The early anime (1920s-30s) that I saw Friday morning were quite interesting, though--black & white, some narrated and others silent (with music dubbed in). They included two old Japanese folktakes Peach Boy, which had rather amusing bits with the animals; and the two men with bumps on their faces. There was also a cute song about children wishing a cat would come out and dance--the cat peeks at them from behind a tree, and then dances, and then brings out his brother.
We saw a couple of episodes (somewhere around eps 26-29) of Utena in the early evening--boy was it weird! And I thought the manga was a bit odd. My dear husband also sat through three episodes of Gakuen Heaven with me (earning major spouse points for watching shonen ai).
The anime music videos were rather good for the most part. They included fun (of course) Ouran High School Host Club video to "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" with both Tamaki and the twins chasing after Haruhi (Ouran is total silly romantic comedy fluff. I love it). Ken and I were both impressed with what we saw of Gankutsuou (an anime version of The Count of Monte Cristo) in a music video using that anime, so we'll have to rent it!
Best anime I saw for the first time was Le Chevalier D'Eon (eps 1-4) with well-done animation, appealing characters, and a complex pre-Revolutionary France political/mystical plotline that another attender told me gets even more complicated as things go on.
Now, for the pictorial tour. Tons of cosplay (that's the term when someone's in costume and especially when they're in character) as always!
Even the guy who registered us was in costume (don't ask me who...)
I got to meet Summer Mullins, the editor of Anime Insider, a magazine I devour every month when we get it at the library:
I fangirled over her (and the magazine) a bit; I hope she felt a little like Maki Murakami (creator of the manga Gravitation and one of the major stars at the con).
Husband wanted his picture taken with the Simpsons.
width="295" height="240" border='0'/>This is the only photo I took, btw.
We arranged to meet Megan, a friend I met at last year's Otakon at the Loveless photo shoot.
From left to right, Megan's friend Devon (in black Lolita wear); Megan (as Miwako from I-don't-know-what anime) and me (as Shinonome-sensei from Loveless). This was one of the high points of the con for me!
We're looking at an art book I'd bought that afternoon in the Dealer's Room. (I also bought a lot of manga--over $100 worth but still considerably less than many otaku who attended!)
We also ran into Danielle, one of the pages I supervise at work. She's cosplaying someone from Final Fantasy X.
I didn't recognize her character but when we showed Ralph and the kids the photos, my niece and nephew instantly recognized who she was cosplaying.
Here's Megan again, cosplaying Kisa from Fruits Basket.
We saw Totoro on the streets of Baltimore!
I like that he's under a tree, though it's a pitiful little one, not like "his" tree in the movie.
Ah, one of my favorite parts of Otakon 2007--Samurai Champloo cosplay at the harbor:
Mugen (the one in red) and Jin (the stoic samurai type with the lovely long hair) are in combat as usual: Rock Paper Scissors.
And Fuu's trying to break things up (and trying not to break up!) as usual...
Two sisters were cosplaying two characters I adore:
The little girl is Yotsuba (from the children's manga Yotsuba!&) and the older one on the right is Belldandy from Oh, My Goddess!
And then there was the walking maki roll
As usual, I can't resist a maki roll...
Lastly, for my fellow Classic Star Trek fans...
His red shirt, in case you can't read it, says "Expendable"
