[Note: This is a backup post in place of the original that was deleted in the process of upgrading a plugin. I sincerely apologize for the lost comments. 
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Hooray for my first anime convention ever! I have to say, being there was a bit demanding considering how the weather has mostly been shitty, if not wild and/or ever-changing and seeing how the entire weekend left me dead beat, if not ill and/or bedridden. But then again, who cares?! I had a blast and that’s more important!
I went there alone as I originally intended and although I was having second thoughts on whether or not I should bring my younger sister with me (for convenience’s sake), I think I made the right decision by going alone considering how my musings those days would’ve left anyone who tagged along extremely exhausted to the point where they might become more of a drag and less of an aid. Of course, I would’ve liked it very much if someone outside my household (a fellow blogger maybe?
) went with me since I did feel a bit lonely every time I saw a bunch of people musing around the convention with their friends and what-nots…but I guess I was asking a little too much.
So I went about my business that first day when I suddenly realized I had no idea as to where I was headed. No no, I wasn’t lost or anything…it’s more like I had no idea what/where I wanted to do first. You see, this is one of the reasons why it’s useful to have people (other than the ones in your household) come along with you – this way, whenever you feel undecided, the group can decide for you. Well, as luck would have it, I found myself tagging along a lively band of cosplayers (whom I’m very thankful for, by the way) who wanted to check out the Open Mic session (otherwise inaccurately dubbed as Karaoke session, though there seem to be no Karaoke machines in sight ) where people sing just for kicks regardless whether or not they know how to sing well and/or they know the lyrics. I HAD A BLAST!!! Who knew these people actually sang very well?
I also managed to capture them on video through my amateur recording…two videos featuring a rowdy group singing the Pokemon theme song and one featuring a bold gentleman singing Cruel Angel Thesis from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s too bad that I had to cut them short since I only had limited space in my memory stick.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALSPa0D33Ec]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcllmDLV07M]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55RI93NOE70]
I then head over to the panels which most likely make up a good 90% chunk of all the chaos in the convention. Never mind the traffic jams and the tight squeeze along the hallway…if there’s anything that caused me so much trouble, it’s the fact that a significant number of panels I wanted to attend are either canceled or postponed. So here’s a makeshift list of panels that I attended/ought to attend but couldn’t for whatever reason…
I attended…
[Surgeon General's Warning: Verbose content ahead. Proceeding can lead to excessive boredom and probably induced suicidal behavior. Read at your own risk!]
- Anime Princesses Rule! – Sorry lostty, I got carried away.
So why exactly did I decide to attend this seemingly girly panel? Oh that’s easy…that’s because something didn’t sound right. On one hand, I couldn’t help but think of noisy fangirls fangirling about blah blah etcetera etcetera…you know, the common stereotypical thinking; on another hand, I couldn’t help but think of something that doesn’t appear to be what it seems. I was right of course…since the presentation was actually run by dudes (who really knows their stuff from world history to anime history). Turns out that they were trying to portray what a princess should be…which is everything a Disney Princess isn’t. Very insightful panel if you ask me…then again, I’ve always thought the Disney Princesses were all “plastic” (and I’m not saying that because I’m a guy…I think).
- Anime Standup Comedy – …was a fail panel. I’m not trying to be mean or anything but that’s just how it is. I actually saw audiences shake their heads and leave. I was about to do the same but I didn’t want to offend the presenter..so I decided to stay on my seat and see if there’s anything I can make good off the panel. Turns out that the flaws (the one I’ve observed anyway) were mainly because more than half the audience doesn’t know that the presenter was talking about. One of his skits was about Light Yagami, if memory serves me right, doing a Boston accent. Uhm..hello…we are in the Tri-State area? Maybe the skit would’ve worked better if this convention were Anime Boston…but the last time I checked, it was AnimeNEXT. It wasn’t a complete fail seeing how a small number of people in the audience were actually from Boston and actually understood where the Standup Comedy was going…that plus the presenter did a great job holding his ground. You just have give the guy credit for his awesome endeavors.
- Anime Jeopardy – Ah yes…I wish I was a contestant. Unfortunately, out of the three rounds they called contestants from the audience by means of raffle, none of those drawings were my ticket number. It’s a shame…I would’ve done TOTAL OWNAGE on the questions. Don’t get me wrong; there’s no doubt the people around more a lot more about anime than I can ever imagine. Combine that with answers that are something a good 90% of the audience are aware of…and you have yourself a difficult match…not! Like I said, I would’ve easily won a round from them…but that’s because this is Jeopardy and that questions require a little bit of referencing seemingly non-correlated stuff to answer the question, which is something the contestants obviously lack. Heck…I even know what some of the answers were going to be before they even revealed the question. Ah well…I was hyped up so I guess it’s all good.
- Go Workshop – was a filler panel/workshop. There was a point of time where none of the current panels interested me, so I went here instead. Jeezuz….I had such a hard time understanding Go..mainly because I’m so used to playing a game that uses similar pieces called “Othello/Reversi.
