[Quick note:  this is another in my series of convention diaries.  These are
merely my reactions to the con, and is in no way meant to be an objective
review.  As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.]

This year I was very much looking forward to AnimeIowa 98.  Last year I went
alone, knowing no one who would be there, having no one to share a hotel
room with (which makes it expensive).  This year, not only would I be part
of the TCAMS (Twin Cities Anime and Manga Society) contingent at the con, I
would be meeting several of my online friends there.  It promised to be
quite exciting.

I drove down with Anna Johnson.  It was a pleasant 4.5 hour drive.  As soon
as I walked into the hotel I ran into Nick Leifker, one of my good online
friends.  We helped Anna move into her hotel room (she reserved one far
enough in advance to get one right at the hotel) then Nick and I registered
at our hotel on the other side of the freeway.  I also met Mark Engels, a
fellow TCAMS member and the head of the fanfic panel.

We registered at the con.  The badges were nice, with very good calligraphy
done on the spot by one of the con staff.  Hanging over the registration was
a giant P-chan pinata, complete with bandana.  I thought it was cute.

I hung around the lobby waiting for Travis Butler and John Biles to arrive,
since we all were sharing a room.  I helped change the room number on the
flyers TCAMS was spreading around to promote our room party Saturday night.

While waiting I went to the con suite.  Last year it was awesome, the best
con suite I've ever seen.  This year it was better.  :)  Unlimited free pop,
vegetables, chips, dip (I loved the dip), cereal, apples, oranges... it was
great.  No matter how much you paid for registration, you could eat your way
back to even by the end of the weekend.

Back in the lobby I met Jeanne Hedge, then Greg Sandborn.  These were both
people I really wanted to meet - I spent far too little time with Jeanne at
Akon, and I'd gone to last year's AI in the hope of meeting Greg - and I
enjoyed talking with them for a bit.

Mark saw the TCAMS president, Mike Kent, with a stuffed Penpen doll.  Mark
went nuts - he's a big fan of Evangelion - and rushed off to the Dealer's
Room.  Soon he was sporting his own stuffed Penpen.

John and Travis finally arrived, and I helped them get moved into the hotel
room.

Finally, *my* turn at the Dealer's Room.

The first thing I saw was very nice hi-quality figurines of various Macross
characters.  Macross and Robotech are both amongst my favorite pieces of
anime, so I absolutely had to buy a some.  I got Minmei and Misa (Lisa).
They really are very nice; I really enjoyed looking into Lisa's eyes.  :)

I also wanted to buy some CD's, but 90% of the CD's for sale were SM CD's.
For those not familiar with the term, SM CD's are basically bootlegs, copies
produced by countries that do no honor international copyright laws.  They
are very cheap, but I won't buy any.  One table, thankfully, had plenty of
non-SM CD's.  I browsed their selection, making future purchase plans.  I
also contemplated getting a smaller but still quite good Nuku Nuku figurine.

Back in the lobby, I spent a good half hour trying to put Minmei and Lisa
together.  It took me a while to realize I had yet to remove a piece from
the box that enabled the whole thing to work.  :)

The Opening Ceremonies got underway.  I missed most of it because I was busy
playing the stand-up Macross game in the lobby.  :)  Quite fun, and free.
People were pounding on it all con long.  Dated graphics and gameplay, of
course, but still a lot of fun.  I saw enough of the Opening Ceremonies to
see Jason Lee say that he was here basically to "police Amanda".

I later heard from other what Amanda had said during the opening ceremonies,
about how the organizers had invited her but had also warned her that the
con was quite small:  "It may be really small but you can still have a lot
of fun with it."

For dinner I had two slices of spinach pizza, which is much better than you
might expect.

I tried to watch Vampire Princess Miyu with Jeanne, but I was simply too
tired - I'd only managed a couple of hours sleep the night before.  I kept
nodding off during the second episode.  I told Jeanne I had to keep moving -
if I sat still I was going to collapse.

This would be a good time to mention the viewing rooms.  They had one large,
nice viewing room with good seating and visibility.  They also used the
ballroom when it wasn't needed for other functions, and there too the
seating and viewing were adequate.  The marathon room (in which they showed
entire runs of series like Key the Metal Idol and Ruroni Kenshin) was a
small hotel room with poor visibility.  Overall, though, the video rooms
were better than I'd seen at Anime Central or this year's Akon.

I sat and watched origami folding for a while.  This is both more and less
interesting than you might think.  Again I couldn't sit still for too long
without keeling over, so I moved on, although not after hearing the guy
teaching the origami promise that next year he'd show us how to make a
Patlabor.

I ran into Travis again, and he showed me lots of pictures on his Powerbook.
The thing doubles as a kind of anime multimedia center.  He has tons of
movies, songs, and pics available at the touch of a button.  I was quite
envious.

