Hello and welcome everybody, to the Jump Festa 2009 (or 2008 for us normal folks) Report. As it was last year, I will be attempting to translate our good friend Greg's extremely rushed text messages and posting his pictures online as I get them. I'll probably continuously edit this post for the first day, just to make it easy on all of us to keep looking. (I say that now, but I'll probably kind of just do what happens as I did last year… I remember making a bunch of different posts for some reason.)
And so, without further ado...
As of 18:04 EST, "We are off. Weather is sunny tempo."
He's still on the train at this point (19:19 EST). It's a little cloudy near the Festa, he says. And shows!
(19:29 EST) "Be there soon. Lots of PSP Users." Playing Dissidia no doubt.
(19:34 EST) Arrival!
(19:43 EST) "Loooots… … Of... … People..."
(19:50 EST) "As usual." Looks like the victory screen from Jump Ultimate Stars…
(20:02 EST) Cosplayers! Bleach Cosplayers, but still Cosplayers.
(20:09 EST)
(20:16 EST) Some words finally starting to trickle in. The One Piece original illustration area has all of the Original Jump Spine images, as well as the most recent volume cover, Zoro after getting hit by Kuma (Bloody Zoro, I presume), Luffy hitting the Tenryubito, and Silvers Rayleigh kicking Kizaru. Also of note, the Jump character spread by the Eyeshield Author is "surprisingly tiny!"
(20:20 EST)
(20:31 EST) At 21:30 EST, there will be a talk with the Voice Actors of Goku and Luffy. Stay tuned. In the meantime, more photos.
(20:45 EST) Greg's schedule is as follows:
21:30 EST - Talk with Goku and Luffy,
23:20 EST - Dragon Ball Stage Show,
00:30 EST - One Piece Stage Show,
02:00 EST - Mini One Piece Stage Show with Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Franky and Brooke.
There won't be any pictures of the Goku/Luffy talk; he's close to the front of the Toei booth and I guess they're keeping an eye out. He will attempt to get a video of the Mini Stage Show at 2:00 because he thinks there's a chance of a trailer playing.
Right now, Greg plans on waiting 45 minutes for the talk.
Greg: "The Dragonball movie DVD commercial is running on a loop and driving me nuts. As I thought, much of today will probably be waiting in lines. Probably more pics of around the show at 02:00 after the big One Piece stage show, but honestly it's very similar to the usual setup."
(21:22 EST) Dragon Ball/One Piece stage show going on now, "with the costumes, etc." A bit early…
Note: Greg has decided not to fire off texts rapidly during the show in order to more accurately record what is said. So... A bit of a lull here.
(22:17 EST) As first posted by King Calamari below. Kuma is quite the imposing figure…
(22:32 EST) Greg has now lined up for the Dragon Ball Stage. "The Luffy/Goku talk was subpar but I have extensive notes on it. In the meantime, Toriyama's kids are huge OP Fans."
(22:49 EST) From where he's standing, he doesn't see any towers so he might get a video of this one.
(23:01 EST) With this kind of view, a video might be worth it. Greg: "Look at this view! I wish the OP Stage was next. See the white screen in the back though? It's to prevent filming; these people are criznazy."
…He said it, not me.
(23:20 EST) Dragon Ball Stage started. If he does it like the Luffy/Goku Talk, he'll take meticulous notes and get them down on the board himself in the near future it seems. I haven't heard a word of specifics about the last one.
Greg: "Bulma's Bike is here evidently. This looks bad; they pulled out Akiba Idols to promote Nozawa. What were they thinking?"
(23:33 EST) Greg: "So far I am severely unimpressed. We're listening to airheads talk about some very basic stuff."
"Finally some interesting information coming out. Nozawa thinks Cell is the most frightening villian."
(23:51 EST) Greg: "First game pictures look like DBZ Sparking but with real textures. Bulma seems to be a fighter this time around. They're also giving out door prizes; Movie Tickets, etc. One guest won a role in the dub of the movie." (Live Action Movie?)
(00:05 EST) Greg:"Toriyama left a message to the cast and crew of the movie: He felt surprised when he saw everything but after meeting the cast and crew, he felt they were splendid. He hopes that it will become a new Dragon Ball to be enjoyed and confirms that he is very much looking forward to it."
(00:12 EST) Greg:"I am happy to announce that there are way more people here for One Piece than there were for Dragon Ball. Wow!"
(00:18 EST) The One Piece Crowds.
(00:30 EST) The Main Event has started by the character's voice's reading famous Shabondy scenes. Everyone is in a santa suit; Franky has no pants, Zoro's is green, Brooke is wearing a skull mask.
And they all brought presents! (For the crowd or for each other, I have no idea.)
Brooke brought panties. Brand name panties.
Oda brought original drawings of Santa Luffy.
There will be a quiz show that parodies a popular game show "Hexagon."
Also, Sanji doesn't seem to be present today.
(01:13 EST) And he's got movie 10 info. Greg: "I saw Gold Shiki and a character Dr. Indigo. Animals play a big role, Nami might join them. Correction! StrongWorld is the name of a Fortress/Location."
(01:42 EST) There's also a Seiyu show to follow, but in the words of the big man himself, he's beat and has been standing around like a sardine all day so they're heading home. Purportedly he has big news from Oda regarding the length of Impel Down though, details on movie 10 and a brief video of everyone leaving.
The VAs did a live version of Bink's Sake, and it sounds like DBSK appeared to do their version of We Are.
Finish!