AnimeRoot

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Zion Article, Conventions, Wasabi 2010

Zions day one reflection

“Man… I Love NDK!”

NDK has always been my favorite convention, and today has re-enforced that fact. This convention treats people like people. I was yelled at to stay in line a few times, but that being my own fault for my curious eyes would go wandering to cosplayers and my friends. Each year when I return to NDK I’m reminded about just how much I miss it, Man… I love NDK! This convention has an atmosphere unlike anything else that no other con can match, not even mega-cons like AX. This convention has love, spirit, and a warm glow that comforts and embraces much like grandma’s house.

NDK has grown bigger and bigger, but still retains that small con funky attitude and feel. This convention sticks to its roots and traditions and continues to deliver a solid weekend of fun for everyone.I can’t put words to the dedication of the staff and volunteers, I know how much work goes into organizing and running this monster every year, and the people are there to meet the challenge.

If you read Yudothat’s post below this post, it pretty much summarizes where and what we did on Friday, this post is strictly reflections.

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Zion Article, Conventions, NDK 2009

Us the people of Animeroot recently got back in touch with our local roots, and the local roots were like “WTF animeroot where is all your old coverage?” and we were like “Doh!” So we will have to dip into the depths of our hard disks and dv-tapes to retrieve said footage, it hopefully will be up and added within the week here.

We have gone through some changes over the years, format changes, approach and general way of thinking.
You might not think this is the same animeroot but believe me it is. We still have the forums, the pub, the galleries, and the reviews.

This year has been slow for us due to: College, travel, illness, and hosting problems. Many of the staff here at the animeroot HQ have been very busy with projects extending into what was our free time to work on this site, but we are almost done with school so expect Hope and Change here in the near future. I know I have been slacking and it shows, sigh…

EDIT: tl;dr – NDK 2005-2008 pictures all uploaded in gallery!

Zion Article, News

If you watch anything more than WMA or Quicktime on your computer, you will know that codecs are your  best friend and worst enemy when it comes to playback. The best codec pack(This is fact because I am saying it!) is the Combined Community Codec Pack or CCCP for short. All you have to do is download the installer and let it run. The default settings allow playback in either Media Player Classic or Zoom Player, which I prefer the latter of the two. If you use Windows Vista x64 or 7 x64 then you may have some issues concerning the playback using the default settings of Zoom Player(At least I know I did). Here are the steps I took to fix this issue!.

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Byron Article

I have recently sat down and Re-Re-Re watched utawarerumono TV in HD, All I can say is wow, I love this show!

If you have never seen utawarerumono let alone heard of it you’re most likely not alone, but you should go out and buy the DVD or Blu-Ray set. This show makes me laugh, cry, and think deeply, it was a good experience overall. I should note that I played the PC game, and that I am looking forward to the OVA coming out on JUNE 5th in beautiful 1080P. Many fans of game for PC say the TV series was a travesty, and that it did not tell the story correctly. This argument is half correct, but we must look at it from different angles, from the ERO point of view the TV series was lacking, the logical reason for this is simple, in a game you have choices to make and those decisions will change the story and reflect a different angle.

Also LEAF the company behind utawarerumono had to create something that could be played on TV say in a prime time TV slot, so ERO content and nudity were out. It is widely believed that the up and coming OVA is going to help fill those holes maybe literally with that missing content. That said LEAF is basically giving back to its fans with service, doing what they originally did. PRO TIP: utawarerumono was a turn based H game before it was cleaned up and ported to the Ps2 and then became an anime TV series. This OVA will fill in some side stories, give more justice to the PC game and summarize very briefly, like 3 episodes briefly.

Trailers are at the bottom and more information.

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Zion Anime, Anime Review, Article, Random, Review

Let me be the first to welcome you to the new animeroot.com. This is obviously not the finished product and is still under construction. Building a website isn’t easy and we all have lives so can’t dedicated too much time just yet.
We have this site to serve YOU. Yes you in the chair sitting in front of the screen. We want to know, what do YOU want to see on the site?

Byron Article