Manga Monday: Sakura-Con Report--Part 1!

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Manga Monday: Sakura-Con Report—Part 1!

04/28/2014 4:14pm

Manga Monday: Sakura-Con Report—Part 1!

Sakura-Con 2014, this last weekend in Seattle, WA, was Dark Horse Manga's first Japanese fan convention of the season (we'd also been in town just a few weeks earlier for Emerald City Comic-Con). For a Portland-area company such as our own, Sakura-Con is easy to get to; the convention center is literally built right above Interstate 5, so all you have to do is get on the freeway and keep driving north until you see a big city. Don't get confused and turn off early in Centralia.

In the words of a great Seattle native (he is, in fact, the J.R. Ewing of Seattle), our posse was so big we walked in twos, in this case, two twos. The four-person contingent staffing the Dark Horse booth consisted of, first of all, from our marketing department, booth manager Katie Bednark on the right, and Zach Klassen on the left, who also took many of our cosplay pictures from the con. This particular shot, as well as some others, was taken by fellow editor Jemiah Jefferson (Vampire Hunter D, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, Oreimo). And then there was me, who was hopefully doing...something productive.

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which also means, of course, the 20th anniversary of Evangelion cosplay. I point it out because this has to be one of the most amazing feats of Eva costuming I've seen in those two decades. Let's start with the concept itself: this is the original TV version of Sahaquiel, the 10th Angel (there was a different version in Evangelion 2.0). A few of the Angels are humanoid in shape, but certainly not Sahaquiel, and it took a bold imagination to conceive of a person trying to depict it. Yet it works great once you see it, and everything about Sahaquiel's nature is present—the coloring, the line and eye motifs, the orbicular laminae. It's well-tailored. It was predicted by the Dead Sea Scrolls! The cosplayer was too nice to drop an AT-Field on our booth, or Angel-slap Asuka, even though it would have been easy with those...whatever those things are that Sahaquiel possesses.

Of course, that's the Shinji Ikari Raising Project Asuka—Asuka Langley Soryu. Ain't nobody slapping Asuka Langley Shikinami of Evangelion 3.0, the Bushwick Bill of anime. Note how Gaki Shinji is reduced to a size more worthy of him, as Asuka rocks the limited-edition Pentax Q10 Shinji Ikari camera. These cameras, by the way, also come in Asuka and Rei color schemes, but I guess it's just a reminder of what a burden he's become for her. I'm hoping the Blu-Ray of the movie will have bonus footage of Asuka dragging Shinji—over rocks, brambles, jagged scrap metal, etc.

I used to think Kaworu was the best-looking Angel, but after that Sahaquiel, I dunno. I just wanted to say that while it was very romantic for him to place Shinji's collar on himself in 3.0, maybe he should have thought a little harder about the possible trauma it might induce. It's the eternal truth of which we fans have to remind ourselves: looks good together (does not necessarily) = are good together.

Sachiel seems to be a little forlorn, as if saying—come on, that guy didn't really beat me, did he? Well, no. Technically, Eva Unit-01 did, in Beast Mode. So that's something.

All right, let's switch modes, too. At odds with the times, in wars with no lords are, of course, Jin, Fuu and Mugen—we're always proud to tout our Samurai Champloo Roman Album, a full English translation of the official guide to the episodes, characters, creators and musicians of this great series.

No less walk on earth, water, and fire—leaving air for last, which brings us to Korra. The Legend of Korra is not an anime, of course, but judging by how popular our Avatar: The Last Airbender books were at Sakura-Con, there's no doubt it has a lot of crossover fans. Considering how creatively it uses anime influences to make a story that stands on its own, that's not surprising. A lot of foreign fans dream of going to Japan to make manga or anime, but I think even better is to create works right here inspired by Japanese culture, and thus expand the worldwide influence of the originals (Avatar, of course, has many influences, not just anime. But directors such as Hideaki Anno have said that anime itself should use influences beyond just other anime).

I just got an e-mail requesting a "concise" bio of CLAMP, when even listing their bibliography would take quite a while ^_^ But I thought this would be a good chance to pivot to Chobits' Chi (both volumes of Chobits are about to go into their fourth printing) standing next to a banner advertising New Lone Wolf and Cub. This very nicely captures the diversity of Dark Horse Manga, doesn't it?

In its fifth printing, however, is Cardcaptor Sakura, and it's cool that she's wearing the same outfit Sakura does on the cover of Book One. And considering how many outfits she has, that was sheer good luck. I like to think of Tomoyo as Sakura's Alfred—if it was Alfred who owned Wayne Manor, and if Alfred was always tailoring new costumes for Master Bruce. Why hasn't CLAMP been asked to do Batman: Black and White?

Now, Sakura would never hurt anyone with that device, but the same can't be said for Blood-C's Saya Kisaragi and her own "magic staff," which has the amazing power to lower your blood pressure without diets or medicine.

Fortunately, we can end Part 1 of our Sakura-Con report on a peaceful note, as Belldandy showed up to make everybody get along. Did you know that this August is going to be the 20th anniversary of Dark Horse publishing Oh My Goddess!...? Even Hellboy is only a few months older. And have you noticed, by the way, that both Hellboy and Belldandy have been spending a lot of time in Hell lately, yet the depictions of it in their books are quite different? I don't want to say which story is telling the truth, but I will note that Goddesses First Class never lie. They sometimes omit certain details, however.

See you next week with our Sakura-Con report, Part 2!

—Carl Horn

Manga Editor

Dark Horse Comics

Manga Monday: Sakura-Con Report—Part 1!

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Manga Monday: Sakura-Con Report—Part 1!

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