Dealer's room mornings
After breakfast I headed to the Dealer's room with Christine-neechan to check things out. When I arrived, the Eminence booth was all set up, but the CDs still had not arrived. Oneechan and I walked around and she bought a vintage Totoro puzzle for $40. Around 11:30, we went back to the Eminence booth and found that they just brought the merchandise. ^-^ We waited patiently as they unwrapped the stuff. After buying a cd, I discovered that the booth next to the Eminence section featured a life size couch...with Simpsons characters sitting on it. O.o I picked up a couple posters for co-workers and friends. ^.^
Murakami-sensei, daisuki!
As promised, the Murakami-sensei panel had no photography allowed. Murakami-sensei was so shy...she spoke softly and shrank away from the mic. ^^; (The translator had to push her to speak into the mic. Kawaii!) The panel opened with them showing powerpoint pics of Murakami-sensei's home in Hokkaido as well pics of her office, her work area, books and pets. ^.^ Some random points.... Hokkaido snows alot. She sketches and scan them into the computer to add highlight, tones and shadows digitally. (She has been using the computer to do manga for over 10 years now. O.O) Her books include Tokyopop manga as well as reference books and and anatomy books which she used to draw the 'Remixes' and 'Megamix' doujinshi. ^.^ She also had drama cds of the series given by the companies. *screams from the crowds* She has pet salamanders, fishes and venus fly trap. None have names. She said that she thinks pets that most would think are disgusting, are cute. ^-^ One of the surprises when she came to the U.S? Murakami-sensei didn't realize that she was soooo popular. She is shocked and shy that she has so many fans. ^_^
The inspiration to the series is Murakami-sensei desire to create a series that will be popular with editors and fans. Inspiration for her doujinshi are from horror movies. ^^; Many fans ask for different pairings for the doujinshis and the mangaka cleverly state that she will take it into consideration. ^-^ The longing for the doujins to be licensed in US all depends on Tokyopop. Since a Tokyopop rep was on the panel, we appealed to her. Afterall, the doujins have been licensed/translated in another country...Spain? Don't remember.... We want our 'Remixes' in English! ^.^
Another fan asked how long it takes for her to finish a chapter, which the translator notes is an 'evil' question to ask a mangaka. lol It might take a month to a year...so it's pretty long. ^^; Ganbatte, Murakami-sensei!
signings = fangirling haven
They announced that they were giving autograph tickets to the first two rows...and I was on the second row...but turns out to be the first row from each side of the room. >.<; As I rushed downstairs, I bumped into Jilly and we proceeded to the autograph area. But not before I discovered that I left my purse upstairs. O.O Jilly went on ahead as I went back to get it. No worries, there was nothing missing. *whew*
People were already starting to gather for the Seki Tomokazu-san signing as I settled into the Murakami-sensei line with Jilly. I resigned to the reality that I would only be able to get one autograph...and I chose Murakami-sensei. ^^; Linda went on the Seki-san line when it was finally created. While in line, I found the perfect Loveless couple, Ritsuka and Soubi walking by. O.O The day before, they passed by when I was in the autograph area, but they disappeared before I could get their picture. Me: 'May I please take your picture?' Them: 'With chains?' Me: 'Yes! If it is alright....' ^-^ They had the neck, wrist chain restraints (from the wonderful world of cosplay props...Home Depot ^-^) and their outfit was perfect. I was totally fangirling when I took their pics. ^-^ *screams*
I asked them if they can do some fanservice. I told them I would settle for hand/thumb-over-mouth 'kissing', but they obliged with full mouth on mouth action! O.O *fangirl squeals*
I'm assuming due to her shyness, they only allowed 5 people in the room at a time for Murakami-sensei's autographs. No photography of course. The person in front of me had 'Gravitation' vol. 12 (Tokyopop) and Murakami-sensei signed the inner pic. I overheard them talking about her wanting to draw a mustache on Yuki. ^.^ When it was my turn, I gave her 'Gravi' vol. 12 (in Japanese) to sign. Murakami-sensei laughed and pointed at Shuichi's head of the inner pic. The interpreter told me that she wanted to draw meat on his head. I smiled and said, 'No problem!' which the interpreter translated. I reaffirmed my answer in Japanese, 'Daijoubu des.' ^.^ Murakami-sensei laughed as she signed the pic (without meat.)
When I came out of the room, I confirmed with the staff that the Seki-san's autograph line was closed to any more people. *sniff* But since Linda still hadn't gone in yet (she was about to,) the staff agreed to let me give her my dvd for Seki-san to sign. Me: 'I know there is a one item per person rule, but can I try?' *puppy eyes* Staff: 'Go ahead. The worse that can happen is that they'll say no.' ^.^ Linda took my dvd and...it got signed! She got a pic too! Linda, arigato gozaimas! *dances with signed cd* I gave both Jilly and Linda pocky. ^.^
After I came out of the Murakami-sensei signing, I realized that there was a small pile of Yuki and Shuichi pics inside that we could take, but I didn't know. I appealed to the staff at the door and asked if he could get me one. He asked me to wait until the end of the signing (which was soon) and he got me one. ^.^
bowl on head?!?
I caught the end of the 'Dub Actor Calvalcade' which featured (from right to left) Brandon Potter, Vic Mignonga, Aaron Dismuke, Jennifer Sekiguchi, Mike Sinterniklaas, Jamie Marchi and Caitlin Glass. A fan requested for version 2 of the infamous 'donut story'. Vic stated that as much as he loves his fans, he feels that the 'donut story' was not as interesting any more. And the ver. 2 of the story was a one time thing which he could not replicate. (He told an exaggerated version of the story at another convention, but totally forgot what he said. ^^; Youtube, maybe?)
