On Aug. 16, 2009, after the last grueling day at Comic Market 76, we were invited to an event host by Dwango, parent company of the popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga, held in Chofu. Chofu is a small town roughly 45 minutes away from Akihabara by train and is one of the older parts of Tokyo. The event was held at a wrestling gym with quite a few people there for a surprise visit by former American gay porn star, Billy Herrington. Billy Herrington, also known as ”Billy” and ”Aniki” (Big Brother), has become an internet sensation in Japan, thanks to Nico Nico Douga. There are thousands of fan-made videos that uses many of Herrington’s old films to deliberately make misheard words, and wild wrestling videos which have made Billy a social internet celebrity in Japan.[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWiennHYAY0]
A short one minute clip of Nana Mizuki performing live at Animelo 2009 popped up online. It looks like some type of promotional video. I'll let you know when I find out more information. Don't forget, we're still waiting for approval to publish our pictures of Animelo and we have a lot of Nana!
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Wow, it's been quite a while since my last post and will probably be my last here in Tokyo. A lot has happened after August 17. The staff took a break and headed off to Kyoto and Osaka on the bullet train for a break. We ended up in 2 Madarake stores in Osaka, as well as visited their Super Potato, and Volks' store there. Came back to Tokyo on the 20th and went to see Tokyo Tower as well as the Odaiba Gundam. The 22nd was the first day of Animelo, and it was simply amazing. When the lights first dimmed, a sea of glowsticks lite up the stadium in harmony. It is definitely something you must see at least once in your life. We took over a thousand photos from Animelo as well as a photoshoot session with May'n (Sheryl Nome in Macross Frontier), and Miyano Mamoru (most recently Setsuna from Gundam 00). We also had an interview with them which we will have up later, and maybe a few surprises and treats for you readers out there. :p
Again, another short post and we know many of your are anxious to read our full reports, articles, and of course photos to all the events and places we went to this summer.
Comiket Day 3 and Beyond - The War Has Only Begun...
Written by Theodore MakI apologizing for not updating sooner, the staff was completely exhausted after day 3 of Comiket, and then immediately training for over an hour to Chofu in Tokyo for a press event. Essentially, Dwango, the parent company of Japan's largest video site, Nico Nico Douga, invited roughly close to about 100 of their premium members to a Billy Herrington event.
Goodsmile Company was also there to announce a few new Figmas of Billy. We'll have the full coverage report later with plenty of photos as well as some video we recorded of the event. We actually got lost a few times before finally finding the place by turning on the data roaming option on my phone and downloading a map.
As for Comiket itself, day 3 the entire staff split up and met back in the afternoon. Surprisingly, we got the chance to meet with artist Inu, who is probably best known for creating the original doujinshi, Hatsu Inu. Inu-sensei was very pleased to know that he had fans in America and thanked everyone who enjoy his works. Look forward to a future interview by us with Inu-sensei coming soon!
Today was a resting day, as half the staff woke up past 12PM. We dropped by Akihabara for a quick visit to see some of the stuff we may have missed at Comiket. To our surprise, the streets were packed with people carrying bags we saw at Comiket. Stores that sell doujins were fully packed with people pushing and bumping into each other just like at Comiket. There was even a line to gain entrance into the doujin floors of the anime store Toranoana complete with a person carrying a sign for the end of the line, again just like Comiket. We also went back to visit the floors we missed at the 2nd hand anime store, Mandarake, and surprisingly I finally found the item I spent a week so far looking for in Tokyo. Lets just say I am finished with my purchases and am not looking forward to figuring out how to pack everything back.
We will be heading off to Kyoto and Osaka for the next few days and will be back in time to cover Animelo's 10th anniversary and possibly the Gundam Big Expo. We are still working out the details currently on doing some coverage on the Ghibli's Museum. We'll keep you updated on that later. Until then, stay tuned!
Due to the general poor health of the staff after day 1 ( yes we got owned pretty badly) we decided not to attend day 2 and rest. The trip is quite gruelsome, and we have many pictures to show you later.
