Becky’s in the Back Seat, pt. 9: Day the Third, pt. 2: Kodansha

After that panel ended, I made my way to a panel that I was actually looking forward to, the Kodansha

Random people, walking in the hall

Comics panel.

I tried to make it to more manga/anime panels as they are something that I enjoy and love paying attention to… largely because I’m that kind of nerd.

So, there’s a lot of information in this, so I’m just going to cover the info.

Attack on Titan, the hugely popular series both here and in Japan. Kodansha prints the manga for Attack on Titan. Well, this month they released box sets 1-4. That’s everything that they have released so far in box set form. They’re also starting a spin-off collection starting in November.

They’re also going to be releasing Natsumi Ando’s series Lets Dance a Waltz in spring of 2015. Natsumi Ando is known for Zodiac PI, Kitchen Princess and Arisa.

Also coming out next Spring is Miki Yoshikawa’s Yamada-kun and Seven Witches. This series is fairly popular in Japan. I”m curious about it myself and might add it to me manga reading list (because it needs to be much longer).

Masster Roshi from Dragonball Z

Maria the Virgin Witch or Junketsu no Makia will be coming out on February 2015. Masayuki Ishikawa (the manga-ka of Maria the Virgin Witch) is an Osamu Tezuka Cultural prize winner. He won in 2008. He won for his best known title, Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture.

A Silent Voice by Yoahitoki Oima will be released in spring 2015. A Silent Voice is the story about a bully who bullies a deaf girl to the point where he has ostracized himself. He then sets himself on a path of redemption. The story sounds both poignant and sweet. I think that I really want to read this series.

Then there’s the Attack on Titan news.

Attack on Titan, vol. 1 has been on the New York Times Bestsellers list for 57 consecutive weeks. Volume 13 came out on 26. August. Attack on Titan: Before the Fall was released on 17. August in print and 22.July, digital. Attack on Titan Junior High, volume 2 will be released 18.November. The Attack On Titan Collosal edition will be released with 15 color pages in November.

Attack On Titan: No Regrets, volume 1 is out now. Volume 2 is also out now. The Attack On Titan

Someone was brave enough to dress like Beamo and venture in to the Dealers Room.

Guidebook came out in September,

The Heroic Tale of Arslan by Yoshiki Tanaka was released in August. The story is set in the historical setting of Persia and is based off the Persian story Amir Arslan.

Kodansha also holds the rights to the manga series My Little Monster. It is currently available now. My Little Monster is about the relationship of Shizuku, a studious yet cold high school student and Haru, an unpredictable and violent high schooler who doesn’t understand human relationships.

There was a lot of dates and information about upcoming manga releases. It made the otaku in me very pleased to see that manga print releases are still incredibly popular despite the prevalence of digital media.

Into the Geek Realm: Fanime 2014, pt. 2: Viz Manga Edition

The first panel I attended this year was the Viz Media panel. This year there was a lot of news… lots of new things coming our way. So, I’m going to try and wade through it.

This year at Fanime, they had con-specific merchandise available at one of the booths with a $20 purchase. That’s neat as they haven’t had something like that before.

The graphic novel and the novel for “All You Need is Kill” is now available. “All You Need is Kill” was

Shan Yu, Captain Hook and Maleficent

adapted in to the movie, “The Edge of Tomorrow” starring Tom Cruise. It’s a movie I won’t pay to see, because I am not a Tom Cruise fan. Sure, I get to see Tom Cruise die repeatedly, but I don’t think it’s worth the $15/adult. The manga, which is being serialized in Shonen Jump will be available on 11/4.

Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, also known as the prequel to the Dragonball series (you actually see Bulma as a child) is coming out as a graphic novel. It will be available 1/6/2015. It will contain a Dragonball story that focuses on Goku’s parents.

Another series that has been regularly serialized in Shonen Jump is also coming to manga form. World Trigger will be coming print form on 10/7. It’s an interesting series. I still haven’t quite formed an opinion on the series. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

They’re also releasing a series called Assasination Classroom. It’s the story about a group of outcasts who are being taught by a tentacle monster. This is not hentai, but I can see some interesting doujin coming out about this series. Viz describes it as GTO with tentacles. That will hit the shelves on 12/2.

