Author: Jason S. Yadao

Rest in peace, Dave Thorne

Dave Thorne at a cartooning lecture at McCully-Moiliili Library, April 16, 2011.
Dave Thorne at a cartooning lecture at McCully-Moiliili Library, April 16, 2011.

Posted to the Dave Thorne Get Well Page (Facebook login required) a few hours ago by son Randy Thorne:

Our Dearest friends and family: Our father, uncle, friend, mentor, teacher, husband, and bringer of aloha to everyone he met, passed over last night at about 12:30 am Hawaiian time. He suffered from a major stroke Friday which his body and most importantly his brain unfortunately could not recover from. He was surrounded with friends and family when the difficult decision was made to discontinue life support. He transitioned peacefully and without any duress. It is now up to everyone he has impacted to continue his legacy of Aloha. He will live on in all of us!

Mahalo Nui Loa for all of your prayers and best wishes. His “Celebration of Life” arrangements are pending. Love and Aloha, Randy

Those of you who read the Star-Advertiser knew Dave as the cartoonist and creative mastermind behind the Sunday comic strip “Thorney’s Zoo.” Here’s the archive through what would turn out to be his final “Thorney’s Zoo” strip, Oct. 30, 2011: http://www.staradvertiser.com/features/sundaycomics/thorneyszoo/ It’s a big loss for the cartooning community, both locally and globally, to be sure.

I’ll have more thoughts and a tribute when I’m able to write them up, hopefully later this week.

Kickstarter talk is in the air, everywhere

I have to admit that when it comes to communication, I’m far more comfortable with the written word than I am with speaking to people. Part of the reason is that I really hate the way my voice sounds when I’m speaking. The other part is that I get nervous as heck … I’m really quite awkward in social situations, too.

So that’s why, in the 10 years I’ve been working the anime/manga beat (yup! 10 years!), I’ve only willingly put myself in front of a recording device all of two times. The first time was for this video interview with then-Anime Vice editor-in-chief, current Anime News Network contributing writer, and still all-around cool cat Gia Manry, posted to the site on Feb. 28, 2009.

Here’s the original Anime Vice page that it was posted on. Note the comment by RedRose. And now you know why, three years, four months and 23 days and counting, I have yet to watch a single second of this footage. The memories of that day — lunch at Ulupalakua Ranch in upcountry Maui, followed by that interview with me and all my apparent head-bobbing glory — are more than enough for me, thankyewverymuch.

I would’ve been perfectly happy with that being my first and last venture into the recorded-for-the-Internet world, but alas, fate sometimes has a way of taking plans, ripping them up, stomping on them and then grinding them in to the dirt. And its roots were planted in my Twitter enthusiasm for Digital Manga Publishing’s Kickstarter drive for Osamu Tezuka’s Unico, Atomcat and Triton of the Sea, which, as of my writing this post, was just a few hours from completion.

In retrospect, perhaps my cheerleading was a bit much. It’s easy to get caught up in the Kickstarter hype, watching the contribution level rising, knowing that you, yes, you, are one of the people helping to make the project pitch become a reality. (Full disclosure: I signed on for one of the limited “Power of Love” $165 packages.) But I was not expecting to get this kind of response to one of my tweets in late June.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

I met Glenn Kardy, the man behind @MangaUniversity, at HEXXP in 2010. Great guy. Totally respect him. I feel really bad that I’ve never had a chance to write up the interview I did with him at that convention. But that tweet, along with a follow-up response from Ed Chavez at Vertical, opened the floodgates for several days’ worth of Twitter discussion debating the merits of a large manga publisher like DMP using Kickstarter as a way of funding their book-publishing ventures. It’s a discussion that I by and large stayed out of, not wanting to stir up any more controversy than I already had.

Manga Out Loud. Podcast by Ed Sizemore. Cute logo by Lissa Patillo.It was around this time that Ed Sizemore, co-host of the “Manga Out Loud” podcast with Johanna Draper Carlson, contacted me about being a podcast guest. I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant at first — me? Why me? I’m just a fan out here in the middle of the Pacific who’s already seen his best days in the sun and is now slowly fading away, tucked away in a corner of the sprawling staradvertiser.com network of sites. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that yeah, I probably could hold my own. And hopefully the other people Ed invited would be able to carry the load as well.

