Anime Diet

Or, Full Court Press: a meditation on what it means to be fan and press at a convention, and how you can never go back again once you’ve gotten your first press badge.

I wrote this on the train home from San Diego, at the conclusion of Comic-Con 2009. For me, this is the end of the con season; I don’t anticipate going to New York Anime Festival this year and it’s up in the air if I will return to Pacific Media Expo. Before I flood y’all [...]

I remember after last year’s Anime Expo hearing that, by comparison, the well-run Comic Con was a paradise compared to AX: the lines weren’t nearly as long, there were far more people but it didn’t descend into chaos, and they had professional staff running the whole show. I asked myself, wouldn’t it be nice if [...]

For me, this was the last day–I left early on Sunday. We couldn’t get any footage of Tite Kubo, either, so the vast majority of the content is from J Michael Straczynski’s panel, the Futurama panel, and other places.

In this, day 2, I spend lots of time in line–sometimes for nothing, get a signing from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Hynes, and interview a lot more people than usual lately. Enjoy!

Well, tiredness, bad Internet connections in San Diego, and life got a little in the way–but here’s the Day 1 video diary for this year’s Comic Con! Days 2 and 3 should be ready tomorrow. This episode is notable for having some big names in the video, namely Stan Lee and Samuel L. Jackson for [...]

No video or photos were allowed. I guess this is the way Japanese guests are usually handled–it’s like AX. Starting in about 5 minutes. 1:15 PM – Kubo has entered the stage in sunglasses. Looks like a pop star or something. 1:16 PM – Kubo presented with an award from Comic Con Int’l. From the [...]

Here are some pics from the Matt Groening panels. I only had my iPhone camera, as Matt the cameraman is with Jeremy waiting for the Kubo panel early. I left the Simpsons panel, which had no voice actors, early to join Matt and Jeremy who are already inside.

3:06 PM – Introduction, sweepstakes introduction 3:08 PM – Information about Bleach Day and the screening of Bleach movie, Kubo appearances. I will be going to the afternoon signing at 3:30-4:30 PM. 3:10 PM – Slam Dunk related events. Apparently Greg Oden, NBA star, will be helping promote it. 3:12 PM – Info about the [...]

It’s the first day of Comic Con for press and 4-day-pass holders–not for anyone else! And really, the “Day 0″ moniker does not at all apply–you’ll see how crowded the Exhibit Hall is, and how long I had to wait in line just to get a press badge. This calvacade of a convention has already [...]

This year, for the first time ever, Anime Diet is going to go to San Diego Comic Con–the biggest convention of any pop culture kind in America! From all the bombardments of email that I and the other press members of our humble site are receiving, it is definitely on a totally different scale than [...]