Chapters 1-6
Web links underlined on July 26, 2015 to mitigate red-text confusion.
Pin info (2. Button pins, big and small) UPDATED on November 27, 2014.
ALL PREVIOUS DEBRIEFINGS ARE NOW OUT OF DATE.
There is a zero-tolerance policy in effect for this blog.
There are a lot of pictures on this blog, for those worried about bandwidth. I am very sorry for the things I reveal here. Also, this extremely long blog has been split into sections, as marked in the contents list, so please bear with me. There is also a rant near the very end, but I've tried to restrain myself.
Contents:
1. Introduction2. Button pins, big and small
3. Video game pixel bead art
4. figma figures and character connections
5. Otafest pins
6. Autographs, 2010-2012: pre-fatal decision
1. Introduction
Hello, people. This is Jack. Let me tell you what I can about these five years, and you won't have to see me on camera or wearing shattered sunglasses for this. Are you happy now?Now, first of all, I'll tell you about the items I got at Otafest or carried around with me at Otafest, over these five years. And then I'll recount a few experiences from more recent years before moving on to how they led to new plot developments in Opposition/Resurrection.
2. Button pins, big and small
"If you've got something to say, just say it! Spit it out already! It's probably something stupid anyway, but don't just stand there and keep it bottled up! It's not good for you!"
-Haruhi Suzumiya, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
The first pin is of Haruhi Suzumiya, based on her appearance in the episode entitled "Live Alive".
The second pin is of Konata Izumi and Kagami Hiiragi of Lucky Star.
The third pin is of Miku, the Vocaloid and #SK09 subject herself in the CODE RED series.
Basically, the reasons I got these were that they depicted a few series or forms of media with characters that were part of the superslinger2007 series at one time or another. More on that later.
Come to think of it, if the three pins are arranged like this, characters with parallels or connections will be beside each other.
Haruhi and Konata had the same voice actresses...
and both Miku and Kagami wear their hair in ponytails or hair bunches (however you call them), and also, Kagami once wore a Miku costume. I'll talk more about that later.
Here are two pins from the Artist's Alley in May 2013 during the fear/survival mission. As you can tell, these are of Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi. I never got a good look at who illustrated these, so I don't know.
The reasons I got these were: Madoka and Homura had been cosplay encounter objectives since May 2012, leading up to the fear/survival mission objective of seeking out a Madoka cosplayer, and also, their connection to the superslinger2007 series is that they appear in Opposition/Resurrection, as part of a misfit team tasked to protect "The Fugitive" from certain death by The Opposition.
UPDATE: I misplaced the Madoka pin at home on November 14, 2014, but luckily found it at 1:47 AM on November 27. However, like I said, I have no way of knowing who made these pins to begin with.
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| ARCHIVE, Otafest debriefing, August 4, 2012 |
Those pins were from a vendor named Canada Cosplay, as you can tell by this other pin I got from them in May 2014. I got this pin and the other retro video game font pin this year from attempting to dance to an onscreen thing that was playing on their monitor screen. I don't remember what song it was for, though. It was probably another one of those cheerful LhS's, or light-hearted songs, but I needed to join in after beating my mind up and depressing myself the night before.
I got this last pin in May 2013. It was inside the Otafest bags that had the guidebook. After some looking at the side of the pin and some more recent asking around, I can conclude that this pin depicts a character named Manji from Blade of the Immortal.
3. Video game pixel bead art
"Well, doesn't everything feel sort of weird right now?"
-Tsukasa Hiiragi, Lucky Star
I also got some pieces of pixel bead art from a vendor named Pixel Paradise. Pixel Paradise served as the video games room in Otafest Lite 2010 and Lite 2011.
I got the two Bubble Bobble characters at Lite 2010 on November 13, 2010, after much deliberation and waiting until the evening.
The green bubble dragon is Bub, and the blue bubble dragon is Bob. Notice that Bub and Bob are in different poses of their standing animation, and are both in the arcade colours, not the NES or Virtual Console colours that people seem to commonly use. If you notice, there is a tiny pixel error in Bub's eye, but I can't really fault the guy who I had make these, as Pixel Paradise was about to shut down operations, because Otafest Lite was ending that night.
