Anime Boston 2010: Return of the Camera
Apr. 27th, 2010 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaSome months ago, the lens cover on my camera got jammed. I keep meaning to take it to the repair shop, but haven’t gotten around to it: the only real problem is that the cover won’t cover any more, or retract all the way. I mention this because, if you notice an odd lurking shadow in the corners of my photographs, that isn’t some ominous ghost waiting to devour Anime Boston: that’s just my lens cover. Sorry. (It didn't stop me from taking a metric ton of photos, mind. Heh.)
Anyway. On to the report!
Thursday: the usual inaugural dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We had fried calimari. There’s a tentacle joke there waiting to happen, if I can just formulate it. This was followed by picking up our badges at registration, and then home. There were already cosplayers scattered through the mall.
Friday: Got up early to finish the last of the sewing, then packed up the stuff I'd need for the day. (My overnight stuff had already gone off with Katie the day before, so I wouldn't have to tote it around all day.) I took the T in to town, and got my first 'so what's all this, then?' from a truck driver on the street as I waited at the crosswalk on Mass Ave. That's the thing about having an owl on your shoulder: you really can't pretend not to be in costume.
First picture of the con: Kurama from YYH. I'm not sure if she genuinely was the sole YYH cosplayer this year, or if I just didn't see any more in the floods of Pokemon People. (Seriously. So many Pokemon cosplayers. More even than Naruto or Bleach. I am really really hoping this fad dies soon.)
Star Trek! This was another running undercurrent through this year's Anime Boston: cosplayers who weren't portraying Japanese-source characters at all. Star Trek probably gets a pass on grounds of 'Star Trek: The Manga' (which they were selling in the Dealer's Room), but then there was the guy cosplaying Avatar. No, not the TV series: James Cameron's AVATAR. With blue body paint and latex detailing and wearing not much more than a loincloth. Sadly, I do not have pictures of him, as both my encounters with him were of the 'ships passing on the elevator/escalator' variety.
Anyway. I had arrived at the con early enough that the dealer’s room wasn’t open yet, and there weren’t any panels I wanted to see. Where to go? Up to Artist’s Alley, of course!
I was originally taking a picture of the wire sculpture (which is in the hallway outside Artist’s Alley), but then slid my camera over all sneaky-like. Really, when you find Waldo, you need photographic evidence.
Sebastian and Grell (? - one of the shinigami, sayssylverice2) from BLACK BUTLER. This was a unique fandom in the sense that while there were several people cosplaying it, they were all of a remarkably high quality. ETA: Whoops, misidentified! They're actually Grelle and William Spears. At least I got the series right.
Kaonashi (No-Face) and Sen from SPIRITED AWAY.
Artist’s Alley was crammed full of people: I wasn’t the only one filling the time by checking out what was already open. Somehow this FFVII: ADVENT CHILDREN group had wound up behind me, so clearly I needed to take a picture.
(Will, who was also cosplaying Rude, says he had the better costume, but this Rude had the better props. Katie says clearly she should play Rufus next year, if it means she gets pushed around in a wheelchair all day.)
"Would you like good or evil?"
"Um. Either?"
"Good it is, then."
You can still see the red lightsaber, just at the bottom of the picture. What you can't see is Yoda on his back. I'm still not sure how Star Wars is Japanese, but it's been animated, so apparently that counts. (Of course, by that light, how we escaped Twilight cosplayers is anyone's guess.)
We emerged from Artists’ Alley to find this group posing for pictures. Full Metal Alchemist is common to the point of being over-represented in cosplay, at least at AB, but this group wins points both for having a Hawkeye cosplayer, and for Hughes. That would be Hughes in the middle, with the photos.
…when the word got out that there was a Hughes cosplayer with actual photos of his daughter? I passed this same cosplayer on Sunday being accosted by someone asking to see said photos. A cosplay that gets hailed all three days is damn impressive.
I’d first encountered this Syaoran in line at Dunkin Donuts, where I’d stopped to get breakfast, and snapped a photo of him alone, which wasn’t nearly as impressive because a crowded Dunkin Donuts is not the best place for photography. This one is much better. (That’s Sakura with him, of course. Katie tells me the costumes are from the second movie.)
I’m fairly sure I tried to snap a picture of this group last year, and didn’t quite make it. So this is a clearer shot: Baby Al, wee Edward, and angelic Trisha. (I also got a solo shot of wee!Edward looking slightly cranky, which is ridiculously cute on its own. I admit it: I have a soft spot for cosplayers under the age of ten, no matter what they’re cosplaying. Not such a soft spot that I took pictures of the children cosplaying Pokemon, but a soft spot nonetheless.)
