75 replies to this topic

[LuxorMalenkov]

Hope you guys enjoyed the panel. If you had any comments or questions I'd be happy to hear/answer them.

Many apologies for the technical issues, we appreciated your patience!

[Aux10]

I loved your panel and it was much better than last year! Are you guys planing to come back next year? Will you be able to put on all new content if you do? Where can I find that endless shitting guy game? I figured I'd try it for the laughs.

[LuxorMalenkov]

I loved your panel and it was much better than last year! Are you guys planing to come back next year? Will you be able to put on all new content if you do? Where can I find that endless shitting guy game? I figured I'd try it for the laughs.

It was our second attempt at the panel, so we had a little bit of a better idea of what worked and what didn't. Also, it wasn't 9am on Friday which probably helped a bit.

We will definitely apply to come back next year. Hopefully we can get a bigger room since I think we had almost as many people not able to make it in as did make it in.

We will definitely have entirely new content. We have a pretty long secret list of games to use, and we get lots of suggestions from people as we go.

Icarus Proudbottom in the Curse of the Chocolate Fountain can be found here: http://labtanner.com/gamedev/index.php?title=1-2-3_Blast_On!

[SanjiX]

As I wasn't able to make it this year, did you (or one of the attendees) post the video of the panel on YouTube? I missed on a lot of game related panels that I wanted to see this year, including this one! Thanks.

[jedite333]

As I wasn't able to make it this year, did you (or one of the attendees) post the video of the panel on YouTube? I missed on a lot of game related panels that I wanted to see this year, including this one! Thanks.

We didn't film it. I think we're going to try to next year, as so many people missed out.

Glad to hear people enjoyed it despite the technical glitches! Next year's is going to be fantastic. Lots of amusing games already coming down the pike.

[Jiffery]

Can you post a list of the games you showed? I missed this panel beacuse it was full

[Sonic Whammy]

Hello once again to all.

I know that there's at least 3 or 4 similar threads to this, both official and unofficial, asking about the best and worst of Otakon. But I'm starting this version of the feedback for a couple of personal reasons.

1) I always like to know who came to Anime Game Show Super Show and what you thought of it. It kills me to not have more feedback on it.
2) For the 4 years I've been doing my game show, I still know a lot less about anime than most of you out there. So I'm taking this as a tangent education for myself to see what I should be looking at both on my TV and on the con scene.

So here's what I'm proposing here:

> If you went to at least 3 panels this year, tell me what was the best panel you saw, as well as the worst one, especially if I'm on either list. (You can still comment if you only saw 1 or 2, I just know that you can't say "best" unless you have 3 things to compare.)
> If you REALLY saw a lot of panels, feel free to expand those limits to the best/worst 2, 3, or whatever.
> If it happens that all the panels you saw were either good or bad, list 'em off and say so.
> Feel free to leave reasons as to why the panels you saw were great or terrible, but I'll give you a little advice: If it was a terrible panel and it's taking you at least 1/3 of this window to say why, take a step back and give me the short version. I can always ask for more details with you later. (More social interaction, yay!)

So, hit me. What am I missing out on, what should I avoid like the plague, and where do I stand in your hearts?

[Eddie 2]

I went to the following fan panels:

- Metal Gear: 25 Years of Glory
- Nintendo: Entertaining Since 1889
- Lupin the Third: 40+ Years of Heists and Hijinks 18+
- The Gundam Experience 2012
- Anime's Craziest Deaths - 18+

I also went to several guest panels and industry panels. Without a doubt my favorite panel over the weekend was "Nintendo: Entertaining Since 1889". It was funny, informative, and very well done. I had a blast sitting there, and the room was packed, not a empty seat in the room. The worse panel was sadly the Gundam fan panel. It pains me to say that, since I'm a huge Gundam fan, but they had a ton of technical difficulties plus this was the 9 Gundam panel I've gone to at Otakon and it was the same exact thing as the previous years. Same clips, notes, etc. Nothing really new other than some info on Gundam Age.

Edited by Eddie 2, 30 July 2012 - 07:35 PM.

[Daryl Surat]

If I was being glib, I'd say the best panels I went to were Anime's Craziest Deaths (full title listing here), Great Anime Openings, and Lupin the Third: 40+ Years of Heists and Hijinks...but I ran all of those, so that wouldn't help much. What's more, it wouldn't even be true; I mistakenly structured and conducted my Lupin panel thinking I had more time than I did, so when the 10 minute warning came I ended up skipping several years and points just to wrap things up.

In terms of content, the BEST panel I went to was Macross Origins on Friday evening, as presented by a couple costuming as Max and Milia from the series. Admittedly, there were places for improvement: "Milia" didn't actually speak once the panel commenced and "Max" spoke with a quiet even tone one might use when reading the phone book aloud. (To be fair, he was reading from a massive script.) But from a purely technical and informational standpoint this blew away pretty much anything I have ever done or ever will do, and as such I'll forgive it. They authored a DVD consisting of multiple segments, each of which clearly required a COLOSSAL undertaking to edit together. The segments largely consisted of match/juxtaposition cutting between the various incarnations of Macross and Robotech created over the years, as well as live-action footage of idol singers and (amusingly) the live-action film Flyboys. Creating this requires knowledge that can't simply be gained from Google or Wikipedia: you would need precise recollection of specific scenes and exact lines of dialogue from installments spanning decades worth of anime, plus the time and know-how to compile it all. At times it reminded me of the X-23 fan films of...wow, that reference was from over 20 years ago, so I'd better stop! Point is, these guys went WAY above and beyond the call of duty without crossing over into the realm of "crazy people." They didn't get to show everything of theirs due in (tiny) part to pre-allocating the final 5 minutes of the panel for a live-action karaoke performance of Lion by two Macross cosplayer friends of theirs, but I'm quite confident they'll be back at next year's Otakon. I'll be sure to see it.

