So, yeah. 2020, am I right? The phrase that keeps being used is “Dumpster Fire“, and I have to agree. But I do this kind of thing for every year, and I might as well continue. There were still things that were released in 2020 that I liked, because, you know, companies are still needing for us to be gouged. I did my best to come up with a list, but was not entirely successful in every category as you will see. Because of that, I decided to add a new category, so read on.

Favorite Game – Pikmin 3 Deluxe Wouldn’t you know it, my favorite game of last year was a re-release of my favorite game from 7 years ago. Hey, it was great then and it’s great now. Pikmin has been one of my favorite underdog Nintendo franchises since the very first game on the Gamecube, and the third entry in the series is probably the best of them all. I enjoyed playing through this game again, especially when I played it on stream. Too bad there is nobody around to play Bingo Battles with.
Favorite Book – Sanei 80s Manga Heroine collection This was released in October, and I discovered the existence of this magazine/book a few weeks ago. I immediately ordered it straight from Japan, and amazingly it arrived in only a couple of days. It’s full of great manga illustrations from the 80’s and I love that style very much. I’m very glad to own this and I think I’ll be referring to it often for inspiration in my own art.
Favorite Toy – Generations Selects God Neptune I bought this set as a Christmas gift for myself and I’m so glad to have it. I would really like to own the initial release of the Seacons, and maybe I will some day, but it came at a bad time and is annoying because you have to buy all the members separately. This team, based on the Japanese exclusive Beast Wars II characters, is just the right kind of weird and obscure piece of Transformers that I dig. Plus, they all came packaged together with a bunch of accessories in what is essentially a big pizza box. I love it and I’m looking forward to combining the 5 robot pirates into the large God Neptune on a live stream some time soon.
Favorite TV Series – Ultraman Z The best show of 2020. Best song of 2020. The best THING of 2020. Ultraman Z made living though 2020 bearable. With wonderful, likable characters and dazzling special effects that often combined retro aesthetic with modern flash, Ultraman Z was a total joy to watch. And it came at just the right time. The fact that Tsuburaya Productions was showing this series to all international audiences on YouTube for free at the same time as it aired in Japan was unthinkable years ago. I eagerly awaited every episode, and the ending was incredibly satisfying. And did I mention the theme song? I did. I’ll mention it again because it’s just the best. Goshowa Kudasai Ware no Na wo!
Favorite Anime – Hi Score Girl Season 2 A great series about video games and teenage nostalgia. Season one was pretty enjoyable, but this second season took a big step forward in my book. I knew from when I was watching it that it would be my favorite anime of the year. While you might think it would just be a silly comedy with video game references, it got to be pretty emotional and really gripping, especially towards the end. But I loved all the video game references too. I lived through a lot of it, so I got them all!
Favorite Movie – I don’t freaking know. What movies even came out in 2020? Sure, some movies were released in a way, and some were maybe even good, but there isn’t anything that was released that I liked well enough to call my favorite of the year, and I don’t feel like picking one anyway . The one thing I missed about “normal” life during the lockdown was going to the movies. A lot of the movies I was really looking forward to have been delayed, and some are going straight to streaming platforms, and not going to the theater is just not the same. One thing is for sure, I refuse out of principal to nominate Sonic the Hedgehog.
New Category: Favorite Person of 2020 – Asuka I needed to make this category just to acknowledge a person who rose above the world’s circumstances and became even more entertaining and impressive than she already was. Asuka is the Most Valuable Player of the pandemic, and not just in the world of wrestling. Whether she was destroying opponents and winning titles in the ring, delivering epic rants in Japanese on the mic that didn’t need translation, or going shopping and making a ridiculous pizza on YouTube, Asuka can do it all and she has proved it. Watching her rise in 2020 has been a highlight.

So that’s that. I did the best I could do decide what I liked. Usually it’s hard to pick because there are so many great things worth talking about. But this time I really had to think. I wasn’t about to scrape the bottom of the barrel though, so no favorite movie. It seems like we’re still in recovery from last year (and, let’s face it, the last several years), but hey, maybe we’ll have more great things to choose from again soon! Embarrassingly, the last time I did this I was really enthusiastic about 2020, and look at how that has turned out. So, perhaps we shouldn’t get our hopes up and let’s instead allow ourselves the simple joy of being pleasantly surprised.

Sayonara.

It’s been way, way too long since I’ve uploaded more art around here. I haven’t been too worried about it, since I’ve been posting it on DeviantArt and elsewhere around the Internet, but I’m overdue for adding them to my real site. I think it’s important to get my art up here so that each piece has a permanent home that doesn’t get washed away in the flow of social media information. But it’s tedious to get all the HTML ready so I only do it every once in awhile, and now I have a huge backlog of stuff to get though. Well, I’m taking a chunk out of that mountain today.

Check out the Illustration page! We’ve got some are from Gundam, Catwoman, Lupin III, Bumblebee, Venom, and Han Solo. This is just the first batch for now. I’ll get some more up in the next few weeks.

Follow me on Twitch to watch when I draw live, and check out my Tumblr for sketches, Works in Progress, and other stuff.

Sayonara.

