So every year in Auckland there's this anime convention that gets held at the same netball stadium. There are other conventions, to be sure, but this one is probably the only convention in the whole of New Zealand that caters specifically to anime. My previous experiences had been pretty decent (it's been a year since my last post on this convention, who knew!) and hopefully this year would be even better. So I packed and set off, managing to arrive there at about one.

The thing about conventions is that it attracts the best and worst people in the fandom. Some people are pretty chill while others can be really obnoxious, and that's just something you'll have to deal with. The community in New Zealand is really small, so it's not surprising that you're going to see some Dr. Who cosplay here and there even though, well, neither Dr. Who nor something like Adventure Time counts as anime.

Most of the merchandise there is really overpriced, but there were quite a few good stalls, since people were selling their own art and things of that sort. I think that by going to conventions, you get a good idea of what the most popular (aka flavour-of-the-month) anime is among the Western fan base. Three years ago, it was Madoka. Two years ago, Attack on Titan and Free, and last year it was Kill la Kill. This year - and you'd never believe it - it was actually Love Live! I'd actually never imagined anyone except for a vocal minority would be into idols. I was wrong.

This convention turned out to be a weird reunion of some sorts. The Love Live cosplayers, who were at the Love Live movie screening, came here as well, and this time their costumes were actually pretty good. Most of the people who went to Noizi Ito's earlier event came here as well. That included the president of my university's anime club, whom I had a nice short chat with. There really are only so many anime fans in the Auckland region, and it gives me a weird feeling that somehow everyone is now together in the same room.

Last time I came, I met a really good artist who drew a lot of Love Live fan-art. It turns out he's come a long way since and now he's well into making his first game. I went to his stall and greeted him, and asked him if he remembered me. He didn't. I said that I was the person who really liked Honoka, and he instantly remembered. I think that's a sort of litmus test for Love Live fans, really, is that you remember people by who their favourite (best) girl is and not by other things like names. I believe he really likes Nozomi and Eli.

I had a really nice chat with him. Like me, he also used to browse a lot of 4chan, and the conversation that happens between two people that browses /a/ is totally different from a more 'normal' conversation. I can't really put my finger on how exactly it's different, but it just is. Anyway, I asked him a bunch of questions about how things are going on in Japan, since he just came back from there. Apparently Love Live is enormously popular (obviously), but @ is holding its ground, and Wake Up Girls is still a spectacular failure. He also told me that no-one in Japan cares about what /a/ thinks - or what the Western fandom thinks in general, rather. Nothing too surprising. 

So I bought some stuff from him, and after a bit of nagging, I managed to get him to sketch me a portrait of Honoka. Maybe this is turning into a yearly tradition or something. I'm pretty sure we only meet like once a year anyway so I might as well make the most of it. But honestly, I have a lot of respect for him, since he's actually a very good artist and obviously works very hard. 

I kept walking on, and then a girl called my name. I looked back and she immediately lowered here head, pretending that she didn't see me. But I recognized her immediately - she was my high school classmate, whom I haven't seen in four years. I couldn't remember her name, but she still looked every bit like how she was in high school. It turns out that she's putting out some of her drawings for sale, and it turns out she really likes Saber and that apparently Fate/Zero is a masterpiece. I told her that I really liked Prisma Illya and she accused me of being a lolicon. Of course I denied it outright but deep inside she was kind of right.

It turns out that the high school arrangement hasn't changed at all. Back in high school, there was a bunch of people who really liked anime - herself included. Most of them are turning up to this convention as well, though I'll probably be gone before they get here. So much for my high school reunion, then, but it was pretty fun chatting to her while it lasted.

Lots of drama happened on the day, as well. But that's a story for another post. 

A lot of things happened this week. This Wednesday, Noizi Ito came to Auckland. I was actually quite excited about this, even though I've never really liked Haruhi (or anything else by her, for that matter). I seriously considered not going, because the event was going to be held at a polytechnic that's two hours away from where I live. But I went anyway. 

By the time I got there, I was pretty exhausted. The event was held at a very small gallery, with prints of her art hanging around the walls. There was also a glass cabinet with a couple of Haruhi figures and dolls. So walking into the gallery (in a surreal way) felt like walking into my own room. I didn't recognize anyone there, aside from the owner of a local anime store who instantly knew who I was. 

Noizi Ito came with her husband. She didn't look very different from her photos, though she looks a bit jet-lagged. The event started about fifteen minutes late. Everyone huddled into the gallery and watched Noizi Ito introduce herself. It was pretty awkward, really, and things got even more awkward when Noizi Ito tried to make a joke and it got lost in the translation. The atmosphere was just very awkward in general, and made me a bit uncomfortable.

