A“The best part is always seeing all the people who come in from across our area, and from outside of our area, off the Olympic Peninsula, to come all the way up to Port Angeles for our convention and to see all the stuff we have going on, to see all the different artists and vendors from different areas, being able to come and look at what we have, to be able to show off what they have to offer.”
DREW SCHWAB REFLECTS UPON SQUATCHCON
nime Kat is the oldest anime and gaming haven on the Olympic peninsula, in the beautiful state of Washington. Who better to lead this expedition than the illustrious owner himself? BOOM’s team first encountered Drew Schwab at Squatchcon, where he graciously sponsored the event and showcased his adept moderation skills during the “Different Types of Comics Publishing” panel. Subsequently, they engaged in delightful conversations at his enchanting store and coincidentally crossed paths with him at Sakura-Con later that month.
Let’s dive into the magical world of Anime Kat!
Drew: Thanks for inviting me. I’m really looking forward to this POPcast and hope I can answer some questions for you.
Drew: I certainly try to make every day a fun day, and we definitely have things going on almost every day of the week. There are a few times that we have some breaks in between things, but generally speaking, we’ve got a lot of regularly scheduled stuff, and then we also have special events coming on. And of course, with everything going on, there’s no way that I could curate everything. There’s no way I could run everything. There’s no way I could come up with everything for the store and for us to be able to do things. So first and foremost, I just work and spend a lot of my time trying to come up with new ideas and new activities for the store, either tournaments or learn to play different sort of classes, things like that. I talk to my wife, see what kind of things that she thinks might be fun and enjoyable in our area. Definitely rely on our employees that we have working for us. I specifically try to hire people that might have different hobbies, different focuses that they’re really into than what I have because I won’t know what might be a great idea unless I have someone to suggest it to me. So I definitely rely on my employees to take ownership of things that they’re into. If they’re really passionate and dedicated with Pokemon, then they get to be the ones in charge of our Pokemon tournaments and our Pokemon league. I also try to rely on talking to a lot of our customers, what are they into? What do they like to do? So I know what kind of things to bring in for them. A lot of them are into miniature wargaming like Warhammer 40,000, and so being able to present painting contests and tournaments of that nature really makes it fun for them. But then I also rely on outside sources to curate and bring in suggestions for things for the store to work on. Some of those are very obvious, and very direct, companies such as Wizards of the Coast, the people that make Magic: the Gathering, as well as Pokemon. They specify when new sets are coming out and being released and have specific programs for us to run for events, for pre-release events, and tournaments, store championships. But then also I talk with and partner with a lot of other outside groups as well to kind of determine what kind of things we can bring into store or what we can go out into the community and participate in. So we occasionally will run Super Smash Brother video game tournaments. That’s actually an outside group that comes in and uses us. We’re in talks for doing a Dragon Ball Z card game tournament as well, coming up. That’s another one where we will post it and be the actual support structure, but it’s another person that really wants to do this. So, we’re going to work with them and bring that in, so that community will have a chance to play. So, yes, I thankfully have a lot of geniuses, family, friends, minions, and community support and trying to curate everything that we have going on in the store.
