Fanime 2024: The Legend (of Chika Fujiwara) Continues
First off, let me give a shout-out to Fix Laptop in Downtown San Jose. I needed to pick up an ethernet cable after I arrived and they hooked me up with one, saving me the trouble of having to find a way out to the nearest Target or Wal-Mart. Second, if you’re looking for sushi while you’re attending Fanime, don’t bother with Sushi Confidential. The one roll I ordered from them was okay, I felt completely ignored by them after they took my initial order, and then they screwed up my bill when I was ready to leave. Find some place else to eat instead of going there alone.
Whew, now that that’s out of the way, how was Fanime 2024? Another fantastic experience as far as I was concerned. I realize that I always say something to that effect when I write these things, but visiting this con is always one of the highlights of my year – full stop. That was the case again this year as there was plenty of quality cosplay to observe, impressive art to buy in the Artist’s Alley, and lots of great panels to take in. There were a lot of conflicts in stuff I wanted to see, but the experience was entertaining overall even with the occasional miss.
As for how they all stacked up:
The Foundation For the Eradication of Gen 5 Pokemon:
Sonic: An Unfortunate History
No longer about preserving the sanctity of Gen 1, the Foundation is taking a more proactive approach this year. Which consisted of de-virginizing Panel Room 1, the con’s biggest such room, with their history of Sonic – and Sega as well. I attended a version of this panel years ago and one of its panelists was missing, leaving Max all by his lonesome to talk about the history of Sega. That got a reprise here as we learned about the company’s inauspicious beginnings selling gambling machines to U.S. Navy bases in Japan, to the many versions of the Mark I (a.k.a. The Sega Master System), to the height of their power with the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and how they thoroughly cocked things up after that. I didn’t learn anything I already knew, but it was an entertaining reminder of such things.
As for the Sonic side of the panel, it was pretty much what you’d expect. Max and co-host Andrew gave a rundown of the Blue Blur’s many games with affectionate ribbing given to the original games up through “Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.” Then, starting with “Sonic Heroes,” the barbs got more incisive, and deservedly so. Though they also gave props to the fan-spearheaded “Sonic Mania.” We also got a brief history of the character’s exploits into other media, with the second American animated series getting a special mention, and the first and third getting roasted for being a cracked-out fever dream and “Bocchi the Sonic” respectively. As for their thoughts on the live-action movies, they were decidedly mixed on them even if the reminder that Keanu Reeves will be voicing Shadow the Hedgehog in the next movie was enough to excite the audience.
Panel Potpourri
What do you do when you have lots of “great” ideas for a panel that get progressively less interesting when you try to stretch them out for an hour? You stick them into one panel and hope that’s good enough for your audience! I was definitely entertained by Max and Thomas and Friends’ shotgunning of multiple topics of various and dubious quality over the course of this hour. We got to hear from Wario’s news show InfoWario and his take on awful current events that were awfully funny to hear him describe them. There were also sections on the Perfect Anime Punch, Best Anime Dads, A Survival Guide for Anime Moms, and even a section discussing What Is Anime according to My Anime List (hint: it’s not “Avatar: The Last Airbender”). All of this was held together with a running discussion between the co-hosts about who would win in a fight: One billion lions or one of every Pokemon. Max eventually got Thomas to concede about the lions, but also acknowledged that one of every Rattata would beat all of the lions.
If this isn’t quality convention talk, then I don’t know what is.
Pokemon Movie Review Hour
I’ve seen their signature panel “Fifth Generation Isn’t Pokemon” enough to give it a pass again this year, but I hadn’t heard them talk about the movies before. So I figured this would be a chance to get some good “Pokemon”-related comedy from the Foundation. I don’t know if this was me and my general lack of knowledge (and interest) in the franchise, but it wasn’t as funny as I was expecting. There were some parts where I chuckled, and Thomas’ unbridled adoration of the movies he reviewed was amusing, but it all felt pretty scattershot and random. It also seemed like they were jumping around a lot instead of presenting the movies in a chronological order, so maybe that could’ve been an issue too?
Still, it wasn’t a complete loss. Before the panel I got the chance to ask them why they changed their name form “The Society for the Presentation of Gen 1 Pokemon” to “The Foundation for the Eradication of Gen 5 Pokemon.” While Andrew mentioned that Gen 1 was pretty well preserved at this point, Max offered a more succinct and better answer: “It was funnier.” Can’t argue with that.
