Anime Weekend Atlanta

Anime Day is over because AWA is here! I am packed and on my way to Anime Weekend Atlanta. I will be home Sunday and posting photos on Tuesday's post. This Sunday's post will be something that's ready, in case I get in late and am tired from partying hard all weekend!

To anyone else attending AWA, have fun, bathe regularly, and I hope to see you there!

Cosplay Schedule Recap:

Friday- Eden of the East, Diana Kuroha
Saturday- FFIV (Amano), Rosa Farrel
Sunday- Death Note, Light Yagami

Find me to get the Olympia Heights ad in the program autographed.

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A Haunting: The Case of the Ghost of Oglethorpe House

4 years ago, back when I had more hair, at the start of my senior year at SCAD, I had a crisis where two thirds of my course schedule vanished right before the quarter started. In a pinch I used my last 2 electives up in one quarter and signed up for life drawing and intro to video.

The final project for intro to video put us in groups. While many of our classmates did experimental videos and music videos, only two groups decided to do narrative videos. They had to be under 8 minutes and we had to split up the role of director, editor, and camera-(wo)man.

So Phil Campbell, a ridiculously talented photographer, took the camera and Angie Crayle took the editing, and I took directing. I banged out a script for our idea, we cast our friends, and a wacky Scooby Doo parody resulted. I got an A on the assignment for production design.

The biggest challenge of all was that SCAD had very strict policies about filming school assignments in the dorms. We had to strip down a room in an apartment and build it up from scratch into the dorm and we had to shoot our one shot of Oglethorpe House from across the street without any of our actors in it. We found a hall in another Savannah building for our hallway and off we went. The video stars Anna Heim as Daisy, Carly Strickland as Vespa, Josh Heinsz as Frank, Isiah Heacox as Iggy, and Kyle Strickland as Old Man Jenkins.

Oddly enough, I'm sharing this because I've just realized that despite it being a rushed project that I threw online for laughs three years ago, it has received 23,000 views! So I guess someone out there thought it was worth sharing.

Read behind the cut to see the video!

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The Interminable Cockroach Man

I'm done with the rainbow, so time to post about something new! If you haven't been over there yet, check out The Interminable Cockroach Man, which goes live today!

I've lived with Cockroach Man since I was in 4th grade. He's the brainchild of my brother, Sam Albro. Sam is more of an artist than a writer, though, and he finally contracted some help to make his dream come true. Written by Kyle Strickland (the husband) and Sam Albro (the brother), The Interminable Cockroach Man is a comedic superhero web comic about a well-loved superhero who vanished and returned completely insane. Learn about the Sensational Origin of his sidekick, Fly Boy.

The comic updates Sundays.

http://cockroachman.com 

LIKE IT ON FACEBOOK

And like this post below!

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Anime Day #10: Death Note vs. Death Note

Warning, this comparison is spoilerific. If you have no desire to have the Death Note cartoon series or live action movies spoiled, do not read below the jump. I will pretty much spoil all of the Anime and a lot of the movie. You have been warned. This is a comparison breaking down some of the major differences between Death Note, the anime series, and Death Note, the live-action Japanese movie.

On to business! Here is my comparison between Death Note, the animated series and Death Note, movies 1 & 2.

Let's get a few essentials out of the way. The CG is cheesy when it's not in bright daylight, Misa doesn't have blonde hair, and the actor playing the guy who murdered Misa's parents was hysterically over-the-top. My husband and I kind of wish that L would have been American or British (which would make him the odd foreigner, cause friction in the police force, and explain the addiction to unhealthy foods, and explain why his eyes are buggy compared to everyone else). Now that we've covered the supernatural things, I'm going to focus on the structure of the series and how changes in plot and characters for the live action film, either serve or detract from the themes.

At the start of the first movie, we're made to feel sympathy for Light and his motivations. That is a big change from the anime, where Light is set up as this callous, perfect young man. Scenes are added showing how Light becomes personally disillusioned with the Japanese justice system. While I'm not sure I like this, I will say that it is easier for a movie audience, who has less time to get to know the character, to find some investment in his success. The beauty of Death Note as a series, is that it makes the majority of its audience simultaneously root for both Light and L. Without Light's internal monologue to show his superior intellect and cool logic, we need emotions to rope us in.

