2002-04-16 - 3:51 a.m.
#108: No Need for One Busy Weekend Part One
Note to self: It's kinda funny, but you can REALLY tell the point about which the X TV anime series stops adhering to the manga storyline (still ongoing) and goes off into its own tangent penned by its authors to try and wrap and tie it all up with a neat little bow. HINT: It begins at episode 21, and the characters start dropping like flies.... Hooooooo-e! That weekend was sure a lot of fun! Who would have thought attending three days of a convention titled "Armageddon 2002" would be so rewarding? Of course, I have a slightly skewed vision of the events since I held an exhibitors pass (thanks Zeb!) that allowed me to bypass the lineup crowd outside and enter the convetion area about an hour before the general public could AND allow me to peruse the generous amount of pulp culture/comics/anime related material on display and perhaps even purchase them before anybody else could get their grubby fingers on em. Life was so very, very, very sweet for those three days; and despite the rather nasty occurence at the end of those three days, the convention was a whole lot of fun. Tiring too, but hey! That just goes to show how much happiness I accrued while there. ^_^
Okay, I'm getting a bit ahead of the story here, so I'm gonna wind back a little bit. First of all, an explanation of what the Armageddon Convention is to those of you who don't know: Basically, it's the single convention in the New Zealand calenders year that sums up a whole lot of other nerdy/geeky conventions that New Zealand would have if only we weren't in such an arse location in the world. So if one were a New Zealander, and a gamer, or an otaku, or a comics freak, or a Trekkie, or a.... "Warsie" (?) and could make it into Auckland: then this is one convention you wouldn't want to miss. Cause basically you'd be waiting for an entire year before you could attend another one. Unless you count the second Armageddon convention that happens in Wellington a few months and a couple of thousand miles south later. Which I don't. Cause it's like WELLINGTON, yanno? XD Oh that's just gonna get me killed.... To be honest, this was the most fun I've had at this convention since the 2000 one, where the organisers woke up to the fact that there were a LOT of New Zealanders interested in this sort of thing, and rented the entire Aotea centre as opposed to the small, dinky amount of floorspace at the 1999 con. Which was just a CLOSET compared to afterwards. Nut that convention had Warren Ellis visiting, though. And I'm so happy that I managed to make it to all three days and managed to talk to some anime fangirls. Anime fangirls who AREN'T currently part of the Auckland Anime Club, that is to say. It's always fun to meet new people. And this isn't my need to procreate profusely talking here. Nosiree. Ahem.
So! Time for an indepth coverage of the three days from my point of view.
Friday 12th April
Woke up at 7AM feeling quite dead on my feet due to the fact I decided to go to sleep at about 2AM. Despite that however, I managed to shake it off with surges of adrenaline kindly provided by my body as part of the pre-convention excitement phase (works better than coffee!). Plus, Kunfei had offered to pick me up and drop me off in the city, so I couldn't refuse at that point, now could I? Plus, he'd shaved himself completely bald, so I wanted to see THAT at least. O.o He now looks like a cross between some bouncer you'd expect loitering in front of a strip club to the more benevolent "Iron Vest" from Shaolin Soccer, which if you haven't seen, you must do so. It's a kung fu film, only with soccer matches instead of death duels. So we got into the city, and after meeting up with Zeb, Nadea, EB, Chris and Fergus, we headed into the convention centre at the ripe 'ol time of 9AM. When I say "we" however, I meant just Zeb, EB, Chris and I. Since we held exhibitors passes and the others didn't. So we got in for free and at an earlier time than everybody else did. Did I mentioned how totally sweet that was? XD
Anyway, so we got in and then immediately checked on the animation room: where it was and if everything had been set up for our use to show anime on the big projection screen. Hey, the exibitors pass wasn't COMPLETELY free, we had a job to do! Admittedly, it was a fun and easy job of showing and watching anime for 6 hours a day, but it was a job nonetheless! @_@ After that, we wandered the upper convention hall level for all the goodies would get our filthy mitts on. And boy did we ever. Thanks to the five of us, an entire stall (Cartoon Gallery to be precise) had about a quarter of its stock depleted, and had absolutely no Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtrack CDs thanks to me and EB snapping up their only two copies. XD Which either says a lot about our extravagant spending habits or the lack of stock on the part of the stall. Or maybe a bit of both, since Cartoon Gallery ran out of all the really good things by the end of the day.... And out of literally EVERYTHING on Sunday afternoon. O.o For people making a trip all the way from Australia and bringing in stuff with them, they sure didn't bring a lot. It was like.... carry-on language amount.
