Anime Boston is almost upon us! If you’re coming up to the city for a weekend at the Hynes, be sure to drop by one or more of my panels to say Hello!

Update (Thursday 18 March 11:30 pm): Time for “Hentai Manga” panel has been moved later into the night.

Update 2 (Monday 22 March 9:30 am): Location for “Anime Themes” panel changed. Also, time for “Cowboy Bebop” panel moved earlier in the afternoon.

Update 3 (Monday 29 March 11:10 pm): Time for “Intro and Ending Themes” panel has been moved earlier in the day.

Friday 12:00 pm noon (Panel 302) – Introduction to Anime Intro and Ending Themes

Friday: 5:30 pm (Panel 306) – After Cowboy Bebop: The Works of Shinichiro Watanabe

Friday/Saturday 1:30 am (Panel 202) – Chains, Trains, and Happy Endings: Japan’s Underground Sex Culture (18+)

Saturday 6:00 pm (107 Panel 6) – On the Road for Anime Pilgrimages

Saturday 10:00 pm (Panel 202) – Impact of Evangelion

Saturday/Sunday 1:30 am (Panel 202) – Hentai Manga: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (18+)

Sunday 1:00 pm (Panel 202) – From Antisocial Loser to Economic Hero: The History of Otakudom

Sunday 2:00 pm (Panel 202) – Anime in Academia

Anime Boston 2010

New panels for 2010!

On the Road for Anime Pilgrimages
Many anime reference real-world locations, inspiring otaku to seek out these destinations. Come discover the significance of the “anime pilgrimage”!

Bite-Size Anime
Some anime don’t fit the film- or TV-length format, so we’ll take a look at these dwarfs: webisodes, music videos, anthologies, and all things short!

Hentai Manga: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What makes a good ero-manga? We’ll show and support some of the funniest & more artistic adult comics (and hilariously bad, “imaginative” ones too).

Revamped panels for 2010!

After Cowboy Bebop: The Works of Shinichiro Watanabe
Many fans recognize Cowboy Bebop’s director, but let’s look at his other shows, from Macross Plus to Samurai Champloo to Genius Party and more!

Introduction to Anime Intro and Ending Themes
Today, many OP and ED themes are ignored! We’ll show the best and worst anime themes from Space Battleship Yamato to Evangelion to One Piece and more!

From Antisocial Loser to Economic Hero: The History of Otakudom
From the 1980s subculture, the concept of the obsessive fan has changed in Japan & America. Come learn the history of the fandom and its obsessions!

Chains, Trains, and Happy Endings: Japan’s Underground Sex Culture
The Japanese sex industry is pretty closeted, but here’s a peephole into host clubs, no-panty bars, hentai magazines, costume play, and love hotels.

Anime in Academia
Learn about new research, which resources are available, and what’s necessary to understand the history, trends, and meanings of anime and manga.

Impact of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the most successful Japanese animation ever. Come learn why Eva matters, and how it had such an impact on Japanese culture.

The Department of Alchemy met with another great success at Otakon 2009 this past weekend. We had large audiences come out for all of our panels: Impact of Evangelion (Saturday morning), Anime/Manga Studies (Saturday late morning), The Problem with Otaku (Saturday evening), and Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes (Sunday morning).

Our immense audience on Sunday, albeit a poorly compiled image. Click to enlarge.

We may take it easy for the next week, since Otakon ends our summer convention circuit (until September), but look forward to a lot of analytical articles in the next few weeks, as well as many MBs of podcast fodder for the newly-named Department of Alchemy Audio Archive. Thanks to everyone that attended our panels, and it was great to meet a lot of new people down in Baltimore!

No, really, I love Yutaka Yamamoto-san to death.

