Sunday, May 30, 2004
(note: I actually posted this on June 6th, but I started the post on the 30th of May and decided to stay with the draft date. It's a bit of a long post (to make up for the lack of updates ;) but hope you enjoy it :))
Teeheee! I went to an animecon this Saturday and it was great! Had my hair coloured again by a friend of mine (was about time too, my previous haircolour was not even recognized as such, I think. Look at my avatar pic and you'll get a pretty good idea of how my hair is at the mo.
For the con I was dressed (up a bit) like the (Japanese) girls in the Fruitsbook/mags (but I'm not gonna show a picture of it here..oh no...). Was with two friends of mine, both also dressed like Fruitspeeps :). When we arrived at the con we first tried to figure out what exactly the floorplan was, was a bit fuzzy, so we first checked out a room where some anime was shown (Azumanga Daioh). Then we strolled around a bit and waited for the Dealer room to be opened. We walked passed the 'queue' by accident when it was announced that it was now open...which from where we were standing, put us almost near the entrance of the dealer room. Which was good of course, we had first choice! Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by what was for sale, (almost) no art books, not a lot of foreign stuff, not much stuff I am currently watching, and a lot of booths were offering more of the same. Except for one that was selling kubricks.
[off topic mode] A couple of months ago I was planning on writing a post on those kubrick thingies but decided to postpone it (which almost made me not write it at all), but those kubricks are really something. I'm so happy they had it at the con, made me enthusiastic all over again. :) Kubricks are bit like the inbetweens of Lego and playmobil. Kubricks are miniature figures (about 2.5"- 3" tall) which have original designs or are based on licensed characters. They come in mass productions but also in extremely limited editions. There are kubricks of any kind, you name it, they made it: Back to the Future, Spiderman, Metal Gear Solid, Kubrick (yes the man himself), Terminator, Edward Scissorhands, Monster's Inc, James Jarvis, Kinnikuman and so on. It is really something... For more Kubrick stuff go to the site of Medicom (the manufacturer, not a very clear site though and Japanese) itself or the fabulous ningyoushi site[/off topic mode]
I now have an Ultraman Kubrick (after thinking it over for ten minutes :D), of which is the pic below:
I also bought some Gashapons or Capsule Toys with Hikaru no Go figures (Sai and Hikaru himself..yaay, I love Sai! see also this posting) and with Zelda The Wind Waker figures:
The same stand as where they sold the Kubricks (friend of mine bought the Gloomy Bear and Kumakikai Kubricks which came with a dvd featuring clips of Mori Chax), sold key chains from Tezuka's Astro Boy:
And after doing some searching and comparison I decided to buy the Entrance Boxset of Azumanga Daioh!, the first dvd from .Hack/Sign and another film of Miyazaki: Kiki's Delivery Service (adorable movie). They also had the special 2 disc edition of Spirited Away but I already had the one-disc ed. and my wallet was empty... Hope Ghibli decides to release a dvd version of My Neighbour Totoro really soon 'cos I really really would love to have that one! I also would like to have a big plush doll from Totoro and all other Ghibli/Miyazaki movies which you can find for instance over here: Jlist
I did buy a postcard set from My neighbour Totoro, you can see it on the overview pic of my purchases:
After our visit to the dealer room and with empty pockets we decided to go watch an anime, one I can't remember anymore. There was also a Gameroom with several video games, they had Naruto 2, Ninja Gaiden, Soul Calibur, Pump it Up and so forth. Few competitions were held, one of them was a DDR competition. Me and my friends are really DDR-freaks/addicts but after seeing some people doing their moves...we decided not to enter the compo...yep we are scaredy little cats.. :D It did got me noticing the open-source DDR game: Stepmania. It's exactly like DDR only you can play it on your PC and download dwi's or steps of people such as you and I. Really interesting because you can take any mp3 you have and try to make your own steps on it, make your own choreography on it and let other people download it too. There is a whole community surrounding it. You can find some simfiles and other bemani freaks on the bemanistyle site. This way you can also play DDR games which did not get released in Europe or the US but solely in Japan and you can play anime or videogame themes/tunes. Way cool! (and maybe I can incorporate it in my thesis :D)
At six pm we went to the room where the Cosplay event was held. We did see cosplayers all day walking at the con grounds, having their pictures taken (even I was asked once if I was cosplaying... I said no, even though I was cosplaying, well sorta) and cosplaying as characters from Naruto (Kakashi was certainly popular), Chobits, Final Fantasy (especially Yuna), Escaflowne, Inuyasha, Streetfighter etcetera. The event itself took place in a theatre room with an actual stage where they could perform their (little) acts. Some were hilarious, some were funny and others were painful, but I certainly had a good laugh that evening :D
Overall it was a fun day, didn't see as much anime as we maybe thought we would and there wasn't any Totoro stuff or other rare stuff in the Dealer Room but still, I had fun dressing up, watching anime, watching the cosplayers doing their acts and wearing their outfits and playing in the gameroom. Animecon 2005... here we come!
Leave your response