Anime Survivor
“I want to see Chika Fujiwara threepeat!” is what I said when the panelists asked the audience what they were here for tonight. She had won the previous two “Anime Survivor” tournaments I’ve attended at Fanime and I was ready to see “Kaguya-sama’s” excitable, pink-haired, avatar of chaos perform the hat trick here and outwit, outlast, and survive the rest of her competitors this year. Which included veterans like Cthulhu, Hitori Gotoh from “Bocchi the Rock,” and Truck-kun from “Every Isekai Series Ever,” newcomers like Frieren from “Frieren, Beyond Journey’s End,” and Senshi from “Delicious in Dungeon,” and Foundation panel veterans like Kogoro Mori from “Case Closed” and Air Bud from the Air Bud movie franchise.
For those of you unfamiliar with this panel, the gimmick is that it’s basically a version of the TV show “Survivor” with the above mentioned characters (and more). Their stats and images are fed into an online “Survivor” game generator and it determines the tribal and reward challenges, who wins, who finds immunity idols and how they play them, and who votes who off at the end of each episode. While the members of the Foundation organize things and provide general commentary, there’s a lot of audience participation here as well. Specifically, it was down to us to find reasons why characters bonded or feuded as the simulator determined they did.
So when Kogoro fought with Makima from “Chainsaw Man” I suggested that it was because the former went,”Public Safety isn’t a real police division with all of your devil crime solving. I do real police work with all the actual murders that I solve!” Then you have Chika, Cthulhu, and Ai Hoshino from “Oshi no Ko” teaming up into an alliance which I tried to call “Crazy in Love,” but was overruled for “Love & Chaos.” There were plenty of suggestions better (and worse) than what I had on hand, but getting the chance to comment and listen to everyone was tremendously entertaining. Prizes were also offered to those who managed to get on stage to predict who would be voted off. I didn’t manage to get onstage, but after seeing the prizes that were being offered I didn’t feel that bad about it.
As for who won this year’s edition of “Anime Survivor,” it was really nerve-wracking by the end. The big surprise this year was that Truck-kun managed to hang on to the final five which NO ONE saw coming. Neither did anyone predict that Kogoro would make it to the final three alongside Chika and Air Bud. While people were predicting that the Good Boy would triumph in the end, his loyalty to the Love Detective proved to be his undoing. Playing the immunity idol on her earlier came back to bite him and Chika wound up getting the THREEPEAT in the end! It was a great moment and a perfect capper to Sunday. That said, I do hope that they retire her from future “Anime Survivor” editions at Fanime. After all, future wins after threepeating would either be unsurprising; otherwise, the only way she can go from here is down. Better to send her out on top.
Andre Pena:
Cthulhu for President
It wouldn’t be a proper Fanime experience without its long-standing, and long-failing, political campaign to get everyone’s favorite Elder God into the highest office in the land. Most of his campaign platform and cabinet – Vice President David Lo Pan, Secretary of Defense Segata Sanshiro, Secretary of Education Kid Who Really Likes Coloring With a Pencil – remain the same, but a few changes were noted here. The position of Secretary of Homeland Security is now going to be filled by Warhammer necromancer Nagash who will also be leveraging his skills with raising the undead to help with our Energy Initiatives. After all, they’re dead and we don’t have to pay them anything. Plans to set up speakers around China to broadcast the Winnie the Pooh theme 24/7 and to force Congress to deliver a budget by February 14th else they’ll be locked in a room and given 1000 calories per member per day until they come up with one (with the proceedings being livestreamed) were met with enthusiastic appreciation by the audience.
Then came the meat of the panel: The audience Q&A. While leaving things up to the audience can usually be hit-or-miss depending on the quality of the questions, a good host can be entertaining regardless of what they’re asked. Which is always the case with Andre as he clearly enjoys being an asshole to anyone asking a stupid question or who looks like they’re about to. “Back of the line!” was heard a lot this year as a lot of people were trying to clown around, with one even having the audacity to demand to know Cthulhu’s hobbies. We did find out that the Elder God does like online gambling a whole lot and while there was some research done to find out why, it was stopped after the interns didn’t come back. So they just let it press the button as much as it wants now.
