AnimeNext 2008 Con report is go!

Thursday, June 19, 2008
So, today was the pre-con madness. After skipping around in the room like maniacs yohtan and I went to the pre-reg pick up line. It... went much faster than we anticipated. Being someone who likes multitasking, I decided to use tWEwY's mingle mode to power game. Laziest Power Gaming Method Ever! Of course you need to have people with DS's in order for it to work. Still, the powergaming started off right away.

The cosplay also started right away. WTF, in costume for standing in a line. Then again, I'm sure there were shoots and things on the first day, when it was still rather empty and not as rushed. There was squeeing and glomping of the Cloud behind us in line, yohtan and I did our whole "Damn you kids, get off my lawn!" thing as every year, got our badges (with slight hiccups for yohtan, but it was resolved), and went back to the room to meet with amande_san, penchy, and kuma_chan20. The night was spent watching movies, playing the various fighting games I brought with me, and, amazingly, sleep.

Friday, June 20, 2008
Free breakfast! amande_san spent the rest of the morning getting into her Beat (tWEwY) costume while kuma_chan20 and I played yet more Guilty Gear. Not much, panel-wise or anime-wise, that we wanted to go to on Friday, so it was very relaxed. I got to baby-sit the room while amande_san got the stuff together for her room, and ran into some of Larger Name Fans (?) staying with her, who were dismissive of kuma_chan20 and I using Bridget in GG and started mentioning TPop wank.

Swag Get: Gals! volumes 4 - 7, 4 tWEwY pins

Saturday, June 21, 2008
So, since the Con Staffers are bastards, the Bento Box 101 and Life Drawing panels were at the same time. Life Drawing won, and so yohtan and I went to that. Crazy Life Drawing Lady was back! Whoo! This time, she was cosplaying Ceres from Hellsing. (There was also an Alucard and an Integra in the class. Ha.)

Wild Anime Surprise turned out to be Vampire Knight. Um... yeah. Not my cuppa. [/understatement] I'd have rather watched the rest of dubbed!Eva. Or dubbed!Genshiken.

Next: Anti-Cosplay Bonanza! Fan Parodies! Eva ReDeath ReDux! Whoo! I mean, the Opie and Andy stuff could DIAF. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged was being shown, but yohtan wanted to go to the Gaijin in Japan panel, so off we went. It... wasn't very good. Panelist was late, didn't budget his time, didn't know how to play well with an image program (PROTIP: Black text on dark panel is BAD), and most of the stuff I already picked up from the days that I wanted to do the eikawa thing. Well, at least yohtan learned more Kansai and Osaka-ben.

I was coerced convinced to watch Level C with the group. Ever since ShojoCon 2002 I've made it a point not to watch yaoi in a group (or, really, to be stupid squeeing about yaoi in public) because of my embarrassment squick. Remember, I'm Ogiue, without the art skills. Well, if worse came to worse, there was always the MiST treatment. To kill time between that Gaijin in Japan panel and Level C, we went back to the room to watch stuff. yohtan got the Ghost Stories boxed set, and we watched the first DVD of that. Then she wanted to see Twelve Kingdoms, because I keep on squeeing over it. We watched what we could until it was time for us to head to the video room.

It turns out that Level C wasn't being shown due to technical difficulties, the staffer got snippy with penchy and yohtan, and they were unsure of what was being shown after the Level C replacement. So we went back to the room and spent the rest of the night finishing off the two DVD's of Twelve Kingdoms. I nearly nodded off for a bit, but managed to stay awake to the end of the DVD to turn things off.

Swag Get: Twelve Kingdoms Econ Box Set 1

Sunday, June 22, 2008
After the 12K marathon, we passed out, and didn't wake up again until amande_san woke me up by calling on her cell phone. (Around ten AM. So much for Cosplay Chess. Crap.) Arrangements were made to get her stuff back to her, and I started getting ready. I managed to get everything packed and started dozing again while penchy and kuma_chan20 took their showers and such. penchy wanted to finish off the Yoko arc, so I hooked up the PS2 again and got things going. We finished the Yoko arc of 12K, and I think that there may be new converts~ I threatened yohtan that she needs to have fan art for me. I mean, there was cooing over En-Oh...

So, after the packing, mass exodus, extortion for the pay, check out, and packing into the car, we went off to look for some place to eat. (So much for A Fan's Tour of Tokyo. Crap.) At lunch, we wanted to go to a place further along from the con hotels, and the foxes getting married turned into a freaking storm. Regardless, we found a sit-down restaurant, had our breakfast brunch lunch. And apparently, I was talking in my sleep. Joy.

There was a last run in the dealer's room, and then we killed time in the arena before Uncle Yo went on. yohtan ran into a co-worker, there was Our Bitching Thoughts on the Convention Time, and then it was time for the show. The show was over at 3:00, and we decided to go over to Mitsuwa (about 15 minutes from the Convention) and get some snacks. The ride home was punctuated by penchy, kuma_chan20, and I singing with my anime mp3 CD's.

Swag Get: Aerith FFVII Play Arts; Men's Pocky, sushi, and seaweed at Mitsuwa


Crazy-ass con was crazy.

...in the leaves.