meteordust | Not Quite The Animania Report

It's been two weeks since Animania took place, and I really should say something about it.

I missed most of last year's Animania due to another commitment. This time, they announced the date months in advance, so I was able to keep that particular weekend free.

As the date for Animania drew closer, I found that I wasn't as psyched up about it as I had been about Manifest. Maybe it's because it was being held in my home city, or maybe it's because there were a lot of other things going on around that time.

Day 1 - Saturday

I caught a lift out to UNSW in the morning with

mirness and

leenabeans. Arrived at about nine. There was already a line of people outside the Scientia waiting to get in. The organisers and volunteers had been there since about six, and I ran into at least two people I knew who hadn't slept the night before.

While Mir and Leena went inside to set up their stuff at the tables, I dashed up to Randwick to buy myself a disposable camera. Made it back just after the con officially opened at ten.

I'd hoped to catch the first episode of Azumanga Daioh, which I'd heard was an extremely cute series, but there were screening problems in the theatre. So I ended up watching various organisers run in and out to fiddle with the equipment, while Earth Maiden Arjuna (the dub, no less) played relentlessly on the big screen above. After half an hour of this, I decided that I had suffered enough and left.

I did a modest amount of shopping - most of the stuff I bought was from Artists' Alley. I bought the shiny new Tabeshounen calendar, the latest issue of Moshi Moshi, and some Glittershy and Pandora's Box. I also put my name down for one of the Tabeshounen plush keychains that were due to be completed for the next day.

apsylus had flown in from Melbourne and was selling her gorgeous prints. I picked up the one of Weiss Kreuz and the one of Sephiroth, which are now sitting next to my monitor as I type. Sephiroth's eyes follow you around the room, did you know that?

I made sure to catch the Great Debate, which was engineered by the same team responsible for the Super Saiyans PowerPoint presentation at this year's Manifest. It opened in suitably theatric style with the Cardcaptors music and an accompanying routine by the debaters. The topic was 'That anime is inherently Japanese', but that's not really important here. The whole thing bore little resemblance to a genuine debate, but it was a very entertaining and well-prepared piece of theatre, especially the Lord of the Rings Sam and Frodo speech.

A little after noon, the fire alarm went off. For me, it brought back memories of late night screenings when the alarm would go off at eleven sharp, despite us telling security - repeatedly - that we had booked the theatre. I remember pumping up the volume of Utena to max in an effort to drown out the noise, while phoning security to come switch off the damn thing. The alarm would sound for ten minutes before stopping automatically, at which point security would finally show up.

Ah, the old days.

Anyway, the fire alarm went off and they had to evacuate everyone from the building - attendees, vendors, artists and all. Watching everyone milling around on the Scientia lawn, I was glad it wasn't my headache to deal with this time. When the two fire engines showed up, summoned by the alarm, I was even more glad to be an observer. Luckily, despite the forecast, it wasn't raining, or most people would have been ticked off instead of bemused. The talk was that someone had opened a fire door, not realising it was alarmed.

I had lunch with

zero_sum and Mir before heading back to watch the cosplay competition. There were a lot of high quality entries, some familiar from Manifest, and some totally new. I loved the Gravitation cosplay group, which featured Shuichi, Yuki, Tohma, Ryuichi, and Kumagorou. I was also impressed by the Dark Chii cosplayer. And I noticed an adorable No Face lurking against the far wall, staying very much in character. The running of the event was handled very well, with the MC interviewing the cosplayers about their costumes and the awards divided into a range of categories.

I dropped by the gaming room, which was packed with people. Was tempted to have a go of Tekken Tag Tournament, but no one had unlocked Lee Chaolan yet.

evilhayama told me that things were going well, except that the DDR machine had broken, perhaps from overheating. (They managed to fix it by the next day.)

The only place I hadn't been yet was the karaoke room. It was pleasant and comfortable inside, and

pelrun told me that some people had settled themselves down to sing for the whole day. I was out of practice so I didn't sing anything, but I listened for a while.

