Anime Conji 2011

Last weekend I wound up volunteering at Anime Conji 2011, a rather small convention in San Diego, the most exiting city on earth.

Anime Conji was definitely the smallest convention I've attended, with a whopping 1700 attendees, less than one tenth of Anime Expo. The convention's location was spread out of a smaller venue than Anime Los Angeles, (Which took up most of the LAX Marriot) a small part of the Town and Country Resort, sharing a hotel with some respiratory research convention.

See, they have THIS in San Diego

On the entertainment side, I wound up getting to see Steam Powered Girraffe, a band of robotic singers from the 1900's. This was exiting, since I had taken my girlfriend to see this band about a month and a half beforehand. They seemed more exiting at this convention than a month ago, since they were the main event, rather than an opening act to Abney Park (Steampunk band from Seattle, totally awesome) Other than that, the only events I attended were the rave and the mochi maid cafe. The Maid cafe was being held by a bunch of girls in maid outfits, where we recieved free food. In retrospect, I feel that I ordered the wrong item, seeing that I ordered the soup, and it was lukewarm by the time it got to me. The waiters were nice though, and we got to see the maids doing the Hare Hare Yukai.

This convention's rave managed to be.... okay. It was a bit better than the rave at Anime Expo 2011 (way too big, not interesting enough) but not as good as Anime Los Angeles' rave (plenty of room, decent music) Here I learned that my girlfriend cannot dance, and that not everything needs a techno remix. On Saturday, one of the DJ's decided to do a techno remix of the “Over 9000” video that everybody has seen over 9000 times. Unfortunately, this is a bit of an old meme, and the quiality of the remix was not good enough to warrant being played at a rave. The rave on Friday was a bit to big for the room that it was held in (capacity 80) making it difficult to get to. The rave on Saturday had enough room, but also contained the annoying over 9000 remix. Best convention rave still belongs to Anime Expo 2010, until further notice. I'm thinking of checking out the gas lamp district in San Diego after Comic con, assuming that my girlfriend decides to learn how to dance.

There were a large percentage of cosplayers at this convention, about the same percentile as Anime Los Angeles. Gatherings were a massive load of fail (Okay, I couldn't make the blasted Scott Pilgrim party, so I don't know how that went) as the Persona gathering and the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya gathering were made at the convention, and both held less than 10 people. I suppose the gathering organization was comparable to the entire convention's organization.

Organization was a mess at this convention, but this will be detailed in the upcoming volunteer report, however, I will note that I had trouble finding the location based on the description on the website. Apparantly it was a lot better than last year (this was only the convention's second year) so hopefully things are more in shape next year

Overall, my attendance at Anime Conji next year depends entirely on my econimic situation, and whether or not I can secure a staff position. I may take a shot at hosting my own panel if I can manage the logistics. The convention makes a nice bridge between Anime Los Angeles and Anime Expo. It should be considered that the convention tickets were about 35 dollars (student, but there were a LOT of available discounts) and that it takes place in San Diego, a city filled with awesome, cheap restaurants, and wonderful theater districts.

Please Comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:

Anime Los Angeles 2011

Anime Expo 2010
Getting the most out of an Anime Convention

Running the Karaoke room at Anime Los Angeles 2011

While I was at Anime Los Angeles this year, I managed to achieve a staff position in the Karaoke room. Despite what I was afraid would happen, there were no truly bad singers, aside from a few people who couldn't keep up with the lyrics on the screen. During this position, I learned such skills as how to run a switchboard, and more importantly what kind of music is popular in a karaoke lounge. 

The most requested Albums for this year were:

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Avenue Q
3. Wicked

While I am not surprised by the first two, I was a bit shocked by the last one. The most popular songs were:

1. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
2. I'll Make a man out of you (Mulan)
3. Sweet Transvestite (Rocky Horror Picture show)

Before this event, I had never heard the song “Sweet Transvestite,” but after the convention I had almost memorized it.

My duties involved managing the Karaoke machine, and announcing who was going to be singing next, along with the occasional munchie run. This managed to a lot more fun than my previous volunteer position held at Anime Expo, less because the job was easier, and more because of the nature of the work.

Being in staff allowed me to meet a lot of interesting people. I got to meet some fellow Pokemon trainers in the staff lounge, whom I managed to curb stomp. I also got to hear some of the con veterans tell me about the various conventions of old, and how things used to be run.

The people I REALLY got to know were the attendees and staff who spent most of their time in the Karaoke room. This managed to be one of the most popular locations for cosplayers to come goof off and show off their costumes. Notable people include Vash, the Organization XIII member with the lovely singing voice, the performer from the Rocky Horror Picture show who sang most of the soundtrack, that girl dressed as Jack Frost, a certain Haruhi cosplayer, and the infamous Hetalia cosplayers.

The infamous Hetalia cosplayers effectively took over the Karaoke room on Saturday night. While I understand that they made it nearly impossible to get on stage and sing due to the half-hour wait they caused, I found that they brought enough energy to the room to make my shift interesting.

Staffing at ALA proved to be about as difficult as volunteering at Anime Expo, which was quite refreshing. The management said they were trying to improve on some of Anime Expo's staffing issues. This was noticeable amoung the management on ALA, as while the manager in charge of Karaoke appeared stressed, the manager in charge of Anime Expo looked like she was about to collapse at any moment.