The other guests were great. Joining me via Skype in recording on Monday were Erica Friedman, president and founder of Yuricon and ALC Publishing and writer of the Okazu blog, and Ben Applegate, one of the people behind the DMP Kickstarter campaign who’s now picked up additional work at Kodansha USA. We talked at length about the Kickstarter campaign — there, you can find out the reason why I haven’t mentioned the DMP Kickstarter on Twitter since that time — and Erica, Ed, Johanna and myself also discussed Tokyopop’s resurrection and Viz’s new Neon Alley anime venture on the PlayStation Network. It was quite the experience, I must say … especially listening live to some of the parts that I think Ed left on the cutting-room floor. (I won’t divulge the nature of the discussion. I’ll just say that for the four of us around for that particular part of the recording session, it was … pretty wild.) I understand Matt Blind, he of the Rocket Bomber blog chock full of manga sales statistics and retail bookseller commentary, also joined Ed on another day to talk about Kickstarter.

So yes, you’ll probably want to give this month’s edition of “Manga Out Loud” a listen, to hear our great discussion and cringe at the nails-on-chalkboard quality of my voice. You can find show notes and a download link at mangaoutloud.com/webpage/episode-61-more-kickstarter-with-matt-blind-erica-friedman-jason-yadao-ben-applegate. That podcast officially makes it the second time that my voice has been recorded for the internet.

Will there ever be a third opportunity? We shall see. My inner voice is screaming at me “OH DEAR GOD NOOOOOOOOOOO,” but my sense of self-confidence has a tendency every so often to grab a giant mallet, bonk it over the head and knock it out. You never know.

The Cel Shaded Report, 7/20: Beach blanket Tokyo Babylon

Otaku culture is fundamentally based around indoor activities. Sure, you see fans venturing outside every once in a while for sketch meets and cosplay shoots, but for the most part they stay indoors to watch their anime, indoors to play their video games, and indoors to curl up and read some manga.

kawaii-kon-logoAnd so, it’s time for Kawaii Kon’s annual reminder that going outdoors can be fun for anime and manga fans, too. The local anime convention is hosting its third annual beach day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Ala Moana Beach Park. Much of what I wrote about last year’s beach day still applies — pack a lunch, smash a watermelon, build a sand sculpture, enter a beach cosplay contest, here’s a map of beach day site Pavilion 28AB — along with a few new twists:

  • The water-battling weaponry has been upgraded, so instead of water balloons, be prepared for all-out water gun warfare. Bring one for yourself. Maybe a few for your allies, too, if you’re the type of person who builds alliances. Unless you’re the lone wolf Golgo 13 type, in which case I suppose you wouldn’t.
  • You can get a prize just by showing up in beach-themed cosplay (while supplies last, of course).
  • The best sand sculpture earns a three-day pass to Kawaii Kon 2013.

For any updates (and to join in the discussion, if you’re so inclined), visit www.facebook.com/events/241922289244420/

Anime around town

Aiea Library Anime Club: 3 p.m. Saturday at the library, 99-143 Moanalua Road. This month, librarian Diane Masaki will be screening the first few episodes of Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or e-mail aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com.

The Cel Shaded Report, 7/12: “Nakamaboko” with Comic Jam

nakamaboko2

We’ve been looking this week at MangaBento’s “Nakamaboko” exhibit, with its giant octopus, intricate artwork and a dorky anime/manga blogger playing with the interactive comic wall. You have until Saturday to look at it in person in the second-floor gallery of the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St.)

There’s one more section of the exhibit to cover here in Otaku Ohana, this one showcasing the work of another group: Comic Jam Hawaii, the cartoonist/artist collective that’s been gathering monthly to fellowship and draw cartoons, illustrations and sketches together. As these pictures show, they have a lot of fun at these get-togethers.

Here’s the gallery link for those of you who are Flashless or Flash-averse: www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyoshi/sets/72157630546908662/

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

As I note in the gallery intro on Flickr, Comic Jam Hawaii usually meets from 6 to 9 p.m. every last Wednesday of the month at Kahala Mall. This month, though, members are making a special appearance at two events, both of which are on Saturday. The first appearance, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., will be at Pearlridge Center in conjunction with the mall’s “Hall of Heroes” superhero exhibit. Look for them in the space in Pearlridge Uptown where Borders used to be (*sniffle*).

