DAY 1

As the title of this topic states, this week was the week for the Tokyo Anime Fair at the Tokyo Big Site. Being on break at this time gave me the opportunity to attend and this little (HAH!) report/rant will be my day one rant covering the stuff that happened on Saturday. (The Press was welcome the previous days and the weekend is for the general public/rabid crazy anime fans/gaijin.)

The whole thing started from seeing a flyer in Animate and later hearing about it again thumbing through this month's issue of Newtype. On top of this I also attended the Winter Comiket and they had an industry room that sounded about the same as this fair. I had a good time then so decided that 800 Yen (About 8 bucks) was a cheap date for something like this. (Especially considering the cost of entertainment in Tokyo. The land of the 18 buck movies) That and I finally have a digital camera and computer so I can actually send some pics to go along with the report to hopefully make it a little more enjoyable. Hopefully Kai will have those up soon in not already by the time you read this.

For starters, if you have never been to Japan let me restate how handy the convenience (Conbini) stores are over here. You can do just about anything at the convienince store in Japan. Pre-Order or buy the latest games or movies, pay your electric and telephone bills along with the countless other typical 7-11 stuff etc. office supplies, food, drink, pantyhose, magazines you name it. You can also purchase concert/event tickets as well. This is where I bought my tickets to the anime fair. (And why I am including this little culture tid-bit in my article. If you weren't already consider yourself enlightened.) :P Some day I figure they will eventually start doing wedding ceremonies and marriage licenses as well.

So anyway since this isn't a real convention there really isn't anything in the line of opening ceremonies etc. You just kind of go in and there one huge hall of nothing but rows upon rows of industry booths where they are showing off their latest works and employing an army of cute cosplayer gals to hand out info flyers fast enough to fill a hefty bag before the day is done. Luckily they were handing out nice huge FMA bags for free at the Aniplex booth. After snatching up one of those I made a bee-line to the Bandai Sunrise booth in hopes of catching a better glimpse of My-HiME.

Alas there was no HiME to be had today and maybe not tomorrow either for all the guys at the booth know. (Even though Newtype clearly states that there is going to be a promo movie etc. at the Bandai booth… ) On a lighter note though they did indeed show the Gundam SEED MSV (Mobile Suit Variation in case there was anyone that was wondering…) Astray Promo movies, including stuff that I didn't see at the end of the SE shows. First off aside from one of the promos being done in traditional 2D anime fashion (Astray Red Frame) the rest were all composed completely of plastic model kits. Now Bandai has had a habit for doing commercials like this forever over here and most of them are pretty cheesy but these are very different. The pulled a bunch of pros for the modeling of the toys and also hired a group to insert tons of CG as well making these little 2-5 minute clips more on par with the Gundam Evolution Series than an average commercial. They are all worthy of a fansub release if not a little DVD or something here eventually. Especially since the 2D anime one could basically be a trailer for a series based on the Astray Red Frame comic and cast, Voice actors and everything. Very well put together and it would seem a waste if this little 5-10 minute (Can't quite remember the time but it did go by faster than I would have liked…) production. There were 4-5 different clips. The Animation one, a history of the creation of the Striker Packs that turned into a big battle scene where the Strike equipped with a Calamity style double shoulder cannon pack was attacked by two Calamity type MS. The typical one from the TV series and a Sword Striker red Calamity (That looked much cooler than the regular frame) on top of that there was the Heavy Weapons promo that was on the SE Gundam SEED I saw featuring an Astray frame (Blue?) and a customized Jin of sorts. The final Promo I saw was what looked like a Jin destroying a bunch of Plant Stations in space. (Why a Jin going after plant stuff is beyond me… maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. I will try to confirm this tomorrow.) Underneath the video screen they had all of the 1/144 scale models of the Astrays and Jins/etc that were displayed in the MSV videos. All of them were pretty cool. I walked away impressed with this the most out of the Bandai booth stuff.

