Alternate titles I was thinking for this post included “we’re all one big family” and “breaking through time and space”, all of which I will explain shortly.

Another con has come and gone. More money has been spent than necessary. New bonds have been created. Good times were had. But with everything said and done, how was the experience this time around? Well, it’s definitely no Otakon, I will say that much!

On AnimeNEXT as a con, my feelings for it has not changed at all. Since my priorities are different from like 90% of the targeted audience, AnimeNEXT really was only enjoyable as a place to meet up with others and to buy some anime related goods, if I so desired.

On our blogging panel, well that was a mixed bag at best. As I mentioned previously, AnimeNEXT decided to change our panel location and time without us knowing until the day of. And while it was nice that it got moved from 2PM to 1:30PM, this also meant potential audience members would miss out if they didn’t happen to see the change in schedule at the info desk… well, not that I believed we would get a lot of people but still nonetheless. Anyway, on the panel itself, I think it went okay as we were pretty laid back about the whole affair. It also helped that 3/4 of the audience were already bloggers (pretty much the crew from yesterday) so there was no real pressure to perform all pro-like. Thankfully Omo made life easy by leading the panel with the rest of us chiming in when we needed, although I’ll admit I was probably the most useless of us really not bringing anything informative to the table (entertaining maybe).

Overall, however, I did enjoy doing panel with everyone and it was a low-key “first time” that if we ever do this again in the future, we’ll know what to do better. Much thanks to my co-panelists Omo, SDS, and super rats for deciding to do this and dragging me along for the ride. Also a big thanks to our audience members for chilling out and humoring us by listening to our panel. And much thanks to Reverse Thieves for asking actual questions that made us think first versus giving some BS answer!

… and yes, before anyone ask, I made super rats sign my copy of his figure photo doujin he did a limited release for a few months back ^_^

No, I did not buy everything shown at AnimeNEXT. It’s actually a tease of all the semi-recent goods I’ve gotten but haven’t had the chance to review and thrown in to spice up the post a little.

In any case, today was my first time at AnimeNEXT and overall it was exactly what I expected from a “local” small con. Basically if it wasn’t for the people I was hanging out with, I would have shot myself by now. This is nothing against AnimeNEXT per se, since my main priorities for any con I go to is to see the (Japanese) guests they bring in, but honestly it felt like nothing special. Just an excuse to meet up with like minded individuals I normally don’t get to hang around with, and I guess at the heart of 99% American cons, that’s what it’s really all about. In that regards at least, AnimeNEXT rocked!

How rocking was AnimeNEXT? Well if you don’t count meeting some of the big who’s who in the English-writing anime blogging community, then it sucked royally. However if you think otherwise, it was totally awesome. Of course, I have to start off with the honor of mentioning my co-panelists Omo (aka the Con-sensei), super rats (aka kindred soul in figure spending), and SDS (aka THE Ogiue stalker fan). I don’t think I really need to say much about the three since they’re some of the big names keeping the anime blogging community alive with their unique takes and interest on a sub-culture we’re all deeply involved in. If meeting them wasn’t enough, I also got the chance to hang with the team at Reverse Thieves, Brad Rice at Japanator, one of the guys at welcome datacomp (I think?), and Scott of Anime Almanac. I’ll admit I didn’t really talk much to everyone beside Omo, SDS, and super rats but honestly it was just really cool being together with other people who are interested in the same things as me and whom blogs I read as well.

Anime blogger fandom-ism aside, really not much happened at AnimeNEXT personally for me. Honestly the high points were semi-trying to convince SDS to go to Otakon this year after I told him Yutaka Yamamoto was coming and finding out our panel is being moved to a different location but we don’t know yet. And I’m shooting myself for not taking a photo of the impromptu sign AnimeNEXT posted up on their info desk saying as much; I believe the wording were something like “Anime Blogging Basics – this panel has been moved but we do not know where yet. TBA”. Kicker is none of us knew about this until Reverse Thieves told us after they saw the sign while passing the info desk later in the day.

Am I worrried now that we the panelist nor the con itself know we were are going to be? Not really although I will be laughing if we find out they moved our time slot to earlier in the day before we (well at least me) get there! Well, at least I’ll get a cool panelist badge out of this whole ordeal if anything else…?

… and before I forget, please do check out our panel tomorrow at 2PM somewhere at the con if you’re going to be there! If we can get at least a dozen people to show up and actually stay, for me personally, that will be more than enough to make all the hard work we’re putting into this panel (aka stealing Hinano’s powerpoint presentation and ad-libbing when needed) worth it!

