Hmm, so what did I [Soup] think of OhayoCon 2013? Here’s my telling of Day 2 to give you an idea.
Day 2 – Saturday
Saturday really was a train wreck even from the start.
0700 We both wake up for the first time, hungover as shit.
I, being the experienced drunkard, immediately went and got several cups of water to curb the dehydration, so I would feel better when we finally had to get up to hit the first panel.
Sage, on the other hand, just proceeded to bitch (something about having smaller muscles, I didn’t really get it) until I told him to also go drink some water, having to yell at him to go back for more several times.
1030 Deculture it’s a Macross panel! Sage wasn’t nearly as excited about this bad boy as I was, so I attended the first half while he finished moping in the shower.
The panel was amazing. It had 4 panelists, but only one of them spoke very much: a dude that was extremely knowledgeable about Macross. Basically gave a synopsis with some analysis of each series.
Highlights of the panel were the “Awesomeness by length” slide (wherein the awesomeness was determined by each series’ length), and the nearly censored discussion of “Macross Frontier cosplay adult videos”, which earned hearty laughter and clapping from me and Sage.
The rest of the people were apparently asexual cause they didn’t find it funny at all.
1130 ALL OF MY WHY CHIPOTLE?!?!?!?!?!??!!!
Our second failed attempt at getting Chipotle over the weekend. Not only are they only open from 11-4, but they are also only open weekdays. I guess they hadn’t gotten the memo that 15-20k people were at a con a block away.
Snagged some more subway instead.
1230 Crappy Shows with Awesome Characters panel. We arrived 30 minutes late for this one, wanting to kill some time before the next panel. We should have seen this as a bad omen from the beginning.
When we sat down, they were in the middle of a fairly lengthy discussion about the merits of the characters from Bleach/Naruto/insert generic Shounen shit here.
This didn’t bother me too much; I just hadn’t realized people actually still watched that shit. But around this time is when they started just letting anyone who wanted to speak do so (as an aside, I now know to be careful with this strat at my own panels). People started complaining about each and every random show they thought was bad but had good characters.
Darker than Black was tossed out, though I managed to keep my tongue on that one.
Shit really hit the fan when the blonde autists sitting up front started opening their mouths. We got gems such as “the biggest tragedy in anime is the second season of Black Butler” and “Baccano! had really awesome characters, but why couldn’t they just focus on one character rather than jumping around all the time?”
…maybe it was because they assumed the viewers would have at least the brain capacity of an 8th grader?
The best one though was when they said “Or like Bakemonogatari, the show was awesome, the characters were really cool, but it was so episodic and didn’t really have a plot.” This is when I really lost it, and called this dumb bitch out for not getting that the show was obviously arc-based, considering the episodes were each titled by arc name and episode number. That shut up her pretty good. She was only like 14 though so my comments might have scarred her.
1330 The Funimation Industry Panel. This is one that we always know is gonna suck ass, but we always attend anyways.
It started off with us making fun of “Sully”, the Funi rep, for “letting herself go” and “really putting on some of the LBs” since the last year. (Last year I had spoken several times of how attracted to her I was to Sage.) After which, this beached whale with cat ears in front of us turned around to inform us that were being rude, “especially” because she was friends with her.
…
1) how does you being friends with her affect our level rudeness? and 2) the truth hurts sometimes; we weren’t just making shit up.
God, it would seem, was shining upon us in this case. Sully’s MiniDP adapter got chewed by her cat, so we didn’t have to sit through any obnoxious Funi commercials. The typical run-through of all recent releases did occur though.
The Q&A was even worse then last year. Loads of questions were asked about whether Funi was going to make more of “Dragon Ball AF” and other shitty shows. Yeah guys, cause Funi make animu, right? I swear, they need a banner that says they don’t make anime to put up behind her at every con.
The next gem was some dude in the back that asked if they were going to license the new “Rosario Vampire X Elfen Lied show that recently came out in Japan.” (What the actual fuck?)
