R.I.P. Kon Satoshi

By Andrew Monkelban

Yay… More deaths…

On August 24, we lost another great mastermind, Kon Satoshi. The famed director of such works as the psychological thriller Perfect Blue as well as Tokyo Godfathers, and Millennium Actress, lost his fight with pancreatic cancer.

Kon is survived by his wife Kyoko. He was 46-years-old. The good ones always die young. He was… Read More

Top Ten Worst J-Music Artist Names

By Andrew Monkelban

List by Andrew Monkelban, Explanations by Tanya Peacock

Japanese music (J-Music), much like American is categorized into numerous genres — JPop, JHip-Hop, JRock, etc. I listen to a lot of J-Music, so I’ve come across quite a few artists and bands with bad names over the years. I decided to make a top ten list of some of… Read More

[Review] The Last Airbender

By Andrew Monkelban

Movie adaptions rarely live up to the epicness of their source material. The X-Men, Super Mario Bros., and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies are some examples of this, while the Lord of the Rings trilogy is something that has lived up to the source material. How does The Last Airbender fare — does it blow you away,… Read More

[Review] XCM XFPS Rateup Adapter for PS3

By Andrew Monkelban

Preferences: we all have them. Whether you like Coca-Cola over Pepsi, subtitled anime over dubbed, or dogs over cats. As gamers, some prefer to play shooters with a controller, while others prefer to use a keyboard and mouse. However you can’t use a keyboard and mouse (to play games) on a console… Or can you? The XCM… Read More

Voltron Producer Dead

By Andrew Monkelban

Peter Keefe, best known as the producer of the 1980s anime, Voltron, passed away on May 27, succumbing to throat cancer. He was only 57.

Voltron was an adaptation of two different anime series — Hyakujuu Ou Golion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV, redubbed and edited. I’m sure some of my fellow writers probably grew… Read More

[Review] The Guild: Season 3 DVD

By Andrew Monkelban

Felicia Day’s award-winning webseries, The Guild returns for a third season. The series tells the story of a local guild and their adventures both in and outside of the game. Following the troubling conclusion of season 2, tempers flare and a rival guild shows up. Things escalate when the rival guild starts terrorizing the Knights of… Read More

[Review] PSPgo

By Andrew Monkelban

Within the last decade or so, whether it is due to slimlining or just new chipsets, video game systems have had many reincarnations, the latest most notably being Nintendo’s DSi XL. However, last October, Sony released a new incarnation of its PSP, named the PSPgo, commonly referred to as just the Go (its model number is PSP-N1000,… Read More

My Top Ten Vocaloid Songs (On YouTube)

By Andrew Monkelban

I had previously mentioned the musical voice synthesizer, Vocaloid. However, you didn’t get to see, or rather hear, the full extent of what you can do with the program, because I focused on the March 9 concert. I plan to rectify that with this post though. The Vocaloid program is so versatile that it can be used… Read More

[Review] 1.3 Megapixel Spy Camera Sunglasses

By Andrew Monkelban

Fictional secret agents, such as the iconic James Bond, have had cool gadgets like pen-bombs, laser-shooting wristwatches, and grappling hook belts. Now technology has gotten to a point where normal people (like you and I) can have such gadgets. ThinkGeek (a shopping site for geeks) has come out with Spy Camera Sunglasses, but are they suitable for… Read More

The Future is Now: Holograms Invade Japan’s Music Industry

By Andrew Monkelban

One of the big things that has really exploded in Japan this past decade, is a program called Vocaloid.

Originally released in 2004 by Yahama, this musical voice synthesizer enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody.