Hello everyone!
This is my first how-to tutorial, so I apologize if it’s not the best. =P
Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category
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How to Make a Giant Carrot Ranka-styleby Jess - September 15th, 2010 |
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Ikasucon 2010 Photos posted.by Nick - July 19th, 2010 |
Check them out in the Gallery!
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Jafax 2010 Photos posted.by Nick - June 29th, 2010 |
Check them out in our photos section.
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Vote for me please! =)by Jess - June 24th, 2010 |
Hello to all our wonderful amazing fans!!!
I have a little favor to ask of you. 
I entered a contest on ACParadise.com and I made it to the voting round and it would mean soooo much to me if you would click this here little link and put in a vote for me :3
http://www.acparadise.com/acp/contests.php?cid=51&t=1
I’m nekatsim, the Carrot Ranka. ^_^
Thank you in advance! And wish me luck ~Nyan!
~Jess
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Update 4/22/10by Nick - April 22nd, 2010 |
Enthusiasts News:
Lots of stuff going on lately for us. We have been doing alot of testing and getting the equipment necessary to start doing live HD streaming of events and masquerades at conventions starting with our 1 year anniversary convention ACEN! We are really excited about this and think it will be a hit. You will be able to see everything as it happens and if you miss it, you can watch the archived show immediately. Right now we plan on doing 2 HD cameras for the live stream and 3 for the youtube skit uploads. If we can get some sponsors, ads or support from the conventions we will expand that into a full 5 HD camera live streaming setup over the next year. If you or your company / con is interested in sponsoring us or buying some ad space please contact us by clicking contact at the above link.
Secondly we finally got another HD editing station setup for Brandi! She is learning final cut and already working on some videos to start chipping away at the backlog we have. My real life job has been eating a ton of my time over the last month so this should help us stay somewhat current. Alot of people want to see things right away and we wish we could do that for you but until we can make this a full time job it will take us a few weeks sometimes to get stuff up for you. We are working on that part though.
Convention News:
C2E2
Soulcrash just got back from C2E2 last weekend and is working on getting us his video and photos. Im really looking forward to seeing these and Ron always does a great job. C2E2’s press department was great to work with and very responsive. Im really looking forward to bringing the entire crew to this convention next year and according to what Ron has told me its a GREAT time. For those of you needing a fix before ACEN in the Chicago area its a great one to put on your list.
Anime Central 2010
We confirmed with the ACEN press department at C2E2 that we have our press badges for ACEN and we could not be more excited!!! ACEN is our home convention and we are happy that our yearly anniversaries will always be spent here! Im working on putting together our shooting schedule for the con but right now here is what we are looking at:
Megatokyo 10 year anniversary panel (pending authorization from ACEN still)
Spoony Bards Concert *Confirmed!
ACEN Masquerade
ACEN Soap Bubble
And Sewing Is Half The Battle Cosplay Panels
Remember that you can still vote on our facebook fan page in the discussions section to get a panel into our shooting list.
We will hopefully have two teams this year with cameras roaming the hallways looking for your cosplay picture. Make sure to track us down!
In other news we will be handing out badge ribbons throughout the convention. 1 of these will be our 1 year anniversary ribbon and two other secret ones that you will have to check on the site during the convention to find out how to get! On sunday we plan to award a $50 visa gift card to the first 2 people to collect all 3 ribbons during the convention! In the future we hope to be giving out at least 2 ribbons at each convention we attend.
Other Conventions:
Marcon is coming up right after ACEN and we are looking forward to it. Im still waiting on press badges and authorization to do photos and film while there but im sure it will go through. The Wold Steampunk Expo is the same weekend as Marcon and we are working to get Soulcrash up to cover that one. Next year I hope they are not on the same date so we can bring the entire crew to both.
OMGcon is our first convention in june and this one is a BALL. We love OMGcon to death and highly recommend that you attend if possible. They have some really fun events and the staff is amazing. Paducah KY is not that far of a drive and its totally worth it. At the end of june is JAFAX! Up in Grand Rapids MI this is an amazing FREE 2 day con. We had a lot of fun there last year and are really looking forward to going again.
