While the above picture is from the first one, last night was a pretty exciting time at Kanpai, Anime! Having to compete with college finals and the release of Starcraft II- one of the most anticipated videogames ever -I am really glad that people were still able to come out and have a great time!

Every last Tuesday of the month, Tatame Lounge in Winter Park lets me host an anime night where a bunch of adult anime fans get together, socialize, and watch a cool anime movie. Fun times are had by all!

I’m still getting used to being a bar host. It’s certainly not the same as being a panelist or convention event host! Regardless, I am glad a bunch of people came out. Thank you all for doing so!

Last night, we showed the import BluRay version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It’s always a fantastic movie and now it looks better than ever! (Thanks AFO Erik for lending it to me!) Some people have never seen the movie before so I feel like a did a good thing!

I plan to show more awesome movies like that so I hope many people can keep coming! The next Kanpai, Anime! will be after the Fall semester starts at many local colleges so that will lend to a larger crowd to show up. The atmosphere of Tatame Lounge is great for hanging out!

The best part of all? It’s an adults-only event. So none of the con kids will be there to yell out “You have lost the game!” or “Butt scratcher,” or hitting each other with “Yaoi” paddles and playing duck, duck, goose on the floor. Everyone who has come out so far has been pretty chill. Not to rag on the kids, but we need our time to be anime fans without all of that crazy stuff going on.

So if you have liked Kanpai, Anime! so far or would like to go soon, help the event out by spreading the word! Let your friends, family, co-workers, and classmates know so they can come out too! Get on your blogs, Twitters, and Facebooks and post about the event! That would do so much good for Kanpai, Anime! so we can have awesome things like trivia contests and costume contests as the attendance grows!

It would feel more appropriate if Metrocon called itself “Florida’s Largest Gathering of Posers” because they certainly aren’t an anime convention.

Review End

To demonstrate how I felt throughout the weekend, here is a screencap of a tweet I found last week:

In-between all of those responsibilities I spend a lot of time promoting each of them and simply being a fan. It takes a lot of energy to do all of this and sometimes it’s the only thing I ever talk about, as friends on my facebook and followers on my twitter already know.

As I do all of this, I try to stay positive and energetic while at the same time mindfully avoid repeating mistakes that those who were doing things like this before me have already made. I can now understand why some people in this line of fandom have turned out the way they have because it is so easy to become negative during all the chaos we face.

Despite the risks, I keep doing these things because I love to and this year I will be traveling to a whole lot of events. Here’s is the full list so you can see how busy I will be!

Orlando Anime Day – This event actually happens this Saturday. I’ll be there to give out new flyers for AFO 11 and to talk up that convention. I honestly don’t see any other reason to attend. This event doesn’t really do anything to promote anime and is more or less a quick money making venture for anime convention vendors. They have a costume contest because cosplayers will go to anything if there is such an event. Yeah…

Nerdapalooza – The following weekend is Nerdapalooza, a music festival dedicated to nerdcore musical acts. I am extremely excited about this because The Adventures of Duane and BrandO will be there along with The Protomen and MegaRan. I look forward to seeing them and others I have not heard yet perform!

MetroCon – The weekend after Nerdapalooza is Metrocon, the self-proclaimed largest “anime” convention in Florida. I have mixed feelings about this one.

I really wanted this to be the convention I go to as anime fan because I spend so much time working two other conventions in central Florida(MegaCon and Anime Festival Orlando) that I end up missing a lot of cool stuff. Looking at their schedule this year, it looks like anime is that thing on the side and focus seems to be on cosplay, Pokemon, videogames, Twilight, Dr. Horrible, and every other aspect of internet geek culture.

(For the record, I love videogames but I can attend better talks from people well educated on the subject at videogame conferences so videogame panels at anime conventions don’t really excite me.)

The convention’s big event is their “Anime” Human Chessmatch that happens on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It seems like they put all their resources into that event and the rest of the convention is an afterthought. (This is a shame.) I do enjoy watching about half the Chessmatch when I go but the other half is painful to sit through and the ending always pisses me off.

Usually, some “secret character” comes out to kick ass and save the day. For a couple years it was Sepiroth and last year it was Darth Vader. What the hell does the latter have to do with anime? See what I mean? How hard is it to bring out someone dressed as Goku to do a Genki Dama? The whole crowd could throw up their hands to “donate” part of their life force and it would be awesome crowd interaction and RELEVANT.

