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Sunday 30 June 2013

BLOG -- Recap of June

So June... was still crazy busy for me. :( I was able to get some more Me-Time, but unfortunately not enough. I know things will get better through the months, so I'll stick it out. Wish me luck!

Anywho, if you are curious about my thoughts on anything, as always, please go ahead and ask. :)

And Happy Early Canada's Day!

Outings/Events in June:
- Went Dim Sum-ming for Father's Day.

- Had the last Monday ritual meetup with one friend.

- Tweeted on Twitter (since like a year ago), wishing Ryan Higa a happy birthday.

- Had a sleepover at my sister's new place x3.

- Hung out with friends x7 (5 were meetups with my sister).

- Had a Team BBQ (beach resort themed)



Exposures:
- (drink) Mojito -- Sour!

Yeah, I didn't get to experience many new things this month :(



Finished...
Watching:
- (Anime OVA): Mad Bull 34 -- This is a whack anime series. Bleh.

- (TV Series): The Middle Season 1 -- The last episode of this season is pretty endearing. 


- (Movie): Now You See Me

- (Movie): Warm Bodies (x3) -- Yeah. It's just that awesome (for me). <3

- (Movie): Letters to Juliet -- It's decent with touching moments. 

- (Movie): Wreck-It Ralph -- I finally got to see it again. It's still just as good as the last time. <3


Playing:
- (PSN): Anomaly Warzone Earth -- I was surprised with the fun-ness of this reverse Tower Defense game. I'm glad I got it for free.

- (PSN): The Cave -- This is interesting. I want to play it again.

- (PSN): The Chronicles of Mystara II -- I played this with three other people. It was crazy, but pretty fun!


Reading:
- Nothing this time.


Currently... 
Playing (not all at once):
- (PS3): Folklore 
- (PS3): Borderlands 2
- (PS3): Sleeping Dogs
- (PS3): Heavy Rain 
- (DS): Legacy of Ys: Book I & II
- (DS): Contact
- (3DS): Animal Crossing: New Leaf
- (PSP): Persona 
- (Wii): Fortune Street
- (PS2): Atelier Iris 2
- (PS2): Shadow Hearts
- (PC): UnEpic
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend


Watching:
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho 
- (Anime): Shakugan no Shana
 
Reading:
- Nothing this time.


That's it for June. Here's a couple of random photos from this month:

My sour Mojito.

One of my proud bug catches from Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

 Me playing a prank on some "unruly" neighbour in Animal Crossing: New Leaf
(AKA a neighbour that annoys me for whatever reason).

An excited NPC in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
She's so cute!


Thanks for reading! :)

REVIEW/THOUGHTS [MOVIE] -- Now You See Me

Format Watched: In theatres (Tuesday June 25, 2013)
Approx. Runtime: 115 minutes (1 hours, 55 minutes)
Language Watched: English
Type of Movie: Heist, Magic, Mystery, Caper
Overall Impression: Very entertaining and fun!




PERSONAL STANDING (Pre-exposures, thoughts, etc.)
My first exposure to Now You See Me was its trailer. I have an interest in magic, so the idea of the movie really drew me in.

Now You See Me trailer

Since, Now You See Me has been on my "To-Watch in Theatres" list.


STORY
Now You See Me is about four solo magicians who join together (and name themselves The Four Horsemen) to pull off a major magic trick: robbing a bank. They are arrested, but released soon after due to lack of a logical explanation to the crime. The main narrative perspective then shifts to Dylan Rhodes, the FBI agent who is assigned to investigate and catch them (with hard evidence) before they commit their final third act.

During all this, there is also an ex-magician attempting to expose the Four Horsemen's magic tricks.

Overall, I find the story intriguing and fun. It starts off pretty mysterious, but things get unraveled at a good pace. I remembered moments where I would process some information given to me, later to go "Aha! So that's why this happened..."


ACTING/CHARACTERS
The acting is great. I found them all believable. Extra kudos to Dave Franco. Even though I saw the trailer, I didn't realize that he was in it until the movie started. After seeing him in multiple places (Scrubs, 21 Jump Street, and Warm Bodies), he's kinda growing on me, and I was quite excited to see him here.

