(NOTE: This episode has been renamed due to an admittedly poor choice of words in my original title. Sorry!)

We're back with a show recorded merely a week before its release (an amazing record for the Ani-Gamers Podcast). Listen on for my fascinating interview with Dr. Lawrence Eng, a longtime anime fan who chose to pursue his fandom as a line of research when he joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)'s "Science and Technology Studies" doctorate program, and focused his dissertation on "otaku studies." In this interview from Genericon XXIII at RPI, I pick Eng's brain on the findings of his research, his own life as an otaku, and a few other topics related to anime fan culture.

Show notes and links after the break.

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(Runtime: 46 minutes)

[00:00] Opening Song: "Tatakae! Otaking" by Tsujiya Kooji (Otaku no Video OP)

[00:50] Intro time.

[01:00] Lawrence lets everybody know who he is and why he matters.

[05:02] "Did you study otaku because you wanted to study anime, or was it just a fortunate coincidence that otaku were relevant to your studies?"

[07:36] "Describe some of your findings."

[12:30] "When anime is distributed for free online through fansubs and streaming, how does the dynamic change?"

[15:03] Lawrence goes into some more of his findings.

[24:12] "Since you started in fandom until now, what has changed?"

[29:01] "Is there a single moment in your research that stood out?"

[31:17] "When you were at RPI, did you participate in any of the anime events on campus?"

[34:47] "What do you define as 'otaku'?"

[36:53] "Have you heard of the Otaku Elimination Game? What do you think of it?"

[41:57] "Have you been reading the Otaku Diaries from the Reverse Thieves?"

[42:55] "What do you think of Genericon this year?"

[44:49] Outro time, complete with plugs for all the usual stuff. (Except for iTunes, which I keep forgetting. REVIEW UUUUUS!)

[45:37] Ending Song: "Duvet" by Ba (Serial Experiments Lain OP)

More Lawrence Eng info online:

• His website
• His blog
• Twitter (@Lawmune)

One thing that immediately struck me when I was scheduling interviews for Otakon 2009 was the sheer number of high-profile creators who were invited as guests. Despite the J-rockers and voice actors, there were a surprising number of Japanese guests whose work behind-the-scenes has been incredibly significant to the history of the anime medium.

Perhaps the three most notable of these people were director Noboru Ishiguro (Space Battleship Yamato, Macross, Megazone 23) and producers Masao Maruyama (founder of studio Madhouse) and Yukio Kikukawa (Legend of the Galactic Heroes). What is unfathomable is that, despite these guests being phenomenally important people in anime fandom, they were simply not recognized for their achievements by the typically young, typically uninformed masses present at Otakon.

On Friday, I walked into the autograph room for Masao Maruyama, which should have been filled or at least halfway filled in the last fifteen minutes before the end of the signing session for the prolific producer and planner of such shows as Death Note, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Perfect Blue, Trigun, and much, much more. But in addition to Maruyama, Noboru Ishiguro AND Yukio Kikukawa were also in the room. The director of Macross was there! A huge line wound out into the hallway for Kanon Wakeshima (a musician who performed ONE anime theme), but do you want to guess how many people were in the room for autographs from the three creators when I walked in? Zero. Nobody. No line, no people, nothing.

But maybe that was a problem of announcements, right? Maybe the kids just didn't know that Ishiguro would be there. Well, at the opening ceremonies, the convention showed off its new opening animation, created by studio Madhouse. Near the end, it showed a string of sci-fi references, starting with Gundam, and ending with the Starship Enterprise. Cheers all around for every robot and spaceship that showed up. But the moment that the final ship appeared, the clapping instantly stopped. Wanna take a guess which ship it was?

Bingo. It was Space Battleship Yamato, the iconic refurbished WWII battleship used in the famous, fandom-shifting 1979 TV anime of the same name. And surprise surprise, it was directed by none other than Noboru Ishiguro.

But let's not get too pessimistic here. I did have one positive experience with the "new fandom" reaction to some of the old guests, in the form of a teenager who had seen "Noboru Ishiguro" on his schedule somewhere. He came up to me and asked, to my surprise, "Who's 'Noburo Ishigura?'" Incorrect pronunciation aside, I was more than happy to briefly explain Ishiguro's prolific career to him.

Yes, the kid didn't know who Ishiguro was, but that's not the crime being committed by most convention-goers. The real problem is that nobody is doing what that kid was doing: Nobody is ASKING who Noboru Ishiguro is! If all of these young convention-goers simply looked at their Pocket Guide or asked a con staffer or panel attendee who the obscure guests were, they would find that there are very interesting people at conventions who get next to no attention from fans.

If you're a new fan looking to head out to one of your first conventions, remember that it's perfectly understandable to not know who a guest is, but not asking about them is absolutely inexcusable.

