When I Was Done Dying

I've posted Dan Deacon before, so you already know how I feel about them. This one is nice on full-screen and with headphones.

Anime North Anime Hell OP

In case you missed the show, or in case you were at the show and blinked and missed something, here's the opening credits sequence for last week's Anime Hell at Anime North!

Aniem Notrh Ehll Eropt

Yeah it was cold outside - Friday night it got down to ZERO, welcome to May in Ontario, hope you brought a jacket - but Hell was in session at the North building of the TCC, with the finest bathrooms in convention-center-land and a capacity crowd of fans!

live blurry selfie taken sometime during Hell

The crowd learned about dumb ways to die, met Mr. Bigot from the Yogi Bear show, got caught up with Lupin III, was taught traffic safety with Goku, saw some live-action Astro Boy, was told to "heat meat up" and "hold meat tight", said goodbye to Casey Kasem and Gary Owens, watched "Power Plant 33" from the Japan Animator Expo, was sold savings bonds from Batman, learned about how all anime animation and manga comics were actually child-porn tools for predators, saw the otaku seduction techniques of Blue Blazes and Gundam Build Fighters, and heard an amazing tale of fandom vengeance from the '80s.  Shain live-tweeted from her control table, the tech staff kept the stereo in stereo, and overall, considering the change in venue and all the potential problems that could have happened, it was an amazing, almost flawless Hell for everyone. When it was all over, we distributed Timbits for strength and energy to make it through the cold darkness. Now it's spring again, thanks to Anime Hell!

Animazement 2015 Report

With the old, incredibly competent AV crew back in charge, this year's Hell went off without a hitch. We rocked a full house and, wonders of wonders, it was possible to make out what was happening on the screen. The Animazement forums have given up the ghost, so all the details await you below the cut.

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Hell Dance Party: "Severe Slash" by Helena Hauff, "1976" by Tzusing (with special guest Ned Beatty), and "Vader" by Gesloten Cirkel.

01 - "She Is Young, She Is Beautiful, She Is Next" by Perturbator - No sooner has the Hell Dance Party wrapped up than we kick things off with an awesome slice of synthwave.

02 - 1970s Lite Brite ad - And now a word from last year's commercial sponsor.

03 - Dear vs. Bear trailer - It's like a cross between Bollywood and the Asylum guys who make those awful TV movies for Syfy, but in the very best possible way. Of course, by "best" I mean "What the hell?"

04 - "FM" by Crayon Pop - Tuxedo Kamen got some applause, sure, but the Master Chief cameo is what really made the crowd go wild.

05 - The Unmarketables - They're not premise driven!

06 - Mystery Boy - It turns out that the Hell audience loves nothing more than heavy doses of cartoon violence. Can't argue with that!

07 - Hebocon report - It also turns out that people who like Japanese stuff and who go to conventions really like to watch reports about Japanese conventions, especially ones about crappy robots. This was one of the highlights of this year's Hell.

08 - Robot King - Speaking of crappy robots, boy, do these guys ever suck.

09 - "Sausage Samba" by Friendly Rich - Yes, the song is in English. He's singing about meat. No, really.

10 - Moments of Wonder: Winston Churchill - And now, this year's educational segment, courtesy of the ever insightful Philomena Cunk.

11 - Revenge of the Ninja trailer - Remember, only a ninja can kill a ninja. Sadly, I accidentally played a variant of the trailer that featured absolutely no belt buckle shuriken, but I've linked to the superior version here. That said, when Sho Kosugi is involved you can only go so wrong.

12 - Transformers: Age of Extinction (10 Guaranteed Improvements) - And we're back to crappy robots, though immeasurably improved by the Auralnauts. This was the other popular favorite of the year.

13 - Mighty Mister Titan - Providing the all-important half time exercise break, as documented here.

14 - I Live In The Woods - Random cartoon weirdness, round one.

15 - The Circle Line - Random cartoon weirdness, round two.

16 - The Magic Christmas Tree trailer - Absolutely no adults will be admitted without children!

17 - Clocking Out - With special thanks to Bottom Shelf Films and, of course, Vince Lowe.

18 - Captain America: Winter Soldier VHS trailer - Our special sneak preview of Captain America: Civil War.

19 - Invincible Iron Man: The False Captain America - Whoops, sorry, that was the last Captain America flick. This is our special sneak preview of Captain America: Civil War. The festivities proper kick off six minutes in.

20 - Dickens Fruit Corners - And now a word from our commercial sponsor.

21 - "Bibi Hendl" by Takeo Ischi - "Who likes Japanese pop music?" Featuring a wonderful bit of serendipity in the form of a surprise appearance by Cafe Hell.

22 - Internal Organs University - "Who likes Japanese cartoons?"

23 - Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde trailer (NSFW) - The previous clip was a bit heavy, so it was obviously time to switch it up with something wildly gratuitous.

24 - V for Varoufakis - This year's current events segment was provided courtesy of that endless font of humor, the Germans.

25 - The Obvious Child - Presented without commentary to a crowd that sat there quietly for twelve solid minutes trying to figure out what in the fuck was happening to them.

Outro: "The Time is Now" by John Cena

As ever, kudos to Animazement's stalwart Hellions: Cameron Blashka, Jared Blashka, and Chris Culpepper. Also, thanks to William Bloodworth for providing this year's flyer.

Anime Hell at Anime North

37 minutes til Anime Hell #AnimeNorth2015 it's cold outside, come on in! pic.twitter.com/JrceYyRO1O

— dave merrill (@terebifunhouse) May 23, 2015

HELL pic.twitter.com/CnbFeMCcPZ

— dave merrill (@terebifunhouse) May 23, 2015

The Totally Awesome Japanimation Fan Show (April 1990)

"We dug back into our videotape archives and pulled out this classic episode from April 1, 1990. We talk about a new Japanimation convention in Dallas, sub vs dub, and the new fad called 'cosplay'."

Shout-out to A-Kon after 1:13. Cos-play segment at 3:50. You can FF through the laser-disc part.

Danno found this, so I don't know why he didn't post it.

this Friday! Anime Hell! Anime North! This Friday!

NEW PLACE SAME TIME ALL HELL
This year Anime North has both the South and the North buildings of the Toronto Congress Centre, and the giant ballroom of the North building is where we're at! One-day tickets are still available at the door so there's no reason to miss this big show!

The Colonel Comes To Japan (1980)

The Best is Yet To Come!

Dodoba

Made by a CalArts grad, but you wouldn't know it from the look!

Happy Hundred

Like you don't know who that is.

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Green pea-ness. No, wait.



Take that, critics.



Take that, whomever.



And I just included that last one because I think he's cute, and it's a pretty good little movie. It's all about the making of "Citizen Kane" and I think Liev has the cadence down.

Oh, such furniture porn!