Day: July 9, 2018

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Hanebado!

Kentarō Tachibana is the coach of Kitakomachi High School’s badminton team. He is worried because the team has so few members that it cannot even enter competitions, but then he spots a student named Ayano Hanesaki easily climbing a large tree on the school grounds, expertly demonstrating excellent motor skills. Tachibana tries to get Ayano to join the badminton team, but finds out that Ayano hates badminton. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Nagisa Aragaki tries her hardest to improve her badminton game and she’s very skillful, but not quite good enough to survive a match with Ayano Hanesaki, someone who seems to have boundless natural talent. After being shut-out against Hanesaki, Nagisa returns to her high school badminton club and begins to take the loss out on others. As people are driven away from the team one-by-one (including the upperclassmen), Nagisa comes to the painful realization that she’s begun to take her own insecurities out on the people around her, blaming them for her inability to achieve the things she wishes to. To add insult to injury, Hanesaki attends the same high school, and the badminton team’s new coach, Kentaro Tachibana (a former olympian), is convinced that Hanesaki is what their team needs to become competitive. But Hanesaki has no interest in playing badminton again, and Nagisa is still struggling with those painful losses.

Impressions: I was looking forward to this series a lot based primarily on some of the preview footage. I like to tell people that there’s an anime out there about anything, and that’s especially true for various sports. Badminton might bring to mind images of garden parties and women in Victorian bustle dresses, but I was impressed by how convincing the trailer was at portraying badminton as an intense sport where players actually expend a great deal of energy. As it turns out, the trailer footage is primarily taken from the opening scenes of this introductory episode, and the expression of Nagisa’s intense concentration and drive to continue a lost battle against the talented Hanesaki through her dripping sweat and tense muscles is powerful and gripping. This scene represents the most intense action in the episode, and it remains a memorable focal point throughout.

Nagisa struggles with her own behavior.

That isn’t to say that the rest of the episode is boring; while the sports action is eye-catching, there’s also a sense of tension that’s cultivated around Nagisa’s emotional journey. I was surprised by how effective this was considering that the characters are brand new at this point and their stories are only portrayed in the most basic of terms. One thing that I found helped contribute to this was Nagisa’s internal narration in the opening scene as she struggled to return each shot and yet failed to win her match. I realized that I felt a lot of sympathy towards her situation – as she asks a couple times throughout the episode, what can you possibly do when you put forth your best effort and it just isn’t good enough? How can you win against someone who has loads of natural talent when it takes you three times as much effort to get to the same level? It’s a question that I’ve asked myself a lot throughout my life, because I’ve had the joy and pain to know a lot of incredibly talented people, many of whom can best me easily in the things that I like to do but don’t have much natural talent for. With the added stress of being called “gifted” at some early point in my life and thinking I was just naturally smart, and then being confronted later on with the fact that I needed to try just as hard as anyone else at things and not having good tools to do so, you can probably guess why this part of the story resonated with me so clearly.

Hanesaki prevents a disaster.

Because the primary conflict, rivalry, and relationship in this series seems to be between two girls, at least judging by the bulk of this episode, I’m feeling a little bit less enthusiastic about the fact that not only is the male coach given a lot of air time in the descriptions I’ve been reading about the show, but he comes across as a perverted jackass from the moment he makes his on screen debut. I’d had the sinking feeling that his presence might take something away from the parts of the story that interested me, and it’s already been the case. In this Larry Nassar-tainted world that we live in, I have very little tolerance for men in positions of authority (in sports and elsewhere) being creepy towards, well, pretty much anyone, but especially teenage girls. It was the reason why I dropped Uma Musume: Pretty Derby like a hot potato almost immediately; the male coach assaulted the female main character multiple times (grabbing her body – specifically her thighs – without her consent) in the first episode and it was played for comedy. A lot of people seemed to brush it off and I gather that the show was a fun watch beyond that, but the imagery still gives me a knot in my stomach. Tachibana’s arrival is heralded by him eyeballing female tennis players from the other side of a fence, and one of the first things he does is to run to Hanesaki and start grabbing at her wrists without any sort of introduction or consent. Again, this is played for comedy, or at least is meant to imply that the coach is so focused on his sports-related goals that his possibly dubious grasp of social norms gets thrown out the window. What it is is gross, and I wish that better decisions had been made at some point along the line (possibly in the original manga, assuming this adaptation is faithful).