Well, provided it's not scheduled opposite something else I really want to see. The way Otakon's scheduling worked out this year, there were often several "panels I'm interested in" that were scheduled directly opposite one another, followed by several hour gaps where none of the panels was ones I was interested in. I won't even PRETEND to think I have a grasp of the complexity that is scheduling seven rooms plus workshops while also considering panelist preferred start times, but I feel like an informal "track" consideration would help, in the event that is not exactly what is already being done. By "track" I mean they could loosely categorize topics by target audience (example: "cosplayer," "voice actor fan," "mecha/classic," "videogame," etc etc) such that overlap between entries in the same groups is hopefully minimized. This way, that "set" of attendees will have a clear track of things to do one after the other. Then again, when the convention is over 30,000 attendees in size even just 1% being keen on a particular panel topic results in a pretty full house no matter what it's up against!

[Luffy343]

The only panel I wish to comment on was the Pokeholics Anon panel. If anyone went it was an amazing panel and the videos were hilarious. I truly hope a fair amount of people go to enjoy it as much as I did!

[kinch417]

Did anyone make it into the Steampunk 'make a gun' panel? We didn't and want to know something: did you basically paint a plastic, toy gun?

[xtsquintx]

Here are some notes on the panels that I attended this year:

The Chubby Characters of Anime and Manga
- As this was literally the first thing I did upon arriving at the convention, I was annoyed that the panelist showed up 5-10 minutes late. As far as the actual content of the panel, I wondered why this person decided to talk about this subject when he quite literally explained how he could only find a handful of examples to discuss. He seemed more interested on the topic of obese prejudice, so it felt like his panel was more of a soap box rather than an entertaining discussion. I ended up leaving half way through to catch another panel though, so maybe the 2nd half was better.

Japan's Law and Order
- What I surmised from the title and description of this panel is that the host would talk about anime/manga/television programs about crime and law (ie. the dorama show 'Hero' and the like). Instead, for the first 20 minutes the host simply played opening animations for several anime shows while making inaudible comments over top of them. After that point I got the impression that this might end up being what the entire panel would be like, so I decided to leave.

The Mountain of Fear and the Female Medium
- I came into this panel about 20 minutes late. The host didn't have a slideshow or any type of visuals to coincide with her presentation (maybe there was a problem with her laptop or something?) and by the time I got there she was in the middle of describing something about religion and/or historical lore... I don't really remember. Unfortunately I just couldn't find interest in what she was talking about and decided to leave after 10 minutes; she seemed well informed but I think I just missed too much to appreciate it.

New Anime for Older Fans
- The title of this panel alone was targeted to my personal demographic and it was hosted by two well-informed panelists with a very nice visual presentation to back it up. From it I was introduced to two new shows that I will look into further, so I would say the panel was a complete success. I would most likely attend this panel in the future, too, assuming that their suggestions would be updated as well.

The Perverted Genius of Go Nagai
- I didn't know barely anything about Go Nagai before this panel, but the hosts certainly did. They laid out a fairly detailed summation of the manga-ka's work and had plenty of media clips to accompany it. While I didn't completely agree with their repeated statements of how Nagai had "influenced every manga/anime after him", it's always nice when people are passionate enough about something to say that. Also, I enjoy Cutie Honey so it was fun to see some clips from the earlier series which I had not seen before.

Anime's Craziest Deaths
- This panel was pretty straight forward and it delivered on all fronts. The host immediately got to the point by starting off with a clip of pleasantly excessive gore. I can't remember the titles of any of the shows that he played clips from, but it wasn't necessary anyway because I was only there for the instant gratification anyway. Also, using Panel 3 seemed like an appropriate use of space for a panel like this; people love stuff like this.

Sugoi! The Awesome Power of J-Rock and J-Pop
- I have been a fan of Japanese music for the past decade and always try to attend panels on the subject, regardless of whether I am interested in the particular artists/bands that end up being covered. If I had to guess, it seemed fairly obvious that this was the host's first time hosting a panel (at least first time on this subject) and the direction was strange to me. For example, early on he played a clip showcasing a recent Top 10 ranking of the Oricon chart followed by the same for the US Billboard chart... and didn't really explain the point he was trying to make with that. After which he went into briefly (and somewhat inaccurate) history of pop music in Japan, going from talking about post-war music trends... to immediately talking about the grunge music scene during the 90's in the US? After that he put up a slide of Suge Knight and I suppose was trying to bring up the issue of yakuza/talent agencies controlling music industries... but at 1:30am it really wasn't hitting home for me, so I decided to go home. I appreciated the host's interest in the subject of Japanese music and I hope that he gets the chance to hone his presentation for future conventions.

Japanese PVC Figures and Collecting
- The three guys who hosted this panel (all of which came from Arizona I believe) where very knowledgeable on the subject and I only wished that I hadn't missed the beginning of their presentation. It was also a true panel, where they were facilitators of a Q&A session with the help of other knowledgeable audience members. The only thing that bothered me was a female audience member who would incessantly interject banal comments and various annoying/rude interruptions that baffled everyone in attendance.

Mainstream Japanese Cartoons
- This is the kind of panel that I love to see, and even though it was the host's first time presenting a panel, he did a fantastic job of executing his presentation (minus a few technical problems). Before this panel I was vaguely aware of the fact that there are many shows that are very popular in Japan but have never really made an impact on foreign audiences. Since the host had lived in Japan for several years, he had personally been able to realize this and act as that bridge that we all rely on for information... like sending off a spy that comes back home with a wealth of intelligence. Also, he made it clear that the reasoning behind him doing this panel was that he wanted to give people advice about what to talk about if and when they find themselves talking to a Japanese person. For example, shows that are popular abroad, like Cowboy Bebop, are not well-known to mainstream Japanese audiences... so trying to have a conversation about how cool Spike is would go nowhere fast.

