Anime World Order Show # 86b – News + Anime Boston 2010 Report

We sort of forgot to do news segments for the last several months! Oops!

There’s no point in talking about news that’s long out of date, so we’ll just stick to the main one. Specifically:

Carl Macek. Shown here the way he lived life: combined into one large piece from several others in a way that doesn't fully fit together.

Image swiped mercilessly from Danno! over at Anime Hell.

We also forgot to do a convention report for Anime Boston 2010, which Gerald attended as Press and Daryl/Clarissa attended as panelists. There doesn’t seem to be much discussion about the ones we did, but people showed up! Regardless, we go over what we could have done better. Still, before we get to the actual reviews this episode, let’s play catch up.

21 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 86b – News + Anime Boston 2010 Report”

  1. Great con report, enjoyed the panel Daryl and Clarissa gave on Black Jack (I was the red-bearded guy that walked up at the end and mentioned Black Jack being in the hospital batsu game episode of Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!).

    Great point on themes, I have been at Anime Boston for the past 4 years, and I have NEVER seen anything positive come out of the theme.

    In fact, the only time I’ve seen theme done well at a con is the 2010 Tekkoshocon, where they were crazy enough to make the theme Tokusatsu, with toku badges, books, bags, a dedicated screening room, and several toku panels. They even went so far as to put bar codes on the badges that, when scanned into the Kamen Rider Decade belt toy, would be read by the belt and cause it to play a sound clip.

  2. So who is and why was this Trish Ledoux person hated?

    Also I thought Haruhi’s been selling well on DVD. Not huge numbers but expected for that type of series.

    1. Oh my god, we really HAVE undergone a sea change, fannish knowledge-wise, haven’t we?

      Not that I ever actually hated on her, bemused by her Cali-fan antics was more my take.

      1. Cali-fan antics? We were fans in California; what other kind of antics could we display? And surely it can’t be suggested that California fans are somehow arriviste; the C/FO was founded there.

      2. Well, how about how many have/had the attitude that because of the large Japanese ex-pat and second gen+ communities, and the profusion of “Japantowns” thru the major cities, that was like almost living in Japan and thus “knowing better” about what was worthy, popular and otherwise “in” and if you weren’t in Cali you couldn’t know anything, really, about anime or manga?

        Of course not everybody is like that, but quite a few in my long, long experience.

        Like Trish. Hell, I recall when her hubby (former hubby?) was pimping Doraemon as the best possible manga to bring to America. This was in the ’80s, just before the Viz/Eclipse teamup.

        Yeah, Doraemon.

        And then there’s Trish following the footsteps of Macek, thinking that since she translated (actually, copied and changed Toei’s existing translation) the Galaxy Express 999 movies that her name needed a big “above the line” credit, over Matsumoto and Rin Taro. Because she’s just that good, see.

  3. I was in that same room as the Black Jack the night before, and I think the issue was that one of the stereo channels simply wasn’t working. The way to fix it was to not push the audio jack in all the way, then you’d get the sound from both channels. It worked for me and Mike, who had a panel right before mine.

    I was gonna yell that out but I didn’t want to be THAT GUY. [You’re only THAT GUY if you yell “VLC!” if there’s a video playback issue. VLC Player SUCKS. –Daryl]

  4. Anime Boston was good, but I felt like it dipped down a bit in terms of awesomeness compared to last year. Either way, it’s just as you said: Too much stuff to do (mostly panels to attend), all of varying quality, but it was a really good panel to see people (even though you couldn’t really hang out, because everybody was running all over the place to get to their respective presentations).

    And, yeah… that eromanga panel was a horribly-failed, first-time experiment.

    (But also: I have no idea how the Featured Panelist choice works, because I wasn’t actually chosen as one.)

    I think overall, Anime Boston has been slipping in terms of organization over the past couple years: at least, industry and guest presence has been increasing lowered. Of course, Lou Arruda is keeping everything solid: too bad he can’t doing panels for other major conventions.

    1. I think that, organizationally, AB is pretty all right. There were no major failings this year, as there have been from time to time in the past (remember the great registration line crash of ’08?). The dearth of Japanese guests, to me, just points to either a.) simple lack of availability – it’s not easy to get Japanese guests to an east-coast con, particularly new and exciting guests, or b.) a weak guest relations department, which is a possibility.

      In any case, guests do not “make the con” for me. I like good programming and seeing my pals, and there was plenty of that at Anime Boston. As long as they keep it up and amend the rules to quash disruptive behavior (i.e. MARCO POLO!!!1) I expect next year will be another good one.

      The way some still compare AB to PAX EAST is fascinating to me. Putting the whole “fan con vs. consumer expo” thing aside, they were always going to be vastly different beasts, simply owing to the fact that one event is built around a mature, wildly popular industry and the other is built around an industry that is in total collapse and a relatively small niche category. Just consider the ratio of professionals at each event, for starters.

  5. As a point of reference, all three conventions I’ve been to in the past year here on the west coast(Anime Expo, Anime LA, and Pacific Media Expo) all had bags and lanyards. Obviously AX would, but ALA is a small hotel con and PMX is even smaller. Also, there are no themes whatsoever over here. This show is the first time I’ve ever heard of cons without bags/lanyards and con themes.