Hey folks! My web hosting was coming to an end earlier this month, but I am still in business, I shifted on over to another provider who isn’t charging me as much as the other guys. So far it seems like everything is still functional, so there’s that to be thankful for. Right now there is nothing new on the site, as I haven’t had time to update things, but I will make a point of adding new content in the near future. I especially need to put my drawings up on the illustration page. But you can find most of my most recent stuff on my DeviantArt.

Besides that, I got a job! I’m back to teaching art again, only this time it’s via the comfort of my own home studio through the power of zoom. Teaching through the internet has its challenges, but everyone involved was really excited about bringing me on board. The world has been a dumpster fire and I think most people will agree that this year has been tough, but I’m lucky and grateful to have something going for myself at the moment!

Finally, this weekend has been the Virtual TFcon, and I put something together for it. It’s a sneak  preview of my next panel, all about Ninjas in Transformers! You can watch it on the TFcon Facebook or YouTube pages. It will be archived there after it debuts today at 1:30pm EST.

Be sure to follow me on Tumblr too, and watch me when I go live on Twitch!

Sayonara.

The last one went so well, let’s do it one more time!

TFcon was originally scheduled for July this year, but due to the events of this year, was postponed to the weekend of September 4th. Well, that September date has obviously been cancelled, but if you’re looking for a dose of Transformers fandom and community, you’ll have chance to get some that weekend anyway!

“How Transformers Changed Around the World” is a panel about the different ways that Transformers was presented in different countries in its early days. From commercials, comic books, localized dubs of the TV series, and retools of the figures, there was a lot that went into how the Transformers brand was rolled out internationally, and this panel will be going through many of the wilder and weirder changes in an educational and entertaining way.

I first presented this panel at TFcon in 2018, and it was a huge hit with the audience at the time. However, for me I knew it wasn’t everything it could have been, because I had so much content to organize while putting the panel together that I wound up working through much of the convention to get it done, and then I had to rush to fit everything into the allotted time while presenting. Some things got cut from the final version, some things I couldn’t even bother with attempting to include, and one thing wound up missing from the presentation due to an oversight. So this virtual version of the panel, without the worry of having a time limit, will be revised, extended, expanded, and for me, a chance for redemption!

The panel happens on my Twitch channel on September 6th! Just like the virtual convention panel I did in July, everyone is welcome, even if you’ve never been to a Transformers or anime convention before. You do not need to have a Twitch account to watch, but you will need an account to participate in the chat room. I won’t be interacting with the chat much during the presentation itself, and all notifications and redemptions will be turned off during that stretch of time. But we’ll have some time to chill from 5:30pm EST before I start the panel at 6, and then we’ll do some Q&As.

Later that night, hop into my Discord server for a surprise. More to be announced during the panel.

The virtual panel I did in July was a great success, with many viewers and a spirited discussion afterwards. It was some of the most fun I’ve had on the Internet all year, maybe ever! The first weekend of September is probably not going to be the same as July, and nothing can really substitute for a real TFcon hanging with our pals and buying robots, but we’re going to try anyway and see what happens. I hope you can be there, and please help to spread the word by posting about it on your own blogs and social media platforms. As with last time, there will not be any recordings or VOD, so don’t miss it!

After this one, no more virtual panels from me this year! And let’s hope that next year, I’ll be presenting to a room full of real Transformers fans!

EDIT: Added a Facebook Event page. Please add yourself to this page and share it on your page is you are a Facebook kind of person.

Sayonara.

On Sunday July 12, 2020, the weekend that TFcon was original scheduled for before being postponed until September, I will be doing my best to bring a bit of convention magic to the online world as I will be presenting “Japanese Franchises that Influenced Transformers” live to my Twitch channel. It’s a panel that traces the earliest beginnings of modern Japanese popular culture, how robots became such a popular subject, and how it all eventually lead up to the creation of what we know today as Transformers.

I first presented this panel at TFcon live in 2016. It’s an idea that I had for a long time, as the history of Japanese animation, films, and TV Shows is something that I love to research and talk about, and Transformers is a part of that. I was so incredibly nervous going into the presentation, not because of speaking in front of an audience (that’s the fun part), but rather because I was scared of running out of time. I managed to get though it all with a whopping 5 minutes to spare. Now, being online on my very own Twitch channel, I don’t have to worry about that. I’ll be going as long as it takes! Which is perfect because I’m also adding some new content to the panel for this presentation.

Everyone is welcome, even if you’re not a part of the usual TFcon crew or have never been to a Transformers or anime show before. You don’t even need to have a Twitch account to watch, but you will need an account to chat. I won’t be interacting with the chat during the presentation itself, and all notifications and redemptions will be turned off during that stretch of time. But we’ll have a brief moment to chill from 5:30pm EST before I start the panel at 6, and then a Q&A session afterwards, and I’m looking forward to that.

Should be a fun time. It won’t be the same as hanging out with everyone at TFcon, but it’ll be a good way to celebrate the things we still love even while quarantined. And YOU can help by posting, retweeting, and spreading the word wherever Transformers fans gather so that as many people as possible know that this is happening.

I hope to see you there!

EDIT: Added a Facebook Event page.

Sayonara.