Otaku Ohana

14 for ’14: Otaku Ohana’s year of memories

It seems there’s an unwritten rule in journalism that whenever a writer or blogger reaches the end of a year, he or she suddenly feels compelled to look back on it and remember the high points and the lows. I’m certainly not one to go against the flow, so hi! Welcome to the Otaku Ohana Year in Review!

While I’d be the first to admit that this has been a disappointing year in terms of Otaku Ohana output — for starters, I still haven’t had time to fully transcribe that interview with voice actor Kyle Hebert that I promised back in August, and let’s not even think about the last time you’ve seen a formal anime or manga review in this space — it certainly hasn’t been a disappointing year for the otaku community at large. One measure of just how vibrant we’ve had it here is the sheer volume of anime features that screened in theaters. Here’s what we saw this year:

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day: The Movie
Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
Expelled From Paradise
Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo
K Missing Kings
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell: Arise
Madoka Magica: Rebellion
My Neighbor Totoro
Patema Inverted
Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Tiger and Bunny: The Rising
The Wind Rises

Throw in a bunch of live-action movies including the Studio Ghibli documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Thermae Romae II, Lupin the Third and Kikaider Reboot — the last of which proved so popular, the DVD’s backordered online.

Granted, there were a few bumps in the road along the way. A pair of hurricanes forced Taku Taku Matsuri to be pushed back from August to November. That’s more than can be said for Oni-Con Hawaii, which we can safely consider a lost cause with the lack of any solid communication since early May. And the death of Sharon Sakai, wife of Usagi Yojimbo artist Stan Sakai, was a story that resonated far beyond the usual readership of this blog.

But let’s remember all the good that happened in 2014. I went through my photo files and picked out 14 memorable moments from the year. Some of these pictures you might have seen before, whether in this space or on my various social media accounts.

Dorae-mania hits home (April 20)

Fujiko F. Fujio’s mecha-cat creation was all over town this year, whether plastered on Lea Lea trolleys, in statue form at various sites from downtown to Kahala as part of HIS Hawaii’s Wakuwaku Stamp Rally, on Kindles and Kindle apps in manga form, or on Disney XD in anime form. The biggest attraction in the first few months of the year, however, was “Meet Doraemon: Japan’s Time-Traveling Cat,” an exhibition co-presented by Bishop Museum and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum. Visitors could see pages of Fujio’s original artwork for the first time on American soil, watch a 10-minute anime short, read the English-translated Doraemon manga on iPads or the manga in other languages sitting on bookshelves nearby; and buy piles upon piles of Fujio character merchandise that also was appearing for the first time on American soil. Tripinator Doraemon looked a little shifty here in the foreground as visitors browsed through the manga at the iPad station.

Ultra-combo! (April 27)

Not to be outdone by a cartoon mecha-cat, Ultraman and several of his longtime enemies made peace and came down to cavort around Hawaii as part of a promotion by Hawaii Tourism Japan and Tsuburaya Productions. Four statues showcasing different iterations of Ultraman were placed at locations around Oahu — Polynesian Cultural Center, Kualoa Ranch, DFS Galleria and the Hilo Hattie flagship store in Iwilei — and visitors who bought certain tour packages could go around, get their cards stamped and redeem them for cool Ultraman in Hawaii merchandise. As I mentioned in my original post, I love this picture of the Hilo Hattie statue because of the way the lights in the store flared behind it.

Panel de pon! (March 12)

This is the only picture in this roundup that wasn’t shot by me (it was taken by cartoonist Roy Chang), and for good reason: I was kinda sitting on the panel at the time. I have to confess that I’m usually not one to be the center of attention — it’s the reason why I’ve never done a panel at any event on my own, and why I have an Anonymous Otaku Ohana Director of Forced Social Interaction with whom I attend a number of events these days — so when I was asked to be part of the “Made in Japan, Loved in Hawaii” panel at the Honolulu Festival, I was worried about how things would go. I needn’t have worried — panel mates Brady Evans, Jon Murakami, Roy Bann and Audra Furuichi all helped turn that panel into a lovely lengthy chat about our various fandoms. If you haven’t listened to the panel yet, the audio (which weighs in at 121 MB) remains available for download at ow.ly/uwyBr, while the slides are available at ow.ly/uwyTQ.

Eboshimaro, friend to all children (March 8)

Ahhhhhhh yes, yuru-chara, the Japanese phenomenon in which mascot characters are called upon to promote certain aspects of their prefecture, company or event. They’re also usually awesomely cute, which would explain why Eboshimaro here, the mascot representing Chigasaki, Japan, had a steady stream of people coming up to him at the Honolulu Festival asking for pictures. Apparently he was tweeting regularly from the festival, too; here are his tweets and pictures from that weekend.

And that wasn’t the only regional mascot to visit Hawaii this year. At the very beginning of Star-Advertiser photographer Krystle Marcellus’ video from the Honolulu Marathon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckleJBr–ns), you can catch a good look at Mojaro, the walking monjayaki from Isesaki’s annual Monja Festival. (Monjayaki is okonomiyaki’s messier-looking, higher-stacked cousin.)

That’s right. There exists a pile-of-food mascot. And one that looks like one of the ghosts from Pac-Man had an unfortunate accident, at that.

I’ll give you some time to ponder that.

Singing in the lane (April 4)

What would a year-end roundup be without at least one highlight from what’s become the biggest event on the annual otaku calendar, Kawaii Kon? As longtime attendees know, a necessary evil of attending anime cons year after year is waiting in lines to get into the various events. This year, though, this guy made waiting for opening ceremonies more tolerable, going up and down with his guitar singing his original song about Kawaii Kon.

It’s all about the details (July 3)

MangaBento, the anime/manga-inspired group of young artists, held its annual show on the second floor of the Honolulu Museum of Art School. this year’s show, “Showme,” featured this mural lining the elevator. A nice mural, to be sure. But upon closer examination, several smaller flourishes really stood out.

