Anime North ‘07 Aftermath

May 27th, 2007 by Shirukii

And so ends Anime North weekend, tiring as hell, but all in all not a bad experience.

Friday

The convention opened at 6 p.m., but someone *cough*Soda*cough* showed up late, and it was about 7:30 p.m. by the time we all had our badges and went inside. After browsing the artist walk for a bit (there was an Alter booth, but they didn’t have Fate T_T) we went into the dealers’ room to shop. We wandered around for a good two hours looking for the best deal and the place that had the most of what I was looking for. Just as the dealers’ room was closing we found a decent place where I bought 30 volumes.

Since we didn’t go to any panels or events we figured we should plan out Saturday, so we sat around talking and planning the next day for about an hour before splitting up.

Saturday

I got to the convention just before noon and got the rest of my manga purchases out of the way (took me about half an hour to find a place with Azu vol 4). I bumped into a friend from uni and wandering around with him and his friends for a while.

We ended up going to the Hare Hare Yukai dance competition and screening of the English dubbed Haruhi. The dances were decent, nothing special but there weren’t any particularly horrible groups, there was even a group that cosplayed and paralleled NGE characters with their Haruhi counterparts. Of course Soda was late AGAIN and in the end only got to see 2 or 3 groups perform. After the winners were announced some people split off and Soda, his friend and I stuck around to laugh at the English dub of Haruhi.

We then went to go grab some lunch and then went to a panel misleadingly titled “2d vs 3d”. Soda and I thought that the panel would be about 2d vs 3d girls, but it ended up being about animation styles =( Clearly 4chan has wreaked havoc on our perception of the world.

After that we went back to browsing the dealer’s room until it was time to leave.

Neither I nor Soda went on Sunday, I was planning on going, but the friend who I was supposed to go with went MIA and my arms and legs were tired from hauling manga around anyways.

I didn’t take any pictures of cosplayers because honestly…there weren’t many worthwhile ones. There were some that were done really well, but there are already enough good examples of Tifas, Clouds, Haruhis and Naruto/Bleach characters, there’s no need to add to the pool. There was one awesome Rider cosplayer that I wish I had took a picture of though =(

The screenings at the convention were nothing new to me and Soda, so we didn’t feel the need to go to any of them. The panels didn’t have anything terribly interesting either, so in the end the only major event we went to was the Hare Hare Yukai danceoff and Haruhi screening.

But the main reason I go to Anime North is to buy stuff anyways, and this year I bought considerably more than in the past…

Click to enlarge

This year’s purchases were strictly manga. I was planning on grabbing some wallscrolls/posters and maybe a figure today, but didn’t end up going, so meh.

List of purchases:

Azumanga Daioh: Volumes 1-4
Claymore: Volumes 1-7
Hayate no Gotoku: Volumes 1-3
Ichigo Mashimaro: Volumes 1-3
Kino no Tabi: Volume 1
Mahou Sensei Negima: Volumes 1-14
Midori no Hibi: Volumes 1-8
NHK ni Youkoso: Volumes 1-3
Shakugan no Shana: Volume 1
Yotsuba&!: Volumes 1-3

Altogether I got about $90 in discounts off of US cover price in CAD, well worth it in my opinion.

Thanks to Soda for carrying just about half of the manga for me throughout the convention, I would have collapsed had it not been for that XD

So even though it was more of a shopping spree than a convention, I still had a lot of fun and will probably be going back next year. (If nothing else to stock up on manga for the year XD)

Side Note* I’ll be throwing the episode posts for Death Note and StrikerS that I missed into combination posts next time, so normal blogging will resume from here.

~ Shirukii ~

24 Comments »


24 Responses to “Anime North ‘07 Aftermath”

  1. on 27 May 2007 at 2:17 pm1 Soda

    You forgot to mention that I was carrying 23 of your manga volumes for you throughout the thing. Boo…

    [Shirukii edit] I thought I mentioned it =P, it’s there now [/edit]

    And I didn’t get to see any Hare Hare Yukai dancing by any one group, only the one at the end when they had a bunch of groups do it all at the same time =(

  2. on 27 May 2007 at 2:39 pm2 Demian

    Damn, that’s a lot of manga. All really good series, though, that you’ll probably enjoy reading. Reminds me I need to find a place that sells the Shana novel.

  3. on 27 May 2007 at 2:39 pm3 Kanon_fan82

    @ Shirukii & Soda:

    k……I have to ask out of sheer curiousity……….How bad were the Haruhi dubs??? :P

  4. on 27 May 2007 at 5:02 pm4 Kenny Liu

    Great haul!

  5. on 27 May 2007 at 5:09 pm5 AS

    Wow, serious manga buyer lol. Well at least you bought something and saved money. I envy you, I haven’t seen a Shana manga yet where I live. Maybe more research will yield results. You went crazy for Negima which was interesting to me, I haven’t read it myself but might pick it up due to its popularity.

  6. on 27 May 2007 at 5:57 pm6 kite

    hello kawai

  7. on 27 May 2007 at 6:05 pm7 Adun

    That’s a lot of manga. Though I know how you felt as during Comiket69, I was carrying 6 kgs of doujinshi. But as long as you got what you wanted and you had fun, that’s all that matters.

  8. on 27 May 2007 at 6:22 pm8 BOZZ

    Hot damn, that’s a lot of stuff you picked up… I feel like I didn’t do enough after seeing that (all I got was the regular Haruhi DVD, Shana novel, School Rumble volume 5 and 2 other manga).

  9. on 27 May 2007 at 6:34 pm9 Shirukii

    @ Demian: I couldn’t find the novel either =( Only the manga

    @ Kanon_fan82: Haruhi, Yuki and Itsuki were passable, I’d say. Kyon’s voice lacked the sarcastic tone that made him win in the original and Mikuru made me want to pour cement glue into my eardrums.

    @ Kenny: And heavy T_T

    @ AS: After watching the original Mahou Sensei Negima and some of Negima!? and hearing that the manga is significantly better, I caved and bought it all. Shana manga has been out for a while now, novel remains elusive though.

    @ kite: Uh…hi!

    @ Adun: I couldn’t find ANY doujinshi D=

    @ BOZZ: Anime North as well? Or…some other a-con that is going on?

    If it was Anime North, where did you find the Shana Novel =( I looked all over for it and no one had it.

  10. on 27 May 2007 at 7:59 pm10 xXMikotoNakadaiXx

    lol Shana alone makes me jealous! ):

    Was Mikuru’s voice all that bad? lol

  11. on 27 May 2007 at 9:20 pm11 TheBigN

    Nice haul, but that would probably be my total amount of manga purchases in about two years. o_o

  12. on 27 May 2007 at 10:14 pm12 Owen S

    Oh wow. That’s a crazy amount. How much did it cost you overall? Nice.

  13. on 27 May 2007 at 10:49 pm13 Shirukii

    @ xXMikotoNakadaiXx: Yes, yes it was T_T

    @ TheBigN: I have only recently begun to take interest in actually buying manga. I’ve mentioned this before, but I have this odd inability to read manga off a computer screen, having the actual book it superior. I’ll probably buy on a more ongoing rate from now on, instead of all at once like I did here.

    @ Owen S: 47 volumes at an average $10 each, about $90 discount. So in the range of $380 CAD? Which should be somewhere around $350 USD.

  14. on 27 May 2007 at 11:30 pm14 Brian Woon

    @shirukii : I was just wondering….how many manga & anime cds do you have? I got about three shelfs of manga & very few anime cds. {I usually download them (^__^)}

  15. on 27 May 2007 at 11:43 pm15 BOZZ

    @Shirukii: It was that side aisle that One Million Comix had near the visual novel guys (the ones who are releasing Ever 17 here). When I bought it I think they only had 3 in total at the time. The manga was easy to find, but the novel not so much it seems. :(

  16. on 27 May 2007 at 11:56 pm16 Zeroblade

    Oh, Shakugan no Shana’s already out? I’d best be on the lookout for it now; I’m dying to read the novel that spawned the anime.

  17. on 28 May 2007 at 1:40 am17 xXMikotoNakadaiXx

    ^ Shana’s been out for quite a while now…

    @Shirukii: Heh… I guess when the Haruhi DVD comes out in 2 days, imma turn on the dubtitles and turn off the volume each time Mikuru’s on-screen. Of course, that’ll hurt my hand eventually. o_o;;

    *Still fazed by all the Negima!… lol*

  18. on 28 May 2007 at 10:37 am18 Shirukii

    @ Brian Woon: In addition to what you see up there, I have all of the Gunslinger Girl manga and some volumes of Tenjho Tenge (butchered by CMX)

    @ BOZZ: Ahh! Damn, I asked there too, they said to come back on Sunday and they might have more, but I didn’t go on Sunday =(

    @ Zeroblade: Yea, it’s been out for about a month now, I really want to read it too.

    @ xXMikotoNakadaiXx: Good luck trying to mute Mikuru all the time =P especially during episode 00.

    After reading Azu, I went through the first volume of Negima, it was hundreds of times funnier than the anime.

  19. on 28 May 2007 at 4:54 pm19 Servbot

    Buying without regrets nice!

    mmmmm…freshly printed volumes…

    Nice that you got discounts too…im stuck either reading from bookstores or downloading what I can find.

    Recently started on the Seto no Hanayome manga which is supposedly a pretty good anime too.

    Unfortunately, I go through reading fairly quickly, so I need more!

  20. on 28 May 2007 at 10:08 pm20 Lenners

    I plan on doing the same at Anime Evolution, buying manga then getting the hell out of there >:D

  21. on 28 May 2007 at 10:12 pm21 BOZZ

    @Shirukii: I actually went by on Sunday (for a friend) to see if they had any, and they didn’t…

  22. on 29 May 2007 at 1:13 am22 Shirukii

    @ Servbot: Is seto no hanayome licenced? Or…do you read scanslations.

    @ Lenners: Ah, Vancouver huh. I visited there last year, nice place, though a little too calm for my tastes. I like the business of the GTA.

    @ BOZZ: Aww, that sucks =( I guess I’ll have to go find it at either AnimeXtreme or onemillioncomix some other time then.

  23. on 29 May 2007 at 11:42 am23 Servbot

    @Shirukii: From what I have read, as of 2002 Seto no Hanayome is serialized in Japan’s Monthly Gangan WING, currently 12 volumes are out in Japan and nothing has been planned for stateside. I am reading the scanlations and have started on the animation.

    Oh! Have you guys heard about Odin Sphere for the Playstation 2? I picked up the game during memorial day weekend and have been playing it nonstop! The game is a sidescrolling action RPG with hand-drawn backgrounds and other vivid animations. Odin Sphere’s story is told like a fairytale when you move a little girl name Alice and have her read different books. Each book represents the story from another character’s perspective and covers many chapters about a war between valkyries, fairies, dark knights, dragons and other magical beings. The game’s United States launch was simultaneous with the Japanese launch, and the US version has the option for Japanese or English voice along with standard bubble subs popping from the characters.

  24. on 30 May 2007 at 3:12 pm24 Shirukii

    Damn, no English volumes huh, too bad, the anime is really funny.

    Haven’t heard of that game, but it sounds interesting. Too bad my console gaming days are long gone, it’s been all PC gaming for me for about a year now, and handhelds.

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