Another major change to the character of Light is that he has a girlfriend. In the anime, Light isn't very interested in dating, but soon starts going on dates with a variety of girls to avoid suspicion. Super-smart boy who holes himself up in his room and shows no interest in sex waves all sorts of red flags. Light has one particular girlfriend in the movie, Shiori, but if you're worried that he's going to get romantic mushy, never fear. That's all a very good ruse. By the end of the first movie, Light's use of Shiori proves that no matter what he was at the start, he has evolved into the Light Yagami we all love, the compassionless bastard with a strong sense of justice and unwavering ambition.

For the most part, the first movie is loyal to the plot of the anime. We go through how Light takes care of the FBI agents and how L narrows down his profile of Kira. We even get Light's potato-chip cam (though I will say, it was not as epic without the narration "I will take a potato chip... and EAT IT!")

I pwned that Potato Chip at AWA last year.

The real changes come right at the end as Light brings Shiori in as a pawn to take care of Naomi. This change of events illustrates exactly how brutal Light is willing to be as Kira. It was the kind of surprising manipulation that was needed to match the intensity of Light's later accomplishments.

The second film starts with Light joining L's team in the wake of his girlfriend's death and introduces Misa Amane as more than just a background character. Misa sends the tapes to Sakura TV, just like she did in the series, and gets Light to come where she can see him and discover that he is Kira. Misa is kidnapped by L's team and Light promises Rem that he will save her.

Here comes a major divergence from the series plot. It was undoubtedly changed to save a few HOURS of plot. We meet a lone woman who works for Sakura TV, approves of Kira, and wants to oust the slutty anchor and take her job. She is the replacement for that entire council of businessmen who, in the anime, use the Death Note to kill off business competitors.

Anime fans will remember that pinning down who was on this council and tracking them was a large plot that took up quite a few episodes. It was the key to recovering Misa's Death Note and to clearing their names, but it took a LONG TIME. For the purposes of an already long movie (2 hrs, 20 mins), they were streamlined into one hot lady.

After killing Sakura TV lady to reclaim her Death Note, the plot takes a fast track. L immediately doubts the 13-days rule and sets out to test it. He declares his suspicion of Misa, sends Mr. Yagami and all of the police away, with the second Death Note, to test his theory in California (because they need American criminals as lab rats, apparently), and tells Light that he plans to let Misa try to kill him so that he can stop her and prove that she is Kira.

SUPER SPOILER TIME. Rem decides to kill L and Watari to protect Misa. As L is on the ground in his dying throws, instead of just LOOKING at Light like he creepily did in the TV series, he has words. L collapses, Light runs off to sift through Rem's ashes and then gets out the Death Note to clean up the rest.

Misa looks on horrified as Light write's his own Dad's name in the Death Note, with the stipulation that he would bring back the second Death Note, first. We know this is accurate because Light let his Dad half his life and sacrifice his right to go to heaven in the series, just to get the second Death Note back and to try and kill Mello.

Mr. Yagami shows up, opens the case, and BAM! It's empty! How did he deny the will of the Death Note? It was a fake! L shows up, miraculously alive, and explains that he swapped Light's Death Note and that he didn't die when Rem wrote his name because he already wrote his own name and was already fated to die peacefully in 23 days. Bam!

Okay, so in my opinion, L getting out of it with a win is not cool. I don't like that change. But they wanted to cut out a whole slew of episodes and the Kira representatives, Kira-X, Near and Mello. Concessions had to be made. As Light is going all hysterical crazy pants and trying to write people's names on scraps of Death Note paper, Matsuda, true to his epic moment in the show, shoots the pen out of his hand.

This is where the two diverge again. In the series, Light runs off and slows down on a stairwell. He lays, bleeding, defeated, and unwilling to wait until he should bleed out, Ryuk writes his name in the Death Note. Watching Light die slowly would be boring and Ryuk has better sh!t to do, but he has to be the one to write Light's name because he brought the Death Note in the first place.

In the movie, in a more darkly comedic but not as Shakespearean moment, Light demands that Ryuk writes a name, any name. Ryuk write's Light's name and shows it to him. Light dies. Ryuk proves that he is a heartless God of Death. He doesn't care about Light!

