AnimePodcast.net (あ!PoN)

We interrupt the NY Anime Festival coverage to bring you the first of our 2-part final episode from our first season; an interview with Paul Gravett, author of MANGA: 60 YEARS OF JAPANESE COMICS. to download Save link as(640x480 112.8 MB, 13:08 minutes) A while back Mr. Gravett was in our neck of the woods speaking at a MOCCA and we were lucky enough to get a chance to sit down with him and talk about his book. Manga fans should not miss this one, as we cover everything from manga’s origin and history, to its impact on the world today, and where it’s headed in the future. Paul Gravett’s websiteManga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics at Amazon.comMOCCA, The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. If it sounds like Taz is whispering, that’s because we filmed these segments in the newly opened 6th Avenue location of Kinokuniya Books in New York, and we couldn’t help but feel like we were in a library!Our very own Manga Café. Paul Gravett had a lot to say, so stay tuned for the second of this two-part interview here at www.animepodcast.net as well as much more from the NY Anime Festival.

Hey there! Here is the last episode of our 1st season! We continue our interview with Paul Gravett author of Manga: 20 Years of Japanese Comics. Also in honor of this episode we get a short lesson in manga genres by Taz. to download Save link as(640x480 72.4 MB, 8:10 minutes) SHOW NOTES: Here's a bit more infomation on the different genres: Doujinshi This type of manga translates as "fan-work" (literally "same-person-writing") Doujinshi is unofficial manga that is made and produced by fans of an original series, or a self-published manga. Gekiga Gekiga means "dramatic pictures". This type of manga is more experimental or literary. Shōjo Shōjo (literally "girl") is manga aimed at young females up to the age 18. These series tend to focus on romance and relationships from a young female's point of view. Shōnen This is almost the same as shojo except it is mostly action, sports or romance for males up to age 18. It translates literally as "boy". Kodomo This kind of manga is for little children that are just learning to read. Kodomo translates literally as "child". If you want to read about even more genre's check out the great wiki where we got it all from. More show notes to come. We will be back soon with season two of AnimePodcast.net! Stay tuned! ~A!Pon Crew

A special episode of あ!PoN coming to you from the New York Comic Convention where VIZ has just made a major announcement regarding upcoming publishing plans. to download Save link as(720x480 283.9 MB, 35:11 minutes) In attendance were none other than the one and only Stan Lee, the closest thing to a living national treasure us Americans will ever have, who announced and showed off the upcoming Ultimo publication, talking about its production history, and giving away signed copies for those lucky enough to get one. If you live anywhere near a Kinokunia, then we suggest you pick this thing up as soon as you possibly can. Next up was an exclusive announcement, one that you will only hear and see here first! It has to do with Viz, Shonen Jump, and simultaneous publishing. Think you know? Then watch this episode! (C)2008 by Stan Lee - POW! Entertainment / Dream Ranch, Hiroyuki Takei / Shueisha Inc. (C)2008 by Stan Lee - POW! Entertainment / Dream Ranch, Hiroyuki Takei / Shueisha Inc. Is is just me or does it look like Stan is gonna commit せっぷく here? -TAO Watch this space for more items from the New York Comic Con, and pop-culture brought to you by あ!PoN!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!! It's the last day of the festival. Here are a few highlights of the last day events and people's thoughts on the festival in general! to download Save link as(640x480 33.4 MB, 3:43 minutes) DAY THREE Dec 9, 2007 Wow was that something. We were lucky enough to get the captain of the entire ship aside for a moment, Mr. John McGeary of Reed Exhibitions and get the real scoop on how things were going, and what next year’s plans are. They’re currently deciding about next year’s date as you can see, so if you have some input you'd like to give them, now is the time to let them know. Talking to even the most negative of anime fandom pundits yielded some words of approval and encouragement, so if even AWO’s resident grumpy Otaku has a good thing to say about the show, then they must have done something right. There is a disturbingly surprising amount of people of all ages out there that are quite adept at the Haruhi SOS dance as we saw it performed en masse all day in front of the Bandai table. We gave the microphone to The Angry Otaku and let him lose. We’re not sure if that was a good idea or not, but there haven’t been any police reports filed so we’re thinking everything’s ok. Our tree is bigger than yours. Don’t go too far, as we’ll have plenty of content coming up as soon as we recover from the lack of sleep! We'll have full reports on the New York Anime Festival coming to you soon!