That’s what I love whenever I look at art: taking in the piece as a whole, then looking close-up at the finer details. It’s an experience I hope (and pretty much expect!) to repeat next year.

Sparkle pretty “Ponponpon” party time (July 20)

Yes, super-omega-popular boy band Arashi performed out at Ko Olina to the delight of thousands of fans both from here and visiting from Japan, and they had the benefit of a pop-up store at Shirokiya and those visitors snapping pictures of pretty much every poster put up around Ala Moana. But their concert tickets were kinda pricey and I didn’t have a vacation day to spare, so this was my J-Pop concert experience for the year: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, the singer who burst onto the scene with eyeball-dotted shorts, pastel-colored human hearts and flying bread slices and has kept up a consistent pace of releasing weirdly wonderfully artsy odd music videos ever since. Her concert was an extension of that, a whirlwind of tightly choreographed sequences on a toybox-themed stage with a nice selection of her hits to date. And a giant neon-colored bear, too. (The afternoon heat was a bit much for her, though; she said during the concert that she hoped to do an arena show next time she’s in Hawaii.)

Jan-ken-po, art-to-show (May 17)

In another one of those events that I attended but have yet to write about in this space (*sob*), Patsy Iwasaki and Avery Berido, the Hawaii island-based writer-artist team behind Hamakua Hero: A True Plantation Story, came to Honolulu to talk about the book as part of the revival of the Crossing Cultures: The Art of Manga in Hawaii exhibit at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Well, okay, so it was Iwasaki doing most of the talking while Berido drew, but it’s okay, we love them both.

Berido’s drawing was given away at the end of the talk via a series of jankenpo matches among audience members. It came down to these two, and the guy on the left won this original piece. Sweet victory, I must say.

Smiles to go, to go! (May 31)

I said back in June that this was my favorite picture of the year to date, and now, looking back on a year’s worth of pictures, it remains a favorite of mine. Taken back at the during the Crossing Cultures artist meet-and-greet, it just captures a certain joy between the boy and his newly purchased Blue plushie, and artist Audra Furuichi. Making a child smile with the fruits of what you do for a living is a heartwarming talent to possess, indeed.

Simply having a wonderful Mini Con time (Sept. 27)

I’ve noticed that at pretty much every midsize and larger event with cosplayers that I’ve attended this year, two people inevitably show up: one guy who cosplays as Deadpool (and who we’ll see later in this roundup, by the way) and Furry Red Friend, a cosplaying Elmo with his human handler. So when the Merc With a Mouth and Captain America Elmo showed up at Mini Con at McCully-Moiliili Library, with a nemu*nemu: Blue Hawaii postcard cutout just begging for a photo op? Hijinks ensued. Naturally.

Striking a pose (Oct. 11)

Kawaii Kon’s annual Anime Day event showed up at Windward Mall with a mini Artist Alley, several drawing stations and a variety of cosplay competitions. One of those contests was a “pose-off,” where contestants had to come up with choreographed poses within a time limit. Here, two cosplayers prepare to do battle with Street Fighter poses! And then they rushed into battle! Who would reign supreme?!?

… yeeeeeaaaah, okay, that didn’t end well.

We made it happen (Nov. 22)

The story of Taku Taku Matsuri 2014 was a story of perseverance on the part of organizer Yuka Nagaoka. A Kickstarter campaign succeeded after much 11th-hour nail-biting. Then Hurricanes Iselle and Julio’s approach prompted her to postpone the event, a decision that drew some criticism when Iselle hit Hawaii island and fell apart and Julio veered away from the islands. Original guest of honor Kyle Hebert and a number of vendors also couldn’t return for the rescheduled event, forcing her to find replacements. And a second crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe was … well … sluggish.

Yet despite all of that, and with a rallying cry of “We will make it happen,” the rescheduled Taku Taku Matsuri went out without any apparent hitches (although I must admit, I cringed while a full game of Quidditch took place outside the Manoa Grand Ballroom, praying the quaffle didn’t bounce off into one of the glass showcases or over the fifth-floor wall into the courtyard below). Attendees, it seemed, had a good time throughout the event. And Yuka is already proceeding with planning for the 2015 event, so we’ll see how that goes.

Cardboard carnage (Nov. 22)

The concept of the cardboard mega-brawl: Combatants craft armor and shields from cardboard, then go one-on-one in a ring trying to knock strategically placed foam cups off each other using foam bats. But what do you do when your opponent is someone who showed up at Taku Taku Matsuri wearing full-on Danbo cosplay? Simple: Flail like a bat out of hell.

“Modern Love” meets modern mangaka (Dec. 3)

We had a number of famous people in the anime and manga industries come to our fair rock in the middle of Pacific this year, among them Masako Nozawa, the voice of Goku in Dragon Ball Z; Hironobu Kageyama, who sang the Dragon Ball Z theme song “Cha-La Head-Cha-La”; Jim Cummings, the voice of Darkwing Duck and Tigger; and Cristina Vee, Mars/Rei Hino in the new Sailor Moon dub. Heck, Jamie Lynn Lano, former assistant to Takeshi Konomi on The Prince of Tennis, moved to Oahu to fulfill a lifelong dream of hers.

But the person who stands out in my mind at the moment is also the one who most recently visited Honolulu, the one whom (shameless plug) we interviewed and will be the subject of one of our first posts of 2015: josei mangaka Erica Sakurazawa, who wrote several books published by Tokyopop in the mid-2000s including The Aromatic Bitters, Angel and Between the Sheets and whose work Love Vibes is currently on display as part of the Honolulu Museum of Art’s “Modern Love” exhibit. Sakurazawa is shown here talking to exhibit curator Stephen Salel during a talk she gave at the museum in early December. Quite a bit of ground was covered in that talk and our interview, and I hope I can get all that out to you, dear readers, sooner rather than later.

