Puffy AmiYumi – 15th Anniversary 50-Page Special by Dennis A. Amith, Garland Gee and Nergene Arquelada (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

For 15 years, J!-ENT has covered Puffy (known as Puffy AmiYumi in the U.S.).  From their music, TV appearances, album and single reviews, concert reports…you name, it we’ve covered them.  And since their U.S. debut in 2000, J!-ENT’s Dennis A. Amith has interviewed the duo.  Also, featured is a 2005 concert report by Garland Gee and a 2007 pictorial by Nergene Arquelada plus concert photos by Mayumi Nashida.

As the group celebrates their 15th anniversary, we present all interviews and articles of Puffy AmiYumi in this 50-page special feature plus a new 2010 interview with Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi.

Download this special 15th Anniversary Special Feature here! (PDF)

Pacific Media Expo 2010

Pacific Media Expo (PMX) 2010 was held on November 12-14 at the Pasadena Hilton.  This was the 7th PMX.  This was also a new location for this convention after being held at the LAX Hilton for the past four years.  Guests of Honor for this year included animator and director, Hiromi Kato, and actress Amy Okuda of the web series, The Guild.  Representing Japanese fashion were Miki Nohmoto from Alice and the Pirates, which is a sub brand of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, and Yumi Fujiwara from Innocent World.  The Nom Nom Truck became the first food truck  to be a Guest of Honor for this convention.    Also, for the first time, PMX had Korean Guests of Honor with actor, Jang Dong-gun and director, Sngmoo Lee.

One of Friday’s featured events was the Asian Food Challenge.  There was a slight change in format for this year’s contest.  Instead of rounds in which contestants ate various exotic dishes from Asia, there was simply one round to see which contestant could eat this year’s mystery food in the shortest amount of time.  The food turned out to be balut, a boiled duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly developed embryo inside.  Contestants had to eat six of them. The prize for winning was a $100 cash prize.

Friday was also capped off with a concert.  Concerts are a staple for PMX.  In the past, major acts from Japan have performed at this convention.  In the past few years, there were concerts on every day of the convention.  This year, there was only one concert and it featured three local bands.  New to PMX this year was Tanuki Suit Riot, which played covers of anime and video game music.  Also returning to PMX were local rock bands, Lemon Drop Kick and Dig Jelly.  While it wasn’t the biggest concert that PMX has ever hosted, these local bands still managed to fill the room with enthusiastic fans.

Saturday was filled with a wide variety of events.  For the second year in a row, PMX included a martial arts tournament devoted specifically to Filipino martial arts.  This event started early in the morning and lasted throughout the day.  New for this year was the Starlight Fashion Festival, which was basically an EGL carnival.  Attendees paid an extra fee to enter this event that included various games and activities for prizes.  Saturday also featured CosFest, PMX’s Cosplay Competition.  The top prize for CosFest is $300, which tends to bring out some high-quality costumes.  It’s still one of the shorter cosplay competitions.  This year, there were about 20 entries.  It’s one of those contests where the halftime entertainment lasts just as long as the actual competition.  CosFest is also different since entries aren’t limited to Japanese animation, manga, or video games.  Other genres such as Asian music, film, and EGL are accepted.  This year’s Best of Show winners were a group doing a musical number from the Korean group, SNSD.

Sunday is usually a slow day at conventions, but at PMX, some major events still remained for the final day.  For the second consecutive year, PMX featured a fashion show showcasing the designs from the fashion Guests of Honor.  It is one of the more popular events of the convention.  One of the the final events of the convention was The Warrior’s Way panel, featuring Jang Dong-gun, Sngmoo Lee, and producer, Barrie Osborne (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix).  A short clip from The Warrior’s Way was shown followed by a Q & A session using pre-selected questions submitted by fans.  Surprisingly, a panel featuring a Korean guest was extremely popular and every seat in the auditorium was full.  Some attendees and media came to PMX specifically for these guests.

PMX 2010 showed a slight improvement in overall attendance from the previous year. That’s quite interesting when you take into account that there was no major musical act performing this year.  The new venue showed it’s weaknesses as it was apparent that its space was not adequate for an event of this size.  It was much smaller than the LAX Hilton, which resulted in smaller rooms for just about everything.  The main floor was basically a series of very narrow hallways.  A few attendees said that it made them feel claustrophobic.  Elbow room was hard to find at this particular location and that seemed to be one of the major complaints for this year.  Cosplayers didn’t like it because there could be no location to hold large group gatherings and photo opportunities.  On the bright side, the neighborhood was nice for photos as long one was willing to go off-site.  There are some beautiful buildings within walking distance of the hotel.  The location was also better for after-hours activities and dining than the LAX location.  Another success was the expansion of the food truck program.  Over the weekend, five local gourmet food trucks were a part of PMX.  All of them did very well and some of them completely sold out of food.  Lines were long, but attendees seemed to be willing to wait.  It will be interesting to see what this convention does next year.  If more growth is expected, who knows where this event will be in 2011?