I enjoyed seeing Light using Takada, toying with her emotions to communicate with Kira-X in the anime series. I don't think, like some, that Mello and Near were nearly derivative of L. I do agree with some, though, that the time between Light and Misa being "cleared" and capturing the corporate jack-off that Rem gave the Death Note too was a little long and would have been better abbreviated.

What the movie did was abbreviate the series. It trimmed down a lot of the parts that were just too drawn out. The Light/L friendship isn't as close in the movie, which is probably the most unfortunate missing element. Their mutual respect and rivalry is what made the L/Light dynamic so fun to watch. They were friends, but they had to kill one-another to win the epic chess match.

L's survival takes something else away. L's defeat is what drives Light to a new level of boredom and arrogance and allows him to be caught. If L simply wins, it's just not as satisfying.

The live-action movies are fun for fans who have already seen the series, but I would never start anyone off on them. As for the idea of an L movie that takes place in the 23 days before he dies, where he solves a bioterrorism case... no thanks.

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My Favorite Things: Purple

  

We finish up the rainbow with the color purple. Click the other swatches to see previous weeks.

I haven't yet decided if I should do black, white, and brown or just leave it with colors. I do like color!

Key:

A. My EasyClip glasses

B. Tangled

C. Grape Soda

D. University of Montevallo (Getting my Masters there)

E. Lilacs

F. Bizarro

G. Tragic City Rollers

H. Psylocke

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Anime Day #9: Anime Weekend Atlanta 2011

For the past three years I have been attending Anime Weekend Atlanta with my husband, Kyle Strickland; my good friend, Ryan Brown; and my best friend, Anna Heim. Past attendees may recognize us as "That Awesome Sailor Moon Group That Has the Melvin (Ryan)" or one year, "The Sailor Moon Group With the Moon Boot" (Anna had a broken foot).

This year we're retiring Sailor Moon and torturing ourselves with the complexity of Amano.

Click below the jump to see the costume schedule for this year. I encourage anyone who reads my blog or likes my writing to say Hello! If you bring your Con Program with you, I'll autograph the Olympia Heights ads.

FRIDAY
Partying, Partying, Yeah!


Friday our group will be arriving early the check in to our hotel and sign up for a judging space for Saturday's costume contest. Our Friday theme is Eden of the East. I will be dressed as Diana Kuroha, complete with cigar cutter and victim (my husband in a gimp mask and suit).

That's right. I'll be blue-haired lady.

Ryan will be Takizawa (pictured above) and Anna will be Saki.

SATURDAY
The Main Event


Saturday is costume contest day and so we will be making the rounds in our ridiculously complex Final Fantasy IV costumes. Expect real leather armor, beads, dangly things, dyed wigs, and epic capes. I will be dressed as Rosa Farrell and carrying my own Seraphim Mace prop.

Kyle will be Cecil, Anna will be Rydia (you should see her massive green wig coming a mile away), and Ryan will Kain. We all have prop-weapons, made by me. I'm most proud of Ryan's leather helmet with mobile dragoon mask visor.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Casual Friday Saturday

Kyle and I have opted not to Cosplay Saturday evening after the contest. We'll change and chill in our jeans and Matter Deep Publishing T-Shirts. However, we will be with Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey (Ryan and Anna), so look for us and say Hi!

SUNDAY

The Final Day

Last year's Death Note Cosplays return with a few minor improvements on Anna's Misa and some better  (looser) slacks for my Light. I will be Cosplaying Light Yagami. My husband will be L, Anna will be Misa, and Ryan will be Matsuda!

Find me at AWA!

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The Incognito Project

Sometimes you just have to pimp projects for the people you love. It's an added bonus that I'm a part of this one. For anyone who has admired my Blogger profile pic, it is worth noting that this photograph was originally a reference image for a painting yet to be completed.

The Stake-Out (Self Portrait) by Terry Strickland Oil on Panel 16in. x 16in.

The Stake-Out (Self Portrait)
by Terry Strickland
Oil on Panel
16in. x 16in.

Terry Strickland (Terry Strickland Art) is one of the many ridiculously talented people that became part of my family on April 24, 2010. She is a realist figure painter and her portraits go for a pretty penny. Her work over the last decade has tended to stray back to a theme of playing pretend. This popular, Incognito series, has now inspired the Incognito Project.

