Kevin Reynolds Performs Routine as Spike

By: Jenny

Everyone has a passion for something. Whether it's cooking, drawing, or sports, we always find a way to blend those hobbies with other things that make us feel awesome. What better way to show off your love for Japanese pop culture than during a competition?

Canadian figure skater Kevin Reynolds performed a short program in the 2016 Canadian National Figure Skating Championships this weekend. What makes his performance unique is that he skated to Yoko Kanno's "Tank!" while cosplaying as Spike Spiegel.

Kevin was born on July 23, 1990 and has started skating at the age of four. He is the 2013 Four Continents champion, 2010 Four Continents bronze medalist, and a four time Canadian national medalist. In this year's competition he scored 77.65 and was placed in third. Despite his fall during the triple Axel it was an amazing performance.

"Tank!" is not the first anime based routine that he has performed in the past. He has also skated to music from Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger.

ERASED - Episode 1 First look review

by Gaby

Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, known as, Erased in English, is a newly released thriller anime with sci-fi elements.  I had heard about it so I decided to go ahead and check out the first episode when I was told there would be time travel involved.

How this starts is we meet our front character Satoru Fujinuma, a 29 year old part timer living on his own, however, he has a weird special ability.  He randomly has weird flashbacks that basically let him re-do a part of life he just lived. He doesn't know when or how far he will jump back to so he is always looking out for details to make sure that something doesn't seem odd.
One day he is on a pizza delivery on the work motorcycle and he skips back about a minute back in time in order to avoid a little boy getting run over by a truck, in this chaos he ends up in the hospital with some minor injuries. 
Satoru's mom pays him a visit and decides to stay with him for a while.  While his mom is there with him, we learn that there is a part of his past as a child that has to do with an abduction of a little girl that Satoru feels guilty about, he feels that he could have helped the little girl and its his fault she was abducted.
While Satoru and his mom are at a supermarket, he has a flashback to a few minutes back and he can't figure out why he flashed so he asks his mom if she feels strange or if she notices anything weird, his mom says that he would say things like that in the past before too, just then his mom notices a guy walking with a little girl towards a creepy van, the creeper suddenly connects eyes with the mom and decides not to abduct the little girl. Mom can't get this out of mind so she does some digging around the next day and connects the dots that this guy might be the same creeper from before. She goes to Satoru's apartment to wait for him, and when she thinks Satoru got home....it wasn't him...the creeper had followed her home.

Just watch it! I'm serious it is a really good anime, its suspenseful, it has a good sci-fi element, and the character seems legit. 

Another thing that totally got me hooked was that as the ending credits rolled, I heard the wonderful sounds of one of my favorite Japanese bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation with their song RE: RE:.

I will definitively be watching more of this when I can, right now the first episode is available subtitled on Funimation.

Check it out!

First Blog of 2016! New Year Resolutions!

by Gaby

It is 2016,  yay we survived to see another year! Time for resolutions and planning all out all the conventions to go to this year!  To me 2015 was a rollercoaster of a year, lots of good anime that year, of course the top of the charts was One Punch Man, even the people I introduced that show to really ended up liking it!

Here are 10 new things Otaku can learn or look forward to this year...think of it as a new years resolutions type of thing if you want!

1. List out all the new anime you are expecting and make plans to watch them!

2. Plan out and start budgeting for what conventions to go to this year, lets try to at least go to half of the ones we really really want to go to!  Or if you are really on a budget...try at least one major con and 2 or 3 smaller one day cons. ^_^

3. Start building your cosplay! Or at least start planning it and shopping for it!

4. Learn a new otaku trade! Whether its learning to make video games, learning Japanese, or even just learning how to properly use chopsticks or make tea!

5.  Learn to make a traditional Japanese food or sushi...or any food in my case...yes I am a horrible cook.

6. Get the courage to do that one thing at the convention that you were too scared to last year, for example, if you were too shy to participate in a contest or a group event.

7. Meet at least 1 other Otaku every month! Or if you are really not very social one new Otaku friend this year!!!

8.  Learn a new anime opening or ending song with lyrics and everything by memory!!!

9. Try learning a new Japanese phrase at least once per month! and by the end of the year you will at least know 12 phrases!

10. Don't be afraid to try new things! Like a new food, a new store, or a new restaurant!