#news expo live 2023

[kinghellcat]

Finally finally finally made a dream come true ✨

I saw NEWS live 💚💛💜 it was such a blast and we actually had really good seats!!

[studiotriggeritalia]

Riepilogo Anime Expo 2023

Riepilogo Anime Expo 2023

Salve brigata, è da parecchio che non aggiorniamo il sito con qualche novità quindi perché non cogliere la palla al balzo dell’Anime Expo 2023? Probabilmente i più interessati tra voi si sono già aggiornati in altri lidi ma le notizie sono comunque interessanti e quindi è bene riportarle anche qui. Durante l’AX di quest’anno erano presenti: Hiromi Wakabayashi, Masahiko Otsuka, Hiroyuki Imaishi,…

[yumeka-sxf]

There were two panels related to Spy x Family at Anime Expo this year, with the first on Day 1 being Toho Animation's panel featuring both Spy x Family and Kaiju No.8.

The panel started with the SxF portion, with the special guests being the series director, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and the CODE: White director, Takashi Katagiri. They also had the six SxF ThreeZero figures on the stage with them 😀

The MC asked them some questions, like what their favorite scenes were from their respective works and who their favorite character is. They also showed behind-the-scenes footage of both the Loid/Fiona tennis match in season 1, and Yor's fight scene against Type F in the movie. We got to see both of these scenes in rough animatic sketch form and then in line art form, which was pretty cool (it wasn't clear if photo/video was prohibited at this panel, but I didn't want to risk it by being caught blatantly recording these exclusive clips, lol). Then they showed off some of Anya's unused outfits from the movie.

At the end, they showed this original illustration by Kyoji Asano, made specifically for this event 😁

And that was it for the SxF part of the panel before they moved on to Kaiju No.8...and to be honest, it kinda overshadowed the SxF part, mostly because it featured two of the main Kaiju No.8 voice actors, one of which was extremely hilarious and charismatic. Plus there were a lot more segments compared to the SxF part. The interview with the guests seemed longer, they did three live voice overs, showed a pre-recorded special message from the band that performs the Kaiju No.8 opening, and then they took a group photo with the audience (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). It seemed like the SxF part took up about 35% of the panel's time while Kaiju No.8 took up 65%. Not sure why it felt so unbalanced, but it was still fun.

Next was the panel on Day 3 for Production IG and their related studios WIT and Signal MD. Heads of each studio were there, including George Wada from WIT. Photo/video wasn't allowed once the panel started, but it basically consisted of an interview with the different guests, then trailers/teasers for their upcoming projects, then a Q&A session.

WIT is the studio that makes SxF, so I was hoping for any news about season 3, specifically if WIT would be more involved with it than they were with season 2. For those who don't know, season 1 of SxF was made by both WIT Studio and Cloverworks. But when they decided to make both season 2 and the movie in 2023, they split up the work, with WIT focusing on the movie while Cloverworks did pretty much all the work on season 2 (which is why the animation in season 1 and season 2 looks a bit different). According to this tweet, the official staff listing for season 3 is the same as season 2, meaning WIT will once again have little involvement. But despite this, they had a slide during the presentation with the season 3 promo image (preceded by the CODE: White teaser trailer, which made the crowd go wild - glad there were lots of SxF fans in the audience!) George Wada also said in regards to season 3 that they're "working hard on it."

I wanted to confirm during the Q&A if WIT would again take a backseat during season 3's production as well, but unfortunately the panel only had a few minutes left when it was close to my turn, and then they opted to pick a few random people in line for their last questions (which I thought was kind of unfair). Guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything changes with that staff listing once we get closer to season 3's release.

Overall, while Takuya Eguchi's appearance at last year's AX was more fun, it was still cool to attend this year's SxF-related panels as well. Hopefully season 3 will either be airing or close to being released at next year's AX, so we'll have even more SxF events!

[beardedmrbean]

Bad Dragon is suing SinSaint over copyright infringement of their dildo designs. What I want to know is, can you copyright the shape of a dog's dick? Because if you can, you shouldn't be able to.

I did knot need to hear about this one.

one more pun

TSG is gonna be one of the more reputable sources for this one

MARCH 25--A manufacturer of “fantasy-themed sex toys” has accused an upstart Brooklyn, New York firm of knocking off its distinctive designs, according to a federal lawsuit alleging that the defendant has infringed on copyrights for dildos such as “Spritz the Seadragon” and “Tyson the Water Buffalo.”

In a March 20 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, Bad Dragon Enterprises contended that its “sculptural” products have been illegally copied by SinSaint, which is headquartered in a Coney Island warehouse and advertises that all its “Ethically Manufactured” toys are “made in Brooklyn, USA.”

Bad Dragon, which noted that it has had “significant commercial success” in the adult toy field, alleged that SinSaint has been selling the duplicative dildos through its website and other trade channels, including the recent AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas (where the new firm’s exhibitor booth was next to that of the all-nude Palomino strip club).

The lawsuit identifies 13 separate dildos that Bad Dragon claims have been copied (and renamed) by SinSaint, which was incorporated in New York last year. The colorful silicone toys feature scales, tentacles, suction cups, and other design elements meant to mimic the genitalia of dragons, sea creatures, and other fantastical characters.

Some of the Bad Dragon products that SinSaint is accused of swiping are “Kelvin the Ice Dragon,” “Stan the T. Rex,” and “Vergil the Drippy Dragon.” SinSaint has not been accused of pirating other Bad Dragon offerings like “Jason the Demogorgon” or “Cuttlefish of Cthulhu.”

According to the lawsuit, SinSaint’s counsel last month stated that the company had begun removing “some of the allegedly infringing listings for product redesign.” This response, Bad Dragon contended, was “unacceptable,” adding that it “continues to be harmed by Defendant’s ongoing, unlawful conduct.”

The Bad Dragon complaint seeks an order enjoining SinSaint from continuing any further alleged

copyright infringement and seeks “disgorgement of all of Defendant’s profits” related to the artificial penises. The company may also seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each of the dildos in question.

For more than a decade, Bad Dragon has sought trademark and copyright protection for various product lines. While often successful, the firm’s application to trademark its “Cum Tube” was abandoned after a government attorney rejected the ejaculating dildo because the “applied-for mark consists of or includes immoral or scandalous matter.” The application included a very NSFW image, which can be found on the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

According to an August 2023 trademark application, SinSaint’s owner is Oleg Semenenko, 50, a resident of Brooklyn’s gated Seagate community. Semenenko lives less than a mile from SinSaint’s warehouse, which shares an address with GlobMarble, an industrial molds business for which Semenenko is listed as “manager” in a separate trademark application filed this month.

In a brief interview today, Semenenko was asked how a dildo firm grew out of his original business. “We work with rubber,” he replied. Semenenko dismissed Bad Dragon’s claim that its products were unique and original: “How can octopus hand can be your idea?” (4 pages) ____________________________________________

Hope the judge that did the recent trump case gets this one, even though I know that's basically impossible, just the thought of making him listen to hours of testimony about how these rubber fantasy dildos are protected by copyright or trademark law, or something like that is funny to me.

It's not a revenge thing wanting it, just a keep him humble thing. I know you think you're hot shit now, so here listen to these arguments for a bit.

Totally different note, I'm wondering how long until the discourse starts up, or if it has already started up, where using horse dildos is either bestiality or a gateway to bestiality because what with the way people treat cartoons of fictional people I can't imagine it's far off or not already here.

Look to japan for the tentacle ones.........

[arimiadev]

(you can read this article down below or on my blog!)

How to Sell Visual Novels at Conventions

Or, “how do you table at an anime convention and actually get people to stop by your booth and actually get interested in visual novels????”

Picture this – me, someone who’s never been to California nor flown alone arrived to the Hyatt at the San Francisco Bay, being greeted by several online friends I’d known for years but never met in person. After a great time walking around the surrounding Burlingame area and meeting back up with the rest of our group, we had to actually put in some work for the day.

That is, setting up our booth for the convention starting the next day.

