And now, from the creators of "Sovereignty-Association Girl Nanami," a
hard-hitting, thought-provoking look at anime in English Canada today.
That's what I'd like to say. What I actually have on offer is a very
late con report from Anime North, as promised to Ucchan. I hope it's
worth the wait, because it nearly drove me mad. I'm really not sure
I'll attempt something like this again. I really could use all that energy
for fanfics.
In any event, thanks to Amelia Corrigan (of whom much is said below)
for setting me straight on chronology of events, and Ucchan for just plain
setting me straight.
This is long enough that I've split it in three, corresponding more or less
to the three days of the con. The fanfic panel was on Saturday, so those
interested just in the fanfic panel can just read the second section.
A disclaimer is in order. I take the name of my current employer in
vain several times in what follows, often enough that I should stress
that nothing in this piece should be construed as the opinion of the
Bank of Canada. As far as I know, the Bank doesn't have any opinions on
anime. To tell the truth, it would be very peculiar if it did.
Comments welcome (especially if you were there at the time).
Paul Corrigan
studio_poutine@yahoo.ca
---
All Roads Lead to Brampton
---
An Anime North con report by Paul Corrigan
---
---
Avant-propos: Mon souper avec Nanami
---
I have a life now. It's overrated.
The oldest bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, is the Alexandra Bridge, or the
Interprovincial Bridge, built in 1901, joining Ottawa to Hull, Quebec.
When it's warm enough to go for a walk around Ottawa, I invariably stop
on the passenger walkway on the bridge, to watch the Ottawa River go
by, framed by Parliament Hill on one side and the Museum of
Civilization on the other, and reflect. If you've never been to Ottawa,
but you have seen _FLCL_, the best description of Alexandra I can give
you is the railway bridge in Naota's home town, under which one might
find Mamimi playing truant, smoking cigarettes and molesting Naota.
I used to see Ottawa on the Canadian television I watched as a means of
escape from my graduate-school worries when I got bored with anime.
That partly explains the odd fascination with Canada that led to me
browbeating Alan Harnum into helping me write "Sovereignty-Association
Girl Nanami" (or writing "Les perce-neiges de février", my Karekano fic
about Kano Miyazawa, single-handedly). Only partly. The only time I've
met Alan in person was during my first visit to Toronto, where I had
gone for my first job interview with the Bank of Canada. He was a
gracious host, taking time out to show me around the University of
Toronto area (including Queen's Park, where the Ontario legislature
meets). He's more or less admitted to me that the world of his _Utena_
fics is thinly fictionalized Toronto, and the opportunity to see where
_Jaquemart_ and "The Graduates" was set coloured my perspective on his
work ever after. Having said that, Alan didn't seem too sure what to do
with me, clearly finding my apparent belief that everything in Canada
was cool (in every sense) more than a little bizarre.
Then again, nobody ever mistakes their home town for Graceland. The
people always most amazed to hear about the popularity of Japanese
animation in North America is the Japanese themselves, and when they do
hear about it conclude that these Americans who love cartoons that much
must be partially out of their minds. At the Michigan State University
student club fair, those actual Japanese who would pass our table would
be curious, to say the least, but expressed only polite interest in
joining at best. At worst they walked away from us laughing. I suppose
my Canadaphilia is bizarre, but no more bizarre than the Japanophilia
of anime fans, particularly those who've never actually been to Japan.
One often hears of anime fans disappointed to find the real Tokyo
doesn't measure up to the Tokyo of anime, the Paris of their dreams,
the place (as Beavis and Butthead once said of Seattle) where no matter
where you cast your eyes, everything you see is cool. When to my great
surprise I got the job in Ottawa, I thought I'd be moving to the Paris
of my dreams, too.
I'm in no hurry to move on. The "Washington of the North" is more
beautiful, at least to me, than DC, or for that matter most American
cities of a comparable size. I still haven't tired of looking at
Parliament Hill, when I walk past it on a lunchtime stroll when the
weather's good. If _Descendants of Darkness_ could be set in Japan's
Diet Building (or the otherworldly mirror-image thereof), one could
easily set a Gothic horror anime of the shojo type at the Canadian
Parliament buildings, their stained glass and gargoyles invoking a
medieval church, instead of the classical Roman-style temples to
liberty one sees in DC. The Hill comes complete with the Centennial
Flame, perfect for a bishonen hero to sit and brood over of an evening.
As it is it's used as the backdrop for a free sound and light show put
on for tourists every day during the summer. They'd never do that at
the US Capitol.
Throw in the memory of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, whose public persona as
the Rose Prince of the North was of a man who had apparently stepped
right out of _Utena_, and one could be forgiven for saying to oneself,
as I did when I first saw Parliament Hill, "Welcome to Ohtori Academy."
The only question left would be whether Pierre was a previous
incarnation of Akio Ohtori.
But it was sooner rather than later that I realized that, once I
stepped away from the glamour of Parliament Hill, I was in a provincial
city of at most a million people, depending on how one calculates the
size, by no means the most cosmopolitan even in Canada. A city like
Naota's where (unless you're an MP) nothing much happens.
I briefly considered, before I realized it was too much of a self-
insert, writing a fic with Naota, a bit older with a job in Ottawa,
being knocked down by Haruko (who, like Misato and Electra before her,
is an Older Woman archetype, and hasn't aged a day, of course) on the
Alexandra Bridge. It takes her a while to recognize him, and vice
versa. Naota's not a little boy any more, and for his part Naota isn't
quite sure he didn't dream it all. Now he's a bit bigger, though, he's
a bit more handsome, and Haruko is more inclined to carry him away on
her Vespa, though she won't tell him that at first. What the hell. It's
nearly the New Year, so maybe she'll go see Kamon. Maybe Naota wants to
come with...?
Like Washington, DC, a compromise location situated between the North
and South, Ottawa was deliberately located on the border between
English and French Canada. French Canada begins at Ottawa even today. I
had in mind the tale of the chasse-galerie, where the devil offers the
lumberjacks of the Ottawa River Valley a ride home to their loved ones
for the New Year in a magic canoe, the payment being their souls. The
French Canadian accent is nasal enough that I couldn't help but give
Haruko some French. Être tout seul le Jour de l'An, c'est pas trop le
fun, hein...
But no. Naota as an Ottawa suit would make him Amarao. Haruko wouldn't
knock me over with her Vespa if I paid her, much less invite me to run
the chasse-galerie. I reckon she prefers to steal the souls of younger
men.