And then there was when weirdo behind us asked something about whether they were going to release a video game for DBZ/One Piece/Fairy Tail or some shit. Sully said they didn’t do video games, but he continued to rephrase his question over and over for the next 5 minutes. His stupidity knew no bounds, folks.
I asked several topical questions that got completely blown off, not that I expected anything different.
We also met up with Bell-chan from AhoDomo here, and he joined us in the mockery of the content of this panel.
1530 Japanese translation as a Profession panel. This one was led by a document TL who works at Honda in Columbus or some shit. Also, Sully from Funi was there as well… cause she totally knows Japanese. (If by “Japanese” you mean “German”, that is.)
This panel mostly consisted of them telling us that fansubs/scanlations were killing the industry and that you would never get a job in the industry if you had done either of them. They apparently both fell asleep sometime in the 90s and woke up for the con that morning, or maybe they, like the rest of the industry, are stuck with an archaic viewpoint of the way anime works in North America.
We both left this panel pretty fucking pissed off. {Dark_Sage TL Note: I’m still fucking pissed.}
1830 The Best and Worst of 2012.
Holy shit was this better than last year’s, even though it turned out to be run by the same people.
Don’t really have to much to say, except that they didn’t like Tari Tari nearly enough, but overall they didn’t have the worst opinions I’ve heard.
Jakeman95 from Doki also joined back up with us this year in the middle of this panel, so we spent most the rest of the day chillin’ with him.
2130 Kaballah!
This was a pretty awesome panel about the influence of Kaballah on anime, and where it came from and what Kaballah is all about. It wasn’t the most fun panel we went to, but it was extremely interesting, and the lady obviously knew her shit.
FYI, apparently AT-Fields are made from clay.
2230 Religion in Anime Panel. I can summarize this panel as audience participation gone entirely wrong. The panelists obviously knew their shit, but they let spent like 5 minutes letting people give examples of series that showed each concept they were talking about. We left about 20 minutes in.
The only thing I took from this panel was a mental image of the beautiful Aerith cosplay of the head-panelist. Never did get a pic of that one.
2300 Shitty Hideaki Anno Panel. We figured we would kill some time in here, but we walked in and it didn’t take more than 5 minutes to know this one was going to suck, so we left.
2330 Line Hell.
The Anime Hell panel was going to start at 0000, so people were starting to line up, and we, wanting to get into the panel also did this. At this point we were yanked around like cattle by the neckbeard con staffers telling us to disperse, line back up, disperse, line back up, and then finally move the line to a new location that already had shit tons of people in it.
We obviously decided that it wasn’t worth waiting in line to awkwardly watch several hours worth of hentai with weaboos.
At this point we were all pretty tired and worn out. If you didn’t notice, there were loads of gaps in the times above. This just shows how few good panels there were on Saturday. We spent loads of time just wandering around looking for cool/cute cosplayers to take pictures of. Not finding many, we figured we would just go to bed.
Instead we ended up bullshitting till 0100 (me, Sage, Jakeman, and Bell-chan), so we wandered downstairs to go to the “whose line is it anime (uncensored)” panel, which also had a line of like 300 people in it, so we really just went to bed this time.
Things Sage missed on Day 1!
{Dark_Sage TL Note: Fuck. I miss everything. Damned liquor.}
I’m still pissed off at Funimation. The bitch went on and on about how scanlators/fansubbers were killing anime in North America (oh, I wonder how the Madoka fandom came about) and went on to say that Funimation would never hire a fansubber because their translators were so much better than fansubbers could ever be.
She then went on to say that even translating an anime script for yourself was illegal, when she mentioned at the Funi industry panel that they at Funimation had seen several episodes of Ben-to already (hmm, I wonder how you watched that shit when you don’t speak Japanese).
Oh, and she also made multiple digs at Crunchyroll (basically saying their translations were shit) while going on to say that their simulcasts are delayed because they’re the only people willing to delay a show to make their scripts good.
Not pleased with Funi right now.
