I spent a good chunk of the first day wandering around and getting my bearings. Hit the dealers floor and checked out the various wares. A few of the stalls had some really nice deals, most notably the Science Fiction Continuum. They had a small but decent selection of anime DVDs and boxed sets marked at amazingly low prices. Single DVDs for $10 a pop and a number of boxed sets for under $30, including the Ninja Scroll series box and figurine package for $25 and two seasons of Black Jack for under $30 each.

Vertical had their full wares out for the more discerning buyers, and everything there was also marked down by about $5 or more. All of Suzuki’s novels, the Guin Saga novels and manga, Shinjuku Shark, Parasite Eve, and of course the complete selection of Tezuka’s works. They even had a special, a complete run of Buddha for $100. They were also incredible friendly and generally a very cool to talk to.

Media Blasters had a huge layout as well with the full range of their wares including material from their yaoi, smut, live action, and anime libraries, but with each DVD being at least $20 it was running a bit rich for my blood, even if it meant passing on Zeiram and The Great Yokai War. There were a few deals to be had though, several sets of live action films were kicking around the $20 price range including an Eko Eko Azark collection, and the criminally unknown Baian. Still, if live action Japanese movies were your thing and you had the cash, it was definitely the place for you.

One of the other things I really wanted to do on the first night was the catch the Kamikaze Girls movie. I’m not going to give it a full review, simply because that would far too long and entry in its own right. Suffice to say that it was absolutely fantastic. Hilariously over the top with some lovely fourth-wall-breaking moments. If you’re a fan of Lolitas or Yanki girls, or of watching Lolitas getting head-butted repeatedly by Yanki girls, then this movie is for you. Great, great stuff. I’m hoping to eventually track it down on DVD. It’s just that good. The film was actually delayed a bit, and I saw a fair amount of people showing up on, seeing an anime playing, and then turning right around and heading elsewhere. When the movie finally did start the room had about a dozen people in it. Word must have gotten around that it had started though, because a slow but steady stream begin about 10 or 20 minutes into it that ultimately resulted in the room being two-thirds or three-fourths full by the end. It did well enough to receive a round of applause of no less.

The only low point of the night was the Tokyo Pinsalocks concert. After waiting in line for about 40 minutes, with about 10 minutes before it was slated to start a member of the con’s staff came down the line announcing that no bags or props would be allowed inside the concert. Considering that over half the line had bags of loot, laptops, and various cosplay props, this wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear. At least one girl near me got into a small back and forth with the official over this policy. She asked what to do with the bags, if there was someplace they could leave them like a bag check, etc. The staff member basically said to leave them in the hallway, but keep in mind that the con wasn’t responsible for what would happen to them afterwards. Eh. This policy also had me nixing my plans to try for the Pillows concert the next day, which is probably a good thing considering the length of that line.

I arrive early on Saturday for a local Boston bloggers meet. It was amazingly empty and there’s something oddly pleasant about seeing cosplayers munching down on breakfast in full gear first thing in the morning. After the enjoyable meet-up and getting to put faces to names, it was back to the con and, yeah. Things had changed in that hour and half. The place was packed. The hallways, the dealers’ room–it was wall-to-wall people and quite difficult to move or find a place to sit down. I knew there would be a lot of people, but I didn’t think it would explode like that over the course of an hour or two.

Of course Saturday was the biggest day with a number of interesting panels, events and of course, the Pillows concert. First thing I did was head back to the dealers’ room to burn off some time before some of the panels kicked in. The densely packed room made moving and browsing merchandise very difficult, so after an hour or so of that I wandered outside and sat down to try and figure out the rest of my schedule for the day. No sooner had I did so before I was asked to move from my spot against the wall outside the dealers room because the Pillows line was already that long. The Pillows concert which didn’t start for about three more hours. Definitely glad I decided against attempting to attend. After pushing past the various Kingdom Heart, Bleach and Naruto characters, and narrowly being trampled by Snake in a Box, I made my way to the front hallway on the third floor, sat down to figure out my new schedule for the day annnd… was promptly told to move because they needed the space for the Tokyo Pinsalocks autograph line.

D’oh!

Thankfully I had managed to figure out my schedule and with a while left I decided to once again brave the choppy waters of the dealers’ room. I wasn’t there for too long before my stomach and the crowd resulted in my retreating to the food court for a chance to sit and figure things out and to get something to eat. Sadly that didn’t work either as the food court was about as packed as everywhere else. I grabbed a some fried rice and made my way back to the third floor, admiring a very good Sora cosplay who was surrounded by cameras. I eventually made my way back to the third floor and plunked myself down near the escalators and video rooms while I munched on my rice and decided what to do until the Gaia panel at 5:30. By now it was close to 4 annnd… yep, you guessed it. I sat down and minutes later I’m asked about a line. Thankfully I wasn’t asked to move though, just asked about whether or not I was in the line for the Gaia panel. This kind of surprised me. The concerts, autograph sessions and other events I could understand a line forming for hours in advance. The Gaia panel though…? Wow. After this happened twice I decided to find out just where the line was and get in it before it was too late. Strangely enough at that point the line was going in two different directions. People were lining up behind me, despite my telling them I wasn’t in the line for it, and further down the line had begun to wrap itself around the escalator area. To make matters more confusing there was a line forming a cosplay panel that was practically right next door to the Gaia panel. Oops. At any rate I managed to get in line in time and found myself next to an amazingly good Mario Brothers theme cosplay group. A Mario, a Toadstool, two princesses, amazing stuff. Looked fantastic.

