General Anime Convention Thread

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Post by Sailorasteroid » Sun Jun 20, 2004 6:16 pm

OK, so, here's my tale from attening AnimeNext over this past weekend. This is superlong, so I'll ensmallen the text: I left the house about 6:30 AM on Friday. Traffic getting through New York City was moderately heavy, and I got lost once getting there. Get this: the hotel was on Harmon Plaza, off of Route 3. A few miles before that (if you're heading West), is a big sign for Harmon Plaza Outlets, with a smaller sign saying, "Convention Center." So, silly me figures this is where I'm supposed to go. But I finally figure it all out, and get there at 9:30. As soon as I got on the line, I knew I was in my element. It's hard to say why, but everyone there had the same look, the same anime fan mark, I guess, and I sensed that these were my people and that I belonged here. Getting there early was a big plus. Even though events didn't really start until noon, I was able to register with only a short line, and then spend some time learning the layout of the center. Finding a place to stop, sit, and figure out your next move was the hardest thing there. At 10 they started showing PGSM in one of the video rooms, so I stopped by. It started from the not-so-good early acts, and basically the showing turned into PGSM-MST3K, poking fun at the cheesiness. I wandered around and came back, and when the Acts started getting more serious, people actually watched in earnest.

At noon the con started for real. I went to first-timers' orientation, where they gave a few basic have-safe-fun guidelines. That only lasted a few minutes, so I decided to hit the dealers' room. Waiting on line for them to open up, I got a lucky break, as my cell phone happened to ring. Its ringtone is Moonlight Denetsu, and about 5 people looked up and said, "Ah, Sailor Moon, cool!" One of these was a cute little fangirl named Kayla dressed as Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII. She was a big SM fan and we talked different versions and did the "Romance" dance together! When we got into the dealers' room, we just searched blindly, but came upon a display full of SM merchandise. I picked up a toy of the transformation cell phone from PGSM, a set of Jupiter stickers, and a modular Hotaru figurine. I looked around at DVDs and manga but never really found anything I wanted enough to buy. I'm not really an impulse shopper. I'll identify an item or category I want (like "showy Sailormoon merchandise" or "shoujo manga") and find an item that fits the bill. I can't really browse and buy, and there's almost nothing I want so much that cost is no object. I saw a very cool Utena artbook, but it was $50, and no way I'm spending that much on one book.

Then I went to the anime Price is Right game show, where they did TPIR games involving anime prices. This was not done so well, as the hosts didn't have all that many prizes, and didn't know enough about the TPIR structure, missing things like the fact that a new contestant should have to bid first, and that prices are supposed to be rounded to the dollar. When a person overbid $20 on a $19.99 item, that's pretty lame. This was scheduled ffrom 2-4 PM, but ran from 2:30 to 3. So I started hitting panels. I attended the sushi demo, which was unfortunately just for California rolls, and nothing about how to cut and handle fish. But I had fun rolling and trying to cut maki rolls. Fact: nori (seaweed) doesn't cut easily, and makes a big mess. Opening Ceremonies were next, which entailed some funny comedy bits from the staff, and a few words from the invited guests. The big name there was Richard Cox, voice of Inuyasha. Next up were some more intellectual panels, one where we discussed the impact of the Internet on anime. We talked about Bit Torrents, digisubs, realtime release info, etc. Then after dinner I went to one called "Confessions of an Otaku" where three volunteers would lead a discussion of extreme otakuism. I was one of the volunteers (I love being part of shows like that) and a good discussion was held. But then the funny thing was that I and the other two volunteers kept the conversation going, until the next panel kicked us out, so then we stood in the hall and just talked for another hour. So that's two more friends I made right there.

I decided I needed a break at that point, so I went over to the manga library. This was one of the coolest and simplest things there. They had a great selection of well-known titles, and while it wasn't a place you would want to spend any real length of time, it was great as a respite from the breakneck pace. I got through the first two and a half volumes of Inuyasha over the course of the con.

