AnimeNext Panel on Collecting Anime Art Friday 6/10 2 PM

[sensei]

Those of you in the New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania area are cordially invited to the panel I will host on "Collecting Anime Art" at AnimeNext, Friday, June 10, at 2 PM in Workshop 2. This modest-sized anime con is held at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, NJ (near New Brunswick). While not the peer of major cons like Otakon or AnimeExpo, it is well managed and easy to navigate. All the workshops are held in the Doubletree Hotel (immediately adjacent to the Exhibit Center). For info on the con, events, guests, etc., see http://www.animenext.org/

I'll give a brief presentation, intended for beginners (buy only cels of full-face head shots, eyes open, Trigun cels are always overpriced, there are no genuine Neon Genesis Evangelion cels available anywhere, it's ok to run your greasy fingers over the front and back of your cels, etc. etc.). I'll bring along a celbook or two, plus an archival box with a selection of gengas. There will be time for Q&A, and, hopefully, plenty of time in the panel room for sharing. If there is interest, I'll see what can be done to find a nearby place to flop and continue.

Also worth keeping in mind: "Tenshi ni Narumon: Anime Under the Radar" will also be on Friday from 1-2PM in Panel 4. I'm going to give an overview of the tangled history of this series, which some of us love to excess while others don't know it exists, accompanied with a couple of clips, some random, some more serious. I'll be sure to have a selection of Tennimon cels with me for this as well.

Hope to see some of you there!

Hah! now the banner is back! Thanks, Magician!

[sensei]

The panel came off pretty well last Friday. In 2009 I gave a couple of fairly advanced anime art collecting panels at AnimeNext that drew a handful of attendees, then in 2010 I reduced the level a bit and drew even fewer. So this year I gave just a basic intro to the topic, got it put a little later in the day, and finally drew a decent house. It went smoothly (once we'd gotten the wig cosplay panel tossed out at 5 after ... in their defense, they had thought they had the room for 2 hours) and the cels I brought (a wide variety of series from my 1970s Microid S to the last cel-based series) got properly poked through by lots of people at the end. Some people brought a few of their own (there were some pretty Hajime no ippo cels one person brought), and the discussion was upbeat. I think I raised consciousness all around, especially the fellow who'd priced some cels he liked at $500 apiece and was very surprised that some of my favorites had cost $50 or less.

The Tenshi ni Narumon panel, my first without a collecting basis, also drew a surprisingly big house. I gave a summary of the series' dubious licencing history, then gave a frank explanation of why lots of people find the first ten episodes hard to take. Then I showed a selection of clips that showed the more serious side to it, including the intense "flashback" to Natsumi's childhood that starts Ep. 6. Again, I felt like the discussion was active, interested, and very respectful.

Overall, AnimeNext remains pretty small as a con, not drawing the big guests that Otakon or even Katsucon can host. But its closeness to lots of colleges and universities makes for a more mature, educated audience. I've never seen so many panels, even those on "fun" topics like "Anime: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," where the presenters were well-prepared and articulate, or where the audience asked so many really specific questions. There were lots of opportunities for indulgence, but I've never been stretched so much intellectually by a con.

Besides, I now know about Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? thanks to a delightful clip aired in one of the panels (the one in which the zombified protagonist ups his energy level by appropriating the henshin ritual of a mahou shoujo he's just met).

If my health holds, I'll be back next June! Hope to see a few Betarians there in 2012.

[redwolf]

Thanks for the recap. I wish the east coast wasn't quite so far away, because it sounds like a great con (esp. with you as a panelist).