Anime and game events around town

(tags anime, Kobe, game, Osaka)

The 11th Animation Kobe event will be held on 11/18 and 11/19 weekend. Saturday will be a special free (but 300 person reservation only) viewing of Top wo Nerae! 1 and 2 (「トップをねらえ！＆トップをねらえ２！」合体劇場版　特別上映会). Top wo Nerae! 2 was the winner of last year's "Package" Award.  Sunday will be the actual award ceremony and talk show (アニメーション神戸賞授賞式), featuring the category winners. Here is an excerpt of the winners list (my trans):

• 個人賞…「長濵博史」
  Personal Award: Hirofumi Nagahama (trans?), Director of Mushishi 「蟲師」の監督
• 特別賞…「大山のぶ代・小原乃梨子・野村道子・肝付兼太・たてかべ和也」
  Special Award to voice actors responsible for Doraemon characters
• 作品賞・劇場部門…「時をかける少女」
  Theatre/Movie Production Award to Toki wo Kakeru Shojo
• 作品賞・テレビ部門…「涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱」
  Television Production Award to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
• 主題歌賞（ラジオ関西賞）…「ハレ晴レユカイ」（歌：平野綾、茅原実里、後藤邑子）
  Theme Song Award for "Hare hare yukai" sung by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, Yuuko Gotou from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

There's even more detail available at the Xebec site (アニメーション神戸賞受賞作品決定) including why they were chosen. I wish I could go to the awards ceremony, since there's a one hour talk session with all winners (Yuuko Gouto!). (Also I'm going to take the Business Japanese test on that day.) Unfortunately, it was open to people who reserved and the first 50 people who show up at the door. Amazingly, you can watch it on the Internet for free through SeeBit TV live, and on-demand until 12/28. Wow.

The other upcoming even that caught my interest is that Nintendo World 2006 (Wii 体験会). It's on right now in Nagoya and will be around next Saturday 11/11 from 9:00 to 16:00 in Osaka. It's probably going to be a mad house, with both 48 Wii titles and tens of DS titles. I don't know if I have the patience to wait (hours?!?) to play an actual demo unit, but perhaps watching other people fumble and learn and "get it" or not will show me if I like the system. I heard the game that I wanted to play, Wii Sports Tennis, is a lot less interactive that I wanted it to be. I'm also going keep an eye out for Swing Golf Panya.