AnimeRoot

Wow what an awesome day, Texas Legend Chuck Norris turned 70 and it also happens to be  the International Day of Awesomeness. Amazing, Chuck Norris looks no older then 50 the man is in incredible shape and could still round house kick your face into the next state. I Salute you good sir.

Chuck Norris does not sleep, he waits

So what is this day of Awesomeness about, well check out  http://dayofawesomeness.com

So get out there and do something Awesome today.

Zion Random

FF XIII

Just so you know Final Fantasy XIII comes out tomorrow, but tonight there are various Game Stops and Best Buys having Midnight releases. You will have to look up your local stores as not all the stores are doing the midnight release.

We are going to Game Stop near by us, but I heard if you Cosplay a Final Fantasy character at a Best Buy tonight you could win your copy for free, though this is a rumor.

I’ve been curious to play this game, I want to feel and see what it has to offer. Many reviewers love it, and many fan boys hate it for being too linear. I want to play it and find out the truth.

Just a heads up, I hope to have a review of the game sometime in near future.

Logo

Zion Games, Random

Hangover city… I think I went to sleep at 6:00AM Sunday morning and was up for check-out at 10:00ish. It was a crazy morning, but we managed to get it done somehow. The check-out process was fast and painless, no questions asked.

Radish feels like us

Leeks

We decided to follow the schedule to a few more events, do some browsing of the artist alley, and troll the dealer’s room for any last minute purchases. I found some must-buy stationary, a bento, and a really weird looking plush radish.

As things go we stumbled into the end of Uncle Yo’s late morning panel and then a few of us stuck around for Choices-presented by SHOE. Uncle Yo is always great, laughter is the best medicine. The SHOE show was fantastic as well, this show was slightly different then the improv show but still had a similar feel.

Some of the staff members were pretty tired and not feeling so hot from the long night of partying, and thus we packed up and left shortly after 4:00pm. I really wanted to stay till closing ceremony but the eyes of my fellows said I’m leaving you if you don’t go now. So I packed up and called it day, plenty of writing to catch up on later.

Not much to say but wow what an interesting and good Wasabi. I or one of the other staff of AnimeRoot will be writing a general review of the con as a whole. Also, I will be posting my favorite cosplays.

:)

Looking forward to next year’s AnimeLand Wasabi.

Zion Article, Conventions, Wasabi 2010

After a long Friday night full of song, dance, and maybe one too many to drink it was quite hard to peel myself out of bed, but the show must go on. Grab a shower and Red Bull and its back to into the fray we go. The convention is going much like the rock star life; stay up way too late partying, pass out, and then wake up and do it again. Super fun, but it makes a dent in your well being after a while.

Our first stop was the artist alley and the dealer’s room where there was lots of good stuff to buy. Import items alongside fan made items of every kind were abundant. A wide selection of DVD’s, books, figures, posters, music, and more could be had from many of the merchants within the main room so we did our share of purchasing and browsing. The selection is big, but nothing compared to the majestic whale of a dealers room at Anime Expo. To put this in perspective the entire Red Lion Hotel could have easily fit into the dealer’s room at AX.

Busy Hallways

If the convention could have a mood I’d say it would be swinging wild on Saturday. People dancing, talking, and showing off their cosplay, pictures being taken and connections being made, social networking at its best. Words can’t describe the lobby of this hotel, so we took some photos instead.

The AnimeLand Wasabi AMV Contest was short but good. I was not expecting a huge production as this is a very small local convention. I was not disappointed with the AMV’s, but the order in which they were played could have used some shuffling. It is great that this show is primarily local editors; this format gives the locals a chance to compete with similar editors on a level playing field. This sort of environment also gives editors feedback and helps with their growth, learning from mistakes, and improving. We must all learn to crawl before we can walk.

Phone in your Vote

The voting system at first was very basic, raise your hand for your favorite video, out of three presented to you choose one. Then those top videos with the most votes moved to the finals where a cell phone vote was used. This was a really cool system, but I’m not sure it will work with a multi category audience vote if that is ever needed. Still a very cool system and I like the idea.

There is  a lot more article click the Read more text or select the article itself.

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Zion Anime, Article, Conventions, Wasabi 2010

Friday night dance

It has been a very busy day, lots of hustle and bustle all over the hotel. Parking is bad;  to say there is not enough spots does not do justice. This will get worse by tomorrow rest assured. The Red Lion is a decent hotel, and though it is a bit pressed for space lets just call it comfortable for now. Check in went fairly smooth with events starting at 3:00 and check in at the same time. One of us made it to opening ceremonies though just barely. We are looking forward to the coming events. We call this con the grass roots con, most people are on a first name basis.