So that does it for 2014! On behalf of tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. and the Anonymous Otaku Ohana Director of Forced Social Interaction, I wish you all the best for the new year. Here’s hoping for many more good memories to come.

Otaku melodies flow into 2015

This hasn’t exactly been the most productive of months here at Otaku Ohana Central. You probably could have figured that out from the fact that this is the first post I’ve made here this month … and the month, not to mention all of 2014, is almost over. Apologies for the long delay between posts.

There are more posts in the works — my look back on the year that was in the otaku community will be coming up shortly, followed by my long overdue profile of/interview with josei manga artist Erica Sakurazawa, and then my even longer overdue chat with voice actor Kyle Hebert will be coming after that. But first, we have some housekeeping to tend to here, so let’s dig in (and get my writing chops back up to speed!) with a pair of recent music-themed news tidbits.

The freshest news comes from the Kawaii Kon camp, with the Christmas Day announcement that singer Eir Aoi — that’s her at right — will be the headlining musical guest at the anime convention in 2015. The 26-year-old is the voice behind a number of popular anime theme songs, including Fate/Zero, Kill la Kill, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE and Sword Art Online and its sequel. All of her music — including her two albums to date, Blau and Aube — are available digitally via iTunes or Amazon’s digital music department. This will be Aoi’s first appearance in Hawaii.

Aoi joins cosplayer Leah Rose and voice actors Rob Paulsen (Yakko Warner, Animaniacs), Jess Harnell (Wakko Warner, Animaniacs), Bryce Papenbrook (Eren, Attack on Titan), Todd Haberkorn (Haruka, Free! Eternal Summer) and — announced during my unanticipated hiatus from this blog — Cassandra Morris (Kyubey, Madoka Magica) as guests for next year’s show, scheduled for March 27-29 at the Hawai’i Convention Center. Visit www.kawaii-kon.org for more information or to register.

Meanwhile, those of you who are more into symphonic music and video games — specifically, of the Legend of Zelda variety — will be pleased to know that Nintendo’s officially licensed concert tour, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, will be stopping by at 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. From the official concert website (zelda-symphony.com):

Designed to be a journey as epic and thrilling as the Legend itself, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses presents the music of this celebrated franchise with all-new arrangements directly approved by franchise producer Eiji Aonuma and Nintendo composer and sound director Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda).

Featuring a first in video game concert history, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses has been arranged and programmed with classical sensibilities in mind, organizing the music of this beloved franchise into a complete, 4 movement symphony, worthy of the Hero of Hyrule himself.

Insert “treasure GET!” music here.

You can expect selections from Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, along with chicken skin and/or loud cheering when the opening strains of the “Legend of Zelda Overture” begin to play. I understand there’s going to be a rather large contingent of cosplayers coming to see the show, so bring your cameras (but please stow them away during the performance itself).

Want tickets. Sure, you do. Because there are plenty. (The dark spots show available seats as of Christmas Day.)

Everything from the back-of-the-house seats ($48.05 including fees) to the hard-core fan VIP seats ($138.55, includes a limited-edition poster and a meet-and-greet with the producers following the show) remain available. Just click on that ticket map above to order via Ticketmaster (and get an up-to-date view of tickets sold, to boot).

Aloha ‘oe and RIP, Sharon Sakai

(Stan Sakai, left, grandson Leo, wife Sharon, son Matthew and daughter Hannah gathered for a snapshot last year. The photo was taken in December, shortly before Leo died in his sleep, yet another tragedy to befall the family. Photo courtesy Stan Sakai.)

It pains me to have to write this, but perhaps it was sadly inevitable as well, given her declining health in recent weeks: Sharon Sakai, the wife of Usagi Yojimbo artist and isle ex-pat Stan Sakai, died Tuesday morning surrounded by family at home, according to a Facebook update from Stan Sakai. She was 61.

Sharon’s health, as you might remember, and the costs of treating her rare condition were the primary driving force behind a series of charity eBay auctions hosted by the Comic Art Professional Society and a Dark Horse-published book featuring a selection of the auctioned artwork, The Sakai Project: Artists Celebrate 30 Years of Usagi Yojimbo. As Wilma and I wrote in a Sakai Project profile (available to Star-Advertiser subscribers) in July:

BEHIND THE SCENES, Sharon Sakai was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 2004. The type 3 atypical meningioma tumor was benign but so rare, the Sakais were told, that among the 9 million patients covered by their insurance carrier, Kaiser Permanente, there were only three cases similar to hers.

Radiation seemed to keep the tumor in check until 2011, when it returned aggressively, paralyzing her left side, including her throat and vocal cords. The side effects of treatment have included diabetes, high blood pressure, loss of hearing and sight, and an inability to eat solid food.

Sakai is now convalescing at home in Pasadena, Calif., confined to bed and breathing through a tracheostomy tube. She’s had to be rushed to the emergency room several times and was down to 77 pounds at one point. But through it all, “she still maintains a great positive attitude and is such an inspiration to everyone who knows her,” Stan Sakai said via email.

This was one of those stories where you really were rooting for a happy ending, hoping that Sharon would fully recover. Wilma and I read the same thing over and over again, both in the responses to our interview and just in general on social media: Stan is a really nice guy, one of the most highly regarded people working in the comics industry today, and Stan and Sharon were a really sweet couple. Heck, just look at this excerpt from a profile Gary Chun wrote in the Star-Bulletin in 2001:

The girl that Sakai knew throughout his school years — from Waikiki Elementary, through Kaimuki Intermediate and Kaimuki High School — is now his wife of 24 years, Sharon. They celebrated the anniversary of their 1977 wedding just this past Wednesday. They are the proud parents of Hannah and Matthew. “Sharon has always been very supportive of me,” Sakai said.

They would end up married for 37 years.