Nowhere as awesome as danie’s, I still figured it about time I did the quarterly “otaku room” update that I’ve completely forgotten about these past few months. And really, it’s more like “a progression in Anime/Manga/Seiyuu fandom” than anything else as one can see the different stages I’ve been in via the amount of merchandise I’ve purchased through the years ^^;;

The IKEA Detolf any figure collector will most likely have in his/her place. Besides the crazy amount of figures littered throughout my room (which I’m thankfully cutting down on as of late), one can see my growing fandom for seiyuus with my framed poster of Minori Chihara’s Live Tour and signed Rie Tanaka poster I got at last year’s NYAF.

Also if anyone is wondering, no the figures in the Detolf are not necessarily my favorite ones. I simply put what I could in there to get maximum space while trying to keep some balance in terms of appearance.

Nana Mizuki’s Etsuraku Camellia PV playing (sorry about the flash) playing on the 50″ with more figures abound plus my cheap ghetto kotatsu that I use pretty much daily.

If you look closer, the bottom left side has all my seiyuu related DVDs/Bluray/whatever plus US stuff (TV & movies). I fear the day I’ll need a shelving unit for seiyuu related discs like the one I’m using for all my anime ones ^^;;

Re-orangized my desk a bit (you can kinda see what it used to look like at this post). Basically moved the LCDs so I could actually see the plasma from my bed plus moved a few figures off the desk to elsewhere. Nice actually having a 1/3 of the desk free again for future goods ^^

And yes, I’ll have a review of that Pick-up Voice with Minorin on the front cover probably tomorrow. Waiting on Rie Tanaka’s photobook which should arrive soon. I will say, however, this month’s Pick-up Voice is a definite buy if you’re a Minorin (or/and Nanachan) fan; heck even the gal herself is advertising it!

Closer look at my “work area” including a framed pull out poster of Minorin and Nanachan! Really, just wanted to post this photo to point out the black square object on the bottom right… yep, ye old mini-refrigerator I try to keep stock with drinks. And yes, I’m too much of a lazy man to walk upstairs to get one instead!

Closer photo of my dual screen and new Minorin wallpaper. Once again, sorry about the flash and yes I’ll have the image posted shortly!

Also as a side note and me just really complaining, when I was moving around everything on my desk I apparently lost Nendoroid Petit Kyon’s hat! I must have spent like a good 30 minutes trying to find it but had no luck. And while it’s not that big of a deal, it just annoyed me that I somehow lost the darn thing when I’m usually pretty good at keeping track of figures and their accessories!

More seiyuu related posters and figures… hasn’t changed at all since I initially moved down here.

The bed and even more figures!

Figures, figures, figures, anime DVDs, and the majority of my seiyuu related magazines!

So as a Nana Mizuki shrine, I think my room fails pretty horribly but as a general Otaku room, isn’t too bad. I’m definitely not as uber/crazy as some folks like ron and Adun but I like to think I keep up to them somewhat ^^;;

Now, danie’s room, as Nana-tastic as it is… I don’t think I’ll ever catch up to something like that in my lifetime ^^;;

Omo is probably going to kill me for letting the cat out of the bag early but believe it or not, we have a blogging panel at AnimeNEXT this year! Ripping off Following in the steps of Hinano’s/JP’s blogging panel last year at NYAF, we’re trying our shot at spreading the word of (anime) blogging and what it can do for you, your interest, and even career ^^;;

I believe currently, it’s just Omo and myself manning the panel but there may be one or two others dropping by, depending on their availability. In any case, if you’re planning on going to AnimeNEXT and don’t mind Sundays, drop by our panel which starts on June 14th at 2PM in Room Panel 1. Even if you’re a veteran in blogging, still drop by and help share your wealth of knowledge to those interested!

If anyone is interested in doing a meetup prior/after or on Saturday (personally I only have plans to go on Sunday but may drop by Saturday depending), drop a comment. It’s always nice to chill back with fellow bloggers/peers when the chance presents itself ^^

Three more scans after the break; check my other post to see the difference in scan quality if you’re bored and have cable or better (I apologize for anyone looking at my site via DSL/T1 or even worse, dial-up).

I don’t know if I’ll have time to really do any type of review/commentary of my latest goods (for now just the usual photo and scan dumps) but do know these three magazines were worth every penny/yen spent! From left to right this month’s seiyuu magazines were Seiyuu Gran Prix June 2009, Seiyuu Animedia June 2009, and Voice Newtype No. 32 June 2009.

All I can say is if you’re a Minorin fan, purchasing this month’s Voice Newtype and Seiyuu Animedia should be a no brainer considering all the lovely photos and poster you get of the lady. Meanwhile, this month’s Seiyuu Gran Prix is a must for any Nana-chan fan for the usual assortment of great photos plus a double sided shitajiki featuring photos of her to boot! Definitely a good month to be a Minorin and/or Nana-chan fan ^_^

Really quick because I’m about to past out but for once, I’m getting this in before the usual suspects! This week’s minorhythm previewed Minori Chihara’s upcoming CD single “Tomorrow’s Chance” with the title song itself!

