All anime, manga and Japanese pop-culture enthusiasts out there! The Sydney Manga and Anime Show (SMASH!), is right around the corner! It’s on Saturday July 16th, just two weeks from now at a new venue, the Sydney Convention Centre right in the hub of Darling Harbour!
Sydney Town Hall, last year’s venue, filled up to maximum capacity leaving many convention goers who were refused entry with a bad taste in their mouths. However, this year’s venue looks promising, especially with the main auditorium seating up to 3 430 people! Remember the long wait for a bus to UNSW and back? Sydney Convention Centre is quite accessible being only a 10 to 15 minute walk from Town Hall Station and about 2 minutes drive from the city centre.
This year, SMASH! will present a variety of guests from animation to gaming to YouTube sensation.
*Shinichi ‘Nabeshin’ Watanabe: an anime director known for his works in Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy.
*Kenji Ito: a video game composer having worked in titles such as Final Fantasy Gaiden and Romancing Saga. Having left Square in 2001, Ito still collaborates with the company and the great Nobuo Uematsu.
*Hiroki Kikuta: a video composer like Ito, Kikuta works with Square Enix and has worked on games like Secret of Mana, Soukaigi and Seiken Densetsu 3.
*Little Kuriboh: the mastermind of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series! He created, directed, edited and did the voice acting all by himself! What talent!
*Eminence Symphony Orchestra artists: most known for their performances and recordings of anime, video game and film music, they will collaborate with Mari Yoshida, an up-and-coming vocalist from Japan, for a concert at the end of the day, Memories of Fantasia. The performance, which will start at 8pm and will run for about 90 minutes, will feature music from various titles from Square Enix and Studio Ghibli. Note that you will need to purchase a separate ticket to attend this event.
There are plenty of events at SMASH! and you’ll surely find ones that will capture your interest. Think you’ve got a head full of anime facts? Join the Trivia! Feeling you can channel your inner rockstar? Sadly there are no places left in Karaoke Competition but free singing is available on the day! Want to experience being served by graceful and elegant maids and butlers? Enter the Maid Café! Other events include panels and workshops in makeup, pattern-making and sewing, the Mario Kart and Street Fighter gaming competitions, the ever popular cosplay competition, and more!
Ever wondered how to build your own Gundam? Due to popular demand, SMASH! will once again be running the HobbyCo Gundam Workshop! Attendees will receive their very own Gundam Kit, and will be taught by staff the basics of Gundam modelling! Entry is free but each person attending the workshop must build their Gundam inside the room before leaving. Workshops will run every 30 minutes but make sure you get in quick as places are limited!
For your anime, manga, and Japanese pop-culture shopping needs, SMASH! will be hosting a number of exhibitors including Madman, Siren Visual, HobbyCo, Anime at Abbotsford, Transreality Simulations and Wacom. All the university anime clubs within the Sydney region will be in attendance, as well as the numerous artists from all over Australia featuring at the Artist’s Circle.
The Sydney Anime and Manga Show has delivered its attendees with great fun and enjoyment in its celebration of all things anime, manga, and Japanese pop-culture since its inception in 2007, and with a great new location, we can expect SMASH! 2011 to be bigger and better than ever!
What to remember:
When: Saturday July 16th
Where: Sydney Convention Centre
Time: 9:30am-5:30pm 9:00am-5:30pm for Advance Sale ticket holders 8:00pm-9:30pm (approximately) Memories of Fantasia concert
Tickets: $25 – Advance Sale (closes July 6th!) $30 – on the day $35 – Memories of Fantasia concert
For more information on the Sydney Manga and Anime Show, visit www.smash.org.au
Tickets can be purchased here.
Genre: Animation/Kids Produced by: Cartoon Network Running Time: 291 minutes Available for purchase at: Madman Online Store ($24.95)
Overview
There are a few defining cartoons that children identify with throughout their life, from the day they watched their first episode until the day they revisit it as an adult. When I flicked on Dexter’s Laboratory ten years after I finished watching the series, I felt all of my childhood rush back towards me: the days when 4pm television shows would be my afternoon activity, and when comments from characters aren’t followed by a sly “that’s what she said” remark.
Dexter’s Laboratory, or Dexter’s Lab as I will be referring to it (I am a seasoned veteran of the cartoon, after all), is a wonderful journey back into what it meant to be a kid in the ‘90s. The series comprises of what quintessentially defined Cartoon Network’s golden age: a simple storyline, hilarious scriptwriting, and characters that withstand the test of time.