I browsed around for another hour or so, and then it was the scheduled time for karaoke. Unfortunately, they had concerts scheduled before that, and naturally they started late and ran long. I don't care much for concerts, since I don't like really loud music. So I waited patiently outside. They had an interesting panel called Anime Love, and I thought about going, but didn't want to miss my spot, so I just waited. Finally we got in, and the party started. There were some great singers out there, one guy who did a bitchin' Ai no Senshi. But then tragedy struck for me, as the cd I'd burned, which worked on my $30 discman, wouldn't read on their professional sound equipment. So I had to race to my car to get said discman, run back just in time to do my song, which was Kaze mo, Sora mo, Kitto, the Sailor Stars ending. That's like a freaky otaku biathalon--sprint and then sing. It came out as well as it could for me (which is not well--I'm better than William Hung, but maybe not if I've just had to run myself out of breath), and there were all sorts of SM fans in the audience, including Kayla from before. So I got cheers nonetheless. When it was all over, they offered open-mike karaoke, and a few people did it, but by that point it was 3 in the morning, and we were all a little tired.

Saturday arrived, and though I'd had all of three hours sleep, I was ready to go. (for the record, I'd had ten hours the night before, and I'm of the school that says you can "bank" sleep) Nothing was going on that early of course, but I got to watch some Ranma and some other obscure anime I hadn't heard of. There was one I liked, 3000 Words to Mother, about a little Italian boy whose mother has to go away for work purposes. When panels started up again, I hit the costuming panel, which was nice, but not what I wanted. I wanted to learn cosplay basics, but this was super-advanced full-body stuff. The hostess had a Ein-head (Cowboy Bebop, he's a dog) for a costume to eventually be 7 feet tall. Also her fiancee was wearing a panda-type Genma Saotome (Ranma), and couldn't walk without help. It was funny. After that I went to the American Animation panel where we compared Japanese anime with American. But my ulterior motive for this was to get prime seating for the next panel, the Sailor moon discussion.

This was good, not world-blowing. By this time the con was getting crowded, and wheras the other panels had maybe 20 people or so, there were maybe 60 in this one. So there was less interactive discussion. Good news: of those sixty people there was only one actual, "I don't know what a senshi is" dubbie. Who didn't leave like that. They had a nice display of SM merchandise, including the PGSM Luna plushie. It's apparantly sold by catzia.com, for $25, but at the con they only had one left, and that was priced at $50. For $50, the thing better turn CG and give me free items. But while I got some nice shopping tips, I didn't really learn anything at the panel, with the exception of learning how much I already know about SM, which is the source of a kind of pride.

After this, panel time was over, because I got a call from Sailor Europa, with whom I'd planned to meet. She and her friends were waiting in the registration line, which at this point had stretched all the way outdoors. But we got to know each other standing there, and I spent some time with her crew, who were all very cool people. I particularly enjoyed watching Europa go fangirl (that's a compliment) over the SM merchandise--she walked away with a whole basketful. So we just hung out and talked until she went to the manga library and I had dinner, and we agreed to meet up for the cosplay show later. I watched a little Ghost in the Shell, and then back to the manga room.

The cosplay show was supposed to start seating at 7 and start at 7:30. In reality, seating started at 7:45, and the event at maybe 9. They let everyone in before the microphones and speakers were set up, and they couldn't check their levels without silence. Trying to get 1000 people to keep quiet is not an easy task, and we had to be bribed with trivia contests with DVDs as prizes to not make noise. It was quite tolerable though because I was with people, and Sailor Europa was very nice and drew some of her made-up senshi on my program guide. Thanks Eury! ^_^

The show itself had some skits that were really amateur, but a few good ones. The funniest IMO, had Ryoga from Ranma lost as usual asking a man for directions. The man then turned to the audience and said, "Misdirection: another side effect of hunger." like in the Snickers ad. Also there was a great rant by a Tifa (Final Fantasy VII) about how the Squaresoft character designers must sit around saying, "Let's see the cosplayers do this!" Just about every third sketch was a Final Fantasy one.

Europa and friends left right at the end, and rather than sit and wait for the judging, I headed out (it had been a good 6 hours since I'd had access to a bathroom or drink!) and checked out ths Soul Calibur 2 tournament. This was hastily organized and had no prizes (If I sound like I'm ragging on the con's production values, I'm really not--some stuff could have gone better, but snafus are impossible to avoid.)but was a lot of fun. I briefly ran into LadyFlameSniper there as well. I won my first match (it was 2-out-of-three battles of 2-out-of-three rounds.) in the last round possible, just barely surviving. Then I stood next to another player who was boasting of his skills with Ivy. It felt pretty good to sweep him four straight rounds with Xianghua. ^_^ But then in the semi-finals it was my turn to get swept four straight, the first two to Kilik, then to Maxi. I barely got a touch in. But it was fun. Although It was only midnight, I decided to forgo the dance and get some real sleep. Didn't happen.