As much as we wanted a happy ending for such a charmed and charming couple, though, it simply was not meant to be. Right around the time our article was published on July 27, Sharon was admitted to the ER with a suspected respiratory infection. While she was eventually discharged, treatments took their toll, and she often slept for more than 22 hours a day, waking up for only a few minutes here and there. In an update on Sept. 7, Stan reported that she was effectively blind and deaf and was breathing through a tracheostomy tube, and the family discontinued chemotherapy because getting her to the hospital was too taxing on her and the benefits of treatment were dubious at best. The updates were similar through the rest of September and October — resting comfortably, sleeping a lot, condition somewhat stable.

On Nov. 13, Stan posted the following:

I have not updated Sharon’s condition in awhile. It is difficult to always tell you she is the same, only a little worse. She sleeps almost 23 hours a day now, and is awake for 5-10 minutes at a time. She is sometimes alert, but more often is unaware of her surroundings. Sometimes she will squeeze my hand, though. She is deaf and blind now. We do not know how her other senses are doing, but we try to stimulate them by touching her or massaging her with pikake (jasmine)-scented lotion. She is in some pain from the pressure of the brain tumor. We give her Tylenol or morphine, depending upon how she looks. She always has ice packs under her head and on her forehead to help the pain and, perhaps, it helps with the swelling.

She pulled the oxygen tube from her trach early Wednesday morning. I discovered it when I went down at 5 AM. I had last checked on her at 2:30, so it was sometime during the 2.5 hours. Her oxygen saturation level was at 79%. I think Joan Rivers had gone into her coma because of low oxygenation, so it is a real problem. Anyway, I disconnected her from the oxygenator and onto an O2 tank. The oxygenator has a maximum output of 5 liters/hour whereas the tank is capable of a higher concentration of 8 liters/hour. She was soon back up to 99%. Brain cells start to die from lack of oxygen at 92%, or so I was told. Her blood pressure and heart rate remained really high. I gave her meds and continued to monitor her, and her numbers were back down to reasonable levels in about 90 minutes. She pretty much slept through all of yesterday. Each day brings new challenges but, after more than a year of caring for Sharon at home, we have learned to cope with them calmly and quite quickly. We are so glad she is home and not in the hospital or outside hospice care.

And then came the end. Non-responsive and in declining health on Sunday. A transfer to home hospice care on Monday. One final update this morning. And then … well, you know the outcome.

Condolence messages have been filling Stan’s Facebook page and social media ever since the news broke. Just run a search on Twitter to see who’s chimed in there. Wilma and I were chatting about it Tuesday afternoon, and she offered this observation:

Other people have said some really nice things. I was really touched by several people who admired Stan for all his care and devotion, and it was obvious she was very much loved and respected.

I think the best way to describe how I was feeling when I heard the news was, I was alternately feeling very sad and very touched as I read all the comments that were coming in. Like many others, I never met Sharon myself, but it was very touching to see all the outpouring of support.

For his part, Stan thanked everyone for their love and support and said he would be stepping away from Facebook for a bit “to spend time with family and figure out our next steps.”

Wilma and I, too, send our condolences to the Sakai family, along with much love and hugs for the days and weeks to come.

Baby, the anime/manga/toon stars shine bright

Welcome back to Otaku Ohana, the blog that I’ve had far too little time to update for one reason or another as of late. I thank you for your continued patience and readership.

One of the combined benefits/drawbacks of not having time to post for so long is that the news tends to stack up. A lot. That’s the way it’s been with guest announcements at various shows and events around town; one minute, you’re hearing that two of the voice actors from your favoritest show in the world ever as you were growing up are coming to town, then the up-and-coming sci-fi convention on another island brings in a few anime-related fan favorites of their own, then a bona fide manga artist shows up, and pretty soon you’re sitting down and writing a blog post that runs for more than 1,600 words. Heck, one of these announcements (*cough*Melissa Fahn*cough*) is so new, it hasn’t even been formally announced in public yet, but it has been confirmed and vetted for release to me by HawaiiCon, so I’m rolling with it.

You’re going to need a scorecard to keep track of everyone who’s coming in, so here’s a roundup of all the guest announcements that have been made to date. Taku Taku Matsuri, Kawaii Kon, HawaiiCon, even a Honolulu Museum of Art exhibit … they’re all here.

Jamie Lynn Lano

Best known for: She’s one of the rare artists from the United States who’s managed to make a go of things in the manga industry in Japan, serving as an assistant to Prince of Tennis artist Takeshi Konomi for about a year as he worked on launching The New Prince of Tennis and chronicling her experience, first on her blog at jamieism.com and then in her memoir released this year, The Princess of Tennis. She’s since moved to Oahu and has become a mainstay with the Nightmarchers, Honolulu’s Quidditch team (profiled in this story, available to Star-Advertiser subscribers). At Taku Taku Matsuri, she’ll be hosting a panel from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as taking part in a demonstration with the Nightmarchers from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Appearing at: Taku Taku Matsuri, Saturday at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii (2211 S. Beretania St.) Presale tickets ($13) and ticket/T-shirt packs ($20) are available at www.gofundme.com/dbi0fc. Prices will be higher at the door, so save yourself a few bucks and order now.

Cristina Vee

Best known for: Mio in K-ON!, Homura in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Rei/Sailor Mars in Viz’s new Sailor Moon English dub, and Alisa Bosconovitch in Tekken: Blood Vengeance — she’s voiced them all in a career that’s been going strong since she voiced Nanoha in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha in 2008. She’s also voiced various characters in video games including the BlazBlue franchise, Skullgirls and Ar Tonelico.

Appearing at: Taku Taku Matsuri, Saturday. Her panel will run from 3:30 to 5 p.m. with an autograph session to follow from 5 to 6:30 p.m. There are also seven slots still available for a special lunch with her at noon Sunday; those packages, which also include a Taku Taku ticket and T-shirt, are going for $100. Get them at the GoFundMe link above.

