Darylsurat

Prepare to go game crazy as Crunchyroll announces the Sega-console inspired anime series Hi-sCool! Seha Girls as part of the fall season of streaming anime. 

Hi-sCool! Seha Girls is set to broadcast every Wednesday starting on October 8th, at 7:00 AM Pacific Time, and free members able to watch one week later. More information can be found on www.crunchyroll.com/seha-girls.

Background and story

As one of the comprehensive project conducted by Sega such as the light novel series by Toru Shiwasu and original character designed by KEI (original designer of Hatsune Miku), Hi-sCool! Seha Girls, directed by Sota Sugahara (“gdgd Fairies”), revolves around the Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, and Mega Drive reimagined as girls who have just enrolled in SeHaGaga Academy at Tokyo’s Haneda Ōtorii station. They are given an assignment needed to graduate by a suspicious teacher. To clear this requirement, the girls must enter the world of Sega games to graduate without incident.

Hi-sCool! Seha Girls will be available to Crunchyroll’s audience in USA, Canada, South Africa, Latin America and South America.

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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News and editor of Otaku USA magazine. He is also the author of the Paranoia Girls webcomic.

People on Tumblr ask me questions, I give them answers. It’s a good system.

letao said: got any solid anime recs that’re on streaming services? i’m falling back into it. so far (in the past 2.5 weeks) i’ve watched Ouran (4 times), Psycho Pass, the first two episodes of GitS: Arise, and Kill la Kill, for some context

I saw the first two eps of Arise, too, and I’m…super skeptical about the third! I haven’t tried Ouran but I have friends who swear by it. Psycho Pass and KLK are dope. I keep meaning to rewatch Psycho Pass now that there’s a new (extended?) series or whatever new in the franchise.

But yeah, let’s do this. These are probably pretty flippant but I enjoyed the time I spent with all of these:

Ga-Rei Zero: I just saw that this is not only dubbed, but streaming on Hulu now. I watched it on Netflix a couple years ago and liked it a lot. The first ep is pret-ty dang good, and the story that follows is pretty good, too. It’s about two girls who grow up like sisters in a family of exorcists. The sword-wielding, “spirit beast”-summoning kind of exorcists, not the Power of Christ Compels You kind. This one’s melancholy overall, I think. I might rewatch it now that it’s dubbed. (update: I watched the first two eps while writing this, I still like it)

Knights of Sidonia: The manga is better, but the anime is cool. A young guy returns to civilization after being raised by his grandfather on their own, like Goku. Only civilization is a floating space ark a long ways into the future and monsters called the Gauna are trying to eradicate human life. Luckily, the space ark has a fleet of Real Robot mecha…and this guy computer-trained on an older version so he’s super dope! And so on, but a weird mix of creepy, funny, half-hearted fan service-y, and violent. The manga’s up to volume 11, the show ends considerably earlier.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer: This show is seriously stupid but also pretty funny, like the cartoon equivalent of comfort food? It’s not challenging in the least. The title kind of explains the entire show. There’s the devil, in the video game sense, and he works a part-time job.

Blood Lad: This is about a prince of hell who is an otaku on the low. A living girl comes to hell, accidentally gets killed, and he brings her back to life as a ghost while working to bring her back to life-life. It’s funny and the fan-service is so weirdly inert that it doesn’t register as real service. But the character designs are cool, like if Jamie Hewlett designed characters who wear polos.

Tokyo Ghoul: Ghouls are vampire-zombies, but they’re not so monstrous they can’t like…run a swank coffee shop slash hideout for ghouls and wear butler outfits in-between eviscerating their foes. This one’s pretty grim and ugly, like if Madoka Magica got to the turn earlier and leaned way into it. A lot of scenes are censored due to gore, including my new favorite way to censor things, which is to turn the image negative while still showing multiple impalements. This makes me sound horrible, this makes the show sound evil, but it’s honestly entertaining like Gantz, but with more to say than “Like…boobs…y’know…?”

Future Diary: I think hate-watching or watching so-bad-it’s-good is a crap move. Life is short and I got things to do. But I gotta say, I hated this show and loved every minute I spent watching it. It is vicious and gruesome and it goes a lot of places that I feel like were incredibly bad storytelling choices. But there are also bonkers plot twists, clever violence, and cool ideas. It’s a survival game show—the hero gets a cell phone that tells him what’s going on around him, his stalker gets a phone that tells her exactly what he’s doing, someone else gets a phone that helps him do murders, others get phones that reflect their true love, etc. If you kill everybody else with these special x-men phones, you get to be Deus next but whoops ha ha somebody is sabotaging the game and things aren’t going as expected, I wonder why??? Also there’s a Home Alone episode only the toddler is the villain and the main character is the least palatable since the worst stereotype of Shinji Ikari you can think of. I cussed out my TV at great length probably a dozen times over the course of the series. This show is infuriatingly entertaining, like an exploitation movie written by a bunch of unforgivable marks and busters and filmed by someone pretty good. Honestly, though, by the end of it I was more exasperated than entertained and just wanted to see how poorly everything went. They didn’t even go a third as far as a bunch of people surrounding Shinji Ikari and clapping like a TRUE HERO would have. All killer, some filler here. Personally, it caught me with the cross counter.

Golgo 13: Don’t stand behind him.

Nobunagun: I like that Nobunaga, only (weird adjective) is a genre now. In this one, Nobunaga’s legendary soul or whatever has been reincarnated into this young girl, who then goes off and basically joins The League of Extraordinary Super Sentai Gentlemen, including Bishonen Jack the Ripper (who has a RIDICULOUS origin story, the most PREPOSTEROUS thing anyone has ever said about Jack the Ripper, I love it), Playboy Gandhi (he has a barrier ability), Professor Charles Xavier Robert Capa, Errand Boy Gaudi, :3 Galileo :3 Galilei :3, and New God Barbara Gordon Francois Vidocq. I was pretty into this show when it was new. It’s goofy and stupid but willing to be exactly what it says on the box, but not in a way that’s like “turn off your brain ha ha that will make it better.” It’s just a straight-up “Yo, here are historical figures with science powers versus aliens.” The first ep does a cool thing where all the black shadows (I believe) were replaced with this kind of glowing, moving floral print. It was immediately visually striking, and the rest of the show has a tone I dig a whole lot. It’s gleeful.

Beyond the Boundary: For some reason “half-monster dudes and the violent ladies who love them” is a genre, too, and I think this is the best I saw in that lane. The girl kinda sucks at first, but her power is controlling blood as a weapon, so that’s already interesting to me. it goes a lot of interesting places and is pretty nice to look at, too. All the episode titles are colors—I liked that.

Samurai Flamenco: It’s like Kick-Ass, only about a model who decides to become Kamen Rider and not mean or anything. Then they added a little of Sailor Moon with some Go Nagai attitude to back him up down the line, and then it turned into full-on Power Rangers, and then…look, it’s Kick-Ass, only it keeps doubling down on its earnestness and dedication to and respect for all the different types of tights & fights entertainment until it lands on a rousing ending. It’s superhero as heck, is what I’m saying here, but it is also a love letter to and critique of the genre. Dudes get kicked in the dick by the lead singer of a trio of superheroes who make cash as a girl group, the hero rides around on a bike with a helmet that matches his uniform, many speeches about the necessity of heroism are made.

Gargantia on the Verduous Planet: A guy who pilots a mech crash lands on a ship (think Waterworld)…and the army he belongs to is nowhere to be found in the solar system. So he just like…chills? This show is incredibly well-animated for what it is. If Hajime no Ippo looked like this I would die. This show had the nerve to have either two or three beach episodes in a row—either way, there was a lot of cavorting and bbqing toward the middle bits, way more than most other series dare. It’s charming, has nice designs, and is pretty fun. I like A Boy and His Robot stories. This one’s pretty fan-servicey though.

Straight Title Robot Anime: Three robot girls post-Skynet, post-Judgment Day, post-extinction try to figure out humor! The entire show is explaining jokes using crude computer graphics, but the writing is so unbelievably good. “Here’s how a pun works” sounds dumb as heck but the way they choose to do it is A+, and then there are Super Robot jokes alongside. The running gags are second-to-one.

gdgd Fairies: I don’t know how to recommend this show without hyperbole, but it’s the one STRA is second to. If Eric Andre did an anime, and that anime was so ugly it was aesthetically pleasing because it looks like 1998 and that was a good year, and it starred three voice actresses who mostly stayed in character, and those three actresses had a whole segment where they have to make up dialogue for brief video clips…they might as well have stopped making anime after this, and probably outlawed jokes, too. Nothing will be as gdgd. Here are some clips I reblogged a while back.

DD Fist of the North Star: The Devil Is A Part-Timer for FotNS fans, only Ken is the part-timer, Jagi lives in a box, Ryuken owns the convenience store, and Yuria is a cardboard cut-out. It is almost exactly as funny as gdgd Fairies, but probably not funny at all if you’re square and don’t like Fist of the North Star. (You’re already dead inside.)

The Eccentric Family: This one is a heart-warming tale of a family of cute Japanese monsters who exist in a community of cute Japanese monsters and the sort of trials and travails they go through. It is very warm and melancholy on occasion. Totally worth the time.

Champion Joe 2: It’s a boxing anime with a hero who accidentally killed his main squeeze’s brother in the ring in the prior series and talks a lot of long walks in dramatic rain in between knocking fools out accordingly. This was made for me.

Aldnoah Zero: I kept expecting this to be Encyclopedia Brown Pilots A Robot, but it continually defied my expectations. Mars has tense relations with Earth (Martians are just regular humans only they have the feudal system??) and then things erupt into war. Luckily, there’s a whip-smart kid on the ground who gets swept up into things through sheer chance. There’s a whole lot more going on and this ended up being a very interesting and tight show. It ended recently; I loved it.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun: A high school girl confesses her love to her crush. He takes her back to his apartment, they settle in, and she begins helping him ink his manga. He writes a very popular girls’ comic, you see, and she confessed her love by saying she’s “a fan.” These things happen, and more things like this keep happening, thanks to a freakish and wonderful cast of characters. This show is basically that manga subplot from Nichijou (the only thing that’s as gdgd as gdgd) only with less violence. It’s real funny.

From the New World: Tomorrow, a bunch of kids go full Akira and telekinesis is outlawed. In the far future, there’s a village in a pseudo-feudal future Japan where children learn to control their powers. It’s basically full-on fantasy, but surprisingly down and kinda…1984 about some things. The world-building is good, the revelations are horrifying, and this is a good “serious” anime. It’s not very flashy, but it’s good. I like the opening theme.

Kyousougiga: Probably the best-looking thing I’ve seen in a long while. It reminds me of The Eccentric Family, I think because they both share the same family thing at the center of it, but this is like…if Cowboy Bebop became a genre unto itself, then this is what happens when FLCL is a genre, and someone does a story about belonging and feelings on a Michael Bay budget, definitely fool cool, but not fully fooly cooly. So much fun, too. I’d recommend this to anybody but it can get saccharine. Swear all I like are cusswords and violence cartoons and heart-warming friendship smiley face stuff.

It’s not on streaming any more but I would pay tens of dollars for a boxed set of Nichijou/My Ordinary Life. I remember when anime was new and mind-blowingly realistic compared to American stuff, and Nichijou somehow manages to evoke that feeling and tell some unbelievably good jokes. I think it went off streaming this month or last.

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"Who killed Laura Palmer?"

