Thursday, 17 September...

"Lemme see... got three changes of underwear, three tops, swimming 
costume, jeans, denim jacket... oh!  Toiletries, right!"

I've been to a couple of cons already (two, actually, since April), but 
this is a first: we're actually having to travel to get there, and stay 
at the con for a change.  Up till now, we've enjoyed the advantages of 
being a mere twenty-minute drive (tops) from convention center Rosemont, 
IL.  Indeed, we're considering turning the Ucchan into a B&B of sorts 
during AnimeCentral next year... note I said *considering*... nothing's 
cast in stone.

Geez, the con doesn't start for 20-plus hours, and already I'm 
digressing.  The point is, this is gonna be different: we're gonna be 
there 24-7 this weekend.  Should be interesting.

"... aspirin (for the video rooms and the possibly loud speakers), K-Y 
(for the H room  ^_~)... oh, and I can't leave this laptop behind."

"Ukyou, are you bringing your spatula?"

"Not if Zen's gonna be there, and he shows up at all the cons, doesn't 
he?"  Is there such a thing as spatula envy?  And what would Freud have 
to say about it?  "Where's my bandolier?"

"I think we lost that a while back.  You gave up fighting when we got 
married, more or less."

"Oh yeah... *sigh*  No one's gonna recognize us like this, ya know.  Why 
don't you wear your kimono?"

"And use these crutches under those sleeves?"

"Oh, right.  Sorry."

"Anyway, you got those shirts, right?  And the caps?  They'll do, won't 
they?"

And so on.  It *has* been a while since we were on vacation, and it 
shows.  We don't know how to pack.  Finally, we get Dan-chan assembled, 
and Jeni-imouto-chan comes to pick him up - she just volunteered out of 
the blue last night to take him for the weekend... this might make 
things a whole lot easier... 

Now we're off to stay at a friend's place in DeKalb for the night; hey, 
it's closer to where we wanna be.

Friday, 18 September...

Didn't think to ask our host in DeKalb for an alarm clock; turns out we 
didn't need it.  I guess the bed we share back at the Ucchan has spoiled 
me, but a night on a futon, well... let's just say it made me feel my 
age.  So, I was up by 6:30 am, and, after stubbing my toe three times in 
two minutes, so was Konatsu.  We were off for Iowa City by seven.

And got in town just before ten, three hours before we'd expected to. 
We'd made arrangements to brunch with a couple of old friends - Dave 
Leach, in fact, had stood up in our wedding, and Ton-chan (he's gonna 
kill me for this) ripped his pants diving for our garter.  But, arriving 
as early as we had, we'd caught them off guard... all we got was an 
answering machine.  So the two of us headed into Iowa City on our own.

Is there some kind of rule that college towns have to have confusing 
layouts?  After a few one-way streets and wrong-way turns, I decided it 
was lucky I *hadn't* ended up with Ryoga - I was getting lost quite well 
on my own, thankyouverymuch.  Some collegiate directed us to the Hamburg 
Inn, and I exorcised my personal demon with a bacon/ham/sausage 
omelette.  Very nice place, BTW - I wonder if the attendees from last 
year's con had learned of this place?  If so, the joint'll be filled 
with otaku soon enough.

After a little bit of sidewalk sale bargain hunting (Konatsu-chan is a 
master of the craft  Had to be, ya know), we headed back to the hotel, 
just in time to be trapped behind a foursome of teenagers whose 
reservations didn't seem to have gone through.  More on that later, I'm 
told.  In any case, *we* can't check in, either.  Too early, apparantly.  

So we hung out in the lobby, watching the otaku filter in, flipping 
through the info packet.  It's not nearly as polished as the stuff from 
Anime Central, but somehow, it strikes me as a *good* thing.  There's 
something so much more... real... about this place.  I can feel it even 
now.  It's not as big; it looks like it's more personal.  I have a 
feeling everyone's gonna know everyone by con's end.  That has its 
disadvantages, though...

Anyway, we're sitting with all our luggage in the main room, watching 
"Like the Clouds, Like the Wind."  I'm told it's a Miyazaki flick; 
whatever, it's really good.  There's something about this story a spunky 
girl from the hinterlands that makes Chief Consort f the Emperor's Harem 
that strikes a chord with me.

Finally we manage to check in.  Those four teens without a room come by; 
turns out they've got a room on the other side of the hotel.  Turns out 
our room's over there, too - in fact, we're right across the hall from 
them. It's also on the second floor, which is a bit of a pity, what with 
Konatsu-chan still on crutches and all.  And what's with the two single 
beds?  Oh, well...

