OK, am back from AnimEast and had a good time.  Got my hands on 
Tales of Genji, El Hazard Vol 2, and the new Ranmas, and lots and lots of 
CDs.  Somebody mail me the translations for the Doco2 and the Hot Battle 
CD and the OAV CD, please?  Also got my hands on "the Best of Arslan" 
CD.  Am listening now as I type and its sending shivers up my back.  
Norihiru Tsuru is INCREDIBLE!!!

	Friday I got to see premiers of up and coming Ranma 2nd series.  
The dubbing was well well done.  Congrats to all the Viz guys and gals 
for a job well done.  Finally dubs that I didn't react badly too, but 
then again, Mousse was a duck through all 4 that we watched, so I didn't 
have to listen to his whiny voice.  These were hilarious and had the 
whole audience laughing their butts off.  I've actually seen these 
episodes in Korea but they were YAWN cause of bad dubbing and cutting.  
Viz got it right however (and the animation compared to the Mousse 
introduction ep was much better) and the translations were good as were 
some of the puns.  The episodes involve Ranma and Ryouga finding a pot 
which has a map leading to another pot which eventually leads to another 
pot.  These pots together are supposed to eventually lead to a 
Drowned-Man-Spring.  Most of the Ranma gang collaberate, fight and run 
through Nerima going from the Cat Cafe to the Kuno Residence and then to 
mountains to the fabled spring.  The comedy was heightened by Souns and 
Genma's cowardice toward Happosai.  This story arc ends and then we saw a 
couple of other episodes which were just as funny.

	The Viz groups, as usual, were very kind and helpful and even 
funny.  Should have seen me trying to figure out which Ranma CDs were 
which.  I just sort of bought a whole bunch and hoped I got the right 
ones.  Got to talk to the Viz Goddess Trish and she told me which ones I 
got, HURRAY!!!, I got the right ones!!

	Now the big news.  Ghost in the Shell was incredible!!  Lavishly 
animated and a cool storyline to boot.  The ending, like most of Shirow's 
works, was sort of anticlimatic compared to most of the action packed 
flick.  And sometimes the condescending speeches given by the main 
character (which doesn't seem to fit in to your average conversation) 
about the point of the film was about as subtle as a kick to your face.  
"What is life?  Well let me tell you in very detailed manners as you yawn 
and wait for the next part of the story."  So drawn out were these 
speeches that it seemed like it was made for filler to extend the film.  
However, during these times, detailed animation of the city (I'm guessing 
Hong Kong) are shown and these were quite thrilling.  The setting of the 
city in the future is not as dismal as Akira and other cyber-punkish 
films, a fresh change for me.
	All in all, a well done film with some intelligence, amazing 
fight sequences, and an ok dubbing job.  This one I'll be waiting for to 
come out on tape.
	Some rather dumb people in the audience.  I actually heard this:
"They say ghost a hundred times in the movie, but they never explain what 
it is!?  What is it!!!"  Oh well, I guess Otaku's are a variety, no?

	Central Park Media definitely have their heads on straight 
despite putting out Urotsukidoji II and III.  They have put out 
incredible titles such as the Arslan series, Tale of Genji and the 
infamous original Urotsukidoji.  All the subs and dubs come out 
together pretty close to each other.  A great company for fans.

	AE could have been better.  A lot of the scheduling got mixed 
up.  It seemed to me as if the workers were as confused as the 
attendees.  However, it was still a good convention and considering that 
I'm on the East Coast, I'm counting my blessings.  Looking forward to 
next years at NYC and also to the 15th I-Con at Stonybrook.  Suggestions 
to AE guys, if you're going to say that it is a Asian Pop culture 
convention, then please play something other than Jackie Chan's 
THunderbolt.  Although I love Jacky Chan, no reason to ignore Jet Li, 
John Woo, Chow yun Fat, and others.

	Oh, met Willian Wong (I think?) with the ever changing sig.  It 
was funny, I went up to him and asked him who he was on the Ranma ML and 
he said the guy with the ever changing sig.  I said, "Who?"  Heh.  Toshi 
reacted the same way.  Heh.  Then William asked me who I was and I said 
Roy, as in RR, as in Geen.  William said something like this, "Oh!! on 
the fanfic ML too..."  I don't know if that was a good sign or a bad 
sign.  Heh.

RR [Geen at Large]