Event News:
This weekend we will be at the Chicago Zombie Pub Crawl! This event is a great time and we highly suggest you go if you are in the Chicago area. Its followed up by a full on Zombie March in June and we will be there as well! BRAAAAAINSSSS! /NOM I will be bringing out my Tallahassee cosplay for this year. 
Project News:
We are still working on getting the cosplay wiki off the ground and hope to have that open to the public in the next 2-3 months. It will be the first wiki of its kind devoted ENTIRELY to cosplay. How to make costumes, makeup, props… everything you need to help you make those awesome wings you have seen, etc. We are hoping that it will help out the cosplay community a bunch and cant wait to see how its used.
Contest News:
DSLite Contest…. hummmm…. maybe I set the number of emails too high? Seems that we are not getting alot of interest in this so I think we will bring the DS to ACEN and try to give it away in some fashion. Maybe for the ribbon gathering as a prize? If you have an idea be sure to let us know!
Cool stuff:
(This will be an attempt to show you some fun crazy stuff and maybe recommend some good anime to you.)
This site is pretty awesome: http://web-japan.org/trends/science/sci071003.html , http://web-japan.org/trends/science/sci061215.html
We found a link over at Anime News Network that we thought was fun: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-21/gurren-lagann-iphone-app-lands-in-u.s-eva-apps-planned
I totally downloaded iYoko. >.>
Right now for anime we are mostly watching Chugo Chara still and Soul Eater which are both really good. Some of our friends have recommended this one: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3750
Remember to check out our Facebook Fan Page (All the really cool stuff is happening here!) and follow us on Twitter. We are posting all our photos on facebook for you and your friends to tag. We really do ALOT on the fanpage so make sure you check it out!
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Update 3/31/10by Nick - March 31st, 2010 |
Convention News:
Everything is falling into place for ACEN and we are super excited. We have started to see alot of new people searching for ACEN videos and making comments so we can tell that excitement is in the air.
Ohayocon 2010 Review (Just a little late!) by Brandi:
Masquerade and Jonthan Coulton Concert
The main event room was far away from the rest of the con, which slightly sucked, but it was worth the trip to see Jonathan Coulton and of course get great footage of the masq. The masq was set up very well with little flaws happening, which was nice to see ^-^. We loved the MCs Zack and Jim do an amazing job keeping the audience entertained during the whole show. There were a lot of very good skits here..We were thoroughly impressed by most of them J (most of them are up on our youtube page). Also, in the walk-ons there were some pretty amazing costumes.
Right after the masq was the Jonathan Coulton concert!!! So of course we stayed and Nick even talked to Jonathan and he let us film it!! But Nick has to clear all the legal issues first before we can put them up for you guys L but the concert was amazing! And I suggest if anyone has the chance, ever, to go to one of his concerts to do so, you will really enjoy yourself.
Rave
Let’s see… that rave, ok so it was awesome cuz we got to see Greg Aryes and talk with him again ^-^ but it kinda sucked that the room was small and every hour or two they would kick everyone out of the room and cycle in new people. I understand this probably helps to make sure everyone stays hydrated and such but when the line is THAT long they just need to get a new room or new plan >.< Anywho, Greg is an awesome DJ so no problems with the music the videos played were a little creepy but we still had fun!
Hotel
We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard, only a few streets away from the con. It was an amazing hotel! For the first time ever we didn’t have any problems here and they were very nice! They would call a cab for us and help with everything no problem ^-^ and they had valet parking which never caused any problems either. We will definitely be staying there again next time we go. The room we had was very large (plenty for all of us and our excessive crap lol). And the view was nice at night 
but I think the city just looks better, generally, at night. It was a very comfy hotel, with a microwave and a fridge in our room X3 .