The panel did end on a downer note as Andre said that this might be the very last Cthulhu for President panel for a while. While he clearly expressed his disappointment at the panel for not getting the Elder God into office after all this time, the implication was the he felt this particular joke may have run its course. Andre has been doing “Cthulhu for President” for 16 years now, and that’s a long time for anything. So while I hope he’s just pulling our leg here, I really can’t begrudge him for wanting to quit while he’s ahead. I’ll just begrudge him for stopping while he’s still firing on all cylinders here.
Bad Hentai
I think the last one of these I attended was back in ‘17 or ‘18, so I figured enough time had passed to see what kind of awful animated porn Andre was going to inflict on willing congoers this year. Surprisingly, the content varied from “genuinely awful” to “awfully entertaining.” After the opening segment involving Nazi sex experiments was over, we moved right into an offering that was advertised as containing many crimes against voice acting. While the first one had a woman barking like a dog, and then clucking like a chicken during sex – in English, mind you – we got an extended session with another terrible entry that had it all. Awkward and flat line deliveries. Nonsensical writing like an unexpected debate about who’d be the better boyfriend: Albert Einstein or J. Robert Oppenheimer. Questionable sex scenes involving cardboard boxes and vegetables. “A Time To Screw” had it all and it likely wouldn’t be leaving the audience’s mind anytime soon.
That one aside, the rest of the offerings weren’t that bad – outside of some wholesome centaur monster girl sex and some orca and squid-girl intercorse involving loli monster girls. We got a couple clips from “Ogenki Clinic” that were kinky fun as some amorous female nurses helped some men get over their sexual hang-ups by dressing (and taking them) like women. There was also a genuinely funny sex comedy involving an office worker and his anthropomorphized penis trying to satisfy a geisha. Best of all though were the clips from “Ebichu Minds the House,” the infamous Hiedaki Anno-produced hamster sex comedy with a stacked Japanese voice cast about a hamster trying to help out her owner and other people with their sex lives. It’s absolutely insane and it was great to get the chance to see part of it again after all these years.
Music Videos to End Fanime With
I was just prepared to write “Does What it Says on the Tin” here, but I do have one issue. This was Andre wheeling out two hours of music videos from his collection, most of which will be familiar to veterans of Midnight Madness. The man has great taste and the majority of these were evergreen picks that I genuinely enjoy seeing whenever they pop up during his show.
However, the panel’s stated goal in the schedule was to help stave off the post-con blues and his final choice really didn’t do that. It was the final sequence from “Cowboy Bebop” where “Blue” plays over the ending credits after Spike’s death (spoilers for a 20-year-old anime). Artistically impeccable, it’s still an inherent bummer that didn’t send me out on a high note. I’ll have to watch something goofy like “Dunces and Dragons” to get my spirits back up after I get home.
Cosplay Wrestling Federation:
Masters 8 Tournament
This was the first of two CWF tournaments for the weekend and it had a clear focus: Put eight famous fighters, most of them former champions, together in an elimination match to see who would emerge triumphant to take home the trophy. Competing for the glory were: Skeletor, Phoenix Wright, Spicy Bean Burrito (& Mister Mustache), Gaston, CM Puff (formerly Jigglypuff), Pikachu Libre, Mumen Rider, and Lupin & Jigen (together). Each of these competitors came in with something to prove, and they let everyone know what it was in their opening statements to get the crowd hyped. That was the easy part as this crowd came ready to party and was ready to heckle or cheer on a competitor at a moment’s notice.
If you’ve never been to one of these before, there’s very little actual wrestling done here. The closest we got was when CM Puff smacked Gaston down with a folding chair after he’d had enough of that man’s crap. Most of the “wrestling” here involves the competitors cutting promos and trash talking their opponents with the winner being determined by the crowd. There were some clear storylines on display here – CM Puff’s angry new outlook on life, Mumen Rider’s lack of any kind of championship win, Lupin & Jigen’s desire TO STEAL THE SHOW – the wrestlers did a good job of playing them out in a credible way. Which made some of the losses, which involved some people either saying goodby or promising a transition of their personas, feel like they actually mattered.