You should have asked them to say they were gomen nasai. I can only assume that the relationship between fansubber and scanlators will always be a weird, yet necessary, part of the anime community. I’ll bet Aniplex is secretly a little happy about it though. Bakemonogatari, for instance, being as popular (and therefore marketable) probably never would have happened without fansubs.
Just reread what I wrote. I should have made it more clear that I meant the relationship between fansubbers/scanlators WITH ANIME/MANGA LICENSORS. That might not have come across properly in my original post.
Well yes, Aniplex’s business in the United States depends on the shows they release here to have been sufficiently promoted by fansubs. If there were no fansubs, Aniplex USA wouldn’t exist.
Just as a note to anyone who doesn’t keep track: Madoka is also licensed by Aniplex of America.
So is Fate/Zero if you fancy paying 600 dollars or so for the complete series.
That’s every Aniplex release. Madoka was like 120 for the regular editions and 220 or so for the limited. But they aren’t stupid and I believe they use the exact same video and audio streams as their Japanese release.
Was there an NISA panel at this convention?
Nope, just Funi.
They should realize that by delaying their “simulcasts” (btw it’s not “simultaneous” anymore, so how the hell is it a “simulcast”?), they’re killing their viewership.
Not like it’s gonna make a difference, but starting a personal Funi boycott. Easy to do since I don’t buy anime DVDs anyway.
They’re really proud of their simulcast numbers. Kamisama Kiss was apparently their most successful “simulcast” to date. Funny, because no one in the States watched it since it wasn’t on Crunchyroll.
I’ll respect official manga (specifically online manga, like Viz’s Shounen Jump Alpha) when the industry becomes competent enough to push out a product on par with what I can do myself for free. I was like 16 or 17 at the time when Viz sent a C&D to Red Hawk for Bakuman. I was pissed because our team of unprofessional normal, everyday people could put out a product that beat theirs in every way possible. We ignored the C&D and did it anyway.
The five anime in the picture were chosen for the Best of Anime 2012 panel?
No, that was a random picture I found on Google (I edited a bit of Soup’s original article and added in a few extra pictures). They were fujoshi, so they chose fujoshi shows.
Has Funimation ever been good to begin with? Here in Latin America, whenever I saw ‘Funimation’ or ‘4kids’ (<does that one still exist?) I knew I was in for something of bad quality. They day I discovered I could watch anime through computer, instead of having to watch it exclusively on TV, was glorious.
Then I found I could download it in good quality through different fansub groups, and that was the next big step.
But anyway, ofc fansubbing may cut sales for the owners of the anime, but these people have never offered us a service good enough to deliver anime. If there was something easy and cheap to access, no matter what country you’re in, from which you could get anime with quality subs, they’d win Gillions of money. Instead, I guess nowadays they are losing those Gillions because of their lack of action.
TBH I don’t “get” why you would ever pay for Japanese cartoons, not with the current amount of fansub groups (Most of which suck, but that’s beside the point) and distribution methods.
The only ones suffering in the above scenario are leeches like Funimation, who didn’t create the cartoon in the first place. The creaters of the show aren’t going to care that some hairy barbarians are watching their latest opus of bikini-clad children getting tentacle’d…
Unless, of course, you’re one of THOSE types that want to display their collection of cartoons by way of cover jackets.
I assure you I’m not, but aren’t those studios losing from possible DVD or BD sales? Maybe you’re not in the same boat as me, that’s fine, but I’d be willing to pay for something of good quality and cheap. It’d be money for the subbers and the creators of the anime. Maybe this way people could support good shows that did horribly with Japan’s audience, like Baccano.
>good
>anime
>2013
:|
We have some pretty decent shows this season depending on what you’re into. Though, if you’re into mech or seinen you’re kinda fucked.
I have yet to watch anything thus far. I just automatically assume it all sucks though! I’ll probably watch Sasami@:effort: and whatever at told me to watch! Haha
Watch Kotoura-san, best anime of the season so far.
