taku taku matsuri – Otaku Ohana

Festival follow-up: Something blue, something new

I’ve written quite a bit in this space recently about the flood of major conventions coming our way this year — Comic Con Honolulu, HawaiiCon, Amazing Hawaii Comic Con, Anime Ohana and Anime Matsuri Hawaii are all on deck — but the market for smaller otaku-targeted events lasting a day or shorter is developing quite nicely as well. In the past few days, two news tidbits about smaller events crossed the desk of the New and Improved Otaku Ohana Home Office — I’ll have a few pictures of that soon; getting moved in and setting that up has been the primary reason why I’ve been so silent lately this time — one with bad news, one with good.

The bad news is that the third annual Taku Taku Matsuri, which was set to take place Oct. 3 and feature voice actor Richard Epcar and his wife, voice actor/director Ellyn Stern, has been postponed indefinitely due to founder/organizer Yuka Nagaoka’s continued health issues. Here’s a formal statement posted to the Taku Taku Matsuri Facebook page on Saturday:

First of all, thank you to all that have supported us and myself so far with taku taku Matsuri.
With how we had to postpone last year because of hurricanes, postponing the event once again was a decisions I did not want to make. My directors and staff have been working very hard on getting ready in my absence. That is why, originally, I was planning to have the event happen, even with me not physically in Hawaii. However, it has become more and more unknown when I will be able to return.

Let me explain what is going on.
I have a congenital brain disease that was detected two months ago. Because of the danger of the disease, I was told that it is best to have it treated ASAP, so I have returned to Japan for treatment. Unfortunately, things are not going as smoothly as I want them to.
I have gone through all sorts of MRIs and CAT scans, but the doctors are still unable to make a decision on treatment.
Just my luck, other health issues are making the last examination they need to make a decision, high risk. That is why right now I am going through treatment for my other health issues. Once that treatment works, I will finally be able to receive the needed examination. Of course after all of that, there is still the actual treatment for the brain disease. As far as the doctors are telling me, either radiation therapy or surgery.

Being in complete medical limbo, I have made the choice to postpone the 3rd annual taku taku Matsuri. Honestly, I feel very frustrated and defeated, having to make this choice. However, I was reminded about what “taku taku Matsuri” is. As corny as it may sound, it really is an event for all Otakus, bunbun-ers, to enjoy! And with taku taku Matsuri unable to deliver 100%, we won’t be able to satisfy all our bunbun-ers!!!

All of this may take more than a few months to be taken care of. I apologize for the wait. However, I will be back, healthier and with a fixed brain, to give you all the best taku taku Matsuri!!

Here’s hoping and praying that Yuka will be able to get her health issues resolved fully sometime down the line.

While we may have lost one event off the calendar (for now), another one has popped up to take its place. The inaugural Aiea Library Mini Comic Con, taking place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 6, will offer, in the words of young adult librarian Diane Masaki’s handy-dandy flier, “a glimpse of what a convention is like, with informative panels, vendors and activities.”

Featured guests and vendors include:

Roy Chang, MidWeek cartoonist, Aiea Intermediate art teacher and Cacy and Kiara and the Curse of the Kii author. Roy will be selling prints all day and host a panel on creating stories with manga-style art and comic pages from 1 to 2 p.m.
Dasha and Dallas Cosplay — the duo of Daria Roud and Dallas Nagata White — will share their experiences and offer tips on getting into cosplaying from 2 to 3 p.m. Daria will also help kids make their own superhero mask or princess crown from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Artists Jon J. Murakami and Devin Oishi will be selling prints and other merchandise. Jon, of course, is the cartoonist best know for Gordon Rider, Edamame Ninjas, The Ara-Rangers and this here paper’s “Calabash” comic strip; Devin, a longtime MangaBento adviser, has two children’s books under his belt, Pualani and the 3 Mano and Da Blalas.

Cosplayers of all ages are encouraged to attend as well; Comic Jam Hawaii artists will be on hand to sketch cosplayers, and children in the sixth grade and younger are encouraged to enter a cosplay contest from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aiea Library is located at 99-374 Pohai Place, where, nearly a year after opening, there remains plenty of parking (and two Ingress portals to make green, whoop whoop). Call 483-7333.

A cheap convention deal, and Batou for real

As the competition for local otaku hearts and wallets heats up on the convention/special events circuit, there’s bound to be a fair amount of talk about preregistration deals and guest announcements in the coming months. It’ll certainly be busier than when I had to focus on one, maaaaaaaaybe two major shows and a handful of minor shows in a year. Which is okay with me; busy is always better than being bored and lazing around in bed playing Candy Crush Soda Saga (curse you, level 228!).

