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Big Video Game Day and Joe Taku on "Cartoon Network's Latest Schedule Announcement"
2002-10-30 22:47:52
First off the journal entry. After a rough day at work (hey, you try working in the rain at a place that is IMO understaffed in my work area), I went to the mall and picked up DDR MAX and Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2. Since PSO is actually my yonger brother's video game, I waited until he played it first. So far, it is just as fun as the original PSO, but with more costumes (I'm happy about that) and the PSO 2 game. Meanwhile, I don't have much to say about DDR MAX since I played it only once so far. However, I did play Oni Mode (yep, the US DDR MAX for PS2 has Oni Mode), and with my DDR skills, I've only lasted about 15 seconds.
Now for my Joe Taku section. Today, I read that along with the planned changes for Toonami, the network is having some more schedule changes as well. After seeing some big mistakes when it comes to the Toonami schedule and the upcoming Adult Swim schedule, I am very pleased with the changes. Among the positive things:
-Hamtaro moving to 10:30. I confess. I am a fan of Hamtaro, and personally I was somewhat disappointed when it left Toonami since I can't watch the 8:00 showing due to me either working or sleeping. Luckily, with the show now airing later, I now have a better chance to catch it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and days where I'm sick.
-G Gundam moving to midnight and Saturdays. The show definitely became enjoyable in the second half of the show's run (aka the finals in Neo-Hong Kong). While it loses one half-hour of air time come next week, look on the bright side: CN no longer has 1/8 of its daily schedule dedicated to "Goku Kicks Everyone's Butt".
-The official premiere of G. I. Joe. When CN had the 1:00 AM showings during the summer, I would usually watch some of it before I go to bed. It's nice to see it return on the schedule. Now if I can only find a download of the "COBRA vs. ACROSS" skit from Neko-Con last year.
One more thing to comment: CN is also planning to add Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh to the lineup (replacing some Cartoon Cartoons). While I don't know about Yu-Gi-Oh, it's probably a smart idea for CN to start air Pokemon, as the show is already in its fifth season, and this would allow for the earlier seasons to air on CN while the later (i.e. Johto) seasons would air on Kids' WB.
8 more days before I travel down to Virginia Beach for Neko-Con. -
Joe Taku on "Video Game Release Dates"
2002-10-29 16:08:19
Considering how I feel there's more to talk about in my journal rather than just convention experiences and the occassional "day in the life", I'm starting a series of entries where I give my opinions on some things anime-related and non-anime-related. As for the name of the entries, Joe Taku, it's a pun on "otaku".
My first topic concerns some problems with video game release dates. Today, my mother and I went to the one of the two video game stores at the nearby mall. Considering today's the day that GTA: Vice City comes out, a lot of people were there to pick it up. However, I had different plans for today: this week is also the release week for Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2 for Gamecube and DDR MAX for PS2. However, neither game won't be in until tomorrow.
This leads to the problem I'm talking about: unlike the usual DVD release schedule, in which most of the titles are released on Tuesday, video game release dates end up varying between Tuesdays and Wednesdays (i.e. the example stated above; Animal Crossing on Tuesday and Kingdom Hearts on Wednesday). There are a few people who would be interested in two different games coming out each week. However, if one game comes out on Tuesday and another game comes out on Wednesday, the player would likely have to choose between either waitng an extra day to pick up the both videos (and risk the possibility of the first game selling out) or making two trip to the same place.
IMO, when it comes to new video games coming out each week, things would be a lot easier if all video games came out on the same day of the week. This would allow a person to pick up all the new video games he/she is interested in buying that week. As for the day to release the video games, I'd definitely would schedule it for Tuesday, so that way people can pick up the new video games and new DVD's on the same day.
P.S. Okay, this first Joe Taku Editorial may be weak, but hopefully this will get better (i.e. when there's an anime-related news story that is worth commenting about). -
Anime USA
2002-10-13 11:16:36
Yesterday, I attended Anime USA in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. Here's my comments on the trip:
-After watching three more episodes of it at the con, I'm definitely anxious in seeing some more episodes of Azumanga Daioh. The episodes had a excellent blend of cuteness and comedy that makes me hungry for more.