CHARACTERS
Here is my small criticism for Now You See Me: there is very little characterization. We do see some characterization for Dylan and his partner Alma Dray. But for the Four Horsemen, there is next to nothing. We get a general idea of each of their talents, with a sliver of a backstory for a few of them.

Among the Four Horsemen, Daniel acts as the leader and specializes in general, classic magic. Henley acts more as an assistant to Daniel, and was Daniel's assistant (and lover) in the past. Merritt McKinney is a mentalist and used to be renowned and famous. Jack Wilder... well, I don't remember the movie ever revealing his past at all or his story (which is disappointing). We first see Jack's specialty as a lock-picker, but he actually has another talent -- a very useful talent (I'm not saying what it is).

Now... I only find this to be a small criticism, because for a movie like this, I don't think the main focus are all the characters and their history; the main focus is the plot -- and the magic! Through the plot, we see some character development, some character motivations, some whatever... but only those that relate and drive the plot forward.

Of course, it would be nice to see more characterization, but for Now You See Me, I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

From Left to Right: Henley Reeves, Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Jack Wilder.


MUSIC
Besides the main theme song, I barely noticed the music. So I Youtubed the soundtrack, and it sounds really good! No wonder why I barely noticed it -- it goes so well with the overall mood and atmosphere of the movie. The music tends to have a trance feel to it, but it also has some unearthly, magical vibe to it -- a bit suspenseful, orchestral, and edgy with "grand overtones" (haha, I sound like I know exactly what I'm talking about).

Here's the track I heard and remembered while watching Now You See Me:

"Now You See Me" by Brian Tyler.


MAGIC TRICKS
The magic tricks in Now You See Me are pretty cool. You get to see some classic tricks, and then you see some really neat ones. Of course, being a movie, I kinda figure that the really neat ones are rigged in whatever way to make it look like a real magic trick (but is most likely impossible to do in real life). Regardless, it's still very fun and entertaining to see.

Add the ex-magician character and you get to see a rational hypothesis of how some of the the tricks are done.

Daniel Atlas growing a bubble, preparing for a really cool trick.


CLOSING THOUGHTS
I can sum up Now You See Me in two words: Fun and Entertaining. If you're looking for a movie with complex character backstories, unfortunately you won't get that here. However, if you're looking for something light and entertaining (and with magic!), Now You See Me is highly recommended.

Thanks for reading! If you want some more input about something I didn't cover, feel free to ask. :)


Usually I would have a "Spoilers" section here, but I think I covered everything I wanted to talk about.

Sunday 23 June 2013

BLOG -- The Joy of Doing "Nothing" #2

Just like my last blog on The Joy of Doing "Nothing", I'm going to take this day and do whatever I want. In all actuality, I just have a lot to do -- work-wise, relaxing-wise, chore-wise -- and won't be able to commit my average 2-4 hours into blogging this week. :(

I worked just a little too much this past week and need that 2-4 hours for something else, either for relaxing, working, or doing chores. My apologies!

I'll just share some music that I have been listening to recently (in case you felt like you came here for nothing):
"Yamaha" by Delta Spirit.
I think I've shared this song before, but I still love it.


"SpiCa -- 39's Giving Day Edition" by Hatsune Miku.
Part of this song is my ringtone now. 
You just know I'm gonna blog about Hatsune Miku one day! :)


"Fireproof" by The National.
I love the chords and the lyrics. 
I could think of a few people where this song would describe them well (not me).


"Pink Rabbits" by The National.
I like the rhythm and lyrics. I don't fully understand the song, but I like it.


"Phoenix Wright - Cornered Acapella" by Smooth McGroove.
This rendition is simply awesome.


Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

I will have a real blog next week, I promise. :)

Sunday 16 June 2013

EXPOSURES (VIDEO GAMES) -- Animal Crossing: New Leaf

So I bought Animal Crossing: New Leaf last Sunday and have been hooked. I'm so hooked that everyday when commuting, if I get a chance to sit, that's the first thing I do, even if my next stop is in a few minutes. Sometimes I wonder: How does Nintendo create many iterations of the same-ish games and still make it so plain fun? Of course, that is a very debatable statement, and not something I'll be exploring in this blog. Feel free to comment about it, though, if you like! :)

Animal Crossing: New Leaf


Playtime Length (so far): 20-ish hours
Platform Played on: 3DS
Language: English
Type of Game: Town Life Simulation, Collection, Mini-Game
Game-specific Details: I'm currently going through my 5th house upgrade, completed one public works project, and my town is a "night-owl" town.


My Impressions
The premise of Animal Crossing: New Leaf is pretty much the same as all the other Animal Crossing games I've played (Wild World for the DS and City Folk for the Wii): your character moves into town, but is in trouble because he / she didn't prepare himself / herself a living space before getting there. Then loan shark Tom Nook steps in and loans you a house. Even though you are the mayor of your town in this game (this is a new feature!), you still find yourself in debt to Tom Nook. The main, main goal of the game is to pay off your character's debt, which gets higher and higher with every house upgrade. That said, you don't have to focus on paying off your character's loan (there are no deadlines). You can set whatever goals you want. One of the best things about Animal Crossing games is that it is very open world and what you decide to do is up to you. And there are a lot of things you can do in Animal Crossing.

Let me try to list all the things you can do in Animal Crossing:

-You can collect things (bugs, fish, fossils, furniture, art pieces, clothing, fruit -- anything that you can stuff in your pocket. And of course, money) 
-You can interact with your citizens (have brief conversations, do errands for them, write letters to them, sell stuff to them)
-You can interact with your town (shake trees, cut down trees, plant trees, plant flowers, water flowers, trample flowers, dig up holes, buy items, etc.)
-You can play mini-games (when you unlock and visit an island)
-You can visit your friend's town and vice-versa (and do all of the above! Yes, you can cut down your friend's trees)
-You can redecorate your house (why else would you want to keep expanding your house and adding more debt to yourself?)
-You can participate in special events (whenever they come, of course)
-You can customize (your character, your town flag, your town tune, clothes, your town, your citizens)

For me, the biggest draw in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (besides quenching my OCD collecting thirst) is the ability to customize and be able to play online with friends.

I LOVE playing a game where I can add my own personal touches -- it just adds to an enjoyable experience. It can give a slightly more intimate experience as well. Also, it allows me to be creative and to express my current interests. For example, my town's name is "Mikunopo". Now, I'm pretty sure nobody would know this, but it is short for "Mikunopolis" (the name for Hatsune Miku's 2011 concert in Los Angeles). My town flag currently features a leek (something that Hatsune Miku often holds). The dress my character is wearing right now is the same dress Alice wears from the Shin Megami Tensei series. In order to customize a flag and clothes, you actually have to design it yourself, but you know what? It's so worth it. I just love that dress to bits. <3

My Alice dress.

 Alice from the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Here's the QR code for my Alice dress (I just unlocked the QR machine):






Now that your character is also the mayor, you can set public works projects and customize your town a bit. You can add a bench, lamp, bridge, whatever you want (from a list of options). The projects can be a bit costly, depending on what you want, but it's pretty neat. When you set a public works project, it requires a certain amount of funding. Now, you could just fully fund the project yourself, but your citizens could also contribute to the fund.

As the mayor, you also have the option of setting an ordinance, which affects your town overall. This is really nice as it can provide a bit more flexibility, or for an extra touch. I mention flexibility because of this:

Animal Crossing games use the system's internal clock for their clock. So the hours of operations for shops, buildings, citizens (when they wake up and when they sleep), and events follow your internal clock. So if a shop closes at 8 PM, it will close at 8 PM, in real life (unless you mess with your system's internal clock, but I'm not going there). Depending on your daily schedule, you may miss out on certain things you want to do.

With the ordinance, you can set your town to either operate earlier in the day, or to stay open until much later. Currently, my town is a "night-owl" town, so shops and everything stay open later. This works with my schedule since I've been getting home pretty late these days and often have just about an hour to do whatever before some shop starts closing.