Take Sunday, for instance. It’s normally a day of rest for those of you religious enough to observe it as such. But there certainly wasn’t any rest around Otaku Ohana Central, where two news tidbits arrived, courtesy of HawaiiCon and Taku Taku Matsuri.

Now, there’s no denying that HawaiiCon has the highest entry cost of the state’s six conventions — $165 for a four-day pass, plus additional travel costs if you’re not already on Hawaii island. It’s understandable; the science/sci-fi/fantasy convention has positioned itself as a vacation destination at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel with premier guests and experiences. But those costs can add up, particularly for the cash-strapped among us (hey, those Nendoroids and Amiibos aren’t going to buy themselves!).

To that end, HawaiiCon has unveiled its Kamaaina Day Pass. These $20 passes — $10 for children ages 6-12 — will let you in the door for the con’s preview day, with events mostly running between 3 and 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10. With 21 guests announced to date, “that’s less than $1 per celebrity,” HawaiiCon chairman/CEO GB Hajim told me via online chat.

“Lots of locals have never been to a con,” GB added. “Don’t even know what it is like. We want them to see how awesome it is.”

You can get those passes — as well as single-day passes for Sept. 11-13, which weigh in at $65 general, $45 children — at www.eventbrite.com/e/hawaiicon-2015-kamaaina-day-passes-tickets-16823407264. To recap, guests include Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry; actors Christopher Judge, Teryl Rothery, Tony Amendola, Aaron Douglas and Patricia Tallman; writers Brad Bell and Jane Espenson; voice actors Janet Varney, Steve Blum, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Cree Summer and Melissa Fahn; and artists Bill Morrison, Trina Robbins, Steve Leialoha and Sam Campos. Find out more about the convention itself at www.hawaiicon.com.

Meanwhile, over at Taku Taku Matsuri, founder/organizer Yuka Nagaoka may be in Japan at the moment, but planning for the third annual single-day fall festival continues in earnest. News emerged Sunday of this year’s special guests: voice actor Richard Epcar and his wife, voice actor/director Ellyn Stern. Epcar is best known as the voice of Batou in Ghost in the Shell, GitS 2: Innocence and GitS: Stand-Alone Complex; Xehanort in various Kingdom Hearts games; Joseph Joestar in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders; and Raiden in the last two Mortal Kombat games. Stern is best known as the voice of Miyuki Goto in Noein and a number of moms — Ichigo’s in Bleach, Jack’s in MAR, Hiroshi’s in Zenki, and Jiro’s and Marumaro’s in Blue Dragon.

Taku Taku Matsuri is happening Oct. 3 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s Manoa Grand Ballroom; tickets — $20 for straight admission, packages including T-shirts and special guest experiences going all the way up to $200 — are available at www.gofundme.com/bunbun-funfun.

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.

Ota-cool Incoming: Mini con carnival, 2014 edition

August was a month dominated by news about anime movies, with three of them — Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, My Neighbor Totoro and Naruto: Road to Ninja — arriving in the state. This month, news tidbits about small anime-related events have been filling my “what to talk about in Otaku Ohana” inbox (well, that and that interview with Kyle Hebert that I talked about a few posts ago, which I’ll finally get around to transcribing when my birthday staycation kicks in around the middle of next week … fingers crossed). Here’s what’s happening in coming weeks …

The first stop on our tour of mini cons is a return visit to Taku Taku Matsuri, where organizer Yuka Nagaoka has found a new guest of honor for her event postponed from August: voice actor Cristina Valenzuela, better known as Cristina Vee. (That’s her on the right.) Some of Vee’s more prominent anime roles include 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 also voiced various characters in video games including the BlazBlue franchise, Skullgirls and Ar Tonelico. This will be her first con-related visit to Hawaii.

Summer Taku Taku Matsuri: In Fall! is happening Sat., Nov. 22; the GoFundMe campaign with $10 presale tickets and $20 ticket/T-shirt packages will run through Oct. 25 at www.gofundme.com/dbi0fc.

This week, details also began emerging about the fifth annual Mini Con, the anime con in the handy petite size at McCully-Moiliili Public Library. Library manager Hillary Chang’s rounded up her by-now standard roster of all-star artists ready to meet and greet patrons — Gordon Rider artist Jon Murakami, nemu*nemu artist Audra Furuichi, Crazy Shirts designer and Kikaidaverse fan artist Kevin Sano, and the Hachi Maru Hachi creative crew. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sat., Sept. 27, at the library, 2211 S. King St.