Way More Than Meets the Eye... Transformers: The Panel
- I had actually seen these guys host this panel at Katsucon earlier this year and was really impressed at how much they knew about the subject. Like everyone else my age, I grew up really liking Transformers but personally haven't been interested in the franchise since I was like 12 years old. As I said though, the host's sheer amount of knowledge and stage presence was more than enough to make me re-interested about something that Michael Bay has IMHO turned into a Hollywood -----fest. Since I had seen the panel previously though, I did duck out early to catch another panel.

Beyond Castles, Forests and Bath Houses: Politics and Philosophy in the films of Studio Ghilbli
- Even though the title of this panel quite literally explained what it would be like, I only attended because I like Ghilbli movies and thought it would be fun to see a bunch of clips. Instead I found myself in a huge room to witness what was more or less an oral dissertation giving a Japanese animation company a very deserved spotlight, complete with copious quotations and footnotes. The host was also very charming and skilled in working a room, which was a bit surprising given that he seems like the kind of guy I would imagine is a "huge nerd" in his daily life. Then again, everyone at Otakon (including myself) is a huge nerd to begin with and I was just a bit jealous about how much time and thought this guy put into his panel. Panels like this that spotlight hugely important facets of the anime industry should always be prevalent at conventions.

The 'Art' of Fanservice
- This was a fun panel to attend late at night, but as such I was super tired and can't remember a lot of it. I did however like that the hosts made it a point not to solely equate the term "fan service" to mean "naked people". I would like to see this panel again when I wasn't involuntarily falling asleep during it.

Culinary Manga
- It made me very happy that the last panel I attended was one of the best. I had seen the hosts' "Unusual Manga Genres" panel last year and was really interested to see them expand on the culinary genre. My personal knowledge on the subject is limited to Oishinbo, but was able to walk away with a handful of new titles to look into. Again, these are the kind of panels that make conventions great. According to their blog, they had upwards of 400 slides in their presentation... and were able to back up practically every one of them with interesting facts!

[DeathJester]

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our panel on Friday! I hope you all enjoyed our presentation. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here.

You can also follow the main panelist at http://spaceleech.tumblr.com/

[zigawits]

My favorite panels were the two done by NIS America. They did one for their anime and one for their games. I liked learning about their selection process and why they pretty much only do premium editions for anime.

I did make it to your panel, the Anime Game Show Super Show. Even with all the technical difficulties it was still entertaining, I know it would have been more so if we could have seen the video but that's ok. My only comment is with Card Sharks, I sat in the front row of the left side section of seats and still had a hard time seeing what characters were on the cards. I know you probably can't get cards any bigger than what you had, I would have liked them to be on the screen but if real cards aren't used then people might complain you picked the order of the cards. So I don't have any suggestions for it, but those are my thoughts. Still love the shows and answering the polls you put out.

[ShaolinWolf]

The best panel I went to was Nintendo: Entertaining Since 1989. It wasn't even a panel I was expecting to go to (I only went because a friend did), but it ended up being well worth it. The three hosts were definitely experienced panelists and knowledgeable in the subject, and the panel was a fun mix of facts, trivia, prizes, and banter with the audience. It was the kind of panel where everyone learned something and enjoyed themselves (even someone like me, who doesn't play video games.)

The Asian Cinema Crash Course panel, however, was the exact opposite. The three panelists came off as relative newbies in their subject, and one of the panelists even said, "I don't like older Asian films." Now everyone is free to have an opinion, but it's not something I care to hear from someone claiming to be an expert, especially because of all the different countries and amount of years that statement tries to paint over with one broad stroke,

What bothered me even more though was that afterwards the panelists recieved reprimanding from two Otakon staffers about the content of their panel. They were told they were close to being shut down because of the extreme content of their panel and their use of the word rape. Now I didn't like the panel, but only one clip was extreme (and even then it was censored to shreds), and the word rape was not even close to being one of the worst things I heard during the all ages panels at the convention. There were at least three other panels where I heard panelists use the word ----, and even one of the Otakon convention staffers blurted it out on the mike during Opening Cerominies. There was also "all ages" Fan Parodies on Saturday, where it was downright awkward sitting next to a couple of kids (under 10) while all the jokes where full with profanity and sexual references. The worst culprit, however, was the All ages video showing of the Thai film Headshot, which consisted of an entire sex scene with nudity. lol.

The Asian Crash Course panel was definitely not 18+ and there has to be a clearer understanding and general consistency by the Otakon staff for what is 18+ and what isn't.

Edited by ShaolinWolf, 31 July 2012 - 02:15 AM.

[serel]

generally dislike fan panels, unless it is run by a professional or someone who actually worked in the industry because if it is run by someone like u and me off the street the info they have is never new and stuff i can readily pull from the internet, they offer no great insight and just give off their own opinions. i really dislike when ppl try to be funny and just come off seeming stupid even tho they get a few chuckles here and there it just comes off as immature banter to me.

[EnigmaticGallivanter]

I kinda want to do a fan panel one year. I've been developing an idea with a friend of mine for quite awhile and we have quite a bit of 'research'

But my favorite panels had to have been the Jason David Frank Q&A and Video Game Music Composition / Implementation.

