Internet Famous? No, not really.

Geek not Geek ep 21

Friend of mine asked me to be a warm body on his radio show, which I did. So there. I'm quiet, but they never told me my levels were low. ;_; I'm listening to it now...which is hella akward.

Anywho, if you liked me, tell em I'm faboo and maybe I can worm my way into a few more shows.

One True Seiyuu

A seiyū, seiyuu or seiyu (声優, seiyū, seiyuu) is a Japanese voice actor. Seiyū work in radio, television and movies, perform voice-overs for non-Japanese movies, provide narration, and work as anime and video game character actors. Conventional usage among American fans is to use "seiyū" to refer to the Japanese actor and "voice actor" when speaking of a character actor in a series translated into English.

Japan currently produces 70% of the animated series in the world. Because the animation industry in Japan is so prolific, seiyū are able to achieve fame on a national level and are able to have full time careers performing voice overs.

Source: Wikipedia.com


Now many people don't know who many seiyuu are, but you must remember one. Megumi Hayashibara - as of February 2007, Hayashibara is the most prolific female seiyū with 194 credits to her name.

Now stop and think about that for a moment.
194.
Yeah, I know...

Here, have a list.
Voice Credits

Some of her more well known roles are Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), Nuku Nuku (Cat Girl Nuku Nuku), Lina Inverse (Slayers), Tira Misu (Sorcerer Hunters) and Haruka (Love Hina). You know, all of those shows that give you the warm fuzzies when you're filling your anime top tens. This woman has staying power, as well as one of the most recognised voices in anime in the past decade or so.

In addition to voicing anime, game and drama roles, she also has released solo cds, has had a few radio shows, has written several books and currently writes articles for Newtype Japan.
oh.
She's also a registered nurse. Just in case the VA job didn't work out...0_o;

Do you now understand the massive skills she has? I certainly hope so.

Here's a video tribute (that I did not make) showcasing some of her roles and songs. It's a bit Slayers heavy, but if I made it, it'd be Sorcerer Hunters heavy. Everyone has a favorite.


People may say that she's old news, but she is one of the main voice actors in Satoshi Kon's new movie, Paprika. (Which looks to be outstanding by the way)

Paprika hits American theaters May 25, 2007

And just because I can, here's a video of her singing the Love Hina theme song, Sakura Saku

SSX pre-post

Sadly, I have not been able to get my hands on SSX Blur and most likely will not be able to for about another week. There is bickering over at joystiq. It seems that the game has a bit of a learning curve. As I said, I have not played it, but all of the SSX games have a learning curve. If you're not flying down the hill face first on your first few tries, then it's too easy.

The other big rumor is that the ubers are inconsistent and difficult to pull off. I hope this isn't true, but it seems to be as most all reviewers, whether they liked it or not, commented on it.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/28/metareview-ssx-blur/

Enjoy a delicious video. The new character design will take some getting used to, but in-game models look great.

Roses...get your guns?

There was a post on Kotaku about Metal Gear Solid online servers going down, but the picture was more striking to me than anything. I didn't realize that they had put the Rumble Roses hidden somewhere in there. Here's the screen shot of Rowdy Reiko vs Reiko. Strange.



If you're interested in the original post, it's here
Metal Gear Online Servers Going Down

Source: Kotaku (duh)

Jade Empire's re-re-re release

I was one of the few that never had an original X-box. At the time I was quite happy with my PS2, and the only X-Box games I really wanted were Otogi and Jade Empire. I mangaged to borrow a friend's X-Box to play through a chunk of Jade Empire. Overall I feel that the game was put together very well and it was what Fable should have been. However, I never got the chance to complete the game. Needless to say I was thrilled when I heard that the game was getting a re-release on the PC. That is, until I saw the price. Buying the game in stores is $39.99 - if you'd prefer to download it via Steam, you can save a few dollars and pick it up for $35.95.

Honestly, both of these prices are ridiculous. The game itself is two years old and has already had 2 incarnations - the original version, and the 'Limited Edition' preorder version. The second version had a new character and a new weapon. You can pick up that version used for $12.99. Yep, 13 bucks.


BioWare's excuse for charging so much for version 3.0 of a game is this:

* Customizable, intuitive controls including support for game-pads and keyboard/mouse
* Increased graphics resolutions and new visual effects
* New monsters and enemies
* New fighting styles
* Improved combat AI and difficulty levels
* New world map interface

Now, the first 'bonus' is laughable. I should hope that the pc version can be played with a keyboard and mouse. The second and third and negotiable.

New graphics are fine, if your computer can render them properly. New enemies are just the same old enemies with a new skin stuck on them.

As far as I understand, the new fighting style (Rhino) is only available through pre-order of the game. I hope I'm mistaken with this one because new styles are always intesting.

The AI difficulty has most likely been raised due to complaints that the game was too short. So, instead of adding real content, make the player do a level grind instead. Riiiiiight.

New World Map: Ok, sounds good, but I don't recall the last map system being all that awful.

40 dollars is simply too much for a two year old game that's been polished up a bit. Even thirty dollars I can understand - I personally was hoping for a bargain price due to the age of the game. Hiking the price back up with marginal upgrades is just stupid, especially with a PC version. You're asking people to pirate it at this point.

As for me, I waited two years for it, it won't be so much longer before it makes it's way to the $19.99 shelf at the local Wal-Mart.

BioWare....
YOUR KUNG-FU IS NO GOOD HERE!

Just to be fair, here is Jade Empire's Official site:
Jade Empire Special Edition

MegaCon 07

Pretty fabulous overall, with some snafus here and there, as to be expected.

The amvs were generally awful and fraught with technical difficulties. By the time the 'winners' were announced, someone in the crowd had shouted 'Mario Kart!' so I was ds-ing through a Death Note amv, but came back for the best comedy. It was Azumanga Daioh to a Lords of Acid song about Sakaki's....uh....cat. My face hurt from laughing. Made the awful wait worthwhile.

Costume contest was great. The line was incredibly long and if you didn't get there 1.5 to 2 hours early, then you didn't get in. 95% of the costumes were great, with a emphasis on too many Naruto characters. @_@; I was annoyed that a Naruto kid beat a Rozen Maiden Hina Ichigo AND a incredibly cute Chiyo-chan. Oh and the winning group also had an infant in it. Infant = instant win.

I did a tiny bit of shopping. Got a shmexy print of Rogue in her new outfit - painted by Joe Pekar. *drools* Also, a couple of comic books, 2 shirts (Rogue & Trinity Blood), a FF12 pin (blind box! bleh!) and a hand made Chocobo sculpture to go with my Cactuar.

In general, I can't remember Friday, but I'm sure it was great! Saturday was surreal, and Sunday was anime dub contest, picking up and heading out. About the anime contest - the guy had an Apple machine. Now, they had been talking crap about how great Macs were at the terrible amv show. Apparently the whole system had died. So, more tech. diff. @ the dub show - the host says 'Oh calm down, everything is fine', at which point I reply (a little too loudly apparently) 'I will not calm down, I was at the amv show!' - a giant hunk of crowd laughs and gives the 'ooooh, burn' noise. *_*; whoops :) The few dubs they got were hysterical! Major props to them.

That's pretty much all that stuck in my brain. MegaCon is always a whirlwind of geeky goodness and unexpected situations.

Hello and good evening...

I've always thought about putting a blog together, but I never knew if I had anything really useful or poignant to say. After wandering around online and reading various news sites and anime blogs, I feel pretty confident that I can add to your time spent surfing the internet(s).

I recently returned from MegaCon, and my first post will be covering my opinion on a couple of events there.

I hope you enjoy my random blathering.
-eg-