I don’t know any of my friends who are actually excited to go to Metrocon. In fact, many are just going because other people are. I’m going because I pre-registered months ago thinking that it could be good this year and since I can’t get my money back I might as well go. At least all my friends are excited about…

Anime Festival Orlando XI – Coming the first weekend of August, I will once again be busy with my ragtag hand-picked crew to do another weekend long live action game. It’s called Skies of Orlandia and it features a lot of fun things that convention attendees can do to earn experience points, level up, and help one of four factions win the impending conflict! Myself and other returning veteran staff have learned a lot about this kind of game over the past two years. Because of that, this year there will be a game better than any of the ones held at any prior AFO.

Once again, it’s the marquee event at the convention. That’s exciting; however, what do this have to do with anime? I have been wondering that for quite some time. It certainly is a fun event and does help AFO stand out. Lots of people like the live action game as well. I like it a whole lot. But where is the connection? I do not know.

However, I am going to balance things out with a couple key anime panels taking place on Friday and Saturday night respectively. The first will be my upgraded- and mostly rebuilt -hit, “It’s MANIME! The Manly Anime Panel!” This is a panel that EVERYBODY should see! It’s that good and you will be a better person for going.

I will also be doing a sequel panel to “Is Anime Already Dead?” that I did at MegaCon earlier this year called “How to Make Anime Cool Again.” It’s a lofty task but I am sure that Fuzzy and I will get a strong message delivered to our audience.

I’m also wondering how the fans will feel about all the Power Rangers guests we have this year. By the time AFO begins, the guest list will be split near the middle between representation of anime industry guests and those involved with the spandex-clad hero franchise. LOTS of people love returning guest Jason David Frank, but are we over doing it now? I may be thinking about this too much since everything will be fine and everyone going to AFO will have a good time like they always do.

(Disclaimer: The views of Kent Ward do not reflect those of Anime Festival Orlando or any of its staff members.)

I’ve seen the full list of AFO events(many are yet to be announced) and things are looking really good. There will be lots of fun for everyone, especially those attending because they are anime fans. It’s too bad I’ll be working the convention all weekend and will miss most of the panels and events I want to see!

Anime Weekend Atlanta – I haven’t been to a fandom-related convention outside of Florida since DragonCon in 2006 so Anime Weekend Atlanta(one of the ten largest anime conventions in the United States) has got me pumped. It’s about six weeks after AFO so I have plenty of time to recover from the gauntlet of summer conventions and festivals. I look forward to meeting Shinji Aramaki and many other guests they plan to have.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail approving my MANIME panel to be on the schedule that Saturday at the same time as their costume contest. This is great because I know already that I won’t miss anything that I care about! I hope that AWA can be the convention I can go to and enjoy as an anime fan.

That’s it for the year. Friends are trying to talk me into going to DragonCon and EXPCon but I am going to pass on both. Perhaps I will change my mind on the latter if something really cool gets announced. Other than that, my schedule is getting packed! Hope to you at some of these events!

I will be hosting several panels and events at the convention in the Anime Events Track. It would be in your best interest to attend them if you happen to be going!

Anime is Already Dead?
Friday, March 12th from 2:30pm – 3:30pm in W224B

Anime in America boomed with tremendous popularity in the beginning of the last decade and by now the bubble has burst. What happened and who is to blame? What about anime has changed over the past ten years? Is there hope for the Japanese import? The founder of the Propeller Anime Club provides insight into this matter and how it will affect anime fandom in the future.

The Panel about Everything!
Friday, March 12th from 4:30pm – 6:00pm in W224B

Everything you should hear about convention culture will be discussed! Convention survival, how to talk to girls, the dos and don’ts of anime conventions, and all the dark secrets of the anime community will be covered!

(Note: I am not an expert on how to talk to girls, but my co-panelists are!)

It’s MANIME! The Manly Anime Panel
Saturday, March 13th from 12:30pm – 1:30pm in W224B

Learn what is to be a true man and makes a manly anime! This one is for fans of series like Fist of the North Star, Berserk, and other testosterone-filled classics! Both old and new anime of manly proportions shall be covered and you will even learn the gospel that is the Twelve Laws of True Man!

(Note: If you don’t go to this panel, then you are already dead!)

That is it for my panels! My club will also be running the Ninja Olympics, the Quickdraw! Contest, and Karaoke on Sunday! The anime events schedule looks better than ever this year at MegaCon so definitely check out as much as you can while you enjoy the convention. See you guys in March!