Friday
On Friday, it was only Nick and I but we got a lot accomplished ^-^ we learned they layout of the con, grabbed our press badges, gabbed with our friends at the OMGcon booth, went to the Steampunk panel, made friends with some amazing Sailor Scouts ;), interview with the Gurren Lagann girls, photoshoot with our friends CJ and Lisa cosplaying Time Lords from Doctor Who, and finding time to squeeze in food. Needless to say, once we got back, we were pretty tired. So we hit up the hot tub to relax then went back to the room from alittle bit of WoW playing till the rest of our crew arrived J
Saturday
We all really liked the area where the convention was located. It had a lot of room and very spacious for taking pictures and having large crowds. It had many different “settings” to take pictures which helped a lot, though we had to be careful of the time of day for lighting. We all LOVED the food court!! First con ever were an abundance of food is available that you don’t have to travel for!! This was right in the convention center and they had options for everyone ^-^ It was super convenient and a great place to see/meet people. We had fun doing some small photoshoots with the Yes Girls and their crew and also just walking around the halls grabbing people. We even talked to Chris Aryes for a bit about his new voice acting role.
Sunday
Again Food court was awesome; we all enjoyed a nice large breakfast. Sadly 4 of our crew had to bail out early on Sunday but Nick and I stayed for a few hours longer and did a photoshoot with an amazing steampunk group, who then changed for us into their fantastic Guild costumes ^-^ We had fun and made new friends.
Webcomic: Penny Arcade! We LOVE these and if you dont know about them you should. They are behind the awesome Child’s Play charities and PAX. One of these days we are going to try to get to a PAX as I hear they are amazing fun.
Time Waster:
Website: Ipad L???
Anime: Valkyria Chronicles Anime (Sorry, all I could find on youtube was the opening. Its good though!)
DS Lite Contest:
We are coming up on the winner for the DS Lite contest. Less than 60 emails to go! Please go ahead and send us in an email! It just has to be a short single paragraph giving us feedback on what you like or would like to see on the site. Its EASY and you could win the DS!
Remember to check out our Facebook Fan Page (All the really cool stuff is happening here!) and follow us on Twitter. We are posting all our photos on facebook for you and your friends to tag. I will be adding older convention photos as I have time.
Convention Videos:
Really big thanks go out to Soulcrash for getting all this great video of Anime Milwaukee! Enjoy the first 5!
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A&G 2010 Review!by Brandi - March 16th, 2010 |
By the power of alcohol, 5 hour energys, and techno we magically appeared at the Cincinnati convention, A&G!
Hotel
For this convention we stayed at the Holiday Inn (which just happens to be the location of the convention on the main floor :P). Small but very nice as far as our hotel experience goes, but being as that we stayed in a room with friends we didn’t have much interaction with the hotel staff. The few we did interact with were very nice and helpful. The hotel is conveniently located right off the interstate with plenty of food and stores for all your needs. The Holiday Inn is right across the street from the Eastgate Mall, which is a very short walk from the con, and has a large food court with plenty of options.
We ourselves sampled Buffalo: Wings and Rings on Friday in the mall (a slight knock off of Buffalo Wild Wings *though not as good*) but was still very yummy though sadly lacking enough Killians for the 2 of us…. but making it up with a Blue Moon for myself and yummy, boneless, parmesan garlic wings! We give them a B ^-^
Then for lunch on Saturday we took the ‘long’ trek to O’Charlies (right across the parking lot from the con). We had some interesting and fun looks from the costumers as we and a few cosplaying friends arrived but everyone was friendly and never actually said anything. Though lacking in the vegetarian food department for one of our friends, O’Charlies is a good place for those carnivores out there. For those who have never experience O’Charlies they are a restaurant much like T.G.I. Fridays, Logans, and Applebees.
Ok first things first- the good things about the Holiday Inn hotel/convention area =
- Hot tub- though small, it still felt amazing!
