California Conventions Blog

Big Wow! ComicFest 2013

2013-05-20T18:03:00.002-07:00

This was an ambitious year for Big Wow! ComicFest. Right off the bat, it was reaching out to several new industry and fan guests in order to draw a crowd and create the best con possible. This includes, to everyone's delight, the legendary Stan Lee himself, making it a con that is not to be missed.

I had originally intended to attend for both days, but an outside situation required me to go for Sunday only. That said, the day I was there was filled with hanging out with friends, meeting great guests, and generally having a good time.

Big Wow is held in the San Jose Convention Center, where Fanime will be in a few short days from now. While the center is still undergoing renovations, the rooms Big Wow used were not affected, so the only difficulties came from the hallways. This was also at the same time as a Bitcoin expo was underway, but none of the guests from one bothered those from the other in any way; in fact, it's likely that many from one also had a passing interest in the other.

I arrived in the morning and saw the line for those who had pre-registered. When I asked where to purchase tickets at-con, the people there seemed rather confused; apparently they thought I was asking about getting tickets for a convention called "At Con." Once I explained what "at-con registration" meant, they pointed me in the right direction, and I got in line.

The line for press passes had merged with the line to pick up tickets for a photograph with Stan Lee. Fortunately, as I was in need of both, I managed to kill two proverbial birds with one stone, and was soon on my way. While I was unsure of whether or not I was on the press list, there was no hassle in getting it.

On the note of the Stan Lee tickets, when I inquired where the line was to start, I was told it would be across from a panel room. I was later informed, however, that the line was to start downstairs, and we would be allowed to line up according to ticket number. That was actually a useful way of keeping the line moving without having to camp there hours ahead of time, so I must give them compliments for that. For other conventions that are known for becoming "LineCons" (I'm looking at you, Sac Anime), this is a method they might want to consider.

While waiting for my ticket group to line up, I wandered the hall to see booths and people. I was cosplaying as Shiro Shinobi, the Pro Bending Announcer from "Legend of Korra," although the only other Avatar cosplayer there (The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra) was my girlfriend, who was cosplaying as Jinora. We were still recognized by a fair amount of people, and I must note that almost all the cosplayers I met there were incredibly friendly.

That note extends to the cosplayer guests who I met as well. I've often heard reports or concerns of the Internet-famous cosplayers getting a large ego or acting standoffish, but that was not an issue I encountered with any of the ones I saw there. I cannot think of a single cosplayer, invited guest or otherwise, who was not friendly and agreeable when I spoke with them, even the ones I thought I knew and gave a mistakenly casual greeting to.

Mr. Mxyzptlk

Iron Man

A Scout Trooper lost in the forest moon of Endor

While I was checking out the booths, I managed to find some nice comics. I purchased a volume of "52," a comic I highly recommend (not to be mistaken for DC's "New 52" universal reboot) for only five dollars, and found a mint set of old school "Tropical Jungle" Pokemon cards. There was also a wide array of artists, selling their work and taking commissions, who had some excellent pieces on display. One of them was even drawing the cosplayers who went by for free.

Also of note was a booth with several science fiction robots on display, including a life-sized Dalek from Doctor Who, Bender from Futurama, and R2-D2 from Star Wars. All of them were absolutely outstanding, so I often found myself heading back by that booth just to see them again.

A Dalek on the lookout for any Doctors to Exterminate

I am not ashamed to say that I hugged R2-D2

When my ticket group was finally up (301-400), I made my way downstairs and got in the massive line to get a picture with Stan Lee. For a line that stretched through multiple hallways, downstairs, and through two rooms, it moved at a surprisingly brisk pace, and I found myself getting through it more quickly than I had imagined, especially given my place in the line. When it was finally my turn, there was just under 30 seconds for us to stand by him, smile at the camera, and move on, but I had time to shake his hand and tell him what an inspiration he is. That half a minute of meeting Stan Lee was the most epic half a minute of my life.

Once that was over with, and lunch was taken care of, I resumed wandering and meeting friends. There were plenty of people I knew there (I admit, I have a tendency to know a lot of convention-goers, so that's rarely not the case), so there was no short supply of friends to talk to, and all of them seemed to be enjoying the convention greatly.

Another new addition from the last time I was there was a stage for Rock Band. I opted not to sign up to play, but it was amusing to walk by and see other attendees playing away and singing; next time I'll definitely jump in for a round.

As the con neared its end, I managed to pick up the picture from meeting Stan Lee. It cost 50 dollars (and getting an autograph with him would be an extra 50), but it's a professional photograph that will forever commemorate the meeting. It's now framed and sitting proudly at my desk. Following that, I made my rounds and said goodbye to my friends before I hit the road.

Harley's Joker was one of the many cosplayer guests at the con

Roxanna Meta is a Wonder Woman without a doubt

Would you kindly acknowledge that these Bioshock cosplayers are awesome?

So, what did I think of Big Wow this year? It's no longer the warmup to Fanime it once was, but now stands as a fine convention all on its own. The atmosphere was great, the guests were outstanding, and everyone I spoke to was happy and agreeable. I can only take issue with the confusion I encountered at the beginning of the day, but once that was dealt with, everything went smoothly. If not for the fact that the con is the weekend before Fanime, I doubt anyone would be comparing the two.

Best of all, I do not believe I encountered any drama whatsoever! It sometimes seems that it's difficult to go through a convention without encountering any "Con Drama," but Big Wow somehow managed. There was nothing worse than a few awkward moments here and there, making this one of the most chill conventions I've ever been to.

With all that said, it was a most enjoyable convention, so I came back from it feeling like it was a day well spent. A tiring, epic, and eventful day well spent indeed.

Matthew Reports: DAiCon 2013

2013-05-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

How one year can change.

Last year was the first year of DAiCon, an attempt to form an anime convention that was ran by the Davis Anime Club. It was a small, intimate-type of convention and a lot was learned from its first year.

This time last year, things weren't going my way. Since then, things have steadily improved and I was looking forward to this year's DAiCon in combination with my recent success.

How one year can change.

Even before DAiCon opened registration at 9am on May 4th, 2013, I was immensely impressed on the strides this convention made in just a short year. Once I arrived, I was immensely impressed on those strides even more, and that was an hour before they officially opened their door at 10am.

Before I arrived, I decided to stop by Black Bear Diner, a west coast chain that's akin to a Denny's or a Sherri's. I decided to order the "regular" Chicken-Fried Steak and Eggs.

The reason why I say "regular" is that there is "BIGFOOT" Chicken-Fried Steak and Eggs which is basically another egg, another biscuit, "a mound" of hash browns, and a twice as big steak. I like to eat a lot and even that sounds too much for me, maybe to share.

I arrived at Freeborn Hall, which was the first major improvement to DAiCon. Last year, everything was located in the Memorial Union (MU for short), but this year things were expanded to include this hall that has housed many musical acts and debates.

A Dealer's Hall and an expanded Artists Alley within Freeborn Hall was also a major improvement.

Of course, you can't forget about the cosplay.

I had some time before 12pm, when Wendee Lee was supposed to speak. I decide to check out what's in the MU, where everything else was.

The League of Legends Lounge was a nice compliment to the Console Gaming Room next door, which was run by the UCD LoL Club. These types of "castle defense" games have caught fire in the gaming world, and watching people play all throughout the day (combined with friends that I know who play this game) got me really interested. I was joking with some saying that I need a hobby once I graduate, but there was some truth to that because this game does look fun.

Back at Freeborn Hall, Wendee Lee was holding her panel. She told stories about her adventures as a voice actor and how she got to his point in her career. She also takes a question from me about the closing of Bandai Entertainment USA as well as one of the weirdest fan request that I have on record.

Thank you for getting my two pencil boards signed!

With her panel and signing out of the way, it was time for me to get some lunch. Last year I went to the local pizza place on campus, but this year there was a La Raza Festival that had some food. I survey the booths until some "LA Street Dogs" stole my heart and my money.

By now, the MU is bustling with activity.

The cosplay contest was about to start, and it included a performance from Angel Hearts, an iDOLM@STER group that I've only heard of and seen on other convention videos.

After the cosplay contest, I bolt back down to the J-Rock Lounge to capture whatever footage I could any performance that was left. I caught a collaboration between akai SKY, Kurenai and Valkyrie Kiss right at the end.

At this point, the convention seems to be dying down a bit, but there were a few more things to do, like watch a part of the AMV Contest or watch Wilson win Marvel and some Black Bear Bucks.

I round out the evening by reconnecting with some people that I haven't seen in awhile as well as enjoying people playing Dance Central.

By 8:30pm-ish, I was ready to call it a night. I had a drive back to Sacramento and I had to start working on these photos and videos.

Yes, there is such thing as #Yolo County.

Like I mentioned before, this year's DAiCon was very much improved from last year. The usage of Freeborn Hall, a Dealer's Hall, obtaining guests like Wendee Lee and J.S. Gilbert, and the list goes on and on. Granted, there was some sacrifices that were made. This year, there was no free-play in the arcade and there was no stream for any of the video game tournaments, which were understandable as conditions to either save money or have a certain space. There was also concern about the usage of the buildings, like why the cosplay contest wasn't held in Freeborn Hall, a much bigger space than MU II. Then you realize that any answer to that would have to be "it's the university." According to Miles Thomas, the chair of DAiCon, UCD wanted to keep the Freeborn Hall events down-low and didn't want something like the cosplay contest in that building. You can't question it anymore since it's out of the hands of the convention since it's a different game when it comes to dealing with your facilities.

I really do hope they can build on this new tradition alongside their longevity of the Davis Anime Club. I want to thank Mr. Thomas for bringing me to DAiCon for a second year and all his staff that made this convention a break from school and work life a memorable one.

What's On Tap

I won't be going to Fanime this year, for a second straight year, due to the fact that graduation is right in the middle of Fanime. I am sending a team much like last year, so be on the lookout for that coverage. I'd rather save up my money and focus on returning to Anime Expo, which will be my next stop in our convention coverage. We're wanting to make this the biggest and most expansive coverage that we've ever done, so keep an eye out on those details!

私のレポートを読むためにありがとう。
Thank you for reading my report.

-DAiCon 2013 Report End-

Editorial: "Cosplay ≠ Consent" and the Real Underlying Question

2013-04-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the California Conventions Blog.

Unless you have been living under a rock in the past month, you've probably heard about "Cosplay ≠ Consent," this new movement to bring about awareness of sexual harassment at anime and comic conventions. Even conventions like Anime Conji caught onto it and imposed stricter policy when it came to attendee conduct; according to some eyewitness accounts, they caught a long-time "creeper" and banned him from all Southern California conventions. Now, whether this was a result of the movement or they finally caught him after years of sexually harassing cosplayers and the countless reports is yet to be seen.

However, there is a bigger question that lies beyond this, what I consider to be origins of this movement:

Why is it that when people attend anime and comic book conventions, it seems like all common sense gets thrown out the window?

I asked this same question on our Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, and looked like that everyone was giving the same answer: because we can. To a lot of us, anime/comic conventions are a time when we get away from our lives at school, work, and/or at home to go cosplay, enjoy the convention scene, and hang out with friends & old acquaintances for a weekend.

But to some, an anime or comic convention seems like to be an escape from life all together. The biggest offenders of this would have to be your typical 12-17 demographic of this generation: they're not well-rounded socially yet, but they also grew up differently in the age of Facebook, Gaia Online, and 4chan versus our generation that did not grow up on the internet as much as today. So when they go to anime/comic conventions, they do not have the skills of social interaction because they're still in development so they interact like they're on the internet. This doesn't mean that other demographics, especially the one above it, the 18-35 demographic, are immune from this.

Typical sightings include "meme spouting" (i.e. "u mad," "trolololo," "poker face"), random acts of space privacy like glomping, and events that one couldn't fathom (see Homestuck Bucket). At one point in the history of anime conventions, Yaoi Paddles were sold and were used to slap people's behind. Eventually after enough complaints conventions cracked down on the dealers that were selling these paddles and banned them from conventions. However, the most saddest thing of all is when someone gets seriously injured from misconduct at anime conventions. I've heard of stories where people have been bitten to the point of bleeding to where someone was glomped, fractured a leg and/or ribs, and are now somewhat disabled or have a permanent limp.

I'm perfectly fine if you decide to glomp your friends, and even then you should give ample warning because some glomps are more vicious and ground-tackling than others. But because you do some act on a random stranger, whether it's glomping or meme spouting or sexually objecting cosplayers, ask yourself this simple question:

Would I do this in the general public and not just at an anime/comic convention?

Granted, we can all get carried away once in a while, especially when we're around friends and those who are part of the fandom that we're in (i.e. Persona, "fsteak," and "Social link, go!"). But, if you keep common sense in check and don't act like a total hooligan, then we can stop events before they happen especially those are addressed in the "Cosplay ≠ Consent" movement.

Matthew's Response to "10 Tips For Surviving Con Season"

2013-03-08T17:37:00.001-08:00

Click the picture to the link to the original article

This article was published on March 6th, 2013, on the website Nerdist News. The title says it all: tips on surviving a convention season. While the "convention year" is already set in motion with conventions like ALA, SacAnime, and AOD, the "convention season" is when the meat of the conventions, mostly the biggest, prestigious, and costly, occur: the Sakura-Cons, Fanimes, Anime Expos, and Otakons of the world.

I'll be reposting these tips as well as a my personal expertise and suggestions that accompany them.

10. Nothing is worse than having someone disparage the cosplay you spent hours and hours making. Brandon Parks directs the haters to the left with this pearl of wisdom: "Not letting random jerks badger you about your costume for not making it yourself. All that matters is your opinion of it and no one else's. Positive feedback is nothing but icing on the cake for having the guts to wear your costume." Where was Brandon when we were trying to choose our outfit this morning?

Apply this to both at the convention and after the convention when photos of your cosplay will show up on various websites and people are more likely to voice their opinions behind the wall of the internet then.

9. One of the facts of con life is that you're going to be walking. A lot. Even though you spent what felt like forever waiting for the AMV Contest, you're going to be on your feet all day long. How do you combat podiatrical pain? Larry Hester's got two words for you - "Comfortable shoes."

Gel insoles from Dr. Scholls will also go a long way.

8. Stay positive! Craig Corpuz's limited edition con glass is always half full: "Never frown or be dissatisfied. If a panel, event or cosplay meetup flops, just move on to the next activity on your agenda. It's all about being the fan that brought you to the con in the first place." Wise words, Craig.

While you want to just move on, wonder why said panel, event, or cosplay meetup flopped, but again try not to worry about it at the convention; try to deal with it afterwards. Do you need to consult those that you were going to gather with and figure out if the location or time didn't work out? Do you need to tweak things to make the panel, event, or cosplay gathering better? That way, it makes your experience much better in the future, and it shows some accountability and responsibility for you and those around you.

7. Overwhelmed by a mysterious aroma? Andrew Reistroffe says, "Bring a bottle of Febreeze and spray everyone who smells bad." Obviously, he's joking around, but remember - not everyone is anosmic; apply deodorant liberally (to yourself, not strangers).

An easy way to keep your cosplay smelling good: spray all your cosplay with Febreeze before you pack them up then do it again the night before you wear it. To save money, buy a generic brand that'll work just as well: you can buy a gallon of ZAP Air and Fabric Odor Eliminator and a Home Depot-branded All-Purpose Spray Bottle for about $11 plus tax.

6. Hungry? Don't grab a Snickers; grab one of the healthy snacks you packed yourself in advance. Tina Israel knows whats up: "Take juice boxes/bottled water and dried/vacuum sealed food to save money for stuff you really want! Think fruit cups, beef jerky and trail mix!"

See my comments for #5.

5. Sometimes snacks don't cut it, but neither does that gross microwaved pizza that they try to sell you for $14 at the convention center commissary. Twitter user @bhstudios01 has your solution: "Figure out in advance where the locals eat. This way you eat real food for an affordable price. Do NOT eat con center food!" Got a smartphone? We recommend the Yelp app to make your comestible quest even easier.

Better yet, do some research beforehand. It'll help you when it comes to budgeting for food and you can even plan around eating at a certain place especially if it's well known around town (i.e. the CCB crew eating at Jim-Dennys at SacAnime). It's even better when you head to a grocery store and stock up on food that in the long run is cheaper than even buying fast food and fast casual. However, do not restrict yourself to just eating ramen in the hotel room all weekend; make some time to at least go out once, that way you get some real food and you'll feel much better throughout the weekend.

4. What do you do when something going wrong with the cosplay you spent the last year slaving away on? Evelyn Morales has a sound plan to help guarantee sartorial success. "Whether or not you're cosplaying, it's always a nice gesture to carry duct tape or sewing equipment." Believe it or not, a travel-sized sewing kit might just be your best friend (or help you make a friend in a grieving cosplayer)!

Pretty much explainatory.

3. Many of you chimed in about bringing plenty of money to spend on the shiny new toys you'll find in the [Dealer's Room]. Look, we know you want an original Akira animation cel, but it's important to budget yourself because the dealer's room can knock you out of your current tax bracket. Cash is king; bringing a credit card with you may be too much of a temptation for some.

If you know what you want beforehand, you can compare internet prices + shipping to what you're being charged at a convention. But there are some exceptions where items are not sold online, as we'll see when Good Smile Company comes to AX and proceeds to suck the money out of everyone's wallet, myself and my colleague Ryan included.

Our responses to Good Smile Company selling at Anime Expo 2013.

In that case, make a budget and stick to it. People hate it when you're begging for money to eat or even go home because you spent all your money in the Dealer's Room.

2. Despite the Red Bull intravenously flowing into your veins, you're going to need a break at some point. Sleep is just as important as seeing every last panel imaginable. Adrienne Brintnall has a simple formula for avoiding exhaustion: "The 5-2-1 rule. 5 hours of sleep, 2 square meals, 1 hot shower." Yep, her math checks out!

I would take it to the "6-3-1 rule:" 6 hours of sleep, 3 square meals, 1 hot shower.

1. Reader Ellyn Foster writes, "Go with the right people. They can make or break a con." While going to a con on your own can be fun, having a buddy to talk to in line can take your experience from sad to rad in no time flat.

Make sure you apply this to people in your hotel room. If you're the one putting the charge on the room, you can establish the rules and more importantly who's in the room. The same can apply for those who are driving (and make sure that they have enough money to get to and from the convention). Many horror stories stem from people who you don't know. Also, be really firm and don't give any free passes to anyone, even if they're best friend in the world.

Matthew Reports: SacCon March 2013

2013-03-04T18:57:00.003-08:00

It's been awhile since I last wrote a solo report, let alone a report period. I've been mostly working behind the scenes ensuring that we had coverage for SacAnime as well as ALA and AOD. With these smaller conventions coming up between now and July (Anime Expo), I thought it would be nice to get back into reporting at the one place where I started: SacCon.