As the evening wore on I found myself chatting in a group with Nick, Travis,
Greg, Jeanne, John, Mark, and Anna.  John Biles presented me with a
present - a picture of a female Ranma in a wedding dress.  This was in honor
of my "Thy Outward Part" series of fanfics.  I had to laugh, and the
audience got a big kick out of it.

We also began to put together a series of "You Might Be An Otaku"
observations.  An important distinction was that all such observations had
to be grounded in real life.  Here, then, is the list we came up with - keep
in mind that all of these are true for someone:

If you own raw Japanese video tapes of various anime, but don't own a TV or
a VCR, you might be an otaku.

If your mother cheers you up from your dental surgery by giving you Sailor
Moon video tapes, you might be an otaku.

If you have more wall hangings than you have walls, you might be an otaku.

If you pay $40 for a CD in a language you don't understand, you might be an
otaku.

If you can sing along to that CD and *still* don't know what you're saying,
you might be an otaku.

If you run out of underwear before you run out of anime t-shirts, you might
be an otaku.

If you bring anime fanfics to your professional writing group for critique,
you might be an otaku.

If all of the porn at your bachelor party is animated, you might be an
otaku.

If you join the military and are surprised that they cut your hair, you
might be an otaku.

If you are in your 30's and you try to convince the cashier at Toys 'R Us
that the Sailor Moon Enchanted Castle Playset is for your niece, you might
be an otaku.

And, my personal favorite:

If you know what a steel-jacketed 7.62mm shell can do to a stuffed P-chan,
you might be a redneck otaku. (*)

We had a lot of fun with that.  :)

Random outtake from the conversation we had that night-

Jeanne: <looking at a photo on Travis's computer>  "What's that in Richard's
mouth?"

Richard:  <peering at the same photo>  "Oh, I've got Lara in my mouth."

I bailed somewhat early because I was so tired.  I rested at the hotel for a
while until Nick, John, and Travis returned.  I helped disassemble Nick's LD
player before finally falling asleep.

The next morning I visited the con suite.  Now they had tons of donuts and
coffee, milk, and various juices.  Have I mentioned how great the con suite
was?  ^_^

Mark Engels met me there and told me that Jason Lee had come up to him last
night and asked him with a worried expression on his face, "That guy said he
was going to go to his room, watch some "H", and act upon it.  What does
that mean?"

Had brunch with the fanfic panel members (minus Travis, who was attending
another panel) before we all filed into the Mirror Room for the fanfic
panel.

There were seven panel members and about twelve audience members, so it was
quite cozy.  We made our introductions and talked on many subjects:
Copyright violations, whether one should stick to the spirit of the source
material, how to get a character to fit into the mold of the source
material, etc.

John Biles had an excellent suggestion - imagine the character you're
writing about in a normal, everyday situation, and try to imagine how he or
she would react.  The example he gave is, a character is at the grocery
store trying to make a purchase, and their are a hundred people in line at
the checkout stand.  How would Ranma act?  (Shi shi hokodan!)  How would
Kasumi act?  (Ara?)  Anyway, I found that to be an interesting and useful
idea.

We moved on to: drawing inspiration, writing fanfics as a way to practice
for the craft, why some anime is easier to write fanfics for than others,
and bizarre crossovers that have actually been written.  (Wizard of Oz/Dirty
Pair; Cthulu/Scooby Do).

Other subjects were on "How do you write about subjects you don't know what
its like to experience yourself?"  Greg, who heretofore had been pretty
quiet, spoke up with some excellent insight into the matter.

The panel finally ran out of time (although not after Jeanne said with a
smile, "Chris Davies is going to die.")  I made another pass at the Dealer's
Room, again trying to decide which CD's I wanted to buy.

Nick and I went off to pick up Scott Jamison at the bus stop.  After we'd
picked him up and taken him to the con, I had to go help set up for the
TCAMS room party.  This mostly involved driving around Iowa City trying to
find coax.  When we were set, I went back to the hotel room to shower - it
was hot and I have no A/C in my car.  While in my hotel room, I changed into
my hakama and picked up my bokken.  I always take them with me to a con but
I don't always wear them - for example, they never made an appearance at
last year's AI.  I felt comfortable enough here to do that.

BIG mistake.

No sooner had I arrived back at the con than I was *coerced* into the
cosplay by one of the con volunteers.  Evidently they were a little short of
entries and needed bodies.  I agreed with tremendous reluctance - it was
certainly never my intention, and my costume really wasn't that good.

With growing foreboding, I went to the Guest of Honor Banquet.