So, if you’re going down to Otakon this weekend, you might as well stop by a Department of Alchemy panel! As of about 10 minutes ago, one more of our panels has been added to the official schedule. Our new program looks like this:

The Impact of Evangelion – Saturday at 9:00 am in Panel 1

Anime & Manga Studies – Saturday at 11:30 am in Panel 1

The Problem with Otaku – Saturday at 7:00 pm in Panel 5

Without Watching the Anime: Opening and Ending Themes – Sunday at 10:15 am in Panel 3

We at the Department of Alchemy (aka. Alex) would like to thank everyone who decided to come out for our/my panels this weekend at Anime Expo 2009. All two of our panels (as well as the two academic panels in which the Department participated) were thoroughly attended! The Problem with Otaku (photographed above) purportedly held more con-goers than the Crunchyroll panel in the previous one-hour time slot! Sorry that the panel had to be cut off; the presentation held a bit too much information. Also, after being featured in AnimeEXPOSURE (Anime Expo’s official newsletter) on Friday as a highlighted panel to attend, Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes featured a full panel room, with a line extending around the bend in the hallway! Rumor has it that about two dozen people were even turned away, since as we neared about 400 members in the audience the fire code seemed about to be breached (though we still had a good number of people lining the back wall and even sitting on the floor in front). Unfortunately, our camera equipment wasn’t working during the panel, so we couldn’t nab a cool snapshot.

For those who attended the OP/ED panel, the list of videos shown is listed below. Thanks again for coming to see us! Remember, we’ll be speaking again at Otakon in two weeks! Check out our three panels:

1) Without Watching the Anime: Opening and Ending Themes – Sunday at 10:15 am in Panel 3
2) The Impact of Evangelion – Saturday at 9:00 am in Panel 1
3) Anime & Manga Studies – Saturday at 11:30 am in Panel 1

So, on to that list:

- Astro Boy 1963, English & Japanese versions [opening]
- Space Battleship Yamato, Japanese [opening]
- Mazinger Z, Japanese & English [opening]
- Big O, Japanese [opening]
- Serial Experiments Lain, Japanese [opening]
- Cutie Honey 1973, Japanese [opening]
- Cutie Honey: Flash, Japanese [opening]
- RE: Cutie Honey, Japanese [opening]
- Honey & Clover, Japanese [ending]
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083, Japanese [opening]
- Lucky Star, Japanese [ending, episode 14]
- Neon Genesis Evangelion, Japanese [opening & opening during end of episode 26]
- Daicon 4, Japanese
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Japanese [opening & dancing to the opening in Akihabara]
- NANA, Japanese [ad promoting opening/ending music]
- Cowboy Bebop, English [opening]
- Gurren Lagann, Japanese [opening, episode 4 & 24]
- Macross: Do You Remember Love, Japanese [ending]
- One Piece, Japanese & English [opening]
- Honey & Clover, Japanese [opening]
- Nodame Cantabile, Japanese [opening]
- Eden of the East, Japanese [closing & opening]

But then off again to Anime Expo!

Sorry for the aberrant hiatus, everyone. Been really busy in the past few weeks with:

- Open Video Conference, where I spoke about the anime fandom’s balancing act of video culture and copyright law
- Web Ecology Project: We released a white paper full of quantitative analysis about how ideas move in the discourse regarding the Iranian Election on Twitter
- Hanging out in NYC with the crew from my Kyoto study abroad group (KCJS)

I really want/need to write articles this week, so I’ll try to get a lot of content up soon. But I have a lot on my plate right now, specifically fandom research in California and drawing up grant proposals for fandom research in Boston and Tokyo.

Good news is that come Thursday I’ll be in Los Angeles, speaking at Anime Expo. I have four panels lined up, which are:

Anime and Manga in Academia
Saturday, July 04, 2009 6:00pm to 6:50pm – LP 2
Whether you have just begun studying anime and manga seriously or are already well into your studies, this panel will guide you on the path from fan to established Japanese popular culture scholar.

Introduction to Anime/Manga Studies
Friday, July 03, 2009 10:30am to 11:20am – LP 3
Ever wanted to write a school paper on religion in Naruto? Read a book on Neon Genesis Evangelion? Or even get a college degree in otaku studies? Come meet the members of the Anime/Manga Research Circle!

The Problem with Otaku
Sunday, July 05, 2009 12:00pm to 12:50pm LP 2
From 1980s science fiction geeks, the concept of otaku has wholly transformed in Japan and America. We’ll examine the history and controversies of the most crucial part of the anime fandom: the fans.

Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes
Friday, July 03, 2009 6:00pm to 6:50pm LP 3
When we watch anime, we tend to ignore what begins and ends series. But these small clips matter too! We’ll discuss history and music, and show some of the most influential OPs & EDs out there.