Sunday, up early again and more anime. I caught the tail end (manybe not a good choice of words) of one called Puni Puni Poemi, a kind of hentai satire, and laughed my head off. (I've just learned it's a spinoff of Excel Saga, which I've yet to see, but it just jumped to the top of my list) Honestly, very little of interest happened on Sunday. I watched a kendo demonstration, but didn't really care for it, since it was explained that kendo is a very offense-oriented martial art, and I like to see a lot of defense and counters. I read more manga and bought a couple of ecchi doujinshis, but mostly I packed up all of the stuff I'd accumulated and prepared to go. At noon I checked out, brought everything to the car, looked at the schedule and decided an early start would be more valuable to me than the last few panels. Before I went though, I got hold of the con organizer and told him what a wonderful time I had, and all but set in stone my attendance next year.

Driving away and stopping off for lunch I felt a kind of culture shock. It felt odd to see only black, brown, and blond hair, and to not hear the high-pitched scream of fangirls anymore. It's definitely something I want to do more of.

Other stuff that I can't fit into my timeline: I saw some of the AMVs. They were a mixed bag, until the last one. The talk of the con was Eva Bebop, which was the highly stylized Cowboy Bebop OP done with pictures and characters from Evangelion.

There were many awesome cosplayers there, including about two dozen Yuna from Final Fantasy. One a bare-chested man. Also there were many elegant gothic Lolitas, and some girls that looked like EGLs, but hed ridiculously low-cut and supportive tops. Someone is going to have to explain the ettiquitte of female cosplay to me: am I allowed to look at the breasts? Because it's pretty hard not to on some of them. Is there a way to politely say that the costume is pretty without saying, "You look slutty and I want to sleep with you"? More importantly, is there a way to politely say that the cosplayer looks slutty and that I want to sleep with her? ~_^ But my favorite costume belonged to a girl dressed as Quistis from Final Fantasy VIII in SeeD uniform, because she was dead on. I mean, she could have been the model Square used. Not only was the costume and wig perfect, but she had the right body shape and face shape (Quistis has a very long, ovular face), and had all the mannerisms down--standing with her arms folded, leaning slightly to the side, speaking with authority. It was awesome. If you can do a costume that involves your own innate abilities, it can be great. Other case in point: I saw several Himemiya Anthys there, but only one who was Black. Needless to say, she looked the best. Also there was a set of twin sisters dressed as black and white Chiis (Chobits).

Also, while I'm no expert, I can give one Tip which was invaluable to me. If you go to a con, keep on you in your bag a ten-pack of Bic ballpoints and a post-it pad. You will want to excange contact info with people, take down information, write down the titles of anime you liked, etc.

Thigs I want to do next time:

-Pace myself, so I'm not exhausted on day 3.
-Cosplay. Zettai, zettai!! Even if I just have to take some red pyjamas and a wig and do a quickie Inuyasha, I want to get in on the fun. Not to compete, just to do it.
-Signplay (the only word I can think of for it). By this I mean there were girls with signs saying "Will glomp for nickels" or "will be cute for candy." I think these are the coolest things ever; they create an instant bond. I only saw a few, and one person said to me that for some unknown reason it wasn't popular at the New York conventions. But I want to spend time at a future con just people-watching and taking up these offers, maybe wear one myself.
-Join a club that's going to be there, so I always have someone to hang out with if I want.

Well, that's it, I think. I'm going to need a week to fully digest everything I did and follow up on all the leads I got. Pictures will be coming soon. (If anyone can recommend a good free photo album website, I'd be appreciative) Man, did I have fun.
Things I think Are Funny Early in the Morning: If Batman were a Smurf: "Quick, Robin! We must smurf down to the Batcave and smurf the Batplane! Then we must smurf the batsmurf so we can smurf where the Joker is smurfing!"

The Croonerism Spate (explanations upon request)
Be careful with this one, there is a bit of a pun involved. Dr. Spooner described his visit to a castle: "In the center of the fortress was the Palace Court. The gated entrance to this area was the court palace."

