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There were only twelve entries in the Masquerade. This one involved a big dancing somethingorother.
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Which laid an egg...
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...that was full of candy.
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Pikachu...
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...who transformed into a girl, although...
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...still with a Pikachu tail. It was all a bit beyond me.
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Captain Harlock walked out, saluted, and walked off. Very haughty.
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Japanese Furries with weapons?
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She's apparently a gremlin. She came out and monkeyed with one of the stage lights. Boo!
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A rather limber, and fairly friendly, dancing robot. It often waved at us and opened and closed its pincers.
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Just after shaking hands (?) with the MC. She was a famous Japanese voice-over artist. The guy on the right is the translator, so those of us who don't speak Japanese could follow the action.
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This is, um, "Miss Solar System" or something like that (I didn't take notes, I'm afraid).
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The humorous entry. He actually did his presentation twice; first in Japanese, then in English, live from the stage. But his Australian accent was thick enough I didn't follow it much better the second time.
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Besides, it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying when the visuals including this sort of thing. Yikes.
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Some sort of battle between forces of light and dark.
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Dark is transformed. Unlike the US, flash photography was NOT prohibited. Lots of people were using flashes during the presentations. I used a flash here. However, the backdrop scrim was actually a giant projector screen, so it threw the entire flash beam right back into my camera, blowing out the background. That's why this shot looks kind of strange. I eventually went back to my normal practice of shooting in available light, because it preserves the lighting better, even though it's really hard to avoid blurriness with the slow shutter speed and telephoto lenses.
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Classic character from Japanese folklore, if I recall correctly.
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Ming the Merciless was next.
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We are privileged to receive a pronouncement from his Mercilessness.
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(without flash)
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(with flash)
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The last act was the "Dancing Dolls". (Another shot with flash. This was when I gave up using the flash.)
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Half-time entertainment started with some sword dancers. I believe they are frequently involved in choreographing movie combat scenes, including things like Tarantino's "Kill Bill." I took a lot of pictures, but it's really hard to do their performance justice with a still camera. Very cool indeed.
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Then came the "Dark Seiun" awards, which are not to be confused with the regular Seiun awards. Although "Seiun" translates to "Nebula," they're more accurately called the Japanese Hugos, because they're voted on by fans. There's also a tradition at WorldCons of the "Hogu" awards, which are a parody of the Hugos. The Dark Seiun awards are the Japanese Hogus. The trophy (this year at least) is the creepy looking head on the table on the left. The other heads are tied up in the fabric.
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One of them went to one of the theatrical groups that was presenting short SF-related plays during the con. They received one because one of the members was overheard saying they would like to get a Dark Seiun award. This guy is accepting on their behalf, since he's a friend of one of them.
Another award went to the Mayor of Yokohama, who'd apparently been at opening ceremonies. He had to ask a volunteer from the audience to accept on the mayor's behalf, and it took some prodding before somebody agreed to accept, since that guy would then have to actually give it to the Mayor, and nobody was sure what the mayor's reaction would be.
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The last one went to the gang responsible for the wind-up geisha dolls. Turns out there were also miniature wind-up maids!
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The maids shyly accept the award. "Normally, they would now say a few words, but they are too shy. However, I see there are many people standing behind them who are most anxious to be able to speak."
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They were some kind of robot doll/puppet troupe. It wasn't completely clear, but the maids are showing the certificate to the puppet...
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...who apparently likes how it tastes?
Once this was done, the judges still weren't quite ready, so we bailed.
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