We unpacked box after box, taking turns standing around with our hands on our hips and heads tilted wondering “how the hell are we going to set all of this up?”. I decided to make it my job to set up our keychain display. All I had to do was get a copy of each keychain we had and pin them up – we even had a box from prior conventions that had a single copy of (most) of our keychains, for displaying. But as I opened more boxes, I found more and more keychains…

After threatening to change the password on their Vograce account, I found we had 10+ boxes of merchandise for niche visual novels that we were trying to sell at a vtuber convention. Not an anime convention, not a gaming convention, a vtuber convention! Going to bed that night, already tired, I was sure there was no way we would make a profit…..

…And yet, we made more on Friday than they had for the entire convention in 2023. By Sunday, we had made more than double that, having sold items to over 100 customers with most purchases around $40 each. We weren’t selling fanart, we were selling a majority completely original art.

We lived the dream of a lot of indie developers – we sold physicals of our indie games and people bought them. But how did we do it??

a little context

Some background – OffKai Expo is an annual vtuber-oriented convention in Burlingame, California, a suburb of San Francisco and just 15 minutes away from their airport. If you don’t know what a vtuber is, just go watch my oshi Gavis Bettel. In 2023, Studio Élan had a booth at the convention as it’s somewhat local to some of our members. We decided to have another booth at the convention for 2024 and I offered to work at it (what’s a booth without a marketer?).

The only anime convention I’ve ever been to was the local one in Memphis, namely Anime Blues Con, but those are….lacking, to say the least. Not much to do, very limited artist alley, waning attendance (which was already small to begin with), barely any new artists nor sights year after year… I’ve always wanted to go to a convention outside my area, to say the least.

But how did we manage to make the weekend successful?

conceits

What we did won’t be entirely replicable for most devs reading this, but there will be some insights and takeaways that I’ll highlight that are applicable to anyone wanting to table at conventions and sell their games.

Our table was for Studio Élan x VirPro – it was a joint table between our yuri visual novel studio and our indie vtuber friend streaming group, Virtuality Project. We sold some merch for VirPro, but I’d estimate that was no more than 20% of our sales – we still would have made a profit even if we weren’t selling that merch.

this table held our limited VirPro merch. we were able to hang our Élan prints on the wall behind it thanks to our friends at Studio Nekomata allowing us to tape our prints to the backside of their display. we also had a Miho cutout, but she didn’t want to stand up this weekend…

However, it is important to note that Studio Élan is not a new studio. We’ve been around for years, have 15k followers on Twitter, and have several visual novels released. We’re not extremely well known, as we are within a niche within a niche, but we aren’t unknown either. Some people actually cosplayed our characters at the convention! It’s definitely possible some locals came to OffKai Expo just to see our booth & panel (we also held a panel on Saturday where we announced 2 new games).

Another thing to note is that we have a stock of merch from running an online store and having held Kickstarters before. Specifically, we have physical copies of almost all of our games as well as artbooks, soundtracks, clothing, and more. We had tons of keychains and 11×17 prints, sure, but we also sold a lot of merch that is much harder and more expensive to produce.

So, tl;dr, things we had going for us:

We are established developers with a following & released games

We have a sizeable amount of merch already made for our online store, including physical games & artbooks

We were boothing with our indie vtuber friend group and selling their merch on the side

But our main problem:

We were boothing at a vtuber convention, not an anime or gaming convention

Now, with all of that out of the way….

convention standards

First off, let’s look at some basic things you can expect while tabling at a convention. (for the purposes of being specific to visual novels, when I say “convention” I’m only referring to anime & gaming-adjacent conventions—OffKai falls under this as vtubers are both anime & gaming-adjacent)

At a convention, you will typically be selling in either the artist alley or the dealer’s room, which are both referred to as the vendor’s hall. For small conventions, these two may be the same area. The artist alley is typically for artists selling keychains, prints, and more. The dealers room is for vendors that sell larger merch or have more items to sell – this can include artists but also includes people selling imported items (such as anime figures) and companies.

Conventions have a set amount of hours that the events go on and the vendor’s hall is usually not open the entire time. These rooms will usually open in the morning, around 10AM or so, and allow vendors an extra hour for fixing things before opening every day. For OffKai, we had to stay at our booth for about 8~ hours every day, except for Sunday. Sundays are always the shortest days for 3-day conventions, as the convention will usually wrap up around dinner time (if not earlier).

Vendors get time the night before the convention starts (usually Thursday night, with most conventions I’m referencing being Friday-Sunday events) to set up their booths. It took us around 3 hours to fully set up our booth, with 4 of us working on it. Setting up your booth will go a lot smoother if you do a trial run before the convention.

Every convention I’ve tabled at or known a vendor at provides vendors with at least 1 table and a chair. More chairs are usually easy to get, you just need to ask staff before the vendors hall opens up.

tip 1 – bring a friend

Conventions provide tables and chairs, but they don’t provide helping hands! You’re probably going to need help unpacking and setting up the table, but you’ll definitely need to take breaks during the convention for the bathroom, food, and more. You can’t just ask staff to sit at your table and you can’t just hide everything while you’re gone. Bring a friend to help out!

If you have to go alone, make friends with the people boothing next to you and ask them to watch over your table if need be. Be sure to keep your money and payment processors with you if you ever have to step away. And bring snacks & water!

our merch

Like I said, at Élan we have typical merchandise for our visual novels like keychains and acrylic standees, but we also have physical copies of our games for PC & consoles, artbooks, soundtracks, and more.

We had these types of merch:

Acrylic & wooden items

Keychains

Standees

Pins

Print media

PC discs

Console discs & cartridges (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5)

Artbooks (game artbooks, limited edition anniversary artbooks)

Soundtrack discs

4×6 prints (CGs, key artworks)

11×17 prints (key artworks, exclusive convention artworks)

Clothing & fabric

T-shirts (4 designs, 1 color each)

Hoodie (new collaboration design, for all of our games)

Scarf (new collaboration design, for 1 of our games)

Fabric flags (key visuals)

Misc.

Grab bag (misc small items)

$5 bin (misc small items)

Pencil bag

Mousepad

Enamel pin

Plushie (limited Makeship leftovers)

Some of these were items we’d never sold before such as the hoodie, scarf, and 11×17 prints. Some of them were also much more of a hassle than others.

In terms of storage and cheapness to make, prints and stickers are by far the winners (we didn’t sell stickers at OffKai but plan to in the future). Prints are basically the best thing you can sell for production cost:profit, as a 4×6 print can cost you $0.20 but sell for $5+ and an 11×17 print can cost $0.60 and sell for $15-20.

On the other hand, t-shirts can be some of the most difficult merch to work with. They take up a lot of room (we had at least 2 boxes of just shirts/hoodies) and require you to have multiple different sizes. The plushies were great & easy to sell, but at the same time they cost a lot per unit and take up even more space than shirts.

The physical copies sold great, but the cost to produce & room to store them makes them unwieldy for most developers. I would recommend them over more bespoke merch like clothing, though—several people came to our booth, having never heard of our games, and left with a physical game. CD discs rather than DVD cases are much easier to store and can be handmade, although ours are manufactured.

tip 2 – be selective with what merch you make & bring

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a convention down the street from you, chances are you’re going to have to travel to the convention. That means packing everything up, possibly shipping it, etc…. You need to be picky with what you bring if you don’t have multiple cars to throw it all in.

My merch recommendations:

4×6 prints

Ours were $4-5

Dirt cheap to print, easy to store

Easy for people to buy because of the low price point and ease of carrying

Idea – these are so cheap to print, at the very least print some of your key visual & logo to hand out to people for free

Stickers (die-cut or sticker sheets)

Dirt cheap to print, easy to store

Easy for people to buy because of the low price point and ease of carrying

Idea – some conventions won’t allow you to hand out free stickers. For conventions that don’t, I would sell either singular die-cut stickers or sell them in packs

Keychains

Ours were $12-15

Cheap to print, not very hard to store

At this price point people want to have an attachment to the characters before buying

Idea – if your game is relatively unknown but you still want to print keychains, consider packaging them with something else like the game or a sampler CD of the demo / soundtrack

Physical CD disc games

Ours were $30

Not cheap to print, not very hard to store

People will buy copies of games they’ve never heard of because it’s an interesting item to own and seen as more value than a digital copy (even if physical is more expensive)

Idea – it doesn’t cost much to get a 50 pack of CDs, the cost comes from the packaging and time to make the entire thing. If you don’t have a finished game yet, consider printing your demo out on CDs in paper slips to hand out for free

our booth

Now that I’ve talked about basics for conventions and what merch we sold, what did our booth actually look like?