By 10AM we scurried back to the animation room to make sure something was playing by the time they wandered in the animation room's direction. On the whole, however, we really didn't have much. In fact, we had almost nothing good at all, according to the schedule we had to follow for the day. The fact that Starblazers was on it wasn't the best sign. O.o So I stayed out of the animation room most of the day, which was fine by me since it gave me an oppurtunity to stay outside and wear my Seishirou cosplay costume (which was a bad idea, since I just looked like a well dressed businessman and hence completely unrecognisable.... Even if people did know what X was. I had to take it off after a while anyway, since it was too hot) as well as hear what people thought about the room as they left (which was a GOOD idea. Better than the costume one, anyway). You'd be amazed at the number of people who walked out of the room and regurgitated their immediate thoughts while not noticing that there was someone there listening in on them. Unfortunately, this soured my opinion on people ignorant of the entertainment value of anime after a while, since most of the opinions expressed were either negative or, worse yet, they were expecting Dragonball Z! @_@ The CADS! HULK SMASH!
But anyway. I was busiest in terms of wandering the convention hall that day, mainly due to the fact that there was still a lot of stuff available to buy and the full potential of the convention was yet to be unleashed! Well, something like that, anyway. I got The Authority comics I had written by Mark Millar and drawn by Frank Quitely signed by the two of them, quite a lucky break that the two of them decided to come to the same Armageddon AND I owned work in which they both participated in molding. Quite friendly Irish blokes too. I also went around to the booth displaying the fighting game Dead or Alive with a mixture of technology from both Dance Dance Revolution and Para Para Paradise, which meant players had to physically punch and kick in order for their onscreen representative fighters to punch and kick. I think I may have found the only "dancing game" I would ever admit to liking, even if the game was almost unplayable in that format. There is no way someone could have done a "jump-forward-kick" manuever unless they had three legs. O.o They could crouch and sweep the bottom sensor with one hand, but that would look really weird.
Apart from that, I spent most of my time either in the animation room or just outside. I suppose if I took the time I'd have found someplace more interesting to hang out. Such as the Gamecube room downstairs. Or the laser strike arena below that. Or several of the Q&A sessions with the notable celebrities coming to the festival in a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet them. But the lure of listening to people's innermost thoughts was just too strong, with the most amusing line I heard being from someone coming into the room: "Oh, it's very Japanese.". In hindsight, since it was just called the "Animation Room", it could quite have easily shown anything other THAN anime.... But at the time it was terribly amusing to hear someone say that in such an analytic tone. Just completely cracked me up. I came and went a couple more times after that: first, to pick up the Final Fantasy: Special Edition DVD which only $30 dollars for a DVD AND it was region one. I had to snap that up, even if I didn't have a DVD player. ;_; Second, to take advantage of the "three movies for one" deal at the Video Ezy booth, which included Dogma, Unbreakable, Jackie Brown. Sadly enough, that managed to eat about the entire day until 6PM, when the last of the anime series were shown and the convention centre as a whole was herded out the door.
I caught a lift back to my house with Kunfei (again) and collapsed into bed as soon as I got in through the door. I barely even said hello to the relatives who had decided that this was the time, of all times to come up from Hamilton to visit. I woke up an hour later to scarf down some dinner and have a shower, as well as to check my email which brought to me the extremely low point for the day. I have mentioned previously that I have a hobby in voice acting that I quite enjoy as it allows me to play characters I wouldn't have normally been able to play if they were "serious productions". Currently, one of my favourite roles is that of Seishirou, a charming, smooth, debonair man with a hidden deadly and ruthless nature and clothed in black suits and overcoats. Kinda reminds me of me, really (yeah, I wish XD). I play his role in two different productions, both radioplay based, but despite the fact I had these two in my grasp I had my eye on one other role: that of playing Seishirou in the X OAV. It was a small role, hell it was barely three lines: but hearing my voice coming out of that mans lips when he nonchantly spoke to the man who was both his lover and his enemy was just SOMETHING I really wanted to see. That may sound a little weird and more than a bit obsessed to the casual reader here; but hey, if you're disturbed by that, you haven't been reading my previous posts very carefully, now have you? ^_^
So anyway, when the producer, who was also in charge of the production I mentioned here said that she would cast me as Seishirou in the fandub Several months back, I was quite the ecstatic little amateur voice actor. I was going to be able to speak out of that beautiful, tortured man's lips and breathe out his lines, no matter how briefly it may have been. (and I'm scaring the readers again. XD) Several months passed as she deliberated over the casting, and she finally chose the few who would voice the X OAV characters, providing a sample clip of the cast just a week ago. I downloaded the clip fully expecting to hear my voice having a little tete-a-tete with Subaru. I don't think it would be a complete surprise to anyone now, after all this build up, that I did not hear my voice at all, but someone else who had taken the part.
I was flabberghasted. I was also pissed off that someone else had taken the part I thought I was made for, but I was also completely amazed that the producer thought this person could work out as Seishirou. The line, "Is it your wish to kill me? I who killed your darling twin sister? You're so very cute Subaru-kun." now sounds more like a strutting challenger from a fighting game, than it does a world-weary anti-hero who has nothing left but the one in front of him. Is the voice of a puffed up megalomaniac who's taken a course in evil diction class really the best voice for Seishirou? And not only has this voice actor been cast as Seishirou, he's been cast a total of 5 times in the entire OAV, all of them major (if short) roles. Seishirou, Kakyou, Kusanagi and Aoki, characters with the biggest roles in X all played by him. Double casting is one thing, but quadruple casting is just way, way, way too much.
So I emailed her (the producer) to ask if there had been a mistake in the casting and if she'd just inadvertantly used someone elses clip for the voice of Seishirou instead of mine. I received a reply email that evening. There was no mistake and I had my spot of taken away from me. And so that was that, really. Well, at least I have the understudy role for Seishirou. I mean, sure it's not much, and it's only likely to open if that actor decides to die from some terminal cancer or slips into some kind of tumour induced coma. Or gets a sore throat. But at least it leaves things open for a second chance if things should happen.
Since I KNOW that Danaes gonna be reading this, I'd just like to say at this point that I'm just letting off the little bit of steam I have about not getting casted. I am not quite THAT obsessed about getting the role, just trying to make my case look like it has more worth than your opinion on who makes the better Seishirou; so I waxed eloquence a little and put on that whole "refined actor" biz. XD Overall, I'm just peeved that someone beat me to a role, who wouldn't be in that situation? There are probably a whole lot of other auditionees who are also angry at not getting casted either so they're probably all gonna react like this at first. Then, of course, they're gonna be intrigued at how it's going to turn out without their talents on display. As the producer, you have the right to choose who you want to interpret your vision of the series without having to listen to the haranguing from bystanders who don't know what they're talking about and are under the impression they're the only ones who can make things right (XD). Yeah, I'm mad, but I'll get over it and I still have the long running role of Sei-chan in the Tokyo Babylon radioplay, so it's all okay! And I'm sorry for bringing out this petty dispute I have into a public forum too, but I couldn't put my feelings into email because I was afraid of what you would say if I decided to confront you directly, and I needed something to pad up the emotional content for this particular journal entry. XD I'll be fine. It's only about three lines afterall, so there's no need to hold a stupid grudge over that! O.o I think I'll move on with the happier stuff before I convince myself otherwise, tho'.
So anyway! After that email, I was about to crawl back into bed again when I made a costly mistake. I decided to stay up for a "little while" and play Wizardry 8. I was obviously being optimistic about my chances of backing away from the game as soon as it started (you don't stop playing RPGs for at LEAST for 5 hours. O.o); but at the time, I thought I was going to work myself towards a point where I'm too tired to continue playing. Sooner or later. It turned out to be later. 2AM in the morning when I had to get up at 7 again later. (and this time for real, since I was looking after the morning and early afternoon session of the animation room. like damn) So after blaming all the problems of the world on Wizardry 8, I leapt into bed and hoped to greet the next morning with a jump and a smile.
Saturday 13th April
Turned out to be a bit of a hobble and a screwed up squint. Not to mention a raspy voice that I seemed to have inherited from my fathers own characteristic when he woke up too early. Didn't stop me from catching the bus into the city to fulfill my duties as a diehard anime otaku and animation room moderator, however! Even if I did forget, for a moment, what Queen Street looked like. Could have happened to anybody. Yeah.
I walked into the convention hall at 9AM and wandered around for a bit by myself. I decided that really wasn't any fun after a while (okay, pressing my face against the closest window and gloating at the crowd lining up outside WAS fun, but that gets old mighty quick) and wandered into the animation hall to have my own private showing of the Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtrack, playing it on the huge speakers in the room and basking in its glory. Of course, it would have been even better to have the video to go along with the audio, but I was content with that one moment to myself. And EB once he came in and we both basked in its glory. After he left to check out the rest of the convention hall, I decided to plan out "Operation: Get More People To Come to Anime Nights" for when the crowds came in at 10AM. Actually there was hardly anything to plan out at all, only the self confidence (and my lack of sleep had apparently given me a LOT of that. I wonder if I can use that on a regular basis?) to say what had been shown, what was going to be shown next and some variation of, "Today is only a small sample of episodes of the following series. If you want to see more, they may be shown at the Auckland Anime Club sometime in the near future" or if the series shown had already been done so, then something along the lines of "If you'd been a member of the Auckland Anime Club, you too could have seen this show in its entirety, instead of just the three to four episode deal here". How could saying that NOT damn me to some sort of hell? Or at least a lynch mob of anime fans.
