Anime Blogging Nonsense
For once, I feel compelled to do something about the state of anime blogging.
Would anyone be interested in hosting a panel with me at Otakon? This is a somewhat serious commitment and the deadline for an application is the end of the month. I am in the process to evaluate if this is a worthwhile idea or not so I can accordingly decide the next step.
I realize while anime conventions are a part of the fan culture, the mixing of that and anime blogging has not really come to focus in the fore. One of the issues that could be discussed is exactly the scope of anime blogging. The everyday blogger writes about daily circumstances, and it’s not totally uncommon for someone to talk about or review an anime once a blue moon. Or manga. Or any other subject matter the usual “anime” blog scene cover. How is that different than an “anime blog” as we know it?
Should we talk about the style of blogging? Personally I take a very relaxed approach; a major advantage of blogging is the way it allows for the expression of individuality; at the same time, it is worthwhile to discuss the nature of such things in order to provide insight into how to get the most out of a blog as a blogger. As long as we can convey to people that ultimately a blog is whatever you make it, and defined categories are not all there is to anime blogging. At the same time, I am interested in how people think about this issue, if you have given it some thought.
Discussing such topics at a con also runs into the issue to get the audience involved, and I think that is why the idea is compelling. For one, a lot of con panels are really just pow-wow sessions for people on the internet to say hello to each other. Also how to entertain people may very well be an issue. I suppose I can start stretching and practice learning the crane kick. Anyways, I think this is only a good opportunity and worth all the potential work if other people can play both as panelists and audience.
At the same time, all this thinking makes me realize I’m pretty under-equipped with some of the basic blogging concepts. How do we discuss aggregation portals, scrubbing, or the technical ends of things? Managing traffic and generating it? Advertising? Well I guess I’m not clueless about all of those things but I’m certainly not confident and knowledgeable enough to host a panel. This is just another reason why I will need help.
And … yes. Help. If you are interested in this project (even if you may not be able to come to the panel), I can probably use it. Just ping me, email me, or otherwise leave a message.
Speaking of that, anyone else up for epic karaoke this Otakon?
I Can Fly
(First, a bit of admin: we’ve had some service interruption on Friday and it’s an ongoing issue, hopefully I’ll have time to resolve it this week.)
JAM PROJECT is coming to the United States of America.
I don’t really care for 90s arena rock music, but the essence of their burning soul is undeniably attractive. I own a few of their CDs but rarely will these albums make the trip to the mp3 player/cd changer/etc simply because it’s not easy listening.
Otakon purposefully tries to reel in different sorts of performers every year because I think they value the diversity that’s within the kind of “visual culture” context that Otakon works within. JAM Project, personally, embodies the heart and soul of a particular subculture of this visual culture nonsense that has been long neglected. Are there any other band that embodies the concept “anime” + “music” in greater perfection? It’s a little ironic but understandably so, that cons will invite pop rock artists and jrockers to perform, because they are just straight-up performers with little agendas otherwise. JAM Project, on the other hand, is much more purposeful, even if they are also just performers not unlike any other at the core.
JAM Project historically is a “supergroup” of ???. ??? as in a lot of people will have some problems make sense of them. Ichiro Mizuki is the original leader of the team, who sort of retired (part-time member status?) not too long ago during a lull of the group’s activity. And interestingly enough, JAM Project’s membership includes an international individual who’s known for his works in Brazil, Ricardo Cruz. The other folks currently a part of JAM Project rocks out anime-style. So you have a few old guys, a few young(er) folks, and a guy from Brazil as an associate. And they rock out and jump around like nuts! Okay…
Still, and again, ultimately JAM Project is true to its namesake–it’s about Japanese Animation songs. If you don’t know the shows they sing for you wouldn’t know who they are. The careers of the men and women of JAM Project is the precise marriage of the two (well, and also tokusatsu). What does it mean as a musician when the works you produce are just half of an interactive relationship? Is it really surprising that hot-blooded arena rock becomes the primary means of expression for them? It’s both why they’re so powerful as performers but also eternally relegated to a very niche audience. They are not a group or performers that we can easily pigeonhole into some kind of categorically familiar thing. JAM Project is its own, unique thing.
Personally, what makes JAM Project interesting is its international perspective. Of course for oversea fans their perception will vary depending how much old school pop anime they’ve swallowed, or if they happened to be a Masami Okui fan or something, but this world tour folds well into the recent effort for the anime industry to export and explore their cultural “cool” globally. Will Americans be too “cool” to receive them? Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, it’s time to get prepared:
1. SKILL karaoke. Simply because it’s pretty awesome the first and second time I’ve done it, I should do this again. For it to be possible, I have to recruit a few helpers to scream along with me. Post or email (click on my name at the bottom of this post) if interested ;).
2. Get in shape. I’m going to jump around a lot. Well, if KOTOKO threw a show at the 1st Mariner Arena that’d be a good way to practice…
The Real Pillows
So instead of Anime Boston I spent most of my Friday and Saturday in NYC doing anime-related things, and eating at Mitsuwa across the river.