Users whose sigs my quotes have made (now in two columns)
Tempest___________________Peachvampiress (I think)
Sylphiel (twice!)____________Neon Heart
RoastedTwinkies (long ago)___Alexclow345
Seiusa____________________Nehelenia`s Crazy Fangirl

I <3 all you guys!

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Post by peachvampiress » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:43 pm

Sailorasteroid, where's my bishounen? I was promised a bishounen. I don't see a bishounen? Where is my Bishounen!!
...
...
~_^ Glad you had fun. Next year I hope to go to my first con.
Peachvampiress has an account on DeviantArt. Insanity Within.
And a Myspace account for her clothing designs.

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Post by Tiff » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:50 pm

peachvampiress wrote:Sailorasteroid, where's my bishounen? I was promised a bishounen. I don't see a bishounen? Where is my Bishounen!!
I ate him.

*Urp*

Joey: The question is, Rachel, does he like you? ''Cuz if he doesn''t, then it''s all just a moo point.
Rachel: Huh...a...moo point?
Joey: Yeah. It''''s like a cow''s opinion. It doesn''t matter....It''s moo.
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-Son of Man, Tarzan

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Post by peachvampiress » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:54 pm

Tiff
I ate him.

*Urp*
T_T

You do know what I have to do now...CUT YOU OPEN! MWHAAA!!!

:goes and grabs saftey scissors:
Peachvampiress has an account on DeviantArt. Insanity Within.
And a Myspace account for her clothing designs.

"A number of times, the only thing that kept me out of a satin box was that I could size up the other guy maybe half a second quicker than he could me."

"What the fuck are you talking about? You're taped to a chair."
~Suicide Kings

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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Sun Jun 20, 2004 9:03 pm

Glad to hear you had fun!

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Post by Sailorasteroid » Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:25 am

Tiff wrote:
peachvampiress wrote:Sailorasteroid, where's my bishounen? I was promised a bishounen. I don't see a bishounen? Where is my Bishounen!!
I ate him.

*Urp*
Don't listen to her, Peach. I have him here, but I just have to test him to make sure he works properly. Yes, much. . . extensive. . . testing. . . excuse me. . .

Ooh, I don't think you'll want what's left.
-------------------------------
And now. . . pictures:

Sailors Asteroid and Europa, left to right

Bad picture of me doing bad karaoke

Not a bishounen, but he plays one on TV. That's Richard Cox, voice of Inuyasha and Ranma, on the right, with Adam, the con architect.

The cutie Selphie cosplayer, my first fangirl

A poorly lit one of Sailor Neptune who hosted the SM panel

A wide shot of all the Sailormoon merchandise they had on display at the SM panel

A better pic of the stuffed Luna from the above shot.
Things I think Are Funny Early in the Morning: If Batman were a Smurf: "Quick, Robin! We must smurf down to the Batcave and smurf the Batplane! Then we must smurf the batsmurf so we can smurf where the Joker is smurfing!"

The Croonerism Spate (explanations upon request)
Be careful with this one, there is a bit of a pun involved. Dr. Spooner described his visit to a castle: "In the center of the fortress was the Palace Court. The gated entrance to this area was the court palace."

Users whose sigs my quotes have made (now in two columns)
Tempest___________________Peachvampiress (I think)
Sylphiel (twice!)____________Neon Heart
RoastedTwinkies (long ago)___Alexclow345
Seiusa____________________Nehelenia`s Crazy Fangirl

I <3 all you guys!

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Post by LadyFlameSniper » Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:03 pm

Ok I copied and pasted this from my post on another forum, with a few minor edits. I went to Animenext this past Saturday. Yeah only one day for me this time.

The dealers room hasd a ton of nice stuff. But the only thing I bought the whole time there was Fushigi Yuugi manga volume 2. lol I'm pretty tight on money so I couldn't buy a load of anime stuff like last time. 9 bucks isn't bad compared to Suncoast's $11. The line to get in to register was so long. I was waiting for a good hour to pay. I didn't preregister because I wasn't sure if I was going. I spent a lot of time in the manga room. Read volume one of Angelic Layer (which I didn't like much) and Utena volume 5. The manga ending is slightly better than the anime one. It's has more closure. I also saw some of Hyper Speed Gran Doll. OMG that show is so cheezy! It was pretty funny though. The main girl has an attack called "Shining Breasts" lol A group of girls were making fun of every little thing througout the all the episodes, which got annoying after awhile. Of course you had to have your share of obnoxious people there. Some guys shouted something at me and my friend and her sisters. He said "hey ladies" then I'm not surw what else (sounded like he was trying to get us into something.. mentioned free passes) but we kept on walking. It was an awkward moment.

