Alright....well, I went to my first anime convention today! It was kinda weird...creepy, but that's just because I am really shy and not very social. It took me forever to get a commission from this one girl because I was too shy. But I haven't gotten the picture, yet, which I'm definitely okay with. She was the only commissioner person there so I felt sorry for her and everybody went to her. I asked her to draw Alice, but now that I think about it I really wanna know what Resora L. would look like! TT.TT Crap! I wish there were more commissioner people there. Next convention if there are a lot of those kinda people I'll ask for a commission from each! ^ ^ There, now they wouldn't have so much work.
Anyways! I didn't dress up like Flapjack OR Naruto, but my friend dressed up like Naruto and she looked just like him! ^ ^ But I wonder if the people thought she was a boy...she has a somewhat deep voice and short boy-cut messy hair. In fact, she's just like Haruka from Sailor Moon except a lot more feminine! I just titled this post the adventures of Flapjack and Naruto because my best friend and I always joke about how we're going on an adventure like Flapjack. I LOVE the Misadventures of Flapjack...it's not really a kids show. They have a lot of adult jokes and violence. Flapjack reminds me of Near for some reason, but I have no clue why! ?.?
Well, my friend and I stayed at the one vendors place for a while. Here's a picture of a vendors place ('cept some guy walked in front of it when I took the picture):
I bought a manga (Mink! I'll review it later if I remember), Hell Girl pins I'm wearing one right now! It's of the name in Japanese, the other is of Jigoku Tsuushin where you type in the person you hate's name. I'm afraid to wear that one. There were also one's made out of rubber, but they looked cheap and what's with the blue straw doll!? I don't remember anybody having such a blue colored straw doll form! Everywhere I try to find an authentic straw doll it's always blue!! (Back to what I bought) I also bought a HUGE box of Pocky and ate it all. The Pocky was HUGE! My friend and I thought it should be called Jumbo Pocky because it's not very small at all or average size. I got chocolate (which tasted exactly like hot chocolate), and she got strawberry, but I don't like strawberries so when I tried it I had to give it to my parents because it was gross.
We also walked around a lot. We played DDR (I don't get why these pads are so hard to press. We had to stomp as hard as we could to make it work. Our legs hurt from stomping so hard. :( ), and we went to some kinda how to make Inuyasha necklaces thing. I didn't do anything, since I don't like Inuyasha. I taught my friend the quick and easy way to get beads on a string onto another string! ^ ^ The lady said she messed it up, but she didn't. But my friend broke it so she had to get another person to fix it. Then they made a saying so any time somebody came back and said that they broke it they said ,"Stop pulling a Naruto!" It was funny! ^ ^
Then we went to go to do Q&A with Greg Ayres, but there was some movie being shown there so we just left. Then on our way home we realized that there's supposed to be a preview of a movie he dubbed THEN Q&A! OOOOOHHHH!! I wish we could've done that. But we ran into all the special guests in the halls. We bumped into Greg Ayres in the vending place. It took us a while. He had some UGLY hair! It was all greasy and flat and it was brown, blonde, purple, green, blue, and all these different colors kinda combined. We recognized his voice, too. And then this other guy...um...Christopher Ayres, he started yelling out to somebody and we were standing in front of him so we thought he was talking to us! Confusion...-.-; And then when I went to get my commission some guy who apparently writes books for anime instead of actually drawing manga, he just writes books, well, he started making fun of me because I was so shy. I kept telling the lady how I don't know how the commissions work and then he said ,"I bet you're just embarrassed because you want her to do a yaoi drawing!" and I just shook my head. And then the lady said how she won't do anything sexual, yaoi, yuri, or anything like that. I didn't want that, I just wanted her to draw my drawing. Then he said ,"Aw! Darn!" That made me mad. I HATE yaoi, but I'm not that bad for yuri...O.o;
Then the people! Alright! Before we even got into the convention center there was a guy dressed up as Naruto and he comes over and hugs my friend since she's dressed as Naruto. Then ALL DAY LONG he kept talking to us and hugging her and tried to make a rasengan. It scared both of us. We were thinking of the creepiest people there, he's the first guy that popped into our heads. Then there was this guy dressed up as an....Organization...person from Kingdom Hearts. His costume was AWESOME!!! It was like really shiny and real leather!! It was awesome! The only problem is that you couldn't see his face at all because of his hair....like a blanket over his face. Somehow he saw us and my friend managed to get a picture.
