May Pang's Asian Media Internet News

This past Saturday, I was able to attend the ever-glorious New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival (NYCC/NYAF) held in the Jacob Javits Center. This is my 4th year attending the convention and every time I go, I gradually grow more and more impressed with the outcome. As I walked in, it was hard to even fathom how many people attended. The convention center itself is fairly large but the number of people attending was massive. The day passes for Saturday had even sold out. The popularity of the convention is just growing larger with each year.

Starting just last year, NYCC and NYAF had combine both conventions into one. I was definitely surprised with how they handled this situation this year. They moved NYAF upstairs into a larger, more spacious room that had access to the outside area. It was definitely nicely handled. NYCC itself had the largest areas to itself. The amount of vendors and booths there were outrageous. As I first walked in, I noticed the amount of video game booths that had been attending. There was Square Enix, Nintendo, Capcom, and more. Square Enix focused on Final Fantasy XIII-2 (the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII) that will be released early 2012. There were many trailers and figurines that could be bought from the series. Nintendo focused on promoting a select few games for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii. It’s main focus was letting con-goers demo the upcoming Legend of Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Nintendo also pushed the new Nintendo 3DS game, Professor Layton and the Last Spectre (a prequel to the previous Layton games). There was also an exclusive screening of the animated movie Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. Capcom held tournaments for their hit game Marvel vs. Capcom 3 while promoting their reboot, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The crowd that showed to view and participate was overwhelming but fun.

There was something for everyone at this convention. There was a Sesame Street booth along with various video games, comics, and even K-pop being viewed and sold. Of course the only downfall to any convention is the large crowd but it’s incredibly worth the experience. We even got to see some great costumes worn by con-goers as well as costumes on display. The upcoming movie, The Avengers, had a large promotion and even had a costume contest as well as the costume from the movie Captain America on display (I snagged me an Avengers poster for myself). In another section of the convention, a view of the Dark Knight’s costume could be seen on display.

The amount of shopping, browsing, activities, and more someone could do is just simply astounding. Every year it seems like there’s just more and more to do. The guests that had attended this year are gradually getting more and more exciting and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.

Here are various links you can check out for more information:

http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

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Our experience at Otakon wouldn’t have been as fun if it weren’t for this group. CHEMISTRY, a two member group comprising of Yoshikuni Dōchin and Kaname Kawabata, has been around since 2001 and is celebrating their 10 year anniversary together. Brought together by a talent search show called Asayan, this duo has had nothing but successes all through their decade together. It was a pleasure sitting down with them and getting to know the duo and asking them about their first live in the US together.

We’d like to give a big thank you to Sony Music Japan and the staff at Otakon 2011 for this great opportunity!

Watch the interview here and on YouTube!

Also, check out our pictures from their first US live at Otakon 2011!

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It’s been two weeks since Otakon 2011 has come to an end and we still can’t stop talking about it! This year, AMIN writers Melanie Braverman and Joseph Erman, along with myself, attended Otakon and cosplayed together, as we normally do. If you’ve seen our last year’s coverage, you can see that the amount of people who attended was over 29,000 people. How did Otakon fair this year? Of course they topped their record and had a total of 31,348 attendees!

This year’s gust lineup was pretty amazing as well. As I had reported before, musical guest Chemistry performed! Their Friday night concert was amazing as the audience jumped to their feet with excitement. Their setlist comprised of these songs:

Go Alone
TOGETHER
merry-go-round
Wings of words
This Night
Life goes on
Shawty
Period
Independence
Keep your Love

A personal favorite of mine is ‘Shawty.’ Although Chemistry is known for their ballads and amazing duets, they also have an amazing R&B feel to their songs. We’ll have more of these fine young men later since I was able to sit down with them and have an exclusive interview.

Saturday is always the most fun, in my opinion. Tons of cosplayers were out, sweating in the sun or simply hanging out in the convention center. Here at AMIN, we do what we do best: get ready for the masquerade! Our staff was getting ready to perform for the cosplay competition where we cosplayed as doctors from the hit game series Trauma Center. This year, the competition was fun and there were a ton of new people. It was a great experience to be back at the Otakon masquerade. We were afraid of the outcome because of something special happening around the same time. Full Metal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos had made it’s American debut (with Japanese audio and English subtitles). Although we missed the first airing, we made it for the Sunday airing.

