What is this? I've been back from AnimeFEST for nearly
a full day, so where are all of the con reports? I see a nice con
report from Ukyo, but it's about some other con that I doubt I'll
ever attend. (They have anime in Iowa? ^_^ )
Okay, so here's my con report. I didn't take notes so this will
be jumbled rather than linear.
My two friends (Sky Rigdon, Tom Hayes) and I flew down
from Seattle on Thursday, arriving about noon. Since we left our
house at 4 am, all three of us had stayed up all night packing and
playing Everqest (Game addicts! Ack!). So most of Thursday
afternoon involved us napping, and me checking e-mail online
and posting a new spamfic (laptops are wonderful things!)
Friday morning we got registered and hit the dealer's room.
AnimeFEST is a small con, not sure of the exact number of
people but I'm pretty certain it was well below 1,000. So the
dealer's room was a bit small. I bought an Utena soundtrack (the
only one I didn't have already) and 3 Beanworld graphic novels
(at an anime convention? Yup.)
Nick had posted that all the fanfic authors were to meet
Friday at 8:30 pm by the fountain. Just as I was explaining to my
friends that THIS time I would at least recognize some of
them/be recognized by some of them, Nick leaned over my
shoulder and said hello (and I still had to check out his nametag -
duh). I got introduced to Krista and Michelle and Gary, and then
the group broke up. Turns out they'd already eaten dinner, and
Krista was rushing off to see some show she liked. Some of the
other authors started talking about fanfics in general and what
THEY had done to Ranma in THEIR fanfic story in particular,
and this was the cue for my friend Sky and I to leave. There's
nothing more boring than a fan fiction author explaining their
stories to you. Stories are meant to be read. ^_^
We ate at the hotel restaurant most of the weekend, ate at the
nearby Denny's twice, which had a much greater selection and
much, much worse service. The hotel restaurant had a cajun-
style blackened tuna steak that was VERY good. Most of their
food was very good, if expensive.
At Michelle's suggestion I caught an episode or two of
Child's Toy. It's an interesting, but strange, series. The main
character is about as hyperactive as any character I could name.
I ran into Krista again on Saturday about a half hour before
the panel. The fanfiction panel had been pushed back from 2pm
to 3 pm and the room had changed a couple of times. It was now
being held in one of the gaming rooms, but there were several
televisions set up with various computer game systems and
people playing away. I followed Krista around while we tried to
figure out what to do about this... the gaming people had only set
up at noon, but we had to kick them out anyways. They wanted
to push us back another hour but the decision was made that the
fanfic panel had been bumped too often already, so they had to
pack up. That's how things go at a con I guess.
Everyone who was supposed to be on the panel showed up on
time (as far as I could tell). Talk about a star-studded panel!
Michelle told me later that she felt a little out of place, and I
suppose I did as well, but I ran into a few people over the
weekend who had read my stories, so that was cool. (For that
matter, at Bakacon [now Sakuracon] I have only found one or
two people who've ever heard of me, and that's right here in
Seattle where I live).
The panel seemed to go well. As usual, there were a few
people (one in particular) who didn't so much want to ask the
panel questions as to talk about their own fanfic story and/or
ideas, but overall things went well. We had an hour and a half,
which is good, one hour is usually not enough time for this sort of
thing.
When asked what fanfics we were desperately waiting for the
next chapter of, everyone pointed to Krista, hehe! Krista pointed
back to the rest of us -- she picked authors she liked for the panel
after all! I mentioned that I also waited on each chapter of Girl
Days, and at least one panelist (won't say who, hehe!) winced.
Hey, Kenjiko may not write as well as (for example) Krista, but
he makes me laugh... so I was just being honest. ^_^
(Of course, latest chapter of Girl Days came out right after
that... Sunday I think... and, strangely enough, I didn't find it as
funny or enjoyable as the previous chapters. Sigh. Well, with
this strange plot over, it should get fun again.)
I visited Nick's room that evening and (along with a lot of
other people) watched some anime (Dirty Pair, Sabre Marionette
J) but didn't really get to talk to most of the other authors at all.
Monday afternoon Sky and I got to talk with Michelle for an
extended period of time, but that was about the only real time I
spent talking to any of the other authors. Michelle was a very
nice person though. She said the other authors had had some
talk/jam sessions, I was just never around for them. Oh well.
Sky sat in the 'artist's alley' near registration for parts of
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. His art (colored in Paint and
Photoshop) is very nice, and caught the eye of one of the art show
directors, among others. I sat for part of the time working on (of
all things) "I Can See Clearly Now", my long-neglected short
story. Maybe I'll finally finish the darned thing.
