Anime North con report (part one)
This is the "public" con report. Probably a small amount of other stuff will be posted elsewhere later, but that pretty much boils down to being excited about seeing the other Fanboys and other-Toronto-friends again. ^_^ And missing them.
Anime North was kind of nuts. It's got nothing on Otakon in terms of size, but every year the growth is huge. I heard we clocked almost 10,000 people this year. Luckily, the venue was improved; like last year, we had the Toronto Congress Centre for the Dealers' Room and Artists' Alley and whatnot, but this year we had the hotel across the street instead of being strung out between three hotels that were further away. Everything was more convenient, and more importantly, with everything so close together it was actually possible to FIND people.
The Good
Carnage being on Con Com. Trailing around with him and his Badge of Authority was lots of fun.
The little I saw of the j-pop dance was good fun. I went up and asked Carnage and Sarcasm to play Yatta!, danced happily to it (this is a Fanboys thing for me) with Chris, Jason, The Author and his lady, and wandered off again with Servo. Crowds don't do much for me. As a result, I missed the yaoi stampede when two guys started making out on the dance floor and were apparently mobbed (Chris and Jay bailed at that point, although I gather Jay almost got crushed).
Getting a chance to wander around the dealers' room with Merrow for a while and actually talk to her. I really like her a lot. *^^* Also, seeing Ina-chan in passing several times, although we didn't hang out.
Curling up on a bed in the Fanboys suite and reading Jelynne's vol. 1 of W Juliet, which was interesting.
Sarcasm's costumes were amazing, as usual. *in awe of the Elf*
I didn't actually see this, but apparently Chris and his friend Doug's contribution to Mechayard Wars was a lot of fun. (No photos, due to them having to run to make Baka Royale. But Carnage liked it.)
The writer's block panel was pretty fun. Gaffney knew one of the guys on it, who's apparently quite well-known (come to that, I know of him from fanthropology).
Getting to see Howl's Moving Castle. A . . . preview. Yes. ;)
Baka Royale was terrifyingly long, but a lot of fun. I got to scream as much as I wanted, which isn't an opportunity that comes along often. (The only problem, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is that I was playing Sailorjupiter as well as Hysteria, and when *she* had to scream I tried it in my chest voice, to keep the roles separate. BAD move. Ow, ow, ow . . . poor vocal chords.) The Author's wife made incredible covers for our scripts, and a wonderful set of Laughing Man viruses. Ginny and I had a semi-death-match. Chris played Kyo and Ebichu (O_O) to great acclaim. Carnage played a frightening Guu, and ate a card for Jason's benefit (Jay was playing Yugi) when he was playing "himself". Everyone had fun--I mean, we all did, and hopefully the audience did too. ^^ The only downside was when Gaffney-as-Narrator accidentally hit me in the head with the *hard* part of the squeaky mallet. *rubs head, and the carpet-burn that I got when I toppled out of my chair* On the "bonus plus" side, an audience member (friend of a friend) tossed me some pocky when I complained that Mayhem got to eat some as a prop. *laughs*
And the omake, with The Author reading Baby's First Anime ABCs (I forget the exact title) to the Fanbaby, was fabulous. We all scrambled down into the audience to watch. *^^*
Seeing so many friends I miss. Many, many hugs.
The Unclassifiable
Going to the lemon panel and listening to a discussion of such things as "incest is the new black", underage readers/writers, etc.
Usually I buy things I really want on Friday ASAP, and then wander around buying experimentally when things are cheaper on Sunday at the last minute. This year, prices didn't really change, which means I didn't pay much for what I bought, but wound up with an aimless "must . . . buy . . . something" feeling all day Sunday. This led to things like attempting to buy 15 volumes of Kare Kano for $100. Oddly enough, it didn't work, even though Servo and Jay were working at the store that had the full run. Ah well.
