Protect Me!

Magnet #1064 - Protect Me!

Ah. If you know my Save the World Sister, you were likely expecting this magnet to be accompanied by another guest magnetpost on pandas from her. Eh, no worries, she'll be back talking pandas eventually, because somehow I've ended up with several panda magnets along the way.

We always manage to visit the Spicy Brown booth at New York Comic Con, and last time around, I picked up this pin magnet. Like all of their kawaii (cute) characters, the Protect Me Panda is freakin' adorable.

It's part of their Protect series, a best-selling collection designed by Kazuko Shinoka, and specifically aimed at helping raise awareness and funds for the WWF.

I picked it for this week, because the little panda kinda reminds me of my Aussie cousin. Halfway to 14, and on her first trip to America, she's now been exposed to about half of the 30 first cousins, in about 4 states and 1 District of Columbia.

I love spending time with my cousins, and this one was no different. We had a ton of fun hanging out, doing our walkabouts in New York, and a little bit in DC.

She's normal people size (which means a little bit taller than me), so was often hard to keep in mind she's only 13. Her age was all the more evident, when in the space of four hours, I had to explain what happened to the Twin Towers on September 11th (her mom brought her down to Ground Zero last week), Civil War/Slavery/Lincoln's Assassination (when we dropped by Ford Theater this week), and the Holocaust (when we visited the International Spy Museum and she learned about World War II).

I felt a little bit guilty, wondering how her mom would react when she learned that I'd explained those three examples of what a crappy world we actually live in sometimes. While a big part of me wanted to protect her, she did pose the questions, and I couldn't see a way around not answering them.

So I did. But all the while, I kinda felt like I was taking a bit of innocence away from the little girl from Down Under.

The protective stance continued, when we saw the September 11th footage at the Spy Museum - I wanted to cover her eyes, but also wanted to point it out to her. I winced when she winced when I explained how Lincoln was shot in the very theatre we were standing under, and that they eventually caught and hung the plotmakers.

And the next day, when we went to the Holocaust Museum (at her request), I wanted to pull her away from the graphic footage, all the while trying to help her understand the un-understandable. While it was a little hard, she made a few astute observations that showed she was soaking in the information. We ended the visit by buying her The Diary of Anne Frank, required reading at her age here in the States, but a book that she'd not yet heard of in Australia.

Oh! And that was something else I learned on this trip, trying to pick out the places and things that would the most interesting and worthwhile for my cousin and my aunt. I realized that no matter how much I love it, and love learning more and more about it, the plain fact is, American history is just not as interesting to those not from the U.S.

It was kind of a funny realization, one that seems to be uniquely American. I get that feeling whenever I travel in Europe, too. You know, when you walk around the corner and run into a building that's older than your country's history.

After all, it's really quite humbling to realize that your country's history, while interesting, is only about 234 years old, and really only about a spec in the terms of overall humankind's history.

All things kawaii*

Magnet #961 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Detective

Remember how a couple of days ago I thought I was totally unworthy to be at Comic-Con because I never read X-Men?

As it turns out, what I knew about the comics world? Was miles and miles and far and away much more than I ever knew about anime. Turns out, what I know about anime?

Could fill a thimble.

A tiny, supersmall faerie thimble.

I know! I'm Asian! I should know such things! But I don't.

I do, however, have young Asian cousins and their friends to teach me the ways of anime, which is why we spent today concentrating on the Anime Festival side of Comic-Con with two Jersey cousins and a cousin BFF.

The three of them were dressed up as Pikachu, Misty and Dawn. Fantastic outfits (handmade by the big sister), and given the "Pikachu!"s we heard from passersby, people totally knew who they were, and loved them for it. (And yes, I had to look up the three characters. Or, really just the two, since I've actually slept through seen the Pokemon movie - in the theatre.)

We went to a Hiyao Miyazaki panel. This is a UO, but I couldn't stand Spirited Away. Hated the parents becoming pigs, the main chick being so damned whiny, and honestly, I get crazy when random stuff starts happening in movies. I mean, I left that movie with a big WTF on my face.

But, this panel, which the three girls were so thrilled to go to, had a really great speaker...so great, that he's convinced me to add My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky on to the top of my Netflix list. (Ponyo's on Instant Watch, so maybe later tonight.)

We also went to another panel called "Anime, Manga, and Harajuku Fashion: The Secret of International Competitiveness of Japanese Pop Culture." Yep. And that's the same confusion I had on my face, when we walked in. But, that too, was a fairly interesting panel (with possibly the best translator I've ever seen).

The lead panelist, Takamasa Sakurai, is basically the Japanese pop culture ambassador, who took us through a bunch of cosplay images from around the world. And, if that wasn't enough, he brought on this superstar Kanon dude from An Cafe, this J-Pop band to be his co-panelist. I haven't a clue who the guy was, but my cousin and her BFF were absolutely floored by him. So ecstatic! (I feel fairly sure they'd have the same confusion if they saw me meet Duran Duran.)

Anyway, through this panel, I learned that Cosplay is global, that they'll be happy to show me around if I show up in Japan, and that if "everyone was otaku and lolitas, the world would be at peace."

Shoot. Today, I learned what cosplay really was (I was very confused, I totally blame the LARPing episode of Being Erica). And otaku. And kawaii.* And lolita.

Let it be said that I took Japanese 101, 102 and 103 at Carolina. I should have already known what this stuff was. In the end, that's just a fraction of what I learned today.

Here's another fraction: See this standee magnet I bought from the folks at Squire Sword? It's basically a supercute animation printout, mounted to foamcore, and it stands. It's freakin' adorable. But I squeed over it, and was like, "OMG! It's David Tennant! It's the Tenth Doctor! I must have it!" And proceeded to pull out my double-digit dollars for it. (They also had Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, and K-9, too. But, I couldn't pass up the TARDIS. Adorable!)

And, like a silly fangurl, I took a picture of both my purchases and posted it to Facebook the first chance I got. And, seriously, just before I started writing this magnetpost (in honor of watching David's Single Father tv series tonight), my cousin - this time from California - corrected my ignorant ass and told me that he's NOT from Doctor Who!

He's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! The best defense attorney in the land!

While it's still supercute, I was heartbroken it wasn't David Tennant.

But, you can see why I was totally confused. Right? Right? RIGHT?

*crickets*

Mind you, I'm still going to pretend it's David. It's damned close.