My friend said we should cosplay as the girls from FF7 the next time. I'm really not into cosplay but I'm actually considering it! There would be 4 of us again so it would be Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie and another female character. Perhaps Elena or Scarlet. I said I would be Tifa because I have clothes that resemble hers. All I'd need is a pair of suspenders and gloves. Actually I wouldn't mind cosplaying Aya Brea either (how she looks in PE1 or 2), but I would want to change my hair color or get a wig. lol maybe we could do Squarsoft characters in general. Most cosplayers I saw were Kenshin, Sailormoon, and Final Fantasy 8 and X/X-2 characters


Like Sailorasteroid, I entered that Soul Calibur 2 tourney, which didn't go so well. (I wish my friend and her sisters could have stayed to cheer me on :P) I beat one person then got eliminated by the guy who won. (it wasn't double elimination!!!) Why do I always get placed against the better players from early on!? Most of the players weren't too great in comparison to what I've seen in the past. Like the one I beat. And yes he was surprised that I totally destroyed him. Yeah, what's new!?! Anyway I thought I could get them all with my Taki's rushdown game. Maybe I should have stuck with my original plan to use Ivy. I didn't because earlier before the tourney I wasn't doing well with her the way I usually do. I hadn't been practicing much... too much time spent on rpgs. :P Oh well it's not like the winner got anything. In "real" tourneys the winner or the top 3 win money.


I checked out other games in the game room, including GGXX #Reload. That was fun. I wish they had a tourney for #Reload. They also had the Valkyrie Profile fighting game for the PC. I didn't get to play and it didn't look so great anyway. And there was a whole bunch of other import games. Including both Naruto fighting games. (I haven't seen that series yet!) Oh the food sucked. I got some chicken strips and fries.. that was all I ate the whole day. It was expensive too, jeez. So overall I had fun but not as muc has 2 yers ago, since I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do. I wanted to watch Excel Saga!! I didn't know it was showing because it wasn't on the schedule.
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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:33 pm

WOW. This thread hasn't been updated in a while. I want to say that Animethon in Edmonton, Alberta is coming up this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it and the week just isn't going by fast enough! I'm hoping to get a bagful of PGSM toys and manga (if I don't see anything, then I'll save my cash and order online later). I also wanted to mention that I signed up for the karaoke contest and I'm contestant number 28 and I'll be doing C'est La Vie for the contest (Wish me luck!). I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can. I will also try to record an mp3 of me singing at karaoke, but I don't think I'll be able to post it since I can't think of any hosts that will host mp3 files for free. If anyone's going to be in the area this weekend, it would be awesome if we can meet up.

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Post by Tiff » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:46 pm

RoastedTwinkies wrote: I also wanted to mention that I signed up for the karaoke contest and I'm contestant number 28 and I'll be doing C'est La Vie for the contest (Wish me luck!). I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can. I will also try to record an mp3 of me singing at karaoke, but I don't think I'll be able to post it since I can't think of any hosts that will host mp3 files for free. If anyone's going to be in the area this weekend, it would be awesome if we can meet up.
AWW, KARAOKE CONTEST!

I wish a-kon had one! They just have regular karaoke..I SO wanted to sing C'est la vie, but I forgot my damn karaoke CD, an dhad to sing Kirari instead.

Good luck!

Joey: The question is, Rachel, does he like you? ''Cuz if he doesn''t, then it''s all just a moo point.
Rachel: Huh...a...moo point?
Joey: Yeah. It''''s like a cow''s opinion. It doesn''t matter....It''s moo.
-Friends

"In learning you will teach and in teaching you will learn"
-Son of Man, Tarzan

"Why do we have to resort to nonviolence? Can’t we just kick their asses?"
-Leela, Futurama

~*Happily married to My Joe since 08/04/07*~

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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:59 pm

Tiff wrote:
RoastedTwinkies wrote: I also wanted to mention that I signed up for the karaoke contest and I'm contestant number 28 and I'll be doing C'est La Vie for the contest (Wish me luck!). I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can. I will also try to record an mp3 of me singing at karaoke, but I don't think I'll be able to post it since I can't think of any hosts that will host mp3 files for free. If anyone's going to be in the area this weekend, it would be awesome if we can meet up.
AWW, KARAOKE CONTEST!

