Fanime 2011 report.
Jun. 24th, 2011 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenMan, time really flies. I guess I should post about Fanime before it all slips away...
It was a pretty chill con, so there's not a whole not to report. Compared to Yaoi-Con, when I was just running around from guest event to guest event, there wasn't a rigid schedule I had to follow at Fanime. I did go to a couple panels, but not really of the pure "fan" type: Awesomely Bad J-Pop Music Videos, the comedy club, Whose Line Is It Fanime. They were all quite good, but they were all in the evening, so didn't affect schedule much.
During the day, it was really just a bunch of wandering the dealers room and artist alley, multiple times each. And spotting cosplayers. And dropping in on random video rooms when our feet got tired. The only thing that was scheduled was the photoshoots. Also, somehow we could never manage to get to the con earlier than about 10 or 11, no matter how early we got up.
So I don't really have that many takeaways. It was a fun con, and another great masquerade year -- though it's a little discouraging that you almost have to be good at choreography/dancing to have a good skit. Not that I'd ever be in the masquerade.
One downer to the masquerade, which I might as well get out of the way: they told me at the door that I had to leave my staff under one of the tables outside of the auditorium. When I lifted the tablecloth to find a place to put it, the area was full of all sorts of random crap -- strollers, wall scrolls, and other people's long props. I had serious misgivings about leaving my staff there, but I tried to tuck it in the back in hopes that it would be spared. When I took it out, everything seemed fine at first. Then when I started to raise it, the red globe fell out and shattered on the floor. That kind of sucked, but at least I have plenty more where that one came from. But I realized later that there is actually a serious crack in one of the upper prongs, where it's pure papier-mache. To fix it, I'll probably have to sand off all the paint, and possibly several layers of newspaper, and then redo the whole section. All this, when if they'd just told me in advance, I could have gone and left my staff in the car.
So yeah, that still bums me out a lot every time I think about it. I try not to, especially since I'm retiring the Xellos cosplay indefinitely anyway. Maybe I'll never have to deal with it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Xellos cosplay. Even if I had to wear glasses this time, and ended up not having a chance to get white gloves. I'm proud of how the whole thing turned out. And I think maybe I got slightly more recognition this time. Also, as shown in my pictures, we found another Xellos. I guess there are always two of us. :]
But I think two years is about right for a costume. Xellos is a classic, so I bet I could go back to it down the road, but not for a couple years at least.
So, window-shopping, photoshoots and random cosplay, and witty performances. I think that sums up the con.
Oh, we did watch the best videos of 2011 from AMV.org, which were pretty good. Even the serious ones. And there were some awesome comedy ones, like Every Anime Opening Ever Made (which kind of loses steam, and may be laugh-out-loud funny only in group settings, but which I think is still worth mention) and the dangerously addictive Fast Food Song (sorry, I really can't find an original video).
And while I'm posting videos, as I mentioned there were lots of great masquerade skits. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here's a sampling:
Portal - Amazingly well put-together, even though I didn't recognize it at first.
Team Obsidian - Just a fun little Pokemon skit.
The Hungry Cosplayers - An example of what I meant when I said you have to be good at choreography/dancing. I enjoyed the skit, but I wasn't sure I recognized the series until halfway through.
And, of course, the martial arts Avatar skit.
...okay, rewatching them now on YouTube, I realize that there were just a ton of really good skits this year, so you should just go watch them all. I remember now: the majority of the first ten made no sense, but after that it was great.
I had a soft spot for the Sengoku Basara skits, as well as Sengoku Basara cosplayers, since that was one series I'd picked up since my last Fanime. Actually, I started watching it because Okiayu-sama mentioned it at Yaoi-Con. Apparently it was his one cosplay experience, for some promotional event. Of all the awesome roles he has that he could dress up as, he had to be . . . Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ugh. And I went into the series knowing that Okiayu-sama didn't show up until season two and really wasn't that major a role in terms of speaking time. But it turned out to be a very fun series that I enjoyed a lot. Completely silly and ridiculous, but fun. I have to mention two of the skits. The first one because they capture Sanada's delivery and Masamune's random English catchphrases so amazingly well. "Here we go!" XD And the second one because it really is pretty witty, whatever you think about the ending. (I think DateSana is blah, but you can't beat the enthusiasm of squealing fujoshi.)
So I know that was totally disjointed, but that's what I remember of Fanime right now. I was going to include thoughts about next year's Fanime -- since I'm going to be working downtown, I might as well go -- but I think I'll save that for another post. And thus I will slowly train myself to post regularly again . . . or something.
It was a pretty chill con, so there's not a whole not to report. Compared to Yaoi-Con, when I was just running around from guest event to guest event, there wasn't a rigid schedule I had to follow at Fanime. I did go to a couple panels, but not really of the pure "fan" type: Awesomely Bad J-Pop Music Videos, the comedy club, Whose Line Is It Fanime. They were all quite good, but they were all in the evening, so didn't affect schedule much.
During the day, it was really just a bunch of wandering the dealers room and artist alley, multiple times each. And spotting cosplayers. And dropping in on random video rooms when our feet got tired. The only thing that was scheduled was the photoshoots. Also, somehow we could never manage to get to the con earlier than about 10 or 11, no matter how early we got up.
So I don't really have that many takeaways. It was a fun con, and another great masquerade year -- though it's a little discouraging that you almost have to be good at choreography/dancing to have a good skit. Not that I'd ever be in the masquerade.
One downer to the masquerade, which I might as well get out of the way: they told me at the door that I had to leave my staff under one of the tables outside of the auditorium. When I lifted the tablecloth to find a place to put it, the area was full of all sorts of random crap -- strollers, wall scrolls, and other people's long props. I had serious misgivings about leaving my staff there, but I tried to tuck it in the back in hopes that it would be spared. When I took it out, everything seemed fine at first. Then when I started to raise it, the red globe fell out and shattered on the floor. That kind of sucked, but at least I have plenty more where that one came from. But I realized later that there is actually a serious crack in one of the upper prongs, where it's pure papier-mache. To fix it, I'll probably have to sand off all the paint, and possibly several layers of newspaper, and then redo the whole section. All this, when if they'd just told me in advance, I could have gone and left my staff in the car.
So yeah, that still bums me out a lot every time I think about it. I try not to, especially since I'm retiring the Xellos cosplay indefinitely anyway. Maybe I'll never have to deal with it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Xellos cosplay. Even if I had to wear glasses this time, and ended up not having a chance to get white gloves. I'm proud of how the whole thing turned out. And I think maybe I got slightly more recognition this time. Also, as shown in my pictures, we found another Xellos. I guess there are always two of us. :]
But I think two years is about right for a costume. Xellos is a classic, so I bet I could go back to it down the road, but not for a couple years at least.
So, window-shopping, photoshoots and random cosplay, and witty performances. I think that sums up the con.
Oh, we did watch the best videos of 2011 from AMV.org, which were pretty good. Even the serious ones. And there were some awesome comedy ones, like Every Anime Opening Ever Made (which kind of loses steam, and may be laugh-out-loud funny only in group settings, but which I think is still worth mention) and the dangerously addictive Fast Food Song (sorry, I really can't find an original video).
And while I'm posting videos, as I mentioned there were lots of great masquerade skits. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here's a sampling:
Portal - Amazingly well put-together, even though I didn't recognize it at first.
Team Obsidian - Just a fun little Pokemon skit.
The Hungry Cosplayers - An example of what I meant when I said you have to be good at choreography/dancing. I enjoyed the skit, but I wasn't sure I recognized the series until halfway through.
And, of course, the martial arts Avatar skit.
...okay, rewatching them now on YouTube, I realize that there were just a ton of really good skits this year, so you should just go watch them all. I remember now: the majority of the first ten made no sense, but after that it was great.
I had a soft spot for the Sengoku Basara skits, as well as Sengoku Basara cosplayers, since that was one series I'd picked up since my last Fanime. Actually, I started watching it because Okiayu-sama mentioned it at Yaoi-Con. Apparently it was his one cosplay experience, for some promotional event. Of all the awesome roles he has that he could dress up as, he had to be . . . Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ugh. And I went into the series knowing that Okiayu-sama didn't show up until season two and really wasn't that major a role in terms of speaking time. But it turned out to be a very fun series that I enjoyed a lot. Completely silly and ridiculous, but fun. I have to mention two of the skits. The first one because they capture Sanada's delivery and Masamune's random English catchphrases so amazingly well. "Here we go!" XD And the second one because it really is pretty witty, whatever you think about the ending. (I think DateSana is blah, but you can't beat the enthusiasm of squealing fujoshi.)
So I know that was totally disjointed, but that's what I remember of Fanime right now. I was going to include thoughts about next year's Fanime -- since I'm going to be working downtown, I might as well go -- but I think I'll save that for another post. And thus I will slowly train myself to post regularly again . . . or something.