Audra designed a set of virtual flyers that double as mobile phone wallpapers; click the thumbnails below to download art from, from left, Jonathan Pinches’ “You Are Not Alone” (from Hachi Maru Hachi vol. 3), Jon and Kevin.

Last but certainly not least is Kawaii Kon’s third annual Anime Day at Windward Mall in Kaneohe. Nothing really new to report on this front, but I’d still imagine Kawaii Kon’s usual assortment of games, art events, cosplay contests, free anime screenings and a mini Artist Alley will be the order of the day. You’ll probably be able to get discounted three-day passes for next year’s convention (March 14-16) as well. The latest news on that can be found on the Facebook event page, https://www.facebook.com/events/912506692099432/.

Other Ota-coolness

Comic Jam Hawaii: This group of collaborative cartoon artists meets every first and third Sunday of the month at Pearlridge Center; locations within the mall may vary. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/ComicJamHawaii (Facebook login required). Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Random Ingress portal of the post: If you missed the first installment in this new recurring feature in all my “Ota-cool Incoming!” calendar posts, here’s my profile of the portal “Ringy Dingy.” Today’s spotlight: “Down Town Pearlridge Globe.”

Those of you who have been around at least as long as I have remember a time when the two halves of Pearlridge Center were called “Phase I” and “Phase 2.” I’m not sure when exactly it happened, but there was some point where someone probably said, “Hey! Let’s make this center more contemporary and stuff!” So the side anchored by Liberty House and JCPenney became “Uptown Pearlridge,” and the side anchored by Sears became “Downtown Pearlridge.” Uptown was the more distinguished, sophisticated side. Downtown was the side with a splash of urban flair, all neon signs and a giant video screen hanging over that side’s central hub. And the monorail … well, I’m sorry, but that thing looked like what happens before and after someone ingests certain mind-altering substances, with half of it looking like a yellow taxicab and the other half covered in splashy, colorful graffiti.

Well, the monorail’s all one uniform design now, the screen’s gone, and you’d be hard-pressed to find much distinguishing the two sides. This Ingress portal, stationed right around where Comic Jam Hawaii regularly meets, features one of the leftover relics of the era. It’s usually well-contested, but if it’s a Comic Jam Sunday, you can pretty much expect the Face of Hawaii Ingress ™ will be making it Resistance blue. After which someone else will come along and make it Enlightened green again. Circle of life, people. Circle of life.

MangaBento: This group of anime- and manga-inspired artists usually meets every second and fourth Sunday of the month at the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St.), room 200. Visit www.manga-bento.com. Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 14.

Arashi in concert: Tickets are still available to see the five-member boy band in concert at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20 at Ko Olina’s Naia Lagoon 3, and they’re still $150 per ticket ($75 for children under 15)? Or would we be better off heading over to Shirokiya and its pop-up Arashi Shop to get and calling it a day? Pick them up exclusively at Ticketmaster.com, and be sure to check out Tom Moffatt Productions’ Facebook event page to see all the rules and procedures involved. (Key elements to note are that there’s a four-ticket limit, sales are limited to customers in the United States and Canada, and you’re going to have to bring the credit card you used to order the tickets to the show itself.) Don’t want to shell out that much, or can’t make it to the concert? The pop-up Arashi Shop is open now at Shirokiya, featuring CDs “and other items not normally available in Hawaii.”

Kikaider Reboot screenings on Oahu: Shotaro Ishinomori’s tale of the android Kikaida and his battles against Professor Gill and DARK has been revamped and prettied up for a new generation, and Honolulu — home to some of the most die-hard Kikaida fans on the planet — will be the first place people in North America can see it. (Yes, I know we’re on a rock in the middle of the Pacific, thousands of miles from North America. But the Kikaider Reboot USA Facebook page is calling this the “North American Premiere,” so I’m running with that.) The film will be running for a week — Oct. 10-16, to be exact — at Consolidated’s Ward Stadium complex. Showtimes have yet to be announced, but here, have an English-subtitled trailer to tide you over until that info comes through.

The second second coming of Taku Taku Matsuri

One of the breakthrough otaku-targeted events last year was the Taku Taku Matsuri’s natsu matsuri, or summer festival, where about 300 people showed up at Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu on a sunny Sunday in August to cosplay, play games, buy Japanese-themed merchandise and food from a number of vendors, enjoy entertainment and just have a fun time overall. As I wrote last year, organizer Yuka C. Nagaoka started Taku Taku Matsuri to give local fans of anime and manga culture another venue where they could gather, similar to the events she took part in growing up in Japan.

