Prior to the torrential downpour that greatly affected many parts of Florida, Tampa held the 10^th Annual MetroCon at the Tampa Bay Convention Center from June 15 to June 17. Various events can be found all over the convention- from anime viewings, to gaming, to tea parties, MetroCon has it all.

One of the key features about MetroCon is the aesthetics. Employees in charge of directing line traffic and guarding exits were all dressed as Umbrella Corp security operatives. This adds a very nice touch when walking around and witnessing a member of the Umbrella Corp security stopping someone from entering an “unauthorized area.”

The theme of this year’s MetroCon was Agents vs. Outlaws, in which the main featured events focused on the various agents and outlaws that can be found in various animes from Cowboy Bebop to Ghost in the Shell. Participants would also express their fandom by participating in their own personal staging out on the Riverwalk with tea parties and fan fiction street performances.

MetroCon also has a slew of special events. One of the big events that is held once a year is the Fantasy Masquerade. The Masquerade is a fantasy theatrical styled event as well as an interactive ballroom experience. The story is based around the Cowboy Bebop series.

Another big event returning to MetroCon is the Metro Star Party. The Metro Star Party is a cluster of anime and gaming characters all coming together for one big event. The participants of this event have trained for weeks prior to put on this show stopping spectacle which continues to be a huge hit with MetroCon. The other events include the Anime Chess Match, Metro Fire Show, GGX: Gear Grappling Extreme, and Rhythm City Chronicles.

MetroCon had gathered a big lineup of celebrity voice actors as well as celebrities in other entertainment and Cosplay communities. The four big voice actors at MetroCon were Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Naruto), Richard Epcar (Ghost in the Shell, Robotech, Transformers: Robots in Disguise), Scott McNeil (Beast Wars, Dragon Ball Z, Full Metal Alchemist), and Crispin Freeman (Hellsing, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Wolf’s Rain). Each celebrity guest had their own discussion, but the four of them came together for a Voice Actors Unplugged where the four of them were answering questions, bantering, and McNeil was eating cheese whiz.

Other celebrities that appeared were Takayoshi Tanimoto (Vocal Artist), Robert VanWest, also known as DJ Hellroy (CEO/DJ), David Stanworth (Snafu Comics creator), Pikabellechu (Avid Pokemon fanatic), and many other guests.

But it’s not only about the events, the anime, the games, or the celebrities which people come to see, it’s also about the Cosplay. People from all over the state and country came to check out the sites and events and cosplayers. Ranging from anime, to games, and movies, many people dressed up as their favorite characters ranging from popular anime to the more obscure ones.

MetroCon spans over three days, with many events from afternoon events to ones lasting until early hours into the next morning. With so many vendors to purchase unique and rare items, special events, and special screenings, like Woodstock, there is much that can be done during the three days of peace, music, and cosplaying. MetroCon 2012 was a fun and entertaining experience to meet with old friends and to make new friends.

Image Courtesy of   Anna Fischer

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This past Memorial Day weekend, anime fans from all over came to the International Palms Resort & Conference Center in Orlando, Florida to attend the second annual Florida Anime Experience.

For a convention in its second year, there were many things to do and see. The convention on its second day passed last year’s total attendance and proves that though it’s a small convention its popularity is growing steadfast. Toonari Post had the opportunity to attend the convention on Friday and Saturday.

Day One

As is usual for a convention, the first and last day are slow. Needless to say, there were many convention goers on Friday of all colors, ethnicities, and ages. Some were dressed in their cosplay outfits, others wore wigs of varying colors, while some fans wore geek t-shirts.

The convention had four mainstay rooms that fans could enjoy. For video game enthusiasts, there was the Japanese Game Room where attendees could play old games that were only released in Japan and not released in the U.S. such as Transformers, Sailor Moon and Card Captors.

The convention also featured the Magna Library and Tea Room where fans could sit and read magna or play board games while sitting down on mats Japanese style at a small table as they waited for their order of tea and snacks to be delivered to them. The artist alley room featured local and out-of-town artists who showcased their work for fans to purchase.

The Anime viewing room hosted by the Anime Addict Anonymous Podcast showed anime shows and movies all three days of the convention. Finally, the Vendor room hosted anime merchants and their wares for attendees to buy.

There were many panels for attendees to choose from. We attended the AMV Hour of Power!, which was hosted by fandom guest Daric “Jingoro” Jackson. This panel showcased AMV (Anime Music Videos) created by anime fans. Next up was the Anime Retro: Sailor Moon. From the magna to the anime, to the video games and live action show in Japan, this panel discussed everything Sailor Moon. The Girl’s Guide to Con-Going panel hosted by the women of the A.A.A.

