Sakuracon 2015 Plans

It's almost Easter, with that said more importantly for me, it's almost Sakura-con time. I've attended a few anime cons both big (like Anime Expo) and smaller ones as well, but I've always liked Sakura-con the best. I feel as if it's always getting better each year, and varies out what it does and focuses on each year.

This year I'm excited for quite a few guests, events and the concert.

First off the concert is both going to have Kanako Ito and GARNiDELiA. If you have no idea who either of these people are Kanako Ito does a lot of vocal music for Nitro+ games including Steins;Gate while GARNiDELiA has done music for various animes including Kill la Kill.

I'm very excited because I've never seen either live but I've watched a live of Kanako Ito doing Skyclad Observer and I really enjoy how her voice sounds just as lovely as it does in recordings. Also Kill la Kill's second opening is vastly superior, in my opinion.

There will also be both a BlazBlue and Guilty Gear Xrd tournament as well. Though I won't participate, I will be watching the tournament going on if I have nothing to do or if there aren't any events that I will be going to.

I'm also really excited for the Good Smile Company guys as well as h.NAOTO coming to the US. My friend told me the Good Smile guys are going to do a live sculpting event, and if that's true... It's going to be amazing. I went last year to the Magi/Sword Art Online live drawing and it was super fun.

I've got a little bit of money saved for the con so if I see something I like I'll make sure to get it. For sure I will be going to the Good Smile Company booth first to see what they're all selling, which is my main thing as I buy multiples of a lot of toys (for modding), but usually isn't much I buy because you know, online shopping.

I will make sure to post everyday of the con hopefully or at least have a huge megapost at the end of the con.

I have 22 more days before 3 days of con fun. I cannot wait!

Kill la Kill-Episode 25 Recap and thoughts

Well folks, episode 25 is out. Yup, the last actual Kill la Kill episode. And I've got to say at least for me it was vastly unimpressive or maybe a better term would be it just didn't feel like a good conclusion overall to the series.

So here's a basic recap and my thoughts on this episode, so if you don't like spoilers best to stop now.

The episode starts with the tearing down and graduation of Honnouji Academy and then leads into Satsuki getting kidnapped by none other than Rei Hououmaru, who was left alive after the final fight with Ragyo (even though she was inside Ragyo while she was in her Shinra Koketsu form).

Well turns out Hououmaru is pissed at the fact that Satsuki and the Elite Four and plans to kill them and destroy all that the Kill la Kids worked for into creating a world without COVERS. So the Elite Four fight copies of their old selves made real by remnant life fibers and the memories of the no star students. Which obviously those who aren't in power fear those who are; which was Hououmaru's driving point behind this, that the Elite Four and Satsuki we no better than anyone else because they dominated those without power by fear.

Fighting of course ensues, Tsumugu brings custom DTRs for the Elite Four, he gets jobbed as usual; fighting all around. School turns into a giant robot (just like 4chan and other people predicted) and Mako gets captured...Because of cheese.

I kid you not, this legitimately happens. We don't get to see it though, but Mako confesses herself to Satsuki that she got captured because she saw some cheese and wanted to eat it.

More fighting happens, Ryuko harkens back to her memories of Senketsu and then scissors fall from the sky. Ryuko turns them into giant scissors and talks about everyone graduating from Ragyo and eventually about her graduating from wearing her sailor uniform.

Everyone goes there separate ways and bam. The end. Obviously you need to watch it of course to get the feel of it and see what parts are missing but that was the episode in a nut shell.

They did do one thing though interesting that harkened back to the whole Kill la Kill; clothes vs fascism. And that was brought up by the point of graduation.

Graduation is a rather unique social phenomenon in Japan regarding subcultures but also ones that also involve fashion. It is the point where you put away your childhood and then go to the adult world and become a normal member of society. The most common subculture fashions who have these sort of graduations tend to be ones that go against what the typical Japanese stand for, a homogenous society. Though as of late, the younger Japanese are realizing though that they may be adults that doesn't mean they have to sacrifice their individuality and become normal.

Which ties back to one of Kill la Kill's themes in the second half of the anime, that crazy people are crazy and they do what they do, and are needed in the world just as much as everyone else.

While we may not have another episode of Kill la Kill ever again, I wish it didn't end like it did here with episode 25, it just felt empty and added a whole bunch of crap that they weren't able to fit into the main story at the time.

Monthly Purchase June-Part One

I know I will have quite a few purchases from June so they're going in parts, there should be three parts if I end up not combining them, but I tend to though. As usual the purchase is from Amiami and contains an assortment.