Kiss of the Rose Princess is also coming to print. It’s a reverse harem story (one girl with multiple males) in a vein similar to Roasrio+Vampire. It will be available in November.

Another title coming to print is Yukarism. It’s the story of an author named Yukari. He writes incredibly accurate historical fiction, that’s because he can see his past lives in his dreams it sounds like an interesting story… I’ll have to see when it comes out December 2014.

Sad news, the Vampire Knight series will be ending soon. In the meantime, they will be releasing volume 19 (limited edition then standard) on 11/19. The limited edition will include a mini art book. Also coming out on that day is the Vampire Knight box set that will contain volumes 11-19 (volume 19 will be the limited edition version).

Kiki
Picture by Jeanie Butera

There will also be a Resident Evil manga. It takes place before 6. It’s a 5 volume series, so it’s fairly short. That will be available 11/18.

They will also be releasing a manga with the name “Master Keaton”. It essentially is the “story of a badass”. It sounds very much like Indiana Jones. It will be available 12/16.

There are two more Miyazaki books hitting the stores. The Art of Princess Mononoke and Mononoke: the First Story are both due in stores on 10/7. As the title states, Mononoke: the First Story is a prequel to the movie Princess Mononoke..

Also, the big manga news is that Hunter x Hunter is coming out of hiatus. The first new chapter just ran last week in Shonen Jump Weekly.

In to the Geek Realm: Fanime 2014, pt. 1

I would like to start by thanking two people who are allowing me to use their Fanime pictures, Jeanie Butera and Brit Cossel. Thank you so much for allowing me to use some of your pictures. I truly appreciate you helping show what Fanime was like this year.
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Every year, we make a trek southward to go to Fanime, the local anime convention. It’s a time to gather together with other people with similar interests and spend our weekend geeking out, having fun, spending money on geeky things and staying up as late as possible watching anime. While that may not sound like everyone’s cup of tea… it is, in all actuality a ridiculous amount of fun. It’s something I enjoy doing every year. This year was no exception.

He’s a dandy guy… *insert finger gun here* in space.
Yay for Space Dandy cosplay!

Every year does have its drawbacks… and last year it was the registration lines. They were all sorts of fail. For people picking up their badges on Thursday night, we had to wait a whole of 6 hours. Getting us home at one in the morning. Maybe it was because they opened up registration at 3 PM instead of 7 this year… Maybe they finally got better organized. Whatever they did, it worked. We were in and out picking up our badges in 8 minutes. It was painless. This is what it used to be to pick-up badges if you pre-registered. I’m glad they found something that seems to work well.

There was one thing that I was surprised to see, and that’s the prevalence of panels I wanted to see earlier in the convention. Because of that, instead of skipping Friday entirely or heading there later in the evening… I had to be there earlier in the day. It wasn’t something I was happy about. I wasn’t allowed the time to decompress from work. I like my little buffer times.

So, I left home early on Friday, being dropped off at the Redwood City CalTrain station at 10 AM. Going the whole way on public transportation, the commute time took me 2.5 hours, that includes picking up some medication.

So, that means trying to find stuff to do until the convention officially opens. I made a beeline to the Hilton to sit at their bar and get a bite to eat. It was there that I had a nice 3 hour conversation with another con goer who was dressed as Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. It was a fun conversation were talked about a bit of everything. In that time we both had a bit to eat and a couple of drinks. It’s been sometime since I just sat somewhere and had a great conversation. It was nice to do.

At about 2:30 or so, we parted ways to head in to the now open convention. I wish I had seen the opening ceremony. I’ve never been in San José to see it, and I wound up missing it again this year in lieu of good conversation (it’s a weakness, I swear).