I wish a-kon had one! They just have regular karaoke..I SO wanted to sing C'est la vie, but I forgot my damn karaoke CD, an dhad to sing Kirari instead.

Good luck!
thanks! what really put me in awe was that they had C'est La Vie on their tracklisting!!! I don't need to bring a CD! PGSM got acknowledged! Because of this, I think there's a good chance they'll have pgsm mercandise. This year's convention seems to be more organized than last year. This time, the dealer room doesn't open until 4:00 in the afternoon, but you can get in before the public if you buy the $5.00 CAN all access pass. But then, I think everyone's gonna buy it. Last year, there were over 3000 people at the convention and the dealer room was so packed, it got really hot and other people were touching me. I'm closterphobic and I hated that X_X So hopefully, it will be better this year.

EDIT: The convention starts at 9:00 am, but I plan to get there no later than 8:00 so I can beat the crouds.

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Post by Tiff » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:07 pm

RoastedTwinkies wrote:
thanks! what really put me in awe was that they had C'est La Vie on their tracklisting!!! I don't need to bring a CD! PGSM got acknowledged! Because of this, I think there's a good chance they'll have pgsm mercandise.
Yeah, the a-kon karaoke had Kirari on track, but not c'est la vie. It's weird, I couldn't find ANY PGSM merchandise at a-kon..

Joey: The question is, Rachel, does he like you? ''Cuz if he doesn''t, then it''s all just a moo point.
Rachel: Huh...a...moo point?
Joey: Yeah. It''''s like a cow''s opinion. It doesn''t matter....It''s moo.
-Friends

"In learning you will teach and in teaching you will learn"
-Son of Man, Tarzan

"Why do we have to resort to nonviolence? Can’t we just kick their asses?"
-Leela, Futurama

~*Happily married to My Joe since 08/04/07*~

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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:18 pm

Tiff wrote:
RoastedTwinkies wrote:
thanks! what really put me in awe was that they had C'est La Vie on their tracklisting!!! I don't need to bring a CD! PGSM got acknowledged! Because of this, I think there's a good chance they'll have pgsm mercandise.
Yeah, the a-kon karaoke had Kirari on track, but not c'est la vie. It's weird, I couldn't find ANY PGSM merchandise at a-kon..
You've got to be kidding! A-kon is one of the biggest conventions and they had NO pgsm stuff? I can't believe it! Maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up.

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Post by Sailorasteroid » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:24 pm

Well, there was some PGSM merchandise at AnimeNext, which was much smaller. But there was a store that just about specialized in Sailor Moon merchandise, so that may have been the difference-maker. You've got a shot.
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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:23 pm

I'm back! I'll make a post about Animethon later. I''ve been up since 6 am and I was there all day and I'm too exhaused to make a long post about it now. However, karaoke is tomorrow. I'll be dressing as fan-girl Usagi when I sing C'est La Vie! I can't wait!

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Post by RoastedTwinkies » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:24 pm

Here's my account of Animethon I promised. I copied this from my friends only journal. The account is quite long, so I'll make the text smaller and I make my apologies in advance. Mods, if you feel the need to edit this, feel free to do so.

Animethon 11 rocked this weekend. Mostly. You'll soon find out why.

