|
WHITE BASE WIRES
5.24.03
by
Matt McConnel
Featuring
An Anime Central Report, and reviews of Neo Ranga
and Cool Devices
Anime
Central Con Report
So a buddy
of mine roped me into helping him staff ACen (http://www.acen.org/)
this year, no prob. Sit back, answer a few questions and watch
all the cos players. No such luck. For all the planning and
effort that goes into a convention of this size, something
inevitably goes wrong, but in the end, it still is fun for
most people. What follows is really a stream of consciousness
narrative lifted from the two odd pages of notes I took over
the course of three rather wild days.
Day
one, Friday 5/16
Wow, what a crowd. There are people arriving in costume and
just loving it, flash bulbs going off left and right, and
people reveling in being a usual minority suddenly thrust
into the majority. This leads to both elation, and a sense
of superiority that sometimes can be detrimental especially
considering there are two other conventions in the hotel at
that time. This festival atmosphere, although it can bring
out some less savory aspects, nevertheless is an overall good
vibe. People are laughing, joking around, and just having
a good time. It is a jovial feeling, and this is not just
among the con-goers, but also to the guests as well. Shout
out to Brett Weaver, one of my favorite voice actors who is
just incredibly cool to meet in person. Especially when one
is yelling down the radio to Guest Relations trying to get
the man a car so he can go eat.
A con
of course has to have the dealer's room, and this year ACen
had to rent out space in a convention center across the street
because there was no more room in the hotel for it. Dealers
are, by their nature, salesmen, and will go to great lengths
to get you to their booth. ADV on the other hand is OUT OF
THEIR MINDS. Now, I have mad love for these people and I usually
enjoy what they do, but a bull horn, drum, the works? It got
so bad that we had to ask them not to use the drum. Not, mind
you, that there was much competition. The guys over at MegaTokyo
were the only ones who were even remotely in the same class
of salesmanship. ADV apparently has partnered with Suncoast
for the purpose of marketing and cons, so while the guys were
from ADV, most of the actual sellers were Suncoast's. This
dichotomy of energy was most notable when you have one gal
looking across at a con-goer talking intelligently about the
Farscape DVDs as the ADV guy behind her is screaming out "NEWTYYYEEEEEP",
and flinging posters and buttons into the crowd. Like I said,
out of their frelling minds, but more fun to watch than any
other dealer there with the possible exception of Robert DeJesus
who's booth was always packed with people getting personalized
mangafied con cards of themselves. Hint to Anime Works. Get
some people who look like they want to be there. Every other
booth was animated and wanted to sell. Anime Works just sat
back and waited. Not good.
Evening
brings a new face to the con. It becomes less a festival and
more of what you expect a con to be. There is the Anime From
Hell program in the main room which is a funny splice together
of some truly bad clips of truly bad Japanese, American, and
even British programming. A little bit later, there is the
first of two dances, and let me tell you there is really nothing
more fun at the end of the first day than to watch Cloud from
FF7 busting some serious moves out on the floor to the strains
of a remix of Evangelion's opening song, 'Cruel Angel's Thesis.'
It also brings drunken con-goers accosted by security and
the over 18 flicks in the video rooms.
Matthew's
con tips #1: Soap and Fabreeze. Musts. Even though ACen has
a running gad with their VERY popular 'Got Soap' shirts promoting
fan-boy hygiene, the fact remains that the place started to
get pretty ripe even on the first day. Don't be that con-goer.
Wash. If you are in cos, wash once before you don, and once
after. Please.
Day
two, Saturday 5/17
Well it is 8 in the morning, and despite the fact that people
have not seemingly slept, or for that matter bathed, does
not deter them from starting off day two with a bang. The
registration line is once again out the door, down the street
and more. Apparently, we overshot last year's total reg on
Friday alone, so this year was BIG.
Ugh. Fan
panels. As I am waiting for the panel discussion with the
man who directed Big O, Those Who Hunt Elves, and Argentosoma
among others, the fan panel in front of us just keeps going.
