Looking for Miku’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” Screening! [2018]

Thank you to everyone who attended AGC Pictures‘s Looking for Miku panel at Anime Los Angeles and who otherwise supported us by sharing and promoting the event!

Very happy to have my friends David Infante (the film’s producer) and Jackson Chong (one of the film’s stars) join me! Even though this version of the screening was titled “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, it was a reference to our last attempt to screen at ALA; it wasn’t our original intent to show the film twice. ^^; While I’ve considered a double-screening for a while, I’d envisioned the second showing would be of the annotated version (which highlights references, in-jokes, and behind-the-scenes trivia). Maybe next time!

In the meantime, follow the blog (by clicking the “Resistance is Futile” button) or Like any of my Pages (jimsha, The Vault/Beginning Story, and agc pictures) on Facebook to be instantly notified of new adventures. See you again soon!

About Looking for Miku
Indecisive lead character? Check. Tsundere best friend? Check. Confessing to senpai? Uh…. We’ve all had (or have) that crush we wish we could confess to! Shy geek Kitty has a crush on her best friend Minnie’s brother, Jackie. While at an anime convention, however, Jackie falls for a cosplayer and enlists their aid to find her. Will Kitty be able to face her fears and confess her feelings to Jackie before they find the cosplayer? Find out in the award-nominated anime fan film Looking for Miku! Watch the trailer and learn more on FilmFreeway!

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Looking for Miku at Anime LA [2018]!

Happy new year!

Apologies once more for the lack of updates; 2018 has been busy beating me up so haven’t really been able to do much in the way of editing photos or writing posts, but I’m happy to report that we’ll be at Anime Los Angeles this weekend to screen Looking for Miku! (Hopefully. We all know how they screwed us last time.)

Come watch the award-winning anime fan film then stay after the show to talk with the filmmakers about the film, con crushes, and other topics! (Admission to ALA is required to attend). RSVP on Facebook, and hope to see you there!

About Looking for Miku
Indecisive lead character? Check. Tsundere best friend? Check. Confessing to senpai? Uh…. We’ve all had (or have) that crush we wish we could confess to! Shy geek Kitty has a crush on her best friend Minnie’s brother, Jackie. While at an anime convention, however, Jackie falls for a cosplayer and enlists their aid to find her. Will Kitty be able to face her fears and confess her feelings to Jackie before they find the cosplayer? Find out in the award-nominated anime fan film Looking for Miku! Watch the trailer and learn more on FilmFreeway!

Happy Thanksgiving 2017!

In everything give thanks!

Thank you for your continued support! Wishing all our friends a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

(Photo of Monster Hunters cosplayer originally appeared in my Anime Expo 2015, Day 4 post.)

Achievements Unlocked! [2017]

While I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to get these in person, I’m happy to have them nonetheless! These were two of my favorite authors when I was growing up (Dr. Seuss is another but he’s been gone many years now) and I’ve taken great pleasure in collecting, revisiting, and discovering their works as a grownup. If you’ve seen Looking for Miku, you might have caught the onscreen shout-out to these two authors!

If these two names don’t ring any bells, you were a deprived child and you need to Drop Everything And Read!

Lois Lowry won the Newbery Medal for Number the Stars and for The Giver — the latter ostensibly her best-known work. Growing up, however, I primarily knew only of the Krupnik series of books (Anastasia Krupnik being the first), which followed the adventures of young Anastasia and eventually included those of her younger brother Sam. I’ve since discovered Lowry’s wide-ranging oeuvre and, at 80 years old, Lowry continues to write.

Beverly Cleary is a Library of Congress Living Legend and one of America’s most successful living authors. Her books, which include the Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby series, have sold 91 million copies and have been translated into over 25 different languages in the nearly 70 years they’ve been in print. She will be 102 years old next year, and her birthday is celebrated as National Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Day. She retired in 1999 after the release of the final book in the Ramona Quimby series, Ramona’s World.

Get updated first by Liking my Fan Page on Facebook and learn about my not-so-mysterious past by Liking The Vault on Facebook!

About Looking for Miku
Indecisive lead character? Check. Tsundere best friend? Check. Confessing to senpai? Uh…. We’ve all had (or have) that crush we wish we could confess to! Shy geek Kitty has a crush on her best friend Minnie’s brother, Jackie. While at an anime convention, however, Jackie falls for a cosplayer and enlists their aid to find her. Will Kitty be able to face her fears and confess her feelings to Jackie before they find the cosplayer? Find out in the award-nominated anime fan film Looking for Miku! Watch the trailer and learn more on FilmFreeway!

2016: The Year in Events

Even though I actually got out of the house more in 2016 (at least, I think I did ^^; ), I only went to three actual events.

The Little Mermaid in Concert: Photos [2016]
The Little Mermaid in Concert: Videos [2016]

First up was The Little Mermaid in Concert Live to Film, which was at the Hollywood (Fish) Bowl! Long-time readers will know that I love The Little Mermaid, so of course I had to go check out this event, which combined the classic Disney film with live performances of the music from both the film and the Broadway musical by original cast members and others. We had such a great time despite the ordeal of getting there.

