skjam

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (2004) dir. Tensai Okamura

Yukie Fujikaze is a popular young actress most famous for starring in the title role of the "Princess Gale" movie series, as a ninja princess with "rainbow chakra." Sadly, while she is indeed a skilled actress in addition to being photogenic, off-camera Yukie is dead inside, unable to shed natural tears or enjoy interacting with fans. She also has personal reasons for never going back to the Land of Snow from the Land of Fire, so when it's announced her next Princess Gale film will be shot there, she attempts to flee.

Her escape is thwarted by trainee ninja Naruto Uzumaki, who got distracted from learning about his latest mission by seeing her escape from pursuers. Eventually, his mentor Kakashi Hatake and fellow trainees Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno catch up, and it's revealed that their mission is to "escort" Miss Fujikaze to the Land of Snow and protect her there. Kakashi has been to the Land of Snow before, which is one of the reasons his team has been assigned to this mission.

It turns out that Yukie is secretly Princess Koyuki, the rightful ruler of the Land of Snow. Ten years before, her uncle Doto Kazehana murdered her father and stole leadership of the country. Yukie barely escaped with her life, and buried herself in the role of an actress, cynically believing Doto and his supporters were too strong for her to fight. Her manager Sandayu Asama is actually a samurai warrior from the Land of Snow who tracked her down a few years back and has been manipulating events to get his princess back home so she can overthrow the usurper.

Doto himself has recently figured out who Yukie is, so the movie crew bringing her back to her homeland just saves him the trouble of sending his Snow shinobi warriors all the way to the Land of Fire. Doto has a bit of motivation beyond just seeking power. His late brother bankrupted the country's economy investing in various technological innovations in the hopes of "bringing spring" to a land of eternal winter. There's a final "treasure" locked away beneath the Glacier of Seven Colors which he hopes will pay for the industrial base needed to turn the high technology into military might so he can conquer the neighboring countries. And it just so happens that the princess is wearing the key to the vault.

This was the first Naruto animated movie, which takes place relatively early in the continuity (though of course not affecting the continuity back in any way.) This is the first time Team Seven has to cope with technology in advance of what they're used to. Chakra armor that enhances the Snow ninja's special abilities while protecting them from outside special abilities, a chakra drainer used as a restraining device on Naruto, a railroad, an airship and the knife-launching equivalent of a Gatling gun. That last one is especially effective against the low-level rebel troops who die in droves.

There's some fairly meta stuff here, as the movie is also about the making of a movie, and the director and crew share their philosophy of the craft. Yukie has lost her belief in happy endings being a real thing, but Naruto is determined to bring this story back to the shounen battle genre.

Naruto is the one who gets all the important emotional beats and solo screen time, but Sasuke and Sakura get to be equally effective in combat. And unlike the standard series, Sakura's book smarts are shown by her doing math in her head to predict the direction of an attack. Kakashi shows his cool adult skills against the leader of the Snow shinobi.

The animation is a slight bump up from the TV show, and the fights are exciting. The music's also pretty good, though the image song is a bit soppy.

I am a bit dubious at the "happy ending" in that it looks nice, but without some factors they're not bothering mentioning, it's going to be an ecological disaster.

Content note: Fantasy violence, some lethal, including the death of a named character. Yukie abuses alcohol. Very young viewers might find the death scene especially upsetting.

While the movie does a basic job of explaining of who Naruto is, it leans pretty heavily on the viewer having read the manga or seen the TV show. (The Nine-Tails shows up for a moment with no foreshadowing or explanation.) Primarily recommended to new Naruto fans who haven't already seen it.

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge (1991) dir. Mitsuo Hashimoto

Kakarott was rocketed to Earth from the dying planet Vegeta as an infant. To conquer Earth. Shortly after arriving, the young Saiyan warrior was injured and suffered brain damage that left him without the memories he'd been implanted with to make him loyal to his race. He was adopted by the kindly martial artist Son Gohan as a grandson under the name of Son Goku. Due to the near extinction of the Saiyans, no one came to check on Kakarott for decades, and Son Goku grew up to become Earth's most powerful protector. Recently, Goku and his allies came into contact with Emperor Frieza, the alien overlord who'd destroyed Vegeta, and defeated him. But it turns out that even the evil Frieza is not without connections....