Drew: Yeah. And for me, I’m not sure what’s crazier to think about the fact that we doubled our store size after being open for only four years, or the fact that we did that ten years ago in an area that’s relatively small. I mean, Port Angeles only has about 20,000 people. And so I do think there is something to be said about the Pacific Northwest and comics and games really kind of captivating everyone that’s out here. You look at just the imaginative nature of the people that live in the Pacific Northwest and the ideas of Sasquatch and all of the mythology that we have here, the popular culture that’s ended up being focused on almost the mythology of this area, such as the Twilight Saga. Over the years, I’ve met numerous people who are published writers and comic artists and game designers and work for major comic companies such as Dark Horse, who live or are from Port Angeles, Sequim, and our surrounding areas. I mean, even Wizards of the Coast, who does The Gathering and who does Dungeons & Dragons, is based out of the Seattle area. So there has to be something out here for all of our nerdiness to really kind of focus on. But on top of that, I think the last few years, we’ve seen a huge boom in being able to be a nerd, and that being okay. And we can see that through things such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how everyone can be a Marvel fan, whether you read comics or not. You have things such as Stranger Things, really kind of bringing Dungeons & Dragons to the forefront of people who may never have played it or never really thought about it. And then, as horrible as Covid was and continues to be a lasting element to our society, it did give a lot of us an opportunity to stay home, and safely continue living through watching streaming programs. And through that, a lot of people have been able to discover old tv shows, Star Trek, but then also anime shows. There’s more anime being produced now and released in the US than there’s ever been before. It used to be you would have to wait years for an anime that was released in Japan to maybe be translated and brought to the US, but now they’re releasing them in Japan simultaneously as streaming services in the US. And so, as time has progressed, it’s just become easier and more fun to be a nerd. And so I’m starting to see more and more people, I don’t know if there are more nerds here, or if it’s just okay to let your nerd flag fly, but I’m starting to see a lot more military individuals who come into our store from the Coast Guard and from the Navy. I’m seeing more first responders, such as firefighters and police force, who come in and regularly participate and regularly purchase stuff. So we are a small community, population wise, but to a degree, everyone’s into something.
Drew: This is one of those funny stories I like to tell because it’s a plot twist, but it’s also funny because it’s so pragmatic. So the name Anime Kat for our store came first, and it came from a very logical place. When we first opened in 2010, we were strictly focused on anime and manga. We hadn’t gotten into games yet, we hadn’t gotten into graphic novels and the like, we were just anime and manga. Well, especially in 2010, the word anime is a little more familiar to the layperson than the word manga is. Anime, at least people recognize as being kind of a Japanese cartoon of sorts, but they might not know what manga is. So I went with the word anime to denote what it is our store does. Also, anime starts with an a, which means whenever in alphabetical order, our stores usually listed first. Cats show up in Japanese popular culture as well as Japanese mythology frequently. And so the idea of Japanese and cats and anime and cats are very much married together. However, by choosing the spelling of “k a t”, it made the store more unique. So, if you type it into Google, you don’t have 40,000 websites that show up before you even notice us. You don’t need quote marks, you don’t need to mention Port Angeles or anything like that. If you just type in anime and cat with a k. We are the first several listings on Google. So while designing all this, I needed a mascot. Well, my wife Robynn, is an artist, and she’s been drawing since she was in middle school and one the characters that she designed is named Fawks. And so I asked her if she’s okay, if Fawks could be our mascot, knowing that Fawks “f-a-w-k-s” was, in fact, a fox and not a cat. And so, yes, a fox is our mascot for Anime Kat, and that’s kind of a little hidden joke. But what is hilarious is when people notice it, and actually ask about it. I remember one time there was a dad and a kid who came into the store. The kid couldn’t have been more than maybe 10-11 years old. And she said, hey, dad, why is there a fox if they’re called Anime Kat? And she was pointing at our sign, our logo, that has Anime Kat with a picture of Fawks in the middle. And the dad’s like, “No, no, no, that’s, that’s a cat. That’s not a fox.” And she looks him dead in the eye and says, “No, that’s a fox. Look at the tail and the markings on the tail.” And he just looks confused. I smile, laugh, and go, “She’s right. That is entirely accurate. The mascot’s name is Fawks, and she is, in fact, a fox. And she has the dipstick style fox tail instead of a more traditional cat drawn tail.” So in this case, it’s more of a clever plot twist. So there’s a bit of pragmatic reasoning behind the naming of the store, that from a business standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, I find fascinating. Most people’s eyes glaze over when I start talking about what words get the most hits for search engine optimization and what words tie most into specific consumer behaviors. But I find it funny and interesting, that it’s kind of a hidden joke, that our mascot is actually a fox and not a cat. But thankfully, because it’s my wife’s drawing and artwork, I can usually sweet talk her into drawing a new picture of Fawks if I need a picture of Fawks doing something fun or entertaining in the store.
