Orlando Anime Day on January 30th

A weird event popped out of nowhere recently, called "Orlando Anime Day." I really don't know what it is about or who is running it. Nobody else who is important in the local anime community does either. However, it is something to do and it's free if you get a coupon off of the website(or you could pay $3 at the door).

It looks like it will have a video room, dealer room, and costume contest; which is about as bare minimum as an anime event can get. It's also in Kissimmee at the Ramada that JACON was at until that convention uneventfully died.

The event is January 30th and unfortunately that is the same weekend as the Global Game Jam some of us are participating in. If any of you want to go, I'd suggest carpooling and letting the rest of us know how it went afterward.

Florida Oriental Trading is closing soon

Sad news everyone. I took a trip to Florida Oriental Trading today with a friend to confirm a rumor about their imminent closing. They are having a clearance sale for the rest of the year on just about all of their merchandise and will be closing up shop at the beginning of 2010. This is sad news for the community as FOT was pretty much the last anime shop in Orlando. Other stores like Japan HQ have disappeared while Colloseum of Comics and Sci-Fi City have scaled down their anime and manga sections to practical non-existence. After FOT closes, we have no local stores to buy anime merchandise from regularly except for Hot Topic, Best Buy, and MovieStop. Oh, joy.

Florida Oriental Trading has been selling anime & manga merchandise as well as many other products from Asia for many, many years. Quan(or is it Kwan?) has been good people to visit and talk to. He has sponsored prizes for events that I have done at conventions for the past two years and has helped out other clubs and organizations in the local anime community. Just today, we were talking about Guin Saga, which anyone in our club knows is awesome.

It will be sad to see the store go, but Quan plans to work local anime conventions and Megacon, and he will be selling his merchandise online. I will have a link to his website when it is ready.

I guess in the end, this was bound to happen sooner or later. The fanbase for anime has changed significantly throughtout this decade. We have a new generation of anime fans that see things differently from the older crowd; their tastes are different and far more specific. Not only that, their interest in spending money is far lower compared to years ago to the point that anime convention dealer rooms merchandise tables consist of discount anime and manga along with cheap figures and Pocky. The past couple years of Dealers' Room visits have been underwhelming, to say the least.

You will be missed Quan, even though we can say hello to you at places like Megacon and Anime Festival Orlando. For those who want to visit FOT before it closes, it is open everyday except Wednesday from 10am to 7pm and the shop is located on 1217 E. Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32803. Be sure to stop by, get some presents, and wish Quan a Happy Holiday.

Ninja action time! We are having a meeting this Friday, November 18th!

Sorry for the lack of updates! I have been busy at my new job. We've had a couple meetings since the last time this blog has been updated.

On November 21st, we watched Akira and ate delicious Thanksgiving deserts made by some of our club members! I also brought strawberry cupcakes. In addition, a hero brought lots of beef jerky which is appropriate for any occasion!

After some grubbin and socilalizin, we sat down of one big, happy nerd family and watched the movie and gave thanks to the anime gods(or Katsuhiro Otomo). Even to this day Akira is still a great movie and a cornerstone of anime. We were originally going to have it in the auditorium, but that did not work out. Many of us agreed that having it in the normal place works just fine.

On December 6th, we had an anime potluck with consisted of Riding Bean, Ghost in the Shell, and an episode of Pocket Monsters that featured Porygon and gave kids in Japan seizures! It was an awesome day! Nobody got a seizure at the meeting though. No, Waldo is always like that.

So we've been watching some classic anime films as of late. I am really happy about that because a lot of you haven't seen movies like Akira or Vampire Hunter D, so I think exposing you to that for the sake of being an legitimate anime fan is important. These are greats that still stand the test of time and offer a lot in terms of substance to even the modern age anime fan.

A lot of you have grown up on this shonen anime series called Naruto, which is about a boy ninja with a demon sealed inside him who constantly feels the need to prove himself to the people around him. It has it's merits; however, a lot of you need to see some intense ninja action.

So tomorrow night, we are going to watch Ninja Scroll, which was one of my first anime movies. I saw it a couple weeks ago after watching Ninja Assassin, and it's still pretty badass. It even has some romance in it! I am also sporting a new laptop, so we can continue watching Guin Saga, which may just be the best anime of 2009. Guin and those monkey people have a war with the Mongols to finish and Guin just recruited some strong allies to help them out. It's going to be intense!

