Denkyu: Anime Webzine

With the move to a new larger location, JACON is adding more events for the fans and two contests for those attendees that register in advance.

Orlando, FL, April 18, 2008: JACON 2008 will take place at the Orlando Sun Resort the weekend of May 16-18, 2008. This will be JACON’s first year on the newly renovated resort – boasting over 35,000 feet of convention space for anime fans to enjoy the weekend. With this move, JACON is adding new value added events and contests for the attendees.

Value Added Events

THE JACON CELEBRITY DINNER ($20 in advance and at the door; Friday night at 8:00 PM in Chibi Events)

JACON is pleased to offer its attendees the chance to dine with our celebrities and talent for this year’s convention. Scheduled to attend are Tara Strong, Gregg Berger, Richard Horvitz, Spike Spencer, Doug Smith, George Lowe, Steve Bennett, and Rob Granito. Dinner includes a salad; your choice of grilled chicken, vegetable medley cuscus, or NY strip steak all served with parmesan potatoes; and a tiramisu desert. Attendees are seated in the order in which their ticket was purchased – so the earlier you buy your ticket, the better chance you have of seating with the celebrity of your choice! Tickets can be purchased at www.JACON.org. (As with any event of this nature, guest list is subject to change based on availability.)

WASABI ANIME’S CLUB CONVENTION BREAKFAST ($7 at the door; Sunday morning at 8:00 AM in Chibi Events)

JACON, with the help of Florida based fan organization Wasabi Anime, are offering breakfast on the resort to help avoid the headache of leaving property for food after a long weekend of anime and fun. Attendees can enjoy a buffet breakfast including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit, pastries and cereal. Orange juice, coffee, and water will also be served. Anime fans are encouraged to come to the event to promote their local anime clubs. Door prizes will be given away throughout the morning.

Advance Registration Contests

CELEBRITY DINNER SEAT #1 DRAWING

The JACON Celebrity Dinner seats in the order in which you purchase your ticket for the meal… but who will get the coveted ticket #1? If you have already pre-registered for the convention, then you’re already entered in the drawing! If not, pre-register for your weekend pass to JACON on www.JACON.org. If you use the coupon code “YUMMY” when you purchase online, you will get $5 off the admission price. The coupon code and entry into the contest both expire on midnight May 10, 2008. The winner will be posted on the website that weekend. Please note: if you have already purchased a ticket for the dinner and win the drawing, you will be reimbursed the $20 you paid.

WIN A CONVENTION ROOM PARTY AT JACON

No convention experience at a hotel resort is complete with the “room parties.” The staff at JACON knows this, and they want to offer to help you have a good time at the event. The winner will win the following:

• A free room upgrade to a suite

• Food and soft drinks catered by the hotel (scheduled Friday night in your suite)

• A brand new PS2 and second controller (courtesy of JACON)

• A copy of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 for the PS2 (courtesy of Bandai Namco Games)

To enter, you must reserve a hotel for Friday night and Saturday night at JACON 2008. If you have already made your reservation, then call the hotel and make sure that your hotel is listed under JACON to make sure that you are entered in the drawing. The winner will be selected from all hotel reservations made as of midnight May 3, 2008. The winner will be announced the next weekend (one week before JACON.)

For a complete listing of contests, events, and guests please visit www.JACON.org.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING THE EVENT AS PRESS, please email your request to the promotions department at promotions@jacon.org.

Akido Ikeda’s international sensation Dayan is finally available in the United States! The mischievous cat Dayan has already captured the hearts and minds of Japan, spawning over thirty books, a theme park, museums, and stores dedicated entirely to the fictional world where he resides, Wachifield! Discover the phenomenon this spring with the first four books, published by Dark Horse in handsome hardcover.

Wachifield is an enchanted, anthropomorphic world conceived by author Akiko Ikeda during her childhood—a mystical universe where plants and animals talk, and with their words teach classic tales of wisdom played out in fun, heartwarming scenes and through vivid artwork. Her whimsical and timeless illustrations have garnered international recognition, and her intricate world continues to expand due to her nearly limitless imagination.

Dayan, the central character and favorite resident of the town of Tachiel, is an adventurous cat whose curiosity often leads him into fantastical adventures. Luckily, he has the support and help of his friends, who include Marcy the dependable bunny, and the hard-drinking alligator Nbah. Follow Dayan and his courageous cronies as they outwit a coven of angry witches, a devilish forest nymph, and even their own shadows! Along the way they manage to make new friends, experience the snow magic of the Eurocka festival, and make a rainy Thursday into an event to remember!

Though originally written for children, adults and fans of Japanese culture will love these stories for their deceptively complex narrative, darker undertones, and alcoholic alligators.

Dark Horse proudly presents, for the first time in English, The Dayan Collection. The first four volumes—Dayan’s Birthday, Thursday Rainy Party, White Eurocka, and Chibikuro Party—will be released in the states on April 23, 2008, for a retail price of $9.95.

Dark Horse is pleased to announce the addition of Blood+ to its ever-growing line of translated prose and manga. This already established work has found a new life and audience in the animated TV series airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim Anime Block. Blood+ will also soon make its way to the sliver screen in a live-action theatrical film produced by William Kong (House of Flying Daggers; Hero; and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) slated for a 2009 release.

Blood+ chronicles the adventures of Saya, an amnesiac girl who discovers she is far from normal. Living with a foster family just outside an American military base in Okinawa, Japan, she soon comes upon the reality of her extraordinary past. She learns she is an immortal warrior whose lineage could even date back to Ancient Egypt or earlier. For centuries she has been locked in a battle against a race of vampiric creatures known as Chiropterans, monsters that are intent on destroying all life on Earth. In an epic tale that crisscrosses the globe, Saya battles to save the world while searching for the secret of her lost memories.

