The Yard Sale
I visited Montreal partly on a whim but also because this Otakuthon thing has gotten to a point where it’s worth figuring out. Last year when Angela visited I almost pulled the trigger on a last-minute trip too, but because their anison concert is always on Friday that made the trip a lot less worthwhile. This year the main attraction for me is seeing Tanaka Atsuko, who was there mostly for Saturday and Sunday, so that worked.
Somehow I am YOLO-ing Montreal’s premiere anime convention, Otakuthon. I’ll be going as someone who wants to see Tanaka Atsuko first, the city and its offering as well as hanging out with friends all the while.
The con also features some neat guests, such as Obata of the Shonen JUMP mangaka fame and Back-On. Tanemura Arina, mangaka for Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and others, will also be there. To round it out there are a couple A-1 Pictures producers and some guy from Bannam.
So going to just swing by and check it out, and then go home. I think I’m going only because I now know these Canadians from the area due to P activities, so it’ll be a good way to meet up with some of them. Visiting the city will also be a first time for me, so I guess we’ll see how it turns out. It feels weird being more excited about poutine and bagels with smoked meats than the con but alas.
This a short wrap for a long con with a lot of stuff happening and even more to write about. One of the core realization in my mind is the ever-merging interest of Japanese (and US) companies trying to make something good happen with fans who love their stuff. This means that the growing closeness between the notion of “fan” cons versus “industry” cons is an overall good to attendees. TL;DR: Industry Booths are good too, especially when fan booths are the same show as always.
This AX was great, despite what AX has done, I guess.
[Last update: 6/30 2pm Eastern, gonna head out soon so no more!]
AX is upon us again. After taking a break last year I’m back…for better or worse. Thanks to ACJ’s Anison Matsuri this year will be one layer more crazy than the usual barrage of AX guests that are now blowing up the event. Â I mean, most US cons would be lucky to land 3-4 of these guests and I think AX has like 50+?? It won’t be just me feeling that Japan would have gotten better bang per buck if them, their industry reps, and others, were able to go to the other cons in the US and spread that love around, only because even with another record-shattering attendance figure, we’re well into the category where there’s too much things going on at the same time. Is it worth running your A+ game against every else’s A+ game? I don’t know. Well, maybe I do have some ideas, and you can ask me about it in person.
And as usual this is too much info for the poor con organizers, so it’s time to step up and dump some links. I’ll try to write this up for Jtor focusing on just the worthwhile ones. Will also try to update as info rolls in. If you have any things you want to let us know please leave a comment.
But first:
