRYING TO EAT EVERYONE

Rian: “Hey! Look at me! You hungry? I’m a much tastier Gelfling!”

That’s a brave thing you just did there Rian. And I’m sure you are pretty tasty.

Oh the General is blaming the Scientist for the essence not working for him.

Except Scientist has been drinking his essence and the General hasn’t so the Scientist is the jock here and bullies General right back.

Chamberlain breaks up the fight because I’m sure he has some angle but I think its so he can laugh at both sides internally

OH HI HUNTER

Wow he makes an entrance, dragging in some chains and pincushioned by arrows.

I think…. He just dropped dead?

No, he’s alive.

But a Skeksis seeming to die makes a huge stir.

Back in the tunnels of underground and Deet is lost

OH RIAN HAS BEEN SPIDERED

DEET IS ABOUT TO BE SPIDERED

OH and Bobb’n… uh intervenes? The spiders jump off Deet and Rian.

I guess the spiders aren’t so unreasonable? Rian saved Spider-Bobb’n from the nurloc so Bobb’n spared him?

Deet: “He wants us to follow him”

Rian: “What could go wrong” Heh, wRyian.

So Scientist is Bad Bedside Manner but point being the Hunter is going to die.

The Collector assumes that the Gelflings did this and the Skeksis immediately all start losing their shit. ANY ONE OF THEM COULD BE NEXT

I can see why the Emperor is in charge because he’s the only one who’s trying to think of a way to fix things.

He commands that the Hunter be given as much essence as it takes to save him.

Gourmet: “Surely not all of it?”

Ritual-Master: -glares-

Hah.

And then theres a scrabbling in the cage and whoops theres Brea

Scroll-Keeper: “Oh look the clever princess” -throws her in jail-

Brea: “No you can’t do this!”

Scroll-Keeper: “And yet its already done”

Brea: “You’re all monsters!”

Scroll-Keeper: “Have you only just figured that out? Perhaps you are not so clever after all”

Wow the Skeksis really are thrilled to let their jerk flag fly now that they don’t have to be nice to the Gelflings anymore.

Oh cool, Brea got locked up across from Seladon.

This will let them work their shit out.

Seladon: “There was an order to the world… Everything worked… Until you and your friends broke it!”

Oh good. She’s still delusional. What does it take to get her to see reality.

Oh hi Spider-Tavra is here too. Its a family reunion.

The most awkward family reunion on Thra.

So the Scientist has poured all the stored essence down the Hunter’s throat. Well most of all. It looks like he’s spilling most of it because those long snouts kind of make it hard.

But the essence isn’t healing him. So the Emperor tells Scientist to drain more Gelfling but the Scientist tells him that there’s a limit to what essence can heal. So Emperor hauls off and hits him.

Dang everyone is so rude to the Scientist.

But he raises the point that if the Gelfling know that Skeksis can die it will mean the end of their rule. I’m not so sure about this but whatever.

Emperor: “Bathe the Hunter in essence if you must! We are immortal at any cost!”

Oh hi Aughra’s Eye. On a spider.

So, huh. Are the arathim a hivemind or what? Because Aughra’s spider seems to be working for her. And Bobb’n saving Rian and Deet.

Bobb’n: “You save our lives, we save yours”

Oh. I guess the arathim are just super into paying back debts.

So the arathim tell Deet that they’re working for the Skeksis in exchange for the Grottan caves which used to be where the arathim lived. Which Deet is like NUH UH THE GROTTAN HAVE ALWAYS LIVED HERE

Uh oh the gelflings did a colonialism.

And the Skeksis helped. Or did it primarily.

The Ascendency, All Arathim as One: “Then the Skeksis came. They demand we serve them. When we refused, they drove us out and gave our caves to more willing subjects.”

So. Like I said, the arathim were ahead of the curve on rebelling against the skeksis but nobody else on Thra stood with them, because horrifying spider people, so after countless years of being considered Public Enemy Number One by everyone the arathim have decided fuck it, we WILL deal with the Skeksis if we get to go home.

This is a complicated issue so good thing that everyone is going to die so we don’t have to deal with it!

Then the Darkened Nurloc kills an arathim and the spider-gelflings start freaking out. Because what one feels the rest feel.

Which sounds like a bad basis for a hivemind.

Rian figures out that the Skeksis must have known about the Darkening being here and that they double crossed the arathim.

But it doesn’t matter because the arathim are trapped in here.

Deet decides that she can get everyone out by talking to the Sanctuary tree.

Deet: “My clan takes our names from these caves. But if you were here first, then you’re Grottan too.”

Aww…. Angry denial to camaraderie in one conversation. We could learn from Deet. Learn something.

Rian asks that the arathim free the Gelflings under their control and fight against the Skeksis with them. Maybe they can together do what the arathim couldn’t do alone!

Probably not! The movie still exists! Nothing here is going to end happily!

But the arathim free the gelfling.

Hey, if the arathim are a hivemind, do the ones in the castle know this is going on too?

Awwwwww Deet’s family is cute.

Wait, is Aughra’s spider still part of the hivemind? Do the Ascendency know everything its been doing?

Oh this is confusing.

But it returns her eye to her finally. She’s just been sitting at the village.

Okay so I guess her spider is part of the hivemind because it tells her about the alliance that just happened.

Aughra: “It’s time to make my move”

THATS A MOVIE QUOTE WHY ARE YOU SAYING IT

Oh this is just so many spiders

I GUESS THE GELFLINGS HAVE AN ARMY NOW!

Deet: “The tide is turning! A resistance is forming!” I should hope so! Its episode 8 into the age of resistance!

Rian: “I have to find the glaive” OH SHIT I FORGOT THAT PLOT POINT WHAT WITH ALL THE SPIDERS

And Rian is like This Is Something I Have To Do On My Own

But then before he can send Deet away, the Nurlocs show up and eat the Sanctuary Tree, trapping her in Rian’s subplot.

I appreciate dunking on the this is something i have to do on my own trope as much as possible but eh getting trapped in Rian’s subplot.

Sanctuary Tree: “The Darkening is pure energy! It cannot be destroyed! Like all energy it can only be transferred!” Some physics in my fantasy. Oh and the Sanctuary Tree uhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh transfer its power to Deet but also shows her a fucked up future with the Garthim and a weird Dark Side Deet and also the movie’s end.

Anyway, tree ded.

So the nurlocs attack. Hey the nurlocs are giant worm things that the Grottan raised. And yeah they’re worms but they’re livestock. This plot is about cows infected with pure evil

Deet stops the rampaging nurloc by absorbing the evil out of it. Even considering how everything is going to end badly, I think Deet is going towards a particularly bad end =(

#dark crystal #dark crystal age of resistance #episode 8 #liveblog

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upsettlspaghettl · 4 years

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Empire City Con 2019

I can say with confidence that this has been the best weekend of my life. People will be so quick to say that the Steven Universe fandom is one of the most toxic fandoms out there, but in all my years of going to conventions, this has been the most welcoming and friendly by far. Now, this could be because it’s a convention based on one singular fandom, as opposed to the mishmash of fandoms that gather at other conventions, but even Bronycon was nowhere near this level of welcoming. Then again, I only got the chance to go to 2 Bronycons so I don’t know if I can say much.

The flight to North Carolina was surprisingly not that bad. I’m very prone to getting lost, but I left 4 hours in advance and I didn’t even need those 4 hours. But this was my first time ever flying somewhere completely alone.

I got the chance to meet Deedee Magno Hall, who signed my Guide to the Crystal Gems. Now it’s my goal to get all the character pages signed. But it’s got all the fusions of season 1, so chances are I won’t ever get the chance to get Sugilite’s page signed. Oh well, a fan can dream, right? Just kind of a bummer because she happens to be my favorite fusion.

She also validated my OC ship with Yellow Pearl which was super cool of her. Deedee is a really sweet person. While waiting in line to meet her I made friends with a kid, and he was fanboying like crazy. Later on we met somebody else, and we all did karaoke together. Then they got to do a group Karaoke with Deedee, which I was unfortunately too nervous to join. She said she would try do one with me but we never got the chance, but either way I’m so grateful. She’s a really kind person and I hope I can meet her again!

My part in the karaoke was still really fun though. Me and my 2 friends were having a hard time figuring out what song to do, and since the instrumentals were live, the people playing only had a limited number of songs they could play. Eventually we agreed on Stronger than you. But the instrumental team couldn’t play that one, so one of my new friends asked everybody to sing along and be inclusive. I got to to do the Peridot rap onstage too! Only me and 1 other person in the audience did that though so it was really scary and I fumbled a lot... but I’m still so happy that I got to because it was just such a good time for everybody.

There was actually a garnet cosplayer who’s act was right before ours and they were still by the karaoke lineup, so one of my friends asked them to come join us. Toward the middle of our act, this same friend spotted a Jasper in the front row, dragged them up on stage, and we had an adorable fake fight scene. I had to hop off stage right before the song ended to hug somebody in the front row who was crying. I was relieved to hear that they were tears of joy. In the end, they invited my group to sit in the front row with them.

Right, and Garnet’s act! They actually sang the original SU opening in German which was super amazing. Toward the end, there was a Pearl cosplayer in her Mr. Greg tuxedo who sang It’s Over isn’t it with Deedee, and a Yellow Pearl cosplayer who did an amazing Yellow Pearl-y take on Do it for her. So yeah the variety of acts was fantastic and the whole thing was just so feel-good all around.

At the very end of the karaoke, after everyone had gotten a chance and we were all just hanging out in the karaoke room, I was given a Spinel promo pin by a Mystery Girl. Not literally a Mystery Girl cosplayer, but somebody who I thought was just... well, somebody. They mentioned having extras from the movie screening in CA, and were handing them out to Spinel cosplayers. Of course I was hopping up and down being super thankful to an awkward degree, like I normally do.

That night, I told my roommates what happened, and they told me just who that Mystery Girl was. None other than Mackenzie Atwood, creator of the Pearl’s Secret Rap Career series. My facial recognition is terrible, so I didn’t realize at the time. I was lucky enough to run into her again the next morning during breakfast in the hotel lobby, so I got to thank her personally in the end.

Speaking of Mystery Girls, there actually was a Mystery Girl cosplayer who was especially awesome. Not even ten minutes after arriving at the convention, I see 2 Spinels who welcome me into their Spinel group. A Mystery Girl cosplayer is with them, and they hand me a pair of shoe squeakers. They look like tiny clear whoopie cushions, and Mystery Girl was handing them out to all the Spinels. I don’t know about everybody else, but mine drew a lot of attention from other con-goers because I was super happy and energetic at this con so I ran everywhere I went. People were always laughing and it made me so happy that I was able to make people smile. I’ll definitely be using them again in my future Spinel cosplays.

One of the people I shared a hotel room with was a Spinel cosplayer on the first day, and they were carrying an amazing Spinel plushie that I remember seeing a photo of on Deviantart, and later showed up for sale on Etsy. It was super expensive and I remember wanting it, but I couldn’t be jealous because I know I was super lucky to even see the thing in real life!

On the second day, I met a sweet little girl who seemed to think I was the real Spinel. She drew me a picture of Baby Spinel, and I gave her my drawing of Baby Spinel which I’d made earlier that day in the quiet room. Later on, one of the convention organizers was holding a game session, and this kid crushed me in a round of Gem Gem Clod... which is Duck Duck Goose, but better. Note to self: playing games that involve running when wearing pink high heeled boots probably isn’t gonna go well!

After some games, we made some meep morps. Somebody started a trend of drawing Lion on the little canvases we were given, but my Lion wasn’t coming out quite right, so after I finished drawing his head I just. put it on one single leg. You’ve heard of Leg Pearl, now get ready for Leg Lion. I was super happy about that too because I made everybody laugh.

Once we ran out of canvases, the organizer offered to take polaroids of some of us, so now me and this adorable little kid had matching photos, which we put in tiny pink frames and put a Spinel gem on each.

oh also! the game organizer had a tattoo on their leg of a bunch of anime characters, mainly the cute “squad mascot” archetype. There was Hawk, Happy, a few other characters, and Keroro! I totally freaked out over Keroro because it’s a relatively obscure series, and it was the first show that really got me into anime! I’ve always loved things like Pokemon and Naruto, but Keroro Gunso was my gateway to the anime community as a whole.

At around noon, I spent a little more time in the room where the games were held, which had some board games of its own, books, and art supplies and overall functioned as just a room to hang out in. There I met a Pink Diamond cosplayer in a pink schoolgirl uniform and an Uravity hat (really cute outfit!), and a goth Spinel cosplayer. The Pink Diamond cosplayer was a great artist and drew a really cute magical girl Steven. These 2 people also taught me what a vsco girl was when they were joking about the fact that Pink Diamond would totally be one. I was super confused but it was really funny after they explained it.