The big draw for the March 2013 edition of SacCon was D.C. Douglas, who voiced Wesker in the Resident Evil series and Legion on Mass Effect 2 & 3, and John DiMaggio, who voiced Bender from Futurama and Jake the Dog from Adventure Time.

Naturally, there would be big demand for these two voice actors. It was so big, the line just for the 9am Early Bird entry winded longer than any SacCons in my memory.

Yes, the line went into the parking lot, a first for me.

With this huge line, you would expect that it would be jammed pack inside, people trying to shop and interact with the artists while people were already waiting in line for both D.C. Douglas and John DiMaggio. It got crowded and stuffy very quickly, so most of the time I spent outside where the air was fresh.

One thing I was able to experience this year was the Smoothie Patrol food truck, parked across the way from the Scottish Rite Center. As usual, food truck prices are a tad bit more than a standard eatery, but I enjoyed both the Monster's Revenge and the Chocolate Addiction. Very worth it to experience a smoothie on the go.

Around 9:20am, a camera crew from Good Day Sacramento came to SacCon to get a live footage and an interview with one of the staff. I actually got on camera because I was taking a photo of said staff member getting interviewed as you can see on this screencap below:

They were supposed to be there for the 10am hour to do another live shot, but then the cameraman got dispatched to a robbery at a North Highlands bank.

Cosplay-wise, there was a lot of Adventure Time, more than usual because of Mr. DiMaggio's presence, and Homestuck, which is now expected around the Sacramento convention scene. Then again, this is SacCon so there's the typical 50-50 mix between Japanese media cosplay and American media cosplay. At SacAnime, the ratio is about 60-40.

I found myself hanging around the Homestuck cosplayers the majority of the time I was outside, mostly because they're chill and not the crazy fans that you hear about on the internet.

But they did want to film a Harlem Shake video.

Inside, I got some shots of the Dealers Hall, people playing video & card games, and Guests of Honor autographing.

You also got to experience standing in line for both Mr. Douglas and Mr. DiMaggio, which for the first time in my memory went into the courtyard.

Despite the foot traffic, I was able to get through those narrow hallways in route to catch a bit of Mr. Douglas's Q&A Panel.

At 3pm, the drawing for the Charity Raffle occured, and everyone crowded around the front waiting for their number to be called to win some amazing prizes, including three three-day passes to SacAnime Summer 2013.

The big kicker for the convention was the Masquerade, which consisted of rapping Links, Max from the Sam & Max series, and much more.

Well, it was time to go home. But not before I got one last picture of a car that had all these cellphone cases glued to his car. I thought it was a very clever way to market himself, probably selling cellphone cases I'm assuming.

According to a report from Fox 40, the attendance for SacCon March 2013 exceeded 2,500, the highest in almost 20+ years of the convention's run. You could tell that easily because of how crowded the place was, no matter what you wanted to do. With SacAnime's move to the Sacramento Convention Center, I hope SacCon makes the same move pretty soon. While the June edition is only slated for one day, there is a "Super SacCon" coming in September. Whether that's a move to the SCC or a hotel in the area or just two days at the Scottish Rite, we will wait to see how that plays out.

I always loved SacCon for just being that kick-back convention where I can just chill and enjoy myself. Coventions like Fanime, AX, and now SacAnime carry higher stakes, so it's good to go to one of these conventions, especially when you're experimenting with cosplay that'll eventually go live at a bigger convention.

My next report will be at DAiCon in Davis on May 4th at the UC Davis Memorial Union. They're back for a second year after the successful first year, and I can't wait to head back there!

Until then, thank you all for reading my report!

Nate's Report: Animation on Display 2013

2013-02-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

A new month thus another con to go to; fortunately, it is right here in the bay area. First off, I have never been to Animation on Display before so I was entering this con having high hopes that it was going to be exciting. It just sucks that I was able to only go on Saturday due to my college actually having school on that President’s day holiday. Although I may not have had the full experience of AOD, will that affect my overall view of the con? Well let’s just see.

On Saturday morning, myself and a group of friends drove from my place to the San Francisco Japantown area where AOD was held. We went to sign up for registration which has a convenient way to do the process. They leave off paper on a table where you can write up all of your party’s names and pay all together, which thinking about it is a faster way to register than just waiting for one person in line. We got our badges in about 5 minutes. It was pretty short especially that early in the morning.

SF Japantown before AOD began. The calm before the con....

I then attended my first panel which was Christine Cabanos' focus panel. The panel was pretty much a Q&A with the VA. This was an excellent chance for me to talk to her about her career as a voice actress and what her next upcoming roles will be. Sadly, she wouldn’t give any details about her future roles but it was an interesting panel hearing her experience as a voice actress for games and anime. Then the next hour, Christina Vee met up with Christine Cabanos and another Q&A panel was held with the two of the VAs answering questions from their delighted fans. But first, they sang a song from a Disney Princess movie and they actually did a good job as a duet. They both were great singers and I was very pleased with their performance. I asked a question saying if Madoka Magica or K-ON! was the better anime to voice for. They both agreed on Madoka Magica and it makes sense, the anime is a great piece of work. They also did say they are voicing their same roles for the K-ON! movie that will be coming out to the states soon. Many people were asking them about their roles in voice acting for various video games and anime. They replied with answers that satisfied the crowd. Overall, the panel was very informative and the fact that I finally got to see Christina Vee!

Christina Vee (left) and Christine Cabanos (right) taking a sip of water before their panel at AOD

Then it was off to autographs. I received Kyle Herbert’s photograph and signature on my AOD booklet. Then it was to Christine and Christina (Confusing right?). I brought some of my stuff for them to sign from the game Skullgirls and the animes Madoka Magica and K-ON! They both voiced notable characters within their games/shows and it was just a fan moment seeing them sign my stuff.

Posing for a picture with Christine Cabanos (left) and Christina Vee (right)

I then wandered around the con, or more like wander around Japantown since the hotel AOD was in is pretty small. I met up with a couple of my friends, catching up with them since we last met. I was also taking photos of cosplays that were around AOD Saturday. I was pretty pleased with them so far as most of the cosplays in the con were recognizable to me. I grabbed lunch at Kushitsuru restaurant in a mall across from Hotel Kabuki grabbing some california rolls with teriyaki chicken and rice - a very good meal for lunch especially on this busy con day!

Hitagi Senjougahara (Bakemonogatari) cosplayer at AOD

At 3:00pm, I went to Osaka Way (the middle of Japantown) to take part of a video. Do you know the Harlem Shake? Yeah......we did it there. And it was pretty fun. FYI I did not know about the Harlem Shake till the day before AOD Saturday, and it was pretty easy to do. All you have to do is act cray cray for only 15 seconds. As silly as it sounds, it is all around the internet and I am glad to be a part of it.

The Harlem Shake at AOD!!! (Video credit to Rave2theJPhotography)

I next followed a group of friends to this one place in Japantown called Pika Pika, a store which holds many of those picture machines that you see in amusement parks. Only these machines let you decorate your pictures and make them look fancy. We tried to get all 6 of us cosplayers into a photo booth which was manageable, only to find out our machine was broken. We then tried to get another photo booth, but there were so many people getting photos that we decided to just forget about it. It was disappointing to not get a photo, but there was still a whole lot of con that must have been seen on that day.

The only photo we can only get of us cosplayers together. Our picture booth broke down :(

So then I was with a Rise cosplayer who wanted me in her photoshoot which I gladly agreed to be in. While we were waiting for the photographer, I decided to check out artist alley and dealer’s hall. The Dealer’s hall was pretty small, meaning that there weren’t as many dealers as expected. So that was sort of disappointing. Even still, I bought a little thing there, literally. I can only manage to grab a Akiho Senomiya charm (from Robotics;Notes) for my 3DS. As for artist’s alley, it wasn’t in a room. The con lobby downstairs was artist alley completely covered with artists who showcased their artwork to the many attendees at AOD. Artist Alley looked really good actually. I was greatly impressed at everyone’s artwork. One artist actually gave me a Chie valentine card. (Oh yeah I forgot I was cosplaying Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4...and the artist was cosplaying Chie so I would understand that free card XD)

Me and a Chie cosplayer. Persona 4 FTW! XD

Myself and the Rise cosplayer went to our photoshoot outside where the pagoda was located and took some shots. Too bad she couldn’t stay longer as she left after the photoshoot. My other friend and I then went to a crepes store in the mall and dug down on a sweet crepe.
The time was 8pm and AOD at-night events were happening at that time. I went to the Swap Meet which was located at Hotel Tomo. When I entered the hotel, I was amongst other people trying to enter the Swap Meet room. Apparently, we have to wait in line for an elevator going up to the room since it cannot hold a mass amount of people at the Swap Meet. We got into the elevator after 30 minutes of waiting in line where we reached the 3rd floor and guess what? We have to fall in line again! Well, at least this line is shorter and it took us about like 15 minutes to get into the Swap Meet. Still, it was disappointing on my end. But when I entered into the Swap Meet, I was impressed at the selection of stuff the sellers had. Each seller had at least one thing that would attract my eye. Sadly, I didn’t have much cash with me so I only managed to get a Morgiana (Magi) writing helper pad at a pretty reasonable price.

Parasoul cosplayer at AOD

I was on my way to my final panel of the day, “Skullgirls: The Making of a Competitive Fighting Game.” But apparently, I was interrupted with a chat among good friends. I missed the panel, but my friend told what was happening at the panel. Apparently, Christina and Christine were there and they were discussing on how they worked on the game from the voice acting to the game details. There were also a few people who helped in making the game and they explained how they made Skullgirls into the fighting game we are currently playing today. I watched one more thing before I ended the day: AOD Celebrity Jeopardy. This game featured Ken Pontiac, Neil Kaplan, Ian McConville, and Christina Vee playing in a game of Jeopardy and since it is at night, anything can happen. So when the game was playing, the contestants were having fun making us laugh as a result of it. It was really entertaining seeing the celebrities answer the question in ways that would make us laugh. In this game, Neil Kaplan would win. Apparently I didn’t know that the movie that broke movie selling records last year was The Avengers and so were the guests. Either way, I loved watching this. Ain’t nothing better to end your con experience at AOD with a great funny, happy ending.

AOD guests of honor (from left to right) Ian McConville, Ken Pontiac, Neil Kaplan, and Christina Vee

playing in AOD celebrity jeopardy

Now I know Robbie and Ray will let you know more about the incident that happened at AOD concerning the blog. Apparently, AOD denied press badges for our blog due to someone breaking dress code last year. It was a surprise to me because I know these guys for quite some time and I know they won’t do such a thing. I have to say that it is complete malarkey for AOD to do this and we were really upset with it. To say the least, it dampered our con experience quite a bit.

Being a first time attendee at AOD, I really had a fun time. This was mainly because most of my buddies were also attending the con and it was all pretty much catching up with them, chatting with them, etc. If it wasn’t for the many people I know at the con, I may not have a great experience at AOD. The con looked pretty good as my first time attending. All the panels I attended were very entertaining, artists alley was great, and that there is a lot of entertaining things to do around Japantown than just being on the con grounds. The guest star lineup was a good one as I was very happy to see all of them. The only concerns that I have is with Dealer’s Hall and Swap Meet. I would have to say Swap Meet would have to relocate to a bigger location because the line idea at Hotel Tomo was ridiculous. Dealer’s Hall wasn’t that impressive to me since it didn’t really have a lot of dealers. But seeing that it is the biggest room at the con, you can’t do anything about it. And even if the con is pretty small, there wasn’t much complaints of overcrowding or shoving amongst the guests unlike Sacanime at the Woodlake Hotel. And this pleases me. If everyone can get along like this at a small con, I believe AOD looks to be staying here for quite some time. Besides the whole rejection of badges, I have to say the staff of AOD did a great job running the con this year. It was a great con to attend to and I will be checking into AOD again next year, that’s for sure :)

Ray Reports: Animation on Display 2013

2013-02-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've been going to AoD since 2011, so I guess I'm one of the more "beginner" attendees here.

I looked forward to this con, more so than Sac-Anime, for a number of reasons. It's more local, which means less travel distance and more familiar folks. It's in Japantown, San Francisco, which is a very nice place for food and some shopping. Finally, I have fond memories of my first time here, mostly spending time with friends--small cons are "hangout cons" after all.

But it seems like I didn't really enjoy myself at AoD this year. There were some bad things that transpired, though my reasons for my lack of enjoyment are different.

(Caution: AoD is a FoodCon(TM), photos of good food will be in this con report. Do not open if you are feeling hungry. ;) )

Prologue

Sadly, sleep was a thing that barely happened. I held off packing up until midnight or so because I was watching Konami's JAEPO 2013 Bemani event.

I tried to get some sleep, but because I had fallen asleep the early evening before, that didn't happen. Ended up with maybe 1 hour of it.

So I "woke up" around 7:30 AM, got myself breakfast, and went through my usual morning routine, picking up my necessary toiletries along the way to pack int my suitcase.

I headed off for Jaidin's place, arriving around 9:15-30 AM, Jaidin cosplaying as a Homestuck character. As I've discussed in this blog, I don't put on my Reimu cosplay at home, so I stopped over at her house to do it. We then went to the Wells Fargo a few miles upward before making the drive all the way to Daly City.

We went to the BART station, and much thankfully BART allows overnight parking on weekends for free so I took advantage of that. Both of us quickly experienced problems: The fare gate closed on Jaidin while she was trying to get her baggage through it, and my Clipper Card, which I was using for the first time, reported a balance of $0, so I had to load it with $3 just to be able to pass through the gates. Once we got through the gates, things went more smoothly. Jaidin and I decided she should use the double gates to avoid the problem of baggage not fitting, and my preloaded balance finally kicked in at the station, with the gate reporting my balance at $20.20.

Katie showed up, cosplaying as Yoshika Miyako, also from Touhou, with her friend driving 15-20 minutes later, signaled by a voice exclaiming "Look, it's a shrine maiden!" We got in the car and made for Japantown. We arrived around 12 PM.

"Yeah, we're at AOD. We can tell because there are Homestucks here."

Day 1 -- Shrine Maiden Shuffle

Of course our room wasn't ready yet, so Jaidin and I used the luggage service to file away our bags. My first order of business was to pick up my press badge, so I made my way to Con Ops, with Katie tagging along for the ride.

However, things took a turn for the worse when I showed my business card and was quickly turned down; apparently, CCB was declined for this year. What the hell? I contacted my colleagues Robbie and Nate, as well as my editor-in-chief Matt; Robbie was still en route, Nate showed up pretty soon, and Matt was not answering my calls (presumably due to work or other business) so that would have to wait. Rather than waste time, Katie and I decided to explore J-Town for a bit, hoping for some developments later.

We pretty much crossed the length of the two malls, making a quick stop at Playland Japan and eventually ending up at Kissako, a cafe on the other side that serves treats like dango (starchy balls containing red bean paste) and onigiri (rice balls containing meat, wrapped in seaweed). I got a few myself, and enjoyed a cheap lunch.

Matt called me back and told me Robbie tried to get a press badge as well, and told me to try getting a badge again. So I made my way back, conveniently encountering Robbie along the way, who detailed me a bit further on his attempts at getting a press badge.

Back at Con Ops, I decided to press further on the issue. It turns out apparently, one of CCB's staff--a female, no less--had gone around in indecent wear last year at AoD, prompting them to strike CCB down from applying for press this year. This claim made no sense on two fronts. Robbie and I were the only CCB representatives last year; we had no third member on our team for AoD, let alone a female one. Furthermore, there was no evidence of such an incident; no records and no photographs, so on what basis were they deriving their claims from? They told us that they would "look into the issue" but that it would be "an issue for next year".

I was very much displeased about this, but at this point there was nothing I could do but deal with standard registration.

3 PM came so I came to the front desk to check in. The room wasn't ready yet, so I went off to do other things, like signing up for at-con registration and exploring the artist's alley. Come 4 PM, room wasn't ready yet, and I needed to run the Touhou gathering in the main plaza. Fortunately, the hotel staff was really nice; as compensation, lowered our rate from $125-ish to $100, and gave us breakfast vouchers to use at the O Izakaya Lounge the following day.

The gathering...well, there wasn't much to it, as I expected judging by the total lack of activity on the FB event page. About 7 people, myself included, attended, and we mostly just hung out and derped around. About 30-40 minutes passed, and Katie was really hungry, so some of us decided to get food.
We ended up at Mifune, or rather, one of three Mifune stores in the Japantown neighborhood. Though, I was getting very sleepy and I think I fell asleep at the table a few times. Nonetheless I enjoyed the bowl of edamame that was set out on the table, and I ordered myself a nice katsu don bowl, what with my recent craving for Japanese rice bowls. Of course, the bowl came with a bowl of miso, as well as a small salad.

I pretty much had my way with my bowl of breaded-meat-over-rice goodness, taking my time so as to savor the meat and the glazed rice, while occasionally downing gulps of miso. I very much enjoyed my bowl; hell, I could argue that I liked it more than Mifune's katsu curry.

6 PM or so came, and Katie and I were finally able to check in. We had a room on the 8th floor, and while it wasn't the suite that I stayed in last time, the room was nice and comfy nonetheless; Katie in particular was just gushing over the various features.

Although our room was listed as having two single beds, I found that the beds were large enough to accommodate two people each, so we didn't need anyone (out of 4) sleeping on the floor after all.
I also hopped on the WiFi to do some whatevers, which was thankfully free and didn't even need a login page. Speed was pretty good too.

Now, I had come into the room to get some sleep, so I took off my wig and napped for about an hour or so.

I got up around 7:30-45 PM, and we had intended to get some groceries from Nijiya, but that ended up not happening. Oh well. At any rate, Jaidin came to the room, and I believe our other roommate joined us at some point.

I thought to swing by the gaming room, since it was being run by T_BAGR, the same folks who run Sac-Anime's and Fanime's gaming rooms. I got in a few rounds of Rhythm Heaven Fever.
I also wanted to check out the arcade one last time for the day, so I went over there, and had a few rounds of music games, such as DJMAX Technika (notably, the Japanese version rather than the international one), pop'n music 14 FEVER, and Taiko no Tatsujin 9.

After my arcade session, I decided to travel around and I ran into my music game friends and chose to tag along. We ended up at On The Bridge, and since it was closing, they were out of spiciness levels other than mild, which was amusing.

Nonetheless I wasn't in the mood to eat much, so I just got some chicken kara-age.

Since I wasn't gonna be driving until the day after, I thought to get some alcohol as well. I don't like beer all that much, the concept of sake doesn't really interest me (seems focused on getting the user drunk), and wine is expensive, so I got myself a cocktail. Though cocktails are seen as a "woman's drink", I'm pretty feminine anyway (not to mention I was dressed as a girl) so I pretty much don't care. Plus I don't like bitter kinds of alcohol anyway.

For some reason I was in a greens mood, so I downed a good chunk of the cabbage, usually between bites of chicken. I also felt some woozy effects, not sure if it's because of what I drank, my sleep deprivation, or both.

