|
|
Greetings
this is GokuFievel last April 5, 6, and 7th
of 2002 Boise Idaho had it’s very first Anime
Convention. It was very long awaited, very expensive, but worth it all. We finally
got the convention and it was a blast the whole way! However there was a very
terrible low turnout. We did not get the word out about the convention soon
enough. The chairmen of the convention Jeremy
Loppett (in my
opinion only) was quite upset and disturbed
with the low turnout and that there may not have been as much Anime fans in
Boise or in Idaho as we thought. But I’m sure that you can prove us wrong.
Please email Jeremy or me and let us know your thoughts about Anime and
especially if you want another convention in Boise next year. Works are already
in Progress for Anime Oasis 2003 however we need your support for it. So please contact us
about it! gokufievel@mstar2.net
Now for the report on the Anime Oasis Convention of 2002, the Con took place at the Vista Best Western Inn in Boise right next to the Airport and the I-84 Freeway. Turnout was slow at first but for those that showed up boy did they ever dress up REAL COOL and boy did they have a blast! We had 3 theatre rooms showing exclusive Japanese Anime’s most of which you may or may not have heard of but were all very, very good. The cost to both get in and to get a booth was $35 for the whole weekend and $20 after that. We had Steve from the Anime Pavilion come to sell us some great Anime products, a man selling real (sharp swords) the Yume No Senshi Group and me, GokuFievel doing surveys and opinions of Anime by the fans themselves.
The
convention was a non-stop thing from Friday to Sunday constantly having
something shown in the mini-movie theatre’s showing such Anime (in Japanese with English Subtitle’s of course) as: Hyper Police, Oh My Goddess, GTO, DragonBall Z in
Japanese, Kamakaze Kaitou Jeanne, and many more. On Friday April 5th we showed one
of the best things at the convention some very funny Anime Music Video’s
including mine called, “Ryoga” parody of Weird Al’s “Yoda” I won the Music Video contest, (by
default) but I was extremely glad to have entered
into it. They were all very well made Anime Music Video’s. After words I told
some of my Top Ten’s that you may have read from my Top Ten Page and boy did I
discover which one was the funniest! The Lecture Jokes were worse than I
thought though. We had a really excellent comedian tell non-anime related jokes
that were really funny in so much that I think that this guy ought to try his
stuff at a professional comedy club or “Comedy Centrals’ Friday Night Stand
Up”.
I told
some jokes from the Joke Page that you might have seen, most of them were dull.
I knew that the Lecture jokes were stupid but I didn’t know that they were THAT
bad when I read them to the audience. Well anyway I did tell some Top Ten jokes
at the convention some of them you’ll find on the Top Ten Page. But here’s the
one that I got the most laughs on and that’s not on the Top Ten Page yet.
Enjoy!
"Is it me or has TOM of Toonami been slacking off lately? He
rarely appears or says anything new on Toonami anymore. And the Toonami Lockdown
was barely any fun. Do you think that TOM and Toonami are getting too lazy or
that they just don't care anymore? Well here are the signs for that."
Top Ten Signs That TOM Doesn't Give A Damn About Toonami Anymore
10:
At the opening Toonami Sequence TOM not only show up ten
minutes late, but he shows up drunk with a bottle of scotch in his hands
9:
Instead of pushing the button on his chair to start the next
show, TOM pushes the Self-Destruct button
8:
Even though he lost weight and got a new slim and muscular
body from the 'Intruder' Incident, TOM gets fat
again
7:
He keeps referring to SARA as the
"B***h in the box"
6: Instead
of showing the Fan Art, TOM shows Hentai!
5:
DragonBall Z is only on for 2 minutes and already it's a
"To Be Continued..."
4:
He gives all of the video games a 10 out of 10 saying, “Ah,
they pay us to show their crappy games anyway so just give em’ what they pay
for”
3:
Toonami comes on the air and TOM
is in no hurry to put away the Game Boy
2: TOM
was last seen asking Moltar if he'd like to
host Toonami again
And
the #1 Sign That TOM Doesn't Give A Damn About Toonami Anymore.........
1:
TOM throws twenty bucks at the camera and
says, “You want Anime? Go buy it from a
Bootlegger!”
