KrisZ on Anime, Manga, Cosplay and Video Games

Animegacon 2012 Las Vegas Hotel and Casino Convention Center August 17-19, 2012 Website In North America, there are anime conventions that happen almost every weekend. It is hard for established conventions to find ways to distinguish themselves from the pack. For a new convention, it is exceedingly difficult to do so because it means building a brand name and having a strategy to separate from the endless list of conventions that populate North America. I first heard about Animegacon when reading the mailing list of ACML. They attracted attention from con executives with the bombastic tagline “the largest anime convention in the universe.” When the website opened, the convention promoted what was the largest Masquerade grand prize in North America (beating Anime Expo 2011’s $10,000 grand prize by a dollar). It also posted the expectations of the convention, between 2,000 and 5,000 attendees, which would put it near the inaugural year numbers of conventions such as Anime Bo...

Gaming Tidbits 8.28.12: Neptunia Anime, Atelier Vita, and PS Vita Update Neptunia V Anime Hyperdimension Neptunia turned many heads with its racy female designs and its unique take on the console gaming wars through the anthropomorphism of gaming consoles. With the recent release of Hyperdimension Neptunia V in Japan, it has been announced in Dengenki PlayStation magazine that there will be an anime version of the franchise [ source ]. I have played through the first and second game, calling the original game "a great experience that has some flaws [ source ]" and the second game a couple of steps forward and a couple of steps back for "removing some of the satire and humor that made Hyperdimension Neptunia one of the funniest games I have played in a very long time [ source ]." The first game was a unique take on the console wars with a very funny script and a strong central narrative. The second game was a reboot in a different universe and cast of charac...

Iori's just a little flustered at Taichi Kokoro Connect (ココロコネクト) Genre: Seinen Based off of the light novel by: Sadanatsu Anda Episodes: 17 I have been into anime for a very long time, so it takes a special anime to get my attention. This summer season has been one of the weakest ones in recent memory, with only a few standout anime. Of the anime released in summer season, the best of the pack is Kokoro Connect. Kokoro is a Japanese word that means “heart,” it is used in common Japanese language to describe strong feelings. With a name that focuses on heart, it is quite understandable that a strong focus of the anime is the feelings of the central cast. A seemingly simple romance story raises complex issues about personality, feelings, and the interpersonal relationships we hold dear. Kokoro Connect is a great anime that stands out in a rather dull summer season. After a body swap Kokoro Connect is about a cast of five high school students that were thrown togethe...

California is home to one of the major ethnic Japanese populations outside of Japan. Nisei week is one of the longest running celebrations of Japanese culture; this year marks the 72nd year of the event. Nisei is a term that describes second-generation Japanese-Americans, but the event itself is a celebration of the rich Japanese culture. The day I attended was a blistering, sweltering Sunday in the midst of a statewide heat wave. As with any experience, I had a fair share of great memories with wonderful people, but I also had some bad apples that could have potentially ruined my day. Tadao Totomatsu The MC for the cos event My day started when I arrived in late noontime, the temperatures were on the rise. As I arrived, the Pacific Media Expo cosplay contest was ready to begin. I was delighted to see that the master of ceremonies for the show was none other than my friend Tadao Totomatsu. Thankfully, the seating area and stage used for the cosplay competition was sheltered s...

The Sony PlayStation Vita was recently launched in North America earlier this year. The console launched in a time of heavy uncertainty in the domain of handheld consoles. With the aggressive expansion of the smartphone and tablet market combined with a digital distribution system and a new pricing structure, the state of handheld consoles is tenuous at best. New competition coupled with a murky marketing strategy and a weak positioning strategy  meant that they have an uphill battle. The PlayStation Vita since its launch has been in a difficult situation, where they had to lower the forecast of PSP+PS Vita sales from 16 million to 12 million [source] . The poor adoption bears itself out weekly with the poor Japanese sales, averaging 9,000 consoles through sales trackers of Famitu and Media Create. The bad news continued when the SCE President Shuhei Yoshida said "We’re having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party ...

Makie Sasaki from Negima The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will showcase a variety of amazing athletes from a multitude of sports. One of my favorite sports in the Summer Olympics is Rhythmic Gymnastics because of its beauty, grace, and skill. This sport is not a well known sport in the states since artistic gymnastics dominates the headlines. While this sport is not ubiquitous in the United States, it has heavy exposure all over the world, being part of the sport track in many primary schools all over Asia and Europe. Due to its heavy exposure, Rhythmic Gymnastics is seen in a variety of anime and manga. In this article, I will do a short introduction on the sport and give examples of anime and manga that do show rhythmic gymnastics. After this article, I hope that you have a greater understanding of Rhythmic Gymnastics and will be able to spot it in a variety of anime and manga. Korean Gymnast Son Yeon-Jae photo from [Korea Herald] What separates rhythmic gymn...

Anime and Comic conventions have events that are organized and well-planned, such as concerts, industry panels, masquerade, and a variety of others. On the other hand, a convention fan panel is done by the fans with little to no connections to industry but they share a wealth of knowledge and experience. It is one of the few aspects of Anime and Comic convention programming that the fans have strong input in. From the outside, a panel can be very intimidating, which is why there are a lot of knowledgeable and talented people who can host a panel but have not done it. This article will try to deconstruct a con fan panel to ease the learning curve to make it easier to do. Hosting panels at con is very rewarding and can be very addictive. I hope after reading this article that you can try to contribute to your favorite con by hosting fascinating and interesting panels. Before a person can host a panel, there are two difficult questions that you have to ask yourse...