Though the schedule hasn’t been posted yet, there are some special events listed that I would like to attend this year, depending on the timing. It’s likely that I’ll pick one of the two days based on the schedule, which means I’ll miss some things, but that’s the way it goes. I find it tough to devote two whole days to Otafest, but I also find it hard to skip entirely.

Hopefully this year there won’t be as many schedule conflicts as there were last year. In 2006, it seemed like every time something interesting was scheduled, there are about 3 other interesting things scheduled as well. It’s the nature of the beast with any convention / festival, I guess.

Have no fear, though; I’m not madly stitching the last few sequins onto my costume. Really, I’m not.

The rather disturbing premise behind the notebook is that you can kill someone simply by writing their name in the notebook. It is also possible to dictate details such as the time and manner of their death. It sounds rather grisly, but the presentation isn’t especially gory.

Though I’m not very far into the series (and so it’s not spoiling much to discuss this), things have already gotten interesting. Light initially uses the notebook to kill many well-known violent criminals, some of whom are already scheduled for execution. Light feels he is justified in killing these criminals, in order to make the world a safer place in which to live. The police take the view that what Light is doing is murder, plain and simple, and begin trying to figure out who he is in order to capture him.

Despite its somewhat gruesome premise, I’ll likely continue to watch the series. When it was first described to me, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the series, but it’s surprisingly well done. If you can stomach manga like I luv Halloween, then you certainly won’t have any issues with this.

First off, the costumes. It seemed like there were even more cosplayers than last year, and I really liked some of the costumes. My three favorites were as follows:

1. Cloud Strife, from FF7 AC. The guy actually had a leather getup made to match what Cloud wore in the movie, and the buster sword mockup he was carrying was quite impressive. Even the hair was done well, though not quite as perfectly executed as the rest of the costume.
2. Sora, from Kingdom Hearts (II). There were two Soras, but the best one was actually a female cosplayer. She had the costume pretty much nailed, down to the jewelery.
3. Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist. Even at a casual glance I knew exactly who she was. Even the hair was right. Very impressive.

Okay, but this was really about the anime. While I watched a number of different things, a few stand out in my mind.

1. Sukisyo – a sort of quirky shōnen-ai series. Much more suggestive than I was expecting, but I quite enjoyed it.
2. Eureka Seven – sort of has a bit of a mecha slant to it, but what really struck me was that the main character was drawn a lot like the main character from the manga Off*beat.
3. Fanboy Bebop – yes, you read that right. It’s a parody dub of Cowboy Bebop. In this retelling, it’s about anime fanboys attending a huge anime convention. It was off the wall, to say the least, but it managed to pack the room and everyone laughed constantly. It was hard not to laugh at some of the stuff they pulled, and the irony of the subject matter and the setting in which I watched it made it extra delicious. My favorite line: “bishōnen, bishōnen, bishōnen!” OK, maybe you had to be there.

In addition to watching anime, I picked up the Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack (OST). I’ve heard it before, and I was a little apprehensive since I wasn’t sure I liked the whole soundtrack that much, but it turns out I love it. It’s great for work, and for relaxing at home.

I also stumbled across a couple of manga series I’m interested in trying out. First, I have to do a bit of research to learn a bit more about the series, but I’ll probably end up picking the first issues of each series up to give them a try at some point.

Not bad for a Monday.