On a stranger note, actually hanging out the karaoke room managed to be the most interesting part of the convention for me, because it forced me to learn the most, meet the most people, and hey, it's where I met my date for the rave.

I will most likely wind up staffing Anime Los Angeles next year, although I have no idea what department I'll end up in. Hopefully it's one that manages to be as exiting.

Please Comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:

Overview of Anime Los Angeles 2011

My Experience Volunteering at Anime Expo 2010

My Journey through Anime Expo 2010

Getting the most out of an Anime Convention

Overview of Anime Los Angeles 2011

^Believe it or not, the guy in the center was a great singer.

This weekend I managed to make it to Anime Los Angeles, the mini convention that exists for two reasons:

1. To give cosplayers and conventon addicts a fix until Anime Expo in summertime.
2. Because Anime Expo has gotten too big and sold out, man

I fit firmly into the first category, since I believe the most people's definition of “selling out” to be silly. Anime Expo wants to make money, and who are we to begrudge a group for making money in a perfectly legitimate fashion?

On the other hand, some of the more hardcore anime fans need something to tie them over until summer's convention's, such as Anime Expo, Comic Con, or AM2. Plus, it's a great place to test a costume, or to meet some convention going buddies. I used to beef up my work resume, so that I can get better positions at future conventions. Hey, con hopping is NOT an affordable hobby.

I spent the majority of my time in the Karaoke room, due to the fact that I was holding a staff position there. This was very entertaining, as I met tons of interesting people, learned what kind of music kids are listening to these days, and met the girl I would be dating for the duration of the con. Full report on the Karaoke room will be posted later.

The Scott Pilgrim gathering.

COSPLAY GATHERINGS: I only attended three gatherings this year, the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Persona, and the Kingdom Hearts Gathering. Normally, I'd say the Persona gathering was the best, but instead I'm giving this award to the Scott Pilgrim gathering. This gathering gets the reward due to having the most complete cast, along with an interesting set of poses. They managed to acquire a complete League of Evil Exes, along with variants of Romona with several hair colors.

The Persona conga line

The Persona gathering lost because a large portion of the people there were also at the Anime Expo 2010 Persona gathering, including the person hosting it. While I greatly respect the man for his dedication to Persona and organizing herds of cosplayers, way too much content was recycled, including poses. Hopefully, the release of a new Persona or Shin Megami Tensei game will make future gatherings more interesting.

I recognized these three

The Kingdom Hearts gathering was interesting, although I am a bit behind on my Kingdom Hearts Knowledge, so I couldn't enjoy everybody's costumes as much. I unfortunately do not own a PSP or a PS3, so playing most of these games is impossible. However, anybody who knows me knows the first thing I'm going to do when I get a PSP is catch up on the Persona series, so the lack of hardware may not be the issue...

AMV CONTEST: The AMV contest at this convention left a lot to be desired. While the AMV's there generally left nothing to complain about, none of them really spoke to me. In fact I would go as far as to say that my little sister could make AMV's like that (Well, she's pretty good at AMV's actually) I was mostly disappointed because I expect the AMV contest at a convention to be a bit more exiting than an AMV contest on Youtube.

THE DANCE: This convention's rave managed to be much more exiting than the rave at Anime Expo 2010, about as good as the rave at Anime Expo 2009 (That rave was so awesome most people couldn't get in.) This rave managed to be exiting, while having a large enough dance hall to accommodate the ravers at the convention. Furthermore, the DJ played a larger variety of music than the DJ at Anime Expo 2010. This managed to be a good rave, that all people could feel free to attend, like a good rave should be.

OVERVIEW: While I feel more at home in the gigantic crowds of a large convention, this convention managed to have it's own charms. That being most of the people managed to be interesting. ALA managed to have a much higher percentage of cosplayers than any other convention I had attended, along with a higher percentage of good costumes. The actual programming could not compare to the programs available at Anime Expo, but expecting it to would be ridiculous. While I overall had more fun at Anime Expo, ALA satisfied my thirst for conventions for the next few months.

Please Comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:

Running the Karaoke room at Anime Los Angeles 2011
My journey through Anime Expo 2010

Comic Con 2009

Getting the most out of an Anime Convention

My Experience Volunteering at Anime Expo 2010

 <- This year I donned the yellow vest and helped run Anime expo. While cosplaying while volunteering was totally acceptable, I found wearing my Yasogami High Uniform quite distracting.

While I did spend a lot of time doing standard issue convention shenanigans at this year’s Anime Expo, I also spent some time volunteering in order to get a free pass. This is because I sort of had a financial crash, and not going to expo was simply not an option in my book. While I initially applied for a staff position, upon realizing that I was not going to get the position, I immediately applied to volunteer, in order to have a something to convince them to put me on staff in the future.

While I was contemplating this, I realized it would give me much more expertise on the ways of the anime convention, and make me get one step closer to my goal of becoming an Anime Expo sage. Furthermore, it would allow me to have a much deeper knowledge of the inner workings of the convention. Hence, on day 0 I set out on my journey to work at the convention.