The con wrapped up at around six. We had dinner with the Melbourne people at Gourmet Pizza Kitchen, since it was the only place big enough to accommodate us all. A couple of us invaded Kaoru's place after, where I suspect we startled her housemates. We watched a bit of Mr Nice Guy, the Jackie Chan movie playing on tv, and had fun spotting the recognisable bits of Australian scenery - Queensland number plates, Melbourne trams, and even Melbourne Central.

Mir gave me a lift home. And then, what should I find in the day's Sydney Morning Herald but an article on Animania, complete with a photo of a giant moogle walking down the streets of Bondi. Page two, no less. Woo!

I know some people ended up logging on and ROing, but I was good. I went to bed and got some much-needed sleep.

Day 2 - Sunday

Caught a ride in with Mir again. Got there in time for the yaoi panel, which I had mixed feelings about after the debacle in Melbourne. Fortunately, it turned out much better than it could have. I think the presence of Craig Norris, as an academic, lent the panel a bit more legitimacy, and most of the audience took things more seriously too. People were asking genuine questions and others were doing their best to answer. Of course, I didn't necessarily agree with all they said (the "yaoi is literature too" comment was pretty embarrassing), but hey, what can you expect? I liked the open discussion, which had to end way too soon.

I checked out the Madman industry panel as well, in case there was any interesting news. Most of the discussion was about Madman's upcoming releases. Good news - Reign is coming out in Australia! Woohoo, I was hoping I wouldn't need to import it!

They showed a couple of trailers, including the one for Patlabor WXIII, which seemed to me to spoil most of the major plot twists. They also showed a trailer for Volcano High, a Korean movie that looked like a cross between X, Battle Royale, and the Matrix. It's going to be released next year under their Eastern Eye sublabel, as is Mamoru Oshii's Avalon.

Other news: SBS has the rights to screen the Cowboy Bebop series and Spirited Away, while the Cartoon Network has Orphen, Tenchi, and Trigun.

The cosplay competition was again well worth watching. While the judges were making their decisions, the organisers showed us the first episode of the new live action Sailor Moon series airing in Japan. While the concept sounds hokey, it was surprisingly well done. It reminded me of children's fantasy dramas like Ocean Girl. The acting was pretty decent, as were the costumes and special effects. One of the funniest scenes was when Mamoru made his first appearance - with his bish good looks and disdainful attitude, he reminded me so much of Squall. I had to laugh when he reappeared as Tuxedo Mask though. And Jadeite, they had Jadeite! The blond wig did not look good with his tan, however. I so want to see Kunzite and Zoisite now.

(This episode made me think, "Hey, Sailor Moon's a lot like Buffy!" Ordinary teenage girl is told she's the chosen one. Her mission is to fight evil. A dark, mysterious stranger keeps coming to her assistance. She doesn't know his true motives but finds him oddly attractive. I guess this would make Giles Luna...)

Anyway. The karaoke finals took place after the cosplay ended. All the performances were really good. The winning entries in the AMV competition were also screened. First place went to a Shamanic Princess vid set to Evanescence's 'Bring Me To Life'. But the one that brought down the house was the third placed 'MANservice No 5', which was a rollcall of everyone's favourite anime bishes to the pumping sound of 'Mambo No 5'.

The con ended soon after, and it seemed to me that the weekend had flashed by. The rain began to pour just as everyone was packing up. I hung around for a while with some of the others until everyone was ready, and then we went for dinner at Hanabi on Liverpool Street. Apsylus had to catch a flight back to Melbourne the next morning. Again, the weekend seemed way too short.

I think Animania felt different to Manifest partly because I was roaming around by myself much of the time, while a lot of the people I knew were occupied with running various things. Also, I wasn't cosplaying, so I felt freer to move about anonymously, but you miss out on one of the ways to connect with others at the con. Still, it was an interesting experience being purely an observer and seeing all the different facets of the con that way.

Not Quite The Animania Report

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