So anyway after we all had a laugh with jokes and comments for unscheduled activities Jeremy and Mystech set up the fourth theatre to show the new Anime “Blue Gender” Blue Gender was dubbed by FUNimation who were the same people who dubbed DragonBall Z therefore most of the Anime fans at the convention were upset that they had to see this one because they felt that DBZ was edited way too much and narrowed down to be only for the kids so everybody thought that FUNimation would have edited Blue Gender way too much. But we were all wrong! We all watched this with very judgmental eyes and yet we all came out very pleased. Many people at the convention suspected that Blue Gender was going to stupid or dull. But to all of our surprises not only was Blue Gender excellent, but also it was shocking to see that FUNimation didn’t edit even the dirtiest of things out!
One of these days I’ll have a review of Blue Gender once I see enough episodes however for all I can tell you about it, is that it takes place in the future and that the Earth is under attack by giant bugs who eat people and absorb them for energy. Humans had to retreat into outer space and attack them from space one attempt at a time. What’s shocking about the Anime is that it was so violent, gory, and sexy and to top it all off FUNimation didn’t edit a millisecond out of it! There was plenty of swearing and even a very brief sexual-innuendo/ brief nudity scene. Something that everybody at this convention thought that FUNimation was too afraid to do or wasn’t even capable of doing! Here’s another report review of what happened after Blue Gender was over. After the movie I questioned the Anime fans on what they thought of it as one of them who was a 17-year boy dressed as a white ninja (But I forgot his name! Dude if you’re here email me and tell me who you are so I can quote you) so anyway he liked it so much as he put it and I quote, “Well, I guess I can’t say anything mean about FUNimation anymore, they’ve re-won my trust after seeing this film.”
So
anyway after we all saw Blue Gender the next day I finally got to work as a
dealer and asked the people at the convention some questions about what they
think about Anime itself and the results were shocking and utmost pleasing. I
set up a booth with me in it advertising that I was GokuFievel of www.gokufievel.com and I wanted to know
some information on what other people think of Anime for my website and for
another report that I was doing.
What I
discovered was amazing, I found out that most Anime fans were GIRLS!!! And of
course they explained why. Because Anime is beautiful, it reflects more on
girls, and it has better stories than most American and definitely American
Animation films. Here are the responses from my research and many interviews of
people that I questioned at the convention concerning Anime. The first question
I asked dealt with the fact that according to the official DragonBall Z website
( www.dragonballz.com ) that 20th
Century of Fox has bought the rights to make a live action DBZ Movie! So I
asked them whether or not they should do it, after word I planned to mail it to
FUNimation itself. Here are the responses, quote for quote.
Do you agree with FUNimation and 20th Century of Fox for
them to make a LIVE ACTION DragonBall Z Movie? (According to the
official DragonBall Z website)
RUMOR: It is rumored
that Leonardo DeCaprio will play the part of Trunks and that Keuno Reeves will
play the part of Goku, I let them know these facts.
-Positive Response
-Negative Response
-NO LEO!! Honestly. I don’t think he’s skilled enough. He’s
not suited enough to play a rough n’ tough guy! –Eric Schaller
-NO NO NO!!! NO WAY!!! –Anonymous
-I want to watch it –Anonymous
-It will be horrible! The Animated movies are as bad as it
is! –Anonymous
-Yes!!! –Anonymous
-They
can do what they want –Anonymous
-The
series sucks! Leave it be! DIE!
-Go for it! –Anonymous
-Just
better get it right :)
-No,
because there are only some things that work out only in animation! –Jon
Rodriquez
-They
had better find the right people for it –Anonymous
-No!
They can never find the right people for it! If they pick the wrong people, it won’t look like the
original anime! –Jennifer Brown
-No.
Because it will not be done right –Anonymous
-Unless they will get actors who are DIE HARD Anime fans,
like we are here, absolutely not. It’ll just be a waste of money. They must
have Anime fan actors, then maybe it’ll work –Anonymous
-If
they have new actors, not like any famous people who only act for money. Good
FX, Anime fan of a director, then yeah I could see it –Anonymous
-They might screw it up like “Fist of the
North Star” and “Street Fighter”, but with graphics now a days if you could get
some people from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” it might just work.
–Anonymous
-No,
some things just don’t look right in live action movies! –Anonymous
-Please
don’t! -L
Why are you interested in Anime? (Please give a specific
and detailed answer don’t just say, “Duh, just cause”)?
