It's been less than a month since my last convention, and another convention had already appeared at the end of October. October seems to be the convention season for Auckland! Anyway, knowing it's me, you'd probably guessed that I go to every convention possible. This one is no exception. So, enjoy the photos (and my story, if that interests anyone).

Day one started at 8 in the morning. Auckland has a pretty small population so conventions are rare and far between. And so when a convention does appear, everyone of my age group ends up going. This convention isn't really an anime convention at all. It caters towards nerdy interests in general, so you'd most likely be looking at lots of Dr. Who and Star Wars and whatever. The atmosphere is pretty casual, which attracted a lot of people. The entrances were packed.

Inside the convention centre is the usual stuff. Like the past five or so years, there's a Call of Duty pavilion which doubtlessly attracted all the kiddies. There's quite a big area for Magic (and they were handing out free packs, too), but I wasn't interested. I had totally forgotten how to play Magic since I last played it in Seattle. There's also a lot of stalls selling things ranging from T-shirts, bootleg figurines, DVDs, and T-shirts. Mostly T-shirts.

I had to go catch up with two groups of people on day one, which made things really really tiring. I got exhausted very quickly, although in retrospect it was really nice hanging out with them, since we go to different schools and don't have much time to talk anymore. The first group were cosplaying as the guys from Payday and they did a really nice job of it. They also told me it was the cheapest one possible because everyone has suits, and they only needed to buy the mask. So many people ended up taking pictures with them, which goes to show how popular Payday really is.

I hanged out mostly with a friend who came dressed as Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul. Tokyo Ghoul has been really popular this year. Its popularity is almost rivalling that of SAO and SnK, which as usual seem to be literally the only two things 90% of 'anime fans' here have watched. So anyway, there were quite a few Kaneki, and he ended up being interviewed by Sky TV along with five other ghouls. He told me how awkward things got when the reporter asked them 'What's your favourite sci-fi?' The response: 'I don't watch sci-fi, I watch anime! And my favourite anime is Kiss x Sis'.

I was very disappointed with the shops there. A few of the figurine shops displayed genuine figures but sold only bootlegs. And those bootlegs were also sold at a price much higher than what you'd pay for genuine figures from Japan. The sad thing is that this tactic seems to have worked because most of the stores are doing it. The few stores that actually sell real figures (mostly prize figures) charge a ridiculously high price for their merchandise. 

I was looking at a Kotobukiya Ichika figure (from Ano Natsu de Matteru), for example, and they said it was going to 200 dollars, which apparently is already 'half price'. Then after a series of 'negotiations' with the Indian store owner, the shop-lady said I could have the figure for 170. The figure is worth less than half that price if you buy it from AmiAmi. I find their behaviour pretty despicable, to be honest. It's quite sickening.

Some of the cosplayers this year had been very good. I think they were the same cosplayers from the last convention I went to. Well, at least the pretty ones were the same. The cosplayers had been very friendly in general, which was nice, although the fact that I didn't look like a fat four-eyes constantly sweating and moaning 'I love anime' probably helped. The reason why I mention this is that there was actually guy there who looked and behaved just like that.

League of Legends had been so huge at this year's convention. Riot is just really really good at marketing, I suppose. They set up a pretty elaborate stage in a huge room, well decorated with lights and big posters of the sexier champions. The crowd was very enthusiastic, partly because the guys there were literally throwing out codes to free champion skins. The sad thing was that the LoL stage was set in the same place as the amateur wrestling stage, and no one could hear anything because the crowds were so damn loud.

So at the last convention, I bought a couple of laminated Love Live posters. The guy who drew them set up a stall at this convention as well. When I got there, the guy was drawing on his little notebook. I didn't want to distract him so I talked a little with his friend. Both were from Taiwan, I think, and were very lanky. Apparently their posters sold quite well, despite the fact that most people here were probably more attracted to Eri and Nozomi's beauty than actually being Love Live fans. He was really surprised that I followed this blog. I told him that he should be more confident in the future, which kind of made him happy, I guess. I bought two more posters from them. I'd rather throw my money at a talented artist with a future than at bootleg figures.

When I went out I saw a girl in a Madoka costume, holding her father's hand. I think that scene summed up the entire convention pretty well. In the end, it's just a bunch of nerdy children with their parents who knew next to nothing about what the next generation is into.

