Con Report: AnimeNEXT 2008 – Saturday

Well, it took me a while to get to writing this one! I’ve been busy with other writing projects, so alas, the blog got kicked aside. Now watch as I attempt to piece these events together…

Saturday was my friend’s birthday, and we had a surprise party planned for her that night, so we didn’t stay for the dance at the con. The whole day I was thinking really hard what I should buy for her, but this year, I really had nothing I could think of giving her. I guess I was kinda burned-out from other projects I’d done in the past, and from working so hard on art for the past month.

And by art I mean the three pieces I entered in the Art Show! I was both excited and disappointed that the Artist Alley and Art Show were located in the basement of the con center (in actuality, there was a parking lot down there, and they just put a black rug over the concrete). I wonder if the location drew less people down there. On Friday, I had basically just checked out the market and seen the price range in the art show. I was shocked that some people were selling pieces with a minimum bid of $6 but then charging $65 for a quickbid. Now I regret not bidding on those $6 pieces… Also, maybe I have no right to give this opinion, but it seems to me that despite their artistic skill – their Photoshop experience, or their understanding of anatomy, or their grasp of color – artists in the Artist Alley have a hard time understanding composition. Hardly ever have I seen a character in an interesting pose, or a drawing that was composed in an interesting way. Granted, because this is fan art, the artists probably don’t feel like spending too much time on it, but I wanted to see more effort in the art. Otherwise, for someone like me who can already draw, there isn’t much that interests me in the artist alley, although this year some booths had some crazy and great ideas, like decals and cute little food-themed items that reminded me of ShanaLogic. At Anime Boston this year, one booth sold team T-shirts for Organization XIII, and they did look like little league jerseys in a way. I wish I’d bought one >.<

We spent some time in the manga library this year, and I’m hooked on Banana Fish. I read Vol. 1 last year and Vols. 2 and 3 this year and I’m looking forward to reading the rest. The manga follows Ash Lynx, a young gang leader in New York City, whose brother fell victim during Vietnam to a dangerous hallucinogenic drug called Banana Fish. I THINK the manga is shounen-ai or yaoi – after all, Ash was a toy for a major crime boss and something is brewing between him and a young Japanese guy that comes to report on gangs in New York – but the manga focuses much more on the way each character is trying to each his ends, whether through subtle manipulation or outright killing.

This year on the way back from lunch, I finally saw that Kakashi gf/bf duo in person! I think this is them. What a great idea: Kinko’s Copy Ninjas!

Now I will fast-forward to the masquerade because my memory fails me in regards to what we did for dinner and so on…

The Masquerade! The BEST masquerade I have ever seen at AnimeNEXT. I shall explain through compare/contrast. You see, at Anime Boston 2008, which is supposed to be a super ultra awesome convention, the masquerade was terrible – unfunny with way too many dance numbers that didn’t add up to anything. The only worthwhile skit was the last one, an exhibition one, which you can watch here:

Furthermore, last year, AnimeNEXT had some knock-out skits, but some flops, too (like the endless Hare Hare Yukai dances). This year, there was only one Hare Hare Yukai dance, and it was abbreviated, and I think I remember there only being two really dull skits… So, in the interest of sharing, here is a sampling of some of the skits. I recommend going on YouTube to check out more.

SoraX5 Dances to Dirty Pop.

CPR in Kingdom Hearts II.

Don’t ask me why Kairi has to teach it.

The Birds and the Bees. The craziest sex talk I’ve ever heard. (“Today is a good day to die!”)

Because I’m totally drooling over Avatar and can’t wait for the finale.

It wasn’t THAT funny…except for “Fire Nation!”…”Fire Nation!”…”Fire Nation!”

And last but not least – for it was possibly the best – the exhibition skit. The guy sang LIVE and had charisma and charm oozing out of him, perfect for Tamaki:

In closing, I’d like like to point out that whereas the big thing at Anime Boston was…click this to find out… the big thing that I heard on everyone’s lips at AnimeNEXT was…”Buttscratcher!” I don’t know how it started, I just heard it in the street and spent the rest of the day exchanging “Buttscratcher!” with my friend.

Whew, so overall, a laid-back con…I’ll get to Sunday in a moment…

 

Why do anime characters all look alike?

My uncle asked me this question a few years ago, and since I was still a bit unseasoned, and rusty on my Spanish, I had to scramble for an answer. And of course the answer is, “No.” Sort of. When my uncle posed this question, he was looking at a poster of this (which I got free courtesy of Animerica):

Ayashi no Ceres, a.k.a. Ceres: Celestial Legend.