We didn’t have a pre-convention trial run, so we were essentially winging it. With all of the merch I outlined, could you believe we crammed all of the display copies on 1 table, 2 shelves, and 1 clothing rack?!

Our main focus was making sure each of our physical games were visible. After all, we were at a vtuber convention where most attendees didn’t know us, so we wanted to have a way to show off our games. We spent a lot of real estate on showing individual game copies and having brochures spread out.

tip 3 – have an idea of how you’re going to display things before the convention

We also brought several items to display merch. For keychains & pins, we had a simple corkboard leaning on a photo stand / easel. For acrylic standees, we had a clear nail polish stand. For physical copies, we had photo stands and bookends. For clothes, we had a small clothing rack. For physicals, we had 3 small bookcases. These were all extremely helpful, but they are added costs and more things to carry to the convention.

here’s a better look at our 2 bookshelves. the purple ladder one was at the back of the booth highlighting some items and storing various artbooks & bundles and the smaller one was at the front left of the booth by the VirPro merch, basically in the walking aisle

The corkboard and various photo stands were must-haves, regardless of what you’re selling. A corkboard makes it easy to display anything on it, whether it’s keychains, stickers, mini-prints, announcements, posters, and more. Photo stands were also super helpful for propping our corkboard on but also showing off individual physical copies.

this was me trying to arrange the corkboard and acrylic stands. photo stands and art easels can in handy!

Along with the display stands, we also brought some decorative items like pink table clothes and flowers. These aren’t required, but help make your booth more noticeable.

A few miscellaneous items I plan on bringing to our next convention are a hand sanitizer dispenser, a small air purifier, and fliers. I always keep hand sanitizer on me, but it’s easier to use it when it’s in a convenient bottle and place. Several of us got sick after the convention (despite me wearing a mask), so I’m also bringing a small air purifier to keep some germs away from the table. I also want to bring small fliers for our upcoming games—while brochures are wonderful, I want something that’s easy (and cheap) to hand out to anyone who looks at our booth, not just the people we talk to.

tip 4 – be aware of merch thieves

We arranged our table in a way that we didn’t have to worry much about people stealing merch, though that is a problem at some conventions. As you might’ve noticed from the pictures, our smaller items like the keychains are at the far back of the booth, right beside where we sit. That allowed us to keep a better eye on it.

Rather than sitting behind our tables, we arranged our booth to be where people would walk inside it. This allowed us a way to talk to people easier. We also made sure to hide our card readers, phones, and more when any of us left the table, though this was easy because we almost always had 2-3 people at the booth at any time.

my advice

If I were an indie dev looking to booth at a convention and had the time and spare change, I would if it were close enough to drive to and the booth cost under $500. Unless you’re an established developer or have a popular artist working on your project, it’s hard to justify that cost.

tip 5 – don’t forget to budget for…

booth costs

extra badges (most booths come with 2 free badges)

hotel

travel

food

merchandise manufacturing

any shipping fees (your luggage, merch, etc.)

display items, extra things for your booth

While you may find a booth for $250, you also have to remember the travel fees, cost of food, all of the extra items you’ll need aside from merchandise, and more. A $250 booth for a 3-day convention could easily end up costing you $2,000+, and that’s if you don’t pay yourself or coworkers for their time at the booth!

If you’ve never been to a convention before then definitely go to one as an attendee before becoming a vendor. Get a feel for the place and have some fun, even if it means you won’t be able to booth there for months or a year.

tip 6 – be sure to bring…

Some kind of handout for people with your game & logo on it (fliers, business cards, brochures, etc.)

Small stationary merch for your game (4×6 prints, stickers, etc.)

Corkboard to display things on and something to prop it up

A way to take card payments and cash for change

Hand sanitizer

Pen/pencil and sticky notes

Clamps

Tape

this is the inside of our old brochure! it details our different games and highlights some upcoming titles

I’d also try putting your demo on CDs to hand out to people who seem really interested if you can. CDs are pretty cheap to get now, and even if you just get a 50 pack that can run you around $12, which ends up being $0.25/CD. Not a bad cost for getting a potential fan, if you hand them out only to people who are really interested or package them with other merch and sell them.

Your main effort if you’re not an established developer, however, will be awareness. Talk to the people who stop by your booth. Tell them hi and explain to them what you make. I had several people clearly not understand what visual novels were, but I had many more who became interested once I mentioned we made these games. “Wait, you actually made them?!”

tip 7 – talk to people!!!

People at conventions think art is cool. They think indie games are cool. Be honest with them and show them your hard work. Yeah, this means you have to put on your extrovert cap for the weekend. Just don’t treat it like you’re a car salesman—you’re a game dev first and foremost and enjoy this line of work so much you want to share it with strangers at conventions. Let that shine through in your words.

All in all, conventions are stressful, tiring, and a lot of fun when they’re run well. If any of this sounds interesting to you and you find a convention close enough to you or one that will be relatively cheap to attend, I recommend trying it out.

------------

OffKai Expo was so, so much fun and I’m so happy I was able to attend. It was a well run convention, our booth did amazing, I got to meet actual fans IRL, and I was able to finally see a lot of my online friends in person. I was scared leading up to it but I’m so glad I pushed myself to go. Having an in-person panel there where the room was almost full absolutely blew me away—I kept asking “do they know what room they’re in? Did they get lost?” If you came to our panel or booth, thank you!!

— Arimia

read more of my articles on tumblr here!

[erijuice]

appreciation post for the little mermaid (2023) 🧜‍♀️🐠🌊

i can still remember the massive global hype for the live-action little mermaid because it was one of the very few live-action remakes that had the potential to be something great.

in may 2023, all eyes, i mean ALL EYES were on halle bailey. she was the most perfect person to portray ariel. her operatic, otherworldly singing voice, her adorable charm, her youthful spirit, but also her feistiness and passion. she carried the right mix of sweetness and fierceness to play ariel. i'm so happy this movie gave her a massive boost in popularity, and people got to appreciate her wonderful voice and her spirit. i hope she gets to show the movie to her son when he's older!

when she first got casted, im not sure if i remember how i felt but i had this feeling of surprise, i was like "YESSS FINALLY HALLE BAILEY IS GONNA DOMINATE THE WORLD!!!". i've always known chloe x halle since 2016, so i was going to be ride-or-die for this movie, and for halle. taking on such an iconic 35-year-old character carried a huge responsibility, and i'm so relieved the disney fandom embraced her with open arms.

the first time i saw the movie in a theater, i was in awe of rob marshall's directing and the melodious amalgam of alan menken and lin manuel miranda's combined sounds. it was the very first time they've collaborated for anything! (and yes i'm still mad that triton's new song got cut from the movie).

now, the "part of your world" scene. holy god. where do i even start with this? this was FUCKING INCREDIBLE. it's a song that everyone can relate to in so many ways. when i first saw the scene during d23 expo night in 2022, i was completely floored. halle bailey perfectly balanced all these emotions of joy, curiosity, passion, anger, frustration and discomfort, wanting for things to change, desperate to leave her world behind. it was a passionate plea, a desperate cry for help. she was shouting it out into the universe, everything she wanted for her life and her future, and everything that made ariel as a character. one of the top tier movie scenes of 2023 for me.

im so happy disney casted another unknown actor in jonah hauer-king, his solo song "wild uncharted waters" was everything! the chemistry between jonah and ariel was just so charming and i cried big time, i almost wanted to jump out of my seat when they kissed. OH AND THAT SCENE WHERE ARIEL GOT ERIC TO PRONOUNCE HER NAME WAS JUST UGGHHHH SO CUTE.

daveed diggs was freaking hilarious as thomas jefferson in hamilton, he was the true comedic backbone of the movie (sorry awkwafina). his portrayal of sebastian was younger, more original, i love his version more. i also love the all the added lore in the movie, from the coral moon to the mermaids' siren songs to the brother-sister relationship of triton and ursula. you can learn more about the worldbuilding in the tie-in guide to merfolk book.

all in all, to me, the live-action little mermaid meant everything to me, as a black girl who loved the original animated movie since childhood, and as a disney fan who believed in this re-adaptation from the very adapation. in spite of everything, i still have some pretty high hopes for snow white. rachel zegler and halle bailey will always be my disney princesses.