Dragon Ball was an enormously popular manga series by Akira Toriyama that ran from 1984-1995, starting with characters loosely inspired by the classic Journey to the West story. The anime adaptation changed its title to Dragon Ball Z when it started adapting the adventures of Son Goku as an adult. The scale of the series became much larger when it was revealed that Goku was an alien rather than some kind of one-off mutant as he'd always assumed. The few remaining other members of his species were hostile, and eventually turned out to having been tricked into working for their worst enemy.

This short movie kicks off a few months after the defeat of Frieza, as his never before mentioned brother Cooler hears a tale about Son Goku's defeat of the villain that's short on details. While Cooler had no liking or respect for his brother, this loss has besmirched the family honor. So Cooler and his three Armored Squad minions head for Earth to wipe out the last of the Saiyans.

As it happens, Son Goku has gone camping with his son Gohan (named after adoptive grandfather), best buddy Krillin, comic relief pig person Oolong, and family pet Icarus the Haiya Dragon. Thus they're in the remote wilderness when Cooler and company come calling. Goku is badly wounded by a shot in the back, and a fair amount of the runtime is our heroes lying low until he can be healed. A late appearance by former enemy turned ally Piccolo (also an alien) helps out, but it's not until Goku is able to fight at full strength that the tide turns.

There are also brief appearances by other favorite characters just to show they're still around.

While Cooler's personality is a good contrast to Frieza's, the very basic plotline and short (47 minutes) runtime of the movie means it doesn't get a lot of exploration. (He gets a better showing in the "I survived!" sequel The Return of Cooler.) There is a flashback at the beginning that places Cooler in a position to kill Kakarott as a baby that helps make it feel a little more personal. This feels more like an oversized filler episode of the television show than a movie event. (This was meant to be a double feature with another Toei-produced anime film.)

There's some cool superbeing fighting action, so will appeal to Dragon Ball fans, but you might want to hold out for the edition that includes both Cooler movies.

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom (2006) dir. Toshiyuki Tsuru

The ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village in the Land of Fire have been hired for a new assignment. The epicurean Prince Michiru of the Moon Kingdom and his spoiled son Hikaru are returning home after a long tour of the mainland. Their wagon caravan is loaded with precious goods Michiru purchased, and they are a prime target for robbers and need protection. The team for this mission are the master ninja Kakashi and three young but powerful junior ninja, Rock Lee, Sakura and Naruto. The brash Naruto and stuck-up Hikaru do not get along at first.

While watching a circus performance, Hikaru takes a liking to sabretooth tiger Chamu, and his father buys the entire circus to take home with them. Chamu initially does not warm to his new owner, and it's no surprise as Hikaru hasn't learned that money doesn't buy friendship from beings that don't understand money like Chamu or Naruto. We learn that Hikaru's parents are separated, as money can't truly buy love, either, and Prince Michiru is not catching on to his wife's hints.

When a storm hits the ship back to Crescent Island, Hikaru initially acts callous towards the circus animals, but after some pointed scolding from Naruto, the young prince finally mans up a bit and displays courage to Chamu, winning the animal's trust. He and the junior ninja become friends.

Finally, the ninja deliver the princes to their home. Job over! Except that whoops, no, it seems the evil vizier launched a coup against the king, and now wants to murder the heirs to the throne. He's even hired renegade ninja mercenaries to make the killing easier! Looks like Kakashi's team really has their work cut out for them.

This movie is based on the long-running and extremely popular Naruto manga and anime about a trainee ninja who rises from despised orphan to (mostly) respected leader of his people. As with most shounen anime tie-in movies, "Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom" (Japanese title roughly translating as "Animal Panic on Crescent Island") has nothing to do with the main storyline, being set somewhere between episodes of the television series. It appears to be set during the "time skip" after moody loner Sasuke leaves the village, and before Naruto goes to fetch him back.

Good: Chamu and his monkey sidekick Kikki are a fun pair of guest characters, and the circus folk in general liven up the screen whenever these bit characters are present. Lead evil ninja Ishidate has a visually interesting design for his "medusa touch" power. Sakura gets a bit more to do than in most of the main series, including a designated girl fight. It's always nice to see Rock Lee, though he doesn't get that much to do.

The movie briefly touches on political philosophy. The fact that they're going to inherit the throne because of heredity has made the princes complacent and self-centered; it's easy to see why the majority of their armed forces defect to the evil vizier. This is contrasted with the meritocracy of the Leaf Village; anyone, even Naruto, can work towards becoming the Hokage (leader.) (This movie is set before reveals about Naruto's family essentially made him nobility.)

