Anime Convention

What do most red blooded Americans do over the 4th of July Holiday? Watch fireworks? Picnic? Hit the shoreline? I suppose these are good choices, most of which I have elected to do at one time or another. But really, what says hooray for the good ol' USA better than four, count them, four days at the Anime Convention! Well, I'll qualify this bit and say that I bought a ticket for the entire four days but mostly drove my kids there. I joined them occasionally.

Anime is Japanese animation that is getting quite popular stateside. Anime cartoons are pretty interesting as the story lines are, at times, somewhat complex and sophisticated. One interesting dynamic that I have noticed, in the few shows I have watched with my kids, is that it is often hard to tell the gender of the characters. The male characters are often very feminine looking. I say to the kids, "That's a girl right?" They'll laugh and tell me no, thats a guy, usually followed by me asking "Are you sure." There is also an element of not knowing their sexual preferences.

One of the series I've seen is about a family with a curse. The characters lead fairly normal lives but if they are hugged by a person of the opposite sex, or are really stressed they turn into one of the animals of the zodiac. I've enjoyed this one cause the characters are way out there. The angry guy is over the top, drop of the hat, furious. The sweet, caring girl is so co-dependent that I laugh out loud at the things she says.

Getting back to the convention. Many people attendeing come dressed as their favorite character. Both my kids dressed up. Son put in a lot of time on his costume and learned to roller blade just for this event. His character is a mysterious fellow who skates up to people who feel emotionally cornered, whack them on the head knocking them out, and when they wake up have somehow resolved some of their troubles.

Son's costume was so good that he got his picture taken well over 100 times. At one point we were walking to meet some other people and he kept getting stoped for pictures so I told him to stay put while I met the others and I'd swing back back by and save him from his adoring fans.

What I liked about this event is that it had that "Rocky Horror Picture Show" vibe. These people were having such a great time, free to sink into this unusual world, not worrying what the "normal" people would think about them.

We did end the last day, July 4th, with a bar-b-q at em and eduardo's place. This was a nice ending to a fun weekend which also included me ditching the kids to play Laser tag for the first time. That's another post though.