Recap of the last meeting! 9/12/10 edition!

Sorry for the lateness! Last meeting was fun! Many new members came again along with a few seniors that had just finished graduating from Full Sail!

I will be brief this time!

Samurai 7 has gone on to the graveyard, which means that we will no longer be showing it at meetings. Only one member wants to continue watching it which is not enough. The pacing is slow and sometimes nothing happens in an episode. It took ten episodes to get to a point where the series would start to mirror, in its own way, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

I pulled up a list of short series that might work for future club meetings. Right now, it's safer to go with something that is thirteen episodes or less so it can finish by the end of the year. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure had the most interest so that will be shown at our next meeting.

We showed My Neighbor Totoro, a movie that is mostly about appreciating and coexisting with nature. It's lighthearted fun and many club memebers agreed that cat bus is awesome.

In Black Lagoon, lots of Neo Nazis got killed and things got really racist. Some very strong words were exchanged between characters. Most of all, we learned that Revy has more issues than A Comic Shop. She definitely needs a hug, but trying to do so is a suicide mission!

In Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, more horrors of the aftermath occur. Mirai, Yuki, and Mari try to escape to safe land by boat and almost get sunk by giant waves. Later on, relief begins to come in much like in any modern natural disaster. During these episodes, we see the true nature of human beings during crisis while they try to survive. Few are calm and kind while many show their rude, selfish sides.

It gets ugly a few times and even Mirai loses it as she lashes out at Yuki. Right now, they are separated from currently motherly figure Mari while they specualte whether or not their parents are alive.

That's it for this past meeting! Next time, I'll give a quick AWA report and we'll be watching Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance.

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting on Sunday, September 12th!

The next Propeller Anime Club meeting is this Sunday, September 12th in FS3F at Full Sail University!  The room has not been decided yet. The room hasn't been picked yet but it will be one that doesn't smell funny and will have working A/V. I'll have a room ready by 3pm so meet in the lobby or look around! It will either be FS3F-112, FS3F-113, FS3F-114, or somewhere nearby.

Building FS3F is in the same parking lot as FS3B. It's in the brick building facing perpendicular to FS3B. The reason for the building change is because Full Sail is hosting an open house during the day and will be using FS3B.

We had a meeting yesterday, but doesn't mean that there will be a meeting every week. In fact, the extra meeting means that all series in our schedule can be finished by the last meeting of the year! This means when the new year starts, all series shown will be new, starting at the first episode!

So in short, the next meeting will be this Sunday, September 12th at 3pm in a room near the entrance of FS3F!

Our feature showing will be Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. You may have seen Totoro make an appearance in Pixar's Toy Story 3. Now you can see Totoro in the movie that made him famous!

We'll be showing episodes 3 and 4 of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. Mirai and Yuki are trying to make it home, if there is one still there. Did the earthquake level it? What dangers will they face along the way!? Both children had almost died multiple times already so we shall see!

In episodes 5 and 6 of Black Lagoon, the Lagoon company have a showdown with neo-Nazis in a WWII German U-Boat. If you remember from last episode, Revy was given a weapon to take with her...

In episodes 9 and 10 of Samurai 7, the six samurai continue their journey to Kirara's village and split into groups to work their way there. But shouldn't there be a seventh samurai!?

Things will be cooking this Sunday! Hopefully a couple of new graduates can make it to the meeting so we can all give congratulations!

Recap of yesterday's meeting! 8/5/10 edition!

Yesterday was a lot of fun! We had more than half a dozen new faces that will hopefully return to future club meetings! I know at least a couple got to see their first Satoshi Kon film, which is always a good thing!

NEWS

Not much going on in convention land in town, but Anime Weekend Atlanta is less than two weeks away and EXPcon is in a month. Make plans accordingly if you want to go!

We talked of our fourth year anniversary plans and it looks like the weekend of October 23rd might be the time to celebrate! (The real anniversary is October 22nd, a Friday.) We'll figure that out soon enough. Ideas for the party consist of dressing up in costume, eating sweets, watching horror anime, and going to Rocky's Replay. Any other ideas would be appreciated! (Costumes are optional, by the way.)

We have about eight more meetings left in the year, which will hopefully be enough time to finish all of our current series and start fresh next year! We discussed what features will show in those meetings, and My Neighbor Totoro, Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Sword of the Stranger, Memories, Metropolis will be in there. If we can get Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Lupin III: The Last Job, that will round up our feature showings for the year!

Order of showings are still being worked out but Totoro and Eva 2.22 will be the next ones we will watch.

SHOWING RECAP

First off, High School of the Dead was not shown. There are several reasons as to why it was not shown. It may have not been a good idea to select it for showing in the first place. There's not anything said or done in the show that hasn't already been done hundreds of times and it's unknown whether a zombie survival show like this could stay interesting for more than a few episodes, let alone sixteen.

With that said, a club member gave me a really interesting suggestion after the end of the previous meeting. His concerns were that we have been lacking a series that has that drama and tension along the lines of something like Grave of Fireflies. He told me of a 2008 anime that was in the noitaminA block on Fuji TV.

Next Propeller Aniime Club meeting on Sunday, September 5th

I have terrible news. Satoshi Kon, director of films such as Perfect Blue and Paprika- which the club has seen before -has passed away at the age of 46. This is a huge loss for the anime industry and the world. Every work he has directed has been nothing short of beautiful and amazing. He will truly be missed.

With that said, we are showing Millenium Actress, which some say is his finest film. This will be the main feature of the next meeting, taking place on Sunday, September 5th at 1:00pm at Full Sail University in FS3B-113. I would appreciate it if anyone in town could make it. We show our features last and the movie should start inbetween 3:30pm and 4:00pm.

In addition to that, we will show episodes 7 and 8 of Saumrai 7, episodes 3 and 4 of Black Lagoon, and episodes 1 and 2 of a new series, High School of the Dead. If you aren't tired of zombies being in everything for the past 10 years, then here is some more!

Hope to see you all at the meeting!

Recap of Yesterday's Meeting! 8/22/10 edition!

Yesterday was fun! Between spending 45 minutes figuring out why logins wouldn't work only to discover that someone messed around with network cables along with a power outage halfway through club meeting, I think things went well! Right?

With the late start, I dropped the super awesome Fist of the North Star movie that featured Souther as a villain in an attempt to keep meetings under 4 hours. It will come back someday.

We finished Baccano! In the last three episodes, we get acquainted with Graham Spector, who is Ladd Russo's psychotic protege. He kidnaps Chane Laforet thinking her to be Eve Genoard and holds her for a ransom that Jacuzzi has to pay up. The rail tracer also shows up because he LOVES Chane and wants to marry her. It's very romantic!

The last three episodes are interesting as they were not part of the television airings. They got added in on the DVD release in Japan. The final episode of the original television airing has a more defined ending whereas these last three episodes leave things very open for the series. Baccano! is based on a light novel series that has even more stories to tell. A couple of other works written by Ryohgo Narita that you may want to check out include Vamp! and Durarara!!

We started on Black Lagoon which is totally awesome so far. Within two episodes, a timid Japanese salaryman is kidnapped by mercenaries and then becomes a hard-boiled badass. Revy, a foul-mouth woman who can use two pistols like she's in a John Woo movie pretty much makes this anime awesome.

The club caught up on Dragonball Z: Abridged. It took some of the blander moments of the Namek saga and made them fun. Lots of terrible homoerotic innuendo occurred in the two episodes we watched. The Ginyu Force is coming next!

Some more of Samurai 7 was shown after a hiatus. There's a new samurai that looks more steampunk than anything. His name of Hayashida Heihachi and he was a combat engineer during the Great War. (Deja vu cometh.) I don't think anything important happened in these episodes. What do you guys think?

Last but not least, we decided on our next anime(since Baccano! is finished) and discussed what we will do for the club's four year anniversary in October.

This time, I organized members who stuck around until the end of the meeting into teams of four in an attempt to get certain club members talking to each other about what kind of anime they like and determine what should be their group nomination. After 15 minutes of discussion, they would present their choices and I would pick the best sounding pitch.

The four groups selected Air Gear, Genshinken, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, and High School of the Dead as their choices. I must inform you all that I picked High School of the Dead. It happens to be the one I want to watch the least but is probably the most likely one that will be watched by the club members. However, if that is not the case, I will be double tapping this series to our giant anime graveyard.

I thought the experiment was interesting. I think it's good for the club members to get to know each other better and share the passion for the anime they love during the talks. But after this, it's time for a long break from a selection process as we need to eventually dive into the Fuji TV's noitaminA block of anime. From what I have gathered, it looks like the series of that late night block is not the typical anime that most be people would be familiar with. Sounds like another experiment!

As for the fourth year anniversary in October? Horror anime marathon and a costume party were discussed as ideas. We shall talk more in two weeks when we meet again!

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting on Sunday, August 22nd!

So Tales of Earthsea never came to theaters in Orlando. What a shame!

The next meeting for the Propeller Anime Club will be on Sunday, August 22nd at 1:15pm at FS3B-113!

What is our main feature this time? How about something truly badass!?

Because it's been far too long since we've had Kenshiro truly at the club meeting, we will be showing Fist of the North Star: The Legends of the True Savior: Legend of Raoh: Chapter of Death in Love! That's right, nested subtitles! Japan, you are crazy! Funny thing about this movie is that it's not about Kenshiro fighting Roah; it's about Kenshiro fighting Souther.

Souther is a dude who spends a lot of time sitting on a throne(not to be confused with the chair from AFO) and enslaves children so they can do manual labor and build him a pyramid. He might be onto something there! His fighting style is Nanto Ho-oh Ken, which really has nothing to do with Pokémon.

We will be finishing Baccano! YES! The adventures on The Flying Pussyfoot are over, so what happens next? With three more episodes will the Rail Tracer confess his love to Chane Laforet? What kind of trouble will Isaac and Miria get into this time!?

New series: Black Lagoon! It's about a badass chick named Revy who likes to shoot LOTS of people with guns! Sounds like a winner to me!

In addition to all that, we continue Samurai 7! The samurai have been framed for murder! What will happen? Will that bishonen blonde samurai join the crew?

This will also be a good opprotunity to plan the future of the club in terms of structure, promotion, and events! See you all this Sunday!

NEWCOMERS WHO FOUND OUT ABOUT US AT AFO ARE WELCOME! WE ARE MEETING AT FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY!

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting on Sunday, July 25th!

Next Propeller Anime Club will be on Sunday, July 25th! It will be held at Full Sail University in FS3B-113 at 3:00pm. We had some real fun learning about Super Robots last time and now we can get back to our regular scheduled programming!

We're finishing Gungrave! Will Beyond the Grave get his revenge on Bloody Harry once and for all!?

In Baccano! The events of 1930 and the Flying Pussyfoot draw closer together. But here is what will get you pumped: LADD RUSSO VERSUS THE RAIL TRACER! oh YEAH!

In Samurai 7, Kirara looks to recruit more samurai but the ones she has already received help from are framed for the murder of the Imperial Envoy! How will they get out of this one!?

Our feature showing this time will be rather relevant to upcoming events; since Tony Oliver and Tommy Yune are industry guests that will be appearing at Anime Festival Orlando, we will be showing a movie they starred in and directed respectively. Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles will be our showing this time!

Speaking of AFO, we'll talk about what's cool to do and see at the convention! It's very action packed this year!

Recap of yesterday's meeting! 6/21/10 edition!

We did it! After nearly two years, we watched an actual robot anime! All hail Shoji Kawamori!

News

• We had two new members show up! They are both in Film at Full Sail and we hope they'll keep coming out to meetings and hangouts!
• Speaking of hangouts, we are getting together with UCF's Anime Spot for bowling this Saturday at 1pm! It will be at Boardwalk Bowl on East Colonial Drive and Rouse Road. RSVP here.
• Over summer break, we'll have a super robot anime potluck for those staying in town! Details later.
• Don't forget about Kanpai, Anime! at Tatame's Lounge on June 29th!

Recap

• In Baccano!, we discovered that the Rail Tracer was a conductor on the train that has ties to the Gandor family. In the time jump after the train incident, he offers them his assassination services. He's brutal dude; that is for sure!
• Dallas and his thugs steal immortality elixir with their new found immortality only to get robbed by Isaac and Miria who mistake it for booze!
• Ladd Russo shoots a kid in the head, but doesn't know he's immortal. You don't piss off Ladd Russo!
• Ladd has an epic fight on the top of a train with the quiet girl in the black dress who is deadly with a knife!
• In Gungrave, Grave avenges his old friends and takes out Balladbird Lee.
• Bear Walken, who is also enhanced, brought a sword to a gun fight and dies pretty easily.
• In Samurai 7, a new Samurai is recruited who can catch arrows very easily. His name is Katayama Gorobei and, like Kambei, he was also in the Great War.
• Katsuhiro was trying to hold hands with Kirara~
• Ukyo, lusting for Kirara even more, sends Blonde samurai Kyuzo to take out Kambei. Kambei prefers for him to join the other but he would rather fight instead. He beats him in battle but lets Kambei live. Kambei wants Kyuzo to join even more.
• Fuzzy showed up because we had an anime about robots. We hadn't shown anything with that since 2008! Macross Plus had a lot of fun going on and had some beautiful animation!

The meeting went longer than planned. My apologies! However, everyone who watched Macross Plus is now a better anime fan! In addition to the badass mecha scenes, there was also a carefully played love triangle, an interesting take on futuristic concerts, and even a resolution between two old friends and longtime rivals.

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting Sunday, June 20th at 1:00pm!

The next Propeller Anime Club meeting will be on Sunday, June 20th at 1:00pm! The location will be FS3B-113 at Full Sail University. This will be an exciting meeting for sure!

In Gungrave, with Mika kidnapped by Balladbird Lee and Brandon's old friends from his horse race fixing days at Millenion murdered, you best believe that Beyond the Grave is furious! Not only that, Bunji wants to become a Superior after getting his face busted by Grave last meeting. More showdowns!

The identity of the feared Rail Tracer will be revealed in Baccano! We'll also learn more about the woman in fatigues and what happened when Isaac and Miria decided to rob the wrong mob family! Will the gun in Isaac's heart do them any good!?

We made it through the first couple episodes of Samurai 7 last time. It's pretty interesting so far. Apparently the bandits command mecha and large battleships as the pillage villages for their food. One village decides to send several members to the city to recruit samurai to defend the village. We've met the young Okamoto Katsuhiro, verteran warrior Shimada Kambei, and Kikuchiyo(who has been mechanized in the anime). Kirara was kidnapped by the androgynous Ukyo, but was saved by Shimada. So we'll see what happens next!

And without further ado, our special showing will be a most excellent one indeed. If you have not seen it, then you are in for a treat!

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting Sunday, June 6th at 1:00pm!

Next Propeller Anime Club meeting will be on Sunday, June 6th at 1:00pm! The location will be FS3B-113 at Full Sail University! Bring some friends who have never been to club! Those interested in checking things out: we're a fun bunch and we tend to show some good anime. Come and make new friends!

We'll be debuting Samurai 7, a high budget, Gonzo produced anime that is loosely based off of the legendary Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai. More than half the club are film students so I assuming that you all have seen that film. It's in the Criterion Collection so there's no excuse! (Perhaps we'll show the original film someday just in case.)

Since Samurai 7 won second place in the last democratic vote, this may be the best thing to show right now.

I've read a little bit about the show. The seven samurai of the original film are sort of represented in the series and they are still hired to protect a village of farmers. But it is set in a steampunk setting this time and there is mecha and at some point the samurai are supposed to fight the Emperor. I'm actually really interested in seeing how this series goes.

We'll be watching Baccano! and Gungrave! In Baccano! we'll learn of the origin of the immortals and there will also be an episode starring the lovable and ridiculous robber couple Isacc and Miria! In Gungrave, people who have wronged Grave and those he's loved will probably get shot at by giant guns held in cool, over the top poses. Style points!

Our feature for this showing will be a secret! That's right! I'll bring in something that I bet some of you have never seen before. You won't even know what it is until it starts playing! It's a classic anime film and it is considered by many one of those movies that give legitimacy to anime as an art form. Those are your clues!

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend! See you all in June!

Recap of yesterday's meeting! 5/23/10 edition!

Yesterday evening was a club meeting of fun and interesting proportions! Our lineup changed a bit but things turned out well nonetheless.

News

Cyborg 009 was not brought in yesterday. Not only that, the second volume that one of our club members purchased with the first at MegaCon was empty when we open the case for the first time last meeting. So we've learned to open everything we buy at convention dealer room's immediately. Since many club members were vocal about seeing something else, we will. I took Cyborg 009 to the back and struck its pressure points and it's already dead.

Samurai 7, which won second place in the last democratic voting, will be shown in it's place starting next meeting. It sounds like an exciting series to watch!

Recap of tonight's meeting! 4/24/10 edition!

Tonight was a good end! We had to move from our usual room to a different classroom. While it did have a nice sound system and comfy seats, the projectors were less than adequate. It was so close to becoming the new room to meet at. Oh well...