After a short look at the AMV overflow for drama (which were all very, uh, dramatic, even if not necessarily in the way they intended to be), we headed downstairs for lunch. This led me into the dangerous world of Taking Photos On Escalators. Get the timing right, and it can work, but other times…other times you see Light riding down the escalator, looking around the crowds of people with a cool, judging eye, and writing in a black notebook, and you manage only this:
I did manage to track him down later, and got a proper photo (here). But the image I remember is that first look on the escalator.
Anyway! Off to the food court for Chinese food, and more cosplayers. I promise, I was not That Fangirl: I only approached people who were clearly finished eating.
"Actually, I’m not cosplaying any character, I’m just dressed in Gothic Lolita." Possibly the ultimate expression of the Pretty Principle. Eh, no worries.
irisbleufic, this Mad Hatter’s for you. (He wasn’t the sole Mad Hatter at the con, either. I think I like him best, but I do have a few regrets about not chasing down the one with a bandolier of various color threads.)
I had just finished eating myself when someone flung herself in my path. "You’re Watari!" Yes! And thank you for recognizing me! (I was actually recognized just often enough to be flattering, although I still got my fair share of just ‘owl!’) "There’s going to be a Yami no Matsuei photoshoot at 9 tonight – we’ve got a whole bunch of people coming, please come!" Er…sure! A check of the schedule revealed that I would either have to leave Video Game Orchestra early or skip it, but inasmuch as skipping it would mean I could go to Anime Openers In Other Languages (which promised Initial D), I did not mourn as much as I might.
But that was later. First, we had to hit up the Dealer’s Room, which was finally open.
Naturally, I went picture-happy. I think Katie pointed this Katamari Damacy cosplayer, but really there was a ring of cameras around him/her.
"I have a Zuko picture! I’ve won the con!"
"That was quick. It’s only Friday."
"Oh, hush."
Katie had spotted this Looking For Group, er, group, earlier in the day, but not when I was around. No sooner did I ask for a photo than Richard (who’s the only one I would be able to reliably recognize) materialized and joined them. Yay.
By this point it was finally late enough that we could go check into the hotel, and by ‘we’ I mean Kathleen, who’d made the reservations. The rest of us stood around and waited (and took pictures, in my particular case), and then headed upstairs to settle in a bit.
In point of fact, the liquid in Spike’s glass is Pepsi, not alcohol of any kind. Jack had been posing with an empty glass, but Katie insisted this was Wrong and fixed it. She’s just helpful like that.
With bags dropped in the rooms, we scattered again. I went back to Artist’s Alley, on the assumption that all the artists would be there by now (not everyone had arrived when I’d checked it out that morning). Up the aisle, down the aisle, up the – hey, wait a sec, those characters look familiar. A quick question proved that I had, in fact, correctly recognized Aziraphale and Crowley. When Stef showed up a little later, I dragged her back to the booth in question. I think we made the artist’s day, both for buying a couple Crowley prints (this one and this one, if you’re curious) and proving that other anime fans are knowing of the great and glorious Gaiman/Pratchett.
So there I was, already feeling pretty jazzed, and I see this Fourth Doctor, with a guy in a leather jacket. I ask for a photo, and the guy in the jacket steps back. I wave him forward again: "No, you too, you can be Nine.” And they settle into a pose, and both pull out sonic screwdrivers, and holy shit he is Nine.
I have a Nine picture. I’d won the con. Again. And it was still only Friday. :-D
Another Black Butler pair, this one Sebastian and Ciel. I did mention that this fandom had an unfair number of good cosplayers.
Once, a long long time ago, a friend tried to lure me into anime by showing me Dragonball. I actually rather enjoyed it (although I remained unimpressed by the episodes of DragonballZ that he also showed me). Ah, Master Yoshi and nostalgia.
...I did do things other than take pictures, I swear. Er. Anyway.
Panels! As in, since I was going to the YnM photoshoot, I could go to a panel I wanted to see. I got to the room early enough to catch about half of a panel on Cuteness In Japan, wherein I learned that the reason why there’s so much cuteness coming out of Japan is that the Japanese, quite reasonably, regard cuteness as the sort of thing everyone likes, so they use it like a sort of social lubricant. The panelist showed us warning signs that were all cute-ified, and explained that where in the US, we’d see that as condescending, to the Japanese it’s just making it more understandable/approachable.