This year, Taku Taku Matsuri was scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 9. It promised to be bigger — a one-day mini-anime con of sorts being held at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s Manoa Grand Ballroom, with a Star Trek-themed cafe, video game tournaments, a dance party featuring DJ E2D, and special guest Kyle Hebert. But the tournaments were quietly dropped, DJ E2D pulled out … and then the dual threat of Hurricanes Iselle and Julio took care of the rest.

The show, however, will go on. Yuka said as much, announcing a new date — Saturday, Nov. 22 — along with a new rallying cry, “We will make it happen.” But there’s still the venue, activities and higher costs to deal with. As she told me before, without any sponsors, she has to pay for everything out of pocket … and those costs add up pretty quickly.

And that’s where the second Second Annual Taku Taku Matsuri crowdfunding campaign comes in. If this all sounds familiar to you, you’re right; we’re looking at another $2,000 funding goal to reach and more $10 pre-sale tickets and $20 ticket/T-shirt bundles available, albeit this time on the GoFundMe platform instead of Kickstarter. The change removes the nail-biting element from the first campaign — Yuka told me she switched because she gets to keep whatever she raises regardless of whether the goal is met by Oct. 25, unlike Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing approach.

But the importance of hitting her goal remains.

“If I don’t get enough, as before, it’ll come out of my pocket and/or me trying to get a business loan from a bank,” she told me via email. “Sadly for attendees, this may result in me having to hike up the entrance fee, even for people that supported us on Kickstarter and GoFund.”

Those of you who bought in during the Kickstarter campaign, don’t worry: You don’t have to give any more during this round. Yuka will honor all tickets sold during that campaign. For those of you who chose the $100 perk, she’s also trying to book a replacement guest that will be able to make a special meal appearance as well.

Which brings us to the other unknown about Summer Taku Taku Matsuri in Fall: who, if anyone, will fill the “guest of honor” slot. It’s already been confirmed that Kyle Hebert will not be returning for the make-up event (stick around for a bit of Otaku Ohana-related news about that at the end of this post, though). Yuka’s trying to find a replacement guest, but with three months between now and the event itself and many other conventions and events being booked with guests far in advance, she’s not sure she can pull it off.

Several artists and craft vendors have had to pull out of the rescheduled event as well, most likely because the new date is in the heart of the lucrative holiday craft fair season. So if you’re an artist or vendor looking for some exposure, spaces are now available.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/taku2matsuri or email taku2matsuri@yahoo.com.

Ota-cool incoming!

Arashi in concert: Judging by my Facebook friends’ timeline, the arrival of five-member boy band Arashi for concerts at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20 at Ko Olina’s Naia Lagoon 3 is a Pretty Big Deal. Is it worth paying $150 per ticket ($75 for children under 15)? Or would we be better off heading over to Shirokiya and its pop-up Arashi Shop to get CDs “and other items not normally available in Hawaii” and calling it a day? We’ll find out starting Saturday, when tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. exclusively at Ticketmaster.com. Be sure to check out Tom Moffatt Productions’ Facebook event page to see all the rules and procedures involved; the key elements to note are that there’s a four-ticket limit, sales are limited to customers in the United States and Canada, and you’re going to have to bring the credit card you used to order the tickets to the show itself.

Aiea Library Anime Club: It’s back! The new conference room is really nice! And as I’ll probably point out until the library moves to a new location, there’s plenty of parking! This month, young adult librarian Diane Masaki is screening Appleseed: Alpha, the latest computer-animated film in the franchise directed by two-time Kawaii Kon guest Shinji Aramaki. At the library, 99-374 Pohai Place. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or e-mail aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com. 3 p.m. Saturday.

Random Ingress portal of the post: With Ingress arriving on iOS, it’s now available to almost everyone with a smartphone (sorry, Windows Phone and Blackberry users). I think it’s about time to introduce this new recurring feature to the Ota-cool calendar.

Let’s start with this portal.

Yes, ol’ Ringy Dingy is actually Pass Loop Doraemon from my statue cat-alog earlier this year, located on the third floor of Ala Moana, in the Nordstrom wing. Please note that while Doraemon is blue, his portal should be green. Just sayin’.

Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie: Screening Sunday, Aug. 31 at noon and Monday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Ward Stadium 16 theaters on Oahu and the Kaahumanu 6 theaters in Kahului. Tickets are available on Fandango.

Anime Day at Windward Mall: Kawaii Kon is back for its third year of mini-con craziness across the Koolaus. I’d imagine more details will be released in coming weeks, but I’d expect art events, cosplay contests, free anime screenings and a mini Artist Alley to be part of the day. Also, it’s coinciding again with Star Wars Reads Day, which makes Diane sad because she can’t go again this year. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11.

