Token Asian’s Anime Blog

Alright, it’s time for some more Star Ocean EX. Did you miss Claude and Rena?

Rena walks along the beach and sees Claude’s communicator wash up among the waves. She apparently takes this to mean that Claude is dead. Out of nowhere, Opera appears out of the mists. Inside a ruined church, Celine relates to Opera how they had met Ernest and she tells them how she believes that he must be on this continent. Ashton is less upbeat since Claude and Leon are still missing. Rena stares at a stained glass portrait of the Warrior of Light and mopes around. Opera takes everyone for a walk for some odd reason, which was probably not a good idea since everyone is getting bad vibes about the forest. Ashton and Opera realize that all the animals have probably been turned into monsters, which is confirmed when Rena smells a nasty odor. Opera identifies it as gas from the Sorcery Globe. Gyoro and Ururun say that it reeks of monsters’ souls for this place has turned into a land of monsters, therefore this place is doomed.

They go back to warn the survivors of El to evacuate this place as soon as possible, but the people say that they will stay here because this land is like their mother, which they will not abandon. Better to die at home than elsewhere, eh? But they are not giving up, they are merely waiting for the Warrior of Light to come, leading Rena to look up at the stained glass once again. Outside, she holds Claude’s communicator and continues being depressed. Opera comes out to keep her company and asks to see Claude’s communicator. Rena asks what does it do and Opera explains that it allows people to communicate from far away, though not through space. She also asks if it is possible to use it to talk with Claude, but Opera gives Rena the bad news that he needs a comm too for it to work.

Rena is at a crossroads now, whether to go back to Lacour or stay on El. Some snow fireflies appear, which are supposed to symbolize joy and hope. With these pretty little bugs to inspire her, Rena is now determined to stay behind and look for Claude, the same way Opera is looking for Ernest, no matter the danger. With some emotional words exchanged between the two ladies, Ashton and Celine also decide to stay with Rena.

Back with Claude, Leon is trying to repair the Lacour Hope. One of the thugs says to Claude that he doesn’t know what makes Claude keep going despite what he goes through. He replies that there is a mountain he wants to climb, which is probably a metaphor for overcoming his dad’s shadow. Leon says he will be able to fix the Lacour Hope. Alright, big laser blasts, c’mon!

In Linga, Yuki, Precis, and Bowman are worrying about Claude and the others. With that brief interlude over, we’re back to Rena and the others, who want to go to the city of Eluria, where the Sorcery Globe landed. It’s sort of dangerous there since monsters are spawning from the Sorcery Globe. Sounds like you need the entire 101st Airborne to get in there, but our party forges ahead anyway. Rena suddenly thinks she hears Claude and runs off. Well, this should lead up to something interesting. We really do hear Claude’s voice… but is he really here? Could be an enemy trick, you know. She loses the rest of the party and comes upon a pit full of demonic gases. What looks like a combat droid appears behind her and mimics Claude’s voice. It scans her pendant and then decides to grab her… and toss her aside. Ouch. And so, the droid continues to beat up on Rena as she moans in pain and says she can’t die until she meets “him” again.” Suddenly, Claude appears and faces the droid.

With our hero here, things should be okay, right? Well, it’s still a swordsman against a robot… Even though Rena is glad to see him, I don’t think it’ll be an easy fight. Kuuhazan against beam lasers… not a fair fight. Still, Claude is determined to protect Rena. He yells for Rena to run as she remembers how Dias told him that Claude lives to protect his friends. Thankfully, the Hawk KM that Dias taught Claude is effective in downing the combat droid. Yay for clichéd anime-style battles that end in one blow.

The villagers see a beam of light shoot out from where Claude is and exclaim that the Warior of Light is here. Rena and Claude then embrace and have a joyful reunion. So we’re all happy now. Ooh-rah! Back in Linga… again, Keith has finished translating the manuscript. However, Yuki doesn’t seem happy about that. Keith says that they have to contact Claude and the others right away. Back on El, Leon examines the robot and with Opera’s help, they find what looks like a shard of the Sorcery Globe, which she identifies as the machine’s power source. The mystery deepens…

Man, this ED never gets old. My cousins all hate it, though.

