This is a diary of my experiences at A-Kon X. It is merely a
collection of my reactions to the con and is not necessarily an
objective overview of the con itself.
Also, my con diaries are by now well-known amongst my circle of
friends. From time to time one or the other of them would grab my
diary out of my hand and write something in it. I'll put in headers
to indicate transitions. Most of it will be me, Richard.
[Richard]
I left Minneapolis at 6:30pm Thursday and arrived at Dallas at 9:10pm.
I was met at the airport by Nick Leifker, Sean Gaffney, and Lara
Bartram. We all made our way (eventually) to Nick's parents' house,
where we spent the night. Along the way Sean read us Trivial Pursuit
questions. We also talked about diseases and made bad jokes.
[Lara]
I am tired and hungry and *very grumpy*.
[Richard]
Oh, and don't stand between Lara and her straw.
At Nick's parents' house, Lara played with her toes for me. She even
slapped them as I watched. Eventually we went to bed.
[Lara]
Richard was a slug the entire morning. Nick was not happy about the
slime.
[Richard]
I woke up at 8am and discovered that Sean is a news junkie. Lara gave
me a foot massage.
[Lara]
You wish!
[Richard]
Sean compared Lara to Carol Burnett.
[Lara]
Nick and Richard entered the shower at the same time.
[Richard]
Left Nick's parents at about 9:30am. Sean fed us more Trivial
Pursuit.
[Lara]
I am hungry and grumpy again. Not a good start for the con.
[Richard]
Went to some fast-food place I've never heard of - Chick-fil-a or
something. I also learned a new Gaffneyism: "Dur-hey". No, I don't
know what it means, either.
We got to the hotel at about 11am. I registered; the badges were
nice. I got a program book but not a schedule; none were available.
Immediately we went to the Dealer's Room, which was huge - plenty of
space, plenty of tables, and good traffic flow even during the
heaviest times. I wandered around and bought an Utena CD.
By 11:30am I went back to the registration desk; still no schedules.
Lara and I sat in the lobby and read the program books. We met Zen
entering the hotel and directed him towards Nick. Otherwise we just
stared at the door.
Lara admitted that she can't be sweet.
We checked into our hotel rooms. Travis met us and showed us some
classic 80's arcade games that could be played on his PowerBook. Way
cool.
A little before 2pm I picked up the Lynn Minmay poster I'd brought
with me from Minneapolis so I could have Mari Iijima sign it. Turns
out the 2pm autograph session was cancelled because her plane was
late. I was really irritated, and expressed my irritation on and off
for the rest of the day.
[Lara]
It almost got him slapped, too.
[Richard]
Met Chris Willmore at 3pm. He is one of the most energetic people I
have ever met. We went back up to the hotel room and he showed his
some of his drawings, which were quite excellent. He drew a picture
of Lara lying on the hotel bed that we immediately dubbed "Lara Raye,
Denture Wearer".
While going down to watch the Anime Match game, I overheard a
conversation between a teen-aged boy and girl:
"It's that Usagi pin that Stan's mom gave me."
"That *rocks*!"
The Anime Match Game was a pleasant hour-long diversion featuring six
of the con Guests of Honor as panel members. The Master of Ceremonies
was just excellent. He was witty and entertaining and came up with
some very good Match Game questions.
After that I went up to the ADV Room party. I munched on various
kinds of junk food and watched about ten minutes of Legend of
Krystania. I then went up to the A-Kon Con Suite, which had far fewer
kinds of junk food. A disappointment, really; AnimeIowa is the only
one I've seen get a Con Suite *right*.
Now, besides the Dealer's Room, a lot of tables had been set up in the
lower lobby of the hotel, at which sat various companies promoting
this and that. The table for Galactic Productions was empty, and I
sat at it along with Lara, Stephen Tsai, Sean, Ken Aromdee, and a few
others. We talked for a while. It was very pleasant.
Then I went back to the Dealer's Room hoping to buy some T-shirts. I
had forgotten to pack any shirts with me, and I was *not* going to
wear the same shirt three days in a row. (I'd bought one shirt at the
airport when I'd realized what I'd done.) I found one table that had
a good selection. Sean decided to tell the dealer why I was buying a
shirt; I expressed my displeasure.
[Sean]
What Richard said to me was, "Thanks for telling everyone. Why don't
you tell them about my syphilis, too?"
[Richard]
I bought an OMG T-shirt.
[Lara]
It's too small.
[Richard]
We then went out to Fuddrucker's to eat. During an... interesting
ride during which I alternated between hugging Sean and straddling the
stick shift, we arrived and dined with a large group of con-goers.
Willmore came by to say that he'd whipped David Tai's butt in Dig-Dug.
David later saw what was written in my diary and offered a
counterview.
During dinner we talked about movies, and one person's idea of
crossing OMG with "The Matrix". I thought that was a neat idea; I
definitely want to be plugged into the Anime Matrix.
Back at the hotel, Zen showed us his new invention: a Bat'leh. Way
cool. We scared some of the locals with it.
We went back to the hotel room and hooked up Nick's VCR so that I
could watch the Nuku Nuku Dash OAV tapes that Zen had made for me from
the laser discs I had bought for him. It seemed like a way-cool
story, but it had no subtitles so I couldn't really follow what was
going on. Only that Nuku Nuku says "Yes, Master" before her henshin
scene.
At midnight I went down to the main viewing room. The viewing rooms
at A-Kon were the best I'd ever seen; quite large, with the screen
elevated so that no one's head blocked anyone's view. Lots of places
to sit, and well air-conditioned. The only downside was that the
acoustics weren't so great; the operators did a good job of constantly
adjusting the sound so that you could hear spoken dialogue when
appropriate and not get overwhelmed by the explosions and stuff.
Anyway, I watched "Macross: Do You Remember Love". This remains one
of my favorite anime movies, and as usual it was very satisfying to
see it with a large number of people. During the final song "Ai
Oboetaimasuka", I saw a short Japanese woman come into the viewing
room and walk along the wall, watching the people watch the movie. I
examined her curiously, wondering if this was Mari Iijima. Hard to
tell in the darkness. When she came close by, I decided the woman was
too young to be the thirty-five-year-old Iijima, so I put her out of
my mind.
Upstairs. Shared a bed with Lara. Kept a three-foot "neutral zone"
between us. Slept.
11am Saturday: Up, showered, went downstairs with Sean and Lara and
ended up eating an overpriced breakfast alone.
[Lara]
Lara Ran Off. Ditched Everyone. Writes With Each Word Capitalized.
[Richard]
I exchanged my too-small OMG tee-shirt for a correctly-sized black
shirt with "U.N. NERV" on the collar. I immediately changed into it.
At 11:55am I stood in line to get my Minmay poster signed by Mari
Iijima.
By 12:20pm I'm approaching the table and am unaccountably nervous. A
column blocks my view. I finally get by it and see Mari Iijima. She
is a short Japanese woman. She looks *very* young - mid-twenties
maybe. She has twin nine-year-old sons at the table with her, who are
watching the autograph session with interest. I blink at her,
wondering if she was indeed the woman who walked in on DYRL last
night.
Anyway, I had her sign my poster, and I also bought a T-shirt from her
(since I still was one shirt short for the con). I couldn't think of
anything to say other than "Thank you very much." I leave the
autograph session in a relative state of Bliss. Ah, Iijima-san.
Went back to the hotel room and talked with Sean and Lara some more.
Then I went to the Art Auction. Nothing terribly exciting; I put in a
bid on a Nuku Nuku picture.
I wandered around looking at the gaming rooms. Lots of variety if
you're into that stuff.
Another visit to the dealer's room. Lots of looking, no buying.
At 3pm I went to the Fanfic Panel. I was on the panel along with
Lara, Sean, Chris, Nick, and Megazone. We talked about script vs.
prose (which prompted me to grab the microphone and say "Script
sucks"; this further prompted Nick to take the microphone away from me
and turn it off). Megazone talked about why he gave up on moderating
r.a.a.c. We talked about C&C, flames, fanfic awards, and Anipike.com.
We mused on stories that never seem to end and the fact that Megazone
has two girlfriends.
I got up to leave at 3:55pm, since I wanted to attend Mari Iijima's
Q&A session. Fortunately, RpM stumbled into the room at exactly that
time, having just arrived at the con. Since he'd been scheduled to be
on the panel, I gave him my seat.