Bandai also had a nice “History of Sunrise” video that went through all of the works the studio has put together over their long history. They also did a little “History of Gundam” that was pretty impressive as well. Pretty well put together pieces for little promo trailers. They also had a bunch of stuff set up for the SD Gundam Force and F-Zero series that seemed to catch the kiddies attention. The only other new show that I took in there was the Geroro Gunsou series that looked pretty fun and light hearted with plenty of Bandai/Gundam tie-ins as well. Simple comedy from the looks of things.

After the Bandai booth I made my way over to the tiny (compared to most of the others anyway) Xebec booth and was able to catch some stuff on their new show蒼穹のファフナー Soukyuu no Fafnir. Mainly what was shown were a bunch of production sketches played to the theme sung by angela. (Mmm… angela…) It looks like there is going to be some giant robot action in this show as well and while things seem pretty earth based (as opposed to the spacy-ness of Stellvia) in the production sketches it should be interesting to see how Xebec handles the robot animation for this series. Seeing as they really weren't showing much in regards to actual footage this one could be a ways off yet still. Come to think of it the robot did seem pretty cool…

From there it was off to the Gonzo booth where they had everything set up in classic Japanese woodwork and bamboo fair to set the scene for Peacemaker (Which they seemed to be pushing pretty heavy) as well as set a nice tone for the Samurai 7 trailer they showed. This one is really starting to look interesting. From the trailer it seems like a more serious show than the typical fanservice/action that I am used to with Gonzo stuff. There are mechs abounding but the style of dress and theme still seems very old school pre Meiji Japan. The only drawback here was not really being given a whole lot of info about the plot of the show etc. None the less the quality sure seems there. (Of course it is in the trailer silly… Look at Kiddy Grade…) ^^; They also had the full length Bakuretsu Tenshi trailer that I saw at AX Tokyo as well as another shorter one that showed a bit more of the 2D animation. It is too bad that the fansubbers couldn't get a hold of these trailers to use instead of the short one that everyone has seen on the web now…) Gonzo also had Gantz running as well. The trailer for that one just kinda freaked me out. There wasn't any voice and the way it played out made it seem kind of half Blame-wtf-is-going-on-here and half Psycho thriller A little too out there to draw conclusions now… Maybe after an episode or so of actually knowing what is going on… That was the Gonzo booth.

The next big thing that I wondered into was the Production I.G booth where they were pushing Innocence along with having some Kill Bill and Dead Leaves stuff around. Nothing really new to report from Production I.G other than they do seem to be involved in a interesting looking show titled Kaze Hito Monogatari (風人物語) unless my translation skills deceive me once again…

The Aniplex booth was showing a bunch of their properties as well as having a nice chunk of FMA stuff set up as well as merchandise that people were lining up quite a ways for. Aside from FMA it was mainly ROD the TV. Not a whole lot new to report here.

Next on the list turned out to be the biggest surprise of the show for me as far as new series go. This was the Mahoushoujo Arus (They had an English subtitle in there calling it Tweeny Witches) booth that Beyond C and 4 Degrees C had set up. I was already kinda hooked on the aspect of a darker Halloween/Nightmare Before Christmas inspired magical girl show but the trailers and booth really got the feel down and have me really excited to see how this one plays out. Again there wasn't much more revealed about the story (for me anyway) mainly because I missed out on the DVD promo that they were giving away. You have to talk to the Booth Girl (Dressed in a nice skimpy witches costume to get special cards depicting the 3 main characters of the show. Once you have all three you take them to their retail desk and trade them in for the promo DVD. One more left to get… Have to wait till tomorrow. They had some neat resin casts of the heroines as well that I hope I can get a better picture of as well. I'm really hooked on the whole style of the show and from the trailers the animation looks very slick indeed. This one may be another one to keep your eyes out for if you like your magical girls with a little twist. This booth also had a little section of Paranoia Agent stuff set up to look at as well. Boy I wish I was watching that right now…

As far as other big booths I took in they had a special event stage for the Ragnarok TV Animation where they showed some clips as well as had the OP Theme singer on stage for a live mini concert. While the animation seemed ok I can't say I ever played the game or anything so I'm probably not the one to be drawing conclusions about that one. On the other hand aside from the MS Gundam and Avex tracks stages this one seemed to have a constant following of hardcore fans gathered around the booth.

