The Old School Otaku Lounge

I think the "diva" behavior is still there, I think it just carries less because of how cosplay has become more "social". Honestly, I think the "masquerade"/big cosplay event has probably declined in the eyes of a lot of people and been superceded by "group photo ...

Captain Okita being alive in Final Yamato is one of the weaker plot elements in a film that is fairly well filled with weak plot elements. I've seen a lot of fan commentary and even some fiddly-faddly statements from Matsumoto that attempt to tie all his characters into one over-arching narrative, a...

This one I've never really understood. It's like they show up to a con just to hang out and do nothing at all. I can understand taking a break for a while, but some people seem to do this the whole time. Why did they bring the laptop? You can do this at Starbucks for a lot less. I used to go to pre...

It used to be that the costumers were causing drama and trouble way out of proportion to their numbers - in 1997-2002 it seemed like every year there would be people complaining about the judging of the contest, or the props they weren't allowed to carry, or the size of their group, or one cosplay p...

After Matsumoto's ham-fisted attempt to claim ownership of Space Battleship Yamato a few years back, it's not surprising that the 2199 producers would distance their production as far away as they could from anything Matsumoto could concievably lay claim to. Mimay's home planet was changed to Alozar...

I don't know what their secret is but they always get great Japanese industry guests. If I still lived in Atlanta, I would go to this convention just for Mikimoto. I think the last AZ I attended was 2000 or 2001, but I always had a good time there.

Glad to hear you gave 2199 a try, Greg. I am literally loving every minute of it, and when it's over I just want there to be more of it. The new characters are great, the way they have expanded and fleshed out both the storyline and the greater Yamato universe is terrific, and you can really tell th...

I liked that Nelvana animated thing they ran during the Christmas Special. It had this terrific Mobieus look to it and that great alien language font.

This is something like the list kndy posted, but newer, and more ranty. I wrote it a few years back, but it still holds up. If you spend any time among Japanese cartoon fandom, you'll start to notice some distinctive character types. Sure, most of them are fine folks. But some of 'em are just plain...

Those CDs are outstanding. I think these days they're trying to pretend 'Sougen no Shojo Laura' doesn't exist.