Playing online with friends often make the playing experience more fun, especially with the mini-games. It's also really nice to just hang out and chat or do whatever. For times when you can't see each other physically, it's a nice way to connect.

Me hanging out with my friends online.

Okay, I think I've blabbed enough about Animal Crossing: New Leaf. If you enjoy life simulation games and collecting things, you'll most likely enjoy this.

Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment about anything. :)

BTW: this blog is my 100th blog (which includes my end-of-month blogs). Woot for me! :)

Sunday 9 June 2013

REVIEW/THOUGHTS [MOVIE-RELATED] -- Warm Bodies (Blu-Ray/DVD Extra Content)

**I already blogged about Warm Bodies back in February, but with its recent release on Blu-Ray / DVD, I just had to celebrate it and blog about it again. I won't be reviewing the full movie again. I'll be briefly covering the Blu-Ray / DVD Extra Content.**
__________________________________________________________________

Format Watched [Specific Edition, if any]: Blu-Ray [Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack]
Approx. Runtime: 98 minutes (1 hours, 38 minutes)
Language Watched: English
Other Language(s) Available: Yes
DVD Extra Content? Yes
Type of Movie: Romantic, Comedy, Zombie



OVERALL IMPRESSION
I loved Warm Bodies when it was released in theatres. That love hasn't changed at all. I ended up watching the movie three times in theatres and I could have seen it many more times. I was super excited for the home release and watched it the day it came out.


REVIEW LINK
Here's the link to my review of Warm Bodies when I first watched it: http://ironixgirl.blogspot.ca/2013/02/reviewthoughts-movie-warm-bodies.html


BLU-RAY / DVD EXTRA CONTENT
Overall, the extra content was enjoyable and informative. I think for a Warm Bodies fan, they really provided a lot of behind-the-scenes looks into how the movie was made. Now, I have the Blu-Ray + DVD Combo pack, so the DVD had the same kind of extra content as the Blu-Ray. I'm not completely sure if that's the case with the DVD-only version.

DIRECTOR COMMENTARY (movie length)
This was really interesting. The commentary was done by Jonathan Levine (Director / Screenwriter), Nicholas Hoult, and Teresa Palmer. It was interesting to find out which scenes were re-shoots (scenes that are done after the main film shoot), which lines were ad-libbed, and many other things. A Warm Bodies fan will definitely want to check this out.

Fun fact that I learned during the commentary: for a PG-rated movie, the screenplay can contain at MOST one swear word.

BOY MEETS, ER, DOESN'T  EAT GIRL (10 mins)
This was a talk about the creation of the novel and the screenplay. It was really neat to have Isaac Marion (author) talk about the novel-making process, and then have Jonathan Levine talk about the process of turning it into a screenplay.

R & J (15 mins)
This focused on the main characters, R & Julie. Nicholas Hoult joked about having difficulty making sure he said his lines right at the right time because he had so few spoken lines.

A scene with R and Julie.

A LITTLE LESS DEAD (16 mins)
This briefly looked at the other other key characters in the movie, character relationships, and their experiences working with each other. Rob Corddry is pretty funny here.

EXTREME ZOMBIE MAKE-OVER (10 mins)
This went into detail about the zombie make-up and how they came to their decisions about it. Kudos to Adrien Moore (special effects / makeup guy) for fixing R up as a sexy, good-looking zombie (though I gotta say, Nicholas Hoult is already sexy and good-looking). :)

Adrien Moore (?) applying some "zombie juice" around Nicholas Hoult's mouth.

A WRECK IN PROGRESS (15 mins)
This looked at the movie sets -- mainly the abandoned airport and the abandoned stadium. They also talked about transforming the abandoned airport to look really abandoned (like abandoned for many years). They also talked about the cold, cold weather in Montreal (that's where they shot the movie) and other stuff about set locations. Their talk about the wall graffiti was neat.

Cool wall graffiti.

BUSTIN' CAPS (10 mins)
Here they talked about the action sequences in the movie and what the actors had to do to prepare themselves.

Dave Franco talking excitedly about his morning at the gun range.

BEWARE THE BONEYS (7 mins)
This looked at the CG visual effects, mainly focusing on the evolution of the boneys -- how they came to look and move the way they are. It was really neat.

