This Saturday, if you plan on heading to Bowling Green for Animarathon 4, northwest Ohio's premier (and only) anime convention, and you plan to go dressed as your favorite Japanese animation character and enter the costuming contest, the organizers of Animarathon 4 would appreciate if you would adhere to some ground rules:
Leave all grenades at home.
Bows and arrows are a no-no.
Tazers, pellet guns, swords or knives with a blade longer than three inches - definitely not.
Fake guns that look real - no.
Your chest must be covered at all times and, according to the extensive guidelines, your lower extremities should be clothed in "no less than what biker shorts would cover." (No exceptions.)
Also, no sword canes, daggers, stilettos, hatchets, axes, switchblades, miao dao, kama, kwan dao, pudao. And no tomahawks.
On the other hand, fighting fans, staffs, bokken, shinai, sai, escrima, tonfa, bo, jo - allowed.
Still, have fun!
But remember:
If you must bring your katana, bring one made of Styrofoam.
That's just good manners.
Nevertheless, Alicia Smith, 24, president of Anime in Northwest Ohio, Bowling Green State University's anime society, said she's already getting e-mails from wannabe warriors and Midwest ninjas totally bummed about attending an anime convention without their usual arsenals of ultra-realistic looking weaponry.
They can't shape their hair into the obtuse angles or wispy shags of most anime gumshoes, and without complicated plastic surgery, there's no way they can get their eyes as big and pleading as the typical anime heroine.
Bling is all they've got.
"They're like, 'Can I bring my orange-tipped gun?' I'm like, no. I think they can do without it."
Then she added: "On the other hand, tons of anime characters have no weapons. Magical girls, for instance, don't carry guns."
Besides - as with conventions celebrating comic books or Star Wars, or any gathering where "We're here! We're awkward! Get used to it!" is the battle cry - costuming is just part of the show. BGSU's Animarathon started in 2002 as a way for the university anime society to reach out to regional fans and maybe watch a dozen hours of anime flicks.
Smith herself says she got into anime only in the '90s, watching Sailor Moon after school. "I think of it as a gateway drug because eventually I found there was much better anime."
With a culture attached.
So if you know nothing about anime, think of Animarathon as a 14-hour crash course. There'll be the usual screenings. But also discussions, tutorials, and a place to gab at length about giant robots with others obsessed with giant robots.
There'll be karaoke in Japanese ("romanticized lyrics provided"), as well as many anime dealers trying to sell you more anime. There'll be live-action role-playing (that stops short of actual violence). And if you're a fan of the hopping-popping-James-Brown-defying physicality of those Dance Dance Revolution arcade games, good news: There'll be DDR matches.
Bring it, punk.
Last year Animarathon drew about 250 anime nuts. This year, they're expecting far more. "It's getting bigger," said sophomore Jonathan Edwards, 20, who'll be the group's president next year. "I've had so many people ask me about it. I don't know if it'll ever be as big as a big-city anime con, but this year we've had companies contact us to be sponsors who we didn't even contact ourselves first. I'm betting it grows."
As for Alicia Smith, if you attend, look for the vampire cat.
Either that or the angel. Just watch for the Catholic schoolgirl uniform with wings and a halo.
For all your anime needs, Animarathon 4 happens Saturday at Bowling Green State University's Olscamp Hall, just off Wooster Street on the main campus. It runs 10 a.m. to midnight, and admission is free. For more information on screenings, costume contests, or faux combat: www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/anime/animaraton.
Contact Christopher Borrelli at: cborrelli@theblade.com
or 419-724-6117.
First Published April 6, 2006, 10:19 a.m.