There was a cosplay fashion show much later in the day and I made friends with a Ruby and Sapphire while sitting in line. They were a couple irl and went on stage together and they were adorable! They were also both Hazbin Hotel and Harry Potter fans, so we had a lot to talk about. We kept talking while we waited in line for the Sadie Killer and the Suspects concert too, and a few other people joined us. I’d only just met these people but I really felt surrounded by friends.

Earlier in the day, while I was waiting in line to meet Kinetic Cosplay, I ran into an amazing Sour Cream and Buck Dewey. I got their photo, only to later see them on stage as a part of the real life Sadie Killer and the Suspects. Jenny Pizza was also on stage, but I didn’t see her before that.

While the convention was great, something also happened that scared the hell out of me. At NYCC just last month, I bought some very tiny stickers, one of which was Froppy from BHNA. When I got home and unpacked, it was gone. I thought maybe it fell into the fabric of my backpack, and if it did, there was really no way to retrieve it unless it decided to fall out again. However at the convention... I was at the registration table, decorating my con badge. I pick up my phone, and suddenly the Froppy sticker falls out of nowhere. It looked like it came from the phone, but I can’t imagine where it would have fit and gotten stuck. It kinda just fell out of the void. Either way I’m glad to have it back.

Lets see... I also got some pictures of the real life Mr. Universe van... and later on I ran into the owner of the van in full Mr. Universe gear.

The Garnet cosplayer was Cotton Candy garnet on the second day and I still can’t get over how sweet and nice they were.

There were some family cosplays. On the first day I saw a Yellowtail carrying a baby doll dressed as Onion, and then on the second day the same person was with a Vidalia cosplayer, and an actual child dressed as Onion.

There were also a pair of parents dressed as Connie’s mom and dad, and their kid dressed as Connie.

On the first day there was a Mr. Smiley which was super cool and unexpected, and then on the second day they were Bismuth. There were actually 3 Bismuths in total at the con which was surprising because that wig looks super difficult to make. Anyone who can pull that off is amazing!

The last day only went on until about noon, but my flight didn’t leave until the next day. I didn’t book my hotel room for that night because I wanted extra time in case I got lost on the way to the airport. Turned out there were free shuttles. I ended up in the same shuttle as that Pink Diamond cosplayer and her dad, and she showed me this adorable RPG game app called Wholesome Cats. We took some snapchats together and now I know what I’d look like as a boy...

Since there was a shuttle to the airport, that meant I was super early for my flight. Super early as in, almost 12 hours early. After going through security, I was planning to just sleep at the gate, but my gate number wasn’t on the screen. So I asked an airport employee, and he told me that I wasn’t even supposed to be let through security until the next day, which was when my gate number was supposed to show up... whoops. It wasn’t so bad though, either way I’d just be hanging out at the airport for the night. I decided not to sleep though, just in case. It felt weird late at night, when the airport was more or less completely empty. It was so nice and quiet, and the Starbucks was still open so I had a super yummy dinner of pumpkin bread and cheese danishes.

I think that’s about it? If you wanna see pictures, I’ll be posting them all to a public album on Gnomie Leviton on Facebook, and I’ll also select a special few to post on QueenGnomie on Instagram.

If you add me on FB please tell me your url! I only add people who I've talked to before.

In conclusion!

This was by far my favorite convention I’ve ever been to, because you could literally just go up to someone, start talking, and you’d immediately have an awesome new friend. I’ve never been to a con before where every single person was so approachable. It really felt like everybody there was one big family. I already have a potential roommate for next year, so I really hope to get back on my feet soon so I can go!

#i dont wanna play anymore (MUN POSTS)#long post #hazbin hotel tw #harry potter tw #bhna tw

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anigraham · 5 years

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SakuraCon 2019

Got back from Seattle yesterday!

This year I had a mission to take a photo of every Bowsette cosplayer I could find. I’ll be posting their photos soon along with a couple of Chompettes.

Overall I had a good time. Saw some friends, drank, and had good food as always!

I will say I super miss cosplaying. I keep saying when I get a steady job again and well, I’ve been saying that for years now. Feels bad man.

Also. SakuraCon didn’t seem to have as many good panels as they use to. Very few caught my interest and some of my reoccurring favorites weren’t there this year! I’ve been considering doing a panel there and now I feel I should get serious about it. Adem and I also came up with another fun panel we could do.

Two of the panels we went to were kind of meh. Gotta say that leaving improv up to random volunteers from the audience can really be hit or miss and there were a lot of misses. I remember one year (YEARS ago) someone running a panel that required improv actually interviewed people before hand to try and snag good participants. It ended up being a really fun panel. The next year a different group of people tried running the same panel and they didn’t interview before hand and it was...not very good.

Art Alley was hell. Wow. Their location was out of the way which was a bummer, but they seemed to have a ton of artists which is a bonus. However, everything was so tight and compact that it honestly made navigating it a bit of a nightmare. At least for me! Normally I like the wander through AA a couple of times during the con, but honestly once was enough. I made sure to buy all the things I wanted before leaving. Hopefully next year they will try something different.

Since I’ve been going for several years, it is kind of interesting thinking of all the different places SakuraCon has tried putting AA.

The plus to this year was Adem and I actually found quite a few new anime to watch.

#real life #SakuraCon #Sakura Con #using tumblr like livejournal

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miyoron · 5 years

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Miyo’s Anime of Note 2018 Rainbow Edition

2018 was some kind of a year wasn't it? It was long and a pain in the ass but there was some anime out this year I really enjoyed. I'm here to write down a bunch of shows I enjoyed in no particular order. I might put them in the order I watched them in, or I might not. I guess we'll see huh?

Also, I think there's WAY more this year than usual which means I either like things easily, there were a lot of good shows, all of the above or some other reason. Hope I don't get too long winded on you! Also I'm using whatever names I feel like for naming things off, translated, still Japanese...whaaatever~

Pop Team Epic

Pop Team Epic was everything I wanted it to be and more. I've been a fan of Bkub's work since the early days so to see these two shitty girls finally show up on the anime screen week to week was a pleasure and a delight. The decision to make two separate half episodes with different voice actors for Popuko and Pipimi was a wonderful decision that let us experience things like Aoi Yuki as Popuko and Norio Wakamoto as Pipimi. It also shot the wonderful team of ACBU into the spotlight. Their Bobunemimimmi segments were so disgustingly perfect and fit the tone of the show perfectly. It also gave us one of the best moments in anime this year:

Needless to say, I really hope they are doing a season 2 like it's been rumored. I'm on board for SO much more.

Yuru Camp

This was a show I actually watched twice this year and have subsequently watched multiple episodes just on my own. It is one of my favorite things this year and maybe it's just because of how unassuming it is. There's honestly nothing deep to the show. Cute girls dress in warm winter clothing and go camping. However, the way everything is paced with nice warm colors and chill ass music nestles its way into your heart and fills you with a nice cozy feeling. It's like a blanket, the anime. Just wrap yourself up in the wonderful friend times and maybe you'll learn a thing or two about camping and friendship along the way.

Mitsuboshi Colors

Are adults letting you down? Sure, they're not up to the challenge pretty much all the time. But that's why you should just stay out of the way and let Colors come in to save the day! This trio of girls are ready to save their town and to let shitty cops know what's up. Seriously, it's a cute show with a cute group of friends getting into big adventures, even if those adventures are often due to their own misconceptions. It's a good show with kids who act like kids and are always either talking about poop or are sucking at video games. It's a nice show and has some good performances, as well as the best sunglasses of 2018 in my book.

Karakai no Jouzu Takagi-san

A series about a boy and a girl who are totally crushing on each other, even if one likes to keep it deeply hidden and the other would never admit it really. Oh, also she owns him every chance she can get with teasing. It's like a reverse Tonari no Seki-kun if Seki was not in his own world and was actively trying to make Rumi blush or stumble over herself. This premise may sound mean but it's honestly all in good fun and there's something really cute about the pair's friendship with each other. The way the manga apparently goes makes me really want to check it out sometime too.

Oh also there's a great side trio of friends with and I love how dumb of a baby one of them is.

Hinamatsuri

What happens when a yakuza becomes the dad of a psychic girl who crashed in an egg in his apartment and broke all his vases? This series! Hinamatsuri was a show that got me really hard this year at a couple points where I know I had to either fight back tears or take a few minutes to sit their with a quivering lip and watery eyes. It's an incredibly funny show from the premise alone but when you have the put upon character of Nitta having to take care of the force of nature that is Hina it just escalates it. On top of that though, there's a good heart to it as well. Anzu is a wonderful character and I love her story and her many grandpas. Also Hitomi's story actively hit me hard to where I felt bad for a fictional child to please just be a child for a little while. It was powerful stuff and I loved it.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

I hate Sword Art Online. I've only watched the first series with the original and faerie times, but I hated it so much. That being said, hearing that the new one was actually good made me seek it out and...thank God it is. Llenn/Karen is just a much more compelling character than the power fantasy that is Kirito. The story of a woman who does not like herself in the real world, but finds a new home and life in virtual reality is a nice little story. On top of that, ditching the stupid "if you die in the game, you die in real life" really helped the show out in my eyes. This show is not about stop some huge over arcing villainous plot to fuck over the whole world or whatever. GGO is about trying to save someone from hurting themselves and honestly, that's a lot more relatable. A recap episode in this day in age IS silly though for what it's worth.

Let's take a short break shall we? For a little section I'm gonna call, Fuck, You Let me Down Man.

Amanchu Advance

I put Amanchu on my list two years ago of Anime of Note because I really enjoyed the tale of friendship it told. Amanchu Advance continues that story and shows Teko slowly becoming more of her own person thanks to that friendship. She wants to become a stronger person, a better version of herself and it's through her friends she's able to do this. The series is still very good at showing these moments but the last few episodes of the show are bogged down in a weird supernatural plot with a ghost boy that I wish they would have just tossed down the shrine steps. The twist at the end with it was not worth sidetracking the story for three episodes in a 12 episode story and soured my experience as a whole. I've been told the author likes doing these sorts of things and I didn't mind the lucid dreaming episodes, but this bit just did not land for me and it's a big bummer.

Here's Another Side Category Called Old Anime I Watched And Enjoyed. Yes, that's the full title.

G Gundam

I don't know why it took me so long to watch this series, but I am glad I did. Maybe I just needed friends to be there to watch it with, who knows. Either way, I'm thankful I got to join Domon on his journey searching for the man in the photograph and to experience the Undefeated of the East in his most powerful form. G Gundam is a goofy setting with a bunch of weird but fun characters and their even weirder mobile suits. I don't know how much I can really say on it since I'm sure most people have probably checked it out years ago on Toonami. It's still fun and good and it has a Gundam who is a boxer and a football man at the same time. Gundam Fight, Readdddddy....GO!

Back to my normal list, though I have grouped the next couple shows in a block I am calling the "I wish these had a full 24 episodes even though I understand why they didn't but please make more I'd love it, ok thanks" block.

A Place Further Than The Universe

This show had...a lot of moments where I was sitting there and just processing all that was going on. A group of girls become friends and join a civilian expedition to Antarctica, one of whom is going there to basically go where her mother had spoken of years ago and never came back. It's a show that I felt compelled to keep watching even though I knew I should have stopped for the night, telling myself "I can watch one more episode..." . It just gripped me and sank its penguin fangs into me. Shut up, I know what I said. Seriously though, the cast of secondary characters are just as fun as the main ones and I enjoyed every minute of it. It definitely destroyed me in one of the more heavy moments near the end though so keep a box of tissues handy ok?

Wotakoi

Love is hard for otaku. It's in the show's translated title and everything. Let me tell you, I'm very happy seeing so many anime featuring adults in the work place these days. Wotakoi is a show I felt a very personal connection to, especially its humor levels. Not going to lie, I am a Kabakura through and through when it comes to my anime watching and purchasing habits. It's a cute love story with a couple of characters getting together out of convenience before realizing maybe there's something more than that to it. The interactions are great and it's very relatable if you've ever had a friends' game night or anime watching session. It's a show that just feels like it knows just how to speak to you if you've been a fan of anime for a long time.

Hisone to Masotan

Hey, you into dragon vore? Then have I got the show for you buddy. All joking aside, Hisomaso is a show with one of the more fun protagonists I've run into in a while. Hisone's blunt and to the point to the detriment of anything that comes out of her mouth most of the time, but there's something about her honesty that's very endearing. The show's pilots are a great cast and their dragon friends are just as charismatic even if they spend a lot of the time cosplaying as aircraft. This show has a nice story about trying to find just where you fit in within the world and sometimes that's hard. Sometimes the best thing to do is dive into the gullet of a big scaly F-15 and ride the free skies to your heart's content. I love you Masotan.

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

This show I think more than any others in this block I wanted more of, even though I know why I don't have more of it. From episode one, I got Utena vibes with the music, the auditions, Hell, even the prefight wardrobe transformations. Stage girls do battle with all of their shine to prove who is truly the top star. That's the basic premise and the cast of characters really helps to flesh it out with their own motivations of what makes them keep going to be the very best they can be. I loved all of the imagery in the auditions and the music and the big doofy giraffe just watching from the stands and enjoying the whole thing. Revue Starlight is a stylish show with some amazing animation and choreography that puts most of the things I watched this year to shame and I need more things like it.

