SMASH!

For those who didn't know, SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime SHow) was held in the Sydney Convention Center in Darling Harbour last Saturday. This convention, unlike Supanova, is based entirely off anime, manga, and the occasional video game. Of course, I attended the con. Dressed as Suzaku again, no less (you expect me to not reuse the outfit after spending months worth of weekends working on it?).

The convention itself was quite well organised, with a couple of exceptions. These examples were, however, quite annoying. For example, Spritza and myself arrived quite early at the venue, and were in the queue to enter (we pre-purchased our tickets as usual). We were fairly close to the front of the third queue, which was good, since the queue got ridiculously large later on.
The powers that be decided to start scanning people's tickets and handing out the laniards that attendees were to wear before the show opened, therefore saving time for the people who had gone to the effort to pay before the day of the con.
Except that they neglected to do the same for the third line. Leaving this line to get in after the others had - regardless of arrival time. Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that this was the line that we were in. We still got in at a decent time (around 9.20 or so), but we were robbed of a good 20 minutes of time that the peons who didn't pre-purchase had no access to (and so actually having space to walk around the con unhindered).

On the other hand, the venue was set up well. All of the stalls and gaming was downstairs, while the activity rooms, the cosplay contest and chess, the workshops, panels etc were upstairs. This split meant that people weren't getting constantly clogged together trying to reach their desired events. The only criticism I'd ave of the venue itself was that the lights in the shopping area were quite dim, making any photos taken in there much more difficult to do right, as well as putting some minor strain on the eyes after a while.

Of course, a large portion of the day was taken up by posing for photos, taking part in the cosplay chess (we lost, although the game was entertaining and went a fair while thereby making up for it all). Part of the fun of the chess was that my cosplay group had booked a large chunk of the team for our spots - our Code Geass group (consisting of myself as Suzaku, Spritza as Euphemia, Mark as Gino, Juanita as Anya - although she didn't play chess, Lyndall as Nunnally, Brendon as Lloyd and Jamie as C.C) as well as two other random Code Geass cosplayers we managed to poach (Zero and another Suzaku) took up the entire back row of the black team. To make matters more entertaining, our entire front row consisted of Hetalia cosplayers.
All the countries of the world are as pawns to Britannia, clearly.

I was killed by a woman who threw CDs at me

After the chess, we dashed off for lunch, and some random photo taking around Darling Harbour, which was fun due to freaking out the "normal people" who were around. Only a small group of us went photoing, since some people were taking breaks and others had simply disappeared from view.

One of the many outside photos

Eventually, the convention had to end, so we changed into regular clothes, headed off for dinner, then returned for the Eminence concert. Eminence are an orchestral group that play predominantly video game and anime music - even being contracted to perform some songs for the shows and games themselves (they recently finished recording music for Diablo 3).
The concert was brilliant, even though I only recognised three songs (Aerith's Theme from FF7, the My Neighbour Totoro medley, and the Mario medley) it was entertaining nonetheless. They also had in attendance two video game composers, whose music they spent the majority of the time playing. These composers were Kenji Ito (Romancing Saga 1-3, Saga Frontier) and Hiroku Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3). They were both interviewed on stage, with entertaining results.

After the concert, I spent some time in line to buy a couple of CDs, and get some autographs. We then headed home for some rest. Great day, all in all.

