I am just about finished with Code Geass' last novel, Stage 4 - ZERO.
This volume covers a lot, starting from the preparation of the Specially Administered Zone of Nippon until the end when Zero and Suzaku face off.
It's loaded with information, and a lot that was not covered in the anime is described.
My favorite parts are the scenes between Euphy and Cornelia.
There is one section where Euphy reveals to Cornelia that she plans to forgive Zero's sins by giving up her rights to the throne.
An explanation is given on why there is such a privilege, and both me and my adapter thought it was quite interesting.
I've said many times before, but this novel is really the best thing out of all the different ways Code Geass was told. Of course, watching the anime will help visually, but the novel fills in so much of the gaps and gives you so many insights on what all the different characters were thinking.
So I'm really curious why there hasn't been any reviews on the novel.
If anyone wrote one or know of any, please let me know...
My adapter and I really work hard on this project.
We do a lot of back-and-forth to figure out the best way to express what the author wrote.
So I'd like to know there are people out there reading this title! :D
This isn't really about my work, but ever since I've worked on With the Light I've been following autism stuff going on in the news.
Anyway, I just got an email from my local movie theater about a film called The Horse Boy.
It's about a boy with autism.
It's based on a book called The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son.
If anyone is interested, here is a
list of theaters showing the movie.
Also I saw in the news recently that the number of autistic kids is up.
It used to be 1 out of 150, but now it's 1 out of 100.
Which is a lot.
Most of it comes from broader definitions and increased awareness.
Volume 5 of With the Light came out last month.
If you haven't been reading the series, now is the time to pick it up!
It's an easy way to learn/educate about autism. :D
Long Beach Comic Con was today, so I went because they gave me a Professional pass.
My sister, who just came back from Japan today, also came.
It was held at the Long Beach Convention Center, a very familiar place.
Since we went pretty late on Saturday, we didn't get to see any panels.
I was a little interested in watching Trick R Treat, but my sister gets scared so I had to skip it.
Basically we just went to say hi to our clients/friends.
There were a lot of people there, which is good.
I hope they continue this convention because I'm sure some people are sick of the chaos at San Diego Comic Con.
Some pictures:
Code Geass Lelouch manga #6 is done.
Starting from this volume is season 2.
So we have Rolo and stuff.
There is also some bonus manga at the end.
I finished Shugo Chara #9.
It looks like the next volume is going to be the last.
Which makes sense, because Amu only has 10 fingers and she can't show higher numbers on the cover.
Earlier this month, my new niece-in-law came to visit.
She was a big fan of Kitchen Princess, and when I gave her the last volume of Kitchen Princess, she was sad that it was over.
So I lent her Shugo Chara, hoping she would read those next.
I don't know if she did...
There are new Character Transformations in volume 9, so please look forward to it.
I was happy to see that Ghost Hunt #11 was just released on the 6th in Japan.
I can't wait to receive it from Company DR to work on it!
I've been watching Ghost Hunt the anime on hulu.com whenever I didn't want to work.
I enjoyed it a lot, since I didn't work on most of the series.
(I only started working on it from volume 9).
So there is a special limited edition for volume 11.
It comes with a drama CD where the voice actors from the anime act out the last arc, the Forgotten Children.
It's almost 60 minutes long.
I thought that was pretty cool, since the anime series never resolved anything.
It's just too bad for US audiences because I doubt the drama CD will make it to the US...
This is why, for people who only saw the anime, should buy the manga series! Yeah!
Oh, I got Ghost Hunt #10 in the mail the other day, so that should be out soon.
It's pretty creepy, so please check it out.
I finished Yozakura Quartet #6.
The author mentions something about the cover.
I put it in the translation notes, but volume 6 was released in two formats.
One was a limited edition with a different cover (Rin) and came with a CD.
A drama CD, I think.
It also came with the town song.
I doubt that version would be released in the US, so sorry, folks...
On a positive note, the volume had an extra chapter or two.
It was a fat book.
Not sure how the company will deal with the price point, but please check it out!
(And please buy the book...not read somewhere online!!!)