Hanesaki is done with badminton.

I’m not against having male authority figures in anime about girls’ sports, but I found that the story was unfolding just fine without that particular contrivance and was really enjoying the episode more when the girls were working through things in their own way, using their own voices. Perhaps I’m just overlooking some really obvious example, but I feel like sports anime starring girls tends to lack some of the seriousness that you get from much of the sports anime starring boys, and this series looks a lot like it could buck that trend. It will just have to get over the inclination towards creeper “comedy” and show a little more confidence in its characterization of the coach.

I’m finding more and more that my strongest negative reactions towards anime are not because a show is just outright terrible, but more because it managed to do so many things well and then managed to biff it in a way that bothers me personally and fundamentally. I certainly don’t think that this show is irredeemable; If subsequent episodes are anything like this one they’ll be both visually interesting and emotionally compelling. I loved the use of color throughout and though the animation was really well done. It got me interested in watching badminton! I would just hope that the coach character is given the chance to behave like a normal human being and that the show lets go of this “young adult males love to creep on teenage girls” thing it’s got going on.

Pros: The action is well-animated. Much of the episode is visually rendered very well. Nagisa’s emotions are portrayed very truthfully in a short amount of time.

Cons: There’s some ill-timed perverted “comedy” that undercuts the tone of the rest of the episode.

Grade: C+

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – The Thousand Musketeers

The whole world was devastated by the nuclear war. Under the strong rule of the World Empire, people are all suppressed and deprived of their own lives. A resistance team secretly keeps fighting to break the suppression while everyone is forbidden to possess any force of arms. The team arms themselves with “antique guns” that were left as works of art, and the incarnations of those antique guns are called “Musketeers” appear and join the team, as if they responded to the soul of the resistance. In their battles with the incarnations of contemporary guns who represent and are dispatched from the Empire, the “Musketeers” turn their “Absolute Noble” mode to give a powerful boost to themselves, and bring hope to the world. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Smartphone Game

Episode 1 Summary: Dreams of world peace were shattered when, after years of nuclear war and an alteration of the world’s climate, the World Empire took over and subdued the populace by force. Their rule is harsh and tramples over the very dignity of the people. But a resistance has formed in the underground, supplemented by the talents of a group of weapons-turned-human. These individuals have the power and personality of the antique weapons from which they were formed as well as a certain “x-factor” of absolute nobility in the face of danger. Many of the new recruits are forced to attempt a dangerous mission to save a resistance politician being transported to the capital. When the situation seems dire, one of them expresses their nobility and is given enough power to shoot down the Empire’s soldiers. But then he collapses on the battlefield – is this a doomed mission after all?

Impressions: The various Touken Ranbu anime incarnations made their marks by featuring a cast of characters based on personifications of various famous weapons (mostly melee weapons) that appeared throughout history. The Thousand Musketeers attempts to do the same by focusing solely on firearms and attempting to draw forth some kind of identifiable character personality from each classic, historical, or antique weapon. Thus far the end product is a very mixed bag of simple-yet-confusing plot elements and a cast that’s jam-packed with characters that are often difficult to distinguish from one-another.

Napoleon – a fancy gun with a fancy hat.

The opening scenes of the anime present several characters back-to-back in quick succession, each with a title card and a short description of their origin as a famous gun. This is, of course, while they’re all having conversations related to their general duties as agents of the rebellion, their “master” (who is unnamed and has not been shown on screen as of the end of the episode), and other info-dump-type material that might be important to take in, but is difficult to pay enough attention to as one is trying to read everything on the screen. I eventually started pausing the video after a while to make sure that I could read all the character info (not a favorite thing to do; I prefer to take in episodes in real-time), only to find that it was all too easy to forget about everything immediately afterward. Could I tell you who most of the characters’ names were? Absolutely not. Though I do remember Napoleon, whose ridiculously boisterous and snooty personality arrives immediately like a fart and is the one character who manages to leave an impression. There’s also an American one whose visual motif includes stars, stripes (pink instead of red), and pigtails, and while he’s definitely one-of-a-kind in terms of character design his name completely escapes me.

Presented with no further comment.