Not only will they be sketching and inviting visitors to join in, they’ll also be giving away packs of nine random “chibi-fied” superhero cards from a set of 93 images the artists have drawn over the past few weeks. (One free pack per person, please.) Spider-Man, Superman, Captain America, Wolverine … they’re all in there, and then some. There’s even a chance of snagging some original artwork. But we’re all about giving the Japanese properties a little extra push here in Otaku Ohana, so here are previews of MidWeek cartoonist Roy Chang’s Astro Boy card …

Astro Boy by Roy Chang

… and Star-Advertiser “Calabash” cartoonist Jon Murakami’s take on Kikaida.

Kikaida by Jon Murakami

You know you want ’em. (I know I do.) Also, if you spend $50 at Pearlridge on Saturday, you can get a copy of Jon’s book, “If You Were a Superhero in Hawaii.” Not a bad way to spend a few hours, really.

After their stint at Pearlridge, the gang will be heading down Moanalua Road a bit and setting up shop at Aiea Library from 2 to 5 p.m., where they’ll continue to sketch and offer various sketching activities for children of all ages.

Want to learn more about Comic Jam Hawaii? You’ll have to be logged in to a Facebook account; if you are, visit www.facebook.com/groups/147779161986428/

Anime around town

The Dragonfly Kickstarter: There’s just a few hours left to pledge support for the live-action “Kikaida meets X-Files” superhero show from the creator of Pineapple Man, Sam Campos. And truth be told, at only 12% of its $50,000 goal raised, the chances of it getting funded are remote at best. But you never know, I could be surprised by a flurry of contributors in the stretch run. The campaign ends at noon Friday; visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/195805089/dragonfly-0 for details.

pen and ink works logoPen & Ink Works: This group of anime/manga-inspired artists is celebrating its first anniversary with a manga printmaking activity Saturday at ArtSpree, the annual family art festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House (the former Contemporary Museum) in Makiki. Create your own manga characters with help from Pen & Ink Works members, and enjoy the food, activities and entertainment available across the entire Spalding House campus. ArtSpree runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; admission is free. (Be advised that parking will not be available at Spalding House; visitors are advised to park at Punahou School and catch the free shuttle.) For more on ArtSpree, visit honolulumuseum.org/12787-artspree; for more on Pen & Ink Works, visit peninkworks.wordpress.com.

hexxp-logoHEXXP: The biggest recent news out of the pop culture convention home of Nobuo Uematsu, a World Cosplay Summit regional qualifying round, a Macross 25th anniversary exhibit and the Miku Hatsune DJ Dance Party is that it’s expanding to three days of programming from two. Yes, HEXXP is now running from Friday, Oct. 19 through Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Aloha Tower Marketplace. For those of you who have already preregistered, your passes now cover that extra day.

Those of you who missed out on the first round of VIP passes also now have a second chance; the second and final block of 150 passes recently went on sale. They aren’t cheap — $175, compared to the standard $55 for a regular all-days pass — but they do grant access to a special VIP lounge where con guests will be making regular appearances and express, preferred seating at special events.

And finally, I’ve gotten word that two more guest announcements will be made, possibly as soon next week. Stay tuned.

For more information, visit www.hexxp.com.

MangaBento’s “Nakamaboko”: The second slice

A Hawaiian Anime Day by Kristi AuyongWhen last we left off with our look at MangaBento’s “Nakamaboko” exhibit, we had taken a virtual tour of the gallery space and some of the most dominant elements in that space. This time around, the artwork on display takes the spotlight. I didn’t want to put everything that’s on display into this slideshow — that would take a while to cycle through, and time these days is quite precious, both for me in preparing these posts and you in reading them — but I hope these highlights I’ve chosen give you an idea of the talent level of the featured artists.

Oh yes, and as promised in the last gallery, there is, in fact, a picture of me trying out the interactive comic wall. If that isn’t incentive enough for you to browse through this slideshow, I don’t know what is.

Since this whole slideshow thing is still relatively new, here’s a refresher course on how best to use it: To start the slideshow, just press the “play” button in the middle of the frame below. Pause and restart using the button on the lower left. If you want a larger view, click on the icon on the lower right; in that full-screen view, you can also see the captions I’ve written for each picture (using the “Show Info” link) or slow down the automatic scrolling (using the “Options” link). Finally, if you’re viewing this blog on an iOS device (iPad/iPod Touch) and can’t view Flash plug-ins, or if you just want to skip all the slideshow fiddling and go straight to the gallery, here’s the direct gallery link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyoshi/sets/72157630518435752/ Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

Coming up next time: This wall, which deserves an entire post — well, a good chunk of an entire post, anyway, since it is going to be part of the weekly Cel Shaded Report, and there are other things I need to discuss — in and of itself.