This was key by the final match which felt like it was setting things up for Mumen Rider to finally take home his first win. His wholesome schtick could’ve come off as cloying or sentimental, but it came across as heartfelt and won over the crowd. The fact that he even managed to pull one over on Lupin & Jigen regarding their supposed theft of his bike certainly helped as well. So even if this was as scripted as actual wrestling, the end result was a lot of fun and left me eager to check out the next tournament the following night…
Fanimania IX
…and the main event did not disappoint! While I don’t follow CWF storylines outside of Fanime, the deal here was that the championship belt had found its way into the hands of a corporate drone named Larry. He was an emotionless figurehead who couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm for being at the convention. This made him the perfect foil for this Fanimania’s round of competitors.
It included familiar faces like Kirby, Mister Satan, Cooking Mama and The Helltaker, and newcomers (to me, at least), like Soldier Red, Anya Forder, Akira Tendou from “Zom 100,” and Parappa the Rapper. There were some duds that didn’t make it to the second round like Duolingo and The Joker, who at least got to kiss a Batman from the audience while he was onstage. By and large, however, the challengers were an energetic and funny bunch who clearly came here to win. Even though I’m not really a fan of the “Zom 100” anime, I really appreciated the energy the guy playing Akira brought to his role. Best of the bunch, however, was Parappa who actually dropped some dope rhymes and sick burns in his debut appearance while getting the audience to call and respond with, “I gotta do what?/I GOTTA BELIEVE!”
There were also some storyline carryovers from the previous night as well. Newly crowned Masters 8 Champ Mumen Rider threw down with Onii Ares in an in-con encounter that transitioned to a taped bout where the former showed that he was Worthy enough to wield Thor’s Hammer to deliver a lightning-infused beatdown on the latter. Then we had the Jigglypuff/CM Puff drama from last night go to a new level as he went full goth and stood revealed as the Haunter. His beef with, LaShaya Ducree, the head of the CWF is still real and he’s going to keep pushing it until That Bitch (her words, not mine) finally gets what’s coming to her.
While everyone was prepared for one of the finalists to take on Larry, LaShaya decided things were going to be different this time around. Instead of a two-person elimination, it was going to be a triple-header. Parappa made the first cut, and then it was revealed that Cooking Mama was also going to get a shot at the title belt. Sick beats were dropped, ice burns were made, and the audience was thoroughly split over who was going to take home the belt. In the end, you can’t beat a good call and response that gets the crowd going and Parappa took home a well-deserved win. Best of luck to the newly-minted champ and I hope he’s still reigning so I can see him at Fanime next year.
Everyone Else:
Horrifying Childhood Favorites
This was put on by a panelist who identified themselves as Squee and as a millennial weeb, plague doctor enthusiast, “Yu Yu Hakusho” superfan, and certified crazy person. So they were more than qualified to talk about the kind of stuff that slips into the stuff kids watch that probably shouldn’t have been in there in the first place. While nods were given to bits of Western media, such as the infamous episode of “Tom & Jerry” which ends with them sitting on the train tracks waiting to die, this panel was mostly centered around examples that originated from Japanese media.
So we got to hear about how 4Kids editing of Yu-Gi-Oh and implementation of the Shadow Realm made the series considerably more horrifying than how it was in its original form. What with characters being condemned to eternal pain and suffering as opposed to having their limbs cut off. Or how the kids in Digimon were being tracked and hunted by the “Not-CIA” Hypnos. Or all of those creepy-ass Pokemon descriptions. Or how “Yu Yu Hakusho” has a scene that implies humans are murdering and screwing demons while bathing in their blood. Really, that show was considerably more messed up that I remember it being and Squee gets a lot of credit for detailing all of the myriad ways that was so in this panel.
Voice Acting for Video Games
While I thought this was going to be a structured panel on the subject featuring two of this year’s Guests of Honor, Kira Buckland and Casey Mongillo, that turned out not to be the case. After the two introduced themselves, it quickly became clear that this was going to be one of those panels that was just going to be entirely Q&A. There were some alright questions asked early on, such as whether or not they get called back when a character they voiced shows up again elsewhere. Kira stated that sometimes she does get called to do new voice work for 2B from “Nier: Automata” and it usually depends on how extensive the role is. They were also asked about their pet peeves when it comes to listening and casting work from other voice actors and Casey gave a great example of how NOT to introduce yourself in an audition file. Just keep it short and to the point.