There’s an attempt to lay out some character relationships throughout the episode, the most memorable of which are between a couple of weapons that were on opposing sides during the American Revolutionary war. The extent of the bickering (especially when the American one busts out an American flag and threatens to hang it up where they’re all bunking together) adds a little levity to what is otherwise pretty bland and frothy entertainment. To be honest, considering how things have been going lately in the US, anything that can make fun of how ridiculous we are here in a way that gets me to chuckle even mildly has earned a point in my book. One thing that wasn’t made especially clear and which may not matter that much (unless you’re a gun collector or historian) is whether or not the boys-who-are-guns are actually using the rifles in battle which they themselves represent. Since all the firearms, as little as they’re actually on screen, seemed different from one-another, I would speculate that the answer is yes (and perhaps that’s something appealing about the game on which this is based). I think it would have made an interesting aside or a cool illustration for the commercial break screens to provide some more information about that.

The rescue operation begins.

Because most anime is based at least partly on some sort of fantasy premise or at least asks the audience to accept things that differ from reality in various ways, one measure of a “good” anime in my book is its ability to suspend the viewer’s disbelief. I’m a little more liberal of an anime consumer than a lot of folks and tend to get really rankled when others start complaining about minor deviations from reality, especially when the series in question is full of supernatural nonsense, magical powers, or fantasy worlds. But occasionally I’ll get caught on a detail and I can’t let it go. In the case of this episode, we’re to believe that the characters are part of a rebel underground where they’re in hiding from the government and living in fear of being discovered. That’s fine and dandy, but there’s a goofy scene partway through where one character offers to make the others “honey crepes.” There’s an entire montage at the beginning of the episode that talks about nuclear devastation, and a lot of the other imagery implies that the quality of life in general has gone way downhill after the literal collapse of society. So where are these resistance fighters, who are, I remind you, living in a deteriorated bunker of some sort, getting things like honey, processed flour, eggs, or milk? Sweet stuff is typically a luxury item in times of scarcity, so I wonder just who their supplier is (though considering that their “master” can take guns and turn them into hot guys, perhaps it’s not that hard to believe they might have some way to produce it). I’d also love to know where they’re getting their clothing, considering that everyone else is practically dressed in rags. Also, how rifles where the user has to arm them with gunpowder and pellets by hand every time can take out soldiers that look like cyborg police. But that might be asking for too much realism.

Speaking of montages, there’s a comically-unconvincing training montage where the newer recruits prepare themselves to carry out the rescue mission. They’re show running through the forest with their guns in had (probably holding them in a manner which would irritate actual gun owners, I’d wager). I was actually taken aback by the fact that, half an episode in, we were already treated to such a goofy and cliche presentation device, but the more I think about it the more it seems appropriate for such a goofy show.

Despite my obvious eye-rolling towards this episode, I can’t say that I wasn’t entertained. Even if the entertainment value was mostly unintentional and based on the fundamental weirdness of the premise, I still don’t feel like my time was wasted. And if I had to choose between The Thousand Musketeers and Upotte!!, the female expression of a similar idea, you’d better believe I’d choose silliness over sexualization. If your tolerance level is higher than mine (or if you’re thirstier for a variety of bishounen characters, I suppose), this might provide some entertainment.

Pros: The premise is mildly educational in a silly sort of way. The episode uses its resources wisely, saving some of the nicer-looking animation for the action in the second half.

Cons: This episode is a confusing character dump of epic proportions. I have a hard time believing that an underground resistance movement could afford such luxuries as honey crepes and fancy outfits.

Grade: C

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues

Teiai Group is one of Japan’s largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead “Game of Death,” an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion. – ANN

Copyright 2018 Madhouse

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Long before Yukio Tonegawa met Kaiji Itou in a card game that changed both of their lives, he was simply a middle manager for the Teiai group, a finance and loan outfit providing monetary loans at unreasonable interest rates. Tonegawa and his underlings collect on their debts regardless of the circumstances, and Tonegawa himself is especially good at shaking-down those who become delinquent with their debts. His position at the company puts him in the path of the company chairman Hyodo, whose boredom has brought him to seek unconventional pleasure in the suffering of others. Hyodo puts Tonegawa in charge of setting up a “death game” wherein debtors will fight for their own lives in a series of death-defying challenges. But Tonegawa has to get over the first hurdle of telling his underlings apart before he can possibly ask them to help come up with deadly gambles.