It was getting late--in fact, when we left On The Bridge, it was about 10 PM and already closed, so I split and made my way back to the Kabuki since everything else was closed at this point. Went to the gaming room and got in a few rounds of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, and once the gaming room closed around midnight I called it a day.

I went back to my room, checked some things on my laptop, and had a nice soak in the tub before going to sleep.

Day 2 -- Persona 3: Real Escape Room

I got up around 10 AM or so, later than I intended. Debated putting on my Reimu cosplay again because I really liked wearing it, but one of my senses was telling me I shouldn't, plus I didn't bring any shaving equipment so I decided to just go with my original plan of cosplaying Minato Arisato from Persona 3 instead.

I threw my gohei prop (from my Reimu cosplay) in the trash since I figured I can just make another one. I didn't feel like lugging that around the con when it's not even an available weapon that Minato uses.

We left the room around 10:45 AM or so to check out, then went down to O Izakaya Lounge to redeem our breakfast vouchers. I got myself a heaping plate, as well as some oatmeal. In hindsight, I got more food than I needed, because I was only able to finish about 80-85% of it. Nonetheless, the staff was really nice, and didn't seem to mind too much that I had leftovers.

(Your Diligence has inc--whoops! You don't have a Diligence stat!)

So after that deliciousness, I had about 1 1/2 hours to kill so I went to the arcade, might as well get in a few rounds of music games, then went over to New People to get ready for Escape from the Mysterious Room, part of the Real Escape Game series.

Bonus Feature: Real Escape Room

So for those of you not familiar with Real Escape Game, the format, at least for this version, is as follows: You join a team of up to 9 other players (usually), and, after some orientation and such, are all locked in a room with 1 hour to escape.

To escape, you need to gather clues strewn around the room, put them together and figure them out, which will result in more clues pertaining to locating important tools and other clues necessary to make progress and eventually achieve the core goal of finding the key to escaping the room.
I was half-expecting some of my teammates to be AoD attendees, but I guess I rode my hopes too high since there weren't any. Without spoiling too much: We worked together, splitting tasks amongst us (i.e. one person looking for clues, another organizing them together, working on different parts of the room). Amusingly, one of the clues involved a manga book. Sadly, we were not fast enough to clear the game.

After we failed, the staff came to escort us out of the room and discuss the room with us, pointing out hints and the remainder of the solution. It wasn't surprising that we failed; the clear rate after all was only about 3.5%.

(Nonetheless, your Knowledge has increased!)

End Bonus Feature.

After leaving, it was about 3 PM. I went back to the Kabuki, where I met up with a few friends. We decided on getting lunch at On The Bridge.

I was gonna check out the Angel Hearts panel, but I was more in a social mood, so I tagged along with Katie and DaKree for OTB fun times; a good way to conclude the convention.

I was still fairly stuffed from breakfast, but I didn't want something small. I ended up settling for okonomiyaki. Or "Japanese pizza" as some call it.

(Very much enjoyed it, kinda reminded me of takoyaki.)

Unfortunately we forgot to ask for split check so we ended up in this situation where we had to calculate the hell out of who pays how much, and in the end one of us ended up owing money to me.
Katie's mom intended to pick us up at 5 PM so we could leave, but we ended up staying until 5:20 PM or so instead.

Epilogue

Katie's mom was generous enough to offer Jaidin and me rides back to the BART station. The ride back to Daly City went pretty smoothly.

We headed back, taking the 280, though I was getting sleepy D: Fortunately I made it back to Jaidin's safe and sound, before heading home myself.

Closing Thoughts

I was looking more forward to AoD, but it seems like much was missing from this year's experience. Being sleep-deprived both days didn't help, and the Touhou gathering was quite meh; I'm thankful some people came out but there was almost no point to organizing an event page on Facebook.
In addition, AoD this year was quite hectic. I was scrambling all over the place--hotel room here, Touhou gathering there, taking a nap over there, etc. Especially on Day 1; I had next to no time to relax and appreciate my surroundings and my cosplay.

It should also be noted that I hardly found any cosplays to get photos of. I'm not into the big fandoms like Homestuck and Doctor Who, and a lot of the cosplayers I like are cosplayers I already know. So I took less than 10 photos of cosplayers throughout the weekend. (Not to mention I was cosplaying Reimu on day 1 so no pockets for my cameras.)

I also learned that REG and AoD don't mix very well; it just ended up feeling like a completely different event. While I certainly enjoyed myself, being in cosplay didn't necessarily make the experience special; I should've gone on a different day instead.

On the plus side, I got to try out several Japanese eateries, which is always a good excuse to come to J-town. It was also nice having a few friends to consistently hang out with, something I really appreciate at cons. Eating dinner with friends is always a nice experience, as it gives me a chance to just rest and talk to each other over delicious food. My room stay went fairly well; all of my roommates were pretty chill and nothing bad transpired. Especially in contrast to last year, when Jaidin and I suddenly had to accommodate 350% of our planned number of guests.
I'm still rather miffed over the press reg. issue. I really hope things get sorted out; $35 isn't exactly a trivial amount of money to suddenly have to pay and I would very much like to see some compensation come out of this.

Perhaps I should stop expecting a lot out of this convention, especially since who I consider good friends tends to change from year to year.

Next convention: Fanime 2013

Really, there's no cons in NorCal going on until Fanime, so I have plenty of time to prepare. I'm thinking of maybe sneaking in one new cosplay by then. I should perhaps focus on graduating first, because my graduation takes place on Day 2 of Fanime! Fortunately it's only from 9 AM to 12 PM so I'll still have plenty of time to do things.

I'll write more about Fanime as it gets closer. I already have a room, and I'm crying because of the $300 deposit for my room. I really hope that money gets refunded to me because I sure need those funds for AX!

Until then, this is Ray, purveyor of Japanese music games and danmaku shrine maidens, signing out.

Animation On Display 2013: Robbie's Review

2013-02-18T16:15:00.001-08:00

I have to say, I was really looking forward to this year's Animation On Display. I had been facing two weeks of nonstop bad luck, from failures as a writer to a car crash, so I needed the escape, and I wanted to make this con the best possible. Unfortunately, the universe continued to conspire against me.

I arrived at the con far later than usual, due to my lack of a car requiring me to get a ride from a friend. On the bright side, by the time I got there, the registration line was pretty short. So I went to get a press pass… only to find we were denied.

According to the people working there, a member of our blog broke the dress code last year, and as such, we were banned from press for this year. However, they wouldn't tell us who broke the dress code or what they did, and honestly, I don't think anyone in our crew wore anything that would break the dress code. They didn't even inform us about that until we got there, so none of us expected it or knew to pre-register. So that's 35 dollars I didn't know I'd have to spend gone.

Well, once I got my badge, I started wandering around the con. I was cosplaying as Giovanni, but it was an original design based off of Pokemon Conquest. I was using this con as a test run for it, so I could figure out what needs fixing. (Hint: a lot.) The costume seemed to go over well, though; most people recognized that I was representing Team Rocket (the big red R on my flag and armor might have been a hint), although not all realized that I was Giovanni.

Throughout the day, the costume needed some repairs, usually due to the straps breaking through the craft foam. I need to coat it in resin when I repair it, but I always knew that was an issue. My flagpole also fell apart, but it lasted through the most of the day.

I spent most of the day hanging out with friends, catching up, chatting, and wandering around. The dealer's hall didn't have anything that really stood out as worth purchasing to me, although the mall at Japan Town had plenty of shops to get stuff from. (I splurged a little on card game stuff, and got a giant Jigglypuff plushie pillow. No regrets.)

At 3:00, I checked into the hotel. Given last year's fiasco, where the hotel said we were reserved for the previous weekend, and taking my current streak of luck into consideration, I was prepared for the worst… but we checked in just fine. One of my roommates thought we were supposed to be upgraded to a suite after what happened last year, which we weren't, but I didn't care, I was just glad to have a room.

After getting settled in, I went to continue hanging out with friends. There was a "Harlem Shake" cosplay video being filmed, but honestly, I'm not a fan of that meme, so I decided to pass. Afterwards, I was going to have a photoshoot for my Giovanni cosplay, but it was delayed for a while, so I spent more time hanging out and wandering.

While outside, I also noticed that the entire pagoda was populated by a massive Homestuck gathering. It's always pretty crazy just how big the crowds get for those, but hey, if it's a series people like, then more power to them. While I have had complaints about the behavior of some parts of that fandom in the past, I didn't notice anyone causing a nuisance this time, so it's all good.

Around 5, I went to the photoshoot in the hotel's garden. It's the most popular spot for pictures at the con, so it's always pretty crowded, but we managed to get in some nice pictures nonetheless. There were other attendees who didn't always listen to the staff members saying "get off the rocks," but most people didn't cause any trouble; just take the pics and move on for the next people.

Following that was dinner, and following dinner, I went to the "Magikarp: A History" panel. As always, it had a nicely-sized crowd, and the panel was well-made, well-researched, and presented expertly. They had new video content as well, and provided information about Magikarp's appearances in more Pokemon media, including the card game and spinoffs. Always a fun panel to visit.

When that was over, I switched out of my armor, since it kept falling apart and was growing uncomfortable. I decided to stop by the karaoke room, where I signed up to sing "Yakko's World." I was told that the wait would be about an hour and a half, so after signing up, I continued to wander around the con.

I stopped by the game room, although there weren't too many games playing that really caught my interest. I did join in for a song on "Just Dance," but after that, it was more wandering.

When I returned to the karaoke room, I found that I had been pushed back in line, as had many others. There was this group of rather obnoxious guys in the karaoke room, who continued to shout through everyone's songs, usually shouting some variation of "Swag" and cursing constantly. It turns out that they were the reason everyone else had been pushed back, as the karaoke room staff let them cut ahead of everyone in line.

The guy at the karaoke room said that they were some sort of VIP (they kept calling themselves "Team White Guys," or something along those lines, but I'd never heard of them, and after the way they were behaving, I hope I never will again), so they let them cut ahead of everyone to get their songs out of the way. This is incredibly unfair to those who had to wait, and I found myself growing tired of having to listen to them constantly shout through everyone else's songs, so I left, disappointed and irritated.

Well, once that was over, there wasn't much else to do, so I went back to my room to prepare for the following day.

Legend of Korra cosplayers: Korra, Asami, and Jinora

The Holy Grail War is on at AOD

Mutants and proud

The next day, I cosplayed as Kariya Matou from Fate/Zero. I had spoken to several friends before the con about getting a group together, although for various reasons, I was the only member of that group who was there and cosplaying from a Fate/series.

Still, I made the best of the con, stopping by the guest table to get an autograph from Kyle Hebert and hanging out with friends. I encountered a few other Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero cosplayers, including another Kariya, although most of them were busy at first as well.

After that, it was more hanging out with friends, which is all I can really say I was expecting. It was good to unwind and spend time with people I only get to see at cons, so no complaints there.

As I was leaving, I was told that there was an impromptu Fate/series photoshoot going on in the lobby, so I managed to jump in for a few pictures. That was plenty of fun, although I wish I could have stuck around for more. It was time to leave, so I got my stuff and hit the road.

So, how was this AOD? A little disappointing, actually. My biggest complaints are the press pass issue (the only members on our staff last year were myself and Ray, how did one of us break the dress code?) and the karaoke problem, which put a damper on the first day. Still, I got to spend time hanging and chatting with friends, there was plenty to see, good food options, and some nice cosplay to see.

While this wasn't the escape from bad luck that I wanted, it still had plenty of good things going for it. I can't help but feel upset about those issues, but I won't let those ruin the good times I had catching up and spending time with my fellow geeks. All in all, it was a decent convention, that's all that can really be said for it.

Tally's "A Little More Than Late" Anime Los Angeles 2013 Review

2013-01-23T22:11:00.000-08:00

Anime Los Angeles, a convention usually set for the first weekend of the new year, was held January 4th to 6th at the LAX Marriot. Chaz Boston Baden, founder of ALA, and his staff worked very hard and made sure every attendee enjoyed the three day convention. Special guests this year included Johnny Yong Bosch and his band Eyeshine as well as Parle Productions' Jen and Kelly, YouTube stars from England. Voice actor Patrick Seitz returned to the convention this year, having been a Guest of Honor back in 2010. His known roles are Ludwig/Germany from Axis Powers: Hetalia and Simon Brezhnev from Durarara!!

Various panels were held, mostly fan panels. Parle Productions has a total of six panels. These panels ranged from General Q&A, Improv 101, In-Character Q&A, and Cosplay Make-up Tutorial. The Hetalia fandom made a comeback this year, with a total of three panels: Ask-A-Nation, World Summit and 18+. Generally speaking, Ask-A-Nation and World Summit range from a G-rating to PG-13. 18+ panels do not happen often, but if and/or when it does, the fandom and questions turn at least to an R rating. Provocative attire is often worn by panelists, usually those who cosplay Francis Bonnefoy/France. Some even go in a drunk-like manner, with their suit shirt unbottoned, tie around their head, etc. In other words, some panels can get a bit crazy, but that doesn't stop each fandom from having fun. Footage of each panel is found on YouTube, under specific tags or titles.

My apologies for the bad sound. Kazzandra Rodriguez's camera does not have a volume control on it.

In convention terms, gatherings are a way to make new friends, have pictures taken of large groups from the same series, and have fun. Many gatherings occurred this year, all from different series. The biggest gathering this year would have to be Homestuck. With over 200+ people attending, all various characters in either the same outfit or even different outfits. Making a comeback this year was Mobile Suit Gundam gathering, specifically Gundam Wing. In fact, there was a rather large group, the five main pilots, as well as three of the females in the series. More so, two pilots from the unofficial sequel, Operation: Frozen Teardrop.

Gundam Wing pilots (from left to right: Wufei, Quatre, Trowa, Duo, Heero). (Photo credit: Jm Mj)

Eyeshine preformed two days: Saturday at 10:00am and Sunday at 12:00pm. Lead vocalist, rhythm guitar, and song writer, Johnny Yong Bosch; and fellow band members, Maurice Salmin, back vocalist, drums, and piano; Crystal Mesina, bass guitarist; and Mastaka Yazaki on lead guitar and back vocals create the band. The band was first started in 2004 with JYB and Maurice. However, the band didn't get popular until 2006 with edge rock as their genre backdrop, a blend of pop, punk, and post-grunge. Many fans of JYB attend the Eyeshine's concerts, which usually taken place in Los Angeles. Normally, the band plays at Live Jazz Bar and Grill in Little Tokyo on Second Street and Central on the first Wednesday of every month. At 10:00 am on Saturday, the band's followers showed up to listen to the band. Very few attendees sat in the back and/or in chairs. The rest huddled around, myself included, waited by the stage to enjoy the sounds of the band. Near the end of the concert, Johnny even asked, but more like requested, some of the attendees come up on stage with them. Needless to say, the concert was a hit. More convention goers now know about Eyeshine, and the band is getting more fans than it already has. I could not attend the second concert as I had a panel to attend and be in.

Overall, the convention was very well done, with Chaz and the convention staff working together to make sure all convention attendees enjoyed themselves. It was safe and well organized. There was good entertainment, well organized and dedicated staff and gatherings. “Con Suite” fed most of the con goers, which helped as nobody passed out from hunger or dehydration. The pool was nearby, with staff checking badges this year as a new addition to the con. With this said, I really enjoyed the convention. If I had to rate this convention, I would give it a 5 out of 5.

Kazzandra Rodriguez (17) with Patrick Seitz. (Photo credit: Ada Nichols)

Until next time.

Ciao~

Matthew's Editorial: The 64.2 Mile Journey

2013-01-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the California Conventions Blog.

A lot of what I'm about to say in this piece I've probably said many times in previous years and may sound like the same song and dance, but it's only fitting that I write this as SacAnime moves to the Sacramento Convention Center.

[Appropiate music for this editorial goes here]

The "64.2 Mile Journey" is the overall distance (according to Google Maps) from Sunrise Mall where the first SacAnime was held in 2004 to the Scottish Rite Center, then back to Sunrise Mall, then back to the Scottish Rite Center, then to the Red Lion Inn Hotel for the first SacAnime held in a hotel in Summer 2007, then back to the Scottish Rite Center, then to the Radisson/Woodlake Hotel, then finally to the Sacramento Convention Center.

I don't remember attending in 2004 when SacAnime first became a reality, but I do remember attending in 2005 although I remember more about the return to Sunrise Mall more than the first run at the Scottish Rite Center. Then again, I have a bunch of otaku loudly singing The Cocount Song through the mall. I also do remember telling myself that I would see to it that SacAnime eventually reaches the Sacramento Convention Center before I graduated college on the drive over to the Sunrise Mall.

Eventually I got into staffing in early 2007 as a peace-bonder and my "coming out party" was to peace-bond at SacAnime's first run in a hotel. Regardless of opinions or the "reception" that I gave that weekend, things really weren't the same after that assignment until I had quit in early 2008. I still remember when people threatened me on an certain imageboard and even prank called me to convience me to "never come back," but I didn't budge one bit.

Around this time I had just gotten the CCB off its feet and that following SacAnime in Summer 2008 I had my first press badge and my first real taste of what it's like to evolve from a regular attendee to a press member that has a wider range of access but with a contract to report from SacAnime. However, I didn't have a press badge again until Anime Vegas 2010 but I still stuck to reporting from anime conventions with or without one.

When SacAnime made the move to the Radisson/Woodlake, it seemed that the "old era" of SacAnime was dying off. That Summer 2009 show saw the entire cosplay staff quit on stage at the Masquerade and a lot of the "veterans" that attended SacAnime where planning on attending other conventions like Anime Los Angeles & Anime Vegas that fell on the date of SacAnime, myself included. Eventually things settled down at the Radisson/Woodlake and by SacAnime Summer 2011 I was ready to resume attending and covering SacAnime after my "SoCal/Nevada Tour." To this day I still feel guilty in abandoning my hometown convention, but without that decision I wouldn't had found the staff that I formed in 2010 and the resume of attending different conventions.

By the time the Radisson/Woodlake reached critical mass in the 2012 convention season, a move to the Sacramento Convention Center made the most sense and at SacAnime Winter 2012 the news that the move was happening delighted many of us "veterans," those who have been attending since the Sunrise Mall and the early days of the Scottish Rite Center. What shocked me though was that initially it was supposed to be Summer 2013 but then the move happened for the Winter 2013 show.

I guess it's fitting that I come to this junction of SacAnime's legacy back on staff (I won't say who I work for or what I do, you'll just have to figure that out for yourself). After that "failure" back in my early days I wanted to make things right as we move into this new era. Even Dan, the convention head, acknowledged this on Day Zero of the Winter 2013 show.

I'm supposed to graduate from Sacramento State in the Spring and who knows where my degree will take me, whether it's here in Sacramento or out of the city. But as long as I hold SacAnime closely in my heart I will continue to come here and either press or staff for the one convention that I truely love especially with the fact that I saw through my promise and reached the goal of attending a SacAnime at the convention center.

I leave you with a Facebook post that I made on Day Three, and it sums up everything that I've said here.

Thank you SacAnime. Thank you.

Matthew Miranda

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, California Conventions Blog

Back To The Basics: Ryan's Return and SacAnime Winter 2013 Report

2013-01-19T19:59:00.001-08:00

Hello fellow readers and welcome to my report for Sac-Anime Winter 2013! My name is Ryan "Ryu-san" Silva and it feels so good to writing for all of you again after a long break from moving on from division to division. A well needed break I'm making a HUGE impact here in Oregon for the Northern Division.

With that being said let's get down to business shall we?

SacAnime Winter 2013...my very first! Not just in terms of time there, but first convention in freaking forever! Matt and I had been planning this for the last half of 2012, looking at all the differences between Anime Los Angeles (ALA) and this convention. Of course with myself living in White City, OR, SacAnime seemed to be, and was, very feasible guest-wise and price-wise. So with the wait December and the New Year cracked in quite nicely, and thus brings us to what became my...

Day Negative Zero

Now a lot of you are probably wondering... Day Negative Zero? Yes, it's the day before Day Zero for people like me who need to travel distances and or get to a destination earlier. Also given my inner photographer its a great time to shoot scenery and or things on the way to your destination. Matt had asked me to come earlier in this situation to prep for Day Zero and retrieve fellow blog member Tom Gifford.

The day was quite a cheery and semi-sad day for me as I had to leave home and the one I had my heart set on. It was a nice and chilly Wednesday afternoon in White City/Medford, low 20's but sunny. I had packed up my new SMART car with all my essentials and I was ready begin my journey.

However before I left town, I spent a majority of my afternoon hanging out with my potential love interest Amanda.

We had a nice lunch, hung out at the mall, and said our goodbyes. As much as it hurt the both of us, I had to leave town or else I would of been snowed in toward the passes and screwed as far as the convention went. so I filled up my tank around to close to 5pm and left the south part of Medford.

To my very surprise I had arrived in Sacramento quicker than I had expected and on one $20 full tank of gas nonetheless!! I arrived in four hours that would have taken five on average, thorough snowy passes and the treacherous Shasta Pass which is quite dangerous to drive at night. I met Matt at work and we drove home, awaiting us was a nice Adobo dinner and warm beds.

Day Zero

We awoke to 50°F high/28°F low weather in Sacramento with Matt complaining how cold it was which began my consistent spree of the phrase "You see where I'm from..." for the entire weekend. We begin on a note of upgrading the SMART's ECU which was supposedly free but to a sad turnout was way over my budget. To compensate I ate my very first Chic-Fil-A sandwich, now I can see what all the fuss is about!

The next stop was to fix my broken glasses that I needed for con, which my friend Christopher Bishop's dog chewed up. Turns out it was an easy fix. We then pick up Matt's potential Yasogami High uniform in hopes of a nice turnout only to find out that it'll be done on the first day of the convention. With some time to spare before Tom calls us to let us know that he's in Davis, we head out and spend whatever time we had at a local Target. To his surprise, he calls earlier than expected. We all rendezvous with Tom over a nice juicy burger, one that I can no longer receive in Oregon. Yes that's right, In-N-Out!

We had more time to spare at the house until badge pickup time arrives. We arrive at the Sheraton Grand to pick up our badges but Tom and I run into a minor error on the convention side of things. Matt had registered for VIP passes considering we were staying in the hotel. Matt, who was staffing this year, had to be almost dragged out of his pre-convention duties to fix the error. Meanwhile, Tom and I sat at the bar and watched my Oregon Ducks kick the ever-loving crap out Kansas State Wildcats in the Fiesta Bowl. As we tiredly wait for Matt to get out from the staff meeting, I decide to deviate from Tom and photograph the convention center and the Sacramento skyline.

My giddy self was enjoying the scenery as shot-by-shot was taken unitl I recieved a phone call that we were finally leaving, almost near 11pm. A late night snack consisting of Burger King followed as we all were ready for the following day ahead of us.

Day One

As the sun rose once again, me and the boys were ready to take on the very first day of the convention. I started the day by cosplaying as Kyon from the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. We hit it off on a good note with some Starbucks coffee and usually I would get a cup of coffee and put Kyon's name on it but I was still dead that morning and totally forgot. Ironically, as we check in I find another Disappearance cosplayer, to be precise a South High Haruhi.

We headed up to the room to place spots and luggage in designated areas. As we await other members to arrive, I decided to do a mini-shoot of the skyline in the morning and some other assorted photos of the blog members.

Matthew talking to a KCRA 3 cameraman that eventually led to this shot below at 0:09:

One by one the others arrived starting with Robbie, then Nate, and finally Ray. My day one mainly consisted of scouting the areas of the con while dressed as Kyon. I hit up the Exhibit Hall halfway through the day and found some Nendroids I had been looking for. Later in the day I had helped Nate with photos for the Ouran Gathering which eventually I had to organize as Philippines from Axis Powers Hetalia. Time passes with some autographs and as the blog members eating at a well known local pizzeria called Upper Crust Pizza.

Here's where hilarity ensues: the SMT/Persona Gathering. With Matt on the horn we get a small group going as more and more crowd in. Sure they were small, but the quality in comparison to what I saw at ALA was devastating.

We end the night with a proper toast and sleep off our exhaustion, but not before I head off to the Swap Meet and found a Lion Saber from Fate/Stay Night to purchase.

Day Two

The morning of Day Two was what everyone was waiting for. As Matt applies my makeup for Martryohska!Kaito, we establish everyone to trek a two block walk to the notoriously known Jim-Denny's. That morning was very memorable as the blog took all the bar stools and ate the best breakfast in town! I gotta say i never leave Sacramento without the Works Omelette.

Hint: There's more omelette under the hash browns.

Also pancakes. "Mini" pancakes.

Speaking of Martyohska!Kaito, I found it hilarious that a majority of the blog staff and roommates were freaked and completely scared of it. Going on from there, the first thing I do is hit the autographs line for Kevin Conroy who voiced Batman in Batman: The Animated Series. Then it's off to the Vocaloid Gathering to find out I'm one of two Martyohska's there. I said forget it and left early with Matt to do a private shoot around the area.

Later I would walk the con as Dick Gumshoe from the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series and attempted to join the Hetalia gathering. I was there for maybe about 10 minutes and again said forget it. Anticipating another fun event, I dress up for a Durarara!! shoot which then turned out to commemorate blog member Nate Natavidad's birthday at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Day Three

The last and final day of the convention. The other members and I begin clearing out of the room early to avoid the usual elevator stuffiness and having to take several flights with a lot of luggage. I wasn't really in much of a caring mood that day so I just put on Keitaro Urishima from Love Hina and hit up the VIP Autograph session with Tom and Matt. This is where I would finish off the rest of the voice actors that I needed for me and Amanda. I hit up Exhibit Hall one last time to pick up 2 Nendroids: Yukiko Amagi from Persona 4 and Disappearance Kyon. I deviate from Matt as he goes back to staffing on last time and I hit the game room. Surprisingly, I actually did well against Sacramento's finest fighters in SSF4: AE Ver. 2012. I get the call to leave and we say good-bye to another great end of the convention. We head back and call it a night for what was in store for us the following day.

Day Four (Another Day, Another Photo-Op)

Tom had to go home sometime right? Well that's when a large discussion of where we would go for the day to spend time till his mom, Gail, got home. Random San Francisco trip anyone? We woke up early to arrive in San Francisco's Pier District. Pier 39 would be the first destination of the trip. Looking all over the pier all the sights of the sea, Alcatraz Island, and the Golden Gate Bridge. We ate a well deserved Clam Chowder Bread Bowl at Chowder's.

Leaving the pier, we hit Colt Tower to try and climb it, but due to our budgets we just take in the breathtaking views.

We leave the tower to head into Little Italy then into Ghirardelli Square. More great shots are taken and Matt and I enjoy a homemade sundae inside the factory where the you could see the chocolate being made!!!

We leave to the notorious Golden Gate Bridge, and take in the sights and shoot them too. Even our phone charms were excited to be there!

Minutes later we do a hill climb to Hawk Hill and really just...well...die in all its heavenly glory. The sights the views of everywhere San Francisco has to offer! If you ever visit San Francisco, do not miss this chance because in person its completely breathtaking.

We get Tom home and call it a night as we get home to Matt's.

The Following Day (Day Five?)

I get up around 9am to have breakfast with Matt at the same place where I left off after I took my break.I drop Matt back home and take off back to where I call home. I visited Amanda first thing I got back into Medford to assure I was safe. I hung out at her place until dark and went home. I passed out, ending my story and I'm sticking to it.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, SacAnime moving to the Sacramento Convention Center was a smart move on the part of the convention heads and staff. However, there are a lot of faults that were covered at ending ceremonies. I'm glad what I heard there because of all the opportunities they have in store for summer. My overall convention experience was a blast and comparing it to ALA i give it a B+ and willing to re-rate it come summer.

I'm looking forward to spending this year with the new staff and memories with Amanda, whom I'm now dating!

Happy start of the convention year everyone! This concludes my SacAnime Winter 2013 Report.

Jade's "A Little Bit Late" ALA 2013 Review!

2013-01-17T22:26:00.001-08:00

Hiya everyone! I'm one of the newest members of the California Conventions Blog. I'm a seasoned convention-goer, but this is my first time writing a review about a convention, as well as the first time I've written a blog. Hopefully everyone likes it! Sorry about the lack of pictures, I'm not quite used to my new phone!

The first day I arrived at the convention was filled with emotions. I saw many of my friends I had not seen since I left for college three months ago, so I had a very nice reunion. Day Zero was definitely a reunion day, and probably the best day to pick up a pre-registration badge if you had one. There was pretty much no line and I got my badge almost instantly despite arriving late because of traffic. We all went down to the ice cream social where the hotel serves ice cream buffet style. All of it was great, especially since they had actual hot fudge. While sitting we ran into a lot of cosplayers and normal convention-goers that we usually see, so that was fun. Besides picking up badges, ice cream social and chatting with friends, there wasn't much to do on the first day. Staff was frantically setting up, but everything seemed to be done on time so no complaints there.

Day 1 was fantastic, to say the least. I was cosplaying as Rita from Tales of Vesperia because I thought the Tales gathering was on the first day, but later I found out it was on the third day. Anyways, the first thing we did while getting up in the morning was make a bee-line for the dealer's hall. It was supposed to open at 12, so we arrived at around 11:45. The line was getting long and actually made it to the end of the hall, where people were waiting in line for registration. Staff wasn't there to regulate it, so both the lines wound up fusing in the end, but we didn't have to wait long for the dealer's hall to open, so people who were picking up their badges quickly left the line. Of course, at the dealer's hall everyone split up to find what each one of us would buy, and then buy it on the last day where we would hopefully get deals.

At one booth, my boyfriend was checking out a pocket knife, which was seven dollars. There were about twenty-four of them, so he wasn't worried about them being sold out. The problem was when we went to go buy it on the last day, it now nine dollars even though they were definitely not running low; they had sold three that whole weekend. So just a warning to fellow convention goers, check out prices as well as what you want to buy and be careful about dealer markups or the “lack of markdowns.”

Most of Day One was spent catching up on friends and visiting the e-gaming room. The game room was pretty fun although there was a severe lack of chairs. More than once, someone was hogging one of the three big screens in the room by playing a single player game, and many people sitting in the room weren't even watching the matches going on. Super Smash Brothers Brawl of course was on the largest TV in the center of the room, and had the most spectators. The other TVs were mostly filled with fighting games, the most common ones being Persona 4 Arena and surprisingly a lot of BlazBlue.

Later that night was the Rum Party, run by Pirates! Yarhar! There were a bunch of tables with various gambling games, from the standards such as Blackjack and Poker, to the odd dice game seen in Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Sadly I did not play that game, since I was losing horribly at 3-card poker for most of the night. I won once at 3-card poker, and won a meager 3 coins back; I lost about 15. Before my losing streak could go further, the Captain's Challenge had begun. Captain's Challenge is where 15 people sign up and pay 30 coins. They then compete in a series of challenges provided by the captain. If they win the challenge, they get a payout of 480 coins. The first round involved wooing a pirate wench with “yer” best pirate talk, then the second round was to make sure the challenger could hold their grog, so they drank 16oz of frothing, foaming root beer. The top four then had to sword fight to the mock-death. Near the end I joined a Texas Hold 'em table and actually won two rounds, where I got a significant amount of money, somewhere in the hundreds this time. Everyone at the table was having a good time, and when the final round was played we all put our coins in, and agreed to buy and share all the wenches we could afford. We wound up buying most of them if I recall correctly, we bought three wenches and three cabin boys. I think three or four escaped, but we wound up with two free cabin boys that joined us.

Day Two was mostly video games again (Sorry I'm a gamer!). We wound up playing Skullgirls at some point, and the voice actress for Peacock showed up and asked to join in so she could practice for the panel the next day!

As for cosplays, I would say about half of them were from Homestuck. The Homestuck Gathering was put on Day Two, 12 noon, in the middle of the pool deck. That is possibly one of the worst places and times for such a large gathering. I think huge gatherings like Homestuck and Hetalia should be put on the last day, in front of the hotel where there is less foot traffic and less likely for someone to fall into a pool. But in the end, it's up to other people to make the decision. My issue with Homestuck cosplay is most of the cosplay is literally a t-shirt and face paint; one of my pet peeves is cosplay that someone has not put effort into. Once I literally saw someone walking around with the horns made out of index cards rolled up into a cone that was too big to be the proper size horns. Some of them can be really interesting and elaborate, like the Imperial ones. I saw one God-tier Vriska cosplayer whose cosplay was amazing. But for every one good Homestuck cosplayer, there were dozens of bad ones.

Overall, a lot of the cosplays that I saw at the convention were lower quality; again, one of my pet peeves is the lack of effort in cosplay. Personally, I like the challenges of the complicated cosplays, as well as the fun in making it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone's cosplay was horrible and mine was good, but a lot of people had some things that were just straight out wrong for the character. It could be lack of money, lack of time, I understand. I didn't completely finish my Dragon Age 2 Hawke cosplay, but instead of trying to find some kind of substitute for the part I didn't finish, I just left it off.

Day Three was kind of chaotic, being checkout day for most of the convention-goers. I went to the AMV contest, which was full of epic AMVs which I fully recommend watching, especially the Comedy and Pro categories. The only issue I had was someone with a really spiky wig sat in front of me and basically texted the entire time and blocked my view of the screen. I wound up moving, but it was still a bother. There were actually little intros between the categories for AMVs, which I think confused me as well as most of the people around me since all the videos run right after the other. Maybe next year they should put the category title in the beginning instead of the end. The AMV contest actually ran for two hours, which ended right at checkout time, so there was a rush back to the room to finish packing. For those who wanted to stay at the convention even after checkout, there was a floor where the convention would hold the bags of attendees, but the hotel lobby was still holding bags as well, so if you've never been to ALA and you're worried about checkout and what to do with your bags, do not fret!

So overall I saw no large problems with the convention, things generally ran on schedule, and the staff was super polite. Be wary of the dealer's hall though, since they apparently markup prices on the last day instead of lowering them.

Nate's Report: Sacanime Winter 2013

2013-01-13T21:42:00.002-08:00

Hello everyone! To everyone out there who do not know me, I’m the newest member in the California Conventions Blog. My name is Nate and it’s great to be working with a team who loves to go to anime conventions like I do. You can see more information about me in the “About the Staff” section soon. But for now, it’s time to give out my first report and what better way than talk about the first con of the year, SacAnime Winter 2013. Well ever since I’ve attended SacAnime, it always packed with complaints such as "the place is too small, people are being too rude, etc. etc." Moving Sacanime into a new facility in the downtown district of Sacramento would help lessen those complaints as it is a whole lot bigger than the Woodlake hotel. But does that mean the con would run a whole lot better? Well I was there to take a look at that and of course have a lot of fun while I’m at it.

On the Friday SacAnime started, I met up with Matt and went to our hotel room which had a great view of Sacramento. I quickly dressed into my Ouran High School Host Club cosplay dressing up as Kyoya Ootori for the gathering that was going to be held later on in that day. Afterwards, I decided to take a stroll around Sacanime and noticed that I didn’t bring my SD card for the trip! My camera would have been useless now! So me and Ryan went to Best Buy which was only 10 minutes away from the Sacramento Convention Center to get one. It was really inconvenient but it was my fault for forgetting it so I missed some time at SacAnime. Either way, I did manage to get back in time for the Ouran High School Host Club Gathering. The gathering had a good amount of cosplayers that were cosplaying from the show. Of course the fans were going for the Hikari twins and the “yaoi” things they do. Let’s just say it attracted a whole lot of fans when the twins cosplayers began to get really close. Besides that, we all had a fair amount of shots for the fans to be entertained with and it seems that everyone had fun. I myself had a good time so I would say that the gathering was pretty successful.

Two cosplayers at the Hikari Twins at the Ouran High School Host Club Gathering

Afterwards, I would be in line for autographs of Mai Aizawa, Toshio Furukawa, and Tony Oliver. I would end up in an exhibit hall where there were 3 lines and in each line were the Guest of Honors. It’s up to the attendees to decide which autograph they want and what line to fall into to get their autograph. I would go to Mai Aizawa’s first since I am a huge fan of her and made her sign my Lucky Star manga. Then I went to Toshiro’s line to let him sign my SacAnime booklet. Each of the Japanese VA’s offered to give a signed picture of them, but they cost $10 each. Even if I wanted Mai’s signed picture so badly, I sadly refused. I was also surprised for Tony Oliver’s line because there wasn’t many people going to his line for his autograph. So I decided to get his autograph as well. He signed my Lucky Star Manga and the SacAnime booklet. And also, he was cool to take a picture with me, Ryan, and Robbie. What’s also convenient? This whole thing only lasted about 30 minutes! Wow, talk about great timing!

To left to right: Robbie, Guest of Honor Tony Oliver, myself, and Ryan

I would grab a bite dinner with Ryan and Matt in a local pizza restaurant called Upper Crust Pizza right across from the Sacramento Convention Center before we headed over to the SMT/Persona Gathering where most of the CCB crew would be attending. The gathering was overall fun. We were all taking pictures of poses that we want, even things from the Persona 4 Arena. Let’s just say we had some pictures that included battles between characters from P4 and P3 as well and some characters that are not from P4A yet. We even had cosplayers from Devil Survivor and Catherine come along as well. I really had a good time from this gathering and so did everyone else as we all had fun with all of our shenanigans relating to the SMT games. It was just a great time overall.

With the gathering over, the day was pretty much done with. I was able to check out the Swap Meet in the hotel which was actually disappointing. It took only ⅓ of the registration room and there wasn’t much dealers selling stuff. I was hoping for more but I guess there wasn’t that much sellers. Either way, I did manage to get a few things. I would then call it a day to get ready for the next one. So far the first day was a good one. My cosplays came out pretty well, the gatherings I attended were all so fun, got autographs from the guests of honor, and nothing bad came out of it. A pretty good start to SacAnime.

Saturday started early as me and the rest of the CCB crew went to eat breakfast at a local restaurant called Jim-Denny’s which was located only a few blocks down from SacAnime. We picked this place out because it was featured in a Travel Channel show called Man vs. Food. We decided to take on the challenge and ate their big breakfast platters. Ok we didn’t take on challenge on eating a Hubcap solo but we had a HUGE breakfast. I ordered 2 mini pancakes and a side of bacon with coffee for drink. I COULDN’T EVEN EAT JUST ONE PANCAKE! THEY WERE HUGE! I decided to take one of the pancakes back to the hotel room as a snack (Oh yeah I never ate that). That breakfast pretty much took my appetite throughout most of the day.

This is a "mini?" That's not a mini!

Now back to SacAnime coverage. It was 10am where me and Ryan were standing in line for autographs. I was cosplaying Dipper Pines from the Disney Channel show Gravity Falls for the day. While we were waiting for autographs, a few Gravity Falls cosplayers came up to the line and I gave them a friendly hello along with an obligatory picture for my collection. Oh the Gravity Falls fandom is so awesome! I would grab Grey Delisle’s autograph on my Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi DVD and SacAnime booklet (She did voice Yumi in the show to those who do not know). She even gave me permission to record a video to my friend. I would also get Kevin Conroy’s autograph on my booklet and he would also sign a picture of himself and give it to me. That is a keepsake I would cherish for a while.

Me and Guest of Honor Grey Delisle

Afterwards, I would meet my friend who would cosplay Dipper Pines as well. He was pretty much my Tyrone for the day. We would walk around con seeing other Gravity Falls cosplayers and would joke with them as we sprayed silly string to them. Only those who watch Gravity Falls will know what I’m talking about. I would then fulfill my friend’s request to go to Target to buy stuff for their hangout later on that night. So I would take some time out of SacAnime to go to Target and help them buy their stuff. I would arrive back at the hotel and noticed that it is getting very cold. So I switched out of my Dipper cosplay into my Kida Masaomi cosplay in time for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica gathering. The gathering had a pretty good turnout, about 8-10 cosplayers attending both female and genderbent. I took a good amount of photos and the people were great to talk to. Heck most of them were my friends and their outfits were great. Overall, I was very satisfied with the turnout.

Madoka Magica cosplayers at the Madoka Magica Gathering

The gathering took about 30 minutes where I would go back to the hotel room where I would meet up with my guests that were going to attend my Birthday Party at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We would walk about 8 blocks down J street in the cold weather to the restaurant where my friends would give me drinks and a great meal along with the expected happy birthday celebration from the waiters at the restaurant (Thank you Matt!). I was really happy from this knowing that I have really great friends that I would get along with in the long run. I really love these guys!

Ryan, Matt, and Ray along with a couple of my friends attending my birthday party at the Old Spaghetti Factory

Afterwards, me and a couple of my friends would go down to the Karaoke room where we would sing the Wreck-It Ralph song, "When Can I See You Again" by Owl City. We actually had a great applause from the audience. They must be such great fans, then again the movie came out recently so I would understand the great applause. I would also sing the song "Sakura Kiss" from the anime Ouran High School Host Club. A lot of people recognized the song and I got some positive remarks to my singing so I had fun with that. And on that note, I ended the day there.

Robbie at Karaoke

My Saturday was pretty much loaded with food and fangasming over the celebrities I met. But when I look back at that day, I didn’t even take a lot of time at the convention! I was more in the hotel doing my business with other things with my friends and roommates. I didn’t go to the Exhibit Hall, attend a panel, or even take much cosplay pictures except for those in the hotel. So it was pretty much a day at the hotel instead of the convention. But either way, I had an enjoyable time. Even if I didn’t go to the con that much this day, at least I had great friends that gave me an enjoyable time at SacAnime Saturday. And it is the busiest day too. So much cosplays!!!

The final day of SacAnime arrived and we were busy packing. We wanted to check out of the hotel room as soon as we can. So after I took a quick shower and put on my Yosuke cosplay, I packed up my stuff. I would notice that my camera wasn’t with me because it was actually left in my friend’s room last night. Luckily, his room was located one floor down from us so I picked it up conveniently. I would then take my stuff down to the lobby where I would wait for a friend who was also riding back with me back to the bay. When he came down, we both went to the hotel garage and placed our stuff there. I would start the day off at the Exhibit Hall to see what I may have missed when I first browsed the area before. And with the amount I had in this trip, I couldn’t even spend much. I only spent my money on a new plush, new manga, and Gravity Falls keychains from an artist. I decided to check out the “Live from Arkham” panel where Kevin Conroy and Grey Delisle were having a Q&A session from the audience. It was great to hear fans’ questions to them and hearing their answers. All of them were pretty funny. Even weirder, I heard from Grey that voice acting can get you very far, even getting you out of paying a ticket. You may ask Spongebob’s VA, Tom Kenny, for more information about that. I had a good time listening to their stories of voice acting in the world of cartoons.

Guest of Honors Kevin Conroy & Grey Delisle anwering questions at the "Live at Arkham" panel

When the panel was over, I met with a few friends and we went back to the Exhibit Hall to do more last minute shopping before heading over to my final gathering for pics. I went to the Valve Gathering and I saw mostly Team Fortress 2 (TF2) cosplayers, but the gathering overall looked good. It seems like everyone had fun as they made funny poses and mixing it up with other Valve games for the fans and photographer’s satisfaction.

Red Scout from Team Fortress 2 at the Valve Gathering

Then out of nowhere, a group of Wreck-It Ralph cosplayers came out of the convention center for an unofficial gathering. It seems like there was a post on the SacAnime Facebook group page, but without any internet in the hotel I wasn’t notified. But to my dismay, it was actually a really good surprise. It was a pretty fun gathering seeing all the characters from Sugar Rush and Fix it Felix Jr. There were also cosplayers cosplaying other characters in the movie (than the main 4) and it was cool to see those characters as well. It looks like Wreck-It Ralph is going to be a big thing going around cons. Like if Rise of the Guardians wasn’t enough, at least this one is tolerable to me.

Wreck-It Ralph cosplayers

And then I felt like all is done at SacAnime. I would call up my friend at 4pm and we both left for the bay. Sacanime Winter is done.

To show my analysis about Sacanime Winter 2013, I’ve made a list of pros and cons that I’ve seen at this convention.

Pros:

First off I have to say the move from the Woodlake Hotel to the convention center is the right move. The convention center is very spacious, easy enough for everyone to move around in the con. I felt like I can get through to my destinations in a good way, not in a place where I have to push or shove people to find my way. I believe everyone is in agreement with me that the location is perfect.

Dealer’s Hall and Artist Alley combined into the Exhibit Hall is also very spacious, enough to bring in many vendors and artists like what happened in this SacAnime. I believe there was more vendors and artists that were at SacAnime Winter than any of the previous SacAnime conventions. This is probably due to the size and the room to bring in as much vendors as they can. And the space also had walking room for everyone to get through. It has definitely resolved the problem that has been going on in SacAnime ever since I started going back in Winter 2012.

The lineup of guest stars for this season’s con was a great one.I think I saw more people going for the guest’s panels/autographs than before. And with a lineup that included notable foreign and regional VA’s, great artists, and Batman, I would understand why more people attended. It greatly helps SacAnime grow with guest stars like this and I hope Sacanime continues on with this success in this area. Plus, it was much faster this time around to get autographs than the one line system used in the previous SacAnime cons. I would have to say keep up with this new system because it's really satisfying me.

As SacAnime was spacious enough, the Sheraton Hotel also helped support SacAnime as well. And the hotel also looked really nice. Makes a good impression to those who attend Sacanime and could attract more people to attend the con.

Food places and entertainment around the convention grounds are good. There is a theatre along with local eatery at the block called “The Kay” which was located across from the Sacramento Convention Center and is behind the Sheraton Hotel. A pretty convenient location for attendees of SacAnime as good food and entertainment are just close to con grounds.

Cons (The bad things):

Let’s start with what I hate the most: the "Late-Night Electronik" dance. What kind of music are the DJs pulling off? Their music does not make me want to dance. This has been an ongoing problem at SacAnime in my opinion as I started engaging at this activity back at Summer 2012 and even back then I didn’t like the music. It seems like it got worse now. For me to continue supporting the late night electronic dance, please fix your DJs because I may not be dancing in your dances anymore.

The swap meet wasn’t that impressing. It was located at the registration room and it only took ⅓ of the room! There were not a lot of vendors selling and there was not much space for people to move around. I mean you have the whole convention center and hotel to make swap meet a whole lot better. Please consider that.

Lastly, I know people want to have fun at cons especially at night. But I’ve overheard Saturday night, there were people that were messing up stuff at the convention. Most notably a statue that was taken off its foundation on the last day. According to sources, the statue was damaged by convention attendees. Guys, I know you want to have your fun being drunk and going out past hours but doing stuff like this does NOT look good to you or SacAnime. It makes the City of Sacramento think that we’re just a bunch of vandals messing up stuff without any care. Please for the next SacAnime, don’t do these things as it may ruin the future of SacAnime at Downtown Sacramento.

Overall, SacAnime Winter 2013 was definitely an improvement. The new convention venue is perfect with more space for everyone to move around. The lineup of guest stars were great. The panels were good and the newly minted Exhibit Hall was a very big improvement. I find this convention to be very satisfying even with it’s ups and downs but I really had a fun time. This SacAnime Winter is definitely looking up for better SacAnime conventions to come. We’ll just have to wait and see at SacAnime Summer. But as we wait for that time, I guess it’s farewell for me in Sacramento. Until summer, keep it cool SacAnime.

Ray Reports: Sac-Anime Winter 2013, Day 3

2013-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Day 3, Sunday, is the final day of Sac-Anime, which naturally means packing up, checking out, and getting only half of the day to enjoy the convention.

Day 2 Append:

Before I start, there is something I forgot to mention in my Day 2 report that is relevant to this day and I forgot to mention until now: So not too long after putting on my Reimu nail polish on day 2, I realized: I forgot to bring nail polish remover. Which meant I'd have to be stuck with red nails on day 3 as well unless I could find someone with polish remover.

Long story short two friends had friends with remover, and as for how that turned out, keep reading.

Day 3 Prologue:

We got up early (around 7-8 AM?) so we could check out early and have time to go to the VIP autographing session at 9. (Unfortunately, the Japanese VAs weren't doing autographs, and I wanted to get an autograph from Mai Aizawa.)

I put on my Yukki cosplay, ran through the room to make sure all of my stuff is on me, and bid farewell to our room.

Day 3:

Met up with a friend of mine, who unfortuantely informed me that her friend left early. As for my other friend, he never got back to me. Fortunately nobody throughout the day really noticed I had nail polish on.

The final autograph session was at 12 PM so I lined up around 11:30 AM, and passed the time by reading SCP pages on my phone.

The autograph area was in a large exhibit hall this time, which certainly helps facilitate long lines and keeps them from crowding up the hallways of the convention center. Fortunately, that element wouldn't be necessary, as it took all of 10-15 minutes for me to get to Mai Aizawa's booth.

I met Ms. Aizawa, known for roles such as Uryuu Minene from Future Diary / Mirai Nikki and Mio Naganohara from Nichijou, and she was as adorable and friendly as ever. I had her sign my copy of Future Diary vol. 2, as well as a portrait of her that was being sold for $10. She told me she remembered me from Fanime and shook my hand, which pleasantly surprised me :O My objective done, I headed out.

I wanted to catch Cafe Hoshi since I missed them last time, but they were sold out of tickets. Welp.

Instead I went to the gaming room, mostly to play a few rounds of IIDX and Batsugun.
Sometime afterwards, the Valve gathering was taking place, so I decided to check that out. As always, most of the cosplayers there were TF2 cosplayers.

Afterwards, I met up with a good friend of mine and we mostly walked around the convention center. I finally decided to get a few wares: A minature Reimu plushie, a Cirno/Suwako doujin by House of Sixten, a print of Reimu and Marisa, and a couple shipping buttons by magical-ondine.

Surprisingly, the vendor's hall was open until 6 PM, which is pretty late by the standards of convention last days.

I didn't stick around for that long though. I wanted to go home at some point, and also my parking pass was only good until 6 PM, so I gathered my carpool around 4:45 PM and departed the convention. I dropped everyone off, then fell asleep not too long afterwards, glad to be back on a bed.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion:

The convention's move to the Sacramento Convention Center opens up many new possibilities--much larger convention space, more variety of hotels, and more capacity to grow. It does however, come with a few drawbacks, like now having to pay for parking, and its location in downtown Sacramento can make some congoers uneasy, especially after hours.

My own experiences weren't really much to write home about. I missed the Touhou gathering due to awkward scheduling, I couldn't go into the gaming room for long and even then selection of games I enjoy was much smaller this time, and I hardly found anything to do, especially on Saturday. (Running on 5 hours of sleep per night didn't help matters.) I did however make a new friend here, something that doesn't happen at cons to me a lot these days, and I also got to meet and shake hands with a seiyuu for the first time.

Hopefully things iron out for Sac Summer and I can have a better experience. Maybe then we'll see more of the con space used as well. At 7,500 estimated attendees, Sac-Anime is shaping up to be a biyearly "light" version of Fanime. While it won't necessarily rival Fanime anytime soon, I can see this con continuing to rake it plenty of successes, both on its end and mine.

Next convention:

For now, it's time to focus on my next convention: Animation on Display next month, in Japantown, San Francisco. One of the more fun cons, if only because there is the entire Japantown shopping plaza to play around with, AND there is the little arcade full of rhythm games to enjoy myself at. Its smaller size also makes it one of the more "communal" conventions, in contrast to larger, event-oriented cons like Fanime.

I might also attend Real Escape Room, or as I like to call it, a real-life "escape the room" game (think MOTAS or Crimson Room but in person rather than a Flash game). While not part of AoD, it just happens to be going on in the same area that weekend as part of its weekly schedule. I may cover this a little bit if I attend (though don't worry, I won't spoil anything for you ~_^).

Until next con, this is Ray, signing out.

Ray Reports: Sac-Anime Winter 2013, Day 2

2013-01-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of 3 of Sac-Anime is the sole "full" day of the convention, and thus the busiest.

Just an advance warning: This post contains photos and discussion of food. Those prone to bouts of hunger may want to disable images before reading this post. ~_^

Day 2 Prologue:

I didn't exactly intend on it, but I ended up waking up around 6:45 AM, as my room crew slash CCB colleagues made plans to go to this local dinner called Jim-Denny's. With no time to actually get into my Reimu cosplay, I just threw on my Yukki jackets and Minato pants--Yukki if he cared about how cold his legs were, if you will.

We left for the place around 7:45 AM. The diner is this small, construction-trailer-sized building with two rows of seats. Some of the decors inside were old-fashioned, showing food prices from the days when one USD could buy you a meal or two.

Nate and I thought about splitting the infamous Hubcap pancake, but even for two people it would be too large, so we just ended up ordering our own separate meals. I got the AJ's combo--in my case, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, and one "mini"-sized pancake.

Note the quotes around "mini", because this is what that particular size looks like:

For $7.50, this is quite the deal; no wonder it's a mainstay of Sacramento. It was enough food to last two meals. Nate ordered two pancakes, saving one for later. (Spoiler: He never his second pancake.)

After stuffing ourselves silly, I made for my car to retrieve my umbrella, as we were expecting rain later today. Then I went back to my hotel and get dressed ~~for my shrine maiden duties~~ in my Reimu cosplay.

I thought about putting on my white scarf a la Silent Reimu, but my wig hair kept getting caught in the scarf so I decided to just leave my scarf behind. Maybe when I get a shorter wig.

Day 2:

As I left the room, Robbie pointed out that his umbrella had to be peace-bonded, so upon reaching the lobby I made for the peacebonding booth and got my umbrella peace-bonded. It's not any of my characters' props, but hey, better safe than sorry (and ejected from the con, which would reflect badly upon myself and CCB).

Not a whole lot things of note transpired, really. The gaming room was dense with tournaments for most of today, none of which I cared for, so I effectively had no place there for most of today. I did manage to squeeze in a few rounds of IIDX and Mushihime-sama ver. 1.5, however.

I also examined the viewing room, which was showing Nichijou, so I stayed for about half an episode. I like when viewing rooms show anime I'm interested in, but viewing whole episodes takes up a large chunk of time so I generally do not stay for long.

I did meet up with Katie again, who needed to untangle her Hanyuu wig, so I lent her my hair brush while staving off awkward text conversations.

Back in the convention center halls, I met up with one of my Touhou cosplay friends, which quickly turned into us getting stopped for about half a dozen photos. Nothing wrong with our cosplays gaining attention, but keep in mind I'm not very photogenic nor am I good at doing poses. :S

The Madoka gathering was at 5 PM and I thought of attending that, but at the time I was engaged in conversation with someone I had just made friends with, and I was somewhat exhausted from sleep deprivation and enjoying a cup of Starbucks tea two-handed (Reimu is often depicted drinking tea, after all). Amusingly, the barista called me "ma'am" instead of a male pronoun; I just went along with it rather than creating an awkward situation out of it. Several cosplayers of interest, a good subset of which were Touhou cosplayers, passed by. so I got some photos.

I texted Alex (H.), who decided upon driving up to Sac to visit me and some other friends for a few hours.

In the meantime, at 6, I met up with the CCB crew to go out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, as part of Nate's birthday celebration. We walked the 4 blocks in the rain, and had a 35-minute wait in the restaurant lobby, during which I caught a peek of my friend's friend playing Boyfriend Maker and I played Space Invaders Extreme 2 to pass the time.

We got seated, and examined our options. I personally ordered the garlic mizithra, which in addition to the pasta itself also comes with bread, a choice of soup or salad, and dessert. All for only $12. Very much enjoyed the pasta, if a little salty; I might have to pay a visit to the San Jose one at some point.

(I'd have a photo here, but my phone was down to critical levels at this point despite boosting it back up with my portable charger. Sorry.)

During our dining Alex joined in (walking from the con center to the restaurant in the rain?!), though since he was late he didn't order any food. Still, it was good to see him again, and we managed to catch up on things.

After all was said and done we went back to the con around 9 PM. I was thinking about checking out the convention center, but I was very tired and decided to just camp the 2nd floor of the hotel lobby. Also, my phone battery was at <5% so I needed to recharge.

I caught up with some of my Touhou cosplay buddies, and we had some nice chats, although I had entered "critical awakeness failure" mode at this point and was catching chair catnaps at this point. I ended up retreating back to the room to get some rest.

Overall, cosplaying Reimu for the first time in over 2 months was a success, and it's always sad when I have to take the ol' uniform off and revert back to "normal mode"; I've come to appreciate just how much I enjoy crossplaying, something I'm still fairly new to. Regardless, I needed to be asleep ASAP as I had early checkout and a lot of things to do the next day.

