Here is a sum up, of my long week end at Paris!
DAY 1 SATURDAY
1. Subways
It was the first time I went to Paris alone...so I had to discover the mysteries of subways by myself. After 7 hours of train and 30 min of subways (NO I NEVER GET LOST lol) the first sign of manga appears: a father with his 12y old daughter and 10 y old son cosplaying Ed and Al from FMA. Guess nobody has the luck to be in the same train as Edward Elrich lol
2. It's raining men!
The festival had opened at 10h, I came at 13h30 but stil...500 people had the same idea lol
Under rain and tempest, I run with my 10 kg bags on my back...here I am on my paradise.
3.Here I am, manga sanctuary!
A useful detail: the festival was 90 000 m2...like 10 or 30 times my town.
190 guests, endless places...from video game to sci fi, asian culture and manga, a whole universe to visit!
after having left my bags to the keeper place, after having put on my knees protection, the marathon began!
4. where when and who
First, a raid to get goodies: posters, pins ....
I checked for the authors: I wanted to meet 5 french authors, oo surprise...
you have to come at dawn to get limited tickets, buy at least one book, then wait a minimum of 2 to 5 hours to meet those frenchies
detail: one of the author had a maximum of 30 sign up a day.
detail 2. 100 000 visitors...
conclusion: you get it, impossible to meet the frenchies...when the asian authors were there all day long with unlimited and free sign up
I gave up on 4 of my choices and decided to work on that on the day 2.
A little break before trying the impossible mission: meeting death note's author!
mission failed: 500 people waiting in line for it (for only 150 fasn allowed)
you have to buy 2 books, then you have a ticket: if the ticket number ends on 0 2 4 6 8, too bad for you you came for nothing! some of the lucky guys weren't that lucky: 5 hours of queuing, forbidden to take pics or to have drawings, it's just a sign up on a poster. Plus, the author said he was shy...and refused to be seen: he was hidden in a black cube. Great.
ps: the author left after 10 sign up saying he had enough...thanks for the 140 waiting guys!
6. cosplay and co
Naruto, final fantasy, hellsing, zelda...gothic lolitas...
the whole team of seigaku from prince of tennis
starship troopers from star wars
stargate sg1
I even saw Fran from ffxII but she ran away before I could take pics of her
7 Love at first sight
after 10 km, I finally find The Corean authors of 3 twins sisters, demon's diary.
since there are only 5 people for teh first author, I decide to queue and get my first sign up of the day!!!
8. Hope in rugby
I promise myself to come back early to get more sign up...
after a rugby fight to get into the subway, I find my hotel and my personal bath...I spend 1 hour in it playing the mega whale.
DAY 2 SUNDAY
9. Let's get it started!
I come early to be on the first...O surprise, 5000 people already there, 500 meters of queuing!
Happily, in 10 min, I enter on the festival.
Bad new: a new system to get sign up for frenchies: its a tombola now!
since we are 20 000 people already there, useless to try it.
Miracle! I succeed in having a ticket for another frenchie...we all discover, to our surprise that thanks to a misunderstanding, he wasn't supposed to be here today. :'( :'(
Happily, he decided to come back just for us because he was really sad for us. We just had to come back 5 hours later.
10. Pixies and Demons
I finally succeed to meet another french author named Aurore, author of Pixie (she made pics on day one but spend 1 hour for each people and I was in position 11 :'( so I gave up on day 1)
I have 4 sign up in 2 min and a free pins!
then, i go to meet Demon's diary author named Kara. Many people already in a list but a cute girl says we can go together and accepts to keep my place while I'm going back for french author sign up.
11. Surprises
I finally get a drawing from Reno Lemaire , author of dreamland! :happy093:
A guy asks me if I want a free sign up from Chihiro TAMAKI, author of Walking butterfly!
In 10 min, I got a cute A3 poster signed up!
Coming back to demon's diary, I just have to wait 10 min to have a wonderful Eclypse drawn on my book!
12. Games
this convention had a huge video games area with naruto and ff new games, dance dance revolution tornament (I saw it, I swear those guys are inhuman), a bandai place (I got a free gundam seed model kit :happy093:)
I have watched karate, swords fights and kendo demos...
13. Back to reality
50 kg of goodies on my bags, it's time to leave... :'(
Plenty of memories in my head, a brain washing that emptied all my stress...3 kilos lost due to walking like crazy
14. what's inside my bag
17 posters
18 books
8 pins
2 manga bags offered
pens
a pikachu and naruto hat/ masks
endless fliers...
15. Conclusion
A great week end but I'm deceived by the organisation: it was impossible to find out where when and who would give signs up
the systerm of signs up for frenchies was completely stupid and ridiculous compared to asian's authors's ones.
Authors of death note, hellsing and evangelion impossible to meet
plus the plan was like 1 meter long, impossible to read it!
good points: a good atmosphere, gentle people, asian authors shy but totally adorable and gentle!
expo about original pages from weekly shonen jump: original pics and pages from death note, bleach, naruto....
expo about character art with origina pics from goldorak and many many great famous authors
expo about chinese authors like benjamin who was incredibly good
links
more pics:
http://www.jeuxactu.com/art-30980-6-page-22456-pos0.htmlhttp://www.gamopat.com/article-21061870.htmlart furniture:
www.letraset.comwww.tvhland.comanime cels and sketches (original from anime studio)
www.takamura-store.comps: scans for tomorrow, I promise!