It came to an end yesterday. Oh no! I wanted to have more fun (:_:) But well, every good thing comes to an end sooner or later (like the summers here…….. It’s becoming cold (╹﹏╹) ).

So I reached late because I wanted to attend the Part 2 of Character Designing Workshop by Chris Solarski and Daizen Komatsuda san’s talk on Key Animation – Outlook and perspective. I was a little late for the second one.

Someone had asked Komatsuda san about sexual content in anime as he had been showing clips from Kill la Kill all three days, and such things, you can’t show at a place where small children might be present, openly, in India (I could hear giggling and smirking of people, not that young, all the time when that dress changing scene used to come in the clip (*´ο`*)=3). Someone had raised this question (before I reached there)

So Komatsuda san blew everybody’s mind (well well, it’s India) when he openly admitted that Kill la Kill is kind of alright because nipple couldn’t be seen. Moreover, in general anime, those kind of parts have to be hidden by light or hair or something else (as can be seen in echhi genre, quite frequently). He finished by saying, that he himself loves to draw people naked, both males and females (A creator’s mind works differently anyway)

Next he invited his listeners to get their portrait drawn by him (and I was sooooo jealous. Me and other people who got his autograph on the first day should have been enough! He had to go out of his way to draw like 100 more! (>.<) Well, yes I am sorry, but I am like that only). During this time, I interviewed one of the members of organizing team from CineDarbaar which I’ll post next.

Next was the part 2 of Chris Solarski. And he started with providing a review what he had taught earlier in part 1 for those who didn’t attend his workshop. He then taught about his character development process. That is something one should go and learn from his book, since I don’t become qualified to post it here or tell anybody. If you really want to know though, I can message you the notes I made out there, if you provide the email id or something in the comments below. But I am pretty sure, they’ll be useless to you anyway.

And then I became a wanderer with no aim because cosplay competition was to be held much much later. And I wasn’t in the mood to attend that (it was going to be late and all too). The last, most awesome thing I came across was this:

I am sorry to all those who appear in this pic and won’t want it to be published on social platform but I have this as the most decent pic of this cosplay. And this one needs to be commended. This level, these details in India _/\_ Even the movements of this guy were robotic!

Other cosplays were also to be found (This includes pics from 2nd day cosplay too):

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And thus, ended a fun filled three day event (Oh wait! I ended my last post like this too…. Hmmm…. Need an alternate ending).

And I went on my way, happily ever after with lots of good memories and stories to tell~ (Nah……)

Ah, yes! I got the perfect ending! After this event, my love and respect for humbleness and down to earth nature of Japanese people and their loyalty towards their nation, has increased hundredfold. My choice of following this culture was indeed “elite”. I am happy that I am fan of Japan 😀

Looking forward to AnimeCon next year with great anticipation!

Well yeah. Day -2 was actually yesterday, but I got the pics today only so I would be writing about it today. Yesterday I went with my friend, so it was more fun 🙂

We attended the game character designing workshop by Chris Solarski. It was actually part of the two installments, where he told us his process of designing game characters. The workshop was based on his famous book – Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design. Chris actually takes inspiration from and combines techniques of classical arts with technology. Most importantly, he showed us how shapes affect the mentality of people and how cunningly, designers use it everywhere. He also told us the importance of volume while drawing.

Now this workshop was in the real sense a workshop because Chris took us through some exercises where he made us to follow the process he follows. We were provided with the sketch books, pencils, erasers and sharpeners sponsored by Pro Helvetia (Liasion office of the Swiss Arts Council in India). It was a good experience to go through the steps a pro follows.

Umm…. ok. This workshop went on longer than expected, so we kind of, missed a lot of talks. After this one, we directly attended the Panel Discussion on Future of Anime, Manga and Video Games business in India by Jiro Ishii san, Hiroaki Matsuura san and Mihara Ryotaro san which I have discussed in my earlier post. Other than this, we mostly went around buying manga and other merchandise again and awwing over the freebies I got with my Otaku Fan pass for the convention.

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In the end, we attended the workshop by MEGA where he gave a talk over his history with illustrations and designing. It was quite similar to what he had presented in his workshop before.

Thus, came to an end, another fun filled day with a lot of lessons and a lot of inspiration from great people.

P.S.: I am going to post about the 3rd day tomorrow. With that, I have got a little interview I did with one of the member of organizers’ team which I’ll be posting very soon (otherwise I’ll forget what all she said, coz even after jotting down a lot of things remain in mind only). And also, a post is coming on what all anime fans who were in Delhi but didn’t go, missed out there and what could be better. Seems this week is busy after all!

AnimeCon 2014, New Delhi, Day-2. There was an interesting panel discussion by Jiro Ishii san, the game designer and director of acclaimed games like 999, 428: In a Blockaded Shibuya etc.; Hiroaki Matsuura san, the President; and CEO of Sanzigen and Mihara Ryotaro san, Senior Visiting Researcher of Keio Research Institute at SFC and Lecturer of School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University on the future of Japanese Anime and Video Games in India.

The discussion went on for about an hour, where Matsuura san basically discussed his expectations of India and his future plans, Ishii san told about his thoughts as a Japanese and Mihara san shared his perspective on general trend of anime, manga and video games throughout the world. It was supposed to be more business related but ultimately it came to general discussion.

Key Takeaways from the discussion are as follows:

1. According to Mihara san, Internet has a huge impact over anime and manga business. Since there is a lot of piracy and all, merchandising things is one of the ways to reduce the piracy and increase business.

2. Matsuura san said that he is very open minded about business practices in various countries and understands that there would be cultural and other differences everywhere. He is also very interested in knowing the animation practices from India (I so wish I had known about it) and other countries.