To be continued...

Sac Anime Winter 2013: Robbie's Report

2013-01-10T23:36:00.002-08:00

At long last, Sac Anime has moved from the Woodlake Hotel to an actual convention center! Those familiar with my horror story of that hotel should know why I'm glad to be rid of it, but that aside, it was an overdue change, given the crowding we had to deal with. So, now we've experienced the first year of Sac Anime in the new location, how does it stack up?

Let's begin from Friday, when I arrived at the convention. After I found parking in the garage, I dropped my stuff off in the room and went off to explore the area. I was cosplaying as Nagi Springfield from Negima, as Mai Aizawa, who voices Natsumi from that series, was one of the guests. (Although upon checking the autograph schedule, I regretted not bringing my Riddler cosplay with me, since the first autograph I'd get was from Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in the animated series and video games.)

After checking out the hotel, which had the various small panel rooms and gaming rooms, I went to get my badge. Well, the pickup booth for the press badges wasn't particularly well labeled, especially since there was no one manning it. I stood in front of it for a good five minutes, looking at the tables on either side, which were staffed and not always doing anything, and asking "Can anyone help me?" which no one seemed to hear. Finally, one of them noticed me, and got me the badge.

Once I was checked in, I went to check out the convention center itself, located right across the street from the hotel. The first thing I noticed: it was spacious! I could actually walk from one side of the hall to the other without running into people. What's more, the halls actually had sides I could walk back and forth between!

Of course, then I immediately got in a long line for autographs. When it finally moved, I found the line leading into a large building, where each of the guests had a different table. People would then line up for whichever guest they wanted to see first, before moving on to another or leaving. This meant that it was a slightly longer wait between guests, but a shorter wait overall, and meant no additional waiting for autographs of someone you're not familiar with. All in all, an improvement from the usual setup.

With autographs obtained, I went to the Dealer's Hall. The room for it was plenty large, even large enough to host the Artist Alley as well, which I believe the artists were happy for. I bought myself a new sword, and finally caved and bought a classic Pokemon hat. No regrets.

After some time, I got in the autograph line again for Mai Aizawa and Toshio Furukawa. They were both offering pictures with autographs signed to one's name for ten dollars (otherwise they'd sign one thing you brought for free, but just their names and the con it was signed at), but I opted against it. Still, it's more affordable than autographs at conventions like Comic Con, so it wasn't that bad a deal. I also gave Mai Aizawa a Pactio card of her character from Negima (hopefully she recognized that I was cosplaying from it).

As the first day neared its end, I went to get dinner with friends. There was an affordable sushi place nearby with good food, and they accommodated our group. Following dinner, the rest of the night was spent hanging out, relaxing, and quickly going through the Swap Meet. The Swap Meet didn't have many sellers, and not all of them had the best prices, but I still managed to get some good stuff out of it.

Rise of the Guardians was a popular cosplay choice

War Machine: so awesome I had to turn my camera sideways to get a picture

Wreck-It Ralph was equally well-represented

Saturday morning, the California Conventions Blog crew went to Jim-Denny's for breakfast. I opted against the massive pancakes, but if you're up for a challenge, see if you can eat it all. If not, the french toast is still delicious. The problem, though, was getting there: the weather was freezing, and I was cosplaying as Ryoga Hibiki from Ranma 1/2… a version without sleeves.

Needless to say, every time I went outside I was met with freezing air that made my teeth chatter in an almost comical way. Inside, at least, the rooms were kept warm by the huge amount of people moving through it.

It was around that point that a large empty space in the convention center had been filled by crowds of people either hanging out, playing music, dancing, or otherwise hanging out. That's fine, as long as they watch out for the others around them, so it didn't cause problems.

I met up with other friends cosplaying from Ranma 1/2, and spent time wandering around, getting pictures, and checking out the con until around 1. It was at that point that I split temporarily to change costumes.

I hadn't planned on cosplaying Giovanni, but I had the hat I usually wear and a black jacket, so with a Pokeball prop from the swap meet, I pulled together an impromptu Giovanni cosplay. It's not up to my usual standards, but it worked. The reason for the sudden change was for the Pokemon gathering; I wasn't hosting it this year, but there seemed to be a lot of cosplayers, so I decided to join in. The organizer had never done it before, so I volunteered to assist, and ended up co-hosting with him.

The gathering went well, in spite of the new organizer's concerns. I helped him get through the characters and run the battles, while getting in for a few good pictures as well. Gotta represent Team Rocket, after all.

When that was over, I changed back into Ryoga, where I met up with more Ranma 1/2 cosplaying friends. We got a photoshoot in, then as the night dawned, I split from them to get dinner. Unfortunately, at that point it had started to rain.

Now, those who watch Ranma 1/2 (or my abridged series of it) know that Ryoga is cursed to turn into a pig when doused by cold water. As such, he carries an umbrella at pretty much all times. My prop umbrella, however, was made of paper and painted red. Either way, the rain would get it, so I opened the umbrella and took to the rain, really hoping it would work.

Thankfully, the paint I used was water-resistant, so my umbrella wasn't damaged by it. My jacket, which I wore to keep warm, was in a bit more trouble, but I dried it off quickly enough. Disaster averted, cold aside.

I got dinner at the hotel, inviting any friends I saw passing by to join me. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to meet up with the rest of the crew for Nate's birthday party, but the burgers at the hotel were quite good nonetheless. So I still had an enjoyable dinner with friends, before returning to the room to rest.

As the night grew late, I joined several friends for karaoke. I ended up singing Weird Al's "Polkamon" (a polka song listing several Pokemon), which went over quite well - I even had some people doing a joke polka dance while I was singing it. Later that night, I joined some friends in singing "A Man's Gotta Do" from "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," with myself as Captain Hammer. All in all, a very fun way to end the night.

Star Wars cosplayers show us the power of the dark side

A Pokemon battle at the gathering: Misty and Psyduck vs a Team Rocket grunt and Meowth

Finally, Sunday morning. I dropped my stuff off in my car, and prepared my Team Fortress 2 Sniper cosplay. People who play TF2 are familiar with the popularity of hats in the game, so I took a variety of hats from my various cosplays and stacked them on top of each other, which made for an amusing costume, and a sore neck.

Unfortunately, I found that the guy in charge of peace bonding refused to approve my prop, because it was a Nerf gun, which had "moving parts" even when unloaded. Suffice to say, that was very frustrating. His response? I could break my Nerf gun. Yes, he told me to BREAK it, make it totally unusable ever again, for the sake of getting it peace bonded. It's a Nerf gun. It cannot be mistaken for a real gun. Even if it were loaded, the darts are made of foam, they could not possibly be used to harm anyone. But no, the only way to prove it wasn't harmful was to completely break it.

Yeah, I didn't do that.

At any rate, I got in the VIP autograph line, which returned to the usual "One desk of guests, go through quickly, no pictures, just one autograph" format. Not all the guests were there, sadly, but the autograph schedule was split into the VIP session and two mega signings to accommodate all the guests.

It was in the line that I discovered that something had happened overnight. One of the statues in the courtyard had been wrecked, presumably by con attendees. I can only assume they got drunk and goofed around on the statue, somehow knocking it over and breaking it into pieces.

Do I even need to say how not right this is?

C'mon, people, we are guests at the convention center. This is NOT a good first impression to make! And if a few drunk idiots have ruined things for the rest of us, if we're not allowed to return next year because of this, then you can believe there will be a lot of pissed off con-goers.

UPDATE: Apparently the statue was not destroyed by con attendees, but people who tried to crash the dance. So I'm glad to say the none of the attendees were that stupidly destructive.

Well, I ended up hanging out with friends in TF2 cosplay, before we went to the Valve gathering. The gathering was 90% Team Fortress 2 cosplayers, but we had plenty of fun and got some great pictures. There were a fair amount of Left 4 Dead cosplayers, and some from Portal and Half-Life, so it was certainly fun.

Once that was over, I started to take my final trip around the con to say goodbye to everyone I knew. I left around 3, feeling satisfied and looking forward to the next one.

Peppermint Butler

Zombies at the Valve gathering

So, how does this con compare? I much prefer the new location. My personal issues with the Woodlake aside, it was far more spacious, and gave us a lot more room for moving around. It managed to fit all the attendees, although there was plenty of guest overflow into nearby hotels. Admittedly, the Woodlake has better spots for photoshoots, but I think that's a fair trade-off. On a less fair note, a good friend of mine had his car broken into, so that is a real cause for concern.

The guests were great - Kevin Conroy was a real treat, and the other guests like Grey DeLisle and Mai Aizawa were a thrill to meet as well. Sure, that meant the lines were long, but it was worth it.

There were some problems, such as the swap meet, the badge pickup, and the peace bonding issue. There was also a problem with many staff members failing to understand that Press Passes do not come with wristbands, and thus spent extra time grilling us before letting us into the Dealer's Hall, or even outright denying entry. Hopefully these problems will be addressed later.

I also had some problems of my own, such as forgetting my backpack at home (fortunately, a friend brought it to me the next day) and my wallet going missing (but it was recovered intact). Those problems were solved, though, and I managed to enjoy the con afterwards.

All things considered, the good outweighed the bad, and I had a very fun time. It was definitely an improvement from previous years, particularly location-wise, and there were many more options for places to eat and spots to relax. Imperfect, yes, but a step up nonetheless. I'm glad Sac Anime finally moved to the convention center, I hope to see it continue to improve in coming years.

Ray Reports: Sac-Anime Winter 2013, Day 1

2013-01-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

A year ago, we heard reports of Sac-Anime moving to a new venue, what with its growing size (and the size of the Woodlake Hotel) in comparison and various horror stories pertaining to the hotel (mischarges, security, etc.). It is this past weekend that Sac-Anime was held at its new home at the Sacramento Convention center for the first time.

The Sheraton Grand Hotel is the primary hotel for the convention and, along with the convention center, is located in the downtown bits of Sacramento, a dramatic change of pace from the open-airness of the Woodlake. It has a nice, huge lobby, large enough to hold a local-level convention by itself. Registration was located here, as was Cafe Hoshi, the gaming room, the viewing room, the panel room, among other things.

The Sacramento Convention Center, across from the Sheraton, is at least two floors high, though the convention itself only took up one floor, as well as the first three floors of the neighboring Sheraton Hotel. Main events, autographs, and Dealer’s Hall in the con center, everything else in the hotel. There is also a Starbucks and a Wolfgang Puck Express located within the convention halls, although the latter was closed for most of the convention hours.

A major advantage of this new location is the amount of indoor real estate. Sacramento can get fairly chilly--especially for skimpier cosplayers--during January, it being in the Central Valley where temperatures either border on freezing point or hit record highs whenever Sac-Anime takes place. Notably, the Dealer's Hall was so big that it accomodated both the Dealer's Hall and the Artist's Alley and still have plenty of breating room, unlike the Dealer's Hall at the Woodlake.

There are some food options—Subway, a few small-business places, and the always-open 7-11. Unfortunately, many eating establishments close early in this neck of Sacramento (as early as 6 PM) on Friday and Saturday, and all day on Sunday (Subway making a special exception for this particular weekend, and as mentioned, 7-11 is open 24 hours). If you’re willing to go a bit further out of your way, Jim-Denny’s serves some ace-tier breakfasts around the corner, and four blocks down J Street going East is the Old Spaghetti Factory—more on these in later posts.

The gaming room, maintained by @T_BAGR, was now only one long narrow room instead of three separate rooms, making it fairly crowded and difficult to navigate. Game selection was less varied than previous Sacs, more on this later.

Weather was a tad unfortunate. It rained for the latter half of Saturday, though I was prepared and brought an umbrella. Which, hilariously, had to be peace-bonded despite not being part of any of my cosplays.

Prologue:

After doing my packing, I left to pick up a few friends and we were on our way around 12:50pm.

We made a food stop at In-N-Out along 205 in Tracy around 1:50pm, before resuming onwards. Our final arrival time at the Sheraton Grand was about 3:30 PM.

I met up with Matt to pick up my room key, then went upstairs to meet with my roommates, who also happen to be my CCB colleagues. After filing my luggange into my room, I stepped out and readied for con activities proper.

Day 1:

I had wanted to go to the Touhou gathering, but it had already transpired, having taken place at 2 PM. Though I wasn’t planning on cosplaying Reimu until the day after anyway.

I went down to registration, which was on the mezzanine floor of the hotel in one of the ballrooms. Flashed my ID and business card, and received my badge posthaste.

I met up with Katie, who was also registering, and we made for the dealer’s hall afterwards. We did a little walking around, and after some exploration of my own I found DoujinPress’s booth, selling their usual wares, some of them notably being Madoka and Touhou stuffs (the only booth in the Dealer’s Hall selling Touhou fanworks of any kind, even). They were selling some new things, including some small artbooks and some Touhou pairing buttons, but I decided to pass for now.
Part of the appeal of Sac-Anime for me is the gaming room, so I went to check it out; it was back in the hotel on the 3rd floor. Games that I cared about were still being set up, so I decided to come back later.

I met with some of the Touhou cosplayers that had attended the gathering earlier, though I didn’t really speak for long.

The Shin Megami Tensei gathering was at 8 PM, and was held at the large indoor clearing by the fountains by the exit near the movie theaters. Attendance was fairly modest, with two thirds of Sac's CCB team, conveniently also Persona cosplayers, putting in an appearance. A few certain mainstays of SMT gatherings were sadly absent for one reason or another, but it was still a good opportunity to see the fandom demonstrate their creativity.

I decided to double back to the gaming room again. One vertical monitor was set up and playing games, so I got to pop in a round or so. I also got to watch my friend David do a full run of The Legend of Zelda, and I got to meet up with longtime friend-who’s-local-yet-I-only-know-through-social-sites Suu. I mostly just chilled out in the room before retreating back.

With Day 1 coming to an end, I had to prepare for my next cosplay, so I made for the bathroom, and not only showered myself but also shaved my legs, for my next cosplay was Touhou’s resident red-clad shrine maiden, Reimu.

Friday is usually my “empty day” of Sac-Anime, though the SMT gathering helped liven up things a bit. In hindsight, I could’ve taken the opportunity to explore a bit more of downtown, but my aversion to a particular kind of weather inhibited that. Arguably, this was a busy day for me—Saturday ended up being more of a “chill out” day if anything.

To be continued…

Ray Writes: 2012 - The Year in Cons

2012-12-31T15:50:00.001-08:00

(Photo credit: Morgan F.)

With just a little over 8 hours before the end of the calendar year, I thought I'd take the time to reflect upon my convention experiences here in Northern California.

Sac-Anime Winter in January was my first time attending a convention as a member of CCB, and my second time ever attending Sac. Despite a few personal troubles here and there, it was a worthwhile convention for me; were it not for this convention I probably wouldn't have been introduced to one of my favorite shmups, Escahtos, which was playing in the gaming room.

Animation on Display in February came about a month later. Location-wise, it's perhaps one of my favorites, being positioned in the Japantown shopping center, bringing effective convention space up by about four- or fivefold. Mostly I just spent time with friends, taking advantage of the availability of some good Japanese restaurants. This was also my first time being in charge of a hotel room, and while some unexpected developments happened (namely having to take in an entire room's worth of guests due to reservation problems), that part went off smoothly and without any issues with the hotel staff.

I don't believe I ever mentioned the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in my posts here, but I may as well give it a quick mention. While the festival spans four days over two weekends in April, I only went on the last day, mainly for the parade, which includes a block of cosplayers. The CBF is generally the busiest time of year for Japantown, with waits at restaurants easily lasting 40-60 minutes.

Of course, everyone knows about Fanime, or as I like to call it, my kind of post-academic year party. Major highlights include entering a Touhou Sky Arena tournament, meeting Japanese voice actor Mai Aizawa (and even making it onto her Twitter) and cosplaying as Touhou's central protagonist, Reimu Hakurei, my first "serious" crossplay. As for how this came to happen, it's a long story (to make a long story short, my name is involved), and to this day, it's a cosplay I hold in very high value. Even just looking at the interactions I have with my friends who are also into Touhou outside the context of cosplay, I can safely say that this cosplay, and the fact that I cosplay Reimu, has brought me some very interesting new friends and experiences. Other than that, this convention went by fairly well, maybe not as good as in past years (2008 and 2010 come to mind for me) thanks in no small part to issues like blackouts and construction, but still better than the year before.

Coming into August, a heavy month of conventions and con-like events, we have Kin-Yoobi Con which, ironically enough, does not take place on a Friday despite bearing the Japanese word for "Friday" in its name. Whereas past runs of KYC have taken place at Chabot College, this year marked KYC's move to a new venue, the Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel. I like the new location as it has lodging space and it looks much nicer than Chabot's cafeteria, though admittedly I miss the more physically-open nature of the cafeteria, where 70% of the con is contained into one large indoor space. Like other small cons, KYC is mostly a "hang out with friends" con; it's mostly fun if you have friends to hang out with there. Again, I put a room under my name, and through this experience I started to realize that I enjoy being the room host, as not only does this grant me better control over what's allowed and what's not inside the room (crazy room parties being one of the latter), but I've found that the friends I choose to room with end up being the most pleasant folks. In general there just seemed to be a strong sense of camaraderie amongst congoers here, from everyone knowing each other to hanging out with friends who happened to be working at the maid cafe.

As the academic year begins again, we have J-Pop Summit Festival, which is not really a festival about Japanese pop music so much as it is about general Japanese pop culture. This was also the first cosplay-related event that the newly-opened Playland Japan arcade would see; it's nice to see large numbers of attendees going to this new arcade to play music games and Bishi Bashi, especially since I am a big fan of arcades and music games. Also, seeing one of my DJ'ing friends put on a show was brilliant, as it gave me a chance to hang out with some friends who I normally would not see at these sorts of festivals.

Sac-Anime would have its last summer iteration--and last Sac-Anime period--at the Woodlake, on the border of August and September. Although my hotel stay went without any major problems, I still felt paranoid of any random post-stay charges, and I can see why people are glad Sac-Anime is getting a new venue. Most of my time was spent playing music games and shmups, window-shopping at the DoujinPress booth, and catching up with cosplay friends (though to a lesser extent than prior conventions). It is also here that I caught wind of a Pac-Man Championship Edition DX tournament, which, to my pleasant surprise, I would come to take first place in--my first time winning some sort of video game competition.

October marks the end of the Bay Area convention year. Anime Destiny ran its course, and there I bonded with some friends who were into the Shin Megami Tensei series; always good to connect with fandoms. Japan Center Anime Fair took place the week after in Japantown; while certainly not on the scale of other festivals in that area, it's still a fair opportunity to go to the arcade and get a taste of the restaurants there. Sadly, I could not make Yaoi-Con that same month due to its distance and the fact that it's in the middle of the semester.