Also, thanks to Oni-5 and Martzy for meeting up with us, and joining us in the photo frenzy. I'm a terrible photographer, so they wouldn't have been taken at all if it weren't for you guys :P

~~~

On a semi-related note, today marks the release of the "Play for Japan" album - this album was a project headed up by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill's composer, among other things) as a charity album. This album features original tracks by a large selection of video game music composers - and after a single playthrough of the album today, I love it. There are only two of the eighteen tracks I can say I honestly did not enjoy, although that may change.
As an added bonus, people who buy it from iTunes get a Mario medley as a bonus track.
Also note that all proceeds from this album goes to the Japan recovery fund. Although it is no longer reported in the news, Japan hasn't exactly recovered fully yet (that'll take a LONG time), so spend some money people!

Also, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano

Supanova Sydney 2011

Spritza and I in our costumes

Supanova 2011 has come and gone, and it was awesome. There were parts about it which weren't so awesome, and those will be mentioned, but in general it was pretty good. Photos were taken, much geekery was around, and I spent money.

Lots of money.

When Spritza and I arrived at the venue, we found that they had split the attendees up into multiple lines. Two lines for the people who were exchanging their pre-bought tickets for stamps or wristbands (split according to where the ticket was purchased from), a line for people who had their entry stamp/wristband, and a line for the people who hadn't bothered to pre-purchase their tickets. This system worked well enough for before the convention opened, but I can't help but feel it would be fairly overkill once people were getting inside.

After queuing for what seemed like an eternity, we were finally allowed in the building to... wait for it...

To queue again! They opened the building, but only to let people in the first room - which contained a total of one stall, and all the booths for people to get autographs. Of which none were there yet. This was ridiculous! Eventually, they opened the gates blocking the rest of the convention, which caused a minor stampede for the actual convention stalls. Why they didn't open those gates at the advertised time of 10am I'll never know...

Inside there was a plethora of people hawking their goods. Geeky goods, of course. Plenty of generally geeky figures, DVDs, random art prints, and the like were being sold left right and centre. Except for centre, I supopose, because they had put a huge freaking wrestling ring in the middle to accommodate the crappy Australian Wrestlers that noone actually cares about. Well, I say noone cares about them, but when there was a match on the central area got ridiculously packed, making it hard to move and purchase things from the stalls in the area.

Which leads me to the first problem with Nova – space. The convention seems to grow yearly, and they've clearly outgrown the space that The Dome at Olympic Park offers them. It was quite difficult to move around – especially during the aforementioned wrestling matches, but in general it was quite difficult as well. On Sunday it was much easier to move, mainly because there were far fewer people. Hopefully the organisers will see this and move somewhere bigger – or organise the spaces better. 

There were many stalls that were positioned in places that caused massive traffic jams – for example, one particular stall had the guy who was selling the stuff (dressed as Duke Nukem – awesome) on the outside, since his section was a wall with shelves of stuff. Every time I went past that section, there was a massive traffic jam due to people checking out the wares and buying things. While it took no more space than the stalls that actually had desks and people behind them, it seemed kind of out of place, and more difficult to maneuver past, since generally the desk ones had a defined area where you could tell if someone had stopped to look and spend money, or were just passing by.

As per usual, the cosplay was quite good. I didn't get a chance to watch either of the competitions, but simply walking around you get a good idea of what was there – as well as being part of the cosplay chess game! There were multiple Minecraft creepers walking around, Captain Falcon, Hercule (who I'm sure was the same guy as Hercule, done on separate days), many, many Miku's (including two male Mikus – one being THE TALLIS OHMYGODNO), a few Haruhis, etc.

This is the tamest Tallis I could find. I refuse to look at the others.

Of course, I spent a lot of money, though this convention holds the distinction of being the con I have spent the most money at in a single event. I won't go into details of how much I spent (it was much more than I expected to, but not more than I took with me), though the loot I got was incredible. This includes the Shiva Bike figure I've been eyeing for over a year!

On a related note, while shopping for things, there were some kinds looking at the stalls – as you get at these events. There was a stall with a bunch of phone straps of nicely geeky things – anime characters, game characters, weapons, etc. These kids saw a particular phone strap, and immediately dismissed it with “Ergh its just a Minecraft block, why would you buy that?” This “Minecraft block” was the POW! Block from Mario. These children have clearly not been educated properly. I blame the parents.

Pictured: NOT a Minecraft block

Also, as you can see, the costumes turned out awesomely. Admittedly there was a minor disaster on Sunday – I knelt to get into my bag, and at that moment, the crotch of my pants ripped. I hid myself in my cape until an emergency sewing kit could be borrowed, then headed off to the restrooms to stitch myself back together. Imagine my dismay and panic when I opened this kit to find there was no needle! In the end, I simply pinned it closed and went the day constantly checking myself to make sure I hadn't come apart. This had happened in the line in the morning before we got in – quite funny in retrospect!

Obligatory loot photo!

My Ears Actually Work... sometimes

I tend to watch a lot of anime, and play a lot of video games. This is what I do. However, there are times where it tends to trip me out a little bit - in particular relation to the voice acting.

Occasionally it so happens that when I'm playing or watching something, I will recognise someone's voice, and practically jump out of my seat. Then, at the nearest opportunity, I will run off to Google, Wikipedia, and occasionally IMDB if things get desperate to double check. And more often than not, my gut feeling on who actually did the voice is correct.

