Supernatural Anime Review

Supernatural is a television series that debuted on the WB network in October 2005 and currently runs weekly on the CW. The series follows the tale of Sam and Dean Winchester as they travel across the country hunting various supernatural creatures such as werewolves, vampires and demons. Years ago, when Sam and Dean were young, their mother was killed by a yellow-eyed demon. Since then, Sam and Dean have been on the hunt for the yellow-eyed demon, dealing with "odd" jobs along the way. The show gathered a large following over the seasons, making it one of the CW's most popular shows. During those years, the Winchester brothers have fought against demons, angels, evil spirits, and even each other. Supernatural's fan base has grown worldwide and is currently airing in various countries. Warner Bros. Japan wanted to take the show somewhere that it's never been before.

Japanese animation studio Madhouse Inc. was assigned to produce the anime version of Supernatural. Madhouse has produced other anime including Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Trigun, Di Gi Charat and Death Note. With help from series creator Eric Kripke, Madhouse was able to gather all kinds of resources for the anime including comics and sidestories, as well as the series itself. The anime series covers the first two seasons of Supernatural with some episodes taken from the comics and even a few anime-only originals. Select episodes from the live action series have been retold with new vision while still retaining the suspense and humor that made Supernatural popular. The action in the anime Supernatural is taken to a level that can't be done in the original series.

One instance is an episode that flashbacks on Sam and Dean's childhood when they were hunting with their father. A spirit had taken possession of junked cars and formed them into a giant robot type beast; something that couldn't be achieved in the live series. Another is the reimagined episode with a creature known as a Shapeshifter. Its metamorphic ability was upgraded to something more dynamic than when Eric Kripke introduced it in the first season; this scene alone was really cool. The Shapeshifter first puffs its body up, then it spreads the skin apart and emereges in a new form like a butterfly from a cocoon. The appearance and metamorphic sequence of the Shapeshifter in the anime were above the live series' budget, where it simply removed its skin off like wet clothing.

Supernatural is also known for the development of its characters. The anime does not disappoint. The chemestry between Sam and Dean plays out much the same way as the series. Dean is the older brother, always willing to do anything to protect his younger brother. Sam has always looked up to Dean and continues to do so. John Winchester is still the tough-as-nails hardened hunter that Kripke made him out to be. Sam and Dean's father is hard on his boys but deep down he loves them. I like how Madhouse made John into a bad-to-the-bone loner type of guy who drives around in a hearse, a great re-imagining for his wheels. This John Winchester is an awesome character and is just as gritty, if not more gritty, than his television counterpart.

Being a fan of Supernatural, I didn't know what to expect from the Japanese versions of Sam and Dean. However, I keep my mind open and I have to say I'm impressed with Yuya Uchida, who voices Sam Winchester in the Japanese dub of the series, and Hiroko Touchi, who voices Dean. Madhouse's Naoya Takayama, who supervised the scripts, truly brought the same suspense and mystery to the anime that it had in its live action counterpart. Takahiro Yoshimatsu's character design is truly impressive. He captured the essence of the Winchesters; they resemble the actors that portray them in Kripke's series; they also bring the same charm that actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles do in the series.

Yuya Uchida has voice acted in Eyeshield 21 (Shien Mushanokoji aka: "The Kid"), Naruto Shippuden (Rinji), Soul Eater (Franken Stein), and Black Butler (Ash).

Hiroko Touchi has several popular anime series under his belt with Bleach as Kūgo Ginjō, Trinity Blood as Abel Nightroad, and Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO as Major Michael Colmatta. He has also voiced for several games including Uncharted, Final Fantasy XIII, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Touchi has also dubbed for Will Smith and Christian Bale.

Andrew Farrar does a good job filling in for Jenson Ackles, who couldn't appear until the final two episodes because of scheduling issues, voicing Dean Winchester for the English dub. Jared Padalecki voices Sam throughout the anime series.

I have watched Supernatural since the beginning partly because of my interest in the unknown, but also it's a fun and entertaining show full of suspense, mystery, action, and humor. There are twists and turns that'll keep you wondering as to what's gonna happen next, and you'll have to keep watching to find out. Though the anime is a retelling of those episodes, I still had the same feeling that I had and still have for the live show. Supernatural: The Animation is sure to entertain fans of the original series as well as invite new fans of both series. I recommend this for anyone who's a fan of the show or looking for a cool new anime to watch.

Supernatural: The Animation gets 4.5 out of 5.

J1 An-Ex 3 breakdown.