The Studio Bones booth was showing of their new title “Kenran Butou Matsuri, The Mars Daybreak” on the monitors. This one seemed a little too typical from what I saw. Your boy finds robot story along with the robot looking quite a bit like Rahxephon. (I'm almost sure that the mech designer is the same…) I guess this one really didn't do much for me.

The Gainax booth was full of cosplaying booth girls from their new series This Ugly and Beautiful World as well as your must-have Rei and Misato stand ins. (Sorry Kai, no Asuka…) Gainax is celebrating 20 years in the industry with little signs plastered all over the booth. Though there was some stuff up for The Melody of Oblivion the Gainax booth didn't seem to be pushing it very hard. On the other hand though TUaBW could turn out to be pretty interesting. Shounen/shoujo love drama with your Si-fi elements and Mahoromatic type fan-service humor as well it seems.

The Steamboy booth was also fairly impressive as far as items to see and the same trailer that I have seen for both Tokyo Godfathers and Innocence over and over again. While the show does look promising I don't think it is going to break any new ground or anything either. On the other hand it does look like a standard anime movie, which is a good or bad thing depending on your tastes.

Other little tidbits include the UFO Table booth having a bunch of the miniatures that they used in the making of the animation scenes for the Ending of Sumeba Miyaku no Cosmos-Sou. (Which I greatly enjoyed and had to take pics of…) ^^; There was also a trailer for Le Portrait de Petit Cossette that seemed a little on the twisted psycho side of things as well. The Avex Mode booth was showing a trailer of sorts for that Tenjho Tenge show as well. I caught a couple of the transformation scenes where the normal/little girls turn into these over the top (no pun intended, ok wait, yeah it was…) endowed characters. This might be one that you have to have read the manga or actually be into that kind of stuff for. Didn't really strike me as much though after what I had seen earlier. I didn't stick around that long to watch much more. There was also a booth showing a preview for a new Show (By me anyway) called Amdriver This one is looking kind of bubblegum crisis-ish and could prove interesting. I'll yak about the promo for that one tomorrow.

DAY 2

Things didn't change much for Sunday, they had more booth girls working the floor and Sunday also appeared to be the day where they got some famous (In the industry) people out to do some signing and give little talks at the booths. This made for some extremely crowded areas and made getting around kind of difficult.

First I'll get started on some more of the booths that I visited. One of the interesting things about this fair was that not only were the big name companies present but some of the studios that those big companies turn to for help with the animation were there as well. By now most of you should know of Dr. Movie, if you watch credits if your anime at all then you've more than likely seen this name. It was quite remarkable to see just how much they had done when I went through their both. There was also a small booth for the animation studio that helped Xebec with the 3D in Stellvia. These little booths were pretty interesting in their own right, even without the flashy stands of the bigger industry frontrunners. The funny thing is a lot of the time it is these folk running in the background that help to make the show really shine.

The other interesting thing that I should mention before I forget, is that they also had a little Creators Theater where they were showing short works by solo animators. This reminded me a lot of the little indy animation fairs that they would have back in Seattle and were usually all home-made and put together by a tiny staff. These little short clips ranged from very abstract almost artlike features to short 2D and 3D animated clips. There were even a couple flash animations that were pretty interesting as well. Above them all (for me anyway) was this little 10 minute short called Magical Circus. This young girl decides she wants to join a traveling circus troupe and heads to one of local shows. They have a fun little scene where she tries to wake up the ticket sales attendant and then heads on into the Big top from there she watches the show and is introduced to the cast. A little plot come up with the classic bad guy trying to shut down the circus but in the end the animation fit pretty well and was very enjoyable. I'm not into fully 3D shows much myself but this piece was really well put together.