A lot of you will be elsewhere for the next couple weeks and I wish you all safe travel and fun times! The next meeting will be Friday night(tomorrow), December 18th at 9:15 p.m. and it will be held in FS3B-113 at Full Sail University. See you all there!

Akira next Saturday. November 21st!

Next Saturday, November 21st, we will be watching Katsuhiro Otomo's classic sci-fi masterpiece Akira in the FS3B-Auditorium! The showing will be around 9:00 p.m. and we can mingle prior to that around 8:30 p.m. This is a pretty interesting take on the giant manga series that dominated in the 80s. Even to this day, there has been few anime with the animation quality of this movie and with plots as complicated. If you have not seen this film yet, you're in for a treat!

Fantastic News!

Hey everyone,

As many of you know, I accepted a job offer that was too good to refuse. I will be moving up in my career and doing big things. This means that I will no longer be part of the Full Sail University faculty, which we all thought would hurt the club.

We discussed this a few times already and had decided to do thing unofficially and have meetings when we can, where we can.

HOWEVER!

After trying to schedule a special meeting(which is still in the works because the original slot I wanted just got snatched up), I asked about holding meetings on weekends at the Full Sail University if there is a free room.

I was told that if a room is free on the weekends, then that reserving it will not be a problem at all! This means that we can still meet as normal as we can! Huzzah!

Orlando Japan Festival 2009! This Sunday!

Last December, the Propeller Anime Club took a trip to the Orlando Japan Festival and it was awesome! Lots of good food was feasted on, and we saw many performances and demonstrations that celebrated Japanese culture.

We plan to go again as this year's Orlando Japan Festival will be held this Sunday, November 8th from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. in The Village at Hunters Creek on John Young Parkway. We'll be carpooling there as a club and we will be meeting early on Sunday to do so. We'll be meeting in front of FS3B and leaving around 11:25 am for the event. We'll take I-4 west to get to John Young Parkway.

The event is free, but there will be vendors selling kimonos, art, food, candy, and other Japanese products. They only take cash so make sure that you have some in case you want to by something. At some point during the day, we'll have lunch as a club at the nearby indoor Japanese restaurant. If you are on a budget and just want to hang out, that's cool. I am sure some of our convention buddies from Megacon and AFO will be seeing us at some point!

Also, it's totally okay to wear a kimono to this event if you got one!

Much fun will be had and I hope to see you all this Sunday!

Three year anniversary photos!

Sunday, October 25th was when we celebrated the three year anniversary of the Propeller Anime Club! The founding date was on October 22nd in 2006. It's been a fun three years with many adventures and stories to tell, along with many strong friendships formed!

I am really happy with how the club has grown so far and I hope that we continue to prosper in the future! Our get together was a mix of eating sweets, sharing stories, watching awesome anime, and even taking a trip to the local Florida Oriental Trading anime shop that is in downtown Orlando.

Fun times were had and here are some pictures:

Next meeting: Sunday, October 25th at 2:00 p.m. THREE YEARS!

I am excited and very proud to announce our third anniversary club meeting for this Sunday, October 25th at 2:00 p.m. in FS3B-113! We won't do anything too fancy; we'll show some cool anime, share stories of our exploits at conventions and club outings, and enjoy some snacks and sweets!

That's right! I'm bringing cake! And other goodies! (Feel free to bring stuff if you can!)

We'll be showing episodes 8 & 9 of Guin Saga, which is probably the single best anime of this year. Not only that, we'll be showing episodes 3 & 4 of Gungrave and Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky!

Now for those who haven't been to the club as of late, you may not see this as fun. But meeting as of late have turned into little anime parties that are highly entertaining! Let me put it this way: Do you like anime? Do you like hanging out with cool people? Do you want to make good friends? If you answered "yes" to all those questions, then you definitely want to come to the meeting this Sunday!

Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3 Winners!

Hey everyone! Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3 was a blast last week and I'm glad that many of you could make it. We had some fun tournaments and casual gaming going on. Here are our winners:

Goldeneye 007 (N64) - Adam Matis

Mario Kart 64 (N64) - Rogelio Mosqueda

Street Fighter II: Turbo (SNES) - Kent Ward Clyde Campbell

Sonic the Hedgehog 2(not 3) Race Mode  (GEN) - Zak Wilson

Super Smash Bros. (N64) - Clyde Campbell

Fun times were had by all and our next meeting will be Sunday, October 25th, where we will be celebrating the third anniversary of the club's founding!

I also want to give a big THANK YOU to all the Propeller Anime Club students who helped make this successful, as well as Eric Loader from Tech Support for bringing us screens and other equipment to play our games on! Thanks man!