Running into the HMV employee who'd sold me seasons six and seven of Buffy . . . here in Halifax. *blinkblinkblink* Finding him in a Toronto restaurant, and hanging out with people who knew Carnage and Sarcasm, no less, was very surreal.
The fact that we (collective 'we', all of the con attendees) managed to put ALL of the hotel elevators out of commission. At once. Wow. This was due to massive overcrowding (22 people in one elevator, in the first instance we heard about), but no one was crushed to death . . .
Jay and Servo working the dealers' room was good and bad. Good to have insiders (the Fanboy advantage!), but it sucks that they were both so busy. ;_;
The Bad
Panel disorganization in general, and the fact that panelists aren't screened well. Most of the (admittedly few) panels I attended had at least one person who said nothing, which may have been due to not having anything to say, or to being on a panel with someone who completely dominated it.
Wasn't particularly happy with the Furuba panel, partly because we wound up with such a firm "no spoilers" that there was nothing to talk about beyond "favorite characters" and "most glompable character". One of the other panelists half-promoted scanlations (O_O), talked over the audience when questions were asked, and frankly, didn't know half as much about the series as she thought she did. Two other panelists almost literally said nothing, which felt awkward. On the plus side, though, Merrow was very well-prepped (she brought a bunch of things to show people, which was very neat), and Ina-chan was in the audience, which meant Merrow could point to her for intelligent questions and comments. ^^
The AMVs were pretty uninspired this year. We went to the first showing (of EVERY ENTRY) until the boredom and the unbelievably shrieky fangirls drove us out. Tranq guns for the shrill little wretches were seriously discussed. O_O We went back for the finalists on Saturday, and . . . still pretty bored. :/ There were several fun entries in the exactly-one-minute challenge: Prof. Tomoe to "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (sp?), and one to a song that I suspect is called "Trees and Rocks and Rocks and Trees", and a good Bebop video to "My Dog's Better Than Your Dog". *giggles* I do love Ed and Ein. But overall it was just meh. The winner was a "scenic study" of the Mononoke Hime artwork, which was very pretty, but . . . all scenery. We left before the actual winner announcements, so we found out later that it had won. Watching the word run down our (long) table at supper was kinda fun, since everyone was taken aback. "But it's . . . so boring . . . " Yeah. But hey, pretty.
Swag list (including things picked up in Toronto before AN):
--Hot Gimmick vol 1-8 (manga)
--Paradise Kiss vol. 1-5 (manga, full series)
--Fruits Basket vol. 16 and a manga-art wallscroll of Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki
--The Wallflower vol. 1 (manga), for a whopping $3. The cover fell off when I picked it up, and they accepted my offer. *grins* The binding's --fine, and my mum's a librarian. I imagine she can patch it up.
--Now and Then, Here and There 1-2 (dvds. Now, if only I could've found disc three for a remotely civilized price, since these were $10 each and I couldn't pass them up . . . )
These are things from The Author's journal, which I want to remember
On running into each other at the hotel, after not seeing each other for a year: "I should add here that Ysa did come over and attempt to glomp me, but it wasn't an authentic Ysa glomp, for which I am happy. She was wearing a studded collar, and I'm not one to kick off a convention with arterial spray from my neck."
"I woke up early and feeling really decent that day. I don't know what happened. It might have been the cookies. More fan artists were talked to. More swag was purchased. And more panels were visited or chaired. Sean, Mel, Ginny, Donna and I all sat in on Ysabet's Fruits Basket panel, where the name of the game was "how vague can you get without spilling the spoilers?" And there were pins afterwards too. Yay, more swag!"
On Baka Royale: "I have to say I for one was really thrilled with the turn-out. Despite how ridiculously long the fic was (something I really hope not to repeat), the room was filled with people the entire time. And best of all: the audience laughed at all the funny parts, groaned at all the really bad puns, and went deaf when Ysabet performed 2 Hysteria screams. It's great when you have a fantastic cast doing the voices and performances, and even better when you have a receptive audience looking to get wierded out.