I heard there was a line there or something at AB? Hope I didn’t miss much.
I caught the Pillows and Noodles on the NY leg of their “Delicious Bump Tour in USA 08″. It was Friday night. The day after, the Pillows would have headed north to AB and Noodles to their Brooklyn show. The venue was few blocks north of Union Square, at Blender Theater at Gramercy. Unlike their last hole-in-the-wall show in 2006, this venue was much nicer complete with a sloping pit and stadium seats in the back. The place had a pretty cramped downstair-lounge area though.
I want to talk about the Noodles a bit. They’re a band made of 3 Japanese girls. Between I last saw them in ‘06 I’ve finally gotten to watch Linda Linda Linda, and the way Ikuno (bassist) goes at her base on Friday night totally reminded me that movie… I think the consensus was that Ayumi (drummer) was the cutest and had the best English to boot, if you are curious. But it doesn’t stop there; it’s pretty interesting to see the same band 2 years later and observe what has changed. I think overall their playing style has gotten better, but at the same time their song selection was slightly grungier for some reason. Not a bad thing, but it’s not exactly what I expected.
And was it just me or Ikuno seemed feeling a bit under the weather?
The Pillows, on the other hand, brought their veteran showsmanship to their show. They are fun, energetic and generally very solid at jumping around while hitting those lol riffs. The two guitarists know what they’re doing. Yoshi was very cool. Shin the drummer was sort of lol-looking.
I guess if there’s anything to say about their live, it was a little too much pandering. Compared to their last US tour, they played a lot more of their FLCL songs. That’s what most people know, and they got into it. Their newer stuff was notably less well-received even if they are just as good. It’s a little sad.
But it’s always great to hear them play their older songs as they totally change stuff around. I was particularly impressed with Little Busters and (again) Hybrid Rainbow. They are not exactly rocking songs but they managed to turn out that way. They’ve also changed a few small things to some of the other songs and generally the band had a nice grip on the mood and flow of their set.
I really wish they’d play some of the songs they did last time. It just seemed…more fun.
But then again I busted out laughing when they encored with Advice. So it works either way.
Newsbot Time
First off, Otakon, being my “home” con away from home, is going to announce their musical act for the year at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, which is in 2 weeks. If you prereg now you can try to guess who it is and maybe win something.
I highly suggest you prereg and guess who it is. And go. Go. Go if you know what’s good for you. This year is going to be special.
Second item today is that a friendly dude from M80, an online marketing firm, asked me to plug some contest TP is running. Isn’t it nice to be able to have a job that lets you contact friendly bloggers and talk about cool anime stuff, partly to make it seem less like spam but also because, well, it’s cool anime stuff? Anyways, it’s not like my current job sucks, but it’s not what I want to do for a living. I guess doing viral/grassroot marketing has its own challenges as well. Only if marketing was this friendly. Hey, they are hiring.
The third item is about this lol contest. I like the idea (even if it seems like a lame attempt at farming links), and while it’s potentially a whirlpool of drama, it sounds fun. I tossed in some random nomination that people should take a look at, and that’s that. I hope this takes off in the right way because it can be a lot of fun.
The fourth item should be a whole blog post, but I want to ask the question and get it out there. Bandai Visual, via their BOSS Note blog (…you know, I just “got” the joke to that blog’s name), announced they’re delaying their releases to change the way they’re dealing with their stuffs…are going to be. Furthermore BOSS man himself is “promoted” to an international position back in Japan that probably gives him even more power to shape how BV USA does its work in the US.
The question I have is really focused on this paragraph, and I quote:
Anyway, Bandai Visual (Japan) and Bandai Visual USA are now rushing to reschedule all future releases, focusing on Blu-Ray. Due to the recent quiet market, we will postpone standard single DVDs for TV series. We are assuming that the market does not prefer that format.
Now, the entire post mostly talk about the switch to BRD. And shows like True Tears would rock on Hi-Def But does that paragraph talk more about “standard single DVDs” rather than just “DVDs”? To me it reads that they’re going to do standard single BRDs and DVD sets. That’s what would sell, for sure.
How does it read to you?
Mitsuishi Kotonoooooooooooo!
Animazement strikes again as the most common anime con destination in North America for older voice actors.
It’s one of those conventions that I wish I can just ignore. But on Memorial Day weekend this year, it seems to mean I might have to go down there to North Carolina and kick some ex-blogger in the butt and find some curry to eat, or something.
And it’s not to downplay the other guests they have lined up, like Kumiko Watanabe. And Trunks.
I hope I don’t have to explain to you who Mitsuishi Kotono is. But much like some of the previous Animazement guests, she hasn’t really had a big day under the spotlight, in terms of the more developed seiyuu-idol community. She’s pretty much just a once-popular voice actress that somehow still commands legion of fans who’s been doing this for a while.
Legions, I tell you.