TOM LA SALE! [2016]

One of my favorite on-line figure vendors is Tokyo Otaku Mode (I should really add a review of them at some point), who offers a point reward system to get you to buy more figures. They moved their offices up north (because, I suspect, California isn’t very business-friendly) but before they did so, they held a huge sale! I actually left work early to go check it out and as an added bonus I ran into some friends there.

Kouraku and Canine & Feline Charity Art Show [2016]

Finally, managed to check out this cat and dog-themed art show in Little Tokyo! It was put on by Q Pop as a charity event to raise funds for North Central Animal Shelter. I’m always impressed by the talent on display at these shows!

Make every day a special event!

Check out the posts linked above for expanded event coverage from 2016, see full albums on my Fan Page on Facebook, and be sure to Like The Vault on Facebook, where I’m finally caught up through 2010! 😀

2016: The Year in Cons

It seems kind of pointless to recap 2016 when 2017 is starting its final quarter, but I got nothing else going on, lol orz.

First up was the aborted premiere of Looking for Miku at Anime Los Angeles because ALA is trash. First, they scheduled us for 6pm on Friday (we had asked for 9pm or later since some of us were coming from LA) so my co-panelist Jacklyn (who plays Minnie in the film) and I wound up spending 90 minutes in traffic just getting there since it was right in the middle of rush hour. Then, despite repeated assurances from the head of con that our tech needs would be met, they were not prepared to provide the necessary audio hookups. So basically, we spent the entire panel talking about a film that we couldn’t watch and goofing off with the awesome and understanding audience. This was Jacklyn’s second con ever (the first was when we shot the film) and she has opted not to join us for panels since then; she’s too polite to say so but I’m sure her experience with ALA has something to do with it. I was also so disgusted by the way they treated us that I didn’t bother going back the rest of the weekend and skipped them in 2017.

It wasn’t until a few months later that we actually premiered Looking for Miku at Ninja-Con! If you happen to watch the trailer on YouTube or FilmFreeway, you’ll see references to this screening. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to check out the con since the film was rendering up almost until the screening, but what little of it I did see was fun as usual. My friend Danny runs a great event and hopefully you’ll get a chance to check it out if you haven’t already.

After Ninja-Con was Anime Expo which, I have to admit, was the best AX ever, mainly due to Your lie in April creator Naoshi Arakawa‘s presence. For once they had some worthwhile exclusives and I managed to score some awesome loot. Of course, they still managed to miss on the Charity Auction but it wouldn’t be AX without some kind of fail so I wasn’t terrible surprised.

The last con of the year was Pacific Media Expo, where the highlight was the Hitomi concert as well as our screening of Looking for Miku. I was joined by Jackson (who plays Jackie) and we had a great audience who asked us interesting questions and gave us lovely compliments afterwards. Despite the late start of the panel (not our fault), we had a great time at PMX.

Even though I didn’t go to very many cons in 2016, I still had a good time at 75% of them. Still a passing grade! ^^

Check out the posts linked above for expanded con coverage from 2016, see full albums on my Fan Page on Facebook, and be sure to Like The Vault on Facebook, where I’m finally caught up through 2010! 😀

About Looking for Miku
Indecisive lead character? Check. Tsundere best friend? Check. Confessing to senpai? Uh…. We’ve all had (or have) that crush we wish we could confess to! Shy geek Kitty has a crush on her best friend Minnie’s brother, Jackie. While at an anime convention, however, Jackie falls for a cosplayer and enlists their aid to find her. Will Kitty be able to face her fears and confess her feelings to Jackie before they find the cosplayer? Find out in the award-nominated anime fan film Looking for Miku! Watch the trailer and learn more on FilmFreeway!

Pacific Media Expo 2016, Days 1-2

Pacific Media Expo returned to its traditional weekend in November for 2016! These’ve actually been sitting for a while but haven’t gone up ’til now b/c Looking for Miku and lazy. ^^;

The Guest of Honor was Hitomi of @home cafe, a maid cafe in Japan. Even though she isn’t really a well-known artist, she put on a great show.

The show actually ran for a little under an hour, including the giveaway (which included calling audience members up on stage) and the group photo.

Hitomi looked right at me! 😀

One of my friends noticed Spawn‘s Michael Jai White in the lobby.

Had never heard of BiS before this late-night panel.

Swap meet was kind of nuts, lol.

The Chillin’ with Voice Actors panel ran late since they apparently started late, so we were bumped back like half an hour.

Closed out the night (and con) with Captain Savvy’s Singalong Crew.

PMX 2016 was PMX; mostly hanging out with friends, checking out the main concert and swap meet, and screening Looking for Miku.

See the full album on my Fan Page on Facebook and be sure to Like The Vault on Facebook, where I’m finally caught up through 2010! 😀

2016 11 11-11 12 Fri-Sat: PMX 2016, Days 1-2