Recap of this past week's meeting. 9/27 edition!

This past meeting was extremely awesome! We had eight new members show up an introduce themselves. Seven of them started classes this week, so I got to be their first Full Sail teacher at the meeting. After seeing a few different shows, I used them as reinforcement of covering man law, which they may have been unfamiliar with.

We filled in the gap left by Outlaw Star with Gungrave. I haven't done any research on it yet, but it is originally created byYasuhiro Nightow, who is most famous for creating Trigun. It's a cool series right now. It looks like the main character, Brandon Heat has a split personality, or the second episode is going back in time to wear he was just a mere human. We shall see as it will be regularly shown at meetings.

Guin Saga was pure epic. Guin put on some badass armor, united all the Sem tribes, and then went to war with the Mongauls. He fought back to back with Istavan(who decided to cosplay Strider) and then Guin took an old man's giant sword and hurled it Amnelis' direction and made her scream like a little girl. Guin also told her in an indirect way that her place is in the kitchen. Guin also made her biggest fan cry like a bitch when he owned him. Overall, Guin Saga was strictly badass this time around. And the war is still going on!

After a couple hilarious episodes of There will be Brawl, we got a round to watching some Vampire Hunter D. Only myself and one other club member were born when the movie came out in 1985. It was still enjoyed by all and I look forward to showing the club members more classics in the future!

Last but not least, we had to say goodbye to another member at the club. Simon Wong, who's seniority in the club is only eclisped by mine has recently graduated from Full Sail University and will be returning home. Simon is the only one around long enough to see the earlier, and more difficult times of the club. Over the past two years, the club has been booming and awesome, but it hasn't always been that way. Simon has always been a pleasure to have around and a valueable contributor of many of the great anime that we have shown in the club. He will truly be missed! I wish you luck in you future endeavors, Simon!

Rules and Schedule of Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3!

Hey everyone! We have rules and schedule now for Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3, our club's fundraiser event! The tournament, will take place on Sunday, October 11th in FS3B-113!

Tournament Schedule
1300 - Tournament Sign-ups begin
1300 - Casual Play begins
1400 - Street Fighter II Turbo(SNES)
1400 - Goldeneye 007(N64)
1500 - Mario Kart 64(N64)
1600 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3's Race Mode(GEN)
1600 - Super Smash Bros(N64)

Tournament Rules
Street Fighter II Turbo
Best 2 out of 3 rounds to win a game
Best 2 out of 3 games to win a match
99 second rounds
Double Elimination for top 8 players

Goldeneye 007
One on One deathmatch
LTK Pistols
First to 10 points to win a game
Best 2 out of 3 games to win a match
Sight on
Auto-aim off
No radar

Mario Kart 64
4-player versus
Most points out of five races win match
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Race Mode
Best 2 out of 3 races wins match
Each round of tournament has a different stage

Super Smash Bros
One on One
3 stocks, 5 minutes
No Items
No Brinstar or Yoshi’s Island for Stage Selection
Double Elimination for top 8 players

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Race Mode
Best 2 out of 3 races wins
Different stage each round

That's it for now! Each tournament has a $4 registration fee(try to bring singles if you can). We'll post a listing of casual games and anything new. For more questions, e-mail kward_at_fullsail_dot_com. Help ius out and spread the word!

Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3!!!

Alright! The Propeller Anime Club is proud to present ULTIMATE GAMING SHOWDOWN 3!!! This time, we're going a little retro with games from the 16-bit and 64-bit era! We thought it would be a nice thing to try so why not!? We'll be having some games from our adolescence for competition play, and we'll have some additional games for casual play.

We'll have tournaments for Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64, Street Fighter II Turbo, Sonic the Hedgehog 3's Race mode, and the original Super Smash Bros! The entry fee for each tournament is $4, half will go to the prize pot for the winning players, and the other half to the Propeller Anime Club donation budget for fun events(that you can be a part of if you particpate in our club!). We'll have some other games for casual play as well, which are still being determined.

Rules are still being debated, and we'll be updating this post for the next few weeks with any updates, so be sure to follow the blog as often as you can!

Ultimate Gaming Showdown 3 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 11th at FS3B-113. Sign-ups and casual play will begin at 1:00 p.m. and tournament play will begin at 2:00 p.m. If you would like to help out in the event, contact Kent Ward at kward_at_fullsail_dot_com!

Next meeting: Sunday, September 27th at 2:00 p.m.