STOP IT'S PRECURE TIME

Go Princess Precure

This is me and Cheapsteak's "old Precure" of the year and it's wonderful. It's a story about dreams and fighting for them. The Princess Precures are maybe not the most relatable of characters as they attend a very prim and proper high class school. One is a business conglomerate's daughter, one's a super model, one's a Princess from another plane entirely. But there is something wonderful how they all work together as friends and work to save everyone's dreams, I don't know there's something very good and wonderful about that. I love that even when it comes to one of the villains, a character in the show goes out of her way to help him with his self esteem (and make up). I don't know, I've got a few episodes left but I just love it. Haruka is my favorite Pink Precure I've met so far and she is gonna be tough to beat.

Hugtto Precure

Very similar to Go Princess is Hugtto, with its message of hope for the future because you can't just stay in the present. There's a great cast of characters and they all work so hard to cheer each others' dreams on, all while taking care of a baby and a hamster from the future. I think this show also has the best mid-seasons Cures I've met so far and just...everything with how supportive and good everyone is to each other has me smiling the whole time. Also in the episodes leading up to the anniversary movie this year, we got some of the best big moments I've seen in a show in a while. A lot of the episodes have some amazing animation work as well and just...I like this show a lot especially what it did to show Hana's pre-show back story as well. Pink Cures are really good huh?

Back to business!

Asobi Asobase

Along with PTE, this was one of the weirder comedies that I watched this year. It's often crass or just outright weird, but that's one of its strong points I think. The show's opening is a giant fakeout from what seems like your ordinary "cute girls doing club things" chill show because you're soon hit with some of the weirdest faces and shrieks that I've run into in a while. The characters are a troublesome group of weirdoes who try to do activities like a normal club but fail horribly at it, often due to one or more of them sabotaging it with their own dumbness. It really says something that the sweetest and most relatable characters are the witch girls who practice curses all day. They're really the best though but so are all of the fucking weirdoes in this show. Also there's ass lasers so if you're into that...

Cells at Work

Learn about the human body while dangerous viruses and germs get fucking iced like they walked into the wrong anime. Follow a red blood cell make her way through the blood stream and lose her way every single time. Thrill at the amazingly adorable platelet crew as they get to work each day. Cells at Work is a weird science shounen show with some great character designs and interactions. The way the cells just are working hard and doing their jobs as best they can is great and you want to root for them so hard. Those Killer T and White blood cells and Macrophages just love killing SO much. It's a fun show that teaches you about biology and anatomy in a somewhat rudimentary but enjoyable manner.

Plus I will stress again, the platelet design is beyond cute.

Skullface Book Seller Honda-san

Honda-san is a cute little series you could watch in an afternoon due to its episode count and length, but it's one I could see myself watching multiple times easily. It's a fun window into the window of book store retail and the Japanese publishing industry. The characters have fun designs, mostly normal bodies with some kind of weird mask/helmet on but they're very relatable. Honda-san does his best to help out the customers, even when their requests tear at his very sanity some times. But that's retail huh? It's fun though, go check out this good skeleton!

Bloom Into You

I think this was the show that intrigued me the most this year because I was just hooked on the relationship between Yuu and Touko and seeing how it advanced. Yuu is a girl who wants to be able to fall in love like everyone else her age seems to be able to and when she finally meets a girl who she thinks feels similarly...that darn senpai falls in love with her. It's a very relatable tale even if you haven't been in a lot of relationships. Seeing Yuu realize her own feelings slowly grow towards Touko and the issues that come up because of was something that had me wanting to find out more each week. It also was the show that took me the longest to come to my final thoughts on too due to its ending but ultimately, I'm glad I watched it.

Zombieland Saga

Honestly, I'm glad to start and end this list with certifiable bangers. The concept of zombies becoming idols sounds like it could just go so wrong but it doesn't. It's so good and fun and goofy. The characters are all really fun and goofy but still have depth to them, even zombie brained legend Yamada Tae. I love this show and every character in it and if there were Franchouchou concerts done like a Hatsune Miku tour, I'd go so hard. Zombieland Saga is a good and powerful show and it even has a good ending with a sequel hook. Watch these girls and cheer them on, that is an order.

I normally do a "Shows I'll Watch Next Year" section but I realize I never end up doing it so I'm just going to add one of my current ones I know I'll continue watching.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind

Come on, you knew this was going to be on here right? I'm curious where this gangster plot line is going and can't wait to continue next year.

So that's my list, I hope you enjoyed it. For a special treat to go into 2019, I leave you with the best moment in anime 2018. Peace!

Ah well I got copyright striked so here’s a mirror

https://streamable.com/87z73

#MiyosAOTY2018

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation Takes Place Slightly After the Game’s Story

January 29, 2020 9:20 PM EST

New details on Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation and the Moscow Combat Revue designed by Kaguya Luna character designer Mika Pikazo. Staff, cast comments.

Sega held on January 29 the 11th Sakura Taisen Imperial Communication Department’s Broadcast stream. You can find the full stream here. It was the first stream since 2020 began. As usual, it featured MC Mami Yamashita, Yohei Azakami, who was cosplaying Seijuro, and Producer Tetsu Katano. The stream included many new details on the upcoming anime adaptation, Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation. The Moscow Combat Revue was finally revealed, along with a new trailer, story details, screenshots, and comments from the cast and staff.

First off, here is the trailer, narrated by Sho Hayami, revealing the new characters from the Moscow Combat Revue:

youtube

The biggest shock about the anime is how it takes place on Taisho 30, meaning it’s a sequel to the game, which takes place on Taisho 29. Producer Katano said the anime takes place “slightly after the game”. This is surprising as when the anime was first revealed, Sega said it would cover more or less the same story events as in the game. This is fine by me, as hopefully, I will have finished the game by April, but this is a bummer for fans waiting for the game’s localization. Fans who wish to avoid spoilers won’t be able to watch the anime as it airs. This is just a guess though, but I believe the anime won’t spoil the game much and will focus on its own story instead. This was the case with most previous Sakura Taisen anime.

Here’s the story pitch from the Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation official site: “Taisho 30 (1941). The Imperial City, Tokyo, regained its peaceful days. Seijuro Kamiyama, the captain of the Imperial Combat Revue Flower Division, was assigned to Europe, and Sakura Amamiya is temporarily replacing him as acting captain. The Flower Division’s days without their captain are full of troubles. One day, Seijuro momentarily comes back, bringing along a girl named Clara, the only survivor of the Moscow Combat Revue, destroyed after a certain incident. Seijuro transfers Clara into the Flower Division, entrusting her to Sakura Amamiya and the others, who warmly welcome here However, individuals who claim to be the supposedly destroyed Moscow Combat Revue appear in the imperial city. What is Clara’s real identity? And what is the objective of the Moscow Combat Revue? The curtain rises on the Imperial Combat Revue Flower Division’s new battle.”

On stream, we were then introduced to Clara and the Moscow Combat Revue characters:

From left to right: first, we have Clara, voiced by Misaki Watada. Next, we have the captain of the Moscow Combat Revue, Kaminsky Valery, voiced by Akabane Kenji. Lastly, we have his squadmate, Leila, voiced by Haruka Shiraishi.

All three characters were designed by Mika Pikazo. We translated her comments: “When I first heard of Sakura Taisen in my school days, it was already a legendary game. I was overwhelmed by the passion emanating from the series, the cuteness of the character designs, and the myriads of songs. Each member of the Moscow Combat Revue has multiple facets to their personalities and backgrounds. They’re all very charming. Taking all this into account, I put a lot of thought into how to design them. I’m looking forward to how they will interact with the main characters and how their feelings will clash with each other”.

自分がアニメ作品に関わらせて頂くのはサクラ大戦が初めてで、嬉しさと同時にドキドキしています…

クラーラ・レイラ・カミンスキーはすごくお気に入りのキャラです！

メインキャラデザインの久保帯人先生、そして尊敬するイラストレーターの先生方の作られたキャラと交わるのが楽しみです！！

— Mika Pikazo

PARCO全国ツアー (@MikaPikaZo) January 29, 2020

On Twitter, Mika Pikazo added: “This is my first time being involved with anime production, and it’s Sakura Taisen! I’m so excited! I’m so happy the characters I designed will be interacting with Kubo Tite’s characters and the characters created by artists I admire”.

Mika Pikazo shared more illustrations for Clara, Kaminsky, and Leila of the Moscow Combat Revue on Twitter. Mika Pikazo often uses highly vivid colors in her drawings, giving her art an eastern Europe feel at times. This is a perfect fit for the Moscow characters, as the Sakura Taisen series purposefully exaggerates stereotypes.

Personally speaking, I didn’t expect at all that Mika Pikazo would be Moscow Combat Revue’s character designer. She’s 26 and a very new pro artist compared to the other designers on Shin Sakura Taisen: Tite Kubo (Bleach), Yukiko Horiguchi (K-On), Abec/Bunbun (Sword Art Online), Fumikane Shimada (Strike Witches), Noizi Ito (Haruhi Suzumiya), and Shigenori Soejima (Persona). All of these are popular series who originated in the early 2000s or early 2010s that would be considered old by today’s Japanese teenagers, fitting Sakura Taisen‘s old atmosphere. Mika Pikazo, in counterpart, is the character designer of Kaguya Luna, one of the five most popular virtual youtubers in Japan, and, in my opinion, the only one who’s actually funny. This shows how Sega strives to make Sakura Taisen more popular among a younger audience. Besides Kaguya Luna’s design, Mika Pikazo is also the illustrator of an isekai novel themed around real-life magic tricks, titled Saikyou Juzoku Tensei: Majutsu Otaku no Utopia. The manga adaptation is drawn by Asahi Shinomura, yet another great illustrator.

Each of the seiyuu voicing the Moscow Combat Revue also shared comments on their characters:

Comments from Clara’s seiyuu Misaki Watada: “I was so happy when I heard I’d be voicing a Sakura Taisen character I started crying and we all celebrated together at my agency. Look forward to how Clara will interact with the other characters. I’m sure both older fans and newcomers who discovered the franchise with Shin Sakura Taisen will enjoy the anime”.

During the stream, Yohei Azakami mentioned he does know more about Clara, since he already recorded his lines for the anime, but he can’t say anything. He and MC Mami Yamashita jokingly added that Kohei Tanaka would have spoiled everything if he was there.

Comments from Kaminsky Valery’s seiyuu Kenji Akabane: “I got into Sakura Taisen in my school days, after watching Sakura Wars: The Movie. And I never imagined I’d be voicing a captain character one day. I was so surprised and so happy. Kaminsky is a true gentleman, but he’s also a bit weird (laughs). I hope you’re enjoying the game, and are looking forward to the anime.”

On stream, Producer Katano mentioned Kaminsky is a bit similar to Seijuro in the game, mixing seriousness and weirdness. In the anime, Seijuro acts overall cooler and more serious than in the game, seeing he can’t pick any dumb or perverted dialogue choices. Yohei Azakami and Kenji Akabane are both at Aoni Production. Azakami funnily remembered that back when it was decided he would voice Seijuro (this should be over a year ago now seeing how early in development Japanese videogames are dubbed), Akabane was acting super envious, saying he wanted to do it too. I remember a similar comedic scene that happened during a Super Robot Wars stream where they appeared together. Nice for Akabane, he ended up in Shin Sakura Taisen now.

Comments from Leila’s seiyuu Haruka Shiraishi: “The character I’m voicing, Leila, has a complicated past. She’s suffering because of it. Expressing her pain, loneliness and all her emotions in my acting was something quite difficult. Leila becomes more and more interesting as the story goes on, so look forward to the anime, and what kind of choices will she make.”

Next, we were introduced to the Spirit Particle Fighters used by the Moscow Combat Revue. They’re called Ekaterina and were designed by Mika Akitaka, the game’s mecha designer. He designed the five Spirit Particle Fighters Mugen used by the Flower Division, and all the other Spirit Particle Fighters and mecha in Project Sakura Wars.

Comments from Shin Sakura Taisen Mecha Designer Mika Akitaka: “I’m happy I was able to make new mecha designs not only for the PS4 game but for the anime as well. These are the units used by the Moscow Combat Revue, who appears for the first time in the series. Manabu Ono, the anime’s director, asked me to design a mecha that feels reminiscent of a bird. So it looks pretty different than the other mecha. Look forward to the anime.”

A new key visual for Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation was shared as well. It shows Sakura Amamiya, Hatsuho, Claris, Azami, and Anastasia, weapons ready, protecting Clara. Azakami said it echoes the anime’s story.

Comments from Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation Director Manabu Ono: “I’m happy but feeling a lot of pressure participating in Sakura Taisen‘s revival. However, I’ve fallen in love with the series once again after the meetings for the anime with Sega’s staff and the game’s development team. Sakura Taisen focuses on intense battles, friendship, and love. Along with comedy and hot-blooded story developments. I wish to show all the aspects of the franchise with the anime, so look forward to April 2020.”

Last but not least, Producer Katano, Yohei Azakami, and Mami Yamashita commented on the anime as some screenshots were revealed.

They first explained that the anime’s protagonist is Sakura Amamiya instead of Seijuro, something we already knew. As previously mentioned, Seijuro got assigned to Europe. Katano mentioned Seijuro is with Lancelot and Elise over there.

They also mentioned the anime will give more occasions to shine to Reiji Shiba and Hakushu Murasame. As a reminder, Reiji is the Flower Division’s mechanic voiced by Tomokazu Sugita. Hakushu is Sakura Amamiya’s swordmaster, designed by Soejima and voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

This is the Moscow Combat Revue, Kaminsky and Leila, doing Russian Ballet together. They like to dance like this whenever discussing together. Sega also hired ballet dancers to do motion capture for these ballet scenes.

Lastly, we have screenshots showing te Flower Division fighting against Kouma.

【1月29日(��)生放送終了】皆様、ご視聴ありがとうございました！次回は2月26日(水)放送予定！お楽しみに

#新サクラ大戦#サクラ大戦 pic.twitter.com/aajgyGASco

— サクラ大戦公式@SEGA (@Sakura_Taisen) January 29, 2020

The usual end of stream photo with Mami Yamashita, Yohei Azakami, and Tetsu Katano.

Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation will start airing in April 2020. The next Sakura Taisen stream will be held on February 26 and will include more info on it.

Shin Sakura Taisen is temporarily named Project Sakura Wars in the west and is scheduled to release on PlayStation 4 in Spring 2020. If you don’t want to wait, we’re translating the game via a let’s play. You can find the episodes we did so far on our YouTube channel. The first episode is also included below, along with our full coverage of the game.

First story details, first trailer

Unfinished French trailer incident

Comments on the Sakura Taisen series from original creator Oji Hiroi

Famitsu staff interview Part 1 Part 2

Main cast comments

Toshihiro Nagoshi comments, story, mecha details

Sumire, Kaoru,Komachi Gameplay introduction videos

Michie Tomizawa/Sumire comments

Shangai characters designed by Lucky Star’s Yukiko Horiguchi, new gameplay

Toshihiro Nagoshi comments on switch to action RPG battles

London characters designed by Sword Art Online‘s Abec, new gameplay

Berlin characters designed by Strike Witches‘ Fumikane Shimada, Yasha’s introduction trailer, story, gameplay trailers

Anime announcement trailer

Game opening movie, Japanese Limited Edition details

Stage play announcement, OST comments from Kohei Tanaka, Limited Edition details

Producer Katano, Director Otsubo comments

Itsuki, Hiromi introduction trailer, designed by Haruhi Suzumiya‘s Noizi Ito.

Gameplay, screenshots, story details

Demo, Combination attacks details

Character Song Music Videos

Character design introduction videos, screenshots, tournament battles

Hakushu Murasame introduction trailer, designed by Shigenori Soejima, character design introduction videos

Gameplay, commercials, staff comments, collabs, DLC teaser

Chisa Yokoyama, Michie Tomizawa interview

Stage play cast, anime trailer

DLC details

youtube

January 29, 2020 9:20 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/shin-sakura-taisen-the-animation-takes-place-slightly-after-the-games-story/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shin-sakura-taisen-the-animation-takes-place-slightly-after-the-games-story

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a-x-ce · 7 years

Text

My Anime Expo Experience

Finally writing this up before I forget because my memory is CRAP.

First con woot woot! This is mega long, probably don’t read it unless you absolutely MUST know about how this went.

The Good

Before I even got to the con I researched and planned and bookmarked and researched some more and came to the conclusion that for me, the highlight of a con, is to do things you can only do at that year. I looked over the panels, the premieres, and decided THAT was what I wanted to prioritize. They did not disappoint. I went to two premieres, the Welcome to the Ballroom premiere and The Ancient Magus' Bride premiere, for the first one we got to watch the first two episodes, and for the latter we saw the first THREE episodes. And they blew me away, especially Magus which by episode 3 already had me crying, I could not be more stoked for that to start airing. I then went to two panels which I HAD to go to, one being the FLCL panel, where we got to see the season 2 and (kind of) season 3 trailer a whole 5 minutes before they dropped that shit everywhere else (kind of lame) but what we got added on was “some” information in regards to the series, which made up for us not really getting to see the trailers before everyone else. And then I went to the Studio TRIGGER panel which was awesome! It started with them shooting fake money at us and if you got a special stamped version it got you access to their signing (didn’t get one but kind of didn’t care) and then followed into them playing a hilarious short video which was this bizarre mix of all kinds of shit and ended on them singing the national anthem?! It was funny as all hell. They pretty much spent the majority talking about Little Witch Academia which, I’ll admit, I kind of put on hold after like episode 5...BUT they spent that time giving us all kinds of back story and information on the various characters which was fascinating. Finally though, the main focus was them releasing information on their upcoming projects (which was why most of us were there) and the first two were kinda okay, nothing too much to get us excited, but boy, the hype they built around the last project got the room in a frenzy of excitement! Promare has the potential to be another classic anime for this studio, working with the people who helped bring Kill la Kill to life, as well as Gurren Lagann! You bet your asses I was stoked for this! 100% worth it. I also got free shit at all of these premieres, posters mainly, but I also got a cool Anime Strike pin when going to see Welcome to the Ballroom.

Another thing I ended up loving was actually doing shit in the exhibit hall. When I was sitting my butt in line for an autograph ticket to meet Miyu Irino I got to talking with my fellow line sitters, and one person I talked to gave me all kinds of tips and tricks to getting even more free stuff! She told me about 2 scavenger hunts going on for two of the booths, one got me a free Sailor Moon scarf, and one got me a free CD and a poster for a new game! They were a pain in the ass to get, but that’ll be talked about more in The Bad.

After having figured out you can just ask cosplayers for a picture I manged to get the coolest picture of a Guts and Casca pair and it’s the highlight of every image I took at the con. I wish I had taken more because there were a lot of cosplayers I wanted pictures of. I missed out on a Euphie and Suzaku and I’m still sad about it :’(

The last thing I’ll say I loved was the actual experience of trying to get Miyu Irino’s autograph. Not the actual getting his autograph, but sitting in line with other fans and con goers in the line to get tickets...to get an autograph...in which I met and talked with quite a few really cool and nice people!

The Bad

The sheer size of this event is ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous in fact they split events between the Convention Center and the Marriott hotel behind the Staples Center. And whoever ran this event was a dumbass and decided that the doors open at 8 am, but none of the major halls open until 10, soooooo, you had a 2 hour gap where hundreds to thousands of people flooded the main floor creating the most hazardous sight I’ve ever seen. Seriously, this was a fire martial’s worst nightmare if you saw this mess. Luckily I only saw this disaster on day 4 ‘cause I had spent the whole damn night on the street. Otherwise I came later on day’s 2 and 3 because to me coming early was meaningless.

And I did that because getting into the center on day 1 was absolute bullshit. I came a day early to pick up my badge thinking it would cut out waiting in line even longer. No, it didn’t matter. The mass of people outside waiting to get in, and the chaos of even trying to FIND the line TO GET IN, took hours! It was such a goddamn mess that they released a statement that same day saying they WOULD fix the issue. Luckily they did and getting in on day 2 and 3 literally took minutes. What a joke.

Staff for the most part was utterly clueless when it came to finding anything and I fucking hated it. When trying to find the line for Miyu’s panel I got run around the whole damn building, which in the end paled in fucking comparison to the run around I got put on trying to find the autograph booths which were different from the general ticket booths which in the end had ANYONE known fucking anything was a whole lot easier to find if they explained it better...

Lines for larger events were a NIGHTMARE. The Marriott is NOT designed for the sheer number of people lining up for the events held there. I thought it was bad for Magus, oh no, oh no no no, even the Lupin the III game premiere line was not remotely as horrible as what I caught just a glimpse of for the Tokyo Ghoul live-action premiere. That was capped off practically THREE hours before it even played, that’s how crazy popular this event was. I missed it because of that and ended up kind of disappointed.

Crowding. Holy fuck was this bad. Not even splitting the con between two buildings reduces the sheer number of people in EVERY given space. The artist Alley, crowded, the Exhibit Hall, FUCKING MEGA CROWDED! Moving in the Exhibit Hall was the worst. Add on terrible cell service, add on the fact that the ATM’s were few and far between (and sometimes not fucking working), add on the fact that some sellers use onsite conversion so if your card doesn’t automatically accept you making a purchase in like, Canada, you’re gonna have a bad time...the crowding even makes the fun things not all that fun.

The Disappointing

Cosplay gatherings. Oh boy were these underwhelming. I think the only one I ended up kind of enjoying was the Osomatsu-san gathering I went to on day 1, but aside from that the bigger they got the more chaotic they got, the ruder people become, and just overall super frustrating. What was even more kind of a bummer was that for most of the gatherings I saw the cosplayers walking around the convention at various points and could have MUCH EASIER asked them for a picture rather than deal with the crowding of gatherings. Not to mention when smaller gatherings were made up of people who had gone before and knew each other, as a newcomer you definitely feel left out. It gave off that click vibe and that was really disheartening. Some of these gatherings were definitely not “newbie” friendly which made them even less interesting and makes me not want to go to them again.

Miyu Irino. I have gone back and forth on this one, but after this much time I realize between his panel and the actual autograph this was one of the more disappointing experiences I had. First off, his panel. It lasted one hour, if it was not already bad enough that they split the line where premiere fans got to be inside the building, the rest of us had to figure out where the fuck the OUTSIDE line was. This was a pain in the ass, really, I was run around the whole fucking building to find this line, and by the time I did I was fortunate the line wasn’t too long, but I knew the reason for that was ONLY because no one else could find this fucking line.

So after getting let in late, we sit and we’re told right away we can’t take pictures or video. And originally I thought that was fine, maybe we’d hear some new content they didn’t want getting out. No. No we spent an hour talking about old roles and getting information that I’m sure we could have gotten through any magazine or interview in probably ANY Japanese source. We learned literally nothing about any new work, there was honesty no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to take at least 1 or 2 pictures. It was also incredibly frustrating seeing someone in the row next to us break that rule anyway and got warned THREE times and STILL got to stay and see the panel. Like why make a rule of no pictures to the point where you threaten to remove anyone breaking that rule only to not enforce it? Pointless.

But anyway, so we spend our hour listening to him talk about various roles, pretty much skipping the one series I was even there for (Osomatsu-san, he voices Todomatsu) and essentially we run out of time for the Q&A where only 3 questions were asked. And no one could even bother to answer one of Miyu’s questions on why Americans like Osomatsu-san, since the ONE person he did try and ask didn’t even watch the show! It was so disappointing.

So I was not all that disappointed at the time but reflecting on it, it was kind of a bust. But I did not realize just how much worse it could get. Because Miyu was one of the most popular guests for AX this year a LOT of people wanted to see him. So many in fact that while I heard lines could start for autographs anywhere from 2 am to 4 am, people got in these lines starting on day 2 (for his session on day 3) at 8 fucking pm. And it was the exact same way on day 3 (for his session on day 4) in which as soon as I go turned away from the Tokyo Ghoul premiere I had really nothing else I wanted to do so since I saw someone on twitter already experience night 2 I went ahead and got in line at like, fucking 7 pm! I was 5th in line...

So I stayed awake for over 30+ hours to get a ticket, which I wasn’t even all that crazy about, I’m not a fangirl so this wasn’t some life changing thing for me, I just wanted the experience. I enjoyed the hell out of the actual staying awake and getting to know people though. So at 8 am they opened the booths, and everyone with a handicap got to go before anyone so while I was 5th in line I got the 12th ticket (kind of bullshit but whatever, given how the rest of us literally had to sleep on the sidewalk seeing people just walk up last minute and get tickets was frustrating). But once we had those tickets it was another 2 and a half hours until the signing, which was in the Artist Alley hall, which didn’t even open until freakin’ 10 anyway. So again there was nothing to do but wait.

So finally 10 roles around and we can get inside, I have my ticket and I go to find the line for Miyu, and as I get in line and waiting we’re eventually told that he will not be signing anything that isn’t related to his anime work.

Now, this is where I’ll deviate to tell you why this pissed me right the fuck off. Because I live in NV I had to leave unbelievably early to get to L.A. within a reasonable time to check into my hotel. There really wan’t much time earlier in my week to make a run to wal-mart or somewhere to get my pre-chosen images printed for his autograph. So, we had to run around parts of L.A. which is a shit hole for traffic because Californians CANNOT DRIVE (seriously, that’s not a joke, California drivers are THE biggest morons on the West coast) and getting anywhere was a headache. Then the actual process of getting these pictures printed was also a nightmare, because the printing station cropped the images so badly they ended up looking like shit, until finally, after about 40 minutes I got ONE (1) good image of him. It was a picture of HIM.

