Fant-Asia St. Louis Held 9th Anniversary Saturday

Fant-Asia 9th Anniversary_anime Fant-Asia St. Louis held its 9th annual anniversary bash this past Saturday at the St. Charles branch Fantasy Shop. Starting in the morning and ending late at night, fans from all across the metro area came together to celebrate their love for anime in the air conditioned comfort of the Fantasy Shop’s gaming area.

Brian Lan, head organizer for Fant-Asia, said that the club’s annual anniversary celebration tends to draw a fairly large crowd. He estimated that at least 70-80 people showed up to enjoy the free DDR, refreshments, and anime. Some of the anime features the club was showing hadn’t even hit stateside yet.

Fant-Asia 9th Anniversary_Guitar HeroOne of the features, Wonderful Days actually did hit stateside in limited release a year ago under the name ‘Sky Blue’. It was shown briefly at the Tivoli Theatre in the U-City Loop. Wonderful Days hasn’t been released yet on DVD in the US but Brian managed to get a hold of a copy via his online connections.

Along with all day anime programming, Dance Dance Revolution was another attraction at Fant-Asia. Club members had an interesting DDR set-up I hadn’t seen before. They were playing DDR from a computer and not through a Playstation 2 like I do.

I was told by club member Mike Votaw that they were using a computer program called Step Mania. Anyone with a computer can download this free dance program along with songs and turn your PC into your own DDR juke box. There had to be hundreds upon hundreds of songs stored on that particular machine.

Fant-Asia 9th Anniversary_DDRI didn’t dare dance for fear some young thing would step up and school my ass. I’ve only been playing DDR for three months, and I don’t get to practice that much due to an old knee injury and the fact that we piss off off our downstairs neighbors whenever we play. I asked Mike Votaw, who’s been playing DDR for some seven years if he could demonstrate his mad skillz. All I have to say about that is “Duuuudde, how can anyone possibly move that fast?” I was impressed and so was Dave.

Mike says he practices DDR maybe six or seven hours a week to get to the level he’s at now. Most people wished they exercised that much a week.

Fant-Asia (th Anniversary_Dark MageFant-Asia also featured a make shift “art alley” to show case local talent. There were some anime inspired works, but the majority of the drawings were American comic book based.

Cosplayers mingled in the crowd and there were enough cat girls, fox girls, and what-the-hell girls, thrown in the mix to make the affair feel like a micro con.

All in all, Fant-Asia St. Louis’ 9th annual anniversary shin-dig was a blast and really catered to a variety of fans. Anybody interested in attending future meetings or wants more info on the club, visit the Fant-Asia St. Louis homepage.

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Dragon Quest VIII – Journey of the Cursed King: Review

dragon quest 8 boxOne of the first RPGs I ever picked up for my NES was Dragon Warrior. I loved it so much that I eagerly played my way through the next three games and then forgot about the series. When I saw that my beloved DW series had returned for the PS2 as Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, I was more than ecstatic. Slimes and not sprites! Could it get any better?

Gameplay

Dragon Quest VIII plays just like all the old NES Dragon Warriors, complete with familiar monsters and sound effects. A few new things were added to the mix but it’s still mostly your standard-fare, turn-based battle system. That said, I like innovation in my RPGs and although I love a good old-school styled game, the random battles got a little monotonous (especially when trying to level up). The bosses weren’t overly hard, the dungeons weren’t overly long, and nothing was especially difficult to figure out. I don’t think a 10 year-old would have a hard a time with this game.

One of my major beefs is that saving your game can be extremely cumbersome. Another major complaint I have is that there is no pause button. On more than one occasion, I had to leave the game on the menu screen while I ate dinner or something because there was no way to save or pause.

Of course, no RPG would be complete without side quests and a monster arena of some sort. The monster arena in this game was one of the few innovative things about it. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that it was a fun and very useful side quest.

Story

dragon quest 8 SS 2The main character is a silent hero (meaning he doesn’t have much personality as well as no audible voice). As the hero, you are journeying with a king who is trying to remove a curse that had been cast on him. It turns into a battle for the world as you wage war against evil forces. (as all RPGs do). While battling it out with the evil foes, you meet colorful characters who help you along the way in your quest. The characters are well written and are only slightly stagnant; nothing unique there.

The main enemy is uninspired and doesn’t garner much dislike. I find that the more I hate the villain, the more I love the game. When you beat the game, you’re given a blah-say ending, which doesn’t quite wrap things up as it should. You have to save after the ending, do a little quest, and beat the boss again to see the good ending… why they didn’t just include that quest as part of the game is beyond me.

