Anime Boston - Day 3
Sunday has always been the quietest day of every convention I’ve gone to. With most of the attendees having to check out their hotels by noon, many just don’t even bother showing up. So while the options are quite limited as to what to do, I still try to do the best that I can. And it actually turned out to be quite a successful day for me.
Even though I had brought a lot of cash with me, the dealers room really didn’t have anything worth spending it on. I wanted specific brand-new releases from certain companies, particularly the new edition of the Ah My Goddess OVA series from Central Park Media, and the first volume of Kamichu from Geneon. However, none of these companies showed up this year, and in fact, I highly doubt we’ll ever see that AMG come out at this point.
So with a pocket full of cash, I attended the charity auction. This was a wonderful experiance as I was able to see very rare collectable items, and even walk away with a couple of them. I won a Paranoia Agent poster signed by the complete cast of the English version, and the art-box for Girls Bravo also signed by the it’s cast. What makes these items so interesting are the little notes written on them with one voice actor teasing the other. The whole thing totaled me $155, but they were one-of-a-kind items from two series I love. And it all went to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, so at least those insane fanboy purchases went to a good cause.
After the charity auction, I stopped by the dealers room again hoping to see the one artist I really wanted to meet this weekend. And to my luck, she was there without a crowd but ready to sign autographs. She is Svetlana Chamakova, artist and auther of Tokyopop’s domestic original series “Dramacon”. Now, I’m not really a big fan of American manga, but “Dramacon” is one of the most entertaining manga I have ever read, in both the US and Japan. Chamakona has a deep understanding of the US Otaku culture, and she works it in with her wonderful sense of humor. It’s very hard to be skilled at comedic timing in comics, but she has it.
So I am a true fan of hers, and I walked up to her table with a big smile of face. I grabbed a new copy of her book, and as she is signing it, she stops from time to time and to talk to me about many things. We talk about how her book seemed to appeal to both genders, her thoughts on shounen romance series, and how I was living my own “Dramacon” this year with my ex-girlfriend. I never really thought I would get into a deep conversation with a manga artist about romance, so that was pretty cool.
I think the one thing that you gotta give the American manga artist credit for is that they are fans just like the rest of us, and they love to take the time to talk with their fans. i highly doubt I will ever get the chance to meet my favorite Japanese manga artists, and even if I did, how well would a conversation go with them? So I suggest that anime fans shouldn’t underwrite domestic artist just because they aren’t Japanese. You’d be surprise with the kind talent they do have.