While Konatsu-chan relaxes in front of the telly, I head off to the con 
suite, and I have to say hello to the Ironcats, Steve and Kevin Bennett.  
For my mentor Niiru-kun's sake, I have to thank these guys for putting 
out Futaba-kun Change.  I have to confess a lack of personal familiarity 
with the series, and they admit that it took several episodes before it 
really took off.  Beyond that, there's chitchat about our Japanese 
abilities (Steve's far surpasses mine), and something about "Gozaimasu, 
Ohio."  Mark Engel drops in, and places me: "You're Ucchan, for Anime 
Central, right?"  He invites me to his room party after the cosplay.  
Turns out, he's invited everyone; there are flyers for his bash by the 
registration table.  More on that later, too.

On to the dealer room.  This is one place where size could be a problem.  
Not all that much selection, and not everyone takes plastic, either.  
The layout's a bit erratic, too.  Still, I shouldn't complain... finally 
found an SD-Ukyou pin that I couldn't at AC... and anyway, it might just 
be that it's early.

En route to the opening ceremonies:  Travis Butler was showing off some 
QuickTime files on his PowerMac.  Zen had sent him the recordings (he 
wasn't here!), and he'd digitized the opening credits.  Most impressive.  
Jeanne Hedge happened by, declaring that the opening credits Travis was 
just showing were the best thing about Evangelion.  Hmm...

At the opening, the speakers acknowledged that this year's crowd was 
considerably larger than last year's... well, if they say so... anyway, 
it was a hoot.  Robert DeJesus pulled off an... interesting... Clinton 
impression, denying any involvement w/Amanda Winn, and the Ironcats just 
cut up the place... I never knew that a speech in English required 
interpretation.  This con was definately gonna be fun.  Leave it to 
Amanda to put it in prerspective: "My grandmother once said 'Just 
because it's small doesn't mean you can't have fun with it.'"  
Sentiments understood and duly agreed with... not that it's an issue 
with me.  ^_~

Now we could go out for dinner, and Dave, our local, suggests doing 
Japanese.  Well...?  They say Sushi Popo is one of the best Japanese 
places in Iowa City... it's not bad, at that.  Abit pricey, but 
otherwise.  Of course, no okonom-yaki.

A little bit of wandering around, and we bumped into a woman with a 
nametag reading "Name Changes With Costume"... didn't we see you at the 
opening dressed as Akane Tendo, complete with P-chan?  who are you now? 
A swimming costume as Vampire Princes Miyu?  I'll be... but you can only 
wear *one* to the cosplay, ne?

Once Dave and Ton-chan head out (they aren't staying in the hotel, after 
all), we take a quick dip in the pool.  'Natsu-chan's foot is still 
wrapped up, so the one leg has to stay out of the water.  Back to the 
hotel room, where we've set up a VCR of our own.  Ton-chan's lent us a 
Anime18 release, and we take a look at it.  *sigh*  Lunatic Night isn't 
all that titillating, to be honest... and the plot is really confusing 
and weird (yes, we like a bit of *plot* in our hentai stuff.  Anything 
wrong with that?).  Of course, now these videos are showing *all* the 
bits.  Just no hair.  I wonder what the reaction is of Japanese couples 
on their wedding nights when they discover otherwise...

Anyway, we've brought some older standbys, and they're much more 
serviceable... heh.

Saturday, 19 September...

Five hours sleep will have to do.  We'll get even less tonight, I 
suspect.  At any rate, I volunteered to monitor the marathon room for 
Key the Metal Idol.  Got started watching that at AC, and really wanted 
to see what happens next.  Oh, BTW... to the person who recently did a 
"Key" teaser taking place after her 30,000 friends have passed away... 
how about linking her up with Yuta and Mana of Takahashi-megami-sensei's 
"Mermaid" series?  Could make for an interesting triangle...

The marathon room's a new feature, both to AnimeIowa, and to cons in 
general (the few *I've* been to, anyhow)  It's an idea whose time has 
come, given the number of long series that people are interested in.  On 
the other hand, it takes a lot of stamina to follow the whole thing, ne? 
And 'Key' is one of the shorter marathons.  I felt sorry for the lone 
girl when I showed up... she'd been monitoring the overnight showing of 
Irresponsible Captain Tylor, all 26 episodes.  Oy...

I'd left 'Natsu-chan sleeping when I headed out (well, it started at 
eight, after all), but when I visited the con suite for a donut or two, 
my kunoichi was discussing hentai with a few others sitting there.  Ah 
well, I had let Konatsu to do whatever... I had to expect this now and 
again, ne? ^_~

Got tape #5 plugged in just in time to take off for the fanfiction 
panel; Dave took over for me in the marathon room.  Managed to get 
J.W.B.'s signature on my copy of "For Want of a Nail."  Can't believe 
I did that, but how often to you get to meet one of the guys that got 
you interested in fanfiction in the first place, after all?  And it's 
not like I was the only one doing a bit of fawning; most of the others 
on the panel took a turn at directing the "we're not worthy" schtick at 
Biles-sama... damn, though, I thought he'd be older.

