AnimeNext 2006 - The Blog

[VegettoEX]

OK, not really a blog. But whatever.

Meri and I got here to the hotel shortly before 8 pm, with Julian strolling in around 8:30. We picked up our badges, wandered around, blah blah blah. As to be expected, the evening consisted of a bit of DS rockin'. OK, so I'll admit that I lost in the New Super Mario Bros. mini-games, but even when these two losers TEAMED-UP in Tetris to take me out... they could do no such thing. I am amazing. That's right... amazing.

This morning I naturally woke up just before the alarm went off at 7 am (which is sleeping in for me), and got the day off to a start. That's consisted of showing, pretty much. The first thing today will be to get the back-to-back AMV contest showings going at 9 am. Later today we've got the AMV panel and various things to check out.

Julian's in the shower with his hot naked self right now. Singing.

And we have wireless at the hotel. And I'm on his laptop. *destroys*

[Steven Perry]

VegettoEX, now's your chance! Take some pictures of Julian naked! Can't wait...

EDIT: You're in the chat room, right? Damn. I wish I could talk to you guys.

[The Tori-bot]

VegettoEX, sorry if you're offended, but sometimes I... wonder... about you and Julian....

Oh, and Li'l Stevie: Stay away from the chat. They'll warp your brain.

[desirecampbell]

Right after Mike says he's got "various things to check out" he says "Julian's in the shower with his hot naked self right now".

"Oh dear."

[VegettoEX]

Back to the hotel room to drop off a few things before we head over to lunch. Grabbed a couple kanzenban in the dealer's room, and volumes two and three of Tsukikage Ran for $5 a pop (I've had volume one for several years).

Nothing in the way of DBZ CDs... saw Shin Butoden, but they clearly knew what it was. Going for $75. Bleck. My shiny new Saturn won't even attract me to that right now. They did have a few Super Famicom games up in the back of that stand, though... Super Goku Den and I think some others... maybe even Famicom games.

So the two AMV contest screenings went off without many hitches. Took a while to actually get a DVD player down to start it up, but they otherwise ran on time. Noticed one little blooper we have in a video's title card; blargh. It's correct on the ballot, though. That's good.

One person, dressed as a certain square-nosed One Piece character, came up and said hello after the contest; they forgot to mention exactly WHO they were, though . We shall see who shows up tomorrow...! Will have to put the scouter on. Oh yes, it has been brought. Broughten? Brought on? What's the correct tense-phrasing?

Munchie time.

I'm not gay. (maybe)

[Jerseymilk]

I'm not gay. (maybe)

CLEAR DENIAL!

[The Tori-bot]

I'm not gay. (maybe)

CLEAR DENIAL!

Exactly what I was thinking. But then again, there is the matter of a certain Meri C to contend with. No, wait; that's too obvious. Let's call her M Cantoni. Wait...

Well, let's not brood on the subject..!

(Unless we get into the matter of little boys, and Julian...)

[DaemonCorps]

Eh, I can't go, but thanks for putting up this little blog-ish thing here.

Hey, when the handful of guys on the forums start to arrive to the con, can some of them put up their little experience of doing the podcast (which I guess should be expected from this forum anyways, but yeah)?

[Jerseymilk]

I'm not gay. (maybe)

CLEAR DENIAL!

Exactly what I was thinking. But then again, there is the matter of a certain Meri C to contend with. No, wait; that's too obvious. Let's call her M Cantoni. Wait...

Speaking of.....

Mike, did you convince Meri to cosplay as Gunner Yuna this year?

[MisterFlashdude]

Atleast we get to hear about what it was like now!

Just a thought, though...

VegettoEX, don't you have a DaizenshuuEX Livejournal that would be perfect for this?

[VegettoEX]

The LiveJournal that went nowhere! Too hard to manage .

So this afternoon we sat in on the "How To Podcast" panel with our buds at Otaku Generation, which was great. Amazing techie talk about mixers, mics, etc. is always a blast.

After that, Meri and I started up the AMV panel. Great fun with a fantastic turnout. We talked a little bit about general video stuff, and then went with a spin on the subject and talked about what makes particular TYPES of videos work. Action, comedy, drama, etc. Peter (Scintilla) did the panel with us, which was great.