GOD BLESS YOU ROB MARSHALL FOR THIS MASTERPIECE!!

[runaway-workshop]

2024 in review and what to expect in 2025

With a big convention line up, 2024 was a big year for me hitting the road and showing off my wears live, this was a goal I had at the end of 2023 and while I didnt hit it with the expectation I had set out with, here are the conventions I did manage to work:

LARPcon 2nd-3rd March & 2nd - 3rd Nov

Super local, relaxed, and well organised, LARPcon is a great convention, I love chatting with people there and I always learn something new. 

I didn't get a photo of my final setup for the November LARPcon for some reason, but my last con of the year was a blast, I spoke with lots of people who had traded with me through the year and enjoyed their costumes during the LARPing summer season. I also scored a huge box of leather scraps ready for more dragons in 2025

The Alternitive Convention 7th April

This was a new convention for 2024, I saw it advertised and thought I would give it a try for experience if nothing else. It was very interesting with a different enough crowd to showcase to a broader audeince of costume enthusiasts, but not so different that my stall was completely out of place. I don't believe I'm likely to do this convention again as I have a lot planned for this year now.

UK Games Expo 31st May - 2nd June

I was very excited for UKGX, but also super nervous because it's the biggest and most professional convention I've vented at (for now?). My biggest worry was that I would be totally out of place, but everyone was very friendly, particularly fellow vendors who were more than happy to offer tips and advice that I will be applying to my stall in the not-too-distant furture.

What about the furry conventions?

I don't want to talk too much about the conventions that I didnt get into, but as I've mentioned in the past about wanting to do Scotiacon again, and Confuzzled being my staple convention, I thought it would be worth a mention too.

Scotiacon was simply a logistcs issue, my van was in and out of the mechanics for various issues through all of Q4 in 2023, I couldn't afford a new van and I wasn't sure it would get me to Scotland without a tow truck, so I didn't risk applying. With Confuzzled I got caught up in the cogs of the new application process and was left on the waiting list. But, despite my vending list being smaller than I'd hoped, It was probably a blessing in the end as I was able to try out some new conventions. 

Conventions 2025

Alongside my new staple of LARP con, I'm really pleased to say that I will be vending at Confuzzled in 2025, as well as Fantasty Forest Festival!

I will also be vending at various actual LARP events over the year, I have spoken to some organisers, but not finalised anything yet so I will confirm which games I will be vending at at a later date.

 What else I got up to in 2024

My favourite project has been working on all these Dragons, as time-consuming as it is, it is a fun and relaxing process that I've enjoyed and I hope to make more going into 2025

I had a lot of fun experimenting with some new masks as well, including working on a mossy wood elk ready for Fantasy Forest. I only got to attend one day at FF in 2024, but I had a great time wandering around as this branchy antlered beast, I didn't even take it off when I was skanking to the Whiskey Rebellion at the Dragon stage.

Launching several new base designs, I also made lots of animal LARP masks as pre-mades and commissions, A few people shared images with me of them wearing their masks in full character, which was cool to see

I did do some more work on my campervan, this might be Irrelevant to my work, it did interrupt it a bit over July to be fair as I was getting ready for Noisily Festival, but it's also going to be necessary this year if I'm going to be travelling to more events.

What is more irrelevant to my work is that I then spent the next few summer months laying the groundwork for our wildlife garden which I'll be finally completing this year. It's been so slow because I've been basically skip-diving for most of the materials as I go, but It's going to be worth it for all the little newts, bee, birds, hedgehogs and all the other critters that come to visit, they're going to be in a safe and more welcoming environment, and the workshop is going to be surrounded by nature

What's in store for 2025?

More: playing - creating - sculpting 

My biggest goal this year is to see more of my work out in the world, so while I'm out attending festivals and events, I'll be keeping my eyes out. If you know I'm at an event please don't hesitate to seek me out, or send me some photos, I'd love to create a whole page on my website to show off your characters and how you've brought my work to life.

I have a few new sculpts that I'm working on, the main priority is a Stoat / weasel design, I'm also working on an Owl, these should both be ready at least before May, but I'm hoping to have them done in time for LARP con in March.

I haven't abandond slimline head bases, there are two new designs (Fox and a Dragon) that are ready for listing in the next week or so once I have taken some photos. I will be sculpting two more in the run-up to Confuzzled, one will be a Hyena as I've been meaning to work on that for many months, and the other is yet to be decided.

I also want to finish this Highland bull, and I have plans for a couple of others in different colours and with different horns.

Finally, I have caved and started using TikTok over the last few months, so please give me a follow if you use the platform. I don't post there much yet, but any followers would be great

[akfamilyhome]

2024 Year in Review

(This is a public post, and is also available on Patreon!)

Wow! What a year. Compared to last year, a lot more things definitely happened, including several core videos I'm very proud of, the launch of Useless Nintendo Trivia videos, and the main channel finally passing the 50,000 subscriber mark! This has been one of the best years for the channel in a while, and I'm very thankful for all the support and feedback.

Outside the channel, my Bluesky account created in 2023 has passed 10k followers, I talked about WarioWare with Scott the Woz for an hour, and lots of very neat things happened in real life for me as well! I was able to switch day jobs in December and work with a company in the retro gaming space which is very exciting, and I visited America, met some of my friends there and attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo for the very first time! So overall, a very eventful year, and I'm definitely excited to both look back on the stuff I've made, and give some hints about what's next!

You know the drill by now, I'm going to be sharing my retrospective thoughts as well as some fun facts about every video I've made on the main channel during 2024!

The Joy of Nintendo DSi/3DS Camera & Sound

This video idea was the winner of a Patreon poll back in June 2023...and yeah, ended up releasing in January 2024, but that meant it made for a pretty fantastic start to the new year! After talking about previous camera-related offerings from Nintendo like the Game Boy Camera and Photo Dojo, it only seemed natural to talk about the built-in camera and music apps for the DSi and 3DS, and I think it hit a great balance between being informative about the lesser-known aspects of these apps, and also having some decent gags! I even ended up upgrading my 3DS capture card from an old 2DS to a New 3DS XL during the production, just because I had to showcase the 3D mode-exclusive camera features. So far, it's served me incredibly well! I can absolutely vouch for the quality of Loopy's stuff now.

Some folks were wondering I managed to capture footage of the DSi camera and sound apps, the truth is...I kinda lied and that footage was captured on my New 3DS XL capture card! Yes, you can install and run DSi Camera and DSi Sound on a 3DS.

I'd like to once again give a shoutout to ThattsCherry (who also did the animation for my latest intro), who drew two animated shots featuring stylized Nintendo employees! Her style lent incredibly well to these sorts of visuals, though I did accidentally overlook a mistake where there was a 3DS logo in the background of a shot...about the DSi camera. (Oops) I also want to shout out TikaratheMew as well for the fantastic parakeet thumbnail art! (She also did the thumbnail art for my Famicom R.O.B. the Robot video as well!) I posted this sketch/final comparison on social media previously, but here it is again for posterity:

And finally, just a random fact: the brief gag featuring the 'retro-inspired indie game' actually comes from a university programming assignment I did years ago, but reskinned with generic pixel art as the original just used 8-bit sprites from Super Mario Bros.! (It also ran way faster than it was supposed to because it was originally programmed on a Windows virtual machine running on a Mac...so yeah.)