MacrossWorld Convention

The MacrossWorld Convention was held on the UCLA campus on October 9-10.  Apparently, this  was the 10th anniversary for the MacrossWorld Convention.  Honestly, I’ve never heard of this particular convention before this year.  Out of curiosity, I decided to pay a visit to this convention.  Admission was free, so I thought that it would be an interesting day trip.  I think anybody who is an anime fan has watched a few episodes of a Macross series.  I remember when the American dubbed series called Robotech was on television when I was growing up.

I only went for the second day of this convention.  I was surprised to find how tiny this convention was.  All programming and exhibits were contained in one room.  There was plenty of Macross related items on display.  Most of the items were donated by attendees.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of merchandise for sale, but the large amount of items on display was certainly impressive.  There were items from every Macross series and movie.   One of the first events of the day was a screening of the new Macross Frontier movie.  There were no English subtitles to help those of us who did not understand Japanese, but since the movie was released only a few days before the convention, it was quite a feat to be able to have a screening here.

Mari Iijima, the voice of Lynn Minmay from the first Macross series performed a short concert here.  Although most of the songs that she performed were some of her own original songs, the crowd was still entertained, especially when she performed some of the music from Macross.  The convention room was completely filled for her performance.  Once again, given the small size of the convention, having Mari Iijima as a guest is a really good item to have on the program.  Other events for the day included a Photoshop demonstration by Tommy Yune, a cosplay contest (there was only 1 participant), and a contest were participants had to transform a 1/55 scale Valkyrie into various configurations.  I found my visit to MacrossWorld to be quite entertaining.   It was a interesting convention to visit if you are a fan of any Macross series.

J!-ENT’s Dennis A. Amith interviews BOOM BOOM SATELLITES (J!-ENT INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES)

Absorbing both electronic and rock elements, Tokyo’s BOOM BOOM SATELLITES created a completely new and unknown sound; a sound that NME stated was “like The Prodigy fighting Underworld with bloody big sticks.” This sound not only established them as an exciting new band, but also boosted their profile as one of the most distinguished music producers in Japan.

The brain child of Bassist/programmer Masayuki Nakano and guitarist/vocalist Michiyuki Kawashima, BOOM BOOM SATELLITES have been combining distortion-drenched rock and punk guitars, with electronic dance music and heavy jazz elements to constantly evolve and refine their innovative sound over the last decade.

The band is currently touring the US and J!-ENT’s Dennis A. Amith had the opportunity to interview boy Masa and Michi before they began their US concert tour (October 2010).  The interview also features photography by J!-ENT’s Nergene Arquelada and Masanori Naruse from their performances which include their recent Los Angeles performance, their FUJI ROCK performance and photos courtesy of Sony Music Japan from their New York performance.

Click here to read our interview

Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture

The 19th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture was held on September 11-12 at Pt. Fermin Park in San Pedro, California.  This is a festival that I’ve been attending for many years.  The first time I attended this festival was back when it was held at LA City College, which was back in the early 1990′s.  It was a really small festival attended by only a few thousand people.  These days, attendance can get to over 20,000 for the 2-day festival.  It claims to be the largest Filipino festival in the United States and I don’t think anybody can dispute that.  Over the years, I’ve seen many changes to this festival.  There were times when this was an enormous festival with plenty to see and do.  During the past few years, budget cuts have taken their toll on the festival.  I miss such things as the old Culinary Arts Pavilion, where cooking demonstrations and cooking contests were held.  I remember events such as the poetry slam, the DJ battle, and the Pinoy Visions film screenings.  All of those are gone now.  Even a $7 per day admission charge isn’t enough to bring a lot of these old events back.  Just a few years ago, this festival charged no admission at all.  Every year, it’s always a guessing game to predict if the festival will have more or less than the previous year.

