See Anime North And Live
May. 27th, 2019 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerGoing to conventions seems a big part of anime fandom. Saying “seems,” though, is an admission I don’t go to them. A few ways to explain this to myself have come to mind over the years. It can be tempting to jest “I accept other anime fans are out there without having to see them in person,” but at other times, looking at convention reports, I’m ready to think “cosplay doesn’t seem to do a lot for me” (even if that might start to scratch at that ever-lurking horror named “2D complex”). Once upon a time, I did make a trip or two to a general fan convention in downtown Toronto easily accessible by the GO train, only to just wander the dealers’ hall for a while then leave.
Since then I have become aware there’s a sizeable anime-focused convention held near the Toronto airport, and at times I have daydreamed about making a one-day visit. With Anime North scheduled just after the Victoria Day long weekend, however, I suppose having been on the road to see my family can leave me intimidated by the everpresent traffic packups along highway 401. Beyond that, there’s also the uncertain question of whether I don’t want to admit to being intimidated in a different way by big crowds of other fans or just can’t bring myself to “chance something new” without a supreme effort to climb out of comfortable grooves.
This year, though, I did happen to see a noticedavemerrill was going to present a panel on “Fandom Through the Ages” at a time on Saturday that wouldn’t mean leaving really late afterwards, and thoughts of making the trip at last crept a little closer. No sooner had that started than the chance arose of a much smaller and closer get-together in “non-fannish” contexts, but just as I was telling myself that might matter much more enough other people invited had explained they couldn’t make it. I committed myself to the point of buying a ticket to Anime North online hours before the price went up; the day before the convention, I went to the Uniqlo store that had just opened in the area mall and bought a “Mobile Suit Gundam 40th Anniversary” T-shirt that looked a bit subdued and wasn’t “Zeon-centric.”
On the day itself, I got on the road with the hope I’d given myself enough extra time to get through traffic on the highway and through registration to make an “industry panel” for Discotek presented by Mike Toole. Traffic actually wasn’t too bad along highway 401. What I hadn’t imagined, though, was getting stuck in a lineup right on the offramp. As traffic crept towards even the limited escape of the road ahead and I saw obvious convention-goers getting off TTC buses below, I started thinking Anime North had to be bigger than I’d been imagining it. For some years now I’ve been inclined to the humble thought that “anime and its companions” are a rounding error compared to domestic blockbuster movies especially given the rhetoric about “low disc sales,” but even discovering possibilities of “in sufficient concentration” is something new.
Once I did get into the conference centre’s parking lot there were still spaces open way up the field, but by the time a complex organization of lines had got me inside and I’d picked up my Saturday-only badge (I soon formed the impression the anime girl on it was a takeoff from a Flip Flappers character, but had to go back to old notes to look up Papika’s name) I’d missed the beginning of the panel, so I decided to cut my losses and get a bit to eat in advance of the real crush gathering at nearby locations. Later on I saw reports the panel had announced Discotek had licensed Kemono Friends; while I haven’t watched that buzz-attracting surprise yet it would have been interesting to be there. The first panel I did get to had the title “Aren’t You Too Old For This?”; while an interesting enough starter, the discussion did have a slight savour of “I demand my grown-up tastes be catered to,” which always has me thinking a bit of “something that ages along with its audience might end up unable to attract anyone unwilling to also take it in over years.” ”Different ‘genre’ works appealing to more mature people” might have their strengths; perhaps the problem is coming up with them when so many stick with brand names.
After that, I crossed the road again and took a proper look around the dealers’ hall. With all the people in there I sometimes didn’t get very close to things (and pretty much just brushed by the artists), but in noticing only one location seemed to have a large selection of discs I did pass quite a few figures, model kits, and other merchandise. After I’d bought a discounted book about the “American comic book scare” in the early 1950s, I did manage to get some actual anime goods with a grab bag of Love Live keychains, and that seemed sufficient to return to the panels and see “Anime in a North American Context.” While the moderator wasn’t there to begin with and there weren’t quite introductions from the two people who had shown up, there were some interesting anecdotes about different animation industries.
I did have to leave a little early to get to “Fandom Through the Ages,” which started with Astro Boy and went on from there. One thing I hadn’t quite managed to pick up on before, though, was that Dave Merrill was presenting alongside two other fans, and the second introduced himself as having gone to my university right when I had and joined the anime club there I’d signed up for the first chance I’d got. (He’d been on work terms that had taken him to other anime clubs, though, while I’d thought I’d increased my chances of getting in by picking a department not connected to the co-op program.) The three-person escort through things I knew from later study to things I’d experienced myself to later developments still more had shared was interesting, although a few tossed-off comments again left me thinking I might be fortunate yet isolated for being able to move between older anime and new series. All I can really say is that I don’t watch “everything” new and I managed a while ago to put aside the old rhetoric about “things ordinary cartoons don’t show” and suppose a variety of anime character designs appeal to me.
Over the course of the convention, anyway, I just might have managed to unbend a bit about cosplay and think “it doesn’t do as much for me as for others.” In getting ready to leave, though, I realised how the crowds of people still crossing the road were very much slowing down traffic getting out the main exit of the conference centre. I started my car with the uneasy thought of taking longer to get on the road than I’d needed to get off the offramp; however, after creeping forward for quite a while a traffic warden waved me onto a side exit I hadn’t known about before, offering an alternative route back to the highway. The experience was certainly something, although with a year less a few days until the next Anime North I’m already pondering whether the side exit will be a side entrance in the morning at all, much less less tied up by pedestrian crossings, or whether taking the GO train, a subway, and a bus is really any slower even with the possibility of waiting for a train in Union Station on the way back.