I Went to Hong Kong's Nintendo Live & Pop-Up Store

This video was a great opportunity to document two Nintendo events that were basically happening in Hong Kong back-to-back, and I hope it was useful for those who weren't able to attend these events, or those who want to know more about Nintendo's international events! I still hope these events are successful enough to warrant future large-scale Nintendo events in Hong Kong (which I am totally down to also document), but we haven't had further confirmations outside of a few series-specific promotional events now and then. Here's hoping!

Since this video, more Nintendo Pop-Up Stores have opened in places like Taipei, Seoul and Singapore, with the latest one being part of a manga convention in Barcelona! Seems like they've been doing pretty well, and makes me wonder if they'll ever revisit places for a second round!

Though aside from these pop-up stores, there are still plenty of officially authorized partner stores in Hong Kong that sell both Nintendo products and merch! A very neat one that opened recently was 'Assemble' in Wan Chai, which not only had Nintendo merch (including new stock for the Super Famicom Mini for some reason?), but had dedicated merch areas for third-party partners like Sega, Namco and Square Enix, and even had demo stations for indie games and Arcade Archives releases!

A Cartridge for Nintendo's Lost Devkit

In terms of obscure Nintendo stuff that has been talked about on this channel, the Game Processor RAM Casette is definitely way up there! While these carts (and the Game Processor in general) have been known to exist for a while, and this is also not even the first YouTube video about the Game Processor RAM Casette (Circuit Rewind was ahead of me and figured out how to reprogram one using a Raspberry Pi!), I'm still glad this video was able to get more eyeballs on this little known piece of Nintendo history, and perhaps the dream of finding the Game Processor isn't dead yet! (Hey, if the largest Sony CRT ever made could be found, anything's possible.)

One thing I actually didn't touch on in this video is the packaging that the Game Processor RAM Casettes originally came in! And with a few more auction listings popping up online since that video, I can now show you that...they're basically completely blank Super Famicom game boxes. That's kinda funny.

I mentioned that one of the assets for a Mario Bros.-style game created with the Game Processor's editing tool 'Mario Factory' was later reused for the Mario Bros. minigame in the Super Mario Advance series. While we do have an image proof of this from a flyer scan, I didn't show it in the actual video as the original Japanese accounts that posted these images seem to be a little strict regarding reposting of their work, and I'd like to respect their wishes if possible. With that said, I can now link to those original tweets here, if you haven't taken a look!

How Many Times Have I Paid For Super Mario Bros.?

For Mario Day this year, I decided to just do a scripted video about a ridiculous Mario topic, and since I already had a spreadsheet lying around that kept track of every legal copy of Super Mario Bros. I own, this video was the result, and it ended up as silly as I envisioned it to be. Perhaps Mario Day videos can be another fun annual tradition, though I haven't thought of any ideas for this year's right now. (I mean, I could talk about all my copies of Mario 64 like I teased last time...but that's probably a better fit for the Plus channel!)

The obligatory question is, have I obtained any new copies of Super Mario Bros. since this video was published? The answer is yes: I obtained a loose cartridge of Super Mario Bros. + Duck Hunt + World Class Track Meet on the NES, Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World on the SNES, and a US copy of Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition on the Wii! The count continues.

Those with keen ears may have noticed that the endslate theme in this video is an arrangement of the 'Every Day is a Mario Day' commercial jingle! I asked Megan, the composer of my endslate theme, to give it a little remix for the occasion, and it turned out so well, I definitely have to use it more than once now lol

Useless Nintendo Trivia #1-5

This year marked the start of the 'Useless Nintendo Trivia' series, each installment containing 10 useless Nintendo facts, inspired by my 2023 April Fools video. This was conceived as a relatively simple but fun series of videos that I can put out in-between the major productions, and so far we've covered 50 whole pieces of useless Nintendo trivia! I'm very happy about how this series has been received, so...yeah, more episodes will definitely be on the way! When we reach 100 pieces of trivia, it might be fun to do a compilation of them to see how long they would be when put together!

You might've also seen that some pieces of trivia have also been uploaded to the channel as YouTube shorts. I think this is basically the best way to utilize the shorts format going forward, rather than focusing on making exclusive stuff for it, and if one of the shorts does end up blowing up, it'll still be a nice bonus!

Every Nintendo Stylus

And here's 2024's April Fools video...which if I recall correctly, was another spontaneous idea! I originally talked about Nintendo styluses as an unscripted video on Akfamilyhome Plus, one of the first unscripted videos on that channel in fact, but that video actually left out a few styluses that I didn't have on hand at the time, so I figured if I were to revisit the topic, it would be in the form of a scripted video to cut down on the babbling, and possibly as part of the April Fools series (just because of how ridiculous the topic is). This video blowing up in views is something I can't exactly say I anticipated, but I guess joke topics just do that sometimes...

I made a joke in the video about if anyone ever used the original 3DS stylus by just extending it halfway, so allow me to showcase this incredible reply comment:

When I was looking for accurate stylus terminology for this video, I was made privy to a patent-related rabbit hole that eventually culminated into a piece of useless Nintendo trivia! I'll just link you to the short version here if you haven't seen it yet.

The 34 Games I Beat in 2023

The 2023 game review video ended up coming out in late April because of the Mario Day and April Fools videos (...which may end up being the same case for this year if I can't get it out by February, oops), but this time around it did perform a little better than my 2022 video! It's still neat to have a time capsule of sorts about my immediate thoughts about each game I've finished, and the unpredictable lineup still makes it a fun watch for some. Just to look ahead, 2024's game lineup will be a little shorter at 25 games, but there will be a bonus section or two here and there!

Not much else to add here for this video, but if you look in the description, I have a link to a spreadsheet that compiles an alphabetical list of every game I've looked at in this series of videos, for those who want to look up my quick thoughts about a particular game!

Nintendo's Hotel SNES: The Super Famicom Box

It seems like pretty much every Things of Interest episode released in 2024 was a result of spontaneous new finds and additions to my collection, and the Super Famicom Box was certainly no exception. There have been several YouTube videos that show off the system before, but there haven't been as many scripted videos that also dive into its deeper functionality, so that's sort of what the aim of my video was, to showcase how it would be to set the whole thing up and go through its many settings for the folks (a.k.a. most people) who don't have one, and also offer a simple point of reference for those who do end up getting their hands on one. Really, the only thing I haven't done in the video is basically take the system apart -- there are people out there who are way more qualified to do that!

I've shared the following links in one of my monthly Patreon reports, but for those who haven't seen them, here's a few more interesting videos related to the Super Famicom Box that are worth checking out:

Long Island Retro Gaming has done a mod adding RGB to the system -- and with some results you may not have expected!

Some of their footage was used in my video, but Impendo64 has both added a custom coin slot to their unit, but has also apparently modified one of the game cartridges to add custom games onto it! I hope they make another video showing how they did it in the future!

This is about the original FamicomBox and not the SFC variant, but Yukki games came across a few working FamicomBoxes still doing their jobs in a small Japanese hot spring inn, if you'd like to take in the vibes!

64DD on a Flashcart: The SummerCart64

The Things of Interest video about the SummerCart64 is one of the few unscripted videos on the main channel, where I basically take a look at a thing by just...casually using it and showing off its features! That felt like the best format to show off this flashcart in particular, especially because 64DD support was the one interesting part about it. I did get the price of the Phenom Mod version of the cart a little wrong in the video (I misquoted the PCB price instead of the fully assembled one with shells), but in the end it was still neat to get some more eyeballs on this project, and a few new developments have been made since that video as well!

Since the video, the N64 Flashcart Menu has seen several updates that addressed some of my previous (minor) complaints: there's now a functional settings menu within the interface, and most recently a favorites and history tab have been implemented!