---
My sister Amelia was the biggest reason I went to AN instead of Anime
Central this year. Certainly I would not have gone to Anime North
alone. SOAP, the umbrella organization for the anime clubs in the
Ottawa area, run package tours for Ottawa area residents going to Anime
North (bus fare to Toronto, shared room), but I don't actually go to
the clubs at Carleton University or at the University of Ottawa, so I
would have felt awkward. The difference when I went with the Michigan
State University anime club to Anime Central was I was with friends. I
still have friends I met through anime, but not in Ottawa.
I couldn't afford to move my anime/manga/anime magazine collection,
most of which I knew I'd never look at again, so I gave the good anime
to the East Lansing Public Library (where it would have a good home),
the bad to used CD stores for cash (for all I know it's still there),
and the manga and the anime magazines to the MSU Library, which has a
large popular culture collection (and where they'd definitely have a
good home).
I'd been in the habit of giving Amelia first dibs on anime I didn't
want any more (she has my _Karekano_ fansubs, for instance), and she
wasn't happy when I sold or gave my anime away to someone else. So, to
placate her (and being partially out of my mind), I offered to make it
up to her by taking her to Anime North, which cheered her up immensely.
Our parents insisted that she take the plane from Cleveland to Toronto.
My father never enjoyed picking me up or dropping me off at the
Cleveland bus station, which, suffice to say, isn't in the most
fashionable part of Cleveland, and had no intention of leaving his only
daughter anywhere near it by herself even if she was nineteen now. To
be fair, Amelia admitted herself that she wasn't looking forward to
riding a bus by herself for seven hours. When I invited her to tag
along with me on my apartment-hunting trip to Ottawa, riding Greyhound
from Cleveland to Ottawa was twelve hours of hell, even (especially?)
with me to keep her company.
Me, I didn't care--I was taking the bus to Toronto. I guess I must have
a high tolerance for roughing it. For my house-hunting the Bank of
Canada would cheerfully have flown me to Ottawa, but they wouldn't pay
for Amelia's ticket. I couldn't afford one ofr her at the time, but I
wasn't going without her, so I offered to bill them for my bus ticket.
I remember Amelia wondering aloud whether they couldn't let me go on
the bus and pay to put her on the plane.
---
I would think myself (if I really thought I was that important) the
scourge of fanartists unlucky enough to cross my path at Anime Central.
Overcompensating for my lack of productivity in the fanfic department.
I make them work, given the jaw-droppingly odd assignments I give them.
Spare a thought for Canada's fanartists.
Anime North was on the weekend of US Memorial Day. The weekend before,
the wettest and most miserable Victoria Day holiday weekend anybody in
eastern Canada could remember, saw me wandering all over downtown
Ottawa and Hull, disposable camera in hand, taking pictures of
everything in sight, for use by fanartists as models of the frames for
my visions of my anime idols in Ottawa.
Where would Kano Miyazawa, _SAGNanami_ fangirl and Canadaphile
extraordinaire, take her big sister Yukino on her visit to Ottawa?
Parliament Hill...? But no! This is _my_ fantasy, so of course they'll be
outside the Bank of Canada, where Kano will one day work. Yukino
herself, of course, will be the first prime minister of Japan after
Japan's liberation from the dominion of the Genom Corporation in the
early 2040s.
(In Ottawa, every other building is graced with the Government of
Canada's "trademark," the word "Canada" with the Maple Leaf flag of
Canada flying from the "d." As far as I know, the Canadian government
is the only sovereign government that advertises to its own citizens;
every TV ad out of half a dozen is "a message from the Government of
Canada." One would think Canada was run by Microsoft--or Genom. On my
worse days I sometimes wonder if I _am_ working for Genom.
"CANADA--WE OWN YOU."
Looking at my huge monthly tax withholding doesn't reassure me either.)
I take a photo of the bench in front of "Centre Block," the original
Bank of Canada building with its Art-Deco façade. I manage to get the
tulips planted by the bench, in honour of Ottawa's annual tulip
festival, in the shot.
While Kano played on the Ottawa side, Nanami Kiryu, la fillette
souverainiste, would surely much rather be in Quebec. When my mother
and aunt had come to Ottawa the week before I had taken them to le
Troquet, on rue Laval near place Aubry in old Hull, the traditional
place to club around Ottawa in the old days, before Ontario's last call
hours were extended, and still the location of most of Hull's clubs. Le
Troquet itself I sold to Mom and Patsy as a real French café, or at
least the closest one was likely to find in Gatineau. Of course Mom and
Patsy had been to French cafés in Paris, but they seemed to like it
well enough.
On the patio the chairs are stacked on the tables. Nobody is crazy
enough to be sitting outside with the weather this bad, though it's not
actually raining at the moment. I take down the chairs at the table
nearest the door, and try to find the best angle to take a picture so
at to get both the door and the table at which Nanami will sit. Of
course the evening Nanami is here the weather is perfect. Nanami is now
fully grown, of course. She might be a student of French, at the
bilingual University of Ottawa...But no; she's at the more prestigious
Université de Montréal, here on a daytrip to the capital of English
Canada. Better still, she might even be a young diplomat with the
Japanese embassy. The Kiryus would have the connections to get her that
kind of job. After a long day she's at le Troquet, sipping a glass of
wine. Perhaps she has a companion with her; Miki Kaoru perhaps, or,
tant mieux, a Québécois chum...
--Qu'est-ce que vous faites, monsieur?
A waitress has come out of the café. I know I looked suspicious,
playing with the chairs in the rain. It was Mom and Patsy who pointed
out to me that le Troquet seemed to be mostly a women's hangout, a
place to meet one's girlfriends. I could easily be a stalker. What am I
doing, she asks? What indeed? Even if my French was good enough to give
her the whole story, she might think I was mad. I can't count on her
knowing about _Utena_. She looks a bit young even to remember _Lady
Oscar_; it's been broadcast in Quebec, but I don't know how long ago.
An art project, I'll tell her. Not far from the truth, and I was still
a student a year ago. Ucchan flatters me that I still look young enough
to pass for one. How does one explain to normal people the lengths (or
depths) one will go to for one's anime dreams? I was more than a little
embarrassed to tell my supervisor at the Bank the reason I wanted the
day off on Friday to go to Toronto, when a more diligent young
economist would have been at a conference that weekend in Hamilton,
even though (as I told him) I'd arranged the Anime North trip before
I'd even started at the Bank, and bailing now wasn't an option. Even at
the bar when a Bank colleague waxes eloquent about Angelina Jolie after
a few beers, it's hard to join in. It'd take too long to explain who
Yukino Miyazawa is, much less what she has that Angelina ain't got,
even if Yasuo is Japanese himself and does remember Lum from _Urusei
Yatsura_.
--Euh...ouais...c'est pour un projet d'art...mon sujet est les lieux peu
connus � Gatineau et � Ottawa...je vous dérange, mam'zelle?
--Non, non, pas du tout.
She appeared to believe me, but I had gotten my photo, so I decided now
was my cue to go in and buy a slice of cake before she called the
police.
Haruko, of course, would be on the Alexandra Bridge. I took a photo of
the passenger platform of the bridge, getting the Interprovinicial
Bridge plaque in as well, so we know it's Alexandra. It turned out okay
for the purpose, but it would have helped if the weather had been a
little better.
---
Friday: All Roads Lead to Brampton
---
Even Canadians who are otherwise professed federalists identify with
their home provinces much more than Americans do with their particular
states. My supervisor is from Montreal. His professed language is
English, but that doesn't mean he knows much about Toronto.
"You're going to Toronto?" he asked me.
"Yes sir."
"Hm...I always wondered...what is there really to see in Toronto anyway?"
"Uh...that big CN tower thing...?"
I wasn't sure how to answer myself. It is shocking to me too, but the
fact was that it was French, not English Canada that had always held my
interest. When I want to go to the big city it is Montreal, not
Toronto, that I always go to. It was to Montreal I had taken Amelia,
after we'd done with the house-hunting (to see the St.-Jean-Baptiste
Day parade), and my mother and aunt when they came to see me. (It helps
that Montreal is only two hours away by car; Toronto is at least four.)
I hadn't actually been to Toronto since my interview, and that had been
in December 2003.
I don't plan to spend much time in downtown Toronto, mind you (unless
Amelia and I find the con so boring we decide to bail and take in the
town instead). Anime North is to be held at the Doubletree Hotel on
Dixon Road near Lester B. Pearson International Airport; the dealer's
room was to be in the Toronto Congress Centre across the street.
Anime North doesn't officially begin until Friday at five o'clock, so I
have booked Amelia a flight that gets to Pearson at 3:00. I have to be
there ahead of time to meet her, and I've never been to Pearson before,
so I decide to take the early bus from Ottawa to Toronto at 7 am, and
get there in plenty of time to find the hotel, check us in and pick up
our con badges before the rush. Behind me in line are a few teenage
boys talking about anime, and I ask them if they're going to Anime
North. No such luck. All the AN con-goers will have left the previous
day on the SOAP bus after all. It's going to be a long five hours.
I don't have many anime CDs, and don't bring that many with me to
listen to on the bus. I do bring quite a few CDs, far more than I can
listen to in five hours (I never could make up my mind), but the only
anime-related CD I listen to on the bus is the Pillows' _Penalty Life_,
recently released in North America, and I don't get to it until I'm
almost in Toronto. What I actually listen to while I watch the Ontario
countryside roll by along route 7, on the way to the route 401 freeway,
are Canadian roots and folk-rock: La Bottine souriante, Les Langues
fourchues, Great Big Sea.
I must be the only fanfic writer to ever attempt a Great Big Sea
songfic, starring Osaka and Chiyo from _Azumanga Daioh_. "What Are Ya
At?" is a song about Newfoundlanders who've emigrated to mainland
Canada; my songfic was actually set at Michigan State University, where
Chiyo has gone to college and Osaka comes to visit. I had observed
casually to a Canadian on IRC that Osaka's dialect might be equivalent
to a "Newfie" dialect. (The stereotypical "Newfie," coming as he does
from the backwater of Newfoundland, is poor, ignorant and not terribly
smart; however, he often redeems himself by having more common sense
than his more sophisticated mainlander neighbours put together.
Canadians tell, or used to tell, "Newfie" jokes the way Americans used
to tell Irish or Polish jokes.) Said Canadian had visions of Osaka
singing Great Big Sea tunes. After buying Great Big Sea's first CD in
Toronto, it was only a matter of time before I'd write a "What Are Ya
At?" songfic.
When I finally wrote it and put it on ff.net, it got a few good reviews
before the ff.net Nazis removed it and temp-banned me for a week. In
the end I sent it to rec.arts.anime.creative. I guess ff.net won't want
my _Maria-sama ga miteru_ songfic using "Le chanson des roses blanches"
as performed by Les Langues fourchues (starring Sei Sato, of course).
At the rest stop in the cottage-country town of Tweed, Ontario, I call
Amelia from a payphone, to see if she's up and well enough to travel,
to remind her when her flight leaves, and--in particular--to remind her
to bring something important (non-anime related) that Mom had meant to
bring the previous week but had forgotten. At around 9:45 am Amelia is
still in bed. We Corrigans have never been morning people. At Amelia's
age I was rarely up before noon if I didn't have to be, and she doesn't
have to be, thanks to her being on vacation and my booking an afternoon
flight. She mumbles something like, "Yes, I packed it last night, don't
worry," still half-asleep. I decide to hang up and let her doze for a
few more minutes; I feel bad about waking her up to remind her about
her role as delivery girl, and my bus is about to leave anyway.
I arrive in Toronto around noon; Pearson Airport is another hour away
by the Toronto subway and commuter bus, and the Toronto Congress Centre
requires changing at Pearson for yet another bus. Just outside the
airport, I see a billboard reading
ALL ROADS LEAD TO BRAMPTON
All I know about Brampton, Ontario, is that it's one of Toronto's
larger suburbs and that my uncle's brother lives there. This did not
keep me from concluding that any universe possessing a Bramptonian
Empire in its timeline was not one I wanted any part of.
Jacques Parizeau, sometime premier of Quebec and campaigner for Quebec
independence, liked to tell the story of how he had once boarded a
cross-country train a federalist and got off the train a separatist.
His first good look at English Canada had left him with an impression
of a place so alien that he could no longer think of it as being part
the same country as his own. I could actually forgive Jacques Parizeau
just then (for that at least). I was surprised myself how used I had
become to (say) all road signs being bilingual as they are in Ottawa
(as are many businesses and ads, especially on the sides of trucks, so:
"Déménagement Jones Movers.") In Toronto, I saw more Polish than
French; Toronto has a Polish language newspaper (I saw someone reading
it on the subway) but precious few French signs at all, except within
the grounds of the airport (as per federal regulation). I imagined
Nanami going into convulsions, while trying to square this place with
the bilingual world I knew in Ottawa, and not to wonder if I was in
Canada at all. Perhaps I had entered the Bramptonian Empire after all.
The bus drops me off at the Doubletree. The Congress Centre is across
the four-lane Dixon Road strip, which Amelia and I will find ourselves
crossing quite often. A long hike to the front door of the Centre
brings me into contact with my first Anime North volunteers. I ask them
where pre-registration is. Apparently it's at the hotel. Back I go,
finding an information desk to ask where pre-reg is. It was, of course,
at the Congress Centre in the first place. I am not amused, given I'm
still carrying my whole life on my back.
There is a consolation prize: getting to see someone I recognize. Sean
Gaffney. He's impossible to miss with that hat of his, but we don't
know each other that well, and he needs a second to remember me. A bit
of a letdown, but I'm not that important after all. He'll be on a
couple of panels, but the yuri and lemon panels, not the (regular)
fanfic panel. I tell him I'll be by.
Back over the road to the Centre, to find that the front door won't
take me to pre-reg; I have to follow the otaku around the side to
entrance of Hall D, the large convention hall, where I finally find
pre-reg, along with the dealer's room and Artist's Alley (not yet
open). Mercifully I'm here early enough that there's no waiting for
pre-reg, though "at the door" registration is already looking ugly. I
have the receipt for both my and Amelia's registration, and am able to
grab both our badges easily.
Badges and materials in hand (well, okay, in my bag), I go back over
the road to the hotel to check in. I see my first cosplayer (sort of);
a nerdy spectacled fellow of about twenty, clad in the Marijuana Leaf
flag (sort of like the Maple Leaf flag, only with obvious changes to
the leaf design).
"And you are, good sir?"
"Marijuana Man!"
"Hm. I guess you must be forthcoming from TokyoPop. Carry on."
Check-in has started a little early. This line, as well, is mercifully
short. I make it into our room about 2:15. I am pleasantly surprised;
two queen beds and a non-smoking room, where (thanks to my delays in
reserving the room) I had been prepared for a smoking with one bed and
a roll-out, with me winding up on the roll-out. The bad news: there
will be no complimentary Toronto _Globe and Mail_ delivery. The good
news: I did get complimentary cookies at check-in. I save them for
Amelia.
I take a minute to look at the con brochure, its cover graced with one
of the many incarnations of Momiji Hoppono (_hoppo no momiji_=maple of
the north), AN's mascot. Momiji Hoppono (we are told) is a Japanese
girl who comes to Canada every year to tell her Canadian friends about
the joys of anime and Japanese pop culture. For me the annual anime con
has always been a sort of otaku Christmas; Momiji, then, would the
Santa Claus of AN. Of course, as with Santa, nobody's ever really seen
Momiji, so depictions of her come in all shapes and sizes, the only
constant being her red hair and tasteful clothes (at the insistence of
AN's organizers). There is, I found out later, a contest each year for
the best artist's impressions of Momiji, the winning designs to go on
the official AN T-shirts. The depiction of Momiji on the brochure
cover, however, I can't help but like; a very goofy Momiji with big
teeth sitting on top of what looks like a Patlabor robot. Who said all
of Japan's goodwill ambassadors had to be gorgeous, after all?
In the elevator back down to the lobby I see a man with a digital
camera and a press pass. I ask him who he's with, thinking he must be
with some fansite or other. He turns out to be from the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, a cameraman with a team doing a human-
interest story on Anime North (and I presume anime in general) for _The
Hour_, a newsmagazine aimed at the under thirty set on CBC Newsworld
(their all-news cable affiliate/CNN knockoff). I get a little worried
about how we'll be depicted when the first thing he turns his digital
camera on is a "cosplayer" dressed in little more than a black box,
boxers and suspenders, though he assures me that picture's just for his
own amusement and not that of the great Canadian public. If you've seen
the Anime North segment on _The Hour_, let me know. I'm afraid to look,
myself.
--
Good news: there's a free shuttle from the hotel to Pearson, so I don't
need to pay any more public transit fees.
Amelia's plane lands at Pearson on time at three o'clock, and Amelia
emerges from Canadian customs and immigration about half an hour later.
I apologize for waking her up asking about what I had wanted delivered.
Turns out Mom reminded her at least a dozen times before she (Amelia)
left the house, so I seem to have gone easier on her than I thought.
It's nice to know I'm not the only one who has trouble explaining to
normal people why I was going to Toronto. I only had to tell my boss.
Amelia (as she recounts while we wait for the shuttle back to the
Doubletree) had to explain herself to an immigration officer.
Douanière: [in both official languages] Hello, bonjour.
Amelia: Hi...here's my passport.
Douanière: [looking at it] What are you doing in Canada?
Amelia: [mumbling] An anime convention.
Douanière: Pardon?
Amelia: [aloud] I'm here for an anime convention.
Douanière: A-ni-mé...?
Amelia: A Japanese animation convention.
[Beat. Douanière maintains her neutral immigration woman face, not
without effort.]
Douanière: [knowing better than to comment] I...see. So where are you
staying?
Amelia: Doubletree Hotel.
Douanière: Are you planning to meet anyone?
Amelia: Yes.
Douanière: Where's he from?
Amelia: Ottawa.
Douanière: Where were you planning to meet?
Amelia: Here. He's probably outside waiting for me right now.
Douanière: And how long have you known this person?
Amelia: Er, he's my brother.
[Beat.]
Douanière: [still sceptical] I see...how old are you, by the way?
Amelia: Nineteen.
Douanière: And how old is he?
Amelia: He's older than me, I know that...28?
Douanière: [satisfied I'm not Amelia's white slaver] Hm. All right
then, have fun.
Amelia had been planning to cosplay at Anime North, and I had actually
been more afraid she'd have tried to board the plane dressed as Edward
Elric from _Full Metal Alchemist_, whom she had been threatening to
cosplay. As it is, she is dressed normally. She had planned to cosplay
Edward Elric, Winry (also from _Full Metal Alchemist_) and Aya Mikage
from _Celestial Legend Ceres_, but it turns out she's not going to
cosplay at all; the temporary blonde hair dye she had applied to her
hair wasn't as effective as she had hoped, and served merely to change
her hair color from the red she normally dyes it as back to nearer her
natural color (mousy, like mine). Apparently when our mother and our
brother Oliver asked why she wasn't going to cosplay after all, she
responded, "Because they'll think 'Why didn't she bother to dye her
hair?'"
Oliver: Wait a minute. You're worried about looking like a dork at an
ANIME CONVENTION? They'll all be dorks!
Amelia: Yeah, but I don't want to look even stupider.
To be honest Amelia's build (and personality actually) are less Edward
Elric than Tsubasa Shibahime from _Karekano_. She's nineteen, but looks
fifteen at most. Even fifteen-year-olds take her for fifteen. (She
wound up having this problem at the con quite a bit.) She got her
passport when she was eleven, and she is still recognizably the child
in the passport photo. Of course, if Amelia was to play Tsubasa, I
wouldn't have had the coolness necessary to pull off Kazuma or Soichiro
Arima.
On the shuttle I give Amelia her con materials (and a cookie), and we
start looking at the con schedule to figure out what we're going to
actually be doing all weekend. Where Anime North clearly cannot compete
is in the guest department. On the lists are Vancouver voice actors I
remember from _Ranma 1/2_: Cathy "Shampoo" Weseluck, Brian "Ryoga"
Dobson. From what I can gather, they've been coming to Anime North
regularly since the beginning. I remember thinking back in the day how
cool it would be to come to Toronto and see the English voice actors
from what was my introduction to anime, and was definitely one of the
best anime dubs of the mid-Nineties. I have to wonder why they're still
coming, given how few modern fans even remember _Ranma 1/2_. By
comparison, even though _Sailor Moon_ was dubbed in Toronto, the only
VA for Sailor Moon who has bothered showing up this year is Susan
Aceron, VA for Sailor Pluto.
Of course, Scott McNeil has come as well. No confusion about why he's
here. Every fan girl in North America loves him (except Amelia, who
can't figure out what the big deal is either). Also here are Hilary
Haag, veteran of ADV's dubs, for her first Anime North, along with Vic
Mignogna, VA for Edward Elric.
I remark to Amelia how looking at the guest list has made me feel very
old, given that I actually remember who half these people are. Amelia
offers that in comparison to some fans _she_ feels old. She was
watching _Ranma_ with me when she was nine years old, so she's been an
anime fan almost as long as I have. Whenever I'd come home from college
we'd bond by watching anime together. I remember watching the
"Moonathon" with her when she was no more than ten, agreeing with her
that Sailor Mars was the prettiest of the Scouts. I was the only
brother of hers who ever really left home. Not being with her more when
she was growing up isn't something I'm proud of. I sometimes think she
associates anime with me.
Not that we bring any of this up in the shuttle. Amelia is actually
thinking of a letter she'd read in _Newtype USA_ from a boy complaining
about how there was nobody at his school who knew about any anime
beyond what they could see on the Cartoon Network. She actually
remembers being an anime fan back in the day when there was no Cartoon
Network, and precious little anime on TV at all. The irate letter-
writer has no idea how lucky he is. The most poignant letters I read in
_Newtype_ or _Anime Insider_ are actually from young people trapped in
households run by religious fanatics who think anime is evil, and ask
for the editor's help. Of course, there's no help the editor can give,
beyond reassuring the correspondents that they won't be children
forever.
---
When we get to the hotel, we don't waste much time in the room, or for
that matter bother with opening ceremonies. I want to get to Artist's
Alley the moment they open or as close as possible to that. I remember
from ACen how the best artists will take only a limited number of
commissions (at any rate the ones to be drawn at the convention). I
don't want to be last on the list and get a sub-standard drawing
because an artist dashed something off on Sunday afternoon just to be
rid of me (I've had that happen).
Good news first. Anime North's Artist Alley is the biggest I've ever
seen. While ACen's Artist Alley often fits comfortably into two smaller
meeting rooms in the Hyatt, Anime North's takes up six very long tables
in Hall D, consuming most of its southern wall. There's no lack of
quantity; I have three fanarts I want done, and I'm sure I'll find
takers for each one.
Or so I thought. Finding artists who (a) will do commissions, (b)
recognize my favourite characters and are comfortable drawing them and
(c) have sufficient clues to grasp my concept proves diffciult. Not
everybody here is even taking commissions; many are just selling prints
of their art. When I ask for a commission from one apparently talented
artist she clearly is not sure what to do with me. You want me to draw
you a picture after Anime North...? If she's not intelligent enough to
understand I want a commission, she's probably not intelligent enough
to understand what I want, so I don't struggle.
I think I am in luck when I come across an artist from Ottawa. Surely
she could draw Yukino and Kano out front of Parliament Hill. She is
oddly reluctant; she'd need a model. I have a few photos of the Hill,
of course, but would an Ottawa native really need to draw the Hill from
a photo? She claims she's from Kanata, the biggest English-speaking
suburb, and hardly ever gets downtown. I'm tempted to snap back, "It's
called OC Transpo, I'll pay your fare if you want," but instead I tell
her I'll keep her in mind and move on. HOw one can live in a big city and
never take a good look at it never ceases to amaze me. And Ottawa ain't
even that big.
I am starting to get frustrated when I notice a young woman setting up
at her corner of a table. She's wearing a red jacket with epaulettes,
after the style of a Napoleonic French officer, much like one from
Utena, except for the prominent medal...
"Lady Oscar?" I ask.
"Yes!" She is delighted somebody recognized her costume. Her real name
turns out to be Angela Jordan, but it is as Lady Oscar I recognize her
and can approach her as if she were an old friend. If she had come as
herself I mightn't have given her a second glance, at least not then,
much less approached her so readily. Angela strikes me as in fact very
shy and retiring, as little like Oscar as one could find. The typical
otaku isn't exactly the sort to approach strangers out of the blue,
least of all members of the opposite sex, and ask for so much as the
time of day. Someone in cosplay, however, one doesn't think of as a
stranger, and one can ask without restraint (for example) "Lady
Mercury! It's an pleasure! I don't suppose you know where Artist's
Alley is, do you?" Kept within reasonable limits, it's all rather
liberating.
