AnimeFest 2008

Have you ever had someone tell you about a great new TV series they watch but you couldn't get into it because it had been on the air too long and you couldn't figure out who was who? Kinda like starting to watch the Sopranos on HBO in the 4th season. That's the way I felt about Anime. I've had people tell me how interesting it was but since I never could figure out which one was what, I never could determine where to jump in at.

Yesterday I felt like I corrected that. A while back Cristina shot wedding photos for a couple who after they were married had their honeymoon in Baltimore at an Anime convention. Tiffany and Blake really like Anime and enjoy it as a couple.

So what is Anime? Anime is a form of animation originating in Japan based on "Manga". A Manga is a graphic novel. Some might incorrectly call it a comic book. A comic book is much shorter and doesn't have the plot depth as a Manga. Or so I seem to understand. I'm still a noobie here.

So this past Saturday Tiffany and Blake hired Cristina and Efrain to come to AnimeFest 2008 in Dallas to shoot Tiffany dressed as a couple of her favorite Anime characters. I came along as bag boy since it sounded cool. It was! Blake showed me around the downstairs area where vendors had booths set up selling Manga paperbacks and Anime DVD's. In looking back I show have bought a Manga but I was on a budget from the boss. ;-P I was surprised at the number of people in costume and the level of detail in the costumes. Tiffany, I learned, wants to open her own shop to design and sew costumes for fans. She could do well at it since her self made costumes were flawless.

There were others I saw in the crowd who were dressed in costume but maybe they didn't get the memo it was an Anime convention. I saw a couple guys dressed as Ghostbusters complete with the nuclear reactor backpacks. I saw a pirate who looked like Capt Jack Sparrow. Correct me if I'm wrong but these characters didn't start off in the Japanese pop culture world. But ya know... it didn't matter. Not one bit. Everyone was happy, the place was jumpin', and smiles were the norm.

While Blake was introducing me to the various Anime story lines one caught my attention. It's called "Death Note". The story revolves around a kid who finds a notebook that was dropped to earth by a god. He realizes that when he writes someones name in the notebook that person dies of a heart attack. He uses the notebook on a vigilantie killing spree to kill criminals. There's also a cop who is begins to see a pattern to the killings and trys to track down the kid. I've already added the first 3 DVD's to my Netflix acct. Looking forward to checking it out. Tiffany and Blake surprised me with a Death Note keychain. COOL! They're a great couple. There's another Anime convention in May of next year I hear. "A-Kon" is many times bigger than this one was. We're all planning on attending it also. I'm looking forward to it.