Con report on AnimeNEXT, as requested.
I had a good time. I went to the con alone, which can be awkward. But I set it up that I would help one of the dealers with his booth in exchange for free lodging (well, okay, floor space) and a badge. So, basically, I got to attend to the con for free. My only expences were gas, tolls and meals. So, that was pretty awesome! Of course, it meant I had to spend a lot of time standing in the booth selling plushies, but that didn't bother me.
I had a few goals at the con - check out some new (to me) anime and manga, and see all the pretty cosplay
. I got to do both.
I arrived at the con early Friday afternoon after a 3 hour drive. I left my car in a parking garage for free for the weekend (that is the theme of this trip - everyone loves me and gives me things for free). Actually, I'm not even sure I paid tolls on the way up, because when I used my change from a bridge toll to pay the NJ Turnpike toll, I discovered more change then I expected. So, it's possible they paid me to use their roads...how kind of them
(It's equally possible that I was confused.)
Anyway, right, so then I sold plushies. This is harder than it looks when you have *no clue* what the names of anything is. I did a lot of pointing and raising eyebrows until I got the right one. But people were mostly nice and not too socially awkward, so it was fun. There were a few people who clearly need to get out more, but I'm not one to talk. The booth next to us was selling porn, so it was annoying to listen to the guy there pimp his wares to passerbys. At least he required 18+ ID for browsing. But I do wish to remain as ignorant about Hentai as possible.
Anyway, once out of the booth, I moved my stuff to the hotel and went in search of anime. I saw a few episodes of Gunslinger Girl and determined it was very, very sad and upsetting. Since the scenario is that young girls are turned into cyborgs and then brainwashed into assassins, it's not that surprising that the angst is through the roof. It's a short anime, but I don't think I want to watch the rest of it. One of the girls has the same voice as Winry, though, so that was fun.
Most of the anime was subbed, not dubbed, of course, but for this one they showed the dub.
I also checked out their manga library. I thought it would be a good idea to read something by CLAMP, so I read the first volume of XXXholic and Tsubasa Chronicles. I thought XXXholic was interesting, and of course totally identified with the girl who is addicted to the internet
. I'm not sure what I think of the heavy emphasis on fate, but it is contrasted with a strong sense of self-determination, too, so it might work out and prove interesting.
I had to look into Tsubasa, because some of the girls I talk to on TORc really, really like Fai
. I can see why now; he's an interesting character. But what's-his-face....Saiyoran?...is cool too. I happen to like earnest young men who want to save people
. After all, who
doesn't like Will Turner and his 'Elizabeth-goes-free' attitude in
Pirates of the Caribbean? But it seems kinda obvious to me that even if she doesn't get her memory back, she's going to find out pretty quickly how much he cares about her. So, I'm not too worried about the love story. Oh, and that is so Equivalent Exchange, so I'm good with that
. Overall, I'm not sure I'm interested enough in this story to keep reading it, but it was entertaining. Sakura's older brother seems nice, but since we just left him mortally wounded, I suppose I should worry about his fate. I just doubt we're going to see him again any time soon.
And I must agree that Del Ray has a nice format and good explanations. I haven't gotten the whole sama/san/chan honorific system down yet, but I do think it's good to either keep it, or do a good job with conveying it in translation.
It was late, I went to bed. On to Saturday...
Free breakfast from the hotel, to continue the trend. Oh, and my booth was selling both pocky and ranume(?), so I got to try both of those. Sat., I could help when I wanted to, and run off and see things when I wanted to. So, I ditched the booth shortly after the doors opened and went to watch the first four episodes of
Samauri 7. Definitely liked it! It has clever humor to it (esp. with the little sister). This was subbed, not dubbed, so I got to try to follow along with it that way. It worked fine; the emotions were clearly conveyed in the inflection and voices. I also have to get used to Japanese names; at this point, I can only remember the main character (Kikara - she'd make a cool cosplay, by the by...) I don't like the comic relief robot-samuari (I suppose I should learn how to spell that word...), but I like the other characters, and I think it will be neat to see this first and then watch the original 1950's Kurosawa film later. I know I want to see the rest of it at some point, but I'm not sure if I want to spend real money to buy it. We'll see. It didn't come home from the con with me, though I did consider it.
Grabbed lunch to go and went back to the booth for about an hour. Then escaped to go to the FMA cosplay photoshoot; I was Trisha Elric, the dead mom. There were bunches of Ed's, of course, and a couple of Al's from the movie (umm, right, I suppose I shouldn't spoil anything). Two Winrys. Also a handful of military people (2 Hughes, Riza and Mustang). Both Hughes had pictures of Elicia with them
. Oh, and a Greed, so there was a 'let all the Ed's gang up on Greed' shot; very funny. There were other FMA cosplayers walking around the con, but for whatever reason, they didn't know about the photoshoot. I saw a Lust and an Envy, and on Sunday, a Wrath.