Good thing I got in line that early though since they were turning people away at the door. Still, the line was chaos. I spoke with a girl sitting next to me and we both got the impression that no one had anticipated this kind of line for the panel. To make matters worse, it was left to the fans to form and figure out how to shape the line and, yeah… that apparently involved wrapping around the small escalator area and blocking it for a short time, at least I’m guessing that’s what happened based on the con staffer shouting “People in the Gaia line, do not block the escalator!” The girl next to me had a better view of the area as I was firmly behind a pillar, and even she couldn’t make out the end of the line. It just kind of… vanished, presumably down one of the larger corridors.

At any rate I won’t bore you with the details of the Gaia panel since it, sadly, wasn’t particularly anime or manga related. I was hoping for more partnerships and promotional deals like those they’ve been doing with FUNimation, but no news was to be had. Ah well.

Immediately after the Gaia panel was the ADV panel, which I recapped elsewhere, and that was followed immediately by the Adult Swim Revolution panel which I also stuck around for. It turned out to be a fan-run panel that was actually pretty entertaining. Some discussion about whether or not the latest crop of original programs were any good, random questions about anime on the channel, and more. I felt bad for the two hosts who were asked several questions by fans who thought they were AS reps. This after they stated that they weren’t, several times no less. Ah well.

Sunday was a welcome cool down from the utterly packed and insane Saturday. Only one panel interested me, but I was hoping to catch a few last minute sales in the dealers’ room. Well, at least I got to catch the panel. The sales, aside from a funny little “Jesus has risen but our prices are falling!” sale at the Comicopia table, everything else seemed priced the same as it had been the previous two days.

The panel was an interesting one though. Technology, Globalization and the American Otaku was hosted by Alex L. and two fellow B.U. students, an Alicia and Kent. No last names were used or mentioned. Alex opened the panel by stating that they were planning to take a sociological look at the effects of technology and globalization on subcultures, and then immediately asked how many people knew what they were getting themselves into by attending the panel. Only a few hands went up but no one walked out. Oddly enough most of the panel was taken up with a history of the anime scene in the US. They touched upon the early days of fan subs and how it started with a circle of friends, moved into basements, slowly grew into local school and tape trading clubs, and then morphed into larger gatherings like cons, and so forth. The incestuous nature of artistic influences was only briefly touched upon, with mentions of Tezuka’s work being influenced by Disney and noting that the pendulum has swung back to the other side with the US being influenced by the Japanese animation now.

While some of the information discussed was fairly basic there were several interesting things that came up. Alicia and Alex both discussed how anime was never intended to be exported, and that even to this day they generally don’t tailor it to an international audience. Using EVA as example they talked about how the importation has caused a recontextualization of the imagery and themes throughout the work, adding layers of depth and meaning that were never originally intended. Unlike some, they didn’t view this as a bad thing but as a natural occurrence when it comes to art. Alicia further went on to mention that technology allows for complete rewritings of the material. She used a few AMVs as examples, talking about one she saw at Anime Boston ‘07 developed a lesbian relationship in a program where there previously wasn’t one, and a Full Metal Alchemist AMV that retold the story with the caveat that Al had died during their attempt at resurrecting their mother.

This in turn led into another point later on in the panel that was essentially about auteurs, and how we’re now seeing the rise of original work coming from fans which are eventually picked up by studios, citing Makoto Shinkai’s recent success as an example of how technology is now allowing for more direct interaction between the fans, the industry and medium. The three seemed to feel that it was only a matter of time before the US anime scene began to produce similar content, creating new material while drawing influence from the variety of materials that are now available to us.

Despite the rosy colored lens this seems to paint, they did mention that the increase of technology has also resulted in less interpersonal meetings and bonds. That with the ability to access and communicate with anyone in the world, people are on one hand communicating more, but becoming further estranged from the world immediately around them. Felt like they were angling towards the hikikomori phenomena though they never directly mentioned it. They did mention how certain shows and movies from the 90’s felt like a reaction to this phenomena though, stating that Lain specifically felt like an attempt to puzzle out the Internet addiction that was emerging in the 90’s. Ultimately the panel wrapped up with the hope that anime would act as a gateway drug to Japanese culture.

There were several other snazzy highlights from the weekend though. On Friday I stumbled across an impromptu sax solo performed by a cosplayer dressed as Midvalley the Hornfreak. He played a little bit of “Tank!”, the theme of Cowboy Bebop. Surprisingly there were several good musicians in cosplay, complete with instruments. In the same hallway a little further down there was a girl dressed as Link playing… uhh… a flute I guess. While on the second floor I passed someone in a cosplay outfit I didn’t recognize playing a bit of “Ready, Steady, Go” on another brass instrument. Lovely stuff and it just reinforced my desire to see a Guilty Gear cosplayer band at some point.

Lines aside, it was definitely a fun weekend.