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12th August 2001

Yet another way-too-early rise. It was Sunday, and I still had to get up early! Pity that MANIFEST wasn't big enough yet to have hotels attached to it, so all I'd have to do is go downstairs and be at the con! Oh, well. Maybe in a few years...

This time, my costume was a lot lighter, so my bag wasn't heavy at all, so going on the train and tram was no problem, thankfully! And it only took a few moments to get changed - doing my hair took longer than putting on the dress! ^_^

As I wasn't on any panels till the afternoon, the morning was just spent hanging out in the hallway with the others, and chatting and playing cards. Heh, I learned a new card game - Big Two. That was fun ... it was my first time playing, and I won! (Though I had people helping me. I really needed the help. ^_^ ) Another game was Five Alive... heh, that was cool. It went from four people playing it down to the final two - myself and Andy. And I won! Woohoo! My little men survived, yay!!!

Lunch was yet another BBQ, which was good. It was actually sunny outside (so I could wear my Chinese dress outside without freezing to death, amazing as it might seem for winter!) and after than, I got together with Chi and Rosa to practise for the Great Debate... We all went through our speeches one by one. It was the first time I'd said it out aloud, and I went a number of minutes over the allotted time, but hey. I scribbled out a few things, and we were set to go!

But first, I had to go judge the cosplay. (So no more practise time for me - the others might have done some more, but I had to go 'work'!)

Today, Widya was dressed up as ... something I had no idea what he was trying to be. Until he said he was meant to be Cologne. *laugh* Oh, dear... but it is a cool way to go about it. Too bad the walls were a light colour instead of dark, otherwise his outfit would have been so much cooler!!

Again, I only took a few photos of the cosplayers (and a photo of all of them at the end)... but there were less cosplayers today. And I didn't want to find that I didn't have any film left for taking photos later in the day, so I abstained from taking photos of most of the cosplayers. Sorry, guys.

Judging was still hard... we had a system going, though, so that did make it somewhat easier, but we had such a hard time in picking some of those who were either in the top three or the role play winner! But we finally picked Kate's Rabi en Rose as winner of the role playing... and Zaley's Zelgadis won best costume, judged by the audience.

Now was the event that everyone had been waiting for (well, lots of people, anyway): The Great Debate! "That Girls Make Better Anime Fans than Guys" with the girls' team as the negative. Nick (dressed as the female Maze) was MC (and organiser) for the event.

The boys' team had Andy Soetedja, Peter Strong and Alex Law. The girls' team were Chi-Sze Ooi, myself and Rosa Scabellone.

Since I only have access to my own part, I thought I'd share my points (you may or may not find them amusing. People laughed when I did my part, so at least the audience was amused!):

Men are obviously the bigger anime fans.

Men are obviously the bigger anime fans.

Fanfics

• Big anime fans write fanfics.
• 90% (or more) of the fanfics are written by men.
• Most of these fanfics tend to be the fantasies of men.
• The bigger the anime fan, the more about their fantasies they will write.
• The biggest anime fans, then, are ones who write fanfics where female anime characters are placed in many and varied sexual situations out of said fantasies.
• This means that males are obviously the bigger - and hence better - anime fans. Just look at all of the plotless, grammarless sex-fest lemon fanfics out there!
• Girls, on the other hand, drivel on with plot, characterisation, spelling and grammar and don't get to the good bits fast enough, if at all. Really, what anime fan would care for *stories
• rather than writing about the good stuff - the anime characters themselves?!
• One of the biggest anime fans has to be Jack Ji - he has a story about himself in the Ranmaverse. Shampoo (from Ranma 1/2) forces herself over him, with magic powders and potions and other trickery to get him into the sack, while he's all good and noble and fending her off, even though he 'loves' her... and then ends up using the hilt of his sword to have sex with her!
Here are a few examples from this story, starting with the first paragraph:

"Help me, Shampoo-chan!" Jack begged of her. The passion spice was moving throughout Jack's body. He lost all control and needed Shampoo's body to relieve him.

Another famous part:

"Now what you doing?" Shampoo looked up. Jack was holding up with his katana in his hand.

You really, really don't want to be subjected to what happens next.

He's obviously a big anime fan, putting himself into a story where he has his way with Shampoo. How could a story about love and romance and a plot even come close to that!?

Men write more fanfics, and so are obviously the biggest - and so the better - anime fans.