The visitors of this con are all a little odd in a good way, but there are a few that creep me out. The stuffed hallways full of goods and art for sale made it feel like a mad market in a distant land. I could only imagine the thoughts passing through the minds of the poor souls staying at this hotel that are not going to the con. “What the hell is going on here?” is the first set of words that comes to mind. I don’t blame them as they were not expecting this anime convention since it sort of fell on them. I was very disappointed that Rock Band presented by the Death of the Arcade folks got canceled last minute because it was a smash hit last year, and regular karaoke is just so dry.

Happy hardcore on day one is radical, and a few us really like it.  Some of us think less of it; as for me I can handle it in small doses. After the happy hardcore some good trance set in for a change in pace.

Unfortunately our female member is not present.  As a result I have no one to send to the yaoi panels so I will not be writing about those. The group of us wandered over to The Shoe Show, Super Happy Otaku Entertainment, and the Late Shoe. The Shoe show was entertaining; taking 1 part anime, 1 part hentai, and several audience members to partake in the improv. We did group skits, dubbing, and questions to random people games, and a few funny songs were played. Overall it was a fun experience.

Late Night SHOE!

The B21+ lounge is what we wandered to next after a few drinks, we arrived at about 12:15 am to the promise of beer, dancing, and a large party. What we got was no beer, a couple of groups of people, and a really good DJ. This was disappointing as we were told by several staff that there was to be beverage on hand, but there weren’t even cups to serve people with. So we decided to do our own thing.  We found some people, broke out some drinks, and got a little loopy.

The Stale Song

Zion Article, Conventions, Wasabi 2010

Aksys games pimping out the turn based JRPG with their recent upcoming title Record of Agarest War. The advertising that is, the contents of the game itself are something more like Disgaea. Check out the official game trailers in all their glory.

Watch first then read article below.

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Zion Random

VHS vs VideoDisc

Turning points of the anime Industry

The legs of any entertainment industry would be distribution, when new ones are invented and become standard the old set are cast off. Let us take a moment and look at a few of these classic formats that are long forgotten. Many kids of modern times may not know of any these obsolete formats, but for history sake I must say I can better appreciate current technology as I have used and lived through the days of VHS, Beta-Max, LaserDisc, and VideoDisc.

Remember that old saying “Be kind, Rewind” I bet your kids have no idea what that means. Well Anime Fans I grew up on VHS, I first encountered Anime on VHS and that’s when I fell in love with it. I have so many good memories from the VHS laserdisc days, and I must say without these formats the American anime industry would not be here today. Thanks Retro! If you’re asking yourself the question “Why is the past so important this second?” Ah, that is a very good question to ask. You might say the reign of DVD is at its end, though it will live on for a long time, but it has passed the torch to the High-Def king Blu-Ray. And that is a good thing, the industry as a whole needed it, and once again your anime collection will change and grow.

Classics once found on VHS are being reborn in their full glory, finally being able to display raw film has empowered artists and directors to re-create and restore classics. Future anime that is already in High def has a home alongside forgotten friends and timeless classics, all on one format. It’s a beautiful thing, and I will be writing more in-depth about it soon.

I will be breaking down some formats, and their impact on the world, including the anime industry in the coming weeks. And reviewing some new and old releases as related to topic and format on hand at time of review, let’s face it I don’t own Beta-max and have long parted with Laserdisc so VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray will be the formats.

DVD vs Laser disc

Zion Random

Hmmm…
This is just my humble opinion, but I think things are evening out finally. Due to the price drop of the PS3 and Wii the Xbox360 finally has some competition to worry about. Honestly I’ve owned my Xbox360 and Wii since launch but only recently jumped on the PS3 boat.

Why you might ask?

PS3 was to expensive, lacked good titles, and still has terrible online service. But now its much more affordable, has many worthy titles under its belt, and is a bargain BluRay player on top. But to be honest my favorite system overall is the XBox360 because of the games. Fan boys of Sony claim better graphics and better load times, well now that I own all the systems I can tell you, it’s pretty much a lie.

The graphics are the same, the load times are the same, and for the most part I’ve yet to see something that the PS3 can do better than the 360 short of playing BluRay.

Hey whoa slow down there Xbox boy, why the hate. Ok I can admit to a bit of bias but to be honest the PS3 is a great system, has good games, and is not a gimmick like the Wii. Don’t get me wrong I like the Wii for Zelda, Mario, Metroid, and Smash bros, and not much else. Its graphics are joke, sound quality almost as bad as a netbook, and the motion of shaking looks like masturbation I’m sick of the Gimmick, but if it pleases the masses please Nintendo feed the hardcore gamers a bit more often.

Ok that’s enough picking on the Wii, it’s not a bad system in any way, but it is not next gen or even current gen, but it is fun and cheap, and is a great way for grandma and grandpa to get in on some gaming to, so it is hard to hate on. Ok I’ve jumped around a little bit but come on you don’t want waste your time hearing fan boy rants you want some points. Well here you go.

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Zion Random