As I ran to the Mari Iijima panel, I was stopped by Dave Peterson of
the A-Kon Press, who sported a video camera and was a fan of mine. He
asked my a few questions and I fumbled for a couple of answers.
Then I went to see Mari Iijima. She speaks English very well, having
moved in the U.S. ten years ago after marrying an American. She
smiled and laughed a lot. The following is a composite of the answers
she gave at both her Q&A sessions.
For a long time, Iijima-san didn't know much about anime in the U.S.
She discovered the Internet last year and did a search on her name.
She was surprised at the number of U.S. web pages devoted to her. She
wanted to get in on the action, for fun and to promote her new album.
She wanted to do her own singing career, so she distanced herself from
Lynn Minmay, who was so big. Now, however, she wants to use Lynn
Minmay's name power to help her career in the US.
She will be debuting her new English-only album at Anime Expo. It
will be some of her "greatest hits" translated into English, plus a
few new songs. It will also be available for sale at her website,
www.marimusic.com. The web site is entirely her own creation. She
chats with her fans on the web site most mornings, mostly in Japanese.
She had some trouble creating English lyrics, but insisted on writing
her own. She sometimes has difficulty getting the emphasis and
accents right, and has to have others tell her whether it sound okay.
Translating the Japanese songs was especially difficult because the
English translation required far fewer syllables, and she'd have to
invent a lot of stuff to fill the extra space.
She currently has no record contract; she was dropped from Eastwest (a
division of Time Warner) when the recession hit Japan. Even though
they dropped a lot of artists, she took it a little personally and had
trouble dealing with it. She'd like to have her new album picked up
by a record company, of course. When asked if she would do a tour,
she said she'd want to; would anyone in the audience sponsor her? :)
She also said, "I don't have any promoters. You guys can be my
promoters." The audience agreed enthusiastically.
She's written a couple of songs for other singers, and wrote two for
"Macross: Do You Remember Love?". The songs were "Cinderella" and the
song that plays over the ending credits.
She kind of has two lives; one in Japan, where she's well-known and
given a lot of attention, and one in the US, where no one knows her
and she can be a normal person. She kind of likes it that way.
Her favorite bands are Taxi Ride, Squeeze, Goo-Goo Dolls, and Depeche
Mode. She likes the piano music of Beethoven and Chopin, but was
never into Bach. Her favorite movies are The Shawshank Redemption, A
Perfect Murder, Austin Powers, and Clueless ("It's just like me!").
When asked about the new Star Wars movie, she said she wasn't sure
that the plot was so good, but she liked Jar Jar Binks. Her favorite
cartoons are Power Puff Girls, Pokemon, and Dexter's Laboratory. Her
favorite song that she herself wrote is "Us" from the Good Medicine
album.
She doesn't show R-rated stuff to her kids. Or Jerry Springer. She
likes Bill Clinton, even though he did that dirty stuff.
She did a very short bit of rap on her "Different Worlds" album. She
had never been any good doing rap, since she said that before she
didn't have enough anger to do. Now, however, she does have anger.
Mostly at men. She's been separated from her husband for three years
now. (At the concert during the cosplay, he came out to play the
keyboard; she introduced him as "The father of my children." She also
doesn't wear a wedding ring.) She thinks that, in the long run, it's
been good for her; she's learned some self-reliance.
She's been writing her own songs since she was ten. She trained as a
classical pianist. When she was nineteen she sent out demo tapes. JVC
liked her stuff and sent her to an audition for Macross. Even though
she'd never done any voice acting, she liked the challenge and went.
It turns out she jumped into the final audition, when five hundred
applicants had already been reduced to the final three or four. She
got the part of Lynn Minmay, which was a big surprise for her.
As for actually doing it: it was really just a job. She did enjoy
working with the other cast members, whom she liked.
When some fans, during the show's broadcast, expressed displeasure
with Minmay's character, she thought to herself "Everyone is so mean
to me." (As for most of the things she said, she said this with a
smile.)
Mari Iijima is a very lively person. "I have so much energy I don't
get tired." She's currently a vegetarian, although she wasn't always.
Soon after Macross, she was interviewed on a music show. She was
asked what she liked to eat and she said "I like hamburgers." After
that she was called "Hamburger Girl" for a while, which she didn't
especially like.
She isn't shy about expressing herself. "I don't want to hide my
feelings. I say it first."