The convention spanned three days - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Originally, I only wanted to attend on Saturday. Well, on Saturday night, I read the guy's blog and it turns out he was going to draw me a picture of Honoka (I told him she was my favourite Love Live (I lied)) if I decided to attend. My friend was going to attend on Monday as well, which gave me an excuse to get my free drawing. Well, I paid a 21 dollar ticket for it. So technically it was a pretty expensive commission.

I was already suspecting some things when I saw a 'Do it for her' image being posted on his blog (with Eri pasted all over). Then I started investigating and found out that the guy is in fact a frequenter of /a/'s drawfag and Love Live threads. It truly is a small world! It's moments like this when I realize that just talking to someone opens a lot of doors. I was quite amazed, really. 

So on the next day, I went and picked up my drawing. While he drew, his friend and I had a short conversation about seasonal anime. We agreed that KimiUso is the best anime of the season and that KyoAni's Amagi Brilliant Park has potential (I had the impulse to say 'KyoAni finds a way', but then I cringed internally because to use a meme in real life is social suicide). I told him that I watched Wake Up Girls as well, and he said that it had potential. I added that Yamakan's execution ruined WUG. 

Meanwhile, the guy worked on the Honoka drawing while playing an episode of Horizon on his PSP. He looked very dedicated. It's not surprising, because it's easy to see from his blog posts that he's an insane Love Live fan. Almost obsessive. It was a shame that the noises from the LoL stage made it hard for us to continue our conversation, but it was a nice talk regardless. It's not often in this world that you get to have an anime conversation with someone who has watched as many shows as you have. I think the guy will go far. Perhaps very soon, we will see his doujins being sold at Comiket.

So yea, that's the end of the convention. I don't think anything interesting will happen during the remainder of the year. My exams are coming soon, and next year I'll be interning abroad, either teaching English or doing civil service. I feel that my life is slowly unravelling and that an adventure is awaiting me. I had been feeling quite depressed since the semester started, but for the past few weeks, I've felt a lot better than before. Hopefully it stays that way.

I feel sick. For quite a while I've felt as if I get tired really easily, and recently the fatigue has been getting worse. Sometimes I'd literally wake up exhausted and half of my body would be aching really bad. I don't really know why. For about a year, I would tremble somewhat when holding small objects like a key or chopsticks, and it's really scaring me. I'm hoping it doesn't end up turning into some sort of nerve disease or something. I just don't feel very healthy, at all.

I'm definitely going to write a longer post tomorrow or the day after. So many things happened.

The past three days have been so hectic. I'm so utterly exhausted! With two essays due, an info session to attend to (in Auckland city, no less) and several English classes to teach, it felt as if I wasn't going to survive past the weekend. Well, I did. There's still a bit of work left in the semester, but they are a few weeks away so I get to relax for a bit. For now. Without further ado, I'm going to talk about some of the seasonal anime I've been watching.

This post will probably be updated as my list increases, so watch out for that.

Amagi Brilliant Park

This is the latest show by KyoAni that everyone is (or should be) watching. Adapted from a LN by Shoji Gatoh, Amagi Brilliant Park is nothing like Full Metal Panic. Featuring a cast whose names subtly emulate Shoji Gatoh's favourite rappers, Amagi Brilliant Park features the adventures of 50 cent, Kanye and Queen Latifah in a bid to stop a fairy-owned theme park from going under. 

Okay, so the show isn't really about rappers. Actually, the show is about a handsome loner (a mix between Chuu2's Yuuta and Hyouka's Oreki) who befriends Sento Isuzu, a ridiculously beautiful Belldandy look-alike and quite possibly a whole escort of cute girls with a variety of hair colours. So it's like a harem, but as we all know KyoAni MCs post-Clannad aren't usually that sensitive towards women, so the romance will probably remain as a subtle subtext than becoming a full-blown melodrama. Seiya is a bit more talkative than his predecessors, however, which also makes him somewhat more annoying, and his personality a bit more unlikeable. 

From a technical view, the show is superb. KyoAni has been like that since Haruhi, and will remain as one of the most technically accomplished studios for years to come. In my opinion, however, KyoAni has not produced a single decent show since Keion, and it looks like Amagi Brilliant Park will be remembered more for its cast of beautiful girls than its substance. Perhaps the writing of Shoji Gatoh will save this show from becoming just another seasonal eye candy.