I don’t particularly “get” the argument you’re making. Publication companies are leeches? People who can afford anime-related good are “THOSE types”? It comes across as the infantile rantings of someone who thinks that because they’re poor, everyone who isn’t is somehow inferior.
You realize that if everyone felt the way that you do that we wouldn’t have anime anymore right?
Kinda confusing because of the reply system, but I’m guessing that’s not directed at me.
It was a reply to SomeDuder. Man, I should really overhaul the comments one of these days.
The real problem comes when conversations get too long, and someone wants to reply to the first or second guy that talked – the new post is thrown to the bottom, and it starts getting confusing.
Taking that issue aside, it’s not that bad.
Well, and the fact that reply windows can get so…tiny.
Only thing I liked about FUNimation was the D.Gray-Man dubs for the first 51 episodes. I haven’t touched their site since then. Also lol’d @ how they said
“The bitch went on and on about how scanlators/fansubbers were killing anime in North America.”
Kinda damned silly of Funi to claim that they would never hire a fansubber. I doubt they’d follow this through since they’d be cutting themselves off from a considerably motivated part of that potential job market.
As for Funi, well Anime as it is would not exist without fansubbers. Hell they’d cease to be relevant in their market if it wasn’t for fansubbers effectively measuring the pulse on the neck of anime fandom.
In short: Funimation should stop being shits.
They’re clearly just butthurt by Crunchyroll being better than them at simulcasting.
That’s what I took away from this too. I have yet to watch anything on Funi’s site, whereas I frequent CR all the time. There’s just so much more *choice* there.
Hahaha yes this!
Funi spent a good deal of time making up all kinds of excuses about why they were shittier at “simulcasting” and they never came out and said crunchyroll but they hinted pretty hard at it. Though they also were trying to convince everyone that their releases were better, that’s why it took so long.
There’re always inconsistency on Sage’s gender.
Solely perpetuated by Sage himself. Speaks miles, really…
You can’t bring such things up. We all know Dark_Sage is a female.
Sage, you should have told the Funimation person that she was being biased. That what she said is the same thing as what Ubisoft said about “piracy”. I’d stand my ground and shout out that she was talking bullshit during her speech.
He did say he was quivering in rage at that point, and decided not to interject in such an emotional state.
Wow Funi is so damn butthurt.
Also saying that they’re better then CR yeah right.
Let’s see CR has better streaming then Funi and CR streams in other Countries not just the US unlike Funi.
Also at least half of what CR simulcast is actually simulcast and not late cast.
Too bad I can’t find a recording of the Funi panel (or I’m just bad). It sounds pretty damn bad, to say the least.
They should get off their high horse and actually try something called “thinking”. But if what you’re saying is true, it will probably never happen.
I don’t think anyone bothers to record these things. The most coverage you’ll get is someone tweeting whatever shows they announce for distribution in America.
If anything, I would’ve expected a company to record their own stuff, but I guess I’m too naive :|
Maybe if Funimation was making money, they’d do that. As it is, I’m surprised they can even afford to send one person to these things.
Are they doing bad? I have no real knowledge about the American companies.
Yes.
I remember some time ago a Funi worker visited the blog and actually made decent points – pity they send a drone instead of him to events.
She still comes on by every now and then.
And I wouldn’t say the Funi person who presented is a drone — she’s just incredibly ignorant as to what the American fanbase consists of and could be replaced by a Twitter account.
The hell you say? Stupidity from Funimation? Well, I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. Funimation: OBVIOUSLY full of extremely talented geniuses. Otherwise how do you explain them making money hand over fist like they are?
Your faulty logic begins where you assume Funi is making money hand over fist…
He was being sarcastic.
I sure am glad somebody understood that otherwise I might be hanging from the rafters by now, not sure how many more hits my faith in humanity can take before I just give it up.
The big three are still the big three
Everyone but you and me have shit taste
You will never see your waifu
Current season is shit and next season will be shit.
All all that’s left is to commit sudoku http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/