Erica Sakurazawa

Best known for: Remember back in the early-to-mid-2000s, when Tokyopop was at the height of its “throw all the manga and sorta-manga at the wall and let’s see what sticks” power? Among those that got largely lost in that shuffle were six standalone volumes by Erica Sakurazawa published under their “Manga After Hours” banner: Between the Sheets, Angel, Angel Nest, Nothing But Loving You, The Rules of Love and The Aromatic Bitters. As the line’s banner would indicate, these weren’t your average mass-market titles aimed at teens; instead, they were josei manga, mature stories with a target audience of women in their 20s and older. Johanna Draper Carlson has a profile of those books over at Manga Worth Reading.

Sakurazawa is appearing in connection with the Honolulu Museum of Art’s new exhibit opening Thursday, “Modern Love: 20th-Century Japanese Erotic Art,” which will feature a section on manga with one of her works, Love Vibes, translated into English. Art from Moyoco Anno (In Clothes Called Fat, Happy Mania, Sugar Sugar Rune) and Suehiro Maruo (Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, The Strange Tale of Panorama Island) also will be featured. As the exhibit title indicates, there’s going to be a lot of imagery containing mature themes in this exhibit, so you’ll want to leave the kids at home for this one.

Appearing at: Honolulu Museum of Art Doris Duke Theater, Wed., Dec. 3, 4 p.m. Admission is free. She’s also hosting a workshop at the Honolulu Museum of Art School on Dec. 7 where she’ll be demonstrating her step-by-step process for drawing manga, but unless you already have an invitation to that, you can’t go. Sorry about that.

Todd Haberkorn

Best known for: The newest addition to this guest roundup (announced by Kawaii Kon Sunday night!), Haberkorn’s no stranger to our little rock in the middle of the Pacific, having been a guest at Kawaii Kon in 2013. He was recently added to the English dub cast of fangirl fanservice magnet Free! Eternal Summer, playing the role of Haruka Nanase. Other prominent roles include Natsu in Fairy Tail, Death the Kid in Soul Eater, Allen Walker in D.Gray Man, Italy in Hetalia Axis Powers, Keisuke Takahashi in Initial D, Keroro in Sgt. Frog and Kimihiro Watanuki in xxxHolic.

Appearing at: Kawaii Kon, March 27-29. Three-day passes are available online for $53 ($44 children ages 5-12) at www.showclix.com/event/3817763/listing. There are still a few Artist Alley tables available for sale at that link. And if you have some extra piles of cash around the house, ~~please give me some~~ there’s still a VIP Package for one person ($750), a VIP Package for two people ($900) and a lifetime membership pass ($3,000) available.

Jess Harnell

Best known for: He’s played a number of roles over the years — he was the voice of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Bill Clinton and Isaac Newton in the recent CGI revival of Mr. Peabody & Sherman! — but the one role pretty much anyone who grew up in the ’90s remembers him for is Wakko Warner, the baseball-cap-wearing, giant mallet-bearing Warner sibling in Animaniacs with a Ringo Starr-esque voice.

Appearing at: Kawaii Kon, March 27-29.

Rob Paulsen

Best known for: At Kawaii Kon this year, Jim Cummings filled the role of “the guy who voiced half the characters of your childhood” quite nicely. Next year? Paulsen’s bringing the other half. Consider his resume: Yakko Warner, Dr. Otto von Scratchensniff and Pinky in Animaniacs. Raphael in the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Donatello in Nickelodeon’s CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revival. Carl in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Arthur in The Tick. Throttle in Biker Mice From Mars. P.J. Pete in Goof Troop. Bubsy the Bobcat in those series of Mario/Sonic-esque 2-D platformer games that we’d much rather forget from the Super Nintendo era. The list goes on and on and on.

Appearing at: Kawaii Kon, March 27-29.

Bryce Papenbrook

Best known for: As the first person announced as a guest for Kawaii Kon 2015 — the news came down at this year’s closing ceremonies back in April — Papenbrook is the person we’ve known is coming to Hawaii for the longest time. He’s the voice of Eren in Attack on Titan, Rin Okumura in Blue Exorcist, Kirito in Sword Art Online and Hanabusa Aidou in Vampire Knight, which I understand are four series chock full of the new hawtness that all the young ‘uns have been flocking to in droves in recent years.

Appearing at: Kawaii Kon, March 27-29.

Steve Blum

Best known for: Being the voices of two space voyagers — Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Tom the android in countless Cartoon Network Toonami block bumpers — as well as the red-cloaked man with his trusty handgun Cerberus, Vincent Valentine, in Final Fantasy VII offshoots Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children, and the sinister Orochimaru in the Naruto franchise. Blum’s previous convention appearance in the islands was at Kawaii Kon in 2007.

Appearing at: HawaiiCon, Sept. 10-13 at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on Hawaii island. Discounted four-day passes ($125), VIP passes ($399) and “Five-Year Mission” passes for the next five years of the convention ($500) are available through Dec. 31 at www.eventbrite.com/e/hawaiicon-2015-pre-sale-passes-tickets-13085636491. (Also, if you’re a fan of Farscape, Firefly, Dr. Who or Stargate, you might want to have a look at this Kickstarter campaign that went live Tuesday night. Just sayin’.)

Melissa Fahn

Best known for: Complementing Blum in Cowboy Bebop as the voice of — take a deep breath here — Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, ace computer hacker aboard the Bebop. She’s also continuing the trend of Invader Zim voice actors who have visited our fair isles, being the voice of Gaz in that series. Other roles include Eri Ninamori in FLCL … and the Tachikoma in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which links her to someone else who’ll be visiting Hawaii next year…

Appearing at: HawaiiCon, Sept. 10-13.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Best known for: Ten years ago this past September, the long-awaited sequel to the Ghost in the Shell movie, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, made its U.S. debut. A quick search on Rotten Tomatoes shows that it wasn’t nearly as well-regarded as the first one. Looking back now, it was notable for one reason: It marked Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s debut as the voice of Motoko Kusanagi, a role she held throughout the franchise’s Stand-Alone Complex phase. She’s also voiced a number of anime roles under the alias of Melissa Williamson, including Julia in Cowboy Bebop, Urd in Ah! My Goddess: The Movie, Nuriko in Fushigi Yugi and Hilda in Outlaw Star.

