I was not really expecting to have that great of a time at Anime North this year. Now that it’s finished I can say that it exceeded my expectations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was that great. While it was good to see some familiar faces, I was pretty much on my own for the entire show and didn’t really hang out with anyone for any significant length of time. I didn’t have a lot of money due to an unrelated matter outside of my control that popped up unexpectedly, so I couldn’t afford to buy very much. Last year I spoke on 4 discussion panels and it was a lot of fun and they were all well attended. I had volunteered to be on panels this year too, but for some reason I was only on 1. Topics like classic anime and Transformers didn’t have a panel at all this year, despite being successful last year. Meanwhile, other topics, which will go nameless, were overexposed. That’s just stupid. I don’t understand the reasoning behind that, and it makes it seem that the people in charge really don’t care.

So, for all those reasons it wasn’t that great. However, the main reason why I go to Anime North is Anime Hell, which was hilarious this year. On Sunday there was also a Super Robot presentation that went through almost every 70’s robot anime. After it ended there was still time left, so it just kept going onto 80’s anime. I sang along with the theme songs and it was a lot of fun. I did manage to scrape up enough money to buy all of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix anime, which is great. I also go what must have been the deal of the century. I bought the entire 2004 Tetsujin 28 remake anime, 26 episodes on 6 disks with art box, official, brand new, sealed, licensed by the now bankrupt Geneon and thus out of print, for $10. Yeah, $10. I thought it was some kind of mistake, but that’s how much I paid. Can’t really feel bad about going to a disappointing convention when you walk home with a deal like that.

There was also free live wrestling, and that’s always fun to watch.

So that’s my Anime North experience. Not great, but still OK in the end.

Sayonara.

It’s been awhile since I’ve sat down and watched an Anime series from the first episode to the last, and even longer since I’ve blogged about it. I just finished watching Bamboo Blade. It’s a 26 episode series about 5 high school girls and their kendo club. The 5 characters, the instructor, and the other club members all go through their own personal dilemmas and challenges, and they are made into better people by way of the sport of kendo. Kendo is sort of like Japanese fencing. As the characters learn about kendo, the audience does too, so it’s an interesting look into the cultural aspect. All of this, in and of itself, is decently entertaining while typical of the sports anime genre. What really makes this show fun is that the lead character, who is the most skilled yet the most reserved personality on the team, loves anime and is crazy about a tokusatsu super hero show called “Blade Braver“. While the viewer only gets brief glimpses of this show-within-a-show as the main character watches it, it’s clear that there is a history to it and there are parallels between the heroes fighting their rivals and the actual kendo matches she’s in. The girls even assign themselves colours like a sentai team!

It’s pretty appropriate that a show about kendo would have references to anime and tokusatsu. Now that I know a little bit about kendo through watching Bamboo Blade, I can see how much influence the sport has had on Japanese pop culture. The visual similarities between kendo practitioners in full gear and masked heroes like Kamen Rider are pretty obvious, whether they were intentional or not. Koji Kabuto yelling “ROCKETO PUNCH!” while piloting Mazinger Z and other anime characters who call out their attacks is much like kendo, where the two fighters yell certain words depending on what part of the opponent’s body they are striking at. Actually, there’s a lot of yelling in kendo in general, which reminds me of a “powering up” sequence in any given fighting anime.

Anyway, Bamboo Blade is a fun and enlightening show. Apparently the original manga is being released into English. The anime adaptation is unlikely to be licensed in North America, but the fansubs are out there. I hope there’s a sequel. I’ll watch it. But I’m probably not going to take up kendo anytime soon, because I don’t think my brittle wrist could handle it!

Of course, what I’d really like if for “Blade Braver” to become a real show, because that would be awesome!

Sayonara.

I had been working on this for a long, long time. And now it is done. It is my newest artwork, born out of love for the classic characters of anime. It is my masterpiece.

It is THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF ANIME.

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF ANIME by ninjatron on DeviantArt

Inspired by the animated tv series and based off of a famous piece of art by Bruce Timm, I replaced Superman, Batman, and the rest of the League members with famous anime characters from throughout history.

So far it’s gotten 12 +favs and 10 comments within the past 7 hours. Pretty good, but we can do better! Check it out, read the artist’s comments, and if you like what you see and have a deviantART account, you know what to do.

Sayonara.

Full story here and here.

Looks like a good time to me!

Sayonara.

I just recently got a copy of Tetris for Nintendo DS. I’ve always loved Tetris, ever since I first played it on the PC shortly after it became available internationally. The DS version has been around for awhile but I hadn’t gotten around to picking up a copy. Now it’s getting harder to find so I decided I should get it while I still could.

While I can say that I am a Tetris veteran with years of experience, this DS edition is no walk in the park! It’s incredibly intense. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore after playing a video game. The “marathon” mode just absorbs your entire body into the game to the point where you have no idea how hard you are gripping onto the machine or how much your thumb hurts from pressing the A button to rotate the falling pieces. Even though there are several changes to the core Tetris formula that make it easier, including being able to see the next several pieces to fall, the difficulty becomes extraordinarily high as you continue to play. I have yet to reach the goal of 200 lines, with my highest count falling short at around 175 before the screen fills up. It’s fun but I can’t play it for too long, otherwise I’ll hurt myself. Luckily there are other modes in the game that add some variety, including a nice relaxing “Touch” mode where you arrange blocks using the stylus, but it’s the classic mode that I always come back to.

I think Tetris is pretty much the greatest video game of all time. Even after all these years, there are no first person shooters or MMORPGs that can possibly deliver the kind of white-knuckle experience as a round of Tetris. And yet it’s so completely accessible and easy to understand that even grandma can play. It’s the universal video game.

So now I have a craving. I need to play Tetris again right now.

Sayonara.

UPDATE: 200 LINES BABY! OH YEAH!
Writing this post must have been good luck!
Final score: 277976 points.