[ashlynx]

I went to the following panels this year (though I tried to get into more), approximately in this order. The number to the side in paranthesis was my favorite to least favorite.
1) Aging Otaku (5)
2) When You Wish Upon a Tezuka (6)
3) Dragon Quest (7)
4) Toonami: A Look Back (4)
5) Japanese and Korean Dramas (1)
6) Pokeholics Anonymous (3)
7) Vertical Industry Panel (2)

My favorite panel was the Japanese and K-drama ones. A lot of the panels I went to seemed to be mostly straightforward informational, but this felt like stuff I couldn't just look up on wikipedia. It's why I left the Tezuka panel halfway through, as a huge Tezuka fan, I wasn't actually learning anything new or being engaged. The J/K drama panel also had video clips of just the right length, long enough to show me if I would or wouldn't be interested in checking a series out. And the panel seemed neither rushed nor too slow, pacing was great. And it had handouts, yay! Wish I had known they had a connected panel the day before, but the information they covered on it was on the handout, so that was nice.
Also liked the Vertical Industry panel. Those are the sorts of panels I expect to be purely informational, but it makes sense as to why. But Q&A is always good at these sorts of panels anyway, and Vertical and Ed Chavez are amazing, it's the one panel every year I know I will hit up for sure.
Aging Otaku was also good as it explored ideas of how to deal with incoming fandom and whatnot.
Wasn't too thrilled with the Dragon Quest panel, it basically just went over the games. I've gone to Dragon Quest fan and wikia sites before, it was pretty much stuff I could find browsing on there for thirty minutes.
Pokeholics was hilarious! It just needs a bigger room! The panelists were fun and the parody video they showed was just epic. Kinda wish Q&A weren't so long though, that wasn't as much fun.
And lastly Toonami. This was also mostly informational, but I did learn more about the block's origins. The video wouldn't work, but seriously, all you need to do is show a picture to make everyone cheer wildly. But it also talked about the block's lasting legacy (or what would have merely been a legacy had it not come back to TV).

[InsaneTotoro]

To whomever went to the panel titled "New Anime For Older Fans," did anyone happen to catch the full list of recommended series and movies? I missed out on the last half of the panel.

[Duelit]

Favorite panel had to be the Little Kuriboh one!

We got there an hour before it started and the line was already twice as long as the stanchion lines. The line then increase twice-fold, and by the time everyone got inside, it was standing room only. They had to switch Video 5 and Panel 3 to accommodate the equipment too. Overall, it was a great way to end a Saturday night full of panels and start heading to the rave. Missed the Masquerade, but overall thought it was worth it.

[Brand]

I didn't go to many panels this year. Things were super crazy for me and spending time with friends over rides most of the panels unless I really freaking go to it.

On the topic of fan panels, like I said before fan panels, are always a crap shoot. Sometimes, they are great and well inform and sometimes they make you wonder what the panelist were even thinking. I've gone to some really great panels where I learn a lot about topic and others where I just left because I couldn't take it.

One of the other problems is running a panel is a crap shoot. It can be hard to gauge how much the audience will know about a subject. Will you get people who are as hardcore as you on the subject or some people with general interest? It's the problem ashlynx had the Tezuka panel; both of us are Tezuka afficandos. So for a Tezuka panel we would both like to see something more unusual or in-depth to be interesting for us. But if the panel was mainly aiming at getting people interested in Tezuka it could have served well for that purpose. In my own case I ran a yaoi panel called Sugar & Old Spice both at MangaNext and Otakon. At MangaNext three people showed up, it was the same time as the rave. So, obviously these three people were really into yaoi. They knew everything we talked about, so in the end we just ended up chatting about yaoi with them. At Otakon we packed a room, a small room, but it was full none the less. And afterwards tons of people had questions about authors and manga we talked about.

xtsquintx - I was the female panelist for the Go Nagai panel thank you for your praise. I understand my statement about influence is arguable (one I could argue about quite a bit ) but I did want a good opening statement.

Myself I only made it to two panels. New Anime for Older Fans which was well ran and got me interested in a few titles. And the Vertical panel which I always try to make. I love Vertical and love to see what new titles are coming out.

[Omegalittlebob]

The 3 Panels I went to were

-Creating your Comic/Manga from Concept to Publication
-The Abridged Series Panel
-From Anime to Live Action

By far the 'Creating your Comic/Manga' panel was my favorite panel of the Con. Comfort Love and Adam Withers really gave an extreamly educational and entertaining panel. They used their time well and really got to the core of what it takes to publish your comics, and some of the hard truths that come with it. The best part was that while they stressed the challenges that come with comic creation, they made it clear that with enough hard work and dedication, it is possible, and rewarding, now more then ever. I really hope they get to do the three part panel they plan to do for next year.

The Abridged panel was also very fun, and it was great to listen to all the abridged talk and interact with the audience. Also there is nothing like watching a new episode of an abridged series, with a room full of massive fans.

Finally the Anime to live action panel was very good. They chronicled many of the less well known adaptations from the past 25 years. Very entertaining.

[Look over there]

Hmm, I only managed to go to a few fan panels this year. There were plenty of panels on subjects that I have interest in, but they just kept conflicting with guest Q&As, signings, concerts, and dinner. In order of time...

- Riichi: Japanese Mahjong, Anime, and You
I entered the room halfway through, so I only really caught the part where they describe the four archetypes of players in Mahjong anime. I get the impression that the two panelists know what they're talking about. A friend I was with who attended this panel this year and the last time it was here says it's a good panel.

- Anime's Craziest Deaths
Delivered exactly what it promised; plenty of fresh, sweet death. Excellent way to finish Friday night; would like more.

- Dubs that Time Forgot
Fantastic for sitting back and watching clips of obscure dubs, and it's usually pretty funny. 5th year I've gone to this now and I haven't been disappointed yet. If you're reading this Mr. Toole, I really want to know the name of the one about the polar bear cub.

- Type-Moon: Unlimited Panel Works
As the panelists stated, this year's Type-Moon panel was designed as the introductory panel, with presumably next year being for the fans. I was one of the two or three people who were complete newbs to Type-moon; from that perspective, I thought they did an excellent job at what they set out to do. It was very informative and kept me following at a solid pace.