IMG_9488

Yup. The Comic Jam Hawaii wall. They contributed many pieces to “Nakamaboko.” And they’re going to be pretty busy drawing on Saturday, too…

MangaBento’s “Nakamaboko”: The first slice

IMG_9289Almost a month ago, on June 12, “Nakamaboko” opened in the gallery at the Honolulu Museum of Art School.

The annual exhibit by the anime/manga-inspired artist collective MangaBento is scheduled to come down at the end of this week. And guess what? Your friendly neighborhood anime/manga blogger is finally ready to report on it. And in a new way, at that!

See, one of the biggest obstacles in doing photo posts like these is that it takes a lot of time to go through photos, pick the ones that don’t make me wince and question why I ever thought I had any modicum of photography skill in the first place, and run them through what I like to call Adobe Photoshop Elements’ “prettify” filters. Then I have to place each picture in the post and write up something suitably snappy … and the more pictures I put into each post, the more that you, dear reader, has to scroll down and down and down and down on the same page. It just seemed so clunky, especially in this day and age where perfectly good online slideshow widgets and plug-ins exist. And with more photos than I’ve ever posted before on a single subject — so many, in fact, that I decided it would be best for me to write three separate posts on this exhibit —

So I went out, dug up an old Flickr account that I hadn’t touched in ages (seriously, the last pictures added to that account’s photostream were from two years ago), freshened it up a bit, and voila! Instant compact gallery-type goodness to play with.

A few notes before we begin: To start the slideshow, just press the “play” button in the middle of the frame below. Pause and restart using the button on the lower left. If you want a larger view, click on the icon on the lower right; in that full-screen view, you can also see the captions I’ve written for each picture (using the “Show Info” link) or slow down the automatic scrolling (using the “Options” link). Finally, if you’re viewing this blog on an iOS device (iPad/iPod Touch) and can’t view Flash plug-ins, or if you just want to skip all the slideshow fiddling and go straight to the gallery, here’s the direct gallery link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyoshi/sets/72157630460795572/

That said, on to the first gallery! This one spotlights the gallery layout, a few special features and, of course, the sketch table.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

Coming up next time: A selection of some of the pieces on display.

The Cel Shaded Report, 6/28: A quick dip into the night

tokyo story

I’m working on quite a few posts at the moment, so this week’s edition of the Cel Shaded Report is going to have to be a quick one. Fortunately for my workload, there’s only one event catching my attention this week that has to be talked about ASAP.

That event is happening Friday at the Honolulu Museum of Art. In conjunction with “Hiroshige: An Artist’s Journey,” an exhibit featuring the woodblock prints of Utagawa Hiroshige that’s on display through Aug. 19, the museum’s monthly ARTafterDARK event will carry the theme of “Tokyo Story.” “Inspired by the exhibition … we bring the neon glitz and glam of Tokyo to ARTafterDARK,” an official blurb reads … and you know that here at Otaku Ohana, we’re all about promoting events that have Tokyo glitz and glam that involves the local art community.

Advertised as being a part of the festivities is Gordon Rider/Star-Advertiser “Calabash” cartoonist Jon Murakami and Jessica Valadez, “featured artist of Kawaii Kon.” (I’ve only had time to deduce that she’s won a past Kawaii Kon newsletter art contest and has exhibited before in Artist Alley, but nothing beyond that.) Both Jon and Jessica will be doing sketches at the event. Not advertised, but also attending, will be nemu*nemu artist Audra Furuichi (sketching away alongside Jon and Jessica) and HEXXP and the MangaBento artists, who’ll be manning the Harajuku Photo Booth, where attendees can take pictures using yukata and various props. You can also meet Ayumi Sugimoto, the animator from Japan whose workshops in Hawaii laid the groundwork for MangaBento’s creation.

Cost is $10 general admission and free for Museum members; visit http://honoluluacademy.org/events/art_after_dark/12869-tokyo_story to see more of the cool activities that will be available.