I worked at quite a few postions, including registration, the manga lounge, bag stuffing, and guarding a choke point. I rate these postions as follows:

Manga lounge > Bag stuffing > Registration > Standing in line at a con > Choke points

Choke Points: This position was possibly the most banal thing I’ve ever done. I only did it for two hours and avoided it like the plague afterwards. The job consisted of sitting at a position in the convention center and preventing anybody from getting through, to ensure that the people at a real checkpoint had an easier time checking everybody’s badge. Unfortunately, I was guarding the top of a stairwell that leads to a shortcut to the movie theaters. People’s reactions to me not allowing them to go through ranged from moderately irritated to downright hostile. Furthermore, there was nothing to do besides sit there and prevent people from going through. This job REALLY sucked.

Registration: I spent a good 6 hours of my required 16 working with the people in registration. For two of them, I was working as backup in case somebody needed help. This is because the computers in registration had technical difficulties, and the system prevented non- staff (I.E. volunteers like me) from handling any form of money. This resulted in me only being able to tell people where stuff is, and not being able to do much. These people were not in a good mood, because they had to wait for their badge due to technical difficulties, and I was unfortunately not given the means to acquire the badge for them. I really should have gotten the phone number of the girl I was working with though, hehe

The other four hours I spent in registration were not that bad really. I was assigned to hand out goodie bags to people who got their badges on day 4. Unfortunately, only a select few suckers show up to a convention on day 4, so I didn’t do much. At least I was doing something, rather than sitting there hoping for something to do, and I got to see all the people who were attending that day.

Bag Stuffing: I wound up spending about 2 hours stuffing the registration bags I would wind up handing out on day 4. This job would seem incredibly boring, as all I was doing was picking up an item, putting it in a bag, and passing it to the next person, like an assembly line. However, I got to wave at AKB48 (yes, one of them waved back) while running it, because they wound up going past the staff-only area where we assembled bags. Also, I wound up working with a couple of attractive girls dressed as vocaloids, which was nice. It’s always better to work with people than sitting by yourself, like at the chokepoints.  However, one guy I was working with was a little…. dense. He seemed to think my telling the vocaloids I’m working with about the when and where of the official rave was connected to work at all, and that I should quit it and get to base so I can do better stuff.

Manga Lounge: This was definitely my favorite place to work during the convention. One time I worked here for two hours, and just had to ensure that the books were in their proper locations. Although it never stopped, I was never bored.

The best part was when I was checking people out of the library in the morning. Since the library wasn’t very crowded at that time, I got to spend a good portion of that time reading. I managed to get through both “Vampire Knight” volume 8 and The “Wallflower” volume 1  in between signing people out. Also, I ran into a few of my friends while working the library, which was nice.

Staffers: Time to gossip about the rest of the staff! The rest of the staff was hardworking, hardcore, and definitely overworked. I got this vibe during the volunteer orientation when the person in charge of telling us what’s going on picked up a megaphone, said hi, and nearly collapsed right there. This was very discouraging, but it also told us that the staff was willing to work to that point, making them seem slightly crazier than the rest of the people at the convention. Upon chatting with them during the course of the convention, I’ve gathered that there were major staff cuts, which made running the show a bit more difficult, but the people who remained seemed entirely capable of stepping up to the challenge. Although the workload does intimidate me a bit, some part of me wants to find out if I’m capable of joining those fools crazy enough to try to run this convention. Hats off to them BTW, I know the people at my regular job probably couldn’t pull this type of thing off for the perks they got.

Other Volunteers: The volunteers were consistently less competent than the actual staff. I believe this is due to requirements for being a volunteer include willing to put on a vest for 16 hours and helping run the convention. This allows several slackers to get on board. However, a good amount of the volunteers were very good, and willing to get the job done to ensure that this convention was good for the people who showed up. Because without them, the con would collapse from all the minor tasks that need to be done.

Mostly, volunteering at Anime expo was pretty fun, considering I got inside information on the infrastructure of the convention, got to contribute to the actual convention, and got in free. Also, since I worked mostly morning shifts, I didn’t miss any important stuff, like the AMV contest and late night raves (Hey, sometimes you just have to cut sleep out of your schedule to get the most out of your convention.) Assuming I don’t get a staff position, I will most likely be volunteering at the convention again next year! Look for me in the green vest!

Please Comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:
My Journey through Anime Expo 2010
Getting the most out of an anime convention
Convention Trances: Drawing on the Essence of an Anime convention
Anime Expo 2009

My journey through Anime Expo 2010

 <-Here's a picture from the Persona gathering of me with some guy dressed as Izanagi. Man, that gathering was awesome

Awww yeah, it’s that time of year again. Just got back from Anime Expo, which managed to be awesome despite the change in management (I won’t blame staff, they’re kinda cool) This year managed to trump the previous year, putting it on par with the convention in 2008, where I first met the love of my life, Persona 4. On another note, this was my first year actually working at the convention as a volunteer, which will warrant another post.

