Bonus – Otakon 2009 Con Report

It’s been entirely too long since we’ve done any con reports. In fact, we owe about a year’s worth. But here’s our report for Otakon 2009 while it’s still fresh in our minds. Warning: in order to release this “on time,” we opted to more or less release the audio unedited. It’s rougher than we’d like.

Read our Otaku USA con reports for Otakon 2009, too! Daryl’s is here and Clarissa’s is here.

55 Replies to “Bonus – Otakon 2009 Con Report”

  1. So I finally saw Ponyo, and it's probably my only favorite recent Miyazaki film. Howl floundered in the second half, while Spirited Away takes the pace a bit slow, considering the girl's trying to escape from Kawaii Shinto Hell. But Ponyo keeps the premise basic and the narration tight. My only question is whether or not the movie is meant to cater to the moe crowd, or poke fun at the genre, since Ponyo's a little dumpier than what's popular nowadays. And she usually ignores and/or falls asleep on Sousuke, rather than fawn over him. Though I wonder if Miyazaki would actually answer that, or be offended.

    Anyway, I'm surprised Di$ney kept the scene where Sousuke lights a candle, since I was thinking they'd be afraid that the movie would encourage dumb and/or unsupervised American kids to pull a Beavis and Butthead with matches.
    Oh, and they even briefly go into the concept of evolution, which is sure to piss off the fundies who had no problem burning a Pikachu doll. But it's nice to see Der Mouse finally on the side of 2-d again, even if they only initially bought out Ghibli's stock to insure that no one else in the U.S. would be able to watch the company's movies. ['Cus let's face it. If Spirited Away didn't win an Oscar, it wouldn't be on dvd.]

    Anyway, now you fuckers who'd probably torrent movies like Ponyo can't use the excuse that there are no theaters near you- 'cus the flick's playing in 900+ theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. So give the domestic anime industry a shot in the arm by bringing your anime-hating acquaintances, friends, and family to see it. If they're not interested, just tell them the dude from Taken is in it, and he kicks ass in this, too.

  2. I look forward to your show every month. You have given me a lot of great recommendations.

    Honestly, I thought the unedited version of your show was just fine. I didn't notice the three of you talking over each other any more than normal. If it means we get AWO faster, you should release them with minimal edits.

Leave a Reply to Chris Sobieniak Cancel reply