The panel I wanted to catch was Anime Openers From Around The World, on account of the description promised Initial D and I am a predictable fangirl. The panel was pretty much what it said on the tin, although a lot heavier on Japanese and American, as the panelists generally showed those first before branching out elsewhere. Apparently the Germans thought that the opening to Sailor Moon should be techno. O_o To say nothing of the Arabic opener for Gundam Wing, which then got re-translated back into English for maximum WTFage. The rule seemed to be that the Japanese opener was generally better than the English, and then the European opener was either better still, or just totally out there.
I left a little early. I did have a photoshoot to go to.
We had two Tsuzukis, one regular and one puppy.
And two Wataris, me and femme!Watari.
Actual conversation leading up to this picture:
Female!Watari: You’re just jealous of these. *gestures towards her boobs smugly*
Male!Watari, determinedly: I’m working on it.
In canon, if Terazuma is so much as touched by a woman, his shikigami takes over and he turns into a very large…lion thing, I think it is. (It’s been a while since I read the manga.) The general consensus was that he would deal with a situation like this by not looking in the mirror and not thinking about it. At all. With gritted teeth, if necessary.
The thing in Hijiri’s hand there is a plush Hisoka, which one of our Tsuzukis had been carrying around. We figured that the logical thing Hijiri would like to do with Hisoka is throw him away, so…
I joined my friends again, but didn’t even make it all the way to the end of the romance category before crashing out. Fortunately, it wasn’t like they weren’t showing it all again the next morning. The AMVs were good this year, certainly better than last. A couple stand-outs:
Anime Girl Empire -- winner of Best Action (amv.org link)
Aimin’ To Misbehave -- non-competing, but it’s certainly got me intrigued about Black Lagoon.
Chronicles Of The OCD Goth Cowboy Jesus Future Overlord -- winner of Best Fun/Upbeat/Other. There were lots of Soul Eater cosplayers this year, but it took this AMV to get me interested in chasing down the anime. (amv.org link)
Kingdom Bleach: Kon’s Mini Adventures -- Best in Show. It says it’s a Bleach/Kingdom Heart’s crossover, but it isn’t: really, it’s just ‘Bleach like it’s a video game,’ using sound effects and music that’s apparently from Kingdom Hearts but really could pass as Any Video Game Effects And Music Ever. No Bleach knowledge necessary: if you’ve ever played this kind of video game, or even just watched someone play this kind of video game, it’s hilarious.
(I won’t link Best Humor, although it really was funny – not so much a standard AMV as an excuse for witty haiku. Problem was, most of them riffed on Anime Boston injokes, and won’t be as funny out of context. But not all. I quote: "Down by the food court/saw Cloud and Reno kissing./That can’t be canon.")
Anyway. The AMVs were scheduled for four hours, but didn’t take nearly that long. I emerged in time to get a text from Katie: the Final Fantasy photoshoot was starting at noon. Will was going, so could I play photographer? Yeah, sure, no prob. I was sort of self-appointed photographer for our group anyway.
The really impressive thing is, this wasn’t even all the Final Fantasy cosplayers at the con – there were Clouds and Aeris and Sephiroths aplenty that didn’t come. Not that I’m objecting: this was huge but still manageable. Maybe because the Rufus cosplayer took charge, which I found amusingly appropriate.
"Now all we need is a yaoi fangirl to take a few more shots,” says Will. "Yo!” says I.
The perfect coda to a Final Fantasy photoshoot: Zombie Aeris.
Darth Maul and the Sith Witch. Still not anime. Still not objecting.
Off I went to Dubs That Time Forgot: a panel on some of the early anime to be brought over to the US and dubbed, and was then forgotten, usually because either the anime or the dub (or both) kind of sucked. There was a brief interlude of confusion before I found Katie and the rest (unfortunately, there is a lag between sending a text like ‘we’re behind you’ and receiving it, and the lag is more than long enough for the recipient to have turned around and be facing the other way. :wince:), but we did. For our next trick, we even managed to get into the room. The word had apparently gone out that this was a nifty panel, and consequently there were something like 150 people trying to get into a room meant for 50. Can we say sardines?
The panel was nifty, nonetheless. The guy who does it makes a point out of digging up new material, so each year it’s a whole new panel. Mostly it’s an excuse to look at old series and laugh, either at the dubbing (which generally managed to combined the best of bad scripting and bad acting) or at the anime itself (‘O hai, incredibly-powerful-psychic who can teleport. Allow me to try to kill you.’). The one real drawback was that I was curled up on the floor, and my legs were kinda asleep when I tried to stand up again.
