This is not only just the new episode of Anime Diet Radio–it’s a final pitch to come to our AX Events: the Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour TOMORROW at 9 AM, LP3 (live stream available), and to buy our zine at Artists Alley table D24! In the Roundtable we talk a bit of the work and process that went into making it all happen. But there’s still time to actually go and check it out. So come–and if you can’t come, watch the live stream, on this very website!

There are also a few news items–about otaku bride preferences, the Evangelion 3rd movie, and Lucky Star uniforms in a real town in a real school. But all that isn’t as important as to drive home the point that we want to see you at our panel tomorrow morning! And buy our zine!

Show Order

• (00:00-00:05:38) Intro
• (05:39-10:01) News 1: Lucky Star Uniforms in Saitama Prefecture
• (10:02-19:18) News 2: Who Otaku Want to Marry
• (19:19-28:07) News 3: Evangelion 3.0 Title Announced, “Q Quickening”
• (28:08-33:55) Mailbag
• (33:56-48:02) Roundtable about Our Zine and Panel
• (48:03-end) Conclusion

Show Notes

• OP, ED from Haruhi Suzumiya S2
• All the news items are from Anime News Network: news 1 here [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-06-25/group-discusses-lucky-star-uniforms-to-boost-local-tourism], news 2 here [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=118861], news 3 here [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-06-27/3rd-eva-remake-film-to-be-titled-q-quickening].

Beautiful building and sign

In the pressroom, we ran into our good friend Benu. This is Mike and Benu waiting for the interviews to start.

Mike and Benu waiting oh the waiting

The room is ridiculously hot. Also apparently, Benu is not legit press, because he got rejected from interviewing a band for not being a “true professional press” person. That band is not that classy.

Now we waited for about 2 hours before our interviews started, and this is already after being about an hour late.

Here, Mike is reading over the Anime Diet Zine–buy it from table D24 in Artist Alley. I wrote an article for it, a very funny article, I am thinking. The zine was a group effort by all of us, and it was really fun.

Mike reading the Zine, go buy it and find out why it is so good.

Here, Jeremy is writing questions for his interview with the folks from Trigun. They were really fun. One of them told us he needed to go on a diet–and I suggested an anime diet. Today Mike and Jeremy traded doing interviews. When the videos get edited and posted watch them. We loved working with everyone.

Jeremy preparing questions

Mike and Jeremy would camp outside of the hotel rooms for the interviews. They were prepared with good questions. The thing I was most concerned with was backlighting. I wanted people to be able to see the faces of whom we interviewed. It was a little funny because we were hanging out in the hallways waiting for the magic to happen.

Mike and Jeremy waiting for an interview.

The last picture is of the members of our panel, the Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour. Come out this Saturday at 9 o’clock to see one of the most amazing panels ever. It will be an experience for all of us.

The Indecent Crew

Time for another schedule, everyone! Where am I going to be at the con?

You’ll notice no time given for seating times at main events. That’s because I’m press, baby, and I can get tickets in advance. You’ll also notice no industry panels. That’s because the main reason to go to industry panels–lots of licensing announcements–that heyday is long gone since last year. I feel no need to liveblog anything anymore along those lines.

Day 0 - Wednesday
This is the Press Junket, where we are going to interview as many guests of honor as possible! Stay tuned for videos–if they let us have them.

Day 1 - Thursday
2:30 PM-5:30 PM: AX Idol Voice Acting Auditions
I’ve got a good friend who is trying out the VA part of AX Idol, and I’ll be filming her performance. If she’s a finalist, I’ll be at the main AX Idol competition too.

I should note that I most likely won’t be staying for the whole thing.

9:00 PM-12:00 AM: Battle of the Bands
This is to support our friends and panel guests Makenai, who are performing in this. Again, I may not stay for the whole thing.

Day 2 - Friday
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM: Morning Musume Concert
Hey, I’m interviewing them. I might as well go to their concert! Cross fingers to get at least photographs as press. (Fat chance.)

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Takashi Okazaki Panel
This is the creator of Afro Samurai. I saw him last year at Comic Con on a panel with Samuel L. Jackson–let’s see how he is without all that star power beside him. :)

9:00 PM - 12:00 AM: AMV Contest
I really, really hope I can stay long enough to watch the comedy section.

Day 3 - Saturday
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: The Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour
Our panel. Y’all better be there. Because we sure will. Oh yes, we will. Find out more here, and look at all the prizes we’ll be giving away at How A Girl Figures.

1:00 PM - 4:00 PM: AX Idol Finals
If my friend gets in, I’ll be there to cheer her on! If not, I’ll be going to…

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM: Aniblogger Meetup
Icystorm’s organizing this one, and I should be able to go if I’m not at AX Idol! (I’ll let you know ASAP when this is certain, Icy.) It’ll be good to meet y’all.

8:00 PM - 12:00 AM: Masquerade
The yearly tradition lives on. Let’s see what this year’s meme is! (We had Caramelldansen, 300, and Hare Hare Yukai in previous years.)

Day 4 - Sunday
Most likely, I’m not really going to be there. Other staff may be, however, particularly for the Robot Chicken panel. We tried to get into their panel at Comic Con last year, but failed.

That’s it! If you’re around, come and meet me. This is, of course, subject to change. Follow me on Twitter for up to the minute info.