Before we knew it, Otakon 2011 had come to a close. It’s always a thrilling experience for our staff and we hope to have an even more successful Otakon experience next year! See you in 2012!

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For those of you who may know, May Pang’s AMIN attended Otakon 2010 last year and hung out with fans and musical guests. It’s 2011 and Otakon 2011 is coming in a few months. Who’s the musical guest this year? It’s none other then Japanese R&B duo CHEMISTRY and dance group SYNERGY!

Here’s an excerpt from the press release from Otakorp:

Baltimore, MD (April 14, 2011) – CHEMISTRY, with an amazing six #1 albums on the Oricon National Charts, along with 4 person dance group Synergy are making their U.S. debut this summer at Otakon 2011 July 29-31 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore MD. Recent anime songs by CHEMISTRY include “Period” for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and “merry-go-round” in the recent OVA of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
CHEMISTRY is a Japanese R&B duo, composed of, Yoshikuni Dōchin and Kaname Kawabata. After winning the Asayan audition in 2000 which was organized by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, they debuted in 2001 with three #1 singles (“Pieces of Dreams,” “Point of No Return,” and “You Go Your Way”) and a #1 album (The Way We Are).
In June 2002, CHEMISTRY participated in “Voices of KOREA/JAPAN,” a Korean/Japanese collaboration vocal unit that sang the official theme song of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They co-recorded the first Korean/Japanese collaboration song entitled “Let’s Get Together Now.” The song, performed at the pre-opening festival of the World Cup held in Korea, was hailed as the first national broadcast of a Japanese language song in Korea since WWII. Their performance at the World Cup opening ceremony was broadcast in 160 countries worldwide.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, CHEMISTRY went on to produce #1 album after #1 album. Hits include songs “Your Name Never Gone” and “Tōkage feat. John Legend.”
In August 2010, CHEMISTRY recorded “a better tomorrow,” the world wide theme song for a Korean remake of the Hong Kong film “A Better Tomorrow” starring Song Seung- Heon.
The year saw the duo building on their successful career within Japan as well as highlights of increasing their presence in the rest of Asia including their endeavor to sing in Korean for the first time and in November, performing at the M-net Asian Music Awards held in Macao, receiving the Best Asian Male Artist award.
Also in 2010, CHEMISTRY worked together with the 4-person dance group Synergy to release “Shawty.” Another joint work of the two groups was released November 3, 2010, titled “Keep Your Love.”
This March, CHEMISTRY released their best of album, “CHEMISTRY 2001-2011,” which commemorates their first decade together as a duo.
To preview some music from CHEMISTRY, go to CHEMISTRY’s official site at:

http://www.chemistryclub.net

Otakon 2011 will be held July 29 – 31 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland

Who else is ridiculously excited about this?! I only got into CHEMISTRY in recent months but their vocals are excellent and I’m in love with their song “Shawty.” Synergy also brings an amazing vibe to the song as it shows a whole new CHEMISTRY as well. Those boys are definitely talented in singing and dancing.

For more information, visit Otakon’s official website!

Check out the music video for “Shawty”!

Our fourth AMIN Rant is today! As many of you know, Korean boyband BIGBANG has released their fourth mini-album after two, long years so as a tribute to them, we have dedicated our fourth rant to their mini-album. What do we think? Listen to our rant and you’ll see!

Disclaimer: We didn’t edit some of the parts we ended up feeling were funny… You’ll notice.

Click here to order BIGBANG’s mini-album Tonight on iTunes!

Click here to see BIGBANG on Soribada!

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© Universal Japan

I have recently received two signed towels from Japanese hip-hop group ET-KING!  As much as I would like to keep them for myself, I think it’s time for AMIN to hold another contest!
先日、日本のヒップホップグループ ET-KING から、なんと！サイン入りタオル２枚を頂きました！私自身の宝物として保管しておきたいところですが(笑)、AMIN 読者へ、抽選で２名様にプレゼント致します！

HOW TO ENTER   ＜応募方法＞

1) Leave a comment on this post along with your Twitter username.

あなたのツイッターのユーザー名と下記のコメントを AMIN ツイッター上に残してください。

2) Follow @MayPangAMIN on Twitter (Yes, we will be checking!)