This year I decided to go to SDCC (or CCI) for one day only, since I was still catching up with work from what I missed during Company G's stay.
I like how this cover represents what CCI used to be.
I think the back should have been something about how Hollywood money ruined CCI...but that's another topic.
I failed to go visit all of my clients, though, since it was crowded and stuff.
I spent some time with personal friends (formerly "industry friends") and that was good enough for me.
Today was the last day of AX.
In the morning, the majority of the Company G staff left, and they wrote up nice things for me on a shikishi board.
I actually took today off to watch Wimbledon, and had my sister fill in as translator for the Director's panel and Artist's panel.
But it took so long taking care of check-out for Company G, I missed most of it.
Then I met up with the GoH to go eat lunch.
We came back to the green room before we left together for the closing ceremony.
Ishiwatari was drinking Red Bull as he watched the dealer's room break down.
Everyone else was napping.
I spoke to Mana for a few minutes, but it was a very awkward moment.
My sister knew him from before, and had introduced me, but then left me there...
Thanks a lot, dear sister...
We all went to the closing ceremony, only to find out that the auction was still going on.
I felt a little bad, since the guests were watching how much people were willing to pay for something they drew/autographed.
After the closing ceremony the GoH went to dinner.
I didn't go, since I didn't want to have AX pay for an extra person.
(It looked expensive!)
So that's it for Day 4.
I spent the next few more days with some Company G staff members, but I can't write about it.
I'll talk about it when they announce it.
Today the Company G staff got a "free" day so I took Imaishi, Nishigori, Manabe, Koyama, Wakabayashi, and Yoshinari to a tiny show called "Frank and Son."
I didn't want to hang around inside the stuffy warehouse, so I decided to drive around the area.
It was in an area where I used to go watch movies and stuff when I was in high school, so I was feeling nostalgic.
I ate lunch on my own, figuring that the men won't be having any lunch.
When I met them at 1:30pm, they confirmed it.
They wanted to shop for about two more hours, so I suggested that I go buy some In-N-Out and they eat in the car.
Imaishi said that would be perfect.
I asked him if he was hungry, and he said:
"I can endure being hungry but I can't endure not shopping."
So I bought them In-N-Out and they ate as I drove them back to Anime Expo for their autograph session.
You could see my burger at the bottom of this picture.
Sadly, I didn't get to eat it because I was driving, and during the autograph session I didn't want to get my hands oily because I was handing out postcards.
(In the picture, in-betweener San'nomiya is passing it out).
And this is San'nomiya getting an autograph.
I guess he can't ask during work, so this is his only chance to get one.
After the autograph session, Imaishi, Nishigori, Manabe, San'nomiya, Otsuka, and I headed out to go to Universal CityWalk to watch Transformers 2.
On the way out, we took pictures with Gurren Lagann.
At the movies, all of them bought drinks and stuff.
This is Imaishi being surprised how big the drink is.
After the movie we went to Cheesecake Factory, since some other AX guest told my guests that it was delicious.
I kept telling them that it was nothing special.
And they later agreed with me.
(I hope Cheesecake Factory is not reading this).
They (five of them) managed to finish two cheesecakes.
But Nishigori was regretting eating too much of it.
I warned him about it, but he didn't listen...
We didn't see any fireworks.
Only explosions from the movie.
Today we had Meet the Guests breakfast.
Luckily I didn't have to translate...
But since I didn't want to take up an extra seat, I stood for the whole time.
I'm glad I ate before the attendees came in.
This was the Gurren Lagann table.
After that it was Universal Studios time for the Company G gang, so we all went.
Except for Nishigori, who stayed behind to read a book.
Some staff members did not go inside Universal Studios but went shopping instead.
Director Imaishi and Mecha Designer Yoshinari bought toys.
After Universal we went to eat at Lawry's.
I sat at a table with a bunch of young staff who didn't know how I knew the people of Company G.
(I am close to the top three people at Company G, and not really the animators).
So I explained it to them.
Here is a picture of our dinner.
And after that, we went to Griffith Observatory.