This year I decided to stay at the Clarion Hotel, which is about a mile away from the convention center. The rooms are nice and VERY cheap, to the point where you assume it is too good to be true. This is all fine and dandy until you drive to the Hotel, and look at the nice view of…. much better hotels. I could see the incredibly phallic Ritz Carlton that is still being worked on, along with other gigantic super hotels. Furthermore, the walk there forced you to go through a rather…. suspect neighborhood. Would NOT walk through there at night. Now then, this conventions highlight reel…

Cosplayers: Holy crap, cosplay was nice this year. I attended the Persona, Super Smash Brothers, and Pokemon gatherings. My favorite cosplay gathering definitely goes to the Persona gathering where there where not one, not two, but FOUR girls dressed as Chie there. I could have sworn I died and went to heavean. Even better, unlike last year’s Persona gathering, the entire party from Persona 4, plus a few side characters showed up (no main villain though >_>)  Pokemon gathering was really fun, and one of my favorite cosplayers was at that gathering…. Wobbu Fett. As you can see in the picture, it’s a combination of Wobbuffet and Boba Fett. There were also a lot of people dressed up as Pokemon, using a lot of creative costumes, such as this Bellossom.

AMV Contest: This year beat the stuffing out of last year’s AMV contest. Although no AMV was better than some of the best in 2008’s contest, the average AMV was better than the average in 2008. This contest started out strong by showing a video about Hitler and his generals in their bunker, and Hitler explaining how his AMV is going to make the finals. Then the AMV staff tells him he lost the finals to a no-edit video, and he then proceeds to go on a rant, and explaining how he is going to raise hell on the forums. Unlike previous years, I felt comedy was the weakest category, rather than the strongest, mostly because the comedy videos consisted mostly of Internet memes. There were a couple of exceptions, one being “Common Accident” which featured characters from Evangelion, which I’m not linking to here. My other favorite in comedy was “An Alchemist named Sue,” featuring Full Metal Alchemist. My favorite action video was “Switchback,” which was played to clips from black cat. Strangely, drama was my favorite category this year, featuring the videos “Setsuna of Arabia” and Alchanum, which were both very solid. Strangely, although the AMTV Pro category is usually the weakest, I found most of the videos, particularly “This is Halloween” to be very exiting. It should be noted that the trailer to Space Pirate Captain Harlock, shown before the contest was simply amazing. Most of these videos can be found on Youtube, although the experience is not nearly as exiting as seeing them in the Nokia theater.

Programming:  I didn’t go to that many panels this year. I went to the Legend of Zelda panel out of curiosity, and saw some information on the new Zelda game coming soon. It is apparently going to have an incredibly precise sword system that will demand that you REALLY make an idiot out of yourself in front of the TV. Furthermore, you’re going to have to actually do a longbow like stance in order to fire the bow. Looks REALLY fun, and looks like it would make you look REALLY stupid. A more surprising panel was the Chibi Masquerade, where I saw two rather interesting things. One was a lady wearing a well-made Vivi (Final Fantasy 9) playing Suteki De Na (Final Fantasy 10) on a violin. On another note, a guy I happen to know proposed to his girlfriend during the chibi masquerade. Thankfully, she said yes. Finally, I went to the AX forum meet and greet, where I failed to answer a question correctly, and was forced to sing the Pokemon theme  in front of the crowd there. I felt heroic. I was a little miffed that I didn’t know the answer to the questions, because the questions other people were asked were from anime I love, and I could answer instantly. I’m sure some guy thought that about my question though, hehe.

Exhibition Hall: This year’s Exhibition hall wasn’t very exiting. Freebies were scarce, I didn’t see many raffles, and it seemed emptier than last year. It should be noted that the most awesome booth in the universe belonged to LITTLE ****ING KURIBOH himself, who was selling T-shirts and meeting fans of Yu Gi Oh abridged. Thankfully, I was able to get a picture with him. I wound up buying a couple T-shirts, but I spent more time in the Artists alley next door. There the convention’s finest artists vied for people’s attention in order to make a living. There were some strong performances, and I will be featuring some of the artists I saw there in later posts.

The Dance: Well, I got to go to the rave for a couple of nights. This year’s rave was at Club Nokia, which was roomier and much closer to the convention than the Westin, where last year’s raves were held. The first night I refered to as “The Bro Rave” where I went with my friends in cosplay (Me as the Persona 4 guy, my friend as some guy from Blaze Blue, and the other guy as Barry from Resident Evil) This rave was really exiting, and I got to dance with quite a few people. The second night of the rave I went with some friends out of cosplay. Although I danced a lot, the most memorable part for me was when I asked a girl dressed as a Vocaloid to dance with me, and I got stopped by some guy she was with who looked like he was going to punch my face in. I found it amusing.

Overall: This year’s convention was really fun, and gives off a bit of hope for Anime Expo’s future, despite the change in staff. My favorite parts were the AMV contest and the Persona gathering, by far. Of course, I’m saving my opinions on staff for a later post on my experience working at the convention, which will be posted later. I will definitely be going to the convention next year, and will hopefully be playing a bigger role in its success, whether it be as a volunteer, staff, or managing an artist alley booth for my local anime club.