Back to the booth until we closed for the day, then down to Artist's Alley to see all the neat stuff. I ended up buying an FMA crosstich after being told that the artist in question was very depressed and needed to sell stuff to cheer up. Since I was dressed as her 'mom' I had little choice in the matter
. This seemed more interesting than waiting for an hour for the Cosplay skits, but that did mean I had to sit on the floor when I did go upstairs, and watch them all on the jumbotrons because I couldn't see the stage. Ah well; most of the skits were good, and some were very funny. While they were waiting for the judges, they also showed the AMVs that won, and those were
very good.
You might note that dinner was not mentioned, so after this, I skipped out of the announcements of the winners and went to Subway. There was one poor guy behind the counter and a bunch of anime fans milling around at 10 PM, so of course it was a long wait. But I didn't want to get a sit down meal, so it was okay. The girl behind me in line was dressed for the rave, but was very happy to see me in FMA cosplay. We chatted for awhile. (Okay, it seemed like a 20 min. wait, but I might be exagerating). When I got my food, I walked back to the hotel, and stopped to talk to one of the Ed cosplayers. I then coincidentally met up with the people I was staying with, which was good, because apparently they were checking roomkeys to let you in to the hotel now (and I didn't have one). So, I decided to stay in for the rest of the night just to avoid confusion, and besides, after I ate and took a shower, it was late enough. But they put on CN's adult swim, so I saw an episode of Death Note and an episode of Code Geass. Death Note really does not impress me in the clips I've seen of it, and this did nothing to change that impression. I'm just not interested, I guess. The Code Geass storyline looked a lot more interesting, though one episode wasn't really enough for me to figure out what I think of the show.
Woke up on Sunday, went to the booth. I intended to watch parts of the cosplay chess, but I missed it. I ended up going to a panel on fanfic writing, and I did not much like it. Granted, I know that most fanfic is awful, and written by beginners. So, it's okay to say that. But the woman giving the panel decided that it was her job to tell us that, and I really didn't think it made sense to tell people they suck. Granted, she is a copy editor (or something) for a living, so I don't expect her to be impressed with amateur fanfic writing. And it was good to talk about what makes a story work (each character having a unique voice, setting up the who-what-where-when and mood right off the bat, the structure of the story, avoiding Hand of God plot devices, using details from canon, get a beta and someone to grammar check, etc.) I just thought the way she did it came across as sorta arrogant and that left a bad taste in my mouth. She wasn't trying to be awful, but I dunno. I think that is part of why I didn't really want to go to any panels - what are you supposed to talk about in front of a group like that?
The dealer's room closed at 3, so I helped pack up the boxes (though I didn't have to help load the van - finally, an advantage to being the girl; the guys got to do that!) We were ready to go at 3:30, while most of the other dealers weren't even close to being done breaking down. I would have left at that point, but I wanted to hang around until 5 PM for mass down the street. So, I thought maybe I'd go read another new manga, but the library was also closed again. So that left the anime, and Hellsing was on. It was...interesting. I don't think I like it. The humor is crude, and they certainly go for shock value. If they were speaking in English rather than Japanese, I think I would have found it more disgusting. Blood splurting everywhere doesn't really bother me, but it was still squicky. But despite that, it was interesting, and some of the humor was great. They were looking up 'Millenium' and they go into this spiel about looking at stuff in the British Museum and finding obscure international orginizations....and then they say, "also, it's the name of a Star Wars fan club in LA," and mention the Millenium Falcon I totally wasn't expecting that, but it was awesome! The audience definitely laughed out loud. So, if there was less groping and talking about hard-ons, I think I'd like it. But as it is...it reminded me of the opening scene of one of the Resident Evil movies, where a girl in a skirt is running up the stairs to escape the zombies and the camera angle lets you see her underwear. Unnecessarily and intentionally crude. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that Alucard is just Dracula backwards. Very clever. But anyway, these episodes must be longer than most, because after the second one, I asked someone for the time and found out I was already late to mass.
So, convention over, I went to my car (still there, yea!) and went to church. I was late...because I was watching Hellsing. No one there knew that, but I did very sheepishly apologize to God for that one. Also, it would be nice if just once the secret agency inside the Vatican weren't antagonistic. That was, I think, my favorite part of the movie Van Helsing
. Mass was good, and I was reminded yet again that stories put me in touch with the meaning behind words more than other parts of my life do.
Then I drove home. The end
Also I understand about the diff between anime and manga of the same series. Fortunately for me I skipped all the Bleach fillers (2 years worth). I will give things a go withthe anime and hopefully it doesn't divert too much from the manga. (I hate when that happens) Usually when another writer gets involved I can tell right away (like with Fruits basket they did a terrible job, even my sis who never read a page of manga could tell). I could tell with Bleach too.
I wish it didn't bother me so much or I would have all of Bleach, Ouran and Ranma 1/2 but I have tried to over come it and I just find myself even more disappointed for parting with money for their product. 
Also I soon have to change my icon as I have over 1000 icons and I haven't really used them.