Otakon 2009 Day 1: (Ful)Filling

I find that it’s been hard for me to write up my thoughts on things like going to conventions (or just writing in general recently). Part of it is me worrying if I got everything down that I remembered or wanted to remember (but that’s what other people fact checking are for! \o). Part of it is that I feel like there’s a lot that I want to say, but it’s going to be tedious as it’s long as the pre-reg line was on Friday (took about an hour 45 minutes to get in); i.e., me being a lazy bum. And part of it is that other people have done it beforehand. But I did achieve a lot more in this con than I was expecting to; getting autographs and pictures with some guests (more like one guest :3), meeting up with Internet friends I’ve met with before and meeting plenty of new ones in the process (so many that I’m not sure if I can name them all), spending all of my spending money in one hour on the first day at the dealer’s room (still not sure how I did that), taking pictures of cosplay with my recently acquired camera (pics up soon I thinks), doing more karaoke than last year (and how) and so on. For not really having a definite plan for this year’s Otakon, I still had a blast.

First Alice I saw at the con the pre-reg line. The best one out of all I saw too.

Impressions on a Year 2008: Happy Action Fun Time

By TheBigN

Part 1: Interesting People
Part 2: Awesome OP/EDs
Part 3: Fun Phrases
Part 4: Scintillating Soundtracks

And so I finish with moments that made an impact on me in some way, shape or form. It makes me realize just how much has gone on this year that’s been interesting and fun to keep up with, and it also reminds me about how many moments that I haven’t seen yet. Things keep on moving, so hopefully this next year keeps up with the trend of interesting shows, though I might not be able to keep with them as much as I did this year. Ah well. As always, if you have selections of your own, please say them. :3

Impressions on a Year 2008: Fun Phrases

By TheBigN

Part 1: Interesting People
Part 2: Awesome OP/EDs

There are some phrases said that just stick in my memory long after they’ve been said in anime. Those or phrases that are interesting enough, absurd enough, thought-provoking enough, or awesome enough (the latter makes up the majority of them) that I want to share them with others, but need to write them down before I forget them, or something like that. Either way, what you see are what worked for me, and hopefully why they worked for me. Remember that these are statements that I write down under the mercy of whoever decided to translate them, so if these aren’t the correct results, forgive me. And again, feel free to also add your thoughts on phrases you heard and think are awesome.

Impressions on a Year 2008: Awesome OPs/EDs

By TheBigN

Part 1: Interesting People

This year was insane with the amount of anime openings and endings that I liked, and it was hard to narrow down the amount to a “reasonable” number… so I didn’t really attempt to. But these ones here (coupled with Youtube videos) are the ones that stick in my mind the most over the year visually, aurally, or both. That being said, there is a list of Honorable Mentions at the end of the post to include OP/EDs that were also good, but stuff I could easily leave as well. I’m much more critical of music than I am of anime, but doesn’t mean that I have standards. 😛

Impressions on a Year 2008: Beginning With Interesting People

By TheBigN

I don’t know if I can do this next year, what with how the end of second year and the beginning of third year of med school (if I make it that far) goes. But more than about actually being able to see plenty of anime in 2009 is I’ll be motivated enough to keep track of stuff that grabbed my attention over this next year like I did this year. It’s been tiring and annoying to set this list up. But even most importantly, it’s been fun to try and do it again, especially when I’ve seen a lot more stuff in 2008 than 2007.  As always, my opinion is not the be all and end all, so feel free to comment and criticize about my picks. If I forgot someone, let me know. If you don’t agree with any of my choices, let me know (hopefully with more than “X character”>*, though :P). Hopefully this will be an enjoyable experience for you as well.:3

To begin with, for 2008 there are still several people that I like enough over the year to write about, but these are the ones that stick most in my mind, even though things might change over time. It was great knowing them, and hopefully I can get to know more characters that I liked from this year as well.

Jim Morrison, John Paul II, and….. er… Zange-chan

By Nomad(The damn weather needs to pick something and stick with it)Otto

Jim Morrison (of the Doors) had a famous bit in which he he shouted, “When I was back in seminary school, there was someone who put forth the proposition that you could petition the lord with prayer…… YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!” John Paul II (who, in addition to being a pretty good pope, is one of my favorite philosophers in the field of Labor Economics ), on the other hand, had a belief in the efficacy of prayer, but, at the same time, didn’t believe that prayer was “God’s telephone.” Zange-chan, of course, not only has a cell-phone, but does her best to answer the prayers of the masses, and listens directly to the confession of sins for the cost of 100 yen.  The reason for this could be that Morrison was a drugged-out musician, JP was the Pope, and Zange is a fictional character, and additional analysis is stupid. On the other hand, I’m writing this post, so I obviously think there’s something more going on, namely, that we interact with things on a human basis, and, moreover, that interaction makes us humanize things that obviously aren’t, from Godzilla to God. More after the jump.

Symbol of the follies of mankind or your new best friend?

Thankful for Anime, 2008

By TheBigN

When I did this last year, I thought I was a little unique for setting it up the way I did. Turns out that this same format (and the title even), had been done for years past by one Jason Miao. Goes to show you how originality is hard to come by (orz). But it still is a good time to be thankful for yet another fun year in new anime series.

TheBigN’s Crappy One/Two-Liner 2008 Fall Preview

As I’ve stated before, I haven’t done these things before because for most of the shows, I don’t know jack about them, so I thought there was no point. Well, I still think there’s no point in the matter, but because I can’t really think of anything else to post about for the moment (and the Hidamari Sketch x365 posts come when subs come, though I’ve already finished the series *tear*), I figured why not show-off my lack of knowledge and not-so-great humor? If you want actual valuable information, see the many other blogs that have the reviews for this season. Otherwise, here are my “brief” thoughts, with a few unrelated pictures because I’m lazy. Yes, it’s that crappy. 😛

Waiting for the upcoming Season 3.