If you were at my panel yesterday, you will have noticed that my laptop had a bit of a seizure about partway through. Unfortunately that was not without consequences, so I regret to say that updates are going to be coming a little slower than planned. But rest assured I am staying on top of things and will continue to provide coverage of Anime Evolution.

Since I'm expecting this particular convention to have more of a, let's say, spontaneous feel to it, I've decided to try an all new format for my Anime Evolution 2008 report. Rather than waiting several months to reflect on the con like some kind of amusing flashback, I'll be giving day-by-day coverage as updates which will be collected together as a full report.

Why am I expecting such a spontaneous atmosphere, you ask? Well, as you may know, Anime Evolution 2008 is being held at the University of British Columbia this year. A dramatic move indeed, considering that the con has been at Simon Fraser University (amidst a far superior student body, I might add) for the last five years, and was supposed to be held there yet again this year... until about a month ago. Due to a number of scheduling mishaps, it was revealed far too late that the SFU venue could not be secured for the weekend, leaving the convention to be 'postponed' for a significant amount of time. It was announced weeks later that the convention would be hastily moved to UBC, even though many had written it off completely by that point.

Naturally, a move like this would've generated massive outrage even if it were an adequate venue. Given that its spaciousness and limited available facilities disqualify it from that category, I don't think I need to point out the potential problems that surround this last minute change. As far as I'm concerned, what we're seeing at UBC is not Anime Evolution, but merely some sort of organic phantasm that has sprawled out in its absence. Whether or not this apparition even has a chance of sustaining itself remains to be seen.

The venue itself aside, my trip down there today reminded me of the brutal commute that many of its attendees will be in for. The new location is just fine for residents of Vancouver, Richmond, or what few guests we'll have coming in from the airport. But for all the people who were local to the previous venue, the trip to that other university is going to tack on an extra forty-five minutes easily. Today, at the very least, I can't say the trip was worth it. I was a few hours late for badge pick-up, but even then my press badge wasn't available. On the flipside, though, most of the pre-reg crowds had already passed on and left, so it looks like this one vital element of the con has been going smoothly. Let's hope they can keep that under control!

Not really that important to point out, but you do kind of have to wonder who paid to have these put in, and when.

While I didn't get a con bag myself, my friend Andrew did, and I must say the contents were sort of amusing. This year AE had, rather understandably, outsourced both bag manufacturing and stuffing to the Art Institute of Vancouver, likely to lighten their own load of work. Incidentally, we were treated to somewhat confusing promotional materials. One was a pencil board for Starship Operators from Geneon Entertainment - a company that is a current state of not existing. Even stranger was an advertisement for The Guyver on ADV's Anime Network. While the actual licensing status of that series is still in the air, the fact that the back of the card prominently mentions all of the American providers which are carrying (or carried) the network sort of robs the ad of that personalized touch. Not really a criticism towards the con itself, of course, but I can't just let these oddities slip by.

As usual, I will be attending Vancouver's anime convention, Anime Evolution, this weekend (August 22-24). If you haven't been keeping tabs on things, the convention was forced to make an emergency venue change less than a month ago from the conveniently accessible SFU to the distant, wide opened void of UBC. Will this work out... well, we'll see. But regardless, I will be hosting not one, but two panels this weekend! On Friday night I'll be doing my usual State of Anime in Canada panel (which I plan to transition to the title "Canned in Banada"), which I hope people will be able to actually find this year. In addition, I will be doing another panel, "Copyright in Canada", on Saturday night, which will focus on the horrific copyright legislation which was tabled in Parliament just before the summer.

Canned in Banada: The State of Anime in Canada
Time: Friday, August 22 at 6:00pm
Place: Buchanan Building - A202

Copyright in Canada
Time: Saturday, August 23 at 4:00pm
Place: Buchanan Building - A204

Full schedule for the con can be viewed here. Hope to see you there!

EDIT: Now would probably be a good time to mention that the SakuraCon 2008 report is up for anyone who wants to see it.

On August 30, YTV will be running all four Inuyasha movies back-to-back. Needless to say, that doesn't quite make up for the schedule that will be starting up the following week:

8:00pm - Naruto
8:30pm - Blue Dragon
9:00pm - Zatch Bell
9:30pm - Bleach

There are two important things I should note about this line-up:

1) Every single title is from Viz Media.
2) For the first time ever, Bionix does not consist of a single series which retains its original ending credits. It may not seem significant at face value, but keep in mind all the controversy that surrounded YTV airing commercials over the full ending credits of certain shows, and the ground that was broken when those ads finally did get removed. It was a change that almost characterized the block, but now it seems that all that moving of heaven and earth has been for nothing.