Once I look at her portfolio, I remain impressed. Along with a print of
a beautiful watercolor of Utena and Anthy (a wedding portrait, almost)
is a painting of Yumi and Sachiko from _Maria-sama ga miteru_/_Our Lady
is Watching Us_. _Marimite_, a shojo-ai soap opera set in a Catholic
school is quickly becoming the anime of choice among shojo-ai and yuri
fans who have tired of _Utena_, but I'm sure this is the only
_Marimite_ fanart I see the whole convention. Perhaps we are looking at
Yumi's bulletin board: on it are pinned a red rose (Sachiko's motif), a
photo of Yumi and Sachiko walking together holding hands; and a written
note from Yumi to herself: "Date w/ Oneesama: Sunday@8:00."
I put Lady Oscar on my short list.
I do manage to arrange a commission, my "Haruko on the Alexandra
Bridge" fanart. Jinny Liang is a young woman about Amelia's age
(perhaps younger) whose CG background work is good enough that I decide
she's worth the risk. That and she's seen FLCL before, so she's willing
to draw Haruko. I give her models of Haruko and her Vespa, along with
my photo of the Alexandra Bridge, and explain to her what I had in
mind. She is willing to take on the project, and is reasonably
confident she can have it done by Canada Day, though she strongly
suggests e-mailing her after the convention with more of the details. A
few days after the convention, Jinny, in her deviantart.org blog,
wondered aloud whether she could deliver something I liked. For now, I
leave her my models and we exchange e-mail and snail-mail addresses.
Jinny more than fulfills my expectations, though it did take several e-
mails back and forth, and I don't actually see the finished work until
a few days after Canada Day. Haruko's Vespa has acquired an Ontario
license plate. (If Haruko is still francophone, she must have moved
over the river in search of cheap sake at the Liquor Control Board of
Ontario stores.) Jinny Liang's gallery is at nayuki-chan.deviantart.org,
where one may admire the picture of Haruko.
---
Anime North is supposedly famed for its cosplay. Me, I didn't find the
cosplayers were, as a whole, any more impressive than those one would
find at a reasonably prestigious con like ACen. Where Anime North does
outdo itself is in having apparently perfected the organization of the
cosplay. The cosplay is by far the largest event, if not _the_ main
event of any convention, and anime conventions every year struggle with
accommodating everybody who wants to see the cosplay. The least
favourite part of my conventions has been the long lines for admission
to the main hall where the cosplay is to be held, often extending far
outside the hotel, certainly no picnic in bad weather.
Anime North, I think, has found the best solution-only admit those who
want badly enough to attend. Anybody who wishes to attend the cosplay
must have acquired a wristband from the masquerade staff desk by 3:00pm
on Saturday, where one can acquire one for oneself and for a friend;
those without a band will be denied entry. The cosplay is apparently to
be broadcast on the hotel's closed-circuit TV channel, but it's not the
same really.
Another thing they have done is split the cosplay into two events. For
me the cosplay contest isn't as interesting for the cosplay itself,
which I can usually see and judge for myself throughout the con, so
much as the sketches that it has become the custom for cosplayers to
perform on stage. (At Japanese conventions, cosplayers hardly ever
perform on stage, I'm told.) I consider it a form of fan theatre, a
type of fanfic if you please. Apparently people had demanded longer
act times and more emphasis on presentation. So, this year, a contest
especially for cosplayers with longer on-stage sketches in mind has
been scheduled for the Plaza Ballroom, the main convention hall, on 6
pm Friday, and it is there Amelia and I head, after grabbing a quick
bite at the cash and carry table selling hot dogs and pizza for hungry
otaku on the go.
We arrive promptly at six. The contest begins "promptly" at 6:35. While
we wait I chat with a young woman sitting by us, who happens to be from
Ottawa. She had come on the SOAP bus, even though she hardly ever goes
to Ottawa anime club meetings, so I suppose I needn't have been so shy.
To whet our appetites the first performance is by a group called
Ambrosia, who apparently appeared in the contest last year. A
choreographed dance routine, with cosplayers dressed as a variety of
furries. I wish I could recognize a single one, though maybe I might if
I played more video games. Me and Amelia must be the only otaku on
earth who don't play video games. In the line for the hotel check-in I
made a fool of myself asking a woman dressed in white, with white
wings, if she was getting married, when it turned out she was a
character from one of the Final fantasy games. (Don't laugh too loud--I
remember at least one marriage ceremony taking place on the ACen
cosplay stage.)
Once Ambrosia leave the stage, the contestants take their turns. Very
nice touch: the dialogue for the sketches is pre-rercorded. With few
exceptions the performers lip-synch their lines. Does that sound like
cheating? If so, consider that at ACen there aren't enough mikes to go
around to all the cosplayers who might have a sketch to perform, and to
be heard in the large ballrooms where the contests are invariably held,
performers would otherwise have to shout to be heard. Even when they
do, it doesn't always work. Heaven abhors an inaudible cosplay sketch.
1. Shinsengumi, first unit in training. Another choreographed number,
the dancers conducting mock swordfights, with characters from _Ruroni
Kenshin_ and _Peacemaker Kurogane_.
The MC throughout throws in the odd joke between sketches. "The plural
of ninja...is ninja. Now you know, and knowing is half the...dynasty."
Quoting GI Joe would get him run through by the ninja, I guess.
2. The Seven Deadly Sins of Anime.
Gluttony: Beware the Pocky pushers!
Lust: Convention of Catholic clergy. Yaoi fanboys. Deadly combination.
Sloth: "Oh God, I'm on fire! Water, water!"
"Shut up dude, I'm watching _Gekiganger_!"
Greed: Namely that of fly-by-night execs trying to make a killing off
those new Annie May cartoons the kids like, like _Pokeman_ and _Oh My
Goodness_...
Wrath: Is it really worth fighting to the death over Gundam Wing
merchandise?
Envy: Or worth wasting too much thought over people whose con budgets
are so honking large they can buy half the dealer room and how much you
hate them, hate them, hate them...?
And the last and deadliest sin:
Those committed upon the persons of helpless otaku by Sailor MAN!
(I miss Sailor Bubba, actually.)
MC speculates on the effects of anime fandom on the larger culture.
With the recent election of Pope Benedict in mind, he speculates on a
news report, circa 2500: "If they send out a white mage, they have a
new con chair!"
