Sakura Con 2014 Back again

First of all I would like to thank all of the people who read this blog for putting me over ten thousands views. It's things like these that keep me wanting to keep at it.

The anime convention is a big social event for anime fans and detailing one's convention experiences is a necessity if for no other reason it breaks up the blogging monotony of seasonal previews and reviews.

I have no epic tales of my travels to the convention simply because I live about as close to the convention as I do to work. The only difference between my trip there and a usual day is that I took the bus there because parking is as expensive as a wall scroll and hard to find in downtown Seattle. The preregistration line was all but non existent as I got there at eight thirty and I was left to my own devices before most of the stuff was open.

I decided to go to the manga library first. Even though there was only a scatter-shot manga collection I managed to find a couple of things to read, namely a volume of Skull man and Flowers of Evil. Although I have only seen a couple of episodes of the anime version reading the manga gave me some better context for the story.

Another big part of my convention experience was my trips to the dealer's room as if you live in a English speaking country without Akihabara or even a decent Mandarake around convention is your best chance at getting anime merchandise. Even though I have gone to conventions several times before  I think I realized that hopefully one of the most permanent ways to spend money there was to buy figures and this time I decided to start building a of collection figures there. You can see my figurine buys below.

I went to a few panels at the convention. I learned a couple of interesting things (particularly about the up and coming Kantai collection fandom) a few of the panels ending up sounding a bit rote to me, probably because I have seen something something like them before. I know it might sound slightly arrogant but maybe I should try my hand a running a panel in a future convention.

I found that I was spending several hours in the AMV room during the convention. As the years wear on I seem to find that music videos that anime fans make take a lot of work and creativity to make and the people that run the AMV room always seem to find the best videos around so it beats waiting around ten minutes or so to see if the video you downloaded from AMV.com was worth downloading.

As fun as I found the convention I found my activity to be cut short (as well being part of the reason why this post has been delayed by about a week) by some rather ill defined fatigue. So I leave you with one final lesson, always remember to take care of your health because nothing ruins fun like sickness.

Also  I should post all of the cosplay pictures I took at the convention. 

 

Spring 2014 season overview part nine, twenty eight is enough

With this article I officially finish looking at show for three months. I know I haven't seen everything available but most people don't watch over two dozen shows and that I what I have done in the past week. This time I cover four shows that I couldn't watch on Crunchyroll.

Damidaler Prince vs Penguin Empire

A young man who is a giant pervert saves the earth with a mech. This show is a probably the closet you will get to a mecha show in the Go Nagai tradition in a few seasons, right down to almost Jam project . This a pretty perverted show so I wouldn't expect a wide audience to like this.

Selector Infected Wixoss

Ruko is a quiet girl who finds about a card game that can grant wishes. At first look this might be the second show desperately trying to be Madoka Magica (see This for the other one) However it looks like it might go in enough of it's own direction to be a worthwhile show.

Riddle story of the Devil

An Assassin in a class of assassins falls for her target. After thinking about this show I think that many people could easily be turned off by how all the characters in this show have two dimensional personalities; The cold protragonist, her ditzy and cheerful love interest and her collection of barking mad classmates slash antagonists. However this is a yuri show and not only that a yuri show with a plot so it has it's cadre of ready made loyal followers.

Soul Eater Not!

This is the story of three girls who live in a witch hunting school. This is another slice of life show. The fact that one of the main characters can transform into a halberd is a fact of little bearing on the show as a whole. There is a yuri undercurrent to this show but given that it is a slice of life kind of show don't go in expecting it to go much of anywhere.

Spring 2014 season overview part 8

As my season overview starts to wind to a close I cover three shows that have nothing in common. After all there aren't any shows about fives girls who live with a ghost and fight aliens in a mech, at least this season.

Is the order a rabbit?

This is the story of five girls who run a cafe. Every season there is usually a show about cute girls doing cute things and this show follows this criteria. Given the character designs this show is even cuter than normal and verges on being violently adorable. Only three of the five main characters have been introduced in the first episode but as slice of life shows go I don't see this show varying far from what is seen in the first episode.

Nanana's buried treasure

A boy transfers to an island sized school and ends up being the roommate of a ghost girl. While this show might look like your average harem show I have found that Nanana's treasure has a promise of having an energy that many shows of the genre lack. In fact this show may have a serviceable action or adventure theme to it although I can't really make that out from the first episode. For instance the protagonist of this show manages to have more motivation than the usual wet noodle that fills this role.

However it is still a harem type show in the end.

Captain Earth

A young man ends up piloting a giant robot to fight extra-planetary invaders. I am not the biggest fan of mecha shows and yet I find this show to be intriguing. I have found that this show feeling quite original and doesn't look like it is trying to be a copy of another show. On top of that this show looks quite pretty and hopefully there isn't an animation quality drop off. The first episode of this show gives out more questions than answers but I will probably be continuing to watch this.

Spring 2014 season overview part seven Let's play

This time I am covering three sports shows. The sports genre is a strangely maligned section of anime probably dating back to some ancestral jock vs nerd conflict. However here at Jeckyllcast and blog I am willing to put away old grudge and view all genres without prejudice. In this group there are two promising shows and one that is very different from most anything out there.

Baby Steps

Eichiro was a boy who took meticulous notes on all his studies and how he came to love tennis. Baby steps is a show that looks pretty interesting. This show looks like it is made for a male audience although I didn't see anything marks it as offensive to women. Although it isn't taking my place for favorite sports show (that would be Hajime no Ippo) it looks like it could easily be a fun show.

Haikyu

Shoyo is a short boy who loves volleyball. The first episode of this show is something that really shows the main character's love of the sport and complete unwillingness to give up. While he is only one component to a volleyball team he does make a strong impression. This looks like it could be a fun show.

The rowdy Sumo Matsutaro

Matsutaro is a strong man who eventually becomes a sumo wrestler. However in the first episode he is a gigantic jerk to everybody he meets and is probably the least likable main character most anime fans have seen for quite some time. This combined with a really old art style will make this is a rather unpleasant show for many anime fans to try.

Spring 2014 overview part 6 The cutest death of them all

As the season overview drags on (I am now in the second half of it, I swear) I cover another block of moe shows. However given that moe is such a nebulous concept you don't don't know if the show contains magical sniper rifles or not just by calling it moe (in one case here it does). So I will just have to review each show individually.

Coffin Princess Chaika

This show is about the adventures of a girl wizard and a brother and sister team of saboteurs. This show looks like it could be a really fun fantasy adventure show. Even though there is a magical girlfriend in this show the main male character still has some competence which is a nice change of pace. It doesn't look like there are many pretensions in this show so if you are looking for some lighthearted fun this could be a good show for you.

No game no Life

Sora and Shiro are a pair of game freak siblings who are transported to a game world. No game no Life is an interesting looking show but it is hard to figure out where this show is headed. I find Sora to be one of the more interesting male protagonists that I have seen in a while. There is a clearly strange relationship between the brother and sister but I am unclear to where they are headed with it as well. So far I give this show a hopeful positive review although I am a bit uncertain about it.

Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara

This is the story of a boy who can see people's fates as small flags on their heads. Even though this show only has two girls the opening and ending show that this show will be more of a traditional harem show. The three characters that have bee introduced so far aren't that particularly interesting. If you like a brainless fan service show you might like this show.