Drew: You know, that’s a really good question. So, on the one hand, I like to consider myself a business person. And so, there are a few things that if you don’t make me an offer on, I’m not willing to sell. But it would definitely have to have a lot of zeros. And so, in that case, you actually nailed it spot on. I do have a Cowboy Bebop animation cell hanging in the store of Faye Valentine. Faye Valentine is my favorite character from my favorite anime. I remember watching Cowboy Bebop in the nineties. I’m going to be 40 this year, so I actually watched it the first time it was on Cartoon Network or Toonami at the time in the nineties. And so I definitely really got into anime, and that was the first time I really knew the difference between anime and cartoons. I had grown up younger watching Dragon Ball Z and Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, things like that. But those were still, especially at the time, they’re more or less americanized cartoons using Japanese art. But Cowboy Bebop was the first time I could really recognize that this was different, this was unique, this was not the same as American cartoons. And so Cowboy Bebop holds a very special place in my heart. Many years ago, when I was at Sakura-Con, the big anime convention in Seattle that’s Easter weekend, they had an animation cell of Faye Valentine, and I was super excited and picked that up. Now, most people might not realize, but it’s really hard to get animation cells nowadays for a couple reasons. First off, most all animation has not been hand drawn in over 20 years. Even the stuff that looks hand drawn has been CG since the early 2000s. The Simpsons on Fox hasn’t been hand drawn since the nineties. And so there just isn’t any animation cells. You can’t get an animation cell with Rick and Morty. It doesn’t exist. That’s not how they animate it. But then also over time, they break down. A lot of these things that collectors and sentimental people might really want is just effectively garbage during the production process. And so there’s just crates of animation cells sitting in a wet warehouse in Japan that you would need to actually go and dig through them because there’s hundreds and hundreds of cells per 30 minutes episode. So they’re not unique, they just aren’t easy to get a hold of. And so I’m really fortunate and excited that I was able to get that. And over time, I’ve slowly expanded my Cowboy Bebop memorabilia in our store. I also have a signed picture of the voice actor from Spike and I just recently got, for my anniversary from my wife, a signed print from the voice actor that plays Jet. And then I actually have almost all of their signatures on my original dvd copy of Cowboy Bebop from the nineties. So, yeah, you actually nailed it quite right. Cowboy Bebop animation cell is the one where, it’s not technically off limits, but you’re definitely going to have to offer me a number with considerably more zeros to the end of it than it is necessarily worth from a monetary standpoint.
Drew: Ah, yes. So, that sounds like a question someone would ask if they’ve never been a sponsor or helped organize a event or convention. And what I mean by that is, Jess, who did pretty much all the organization for Squatchcon, would be able to speak even more to it. When you’re actually running a booth, as I did, when you are a master ceremonies at different panels, when you’re helping out with things, you don’t really have time to have the show stole for you, because you’re too busy trying to make sure everything runs smoothly. You’re not enjoying it like an attendee would enjoy it. I don’t want to say I don’t enjoy it. If I don’t enjoy doing these kinds of things, I wouldn’t do them. But it’s a different kind of an enjoyment. You’re not necessarily stopping and really looking at everything that’s going on and seeing it from the eyes of the fans who are really there to be in the moment, to participate, to listen to everything going on, because you’re too busy trying to make sure it’s running smoothly. So in that case, I think for me, the best part is always seeing all the people who come in from across our area, and from outside of our area, off the Olympic Peninsula, to come all the way up to Port Angeles for our convention and to see all the stuff we have going on, to see all the different artists and vendors from different areas, being able to come and look at what we have, to be able to show off what they have to offer. And so that’s the sort of stuff that makes it so I always like to participate in these sort of events locally. Those are the ones that I want to participate as a sponsor, as a participant, as a booth, as a organizer. For something such as Sakura-Con in Seattle, or like Emerald City Comic Con, Norwescon, those big events, those are the ones that I like to go to as a participant. And so I go as just Drew and wife Robynn, as were nerds, we’re doing cosplay, we’re in costumes, and we want to check out what’s going on. But locally, I’m not so much checking out what’s going on and seeing what specific things are, so much as taking in the enjoyment that everybody else is having. So for me, that’s the most important part when I’m acting in a sponsorship organizational sort of role for these kinds of events. Is, are people having fun? Are they going to come again? What more can we do next time to make this even bigger?