I wonder who he had in mind with this one, circa 2050:
"Grampa, how'd you lose your eye?"
"A man with a scythe attacked me on a convention stage!"
"Grampa needs his meds, mom..."
3. Pop-star Sailor Scouts. Another choreographed number.
4. Not only is Sato from Yugioh the greatest duellist...he can also
dance!
But not well enough for a (black) heckler, who challenges (Asian) Sato
to a rap battle. Sato, handed a baseball cap and gold chains, raps so
badly he's good. Alas, a Smith and Wesson beats the new god of rap.
5. AWOL. The MC points out that the best deals in the dealers' room are
usually on Sunday. Really. (To be fair, not everyone shows up on
Friday.)
6. From Clamp's _Clover_, Sue (the Four Leaf Clover) and Oruha (the
diva in black) sing a number together. The costumes, by the way, were
exquisite. The sound, alas, isn't working with them, and I start to
wish I recognized the tune, or, for that matter, that they were singing
in one of Canada's official languages. It wasn't until they were done
that it was made clear that the words were from _Clover_ volume 3--and
that the music was written especially for the sketch. Extra points for
effort, in my book.
7. Cosplayers of Lucifer, the band from _Sensual Phrase_, lipsynch some
anime tune or other. I could have done that act. Someone who's
supposedly a Lucifer groupie is a nice touch; too bad she just stood
there.
8. AWOL.
9. AWOL. "Stuff's cheaper on Sunday," says the MC. "Honest."
10. A sketch--in Japanese. We are told, "Please pay attention to the
boards," by the MC as he introduces the sketch. There are no boards.
The sketch is impossible to follow.
11. AWOL.
12. From _Escaflowne_, Dilandau and his boys. Choreographed, but with
nice touches:
Dilly's boys dance behind his back, stopping when he turns;
Dilly gooses each of the boys (just 'cause he can);
MOSHPIT! (leaving poor Dilly out); and
when Van shows up and tries to steal the show, they kick his ass.
Curtain, the boys kneeling and Dilly blowing the girls a kiss.
MC quotes Shakespeare: "Put thy hands in the air/Wave them like thou
dost not care." At least, he thinks it was Shakespeare...
13. Last but not least, the winning sketch: How to Defend Yourself, as
explained by our friends from _Resident Evil_, _Naruto_ and _Sorcerer
Hunters_.
Good Idea: Carrying concealed weapons.
Bad Idea: Carrying concealed weapons where the sun don't shine.
Good Idea: Bringing a knife to a knife fight.
Bad Idea: Bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Good Idea: Using your enemy's weakness against him.
Bad Idea: Using your own weakness against him.
Good Idea: Using smoke to cover your escape.
Bad Idea: Using tear gas to cover your escape.
Good Idea: Cute girls playing ninja.
Bad Idea: Ninja playing cute girls. (Nice touch: Ninja commits hara-
kiri out of shame.)
Finally, the worst idea of all, as underlined by Tiramisu from
_Sorcerer Hunters_:
Worst idea: Private fun...with a girl who likes a whip!
---
The sketches over, Amelia now has time to go to Hall D, for she too is
on a fanart mission. Amelia badly wants the boys from _saiyuki_ drawn
in the poses of the statue of the wise monkeys, the ones who "see no
evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil." The night before she
had hunted far and wide over the Internet for models of her characters,
and she has brought printouts all the way to Toronto for the fanartist
to see...
Or had. When we emerge from the Plaza Room, Amelia can't find the
printouts. The last place she saw them was at the cash-and-carry. We
dash there to find the cash-and-carry has closed and the table is bare,
with no sign of Amelia's printout. No big deal: the Hyatt's business
centre has been my salvation for fanart models at any of a number of
ACens, so we go to the Doubletree's business centre, just by the front
desk, where one can pay for computer time with a credit or debit card,
so we can find the picture again. Problem: the computer isn't logged
into the Internet. Unlike the Hyatt's business centre, the Doubletree's
is unmanned, and no humans in the vicinity seem to know (a) how to get
the computer to log in, or failing that (b) where the nearest Internet
café might be, beyond that it's probably beyond a reasonable commuting
distance. Ten dollars down the drain.
I am not amused. Needless to say, Amelia herself is furious, and back
in our room she curses God, man, and the old Polish woman who sold her
food at the cash and carry. Nothing I can do or say will cheer her up,
and anything I try just irritates her more. Not the best way to start
her first real convention. Fatigue isn't helping her mood. When we went
to Montreal, I got her up at the crack of dawn to be in time for the
St-Jean-Baptiste parade, and by the time we were able to check into our
hotel room in Montreal and she could take a nap before supper, she was
crankiness personified. Of course when my mother arrived in Ottawa to
see me she'd only had two hours of sleep, having decided to do the
entire week's laundry the night before, so when I checked her in I had
to put her to bed too. Visiting me seems to exhaust people somehow.
Amelia, however, has not come here to sleep. She actually is a bit
better once she's had a chance to blow off steam, and we head over to
Hall D anyway, in hope of finding someone who knows the picture she has
in mind. Artist's Alley is filled with fangirls. God knows Amelia
couldn't turn around without finding someone who's seen _Saiyuki_,
surely?...
Finally I find my woman for Yukino and Kano. Not only had Sarah
McMacken, a cheerful, attractive redhead in her early twenties, seen
and enjoyed _Karekano_, but it also turned out she had just been to
Ottawa, so when I explain my concept of "Yukino and Kano Miyazawa in
Ottawa" to her, the city is fresh in her mind. I've learned over time
that fanartists like as much specifics as possible for a commission, so
I start to flesh things out: Yukino and Kano, a bit more grown up, are
together, seated as for a holiday pose. Yukino (in spite of being on
vacation) looks like a Member of Parliament, dressed to the nines; Kano
is much more casual, possibly dressed in a T-shirt emblazoned with
CANADA KICKS ASS. Of course, Ontario law dictates that in any
_Karekano_ fanart Peropero the ultra-simplified dog must be prominent
in the picture.
I give her my models of Yukino and Kano, but I'm still unsure about
where they should be seated. Out front of Parliament...? Sarah actually
prefers my first photo, of the bench out front of the Bank of Canada;
she likes the flowers especially. (It occurs to me later too that the
Gothic-style Parliament would be a nightmare to draw even at a distance
compared to the much more anglular front of the Bank.) "This could be
fun," she adds. I know I've chosen well. Enthusiasm means I can
consider the job done and done well. I agree to pay her before Sunday
without fail.
