This is my fifteenth Tekko in eighteen years (I missed a couple in the wake of COVID). I don't even go to panels anymore (if there are any good ones, I can't tell, because the schedule is a hot mess). I didn't get to see any AMVs this year (we had to leave early on Sunday, before the awards). My cosplays are becoming repetitive (although I still enjoy wearing them - and crafting new ones is hard). Even my pictures are losing their novelty. Yet, I still had a blast. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, even in the face of the occasional frustrations and disappointments (every con has highs and lows). After all these years, I still love going, and I still get depressed when it's over.
I'm grateful to have found others to share this experience with (including the next two generations) - although it's still hard to find people who can match the enthusiasm I have. Yes, it's tiring. It's expensive - absolutely (and in this economy, it hits harder than ever). And it can be stressful at times. But I never can understand why everybody is always in a hurry to get back home on Sunday. Or why they don't want to get there early on Thursday. I paid to be there. I've looked forward to it all year long. There's nowhere else I want to be. Come Monday morning, I'm lost and confused. I don't want to go back to everyday life. I just want to go back to the con! Which reminds me, it's time to book my ticket and get a locked-in rate on a hotel room for 2026!
As for new anime I've discovered this past year, I just finished watching a series called Orb: On The Movements of the Earth, which I thought was fantastic. It depicts the cultural shift in Europe during the transitional period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as amateur astronomers pursuing the heliocentric theory are hunted relentlessly by the church. It's about the elegant beauty of science, the stubborn march of progress, and what it costs. It's about forbidden knowledge, the righteousness of truth, and the wickedness of society (especially religion, although secular indoctrination can accomplish the same ideological oppression) in protecting its own self-serving lies by committing barbarous atrocities without conscience or remorse, all in the name of control. It's something that anyone who's lived a life of oppression, hiding in fear of what would happen should the truth come out, can understand and appreciate.
I also had the great pleasure of watching an older series from the mid-oughts titled Monster, about a genius surgeon turned fugitive's dogged pursuit of a sociopathic killer whose life he unknowingly saved in the ER. It was also fantastic. I recommend it. (Just don't expect any fantasy elements that are teased by the show's title and aesthetic). I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Dandadan, an energetic new show that melds comedy, romance, and supernatural action, and has become an instant hit. And then there's Gushing Over Magical Girls, a clever new series that skirts the line between ecchi and full-on hentai. I'll admit that I was initially put off by the art style, but I'm glad I stuck with it. In this show, the protagonist is actually the villain - a girl who has a fetish for magical girls, and uses her powers (along with her cohorts) to trap the heroines in all manner of embarrassing and perverted situations. It's the best deconstruction of the magical girl genre since Madoka Magica!
You know what? I'm tired of the usual note-for-note format of these reports, so let me just describe some of the memorable highlights (and lowlights) of the weekend. Starting with the swag. As planned, I got a combat-ready foam lightsaber (green) for my Slave Leia cosplay. It took me a while to find the right booth in the Exhibition Hall - but I finally did. And their lightsabers were on sale, too! Although still very expensive. But I budgeted for it, and I'm happy with my purchase. I also bought a Lum figure, since I finally watched Urusei Yatsura (albeit the remake) this year. It's a good show, and I like the character (to say nothing of her excellent taste in fashion). For a tasty treat, in lieu of chocolate-covered gummy bears (which I did not see this year), I bought some mini buckeyes instead. I think I like them even better. I saw a Chii figure I absolutely adored (perched on top of a telephone pole), but it had an outrageous $420 price tag...
On Thursday night, we had a good time swimming together in the hotel pool, and walking out onto the deck, with the skyscrapers looming above. At the end of the day on Friday, I went to use the bathroom only to discover that the soap had run out. And then, while putting my Slave Leia cosplay back on, two of the four straps broke, leaving me to comically hold the pieces against my body while shuffling around the con floor in a thong, looking for a hand sanitizer station - so that I could then sit on the floor and finagle a workaround using some elastic hair bands and a couple of twisty ties (I did not come unprepared for contingencies, mind you).
Did I mention that this happened at the busiest part of the con, just outside the main hall, while the dance was going on? That was the moment that broke my usually unflappable composure. And for anyone who might be thinking, "come on, I bet you loved walking around the con in a thong!" - first of all, that's fair. But let this be a lesson to you: just because I think pushing the boundaries is a healthy expression of freedom (the moment we can't do that, we are no longer free), doesn't mean that I lack a social conscience (or at the very least, a self-preservation instinct). :-p
On a (somewhat) brighter note, I was out on the balcony trying to console a distraught teenager (one of two we had brought with us) on Saturday night, when a nearby couple offered a heartfelt reminiscence sparked by their recognition of my cosplay. They asked how long I'd been coming to Tekko (which is why I had the exact number on recall earlier in this report), because they remembered seeing me and my cohorts in our Sexy Pokemon group cosplay that year - which clearly made an indelible impression. Not everybody likes my body-positive approach to cosplay - and they don't have to - but I get enough positive attention to feel appreciated. And I'm proud to know that, at least in some people's minds, I've become something of an institution at the con. It makes me feel a little bit better about recycling my cosplays year after year. If it ain't broke...
Speaking of which, my new tail strap snapping shortly before the dance on Saturday night turned out to be serendipitous, because the replacement I'd brought (from a previous year, which was surprisingly still intact), while not an ideal length - it pushes the top of the tail against my back - was considerably more stable. Which served me well, given that while I was in the dance supervising the aforementioned teen (can't be too careful in an environment like that), I was pulled into the center of the dance circle and forced, against my will, to show off my moves. I tried my absolute hardest to avoid completely embarrassing myself, although I'm pretty sure I failed. You just can't walk into a rave dressed as Pikachu in a speedo and NOT expect to become the center of attention...
And if that sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before. But I can't help marveling at the contrast - looking back on previous years at Tekko, way before I even had another person to go with. I remember feeling lonely and left out during the rave. It's still not my scene, and I'll never be a social butterfly. But just to be standing in a different position today, going into that rave - not for myself, but in support of a young person on the verge of growing her wings - it puts things into perspective. I'm not a parent, but every once in a while I get to play the role just a little bit. It makes you feel important, and useful. Being young is difficult. Social forces are like a bubbling chaos. Everyone wants to be popular, but not everyone gets to be.
Yet when you become an adult - when you get to watch the next generation navigate those forces without being awash in them yourself - and especially when you have the opportunity to offer some guidance, none of that high school social status bullshit matters anymore. All that matters is what kind of person you are. And if you're a good person, having somebody admire you and depend on you, and in turn getting to see them for who they are and not how they rank on the social ladder... You just understand the difference between what's real and what's fake - and what's important. And that you're a part of it. Even if you never got to be before. It's comforting to have the reassurance of knowing that you have a meaningful and positive impact on another person's life. For all that it's worth.
I'm trying to express something profound here, and I think I'm failing to put it into words. So I'm just gonna close the book on this report. There are more stories that could be told, but they are as much other people's stories as mine.