I personally think that Yuu Watase is not the artist to discuss when considering this question. I’ve read some of her manga – Fushigi Yuugi and Absolute Boyfriend (former via Animerica Extra, latter via Shoujo Beat) – and I often have trouble distinguishing between her characters without using cues like hair color. Yuu Watase, in my opinion, is one of the more extreme examples of artists whose styles are so concrete that they create almost cookie-cutter characters. I mean, I like that an artist will have one still and stick to it, but when it gets to the point that you can’t recognize which character is which…

Let’s look at some examples:

The first is San from Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and the second is Sophie from Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Both have similar face shapes, eye shapes, eyebrows, mouths (even the lower lip line)… But I think it’s very obvious that they’re different characters. And it’s not just the hair. I think the character’s personality is there… My biggest gripe about Yuu Watase’s work is that her men in general don’t have much more personality than that of bishounen (with the exception of Tasuki, my favorite, who is like an early Kyo predecessor).

Still, the similarity in faces from Miyazaki’s movies can get old sometimes…

Perhaps the closer to real life that artists get, the more different their characters look from each other, even while still maintaining that artist’s style.

Take Takehiko Inoue, creator of Slam Dunk and Vagabond. I’m reading Vagabond now (precious volumes left, though):



Two of these pictures are of the same character in different stages of his life, and one is of his legendary rival. Can you tell which is which?

This, I think, is just an example of how anime characters do not all look alike. Or at least, they don’t have to.

And now, the funniest skit I have yet seen concerning this question… I couldn’t help but feel like a nerd getting her fix while I watched this.

 

AnimeNEXT ‘07 – Saturday

Woohoo!! Second day of AnimeNEXT. A scrupulous account of what I did and commentary…

College friend. My friend from college visited the con and I got to show her around. I felt like an actual veteran, and a careful count made me realize that I’ve gone to about seven cons. Why do I still feel so inexperienced? Maybe because I’ve never really cosplayed.

Kendo demo. My third time watching those Rutgers guys whack each other with sticks. When will they give that guy McCarthy a microphone so people can actually hear him talk? It’s very interesting, you know. All I heard this time around were the kiai from the guys behind him. But they had what they termed an epic battle, and it definitely was. I wondered exactly how tired they got from fighting, because not only were they concentrating like any fighter would, but they were carrying around armor, including a helmet that weighs 8 or 9 pounds. Kendo is cool, but I don’t know how I’d feel about practicing it.

Artist’s Alley. Now officially one of my favorite things at the con. In other years I was definitely not crazy about it because often enough I felt like I could draw better than what some of the artists were trying to sell me. Not this year, however. Some amazing artists turned up, as well as some great salesmen. Pins, bookmarks, keychains, bags, sketchbooks, hats, shirts, and even – I swear – a Naruto tarot card set. Anything that might be bought was being sold. Almost anything, anyway… I bought prints and despite my avowal to never buy fanart, only original art, I bought a really great Cloud Strife poster for my dorm wall. As well as art from this artist. Her art is FABULOUS and I love that she was selling mostly original art, plus some Revolutionary Girl Utena stuff (which I think is artsy/stylized anyway).

Dealer’s Room. Back there again. I just bought some overpriced Japanese snacks (though no Ramune – I got over that awesome marble trick). Even though I thought there was more variety this year, I couldn’t help but notice how much crap they were trying to sell us anyway – how many plushies do you need, Plushie Man?? How many?? Lol. But how many keychains am I supposed to buy? And cell phone charms? I am sick of the Yaoi booths, especially those yaoi paddles. I saw those last year and thought they were funny, but now everyone has to have one. What do they do with them anyway? I know they don’t use them. I hope they don’t use them.

Mushishi. I saw a few episodes of this anime – the flower one, the rainbow one, and the one where the guy’s wife is lost at sea – and I thought it was sweet. A guy from college had recommended it to me, and seeing it now makes me wonder what kind of guy he really is. It was such a laidback, gently poetic anime. I didn’t feel like there was much plot except the main character showing us the wonders of mushi. The rainbow episode was incredible – who hasn’t wondered what they might find at the end of the rainbow?

Sushi. Yum California roll… Okay, not quite sushi, but I can’t bring myself to like the real stuff.

