DMW: Digital Music W...

So, here are a few things that happened at Comic Con. I will say it in pictures because I'm tired and a bit lazy at writing up something deep and stupendous about the three days I was there. It was hot (115 degrees was the high that Sat), way too many people (120k per day -- but I think on Sat that number went well above that) and lots of things I wish I attended but just couldn't because they were scheduled at the same time.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa
The booth babes of Tokyopop

Photo by Amanda Nanawa
Actress Rosario Dawson talking to her fans (and Kevin Smith fans). At one point, the crowd in Hall H was yelling out, "Call Kevin on your cell phone," which prompted Rosario to do it and actually get Kevin to talk to the fans -- virtually.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa
Actor Nicolas Cage talking to fans about Ghost Rider.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa
Director Sam Raimi introducing the exclusive, rough preview clip of the new Spider-Man 3 trailer. The trailer does feature Venom. HOT!

Borat Does Comic Con.

And some of you may have seen this. But if not (like me), here's a trailer of the film Pathfinder to be released by 20th Century Fox.

And at the 300 panel, they showed exclusive clips of the film that features a lot of bloodletting, beheadings, close-ups of death kills and an entire Spartan army decimating the Persian army. The violence was quite spectacular.

On the anime front, I watched the premiere of Inuyasha 4: Fire on the Mystic Island the movie. I loved it. Always been a big fan of the show. So seeing the movie on the large screen was a real treat for me. I couldn't stay up and watch Train Man: Densha Otoko because jetlag was setting in. But the film (subtitled in English) had always created a large audience everywhere it played. At Anime Expo, crowds gave the film a rousing ovation and at Comic Con, viewers came in droves to see the movie. Train Man: Densha Otoko will premiere in NYC in Sept. I will make that screening.

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

From what I have read so far, the reviews have been mixed. Apparently, when the film opens in Japan in a few days, people are expecting it not to be as big a hit as "Spirited Away" or "Princess Mononoke".

Click here to read preliminary thoughts about the movie.

- And then...

Click here for some message board battles and beat-downs.

Eventually, I would like to see the movie. I wonder if Disney or Miramax will take it for North America? I believe they have an output deal with Studio Ghibli.

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in San Diego this weekend for Comic Con; aka Mecca for Geeks. So, my day was jam packed with too many things but I did interview some interesting people like the co-directors of the Lionsgate film "Crank" starring Jason Statham and Amy Smart. I will just say that the movie is quite interesting and there is one scene that would get most people talking (deals with lots of people watching two people doing a most private, intimate thing but out in public...hint, hint).

Sasha Cohen was in the house to promote his Borat movie. Let's just say, my parents and brother were crying from laughing so hard. I missed it and jealous that they saw the clips. Plus, there was a screening of the feature and I missed it since I was so tired and ready to eat my own arm off.

Sam Jackson's "Snakes on a Plane" panel was chock filled w/swear words.

Highlight last night, seeing the actors Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) of "Lost" at dinner. We were a table apart from each other. My mom jokingly asked, "Isn't that the guy from "Lost"?" She made me look up at a random fat guy in the restaurant but when I looked over her shoulder, Jorge was sitting there. I just answered, "No. But he's sitting right behind you with the actor who plays Jin on "Lost"."

Here's a photo I managed to take w/my camera. I have more on my mobile phone.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

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Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I woke up with a hangover. Not good. The night before, I had dinner and drinks w/a good friend from Tokyopop. So when I had breakfast, I was completely spaced out. The waiter knew I wasn't feeling right so when I ordered a Power Smoothie, he came through for me and gave me the drink in a grande cup. You sir, will get a good tip.

First highlight of the day belongs to the Bandai event. Our spotlight was on Eureka SeveN which is currently airing on Cartoon Network. We had at our studio the CEO of Bandai, the President of Studio BONES, the director of Eureka SeveN, the voice actress who provides VO for Eureka and a rep from Namco Bandai games. There was an excellent turn out. We learned some intimate details about the director of the series. Here's a hint - he was dressed just like the lead character of the show, Renton. It was quite surreal.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

Second highlight belongs to Japanese band The Indigo. They are signed to Geneon's record label and are currently touring certain venues to promote their cd entitled Indigo Suite (available only in the US). We had a Q & A with them and had the audience/fans ask them questions. People are soooo shy. It's cute. One guy was a superfan and went up to dance with Miki (lead singer of the band) doing some Japanese dance routine. It was great.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

Third highlight goes to Man-Faye being allowed to return to the AX floor dressed as Man-Faye. Anime Selects and AX were able to form a truce and has now allowed Man-Faye to roam the AX floors once again. That's what we do at Anime Selects - we share the love. We asked Man-Faye to return to our booth and be a judge in one of the last Cosplay contests. Fun had by all!

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

See you next year! Long Beach Convention Center.

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 06, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Man-Faye! Man-Faye! Man-Faye!"

That's the kind of chanting we had at our studio Sunday. He had his robe on so our booth wouldn't get shut down per AX and the City of Anaheim's rules. But the turn out was amazing. I didn't take pictures since I was busy backstage trying to coach and prevent any SNAFUs from actually happening.

Lance Henrickson (AVP, Aliens, Millennium) was at AX to join the Production I.G panel on their anime program IGPX and later he went to the Bandai booth for a quick appearance. Unfortunately, my mobile crew was still on a previous shoot and I was in the middle of an important programming meeting.

We had a Cosplay contest where people with the most cheers win $100 dollars for being the "Best of the Best" Cosplayer of the day. We were "winging" that event. Seriously had no real rules until literally 30 minutes before we started the event.

But back to Man-Faye... Once he was outside and away from the convention floor, he disrobed for his fans and started signing his t-shirts as giveaways. And yes, people were smacking his ass. Golden TV moments people. Golden TV moments.

But we had several events that went well. One was an Open Mic where people just went up and did whatever. And what's an anime con without Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution? All of that went really well.

At other booths... our friends from Geneon had Japanese band The Indigo performing. It was soooo nice (so was Geneon's press room - swanky). And FUNimation had their VO actors signing autographs. And Viz Media had a premiere of Train Man where the screening room was packed to overcapacity.

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's 5:27AM Eastern and 2:26AM Pacific and I am still up. The Deer Hunter is on USA Network right now. I love that movie. It's been a while since I last watched it. God damn, its a beautiful movie.

But more important, day 1 of Anime Expo came and went and we kicked things off right. My highlights of the day were the Peelander-Z concert and Bang Zoom Entertainment's voice over session at our booth. Both were very entertaining and fun. We had a freakin' mosh pit for the Peelander-Z concert! Hot!!

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

It was so gratifying to hear from fans that they had a great time at the Peelander-Z concert. Peelander Yellow body surfed and did human bowling. It was insane. I even had some camera time today. I warmed up the crowd and introduced the band. And later, I ended up doing the Q & A with the band. Needless to say, I miss interviewing. What I have to get used to is the fact that I am now doing things in front of the camera. I always said I love being the "puppet master" and not the "puppet". I broke my Cardinal Rule today. Oh well.

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

Photo by Amanda Nanawa

This Bang Zoom session, no joke, was put together about 2 - 3 weeks ago. I'm still amazed that it came together and we pulled it off. We made as many people's dream come true. I am really happy.

Wait until tomorrow - I mean - today...Man-Faye...EEEEEEEKS!

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 02, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

See this...
http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Can you smell Comic-Con? Literally around the corner. My predictions for this year's show - Spider-Man 3, Snakes on a Plane and Transformers. I expect some more surprises, but these three movies are the logical ones to make an appearance this year. Start that buzz machine!

Posted by Amanda Nanawa on July 01, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)