Host City: Lexington, KY
Venue: Joseph-Beth Booksellers, The Mall at Lexington Green
Date: April 26th, 2014
Sup ninjas? It's time for another convention entry(*sounds of exultation and joy*). This time, much like with Lexington Comic and Toy Convention, I'm bringing it back local, with one of the small events held right here in my base camp 'o Lexington. Chibi Kentokyocon is the little brother of Kentokycon, the signature event of a group for Kentucky geeks, Bluegrass Otaku. Held since its inception at local book sanctuary Joseph-Beth at Lexington Green, this little shindig is free to attendees, and serves as a teaser for its bigger brother later in the summer, but does a fine job of entertaining on its own merits. Despite being just a single day, it hosts panels, an artist/vendor area, and even a costume contest, in the event that just hanging out with your nerd buddies in a bookstore en masse isn't reason enough to draw you. This'll be a shorter entry than usual, so let's jump right into it.
This is a name you should be familiar with if you live in Lexington and still have a soft spot in your heart for Ye Olde Hard Copies. JB has been around for 25 years, and hosts events year-round, ranging from book signings and discussions to wine tastings. The list of special guests they've featured in the recent past includes Neil Gaiman and Brandon Sanderson(who I've met twice now and want to be professionally when I grow up), but that's really just business as usual for them, as they work pretty hard to cater to central Kentucky readers and bibliophiles. But even if meeting authors isn't your thing, JB has a central location on the beautiful Lexington Green grounds, so it's a great place to camp out with a book or a computer and just spend an evening relaxing.
So now that I've shown our venue some much-deserved love, let's talk about the con. I think that a lightning round of little snippets suits this petite event best, so here ya go!
Panel - "My Little Novel Can't Be This Light"
If you're into anime at all, you're probably aware that many shows start out as manga first. But what you may not know is the concept of a light novel. This panel gave a brief history of the light novel, which is pretty much as it sounds - a short novel-length work of written fiction, usually focusing on telling "lighter" stories(though, as you'll see from the upcoming examples, the "light" part of that is more flexible). They've been incredibly popular in Japan in recent years, due largely to the phenomenal success of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which pretty much blew open the market for them. Haruhi was such a game-changer that light novels are more and more commonly serving as the basis of fictional worlds' journeys from print to animation. The Sword Art Online series is another that has its roots in light novels rather than manga. While not very big here in the US just yet, more and more are being localized all the time, and this is a trend that Yours Truly very much hopes will only continue to grow.
Costumes on Parade
Well, not a parade, exactly, but look at us all being awesome!
Artists and Vendors
We were around the inner fountain, and it was pretty swank.
Saya, Con Mascot
And this is Saya, the face of Kentokyocon. Isn't she purdy?
This Corgi!
There was a corgi. This requires no further explanation.
And that ends ACN's entry for Chibi Kentokyo 2014. All-in-all, it was a great use of an afternoon. I've been on the convention circuit long enough now that I've made some regular con buddies I got to hang out with, and the staff of Jo-Beth is always incredibly accommodating and nice. This year's Chibi Kentokyo is actually moving to the full convention's venue instead, the Clarion Inn, so we'll miss having Jo-Beth as a venue. Hopefully this whetted your appetite to learn about Kentokyo Senior, which we'll also be covering soon.
That's it for now from Chibi Ro. Catch ya' later!
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