This one is a Boo, or a Boo Buddy, if you will, from Super Mario World. I got it in May 2011-- I think they were serving as the video games room that time, too-- and I chose this one because I liked how they stuck their tongue out at you if you stared at them for a while. Anyway, the way they made this Boo Buddy pixel art was that it could glow in the dark after being put under a light for some time.
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| ARCHIVE, Otafest debriefing, August 4, 2012 |
4. figma figures and character connections
"Geez, Konata, why do you think I'd wear something like this?!"
-Kagami Hiiragi, Lucky Star
I started getting some posable Japanese character action figures, known as figma, from a particular shop in the vendor room after watching several figure reviews by Actar576295 on YouTube. I had originally established a "one character per series" rule when I first started getting these in 2010. Actar still knows a lot more about figmas than I do, but I'll tell you about most of the figmas I got and the reasons why I got them.
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| Debriefing footage, June 2014 |
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| Reenactment photo on location, May 15, 2014 |
The reasons why I got her was from Actar's review of this figma, and also her connection to the superslinger2007 series. Kagami had a weird friendship with GLaDOS at the time, and at the end of the CODE RED finale, GLaDOS put Kagami into this costume once again, because the CODE RED subject Miku herself was propelling herself around the field while dodging those green onion missiles.
Now, like in the original Otafest debriefing, Kagami is depicted here with a green onion herself. In Revelation (2010), I first showed the green onions as a CODE RED clue drop.
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| Debriefing footage, June 2014 |
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| Reenactment photo on location, May 15, 2014 |
Anyway, the reasons why I got the Mio figma was because Actar did a review of this figma as well, and that her connections to the superslinger2007 series was that she exposed her backside under completely different circumstances, traumatizing her. In CODE RED, Mio was called out by the one jerk BLU Soldier and dragged into the mess that the other characters had to go through. Eventually, Mio kicked the jerk Soldier in the groin as her revenge.
The one gripe I have about an accessory for this figma is that the paint on the back of her bass is prone to coming off if I leave it against a part of soft plastic, like her uniform, for too long. So, right after this, I'll have to put the bass back in its guitar case, which is also included as an accessory.
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| Debriefing footage, June 2014 |
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| Reenactment photo on location, May 15, 2014 |
I also got this figma in May 2011. Her connection to the superslinger2007 series was that she was the main villain antagonist in an early mashup crossover, WTPF? 6: The Final Minutes, and caused my Net Persona character to experience his first death in a self-inflicted explosion.
A better reason why I would get a figma of a character like Haruhi is because she's winking, for one thing, and I like to believe that when a character winks, she becomes important in some form or another. After all, Haruhi Suzumiya also indirectly led me to characters like Konata Izumi, Misa Amane, and now Lucy Heartfilia.
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| Debriefing footage, June 2014 |
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| Reenactment photo on location, May 15, 2014 |
Yes, Miku's hair does have a translucent effect in this form. Anyway, the reason I got this figma was because Miku's connection to the superslinger2007 series was as the #SK09 subject in CODE RED, in her regular costume, of course. The two #SK09 case file videos in question actually do exist, and have been mirrored and shared numerous times for at least 7 years since they were first released on October 25, 2007 and January 2, 2008 by a 3D animation group named Shizuku-gumi. The music videos depicted risky fanservice camera angles, forcing Miku to expose her backside; this is tame compared to other things Shizuku-gumi did, but CODE RED's been over for years now. However, Miku has yet to appear in this Append costume in my mashups.
I also got this figma with a headphone accessory, as you can see here, which is apparently a pre-order bonus. It's a good thing the shop pre-ordered it when they had that promotion.
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| Debriefing footage, June 2014 |
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| Reenactment photo on location, May 15, 2014 |
Now the reasons why I got this were because Actar did a review of this figma as well, although with spoilers from Madoka Magica episode 10, and that Homura's connection to the superslinger2007 series is that she was one of the very first characters to appear in inhibitor filler, and now serves, once again, in Opposition/Resurrection as part of the team defending "The Fugitive" from certain death by The Opposition. Homura was also a cosplay encounter objective since May 2012.
