animagic 2011

And once again it was time for the AnimagiC in Bonn. One of Germanys biggest Anime, Manga and Videogame Convention. And of course I took a day off from work to visit the Con together with comrade Buku and Marvelous_M.

This was the third time I went to the AnimagiC after 2009 and 2010 and it was the first time that they build up a fence around the Con area and only people who bought a ticket where allowed to enter the area outside the hall. This was because a lot of people got irritated by strangers who came and took pictures.
There seem to be a lot of perverted photographers who use those conventions to take some dangerous pictures without even asking the cosplayers first.

But those who still wanted to participate in another way without a ticket had the chance to do so at the riverside. There are always cosplayers there but this time a whole lot more stayed there for 3 days because the meadow in front of the hall was for paying visitors only.
I think this was a rather stupid idea and it looked really empty outside.

But of course there was still a huge crowd who bought a ticket. Those who did had the chance to enjoy the program and various other stuff.
Almost all german publisher for Manga and Anime had their selling booths.

One could buy german Manga, or imported stuff at the seller area where Import Shops had their stalls.
Some prices were reasonable but most of the stuff is just way too expensive. It would be cheaper to buy that stuff online and pay for shipping and customs.

EMA, a german Manga publisher, could re-license Sailor Moon and is going to release the Volumes starting october this year. Fans were crying for this for years now! And finally EMA made it possible.
I think they will get a lot of new and old fans to love them!

There was a Charity Auction to collect money for Japan. The AnimagiC stuff had some really nice treasures to offer and almost everything was signed or original stuff from creators.
There was a shiki from the Character Designer of Sakura Taisen with a sketch of Sakura. I would have loved to get this but was sold for 150EUR. Way too much. There also were this 3 original artworks from Watsuki Nobuhiro. Really lovely!
In general the way those people spent their money was really weird.
For example: They bid almost 200EUR for a movie pamphlet which was signed by the producer of the series.
But for a DVD Collection of another series, also signed by its producer, they only bid a maximum of 50EUR.
I still don’t get this and am confused. Am I really a part of this strange community?
Ok, it was for a good reason and I understand some prices. But they were bid on the wrong items in my opinion.

Nintendo had 12 Wii Stations in the convention hall beside their 3DS trailor outside. On 6 machines they had Xenoblade and on the other 6 they had Zelda Skyward Sword.
We played Skyward Sword for a while and it was a bit confusing since it was ages ago that I played Twilight Princess and couldn’t get in touch with the controlls so I failed really bad at fighting the Boss in the Demo.

On Friday was was not in the mood to take any pictures of cosplays and on saturday I only took a few pictures. Somehow I loose interest in taking pictures of cosplays because there is so much mainstream and only a few really really good and unique cosplays. Regardless where you look you will always find Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece Cosplay. That is not unique at all and after so many years of japan related events it gets boring. Of course there were still some nice cosplays but most of the time I saw them inside and taking pictures of cosplays inside is a real pain and it looks not so well at the end.
Well, but you can still enjoy the few pictures I took.

Melonplay cosplaying Erza in her beloved bunnysuit. Since I saw her as Enies Lobby Nico Robin two years ago I love her work. She is a perfect Robin and Erza!

Since K-On! was shown in one of the cinemas today, there was a VA workshop for it and the 1st Volume of the DVDs were released I was sursprised that I only came across one K-On! cosplay. But at least it was a cute Yui cosplay with Giitah! Must be a pain to carry it the whole time!

With that many Ghostbusters we can walk around relaxed without worrying about demons and ghosts and stuff.

One thing I just had to do was to finally buy the Fairy Tail Manga. I only bought Volume 1 but this is a special Volume now.
The producer of the Anime adaption, Ochikoshi Tomonori was one of the japanese guests and he took his time to sign stuff from the fans for an hour. And I just had to get him sign my Fairy Tail Manga!
He was really sursprised when I gave him the Manga to sign and sayed “Whoa, Fairy Tail!”.
But unfortunately, the pen didn’t wrote well on the cover.

But he was really kind and signed inside too!
Once again, thank you very much, Ochikoshi-san! I love A-1′s work on Fairy Tail!

And I also bought Volume 1 of the K-On! DVDs. I am a huge fan of the series and I just had to buy the DVD.
There are a lot of really good series in Japan but we only get a few licensed in Germany which is a shame. So if a series like K-On!, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya gets a release I have to support the company who bought the license. And the german voice acting isn’t that bad in my opinion. Soem voices seem out of place and doesn’t fit well with the original or the character. But the acting itself is really good so far. Only really disappointing thing: Ui doesn not call Yui “Onee-chan” or the equivalent german version. She calls her Yui or Yui-chan.