Coming up in Otaku Ohana

As I mentioned earlier, Kyle Hebert won’t be coming back for Summer Taku Taku Matsuri in Fall. He did, however, make it down to Hawaii. Two people got to sit down with him for formal interviews while he was here. One of them was Kell Komatsubara, as part of his ongoing “Ramblings About Something Close to Nothing” video blog series.

The other? Your friendly neighborhood anime/manga blogger.

Kyle Hebert: The Otaku Ohana interview. (Still) coming somewhat sorta soonish. (Hey, transcribing audio recordings are hard when you have a bazillion other things to do. Sigh. Sob.)

[UPDATED] Taku Taku Matsuri postponed

In case you’re wondering what happened to my post from earlier this morning previewing the Taku Taku Matsuri Summer Festival, scheduled for Saturday at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii: I’ve pulled it from the blog on account of the event being postponed due to possible effects from Hurricanes Iselle and Julio. Here’s the formal statement from organizer Yuka C. Nagaoka, posted earlier this afternoon:

!!! Attention !!!

With public transportation becoming transportation to emergency evacuation locations, Hospitals shutting down, and all the chaos happening,
I have made the decision to cancel taku taku Matsuri on August 9th, 2014.

I have thought this through for the pass few hours, and I find that, for everyone’s safety, this is the best decision.

BUT DO NOT WORRY!!!!

I have rescheduled with the venue.
I will make this happen.

So, you know what??
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES!!!!!

Please everyone, please be safe.
With many many Mahalos and Alohas,
Yuka C. Nagaoka

I’ll repost any updates here as I get them. For now … well, people in-state (particularly those of you on Hawaii island), shelter in place and stay safe. Those of you out of state … pray for us.

Special ‘K’ in your movie diet

The 2012 anime series K was one of those series that went completely under my radar. Seriously, if there was any chatter about it on my social media networks amid all the talk about Sword Art Online, Free!, Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill and a whoooooole bunch of other series, I missed it. It was only this morning that I learned that K streamed on Viz’s Neon Alley online service, it was a 12-episode series, and it sounds like one of those “innocent average bystander-type person gets sucked into a wide-ranging conspiracy that involves a murder, his uncanny resemblance to someone tied to that murder, and oh yeah, there’s some entity behind the scenes manipulating everything, too” shows.

The movie that continues the story, K: Missing Kings, opened in theaters in Japan last week. And now, since we’re living in the age of instantaneous digital subtitling, we’re getting it courtesy of Eleven Arts at the usual theaters: the Ward Stadium complex on Oahu and the Kaahumanu 6 theaters in Kahului. Here, have a trailer.

And here’s the official description:

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.

Showtimes at both theaters are at noon Saturday and 7 p.m. Monday. Can’t make those screenings? The Doris Duke Theater at the Honolulu Museum of Art will be showing it in October. Exact dates will be announced down the line.

Also this weekend

Get Pop-Cultured at Barnes & Noble: With this month bookended by Anime Expo in ~~Anaheim~~ Los Angeles at the beginning of it and Comic-Con International in San Diego toward the end, it’s pretty safe to say that this month is a pop-culture paradise. It’s probably with that in mind that Barnes & Noble created their “Get Pop-Cultured” celebration, kicking off nationwide today and running through Aug. 10.

So it was a given that the last of the big-chain bookstores on Oahu would be taking part as well. And that store, in Ala Moana near the Satellite City Hall and a freshly opened Jack in the Box, is jumping in in a big way starting Saturday, with an appearance by Gordon Rider/Star-Advertiser “Calabash” cartoonist Jon Murakami at 11 a.m. and Kawaii Kon hosting a Cosplay Runway event at 2 p.m. Cosplayers, show up in costume on Saturday and get a coupon for a discount at the in-store cafe as well. Other events are planned through Aug. 10; I’ll write about those next week when I have more time to do so.

Taku Taku Matsuri WATER GUN FIGHT!!!!: Bring your water guns and some food for a potluck and come on down for a fun day at the beach. Also featuring tryouts for the Taku Taku Matsuri Summer Festival Talent Show and a mini Cardboard Brawl. More details at the Facebook event page. Ala Moana Beach Park, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu at the Waikiki Shell: There are still tickets available, although you might want to bring a poncho, considering the forecast is for heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Wali. The concert starts at 5 p.m. Sunday; details in my last post.

