[Anime of the Week] 5cm Per Second (7/15-21/2012)

Image copyright goes out to CoMix Wave Inc

Being a fan of Japanese animation, it was almost impossible for me not to notice the work of Makoto Shinkai who's first full length animation project was done %100 on his own about a cat. All of his work has this particular "feel" to them- bright pastel colors play a big role in his film as do emotional stories of love and moving on. Now, for those who know of this director you may be asking why I am not featuring his most recent film Children Who Chase Lost Voices but instead I am featuring 5cm Per Second. My answer is simple- Children Who Chase Lost Voices does not feel like a Shinkai film to me but more of a Ghibli film =/ I wanted to feature a Shinkai film and so happen to have stumbled across the manga version of 5cm Per Second at my local Barnes and Noble the other day.

# of "parts": 3

Type: original
Rating:Teen

Synopsis:The Story is set in Japan beginning from the 1990s and ending in modern day, with each segment centered on a boy named Takaki Tōno. It is important to note that the first episode takes place during a time period when cell phones are uncommon and email has not yet reached the general populace.

 

[previous AOWs]

The Magical Black Wing @ Summercon 2012

What's up my milleniums?! Blackwinged Magician is here with my first con coverage vid! Check it out!

The Super Test Tube Bros. - Summercon 2012

The Super Test Tube Bros., El Paso's new stars of convention coverage, bring us a great series of videos from Summercon 2012. Here is an interview with the El Paso Ghostbusters, followed by an interview with One More Level retro gaming store.

El Paso Ghostbusters:



One More Level:

Yu-Gi-Oh The Blood of Razel, Behind the Scenes/Interview with Michel Solseth

The premiere of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Blood of Razel at this year's Summercon 2012 was a huge success! We here at Augmented Reality are gearing up for the upcoming internet release of the film. In the meantime, though, here are two videos illustrating the behind the scenes happenings of this film. First up is a collection of behind the scenes footage followed by an interview with Co-Director Michael Solseth.

Behind the Scenes #1



Interview with Michael Solseth

Supah Hero Time! Bring out the Otaku Rangers!

What's up my milleniums! Blackwinged Magician is back from a short hiatus! I just premiered Yu-Gi-Oh! The Blood of Razel yesterday. I would like to extend my thanks a hundred times over to everyone here at Augmented Reality who've made these past six months a blast! I'd also like to thank SummerCon and anyone who came to the panel!

Ok now that that's out of the way, welcome to another segment of-

From now on this will be a weekly segment and I'll be reviewing tokusatsu shows (namely Kamen Rider and Super Sentai) every week! Kinda like Akia-chan's Manga of the Week, Anime of the Week, etc. And today I'm gonna take a look at Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger!

Ok So I gave you guys a brief look at Akibaranger a while back, so today, I'm gonna go more in depth with the show.

Now the show unfortunately lasted 13 episodes (the 13^th being more of a clip show) but DAMN what 13 episodes those were! This series had as much character development, as much twists, and definitely as much story as a normal Sentai which runs for about 50 episodes! And you'd think you'd feel overwhelmed with a lot of stuff going on, but the beauty of Akibaranger is that you don't feel overwhelmed. The series flows nice and easy. It's prefect from start to finish and every episode had something to offer. As a matter of fact, none of the episodes just felt like fillers to me.

Now I'll go a little more in depth of the story. The first episode introduces the town of Akibahara (a true town in Japan) which is considered “otaku central”.

We meet Akagi, a 29 year old man obsessed with Sentai, Aoi-tan(an anime within the show itself) and a woman named Sayaka which he occasionally delivers packages to.

He constantly finds himself having delusions and this catches the attention of Hakase who has just enlisted Aoyagi, a martial arts student who is a closet otaku. She enlists Akagi to be an Akibaranger, while Akagi thinks he is merely being enlisted for an actual Sentai show.

Next they enlist Yumeria and the team is formed!