Spending Habits

• The bigger the anime fan, the more money spent on anime and manga and related products.
• The biggest anime fan will go out and spend as much of their hard earned cash on anime, manga, anime model kits, t-shirts and other such paraphernalia.
• Women, while they might spend more money than men, over all, tend to go out and spend their money on non-anime products such as clothes, food, toiletries, make-up, soap, deodorant and toothpaste, with little money left over for anime products! They care more about looking pretty and smelling nice than they do about anime!
• While women may buy a lot of anime products, they waste so much money elsewhere. The biggest anime fans would never dream of doing that!
• It's the men - the biggest anime fans - who will spend the greatest percentage of their cash on such products, caring little about missing out on unimportant things such as food and soap. The most important thing is having the latest and greatest anime, not looks and smells!
Men spend more money on anime products, and so are obviously the biggest - and so the better - anime fans.

Anime Conventions

• Anime conventions attract the biggest anime fans.
• The bigger the fan, the more photos will be taken at anime conventions.
• The biggest and best of the anime fans will take these photos and show them to friends, and therefor attract their friends to the anime scene.
• And the best way that this can be done, through the photos, is to take the photos of the girls in the sexy anime costumes at the conventions and show it to friends.
• If a girl tried to do that, she'd be thought strange or a lesbian, and her friends probably wouldn't be caught dead at a convention where *girls
• take photos of half naked women! They're just the tool - they're already among anime fans, and so can't bring anyone new to the scene. They're at the scene! But have a guy show his male friends? Then he'll be the man of the hour, and no doubt his new anime fan friends will turn up to the next convention, drooling! Men excel at this, and so must be better anime fans. As for the girls in sexy costume?
• Then there is the fact that it's men who appear at conventions for more time than women.
• The men are bigger anime fans because they turn up, do the panels or hang out to drool at the pretty girls in costume, and buy, buy, buy at the dealers room. The bigger the anime fan, the more time they spend at the convention. The biggest anime fans are there 24/7 and those are males!
• Girls, on the other hand, seem to be in the hotel room for a large percentage of their time, rather than attending the convention itself. They're either there dressing up in costume, off at a nearby cafe eating, having their daily shower or bath... or doing the most un-fan-ish thing possible - sleeping!!
• The bigger the anime fan, the less time they waste at conventions. The bigger - and so better - the fan, the more they're about the convention itself, the less they eat, the more tired they look and the worse they smell. (Take a step into the dealer's room at Anime Expo next year if you don't believe me.)
• Then there are the most dedicated fans who cross-play - they dress up as the opposite sex when they cosplay at an anime convention. Girls do this so little - there might be a few dressing up as a bishounen prince from a bishoujo manga... but by far, the bravest and most courageous anime fans are the men that dress up as female anime characters. They risk being called many, insulting names because they are such big anime fans! A woman as a female character? That's nothing to her, but a man could lose face!

• Men who dress up as women - such as this one dressed as Shampoo - must be the biggest, and best, anime fans out there!
• And, as a little side note, the bigger the anime fan, the more information they will be able to provide at anime panels... over the top of the panelist... not letting them get a word in edgewise... from the audience! I've only ever seen males doing this, so they must be the bigger anime fans! (Take the guy at Anime Expo with the broken arm, for example... and the guy at the Viz panel last year...)

Therefor, it's obvious that men are the biggest - and so the better - anime fans.

Anyway, we girls were all lying - of COURSE girls make better anime fans than guys! ^_~

One thing did tick me off at the debate - why on EARTH was Justin sitting up behind the debaters when he had nothing to do with the Great Debate?! He should have been sitting in the audience like everyone else! That really annoyed me, when I noticed. But by then it was too late. -_-

Anyway, next we moved over to the main auditorium to find out who won MAS's drawing... and Alex Neilson won the DVD player!! Ah, well... I think he bought a whole book. No wonder my 10 little tickets didn't win a thing! ^^;

I attended two other panels (I didn't have any more 'work' to do! Thank goodness!) - the Costuming panel which was interesting, though I don't know if I'll ever sit down and start sewing stuff. It's much easier just to buy something. (Yeah, I'm just lazy!) And then the Anime Music panel. Well. Let me say that this was the worst panel that I'd ever been to. Instead of being a panel about anime music, maybe with Andy and Brad (I don't know if Brad was asked or not, but he wasn't there) talking about a6m, the J-Rock band they're in... maybe with samples of music from different anime through the years... maybe some music played by the guys from the band... maybe some anime clips to show how different music is used in anime... No, instead of any of that, it was Justin sitting there talking about his favourite music, and playing whole songs all the way through, of the music he likes, even though the audience was so bored that they were talking to each other over the top of said music!! Andy, who was in the panel, hardly got a word to say! Eventually it changed into some form of not organised karaoke... and Justin started singing two songs!!!! What on earth was this, the Justin panel!? What on earth does Justin have to do with anime music, anyway? Nothing, as far as I knew! Why couldn't he just let Andy talk instead of taking over the panel? He didn't even seem to know that the audience was sick fed up of hearing Justin's music! He even told us to 'Shh!' once or twice, I think. Talk about not getting the hint... *sigh*