Okay, so we’ve reunited our party, got the Lacour Hope back, but now we have battle robots with beam lasers attacking everyone. Sounds like fun. Better fix up the Lacour Hope so we can have some big battles! Why do I have the nasty feeling that Precis is going to show up now?

It took me three days of scouring the dealers’ room at Otakon to find a single AMG wallscroll. I still have the papercuts to prove it! And I found it in this dirty trash can at a dealer’s booth… I was like… I’ve been searching three days for a Belldandy wallscroll… and I finally found her… in a dirty and dusty trash can with cobwebs and sticky black gunk all over the place. After seeing her in such a poor state, I walked up to the dealer and told him I’d pay whatever price he wanted for that wallscroll. I HAD to rescue Bell from that dreadful… wastebasket. Anyway, to make a long story short, I paid my $10 and took Bell home with me. She’s going on the wall now, all cleaned up and polished… the way she should be. After accomplishing the mission of finding a scroll with Bell on it, I felt satisfied and proceeded to max out my Discover card on other things… kidding! We also met “Al.” Heh. This picture of our club president will go down in history.

After thrashing our way out of the crowded Dealers’ Room, we made it to the Piano Squall concert. He’s basically a pianist who cosplays as Squall and plays anime and game music. He’s really talented and I thought it was a good way to end the weekend. During the concert, he invited a young couple onto the stage… and the guy proposed to his girlfriend. Awwwww…

At the end of the show, Piano Squall was selling some stuff at the front and basically a mob pressed forward. They eventually had to move it outside, so the front of the line suddenly became the back of the line. Thankfully, I have an Asian’s crowd instincts and basically forced my way out to the front. I think we should invite him to Bethlehem to play… Hey, I think the guy got mobbed more than Vic. How about that?

And so, that ends our Otakon 2005 adventure. Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there. I still had to go home and organize all the stuff I bought. Then there’s the rest and recovery part…

Update: We did invite Piano Squall to Lehigh University. So far, things look promising.

Some people have asked me what exactly Anime Angels is all about. I suppose I haven’t explained that in great detail because I assumed (incorrectly) that it was sort of self-explanatory. Anime Angels is a Christian mangazine, meaning that it is a magazine chock full of manga goodness with Christian beliefs, ideas, etc. in mind from many independent Christian manga artists. There are also game and anime reviews and articles about how anime relates to the Christian faith.

I personally thought that Issue #1 of Anime Angels was the weaker of all the issues that I’ve read so far. Issue #2 is definitely one of the stronger ones in my honest opinion. What really makes it stronger? Issue #1 served as an introduction into many of the manga series and didn’t really give any meat of the story while Issue #2 gives all that you hunger for. Now, for a more detailed look.

Kioko & Jomei
By Nicole Kiser

This short, one-page comic is a lot of humor in a small package. No doubt lots of parents wish their kids had not become otaku. Kioko’s mom is no exception, but her dad puts a funny twist on the situation. If you no longer need to be told to read your manga from right to left, you should give this one a read.

Rating: 8/10

Andrea
By Ryan Bradley

While the previous installment of Andrea was weak, this chapter is far stronger in its storytelling and the issues at hand get discussed more seriously. Briefly, this chapter is about how one deals with self-centeredness in a person and how terrible walking a path through life without Jesus hurts a person. The art also looks slightly better.

Rating: 7.6/10

Game Break
By Philip Hanan

Although this isn’t one of the manga listed on the cover, this short comic delves into the philosophical discussion of what happens to the characters in a game after you turn the power off…

Rating: 8/10

Remembering You
By Psycho Ann

Wow, this comic just keeps getting better and better. The second installment of this manga tells the story of the female protagonist’s past where she gave up passing school for the year because of her Christian faith. Instead of cheating on exams, she decided to walk the path she had chosen. With her memory gone, she now says that in hindsight her choice was stupid, and that just tears at your heart.

