12/18/02 -- 12:23 am (EST)
Toronto Shoujo-ai Film Fest
We were there, read what we have to say.

Over the weekend, we had the chance to attend a first in Toronto. The long talked about Shoujo-ai Film Fest. As what we had talked about in our exclusive interview with the organizer of the show, Kathryn Williams, this is a first for the city. Needless to say we were quite excited on being one of the first people to be there. Well would have been the first there, if we had showed up on time...

We had a late night the previous night and totally forgot to set our alarm clocks. So we did not make it there until about 3:00. But that wasn’t too big of an issue, what we did experience was still great, regardless of the few problems they had when the show started. It seems they were a few problems with the DVD player, which wasn't working and a few other small things. This untimely had things about 10 minutes behind, but some how, they managed to catch up… In fact it ended a bit early. The original end time for the show was 9pm… but 8:30pm was our leaving time. Needless to say, that was some great work on the operator’s part on getting things back on track.

During the show, a nice layout of chairs was set up to sit down in and watch some amusing Shoujo-ai themed anime during the whole day, on a nice large screen projector. Below is a complete list of what was shown.

Card Captor Sakura (uncut) - TV - 10am
Brigadoon: Marin and Malen - TV - 11am
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna - OVA - Noon

Lunch

Sailor Moon Special - OVA - 1:30pm
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland - OVA1 2:00 pm
Read or Die - OVA 2:30pm
Adolescence of Utena - Movie - 4pm

5:30 Pizza break

Alien 9 Pre-release Showing - OVA - 6:00pm

In between the showings everyone had the chance to stretch, sit back and watch some Shoujo-ai AMV's and Openings. More so during the Pizza break and lunch. A few J-pop music videos where shown as well. It was rather interesting really, there was always something amusing to watch.

After the Pizza break, came the one show everyone was waiting for. The Alien 9 pre-screening… which I have to say was worth the wait. Despite the fact that this is my second time watching this, it has only made me much more excited about it’s North American release. I also found the series to be even greater that I had thought it to be…. Especially after reading Kathryn Williams' informative essay, which I recommend all who is interested in Alien 9 read.

After the showing of the anime, a draw has held to those that bought some raffle tickets. Various things were up for grabs such as the Miyuki-chan in Wonderland DVD, T-shirts posters and books. I happened to win the Magic Knight Rayearth WallScroll.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, we had to leave. But I was glad we went to such a showing. Things like this are rare in Toronto, and I hope more will happen in the future. Considering that I enjoyed my self a lot even though I missed half of it, is a sure sign that this was a total success!
 

-- Eddie Hicks, Otaku Aniverse