After that it was time for the Gainax 20th Anniversary Stage. They had a bunch of cosplayers lined up and went about the typical introduction of the series by talking with the voice actors and then having a vocal performance by the OP/ED performers. In this case it was the ED for The Melody of Oblivion (The group is the same group that did the first ED theme for DNAngel.) For This Ugly and Beautiful World it was the OP song. Both were pretty good and after that they showed the trailers for the shows. These were mainly what you have already seen though the Oblivion one did have an extra 30 seconds of footage. In the end Like Yesterday they seemed to be pushing This Ugly and Beautiful World quite a bit more than Oblivion, thought afterward they were handing out posters of Oblivion that were snatched up super quick by rabid fans. (No such luck for me.) Aside from those two shows Gainax is also working on the production of a new Cutey Honey animated feature that is suppose to go along with the live action Cutey Honey movie that is coming out here soon. At the booth itself there was a little set-up for the Gainax/Broccoli collaboration “Fiery/Hot Wind Sea-Land Bushi Lord” The translation of the Kanji is kinda goofy but this one didn't do much for me. It looks (especially from the character designs) a lot like Saiyuki, another guy team show. This struck me a little weird coming from a mainly Guy fan-servicing company like Gainax. Oh well… Bushi Lord is still a ways off, as in 2005.

Next I stopped at the Satelight booth. This studio is one of the more up and coming studios that has done the animation production on Arjuna, Geneshaft, Heat Guy J and the current visually stunning Macross Zero. They had some neat little displays of their DVD's etc. as well as having copies of the R1 version on hand to display. They had some design sketches for the 4th Macross Zero running on one of their computers as well as some statues and posters as well. The big News there was their new production called “Valerian” The interesting thing about this one os it is being produced by a Luc Besson (That name isn't ringing any bells with me but again, I am horrible at names…) And seems to also have ties with some European companies as well. The best way to describe the trailer was to say ti seemed like a cross between a Si-Fi adventure with a touch of fantasy settings as well with a cast supporting both Humans and Aliens. Considering there is some outside of Japan influence it should be interesting to see how it turns out.

After that it was time to head off in search of that final Tweeny Witches card that I needed for the Promo DVD. Luckly today they actually had three gals dressed up and handing out cards. I was able to grab the final card and receive my DVD. The Promo DVD actually didn't seem a whole lot like what they were showing in the booth. I figure this is something that came out quite a bit earlier and could end up just being concept stuff that doesn't end up in the show. On the other hand though it sure is a neat little music video. The Story to this one seems to focus on the red/orange headed girl named Arus who is swept into a world of magic and sorcery. She had always dreamed of becoming a Witch/Magical Girl but in this world the rules of the game are quite different than what she had wished for. This one is airing on NHK which is standard TV so It shouldn't be too racy or anything but the unique character designs and feel to the show really make me interested.

The final part of the Fair was a Midori no Hibi show on the main stage where they introduced the character voice for Midori and had the OP Theme vocalist sing the theme. (Do we see a trend forming here?) ^_- This one seems to be the big one that Bandi is pushing right now so I am starting to wonder if My Hime is going to see release later in the year. They never did end up showing anything of this show… Maybe they only showed in on the Press Days or something. That or Newtype lied to me… ^^;

Anyway to wrap things up, there were a few new trailers etc. here but aside from some of the brand new stuff most of it was all stuff that you have already seen on the internet by now. Lots of Overpriced goods to be had (Which I was able to stay away from somehow) and convention type fare as well. There seems to be quite a bit of hype around a lot of the new shows airing this spring. It should be interesting to see how it all turns out in the end.

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Published on: 2004-03-29 (116914 reads)