Hello thar :)

[Sgirl]

Excuse my rambling. The coffee this morning hasn't quite kicked in.

I'm "S-Girl"/SGL or, if you were around on the Nausicaa Mailing List in the early 2000s (or Ranger-list in the 1990s)... I was also known as "Sherlgirl." (Yes, this is me: http://www.imasy.or.jp/~fukumoto/n/sear ... =sherlgirl )

I started off anime in the 90s -- largely as an add on to my animation fixation. I was a pretty solid Disney animation fan before some of my college friends started to show me random anime off VHS fansubs . I recall my first Ghibli movie was "My Neighbor Totoro." I think my mind was so totally blown and charmed by the premise that I remember watching a string of other tapes along the way. Later other friends would make me watch Ah My Goddess, Slayers, and other properties.

This same lovely friend got me started on visiting a local comic book store with her and we both started reading the single issue Viz Comics. I remember reading their issues of Ranma and even Maison Ikkoku back then.

When I left college I stuck with anime and manga more so than Disney and Marvel/DC/Vertigo comics. I became more active in fandom in the early 2000s by writing fanfiction and drawing more anime in my fanart. I went through an obsessive phase with Kenshin (sherlgirl/s-girl on http://hakubaikou.com) and Big O (as Sherlgirl on http://paradigm-city.com). I used to really try to be active with getting my stuff out there (I submitted to Newtype USA and Tokyopop every once in a while. You can even find my old fanart in Fruits Basket Vol. 1.

I really didn't start attending conventions until the early 2000s. I think Anime Expo was my first convention but as I live in the SE US, started going to other cons in the area like AWA and Animazement. Currently I still linger at cons but I'm less active in programming as I sit mostly in the artist alley. I generally stick to drawing what I like and doing very selective pencil sketch commissions at conventions. (You can see that stuff at http://s-girl.deviantart.com)

Because art is a hobby and not a source of income for me, I usually pick content topics that are obscure and that I personally like. I sometimes joke that I draw things that are extremely underappreciated. My sales at conventions are pretty mediocre but it pays for my markers and I enjoy the interaction with fellow anime fans a lot.

Why I'm here - I think I was actually looking for some breakdown on what was happening to some of the old time cons as they got uber-popular these past few years. Google led me here. I really do want to see what people closer to my age think about the industry, what they like watching, etc. It's odd to think that as someone who started going to cons in the early 2000s that I'm now among the old/cynical congoers who miss the smaller, more interactive anime communities of the past.

On the other hand, I like keeping up with current anime too. While I have many shows I have loved in the past and my output (in terms of fanworks) has had to decrease, I am relieved to see some good stuff still out there.

At my most engaged, I used to watch up to 8 shows at a time. Now that I spend a good portion of time working on my own original work, I have had to cut back significantly on anime. Currently I'm watching: Shingeki no Kyojin, Chihayafuru, Space Brothers. Guilty pleasures include Red Data Girl and Utahime (so bad it's funny but it's so popular with the teen crowd in Japan I have been studying it for future use).

Manga - I tend to read whatever I can for both enjoyment as well as self-study. Currently I collect "BLue Exorcist," Yotsuba&!, Bride's Story, Bakuman, " and have acquired a lot of Tezuka thanks to Kickstarter . I also keep up with Shonen Jump titles, so I'm reading Naruto, BLeach, and One Punch Man. As for as shojo - I read Skip Beat and collect the manga adaptations of the light novels "Earl and Fairy" and "Tale of Saiunkoku." I used to read the digital YenPress mag, but as they've skewed to mostly adaptations of English novels, I dropped it. However, I do follow the YenPress novel adaptations as they come out to graphic novel format. I'm deeply interested in this kind of mixed content and how people try to move the anime/manga female fandom into the original content realm.


Blah. Went on too long I think!

[usamimi]

Welcome, Sgirl! So good to have you! (And yay for more female fans! *high-fives*)

Heehee, after seeing your post, I had to go grab my copy of Fruits Basket and check it out! It's great you're still doing art! Your DA looks very cool.

Ahhhh, another fan of Chihayafuru! I've also been watching SnK, and I keep meaning to start of Space Brothers, I've heard good things about it.

Again, welcome, hope you make yourself at home in our little corner. ^^

[Sgirl]

Thanks for the welcome

I think Uchuu no Kyoudai (Space Brothers) and Chihayafuru take a while to pay off. It doesn't have the visceral impact/drama in its first episode like SnK, but I really love them just the same.

