Friday, April 30, 2010

I have a complaint

I bought two volumes of the Conan manga at the con last weekend and I couldn't help but notice that the names were switched out. Like the American names are used instead of the original Japanese names.

All I want to know is, why? I know the manga is called Case Closed, like the dub, but there is no need to change the names. There really wasn't a need to change the names for the dub either but, whatever.

And they didn't even change all the names either. So you get situations like, two childhood friends who were born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and their names are Harley Hartwell and Kazuha Tomoya. That kinda makes no sense...

And I don't even know why it's like this because the names are fine in the French publication.

They don't change the names of the random suspects/victims/people either. So you've got a story set in Japan, but most of the main characters have American names. Nice going, Viz.

I haven't facepalmed over this since these two security guards on the dub introduced themselves as 'Baka Security' (shouldn't it be Baker anyway?).

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

COOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!1111

*Ahem*

So, this is a tad late, but here is the post where I tell about my trip to the anime convention.

So me, my mother, my friend, my friend's cousin, and her aunt went up to Halifax on Saturday, the day before the convention. After being dragged through shops and stores and a family restaurant, we made it to the hotel, which turned out to be the poshest hotel I have ever seen in my life. For srs.

The place had bellhops and chandeliers. I have never before seen that in a hotel in my life. My mind was blown. Anyway, our room was on the 11th floor and was small as all hell. Our room in the creepy hotel in Sorento was bigger, and that hotel sucked. We only had two beds for five people, and the beds weren't very big either. Oh well.

After a hockey game and a few anime episodes on my laptop, everyone turned in for the night and got up again at 7:30 the next morning, because we're masochists. Actually, it was probably good that we got up that early because we only made it down to the registration line-up by 9.

The line-up stretched from the registration counter all the way down two flights of stairs. Yeah, at least it moved fast. Me, Meghan and Hailey were floored at everything we saw, or I was anyway. I had never before seen cosplay in real life, and there it was standing all around me!

After registering, the first place we went was the vendors room and holy shit people! There were cosplayers everywhere, and I had a ball just pointing out all the ones I recognized to my mother. Then I saw the manga for sale and that held my attention for a while (at one table they were going for 4$ a book and at another they were going for half the US price, score!). By the time the con was over, I had 17 new books. If I had been allowed to use my card I would've gotten a lot more (really, you don't see those prices, like, ever). There was also a Ranma 1/2 DVD box set, but I wasn't about to shell out 50$ for it.

Other than the manga, I also got a Sanosuke key chain for my phone and a hat with bear ears. (I'm wearing the hat right now, actually, very comfy.)

After we spent some time in the vendors room, it was time for the opening ceremony and then the panels started. All the panels I went to were great, I had a so much fun just being around other fans like myself and I just loved the fact that we could all talk openly about anime, manga and cosplaying without getting dirty looks from non-fans.

Other than the panels, I also spent some time going around and asking various cosplayers if I could take their picture. I got some good ones too. I got Mario, Naruto, Riku, Link and Zelda, Jigen, Zuko, Colette, Light, Misa, Phoenix Wright, and a bunch of Kingdom Hearts people.

Also, there was a plushie making panel so I got to make my very own plushie. The only pattern available was for a riceball plushie, and I must say I did very well for a first-timer (although I stab myself twice with the needle... fucking needle).

We ended up leaving early (at like 5) because we live hours away from Halifax, so we left. And that was that. I will never forget this con and I hope that I'll be able to go to more. Maybe one of the big ones, I mean this one only had like 500 people, and I don't think there was even that many there. I'm hoping that one day I can go to Anime North in Toronto, but who knows.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Ohai thar

Wow, I can't believe I skipped a whole month here. Oops. Well, nothing much goes on around here anyway.

In recent news, college is over for the year. I can't believe I've actually gone through a whole year of college, and it's been nothing like on TV or in the movies. It's been much, much more different. But it works. I just have four more days to go and then I'm done 'til next September.

Also, I got a job that starts next month. It's at the same company where my dad works, but I have no idea what I'll be doing yet. And it pays 14$ an hour, so maybe I'll be able to get myself a car soon.

Or a segway, those look like much more fun.

Even more exciting than this is that I'm going to an anime convention THIS WEEKEND! I can't wait! I've been waiting for years to go to one and I've finally found one close enough for me to attend. My mother has decided to make a weekend trip of it so we're all going up the day before. There are a few other people coming with us and we're staying overnight at the hotel where the convention is being held.

Another thing, my brothers turned 16 last month and have recently gotten their beginners. So for the past few days they've been practising driving our van with Dad. I haven't seen them drive yet, but they haven't hit anything so I guess their doing good.