From what I could tell, the highlights included: me being unexpectedly pelted by props over a "drive-by bukkake" one-liner; Mel beating me to death with a foam beam sabre; Roupen's uncanny Guu impression; pretty much anytime Ysabet had to perform Hysteria's run-on sentences; Kevin-as-Ruckus playing the game of "guess where my hand is"; Chris' Ebichu voice; and the scene-stealing Gabezilla being read his Baby's First Anime ABCs, and deciding that we didn't need the letter Z...or trying to eat the book."
And notes on Baka Royale from Nightbreak, who videotaped the event
"Then it was psych-up time for the Con-fic. 12 cast members, 35 character voices, 2 1/2 hours of live Fanfic. Baka Royale! Videotaped the whole thing, and here were some of the highlights:
Chaos being attacked by Servo's 1 year old son, cosplaying as Rampage.
Sarcasm and the other Fangirls swarming Carnage and shrieking as his Tenchi Masaki syndrome kicked in.
Carnage as Grr in the Chaosfic "Metal Grr Solid", singing the Doom Song.
Servo as Ruckus pouncing Chaos right out of the frame of the video recorder.
Squeaky Hammer attack on Goku by Pesti-chan.
Squeaky Hammer attack on all hentai fanboys by Pesti-chan.
Ysabet showing her Hysteria alter-ego with her opening monologue and microphone shattering screams. Second time, the audience took Carnage's lead & plugged their ears well in advance.
Her husband Chris as the irritated voice of Fruits Basket's Neko-Kyo plushie.
Carnage's deadpan delivery and evil grin as the voice of Guu.
Chris as Ebichu, the sadistic, hentai, housekeeping hamster
Servo as Havoc, glomping Mel-as-Hotaru
Omake as Chaos gives us "Baby's First Anime" for Chibi-Servo, including,
"S is for Sailormoon
Fighting evil by moonlight
Winning love by daylight
Oh my God did that dub bite
DiC massacred our Sailormoon" [edited back to the actual version rather than Nightbreak's memory of it, due to a nudge from Servo]
Anime North was kind of nuts. It's got nothing on Otakon in terms of size, but every year the growth is huge. I heard we clocked almost 10,000 people this year. Luckily, the venue was improved; like last year, we had the Toronto Congress Centre for the Dealers' Room and Artists' Alley and whatnot, but this year we had the hotel across the street instead of being strung out between three hotels that were further away. Everything was more convenient, and more importantly, with everything so close together it was actually possible to FIND people.
The Good
Carnage being on Con Com. Trailing around with him and his Badge of Authority was lots of fun.
The little I saw of the j-pop dance was good fun. I went up and asked Carnage and Sarcasm to play Yatta!, danced happily to it (this is a Fanboys thing for me) with Chris, Jason, The Author and his lady, and wandered off again with Servo. Crowds don't do much for me. As a result, I missed the yaoi stampede when two guys started making out on the dance floor and were apparently mobbed (Chris and Jay bailed at that point, although I gather Jay almost got crushed).
Getting a chance to wander around the dealers' room with Merrow for a while and actually talk to her. I really like her a lot. *^^* Also, seeing Ina-chan in passing several times, although we didn't hang out.
Curling up on a bed in the Fanboys suite and reading Jelynne's vol. 1 of W Juliet, which was interesting.
Sarcasm's costumes were amazing, as usual. *in awe of the Elf*
I didn't actually see this, but apparently Chris and his friend Doug's contribution to Mechayard Wars was a lot of fun. (No photos, due to them having to run to make Baka Royale. But Carnage liked it.)
The writer's block panel was pretty fun. Gaffney knew one of the guys on it, who's apparently quite well-known (come to that, I know of him from fanthropology).
