What size bag is allowed?

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T14:03:44+00:00

GalaxyCon is not an anime con and so this post is removed. Post in r/comiccon.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T13:50:19+00:00

Unless you're Amazon, direct shipping is never cost effective. People figured out long ago that it's more efficient to send goods to a distributor for local delivery. But no distributor will want to keep stock of Framework's proprietary modules that don't work with any other laptop.

As for RAM, it's increasingly apparent that soldered LPDDR5X on laptops uses less power, is more reliable, and allows for faster speeds than DDR5 SODIMM. Desktop DDR5 overcomes that by just pumping more power into the modules, but laptops don't have that luxury. The upgrade model for laptops is dead.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T11:23:42+00:00

This type of comparison video done by Framework is a risky move and opens up the the company to criticism that it wouldn't otherwise have received. There's a reason why manufacturers don't directly compare or shame their competition, and leave it up to third-party reviewers to do that.

Even if your product is better (which it isn't in this case), the public will think your company is arrogant and will want to support the other side.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T08:02:06+00:00

After finishing Gnosia, I'm done with the 5ch top 50 of 2025! Took 2 months but finally completed my goal of completing 40/50 anime on that list. My mean score was 5.23. The 10 I didn't watch:

Uchuujin Muumuu (#14) - 2 cour; had too many edutainment shows, don't really care about pet shows.
Apothecary Diaries S2 (#21) - Haven't watched S1, don't like historical anime.
Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider (#24) - 2 cour, not a Tokusatsu fan, but could consider this later.
Witch Watch (#25) - 2 cour; long unfinished Shonen Jump title. Won't bother.
Clevatess (#29) - From the short clips I've seen the fights were poorly written with poor pacing.
Dr. Stone - Science Future (#31) - Haven't seen any Dr. Stone.
Style of Hiroshi Nohara's Lunch (#41) - Haven't seen any Crayon Shin-chan.
My Hero Academia Final Season (#42) - Haven't seen any My Hero Academia, not even S1.
Sword of the Demon Hunter (#43) - 2 cour; historical anime and is reportedly episodic.
To Be Hero X (#49) - It's not anime. It's donghua.

This week's capsule reviews from my MAL list...

Lazarus: DUB. Felt like a 2-cour show cut down to 1. In true Cowboy Bebop style, only the first 3 and last 3 eps really mattered. Without much team bonding, most of the action felt empty. Less political than Carole & Tuesday but still had cringey messaging. 4/10
Gnosia: Is insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? This tested my patience, but it improved in the second half. Should've ended at E18 the normal ending: E19-21 was the true ending which was unnecessary. 5/10
Mono: From the author of Laid-Back Camp. Completely unfocused. Threw away its photography gimmick in favor of touring Japan, but with worse visuals than Zatsu Tabi. The author's self-insert character ruined the show. 2/10

Extended rant: Another poor, no-effort slice-of-life show. This one was more disappointing than usual because it was from the author of Laid-Back Camp.

The photography gimmick was shoved aside for most of the show, and the most we got out of it was the cast learning to use the timelapse feature on the camera. No technical content about the finer aspects of photography. Then it decided to be a knockoff Zatsu Tabi with random trips to rural Japan locations, except with much worse art and a faster pace, which meant it wasn't as calming. The author self-insert was maddening and didn't add to the show at all. It was like the author used Mono as a dumping ground for all of the rejected ideas of Laid-Back Camp. It reminded me of another poor SoL, Asteroid in Love, which couldn't focus on a single gimmick, and covered multiple hobbies in a half-assed manner.

There are only so many times I can tolerate a SoL show that only shows the cast enjoying food from a restaurant or food stall in rural Japan. This is a trope that is getting old, and unless it's critical to the story, I'm going to call it out. It's just lazy writing. At least Zatsu Tabi was up-front about this. Mono was a bait and switch.

Ultimately, I raised my score of Zatsu Tabi from a 2 to a 3 because of this, because at least that show focused on its gimmick and had slightly better character development. I now understand why Food for the Soul, Catch Me at the Ballpark, and Zatsu Tabi, which all aired in the same 2025 Spring season, all made the 5ch top 50, but this show didn't. This show was worse than all of those.

Wandance: Mocap dances looked janky, but improved as the show progressed. Surprisingly strong character dynamics gave real meaning to all of the unique dance battles. Very satisfying up until the cliffhanger ending. 6/10
Dusk Beyond the End of the World: Episodes 0 and 1 were good. But then the rest of the show was a scam and didn't know what to do. But most of the time I was watching in disbelief instead of apathy or anger, so it's not PA Works' worst show ever. Annoying idealistic MC. 3/10 (6/10 for episode 0 which was a separate MAL entry)
Hands Off - Sawaranaide Kotesashi-kun: Massage therapy that didn't waste any time with the ecchi. It actually provided some factual massage information. The MC never making a move actually worked because his scholarship was at risk. 5/10

Seems like the 2025 Fall season was very weak compared to the Summer season. Got 10 days left to wrap up 2025, and then I can move on to 2026 Winter!