Nightwing
Picture by Brit Cossel

The first thing I saw was the dealer’s room. They had a good assortment of costuming goods, otaku collectibles and other sundry items. I noticed that they opened up the dealer’s room more. While it wasn’t full, I think that they may be toying with having a larger dealers room. I would like to see that. See more stuff available. Who knows, maybe they might get to start being Comic Con big. OK, that would be difficult at best. The Comic Con dealers room takes up the entire bottom floor of the San Diego Convention Center. I wouldn’t be surprised if that room is 2 miles across.

After making my way through the dealer’s room, I made my way to my first panel, the Viz Media panel. This year they moved the panel rooms from their normal spot of the Marriott to the Fairmont. It made getting there from what is essentially the base of operations a bit more problematic. It meant factoring in the travel time between two points. They’re not too far apart, but when you need to walk back and forth between the two several times over a day… it gets to be a bit tiring. I didn’t have a hotel at Fanime this year, so I didn’t even have a place to rest during the lulls in the day. I did miss that fact. Having a place to kick back and relax would have been better with all the walking I did this year. I believe that the rooms might be a bit larger… and there are certainly more of them. I’m not sure there’s a good solution to this… it also seemed like there were more panel rooms available than previous years.

Holy Crap, Convention!

So… I was planning on being able to get more writing done this week, possibly get in a review…

Then I looked at the schedule for Fanime. They are getting a much earlier start on the panels that I want to see. That means I’m going to be heading down to San José to catch panels a day early too. I still need to set up my schedule for this weekend, but my first panel is tomorrow at 3 PM. Looks like I’m heading down tomorrow morning and going to the convention all day tomorrow.

This is unprecedented. I usually go to one panel on Friday night, usually about 7 or 9 PM.

I wound doing the bulk of my sleeping earlier in the night and had a good three hours of pure thinking time. At that point, I came up with 3 panels that I would like to do. One tongue-in-cheek, one informative and more than like not to theme and the third would be perfect… I might actually pitch them next year and see if any of them stick. Of course, if I do, I would need to make sure that I did my research and put together something regardless.

So, this is it, until Tuesday.

I hope to bring you the beginning of my Fanime round-up starting Tuesday.

Until then!

Wir Sind die Jaeger!: Attack on Titan Review (spoiler-free)

The entire cast of Attack on Titan

Adult Swim has a new addition to its Toonami line-up. It’s a series that I’ve been told by a lot of people that I should see. It’s quite possibly still one of the most popular cosplays for the past 2 years. That series is “Attack On Titan”.

This series has a serious fan base. Even at an event like Comic Con where you’re more likely to see cosplay for western comics and a small smattering of anime cosplay, it was still popular. When I went to the Best and Worst Manga of 2012-2013, it took both best and worst mangas (best for story, worst for drawing).

Eren Jaeger

And honestly, I was resistant to watch and read it. I was curious. But for the longest time, I just hadn’t gotten around to watching it. It was one of many new series that was on my list to watch (along with K and Gundam Unicorn). However, it’s something that had slipped by the side repeatedly. I was repeatedly told that I should watch the anime and read the manga. So, I finally sat down to watch it a couple of months ago.

Attack On Titan is about a walled city. People once again lived in walled cities because of the appearance of creatures known as Titans, creatures akin to giants. The exception is that they have no real intelligence and like to eat humans… not just human flesh, but people. So, they’re like what happens when you have zombie giants. The walled cities help ensure the survival of what’s left of the human race after the appearance of titans.

The military insignias from left to right: general military (boot camp graduates), Stationary Guard, Military Police and Scouts

That is the setting for Attack on Titan. The story revolves largely around three characters: Mikasa, Armin and the main protagonist, Eren. Armin and Mikasa are childhood friends of Eren. Mikasa has lived with Eren since she was little and Armin is a kid that Eren befriends.

The series starts with the outer ring of the walled city known as Maria. A new type of titan has appeared that acts a lot like a tank. Maria is razed and Eren’s mother is eaten by a titan. This fuels Eren to join the military and his wish to destroy titans.

The series follows them through military training and then onward as they continue in to the military.