Your anime / manga blogger’s clearing-house clearinghouse

New posts from me in this space have been rather sporadic as of late, and for that I apologize; it’s probably going to be like this probably through mid-August or so, as I take care of some projects at home and then endure … *shudder* … the primary election season at work. (Insert screams here.) I’ll try to update this blog as much as I can in the meantime — there will be some kind of coverage of the MangaBento exhibit here while it’s still up, I promise! — but if I disappear for weeks at a time, don’t worry, I’ll still be coming back. Sometime. I’ll tell you when we’re ready to abandon this blog, and we’re definitely not ready to do that yet.

One of the things I’m doing at home is some major cleaning, clearing out some of the stuff that’s been piling up to make room for new things. It’s a bit like that for news involving the local anime/manga fan community, so let’s make with the cleaning already and get to the news:

“Showme” the artwork: It’s time once again for the annual exhibit by MangaBento, the group of artists inspired by anime and manga, on the second floor of the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St.), with an opening reception (with refreshments!) scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday and the exhibit itself running through July 12. This year’s exhibit is called “Showme”; rendered in Japanese kanji, the sound-alike phrase “shoumi” means “relish, gusto, appreciation.” If this exhibit is anything like the group’s past exhibits that I’ve covered in this blog over the years — “Kakimochi” in 2011 (part 1, part 2), “Nakamaboko” (part 1, part 2) and “Tomo-e-Ame” (part 1, part 2, part 3) — expect a nice blend of 2-D and 3-D art in a variety of media, a giant mural in the stairwell from the first to the second floor, and a table where visitors can sketch to their hearts’ content. For more information about MangaBento, visit their website at www.manga-bento.com.

KPP in HNL: In case you aren’t familiar with the work of the 21-year-old artist currently known as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, here, have one of her music videos.

And another one.

And yet another one.

When you can describe the one with the flying koi and mouse-head robot no jutsu! as the most normal of the three, that’s … saying quite a bit, actually. Here are more of her videos on YouTube, in case you’re inclined to follow up.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu — or “KPP,” to her loyal fans and lazy anime/manga bloggers who don’t want to keep typing “Kyary Pamyu Pamyu” every time they refer to her in a post — is coming to Hawaii for the first time to wrap up her “Nanda Collection” world tour, at 5 p.m. July 20 at the Waikiki Shell. Tickets went on sale Friday … and since I only started seriously working on this post around Wednesday, I held off on writing up this item in case demand hit Bruno Mars/Jack Johnson-esque “sneeze and you missed out” levels.

I suppose I needn’t have worried. Judging by those videos above, it probably takes a fan of a certain constitution to really appreciate what KPP brings to the table. Indeed, after being AWOL due to heavy server load on the first day of ticket sales, Ticketmaster’s interactive seat map finally kicked in and started working on Saturday … and here’s what it looked like as of a little after 8 p.m. Saturday. Dark dots show seats available.

That’s about half of the $85 level seats and virtually all of the $60 level seats that are still available. $30 lawn seating’s still readily available, too, for those of you who don’t mind bringing your own mats.

So if you want to check out what all the fuss is about (and see for yourself just how much more crazy KPP can cram into a live concert), go forth and get yourself some tickets now.

My cutest as-yet-unpublished-until-now picture of the year so far: This one, taken at the “Crossing Cultures” artist meet-and-greet event late last month at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.

Kids love their plush pups from nemu*nemu artist Audra Furuichi, that’s for sure.

An Oni-Con Hawaii 2014 update: Nothing to report. Let’s … just move on.

A Taku Taku Matsuri Summer Festival update: For those of you who missed the event’s recent successful Kickstarter campaign, presale tickets are now available on Ticketleap (ow.ly/ygYBF) — $13 (plus a $1.65 service charge) for anyone 16 and older, $8 (plus a $1.40 service charge) for anyone under 16. The event, which as of now features voice actor Kyle Hebert, DJ E2D, video game tournaments, a Star Trek-themed cafe and various artists and vendors, runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii (2454 S. Beretania St.). Looks like more artists and vendors would be appreciated, too, so email taku2matsuri at yahoo dot com if you’d be interested in contributing to that effort.

Speaking of Taku Taku Matsuri: There’s a water gun fight (or more specifically, a WATER GUN FIGHT!!!!!) scheduled for July 19. No details yet. But I’m fairly confident there will be more info posted at the event page somewhat sorta soonish.

And while we’re (probably) at the beach: Any good WATER GUN FIGHT!!!!! has to take place outside … which brings us to a few other beach events being held this summer. On July 3, Jason David Frank — otherwise known as “the tri-named Power Rangers actor not named Johnny Yong Bosch that everyone goes crazy over” — will be hosting a beach day at Duke Kahanamoku Beach starting at 11 a.m. He’ll also be shooting footage for the second season of My Morphin Life.