Rather than see if the rest of the panel was going to be as interesting (or not), I decided to duck out early and see what another panel had to offer…
Trans/Post-Humanism in Anime
Unlike that time at WonderCon in 2022 when I kept ducking out of panels early and wound up in progressively worse ones, this one wasn’t bad. It was from an individual who was identified at the end only by their My Anime List handle of dowoma, who did have a lot to say on this subject. This was a very structured panel that also incorporated a lot of audience participation as well, starting with what we thought defined humanity. There were some good answers ranging from the ability to adapt to and/or control our environment, applications of morality to our actions, and concepts like legal personhood. Dowoma’s descriptions of the differences between trans and post-humanity were also informative and helped set the stage for the anime to be discussed here.
Now, if you thought that they were going to talk about “Ghost in the Shell,” give yourself a gold star as the original 1995 movie was given a lot of talk here. Also featured was “Serial Experiments Lain” and specifically its notions of what constitutes godhood. “Texhnolyze” was also going to be talked about as well, but there was some confusion over when the panel was supposed to end, so we lost another chance to have someone explain what this series was actually about. Dowoma’s descriptions and the input from the audience was interesting to listen to, even if I’m struggling to remember the specifics of everything as I’m writing it now. It’s still something I’d recommend other people interested in the subject to check out if it makes a return to the con in future years, even if this one encounter was enough for me.
Also notable: This was the only panel I attended at the con where masking was required. I had left mine at home (since it wasn’t generally required by the con this year), but Dowoma deserves props for providing masks to anyone who wanted to attend.
Lost in Game Translation
The trend for most of the panels I caught on Saturday was that they weren’t exactly what I was expecting. For instance: I was expecting this to be a reprise of a similarly named panel from last year about game translation fails. It was not as the panelist, who identified himself as Marimo, gave us an in-depth look at what goes on in game translation based on his own work on indie titles such as “Monster Train” and “Inkbound.” What separated his panel from the others I saw that day was that he presented his subject well and in an engaging fashion.
Marimo talked about the reasons why people get into game translation and went over a lot of general issues that various languages present when translating them from one to another. Did you know that there has to be a space before certain punctuation in French languages or else there will be an error? He also talked about the problems using machine translation and the differences between different kinds of the same language (i.e. American, Canadian, and British English). Also, don’t screw up translating things into Chinese if you like money – it’s the second biggest gaming market after America and they WILL notice. The brief Q&A session at the end was also informative and rounded off the experience nicely. Check this out if you’re interested in the subject and if Marimo returns to offer it again next year.
Anime Beyond Akiba
Sounds like a pane about anime… otaku anime that aren’t set in Akiba, maybe? Nope. This was presented by the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco and it was essentially a tourism promotion for parts of Japan outside of Tokyo that would appeal to anime fans. The three destinations talked about were Tottori, Hyogo, and Ehime with tips for traveling abroad and a Q&A session promised for afterward. What little I stayed for sounded nice enough, but I felt my time would be better spent running through Artist’s Alley and the Dealer’s Hall again, and wandering around for more cosplay photo opportunities. Maybe the next panel from a non-established source would be better…
To Be American in Anime
Brought to you by the hosts of the Nakamod Podcast and their friend Lyn, plus a loud, smartassed guy crossdressed in Tohou cosplay who turned out to be the highlight of the thing. I went in expecting to see lots of examples of Americans being portrayed in anime and what I got was just a general discussion of the topic starting with “What does it mean to be American?” There was lots of discussion between the audience and the panel, but most of it was philosophical in a way that generally didn’t interest me. Save for Tohou Guy’s occasional bursts of commentary and bits about his Scottish history and why his family had to leave and not go back. It sounded like those present and participating had a good time; but, had I known what I was getting into, I would’ve checked out “Detective Conan: Case Closer” from The Foundation instead.
Chicks Dig Giant Robots
Presented by Manuel and Rachael from A-to-J Connections, this was just the two of them presenting some of their favorite female characters from classic mech shows. When I say “classic” I mean they started with a selection of characters from the original “Gundam” series. Lala Suh, Sayla Mass, Haman Deikun all got mentioned before we moved on to Lynn Minmay and Milia Genius-Sterling from “Macross,” Asuka and Rei from “Evangelion,” Yoko from “Gurren Lagan,” and then a quick bit on Yoko from “Gunbuster” before they had to wrap the panel. It was a fun little presentation that benefited from the presenters’ energy and the fact that you really couldn’t argue with the selection of the characters here. I did appreciate seeing them finding positive things to say about Milia in “Macross 7” and the discussion of how sexualized Yoko became in “Gurren Lagan” as a result of the animation staff. Enjoyable, but it could probably benefit from giving us some more obscure selections in their next version of this panel so I could feel like I’ve actually learned more.
