On the Road, or My Saturday at JACON 2002

By Alison L. Roberts

There aren't many anime/manga-related events in the state of Florida. This makes me sad because I live in Florida, and it is a PitA always to have to travel out of state to attend a con. Thankfully, there are people actively trying to change this situation. To this end, the Japanese Animation Club of Orlando (JACO) puts on its annual event, JACON.

The best thing I can say about JACON is that it is a living, breathing work-in-progress. I mean this as a compliment. This is the third JACON I have attended, and each year its organizers seem to try to make it bigger and better than its previous incarnation. (For the most part, they succeed.) Below, you'll find a snapshot of the event, courtesy of my trusty Palm Pilot and messy graffiti writing.

- Attendance: There seemed to be another marked jump in attendance. Although JACON is UCF's club and the content of the video programming reflected this, the overall crowd skewed really young, especially in comparison to bigger events like Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) or Orlando's Mega-Con.

- The Dealers' Room: A fair amount of the items for sale in the dealer's room were boot. I don't buy these items because I am an ornery, creative-type who, in theory, expects to be paid for her work. (I realize it's easy to have ethics when you can afford to buy the legit versions.) The bottom line: If you are someone like me, there were not many shopping options, dammit.

- Cool Guests of Honor: For the first time in my attendance at JACON, they had honest-to-gosh guests that most fans would recognize. . .
     - Two for one: ADV Films' voice actor Brett Weaver (Carrot, Sorcerer Hunters and a ton of other roles) was present and in fine form. (He was also a hoot at AWA last year.) Also, the much-talked-about EK (Elizabeth Kirkindall) was there and played a significant role in AMV-themed portions of convention programming. I didn't get a chance to attend any of her panels, etc., but she has a cool site that everyone should check out: www.big-big-truck.com
     - Fans of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block were in for a treat with several chances to meet the voice of Space Ghost, George Lowe. He was nothing short of hilarious, in his own patented way. At the end of his panel, he hung out at the door, making noise and attempting to shake the hands of individual audience members. He looked a little surprised when, as he shoved his hand at me, I took him up on his offer. (What was that about?)

- Panels, Workshops & Stuff to Do: Like the two previous JACONs, things to do were few and far between. This was a bit disappointing if you weren't interested in whatever panel — in most cases, singular — was going on, or if a particular panel was canceled. (To remedy this, I bought two graphic novels, sat in the student union's cafeteria and started reading and writing.)

- Anime Music Videos: In the handful of cons that I've attended, I never had the opportunity to check out the AMV contest. As to be expected, the overall quality varied quite a bit with a few rather questionable entries (slide show, anyone?) made to look even more questionable when compared to some truly excellent work. All of you AMV producers out there: Go out of your way to choose music and video clips that you don't think others will use. Example: No matter how good a Vampire Hunter D video is, the audience can't help but squirm and groan when it is the seventh or eighth Vampire Hunter D video shown in a 20 minute time span.

- Cosplay Contest: This really isn't my gig, and besides, I had a video room to hit. (See below.)

- The Video Rooms: I am a bit of a DVD snob, so I usually don't bother to check out the video rooms. This is something that changed thanks to JACON. They went out of their way to provide some programming that wasn't facing an impending release. I hung around an extra hour or so to see the first two episodes of 1998's Legend of Basara. Someone needs to license this 13-episode series. NOW. And while we're licensing things, someone must license the manga by Yumi Tamura, in addition to all of her other work. (Can you tell I love Chicago in Animerica Extra? Just a little bit.)

All in all, it was a very pleasant way to end my Saturday at JACON. Is there room for improvement? Heck, yeah. But you know what? I'll be back for next year's edition. Great job, gang!

JUST THE FACTS. . .
Event: JACON
Organized by: Japanese Animation Club of Orlando (JACO), University of Central Florida
Dates: May 31-June 2, 2002 (Day attended: June 1, 2002)
Location:  University of Central Florida Student Union, Orlando, Florida
For more information:
                           - Japanese Animation Club of Orlando: www.jaco.org
                           - JACON: www.jacon.org