The food was quite good - potatoes, salad, chicken on rice, lasagna (very
good), roast beef, and my absolute favorite food in the whole wide world -
kiwi.  :)  After dinner, Amanda Winn-Lee led the audience in singing happy
birthday to her husband, Jason Lee.  The rest of the GoH made speeches, none
of them terribly interesting.  The best part came when Kuni Kimura (head of
Studio Ironcat) gave his speech.  Behind him, Steven Bennett was
expressively mocking him.  Of course, whenever Kuni turned around, Steven
had a studious, interested look on his face.  :)

Anna Johnson arrived a little late to the banquet.  She was in her cosplay
costume - Zoicite.  She was *gorgeous*.  The males at my dinner table were
beside themselves.  I could only murmur a few words of appreciation, which
were wholly inadequate.

After the banquet, the cosplay.

[Imagine a scene:  Richard Lawson in an off-the-rack hakama and wielding a
bokken that had been most recently used to prop open a sliding door.  He is
sitting back stage surrounded by other cosplay entrants.  The murmur of the
audience filing into the ballroom can clearly be heard.  Richard furiously
writes on a notepad while simultaneously trying to make his molecules
vanish.]

I am damned nervous.  Not because I get stage fright, but because I *know*
I'm going to suck.  I've had no time to develop any kind of intelligent
presentation, and the costume (I'm going on as Kuno Tatewaki) is not at all
convincing.  If I'd intended to be *in* the cosplay, I would have prepared
better material.  All I've got is a stupid joke I came up with off the top
of my head.  I told it to two of the nearby cosplay entrants, and they had
laughed, so I suppose it's okay.  Still, I'm seriously contemplating just
walking on and walking off, but I think that would be even more stupid,
since the people who do that usually have elaborate costumes and mine is
simple and stupid.  At the same time, I don't want to make things worse by
telling a lame joke.

Finally, the dilemma torturing me beyond endurance and the cosplay about to
start (I'm fourth on stage), I turn to a young woman dressed as Sailor
Mercury, one of the people who had heard the joke I had prepared.  I tell
her that I would very much appreciate it if she would be brutally honest:
was my joke really funny, or is it kind of lame?  She assures me that it's
funny, and proceeds to do her best to bolster my confidence, which I deeply
appreciate.

The cosplay starts.  Quickly it is Sailor Mercury's turn, and she goes on,
and her costume is actually very nice.  She gets a good round of applause,
as did the other before her.  Now it's my turn.  I walk on stage.
Everything is a blur - I'd removed my glasses and stuffed them inside my
costume (along with my notepad).  This is quite a blessing.  I stand in the
center of the stage and assume a Kunoesque pose.  I stand there for one
seconds, two seconds, three.  My mind is whirling feverishly ("Run!"  "Say
your lines!"  "Run!"  "Do *something* besides stand there like an idiot!")
I begin my joke.  I speak louder than I need to - nervous energy is adding
volume.  Finally, I say my joke.  The audience laughs, and I get the hell
offstage, tremendously relieved.

It took perhaps fifteen seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.  All I can say
in retrospect is that I'm glad it's behind me.  :)

I sat in some seats prepared for the cosplay entrants next to the stage.  It
proved to be a poor angle from which to watch the other entrants.  Still, I
saw enough to be appreciative of the people who were doing it *seriously*.
Among the entrants were Asuka and Rei (done by young women who were very
close to fourteen themselves, and it makes quite a difference; they looked
quite genuine); C-ko; Mousse (with Daffy Duck slippers); Naussica; Urd (who
made a slow, sexy come-on to the MC which left him quivering on his knees
unable to move); Allen Schezar; Akane; and of course Sailor Mercury and
Zoicite.

While the judges were deciding on the awards (of which, of course, I had
absolutely no expectations whatsoever), the MC had the P-chan pinata brought
onstage.  He then proceeded to auction off the right at first whack at
P-chan.  In an endorphin-enhanced rush, I bid $60 and was honestly surprised
when this turned out to be the high bid.

The awards were handed out.  Of the sixteen entrants, nine were awarded
various prizes, including Zoicite (Anna), Sailor Mercury, Urd, Allen
Schezar, Rei and Asuka, and Naussica.  Overall, lots of warm fuzzies all
around.  Afterwards there was lots of pictures taking, and Anna had a nice
picture taken with Steve Bennett.

Then came time for bursting P-chan.  I would only get one swing at it -
after that, the person who bid the second-highest in the auction would get a
swing.  They offered me an umbrella to do the swinging with, but I showed
them my bokken and indicated that the umbrella would not be necessary.  I
gave it a good show, doing slow circles around P-chan before prodding him a
few times with the bokken.  Then, with one might swing, I slew the swine.
Candy and related items spilt forth, and the crowd surged forward to partake
of the spoils.  I was content to stand back and bask in the crowd's favor.
:)

In all honesty, it was a lot of fun.

