Tag: ACen

While I’ve already talked about some of the awesome “big” events I got to attend at ACen, as someone who prefers to spend my time at conventions attending sit-down panels and presentations (as opposed to going to concerts, taking photos, etc.) I wanted to make sure I mentioned some of the other great panels and events I had the chance to attend while I was there.

Note: this post contains spoilers for the film and the section of the TV series that the film adapts.

Friday evening at Anime Central featured the premiere of Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight, the second of two films recapping the recent anime series. While I typically don’t go out of my way to watch recap movies for series I’ve already seen, because I enjoyed Made in Abyss so much and because the convention was hosting several staff members who were involved with the film, I thought it might be fun to see how the film differed from the TV version. The premiere was a “red carpet event,” with what I assume was an opportunity for individuals with press passes to interview said staff members. The long line of audience members was directed into the auditorium before any of that took place, however. I did scope out the area earlier in the day, and did my best to act like the movie star I was always meant to be (kidding).

As I mentioned, one of my big motivations for attending ACen this year was the fact that staff members of Kinema Citrus and their related anime properties had been invited as guests of honor. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Revue Starlight; not only was I enthralled by its gorgeous animation and music, I loved its story and themes. However, I also have very little sense of how the series was perceived in the anime fandom at large. While I saw some reviews of the series here and there, aside from a couple of big examples, most of the blogs I regularly follow didn’t talk about it much, so I was mostly just thankful to have the opportunity at ACen to learn a bit more about an anime series I really enjoyed and be among similarly-minded fans.

Note: Except at very specific points during the presentation, photos weren’t allowed, so all but a few images are my own inclusions after-the-fact.

Anime Central is a convention that takes place every spring outside of Chicago, IL (USA). It’s been an annual event for over 20 years at the time of this writing, and it’s also one of the first anime conventions I ever attended as an itty-bitty otaku (after I wet my heels at the much smaller, more intimate Anime Iowa around 2002). This year was the first time I’d been back to the con after a 5 year hiatus; I have a tumultuous relationship with “big” (over 10K attendee) cons, and so I took a break after my last venture to regroup and figure out just what I was looking for in terms of convention experiences.

I’ll write more about the convention in general in a separate post. What’s relevant to this post is the fact that I wasn’t planning to attend this year’s Anime Central either until I saw some news about the guest list – members of animation studio Kinema Citrus, including staff members who performed key production roles on two of my recent favorite series (Made in Abyss and Revue Starlight) were slated to attend and speak. Because my local medium-sized convention rarely gets Japanese guests in the first place, and because both of those anime series affected me deeply, the con suddenly went from being a distant “maybe” to an absolute must-do event.