While I've been talking to Sarah Amelia has been perusing the portfolio
of a fanartist sitting near Sarah. While I am drooling (for example)
over Sarah's impression of Sailor Mars in a swimsuit, Amelia is
drooling over this artist's work-and not just (she swore later) because
of all the bishonen goodness in the portfolio. It turns out Artist
Alley fangirls are mad about _Naruto_ and _Inuyasha_, but precious few
have seen _Saiyuki._ Not only is this artist familiar with _Saiyuki_,
she knows about the wise monkeys as well, and understands Amelia's
concept perfectly. Amelia has actually asked another artist to try
drawing a _Saiyuki_ picture, but she is so impressed that she goes back
to the other artist, cancels her order, and transfers her order to the
other fanartist. I can't help thinking that might be bad karma.
---
I poke around Hall D until about 9:30. Amelia, who at that point still
lived at the only middle-class household in the United States without a
DSL connection, goes on ahead to the Anime Music Video contest, having
no idea (she being stuck behind a 14.4Kb connection) when she'd be able
to see so many music videos again. (When our house got DSL shortly
afterward, downloading AMVs was one of the first things she did.)
When I arrive at the music video contest, International Room C is
terribly overcrowded, standing room only (I find Amelia standing at the
back of the room along with several dozen others). I remember little
about most of them. Maybe I've just seen too many anime music videos,
but there's only so much a long succession of videos using anime I
don't recognize as often as not, using video game BGM I hardly ever
recognize, can distract me from a shortage of air in the room, and,
worst of all, no water in the room at all. The nearest water jars are
outside the room. I am not amused. Ample supplies of water in all con
rooms at all times are essential. It's a wonder nobody fainted.
Finally I can't stand it any more and slip out to grab some water. When
I come back a con staffer has arrived to guard the door, and won't let
me back in, on the grounds that the room is overcrowded. I try to
explain I have a companion inside, but he only relents after about a
dozen others slip out, leaving me room to slip back in. My water
doesn't last long, mind you, and I go back to the fellow to see can't I
go get another glass. No; this time if I leave I can't come back in at
all. I ask him as politely as I can could some water be brought to the
room, as I can't be the only one who's thirsty. He promised to see what
he can do, but by the end of the showing nothing was done about it.
Many others, who might actually be enjoying the videos, for all that
can eventually no longer stand the shortage of air and water, and the
crowd has considerably thinned by the end, enough that towards the end
first Amelia at last finds a chair, then I manage to get a lovely seat
right beside her. Beats the floor, that's for sure.
Fortunately, one video was worth the wait. A well-chosen tune makes a
video for me, as much as the technical execution of the video. I'm not
ashamed to say that, long ago, it was a _Sailor Moon S_ video of
Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" that finally induced me to watch _Sailor
Moon_. The footage was of horrible quality, but the concept and
direction was just perfect.
Question: How does one get a group of Canadians gathered in one place
cheer like mad? Answer: Simple--gratuitous Canadian content.
Making my convention is a video with mostly _Fushigi Yugi_ footage, in
which Tamahome tells how proud the assembly should be of being denizens
of the True North:
Although we don't have history
Gold medal winning teams
Heroes or prisoners
World-famous volcanoes
Still what we've got's glor-i-OUS...
What, must you ask why, gentle reader?...Cue the rockscapes and
waterscapes of anime!
'cause we've got
Rocks and trees
And trees and rocks
And rocks and trees
And trees and rocks
And rocks and trees
And trees and rocks
And rocks and trees
And trees and rocks
And...water...
Cue coda, with file footage of Canadian icons (Mounties on horseback,
Parliament Hill, etc.)
In Canada...in Canada...in Canada...Canada!
Curtain, to loud cheers and applause from the assembled Canadian
masses. Me, I no longer care so much about my increasingly serious
dehydration. I ask the fellow sitting next to me if he remembers the
band who recorded the tune, but it's slipped his mind. I only find out
after the convention that it's by the Arrogant Worms, performers of
such novelty tunes as the _Dr. Demento_ standard "Carrot Juice is
Murder." I also find out that the Worms are coming to the Ottawa Folk
Festival in late August, which I definitely plan to attend. "Rocks and
Trees" is from the Worms' album _Dirt_, also featuring such ditties as
"I Am Cow" and "Great to Be a Nerd."
As it is, Amelia and I find ourselves humming the tune for the rest of
the con, and I do for several weeks afterwards. The video, by Tim Park
of Doki Doki Productions, eventually wins the "_Momiji no Video_"
judge's choice award, underlining the excellent choice of scenery. I'd
have underlined Mr. Parks' knowing how to push his audience's buttons
as well (in a good way).
The winner of the "Northern Lights" award for Best of Show actually
goes to a video by Studio Tarantella, interesting in its use of stills
of the art of _Princess Mononoke_, as opposed to footage from the film.
Also of note: a _Steel Angel Kurumi_ video with a new Barenaked Ladies
tune (if only for Canadian content again); and an _Azumanga Daioh_
video using the opening theme from _Jungle wa Hare nochi Guu_.
After the music video showing ends, a "Comedy Cabaret" is to be held in
the same room. Comedy Cabaret turns out to be a showing of bizarre
late-night English-language animation, some obviously recorded off
Adult Swim, including a stop-motion animated show called _Robot
Chicken_. It's entertaining enough that we watch it for a few minutes;
particularly hilarious was a sketch that might have been titled "Dr.
Teeth and the Electric Mayhem: Behind the Music." After we watch the
house band from the Muppet Show come to a bad end, however, our
attention flags, and we start to remember it's been a long day.
Once in our room Amelia goes more or less straight to bed. I remember,
though, that I didn't eat much at supper, and decide to walk across
Dixon Road to get some air and grab some chili at Tim Hortons before I
go. Walking back I see a man at the door of the convenience store a
couple of doors down, apparently just in time to see it close. I
suggest the gas station across the road, beside the Doubletree. He asks
me if I know what is going on the hotel; he's seen people crossing
Dixon Road incessantly. He's stunned when I tell him it's Anime North.
He'd actually wanted to go himself, but couldn't get the weekend off
work and so never got around to finding out where it was. He had no
idea it was so near to his work. I felt sorry for him. Please God he'll
get time off next year.
TSUZUKU
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