Plot
Dexter is a boy genius who has built his own private laboratory behind a bookshelf in his room. He spends his days at school, and his free time conducting experiments and attempting to push the boundaries of nature with science. However, between Dexter’s annoying sister Dee Dee, who wants to play with everything and is drawn to shiny objects and fluffy toys, and his neighbouring rival Mandark, who’s constantly trying to thwart his experiments, Dexter has a hard time getting any work done.
Dee Dee: our favourite annoying sister.
The main story of Dexter’s Lab is one that has endless possibilities. Because there is no real goal Dexter is aiming for, there are varied stories that come from the show: Dexter can be attempting to romance the babysitter, accidentally feeding Dee Dee radioactive cookies, or trying to use his age machine so he can be older and stay up for the late movies on television. The stories themselves work on a stand-alone basis; if you know who Dexter, Dee Dee, and Mandark are then there is no need for further background information. I remember when the program aired on television, I could jump in to the series whenever I wanted and it didn’t matter if I skipped a day or two. Because there are no common narratives that link the episodes together though, there are many issues with continuity. Dexter and Dee Dee could be in a fight where no-one emerges victorious, and in the next episode they will be back to normal again. In this sense, the show doesn’t really have definitive conclusions; rather, each story is tied up in a whimsical fashion that leaves much to the imagination and emphasises the humorous side of Dexter’s frustration with his experiments constantly being interrupted.
In between the eight-minute clips (there are two eight-minute segments in each full episode) the creators also feature a backup segment with a superhero. Be it Dial M for Monkey, featuring Dexter’s monkey creation, or The Justice Friends, these are a brief intermission to quell the short attention spans of children. However, I remember that as a child I hated these short clips, and as an adult I hate them even more: the Justice Friends and Mighty Monkey serve no real purpose but to fill some time. There are some good stories, but the segments are too short to be developed and too long to be witty and punchy. In fact, after watching a few backup segments I ended up fastforwarding through them and just rushing towards the next segment with Dexter and Dee Dee.
Characters
Dexter is the main character in the film (you would think, with it being called Dexter’s Lab and all): a boy who is significantly shorter and smarter than everybody else. From the get-go, Dexter reveals himself to be more concerned with his laboratory than anybody else; however, he still maintains aspects of his childish innocence and naivety. Take, for example, when Dexter attempted to seduce the babysitter because he thought she was pretty, or when he wanted to zap himself a few years older so he could stay up for movies. Also, while Dexter is made fun of for his general bookishness, he seems absolutely content with it: he wants to skip out on gym and he believes himself to be the intelligent one (which can, coincidentally, make him very condescending). Dexter is an insight into – and a relatable character for – the child nerd who needs an idol other than the street-smart superheroes.
Dexter’s not often befuddled like this.
And speaking of insights into things, Dee Dee is the embodiment of an annoying sibling. She stomps, pirouettes, yells, and has the capability to mess up anything. Dee Dee is often stupid, yet sometimes she brings out gems of knowledge through her simplistic life – known as “The Way of the Dee Dee” in one episode. As the antithesis of Dexter, little boys would hate Dee Dee but because I’m a girl, I’ll settle for describing my emotions towards her as ‘strongly dislike’ instead: she can be charming at moments, and really, without her there would be no story.
The rest of the characters are a smorgasbord of personalities, but they all fit the cartoon archetype that was established long ago: Mandark as the irritating rival, the father that always says “ask your mother”, and the mother that lives for cooking and cleaning. While in standard television series’ archetypes would be a bad thing, in cartoons like Dexter’s Lab (where episodes are so short and sweet) characters have to rely on stereotypes to function; otherwise the entire story would be spent trying to develop each person. What is also wonderfully charming is how oblivious the characters remain to everything: when Dexter zaps himself into an elderly man, the other characters assume he is just the grandpa.
Audio and Visual
The animation is in traditional Cartoon Network style: simple, yet appealing. Dexter’s home does not house terrifying amounts of detail, yet there is enough there to reaffirm all of the characters: Dexter’s door has “no entry” signs plastered over it, while Dee Dee’s has her iconic ballet poster. These small but significant things are what really help build the overall atmosphere of Dexter’s Lab and as children or adults, we come to love these details that contribute to the world that is Dexter’s. Interestingly, I didn’t find the animation outdated; often when I watch the earlier episodes of The Simpsons it is so clear that they were made with inferior technology, however Dexter’s Lab is consistently simple – and, as a result, consistently effective.
