Detour Deconstructed
Apr. 22nd, 2013 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseThis year I brought along Eleanor Arnason to part of Anime Detour. When she left, she looked a lot like I did that first year--like I wondered what strange alternate universe I'd fallen into.
Detour throws us old-timer SF fans because it's held at the Radishtree, our old haunt, and, because, you know, it's a CON--we feel like we OUGHT TO UNDERSTAND IT, but, in fact, it's totally foregin... and not just because it's based on Japanese Anime. It's just a very different kind of con experience.
I think, thanks to my interpreters and the fact that I cosplayed this year, I finally get Detour... or, at least, I get how *I* can appreicate it and enjoy myself. Cosplaying is actually very central to a large part of this con. I posted pictures of this, but the garden courtyard is entirely devoted to professional stage set ups where you can pose for pictures of the amazing work you put into your costume. Because, damn, people put in serious work on some of these costumes. I didn't even try to take pictures of all the things, but I saw people in full Iron Man armor, and stuff I didn't even know WTF it was, but it looked like a whole LOT of work just to walk around in.
People who aren't in costume actually stand out. That's how many participants are cosplaying. In fact, at one point, I was crowd-watching and I saw a guy in a tee-shirt and jeans and I was like, "Huh, I wonder what show that's from...?" for a good three minutes until I realized HE WAS JUST A GUY IN A TEE-SHIRT.
Panels exist, but not like they do at other cons. The program guide has participants listed by who they're cosplaying so you know, you go to a panel on BBC's Sherlock and the panelists include Sherlock, Watson and Maycroft and they tend to talk about the show as though it was their real lives. At least, that was true on the panel I was supposed to be on last year about Full Metal Alchemist. There are other panels, like the two I participated in this year (fandom on the internet and what you need to know about writing), which were much more like a typical convention panel, but those are pretty rare. I will say that once again (like I did last year) I attended a panel about Bleach and wanted to rip my hair out or possibly pull Zabimaru out of my soul and MURDER THE PANELISTS.
Why?
Because the panel was supposed to be about the big three: Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece and about how they were ending soon and what Jump might replace them with. Last year, like this year, it became clear they were all One Piece and Naruto fans and their idea of talking about Bleach was to put up an annoying Manga panel where Renji is being particularly stupid and then making some dissing remarks about how dumb the filler arcs and then go back to talking about Naruto. They used a panel still last year. The big difference this year is that they let us watch the Anime clip of the same GODDAMN MOMENT. And you know what? None of that was EVEN new this year! It was from the middle of the Arrancar arc. There was only cursory talk about some of the events happening right now, and then on to One Piece or back to Naruto. Me and Ichigo (the other obvious Bleach fan there) were really ticked. Even the guy next to me who loved Naruto and was ticked at how dismissive the panelist were about his Manga as well as ours. The panelists seemed to be the type of young men/boys who thought that to be "intellectual" about an Anime or Manga, meant being rude about it.
And they didn't even seem to be reading JUMP. I actually *subscribe* and could have talked moderately well about the things JUMP seems to be testing out to replace Bleach. A LaCrosse themed Manga? Barrage. And the new one with the Neighbor aliens whose name escapes me. (Truthfully, I'm unhappy with a lot of it and so I skim the stories, but I at least know the sorts of things they've been running recently.) Ironically, the panelists were saying they'd need some new blood to do this panel next year, and I had to wonder how a person got that gig. I may actually have to volunteer.
/rant
I wasn't intending to go on about that as long as I did. Especially since the point really was that Detour isn't about the panels anyway. It's about costuming and previewing new Anime and the dealer's room and all the fan created stuff.
I also lucked out because I happened to know Anton, which means that at Gaylaxicon I got to know J. Michael Tatum there where he's just this guy, you know, and a F*CKING ROCKSTAR at Detour. Thus, as it happens I got to rub shoulders with a GoH, have dinner with him and late night fun at the bar (and, oddly, the furry party, and now I have an inappropriate picture of Michael at the furry party doing rude things with a tanuki that I'm not sure what to do with... I'd use it for blackmail, but since his boyfriend took a picture too, I'm not sure it's worth much.)
So, I mean, I had a blast because OMG Michael is awesome and every time I hang out with him I fall in love just a little bit more.
But, yeah, no. Eleanor bounced right off Detour.
