Anime

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:46 am

Wilma, I have a nice long leisurely weekend to come and will look at the links then; but I hope you don't mind if I say right now how cool this whole thing is and how much I look forward to the photos.

The geeky side of me just loves the whole description of how to do proper kabuki/geisha makeup on dark skin. That is just so cool that the world is that size now. My daughter the theater makeup artist would probably appreciate it too—they just finished a show where almost everyone had to be Thai and almost everyone actually was white, and Norwegian/Swedish white at that. I know this kind of thing is sensitive, but OTOH I like that it is . . . a possible thing and an interesting thing, and not a barrier. It comes closer to the place I hope we'll all get to, where differences are things to celebrate, explore, and enjoy, and where cultures in blending illuminate.

I hope I haven't put my foot in the wrong place here. I can't wait to see the photos!

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Fri May 27, 2011 1:05 pm

No, you can't put your foot in the wrong place here.

Still got about 30 chapters of manga to blitz.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Sat May 28, 2011 5:32 am

Highlights for today, Greg Ayres ( voice actor), is really cool. He really surprised me with his knowledge of Canada. Helen McCarthy is cool. Her panel on European anime fandom was quite informative.

I have scored a free breakfast as I helped a roomate sell 61 issues of Shonen Jump and 12 volumes of Bleach

. Currently at kareoke (they are group singing the Pokemon theme song, Lord help me.)

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Mon May 30, 2011 3:44 am

Just got home from AN, I will do a report later.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Tue May 31, 2011 4:49 am

I posted a video on my Facebook. I am working on a photo album but I have to crop it. I am still tired and I lost my voice. (I have been reduced to squeaking.)

Over all it was really fun and the panels I did, went well. Next year, I will spread my schedule out a little more, and I won't sell at the flea market.

Here is a link to the album I have. Many people have better pics and photoshop but this all I have for now (still cropping).

Password is momiji

Post by **Teremia** » Tue May 31, 2011 4:56 pm

Wow, Wilma, that's SO impressive! The work you and everyone else put into those beautiful costumes!

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:14 pm

Amazing! And beautiful. The riffs like the steampunk kimono are fun, but the ones that look most traditional (to my completely untrained eye) are the most beautiful by far.

And you look lovely.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:17 pm

Thanks, I am waiting for better pics to go up, before I do a detailed report. I was very very busy and I didn't get a chance to take as many pics as I wanted.

Also a photographer is offering to do an official shoot for us next year. I will be using some of his pics in my report. I have a vid, but I have issues uploading, I will have to finish uploading form my desktop (I am on a netbook).

EDIT:
FB link to vid. Photobucket does not seem to work.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:03 am

Alright I thought I would start out with my report.
Thursday
My roommates and I arrived on Thursday night and got settled in for the hotel. The hotel told us about a deal where if we checked out before 9 am on Sunday we would get a free breakfast buffet. I said I didn’t believe it would happen since I have been to too many cons.
I found out one of my friends “R” had her room two doors away from mine, so it made it really easy to hangout out. Woot!! My roommates and some friends had dinner. Swiss Chalet was really good and I won free perogies . Woot!! I had recruited friend “R” to be a makeup artist for the Kimono fashion show and we had to meet up with the co-ordinator for a certain time, for additional makeup tests. Unfortunately it was at the same time that Thursday night registration was. So the panel director let us do early registration since we would have to miss registration due to our volunteer obligations. (Thank you Fingers and the registration people!!!).
Thankfully, the pressed powder suggested to me worked well!!!! ( Thank you The Bay makeup counter lady.) We experimented with a lot of colours as contrast is a very important factor in traditional Japanese makeup. So I have learned I need very bright colours.
After the makeup test the rest of the night I stayed in the room and worked on preparing for my panels (I was still blitzing mangas Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles and xxxholic). My roommates and I watched, Star Trek: TNG and Fresh Prince of Bel Air with William Shatner as the special guest. My roommate “I” is a new Star Trek fan so the TNG episode was new to her. It’s funny group viewing Star Trek.
We worked out who would be selling what at the garage sale since we had all wanted to attend The Helen McCarthy panel on European fandom at the same time. My friend “R” volunteered to help sell so we could attend the panel.