Noizi Ito walked around the gallery explaining her work, where her inspiration came from, and all that stuff. It was actually quite dull, and when she finished explaining her drawings we huddled back into the lobby where she was about to do a live drawing of an original character. There was also going to be a raffle, with a signed artbook, a DVD set and a Haruhi nendoroid as the prizes.

She started drawing and everyone watched very, very attentively. Except for a few creepy old men standing near me, who kept on snapping pictures of her even though there was a sign that said 'No Photography Allowed'. I swear, these anime events always attracts the creepiest people. Most people there looked pretty socially awkward, but some were just downright creepy. I don't know why. Every time I go to one of these events, it always happens. 

Next came the Q&A session. I was the first person to speak. I thanked her for coming to Auckland, then told her that I found some of her Love Live fan-art online. So I asked which Love Live is the best Love Live, and why. Everyone in the audience laughed for some reason. Noizi Ito said that she really liked Love Live, and that her favourite girl is Nico because she is very cute and hard-working. Well, I guess this shows Noizi Ito clearly has bad taste. I was going to ask her to do a 'Nico-Nico-Nii' as well, but then I decided against it.

So overall, the event went pretty well. The four hours of commuting almost killed me (I left home at four and got back at around eleven), but I was sort of happy I got to meet the illustrator of Haruhi and ask her a really pressing question - for me, anyway. Noizi Ito was going to make an appearance again at a local convention later in the week. And so that's where I went next.

Some things in life happen purely by chance. Watching Love Live the Movie turned out to be one of those things. Madman licensed the movie's distribution rights in New Zealand a while ago, and had planned a one-time showing of the movie on the morning of September 11. It also turns out that I got hold of this information on the early, early morning of September 11. So clearly the timing ended up being pretty tight. Getting up early to watch some anime is pretty ridiculous, but I convinced myself to do this, somehow.

So I got there fairly early. The location was an underground, art-house cinema - the kind of place where you'd least expect something like Love Live. When I arrived, a crowd was already forming. The crowd looked very similar since they were mostly bespectacled Asians around my age, who were almost constantly playing on their phones. Really goes to show who Love Live usually attracts - single, unattractive, nerdy males. To my surprise, there was also a sizeable number of girls there, most of whom looked equally as nerdy as the guys. There were quite a few cosplayers though, with one particularly good Kotori cosplayer who also brought along his boyfriend. Finally, there was an old couple who must've bought tickets without knowing what they were getting into. "It's anime," one of my peers replied.

I took my seat and waited as the crowd began filling the theatre. There were a total of three white men, two of whom were horribly obese, one of whom was staring obsessively at a Love Live artbook he brought to this occasion. Next to me sat a whole role of cosplayers. The movie starts. Everyone in the theatre applauds. Maki appeared. Everyone cheers. Nico did the "Nico-nico Nii". Everyone did the same thing, followed by a rattle of high-pitched laughter. Hanayo and Rin shares a tender moment together. Everyone 'Awws'. Umi does something stupid. The crowd laughs.

So clearly everyone was enjoying the movie. I was, too, up to the ending of the New York arc. The aspect of Love Live that appealed most to me had always been the slice-of-life. The idol stuff was the icing on the cake, really. But then, the drama kicked in, and things became far less enjoyable. Not that I dislike drama (I love it, in fact), but rather because most of the drama was sorted out in season 2 and there was no reason to repeat it here. The movie, as a whole, was passable in the first half but became excruciatingly boring in the second. Hardly the kind of emotional finale you'd expect from the end of μ's.

Everyone who bought a ticket was entitled to a random shikishi, a poster and a Love Live game code. Judging from the crowd reactions, Eli and Maki were clearly the most popular of all. But I didn't expect just how crazy people got when they opened the shikishi they wanted. The girls, in particular, were screaming at the top of their lungs - cries 'Eli Eli Eli!!' and 'Maki-chan!!!' everyone in the lobby. One Japanese girl screamed 'Watashi no Eli-chika!!' when she opened her shikishi. All of this made me very, very uncomfortable. I've heard of the obsessiveness of the Love Live fanbase before, but watching it first hand was another thing entirely.

In all, it had been a pretty interesting, if not somewhat uncomfortable experience. Although the movie itself was really mediocre, observing the Love Live fanbase ended up being rather entertaining. If anything, it goes to prove that Love Live has become the equivalent of opium among those people. It's pretty dangerous, really, and very scary to think that Love Live is basically making money off people who think that the more they spend, the more real those girls will become. It's hard for me to sympathize with those people. Really hard.