I don’t want to give too much detail because I would like to keep this spoiler free. So, I won’t go on too much longer about the plot. I believe you have a good idea about how the story progresses.

Eren and the colossal titan

So, what did I think of the story?

Honestly, I thought the pacing was really slow considering the amount of episodes in the first series. For me, it took ten episodes for me to really start getting into the series. As I said, some of the big reveals were already told to me, so it made the first big reveal not such a big deal to me. The pacing is a bit slower than I would like. Once they finally start getting to the heart of the story, the series becomes engrossing. I finally wanted to know how things got to where they were. I just wish that the story got there a lot sooner than 10 episodes. I will say this, it took me some time to get a feel for the main characters. I still am more interested in many of the supporting characters more than I do for Eren.

What’s the animation like?

A few panels from the manga

This is something that did start to get to me. The backgrounds are gorgeous and well-detailed. There’s one thing that I couldn’t understand… all the humanoid characters had a thick, bold outline around, well, everyone. It’s something that I was having a hard time getting past. I wonder why they all the people were outlined in such a manner. Some times, that bold outline started to distract me from the anime itself.

Would I recommend the series?

The short way for me to say this is yes with a but. Once the story finally gets going, it’s great. It draws you in and keeps your attention. It takes some time before we get to see some good character development. I wish the pacing was slightly better than it is. I didn’t feel as engaged at the beginning of the series. This is actually due to the story. I started reading the manga and the plot was incredibly slow to start there as well.

Mikasa Ackerman, Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert

Once the story finally gets rolling, it goes like a steamroller. You start to learn more about the world they’re in. It’s the backing story that starts to become the star of the series.

It’s certainly worth the watching. Just keep in mind that the pacing might not be what you were looking for. If you hang in there, you’ll find your patience rewarded.

This Week in Preview

Here we are again, back at Monday. And a very off day for me. I seem to have a touch of the flu. I’m going to try to maintain as normally as I can, but the desire to sleep all day isn’t exactly helping.

So, what would I like to work on this week?

Well, I would like to finally get that review of Attack on Titan written. It’s coming to Adult Swim next Saturday. It might be time to talk about it.

I want to write about manga. I might talk about 2 series. One I’ve read for a couple of years now and another that I just picked up a week ago. I think it’s time there was more manga and comic talk here.

I’m not sure about posting a short story. It may or may not happen.

Other than that… we’ll have to see.

Here we go again, time for another exciting week ahead.

Hope you enjoy!

This Week in Preview

Here we are, once again. It’s another Monday… which means it’s time to take a look at what I might want to post this week.

So, what to post, what to post…

I would like to write a review about the series Ooku. I read a lot of manga, it might be time that I do a review of one of them. I’m going to post more of one or both of my short stories. I also might do some mental processing. I’m dealing with some old and huge demons right now. Bigger than I thought they were. So, instead of sitting on it and letting fester. I’m going to get it out there.

I also would like to write a review of Attack on Titan. Adult Swim will soon be showing this series on its Toonami line-up, so it may be time for to state my opinions.

There may be a bit of lag in the next two weeks. My current computer is having some issues, so I may be getting a new one in the near future. It’s something that it looks like I need as I’m having some seriously strange issues with my current computer.

That looks to be what this week is shaping up to.

But who knows. We’ll see what this week brings.

Until then!

The Week in Preview

Here we are, once again, back at Monday. That means that it’s time to think about what to do about post for the week ahead.

So, what to write, what to write. This work week will be shorter than normal. Most everyone else is away on holiday. That means I have more real time to write (yay). So, what do I want to write…

I have a completed review of Final Fantasy XIV. So, yes, the review will be coming your way complete with pictures.

I would like to get some more short story writing done. I might post both short stories in the same week. That’s something that I haven’t done as of yet. I’m feeling creatively invigorated. It’s been some time since I’ve felt this way. So, maybe it’s time to do some more creative writing.

I also feel the need to write more about anime and manga. It’s something that I love and enjoy so much. I feel like that has lagged. I think to start writing more about anime by doing a long absent review of Attack on Titan. I would also like to write about the manga series “Ooku”. I’ve read it since it was released I believe two and a half years ago.

I think I’m coming in to an exciting time in writing for me. I hope that you will see some of it as well. I hope you enjoy what will be coming for you this week!

This Week in Review

Monday, Monday, not Sunday anymore…
OK, so that was a horrible attempt to make Blur’s “Sunday, Sunday” into a song about Monday. Well, since we’re here, might as well do what I always do every Monday… Talk about what I plan to do.

What won’t happen (hopefully) is that I won’t get sick from drinking a cup of tea like I did almost 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks of getting over symptoms is brutal.

Honestly, I haven’t a clue now. I’m still formulating what I want to write about. The short story will be taking a break this week as I’m still catching up to where I am currently.

Beyond that, I wish I had a good plan. Unfortunately, I don’t. Maybe I’ll flesh out an idea that I had about magical girls, particularly Madoka Magicka. Might do a write-up on gaming. I’m going to have to see where I wanna go from here.

So until tomorrow!

A Dandy of a Time

Dandy and the Boobies girls

It was a matter of time that we would all be happy to be space cowboys again. Shinichiro Watanabe (director of Cowboy Bebop) comes back with an all new series that feel Cowboy Bebop-esque. It is also brought to us by Studio Bones. This studio is known for some pretty awesome anime… like Eureka Seven, Scrapped Princess, Wolf’s Rain, Darker Than Black, Ouran High School Host Club, both anime adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater to name a few.

Another shot of Dandy

The series is Space Dandy. This series is interesting for so many reasons.

1) It’s actually a comedy. It starts out like most shōnen series tend to do. They always start kind of goofy and becomes series as the series goes a long. Everything about Space Dandy feels like it’s a comedy. Definitely worth watching. If anything, it gives you an idea of what Japanese humor is about.

2) Space Dandy debuted in the US before it debuted in Japan. That’s right. It broadcast the day before its Japanese début. This is a new thing.

3) I just wanted to add a three… there’s not a lot of interesting factoids to be had about this anime at this point. Only one episode has aired anywhere in the world.
So, really… this is a write-up of an entire episode… and that should tell you how awesome I think this

The Aloha Hoy, Dandy’s ship… It reminds me an awful lot of the Bebop.

series is.

I’ve never reviewed a series after one episode (though I’m not beyond doing a whole season).

Space Dandy is seriously funny. The explanation of Dandy at the opening is beyond worth it.

Dandy is… well, precisely that. He’s a dandy. The style he’s drawn in is a stereotypical gangster look, pompadour and all.

Dandy does occasionally feel like Spike. He simultaneously feels like a unique character. I’m curious to see where this series goes.

There isn’t much to review from the first episode.

I loved the jokes. I loved that at the opening Dandy is singing his love for shapely booty. Just after finishing this monologue he talks about visiting a restaurant called Boobies (an obvious rip-off of Hooters).

Just enjoy this gif.

In many ways, Dandy feels like Spike. He’s a devil-may-care man.

I don’t want to give away too much about the first episode, because I’m kind of curious how they’re going to work with how the first episode ended.

I must say… I was kind of looking forward to Space Dandy when I heard that it was airing on Adult Swim a month ago. After watching the first episode I can’t wait for the next episode (intergalactic centipedes be damned). There’s a lot of the Cowboy Bebop feel to this series. And yet, it certainly has the legs to run on its own.

Haven’t heard of Space Dandy yet? Here’s the handy-dandy trailer for Space Dandy:

And really this doesn’t even come close to covering the humor in the series. This show is definitely a great funny series that I can see going far and picking up a lot of fans (a lot like Cowboy Bebop).

And any of you who happen to have cable, the show airs on Cartoon Network’s Toonami at 11:30 PM. You know, if you wanna check it out.

And here are the webpages:
Japan- http://www.space-dandy.com/top.html
America- http://www.funimation.com/shows/space-dandy