And since Phenom Mod released their version of the SummerCart64 for order, plenty of other cheaper SC64 clones have also started to pop up on the market, particularly ones on Chinese sites like AliExpress. I even got a free product offer from one of the sellers! (but decided against it as it would make for a pretty redundant video) While I can't compare every variety of the SummerCart64 out there, I was eventually able to get my hands on two different AliExpress variants of the SummerCart64. They had pretty different molded shells (one being a tighter fit than the other) and cart connectors, and while in terms of functionality they were fairly similar, making it a viable option for those on a limited budget, they definitely don't have the luxury of the Phenom Mod's more durable build, along with proper support available in the N64brew Discord should any problems arise, so I think there's still some worth in that! This is just my opinion though, it's up to you to decide which SC64 variant you want to go for for your own purposes.

I Broke the Nintendo World Championships Leaderboards

Speaking of spontaneous video ideas, this video definitely was one, being basically born from a stupid Discord conversation while playing the new Nintendo World Championships game. The resulting video is definitely a rare breed for the channel, it's been a hot while since I've done a 'what happens if you do x in y' type of experiment for a video, but it seems people did end up enjoying it!

The week this video went live, I actually tried the same strategy to get on the 2024 Birth Ranking again, and it seems that no one else ended up trying it out for themselves! ...which makes sense, because the setup is way too convoluted. But if there's someone out there still determined to try this trick right now, there's a high chance you'll be able to earn 1st place on the 2024 birth year ranking for yourself! (Or rather, 2025 ranking now lol)

Pyoro: The Bird, The Beans, The Legend

...and finally, this was the next big core video that I was originally intending to make, following the 3DS/DSi Camera & Sound video! As I said in the video itself, this idea came long before the leaker known as Pyoro became a prominent figure, and with the release of WarioWare: Move It, it made for the perfect opportunity to do a Pyoro retrospective with some fun gags sprinkled throughout. And in a first for the channel, this is also the first ever sponsored video on the channel! ...I'll talk about more of my thoughts on that down below in a bit.

If you look at the video thumbnail, all of the Pyoros featured come from a piece of official artwork or in-game sprite...except one, which I drew back in 2021.

Turns out, there were several Pyoro cameos that I forgot to mention: for some reason my mind completely blocked out the fact that Super Pyoro appears in the intro of WarioWare Gold, and there's also a small blink-and-you'll-miss-it Pyoro cameo in WarioWare Move It:

As I said, this is the first video on the channel to be sponsored (by Surfshark)! As taking a sponsor was something I'd never done before, I felt this was a good learning opportunity to do so, and considering how well the video ended up doing, I think Surfshark probably got way more than their money's worth in the end...

Before I ever considered legitimately taking up a sponsor offer, I set several rules for myself: anything I promote must be something I've used in the past and can recommend based on personal experience (if it's something I've never heard of then I would at least do my research and give it a try first), and the sponsor integrations should be made as fun as possible. The Pyoro video was essentially a testing ground for these principles, the idea of integrating the sponsor led to the creation of the VRChat skits, and as a result I think it turned out pretty well! (A post about the sponsor segment itself ending up doing numbers on Twitter, which I think is a good enough indicator lol)

The reason why I took this long to accept any sponsor at all is simply because a lot of offers that come through to my business inbox don't always look the most legit at first glance, especially if it's from a product I've never heard of before. I've also never went through the process of taking a sponsorship myself, and I've heard a few stories of bad sponsors or phishing scams involving fake sponsorships, so I was basically extremely vigilant about them. That being said, this sponsorship was definitely a net positive for me as a learning experience! I don't know if I'll end up taking more sponsors in the future, as it really just depends on the right one stumbling into my inbox that I think I can actually execute properly. And between my inconsistent video schedule and my recent job switch, I don't think I'll have to deliberately seek out sponsors in the near future. I'm feeling content with having this YouTube thing as a side hustle for now, with Patreon support and perhaps the occasional sponsor as bonuses that will potentially push me slowly towards being able to do this full-time in the far future!

And lastly, if you didn't know, some outtakes and animatics for the VRChat skit segments in this video are available to my $5+ patrons!

Nintendo 3DS E3 2010 Demo Showcase

And in time for the new year, another spontaneous video! I originally planned for a Things of Interest episode to release around Christmas or before the end of the year, but while I was working on it, I was contacted by a team working on preserving some 3DS tech demos from a prototype unit in order to make a video documenting them like I did with 3D Challenge back in 2020, and of course I had to say yes!

It was very fun to both help out with research as these demos were being studied, and to write the script for the showcase as well! I think this is one of the best ways to handle a release of this sort: not just hacking the demos so they can be as playable as possible for the public, but also documenting them in a video so detailed info about them is also as easily accessible!

Yes, the ending is a tease for something else 3DS-related to come. Don't know when exactly that will be as research is still being done to put it vaguely, but it's something I personally think is almost as cool!

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

If there's only one thing I regret for this year, it's the smaller amount of content being put out on my second channel Akfamilyhome Plus, because ironically I got busy from all the videos being put on the main channel instead! Still, there are a handful of bonus videos that have been released publicly on there this year:

I gave Alivel Mall from Kirby and the Forgotten Land lyrics for the game's 2nd anniversary

I tried a Gyromite-themed mini board game on a Japanese pencil case from 1985

I talked about how I create YouTube captions from my scripts

I tried the Nintendo Ten Billion Barrel for the first time

...and as mentioned in the beginning, I documented my very first trip to America!

And over on Patreon, 4 exclusive videos were released: I took a look at some third-party Joy-Con, played PC games with an actual Game Boy as a controller, did my annual room tour for 2024 and built a Famicom made out of cardboard!

Alright, what's next

Okay, so as I just mentioned, I was working on a Things of Interest episode right as I was approached to make the 3DS E3 2010 demo showcase, so right now work will be resuming on that video! And seeing as you've read this far into the post, as a thank you I'll let you in on what it's about...

...it's an original, working Nintendo Ultra Machine from 1967! Just like the Super Famicom Box, while there are videos online that showcase it, there's not a lot of scripted videos that get into the history or nitty gritty details, so I'd like to take this opportunity to showcase one of Gunpei Yokoi's earliest inventions!

In addition to that, there is another Things of Interest subject that I'd like to talk about, Useless Nintendo Trivia will obviously continue with new sporadic episodes, and the next major core video topic has already been decided, though with all these projects in the pipeline, it might be a little bit before that's fully in production!

Overall, I'd like to keep up the momentum this channel picked up in 2024. I was pretty close to my goal of having a video out on the channel every month, save for edge cases where I released a video right as a month ended, or September onwards when I was occupied with my trip to America (and documenting that into a video) among other things! While I have switched jobs in real life, I'm currently hoping it won't affect too much of my video schedule going forward, as working on this channel is something I continue to enjoy immensely, and I'd like to thank you all again for watching in 2024.

So yeah, that's it for this long year in review! Once again, as a thank you for watching all the way to the end, here's a 25-use invite link to my Discord server where chill gaming talk happens! I'll let you in on a secret: these links actually aren't clicked on a whole lot if last year's post was any indication, so if you're reading this, chances are it's still available lol

That will be it for now! Here's to another great year for the channel, and I'll see you in the next video!

[abdulraveman]

Staff & fans tribute to NEWS

NEWS 20th Anniversary LIVE 2023 NEWS EXPO

[torque-witch]

Meet the Witch - 2024 Edition

Honestly I have not introduced myself in a LONG time because I've had this account since 2014 ish - so in case there are new people here this can be a good reference point.

So hi, hello - this is me in 2024. You can call me Cara but most people here know me as Torque! My pronouns are They/Them and I am currently 32 and married. I live in Pittsburgh, PA.

Most people know me for my devotion to Hel, Norse goddess of Death and my art of her!

(My hair is a bit longer so I just pull it back - but I barely take pictures anymore. Anyhow -)

What's new?

Still chronically ill and disabled; in 2024 we are still recovering from medical trauma that induced two phobias, POTS-like symptoms and a mystery digestive issue that is probably the severe IBS my meds that caused the trauma were controlling.

I am currently and hopefully to stay fully self-employed after finally getting off my feet from said trauma that left me pretty house-bound for a year. Somewhere in there I got a job with a catering company that truly was terrorizing, never reported me for taxes and therefore fucked up my finance history.