- Fancy, with a fountain, waterfall, bridge/river, and pond in the lobby; also a nice restaurant too
- Friendly staff and an easy check-in
- Convenient and easy parking
The bad things about the Holiday Inn hotel/convention area=
- Poorly stocked pop machines!
- Small main event rooms
Friday
When we arrived at the con we were greeted in the parking lot by a transformer of epic proportions! A fully functional, semi Decepticon! (pictures will be up lol) Made from a torn-up semi in a junk yard by Travis Lyon (www.DecepticonMotormaster.com).
Once we finally made it in the door (after getting side tracked by the Decepticon) we visited con ops for our badges and then began our random wandering of the convention. Happy to see familiar faces, we greeted those we knew before continuing on our mission to get lost, which we happily succeeded at till we finally made our scope of the terrain and stalked out our prey…. I mean subjects <.<
Also, we attended the Anime Cosplay Wrestling event that went over quite well. The staff was very creative when they created this event. It is both unique and original. The con rented an actual wrestling ring for the event that the staff seemed to enjoy playing on very much. Though the crowd was quiet most of the time (probably from the suspense ;P lol) it was fun to watch.
Saturday
After rolling out of the holes we slept in and exiting zombie mode, we stumbled downstairs and, lo and behold, to our surprise there were many more cosplayers and the energy had risen from the day before! We set up shop and began mini-photo shoots inside for friends and random cosplayers we managed to nab. The day went well since we made some new friends. We visited the dealers room and browsed for a short while before returning to the halls, but of course not before we said hi to John and his cohorts at the Fast Food Anime booth.
Of course with it being Saturday the main event of the day was the Cosplay Contest! Though short, there were many interesting costumes and amusing skits. The videos will be posted as soon as we can. ****Oh! AND A NOTE TO ALL COSPLAYERS WHO ENTER A COSTUME CONTEST!! When you walk across the stage for walk-ons, pause when you reach the center of that stage at least for 3-5 seconds so the photographers can grab a photo of your costume! You put a lot of work into your costume, I’m sure, so please let us see it and get a good photo of you rather than a picture of your back as you flee off stage!!!!***
Convention Overall
As a whole we enjoyed ourselves; it was great to see old friends and new friends alike. Con staff was very friendly and helpful even with being busy and stressed (and Jen’s duct tape dress was fantastic btw!) They seemed very organized, though as we have seen with other small cons they seemed to have issues with their sound systems too.
The con-goers were mostly younger (teens) in age and less cosplayed then we expected. It was very internet/troll-e…. many people holding cardboard signs, many free hugs, etc. :\ but it happens. Sadly when we arrived the energy of the con on Friday was very low; happily it was much better on Saturday (probably because people finally recovered from their trips to the con).
If you have any other questions about the con feel free to email either myself or Nick and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
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Update 3/10/10by Nick - March 10th, 2010 |
Convention News:
We are heading out this friday morning to Columbus OH for A&G! Hoping to arrive around 1pm and start getting in some photos and videos. If you would like a photoshoot friday will be the day for it. Just send an email to the contact button above and let us know! The masq will get filmed and the skits put on youtube over the next few weeks.
We missed the press badge application for Anime Boston by a week but I am still trying to get them to consider us. If you know someone on Anime Boston staff please throw them a friendly reminder that we would love to come and cover the convention!
Ron will be heading to Anime Milwaukee this weekend. He will be doing photoshoots and getting video of their masq. Expect those on the site in the next few weeks!
We have put in our application to C2E2 Chicago for press badges. Ill let you know when we hear back from them. If they say yes we will be covering that as well.
Webcomic: Grim tales from down below
This is a neat webcomic that we have become obsessed with.
Time waster of the week: OCRemix
I have spent HOURS browsing around this site downloading AWESOME video game remixes. There is some really cool stuff here. Just type the video game you would like to find some tracks on in the search bar.