With 2012 coming to a close (and end-of-the-world jokes aside), it's time to look at what 2013 will have to offer. Some new additions and deviations from the usual convention and festival cycle include:

Sac-Anime Winter - Now all grown-up and at the Sacramento Convention Center, I hope to see the new venue be put to its best use. Unfortunately, that may be a problem, as Sac-Anime is occupying the venue at the same time as the California State Home & Garden Show.
Japan Expo - Japan Expo is one of the largest events dedicated to Japanese pop culture in Europe, with an attendance of 208,000 this past year. I was not going to care too much about the US version of this until I discovered that it will be taking place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, which puts me at just a little over four miles from the festival and will also bring back memories for those who attended Fanime durig its SCCC days. I very much look forward to seeing how JE will turn out here, though it should be noted that this is going to be in a month already stuffed with conventions and festsivals (Kin-Yoobi Con, J-Pop Summit, and Sac-Anime).

As for my plans this coming year:

Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to cut a day out of attending Fanime as I am slated to graduate this spring and the graduation ceremony is on a Saturday. This for me is a little tough to swallow, as Saturday is usually when a lot of events take place, and Sunday is, to be frank, a lonely day for those who don't participate in the masquerade or the Black and White Ball. However, it is best that I don't dwell too much upon this. Why?

In July, I will finally be attending Anime Expo! I've been saving up for the past several months, and have just recently met what I feel to be my minimum funds to attend the convention in full. From what I understand, AX deviates from the usual convention standards, being an industry-based convention, and I've heard good things about the Dealer's Hall for Touhou fans. Furthermore a couple of my long-distance friends express interest in going, so I definitely have my sights set for this convention.

As for my August conventions, I may have to cut out Sac-Anime or Kin-Yoobi Con if it means having more budget for Japan Expo. Especially since by then I'll start working and I don't want to ask for too many days off.

What do I plan to do in terms of cosplay? I hope to finally begin learning how to sew my own cosplays. I have both practical and personal reasons for doing so: saving money, developing useful skills, and the sense of accomplishment that comes with crafting my own cosplays. I also plan to add at least three new characters to my cosplay roster: Lemeza from La-Mulana, the protagonist of Devil Survivor, and of course I'm going to continue cultivating my crossplay endeavors either with Homura from Madoka Magica or some sort of maid outfit.

To my colleagues: I hope you've enjoyed my first year here on CCB staff. To our readers: I hope you've enjoyed reading my convention writings, as well as those of other staff here. As one of CCB's Convention Specialists, I wish you all a spectacular new year. =)

This is Ray, signing off.

Matthew's Top 5 Moments from the Past 5 Years of the CCB

2012-12-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

As we move into the end of 2012, this will be five "calendar" years of the blog (I have to differentiate since it would technically be five and a half years since the blog started at FanimeCon 2007) and a lot has happened since I started to report at anime conventions. With so many memories and moments to remember, I narrowed it down to my top 5 moments of the past 5 years of the California Conventions Blog (although, to be very honest these could be ordered in any way).

5. Taco Party Part 1 & 2
The concept is pretty simple: buy a bunch of tacos and party. Me and Ryan stumbled upon the Taco Party at Anime Los Angeles 2011 as we pitched in a couple of dollars for tacos.

Then FanimeCon the same year rolled around, and the founder of the Taco Party aimed to get more - and spend more - than ever before. And it was all captured on tape.

4. Crispin Freeman at SacAnime Summer 2008
Out of all the guests that I have seen over the years, and there have been some big names I've seen, I would have to say that Crispin Freeman has been the most enjoyable. He has so much knowledge about the background material that he works in and it's really awesome to hear him speak especially during a VA panel at SacAnime Summer 2008 when he was just dropping bombshells on the audience.

3. The Hiroyuki Yamaga Handshake
This was when I first went to FanimeCon in 2007. Before they had opened up Stage Zero, they held Opening Ceremonies at where they now do the nightly dances. I remember nabbing some good seats at the front of the room which somehow was right behind the Guest of Honors. After the ceremony was over I got a chance to shake Hiroyuki Yamaga's hand and told him how big of an Evangelion fan I was. This was the first of many encounters with one of the founding members of Gainax, including his parties that I attended in the coming years.

2. Big Italy Autograph
At Anime Vegas 2010, Laura Bailey, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Johnny Young Bosch, and Travis Willingham were holding a Code Geass panel and since I forgot to bring my DVD box sets that I obtained earlier in the year to get them signed, I had to think of something for them to sign. Then I went to Pizza Hut in Las Vegas for the Code Geass Gathering Luncheon and I was left with a Big Italy Pizza bag. So during that panel, I got them to sign the bag and ever since then I have it hanging on my wall. I keep on forgetting to bring the bag with me to get it signed by other VAs that worked on Code Geass, though. This also started the tradition of getting non-traditional items signed, like my business cards and Starbucks cups.

1. FLOW...front row...TWICE
When FLOW was announced a month before FanimeCon 2010, no one really knew who they were. But to me and Ryan, we knew who they were. This was one of these concerts that flew under the radar especially being on a Friday night, so FLOW enthusiasts like ourselves were able to grab the best seats before anyone else. In our case, we got to be in the front row.

A year later, FLOW was announced again as a guests, this time much earlier, paired up with Yuya Matsushita, and given the standard Saturday headlining timeslot. This time around, the hype of FLOW returning was huge and despite some troubles, we still got in early and one again in the front row.

I wish I caught the crowds coming out of the Civic Auditorium because FLOW Nation dominated. People were singing and cheering - it was like a big after party on the streets of San Jose.

Pokemon Regionals 2012

2012-10-19T23:52:00.005-07:00

I have a confession to make: I want to be the very best, like no one ever was. Failing at that, though, I'm satisfied with being moderately good as long as I have a good time. Nowhere else was that more true than at the Pokemon Regionals, held in San Jose. The winners would find themselves with a free pass to the Nationals, while those who don't make the cut would leave with memories, hopefully pleasant ones.
I arrived at 8 AM, when it was due to open, which meant waking up earlier than I'd have liked. That would have been fine if they let us in at 8, as the website said, but instead we spent a good half hour standing around in a semi-line outside. Still, they let us in eventually, and everyone checked in quickly.

Well, almost everyone. Once we showed them we had pre-registered and had Pokemon in our Battle Boxes for the competition, we were sent to a table filled with people who would register our games in the tournament. Not all of them were entirely trained in how to do that, as three people behind me in line got their games registered while the guy registering mine was trying to figure out what buttons to press. Still, he eventually got me checked in, leaving time to meet up with friends and look at the goods available.

I was in cosplay, like I was last time, as Giovanni. There were only a few other cosplayers there; a few trainers, a child in a Pikachu suit, and a friend of mine as a gijinka Flaaffy. I was pleased to see several people in Team Rocket shirts, although they were no minions of mine - another group that was volunteering and working as vendors at the tournament used the TR monicker as well, but I spoke with some of them and mentioned my Team Rocket group, plus bought a TR t-shirt.

After getting breakfast (which required running around to find an ATM that wasn't out of order), I awaited the start of the tournament. It was divided into three divisions: Junior, Seniors, and Masters. Being above 18, I was in the Master's division, which also had the most participants by far. Yes, Pokemon is for all ages, and the older you get, the tougher the competition becomes.

Unlike the last one I was at, which was single elimination, this tournament was swiss-style, which meant everyone got a few battles in, and winners are determined based on each individual's win-lose ratio and that of those they fought. That meant everyone would have seven battles, win or lose.

My first battle, unfortunately, I lost to a trick room team. My team relies mostly on sweepers, and I failed to calculate his strategy to prepare countermeasures. My defeat was pretty quick. The next battle was a lot closer, but once again, I was trick-roomed; this time I prepared countermeasures, but it wore off right when I needed it. Luck is a part of the game, after all.

The next three matches went much better. My Volcarona proved an effective sweeper in the third match, followed by a combination of Zapdos and Krookodile taking down my opponent's teams. The last two, though, luck was not on my side; one battle had my Pokemon constantly flinching or being frozen, and the last was a very close match, but my Krookodile's Rock Slide didn't do quite enough damage.

As such, I ended the day with 3 wins to 4 losses. Honestly, it's about as good as I thought I'd do, although I certainly wouldn't have minded one more win. Regardless of the score, I had fun.

The top four players; these are the guys who will be representing us in the Nationals

And while I may not have made it to the finals, a friend of mine did. He made it to the final round, where he barely lost in the last battle, securing a second place ranking and a trip to the Nationals. You can see my interview with him and the first-place winner below.

I also left the tournament with a good deal more than I came with. Aside from the Team Rocket shirt and dog tag I bought, my table was randomly awarded a free card binder. Other people there also tended to leave unwanted Pokemon cards for anyone to take, so I managed to get enough to start on a deck (minus those I traded to another attendee for a soda). But most of all, I left with a great experience.

One thing I liked about this tournament was the atmosphere. Pretty much everyone there accepted that we were playing a video game targeted at children, so we could lighten up and have fun with it. I spent quite some time talking with people about how it's all in good fun, and we were just happy to be there competing. At the beginning and end of every match, we would shake hands, and either wish each other luck or thank each other for a good battle. Win or lose, we all had fun, and that's what we were there for. (Not that anyone would have minded winning, of course.)

As such, while I may not be the greatest trainer, I still had a good time, and still came home with good memories and a few new things. I learned from a few mistakes to prepare for next time, so I hope to do even better the next time I compete.

Some of my friends and I after the tournament

Ray Reports: Anime Destiny 2012

2012-10-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Previous attendances: 2010 onwards

While other cons are two-day affairs at the least, with even fellow minicon Kin-Yoobi Con upgrading to a 2-day con within the past two years, AD continutes to be a short and sweet single-day convention, held at UC Berkeley.

This year's AD seemed fairly light once again, because like last year it conflicted with a major event. This time, the conflicting event was none other than Yaoi-Con, which had recently moved to SoCal. Though it being in SoCal now, less Bay Area congoers were interested in attending, some even hoping it tanked hard enough in SoCal to warrant a move back up to the Bay Area.

If you're looking for events, a good gaming room, or cool stuff to buy at the dealer's hall, this is hardly the con for you. You see, the real meat and potatoes of small cons isn't for events and to see SS-tier cosplayers. The point is to gather some friends together and just have an excuse to chill out in cosplay, as well as to make new friends.

I mostly stayed in one place for much of the con, and it turned out quite well.
Prologue:

I have the most terrible sleep patterns. The day before, I woke up at 5 PM. This led to a long and sleepless night of doing not a whole lot.

After my usual morning routine and getting into my Minato cosplay, I left the house around 10 AM to pick up J, who was cosplaying from Homestuck. J was nice enough to pay me for a cup of Starbucks, which I would sorely need.

We then headed out to Fremont BART station, where, by coincidence, we met up with another HS cosplayer, which was enough to keep a conversation going throughout the 30-45-minute ride up to Berkeley.

The con itself:

We arrived at the MLK Jr. Student Union at UCB, where the convention was taking place, around 1 PM. As always the student union seems to be stuck in the "wood age" of the 70's.

The format is about the same as last year's: Registration, dealer's and artist's hall, gaming room, and main events on 3rd floor; panels, tabletop gaming, con ops, and screening on 4th floor. Nothing on 5th floor, not even unlocked doors to access the rooftop. A shame, considering it made for a good shoot spot in 2010 and has a nice (though cramped) auditorium.

One major problem with the dealer's/artist's hall this year was that part of the wall separating it from main events was missing, due to problems on the part of the SU staff. As a result, those in the D&A hall were subject to the full brunt of the music playing in main events, especially the poor artists and dealers who had to be at their tables for the entire (or at least most of the) day.

Gaming room is exactly what you'd expect at a small convention gaming room: Fighting games, nothing else. This isn't anywhere near my area of expertise, so I have nothing to say.

The dealer's hall was not terrible but it's not something I would want to splurge money on.

I circled around the artist's booths before running into a rarely-seen con friend of mine, who had a table along with two others who, to my pleasant surprise, were doing artwork of various Megami Tensei games, not just P3&4. I correctly guessed their print of Serph, which I got for free~ It was refreshing to encounter fans of SMT as a whole rather than just the obvious two games, so we chatted at length. Kata was there, and brought her usual wares, consisting of prints of her fanart of Persona, Touhou, and the like, and I got her to do a commission for me. I spent most of my time around this area, as there wasn't much else to do.

For lunch I went out to Chipotle, which I hadn't had in ages, hoping keeping my metabolism running would keep me awake. I eventually fell asleep at a table, feigning focusing on something so I wouldn't be caught by con staff.

As for other people I saw, I saw some other few other familiar faces. As mentioned, attendance was light, so I didn't see a lot of people, even those who had attended in prior years. (Plus I mostly stayed in the same aisle so I didn't see what was going on outside the area a lot.)

Cosplay variety was mostly decent. I saw an Eva group; seems like Evangelion's been making quite the comeback this past half-decade. Homestuck cosplayers were out and about, as in the case with virtually any present-day convention. A few Vocaloid cosplayers were present as well.

And I just had to catch this: Oppa Eva Style.

Con activities ended roughly around 6-6:30 PM, so we parted ways, and J and I made back for the BART station, though not before stopping by the Spirit store and the dollar ice cream shop, arriving at Berkeley BART around 8 PM.

While waiting for the train (which would not be for another 16 minutes), it turns out we were not the only ones heading back this late; a bunch of other Homestuck cosplayers joined us, as well as some of my cosplay friends, for the most cosplayer-loaded BART ride I've had thus far. A few of them got off a few stations later to transfer over to an SF train, and more disembarked somewhere down the East Bay.

Epilogue:

I was totally exhausted at this point, so I got a little shut-eye on the train.

When J and I came back to the station, I found out that I had parked my car in the "Attended Vehicles Only" section of parking. Whoops. I didn't see a ticket, and my car certainly hadn't been towed away, so I assumed that a citation could possibly be mailed out. While trying to keep my thoughts together, I took J back home and went back home myself, whereupon I checked this site, only ot be reassured that no, my car did not receive a citation. I'm still checking every day, just to make sure I really don't have a citation.

At any rate I hit the bed a few hours later, only to sleep for a good 13 or so hours.

Conclusion:

AD this year as a convention was fairly disappointing, especially compared to its "big" year in 2010.

However, as a social experience I managed to make some new friends and make my $10 worth it. I certainly don't count this as a high-priority con, but it's always good to attend just to pass the time with some friends. (Also, being sleep deprived sucks.)

Would I go again? More or less, sure, though that mostly depends on who attends. Unless I'm going to a con so large it won't matter, whether my friends attend or not can make or break a convention experience.

Overall rating: 4/6
Certainly not the best con experience but I can say yes, I'm glad I attended.

Anime Destiny 2012: Robbie's Report

2012-10-16T20:13:00.003-07:00

Anime Destiny is a small con, held at UC Berkeley. I had gone there last year, and figured it would be fun to go this year, if just to hang out with friends. So, I drove down, and found a parking lot that was at least somewhat affordable, and went to the campus.

I was cosplaying as Shouma Takakura from Mawaru Penguindrum, which meant I was walking a few blocks to the college with blue hair and a stuffed penguin. I may have gotten a few odd looks, but I'm pretty sure stranger things have happened in Berkeley. There was a desk with a sign for the con outside the building it was in this year, which made it much easier to find than last year.

When I got there, there weren't too many people, but the day was early. I managed to get a press pass in spite of not pre-registering for one, and made my way to the dealer's hall/artist alley. There were a fair amount of booths there, with artists and vendors selling their wares. I bought a set of Pokemon gym badges from Belen Lazer Designs; a little pricey, perhaps, but it's how he makes a living, and they're very impressive. I also got a shooting target with a Dalek design from Hyottoko Productions, which was on sale for $1 instead of the usual $3.

When the musical guests started to play, we discovered that the thin wall that normally separates the dealer's hall and room where the bands played had been replaced by a thin plastic barrier. As such, everyone trying to buy something also found themselves with a front-row seat, whether they liked it or not. The bands that were performing were pretty good, at least, but it did get a little annoying when I was trying to talk to someone.

For the most part, I spent the day walking around and chatting with friends. I admit, I tend to bounce between groups of friends, chatting for a while then wandering off to hang out with others; I have a lot of friends I like hanging out with. It was good catching up with people I hadn't seen in a while, since there wasn't much to really do aside from that.

That's not to say there wasn't anything to do; upstairs there were panel rooms, a tabletop game room, and a screening room. There were some good anime being shown there, such as "Sword Art Online" and "Haiyore Nyaruko-san," but having seen those, I didn't feel the need to stick around. The panels didn't really interest me either, but I did get some good games of Yugioh in at the tabletop game room.

There was a video gaming room downstairs as well, although it seemed to consist almost entirely of fighting games. Street Fighter, P4 Arena, Dead or Alive, and so on; I tried to sit down for a game of Super Smash Bros, but my timing was such that I got there in the middle of a tournament, so no dice.

There's not too much left to say after that point. I continued to hang out with friends, then left before the masquerade. A friend and I were approached earlier by someone requesting we participate, but my costume didn't really consist of much that I made myself, so I opted to pass and left by the time it started.

So all in all, it wasn't a bad convention. There just wasn't much to do. I spent most of the time wandering and hanging out with friends, which is always nice, although not much of the convention itself really caught my interest. I still had a good time, but not much more than I'd have at any other gathering or event, so not to the same level as larger conventions. Still, it was a good way to pass the day, so I can't complain.

A penguin and rabbit, property of Shouma and Kirito, respectively. Because I didn't get too many pics.

Kid Loki from "Journey into Mystery" and Nichole Fury (a genderbent Nick Fury)

Persona 3 and 4 protagonists

Ray Reports: Sac-Anime Summer 2012

2012-09-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Date: 2012, August 31 ~ September 2
Location: Woodlake Hotel - Sacramento, CA
Previous attendances: S'11 onwards

Let's be honest: My first impression of Sac-Anime, in S'11, was a bad one. I didn't like the crowds, and I didn't like the weather (as much as I like clear weather, not a huge fan of heat waves). However, I've slowly warmed up to this con, and I've actually grown to develop an appreciation of it.

Like with the past many Sac-Animes, SA S'12 takes place at the Woodlake Hotel (formerly the Radisson). Convenient hotel rooms that put you right at the con, beautiful lake, and conveniently located next to a strip mall with a number of fast food places. Service, on the other hand, can be questionable; food inside the lobby is not allowed, and I'm rather reluctant to entrust my credit card credentials to this hotel after the random $150 charge Robbie was hit with last year.

Cosplay-wise, it seems like a new dominant fandom is on the horizon. I saw a lot of Adventure Time cosplayers, Robbie included, especially on Friday when the gathering took place. Homestuck is there, to almost nobody's surprise, although I've come to warm up to HS and its fans since last year. Persona was somewhat well-represented here; I encountered three Akihikos and, strangely, three Mitsurus, which puzzles me a bit as neither of their respective VAs were there although I'm not complaining. Touhou was out and about, in fairly respectable numbers.