WHIMSICAL SWEETNESS: TERESA PALMER'S WARM BODIES HOME MOVIES (12 mins)
This is a series of home movie clips from Teresa Palmer's phone camera. It was interesting to hear how she sounds like in real life ('cuz I just didn't know how she was like in real life). She has a very bubbly personality, and after hearing that side of her, I wish we could have seen a bit more of that bubbly-ness in her character Julie.

ZOMBIE ACTING TIPS WITH ROB CORDDRY (5 mins)
This was a clip Screen Junkies did with Rob Corddry. It was very funny, and a little gross.

You can actually watch this clip on ScreenJunkies' Youtube channel:

 Funny clip.

DELETED SCENES (11 mins)
This was really neat. A lot of the removed scenes were clips that were closer to the novel, and I appreciate that they tried to do that -- make it faithful to the novel.

SHRUG & GAG REEL (5 mins)
There were some really funny moments. Besides one elaborate prank and the last scene, here's one of my favourite gags:

Hahahahaha. Hilarious!

THEATRICAL TRAILER
This was their first trailer -- the one that didn't ruin the story for me.


CLOSING THOUGHTS
Warm Bodies is great. I highly recommend checking out the DVD or Blu-Ray. The Extra Content does not disappoint. And of course -- the movie's just awesome.


Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment. :)

Sunday 2 June 2013

BLOG -- Anime North 2013

Like my blog about attending Fan Expo last year, I'm going to blog about my experience at Anime North. Overall, it was a lot of the same, but still enjoyable.

Just like my blog about Fan Expo, I'll be covering each day of Anime North. It won't be as long as Fan Expo since I didn't do as much each day. I also didn't take that many pics of cosplayers so there won't be a dedicated section at the end.

And here comes my history with Anime North...


Me and Anime North
I think the first time I attended Anime North was in 2003. I was a huge anime fan back then and it was one of the few ways to get exposed to a lot of different series (at good quality). Also, it was really cool seeing people cosplay and express their fandom.

And then, just like with Fan Expo, I found myself among a group of people who helped out at Anime North. So from 2005-2009, I helped out as well. Then in 2010, I stopped attending since I felt like I wasn't contributing enough. This year, I went back to help out.

In the beginning, besides seeing all the cosplayers, Anime North was mainly about the Dealers Room, the AMVs, and the Masquerade (I still remember that one Naruto skit where one guy dressed as Sasuke pulled down his shorts and flashed his naked butt to the audience -- terrifying! [and will hopefully never happen again]). Then around 2007, it was more about the fan-run panels and specific anime exposures. This year, my focus was the same.

If I had done my homework, I would have known that Eriko Nakamura was attending, and would have been super-excited. She's the voice actress to Amami Haruka from the iDOLM@STER video game and anime series... and I LOVE iDOLM@STER (my first official blog was on iDOLM@STER 2). *sigh* If there is ever a next time, she is so signing my video game... and my Blu-Rays... and my CDs... and my figures... :P


The Little Details
Dates of Anime North: May 24 - May 26, 2013
Locations: Toronto Congress Centre (TCC) + Doubletree Hotel + Sheraton Hotel + Crowne Plaza Hotel + Radisson Suites
Ticket Price Total: Unsure (I had free admittance since I was helping out)

Friday
Time Arrived: 5-ish PM
Well, I got to Anime North from riding the bus from Lawrence West station. I could have gotten there earlier, but I did some morning shopping to get ready for the convention. I was staying at a hotel for the weekend, so I wanted to make sure I had everything.

When I got there, I picked up my staff badge and met up with my con event buddies. I haven't seen some of them since the last time I attended Anime North, so I was a little anxious. Thankfully, things were fine.