<-Anime Expo 2009

Related Posts:
My Experience Volunteering at Anime Expo 2010
Comic Con 2009
Getting the most out of an Anime Convention
Convention Trances: Channeling the essense of an anime convention

Getting the most out of an anime convention

 <-Unless your dad acts like this guy, you should have an easy time having fun at an anime convention

With the onset of anime expo and myself being surrounded by convention n00bs, I believe it is time that I share my sage like wisdom on the ins and outs of making the most of an anime convention. After all, one of the most important things to having fun in one of these things is knowing exactly what you want to do.

1.)    Planning: Yes, in order to party as hard as possible at a convention, one must plan in advance exactly how they wish to accomplish partying, lest they wind up wandering around not knowing what to do. At that point, they wind up doing nothing, resulting in a watered down experience. Hence, look at the schedule before the actual con before you go there, so you have a general plan on what must be done

2.)    Don’t let others hold you back: Well, normally I’d say bromance is the key to success, but not in this case. Often, my friends will just sit around and discuss what they should do and not actually do it. One year, the group just sat around in their hotel room and played their Nintendo DS’s all day. What does this tell you? RUN! Ditch the morons as they squabble over petty details. If you do it right, maybe some of them will follow you. Most conventions are only once a year, and why should you spend the whole time standing around

3.)    HOTBLOOD: In order to REALLY make the most out of a convention you must enter a trance like state and let go of the logic you normally live by. Really, do you really need more than 5 hours sleep? Is eating on a regular basis THAT important? Or would you rather get to a really important panel or movie premiere? Allow the general energy and excitement in the convention to consume you, and allow your own excitement to sustain you as you make your journey through the convention. This will allow you to reach new heights of performance, on much less fuel. Fear not, you can eat and sleep when you get home. (You’ll immediately crash though… oh well)

4.)    Bromance: Ironic considering the previous point mentioned above. Bros can actually be very helpful in increasing your enjoyment of the convention, as long as they don’t hold you back. Doing exiting things alone isn’t nearly as exiting as doing them together, so make sure you try to drag one or two friends to an event assuming they aren’t too busy deliberating what to do. People who DON’T enjoy standing around and deliberating are lots of fun to drag around cons, or be dragged around by.

Unfortunately, one of the most important things to becoming an expert at enjoying conventions is experience, and that doesn’t come freely. I suggest that new people attempt to team up with an experienced conventioneer, and follow them. It’ll help you find good events. However, the ever important experience does not come unless you actually go to these conventions a lot, such as Anime Expo, and gather this experience first hand.

Related Posts:
My Journey through Anime Expo 2010
Convention Trances: Drawing on the Essence of an anime convention
My Experience Volunteering at an anime convention
Comic Con 2009

Opinions on Anime Expo 2010

Okay, Anime expo is coming up in about two weeks, so I feel it’s time to build up the hype machine over here. I am both exited and nervous regarding this year’s convention for various reasons.

First and foremost, I will not be just an attendee this year, for I plan to volunteer and actually contribute to the convention. This does get me a free ticket, and I feel that since I’ve been attending Anime expo for so many years, maybe I should really take some time to get to know it. It’s unfortunate that they did not accept me for a staff position, but I heard their cutting back. Not good, since I heard their cutting back on the registration staff, which means

THE LINE! WHY MUST THEY DO LESS TO CONTROL IT?

On the bright side, I will be done with the line on day 0, before anything interesting actually happens. Hence allowing me to enjoy the convention without wasting half of day one on some stupid line.

I know that I will probably be taking efforts to attend this year’s masquerade and AMV contest. This is because I have been told that MoonyMonster will probably be making a skit in the Masquerade, meaning attendance is pretty mandatory, AMV contest is usually exiting, and only suckers don’t go.

It is relevant that everybody knows that I will take great effort to avoid volunteering at 6:00 PM on July 2 (day 2) in order to attend the Persona gathering. (details HERE) I will be attending as Seta Souji, (Persona 4) or as I’ve been referring to myself, “The Brotagonist,” and I will be the one wielding a wiffle bat instead of a sword (I’d go get a golf club, but weapon policy blows. It appears that this year most of the cast will be showing, although I am very disappointed that there is no Rise Kujikawa, and that nobody has taken up to cosplaying Adachy-baby (as Teddy refers to him.) I will be attending other cosplay gatherings based on what I feel like, with a moderately high probability of me attending the Haruhi gathering right after the Persona gathering, based mostly on how interesting the Persona gathering is.

In other news, I will most likely be attending the dance, because I am awesome. There is a 75% chance of me cosplaying on any given night at the dance, although odds are much higher on day 2, since I have to be in costume for the Persona gathering. I do not have an actual date for the dance, and I will be accepting applications for a date from now to approximately five seconds before I get to the dance. Applications will be incredibly biased, and everybody does not have a fair chance of being my date. Winner will be selected based on timing, attitude, luck, costume, and whether or not I like your face.

At the moment, all I have left to do for the expo is wait, since I have made most the preparations, aside from extorting money from a few people in my hotel squadron. Other than that, I am ready to rock. How about you guys?

