Derpchan goes to Desucon 2012 – Report!

Cuddly moral support team. Many people asked where I’d gotten these guys from, and the answer is “Japan”.

I’m still recovering from my trip to Desucon 2012 which was held June 8-10 in Lahti, Finland. I don’t think I’d be so tired if I didn’t have to travel there from practically the other end of the country, 12 hours on the train wears me out even if it’s a night train and I can sleep. Anyways, a quick con report before I forget everything.

This was my 3rd time going to Desucon. My loyal side-kick for the weekend was Mineko who also took most of the photos because I had my hands full carrying around my moral support team (Kotetsu & Bunny plush dolls) on Saturday. I cosplayed on Friday and Sunday, Mineko spent the entire weekend getting into trouble as Scarf-tan.

To everyone who wondered where the plushie heroes were from: I ordered them from Japan, you couldn’t find these guys at the dealers’ room although there was some Tiger & Bunny stuff this time. Continue reading

Tiger & Bunny first movie to premiere in the UK on September 22

As I recall, Ozaki talked about wanting to bring the Tiger & Bunny movies to the West. And he has hereby stood behind his word.

MangaUK tweeted this image earlier today and when I saw the “Movie 1 Premiere” on the poster I thought “it couldn’t be…” but the U.K. fans – and consequently European fans since this brings the BDs and DVDs closer to our reach – are getting a really good treatment. The first BD/DVD combo volume is coming out October 29th in the U.K.

(I also noticed that Blue Rose is gone from the promotional poster. The poster looks so much better without her that it just underlines how pasted on she was in the previous version.)

I know I can’t be the only one planning a trip to the U.K. in September, right?

Update: According to The-O Network, Viz’s North American release of Tiger & Bunny on DVD and Blu-ray will be early 2013. It could mean that the dub will first be broadcast on TV in the USA, and it goes straight on DVD in the U.K.

Of course, the dates could be subject to change…

Let’s talk dub cast

Viz has started to trickle announcements on the Tiger & Bunny English dub cast on their official T&B Facebook page. So far we have:

At the current speed (announcement every other day) they can drag this on for weeks – and Kotetsu and Barnaby’s VA’s will probably be the last ones to be announced.

We don’t usually watch dubs, and the American voice actors we recognise we have learned to know from game dubs. Because of that we don’t really have any expectations, other than that we don’t want to hear Vic Mignogna in any role, and we would absolutely love to hear Yuri Lowenthal in some role, preferably as Ivan.

What do you think of the cast choices so far, and who would be in your dream voice cast?

Update: More cast announced.

  • Laura Bailey as Dragon Kid/Huang Pao-Lin
  • Kari Wahlgren as Blue Rose/Karina Lyle
  • John Eric Bentley as Fire Emblem/Nathan Seymour

I don’t know if my google-fu is failing or if John Eric Bentley hasn’t done notable anime work before, I only found an IMDB page that seems like it’s the right person.

Update 2: Another cast announcement adds…

Update: Back to the heroes (and crushing my casting hopes) with

Ivan was the only role that I really had someone in mind for, I was hoping for Yuri Lowenthal… I’ll still keep hoping he’ll appear in some other role. Now the only heroes that haven’t been announced yet are Wild Tiger and Barnaby, and we’re also still missing Lunatic.

Update: Tadah! Another cast announcement, and they’re still hoarding Tiger & Barnaby…

Update: I think we are nearing the end of the announcements! Today adds…

A very good choice indeed in my opinion. Maybe the next announcement will bring us Kotetsu & Barnaby.

Update: Viz issued a press release about T&B panel at Anime Expo and it included the following cast announcement:

Personally I wasn’t 100% sure if Yuri would be the right Barnaby but then again, I didn’t really think Morita was the right Barnaby either before I heard his performance. In any case, Yuri Lowenthal is our #1 favourite American VA here at This is Sternbild and WE ARE EXCITED, OH YES WE ARE. Now they just have Kotetsu to announce and the main cast will be complete.

Update the FINAL: And the cast is complete.

For Fun: Pre-order Bingo

Today’s pre-order war over G.E.M. Kotetsu inspired me to make this bingo chart. (I doubt anyone has time to play bingo while smashing F5, tho.) This is a v2 of the bingo chart because I realized I’d left out a rather important one.

Well, you know the drill. Re-arrange to your liking or add some objectives of your own for future wars!

Review: Hero Awards 2011

The event everyone wanted to go but couldn’t was released on BD/DVD on April 20th. This review is about the DVD version, the Blu-ray has the exact same contents in HD. Neither have English subtitles.

TIGER & BUNNY Hero Awards 2011
Format: DVD (region 2) / Blu-ray (region free)
Runtime: 2 hours 39 minutes
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Extras: pamphlet, final episode event recording, movie announcement trailer

Hero Awards 2011 was held at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall on November 13th, 2011 and the recording is from the evening event. Almost all of the main cast could make it, only Tsuda Kenjirou (Fire Emblem) wasn’t able to join until at the very end of the event. Despite this he wasn’t entirely absent, there were video messages and he did the “commercial breaks”. All the rest of the heroes’ seiyuu are there, also including Lunatic’s who was the MC for most of the event. Continue reading