Less good: The princes and the villains are rather blah characters and easily forgettable. It became annoying when Naruto repeatedly mentioned how he and Hikaru would be the best of friends forever and how Naruto would never forget Hikaru...when I know perfectly well Hikaru will never be seen or mentioned again.

The movie does assume that you have a basic familiarity with the characters; new viewers may be confused when Naruto and Rock Lee whip out unexplained one time power-ups that would have been useful earlier or later in the story.

Content notes: Torture and a character is nearly executed by hanging, minor character deaths, fat-shaming. Parents may want to discuss the treatment of animals in circuses with younger viewers. (Notably, whips and goads are absent--perhaps this circus uses less inhumane training methods?) Should be suitable for middle school on up.

Overall: An okay movie that will mostly appeal to fans of the Naruto characters.

Summer Wars (2009) dir. Mamoru Hosoda

High schooler Kenji Koiso is a math whiz who almost qualified for Team Japan in the Math Olympics. But almost won't get you a good summer job, so he's a low level maintenance admin for the OZ online service. OZ is the most popular online virtual world, featuring everything from social media accounts with personalized avatars through online shopping to government agencies and satellite guidance. It needs a lot of low-paid grunts like Kenji to keep it running. So Kenji is willing to take a slightly better-paying job escorting cute senpai (senior at school) Natsuki Shinohara to a family reunion for her great-grandmother's ninetieth birthday.

The Jinnouchi clan used to be powerful and wealthy back in the day, but poor financial decisions by the late clan head mean that Great Grandmother Sakae is down to just owning the (very nice) house she lives in and the surrounding grounds. Which is not to say the large extended family is impoverished, as most of them have perfectly decent jobs that they're good at. What Natsuki didn't tell Kenji until they already arrived is that he's actually there to pretend to be her boyfriend and fiance, as she'd lied about having one to help keep Sakae's spirits up.

That's stressful enough, but Kenji also falls victim to a phishing attack disguised as a math puzzle sent to him in an email. This allows the malevolent artificial intelligence known as "Love Machine" to steal his moderator account as part of its bid to take over OZ. Even worse, Love Machine frames Kenji as the criminal! With the entire world in danger, Kenji and the Jinnouchi clan must find a way to defeat Love Machine.

This 2009 movie reuses some plot points from Hosoda's earlier movie Our War Game, part of the toyetic Digimon franchise, but places much more emphasis on the physical world and family relationships. By the end, almost every family member has contributed to the story in some important way. Which is not to say that all of them always contribute positively. Off-duty cop Shota makes several bone-headed choices (while still meaning well) while black sheep of the family Wabisuke has inadvertently set the larger disaster in motion trying to make good for running off with most of Sakae's money years ago. (In an amusing twist, we learn that Natsuki's fake background for Kenji as her boyfriend was based on Wabisuke's achievements.)

(There's also a nice parallel sports story going on in the background.)

Both the human and virtual worlds are important and the art for both is good, though I preferred the warmer tones of the "real" segments. I strongly connected with the characters' emotions and the theme of family working together, even when they struggle to understand each other.

The one part that's perhaps a little weak is that there's an awful lot of coincidence needed to make sure that this one particular family and their guest are pivotal to both creating and solving the worldwide crisis.

Content note: There's a bit of partial nudity, and I am told the English dub has more swearing than parents of young children may be comfortable with. That latter bit and a particularly affecting death may make parents want to screen the movie to decide if little ones are ready to see it.

Overall: This is a superior animated movie that tugged my heartstrings. Highly recommended.

Tales from Earthsea (2006) dir. Goro Miyazaki

There is something rotten in the Two Lands. Wizards are losing their powers, dragons are fighting each other, animals and children are dying of disease, storms are getting worse, slavery and drug addiction are on the rise. And also, Prince Arren has just committed an unspeakable crime.

Thus Arren is now a fugitive, fleeing with racking guilt, fits of irrational violence and a sword he cannot unsheath. He is pursued by a shadowy figure of unknown intent. Arren meets the wandering wizard Sparrowhawk, who takes the troubled lad under his wing.

On their way, Sparrowhawk and Arren stop for a bit at the home of Tenar, Sparrowhawk's old friend and one of the few people who knows his True Name of Ged. She's taken in a burned and abandoned girl named Therru, who isn't good with strangers.