After the panel, we immediately went into the third screening of the AMV contest for the day (in the same room... phenomenal thinking). The room was PAAAAAAAAACKED. It's really insane how many people just love to come in and check the videos. We nearly filled the first screening in main events today, not so much in the second showing, and then this panel-room showing was overflowing the room to an insane amount. Much love.

After the screening, we did some dinner with podcasting and AMV friends. Waited for about an hour at Uno's before our party of ten actually got seated to eat, but we got free dessert for our trouble. Mmm, food and drinks.

I was going to start working on the title cards and stuff for tomorrow's AMV awards ceremony during the cosplay intermission, but I'm way too exhausted to do so. Instead, we're chilling and listening to the Songs Of A High Spirited Saga songs, Meri's pulling out her grey hair, and I think that's about it.

Tomorrow morning is the fourth AMV contest screening from ~9 am to ~11 am, and then the meeting for the Daizenshuu EX podcast recording! Sooooo looking forward to it. Gonna have a ton of fun. I think we're gonna do the recording up her in our hotel room, since we've pretty much already got an entire recording studio set up with tables and chairs and a couch and everything. Rock the fizzle on.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Anyone go to that $5.00 DVD section. Damn, pretty sweet. I got like 15 DVD's like a damn fool. They had some Pioneer DBZ DVD's.

They did have a few Super Famicom games up in the back of that stand, though... Super Goku Den and I think some others... maybe even Famicom games.

Saw that. There actually was two Famicom games. DBZ 1 and DBZ 3. I plan on getting at least one of them.

[veshira]

I went to the AMV thing - it was great! It was cool seeing "This is DBZ Life" on such a big screen. ^^

Actually, my friend and I had gotten there a little early and we watched OtakuGeneration's panel for about fifteen minutes. I spotted you guys! I didn't say hi, though: I'm sort of shy. But you might remember hearing a "cat" during the end of the panel. That was my cellphone - I had forgotten to put it on silent. I had felt I'd been really rude to all the people in the panel. (Sorry OtakuGeneration and Panel 1!)

The AMV contest was AWESOME! There were a lot of great videos there. I like how there was an Evangelion action video ("...go back to sleep...") and then there was an Evangelion/Azumanga Daioh comedy video that was like a parody of the Evangelion video later. I thought that was just priceless. Were they by the same people?

But yeah, my friend and I should have gotten seats further up, because the room had gotten so crowded that people were just standing in the back so they could see better. I had decided to sit in the aile, along with two other people. I had a skirt on, though, so I had to cover myself with my fan. It was okay, though.

Being that I was a n00b to cons, I didn't know how to vote, so I said out loud after a video, "How do we vote?" This nice guy in front of me told me it was in my registration packet, which I hadn't noticed had the voting form. His friends teased him after that - I guess I really am a n00b. I thought he was really nice, though I didn't catch his name. Well, thank you nice-otaku-guy.

I wish I could have been there for the podcast, but I couldn't get a ride for today. I can't wait to hear it!

[Steven Perry]

Actually, my friend and I had gotten there a little early and we watched OtakuGeneration's panel for about fifteen minutes. I spotted you guys!

Y-you SPOTTED the guys, and you didn't say "hello" because... you're shy? What the HFIL? If I saw Master EX, I'd go over there, and... kiss his feet. What an honour it would be.

[VegettoEX]

Today's certainly been an interesting day!

We got in to the convention center around quarter o' nine with the AMV contest, since there was a screening set to begin at 9 am, which is also the time the con opened for the day. We waited until around 9:30 to start, since no-one had even gotten in until that point. Amazing turn-out for the contest, again. For those not into AMVs, you may not know just how huge of a following these things have at conventions. You definitely have the potential to have your work seen by hundreds... thousands... of people.

Anyway, after the contest we immediately started meeting up with people. We hung out around main events for a little bit until everyone could meet up; we had one person getting an autograph, a couple others wandering around, and one other who had Alan from Otaku Generation give me a call so he could find out where we were .

