Otakon Highlights!

OTAKON 2010!!!!!!

Had a great time this year. Had a new Flip vid camera to use this year, that was pretty cool, my Otakon vids are now in HD! Go here to see them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bigsteveotaku

I was also pleased to note a plea on part of the organizers for people to practice proper hygene…the fanboy funk wasn’t so bad this year. Ok, let’s get into this!


AMV’S:

There was some consternation this year as it was announced before the con that there would be no Overflow AMV’s. What that meant was that those of us who did not make the cut for the Contest, wouldn’t even get a showing of our AMV’s as in years past. Then, the schedule came out and there was at least ONE showing.

The guys running the showing did us a favor; the asked for the entrants present to come forward so that they could program our AMV’s to be shown first. AND, we got our preferred seating and line-jump passes! Woot! It’s always fun to see your work on the big screen!

To see the winners and my picks for this year, just go to the previous blog post, the list and most of the links are there!


YOSHIDA BROTHERS

http://www.domo.com/yoshidabrothers/index.php

These two brothers from Hokkaido, play the shamisen, what looks like a three string guitar with a box at one end. These guys are amazing! So much so that by the time I left the opening ceremonies to run downstairs to the dealer’s room to get their CD…it was sold out! Here is the video called “Kodo” that was played for us. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ron17xFNBf0


LIVE ACTION MOVIES:

I saw more live action movies this year than I normally do. Odd. Anyway. I caught the end of a really bad one, and discovered two really good ones and one really campy, but fun one. And I am going to start in reverse order…


20th Century Boys Part 2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181920/

I stumbled onto this one. I did not see part one, but there was plenty of references to the first one, so I wasn’t lost. Basically, Japan is coming under the religious influence of a guy named Friend, after a viral outbreak that was blamed on the hero of the first movie. The heroes of the first movie slowly come back together except for Kenji, along with the excitable girl who is Kenji’s niece. Their goal is to prevent Friend from taking over Japan. It’s very campy, like the manga, but has some surprising serious parts to it as well.

Shinobi

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475723/

This is set in the early days of the unification of Japan and the Tokugawa era. Two ninja clans have been fighting it out with each other for centuries. As Japan becomes unified, warlords no longer need their services…yet the Tokugawa Ieyasu still commands them to fight each other but no reason is given. As the battles continue, the two leaders of the clan fall in love with each other….


Ichi

http://nihongoup.com/blog/ichi-2008/

NOT to be confused with Ichi the Killer. Two totally different movies. Ichi is the blind daughter of a blind swordsman. He gives her up to a special type of orphanage, but still visits her and trains her in swordsmanship. But her primary skill is to be a gozen, a blind shamisen player. However, she is kicked out because it was believed that she had a relationship with a man (forbidden to gozen), when she was actually raped. She wanders the country searching for her father, instead comes upon a village beset with villainous thugs. She meets a real swordsman, who for some reason, cannot draw his sword, but give hima wooden one and he is suddenly the greatest swordsman alive…


Ok, the really bad one. Genghis Khan. A lame attempt to put Khan in a good light. Why does he wage war and slaughter so many? So that his war would end all wars. Pffft… Anyway, the only reason you should watch this is to make fun the of the English dubbing: Travis Willingham, the voice of Roy Mustang the Full Metal Alchemist, dubs the traitorous friend of Khan.


ANIME:

L’Corda D’Oro Primo

http://www.corda-primopasso.com/

I happened to stumble upon this anime while waiting for something else. It’s a fun little anime about a school with an elaborate history of a musical contest. Whenever the school bells chime on their own, it is a signal to hold a musical contest. The contest and the music department have a strange patron: an inspirational “fairy” named Lily who chooses the contestants, but only they can see them, no one else can. The other thing about this story is that of the five contestants, four are boys with incredible musical talent and one girl with absolutely none. Lily gives her a magical violin, but she can only play it when she is inspired. Of course, she begins to be attracted to more than one of the other contestants…


Bamboo Blade

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8455

You can tell at a convention when an anime is pretty good when at the end of the screening everyone voices disappointment that it’s over. Bamboo Blade got this reaction. This anime is very simple, but very good. A kendo instructor at a private school runs out of money and students. He accepts a bet from a friend to have the girls’ kendo team form each school to a contest, if he wins, he gets free sushi for a year. The only problem is that he only has one girl on his kendo team. As he recruits new members, each one provides unique challenges: one girl has amazing skill but is only influenced by her heroes on tv, another girl is impossibly beautiful with an impossibly ugly boyfriend who she goes psychotic over…you get the idea.


SIDE NOTES:

Now that Otakon is over, I will be going back to an every other week format.

New dates for Otakon, go to the website! www.otakon.com

Oh, yeah….

The convention had to be evacuated at one point…

Give my weekly vlog some love!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheUnagiObserver



TONIGHT’S PLAY LIST:

Go here and then go to the music section to hear the music!

http://bigstevegearhart.multiply.com/


“Planet Tokyo” – HiHi Puffyamiyumi
“Invoke” – T.M. Revolution
“Sakura Saku” – Love Hina
“Shanghai Honey” – Asterix
“Tank!” – YK & the Seatbelts