Fanime 2008, a small report

Fanime Con 2008 was fun. The staff always do a great job. This year things were even better. The program book and events guide were so clearly laid out that it was easy for people to find out what was happening. In fact the attendance in my panels was higher than it had been in years.

I did three panels:

Japanese Culture in Anime and Manga:
I used half of an episode of Maison Ikkoku to illustrate Japanese cultural elements. After watching the segment we viewed it again pausing whenever a new element came up. One observant fellow pointed out that Kyoko's mother exited via the left door of Maison Ikkoku, something I had not noted before.

Anime for Parents:
This is usually a discussion between me and those attending the event. Some good questions, each time I do this it is different. This year it was cooler as Jonathan Osborne sat in one it and had some good comments.

Older Titles for Newer Fans:
This was done by both me and Jonathan Osborne. There were some technical problems so we had to start late and rush things a little. We introduced and showed clips from 8 anime likely to be not known by newer fans. Our criteria was simple, the title had to be currently available and worthy of recommending to any fan. We covered (in this order): Bubblegum Crisis (the original OVA series), Dirty Pair (a clip from one of the OVA), The City Hunter Movie, Otaku no Video, Maison Ikkoku, They Were Eleven, Gundam 0080, and Macross Plus. When our time ran out Jonathan had to go to his next panel and almost all of us moved across the hall to an empty room and had a discussion of the titles.

I actually got to watch some anime this year, just the tail end of a Detective Conan feature and a, unreleased in the US, Lupin III feature which I had not seen before. What I really enjoyed were the first two episodes of Gurren Lagan, I had to leave for a panel so I could not see episode three. My sister and her best friend were with me and greatly enjoyed the show.

I gave Yamaga-san a copy of The Best of Xero autographed by Dick and Pat Lupoff. Xero is a famous fanzine which won a Hugo award in 1963. Takeda Yasuhiro was there and he and Yamaga-san seemed to be enjoying looking through the book.

All in all a busy con, I ate tons of food and rested as I was fighting off a slight cold. Even so I lost 5 pounds, anime convention going as a diet works rather well. I bought a couple of Fujiko figures (you can never have too much Fujiko) and a tasteful figure of the major from Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

I'm looking forward to next year.