Animelo 2006 on DVD = Animelol
So these babies came in the mail. LOL only means that it reminded me I already downloaded the DVD ISOs before new years. Time to watch!
Just for your information, if you didn’t know: I am a HUGE Masami Okui fan. I’m not even going to say why because I can’t bear to see my fanboy inner flesh sprawled out for no reason. By extension, I really dig JAM Project as well as some of Makkun’s (her fan nickname) collaborations. Makkun is also a very prolific anime musician, and over time she worked with a lot of different other musicians who have attachments with the anime scene. Chihiro Yonekura (and ROR/S), Minami Kuribayashi and Yoko Ishida are just a few.
But 2005-06 mark the years of Nana Mizuki’s biggest splash yet. She’s a pop cultural flag for the Densha Otoko generation, so it’s not a surprise to see her headlining this giant concert that is Animelo 2006. Animelo is this annual thing, for a couple years now, that the JAM Project folks have been throwing. It’s a lot of fun. And 2006 is their biggest show yet with the first time release of the show on DVD.
If you want to know how the show was, this is a much better read. For the sake of not reinventing the wheel I’ll just get the nitpickery regarding the DVD release out of the way and put in my two cents.
The DVDs, released by King Record (volume I) and Victor (volume II) are produced pretty much together. The design, art, the poster insert that you can put together for a full-size poster, and video production sync so they’re likely to be from the same production team. The release, however, are from two different labels. It’s no surprise because there are a bunch of different labels represented by the artists themselves, not even including our Suzumiya Haruhi trio: Aya Hirano, Yuko Goto and Minori Chihara. Their sole performance, Hare Hare Yukai, didn’t make the cut. Boo.
Other than that, all the acts seems to be on the discs. The DVDs also come with a behind the scene snippet, showing the day when all the performers arrived early in the morning, snippets of the rehearsal, people relaxing in the back room, people getting pumped before heading out to the stage, and stuff behind the scene during the massive roll call at the end. The featurette ends with individual post-concert interviews, each group telling us how Animelo 2006 was for them. The behind the scene bonus is on both DVD, and it’s exactly the same!
The DVDs divide the show up by gender, sort of. Naozumi Takahashi’s two songs went with the male medley on Victor’s disc (along with JAM Project’s songs, and Ali Project). Kuribayashi’s taunting outfit along with the very cute Aiko Kayo landed with the female medley on King Record’s disc. The division is begging someone to come along and rearrange it to the concert’s proper order.
Ah well, onward with the impressions.
I’m honestly shocked: this would be my first time watching ALI PROJECT live, and she (Arika Takarano)’s definitely a looker. And I mean it in a high class model kind of way–she’s got the built and she takes care of her face. I suppose that’s a must if you’re going to look good on camera prancing around in that hardcore gothloli getup. The goth drag queens as backup dancer was neat, and I have a hard time saying no to Rozen Maiden Traumend OP.
And it took me years to realize Chiaki Ishikawa is the other half of See-Saw. Or rather, it just didn’t stick when I read her name back when Kajiura was hitting the popular waves here. I even have a copy their old CD…well, she does have curly hair now. I like her songs, naturally–they’re crowd pleasers as See-Saw’s new stuff tend to be.
But I should’ve known, Ishikawa actually wrote and compose entirely the OP to Simoun, which she performed on stage. When I first read of Animelo’s content, this didn’t even register. Who would’ve known what that meant six months later? Savage Genius also performed Simoun’s ED at Animelo 2006, and … yeap.
I think I said Aiko Kayo is cute. She really is. And it’s not the frail kind of cute that the SOS-Dan trio seem to be. I think Kageyama cracked a joke on Matsumoto over it.
Minami Kuribayashi definitely wins the provocative dress award, even giving Takarano’s oddish gothloli thigh+cat-o-nine-whip a good run. Her white dress during the medley part is very nice.
Nana Mizuki has legs. But I am always happy with that Eternal Blaze going.
I think the real highlight of the show for me is the 9-man raid full of SKILL! You got the JAM Project folks plus Yoko Ishida, Chihiro Yonekura, and Minami Kuribayashi. I think Fukuyama spent more time on the DVD screaming than saying decipherable words. It doesn’t help that I’ve done group karaoke over that stuff before. It really is hella fun.
Runner up would be Kuribayashi and Makkun’s duet for Mask. I always like that song.
It’s a ton of fun. The DVD reproduction is just a fraction of its total energy, but even then it’s one (or two) of the most enjoyable concert DVDs I’ve had the chance to watch. If you’re a person into anime pop, this is hard to pass up. At 4800 yen a piece I snagged both during the holiday season when it was 20% off from Amazon Japan (ftw!). Even with fast shipping I spent less than $85, overall.
Totally worth it, worth beyond its impressive song list and guests.
National Geographic: Suigintou
I am not this man, and thankfully so.
I never was much of a photographer, so when I posed Suigintou under a cool October sky it didn’t occur to me to procure the right equipment, let alone finding a good angle. It was kind of brisk and I took care to spend as little time possible outside. Part of it was also I just don’t want to be found doing this in public. Or even by people I know. Alas, the journey towards the right degree of shamelessness is life-long.