One of the best TV shows in the past twenty five years is returning to our screens as Showtime announced that the awesomeness called "Twin Peaks" is returning:

"Twin Peaks" is back! After rumors and teasing, Showtime announced that the cult classic will return in 2016 for nine new episodes. The network released a cryptic "special 'TWIN PEAKS' announcement" on YouTube to confirm the news. The airing of new "Twin Peaks" episodes will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the show's two-year run on ABC.

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Paranoia Girls launched a few weeks ago and we are three pages in. English and Japanese versions are available. All hail artist Yunico Uchiyama for making my psychedelic suburban surrealist daydreams a semi-reality. 

I fulfilled a freelance fantasy of mine and started writing for MTV81. My latest piece for them is on THE BLOCK PARADE's epic all night club event. Read here.

I guess I am featured on the extras for the Target Exclusive Blu-ray / DVD of GODZILA (2014). Keep in mind that I was interviewed *before* I saw the film...

We think about a world, hollowed out, surrounded by silent invisible super weapons in space. Billions of biological processes below hung on tiny first person perspectives to what end… can’t ever be shown; field of vision always too small. Draped and un-structured. The inability to execute much beyond consuming what is front of you; minefields of miscommunication, dominated by landscapes someone else made decades ago, went home to their own rabbit hutch night after night trying to pass the time without incident. Red missile outlines pouring down on us from assorted points on the compass, the defense shield lazily catching them in neon green geometric grids. Who’s to say they aren’t inside us now? I'm armor and evasion. You keep on launching more at me.

The hosts of Fox & Friends on Sunday expressed outraged that male comic book characters were being "wussified," and that an effort was being made not to "sexualize" female characters.

Last week, leaked photos from the studios of animator Genndy Tartakovsky showed what the updated CGI-animated Popeye would look like.

"Without the iconic anchor tattoo and the smoking pipe!" Fox News host Clayton Morris announced on Sunday. "Are they wussifying Popeye?"

"Of course, they're wussifying," co-host Tucker Carlson agreed. "Nothing is scarier to a modern liberal than tobacco. If Popeye were driving around giving the morning after [birth control] pill to fourth graders, that would be totally fine."

"But smoking a pipe, a symbol of freedom and masculinity in America itself, the reason this country exists, tobacco, that's like, 'Oh, that's outrageous. That's a major sin.'"

Co-host Anna Kooiman pointed out that Popeye's original purpose was to teach children to eat healthy foods like spinach, "and if you smoke, you might get lung cancer."

"No child has ever smoked a pipe because of Popeye," Carlson grumbled, adding that he also found it "bewildering" that the comic book character Thor had been depicted as a woman.

"That's the new bustier Thor because Thor is now a chick," he complained.

Morris was angry that Wonder Woman was wearing a "pantsuit" instead of "short-shorts."

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A Media Matters analysis found that PBS NewsHour has far outpaced other broadcast network news programs in covering the consequences of the Supreme Court's dismantling of campaign finance reform. In the past year and a half, PBS thoroughly analyzed the effects of Citizens United and its sequel -- McCutcheon v. FEC -- dedicating more time to the issue than all the other networks combined.

In The Past Year And A Half, The Supreme Court Accepted And Decided "The Next Citizens United" And Republicans Filibustered Campaign Finance Reform

Reuters: "A Constitutional Amendment To Take Big Money Out Of Politics Dies Quietly." Last week, the Senate considered a constitutional amendment that would have reinstated Congress' ability to regulate out-of-control political spending, previous legislative authority that was restricted by the conservative justices in the Supreme Court's rulings in Citizens United and McCutcheon. James Gaines of Reuters noted that the amendment "was not much covered in the media," even though the vast majority of Americans, from across the political spectrum, support campaign finance reform:

This week the U.S. Senate considered a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress and state legislatures to limit the power of money in politics. The debate was not much covered in the media because the outcome was so predictable. But the party-line vote that killed it should not go unnoted.

A remarkable majority of the American public -- 79 percent according to Gallup -- want campaign finance reform. The right and left, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, even Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly agree that, left unchecked, Big Money corrupts politics and undermines democracy.

That was one of the few things Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton agreed on, and both the American and French Revolutions were fought in part to get the financial power and privilege of aristocracy out of governance.

[...]

The core principles that the court affirmed in Citizens United and McCutcheon are that corporations are people, with the same right to influence politics as voters, and that you can't place arbitrary limits on political donations because money is speech.

Well, yes, money talks. But we regulate speech all the time -- in debate on the floor of Congress, for example, and when lawyers argue before the Supreme Court. As former Justice John Paul Stevens argues in his recent book Six Amendments, we do that especially when "there is an interest in giving adversaries an equal opportunity to persuade a decision maker to reach one conclusion rather than another." Like a voter trying to decide between two candidates. Remember the equal-time rule and the Fairness Doctrine? We've worked on these problems before.

Corporations are "legal persons," to be sure, but they are "people" who do not die and cannot vote, who have liability protection as well as civil rights, who can live in many countries simultaneously and whose duty is -- and must be -- not to democracy or the common welfare but to maximizing profits and shareholder return. [Reuters, 9/12/14]

Campaign Finance Reform Was Largely Ignored By Evening News Broadcasts And Sunday Shows -- Except PBS NewsHour

Most Evening News Broadcasts And Sunday Shows Have Dedicated Little Substantive Time To Campaign Finance Reform. The fact that the proposed Citizens United amendment "was not much covered" is part of a larger pattern in which the networks have largely underreported the rolling back of campaign finance reform and the unprecedented influx of billions of dollars into the federal election system. Since February 2013, when the Supreme Court accepted McCutcheon for review, NBC's Nightly News and Meet the Press covered campaign finance for a total of 17 minutes and 36 seconds over five segments, CBS' Evening News and Face the Nation combined for 17 minutes and 32 seconds of total coverage over seven segments, and ABC's World News Tonight and This Week covered the subject for a total of 12 minutes and 33 seconds over six segments.

