Anime Expo 2012 is in Las Vegas from June 29th to July 3rd. I Can’t wait to go since this will be my first time so I hope to get it arranged, below are 3 videos on the 2011 Expo taken from a fan although he does cover one of the most important parts of the expo which is the costumes – I wish he had covered other parts.
Costumes
All the costumes were great in this video, I do disagree with non Japanese animation being included in an anime expo especially since the whole point is to promote Japanese animation in America but he really did a great job showcasing the best cos-play costumes.
Video 1
Several good characters like Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, Mew Mew Lettuce from Tokyo Mew Mew, several others.
Video 2
1:54 ruined the video, why was it included?
Many more good costumes and, as usual, a ton of Hatsune Miku costumes
Video 3
This was the best in my opinion, lot’s of good costumes
Kamichama Karin is a short-series Japanese anime that’s in the “Magical Girl” and “Comedy” genre. The anime was very well developed minus a few flaws in the storyline and the production budget and overall quality were high. Some people have not seen this anime either because it is a “Magical Girl” anime or they never heard of it but this is a rare gem in the anime world and worth seeing.
The storyline:
The storyline focuses around the main character Karin who’s life changes forever one random day when her pet cat, shi-chan, died and was buried. A mysterious man walks up and demands she hand her ring her mother gave her to him, in return he will resurrect her dead cat. Immediately after giving him the ring another person runs up and snatches the ring out of his hands getting injured along the way. From there these 2 people start fighting with some form of weapons they appeared to pull out of nowhere.
From then on out Karin learns that she is a goddess who borrows powers from Athena, the Greek god of war. There appears to be only a few other demigods and a split between good and evil. To make matters more interesting nobody’s really sure of -why- they’re fighting in the first place or what the conflict is except for Kazune and Kirio who appear to lead both sides. Another interesting spin is the central character Himeka who is revealed early in the series to be split into two completely separate individuals both appropriately named Himeka. Each side has the other Himeka and when one Himeka is healthy the other is weak and sick, the reverse is also true. Nobody but Kazune and Kirio again know why or how this came to be.
Several more new characters are introduced as the storyline progresses and all of them are built-upon in depth. Throughout the storyline you get this feeling that, somehow, everybody is connected at some level. Like all these events and characters aren’t just random or thrown together. Several more startling discoveries are made over the frequently referenced Mother of Karin who was claimed to have been dead for sometime and the father figure who was never mentioned.
Production:
The graphics and characters quality are unusually high, what I mean by that is they’re drawn very good and are well blended. The design of the characters and scenery are also of a higher quality than I’m used to seeing. The storyline was quite in-depth and wasn’t incomplete and “Hard slapped together” as I refer to some other anime, usually anime with good graphics have really bad story-lines.
The music was well composed and produced, I actually have favorite scenes in the anime purely because the music went so well with the content.
This is a comedy!
Another more interesting aspect compared to other anime is the fact that this makes HEAVY use of many different forms of visual comedy. Basically, in general anime, the characters and scenery can be drawn radically different to give a more feel and atmosphere to the scene. Kamichama Karin takes this into overdrive with almost every few minutes a different emotion and it’s well played to, not overdone, completely adding more to the humor.
Below is a video of the last part of Episode 2 when she first transforms:
This was a really good episode, particularly at the end of the show. Mamoru hastily comes back from England as Prince Endymion and is willing to reclaim the title and honor he once had over thousands of years ago as the Grand protector of Earth. Despite the resulted tragedy beforehand which caused the destruction of Earth, he’s willing to take the risk. Sailor Venus witnessed the scene and realized fate could not be changed.
This was a moving episode and a very good one. The usual last clip is below:
I’ve finished Tokyo Mew Mew episodes 5 & 6, so far I really like the series. I found Episode 6 particularly of interest since it featured an English character who couldn’t speak Japanese. I’ve seen English characters in some anime before but they always could speak Japanese, usually fluently.
This character couldn’t utter a word of Japanese to save her life and she played a central role in this episode so it was both interesting and funny, she’s also from San Fransisco, America.
Ichigo was so funny trying to speak English to her:
Mary in English: “Is he here?”
Ichigo in English: “I am a Ichigo”
Lettuce in Japanese: “Your not suppose to put an “a” in front of your name”
Mary in English: “Ichigo?”
Ichigo in English: “Strawberry”
Mary in English: “What does that mean?”
Ichigo in English: “This is a pen!” **Random English line learned in school
Lettuce in Japanese: “I’ll get some help”
Ichigo in Japanese: “Wait, don’t leave me here!”
Instead of the usual last part I thought I’d give the first part instead below but the scene mentioned above is at the end of the clip (If you want to skip to it, it’s starts at position 5:34):
Episode 7 is a slightly important episode regarding the “bigger picture” of the storyline. It officially marks the end of the “Introduction Episodes” which are Episodes 1-6 and marks the start of the 2nd segment of the storyline. This means that the episodes are going to “start” getting more intense, start being the keyword.
It’ll take many more episodes before getting to the actual “Intensity” of the anime which is where all the intense battling occurs. After episode 25 or 26 it’s really all about drama and intense battling. About Episode 30 or so the episodes no longer begin or end happy or “good” but instead start out with the previous tragic events and end with new tragic events so you’ll quickly begin to miss the happy parts.
Tuxedo Mask discovered the identity of Sailor moon in this episode as well further adding to the start of the 2nd storyline segment, also a new enemy has been introduced and the mysterious “Sailor V” was given a bigger role.
What is Kamichama Karin:
