STVO Wire #5 (5/18/12)

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a STVO Wire, but here I am back with an all-new edition! I hope everyone’s week has been going well and I’m sure many of you are looking towards the weekend and probably have heard some news in at least one of  your interests that may delight you or come off as a big story.   I know I sure have!  Before we get to my news and opinions, I have a few things I’d like to talk about including a tribute to a talented singer and a quick recap of Anime Central (sorry, long overdue) as well as the Cosplay Prom.

Let’s start off with my tribute:

In Memory of Donna Summer

For those of you who may not know, Donna Summer, age 63 passed away May 17^th in her home after a battle with cancer.  She performed many hit songs including “Bad Girls”, “Last Dance”, and “She Works Hard for the Money”.  In addition to her talented music career, as a big fan of the sitcom Family Matters, she had a few guest star roles as Steve Urkel’s relative “Aunt Oona…. From Altoona.”  With this passing, may I wish her eternal happiness and bless her family, friends, and fans. While I was already planning, I will be very proud to be participating in the Batavia, IL Bridge Walk for Cancer this Saturday! I will be proud to participate for her and many others who have suffered from Cancer or are currently.

Anime Central and Cosplay Prom Recap

·      Okay, let’s get it started off with my long overdue review of Anime Central 2012.  I’ll keep this short because if you’re a friend of mine on Facebook or if you know me, I can go on for hours of what an awesome time I’ve had (it’s pretty rare you’ll hear me say that I found it just alright or had a bad time.)  There were a lot of great friends, fun events, awesome cosplays, and a lot of laughs!  I had a lot of fun with events such as the Pre-ACen Mitsuwa meet-up, the Late Night Meet Up at Shoeless Joe’s Rosemont, the Mortal Kombat Martial Arts Demonstration (see video below), the Batman Photoshoot, the Crystal Ball (I’ll admit they could have done a little more to justify the $25 price tag, but my group made it fun), and a whole lot more.  Sometimes I hear people complain “Anime Central is no longer about the Anime” or “It’s a Party Con! They don’t care anymore!”  I could not disagree anymore with those statements.  Like many of my good friends and I have discussed “ACen is what you make it! If you can’t have fun, then you probably shouldn’t attend.”  I found plenty of anime-related panels, the 24-hour video room was ALL-ANIME (I happened to watch a little of the Puss N Boots anime film featuring Pero the Cat, classic!), and there were many impressive anime cosplays.  Anyway, we’re 1 year away from next year’s event and I find myself counting down the days.  I want to thank all my friends for making it an awesome time for me and give a big thank you to the staff for putting on an awesome event this year.  I understand many are upset about the Masquerade and many are after the Soap Bubble crew for it being cancelled completely.  While I don’t think the event should have been cancelled, I don’t think the Soap Bubble staff is to blame.  The first person to blame is the person who pulled the fire alarm and I think the panels running prior to the Masquerade event should have been better timed.  I won’t blame them for the person pulling the alarm or the Masquerade being cancelled, however I think next year either they or the Anime Central staff should be more on top of making sure these guys get out on time.  The Masquerade was supposed to start at 4:00 PM but I passed by the area and it was 6:00 PM and people were STILL in line to get in.  I hope this will be resolved for next year. Personally I believe it will. Now to wrap up my piece on ACen, below is a video I made of the Mortal Kombat Panel I went to!

·      Last Saturday, I attended the Cosplay Prom presented by Anime Midwest! I met up with a lot of cool friends and made new ones there as well.  Personally, I preferred this event to the Anime Central Crystal Ball.  My reasons are: 1. It was $10 versus $25, 2. The DJs running the event honored more requests (which at CB they honored… zero), 3. There was a good mix of songs/dances, and 4. The crowd was a little more enthusiastic.  If you’re not buying any of these reasons for why I liked this event, well perhaps it’s because thanks to this event I will be attending Anime Midwest in Lisle, IL for free this July! How did I accomplish this awesome achievement?  Well first, I broke out my “Goofy White Boy Dancing TM” and following that my new friend Matt and I were the last two people on the dance floor picked by the judges. We were the Prom King and Queen and to get our free badges, we had to do a slow dance.  For a free badge to an anime convention, I’d say it was worth it! Can’t wait for July!

Now onto the news….

DA NEWS

·      Movies: From IGN.com (http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/05/17/news-sin-city-sequel-has-a-release-date): Sin City 2 (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) has been officially announced for a release date of October 4, 2013.  Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller will be co-directing once again and Rosario Dawson and Mickey Rourke will be returning.

My Take: Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!!! It took 7 years but we are finally getting the details on a second movie!!! I loved the first movie a lot and am pleased they are not cancelling the production of the movie. Also they got two actors I really liked to return.  Here is hoping they will be able to create a solid continuation.