Podcast put their collective 20+ con experiences together in an informative and amusing way to tell con stories from the girl’s perspective. The room was almost full for this panel and there were men in attendance as well. Another interesting event was the Otaku Speed Dating. This was fun, enjoyable and a bit socially awkward for some.

Day Two

Saturday is usually the busiest day for a three day convention and indeed that was the case for Florida Anime. The first panel of the day was the “Traveling to Japan” which was hosted by Chiaki of the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast. This panel was funny as well as informative. Chiaki gave out great information to would-be travelers to the land of the rising sun. She had a Power Point presentation with important information which is available on the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast site for fans to download.

Later in the day, the convention hosted the Robotech panel with special guests Dan Woren (the voice of Roy Fokker from Robotech ) and Fuzzy. They showed video from the series as well as interviews with the voice actors of the series.

After that, we attended the Voice Actor’s Panel which featured Dan Worren (the voice of Roy Fokker from Robotech), Terri Hawkes (the voice of Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon) and Darrel Guilbeau (the voice of Mikado from Durarara). Panelists answered questions from the audience that were about their experience in the voice acting industry, how to get into voice acting, as well as taking character voice requests from the audience.

Another great panel was the Wasabi Anime Goes to Japan which was a humorous photo slideshow of their visit to Japan and finally, the Crossplay Contest opened. Crossplay is where ladies cosplay as male anime characters and men cosplay as female characters.

Other panels of interest included the Adult Swim Anime Retrospective that was about fans favorite anime shows that aired on the cartoon block; Animusical Idol 2012, Gundam Panel Year 2, The Great Cosplay Dating Game and Otaku Insomnia Dance.

The Florida Anime Experience is a great convention to attend especially if you’re new to the convention scene. The staff is friendly and ready and able to help you and the attendee goers are pretty cool as well. We definitely will attend next year and I hope you will too.

Image Courtesy of   The Florida Anime Experience

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The No Brand Con XI offered a fine selection of wares for attendees looking to add to their collections. Between the Vendor Rooms and the Artist Alley there were a wide range of products to choose from. Whether it was fan art, original art, manga, anime, collectible merchandise, swords or t-shirts it could be found at this year’s No Brand Con.

The Artist Alley was located in the hallways from the gaming rooms to the Vendor Rooms. All traffic between panels and events led past the artists and several artists sat behind tables covered with their work. Each artist had something different to offer as you could see many carrying pieces of fan art. But there was also a good mix of original work.

The wares varied but many tables were filled with stickers, buttons, and books. The books ranged from comic books to graphic novels. Some of the graphic novels had been originally released as web comics and then compiled into graphic novels.

Many artists were taking commissions on work specified by fans. The cost of a commission was dependent on content and style but the con-goer could commission the artist to draw an item of their choosing. Many con-goers have their own characters that they wish to have drawn up for them so some commissions were quick sketches that could be completed immediately and others were more in depth and required the customer to come back later.

Upon entering the first vendor room the con-goer was greeted by tables of merchandise. Directly to the left of the doors were tables of manga, some at clearance prices and in front of the doors were corsets and skirts next to collectibles and a little more manga. On the left side of the room were more collectibles and authentic Japanese kimonos and both the corsets and the kimonos could be tried on before a purchase decision was made.

Through another set of doors was the second vendor room which contained an even wider variety of merchandise. To the right was the No Brand Con table. Here Con-goers could purchase No Brand Con t-shirts, shot glasses, window clings, and the Is My Roommate Dead? Stick.  Other tables contained buttons, anime, t-shirts, fleece hats, wigs, collectibles, swords, books, and tabletop games (such as Magic cards).

The vendor rooms had set hours and closed by 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday (the last day). The artists in the Artist Alley could open and close their tables whenever they wanted and on Friday and Saturday, some artists remained at their tables until almost midnight.

Image Courtesy of   No Brand Con

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From Friday, February 17 to Sunday the 19, in Orlando, Florida, Mega Con opened its doors once again to Comic, Sci-fi, and Anime fans for one of Florida’s biggest conventions of the year. People flock from all over, to one of the biggest gatherings of fans for the goal of trying to out nerd each other, and with over an estimated 40,000 attendees, this was one of the busiest years for Mega Con.