I'm rather curious about how the WTF panel was this year, and how it compares to last year's.
I have similar curiosity for The Weirdest Games You've Never Played 2.

[ueda]

The only things I went to were the Viz panel, the Kakihara Tetsuya Q&A, the Hirano Aya Q&A, the VIXX Q&A, the Funimation Q&A, and the Intro to K-pop Q&A.

As the Intro to K-pop was the only fan panel I went to, I guess it was okay overall. The girls didn't really know what they were talking about and provided a lot of useless information/didn't cover enough groups. Plus the sound system in the room (Panel 4, in the Hilton) really sucked and I couldn't hear them or the music very well.

[HeavensFrogman]

What the hell, may as well reply to your thread, Brian...

Besides the show, I only went to two panels.

Dragon Quest Panel: This was OK. It didn't blow me away or anything, but I did learn a couple of things. The technical difficulties sucked, but those happen, as we know VERY well. Hopefully, if they do it next year, those won't happen. Had to leave with my friends about 3/4 of the way into the panel due to fatigue, though, so I can't quite give a complete review of this. Might go again if they do it next year.

Jason David Frank Q&A: This was awesome! I went to the one on Saturday afternoon. He's extremely funny and likable. Signed several autographs right there in spite of having an autograph session 90 minutes after the Q&A ended. He also engaged in one high kick contest with a fan, which was neat. Gave out a lot of information on various subjects, including his future plans (including being in talks with Saban for the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers). I really hope he comes back, maybe even next year, seeing as it'll be Otakon's 20th anniversary.

Zigawits, with regard to your feedback on Card Sharks and everyone being able to see the cards, we're actually looking into the possibility of adding a second camera which could be used for setups like the one that we had at Otakon, where we could focus one on the cards in the case of CS and one on the player action. Stay tuned.

[kmmkmm]

Hey everyone! kayla here-- I was one of the main panelists on the Kpop vs. Jpop panel on Saturday!

here's the video:


Let me know what you thought of panel/your ideas for improvement/suggestions for songs or whatever! I had a great time this year

[BrakusJS]

As far as the panels I went to, here's a rough timeline as to the ones I did get to this weekend:

Friday:
Henshin Heroes
Japan's Law & Order
VIZ Media Animation
I can, You can, We can, IIDX! A history in Bemani
Tokusatsu: Japan's Justice League
AMV 101: A Stepping Stone

Saturday:
Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing
Great Anime Openings
Mainstream Japanese Cartoons
FUNimation Industry Panel
Anime Archive Project - Preserving the Good & Bad of Anime Fandom
Iron Editor
Navigating LGBT/Queer Identities w/in Japanese Media & Cultural Appreciation

Sunday:
The Hetalia that Almost Was (Geneon, a FUNimation Retrospective)
Mike Sinterniklaas Q&A

I'm sorry I didn't get to any of your game shows. Full disclosure here - I prefer Greggo's (Greg Wicker) versions of Press Your Luck and TPiR, but I do know you do a good job running your games.

Overall, the three best panels to me were:

Henshin Heroes -- extremely informative and showed more than just opening sequences!
Great Anime Openings -- something for everybody, almost perfect panel length, and they played the Sengoku Basara opening near the end!
AMV 101: A Stepping Stone -- A lot of show and tell about the nuts and bolts of creating AMVs.

And the three panels that needed a lot more improvement:

Japan's Law & Order, Tokusatsu -- agreed in that it needed to be more than just showing opening sequences of shows
I can, You can, We can, IIDX! -- I sat w/the folks that do Bemani Invasion (they bring their Bemani games to cons around the country) and we all weren't that impressed.
Navigating LGBT Issues -- Timeslot was too short, and although the presenter was informative, she didn't keep track of how much time was left in the timeslot.

I missed out on Mike Toole's panels this year due to scheduling conflicts, but I'm definitely going to attend all his panels next year if at all possible!

[Eddie 2]

The only panel I wish to comment on was the Pokeholics Anon panel. If anyone went it was an amazing panel and the videos were hilarious. I truly hope a fair amount of people go to enjoy it as much as I did!

I'm sure it was, we heard you guys singing the entire Pokemon theme songs all the way down the hall in the Metal Gear panel.

[Mike Toole]

- Dubs that Time Forgot
Fantastic for sitting back and watching clips of obscure dubs, and it's usually pretty funny. 5th year I've gone to this now and I haven't been disappointed yet. If you're reading this Mr. Toole, I really want to know the name of the one about the polar bear cub.

That's The Polar Bear Cubs. Here's the ANN:
http://www.animenews...ime.php?id=1620

Glad you liked it! This was a good year for presenting for me - it was nice to get a nod in the program book (it actually helped me get my badge, as I'd slipped through the cracks in pre-reg), and both of my events (Dubs and Worst Anime of All Time were completely full. I feel like Worst Anime could've gone quite a bit bigger, but a crowd of 300-400 is about right for Dubs. This year I also switched to presenting using an iPad to run the slides and videos and my iPhone as a remote, and that worked quite well.

My only complaint is that, in both cases, there wasn't a technician posted in the room, and there were times when I needed audio adjustments and had to hop off the stage and do them myself. I do pro AV in my day job, so it wasn't an issue for me, but I worry about other presenters who might find a mixing desk intimidating.

As for panels I attended:

Gen Urobuchi Q&A - Bracing to attend a panel for a Japanese screenwriter that's packed. Also, guest panels can be hit or miss - sometimes they're a bit too loose and goofy with the questions from fans, but the fans asking Qs in this were sharp and grilled Urobuchi for details spanning his entire career. Great stuff.

