Report on ConBust 2009!
Happy Friday, everyone, Good or otherwise. I was hoping to manage a review for this blog last night, but other than a few minutes spent watching the new Fullmetal Alchemist anime (I look forward to it getting through its setup and on to the manga plot), I ending up using the entire night finishing my coverage of ConBust at Smith College, which is up now at Manga Recon!
I enjoyed the convention immensely, and I can’t emphasize enough how gratifying I found its focus on female fans and creators. Those of you who follow me on Twitter probably recall some frustrated tweets about some (fairly infuriating) comments made about manga during the con, and I do address that at the end of the article, but I really hope that will not overshadow the essential awesomeness of the con and the Smith students who put it together every year.
Follow this link to read my report, and if you’re in the Pioneer Valley or thereabouts (and especially if you’re a sci-fi and/or fantasy fan) I hope you’ll consider attending ConBust in 2010!
April 10th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Whoa wait what new FMA? *checks out Anime News Network* OMG! YAY!
This means I have to get caught up on the manga, though. I’ve only read the first ten issues or so. I have a lot of the later issues, but I think I’m missing one in the early teens….hmm. Need to correct that. :)
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Gah, yes, you must catch up! It’s freakin’ genius I tell you, genius! :D Supposedly the new series is meant to follow the manga much more (now that there is much more of it to follow), though you wouldn’t know it from the first episode, which is completely unrelated to either the manga plot or the original anime plot. I’m assuming, though, that they are just trying to jump-start things so that they don’t have to re-tell everything from the manga that was already in the original anime. Time will tell!
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April 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Nice review!
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Thanks, mom!
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April 10th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
What a great report….my god, you really were a very active con-goer. I really like how reflective you were about what you saw and experienced…I often get frustrated with fan-run panels and wish I had a better attitude about that aspect of fan conventions.
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Well, you know, I never do anything halfway. :D And thank you so much. Unlike other cons, where there is industry news to report, etc., I felt that the important aspects of this one were really the atmosphere and depth of discussion, so I tried to talk about that as much as possible. I, too, usually skip fan panels at larger cons, and I’m not suggesting I was never frustrated here. Heh. But overall, it was really an incredible place to be.
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April 10th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I’ve just started exploring yuri. To be honest, I’m more interested in lesbian manga than “yuri”, which tends to be the same sort of fanservice fantasy that yaoi is (except for me, obvs). But lesbian manga is hard to find! I found an author I’m really interested in, but can’t find any scans and the shops here don’t have it, so I’m waiting until I have some money to order from Amazon Japan.
But! I did get hooked on one yuri series, Girl Friends, which is one of the ones you mentioned. It’s very cutesy moe art, but the story is so sweet and I’m really liking it a lot.
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
The girl who did the presentation at the con actually did a lot of talking about all kinds of things that could fall into the “yuri” category, including yuri for women, yuri for men, and lesbian manga, and she had good examples of all. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, there’s not much available over here. I’m sad to hear that applies to what’s here in Japanese too.
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April 11th, 2009 at 12:40 am
I got home from my first day of Sakura-con a couple hours ago. I thought about doing a write-up of my experiences so far, but I am currently feeling rather ambivalent about today and I fear anything I say right now is going to come out wrong. I’ve discovered it is possible to be both under- and over-whelmed at the same time. *sigh*
I’m trying to re-energize and re-focus for days two and three. I think I will wait until I’m done with the whole con to post my thoughts. I’m looking forward to spending time in the panels I’ve chosen tomorrow and maybe even fitting in some AMV viewing. And darn it, I am bringing my camera with me! So many missed photo-ops today!
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
April 11th, 2009 at 7:19 am
You know, I’m looking at the schedule for Sakura Con, and what strikes me as missing–which is the thing that draws me to cons these days–is industry panels. Particularly manga industry panels.
I hope you’re able to enjoy the rest of the con! I will be crossing my fingers for your fun!
*heart*
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the experience.
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