Xebek’s Blog

Well it does seem fitting that one of my first editorial posts comes in regard to Anime North. Was the first time I made it out to the event in a few years. So it was definitely a pretty fun time to go and see how things were out there. It always amazes you how busy things are and how dedicated some people can be in regards to their cosplay. I think lines and cosplay are great ways to describe the visual portion of it. It did take some time to get inside so standing in line for an hour was the starting point. I only ended up going out on Saturday due to travel and not really wanting to pay for a hotel or anything like that.

Event Thoughts:
Getting inside was definitely worth the wait. The highlight for me was that dealers room. It’s not often I can get that close to so much anime stuff at any one time. Besides saving up a little for the event allowed to probably the most anime spending I’d done at one time. It’s fairly fun to just go out there and get what you want while getting caught up in the spirit of things. Now had to be careful not to spend any money saved for food or transit since that would be a sad finish to the trip….

So I’ll just go into a walkthrough regarding some of the things I picked up. I’m not really a person that is huge on figurines so can’t say that’s where all the cash went. Honestly tried to spread it out among figurines, dvds, wallscrolls, and various other items that related to the respected anime. One day I might just get one of those swords since it would be interesting to just have one around to look at. For now I stuck to smaller things that wouldn’t weigh me down while visiting the other events.

I think a good place to start is with the dvds. I do like trying to get some series on that format when its a series I really enjoyed. It is still more convenient to just watch from the external hardrives, but I like having the physical format sitting there on the shelves. Just too bad that I like the subs more than the dub since I think the fansubbers do a better job on presentation. A good example is the D.Gray-man dvd where the text was really plain. Still this was one of my favourite series from the last year so I had to get it when I saw a copy. It really showed some of my favourite things from anime. The action was great and there were some likable characters that I worried about.

Slayers Next was another dvd that I picked up. While I was fairly hard on Evolution-R, this was one of my favourite series overall. Next was probably my favourite of all the seasons since it had good action and mixed that well with the comedy. It helps that this show had one of the best dub I’ve heard and prefer it to the japanese cast in all honesty. Anyways this was a great package with the whole series spread over a few dvds. It’s definitely a step up from the VHS copy of the show I know is in storage somewhere.

My third dvd pickup from anime north was Nanoha A’s. This was another case of picking my favourite season from an entire series. A’s was just a great ride from start to finish. They already had the background and the main characters fleshed out when it started. It was fun to watch them just jump into the action. Know I do prefer the subs for this show, but I think part of it will always rest on bias of hearing the original actors first. Just too bad about the yellow text for the subtitles. A little more effort for nice text wouldn’t hurt them. Know I’ll probably track down the original series at some point, but this was a good pickup in my mind.

Next I wanted to mention the figures a little. Never really had many anime figures so this was a pretty interesting time. There were a ton out there so it was a tough call. Wouldn’t say I saw many of really high quality from series I was very interested in. So I just had to pick up a few and start my collection off.

I liked mixing things up and just getting ones that interested me. There wasn’t much Soul Eater from what I could find, but I managed to get one of Black Star and Tsubaki anyways. They were pretty tiny things though. I’ll definitely keep my eyes open for some higher quality ones down the road. Still the poses were nice and I was glad just to find some for those characters.

Isara from Valkyria Chronicles was one of the nicer ones that I picked up. I really liked her character from playing the game so I had to pick hers up. Probably could have gotten an Alicia as well but had to spread out the funds so it didn’t quite go that way. Maybe I’ll get some more from that series down the road. She’s a kind character which ended up making her my favourite from that game. A helpful support character that kept everyone alive on more than one occasion.

Hitsugaya from Bleach was one that stood out while I was walking around. There were a few for his character available, but I liked that one enough to get it. While that show has hit some filler troubles the overall level was still pretty good. His character was one I could always understand anyways. Someone that has to stay serious in order to gain respect from those around him. I’m usually not one for the cold, but his ice bankai was a visually nice one.

I suppose the Naruto one was more on a whim. The series really has had trouble with consistency and fillers. Still got this one due to the earlier episodes and how good they were. It’s sad when a series gets hurt by it’s fear of running out of material. I say if you don’t have enough to work with then find a place to stop and take a few years for the material to build up. It only hurts the fans to see lazy writing and painfully slow progress instead of the energetic series they had gotten into.

Overall was fairly happy with the figures. I didn’t get a lot of them in the end. Still I think it’s a good place to start and in a few years I might have a nice enough collection. It did a good job of getting me interested in getting more from series I’m a fan of.

Now the wallscrolls should get some mention. I don’t have many wall scrolls so it was a nice opportunity to get some. Walls can get pretty boring so having something to liven them up is fine in my books. I didn’t want to get too many though since carrying them would be a pain. Sadly I almost lost them since I forgot to pick them up when I was done eating lunch. Luckily no one noticed and I went back pretty quickly to get them. Still they were pretty nice so I’m really glad they didn’t get taken.

As I mentioned above D.Gray-man did end up being one of my favourite series of the past year. So I’m glad that they had a few wall scrolls available at the convention. Now that was just a nice one of the main cast I thought. Besides it has Lenalee with her long hair intact which is a great thing in itself. It really just looked nice when I was looking through the racks they had scrolls hanging from so it was worth $20 in my book.

The second one I got reflected my gaming habits. Final Fantasy VII wasn’t my favourite from the series, but it certainly was a good one. Crisis Core was a great prequel that still had emotional moments even though you knew how it would end. This one really just showed the main characters nicely and gave worthy prominance to Zack who really went through a lot in the game.

Nothing like an anime convention to push you into getting some nice secondary items. The exorcist badge from D.Gray-man just went with my strange habit of getting everything I could from that show. I just happened to stumble across one when I was walking around and thought it was worth getting. You really see that badge quite often over the course of the series. It’s actually pretty nice with the symbols all over it.

Of course not to be outdone Slayers had to make it’s appearance. I ended up getting some books about the show. One of them focused on Slayers Try which was the third season of the series. It’s actually pretty nice in writing about the characters and listing some of the spells. The larger book was more of a role playing guide for the series. It’s written in a Dungeons and Dragons format and actually has some real effort put into it. Personally I liked it more for the character backgrounds and the spell listing. They did a nice job covering spells used all through the show and talking about their effects. If I played those games much it would be a pretty handy thing. Both were only $5 so it was hardly my most expensive purchase of the day.

Finally I gave into my gaming interests a little bit. I seem to get things only for a small amount of series or games. So Final Fantasy VII once again got some focus with the Tifa figure that I got. It’s actually pretty nice with a helpful stand and some alternate gloves for her. May end up expanding more of that collection if I come across other characters in the future. I respected Tifa for fighting so well with really only her body as a weapon. She was a pretty good character so if I could only get one at the convention I thought it might as well be her.

Final Thoughts:
In the end I really enjoyed my time at Anime North. It was quite a ride and there was a lot to see. The panels were pretty fun to check out. Have to say the one on Natsume was my favourite since I could really participate in it. After blogging a show you do come to have a pretty good understanding of it. You can talk on a forum, but it’s interesting to hear others thoughts about your favourite moments and the direction the series took. Though bit sad I was one of the few guys who actually attended that panel. The people I met were pretty interesting and made it worth just talking to people. In the end I had a lot of fun and plan to attend next year as well.