My friends and I all went out to Waffle House around 11PM like we usually do at that con (it’s tradition). We got back to the hotel around midnight and we saw all these flashing lights out front. Being the curious little gnomes that we are, we asked what was happening. All we were told was that A.)Someone was hurt by another con attendee and B.)They were checking everyone for hotel room keys because someone was passing out random keys to random people (o.o).All we heard was something about an Inuyasha hoodie and a stabbing, but we never heard the whole story until…

Afro Samurai was created as a manga, but its claim to fame here on the western side of the pond is for a few reasons.  Firstly, the anime aired here before it aired in Japan.  Secondly, the voice of Samuel L. Jackson as “Afro” and “ninja ninja”, and Ron Pearlman as “Justice”, plus the sound track by RZA of Wu-Tang Clan -  made it ultra hip, cool and frankly just bad ass.  And thirdly the animation, the story, and the characters were dope.  Yeah, I said it… DOPE.The main character, Afro, becomes the “Number Two” swordsman in order to avenge his father who was murdered by “Number One”. The problem is that someone becomes “Number One” by killing the current Number One, donning the headband that denotes you are the most skilled, the One to be most feared, and truthfully, the baddest mofo around (yes, I said mofo). The trick is this: only the "Number Two" can challenge the "Number One." It doesn’t stop there; anyone and everyone can try to kill the “Number Two” claiming his headband, and gaining the right to challenge Number One.

Yoshiyuki Tomino has been in the anime field for many years. His career started cery early when he worked with Osamu Tetsuka, scripting and creating storyboards for the series Astro Boy which ran on Japanese broadcast T.V. from 1963-1966. But this was only the beginning of a career and life-long passion for him.

He changed the genre of "Giant Robots" starting with his mecha anime Brave Raiden, going on to create memorable works such as Choudenji Machine Voltes V and Zambot 3, the mech world was forever changed when he created Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979.