After the Storm

They're easier to indoctrinate at this age.

If I were to define the opposite of Japanese illustrated pop culture, it would be Glenn Gould's recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, which helped me decompress on the way home from AX. I think I need a vacation from my vacation. Sign me up for the Nodame Cantabile music camp.

However, being around the fan culture for four days revealed some emerging trends.

You can't take cartoons with you. Yes, they call it Anime Expo, but until portable DVD players reach the handheld level, you probably won't catch people watching their favorite shows while waiting in line or taking a breather. Instead, they're reading a recently-purchased manga volume or touching away on a Nintendo DS. Much has been said about the PSP's multimedia capabilities, but portable Nintendo systems dominated at the convention as the time-killing entertainment platform of choice. And if video gaming isn't your thing, then pull out the dead trees and enjoy yourself some comics.

Hay kids! Naruto! As if the boy ninja's ubiquitousness on Cartoon Network and the Bookscan graphic novels list weren't enough, Naruto's popularity with the middle-school-and-under set also came to life with tweens and pre-teens cosplaying as characters from the series. What was once the realm of download-happy internet addicts has now entered the mass market, and dress-up is the ultimate sign that kids are totally getting into it.

We are Americanese if you please. There may have been a time when it was easy to dismiss the Artist Alley of any Stateside anime convention as a dumping ground for "fake anime artists" and "wannabe manga-ka." The problem is, these wannabes are getting good. Visitors to the Alley were genuinely excited about original artwork, prints, and goodies that the main dealer room couldn't provide, like a xxxHOLiC poster beautiful enough to pass for actual CLAMP, and an "American doujinshi" that sold out within the first two days.

And the crazy thing? The AX Artist Alley was actually pretty small compared to what they do on the other side of the country at Otakon (or so I'm told).