Otakon 2012 Day 3: Not Much Quantity, Yet So Much Quality

By TheBigN

Sundays at Otakon are always a cool down period for me. Part of it is that usually the panels scheduled on this day tend to be ones that I don’t particularly have much interest in (though I really wish I did check out the Director’s panels when they used to be there. I missed out on something special there).  Part of it is the anticipation for going back to my regular daily grind and wishing that I had more of a respite from it. Part of it is gearing up to say final Hi’s and Goodbyes with friends. And so on. So I don’t really run around during this time and try to get something more out of my leftover time there. I’d like to think this was the case on this Sunday…

Yuki Sanada from Tsuritama. You can find the most interesting cosplays in autograph lines…

Otakon 2012 Day 2: Panels, Podcasts and… Pictures

By TheBigN

To start off, I was remiss in not mentioning the random get-together on Friday that was had over a lack of mahjong sets available. In another example of how some of the best things that occur often come unplanned, the hope that someone had an available set for some riichi outside of the Internet was dashed. But a conversation about life, randomness and Tanto Cuore (loved how the way to explain the game went as “Dominion with maids”, given that I’ve never played that card game either) ensued with people such as 7thWraith, Eternal, and others. In terms of importance, there wasn’t that much, but that moment was worth something in measures of enjoyment, and always a good reminder as to why I’ll probably only really enjoy going to conventions where I can meet up with people I know.

Flandre Scarlet Cosplay. Best Touhou cosplay I saw at the con. She even had fangs!

Random Ramblings V

By TheBigN

Sooooooo… To start, my main (laptop) computer’s fan crapped out, and while I can still use it with the help of a powerful cooling board, it’s functionality has been seriously affected and slowed down to the point of inefficiency to do many things, including watch anime  with it. As such, I’ve been using a Kindle Fire to watch anime for the past couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting experience; partly in that most of the shows that I want to watch this season with outliers (e.g. Smile Precure!, AKB0048, Natsuiro Kiseki) are able to be watched through legal streaming means which greatly helps things IMO, and partly that the Fire has various apps (hulu + and Crunchyroll are what I’ve been using – let me know if there are other good ones) which help “keep me in the loop”, as it were.  As for shows I’m watching this season that make me feel like I can write about them in the small amount of free time I do  have, even though there’s a lot of good stuff this season, typing on a tablet is kinda…

Yayoi in her element. Picture by Haruyama Kazunori. http://diary.fc2.com/user/kazuharoom/img/2012_5/25.jpg

Doing this for five years with something to show for it?

By TheBigN

This post is a little late, though given my posting frequency for the past year, it’s something.

It’s been an interesting year for me in general, and large parts of interesting stuff kept me from writing lengthy posts here on DMAB (if any posts at all – 16 here in the past 12 months :v) while making several tiny comments elsewhere. I’m very much grateful for dm00 picking up the slack and then some in this regard.

I wish this was how I look when I have free time to do things like this. Picture by rorerurirarirurero: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23524523

Anime USA 2011: Brimming Ambivalence.

This was the first year that I was actually able to make all three days of the con, which was a little surprising. Though the first thing I think is that I wish I had as much free time to go to all three days of Otakon instead. I do like the convenience of Anime USA, since it’s pretty easy for me to get there from home with little hassle. But substance-wise, there isn’t enough to really keep me interested in terms of all the goings on at the con. I tend to be pretty focused in panels that tend to be more company-based and more about anime rather than anime culture, as well as guest that are more from the anime industry in Japan compared to elsewhere, and from my limited experience with this convention over the years, I’ve rarely been able to have these desires fulfilled. And that’s probably due to the size of the con as well as probably looking for a target fanbase that I don’t exactly fit in the demographics for (Without any evidence though, this is just whining). It’s times like this where I try to convince myself that I should set up a panel and see if it could get accepted in a con, but quickly psyche myself out of doing so by believing that my work schedule will never allow me to do such insanity.

The Dr. Pepper and everything.

Another badass reason to wear a long white coat, and other things…

Soooooooo…

It’s been a while.

I’m a doctor in name now, and I’m currently plunging into the strenuous world of residency. So much so that it’s a little hard to do things like watch anime (which I do in spurts), or write about it. But I’m starting to get into the pace of hospital work better, so hopefully there shouldn’t be a three-month writing layoff again as there has been here.  After getting a long white coat, you sort of get an idea of what it takes to keep one, which I hope Hakase and Hououin Okabe Rintarou learn throughout their goals as scientists.

The dynamic duo. Picture by shinako (laeseperanza): http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=18866656

Helping out, if only a little.

By TheBigN

Whenever I hear from other anime bloggers about how large of a group we are, I roll my eyes and disregard the statement.  I think we tend to forget that we aren’t nearly as important as we think we are, and more importantly, that anime/manga isn’t as important as we think it is either. It’s good to keep things in perspective, and even though I support and have donated to the effort of Anime and Manga Bloggers For Japan (and an ad banner is to the right as well, for those who care), the pitch being made on the website makes the group sound more noble than it is. And to me it has a whiff of that sort of “support the industry” mindset from others that has what really is a drop in the bucket sound like “our” helping out is the only way to stop the flood.

That being said, any donations to any charities is a good donation more often than not, and I certainly get behind the two organizations that Anime and Manga Bloggers For Japan are supporting given that Japan is only just starting to deal with the aftermath of a powerful earthquake and tsunami.  But we need to remember that we’re probably helping out other people in different situations too with our donations, and that although it’s probably easier to think about, it shouldn’t just be about Japan or us. In the grand scheme of things, or blogs even, while we can make an impact, we’re still only just a tiny part. 🙂

DMAB is Four Years Old. Hey.

By TheBigN

It’s helped that articles like this one pop up every now and then that both help me take stock of how long DMAB has gone (and is still going) as a blog, and provide some sort of subjective measure of our influence (which isn’t much \o). That being said, this blog wasn’t created to be inspiring, and it’s a nice surprise to see that it’s still going strong with the writings of dm00, Link, nomadotto (he’s still alive, don’t you know), and I continually bringing things out of the woodwork. And that definitely includes the extra hand or two that jumps in, to my eternal gratitude, to keep things running, if not interesting. I only hope that it can continue for years to come, and it helps that they still keep making anime at that.

As always, I hope that whoever normally reads, subscribes, comments, lurks, or just so happens to find this blog randomly searching for something like, say, “Hideyoshi Kinoshita”, has gotten something positive from it (:P). If it’s something that somehow makes you smile, even better, and it’s totally awesome if the blog makes you think or inspires you to do something that you enjoy.  Goodness knows that if I didn’t enjoy putting my words out onto this little tiny area of the Internet, regardless of how many people see them or not, I wouldn’t still be doing this. Especially considering how my life is only going to get more consumed by factors outside of anime and manga. And I believe that everyone else on DMAB has sentiments along those lines.

I never feel like I express myself well in these types of posts when I write them given their relative importance, but I think saying thank you for reading Drastic My Anime Blog is best as always. And please keep stopping by if you have the time to do so.  🙂

 

Like a breath of fresh air. By 六羽田共. Website at http://heart.sabax.jp/.