They will not shut up about their favored show, and they refuse
to shut up even after they have been kicked out into the hall
and will not lower their voices for the three panels going
on at that point. (sigh) Anyhoo, Mr. Katayama was fascinating
once things finally got underway. The initial questions were
pedantic and have nothing to do with the fact that they were
being asked by the moderator who was from a rival website.
Not at all. The real interesting stuff came from Katayama
himself when he talked about becoming an animator after initially
trying be a comic book artist. He got a job animating at Miyazaki's
studio and from there he just kept going. He has produced
some incredible work, and while the one question I got to
ask was really not that spectacular in retrospect, it was
merely one among a field of great questions that mostly focused
on the upcoming season two of Big O and what was it like to
work across the Pacific with Bandai USA and the Cartoon Network.
Probably the best turn around Katayama did on a question was
one guy asking how he renewed his spiritual creativity, and
the response was basically: ''I play with toys.' He is a big
fan of live action pulp, particularly Ultraman, and he has
quite a few of the toys. Directorial prerogative, eh? There
was so much on the second season, that to list everything
that was mentioned would just take too much space and might
actual ruin things. What I do want to say is that he, and
the American translator of the script who was also there,
promised some new twists, a bigger role for the butler, as
well as renewed importance to some initially obscure phrases
and references in the first season.
Next I
sauntered over to the panel discussion with Brett Weaver and
Richard Cox (the voice of Inu-Yasha in the anime of the same
name and the voice of Ranma in some of the later episodes).
Both of these guys were GREAT. They were into the audience
as much as the audience was into them. The give and take of
energy and humor was wonderful, and despite a con-goer chatting
at me for half the time, I still got a great kick out of these
two men just having fun up there, and cracking jokes/anecdotes
with the crowd. Especially after hearing Weaver talk about
him, I am rather keen to meet Matt Greenfield who is one of
the voice directors for ADV. To hear Weaver tell it, the man
is a genius who is also quite cool. And if the works that
Greenfield has worked on are any indicator, I am inclined
to agree with the genius part.
Last I
caught the Central Park Media panel. These guys were a lot
of fun. They were into their products and wanted to tell us
all about three new ones they have coming out that are their
babies. Namely: Alien Nine, Cat Soup, and Anime Runner Kuromi.
All three, ok, the latter two, looked neat. Cat Soup is basically
a LSD trip. No talking, but a story in pictures of, well.
I am not really sure, but it has won quite a few awards, and
from the trailer they showed, it was visually stunning. Anime
Runner is a comedy about the industry itself, and is a self
deprecating look at how optimism can turn to cynicism in a
hurry. These are definitely some titles to watch out for.
At this
point the con is starting to wear. There is a 14 year old
girl in the dealers room who looses her 45 dollar con pass
because she is shoplifting a 6 dollar set of stickers, and
one of the vendors is about to get booted by security because
she is just being a right pain in our asses. But tomorrow
is the last day, and maybe, just maybe I'll be hydrated and
a little less emaciated.
Day
three, Sunday 5/18
Matthew's con tips #2: Anime bed hair. For guys this is more
applicable. You know how most male anime characters have that
wild hair thing going? It's really just bed hair. Grow your
hair to the desired length, then wash it right before bed.
In the morning, spray on some hold, and it looks surprisingly
good. Scary huh?
At last,
there are no more Dual-Jewel concerts to worry about. Just
another signing. Yay. Great draw. Flaky manager. The gals
are real crowd pleasers, but wow. When you have to assign
a babysitter for the manager and not the band, that is a bad
sign.
The end
of a con is strange, it dies with a whimper. There are closing
ceremonies and all, but there isn't really a stopping point.
People shuffle off and at some point the beleaguered hotel
staff starts to pick up what is left. The atmosphere is a
bit like the end of a very stranger summer camp: Hugs all
around, the exchange of number/addresses/email, and the staff
running around trying to keep everything from falling apart
at the last minute so they can go home. We left earlyish.