I'll be curious to see who else likes them... so far have found a few Chihaya fans through twitter but not many people are echoing my praise for Space Brothers.

[usamimi]

Yeah it took me a while to REALLY get into Chihayafuru, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I have some friends on Twitter who have similar tastes as me, so when they were talking it up, I couldn't resist trying it out. XD The same few have said good things about Space Brothers, which is why I have it on my "to watch eventually" list.

I really wish that someone would pick up the Chihaya manga, since the "bilingual" ones are ridiculously hard to find now (and expensive), but since karuta is such a foreign thing, I dunno how eager localizers would be to pick it up. :/ It's a shame, I figure the anime will be the same way...kind of a hard sell for a DVD release. But it's so interesting to me! XD

[Animusubi]

Welcome to the forum, Sgirl!

Nice to see another artist who has also been apart of AA's here! As well as another female fan! C: I checked out your DA, you have great painting skills (something I need to improve).

[Sgirl]

Welcome to the forum, Sgirl!

Nice to see another artist who has also been apart of AA's here! As well as another female fan! C: I checked out your DA, you have great painting skills (something I need to improve).

I added you back! Curious which part of the country you usually table at?

I really wish that someone would pick up the Chihaya manga, since the "bilingual" ones are ridiculously hard to find now (and expensive), but since karuta is such a foreign thing, I dunno how eager localizers would be to pick it up. :/ It's a shame, I figure the anime will be the same way...kind of a hard sell for a DVD release. But it's so interesting to me! XD

Whoever owns the license in Japan (Kodansha?) has tweeted they're not interested in the manga -- too much of a gamble due to length and content. They were quite stubborn about it too on twitter - sounded like someone who wasn't PR/Marketing at the handle because they got kind of snippy about it. (IT was pretty funny... Kodansha always seems defensive on Twitter.)

It's very frustrating too that in spite of the show's popularity on Crunchyroll that I haven't heard boo about a DVD either or haven't seen much in terms of merchandise even over in Japan.
I managed to snag the combo manga/anime b/w art volume (which is really sad) but that's been it. If this continues, I'm going to have to really think about buying the BluRays :/

Then again, CR popularity doesn't translate into commercial sales of DVDs or any success at cons. I put out a Chihayafuru picture and not a soul knew what it was.

[usamimi]

Awww! That's so sad, I would've been so excited if I'd seen someone with Chihaya art! ;A;

[Animusubi]

Welcome to the forum, Sgirl!

Nice to see another artist who has also been apart of AA's here! As well as another female fan! C: I checked out your DA, you have great painting skills (something I need to improve).

I added you back! Curious which part of the country you usually table at?

I've done AA in Washington and Oregon. But I haven't done it for years, taking a long break from it for a while. So I mostly just attend cons when I can, but I think 2014 or 2015 I might try doing it again, but at a comic convention this time around. I feel like artist alleys are full of jewelry, homestuck, and my little pony, and being into less and less newer anime, I think I'd do better at a comic convention where people might know more of what I'm offering. Haha. Though one year I did sell lots of 90's chibi prints and sold out of just about everything I had.

[Sgirl]

I think comic conventions up there in the NW region are different -- a little more open to stuff than those down here in the SE. Comics are for comic pros mostly from what I could tell.

I do hear you though about what AAs have become and it's frustrating at times... hence my continued thinking of leaving them pretty much for a while.

That said, the one good thing about being on the "old side" of the represesnted artists is that I have a portfolio that is really deep if I ever nee d to pull out some pieces. Sometimes it's good to have the old stuff honestly - because those are the fans who appreciate what you have more and will come over and talk to you. (How sad is it that we unite over our oldness ;_;!) I've even had a few voice actors come by at both AWA and Animazement because I have something they also like . That made the sitting there in the alley feeling really OLD worth it xD.


I hope to go out to SakuraCon next year just to wander. I always like the complement of guests that show on the west coast... and also am curious about the fandom up there. Haven't been to a west coast con in probably 3-4 years? Maybe longer... I went to AX until the second year in the LACC and decided not to go when the huge volunteer walkout happened. It just got too stressful to do the AA and too crowded to enjoy as a convention anymore.

[Daniel]

So we meet again.... a couple days after exchanging emails.

Welcome to the board, Sherline.