Evangelion: 1.11

The family doing Eva at AWA 2007

      You are ( Not ) Alone is the first of the Eva rebuild movies, and I thought it was quite good.  Of course, it is almost identical to the original six episodes.  This is not a reboot, it's almost shot for shot the same.  If you liked the original I can't see how you wouldn't like this.  Of course the visuals are very impressive and I like the pacing it really moves.  One thing that stuck out to me was that things seemed well explained.  You could watch the original series a couple times and still not be sure what just happened.  It was deliberately obscure.  Anyway go buy it and watch away can't wait for part two.

My Top Five Manga: Right Now

     When I wrote about Nana the other day, I said it would crack my top five list.  That got me thinking as to what I would actually put on my top five list.  I came up with a quick one that is subject to revision, in oh about the time I finish writing this.  Here's what I came up with.

1.  GTO
2. Love Hina
3. Kare Kano
4. Nana
5. Genshiken

     GTO's mix of comedy, drama and insanity is irresistible.  I'm sure they exist, but I have yet to find someone who doesn't like GTO.  It's a must read.  Love Hina is really a personal pick.  I could read it over and over, but I can see how it wouldn't work for some people.  It also has a bit of a slow point right before it's fast paced and glorious end.  Kare Kano is a shojo title that transcends the genre.  Great likable, and detestable, characters.  It goes from funny to sad and everything in between and makes it all work. Nana has maybe the most likable characters, but also the most real.  Everyone in this book does good and bad things.  You can sympathise with every character.  How can I leave out Genshiken, it's a good book that just happens to be about Otaku culture.  Again with likable and realistic characters.  I've sort of left out a lot of older stuff because it's just a different animal.  Also, I left out Miyazaki's brilliant Nausicaa Manga, as it is on a higher plane than other manga.  Really you should read that first, it's great.  Any way I'll change my mind momentarily, so I should stop now.

Manga we're Reading: NANA

 

     Kimi and I have both been reading Nana by Ai Yazawa.  She's read all 21 volumes, I'm up to 16, but I can still comment on this book.  It's really good.  I think it would even crack my top 5 manga of all time, barely.  Alot of you probably no the basics as it's had 21 books, a lengthy anime series and a live action movie.  I might have left some stuff out, like the PS2 game and numerous albums.  Anyway it's about two very different girls named nana, a rare name, who end up moving away from home, and living together in Tokyo.  It's a typical shojo title focusing on the girls, their friends, and relationships.  However, the characters come across as imediately likeable, flawed and very believable.  It's well written, poignant and funny, and the artwork is quite good.  This book has style.  I can highly recommend this unless you don't like Shojo.  In which case I suggest you try reading some. 

Kimi is ACP's link of the day!

My cosplay Lulu was choosen as American Cosplay Paradise's link of the day!

Thanks ACP!

Otakon 2010: Part 3

Sunday at Otakon will be brief.  We waded through the dealer's room for quite a while, but all we accomplished was getting some manga, Sensual Phrase, and signing up for Katsucon.  We already have a room so we thought we might as well.  Then we wandered back to our usual haunt by the fountains.  On the way we saw some good cosplay

This cool looking pair.

And a Lupin the 3rd group.

Back at the fountains we said bye to EBK.

And went back to get our stuff and go.

We had a great time, but boy we could have managed things alot better.  We walked way more than we had to..

Otakon 2010: Part 2

   Saturday was a Magic Knight Rayearth day,  we were doing Lantis and Alcyone.  But first, we slept late, ordered breakfast and took forever to get up and out.  This later fact will become important to the story.  First we ran to the Clamp photo shoot out on the 3rd floor terrace  

 Next order of business was to go take some pictures with Super Kawaii Magazine.  

So we ran down to the dealers room all the way in the back and waited a bit, and just as we were about to get started the F-ing fire alarm went off.  We took refuge in the Hilton bar, then took a cab back to the Sheraton.  You can see the heels Kimi was walking in.  Anyway we went back and finally got it done.

Now it was time to hook up with a friend of ours who was doing Caldena from MKR.  That character was pretty cool and she makes a fine pair with Alcyone.

We spent alot of time around the fountains, took some more pics with EBK and checked out other Cosplayers.  Alcyone also did a commercial spot for Vincent of Sci-Fi Ninja Theater

For the evening Kimi will be wearing her white Alcyone from the OVA.  We spent some time with a very cool Umi cosplayer and got a few pics with her.

While we were hanging out we saw some awesome cosplay.

Gundam

FF 13

Bioshock

It was a busy day and we were about to head back to the hotel when we ran into a whole set of Magic Knights.  They were really awesome.  We chatted, took some pics and hunted down EBK for a Quik shoot.

That was quite an eventful day.

Our Otakon Photos on Flickr

A few photos from Friday and Saturday mostly by the fountains.
http://www.flickr.com/people/52656279@N02/

Otakon 2010

    We got to Otakon around lunch time on Friday, checked into our hotel and went straight to registration.  Both of us got through in less than a minute, a far cry from say, Katsucon.  Love the bar codes.  Time to Cosplay.  We went Auron and Lulu from FFX for the evening.  First thing we did was run to a FF shoot which we passed right by and ended up in the midst of a Pokemon shoot.  Very luckily we ran into a Tidus, Rikku and Yuna.  

Photo by Eurobeat King

      They turned out to be extra cool and we sought out the FF shoot together,  which we actually made on time.  After that we went searching for our friend and noted photog Eurobeat King.  There were of course a number of impromptu photo ops along the way.  Down  by the fountains we found EBK, Refractor and a few others. We ended up doing a number of lengthy photo shoots.  Our new found friends were real troopers. 

Rikku keeps an eye on EBK

We also ran into Tidus' dad Jecht

     Unfortunatly Lulu ran into a Tonberry,  with unfortunate consequences.

      Lucky for her Yuna was nearby to revive her.  Glad we ran into her.  We parted from the rest of the crew to hang out by the fountains.  We then met up with a few friends, and went wandering.

We also found another Lulu.

And a cool Rikku, along with a chocobo.

It was a really great day.  Next we'll explore our Saturday adventures, and put up a link to all our Otakon photos.