We ended up heading back to Ikebukuro around Sunshine City area and watched the Evangelion 2.0: You Can (not) Advance movie. The movie was simply amazing, and rekindled the Evangelion fanboy inside me. A quick summary without any spoilers, the movie is VERY different from the original series packed with lots of action and a twist near the end that throws the original Evangelion series completely into a new tangent. As most people already know about the new character Mari, she was an interesting addition to the cast. Rei has been given a bit more humanized personality and Asuka has become a more likeable character. I cannot wait for the final 2 movies that will wrap the series up. Just as a note, the theater and the screen was smaller than that what you would find at a typical theater in America.
Apart from that, after having experienced Comiket firsthand, we, the staff currently in Japan, have revised our battle plans and resupplied for the busiest day of Comiket, Day 3 (also referred to as boy's day). As an addition to the previous comment regarding the convention, Comiket is not a battlefield, Comiket is a war on an otaku level.
As much as I would like to mention briefly about our first step into Akihabara (which we live like 15 minutes away by foot) and Ikebukuro, I don't think either experience has left a lasting impression as much as Comic Market (Comiket). From everything I've read, seen, and heard about Comiket, nothing could have prepared me for it. It is absolute insanity with the sheer number of people. I didn't go in blind, quite the contrary! I had done all my research on the circles ahead of time using the Comiket 76 CD-ROM and was well equipped with a backpack, water, a towel, and lots of yen coins for quick transactions. The biggest mistake was lacking a cellphone or enough walkie talkies to contact the other staff members of t-ono.net so we could coordinate on getting the goodies. I waited about an hour and forty minutes in line for Hiro Suzuhira (former Navel character Designer i.e. Shuffle!) circle Heart-Work! Sadly, I only had about 3 circles to visit today on my list and it was still bad, missing out the industry booths entirely! I will go into more details when I return to the 'States in a full convention report and of course lots of photos. Hopefull Day 3 will go more smoothly, though there are approximately 30 circles on my buy list.
I apologize for not uploading photos as our currently schedule is packed to the max and slowly we are being worn down. Looking forward to the end of the trip where we can kick back, relax, and enjoy Animelo, the largest anime concert that happens once a year. We'll have photos and more on that later also. :p
Oh, and the Odaiba Gundam? You can see it on the way to Tokyo Big Sight, and it's huge.
Woke up after arriving at Narita airport and met with a colleague from Seattle who flew in 10 minutes earlier. Apart from us, we brought along a staff writer, a photographer, and an editor. Spent roughly an hour at the airport exchanging money, working out how to make international calls, and of course figuring out how to get to our hotel with Japan's rail system.
Ride was roughly a little over an hour on the Keisei Line, and a brief transfer at Aoto arriving at Asakusabashi. Saw a rather odd poster of the Odaiba Gundam walking through Tokyo... Will upload that later. Finally got to the hotel, unloaded our baggages and went off to find a place to eat. Surprisingly, most of the food establishments all had the famed vending machine style ticket orders. Ended up deciding to eat at a beef rice bowl place. Spent 700 yen on a giant soup, and large bowl of beef bowl.
About to start Day 1, and it looks we're off to Akihabara! Will update more later today.
With almost exactly a week left before venturing off to Japan for 2 weeks, there is still a lot of preparation work left to do! Currently still mapping out the booths we will be visiting at Comiket 76. With roughly 30,000 circles (artist groups) including big name artists and mangakas, it's a big headache. Originally we had about 8 members who were joining us to Japan, and as of last month, the fellowship dwindled to 4. Luckily, an associate of ours from SakuraCon will be coming with us, and another from Anime Expo who some of you may know him as Milkmandan from Hongfire.com may be joining us for a few days. We are still in the process of finalizing our company tour visits which is holding up our schedule.
Just as an update, there was a slight error with the blog preventing people from saving their posts. That has been corrected.