The con intersected a tropical storm on Friday. Thankfully things cleared up mostly by Saturday morning so the grass, despite still full with moisture, didn’t give into muddy slides. And this is important at AnimeNEXT 2013.

Since its relocation to the Doubletree / Garden State Expo Center right before the anime bubble burst, it’s got a lot of grassy gnolls and alcoves for photographs. In fact, down the road from the con, there’s this place called the “Palace” where large halls are rented out for elaborate weddings (and wedding photography) and other events. (Like the NJ State Bar Exam.) In other words, it’s great location for cosplay photography.

In exchange, the location is pretty horrible for the usual hall cosplay photography since there really isn’t a large, open and centralized area unlike, say, the water fountain area at the BCC or the main lobby at the LACC. It’s hard to find where everyone is. Even Animazement has the front lobby area, and its glass-y construction means you can see both the indoors and outdoors areas easily, increasing its effective size. At Anext, there is actually a place where cosplayers congregate, which is to one side of the Doubletree, by the so-called red docks. But it’s like, way to the side and you wouldn’t even know where to look unless you knew.

The blurb about cosplay is just so you guys know why I was there: take cosplay photos, and write about Sayo Yamamoto and Hiroshi Shimizu.

Shimizu is a veteran animator. He has a lot of key animator credits, but from what I can gleam during the two sessions I was there with him (who accompanied Yamamoto basically at all their events, neither had a solo thing) he mainly picked up the slacks from a lot of the bigger productions. And this guy is really an animator in the industry sense of the term, as he crunched out some genga during one of the panels while we did Q&A. He averages maybe a sheet every 250 seconds or some such. (As an aside this is why Hirosh Nagahama can sketch for everyone during his autograph sessions at AZ, like Shimizu at ANext.)

I got Lupin on a shikishi, can’t really ask for more than that…although I could’ve asked for, say, a Michiko instead. Sayo Yamamoto is, well, a bit stereotypical artist-y Asian woman. I think she’s probably just slightly younger than I am. Despite being talented I think she’s still got a lot of ropes to learn in the industry, so to speak. There’s not a lot to say, Shimizu is quiet but articulate when speaking, and Yamamoto is a bit flighty. The interpreters were not too helpful but it was what it was, nothing I haven’t seen before since the conversations can get down to the nitty gritty.

The only real takeaway is that Yamamoto is working on a new thing and it should be pretty cool. And somehow she is a fan of Yakushimaru Etsuko, which is to the surprise of no one.

The rest of the time at ANext I hung out with @7thwraith and his friends. Lots of words were spoken, jokes cracked, good times. I learned a lot about ANext cosplay culture that I never was interested in but am kind of now. There needs to be more Producers, surely. Since these guys are local to me, this is possibly some exciting news, who knows?

This is probably the first time I ate at the con for con food, the whole time. Actually, mostly in the Doubletree because the hotel had at least real food for prices that aren’t outrageous. Because parking is a pain, kind of. One of these days I’ll just go to Mamoun’s on my own, and I can possibly claim having been to all three locations!

We ran into some random Makoto-P who was volunteering at the con. It was kind of amusing. Also kind of strange interacting with people who just do it differently. I guess that’s just how it goes. I also ran into most of the rest of the guys I always see at the local East Coast events. Ed’s industry panel was pretty much just unhinged. One margarita was all you need man. I said hi to EJ, who is someone new to this scene, for sure. There was no new announcement at the Aniplex panel, but I guess that’s to be expected. Man, imagine if you’re this Cali guy and work sent you to a con in New Jersey! I have way more sympathy for him than the Texans.

Loot:

Yamamoto and Shimizu’s autograph session gave away these Fujiko Mine anime posters if you wanted something to get signed by. The 4 scribbles? Moon Stream baby!

Also, Doujin Press was there. Pretty snazzy.

Con season this year plans out to be something like:

Animazement: all done, just waiting for their charity auction. Since it is for charity after all, let me spill the beans a bit–the guests donated a lot of stuff at Animazement for charity, and the con charity auction ran too short to get to all the items. There are about a dozen or more stuff, as a result, that’ll probably get eBay’d for charity. The funds will probably go to OK tornado victims and for Touhoku relief. The items, I had a chance to look at them, and there were sketches and stuff. I have my eyes on two specific items: autographed scripts from Chihayafuru S2. It’s great, because I’d like to have one, and I won’t really think twice if someone outbids me on them, just because, you know, it’s for a good cause and I can put the money into use for something else.

Anime Next: June 7-9. The schedule is here and unlike last year there is no iM@S panel. Unlike last year there is an Aniplex panel. And unlike last year I didn’t have two weddings that I had to be in back to back. Not expecting much from Sayo Yamamoto but it would be nice if I can get her to sign something. Like, I don’t know, maybe a copy of Arakawa UB? I love that OP. Maybe I can catch Moon Stream there instead of AX? I mean, I plan to see Vertical anyway so that’s one conflict I can definitely live with.

Origins Game Fair: June 12-16. OK, this is just FYI if I’m missing for a week.

Anime Expo: July 4-7. Well, I don’t know what I’ll be doing there but I’ll probably be doing more press stuff. Hopefully I can catch up with all the twitter and blogging boys and girls. I might even get to go to a Megumi Han panel for once. I guess it’s time to dig up interview questions because some of these folks are at least interesting from that sense.

Otakon: August 9-11. Should be one of the best Otakon ever in terms of guest roster. Yoko Kanno brings all the old, decrepit, fallen-off-the-wagon fans to the yard. Too bad she’s not playing in Camden Yard or something, as the Orioles have away games that weekend. Joking aside it should be a good time and it will be a very trying 3-day period, with so much content overlapping each other.

And that’s really it. I expect I might attend NYCC, and I might attend, as a super long shot, AWA, even if it’s not really in the cards. I want to attend AWA this year, let’s put it that way, but I don’t think I can justify the time off or the flight.

Anything else interesting going on?

Poole Con 2013 was delicious as usual.

Megumi and Keiko Han are adorbs. Nakatani DAIOH. Spash is a splash as usual. Nagahama wanted Aku no Hana to be something that you know from knowing, not because it sits in a sorted bin of what you know. Not quite like a man who cosplays half robot and half Naruto?  It’s complicated.

Masako is grandma Masako more like. Yuko Minaguchi is gracious and has pretty okay English at least. I gave her a joke that she can’t quite play off of, oh well.

The rest of the old people brigade are pretty cool as usual. Nakao and Furukawa are stylish, good deal. Maruyama is frank and got his usual thing going.

And I can actually beat Go My Way on Taiko no Tatsujin 10, given this is like the first time I’m doing this thing. I had a lot of fun, free play etc.

Dear sleep awaits.