Okay, back into the writing cave for me, where I hope to get at least one more post up before the end of the month. Or maybe I’ll just end up being distracted by random videos. You never know.

The Cel Shaded report, 6/22: Just kickin’ it

Tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. and I are big fans of Kickstarter, the fundraising website that gives all sorts of projects, from art exhibits to state-of-the-art technological doohickeys, the chance to go from dream to reality with the help of people willing to invest a bit to make them happen.

dragonfly poster… wait, did I just write “big fans of Kickstarter” in that last paragraph? I meant to say “freakishly obsessed with Kickstarter.” If there’s a worthy cause for us to support and an affordable tier of cool swag for us to jump on, we are so. there. Rich Burlew’s Order of the Stick reprint project? Helped with that. Double Fine’s untitled adventure game? That, too. And, of course, you’ve read about one of the most prominent/successful local campaigns in this space, the nemu*nemu volume 6 Kickstarter. We’ve hopped on those and so many more.

It’s with that obsession in mind that I present to you two more Kickstarter projects in the process of pursuing funding, one local, one national. The local project is one that’s been in the works since Burl Burlingame first profiled it in the pages of the Star-Bulletin in 2007: Dragonfly, a live-action superhero show from the creator of Pineapple Man, Sam Campos. Campos has described his show in the past as “Kikaida meets X-Files,” and it’s easy to see the influence of tokusatsu (live-action superhero) series like Kikaida and Kamen Rider on the costume designs in his series. The show stars Cole Horibe as Alex Tombo, descendent of an ancient line of genetically engineered warriors that defends the world from an ancient evil that lurks within the islands. (You may have seen Horibe on TV recently, as he’s in the running in Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance with his martial arts-infused moves.)

Campos is looking to raise $50,000 to finish production of Dragonfly’s first three episodes. With that in mind, here’s the Dragonfly Kickstarter pitch video:

… as well as a link to an interview Campos did on World of Superheroes that explains a bit more about the project. Rewards include anything from digital downloads of the three episodes in production ($10 for one, $15 for two, $20 for all three) all the way up to an executive producer credit, a prototype helmet, signed copies of Pineapple Man issues 1-4 and a Dragonfly DVD (a price tier so high that I’m pretty sure the average Otaku Ohana reader wouldn’t be able to afford it without taking out a loan somewhere). You have until July 13 to contribute to the Dragonfly Kickstarter at http://ow.ly/bKJ4r.

unicoOn the national front, Digital Manga Publishing — which already has successfully Kickstarted a reprint of Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth and the first run of Tezuka’s Barbara — is going back to the Tezuka well for its latest project: a full-color print run of Unico. The series, about a unicorn endowed with magical powers to help those to love him, was serialized from 1976 to 1979 in Sanrio’s Ririka magazine — yes, that Sanrio, better known the House of Hello Kitty. As such, this title is far more accessible to readers of all ages than Swallowing the Earth and Barbara, two series tailored for older readers. This would be the first translated run for the Unico manga in the U.S., but it’s not the first time Unico’s shown up in the states; most recently, Discotek released two animated features, The Fantastic World of Unico (1981) and Unico in the Island of Magic (1983), on DVD in May.

As I was writing this post, the campaign had just crossed over the $12,000 mark and appears well on its way to making its $20,500 goal well before its scheduled closing date of July 21. Once it hits that goal, it looks like there’s going to be an announcement of another Tezuka manga that’s joining the party, so stay tuned. For now, $35 lands a copy of Unico and either $10 worth of online manga at eManga.com or six issues of the Astro Boy online magazine, and the tiers scale upward from there to include stickers, T-shirts and posters. The always great Tezuka in English site has more background information about the Unico manga, and you can contribute to the Kickstarter, check out some sample translated pages and watch DMP’s pitch video at http://ow.ly/bKKqS.

Update 6/28: Original goal has been met! Now the DMP Kickstarter-teers is working on getting another manga, the “Astro Boy … if Astro was a cat” story ATOMCAT into publication. And if that gets successfully funded — and it’s about a shade over $1,000 to doing that — the push for another manga will begin. Stay tuned.

