March 20th
Update
- Jay Navok
Sailor Moon Doujinshi
Event: Spring 2K6
You may recall I and several others attended a
Sailor Moon doujinshi event
last fall in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. Six months later the same group has
held another event in Tokyo proper, which WoL photographer Yosenex and I
went to yesterday.
The directions to the place were pretty confusing and
we were lost for a little while, wandering the streets of Mitaka, an area
located slightly west of Shinjuku. Entering a building on an uncrowded
side-street, we saw a small color sign near the elevator featuring the same
artwork that had been on the March flyer that had been handed out in October.
We knew we'd arrived.
We pressed the button for the 7th floor, stepped out, and were instantly
confronted by some Japanese men who seemed overly enthusiastic and spoke rather
rapidly about "Interior," which seems to have been some event also being held on
that floor, to the right of the elevator. We, however, wanted the Sailor
Moon event, and Yosenex informed them as such, to which they responded
rather disappointedly that it was to the left. We have no idea what
"Interior" was (although we speculated that perhaps it has to do
with decorating or something equally bizarre) but clearly the people running
it thought that two young male foreigners wouldn't be attending a Sailor
Moon doujinshi event and had come for "Interior."
We paid the 500 yen fee and didn't receive badges as we had last time,
but the nice booklet and card they provided made up for that. The event was
very similar to Octobers', as it consisted mostly of doujinshi artists
selling their latest publications, as well as a sprinkling of some official
(and unusual) goods such as a Sailor Moon R card game. One handmade
item I liked in particular was a glass plate onto which the outline of
Professor Tomoe's wacky face was airbrushed, but unfortunately it
wasn't for sale.
The event flyer and booklet. The picture quality on this is
bad because
I broke my digital camera in Kyoto last week, so I had to use my
video camera. The nice cosplay pictures
below are
by Yosenex.
There were several cosplayers there this time, as before. The three
lights were no where to be found, whereas in October everyone was playing
them (including the girls at the door); perhaps they were eaten by
Sailor Creepy Mercury
(or the guy behind her) in October. FYI, Sailor Creepy Mercury did not make
an appearance in the time we were there.
But we did catch some nice Haruka and Michiru pairs, which were all the
rage this round.
Someone was selling cosplay clothing, including some well crafted
Mugen Gakuen outfits.
Last time the corner of the room only had various songs playing on
shuffle, this time there was a television showing the Neherenia arc of Stars
off the DVD boxset. A couple of people had sat down in front of the TV to
watch.
As I'd spent too much money on my trip to Kansai last week, I really had
to force myself to not buy anything, but in the end I could resist. In
addition to a 50 yen Sailor Venus pin, the following caught my eye. An
exquisite poster set of one of the senshi drawn by the artist
Ryutaro Hino,
whose website you may have been to before. He was there selling a few goods
based off his drawings, and this poster set was an excellent deal. (If you
click on the latest news at his site, he has an update on the event too.)
Here are the posters, please ignore the general clutter of my apartment.
In retrospect I wish I'd asked him to sign them. Oh well, I'll see him at
another event.
As you can see, the poster on the right is one-sided, while the one on
the left has two sides to it. They're about 3'x1'.
One of the sellers recognized us from last time (and noticed that our
merry band had been reduced by half), but other than that the event was somewhat uneventful. We
were truly the odd men out in a room full of Japanese otaku and decided not
to stay for long. There'll be another event in June, which will hopefully
prove more interesting. It'll be June 11th, the only sad thing is it seems
it'll be too early for those coming on the WoL tour to attend.
One last thing. General Openflapsite!
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