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso 

While its quality have taken a dip in recent years, shows that have aired in the noitaminA time slot have usually been fairly good. Honey and Clover and the Tatami Galaxy are some of the best shows in the past decade, and both were from the noitaminA block. More recently, shows like Usagi Drop and Thermae Romae have shown that despite the inclusion of Guilty Crown and Psycho-Pass, noitaminA still represents the higher end of the quality spectrum.

KimiUso is the latest show to air in that block. Adapted from a shonen (that's what Wikipedia claims, but it's more like a shoujo) manga, it tells the story (soon to be 'love story') of two child musicians. The guy is a music prodigy who gave up playing piano after the death of his mother, while the girl is a violinist with beautiful blonde hair. As in Nodame Cantabile, we know that the show isn't really going to be about music at all. It's going to be about the drama. And the romance. And the misunderstandings.

In terms of production quality, A-1 Picture has delivered once again. Maybe they could've used less cherry blossom leaves because half of the first episode is covered in a pink mist of sakura petals. I was also pleasantly surprised that they actually correctly animated the piano scenes, and the fingers were all on the right keys. Very impressive. Still, they could've balanced out the drama with the comedy just a bit more. The transitions from drama to blatant comedy seemed a bit too rushed.

Other than that, the show holds a lot of promise. There's like twenty more episodes to go, so I expect the amount of comedy to go down with time, while the amount of drama will go up in a straight line. If they pull this off, KimiUso may very well be the anime of the season. That is, if they keep the music within the show so it doesn't degrade into another generic high school romance.

Girlfriend BETA

Adapted from a cellphone game (which partly went famous due to a notorious NicoNico meme earlier this year), Girlfriend BETA is everything that you'd expect from an adaptation of this sort: low budget, cute girls, lots of subversive advertising for the source material. The most surprising thing, however, is that this show is actually watch-able, if not just barely.

The original game was a dating sim. Having perhaps recognized the difficulty of introducing a male cast into a group of cute girls without making it into a harem, Silver Link binned that idea completely. Instead, Girlfriend BETA has become a low-budget version of a generic, cute-girls-doing-cute-things high school slice-of-life, with a subtle lesbian undertone. Which may in retrospect be the best decision Silver Link ever made, considering that the kind of people who spend money on a cellphone dating sim are probably the same people who watch high school slice-of-life with cute girls. Which means that I'm part of its target audience.

Chloe is single-handedly carrying the show right now. Honestly, it's her quirky accent. Her accent is actually kind of funny, and her antics have been mildly entertaining. Everyone else is pretty average, but if they decided to add in more yuri scenes, Girlfriend BETA might be worth watching. I know it's only episode one, but seeing how this show is going, the only viewers left remaining after the 13  or so episodes will be the diehard fans of the original game. Which is somewhat ironic, considering the show has such a huge playerbase that if they are obsessive enough, Girlfriend BETA might actually cross the Manabi line.

So last season I reached Rank 3, which wasn't too bad, I suppose. Like just about everyone else I had been aiming for Legend, but when you are playing about 5 games a day on average, grinding on ladder becomes a pretty pointless activity. Rank 3 is all right, I guess. It's kind of like at that awkward spot where you are around 4.5k mmr in Dota, where you are kind of good but not exactly 'pro' by any standards. It's a strange bottleneck, one that takes a lot of time and self-reflection to overcome. My excuse, of course, is that I don't have the time!

Now that the excuses are out of the way, here is the Shaman list that I promised to discuss the last time I talked about Hearthstone. Oh, and a Hunter list! Everyone loves Hunters...

Alright, so let's start with Hunter. Hunters are basically everywhere right now on ladder, mostly because it's a fairly cheap deck to play and it's effective for its cost. It also has a pretty good match up versus Zoo, which a lot of people run, although due to the nerfing of Starving Buzzard, the match has tilted somewhat slightly in Zoo's favour. Its match up versus Handlock, like before, is really really good at around 70-30. It's pretty good versus everything except for Control Warrior, but Control Warriors are practically nonexistent on the lower end of the ladder where everyone is just trying to rush to Rank 5.

