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I watched approximately the first half of the movie. Unfortunately, I had to duck out at that point because of other obligations, but I didn't feel like I was missing a whole lot since it was mostly the same as the TV series, including Kobayashi Osamu's rather stylistically inconsistent episode 4 animation direction.

I figured I'd let the forum know about this, since it's being done by me with some help from other forum members (most notably Spiritsnare, though I guess I should also thank LastElixir for some pointers on kanji and various things). Basically, I've started a little translation group thingie and we're working on a little manga that it seems nobody is paying attention to, called タビと道づれ, which we're calling "Tabi and the Wayfarers" in English for now.

This manga by TANAKANOKA runs in Mag Garden's Comic BLADE and is up to about 4 volumes in Japan. We took an interest in it because of a little cover slip that advertised how Kozue Amano (manga-ka of ARIA) likes the world TANAKANOKA has created for the series. The story is about a girl named Tabi who takes a train to a mysterious town where time doesn't seem to pass normally.

A note on the translation: we are not expert translators; in fact, we have some difficulty reading Japanese. But with some time, dedication, and help from friends who are, we think we've been able to produce a pretty adequate release. What's important is that right now this title is not available to English-speaking audiences at all, so if we can stir up even a little interest, then we've done our job. That's not to say we don't care about translation quality: if you think you know better and want to help us out, let us know. If you just want to bash on how bad it is... don't bother.

We released it in .cbz format, which you can read with a comic book reader such as CDisplayEx, or you can just unzip it and read it in your image viewer of choice (because .cbz is really just .zip in disguise!).

Download: Tabi and the Wayfarers Chapter 01
Group Website: http://mizunashi.mduo13.com/

And how about a chioce of lanyard or clip to hold it ( I prefered the clips).

I second this. I know a lot of people are big fans of lanyards, but this year I was actually glad that we were back to clips. At the very least, it'd be better if the lanyard weren't required as part of the "authenticity" like last year. As long as you continue with the hologram-things like this year, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Well, I like Momoi but, y'know, I'm not as crazy over her as some people here and I'd like to continue to see variety in the Japanese guests available next year. I think Momoi should definitely come back, but maybe two years from now or something? Or she could come back next year if she brings a friend in the business. ;)

Ah, yet another of the "good idea, but hard to do right and risky" threads.

I'm thinking of suggesting a way to do this, since as a con-commuter for years I really understand the worth of such a place. There are a lot of times when I've got a cel, several volumes of manga, or something else (this year it even included a PVC, which is rare for me) that I don't want to lug around the whole con, especially given how forgetful I can be; if I hadn't had access to my room this year, it would've been extra harsh. Those on staff who know better can pick apart my suggestion for potential holes, but maybe this way people can determine whether or not it's feasible.

The way it would work is that a room (perhaps one of the Marriot 2nd-floor rooms like the ones volunteers, staff, rovers, etc. are in?) would be set aside for so-called Coat Check. Fanime would have a large supply of paper bags; each guest (on a per-badge basis) would be allowed whatever they could fit in a paper bag to store for the entire con. (Sorry, if your cosplay is bulkier than that, you'll need a different solution.) Space is allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. A folding table would block the door, and during normal hours of operation two staff/trusted volunteers would be on hand at all times. (During off-hours, the room would be closed and locked.) To check your items, you show your badge, and the staff writes your name on a sticky note or other label attached to the bag as well as putting your name and a one-line comment on what's in the bag into a binder. You sign a liability waiver when you check in, and you initial your line in the binder when you check out. Within the room, the paper bags are organized alphabetically by last name. After the con, people who forgot to pick things up can be notified "eventually", since theoretically the name can be cross-checked with the registration list, which includes contact information.

The biggest potential shortcoming I could see in this is the potential for a traffic jam; checking items in and out could take a while, and I doubt staff wants a big line near ConOps. Also, obviously, as long as the staff demands are to be kept small (2 people at a time, business hours only) there are strong limitations in the amount of space that can be allocated. I think that restricting it to one paper bag per badge is at least fair and adequate for many purposes, including simple cosplays, alternate shoes & shirts for B&W ball, medium-sized purchases, lunchboxes, etc.

Thoughts?

I was mildly pleased to see that there were almost no dumb signs on Friday, and somewhat miffed when by Saturday the "Free Hugs" phenomenon was back with a vengeance. It doesn't intimidate me or anything, but it's kind of embarrassing that by going to the con I am associated with these people.

