The Doings Report

I almost feel too tired from all our doings to write about all our doings. I'll just get started and see what happens.

This weekend was Sakura-Con, Seattle's mammoth convention dedicated to anime, manga, things Japanese, and whatever other tidbits get thrown in. There were concerts, workshops, discussion panels, demonstrations, heap big sales, gaming, and of course anime—on about eight screens, 24 hours a day.

But the primary activity at Sakura-Con is cosplay (costume play). Most people dress up, so we're talking about a big percentage of 20,000 attendees running around in costume. Costumes were inspired mostly by anime and manga, but cartoons, Disney, video games, and Star Wars were well represented, too. This is the line at the pizza place:


As my earlier post revealed, Chloe went as Kyo, a major player in her favorite manga/anime, Fruits Basket. (This is the one that features the Chinese zodiac, with 13 cursed characters who turn into a zodiac animal when hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Kyo—the most cursed of the cursed—turns into a cat, the rejected one of the zodiac.) Here is Chloe with a couple of other Kyos she encountered:


We were joined this weekend by Conor and Maia. Conor has done the cosplay thing before and he decided to come at the last minute, so he went as Conor. Maia was Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist. Here are Chloe and Conor in the almost-five-hour registration line:


And here are Kyo and Winry:


And as long as I'm doing photos, here are some fabulous costumes:






Registration was pretty miserable. Next year, we'll preregister or we won't go. But there were some highlights. We got nicely acquainted with the people around us and with the people who snaked by us at regular intervals. This gave us a lot of familiar faces to wave at during the Con. And at our lowest point—during hour four when the database went down and the line was stalled—an impromptu drum circle was formed, with people drumming on whatever they had to hand (pun intended).

After registration, I was too tired to enjoy much of anything, so the kids went off on their own while I found a comfy bench and read my book. Nicely restorative.

Chloe had early plans for Saturday (a webcomics panel featuring the Penny Arcade guys and a few others I'm too lazy to go look up right now), so we called it an early night by leaving about 9. Then we got up Saturday and started all over again. The day was packed full with stuff to see. The panels were really interesting and entertaining, and I was impressed by the turnout at these. For example, a big crowd of mostly kids gathered to hear a couple of noted manga artists talk about their work. In Japanese. The audience sat there polite and attentive for more than an hour, waiting through translation relays, and then settled in for hour two as the panel shifted slightly for the next topic.

I'm guessing, but I think Chloe's favorite panel was the one featuring Aaron Dismuke, a charming and funny 16yo voice artist from Texas who dubs some favorite characters and, most importantly, is young and cute. Here's Chloe with Aaron (sorry for the blurry photo, Chloe!):

(Chloe's ultra-cool, perfect-for-Kyo hat is by Qacei.)

My favorites were probably shopping in the vendors' hall—I bought a very stylish ear-wrapping dangly thing featuring green beads and silver dragonflies—and the very elegant Tai Chi demonstration. Did you know Tai Chi has weapon forms? I did not. Steph probably did. Frank would have loved it.


Okay, I'm out of steam. I'll just close with a couple of photos from our egg-dyeing party with pals Lori and Brian. Chloe and I broke away from the Con Saturday night to go over to their house for a super-delish dinner and a different kind of fun.