Rating: 9.9/10

One Winged
By Genevieve G. Tan

If life is becoming meaningless, what is the point of doing anything at all? If you begin to despair of how life is becoming for you, why bother at all? So what is the meaning of life? These questions aren’t easy to answer, but our female protagonist meets a mysterious young girl that seems to communicate with her telepathically from afar. The plot thickens… A definite improvement in story. I really want to know what happens in the next part!

Rating: 8.9/10

Shelter of Wings
By Lisa Hutchinson

This next part shifts from the perspective of Satan’s minions and to the “target” girl in question. We see a young girl’s perspective of pain and guilt after an accident of which she had caused. She asks a question that many ask: “why does God let bad things happen?” Before an answer can be found, something surprises her from behind. What could it be?

Aiiya, this manga keeps getting better with each panel. Some may say that I’m giving ridiculously high reviews but I’m being serious!

Rating: 9.7/10

Full Armor
By Nikole Jones

After an issue full of solid comics, this one seems to be the anomaly. I’ve tried going back and reading the comic several times and even going back to the previous issue. I still have no clue what’s going on in this manga.

Rating: 4.0/10

Pure of Heart: Christianity and Anime, Christian Anime?
By Rose

While most anime is certainly not designed with Christians in mind, can Christians still get something out of it. Rose decides to explain this quite well in a short article. There are indeed elements of Christianity in anime, but just as spiritual elements and themes in general, not parts of specific Christian theology. These deep, hidden meanings in anime can be a good thing, though there can be hidden dangers as well, requiring one to have discernment in what they decide to view. All in all, a solid article.

Final Word on Issue #2:

After what I thought was a horrible first issue, Issue #2 really shines. All the comics show significant improvement in either art or story. I’ve looked ahead at each issue and I can honestly that there is a slow but noticeable improvement as the magazine progresses. Even if you’re not a Christian, there’s some good independent manga series here that anyone can enjoy. Issue #2 is definitely worth your money, though you might want to pick up Issue #1 just to get the background story from each comic. What are you waiting for? Go to AnimeAngels.net and order it!

PS: The cover of Issue #2 is also my personal favorite. ^_^

On Saturday morning, we went to the Dealers’ Room early to get some shopping in. I got myself a State Alchemists’ watch (from Full Metal Alchemist) and a “9 mm” handgun. Heh, it was an Airsoft, don’t worry. I also got those three expensive Terzetto AMG figurines for $75… *cringes*

After that, we got in line for the FMA autographs. I had the misfortune to wait in line next to an annoying kid pretending he was all jaded. Anyway, we got into the actual room and saw this girl leap over the table and tackle Vic Mignogna (Ed’s VA). When it was my turn, I told Vic how much I admired his work outside of voice acting and how I was praying for him. He gave me a very nice autograph!

We then went to the Bandai panel to get good seats for the event after that one… the Full Metal Fantasy panel. We managed to get front row seats. It was a video where the English VA cast for FMA got together with some cosplay outfits and acted out a fanboy’s fantasy (*cough* Vic’s fantasy). I wonder if Vic really drives a Hummer with the license plate “FULL MTL?” And guess what? For some reason, nobody sat next to me in the front and when Vic was looking for a seat I offered him mine. Some other female voice actress stole it, though. I had no clue who she was… I’m a subtitled kind of guy, I guess, though I respect Vic’s work a lot. She eventually left and Vic got his seat. I think I felt the stares of a lot of jealous fangirls… eep!

The voice actors’ panel was pretty good. All of the voice actors were from the English dubs and it was pretty entertaining to hear them answer questions. When they were asked about the weirdest thing a fan ever did to them, my friend and I just started cracking up and pointed at Vic, prompting him to tell the story of the glomping girl. Of course, he was a gentleman about it and treated that girl like his biggest fan… well, she probably was. The panel went on for a long time… even bumping out the next panel. Whoops. Well, without Vic and his VA buddies, I think Otakon 2005 might have gone into history as one of the worst anime events I’ve been to.