·      Wrestling: From WWE Superstar John Cena’s Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/johncena):  “STARTING Monday Night July 23 @USA_NETWORK WILL BE ADDING A 3RD HOUR TO @WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW - PERMANENTLY. #3hourRaw”. You read correctly,  WWE Monday Night Raw will become a full 3 hours starting July 23^rd

My Take: I love wrestling, but I’m not sure what to make of this move yet. Every now and then the WWE does 3-hour Raw specials but while sometimes they can deliver big (such as Old School Raw) many such as the last one before WWE Extreme Rules failed to deliver.  I know USA Network has been trying to convince WWE to make Raw a three-hour show for a long time now and it looks like the WWE has decided to cave in.  One thing I cannot stand with the current format is the amount of TV time that people such as John Laurinaitis (yeah yeah, he’s the top asshole on Raw we’re supposed to hate him) and John Cena (yeah yeah, we’re supposed to cheer him) are getting. Then we usually have several replays from “earlier in the night” as well as reaps from the previous week. I’m all for them giving a quick synopsis, but they need to lay off (last three hour Raw, they played the Brock Lesnar “I’m an Ass Kicker” promo multiple times.)  Now if the WWE is interested in extending the match length of their top stars and squeezing a few more lower card guys on television, I’m all for this decision.  For right now I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the best!

·      TV: From Adult Swim.com (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/toonami/): On May 16, following up the success of this year’s April Fools joke of Toonami being back on Adult Swim, Adult Swim has announced that “Toonami is Back Bitches on May 26^th!!”

My Take: As a fan of Toonami since about 1997, I am thrilled! I remember watching Voltron and Thunder Cats and the block being hosted by Moltar, yes peeps, I’m that old.  I always appreciated Williams Street’s creativity, interactivity, and freshness of making an action block and of course, the show, promos, and Steve Blum and Peter Cullen doing voice work for the block were phenomenal.  I’m hoping Adult Swim will allow the block start at 8:00 PM Central and go on. I’m also hoping this isn’t just “eh let’s keep everything the same and just paint “Toonami” over it.”  After thinking it over, I think Adult Swim should let whatever anime programs with new episodes remain, bring back a few old shows, and take out Cowboy Bebop and Big O… for now (I love both, but they have aired an on AS multiple times for nearly a decade and they’re not going to leave the channel forever.) Time to have some fun and make a schedule with a repeat hour late at night (trust me, while I’m doubtful AS will let it start at 8PM, I think there’s a better chance of that then letting Toonami have a different show in all hours with no repeat.) Also keep in mind that I’m pretending that Funimation/Viz/etc. is not bound by any contracts to not let any show play. All times are Central.

8:00 PM – Teen Titans/Justice League/Justice League Ulimited Cycled (Hate Teen Titans, but it was popular on Toonami)

8:30 PM – Megas XLR

9:00 PM – Samurai Jack

9:30 PM – Sailor Moon

10:00 PM – Dragon Ball Z

10:30 PM – Yu Yu Hakusho

11:00 PM – Bleach

11:30 PM – Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

12:00 AM - Durarara!!

12:30 AM – Tenchi Muyo! (Pick Any)

1:00 AM-4:59 AM – Repeats of 9PM to 12:30 AM Programming

5:00 AM – Voltron

5:30 AM – Gigantor

Something for fans new and old! Only Toonami!

This Week at The Movies

Now in 6 Words or less, my thoughts on the movies coming out this weekend!

BattleShip: More like Bull Shit.

What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting: Next time, use protection.

The Dicatator: Go away Sacha Baron Cohen.

So What Am I Doing?

Currently Playing:

·      Legend of Zelda – Skyward Sword: Yup… Still playing.

·      Kid Icarus Uprising: Little by Little.

·      Bio-Mass on Facebook: Very addictive puzzle game.

·      Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Episode 2: Very fun so far!

Watching:

·      Slayers: Old school and funny anime series.

·      Game of Thornes: I haven’t technically started watching yet however a friend has recently loaned me his season 1 box set! Will definitely watch soon!

·      Elfen Lied: A friend told me about it and I’m very interested.

·      Fullmetal Alchemist: I’m going to finish this series! One of these days! It’s so awesome!

·      Trigun: Attempting to re-watch. You see I start to many series at once, use the internet too much, and when I get home late just feel like watching goofy comedies. J

·      Dark Shadows: Okay, I saw this movie for free tonight.  Prior to seeing this movie, I was not impressed by the trailers despite being from Tim Burton! I felt it looked like more of the same from him and it looked too goofy.  Johnny Depp actually did an awesome job as usual and the support cast was pretty good as well.  I loved the cameo by Alice Cooper as well! The evil witch in the movie played by Eva Green was both sexy and an interesting character in how she functioned.  The movie did have some funny moments, it was a decent movie, but by no means a movie I recommend even a hardcore Tim Burton/Johnny Depp fan to rush out to see. From what I’ve heard, if you liked the “Dark Shadows” television series from the 60s-70s, you may want to dodge the movie because this is more of a comedic take instead of the serious horror take of the original series.  Overall, I give this movie a 6 out of 10.

Coming Up:

·      Vacation in LA! Seeing family and friends!!! First week of June!

·      This Saturday, I will be participating in the Batavia, IL Bridge Walk!

·      WWE Over the Limit Prediction Piece Coming Up Later Today! Stay tuned! And also, be sure if you are in the Aurora area or able to go, come join my friends and I for WWE Over the Limit at Fox at the Hound!

·      Anime Midwest in the first week of July!

·      Hopefully other big news on the way! Stay tuned!

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