-Regular Response
-Impressive Response
-Unlike American Animation it spans, it goes into every
possible subject it reaches out farther –Diane T.K.
-It’s
Pretty –Anonymous
-Better
plot and art than America, it’s different and beautiful –Jennifer
-Because the plot gets thicker as each episode goes on
–Jon Rodriquez
-Because Anime is for all ages and types of people. It’s
funny, happy; and sad at times –Anonymous
-Anime has so many layers to it. There are different
things going on at once –Anonymous
-My
wife likes it –Anonymous
-They have a very true opinion on our world and other
ones that could exist –Anonymous
-I love the story and plots, even the characters and they
have a better style of action –Y.C.
-The villains, the American bad guys are bad just
because. Anime villains usually have a reason. It’s not always happy and fluffy
in the end. Characters are more complex, even the ditzy ones. –Anonymous
-I am
interested in animation anyway. I look forward to my Saturdays just so I can
watch my Saturday morning cartoons. It is part of my life and my routine. It is
not Saturday unless I watch something animated. At first, I frowned upon
Anime. But I am the kind of person who will give just about everything a go, so
I watched Digimon, Digital Monsters and I was hooked after the first episode!
–Anonymous (If you are this person please give
your name this one’s cool)
-Can’t
do a thing in real life that you can in real life –Dans
-I am an artist and look and like their style. The
expressions are priceless –Anonymous
-Anime
is the ultimate art form of life –Anonymous
-More
creative and funny –Anonymous
-World’s best animation. Art-quality features. Better
plot lines and storyboards than anything American. Staff aimed at girls. –A.T.
How did you get into Anime? What was it like the first
time you saw it? Do you know people who think that you’re crazy to like this
stuff?
-Regular Response
-Impressive Response
-My friends showed me what DBZ was really like, then I
started watching Tenchi
Muyo and such. Yup, then I got
interested –Anonymous
-Just on TV –Erika J
-Cartoon
Network’s Sailor
Moon –Jennifer
-I got
into anime a long time ago with a series/movie called “Star Vengers”
-Some of my friends think anime is stupid, I got into it
because of my older sister –Anonymous
-My
older sister introduced me to anime. I thought that it was a new way of
animation. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like this stuff –Anonymous
-USA
Network Sailor Moon –Anonymous
-My
wife again –Anonymous
-Saw Sailor Moon and DBZ on Toonami. Yes a friend
recorded Sailor Moon for us because of the cuts. Sailor Moon lead to Robotech
and the rest is history –Anonymous
-I saw
Digimon and I was hooked. It branched off into other Anime’s after that. Yes
people would think I’m nuts. But really didn’t care. Everyone has a fetish
–Anime S.M.N.
-In grade school I saw Ronin Warriors and totally fell in
love with Ryo. Then in 7th grade I saw Tencho Man and was so pi**ed
off when they took that off the air. When I got a job I bought Ranma ½ and
went from there –Anonymous
-3
years old watching Robotech on Saturday mornings –Anonymous
-5
years ago I watched Pokemon. Cousin told me about DBZ –Anonymous
-Yanked into WSU Anime Club by ponytail 6 years ago
–Anonymous
What do you have to say about Anime?
-Regular Response
-Impressive Response
-It’s one of better forms of expression in Media, for the
most part it outshines live action on so many levels, plot, ethics, character
development –Anonymous
-It’s
very addictive –Jennifer
-It’s is open minded enough, it ran be quite enjoyable
–Anonymous
-Anime
is open-minded. You can tell what people are thinking and how they feel.
–Anonymous
-It’s
different and MUCH better than cartoons –Anonymous
-It’s misunderstood by the majority of Americans who
think it’s badly dubbed kiddie shows or porn, I wish when it was dubbed it
would be accurate not hacked or changed –Anonymous
-It
kicks butt. Now if only there was a 24-Hour Anime Channel, I’d be happy!
–Anonymous (I totally agree!)
-Kicks Ass!!!
-Release
more-older Anime! –A.T.
There were many reasons why I interviewed people at the
convention, one of which was because I was doing another report for College,
the other was for my website and to mail the angry responses AGAINST the Live
Action DBZ Movie to FUNimation themselves, and to let Cartoon Network hear our
cry about more Uncut Anime and possibly an Anime Channel. I mean, come on, Boomerang is a WASTE of
Channel space!