Sparrowhawk's quest to find the source of the imbalance in nature that is causing Earthsea's problems is closer to completion than he thinks. The wizard Cob, who also runs the local slavery racket, plans to become immortal at any cost to everyone else, and he sees Arren as a way to help accomplish this and get revenge on his old enemy Sparrowhawk.

This movie is loosely based on the much loved Earthsea series of fantasy books by Ursula K. LeGuin. It mashes together the plots of two of the books, while leaving considerable amounts out from those same books. While it's done in the lovely Ghibli art style (some character designs look awfully familiar), famed director Hayao Miyazaki had temporarily retired at that point, so the direction was by his son Goro.

The art is lovely, there are some nice magical effects, and some excellent moments in the final fight. For a country-spanning menace, it's a tight cast of characters. (One person with enough resources and selfish goals can ruin the environment for everyone.)

But the movie just is not as good as it could have been. Important bits of explanation are left out, like just how the shadowy figure that pursues Arren ties in to anything, or what's going on with the huge spoiler twist in the last ten minutes.

Also, the cast's appearance is influenced by mukokuseki "statelessness", a generic look designed to make characters look vaguely Japanese to Japanese viewers and "white" to Western viewers, when the book characters are largely dark-skinned. (Sparrowhawk is just tan enough to allow his pale scars to be noticeable.) Therru's character design was also altered to minimize her extensive burn damage, apparently so the audience would find her cute.

Overall, the movie is a pleasant diversion, but the books are better.

First off, both parents are out of the hospital and doing well at home. Huzzah!

This last weekend was Anime Detour, with the theme of "It Came From Japan."

Due to poor timing, I wound up in the Crowne Plaza hotel, so it was shuttle buses for me back and forth. This didn't work too well on Friday, as the shuttle driver got stuck in traffic coming back from the airport and had both shuttles' keys on him so the backup driver couldn't substitute. Things were moving much more smoothly by Sunday and checkout time. One of these years, I'll have to actually eat in the Plaza's restaurant.

Most exciting new thing this year was Otaku Speed Dating. Separate events for gay and hetero folks, to reduce confusion. To no one's surprise, guys outnumbered gals in line for the one I went to, and some had to be turned away. The room was relatively small and the acoustics were not suitable for about eighty people all talking at the same time. One minute per candidate, change seats.

I had more (very short) conversations with women in that one hour than I've had over the last three Anime Detours. Those of you who've known me for a while are aware that while I'm not particularly shy, painful experience has made it difficult for me to engage women I haven't been introduced to in conversation. Being given explicit permission to do so helped immensely.

Sadly, I got not one single "match"--not too surprising given I was at least a decade older than anyone else in the room, and the...other problems. Still very disappointing. I got a consolation email with pictures of puppies and kittens.

Most interesting normal panel was "Weeaboos Then and Now", talking about Japanophilia as it was in Victorian times, now, and some points inbetween.

Some nice AMVs as always--this year the contest broke up the showing order of the nominees a bit for better flow. NO WTF video contest this year, apparently.

I skipped the formal cosplay, most amusing hall costume I saw was someone as Amu from Shugo Chara, with three dolls representing her Charas hovering above her shoulder on wires.

Weather was cooler than expected, though it did warm up by Sunday evening when I left.

This coming week is Minicon, look forward to seeing some of you there.

This is what I voted for--we will see if enough other people agreed with me.

Claymore--A bit of the old ultra-violence.

Hakaba Kitaro--spooky stuff for fall, and I like the kiddy version.

Kimi ni Todoke--I've heard this is better than the average shoujo romantic comedy, and we need at least one thing for more tasteful viewers.

Macross Frontier--Nostalgia trip, pure and simple.

My hotel reservation for ConVergence has finally come through, so barring some major recanting on the part of the hotel or the concom, I will be able to control my own timeline at the convention.

Speaking of which, ConVergence Programming has started taking requests for seating on possible panels. These are the ones I've penciled in as wanting to be on (as opposed to just attending.)

* Villains of Anime and Manga
* Gunsmoke and Bloodshed: Dark Heroes of the Pulps
(I suggested both these panels in the first place, so it was kind of mandatory that I sign up to help make them happen.)
* Disney Villains
* Giant Atomic Monsters
* Villains in Role-Playing Games
* Behind the Sofa: Villains of Doctor Who
* The Pulps
* Current Popular Manga
* Bring Me Up To Speed (a comics panel)
* Old Time Radio

I might sign up for more when the "on the bubble" list comes out.