Given my circumstances I cannot afford many hobbies. I think between PC gaming/MMORPGs and the occasional anime con, I’m pretty wiped. Maybe I can squeeze out some living expenses towards a few DVDs on sale or a trip to Book-Off, but a figure? Man.
Maybe all the more I should go nuts like TJ and get my money’s worth? Sounds like a good idea.
One of the big motivation behind me taking this picture and writing about it was a bit of a plea. I haven’t seen any figure reviews of Yujin’s SR series Suigintou. When I was putting the stuff together from the box, it was a bit of a delicate piece with ribbons that you have to attach. All it took was a little bit of trial & error, but lacking a well-addressed reference picture leaves me a bit in the dark. I’m not sure how the finish product should have looked in detail.
It wasn’t obvious. In fact in the picture above, something is missing. I didn’t realize after the fact that I actually made a mistake in putting her together. Alas, it has been remedied but I am not going to risk being exposed again, to take her for a walk under the sun.
If you are a bigger, better, superior Suigintou fan than I am, then you may have noticed what was missing. And just in case you’re like me and you bought this figure and didn’t figure it out yet, or planning to buy it, I hope I may save you some figuring-out.
The box it came with is fairly standard. In one corner it contains 5 ribbons and a feather, each laid within its own inset. The smallest one goes on her neck as a part of her tie/choker thing. Two of the remaining ribbons go on her sleeves, one on each side, right under her shoulder padding. The last two go on her gothloli headgear, one on each side. The 4 larger ribbons look similar, but they have different shaped attachments which only fit with the proper part of the figure. It’s a bit of annoyance.
It’s almost as annoying as putting her wings on, and to do so without taking her head off.
“Off with her head!”
Election
Suiseiseki won Saimoe, as it seems to be news in these circles.
But what’s in a title? In as much as people subconsciously resign that popularity tests, as these are, means just that and probably only that, we all want our favorites to win.
Or do we? In some ways I like Suiseiseki a lot, but she’s just another girl on the list of characters that are moe, that are widely-recognized, that drives memes, that needs a good PVC figure, that adores doujinshi that we see as dime-a-dozen. Like roses.
Yet somehow, way before her steamroller victory, I found that she’s the girl I’d rally behind, out of all the others. Of course, Saimoe operates with a set of artificial rules (as all good elections do), such as it has to be a new anime aired between certain time periods, it has to be well-nominated, votes have to fit strict formats, what have you. Three observations:
1. Purpose. What makes Saimoe different than a poll that you see in Newtype or something is not in what it sets out to do. Simply put, a big reason why I’m thinking about “vote for your favorite” contests is that watching Saimoe makes me want to participate in one too, one that is more accessible. Don’t you? It’s kind of fun: fun to talk about it, to think about it, to administer it, to argue it in the various discussions that spring up, and to see how the population come to terms in a democratic fashion. That’s why Newtype and others have it–it’s something to read, to pay attention to, to get the publication’s name out there, to get the readers involved. In the same way Saimoe unites the anime community somewhat, at least those communities feeds (in varying degrees–first hand, second hand, etc) from the happenings in the 2ch boards. It is, arguably, the heart of anime fandom on the internet after all. I’m not sure, so don’t cite this, but something like 25% of the votes in the final match were from outside of Japan. It’s a good reminder for everyone that anime is a global thing!
2. Purpose. Again. The difference, as to Saimoe versus other polls, is to cater to 2ch-ers. These people are obviously too hardcore for Newtype polls, which caters to a huge, mostly detached, domestic audience. They watch the latest shows, and would rather talk about them more because they’ve talked the old shows to death. And of course if Saimoe is to be a reoccurring event, we just can’t have the same bunch of characters running every year (even if it may not make any difference towards the outcome in an isolated, closed set of voters). And of course, they want to give people the freedom to let any character to have a chance, and these people know every character. Like Ms. Invisible from Magipoka. Or Nanoha’s stick.
3. What makes these polls fun is the participation. The voting alone is pretty boring. But the meta-talk. The fanart and other fanwork. The campaigning. It’s fun. It goes to point number two, too, in that it’s more fun to be able to talk about characters you care about, so having a huge base to pick from makes it much more fun to talk about, at least early on. Once the winners win and most others become losers in the later rounds, at least you’ve gathered enough history and the “politics” of voting can continue on revenge motifs, and consolidate your voter bloc to leverage. People can still have fun.
And that’s what’s it’s all about. I don’t see why people complain about people getting too serious about Saimoe. It’s part of the fun to be serious about it.
Tsuyokiss Aria REVOLUTION: Genre Kings x Delineation
You all have your own opinions on this, so I’ll be brief about laying the foundation and get into the meaty theoretical crap. The premise is simple: as genre is refined and redefined, people start to take cue as to what’s the best way to pitch within a familiar context, and evoking the same feel to reach out to the same demographic. The parallel is drawn from the “genre innovation” model that describes the video gaming industry and Nintendo, so if you’re familiar with that, you should have a good foundation.