The E cam is back! And I have a funny sampling of Saturday's going ons. to download Save link as(640x480 12.2 MB, 1:24 minutes) DAY TWO Dec 8, 2007. And what a difference a day makes. The NY Anime Festival was able to handle a large influx of attendees so fast, that before we knew it, the floor was packed with the Otaku masses, sporting some of the most intense cosplay sostumes we’ve seen in quite a while (and we were left to wonder; did they wear that on the Subway on their way here?).The face of あ!PON is who you'll be graded against when you're trying out for Comcast's Tokyo Reporter 2008. Our very own T.T. wishes everyone the best of luck, and says the most important thing is to not be afraid and just be yourself! 皆さん、がんばるしよ！ John O’Donnell of Central Park Media reminded us that while it’s been a while, the NY Anime Festival was not the first anime convention in New York City, and that the way things are looking the NY Anime Festival is going to be around for quite a while. Remember to support the show and pick up your t-shirt, or our personal favorite item, the saké set.Cosplay: SERIOUS BUSINESS. Although somewhat controversial if you ask cosplay.com, the World Cosplay Summit contest was a popular event at here, and that’s probably because the winners are going to get a free trip to Japan to represent the USA in the World Cosplay finals. Good luck to the winners.

Check it out! Here's our chat with the folks from UDON! These guys have done some great work in just about every medium out there! They are most well known for the work they have done for Capcom's Street Fighter series. to download Save link as(640x480 53.9 MB, 6:23 minutes) If you haven't had enough of these guys fabulous art check out OMAR's and JOE's Deviant Art Pages! (Oh yea and don't forget UDONCREW's page as well)! During a quick break at the con we ran in to the folks from nycmoviescreenings.com and challenged Taz to a most deadly game of...dice? UPDATE: After viewing the Sweeny Todd Movie Taz highly recommends people go and see it, it was just plain amazing! Note: Audio issues with UDON clip should be fixed now, thanks!

Hey Folks! Take a look at our Thursday coverage of the festival! More to come tomorrow! to download Save link as(640x480 35.5 MB, 4:06 minutes) Some Show Notes: DAY ZERO was, December 6, 2007. In addition to the show’s general setup and early badge pickup, Day Zero was also the day of the ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga. ICv2 hosted a presentation followed by moderated panel discussions of industry professionals, covering a range of topics specific to the anime and manga markets here in the U.S. Topics covered were: -ICv2 Whitepaper; Anime and Manga (general overview of the market) -Marketing to the Otaku Generation -Girls, the “Other Half” of the Otaku Generation -Technology and the Otaku; The New Media Frontier These events had the aim of educating industry professionals, retailers, and institutions the varied ways in which the anime and manga industry function, how the market reacts to certain things, and what to expect in the future. Some major points that were made known were: Tokyo Pop is working on developing a method of manga content delivery to cell phones and other hand-held devices, but it will be a long time before print is dead.Japanese studios are still looking to begin co-productions from the ground up in an effort to both finance production as well as release properties simultaneously in different regions in order to avoid the loss of revenue that comes from anime downloads which happen in the long window between release in Japan and release in the U.S. (We could have told you that years ago).Manga is doing well while anime DVD sales have steadily declined. Downloading of anime fansubs by fans is a problem because it makes the market look bigger than it really is. (We don’t like to hear that any more than you do, but prove us wrong).One Piece turned out the way it did because of the FCC, much as Otaku would like to think otherwise. The way to get girls to buy manga and anime is basically to just put Sessho Maru on the cover with his shirt off. But some think that panel was total crap. You'll find out later. Don’t ever eat the cookies at the Javits Center. The highlight of the programming was as is know widely known, the statements of 4Kidz CEO Al Kahn regarding the relevancy of Japan as a major entertainment exporter, and his plan to distance 4Kidz from their current position regarding Japanese properties. ICv2 Has released some written coverage of this event which can be found here and here. For those of you out there that feel left out, look forward to audio coverage of the presentations and panel discussions coming soon from the Ninja Consultants. This was the first anime convention ever to be held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, which is one of the few facilities in the city capable of handling a show like this. The Javits Center union wouldn’t let us on the floor of the convention during setup, but we ended up sneaking in (sans giant camera) anyway. The Javits center is a massive complex which was able to hold an ongoing World Championship of Magic the Gathering next to the NY Anime Festival and still look really empty. Also, it has many clearly marked exits.