Yes, there were two anime conventions held the same weekend as Tranquility Base. However, for the author, they were a lot farther (and a lot more expensive to reach) than the Cincinnati event. Besides, there was some curiosity involved. The author hadn't been in Cincinnati in years and had never (strangely enough) been to a sci-fi convention. So off we went to Cincinnati for Tranquility Base, wondering what we'd find.

(By now, you're thinking that the author likes these conventions so much that he'd go to anything claiming to be a con, with no excuse needed. You're right.)

All of the patterns of anime conventions were broken with this trip. The event was downtown instead of in a suburb. The author stayed in a cheap motel two miles from the event (and in a different state) instead of in the convention hotel.

What did we find? To start with, there weren't a lot of people. There may have been two or three hundred over the first two days of the convention (the author skipped the third day on Sunday). That's the fewest, by far, at any convention the author has attended.

Why were there so few people at Tranquility Base? There was speculation about a lack of advertising, but one reason may have been competition from Greater Cincinnati. This is no sleepy river town, but a bustling entertainment center. If you can find your way through the construction of the new riverfront football stadium (for which several major streets have been torn up, including the ones the author planned to use), there's a lot to do in Cincinnati (like the Reds' homestand).

The most impressive part may be Newport, Kentucky, the place across the river from Cincinnati where the author stayed. Newport is no longer a grimy, forgotten city, but a place jumping with restaurants and night spots. Just down the street from the author's motel is a drive that leads to a half-dozen restaurants, all on riverboats. Those restaurants were packed on Saturday night, and their clientele appeared to be the kind of people who would go to a sci-fi convention.

Regardless, the author feels sorry for the promoter's pocketbook, what with the extra cost of the guests and the expense of housing the event at the Cincinnati Convention Center.

The fans at Tranquility Base were remarkably different than those seen at anime conventions. The sci-fi crowd was old enough to be the parents of the anime convention fans. That probably comes from the nostalgia shown by the people who grew up with the 1960's sci-fi TV series such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel and Star Trek, the people who made up most of the attendance at Tranquility Base. By contrast, the much younger anime convention fans are still growing up with their favorite series, none of which are older than the mid-1980's Robotech.

The small crowd led to a laid-back atmosphere. The guest stars were unusually approachable. Robin Curtis, happy with the news that she was marrying a Cincinnati financial executive and moving to that city, was so enthusiastic that she nearly floated off the stage during her Saturday panel, chattering in an unending stream and never losing her smile.

Then there was Apollo Smile, who easily was the most enthusiastic person at the convention. It's remarkable to watch Smile work the people who go to her table; she seems to genuinely care about the fans and doesn't push merchandise sales very hard. From all of the free stuff she seemed to give away, we wondered if she makes any money from that - but she does make friends.

Smile's hyper-energetic stage show was red-hot by the standards of conservative Cincinnati. That song and dance act amazed the unaware; a couple of guys to the author's right were in total, noisy ecstacy when they got an eyeful of Apollo. When the performance was over, a small train of fans followed her out of the hall and back to her dealer's room table, where she spoke to them for another hour.

None - absolutely none - of the online animosity against Smile was seen at Tranquility Base.

Through the convention, one person wasn't forgotten. DeForest Kelley, the actor who spent much of his career as a bad guy in movie westerns, died a few weeks before Tranquility Base. Kelley, of course, was best known to fandom as Leonard McCoy in the original Star Trek series. On Saturday, a small, simple shrine to the actor's memory appeared at the entrance to the convention.