This report comes fresh off the end of the latest Comic Market in Tokyo. Although we didn't run completely out of books like we did one time, it was still a pretty successful run. There were several familiar faces, and a few new ones. Some people stopped by just to flip through the books, some stayed longer to ask questions, about Scientology and Anon alike. Since this was our first Comiket since the Sony incident, we were still a little worried about the public reaction. Although we have a couple of bloggers/IT reporters as friends who have been doing their best to explain the nuances the mainstream press has been glossing over, it's not an easy thing to undo an image once its made. In order to help clear up any misunderstandings, we cobbled together a booklet out of several blog posts and reports that explained the difference between Chanology Anonymous and all the other flavours. This turned out to be a fairly good idea, as several people stopped just to flip through the book, some of whom asked a few questions about the contents and seemed to be satisfied that we weren't out to haxx0r their PSN accounts by the end of it. Another positive result of the Comiket attendance was a visit by another, different reporter who worked for a magazine called "Hacker Japan" who asked us a few questions, and left the door open for a future interview. We also got another quick visit by the anti-cult lawyer who visited us a few years ago, and we were fortunate enough to be placed in the booth next to a different circle, the "Almost Daily Cult Newspaper", a group of prominent anti-cult bloggers. On an interesting, and unfortunate, side note, the Almost Daily Cult Newspaper group told us about some recent troubles they had with the police after a particularly big Japanese cult they were reporting on, who has fairly strong ties to the government, called in the cops to raid their offices for unspecified crimes. Several computers were carted off and I think the case is still in limbo for them. I feel for them, but at the same time, I've never felt happier about operating Anonymously here in Japan. So, overall, nothing extremely spectacular or amazing, but just a good, solid day at the Comic Market where we met some new people and taught them about the cult, reinforced old friendships, and had a good time doing it. Please find enclosed a few raid pics, from the booth, and from our foray into the cosplay area:
Another brilliant Comiket, Trev6! You looked very spiffy this year. Great job on educating the public about Chanology. Sir, you are full of WIN.
Hey! So, it's kind of last minute, but we signed up for an event in Osaka. Here now, turning out to be surprisingly popular. Honestly, you would not be able to know from looking that we're in Osaka, but we totally are. ....should have printed more books, through. I wasn't expecting to sell half of the new books, let alone sell out. Good times.
