Oh God. What drug do otaku use to trick themselves into thinking they’re any better than juggalos? I need a hit of that today. Maybe two.
I just wanted to recap the news that came out of the Baltimore anime convention Otakon, to satisfy your curiosity in case you didn’t follow its every mind-numbing detail on Twitter. Turns out there wasn’t much to follow. As you probably know, anime cons are mostly about cosplay and fan panels and everything but anime and manga. But there are North American anime and manga companies who announce what they’re going to sell and what paltry audience shows up for these announcements often clap their flippers in approval.
1. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES ON BLU-RAY.
You’ve heard of Sentai Filmworks. They came out of the ashes/dubious financial practices of ADV Films to release a couple of titles that shocked people who cared: the fifty-episode Golgo 13 television series and the Fist of the North Star revival series Raoh Gaiden.
Nevermind it took them two years to finish releasing Golgo 13 and people who bought the FotNS set felt ripped off when a Blu-ray and dub came out afterwards. I’m not trying to badmouth those releases, I’m trying to say they’ve released tons of embarrassing fanservice dookie since then.
But hey, they’re going to release Grave of the Fireflies on Blu-ray in November. Is it truly as depressing/brilliant as I remember it being? Don’t know, but since 2012 continues to be a big year in anime movies, I’ll sure find out.
2. WOLFSMUND: IT’S LIKE VINLAND SAGA, BUT NOT AS GOOD.
Book publisher Vertical, Inc. does this thing on Twitter where they ask people to suggest manga for them to license and then say no to every response they get. Seems kind of rude to me, but hey, I know next to nothing about social media.
One of the titles people have asked for constantly, a beautifully drawn Viking manga named Vinland Saga, can never be released by Vertical. Its rights are held by Kodansha, a company that seems more intent on releasing wonky-looking garbage than some of the best comics Japan has to offer.
In a twisted turn of fate, I think Vertical got tired of people asking them about Vinland Saga and picked up a wonky-looking dark ages manga no one asked for to try and shut everyone up: Wolfsmund.
People who don’t read scanlations may like it because they have nothing better to compare it to. And at least Vertical is trying to address a hole in North America manga publishing. I just wish it could be plugged with something better.
Vertical also licensed some Gundum thing but I don’t wanna talk ab
3. JAM PROJECT TO PERFORM AT A VENUE WHERE PEOPLE WON’T LEAVE EARLY TO ATTEND AMV CONTESTS.
JAM Project is a Japanese music supergroup that devote their lyrical talents to singing songs about super robots and other stuff that doesn’t sound like it should completely and utterly rule, but by some magnificent accomplishment IT ACTUALLY DOES.
Otakorp is going to do a JAM Project concert later this year as its own thing, rather than plugging it in the middle of Otakon, around thousands of people who don’t give a crap, like they did in 2008. Here’s hoping they’ll be backed by a live band this time. I may have to get on this.
There you have it! I rudely drilled down Otakon 2012 to three things. The Internet shrugged.
An expensive 3-D simulation of what it would look like if I attended an anime con. (Not made by me.)
No related posts.
Grave of the Fireflies is still truly depressing and probably will be forever. How can it not remain depressing with that storyline? And watching it after not watching it after a while, you have to be a cold fish not to feel anything.