Random Ramblings III: Otakon Ho! And Other Stories

By TheBigN(arcissistic Bastard)

Once again, it’s one of those posts where I can’t think of anything to say enough about that warrants a full post, but instead I have a million (roughly) jumbled thoughts that I voice out. So to begin with, the million-dollar question:

Yes I am going to Otakon… Starting tomorrow. This means I’m going to miss out on the epicness that would be the JAM Project concert (;_;), as well as the still epic Touhou panel (but please do check it out). But I’m still going to be there meeting up with friends that I know in real life and the Intarwebs, and still SKILL-ing it up with Omo and friends. Hopefully. This is going to be the first time that I’ve been to a “professional” convention (I helped run a few college-centric ones back in, well, college. Nomad has too, so maybe we should sit down and tell a story or two about it), so I’m sure to be overwhelmed with everything that there is to offer.  And if you want to know what I look like, as well as what the “N” actually stands for, this is probably your best bet to do so as of now.

Seriously. I will not bite. Much.

I really want to meet some of the other animebloggers and readers of my blog that are coming, so if you want to do the same, comment or e-mail me as to how things could happen. But mind you, it doesn’t help that I actually don’t have a cell phone to my name, so finding me could be an annoying challenge, and I apologize for that. And it’s not just me that’s going to be there, as Nomad is already fired up in B-more and ready to start kicking ass for DMAB while I’m not there. But when the two of us are together, no-one can stop us!

And speaking of the pillars of the blog, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that the author column has been +1 for a couple of weeks now. If you’ve also been paying attention, the new author has commented on many a blog for years, so his voice should be familiar for some.  Hopefully sometime in the near future, his interesting thoughts on anime comes out here for everyone to enjoy. Look forward to it.

Because DiGiKerot is just too awesome for words

I was also looking forward to Hinano’s game RenAi Blogger to come out, and so it has, along with a crapload of responses (almost all positive… is it a conspiracy/circle-jerk/just actual nice feelings that a lot of people can have?), so I figured I’d say a sentence or two. I was proud to say that I was able to pass all of the paths the first time around without any problems save for Natsuko’s one. And considering that that tended to be the case for most people I talked to, it kind of makes me worry about myself a little.

Overall, it was a cheesy, charming game, which I think was Hinano’s goal all along (and it was fun to see her namesake get all of the really awesome facial expressions), though CARAMELDANSSEN makes me want to pull my hair out, and I’m one of a very vocal minority who was sad not to see an Impz option in the game. Given that Hinano doesn’t feel like doing anything like this again anytime soon, I can always dream. Hence the above picture, a visual representation of an homage I thought of and the campaign that I’m trying to start up. It’s nothing (too) serious, so don’t take it as such. But I mean, if Shin‘s already writing out the beginnings of scenarios for a porn scene, why not go for it? 😛

I am sure this is who Shin aspires to become.

Speaking of him, he was the target in Sea Slugs‘ newest interview, and as always, it’s good fun to see what makes us fellow bloggers tick, especially as one interestingly unusual as him.  Atarashii Prelude is a blog that I heartily recommended, because it’s a good reminder to always take things easy.

And to end on a somber note, it was sad to hear that Kawai Eri passed away earlier in the week. When I first heard “Barcarolle”, I was enthralled by her voice, which isn’t the type you usually hear in anime, and tried to find other instances where she’s worked. Other than her work as Athena’s magical singing voice and random vocalizing work in ARIA, I’m a fan of “ALMATERIA” from the Tales of Symphonia OP and “Sen no Umi wo Koe te”, the B-side to the Utawarerumono ED “Madoromi no Rinne” for works that she’s sang in anime. It was fun to find out that she worked on the OP and ED for Bamboo Blade, as well as on Sketchbook (notice a trend here), and that her voice was not the be-all and end-all of her talent. Granted, I did not know too much about her other than what she did for these pieces, and in a way, I don’t know if I feel like I should be one to write something like this, because I wasn’t too close to her. But because of how strongly I was moved after hearing Athena’s singing for the first time, I feel that there needs to be some mention about a moment that I’m sure has helped enrich my perspective of anime. I thank her for that, and hopefully she’s serenading everyone up above.

You think Komachi might have been a slacker undine before her current job?