3.  Matsuura san also shared that he has been in talks with US animation companies for doing collaborations in future. US companies are also investing in the Japanese anime business. He also wished that Indians would also come forward to invest in anime ventures.

4. On being asked about less popularity of visual novel games outside Japan, Jiro Ishii san mentioned the cost and difficulty in translating the text to English as the main reasons.

5. On future projects to cater western audience specifically, Ishii san told that he is always trying to level up, working hard in making the content universal. According to him, gaming is already a globalized concept. He is also of the opinion that Indian landscape is close to the landscape of Japan (Yay!) 20-30 years back (Ouch! It hurts! But it’s not incorrect either…..)

Audience was also given a chance to ask questions from the panel.

1. Jiro Ishii san was asked if the Under The Dog would be able break the recent recycling of concepts of anime. He said that this project was a deliberate effort, so that the superficial team might beat the “army”.

2. On being asked about the lack of Live Actions (Ok, I am pretty sure, the guy who asked the question, didn’t watch Japanese dramas), Jiro Ishii san stated the big success of recent Rurouni Kenshin movie. He also said that many manga and anime fans are entering the film and drama industry, so there has been an increase in live action projects in last couple of years. He also showed concerns about publishers from famous manga publishing houses and magazines like Shueisha and Shounen Jump not being very enthusiastic about live action adaptations of manga they publish.

3. On the major question of 3D animes in the future, Matsuura san said that there is lot of potential out there for 3D, but 2D and 3D are nothing more than tools. In near future, 3D might be dominating the anime industry though.

In final comments, Mihara san expressed his pleasure to be present there and he also showed curiosity about the future of anime and manga in India. Matsuura san requested everybody to buy authentic merchandise than pirated ones. He said that he would like to see if Indians are willing to buy their products and if India provides a good market for their stuff or not.

In the end Ishii san called every fan of anime, manga and video games a “Cultural Elite” (a little jokingly) because we chose to follow Japanese culture. He also said that he would work hard to take everything at global level but it’s up to us, the cultural elites as well, to help them.

In summary, they all were very positive about the future of anime, manga and video games in India, but they did show their apprehensions about people switching to buy the authentic stuff.

PS – I’ll post the pics and reviews of 2nd day in my next post. I had jotted down the key points from this talk, so I had to share this with everyone in a separate post (^_^)

Yes, yes, yes!! Another anime festival, this time in India itself, that too New Delhi! And I got to meet some real legends there! I was waiting for this day from, I don’t know how much time. And day 1 itself was successful （●＾o＾●）

The day started with two sweaty guys in scorching heat, wrapping entry bands to the wrists of excited people (Ok, that was…….unexpected).

Inside, the preparations were still going on and the workshops got delayed a little.

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The first workshop was a talk by popular illustrator from France – MEGA. He is such a sweet guy. The two lessons he taught us through his experiences are – Be Passionate and Be Humble. Also, one can easily tell from the content of a speaker, how much research has the person done, and man, to keep his audience engaged, he took Indian examples. Might be that Sachin Tendulkar is famous across the world, but anyway, his talk was entertaining.

On the top of that, he critiqued all the people’s work there. Not once he discouraged anyone. He is probably going to be busy tomorrow giving advice again to the works of people. He didn’t hesitate to provide his gmail address too. I am gonna add him on g+. And Gosh! There are so many talented people out there (not that I didn’t know that before)

So where was I? Yeah, next workshop was works of Daizen Komatsuda himself. We were basically shown a clip of Kill la Kill and then how storyboard is drawn, how parts are animated from keyframes and all. He started by saying a few words in Hindi!! Interesting session! Then came questions and answers. I went to take autograph, but before that, Mr. Jiro Ishii caught my eyes.

I was asked by a friend of mine to get his autograph too. Thank God, I did some research beforehand. He asked me if I really knew who he was and I shouldn’t take his autograph but Mr. Daizen Komatsuda’s. I did, for once give up and went to the line where people were standing to ask  Daizen Komatsuda san questions. But I again went to him. He again asked, “Me?”, this time in English. (I died of cuteness overload there (✖‿✖)) Then he questioned me if I knew his the most famous game. He signed it accordingly. And then photo! Yay!

As jolly as Jiro Ishii san looked, Daizen Komatsuda san seemed to be as conservative. I wish I knew who the third person was with them, I would’ve taken his autograph too. They were taking our pics in their cams too. Hope they keep mine one forever. Somehow, I was the first person to ask for the sign of everybody there. Daizen Komatsuda san started drawing my character with his pen. For the first 15 seconds I couldn’t even make what he was doing. But then people around started praising him and all and I got to know what he was actually doing. Then we took photos and yes, I bought a lot of manga for my friends.

In the end, before I left, the last talk I attended was on very intriguing topic – Garo magazine by Dr. Ryan Holmberg. This one needs some elaboration actually. Dr. Ryan talked about Garo’s birth and recent demise and touched upon the history of manga, especially the ones which were more related to life in Japan and such.

The whole environment is good and the volunteers are very helpful. Indian animecon hasn’t grown to that level yet that there are a lot of stalls or a lot of things related to Japanese culture are there. But for a person who has never seen a manga in real life (read: most of the Indian manga fans before the introduction of translated manga by e-tailers recently), it is indeed a heaven of three days.

I was actually expecting a little more in terms of food and all, but given that they’re organizing it for the fifth time only, and I haven’t attended the last ones and The tickets are pretty reasonable and the guests, (I don’t think, you can get a better lot than that. It’s a huge achievement!), I don’t want to complain. There are still two days left, so hopefully, it improves a bit.

With that, looking forward to next two days……….

PS – Ok, I just realized that the pics are too big in size. For now, please bear with me. I’ll upload the smaller print as soon as possible.