Anime around town

uematsuHEXXP: Online registration is continuing for the third annual edition of the pop culture convention, and so are the monthly giveaways. Those of you registered by the end of this month, in fact, have a chance to win a rather coveted item to anyone who’s a fan of one of this year’s guests, Nobuo Uematsu. See that Earthbound Papas CD to the right? See that silver scrawl on the upper left corner? That is, indeed, Uematsu’s signature, and if your name is drawn, you could very well win this signed CD. HEXXP is happening Oct. 20-21 at the Aloha Tower Marketplace; visit https://www.facebook.com/hexxphawaii for more information or http://www.hexxp.com to register (and, by extension, enter to win). 

Pen & Ink Works: This group of anime- and manga-inspired artists is getting together for a Sketch Meet from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the McCully-Moiliili Public Library, 2211 S. King St., in the first-floor reading room. (If you’re attended the library’s Mini Con in the past two years, you know where that room is.) Bring your sketchbooks, get some drawing advice from senior members, and get ready for a fun afternoon. Visit peninkworks.wordpress.com.

MangaBento: The other group of anime- and manga-inspired artists meets from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Honolulu Museum of Art School, 1111 Victoria St., Room 200. Visit http://www.manga-bento.com for more information. Also, the group’s latest exhibit, “Nakamaboko” is on display in the art school’s second-floor gallery through July 14. I’m still working on processing the pictures I took at Sunday’s opening reception and a follow-up visit on Wednesday, but here’s a sneak Pika-peek with a ceramic piece by Chad Vilayvong.

pika peek

Comic Jam Hawaii: This month’s informal gathering of comic artists is happening Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Center Court of Kahala Mall. Artists of all skill levels are invited to draw, talk story and collaborate on cartoons like this one, also among the pieces on display at the “Nakamaboko” exhibit:

comic jam sample

The Cel Shaded report, 6/14: Returning with a boxed lunch

Well. Hello there. It’s been a while since I’ve actually written a full post in this space, hasn’t it? Yes, there was a guest post from Christina Chun on the Dragon Age movie, and tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. handled the May Manga Movable Feast post, but I haven’t written much here since May 3.

Not that I haven’t tried to write anything, of course — I have about two or three unfinished posts sitting in the Otaku Ohana drafts folder. Great topics, too. For starters, I really ought to share some of those pictures I took at an exhibit at the state Capitol in early May, so you can see all the nice artwork from the Cartooning Social Jam group at Aiea Intermediate School. Like this piece by Jessica Sato.

An intermediate school student did this, folks. INTERMEDIATE. SCHOOL. STUDENT.

It’s just that, I must admit, I haven’t felt very inspired to finish anything as of late. You could call it partly a feeling of burnout, partly that feeling of blogger mid/late-life crisis where one starts questioning why he or she still blogs and whether anyone really cares about what gets written/published anymore. It just seemed like I needed to step away for a bit and re-evaluate just why I do what I do. Rediscover the joy of writing, if you will.

So, without a word, I just took some time off. Yes, I edited Christi’s and Wilma’s posts and added some introductions,  but that was pretty much it when it came to Otaku Ohana. In the interim I also visited San Jose for FanimeCon over Memorial Day weekend, one of the largest and best anime conventions in northern California … unless, of course, you show up at your hotel on the same night that the leader of the free world is staying there and have to navigate your way through various security measures and metal detectors just to make it to the front desk, and then, less than 24 hours later, endure six hours waiting to pick up your badge (and not having any guarantee of picking it up, at that!). In which case you’d probably seriously rethink ranking Fanime among your best experiences and relying on it as your “vacation con,” too.

On the bright side, I did get to watch this sax player play songs like the Sailor Moon theme song, the Epic Sax Guy riff and, my personal favorite (because I’m old-school like that), “Baker Street,” in the hallway of the McEnery Convention Center. A YouTube search pulls up the user name “MkaliKunguru” as the man responsible for filling Fanime with his merry melodies. Assuming YouTube doesn’t take this video down on a copyright infringement charge, here’s his take on “Baker Street.”

That video is admittedly a bit dark, so here’s a clearer picture of what he looks like. You may also notice in this picture that some familiar plush pup companions were enjoying his music, too.

On a side note: I also saw this guy one night while waiting in line at popular neighborhood eatery Pizza My Heart. He was carrying Anpan with him. Those of you who read "nemu*nemu" will find that quite apropos.

