Manga Mondays: 2013 Cosplay Album Part 3

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Manga Mondays: 2013 Cosplay Album Part 3

12/23/2013 12:12pm

2013 Cosplay Album Part 3: Kumoricon!

If you went to Kumoricon, you know that the dealer's room may be a place to sell stuff, but it'll never sell out. I'm not talking about how many booths there are, but the uncompromising feel of the place; hard, like concrete. They keep it strictly underground—sort of a garage vibe, if you will. It's our local anime con, and it's got character. And chara, as you'll see below.

Located just across the Columbia from Portland in Vancouver, WA, Lewis & Clark sailed past the site of Kumoricon over two centuries ago, yet the journals of the expedition give little hint that one day a gathering devoted to Japanese animation and manga would rise along these shores. But perhaps they suspected; after all, Jefferson told Lewis that this route could be just the thing for trade with Asia.

Following in such immortal footsteps, Dark Horse's Jemiah Jefferson, Kari Yadro, Katie Bednark, and Carl Horn (who for some reason I am referring to in the third person) made an expedition of their own to Kumoricon, assisted by our friends at the con Sarah Paige, Kate Fletcher, and Nathan Schuler. The convention staff worked hard, and they had things to celebrate this year, for Kumoricon broke the 5,000 attendee mark in 2013 and is expanding to a four-day event in 2014.

Sarah Sullivan from Funimation was kind enough to be part of our Evangelion panel, where she showed the first 20 minutes of You Can (Not) Redo, which, needless to say, moved the crowd. I got the chance to see the whole thing later on that evening courtesy of Sully, who had already watched the movie several times and had made a number of observations on it. Because I work in the industry myself, I appreciated the chance to experience the film with someone whose job it will be to release it here. I can say that Sully is just the kind of person an anime fan would hope to work at Funimation—very thoughtful and cultured, full of insight, and someone who connects to Eva on both an emotional and analytical level.

I was particularly glad that our own Jemiah Jefferson could attend this year's Kumoricon, because in addition to being the editor of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, she's the editor of Oreimo, and, inspired by Saori, hosted the manga's letters column, "The Off-Kai." With the anime having concluded just a few weeks earlier, and the manga just about to end, it was the perfect time for Jemiah to moderate an Oreimo panel at Kumoricon, which was well attended—thank you to everyone who came by! Speaking of whom...

Kumoricon 2012 had been the first place you could buy vol. 1 of the Oreimo manga, the weekend before it showed up in stores. So we thought it appropriate to premiere the finale of the Oreimo manga, vol. 4, at Kumoricon 2013. Kirino Kousaka cannot resist a convention special, so she ended up dragging Kyousuke to our booth as well. I know the ending of Oreimo was controversial; I personally think it should have ended in the only appropriate way for a brother and sister to resolve their issues—a game of Connect Four.

"Friends..." Whodini once asked, "...how many of us have them?" Thanks to CLAMP, the answer is never going to be less than two: Tomoyo Daidouji and Sakura Kinomoto. They're a bit like Batman and Superman. Tomoyo has the money, the mansion, and the gadgets, and Sakura has the flight, the cheerful colors, and the positive outlook. And even Superman can't boast of having the power of his own star. He's got to rely on that big yellow thing up there.

There's a Chi for every occasion, and such is the appeal of the character that even 12 years after the manga first came out in Japan, and even at a relatively smaller event like Kumoricon, we still had two different versions drop by our booth. There are dozens more inside the two Chobits omnibuses, many featured in full color, just as here. Sometimes I find it hard to believe Rie Tanaka played both Chi and Yomi from Azumanga Daioh, but that's why they call it acting, I reckon.

And then there's another persona with persistence, Haruko Haruhara from FLCL. I think a lot of movies about space invaders—Starship Troopers, Aliens, Predator—show up just how insecure human beings are. I mean, not only are we afraid they're going to destroy/kill/conquer/eat us, we've got to portray them as ugly and slimy to boot. We can't face up to the idea that maybe, just maybe, we'll lose to aliens because they'll turn out to be way cooler than us. David Bowie, of all people, should have known to just whack us in the face with a guitar, Haruko style.

We were honored by our first-ever MPD Psycho cosplayer! Check it out—she's doing the human flower pot from Vol. 1! We were also pleased that this encounter ended in smiles, and not in a violent, transgressive bloodbath. You know, when we first went to the creators about licensing this manga, artist Sho-u Tajima told us, "Who you tryin' to get crazy with, otaku? Don't you know I'm loco...?" Well, actually, he didn't, but I intend to keep telling that story.

You know how there are all those Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project covers where Rei and Asuka are smiling and buddies, even though they don't get along in the story? You might have suspected this all along, but we have a confession to make: those covers are touched up in Photoshop. Here's a rare unaltered image of the First and Second Child.

And finally, where would Dark Horse be without Domo? You can't escape his friendly maw, and neither could we, in what is evidently the last known picture taken by the booth crew. We would also like to acknowledge Domo-kun for achieving the best composition among any of the cosplay shots. Whereas everyone else showed up with curved lines and oblique angles, look at how Domo takes care to keep things at 90 degrees for smooth integration with the frame.

—Carl Horn, Manga Editor

Dark Horse Comics

Manga Mondays: 2013 Cosplay Album Part 3

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Manga Mondays: 2013 Cosplay Album Part 3

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