ツイッターで、＠MayPangAMIN をフォロー（私たちもフォローチェックします！）

3) Tweet this quote: “I just entered to win a free autographed #ETKING towel at http://tiny.cc/7h2l9 #MPAMIN”

ツイートに、この言葉を記載 “I just entered to win a free autographed #ETKING towel at http://tiny.cc/7h2l9 #MPAMIN”

RULES     ＜ルール＞

•Winners will be chosen at random. However, you can increase your chances of winning by tweeting more as we will be checking for the #MPAMIN hashtag.

当選者はランダムで決めます。#MPAMIN をチェックしますので、たくさんツイートすると当選しやすくなります。

•You must leave a comment on the page or else your entry is invalid.

ツイッター上にコメントを残さないと無効になりますので、ご注意ください。

•Items are limited! Remember, we only have two towels!

数に限りがあります。貴重なサイン入りタオル２枚のみ！

•You can join anytime and we will send the prizes to any country.

誰でも参加できます。海外当選者でもプレゼントを発送できます。

The contest will end on March 11th at 11:00pm JST (Japan Standard Time).

★応募締め切りは、３月１１日(金)午後１１時まで(※日本時間)。

Disclaimer:  We are not associated with ET-KING.  No one who is an employee or family member can be part of the contest.

And we’re BACK! It’s our 3rd bi-weekly ranting! We’re sorry for the delay but Jessica Dawson, Christina Jacildo, and Lara Visconti are back and talking about some of the hottest news in Korea and Japan! Here are the topics we talked about this week:

Korea
•MBLAQ makes a comeback with ‘Cry’ and ‘Stay’
•Teen Top makes a comeback with ‘Supa Luv’
•B2ST Having a Concert
•PSY Appearance at NB2
•U-KISS wins award in Taiwan
•JoKwon and Gain Leave ‘We Got Married’

Japan
•Album sales are down, singles and DVDs sales are up
•Aqua Timez new album and Budokan concert
•Koda Kumi releases new single ‘Pop Diva’
•KAT-TUN & Akanishi Jin preparing for new releases, separately of course.
•Dance group Happiness to make debut
•Nintendo 3DS
•Ayumi Hamasaki gets married

WTF Award of the Week
•TVXQ with ‘Keep Your Head Down’

Take a listen to our ranting!

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It’s official! We are having a ONEDAY Giveaway! As some of you may know, I, along with writer Emma Kalka, attended a few of JYP Entertainment’s concerts for Christmas including JYP Nation, JYP Bad Party, and 2AM’s Concert.

At these events, we’ve acquired a few posters that we thought our readers would love.

The rules are very simple! All you have to do is leave a comment under the post, stating why you like 2AM or 2PM! Winners will be chosen at random as well as the poster received.

ONE POST PER ENTRY!

Contest begins now till January 28, 2011! Good Luck to all participating!

Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more on this contest as well other updates!

I have to preface this review with one thing. I was not a 2AM fan before I went. Of course, I knew who they were and some of their songs. But ballads were never really my thing.

That being said, I am a fan now.

This was 2AM’s first solo concert series in Korea. And while it almost took a miracle for us to find the venue on the campus of Korea University, it was well worth the walking around in the freezing weather to get there.

I’m not going to lie, things started off a little slow. Most of their songs are ballads and the show started off with their hits ‘You Wouldn’t Answer My Calls’ and ‘There’s None’. The boys were basically stationary for the first few sets, but the fans loved it and they gave their all. I couldn’t help but find myself wishing I was curled up with a boyfriend. Since I couldn’t do that, I started wishing the excitement would amp up a bit. After the drama of JYP Nation and JYP Bad Party just two nights before, I wanted more energy. And of course, 2AM delivered.

After the first few songs, they took a break and started commenting on how there were more girls than guys in the audience and how the guys that were there were probably dragged there by their girlfriends. Or had made their girlfriends angry and were trying to make it up to them. They then invited a couple on stage and proceeded to play matchmaker by allowing the guy to profess his love to his girlfriend, since it was their 100-day anniversary, a very big deal in the Korean culture. It was cute, and showed that 2AM really could relate to their fans.