Pic of my roomies and I

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:43 am

Some of my report is going to take a bit longer for my report as Facebook has been difficult when it comes to posting links, so i have to download the pics and put on photobucket.

Anyway, since there was a Progressive Conservative party convention, at the same place, Maclean's magazine (kind of like a Canadian version of Tme magazine), came and took some pictures of cosplayers. They made it to the Arts and culture section.
Linky

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:34 am

Friday

I spent the morning hanging out a bit with some friends. Particularly since the breakfast line was very long.

During breakfast people were out and about in cosplay and there was a girl in these crazy planked sandals. How did she walk?

I think I spent some of my morning blitzing manga.
In the afternoon I had lunch with some of my university anime club members and more people showed up then I thought. It was a lot of fun, and we geared up for the beginning of the convention in the after noon.

First I went to the Greg Ayers Greg Ayers is a voice actor but he also works on educating people on boot leg merchandise, how it can be dangerous and how it can fund organized crime. Beyond anything if a person does not care about any of those things, care about getting ripped off. He also demonstrated much of his knowledge of Canada (Greg Ayers is an American).

After helping my friends get set up for the flea market, I went to the Helen McCarthy panel about European anime fandom. She talked about how anime spread through France, Spain and Italy starting through the 70’s and how fandom developed in the UK. She even talked about the importance of Star Trek. Above all I think it demonstrates the importance of having animation on television (like in France) and how it does not just make fans happy, it helps people who sell Anime DVDs and manga feel secure in the products they sell, since the local market has been familiarized with it. (I think France is one of the top countries for manga sales after Japan.)

I then went to the last half of the skit show. The best skit I saw was a Kurostuji skit, on how the first season should have ended. (If anyone wants to see it message me, it’s available to view on FB.)
I then went to flea market area and some of my stuff sold. I did some walking around and bought the Argonath bookends (I bargained down to ten bucks each).

Since I didn’t have much to sell, I helped one of my roomies sell their stuff. I sold off his 5 years of Shounen Jump monthly anthologies (no one wanted to drag it back to the hotel), and I sold his 12 volumes of Bleach. Because of that, my roomie treated those of us who helped him sell stuff, to a free breakfast on Saturday. Yays!!

Late that night I went down to the video rooms, where I hung out at the karaoke and read manga on my ipod. For one person since there was no music for the song he wanted to do so he just sung it into the mic acapella.It was good|!! He sung the ending theme for Monster.

Spent the rest of the night blitzing manga. I had finished Tsubasa and I was going through xxxholic.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:59 am

Hey, just thought I would update, I am still working on the report. Got really busy, and then got in a car accident. (I am ok). I am slowly regaining my equillibrium. Also, photbucket is being difficult with videos. Also I have waiting for another person to upload a vid. But I have been continuously working on it.

Concerning manga, has anyone read Kaouru Mori's A Bride's story? A gorgeous book, and I would recomend it to people who are not familiar with anime and manga. It's set in the 19th century, in central Asia, where a young woman from a semi -nomadic tribe is married off to a 12 year old who is heir to a wealthy family. The art is so beautiful. Volume 2 comes out in October.

If it wasn't by Kaoru Mori, I would be really unsure about it, but I trust her. She goes to painstaking detail in her work in terms of researching the time period and her stories are pretty good too.

Video links to Kaoru Mori drawing a full page for the bride's story manga (She is drawing the main character Amir, the bride.)
Linky 1
Linky 2
Linky 3
Linky 4
Linky 5
Linky 6

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:01 am

Ok I here is a link to the kimono display for anime north with historical discriptions.

It explains a great deal about how technology and sumptuary laws affected kimono.

It answers some interesting questions like, womens under kimono are mostly bright red ( like this ) and have flashy patterns. By extension why mens under kimono are pretty flashy, while the outside is usually subdued.

Furisode through the ages

Password is momiji

I am posting from an iPod so I have to edit in some links.