Meanwhile, PBS NewsHour broadcast 16 segments on campaign finance reform, big money in politics, and the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, for a total of almost one hour and 14 minutes of coverage -- more than all the other networks combined. Although PBS NewsHour is twice as long as the other network evening news programs, it still had more than four times as much coverage as the outlet with the second-most coverage. Even including the networks' longer Sunday offerings, all of their shows combined still covered campaign finance reform far less than PBS NewsHour did during the same period.

For more on Citizens United, McCutcheon, and campaign finance reform, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Methodology

This report analyzes coverage of campaign finance reform on Sunday morning talk shows (ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and NBC's Meet the Press) and four nightly news programs (ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, NBC's Nightly News, and PBS NewsHour). Our analysis includes any segment that mentioned the campaign finance reform aspects of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC or McCutcheon v. FEC ("Citizens United" and "McCutcheon") between February 19, 2013, and September 15, 2014, a time period that reflects when the justices decided to hear McCutcheon through the present week. Phrases such as "campaign finance" and "campaign finance reform" were included in the search in the event a broadcast did not refer to these cases specifically.

Transcripts from Nexis as well as Media Matters' internal video archives were used to analyze these segments.

Continuing to share her love of music and bacon wrapped hotdogs with America, Hatsune Miku has been booked to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman October 8th. This televised performance will showcase the projection technology seen in the Vocaloid's upcoming concerts in LA and New York.

The schedule for those includes:

-HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2014 in Los Angeles & New York-
[Los Angeles]
3D Live Concerts @NOKIA Theatre: Oct. 11th&12th
"Hatsune Miku Halloween Party"@ Los Angeles Center Studios: Oct. 11th&12th
Website: http://mikuexpo.com/la

[New York]
New York @Hammerstein Ballroom: Oct. 17th&18th
Hatsune Miku Art Exhibition “Universal Positivity”@ Wallplay Oct 9th-19th
Website: http://mikuexpo.com/ny 

via @mikuexpo

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Walking to Asakusa through deserted cityscape. Stores are shuttered. Very few people streaking by on bicycle or scattering to conbini safety. It’s a holiday and the sky is heavy and grey. Time wave zero vibrations flowing out from the subways, water rushing through dark and secret passages under heavy steel manhole covers. Ghosts we can’t see in the street. Going in the wrong direction so I get a cab. Figuring Sensoji and Kaminarimon will be the last places effected by the flow, I tell Archery Bow Child to meet me at the Nakamise gate. For once we both arrive at the same time. Impermanence holding fast here in the form of fading Kodak film booth, eroding instant cameras from decades past. American Godzilla toys stacked up in the old omochaya. Corrugated gates coming down. It’s a holiday after all. We make for Rokku-za to see what happened to the movie theaters: the Toho and the Meigaza only to find construction sites. Cops and drunks still clinging to their old ways, but the parachute ride at Hanayashiki looks like a building crane now. A glittering celestial Don Quijote dominates the block now, all lights and new car smell like something out of a Las Vegas afterlife. Archery Bow Child consults her clackbox to see what the street used to look like 100 years ago, but there are no matches, no hits, and everything comes back completely and totally blank. We were just projecting it ourselves the whole time.

Pay no attention to the fact that it’s September 14! Here’s the completely punctual and not-at-all-delayed August episode of GME! Anime Fun Time. In this episode, Tom and I join forces with Gerald Rathkolb of Anime World Order to talk about ancient, out-of-print, unloved science fiction cartoons. CLICK HERE or on the Laser disc cover above to download our discussion of Crusher Joe in both its movie and OAV forms.

Final Thought:

Yes, this was the first animated appearance of the Dirty Pair.

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From the September 11 edition of Fox News' The Five:

Previously: 

Fox's Bob Beckel On ABC's The Bachelorette Star: "She's A Slut"

"I Can't See Her Legs!": Roger Ailes' Rampant Sexism Pants Were Not Allowed On Fox & Friends 

Fox's Kilmeade On How Fox Hires Female Hosts: "We Go Into The Victoria's Secret Catalogue And We Said, 'Can Any Of These People Talk?'"

Past games based on George Morikawa's boxing manga Hajime no Ippo have varied in quality, and it's time for another to take a crack at replicating the series' intense body blows and screen-shaking hooks. Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting is next in the ring, with its boxing action set to hit PlayStation 3 in Japan on December 11. 

Revealed in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting aims to recreate some of the series' most famous scenes, and will be priced at ¥8,280 ($78). 

Via Gematsu

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Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

Several media outlets ignored the opening of the country's largest advanced biofuel plant -- which produces a fuel with a far lesser climate impact than gasoline that can help reduce our dependence on oil -- even though they previously claimed that such a biofuel "does not exist."

The New York Times brazenly claimed in 2012 that cellulosic ethanol, a type of fuel made from agricultural waste such as corn stalks, "does not exist" -- and many other news outlets also adopted this misleading framing. Industry journal Platts published a blog titled: "Puzzling over the US mandate for a fuel that doesn't exist yet," later clarifying that the fuel simply did not exist "in the US at commercial volumes" at the time. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that "Congress subsidized a product that didn't exist" and "is punishing oil companies for not buying the product that doesn't exist." FoxNews.com called the fuel "merely hypothetical." National Review Online contributing editor Deroy Murdock stated "EPA might as well mandate that Exxon hire leprechauns."

However, since a new facility started producing cellulosic ethanol on a commercial-scale on September 3, these outlets have remained silent.* Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels opened the biggest cellulosic ethanol facility in the country for production, which will "convert 570 million pounds of crop waste into 25 million gallons of ethanol each year." The Iowa facility is being heralded as "a major step in the shift from the fossil fuel age to a biofuels revolution."