After that, things really began picking up. They did remixes to a few of their favorite pop songs, including ‘So Hot’, ‘Hot Issue’ and ‘Bad Girl Good Girl’. However, the crowd favorite was most definitely their rendition of After School’s ‘Bang’ which involved mini skirts and tights. And dancing. It was obvious which 2AM member really got into the dance routine on that one…

After the special guests, T-ARA and 8eight, the boys came back with their solo stages. Every girl swooned when Changmin channeled Tom Jones for ‘Sex Bomb’, and then proceeded to rip his shirt off. The swooning continued with Seulong and his dance performance to ‘Beautiful Monster’ which got so intense, he lost his earpiece during a flying kick. My personal favorite was Jin-woon, who is a man after my own heart. He pulled out an amazing guitar solo while performing ‘Hysteria’ by Muse. Not an easy piece to play, but he definitely did it justice.

Though, Jo Kwon was again the crowd favorite with his Lady Gaga vs Jo Kwon. Personally, I think he gave the US pop star a run for her money. And other pop groups in Korea.  And I think he knew it. Later on in the show, after a few dance numbers, he commented to the crowd that when it comes to dancing, 2PM, who was in attendance that night, had nothing on him.

The rest of the show continued with high energy dance numbers, including the house mix of ‘I Did Wrong’ which got the fans to their feet and kept them there, even when they ended with a two-song encore of ‘Like Crazy’ and ‘This Song’. Jo Kwon was moved to tears by the support shown from the audience, and soon, the rest of the group followed. They promised to hold another concert and thanked everyone for coming, including their special guests, 2PM, Wonder Girls and Jo Kwon’s mother.

All in all, the show was very enjoyable, even for a non-ballad-y person like me. It was a good mixture of slow and fast, with fan service and general shenanigans that had everyone laughing. Jo Kwon opened the show by saying they saved the best for last and that everyone would get their money’s worth. This was definitely true.

Thanks to  for letting May Pang’s AMIN attend the show! It was a fabulous ending to a wonderful Christmas weekend.

Photography credits go to Big Hit Entertainment

Park Jin Young aka JYP is no stranger to the music world. On December 24, 2010 following his company’s holiday concert JYP Nation “Team Play,” JYP held his “Bad Party concert, The DANCER,” at the Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium at 11:30 KST. I acutally attended his Bad Party concert in New York so I was really excited on how the outcome will be in his hometown. The concert actually started a little later than expected due to the traffic from the previous concert. It didn’t matter to the audience though, this is JYP we are talking about, and from his previous Bad Parties, they are worth waiting.

The concert actually started with JYP flying in literally! I was actually scared at one point because he was twirling in the air and I thought the harness was going to snap off. He then did a dance break following his hit songs “No Love, No More” and “Kiss.”

Now mind you, this concert wasn’t for children. In fact, The DANCER is a concert for an audience over the age of 19 years old. Meaning, a lot more explicit things happened that you wouldn’t see at an ordinary 8PM concert. What do I mean by explicit? Following his hits, his female back up dancers did a major strip tease to the audience, stripping off their dresses revealing flesh colored body suits, and JYP sang his song “Elevator,” which consisted major booty grabbing, grinding, and other things. I’ll let your mind wander.

JYP explained to the audience the reason why he called this Bad Party The DANCER. Before he debuted as a singer, he was a back up dancer. In fact, it came naturally when he danced. He wanted to know more about the knowledge of what a singer was, rather than a dancer, so he ended up hating the word, dancer. However, after 16 years, making JYPE, he looked back and realized that being a dancer was always a big part of his life and it always made him happy. Hence the theme of this concert, The DANCER.

Another thing JYP is good for is fan service. During his stage for “I Have a Woman,” he said the ironic thing about writing this song was at that time he had a woman. However, now he’s single so he started singing “I don’t have a Woman,” and got the audience (specifically all the single ladies) to sing “I don’t have a Man.” He then chose one girl from the audience and brought her on stage. He then led her to… yes… you guessed it… a bed that was coming from the top of the stage. Tying the girl to the bed, he started doing his fan service… again, I will let your mind wander.

This has been the second time I watched JYP live and I have to say, he is such an amazing performer, he really puts his heart and soul into his music and to others. He says that being a CEO and being a performer are great things to be, but being a dancer is the greatest. He wishes to dance the same as he dances now even when he’s 60. It was an amazing show and I had a great time watching it!

Thanks again to JYP Entertainment for letting us attend and cover this concert! We really appreciate it.

Photos are on the way so keep checking in!

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