I ate a lot of cup ramen during the con, but there were other things mixed into my diet including fruit snacks, bread & nutella, oatmeal, and one "proper" meal outside the con per day. It was a pretty reasonable compromise for money, IMO. Having rice would have been a nice addition, but of course not sufficient on its own.

Protip: If you go to Original Joe's, ordering a 3/4 size of one of their pasta dishes is a good way to save money. Yes, the restaurant is still expensive, but you'd have to have an immense appetite not to fill up on a 3/4 portion of OJ's pasta, and it is pretty high-quality food.

sounds like a good idea.

maybe a movie or a mall gathering would be a great idea. just like in the old school days of the fanime forum gatherings.

maybe we should plan some ideas and basically shower suspi with moneys and everyone wear their badges so we can all pose for like a huge group picture of fanime forum peeps.

i approve and support this idea. :D

Hmmmm. An old-school mall gathering where people wear their forum badges? Intriguing.

This year was so-so for AMVs. The contest was run pretty nicely (though having some pencils or something provided for voting would've been convenient), with only one video even arguably a candidate for a different category. (That would be the Kodocha video, which I think would have, unintuitively enough, fared better in the Drama category than in Comedy where it was placed.) The action videos were strong all around, the experimental videos were very experimental, and comedy had a pretty good variety (rather than being all Azumanga or something like in some past years). Drama of course stood out as the stale category this year, with way too many "various" videos using Makoto Shinkai series mixed with other series seemingly chosen at random. How many videos used the scene with the train from Byosoku 5cm? Too many. Comedy wasn't gut-bustingly funny this year, but it did OK for what it was.

I am somewhat surprised that Goldenpants did not use the scene from Goldenboy where he actually does "jizz in his pants" (from the swimming episode) though.

Oh, and the bumpers for the videos really should make it clearer what's the song title, artist title, video creator, video title, etc. The five bits of info seemed to be placed in a different order on every video.

[The Good]

The Good:
-Badge handout went smoothly and quickly on Thursday.
-Restricted Rock Paper Scissors was excellent (and I won, too!)
-Momoi Halko was a great guest - extremely friendly, involved, and excited. She also turned out to be a very good performer, doing probably a better live performance of God Knows than Aya Hirano herself (who often seems to miss notes in her live performances)
-The classic anime viewing room had a cool selection of thing sthat you don't normally see at a con, especially including things that are actually harder to get ahold of than the newest fansubs.
-The mini-pamphlet schedule was really handy and convenient. Please bring back this format for next year!
-The Artist Alley was lively and busy. Unfortunately I didn't get enough time to browse it thoroughly, but I saw a fair amount of good stuff there.
-The Charity Wii is getting really epic. I wish I could've bought it, but I simply did not have $600 to work with. I'll have to remember to save up for next year.
-Forum Badges, as usual, came out pretty nice, although the lower print resolution this year was a little disappointing.
-Console gaming was pretty solid with all-around selection. It could've used more machines, but that's always the case and it's understandable as fans have to provide their equipment to the entire con at their own risk.
-The Visual Novels panel was surprisingly well-informed. The panelist supposedly running it didn't have a lot of informative and useful things to say, but he had the good sense to bring along a friend who knew his stuff. The audience, too, seemed surprisingly knowledgeable.
-AMVs at closing ceremonies again! I love this tradition, although next year the people in charge should make sure the sound and picture are working properly in advance.

The Meh:
-This year's AMV contest was pretty weak outside the action section, especially for drama. People really need to cut back on the Makoto Shinkai/Various stuff. I'd have put the Kodomo no Omocha video in that category, actually, and I'd've voted for it there, too.
-There wasn't a whole lot that appealed to me in the dealer's room. I did manage to find a couple things I wanted, but a large proportion of the things available were just overpriced.
-Similar for the swap meet. Kudos to the girl who sold me all 10 volumes of her Moon Phase manga for $25, but shame on the person trying to sell .hack//INFECTION for $35. I saw that game at GameStop for $12 not even two weeks ago.
-Stage Zero was once again largely filled with uninteresting and embarrassing programming. Come on, the Meme Game ("Replace a word in a song title with 'Yaoi' to make it funnier!") is just... dumb. Though, it was neat to see it going basically all night.
-Tabletop Gaming's selection of board games was initially very slim. It did, however, grow to quite respectable size later.
-Speaking of Tabletop, the number of tables available was thankfully large, but often still full. I think it could do with even more next year.
-Arcade prices were inflated as per usual. $.75 for one play on BlazBlue? Sad, especially when Aksys was offering free play on the console version in the dealer room.
-Badge checking seemed rather lax. I put my Forum Badge on the same clip over my actual badge, and I was only questioned on it like 3 times out of the, like, 50 that I went in and out of rooms.
-The Gurren-Hen movie was more rehash than I thought it would be. It felt like rewatching the series, except they gave us a montage instead of some full episodes. They even reused almost all the animation from the series.
-The Rock Band tournament was freestyle-only? How about an actual point-based tournament of skill?
-Makenai needs a new sound tech who knows how to turn up the right instruments at the right time. Also, their singers need to learn some mic technique, or better yet, how to sing. When a fan from the audience is better than you, there's something wrong.
-Guest Selection. If last year's Fanime felt a bit like GAINAX-con, this year's was Resident Evil-con. Unfortunately, RE has never really been my thing, so a good number of the guests involved meant nothing to me.