Here it is. The big day. You've all been waiting years to go down to GameStop, wait on line for hours, and grab your giant plastic helmet full of green-and-gold goodness. Tomorrow is one of the biggest days in gaming: the release of Bungie and Microsoft Game Studio's flagship title for the Xbox 360, the final in its trilogy, Halo 3. AniGamers would like to wish all the midnight-buyers who plan on "Finishing the Fight" tonight good luck, both in getting the game, and in mercilessly pwning n00bz on XBL. And to all of those who, like myself, are stuck with only a Wii, a PS3, or no new-gen console at all...well, all we can say is:

Sucks for you!

Our affiliate, AnimeYume, is holding their second image contest, in which anyone can submit splash or banner images to be presented on the site. The images that can be sumbitted are a main splash image, a blog splash image, and a main site banner. The winners of each will receive 3 free full-size scans from gallery site Anime Paper, a pretty nice deal. Read the official rules here, and now go-go-go AGers! (I know I'm most likely going to submit)
[via Mainichi AnimeYume]

AnimeYume, longtime partner of AniGamers (and a great site to boot) has recently confirmed an affiliation between or sites. You'll start to notice links around the site to AnimeYume. I'd just like to officially welcome AnimeYume and it's webmistress Yumeka to the AniGamers network. Make sure to check her site out everybody! It's got a blog and tons of anime info and images.

Apparently it does!

I've recently updated the funcionality of the Calendar on our InvisonFree Forums, so that now users can post events of all kinds. It's main function will be to remind users of the latest anime and game releases, as well as conventions, board events, and even movies or other things our user might be interested in. Only forum users can post events, but I encourage everyone to join the forums and add to our calendar. And if you're terrified of those forum-account devils, you might as well just check that calendar every so often for the release dates of your favorite anime and games.

Get creative everyone, and I hope you all enjoy our new calendar. There will be a link on the main menu soon that will take you directly to the calendar.

The large Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya, which already has a widely-known store in Rockefeller Center, New York City, is opening a new flagship store in the city, on the Avenue of the Americas. To celebrate this event, the store will have a week-long opening "party" in which artists, editors, and other staff from Viz will be on hand to answer questions and speak to fans. In addition, they will hold an art show containing art by the "grandfather of manga" himself, Osamu Tezuka, creator of AstroBoy. The opening will be held during a tentative week in early October.
[via Publisher's Weekly]

I'm sure many of our nerdy readers out there went to a bookstore at midnight yesterday morning to grab a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I hope you all enjoy your book. Of course, being a Harry Potter fan myself, I will not post any spoilers of the book, or allow them on the Forums. (I actually finished the book last night) For anyone wishing to discuss theories, events of the book (always noted for spoilers of course) or their opinions on Deathly Hallows, feel free to post in Ani-Gamers' Deathly Hallows discussion thread. Save This Page   Slashdot It!   |Share on Facebook|

Pan-chan of LELOLA[dot]net has once again opened a splash image contest, in which fans of the site create new splash images to be displayed on the site's splash page. Go ahead, give it a try. In fact, I might officially join for the first time this year, so wish me luck!
[via LELOLA[dot]net] Save This Page   Slashdot It!   |Share on Facebook|

Yesterday was quite fun, and I'll have a report from the Del Rey and Bandai panels that I attended, as well as funny stories and other information. Right now, I'm gearing up for Day 3, when I will be wearing a green AnimeNEXT shirt for those interested. As in the last post, My face looks like this. Save This Page   Slashdot It!   |Share on Facebook|

Wow. With all the crap going on in my life, I kind of forgot about the anniversary of the creation of Ani-Gamers. Happy Birthday! This makes it three years, and its been a fun ride so far. I hope to have many more to come. Oh, and I just realized that LELOLA has the same birthday as us. Weird, huh? Since we usually have some sort of "birthday present" in the form of a new feature for you guys, I guess I'll have to consider this blog to be that present. (Last year's was the new layout and change to Ani-Gamers) Enjoy! Save This Page   Slashdot It!   |Share on Facebook|

Granted, most movie games are really badly made *cough* Spider-Man *cough*, but a few are actually good. This site explains which ones and why they are good. Some favorites include GoldenEye and the Chronicles of Riddick. [via AMN] Save This Page Slashdot It! |Share on Facebook|

As many of you already know, many good games do not become popular while many crappy games become a whole lot more popular. This site simply explains how and why and lists the top 10 crappy games that sold well. Some of the games featured include the absolutely terrible amazing game: Spider-Man 3 and other classics such as Wii Play and DRIV3R. Check it out, its interesting. Save This Page Slashdot It! |Share on Facebook|

Now that I'm finally an official poster, I'd like to take some time to introduce myself and explain what I'm going to do here. Since this is mostly about Anime and Video games, I will probably post alot of stuff on gaming technology and games in general. Occasionaly, i will probably post some Anime-related stuff here, but it wont be too common, I'll just leave that to VamptVo or other contributers. I hope the future is going to be a bright one as we start to gain members and publicity. Rock on Save This Page Slashdot It! |Share on Facebook|