comic-con 2002

adam, jonathan, sumir, and vince on 08/09/2002 12:19:49 -0700

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One thing that surprised me at Comic-Con was the presence of so many Japanese animation/manga related companies. I spent most of my time in the exhibit hall, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I got some cool prizes, freebies, as well as sketches by hanging out in the dealer's room. (Wow that sounds like a drug reference! Don't worry; I'm not some crazed-otaku or whatnot.)

Obviously one of the current things of note is what I feel is the explosion of manga and its rising popularity.

Tokyopop had a huge booth that was sadly bigger than Marvel's booth, despite their apparently similar sales. The Tokyopop booth featured a store section provided by Wherehouse Music, a signing area, a big projected screen on which they played trailers, and the Initial D arcade game. Initial D Arcade stage seemed fun, but it was obvious to me that there was very little physics involved in the driving, but that's fine because I got to drift the Trueno/86 down a mountainside at night, thereby living out my Initial D dreams. Yes, I am a loser. But hey, I got a GTO sketch from Tohru Fujisawa, the creator of Great Teacher Onizuka! It was totally worth the 3.5 hours I waited in line. I also got to see a professionally hired Onizuka cosplayer, and I still think I have a friend who can do a better job.

Shonen Jump had a huge section of the Viz booth. They were offering a cool 1-year subscription for only $19.95 and you got a poster and a T-shirt or hat. (I selected a T-shirt.) If you filled out a survey, you could spin a wheel for prizes. I originally got in the line thinking they were giving out freebies but hey, spinning a wheel turned out just as good. The girl 2 guys up won a signed print, which was definitely the prize to try and get. I counted the wheel later and found out that it was a 1/24 chance to get a signed print. It was funny because I think she was the first person to win a signed print that day. The attendants at the wheel got sort of pissed and panicked because they weren't quite sure what to do. It turns out there's some paperwork and they had to take the girl's picture. The two guys in front of me got T-shirts and cursed at their luck. When I got up I spun the wheel half-heartedly and all my bad luck from Anime Expo reversed itself in that instant. I won a Yu Yu Hakusho signed print! The attendants cursed again and I had to wait to get my picture taken. I'm glad I went and got in line because on Sunday that space on the wheel was gone. I guess they ran out.

Raijin Comics had the same booth they had at Anime Expo. They were also giving away the same trip to Japan, so I couldn't enter their contest since I already did at AX. I did get a trial 1-month subscription however.

Raijin is much more daring with their lineup than their competitor Shonen Jump. SJ has obvious favorites such as Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh. It also has titles that appeal to a similar audience in One Piece and Naruto. Raijin is daring enough to bring political manga (First President of Japan, Revenge of Mouflon) as well as sports manga (Slam Dunk, Wild Leaguer) to the US. Of course, it also has Bomber Girl to bring in the fan boys as well as Fist of the Blue Sky. Both of the "magazines" will probably serve up about the same amount of delicious manga, just Raijin does it in weekly settings and Shonen Jump does it in monthly gorges. It does appear that Raijin will be carrying 8 titles instead of 7 like Shonen Jump. Raijin does have an edge in Fujin magazine, but other than that the Japanese involvement in both magazines is roughly the same. Shonen Jump is the American extension of the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump, while Raijin is staffed by Hojo-san and company. The creators of the various series are communicating with both publications, so it will be interesting to see how each does.

Animation wise, some of the titles picked or currently being released show just how far interest in Japanese animation has come. Series like Excel Saga (ADV) and Trouble Chocolate (Viz) are not series that would have been released a couple of years back. Yet Excel Saga, the only one of the duo out, has generated such popularity, that ADV is accelerating their production of the series, even though it means changing the English voice actor for Excel. (A bad call in my opinion, as she perfectly embodies the character of Excel, whoever they hire to replace her has big shoes to fill.) Also of note are such series as G Gundam (Bandai) and Great Teacher Onizuka (Tokyopop).

Booth wise, Central Park Media probably had the most generic booth. It was small after all, and it only contained a store. ADV basically promoted various anime titles but it had big pictures of Andromeda, which is one of the live action sci-fi series ADV puts out on DVD. (They had no tower and gong and people throwing down T-shirts at the crow if I recall correctly.)

Pioneer had the same booth from Anime Expo, namely the Hellsing castle with featuring a light project of the Hellsing institute logo and a tombstone with the motto of the series. Crispin Freeman, the voice actor for Arucard, was signing autographs at various times on Saturday. The booth also held a raffle for a signed DVD box set (vol. 1 only) and contained a Pioneer store as well. Other freebies included X trading cards and Hellsing posters.

Urban Vision was promoting Slammin' Sammy: The Sammy Sosa Story, which is definitely an oddity in the anime world. It has an English script and English voice acting, but it was produced in Japan as far as I can tell. It'll be interesting to see the finished product in late August.

I definitely enjoyed my time at Comic-Con. In addition to autographs, I got some great swag. I also got an idea about what I will consider buying in the future. The #1 thing on my list was at the Palisades booth. Their Hellsing action figure of Arucard is just awesome and totally worth the $15-20. Cons in general have definitely been good to me this year. I plan on starting a place on the wall for putting up sketches from various cons.

- Jonathan

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