Cellulosic ethanol and other "advanced biofuels" are included in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires oil companies to mix fuel made renewable sources into their product. This standard was part of a bill that passed during the Bush Administration with bipartisan support -- a fact that several right-wing news outlets failed to mention in their coverage.

A lifecycle analysis from Argonne National Laboratory estimated that the type of fuel produced at the new Poet-DSM facility emits up to 96 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gasoline. The Poet-DSM facility is the first of three cellulosic ethanol plants scheduled to start production this year, which will together produce an estimated 17 million gallons per year. Jeremy Martin, an expert from the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the plant opening "an important milestone on the road to clean transportation." Martin added: "With efficient vehicles and clean fuels like cellulosic biofuel we can cut our projected oil use in half in 20 years."

*Based on a search of publicly available content from September 1 - September 7.

Photo at top of cellulosic biofuel crop from Flickr user KBS with a Creative Commons license.

The October issue of Japanese print, books and manga focused magazine Da Vinci, on sale today, features a giant 45 page Attack on Titan feature, interviewing author Hajime Isayama, examining the series, and presenting a series of tribute  illustrations from other manga notables.

本日発売のダ・ヴィンチです。進撃の巨人を大々的に特集してくださっています。かつてないボリュームと企画です。魅力的な作家さん達が進撃キャラを描いてくださったり、諫山さんの地元に突撃したり！ pic.twitter.com/uPAm1zBiTn

— 「進撃の巨人」担当者バック (@ShingekiKyojin) September 4, 2014

Oh! great (Tenjo Tenge, Air Gear)

Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal)

Hiroki Endo (Eden: It's An Endless World)

Kiyohiko Azuma (Azumanga Daioh, Yotsuba&!)

Kenichi Tachibana (Terra Formars)

Rensuke Oshikiri (High School Girl)

suguitak

Tomoya Haruna (D-Frag)

Japanese site Charapedia has published the results of their 10,000 user poll in which readers were asked to name the most promising anime series of fall 2014. Given the amount of returning favorites, newcomers had an uphill battle against series that had already set expectations.

The male to female split among respondents was about as close to 50/50 as you're going to see. 81.9% were in their teens or 20s.

The top 20 include:

20. Le Fruit de la Grisaia - 306 votes

19. Chaika - The Coffin Princess - Avenging Battle - 414 votes

18. Amagi Brilliant Park - 438 votes

17. Orenchi no Furo Jijō ("The Circumstances in My Home's Bathtub") - 449 votes

16. Gundam Build Fighters Try - 462 votes

15. Magic Kaito 1412 - 464 votes

14. Gugure! Kokkuri-san - 501 votes

13. Mushishi Zoku Shou part 2 - 505 votes

12. Parasyte - 600 votes

11. Gundam Reconguista in G - 603 votes

10. World Trigger - 648 votes

9. Selector spread WIXOSS - 653 votes

8. Terra Formars - 719 votes

7. Ōkami Shōjo to Kuro Ōji (Wolf Girl & Black Prince) - 764 votes

6. Log Horizon second season - 929 votes

5. Girlfriend (Beta)  - 933

4. The Seven Deadly Sins - 971 votes

3. Yowapeda: Grand Road - 1,277votes

2. Fate/stay night - 1,583 votes

1. Psycho-Pass 2 - 2,015 votes

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

PROLOGUE

Over eleven years ago I started sharing my thoughts on the Internet for fellow geeks to read.  Fan conventions, food, and frivolity were the primary topics of my online ramblings and after years of typing and hundreds of posts, I developed a pretty healthy following thanks to my pop culture relationships and Wasabi Anime appearances.

Last year I was graciously granted a Press Pass from Dragon Con to cover their convention.  I was excited at the prospect of approaching the show from a blogger’s viewpoint.  Normally I’m attending as a fan, a promoter, or a performer.  But a “reporter?”  CRAZY, MAN. CRAZY.

Upon getting back from Atlanta after Labor Day 2013, I started gathering my notes to pen the post.  My schedule had me in the midst of a bunch of back to back show commitments: PinUpalooza, Anime Weekend Atlanta, and then WasabiCon the first weekend of November.  WasabiCon ended the season for my year, so I started putting together a detailed retelling of the whirlwind weekend of Dragon Con 2013 to publish later that month.

Then, abruptly, it all came to a screeching halt.

In mid-November, my father took his own life.

I’ve been insanely busy since then.  In fact, these past six weeks alone have been the busiest in my history of involvement in fan conventions.  Here we are, though.  A year later, and I’ve decided to have a go at this again.  After all, I owe Dragon Con at least that much.

So buckle up, geeks.  Here’s my play by play of Dragon Con 2014.

WEDNESDAY (DAY -1) at 11:21 PM

I just finished packing.  We’re hitting the road in about five hours to drive to Atlanta by way of Orlando to pick up two friends, Russ and Kate, along the way.  I’ve packed all the important things, ESPECIALLY this:

That’s an original 1984 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension movie poster.  Rolled, not folded.  Sure, Peter Weller was in some “Robocop” flick, but HELLO? BUCKAROO BANZAI!

As with all Dragon Cons I have attended, save one over five years ago, I planned on road tripping it from South Florida to Atlanta.  Believe it or not, there’s some actual math behind this decision.  Let’s look at the numbers:

DRIVING (8 Hours)

• Vero Beach, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia is about 7.5 hours.  If you add another hour for stops and food, you can safely round that up to eight hours.

FLYING (6.25 hours)

• Drive from Vero Beach to MCO is 1.5 hours.
• We get to the airport at least 2 hours before each flight, so add that into time spent.
• Flight from MCO to ATL?  Another 1.5 hours.
• Once you land, throw in an extra 45 minutes to deplane and find checked luggage because, for Dragon Con, you’re checking luggage!
• Cab ride (or MARTA) to the hotel?  At least another 30 minutes.