Yotsuba&! Figure, Little Busters Nendoroid, Steins;Gate CD single and traveling mug, Kill la Kill BD and shirt, Hozuki no Reitetsu BD

Mostly everything that I got from this package, there is a book that isn't pictured but I will go into that later.

Yotsuba Figure and Kamikita Komari Nendoroid

While I was really excited for the Yotsuba figure I was rather sad seeing how small she stands in comparison to other scale figures. But I guess at the same time I am going to be standing her between two different Danboards so it shouldn't be that much of a problem in comparison, after all Yotsuba is just a child after all, so I guess she should be small in comparison to other figures.

As for the Little Busters nendoroid, I haven't watched Little Busters yet, nor have I played the VN as well. But it is on my backlog things to do. I must say though, I actually just bought her because she looked so adorable and her expressions are completely moe I could just die.

Stiens;Gate "Hacking to the Gate" CD single, Kill la Kill BD vol. 5 and Hozuki no Reitetsu BD vol.3

I've talked about my Steins;Gate mug in detail, so I'm not going to be talking about it anymore... But if you want to know why I bought it, here is the main reason.

Along with that I also bought the Hacking to the Gate CD single from the anime, I actually like the OP theme a lot and wanted it so I ended up buying a copy, while I should have bought the "Best Vocals" album I also like the idea of starting up again a CD collection but since the US is getting rid of CDs (or at least it seems that way) it looks like my entire collection is going to be Japanese CDs and CD singles; which isn't a bad thing to me.

Kill la Kill volume 5 BD is really cool as it features Gamagoori and Sanageyama not only on the cover but each are on a respected disk, Sanageyama is on the Original CD Soundtrack Vol. 2 while Gamagoori, accompanied on his head by Mako and Guts, is the actual BD disk itself. I personally haven't listened to the CD soundtrack yet but will later this week.

The other BD is Hozuki no Reitetsu. I don't know how many of you watched the series as it was airing or are reading the manga, but Japanese supernatural stories are kind of something I have liked since I was smaller (loved Gegege no Kitaro). So watching a glorified assistant to King Enma doing his daily routine of helping out in the various hells was just a blast. Supposedly it was picked up by Sentai Filmworks but honestly it's a rather short series with only 13 episodes, so it's pretty much the standard two episodes per BD. But the interesting thing about the Hozuki BDs is that you were able to chose between A and B. A having the drama CD accompanying it while B has something they call "Jigoku Goods" featuring Hozuki's plant/goldfish hybrid plant. Volume three features a small pouch that you can use for pencils and cosmetics.

Kill la Kill "Kamui Banshou" book

This supplemental book for Kill la Kill is really interesting, not only does it contain the standard things you'd find in a supplemental book like character synopsys and episode details but also talks a deal about their process in general like the 3D in episode 3 among other things. Even if you can't read Japanese this is a good book as a point of reference for images for drawing or just in general to see how Studio Trigger does their thought process.

One thing is for sure though I do want Sushio to come out with a Kill la Kill artbook though.

Kill la Kill English Dub Trailer

Well folks since the first episode of Kill la Kill dubbed is being shown at Anime Expo 2014, the English trailer is out today and here it is for you to watch.

It may just be me, but I don't like it for a lot of reasons. Though they may be shallow for some. The four who I don't like in the dub are Gamagoori, Senketsu, Satsuki, and Ryuko.

Now for Gamagoori and Senketsu it is more of a fact that they're a tough act to follow. I mean we're talking about the same guys who do vocals in Tokusatsu shows. Especially Tetsu Inada (Gamagoori's voice actor). But with that said they mainly do voices for the suit actors and are never really on screen. So I feel as I'm used to these overtly raspy vastly expressive male voices which the English dub kinda fell flat on.

Toshihiko Seki voiced Momotaros in "Kamen Rider Den-O" Plays the voice of Senketsu

As for the girls; Satsuki and Ryuko, I feel the problem is they're not as deep as I thought. What was interesting about Kill la Kill for me was the tone of voice these girls spoke in. They spoke more like men than women in the show, and their tone of voice and rather deep voices expressed quite well they were more masculine representations of women then feminine.

I feel as if the acting for the dub with these four just lay flat because of it. But a dub will do what it does; more exposure and more money for Studio Trigger.

Even though I have the entire Japanese version preorded on Blu-ray I'll still buy the English version to show my support for Studio Trigger and Kill la Kill.