At first glance the movie looks great. Tekken was supervised by Youchi Mori, who is known for Appleseed, and the screenplay was written by Dai Sato, who has worked on projects like Cowboy Bebop; Sato is also a fan of the Tekken series. Based on these two people alone, I would say so far there is a good foundation for the movie to be a success. If you also take into account the voice actors such as Kyle Hebert, who plays Kazuya Mishima, he is also best known for the character Ryu from Street Fighter. Kyle has also worked on several anime titles like Gurren Lagann and Dragon Ball Z Kai. Cristina Valenzuela also lends her voice talents as Alisa Bosconovitch, and while Cristina is not new to the voice acting world, she played the role of Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue. She has also played her part in the anime world by working on such titles as Blade of the Immortal and K-On! . With this line up I would say I expected the movie to be amazing. The voice acting for the most part was on point but it did have its cheesy one liners and some almost painful moments. (more…)
What! A fighting game has a story line ????? Yep! There will be SPOILERS!
The graphic novels really do justice to the franchise. In the first and second volume we meet the protagonist of the story, Ryu. He is now ready to begin his journey to find and become the greatest warrior. Along the way he is faced with his ultimate adversary…himself. There is a dark side to the Shotokan arts and that is the “Dark Hadou”. He has had a taste of its power but is constantly struggling from being consumed by it. Ryu swore that he would never lose to this killing intent. His master, Gouken was murdered by Akuma. Akuma is Gouken’s brother and he fully embraced the Dark Hadou. Now Ryu is on his way to find Ken, his best friend, to inform him of the death that fell upon their beloved master. (more…)
Bursting forth from Club 2 the Max, AM2 launched its first convention on July 1, of 2011!. It was a bold move on part of AM2, but the decision to launch with AX was to act as a statement against their former partners. Apparently there was some intense heat between several of the vendors/attendees as to how things were being run. Luckily for us, AM2 was their response. Even competing with arguably one of the top anime conventions in America, AM2 managed to break records! In their opening year, AM2 had the largest attendees for a first year convention, housing over 8,000+ attendees! Quite an accomplishment, especially considering the size of the convention! Still, for its size the convention packed quite a punch, housing some of the most talented musicians japan has to offer, the famous AniMaid cafe, and an eclectic collection of vendors. Of course there was also the hundreds of cos-players that littered the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, in hopes of winning this years World Cosplay Summit Regionals! Some of the best cosplay outfits were present at AM2, from Tidus and Yuna, to a unique bright green Gameboy. Needless to say the convention was a blast, and can only get bigger and better, from this point on! (more…)
Kevin McKeever (AKA The Bank of Kev) is a cool guy and you should get to know him. Why? Because he is a well of information about the film industry and has helped produce shows such as Jackass, Kids Say the Darnedest Things, and Guinness Book of World Records. But for we geeks he worked on Mystery Men and currently works as a marketing coordinator for Robotech. So what I have for you is the panel he recently did for A-Kon 22 on Independent Film-making, that I attended and recorded. A lot of good questions were asked, a lot of good answers were given, and a fan-girl even spent five minutes arguing why they should stop making Superman movies.
This is part two of the panel and he addresses why you should have a lawyer, the rarity of Kevin Smith, and whether or not YouTube has been more helpful or harmful to the film industry.
If you live in the Southern California area, or are just an Anime/Manga fan in general, you no doubt know that Anime Expo will be starting up this week. It’s not the only though! AM2, Orange County’s answer the loss of AX. Although still young, in comparison, AM2 provides just as much entertainment and opportunities as its elder brother AX. However, one thing AM2 will have that Anime Expo does not, is AniMaid Cafe. Providing an experience usually only offered in akihabra, Japan, AniMaid Cafe is very much the same, but with an Anime Twist. Their President, Kchan, described it perfectly as, “A place where anime fans are served by anime fans.” I was lucky enough to talk with both AniMaid Cafe’s President Kchan, and Vice President Venus-Chan, where we talked about some of the new and exciting experiences they will be providing at AM2. (more…)
It’s Friday, June 10th. The air smells like baked melon bread. The hallways are filled with colorful fabrics and rustling props. People of all shapes and sizes are beginning to form what will become a long line that snakes as far as a block away to register for A-Kon22.
A-Kon22 is currently North America’s longest running anime convention and is also the biggest one in Dallas. Boasting an attendance of 18,000+ this year, the convention ran Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and was held at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas. The panel rooms, dealer room, video rooms, gaming area, artist space, and registration area took up both buildings of the Sheraton, as well as the 2nd floor of the neighboring Marriott hotel. (more…)