Past Reports.

Here is a collage of our past adventures.

Early 2007

NEW YORK COMIC CON 2007

Late 2007- 2008

LIST OF EVENTS COVERED:

NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL

THE ROYAL RENDEZVOUS WITH QE2.QM2 & QV

SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT

I-CON 27

CASTLE POINT ANIME CON

NYCC08

SAKURA MATSURI 2008

JAPAN DAY

BIG APPLE CON SUMMER SHOW

Super Mega Show

JAPAN DAY 2008

CONCERT SERIES Gaijin A Go-Go   Gaijin A Go-Go is back and this time they're rocking Japan day 2008. GAIJIN A GO-GO HD Gaijin A Go-Go PARTS 1 & 2     The end of the day & the final report.     What a day it was indeed for many at Japan day, so far the turnout was indeed beyond expectations. Though I have to say there were a few big difficulties trekking the park event area that day. One of them was the lack of more food stands where people could get water easily in the extremely hot 90 degree weather.   \    The only places where people could get water & snacks elsewhere were the 2 lone overpriced hotdog karts outside the park yet that too was packed with people waiting inlines. I had to end up finding the last of the canned tea to live off from the closed Japanese tea booth was closed down not to mention it wasn’t even cold, everything else was well organized except for those 3 giant factors, I recommend that for next year the organizers should take in consideration the turnout of over 1000 people and have more		ハルカリ HALCALI HALCALI has landed in for the first time in New York city and this time they're in central park at Japan day 2008. These 2 have a big surprise for everyone.         HAPPY FUN SMILE       Shōta Shimizu: The new rising star   We are on the scene as the 19 year old Jpop singer Shōta Shimizu sraight out of Japan greets his newfound USA fans in New York City & the girls go wild & crazy for him. During his set Shota sings his new single Ai Shiteru ( アイシテル I Love You out this month. After the show backstage he says a few words with reporters and poses for pics with the crowd. Everybody loves Shōta Shimizu!!

booths of water and drinks for the attendee’s convenience and have more staff to handle the crowd for it was obvious the crowd was at their limits.

Other than that Japan Day went well , I look forward to next year.

3/10/08

SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT FINALS

IN NEW YORK CITY

We are here in New York City at the scene of one of the most anticipated releases this year.

"Super Smash Bros Brawl!"

The regional tournaments took place on four separate days, in four separate locations across the USA:

Saturday, Feb. 16
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Orpheum Theater
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Saturday, Feb. 23
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Ten15 Folsom
1015 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

Saturday, March 1
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olden Hall
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609

Saturday, March 8
Doors open at 5 p.m.
Best Buy (NOHO)
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

The finals will took place in New York City on March 8, as part of Best Buy's Midnight Madness launch event for Smash Bros. Brawl.

Each regional tournament provided the first 256 people in attendance the chance to "brawl" one-on-one with other contestants in a single-elimination tournament to determine a winner in each market. The regional winners faced off in a final multiplayer "brawl" at the New York City tournament.

Regional tournaments registered players on a first-come, first-serve basis and the age limit was you had to be 18 & up to be in the tournament.

There are over an estimated 600 people waiting in line to be in the tournament.
Some waiting since yesterday & early morning.

Sadly out of all these people who waited in line only 256 of them would be let in the store to compete.

Through hours of pouring rain & nasty weather all day, these die hard fans & gamers endured what many thought was unthinkable and un-imaginable.
The thought of waiting in line for nearly 7-48 hours + the midnight release,one can only wonder.

The grand prize winner of the event would receive a crystal-coated Wii with a design from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a home theater system from Best Buy and a copy of the game. The second-place finisher will receive one Wii system and Wii Remote, one copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a $1,000 Best Buy gift card. The third-place finisher will receive a Wii and Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $500 Best Buy gift card. The fourth-place finisher will receive a Wii, an extra Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $250 Best Buy gift card.

The Battle waged on as gamers fought to the finish against one another.

The question remained on every gamers mind , who would be victorious?

VIDEOS

1/14/08

The Royal Rendezvous. 

This Celebration marked the first and only meeting of Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth2 and the new Queen Victoria.

In fact this was the first-time in Cunard’s 168-year history that three Queens have been in service at the same time and with QE2 retiring in November 2008 will be the only time they will be together.

	Slide shows Parts 1, 2 & 3 "This is an historic occasion for Cunard and New York, marking the only time that the three ships will be together…ever!" said Carol Marlow, president of Cunard Line. "More history will be made as our grand dame QE2 departs on her 26th and final World Cruise and Queen Victoria will depart on her maiden World Cruise," added Marlow.

Throughout the day the new Queen Victoria & the Queen Elizabeth 2 were docked at piers 90 & 92 where tourists and locals gathered to take pictures and snapshots of the grand liners.

The viewing sites included: Battery Park: On the southern shoreline of Manhattan. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park: Overlooking the Hudson River with great views of the Statue of Liberty Getting there: Just south of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The Esplanade: Running the entire length of Battery Park City, along the Hudson River from Stuyvesant High School on the north end all the way south to Battery Park Hudson River Park: 550 acre park extends for five miles along the Manhattan shoreline from Battery Place to West 59th Street. The meeting of the ships started about a half-hour late because it took more time than expected to get the QE2 in place.The three ships meet in NY harbor and sailed past the Statue of Liberty with FDNY Fireboat escorts during a spectacular fireworks celebration by Grucci at between 7:30 - 8:00 p.m. Even though it rained during the fireworks display , people who gathered were not going to walk away so soon. It was indeed a grand event.The Queen Elizabeth 2 stops in NEW YORK for the final time on October 16 before heading on it's final voyage from Southampton where she will retire and be converted into a new floating hotel in Dubai.

At the port where the Queen Victoria was docked I spoke to one of the crew members and they said this is the first time the Victoria has been in NY. Thousands of well-wishers gathered at ideal viewing locations to wish the majestic fleet of Queens "Bon Voyage" and see the fireworks celebration.

1/1/08

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Its the dawn of a new year & Comics, Cool Art & Games is going into it's 6th year. As 2008 comes in we look back at all the great things we did back on 2007.NY comic con, the big apple con shows and most of all the Coney island mission where we did the valiant job in capturing history while helping the cause to save Astroland & the amusement park district from being turned into condos & timeshares by evil Thor equities.

Our last great event was when we covered the inaugural NY anime festival were we not only reported on a convention we brought people together and brought joy to many. In 2008 we as a news agency continue our mission, offer great news to the free public , to explore new worlds, and help local communities. Whenever needed we will be there.

 

 

12/19/07 NYAF ATTENDEES UNDER ATTACK!

 

(Nice ship it is but sadly this whole offer ain't the truth.)

A rouge travel agency by the name of VTS Travel exhibited at the New York Anime Festival. In the wake of the show, VTS Travel was contacting attendees, telling them that they’ve won a trip to the Bahamas – but they need to provide their credit card number to finalize everything. I myself was a victim of this evil scam, I get a call on about tuesday night 12/11 at about 8:00pm A guy says my name & says "I'm Going to the Bahamas!" I won the prize for the cruise, but I needed to be charged first US$299 for "taxes."At first I told them I did not have the money & I also sensed something was not right in the soup.The vacation plan offered an 8 day trip to Florida & the Bahamas & yes I was given details about a free rental car , vip passes to Disneyland and a I was to sail on the ship called the Regal Empress. The whole thing was too amazing to be true. I aksed if this was a joke or a time share , the man replied "This is not a scam & we have to be approved by the state to be at the Javits Center and we are approved by the state of NY & this is not a time share offer." I was happy with high hopes of a beautiful vacation. Within the course of 17 hours I get a call from my friend saying they've been calling everybody & it's a grade A hoax. I was in shock & I was extremely upset because I had always hoped to go on a free vacation and to visit the tropics again since the 1990's. It was just a mix of shock and grief. It's disgusting how people would do such a horrible thing.They're crooks! Taking a persons dreams & throwing it all away & making their victims suffer , they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They also gave me another site to go to called myvacationmomments.com "MADNESS!!!!!!!! O_O" The official statement from NYAF website. "VTS is operating a scam. Please report any contact with VTS directly to NYAF’s management. They’ve insulted the New York Anime Festival by offering a fake giveaway at our event, and we do not want any of our attendees to fall prey to them. " There you have it Ladies & Gentlemen this has to go down as the biggest scam seen in ages & a horrible crime to the NYAF , shame on them.