Getting to see Howl's Moving Castle. A . . . preview. Yes. ;)
Baka Royale was terrifyingly long, but a lot of fun. I got to scream as much as I wanted, which isn't an opportunity that comes along often. (The only problem, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is that I was playing Sailorjupiter as well as Hysteria, and when *she* had to scream I tried it in my chest voice, to keep the roles separate. BAD move. Ow, ow, ow . . . poor vocal chords.) The Author's wife made incredible covers for our scripts, and a wonderful set of Laughing Man viruses. Ginny and I had a semi-death-match. Chris played Kyo and Ebichu (O_O) to great acclaim. Carnage played a frightening Guu, and ate a card for Jason's benefit (Jay was playing Yugi) when he was playing "himself". Everyone had fun--I mean, we all did, and hopefully the audience did too. ^^ The only downside was when Gaffney-as-Narrator accidentally hit me in the head with the *hard* part of the squeaky mallet. *rubs head, and the carpet-burn that I got when I toppled out of my chair* On the "bonus plus" side, an audience member (friend of a friend) tossed me some pocky when I complained that Mayhem got to eat some as a prop. *laughs*
And the omake, with The Author reading Baby's First Anime ABCs (I forget the exact title) to the Fanbaby, was fabulous. We all scrambled down into the audience to watch. *^^*
Seeing so many friends I miss. Many, many hugs.
The Unclassifiable
Going to the lemon panel and listening to a discussion of such things as "incest is the new black", underage readers/writers, etc.
Usually I buy things I really want on Friday ASAP, and then wander around buying experimentally when things are cheaper on Sunday at the last minute. This year, prices didn't really change, which means I didn't pay much for what I bought, but wound up with an aimless "must . . . buy . . . something" feeling all day Sunday. This led to things like attempting to buy 15 volumes of Kare Kano for $100. Oddly enough, it didn't work, even though Servo and Jay were working at the store that had the full run. Ah well.
Running into the HMV employee who'd sold me seasons six and seven of Buffy . . . here in Halifax. *blinkblinkblink* Finding him in a Toronto restaurant, and hanging out with people who knew Carnage and Sarcasm, no less, was very surreal.
The fact that we (collective 'we', all of the con attendees) managed to put ALL of the hotel elevators out of commission. At once. Wow. This was due to massive overcrowding (22 people in one elevator, in the first instance we heard about), but no one was crushed to death . . .
Jay and Servo working the dealers' room was good and bad. Good to have insiders (the Fanboy advantage!), but it sucks that they were both so busy. ;_;
The Bad
Panel disorganization in general, and the fact that panelists aren't screened well. Most of the (admittedly few) panels I attended had at least one person who said nothing, which may have been due to not having anything to say, or to being on a panel with someone who completely dominated it.
Wasn't particularly happy with the Furuba panel, partly because we wound up with such a firm "no spoilers" that there was nothing to talk about beyond "favorite characters" and "most glompable character". One of the other panelists half-promoted scanlations (O_O), talked over the audience when questions were asked, and frankly, didn't know half as much about the series as she thought she did. Two other panelists almost literally said nothing, which felt awkward. On the plus side, though, Merrow was very well-prepped (she brought a bunch of things to show people, which was very neat), and Ina-chan was in the audience, which meant Merrow could point to her for intelligent questions and comments. ^^
The AMVs were pretty uninspired this year. We went to the first showing (of EVERY ENTRY) until the boredom and the unbelievably shrieky fangirls drove us out. Tranq guns for the shrill little wretches were seriously discussed. O_O We went back for the finalists on Saturday, and . . . still pretty bored. :/ There were several fun entries in the exactly-one-minute challenge: Prof. Tomoe to "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (sp?), and one to a song that I suspect is called "Trees and Rocks and Rocks and Trees", and a good Bebop video to "My Dog's Better Than Your Dog". *giggles* I do love Ed and Ein. But overall it was just meh. The winner was a "scenic study" of the Mononoke Hime artwork, which was very pretty, but . . . all scenery. We left before the actual winner announcements, so we found out later that it had won. Watching the word run down our (long) table at supper was kinda fun, since everyone was taken aback. "But it's . . . so boring . . . " Yeah. But hey, pretty.