And voice acting isn’t her sole talent in the industry; she’s served as ADR director for everything Naruto-related in the United States as well as Cowboy Bebop, and she’s sung a number of tracks on the soundtracks for Silent Hill 3, 4 and Origins. (Also, “Your Rain (Rage Mix)” and “You’re Not Here” in your Dance Dance Revolution playlists? That’s her singing.)

Appearing at: HawaiiCon, Sept. 10-13.

May the Triforce be with us

Blogs are wonderful things. Most of the ones associated with the Star-Advertiser, including this one, are informational. Which is great, but it would be a shame, really, to limit it to that. Because here, we can talk about whatever (almost). We can be informal. We don’t need to adhere to strict grammar rules or AP style. And it certainly has been some time since we here at Otaku Ohana have just, well, shot the breeze.

So that’s what this post is about.

Well, not completely. It’s more like me going on very long ramblings about video games, because this is probably the best place for me to ramble about them. So if that’s not what you’re here for, and you just want to pass on by, then I’ll understand.

Feel like entering the possibly rough currents of my stream-of-consciousness typing? Then read on, intrepid adventurers…

Continue reading “May the Triforce be with us”

‘Kaguya’ is a go for Kahala

First of all, I’d like to humbly thank all of you who offered condolences here, on Facebook and in person for my grandma’s recent passing. Truth be told, the only reason I haven’t picked up blogging again until now isn’t because I’ve been in mourning ever since the funeral last Wednesday, but because I’ve been gradually sinking deeper into the depths of what’s turned out to be one gollywhomper of a cold. I’ll probably be flopping into bed and chatting with friends on my iPad until I pass out in a fever-ridden blob after I finish this post.

So while there’s a lot of news to discuss that I haven’t gotten around to discussing here yet, I’ll just quickly address the most pressing item at the moment in what’ll probably be one of the shortest news posts in Otaku Ohana history. Here we go:

Remember The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the latest film from Studio Ghibli to be translated for American audiences? The one that I said in my last post was opening on Friday at Consolidated’s Kahala 8 theaters?

Well, tickets are on sale now. Available showtimes run through Tuesday. There are English-subbed and dubbed screenings, too, yay! (The daytime screenings are dubbed; while evening screenings are subbed.)

The premiere’s been pushed up a day, too, so if you want to go see the English-subbed version at 7 p.m. Thursday, you can now do that. Want to do a cross-town double feature on Saturday with The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, the Studio Ghibli documentary screening at the Dole Cannery theaters as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival at 2:45 p.m. Saturday? You can do that with Kaguya’s evening screenings on Saturday, too.

Oh, yes, and here’s a trailer that shows off the film’s rather distinct animation style.

See you at the movies … hopefully when I heal up from this cold.

‘Kikaider’ reloads; ‘Kaguya’ comes in

It seems a bit gauche for me to be going into full chatty blogger mode when there’s a tropical storm/likely Category 1 hurricane bearing down on our island home and something else I’ll talk about in a moment, so here are the highlights from what was supposed to be “Otaku Film Feast-ival Part 2.”

>> Kikaider Reboot had its run on Oahu extended; the movie will now be screening at Consolidated’s Kahala 8 theaters for a week starting Friday. Of course, the schedule is likely to change in case Kahala Mall decides to close in advance of Ana, but for now here are Fandango’s listed showtimes.

>> On Tuesday, film distributor GKIDS revealed that Studio Ghibli’s latest film to be translated for U.S. audiences, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, will be opening for a limited engagement at the Kahala 8 starting Oct. 31. Exact showtimes have yet to be posted, but I’ll update you on that whenever I’m able.

And now, a quick housekeeping note: This post is dedicated to the memory of my grandma, Virginia Yadao, who died Tuesday night at the age of 88. (To answer the likely follow-up question: I’m doing fine now, probably because I’ve had many other things on my mind, but I’m definitely bringing a pile of tissues to the funeral next week.) I’m going to be taking a few days off from blogging, but I hope to be back to write about the films of interest to otaku at the Hawaii International Film Festival by late next week. In case I take longer than that to return, here’s the list of films I’m keeping an eye on so you can buy your tickets now:

Crows: Explode
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (a documentary on Studio Ghibli!)
Little Forest: Summer & Autumn
Lupin the Third
Thermae Romae II
Tokyo Tribe

Stay safe until then, folks.

And the Windward skies bring cosplay vibes to me

I’ll get back to part 2 of the otaku film feast-ival next week, but for now there are more pressing matters at hand: namely, there’s an Anime Day coming up at Windward Mall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and, aside from how I’ve said that a) it’s totally a thing and b) those of you who preregistered for Oni-Con Hawaii will want to bring proof of registration to pick up your free DVD, I haven’t had a chance yet to fill in some of the finer details about it.

As has been the norm for the past forever now, I don’t think I got around to posting pictures from last year’s festivities, so here are a few images that show off what you can probably expect to see this year. Here’s the crowd gathered around the mall’s center stage …

… some Naruto charms being sold by our columnist following the business buzz around town, Erika Engle …

… someone playing Dance Central on a Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 …

… the always busy art wall …

… and participants in the Iron Cosplay contest.

This year, professional cosplayer Leah Rose will be presiding over the festivities at center stage, with activities including:

11 a.m.: Anime ID
11:30 a.m.: Iron Cosplay
1 p.m.: Pose-Off Challenges
1:30 p.m.: Spin-the-Wheel!
2:30 p.m.: Cosplay Runway
3:30 p.m.: Stamp Rally winners announced and final announcements

Many of those games/events have been run at various other events; Anime ID, however, is debuting here. As for that Stamp Rally: Pick up a card (a facsimile is at right), collect stamps from the six retailers listed (Gyu-Kaku, Animation Magic, Hot Topic, Gamestop, Journeys, Spencer Gifts) and turn it for the chance to win fabulous prizes! (What those prizes are haven’t been mentioned yet, but I’d be very surprised if one wasn’t a free three-day pass to Kawaii Kon 2015.)