And he was only signing material that was anime related...yeah. So, now that the picture I had a nightmare printing was not an option, the only other one available to most was that they gave you a pre-signed poster from Akito the Exiled. Which was shitty, it was pre-signed so you wouldn’t even be able to get it autographed and talk to him even a bit! Why the fuck would anyone be happy about that when people stayed awake for HOURS specifically to get an autograph FROM HIM???? Luckily for me I invested time and money into making my Kara and Totty ita bag and had at least ONE official Todomatsu item which I ripped right out of my bag. I was ushered through the line by multiple people and spent a total of maybe 15 seconds in his presence. I said hello, he said hello, he signed my badge, I said thank you, he said thank you, and the experience was over. That was it.

And as I was leaving the line I was then asked by others in the line what the hell was happening because other people were also being screwed over by not knowing what he would or would not sign (this was literally something they needed to tell us BEFORE actually getting in line for the autograph for fucks sake). I spent some time answering them and leaving. Where I proceeded to notice quite a few girls crying as they were the ones who were denied an autograph being ‘standby’ ticket holders. Miyu did NOT take ANY standby ticket holders on either day. So for anyone who sat up all night and managed to get their hands on one of the extra tickets, it did not matter. Which really, was kind of shitty seeing he really didn’t even do much while there. He had 2 panels, and two autograph sessions, one on each day. One of his panels wasn’t even a focus on him, he was included in the Akito the Exiled panel since he was a VA on it, but he was with others who worked on the show. And since our hour and a half Miyu exclusive panel was cut short to being only an hour since it started late!!! he spent even less time doing things he was signed up to do.

I decided that as a result unless it’s Tanaka-san or anyone else from One Piece I am never sitting in line for an autograph again.

Lastly, I learned that while it’s fun to meet up with people to hang out and try and do things together, you cannot let them try and control your experience. I missed absolutely everything I wanted to do on day 1 because I allowed myself to be guided around by another person. Which initially I was grateful for, as a first-timer I had no clue where things were, but that’s where my day 1 was fucked. There were things and ways to go about this that I planned that didn’t work out, and as a result I missed things I wanted to do. And I told myself at the time it wasn’t a big deal, but since I ended up so goddamn exhausted on day 4 I left early and missed even more stuff I wanted to do...so essentially of my 4 days I only truly enjoyed 2 of them to the fullest. Because on days 2 and 3 I put my foot down and decided no matter what I would do the things I fucking came to do regardless of anyone else and I ended up having a blast. It wasn’t even lonely doing those things by myself, because I had fun! And that’s what mattered.

So yeah, in the end I learned some valuable lessons for my first con, especially at one as big as Anime Expo! I know what I want to do next year, I now know what I don’t really care about, and I know what I absolutely will not be doing again. I hope from these lessons next year I can have even more fun and thoroughly enjoy my 4 days! Also there’s probably some stuff I missed in this post so not sure if I’ll do another part, most likely not since this got hella fucking long...

#Sab's random shit #Hella long post #my AX experience 2017

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wrestlingisanime · 5 years

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My Wrestle Kingdom 13 Mental Preparations

This Friday, I'm going to try to stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom…this will be like the 3rd time I attempt to do this. Ever year around this time, I tell myself, "I'm finally going to start to get into watching New Japan regularly, starting with Wrestle Kingdom!" but it always falls through.

It's mainly the time difference that kills it for me. Even back when I didn't have a job and would regularly stay up until 6 AM, I couldn't sit still enough to watch the entirety of the show. I remember the first time I did this, I was doing laundry while watching some people dressed up like Doraemon dancing on stage or something. That's the only thing I remember about that show.

Last year, I tried to stay up to watch it, but I had to go to work the next day, so I eventually went to bed. I remember waking up at 5 AM, getting ready for work and thinking, "I wonder who won between Jericho and Omega," and then finding out the show was still going on as I drove to work. I ended up downloading the show and watching Omega vs Jericho while waiting at the DMV to renew my license…

Anyway, this year, I'm going to actually do it! I'm going to stay up and pay attention to the show! I have my New Japan World subscription ready. The show starts on a Friday, so I don't have to worry about getting up early for work the next day. I even plan on taking a nap Friday evening in an attempt to combat any sleepiness I might encounter staying up to some crazy hour!

Now, I will admit, I really don't follow New Japan that closely at all. I'm familiar with some of the names…Omega, Okada, Naito, Kota Ibushi, Tama Tonga… but I've never really watched their matches in full. I don't know much about any of the storylines going in. But, I think that it's important to broaden my knowledge and expand my horizons into the Japanese pro wrestling world, especially in my quest to compare wrestling and anime. I mean, Japanese wrestling is as close to live action anime as it gets, right?!

So…I'm just going to ramble about the NJPW stuff I'm KIND OF familiar with in an attempt to prep myself for watching Wrestle Kingdom 13. So let's get started.

PRE-SHOW NO.1 CONTENDER GAUNTLET MATCH FOR NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Yuji Nagat, Jeff Cobb & David Finlay vs Hirooki Goto, Beretta & Chuckie T vs Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs Hangman Page, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll

When I first looked at a match-up graphic of this match, I had no idea why there were so many people in a tag team match. I was confused about who was teaming with who, but I think I've figured it out.

I recognize a few names on this list, and I'm just going to detail what little I know about these wrestlers.

I've heard the name "Taguchi" said in a sexy Irish accent before…So this is the Ryusuke Taguchi that used to be buddies with Finn Balor/Prince Devitt. I don't know much more than that.

David Finlay sounds like he'd be the son of Fit Finlay…which apparently is the case! I don't know much about any of the Finlays except Fit was in one of the N64 AKI wrestling games.

Jeff Cobb, aka, the monster Mantza Cueto! I've seen him wrestle live as Matanza at the Impact/Lucha Underground show on Wrestlemania weekend last year. He's pretty freakin' good.

Chuckie T, I can only assume is that Chuck Taylor dude who was always the star of those Chikara videos I used to watch all the time, with him squealing like a little girl and yelling at children.

Marty Scurll is that "Villain" dude with the umbrella. He was a very popular wrestling cosplay at A-Kon last year. Lots of dudes with masks and umbrellas.

Hangman Page apparently killed Joey Ryan with a telephone and was haunted by cowboy boots. His original Bullet Club shirt was also a major inspiration for my Doki Doki Wrestling Club shirts, specifically Sayori's for obvious reasons…

Minoru Suzuki. I always hear how freakin' badass this dude is. Looking forward to see him wreck people.

I've heard some other names before, like Toru Yano, Yuji Nagata, and Davey Boy Smith…but I honestly don't know much about them. Hopefully that'll change soon!

As for the "NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship" …well, I recently learned that the NEVER Openweight Championship is a title that isn't restricted by weight class. When I first looked at this card, I was very confused as how a 3-man team could compete to be a contender for a single title…but Wikipedia just now tells me that there is indeed a separate NEVER Tag Team Championship. That makes sense!

I still don't know what "NEVER" means. Apparently it's "New Blood," "Evolution," "Valiantly," "Eternal," and "Radical." Yeah, a bunch of random English words put together to form a nonsense acronym. Sounds pretty Japanese for sure. Reminds me of the notorious B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. organization…

1ST MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Kota Ibushi vs Will Ospreay

I really hope this match isn't an hour long, but…

So, of course I'm familiar with Kota Ibushi! He's Kenny's Golden Lover and he's done a bunch of crazy cool DDT matches. I think he was also in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. And he starred in a kaiju movie that I really want to watch.

I only know Will Ospreay from that anime-as-hell match he had with Ricochet a few years ago that Vader got really mad about (R.I.P.).

Anyway, they both seem like amazing wrestlers, so sounds like it'll be a sick match…even if it somehow does last an hour.

2ND MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP Jr. TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado vs Roppongi 3K vs BUSHI & Shingo Takagi

Why can't these tag matches just have 2 teams!!!

I honestly don't know much about any of these people. I've heard the name "Roppongi 3K" before, and it's a cool sounding name, so that's cool. I also probably get "BUSHI" and Kota Ibushi confused sometimes.

Oh, and I guess I need to finally look up what "IWGP" stands for. Okay, so apparently it stands for "International Wrestling Grand Prix" which is the governing body of NJPW…what. I don't know what that means. I have never heard a human utter the words "International Wrestling Grand Prix" before…huh, weird. I'd rather they just call it the NJPW championship, but I guess there's a legacy there that they want to preserve, so that's fair. Also, weird title names seem to go hand-in-hand with Japanese wrestling anyway.

3RD MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Tomoiro Ishii vs Zack Sabre Jr.

I did not know that New Japan had a British Heavyweight Championship.

Like many Japanese wrestlers, I've heard the name Tomohiro Ishii mentioned in podcasts a lot, but I can't envision a specific person or match in my head. Sorry. :(

I don't know if I've seen Zack Sabre Jr. wrestle, either. I know he was in the WWE Cruiswerweight Classic, but that's it.

They're probably both really good, though, and very deserving of whatever this Japanese British championship is.

4TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga vs Sanada & EVIL vs The Young Bucks

Seriously, do they just not have 2v2 tag matches in Japan?

I'm very familiar with Tama Tonga. He's that Bullet Club dude that used to have face paint that reminded me of the box art to Knights of the Old Republic 2. Much like I haven't played any KOTOR game, I don't think I've ever watched Tama Tonga actually wrestle. I know that he's done some goofy stuff on Twitter recently. Also, he's got a cool name that's fun to say: "Tama Tonga."

Speaking of cool names, who doesn't like the name "EVIL"? That name..it's just…so freaking good. I keep hoping there's an association with that one Sponge Bob episode, but probably not.

Also, the Young Bucks…yeah they're very popular, but, again, I don't think I've ever seen them wrestle. I just know that they superkick people a lot, they have streamers on their pants, and they're very good at selling merch.

5TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Cody vs Juice Robinson

Obviously, I know who Cody is. He was that dude who used to be Stardust! …man, Stardust was cool. Stardust is literally THE reason I started watching wrestling again. It was a bummer to hear that Cody didn't like doing the character. He was so good at it, though.

I recently learned that Juice Robinson used to be CJ Parker in NXT. That was pretty mindblowing, because CJ Parker was one of the standout characters for me back when I first watched NXT. Apparently he's a good wrestler, too, so cool.

Also, I'm almost tempted to ask why there's an IWGP US Championship…but I guess "I" in IWGP stands for "International." …but why isn't the British title the IWGP British Championship??? Looking that up now…oh, so the British Championship is actually the RPW British Heavyweight Championship owned by Revolution Pro Wrestling. Huh.

6TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

KUSHIDA vs Taiji Ishimori

I remember a long time ago, I watched some clips from an older (then recent) Wrestle Kingdom that featured a team called the Time Splitters, which I thought was cool because I like the video game TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. But also, I guess this was a time traveler wrestling gimmick, and that's cool, and I liked hearing the ring announcer go "TIIIIIIIME SPLTITERRRRRRRSSSSS." But that's not even it! They had a freakin' Back to the Future Delorean entrance. And then there was one that had a dude dressed as Doc Brown…and apparently that guy was Taguchi. Huh, weird.

So, I guess KUSHIDA was one of the Time Splitters, so that's cool. I don't if he's still a time traveler or not. I hope he is.

As for Taiji Ishimori, he's the new "Bone Soldier," and I don't really know much about that, other than Captain New Japan used to be the Bone Soldier and everyone hated that one for some reason, but they like this new one. And Ishimori might be going to WWE? I don't know!

Oh, I just realized that all these matches have a 60 minute time limit…

7TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White

Of course I'm familiar with Okada. He's the Rainmaker! And then he turned into that guy with the balloons…I dunno, but he's in Yakuza 6, so that's cool!

Jay White is apparently the new leader of the Bullet Club. I used to think he was always part of the Bullet Club because I remember seeing Jay White Bullet Club shirts a while back…but apparently he wasn't actually in the Bullet Club until recently? I don't know! I just know that people used to call him "Knife Pervert" and I thought that was funny, so I used it in Doki Doki Wrestling Club.

8TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP NO DQ MATCH

Chris Jericho vs Testuya Naito

Chris Jericho is a guy who wears a scarf and dresses like a mime or something. I don't know.

I always thought Naito was cool. I like "Tranquilo" and the eyeball thing he does. There's also that super cute Naito teddy bear plush that I would really like to have one day. I once bought a Naito keychain from an anime con artist alley booth. Yeah, I like Naito, and apparently so does everyone else…except Chris Jericho, I guess.

9TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

I first heard of Kenny Omega when people were sharing that clip of a grown dude wrestling a 9-year-old Japanese girl. I also learned that he was a huge nerd and spoke fluent Japanese. From my limited perspective, he didn't seem to blow up in popularity until he debuted as "The Cleaner" in the Bullet Club. Now he's like the most popular non-WWE wrestler in the world. I wasn't ever a super huge fan of Kenny, but he DID put Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on his Top 10 video games list last year, so he's cool in my book. I wish he played fighting games other than Street Fighter, though…

As for Tanahashi, I remember on like my second attempt to stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom, people kept saying that Tanahashi was the "John Cena of Japan." I'm assuming that's still true to this day. Honesty, that's all I know about Tanahashi, lol.

So, I assume Tanahashi is going to win and Kenny will finally have his rematch against a grown up Haruka!

And that's it!! That's all I know about Wrestle Kingdom 13. Hopefully I'll finally start to get into NJPW following this Wrestle Kingdom, because I honestly think Japanese puroresu knowledge is absolutely necessary in my campaign to prove that wrestling…is anime.

#wrestle kingdom 13 #text

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mobius2684 · 7 years

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Not so quick rundown of what I have been up to

Basically why I haven’t been doing much in the posting/content department, broken down by month. For the tl;dr crowd: skip the october 2016 entry unless you want to read about some drama, the rest of it has just been my adventures with unemployment and how it has affected me for the past 8 months.

July 2016: This month I had lost my job of 8 years due to the company completely closing nationwide. First time ever filing for unemployment as I wasn’t able to find another job in 3 months since said company announced their closures on April 1st of the same year. Was really upset with the store closing as I really was starting to feel like I had a job that I was decent at, had met some great people working there both employee and customer, and now I wouldn’t really have a chance to interact with them as much. Went to San Diego comic con as I had purchased tickets well in advance. Didn’t get to do most of what was on my list of things to do there, but did get to have a personalized sketch done by Yoji Shinkawa as well as sit in on a small q&a session with Hideo Kojima.

August 2016: With unemployment filed and completed, I was looking for all sorts of work. I collected a lot of possible work via etsy with requests for new destiny cloaks as well as preparing for the halloween season for my goddaughters’ costumes as they live in another state than me. End of the month I ended up with a job offer from the lady who works at the storage unit I rent from. The lady had injured herself at the end of the month by fracturing her right arm in 2 places, making it unbearable to do any of her bookkeeping tasks, and asked if I would like to help her with. I said yes as she’s 73 years old and nobody should have to deal with working through that kind of pain.

September 2016: I started to work for the storage unit place the day after labor day. It was an easy job, just somewhat boring as it was a fairly archaic setup. All bookkeeping was done by hand, including receipts, ledgers, etc. Only the key card system for the gate was done via a computer program. This job was to be temporary while she healed. When she was well enough to work, I would be let go as its a one person operation. Also to note, most storage unit places typically have a home/condo/apartment built into the office, as there is someone always on the premises. This was the case with this place, so I was able to take care of her in the beginning as well as do the tasks at hand. This was also a full time job.

I started to get a bunch of early etsy orders for the holiday season as well as for halloween, so on top of having a full time job, I had to also work my etsy part time on top of the halloween costumes for my goddaughters. I had an old acquaintance contact me out of the blue around this time as well, where she told me that she was planning on visiting close to me to see some friends she met while playing Destiny. At the time I was happy for her and excited as I hadn’t seen her physically in about 10 years and figured this might be a great trip for her to show her around my hometown and the surrounding area and just catch up. More on her in October. Finished this month with a very last minute run to see Carpenter Brut in concert. Literally found out about the concert 2 hours before they went on so drove as quickly as I could to DNA lounge. Definitely was worth it, excellent show all around.

October 2016: This one is a long one. Skip to November if you don’t want an essay about old acquaintance. I’m needed for another month to work at the storage unit place. I have had to help her with things that I was not prepared for, mainly of the medical type. She is diabetic and has survived both lung cancer and colon cancer. I am becoming more of her in-home care person on top of taking care of the expected duties of the job, which was starting to put a strain on things as I would simply work my 8 hours a day for 6 days a week, most of that was taking care of her, going home, taking care of my grandparents, and sewing and working on etsy until I needed to sleep, rinse, repeat. I get the goddaughters costumes made and out to them, they love them, as well as another friend of mine wanted me to make matching dad and son costumes for his son’s first halloween.

Made his son a pikachu costume and Dad an Ash jacket. Also near the end of this month I got to see Magic Sword in concert. It was a bit of a bummer as the venue was ill-equipped to handle a show like theirs so we didn’t get the whole experience with the lights and background, on top of the fact that the sound guy was doing a lousy job so they didn’t come out for an encore and simply stopped playing halfway through “In the face of Evil”. Hoping that they’ll come out to SF again or somewhere closeby so I can see a full show. *skip to november 2016 to avoid massive drama backstory essay

Middle of the month is when my old friend was due to come out to visit. A little background on said friend: I met her back in 2005 when I was just starting to get into cosplay. We would chat about similar interests as well as cosplay related things, despite there being an age difference of about 6-7 years. She’s had a few hardships in 2006 that was of her own doing which led her down a path of co-dependence on others as well as manipulation and always playing the victim. Our communication was spotty, her only surfacing when she felt like it, always to unload her stories of woe and hardship.

I had tried to help her on several occasions as best as I could despite being several states away. I’d send care packages when I could afford to, mainly of food as she would talk about not having money for it, work screwing her out of hours, etc. I would also send old clothes as she lived in a much colder part of the country now and she was ill prepared for the winter in her state. I had commissioned her for a costume just to help her pay bills despite said commission being extremely late for the event it was needed for, and practically unwearable due to poor construction. I had sent her money when she was in between relationships and had no job. Simply put, I was there for her as much as I could be, but she wasn’t really reciprocating that over the years and at the time I wasn’t really able to see it.

Fast forward to the week she is coming out here. She fails to tell me that her friend that she is visiting is more of a romantic interest. She’s in a 3 year relationship with a guy she’s living with. She has also been talking with another guy who she plays Destiny with in a romantic way, so basically she’s got 2 possible love interests and a boyfriend at home that she doesn’t want to work things out with, but also doesn’t want to break up with just yet as if she does then she won’t have a place to live. Trying not to judge but also not really liking said situation as its pretty scummy of her. The weekend before her trip, said friend she’s supposed to be visiting with for a week upsets her majorly and is now not a possible romantic connection in her mind, but is not known by him as she doesn’t tell him that she’s upset with him because she’s now too invested in this trip.

She comes out here and gets to stay with him at his parents place. She has a list of things she wants to do while out here, but wants to do them in a certain order so she has money for said things. Understandable, but makes it a bit difficult as she expects both myself and her host to take her places and keep her entertained. A lot of suggestions get shot down as she doesn’t like doing said things, but has to realize that there aren’t many free things to do during the weekdays. She gets increasingly frustrated by her host and his family for doing the most mundane things despite letting her stay there for free as well as feeding her, considering she is in the heart of wine country as well as the heart of dubious airbnb country where they could have easily charged her a premium for staying with them. She feels entitled to her friends money, as many times I would get a text from her complaining about him not paying for her part of their outing. She would also get upset with him when he would ask who she would be on the phone with, as she was in contact with said other guy who she liked from Destiny. This would irritate me as I felt as if she was ungrateful and somewhat disrespectful, on top of the fact that I was juggling a full time job, my etsy as a part time job, and taking care of both my grandparents and this lady at the storage unit.

I take her out to SF so we can catch up and just have some girl time, despite really not having the time to do so, on top of it being an extremely busy weekend in SF as fleet week was happening. She didn’t really talk much with me on the trip unless it was to complain about her friend and to tell me how excited she was to talk with the new guy she liked. I would try to talk about what’s been going on with my life, only to be met with segues into something else completely different or just changing the subject. Not a lot of catching up, she spent a good chunk of her money on items for herself as to be expected, with snide remarks on how nobody really gets her gifts. This kinda pissed me off as I had spent at least 2 weeks on a knitted scarf for her as well as a small messenger bag that I sewed for her for this trip. I take her back to her friends parents place and go home.

A few days after our outing, my grandpa had a stroke episode while I was home on my lunch break that scared both myself and my grandma. Had to rush him to the ER, had to contact work and let her know what’s going on and why I’m not back, work was supportive and just closed up early for the day for me as I wasn’t sure how long we would be in the ER. I’m getting texts from my friend of her complaining that this guy wasn’t paying for her outing once again. I simply texted her back stating “I am at the ER right now with my grandpa and grandma, grandpa had a stroke episode and we’re trying to see how severe it is”. I get no reply back from her for 2 hours. I simply chalk it up to her being busy, or one of us being in a dead zone or whatever. I didn’t have time to worry about that as I was worried about the condition my grandpa was in and just keeping my grandma calm. Thankfully it was a mild stroke, no major issues. We were at the hospital for 7 hours.

I get my grandparents back home, call work to let her know how my grandpa is doing and that I will be in tomorrow for work. Said friend texts me to complain about how crummy her trip to the aquarium went. At this point, tensions were high, but I simply sent her a message saying “I’m guessing you didn’t receive my last message that said that I was in the ER with my grandpa who had a mild stroke. I had been in the ER for about 7 hours now”. Her response was “no”. Now, if you’ve made it this far into reading this whole thing, first off thank you and congrats. Secondly, you’re probably wondering “why does this whole mini essay about this chick matter?” or something to that extent. Well I don’t know about you good people here, but normally if a friend or loved one or just someone you kinda sorta know states that they were in the ER, and they don’t work in the medical field, most people’s reactions would be “what happened?”, “is everything ok?”, “are you ok?”, “is X person ok?”, etc. ad nauseum. There was no concern shown from her. NONE. No call to see if everything is ok, no text to ask if everything is ok, NOT A GODDAMN THING.

Why is that such a big deal? Offering compassion does not cost you a damn dime. All I wanted from her was a simple act of compassion. I had not asked for much from her over the time we had been friends. Just the one time I really could use it, its just lost on her. She continues to text me to ask me if we’re still going to hang out before she leaves. I’m just left in just disbelief at the whole thing. I don’t really text her after that, stating I’m busy. She’s constantly bugging me about this, all while I’m telling her that I have family issues to tend to. I finally agree to see her again, despite wanting to rip her head off. I meet with her and the guy, and I simply tell them in person what’s going on and what happened at the ER. Her friend offered concern, all while she’s sitting there stuffing her face and changing the subject. I ask for the bag that she borrowed from me from our previous trip out, she gives it to me and I make an excuse to leave early. She still isn’t getting it, so I ask for her friends’ number. I say my goodbyes and she states that she wants to visit again sometime.

The day she’s leaving, after she’s on the plane, I text the guy she’s been staying with. I tell him during this whole trip that she essentially used him, complained about him and his family the whole time to me, that the person she was being all secretive about on the phone was some guy she likes better than you, and that she’s in a relationship with someone back home and has been with said guy for 3 years and lives with him. He was not happy about this and rightfully so as he liked her. This of course led to them both arguing, and her contacting me via text about this and why I did it. I completely ignored everything. I felt that I owed her nothing after all of this. Her last message to me was “cool beans. we don’t have to be normal about it. But thanks for betraying my confidence and trust in the first place. You’re a shit friend and I hope you’re happy with yourself. Thanks for throwing our decade long friendship out the window”. She then proceeded to remove me from facebook and any other social media that we shared.

Am I really a shit friend? Am I really a horrible person for doing these things? Did I have to do what I did? Was it worth it? I will let you draw your own conclusions as yes I know that I didn’t have to do what I did and I could have been the one who takes the high road on this, but when you’re under a lot of stress due to work and deadlines and family issues, you tend to do shitty things. I grappled with the whole thing and felt awful for doing what I did, but at the same time I felt that no amount of talking would really get through to her about how much damage had been done. In some senses I do feel like a major weight was lifted from my shoulders as I really didn’t want to have a friend who didn’t understand basic concern for others.

November 2016: Still working at the storage unit place. The lady I’m working for has not been healing well due to not listening to her doctors orders. The maintenance man that the owner hired for the place injures himself horrifically, with what I assume his shin bone is jutting out of his skin. He tells us that he slipped down a ladder and that was about it. He’s rushed to the ER by ambulance. The owner then gets his son-in-law to work for him as maintenance man to replace the injured one. Son-in-law decides to have me start on a project for him, that requires me to make an excel spreadsheet of all the tenants who rent at the storage unit with all their info.

He tells me that the owner needs this info in digital form for insurance purposes and I agree to it since it does make sense, but it detracts from my other duties with caring for the lady I’m working for as well as the other office duties. I do this anyways as it seems like they might actually change the setup there so that its not all hand-written and a bit easier to keep track of as well as back up. Etsy orders are flooding in for the early holiday rush and I’m trying to keep on top of it all.