I didn't really do much on Friday. I just lounged around in the hotel room until I had to help out with the event. I do have to note that I never remembered Anime North holding events at 4 different hotels and at the TCC. It's a little surprising... and a bit inconvenient. :/

I also have to mention that Anime North's printed schedule book was not exactly user friendly. It was organized by time, location, and date. It sounds fine, but it was quite confusing. I couldn't tell right away if events I wanted to attend would overlap. There must have been a better way to organize it. Fortunately, one of my con buddies told me about the Guidebook Smartphone app where I could download Anime North's schedule, which was a straight morning to night listing. My one beef with the Guidebook app was that alarms for events I bookmarked would go off 12 hours after the specified time (what the heck?). 

A shot of Anime North from the hotel. 
(yeah, I also posted this pic in my end of month blog for May).


Saturday
Time Active: 7-ish AM
Nothing much was happening at this time. I was trying not to wake up my con event buddies while taking a closer look at the schedule. I also thought about starting Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the 3DS, but then decided against it in case playing that game would suck up all the battery life and I wouldn't be able do StreetPass for the day. I totally should have brought my regular DS Lite. :/

Avatar: The Last Airbender -- 11:00 AM
So I attended this showing with an ulterior motive: to get a better seat for the next showing. Sometimes when there's a panel or showing that I really want to attend, I go to the room an hour early and just sit there. While I do this, I'm just hoping that a volunteer doesn't come into the room and kick us all out at the end of the panel / showing.

I have to say, though, that watching episodes from Avatar: The Last Airbender for the next thing was a pleasant wait. They showed the Boiling Rock episodes that featured Sokka and Zuko.

Shinesman -- 12:00 PM
This anime is pretty old. I've always wanted to see it ever since I saw the trailer for it. It looks cheesy with a good amount of comedy. For some reason, I can't share the Youtube trailer, so here's a link to it instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxut2RW9xjk

Shinesman was shown in dub, which was exactly what I was hoping for. For an anime that pokes fun at itself, I figured that the English dubbing would take more liberties with that. It was enjoyable and I was glad I finally got to see it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With plans to return to the hotel room around 5 PM, I left the Doubletree Hotel and made the trek to the Dealers Room at TCC. On the way, I saw a ton of cosplayers. I also had my 3DS in sleep mode so I could pick up people for StreetPass. In case you don't know, anime conventions are one of the best places to get StreetPass. I got my "get 100 StreetPasses in a day" achievement in the Dealers Room (yay!).

A random shot of Anime North -- outside the TCC.

I'm glad that I don't go to Anime North anymore for the Dealers Room. Product prices there have gone up ridiculously. Some products were priced competitively, but lots of other things were just expensive. This was mainly applied to everything but manga. I think if manga ever went up in price, there would be an uproar.

Afterwards, I checked out the Artist's Alley (I know it's called something different for Anime North, but I'm too lazy to check right now) briefly. There were a lot of cool artworks and styles, but I resisted and only bought three prints for $20.
 
Still inside the TCC, I wandered around and found myself at the Anime Wrestling event. I decided to watch for a bit (just so I could sit down and rest). There were a couple one-on-one matches, and then the finale: a three-on-three tag team. On one team was Wario, the Green Power Ranger, and Jason Voorhees. On the other team was Mario, L, and Elmo. It was pretty entertaining! I felt a little bad for any children in the audience -- Elmo was beat up so badly, and at one point Jason put his fake jacksaw up to Elmo's throat and "slit" it. It was kinda horrifying and could be a little traumatic :/

A shot of the three-on-three match. 
Elmo was last year's champion, hence his belt.

A brief video of the match. Elmo gets beat up a bit here.

Heaven's Memo Pad -- 7:00 PM
Just like earlier today, I was here just to ensure getting a decent seat for the next showing. Heaven's Memo Pad was an interesting anime series, though a bit weird. I'm currently not sure if I would want to watch the rest of it in the future.

Hatsune Miku Mikunopolis -- 8:00 PM
This was a DVD showing of Hatsune Miku's 2011 concert in Los Angeles. For those who don't know, I am a huge Hatsune Miku fan. Even though this was a DVD showing of a past concert, I had to see it. Often at times, I wanted to dance a bit and sing along. But I kept it in and just had a glowy, super-excited expression with gleaming eyes (I imagine I look like that anytime I'm experiencing something with great enjoyment). I want to cosplay as her one day.
 
