Day 1: Friday, March 23 - Blue Kimono

For cosplay, I will resist the cold!

After dinner, I made it to the Sports Complex (where the 'box office' is) a bit before 6pm, when the convention officially starts. There was actually a line for the prereg badges, but thankfully, I got in within 30min. (if it was even that long.) The line was outside, and I didn't bring a coat. Since I'll be inside most of the time, I didn't want to carry a coat around. It was kinda windy though.... lol The things I do for cosplay....

Dealer's room in 1.5 hr.

Since the first panel I wanted to get to was at 8pm, I headed down to the dealer's room. Some of the dealer's haven't arrived yet, but there was enough to keep me happy. After roaming a good while, I came across a Japanime booth with a HUGE crowd in front. Inching closer, I found out that they had lots of posters that were only $. O.O An otaku's dream! The ppl in front of the box were very nice flipping through the posters quickly. Anyone at the side can see and shout 'I want that one!' and they'll take it out for them. One of the guys let me stand in front of him so I could see better. ^-^ I contacted Jenn-chan at this time to find out what she wanted and grabbed a few posters for her. ^.^ After walking around some more, I headed to the 'Old Eng' for the panels.

It just so happens that all the panels I wanted to be at on Friday were all in the same room. I didn't need to move anywhere. ^-^

7 VAs in one room = musical!

Time for the 'Anime Guests Summit!' From left to right is Talesin Jaffe (Rufus, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria), Caitlin Glass (Winry, FMA), Michelle Knotz (May, Pokemon), Bill Rogers (Touma, Gravitation), Amy Howard-Wilson (Nova, Starblazers), Amy's husband, Dave III (old school anime fan ^^;), Vic Mignonga (Dark, DNAngel)...and the last one is a surprise guest that just started voice work and her name is not in the program so I don't have it right now. ^^;

The usual VA questions were asked: fav moments, fav lines and eventually fav theme songs. The unnamed guest sang 'Cruel Angel Thesis' (Eva.) Vic sang a bit from 'Brother' (FMA) hand puppet style...totally hilarious. ^^; Caitlin was my personal fav...as well as other fangirls' too when she sang the NA Sailor Moon theme song. "Fighting evil by moonlight...." *screams* She is an SM fangirl as well. ^.^ Youtube clips:

FMA moments

'Brothers'

At the end of the panel, I got Bill Rogers to sign my Gravitation vol. 3 dvd and Taliesin Jaffe signed a pic of Rufus. Of course, I rewarded them with pocky. I also gave Taliesin a warning since he'll be getting the same pic the next day to sign. (That time, it would be for Theresa-neechan. ^.^)

Female characters rule the Japanime world!

The next panel was 'Female Characters in Anime' with all the female VAs. There were some unique topics of discussion...like how the female roles evolved in various series throughout the years as well as how to take care of your throat as a VA/singer/performer. They made an interesting point that female roles are always based on stereotypes (depending on the story) and the only other way they (the VAs) can perceive any future changes in character would be to have the anime take on a western theme with western perceptions of women. Confused? Me too.... ^^; But it was a nice forum of discussion.

Someone also brought up the question of whether or not the VAs would accept hentai roles. I won't say who said what, but some stated that they would accept and some would refuse the roles (if they were asked.) Also, the one who stated that they would accept, she expanded with her own experience with a particular director. The director (he/she?) contacted her about a role and asked if she ever voiced hentai before. I didn't really understand the intention behind the question, but his character was questionable so the VA refused the role (whether it was hentai or not, I don't know.) The VA did not mention the director's name, but she said that she would not voice anything he/she is directing based on that conversation. Basically, the VA refused the role since she felt that her skills should not just be based on her voicing in a hentai or not. What all the VAs agreed on is that there is integrity and pride in their work: the director should not be demeaning the VAs for what they did previously.

Zombies! Gravitation! Bill!

Bill Roger's panel was heavily saturated with media. First, he showed clips of all the characters that he voiced (with some screams from me when Touma appeared. ^-^) I forgot which anime it was from, but the one line he did in the short was that a man got up on stage and said 'I eat rice!' And then he chowed down on a giant bowl of rice. lol ^_^ Than, Bill showed clips from some college projects/independent films/live action movies that he was part of. One of the movies was a 'documentary' about zombies. *_*

*Warning* Don't continue reading if you're not interested in yaoi or you don't know what it is. The rest of the panels mentioned below all refer to it. Nothing is mentioned graphically, but if you rather not know, don't read it!

Y/Y love ^.^

Yaoi/Yuri is total love. Not with each other of course.... ^^; 11pm marked the start of 'adult themed' panels through the con. Of course, I went to the 'Yaoi and Yuri' panel followed by yaoi anime showings. The YandY panel was headed by VA Michelle and Inks (sp?) Inks is prominent in the yaoi fanfiction world, slashing 5x2 (Wufei and Duo, GW) as well other pairings. She is also in the same forums as me and Pearl-chan. ^-^

The discussions started with 'How you got into yaoi/yuri?' as well as 'What is the best of yaoi/yuri?' Sensitive Pornograph was mentioned as one of the best yaoi anime. ^.^ One of the guys mentioned their fav yuri anime that I didn't write down so I have no idea. Too bad, I don't mind checking out some decent yuri. ^^; The question of why yuri isn't so prominent in the U.S. seems to fall on the fact that since everything that is licensed here is filtered from whatever is popular in Japan. There isn't such a high market of yuri there so we barely get any series here...if any at all. Economically, supply and demand: more fans want yaoi so the supply for yaoi is increasing. Not that I'm complaining. ^.^

The answers to 'yaoi vs. yuri,' 'preferred pairings vs. OTP' and 'rape vs. no rape' etc...seems to be to like what you like and not expect others to always agree with your preferences. *nods* I wish the fandoms will agree with that rule...but I doubt it. Japanime fans are very opinionated...me too sometimes. ^^; Also, the age of yaoi/yuri fans are getting younger. Maturity on the net is next to nonexistent.

Someone inquired if there were BL games on systems besides comps and I happily replied that there are: BL PS2 games are available in Japan. One fangirl kept on referring to GW manga as doujinshi. She was saying that the GW anime was really based off of doujins. O.o Ano, that is wrong. Although there are various different storylines, they can't really be named as doujins since they were endorsed by Sunrise, the main Gundam company. Anyway, the writers of the GW series were many people that were just credited under the name, Hajime Yadate. GW manga is still a canon series placed in an AU from Gundam. Nitpicking...I'm a Gundam fan. ^^; The relationship between Quatre and Trowa was discussed as well. I wanted to mention that it was suppose to be a canon pairing but the producers wanted to take out the yaoi aspect. However, as stated in my Otakon '06 report, the writers were allowed to keep in the hints, as long as their love relationship stays hidden. ^.^ However...I didn't say anything about it at the panel.

We watched Level C first...the anime which practically coined the term 'invisidick.' FYI, 'invisidick' refers to the censorship in Japan that practically all graphic manga has the male genitalia lightened on the page. All graphic anime have male genitalia censored through use of blurring, it not being seen by changing the angles...or in this anime, it not being there at all. However, all liquid substances can still be seen. ^^; Another added note, one of the fans said that their yaoi friends from Japan would come to the U.S. and buy dvd players and the U.S. versions of the yaoi anime since we get it all uncensored. ^^; After Level C, we watched the first 3 episodes of Gravitation and I caught a part of FAKE before I decided to contact okaa-san for my ride home. ^.^

~ back ~