Sometimes, I wonder why people have negative year end reflections every year that I have known them. It really makes me wonder what they are really trying to do with their lives. I’ve come to believe that you have to make the most of every moment in your life or else you are not living.

This has been a weird decade for the world overall. I can’t even describe it without writing an essay where I will most likely contradict myself often. However, I really hope the world changes in the next decade- and for the better. But it is going to be our responsibility to make that happen. I really think in this decade, too many people gave up on personal responsibility and depended far too much on people with authority to do things for them that they should have done themselves. And really, because of the lack of personal responsibility, we let our whole country fall apart.

Our economy would not be the way it is now if Americans didn’t become so lazy and health care wouldn’t be such a critical issue if everyone took better care of themselves. That is the basic truth that no politician will ever have the balls to tell the people. We are the only people who can make our lives good; nobody else can do that for us.

Enough of the negative; this has been a year for me that I will never forget. I’m going to now list every significant thing that happened that defined Kent Ward in 2009.

1. I started off the year right with the now legendary Down Right Fierce New Year’s Day Party. The main highlight was that I got so wasted that I Falcon Punched a friend in the chest because I thought he was raping a girl I liked at the time. He was actually trying to hug her goodbye and was on the ground hacking for six minutes for no good reason whatsoever. He helped me clean my house the next morning.
2. Four years ago, I had graduated Full Sail University with a Bachelor’s of Game Design and Development. There has been a lot of uncertainty – that I refused to show – about where it would take me. Sometime after I graduated, I was offered a chance to be a lab specialist at the school. I took it and over time, I became one of the best. I constantly challenged myself and it was a great opportunity to get better and meet lots of great people. I’m really glad for the experience because it did so much for me as a person as it did for my career.
3. I was also proud of myself for being able to take charge as head lab specialist for courses such as OpenGL and Real Time Animation this year. It was a lot of responsibility in addition to already being in charge of Engine Development I. It wore on me a lot and I still wonder how I was able to keep my sanity. Richard and Shawn provided me with many opportunities to advance myself and I am truly grateful for that.
4. The last one about my time at Full Sail: I created new lecture and lab material for RTA that would help students with getting animations working in their games sooner in their final Game Project course. It seemed like it took most groups two or three months to get that sort of thing working, but now they have a system in place that they can adapt right from the get-go.
5. I participated in the Global Game Jam in January, which is a 48-hour game making event. I really am proud I did that because it really lit a fire in my belly that I kept going for the rest of the year. I also got to work with badasses such as David Brown and Jay Baird.
6. Over the years, being exposed to epics such as Fist of the North Star, Berserk, The Alphabet of Manliness, 24, The Epic of Gilgamesh and every single Bruce Lee movie, I had started to develop ideas of what a man should be. My personal experiences were also a big factor in all of this. I noticed over the years that the manly spirit has died amongst many of my fellow brethren and that there was confusion on what makes a man manly. So I co-wrote the Twelve Laws of True Man, which I think does a good job for providing laws for true men to live by. When I first presented it, my audience was the local anime community, but I will write a revised version in the future where my audience will be all of humanity.
7. This year has been an awesome year for the Propeller Anime Club! We kicked ass at several conventions, organized a couple of fun game tournaments, did a lot of outings, got drunk together once or twice(the truth comes out!), and of course we watched lots of great anime – both old and new. I plan to write a reflection on the club blog, but I truly appreciate the amount of time I spent on the club. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say that the Propeller Anime Club is what people should look towards as an example when one would want to describe an excellent anime club.
8. Speaking of anime conventions – ANIME FESTIVAL ORLANDO 10! Oh man, that was such a good life victory for me. AFO, every year, is the best damn anime convention in Florida and if you think otherwise then you must be retarded. Myself, and many others, worked our damn hardest to put on Swords of Orlandia III this year. The live action game has now become the premiere anime convention experience in the entire state, if not the country. I am really proud of how the game turned out and that many people enjoyed it. The icing on the cake was being made one AFO’s newest staff members because of my efforts(and those of the people who supported me helped with that too!).
9. I went to Disney World for the first time since I was twelve a little while ago. I went with one of my best friends, Fuzzy, and a couple of deceitful women. It was a double date that epically failed for both of us but the trip was still fun regardless of that. I loved Epcot the most out of the trip and I can’t wait to go back and drink around the world!
10. I played Beyond Good & Evil this year and I am really glad I did. What a fantastic game!
11. I really don’t think that this was the “Year of the Fighting Game” that I was hoping for, but I did get Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, The King of Fighters XII, and Tekken 6. I really feel like there was far more hype than delivery with the return of fighting games in mainstream gaming, but the games were still better than most of everything else that came out this year(which really isn’t saying much). I plan to write about Tekken 6, which I have determined to be this year’s best fighting game. Don’t worry; I am about as surprised as you are.
12. Since I was ten, I’ve always wanted to take martial arts. This past month, I finally did. I am still a beginner when it comes to Muay Thai and I have some interesting bruises on my body because of it. However! It was about damn time that I finally got to follow this path I dreamed of for so long. I look forward to getting better at it and becoming more of a complete person as a result.
13. My brother, my parents, and I had Thanksgiving together in Alabama this year. We haven’t had Thanksgiving together in six years so this was definitely an accomplishment! I also discovered Grey Goose vodka during this trip and I love it so~
14. I saw Dethklok and Mastodon with excellent friends Jacob and Jess last month. I wouldn’t exactly call the experience “Metal.” The show was at the Hardly Rock, where moshing and crowd surfing is forbidden. People tried to mosh anyways but it was pathetic. I really feel like half the people who showed up were just posers that were there because they watch Adult Swim. We showed up to the concert after the opening acts played and I somehow made it to the front. Actually, it was easy; just about everyone else there was a pussy so knocking them out of my way as I made it front and center at the concert wasn’t much of a challenge. I had my horns closer to Dethklok front man Brendon Small than anyone else, which automatically makes me the most metal person that went to the concert.
15. I left Full Sail to become a game developer simulation scientist.
16. I really think I became a legitimate adult this year. I am more proud of this than anything. I’ve accomplished a lot this year, but I also had to deal with some supreme bullshit along the way. Despite that, all the experiences I’ve had up to this point have made me who I am today and will help make me into a better person in the future. I have learned so much about life this year and I think from this point on, if I truly make the effort, then life will continue to be good.