Things I (Regretfully) Missed:
-Asian Film. Just never managed to find an opportunity to check out any of the movies.
-The Dojo. The panels that seemed most interesting to me always ended up in a scheduling conflict with other stuff I was doing.
-Cowboy Bebop: The Song Remains the Same. For the second year in a row, I meant to go check it out but didn't manage to make it there in time.
-Yamaga-san Guest Party. Again, the time and admissions information for this event were kept so under-wraps that I was unable to go even though I wanted to.
-Maid Cafe. It was fun in previous years, but the lines were a little long this year and I was trying to be frugal with my lunch spending, so I missed out.
-Black and White Ball. Between Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors and the Momoi concert, I couldn't make it.

Overall it was one of the smoothest Fanime cons I have yet seen. Staff generally seemed to have their stuff together and I didn't witness any major problems. If anything, the largest problem with the con is that, having been to so many, I'm a little blase about the whole thing and didn't bring my full enthusiasm to every minute. If that's all I have to complain about, then I guess you guys are doing something right.

P.S. I agree about real name/fan name sizing and text color. Of course, for finding badges during pre-reg handout, it makes sense for the real name to be larger and more visible, but fan names this year were almost illegible. Maybe just make both of them larger and easily visible.

I think I'd be hella good at this if I were staff. Hell, I did a photo shoot with two friends for my college magazine, where we freestyled for the photographer while passing Impossible-tier songs on Expert.

3.  Houseki - Marina Inoue (Le Portrait de Petit Cossette)

Great song.

Also, good thing I didn't choose my other image choice:

http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/443845/alternate_costume-armor-belt-black_hair-black_rock

Since apparently Meirin already took it XD.

~Chun

That is a pretty crazy-awesome picture. Understandable why it'd get taken so quickly.

Well, it'd be nice if Togashi would get back to drawing Hunter x Hunter...

Well, to be fair, Lupin III is still ridiculously popular and well-known in Japan, but here in the states, it gets a lot less attention. I don't think there's much to be done in that regard aside from watching the show yourself and maybe encouraging your friends who haven't to do so.

I've been following this series for a few reasons (voice cast, insert music, special effects) and have been on the verge of dropping it for others (the plot is dumb, the fanservice is ridiculously overdone) but I've decided that it's entertaining enough, despite being idiotic, for me to follow a little longer.

Girugamesh, v-NEU, SuG for J-Rock/Visual Kei.
Angela Aki, PERFUME, Aural Vampire, FLOW, and VOCALOID for more pop tunes, even though VOCALOID has some rock stuff too. 8)

You might also want to check out some OP/ED from anime or character songs.
Bleach character songs are really nice, and then there is K-ON's Cagayake! Girls and Don't say lazy.

VOCALOID ain't a band. Vocaloid is a software for making music (specifically, synthesized singing). There are like, hundreds of different artists using Vocaloid to make completely different kinds of music...

Man, how did I miss this thread? I haven't had a lot of time to read for pleasure lately, but I sure do have some strong nostalgia in favor of the Redwall books.

And bumping the age bracket to even younger, I actually have been kind of meaning to read at least the first of the An Unfortunate Series of Events books. I heard from a high-school friend that they were actually quite good and not just for kids, and I do find a certain charm in children's literature.

Get hype for forum badges!

Quoted for emphasis.  :D

Double quoted for double emphasis.  :D :D

りょうかい, HYPE GET.

Alright! I did it. http://mduo13.com/myart/kamukamu-estelle.jpg
Colored from http://img.mduo13.com/kamukamu-estelle_rough.jpg, which I found on Pixiv. :3