Report of Comic Con 1998

Note: Since this report is a recollection of what happened back then, some things might have been forgotten, but alas if I remember anything or realize something is in error, I will update this!

Gosh, looking back at this con makes me feel so nostalgic: it was the first convention that my sister (Sana-chan) and I had ever been to! I remember hearing about this convention through the S.O.S. website that I visited heavily back in those days when I was nothing but a Sailor Moon geek. When this website mentioned that none other that the creator of Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi herself, would be making a guest appearance, we KNEW we had to go.

Since it was our first year at ANY sort of big convention (in the past I had accompanied my mom to various computer conventions, but those were usually boring and they didn’t really count in my book), we just did on-site registration for a one-day pass. Forgot if Naoko Takeuchi came on a Friday or Saturday (if any of you that went to that convention remember please let me know; have yet to dig out my old Comic Con badge ^_^); but it was a PACKED day. Granted, the convention’s exhibit hall was huge with plenty of room to walk around and not bump into too many people all at once.

Being the dork that I was back then, I printed out a bunch of Sailor Jupiter stickers (she is my favorite Sailor Moon character) and stuck them all to my shirt (for part of the day) in support of Sailor Moon. I also printed out an S.O.S sticker since I was heavily into getting Sailor Moon syndicated on national TV.

What surprised me and my sister the most about this convention was that people dressed up.” Later on I discovered the term for this other than “costumer;” “cosplay.” Cosplay, for those of you who don’t know, is short for costume play, in which you dress up as characters from a said anime, video game, or manga (and granted this can be movies or normal comics, not just Japanese related although the term lends itself to associate amongst those things). I remember looking at these people, mostly dressed up as Sailor Moon characters because Takeuchi-sama was going to be there (and of course there were other Sci-fi and comic book characters, not just anime since this wasn’t SOLELY and anime convention); and wishing I could dress up like that. I was 13 at the time and wished I could play “dress up” with all these grown ups-or at the least bit become Sailor Jupiter for a day.

Regardless, I still had fun. My sister and I shopped the exhibit hall till we dropped. We were both given money from our parents and we had to spend it “wisely;” so much for that, we came back with nothing but all the Sailor Moon merchandise we longed to have! One item in particular holds a special place in my heart, it’s an actual light up “Luna Pen” that was replicated after the same one Usagi uses to transform into different “disguises.” I originally bought it in the hopes I could’ve got it autographed by Miss Takeuchi-sama. Unfortunately I didn’t, and I’ll explain why.

In order for us to get in near sight of Takeuchi-sama, we read in the program guide that she was having a panel: sort of a Q & A for fans and curious ones alike. Well we were BRIMMING with questions and so Sana-chan and I headed to the panel. While I was sporting my Sailor Jupiter stickers, she had on stickers of a fan-made creation she did called “Sailor Earth”(sounds so cliché to every other fan-made Sailor Earth you see on fanfiction.net). Although we weren’t dressed up, our fan spirit prevailed as we waited in line just to get into the panel. That was the first time we had a real “line” experience and boy was it well worth the wait! We met some really awesome people while in line and unfortunately we have lost contact somehow along the way (sorry to you two both, I’m sure you know who you are out there XD).

The panel itself was fun (we all gave a standing ovation to Takeuchi-sama when she came in; BOY is she skinny!), a bit rowdy, and I certainly had a lot of questions answered. All of them ranged from the relationship between Haruka and Michiru, to the reason WHY the Starlights changed their genders when transforming (apparently it was an editor’s decision when she was creating them for the manga). Sana-chan herself asked Takeuchi-sama why she never bothered to create a Sailor Earth character. There was a bit of groaning from some audience members and some nods of agreement. But she told her that “That would defeat the purpose of Tuxedo Mask,” to which a Tuxedo Mask cosplayer raised his fist and others cheered.

Negative aspects of the panel was that certain people near the front were able to ask more questions than some people got to that were in the back (granted I was the 3rd row away from her; lines are well worth the wait). They seemed a bit more political in nature and got to be really annoying by the end of the panel. The translator dude wasn’t that cool either if I remembered correctly, something he said really ticked me off. Although I wasn’t studying Japanese at the time there was something said about something that just ticked me off. Ok that sounded like random ramblings but I forgot. -_-;;

After the panel ended we were told that Takeuchi-sama would be having an autograph session. My sister and I bailed downstairs to the autograph area where they slated it to take place. To our surprise and disbelief, a line TWICE as long as the one to get into the panel had already formed.

We were soooooooooooooooooooo disappointed; we tried to get to the end of the line but they had already capped it by the time they got there. In fact, Takeuchi-sama was on a very strict time limit with autographs because she was leaving that night back for Japan! Talk about whirlwind trip! Still it was disappointing, hoping that the merchandise we purchased could have been autographed, but to no avail.

Lesson learned? You either pick panel or autograph session if they’re so close together (like one after the other). Conventions do this to avoid crowd control in too much of one particular area. We learned later on that HALF of those people were waiting in line as early as noon! Nuts to some, but to the most devoted Sailor Moon fan, the line was well worth the wait.

Even though we were both young, we did have the common sense to realize, hey; Takeuchi-sama answered a question of my sis’s, we saw her in real life…how often does that happen? Not often enough, and that’s the magic of conventions: you get to meet these celebrities up close and personal, find rare merchandise, and meet many diverse people.

Little did we know this would be the beginning of a very long journey of cons…