Gah!!! I checked the link and for some reason it's all sorts of mess up. I have to fix the freakin link.

It's now fixed

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:52 am

I will let you know once I am finally done, I am still uploaading pictures. Some of the kimono in the display I linked will be in the fashion show, and it's quite interesting how they look different onces things like a sash is added.

Also I have to make a screen capture and I have to wait a day or so since I am not home.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:31 am

Saturday
In the morning I got a free breakfast courtesy of my roommate. Spent a good amount of time at an overflowing Tim Hortons
The first panel I went to was called “how to open a fan like a samurai”. I did not realize there was such a wide ranging history with fans. Even Samurai used fans as weapons!! Also the panelist taught us how to open a fan with one hand.
Hung out at the dealers’ room and met up with a friend. She cosplayed Yuko from the first volume of xxxholic.

My friend dressed as Yuko.

In the afternoon I had 4 panels in 6 hours.

During one of my free hours, I went to the Helen McCarthy panel where she covered 4000 years of clothing in Japan. She even talked about fossils. I felt like I was back in one of my anthropology classes. One of the best points she made is that in a historical sense, clothing is a reflection of the technology available at the time. I thought that was a really good point. The only nitpick I have with it was that she did not mention the sumptuary laws, but she only had an hour.

My first panel was Black kids like Anime Too, and that panel went really well, we discussed a lot of things and we actually ran out of time. We discussed character designs, cosplay, kitsuke (kimono wearing), Disney, Peepo Choo, all sorts of things.

Also I felt we got to educate people, since only 3 people had heard of Osamu Tezuka, before we mentioned him.

More people knew more about TED Talks!! While that is good, these are supposed to be anime fans!!
Picture of the audience before the panel started, we hardly had floor space by the end.

Picture of me and my co panelists. One of them cosplayed a character from Bleach

We also had a positive mention in a bloggers review of Anime North: Link is NSFW and strong language.

Video may be available and I will link it once it’s up. It’s on the moderators camera.

I think I will stop here, since I sort of want to break for comments on the review. I love some of the cosplay pictures he got. Especially Baby Link and Adult Zelda. The next day baby Link was baby Howl from Howl’s moving castle. He’s so cyoote!!! The Naruto Ninja family was so cute.

I am so glad we helped brighten up his Saturday.

I have some other cool cosplay pictures, but I will put them at the end. I think I will stop for now
EDIT: Added a picture

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:22 am

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:03 am

Alright after a ton of RL stuff, getting my computer fixed and trying to find my bookmarks again, I am back with part 2 of Saturday.

My next panel was the series' Katanagatari (sword story) and Bakemonogatari (ghost story). I wish I did a Skype chat to plan for that panel. We did do email, but a chat may have been better. It went OK, but the group discussion aspect was not really uh, group.

Half of my Anime club was there and they did no talking!!!!! (The club viewed both Bakemongatari and Katanagatari during the year.) I even embarrassed myself by doing a goofy laugh that was in one of the animes we discussed. (Nyahahahaha!!!) I refuse to link to a video of the laugh in the anime because it’s silly. Out of context it’s insane silly.

It's a catgirl laugh.

My next panel was Graduating from Shounen Jump.( Shounen Jump is a manga anthology aimed at boys from about 10 to 18, so basically it's a panel on manga and anime for fans 16 and up.) I felt it went really well, as the feedback got was positive and we got great laughs from the clips we showed. Also I felt it was a really good format to introduce people to shows that would be difficult to explain without clips. In particular Detroit Metal City which is a bit in the same vein as Metalopalypse but without the violence. I actually could see the audience reaction when we introduced it, and all of their faces changed when they saw clips.

My friend discussed, Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Vagabond . My other friend (the moderator) discussed Homunculus (it’s available in French, but not in English

), Detroit Metal City, and One Outs . I discussed Kaoru Mori's Emma, Yotsuba&! , Drops of God and Kurage Hime (Princess Jellyfish). It was my first lecture type panels and it was the first time I edited clips myself.