Please comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:
Anime Expo 2009
Comic Con 2009
Convention Trances: Drawing on the Essence of an anime convention

Convention Trances: Drawing on the essence of an anime convention

 <- While many scientists believe that this giant Pikachu is the source of people's miraculous amount of energy at events like Comic Con, I believe that the actual nerds that brought the Pikachu there are the source, rather than the Pikachu

I’ve come to realize that at conventions, nerds are highly capable of superhuman feats of endurance. During these times, the average nerd does not need to sleep, and suffers no ill consequence for it. I hypothesize that this it because the coalition of nerds present actually creates a type of energy in the air capable of sustaining people, much like the miracle product powerthirst, seen here This presence allows the excess energy from each person to go off to another person, sustaining them bit longer than necessary, while that person outputs a extra bit of energy to be used by another. Furthermore this allows a nerd to enter what will further be referred to as a “convention trance.”

This creates an interlinked network of nerds outputting energy in order to ensure that they all stay awake much longer than they would normally be able to do. This is a useful ability, only possible when great multitudes of nerds have gathered in the same area. Thankfully, during this time, it is quite possible for many nerds to enter a convention trance.

I myself have entered a convention trance before, and have found it to be quite useful. It allows me to do superhuman feats such as go on three hours sleep for multiple nights. It should be noted that this is not the zombie like state that is normally obtained from staying awake three nights in a row. Instead, this is a state of near perfect awareness, as long as you stay on the convention premises. Indeed, this state is ideal for convention activities, for without entering a convention trance, one would be able to encounter the entirety of the convention experience, and only see a few things. However, thanks to a convention trance, one is able to see an interview with their favorite artist at 9:00 AM and then go to rave parties till approximately 3:00 AM. This allows a small amount of time for transportation and breakfast, although the former is only absolutely necessary while performing a convention trance. 

The Point? When preparing for a convention such as Anime expo, do not worry too much about sleep, for you will be able to sustain yourself on about half the sleep you normally would. Just take in the essence of the convention, and let the convention trance do the rest of the work.

Please Comment and Subscribe!

Related Posts:
My Journey Through Anime Expo 2010
My Experience Volunteering at Anime Expo 2010
Convention Trances: Drawing on the Essence of an anime convention
Comic Con 2009

Why does my girlfriend enjoy crossdressing so much?

 <-Edward Elric. He's prettier than most girls


Previous Letter: Why won't my boyfriend stop looking at hentai?  

Dear BryAnime,

Me and my girlfriend are going to anime expo this year right? So, I suggested that we cosplay together, since this would be our first expo. I had this great idea, right? I told her it would be awesome if I went as Link and she went as Zelda. Great idea right? Something we could both do, and it would look great at the dance. Unfortunately, there’s a small catch. She wants to do a couple’s cosplay and go to the dance, but she wants me to go as Roy Mustang, while she goes as… Edward Elric, both from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Now then, I have no problems cosplaying Roy, but I don’t see why she has to dress up as a guy to go to the dance with me. I suggested that she dress up as Hawkeye or Winry, but she absolutely INSISTS that she dresses up like Edward Elric cuz “he’s SOOOO dreamy.” The real problem is that she wants to take pictures like this! My friends are never going to let me get away with this. All of my friends on myspace will see pictures like this and make fun of me for it,

I’m confused on what to do man, because when I saw her costume I had a bigger problem. She looked kind of cute in it! I don’t know what to think man, am I gay? Should I be worried about this? Should I even bother cosplaying at this rate? I don’t know what to do man. Is there any way to get her to dress like a chick? I’m starting to get uncomfortable.

Sincerely,
A confused boyfriend

Dear Confused boyfriend

Well, honestly you don’t have much to complain about. You got a girl that’s willing to cosplay, and from what I’ve seen, that’s a rare thing. The problem here is you actually. We all know that Edward Elric is prettier than most girls, and you should be perfectly happy knowing that your dating somebody who is prettier than the rest of people at the dance, despite not being dressed as a girl. Why should it be a problem that you find her attractive while she’s pretending to be a dude? Who cares what your friends on Myspace say about it? I feel like posting on your myspace now. I’m sorry to say it, but at the rate your going, you’ll end up taking yaoi pictures, and wind up being on the bottom.

Sincerely,
BryAnime

Get Featured in a fan letter! Email you're problems to DarthSomebody@yahoo.com, or post it in the comments section, and I just might respond to you!

Please Comment and Subsribe!

Next Letter: Being in a harem anime sucks (if you're not the lead)

Related Content:
My boyfriend is a furry
Yaoi fangirls are evil

Comic Con 2009

 <-During this convention, I learned to summon a new Persona, Bumblebee. He's level 76 and of the Chariot Arcana

It occurs to me that I have not told all of you about my epic and perilous journey to comicon yet, despite being home for about a week Overall, it was incredibly awesome, on the level of Anime Expo. However, Comiccon was good because the actual convention was better, not because of my skill at convention hopping. Which is good, because Anime expo really relied on me knowing what to do. This was my first comicon, and I had a wonderful time despite not having a bloody clue what to do

Oh yes, pictures can be found on my myspace

Rather than act like the know all authority on comiccon, I'm going to just go over the events I attended each day.