For example, last night I was playing Dragon Age, as is my want nowadays so that I may play Dragon Age 2 - of which a certain review I read tells me in no uncertain terms that playing it is something I want to do.
For anyone who hasn't played Dragon Age, and doesn't care, this next part will sound like gibberish.

I was in the Circle of Magi Tower, trying to deal with their demon problem, when a demon put me to sleep and entrapped me in The Fade. For those who don't know, the Fade is a dream world from which stems all magical power, dreams, emotions etc. Nothing there is as it seems. In there, I met another mage named Niall. As he spoke to me about being trapped by the Sloth Demon, I recognised his voice from elsewhere. It eventually dawned on me that it was Ieyasu from Sengoku Basara!

Same.

The problem with this kind of thing is, it tends to create a stigma in my mind, character-wise. I discovered the other week that Trishka from Bulletstorm - the somewhat psychotic, foul-mouthed female space-marine from Bulletstorm had the same voice actress as Sheena from Tales of Symphonia. Now when I return to playing ToS with Sarah, Sheena will be typecast as someone who should really have a machine gun!

Though, usually, this subliminal typecast relies on what material I saw first. Another one I picked up on is, again involved with Tales of Symphonia. Ambiguous "is he good is he evil" swordsman Kratos happens to have the same voice actor as Liquid Snake, from the Metal Gear games - a fact I picked up on within seconds of the introduction video! This immediately typecast Kratos as an evil badass, in my mind. I have no idea if he is truly a bad guy - even at the late-ish stage of the game that I am up to, but he just seems that way because he's not Kratos, he's Liquid Snake.

And he should be in a HIND so I can shoot him down with Stinger Missiles.

A few others I picked up on:
- The character which got cast as Yoda in Family Guy's Star Wars parody is Bob from Bob's Burgers (which I saw first. So now, I have a legitimate reason to rename Yoda to Bob).
- Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara is Dante from Devil May Cry. Surprisingly enough, the typecast in my head here fits perfectly!
- Sanada Yukimura from Sengoku Basara is a lot of people, notably Vash the Stampede (Trigun), Lelouch (Code Geass) and Ichigo (Bleach). He sounds most like Ichigo though - in fact I never picked up on Vash until I did some research.

Of course, this effect gets much, much more creepy when it starts happening in a language other than your own, that you barely know. Which is why it creeped me out when I started picking up on a few voice actors in this way while watching anime. IN JAPANESE. Particularly when I picked up that (yet again, Basara) Date Masamune in Japanese was voice acted by Mugen from Samurai Champloo. Or that Isaac in Baccano is actually Vash the Stampede (a fine choice, actually - the character typecast made in my head by this one is actually accurate).

I could mention the Konata vs Haruhi one, but really, I didn't pick up on it without having known beforehand that it was the same actress - besides, half the joke in that series is that its by the same people.

I realise that voice acting is like any other industry, and that the same people get around because its what they do for a living. However, it still tends to freak me out that I can recognise someone I've never met, and seen only in highly unrealistic cartoon/3d model forms, purely from their voice and prior roles.

Busy Weekend is Busy

This last week has left me quite tired. I have spent the week living at my girlfriend's place, which, while awesome, also means getting up earlier than usual in order to make it to work on time (due to boat timetables), and going to bed slightly earlier. And being woken up repeatedly during the night by her dog.

So I'm tired, and have a busy weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow we plan on running off to the mall so she can buy a PS3 (the confirmation of Tales of Graces being localised, in addition to finding a bunch of games she was interested in playing on the machine finally convinced her to join the current generation of home-consoles. Because the Wii doesn't count. At all)

After that, I get to try my hand at stitching myself to material, as we begin working on the cosplay outfits we have planned for Supanova.

And if that wasn't enough, we are meeting our Code Geass Cosplay group (for the aforementioned convention) to have a Code Geass marathon - watching as much of the series as possible in the space of an evening and part of a day. I can guarantee right now - I won't make it through the night without sleep!

Also, some members of said cosplay group have NOT seen the show - hence the marathon.

While I severely doubt our ability to get through even the first season of Geass in this timeframe, and the fact that I will be utterly exhausted by the time Valentine's Day rolls around on Monday, it will totally be worth it to catch up with everyone.

So I won't be posting until Monday at the earliest. Have a good weekend everyone! :P

First Post

Greetings and salutations, poor fool who dared to venture to my blog.

I don't know why you're here. In fact, I don't even know why I'm doing this, apart from having had multiple people tell me I should write a blog. I'm looking at you Amir and Dwaine.

Well, not really, because if I was looking at you that would be creepy.

So, my name is Andrew, and I'm a geek. I'm into programming, video games, Japanese anime, and Pathfinder.
Pathfinder would be an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, since I found DnD 4.0 was too simplistic.

Speaking of DnD, I really want one of those cool D20 that glows when you roll a critical hit... would be perfect for when I finally wipe out my pesky player party... muahahahaha!

I spend a lot of time nowadays programming for the iPhone. Possibly because I enjoy it, but more likely because its my job.
I do enjoy it though. Enough to have recently purchased a cheap mac (well, cheap for a mac anyway) against my regular human instincts, and have begun development on my own app. More on that another time methinks.

So in this corner of the intertubes, I will occasionally be posting things. A lot of the time, it'd just be opinions on games, anime, etc. Whatever catches my mind at the time. It'll also probably be very rambling. Like this post.

Sometimes though, it may get serious. Even technical at times.
But usually geeky :)

I also *may* forget about this thing altogether. We shall see.

Ciao for now!
~ Kalgar