Seel! Wait, I mean Ciel!

If you follow me on twitter, you might remember that I complained quite a bit last weekend about sitting next to a guy wearing a skirt.  If you don’t follow me on twitter, that’s cool because I’m going to relate the entire story anyway.

This past weekend was Naka-Kon, a Kansas City anime convention running for its sixth year at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.  I had applied to be staff this year, and I could be found at the Volunteer desk.  Whenever my director was away from the desk for a while there was usually another staff member sitting there with me.  One happened to be a guy cosplaying Riku Harada from D.N. Angel.  His costume was nice, it was just too bad that he completely acted like a guy.  Wearing a dress.  He would sit in his chair with his legs wide open, and then turn toward me to stare at what I was writing.  It was terribly awkward for me, mostly because I couldn’t leave, and I didn’t want to speak to him.  He’d already tried talking to me, but just quit after I didn’t show any signs of being impressed by what he was saying.

The funny thing is he’d talked to my roommate the day before.  Unfortunately that bit of conversation formed my initial not-exactly-positive image of him.

Him: Hey, you’re Rikku!

Roomie: …..yep.

Him: I’m Riku too!

Roomie: …..that’s cool. (shifty eyes)

Him: We should get a Riku from Kingdom Hearts, and (something I don’t remember), and make a whole group of just Rikus!!

Roomie: …uh….yeah.

Then we took our leave of him. Quickly.

I was happy to see a pretty complete cosplay group for Kuroshitsuji at Naka-kon.  I was surprised too, since the anime is (to me) pretty new, and not licensed (as far as I know).  I had personally just started watching Kuroshitsuji a couple weeks before Naka-kon, so I was especially tickled to see the cosplay group, and since I was working, sent the roomie off with my camera to get pictures of them.

Which brings me to my main-ish subject of this post: Ciel Phantomhive.  Starting Kuroshitsuji, I really didn’t like Ciel all that much.  He just seemed to me to be your fairly typical young, educated/smart, aristocratic, expressionless male.  In short, he’s better than everyone, and lets them know that they bore him.  It’s really overdone, so I’ll admit that I wrote him off.

Then I saw the episode of the anime where Ciel had to be disguised as a girl, wearing one pink and frilly dress.  That’s cause for chuckles normally, but it actually got me to like him.  The reason I started liking Ciel with his whole cross-dressing fiasco is that he was visibly uncomfortable with his situation.  His stance and expression showed his discomfort and the fact that he definitely did not want to be doing that.  Having to avoid his fiancee helped with the humor/discomfort.  For me, that made Ciel relatable.  He didn’t do the “cool guy” thing of showing absolutely no change in expression, and that’s why I now like him, at least more than I did.

Weekend Update!

This past weekend I’ve been pretty busy.  It was the weekend of Naka-Kon of course, and of course it was lots of fun.  I really enjoyed myself even though the grand majority of my time was spent behind the volunteer desk.

Overall it seemed like a calmer, more organized convention than it had in past years, and a lot safer for that.  I’m not sure if I’ll want to staff again next year or not…at the moment I think I’ll wait and see.  I really didn’t do anything besides work and visit the dealer’s room.

I also didn’t realize how big a draw two raves can be.  I personally don’t think that two are necessary, but from this weekend, I’ve learned that most of the Naka-kon attendees really want both those raves.  This year, one got replaced by a formal ball, and I heard the ball was actually pretty boring.  It’s a nice concept, but really, I’d be happy with a dance party sort of event.  Not a rave, not a ball, a dance.  That’s just me though.

I did pick up some figures, of course.  Not as many as I have in previous years, but the quality outweighs the quantity.  I’m debating on which to have a figure post about first, and I may put up a new poll for that.

I was also very impressed with the many awesome people who donated their time to help with registration and badge checking, including my roommate who got drafted because she was hanging around and chatting with me.  She rocks, and so do all the other volunteers.  I was also quite happy to see the number of adults starting to become larger as well as the usual 20-something and under crowd, especially in volunteers.  It warms this little otaku’s heart.

More later.  I’m going to sleep now and prepare for my boring week of working.

Spring season and other thoughts

Recently checked out the chart for anime being released this spring, and it looks like I’ll at least be checking out more anime than I did for the winter (which by the way was zero, unless you count keeping up with Kimi ni Todoke).  I’ll probably be checking out Angel Beats, Maid Sama, and Black Rock Shooter, unless Crunchyroll pulls another Fairy Tail on any of them, in which case I’ll simply pass.  I’m really that lazy, and if I know there’s a legal means to watch the anime that I just don’t want to pay for, I’ll wait for another legal way to watch it.  Although I’ve heard that Fairy Tail is merely okay, so it seems I haven’t missed out on much there.

I’m relieved to admit that so far, out of the big pile of manga I bought a little while back, only 3 have grabbed me enough that I’ll probably keep up to date with them: Black Butler, Pandora Hearts, and Butterflies, Flowers.  I still have about half the pile to read still, and I bought a few more today.  I may do a couple group mini-review posts for all those.

My resolution to watch only a few anime at a time is not working like I’d hoped.  Right now, my MAL will show you that I’m in the middle of 15 series, which to me is a ridiculously high number.  I’m going to try and reduce that number a little, but it doesn’t help when I keep coming across this anime and that anime.  I should be finishing Fullmetal Panic! and Earth Maiden Arjuna soon though.

I’m also currently tempting fate by reading the first One Piece omnibus which contains the first three volumes of manga.  Looking it up earlier, I’ve found that apparently there’s omnibus editions up to the first 12 volumes, which is a good deal if you haven’t checked out One Piece yet.  I know, I’m late to the party, as usual.  I happen to like the rock that I live under for most of the year.  I’m enjoying it so far.

In videogames, I’m far behind everyone else, also as usual.  I should start playing Bioshock again.  In case you’re not sure, I mean the first Bioshock.  Then again, I might play Twilight Princess some more, but that’s only if I can get hold of a strategy guide.  Before anyone suggests gamefaqs, I’d just like to point out that I prefer guides with pictures and maps, thank you very much.

That’s all that’s going on in my world for now.  Except for Naka-kon which is next weekend.  Boy did time fly getting closer, but that’s how it always goes.  I need to put the finishing touches on my cosplay and see if I can’t get my prop closer to being finished.  I might not have the prop done in time, but I’m not too worried about it.  I’ll be staff this year, so I have no idea what my schedule’s going to be.  Hopefully I’ll still be able to check out a panel or two and take lots of pictures.

Short and Sweet: Naka-Kon update

Voice actor Kyle Hebert is the first confirmed guest for Naka-Kon 2010 being held in Kansas City in February. I’m looking forward to February now a lot more than I normally do. :]

It’s pretty unlikely you haven’t come across his work, he’s a hard-working voice actor. His most notable role might be that of the narrator of Dragonball Z as well as Gohan with more recent roles such as Kiba in Naruto and Kamina in Gurren Lagann.

I’m so excited now! ^^