This is, in fact, a cosplayer, not a prop. Not a very mobile cosplayer, but still a cosplayer.
According to the schedule, one of the video rooms was showing Initial D: Fourth Stage. (Earlier they’d shown Third Stage, but I’d been doing something else and hadn’t managed to make it there.) I poked my head in just long enough to confirm they were showing the dub – which hasn’t improved any, in my opinion – and left again. ...I do sorta regret not making time for Third Stage now. It must be a total train wreck.
Anyway. Back to the Dealer’s Room to buy large amounts of manga, and then back to the hotel, both to drop off said manga and for a photoshoot.
Our best attempt at the lake picture of Natsuki and Takumi. The first try, I was smiling, and got scolded: no, no, you’re supposed to look out of it!
And then it was time to get in line for Hentai Dubbing. As usual, I was sort of in line, and sort of roaming up and down the line, camera in hand.
I spotted this Hisoka and Tsuzuki during said roaming, and was asked whether I wanted gen or slash for the pose. To which I, of course, said, "Both!"
(Also, the only thing more irking than the omnipresent call-and-response of "Marco!" "Polo!" was the even more omnipresent cry of "Pokewalker!” I can see the logic of it – I mean, how are other Pokemon gamers going to know you have one otherwise – but when you’re trapped in a line not far from someone calling this over and over and over again, the urge to do something horrible to said Pokewalker does rise.)
Hentai Dubbing itself was fun – the overall quality was better than last year, but there wasn’t a single stand-out performance. Chewbacca stuck up his hand to volunteer again, and Dick Tripwire specifically said, nope, sorry – you did it last year, "don’t even deny it because that shit’s up on YouTube!" The best moment actually came after Hentai Dubbing, as we headed back to the hotel room. The woman dressed as cake (with a little sign saying THE CAKE IS NOT A LIE) was in the same (long) line for the same elevator we were. Someone noticed her sign, and there was a little discussion about Portal and cake, and somehow this turned into a crowd-wide sing-along of "Still Alive,” straight through, no word bobbles or anything. Geek bonding moments FTW.
Sunday was fairly quiet. Only the few, the proud, the insanely determined were still cosplaying.
…well, and the Sesame Street fans, apparently. This led to one of my other favorite moments at the con: after taking a picture of the Yip Monster, I was headed up the escalator to Artist’s Alley, and the Yip Monster got on the escalator behind me. And then I heard behind me: "Yip...yip...marco...marco...yip..."
The reason why I was going upstairs was to check in at Artist's Alley. I'd failed yet again at finding any FAKE merchandise, so I'd commissioned artwork, and the artist had told me to stop by to approve the sketch. :rubs hands in anticipation:
Katie says she had spotted this Fai earlier, and tried to point him out to me, only I’d missed him. Ah, well. Got him this time.
Last photo of the con. I spotted Watanuki first, on account of the pipe fox, and went over to ask for a photo. Doumeki materialized at my elbow: "Do you want me in the photo too?" Yes, please, I said, and smiled to myself, because it was so perfectly them.
Here ended the con.
A complete set of photos can be found here, including cosplay from: *deep breath* Alice In Wonderland, Angelic Layer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bayonetta, Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Card Captor Sakura, Carmen Sandiego, Clover, Cowboy Bebop, D. Gray Man, Darker Than Black, DC Comics, Death Note, Doctor Who, Dragonball, Dragonquest 8, Final Fantasy 4, 7, 8, and 13 (as well as FF: Tactics, and possibly other FF games that weren’t identified for me), Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Full Metal Alchemist, Hetalia, Hikaru no Go, Initial D, Katamari Damacy, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Looking For Group, Loveless, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Phantom of the Opera, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Princess Tutu, Read Or Die, Ruroni Kenshin, Samurai Seven, Sesame Street, Sleeping Beauty, Spirited Away, Star Trek, Star Wars, Trigun, Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Where’s Waldo, Witch Hunter Robin, xxxHolic, Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness, Yugioh, and Yuu Yuu Hakusho, with two sub-galleries for a Yami no Matsuei photoshoot and a Final Fantasy photoshoot.
Anyway. On to the report!
Thursday: the usual inaugural dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We had fried calimari. There’s a tentacle joke there waiting to happen, if I can just formulate it. This was followed by picking up our badges at registration, and then home. There were already cosplayers scattered through the mall.
Friday: Got up early to finish the last of the sewing, then packed up the stuff I'd need for the day. (My overnight stuff had already gone off with Katie the day before, so I wouldn't have to tote it around all day.) I took the T in to town, and got my first 'so what's all this, then?' from a truck driver on the street as I waited at the crosswalk on Mass Ave. That's the thing about having an owl on your shoulder: you really can't pretend not to be in costume.
First picture of the con: Kurama from YYH. I'm not sure if she genuinely was the sole YYH cosplayer this year, or if I just didn't see any more in the floods of Pokemon People. (Seriously. So many Pokemon cosplayers. More even than Naruto or Bleach. I am really really hoping this fad dies soon.)
Star Trek! This was another running undercurrent through this year's Anime Boston: cosplayers who weren't portraying Japanese-source characters at all. Star Trek probably gets a pass on grounds of 'Star Trek: The Manga' (which they were selling in the Dealer's Room), but then there was the guy cosplaying Avatar. No, not the TV series: James Cameron's AVATAR. With blue body paint and latex detailing and wearing not much more than a loincloth. Sadly, I do not have pictures of him, as both my encounters with him were of the 'ships passing on the elevator/escalator' variety.
Anyway. I had arrived at the con early enough that the dealer’s room wasn’t open yet, and there weren’t any panels I wanted to see. Where to go? Up to Artist’s Alley, of course!
I was originally taking a picture of the wire sculpture (which is in the hallway outside Artist’s Alley), but then slid my camera over all sneaky-like. Really, when you find Waldo, you need photographic evidence.
Sebastian and Grell (? - one of the shinigami, says
sylverice2) from BLACK BUTLER. This was a unique fandom in the sense that while there were several people cosplaying it, they were all of a remarkably high quality. ETA: Whoops, misidentified! They're actually Grelle and William Spears. At least I got the series right.Kaonashi (No-Face) and Sen from SPIRITED AWAY.
Artist’s Alley was crammed full of people: I wasn’t the only one filling the time by checking out what was already open. Somehow this FFVII: ADVENT CHILDREN group had wound up behind me, so clearly I needed to take a picture.
(Will, who was also cosplaying Rude, says he had the better costume, but this Rude had the better props. Katie says clearly she should play Rufus next year, if it means she gets pushed around in a wheelchair all day.)
"Would you like good or evil?"
"Um. Either?"
"Good it is, then."
You can still see the red lightsaber, just at the bottom of the picture. What you can't see is Yoda on his back. I'm still not sure how Star Wars is Japanese, but it's been animated, so apparently that counts. (Of course, by that light, how we escaped Twilight cosplayers is anyone's guess.)
We emerged from Artists’ Alley to find this group posing for pictures. Full Metal Alchemist is common to the point of being over-represented in cosplay, at least at AB, but this group wins points both for having a Hawkeye cosplayer, and for Hughes. That would be Hughes in the middle, with the photos.
…when the word got out that there was a Hughes cosplayer with actual photos of his daughter? I passed this same cosplayer on Sunday being accosted by someone asking to see said photos. A cosplay that gets hailed all three days is damn impressive.
I’d first encountered this Syaoran in line at Dunkin Donuts, where I’d stopped to get breakfast, and snapped a photo of him alone, which wasn’t nearly as impressive because a crowded Dunkin Donuts is not the best place for photography. This one is much better. (That’s Sakura with him, of course. Katie tells me the costumes are from the second movie.)
I’m fairly sure I tried to snap a picture of this group last year, and didn’t quite make it. So this is a clearer shot: Baby Al, wee Edward, and angelic Trisha. (I also got a solo shot of wee!Edward looking slightly cranky, which is ridiculously cute on its own. I admit it: I have a soft spot for cosplayers under the age of ten, no matter what they’re cosplaying. Not such a soft spot that I took pictures of the children cosplaying Pokemon, but a soft spot nonetheless.)
After a short look at the AMV overflow for drama (which were all very, uh, dramatic, even if not necessarily in the way they intended to be), we headed downstairs for lunch. This led me into the dangerous world of Taking Photos On Escalators. Get the timing right, and it can work, but other times…other times you see Light riding down the escalator, looking around the crowds of people with a cool, judging eye, and writing in a black notebook, and you manage only this:
I did manage to track him down later, and got a proper photo (here). But the image I remember is that first look on the escalator.
Anyway! Off to the food court for Chinese food, and more cosplayers. I promise, I was not That Fangirl: I only approached people who were clearly finished eating.