The movement and instant decay of the block makes Toonami's fall from grace look downright heroic in comparison. I really am at a loss to understand why this is happening. Is this really the end? Was the dream this eager to die?

This weekend saw the passing of Argentinian comic book artist Carlos Meglia, whom many of our readers will best know as the brilliant artist behind the original Cybersix comic series. The amazing visual flair he brought to both the characters and cityscape seen in the series made a flawless transition to the animated series, which was one of the qualities it has been most famous for. RIP, Carlos.

The following information has been confirmed through YTV's website:

- Blue Dragon will be airing in Bionix at 8:30pm beginning Saturday, September 6th.
- Death Note, Gundam SEED Destiny, Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka seveN and Invader Zim are not returning.
- Naruto will be back on September 6. However, it does not appear that any show on the block will be getting an encore airing.

What really baffles me is why Blue Dragon, the type of heavily edited kids' show that Bionix was supposed to provide us with an alternative to, is airing as a part of the block, while Wolverine and the X-Men is airing at 7pm. Why not switch the timeslots for these shows? Judging by the trailer, the latter would be a far more appropriate addition to a 12-17 line-up.

Finally.

As we all expected the Great Inversion has been confirmed: Big Fun Fridays are here to stay, which we can only assume means Bionix has been left to be plucked at by seagulls on the boundless wasteland of Saturday nights. Blue Dragon and Dinosaur King are the only confirmed anime acquisitions so far, so you'd all better start praying to whatever god you can that neither one of those air even in close proximity to Bionix. If you don't believe in any gods, this might be a good time to make one up.

On what I assume to be a related note, Wolverine and the X-Men will be airing on Saturday nights at 7pm. This is interesting not only because it suggests that YTV is, in my opinion, rather unwisely following Cartoon Network's procedure of airing all of the actions shows on Saturday nights (making it the "right thing to do"), but also because it's not airing on NickToons in the US until early 2009. So this means we'll get to enjoy Zordon-Xavier at least four months before our American friends.

I wish I could say that was the worst development, but it really isn't. Sundays are now officially being branded as "Nickelodeon Sundays". Yes folks, you heard that right. The days of YTV being able to successfully take American programming and flawlessly incorporate it into their own brand are over. I expect that the coming generations will only be encouraged to hold American brands in higher regards than ever. Since kids will now be getting the impression that they're only getting a taste of "the good stuff", YTV's branding is almost forcing itself into an inferiority complex. Great. Also, rest assured that Invader Zim won't be airing on that block. Although as with pretty much any anime series targeted at people over fourteen, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise if it doesn't return at all this September.

Although a notice was sent out stating that Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, and Eureka seveN will continue running on Friday nights starting at 1:15am, this has not been the case for the past two weeks. This is despite the fact that the episodes were listed on Shaw's digital listings the past week.

Third time's a charm?

I must say, SCI-FI Channel is really shaping up. It's not everyday that we see two one-hour premieres for two anime classics in a single nights. (Now and Then, Here and There is the other one, in case you didn't know.) But they've also learned from their foolishness in their handling of the Battlestar Galactica webisodes and are now streaming the first episode of Gurren Lagann on their website for all North American audiences.

Enjoy!

Note: It's being reported that portions of the episode, most notably the opening credits, have been time compressed (i.e: sped up) to fit into the time alotted. I honestly can't tell either way though, but your mileage may vary.

The CRTC's public input period for their recent inquiry in regards to the future of broadcasting in new media has certainly garnered a number of responses. You would hope that most of these voices would emphasize that not interfering in the actual content of the internet would be the unanimous message being sent through these comments, and a lot of the input does push for that. But of course, by even putting this issue up to question, the CRTC has virtually invited a number of weasel-like responses demanding that incentives and quotas be placed on the internet to encourage Canadian Content and keep us all from visiting those evil online services which just happen to be American. If you want a truly terrifying outlook on the internet, just check out SOCAN's comment.

I have faith that the CRTC under Fickenstein will have the sense to ignore this, but merely putting the issue on the table may allow nothing more than the entire issue snowballing up to the point in which a conference is called specifically on the issue where all our favourite lobbyists will put specific emphasis on the dangers of YouTube on our national identity.