DAY 0: After a long moderately difficult ride to San Diego, the team arrived at the convention center. Parking was difficult, but God smiled upon the convention, and decided that the wait in line to get in would be a mere 10 minutes. I wad even allowed to attend preview night, although I did not have the proper ticket. Indeed, it was a glorious occasion where I was able to see a shopping center capable of eating Anime Expo alive. This exhibition hall was freaking HUGE! I was afraid my head would explode from all of the hugeness. Walking from one side to the other took like 10 minutes, and the entire place was filled with comic book stands, freebies, booth babes, a guy dressed as a giant pikachu, and everything a dork could want. Also, we got some preview night exclusive freebies. It was pretty cool.

DAY 1: Oh yeah, after day zero, we realized there was more to this convention than a bunch of exhibits. On this day, I donned the Yasogami high colors (see above cosplay), and traveled around as the Persona 4 main character once more. I was genuinely shocked that, aside from the shin Megami Tensei gathering at Anime Expo, more people asked me for pictures. We started by dropping off my friend in the line to get into purgatory.... wait.... oh, no it was the line to get in the Twilight panel, sorry. That was the scariest line I had encountered in my life. It extended around the convention center, all the way to a couple blocks away (see picture, but we couldn't fit the whole thing in one shot). Me and my friend the photographer went up to the person in front of the line and asked when they started waiting, and she said.... TWO DAYS AGO! Well, apparently Robert Pattinson and the cast to Twilight were there, so I guess it makes sense... I guess I'll compare it to waiting for Star Wars to understand it. On another note, my friend DID bring up a strong point about guys taking their girlfriends to that panel..... “Why would you take your girlfriend to go a see a guy she would dump you for in a heartbeat?”

After that I traveled around the exhibition hall some more, and took picture, had pictures taken of me, gazed in awe at the 25-foot tall statue of Bumblebee from Transformers. I took pictures of the very awesome figurines on display.... all of them were out of my price range. They don't sale action figures for little kids at this convention, they crate them specifically for comic book-guys. I ended the day by seeing the premiere of the movie “Green Lantern: First Flight” This movie was AWESOME... but sadly I was a teensy bit late, so I only saw the end part of … wait for it.... The creator of the movie forcing the crowd to state the Green Lantern slogan! It sounded like a church chorus!. Oh, yeah then my friends placed like 5th in a Magic: the gathering Tournament. I guess all that money they blew on children's card games payed off in the end.

DAY 2: Ah yes, the day where I really comicon'd. On this day, I waited in the line to purgatory starting at around 9:00 AM, in order to get into Hall H (the big event hall) at around 12:30. Fun. Once we got in, I saw the disney panel..... Their doing some cool flashy stuff, and they announced Toy Story 3 was coming. On another note, Miyazaki himself was at the con (My friends at Expo were SO pissed that he went to Comicon instead of anime expo) After that, we saw some interview about “Legion” (Angels with machineguns, looked kinda meh) “9” (Post apocalyptic world run by vodoo doll people running from robots..... is looking AWESOME) and “District 9 “(Documentary about aliens living on earth and people defending their rights, getting violent... I'm SO seeing that opening weekend) After that came the Star Wars panel. Their apparently making a MMO set in the Knights of the Old Republic universe.... I'm on the fence here, I love the old republic more than the Original Trilogy, but I don't like MMOs. Also, they are releasing a expansion to Force unleashed, that expands on the darkside ending, where the apprentice goes and slaughters the rebellion. Sweet.

After I sat around and watched people announce things on day 2 (we camped in Hall H, and saw the big events) I decided to head on to the Klingon lifestyles panel, and watch some guys dressed as Klingons do a skit. It was hilarious, and the commanding officer changed 4 times throughout the skit. After spending an hour being a big trekkie, I decided to go be a Star Wars Nerd and see the Star Wars fan film awards. Never before have so many people dressed as Boba Fett been in the same room. That was pretty interesting, as I saw some neat videos, and saw a preview to the sequel to the Star Wars gangsta rap. My favorite fan made video was probably “Star Wars in a notebook,” but the votes said “Saber” was the best.

DAY 3: The last day that I spent at the con was pretty schweet. Not as good as the second, but schweet nonetheless. I actually did some buying in ye exhibition hall, took picture of more cosplayers, and then... well, my systems were overloaded and I hung around with the team for a bit. When I regained my stamina, I journeyed to the Venture Brothers panel (Where they mainly talked about cartoon penis) After Dinner, I ended comicon by going to Flynn's arcade. Yes, the Arcade from Tron. They recreated an arcade from the 80's just to promote the new Tron movie. Inside this arcade, there where arcade machines playing video games from Tron. Inside, they had an actual lightcyle from Tron. This was nerdy to the extreme, and was just about one of the best promotion I've ever seen. One of our teamates looked like he jizzed in his pants. Thankfully, we concluded comicon quite well

COMPARISON TO ANIME EXPO: Well, why not, I'll compare Comicon to Anime Expo. Comicon was bigger, that much was for certain. Comicon had better daytime programming, a better Exhibition hall, and better promotions. Comicon had better cosplayers, although Expo had more of them. Expo had some great cosplayers, but come on, Comcion had a Klingon that was assimilated by the borg. Expo did have it's strong points over comicon though. There was way better nightlife at expo, better panels, and it had a rave. Also.... uh.... the movies and anime shown at Expo was better. Well, if I prefered American Comics to japanese ones, I'd like Comicon more.... but Comicion was selling just as much anime stuff as the anime convention. I had slightly more fun at Expo, but not by a large margin.... but if Expo keeps going at it's current rate, I may end up likeing comicon more.