This marks the first thanksgiving where we don’t celebrate together as a family. My grandma simply just didn’t want to put up with all the fuss, my Mom and my nephew ended up going to Las Vegas for a football championship game for my nephew as he’s been in little league football all through the fall and his team had done really well and made it to the championship game. I couldn’t go with them as I had to watch the farm, as my Mom is a caretaker of a small school district owned farm and the animals need to eat everyday. My Uncle and Aunt both work demanding jobs that they aren’t able to get many days off so they weren’t able to come down for the holidays. My brother went up to his girlfriends parents place, so it was a bit odd and slightly depressing.

Only weird highlight was that I had a short convo with Dennis Wedin on instagram and I mentioned that I hope to send him and Jonatan some little handmade gifts when I get the chance to make them.

December 2016: Still working at the storage unit place. I end up getting sick near the beginning of the month with a cold/flu. I work through it like normal, just making sure to prepare myself as best as I can at work with plenty of fluids, a blanket, a heater, meds, tissue, etc.

This time it gets interesting. Storage unit place also houses cars, trucks, and RV parking spaces. Plenty of people rent these spaces, including one guy who states that he has an old Porsche and its been back there for 10+ years. He’s hoping to restore it for his kids despite none of them being super interested in it. Well with said spreadsheet work, I’m finding a ton of discrepancies as to whom is actually in the units and spaces that they say they are. Lots of calls have to be made, lots of running through the lot to check what is where, etc. Porsche guy is one of those discrepancies, and we ask for him to come down and confirm which space he’s in.

Well apparently his Porsche is missing as it is nowhere to be found on the lot. He has his sister come down with him and she’s yelling at me and the lady I’m working for, accusing us of stealing his car. The sister then calls the cops to come down and question us. Now there’s no way in hell I or the old lady I’m working for has stolen his car. For one, I had no clue what he had until November when he came to pay his bill. For two, most of the cars that are stored at this particular storage unit place are not in running condition, his included. He had stated this back in November that it doesn’t run and needed a ton of work on it.

One cop accuses myself and the old lady as well, despite what they need to do is run the VIN, and look at the records at the DMV as to who it had been registered to. For three, the Porsche guy hadn’t even checked on his car ever since he had parked it here for 10 years. No “hey I’ve been paying for this for 10+ years and if its so important to me I should at least check on it”. The guy hadn’t non-opted his vehicle and simply stopped paying any sort of registration on the vehicle. So now I’m a week away from christmas, still sick with whatever super cold/flu that is going around, I’ve been stressed due to busting my ass on getting etsy orders out in time for christmas, working 6 days a week in the office, and now I’m being accused of grand theft auto.

After the cops finally decide to actually do some investigating, they found out that the car had been stolen in May 2012. Someone towed it off the lot that also rents at the storage unit, hence why they had access to the lot. Since he had rented the spot so long ago, the old lady didn’t remember or even know what he had back there. Since he hadn’t registered it in so long, the person who stole it got some sort of lein title for the car and fixed it to running condition as someone about 500 miles away is driving it around.

Christmas was rather uneventful as I was finally better from being sick and was trying to relax from everything. Got things for my mom and her bf as well as something for my nephew and a few friends of mine. For my birthday I went and watched Moana with my Mom. Ended up sick again as the next day I ended up throwing up. Whether it was the food or just round 2 of super cold/flu, I didn’t know but didn’t really care as I wanted it to be gone. Didn’t do much of anything for new years as I worked and so did a bunch of my friends, top it off with still being sick and not wanting to be around people and spread it around.

If you’ve made it to the end of this, I truly do thank you as it was a long bunch of bullshit that you honestly didn’t have to read and I could have summed up a lot shorter but didn’t. I hope you enjoyed this small peak into my life. I will eventually update this with January 2017 and February 2017 or just simply make a second post if anyone cares to see the rest of this out. Thanks again.

#personal #lifestory #longasfuck #thefuckwhy #tl;dr warning

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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Ani-Gamers Interview with John-Paul

Almost to the hour a week after the online convention Anime Lockdown finished its formal programming, Ink sat down with its founder, Director of Operations John-Paul, to talk about how the con came together: aides, influences, intentions, and efforts. The virtual convention drew industry representation from Discotek, Right Stuf, Kyle Hebert, and Veronica Taylor as well as such talented panelists as Mike Toole, Evan Minto, and many others. What follows is a transcript of most of the interview. Audio of the full interview is accessible by Content Respecter members of the Ani-Gamers Patreon.

Ani-Gamers: Hello and welcome to Ani-Gamers’ interview with John Paul, director of operations for the online-only convention Anime Lockdown that took place May 1-3, 2020 via streams on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. JP, thanks for talking with me.

John-Paul (JP): Whaddup?!

Ani-Gamers: How’s recovery going after basically coordinating panelists and emceeing the con for three days straight?

John-Paul: You know, it’s been pretty good. It took a whiole to adjust to not having a deadline, because leading up to the convention, we took about a month to plan everything. I was spending essentially the same length of a of a con day just doing prep, and so there was like three or four 14-hour days leading up to the convention just working on graphics, working on audio clips, and all that. So not having something to do actually makes me more nervous. So I've been I've been working on music again, which has been keeping me busy.

Ani-Gamers: You said there was a virtual con before this one that helped you out in terms of building this one. Can you walk us through what kind of influence they had and how they helped you and sort of walk us through how you built this con.

John-Paul: Oh, sure. That’s been a common misconception: that a lot of people thought we were the first to do this. It's absolutely not true. I've said it and reiterated it multiple times along the way, especially because other cons helped me out in some of the planning. The two that reached out to me were On-Con and QuaranCon. On-Con, I'm not terribly familiar with the people behind it. It's a YouTuber [GeekArchaeology], and his name escapes me, but he has a YouTube channel, where he does anime news, I assume weekly, and he did this all-day convention thing at the end of March I think? It was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Friday was a half day. Saturday and Sunday, I don't think they were quite as long as the days we did, but they were longer days. And they helped me out in terms of like, “You need to give people more things to do than just panels. You need to be aware that technical things could happen. You need to have a variety in your programming” – things that were in the back of my mind but that were being brought to my attention as more of a priority. ‘Cause when I originally thought of this, I was like, “I'm just going to do like a day or two panels. It's going to be fine. It's going to be a bunch of people I know. Is anybody even going to apply? Probably not. It's likely just going to be doing a couple panels and then calling it a day.”

And QuaranCon helped me out with the dealers side. They ran their convention on Discord. They were the weekend before us, and they really helped us out with figuring out how to set up the Dealer's Room, the Artist Alley, different types of things that we did in Discord like different bots and stuff. Some of their staff actually came to join us and help run things. So that was really helpful, ‘cause I don't know a lot about Discord. My partner, Tony, is the one who handled most of the Discord stuff with help from QuaranCon, as well as one of one our vendors, Persephone, I think it was her boyfriend, I'm not totally sure, but he also helped us with a lot of the more advanced Discord things. I handled all the panel stuff. That's my expertise: running tech, running audio. It’s essentially like anybody that went … what you saw is what I had in my head when I first came up with this. It just got bigger in scale. Like, I always wanted to have audio only with graphic showing a PowerPoint. I always wanted to use Discord. I always wanted to have a break in between each panel. So for the most part, that never changed. I don't know, it just it just seems like the easiest way to do it. And I think I was right, because I didn’t have any huge technical problems. Webcams would’ve complicated things, and screen sharing was another thing I wanted to avoid. A few people did use screen sharing – there was maybe five panels that used screen sharing? And my hesitance to use it was vindicated a little bit; we didn’t have any huge meltdowns, but panels that had technical problems were the ones that were screen shared.

Ani-Gamers: What was it that made you take that first step in making this con? I mean, to have in your head, “I'd love to make a con” is something so completely different from, “Okay, it's time to start building this con.”

John-Paul: The first time I had the idea to do an online con was mid-March. It was like two days after I lost my job. I work in the film industry. All of the movie sets shut down on, like, March tenth-ish, and so I needed something to do. And all the cons were closing, and I posted some tweet like, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if there was like an online con?” One of my local cons from back in Minnesota had just announced that they weren't going to do their event, Anime Detour, and a few people reached out like, “Yeah, that's kind of cool” or “I've been to things like this” or “What if we did this type of thing” and I just kind of forgot about it for a couple weeks. And then it was the weekend that Anime Detour would have happened, which I think is the last weekend of March, and Tony and several other friends were online lamenting like, “Aw, man, we would’ve been at Detour this weekend. This is a bummer.” For some of us, that’s the only time we get to see each other – anime conventions. Like I’ve known Tony, Tony was the Director of Vendor Relations by the way, for over a decade, but only ever see each other at anime conventions, be it Anime Detour or Otakon. And that’s ‘cause even when I lived in Minnesota, he lived like two hours away. So it just didn’t make sense for us to go get a beer after work. So this was a bummer, ‘cause for some of us, that’s like the one time we get to see our friends. And I said like, “You know? I was talkin’ about it a couple weeks ago. Why don’t we just do our own con? Gimme a couple weeks. I’m gonna put something together. Let’s see where this goes.” And then I started brainstorming names. And that’s when it became real, was when I gave it a name and made a twitter account. And I think the first tweet was April 2; I just said, “Hey, I’m gonna try doing a con. Would that be cool with everybody?” And it just kind of snowballed from there.

Ani-Gamers: You said QuaranCon and On-Con took place beforehand, and like you said people tend to overlook the fact that they existed, maybe because they were just so local, but what do you think made Anime lockdown so novel?

John-Paul: I don't want to downplay what they did, because I think what they did is really important, and they definitely set the groundwork for what I did. I think the difference was just that I'm louder. I think that's honestly the only difference; I'm louder, and I posted a lot on social media. I went to QuaranCon, and it look to be very successful. I think they did a really cool thing. They did it differently. They did it in a way I wouldn't… Well I mean obviously I didn't run my event in the same way, but they were catering to a different , and I think they did so fairly successfully. But they also they advertised in different places. Their Twitter account was fairly quiet leading up to their event. I think they did most of their talking on Instagram, because QuaranConcon, from an outsider looking in, seemed to be very artist-heavy, and so I think it was a bunch of people that would normally go to an Artist Alley that wanted to set up a place where they could share their work with everyone. And if you look at the types of panels that they had, it seems to confirm that fact. They had a lot of like “How to Draw” or like “How to Style a Wig” types of panels like that. On-Con, I don't have as much familiarity with. I don't know what his Twitter presence is. I don't know what his YouTube reach is. I know that they did fairly well. They've done a second con. I don't know what the numbers were like for that, but their first con they had 150-200 people and they raised like $500 for charity, which is really awesome. We didn't align herself with a specific charity, because I wanted to encourage people to donate locally and also to shop with our vendors and tip our DJ, which in that sense I think we were very successful. Our DJ was able to pay off some of his gear. I saw him talking about that on Facebook, which makes me really happy. I don't know how much money our dealers made, but I know that some made a sizable amount

AG: I actually made it a point to at least buy one or two things from a dealer per day – just to sort of simulate that, “Hey I'm at a con. This is the time I would just be wandering through the Dealers Room. Yeah, why not?”

John-Paul: When I when I set out to do this, that was what I wanted to do. Now we didn’t have dealers in the beginning, but it was never about me emceeing a con and telling people to check out my SoundCloud. It was me providing a platform for people to share their cosplay that they now don't get to wear in public because of the shutdown, to do their panel that maybe they only get to do once a year, and to help people find more followers. ‘Cause I know for some people conventions are a great place to find an audience for, you know, maybe you've never done a panel before, and you’ve got a really cool anime blog. Well what better way to get the word out than a group of thirty people that are coming to your robot panel or whatever. But the short answer to your question is I just happen to be connected to the twittersphere. I know a lot of people. I know you. I know Mike Toole. I know Evan. So like a lot of it was, “Oh yeah, I know that guy. He's doing a thing. I want to participate.” Whereas these other people may not have had those connections. But certainly I want to make it clear that I didn't abuse those connections; I didn't reach out to anybody. They came to me of their own accord. So they just happened to see me being loud on Twitter.

Ani-Gamers: How did the voice actors get involved, ‘cause that's fairly high-profile for, no offense, someone on Twitter putting together a con. Did people reach out to the vocal talent and some of the companies like Right Stuf and Discotek?

John-Paul: I don’t take any offense to that. We’re an indie show, and and I take a lot of pride in that we’re an indie show. I think we set a fairly high bar for what the pro shows have to do now. There’s a lot of pro cons coming out, and what we pulled off, with essentially two people and a few moderators, I think is kind of outrageous.

