In October I went to Utah’s only Anime Con; Anime Banzai! I’ve been going to this one on and off for years, but this year it was bigger and better. Knowing many of the staff, I decided to give them some free publicity.
The Night Before Banzai
So here we are Airiel, my valiant roommate and I sitting here at the Denny’s next to the Sheraton were Anime Banzai is taking place. As we sit here eating our food I can only hope that someday Cerise will be popular enough to have an expense account for such things. (Just kidding, the joy of such greasy goodness in my veins is payment enough.) But after our initial walk through of the convention area, everything seems to be falling together quite well. It’s going to be an interesting convention.
There’s quite the mix of people and a very interesting attitude amongst everyone. Especially being in Utah, were people are very restrictive. For those of you who don’t know, Salt Lake City is the center of the Mormon religion or the LDS church, whatever you want to call it. Because of that, what this con is about, (anime, manga and gaming) the staff keeps things a little toned down and as family friendly as possible.
This is very difficult to accomplish. Part of us attending the con is too observe how well they can do this and still keep the integrity of the genre. (And also because being press, it’s free!)
Day 1
The first official day of the con arrives and I’m rushing home from work so I can at least attempt to get there with time to actually interview someone; I wasn’t able to get off of work till 5pm and the opening ceremonies were at 9am. Of course, before we head out, we have to get dressed up. This is an Anime Con after all, civilian clothes just aren’t acceptable.
After thoroughly gothing myself up, (something I would like the time and money to do more often) Airiel and I head to the train station. When we actually get to the Sheraton, the dealer’s room is closed, the panels are done for the day and most of the people who didn’t rent rooms at the hotel are heading home. Though the viewing rooms are still up and the Otaku ball is under full swing, the con is surprisingly quiet and calm.
Considering this luck, I head down to the game room hoping to interview the person running it, but when I get down there, my long day wears on me and I decide to find a comfortable chair to sit on instead. Agreeing to catch him tomorrow, we go upstairs to talk to our fellow con goers and I realize something, I’m the oldest person in the room! That’s right, at 24 not only do I feel old, but it’s painfully confirmed by all the not–even-old-enough-to-buy-alcohol otaku that surround me. This then prompts the start of the conversation with the only other 21 and older person in the room: Do you ever feel too old to be enjoying anime, manga and video games?
The twenty minute conversation confirms that 1.) I’m not the only one 2.) Since the culture is filled (mostly) with stories of barely legal teens going through relationship problems, fighting evil monsters, killing zombies and all other sorts of shenanigans it’s hard not to feel old when you’re really not, and 3.) Since it’s mostly marketed to the “youth culture”, most of the more mature, adult titles never really make it to America, a fact that’s actually kind of sad. Oh well, I can only hope that as this group gets older they’ll do something to help us old fogies out.
Day 2
We (finally!) get to the con after accidentally sleeping in and taking forever to get into our outfits. We’re going clubbing that night and we figure we’ll just dress for it ahead of time since the club is right next to the con. BIG MISTAKE!
Jose, the person in charge of the game room, was busy somewhere else so we headed over to the card game room. A very good move on our part as Steve Jackson Games had a volunteer there demoing a new game called King’s Blood. Designed by Hitoshi Yasuda and illustrated Tsukapon, the cards are beautiful down to the last detail. (I may be a gamer, but I’m still a girl. The prettier, the better!) The point of the game is to build your own royal line by arranging marriages, exiling your rivals and passing down the crown. The player that uses all of their family members first wins. I’d never played a game quite like it, but really enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys card games that aren’t Yugi-Oh! or Pokemon. No offense to the Pokemon League. It was also interesting to see that kind of game come out of Steve Jackson. The creators of the Munchkin line and Illuminati really took a 180 by importing this gem.
By now, the Guitar Hero tournament is in full swing. Not big Guitar Hero fans (please no death threats!), we go upstairs and look for cosplayers dressed as game characters, but like so many other cons nowadays few people leave the realm of Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts.
At our final count we had:
1 Princess Peach
9 Yunas (of varying costumes)
19 Soras
7 Rikkus (Kingdom Hearts)
3 Rikus (FFX)
A husband and wife dressed as Lulu from FFX and Sephiroth fromVII pushing their daughter around in a stroller. (I really wished I had gotten a picture of that one!)
3 moogles
1 heartless
and a twelve year old boy dressed as Link while his little brother carried around a stick with a glittery Styrofoam ball and wings on it. (This was supposed to be Navi from Ocarina of Time. Needless to say, bitter gamers that had been psychologically scarred by her kept attacking the Styrofoam ball. That poor kid.)
I won’t deny I was a little disappointed by the lack of variety when it came to the game costumes, so I guess I’ll just have to fix that by cosplaying next year. (I’m thinking The Tattooed Priestess from Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented.) It’s getting late and we need to head out so we can meet our friend Draya for her b-day. I never manage to get an interview with Jose, but it’s all good. From what I saw, he ran the room well. There was a great mix of fighting games for everyone too play, and of course that game room staple Dance Dance Revolution! (Which my friend Angela took 3rd in! W00T!)
All in all the con was pretty good, the dealers room had some great stuff, the people were excited, the staff was helpful, the panels were interesting and the viewing rooms had some amazing titles. I definitely recommend it too anyone whose looking for a good con in the Southwest.
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