Strickland's work has been praised for its realism, its sense of drama, and its connection with its viewers. A common phrase uttered by viewers who are not versed in art is "It looks like a photograph", but never fear, painting purists; closer inspection of the details of her paintings show that this tight realism is actually achieved with remarkably loose brush-work.

Last summer Terry Strickland asked friends, collectors, and other local artists, to share their alter egos with the camera. These personas range from hidden personalities to secret desires to characters that the subject identifies with.

My husband posed as a Knight in plate mail, my sister-in-law posed as a Steampunk scientist covered in adorable (clean) rats, and I posed as the Greek Goddess, Athena. Among the other subjects are mothers, teachers, caregivers, sculptors, photographers, students, and engineers.

The purpose of this project is to document the project, paint a portrait series for a show (tentatively scheduled for February 2012) and then document the show. All of the photographs, statements, and stories from the series will be collected and edited into a coffee table book about the Incognito Project, published by Matter Deep Publishing.

Brams Lullaby
by Terry Strickland
Oil on Panel
16in. x 16in.

The response has been so strong that Strickland has more reference photos than she has time to paint. It is also worth noting that of the completed paintings, almost every single one of them has sold.

Look for the Incognito Series book this Spring!

The paintings shown in this post are just a few of the works completed for the show. You can view the rest of the Incognito series at her site and browse to see her other works. Sign up for her newsletter to be updated on the book and other works.

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My Favorite Things: Blue

We continue along the rainbow with the color blue. Click the other swatches to see previous weeks.

Key:

A. Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman

B. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

C. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling

D. M&M Pretzels

E. Arrested Development

F. The Wombats "This Modern Glitch"

G. Spam

H. Ravenclaw

I. The New Rules of Marketing

J. Sailor Mercury

K. Beast (Or any blue X-Man. Nightcrawler, Angel, Mystique)

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Anime Day #8: Death Note Review

This review was originally written for All Death Note (.com) and can be seen there. Since its original posting, I have begun to watch past Episode 25. I now see that Near and Mello are not merely derivative replacements for another character, as Mello is much more than that. I will likely update after I have finished the series completely to determine whether I think I made a mistake in watching more. I have convinced my husband to take this journey with me.


Without further ado, Death Note: A Review

Let's start with an admission-- I haven't watched all of Death Note. My first experience with Death Note came with the suggestion that I stop when something big happened that would change the dynamic of the show. I got to that point and stopped. Call it peer pressure. I am now considering finishing. I'll explain more later. 

My husband watched the first few episodes ahead of me, but quickly went back so that I could watch it with him. Most of my Death Note watching experience took place on a couch in a basement in Massachusetts during one of the coldest winters on record with swine flu and a God-send stove keeping me nice and toasty. It was impossible just to watch one episode and stop. Even with an exhausting fever and a wet cough, I was fighting sleep for just one more episode each time. 

The characters are all incredibly intelligent and manipulative people. Even Misa Amane, the ditsy model, is clever enough to track down the protagonist so she can prove her devotion. What makes each and every one of them so interesting, putting fashion design and snacking habits aside, are the stakes. The stakes are so high for each character that comes on-screen in Death Note. Every character potentially has his life on the line and that makes every moment very interesting. 

Death Note is a metaphorical game of chess between two main characters: Light Yagami, a genius college student who gets the ability to kill with a notebook and decides to become the God of a new world, and L, a famous anonymous detective who wants to bring Kira (Light's alter ego) to justice (and even more, to solve the puzzle.) 

It's a game of logic and psychology. Each man is making moves based on predictions seven steps ahead, founded in highly informed psychology. Because Light and L each know that their enemy is their mental-match, the jumps are large and the outcome is always surprising.

The audience has to make the same moral decision that every character in the show must make-- is it okay for Kira to be justice? Should Light be playing God? Even if you agree with L, that Light has no right and that his kind of blind justice is dangerous, Light is so wickedly fun to watch that you still root for him anyway. 

One of the most fascinating things in this high stakes game is that even though Light and L are enemies, they are also friends. They are intellectual equals, a rarity at their level, and so they respect, if not admire each other. L knows for the entire series that Light is Kira, but cannot prove it. They each know that the other is their enemy, but for one to win they would lose their best friend. 

