June 11th
Update
- Jay Navok
Sailor Moon Doujinshi
Event - "Ami's Tea Party"
Once again, myself, Yosenex (WoL's photographer), and Brad from
MoonKitty went to a Japanese
doujinshi event together. This time it was called "Amichan
no Ochakai" which translates to "Ami's Tea Party" and was located in
Akihabara. Pictures in this article were taken by Yosenex (except when
they're of him.)
We also had a fourth person in attendance, a friend of Yosenex's named Jared, who came cosplaying for
the event. He drew crowds in the main "Electric Town" entrance of Akihabara,
with everyone from tourists to the girls in maid costumes that hand out
flyers asking to take photos.
With a can of Chu-Hi in hand, anyone can become a sailor
senshi,
and wind up having that permanently recorded in internet form.
I won't forget the dropped jaws of Japanese shopkeepers in
the Akihabara area as the four of us walked toward the
location where the event was being held.
Much like the previous two events (see
Fall 2005 and
Spring 2006) the
event itself was located in a small hall. We paid an entrance fee of 400 yen
(waived for anyone who came cosplaying as Sailor Mercury), and received a
pamphlet as well as an Ami-chan sweet bean-paste bun.
Only one was
actually willing to
eat it.
In one corner of the room was a small flat panel showing
various episodes of the series on DVD. The middle consisted of various
tables of doujinshi artists selling some of their books, or people selling
various Sailor Moon goods. In the back was an area for shooting the numerous cosplayers who attended.
The variety of official Sailor Moon goods was fairly
limited, mainly keychains, cards, or stickers, but Yosenex picked up a
Sailor Luna henshin phone for 1,000 yen. Unlike the other events, which
seemed to have greater interest and focus in the doujinshi selling, the
number of things for sale was highly limited this time, and the number of
people actually making purchases few in number. One person had interesting
garage kits at his table, but they didn't seem to be for sale.
That is indeed Jupiter Bunny
Instead, greater emphasis was put on the cosplayers; both
the people themselves, and the Japanese fans pushing for photos in a piranha-like
fashion. A selection of photos from the event:
She later showed up again as school-girl
Minako
I call her "Bubble" Jupiter.
The best part about that last picture was that the bubbles
refused to pop, instead they got stuck to the floor, which we found out
earlier in the main room. As a result, when they saw that he was going to
use the bubbles again, two of the Japanese fans followed us out to the
hallway with a garbage pail and began picking up the bubble "imprints"
following the photo.
There is a Japanese version of the Sailor Moon card game,
and the flyer for the event advertised a "tournament." I think at most three
or four people brought their packs with them, but Yosenex brought his and
learned how to play for the first time.
Yosenex plays the Japanese Sailor Moon Collectible Card Game
One of the more interesting things about this event was the
use of international Sailor Moon themes as background music. Chinese,
Italian, German, and many other countries' versions of Sailor Moon songs
were represented. Toward the end they finally played the English-language
theme,
to which
Brad,
Yosenex, and Jared sang along.
This was by far the
most fun of the Sailor Moon doujinshi events we've been to. (I think for the
Japanese fans, Jared was the highlight of the event, as they roared with
laughter each time he said an attack phrase from the show, and all lined up
to take photos.) We had found in previous events that the Japanese fandom
was a bit shy and uninterested in talking with that odd group of foreigners
(each time we were the only ones) who showed up.
But the same people come over and over to
these events, and I think that since this is (for myself and Yosenex at
least) the third time we've come, things were a little more natural.
The event ended at 3pm with a large group photo of all the cosplayers. Below
are a few other pictures taken at the event.
The only two who were missing were Mars and Pluto. (Although, for some
reason, they had a Pluto Time Staff.) When we first walked in, a Rei passed
us on the way to elevator, but she seemed to have gone and no one took her
place.
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