But, in 2024 so far I have done a good amount of shows and toured again briefly with the Oddities & Curiosities Expo group in cities outside of PA and that was incredible! I grew a lot as an artist, and it really helped me to work through some of my phobias and continue to stabilize.

You can find my Etsy here but I am focusing most of my efforts on shows! It would be best to follow my Instagram to keep up with events and new products!

Otherwise I've just been focusing on adulting and trying to fix our finances so that we can actually buy a house someday (hopefully).

A fun fact is that I started listening to ATEEZ in mid-2023 and got to see them in concert in DC this year as a bday gift to myself. It was absolutely the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. They are PERFORMERS.

If you're still on the fence about listening to Kpop, you're missing out! I poo-pooed it for a long time as cringey, but ATEEZ has very progressive lyrics and most of the fan-base in real life are alternative women and enby's in their 20's and 30's. Seriously the most fun I've ever had.

Other than that if I need to state it again, this page is for representation and acceptance of all forms and hate will not be tolerated. It's impossible to write out all the ways that people can be hateful but basically don't be a nazi or phobic in any way.

Not much else happened this year except a bunch of small-town drama associated with said catering company (story time?) and shit with our previous landlord (we moved). I made some really good local friends that I'm so appreciative of, and joined a DnD campaign for the first time!

My character is Ashaf Tendara, an Arcana Cleric archeologist who accidentally found some ruins of Ubtao and now unfortunately because of one of the sessions, their way of spell-casting is just screaming T-rex noises for ten minutes straight (Ubtao is related to dinosaurs somehow). We've finally emerged from the poop dungeons in said campaign, and some of those interactions I've wrote down are truly incredible. My Mage Hand is also a spectral sticky hand. My husband's steel defender's name is Duke Poop'em because of said poop dungeons.

I also read manga, watch anime and still read young adult fantasy at my big age (Adult SciFi is sooooo dense omg but it just takes me longer lol) and watch cozy game and horror playthroughs on YouTube. I listen to podcasts a lot about the paranormal, true crime and reddit readings.

Basically I'm a chronically ill and online shut-in artist with some witchy stuff sprinkled up in there.

I hope that was exciting and super informative. If you have any questions please send them in!

-Torque

[benzgarfield]

BenzGarfield Timeline 2023

January

February

Pit Babe Audition February 9, 2023

Magha Puja February 24, 2023

March

Lactasoy Meet March 3, 2023

Press Tour March 27, 2023

April

Music Festival April 1-2, 2023

Thai Book Fair April 8, 2023

ทำบุญออฟฟิศ Change April 10, 2023

May

Thonglor Pet Expo May 6, 2023

Pit Babe Soft Fanmeet May 22, 2023

June

Pit Babe Table Read June 7, 2023

Pit Sawat the Musical Premiere June 12, 2023

Pit Babe one31 June 20, 2023

July

Praew Talk July 15, 2023

S Vorarit Bday July 31, 2023

August

Pit Babe Fitting August 8 & 31 2023

September

Benz MBK BDay September 2, 2023

Pit Babe Press Conference September 18, 2023

RealMe 11 x 5G September 21, 2023

October

Pit Babe Blessing Ceremony October 25, 2023

November

Pit Babe First Premiere November 17, 2023

Channel 1 News November 20, 2023

Pit Babe Wrap Party November 22, 2023

one31 Rising Artists November 28, 2023

Press Tour November 30, 2023

December

Press Tour December 4, 2023

Pop's Graduation December 6, 2023

Yuniverse Awards December 11, 2023

Hollywood Game Night Thailand December 17, 2023

Sound Check December 19, 2023

GarfieldBenz x Central Rayong December 24, 2023

iQiyi Christmas Live December 25, 2023

OPPO New Year x Pit Babe December 30, 2023

Part 2 (2024) Part 3 (2025)

[animesavior]

“Find your dream, Akira. Find the biggest one you can. Your dreams keep a man solid; don't you ever forget that.” -          Teruo Tendo, Zom 100 (Ep. 12)

“If that's the case, I think it's time I leave the village. If what Shizuka's said was true and the zombies are caused by a virus, I'll travel the country and look for a cure to it. they'll convince dad to get surgery for his hemorrhoids, yeah. Do your best to help humanity and do what you can for the world. Those were dad's last wishes after all.” -          Akira Tendo

This Toonami Trending Rundown is a double feature for June 28 & 29-30 and July 5 & 6-7, 2024, as these two weeks marked the season finale of Zom 100.

In regards to trending, during both Toonami Rewind broadcast of June 28 and July 5, #ToonamiRewind would trend in the USA. And for both nights of June 29-30 and July 6-7, #Toonami would trend in the United States alongside My Adventures with Superman and Zom 100. #Toonami would also trend on Tumblr during the latter week.

The Zom 100 manga continues on Akira, Shizuka, Kencho, and Beatrix’s storyline, which is also being published stateside by Viz Media, which is still going strong with 17 volumes and 67 chapters and counting. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on when and if we’ll see a second season of the Zom 100 anime as of now. As previously mentioned, the anime saw numerous production issues and setbacks that regularly delayed the release of episodes during its original Japanese run, most notably with the final three episodes being delayed for over three months. So even if a second season is already greenlit, it’s quite understandable that the animation studio might need some time to get things back together. Nevertheless, Zom 100 sure was a fun ride, and hopefully we’ll see this show return in the future. In the meantime, feel free to check out the manga, in addition to a live action film by Netflix, that has been on their service since August 3, 2023.

This week’s feature was a game review of Animal Well, a platformer developed by Shared Memory and published by Bigmode. It received an 8/10 score.

During the Production I.G panel on the Saturday of Anime Expo 2024, the panelists revealed the voice cast of the upcoming anime adaption of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. The English cast will include:

Abby Trott as Kirie Goshima

Robbie Daymond as Shuichi Saito

Cristina Vee as Azami Kurotani

Doug Stone as Kirie's father

Aaron LaPlante as Shuichi's father

Mona Marshall as Shuichi's mother

Max Mittelman as Katayama

As for a potential release date, In an interview with The Japan Times released on June 29, Ito revealed that “the first of four episodes is complete, and lives up to his expectations.” The article also mentioned that Uzumaki is set to air later this year. During San Diego Comic-Con, Toonami announced that Uzumaki would indeed be premiering this September 28, 2024 at 12:30 a.m., following premiere episodes of Rick and Morty: The Anime.

Speaking of Comic-Con, we also got some news regarding several original productions and acquisitions. We got a new show announcement in Rooster Fighter by Shū Sakuratani. Rick and Morty: The Anime will also be premiering on Adult Swim on August 17, with the Japanese with English subtitled version of the episode premiering on Toonami starting August 19. Lazarus by Shinichiro Watanabe will be premiering in 2025. And finally, Aniplex has announced that Toonami will be airing Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village arc on August 10 at midnight, with successive episodes airing on 12:30 a.m, at least until September 28.

Crunchyroll has revealed a new trailer, key visual, and release date for the third and final season of Fire Force. Season 3 will be split into two cours (roughly around 24-26 episodes combined), the first half premiering in April 2025, while the second premieres in January 2026. In terms of trending, #FireForce would trend in the USA as a result.

As I attended San Diego Comic-Con in person, unfortunately, we’re running a bit behind on posting the most recent trending rundowns. We’ll have the trending rundown for the rest of July, featuring the season finale of My Adventures with Superman, up in the coming days. And be sure to tune in tonight for the premiere of Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village arc. Until next time, stay gold, be sure to register to vote for this year’s elections if you’re eligible and haven’t already, and let’s go Team USA.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

June 28, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#13]

Tweet Counts:

#ToonamiRewind [1,435 tweets]

#Naruto [6,288 tweets]

June 29-30, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#5]

#Zom100 [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

Tweet Counts:

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [3,128 tweets]

July 5, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#24]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [1,218 tweets]

#SailorMoon [3,321 tweets]

July 6-7, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#8]

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#9]

#Zom100 [#9]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#5]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to https://paypal.me/DanielLimjoco.