The difference is about two hours of my life each way.  These two hours, though, allow me to have local transportation in Atlanta (if needed) and the annual chance to Think Tifton! while driving up I-75.

THURSDAY (DAY 0) at 10:35 AM

My wife and I have been on the road since 5 AM.  We stopped in Orlando and picked up our friends Russ and Kate who are also attending the convention and needed a lift.  While sitting in the passenger seat, I have been messing around with the Dragon Con 2014 app and putting in panels and events I want to see.  I have eight people who have added me using friend codes and most have shared their schedules with me.  Pretty snazzy.

I am not thinking about Tifton yet.

THURSDAY (DAY 0) at 11:48 AM

Just thought about Tifton.

THURSDAY (DAY 0) at 4:34 PM

Just finished unpacking into our room at the Sheraton Atlanta.  This makes the 4th Dragon Con hotel we’ve stayed in.  Past hotels: The Marriott Marquis, The Westin, and the Hilton.  This one (the Sheraton) was BY FAR the easiest to get in and out as far as checking in is concerned.  Now, traffic is still a nightmare on par with downtown Los Angeles during summer rush hour – but once we got INTO the hotel, the experience was top notch.

From here we are taking a small walk to the Marriott to snag our passes.

THURSDAY (DAY 0) at 10:42 PM

Just got back to my hotel after a bombardment of geek culture.

After I left our room at 4:30, we got our badges from VIP pick up and proceeded to meet up with one of the Talent For Cons guests, Bill Farmer, in the lobby.  Dragon Con is like your favorite pair of jeans that you’ve worn forever but left in the back of the closet.  You might forget about them for a while, but when you slip them on they just seem to fit.  Walking around the Marriott is when the comfort and familiarity sets in:

• I passed a guy who called me out and wanted to say hi since he recognized me as “Tom from Florida Anime Experience”.
• Soon after, I ran into a fellow Dragon Con regular, Mark.
• After that?  I bumped into a fellow con promotor from CONjure.
• Shortly after that, my friend Marc from Anime Expo showed up in the lobby.
• While talking to Marc, we ran into another friend, Rosalind Friday, in the lobby.
• Then we ran into another old friend and Dragon Con regular, Kristian.
• I bumped into Richie from my own hometown.
• We even ran into our friend Myna in the midst of the craziness.

I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting a couple of other “ran intos” – but you get the idea.  All of those bullet points happened in less than forty-five minutes.  Dragon Con is the Cheers of conventions: everybody knows your name.

After snagging a quick bite in the cafeteria and getting a couple of Guests situated for Talent For Cons, we walked back to our hotel room to get a few hours of precious sleep before tomorrow’s insanity begins.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at  7:41 AM

I’ve been up for almost half an hour listening to Shannon get dressed for the Dragon Con Fun Run this morning.  Yes, she’s dressed as Olaf.

I have to be down at the Marriott to make sure an 8:40 AM interview happens.  Before that, MAYBE Starbucks (line pending).

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at  8:50 AM

Starbucks?  HELL NO.  That line is inhuman.

Instead, I got to watch Bill Farmer (@GoofyBill) film his Dragon Con TV Interview.  I’m heading back to the Sheraton and then snagging a quick breakfast from there.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 12:34 PM

After helping a couple of actors get to their panels, Shannon and I directed ourselves over to the Marriott to drop off banners and photos for the Talent For Cons Guests that were setting up in the Walk of Fame.  With time to spare, we started to wander around outside to check out the usual array of amazing costumes as they were starting to show up.

Around the Marriott elevators by the Walk of Fame was a sea of Steampunk and Goth.  I’m not sure how popular these musical acts are outside in the “real world” – but they’re bona fide rock stars here at the convention.  The Crüxshadows were near their usual spot with a presentation of video, lights, and a gaggle of black t-shirts.  It’s a quirky fandom with an avid fan base, and bands like this help create Dragon Con’s identity as a unique fan experience.

Upstairs we ran to Jenne and her dance troupe, Noise Complaint.  It looked like they were setting up to perform guerrilla style since I didn’t seem them on the schedule.  If so, attendees were in for one hell of a cosplay dancing explosion of awesome.

This stroll around the Marriott kind of captured the vibe of how much of a mesh Dragon Con can be: artistic goth cosplay music dancing steampunk fans and stuff.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at  2:25 PM

Just ran into Cary Elwes in an elevator on my way back from a photo op.  I told him I loved him in the TV show Psych.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at  3:44 PM

Was just handed a free Red Bull while walking back to my hotel by a woman wearing a refrigerated backpack.  Seemed legit.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 4:34 PM

While going from the Sheraton to the Marriott, I heard a woman behind me scoff at another woman who walked by us.

“I can’t stand grown women that wear bows in their hair.  It’s ridiculous.”

I looked back at the woman who made the comment.  She had striking dyed red hair, a pierced eyebrow, and a couple of tattoos.  Also, she was smoking.

“My wife wears bows in her hair,” I said to her, evenly and calmly.

“I don’t mean smaller ones,” she replied.  “I’m talking about adult women who wear those really big bows.”

I shrugged.

“Yup.  My wife wears those, too,” I retorted.  “I think she looks awesome when she does.”  I just smiled at her.

The woman shut up at this point realizing she might have bit off more than she could chew.

Dragon Con is about celebrating diversity.  Running into the random cigarette smoking-pierced-tattooed chick who likes to judge others (because, you know, she’s in THE position to do so) is going to happen.  It’s an anomaly, though, and not 98% of the normal convention culture and experience.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 5:01 PM

My pal Marc and his fiancee Pam brought back some Fat Matt’s BBQ for a late lunch.  It lived up to the local reputation of food awesomeness.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 5:16 PM

Shannon got to meet (and take a photo with) Giancarlo Esposito – the actor who played Gus on one of her favorite series: Breaking Bad.