J1 An-Ex 3, the J1 Studios Anime Experience

It's October now, the month for putting on costumes and running around like children. There is a culture out there that supports this activity, and an event that panders to that culture, but it isn't All Hallows Eve (Halloween) that I'm talking about. It's the J1 Studios Anime Experience! In it's third iteration as an official anime convention, the An-Ex was fantastic and the fans couldn't be happier with the growth! The Hawthorne Recreation Center was filled with tons of anime fans and nerds of all kinds on the eve of Friday the 7th. 

The Main Event hall was as always a major attraction for the evenings. All available tables were filled with vendors selling everything from original art to costume accessories to baked goods and even some BBQ ribs for whoever got hungry (they were good). The head table was there as well, with an energetic Mario acting the host and chatting up anime with everyone that passed. A crowd of cosplayers passed through during the traditional Cosplay Competition, and their custom threads were fantastic!

It's-a me, Mario!

The Game room was another recurring location with the usual free-play of various games and this time an unusual twist. An official Mortal Kombat 9 tournament was held! Many people participated, but only one was the ultimate winner, though 3 of the participants were able to walk away with a fabulous victory prize for their fighting prowess, and everyone had a good time. Adjacent to the Game room was another familiar sight, the Card room, where the room was packed wall to wall with card game enthusiasts, playing impromptu matches of Magic and YuGiOh, and even a showcasing of J1 Studios own fighting-game-style trading card game VTF, the Virtual Tornament Fighter! 

Winner of the Mortal Kombat Tournament

An-Ex also had a Video Room with back to back Anime for the growing audience, including a showing of the new Bleach movie 4: Hell Chapter!

All in all, there was quite a lot to do in the few hours of the Friday evening at a certain Rec Center in South Philadelphia (1200 Carpenter Street). Many people had a good time and many more have promised to return, which they should, because the An-Ex is a growing convention that you know will only get better!

'Ben

PS:
Pictures can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/j1studios

What is Usagi Drop?

Usagi Drop
Writer - Yumi Unita
Director - Kanta Kamei
Production - Studio Fuga
Music - Suguru Matsutani

Going home from his grandfather's funeral, thirty-year-old Daikichi is floored to discover that the old man had an illegitimate child with a younger lover. The rest of his family is equally shocked and embarrassed by this surprise development, and not one of them wants anything to do with the silent little girl, Rin. In a fit of anger, Daikichi decides to take her in himself. As Daikichi nurtures Rin, he started to understand the struggle while at the same time the joy of parenting.

The word of the day here is "Sentimentality". Familial controversy and comedic gags related to her legal status as his 'aunt' are put aside early to make room for the real purpose of the story, which is "Child Raising". Daikichi knows nothing about raising a little girl and he must learn, frequently through last minute desperate endeavors, how to do so. Rin on the other hand is a 6 year old girl, not even in Elementry school yet, who is trying to understand the death of her real father while adapting to life under her new bungling guardian. Through all the little firsts and experiences and trials experienced by the duo, a very real father-daughter love begins to blossom. The show really does focus on the little things, to such a degree that it might be taken as an "idiots guide to child raising". Little things you wouldn't think about normally, like immunization shots, enrolling in primary school, grocery shopping, or the troubles of co-habitation.

The animation quality is difficult to swallow at first. The first moments of the first episode lend to the thought "how could something this grainy possibly be good or entertaining?" That thought quickly disappears as both story and animation smooth out into a near-real life quality. The background music is phenomenal, adding to and sometimes setting the sheer emotion that permeates through the entire series.

I still cannot believe how addictively entertained I was by this show. Maybe it was because of the nature of the drama, but soon in I was wrapped in the warm blanket of platonic romance and crying for precious more seconds of familial love. For being the most real-life fiction I have ever encountered I give this show an unprecedented Perfect 5 out of 5.