So what I said in the previous answer is slightly misleading; I reached out to one person. I reached out to Kyle. Kyle Hebert has been a favorite voice actor of mine for a long time. He has a background in podcasting and radio. And so I thought it would be a perfect fit for doing a convention where he doesn't actually see the people that are at his panel. But other than that, everybody reached out to me on their own. Veronica reached out to me on Twitter, Discotek reached out to me through Mike Toole on Twitter, and Right Stuf submitted a panel in the same way that you did. So that was really what blew my mind every step of the way. I shared this dumb meme on Twitter: 20 days ago: “Hey, does anyone want to do an anime con? And then me when I find out who the guests are, and it’s the Pikachu surprised face.” I woke up one day to Right Stuf asking if they could do a panel and I was like, “Whoa.” And I don’t wanna play favorites, but Right Stuf and Discotek are two of my favorite anime companies, and so I was really honored that they wanted to be a part of this event.

Ani-Gamers: Make sense. They're kind of more the indie group amongst the sellers the distributors.

John-Paul: Oh yeah. One of my favorite anime of all time was a Right Stuf release: Boogiepop Phantom. And, you know, I wouldn't be here, I would presume, if I hadn't seen that show.

Ani-Gamers: I know you said Tony handled most of the Discord stuff. Was there any discussion between you and Tony about how that Discord evolved? Because it was kind of awesome. It evolved in real-time, where not only did you have like The Hall for cosplay but then you had The Showcase for more like glamour shots and professional photography-based stuff. You had a call-out to the vendors as mentioned previously but then you had that In Search Of tool, which was a fantastic way of matching vendor to need, especially in a virtual space where you can't browse tables and going through everybody's virtual Etsy store would take hours.

John-Paul: A lot of it was a collaborative effort. There were a few things that he did on his own without running it by me, which is fine, because, you know, you have to trust your team sometimes. The check-in area was very much a collaborative effort. The having the con not show up until you agree to the rules and having the vendors not show up until you agree to the waiver, that was an idea that me and him had had for a while that we just didn't know how to implement for a long time. The panel notification was something the Tony figured out how to do on his own. That was, if you emoji the panel, you would get an alert when it when it was time for that panel to come on. The hotel lobby was kind of us a few days before the con realizing that we didn't have a general area for people to talk, and so we made the Introduction the general chat. And me and him were just like, “Wouldn’t it be funny way if we had a channel you can't post in called, ‘Elevator,’ and it's just a picture that says, ‘This elevator is out of service’”? And that was just a dumb idea that we… Like there were people in the Discord as we were adding silly things like that. And then that, of course, evolved into the Johnson Wedding on Floor 34. I think I may have come up with that the day of the convention.

Ani-Gamers: It was a beautiful addition. I’m a huge fan of running gags, so all of the in-jokes with the broken elevator and the Johnson Wedding just really kinda made this home.

John-Paul: Con-Ops is fairly standard stuff. We had a Help Desk, we got that idea from QuaranCon. The Anime Lockdown Live, that was Tony’s idea to just have the Twitter re-post, which I don’t know if a lot of people used that, but I thought it was cool. Showoff cosplay and party rooms were things that I added, and then Tony had ideas on other stuff we could do in them. And I think that’s everything.

Ani-Gamers: Yeah, I saw, because I was hanging out in the Discord quite a bit, I really liked the fact that, because there were so many rooms, it was kinda emulative of a college con, where you had just enough space where people had to be separated but just kinda stayed in one place for a little while and then maybe went o a different room for a little while.

But I saw a lot of positive feedback in the Discord regarding first-time attendees, specifically those referring to physical disabilities or social anxiety or finance-related concerns. They said, “Oh, well I’ve never attended a con before. So this is my first con.” And, surprisingly, there was just this wealth of love, like “Great! Check out this!” and “What do you think about this?” And it was people being inclusive in conversations.

Ani-Gamers: How do you see events such as these as well as Anime Lockdown specifically continuing past Covid-19 pandemic? And what changes do you see, after running a convention, that might need to be made?

John-Paul: Ooh, that’s a good question. The cynical side of me thinks that a lot of these online conventions aren’t going to continue once they’re no longer a necessary thing that we’re being forced to do. That being said, I want to keep doing it because of how many people I saw say that this was their first, because live cons have never been an option for them. I think for a lot of the big cons, they're not going to have the resources to do two things. But I think the indie shows for sure. I don't know; I had a lot of fun, and I want to do it again. I can't speak for the other shows. But like there is a… I'm trying to think of all the names. I think like Comic-Con might be doing one, and there was one this past day, called like Pop Culture Expo, that had a bunch of like actors, and obviously FUNimationCon. I don't know if those are going to continue; I think that that is people doing that because they don't have a choice, which is a shame, because I do think that there is … I don't want to say a market, because we didn't charge, but I definitely think that there's a place for events like this, because all these people that can't go to Cons – why shouldn't they be allowed to get to watch panels and share their cosplay? You know? I may be not wording this the best way, but I want there to be more. Here's my prediction though with, if there is an Anime Lockdown 2021, I don't think there's going to be industry panels. I think that we got those, because industry needed a place to announce their products; that's not going to be a problem next year. Actors, I think it's still possible, but it might be a little harder because actual cons are going to be asking for them and paying for their fees and whatnot. Getting panelists I think… I think people always want to share their panels. But I do think that moving forward online cons will be different. I don't think they're going to be less fun, but I'm not expecting a, “Hey let's announce six 6 anime at, you know, Anime Lockdown 2021.” I’m fairly realistic that that was very much a lightning in a bottle situation.

Ani-Gamers: Do you think something like GoFundMe or Kickstarter might help reign in some talent in the future or some of the “higher-end programming”?

John-Paul: I think it could, but it’s very much against my core values with the convention. I made a point very early on that I didn't want to involve outside money, don't want to ask people to pay a cover, I don't want to ask people to donate so we can get a guest, I don't want to tell people to go to my Patreon. These are things that, they go against my core beliefs with creating … I don’t want to say content, because that word is now kind of being turned into a gross word, but that's just how I prefer to present my art. And that doesn't mean that other people are wrong, but I don't feel right charging people for things. So if we do get another guest, that's something that I would be handling. But I want to remain self-funded.

Ani-Gamers: That’s really cool. That’s a lot of heart right there.

John-Paul: It’s not that expensive. [laughs]

Ani-Gamers: Well, it's your time and your effort. And even though you put this whole tthing together in just about a month, the result was fantastic.

So in that entire time, or during the con itself, what was one of your most treasured moments as either staff or attendee (providing you actually had a moment to appreciate the con as an attendee at the time)?

John-Paul: I didn’t really get to go to my own convention. So there were a few highlights for me. The interview/Q&A I did with Kyle is is one of the most proudest moments of my journalistic career. I would say I'm not a professional journalist, but I've done amateur journalism, I’ve done radio. That is one of the highlights; it's one of the best things I've ever done in terms of execution I think. I think it was the best sounding panel. I think it had the most natural flow of anything I've done in terms of an interview setting. I'm very happy with how that turned out. But then from a fan side, when Veronica Taylor said she chooses me in Ash’s voice, I almost broke down in tears during the convention. That was something that I didn't expect her to do, and hearing a voice that I grew up with thank me for something was … it's not something you ever expect to encounter, so it was very, very weird. It was a very special moment. And I have a recording of that, which is kind of dope. [laughs]. Eight-hundred plus people at the Discotec panel was really awesome. That's the highest number of people that were at the entire event throughout the weekend. I think it might have been 850 total? I’m not sure on the exact numbers. [Ink’s] panel, actually, when I saw how hype the chat was getting – that was a big moment for me, when they kept copy-pasting, “BUT I HATE SPORTS ANIME!!!!!!!!.” Getting to do panels with Mark again was a great moment. Me and Mark did panels together for a decade in Minnesota, and then when I moved, that was no longer an option for me.

Ani-Gamers: That was the Criticism of Film Criticism panel?

John-Paul: Yes, and then he also did a panel on Americanization that he asked me to join him in, so that was a lot of fun. But also, as you mentioned and I've mentioned, being able to help so many people was really special – all these people saying that they've never been to a con and this is their first time and they're having fun. Watching people enjoy the rave! I didn't think that was going to work and people loved it.

Ani-Gamers: What kind of reactions did you see from that? I used it as background music myself.

John-Paul: Sure, I mean the chat was posting a lot of dance-type emojis, which I assume means that they were dancing. Some people were saying that they turned on like a strobe light in their apartment and they were dancing. A ton of people were tipping Obi-Wan [Shinobi], which was not something I expected. Because, again, “We’re not about money, let’s not blah, blah, blah…” but I was like, “Oh, yeah, he’s kinda like a vendor. So I should be saying, “Hey, just like the vendors, this is his job. This is how he makes a living, and now he's out of work. So like, if you enjoy what he does, he has donation links available.” I don't know how many people donated. He didn't tell me. But I know that he made a decent amount of money, which is great, ‘cause like, you know, when was the last time he got to play in a club? Probably two months ago? That's rough! And especially for freelancers and like performance artists, it's really hard ‘cause you don't always qualify for unemployment

Ani-Gamers: So the last question I have for you, well it’s a two-parter: a) have you ever staffed a con before?

John-Paul No.

Ani-Gamers: So now having run an entire con, when you next are able to go to a con, what will you be paying a little bit of closer attention to?

John-Paul: Ooh, so the way that I attend cons is kinda weird. I don't really go to the con, and that's kind of insane considering that I spend all this money on hotel rooms and the badges and all that. But a con for me is a time to hang out with like-minded friends that I don't live near. And so Otakon is really special to me, because, like, I don't see these people ever. I've got friends that live in Arizona. I have friends that live in D.C. I have friends that live in Minnesota. But we all go to Otakon. And so, I like to go to the dealers room a lot. That's kind of my main thing that I'll do; I'll just bum around the dealers room. Occasionally I'll go to panels, but my problem with larger conventions (and this isn't the fault of the conventions, so I don't want to paint it in that light): I don't want to wait in line to get into the panel I want to go to, and I usually want to go to the ones that you have to wait in line to go to. Which is something that I was really happy with [Anime] Lockdown is that for the very first time anybody that wanted to go to the Discotek panel got to go to the Discotek panel. Every single person that wanted to go to the Kyle Hebert panel got to go to the Kyle Hebert panel. You didn't have to wait in line for an hour and like not get to go to lunch with your friend because you're waiting to maybe get allowed in. One of the, I don’t want to say one of the worst moments, but one of the bummer moments of conventions for me was last Otakon; I showed up early to meet Studio Trigger. Me and my friend Adam, I think it was Adam, we were some of the first people there. We got in the line as soon as we could. It was still a very long line, and we were still here fairly far behind. But we showed up like 40 minutes early to wait to wait in line and then waited in line for, I don't know, it must have been an hour or two hours. I was cut off like four people before I would have gotten to go, and that is SO, so devastating. But then it's like I forget that also there's all the people behind me that also din’t get to go, and there's the person that would have been next – they didn't get to go either. And that's something that it's an unfortunate thing that happens at conventions. There's no way around that; Trigger can't meet every single fan … it's just not possible. But I really like that I was able to give an opportunity to people to go to these events and not have to worry about not getting in. So that’s kind of a long version of why I don't tend to go to panels. I like them. I want to go to the fun and exciting ones like everybody else, and so I spend more time looking at merch, hanging out with people, go to a lot of party rooms.

Ani-Gamers: Thank you very much for coming on and talking about the con, and thank you even more so for putting on the con and all the efforts. It meant a lot to a lot of people, including myself.

John-Paul: I’m happy to do it. It was a good time. It's already been a week! Which is WILD. Like right now, the con would have, I think, been over or would have been wrapping up. The week went by really fast, but I'm glad that everybody enjoyed it. I would happily do it again … just not [laughs] not for a year … not for at least six months. We have some ideas for stuff that we want to do. I haven't made anything official yet. We talked about it at closing ceremonies: maybe doing some kind of like audio zine, which could be interesting but it would rely very heavily on participation, because it's not going to be me doing features; it's going to be other people doing stuff. It’s kinda like mini-panels, and then I'd introduce each one and then put them together maybe like an hour and a half. Podcast? But I’m calling it a magazine, ‘cause that’s cooler?

Ani-Gamers: Speaking of the con being over, I keep checking in on the Discord, because I always get the notifications that there are new messages in there. When are you actually going to shut that down, or are you going to shut that down?

Jon-Paul: Well, we wanted to see how things faded away organically, which it's been … it has. I think like 300 people left on their own, which is understandable or expected. But me and Tony didn't want to cut things off, because people were still talking, and we also wanted to make sure that people had access to the vendors in case there were any issues that needed to be taken care of or things that need to be finalized. I don't know. We’ll revisit in another week. If nobody's talking, then we’ll probably shut it down. I don't know a lot about Discord. I imagine there's a way to kick people out without deleting it because I want to… Obviously for research, we want to keep it so we can see what worked and see what didn't work. You know, if we need to copy paste any features or whatever, we're going to need the archive for that. But we're letting it happen organically, because we didn’t know if all these new friends have shared contact information yet. We don’t want to cut people off.

Ani-Gamers Interview with John-Paul originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on June 19, 2020 at 4:57 PM.

By: Ink

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

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