The first anime convention of the year in Alberta finished up at 5pm this past Saturday. I’m certain those who have gone to the event and those who are curious about it are already searching the usual forums and sites to find pictures of costumes and videos.
If I had to give this event a rating I would say it earned a 4/5. It seemed to have a couple problems here and there but I think overall it was good and I certainly think a good start to the convention season for Alberta.
As I am only one person of course I could only make it to so many panels. However I’m hoping that those who weren’t able to make these panels or the convention will be able to gain a sense of what went on there.
Vendors Room
For this event the Vendors Room was held in the MultiPurpose Room of
Grant MacEwan. For anyone whose been to
Animethon in the last couple of years this is usually the room for the Artist Alley.
While there was no “official” Artist Alley this year, anyone who wanted an Artists table was also in this room with the Vendors. The Vendors certainly did have the majority of the room, taking up most of the space, while the Artists had a small line section against the walls and against the windows.
Personally I think this to be a good solution to having both in the same room as those who are drawing are able to get the natural lighting from the windows. I give kudos to whoever came up with the floor plan for that.
While in the Vendors Room I ran into
Tara M. the Artist Liaison for AToA.
Now usually for the Artists Animethon runs a tickets system, something I’ve only seen Animethon do. This means no initial cost of the table as patrons will need to purchase tickets from ticket booths and then pay the Artists with these. The Artists then later take their tickets and exchange them for cash. Of course Animethon makes it’s money from the initial sale of the ticket to the patron.
However with AToA being the way that it was Artists of course had to pay for their tables and maintain their own floats for this event. So I had to ask Tara what she thought of this instead of using the ticket system.
The only real problem she has with using this method was that you do have to recoup your table costs, otherwise you are out money. It might only be $10 for this event but at the same time you still have the pressure of having to make that up. As well you have to have money for your float so you can make change, and what if you really just don’t have the money to do that with?
I agree with her on this point. I understand that there are people who are against the use of the ticket system but honestly I’ve had a table under the ticket system and under the pay for your own table system. Frankly I didn’t experience much of a difference between the two, except that having a float and making sure my table was paid for was not something I had to make sure I had done.
Concepteur De L’amour – Japanese Fashion Show
Translated as Designer Love,
Concepteur De L'amour held a live event showing off various styles of Japanese Fashion. There were many different designs of clothes ranging from Punk to Visual Kei to New Rave.
In talking to one of the MC’s, Patricia, I found out that the idea behind the fashion show was “to create an experience where people in North America, like us, would be able to experience the styles of Japanese culture.”
Patricia was able to tell me a little more about the fashion show and how their executive had gotten many of her friends to help model the clothes, as well if the panel was a success that they would be looking at running the show at Animethon 17 in August.
Patricia called their executive, Christine, over for me and I was able to get this short interview:
Me: Can you tell me what inspired the name?
Christine: I just kind of thought of it because it sounded very interesting, Designer Love. Everything we do is kind of like about fashion and the love for it. And some people design their own clothes right? Basically when we put together our show we’re thinking about what kind of outfit we’re thinking of. So we’re practically designing this.
Me: I heard the words Visual Kei a lot (during the show), but I don’t really know what that means.
Christine: Visual Kei is kind of like a style, you know how you know the bands Montley Crew, Guns N Roses kind of thing? Japan has their own style where stages have the whole look, it kind of derives from that. Then as the years pass by people constantly change it and then it will change itself. People will be adding their own ideas to it so it makes it more colorful or more comical feeling or even gothic looking sometimes.
Me: And how do you think it went?
Christine: I think it went ok but other things I would have done differently would probably be having one person doing one style instead of one person doing two styles. The intermission went too long and half an hour isn’t long enough for all the models to change and get ready for their next outfit.
If you’re looking for more about the group then be sure to check out Concepteur De L’amour's
blog.
Cosplay Contest
The Cosplay Contest was kept simple this time around. People who wanted to participate only had to show up half an hour before the event to sign up, fill out their numbers and either walk on or do some kind of performance.
From what I saw there were some good costumes, mostly walk ons and two groups who did perform.
The winners of the Cosplay Contest consisted of (I was unable to catch anyone’s real names so these are costumes being named only):
Best Group – Kingdom Hearts group
Best Costume – Ichigo from Bleach
Best Skit – A Naruto character I’m unfamiliar with (Sorry don’t really watch Naruto)
Best Overall – Team Rocket from Pokemon
After the Cosplay Contest I was able to ask
Izy a few questions.
Me: What did you think of the turnout for the first A Taste of Animethon Cosplay?
Izy: As far as audience and such goes, it was pretty full which was kind of cool. My organization obviously could have been better but A Taste of Animethon is trying out new things so I tried out a new system. It worked pretty well except at the end where Scott *fake cough* messed up the prizes but that’s ok.
Me: I read on the forums that you were thinking about using this new system this year at Animethon (17).