Tokusatsu: Japan's Justice League - The main host had an amazing Japanese Spider-Man costume! His material was pretty OK, but was presented completely unstructured - he just played bits (mainly OP sequences) from a huge variety of shows, with little explanation or commentary. I'd like to see a toku panel with a little more information, as I don't know too much about the genre. I definitely had fun, though.

Anime's Craziest Deaths - A highlight. I look forward to seeing if Daryl can top himself next year.

NIS America - Seem like really nice folks, very engaged and eager to talk about their releases and their philosophy. Their license announcement, which involved a little skit with a cosplayer, was cute.

Yuuka Nanri Q&A - She was really sweet and dedicated to her work - talked about her admiration of Yuki Kajiura and the fact that she read the Apollon manga before recording her lines because she wanted to understand the story and love triangle going in. Surprisingly low turnout, less than 100! I wish Japanese guests didn't have such a hard time drawing the crowds

Satelight - Pretty informative marketing+ spiel from an agent from the company and Mr Tenjin, who does contract work with them. Best part: never-before-screened unfinished Macross F footage that was made for pachinko games! Love stuff like this.

Go Nagai - Stuck around for just over half of it. Liked what I saw. Brand: I would suggest you and your partner try out ZoomPlayer - it will allow you to queue up both slides (in JPG form) and video clips in the same playlist. Before I switched to keynote/iPad, I used ZoomPlayer for years.

Sentai Filmworks - Some really good Q&A kept this lively. Glad to see that they're at full steam and doing con panels again.

Otakon's a highlight of the year. I already can't wait for the next one!

[Aresef]

Henshin Heroes -- extremely informative and showed more than just opening sequences!

Thank you. We've gotten a lot of great feedback about it. Next year we'll try to revamp and restructure it, maybe add some more eclectic (and more working) clips.

[Link]

Type-Moon: Unlimited Panel Works was very well researched, fairly well presented, and amusing to boot. The panelist said he wants to bring it back next year with more advanced content, so please let him run it again!

Anime's Craziest Deaths was hilarious as always. The Blood-C clips are the beginning were a riot. I wonder if Daryl can continue to keep it up with new content. What more needs to be said?

Riichi: Japanese Mahjong, Anime, and You was very similar to what it was two years, but tweaked to be easier to understand. It was still just as entertaining with ridiculous mahjong anime clips. Great way to start the con.

[LuxorMalenkov]

Here is the list of games we covered.

Trio The Punch - Arcade
Seaman - Dreamcast
Silhouette Mirage - Saturn
Icarus Proudbottom and the Curse of the Chocolate Fountain - PC
Koshien98 - JPS2
Japan World Cup 3 - PC
Hatoful Boyfriend - PC
Sequence (XBLA)
Kriss Kross (Let’s make a video!)
Mr. Bones
Don’t ---- Your Pants - Flash
The Stanley Parable
The Cat and the Coup

[Hinaichigo]

Hi!

I really enjoyed the panel. But I think having a video of the dance would've been very helpful. I remembered having a video playing at last year's Awkward Moves of Jpop helped me learn quicker~

I also found it a bit difficult to focus since the group behind me (kpop dancers) was dancing quite hard on the floor haha. But I can understand that's hard to get past since the room's kinda small.

[Electric Barbarella]

I can, You can, We can, IIDX! -- I sat w/the folks that do Bemani Invasion (they bring their Bemani games to cons around the country) and we all weren't that impressed.

Hello, I'm one of the panelists. I'd like to hear some of your criticisms for how I could improve in the future. I'm sorry you didnt enjoy yourself.

[youjik33]

Utterly loved Dubs that Time Forgot once again, though I annoyed the guys in front of me with my flipping out because I used to watch that Fire Emblem OAV over and over as a kid and had blocked the archer kid's horrible voice from my memory XD

The Anime Openings panel was one I was a bit unsure about attending since I'm already confirmed to be running one at Shutocon (I didn't want to steal anything from them, haha). But I shouldn't have been worried; I saw plenty of new and interesting things and I have some already in mind for my panel that weren't shown, anyway. I don't know why I love anime intros so much but I watched the whole panel and it certainly didn't feel 90 minutes long. Also, thanks for doing the Tsuritama intro! My friend and I were cosplaying it and doing the dance along with the clip XD

Mythbusters was one I wasn't sure about going in since I knew they couldn't really blow stuff up like the show (XD) but it was entertaining even if my eyes did glaze over on the math bits occasionally. (I'm an English major... what can I say, I haven't taken a math class in 12 years.) The panelists REALLY knew their stuff and it was definitely amusing.

I strolled into the Gaia Online panel way late, picked up my code for my free stuff, filled out the survey, and strolled out >.> the room was so empty compared to previous years... poor Gaia XD

I think the only other thing I went to was the Otakon Game Show which was great as always though I honestly wish they'd give up on the SMS play-along thing, it always seems to be kind of awkward. Well, I guess I also attended the Qualification Quiz if that counts as a panel XD Didn't make it in though, heh. I think they had a pretty good variety of questions but I think the qualification questions are way harder than the game itself! I mean, I suppose that means the players have earned their place.

I went to Price is Right but left before too long because I wasn't really enjoying it. It wasn't all that easy to hear or see from my seat in the room and it seemed like the hosts were babbling a lot instead of just going on with the game. I also wasn't sure how the contestants were chosen.

(I missed the Game Show Super Show due to my own waffling on whether I should leave it early to make Dubs that Time Forgot... I kinda wish I'd at least gone to the first half in retrospect, I really liked it last year...)

[BrakusJS]

I can, You can, We can, IIDX! -- I sat w/the folks that do Bemani Invasion (they bring their Bemani games to cons around the country) and we all weren't that impressed.

Hello, I'm one of the panelists. I'd like to hear some of your criticisms for how I could improve in the future. I'm sorry you didnt enjoy yourself.

Oh, just because we weren't impressed didn't mean we didn't enjoy it. You presented a very good panel. It's just a lot of the stuff presented was things that me and the Bemani Invasion people already knew. I would have liked to see more of a focus on the games that are available now, especially the newer games like Ju(ke)beat and Reflec Beat. Maybe a demonstration, if someone had an iPad available to show. Ju(ke)beat is actually a very fun game, Konami's answer to Elite Beat Agents in a way, and it appeals to both the domestic and Japanese audiences very nicely.

[BrakusJS]

I can't believe I missed this!! What was the highlight of the panel, if I may ask? And did you have any rousing singalong moments?

[kinch417]

I got to this panel and loved it! It was a great as Monsters A Go Go last year! I enjoy the panelists, they are knowledgeable and fun at the same time. To answer your question about the singalong, of course there was. They started off with the original Astro Boy theme. I couldn't remember all the words, but sang when I did; but the guy behind me knew 'em all. It set things up for a great panel! I hope they get in next year; if there isn't a different '--- a go go', I'd be happy to see either Monsters or Giant Robots again.

[reversethieves]

Hi, thanks for attending!

Here was the list:

Mardock Scramble: A girl in witness protection is teamed up with a shape changing weapon to protect her so she can testify in court. Assassins ensue.

Lupin III - The Woman Named Fujiko Mine: A stylish remake of the classic Lupin series focusing on the sexy and dangerous female thief Fujiko.

The Garden of Sinners: A girl who can kill anything investigates a series of supernatural occurrences.

The Daily Lives of High School Boys: The ACTUAL silly conversations teenage boys have with each other.

Arakawa Under the Bridge: An anal rich boy is indebted to live under a bridge with an insane commune of homeless people.

Level E: The spirit of 4chan is an alien prince that just messes with humanity.

Jormungand: A band of arms dealers takes in child solider and throws him into conflicts around the world.

Rideback: Transforming robot motorcycles draw a former ballerina into a world of racing and political revolution.

Sword of the Stranger: A samurai who refuses to draw his sword must defend a boy from international assassins in ancient Japan. Also a bad ass dog.

Princess Jellyfish: A house of otaku women collide with a trendy crossdressing guy who vows to save their home (and maybe even their virgin souls).

Nodame Cantabile: A messy piano student falls for an uptight wannabe conductor as they try to have careers in classical music.

Spice and Wolf: Medieval trade is spiced up with a sexy wolf goddess trying to find her home.

Tiger and Bunny: American-style superheroes defend their city on a reality TV series.

Michiko and Hatchin: An escaped prisoner kidnaps her daughter to go on a road trip to find her husband in South America.

Astro Fighter Sunred: The world’s worst hero fighting bargain bin monsters in an Adult Swim-style comedy.

Natsume’s Book of Friends: A boy who can see spirits must clean up the mess his grandmother made with the help of powerful cat spirit.

House of Five Leaves: A shluppy samurai is reluctantly inducted into a kidnapping ring during the Edo period.

Space Brothers: Two brothers have a friendly rivalry to become astronauts and explore the galaxy.

Fate/Zero: Wizards summon historical champions to fight for the Holy Grail.

Guin Saga: A masked warrior must save a pair of exiled royals as he tries to regain his memories.

Broken Blade: A simple farmer becomes a mecha pilot to save his medieval kingdom that is being invaded.

Summer Wars: When the global omnipresent online interface of OZ is hacked, one eccentric family and their unexpected guest is caught in the middle.

Time of Eve: In a future where robots are almost human, what is the measure of a man?

Redline: A car race in space on a militarized planet that is trying to prevent the underground event.

[SanjiX]

I got Mr. Bones on Saturn a few years ago after Screwattack reviewed it in its Video Game Vault (back when it was good). I found the game to be difficult and I remember my friend and I never being able to get past a certain part in the game. I loved the life mechanic with the bones though, lol. I remember seeing Seaman in stores and I know that some people got so attached to it, then after their Seaman man died, they cried.

Serious business... I would've loved to see the panel! I hope someone pops up somewhere and puts it up on YouTube if they recorded it!

[Nymphetaminejade]

Panels I attended:

-Genshiken: The New Generation (This panel was pretty cool, unfortunately it was a bit late and I was pretty tired. Also I have not read the Genshiken Manga, nor do I remember a ton about the Anime so I was not super familiar with alot that was said which made it less interesting.)

-Japanese Cusine (So cooool! I left that panel very hungry, The panelist was so informative and I felt as though I learned alot. It's nice to delve into other aspects of Japanese culture.)

-The Changing Faces Of Anime (So we ended up in the room for this panel because we were waiting for the Avatar panel. Boy did we have a great time, it was very interesting, learning about the ever evolving art styles of Japanese Animation. Learned quite a bit, so this panel made our wait extremely pleasant. You could tell that the panelist knew his stuff which is alway nice.)

-Anime Game Show Super Show (This panel was a bit slow to start since there were technical difficulties, I think the Family Feud portion would have been a tad less boring with visuals, nonetheless it was still fun. I was very surprised by some of the answers in the survey. Things picked up as the show went on, even though I did not get picked to participate, I totally got into rooting for other players during their games. Will definitely go to this again next year.)

-Super Art Fight (One word: Cockthulu....)

[kmmkmm]

Hi!

I really enjoyed the panel. But I think having a video of the dance would've been very helpful. I remembered having a video playing at last year's Awkward Moves of Jpop helped me learn quicker~

I also found it a bit difficult to focus since the group behind me (kpop dancers) was dancing quite hard on the floor haha. But I can understand that's hard to get past since the room's kinda small.