So what did I conclude during my time away? I don’t think I’m quite ready to give up this gig yet. It’s just too much fun to write about what we experience in the world of anime/manga/cartooning fandom and share them with our readers — whoever they may be at this point. (Please leave a comment if you’re still reading, by the way. I’m a bit curious to see who’s out there. Don’t be shy.) Granted, tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. and I may not post as often as we’d like to — our targets have slipped from “multiple posts per week” when Otaku Ohana started, to the more recent “once per week” schedule, to the current “whenever we can scrape together 10-15 minutes out of our busy schedules to write part of a post that maaaaaaay, God willing, come out sometime in the next few months” — but then again we’ve always been more about quality than quantity ’round these parts.

Enough of my rambling, though. Let’s get to the good stuff.

“Nakamaboko” ready to serve

These past few weeks have been very, very good for local fans of anime/manga/cartoon-inspired art. It started with the aforementioned Aiea Intermediate Cartooning Social Jam exhibit. Then Comic Jam Hawaii, a group of local artists that’s been popping up on my radar quite frequently as of late, conducted several jam sessions around town. Our sister publication, MidWeek, had an article about Pancho Abalos’  “Tributes” exhibit, with his pieces influenced by the Edo period joined by student artwork on display at the ING Direct Cafe in Waikiki through June 30. Elizabeth Kieszkowski over at Honolulu Pulse also did a piece on it, and I’m going to try to make my way out there sometime before the month is out as well. (The cafe’s at 1958 Kalakaua Ave., in case you want to see it for yourself.)

nakamaboko2The rest of the month is packed with events — more details, God willing, next week — but the latest event in this recent chain just opened Tuesday at the Honolulu Museum of Art School: “Nakamaboko: Working Together,” this year’s exhibit by the anime/manga-inspired young artist collective MangaBento. Those of you who visited MangaBento’s “Kakimochi” exhibit last year know what the display space on the school’s second floor looks like; you can expect to see an all-new lineup of pieces on display this year. The group’s already posted a gallery of pre-exhibit setup photos on its Facebook page, and the space is already looking quite promising. (I’m certainly digging the octopus over the elevator.)

You have until July 14 to check out the exhibit, but in case you have some free time this Sunday, the group will be hosting an opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m. AniMaid Cafe Hawaii servers will be on hand with refreshments, and art activity stations will be set up around the gallery. Yes, it’s also Father’s Day. Just bring dear ol’ Dad along after taking him out to lunch or before taking him out to dinner, and it’ll all be good.

The Honolulu Museum of Art School is at 1111 Victoria St.; admission is free. For more about MangaBento, visit www.manga-bento.com.

Anime around town

Aiea Library Anime Club: 3 p.m. Saturday at the library, 99-143 Moanalua Road. This month, librarian Diane Masaki will be screening the first few episodes of Ghost Hunt. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or e-mail aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com.

“Dragon Age” film left seeking more substance

DA_titleNote from Jason: We get in a lot of titles for review here at Otaku Ohana Central. Granted, it’s all Funimation anime and Vertical manga these days, but hey, that’s still a LOT of stuff, so it keeps us busy. So busy, in fact, that if you haven’t noticed, we haven’t posted any reviews of anime here since … well, it would take an extensive search through the archives to find that last true anime home video review. (I want to say it goes back to the old “Drawn & Quartered” column in the Star-Bulletin, but I’m probably missing something that’s run since then.)

Recently, though, we got in an advance copy of Funimation’s Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, bowing on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday. I knew exactly who to hand it off to: coworker/friend/Dragon Age fangirl Christina Chun. Here’s why I thought she’d be more qualified than either me or tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. in writing this review:

  • Wilma has heard of Dragon Age, and that’s pretty much it.
  • I managed to pass my Joining and meet Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins, which I believe is 0.000001% of the game’s story (add a few zeroes if you count the downloadable content in that total).
  • Christina played through Dragon Age: Origins. And tweeted about her party. Often. Enough that I remember that she tweeted about her party often to this day.

Game, set, match: Christina. Here’s her review.

*****

I wasn’t inclined to pick up Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, an animated movie based on Bioware’s Dragon Age fantasy RPG series. I didn’t even know about it, and even if I had, I like to play my games, not read them or watch them. I usually pass on video-game-related books or movies. They’re rushed and bland, and rarely contain any magic from the game itself.

Having played Dragon Age Origins (DA:O) and some of Dragon Age II (DAII), however, I was the most qualified person nearby to look at the copy that came to our office.