Minori Chihara – Tomorrow’s Chance

Above is the straight rip from the radio show including Minorin’s thoughts on it and the like. Overall feels like the usual Minorin-type songs that she’s become known for since re-starting her solo career; not bad but nothing groundbreaking. One can hope for a kick arse PV at least right?

Author’s note: If I totally got the name of the CD single and/or song incorrect, my bad. Engrish isn’t my primary language (un)fortunately ^^;;

I’ll make the entry quick since I’m pretty tired. This week’s magazine “haul” included Dengeki Daioh June 2009, Pick-up Voice June 09, and a second copy of Seiyuu Animedia May 2009. All I can say is with the recent trend of spending and exposure Nana Mizuki is getting due to her upcoming album and tour, she will be the death of me financially if this keeps up any longer! Heck, I already know I’m pre-ordering next month’s Seigura ’cause of her ^^;;

A nice little extra with this month’s Dengeki Daioh that I never ever ordered before. See Sankaku Complex for a complete listing of the artists’ in this little 20ish page “artbook”.

I bet Nana Mizuki fans in London are probably kicking themselves after seeing this ^^;;

Kind of funny that as of late, where ever there is Nana Mizuki, Aya Hirano will follow. Not that I’m saying that’s a necessarily bad thing although I know others would disagree.

So yea, it’s firmly cemented in my mind that Haruka Tomatsu = Haruka Tomatsu’s Legs = j1m0ne O_o

Finally some Minori Chihara news after the past month or so of nothing. Can’t wait for the preorders for her Parade Tour to go up!

The artists singing Hayate 2nd season’s opening and closing songs

Seki-man is awesome

Only ’cause of the recent influx of Yu Kobayashi thanks to this.

Anyone who can read moonspeak have any idea what this is about?

Random fangirl service I guess?

As I always say with any Nana Mizuki related-ish goods, Pick-up Voice is definitely worth picking up as it has some great spreads of the lady in London. And as I always say as well, I curse myself for not having a better scanner to scan some of the lovely images in to share! At least I have a second copy of the Nana Mizuki poster from Seiyuu Animedia to frame to make myself feel better ^_^

I’ll probably have a full review of the 2 disc concert sometime this week but to wet the whistle of those that have not bought the DVD or accquired it through “other means’”, hit after the jump to see two of the Minami sisters’ character songs performed by their respective seiyuus!

All I can say is “YES!” for Legs Festival and oh I so wish I was Fujioka the bear ^_^

Marina Inoue’s Special Summer as Kana-sama

Minori Chihara’s Tsukiyo ni Ai Aki as Chiaki

Overall I thought the concert was pretty good and a real bargain for 2 hours at about 40USD (before S&H). I really just bought it for the Minami-ke cast but I must admit, I did enjoy some of FRIENDS (aka the kyou-no-5-no-2 cast) performances as well. FRIENDS definitely had the stronger presence due to the number of members (6) versus Minami-ke (5) but the cast of Minami-ke still rocked 10x more, personally for me, even with Tetsuya Kahihara’s so-so singing ^^;; (I semi-kid)

BTW speaking of Minami-ke, not to give away too much, but the the beginning of DISC 2 is EPIC and a must watch for any fans of the series!

In my continued quest to spend more money than I actually have, I ordered this little gem along with a bunch of magazines to help balance out shipping costs last week. Celebrating the 5th anniversary’s of Nana Mizuki’s Smile Gang radio show back in 2007, the DVD is basically a live recording of the radio show where they revive old segments from previous years to be re-performed by Nana Mizuki and Misato Fukuen. Clocking in a little under 50 minutes, in essence, the celebration show/DVD is really just a good excuse to have Nana Mizuki make a fool of herself (in a good way) while also letting long-time fans see what exactly goes on behind the scenes.

For fans of Nana Mizuki, and of her radio show, Nana Mizuki Smile Gang 5th Anniversary! Shassu F!! is well worth the 40USD and a recommend buy for any seiyuu fans. I mean, what can be better than seeing one of your favorite seiyuus making a complete fool of himself/herself for their fans’ (and maybe their own) enjoyment? ^_^

So let’s get things started; first few minutes of the DVD basically has Nana and Misato introducing the radio show and the usual jazz. This also includes some extra like the CCD CAMs and extra staff around them. Then the two go to explain what the 5th anniversary show will be like (i.e. performing some old segments) and how far they’ve come since the beginning.

