…for charity. Or at any rate, a student of one of the neo-ninjutsu schools and of kendo. He was quite good with a sword–much better than I–and I held my own only because my style was completely unfamiliar to him. I also crossed blades with Ichigo Kurosaki, Rikku, Link, and a number of less well-known personages.
My friend Pat tangled with Zelda. My nephew-in-law fought Squall Leonhart, and followed it up with a predictably chaotic, flailing match against Naruto Uzumaki. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki mixed it up with David and Taryn, and were soundly defeated. Samurai Jack couldn’t make it, so our own Samurai Paul stepped in to battle the Shogun of Sorrow, Aku (and he did it without a magic sword, too). Mario hopped in the ring, but he was too busy chasing some goomba around in circles to really fight. Team Rocket watched, but weren’t inclined to risk damage to their coiffures, and Jiraiya was too busy watching some scantily-clad catgirls.
Oh, and we beat up some reporters, at their request. Go figure.
If all that has induced a bit of cognitive dissonance, you may be feeling a hint of what our Fight-the-Knight event at A-Kon 19 was like. We had a blocked-off ring on the main floor of the hotel and boffer weapons for ourselves and our foes, and for nearly three hours, we battled the denizens of anime fandom in exchange for their charitable donations to the March of Dimes.
It was wild, pretty much everyone had a good time, and we raised a bit of money for a good cause…but damn, I’m sore. 