Then it was time for the TCAMS party.  The room, while being one of the
largest hotel rooms, was nevertheless a bit small for the crowd it drew.
The room quickly became stiflingly hot.  There was lots of free home brew,
though, so not many were complaining.  :)  We watched a parody of the first
episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was hilarious.  Then we watch a
parody of the old Voltron series, which was less funny.  During this time I
saw Greg hoisting a Foster's from across the room.  I was glad to see him,
but it was somewhat a pity that an entire room stuffed with sweating otaku
separated us; I would have liked to have talked to him some more.

I took a break after the Voltron parody.  Mark and I went for a walk
together, talking of various things.  I returned in time for "Otaku no
Video", which I had never seen before.  I really liked the first part; the
second part was less good.  The interview with the real-life otaku was
frightening:  "There but for the grace of God... I *AM*!"

After that I crashed.  I went back to the hotel room, which now included
Scott amongst its occupants.  We all had a very pleasant talk for a while
before drifting to sleep.

Got up, showered, checked out of the hotel room.

Talked for a while with Nick and Greg.  Two very fine gentleman I enjoyed
talking with immensely.  Then they each took their separate leave, much to
my sadness.  I always wish these things went on just a little longer, but
real life beckons.

I finally decided on my CD purchases.  I bought two NGE CD's and one
Escaflowne.  Nuku Nuku I left behind for now.

Then I went to the acting panel, hosted by Amanda Winn-Lee with assistance
from Jason Lee.  Amanda Winn-Lee *really* knows her stuff.  While she said
up front, "I talk like a trucker" and "If you talk during someone else's
monologue I will bite your *&%#*& head off" (both of which were later proven
to be true), she brought a lot of professionalism to this panel.  No
surprise - she's been doing this since she was five.  She was very nice and
offered good suggestions to those who were performing.  She also offered
insight on what it was like to be in the industry.  I myself did a cold
reading (no chance to read the material before performing, unlike the
others, who were given a few minutes).  Anna performed a woman who's just
had a contract put out on her life by her husband, and did it very well.
The best material belong to the guys doing a bit from "Rosencratz and
Guildenstern are Dead", who didn't perform it the best it could be.  A young
woman wearing an orange shirt did a wonderful job performing the part of
someone talking about their relationship with her mother and brother.  I
came away from the panel very impressed with Amanda Winn-Lee's dedication to
her profession and her willingness to teach it to others.

The one and only complaint I had about AnimeIowa staff came during this
panel, which was twice disrupted by a volunteer trying to sell AnimeIowa
t-shirts.  Amanda  Winn-Lee finally had to ask him nicely to stop
interrupting.  His enthusiasm was laudable but needed to be tempered just a
bit.

The Gripe Session followed.  There were very few gripes.  One major one was
that the dealers report incidents of shoplifting, which saddened me
considerably.  I ran into the young woman with the orange shirt, who
commented on the fact that I, too, was wearing an orange shirt.  I told her
that orange was my favorite color; she told me she *owned* orange, and would
I please pay her a $5 royalty.  :)

I watched my first-ever closing ceremonies - I'm usually long gone by now.
And by this point I'd said goodbye to John, Travis, Scott, Mark and most of
the other TCAMS folks.  The closing ceremonies weren't much, mostly the con
organizers thanking everyone in sight and the GoH signing t-shirts.  Jason
Lee did ask, "Please don't share your hentai habits with me."  Kuni Kimura
insisted that, appearances of otaku-ness notwithstanding, he was at the con
simply to do "fanboy research".  Steve Bennett wanted it to be clear that
"Bob (Robert DeJesus, another GoH I never actually saw except at the
banquet) and I are not lovers."  Steve had been at last year's AnimeIowa,
and made a point of saying that it was still fun.

The con was over, and Anna and I drove home listening to our new CD's.

Overall, the con was great.  This is really a very well-run con, and the
staff was *wonderful* - professional yet fun, they never let anything get
out of control and they made a point of making sure everyone was enjoying
themselves as much as possible.  These guys do a con *right*, and if you
have the wherewithal, I would highly recommend attending AnimeIowa 99.

Most of all, though, I go to cons to meet the people, and this one had a lot
of my favorite friends, old and new.  (Zen, we missed you, and we all
thought good thoughts about you.)  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed
talking with Greg, and John, and Travis - I really miss you guys in Kansas.
Nick and I have been online friends for a while, but personal presence is
always ever-so-much more enjoyable.  I was glad to finally get a chance to
speak with Jeanne, since we'd barely had time to say hello at AnimeCentral.
And, of course, it was good to see my Minneapolis friends - Mark and Scott
and Anna and the other TCAMS folks - in the "con" context.  I've never had
so many people I looked so much forward to spending time with together at
the same place.  That made AnimeIowa 98 very special to me, and I'm thankful
to the organizers for providing the venue and my friends for coming and
making me feel so good.

I can't wait for next year when we can do it again.  ^_^

-Richard Lawson
sterman@uswest.net
9/22/98


(*)  "The snapping turtles were dining well."