Note the look of excitement on my wife’s face at the prospect of having a knife to her neck.

For those “in the know” of the series, he was selling box cutters that he would sign.  A.  Mazing.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 8:42 PM

While leaving the lobby of the Sheraton, music was pumping loud to keep fans happy and excited.  The exact moment Shannon and I were leaving for dinner, though, THAT Journey song started playing.

Every Dragon Con attendee in the lobby started singing.  Loudly.  And off key.

I stopped believing at that exact moment.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 8:42 PM

Everything is awesome.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 10:36 PM

I passed a man standing on the street corner by the Sheraton.  He was singing “I Can Go the Distance” from Disney’s Hercules loud and proud.  No costume.  No cause.

He just wanted to sing.

And everyone was okay with it because: Dragon Con.

FRIDAY (DAY 1) at 11:22 PM

Cosplay Deviants hosts a great party each year for Dragon Con at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Was I there with some friends?  You betcha.

SATURDAY (DAY 2) at 1:32 AM

Voice actress Courtenay Taylor and I left the Cosplay Deviants party late at night and, on our way back to our hotel rooms, ran into the most amazing Sailor Moon cosplay group ever.

SATURDAY (DAY 2) at 10:08 AM

The Walk of Fame opened at 10:00 AM and I was already in line to meet Peter Weller.  As mentioned earlier, I was in possession of a very particular 1984 movie poster that I needed him to sign.

So I was there in line with a slew of other people and Mr. Weller was there ready to begin a day of autographing and shaking hands, but his assistant was nowhere to be found.  Ten minutes went by and he was on his phone and working with Dragon Con staff trying to find the person who was supposed to be there with him to collect money, etc.  Weller was getting visibly agitated while trying to get someone to answer calls from his cell and was pacing back and forth.  In the midst of this, though, he took note of a woman waiting in line on a cane across from his table.  Peter Weller stopped everything he was doing and walked over to her.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said.  She looked up at him in time to see that he had taken his seat from behind the table, lifted it over the line of tables, and placed it in front of her.  “Please sit down while we get this taken care of.”

Peter Weller gave his seat to a woman on a cane so she would be comfortable while he worked with convention staff to fix an issue.

Class Act.

Around 10:28 AM the issues got resolved and I got my movie poster signed.  I was a great experience and I can’t wait to frame the signature and hang is my very geeky living room.

SATURDAY (DAY 2) at 2:58 PM

My biggest pet peeve about conventions in Atlanta?  Smokers who walk with crowds on the sidewalk and smoke in the midst said crowds.  Seriously.  It’s hot as hell and I don’t want to inhale your second hand smoke.  Find a designated smoking area, please, and don’t think it’s “okay” to smoke in the middle of a bunch of children, fans, and folks in costumes.

So annoying.

SATURDAY (DAY 2) at 4:04 PM

I found my way to the Hyatt to attend a panel (about Weapons in Fiction?) that featured Mike Grell as a speaker.  Sometimes seeking folks out at Dragon Con for one reason can be a gateway to interesting entertainment entirely outside what you are looking for – and I thoroughly enjoyed the panel.  My favorite quote from it?

“Whatever weapon an alien is shooting at you was probably designed to hurt him.”

Never thought about that.  It’s pretty accurate and damned interesting.

I enjoyed the panel and, at the end, I approached Mr. Grell with my Green Arrow issue number one.  We spoke briefly and I shared how I had recently been introduced to his run of the comics and sincerely enjoyed them.

It was a very “Dragon Con” moment.

SATURDAY (DAY 2) at 10:25 PM

And now we come to the highlight of my Dragon Con weekend.  For years, we’ve always made reservations at Trader Vic’s at the Hilton to gather for a night of Mai Tais and inebriated conversations with friends.  Many of these Dragon Con dinners have resulted in some EPIC adventures.

SEE: The Edward James Olmos Battlestar Galactica Trader Vic’s @JoeySnackpants at @DragonCon 2011 story… http://www.tomcroom.com/archives/6766

2014 delivered.

I was there with fellow convention runner friends from Anime Expo and Momocon having fun and, you know, buying way too many drinks.  A couple of Mai Tais in, my friend Stuckey (sitting to my right) pointed out that someone was being seated at the table next to us.

That someone?  Terry F***ing Gilliam.

Mr. Gilliam stepped away to go to the bathroom and, on his way back, I leaned back to confirm.

“Mr. Gilliam?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied, looking directly at me.

I extended my hand.  “My name is Tom Croom and I just wanted to tell you that I’m a big fan of your work.”

Now, when you do this with a celebrity, you run a 50/50 chance of getting an “annoyed” response or the opposite.

Terry Gilliam provided the opposite and it was AWESOME.

“Thank you,” he said and took my hand to shake it.  Across from the table, my friend Marc already had his camera out.

“Would you mind taking a photo?” I asked.

“Sure!” he replied.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, apologizing for my obviousness in being a fan.  “Marc, hurry up!”

Terry put his hand on my shoulder and spoke up.  “No rush.  Don’t worry.”

The man was a class act.

I thanked him again, expressed how amazing his work was to me, and he went to his table.  You can see the giant smile on my face:

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 11:48 AM

I just had one of those surreal Dragon Con moments that defy explanation: there was a line to get in the men’s room in the Marriott.  A LINE TO GET IN THE MEN’S ROOM.

Damn.

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 3:00 PM

I swung by the Dragon Con store in the Marriott to pick up some convention swag.  I grabbed a mouse pad, a cute plush dragon, and a new Dragon Con hoodie.  I was told, as they took it off the hanger from the display, that i bought the LAST extra large 2014 hoodie.

SORRY OTHER XL WEARING DUDES.

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 3:36 PM

The Vendors Room for Dragon Con is in a building called the Americas Mart on Peachtree Street near where the Hard Rock Cafe is.  I decided to brave the Sunday crowd and check it out.  While walking through the hoards of people on the sidewalk near the entrance, a woman grabbed my attention.