Impressions: I’m not really sure how many viewers out there are familiar with Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji; it was a weird, offbeat sausage-fest of a thriller from about ten years ago wherein a hapless debtor goes on a last-chance trip to erase his debts once and for all through extreme gambling. The show appealed to me quite a bit and I have fond memories of it; I think we all can enjoy a good underdog story, and Kaiji is the epitome of underdogs. It also contains one of the more horrific scenes I can recall from any anime, where Tonegawa is forced to bow his head to the surface of a grill after losing the final card game against Kaiji. If it sounds as though a lot happened over the course of that series, you’d be correct (and that’s only in the first season!). Helpfully, though, the first few minutes of this episode manages to provide a decent recap of twenty-six episodes of material, so while I think Kaiji is worth a watch no matter if you want to watch this series or not, it’s not a requirement to understand what’s happening here.

A couple of Tonegawa’s lackeys.

On its surface, Mr. Tonegawa has some traits that would normally be very appealing to me. Most anime stars younger characters and tends to be aimed at teenage viewers, something which doesn’t prevent me from watching a ton of anime but it does serve to make it less-than-relateable for me as an adult viewer at times. So far this series exists fully in the realm of adults, starring a middle-aged protagonist who supervises other men in their mid-thirties. The debtors, though they clearly haven’t lived up to their adult monetary responsibilities, all seem to be attempting to live real, typical lives – buying houses, owning businesses, blowing their money at the race track (well, that last situation isn’t so universal, I hope…). It’s good to see an anime acknowledge the reality of these kinds of things once-in-a-while, because paying bills and budgeting for my lifestyle are responsibilities that are often on my mind as someone who’s been a member of the workforce for a while now (and I know there are a lot of other people around who are just as boring and typical as I am). The issue I have with how this form of adulthood is portrayed in this episode, though, is that all the people Tonegawa’s employees are hassling throughout the first half are extremely irresponsible with money to the point of spending it gambling, drinking, and shopping while still owing on their loans. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone might take out a loan for something serious and specific and end up mismanaging it, but all of the people squandering their funds seem as though the thought of these loan sharks collecting on their debt has never crossed their mind and they’re portrayed as silly and irresponsible. Perhaps this was a way to try to build some sympathy for Tonegawa and the job he’s doing, because his character traits certainly don’t lend themselves to sympathy on their own. In any case, I didn’t feel that it was successful in cultivating positive feelings towards the character or his job.

Hyodo is bored, which means danger is in the air.

The first episode seems to have an issue with maintaining a specific tone as well. I’m not a fan of series that try to blend humor and drama in awkward ways, and I feel like there are only a few creators that can do so really well (for example, watch any series by Kunihiko Ikuhara). This show and its creators seem to recognize that there’s a fundamental ridiculousness to the story they’re trying to tell; the premise is already far afield of realism and the cast of characters are anything but down-to-earth. That’s all well and good, but rather than embrace how silly and unrealistic the story is required to be, the final product gives off the impression that it’s taking itself too seriously. When a character is introduced literally laying atop the backs of his employees as Hyodo is partway through this episode, the aspects of his personality which are truly frightening – his casual disregard for human life and his willingness to play games with it – are overshadowed by the visual goofiness. There’s also a scene which I feel is actually meant to be funny, but which comes across poorly due to some poor choices made in narrating the scene. Tonegawa organizes a group of several men to help him with the task of developing the death games, and all the men are dressed the same, look the same, and have confusing names and the same hobby. Even Tonegawa who is said to have special managerial skill and mental cunning, gets confused and finally gives up on trying to learn which man is which. This could have been really funny but for the overbearing narration that carries throughout the entire episode and provides an unneeded play-by-play for every action. I don’t recall whether this was a trait that also got out of hand in Kaiji, but if so perhaps I was more patient with it back then.

Tonegawa always gets his money.

I really want to mention the visuals, because the character designs in particular are what originally drew me to this franchise way back when. Anime character designs are really not as homogeneous as people think, but they do tend to blend together after a while especially if you’re watching a lot of shows per season. I don’t think it’s possible to confuse Mr. Tonegawa with anything else airing this season; with all the sharp angles and extreme facial features littered throughout, there’s just no mistaking this show. I kind of love that; even though the animation itself is more functional than striking, its characters are clearly not beholden to any visual trends.