Also there was a girl who looked EXACTLY like Rukia. We didn't get a picture of her, though because she left. But she was the same height and had the same hair and everything!!! O.O There was ONE person from Shugo Chara! there, she was Amu, but she was really scared of us when we asked for a picture. There was also this guy dressed up in girls clothes! O.O It was really creepy!! And there was a kid dressed up as Naruto and he looked EXACTLY like my friend from school. The only difference was that he had brown hair(I mean, under the wig). And there was this girl, I don't even know if she was cosplaying as Haruko, but she looked EXACTLY like Haruko. There were these goggles that you could buy (which made everything extremely bright and yellow) and she was wearing them so she looked more like Haruko and she had pink hair. She also acted exactly like her and started chasing after this poor little Sasuke kid (he was like 7 or something, he was really young) screaming how cute he was and she has to hug him.
Oh! And there was a really long line of people waiting for Greg Ayres and my friend took pictures of everyone. There was this one guy in the line who looked like a 30-year-old and he was dressed as that one guy from Trinity Blood, except he looked like a teacher! That's how old he looked! O.O There was also this one girl dress up as...Oh! What's that character with those upside-down cat ears and she's like a love robot thing! It starts with a C! Oh, well, she was dressed as her except in a gothic lolita outfit and everyone was taking pictures of her. She had an AWESOME costume!
Oh! Also at the vending thing place, there were these AWESOME goth-loli hats, but they were EXTREMELY expensive so we didn't buy any, but I also refused to buy them because I didn't have a dress to go with it. And then there was the J-pop table and they strangest thing was that they had NO NARUTO OR BLEACH SOUNDTRACKS!! That had Bleach and Naruto merchandise EVERYWHERE except in the j-pop section! :( And I couldn't find my favorite j-pop group's CDs because they were in alphabetical order by their SINGLES.
Oh! There was this TV that showed AMVs on it and J-pop PVs and they showed Nana Mizuki and Maki Goto. I was so happy that they showed Maki Goto that I bowed to the TV. Then after that they showed some crappy AMVs with AMERICAN MUSIC!!! I hate AMVs with American Music, unless it's that one Dream a Dream Ouran AMV. Best AMV EVER!! I love that AMV! ^ ^ Mostly because it's Captain Jack! ^ ^
What else happened? Oh! I kept feeling sick. My friend thought I may have eaten too many Pocky sticks, but I think (and she thought eventually) that it was claustrophobia because of all the people. I kept getting really hot in there, too and felt very uncomfortable. There was so much stuff I wanted to buy, but I couldn't decide! I also learned that the day before, on Saturday, they were showing Hell Girl! I cried a little after figuring that out. My friend could have been informed about it! I don't no anybody who likes Hell Girl except for ReiRei, but she's here on the internet! So it's not as fun that way! I LOVE Hell Girl and next Convention I got to I wanna dress up as Enma Ai! ^ ^ Or...Yuzuki as Hell Girl. Since I kinda have the same hair-cut as Yuzuki. I can also invite my best friend to the convention. But where shall I go...? Colossalcon? Hmmmm...I wish I went this year to see what the big deal was about that Aaron guy and Vic. Why does everybody like them so much!? They kinda creep me out 'cause of their pictures....O.o;
The only people I'd like to see at an anime convention for american dubs would be the voice actors for Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Light, L, Ryuk, and Near...and maybe Yuri Lowenthal or Johnny Yong Bosch (even though I don't like them much).