This year, it was very apparent that there just wasn’t as much to see.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much empty space within the festival area.  Usually, all this space would be filled with vendor or service booths or a demonstration area or an arts and crafts pavillion.  In some years, there was a rock climbing wall.  This year, a lot of it was a big empty space with most of the booths pushed to the edges of the festival area.  Despite the obvious downsizing of the festival, what didn’t decline was the strong attendance and quality entertainment.  Usually, I would attend both days of this festival.  This year, I was only able to attend on Saturday.  Usually the bigger names in entertainment are on Sunday and therefore, attendance is usually greater on the last day.  Saturday is usually less busy.  However, Saturday’s attendance was pretty strong and I felt it was better than in previous years.  This festival is still going strong and that’s a good sign.  Hopefully, there are better days ahead for this festival.

Nisei Week 2010

The 70th Annual Nisei Week Festival was held in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo on August 14-22.  I’ve been going to this festival for many years.  I think the first time was in 2003.  I’m not sure anymore.  Little Tokyo is home to several festivals throughout the year, but Nisei Week in the largest.  There’s a lot to see over the nine days of this festival.  Last year, I did a lot of coverage of this event.  I was there for a total of four days.  I saw a lot of incredible things.  Although it was fun, I really didn’t feel like doing that this year.  It was an exhausting experience to say the least.  Also, the absence of the Anime Festival this year gave me less motivation to at least be there for the entire first weekend of the festival.

This year, I only attended two days of this festival, which were the two Sundays of the event.  The first Sunday is the most popular day of the festival because of the Grand Parade.  Also returning for this year was the Tanabata Festival.  There were 3 stages in various locations in Little Tokyo providing entertainment throughout the day.  There was a little bit of everything–cultural performances, rock bands, martial arts.  Even with the absence of the Anime Festival, there was still a lot to see and to keep myself busy.  At the tail end of the Grand Parade was the Nebuta Festival, which seems to get bigger every year.  Seeing these lighted floats rolling down the street is certainly and awesome sight.

The second weekend is a lot slower paced.  There’s not as much going on, but there’s still plenty to see.  I chose to attend the final Sunday of the festival with a few friends.  This is closing day of the festival.  Also absent this year was the JSN summer matsuri, usually held on this day at the Weller Court shopping plaza.  On this day, the main events were the Taiko Festival and the Closing Ceremonies and ondo.  We also spent some time looking at the exhibits in the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center.  Honestly, in the many years I’ve been going to Nisei Week, I’ve never really taken a look at what went on inside there.  We found a vendor where you can buy your own set of samurai armor.  We also found various art and clothing exhibits and demonstrations.  We ended the day by participating in the ondo at closing ceremonies.  The dances are fun and easy to learn.  It’s always fun to participate in some aspect of a cultural festival.

This year’s Nisei Week was fun, but it’s alarming to see more events being lost.  The anime festival was not there this year, but will return next year.  The organizer was simply out of town for the weekend.  The JSN summer matsuri was gone for this year.  A few years ago, the street festival and anime festival got consolidated into one event, but that was not a significant decrease.  The Tofu Festival no longer exists.  Nisei Week is getting smaller and that’s not such a good thing.  It’s a great festival.  It’s one of my favorite events of the summer.

J!-ENT Article: A J-Pop July in Los Angeles (featuring photography by Nergene Arquelada and K.L. Vo.)

In July, Los Angeles was a host to several J-pop related events which include Anime Expo 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and MAX 2010 at Club Nokia.  Here are photos from J!-ENT’s Nergene Arquelada who covered AKB48, Beni, Megumi Nakajima, May’n and Yoko Kanno.  And also photos from K.L. Vo. at MAX 2010 with photos of Erina Mano.

Click here to download this pictorial

Anime Expo 2010

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Anime Expo.  The last time I was officially at this convention was 2004.  It was a few months before I joined J!-ENT.  The convention was still held in Anaheim, CA and had about half as many attendees as they get now.  There were many reason why I suddenly quit going to this convention altogether.  Even back in 2004, this convention was having some growing pains that were tough for me to deal with as a paying fan.  It was getting more and more difficult to get into the events that I wanted to go to.  Crowds were getting larger.  I’m one who really doesn’t like extremely large conventions.  I went to Comic Con International in San Diego a few years ago because all my friends said it was an awesome convention.  I went for one day and I absolutely hated it.  I’ve never gone back.  I suppose it’s a fine convention if you’re a big fan of TV and movies and comics and can put up with the crowds and long lines.  It simply wasn’t for me.  Anyway, back when I started going to Anime Expo, it really was the only anime convention in the Los Angeles area.  After the 2004 convention, I decided to try a few other cons because I now had a choice to go to other conventions.  Pacific Media Expo held their first convention that year.  The following year, Anime Los Angeles held its first convention.  I also went to established conventions such as Ani-Magic and FanimeCon in San Jose.  It was nice to have a choice and I decided that I didn’t have to go to Anime Expo anymore.