Notice the cookie jar in the background, or the soap dispenser?
Likewise, the sound effects are not realistic or extremely high-tech, but they hold within them that childish silliness we all like to go back to now and then. Dee Dee’s stomping sounds like a miniature earthquake is hitting the house, but it works because for Dexter, that is what it feels like. The SFX are reminiscent of a time when realism was shunned in favour of creating an atmosphere, and Dexter’s Lab does exactly that. It doesn’t matter if Dexter doesn’t really squeak as he walks; instead, it’s all a part of the charm of his world.
The voice-acting is, as well, iconic to the series. Dee Dee sounds like a buffoon (for lack of a better description) and her voice really brings out her ditzy nature; Dexter’s mom, on the contrary, sounds like every other American mother that tells the kids to do their homework. What is most iconic, though, is Dexter’s accent. I never realised this when I originally watched the series, but now I have a major question: why was Dexter Russian? Is Russian supposed to be the language of scientists, or did the creators just feel compelled to make him sound different since he is smarter than everyone else? Regardless, it’s all a part of the whimsical characterisation that makes Dexter so loveable; without it, the show would be missing that little bit extra.
DVD Extras
The DVD comes with a Dexter’s Lab door hanger (what everyone needs, right?), and two pilot episodes that aired in the 1980s show What a Cartoon! Both episodes are fantastic – it’s a shame that I didn’t get to see them as a child – and really showcase the best of Dexter and Dee Dee. It’s a great little bonus that’s thrown in for us and for fans like myself, it is absolutely delightful to be able to see what Dexter was like before Cartoon Network began airing it. As for the door hanger…give it to a little brother who likes science!
Final Comments
Although upon re-watching the show, I realise there are so many things that could have been done better – inconsistencies that could be fixed up, or narratives that could be changed –, I have to say that it’s all overlooked by my sheer love for this series. Dexter’s Laboratory is a prime example of what made us ‘90s children fortunate, and I have to say that I’m so, so glad I got to revisit my childhood again.
And to Dexter: even though I’m surrounded by the bookish type every day, you will always be my favourite geek.
NIS America announced today at the Anime Expo that they have acquired the rights to the first Kimi ni Todoke anime series which aired back between 2009 and 2010 as well as the just finished anime Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera. This is interesting news as this is the first time that NIS America has licensed an anime right when it was finished airing in Japan.
NIS A will be releasing the first thirteen episodes of Kimi ni Todoke in October with the second half of the series being described as releasing “later.” One can assume that the series will receive the standard NIS America treatment and come with a special art book and collectors box. NIS A did not have any release details regarding Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera at this moment but plan on releasing more information in the future.
You may have heard that Catwoman is a playable character in Batman: Arkham City. Now we haven’t actually seen any gameplay with her, until now that is. Warner Brothers released a twelve minute video that shows off not only Catwoman fighting a bunch of Two-Face’s thugs but also Batman’s subsequent rescue of her.
The video shows off plenty of new features including Batman’s new ability to get around, interrogate enemies and his increased fluidity between attacks. The only disappointing thing about the video is the fact that there are still many months until the game is released. Because those in North America will have to wait until October 18th while those in Europe will wait until October 21st to play the title on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
In case you wanted to learn more about Call of Juarez: The Cartel from the latest batch of screenshots released by Ubisoft, then you better keep wanting because unfortunately there isn’t much shown here. In today’s batch of screenshots we see plenty of oversized looking guns and people being shot but not much else unfortunately.
We are also given a small look at the multiplayer combat, though this is still just in first person view. Hopefully they will fix the scaling of the guns a bit because at the moment it is almost comical in the multiplayer modes. Catch all of the screenshots below and see for yourself, and catch later this month for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Fans of WWE All-Stars will be happy to know that they soon will be able to expand their playable character list because THQ has announced plenty of new downloadable wrestlers for the title in the next month or so. Currently players can download “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase and his son for 160 MSP. But on July 5th players will be able to download the “All-Time Greatest” package for 320 MSP.
This package will contain Hawk and Animal of the Legion of Doom/Road Warriors tag team, Jerry “The King” Lawler and Chris Jericho. On August 2nd players can also pick up “Southern Charisma” and download the Big Boss Man, Michael Hayes and Mark Henry for 240 MSP. But don’t worry if you have empty pockets, players will also be able to download R-Truth for free on July 5th. With a whole slew of new fighters on the way there is plenty more wrestling to be had in WWE All-Stars if have have a few more dollars to spend.