I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t have anything better to say about this first episode, though despite looking forward to it prior to the season I was well aware of the fact that my sunny memories might have been more nostalgia than anything else. As I am now, it’s also very questionable to me when the gender make-up of a property is so profoundly one-sided in the male direction; it was the same with Kaiji even more so, but as I continue to consume media I find that my tolerance for male-heavy casts diminishes with each passing year. At least with Kaiji I felt something for the protagonist and wanted to see him succeed, whereas Tonegawa is a little more difficult to love. I think there’s potential here and I have to celebrate non-standard anime protagonists when I can get them, but this series definitely hasn’t found its footing yet.

Pros: Extremely unique compared to almost every other anime in recent memory. The cast is comprised of adults. The opening theme is great!

Cons: The constant narration is intrusive and distracting. The episode strikes an awkward balance between humor and seriousness that’s ill-fitting.

Grade: C-

Categories
Conventions Special Features

Convention Reactions – CONvergence 2018

Another year, another CONvergence in the bag. Once again I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about and reactions to this year’s event.

I didn’t take many photos myself, but Citypages has a decent gallery.

Panels we Hosted

First of all, below are links to my panel materials from the panels I helped run this year (please contact me about any broken links or other download issues):

Anime for Kids – Outline
Anime for Kids – Handout
Year in Anime – Handout

J.C. and I participated in a total of four panels this year, two of which he and I had primary responsibility for. I feel like this is probably the right amount for us in terms of having something to do at a convention – it gives us something to work on and a way to interact with people (let’s face it, I’m shy and probably wouldn’t be doing much talking otherwise), but it leaves us the majority of time to take in the rest of the con as attendees. Let’s face it: after staffing Anime Detour earlier in the year and running way too many panels there, it’s nice to have a break!

“Anime for Kids” was our first panel on Friday morning, and I thought it went surprisingly well considering the time of day (9:30am on a day where people are still arriving at the convention in many cases). We’d signed up for the panel because we like to make sure that there’s some nominal amount of anime-related programming to begin with (the convention is more of a general “media convention” featuring all sorts of things, of which anime is a tiny part), but I was hoping that some actual people with children would sign up as well so that we could get some confirmation on our choices. Obviously that didn’t happen and it was just us, but it was a fun thought exercise to approach the topic from the standpoint of prospective future parents hoping to incorporate some anime into our children’s life. Having watched most/all of the selections myself, I can at least say that they’re enjoyable whether or not you have kids with whom to watch them. My only disappointment with the panel was actually more on the scheduling side; we found out once we picked up our registration materials on Wednesday that “Anime for Kids” was left out of the printed schedule (it was listed on the online schedule which is what I assume most people use anyway). I was momentarily hurt, but being a member of programming staff at another convention I know how hairy things can get close to the print deadline and all the schedule shuffling that happens when people cancel and such, so I got over it pretty quickly. I also compensated by doing a lot of last-minute social media advertising and even putting up some posters around the convention space which ended up being pretty fun for us.

That evening we participated in “Anime 101” which was moderated by Michael Grimm, a member of the “Anime on the Rocks” podcast (the link goes to the podcast on Soundcloud but it’s obtainable many places where podcasts are available). Besides the two of us, the other panelists were Chrysoula Tzavelas, author, anime fan (check out her anime recs on her site “Anime I Recommend“) and CONvergence invited participant, as well as friend and fellow reviewer/blogger Scott K. “SKJAM” Jamison. The panel was an intro to anime and anime fandom which I believe is of perennial usefulness at CONvergence (I’ve been on it a couple of times in the past several years). Anime fandom is great, but with so much anime out there and all sorts of places to get it, the amount of shows, news, movies, memes and other related material can be overwhelming to newcomers. In the panel we each shared a couple of anime series that we thought would be good jumping-off points for new fans. The thing about anime fandom is that you really tend to come to it as the person you are, so each person’s entry point will be different. I hope we were able to convey the things that make anime a great fandom to be in; as an adult in a fandom that skews young, I always selfishly hope to entice other adults to give anime a try.

