Tentative Schedule

So we’ve got a tentative of main events and panels for Otaku Mex! (translation: subject to completely change between now and showtime, we’re still finalizing a few events!)

Friday | Saturday | Sunday
What do all the colors mean? Nothin’ to you guys…that’s for us…just disregard it!

Dealer Room:
Friday: Noon - 6 PM
Saturday: 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday: 10 AM - 6 PM

Artist Alley (artists are welcome to stay later at their perogative!):
Friday: Noon - 6 PM
Saturday: 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday: 10 AM - 6 PM

Remember, the gaming and video rooms will run 24 hours.

CosPlay Competition Rules

GENERAL RULES FOR ALL COSPLAY CONTESTS

- Costumes and skits must be PG-13.

- No live steel, firearms, no projectiles, silly string, poppers, air horns, or acrobatics. Do not interact with MCs or judges while on stage. Do not throw things into the audience. Do not run or jump off stage. Period.

- If you disregard any of these rules, you will be disqualified and/or asked to leave the event.

- If you are under 13, you must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

-All craftsmanship judging occurs during Pre-Judging. If you do not attend pre-judging, you will not be eligible to win craftsmanship awards.

-Each contestant may wear one and only one costume. No exceptions.

-You must fill out a separate entry form for each costume you wish to be judged for craftsmanship, regardless of the size of your group.

-Costumes may come from the following media: Anime, Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics/Comic Books, Movies, Video Games, Webcomics, and Original Design with printed reference.

-Walk-ons are welcome to sign up during Pre-Judging.

FRIDAY
Hall Cosplay
Polaroids will be displayed in the main hall of random cosplayers costumes. OtakuMex attendees will vote on their favorite ones. Votes will be tallied and announced during Saturday’s Cosplay Competition. We’ll need forms to include: name, contact info (phone number or email is fine, chances are slim we’ll ever use it), character, character source.

SATURDAY
Main Cosplay Contest -
Pre-Judinging at 10 AM Saturday morning! Cosplayers or models wearing a person’s costumes, or persons wanting to ONLY WALK ON may come by, fill out short form on the spot. Must include photo reference for character, including Original Characters. Winner will be announced during Closing Ceremonies on Sunday. Contact info will be taken if person wont be attending on Sunday.

SUNDAY
Skits
Can be 3 minutes long (record length amount of time). Pre Judging for rough run thru in the AM (time TBA), music must be provided on CD, MP3 or WAV format. Mic not provided for actors. Maximum of 5 people on stage at any one time. Winners will be announced (and possibly performed?!) during closing ceremonies.

What’s this form we keep talking about? Find it here

Questions, comments, cares, concerns? Hit the forums!

Uncle Yo, The Geek-Specific Stand-Up Comedian…

Since his premiere in 2007, Uncle Yo has appeared at numerous conventions to perform his original stand-up act. Panel leader, game show host and emcee all-in-one, this Renaissance Nerd keeps the laughs coming.

Armed with his giant D20, Uncle Yo performs material about anime, comic books, video games, facebook, LARPing, Star Wars, RPG’s and manga.

He may be One Piece short of a Fullmetal Alchemist, but this Digi-destined promises to “Champloo your Samurai so hard you’ll feel it in your Dragon Balls.”

Be sure to check out his site at http://www.uncleyo.com
Help us make Uncle Yo feel welcome at Otaku Mex!

Pre-Registration Price Updates

Until Midnight Friday, Aug 8:
3 Day Badge - $20
2 Day Badge - $15
(but we’ll accept pre-reg purchases at the pizza party!)

Between Friday, Aug 9 and Aug 30:
3 Day Badge - $25
2 Day Badge - $20

At the Door:
3 Day Badge - $30
2 Day Badge - $25
1 Day Badge - $15

You have heard that you can gain entrance into the con for free with the reservation of a hotel room for two nights, right?
(Not payment, you won’t do that until you check out on your last day…we’re simply talking about reservations)
Well, we’re going to have to stop accepting confirmation numbers August 13. After that, not to worry. You can still get a room, and you can still purchase entrance into the show…only the free badge with a reservation offer will have closed.

THE Steve Bennett?! Yeah…We Got Him

Help us welcome Steve Bennett to this year’s Otaku Mex Show!

Stephen Robert Bennett IV was born *&#@?! years ago at Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan. Being an Army brat, Steve moved all over the place in his younger days, He spent his early years in Alaska and Colorado, and lived for almost eight years in Germany during elementary and junior high. The family moved back to Japan when Steve was in his teens, and while he was there he was lucky enough to land a job with Studio Aoehyma, and work under the great Japanese animator, Noboru Furusei (New Dominion Tank Police, Lupin III, etc.) During his time at Studio Aoehyma, Steve learned quite a bit about anime, and worked on such titles as Cat’s Eye, the Urusei Yatsura TV Series and Only You, as well as others.

But finally, the family moved back to the States and settled in Virginia. Steve finished up high school, took some college courses, and ended up working at a bunch of different jobs. He worked at King’s Dominion amusement park (where he met his future wife Nikki), and he also worked in a Japanese restaurant, a video store, and ended up working in construction.

