Last weekend, my youngest son and I attended Anime Expo in Los Angeles. We commuted the first day and stayed overnight for the remaining days. We even cosplayed as characters from One Piece for all four days. My son was Monkey D. Luffy, and I was one of his mentors, Silvers Rayleigh.
Even though it was crowded and we had to wait in a lot of lines, we had a great time immersing ourselves in anime culture. A highlight was the One Piece cosplay meet-up on Day Three, which included hundreds of other One Piece cosplayers. So much fun.
On the second night, we had planned on attending the premiere of the English Dub for the 1000th Episode, but due poor planning and over aggressive marketing, more people lined up (thousands) and fewer people could attend (a hundred?) than anyone expected.
This was a huge disappointment to the thousands of fans waiting in line for the event. We persevered and made the most of the situation and didn’t leave the line until the very end. We bonded with all those remaining in line around us, breaking out in song to Bink’s Brew, and posing for our final pictures together.
Mechhaven Missives
- Except for a final spelling/capitalization consistency pass and taking care of a few other details, editing on Mechhaven Book 4: Rally Point is complete. I’ll wrap these up this weekend and start formatting the book this coming week.
- I’m aiming for a mid-to-late August release, pending confirmation of when I can set up promotions for the launch. I’m excited for all of you to read Rally Point and am hoping to dive back into writing Book 5 very soon!
Mech of the Month
While at Anime Expo, I was disappointed by the lack of “mech” related booths and merch. I had hoped to come home with some new inspirations for Mechhaven. That being said, one booth that always had a line around it that never lessened for the entire four days was Gundam Base. Gundams were already on my radar to be mechs of the month for July, but since the booth was so popular and I witnessed fans walking around with cool bags filled with Gundam merch, that solidified my pick.
Just for full disclosure, I am a Gundam novice. The first Gundam series premiered in 1979 and has spawned multiple other series over the years, as well as a popular line of models called Gunpla (Gundam Plastic Models). I’ve been aware of the Gundam for a very long time, I’ve even bought my son a model or two, but for some reason I never got into any of the shows. Recently I watched the prologue and first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury, the newest Gundam series. I enjoyed what I saw so far and am looking forward to watching more.
If you have a favorite Gundam series or know of a great starting point for newbies like me, please reach out and let me know.
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Until next time, have fun and read a lot of books!
Greg Sorber