Saturday afternoon we were on a panel called “Year in Anime” which I would equate to “Shiny New Anime,” a panel that J.C. and I (and occasionally others) put on at Anime Detour and Anime Fusion. J.C. served as moderator, and other panelists included Chrysoula, Anthony Pecoraro, and Ryan Placzkowski. The previous year this panel was late at night (and I wasn’t directly involved in it, though J.C. was a panelist) and the room wasn’t very full. This year the panel was at a good time but in a smaller room which turned out a little interesting since the room got overfull (I’m not sure what the listed capacity was supposed to be, but there were people standing and also sitting on the floor). It was nice to know that people were interesting in getting some recommendations for new anime to watch! This subject is one I’m passionate about, so I definitely believe I did more than my share of the talking (sorry, fellow panelists!), but I hope my enthusiasm was contagious.

The last panel was one of J.C.’s that I attended, called “Great Art by Horrible People,” a discussion about whether it’s possible to enjoy the creative products of someone who’s revealed to have said or done awful things (spoiler: it tends to be up to each consumer to identify their own tolerance level). I tend to be someone who can drop someone like they’re hot if they’ve done something bad, especially if they’re not properly apologetic about it (“sorry” isn’t good enough). This is also a discussion J.C. and I have had with each-other plenty of times, so I was interested to see that played out in a more public forum. Overall I the discussion was pretty interesting and went a lot of different places. I think my critique would be that I think the panel moderator could have done a more hands-on job ensuring that the discussion didn’t get so out-of-control (there was some impassioned arguing at one point that I don’t think was contributing anything, as well as a panelist who was doing a lot of interrupting and talking over others while also taking audience questions while others were trying to speak). It was also really late at night, which made it difficult for me to concentrate.

Panels we Attended

I don’t want to speak at length about every panel we attended; while most of them were good it would take me a long time to go into detail and I’m sure there are others that can fill in the gaps. I do want to provide a high level of some of my favorite panels and panelists, though.

Some of my favorite panels were, surprisingly, related to building and cultivating an internet presence (something I’m ambivalent about since I have some concerns about being trolled and harassed). “Build your YouTube Following” on Thursday and “Thoughts on Patreon” on Saturday were both helpful to me in terms of learning about ways in which one could turn an internet hobby into something with some financial benefits. I’m not sure if I’m there yet and I don’t ever envision quitting my “day job” to write full time, but it did open my eyes to some options and that was kind of cool. Both of these panels were moderated by Steve “Morjax” Sylvestre, a chemist by day and an internet “let’s play” streamer by night. I found him to be a very good speaker and panelist and appreciated the insight he and the other panelists had into making their internet presence work for them.

I also attended some panels that fit kind of under the general umbrella of diversity appreciation. “Masculinity Detox,” moderated by Dr. Nerdlove (Harris O’Malley), provided a good discussion about the way in which men are damaged by certain expectations of their gender and how this extends to harm others who are male and do not fit into these expectations, or who are other genders and are victims of these expectations in other ways. Toxic masculinity has been on my mind a lot lately and it was good to see it discussed out in the open by panelists with a wide range of different experiences. “Women in STEM: The Road Not Taken” was a cool discussion by panelists working in STEM industries and how they arrived at those careers, sometimes in roundabout ways. They also talked about some challenges they’ve encountered related to their gender – it’s upsetting to know just how often sexism and misogyny still play a part in women’s experiences in the sciences. “Fat Positivity & Representation” gave perspective on how fat bodies are represented in media (spoiler: not well the majority of the time) and the panelists’ experiences in their own lives living in a culture that still has disdain for fat bodies. There was also some discussion about nuances between fat positivity and the body positivity movement (specifically, there are some critiques that the body positivity movement has paved the road for backlash against people who want to gain/lose weight or make changes to their bodies for personal reasons). “It Was a Different Time” discussed media from the past that’s blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. as seen through our eyes today and how we approach those products. It also talked about some current media and what might look terrible to us down the line. I liked all these panels in particular because they’re the best places to listen to the experiences of others in the world and how they interact with fandom, and those are valuable conversations to be a part of.

Besides that there were a few panels that were just fun and fascinating. “Kids Ask a Scientist,” which is unsurprisingly a panel where kids can ask a panel of different scientists the pressing science questions that they have, was very informative, both in the answers from the scientists, as well as in the thought processes of the kids in the audience and the things they really wanted to know about. “A World Without Bees” discussed what would really happen if our bee population went away or couldn’t serve as pollinators for our crops anymore. As it turns out, our agricultural system relies on bee pollinators in ways that are not natural nor healthy, but it’s been a conundrum that no one has been willing to directly address on a large scale. If you ever get the chance, check out the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center presentation; they brought in live birds and discussed how these predators live and behave.

