The Vocaloid Squad

With a great concert, good food, and lots of events and interesting cosplay, the remainder of AX proved to be an exceptionally fun time, if a bit tiring. Unfortunately, my main Compact Flash card malfunctioned midway through day 2 of the con, so I lost most of the pictures from that day, including photos of the enormous bowl of chashu ramen I grabbed for lunch down in Little Tokyo. ;_;

Fortunately, I do still have lots of photos to share with you guys. I had hoped to do day-by-day coverage of the con, but between the frenetic nature of the events down there combined with the commute into LA and back again every day, it’s taken me until now to get properly rested up again. Yeah, I’m definitely getting too old for this kind of stuff. ^^;

Nevertheless, AX was a ton of fun; I got to meet Shokotan and David Hayter, as well as consume dangerously large quantities of Japanese cuisine. Oh yeah, and I bought the newest Taiko no Tatsujin (a.k.a. Taiko Drum Master) game for DS.

Anyway, so without further ado…random cosplay shots and other pics from the con: Read the rest of this entry »

This year’s Anime Expo, although not nearly as exciting as last year’s all star guest appearances by Halko Momoi, Ishikawa Chiaki, Nagahama Hiroshi, and Hirano Aya & Co., has nevertheless been as crazily entertaining as ever. From guest discussion panels to anime music videos to wacky cosplayers lined up in the halls doing Carmelldansen, there’s no shortage of fun and frenetic activity to be found.

Anime Expo 2008’s Guest of Honor roster can’t touch last year’s amazing guests, but it seems they managed to get together a great guest roster nevertheless.

(click the photos for larger versions)

From the left: Toshihiko Seki, Masahiro Ando, Masamitsu Hidaka, Hiromi Kato, Takada Akemi, Dewa and Manami of Jyukai, Nakagawa Shoko (Shokotan), and finally David Hayter, a.k.a. Solid Snake. I think he got as much of a crowd reaction as all of the other guests combined, especially when he did his Snake voice. =P Read the rest of this entry »

It was the most epic of times, it was the worst of times. Indeed, despite our greatest aspirations to the contrary the blog has somewhat fallen into disrepair as real life continues to rear its ugly head. At least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

The truth is, Guff, in his infinite optimism and caffeine driven confidence, ditched me and hopped the nearest plane to Japan. Life and work has been kind of rocking me recently, and without my faithful co-conspirator I’ve been in a bit of bind as to how to carry on the torch, as it were, here at Epic Win.

The good news is that a number of new posts should be forthcoming over the course of the next couple of weeks. The bad news is that it won’t be our usual tongue-in-cheek, trend-bucking anime analysis for the most part. Rather, Guff has been writing up tales of his various and sundry experiences across the pond in Hokkaido, where he currently resides (more details on all that to come!).

In addition, with the upcoming Anime Expo convention a mere stone’s throw away from me here in Los Angeles, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drop by the convention for my usual routine of relentlessly snacking on deliciously unhealthy Japanese confectionaries, photographing cute cosplayers, and making fun of Zac Bertschy at every possible opportunity.

Anime Expo 2007 was a great time all around ^_^

And let’s not forget the excellent opportunity to see Sorairo Days performed live by Shokotan, a show I certainly have no intentions of missing out on. Considering the overwhelming clamor that the con usually entails, posts might not be quite in real time, but I hope to keep you all updated with lots of photos and tales of adventure. Oh yeah, and somewhere in the middle there I’ll be sure to squeeze in some of the posts Guff is writing up.

Given that the two of us are now on opposite sides of the ocean, I don’t know if we’ll be able to continue our tag-team blogging style. Nevertheless, we will aim to pick up where we left off and bring you as much irreverent and witty commentary as we can possibly muster. I still have lots of things I want to say about some of the new anime airing, so as soon as I can muster the energy I’ll be banging out a few treatises more in line with our traditional fare.

For those of you who still have the feed subscribed, thanks for your encouraging words and e-mails and for continuing to stick around. Hopefully we’ll be able to respond in kind and give you all something worth sticking around for!

~ 0rion