Tokyo Game Show Aftermath

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I've had a look at the photos I snapped during TGS, and while most of them are perfectly good as slideshow-bait for friends, I've come to the sad conclusion that pretty much none of them will be very eye-friendly once I shrink them down to a size suitable for Blogger. So I've just got a few parting shots.

The shot to the top left is the general entrance queue from Saturday. This line stretched for about a kilometer, and that's not just me doing my usual trademark exaggeration. I was smart enough to get in early on Sunday before the crush, and it literally took me about fifteen minutes to cover the distance I'd queued for the day before, moving at a reasonaly fast clip. I couldn't actually take a picture of the whole queue, because (a) it went around seven or eight different corners, and (b) from my vantage point within the queue it appeared that the end of the queue was further away than the horizon - and that was in both directions.

Inside, on the public days, was just madness, as the photo to the right illustrates. There were three halls, each larger than a regulation football field by a fairly hefty margin, and they all looked like this. (This photo depicts about a sixth of one hall, maybe less.) It was worst near the Sony booth, which in some stroke of lunacy had been placed next to the Square-Enix, Capcom and Konami booths, making it pretty much at the center of all the show's most frenzied crowd scenes. You could stand at the corner of those four booths, and see ahead of you Hideo Kojima live in person, to your right a playable version of Devil May Cry 4, to your left new Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts releases, and behind you a brand new console sporting the likes of Heavenly Sword. I would not be surprised to hear that small children at this intersection who tripped and fell were killed and ground into the showfloor by the merciless boots of Squeenix fangirls.

Speaking of Squeenix fangirls, I don't think I'd quite relished the depths to which Kingdom Hearts pulls at the cosplay-oriented sensibilities of the Japanese female. Standing in line to play Re: Chain of Memories I felt like I'd accidentally stumbled into some secret club available only to those with surplus stocks of oestrogen. Much gushing was made over a huge tapestry canvas featuring the shojo-esque portraits of Kingdom Hearts' pretty, pretty male cast ensemble. There was also some kicking transgender costuming going on. I counted no less than three Soras (two depicted to the left), four Axels, and a Riku, all sporting an apocalyptic attention to detail, and all female.

The costuming didn't stop there - there were plenty of catgirls, anime witches, and those bunny-women things from FFXII and Tactics Advance. Actually, all the attendee cosplay was done by women - the guys didn't seem to go in for that, which was a shame, as I was hoping to see some decent Dantes, Clouds, or Sephiroths making the rounds. Sega had a couple of guys in Yakuza suits for its Yakuza 2 booth, Capcom had a soldier for Lost Planet, and over in the nowheresville hall where Microsoft was hidden I found someone in a giant cat suit (right) who for all I know was male. I have a certain respect for whoever was in that thing, because I was only in a short-sleeved T-shirt, and I was still on the verge of heat exhaustion. I can't imagine the tortures visited on someone wearing a heavy full-body novelty Neko-san prosthetic.

Anywho, it was a great time, and I'm sure glad I came. But it was draining - the thought of doing it all again leaves me wanting a good lie down and a nap. Probably by this time next year I'll be up to repeating the experience, but for now I'm just glad that it's over and I can take the rest of the holiday at my own pace.