We [Heart] Godzilla
This was a panel hosted by one of the Japanese Guests of Honor, Hirokatsu Kihara. He’s primarily known for his work with Studio Ghibli, so you may be wondering what his connection to Godzilla was. As he told everyone at the start of the panel, he has nothing to do with any of the movies! However, in addition to being a lifelong fan of the character, he’s also responsible for writing an exhaustive (and now rare) book about the making of the original “Godzilla,” and having over 300 figures from the franchise at home.
An excellent public speaker, Kihara had plenty of anecdotes to share about his life and experiences with Godzilla. He told the audience about the time he put a giant Mothra statue on his desk during the filming of “Laputa, Castle in the Sky” and how it really irked Miyazaki. While the legendary animator took issue because they were an animation studio, all of the other animators came to Kihara’s defense and the figure was allowed to stay. All of the other Godzilla-related images they tried to sneak into the movie, well, Miyazaki caught and erased them all.
We also heard about the time that Toho and DC discussed doing a Batman/Godzilla team-up that never made it past the idea of Batman and Robin dropping a lot of banana peels behind the Batmobile and Godzilla slipping on them. Other ideas he talked about that never made it into the franchise include Big G getting a robotic girlfriend that he would fall in love with at first sight, but would explode because she was just a plan by humanity to get him. There was also the bit about King Ghidora’s skin originally being blue in his first design incarnation, but then being changed after an offhand remark by the screenwriter wondering why he wasn’t gold because he came from a golden star.
The panel was full of fun bits of information like this, and we even got to hear Kihara do his version of Godzilla’s roar after a fan asked him to do one. Then came the highlight of the panel (and probably of this con) for me. Kihara brought three “Godzilla” movie posters to give away and to do so, he challenged the entire room to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, and… I WON THE FIRST ROUND! Usually I have the worst kind of luck at these things, but this time I prevailed and won a poster of “Godzilla vs. Mothra!” It was great and now I just have to clear out a space on my wall somewhere to put it.
Nausicaa: 40 Years of Legacy
It’s the 40th anniversary of the “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind” film and Richard “MoNgReL” Neil was on hand to remind us all why the anime and the manga are still worth watching and reading today. He went into the history of the film, which wasn’t actually a Ghibli production. It was actually produced by a studio called Topcraft, and the experience of working on the film led its key creatives to subsequently found that legendary studio. Familiar bits about the production, such as the changes Miyazaki had to make from his (at the time, incomplete) manga to Hideaki Anno’s work on animating the God Warrior sequences also got a mention as well.
Richard also made the case for people who haven’t read the manga to do so as well. He talked about some of the elements that were specific to it compared to the film and the extended arcs that some of its characters, like Kushana and Kurotowa, go through there. Contributions from the audience were taken as well, and I got to offer my thoughts on what makes Kurotowa an interesting character (his surprising sense of morality, despite how shifty he can come across when he’s first introduced). Richard didn’t say anything about this being the best manga (or comic) ever created, but his appreciation for it came off as genuine.
Then we got into what was the most interesting part of the panel for me, talking about “Warriors of the Wind.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with that, it’s the edited and abridged version of “Nausicaa” that was originally released in the U.S. back in 1987. Long considered an abomination by fans, it was the reason Studio Ghibli was so reluctant to release its films here until Disney got involved. Richard offered an appreciably amusing analysis of the box art which both offered 80’s-esque approximation of some characters and some… questionable artistic license. Then he played some clips from the film to show off its awkward dubbing and editing, and talked about what was cut from the film. Which was basically everything relating to its ecological message. All of this was informative, and underlined how lucky we were to have access to unedited versions of the movie and the manga today.
Finally:
I’m sitting in the San Jose Mineta International Airport as I write this, trying to shake off the post-convention blues. Even though I arrived here on Thursday, it feels like the experience just flew right past me. I blinked when I touched down on Thursday and when I opened my eyes I’m preparing to depart on Monday. Overdramatic, I know, as I had a very full convention experience as detailed above. Yet it’s still not enough and I’m already looking forward to the 2025 edition of Fanime. No other convention experience hits the way this one does for me.
