March 27th, 2006
Update
- Jay Navok
Tokyo International
Anime Fair 2006
Before we begin, let me mention that we've filled 9 of the Warriors of
Legend Tour's 10 slots, and will be closing the tour for registration within
the next few days. The level of commitment from Sailor Moon's fans blows me
away and I'm honored to be guiding this group.
If everything goes well,
when the tour concludes on June 30th, 2006 (Usagi's birthday), I'll be
writing a letter to Takeuchi, explaining what we did on the tour and
including some photographs of those in attendance. I think she will be
absolutely thrilled by it.
Incidentally, I don't know if people have noticed but WoL is now in
Amazon's "search
inside this book" system, which includes some really neat statistical
information. Check out the
concordance.
Onto the article.
Yesterday I attended the first annual Tokyo International Anime Fair,
something like the new E3 of anime. The first two days were business only
and the last two were open to the public. The event took place in Odaiba,
the man-made island that Minato ward's Rainbow Bridge connects to.
The event was interesting and had a lot to see and do, although it was
very crowded. I enjoyed the "anime music exhibition" which featured
televisions showing several dozen openings from various anime. Moonlight
Densetsu made an appearance.
Next to this was a section on anime voice actors. I spotted
both Mamoru's voice actor Furuya Tohru, who was credited with a voice on
Gundam, as well as Mitsuishi Kotono, who was credited for Sailor Moon. There
was a contest where you could listen to clips and try to guess this or that
voice actor, but I didn't think I knew enough to play.
There was a good mix of stuff on popular shows and
incredible weirdness.
There are people in those suits and they were walking around
later, to my horror
Ultraman says eat fruit twice a day
Toei had a booth celebrating its 50th anniversary, including
a timeline wall that showed off its various series. All the Sailor Moon
anime incarnations were represented. At the Toei press stage, voice actors
and some bands would do lines and sing op/ed themes from their latest
series.
One of the corners of the convention hall (which was
actually three halls that were opened to make one large hall) had a set of
theatres showing anime episodes. They were voted on as some of the "best" by
readers of the fair's website. I missed the first one but the others
included Magical Teacher Negi, Eva, Gundam, and Future Boy Conan. It
only dawned on me as I started to watch Eva that they were showing the final
episodes of the series. Why they did that is beyond me but Magical Teacher
Negi has an interesting ending for a series I'd never seen. Kind of a shame
that I watched the ending having no idea what it was. Same go for the
others.
Another corner had a large stage which several voice
actresses were trotted onto. Once of the issues I had at this event is that
I haven't been following the contemporary anime scene in several years, so I
had no what most of these shows were. Whoever these actresses were and
whatever series they were touting, it was very popular and the mass of
people watching a hundred feet back.
Here are a few more VA stages:
One booth had an auction of anime goods. Someone bid 100,000
yen ($1000) on this life-size doll of Akari from Battle Athletes:
I, meanwhile, would pay money to not have to wake up and see
that thing staring at me.
One series had an entire, separate hall for it so I assume
whatever company is producing the show is pushing hard for it to be the next
big thing for kids.
I came back with a large Ultraman bag full of various
convention goodies that had been given out. Detective Conan balloons, an
Atom Boy magazine holder, Xenosaga buttons, etc. Not bad for a $10 entrance
fee.
Some booths had manga artists signing goods. Even though
people were standing in line they would push and shove rather violently.
Lastly, C.C. Lemon sucks. They were giving out free bottles
of their drink, and when I asked for one they said "Kids only." Meanwhile I
saw fathers with their kids who'd just take the bottle and drink it
themselves.
Whoever's been molested by Ash raise your hands
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