Trapped between them is Misa Amane, a tragic character, a beautiful actress who loves Light and knowingly lets him manipulate her because she believes so strongly in his righteousness. 

The show is beautifully animated with cohesive color palettes and unified character designs. It is dark and desaturated with a focus on red, the symbolic color of temptation, desire, passion, and blood. The music is also perfect. The opening theme for the second half of the series is black, heavy, and epic. It's a dark blend of System of a Down with speed metal. “Hey, hey, human sucker. Ah, humans... human F*#$er!” 

The choice between the Japanese subtitled and the American subbed is another thing to consider. My preference is to the subtitles in this case, even though I am usually a lazy girl who wants to sit back and watch the Dub. In some series, like Beck, I think Dubs are better. I've watched Death Note both ways, so I'll explain why I prefer the Japanese audio track.

Light, in the American, seems cool, stable, and relaxed. In this way, he seems almost sociopathic. While it works well for the character, the Japanese voices gives you a bit more suspense. The Japanese is much more expressive. As part of the natural cadence of the Japanese language, with short, sharp syllables, his dialogue sounds more determined and passionate. When he gets into his emotional speeches he seems more unstable. That makes him unpredictable.

L is an American hero, whether he's meant to be a westerner or not. He's cool. Everything is casual, thoughtful, and without passion. He's the quiet Clint Eastwood character who strolls in to the western amidst panic and never breaks a sweat as he sizes up the bad-guys. To the Japanese, though, L is weird and his voice reflects this. He is more quiet and disconnected. When L speaks he is in a world of his own. His voice always seems to drift to some far off place, which makes it more understandable why the police in Japan react adversely to his presence. 

The biggest difference is found in Misa. Misa Amane in the American Dub is pushing her voice through her nose. She is loud and energetic. It is clear that she is meant to be whiny, hyper, and obnoxious. In the Japanese her voice is high and girlish. The cutesy, fast paced manner of speech fits her character as a model who plays on her looks and femininity to get her way. When Misa slows it down, however, her voice is far more breathy and sexual than the American version. Despite being youthful, she is a sex symbol and adds more interesting tension to her relationship with Light. In the American Dub you don't see the potential for any physical relationship because you understand why Light would find her annoying. In the Japanese Sub, if you close your eyes during the big hug scene at her earliest appearance, you would swear the gasps and breaths were sex noises. 

Death Note is dark, but it knows how to balance its darkness with humor. The jokes are in the little moments. Ryuk, the God of Death, loves apples and there are quite a few chuckles involved in his obsession. L's odd nature and inappropriate, almost autistic social behavior, can also be humorous at times. The character Matsuda, one of the investigators on the police force who also takes it upon himself to act as Misa's manager, is almost completely endearing comic relief. The biggest running gag, the one fans have taken to the most, is L's constant consumption of sugary treats. 

As for the story, the plot makes many wonderful twists and turns in the struggle between Kira (Light) and L. Just the simple challenge of trying to discover each other's identities leads to the loss of thousands of lives. We start to see how ambitious and ruthless Light really is, how willing he is to use people for his cause. The other most important characters, Rem and Ryuk, the Gods of Death for Misa and Light respectively, have their own distinct personalities and motives that also become tools for Light to use in his quest.
I stopped at episode 25. Something big happens in the Light/L struggle that felt like an ending to me and so I took my friend's advice and stopped. However, another friend has urged me to finish and lately the curiosity of how things play out for Misa has lead me to the decision to finish it. The camp that stops at Episode 25 is quite large, however, and so either choice is a valid one. Some claim that the new characters introduced to continue the series after that point are just derivative of other characters. I haven't seen them, so I really can't weigh in on this debate. Either way, watch Death Note. Just a few episodes is all it will take to leave you hooked.

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Olympia Heights Video Blog #1

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My Favorite Things: Green

We continue down the rainbow with the color green. Click the other swatches to see previous weeks.

Key:

A. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

B. The Boston Celtics (Boston Sports)

C. Caesar Salad!

D. Lime Green Ford Fiestas

E. Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls

F. Green Eyes

G. Green Apples

H. My Wedding

I. Green Grapes

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