Postscript to Rifftrax, Youmacon, and anime reviews:

Quite a bit of stuff to get through here tonight:

A bit of unfinished business with the Rifftrax on the previous Thursday: It seems that Mike, Kevin, and Bill are a bit bummed out from not composing music for Mike and the 'Bots to sing on MST3k, so they branched off to form the Rifftones. Their music isn't bad, it's roughly what you'd expect coming from MST3k... it typically consists of a joke looked at from all angles. Mostly it hits, sometimes it misses. With that said, prior to the Rifftrax they showed a "slide show" of sorts which was supposed to parody the slide shows that precede movies. The slide show was funny, though it looped three times (we were about forty-five minutes early to the show). But they did play Rifftones music, and the best one of the group was about sparkly vampires. It also happened to be the one that they started with and cut into.

Now, I wouldn't normally mention this except for the fact that we were there so early... when we walked it, it seemed as if they were playing a Gloria Estefan concert. To be truthful, I had no idea who it was, just that they were playing some sort of Hispanic/Tejano/Cuban type thing, but they went into one of those old songs that I don't remember except for the fact that I remember Gloria Estefan singing it. I do not know if this was Mike's idea of a Rickroll prior to the show or if they just did it at our local theater to be funny, though there were a couple of people who walked in and then walked out during the concert. Oh well, they missed a good show if they didn't come back.

Next, Youmacon. Conventions have changed in the time since I used to go to them in the early 2000's. Firstly, it seems that there are far more people willing to dress up for them. Next, there's such a WIDE range of anime out there anymore that there's a ton of different characters that people can dress as. When both are added together, people-watching has become such an amazing event, far more interesting than it was ten years ago. I spent large amounts of time at Chicago watching people, and almost could have saved the money and just sat outside the convention. (Considering the monkey wrench, which was the dual proms and the poor traumatized highschoolers, that would have been worth it absolutely.)

However, I am also very impressed by the AMVs that have been created lately. I enjoyed them back in the day, though there wasn't quite so much going on with them; they were all hard cuts and trying to match up scenes with lyrics. Now, especially with the on-beat tics, or the lip-synch, the snazzy edits, and everything else it's pretty amazing. Combine that with the energy in the AMV competitions and it's doubly amazing. I know that all conventions aren't like Anime Central or Youmacon, but that's the positive part. I may be hitting a couple of smaller ones in the area, KitsuneKon in Appleton and/or Anime Milwaukee, and I will be more interested in the viewing rooms, or the dealers, or a few other things... there's just so much going on, and there's so much energy at these things now. A convention is almost like a hit of adrenaline sustained for however long you're at the convention, and it is absolutely enjoyable to be plugged into such a scene.

Overall, I enjoyed ACen a bit more than Youmacon, but the main reason was that while ACen was at about four different hotels and a convention center, Youmacon was at one building-- the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. The facility is beautiful, but it couldn't handle all those people. The aisleways were cramped and it was difficult to get from place to place because of all the chokepoints (escalators and small walkways primarily). I'd still go to Detroit again in a heartbeat, and I am pretty certain that I will next year.

Whew, I'm still not finished with everything! Next, three series on which I want to write opinions.

The series I finished out of the three was Highschool Of the Dead. It's an anime that details what happens to-- you guessed it, high school students-- when a zombie outbreak happens. Recent media (Jonathon Coulton songs, Zombieland) have played zombies as humor rather than horror, but this anime plays the plot device pretty straight. It delves a bit into how people would change given a completely new world with which they may have to inhabit. It's fourteen self-contained episodes, and the ending isn't too bad considering what they have to do. I enjoyed that they played it serious, though they only did so for about three nights total. I'd be interested to see what happens six months, one year, three years in the future to everyone... the infrastructure, how to survive, what skills you'd have to learn, etc... but I realize that it is just an anime series. Of course, there's a pretty large roadblock here, and that's the level of fanservice. It's pretty high. If I'd have to guess a rating for this, it'd be R-rated, though that would be for the gore. As for the service... if you'd ever stepped into the shower and realized that you'd left something on the counter, so you stretch out as far as you can while still keeping one foot in the shower... the shower is the PG-13 guidelines, and the show stretches them as far as it dares. The point of all of this? That you would likely expect the gore, considering the fact that they're playing the plot device pretty straight, but that you wouldn't quite expect the level of fanservice.

The second show I've got at least a few comments on is Axis Powers Hetalia. I'd seen this show in the AMV circuit a few times, and it looked interesting. I finally had a chance to check out a few episodes though, and I definitely enjoy the show. It's got the zaniness of most anime, but now there's a bit of historical aspect to the show that's interesting. While it's a bit bad to see things brought to a broad stereotype, sometimes it's an honest assessment as well and helps to hold a mirror to things going on. I know that it's a fairly lazy allegory in that it doesn't require a whole lot of "thinking" in order to draw the comparisons, but on the other hand it's refreshing to not have to figure out what the creator's trying to infer from his drawings. There's still a ton of humor and I'd certainly recommend it, especially to someone who may like history.