I’m pleased to introduce a milestone for us here at Anime Diet: we’ll be selling a special fanzine at the Anime Expo 2009 Artists’ Alley this year! This magazine is the work of the entire Anime Diet staff and a large number of local artists, and it has all the spirit of your favorite blog and podcast compressed into 20 full color pages. It’s got games, comics, articles and, as a special treat, bonus exclusive material on the web for all purchasers!

So–if you’d like to support this website, come check us out at Artist Alley table D24, say hi to us, and buy a copy of our zine! See you there.

The Date–July 4, 2009
The Time–9:00 AM
The Place–LP3 (LACC 411), Anime Expo 2009
The Event–The Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour!

And if that doesn’t convince you to come, let Dancing Queen’s promo persuade you to show up bright and early on Independence Day.

If you can’t make it to AX this year, have no fear. We will have a live Internet stream of our show, right here in this space. There may even be prizes just for you Net watchers, too. You’re not going to be left out this year!

The Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour: so exposed, it’s indecent.

Anime3000’s latest panel podcast features our very own Moritheil alongside Kirk of Jamaipanese and Extrange of THAT Anime Blog. The topic is Twitter. Subscribe to the Anime3000 iTunes feed, or download the MP3 directly from Anime3000!

Summer Wars is from much of the same staff (director, screenwriter and character designer) that put together one of my favorite anime movies, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It looks a bit more lighthearted and comedic, but I can immediately tell it’s well-produced and is exactly the sort of thing I would probably enjoy. Here’s to more anime films of this sort.

Jim Vowles, Otakon’s head of Guests, Industry, and Press Relations,  commented, “I guess we must have made a good impression on HYDE a few years ago.  We’re delighted and flattered that they changed plans to
meet the fans.” HYDE previously appeared with L’Arc~en~Ciel at Otakon 2004.

As previously announced, Anime Diet will be covering Otakon 2009.  VAMPS will be at Otakon on Friday afternoon, with exact times and locations to be announced when their schedule is finalized.

Take one gangly kid, one cooldere, and a bunch of heroic rebels who just want to live free. Put them in a dystopian future where an almost-magical element, trapar, generates lift forces and enables them to defy gravity. Mix in mecha, a threat to the world, and an uneasy peace. Serves seven: Eureka Seven.

There is something to be learned about the ideal Japanese spirit from this. Renton, at age fourteen, seems rather unsuited to the battlefield. And yet when the chance is offered to him to leave his old, mundane life behind, he takes it. It does not occur without great risk, but then, perhaps in life no great reward does. A venture of this magnitude does not occur without great hesitation, but Renton’s hesitation only shows that he is no fool. Unlike Shinji Ikari, once he does agree to pilot an experimental giant mecha, he moves forward with his life, with only a reasonable degree of complaining for a teenager. Perhaps most tellingly, he complains of the mundane chores he still must do, whereas Shinji hates the extraordinary and wishes only to live a peaceful life. For all the parallels between their situations, they inhabit vastly different worlds.

A few things must be said about Eureka. She exemplifies that wonderfully confusing pure/impure dichotomy that exists in so many other works. She is presented as pure of heart, which traditionally implies maidenhood and virginity, yet supposedly she is a mother as well. There are early hints that this is merely metaphorical, but even metaphorical it serves to twist the issue. What is purity, anyway? Why should abstinence from reproductive activity be the sole indicator of purity? If Kannagi served to highlight this standard, Eureka Seven is the crystallization of it, the postmodern deconstruction that rearranges a few facts and asks: is she still pure?

“She never gets angry and she never smiles.” Eureka criticizes Renton for being indecisive, as she herself does not hesitate. Free of love, free of hate, free of fear - this is the Zen state Eureka inhabits. Eureka is, in a very real sense, the void. It is the state samurai seek to attain, monks write koans about, and translators tear their hair trying to express in English. In the void there is no striving; there is no separation of thought and action. There is, tellingly, no self, just as Eureka’s continuous, selfless behavior leaves little room for personal identity.

And yet for all the desirability attributed to the void by Musashi, Rinzai, and others, in Eureka Seven it is wanting. Eureka can speak with any machine and learn its secrets. She can understand the machine heart. Despite these impressive feats, she lacks the means to awaken Nirvash. It is the philosophically untutored, impulsive and inconsistent Reston that does it. His is the yell that awakens the machine to the true nature of things, much as the yell of a Zen master awakens the aspirant to a state of higher clarity.  It is no accident that Satori is the name of the program he activates.

Watch Eureka Seven. Listen to that yell. See what it shakes loose.

Attention, everyone: we have a panel again this year, teaming up once again with Anime Genesis and, for the first time, How A Girl Figures! Together, we are the Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour, and we are here to rock your early morning convention world!

This year, we’re planning an even bigger show than last year’s panel. We’ve got great prizes donated by our kind sponsors. We’ve got a special musical guest, the great anime cover band Makenai (starring AX Idol 2008, Pamela Moss). We’ve got videos. And, of course, we have all the usual blogger antics from Ray, Jeremy, and myself along with Benu and Dancing Queen.

We’re at 9 AM Saturday, July 4th, in LP3 (LACC 411)–the same room as last year. AX has just posted their official schedule for Saturday and you’ll see us at the top! We look forward to packing out the theater again and hope to see you all there.