Unlike last year, there were no big surprises on Thursday morning, so I was able to get off to the convention in good order, despite again mistaking which bus goes all the way to the end of the line.

Registration and Harmonic Convergence (the music room) switched locations this year, and since I had my pre-registration card handy, that went smoothly. I never did spend much time in the music room, so I can't say if it sounded better than the previous location.

The first panel I was on was "Diversity in Comics", starring Dwayne McDuffie (perhaps best known to the general public for his work with Static.) Also appearing was M. Nicholas Almand, creator of "Razor Kid." I seized the moderator position (with the permission of the other panelists) and mostly spent my time getting out of Mr. McDuffie's way, as he was clearly the most experienced with trying to get diversity into comics.

I'd also prepared a handout on comics that did diversity well--I hope a few of them got kept. Most of the discussion was nothing new to anyone who's seriously looked at diversity issues in comics, but there were a few people there who hadn't done that yet, and I hope they learned something useful.

Then it was off to the Crowne Plaza so I could register, drop off my clothes, and rush back downstairs for the next shuttle back to the Sheraton. Still frustrated by the fact that you can look directly across the freeway from one to the other, but it's a couple of country miles to actually get there.

The shuttle was somewhat delayed, which was something of a pattern for the next four days. But I still managed to get back in time for the Mark Time Radio Show (a little off this year) and opening ceremonies. The pass-around game was "the Cone of Shame", which those of you who've seen "Up" will recognize.

After that, I attended a panel on "The Horrible Humor of Joss Whedon." Got to see lots of Whedon-related hall costumes.

I made a short round of party rooms and then retired for the evening.

Unlike last year, my hotel room faced the parking lot, and the opaque curtains, unlike the ones at the Sheraton, turned out to be mere decorations, so the light level in the room was a bit much. Turns out I can't sleep wearing a mask, or at least not without being much much more tired, so it was a while before I dropped off.

First panel next morning I attended was "Free Online Games." I got a long list, and plugged "Billy vs. Snakeman."

A bit later, I was on the panel for "Gaming Etiquette." That was a mix of handy tips and horror stories. (When the *player* is using his hand crossbow to make his points, it's a bad thing.)

Then it was time for "Humor in Superhero Comics", which had the presence of Christopher Jones, the creator of ConVergence's mascot Connie, and artist on "Batman Strikes" and "Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink." Lots of fun discussion of favorite funny bits.

I spent some time at the "Shiny New Anime" panel, but left early as I'd seen most of the clips at the last convention, and I wanted to get autographs from the Cinematic Titanic cast (formerly the MST3K cast.) In line I met a fellow who'd come all the way from northwest Canada specifically for the CT folks, this being his first SF convention ever. We whiled away our wait time by discussing conventions and I told him about some of the fun stuff to do. (Most of which does not require drinking alcohol, but some of which is presumably enhanced by it.)

Next up, it was time for the "Old Time Radio" panel, and the moderator graciously allowed me to open the panel with my prepared "radio announcement" bit. I got applauded for it, which is a nice feeling! One of the panelists had started working as a radio station engineer back in the 1950s, so he had some very interesting stories to tell. Other than that, it was mostly plugging favorite shows, and suggesting places to acquire OTR at least semi-legally.

And my fourth scheduled panel of the day was "Manga & Graphic Novels", where we talked about the differences and similarities of US and Japanese comics. I ranted a bit about the cancellation of Shojo Beat--while admittedly I wasn't always impressed with it, it did fill an important niche in the market.

Last panel attended for the evening was "Fan Fiction", which had as always a number of fanfic authors on it, some of whom have done this panel numerous times. The topic drifted off into slash perhaps a bit too often, but otherwise it was an interesting and informative discussion.

I had almost no time for parties before retiring, and was only halfway through the House of Toast line before I had to bolt for the entrance.

Saturday morning I attended the "Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons" panel. They're not completely dead, but they're in pretty sad shape at the moment, when most stations would rather show infomercials.

Next up, I was on the "Justice League" panel, again starring Mr. McDuffie, and also including Daniel Wallace, who helped write the DC and Marvel Encyclopedias. Naturally, the majority of questions fell to Mr. McDuffie again, and we drifted off into the sad state of the comic book industry overall for quite a while. I was moderator for this one too.