Drew: You know what? I don’t know if I can specifically answer which local artists left me the most spellbound. There’s so many good artists there, and as my own fault, I don’t necessarily grab enough business cards. But I’ve definitely found that because I was vending as well as, on behalf of my store, but I am not an artist, I’m just a store, but you can’t be in that vendor room as a vendor and not go check out everybody’s stuff. And so all the vendors, before the vendor hall opens, after it closes, we’re wandering around, we’re getting things from each other, we’re commenting on stuff that we all bring. And so, unfortunately, in my head, it’s all kind of a mush of all the different things I got to see. But I know that I was able to pick up a few pieces of artwork from my office. I got several vinyl stickers to be able to put on my water bottles and my laptop. But then, of course, all the local artists who are self published, I don’t think I can single any one of them out. I’m always, as someone who’s not an artist, I’m always impressed by anyone who’s able to do the work, to produce the comics, to be able to produce written material that looks nice, that reads nice. It’s one thing to go get them physically published, the actual manufacturing process, I could probably do that. I know enough of the industry. But it’s the creative side of that that always puts a spell on me and impresses me by just how are they able to do that? To go from a blank sheet to an actual narrative story with pictures? So, not only are you a good verbal storyteller, but you also have to be a graphical storyteller. And to me, those are two different skills. And so to be able to work with both of those and to be able to capture those in an actual graphic novel or a comic that you can buy and hold in your hands, it always just impresses me.
Drew: I think the Squatchcon Comics and Art Convention in Port Angeles is hugely important for the Port Angeles geek scene. I think there’s several reasons for that. First off, by design, the Squatchcon the last couple of years has been the weekend before Sakura-Con, the big anime convention in Seattle. And so from just a logistics standpoint, for all those cosplayers, for all those people gearing up and really getting ready for the big one, Sakura-Con, they have one more opportunity to show off their outfits, to show off their costumes and cosplay before they go. For some people who do cosplay, they might only have a couple times a year to dress up like Halloween and two conventions. And then depending upon your comfort level, you don’t really have an opportunity to dress up much more than that. It’s not necessarily socially acceptable to dress up as an anime character and go to Safeway, maybe Walmart, but not Safeway. And so that gives you another opportunity to meet like minded people and, and trade ideas before going to these bigger conventions. And then for a lot of people, we have a lot of youth who, their finances are much more limited than someone who might be older, who has a long term job. And so they’re not able to go to Seattle for like Emerald City Comic Con or Sakura-Con or Pax or any of those sort of things, because that’s very expensive to do that. And so if you’re 14, 15, 16 years old or even older, it could just be financially impossible to get to go and experience those sort of nerdy camaraderie that you have at a convention. So to be able to host one here in Port Angeles, I think is huge for the Port Angeles geeky nerd scene. So that way people know that they are not alone. There are others like them. And you might be super into this one specific nerdy niche, but there’s other nerds into other nerdy niches as well. So you might not be one to one exactly the same hobby and nerdiness, but you know that you’re not the only one one in town of only 20,000 who have these nerdy hobbies who are into this sort of stuff. And so I think that’s the biggest reason for the importance of Squatchcon in Port Angeles is for those that live here know that they’re not alone. For that, it is huge. It really allows people to feel community and to feel built up around that. So much of our local art scene in the Port Angeles area focuses on music or the theater or fine arts. And sometimes pop culture, and that kind of art style, gets lost in the attempts of bringing orchestra music, or a new off Broadway production of some kind. And so, to really hammer home the “all nerds are welcome in our area”, to have one venue once a year dedicated to what some may think of as more juvenile nerdy pursuits, is huge. It’s really affirming for everybody.