Secrets upon secrets. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[tamapalace]

On Tamagotchi Uni, You Can Visit Multiple Rooms

We’re really impressed by this. It appears that the Tamagotchi Uni is really focused on more than just one living space. Awkwardaltschmerz on Instagram was able to visit the Tamagotchi booth at the 2023 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were really lucky to be greeted by Tara Badie, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles America, Senior Director Brand Strategy. Tara gave Awkwardaltschmeraz a hands-on demonstration of the new Tamagotchi Uni in Pink!

The demonstration provided a glimpse into more features than we’ve seen before! The one that caught our eye was the ability to visit other rooms on the Tamagotchi Uni. You can see as Tara uses the “B” button to move Gozarutchi from the main living space, to the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, backyard, and lastly back to the main living space.

How awesome is that? On other Tamagotchi’s you could only visit certain spaces, and others were reserved for specific functionality, for example, you could only visit the bathroom if you needed to use the bathroom. Some of us just want to hang around different spaces!

We also noticed that your Tamagotchi can freely move between the different spaces on their own, without you moving them there. Oh, and they can even bring their items into the different spaces too. How wild is that? They will interact with items differently in each space. For example, if they’re playing with the teddy bear item, they might play with it on their bed in the bedroom, but in the main living space, they might hug it instead.

The gameplay is much more fluid and really showcases the personality of your Tamagotchi. This really elevates the Tamagotchi experience!

[petrovna-zamo]

Event Schedule

2025:

March 27th: Louisville, KY - TB&TB Live

March 29th: Durham, NC - TB&TB Live

August 16th: São Paulo, Brazil - The Realness Festival

2024:

January 5th: Salt Lake City - TB&TB Live*

January 6th: Denver - TB&TB Live*

January 19th: Philadelphia - TB&TB Live*

January 20th: Pittsburgh - TB&TB Live*

February 1st: Monterrey, Mexico - TB&TB Live

February 2nd: Mexico City, Mexico - TB&TB Live

February 28th: San Diego - TB&TB Live*

March 1st: Los Angeles - TB&TB Live*

March 18th: Richmond - TB&TB Live*

March 20th: Atlanta - TB&TB Live*

May 1st: Katya’s Birthday!

May 9th: Cincinnati - TB&TB Live

May 10th: Indianapolis - TB&TB Live

June 8th: Salt Lake City - MILK+ Pride

June 14th: Chicago - Roscoe’s

June 21st: Louisville - Play Louisville

June 28th: Royal Oak - Five15RoyalOak

June 30th: Seattle - Queer Pride Festival

July 5th: Nashville - Play Nashville

August 23rd: Trixie’s Birthday!

September 5th: Albuquerque - TB&TB Live*

September 7th: Sacramento - TB&TB Live*

September 28th: San Francisco - Princess Oasis

October 12th: Atlanta - Wussy Events

October 24th: Baltimore - TB&TB Live

October 25th: Providence - TB&TB Live

October 27th: Online - Veeps Virtual Halloween Special

October 31st: Perth - ITD Scream Queen

November 1st: Sydney - ITD Scream Queen

November 2nd: Melbourne - ITD Scream Queen

November 3rd: Brisbane - ITD Scream Queen

November 16th: Columbus - TB&TB Live

November 17th: Charlotte - TB&TB Live

December 4th: St. Louis - TB&TB Live

December 6th: Madison - TB&TB Live

December 8th: Madison - TB&TB Live

2023:

February 16th-March 8th: North America - Last T&K Live Tour

February 24th: Chicago - TB&TB Live

April 8th: Boston - MassArt Alumni Talk

May 1st: Katya’s Birthday!

May 7th: Online - Drag Isn't Dangerous Telethon

June 1st: Online - Trixie & Katya Live Livestream

June 8th: LA - Apocalipst!ck Cabaret - Pride Show

June 13th: New York City - ILTW Live

June 17th: London - Afternoon Tea

June 22nd: New York City - Pier 17 Pride

July 27th: Montreal - JFL TB&TB Live

July 28th: Minneapolis - TB&TB Live

August 11th: Melbourne - Drag Expo Opening Gala*

August 12th-13th: Melbourne - Drag Expo*

August 23rd: Trixie’s Birthday!

August 30th: Milwaukee - This is It Pride*

October 31st: LA - Apocalipst!ck Cabaret - Halloween Show

November 16th: Houston - TB&TB Live

November 17th: New Orleans - TB&TB Live

* = Rescheduled Date

[ginpotts]

NEWS ⨳フルスイング (Full Swing) from NEWS 20th Anniversary LIVE 2023 NEWS EXPO

[trascapades]

🚨🇵🇸#CeasefireNow #StrikeForGaza December 11, 2023

The National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of major factions in Palestine, has called for an inclusive global strike that would include all aspects of life in solidarity with the Palestinian people—particularly in the Gaza Strip—who have been facing an Israeli war of genocide, displacement and ethnic cleansing...

Tomorrow 11th Dec. is a global strike day. "If the politicians do not hear us, then we can strike from economic life and daily movement and we can boycott everything, we can put pressure on them to stop supporting and blessing the massacre that is happening in Gaza. CEASEFIRE NOW!!!!" 

Caption reposted from Esraa Alshikh إسراء الشيخ @Esralshikh

🛑We started a campaign to push for a total strike worldwide on Monday 12/11/2023..

⭕️It is necessary to paralyze the movement of life and the economic wheel in all countries so that everyone feels that he is directly affected by the impact of the aggression on Gaza... 

⭕️ Start making your communications today, mobilizing and publishing ..

⭕️The strike must include the transportation, aviation, trade, banks, ports, and even schools and universities.

⭕️Work on gathering the majority of supporters and forget about those who are negligent and discouraged..

⭕️Any personal loss we suffer is worth nothing compared to the massacres taking place against people in Gaza..

Image 2 by artist @heyimsakina 

Images 3 & 4 and caption by artist @shirien.creates: ...I got news that my friend Refaat had been assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, alongside his brother, sister, and four of her children. There is confirmation that he had received a threatening phone call by the Israeli intelligence saying they have located him.

Refaat was a well-known and loved Palestinian author, poet, and English literature professor. He was also a founder of @we_are_not_numbers. Refaat taught hundreds of students in Gaza English as a way to help them tell their stories and connect Palestinian liberation with the liberation struggles of Black, Indigenous and colonized people around the world.

I met Refaat in 2014 during his book tour for “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of stories from Gaza youth living under siege. Refaat taught me how important art and storytelling are as part of our resistance as Palestinians. His work profoundly impacted and inspired me.

Even under Israel’s relentless airstrikes, Refaat hopped around Gaza to find internet to be able to stay connected with his students, his friends abroad, and to take interviews to shed light about the atrocities happening in Gaza. He bravely spoke up knowing that Israel was systematically targeting journalists, academics, creatives, and all those exposing the truth. His home was already targeted and bombed in October, but he survived. This time, he didn’t. 

It’s hard to believe Refaat is no longer with us. It is a painful loss. His intellect, his love for Palestine, his passion to make life better for Gaza, his beautiful care for his people, and his great sense of humor will be missed. But in his short time on earth, Refaat left a lasting legacy on all Palestinians and on the world.

Refaat, in one of his last interviews, said expo markers are all he had as his resistance. But he would never give up, and he wouldn’t want any of us to give up. As he rests, we will continue to tell our stories, to demand an end to the genocide and siege in Gaza, and to keep struggling until Palestine is free.

"Writing is a testimony…a memory that outlives any human experience. We lived for a reason, to tell the tales of loss, of survival, and of hope." - Dr. Refaat Alareer   

Images 5-8 and caption by @ajplus Israel has bombed the Great Omari Mosque, the largest and oldest mosque in occupied Gaza. Since Oct. 7, Israel has damaged or destroyed over 100 cultural heritage sites in Gaza, along with thousands of historical documents.

Associate Producer: Katherine Conner

Image 9 from @npr The United States vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

The Security Council vote on the resolution, backed by Arab states, had 13 in favor and one — the U.S. — against, while the United Kingdom abstained.

#News #Gaza #Israel #Palestine #Palestinian #Mosque #History #GazaGeniocide #Gaza