Now onto my review for Mink!:
It was...ehh...I was reading it and I read the backs of most of the idol/music manga and they were all the same! So and so is getting really famous, but their rival is plotting their destruction while they're unsure if they truely like their love interest in not their idol guy. I mean come on!? Why are they all the same! I need to become a manga artist to put idol/music manga to justice! Stop it with the rivalry downfall stuff! And stop with the instant magical pop star! Yes, you can become and instant star, but not just by magic! There is a group called H!P, ya know!
Well, Mink is about a normal everyday 8th grader who goes out to buy a CD of her idol...um...he had a girly name, I can't remember it. Anyways, she accidentally got the wrong disk and it's this Wanna-be program from the future that can do whatever you dream. So she suddenly becomes a pop star (after a lot of fooling with it) so far she's been in a movie with her idol, and even though it was just a movie he starts falling for her and her manager/friend from school guy saves her in many instances and falls for her also, but she likes both of them. And some girl is messing up her chances to become famous and stealing the spot light. But her character is really bad! She's evil, rich, and spoiled. INCREDIBLY CLICHE!!! And, of course, she fails in all her attempts. Then the main character keeps using her Wanna-be program thing to save the day!
Now, with all this ranting, I finish the book, and I'm oddly satisfied and wanna get another one! It's kinda like with Star Trek. It's really crappy and face palming and geeky, but by the end it's oddly satisfying and you're sad that it ended. Well, the book DID give me more inspiration for Mariko! I've realized that Mariko! is one of those mangas I CAN'T throw away like I did with Sakura Petals. It's because if I do become a manga artist I need to get a new rep. for idol/music genre manga because they're all pretty crappy. But I like reading about what the artist says. Those are always so fun to read! But she was talking about her favorite drama series and actors so I had no clue what she was talking, and I felt sad. Anyways! What I've learned from Mink:
1. Idols get a TON of creepy paparazzi and fan attention so they can't be seen outside their studio place.
2. How dramas work (I already know that idols are in dramas since Maki Goto is in a ton, even though she's not very good at acting at all)
3. That you can get a small stage at a big arena. (there's this place that I keep hearing about in manga called Budokan, I think that's how it's spelled, and apparently you can get a small crappy stage and then a big stage...I wonder have these concert places work, I gotta research)
...That's about it...
Now for an explanation of Mariko!:
Mariko! is about a girl named Mariko Mizutani auditioning for a new company/group thing like H!P, but then realizes there's another girl already in the group with the same name and birthdate so she's afraid that she won't get in. Even though she's not a very good singer, isn't good in crowds, and isn't good at talking to strangers, she has a strange charming aura that got her into the group along with several others:
Aika, who is a really talented and beautiful singer and it's no wonder she got in.
Mitsuko, who has a strange toughness that the producer/manager likes (while others are afraid of).
Cho, who is the youngest at 8 years old. She has extreme talent for singing, but it very shy. She also incredibly cute, so she definitely got the part.
But one girl who didn't make it made it to the finals, but was eliminated for her bad performance, bad attitude, and terrible dancing skills. Now she wants her revenge (vengeful creepy girl...O.O).
Now that she's in there are a lot of other conflicts taking place. Mostly romance and work related. The dance instructor is really scary and her teacher for school is very emotional all the time and kinda scary also. She also has a huge crush on her idol: Kazuhiko who is famous for his bad attitude and extreme respect for singing. He hates people who are bad at singing, so he kinda hates Mariko. He is also in love with another girl from the United States, so that's another big conflict.
Then there's the other Mariko, which she has to room with. At first they don't get along at all and are huge rivals, but soon warm up to each other and have heart to heart moments.
She also needs to learn the ways of the stage and get her singing top tier! As with all the idol/music manga they always wanna make it big while keeping their lives in tact. So the tabloids always try to tear her down by making fun of her, but her loyal fans fight back. There are also movements and new groups and such and such like with Buono! and Guardian 4 kinda stuff. Not to mention...*sniff* graduation. But I haven't thought up who'll graduate, yet.
There'll be concerts, field trips, PV making, recording the songs, dancing lessons, and anything I can put into it while making it as realistic and interesting as possible! I may try to post it! I'm making the cover right now! ^ ^
