Last Words - Mandalorian Mercs and Spiralmind

The last two interviews produced by Mike Cervantes for Augmented Reality feature the charitable local cosplay group the Mandalorian Mercs and the local comic book company Phi-3 Comics, creators of Spiralmind.

The End of Augmented Reality

At the time of this writing, it has been one week since EP-CON 2012 closed its doors. My three days of the convention, despite the tiring efforts it took to film a majority of it for public release, it was enjoyable. we got to engage in what has become my favorite convention activity: videography, and despite obvious issues with the convention in terms of schedule, we weren't terribly put out, and managed to complete the task put before us on the convention floor with duty and conviction.

Since the convention ended, however, an enormous amount of controversies have sprung up regarding the convention. I don’t intend to go into details about what happened. They have already been well and accurately publicized.

These circumstances come as a lethal blow to the publishers of Augmented Reality, all of them long time supporters of EP-CON and associated events. Therefore, we’ve come to the decision that Augmented Reality Online Magazine will no longer be operating. We do not want to associate ourselves with these sorts of circumstances, and we don’t want to make the statement that we celebrate El Paso fandom when grievous errors like such are being made on behalf of the convention, its organizers, and all associated parties, including ourselves.

The members of Augmented Reality have all agreed to part ways and make attempts to continue to report in their own. In the next few months you’ll still see the members of this blog continue to involve themselves in their own personal fandoms. Many elements of the blog will also continue to exist on the web, but will be attributed solely to the individuals responsible for them. What will follow after this statement will be the remaining videos we filmed during EP-Con 2012 and for our own personal projects. These final videos will be uploaded periodically until they’re complete.

On behalf of all the staff of Augmented Reality, we’d like to say thank you to the El Paso fan community. If you hadn’t supported us, we wouldn’t have existed at all. Thanks to those of you who truly appreciated our work. Thanks to those of you who came up to us at a convention to tell us you appreciated us, found our publications to be entertaining, and used it for the purpose it was made: to understand and celebrate the unique environment we have in El Paso.

Someday, the clouds will part, and we’ll all have our time in the sun.

So Says The Captain - Early EP-CON

The Captain is at the El Paso convention Center on Friday morning, and he's WAY too early for EP-CON 2012. But hey, there's gotta be someone out there to interview, like "Dog Tacos" author Terry McChesney, The staff of Spaced Out Creations and Dos & Tattoos, Cara Nicole the "AZ Powergirl," and Valeria Contreras of "Jaime's Jungle."

So Says The Captain - Instant Game Gratification

The Captain takes a moment to discuss video game economics. How many games do you own, and out of those games, how many do you actually play? Let The Captain engage you in a little game of thought.

SUPAH HERO TIME!! UCHUU KITAAAA!!!!!!

IZOUKE!!!

Episode 48 of Kamen Rider Fourze came out this last weekend, bringing end to one of the most amazing and memorable Kamen Rider series I have ever had the pleasure of watching, and that's something coming from me. 

I mean, when I first heard the rumors and saw the suit and saw the switches and even when I saw how Gentarou was supposed to look, I flat out hated it. I had for some reason always hated the whole pompadour style, especially in animes, and when I saw our protagonist was going to sport one, I immediately had a hate for the character. At first the design looked horrendous. I took one look at that rocket helmet and I groaned out loud. I had no intentions of watching it nor did I think it would amount to anything great.... HOLY #@$ WAS I WRONG. This has GOT to be one of the best written and best casted shows I have seen since Kamen Rider Double and Shinkenger, my two all time favorites. I'm going a little more in depth here than I usually will, so please bear with me while I have my fangasm.

So Fourze premiered back in 2011, airing alongside of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, until that show ended and it aired the remainder of it's episodes along with the current sentai, Go-Busters. The show revolves around the students of Amanogawa High School, namely Gentarou Kisaragi, a transfer student who looks like a “bad boy” but has a heart of gold.