"Actually, I’m not cosplaying any character, I’m just dressed in Gothic Lolita." Possibly the ultimate expression of the Pretty Principle. Eh, no worries.
irisbleufic, this Mad Hatter’s for you. (He wasn’t the sole Mad Hatter at the con, either. I think I like him best, but I do have a few regrets about not chasing down the one with a bandolier of various color threads.)I had just finished eating myself when someone flung herself in my path. "You’re Watari!" Yes! And thank you for recognizing me! (I was actually recognized just often enough to be flattering, although I still got my fair share of just ‘owl!’) "There’s going to be a Yami no Matsuei photoshoot at 9 tonight – we’ve got a whole bunch of people coming, please come!" Er…sure! A check of the schedule revealed that I would either have to leave Video Game Orchestra early or skip it, but inasmuch as skipping it would mean I could go to Anime Openers In Other Languages (which promised Initial D), I did not mourn as much as I might.
But that was later. First, we had to hit up the Dealer’s Room, which was finally open.
Naturally, I went picture-happy. I think Katie pointed this Katamari Damacy cosplayer, but really there was a ring of cameras around him/her.
"I have a Zuko picture! I’ve won the con!"
"That was quick. It’s only Friday."
"Oh, hush."
Katie had spotted this Looking For Group, er, group, earlier in the day, but not when I was around. No sooner did I ask for a photo than Richard (who’s the only one I would be able to reliably recognize) materialized and joined them. Yay.
By this point it was finally late enough that we could go check into the hotel, and by ‘we’ I mean Kathleen, who’d made the reservations. The rest of us stood around and waited (and took pictures, in my particular case), and then headed upstairs to settle in a bit.
In point of fact, the liquid in Spike’s glass is Pepsi, not alcohol of any kind. Jack had been posing with an empty glass, but Katie insisted this was Wrong and fixed it. She’s just helpful like that.
With bags dropped in the rooms, we scattered again. I went back to Artist’s Alley, on the assumption that all the artists would be there by now (not everyone had arrived when I’d checked it out that morning). Up the aisle, down the aisle, up the – hey, wait a sec, those characters look familiar. A quick question proved that I had, in fact, correctly recognized Aziraphale and Crowley. When Stef showed up a little later, I dragged her back to the booth in question. I think we made the artist’s day, both for buying a couple Crowley prints (this one and this one, if you’re curious) and proving that other anime fans are knowing of the great and glorious Gaiman/Pratchett.
So there I was, already feeling pretty jazzed, and I see this Fourth Doctor, with a guy in a leather jacket. I ask for a photo, and the guy in the jacket steps back. I wave him forward again: "No, you too, you can be Nine.” And they settle into a pose, and both pull out sonic screwdrivers, and holy shit he is Nine.
I have a Nine picture. I’d won the con. Again. And it was still only Friday. :-D
Another Black Butler pair, this one Sebastian and Ciel. I did mention that this fandom had an unfair number of good cosplayers.
Once, a long long time ago, a friend tried to lure me into anime by showing me Dragonball. I actually rather enjoyed it (although I remained unimpressed by the episodes of DragonballZ that he also showed me). Ah, Master Yoshi and nostalgia.
...I did do things other than take pictures, I swear. Er. Anyway.
Panels! As in, since I was going to the YnM photoshoot, I could go to a panel I wanted to see. I got to the room early enough to catch about half of a panel on Cuteness In Japan, wherein I learned that the reason why there’s so much cuteness coming out of Japan is that the Japanese, quite reasonably, regard cuteness as the sort of thing everyone likes, so they use it like a sort of social lubricant. The panelist showed us warning signs that were all cute-ified, and explained that where in the US, we’d see that as condescending, to the Japanese it’s just making it more understandable/approachable.
The panel I wanted to catch was Anime Openers From Around The World, on account of the description promised Initial D and I am a predictable fangirl. The panel was pretty much what it said on the tin, although a lot heavier on Japanese and American, as the panelists generally showed those first before branching out elsewhere. Apparently the Germans thought that the opening to Sailor Moon should be techno. O_o To say nothing of the Arabic opener for Gundam Wing, which then got re-translated back into English for maximum WTFage. The rule seemed to be that the Japanese opener was generally better than the English, and then the European opener was either better still, or just totally out there.
I left a little early. I did have a photoshoot to go to.
We had two Tsuzukis, one regular and one puppy.
And two Wataris, me and femme!Watari.