Eventually we left and headed down to the theatre, where the closing was going to happen. We caught the last few minutes of the Escaflowne movie, and then there was the thanks for the people who worked at putting MANIFEST together and getting it running, and the different plugs for the anime clubs involved. And that was, unfortunately, the end of MANIFEST for the year.

A number of us, who hadn't eaten, headed off to find some dinner. It turned out to be a large party, which got even larger as we couldn't find an open Japanese restaurant. In the end we did find one, and took up two long tables! The people there were definitely not expecting us, so the food took a long time to be cooked and served, but we spent the time talking. It was a nicer way to end MANIFEST than the final panel...

Ah, well. After dinner it was time to head home, and get what little sleep I could before heading out to work the next morning. I was tired, but over all, I had a good time. I hope MANIFEST will be even bigger and better, next year!

MANIFEST 2001 - Day 1

Here's a list of the images - select the link or the thumbnails (they have been cropped, so the largest images are shown in full) to view them!

	The MANIFEST BBQ - The BBQs were all set up for all the people who came to MANIFEST - they were still all inside watching some anime or other in the theatres...
	Cosplay Girls - Three costumed girls, ready for the Cosplay, head off to 7-11 for supplies! Kate, as Rabi en Rose (she won the role playing award for the day!), Cara as Digiko and Kat as Sailor Moon again.
	Jono and Me - Nick said for me to pose sexy... so there you go. ^_~
	Andy and Me - Posing for the camera. I don't look too bad in this photo - it's quite a nice one of me. ^_^ (And Andy's just Andy. No more to be said about that!)
	Cosplay Judges - And here we are, for a second day, judging the Sunday Cosplayers!
	Widya as Cologne - Just ignore me going 'Hmm?' at Nick, but there's Widya in his Cologne (from Ranma 1/2) costume, MCing the Sunday Cosplay!
	Zelgadis - Zaley as Zelgadis - this was the best costume for Sunday!
	Generic Neko-chan - Ami dressed up as a generic cat girl.
	Black Lady - Alicia as the Black Lady - an evil, grown up Chibi Usa - from Sailor Moon.
	Maze - Nick (wearing balloons under that shirt) as the female Maze. He didn't enter the cosplay (or cross-play for that matter), but here's his photo anyway!
	The Sunday Cosplayers - I didn't take a photo of everyone, so here's the photo of everyone who entered the cosplay contest!
	The Great Debate Audience - Even before we started, the boys and girls sat on different sides of the room of their own accord! And what a turn out! ^_^

	Andy's Turn - Andy's first person for the Boys' Team, debating on why Girls are better anime fans than guys.
	Chi's Turn - Chi gets up to rebut Andy and say why it's not true that Girls are better anime fans than guys.
	Peter's Turn - Then Peter rebuts and continues for the boys' team...
	My Turn - I rebut and continue for the girls' team...
	Nick About to Kill Me - Heh, while I was talking about cross-playing, Nick was about to stab me... *grin*
	Alex's Turn - Alex was the last debater for the boys' team.
	Rosa's Turn - And Rosa finishes up for the girls!
	The Debate Winners - The Girls' Team - Chi, myself and Rosa. Of course, we won the debate! ^_~
	The Costuming Panel - Andy and two others (I don't really know who they are, sorry) talked to people about the art of costuming.
	The Anime Music Panel - Andy plays some music for others to sing along with near the end of the panel. It didn't last too long. And that was the most exciting thing that happened during the panel, I'm afraid to say - previously it was Justin talking about (and playing) his favourite music. ^^;;;;;;
	Andy, Posing - Nick gets Andy to pose for the camera. Does anyone get the idea that Andy loves the camera??? ^_^
	At the Closing of MANIFEST - The theatre of the people still left by the end of MANIFEST, awaiting the last few announcements before the con finished for another year.
	After Con Dinner - A huge group of us went out for dinner (we found one open Japanese place on Lygon Street) to chat about the convention and the future!

Thanks to Thai, Neil and Nick for some of the photos!