Graphics

The graphics are excellent and the world is simply beautiful. The person who did Dragon Ball Z designed the characters and it shows. I personally don’t like the character designs but I love the monsters (slimes abound, of course). They are unique, cute, and very well animated. The world is very detailed and smooth.

Sound

dragon quest 8 SSThe music is complex and a little odd at first, but really good; nothing standard here. The voice acting however…oh god it was awful! Everyone had British accents, which I thought was a pretty cool idea, except that it’s really obnoxious in practice. The character who seems to get the most voice acting (Yangus) speaks in a bad cockney accent (think the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins) and the king has an annoying, whiny voice that you just want to hit him for having. Yangus calls you “guv,” and says “cor blimey” a lot. It’s kinda absurd. After the first village, I turned the voices off for most of the game and found it to be much more bearable.

Overall

This game was fairly fun for the most part and had a lot of nostalgic value for me. That aside though, it was not very unique, and I got a little bored with it a few times. I will probably not play it again (at least not for a few years) but I am happy with it overall. I am especially happy with the fact that I didn’t buy it when it came out for $50.

7/10 points

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Fant-Asia St. Louis to Hold 9th Anniversary

Fant-Asia St. Louis is set to hold their Ninth Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at The Fantasy Shop.

The Fantasy Shop is located at 2426 W Clay Street in Saint Charles, MO. Their telephone number is (636) 947-8330. The viewing will be from 11:00a.m.-10:00p.m. The anime and movie line up includes:

Fant-Asia will also be having:

  • - Fifth Annual Art Show
  • - Third Annual Costume Contest
  • - DDR
  • - All day drawings

Fant-Asia will also be at the I-Frag Gaming Center on Saturday, July 8. The viewing schedule is:

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The Anime Blog Poll: Are You an Anime Elitist?

I got back into anime thanks in part to the Fox Network airing Escaflowne on its Saturday morning line-up a ways back. If it hadn’t been for those brief, six or seven episodes they managed to show before it got the ax, I truly believe that I would either be not as interested or interested at all in anime.

So, I am indeed grateful to the mainstream media for connecting me with something I’ll probably love for the rest of my life. Now there are networks which show quite a bit of anime in their programming and a there’s a channel completely dedicated to the medium.

Yet, I have seen people turn up their nose at the thought of “their” anime airing on such channels. Instead of being happy about spreading the love, they’re quite indignant about it all. They tell the tales of how hard it was to track down such and such anime, how incredibly expensive it was, and what great lengths they went through to get the box set. Boo-hoo.

It’s as if these fans feel that these trials set them above and beyond other fans. C’mon buddy, it’s still anime whether it’s shown censored on Cartoon Network or bought at Discount Anime DVD.

I’ve gone over this before in the third post I ever posted since such snobbery really pisses me off. I mean, really, have you no sense of kinship with your fellow fans? I imagine that many people can’t afford to buy the latest titles or are loathe to download or burn anime.

Bah! Just thinking about this brand of elitism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Can anyone relate?

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Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z! Announced

On July 1, 2006 Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z (basically meaning “And They’re Off! Powerpuff Girls Z”) began airing in Japan. This ‘alternative’ version of the Cartoon Network show The PowerPuff Girls features anime versions of characters (Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles and the rest of the citizens and villains of Townsville).

Now I’m a big fan of the original PowerPuff Girls show since it began on Cartoon Network waaay back in 1996 and I thought the movie was pretty cool. Will the new show have what it takes to live up to the original?

Show Direction?

I’m really interested to see what direction they take this series…will it focus on butt-kicking action and humor like the original, or will it lack those two essential ingredients?

The “New” Girls

Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z Hyper BlossomDemashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z Rolling BubblesDemashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z Powered Buttercup

Changes from the Original

The girls are also no longer sisters! Another unusual thing I noticed was that on the show, the girls are now 13 (rather than in kindergarten), have secret identities and use words to ‘transform’. Here’s their new ‘real names’ with the words they say to transform:

  1. Bubbles is now Miyako Goutokuji – “Rolling Bubbles”
  2. Blossom is now Momoko Akatsutsumi – “Hyper Blossom”
  3. Buttercup is now Kaoru Matsubara – “Powered Buttercup”

Short Clips from the Show

Here are two very short clips from the show. I wish there were more, but it’s enough to get a taste of the style. There’s also an entire episode from the three other links I’ve included – they’re even subtitled!