Swag list (including things picked up in Toronto before AN):
--Hot Gimmick vol 1-8 (manga)
--Paradise Kiss vol. 1-5 (manga, full series)
--Fruits Basket vol. 16 and a manga-art wallscroll of Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki
--The Wallflower vol. 1 (manga), for a whopping $3. The cover fell off when I picked it up, and they accepted my offer. *grins* The binding's --fine, and my mum's a librarian. I imagine she can patch it up.
--Now and Then, Here and There 1-2 (dvds. Now, if only I could've found disc three for a remotely civilized price, since these were $10 each and I couldn't pass them up . . . )
These are things from The Author's journal, which I want to remember
On running into each other at the hotel, after not seeing each other for a year: "I should add here that Ysa did come over and attempt to glomp me, but it wasn't an authentic Ysa glomp, for which I am happy. She was wearing a studded collar, and I'm not one to kick off a convention with arterial spray from my neck."
"I woke up early and feeling really decent that day. I don't know what happened. It might have been the cookies. More fan artists were talked to. More swag was purchased. And more panels were visited or chaired. Sean, Mel, Ginny, Donna and I all sat in on Ysabet's Fruits Basket panel, where the name of the game was "how vague can you get without spilling the spoilers?" And there were pins afterwards too. Yay, more swag!"
On Baka Royale: "I have to say I for one was really thrilled with the turn-out. Despite how ridiculously long the fic was (something I really hope not to repeat), the room was filled with people the entire time. And best of all: the audience laughed at all the funny parts, groaned at all the really bad puns, and went deaf when Ysabet performed 2 Hysteria screams. It's great when you have a fantastic cast doing the voices and performances, and even better when you have a receptive audience looking to get wierded out.
From what I could tell, the highlights included: me being unexpectedly pelted by props over a "drive-by bukkake" one-liner; Mel beating me to death with a foam beam sabre; Roupen's uncanny Guu impression; pretty much anytime Ysabet had to perform Hysteria's run-on sentences; Kevin-as-Ruckus playing the game of "guess where my hand is"; Chris' Ebichu voice; and the scene-stealing Gabezilla being read his Baby's First Anime ABCs, and deciding that we didn't need the letter Z...or trying to eat the book."
And notes on Baka Royale from Nightbreak, who videotaped the event
"Then it was psych-up time for the Con-fic. 12 cast members, 35 character voices, 2 1/2 hours of live Fanfic. Baka Royale! Videotaped the whole thing, and here were some of the highlights:
Chaos being attacked by Servo's 1 year old son, cosplaying as Rampage.
Sarcasm and the other Fangirls swarming Carnage and shrieking as his Tenchi Masaki syndrome kicked in.
Carnage as Grr in the Chaosfic "Metal Grr Solid", singing the Doom Song.
Servo as Ruckus pouncing Chaos right out of the frame of the video recorder.
Squeaky Hammer attack on Goku by Pesti-chan.
Squeaky Hammer attack on all hentai fanboys by Pesti-chan.
Ysabet showing her Hysteria alter-ego with her opening monologue and microphone shattering screams. Second time, the audience took Carnage's lead & plugged their ears well in advance.
Her husband Chris as the irritated voice of Fruits Basket's Neko-Kyo plushie.
Carnage's deadpan delivery and evil grin as the voice of Guu.
Chris as Ebichu, the sadistic, hentai, housekeeping hamster
Servo as Havoc, glomping Mel-as-Hotaru
Omake as Chaos gives us "Baby's First Anime" for Chibi-Servo, including,
"S is for Sailormoon
Fighting evil by moonlight
Winning love by daylight
Oh my God did that dub bite
DiC massacred our Sailormoon" [edited back to the actual version rather than Nightbreak's memory of it, due to a nudge from Servo]