The next Propeller Anime Club meeting will be on Sunday, September 27th at 2:00 p.m. in FS3B-113. In our latest obsession to show a classic anime movie at each regular meeting, we will be showing the original Vampire Hunter D film from 1985. Many of you might be more familiar with Bloodlust, but this movie is more or less D's origin story. It is also one of the first ever anime films to be released outside of Japan! It's an interesting take on horror in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi setting.

We'll also be showing episodes 6 & 7 of Guin Saga. I'm sure everyone is hoping for Guin to go berserk on someone. The story is developing pretty well so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

We will also be starting up a new series. I have no idea what; however, finishing Outlaw Star does leave a gap in our viewing schedule. If it is figured out before the next meeting, this blog will be the first place to check! be sure to follow our Twitter as well @PropellerAnime!

Recap of Yesterday's Meeting! 9/13 Edition

Yesterday had much longer of a meeting than planned, but it was good times! For the opening part of the meeting, we talked about George's departure and I discussed idea for Megacon guests(since Anime Sushi asked me to). I am still up for ideas since the meeting for proposing guests won't be until this weekend.

We also finalized the time and location for Ultimate Gaming Showdown III! It will be on Sunday, October 11th in FS3B-113! Games for tournament play will include Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007, the original Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter II: Turbo, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3's race mode! It's a very classic setup and fun times should be had by all! We will probably have some games setup for casual play as well. More on that later!

We finally finished Outlaw Star. It was an excellent ending with a Mexican Standoff thrown in for fun. It really takes a long time for us to go through a series and I believe we started on this show during the spring. We found out about the Galactic Leyline and Gene finally confessed his feelings for Melfina and teamed up to take down Lord Hazanko.

I thought that Harry MacDougal also had some good finally moments before his physical form was brutally destroyed. The series ends with a possibility for a sequel; however, one never happened. Instead, there was a spin-off series called Angel Links that I hear is pretty bland.

We also watched more Guin Saga and learned more about Istaval, the Crimson Mercenary. He once was told a prophecy that the princess of light would make him king and then bring darkness. He is not ure if it's Rinda, or the Mongauli princess Amnelis. One thing is for certain is that his rebelious loner attitude does bring some trouble to the group. He kind of reminds me of the most recent Prince of Persia.

What is also notable of the episodes we watched is when Guin wrecked a giant river monster with a boat paddle. I think the club is waiting for him to go berserk again like he did in the first episode.

We also watched There will be Brawl, a live-action film noir spoof on the Smash Bros universe. It's pretty entertaining. Maybe next time Luigi will see Captain Falcon and show him his moves!

Finally, we watched the 1986 Fist of the North Star movie. It was awesome! The final battle between Kenshiro and Raoh was all kinds of epic! I look forward to more clasic anime movie showings in the future.

Next club meeting is September 27th!

Farewell, George!

 

George Spanos has been an active member of our club since late last year. George has been a pleasure to have in the club and he has been a great contributing member. He has helped out at both Megacons this year and he played Gavor Arisia in Swords of Orlandia III at Anime Festival Orlando 10. He also helped host our first club barbecue. He's done a lot for our club and it is with great sadness that he has to leave us so soon. We were hoping George could stay long enough for one more meeting, but he has to leave around noon for the next chapter in his life.

It is sad to see George go, but we sent him off in a proper way this past week. He will be missed and hopefully we have not seen the last of him.

Flashback to AFO!

This picture is a bunch of us being awesome as Swords of Orlandia III characters at AFO 10. I found it on a random FaceBook. That was an awesome weekend.

Haha, Noah is freakin silly. BUNGAWA! That is the legendary Scooter of a man named Watson, by the way.

Next meeting: Sunday, September 13th at 3:00 p.m.

Our next meeting will be Sunday, September 13th at 3:00 p.m. in FS4E-104. This is the building that students pick up their books and partake in delicious waffles and smoothies at the Dieselbean Cafe. Unfortunately, the cafe is closed on Sundays but we will be having a meeting in that building anyways!

The meeting will be special for three reasons:

 

1.) We will be showing the final three episodes of Outlaw Star! There will be a showdown on the Galactic Leyline between Gene's crew, the Kei Pirates, the MacDougal Brothers, and anyone else who wants to get in on the action! It will be an explosive conclusion!

 2.) We will be showing episodes 4 & 5 of Guin Saga. It's been a great show so far and the introductory arc has just finished! Who is the man in the leopard mask going to send flying with a roundhouse kick this time!?