A lot of people counted Hunter out of the meta when Buzzard got nerfed, but the power of Hunter is still there. What made Hunter scary isn't just Buzzard + UTH. What made it scary was the early game and the board advantage you get through Undertaker, which I think is the card of the format right now. You get free traps off the Mad Scientist and small tokens with Creeper. Then there's Tracking and Loot Hoarder to help with the card draw, not to mention the 3 attack weapon that takes out just about every early game minion in the first four turns. Obviously, this new Hunter doesn't last as well into the late game since it doesn't have the replenishing card draws with Buzzard that instantly refills your hand. But the deck is still really strong.

My list was actually adapted from a few recent midrange lists, although as usual I like putting in a few tweaks that I really like. So first, I like Flare. It's good in the mirror and good against various Giants Mage decks that have become somewhat more popular recently. I also like Tracking because it cycles through your deck, thins out your deck and draws that vital Kill Command you need to kill Handlock. I reduced Savannah Highmane and Houndmaster to one each because you rarely get to play more than one Highmane per game (and it's easy to dig it out with Tracking anyway). And surprisingly enough, there aren't enough targets for Houndmaster. So one is fine for now.

The traps probably deserve the most commentary. 2 x Freezing Trap is mandatory because it's the best trap in the game. But what about the others? Explosive Trap is good against Zoo, which is really common up to Rank 5. The utility of Snake Trap lets you protect a vulnerable field and makes your Kill Command useful more often. The one trap I really want to play is actually Snipe, but it's an awkward card because it can either be amazing or terrible. It's amazing versus Miracle Rogue when you play it on your Turn 5. And it's really good against Azure Drakes. But in this meta, the card is a bit slow, and Hunter is all about tempo.

A lot of Hunters are running Sludge Belchers, but I don't like that card in an aggro deck because it's a very passive card that is only good really good in the mirror. A turn 5 Loatheb can be crushing -- a turn 5 Belcher gives your opponent an extra turn, basically. One Belcher might be fairly good if there are so many Hunters on the ladder you basically play mirror nonstop. But for now, I'll stick with Loatheb -- this deck is really just that tight for space.

Shaman is one of the classes that rely heavily on board presence and hero power. It's a reactive deck that has a lot of cheap removal, and the goal is to use cheap tokens (totems, Harvest Golems, Haunted Creeper) in conjunction with stuff like Flametongue Totem to grind your opponent down. It also has a lot of burst thanks to Doomhammer + Rockbiter and my favourite card in the deck, Al'akir. It demands a totally different playstyle than, let's say, Zoo, which is why I really enjoy playing it.

My list is really really standard. It's adapted from a list by Xixo a while ago, although as usual I like to add my own touch to it. So first, the one Zombie Chow. Games have gotten so fast nowadays that you need something to play on turn one, and Zombie Chow is one of the best turn one cards out there. Undertaker is a possible addition, although I'd mostly likely be only running one. The point of running these early cards is not to swarm your opponent early, but to survive since other decks are very fast right now. Obviously, you can also get degenerate starts with a buffed Undertaker if you have a smooth mana curve. Sometimes, Undertaker gives you free wins.

I really want to run more two Sludge Belchers, but there aren't just any room. It's one of my favourite cards just because it's so sticky and so efficient for its mana cost, and is perfect for the sort of long, grind games that Shaman wants to play. The addition of The Black Knight is a bit more interesting. This card has hit a pretty good taunt in 80% of the games I play, since practically every deck runs Sludge Belcher (except for Zoo). Against Kolento's Druid, TBK is one of the few outs to an Argus'd Spectral Knight. And it's also pretty good versus Priest if you save it for their Argus play. Obviously TBK is one of the first card's I'd swap out if I had to add something in, but it's just a great card right now, especially if you get over Rank 5 and more people are playing control.

That's about all I have to say, really. I'm working on two more midrange/control decks: a Deathrattle Priest and a Secrets Mage with Ysera, both of which are heavily influenced by Brian 'Brian Kibler' Kibler's Priest lists. That guy is just really really good at card games, and I've learned a lot through just watch him play. The Secrets Mage will probably get a separate post in the future once I finalized the list, because the list is pretty original, I think, and is really fun to play. It also has a good matchup versus practically every other control matchup, which I enjoy far more than a Zoo mirror. Not to mention that Mage was actually my first class when first started playing! It's nice going back to the roots...

