Back to the Mundane World.

San Diego Comic-Con 2005 was almost as exasperating as I thought it would be, and it was almost as fun as I thought it would be. Ultimately everything balanced out and I feel really good about having gone this year.

Lowlights included a lot of stress and storm over our accomodations. The SDCC's travel agency partners' site does not have a good explanation about travel agency shorthand about hotel rooms. We paid for a triple/triple which would seem to be a three-room suite with three beds, one in each room. Turned out it was a single room with two King beds. Fun. Hopefully next time they will have helpful explanations for those people who aren't veteran Road Warriors. (K'plah!) Other lowlights were the chronic crowding problems that seem to be endemic to SDCC, irrationally planned-out shuttle bus routes, and humid weather.

Highlights included meeting up with old and new friends, a bunch of wonderful panels, the news that Ralph Bakshi is returning to feature animation, the annual Manhwa compilation from the South Korean Cultural Ministry which again seems to be translated (with hilarious results!) by the same translators that worked on the video game Zero Wing, and not one, but three free T-shirts.

It looked like the big item everyone seemed to want were lightsabres. Not the Kenner plastic glorified flashlights, mind you. We are talking the ultra-deluxe fluorescent (or are they neon?) lightsabres that people can spar with and which have sound effects from the movie that activate when the thing is waved around or the "blade" hits something. They are something like $200 but it seemed like every other person had one. I even saw kids walking around with them! Exempli Gratia:



Isn't little chibi-Vader adorable? Especially with that Clone Trooper guarding him? As always, the costume/cosplay competition was fierce and furious at this Comic-Con. Since I would be so weighed down by the stuff I was carrying while on the floor I didn't get any cosplay pictures. I don't know if I will ever set foot on the SDCC floor in costume because it's so intimidating, all those total pros out there with costumes worthy of the movies. Anime Los Angeles is different because it's smaller. It's also got another advantage...it's close. It was hell carrying around all the stuff I brought for SDCC, and I was pretty much pared down to essentials. A-LA is in my backyard, only a few minutes away by car and two bus hops away.

Anyway, it's over, and I think all in all it went well.