Achievements operate for people on many different levels; some are obsessive over their Gamerscore, others take an interest in it, and some couldn’t care less and play casually making sure entertainment value comes first. But achievements can add entertainment value because while there are some who go to great lengths to fulfil every task set by a game’s achievement list- no matter how ridiculous – some enjoy completing these challenges, as a result getting a feeling of satisfaction when each achievement pops up, and in some cases it encourages players to explore parts of the game they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
For those whom achievements gain a hold on, there can be alternate appealing aspects in different people’s eyes. Some prioritise a good completion percentage, ensuring that all games on their profile are complete or near complete; some favour sheer volume of score and try to obtain as high a Gamerscore as possible from anywhere; some like real awards so go for the achievements that contain added rewards such as bonus gamer pictures or avatar awards.
For me, however, completing a game 100% by obtaining all possible achievements is where I get my thrills from achievements, earning that game a place in the complete games section on the Xbox 360 Dashboard, and for the past seven months and initially without striving to, I’ve completed a game fully 100% each month. Since December, I’ve completed either a Xbox Live Arcade or full retail game each month.
As I said, I didn’t mean to do this at first but recently spotting a pattern and the opportunity to continue this trend, I’ve decided to see how long I can keep up this challenge, and also share my progress so far. Sometimes it has come close, for instance for the month of May only just completing Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime’s final achievement for online co-op on the final day of the month because, as you can imagine, the average XBLA game’s servers were hardly a hub of activity. Still, it was only after intense local co-op gaming sessions a couple of days before that I was able to complete the story mode, earning all but one of the achievements from scratch.
Even the challenge for the month of June went right down to the wire, with me completing TRON: Evolution on 30th June, the final day of that month. It involved back-to-back completions of the campaign, first on hard just to unlock the ‘insane’ difficulty mode, before completing it on insane to obtain the linked achievement worth 75 points.
Anyway, here’s my progress up until now, with each game for each month since December 2010:
December 2010 Harm’s Way 200/200
January 2011 Faery: Legends of Avalon 200/200
February 2011 Spare Parts 200/200
March 2011 Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 1000/1000
April 2011 Doritos Crash Course 200/200
May 2011 Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime 200/200
June 2011 TRON: Evolution 1000/1000
Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions of games to complete, any input on the games completed so far, donations of games you would like to see me complete, or tips and support for achievements I am currently going for. At the moment, after a steady period of unlocking Rainbow Six Vegas 2 multiplayer achievements, I have hit a brick wall in the form of ‘My Hero!’ which sets the task of rescuing both hostages in online matches on ten separate occasions, difficult considering that it’s a game-type no one plays. I am also one achievement away on Hexic HD, a great puzzle game that comes free on every Xbox 360 hard drive and close to completion on a number of other tough ones such as N+, another solid Xbox Live Arcade game. Look out for another update sometime in July/ early August documenting my further progress!
Bungie is going all out this year for their Bungie Day, 20th anniversary and July 4th celebrations. In addition to their 20th anniversary sales and special items at BungieStore.com, they are also auctioning off several concept art pieces for charity on their eBay site. The most far reaching celebration though, is buried deep within the Halo: Reach playlists. From now until July 8th, every single playlist and gametype will give you the chance to up to 30,000 cR in a Super Jackpot at the end of a match. In a tweet posted earlier today, Bungie confirmed this saying, “Halo: Reach Super Jackpots are live. Every playlist, from now until 7/8, has a chance to payout 30k Space Bucks. You’re gonna be rich!”
Zynga announced today that they would be taking their company public, or that they would be in the near future. What this means is that they will essentially put up shares of the company that can be bought and sold on the stock market for either profit or loss. The company had not been publicly traded before but with their filing of an S-1 form they soon will be.
There is currently no information as to how many shares of Zynga will be available to the public, nor how much the starting price of each share will be. Basically this means that soon you can make your own little microtransactions and possibly even get money back somewhere in the future if you pay attention to the stock market at all.
You have to hand it to the ratings board. They usually are the first people to ever see the good parts of a game, because they have to tell you whether or not you are old enough to buy the thing. But sometimes they also are the first people to ever even hear about a game or see that it exists, such is the case with Crysis.
Crysis 1 was released exclusively on the PC a few years ago but now it seems that it may be making the jump to consoles. The ESRB has rated the game as Mature and lists it for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 as well as the original PC rating. There was no description of the title at the moment and, being as there has been no confirmation from Crytek themselves, this can only be seen as rumor at the moment, though we have reached out to Crytek for comment.