We ended the day with some viewings of “Tenjho Tenge” and “Ninja Scroll TV.” Tenjho Tenge was awesome but Ninja Scroll is too weird for my tastes. Our anime club at Lehigh should watch Tenjho Tenge. On that line of thought, our anime club’s president got the English VA for Motoko from Ghost in the Shell to sign his registration badge. “Best wishes from Section 9. Love, Motoko.” I’m jealous!

If it wasn’t for Vic and the rest of the English VA panel, I think this day would have royally sucked. It’s a good thing that these guys and gals were all funny, polite, fascinating, and downright flamboyant. Best quote of the evening? “Roy Mustang is dead sexy… in a MINISKIRT!” Yeah… Vic.

Let’s end this post with some of the better cosplay photos I took on Day 3.

Friday was the actual first day of the convention. Personally, I thought the crowds were getting ridiculous and that the panels and video rooms were lacking in quality. For example, “Otaku no Video” was okay while “Fafner” just tanked. We had some serious shopping to do as I went around and spent hundreds of dollars in the Dealers’ Room (details later). While I was in the Dealers’ Room getting some posters autographed by Lanzer, I heard the Indigo playing at the Geneon booth. While the Indigo isn’t the greatest musical group, they were notable for doing the OP and ED for Ai Yori Aoshi. I got them to autograph one of their CDs that I had just bought… though they spelled my name wrong. “Deniel?”

In the Video Game Room, I didn’t get any slots for the Halo tournament, but my friend (who is better than me) got in and lost badly in the first round. Some people dropped out so I got a chance to play in the first round too… and I made it to the second round! Maybe if I had brought my own controller and it hadn’t been a level that I hated, I might have had a chance.

The amount of good cosplayers this year was also pretty low. What a shame. Well, there was a good Sakura Taisen cosplay and a few good Final Fantasy ones too. And only one Belldandy. Boo!

Friday Night Fan Parodies was something I had high expectations for. The funniest video was one where the DDR Club at Cornell made a video about… well, DDR. Any DDR video that co-stars Mario and Hercules is a good video! There was also one about… driving to Otakon… and that was it. The main event was “Final Fantasy vs. Kaiju Big Battle.” It started out well but then just went to pieces. Best quote: “Tidus, your wife just called and asks where the f*** you are with the g**damn milk!”

While I was disappointed with the show, I suppose it could have been worse. Man, at this point, I was thinking that Otakon 2005 was getting sort of lame. I was getting depressed by this point.

It was a crazy drive down to Baltimore. Our friend decided that it was for the best to try to break our other friend’s previous speed record. To make a long story short, his car had a limiter that didn’t let him exceed 110 MPH. So he didn’t get to break the record. Oh well. After we got to Baltimore, we checked into the hotel and scoured the Inner Harbor for eats. We ended up at this place called Phillip’s Buffet. It was a seafood buffet and we pretty much stayed for at least 90 minutes of chowing down guy-style in a no-holds barred eating contest. Now, I haven’t done that in more than a decade (swimmers can’t overeat like that) so I obviously lost.

We then walked around the Inner Harbor for a while, browsing in bookstores, checking out the boats, etc. After doing this for a while, we went back to the hotel and just hung out for a while. We went and got our pre-registration packets. Now, I could have gone at 15:00 to avoid waiting two hours when the doors opened at 17:00… or I could have waited two hours in line at 17:00 until 19:00. OR I could just go late at night to avoid any lines whatsoever. It was about 9:30 after we got out of registration. After that, we met up with the president of my university’s anime club. A few of us got together and we had a late dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. That was probably my last bite of “real food” that wasn’t a ball of grease of packaged until Sunday… We were all exhausted, so we took care of our daily hygiene and went to bed.