Afterwards, Mr. McDuffie was in the AV room, doing live commentary on a couple of the cartoon episodes he wrote. I'd seen the JLA appearance in Static Shock before, but not the JLU episode "Epilogue." Some tidbits about the former--it was originally pitched as a Teen Titans appearance, but their show wouldn't be airing yet by the time it was scheduled, and as you can imagine, there would have been some serious character design issues. And it wasn't an attempt to boost Static's street cred, but the other way around, since the Static Shock show was the second-highest rated cartoon at the time.

Then off to "Farewell David Tennant", as the panelists reminisced about their favorite Tenth Doctor moments and looked forward to the last few Tennant appearances.

That was followed by "Writing Horror in the Age of Saw." The panelist were mostly horror writers, natch. One thing pointed out was that the literary horror market and movie horror audience are actually not as overlapping as the SF literary and movie audiences. Which causes some difficulty for the horror writers when they attend horror movie conventions. The important thing, panelists agreed, was that you don't need to put in gore if the story doesn't call for it, but you shouldn't skimp on the gore if the story *does* call for it.

And "Silent Movies Worth Your Time", with several suggestions of merit, though it can be awfully hard to find one projected at the proper speed. While in theory the final lost reels of Metropolis have been found, the film stock is in such awful shape that it may not be restorable.

I skipped the Masquerade to check out the Cinema Apocalypse room, which showed "Ip Man", a heavily-fictionalized biography of the man who would eventually teach kung fu to Bruce Lee. It's pretty good, but the version shown did not subtitle the intertitles that gave historical background, so I couldn't spot more than what year the next scene was taking place. (Mind you, "the Japanese invade" was pretty obvious from the action.)

I had just enough time to finally get some toast (and for some reason sushi) from the House of Toast before I needed to be ready for the shuttle bus. Which was then ten minutes late as it had swung by the megamall first. The other passengers were interested by the costumed people hanging out and smoking.

Sunday morning, I packed up and checked out of the Crowne Plaza, and after breakfast in the Consuite went to the anime room to watch the Detective Conan movie. It wasn't too much of a mystery, although one minor recurring character was a red herring. (Behavior very odd for that person.)

I picked up my winnings from the Art Show and Silent Auction (since several items are scheduled as birthday/Christmas presents, I won't talk about them here.) Speaking of the art show, I've said in the past that I don't really buy a plain photograph of a nude woman as SF/fantasy "art." I've come to the conclusion that just slapping a color filter on it (with a "fantasyish" caption) isn't really that much more of a qualification. Having her hold a sword is more of a step in the right direction.

The first panel I managed to drag myself to was "Tieflings are Not a Player Race", an examination of 4th Edition D&D. As you might guess from the title, this was not a completely optimistic panel, though it was admitted that the latest edition is a fine miniatures tactics game. (And as one of the folks in Alarums & Excursions mentioned, it simulates the Voltron Blazing Sword Effect well.)

After that, "Epic Storyline Fatigue", with the encyclopedia writer mentioned above. Please let "Final Crisis" be it for line-wide universe reboot events for a while, okay DC?

I dropped in on "TV Shows on DVD and Blu-Ray", which had a bunch of release dates. Sadly, you should probably stock up now while you still can, as it looks like discs are on their way out to be replaced with digital media.

And finally, my last panel, "What's Wrong With Japan?" As moderator (yes, again, let's face it, I like being moderator), I declared that the title of the panel was incorrect, and it would be "Different and interesting things about Japanese culture" instead. No one got up to leave the room, which I was pleased by. We had several people who'd spent extended periods in Japan, thanks to teaching jobs. (Our token Japanese-American panelist admitted he'd only gone for brief vacations.) After the first general question, "One thing you find interesting about Japan not directly connected to manga or anime", the anecdotes easily filled the time with minimal need for more prompting.

Between all of this, naturally, I spent a lot of time greeting and conversing with old acquaintances, making new ones ("Wait! I know you, you're on the internet!") and people watching. My nephew had managed to get the weekend off at the last moment, and got to see his first SF convention ever--perhaps he'll post about it in his own LJ. (hint, hint :-)

Sadly, the Sheraton itself was not running shuttles to the airport or Mall this year, so I skipped closing ceremonies to be able to catch the bus downtown. Still, I had a grand old time. (Next year, I do need to have a room in the hotel proper or Sofitel.)

And this morning, I went in to have my filling installed. Still can't bite anything until the crown is put in later this month.