So last year, I made my way around the anime convention scene across the U.S. I got to meet new people, learn new skills both as a writer and a con worker. As always, it’s fun and an adventure. 2018 was no exception, both with ups and major downs. We’ll get to those later though.
The first big con I worked at was Anime Boston. I gave seven panels that weekend, the most I’d ever done at a single show. As their theme was ‘space’, it was fun to do ones on topics like the worlds of Leiji Matsumoto who was big on creating space opera anime, as well as panels about other sci-fi works. The one I really was happy to do though was my first ever moderator job for a Japanese guest, namely seiyuu Kazuki Yao. In thirty years, Yao has voiced several prominent characters, most recently Franky and Bon Clay in One Piece. He also enjoyed talking about Judau Ashta in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, and Koichiro Iketani in Initial D, and Dark Schneider in Bastard!! Outside of the panels, I got to take in a couple things like the Sailor Moon Masquerade Contest held by Viz Media. It’s been kind of fun to see how much the longtime shoujo has been embraced officially in the U.S. Many of the other cosplayers had good showings throughout the con.
After then it was fun times at Momocon in Atlanta, Ga. I spent most of my time running around to every panel I could. I managed to get a glimpse of Steve Yun telling people about the latest in the Robotech franchise. I also got to learn from Blu-ray author Justin “Answerman” Sevakis about what it’s been truly like to work in the anime industry for the last couple decades as media formats have evolved. It was a very educational panel. After then I had to run straight to the Adult Swim Panel where Production IG’s Maki Terashima-Furuta, Adult Swim’s Jason Demarco and voice actors Gill Austin, Barbara Goodson, & Kari Wahlgren discussed what it was like to produce the second and third seasons of the FLCL OAV series wth Gainax again under Yoshiyuki Sadamato. Game maker extraordinaire Suda 51 wowed a hyped-up crowd talking about the various games he’s worked on. Steve Yun of Robotech.com talked about Harmony Gold’s upcoming items from their franchise. Finally, I managed to catch the convention’s main anime guests Hiromi Wakabayashi and Masahiko Otsuka of Studio TRIGGER drawing and autographing artwork for the attendees.
After then it was time to hit the big one, Anime Expo, which literally capped ticket sales at over 110,000 people, on a weekend that had 100 degree temperatures that constant winds didn’t help to cool off. (Quite the opposite in fact. Picture what it’s like to be inside a microwave and well, there ya go.) I ran around to all the various industry panels and the like but my personal interest was in a few of my favorite fandoms. The Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure panel was pretty crazy as it had thousands of attendees but still thousands more were unhappy they couldn’t get in. Still there was a costume contest with some pretty faithful cosplayers and we got to watch an early episode so that was fun. There as also the Legendary and Sunrise panel where it was announced both companies had agreed to work jointly on an American live adaptation of Mobile Suit Gundam. Pretty cool news there.
I also got to make my way to the AMV contest screening which was packed as hell and had some pretty decent entries. The action category was mostly My Hero Academia, naturally. There were some goofy but well created trailers that I honestly thought should’ve been given more consideration in the comedy areas. Also, someone did an excellent vid to Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories that proves old-school anime has plenty life in the music video scene. From there I got to take in a panel hosted by director Mari Okada who had written excellent work in Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and had directed the beautiful, complex piece entitled Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms, which was an amazing movie to say the least. Listening to Okada talk about her writing & directing techniques and struggle to come out of her own shell and interact with her fans and the world at large was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
My next two fandoms were intertwined with each other and on my most must attend panels for the weekend. I managed to take in a panel with 3 of the animators for Voltron Legendary Defender. Eugene Lee, Chris Palmer, and Rie Koga were nice enough to talk about their drawing techniques and their history in the animation field, while being careful not to reveal how the show was going to end. It was also nice of them to collaborate on a special piece for the panel attendees right in front of everyone. All three had strong backgrounds, though it was Japanese native Rie Koga who interested me a good bit as she detailed why she transitioned from aspect of animation to another and noted her favorite super robot show was a 90s one entitled Raijin-Oh.
From this, we get to my holy grail of the con: seeing the legendary Go Nagai in action right in front of me. The man who made the super robot genre famous with Mazinger Z was there and it was plain awesome. Without him, I wouldn’t have a Voltron, or Gundam or Might Orbots to admire among others. He was here on a tour to celebrate his 50 years of creating manga and anime. Most talk at the panel was about Cutey Honey as he’d had a new TV show of which we watched the second episode. There was also a bit of talk though about Devilman Crybaby and Mazinger Z Infinity as all three projects came out in 2018. However, we also got to watch him draw his two of his iconic characters, Cutey Honey and Devilman for a couple lucky attendees. (I was not one of them, sadly. Ah well.) But this one panel made my trip wonderful…. even if the airline lost all my clothes and con swag on the trip home. *GRUMBLE*
After then it was a couple of fun times doing work at Otakon’s museum (during which I got an autograph from Shoji Kawamori on my Macross movie book) and at Dragon Con as well, where I got to gaze upon Gina T(AKA goddess I’d like to marry) in person, with a lot of good costumes at both. But nothing could’ve touched the high I got at seeing Go Nagai. Moderating my first panel with an international guest was a close second, though I grant you. Anyway, 2018 was an interesting year in cons aspect, and I’m hoping 2019 will be equally educational as well.