Most people say that otaku are worthless people that are barely members of society. Unfortunately for our critics, we are the basis of a billion dollar industry in America. According to the article linked to by ANN, Otakon attendees, staff, vendors, industry people, etc. bring in a haul of $22 million for the city of Baltimore in the time frame of a single three-day weekend. With Otakon practically bursting at the seams this year, they are considering changing the venue. Apparently the city of Baltimore doesn’t want to lose that sweet $22 million, so Otakon is one of the primary reasons that they want to build a new hotel next to the convention center.

Ignore the fact that the actual article the site refers to is a poorly-written article, some of the comments in the video clip are worth a look at. If anything, it is worth a few laughs. Dang, we must look like aliens to the locals. At the Inner Harbor, I heard a little girl ask her mom (presumably it was her mother) why there was a girl dressed as Lulu (FFX) at the food court.

“She’s Asian, they all dress like that.”

Hilarious, but stereotyping shouldn’t be funny.

(note: the video mentions that there were 70,00o+ people at Otakon. They go by the numbers that enter each day, not the actual total, so that’s like multiplying the actual number of people by three, so it’s not because of the fact that cosplayers look like an invading horde from a distance.)

Linkage:

Otakon Cited in Baltimore Hotel Plans

I bought Volume 1 of Aa! Megami Sama TV at Otakon 2005. Apparently they were selling the first volume a month ahead of time for whatever reason. I’m not complaining. I feel so lucky to be able to review volume one of the English release of the Ah! My Goddess TV series ahead of schedule!

I’m watching the DVD right now. It seems to have a nice solid case that isn’t too dang flimsy or bulky. The cover is certainly eye-catching enough for someone to spot it from far away. You cacn easily tell that it’s our favorite trio of goddesses and not some other group of anime characters.

As far as the actual DVD content goes, it’s not bad at all. The extras are better than most anime DVDs. We have an “outtakes” clip which after watching I assume is the voice actors and the video engineers editing a silly video of the characters doing some absurd things in a fake story. All I can say is that this will serve to confuse more people than be actually funny (despite the disclaimer that it’s not part of the real story). There is also an introduction of the series by Kikuko Inoue which is worth more for the historical value rather than any entertainment value. Otherwise, standard clean opening and some trailers for other anime series.

The menus are thankfully easy to use and don’t contain any long “transition” animation. It takes about two seconds for one menu to switch to another. Sound and video quality seemed pretty good on my Panasonic DVD player. I didn’t notice anything horrible on my first viewing of the DVD. In fact, the music seems particularly sharp and clean. The contrast between colors and settings looks particularly good. I have my personal opinions about the animation (Bell just keeps getting more sterile-looking) but this is certainly animation that will live up to the expectations of anime viewers of the 21st century. Thankfully, you can also skip past all the opening logos, etc. without having to sit through them.

The English dub cast is certainly… an interesting choice. I honestly don’t think the English voice for Keiichi hits the character right. Bell’s English VA certainly seems to be competent but could use some more emotion at times. The original OAV English dub cast is definitely better than these guys, though it’s too late to do anything about it now. The subtitles are yellow and don’t really intrude into your viewing pleasure. While the text could be slightly less obtrusive, I’m not really complaining.

The episodes in this DVD might seem to move slowly at first (I believe I mentioned that before in my earlier episode reviews), but I think that this is for the better as the series progresses. I’m starting to realize what the director is trying to do, by moving the story slowly, the relationship between Keiichi and Bell is fleshed out more. By the end of this DVD, we’ll only have Keiichi and Belldandy move into the temple and spar with Sayoko. Some might call this slow, I call it taking their time.

According to the staff at the Media Blasters’s booth, they said that the the limited edition box set would not come with anything extra except… a box. Whee. Let’s all hope that he’s wrong. I hope I don’t have to pay an extra wad of cash just to get a box.

Well, looks like the stage is set for Belldandy to make a comeback in the United States. We can only hope…

Well, I’m back from Otakon… and a lot poorer.

Well, I’m off to Baltimore, Maryland for Otakon in about seven or so hours. It’ll be my second time there, but this time I’m taking along some people from our university anime club. Maybe I’ll even meet up with my fellow anime blogger, Scott. It should be fun!

So no other updates this week! Sorry!