Other Anime Day notes of note:

The vendors room — again across from Glow Putt Mini Golf on the second floor, in what I think was the old Suncoast Video space — will feature a number of local crafters, including Gordon Rider/Star-Advertiser “Calabash” cartoonist Jon Murakami and idkwhat2wear.
Artists can participate in a number of activities as well. Roy Chang, MidWeek cartoonist, Aiea Intermediate art teacher and keeper of Pepe the chihuahua, will offer tips on improving art at his portfolio review booth. Comic Jam Hawaii is hosting the sketch wall, while MangaBento will have tables with coloring and craft worksheets.
You can preregister for Kawaii Kon 2015, too!

For the latest info on all things Kawaii Kon, visit www.kawaii-kon.org or www.facebook.com/kawaiikon.

Oahu’s otaku film feast-ival (part 1 of 2)

Back in January, three theatrical anime releases made their way to Hawaii: Evangelion 3.0, Madoka Magica: Rebellion and Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day: The Movie.

“Okay, this is as good as it gets,” I remember thinking at the time.

A few more films trickled in here and there in the ensuing months. Then in August, another set of three movies showed up: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, My Neighbor Totoro and Naruto: Road to Ninja.

“Okay, fine. This is as good as it gets. Really,” I remember thinking at the time.

Now there’s October and November, and … well, folks, we’ve finally hit the fireworks factory. If you were to count the various pieces of Ghost in the Shell: Arise as separate entities, 12 theatrical anime releases were screened in local theaters between January and September.

This month and next month, eight anime, five live-action movies based on manga, the Kikaida revival, a documentary about Studio Ghibli and the Japan-flavored Disney animated feature Big Hero 6 are due for screenings. Indeed, these months will have more otaku film content crammed into it than the rest of this year combined.

Two film festivals are driving most of this boom. The first, “Hello Tokyo!” starting Saturday and running through Oct. 12 at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theater, is the anime-heavy one; the 34th annual Hawaii International Film Festival from Oct. 30 through Nov. 9 will be bringing the live-action love (and Big Hero 6 a few days before its scheduled wide release on Nov. 7). Bridging the two will be Kikaider Reboot, screening Oct. 10-16 in the Ward Stadium 16’s Titan XC auditorium. In this post, let’s take a look at the Art Museum’s offerings and the new Kikaider movie.

‘Hello Tokyo!’

Single tickets are $10, $8 for museum members; the Ghost in the Shell marathon is $25 general, $20 museum members. Visit honolulumuseum.org/14657-hello_tokyo for more information and ticket links.

The Ghost in the Shell marathon: To screen all the elements of the Ghost in the Shell would take far longer than one night would allow, so this marathon hits just the essentials: the 1995 classic directed by Mamoru Oshii, which introduced the future world of Tokyo Public Security Section Nine and cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi to moviegoers, and three out of four parts of the 2013 prequel series Ghost in the Shell Arise, which … well … introduces the future world of Tokyo Public Security Section Nine and cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi to viewers, except before the movie as far as the franchise’s timeline is concerned.

You have one shot to catch all of this in one place, and that’s on the film festival’s opening day on Saturday. Ghost in the Shell screens at 2 p.m., followed by Arise Border 1: Ghost Pain at 4 p.m. and the Arise Border 2: Ghost Whispers / Arise Border 3: Ghost Tears combo at 6:30 p.m. There’s also an opening-night reception between Arise showings, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., featuring entertainment, games, and sales of bentos and beverages (both of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety). Cosplayers, you’re invited to come on down as well. To get in to the reception, just buy a ticket for the marathon or, if you can’t fathom sitting through all of that, for either of the Arise screenings.

If you can’t make it to the marathon, Ghost in the Shell will be shown by itself at 1 p.m. Oct. 11 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12.

Road to Ninja — Naruto the Movie: Your favorite orange jump-suited ninja and his friends are back for their latest big-screen adventure again after a two-day limited engagement earlier this year at the Ward Stadium 16 theaters. As a reminder, here’s the synopsis:

Long ago, a mysterious masked shinobi unleashed the Nine-Tailed Fox onto the Village Hidden in the Leaves to spread chaos and destruction. But the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife Kushina Uzumaki sealed the Tailed Beast into their newborn son Naruto to save the village, foiling the shinobi’s plan.

Years later, Naruto and his friends succeed in driving away the infamous Akatsuki, who have mysteriously returned from the dead. Upon returning to the village, the young shinobi are praised by their families for completing a dangerous mission. Reminded of how alone he is, Naruto begins to wonder what it’s like to have parents, when a strange masked figure appears before him – the same masked shinobi responsible for the death of his parents!

Screening at 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

K: Missing Kings: Another film playing a return engagement in Honolulu — this one showed up on Oahu and Maui for two days in July — this extension of the anime series K continues the story of seven kings who rule over their clansmen on an Earth different from our own. Again, a synopsis refresher:

Based on the hit anime K, K MISSING KINGS picks up where the series left off. Featuring the same director and scriptwriter as the series, this movie brings the characters that you’ve grown to love in the same spirit of action, honor, and loyalty. K MISSING KINGS also sees the return of popular voice actors such as Daisuke Namikawa, Daisuke Ono, and Tomokazu Sugita, reprising their roles for the first time on the big screen.

The story starts some time after the Island Academy Incident, in which four of the seven great Kings crossed paths. Since this time, silver clansmen Kuroh Yatogami and Neko have been searching for their master, Yashiro Isana, the Silver King. Their search having turned up fruitless, the two begin to give up hope, until they encounter Anna Kushina and Rikio Kamamoto, two members of the red clan HOMRA being chased by someone.

