So it’s been a while since my last post, but not much has been going on to write about. I just picked up the Serenity Collector’s Edition boxset on Tuesday and I’ve been watching and rewatching that for the past few days. And now I’m just waiting for this coming Tuesday when the Heroes season 1 boxset is finally released.

As for work stuff, we just started working on Blood Alone volume 4 and although I don’t know the specifics of the story for it, this volume seems to be heavily plot driven. There’s a lot of action and several new characters. Unfortunately at this point, I don’t know exactly when this’ll be available, but it’ll certainly be out before the end of the year unless major unforseen problems occur. Most of the production work for Chun Rhang 5 is now done as well, and it’s an important volume because it marks a very important turning point in the story, so definitely check that out when it’s released. Shinobuden 3 and Ichigeki Sacchu Hoihoi-san should be arriving at our doorstep any day now as well. And NOW volume 3 re-release as well as some other titles will be coming soon as well.

-Sanshiro

My first blog post in a while. Sorry, but after SDCC, I’ve found myself remarkably busy but I’m not sure with what exactly. Anyways, Comic-con was great as always, but it just getting more and more packed every year. I remember years ago when if you wanted to attend a panel, you just show up and walk in when it starts. You may not get the best seats doing that, but you could still get in. Nowadays, for some rooms, you just have to go in there as early as you can and stay in there or else you can’t get back in. And I think that’s kind of sad. You can potentially waste an entire day just to do one thing. But even still, it’s my favorite convention to go to. And now, thanks to the internet, even if I miss a panel I really wanted to go to, I can see it online. Like the image above which was from the Heroes panel. But since I couldn’t go to that, I went to the Family Guy panel instead which certainly wasn’t a bad thing.

So without spending hours writing about my experience in San Diego, I’ll move on to work stuff. We’re finally putting the finishing touches on Kyouhaku Dog’s, which has taken much longer than I had originally expected. I’m sure having AX and SDCC interrupt our work schedule had a hand in that, but it’ll be nice to finally move onto something else. And that something else will be the next volume of Chun Rhang. In other news, our newest books currently being printed are coming soon (within the next few weeks). I’m really liking how Hoihoi-san is turning out from the initial test prints we’ve received. So look forward to that.

Now I’ll be getting back to the Kevin Smith Smodcasts….

-Sanshiro

It’s the all too short time between Anime Expo and the San Diego Comic-con (although this year’s gap is a little longer than usual). And with AX behind us and the SDCC ahead, it’s time to continue with work. Chun Rhang Yhur Jhun volume 4 is nearing completion and I’ve just started on a new book which is looking like it’ll take quite a bit of time to finish. And there’s still quite a lot of work stacked up for me for a long time to come.

But then there’s the last big convention I’ll be going to this year. With their program schedule up, I’ve already figured out all the panels and events I want to go to. And there’s some things I’m really looking forward to. It’ll be a long drive, but it’s worth it.

And as for my experience at Anime Expo, I know a few things didn’t go all too smoothly for people, but I had a good time. I guess that’s because I avoided the things like lines, main events, and the really popular panels. Instead, I spent most of the convention talking with old friends and hanging out. I also watched Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers while I was there. But were fun, if not somewhat mindless, movies.

-Sanshiro

AX is finally right on top of us. With only days left, it’s going to be a busy week. We’ll be driving down tomorrow and stay with an old friend of mine in Long Beach during the convention. As for what guests I’m looking forward to seeing, Anna Tsuchiya is certainly on the list since I’m a fan of her music. But mostly the con is all about hanging out with old friends. We’ve already scheduled a dinner to Saturday night, so that should be fun. I’ll be back home about a week from today, so no new blogs till then. And the great pic above is of my mom’s cat whom I’ll be seeing tomorrow when I visit her.

-Sanshiro

So AX is just a week away and we’ll all be busy gearing up for that.  We’ll be out for about a week and get the chance to hang out with family and old friends.  That’s really why we love going to conventions.  That and seeing our work and fans of our work.  And then just a short few weeks after that is the mother of California conventions, the San Diego Comic Con, which never fails to be great every year.  And this year, I’m really looking forward to hearing and seeing stuff for the new Batman movie slated for next year.  And as for the awesome image above, I saw this in Berkeley just this past Friday and just had to take a picture of it.