Saturday

None of my friends could make it on Saturday, so I went by meself. I honestly thought the convention would suck because I wasn't going with friends. I decided to get up at 6:00 am to get to the convention early in order to beat the crouds. It turned out that a volunteer was on my bus, so it was cool to be able to talk with someone on the way there. I forget the guy's name now, but he let me in too, and didn't make me sit and wait outside. We got there by 7:30 am. I sat on the chairs by the window, with other fans who were waiting too. I was pretty shy and kept to myself in the beginning. But then someone came up and asked what my favorite series were. She was wearing a lovely green yukata and I loved it, so I complimented her. Then she glomped me! I glomped her back! Then we introduced ourselves and the girl's name was Kelly. She then introduced me to her friends Jill, Robert, Jon and some other people, whose names I already forget. Just about everyone I met came up from Calgary to go to the convention. Jon had come out all the way from Le Pas, Manitoba, just to come to the con. I was quite surprised. They decided to start the con at 8:30 which was half an hour early, and we bought out $5 premium passes and wristbands for the con. (Things like the dealer room are off limits to the general public until a given time, people with passes get in early) We hung out for a bit, and Kelly glomped every cosplayer she saw! I started doing it a bit too! It was fun. Then we wandered around on our own for a little bit and then we got in line (Jill saved us a spot; there was a huge lineup by the time we got there) for the dealer room, which was in the gym and not in the tiny room by the enterance like last year. It was still packed, but it was not nearly as packed as last year because of the extra space. There were crouds around the tables, but there was at least some space between the tables/crouds for breathing room. I ended up buying the first volume of ROD TV, volumes 5 and 7 of the PGSM manga. There was a girl there who bought $700 worth of manga and she was walking around the con with bags and bags of it. We couldn't help but stare. We agreed to meet again to go watch the anime music videos after we were finished shopping. I ate lunch before we went in at 2:00 since I didn't eat breakfast. The guy (whose name I can't remember right now) and I got in line to save everyone a spot. After a while, we ended up with this huge line up behind us. Soon, our new friends showed up, and for some odd reason, Robert decided to go the back of the line. We couldn't believe it. All I can say is o_O Anyway, all the music videos were awesome. It was hard to make a decision on a vote. Someone had done three Avril Lavigne/Final Fantasy videos, and a video for Disney's One jump Ahead from Aladdin. Someone even made a video for the song, YATTA! I was so happy about that, and it's funny because I was listening to the song on my mp3 player while we were waiting in line. They made it similar to the original music video, so it was really hilarious to watch. There was even a video made from France and another for George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun/ Studio Ghibli's anime. There was also a video for My United States of Whatever and ROD the OAV and I ended up voting for YATTA. During the whole time, this guy who was with us kept hitting on me like there's no tomorrow. He made it so, so obvious too. I ignored his flirting, and didn't respond. By the time we took our seats for the AMV's, he decided to start touching me, putting his arm around me, etc. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I tried to ignore it the best I could. Looks shouldn't matter in a relationship, but it does reach a certain point. I was not physically attracted to him at all, but absoulutely disgusted. He was grossly overweight and he looked to be at least three or four hundred pounds and at least five times my size. I'm a little overweight myself (it's really not a lot), but I don't know how someone could just let themselves balloon up to 400 pounds. Kelly sensed how uncomfortable I was getting, so she hit him on the arm, but then he just hit her back. I made it very obvious that I was not interested, but he was either too stupid to see it or he was completely ignoring my signals. That is where he crossed the line completely. I was furious and I really should have said something. When I see him on msn, believe me, not only will I give him a wake up call, I will also block him too. I don't ever want to see that guy again. After the music videos were over, we wandered around a bit more, visiting with people and checking out the dealer room again. It got to be around 6:00, and I decided to go home. I wanted to watch the cosplay, but I was too tired to do anything else because I didn't sleep that well the night before. Mr. fucking Pervert insisted on walking me to the bus stop. On a lighter, and more pleasing note, I bumped into my old friend Cathy while I was in the food court. It was great to catch up.