Please Fireblast me in the face, Jaina-chan! Onegai...

Speaking of card games, I've decided to go back to casual Yu-gi-oh. I go to my locals every Friday for some casual games with a few high school acquaintances and it's been pretty great so far. Honestly though, the whole point of playing card games in real life...is to have an excuse to buy a cute deck box! That's right, I never had the chance to buy a cute anime deck box before...and now I do! So here's my gear for my Friday nights...it looks great, doesn't it? Oh, and Eli is the best Love Live...it's an objective fact!

The other playmat is my friend's Sonico playmat. 

Not long after I took the photo with my phone, a guy playing Magic came over and recognized the Eli playmat. He then showed me the Love Live cellphone game he'd been playing, and he was playing as Honoka. Then he started playing Start Dash on his phone. Good taste.

Auckland had been very cold for the past few days. It'd been raining non stop, and the wind is so chilly that it cuts straight to your bones. So chilly, in fact, that it makes you not want to go to school, or do anything outside, for that matter. Hopefully the weather can improve in a few days time, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be going outside any time soon. Which ironically is what I usually do to begin with, but the weather is a pretty good excuse for wanting to stay indoors out of principle.

I have two essays due quite soon, so it's rather ironic that I'd be talking about the last anime convention I attended rather than getting those essays done. Then again, I already know what I want to talk about in those essays so you can't say that I'm procrastinating per se. More like 'planned procrastination', if you ask me. In any case, the subject of this post is going to be about an anime convention I attended last week Saturday. I went by myself, as usual, since no one I knew were interested or had the time I attend this sort of thing.

The convention was held at a stadium about 20 minutes drive from my house, but since I couldn't drive, I had to take public transport. It was so terrible and cold, and not even two layers of clothing could stop those goosebumps from popping up. Auckland weather is so strange, because on one side of the sky there'd be sunshine but on your side, it's always raining. Luckily the rain quietened down somewhat once I got there, but with a weather as temperamental as Auckland, you never know what's going to happen next.

This year's special guest for this convention was Yoshitoshi Abe, who's a character designer and artist heavily involved in the production of Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei and last, but not least, Cereal Experiments Lain. All three of those shows left a deep impression on me, with Texhnolyze in particular being a personal favourite, no less due to the fact that every show Abe worked on bore his trademark style, a combination of mellow linework with dull, earthen colours in between. The day before the convention, I actually went to an exhibition of Abe's work at Auckland. As the photos will show you, it was a solemn affair, and I was the only person there. But the artworks were quite beautiful. It almost prompted me to pick up NieA_7.

Last year, they invited over Range Murata, who did some live drawing and signing sessions. This year, Abe also had a drawing session as well as a Q&A session. I had time for neither, and by the time I got there it was already finished. A shame that I couldn't see Abe in real life! To be honest, though, I'm not too sure what I wanted to ask him. Perhaps I would've asked him about the aesthetics of Texhnolyze and what he thought about those subtle references to Edward Hopper. But I doubt he spoke English, and even if he did it'd be hardly the sort of 1-on-1 conversation I was hoping for.

This convention actually has a really grassroot feel to it since most of the exhibitors are amateurs. Or to put it more precisely: Tumblr users who are also Free! fangirls. I think that the amount of amateur fanart by shows represented is a good indication of how popular shows actually are. So last year, most of the fan art was on Free! and SnK, although there were a good chunk of SAO and Madoka as well. This year, things got a lot more diverse. Besides the ones aforementioned, there's also Love Live (which sold incredibly well in Japan thanks to its obsessive fan base), a bit of Raildex and Frozen. And Kuroko no Basuke.

Many of the artists who attended last year's convention attended this one as well. So many of them sat at the same place, in fact, that the convention felt like a deja vu. It felt almost kind of scary. The quality of the artists in general improved, though. Some of the 'doujin groups' produced some really good fan art, and some of them were really really good. I've found, however, that the people who are really really good tend not to be talkative, while the ones who are mediocre tend to be more sociable. Maybe it's because the latter got into this scene just for fun.