What I was pleased to discover at the Anime Convention was
that most Anime fans were girls, this for one came as a shock to me but also a
pleasant surprise, here are more interviews that I did at the convention that
was included in my Interview Reports.
It’s a little long so if you want to skip it go ahead, cause
I would skip this.
“The Anime Way
Subculture Report” (Pages 12-14)
I know what you must be saying,
uncensored anime? As one person in class asked, “Isn’t that low grade porn?”
Like I said, in Japan they can get away with certain things and rules with
their anime including brief nudity. However when they say that they demand
uncut anime they almost always mean that this subculture gets very
offended whenever they edit so much as a dialogue change, or a bad
punch line that was made by the American’s re-writing. It is true that Japan
does make pure adult Anime films, but like us they’ve got their ratings system
and order that it is for the adults only.
But guess what? America makes a lot of adult films too, most of
which are real, so big surprise? They may be Japanese but their still human. At
least Japan’s are just drawings.
What
surprised me was that most of the Anime fans here were girls and women. Very
unlike “Trekkies” where most of them are boys, the girls have been very taken into
Anime. There were more girls at this convention than there were men. So I asked
why? I had a long conversation with one
of them under the code name; “Sailor Starlight” who was dressed up in a tight
black leather uniform. She said that most Anime even in Japan were targeted
towards the women, but in so much that it wouldn’t chase the men away.
Sailor Starlight told me to watch most
of the Anime films in this convention and notice that most of the main
characters were female and that they were the hero’s the story not always the damsel in distress. And that the male
characters even though they had an important part too, they would usually
either be the sidekick or in the way of the girls characters. She said, “Look
at the male character of Tuxedo Mask from ‘Sailor Moon’ he’s not the hero of
the show, the Sailor Scout girls are, and the same goes for most other
Anime’s.”
This woman “Sailor Starlight” that I
interviewed if you are picturing a 12-year-old girl or even a 17-year-old girl
you’re way off. I noticed that despite the fact that she was in full costume I
asked her what she did for a living because she looked older than 25. She told
me, “I’m a mother and my daughters are at this convention with me. We’re all
fans of Anime” A mother!? A fan of Anime? With her children? There goes some of
theories of pimpled kids with glasses! So then I asked her if her husband was
into it and she responded, “My EX-Husband has always hated Anime
and I just don’t get it. He was a Star Trek fan and a Sci-Fi buff but he would
just glance at Anime and say, ‘Oh it’s just a stupid cartoon! I don’t care’ by
the way that’s not why I left him there were other problems of course.”
So I put “Sailor Starlight’s” theory
to the test and I did notice that in most of the theatre room showing Japanese
anime that female’s were the main characters, and that girls were drawn into
this also because it was very colorful. But what I didn’t understand was that
most of the female characters were very sexily drawn very slender and that the
men were drawn pretty buff. Didn’t this offend the women? So I asked them but
they responded that it wasn’t just about the looks but the kind of character
and emotions of that character that mattered. Of course the sexual drawings
disturbed them a little but still the women were the main characters and
weren’t always walking around like dumb blonde’s and it was usually them
fighting the bad guys instead of the men doing all of the work. Plus other
women at the convention said, “Unlike most Americans if they show animated
nudity we’re Ok with it because it’s just the human body, we all have that. Of
course I wouldn’t suggest it to little children but if an Anime had one scene
of a girl characters’ bra falling off for just a second they cancel all hopes
of the series being shown on TV.”
Since my new discovery and to my shock
was that most Anime fans turned out to be girls and women. I thought that most
Anime was a guy thing, but instead
I discovered that most of them were girls. So in a sense this is
another form of Anime Spirit that works in with “Girl Power”
I was very impressed with the results from the convention.
And I only spent a few hours asking questions maximum. Most of the time at the
convention all I did was have fun and watch Anime Movies!
Like I said I won the Anime Music Video Contest, (technically by default because nobody else entered theirs
in) so we had to use others from different
conventions. However there may have been a good chance that I could have won by
itself. Like I said earlier my music video was a parody of Weird Al’s song “Yoda” that I called “Ryoga” from the Anime “Ranma ½” I did the
singing, and I know that I may have been docked points because I have a lousy
singing voice. However the lyrics were very good and very well written out.