 It’s been real good, 2009! I couldn’t have asked for a better year or a better way to end the decade! Here’s to the future!

AFO9 has some pretty cool guests this year too, like the American Green Power Ranger, Jason David Frank, and the voice and motion capture actor of Devil May Cry’s Dante, Rueben Langdon. A bunch of One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist voice actors will be there too.

Now I am going to plug what I am doing there. I have a couple panels and a manly anime trivia contest going on the late nights. During the daylight hours, I will be a Game Master for AFO’s Swords of Orlandia II live action game. It’s a fairly interactive game taking place throughout the weekend in which registered attendees of AFO can choose a good or evil alignment and then go on simple quests and compete in contests of skill to gain experience points and level up. Once a player has maxed out their level, they contribute a shard of last year’s broken swords to their alignment and the side with the most will win the day. Also, maxed out players will be entered in a raffle for some cool prize. I think the game will go well with the younger crowd and you will most likely find me at the Raven’s Roost Tavern, interacting with players.

Below the jump will be a listing of non-Orlandia events that I am hosting.

Manly Anime Trivia Contest

Friday, Midnight – Oleander B – Kent Ward, Mike Burgess

Shed those manly tears because there’s going to an anime trivia contest of truly epic proportions! No kids in orange jumpsuits pretending to be ninjas here! If you think stuff like Berserk and Fist of the North Star is the best stuff ever, then this is YOUR trivia contest!

Fist of the North Star Will make your head explode!

Saturday, 10pm – Marathon/Cedar – Kent Ward, Mike Burgess, Jacob Luke

WATATATATATATA! Fist of the North Star is the manliest thing that has ever come out of Japan, and will celebrating its 25th anniversary this year! Celebrate the glory and heroics of the End of the Century Savior, Kenshiro, along with the other legendary Hokuto brothers. We will share grand tales of true manliness of one of the most legendary and influential anime and manga franchises ever.

Demons and Schoolgirls: A Hentai Panel (18+)

Saturday, 11:30pm – Palm Salon H – Daniel Fandino, Kent Ward, Kristal Jones

While extremely popular in Japan, as evidenced by the copious amounts of hentai games, manga and anime that are produced yearly, due to its adult nature hentai does not have the same exposure or level of acceptance in the United States. Demons and Schoolgirls is a lively look at hentai incorporating discussion, clips, prizes and a few surprises.

Due to the nature of the material being discussed, this panel will be 18+ only.

That’s right! All my stuff is about violence and sex, the way it should be. See you guys at AFO!