Kawaii Kon recently announced plans for its annual beach day as well — mark your calendars for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 16 at Ala Moana Beach Park, and get ready for a day that already promises to include sand castle building and a game of Capture the Flag (“now with water balloons!” as the event page proclaims, seemingly giddily). Keep up with how that develops over on the anime con’s event page.

Midnight milestone: Taku Taku Matsuri hits Kickstarter goal

It looks like the local anime/manga fan community will have something to do on Saturday, Aug. 9 (besides voting in the state primary election, of course) after all.

A shade before midnight Friday — and with about four hours left in the campaign, at that — a $15 pledge nudged the Taku Taku Matsuri Kickstarter campaign to its $2,000 funding goal. The monthlong campaign ultimately closed with $2,070. It was close, but we’ll indeed be getting our second edition of the summer festival with voice actor Kyle Hebert, a Star Trek-themed cafe, video game tournaments and a dance party featuring DJ E2D.

Just how close was it? Via Kicktraq, a website that offers handy-dandy Kickstarter campaign breakdowns for stat geeks and friendly neighborhood anime/manga bloggers looking for something more meaty to write about than just “Yay! This campaign got funded,” here’s a graph that breaks down donation amounts by day, taken from its overall analysis of the Taku Taku Matsuri campaign. Click on the image to get a larger version (which still is a bit hard to read, so sorry, older folk).

Here’s what’s interesting about this graph: In most of the campaigns I’ve followed over the past few years, there’s an initial burst of enthusiasm among the hard-core faithful, a loooooooooong period of little movement where pledges trickle in, and a last-minute push where people pile on, most likely because they see the goal is within reach and are more than happy to back a winner. Sometimes, the property’s popularity is enough that it’ll blow past its goal in a matter of hours — the oft-cited Double Fine Adventure and Order of the Stick reprint campaigns are among those, as are the more recent Anime News Nina graphic novel and Megatokyo visual novel campaigns. Others, like the campaigns for Sweet Revenge Honolulu’s pie press, Tommy Tallarico’s Video Games Live! project and a new Amplitude game from Harmonix, needed that last-minute push to carry them over the top.

At least all of those performed rather decently at the outset, though. We never did see that initial enthusiasm for the Taku Taku Matsuri campaign; it raised only $100 a week in and hadn’t even reached $800 by the time I wrote of it again last week. Which made that last push to the finish even more remarkable — something clicked somewhere that made more people want to give.

Consider also:

The last $1,225 — 59 percent of the total! — was contributed over the last six days of the campaign.
Going by straight-up backer stats — that is, assuming someone who contributed to a particular tier paid exactly that amount and nothing more — the campaign would have raised only $1,160. That means backers straight-up donated $910, or close to 44 percent of the amount raised.

Kicktraq’s funding progress trend chart also shows just how crazy it was tracking this campaign. The green line shows the amount the site estimated the campaign would raise based on the funding trend at the time; the blue line tracks actual funding progress.

Note that the only time the green line ever went above the goal line is when the blue line met it … on the very last day. It’s a frenetic pace that I have to admit I didn’t see coming about a week or so ago.

So! I can write this part with much more confidence now: The second annual Taku Taku Matsuri summer festival will be taking place in the Manoa Grand Ballroom of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii (2454 S. Beretania St.) Non-Kickstarter preregistration tickets, at $13, will go on sale … ummmm … sometime sorta soonish; I’ll have more information as that becomes available. For the latest information, visit www.facebook.com/taku2matsuri.

Stretching toward home

The month of May is winding down, and so too are a pair of events that I’ve talked about in this space in recent weeks: the “Crossing Cultures: The Art of Manga in Hawaii” exhibit at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, and the Kickstarter campaign for the second Taku Taku Matsuri summer festival. Both of them are wrapping up on June 7, and both of them have some new news tidbits emerging that make them worth mentioning here again.

The last event being held in conjunction with the “Crossing Cultures” exhibit is also the biggest one yet, a live drawing session featuring much of the island’s top talent — and perhaps you, too, if you’re artistically inclined. That’s because the cartoonists from Comic Jam Hawaii, the group that usually gets together every first and third Sunday of the month at Pearlridge Center, will be setting up shop at JCCH from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday outside the gallery, drawing manga-themed pieces and offering inspiration for attendees to do so as well. Drawing materials will be provided.