From a cynical perspective, it all resulted from some successes like Love Hina or Ranma 1/2, where these genre-breaking/creating masterpieces started a trend. Just like telling your friends that “Trinity Blood is kind of like Trigun” will automatically get some of them to check it out, even if it isn’t really like Trigun… When a show resembles a certain something popular it gives the creators the incentive to mimic.
And there’s nothing wrong with mimicry. But when a genre is so well-defined (enough for a wiki article but not enough for bright line rules) because of the excessive mimicking, that if you toss all the divisible elements of what makes a harem anime into a randomizer and when the result of this mad-lib returns as a familiar premise of a real show, something is wrong. It’s not just because it’s absurd, but it’s so absurd that the work stands not on a creative bedrock recognizable by law. (Or is it?)
Thankfully, there are many ways out of this trap, and I think the anime industry has long since started to climb out of. When people like myself with no prophetic powers can see that, it means others are probably annoyed as well. Tsuyokiss is one example: the harem narrative reversed on its head; a typical bishoujo game adaptation has been spun around by the anime’s core team to draw a familiar story. But even then, such an “obvious” trick doesn’t distinguish the trite attempts at entertaining in TonaGura, for example, with Tsuyokiss. When the dumb shtick slapstick becomes the defining characteristic of your show, you’re not going to go anywhere.
But I suppose what these two shows told me, more specifically, is that people are ready. Sure, shows like Shuffle and DearS may prey on the weak still, but when I see Higurashi or even Negima, the vibe is just slightly different. In as much as in a post-Love-Hina reality we no longer can do a shounen romance show without the harem taint, people are tired of that. People are looking for the same, patently haremic elements elsewhere (looking at the new round of SaiMoe for some clues)–Aria, Rozen Maiden, School Rumble, and Mai-Otome, just to name a few. We want the relationships, the characters, the lightheartedness, outside of the traditional harem context. For some it is the desexualization of the context (Rozen Maiden); or it’s the focus on mood without drama (Aria); or inversely just the drama (Mai-Otome); or even pure comedy with little anything else (School Rumble). These shows all contain, for practical purposes, “harems.” However they do not carry themselves structurally as so typically.
Here is where we’re at a loss. This MMORPG dude says where things are going for them. Where are we going?
Otakon 2006: An Average Story about a Convention
If words were enough to describe this convention, I wouldn’t need pictures. Even if words were enough, I’d still use pictures because I am lazy.
But some words are necessary. Like tags. Could be chronological:
Hot Thursday prereg, drinking, dinner, drinking; hot friday lineup, ticket, sat in line and watch anime, dealers, eat, Nobuteru panel, Madhouse panel, eat alone, concert, karaoke; Saturday ticket, dealers, Kawasumi panel, autograph, karaoke, fate meet, concert, mt meet, Geneon, Hellsing, dinner, art gallery, 4chan, Geneon panel; sunday karaoke, art gallery, hotel crap, karaoke, lunch, karaoke, home.
Or more descriptive:
Haruhi-tard, ETERNAL BLAZE, Hottest. Otakon. Ever., Kawasumi Ayako, Lafiel, Mahoro, Trap-chan, Raptor Jesus, Getsumei Fuuei, MUCC, fatigue, NO U, Free Stuff, Mihata no Moto ni, Pictochat, Geneon, Dan Kim, Futakoi Alternative, Touhou, Ever17, waiting in line, Nobuteru Yuuki, Nakazawa Kazuto, God Bless…
There were the usual amount of cosplaying. Without beating around the bush anymore, you can click on these links at your own risk. Traps, you know. I think the variety this year matches more my expectation from last year than this year.
A good meme from the con to recall is Web 2.0. It’s amusing how much I’ve changed in doing an otakon write-up over the last 9 years. And yet I’ve done it every time save my first Otakon, in a blog form. Instead of AMVs maybe I’ll do a trip down memory lane kind of thing. Some things, despite age, just don’t change time and time again.
Like hitting traffic on the NJ Turnpike.
But there are still stories left to be told of our battle last weekend. Yours and mine. Like how karaoke post MUCC concert means you can’t hear the monitor too well. Or our Canadian friend makes one helluva Trap-chan. Or how 4chan manages to transform time and space and bring anonymity to a convention line. Or how the panels I missed out I wish I could attend, or watch videos of. Or how I asked about Lafiel, and made a fool out of myself at the Kawasumi panel. Or how people should do more Nana Mizuki songs at the karaoke. Or just how much fun we had, or how we wish you were there, too.
I was actually looking for Os on Friday–imagine we were all in the Mad House panel…
Perhaps one more notable point to it all is how my friends played into the picture. There was a major blurring between my RL friends, different circles of RL friends, internet friends, and random people. It’s good to know people who know people but knowing so many people can make things difficult. This year marks a good, sharp distinction between people who I consider “con buddies” with “visiting friends” and “groupies.” It’s so important to have all three. Just don’t mix them up in the wrong categories… And keeping the right kind of stories to the right kind of crowd :)
And on that note, I wish you all would show at Otakon next year, because I have high hopes…
