Magical Matsuri Tour

Dearest Rachel –

Roll up, roll up for the magical matsuri tour! Step right this way…

In some ways, this weekend is going to be the absolute antithesis of one of those stereotypical English ‘mystery tours.’ I know exactly what I’m getting into; I’ve been to all twenty-four Anime Centrals up until now. There is virtually no one who knows what to expect better than myself, right down to the unfortunate fact that there’s going to be rather a long walk between the convention center and our hotel; I did try to get a reservation on the very day the room blocks opened, but the link didn’t seem to work for me until the blocks were booked solid, and unlike you, I’m just not the type to keep trying back later on to see if anyone’s canceled at my desired hotel.

As a matter of fact, I’m kind of forgotten all about this, in the midst of all the, well… I’m not certain if I could say excitement about my other trip, but yes, it certainly was a distraction from any plans that needed to be made for it. But plans I made, at least in terms of the hotel and getting my badge for the whole affair. I did, however, leave the boys to get their own badges. Logan’s not my charge to begin with, and Daniel has his own money, and might as well pay his own way if he’s interested in attending.

And that’s the thing; it strikes me that the boys are orders of magnitude more interested in the convention these days than I am. Which makes sense; they’re the ones who are watching anime, while I’ve all but given up on it. Not entirely, mind you; as I alluded to during one of the internet down times on the ship, I did find myself watching a title or two (and maybe I’ll go into that in a little more detail tomorrow, and explain why they’re painful for me to watch these days – although the titles I choose don’t do much to alleviate that) when YouTube wasn’t available. But by and large, I’ve rather set the stuff aside.

I hesitate to claim that I’ve ‘outgrown’ the medium, though. I certainly wouldn’t consider myself too mature for it – quite the opposite, in fact. Really, some of the stuff that I watch on YouTube these days could probably be considered decidedly more childish than the series we used to watch back in the day – although in fairness, there were some pretty childish titles that we watched as well. Like I said, I’ll see if I can’t explain some of the ones I saw (or at least started) over the course of the trip.

I think it’s more a matter of the medium outgrowing me, rather than the other way around. Not that it’s necessarily gotten more sophisticated or anything, but it just continues to grow. There are new series every month, it seems, and a new girl’s face to be that of the anime community. Today, it appears to belong to Yor (or maybe Anna?) Forger, of Spy x Family, which I will admit to being dimly aware of. But most of the faces are unknown to me, and pass by so quickly there scarcely seems any point for me to bother to try to keep up anymore – not that I really tried all that hard back in the day, either. For the most part, we would simply latch on to this or that series that we really liked, and reference it between ourselves in near perpetuity.

And that perpetual enjoyment is also a part of it. The old stuff is still around to be seen and appreciated, if you know where to look, but what’s the point? There’s no one to nudge and comment back and forth with anymore, and so, much like with the sporting events I gave up when we got married because it wasn’t fun trying to watch the game and discuss it as it was happening, so too do these anime lose any of their charm with me. It’s weird to realize how much I used to watch was because I wasn’t doing so alone, and now that I am, it’s no fun anymore. You’d actually understand this; we held off on watching Cowboy Bebop (an excellent show – at least, in its original anime form – from what we were able to see of it) because we both agreed it was to be watched with Kevin. Now that both you and he are gone, what’s the point? For me to watch it without either of you almost feels like cheating. I’ve read the synopses, and watched music videos with clips from later episodes, but I see no point in watching further unless Megumi happens by, and happens to be interested. Gosh, I rather hope she is; this is a large slice of my past that I’ll have to excise from myself otherwise.

Of course, meanwhile, I seem to be concluding that I might as well carve it out of my present, as well, since I don’t find anything near to the joy I used to in it. And there are certain aspects about the convention that seem determined to add to that, as well, eliminating the casual, ‘come-and-go-as-you-please’ feel to it that it once had.

I’ve no idea what this weekend is going to be like, or if the rest of it will be worth relating. Still, honey, I’d appreciate it if you’d continue to keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m sure I’m going to need it.