Sorry to praise myself. So just for fun I put up the lyrics right here from my
Anime Music Video. Just reading the lyrics ought to be funny! Like I said you
can skip this one too and continue reading the report of the convention.
(Parody of Weird
Al’s “Yoda”)
Scene Opening
from Ranma ½
Music Opening…
I met this kid
once down in Furinkan High,
Where he was
babbling all the time say’n
Ranma Saotome
prepare to die!
Prepare to Die!
Oh ya!
I saw the little
squirt didn’t like me at all,
So I asked him
his name,
And then in an
angry voice he said,
Ryoga…
R-Y-O-G-A
Ryoga…
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga…
Music Break…
Well I’ve been
around but I ain’t ever seen,
A guy who turns
into a pig while he still in his teens,
Oh my, Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga…
Well I’m not dumb
but I can’t get a clue,
At how he can
hang out with Akane and keep his secret too.
Oh my Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga…
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Well my curse
turns me into a red headed chick!
But Ryoga’s curse
has got me licked!
So now he’s
blaming this on me and Genma,
Well ya shouldn’t
have followed us into China!
He and I were
rivals every now and then,
So it looks like
we’re gonna start all over again.
Oh my Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Music Break…
So I use Anything
Goes Martial Arts!
That I learned
from training with pops!
I blocked the
“Breaking Point Attack”
While that Idiot
wouldn’t take off his backpack!
Well I won’t forget what Ryoga said,
He said, “Ranma let me have
Akane,
Because you don’t
even love her anyway”
Oh my Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Well I said, “Ryoga I’m not as
stubble as a chin,
I’m not fighting
for Akane, I’m fighting to win”
Oh my Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Well it looks
like I’ve won this little match,
A cold’s the only
thing Ryoga can catch!
But I know that
he’ll be comin’ back someday,
He’ll loose his
sense of direction and he’ll loose his way!
And even though
I’ve got this battle I’ve won,
There will be
Akane petting Ryoga as “P-Chan”
Oh my Ryoga!
“You son of a GUN!”
Ryoga!
“Get away from HER!”
Ryoga!
“I hate YOU!”
Ryoga!
Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Yo…Yo…Yo…Ryoga!
Scene from Ranma
½
Music Ends
Ok, so maybe reading it may not sound so good especially if
you haven’t seen the Anime. But it looks and sounds so much better. Well
anyway, that’s the video that won!
But the true guests of honor and for sure this convention
couldn’t have been great without them, and they are the “Yume No Senshi Group”!
The Sailor Scouts who made this convention worth it all the fun and excitement
plus more!
(I may never get this lucky again! Thanks Yume No Senshi
You’re The Best!)
(Also to the Yume No Senshi Group sorry for any trouble I
may have caused you)
So anyway the Yume No Senshi Group did their famous singing
and dancing for the con in Japanese from the Japanese version of Sailor Moon,
unaltered I might add! It was very beautiful the way they did it, also very
well correlated but the best part of all, and what they like to be famous for
are their costumes! The costumes of the Yume No Senshi Group were incredible!
And it wasn’t just as Sailor Scouts but also as the villains! I’m serious it
almost looked like as if they really were the character that they were posing
as, and they said that they make and sell the costumes they wore at their
website.
We then had a Q&A most of the questions were suppose to
be on their costumes and also on their dances but I asked them a lot of
questions about what they thought about the editing of Anime in America, and
they did respond but preferred that I didn’t report about it officially.
(At their request I only included pictures of them with the
whole crew)
This convention was my first convention, and what a
convention it was! I had tons of fun and can’t wait for the next one in Idaho
or the next one that I go to.
We all encourage everyone who will be in or near Boise Idaho
to come to the Anime Oasis Convention in 2003!
Special Thanks To:
Jeremy Loppett for putting this whole thing together and for
introducing me in the Closing Ceremonies
Tetsua Ehara of Boise State University for handing out those
flyers for the convention and I would have never known that it was here!
Anime Pavilion for coming all of this way to the convention
and for giving me some discounts
Ms. Payne for making the convention count as an English
Project at the last minute
And of course to the Yume No Senshi Group!
Please go to the Anime Oasis website for more details on the next convention. Also
please go to the Yume No
Senshi’s website.
Thank You!