It was quite an effective hook once deployed correctly (I kinda choked the first time I tried out those lines) and I was riding high on the amount of people who were picking up AAC fliers (thanks to a combination of Claras designs and EBs and Michaels printing of them) as well as the general good vibe all around. In fact, by the time Clara came about to take over me for the afternoon shift, I was almost reluctant to hand over moderation of the room to her. Yes, I'm an attention seeker. I so feel dirty saying that. But I also wanted to get out of the darkness of the animation room for a while, and maybe even go back to my new habit of voyeurism just outside the animation room door. That was a bad mistake. Unlike the day before, where I could have tolerated most of the negative comments since what we were showing WAS bad, what we had been showing on that Saturday was of good quality: if not immediately excessible to the average audience. Showing the second DVD of Key the Metal Idol with no explanations of what happened in the previous one was NOT the greatest idea we had, but we worked with what we had.
So hearing someone say, "I can't believe grown adults are watching that" aloud or someone else mutter, "What a load of gay fag porn" upon viewing a male character with long hair REALLY soured my mood on trying to "expose new people to the entertainment value of anime". Sure we were showing the Utena movie, which was very, very, VERY surreal and more than a bit odd, but I couldn't care less. What was the point of showing dubbed anime to try and win over new people, if THAT was going to be their reaction? Anyway, people are most likely to come into the animation room with either the expectation of liking it a lot (anime otaku) or hating it with the same amount (ignorant people who choose to remain so). It's extremely unlikely that they wouldn't know what anime was, given the amount that's saturated itself into mainstream television, and they're probably going to have an immutable opinion on it no matter what language we showed it in. I felt like kicking a lot of heads in at that point. Especially that of the guy who cracked the "grown adults" line, who might I add, was walking arm in arm with his girlfriend who was dressed up in a Halloween devil costume, complete with horns. Pot, kettle, black, I would say. And then I would kick his head in. My mind is so full of violent, slo-mo movie cam thoughts.
I decided to let out my anger through a less direct route, however. Once the movie was over, I decided to play ringmaster once more, as well as to ask the audience (possibly against Claras will) whether they wanted to continue watching dubbed anime, or switch over to the subbed form. I'm pretty sure that I would have forced Clara to show subs from then onwards even if just one person had answered, "Subbed". Fortunately for the both of us, there was a resounding chorus of the affirmation for subtitled anime. Mainly from fangirls in the fron row of the room, who seemed to know their anime. Or at least the large number of pretty boys to drool over in Fushigi Yuugi, anyway. So that became the norm for the rest of the afternoon and afterwards, pleasantly enough. I think this kinda pissed off the club president Zeb, since she had implicitly promised the organiser of the event that we would be showing dubs only, but I hope she'll forgive me with time. ^^;;;
Apart from the negative occurence above the day proceeded smoothly, with me still clutching onto my role as "the guy dressed in all black with a really loud voice" and managing to introduce certain series TWICE, thanks to the three anime music video break I had between each of them (burning that VCD of AMVs was actually one of the reasons why I went to bed so late the night before Friday). As in saying what was going to be shown next both before that break started and after. By the time 6PM came around, I was feeling exhausted but also quite exhilarated at the prospect of more people coming to the AAC meets. Coming out of the convention centre that time was a bit of a lonely experience, since by that hour only Helen, Clara and I were left to look after things in general, sinceeveryone else had punted off to watch Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust on the big screen at another festival.
But that was not the end of the evening for me, nosiree! I had to go off and attend dinner at a Chinese Restaurant with the visiting family from Hamilton and then go off to Borders bookstore after that to indulge in their desire to remain active and upright. I wasn't COMPLETELY thrilled that my ride home that evening had to take such a detour, but at least I got a goodly amount of dinner into me. Which not bad, but it was the amount that counted, anyway. I also managed to get myself a VHS copy of Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker at Borders, a rather disturbing take on the franchise, that was apparently cut for content upon its release on American TV. According to Fergus I got the cut version, but at least I got to see what all the fuss was about. After spending way too long for my brain cells in the city, we left at about 10PM and arrived back home at 10:30 or so; whereupon, as yesterday, I collapsed into bed and fell asleep immediately. I was now completely assured of getting a good nights rest and walking to the new dawn bright and early....