Anime is sometimes called 'Chinese cartoons' as a sort of joke. But after attending this convention (after my experiences at Fanime and two other ones in America), I've become convinced that the biggest consumers of anime are actually the Chinese. It's hard to say whether it's because the Chinese are overrepresented due to their population size, or maybe it's because anime is just that popular amongst those people. I think there were two people in the whole convention who were actually Japanese: a doujin artist who previously sold his doujins at Comiket and a Japanese couple in their 30s trying their best to recognize which anime the fanart came through. So I heard things like 'Keion desu ne' or 'Ooooh, Nisekoi desu!' or something like that. It was surreal listening to actual Japanese in an anime convention.

I gave myself a budget of fifty dollars to spend on stuff. Most of the vendors there were pretty awful in terms of prices. They would charge, for example, 50 dollars for a prize figure, when its actual value in Japan would be no more than 1500 yen. What I really wanted to do was to spend a bit of money in the so-called 'New Zealand doujin scene' to show my support for those people. Some of them are really talented, and if they diverted their attention away from drawing gay doujins of Free! and Jojo, then we could definitely see a Kiwi vendor at Comiket real soon.

Since this is basically a Free! convention, it makes sense to buy things Free! related. So as you can see, I bought four keychains from that show (which, by the way, is KyoAni's second worst anime, with Nichijou being the worst). Speaking of Free!: I really like Nagisa Hazuki, mostly because my fondness for blond hair extends to males as well, and Nagisa has really blond hair. The vendors consisted of three girls, one of whom couldn't actually recognize the name of the anime the merchandise was from. So when I asked her that I wanted one Nagisa and one Makoto keychain, her friend had to say that I wanted the 'yellow' and 'blue' ones. Free! has become, for those people, the equivalent of Color Wars for those who are into harem.

The Free! A4 poster is actually drawn by a friend of my friend's sister. Or to put it this way: my friend's sister decided to help out her friend at selling her fan art. You'd think that there'd be no drama involved since we are so far apart, but she actually recognized me as the friend of her brother, and gave me some really unfriendly and weird looks. I also paced around the stadium about three times before finally buying the poster for the sake of being 'nice', which made things seem even stranger. She gave me the most unfriendly look when I passed her the seven dollars, as if saying 'Wow you're a guy and like, guys don't even watch Free! Now I bet, like, you're just here 'cos you're my brother's friend and, like, you're just trying to nice! OMG'. 

Link to the his blog

The Love Live laminated posters came from an artist who, unlike a third of the people there, was actually good at drawing. Unfortunately he wasn't there when I were buying his posters so I had to talk with his Chinese friend, whom I had a brief conversation with regarding the fact that his friend was so into Love Live. He seems to really like Eri, Nozomi and Honoka, all three of whom I consider to be the better characters in what is otherwise a pretty average show. He also drew some Madoka and PreCure fan art. His taste is very similar to mine, with the exception that I enjoy those shows somewhat ironically while he seems really emotionally invested in those characters, so much so that he drew those impossibly beautiful girls in the same way Pygmalion sculpted his woman. 

The anime club at my university also showed up. I've never thought about joining the anime club, so when I told them that I was a student at the same university (and collected figures, no less) and was 'too busy' to go to an anime club, they told me to stop making up excuses. They resembled, in every way, the characters of Genshiken. They looked like happy, moderately sociable people who are lanky and nerdy but not yet complete social outcasts. They were also showing a photo album, made by two of their figure collectors. The photos mostly resembled generic Photos of the Week entries from MFC -- you take your figure out to the nearest harbour/forest and take a super close-up picture of them under the starlight or something. The guy looked a bit disappointed since I told him that I won't be joining the club, but I think it's all for the best.

There were quite a few cosplayers there. There's your obligatory pair who dress up as Doctor Who characters in an anime convention, something which just can't be helped. But most of them were decently dressed, I suppose. Most of the cosplayers were Chinese. Even the guy dressed in the titan costume is probably Chinese, since he was holding a pack of Chinese cigarettes. And so I imagined that after his brief stint as a titan, he'd go outside and sigh and start smoking.

Well, that's it for this post, I guess. Sorry for the late photos.

(An acquaintance of mine also suggested that I should cosplay as Asuna for an upcoming convention at the end of the month. I've never watched SAO but the notion of dressing up as a woman sounds strangely appealing, somehow.)

For a preview of what I'd look like as Asuna, please click this link!