 

12/6/07 ,12/7/07 , 12/8/07 , 12/9/07

THE NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL LAUNCHES!

From the creators of NY Comic con comes the first anime convention to be held in New York City in 4 years since the Big Apple Anime fest convention closed in 2003.

The World Cosplay Summit.y

Throughout the whole weekend at the Javits Center was 3 entire days of amazement , joy and happiness as anime fans & the great people of NYC & beyond gathered for this history making event.

 DAYS 2 & DAY 3

Once again we have come to day 2 of the NY anime festival , early today the crowd as three times as big as Fridays.

As we enter we stop by the TOKYOPOP Stage where fans are watching a screening of classic Speed Racer episodes, boy does that bring back memories.

We then run into Speed Racer himself the legendary Peter Fernandez greeting people after a panel with Lisa Ortiz & Veronica Taylor.
We walk through the dealers room filled with many surprises including a group of cosplayers dancing to the theme song of SOS Brigade - Hare Hare Yukai.

The Overnight Superstars!

Within the span of less than 48 hours and 100s of hits on youtube.com videos , these very 2 cosplayers became overnight celebrities.Throught the show ,their newfound fanbase fell in love with them. Everywhere they went they were greeted by camera flashes & photo ops.

The Final day, thoughts & goodbyes.

It was the final day here at the show, as we count down to the final hours it was not just a day of enjoying the last of ther festivities but a day where we said many goodbyes to friends we shared nice moments and made new happy memories over the span of 3 days.   The remaining timeslot of the convention consisted of events at the Tokyo Pop stage Panels on anime, manga, anime culture and fandom Manga art, cosplay and Japanese culture workshops Karaoke and the Exhibit Hall.	WAFFLE CRAZY!   IN REFERENCE TO CONVENTION FOOD THE MOST CLASSIC YET ONE OF A KIND FOOD ATTRACTIOON IN THE NYAF WAS THE WAFFLE CREATIONS STAND. ALL THROUGH THE CONVENTION YOU COULD SEE PEOPLE DIG IN TO THESE MOUTH WATERING SUPER SIZED BELGIAN WAFFLES WITH DELICIOUS TOOPINGS FROM WIPPED CREAM ,BUTTER CHERRIES , WALNUTS AND ICE CREAM. FOR $7.00 IT WAS WORTH IT HHHMMMM.

CONCLUSION.

Mazinger Z

Mazinger Z is a gigantic Super Robot, constructed with a fictitious metal called Chogokin Z (literally Super-Alloy Z), which is forged from a new element mined from a reservoir found only in the sediment of Japan's Mt. Fuji. The mecha was built by Professor Juzo Kabuto as a secret weapon against the forces of evil, represented in the series by the Mechanical Beasts (mecha used for evil purposes) of Dr. Hell. The latter was the German member of a Japanese archeological team, which discovered ruins of a lost pre-Grecian civilization on an island named Bardos; the civilization was loosely based on the ancient Mycenae, and was called the Mycene Empire in the series. One of their findings was that the Mycene used an army of steel titans about 20 m in height (compare with the Greek legend of Talos). Finding prototypes of those titans underground which could be remote-controlled and realizing their immense power on the battlefield, Dr. Hell goes insane and has all the other scientists of his research team killed. Except for Professor Kabuto; the lone survivor manages to escape back to Japan, and attempts to warn the world of its imminent danger. Meanwhile, Dr. Hell establishes his headquarters on a mobile island which he sails around on, and plans to use the Mechanical Beasts to become the new ruler of the world. To counter this, Kabuto constructs Mazinger Z and manages to finish it just before being killed by a bomb planted by Hell’s right-hand man, Baron Ashura. As he is dying, he manages to inform his grandson Kouji Kabuto about the robot and its use. Kouji becomes the robot’s pilot, and from that point on battles both the continuous mechanical monsters, and the sinister henchmen sent by Doctor Hell in every episode.