“Excuse me,” she said.  “Are you going to the dealers room?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Would you mind helping me when we get there?”

I looked down and saw she was pushing an infant in a stroller.  “Sure.”

When we got there, I helped her carry the stroller up the stairs until she was able to easily get to the elevators.

“Thank you,” she said, obviously grateful.

“You’re welcome.  I have to tell you, though, that I’m a little disappointed that your baby isn’t cosplaying for Dragon Con,” I said looking at the cute infant in a red striped jumper.

“He is!” she replied, giggling.  “He’s dressed as Toby!”

I paused for a moment and then I realized her reference.  “Labyrinth!” I exclaimed.  “Well played!”  We shared a laugh and went our own ways to the dealers room.

I’ll spare you the complaints about the Dragon Con vendors area.  In short: great selection in a “flea market” environment.  Word has it that next year will have a new and improved location so I’m hoping for a better vibe when fans return in 2015.

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 4:11 PM

While walking around the vendors room, I got recognized by a WasabiCon 2013 staffer.  Dragon Con is such a small, small world.

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 5:29 PM

I carved out a little bit of time to walk over to the Hilton and check out all the LARP and fan tables.  I like the Hilton (Trader Vic’s!) and it’s got a great layout for people watching.

The bottom floor of the hotel is where the tabletop gaming takes place.  I never really think “gaming” with Dragon Con (since I’ve been to Gen Con for the past five years) – but DAMN.  That place was packed!  Folks were jammed together at tables playing a variety of games and everyone was having a great time.

It seems, though, that games of Werewolf had finally gotten out of hand:

SUNDAY (DAY 3) at 9:40 PM

After a busy day, Shannon and I grabbed a Lyft to The Vortex to get dinner.  I had been to the Little Five Points location a number of time, but this was our first visit to the downtown one.

It was a forty-five minute wait, but worth it for the beer and the INSANE burger I got.  It was something I hadn’t ordered since 2010: the Double Coronary Bypass Burger.  Here’s the post about my first confrontation with this burger beast back in the day: http://www.tomcroom.com/archives/514

We finished dinner, got back to the hotel, and then passed out for the night.  We were going to need a solid eight hours of rest since we were driving back to Florida the next day.

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 10:38 AM

This is the slowest day of Dragon Con, but for the first part of it things are still pretty hectic.  While hanging out in the Walk of Fame, I had the pleasure of running into Timothy Zahn.  I remind him each time we meet of something I think he already knows: he wrote the three best Star Wars books.

I then reminded him of our strange first connection which had NOTHING to do with fan conventions.  In 1996, he was visiting Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida when he walked into the Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time gift shop.  He started talking with the woman working behind the counter about the collection of unique pens the shop was selling,

The young woman, Carrie, was my girlfriend at the time.

Timothy Zahn explained to her that he collected pens because he was a writer.

“What have you written?” she asked.

“Well, I write science fiction and fantasy.  I also wrote a trilogy of Star Wars books.”

The name finally clicked and she recognized his him.  “I haven’t read those,” she said, “but my boyfriend has.  He said you wrote the only good Star Wars books outside the trilogy.”

Zahn reached into his bag and took out three small rectangular decals.  “What your boyfriend’s name?” he asked.  She told him and he wrote on each decal.

For Tom – Best Wishes, Timothy Zahn.

She brought them home and I put them in my books which I still have to this day:

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 11:13 AM

Joe Flanigan‘s handler apparently disappeared from the Walk of Fame and the Dragon Con Guest Relations team came over to let me know and see if there was anything my team could do to help.  I decided to send over some crazy Stargate fangirl to help him handle his autograph sales.  That fangirl?  My wife who not only has SG-1 uniform, but also an Atlantis one – both having been cosplayed at previous Dragon Cons.

(Nerd.)

I watched over the Talent for Cons actors and for the next hour Shannon helped Joe get through the rest of his morning.  They even took a selfie together:

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 11:00 AM

Meanwhile, Courtenay Taylor started signing women’s boobs in the Walk of Fame.

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 12:04 PM

I watched Courtenay sign ANOTHER set of boobs.  (Sorry, no pic from the 2nd time.)

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 2:30 PM

After a relaxed day of in the Walk of Fame, I took Courtenay and Dino Andrade over to the vendors room to take a gander at things outside of the Marriott.  Monday, I discovered, is THE best day to hit the vendors room: less of a crowd and plenty of deals to be made.  It was more relaxing than the Sunday walk through.

We got back to the table and it was becoming very obvious that the four days were winding down.  As my wife and Courtenay stated, “Dragon Con was done.”

MONDAY (DAY 4) at 6:04 PM

The actors have been situated for airport runs and we’re packed and heading home.  Armed with caffeine and adrenaline, we hit Interstate 75 south.

EPILOGUE

I have been to at least half a dozen Dragon Cons now, and this one was the smoothest run one I’ve seen.  No horror stories about lines; no epic panel fails to speak of, no negative vibes…

Just geeks celebrating being geeks – as it should be.

According to the Dragon Con Twitter, this year’s event had over 62,000 attendees who came to Atlanta for an extended weekend of pop culture themed goodness.  Kudos to the entire team for making 2015 amazing and now, if you don’t mind, I need to get some much needed extended recovery sleep.

Shonen Jump's http://plus.shonenjump.com/ is promising September 8 and 13 updates for a currently unnamed and otherwise undefined project from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki.

Besides the long running, evolving Jojo's and it's spino-offs, such as the adventures of super-powered manga artist Kishibe Rohan, Araki has written sci-fi adventure Baoh, assassin action Gorgeous Irene, mystery Mashounen BT, non-fiction biography collection Henjin Henkutsu Retsuden, and a number of short stories.

via newsmangajapon

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.