  1. Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z – Clip One
  2. Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z – Clip Two
  3. Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z – Various Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z Episodes on YouTube

Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z has an initial run of 52 episodes.

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The Anime Blog Poll: How Do You Feel About Yaoi?

LOveless yaoiOK – pretty much everyone who has ever read my blog knows how I feel about yaoi, but to refresh for those who haven’t read it in a while or who are new: I do not hate yaoi itself – just dumb fangirls who lust over gay men bonking each other.

I have nothing against yaoi. Porn is porn is porn no matter who’s doing who, and porn has it’s place and I have no ill will towards it.

There’s no place with me, however, for squealy, overwrought fangirls bouncing up and down at the site of Vincent and Cid from Final Fantasy VII sticking their tongues down each other’s throats. Yaoi is drawn for gay men – or at least at thought it was until I talked to a friend who shed some light on the subject.

He read an article somewhere, analyzing why fangirls go goofy over yaoi. He said that in yaoi there’s no woman to be jealous of if the handsome bishounen falls in love – it’s actually good since now there’s two hotties in the picture. He had no answer for the question of why twin-cest exists. I think that one baffled him too.

Are you one of those bouncy fangirls? Do you hate yaoi itself or just the sweaty girls who so adore yaoi they want to see their boyfriends make out with their childhood chums?

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ANIME EXPO® 2006 SMASHES RECORDS

ANIME EXPO® 2006 SMASHES RECORD WITH OVER 41,000 ATTENDEES FOR 15TH YEAR
ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION
<a href='http://animeexpo.com/' rel='external ' title='Largest anime convention in the United States'>Anime Expo</a> 2006

Over $21,650.00 Raised for the SPJA Charity Auction Recipient
Children¹s Hospital Orange County

Anaheim, California (July 4, 2006) ‹Smashing all similar convention attendee
records by a landslide. Anime Expo® 2006 holds its reign as the nation¹s
largest Anime and Manga convention. Anime Expo® 2006 is the nation¹s largest
Anime/Manga convention celebrating its 15th year anniversary at the Anaheim
Convention Center July 1-4, 2006. More information is available at
www.anime-expo.org .

“It was an amazing convention and we hope to see you all at the Long Beach
Convention Center next year in 2007!”, exclaims Joyce Lim AX Official
Chairwoman. With over 41,000 unique attendees at this year’s 15th
Anniversary Celebration, AX2006 was one of the best and the biggest
highlights this year for the Anime/Manga Industry.

Highlights for final day (July 4, 2006) events included the SPJA (Society
for the Promotion of Japanese Anime) Charity Auction benefiting Children’s
Hospital Orange County (CHOC) which raised over $21,650.00 to benefit
patient care.

Individuals can now register for Anime Expo® 2007 online at
www.anime-expo.org.

About Anime Expo®
Located in Anaheim, California – Anime Expo®, the North America’s largest
anime/manga convention, serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests
of the general public and animation/ comics industry. This event serves as
a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and
explore various aspects of anime/manga, as well as for members of the
industry to conduct business. AX 2006 will be held July 1-4, 2006 at the
Anaheim Convention Center. More information can be found at its official
website (www.anime-expo.org).

About SPJA
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) is a non-profit
organization with a mission to popularize and educate the American public
about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate
communication between professionals and fans. This organization is more
popularly known by its entertainment property ­Anime Expo®. More
information can be found at its official website (www.spja.org).

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Anime AICN’s Anime Expo 2006 Report

A great report on Anime Expo 2006 from Scott Green’s Anime AICN:

Scott Green's Anime AICNFrom Ain’t It Cool News: “Anime Expo, one of the, if not the, largest anime conventions recently wrapped up in Anaheim, California. Manga creation team CLAMP made a celebrity appearance. Distributors made a host of announcements with classics like Gunbuster finally making their way onto DVD and a range of new licenses from live action Cutie Honey from the creator of Evangelion and the new Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex feature, to action titles like Black Lagoon to drama like the anime adaptation of Paradise Kiss.

Live Action Cutie HoneyIn that 40,000+ people who chose to identify themselves as anime fans, who undoubtedly share a set of ideas that could be called a distinct culture, gathered in one place, it is worth looking at a movie about one fictional person who identified himself as an 80’s style Japanese “businessman”. Big Dreams Little Tokyo probably isn’t something you can immediately see/purchase but in that it is both a thoroughly entertaining film and one with relevance to anime fans, or any sub-culture participants, it is well worth keeping an eye on.”

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