Screening at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 1 p.m. Oct. 9.

Welcome to the Space Show: It’s your typical “kids go to summer camp, lose a rabbit, find a talking dog instead, rocket off to intergalactic adventures, and then Susan Boyle sings” story … which is to say it’s filled with plenty of elements of fantasy and sci-fi and what the heck did I just watch here-ness. If this movie sounds familiar, then you probably remember that HIFF screened the film back in 2010. (Here’s my review in Honolulu Pulse.) Space Show’s return comes via GKids, which will also be releasing the film on DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 14. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Oct. 11.

Patema Inverted: The titular character is a princess who finds everything she thought she knew about life turned upside down one day. And I mean that quite literally; this is a story of two people who live in societies separated by opposing gravitational forces. It’s up to her and the student she meets, Age, to figure out exactly what it is that’s keeping their worlds apart. This, along with Ghost in the Shell Arise Border 3: Ghost Tears, is making its Hawaii debut. Screening at 1 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and 4 p.m. Oct. 12.

Kikaider Reboot

It’s the movie so big, it merited its own breakout section in this roundup. (Well, that and the fact that it’s the only one being screened independent of any film festivals.) In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Kikaida in Hawaii, JN Productions/Generation Kikaida is bringing the cinematic revival of Shotaro Ishinomori’s classic character to Hawaii — and North America, for that matter — for the first time. The cast may be different — Irie Jingi plays Jiro/Kikaider here, although original actor Ban Daisuke does return here in a new role — but the story remains the same: A cyborg with a Conscience Circuit crafted by the late Dr. Komyoji is tasked with protecting the doctor’s children, Mitsuko and Masaru, and their knowledge that is key to completing the ARK Project.

Tickets for reserved seating in Ward’s Titan XC auditorium are $15.25 general, $12.75 children ages 3-11, and $12.25 seniors … and if you click through Fandango’s ticket page, there are still plenty of tickets available for the film’s Oct. 10-16 engagement. (Don’t procrastinate for too long, though.)

While we’re talking about Kikaida 40th anniversary celebrations, I should also mention that another Kikaida Day is taking place at Shirokiya at Ala Moana Center from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday. You can try your luck at winning tickets to a private screening of Kikaider Reboot, buy new merchandise, get autographs from Ban Daisuke, meet Kutmaster Spaz of Dis N Dat and enjoy all the usual accoutrements of Kikaida Days past: Kikaida-oke, costumed superheroes wandering around for photo ops, DVD giveaways and free balloons.

Next time in Otaku Ohana: The Otaku Ohana guide to the Hawaii International Film Festival. There’s a Studio Ghibli documentary!

Otaku culture goes Worldwide (Pants)

For a good chunk of years now, CBS has been home to two Worldwide Pants-produced late night talk shows: The Late Show With David Letterman and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. During that time, guests from a variety of walks of life have graced the stages of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York for Letterman and the CBS Television Studios in Los Angeles for Ferguson. TV and movie stars are a given. And, of course, there’s The Manga Cookbook and Hatsune Miku.

… wait, what?

Indeed, in what seems to be a total booking coincidence, two properties with ties to anime/manga fandom will make their way to the same mainstream American broadcast TV station within a span of a month. Earlier this month, the Manga University-published cookbook, which features recipes for Japanese dishes from chef and registered nutritionist Yoko Ishihara coupled with illustrations by Chihiro Hattori, showed up on the lectern of Ferguson’s cyborg sidekick, Geoff Peterson. The two even bantered about it during the show’s ending “What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?” segment:

According to Glenn Kardy, Manga University publisher, the story of The Manga Cookbook’s journey to the show began back in April, when Ferguson announced he would be leaving The Late Late Show in December. Kardy subsequently tweeted the following on Manga University’s Twitter account:

It’s a sad day for Japan, everybody: @craigyferg has announced that “Super Happy Fun Time Hour With Robot and Old Man” is going off the air.

— Manga University (@mangauniversity) April 29, 2014

Those of you who follow The Late Late Show know that Ferguson has joked in the past that “Super Happy Fun Time Hour With Robot and Old Man” is what his show’s called in Japan.

Let’s let Kardy take the story from here, as told to me via email:

I guess he took notice, because he started following Manga University on Twitter. Which meant I could now send him a private message. And I knew just what I wanted to ask.

Every night on the show, a different book can be seen atop the lectern where Ferguson’s sidekick, the robot-skeleton Geoff Peterson, stands. I’d always thought how cool it would be to see a Manga University book there. Now I had my chance. I contacted him to see if he’d help us get a book onto his show. And he agreed!

I chose to send him “The Manga Cookbook” because I thought he’d find its quirkiness appealing. So, I knew that the book was going to be on the show, but I had no idea Ferguson would actually talk about it on the air.

Kardy was “blown away” by the mention. “His comment was priceless — ‘I like this. This is like Pokemon for hungry people,'” Kardy said. “He also tried to teach Geoff how to hold the chopsticks, which was hilarious. I couldn’t have asked for a better script!”

Sales of the book — which you can buy on the Manga University website, by the way — have been robust since the book’s appearance.

“Now, if I can only figure out how to get “The Manga Cookbook” an appearance on ‘The Big Bang Theory’ …” Kardy said.

Meanwhile, over on The Late Show, the most famous of the virtual Vocaloid superstars is scheduled to perform on Oct. 8, ostensibly to promote “Hatsune Miku Expo” events in New York, including an art exhibit running Oct. 9-19 and a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom Oct. 17-18. (There’s also a concert and a Halloween party Oct. 11-12 in Los Angeles.) Now, I’m really curious to see what kind of reception Miku gets — unless I’m mistaken, I’m inclined to believe that most of the younger audiences who understand her appeal are more inclined to watch The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, or Jimmy Kimmel Live!, or Conan O’Brien’s show on TBS. Whatever happens, though, I’m sure it’ll be quite entertaining.

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