We walked over to our hotel room and set up shop! We recorded for about an hour; not sure what it's going to come down to after editing. Not much in the way of content is actually going to be edited out... just gonna make it a little cleaner sounding, I guess. A great batch of people turned out! I think we had 11 people come back to record with us. Definitely a lot of fun, and I think you'll enjoy listening. Really laid-back, but still got your news, list, ABCs, and (obviously) tons of listenter interaction, this episode!

Afterwards, seven of us headed over for lunch (where did we go... Hoolihan's?). Sat, chatted, ate, etc.

We met up again at 2 pm for the FUNimation industry panel, which unfortunately continues to be a yawn-fest for this individual. I'm not sure if it's just because FUNimation likes to spread themselves out so far across various panels, showings, and events at the con (and this one in particular), but it seems like they grasp at straws for things to talk about and actually *do* for the typical industry panel. Ah, well. Nothing DB-related to discuss, here.

So right now Meri and I are just chilling in the hotel room for a little bit, since we need to pick up all of the AMV contest votes/ballots at 5 pm. Count. Re-count. Encode winners. Test. Bring computer equipment to main events. Hook up. Pray it all works during cosplay intermission.

Julian's off making a fool of himself asking people questions they probably can't answer. That's our Julian!

[Saiyan]

Yeah...I had to ask Alan from Otaku Generation because even though you mentioned where to meet on the podcast last week...I forgot.

EDIT: Oh, and it was "Houlihans".

Also, I was wondering after the Funimation panel thing, how come we didn't ask Lance about the DBZ Season 1 stuff?

Maybe I should have waited...Oh well, got me-self 3 Kanzenban!

EDIT 2: Also, wanted to say thanks for letting us record and hang with you guys. If you're doing this again next year, I'll definately go again.

But, I have to not be nervous around you guys (I was unconciously intimidated by your stature in the Dragonball-knowledge hierarchy)

[veshira]

Y-you SPOTTED the guys, and you didn't say "hello" because... you're shy? What the HFIL? If I saw Master EX, I'd go over there, and... kiss his feet. What an honour it would be.

Well actually, I didn't want to just go up to them in the middle of the panel, and then after OtakuGeneration Mike and Meri were busy. To tell you the truth, I was thinking of going up to Julian while the AMV panel was getting ready, but I thought it'd be weird to just pop up on someone like that. ^^;

And at least, I think that was Julian. I haven't actually seen photos Julian or Meri, and I've only seen Mike's avatar with his scouter, so he was actually the only one I reconized.

And then I knew Mike and Meri when they went up to do the panel. Yeah, I really should be more social. -__-;

[edit] I just realized that I had an extra voting ballet. Also, from my searches, most of these videos are available to download on AnimeMusicVideos.org. So in order to make those who couldn't go to the con feel better, I'll post links to those I've found. ^__^

Listing Format:
Contest Category
Title of AMV
Creator(s)
Anime Source(s)
Audio Artist(s)/Source(s)
Audio Track(s) Used
AMV.org Link (if any)

Trailer/Parody:

#01: "Ask A Sennin"
by Dark Side Productions
Naruto
Ask A Ninja
"Nin-Dogs"
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=117694

#02: "All New For '72"
by Hoshizora Productions
Gundam SEED
Yoko Kanno
"Yakitori"
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=115737

#03: "Alchemator 2: Judgement Day"
by Joe Stumm
Fullmetal Alchemist
"Terminator 2" Trailer
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=116558

Action:

#04: "On My Earth"
by AtomX
Akira
Saosin
"I Can Tell There Was An Accident Here Earlier"

#05: "Getting Away"
by Touya_girl Productions
Elfen Lied
Papa Roach
"Getting Away With Murder"

#06: "Kingdom Cross"
by Bluestreak2
Kingdom Hearts
403 Forbiddena
"Southern Cross"
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=114316

#07: "YuYu Tentai Survivor"
by Megan Orchison
YuYu Hakusho
Tatsuhia Suzuki
"Just A Survivor"

#08: "The Angel is Approaching!!"
by Reincarnation Studio
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Klaus Bedelt / Hans Zimmer
"He's a Pirate"

#09: "Blessed Child's Waking Nightmare"
by Scoob
Elfen Lied
Nightwish
"Bless The Child"

Drama:

#10: "I Believe You, But My X-Gun Don't"
by JMI Productions
Gantz
My Chemical Romance
"The Ghost Of You"