(For some reason I can't link wiki articles about manga)

After that panel I ran to my room and finished the manga that I was blitzing. I finally finished both Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and XxxHolic 20 minutes before the panel.

The Tsubasa and Xxxholic panel was fun. Tsubasa (Reservoir Chronicles) and Xxxholic are 2 stories that have their plots intersect with each other. Our moderator made handouts for the audience of a flowchart of what actually happens in both of the series, and we helped clarify what people were confused on. It was so much fun. Heck there was stuff us panelists were confused on. (The mangaka* have said they are confused too). I did not know there was an epilogue!

During the night I went to the masquerade which was tons of fun and I went to the doctor who party. Then I spent the rest of the night talking and packing with my roommates, as we wanted to check out before 9 am to get the free breakfast. Didn’t go to sleep until 4am. During that talk I taught my roomies the benefits of being a a panelist and many of them said they wanted to do it next year. I then said, they will then know the horror of no one talking at their panels as I will visit and not say a word. *evil maniacal laughter*

I should take pictures at panels I visit. I'll try and remember next time.

*mangaka= people who write and illustrate manga. (Most managka do both.) A person who just illustrates has a different name.

MAJOR EDIT: I realize at this point that now is probably the best time to put in my random cosplay pics since the rest of my posts are pretty focused.

So random cool pics:

Sakura from Tsubasa reservoir chronicles. (I love this cosplayers interpretation of the costume.)
From this reference picture.

I don't know where this from but it's a random awesome cosplay

Kasuri (medicine seller) from Mononoke
Reference
I mention this character when explaining some stuff in the history stuff later.

Funny thing, in Japan when they cosplay, they carry their outfits in suitcases and change in the hotel and go to designated cosplay areas for pics, then they change out of outfit once the pics are over. Here we just walk out in public. I was speaking to a person visiting from Japan yesterday and he was quite stunned that I could get pictures of random cosplayers walking through the parking lot.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:13 am

Sunday
We checked out before 9 am and we got the free breakfast buffet!! Woot!!!
Afterwards, I dropped my friend off at the kimono fashion show dressing area since she volunteered to be a makeup artist.
After that I did a little emergency shopping for a fan so I can have a prop for the fashion show and changed into shorts and a tank top so I would be ready to get dressed for the kimono fashion show later that day.
The panel with Helen McCarthy, was her last one and she talked about her career, and explained really well how My Neighbour Totoro affects both adults and children. She explained it so well I actually started tearing up. She also talked about meeting Myazaki and how she got her books published. I had to leave early since my dressing time for the kimono fashion show.

Before my dressing time, people who had to get full face makeup done had to go in the morning and take over the ladies bathroom. Linky to make up room Password : momiji

I was dressed in an Edo period dancer’s outfit. Edo period:1603-1868 The dressing room was very very very busy and many people were getting dressed by dressers, since only 2 or 3 people were able to successfully dress themselves. Some of the outfits were quite expensive and had to be put on carefully. Quite a few people had complicated outfits that required several people to help. The person who was dressed as a maiko (apprentice geisha) took 3 people to get her dressed. The maiko’s red and white obi cost $ 700. (Since maiko and geisha go through so many outfits, they actually sell their old kimono stuff. That obi had belonged to a real geisha, during her apprenticeship).
Maiko getting dressed

Makeup was also a bit of a flurry and fortunately I brought my makeup artist friend. Next year, I would like to figure out some solid colour makeup. I have some friends who assisting me for next year. I think we did pretty well with what we came up with.

(I have had some advice on solid makeup, something called metamorfix by lise watier.)

After I got dressed, I was advised on how to walk in the geta sandals that I had to wear. Main thing, I had to keep my legs together and only move my legs from the knees down.

Since us Kimono people took so long to get ready, the J-rock/visual kei group and the Gothic Lolitas in the other 2 fashion shows went first. On top of that people were all taking pics of each other and people were working with the announcer. The green room pics can only give a hint of how busy it was. The rest of us getting dressed

Here are some pictures of a couple of people in the 2 earlier fashion shows

Gothic Lolita

J-rock

J-rock.