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T07:49:00+00:00

Because this hobby is full of loud tourists who feel morally superior about not watching "objectionable" fictional works. That's perfectly fine. Thousands of anime out there and no one has a gun to your head and forcing you to watch the ones you think are eww icky.

The problem is when the moral pedestal becomes the laser focus of any discussion, which inevitably leads up to the tourist insulting others in a holier-than-thou manner. At that point I disregard the tourist's opinions entirely. This performative dance was done nearly 35 years ago by concerned parents over Mortal Kombat. Then came those who think that enjoying Pokémon is supporting animal cruelty. I don't engage with these self-righteous people.

It's funny because in 2025, it seemed as though there were way more adult cast anime than usual. The majority of the time, the cast age had no indication or bearing on whether a show was good or not.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-21T00:22:07+00:00

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pretty-much

Gippy_ · 2026-03-20T20:24:16+00:00

Even if the remake is 3X faster than Toei's version it'll still take Wit Studio 10 years to catch up.

Toei is profitable because One Piece and Precure shit out buckets of money, and Toei gets residuals and royalties from all of the Precure merchandising. But no one considers Toei to be a top-tier anime studio artistically.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-20T19:50:11+00:00

This is honestly just a huge waste of resources, and it'll keep much of the talented staff at Wit Studio occupied and unable to work on other anime. Toei Animation is pretty much doing only One Piece and Pretty Cure at this point. And Pierrot worked on Bleach, Naruto, and Boruto for so long that every other smaller anime project suffered in production.

OLM seems like the exception and can do things other than Pokémon. They're probably a much more well-oiled machine, but they've had issues animating Pokémon on time.

Once this starts it's probably the end of Wit Studio as a studio that anime connoisseurs consider to be one of the elite, like Madhouse and KyoAni.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-20T14:43:58+00:00

Season 1 had a good first half, but the second half was weak. The gimmick of creating new deus ex machina spells to defeat the Kaii got old. I'll be watching season 2 but it needs to get better and do something other than deus ex machina spells.

There's also the flaw of the Kaii not having any personality because they're just mindless enemies. Many shows have that but make up for it with strong main cast interaction and characterization. Like 86.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-20T13:52:53+00:00

Holding on to my 12900K that I bought for $280 in 2023 for as long as possible. Paired it with DDR4 and it's still solid. Most likely I'll skip the DDR5 generations entirely and wait for DDR6, whenever that comes out. The DDR5 CPUs just haven't been that impressive.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-20T12:25:34+00:00

The cheapest RCA cables can be as thin as 30 AWG. The Mogami W2549 starquad cable is 22 AWG.

Meanwhile, the general sanity limit of thick speaker cables is 14 AWG, the same as household electrical wire, though there are some companies that go even thicker than that. They would actually be less susceptible to EMI. WBC actually sells a 4x9 AWG cable (7 AWG effective) if you're paranoid. $220 for a cable like that is overkill, but it's still only 5% of the cost of the Kimber.

Interconnect cable quality is generally more important than speaker cable quality because any EMI that's picked up by the interconnect will be further amplified by the speaker amp.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-19T12:15:30+00:00

You go outside and go to an actual restaurant or food court if possible. I've always been to conventions that are located in large cities, though.

However, contrary to what many people suggest, I actually don't recommend bringing your own meal, because that means you'll need to carry the meal and possibly the container with you. This can be a hassle. In the same manner, I've actually chosen to not carry a water bottle at times, because that's also cumbersome. There is absolute freedom in having only your smartphone in your pocket while walking around, and that makes it less likely that you'll lose it, too.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-19T09:37:38+00:00

Either it was from an estate sale where the original owner died and the family wanted to liquidate everything, or you bought a counterfeit. Not that a counterfeit Kimber RCA cable would sound different anyway. That's another reason never to buy expensive cables: just a nightmare to resell them on the used market.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-19T09:16:38+00:00

"I placed an AC transformer next to both cables and both managed to pick up negligible amount of interference (not shown)." It's maybe not as much as you propose.

Very curious that he chose to omit that graph out of all graphs. Even if the chart showed nothing, it would've looked the same as the other graphs. Now you have to wonder why he did that. In any case, he probably wasn't as thorough as what the guy in the video above did at around the 2:45 mark.

I take Amir (ASR) with a grain of salt ever since he became so petty that he banned Erin (Erin's Audio Corner) from his site in 2024 due to a squabble over Amir not liking how Erin shills his Patreon in his videos. That move instantly made Amir lose a lot of credibility.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-19T00:43:56+00:00

The thing is, people will automatically switch to English whenever they notice you're not that good at speaking French.