About 4 or so before closing ceremonies had even finished
because our job was done, and we had a three hour drive. But
as we left, though I was happy to go home, we still spent
most of the drive plotting and planning for next year. A new
skit, what costumes we are going to make, etc. A con never
really ends, it just goes dormant. Planning for next year
is well underway, both for the staff and the fans, and next
year, around this time, all that has happened before will
happen again. Or something.
Neo
Ranga
More info: ADV
Rating: 
Neo Ranga
is aptly named while it continues the tradition of giant city
smashing robots; it adds several new twists to an old, and
tired, genre. Nevertheless, there are some severe problems
with an otherwise creative endeavor. I mean, come on, did
you honestly expect me to like something outright?
The story
is straightforward and utterly disjointed. The short of it
is that there are three sisters, one early 20's, one high
schooler, and one middle schooler. They live in Tokyo. One
day, a giant thing crawls out of the sea and starts walking
inland. The girls recognize the creature as Neo Ranga the
god of a small island in the south Pacific, which their brother
happened to be king of. Mind you, this is not made clear until
the fourth or fifth episode, so for the bulk of the beginning,
one is utterly lost as far as the characters and their relations.
This device can be used to great effect, but Neo Ranga does
not catch the audience up terribly fast, and when the flashback
happens it takes up almost the entire fifteen minute episode.
Yes, the
show is comprised of fifteen minute increments. This is one
of the stronger choices made as it allows for a very serial
story without having to inject filler to bulk out the time.
The episodes are well paced, especially for their reduced
time so there are few long meaningful shots that are not in
fact meaningful. Just as much thought seems to have gone into
the conceptual designs and animated execution. The characters
are crisp, clean, and in their full tribal gear, they are
really remarkable. Unfortunately, in the back of your head
you keep hearing the voice of reason telling you that two
of them are not even 16. The tribal tattoos and what not are
really a nice touch, but not on a near naked 12 year old!
For all
the story potential and obvious thought, Neo Ranga falls far
short of the mark. It really doesn't get interesting until
much later in the series, and by then all the characters have
been established as flat, two-dimensional, and rather bland.
Granted, there is a narrator that keeps alluding to great
things to come, and conspiracies/plots/etc. that have yet
to come to fruition, but these never materialize in a timely
manner. Neo Ranga got stood up on prom night. All dressed
up and no where to go.
Cool
Devices (Warning: 18+ content)
Rating: NO BANANAS. NONE. GO GET SOMETHING FUNNY.
Remind
me again why I bothered? Oh yea, it was a con, it was free,
and I thought it just might be funny. Appearances can be deceiving
dear readers, and even as a piece of trash, Cool Devices has
no redeeming value.
Alright,
the opening has some redeeming qualities, and it really is
quite funny. When the phrase: "Stick your frankfurter in my
honey pot." Scrolled across the screen, the audience was cracking
up. This was what I expected. Funny. I am sick that way, porn
is nothing more than an age rated joke to me, and frankly,
hentai is the funniest of them all. La Blue Girl was some
of the funniest stuff I saw. Come on. A bunch of ninjas getting
dick whipped to death by a monster with three yard long prehensile
cocks? Now that is funny. Yea. I need help.
After
the opening the animation quality drops significantly. It's
not even decently animated, how the hell can this turn you
on? Moreover, there is kinky and there is this. It is not
over the top like La Blue Girl, and it is not the drunken
funny stuff you see in Elven Bride. It is an attempt at American
fetish complete with the restraints that reality imposes.
Gad, I can't believe I am quantifying porn, but at least it
can be decent if you are going to be shelling out the cash
for it, right?
I left
five minutes in because I could not believe I wasted my time
with it. And the smell. My gosh. I was expecting the usual
crowd, and we would sit and laugh at the stupid porn like
we used to do in college to Elven Bride. Wrongo. It was a
truly motley crew. True, there were some of us that were there
for a laugh or two, but for the most part is was people who
were there for the sex. I do not mean to promote stereotypes,
but this sure didn't help my opinion of people who take this
stuff too seriously.
Matt
is our anime guru. Email him here.
|