How it all started.

Go Nagai had always loved Tetsuwan Atom and Tetsujin-28 as a child, and wanted to make his own robot anime.However, for the longest time he was unable to produce a concept that he felt didn't borrow too heavily from those two shows. One day, Nagai observed a traffic jam and mused to himself that the drivers in back would surely love a way to bypass the ones in front. From that thought came his ultimate inspiration: a giant robot that could be controlled from the inside, like a car. In his original concepts, the titular robot was Energer Z, which was controlled by a motorcycle that was driven up its back and into its head (an idea which was recycled for the Diana A robot). However, with the sudden popularity of Kamen Rider, Nagai replaced the motorcycle with a hovercraft. He later redesigned Energer Z, renaming it Mazinger Z to evoke the image of a demon god (Ma, 魔, meaning demon and Jin, 神, meaning god). The motif of the Hover Pilder docking itself into Mazinger's head also borrows from Nagai's 1971 manga Demon Lord Dante (the prototype for his more popular Devilman), in which the titular giant demon has a human head (of Ryo Utsugi, the young man who merged with him) in his forehead. Interestingly, Koji Kabuto takes his surname (the Japanese word for a helmet) from the fact that he controls Mazinger Z from its head.

Export to the USA

In 1984, the show was syndicated in the United States under the title Tranzor Z from 3-B Productions. Unlike the generally faithful treatment other countries gave their versions of Mazinger Z, 3-B's version of Tranzor Z was heavily edited and shortened to 65 episodes, with a modified storyline that was altered from the original, along with most of the characters' names. Credit for the series went to producer and licensor, Bunker Jenkins (although token credit was given to the Toei Company). 3-B Productions was a short-lived company that grew out of the production team who worked on the US version of Space Battleship Yamato, entitled Star Blazers, at Sunbow Productions. The "Americanization" of Mazinger Z for US consumption was done because of the strict standards in regards to content for children's programming at the time: a large percentage of the action scenes were deemed unacceptable by Standards and Practices (the original version contained numerous scenes of urban destruction, murder, torture, desmemberment, etc). Footage from Great Mazinger, the sequel to Mazinger Z, was spliced in on occasion to replace removed footage.

There was another English dub of the show, commissioned by Toei Animation and produced by Frontier Enterprises (a Tokyo-based company established by American ex-patriate William Ross). in 1977. This version was far more faithful to the original Japanese version, retaining the Japanese names for all of the characters (with slight variations in a few instances). The opening and ending themes and insert song "Z Theme" were translated into English by William Saylor and sung by veteran anime theme singer Isao Sasaki; these songs were released as a single in December of 1977. This dub only covered 29 episodes.

Outside the us

Mazinger was translated into many languages spoken outside Japan and the Far East, was broadcast, and found an audience in much of the rest of the world. In Europe, Mazinger Z was televised in Spain and Italy, with astounding success. Oddly enough, it was not shown in France until the 1980s,

The original Japanese opening .

The rare American opening.

This very rare version of the mazinger opening was sung by Isao Sasaki .

The Spanish opening.

8/25/07

Cool old school anime.

Tetsujin 28-go

This is the original Japanese opening to

Tetsujin 28-go aka

The New Adventures of Gigantor.

This classic yet nearly underground anime from the 1980's was first seen by American viewers back in the mid 1990's when the Sci-Fi channel used to show cartoons & old anime on weekday mornings.

Tetsujin 28 Go was a remake of the old 1950's version with more modern & sleek concepts.

Fred Ladd , the man responsible for exporting classic animes to the US such as Astroby , worked with the TMS animation studio & converted the series into The New Adventures of Gigantor for broadcast in the US.

The series has since been off the airwaves for over 13 years & there is no US DVD release planned.

The only way to see it since it's nearly impossible to find ,is from Japanese & asian import dvd's & VCD'S.

Footage from the Japanese version.