Report of Comic Con 1999

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!

I surely didn’t think I’d be coming back to this convention: premature thought that I had so much fun at this con that nothing could top it concept; but when we heard that Toshihiro Ono, the manga creator of Den-geki Pikachu; (a manga based off the anime series of Pocket Monsters) was going to be making a guest appearance, we weaseled our way into Comic-Con, once again for a one day pass (Remember since we were young back then we were only allowed one day passes because of our parent’s budgets).

Yes I was into Pokémon (kill me now), and I am to some degree, not as crazed; I’m now just more so happy it turned so many people into liking other anime. Anyways, I had fun waiting in the line to get his AUTOGRAPH. Having learned from experience at the last Comic Con, we figured it was the autograph or nothing. We knew there was going to panel, but we were willing to forgo it for the sake of the autograph. (Of course we were able to go to the panel, more details later on)

This time waiting in line got to be a bit more interesting; primarily because my neighborhood friends Saphron and MockyStar joined in on the fun after we told em both how much fun we had last year-they too liked Pokémon. While waiting in line we played cards, attracted attention by this one kid (Matt I think was his name) who kept wondering what the heck we were doing in line even though HE was in the line himself. *Shrug*

We were in the line not just cuz we liked the anime and/or the video game; but we liked his manga version. It was super cute and it was full of Ash and Misty hints (yes I’m a supporter of Ash & Misty’s love-check out Sana-chan’s site for more info XD)!

When the line finally got under way, we were surprised to find out he was doing SKETCHES and we thought HECK YAH! What could be better than an autograph but a personally drawn sketch? It made all the sense in the world; it also caused the line to take forever.

Yet since we were in line early the time flew by fast; we reached Ono-sama and were indeed surprised. It’s funny how mangaka really do draw funny representations of themselves in manga, only for them to look somewhat like that in real life. In the manga, Ono would draw himself as different Pokémon each issue; and although he’s not a Pokémon obviously, he was certainly plump and had whiskers. More importantly, he was a delight!

It was even more interesting since Sana-chan had decided for the first time to cosplay! She cosplayed Misty and although she didn’t have the right hair and decided to jokingly wear Ash’s hat, Ono-sama was impressed. SO impressed that even without asking he drew her a sketch of Misty, and it hangs on our bedroom wall today. XD

I on the other hand wore a shirt supporting Ash and Misty’s love; the editor laughed at it and nudged to Ono-sama how he should add more romance into the manga. As for a sketch, I got a Pikachu because I somehow forgot at the time my favorite Pokémon was Vulpix. Yeah yeah, dumb me got too caught up in the moment. :-P

We were happy to say the least, and when we realized that the panel WAS after the autographs and that we had time to go to it, we figured why the heck not. It was cool because Ono-sama recognized us and acknowledged us when we passed by him when we took our seats for the panel.

The panel was fun; we did ask whether or not Ash and Misty loved each other, in his own humble opinion and he answered: "Misty wants Ash more as a little brother so it seems. Though my editors all believe we're making them have a romantic relationship and strongly believe in the fact as them in a couple."  DAH! I could’ve died with that answer! Yes I’m a freak X_X

The only thing bad about the panel was since there were a lot of YOUNG fans of the show/game/manga, there was a lot of confusion if this guy was THE creator of Pokémon (for the record that’s Satoshi Tajiri) and of course he wasn’t. Some kids got all technical with some questions and Ono-sama just couldn’t answer them. Hard for the little ones to understand I guess…

After the panel we hung out with some new found convention buddies, and bought some more stuff before leaving. All in all it was a fun convention; we got what we wanted out of it and came back with fun memories!