Drew: Well, if I’m going to be honest, Sakura-Con is probably my favorite nerdy convention. And that’s because being an anime store owner, I feel the most connected to the Japanese anime themed conventions. But Squatchcon is hugely important to me too, just as a local and as a supporter of it. So I think if I was going to build my cosmic sundae of geeky delights, it would be a scoop of Sakura-Con with a nice cherry on top of Squatchcon. And with a little bit of luck over time, maybe that’ll just turn into two scoops, a scoop of Sakura-Con and a scoop of Squatchcon, as Squatchcon grows and becomes competition to some of the other regional conventions.
Drew: Thank you. I appreciate that. I’m not sure if I would be as engaged in different groups in our city council if it wasn’t for the store. And I don’t think the store would be where it is, if I wasn’t so engaged with the different groups and the city council. They feed into each other. When I first opened up the store back in 2010, I got involved with our Downtown Association. And at the time, I decided to serve on our Promotions Committee. One of my degrees is in marketing. And so as I worked with that, I kept doing what I call falling forward. And so I got involved with that, so they asked me if I’d be the Chairperson for the Promotions Committee. So I spent some time as a Chairperson for our Downtown Association, including organizing our downtown tree lighting event for Christmas. Well, that turned into me getting on the board for the Downtown Association, which turned into someone suggesting I go on our City of Port Angeles Planning Commission, which I did. Which over time turned into, well, why don’t you run for city council? Which I did. So now I’ve progressed to city council. I was on our Planning Commission for about eight years. And so, through all of this, my focus on the store and improving the store from a holistic standpoint, from a community standpoint, but also from a financial standpoint, feeds into how I work within the different Port Angeles groups and the city council. And likewise, how I try to work in those groups and on the city council directly impacts and bolsters my store. There’s a lot of very specific details, things I can point at, that are perhaps in our city code, that I have made encouragements or have voted to change that ultimately help my business. And to be very, very clear, when I say “things I’ve done as a politician to help my business”, what I specifically mean is things that I’ve done to help the business community of Port Angeles, which therefore helps my business. There are no backroom deals. I don’t smoke cigars. I’m not doing anything that inappropriately helps my store over others. But, you know, raising tides, raise all boats. And so if I can make improvements to our local economy that allows people to have more money, then they have more disposable money, so they can buy more board games, they can buy more video games, participate in more tournaments and things like that. But also being a downtown business owner gives me a unique perspective from other, for example, city council members. I don’t believe any of the Port Angeles city council members own their own businesses, and none of them have businesses downtown, so I’m unique in that regard. And so I bring a different perspective of, not only the business community of Port Angeles as a whole, but more specifically, of our downtown waterfront area. That is always one of my bigger concerns and focuses because that’s kind of my home. I mean, I’ve been downtown now for 15 years. It’s really important to me to improve that to, to the best of my ability. By engaging in the city, I can help improve the community as a whole, help improve the community, the business community as a whole. And then by being a business owner, and specifically a business owner downtown, I have a unique perspective of how to be able to help the community. How can I help the business community locally? I don’t think my involvement with different groups of the city council would be at the same level if I didn’t have the store. And I don’t think I’d still have the store if I wasn’t able to be so involved with the city council and the other groups that I had participated in over the years.
Drew: Well, as far as classic anime goes, we carry the series Astro Boy. Astro Boy actually dates all the way back to 1952, and it follows the title character Astro Boy, who is an android young boy with human emotions. In the story, his creator actually made him after the death of his own son. The original anime was the first popular animated Japanese TV series and kind of really set the aesthetic that we refer to as anime today, including like the big eyes. We also have a whole bunch of Gunpla kits for lovers of Gundam. While most Gundams are not autonomous and are piloted by humans, they are considered robots with legs and arms, and are also known as mechs or mecha. The original Mobile Suit Gundam series debuted in 1979, and there’s over 50 TV series, films, manga novels, video games, and the plastic model kits. Now, the kits are what we refer to as Gunpla. Gundam are the real mechs in the context of the actual fictional universe, and then Gunpla are the model kits that we can actually purchase and assemble ourselves.