The questions tended to deliberately avoid the troubles of late on the 
FFML and RAAF; "Don't feed the troll," as Richard Lawson had put it (and 
put into practice over the past month), and started in on the fine line 
between fanfiction and translations/novelizations.  

The topic of MSTs comes up (honestly, I didn't start it!) and the place 
goes silly for a moment.  Mark starts handing out more flyers for the 
Twin Cities room party - evidently, they'll be doing an group-
participation MST schtick of some badly dubbed anime this evening.  
Cool... I call the part of Crow  ^_~

Anna Johnson soke of the craft of writing, recommending that fledglings 
look into Writers' Digest magazine for the rulles of writing... oy, this
is a much more serious occupation than I treat it as.  Ah, and then 
there's Travis Butler, reminding us that the rules in WD aren't hard-
and-fast, after all...

After a bit of a break, the panic discusses the concept of writing more 
serious fiction.  One man inquires as to how one writes about such 
matters (disease, madness, loss, abuse, and other pleasant topics) when 
one hasn't personally suffered so.  Greg Sandborn: "And you call 
yourself a writer?" (Whaddya know, the man speaks.  All we'd gotten 
outta him up to now was the occassional "What was the question again?  I 
wasn't paying attention"  ^_^)  The response was pretty unanimous: 
research.  Nick Leifker, in particular, mentioned how his own library 
was looking rather strange thanks to his work on "Clothes Make The..." 

The topic finally swings round to self-insertions.  It is time for my 
question to Jeanne Hedge: "I hear Chris Davies is writing an EVA SI 
fic... what is the man *thinking*?"

Laughter.  "Chris Davies is going to die."  She's grinning, so you may 
be safe all the same, Chris, but I think  I'd watch my back if I were 
you.  That, or this is gonna haveta be a damn good fic you're writing.

That wraps it up, apart from some miscellaneous chatting and a few posed 
photos from a e-fanzine writer, and I head back to the marathon room.  
Oh, dear... we ran out of Key.  Volume 8 still isn't available... damn.  
A word of warning to the fellow writing that Key story: things are not 
what they seem, and the later episodes may just pull the rug out from 
under you... but I guess I shoudn't give things away over a public forum 
like this, ne?

Anyway, while Dave pops in El Hazard, Konatsu-chan settles down to a 
card game, and I head off to the con suite.  Gotta hand it to the 
staff... they stocked the place pretty well, considering that there's 
supposedly so many more folks here than last year.

The dealer's room is a little more lively now, too.  Even some 
doujinshi... but no Ranma, darn it.  My mentor mentioned that a Ranma 
doujinshi video exists out there somewhere (he's even sent me stills!), 
but I've been looking for it at two cons now without success.  Oh well, 
guess the Ucchan won't be sponsoring an H room at next year's Anime 
Central after all.

A few purchases (but hardly anything to write home about), and it's back 
to poolside, where Scott Jamison has just arrived.  Poor guy, he'd found 
out about the con less than a week ago, and hadn't been able to get 
Friday off work.  Nor had he managed to grab the early bus to Iowa City.  
As a result, he'd gotten into the hotel  barely half an hour *after* the 
fanfic panel had wrapped up.  

We and a computer newbie named Morgan get to talking with him 
about fanfics, characterizations, and works-in-progress (mine is an 
empty docket, for once).  Eventually, stomachs start rumbling, and 
we adjourn to a local pizza place that 'Natsu-chan recommends from 
chldhood hometown.  

The four of us eat well and have a good time, but we manage to miss the 
cosplay almost entirely... rats.  Looks like the ML's gonna need 
Lawson's report every bit as much as mine, after all... maybe more so, 
in fact.  It is *he*, after all, who's bid the highest for a chance to 
take first whack at this enourmous P-chan pinata the con folks have put 
together.  Bad enough for my report he's so much closer to the action... 
I have the bad luck to be, uh... indisposed... at the moment he actually 
takes bokken to the bacon.  WHACK-o!  and P-chan is rent in twain, or so 
I'm told, with one slice.  He smote it well, it would seem.  I do manage 
to salvage some candy, though, befoer heading up to room 201 for the 
Twin Cities room party ...

Which happens to be great fun.  Besides having a great laugh at a 
fansubbed parody of EVA (while the episode is clearly quite serious, the 
subtitles quite are obviously - and salaciously - NOT), and an 
intentionally misdubbed copy of Voltrons, we do get a crack at MSTing 
a couple of badly dubbed commercial titles: Shadow Skills (which is 
really a stitch every time the lead female asks the lead male - in all 
apparant innocence - to prove to her how he's become a man - and this 
happens, gosh, how many times in the course of an hour?  It gets to the 
point where the hentai among us don't even *have* to comment; everybody 
just bursts out laughing at these junctures.  That's not to say one-
liners aren't being tossed out, mind you...) and a relatively old 
Naausica (sp?) title, 'Warriors of the Wind'... well, that's what the 
company that dubbed the thing call it.  After an experience like this, 
one suspects Miyazaki was pretty reluctant about Kiki getting dubbed.  
On the other hand, it's a reasonably good story, as the jokes sort of 
die down as it comes to a close.

