Misuzu Live

How did I miss this? Sometime last month, one of the most recognized figure companies opened up an English site with complete coverage of their new, old, and upcoming figures. In addition, they host updates for makers like Max Factory, FREEing, and Sofmap to name a few.
The site provides a listing of new figures by order of announcement, complete with RSS feed. You can narrow it down by maker or line such as figma or Nendoroid. And browse in your choice of detailed or gallery-style browsing. Danny Choo, well known for his blogging and storm-trooper dancing around Tokyo, also has a corner on the site. He updates with figure reviews featuring detailed macro photography. In addition, the smooth styling of the site was based on a new version of his CMS; which more recently took over the homepage of his own site and the Good Smile Japanese homepage.

eng.goodsmile.info - Good Smile Co. English homepage.
goodsmile.info - Good Smile Co. Japanese homepage.
Read Danny Choo’s indepth introduction and walk-through.

Recently there has been a lot of fancy Kyoto Animation and Shaft filling my schedule. Not just new, some re-watching here as well. With clever genre bending humor and clever lines, I’ve tossed things like Strike Witches to the side til I finish a few things. Maybe this is putting my bar too high, I almost miss my cheesy stories that you have might have to cringe a few times to get through. The kind like, I know the engines would interfere with their pants, but then why are the school kids pant-less? Oh well. This show really brings me back to the high spirited shows that I grew up with. Opening animations with a decent song that seemed to be matched with random clips of battles and coffee breaks. But that’s part of what I like about it.
However, it doesn’t stop there. (But don’t read on if you don’t want to be minorly spoiled. This is just the first episode so it won’t hurt, I promise.) First, a watermelon kart with a lawn-mower motor that can barely manage 5mph can’t stop. The brakes manage to lock up the wheels and it spins off down a hill and flips. Then a girl is injured with some sort of wound and in order to heal it her shirt must be ripped out of the way but leaving the swimsuit over it is fine. But that is okay, otherwise it would be NSFW. However, like me, I’m sure in the end the you will overlook these things. Subtle cues and humor in places clearly demonstrate that the writers were distracted. Perhaps by all the service that the budget was spent on.
If you haven’t caught on by now. Strike Witches, from what I can gather from episode 1, is about a group of young girls in a fighter unit. It takes place during an alternate reality World War II. They fly around with magical engines attached to their legs, which must be why they can’t wear any pants. The show features many different weapons, ships, and etc. from the era. And it can be a bit entertaining how different countrymen are portrayed. Oh yeah, among all that they’re all allied in a war against space aliens or something

Anime USA is back for its second year at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City. It looks like the convention still has a few growing pains but for most issues were unnoticed. The Hyatt provides some big shoes to fill, previously hosting Otakon and Katsucon. Although, AUSA won’t be alone next year as Kastucon is making a return after stumbling around in D.C.

If you’re new to AnimeUSA, this was a great venue and there were no major problems. A few delays and a bit of traffic at cons these days are to be expected. Elevator access can get slow at certain times of the day and stair access is a little tricky, but its an improvement over the Sheraton Premiere. Sadly, parking isn’t free like the Sheraton, but it is more abundant. In addition, public transportation and nearby food is a lot better. Where else can you get a dunkin doughnuts, kebab place, two diners, McDonalds, Chilis, Legal Seafood, and overrated Japanese sushi and steak place all in the same square mile? If that doesn’t fit the bill, take the hotels free shuttle (which runs every 15 minutes) to the metro stop and ride to your choice of greater DC’s offerings.

Aside from the increased space of the new hotel, attendance seemed down. From the cosplay to the variety of panels it was noticable. Maybe it’s the economy? Or it could just be the weekend was bumped up over a month to October. For the past three years AUSA has had a good run with booking the weekend before Thanksgiving. Maybe this year they wanted to try something new. The variety of cosplayers didn’t take a hit and if you’re a gamer this only meant more access in the gamers room.  On the other hand, a bonus from October provided excellent weather. Cosplayers could be seen in all hours of daylight out on the EPA’s lawn and on the Hyatt 2nd level balcony doing photoshoots.

I only have one critism. Why choose to continue an ignorant policy when it becomes detremental to your other policies? The con chose to check badges at the top of the escalator going down to many of the events. However, all of these events have badge checking as well. The only thing this may of inhibited was artist alley access. And only for a few minutes until you managed to get on an elevator or take the stairs. So maybe this is redundant, and you say, a lot of things they do are redundant… Well, this is a high traffic area that backs up when someone is missing their badge. It tends to conflict with the staff who yell at the people crowding the area.

Anyway, enough with the general pitch. Here are the photos.

I’m not much of an amateur photographer. I have a Sony DSC-F828 for some reason and a Canon Powershot A400. When I need something high quality, I borrow a Nikon D200 from a friend. Though, the camera I use most is my 2 megapixel HTC TyTN 100, also known as the AT&T 8525. The 8525 is slow to unresponsive at times, and the images are legible at best. But can the G10 replace my beloved versatile 8525? (more…)

Lucky Star fans got a 40 minute treat last Friday in Japan. The OVA made its way onto the streets and delivered more of the same random humor that the series is well known for. It’s safe to say, if you enjoyed the series then you’ll enjoy this.

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I figured it was about time I jumped on this blog train. I’ve written for others and written on old decrepit HTML4 web sites. Now I’ll write to fill a void in my day. You know the moment right after you’ve opened that golden cardboard box from the postman and you want to tell the world. And if you’re here, well then, that means I’ve done my job. Or it sucks to be you. Either way, make yourself at home.