Drew: For most people’s perspectives, we’ve probably had many quirky gizmos over the years, but after a while, they don’t really seem all that strange to me. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it. However, I think the quirkiest and most esoteric thing I specifically remember selling in Anime Kat was a Sega CDx Console still in the box. Now, the original release in North America was back in ’94. It was a portable CD player that also played Sega Genesis games and Sega CD games as well as audio cds. Now there are only about 5000 of them released in North America. It sold really poorly. It had no skip protection. Kids, ask your parents why that’s important. Sega never really supported it. It was released at the tail end of the fourth generation of consoles when things were going kind of from one style to another. And it kind of got really bad reviews at the time. It actually cost $850 at launch in today’s money, which was actually $200 more than just buying a Sega Genesis and a Sega CD separately and putting them together. And so it was mostly called overpriced and not needed. So we had one of these sitting on our shelf for several hundred dollars for almost a year. No one really gave it a second thought. It was one of those things that’s rare enough that others don’t know it’s rare, because they don’t even know what it is. But one day a couple came in from Seattle and they saw it and they got super, super excited when they saw it and they bought it on the spot. Pretty sure they gave it a good home.
Drew: So, yes, it’s a vast sea that I can easily become lost in. Japan publishes about 8,000 different manga titles each year, with about 300 anime series produced during the same time. Most of those, of course, never make it to the US, but there are many, many titles released every month in the US. The board game industry estimates about 3,000 new board games released every year. Last year alone, there were 20 different card game sets released for Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! combined. And that doesn’t even really count the smaller sets, these are just the full size sets. And so it’s a full time job keeping up just on what’s coming out. We live in kind of the richest and most exciting, exciting time to be a nerd. There’s always something new, and so whatever you’re into, you can find something. So what I typically do is, first, I just take care of the easiest thing. We know we’re going to stock Magic, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh! I mean, Magic: The Gathering has been around since 1993. There’s no reason for me not to stock it. And they all have a very set calendar release that we know months out what’s going to happen. And so I work really close closely with my distributors. I have reps to make sure I order enough for those. For board games, I primarily work with the company Asmodee. Now, most people might not know who Asmodee is, but they actually own 23 different game studios with like 300 different intellectual properties. Basically, if it’s a big board game that you know about, there’s a good chance they own it. So they own things like Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Star Wars X-Wing, and a whole bunch of other titles. Now, manga and anime are typically the hardest for me to figure out what to bring in. So first, I continue to order the next volume of popular series. So whatever is really big in the anime community right now, we bring those in. Basically, if it’s something that at last year’s convention, you found 50 people dressed as this character or 200 people dressed as this character, we’re going to stock that series. But then there’s also industry magazines and websites that I can go to that actually tell me what the best sellers are based off of sales across the US. And so I bring in new series based on word of mouth, staff recommendations, and paying attention to what’s getting good buzz on the different streaming services. But lastly, and most importantly, I listen to the customers, the people who are actively coming to the store. For example, for a long time, One Piece was the biggest manga series in the world, but it never really sold all that well here. So I have to pay attention to what people here care about and not necessarily get wrapped up on what the rest of the world thinks is popular.