Here are some thoughts:

Dawn of the Seeker has high production values. As with most anime, background detail is lacking. On the other hand, I’m impressed that Bioware hired MOZOO Inc. and Studio Oxybot to add slick motion capture animation and 3-D modeled characters with an appealing anime cel-shaded look.

Dragon Age wouldn't be Dragon Age without dragons, it's true.

It works well. In true Japanese tradition, watch everyone’s eyes carefully to decipher their emotional level, as faces are expressively rendered. I’d love to play a Dragon Age game in this visual style.

Screenplay writer Jeffery Scott has fashioned a serviceable story. Movie music composer Tetsuya Takahashi does a utilitarian job riffing off Dragon Age game composer Inon Zur, and end credit music by Seether and GACKT is a nice touch. All the voice actors did a fine job of blending in with the one temperament assigned to each character.

The story takes place prior to DAII, and after the fall of Kirkwall in the DA:O expansion “Awakening.” Cassandra Pentaghast, a DAII character, is the focus in this movie as a tsundere warrior descended from a royal Nevarran dragon hunting bloodline, and a member of Seekers of Truth.

From left, Byron, Cassandra's sword teacher; Cassandra; and the High Seeker kneel before the Divine.

Seekers answer to the Divine, leader of the Chantry, aka the world’s most powerful religious order. The story opens with Cassandra and her Seeker company preparing to to rescue a kidnapped Dalish elf girl, presumably at the Divine’s behest. Blood mages have captured her and no one knows why. To make matters worse, these blood mages have also captured a dragon.

To what end? I don’t want to say much more, as it feels much like a standard sword and sorcery plot to pull us from point A to point B. A conspiracy threatens the stability of the Chantry; see if you can figure out who the highest-level conspirators are before the movie outright tells you. Bioware has shaped a dependable Cassandra back story and prequel to DAII, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

My main beef is that there isn’t enough distinguishing the movie as distinctly Dragon Age except for Cassandra. “Keep your focus, Cassandra!” exhorts her mentor Byron as they prepare for battle. It’s a good thing I’m not her, because I found it difficult to focus with so few Dragon Age-specific cues to keep me hooked.

Cassandra's face covered in blood after battle.

There are scattered details such as blood splatter in an early combat scene, similar to that seen in-game with the “gore” setting turned on. A mage also casts Firestorm, a DAII spell, later in the movie. But overall, it’s as though the movie forgot how much enjoyment game fans get from spotting these touches. Without them, Dawn devolves into any other enjoyable, yet fluffy action-filled fantasy most of the way.

I would’ve also liked to see the movie’s templars be less pathetic. No one will ever want to play a templar after seeing them portrayed in the style of Star Wars‘ straw-stuffed Stormtroopers. The mages aren’t much better.

And feel free to skip the first chapter in the Select Chapter menu; it only gives back story to the series’ world that any Dragon Age player would know, and heavy foreshadowing of the plot ahead.

Dawn of the Seeker is entertaining enough for a Dragon Age fan to plunk down a few bills, but a hard sell at full retail. If you have any intention of ever watching it, pre-order before May 29 on Amazon.com to get a significantly discounted price (see below).

DISC EXTRAS

Bioware Studio Tour. Follow Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw around his workplace.

Dawn of the Seeker Backstage Pass. Twenty minutes of movie commentary from Bioware-ians.

Dragon Age Production Art. About 60 Dawn of the Seeker art pieces live here.

Previews. There is a short slideshow of production art from the animated Mass Effect movie in the making, a notable addition for Bioware game fans.

MOVIE DETAILS

English voice main cast: Colleen Clinkenbeard as Cassandra, J. Michael Tatum as Galyan, Chuck Huber as Frenic, R. Bruce Elliott as High Seeker, Christopher R. Sabat as Knight Commander.

Japanese voice main cast: Chiaki Kuriyama as Cassandra, Shosuke Tanihara as Galyan, Hiroshi Iwasaki as Frenic, Takaya Hashi as High Seeker, and GACKT as Knight Commander.

Running time: 90 minutes

MSRP: Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack ($34.98, contains one English dub disc, one Japanese voice/English subtitled disc, and one Blu-Ray disc with content from both DVDs) or DVD ($24.98). Pre-order the Blu-Ray/DVD combo on Amazon.com for $14.86 at the time of this writing.

Release date: May 29