“忘年会” (Bonenkai), literally meaning “Forget the year gathering” is a Japanese drinking party held every December, its purpose supposedly to forget the woes and troubles for the past year, but really is just an excuse to get sloshed silly. This year the party was held on the 27th in an Izakaya 居酒屋 ( a hybrid pub/restaurant of sorts) in Kichijoji. Besides Freedom Committee a couple other Sunrise studios’ animators were also present, folks who did Mai Hime and Idolmaster, amongst others. There were probably about 100 animators and CG artists there that night.

After a couple round of drinks and food the lucky draw began, with all prizes sponsored by Bandai Visual. Some of the goodies included anime dvds, figurines and Ipod Touch.

A couple of my colleagues received Steamboy T-shirts and decided it was a good idea to have them autographed by Otomo Katsuhiro, but I guess they got more than they asked for !

And lastly a picture with Mr Otomo katsuhiro himself…I couldn’t resist. Big thanks to my director of photography Yamaura-san for taking the picture !