Since then I have become aware there’s a sizeable anime-focused convention held near the Toronto airport, and at times I have daydreamed about making a one-day visit. With Anime North scheduled just after the Victoria Day long weekend, however, I suppose having been on the road to see my family can leave me intimidated by the everpresent traffic packups along highway 401. Beyond that, there’s also the uncertain question of whether I don’t want to admit to being intimidated in a different way by big crowds of other fans or just can’t bring myself to “chance something new” without a supreme effort to climb out of comfortable grooves.
This year, though, I did happen to see a notice
davemerrill was going to present a panel on “Fandom Through the Ages” at a time on Saturday that wouldn’t mean leaving really late afterwards, and thoughts of making the trip at last crept a little closer. No sooner had that started than the chance arose of a much smaller and closer get-together in “non-fannish” contexts, but just as I was telling myself that might matter much more enough other people invited had explained they couldn’t make it. I committed myself to the point of buying a ticket to Anime North online hours before the price went up; the day before the convention, I went to the Uniqlo store that had just opened in the area mall and bought a “Mobile Suit Gundam 40th Anniversary” T-shirt that looked a bit subdued and wasn’t “Zeon-centric.”On the day itself, I got on the road with the hope I’d given myself enough extra time to get through traffic on the highway and through registration to make an “industry panel” for Discotek presented by Mike Toole. Traffic actually wasn’t too bad along highway 401. What I hadn’t imagined, though, was getting stuck in a lineup right on the offramp. As traffic crept towards even the limited escape of the road ahead and I saw obvious convention-goers getting off TTC buses below, I started thinking Anime North had to be bigger than I’d been imagining it. For some years now I’ve been inclined to the humble thought that “anime and its companions” are a rounding error compared to domestic blockbuster movies especially given the rhetoric about “low disc sales,” but even discovering possibilities of “in sufficient concentration” is something new.
Once I did get into the conference centre’s parking lot there were still spaces open way up the field, but by the time a complex organization of lines had got me inside and I’d picked up my Saturday-only badge (I soon formed the impression the anime girl on it was a takeoff from a Flip Flappers character, but had to go back to old notes to look up Papika’s name) I’d missed the beginning of the panel, so I decided to cut my losses and get a bit to eat in advance of the real crush gathering at nearby locations. Later on I saw reports the panel had announced Discotek had licensed Kemono Friends; while I haven’t watched that buzz-attracting surprise yet it would have been interesting to be there. The first panel I did get to had the title “Aren’t You Too Old For This?”; while an interesting enough starter, the discussion did have a slight savour of “I demand my grown-up tastes be catered to,” which always has me thinking a bit of “something that ages along with its audience might end up unable to attract anyone unwilling to also take it in over years.” ”Different ‘genre’ works appealing to more mature people” might have their strengths; perhaps the problem is coming up with them when so many stick with brand names.
After that, I crossed the road again and took a proper look around the dealers’ hall. With all the people in there I sometimes didn’t get very close to things (and pretty much just brushed by the artists), but in noticing only one location seemed to have a large selection of discs I did pass quite a few figures, model kits, and other merchandise. After I’d bought a discounted book about the “American comic book scare” in the early 1950s, I did manage to get some actual anime goods with a grab bag of Love Live keychains, and that seemed sufficient to return to the panels and see “Anime in a North American Context.” While the moderator wasn’t there to begin with and there weren’t quite introductions from the two people who had shown up, there were some interesting anecdotes about different animation industries.
I did have to leave a little early to get to “Fandom Through the Ages,” which started with Astro Boy and went on from there. One thing I hadn’t quite managed to pick up on before, though, was that Dave Merrill was presenting alongside two other fans, and the second introduced himself as having gone to my university right when I had and joined the anime club there I’d signed up for the first chance I’d got. (He’d been on work terms that had taken him to other anime clubs, though, while I’d thought I’d increased my chances of getting in by picking a department not connected to the co-op program.) The three-person escort through things I knew from later study to things I’d experienced myself to later developments still more had shared was interesting, although a few tossed-off comments again left me thinking I might be fortunate yet isolated for being able to move between older anime and new series. All I can really say is that I don’t watch “everything” new and I managed a while ago to put aside the old rhetoric about “things ordinary cartoons don’t show” and suppose a variety of anime character designs appeal to me.
Over the course of the convention, anyway, I just might have managed to unbend a bit about cosplay and think “it doesn’t do as much for me as for others.” In getting ready to leave, though, I realised how the crowds of people still crossing the road were very much slowing down traffic getting out the main exit of the conference centre. I started my car with the uneasy thought of taking longer to get on the road than I’d needed to get off the offramp; however, after creeping forward for quite a while a traffic warden waved me onto a side exit I hadn’t known about before, offering an alternative route back to the highway. The experience was certainly something, although with a year less a few days until the next Anime North I’m already pondering whether the side exit will be a side entrance in the morning at all, much less less tied up by pedestrian crossings, or whether taking the GO train, a subway, and a bus is really any slower even with the possibility of waiting for a train in Union Station on the way back.
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Date: 2019-05-28 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 11:35 pm (UTC)