Also, there is also a voice actress connection involved: Both Mio Akiyama and Homura Akemi are voiced by the same English dub voice actress, as much as people claim to hate it. The only issue here I have is that Homura is quite small compared to the other figmas, but I have no choice in the matter. Then again, Homura is supposed to be younger than the other characters.
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| From left: Kagami, Mio, Haruhi, Miku, Homura. |
The sixth and seventh figmas I got serve as both parts of the motto, "Struggle with fear and seek one hope", that I made for the original fear/survival mission of May 2013. The sixth figma does depict a rather spoilery version of Madoka, the "one hope", as encountered in May 2013 as a cosplay character. The seventh figma depicts a certain cosplay character I met in May 2012 that would become connected to a delusional fear that lasted the next year and a half.
Strictly speaking, I cannot reveal the character appearances for both the sixth and seventh figmas here, because their connections to the superslinger2007 series are so personal, they would outright spoil Opposition/Resurrection.
5. Otafest pins
The following consists of the original June 2014 report on what pins I had at the time. Be sure to read this before proceeding to the August 2014 pins update as indicated. You will return to chapter 6 once you're done."Ask yourselves, is there something you want so badly that it's worth putting your life in danger for?"
-Mami Tomoe, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
After I was supposed to take my own life, I was still in the middle of a year-long break away from Otafest and had originally planned to return at Otafest Aurora on November 30, 2013, skipping May 2013 altogether. By the time pin trading was announced, along with a pre-order exclusive pin, I declared that something made me change my mind about not going back to Otafest before it was time. (You know, that just sounds funny now.)
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| Yukata Seph |
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| Yukata Aurora |
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| Cheerleader Seph (brass-gold) |
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| Maid Aurora |
Before I move on to further pins I got, the thing with pin trading since May 2013 is that there were some pins that could be bought directly and the rest were staff-only, so you had to trade for them. They also announced they also had rare brass-gold versions of the pin designs. I didn't really plan for it, so I didn't bother. Besides, if I tried to collect every single one, I knew from past experiences that I would never be able to finish. (You know, that just sounds horrible now.) Of course I'd be more flustered, you know? I already had stuff to worry about, what with the fear/survival mission at the time.
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| Snow-Wing |
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| Angel of Death (Seph) |
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| Angel of Dawn (Aurora) |
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| Starlight |
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| Angel of Time (June) [1 of 100] |
Although the way to actually get this was kept secret, you gotta thank the good friend in the Otafest staff for this one, because there are only 100 of these in existence, and it's brass-gold, as well. I always liked to claim that others would want to kill me for this pin, although rationality states that there is no evidence to support such a paranoid statement.
But then again, I had a reason for these paranoid claims. A gold limited-edition item that there were only 100 in existence of? Ok, the June pin was an actual physical item, but come on.
Furthermore, June here is winking; the [5161814] mission turned out to be quite important, in more ways than one. June even showed up in Global TV's new newscast on May 16, 2014.
The thing with these particular pins is: I could only get them at an event that took place on January 18, 2014. There was a problem with the pin shipments, and apparently the ones meant for Otafest Aurora, November 30, 2013, were sent elsewhere by mistake and only arrived weeks afterward. Another thing is: I did plan to get the 16-bit retro designs at one point, but chose not to for a risk of getting the smoothed-out "bootleg" designs by mistake. I also temporarily had a Gala Aurora pin, but I was not going for it at all, and traded it away for the gold cheerleader Seph pin.
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| Digital Idol Seph |
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| White Swan Aurora |
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| Kieran Strange |
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| O-Wing |
The story is: some pin trading staff showed up at the May 16 Kieran Strange concert. So, I and a bunch of others went right outside the ballroom. I was gonna trade my silver cheerleader Seph pin for a Kieran Strange pin from a staff member, and trade a second Digital Idol Seph pin for an Otafest logo pin from someone else. Of course, I had to tell the people in question to wait right there as all my stuff was at the drop-off downstairs, but it all worked out. I even got my camera and filmed a cosplay segment with a Sayaka cosplayer wearing pins on her front ribbon, and of course I had her wave at the camera.