Saya has previously graced the Dark Horse catalogue in 2005 with the book Blood: The Last Vampire Night of the Beasts. The Blood+ universe will continue through Dark Horse in three spectacular manga story lines and two stimulating series of prose novels.

“Dark Horse is proud to continue championing one of the greatest-ever and most-celebrated properties ever to come from Japan: Blood the Last Vampire, as told through a host of new manga and prose novels,” says Michael Gombos, Director of Asian Licensing at Dark Horse Comics. “We are honored to bring three new manga and two series of prose novels to the English-speaking world, allowing everyone to further enter the world of Saya Otonashi and compatriots!”

Blood+ Volume One manga is available February of 2008 and Blood+: First Kiss Volume One prose novel is on sale March 2008.

We are sorry to report that due to shooting schedule with his new role on Stargate: Atlantis, Robert Picardo is unable to attend our convention. He sends his deepest regrets for cancelling and hopes to be able to be our guest in future cons.

Guest services is endeavoring hard to find a replacement with the same quality and appeal. Stay tuned.

by Otakuden

I think that pretty much every generation has an anime that takes a vision of our modern society and technology and re-imagines it. Examples such as Lain, Ghost in the Shell (GITS), and Hack blur the line between technological fiction and nonfiction. When watching either Lain or GITS or Dennou Coil, one can’t help but feel that the world they see on their TV isn’t that far removed from the world outside their window. From the internet to robots to virtual pets and cybernetic implants, who is to say what is real and what isn’t.

Dennou Coil: Circle of Children is the newest anime to create a fantastical world based in reality. Originally a light novel, the TV series that ran in Japan during the end of last year to the beginning of this year is 26 episodes long. Don’t be fooled by the young cast of characters, as the series is wrought with serious topics of regret, coping with loss, love, tragedy, and friendship. Dennou Coil will take the viewer on a rather serious adventure through virtual and reality. Comedic bits are sprinkled throughout the series, but overall the tone is more somber and mysterious.

After watching as much anime as I have over the years, I can usually figure out an anime less than halfway through the showing, movie or series. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when something tried and true is tweaked just a little bit, becoming something new altogether. There were many moments in Dennou Coil where I was literally taken aback by a plot point or development that I did not see coming.

From episode one, Dennou Coil is like a train that keeps picking up speed as it moves inevitably towards its final destination. There may have been a few stops along the way, but the direction never wavered. By the last few episodes I was on the edge of my seat, fingers tensely clutching my cuddle pillow.

But I digress. Dennou Coil revolves mainly around the two main female leads, whose destinies are more intricately entwinedDennou Coil is definitely not lacking in the character development department. As the title implies, there are pretty much no adult figures involved at all in the story. then they ever could have imagined. I know I didn’t. With a strong supporting cast that also stands on their own,

The only two really adult characters are the aunt, who’s only 19, and the Grandmother who rocks! She’s kind of crazy but a total genius when it comes to their virtual world or viruses, programs, kirabugs, and Glasses. Dun mess with the Oba-san The aunt is more of a big sister/mother figure who hides a dark event in her past, one that directly affects the story. Like one of the laws of anime, pretty much everyone else is in school and around the age of 14, but carry burdens of destiny that would rattle even a seasoned adult. Maybe it is our implied innocence and daring of youth that also provides us with a wisdom and clarity that can be lost in the fog of adult responsibilities.

So where does Lain, GITS, and Hack fit in with all this? Dennou Coil takes a modern suburban Japan town, current modern technology, and adds a bit of fiction to it. There is no doubt that we as a race are a wired people, our every day lives intricately tied down to and supported by the technology which has brought us here. In Dennou Coil, the virtual world and the real world aren’t separated anymore. Kids and adults own Glasses, a real-time window into the virtual world.

Much like Hack, the virtual world is one that is run and administered by a corporation, and Glasses users can buy upgrades, access, and build points so as to earn freebies and goods. If your Glasses get fried, damaged, or destroyed, you have to buy new ones with credits that can take you up to a lifetime or more to pay off. But unlike in Hack, when wearing Glasses you aren’t existing/living wholly in the virtual world. Instead, it is a window to bring the virtual world to the real world.

Densuke, a virtual pet and best friend to the sisters, is more real than not real, with emotions and pain and loyalty. Is his personality real, or is it just a product of his programming? To call a friend or answer your cell, just put your thumb and pinky to your ear and mouth and voila. Your laptop is a virtual prompt away, pulling up a screen in front of your very eyes, one that you can touch and use just as you would a real tactile laptop. But take off your Glasses, and it’s not there anymore.

Honestly, Dennou Coil is the most natural modern futuristic (new age maybe…) anime I have ever seen. Sure, Lain, GITS, and Hack are fantastical and breathtaking, but there is never any doubt that what you are watching isn’t real. Dennou Coil blurs that line as it softly lulls you into their natural world, and suddenly you find yourself not quite sure anymore. If I were to look out my window, would I see my world or would I see the world of Dennou Coil or are they one and the same? Don’t expect a lot of explosions and action, but instead a tense drama that builds slowly with each episode into its inevitable conclusion.

While it is not licensed yet, Dennou Coil is finished and currently available for download. I sincerely hope it does get licensed though, along with the original novel on which it was based. So wait not, download it now, and when it gets licensed, Buy It ^_^