She'd never heard of Robotech until she saw it on the Cartoon Network.
When asked about Reba West's interpretation, she said she lived Reba
West's voice, but "the singing was..." (She didn't finish the
sentence, but the audience understood what she meant.) She wondered
if the American voice actors took the acting and singing as seriously
as the Japanese voice actors had.
She hasn't done much in the US, although she's been on a few
auditions. Her biggest obstacle to getting a part, as she put it, is
"I don't have any boobs." :) She got to the final audition for a
part on JAG before losing it. She has to tell everyone that she's
twenty-three, since no one would even call her if she told them she
was thirty-five. She pulls if off amazingly well; I would never have
guessed her true age. She looks *young*. Madonna couldn't pull of
fifteen in "Evita"; Mari Iijima got to the final audition for the part
of a sixteen-year-old.
The only work she's done so far in the US is the making of a radio
commercial for the MTV Music Awards. They seemed to really like her,
so she's hopeful of doing more work for them.
When asked if she would encourage her twins to go into show business,
she related how her popularity began to wane in Japan and her music
sales went down. She asked, "Why are you doing this to me, God?" It
was an awful experience for her and she doesn't want her kids to have
to go through it.
At the end of the first Q&A session she was asked to sing. She was
surprised, saying that she would be singing during the cosplay, didn't
we know? And indeed, we didn't; nowhere in the schedule or in the
program book was it mentioned that Mari Iijima would be singing. Bad
lapse on the part of the con organizers, I think. Anyway, she obliged
us by singing the first verse of "Ai Oboeteimasuka" a-capella.
During the Q&A she called on someone, then said, "Oh, I thought that
was hand, but it was ear." (The person being called upon was wearing
rabbit ears.)
Will she come to A-Kon next year? Depends on if she's asked, and
(with a smile), "How well you treat me." ^_^
I really enjoyed the Q&A sessions; Mari Iijima is very personable and
a joy to listen to. I felt especially good when she said to me just
before the start of the second Q&A session, "Thank you for buying my
tee-shirt."
Anyway, after the first Q&A session, Ken, Lara, Sean, and I went to
the McDonald's in the airport. Talked some more; I was still in
nirvana from the Mari Iijima talk. :) Then we head back to the
hotel, where we run into Zen and David.
[Lara]
Richard plays with David's toys.
David mugs me for my photo.
[David]
Sean, don't look behind you. The Fan is watching. O_o
[Richard]
At 6:40 I get in line for the cosplay. I want to get a good seat to
see Mari Iijima's performance. Alas I waited a bit too long; the line
is quite long at this point.
At 7:10 the line begins to move. The ballroom is huge, with plenty of
space. Although the stage is hard to see from certain angles, a large
overhead screen enhances the view. The worst thing is the sound -
even with microphones, some of the people were hard to understand.
Before the cosplay began, Stephen Bennett was given a Russian rifle.
He seemed stunned by the gift, and quite happy.
Here are a few of the acts that appeared:
An Orion slave girl danced for Tim Thomerson.
Koss-a-chu made an appearance. (Think Koss from B5 with Pikachu's
head.)
A young girl dressed as Hitomi from Escaflowne sang; the audience
waved its arms and held up lighters.
Beryl, Galaxia, Black Lady, and Sailor Mars formed a self-help group.
One of the acts left confetti all over the stage. Eventually the
Hyatt hotel staff came on stage with brooms and dustpans to clean it
up. They got a huge round of applause.
The best Sailor Mars I'd ever seen made an appearance. She didn't
have the long hair, but she had the youth and physique down perfectly.
Two kids played "Anime Fighter", pitting Ranma against Shinji. Shinji
won the first round handily; Ranma won the final two.
My personal favorite was "Central Dogma at 1pm", where we were
introduced, Troy McClure style, to "Kaji's Guide to Getting Some".
Another good skit pitted the characters from Final Fantasy VIII
against Darth Maul.
A home-made Totoro walked on stage. The costume was quite good, and
got a good response from the audience.
Then there was the Sakura Wars Opera Troupe. A very good skit, with
some good singing.
Darth Maul made another appearance, fighting Pikachu. The result was
inconclusive.
There was also another skit involving some really terrific Utena
costumes. I fell in love with the woman playing Anthy; her costume
was just stunning and utterly convincing.
