I have a HINABN shirt now! And buttons! And posters! --I may have a problem.
OKAY SO here is a ComicCon post! I actually did not take that many pictures this year--possibly because of a sudden burst of shyness, possibly because I did not go to any panels that had exciting people in them (well, exciting beyond a brief "hey wait that's the lady from the Funimation vlogs on Hetalia WAIT IS SHE FILMING ME"), possibly because there did not seem to be as many cosplayers this year. I did get some, though! And I will get to those later.
I didn't make it to the Leverage panel, so, in contradiction of all the old folks grumbling that ComicCon isn't about comics anymore or even geeky things, everything I did was related to sequential art of one kind of another. Ha ha, fogeys! This member of the 18-24 age demographic defies your pessimistic expectations! Well okay actually I did end up seeing the panel for Childrens Hospital, which is a web TV show and not related to comics at all, but that was only because I was waiting for the Yen Press panel. Which was awesome, because as I said in an earlier post I ~saved the day~ by loaning the panelists my laptop and they would not stop thanking me, seriously, when I later went to their booth to claim my free book they were all THANK YOU SO MUCH OH MAN HERE HAVE TWO BOOKS AND DO YOU WANT A BUTTON ALSO. (I, er, ended up throwing the button away. I like Kobato but not enough to advertise it to the world, okay.)
Another cool thing about the Yen Press panel: when they were announcing all their new titles, they kept saying "...and it's kind of slashy" or "it's not technically BL but if you are looking for that sort of thing you will not be disappointed", and when some random lady in the Q&A asked if they were ever going to make a separate imprint for their BL titles the panelists were all "what, no, we are just as proud of these as the rest of our stuff, we will never ghettoize it". Hurrah for savvy publishers! (Although actually they don't have any titles that would even warrant the label, even Kuroshitsuji stays strictly in the realm of subtext. So the point may have been moot. But anyway, hurrah.)
Waiting in line for the Tokyopop panel caused me to meet two very nice D. Gray-Man cosplayers and talk about anime-and-manga-related things (ME: "I've only read the first two volumes or so of Katekyo Hitman Reborn--" THEM: "IT GETS SO MUCH BETTER around, er, volume twelve, or was it twenty, yeah this is difficult to pimp out to people.") and then we swapped DeviantART info so now I apparently know people who have drawn underage sexings. They were very nice. The other notable thing about the Tokyopop panel was that for the first time in like ever I managed to say something in the Q&A, which was basically "Are you ever going to reprint Petshop of Horrors I keep trying to buy it but I can't find it anywhere, why will you not let me give you money" and they said actually I was the second person that weekend to ask them about it and they were putting consideration into finding out what had happened with the license, so woo! I may have had a tiny bit of influence on getting one of my favorite manga reprinted! I shall go mad with power.
...yeah, that kind of put a grin on my face every time I went to cross the street to the convention center.
I was sadly not there for the epic counter-protest that went on Thursday afternoon, but I did at least get to see these two and also a girl blessing people with a Keyblade. Oh fans, I do love you. (One wonders what the Westboro people thought they were even going to accomplish. Did they really think a bunch of geeks high on pop culture would immediately convert?)
My brother somehow acquired a Scott Pilgrim wristband and kept checking it when he forgot he wasn't wearing a watch. It is always Scott Pilgrim time, brother.
Not a very good shot, but damn if this wasn't cool. (One of the cosplayers I was too shy to take a picture of was the forest from Princess Mononoke--no, seriously, a bunch of leafy branches and those white bobblehead things. Hardcore.)
There were a lot of these. A lot. On multiple occasions did I see a Spy + Scout's Mom combo, and I am pretty sure they were not the same ones.
I will not describe my exact reaction to when I see her walking across the room. It is a fortunate thing I had enough sense to put my laptop down carefully before rushing over with a camera. (Later, in the anime-watching room, I saw another one with an Izaya--it may have been the same one, I am not sure, but in any case she had an Izaya with her and that was kind of awesome.)
I think innadress!Ciels are another staple of the con--I saw a couple last year, too. Maybe cosplayers just like making frilly dresses. On the last day of the con when I was waiting for my parents to return so we could go to the airport, I saw an actualoutfit!Ciel and I would totally have taken her picture except she did not look like she was in a very good mood, which, in hindsight, could just have been her getting into character. The world may never know.
The most adorable cosplayers--when I asked the Grell if I could take a picture, she immediately brightened and asked, all excited, "With Sebastian too?" and even if I hadn't planned to I could not have said no to her. And I don't even like Grell.
All in all, it was a fun con! The only real drawback was that neither the hotel nor convention center internet were strong enough to let me watch the new official dubbed first four episodes of Hetalia Funimation put up, but oh dear, having seen them now...I may have actually choked in laughter, I am not sure. There is "localizing the translations so it makes sense for an American audience" and then there is "just making shit up", and I would not have thought the latter would be so amazing but it is. Funimation, I salute you. Are you ever going to put up that vlog from the con because I want to know if my visage if going to be etched on the internet forever.