They are then taken to the Super Sentai Cafe, which serves as their base and all around awesome hang out spot!

Hakase and her assistant Kozkoz give the team their changers, the MMZ-01, or the Moe Moe Z-cunes and the team transforms for the first time!

The episode ends with the team meeting Malshina, having their first battle with a pretty lame anti-climax, and the team being told that the entire battle was just a delusion of theirs.

The rest of the show is just a hilarious, action-packed, perv-fest, with twists that could make your head spin. The show is beyond well and cleverly written. They say there MIGHT be a chance for a second season, and I think I speak for the countless fans when I say... TOEI IF YOU DON'T MAKE A SECOND SEASON I WILL TAKE YOUR (bleep) AND RUN IT THROUGH A WOOD CHIPPER!

The Future of Augmented Reality

This past June 23, we at Augmented Reality had out first year anniversary. I say “had” instead of “celebrated” because we had no particular party, private or public, and we didn’t make any special videos or articles made in order to commemorate the event. In fact, we haven’t posted many articles at all lately, and for that I have nothing to say other than we’re sorry. 

A lot has happened in the personal lives of my contributors and I the past few months. Some of them are minor, some of them are major, and some of them had more impact on us than they really should have. One of those types of changes occurred around February, during my last semester of college at UTEP, when my friend and fellow contributor Alicia left her apartment to move into the spare room of my house. A good amount of my personal time has been spent adjusting to the changes that can only come from sharing a home with someone. Naturally, the fact that I was working on graduating from university added to my work load, but one thing that was most impactful for me was the fact I’d lost my job as a file clerk at a local grade school; a job that I’d held on to for four years. 

A lot of time that would have gone into the blog has been put into the adjustments that we’ve had to make. Alicia and I are both the main editors of this blog and in the past few months we’ve both had to put aside our responsibilities a lot in order to…make life happen. In addition to that we’ve taken on a new contributor, John Browning, the “BlackWing Magician,” and we’ve been hard at work producing his directorial project “Yu Gi Oh: The Blood of Raizel.” The production of the film has been an emotional mixed bag for all involved. There have been good times and trying times on set for both the crew and any members of the cast we’ve brought in from El Paso’s numerous other organizations. 

Thankfully, the film is as of now complete life is slowing down, and everyone in the AugReal crew are optimistic about one another and their ability to continue forward working as a team. As for me, well, I’ve graduated UTEP with my Creative Writing and Communication degree, and while I’m still between jobs I’ve made a significant amount of income doing some freelance online communications work.

When I think about the future of the blog, however, all I can think about is how much more we can all accomplish. I want Augmented Reality to do its best to provide the latest information on all of El Paso’s great events, conventions and local business. I want Augmented Reality to produce unique and original content for the web, and I want Augmented Reality to be the go-to place for all the greatest information related to fandom this great city of El Paso can offer. In order to do that, I have to be the person who is willing to change. The past few weeks I’ve been figuring out to do that, and I’ve busied myself with making apologies, negotiating new deals with some associates, and planning a feature for the blog that, well…I don’t want to spoil the surprise. 

So, for all of you that are looking forward to some sort of affirmation from Augmented Reality on its first anniversary, here it is: the next few months re going to be filled with all new material, brand new content, and brilliant new ideas that are going to be like nothing we’ve ever produced before. We are already hard at work on some unique and original ideas, and with the addition of new member John Browning’s directorial skills, we will be bringing out some great original content. We’re still very closely associated with many local conventions, shops, and event-makers in the city, and we’ll continue to provide a unique look at all the truly unique and interesting events that El Paso has to offer.

Here’s to the future of Augmented Reality.

Marginal Gaming - Women Written Wrong

 In his latest article for 8bitfix, Mike Cervantes explores just what went wrong with the Tomb Raider & Hitman Absolution trailers and the "Tropes Vs. Women" controversy. What are we all getting wrong when it comes to portraying female characters in games?

Check it out on 8bitfix.