Despite the crowd, it is easy to get around the convention and check out all the shops that were set up. There were a vast variety of different shops; Comics, anime, collectables, cosplay costumes, and even weapons (blades). But probably the most impressive thing there were the prices.

Naturally you can find collectable comics that range between $100-$600, but they also sell various comics at a high discounted price. You could purchase a $30 comic set for only $5, and if you’re interested in the Essential or Showcase series, which average $17 a volume, can be picked up for around $9. This is usually the reason why many fans and enthusiasts go to the convention, and it is worth it.

If you were to come to Mega Con without friends, you would have made friends fast within the convention. Thousands of people, with similar interests, gathering together, it is real easy to just go up to someone and reference anything in comics or anime, and you’ll fire an instant connection. Here at Mega Con, you really feel like family.

One issue with Mega Con was that they did not prepare for the crowd that showed up. Employees were pointing people one way and others pointing them another. As for the convention floor, at points, it felt like trying to go downstream against migrating salmon. There were so many people that there was no order on where to go or how to get somewhere.

One solution that Mega Con should do for next year is to set up the convention floor like New York City. Setting the floor up in a grid and having certain paths go in one direction would help with the flow of traffic, rather than having everyone going everywhere which just adds more chaos into a very crowded environment.

Despite the few issues with Mega Con’s crowd, the convention itself was a truly amazing site and one of the best experiences of anyone’s life. If you are a fan of comics or just want to experience something unique, you should check out your local conventions.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital_ramapge/

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Considering the recent demise of Bandai’s North American anime licensing branch, and the closure of Tokyopop’s North American manga licensing offices in 2011, that old Western cliche seems still to hold true in America: There ain’t enough room in this town for the both of us.

In place of several publishers, licensors, and distributors that once offered a selection and variety to the translation and quality of the Japanese-imported anime and manga, the landscape now features two sole skyscrapers: Funimation for anime, and Viz Media for manga.

Unlike the North American comics industry, which has a “big two” of DC and Marvel, along with several notable smaller publishers such as Dark Horse and Image, the manga scene has steadily been thinning out since the early 2000s, and today, Viz is really the only big name in the business.

The easy answer is to blame the bad economy, but escapism into a fantasy world never gets old, and that is exactly what manga and anime sell. North American comics are more or less stable, and the video game industry is now even larger than the film industry in North America.

Escapism booms during economically tough times, but manga is busting. And on the anime side of things, Funimation’s nearest competitor, 4Kids, is now in bankruptcy. What have Funimation and Viz done that other companies have not?

For starters, they did not make stupid business decisions like Bandai’s North American wing, and they went with safe and solid titles. Funimation and Viz were both able to acquire several properties during the late ’90s that would each have been flagship titles for lesser companies.

So is it a simple matter of strong-arming the competition into destitution? Selling established North American comics such as Batman or X-Men to North Americans is a much easier task compared to importing Japanese media. A certain level of cultural and linguistic empathy bolsters the potential sales of DC and Marvel’s comics in America. Add a familiar name to that, and by comparison, half the marketing is done before you even start to sell an issue of Spider-Man.

That creates a larger market for those titles. Dragon Ball, on the other hand, had several failed attempts at being introduced here before it caught on like wildfire, because it was a very Japanese title.

Take some characters from the Journey to the West (a story that would be instantly recognizable within Asia), add in a Shaolin monk and ubiquitous references to ladies’ underwear (some of which, such as Bulma’s name, didn’t even carry over), and you have a mixture of nonsense that turns out as popular as green tea in Asia, and as popular as, well… green tea in North America, at least at first.

Companies cannot afford to follow the model of Dragon Ball. They need to create something familiar and established to give it appeal, and that ends up meaning one thing: a lack of innovation.

Viz and Funimation are successful because they play it safe, licensing only the most popular titles and then holding on to them for as long as possible. At the same time, Japanese content creators are realizing the same thing, and putting out nothing but the same familiar archetypes season after season, year after year.

Remember the original GameBoy, with its blocky grey body, its green screen, and its inexplicably purple buttons? Who said the buttons on that thing should be purple? Who knows? It was a weird decision, a silly risk, but it made for one of the most iconic handheld platform designs to this day.

Anime needs purple buttons. Just a few weird, innocuous twists to pull it out of the ordinary, make it interesting, and make it iconic. Dragon Ball would probably be too risky and foreign to introduce into today’s market, but surely something like 2008‘s Kaiba would have been warmly appreciated stateside.

Playing it safe results in diminishing returns at best. Funimation and Viz may be doing well for the moment, but when the mediocrity reaches a fever pitch and fans are aching for something novel, plucky risk-taking little companies will be the ones reaping the rewards.

