my moral standing is lying down

...on my wallet, that is. ^_~

Actually, all things considered, I don't think I did too badly. I think I spent about $140 not including room, food, and transportation. ::gulp:: Really. That's not so bad. ::sigh:: Whatever.

The most expensive thing I got was at the art auction. If you saw the baka who paid $72 for the BEAUTIFUL framed print of Mana from Malice Mizer, well, that was me. ::raises hand:: Yes, I think I was baka to pay that much for it, but on the other hand, I *really* fell in love with it and I don't regret paying that much for it 'cause I just HAD to have it, so.... everyone's happy. Except, of course, the person that got into the bidding war with me for it. LOL. I'd kind of like to know who that was anyway. I hope it wasn't Awa! I really like her and would hate to be the one who outbid her!

At 10 bids, the work of art goes to auction and I think I remember placing the 2nd bid at $28. Outbid at $38, then I put $50, they put I think $60, I put $63, they put $65, I put $67, they put $71... that was the 9th bid. So I had to decide whether I wanted to outbid them and chance it at auction or just give it up. So I put the 10th bid at $72 and it went to auction. Lucky for me, it was actually the 2nd item up for auction and I was right there. No one bid on it at auction, so I won it for the $72. I couldn't decide at the time if that was a good thing or not. After all, I had to shell out the $72, right? But hey, Mana's worth it. =D

In any case, I also got an original (not a print! yay!) of Malice Mizer chibis! ($12) Done in ink, watercolor and crayon! =D LOL. It's that picture where all 4 of them are standing in front of a staircase, Mana is standing on a step because he's slightly above them... I forget which song/look the outfits are from. They're not the "Saikai no chi to bara" outfits, nor the "Kyoumu" outfits, nor the "Shiroi" outfits. o.O* Nor are they the "Beast of Blood" outfits, nor are they the "Gardenia" outfits. (Helpful, aren't I?) I guess it was just a promo shot. Mana has his blue hair, Kozi has that short, straight, black hair with the one reddish streak in the front. Klaha looks like he usually does. Yu~ki has the short straight haircut, though... oh, and his cane! (Which I find to be just SOOOO adorable!)

Hmm... I also got a really nice ink-marker-and-pencil of Cyprine from Sailor Moon S. ($10) Although the artist labeled it "Puchirol", but it's the one with blue hair, which is Cyprine. The one with red hair is Puchirol.

That was it for the art gallery. Oh, and the $72 for Mana wasn't that bad 'cause my sister split the cost with me! Kakkoii, na?!

At the dealer's room, I did some damage, but not too much. Not like a LOT of people there. I guess I understand how people spend so much at the dealer's room -- a lot of them live in places where getting anime merchandise is hard to find... stuff like J-pop/J-rock CDs, manga, artbooks and the like. I guess I'm lucky 'cause there are a lot of places here in NYC where I can get that stuff... and cheap, too, not like those OUTRAGEOUS prices in the dealer's room and even certain stores here. ($35-40 for a J-rock CD?!) Well, I guess I *have* paid that much for certain J-rock and seiyuu CDs (Buck-Tick, Koyasu & Hayami), but those were all shipped from Japan. So, I understand why it costs so much. And manga... I was passing by a table that had manga & artbooks and this girl was picking up every volume of Gravitation they had! I KNOW Gravitation is hard to find, but you could order it used from Acclimate Solutions or something, or even from Kinokuniya for less than they were charging! And she said something about dropping around $200 in her first 5 minutes in the dealer's room! Itai!!!!

So I didn't get any manga, although those Gravitation volumes *were* tempting. ^_~ The only thing I'm willing to spend a lot on in the dealer's room is shitajiki (pencil boards), doujinshi, and cels. I bought a Kizuna shitajiki for $5.25, which was very reasonable. (I must admit that the shitajiki prices in the dealer's room this year were VERY reasonable.) I know there was one table with shitajiki for $4 each, a deal my sister took great advantage of. If they'd had a better selection I would have bought some too. But I did do some damage in the shitajiki department, buying a Hotohori shitajiki for $30. Last year I never would have paid that much for it, but a year's worth of ebay experience has shown me JUST how much Hotohori ends up selling for, and I'd say $30 was a fair price. It's *sometimes* possible to get a Hotohori shitajiki for less than that, but not by much, and with shipping it comes out to about the same anyway. There *was* an AWESOME Sailor Moon shitajiki that I *loved* -- even before I realized that it was signed by Takeuchi Naoko! It was $75!!! If I hadn't bought Mana for $72, I DEFINITELY would have gone back to buy that SM shitajiki! I *really* loved the image that was on it, which is the first thing that grabbed my attention. Only after I saw how much it cost did I realize it was signed by the mangaka!

