Sakura

SAKURA-CON 2010: WHERE MY NERDY SISTERS AT? I am the proud father of a fifteen-yr-old anime/manga fan, and final weekend I was her escort to Sakura-Con, an enormous, lively, weird, wild, and funky anime conference here in Seattle. I’ve been to conventions earlier than, imagine me. The first fan convention I ever attended was a Chicago Comicon in 1976, at the Playboy Club no much less, however there was a bit of a dry spell until a very small occasion referred to as IdeCon that was organized by the gaming club at Hersey High School in suburban Chicago in 1981. I nonetheless have the IdeCon badge pasted into the endpapers of my (second printing, 1978) first edition AD&D Player’s Handbookâ€"and since then I’ve saved every convention badge from the old Chicago Wargamers Association (CWA) cons by way of my first Gen Con (#14, on the University of Washington-Parkside in 1981) and on through World Science Fiction Conventions, San Diego Comicon. . . . So if I’ve been attending fan conventions for thirty-4 years, certainly ther e have been no surprises in retailer for me at Sakura-Con. Yeah, that’s what I thought. I was very pleasantly shocked to seek out I was wrong about not being pleasantly stunned. I also went in thinking I knew something about anime. Almost twenty years ago, my friend Gordon was in a local suburban Chicago anime club. In these days the members of the club would come to conferences with a brand new anime video they discovered somewhere and a clean VHS tape. The membership assembly would then consist of everyone copying every others’ videos onto their clean tapes so they would all stroll out with one new anime from each membership member. Gordon was kind enough to dupe copies for me once in a while, too, which is the place I first encountered anime (publish-Speed Racer, anyway). I dug it. I noticed Vampire Princess Miyu, three×3 Eyes, and different “classics” this way: very unhealthy VHS dupes of dupes of dupes . . . setting aside varied copyright hiccups since no cash changed palmsâ€"or so we told ourselves. That was a very long time ago, but not that long ago, right? And I’ve seen a pair newer ones since then, like Planetes. I favored Planetes. Surprise quantity two. Turns out fifteen or twenty years is a long time, especially in as vibrant a scene as anime. I recognized very littleâ€"and I mean very little of what was being proven, offered, and fawned over at this conference, and once I obtained over the initial disorientation I started loving each minute of it. Having been to dozens of conventions over more than three decades, I’ve seen individuals in costumes earlier than. I’ve had in any other case completely normal conversations with Klingons, tried in vain to take care of strict eye contact with girls asking me questions whereas wearing less than the average Victoria’s Secret model, and accidently bumping into robots and aliens from the farthest corners of the cosmos. But the costumes at Sakura-Con really took it up a notch (or ten) in cre ativity, consideration to detail, and sheer exuberance. Though not nearly as elaborate as some, the man dressed as Toast was my favourite. Toast I didn’t ask him, “Why toast?” Would it have mattered? Could he have mentioned something that might have made my experience of Toast better than it was simply accepting that he was dressed as Toast? Certainly not. There was one individual (gender unknown) dressed as Bonta-kun that blew my thoughts. The costume was big, and excellent all the way down to probably the most minute element. All he/she was missing was a shotgun. Here’s an image of my daughter, Alex, with Mojo Jojo of The Power Puff Girls fame. Mojo Jojo (left), and Alex Alex beloved that present as a wee tot, and this man was great. He was on employees on the conference and helped maintain the autograph strains transferring. Autographs, you ask? Who’s signing autographs at an amine convention? Well, that’s what I requested myself, too, and was shocked by the reply: Vo ice actors. I’ve all the time thought that being a cartoon voice actor can be essentially the most fun job on the planet, but aside from a few cast members of The Simpsons or different actors known for live action stuff who go on to voice film characters like the star-studded Dreamworks and Pixar options, the voice actor (I thought) was sort of a background participant, toiling away in anonymity. I certainly couldn’t name a single one who’s ever offered a voice for a character in an anime or cartoon. Well, I can now. I was slack-jawed at the reception a number of of those actors acquired at this convention. They performed to rooms of tons of of people, perhaps even a thousand, who held on their every word, literally screaming as if they have been rock stars. I was particularly taken by Luci Christian, who was so good, so cheerful, and gave exceptional recommendation in response to questions from the viewers. We stood in line for her to signal my daughter’s copy of the Ouran High School Host Club DVD set then we obtained again in line for Todd Haberkorn (also from Ouran High School Host Club) and while we waited there, Luci kept on signing despite the fact that the man on the microphone had warned the final third of the line that they wouldn’t make it earlier than she needed to leave to catch a flight house . . . but Luci stayed until the final person in line obtained an autograph That’s a class act. It is. And I’ve seen signings where that doesn’t happen, and shame on them. Alex scored an ideal Ouran High School Host Club DVD autograph trifecta. I was as excited for her as she was excited to get it, despite the fact that, strolling in Friday morning, I had never heard of these people earlier than in my life. It’s weird, being in a room of rabid screaming fans and simply shrugging, wanting around, like, “Really? Who is that this man?” These could be cult followings, however this an enormous cult, and they’re following all right! But trut hfully, you realize what I thought was actually cool? All the ladies. I don’t keep in mind there being any feminine humans at that 1976 Chicago Comicon (unfortunately, we didn’t even get to see a Playboy Bunny), and really very few if any at these first couple of Gen Cons. Even now, the male-feminine ratio at Gen Con is pretty heavily tilted towards the male. But not so at Sakura-Con. I was also stunned by how old I felt, and never simply because my feet hurt so dangerous from standing in line. At Gen Con I feel precisely the proper age. At World Fantasy I feel young as when the world was new. At Sakura-Con I felt like the old fat bald dad trailing behind his daughter, totally agog at this bizarre sub-tradition he by no means imagined had infiltrated his happy residence. Some dads in that position may get their dander up, but not me. I loved every blessed second of it. Here was a community of women just like the neighborhood of boys (avid gamers) that obtained me by way of highs chool, and so they’re serving to my daughter get by way of highschool too. In the past few years, so-called “Geek Culture” has lastly penetrated the American psyche. People are starting to get that Bill Gates would possibly look all “nerdy,” however in the long run, he wins. Geeks win. The captain of the high school football group is still working construction somewhere and the man he used to lock in gym lockers is the multi-billionaire. But that’s boy geeks. Girl geeks have been left behind. We nonetheless worth pretty and stupid over nerdy and smart in relation to the fairer sex, and that’s one thing we have to get previous as a culture. Sakura-Con may be doing more for that than anything else. Last weekend I walked past a future President of the United States, the following Bill Gates, and the lady who’ll cure most cancers. I can really feel it. The nerdy women are coming out, people, and I can’t anticipate my daughter to be considered one of them. â€"Philip Ath ans About Philip Athans Yep! Anime is where it’s at. And the enjoyable factor abt these anime/manga fans is that they learn widely and usually with out prejudice. They’re on the lookout for tales past their borders. And there’s some AWESOME fantasy coming out from that quarter lately (including issues starring Vic Mignogna).