Finally, a Buggrom costume that consisted entirely of balloons. Quite
good.
After the cosplay was over, Mari Iijima got on stage and sang. The
first two songs were in Japanese, the next two in English. The last
was "Ai Oboetemasuka (Do You Remember Love)". Her presentation was
good, her singing excellent. She has a wonderful voice that projects
well; it's a shame the sound system was so bad. The audience reaction
was surprisingly lukewarm; they didn't get much into the songs, and
applauded warmly if not enthusiastically. I myself was enchanted, but
I seemed to be in the minority. Me, I was humming her songs all night
and into the next day.
The award ceremony took place right after Mari Iijima's performance.
The first award went to the Hyatt housekeeping staff. They came back
on stage and were greeted with a standing ovation from the audience.
The Utena skit, Darth Maul vs. Pikachu, the balloon Buggrom, and
Central Dogma @ 1pm all won awards. Best of Show went to the Totoro
costume.
Met up with Lara, Sean, et. al. after the cosplay ended at 11:15pm,
where I found out that Lara is carrying Andrew's love child. (That
comment produced a heart-felt scream from Lara.)
I walked back up to my room, seven floors from where the con was
taking place. Along the way I followed two thirtysomething female
con-goers, both dressed up in anime costumes. They watched yet
another thirtysomething person walk by in a costume, and one of them
commented, "There's another one that's old enough to know better."
Her companion replied, "Yeah, but still young enough not to care."
Back in my room, I watch Utena for a couple of hours. Then we all
went to bed (once again I shared a bed with Lara) and proceeded to
talk until sometime around 3 or 4am.
I woke up late the next morning. During the conversation while we
packed, I talked with Lara about writing a Kuno/Nabiki/Mari Iijima
story.
[Lara]
I forgot my brush. I looked frightening all weekend.
Sunday at the con=live action Dawn of the Dead.
[Richard]
Again we had lunch at Mickey D's. We wandered the Dealer's Room
again, then just wandered about the con. My compatriots decided to
sit in a group just outside the Dealer's Room. I decided I wanted to
go wandering some more.
[Lara]
Complete and utter boredom - he hates us all. ;_;
[Richard]
I went to Anime Jeopardy, but it was badly organized, and the
contestants woefully ignorant. I left early and wandered some more,
especially in the Dealer's Room - can't get enough of that place. Ran
into a few people there.
[David]
David calls Richard the Lord God.
[Richard]
Eventually I decided to buy an Utena figurine and a Nuku Nuku
figurine. At 3pm I went to the second session of Mari Iijima's Q&A,
then I went at 4pm to the Voltron 3-D panel.
This panel was the last of the con, and attendance was poor. Which
was a shame, because the panel members were both knowledgeable and
well-spoken. I learned lots of stuff about how Voltron 3-D is
animated, and how the process worked. Unfortunately, I sat next to a
guy who kept grunting during the panel, then would ask questions in a
very loud voice (just like the guy on Dilbert). There was another
woman in the audience who also kept talking about how badly animated
Voltron 3-D is, and how great other shows are. She had a point, and
the animators even agreed with her about the heads and faces and other
things. But she kept going on and on, past the point of politeness,
IMO.
At the end of the panel, they gave away prizes by quizzing the
audience members. Alas, most of the people in the audience were
woefully ignorant about Voltron (2-D or 3-D), and I kept trying to
answer questions just to cover for them. :) They did give me a nice
cap.
Finally, I met up with Nick and Lara. We went to get our stuff out of
Nick's truck. On the way, Nick nearly rammed into Tom Thomerson.
Lara and I said good-bye to Nick, then we went to the airport and ate
a quick dinner and talked. Then I said good-bye to Lara, then dove
feet-first into a nightmare of cancelled flights and missing baggage
which saw me get home a day later than I wanted to. But that's
another story.
A-Kon X was just great. A-Kon continues to be one of the best cons
out there - big enough to attract good dealers and guests of honor,
not *so* large that the crowd is out of control or that you have to
wait in line for hours to get to the best stuff. This was the most
I've ever enjoyed the programming at the con, and I had lots of
friends to talk to besides. :) Needless to say I'll be back next
year, and I hope that by some miracle I'll be able to free up some
time to go to Otakon so I can do this all over again. ^_^
-Richard
June 9, 1999