There was a guy, won't say his name but Sky nicknamed him
"Red Hat", who went around asking every artist in the area if
they would draw pictures for him. He was offering small
amounts of money ($5.00 usually) for pictures of anime girls
sitting in his lap or leaning against him. I think just about
everyone in the con encountered this person at some point, and it
became kind of a joke to ask the artists to draw a picture of you
with Ranma-chan (or whoever) in your lap. We ran into a group
of merchants at dinner who had also encountered him...
apparently he was even asking _merchants_ to draw these
pictures for him, even though most of them didn't draw. They
had a photocopy of a 2-page handwritten description of one such
picture, complete with odd misspellings ("Girl Ranma is lending
against me, her top unbuttoned, her BIG BREASTS..." ...well
you get the picture). Then, later, we found out that he'd also
bothered some of the fanfic authors while they were eating, and
asked them to draw similar pictures, or to write stories where he
wound up with Ranma-chan or else fell into the spring of
drowned girl himself... etc. etc.
The good news, I suppose, is that he bought a book on how
to draw, so that he could learn to create these pictures himself.
^_^
I didn't know who Kionen was before the con, but I do now.
He was doing security patrol for the con, and warned me to "not
block the entrance" to one of the video rooms. Well, I understand
how annoying it is when people stand in the doorway and don't
move in to sit down, so that others can't get in. Well, I'd been
standing by the entrance for a full fifteen seconds trying to read
the posted schedule, which was on the back of the door so you
HAVE to block the entrance just to read it... not that I was
blocking anyone, as the hallway was empty save for the two of
us. ^_^
Anyway, we struck up a conversation, and Kionen's a fanfic
author as well (someone else told me he had never actually
posted to the FFML, but I thought he told me that he had). Very
friendly person, the type to say hello every time he sees you in the
hallway or wherever, kind of overeager and fanboyish, needs to
slow down and relax a little, but I'll tell you what, he's a LOT like
my friend Jeff was when I first met him, and not only is Jeff one
of the nicest people I know, he also now knows EVERYONE in
Seattle fandom circles, because he's always been the eager-beaver
fan type who volunteers at the drop of a hat and strikes up
conversations with everyone. So I say, go Kionen! ^_^
I didn't get to speak to Gary Kleppe much, but he was not
exactly as I expected, although I'm not really sure what it was
that I did expect. I guess it's that, on the FFML, he never holds
back on his opinions and is never afraid to comment on a story
(he comments publicly on stories as much as or more than anyone
else imo), so I guess I expected someone who has a very forceful
personality and maybe even tries to dominate conversations or
hold everyone's attention... and he's not like that at all. In fact, he
seems rather quiet and unassuming, (although I was told, wait
until he's on one of his favorite subjects/pet peeves). He stayed
around answering one fan's questions for several minutes after
everyone else had left the fan fiction panel, so if I didn't already
know he goes out of his way to help others, I got another
demonstration of that fact. ^_^
We met someone else from Arkansas who WAS the sort to
dominate a conversation. He seemed like a very nice guy, but all
conversations with him were monologues by him. He wasn't
really interested in letting anyone else string a complete sentence
together. Ugh. Doesn't matter HOW friendly you are, people
like that are not fun to be around.
Tom and I stayed up late Sunday night and watched Serial
Experiment Lain, 4 episodes. What a creepy series! The first
two episodes are extremely confusing, but after that, things start
to fall into place. This is an anime for those who like to think... if
you liked Evangelion and Key The Metal Idol, check this out. If
you prefer Dirty Pair and Street Fighter II, well, it may not be for
you. ^_^
I bought three Ursei Yatsura (Lum) graphic novels, in theory
to have something to read for the flight, but both of my
roommates and I read all of them before the weekend was done.
Funny stuff. Sky actually likes the series now, although he
couldn't stand it before. ^_^
Our flight was for 8:38 pm Monday night, but was delayed
until 9:00 pm. Even with gaining two hours between Dallas and
Seattle, we didn't touch down until after 11:00 pm. Factor in the
time to get our luggage, wait for the shuttle, get my car out of the
park 'n' ride, drive all the way up North to Everett to drop Sky
off, then head back home... I didn't get to sleep until after 1:30
pm.
And now, here I am at work! Fun! ^_^
Thanks to Krista, Nick, Michelle, and all of the other authors
and people I got to meet this weekend! The con was fun, the fan
fiction panel was fun, the fan fiction contest was well-run
(although I'd suggest an earlier cut-off time for submissions next
time, heh), and we all had a good time!
Oh -- the winners of the fan fiction contest? Hehe, I won't
spoil anything, that's Krista's department. ^_^
Miko
http://members.xoom.com/bellchan/