The staff enjoying the view of LA.
Today we got up early to eat breakfast.
I accompanied Imaishi and Nishigori to the breakfast served for guests.
It was...Japanese food but not really.
I then split up with them to take care of the passes for the rest of the Company G staff.
(Well, my sister went to go get them...I just had to make sure they can get on the shuttle and arrive at LACC).
Some of the staff got to ride the school bus one, and they were excited.
Then I went to Opening Ceremonies and met up with the GoH.
We went to the dealer's room to shop.
They are looking at ero-hon...
I saw Shugo Chara cosplayers so I took a picture:
After shopping we went to eat at In-N-Out.
Huge bite out of a double double.
We then went to a supermarket.
We got in trouble later for taking pictures...
Then we went back to the convention for the focus panel.
I was sitting to the right of Imaishi.
This Simon had a moving drill!
I thought it was funny that someone asked about Evangelion, since they hardly worked on it.
I tried to explain that Imaishi was only an in-betweener then, but it didn't work.
Hee hee hee.
We then had an autograph session.
Some people thought I was my sister and apologized...no need!
I'm sure we look the same when I don't have my glasses on.
And thank you for the compliments about the Company MG booth :)
We had a Buuta cosplayer.
Cute!
She was at Fanime 2008 too...check my old posts for a picture of her in a panel.
We had take-out dinner from CPK, along with Gundam 00 director Mizushima.
After dinner we hurried to watch the ending of the Gurren Lagann movie (part 1) screening, so the GoH could see the fan reaction.
They LOVED the reaction!
Thank you to all those who came and watched.
The GAINAX panel was after that.
Other than Manabe, Imaishi, and Nishigori, Sushio and Otsuka joined too.
(They didn't talk much, though).
The GoH enjoyed this panel more than the first one, because the crowd was more lively and I guess the GoH were relaxed this time, since it was their second panel.
There was an Anti-Spiral cosplayer.
The panel had a "surprise" which was the presentation of a trailer for "Hanamaru Kindergarten," which is a project by Company G and director Mizushima.
The trailer they showed was subtitled just for AX attendees!
It was a looooooooooong Day 1.
Today I got up early to watch the final episode of Gurren Lagann.
My sister watched it with me.
Then we drove to Westin Bonaventure in our rental minivan.
During the ride, I discovered that my GPS was broken.
I need to buy a new one...
The AX staff were picking Company G up at the airport, and we were to meet them at the hotel.
When they arrived, we tried checking in...that was our first obstacle.
All the rooms were screwed up!
I must say here, for claiming to be a high-end hotel, the Bonaventure HAS THE WORST SERVICE EVER.
The man who was checking us in kept saying, "I can't help you, I don't know what I can do for you," and he was horrible.
We had to get AX Green Room manager, Nam, to resolve things.
I'm glad my sister came along with me, who was only there to say hi, because she took care of it with Nam and Takeda-san (CEO of Company G) while I went to the press junket with the Guests of Honor.
The press junket was pretty interesting.
It must've been hard for character designer Nishigori because he couldn't sleep on the plane and was very tired.
But he answered all of the questions with very good answers.
So please check some of these websites for their interviews:
Anime Genesis
Anime News Network
The-O Network
Anime Vice
One of the press came dressed as Asuka, so they took a picture with her.
The people of UTB (United Television Broadcasting) also came and interviewed in Japanese.
They are the people who show anime on TV here in Southern California on channel 18.2.
Currently, I think they are showing Haruhi, The Third, and Dice.
They're gonna start showing true tears and sola soon.
After the press junket, they went to the Guest of Honor dinner.
I didn't go because I wanted to make sure that the 40+ staff of Company G could check in.
Some of them had to stay at the Marriott across the street because the Bonaventure had run out of rooms.
Then we ran into another problem...
My sister, who went to the registration hall to retrieve the badges for all of the Company G staff, called and said that the convention did not have their names in the system.
It was a great start for a long week, but I was telling Takeda-san that it would only get better from here, so it was okay.
(I was wrong).
That's it for Day 0!