I didn't make it to the Leverage panel, so, in contradiction of all the old folks grumbling that ComicCon isn't about comics anymore or even geeky things, everything I did was related to sequential art of one kind of another. Ha ha, fogeys! This member of the 18-24 age demographic defies your pessimistic expectations! Well okay actually I did end up seeing the panel for Childrens Hospital, which is a web TV show and not related to comics at all, but that was only because I was waiting for the Yen Press panel. Which was awesome, because as I said in an earlier post I ~saved the day~ by loaning the panelists my laptop and they would not stop thanking me, seriously, when I later went to their booth to claim my free book they were all THANK YOU SO MUCH OH MAN HERE HAVE TWO BOOKS AND DO YOU WANT A BUTTON ALSO. (I, er, ended up throwing the button away. I like Kobato but not enough to advertise it to the world, okay.)
Another cool thing about the Yen Press panel: when they were announcing all their new titles, they kept saying "...and it's kind of slashy" or "it's not technically BL but if you are looking for that sort of thing you will not be disappointed", and when some random lady in the Q&A asked if they were ever going to make a separate imprint for their BL titles the panelists were all "what, no, we are just as proud of these as the rest of our stuff, we will never ghettoize it". Hurrah for savvy publishers! (Although actually they don't have any titles that would even warrant the label, even Kuroshitsuji stays strictly in the realm of subtext. So the point may have been moot. But anyway, hurrah.)
Waiting in line for the Tokyopop panel caused me to meet two very nice D. Gray-Man cosplayers and talk about anime-and-manga-related things (ME: "I've only read the first two volumes or so of Katekyo Hitman Reborn--" THEM: "IT GETS SO MUCH BETTER around, er, volume twelve, or was it twenty, yeah this is difficult to pimp out to people.") and then we swapped DeviantART info so now I apparently know people who have drawn underage sexings. They were very nice. The other notable thing about the Tokyopop panel was that for the first time in like ever I managed to say something in the Q&A, which was basically "Are you ever going to reprint Petshop of Horrors I keep trying to buy it but I can't find it anywhere, why will you not let me give you money" and they said actually I was the second person that weekend to ask them about it and they were putting consideration into finding out what had happened with the license, so woo! I may have had a tiny bit of influence on getting one of my favorite manga reprinted! I shall go mad with power.
...yeah, that kind of put a grin on my face every time I went to cross the street to the convention center.
I was sadly not there for the epic counter-protest that went on Thursday afternoon, but I did at least get to see these two and also a girl blessing people with a Keyblade. Oh fans, I do love you. (One wonders what the Westboro people thought they were even going to accomplish. Did they really think a bunch of geeks high on pop culture would immediately convert?)
My brother somehow acquired a Scott Pilgrim wristband and kept checking it when he forgot he wasn't wearing a watch. It is always Scott Pilgrim time, brother.
Not a very good shot, but damn if this wasn't cool. (One of the cosplayers I was too shy to take a picture of was the forest from Princess Mononoke--no, seriously, a bunch of leafy branches and those white bobblehead things. Hardcore.)
There were a lot of these. A lot. On multiple occasions did I see a Spy + Scout's Mom combo, and I am pretty sure they were not the same ones.
I will not describe my exact reaction to when I see her walking across the room. It is a fortunate thing I had enough sense to put my laptop down carefully before rushing over with a camera. (Later, in the anime-watching room, I saw another one with an Izaya--it may have been the same one, I am not sure, but in any case she had an Izaya with her and that was kind of awesome.)
I think innadress!Ciels are another staple of the con--I saw a couple last year, too. Maybe cosplayers just like making frilly dresses. On the last day of the con when I was waiting for my parents to return so we could go to the airport, I saw an actualoutfit!Ciel and I would totally have taken her picture except she did not look like she was in a very good mood, which, in hindsight, could just have been her getting into character. The world may never know.
The most adorable cosplayers--when I asked the Grell if I could take a picture, she immediately brightened and asked, all excited, "With Sebastian too?" and even if I hadn't planned to I could not have said no to her. And I don't even like Grell.
All in all, it was a fun con! The only real drawback was that neither the hotel nor convention center internet were strong enough to let me watch the new official dubbed first four episodes of Hetalia Funimation put up, but oh dear, having seen them now...I may have actually choked in laughter, I am not sure. There is "localizing the translations so it makes sense for an American audience" and then there is "just making shit up", and I would not have thought the latter would be so amazing but it is. Funimation, I salute you. Are you ever going to put up that vlog from the con because I want to know if my visage if going to be etched on the internet forever.