Of course, that might be as much due to the lateness of the hour as 
anything else... it's well past three, and most of the crowd had left 
after Otaku no Video (which 'Natsu-chan and I, having just seen it a 
week ago, woul you believe, ducked out).  By the time Warriors is over, 
the suite is down to a handful.  So we depart as well.  After all, 
there's still...

Sunday, 20 September...

I guess after all that, we should be thankful that checkout isn't until 
noon... still, that's gonna mean several hours of lugging around the 
VCR and the laptop (don't wanna put 'em in a hot car any sooner than 
necessary, ne?) before pulling out.  While 'Natsu-chan sleeps, though, 
I head down to the dealers' room (even slimmer pickings now, as Ironcat 
and the doujinshi place aren't there anymore) and the Grille (buffet 
doesn't close 'til 2 - cool).  After a shower and a bit of fun, we're 
off.

The AnimeIowa staff were on the mark about the brunch, though... 
excellent.  And so considerate of 'Natsu-chan's injury, too - got us a 
seat right by the food, so we didn't have to walk much.  I had to slip 
out, however - with Konatsu's permission - to get to the acting seminar.  
It still makes me think about my little dream of audio fanfiction... 
there's still that one web page someone mentioned a while back with 
such a project in progress.  It's fun watching everybody perform their 
monologues, and even more so watching Amada's critiques.  She can be 
absolutely over the top, and I mean that in a really good way.  The 
only thing I can't imagine (not having seen any Evangelion dubs) is: 
THIS woman is the voice of Rei Ayanami?

[A footnote to that last remark:  I got a chance to ask her about that 
role, and she admitted that one was definately playing against type - 
she considers herself more akin to Rally Vincent.  But she considers 
the subtext of Rei Ayanami when she plays her: a 14-year-old girl with 
(by definition) abysmally low self-esteem, fully aware that if/when she 
dies fighting the Angels, she can be easily replaced, and nobody would 
shed a tear.  I considered that as I made a final run through the 
dealers' room, looking at the Evangelion wallscrolls and other 
pariphernalia.  Poor Rei... if only she knew how the fanboys loved 
her...]

The final pair really had a tough job, rendering a scene from 
"Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead," and did really well on the 
second take... I think 'Natsu-chan is gonna wanna play Questions en 
route home...

Once the acting seminar wrapped up, it was on to the gripes (*My* gripe 
was that this session went on so long, it delayed the scheduled closing 
by a full hour!).  The rumors are flying as to whether we'll be back 
here next year, and they can't be confirmed or denied.  Personally, I 
wouldn't think it's a reflection on the hotel - the con's gotten too big 
for it, really.  Discission on video rooms was rather lively: some folks 
wanted less open play, another suggested multiple theme rooms (which 
makes sense to me, especially since I favor certain genres and tend to 
shy away from others, but I can't tell just from a title)  The organizers 
made known their regrets at not being able to show fansubs of such stuff 
as Escaflowne or Fushigi Yuugi, as these series have been recently 
picked up for translation/distribution in the U.S., and they obviously 
did not wish to trample on legal toes.  They also mentioned one thing 
that came as a bit of a shock to me: there had been quite a bit of 
shoplifting.  This just ruins it for everyone; maybe we ought to treat 
offenders like the P-chan pinata - give the privilege of discipline to 
the highest bidder.  We'd handle both punishment and resititution in one 
fell swoop!  ^_^

Speaking of P-chan, the pinata's severed head was now resting by the 
registration table when I signed 'Natsu-chan and I up for next year, 
complete with Xs taped over its eyes, and an orange setting where its 
mouth would be (evidently they'd run out of apples in the con suite) 
I wondered if Lawson was planning on taking his trophy home... imagine 
mounting *this* monster over your mantle!

With that, though, it was all over but for the shouting.  A big thank 
you to one and all, and we were out the door, and off on our four-hour 
trek home, theme songs and dialogue echoing in our heads.

How'd I like it?  It's a matter of taste, after all... if your goal is 
to obtain merchandise, you'd probably do better at a bigger con in a big 
city.  But if you just wanna met fellow otaku, to see and be seen, then 
you couldn't do better than this place.  It's anime's answer to Cheers... 
complete with everyone yelling "Steve!" when Mr. Bennett walked into the 
room for closing ceremonies.  I recommend it... it's *real.*

Itsu mo,
Ucchan   ^_^

*sigh*  Geez... this report's larger than my last four fanfics *combined*...