So, here are all my pins. As for why only the first and the last ones are gold, I want to believe that the Cheerleader Seph design, depicting 2010, the year I was COMPROMISED, and mascot June, encountered in 2014, the year of [5161814], the final mission, serve as what some may call "book ends".
Also, if I were to get a school girl Seph pin revealed during the final mission, I would have to get another Aurora pin to counterbalance it out. We'll just have to wait and see.
6. Autographs, 2010-2012
pre-fatal decision"You're saying we've done the exact same things every time that many times?"
"Not necessarily."
-Kyon and Yuki Nagato, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Now, let's set the clocks back to May 22, 2010, the day my identity got COMPROMISED. Michelle Ruff was one of the guests, but I had not even heard of Todd Haberkorn at the time. Basically, I focused only on Michelle during this time.
A few hours after the fateful panel that served as what got me COMPROMISED, I had Michelle sign this page of the Otafest 2010 book.
That day, I also had Michelle sign this box for the Haruhi Suzumiya limited edition volume 3 DVD, as her character Yuki Nagato was on it. And once again, like I said in CODE RED JUL 12 2010: Yes, people. I did ask her that question. I was vague at first, asking her to respond in Yuki Nagato's voice about "that group of episodes that no one likes"... But then I had to clarify myself. I told Michelle, "It's the frigging Endless Eight. I mean, no one likes it."
I asked what she thought about the Endless Eight and had her respond in "Yuki Nagato's voice, please", and she said, "Well, I guess there's really nothing we can do. We just have to keep going through and through and through."
She then talked about having to record the same lines over for episodes that remained the same, and I replied with, "I know, right?"
The next day, on May 23, 2010, I deliberately bought Lucky Star manga volume 2 to have Michelle sign two particular pages inside it, as they depicted the characters she voiced in the show. I had her sign the Minami Iwasaki page first.
And then I had Michelle sign the page for Tsukasa Hiiragi. Once again, like I said in CODE RED JUL 12 2010, after she signed it, I had Michelle say a line which went something like this: "I don't know about you, but I don't really like doing homework". I was caught speechless at the time, because I couldn't help but silently relate. I felt it fit me at the time.
Now, in Lucky Star, Tsukasa and Minami barely meet up. I actually did have them both meet up in CODE RED, alongside Yuki Nagato of course, especially for the finale in "Chapter 5: +involvement rescue". Allow me to refer you to the video depicting chapter 5, released after the finale was turned into a web novel.
Yes, on May 23, 2010, I told Michelle I was COMPROMISED during the May 22 panel, but no one really cares anymore.
Fast forward one year to May 2011. I started having a bunch of cosplayers wave at the camera and stuff, but anyway, a J-Rock band called The Fool arrived to perform.
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| Goo, Gunji, and Taca |
On May 21, 2011, because of their announcement video at the time, I made them say "Yeah" with that metal horns gesture, in what turned out to be a Q&A and autograph panel. Here I am again giving you another good look at their autographs.
Man, I really, really should have known better.
Fast forward another year to May 2012. I have accepted that this was the year I became agitated and went brutal. Despite getting fed up that there were all these guests I didn't know too well, another J-Rock band, called Lix, arrived here.
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| Yuu Ge and Chihiro |
I had trouble telling who they were on the page at the time, so on May 19, 2012, I had them write their names up top just so I could tell.
Other than Lix, who could forget Andrea Libman? Of course, I had a childhood to answer for. I'm NOT that kind of person.
Again on May 19, 2012, I had Andrea say in her Reboot character AndrAIa's voice, "The city is full of nulls", an actual line from an episode. I also had her write a Reboot line, as you can see here. Little did I know, though, that Andrea would be present at the beginning and end of my delusional times, but more on that later.