Drew: Well, I really wish I had a crystal ball to be able to see what’s going to be the most popular things coming on the horizon for anime and the gaming industry. So instead, I have to kind of use my gut for a lot of things because there’s two ways to look at it: there’s what do I think the emerging trends are internationally and across the US, but then there’s also locally. And so Port Angeles tends to run a little bit behind the trends and takes a little while to get caught back up. Now, as far as right now, I think the biggest trend that we have going is isekai: the idea of regular people being somehow magically transported to another realm and kind of living your life there. The trope right now is being hit by a car, dying, and waking up in another world as a spider or as a vending machine or a sword. These are all actual series that exist. And so isekai, I think, still has a while before we move away from that, and that’s probably the most common new series that I see right now. I think My Hero Academia is starting to wind down a bit. We don’t see as many people getting into that sort of stuff now. Demon Slayer is still going really strong, Jujutsu Kaisen is still going really strong, and so I think those will continue. As far as upcoming genres, I don’t really know. I can guess, but they have a tendency to be completely different than what I thought. And sometimes looking at the best seller listings online is not very helpful, because what they tend to do is when they compare different series and genre trends, they look at the total volumes for a specific series. So what happens is, you have these series like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach that have for almost decades now, been in the most popular top spots. But the problem with some of those is, yeah, there’s a hundred volumes of One Piece, so it’s a lot easier to sell 100,000 copies of One Piece series books when there aren’t a hundred volumes versus something like Demon Slayer Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia that has a fourth of that. But I think right now, at least in the short term, isekai is probably still going to be the most popular genre. But I think as streaming services pick up more and more anime, we’re going to see a lot more unique stuff, people who are trying to be different than the rest of the crowd. Because right now it’s almost white noise, with the amount of different releases there are. For gaming trends, I think a lot we’re going to see more of is going to be co-branding and coworking with other intellectual property. Magic: The Gathering has really been hitting it big with their crossover stuff. They’ve done crossovers with like Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Transformers. July of this year, there’s going to be a crossover with Assassin’s Creed. And so I think we’re going to see more and more cross-genre, cross-company products in the gaming industry. I mean, that goes back to Monopoly and the Mario Monopoly and the Port Angeles Opoly and the Sailor Moonopoly and all those sort of things. So I think the biggest trends for the gaming industry is to be able to partner with these brands that have existed forever that people already know and like, and making games using those intellectual properties. With 3,000 some board games being produced a year, you need to stand out of the crowd somehow. And sometimes you can stand out of the crowd by being new and unique and different, and sometimes you can stand out of the crowd, by being already recognizable, by partnering with some of these other brands and tying your new game into those.
Drew: Well, in the hopefully very unlikely event of a rogue robot invasion coming after our store, I’d most likely use a battle axe for a defense. So on our wall, we have a lot of stuffed trophies of dragons, and mind flayers and what have you, and underneath them are the weapons that were used to kill these mighty beasts. And so they’re some of our most popular decor that we have in the store. But under them, what I’ve done is I’ve made props for the items that have killed these magical beasts. And a couple of my friends actually forge knives and weapons, and so they made me a battle axe. But what’s really cool and unique about this, is the fact that it’s not metal, it’s actually carbon fiber. So my friends were able to craft a carbon fiber axe head, sharpen it down to the point where they actually sliced open their leather glove. It has a nice stone ingot and an actual hand-finished wooden handle to be able to wield it. It’s definitely a real weapon that would be very useful against any sort of uprisings that I might need to defend myself against. Now, as far as piquing their mechanical interests, you know what I think I might try to do is, I have a small armory of nerf guns. Quite a few, actually. And if I’m lucky, they might not realize that these nerf guns won’t actually hurt us humans. So I might be able to trick them or trade with them for my own life, of course, by giving them some of these nerf guns.