-The dealers' room was a typical dealers' room for a small convention. Since I'm saving up money for Neko-Con, I only got a few DVD's at the dealers' room. One thing that I noticed at the dealers' room was that some places were selling fansubs on DVD's. This idea is a mixed bag IMO, as one side the stores are only $15-16 (the usual price it takes to make a DVD and packaging) while on the other side they were selling some licensed titles like Chobits and Rah Xephon.
-Personally, I prefered the idea that Anime USA had last year in which they didn't have an AMV contest and instead showed AMV's throughout the con, as I felt that the AMV contest could have been better. As for the AMV panels, they were interesting, especially when you consider VicBond 007's part of the AMV showcase and some of the stuff that Iserlohn showed (I may have to see that German western comedy that he showed a clip of at the con).
-Thanks to downloading some live-action cosplay versions of anime OP's, I was able to compete in Anime Name That Tune. One things for sure, it seems that they play the stuff that you know while in the rounds before your round (heck, I recognized a tune from Future Boy Conan), yet once they get to your round, they seem play the stuff you don't know. I was lucky to make it to round two, but I knew I was going down in that round since I was competing against Senta, who definitely knows more about anime than me.
-AMV Weakest Link definitely was a real riot (literally). VicBond 007 makes an excellent Weakest Link host, and the sight of paper balls being throuwn and the drawings that the players had on their votes made me wishing that this would happen again mext year.
In the end, Anime USA was somewhat disappointing compared to last year. However, there was still some memorable moments that made this fun. -
Four Days Before I Attend Anime USA....
2002-10-08 21:38:57
...and things have been busy.
First off is my convention plans itself. I am definitely planning to attend the convention on Saturday (even if there's still a sniper threat in the area). However, considering that there's so much to at Anime USA (especially with AMV's) and so little time on Saturday (with me very likely having to leave by midnight, my mother suggests that I maybe I should share a hotel room with a fellow member of the anime club for the night and attend the convention on Sunday as well. While it sounds like a nice idea, I'm personally leaning against it for now since I don't want to be a burden to others, not to mention the fact that the members would most likely will be checking in on Friday. Personally, I'd rather get my own hotel room for the night, which will very likely be impossible since my mother won't pay for a whole room (she would pay if I roomed with another person) and the fact that the hotel would probably won't have any vacancies left.
Meanwhile, I an still busy downloading (though it the download list is lighter than it was last week). Also, I have done some remodelling when it comes to my top ten anime list (I added a few more titles and got rid of some other titles) and my anime DVD collection (I moved my collection upstairs where I have more shelf room).
Four more days until I attend Anime USA, and while I have an idea that it will be lots of fun, the idea of whether to spend Sunday there along with my planned Saturday trip is still up in the air. -
The Busy Schedule of AMV Downloading
2002-10-02 17:47:11
To explain how busy I am when it comes to downloading, here's an example of what I'm dealing with:
One download that that I've been working on on Sunday was a DBZ video by one of the guys by More Than Toast. Sound simple, right? It turns out to one download that I've been putting off a lot. The reasons are as follows:
SUNDAY: With VicBond 007 putting his DDR Project 2 video online, I wanted to download it since I like the original DDR Project and decided to download videos from the latest project while waiting for a copy of the whole project to finally be distributed (one thing's for sure: Dub-I-Dub and Trip Machine are priority downloads :)).
MONDAY: TriEngel becomes downloadable. Thus, I downloaded that video.
TUESDAY: Kusoyaro's "Self-Titled" becomes downloadable. Since I'm a Kusoyaro fan, I downloaded that video. I also began to start on Ian Robert's AWA Pro video.
TODAY: Finishing up on downloading Ian's Pro video. Also, Kusoyaro's other video becomes downloadable. Thus, I plan to start on that once I finish up with Ian's video.
TOMORROW: Finish up on Kusoyaro's video and (hopefully) get the DBZ video worked on.
To make matters more frustrating, I'm waiting until the DBZ video is done before I download another DDR Project 2 video (unless it's Dub-I-Dub or Trip Machine). Currently, I have two ideas of which video to download next when it comes to the DDR Project.
JOURNAL: TnAdct1 (Joseph Klemm)
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