Someone asked about Aaron's recording experience, especially the 'fact' that he records Alphonse Elric's voice with a bowl on his head. O.o Fact or myth? Clearly a myth. ^-^ It was a rumor that spread so wide that even the convention book had this as Aaron's info. A fan in the audience pointed this out and gave the book to Aaron which he read aloud: "It's a feat all the more impressive when you do the math and realize that he was only 11 years old when he started voicing Alphonse, and that he did most of that difficult work while his head was in a big metal bowl." O.o rofl Aaron confirmed that he did NOT record Al's voice with his head in a bowl. It became a running joke throughout the rest of the panel. ^.^ *hugs Al plushie*
At the end of the panel, I introduced myself as 'the-girl-with-the-keyboard-at-SBU' to Caitlin Glass and asked about the Sunday service. (Hm...this sounds familiar. ^^;) More than ever, it sounds like it won't happen. *sniff* I got Mike to sign my Weiss Kreuz pic and I presented him with pocky. ^.^
music and yaoi
I joined the masses for the Sakimoto Hitoshi-san and Eminence signing. Me and two other guys started talking about various games and music. Soon the young Alucard cosplayer began listing all the best composers for the other guy to find music to listen. (He didn't know what to look for.) The Alucard cosplayer and I began talking about CLAMP which led to the yaoi and shonen ai hints in the series. Apparently, he doesn't mind the subject of yaoi. Me: 'You're my new best friend!' ^-^ lol He is also an artist and showed me one of his drawings. He started sketching as I began watching anime on my mp4 player.
Composer Sakimoto-san signed the inside of the Passion cd booklet. The first violinist signed the cd and the rest of the quartet and pianist signed the booklet itself.
candy mountain!
I headed back to the hotel for dinner before going to the Masquerade that was already underway. Tamaki from Ouran Highschool Host Club was mcing...though he was not in character at all IMO. (MC Renge-chan from AnimeNEXT's masquerade was soooo much better. ^-^) There were not that many dancing ninjas, which is an improvement. (If there were, Christine-neechan and I missed them since we were late. ^-^) Youtube clips below.
no fanservice, just lots of screaming
After stopping by the hotel to change, Christine-neechan and I went to the rave. We watched some breakdancing before joining in on the dancing. ^.^ At about 11pm, we decided to start waiting on line for the yaoi panel. Good thing we went early, the line became long soon after we arrived. ^-^ Theresa-neechan met up with us soon after.
*Warning* Don't continue reading if you're not interested in yaoi or you don't know what it is. Nothing is mentioned graphically, but if you rather not know, don't read it!
The guy who sat beside us in line agreed with me that Boku no Sexual Harrassment should be the next yaoi anime oneechan x2 should watch. Afterall, we already started with Sensitive Pornograph. Theresa-neechan and the guy struck up a convo since he bought several yaoi artbooks and some of the artists were Theresa-neechan's fav. ^.^ Oneechan's surprise about yaoi fans: there are lots of guys into yaoi. ^_^ Of course! Sometimes guys are into penises as well as boobs!
The panel opened with the entire audience singing 'Happy Birthday' to Yazoo, who sat on the panel next to Axel. Due to the large size of the panel, there weren't as much 'group discussion' as there was at AnimeNEXT. However, hilarity was still prominent. The explanation of 'What is yaoi?' was done and the definition became very technical as pics and words described the different types of m/m pairings. 'Bara' refers to 'manly men' genre of m/m. Another term is 'guro' which is gory, twisted sex. It usually includes blood and violence that just doesn't stop at rape. Don't understand? I'm not going to explain any more than this. ^^;
People start talking about pairings, OTP vs. OT3, seme/uke roles and of course corn. (Good thing I gave oneechan the 411 on corn.) Someone mentioned about alterego vs. ego pairing, like Yami Yugi and Yugi, or Sora and Roxas. Yaoi fans refer to pairings like that as masturbation, since they're really having sex with themselves. ^^; I think Sora and Yoru from Sukisho is another prime example. Afterall, in the games, Yoru practically rapes Sora.... ^^; The shipping wars of Gundam Wing was discussed: due to the 1x2, 1x3 etc...arguments, the panelists felt that the GW fandom basically imploded. Hence, there aren't that many good fanfiction of said fandom anymore. Sad. I really don't mind any pairing. 1x2 and 3x4 are favs, but I don't do OTP. As the panelists stated, orgies are so much better. Why have 2 when you can have 3? ^-^
Did I mention that one of the panelist was a guy dressed as a girl? Yuki was a panelist labelled 'trap' (aka. girl who is really a guy.) When people hit the 'trap', they do something to him...which most of the time was hugging him. ^.^ Theresa-neechan and I both agreed that Yuki is pretty. *nods* He has a size 0 waist, kinda tall (though he was wearing high heels) and totally adorable. Can you tell I envy him? If I hadn't pointed Yuki out to be male, both oneechans would have thought otherwise. I hugged Yuki and took his pic when the panel ended. ^-^
Theresa-neechan and I went back to the hotel. I finished packing (since we would be checking out in the morning) and gave Theresa-neechan my pic of Silmeria that VA Jennifer Sekiguchi signed. I ate a midnight snack (more like a meal) while watching Trinity Blood on my laptop. Then it was bedtime (at 2am. ^^;)
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