2 screenshot limit

I’ve been away from the otakusphere, as you well know, so there’s a new batch of blogs that popped up during the last year or two that I’m only learning about now. So, in the spirit of Sasa’s weekly roundup, I’m going to do my own version. These are posts that amused me; the bloggers didn’t bribe me with sexual favors or anything.

This past weekend saw three anime conventions playing host to a whole bunch of N. American fans. Gia has lots of news and tidbits from Fanime (including having the best Gurenn Lagann souvenir EVER), whereas Omonomono has extensive coverage of Animazement. I’ve sort of grown out of cons, I think (I used to go to at least 3-4/year, now I think I just want to go to one or two, at the most) — but seeing the JP guest list and vibe of Animazement makes me want to check it out someday. Did anybody go to Anime North?

Hynavian reviews Variante, a 4-volume series released by CMX that I’ve been wanting to check out. From the write-up, it definitely falls under the dark & gory category; no fluffy shoujo bunnies here. Speaking of fluffy shoujo, Alafista links to an Oricon poll that reveals that young Japanese women think that NANA best “represents love realistically and is a good handbook on love.” It’s followed by Kimi ni Todoke (which won the 32nd Kodansha Award for Best Shoujo), Hana Yori Dango, Love Com, and Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai. I don’t know if I agree with that. Granted, it’s pretty common that what the Japanese populace thinks doesn’t necessarily agree with the rest of the world, but I think that tidbit deserves another post later this week.

My current blog crush is Iwa ni Hana. Wabi Sabi’s commentary is informative and insightful, sometimes even leaning towards the academic. It’s a refreshing change of pace. I’m happy to find blogs that focus on evergreen topics about anime and manga and culture, not merely what’s currently airing at the moment on Japanese TV.

If you’re in the New York area, there are a few events going on this weekend that may be of interest (list stolen from MA-SOC):

• May 30: HALCALl will be featured in a radio interview that’ll also be broadcast on Samurai Beat Radio in Japan. This will all be happening at the Kinokuniya bookstore in midtown starting at 6 pm.

• May 31: In commemoration of the first movie in the Chinatown Sunset Cinema series, NANA, happyfunsmile will be performing starting at 7 pm. The movie begins at sunset.

• June 1: Japan Day at Central Park’s East Meadow. It seems like it’s going to be a big Japanese summer festival smack dab in the middle of NYC. There’s various family events planned but also shows later in the day, featuring HALCALI, happyfunsmile, Gaijin a Go GO, and Shota Shimizu.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under news and links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.