Special Review - KumoriCon 09

WO0o0OT! The weekend after I get down here to Portland for Multnomah Bible College (which ROCKS, I might add), is KumoriCon, Portland's official Anime convention! So I decided to go (aka I asked my Dad and he decided, he being the dominator of my dough). But I looked at the schedule, which only had some good series in the middle of Saturday, and Kirk Thorton on Saturday, so I realized I could do those, get pictures of cosplayers, and shop, in one day. 30$ for Saturday instead of 45$ for the whole weekend, which I probably wouldn't have much time to attend anyways.

So I left this morning, walked down the eiree 82nd Street, got on the MAX (rail system), got nervous about where I needed to get off, got off, walked a few blocks, and entered the Portland Hilton Towers. And boy was it messy.



No idea what was going on, wandering all around. I finally noticed a registration sign, followed it and got in line... for special services. So I got out, wandered all around, finally went upstairs after a while found the registration back in the corner. Got my uberswait badge (which now hangs on my wall), and set off.



After much wandering, I made it to the Exhibitors' Hall. The place was in the bottom floor of the parkade! The line went up a ramp 2 stories, around a corner, up another story, and OUTSIDE. Wow. But later it disappeared, thankfully.

Sadly... I wasn't very impressed with the merchandise. Sure, they had a good amount. Sure, they had fair selection. But for the most part, they had nothing I wanted. Wall scrolls of Naruto, Death Note, and Gun X Sword (none of which I've seen). Plushies of human characters (always a no). Key Chains, Gundam Models, etc. I was a little disappointed.

...sigh... anyways, I just wandered and browsed through piles of posters and stuff, when suddenly... I happened upon IT! I found a poster of Infinite Ryvius! It's slightly obscure, and completely non-existent in merchandise, so it took my by surprise! 12$



I also found a good Galaxy Angel chibi folder (my other one doesn't have Vanilla, my favorite) for 2$, which is also hanging on my wall.



I happened upon Uwajimaya's booth, which, to my shock, had very little in selection, to the point that I was unsure if it was truly a Uwajimaya booth. What it did have, however, was tons of boxes of Ramune soda (the kind with the marble that seals it, then shoots inside so you can drink) for the very reasonable price of 1$ a piece. I bought 6 Melon and 6 Strawberry. I also grabbed my first two packs of HiChew for 50 cents each. They are awesome, and taste like a mix between Starbursts and Gummies.



I went to the theater to see a little of Azumanga Dioh, a school comedy that is near the top of my list to watch, only to find, to my horror, that it was dubbed. And it sucked. I left. I came back when it was over to watch some Haruhi Suzumiya season 2, but still felt like doing other things. Didn't even watch Ouran High School Host Club, right after.

After that, I went... well... I'll save it for now. Let's look at some Cosplay.

I havn't actually watched Futurama, but my new friend Alex is a big fan, so I had to get this pic for him. It's a pretty good design, too. Bender's chest opens to reveal some kind of power supply, probably an inside joke.



There were 10+ people as characters from Ouran High School Host Club, but these two stood out particularly well as Kauro and Hikaru.



There were also at least 10 people as Haruhi Suzumiya characters, but these 3 girls had actually memorized the ending dance... woah...

From Gurren Lagann, I saw 3+ Simons, a Nia, and this AWESOME cosplay of Adiane. Sorry about the blur, she was getting lots of pics and wanted to leave, heh heh.



I saw this one and pretty much stalked this girl down to get a picture, lol. Mint from Galaxy Angel.



I saved the best (in my opinion)for last. This AWESOME cosplay of the AWESOME Super NES games called Zombies Ate My Neighbors! (If you haven't played it, go download an emulator and get going!)



I got a pic of a very well done Master Chief cosplay, but I can't find it. I wonder if I'm missing anything else? I didn't get a chance to take a picture of a really awesome Zelda and Gannon pair. There seemed to be a lot of well-done Zelda cosplays. There were about 8 Team Fortress characters, 10 Narutos, 50+ Naruto and Bleach characters, 20+ Pikachus, 50+ Pokemon, a Dokuro-chan, 6 FMA outfits, etc.