Actual conversation leading up to this picture:
Female!Watari: You’re just jealous of these. *gestures towards her boobs smugly*
Male!Watari, determinedly: I’m working on it.
In canon, if Terazuma is so much as touched by a woman, his shikigami takes over and he turns into a very large…lion thing, I think it is. (It’s been a while since I read the manga.) The general consensus was that he would deal with a situation like this by not looking in the mirror and not thinking about it. At all. With gritted teeth, if necessary.
The thing in Hijiri’s hand there is a plush Hisoka, which one of our Tsuzukis had been carrying around. We figured that the logical thing Hijiri would like to do with Hisoka is throw him away, so…
I joined my friends again, but didn’t even make it all the way to the end of the romance category before crashing out. Fortunately, it wasn’t like they weren’t showing it all again the next morning. The AMVs were good this year, certainly better than last. A couple stand-outs:
Anime Girl Empire -- winner of Best Action (amv.org link)
Aimin’ To Misbehave -- non-competing, but it’s certainly got me intrigued about Black Lagoon.
Chronicles Of The OCD Goth Cowboy Jesus Future Overlord -- winner of Best Fun/Upbeat/Other. There were lots of Soul Eater cosplayers this year, but it took this AMV to get me interested in chasing down the anime. (amv.org link)
Kingdom Bleach: Kon’s Mini Adventures -- Best in Show. It says it’s a Bleach/Kingdom Heart’s crossover, but it isn’t: really, it’s just ‘Bleach like it’s a video game,’ using sound effects and music that’s apparently from Kingdom Hearts but really could pass as Any Video Game Effects And Music Ever. No Bleach knowledge necessary: if you’ve ever played this kind of video game, or even just watched someone play this kind of video game, it’s hilarious.
(I won’t link Best Humor, although it really was funny – not so much a standard AMV as an excuse for witty haiku. Problem was, most of them riffed on Anime Boston injokes, and won’t be as funny out of context. But not all. I quote: "Down by the food court/saw Cloud and Reno kissing./That can’t be canon.")
Anyway. The AMVs were scheduled for four hours, but didn’t take nearly that long. I emerged in time to get a text from Katie: the Final Fantasy photoshoot was starting at noon. Will was going, so could I play photographer? Yeah, sure, no prob. I was sort of self-appointed photographer for our group anyway.
The really impressive thing is, this wasn’t even all the Final Fantasy cosplayers at the con – there were Clouds and Aeris and Sephiroths aplenty that didn’t come. Not that I’m objecting: this was huge but still manageable. Maybe because the Rufus cosplayer took charge, which I found amusingly appropriate.
"Now all we need is a yaoi fangirl to take a few more shots,” says Will. "Yo!” says I.
The perfect coda to a Final Fantasy photoshoot: Zombie Aeris.
Darth Maul and the Sith Witch. Still not anime. Still not objecting.
Off I went to Dubs That Time Forgot: a panel on some of the early anime to be brought over to the US and dubbed, and was then forgotten, usually because either the anime or the dub (or both) kind of sucked. There was a brief interlude of confusion before I found Katie and the rest (unfortunately, there is a lag between sending a text like ‘we’re behind you’ and receiving it, and the lag is more than long enough for the recipient to have turned around and be facing the other way. :wince:), but we did. For our next trick, we even managed to get into the room. The word had apparently gone out that this was a nifty panel, and consequently there were something like 150 people trying to get into a room meant for 50. Can we say sardines?
The panel was nifty, nonetheless. The guy who does it makes a point out of digging up new material, so each year it’s a whole new panel. Mostly it’s an excuse to look at old series and laugh, either at the dubbing (which generally managed to combined the best of bad scripting and bad acting) or at the anime itself (‘O hai, incredibly-powerful-psychic who can teleport. Allow me to try to kill you.’). The one real drawback was that I was curled up on the floor, and my legs were kinda asleep when I tried to stand up again.
This is, in fact, a cosplayer, not a prop. Not a very mobile cosplayer, but still a cosplayer.
According to the schedule, one of the video rooms was showing Initial D: Fourth Stage. (Earlier they’d shown Third Stage, but I’d been doing something else and hadn’t managed to make it there.) I poked my head in just long enough to confirm they were showing the dub – which hasn’t improved any, in my opinion – and left again. ...I do sorta regret not making time for Third Stage now. It must be a total train wreck.
Anyway. Back to the Dealer’s Room to buy large amounts of manga, and then back to the hotel, both to drop off said manga and for a photoshoot.