Detour throws us old-timer SF fans because it's held at the Radishtree, our old haunt, and, because, you know, it's a CON--we feel like we OUGHT TO UNDERSTAND IT, but, in fact, it's totally foregin... and not just because it's based on Japanese Anime. It's just a very different kind of con experience.
I think, thanks to my interpreters and the fact that I cosplayed this year, I finally get Detour... or, at least, I get how *I* can appreicate it and enjoy myself. Cosplaying is actually very central to a large part of this con. I posted pictures of this, but the garden courtyard is entirely devoted to professional stage set ups where you can pose for pictures of the amazing work you put into your costume. Because, damn, people put in serious work on some of these costumes. I didn't even try to take pictures of all the things, but I saw people in full Iron Man armor, and stuff I didn't even know WTF it was, but it looked like a whole LOT of work just to walk around in.
People who aren't in costume actually stand out. That's how many participants are cosplaying. In fact, at one point, I was crowd-watching and I saw a guy in a tee-shirt and jeans and I was like, "Huh, I wonder what show that's from...?" for a good three minutes until I realized HE WAS JUST A GUY IN A TEE-SHIRT.
Panels exist, but not like they do at other cons. The program guide has participants listed by who they're cosplaying so you know, you go to a panel on BBC's Sherlock and the panelists include Sherlock, Watson and Maycroft and they tend to talk about the show as though it was their real lives. At least, that was true on the panel I was supposed to be on last year about Full Metal Alchemist. There are other panels, like the two I participated in this year (fandom on the internet and what you need to know about writing), which were much more like a typical convention panel, but those are pretty rare. I will say that once again (like I did last year) I attended a panel about Bleach and wanted to rip my hair out or possibly pull Zabimaru out of my soul and MURDER THE PANELISTS.
Why?
Because the panel was supposed to be about the big three: Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece and about how they were ending soon and what Jump might replace them with. Last year, like this year, it became clear they were all One Piece and Naruto fans and their idea of talking about Bleach was to put up an annoying Manga panel where Renji is being particularly stupid and then making some dissing remarks about how dumb the filler arcs and then go back to talking about Naruto. They used a panel still last year. The big difference this year is that they let us watch the Anime clip of the same GODDAMN MOMENT. And you know what? None of that was EVEN new this year! It was from the middle of the Arrancar arc. There was only cursory talk about some of the events happening right now, and then on to One Piece or back to Naruto. Me and Ichigo (the other obvious Bleach fan there) were really ticked. Even the guy next to me who loved Naruto and was ticked at how dismissive the panelist were about his Manga as well as ours. The panelists seemed to be the type of young men/boys who thought that to be "intellectual" about an Anime or Manga, meant being rude about it.
And they didn't even seem to be reading JUMP. I actually *subscribe* and could have talked moderately well about the things JUMP seems to be testing out to replace Bleach. A LaCrosse themed Manga? Barrage. And the new one with the Neighbor aliens whose name escapes me. (Truthfully, I'm unhappy with a lot of it and so I skim the stories, but I at least know the sorts of things they've been running recently.) Ironically, the panelists were saying they'd need some new blood to do this panel next year, and I had to wonder how a person got that gig. I may actually have to volunteer.
/rant
I wasn't intending to go on about that as long as I did. Especially since the point really was that Detour isn't about the panels anyway. It's about costuming and previewing new Anime and the dealer's room and all the fan created stuff.
I also lucked out because I happened to know Anton, which means that at Gaylaxicon I got to know J. Michael Tatum there where he's just this guy, you know, and a F*CKING ROCKSTAR at Detour. Thus, as it happens I got to rub shoulders with a GoH, have dinner with him and late night fun at the bar (and, oddly, the furry party, and now I have an inappropriate picture of Michael at the furry party doing rude things with a tanuki that I'm not sure what to do with... I'd use it for blackmail, but since his boyfriend took a picture too, I'm not sure it's worth much.)
So, I mean, I had a blast because OMG Michael is awesome and every time I hang out with him I fall in love just a little bit more.
But, yeah, no. Eleanor bounced right off Detour.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-23 02:37 am (UTC)There was a proposed panel at Convergence some years back that was the "Death Eater Panel" that was supposedly going to be DEs reminiscing about the good old days with the Dark Lord and talking about what they've been up to since his fall. I signed up for it because HOW FUN WOULD THAT BE? But apparently no one else did, because the panel wasn't held.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-23 11:31 am (UTC)I think you'd really like Detour, Naomi. It's just a fun experience. There's mochi to eat! Japanese candy! And so, so many costumes!!