Sunday

This time I woke up at 5:00 am to put my hair up into Usagi dangos after finally falling asleep at 2:00 am in the intense heat (we have no air conditioning, and it's hell). I went to bed at a reasonable time; 10:00 pm and I was literally tossing and turning for hours. I didn't get that much sleep this weekend obviously ^^ We got to the convention early again. We sat by the window seats again and I just sat there doing my math homework. It didn't last for long. We visited a bit and then Jill and I went to the karaoke contest. I did C'est La Vie as planned and Jill did a song from Full Moon no Sageshite. I can't remember the name of the song. Neither of us won the trophy, but it was still fun. There were a lot of no shows for karaoke, so it went by a lot quicker than planned. After, we went to the dealer room for a while. We ended up buying those Copic markers we had our eyes on. It turns out that Canada only has one distributer which is based in Vancouver. The people at the booth gave us the website and told us that we can order online whenever we want. I saw the PGSM moon stick, but I didn't buy it because it was about $100 X_X There were probably other PGSM toys, but if there was, they probably sold out because I didn't see them for the crouds ;_; Jill and I decided to go eat lunch and the others eventually found us and sat down too. We met another fangirl, Marley. I was talking about buying another marker, but I was like $1.50 short. She insisted on giving me money to buy it. That's what I really love about anime conventions. Everyone always acts like family because we all share that common interest. We can glomp people and yell out random Japanese as much as we want here, where it would be completely unacceptable anywhere else. I really wanted to get to know Marley more, but she had to run because her parents threatened that if she didn't come home right away (she lives outside of Edmonton), then she wouldn't be allowed to come back next year. The others eventually wandered off again and Kelly randomly went and played Yugioh. We all wandered around some more as a group this time, glomping cosplayers and eventually going back to the dealer room to watch someone do an art commission. Somewhere along the way, the guy and his friend who were paying for the work joined us and his friend wanted a copy of the art piece. So we all went upstairs with the artist and the customers to go to the photocopier. After they were done photocopying, we just sat on the floor in a circle, just hanging out and chatting. Eventually, I'm like 'how many people want to go back to the dealer room?' Everyone raised their hands, and so we went back to the dealer room. We looked around some more and then Jill and I wandered off back to the food court. We found a clean table and we started drawing with our new art supplies. I drew a color characture of Kelly, in her green yukata. I nicknamed her 'The Glomper' and now that's what everyone calls her. The others found their way to us and watched us draw. Soon, the convention was finally ending. Volunteers were telling everyone that this was their last chance to buy Animethon 11 T-shirts. We just sat there and continued drawing. Eventually, we packed up our stuff and we got ready to leave. We hung out for a little while longer by the window seats and we finally walked out to Jill's car to head back. We dropped Jon off at Warp one, near his friends house and then we went back to Jill and Kelly's hostel to hang out more since it was their last night. We continued drawing for a while longer. It was around 8:00 by this time. I decided to phone my dad to let him know what was going on. My dad took a complete spazz (he's so overprotective, it's unbelievable and stifiling), so Jill and I drove back to my house to talk to him. He wasn't home when by the time we got there. It was too hot to wait inside, so we sat out on the front porch. An old lady was sitting on the porch across the street, just staring at us. Jill asked me if it was okay to park across the street were we did and I said it was fine. I told her about a time though, that once, my parents parked across the street and the people put a note on our windshield, 'please don't park in front of my house.' Then we saw a woman come out of the house with a yellow piece of paper in her hand. We started laughing. But after waiting 15 minutes or something, my dad finally got back. We talked to him and he finally let me go back to visit. When we went to leave, we found a mosquito in the car (since the storm and flooding a week ago, there's been a tonne of mosquitoes that resulted from that) and so we started wailing our hands everywhere, trying to smack it. I finally smacked it against the windshield. It fell down and Jill started freaking out since she hates bugs. We watched the mosquito and it was still twitching a little on the dashboard. I picked it up with a piece of paper and threw it out the window. The old lady was still sitting on her porch and stared at us the while time. It was kind of funny though. We went to 7 Eleven to buy slurpees since it was so hot out. We parked behind the store and I had looked up and someone had thrown a pair of shoes on the power line. It was kind of funny. We got pepsi flavored slurpees and headed back. We chatted some more and eventually ordered Chinese. When Kelly asked them to deliever them to the hostel, the guy thought she said hospital! Then she and Jill decided to wait for it outside while I watched our stuff inside. When the Chinese finally came, we chatted some more, cracked some jokes about the stuff that's happened. We were laughing so hard the whole time, people kept giving us weird looks. When we were finally done, we went back to my house. I introduced them to my mom and we hung out a little more. Then they left. It's funny. Jill and I didn't watch any anime besides the AMV's (Jill dedn't even see the AMV's), but it was still fun. We didn't have a lot to eat since food at the con was expensive or get a lot of sleep all weekend since it was so hot. However, it was just so fun, we had balls of energy. I felt like a little kid again, with all that energy. Chances are that we'll be able to hang out during the summer, even if they do live in Calgary. It's still weird adjusting to act normally now that the convention is over. Now I can't glomp people or yell out random Japanese anytime I want.

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