A shot of Miku in her dress for the song SpiCa.
I love that song.

Misc. Photos for Saturday

A cosplayer. I feel like I should know who he is, but I don't.

Cosplayers in steampunk gear.

The most original outfit I saw. An attendee dressed up in Tim Hortons gear. 
Just amazing.

A clip of Iron Man and War Machine cosplayers dancing.


Sunday
Time Active: 7-ish AM
Nothing much to say here. I got all my stuff ready so that when we check out of the hotel, it would just involve me grabbing my jacket and knapsack. This day was devoted to panels.

Anime Jeopardy -- 9:00 AM
I decided to check this out, 'cuz there was not much else to do. A lot of my con event buddies were still sleeping, and I had a panel to attend to at 10 AM. Unfortunately, the tech guys weren't awake yet, so the organization for this was done on the fly.

The setup of the game was pretty neat (all done in PowerPoint I think and structured just like Jeopardy), but I think testing all the panels beforehand would have been a good idea. Some of the panels went to the wrong question. :(

Video Game Name That Tune: RPG Edition -- 10:00 AM
This was okay, but I don't know. It felt like the music selections were done on the fly. And I think the host was playing the tunes off of Youtube. If the internet suddenly went down, what would happen then? I was hoping to get exposed to some really neat video game music clips. It didn't happen.

Horrible Anime Music -- 12:00 PM
I was a little late to this panel. Unfortunately the room was full, except for this one chair at the front of the room. The panel volunteers suggested I sit there, and I did... to major embarrassment! I was also eating a pizza at the time, so everybody had prime sight of watching me eat (ugggg....). The panel members continued on, every now and then eyeing me me quizzically (or was it territorially?).

This panel was okay. They were showing some clips of "horrible" anime music (often opening or ending themes) and then explaining why they're horrible. It was fun listening to some of the "horrible" anime music (Death's Note's second opening, and 100 Stories' opening made the cut), but I have to say: It's NOT a sound argument to say something is "horrible" because it is not "your kind of music". That was used a couple of times, and I strongly disagree. Just because impressionism isn't my kind of art doesn't make it horrible. Seriously, now...

Video Game Soundtracks -- 1:00 PM
Just like with Video Game Name That Tune, I was hoping to listen to some really nice video game music. Music was playing in the background, but very softly. I was imagining a brief discussion and then a showcasing of some really good music, but it was largely a discussion.

It was okay. The discussions weren't exactly structured but attendees got to ask questions and share as much as the panelists. The last question one panelist asked around the end of the panel was: do you have any guilty pleasure video game music?

I do...

I won't list them all here, but here are a couple video game music tracks I listen to for guilty pleasure. And "guilty pleasure" here is being defined as: "something I enjoy listening to, but wouldn't really want to express that enjoyment publicly". In all honesty, there isn't a huge list of "guilty pleasure" video game tracks for me -- if I like something, I often don't hide it or feel embarrassed / ashamed by it.

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood Intro.
I know it pales greatly in comparison to the Korean and Japanese versions, 
but I still like this as well. ^.^''

Black main theme. I mean, who admits to liking the theme to an FPS?
I'm just kidding there.


Overall Thoughts
Overall, Anime North was enjoyable. I missed the whole fan atmosphere of it all. And it was really nice seeing some of my old con event buddies. One thing that I kind of wish for are more panels I would like to attend to (hahaha...). There are a ton of panels at Anime North... but nothing really grabbing this year.

In 2007, I remember attending a panel about Fanthropology, and it was just spectacular. It was a discussion and look into the fan culture and behaviour, trying to address why fans do what they do. Like, why are fans willing to line up for hours for an autograph or a limited edition of whatever? It was very cool, and I wish a panel like that would come back.

Would I attend Anime North next year? It's a high chance of "yes". With all that's going on, and my constant uncertainty about the future, I can't say for sure what will take priority for me that weekend. But I hope it's this.



Well, thanks for reading (if you made it this far)! If you have any questions about anything I experienced at Anime North (except for what event I was helping out at since I'd like to keep that anonymous), or just comments and questions on anything, feel free to comment!

Have an awesome the week! :)