FanimeCon 2013 - my schedule

Folks:

As most of you know I'll again be a guest of honor at FanimeCon. I have 3 presentations this year.

This schedule is a little dated but as far as I know still stands.

Subject to changes at any time. If I find out about any changes before the con I'll post that information in this blog.


Friday, 5pm (1 hour) - Anime (and Manga) for Parents.
- No badge needed open to the general public.


Friday, 9pm (2 hours, in the biggest panel room) - Sex Trade in Anime and Manga
 - You have to be over 18 to get in and bring your ID


Sunday, 3pm (1 hour) - Navigating Tokyo

Live Action for April

I have added four live action movies to my recommended lists. One is available on region 2 DVD with subtitles from Japan. This batch gives us an interesting mix of samurai, arsonists, ronin, murderers, con artists, and middle school teachers.

The four movies are:

- Blind Menace

- Goyokin

- Hei no Naka no Chuugakkou

- Revenge

Check these out and see if you may be interested.

April's New Recommendations

I have added several more anime, and one manga to the recommended lists. A few are actually restorations as I have found subtitled releases from overseas, mainly Japan, as well as new US re-releases. I have also updated some of the older links adding blu-ray releases and newer versions. This updating is a task that shall continue for a few more weeks as I do it in small chunks.

The added entries are:

Anime:

- GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka

- Mobile Suit Gundamm TV series

- Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn)

- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation

- Redline

- Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise

Manga:

- All My Darling Daughters by Yoshinaga Fumi

Studio Ghibli does live action?

I have added six new live action videos to my recommended movie list. All of them are English subtitled Studio Ghibli documentaries. Some are done by third parties, some by Studio Ghibli itself.

- Ghibli no E Shokunin kazuo Oka Ten Totoro no Mori wo Kaita Hito

- Hayao Miyazaki to Ghibli Bijutsukan (Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum)

- Otsuka Yasuo no Ugokasu Yorokobi

- Sekai Waga Kokoro no Tabi

- Thank You, Lasseter-san

- Yanagawa Horiwari Monogatari (The Story of Yanagawa's Canals)

Many non-Japanese fans of the anime produced by the artists at Ghibli do not know of these works as they have yet to be released to English speaking audiences. For this reason the Japanese DVD versions of these works are all region 2. However since the releases all have subtitles we can still enjoy them without knowing the language. As these are region 2 discs you will need a DVD player capable of playing them. Fortunately region 2 capable players are not that hard to find, at least in the US, and of course Europe which is in region 2.

Puff the Magic Firearm?

In that classic anime Otaku no Video there is one of the 'interviews' with a firearm otaku having a war game with friends. Military and gun otaku and maniacs in Japan are part of the larger mix of fan cultures that exist there.

But what of the U.S? Sure you have heard of paintball, but is there more?

Apparently yes, much more, and they have a magazine. The NAM: National Airsoft Magazine is for hard core fans and hobbyists.

Check it out, even if you are like me and not into guns. These guys are putting out a pretty impressive product.

We have lost one of our best

Manga Translation Pioneer Toren Smith Passes Away

Toren was always helpful when I had a question or wanted feedback on something I was writing. He gave me a generous, and he insisted honest, blurb for my first book The Anime Companion.

His name on a translation was enough to make me buy it, he chose what he translated and the choices were excellent.

Toren was also instrumental in showing anime to many San Francisco Bay Area science fiction fans at BayCon.

Yasuhiro Takeda in his The Notenki Memoirs has an amusing tale regarding Toren staying at a Gainax staff residence. One day the other occupants of this all male enclave were started to see something that had never happened before, an attractive young woman leave Toren's room in the morning.

For a list of what he worked on see the entry on him in the Anime News Network Encyclopedia.

There's a swordfight goin' on

This week I add four more movies to my live action recommendations.

Three directed by Kudo Eiichi:

Eleven Samurai (1967)

The Great Killing (1964)

13 Assassins (1963)

One directed by Miike Takashi which is a remake of one of the above movies with references to another.

13 Assassins (2010)