Well we finally arrived at ReCon, which was expected to be one of the largest events in Yorkshire.  However, quite literally there were 25 people there, most of which were young children.  We were told they were expecting 300 people, which in my books is a large exaggeration.  So, that was bad enough, however, we stayed there, hoping for something at least interesting to occur.

Well, we were there from start to finish, and all we saw was not Anime related one bit.  It was Nintendo related.  For some reason TokyoPop, being one of the best Manga publishers in the UK, decided, "Hey, let's sell out" and had the Nintendo Rep presenting the whole show.

This is bad enough, but when you have a guy, who clearly knows nothing about Anime AND computer games, this is a recipe for disaster.  To begin with, he decided to teach us Japanese.  Evidentially, knowing how to say hello is going to get you EVERYWHERE because this guy taught us all the ways to say this...wow, knowledgeable.  Furthermore his Japanese was flawed; we know this thanks to one of our colleagues who found it insulting.

There were a couple of people in poorly made cosplay costumes, me being one of them.  There were no conversations about anime that I heard, the art competition was basically a trace this and colour in, the snacks were a small table with about 6 small bowls full of sweets and the prizes for cosplay were nothing more than pieces of tat. The only thing that was true as advertised was the freebies, well, I say freebies, it was more a freebie...a book, which yes is quite cool, but didn’t really compensate me being sat there watching people play on the Nintendo Wii for 2 hours, after having bought train tickets to Leeds and walked in the rain to get there.

Anyway, so we were talking about their poor excuse for a Nintendo rep.  Well, according to him, Super Mario is classed as anime...only in some alternative dimension is this true.  This is also true for Metroid Prime....ITS NOT ANIME, ITS A GAME!  

Now the thing is, I used to work at GAME in Bradford, so I have good knowledge of video games, so this guy in front of me spouting crap and incorrect information about games infuriated me, and I had to stop myself from beating him to death with his Wii-mote.  Here are some tips if you are reading.  Mario Galaxy has 2 costumes...yes two...not the one you were so proud to announce.  Legend of Zelda on the DS, is, yes cell shaded...well done for noticing that, however, is not an action game, nor is it an anime.  It is a cult following, but anime...No.  Clearly you have never watched an anime, or read a Manga if you can't differentiate between the two.  My suggestion to you is either play the games your talking about or change job you useless...

So, anyway, needless to say...a tad disappointed with the turnout.  I couldn’t believe that TokyoPop basically had no input into the event.  We were banned from advertising, taking photos, interviews and film clips...that’s ridiculous.  All the fliers they used to advertise were completely inaccurate pieces of drivel.  I think Yorkshire needs some REAL events, ones run by the true anime fans and companies, instead of this shoddy excuse for an anime convention.  It truly was more of a book club!