Upon first arriving, he encounters Kengo Utahoshi, who very rudely tells a girl off who gave him a love letter. Kengo immediately despises Gentarou and simply ignores him as he goes to retrieve the love letter which Kengo threw away. Kengo then meets up with his classmate Yuki, and we briefly learn about “Zodiarts” which are students that have been turning into monsters with the aid of “Switches”. To Kengo's dismay, we learn that Gentarou has been assigned to his homeroom.

Gentarou's main goal to become friends with everyone in the Amanogawa High, and trust me, he genuinely wants to be friends with everyone.

We also learn that apparently Gentarou and Yuki were close friends when they were children. Later on, Gentarou roams around the cafeteria, and we see two other side characters, JK, a “hip” guy who serves as an informant and Tomoko, an odd goth who keeps to herself.

As Gentarou greets everyone, he makes the horrible mistake of sitting at the “cool kids” table and people start murmering. Enter Miu, the “Queen” and Shun, the “King” of Amanogawa. They immediately insult Gentarou and when he begins to fight back, Shun has the football team grab Yuki and threaten to hurt her unless he listens to them. Reluctantly, he goes outside and begins getting beaten up by Shun, This ends, however when they are attacked by a Zodiart.

The entire football team runs, leaving Gentarou to fight the Orion Zodiart, who doesn't take even a scratch from Gentarou's beating.

When all seems lost, Kengo appears, manning the Power Dizer, a robotic suit that puts immense strain on him. We also find out that this is also due to the fact that Kengo has an odd sickness that cause him to cringe in pain every so often.

Shortly after the fight, we see Kengo and Yuki entering through a locker, which through cosmic power, serves as a gateway to the Rabbit Hutch, a base on the moon which apparently was left to Kengo by his father, along with the Power Dizer, Fourze Driver and plans for several Switches. Yuki reminds him that he is too weak to handle the Fourze system, and just then, they hear a familiar voice.

Gentarou had followed them to the Rabbit Hutch and heard the whole story.

He volunteers to fight as Fourze, and before Kengo can argue, he is struck by another wave of pain, and Gentarou leaves with the belt.

Gentarou immediately encounters the Orion Zodiart and Yuki instructs him on how to transform into Fourze.

We see Fourze fighting the Orion Zodiart, displaying a number of switches including Rocket, Launcher, Chainsaw and Radar, each which provide Fourze with distinct and awesome weapons on his hands or legs.

Fourze then performs a Limit Break, or final attack, and a pretty awesome one at that, and defeats the Zodiart. 

Kengo appears, manning the Power Dizer and grabs Gentarou, with intentions to hurt him.

The rest of the show is an explosion of awesomeness, with UNFORGETTABLE characters, a beautiful storyline, unbelievable twists and explosive action. Even the suit grew on me and remains one of my all time favorite suit design for Riders. This series took me by surprise and it now holds a deep place in my heart. It has great morals, great episodes, it's just great! Sadly, it finished the past Sunday. But this isn't it! I will write a full overview of the characters soon, for all Fourze fans who have already watched the series. If you haven't watched it GET TO IT! Now, all that's left is to look forward to Kamen Rider Wizard.

[Anime of the Week] Sword Art Online (8/26-9/1/2012)

Image copyright goes out to A1 Pictures.

SAO screamed ".hack//" to me when I first started watching this what turned out to be wonderful anime. While this anime does share similar elements with .hack// (people getting stuck in an mmo world with only a drastic means of escape); so far the anime has proven to be different enough to not only be enjoyable but seen as its series. Unlike .hack//, this one is based on a series of light novels rather than a video game series.

Type: light novel
Rating:Teen

Synopsis:In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...

[previous AOWs]

EP-con 2012: Anime Theater Schedule

The El Pas Comic Con is only 2 weeks away! With that Augmented Reality is proud to present our readers with a first view of the Anime Theater Schedule for this years EP-Con.
(you can click the image for full size)