One of our male models could not make it, so the oiran (courtesan) we had, didn’t have a person to assist her to do her special steps in the oiran docyhu (oiran parade). She said she would do it by herself since it would not be right to have a woman assist her. Then she showed us the scars on her feet from when she did the steps last year. The oiran was wearing 15cm platform shoes

I will elaborate more on the oiran once get to her outfit.

I am going to just post and edit this some more as the internet is being difficult.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:29 am

Fashion show (Image intensive post)

The show co-coordinator was going to be our announcer and we had to line up in order

As we walked in a line to backstage I have to say it was really cool seeing the backs of everyone’s obis. It was so cool seeing the different shapes and the maiko obi swinging. (I was near the end of the line.)

Backstage, I did not realize how incredibly dark it is and how many stage ninja’s there are.
There are many many tripping hazards when walking in zori (flat sandals) and geta (wooden sandals). The stairs to get on the stage was ….interesting.

I realized one of the stage ninja’s was a man, and I got him to assist the oiran to do her steps. I was so relieved.

While I waited to walk on stage, the host of the mega fashion show held my hand, so I would not trip stepping out. I realized since the stage is built temporarily, up close a person can see where the stage panels meet up, and there are tripping oppourtunities.

Walking out on stage, I was really nervous; I walked out really fast and just made up some poses. The suggested historical poses I practiced back stage, I kept getting wrong since I was too nervous and not coordinated enough. Then I just stood in the back with everyone else that came out. It was quite interesting seeing the audience and so many cameras. I was surprised the ballroom actually made it to half full. (The fashion show is on a Sunday.)

The oiran came out ok, it’s unfortunate that the assistant couldn’t make it. But at least you can see that kimono in last years fashion show. The coordinator actually bought it in a 99cent sale on EBay and recently discovered it’s worth at least $1000 because of who dyed the fabric.

We all decided in the green room that the person in the samurai armour should scream out mortal combat (it’s the name of a video game) since what else is a person going to say at an anime con in Samurai armour?

At some point in the greenroom, I handed my camera off to a friend of one of the models to record the show. So here it is.

(If anyone knows how to embed a vid let me know)

Here is a link to photos of the entire mega fashion show, including the J-rockers and the Gothic Lolitas. Every group worked really hard on putting the outfits together.

After the fashion show we tried to get pics from a studio but the wait was far too long and the people in the complicated outfits wanted to get them off. Models who chose to stay in the outfits could go to the informal photoshoot we were having in a couple of hours.

Since I went to show some of the models where the shoot was going to be we kept getting stopped in the hotel to pose for pictures, it was kind of fun.
While still in costume, I hung out with my buddies and did a little last minute shopping in the dealers room. The deals were not as good as I had hoped. That is where I got some impromptu pictures.

After that, we did the photo shoot. It was really overcast, but I think we did ok. The sheet that the Juni hitoe girl was supoosed to stand on, went missing so I bothered the concierge as the poor girl was on the verge of tears. (She was confined to the hotel, since the outfit has pants a person is supposed to be walked on (indoors).)

During the photoshoot we even found a little boy dressed in a traditional childs outfit. He was so cute (here is hoping we can get him into the fashion show next year).

Geisha and Kamura girl

Kamuro girl and Wa Lolita

Edo dancer and Geisha

After the photo shoot, it was nice to get the makeup off and wear pants. I then helped the fashion show ladies clean up and ship out and then I took the bus home with my suitcase. And that is my Anime North.

Because if my experience this Anime North, I decided to be staff for the fashion show next year. My main goal is to get photo oppourtunities for every participant in the fashion show as people are so busy making/ or arranging outfits and everything else, they usually do not have a chance to arrange for pictures, and that can be stressful for some models.

In my next set of posts I will go into detail about each outfit.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:00 am

Gorgeous! You all look lovely. The fabrics are splendid! A worn-out word that applies in its full sense here.

But Wilma, I particularly love your sparkle.

I don't know how to embed videos here, alas; when I learned the ropes that was not something we would be likely to do. But I'll look into it. We certainly ought to be able to do it.