Doujiinshi. Last year had a MUCH better selection of dj!!! I *did* find the table that had YAOI doujinshi last year, but this year's selection was nothing compared to last year! It was mostly Kenshin, and while I *do* like Rurouni Kenshin YAOI doujinshi, I am not willing to spend $35 on just about 20 pages. I only go that high for YAOI Gundam Wing (1x2/2x1) dj or hentai Kare Kano dj (YAOI or het), and possibly some exceptional hentai (het or YAOI) Sailor Moon dj. There was some of that too (the SM), but it wasn't anything special; a lot of the usual yuri stuff. So, this year's YAOI selection was lacking, and the other dj was more of the same old-same old. But I *did* find another table that had some hentai dj -- you had to be lucky enough to think to *ask* if they had dj, and then lucky enough to be over 18 (or at least lucky enough to have some good fake ID that says you are). Lucky for me, I *am* over 18. =D So I got to rifle through what they had, which wasn't much, and a lot of them were doubles anyway. There was a lot of the usual – Evangelion (yuck), some Lain, a few unknowns (to me, at least). They had a few Kare Kano. One was a sort of small one (about 20 pages) for $15, but it did come with a nice clear folder. The other one was sort of an anthology doujinshi – a lot of little stories. It was pretty thick, though. That one went for $35. Oddly enough, I had bid on that very dj on ebay back in… January, I think. But I didn’t go over $28 for it then, and I didn’t really want it badly enough to pay $35 for it. So, I passed over that one for the smaller (but very satisfying) $15 dj with the folder. (I think the folder is what sold me on it, LOL.)

Oh, and I got a REALLY kawaii Hotohori pin! Yay! You wouldn’t believe how expensive pins can get on ebay! I mean, it’s just a *pin* folks! But I was very happy to get the really kawaii Hotohori pin where he’s holding his sword for only $3. (Even the *pins* went up from last year! They were $2!) So far, Hotohori’s been very good on my bag. Duo and Heero have not yet tried to make him fall off. (Or maybe they’ve tried, but haven’t yet succeeded. I could see Heero "Bitter-over-his-past-life-as-Tamahome" Yuy trying to pry the heika off, can’t you? Although Duo and Hotohori would be entranced by each other’s hair….)

I also got a Rurouni Kenshin T-shirt. Normally, I don’t really like to buy anime T-shirts that have the American release name on them, but I did want a Kenshin (why Samurai X? blech!!!) shirt and the place I got it from was off of a sale rack. $10. So, I gave in. I’m a sucker for a sale.

Another place I gave in because of a sale: commercial anime videos. Grrr. I am definitely weak-willed. Sunday was the sale day in the dealer’s room. The merchants want to get rid of as much stuff as they can before they pack up and go back to their stores. I’m not sure if they were there last year (if they were, I didn’t see them), but a lot of the companies that buy the copyrights to anime and dub and sub them for the American audience’s viewing pleasure were there this year. U.S. Manga Corps, Viz, Pioneer?, some others I can’t remember at the moment. They had sales too. So I passed the U.S. Manga Corps table and they were having a 3 for $20 sale. Not bad at all, I have to admit. Usually, I won’t buy commercial if there’s ANY POSSIBLE WAY for me to avoid it. I *hate* supporting commercial companies with a passion! They hack the anime to pieces – whether it be dub OR sub! I am a staunch FANSUB SUPPORTER! Please don’t be offended, you know, each is entitled to their own opinion, and all that. I can rant with the best of them for or against fansubs, I know all the arguments and I understand why people buy and support commercial stuff, I just happen to disagree. Well, anyway. The reason I gave in in this instance was because they had RG Veda Part 2. I have RG Veda (Part 1, I think) in the original Japanese form (that is, no subs, and it’s not a copy either) so, although I didn’t understand completely what was going on, I wanted to see more. (And, I admit, hear more from one of my FAVORITE seiyuu, Hayami Sho, who plays Yasha.) So, I had to find two other videos in order to make the deal worth it, so I got Tokyo Babylon 1 and 2. I also don’t mind buying these so much because they’re not available as fansubs. I’ve NEVER seen them fansubbed ANYWHERE. (If anyone reading this HAS, please email me?)

So that just about covers the $140 I spent on anime stuff. ‘Course that doesn’t factor in cameras, developing costs, hotel costs, food costs, transportation costs. Ah well, it’s better not to think of these things.


((more ranting to follow))