Lastly, I attempted to watch Gundam 00. Attempted is the most important word here. I dropped it while watching Highschool of the Dead, because I was unable to really absorb myself into the series. I think it was because there was absolutely no narrative arc as of now, it's really pretentious and preachy currently because it seems that they've chosen their protagonists to be mouthpieces rather than fallible characters. The protags have a lofty goal, but through the first four episodes they're also undefeated and undefeatable. Worse yet, while the series is set "in the future", it's a very simplistic future that somehow has fewer of the issues that people deal with in the early 21st century. I may try to pick it back up after watching more of Hetalia, but I'm not too sure at this point.

So! That's it for now. I hope that the previous novella has made up at least slightly for the lack of updating through the last four weeks or so. Writing is still progressing, and hopefully we'll be hitting the editing phase shortly of the most recent project.

The last of the fallout from ACen:

Couple last ACen notes that warranted a full blog post (My goal is to push the Rifftrax reviews below the fold before mid-June...)

1. At least according to the almighty Internet, Anime Central's attendance in 2009 was over 15,000 paid attendees (17,500 total). I imagine that you could possibly add another 2,000 to 3,000 attendees for this year, 2010. I mention this because also according to the never-lying Internet, ACen's attendance in 2000 was slightly more than 2,000 people, including yours truly, and 3,200 in 2001, including both myself and Megane 6.7.

To be honest, when I left in 2000 and in 2001, the highlights of the weekend were pretty much getting together with all the other hard-core fans and the goofy people who devote time to writing stories that will never earn a penny in revenue. That lasted for a few hours on a Friday night. Other than a few minutes in the dealer room, there wasn't a whole lot else that really caught my interest.

While some people may decry the size of the convention and say that it was better in the old days, I'm SO not that person. The more the merrier, and it was a terrific weekend. I enjoyed myself far more than ten years ago and I think it's mainly due to the fact that MAPS can put on a better convention with more attendees.

As I believe I mentioned previously, I will be attending Youmacon in Detroit now that I know that there's a decent following there too. I think I became gun-shy about conventions due to the cost and the fact that there were so few people at the ones that I attended in the past... (two ACens and three JAFAX, JAFAX being a free convention in Grand Rapids but exceedingly lightly attended.) The larger scale makes the convention definitely worth going to. Hopefully Youmacon will be comparably good to ACen.

2. On Friday, I and my friends had just arrived to the hotel at about noon. I had already spoken with my family and told them that the car survived another three-hundred mile trip. (There's always a question...) I had a bit of a back-and-forth for the next ten minutes, but then left to get to the convention. While walking to the convention, my cellphone beeps again... and I thought it was more conversation with my significant other. No, it actually turns out to be a temp service asking me if I'd be interested in a job opportunity. To cut the story short, I'm scheduled for a job interview on Thursday, 20 May. I must admit, I'm glad that I checked the phone, even though I spoke to the temp service underneath I-190 with a convention raging around me. I hope that it was a good omen.

Megane and I will be embarking on the next MSTing shortly. (For that matter, we hope that you enjoyed / will enjoy the latest MSTing.) The good news is that there is already some work into it, but the bad news is that it is a bit longer than the typical MSTings we do. I *hope* that we can get it out before the end of the year, that'd be pretty sweet. I've got a summer without classes at least, though there's always the wildcard of when (not "if" anymore, I think) I end up at a new job. Anyway, thanks again for your support and indulgence seeing as how this has turned into some weird kind of blog/commentary/diary hybrid for me. I promise, more anime and movie reviews as well as more MSTings, and possibly some original comedic writings, I just have to get through this rough patch I'm going through.

Yeah, yeah, more stuff... Anime Central 2010

I realize that I'm double-posting in one day, but I neglected to mention something with the last post and didn't want to edit it. I will be attending Anime Central in Chicago this year, from 14 May through 16 May. I will also be attending the fanfiction panel at ACen, where I am fairly sure that I will be on the panel itself. If anyone is in the neighborhood in Chicago, come on by! Any small show of support for MSTing at the fanfiction panel is appreciated, especially since mostly everywhere else online it's pretty much a dead topic.

I won't be doing a live-action MSTing like we attempted the last time I attended ACen, which was... ACen 2001. Wow, nine years ago. Anyway, I don't have a 'fic picked out. Of course, doing it now (with a laptop) would be so much easier than printed sheets and longhand, and it would be enough time for me to find something, but there's absolutely no way that I want to be the only goofball riffing while an anime convention is raging around me. However, popular acclaim and emailed/replied notes of interest may sway me to a different direction...