We don’t normally see many main stage events, but this year we caught “Art of the Dress” (a costume exhibition), “Cirque de Vingt” (a variety performance with belly dancers, acrobats, music, and spoken-word segments), and the Masquerade contest (which we thought we had missed – it actually started late so we had only missed maybe two performers!). We enjoyed all of them, especially the Cirque, which was a fun surprise (we stuck around after the “Art of the Dress” and we’re glad we did).

Critiques

Overall CONvergence was great this year and I had a better time than some past years just due to being able to participate more (with my work schedule in the past it’s occasionally been difficult to commit to being on panels and such). There were a couple of aspects of the con this year that, while not necessarily the convention’s fault, I felt were worth mentioning.

It’s news to almost no one that there were some additional requirements of the convention from the Doubletree hotel management this year. While this was true in some previous years, the convention was not allowed to run its CoF2E2 coffee shop between 6am and 12noon so as not to conflict with the hotel’s own cafe in the lobby. Considering that there’s both a Caribou Coffee and Starbucks restaurant across the hotel parking lot, it was fairly easy to support alternate businesses during the time period when many of us like a little caffeine boost. That said, the coffee shop was open the remaining hours of the convention, so it was not such a huge deal in the grand scheme of things.

There was also a much greater police presence at the convention this year in comparison to past years. My understanding is that this was not by the convention’s choice, but another requirement of the hotel due to security concerns of theirs. Convention staff released a video discussion with one of the guests of honor, Michael “Knightmage” Wilson (a cosplayer and stuntman, also a sheriff’s deputy) regarding the police situation; I’m not sure that it satisfied most critics of the situation, including myself, but I understand they were trying to provide some information to con-goers. Having such an overt police presence is threatening not only to communities of color, but other marginalized communities which have been disproportionately targeted by police. I’m hopeful that next year’s convention will be able to go without the added “security.”

The “big” issue this year was that the hotel imposed new rules regarding alcohol served at room parties. For those of you who aren’t familiar with CONvergence, one thing that draws people to the con are the cabana room parties which are often decorated elaborately and which serve themed alcoholic drinks (not all do, but many do). Party hosts were informed about a month before the convention that the Doubletree would be requiring alcohol service at the parties be provided by their own (hotel) bartenders at a price of about $75/hour. I also believe they put limits on what types of foods could be offered a the parties as well. Considering the expenditure of running one of these parties (I’ve been a member of a group running one a couple of times), and the fact that at least some of the cost is recouped in tips, the new regulations made it difficult for some groups to afford to run their event. I don’t drink, but I know a lot of people who do and who enjoy CONvergence as a place to “let loose” in that way, so I experienced some secondhand frustration. I know several parties dropped-out and having strolled around the party areas later on Friday and Saturday, I could tell things were much more subdued than normal. I can understand the hotel’s point-of-view regarding potential liability issues, but CONvergence has done a good job over the years policing itself and its party hosts about providing alcohol, so it seemed like just another rude move.

I’m gathering that the hotel is hoping to change the types of events it hosts and to focus more on smaller events with a higher profit margin; I don’t know how true this is, but they’ve made it pretty clear that they’re not all that interested in accommodating events of CONvergence’s size and type anymore.

Looking Ahead

It’s been an open secret in the local convention community recently that CONvergece was looking at moving, and it didn’t surprise me to learn that the 2019 event is going to be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. This is the same hotel that housed Anime Detour earlier this year, and hosts several other geeky events including Furry Migration and AniMinneapolis. I’m really looking forward to seeing how CONvergence utilizes the extensive multi-floor event space in the Hyatt (including multiple decently-sized ballrooms – I bet some of the events and programming tracks that ended up in the Sheraton this year could be reincorporated into the main con hotel space). There’s also an area on the ground floor that works perfectly for a merchandise hall, so no more merch being split into multiple smaller rooms! It’s been a fun exercise to take my memories from Detour and drop CONvergence into that space, so I’m looking forward to what the CONvergence convention staff comes up with.

I had a lovely time at this year’s CONvergence, and I’m going to echo the words of many others who have spoken out this year – CONvergence isn’t a place, it’s a people. It’s an environment where I get to hang out with my friends, meet new people, talk about things I like, and generally have a good time away from the concerns of my boring normal life.