Stranger than truth, only because it is the truth. Anime America 1995 officially marked my “return” to anime fandom, after a few years of being a fringe fan, mainly due to financial and job limitations. It was my first anime convention since Anime Expo 1992. Didn't have much money to spend on stuff, and I stayed up half the night before playing Shining Force CD, as well as try to look for my lost keys, but it was still worth it. Now, maybe it's just me, but isn't it pretty sad when one of the winners of the cosplay contest is a character from a live action sentai series that got screwed up for American children's TV? Oh well, there's 1995 for you. The good old days, before everything got fucked up, but then... I did see quite a lot of promotion for something called Shinseiki Evangelion ^_^; Even More Strange Stuff: Not too long ago, one of the Lupin III cosplayers tracked me down by email because of this page. He threw in a good word, and to this day, he still does Lupin at cons. Cool!

The dealers' room was pretty impressive, with most of the majors represented: A.D. Vision, Viz, Studio Proteus, among them. I spent quite a great deal of time at the Software Sculptors table, contemplating over whether or not to buy the Bubble Gum Crisis screen saver. (Well, I'm happy to say that Priss and the Knight Sabers have found a new home on my desktop! -- A tip of the hat to Software Sculptors for getting together a solid accessory that can do its stuff on low-end systems as well as high-end ones! -- Had to test it out on my sister's system, since that's where I stayed in San Jose... Saved me money over a hotel - Now, if ALL of us otaku out there were SO lucky! ^_^ )

Anyway, the masquerade (cos-play, or whatever you prefer to call it) was excellent, for my first time of seeing such an event. Let's see... I've seen two Ryogas, two Ranma-chans (One of them also entered as Shampoo later on in the event - the infamous Peter Brown...), Deunan and Briareos, two Lupins (“Dubbed Per-son-a-li-ty, Subbed Per-son-a-li-ty!”), three very cute young women as Urd, Skuld, and Belldandy (Wow!!) from A!MG, and the White Ranger (Best costume), among the most notable contestants.

“Ex-TRA! Ex-TRA! Ex-TRA!...” But, the real show stealer was one person who didn't go as any specific character, but as an extra from Ranma 1/2. The audience went wild, even promting a few from the audience to accuse him of “not being in character” (o-KAY, yeah, uh-huh, shyeah, RIGHT!)