I got this pic while waiting in a line, over the balcony looking down at a major clutter area. You can see a swait group of Pokemon outfits on the left.



So, the last big thing at KumoriCon... was Kirk Thorton. Now Mr. Thorton is, for the most part, a regular voice actor. He's done some famous anime and games, like characters from Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, etc. He doesn't actually attend any Cons except KumoriCon, which is local for him. I personally wanted to see him because he's the voice of Don Patch, a character I hate (and LOVE doing so) from Bobobo Bobobobo.



It turned out to be VERY interesting. It may not be interesting to you, simply because I can't remember it all. I honestly wish I would have taken notes. He talked about how a local Shakespeare event got him into Anime Voice acting (lol). He also talked about how voice acting can NOT support his family, so he (like many voice actors), have to do things like script work and directing.

He starts with a script that's a simple direct translation, then he makes it a little more realistically spoken for the English language. He also makes the sentences work with the amount of mouth movement the original character uses. They get complaints about not staying true to the original, but sometimes they just can't help it.

He did a lot of examples of the voices he did, and laughed a lot about how he can't even remember what characters he's working on at the moment. One summer, he was working on 26 different characters he was working on. He asked us not to film him, because people upload things he says to youtube, and he can't remember saying them, and then they all talk about it and get mad that he can't remember. He said that many MANY times, the best way to know what roles he is working on is to Google himself.

Someone asked a question about why voice actors like Thorton use aliases sometimes. Thorton explained that if he does voice acting for a non-union project, they'll fine him. So he has to use aliases, or sometimes is even unlisted. And this is a problem for lots of people.

Something that could possibly be news is THE POSITIVE DENIAL OF KIRK THORTON BEING IN THE NEXT SILENT HILL GAME. Sure, this means nothing to me, but technically it's semi-news-worthy. He said he's on some games that he's agreed not to disclose with the company. Not long after, somebody asked if he was going to be in the next Silent Hill game, and he smiled and said "I can't disclose information on that," which made us all feel special, even if we didn't care.

He also told us a really funny story about voice acting in the next Kingdom Hearts game. He got a call from Disney Character Voices, which is an awesome thing, and was told he was in the next game. He came, and started working, and then asked the director how he got the part when he didn't even apply or try-out. The directer thought, and then said "I have no idea". Later, the director told him what he'd found out. "Disney was trying to find a person to fill the roll. They looked at the guy who played the Japanese roll, then looked at his character in Samurai Champloo, Jin. Then they looked at who played him in the English version, which was you. They listened to your voice acting as Jin, and decided you fit." And so he had minimal influence on him being hired for this big role.

He also talked about the fun time working on Bobobo Bobobobo. He and the director became friends, and when there was something in the script they didn't like, they'd say "No, it'd be better like THIS!" and then change it. He said it was one of his favorite times.

And while looking right this moment for videos of Thorton on Youtube, I was reminded of this. One person said as their question, "So I heard you like Mudkips" written as "so i herd u liek mukipz". This is a common "meme" (internet inside joke). He had no idea what she was talking about. I found this a minute ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFXgLbbJV94 LOL. That's exactly what he meant by uploading things to YouTube :P

It was funny observing him deal with the people who liked him a little "too" much. "They'll be an autograph signing time later, you don't need it now." He obviously has a lot of experience here ;)

That's about it. Kirk Thorton was the highlight, really. He said even more that I can't remember. But I found it all very interesting, and it even *shudder* game me a temptation to watch *shud-d-d-d-der* Naruto. But I probably wont ;)



So I rode the MAX home, almost fell asleep. It all went by so fast. Now my posters are up, I've drank a Ramune, eaten too many (or not enough) HiChews, and think I'm going to play Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Look forward to new releases when I find the time to watch some anime! (You know, cause I'm busy with school ;P )

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment!