Tag: wilma

A somewhat expected turnabout

Sorry, we haven't been given any promotional still for this movie yet, so you'll just have to settle for this box art from the original game.As some of you may know, I am a big fan of the “Ace Attorney” video game series, called “Gyakuten Saiban” in the original Japanese. So when news of a live-action “Gyakuten Saiban” movie came out, I jumped on it. Thanks to tag-team partner in fandom Jason Y., I found and watched a subtitled trailer several times (not several dozen, I admit — there’s only so much drool that my keyboard can tolerate), feeling the chicken skin rising with every second. I tweeted like a madwoman every time fresh bits of news about the movie would come to light. Various conversations Jason and I later had led me to hope beyond hope that the esteemed Hawaii International Film Festival would be bringing in the movie.

Turns out HIFF did one better: Not only are they indeed screening the movie, but according to their latest eNews newsletter, it’s going to be shown at their Spring Showcase! A previous brief Twitter exchange between me and whoever runs the HIFF feed (Christopher Hall, I believe?) had already escalated my anticipation of such, so you can perhaps imagine the intense squeeing that this confirmation elicited from me (though silently and only in chat with Jason, due to me being in a place at the time that would not exactly be thrilled with loud whoops of ecstasy). The exact date and time has yet to be announced, but because the Showcase takes place April 13-19, that means “Gyakuten Saiban” will be playing almost TWO MONTHS BEFORE the other major event that’s also sewn up the movie, AMC2 in California! (And you would not believe how much I cursed at the thought of being so close yet so far to what was then the first and only announced U.S. showing!) I could barely contain the glee as I immediately tweeted the news out.

So, assuming that no other convention or festival snags screenings rights before April, this would make the HIFF Spring Showcase the U.S. premiere of “Gyakuten Saiban”! How’s that for a feather in HIFF’s cap? (Maybe I’m just being biased.)

I’ve already blocked out all possible days available to see this movie, I’ve warned my quite understanding fiance, and my HIFF membership’s been locked down, so I’m armed and ready for when HIFF announces that rare date. I WILL be there, oh yes, I WILL BE THERE.

Introducing Otaku Ohana, version 2.0!

Ever since tag-team partner in fandom Wilma J. and I were handed the keys to our own little corner of the Star-Bulletin blogging kingdom in June 2009, we’ve had one mission in mind: to provide as much exposure as we could to anime, manga, and the local and national fan communities that power those industries. Otaku Ohana, as I explained back then, was meant to be an extension of my print column, Cel Shaded:

What I’ve discovered over the years, though, is that one column a week is hardly enough to contain all the anime and manga news that comes down the pipeline. For every one topic that I’ve covered in print, there have been at least two or three others I’ve passed up. And then there’s the poor, often neglected “Random Plugging” section. In theory, it was supposed to ease the backlog of anime and manga that we have yet to review. In practice, columns kept filling up without the help of “Random Plugging,” and now we have a backlog of several hundred series, partial and complete, that we have yet to comment on in any form. (I wish I was exaggerating with that number.) So it’s time for the next evolution.

Fast forward several years to the present. Some things have changed: Cel Shaded now exists only as an online extension to Otaku Ohana; the Star-Bulletin merged with the Honolulu Advertiser and became the Star-Advertiser; and it seems like our coverage is leaning more toward coverage of the local fan community. Other things haven’t: That review backlog still remains at several hundred series, mostly as the free time that Wilma and I have has evaporated before our very eyes. (We’re really trying to do more reviews this year, though! Really!) And, of course, Otaku Ohana’s been housed on the last regularly updated outpost of the starbulletin.com domain, blogs.starbulletin.com.

Until today.

Following the lead of fellow starbulletin.com blogger Nadine Kam and her Fashion Tribe — and after kicking the tires and making sure everything is in working order — I’m pleased to announce that all updates for Otaku Ohana going forward will be made on our shiny new site (which actually looks exactly like our old site, but ehh, details, details), http://otakuohana.staradvertiserblogs.com. All our old content won’t be going anywhere; it’ll still be archived at http://blogs.starbulletin.com/otakuohana for the foreseeable future.

I wanted to write a post about all the possible name changes we could’ve given the blog in its new phase, including:

  • Otaku Ohana 2: Electric Boogaloo
  • Otaku Ohana: Now With Bears (a nod to the Xbox 360 sequel to Kinectimals)
  • Super Otaku Ohana Turbo Hyper Championship Edition

Wilma groaned and put the kibosh on the idea immediately.

So I’ll just say this: Don’t forget to point your browsers and update your bookmarks and RSS feeds to reflect our new home on the web. Regular programming will begin shortly. We thank you for your continued patronage. And since the first-ever post in Otaku Ohana ended, for some weird reason that rests with 2009-era me, with a random link to a music video about some plants and some zombies, I’ll end this post with an equally random link to a journalist interviewing a wrestler in the Nintendo Wii game Rhythm Heaven Fever.

Yes, that new tune’s firmly wedged itself in my brain, too.