Anime North 2009: Potpourri
Some odds and ends before I put this con to bed. And then go to bed myself.
Artists' Alley
Officially called the Comic Market, despite there not being much in the way of comics. Unless you count the VG Cats guy.
If the selection was a reflection of what artists liked and, perhaps, what fans would pay money for, then 2008 was a non-starter. I saw plenty of Gurren Lagann, Naruto, Final Fantasy, all safe choices. For the 2008 season, Macross F made an appearance in the form of buttons, there were a couple prints of Gundam 00 at one booth, and some pretty nice large renderings of Kuroshitsuji, at another. I don't consider Code Geass as being 2008, but it maybe got two booths, max.
There were some really nice portrait prints of Tifa. My friend, who sees no point in prints, was moved to buy one anyway. Now he's going to have to get a frame and find a place to hang it.
Momiji Art Gallery
Had to check in all large bags and cameras for this one. There were two ridiculously good works present: a portrait of Samus Aran, and a long horizontal drawing depicting Kirby, with a stack of hats, being pursued by pretty much all the Super Smash Brothers combatants, sans hat. It was titled, "Kirby Likes Hats." But of course.
The Kirby prints were almost sold out on Saturday, so another friend borrowed some money in order to get one of the last remaining ones. When we came back on Sunday, both the original Samus and Kirby prints had been auctioned off. The Samus portrait was gone, and the Kirby original was in the process of being wrapped up. The staff member walked up and down the sales and registration section, telling the other staff to say goodbye to it.
Oh Kirby Likes Hats print, we hardly knew ye.
Dealer's Section
If the selection was a reflection of what dealers thought would sell, then het and yuri were non-starters. In all fairness, there was a lot of stuff there that was not made of paper, like figures, replica weapons, cosplay bits and such, but I didn't see anything advertised as prominently as the yaoi section.
Maybe I'm just naive, having never seen a dedicated yaoi booth before, but at the same time having never been to a dealer's room before. The prevalence of yaoi goes a long way toward explaining what transpired at the 404's late-night show.
I have nothing to note about yuri, because for all intents and purposes, there simply wasn't any. If there was, it was buried in the noise floor which, for all intents and purposes, etc.
Late Friday night flea market
The flea market is held in a conference room clearly not designed to handle the traffic. They had to admit people in groups, and unlike congestion on the roads, there was no air conditioning.
All these places that try to get you to buy stuff are interesting to experience, but I'm pretty much dead set against buying anything that I have to paint, or frame, or shove in a drawer lest it be picked up by the vacuum cleaner.
That said, one thing did catch my eye at the flea market: an Utada Hikaru CD filled with crowd pleasers spanning multiple eras.
Sketchy, right? I thought as much. And who knows, there might actually be no CD in there. Apparently that does happen.
One friend did pick up a game, and another got almost the entire set of Kare Kano. Or Fruits Basket. Memory foggy.
TF2
For whatever reason, TF2 was well represented. If nothing else, it seems that Valve has created a set of iconic (and cel-shaded) character designs. An FPS config that trades quality for frame rate hampers my ability to appreciate them, but I there's no FPS config for real life (yet), so I note that the red heavy had a really well done gatling gun.
The real question in my mind is, are any of these people good at the game? Would Reptile cosplay as a soldier? I'm going to have to go out on a limb and say no.
But hats off to the red heavy, once again. He deserved that cosplay award Saturday night. Speaking of which…
Cosplay masquerade
I'm pretty disheartened at the turnout for this event — it was high. This was in contrast to the attendance for the VA concert. When Nobuyuki Hiyama performed, the plaza ballroom was, optimistically, half full. I've read that it filled up later for the other English VA's, but only to about three-quarters the capacity.
With a half hour to go, the masquerade line was more than double the concert line at its longest, and snaked out into the parking lot when we queued up. The ballroom was filled to capacity and stragglers had to stand at the back.
Maybe I just prefer music over cosplayers walking across a stage? Probably. I also found myself sitting halfway back with a tall person's head in my way, there was also a false fire alarm in a neighbouring room part way through (the show went on) that lasted for about 10 minutes, and the MC, who was apparently not the regular MC of years past, had a penchant for mispronouncing Japanese names.
Of the entries that were impressive, they tended to be skits, or lip-synching video game trailers. So I guess that just means I'm going to skit masquerade next year.
There was a Gundam UC panel at 10 pm. I should've gone.
Getting 404'd
Stuck it out for the entirety of 404's late night performance (18+ show). It was good fun, if mostly for the novelty and initial shock factor.
Shock factor? I should elaborate.
The night show was an elimination contest, with points tallied by ratings given by the audience. The improv guys quickly figured out that the key to moving onto the next round was to secure the yaoi vote. Nowhere was this more evident than in an event that required the participants to source their lines from two manga volunteered from the audience.
I want to say both were yaoi just to make a point, but it turns out on closer inspection that one was probably mahou shoujo. You know what, here's a better photo than anything I could take.
It was a pretty short opening, and I wish I was quick enough to spot it.
On second thought, I retract that statement. At any rate, point made.
In the words of one of the improv guys, "Is this audience either female or gay?"
At any rate, the last two survivors had to go for a tie-break, which involved trying to knock the hat off an opponent in a somewhat civil manner. Best of 3. A round is awarded if a hat is taken away, or if someone succeeds in fending off an attempt. Both exchange failed attempts so wound up tied.
The left guy won with a successful takeaway, so a pretty good end to a contest dominated by yaoi innuendo and shameless pandering.
The show closed with the cast ad-libbing one-liners in response to some questions from the host — in their boxers. Enough I said, I think.
J-Rave
Two lines for security check, guys and gals. I don't think there was anything particularly Japanese about the music, the odd time I could hear the music above the building shaking bass busters. Because, you know, Caramelldansen is Swedish. Maybe there was some video game music, eventually (apparently that was the theme), but I didn't stick around to find out.
D300's before point-and-clickers
If it wasn't evident, I used a camera that is way too complicated, and setting it to noobstick program full-auto. Next year, I'll try not to embarrass myself, as much, should I ever get my hands on such a camera again.
Logistics
I drove about 220 km total over the 3-day course of Anime North 2009. I want to say that that's quite a bit of driving, but I know it pales in comparison to some who drive 100+ km just to go to work, not to say anything of the return trip.
Driving meant that I had to brave the early rush hour invoked by a) Friday, and b) the onset of cottage season. On what is purported to be North America's busiest highway, no less. It's fortunate that Anime North is held in the west end; eastbound traffic is consistently backed up to the airport, and the line just gets longer into the dinner hour. Getting past first day pains, drivers will find traffic otherwise light, and parking is plentiful at the TCC.
Nighttime highway driving is fun. This was an excuse to go out and do it. I should have brought along Ultra Blue to loop This is Love.
Obligatory weather comment
It was great, and by great I mean it didn't rain or cloud over at all. The con managed to dodge a major storm system that struck Monday.