Website of the week: Fully Ramblomatic
Some of you might already know of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw from his weekly series on The Escapist called Zero Punctuation Reviews. Check them out for a great time! Did you know he also makes his own 2D oldschool adventure games? They are along the lines of Secret of Monkey Island and Space Quest. You can download his games for free (or the special editions for a donation, they are WORTH it). While slightly annoying at points the story telling is great with mystery, horror and suspense.
Anime of the week: Toradora
Convention Videos:
I was not able to get any new videos done this week. Im hoping to buckle down tonight and knock out at least 1 to post in this spot tomorrow.
Contest News:
We have a Nintendo DS Lite in our hands and ready to give away. However we just cant seem to come up with a really GREAT contest to do so. If you have some awesome ideas go ahead and send us an email by clicking contact in the title bar. We hope to have everything put together and ready for next weeks update!
Remember to check out our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter. We are posting all our photos on facebook for you and your friends to tag. I will be adding older convention photos as I have time.
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Chicago Auto Show, Anime Milwaukee & Sakura Con!by Nick - February 22nd, 2010 |
Its news time! A bit earlier than Wed but we wanted to get some info out there. As you can tell from the title we have 3 events to talk about.
Chicago Auto Show: Soulcrash was able to get out and cover this. He got some great shots that you can see over in his gallery if you like cars.
Anime Milwaukee! We heard about this about a week or so ago and decided to get up there and cover the event. Soulcrash once again volunteered to do this event and we are really excited to see what he brings back. He will be taking pictures and filming the masq there. If you will be at Anime Milwaukee and want to schedule a photoshoot with him you can do so through his facebook account.
Sakura Con! We are working on the numbers and hope to attend this awesome convention. The farthest west we have been is … Illinois. We are based in Illinois. So yeah, we need to get some west coast action! Ill post here when we are 100% going. Sakura has already granted us press passes for the weekend (you guys are awesome!) so things should be coming together. If you will be at Sakura and want to schedule a photo shoot you can do it through our facebook fan page!
In other news be sure to follow us on twitter and fan us on facebook (where you can upload your own fan photos!). If you are a fan or photographer at a convention we would LOVE to see your photos. Click CONTACT above and send us a link to your flickr, photobucket, facebook, personal webpage or whatever and we will post links to you on the site so people can find their photos! If you are looking for a place to post your photos we would be happy to (with your watermark) do so!
UPDATE!
We will be attending A&G Ohio in 2 weeks! Planning on attending all day friday and saturday through the cosplay contest. If you will be at A&G and would like to schedule a photoshoot with us just click contact above and send an email. We will put something together! Hope to see you there!
UPDATE! 2/26: Attendance at Sakura Con canceled.
Unfortunately getting to Seattle is just going to be a bit too expensive for us. We will be canceling our attendance at Sakura and hopefully be able to attend next year. Sorry for everyone who was excited about this event. We are disappointed as well.
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Birthday video and update.by Nick - October 23rd, 2009 |
Brandi made me this awesome birthday video and I wanted to share it with everyone because its done really well. Enjoy! Thank you Brandi! You are awesome! 30 doesnt feel so bad now. >_<!!
In other news we have some neat projects on the side we are working on that you will start seeing around the first of the new year. Im really excited about them actually :3 At Youmacon we will be trying a new format to get you some more information about the con and the awesome cosplay im sure we will find there. Our hotel and rental car is booked and we are ready to go next week! Really looking forward to Youma as we have been told its one of the best in the mid-west.
We have teamed up with another game review site and they are really cool people that do good reviews. I shamelessly encourage you to stop by their site at http://www.justpushstart.com/. Im sure that ill do a bigger announcement on that soon with some links to game reviews we think you might enjoy.
Im also working with our artist on possibly doing some t-shirts and hats and stuff featuring our awesome mascot Hari along with some other original designs im sure you will like. Look for that around the first of the year as well.
Im going to re-vamp our facebook and youtube channels so you will be getting more updates and information from them. Please friend us or subscribe!! /begs /looks at you with puppy dog eyes
Thats it for now folks! Hope to see you at Youma next week!