3.) Last week we discussed showing a classic anime film at each meeting. The first one will be the classic 1986 Fist of the North Star movie! We've shown several of the Hokuto no Ken films and OVAs and it's been a fun time so far, so now we will show the most brutal and violent of the Fist of the North Star anime! It's a re-imagining of the first third of the series. 

Earth has been devasted by nuclear war, and deadly martial arts now rules the wasteland. When Kenshiro's beloved Yuria is kidnapped by a best friend gone mad, he sets out on a quest to save her that will not only be for revenge, but also honor! Kenshiro will face off against well known adversaries such as Shin, Jagi, and the Fist King himself - Raoh! If you are a true man, you will come see this with us!

We have three awesome reasons for you to come to the meeting on September 13th and we hope to see you there!

Recap of Today's Meeting! 8/30 Edition

Hey everyone! Today's meeting went very well. We have a couple of new members that joined up today and we hope will keep coming back and we covered some old business. We discussed Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Hayao Miyazaki's fifth film to be released in American theaters(counting Anime Bento's limited showing of Castle of Cagliostro) and it was pretty fun. Make sure you see it while it's still out in theaters!

We also talked abou Mini-Megacon and the events we did. Events that went specifically well for us were the Quickdraw! Contest, Karaoke, Waldo's Evangelion panel, a panel I co-hosted on manly anime, and shockingly - the Ninja Olympics. We thought that event would fail but it turned out very well so we will up the ante at Megacon next March.

We watched some episodes of Outlaw Star and Guin Saga. We are nearly done with Outlaw Star as Gene and his gang gets closer to the Galactic Leyline and unravel Melfina's secret! We will conclude that next meeting. Guin Saga is shaping up the be very awesome. We finished the introduction arc and have already grown a great interest in the series. I'll have a write up about that in the near future, so look out for that!

Speaking of the future, we have some great things lined up! One, we are planning on showing a classic anime feature at every meeting for the time being, starting with the next one. We discussed Hayao Miyazaki's films, Vampire Hunter D, Shadow Skill, and our first feature... the 1986 Fist of the North Star movie! We've had some showings from the Hokuto no Ken franchise before so I greatly anticipate showing this at the next club meeting!

Also, we will be bringing the third installment of the Ultimate Gaming Showdown tournament in October! We're going retro and semi-retro, pulling from the 8-bit, 16-bit, and the early days of 3D games! We'll have an announcement soon, but look forward to Goldeneye, Street Fighter II: Turbo, and Super Mario Kart 64, amongst others!

We will also be doing another anime marathon in September! We'll talk about that more in the future along with other events! Stop by for more fun!

Propeller Anime Club meeting on August 30th!

 

We will be meeting Sunday, August 30th at Full Sail University in FS3B-113. We wil be showing episodes 2 & 3 of Guin Saga and episodes 21- 23 of Outlaw Star. Mini-Megacon just happened so we will talk about went on there as well. We will probably show other stuff. How meetings of late have worked is that we show standard stuff for part of the meeting and try to be flexible with the rest of the schedule. This keeps things from getting monotonous; however, we have a bunch of unfinished anime for that reason!

The meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m. and end around 5:30 p.m. See you guys there!

The greatest anime club at Full Sail University!

Hey everyone! We should have done this years ago, but better late than never! We are the Propeller Anime Club. We have been around for almost three years and have done whatever we can to make the anime community in Orlando, Florida interesting. We hold meetings almost twice a month at Full Sail University, which inlcudes anime showings, discussions, and event planning for the club. We've also gone out to play in our excurisons to the movie theater, bowling alley, poolside barbecue, or the local anime conventions. We are a fun, social bunch that loves anime and we have found for that to be a successful formula for our club!

We also work with other anime clubs, such as Anime Sushi and Anime Gaijin America; the former runs anime events and Cyberia dance at Megacon and the latter runs both Anime Festival Orlando and Anime Explosion. We will definitely talk about these clubs and events from time to time. What kind of work do we do with them? Well at Megacon, we help out as volunteers for setup, tear down, and security; in addition, we also hold panels and events that are fun for fans to attend. At Anime Festival Orlando, we have done fan panels and helped out with the second and third Swords of Orlandia live action games. We are a very talented bunch and look forward to helping out at next year's conventions.

In short, the Propeller Anime Club is about enjoying anime and going out to have fun with friends. I think that more or less covers what we do as an anime club. We will have many more updates in the future, so check back soon!