About the time Steve and Nikki tied the knot (1994), Steve attended his first anime convention as a guest–Katsucon 1 and finally remembered his true calling. He started up Studio Ironcat, a Japanese manga publisher, in 1997 and quit his construction job. Ironcat ran until 2004. Although Steve enjoyed his time with Ironcat, the job kept him too busy to focus on his own art. With the close of Ironcat, Steve was finally free to create his own comics, and get back into the artistic side of the industry. Today, Steve is busier than ever at conventions, has THREE webcomics on-line (”Shakespeare Rodeo” , “Aliens of Extraordinary Ability,” and “Life With Steve”) and is finally letting his creative juices flow!

Steve has been to numerous anime conventions over the years (too many to mention here!) and has also lent his talents to other venues, such as Loyola University in Louisiana, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Iowa Gallery of Art.

Be sure to check out more about Steve at his website: http://www.stevebennettart.com

Pizza And Anime…Good Food, Good Times

No matter how big (or small!) a con is, it’s still never the same as being in a room with your friends, breaking bread watching anime you can sink your teeth into.

That’s why we want to get together with you!

This Saturday (Aug 9) from 6 PM till we’re done, we’ll be hanging out at the Embassy Suites Hotel (the very same home of the con!) noshing down, hanging out, playing some games, giving some stuff away, and watching anime.

It’s free.

Seriously.

If you’re part of the staff, a volunteer, or just coming to the con, join us for a night of frivolity.

We’ll share some secrets with you.
We’ll give you stuff to show up.
We’ll be taking pre-reg purchases. Which you may want to consider…since the online price goes up Friday night.

We hope to see you there!

Jan Scott-Frazier Confirms Her Appearance!

Jan worked in the animation (anime) industry in Japan for almost 14 years. She attended animation school and later went on to work at a number of studios in including Artland, Production IG and Atelier BWCA on shows including RikiOh 2, Locke the Superman (OVA), Shurato (OVA), Bubblegum Crash (OVA) and Tottoi (feature). She become an expert in many different aspects of animation production, such as cel painting, animating, backgrounds, camera and directing. In 1991 she founded an animation studio - TAO Corp. Ltd. in Bangkok, Thailand. TAO did work on Moldiver, Diary of Mikan, Genocyber and SWAT Kats amongst others.

In 1994, Jan moved into consulting work, freelancing for Cambridge Animation Systems, the developers of Animo (a computer assisted (2D) animation production system). Also in 1994, Jan co-founded GENESIS Digital Publishing Company with Izumi Matsumoto (Kimagure Orange Road) where they created the best-selling Comic ON, a CD-ROM manga compendium in which Jan debuted as a manga artist. In 1999 Jan directed episodes of Susie-chan & Marvy (TV) and spent most of the year working on the development of original TV series projects. In 2000, she moved back to the USA to work at Celsys USA on the development of the next generation of the RETAS digital production system.

Jan has traveled extensively throughout Asia and the US teaching animation techniques and speaking at tradeshows and conventions. She has also translated videos and manga, written and co-written magazine articles and created extensive training materials for cel painting, animation and computer animation.

In 2006 she produced the album Voices for Peace as a charity benefit. She currently produces albums for Voices For, a non-profit corporation and is writing her memoirs.

Kyle Hebert Joins The Otaku Mex Guest List

Kyle Hebert is a Los Angeles based voice actor who can currently be heard as:

Kamina on “Gurren Lagann”
Kiba on “Naruto”
Aizen on “Bleach”
and is best known as the Narrator and teen Gohan from “Dragonball Z”.

Other notable roles include Falman (”Fullmetal Alchemist”), Karasu (”Yu Yu Hakusho”), Takei (”Fruits Basket”), Legolas (”Blue Dragon”), Munei (”Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society”), Belphemon (”Digimon Data Squad”), Omega-Xis (”Megaman Star Force”) and Ken-Goh (”Eureka 7″). He can also be heard on numerous video games, such as Bael/Dagon on “Devil May Cry 4″, Sima Yi on”Dynasty Warriors 6″, Zeikwalt on “Growlanser”, Krewhaha on “.hack GU”, and Thomas Mason on “Soldier of Fortune: Payback”.

Kyle also cohosts a podcast dedicated to news on all things geeky, called “The Big Bald Broadcast”, which you can download from his official website at http://www.kylehebert.com.

Otaku Mex Headlining Band

Toybox started in the year of 2004 or 5….
They were some kids who love music and started jamming together.
After gone through some member changes from 5 piece to 4 piece to 5 piece again to 4 piece to finally got down to 3 piece.
But hey, who said less is less? Though there are only three instruments, listeners will feel it’s more than just three instruments when you listen to Toybox.

Because, there are some vocals in the songs=p

ToyBox

These Japanese-born kids are not afraid to break any rules that music may have(Actually there’s no rules and boundaries in music), so don’t be afraid! They might not speak the same language as you do, but they do speak the same music. (And they do sing in English, too!!)

In the Summer of 2007, they’ve released self-produced 5 song EP “5 Seconds To…” and the copies are available at all Zia Records locations (Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler, Tucson, and Las Vegas).

Make sure to pick up your copy if you haven’t purchased yet at the show!

Visit ToyBox and hear some of their music at http://www.myspace.com/toybx