Drew: So, yeah, I actually really like apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic themed media and anime games, movies, things like that. But I, in my personal viewing habits and reading habits, have a tendency to be behind the curve on things, just because I don’t have as much time as I’d like. So, I tend to be not up to date in my actual viewing habits. Now, taking the idea of apocalyptic more general and less specific, I would definitely say, of course, Attack on Titan is probably one of the bigger ones that have been out in the last few years that I would classify as apocalyptic. But then, depending upon how far back you go, you have things like Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, rather obscure one that a lot of people don’t remember but I always enjoyed is called Blue Gender. So that was pretty good. And there’s definitely an argument for Nausicaa. While Studio Ghibli had not formed a Studio Ghibli yet, but Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds is also kind of an apocalyptic tale. As far as games go, board game wise, it might be a cop out, but there’s actually a Fallout board game that’s pretty good, actually. And anytime that I can play with little minis with my board games, it’s usually a lot of fun for me. But then I also play a couple of different zombie board games as well. Dead of Winter is pretty good and then I think my favorite one that’s a nice kind of casual for four or five players is Last Night on Earth, so I enjoy playing that one as well.
Drew: If I was going to hire someone as a security guard, I’m probably going to go with Sebastian from Black Butler. So in that anime, Sebastian’s actually a demon who makes a contract and becomes the bodyguard and butler to this young nobleman who’s seeking revenge against the person who murdered his parents. However, Sebastian displays himself as impeccably dressed, impeccable manners, but he’s incredibly skilled and has supernatural abilities. But through this contract that’s made, granted, it would be the most pay I would give anyone, my soul, he has to do what I tell him to, especially if I say it’s an order. And so, between him having to do what I say, but also being forced to have great customer service skills and being a literal demon, I think that could do a lot towards really kind of upping the security level at the store. I suspect after a very short amount of time, we would have fewer issues that might require Sebastian’s services.
Drew: Okay, so I don’t want to take the easy way out and just name three of the most powerful anime characters that have ever been created. So I want to kind of go with something a little more interesting, maybe a little more realistic. So first up, I would probably go with Guts from Berserk. He’s been through a lot. He’s very resilient, and he has great survival instincts. So then next up, Tsunade from Naruto. She is the greatest practitioner of medical ninjutsu. You gotta have a good healer with you if you’re worried about the apocalypse. And then lastly, I’m probably gonna go with Senshi from Delicious and Dungeon: Dwarf warrior, expert chef. So not only do we have another person wielding a giant axe for us, but we never have to worry about being hungry.
Drew: So, yes, we actually have had some love struck adventurers tie the knot here at Anime Kat. Several years ago, we did have some of our regulars decide to get married in the store. We hosted their wedding and it was a lot of fun. They even had a wedding cake that had a giant Magic card in the icing. So that was really cool. That was many years ago. I’m not 100% sure how well their marriage has turned out, but I definitely think getting married at the store has got to be a good start. And hopefully we’ll get some more people decide to do that as well.
Drew: The best place to find us in cyberspace is on our website, animekat.com, a n i m e k a t .com. We also have a Facebook page, facebook.com/AnimeKatLLC. Those are our two most commonly updated places. In fact, our website, animakat.com, has our complete calendar of events. It’s a live calendar. Anytime anything changes, we immediately update it there. So, if you’re trying to find us online, go to our website, animekat.com.
Drew: There’s a ton of people that I could give a shout out to, to the point where I’m almost hesitant to do it at all, because I know I’m gonna forget some people. There’s no way that we could be open since 2010 if it wasn’t for the support of friends and family and the local community as a whole. But I want to give a special shout out to my wife, Robynn. If it wasn’t for her love and support, there’s no way we could be where we are now. It really is because of her that we’ve been able to grow the store and grow the local community as a whole. She’s always willing to help out for the store and allow me to work more to be able to better the store. In fact, even now, as I work on answering all of your fine questions this day, I’m reminded of the fact that tomorrow is actually my 15 year wedding anniversary and I really need to go home, so that way I can spend more time with my wife.
Drew: I truly believe the best way any of us can make the world a better place is to be a better person person. If you can just every day get up and think how can I be a better person? Then you’re already one step closer to making the world a better place.
Drew: Thank you for inviting me! I had a lot of fun answering your questions. I’ve done a lot of panels over the years at different conventions and things like that, and frequently the questions we get tend to be a little generic. So, it was a lot of fun being able to answer questions that had a lot of thought put into them and were a little more tailored to specifically me.
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