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Dark Horse Comics has announced an all-new digital comic series based on BioWare’s dark, fantasy RPG series, Dragon Age™. Written by Dragon Age Lead Writer, David Gaider, and featuring original art by Chad Hardin (Stan Lee’s The Traveler, Web of Spider-Man, The Spirit), the deep and fascinating lore surrounding the Dragon Age universe will unfold, as new adventures will come to light in the comic series.

The thrilling, six-part series will feature a riveting story that takes fans of the critically-acclaimed Dragon Age franchise deeper into the RPG’s mythology. Readers will follow Alistair, Isabela, and Varric, three important heroes from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, as they travel to Antiva, a nation ruled by deadly assassins.

The comic series’ heroes will embark on an epic journey to uncover one of the greatest secrets in the history of Thedas while encountering a dangerous prison break and the mysterious and feared Witch of the Wilds. Dark Horse Comics will release the six-part comic series exclusively at www.digital.darkhorse.com for $0.99 each starting February 22, 2012.

This news coincides with Dark Horse announcing that more series, including Trigun and Old Boy, will be added to the digital lineup. Manga has official arrived to your ereader! The Dark Horse Digital store now offers a full and ongoing Manga selection featuring Trigun, Crying Freeman, Hellsing, Lady Snowblood, Old Boy and Path of the Assassin.

Not only are these titles available digitally, but also the latest version of the Dark Horse Digital app lets you read them in the way Manga was meant to be read — right to left!

If you don’t have the App yet, you can download it for free.

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Comic Con is considered the biggest pop culture event in the East Coast. It is where some of the biggest names in Comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys and movies are hosted. This huge event kicks off on Thursday, with an introduction to the main panels.

Thursday’s special event will begin with a concert featuring Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, as his Nightwatchman acoustic solo act. He will be accompanied by the Freedom Fighter Orchestra, and if that’s not enough, DJ.Z-Trip will perform along with Tom Morello.

Things will start to pick up on Friday, with a selection of panels to choose from, ranging from animations to movies and graphic novels. Locke and Key, which was such a big success at the San Diego Comic Con, will be premiering this year in NY. It will not be airing on Fox, airing instead at NY Comic Con for a one-time screening.

Later that day EA will display its new massive multiplayer online game, The Secret World, where characters will explore and discover dark cultural secrets, while also gaining skills that will be unique to the player itself. Comedy Central will be there to celebrate South Park’s Year of the Fan, in which a trivia game will give fans a chance to win South Park themed memorabilia.

Also showing up are Kevin James and James Mewes for a live performance of their podcast Jay & Silent Bob Get Old. The event will be ending with Corbin Bernsen, David H. Lawrence XVII, Diamond Dallas Page, Joe Eckardt, Marco Mannone, Vitaly Bokser and FrankieMuniz speaking about a family super hero, the Pizza Guy.

Saturday continues with DC: Talent Search, where professionals will explain what requirements are needed to become a DCE artist. Marvel will host a panel featuring all the biggest games to be released from Activision in 2012, which includes trailers, surprise reveals and a Q & A with the creators.

We expect to see the premier of the new Johnny Depp/Tim Burton film too. Lyndsy Fonseca, Maggie Q, and Shane West will speak about season two of Nikita, where Nikita and Michael are on the run with a black box full of dark government secrets. Attending is also the producer of the Marvel Vs. Capcom Franchise, Ryota Niitsuma, to discuss the launch of the new game next month.

The Death Valley cast, along with producers of the show, will discuss the difficulties of combining horror and comedy in one. Later that evening, cast members of AMCs The Walking Dead will talk about season one, and what to expect for season two, along with a sneak peak at said new season.

Saturday night will finish with sneak previews, and never before seen footage for two of the most anticipated movies of the fall and summer, respectively: Boy Wonder, and Marvel’s The Avenger.The Sunday introduction includes meeting the stars of Conan the Barbarian: Jason Momoa, Rose Mcgowan and Stephen Lang.

Also, the franchise that began in the 1980’s, Voltron, will feature all new toys and merchandise, plus an inside look at the new Voltron video game. There will also be a chance to get an exclusive look at some of Capcom’s upcoming releases: Dragon’s Dogma and Asura Wrath. There will also be a chance to hear about the latest on Dead Rising 2.

There is still a lot more coming up at comic con, so stay tuned for the latest news and updates.
CarlaVanWagoner / Shutterstock.com

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