#11: "Haunting Me"
by Leiko-chan studios, KeytotheLeyline7
Inu-Yasha
Evanescence
"Haunted"

#12: "Lovers End"
by Valion
Tsukihime
The Birthday Massacre
"Lovers End"

#13: "Hitomi, Take my Hand"
by Mandisa Washington
The Vision of Escaflowne
Dido
"Take my Hand"
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=118802

#14: "An Alchemist's Regret"
by jubjub2
Fullmetal Alchemist - Conqueror of Shambala
Sting
"Fragile"
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=107957

#15: "The Digital Resistance to innocence"
by Brian Kaufman
Serial Experiments Lain +Original Footage
Robert Miles
"Children" (Dreams Version)

#16: "Tragic Memories"
by Dragon/Roy
Rurouni Kenshin - Tsuiokuhen
Cold
"Cure My Tragedy"

#17: "Heaven's Angel"
by Steffi Wexler & Tammy Wexler
Inu-Yasha
DJ Mystik
"Send Me An Angel"

#18: "Distant Places"
by Jessica Nunn
Voices of a Distant Star
Backstreet Boys
"Incomplete"

#19: "Top Of The World"
by Studio Tarantella
Kiki's Delivery Service & My Neighbor Totoro
The Carpenters
"Top Of The World"

Comedy:

#20: "Floyd's Nightmare or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Voices in My Head"
by Parodic Productions (with credit to Black Sun Productions)
Azumanga Daioh, Neon Genesis Evangelion & Various Webcomics & aMotion
A Perfect Circle
"Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums"

#21: "Anime: Lifestyles of the Animated and Fabulous"
by Michael Zubrzycki
various
various audio sources

#22: "The Cat That Won't Cop Out"
by Cacophony
My Neighbor Totoro
Isaac Hayes
"Theme From Shaft"

#23: "Ugly Girl Sakura"
by Mikkamous
Naruto
Adam Henderson
"Ugly Girl"

#24: "Channel Surfin'2"
by Bryan M.S. Minnix
various
various audio sources
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=113954
(Also: "Channel Surfin'" 1: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=71544 )

Hope this helps someone.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Also, I was wondering after the Funimation panel thing, how come we didn't ask Lance about the DBZ Season 1 stuff?

I actually waited and asked him a question. He looked like he wanted to get away from the swarm of people trying to get there questions in so I didn't want to keep him there with a question like, Why aren't you releasing the single disc anymore? We all know why. I wanted to ask somthing we didn't know, so I asked are you going to be re-releasing the whole series under a season type box set like the upcomming vegeta saga box set? He said yes. The whole series WILL be re-released and it won't be in those thin cases it will be a fold out book thingy.

After I asked that, someone else here from the fourm actually asked are you going to get the DragonBox prints. He said they were trying. I don't know how truthfull that answer is but thats what he said. Who here asked him that question?

*Movie 13 News* So... it was Sunday, I was walking around the floor killing time and buying crap I really don't need when I noticed FUNimations panel was playing movie 13. It wasn't a full play of the movie, they would play like 5 minutes and fade to black, show a FUNimation trailer then go back to the movie. So from what I seen... Tapions name is pronounced: Taypion. His flute solo? Gone. What was it replaced with? I have no idea because it was either so low I coulndt hear it or they just made it seem like a dog whistle were only that huge monster could here it. I asked Lance who was also watching it, if they replaced the flute solo and he said, well if you put it on the Japanese version it would be on there. I just noded to the obvious answer and said oh thanks. As for Tapions voice, I only herd grunts and moans and it sounded a lot like Shin. Well, thanks all I have.

There are actually some movies on Youtube.com that people took while at the con. Including the person who cosplayed as Jesus:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=k0LNCJ3Kn5E&search=animenext

[VegettoEX]

I guess I'll do a recap of the rest of our con!

We headed back over to the con around 4:30, and randomly met up with Scott Melzer and Jon Miller (Otakudom, S.T.E.A.M.), who had come to do the fan parody panel that afternoon. Talked to them for a bit, wandered the dealer's room, and picked up all the AMV ballots. The info desk only had about a dozen ballots, so I was concerned... until they told us the gargantuan pile of the rest of them were upstairs in con-ops .