This year, I returned because there were a few press related things that needed to to covered and so I volunteered.

One of the guests that I covered was voice actor Katsuyuki Konishi.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a panel at Anime Expo.  He’s well known for his roles as Kamina in Gurren Lagann and America in Axis Powers Hetalia.  If you’ve been to an anime convention recently, it’s crazy how popular Axis Powers Hetalia is right now.  There were also a few concerts to cover.  Before arriving at Anime Expo, I didn’t know that I was going to be able to cover any of these concerts, but since press photos were allowed this year, I fit a few concerts into my schedule.  Eventually, I made it three shows–AKB48, Megumi Nakajima and May’n, and Beni.  All of these shows were incredible and it was nice to have these in the Nokia Theater, which is one of the newest concert venues in Los Angeles.

Of course, during my down time, I used it to take a few cosplay photos. I didn’t have time for very many, but managed to squeeze in a photo session with cosplayer “Itsuka” in her Umineko costume and an Axis Powers Hetalia group.

I never really liked this downtown Los Angeles location for cosplay photos.  It’s basically a concrete jungle, which isn’t really appropriate for all costumes, but you have to deal with it.  Also, security is pretty strict in a lot of places.  I was asked to move the Axis Powers Hetalia photo session because I was too close to Staples Center, which is right next to the LA Convention Center.  I know many people who were asked to not take photos in the JW Marriott, which is an official convention hotel and may most likely be the headquarter hotel for next year.  People were even asked to stop taking photos at a nearby park.  It was one of the more photographer unfriendly conventions that I’ve ever been too.  Generally, it’s difficult to take cosplay photos with so many of the nicer location being taken away.

So, in all, it was an interesting experience at Anime Expo.  It was fun being able to cover a lot of events, but I’m not quite sure if I enjoyed it.  It was rough.

J!-ENT Special Pictorial Feature: E3 2010 by Nergene Arquelada

The E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles has come and gone and J!-ENT was there to cover the event through the eyes of our J!-ENT photographer, Nergene Arquelada.

Check out Nergene’s special pictorial feature here!

The Future of Video Gaming

On June 16, I spent a day at E3, which is one of the largest video game trade shows in the world.  It’s not open to the general public and you either have to be in the video game industry or a member of the press to be allowed into the event.  This was the first time that I’ve been to E3.  I still play a lot of video games and I was excited to see what video games that we can expect to see in the next few months and what the next big trends are.

It seems that games that require more physical movement will be something that we will be seeing a lot more of in the next few months.  While Nintendo’s Wii has been out for a few years, Microsoft has now developed its Kinetic system and we will soon be seeing games for it.  Unlike the Wii, the Kinetic system doesn’t not require the player to hold any controller at all.  A camera and sensor system can detect the player’s movements.  Sony has also developed its Move system.  The Move system does require the game player to hold a controller in order to play games.  I’m not really sure how big of a hit these type of games will be.  Most of the games seemed very basic such as bowling and yoga and skiing.  None of these games looked very complicated.  I’m not sure if these type of games are the challenges that video gamers want, myself included.

One type of game that will benefit will be dance type video games.  I’ve always felt that games like Dance Dance Revolution were a bit cheesy.  You’re not really learning any dancing by playing Dance Dance Revolution.  Upcoming games like Dance Central and Just Dance 2 are very well suited to Microsoft’s Kinetic system.  Dance games are definitely going to be a more realistic experience.  There are some games that are a better experience with less controls involved, but I think those are very few.

Another thing that we’re going to see more of are 3D video games.  Sony will be releasing a few games for the PS3 and Nintendo will be selling its new 3DS very shortly.  This is another technology that I’m not completely sold on.  Seriously, I’m not even a big fan of 3D movies.  Does 3D look more realistic?  I don’t think it does.  I guess I’m one of those people who thinks that traditional 2D movies look a lot better.

Of course there are a lot of games coming out that aren’t 3D or use traditional controllers and quite honestly, I’m looking forward to some of those the most.  I’m definitely excited about the new games for the Gears of War , Ghost Recon, and Assassin’s Creed series.  I’m sure other players are looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV and the new Marvel vs. Capcom.  There’s definitely plenty of exciting things coming up in the world of video games.

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