    1. Anime Central (in Chicago, in case anyone didn’t know) hasn’t had bags since 2006 iirc. They have always had an abundance of cheap blue lanyards though.

      1. In case y’all are curious, non-customized laynards in the amount a convention would use (say, 300 and up) would cost as much as 46 cents each. Non-customized con bags, about 30 cents (the squarish, fancier kind that have the plastic snap-edge along the top w/molded handle are about twice that, again without custom printing). Not much per unit, but multiply that by 10,000 or 15,000 attendees and it’s easy to see a convention picturing better uses for that money. What they should do with it, of course, is invite AWO!

      2. One solution would be to go ahead and custom print the laynards lanyards but not make them con year specific, and sell them. A buck, buck and a half and you’ve got a nice little profit center there. More attendees would likely buy a dangly than con soap. [I wouldn’t pay money for a lanyard and can’t fathom anyone else doing so either. –Daryl]

        and rather than those plastic bags, how about the reusable cloth grocery bag? That would be much more useful. There must be a cheap source for those, even mom and pop stores can sell branded bags for a buck.

        I’m always thinking of crap like this. I can’t get “working the convention'” out of my blood!

  6. Thanks for mentioning about the Raoh Gaiden getting a Blu-Ray release. Do you guys know if it’s going to be in HD? Also, I nearly creamed my undies when I heard you mention that Golgo 13 was going to get a R1 release!! Is that a DVD release only or will that be on Blu-ray too?

  7. Huh, I listened to this yesterday and now I’ve forgotten what exactly the point I meant to reply to was.

    In any case, Wendee Lee directed the dub of Tales of Vesperia, which I thought sounded pretty good and not that much like a bad anime dub – maybe it helps that the game didn’t have lip flaps to match. Although they did seem to pronounce the main character’s name wrong…

  8. I started listening from the decade in review... p Pretty awesome; has an 1up / atb kinda groove!

    I was wondering if you guys would do a “up and coming directors” segment? I would like to know how crazy any of these people are.. I know Koike is a mangaka! But it’d be interesting if anyone has such a mutated view of the world as that man…

    BTW im I’m Malaysian and for almost every Malaysian, Japanese entertainment like Ultraman, Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Detective Conan, Dr Slump, Slam Dunk, Shin Chan…there are more but im I’m just not thinking of it now... what Which of these did Americans get or not?

    [Other than Doraemon, America got all of those titles in some form or fashion. As for up-and-coming directors, anime doesn’t have very many but one of them happens to be named Koike; Takeshi Koike, director of the “World Record” segment of The Animatrix as well as Redline (which I still haven’t been able to see). –Daryl]

  9. I totally agree with you guys on the Bang Zoom dub phenomanon phenomenon, although since I have no idea who dubs what that’s not what I usually call it. Justic Justin Sevakis characterized the problem on ANNCast as when actors “just talk really earnestly and don’t actually act,” which I think sums up my problem with most dubs. In my opinion natural-sounding speech should be the number one priority for a dub, not adherence to the way the original voice actors sounded. Even if the dialogue has to be partially rewritten, I’d prefer it to stilted acting.

  10. Actually, I like to believe that the black guy on AnimeTV is my evil twin from a parallel universe, sent to this one to establish himself and assassinate me. Because I know the moment we ever cross paths, I’m going to get an evil stare from him, followed by an ambush by him and the full ensemble cast of the show. (Complete with Johnny Yong Bosch rocking a chainsaw polearm.)

    Freddie Mercury will then come back from the dead, cosplaying as Dudley from SF3/SSF4, and sing a rousing rendition of “Another One Bites The Dust”, paving the way for what will be known as the “Best Anime Con Moment of 2011”.

    At least I’d pay to see that, anyways.

  11. He doesn’t look like Willis so it’ all good, Mike Dent.

    I thought Roy Pitts from AnimeTV was completely “jocking” Mike Dent when he got all passionate that HE ALMOST CRIED in that episode where they reviewed Evangelion 1.something.

  12. Just finished listening to the ANN interview with Carl Macek. Thanks for tipping that off, and I can add my hearty recommendation that everyone take it in from start to finish. In fact, I’d go so far as to call it REQUIRED LISTENING.

    That said, I find myself more conflicted than ever over the guy. I absolutely despise many of his creative choices, but I have to hand it to him for business savvy. He was a key player in way more arenas than I ever imagined, and I personally have him to thank for a major part of my own livelihood. I imagine all such key players in any medium generate conflict and controversy the more closely you examine them; this particular guy just happens to be relevant to us.

    Because of what he did for us–and yes, he gave us many gifts indeed–everyone who ever fell into the Carl-haters club for whatever reason owes it to the guy to listen to that interview and give him a fair shake. Like me, you’ll probably come out appreciating him more for some things and finding others even more infuriating. That’s precisely what makes it worth your time.

  13. Hey you guys. I love to play your podcasts at work to help the day go by. I have learned so much about anime from your podcast. I’m 26 and I have watched anime since I was a young boy. I only watched what made it to cable, but because of you guys I have Youtube’d/Crunchyroll’ed anime I never heard before… But enough of me stroking your ego, well at least for now. Loved the show and keep up the great podcast awesomeness.

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