Related Posts:
Anime Expo 2009
Convention trances. Drawing on the essence of anime conventions

Anime Expo 2009

 <-That's me in costume on the left, and some Chie cosplayer I met on artist alley on the right.

As an anime blogger, it is my duty to attend anime expo ant tell you all how it went. I can tell you that this year was fun, but not as fun as the previous year. I find that if it were not for my keen convention senses, I would not have nearly as much fun as I did, but, my experience from the past five anime expos that I attended (Yeah I’ve attended six anime conventions now. Take that anime club president!)

Just because this year was fun does not mean that it was the best of anime expo. This year was not as good as last year (which was not as good as the year before it, although 2007 managed to be better than 2006) for several reasons. I find that although the Los Angeles convention center is nice, the con isn’t filling it with as much good stuff. The Long beach convention center was too small to contain it, but they managed to put in much more effort, creating a better con. I also found that holding major events in the Nokia theater had a much better feel than in some hall in the convention center (alas, I understand that Nokia theater is expensive) Furthermore, the weapon policies and safety procedures of the Los Angeles convention center simply blow. A decent summary of the weapon policy is “If your weapon looks like fun, you can’t bring it in.” The weapon policy makes it so that if your weapon looks like something your character would use, you can’t weild it. I wanted to bring a golf club for my costume, but that doesn’t even comply with their ridiculous policies. Not to mention, there’s a lot of restrictions on throwing items into crowds. Two years ago, ADV had an awesome booth with a tower that they threw free stuff into the crowd from. At LA? I didn’t even see an ADV booth this year. Overall, they didn’t put as much effort into this year’s con.

Lets see, programming. This year’s AMV contest was not nearly as good as last years. My favorite AMV was “Code Roll,” followed by an AMV to “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce. Nothing that could compare to “The Harrassement of Kyon” from last year. The previous year was a bit more explosive, and I got a much better overall vibe. This year had some sparks, but nothing that could top last year.

Ah, I also attended the Masquerade this year (unlike last year) Some skits would be funnier had I seen the anime they came from. Alas, I had not seen them. I thought the over-elaborite costumes on display were nice, such as a guy dressed as Safer-Sephiroth. Some parts were less than interesting.

Let’s See, Anime I watched while there…. I watched a few episodes of Ouran host club, which was HILARIOUS. I watched the first few episodes of Lucky Star, which did not live up to its creator’s other work (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya) The best anime I saw was definitely Gurran Laggan: The movie. My Friend Iron Peanut was right about that movie. That movie was so manly that watching it almost made me grow a full beard. It was an anime that managed to be about as manly as 300. Yeah, that movie was very manly, and it warrants its own review. I’ll do that later though.

Let’s talk about the people at the con. Well, I managed to make it to quite a few cosplay gatherings. Shin Megami Tensei gathering had a lot of cool people, except it was disappointing due to the fact that nobody dressed up as the main villain from Persona 4. I got to participate in the gathering at least, which was fun. Other gatherings I attended include: The Kingdom Hearts gathering, which was rather funny, and the Legend of Zelda gathering, which had some amazing costumes. The Yu gi Oh gathering was interesting because of the dedication of the fans, while finally, the Rurouni Kenshin gathering was interesting because a lot of my friends were in it (I may go to next years Rurouni Kenshin gathering dressed as Shishio.) On another note, my Hotel Group managed to be about on par with last years. I was roomed with an Axel cosplayer and a Demyx (Kingdom Hearts II), along with one of the best Uhara (Bleach) cosplayers in the con. Everyone was pretty nice.

Oh yes, and the underground fun that lies in the con…. The parties! Yes, when you get 50k people together, there happen to be some party animals in there. I found the parties to be satisfactory, despite the fact that they were in the Westin hotel instead of the convention center. Now then, having the parties in the same hotel that I am staying at isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did limit a few of my friends abilities to go to it. Blech. First type of party was… THE RAVE! I was only able to get into the rave on night 2, because on night 3 the line was too bloody long. Also, I was only able to stay for an hour, because I had to see the AMV contest. What raving I did do was awesome, however, despite the fact that I couldn’t get into the hotel room to drop off my bag. Stupid hotel room rules) Now then, on night three, the line extended about half the length of the lobby, making attending the rave nearly impossible. (it got shut down before I would have gotten in anyway) So on the third (and final) night, I managed to find a party in my hotel lobby. Better yet, I got to dance with a girl wearing an outfit with like, a bajillion buttons on it, which was pretty fun. She wasn’t a very good dancer, but really, it’s the effort that counts. In summary, the parties were pretty great this year, assuming you were cool enough to get in. Which I obviously am.

Although it had its downsides, AX managed to be rally fun. Still the highlight of the year (well, actually, I’m going to Comicon this year, so it has an opponent) Any Otaku should attempt to make it, at least just to see how insane it is. However, hopefully next year the people running the event manage to get their act together, because quality has been sinking.

Next Year: Anime Expo 2010->

Related Posts:
Comic Con 09
Convention Trances: Drawing on the Essense of an anime convention
Getting the most out of an anime convention