Our best attempt at the lake picture of Natsuki and Takumi. The first try, I was smiling, and got scolded: no, no, you’re supposed to look out of it!
And then it was time to get in line for Hentai Dubbing. As usual, I was sort of in line, and sort of roaming up and down the line, camera in hand.
I spotted this Hisoka and Tsuzuki during said roaming, and was asked whether I wanted gen or slash for the pose. To which I, of course, said, "Both!"
(Also, the only thing more irking than the omnipresent call-and-response of "Marco!" "Polo!" was the even more omnipresent cry of "Pokewalker!” I can see the logic of it – I mean, how are other Pokemon gamers going to know you have one otherwise – but when you’re trapped in a line not far from someone calling this over and over and over again, the urge to do something horrible to said Pokewalker does rise.)
Hentai Dubbing itself was fun – the overall quality was better than last year, but there wasn’t a single stand-out performance. Chewbacca stuck up his hand to volunteer again, and Dick Tripwire specifically said, nope, sorry – you did it last year, "don’t even deny it because that shit’s up on YouTube!" The best moment actually came after Hentai Dubbing, as we headed back to the hotel room. The woman dressed as cake (with a little sign saying THE CAKE IS NOT A LIE) was in the same (long) line for the same elevator we were. Someone noticed her sign, and there was a little discussion about Portal and cake, and somehow this turned into a crowd-wide sing-along of "Still Alive,” straight through, no word bobbles or anything. Geek bonding moments FTW.
Sunday was fairly quiet. Only the few, the proud, the insanely determined were still cosplaying.
…well, and the Sesame Street fans, apparently. This led to one of my other favorite moments at the con: after taking a picture of the Yip Monster, I was headed up the escalator to Artist’s Alley, and the Yip Monster got on the escalator behind me. And then I heard behind me: "Yip...yip...marco...marco...yip..."
The reason why I was going upstairs was to check in at Artist's Alley. I'd failed yet again at finding any FAKE merchandise, so I'd commissioned artwork, and the artist had told me to stop by to approve the sketch. :rubs hands in anticipation:
Katie says she had spotted this Fai earlier, and tried to point him out to me, only I’d missed him. Ah, well. Got him this time.
Last photo of the con. I spotted Watanuki first, on account of the pipe fox, and went over to ask for a photo. Doumeki materialized at my elbow: "Do you want me in the photo too?" Yes, please, I said, and smiled to myself, because it was so perfectly them.
Here ended the con.
A complete set of photos can be found here, including cosplay from: *deep breath* Alice In Wonderland, Angelic Layer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bayonetta, Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Card Captor Sakura, Carmen Sandiego, Clover, Cowboy Bebop, D. Gray Man, Darker Than Black, DC Comics, Death Note, Doctor Who, Dragonball, Dragonquest 8, Final Fantasy 4, 7, 8, and 13 (as well as FF: Tactics, and possibly other FF games that weren’t identified for me), Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Full Metal Alchemist, Hetalia, Hikaru no Go, Initial D, Katamari Damacy, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Looking For Group, Loveless, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Phantom of the Opera, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Princess Tutu, Read Or Die, Ruroni Kenshin, Samurai Seven, Sesame Street, Sleeping Beauty, Spirited Away, Star Trek, Star Wars, Trigun, Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Where’s Waldo, Witch Hunter Robin, xxxHolic, Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness, Yugioh, and Yuu Yuu Hakusho, with two sub-galleries for a Yami no Matsuei photoshoot and a Final Fantasy photoshoot.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 01:55 pm (UTC)And hey, Marco Polo is a lot more entertaining than hearing "I JUST LOST THE GAME" several dozen times a day. I wish cons would stick to Marco Polo. :P
The pic on the last page of your gallery that's "untitled" which you had identified for you and then forgot is definitely a Dragoon-class character from one of the FF games, but since they're encased entirely in plate armor and that particular costume doesn't have much embellishment, I'm not sure which one. Probably Kain Highwind, as he's the most famous, and the armor is the right color for the SNES sprites.
Oh, also: first pic in the FF photoshoot gallery is labelled Venat, but it's actually (a very good) Kefka and Terra from FFVI. I'd be incredibly shocked if anyone but me has been crazy enough yet to do Venat. XD
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 12:21 am (UTC)Have made the appropriate changes, and thank you so much for identified the unidentified! (And correcting me on the FF picture -- I kept seeing you post about making Venat, and thinking 'huh, I could've sworn that this other costume was Venat, but they're not at all alike...' Whoops.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 10:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 12:24 am (UTC)