- Naughty Custom Art and the People who love it! – This is probably one of the most entertaining event I’ve attended. And no…not because it has something to do with naughty stuff..though I have to say, this was an 18 and above only panel that was held on after hours. This is one of the reasons why I’m so glad I decided to go alone. Basically, this guy brings an interactive flash presentation where the audiences get to vote on two buttons, each pertaining to a series of pieces from his career as an artist who does naughty (most of them nude) art and a personal narrative to go along with it. Of course, we got good laughs out of it…but the best part was when a tie takes place among the audience. When that happens, a girl from each half must do a *ahem* teasing performance. Whoever performs better wins the chance to vote for her half. I tell you…I’ve never been more awake that day…
- Bad Anime, Bad – can easily be the best and the worst thing I’ve attended that Saturday. We pretty much were shown clips from an (jeezuz, I can’t believe that piece of shit can be called an…) anime called “Dracula Sovereign of the Damned” and spent the whole night laughing on how ridiculously bad it is from all aspects. You can actually look it up on YouTube and see it for yourself. The panel was very entertaining seeing how the audiences were probably shatting on their pants from laughter..and bad because I ended sitting behind the most annoying person I’ve ever encountered throughout the whole convention (more on this later).
- FMA: Welcome to Amestris – I came to this panel hoping to get into a good discussion with people about the inconsistencies I’ve pointed out on my past posts…but all I got was a incessant comparison between the original Full Metal Alchemist Series and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Jeezuz…we already know they have their differences; but to make it the dominant topic of the panel is a big no-no. I was disappointed…big time.
- Anime Blogging Basics – Somehow, I knew this panel wasn’t going to be quite the Full House but who cares anyway…and I was dead right. But who cares, the atmosphere in that room was quite relaxing. Of course, the things pointed out are something most of us are already familiar with but it helped that somebody in the audience (that consisted of what…ten people at most?) did ask some very interesting questions which kept the panel going even at its easy-going state. And oh…that guy is one of the authors from a blog called Reverse Thieves , whose presentation on Saturday I missed because I overslept (FORGIVE ME REVERSE THIEVES!). And yea…I got to see Omo, Moy, super rats and some other dude whom I think is SDS …all of which whom I know of. Nice meeting you guys…that is…if you can figure out who I was among your audience…
Of course, there were some panels I could’ve attended but wasn’t able to for some reason. Like I mentioned earlier, I missed Reverse Thieves’ presentation, “Can’t believe you haven’t seen this” because I overslept. There was also a panel aptly named “What? Why Hentai!” which I originally planned to attend on a Saturday night but was canceled due to unforseen circumstances. And oh, I might as well throw in “How to draw Yuri” to that list.
And as luck might have it…a special treat for kanzeon (if she lived close enough): a Hetalia Axis Powers Fan Panel. Curious as I am, I decided to take a peek to see how things were…only to be met with yaoi fanart of Italy’s personification with some other country’s personification….that and squealing fangirls. Jezuz…
Weaboos
But what is an Anime Convention without one? You see, I got in to the convention thinking that I’ll be surrounded by them everywhere I go at any given time~ I sure am glad I was wrong…partially. Sure I didn’t encounter them every single time but whenever I did…it was like worst case scenario. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that’s common from them, it’s how they speak in an unnecessary highly-pitched tone, much like the sound of finger nails scratching a piece of glass or a portion of a chalkboard. And when I thought I’ve seen the worst of them, along came this guy whom I mentioned earlier who has got to be most obnoxious person I’ve encountered throughout the convention. He really does a good job of interrupting panels, yelling unnecessary remarks like..”Nani?!” for the same number of instances as the Chinese population. Even worse…he f*cking sat right in front of me out of all places! Ugh…the horror. Good thing I wasn’t carrying the sword I bought from the convention that time…otherwise, I would’ve beat the living daylights out of him with its sheath.
But enough of that…it’s about time we move to one of the best parts of the convention…
Cosplay
Please excuse me for the bad blurred shots. Two things could’ve happened…(1) I took a picture with my back facing a traffic of people passing through a narrow path in which I had no means of making my shot stable since I always keep bumping into somebody or (2) I got overly excited when I saw somebody I particularly wanted to take a picture of that I neglected to change the camera to an appropriate setting.
Without further adieu…
I think I had the most thrill out of the convention from taking pictures. Well, actually…I was chasing people half the time, especially if there was a particularly interesting cosplayer that needs to be photoshot. I think I deserve some credit trailing people from a distance until I catch up to them and take their picture…especially that one time where I had to run a flight of stairs like a crazy ninja just to take a picture of someone who was about to leave the convention…and that was the Nia cosplayer. Any slower…and I would’ve missed my chance on the only Nia cosplayer convention-wide.
On another note, I’m really surprised to see only six people decided to cosplay anyone from K-ON (the one I got is probably the best one!). Then again, I found out that these people, the majority of them anyway, are not up to date as we are in the blogosphere. Sucks for them.
Closing Remarks
AnimeNEXT was alright I guess, actually…it’s pretty good for my first one. I just wished I was able to plan properly so that I can maximize my time and be in as much events as possible, all the while leaving a sufficient time frame for photoshoots and shopping. Ah well, there’s always next year…or better yet…next three months at NYAF.
Where the f*ck is your f*cking loot?!
Oh don’t you worry. There will be an upcoming post for that..so stay tuned!
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