-Sanshiro

I’m not sure where my time’s been going lately, but I don’t seem to have enough of it.  Well I’ll start off by mentioning I just found out this past Friday that 2 friends of mine just recently got engaged.  Wedding plans are yet to be made, but it’s something to look forward to.  Very few of my friends are married and I’ve yet to go to a friend’s wedding from college since the last couple I know eloped in Vegas.

Anyways, as for work, Anime Expo is only a few short weeks away.  And I want to get NOW Volume 5 done before then.  Although that won’t actually be published for a while, we’ve been a bit behind on our production side.  And with AX and Comic Con in July, there won’t be a whole lot of time to catch up.

-Sanshiro

Just thought I’d make a quick blog post before heading to work.  Hoihoi-san is very near the end of production.  It’s going through QA now.  But for those of you eagerly awaiting it, hopefully you’ll be able to buy it here within the next few months.  We’ll also be printing Shinobuden 3 and making second prints of Blood Alone 3 and Iono-sama Fanatics 1.  And as is true for our second printings, we do make a few changes and corrections to the books.  And for Iono, there’s going to be a few more changes for the second print than is usual for our other books.  So look forward to those.

-Sanshiro

It seems like I’m working on a different book every day now.  I’m currently juggling about 4 different books right now.  And although it keeps the work interesting, it really feels like you’re going nowhere fast.  But with Shinobuden 3 being (hopefully) finished up and sent to the printers tomorrow, that’s one less thing off my plate.

Which brings me to Fanime.  It’s the first anime con I’m attending this year and I’m looking forward to buying some of those new Transformers toys that are out now.  I got to play with a few of them this past weekend, and I must say, they’re nothing like the ones I played with as a kid.  Other than that, conventions are my excuse to hang out with a bunch of old friends.

And as I mentioned last week, I’ll go into a little more details of what’s been going on with me over the past several weeks.  First off, I got myself an iPod that’s pretty much the nicest thing I’ve gotten in a long time.  And of course one of the first things I did was go out shopping for some accessories to go with it.  And a word of advice for those of you out there planning on doing the same, do your research and preferably buy online.  Since I’ve gotten my iPod, I’ve tried a fair amount of accessories and found that most are overpriced and aren’t very good.  The FM transmitters were big disappointments and are really expensive.  I’ve since gotten a Sony cassette deck adapter that works great.  And the other product I’m really happy with is the iSkin EVO3 which is by far the best iPod cover I’ve seen or tried.  I had to special order it, but it was worth it. All I have to say is thank goodness for Best Buy’s return policy.

-Sanshiro

Well it’s been a while since my last post and quite a few things have happened both in and out of work. So I’ll start with the shorter of the two, which is stuff that’s been going on at work. You may have noticed we have some new books, including the first of our new Japanese titles, Iono-sama Fanatics. And given we did things quite different in that book than we have in the past, I’m very pleased with the results (although I did notice a few problems that did occur). And as for production side, we’ve all but finished Shinobuden 3. And working on that book pretty much from start to finish feels a lot like cleaning the exterior of a large office building… with a toothbrush. It’s extremely grueling and slow and we aren’t done with it yet. But I’m now working on Chun Rhang Yhur Jhun 4 and Zero 4.

Now with that said, there’s a lot more that’s been going on outside of work for me, but I’ll go into more details in the coming weeks. But for now, I’ll just give you all an overview of some of those things. As I mentioned before, I attended my brother’s wedding (pictured above which I got from my brother’s online photo album) about a month ago now. And I must say, it was a very odd experience seeing people I hadn’t seen in years, and in some cases, decades. And in a not entirely unrelated topic, I have officially jumped (or more like fell) on the iPod bandwagon after receiving an 80gig 5G Video iPod from my brother as a gift. And although I probably own enough music to fill 3 or more of these, I’ve been rather slow with adding songs to it. And in just over a week, Fanime-con will begin, which marks the beginning of convention season for me. And although our company will not have any official presence there, I as well as other employees of our company will attend.

- Sanshiro

After returning from my trip to SoCal for my brother’s wedding, I actually had quite a few things to write about here.  But then I get wind of the tragedy that occurred in Virginia on Monday.  Because of that, I think it’d be best to delay all that.  It’s just a reminder that for all the good things that happen in this world, there’s also terrible things that happen as well.  And also given that I’m Korean-American, this makes it a little more personal for me as well.

-Sanshiro