Some observations
from Project: A-Kon 9: the table loaded with flyers advertising what seemed
to be two dozen conventions...a table for a medieval festival, not far
from a group trying to raise money for a space station...artist Fred Perry
never seemed to leave his table...the never-ending pool game in the hall
just outside the art room...the relatively short registration lines...the
color artwork on the nicely-laminated con badges...Pikachu of Pocket Monsters
seems to be taking over from Mokona of Magic Knights Rayearth as the trendy
cute animal, but there were more Ryo-ohkis at A-Kon 9 than the other two
creatures put together and the cats from Sailor Moon are coming on strong...the
Parappa the Rapper and Onion act was a cosplay hit; Ippongi Bang didn't
know Pat Duke of Radio Comix was one of the players until Duke, out of
costume, went to the stage to claim an award...costumers were plentiful
on Friday and Saturday, but disappeared on Sunday...Lloyd Carter of Anime
Weekend Atlanta arriving on Saturday with goodies and game info from the
E3 trade show, trying to talk artist Newton Ewell into attending AWA IV...a
very tall and attractive woman who said she would be cosplaying Cutey Honey
in the future - and looked to be born for the part.
..Tiffany
Grant, who plays Asuka Langley in Evangelion, was the first voice actress
we've seen who wore her character's costume in a cosplay...the best solution
to the dilemma of an impossible costume was made by the young woman who
wore a flesh-colored body stocking when she played Kekko Kamen...it wasn't
an anime costume, but the guy in the big grey lion suit may have been the
most photographed item at A-Kon 9, even more than Ippongi Bang in her Lum
outfit.
On-line denizens love to know about the dealer and video rooms
at cons. The A-Kon 9 dealer room was the largest one seen in the five cons
since last November, and was the only one which didn't seem jam-packed.
That apparently wasn't because of slow sales - dealers seemed happy with
business at A-Kon - but because there was room to spread out. The merchandise
selection seemed good, but this author hasn't noted much difference among
the selection at the dealer rooms since AWA III.
Of course, using the hotel's largest room for the dealers meant the second-largest room was used for the costume contest. There were only 320 seats in the cosplay hall and the line started forming two hours ahead of schedule. Those who didn't get in the main hall could watch the cosplay on a surprisingly clear video feed in an overflow room. With the main room that packed, the author got his cosplay shots in the hall outside. That proved to be a blessing in disguise; on-line friends known only by handles were met, and the party outside the main room was more fun than the show inside.
This author spent almost all of his time in panels, and slipped into a video room only when trying to kill time between panels, glancing at the opening episode of Martian Successor Nadesico. The show has the reputation of a parody, but it has a very dark opening.
Going to the panels gave another view of the competition between
the importers of anime to the U.S. The company panels at an anime cons
have started to turn into a can-you-top-this contest of which company can
name the biggest titles for U.S. release. AD Vision probably won the A-Kon
9 contest on points, but other companies hinted their big announcements
would come in one month at Anime Expo. It was fun to sit in the front of
the room for one company's panel and see a couple of representatives from
other companies in the back of the room, trying to be inconspicuous. 
Project A-Kon 9 was the second anime convention attended by this author that fell on an important anniversary. Anime Central came on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. A-Kon 9 was on what would have been the 81st birthday of John F. Kennedy. The Dallas Morning News ran a story on how throngs of people flocked to Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, where Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Of course, the plaza is a short distance from Irving, Texas and the Harvey Hotel where A-Kon 9 was held.
A lot has changed since Kennedy died. Neither the hotel, the convention
or anime fandom existed in 1963. Most of the fans at the con - probably
some of their parents - hadn't been born when Kennedy was President.
Love Field, where Kennedy made his last flight, was barely visible
through the smoke and the haze as the author's flight home left the Dallas-Fort
Worth airport. The smoke originated hundreds of miles to the south from
forest fires in Mexico, and has been one of the two major environmental
topics in Texas. The other was the heat, which soared to more than 100
degrees on the A-Kon 9 weekend, just short of record highs. That heat taxed
the air conditioning in the author's 15th-floor room; convection of the
heat from lower floors made the 15th-floor hallways oven hot. Ice machines
were popular during the convetion weekend.
