Saturday was a more interesting and fun experience. There were a lot more people which meant that there were more cosplayers and more cosplayers means more fun! This was my first time seeing people cosplay in person and I have to say, I’m impressed by the quality of some of the costumes and the time the people dedicated to create such works of art. And yes, I think cosplay is an art form. Onlookers may have thought that the cosplayers were just a bunch of people playing with Halloween costumes but little do they know that some of these are homemade and they looked spectacular.

After parading through numerous cosplayers, I was able to make it to anime director/character Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe and manga artist/singer Aoi Kidokoro’s fan panel, which was highly amusing. Nabeshin was donning his usual dark pink suit and afro while Ms. Aoi did some cosplay (though I don’t know what character). The Q n’ A went all over the place so I’ll just give you a gist of what occurred. Nabeshin talked about how the Gods gave him the idea of putting himself in a couple of anime he directed (like Excel Saga, Puni Puni Poemy) and how he encourages everyone to get an afro hairstyle because 1) it’s easy to maintain and 2) it’s just an awesome style. Somehow a question about what Nabeshin and Aoi would do during a zombie attack was asked. Nabeshin answered that the zombies would leave him alone because his afro would repel them and Aoi would use a traditional Japanese sword to slash them to bits. Nabeshin and Aoi also talked about the possibility of working together on an anime, possibly creating an Aoi character that could marry Nabeshin in the 2D world (according to Nabeshin). He also said that he would not mind directing one of Aoi’s manga when it becomes animated though he warned her he likes to use a lot of perverted lines and jokes in his anime. Note: Don’t take these answers too seriously.

On a more serious note, in UchuSentai NOIZ’s press conference, the band talked about their passion for music and what they hope for the future. Being in the music industry has made the members see how they had taken things for granted. They want to create music where people can put down their ‘weapons’ and get along. Since NOIZ often goes to anime conventions, they are thinking about tying one of their songs to an anime to get more exposure. However since they are a self managed band, it will be difficult to achieve this with the competition from company managed artists. The costumes represent each of the members’ personal style and no one is forced to wear something they don’t like. They ended the meeting by saying how the members’ different (unbalanced) opinions combine to create balance in the group. They also gave a free mini concert later that afternoon and it was awesome! I highly recommend their music (if you like rock).