Cosplay Masquerade. Now that was something. I had a great seat next to the aisle, so I got to see everything…FINALLY!! After 7 cons, I finally got a good view of the masquerade. And here is a list of the great things from this year’s masquerade:

0. The traditional preliminary panning of the audience to kill time. When everyone holds up the random crap they bought in the Dealer’s Room so the cameras can focus on them. My favorite is when people hold up signs (last year’s best was the “No RLY? Ya rly. No Wai!” extended conversation…and also the sign that said Xemnas = Mansex. That was hilarious). This year, I think the most memorable sign was “This is Sparta!!” I thought 300 was a terrible movie, but that line will probably stay with me forever. Also, I enjoyed all the bashing of “Believe it!” What on earth was VIZ thinking when they did that??

1. The host said very little. This is good. She gave the names of participants, skit titles, read intros…and unfortunately, had some really lame jokes for us, but those were kept to a bare minimum.

2. No one used microphones! Yay! Everyone had their skits prerecorded, so there was none of that “Can you hear me now?” “What are they talking about?” shit. At last I knew what everyone in the first three rows was laughing about!

3. The lights went out on the stage. A five-minute delay. Must have been nerve-wracking for the group whose skit was next.

4. The dance from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. THREE skits used this dance. I now realize that I must learn it, even though I had sworn not to… Okay, I had just been lazy. I mean, come on, it looks fast, but now I realize it’s just because the characters are sort of bouncing.

5. The skits! There were some false expectations (I was screaming for Twilight Princess, but it turned out it was just a Zelda walk-on…not skit…but I love Zelda!), and some surprises:
1. The Furuba dance skit. Kyo kissed Tohru in it, and it was so sweet! But then we realized that they were both girls, so we were confused. Apparently, it won best in show, and they definitely deserved it. Awesome, awesome, awesome!! And so sweet… I think the dance styles reflect the characters, too…

2. That “What Is Love?” SNL skit with anime characters. There were so many characters during that skit and I was verily confused at times, but it was one hell of a skit. And when the people in the background dropped the sheet to reveal Aerith about to be slayed by Sephiroth – that was sooo funny, but incredibly startling at first (since the music had changed to Final Fantasy). Hehe, at least this time Aerith lived!

3. Alucard vs. Pikachu. A toy Pikachu. I hope that gets posted online. Update: Oh, wait! It did!

4. Team Rocket. I didn’t think the skit was that amazing, but I finally got to see someone cosplay as Meowth.
5. The Naruto ninja skit! Okay, there was the typical Lee one with the dancing or something…but then they had Kakashi and Iruka and what happens when they’re alone. So Kakashi is of course trying to read his Make-Out Paradise book and Iruka bursts in on the scene, knocks the book from his hands and starts going on about how some guy might have been hitting on him. Then Kakashi and Iruka sing “If You Were Gay” – and of course they kiss at the end! I don’t KakashixIruka (come on, it’s weird when you have your own sensei…OMG, BANISH THOUGHTS, BANISH THOUGHTS!!) but I had to cheer for that.

6. Kingdom Hearts 2. Hayner sings of his love for Roxas. Except Hayner is played by a girl and she sings “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” from Hercules while four members of Organization XIII dance in the background and do back-up. That was brilliant.

7. Naruto uses Skittles and M&Ms – and the observation that they look alike but taste different – to defeat his enemies. Alas, Sasuke is killed by Skittles and M&Ms.
8. A Kodama uses the puppets of a Final Fantasy character (Vivi) and…a bunny? But has the tables turned when they turn HIM into a puppet…
9. That weird Springtime for Gendo skit…

Anime Fandubs. They dubbed Ghost Stories, which was funny. But then Good Enough Productions had two parodies – War in the Pocket and Ranma 1/2 – and unfortunately, there was a lag between the animation and the sound, which may have destroyed some jokes, but also, all the jokes seemed to be about sex and drugs. Which is funny, but I can only listen to someone talk about acid for so long. Eventually I got sick of that and walked out.

The rave! Dammit! I wish I’d stayed longer because it seemed less crowded than last year since they removed the barriers around the dance area, and less scary since people – at first at least – were crowded around the performance ravers (is that what I should call them?) at first and weren’t all up on each other. There was a HUGE conga line going when I left. Wish I’d stayed, but after another day of anime, I was pretty beat.

^_^

Note: I did not film any of the YouTube videos I linked to. Thanks to the kind people who posted them on YouTube!