Izy: Yep I was definitely thinking about using this one because last year worked except for the fact that I think a lot of people were intimidated with preliminaries. So a lot of people obviously didn’t enter. Like there was tons of costumes but nobody entered. Well not nobody.
So this method I’m trying to encourage more people to enter. It’s not like all serious business a lot of it is just fun. Even if you have no background in performing you can just come show off your costume. Even if you made it or not. I’m just trying to get people more involved versus just watching.
Me: How many people did you roughly get for entering (into the contest)?
Izy: Just a little under twenty. Which isn’t bad for something this size. Sadly enough its more than last years actual Animethon. But then again I think that’s mostly due to preliminaries.
The only reason I set up preliminaries last year was because the year before a lot of peoples skits weren’t family rated. People were doing things I didn’t know like someone performed like hardcore yaoi on stage and a lot of people came up to me after. So that’s why I set up preliminaries to prevent angry parents coming at me again.
Me: I heard there was a kiss of some sort (at Animethon 16)?
Izy: Yeah kind of like a make out on stage. Like its fine if you want to do yaoi but not everyone approves of it and you’ve got to respect their opinion on the matter too. So just don’t do it in public or at least not in front of a huge audience.
Me: What would you suggest for people who are trying to get ready a cosplay skit?
Izy: Just rehearse a lot. Just be kind of cautious of your time and aware of the smaller details.
Jacob, one of the judges of the Cosplay Contest entered into the conversation at this time. He specifically requested if he could have his name and "D-Bag" written in quotes beside it in this blog, as such I've done as requested.
Me: Was there a lot of debate amongst the judges as to—
Jacob "D-Bag": Not really.
Me: Is there a specific way you pick judges or is it just whoever seems to be available at the time?
Jacob "D-Bag": I was just sitting in the front row and they were like “You, you’re a judge” This is my first time at a convention ever.
Izy: Well every time I try to pick judges I try to pick them like someone who has some sort of slight background in creating like anything. But it just seems that people are either lazy or just don’t want to.
Judging is really not that bad, and people are like “Aw I got to judge and make all these decisions.” It’s no harder than what pair of socks you want to wear really.
Me: What’s the system for scoring then?
Izy: Well for simplicity’s sake they can mark 1 – 10 but if you want to get more into detail you can.
Jacob "D-Bag": The grading system is arbitrary basically. It’s just deciding who gets the highest score.
Izy: Yeah but if you want to be lazy just go with the 1 – 10 but if you want to go more in depth then by all means go for it. I just say 1 – 10.
Jacob "D-Bag": Yeah cause none of those people know what we gave them for scores.
Me: That would probably be really intimidating if they found out their scores afterwards.
Jacob "D-Bag": For some of the people, yeah. I mean a lot of them were pretty good and a lot of them put a lot of effort into it so it was good overall.
Basically my overall impressions after this interview were don’t be intimidated by getting up on the stage to cosplay. If it makes you nervous you really can just go run up and then get off the stage. Or if you were ever thinking of getting involved by being a judge just go ask. Even if its the last minute because chances are they might just need someone and you could be it, and if you like watching cosplay then what better spot then the front row with the rest of the judges?
Synaptic Chaos Theatre – Improv show
I heard a few people ask what this was over the weekend. A lot of people saying it was “an offshoot of
The 404s” or “It has some former 404s in it and some new people”. But few seemed to know what was really going on.
Either way there was still a lineup for this show and to clear up some of the misunderstandings stated above this has nothing to do with The 404s. Yes the people who are in this troupe are almost all former 404 performers. There is only one exception within the group that being Paul Saxberg who is currently in both troupes.
For more information on who you can find in the Synaptic Choas Theatre (SCT) troupe I would suggest going to their website
www.synaptic-chaos.com or checking out the their
facebook,
twitter or even just the
interview done with them previously on
Anime-Alberta.
The show itself was great! Very high energy, packed room, and lots of cheering to be had. The performers at this show were Brendan “Beej” Dery, Ian Horner, Will Wood, and the only lady of the group Erinn Watson.
Not only was this their first performance under the SCT name it was also the first time they tried out four different games they’ve never played before.
It’s certainly not something that can easily be described but not to fret they’ve already got video being released on their
Youtube Channel and they’ve said they’ll be releasing every sketch they filmed at their show.
Final Thoughts
That was also the last event of the day, and so A Taste of Animethon ended. I personally can’t wait to be at Animethon this summer, despite that I’ll mostly be trapped within the Artist Alley the entire time.
Also if you happen to want to get involved there were numerous announcements throughout the day from Vlad reminding people that they were still looking for volunteers to help out with the main event.
If you want to be more involved and maybe try the event from another persepective I’d say give it a shot. What people often forget is you don’t have to volunteer for the whole weekend. I know there are people who just volunteer for one day and others who volunteer outside of their panels, so if you find it appealing in go to the
Animethon website and ask about it.
And Thanks to Tara, Patricia, Christine, Izy and Jacob "D-Bag" for answering my questions.