Thanks for your feedback! I definitely understand wanting a video~~ with panels where we only teach one group we do show the videos, but since we had two groups this was hard. Maybe we will think of a new way of formatting this panel so we can show video.

Thanks for coming

[TFFoS]

Despite the technical difficulties, it was one of the better panels I went to this year. I had already played Icarus Proudbottom, and the bird-dating-sim had already been featured on cracked, but they are too golden to pass up.

Overall rating A-, solely due to tech difficulties and the line.

[Sonic Whammy]

I'm sorry I didn't get to any of your game shows. Full disclosure here - I prefer Greggo's (Greg Wicker) versions of Press Your Luck and TPiR, but I do know you do a good job running your games.

First off, I'll say thank you for honesty all around. However, I'll also correct you, Price was not my doing at this con. But I am curious about how it went. From what Youki has said, wasn't all that good. Can anyone else confirm or deny this?

My only comment is with Card Sharks, I sat in the front row of the left side section of seats and still had a hard time seeing what characters were on the cards. I know you probably can't get cards any bigger than what you had, I would have liked them to be on the screen but if real cards aren't used then people might complain you picked the order of the cards. So I don't have any suggestions for it, but those are my thoughts. Still love the shows and answering the polls you put out.

Thank you on the surveys, and you know they'll always be there. In fact, let announce it here: WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY ACCEPTING FAN QUESTIONS! If YOU have a Card Sharks survey that you're curious about and want us to ask, shoot us a PM, email, Facebook post or Tweet. And be sure to give us your full name so we can credit you in our show.

As far as the cards, they are the actual size that they were on the show: 16"x12". And as Trevor said, we actually did start discussing adding a 2nd camera into the broadcast so that you can see them on the screen right before you said that, Matt. Can't say when it will happen, but that a couple other things are being discussed from the production side of things.

I'm liking this thread. Keep it all coming, guys!

[SonyTantoni]

I don't really go to many panels. I caught the last 45 mins of a la cuisine, the panel about iron chef America, which is not even on tv anymore. It was cool. I tried to go to price is right but showed up a little late in line so was impossible to get in, and by the time we did there was no way we would even get picked cause they already had people, so we just left.

Would like to know how the voice actors after dark was? I missed it this year, but it was very good last year.

Kinda glad I missed the j-rock panel, after reading that persons description of it, I thoroughly enjoyed the j-metal panel last year and would like to see anohther one along the same lines next year.

[Mechamaniac]

Hey folks, friendly neighborhood BBS Admin and Panels Co-Department Head here.

I merged all the various Panels threads into one Mega Thread. Not do detract from any one person's post or panel, but to consolidate and make it easier for us in the Panels Department to gather your feedback en masse.

Thanks for your feedback!

Keep it coming!!

[Fadamor]

Except... Now when I read a post that starts out, "I LOVED this panel!!!", I don't know which panel they were talking about.

[vamptvo]

-The Changing Faces Of Anime (So we ended up in the room for this panel because we were waiting for the Avatar panel. Boy did we have a great time, it was very interesting, learning about the ever evolving art styles of Japanese Animation. Learned quite a bit, so this panel made our wait extremely pleasant. You could tell that the panelist knew his stuff which is alway nice.)

Thanks for the feedback! I met a couple of people who were only there for the Avatar panel, but seemed to enjoy mine as well. Glad to hear I managed to hold your attention while you waited!

[red_gear]

You should let us know what songs there are please?!?!

Hey everyone! kayla here-- I was one of the main panelists on the Kpop vs. Jpop panel on Saturday!

here's the video:
et me know what you thought of panel/your ideas for improvement/suggestions for songs or whatever! I had a great time this year

[red_gear]

I went to a few panels including +2 Comedy, Beyonder the Tentacle, LGBTQ in Anime, and Pokéholics Anonymous.

+2 Comedy Panel
As an amateur comedian, I loved these guys. Their jokes were on target (how could they not be, its an anime convention) and they had great taste with the ability to keep the audience entertained. They had great energy and were pretty damn funny. The downside was that I thought the show would be more popular, so I waited an hour and a half for it, when I really just could have walked in 5 minutes before it started. Also, Batman spoilers if you didn't close your ears.

Beyonder the Tentacle
This was put on by the same guys who did "+2 Comedy". It was interesting to hear about the different forms of hentai and fetishes, and while there were mini games with audience participation, it seemed that getting control of the audience may have been a little tough (ex: people kept running up to do stuff and weren't listening when told "no"). Plus, the last video really broke my brain, nevertheless, it was all part of what the 18+ panel should be, and the games were hilarious to watch (though one of the judges was super biased towards letting any female win).

LGBTQ in Anime
Having been to many many many many LGBTQ speeches, camps, and been the president of a campus organization dealing with LGBTQ rights, issues, and society, I knew exactly what I was going to get from this panel. It did bring up quite a few interesting things about anime though, such as the fact that you can never assume someone's sexuality or gender roles based on who they sleep with. The real downside happened when it became storytime. Now, I'm not saying that story sharing isn't important, but it ran the panel until the very end. Not everyone got to share, and I really looked forward to the group sessions that there was supposed to be, because I wanted to make some new friends.

Pokéholics Anonymous
Most of it was great. The videos shown were filmed nicely in a comedic manner, had great taste, and appropriate humor. I ended up walking out of the panel though because I got really bored when it came to, yet again, a story sharing time. Some stories were good, other were.... eh... but like i said, story sharing is important, but maybe for the end of a panel, not smack dab in the middle. I didn't leave out of my boredom for the panel though, I had a bad headache. The panel was in fact interesting, but it was the droning stories (yes, some of them were droning) that was boring, but the panel itself was fantastic.

I hope that's good enough, and I hope that I helped any panelists with my opinions. I hope to hear back from people!