Joining them will be some of the artists featured in the exhibit — Roy Chang, Audra Furuichi, Jon Murakami and Kyunyo. They’ll be taking a limited number of commissions for $15 each — come early to secure your spot. Or if you consider yourself a lucky person, just show up, and you can enter a raffle to win original artwork from them. Roy’s piece features his characters, Cacy and Kiara, on paper fans:

Audra has a watercolor piece with her plush pup creations — Anpan, Nemu, Enchilada and Blue — with a giant Pollo:

Jon’s marker piece features Gordon Rider, sidekick Steve the Monkey, and a whole bunch of Edamame Ninjas and Geckos:

And Kyunyo has a lovely Kuroko’s Basketball print:

There also will be other prizes up for grabs, including a Chewbacca backpack. Yup. That’s apparently a thing. If you ever wanted to bear the burden of a Wookie on your back, this is your time.

If you haven’t had a chance to take in the exhibit yet, you can do so as well, with curator Brady Evans, Journey of Heroes author Stacey Hayashi and the Hachi Maru Hachi gang participating in a gallery walk-through. And yes, you’ll probably see your friendly neighborhood anime/manga blogger around as well — I couldn’t possibly miss the biggest celebration of local manga culture since Kawaii Kon last month, could I?

JCCH is located at 2454 S. Beretania St.; again, the event runs from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. If you can’t make it, the community gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For more on the exhibit, visit hawaiimanga.com.

Taku Taku Matsuri’s last stand

Over in Taku Taku Matsuri land, the news is … well, a bit more sobering at this point. With a bit less than eight days left, the Kickstarter campaign has raised less than 40 percent of its goal, sitting at $735 out of $2,000. The $100 “meal with voice actor Kyle Hebert” tier has gotten a bit sweeter with the addition of a $20 gift certificate for Correct Distortion, purveyors of kimonos, contemporary Japanese fashion and accessories like wigs and jewelry.

But at this point, it would take a lot more than a sellout at that tier to push this campaign over the top … and it’s definitely running out of time. As an official comment posted May 23 on the Taku Taku Matsuri Facebook page noted:

Remember~ even if you pledge, if we don’t get fully funded, won’t happen~ SO! Share the link and get more people interested!! (≧▽≦)

… so in keeping with Kickstarter’s “all or nothing” approach, if this campaign fails, that’ll be the end of the discussion about this year’s event, and I’ll have to find something else to talk about that month, like … I dunno … episode-by-episode reviews of Cardcaptor Sakura on Blu-ray or something like that. While that may be fun, it also won’t be quite the same. Visit ow.ly/wUtKl to check out the campaign.

Ota-cool incoming!

ARTafterDARK: Rakugaki: A blend of graffiti and traditional Japanese art makes its way to the Honolulu Museum of Art’s monthly evening art party, and four of the “Crossing Cultures” artists — Roy, Jon, Brady and Rose Dela Cruz — will be part of it as well. Use their drawings, add in a few of your own, and you can create your own souvenir manga to take home. You can also enjoy the Light from Shadow: Gold in Japanese Art exhibit currently on display, sample Japanese foods, and sip on shochu from Iichiko, event sponsors touting “Japan’s best-selling genuine shochu.” Yum. Learn more about the event at www.honolulumuseum.org/events/art_after_dark/
14309-rakugaki The museum is at 900 S. Beretania St. General admission $10; free for museum members. 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Comic Jam Hawaii: Too much drawing over the weekend? Naaaaaaaah. The Comic Jammers will be reconvening for their regular first-Sunday-of-the-month meeting at Pearlridge Center. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/ComicJamHawaii (Facebook login required). Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

“Otsukare-sama” Party: Regardless of whether Taku Taku Matsuri reaches its funding goal, organizer Yuka Nagaoka already has another event lined up: a party to let off some steam following the long slog of the academic year. Some of the musical acts who would be performing at Taku Taku Matsuri if the event takes place will be showing up; activities include … ummm … table flipping. Hopefully not with the pupus and drinks still on them. That would be kinda bad. For ages 18 and older. Visit www.facebook.com/events/443091685828142/ (no Facebook login required). Ong King Arts Center (184 N. King St.), 5 to 9 p.m. June 7.

MangaBento: This group of anime- and manga-inspired artists usually meets every second and fourth Sunday of the month at the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St., room 200). Visit www.manga-bento.com. Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. June 8.

	Ready or not, here w… on [Kawaii Kon 2013] The year of…
	CChun on Hello from the other side
	Ikumi Tone on The Otaku Ohana Best-to-my-Kno…
	animatsuri on We’re back! We’re…
	parv on We’re back! We’re…