'Ben

Otakon 2011 review

Otakon 2011
It is one thing to talk about a convention, or to talk it up like it's the second coming of sliced bread, but quite another thing altogether to experience that truth for yourself. This years' Otakon was no exception. Understand that I have been on the convention scene almost every year since 2000, and have since learned how to look at it all without the veil of awe coloring my perception.
Otakon may not be the best (arguable) or largest (only the second largest) Anime convention in the country, but it is one that I have attended almost religiously since I was first introduced more than 11 years ago. This year was no different, resulting in Baltimore's Inner Harbor being graced with my presence once more. So how is this year different from all others? It is because for the first time, I am attending as Industry instead of a fan.
Otakon, the Otaku (obsessed fan) Convention, was started in the early 90's as a gathering of fans of this strange medium called 'japanimation' in State College, PA. Because of the success of the gathering, the organizers of the gathering decided to do it again the next year, and their fan base grew. In 1994, the crew opened their event as an official Convention and the first official use of the term "Otakon", with an attendance of around 350 people with all of 2 rooms and 4 dealers to its cause. Because of its nearly exponential growth, Otakon moved to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland in the summer of 1999, where it has occupied the entirety of the Baltimore Convention Center, turnout growing to an unthinkable 100,000 estimated turnstile attendance and some 170 dealers by 2011.
That's alot of people.
With a gathering of fans of any scale, some of them are invariably going to Cosplay, or dress up in a costume resembling their favorite characters. When it comes to large scale conventions, there is an unspoken rule that one is practically required to Cosplay, which turns into mind-boggling 35% cosplayer percentage. 35% may not sound like much, but if you walked down a line of random Convention attendee's, every 3rd person will be in costume! Even moreso for the big cons, there simply aren't any slipshod or patched-together costumes. The effort that goes into the dressing steals as quality. The dedication of the fans to continue to wear said costume, no matter how thick, layered, or heavy it may be, throughout the entire day of 100 degree sunny summer weather! The kind of cosplayers encountered in a con is extremely varied, too. From as obscure and missable as Kintaro Oe (Golden Boy) or Shiina Mayuri (Steins:Gate) to the insanely complicated like Angewoman (Digimon) or Saber (Fate/Stay Night), to the outright functional like Ravage (Transformers) or Angeal (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII)

As much as a person can spend people watching (I've devoted an entire con or two to doing just that), there was so much more to do or see than one's fellows. On Thursday the 28th, while a large chunk of people (about 8,000) were there a day early to pick up their pre-registered badges, there was a Japanese style Matsuri (festival) on the street outside the convention center. Included in this early arrival activity was a live concert by Eyeshine, a rock band out of California. Regular hours events worth seeing, above the rest of the event which is just as worthy, include an AMV (Anime Music Video) contest-where people splice scenes from their favorite anime to music-: Several Video game tournaments- including Halo Reach, Street Fighter 4, and the American premier of King of Fighters XIII-; The Masquerade -where the best cosplayers perform extremely well choreographed and prepared skits-; not to mention signings from important people in the industry, including the legendary Nobuo Uematsu- the musical composer for the Final Fantasy series!
Let us not forget the Bane of many a Con'ers Wallet, the Dealers Room and Artists Alley. The Dealers room is a warehouse larger than the total square footage of 3 entire football fields, lined wall to wall with booths and tables selling everything a fan could ever hope to see and stuff they would never think of (but desperately want). Scale replica weapons, Resin Statues, Art Books, DVD's and Manga (graphic novels) galore, costumes, wigs, clothing lines, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even replica Soul Gems from Madoka Magica. Even if one didn't want to spend money they didn't have, there were also large sections devoted to Bandai, Media Blasters, and other less liked licensing corporations who took the opportunity to announce new title acquisitions and other related news!
The other side of the industry room, the Artists Alley, was another humongous room roughly 2/3rds the size of the Dealers Room (more than 2 football fields large!) filled wall to wall with 5' long tables occupied by amateur artists of every kind of ability. From crayon monstrosities to they-make-the-professionals-look-bad to clay sculpting to hand-made plushies of a higher quality than China ever managed to produce. If you even looked hard enough, mainly by walking in with your eyes open because they were that close to the entrance, you could see a table devoted to our own J1 Studios, who had such a successful run spreading the joy that they completely sold out of every single thing they brought!
Several of the downsides to the convention was written off as being "just par for the course", or "you're not a fan if you don't suffer though it", or "it's all part of the convention fun!", even though they really are inconveniences at best and could probably be done better. This includes the reeeeeeealy long lines, such as the 2 hour long line of people trying to even get into the convention center on Friday, the one for people who already picked up their entry badges the day before, because the line to pick up one's badge or even to buy one there is even longer, typically wrapping around the convention center twice. Also, the lines to important events, like Signings or Concerts are just as bad, as one has to get in that line at least 2 hours ahead of time in order to avoid the 2 hour wait for admittance otherwise. Also, sleep deprivation ran rampant, with fans getting an average of 2-3 hours of rest a night, if even that. BO was another factor, as there were a hundred thousand people who were too busy to shower running through those hallways, and it was really really hot that weekend, too.

All in all, Otakon in 2011 was fantastic, as far as Previous Otakon's go. It may be a little too big for first-timers but that never stopped anyone before. Anime Expo, the single largest Anime Convention in the US, tends to hands some of the little things better, like the issue with excessive lines, though Otakon was much more inexpensive to attend. The masquerade was of higher quality than previous years. The dealers room somehow manages to stuff more and more dealers into the same massive crawlspace, and Cosplayers seem to be on a running competition to out-do themselves and each other year after year. If you've ever thought about attending a convention for yourself one of these days, I recommend Otakon, though try to go with a group if it's your first time, lest you be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of nerdiness around you.