First trip down memory lane is from one of their 2002 shows where Nana is asked to perform misc jobs on air. This time around? Good old magic/parlor tricks which 2002 Nana failed at pretty badly ^^;;

First trick is the one where you have 3 boxes and you have to swap one of the ends with the middle piece while holding all three together. Much as one can see from the above screencaps, Nana failed at all 3 attempts. Loved how she tried to “excuse” each failure with the first try being her just getting used to it, the 2nd failure just for show since it’s suppose to be entertaining, and the 3rd… well that was just fail although we got to see how fast Nana’s hands can be ^^;;

Second trick, trying to blow out a candle by throwing cards at it. Just like with the box trick, Nana failed although she came pretty close if she didn’t try to cheat by blowing out the candle herself and using the cards like a fan instead of throwing them. I have no idea how 2002 Nana tried this trick, but 2007 definitely took the easy way out LOL

Last trick, pulling the table cloth underneath plates without letting anything fly. Much to say, this attempt was UBER FAIL although it was hilarious watching Nana trying to “cover her tracks” by putting the table cloth over the tea/water she spilled when attempting the trick. Even Misato pointed out, I believe, that 2002 Nana at least tried to clean up the mess or something ^^;;

The whole “magic segment” up on youtube for your enjoyment since my crappy review probably won’t do much for folks

Second “revival” segment is from 2003 where they had Nana try playing ping-pong with random objects which she would rank from best to least.

First up is konnyaku that you’ll randomly see in anime known to have like no taste I think? Pretty hilarious watching Nana semi-hit the ping pong balls although her “racket” kept slipping due to all the juices on it.

Second up is some fish(?) that was surprisingly pretty good as a “racket” as Nana was able to hit all the balls without issues… although as one can tell at the end, the “racket” pretty much broke into two due to its over usage ^^;;

“Racket” number three is a bra one of the staff members donated ^^;; Honestly too funny for words, one has just got to watch this scene in all its glory.

Fourth up is Nana’s cell phone… which she just recently bought. Made a great “racket” as far as I could tell due to the shape and size but Nana was more worried about getting any scratches on it than anything else. I would be too, I guess, if it was a cell phone I just got.

Fifth was a mini thingie that I can’t remember the name of off the top of head. Nana mentioned it was a pretty good “racket” although a bit tiny IMO

Last but definitely not least, a coat hanger. I think everyone can guess how well that worked out right? ^^;;

Nana’s ranking of the “rackets”; 6th place obviously goes to the coat hanger due to its shape and “hole” in the middle.

Ranked 5th was the konnyaku due to the slippery-ness.

4th was the cell phone which was surprising to most there considering how “racket like” it was compared to everything else. Nana’s reasoning was well, it’s dangerous to damage your cell phone right? ^_^

And in 3rd was that mini thingie since it had a good solid feel that Nana did pretty decent with when hitting the balls.

2nd was the bra! Honestly forgot the reasoning as I was just laughing my arse off that it somehow got second considering how silly Nana looked when she used it.

Coming out on top in 1st was the fish! Not too surprising as Nana hit like all the balls when using it as a “racket”…. which didn’t happen again when asked to use the 1st place winner as it hilariously fell apart within moments of Nana trying to hit the first ball!

3rd and last segment down memory lane was from 2005 where, and I could be wrong since my Japanese is pretty much non-existent, Nana is asked to be “in character” of various famous people of the past. I LOL’ed pretty hard as soon as Nana heard this as the above screencaps show how she did not want to “revive”/relive this segment. Heck she even mentioned how she blacked this out from her memory due to (I assume) how horrible it was to do.

Honesty I have no clue who she was suppose to but anyone who does/did watch this segment, if they can fill me in that’ll be great! All I could tell was she butchered the historical figure’s sayings or quotes to whatever she could randomly think of at the time ^^;;

Last little segment was the staff had a recorded congratulations/thanks from a previous episode and Nana had to guess when/why it was from. Her guesses ranged from a new single she was releasing at the time to something about a convenience store to gods know what. Eventually guessed part of it but when Misato grilled her for the second part, Nana had no idea which lead to Misato yelling she’s a failure LOL

… and that wraps up Nana Mizuki’s Smile Gang 5th Anniversary special! Sorry if my summary was a bit short but in all honesty there wasn’t much to talk about other than how much I laughed with how Misato and the staff made Nana do all the old segments. Definitely 100x better seeing it in person versus just hearing it on the radio and imagining what it may have been like. Plus seeing Nana make a goof of herself and selling it on DVD is just pure GOLD in my opinion ^_^

Anyway as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, Nana Mizuki Smile Gang 5th Anniversary! Shassu F!! is easily a definite buy for any Nana-chan or seiyuu fans. And honestly at the price and length, isn’t a bad deal either (unless you’re like me whom for some reason thought the DVD was suppose to be 2 hours and not 50 minutes. Then you just got disappointment on your hands at how “short” it was). But then again, if for some reason one can’t afford it, there are always other methods as well ^_~