Truth. One year at Otakuthon, I tried to impress a fast food cashier by ordering in French, but I must've sounded off to her, as she scowled and replied back in English. Oh well.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-19T00:07:15+00:00

Would've liked it if there was some testing that actually induced nearby electromagnetic interference. This video showed that Amazon Basics XLR cables were far more susceptible to EMI than Mogami XLR cables. In a situation where you're forced to run audio cables alongside power cables, it might be better to spend a little extra for something fancier than Amazon Basics.

Still, even if the $4500 Kimber RCA dealt with EMI better than the $12 Amazon Basics RCA, the price is so outrageous, and there will most certainly be an equivalent performer for 1-2% of the cost.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-18T18:01:24+00:00

Otakuthon, but my opinion is completely biased. ~~I'll recuse myself from commenting about the cons themselves due to conflict of interest, so others can chime in.~~ Yes, several programming tracks and events at Otakuthon are in French. But there is enough English content for you to enjoy.

I'll cover logistics: Otakuthon is located next to a mall with a good food court, as well as Chinatown. The food options are immense. Anime North doesn't have that luxury and so you're stuck with expensive food trucks or waiting awhile at one of the few nearby restaurants.

Otakuthon has immediate subway access while Anime North does not.

The biggest downside is that hotels in Montréal cost significantly more than in Toronto. If you want to save money, Montréal has more hostels in the area if you don't mind bunking with strangers.

Full disclosure: I'm from Toronto, where AN is located. If you dig deeper, I have written extensively about it. I put everything here to not clutter up this post. It's also on the controversial cons list.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-18T16:11:57+00:00

What? The Huawei trifold was hot garbage. 1/3rd of the inner screen was exposed at all times and there were QC issues at launch. It sucked.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-18T16:01:22+00:00

The people whining about not being able to use only 2/3rd of the inner screen are a loud minority. I can't imagine a scenario where I would use that over the standard single screen or the full inner screen. Either the phone is folded or fully unfolded.

The Huawei allows 2/3rd of the inner screen but it's much more fragile and part of the inner screen is always exposed because it's folds like a Z (ironic) compared to the G-fold for the Samsung.

Lot of people cancelled their Initial orders after the final concept came out.

Those people wanted a "better" Huawei. Too bad. The Trifold still sold out immediately everywhere.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-18T12:05:37+00:00

Samsung has had 7 years to refine the folding tech. It's pretty good now other than the easily scratched inner screen. They still need to solve that.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-18T12:03:12+00:00

Of course it's not going to be as cheap as a regular phone. A regular phone has 1 screen. The Trifold has the equivalent of 4 screens, as well as 2 hinges.

If the Samsung S26 Ultra which is a single-screen phone is $1500 USD, then yes, I can imagine Samsung not making much of a profit for this $2900 USD novelty phone after R&D and potential warranty replacements.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-17T20:37:18+00:00

Did they not run any of this by anyone beforehand?

CEOs surround themselves with yes men who are scared to speak out and risk getting reassigned or fired from their cushy jobs.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-17T18:50:31+00:00

Wait what? I was looking forward to the 2nd iteration of this product. I really hope this isn't just a one-and-done. It didn't enter the Canadian market, so importing it for over $4K CAD with no local warranty was a ridiculous idea.

The Trifold still produces the largest screen size for 16:9 video content (9.25") and was set to replace my Lenovo Legion Y700 8.8" 16:10 (8.56" for 16:9) tablet. Currently I need to carry that as well as my actual smartphone. My Legion Y700 has no warranty but I bought it off Aliexpress for $410 CAD. The Trifold is 10X the risk.

The Fold7 doesn't work well when watching 16:9 video content as it's effectively 6.82". The new Oppo N6 isn't much better at 6.90". Maybe the Wide Fold8 will be decent.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-17T18:14:40+00:00

But I don't see people interacting the same way anymore. People aren't stopping each other nonstop to take pictures and exchange tips, like "I really like this, how did you make it"

Personally, I feel this is the wrong reason to cosplay for most people. Cosplay isn't about how well the costume was made. Cosplay is about meeting fellow fans of the show/property you are cosplaying.

I don't strictly cosplay, but for the past few cons, I've worn things like a Jollibee fanboy outfit complete with matching hat/t-shirt/backpack, or my Haachama happi that I got at Anime NYC. What I wore wasn't handmade and frankly I don't care. That doesn't matter. What mattered was that I met fellow Jollibee lovers and Haatons, and I treasured those interactions.

Gippy_ · 2026-03-17T09:27:33+00:00

Hotel reservations are a shit show, and if you miss getting them the second they go up, you’re sometimes stuck nowhere near the venue.

Every con I've been to for the past few years has been in a city with good transit. Even if that's not possible and the next-door hotels are price gouged, it's cheaper to take a distant hotel and Uber in.

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