Took 'em back to the hotel room, and started counting. Got the results, exported and encoded the necessary video stuff for the awards ceremony during cosplay, and packed up all the computer equipment. The nice thing about being staff and running stuff like this is that we can just walk right in and sit where-ever. Set up all my equipment in the main tech area, sat through cosplay, and played the winners back (no computer problems, yay! Go Netstream 2000!). Packed it all up, brought it back, and went out to dinner with a bunch of friends. Got back to the hotel room around 1 am, and just crashed.

This morning we started up the encore showing of the AMV contest ~9:20 am (again, waiting for people to actually get INTO the convention before starting it), and did some more dealer's room wandering. We grabbed a bunch of the nice, cheap DB gashapon. 2 DB, 2 DBZ, 1 DBGT. Will take pictures in a bit. The video game dealer obviously went back and listened to what I presume people were asking for, because there was a giant stack of the three DBZ PS1 games inside the glass case today. Grabbed a new copy of Ultimate Battle 22 for a whopping $20. That's less than it is IN JAPAN. I think the other two (well, maybe not Final Bout) were running at $30. Shin Butoden was still there at the other booth. We also broke down and grabbed that big-ass Capcom game history book; the combination of me being a sucker for Capcom fighting games and Meri's X-Men fandom came into play, there!

Packed up the room, loaded the car, said goodbye to Julian, and came home! *snore*

Still editing the podcast. Only... like... 10 minutes into it . Don't expect it tonight...! ^^;;

[Sebastian (SB)]

Well, I went there around Saturday at 8:45am. The convention staff made us (and convention atendees) wait a good 15 minutes after the convention was supposedly opening. Luckily I pre-registered , so I didn't have to wait too long, as my friends (who didn't pre-register) had to. At around 9:45am I was waiting in line for dealer's room which opened about 10 minutes after its scheduled time (10:00am). I was looking everywhere for the recent DBZ "Complete" BGM Collection. Couldn't find it anywhere, but I did see Shin Butoden and Super Goku Den as Mike earlier mentioned. About 10:45am, I was waiting outside the AMV contest. I saw Mike (VegettoEX) and a couple of others over there. Called up my friend whom I invited to come to the podcast (he didn't know what a podcast was but came anyway). Mike approached the exit. I formally greeted him, Meri, and Julian respectively.

Afterwards we waited about a good 10-15 minutes before leaving to their hotel room to start the podcast. During those that waited time I was greeted by fellow forum member "Tanooki Kuribo" and we were talking about how weird it was actually seeing fellow forum members in person. Boy, it certainly was awkward. He was really cool in person though. After waiting those good 15 minutes, we (including my friend, whom seemed a bit skeptical about all of it) proceeded to Mike's hotel room to record the podcast. I've decided not to say much about it since you all will hear it soon. After the podcast recording we went to eat, then separated until the FUNimation panel.

During that time I went to search for the Saint Seiya DVD Collections. I've only ended up finding Collection 2 for a good $40. Afterwards, I lined up for the FUNimation panel alongside Mike andother forum members. Like Mike mentioned, it was boring.... very boring. It was so boring I had to ask forum member "Saiyan" if I could check out his Dragon Ball Kanzenbans he purchased.

After getting my belongings from Mike's room, I didn't see him again. Though I would like to mention the Rintaro & Masao Maruyama panel I went to which was really cool. Maruyama went on to proceed showing all of the new stuff being produced by Madhouse that hasn't been released in the states. Then they went to proceed showing most of the Rintaro's work directed over the years in the anime business. Afterwards questions were being asked to the Guest of Honor concerning their inspiration for "Metropolis" and Rintaro's involvement with Tezuka Osamu Story: I am Son-Goku , etc.,

Interestingly later on that night, I believe Otaku Generation was doing their live podcast recording that Saturday night. One of the panelists randomly called me out from outside the panel to be involved in the podcast. It was really weird, but by then I had had my fill and just wanted to head back home. Sadly I didn't leave the convention floor until 2am, at which point my friends were playing in the video game room. So I stayed in the one of the video rooms watching Mobile Fighter G Gundam and relaxing.