The rest of my potential schedule looks like this:

Thursday
- Digital Manga Publishing Industry Panel & eManga Demonstration (will miss due to plane arrival)
- Kouga Guest Panel (may miss due to plane arrival)
- Morikawa Guest Panel (may miss due to plane arrival)
- Morning Musume Guest Panel
- Imaishi & Nishigori Guest Panel
- Right Stuf & Nozomi Entertainment Industry Panel
- eigoMANGA Industry Panel
- Japan’s Hottest Doujin Videogames
- Gainax Focus Panel
- The Making of Gurren Lagann Documentary

Friday
- Introduction to Anime/Manga Studies
- Mizushima & Kuroda Guest Panel
- Gundam: The 30 Year Anniversary
- Manga as High Art
- VIZ Media Anime & Manga Panel
- Evangelion 1.0.1 Panel (won’t have time to see the movie due to…)
- Without Watching the Anime: OPs & EDs

Saturday
- The Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour
- Nightow & Nishimura Guest Panel
- Digital Distribution of Anime & Manga
- FUNimation Industry Panel
- Anime & Manga in Academia

Sunday
- Directors Panel [or] Breaking Into Anime Journalism [or] Convention Feedback Session
- Crunchyroll Panel [or] SPJA Board of Directors Panel
- The Problem with Otaku
- Production I.G.
- Closing Ceremonies

Also, I’m still scheduled to speak on a number of panels at Otakon, so if you’re not available to fly out to California this week, I’ll see you in Baltimore!

Surprisingly, Anime Boston hosted a trio of panels about Neon Genesis Evangelion — a great opportunity because 1) Evangelion is maybe too influential, and 2) there are too many fans today that haven’t seen it. The three panels were hosted by a guy who goes by the moniker V, and while he was masked and played the character well, I couldn’t find any other info on him, and he was fairly reticent when I gave him my card after the first panel. V spoke at three panels: “The Evangelion Franchise: Past, Present, and Future,” “Explanation of Evangelion,” and “The Psychology and Philosophy of Evangelion.” I recorded the audio from the first two sessions, but V made a smart move: he recorded the video of all three panels and posted them to YouTube. Since the audio definitely isn’t as good as audio including panels (and a little humorous acting), I’m going to link to the videos for your perusal and enjoyment. I only attended the first two panels, but they were well researched and among the best at the con. Please watch, and check out V’s YouTube channel (filled with many more videos) at Revolution of Eva!

Note: Video embeds from YouTube don’t allow syncing multiple related videos, and since the talks are broken up (because of YouTube’s 10-minute limitation on videos), you’ll have to click the next part manually.

The Evangelion Franchise: Past, Present, and Future – 7 parts

Explanation of Evangelion – 8 parts

The Psychology and Philosophy of Evangelion – 8 parts

The Department of Alchemy has started prepping for the summer convention circuit!

If you’ll be at Anime Boston this weekend, I’ll be talking at the following panels:

Genre, Music, and Shinichiro Watanabe
Friday @ 6:00 pm in Ballroom A
A chance to praise Watanabe and his musical direction! Finally!

Akiba Empire: The Influence of Otaku
Friday @ 8:00 pm in Ballroom A Constitution Ballroom
Pairing up with Nicole from Design Benign, a talk about marketing and the otaku economic force.

The Virtual Worlds of Anime
Saturday @ 1:30 pm in Back Bay Panel/Video
A survey of anime and manga about virtual spaces and how the medium helps us understand new worlds.

Chains, Trains, and Love Hotels: The Japanese Sex Industry
Saturday @ 10:00 pm in Ballroom A
A presentation on, well, sex in Japan.

The Anime That’s Not Anime: Opening and Ending Themes
Sunday @ 11:30 am in Panel Room 207
An attempt to examine and contextualize a solid number of opening and ending themes of anime.

Also, Otakon panel acceptances have just come in, and the Department of Alchemy will be making more appearances:

1. Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes
2. Chains, Trains, and Love Hotels: The Japanese Sex Industry
3. The Real Story of Japanese Street Fashion
4. The Impact of Evangelion

With other possible talks to include (pending the waiting list and notices):

5. The Problem with Otaku
6. Japan (and Anime) Beyond the City
7. Anime in Academia

Hopefully, the Anime Boston panels will be recorded if you can’t come up to New England for the weekend, but some of these panels may also appear at Anime Expo and Anime Weekend Atlanta!