I especially didn't like the Dealer's Hall this time around. Horridly crowded even by con standards, and nothing caught my interest.

Artist's Alley was business as usual. A lot of Western fandoms were there, and DoujinPress was back with their mostly-Madoka and -Touhou booth.

Finally, the gaming rooms. TBAGR was there to provide their robust selection of games--from the usual fighting game suspects to "classic" games of generations before , with a side of motion dance games. I even participated in a tournament myself; more on that furtherdown.

Prologue:

Picked up my carpool crew and headed out towards Sacramento around 12:30 PM
To avoid toll booths, I took 580, 205, and 5; it's boring compared to 680 and 80 but at least they're much faster routes. I was going to stop by an In-N-Out in Tracy on 205 so my carpool could use the bathroom, but I missed my exit. Ended up at a KFC/A&W on 5 instead, where I got to try A&W's infamous root beer mugs. Mugs were cool, but the root beer itself tasted just like any other root beer. Meh.

Arrival time: About 2:45-2:55 PM.

Day 1:

I tried to check in, but the room wasn't ready yet, so I had 30 minutes to kill.

My first order of business was to get my press badge ASAP so I would not forget it later, but due to some mishaps I couldn't get one by myself since the staff thought CCB was only a 1-member groupo for this con so I had to have Robbie tag along so he could clear things up. Since he was also rooming with me, we then went over to the front desk to check in and pay up, but due to my debit card not having enough funds to pay the whole thing, I had to call up all of my 2-night roommates so I could pay partially in cash and the rest by card. Other than these problems, registration and checking in went by fairly smoothly; our room, also shared by Nate and An, was over by the lake, with both front and back doors.

Unfortunately, I hit a snag soon enough when I tried to take photos of some cosplayers: I realized that I had left my camera's SD card at home! Thankfully, my phone takes good photos by modern smartphone standards, so I ended up using that to take con photos instead.

So Friday was basically the "nothing happens" day, just like at last Sac. I did meet up with fellow Touhou fans.

Around 6 I went to Costco to get pizza and frozen yogurt for cheap; I soon regretted the yogurt because not only was it a lot, but I ended up with what was either "stomach freeze" or a stomachache for the next several hours.

Since I was very exhausted, I found myself crashing around 10 PM, and took a nap so I could check out the nightlife.

Gaming room, notably, had a DJMAX Technika 3 and Pop'n Music 20 fantasia setup. The table the Pop'n was on was a bit low, but managable.

Unfortunately I missed the swap meet, and I didn't really care much for the rave. The crowd was notably less amicable at night with the rave going on, so I left for my hotel room and went to bed shortly thereafter.

Day 2

Day 2 is the "big day" of Sac-Anime--this is when many of the major gatherings, panels, and other events take place.

For me, it was also my big day, as it gave me a chance to use my other "signature" cosplay: Reimu.

Still pretty terrible at eyeliner and mascara, though I've picked up a few new tricks since last time.

Before I could do anything else, however, Matt needed in on our hotel room, so I got him a key card from the front desk and he lent his cooler to our room for the night.

I had a pass for complimentary breakfast, so I thought why not, living on fast food at a con is fairly expensive, guess I'll score myself some free grub. Met with a few old friends there, who were quite amazed by my Reimu cosplay. :)

Afterwards, I made for the autograph line for Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. However, by the time I got to the line it was so hideously long that their autograph session kicked into "express mode", with them going down the line to sign only one item each so that JYB, Michelle Ruff, and Jennifer Hale could do their autograph session, which put a snag in my plans as I had intended to get at least the box for my copy of Catherine and a World of Warcraft book (which my friend, who chose not to attend Sac, asked me to have signed) signed. Fortunately, someone next to me wasn't going to get anything signed, so he offered to hold the WoW book. After getting autographs from Travis and Laura, I stayed in the line to get Michelle Ruff's autograph. The entire deal took me about 2-3 hours.

Went out to lunch at Extreme Pizza, where my friend, cosplaying Meiling, happened to be present. I got myself a hearty mini-pizza, and I was gonna go get Starbucks but didn't have time.

The Touhou gathering was at 3. Attendance was fairly modest, though we did have an awkward location for our shoot--because all the cosplayers at the gathering were facing against the crowds, it made for some fairly poor shots. My friend who was also cosplaying Reimu was nice enough to lend me her ofuda for some shots.

Afterwards, I went to the gaming room to chill out.

I signed up for the Pac-Man Championship Edition DX tournament; it seemed like the one tournament being offered that I could present some degree of competence at. Some people were practicing, and I did see at least one player who was actually pretty good, which worried my chances of victory a little.However, there was also a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament, and it was so crowded (80+ entries!) that non-entrants were forced to leave the room to make way for entrants. I left and decided to kill time in the courtyard, as well as go to Starbucks.

Nameventures. Spoiler: The barista asked to spell it out, so it doesn't count.

Around this time, the Madoka gathering took place, and I stopped to take photos of that.

The tournament was at 6, and had about 8 entries. Naturally, this meant the tournament would end pretty quickly. For the first round, everyone had two shots at Highway 5-minute Score Attack, and I saw some pretty respectable scores.

However, I did note that some players were not taking advantage of tricks that I normally use, which gave me a bit of an advantage. Ended up placing first after all, sadly not with 2nd place watching.

Round 2 was one shot of Dungeon 10-minute Score Attack amongst the top three, and this is where things get interesting. I had a good run going up until the last minute or so, when I somehow managed to botch my run by skipping a "jackpot" wave of ghosts. Fortunately, I set myself on getting to the next jackpot as quickly as possible, and redeemed myself, pushing myself past 1st place and securing victory!

It felt good not only to win a game tournament, but to do so while in cosplay, when most people who do con game tournaments do not cosplay at all. It was great to do two of my "core" hobbies at once: cosplaying and playing "score attack" games.

As a prize for winning, I got $10 credit at Armageddon Games, the store that was pimping their wares in the other gaming room. I used it to buy a copy of Blast Corps.

Matt happened to show up around the tail end of the tournament, and was shouting and cheering like he was watching a boxing match, heh. We went out to get food, and he was cool enough to pay for mine's as his way of saying congrats.

My phone was running low and I was tired, so I retreated back to the hotel room to recharge and recuperate. Afterwards, I went back out, since the gaming room was open for about another hour.
Mostly I just hung around T3, and I happened to make friends with a rather friendly player there. Playing T3 without PlatCrew access is suffering, but at least it has the KARA Original Version sets available to play.

Gaming room closed at midnight. Someone was quite fond of my cosplay so she took a few photos of me. She told me where to find them, but sadly, said photos have yet to surface.

I left to donk-donk around the area. Met up with the Persona crew, then split to walk around with a couple friends who were roaming the area.

At this point there was nothing left for me to do, so I went to the lobby. Meh, I was exhausted and out of it, though I met a few familiar faces. As much as I didn't want to, I went back to the room and changed out of my Reimu cosplay.

Honestly, cosplaying Reimu gives me some rather interesting feels; having people find me attractive in it certainly helps. =) I always find it sad when I have to change out of it into normal clothes or bed clothes. I really like crossplaying; it gives me a chance to bust out my feminine side, and I hope to acquire a few more crossplays while I still look good and young enough to do it.

Day 3

Or "pack up and get out while the sun is still up" day.

Thankfully, I had pulled my car up next to my hotel room on Friday, so packing was a lot faster for me. Threw on my Minato cosplay and checked out of my room.

I thought about lining up for the "last chance autographs" line, but decided no, getting more of the Investigation Team VAs to sign my Persona 4 box is not worth flushing away half the convention day, so fuck that shit.

Dealer's Hall. Meh.

Starbucks. Nameventures. WTH, I EVEN HAD IT SPELLED OUT. THANKS FOLKS.

Artist's Alley. Sup, DoujinPress. Bought myself a Reimu/Yukari doujin and a set of Touhou buttons. Gotta love being able to legitimately purchase doujins, in a language I'm competent at, no less.

Gaming room, again. I got sleepy at some point, but I did notice Kenchan in a kigurumi cosplay beasting Pop'n, to the point of scaring away onlookers. I took to playing a more low-key round myself, which woke me up.The room closed at 4, which marked the end of the con for me.

I went out to the outdoor stage to chill out, where I encountered noveau-riche cosplaying as Kyouko Sakura. Chatted for some several minutes, then while she went off to do other things, I found myself playing some card games with the Marisa cosplayer who was at the gaming room. I also summoned #CarpoolCrew here, and we all left, roughly around 5-5:30 PM.

Epilogue

Before we could leave Sacramento, some of the carpool crew needed to use the bathroom, so we stopped at Starbucks; I wanted to use my Treat Receipt anyway.

Further down the road, we stopped at In-N-Out in Pinole for food--the same In-N-Out we stopped at last time, no less. I wasn't going to put my wig back on, but did so anyway since quite frankly, I much prefer to spend time with cosplayers in cosplay; I don't feel right in regular clothes next to someone in cosplay.

Trying to keep myself awake, I drove the crew home, arriving at my place just before 10 PM.

Conclusion

This is probably the best Sac-Anime I've been to yet, in terms of personal experience. There were a few moments where I was feeling down, but it happened mostly in the late hours when there wasn't much to do. Having a great gaming room helped to pass the time; I'm looking forward to seeing it again next Sac, should I decide to attend.

To me, everything good that happened can be summed up in day 2: free breakfast, Reimu, crossplay, 2hu, winning a tournament, meeting cute people, people who find my cosplay cute, and megucas.
If there's anything that detracted from my experience, it's mostly that I didn't really have a lot of friends that I enjoyed sticking around with for long periods of time, unlike Kin-Yoobi Con. Then again, this IS a con of 6,000-7,000, can't exactly expect community when a con is this big.

I did manage to make one new friend from this convention; something that happens very rarely these days due to my attitudes on befriending people.

I may go to ALA next year, but the unfamliarity, coupled with at least one good friend wanting me to come to Sac again along with Sac's new future location, may make me attend Sac Winter instead.

Venue: 4/6
Hotel experience: 4/6
Community/Friends: 3/6
Food availability: 4/6
Cosplay quality: 4/6
Cosplay diversity: 4/6
Dealer’s Room: 2/6
Artist's Alley: 3/6
Gaming Room: 5/6
Events: 4/6
OVERALL: 4/6

See you all at future conventions and cosplay events!

Sac Anime Summer 2012: Robbie's Report

2012-09-04T19:24:00.004-07:00

This summer promised to be a hot one, but that didn't stop people from showing up in all sorts of awesome, elaborate cosplay at Sac Anime Summer 2012. After all, what's a little heat stroke compared to good times with friends in awesome costumes?

This was Sac Anime's last convention at the Woodlake Hotel, and I, for one, am glad to be rid of it. Sure, there was some nice scenery around the pond and pagoda for pictures, and the pool was useful in the summer, but those few benefits didn't outweigh the bad. The crowds were still all-too crowded, the hotel continued to try to screw over attendees, and I haven't forgiven them for trying to rip me out of a hundred dollars from a previous convention.

I arrived at the hotel on Friday morning, dressed as Hunson Abadeer (Marceline's father) from Adventure Time. The line was relatively short that morning, so I picked up my pass quickly enough. Later that day, when Ray picked up his badge, we found that they mistakenly marked us both off the check-in list when I picked up my badge, but that was dealt with quickly enough.

It took some time for me to get my face made blue for my cosplay, made possible thanks to the help of a friend. (Say what you will about Homestuck fans, they know how to apply body paint properly.) Soon after, I met up with other Adventure Time cosplayers, and we wandered the halls.

There wasn't too much to do for most of the day, but we had the Adventure Time gathering. It had to be delayed a bit due to costume-based holdups, which cost us a few attendees, but there was a secondary gathering to make up for it, which went quite well. The cosplayers for the gathering organized quite well, and everyone seemed to have a very good time.

Following that, some of us began filming a Gangnam Style cosplay video. Of course, that song would be played several times throughout the convention; like Caramelldansen, Rickroll, and Nyancat before it, it's the new memetic song. Most of the evening was spent filming, including a scene in which I had a dance-off against Finn, and eating french fries stolen from Marceline in the background of another, until I left to get dinner.

After eating, I made my way to the karaoke room. Open mic didn't start until 9:00 that night, but I signed up to sing Voltaire's "Brains," which seemed fitting. Following that, I checked out the swap meet, hung out with friends, and let my feet rest for the evening.

Professor Utonium takes the Powerpuff Girls to the con

In an alternate ME3 ending, everyone goes to Sac Anime. Fans were still not satisfied.

Adventure Time, c'mon grab your friends

We'll go to very distant lands

When Saturday came around, I debuted another new costume: Relius Clover from BlazBlue. It was one I commissioned from a friend, give or take some parts I made myself and with help from other friends, and one I was looking forward to trying out. The first thing I did that morning, after getting breakfast, was to wait in line for the autographs.

Now, the convention was trying a new rule: no lining up until half an hour before the event begins. While well-meaning, it was a futile effort, as people still lined up. The security said they'd be made to disperse anyways, but everyone there knew that they'd just step aside, then return to their spot in line soon after. In other words, they were waiting in line to wait in line. Eventually, even the staff stopped trying to enforce that rule.

At any rate, once the line started moving, I got to meet Roger Craig Smith, Laura Bailey, and Travis Willingham. Travis I was the most excited to meet, since he provided the voice for Relius. Upon meeting him, I mustered up my best Relius impression: "Fascinating… a wonderful subject of the voice actor. I must know - how can you change your voice in such a way? I must experiment on you!" I was really pleased at how well he and Laura (who also provides a voice for that game) reacted, as they were getting a kick out of it, and they both signed my BlazBlue game for me. Happy to have met them and made an impression, I continued on through the con.

At 2:00 was the Marvel/DC gathering. I changed out of Relius and into Superboy; a simple costume, but one that would suffice for the weather and gathering. The gathering did have some organization trouble, with two people trying to set it up on Facebook and the Sac Anime forums without each other's knowledge, and it didn't seem like either of them were at the gathering itself, and the spot we were supposed to meet at had an Avatar gathering going on at the same time. As such, we relocated to the fountains.

Once that was out of the way, though, it went quite well. There were some impressive costumes there, and people seemed to have a good time. Once it was over, though, I changed back into Relius; the weather had begun to cool enough that the long sleeves didn't leave me quite as flesh-meltingly hot as before.

After meeting up and chatting with fellow BlazBlue cosplayers for a bit, I left to see "Whose Line Is It Anime." The line was still incredibly long, (the "no lining up until 30 minutes prior" rule seemingly completely disregarded at this point), but I managed to get in early with my press pass. After seeing how well the voice actors did last year, I was looking forward to a good show.

I was disappointed.

My problem wasn't with the actors - they did a great job with what they had, and kept everyone entertained. But even they knew that the improv games they were given were no good. While the host of the games was personable enough, he clearly had no idea how improv games were supposed to be run. For example, the original "Whose Line is it Anyway" show has a game called "Let's Make a Date," where three contestants are given odd personality quirks, then the "bachelor" has to ask them questions as though they were on a dating game to figure out what each quirk is. This version of "Let's Make a Date" had him bring up two audience members and one of the actors, then had them all describe a date they supposedly had with another actor. There were no quirks, no setups, just "Describe the date. Go."

It seems he completely forgot the all-important "game" part of "improv games."

There was another one called "Psychiatrist," where the actors were supposed to have issues or quirks that they spoke to the psychiatrist about. But instead of having the actor playing the psychiatrist diagnose them, the host told us all what his problem was and just had them act it out from there. The actors seemed equally disappointed with the way it was set up, but they played their confusion and frustration for laughs.

Even staple games of "Whose Line" such as "Props" and "Questions Only" he somehow managed to mess up. I have to doubt the host ever watched an episode of "Whose Line" in his life, going by how he directed the games. No offense to the man, he wasn't bad at keeping the audience engaged, but he had no idea how to run an improv game.

I'd like to take this moment to volunteer to do it myself next time. I know how to run improv games, and I've watched plenty of Whose Line. Leave it to someone who knows what he's doing.

At any rate, once that was over, I got dinner and went back to the karaoke room. This time I performed Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain," an appropriate song for a cosplay of an amoral scientist.

I didn't attend the masquerade, but I heard quite a few complaints about it; not about the skits, but the organization. Apparently one of my friends was spoken down to because it was possible that her skirt might possibly show some panties while she was dancing (they didn't), while nothing was said about people cosplaying far more scantily-clad characters. Another one was not allowed to enter the masquerade since she was cosplaying from "Legend of Korra," which, while anime-inspired, is not strictly an anime… and yet another group of "Legend of Korra" cosplayers was allowed in without doing anything anime-related in their skit. Talk about inconsistency; I don't know if it was a lack of communication or what, but it's entirely unprofessional.

However, I do have some friends who won various prizes in the masquerade, so congratulations to them. Their wins are well-deserved.

At that point, my boots were killing me (seriously, those were not comfortable boots), so I switched to casual clothes and wandered the con at night, until I decided to call it a day.

BlazBlue and Guilty Gear

The crawling chaos who creeps into conventions - Nyarlathotep!

Young Avengers Wiccan and Hulkling

Sunday morning I put on my Ryoga cosplay, and got in line for the VIP autograph session to get the ones I missed. Due to the length of the line, people were limited to two items per guest and no pictures, but it was still good to meet them.

After that, I met up with some other friends cosplaying from Ranma 1/2. We got some pictures taken, and looked around for one other friend who was supposed to be joining us, but that plan had to be changed for various reasons. It happens. (I also forgot my umbrella - whoops.)

At noon, a sombre mood fell over the convention, as we paid our respects to a departed friend. Harison Randall, a well-known cosplayer and attendee at Sac Anime, was killed in a hit-and-run earlier this year, in which he sacrificed himself to save his girlfriend. The courtyard was filled with friends who were there to show their respects to him; it was truly a testament to how many lives he'd touched, and what he meant to the Sac Anime community. I made sure to be there as they spoke in his honor; although I'd only met him a couple of times, he was always a cheerful, friendly guy with a clear passion for cosplay, and he is missed by many. I think that the memorial service showed just how much he meant to everyone at Sac Anime, and honored his memory well.

I spent the remainder of the day wandering around and hanging out with friends, getting the occasional picture, and taking one last trip through the dealer's hall for anything I missed.

Still, there wasn't much left to do at that point, so around 3:00, I left Sacramento.

May the odds be ever in your favor... you'll need it in this line.

Captain Jack Harkness and Captain Jack Sparrow. I smell a fanfiction~

Applejack and Apple Bloom

So, how does this Sac Anime compare to others? Well, I'd have to say that this one was satisfactory. The best part, by far, was hanging out with my friends and meeting some new ones. The most fun I had was when I was with groups of people, and I hope to do that more at future cons.

The usual annoying fanbunnies that normally crowd the convention seemed to have calmed down, and I didn't hear anyone being super-obnoxious in the halls or see anyone get glomped without permission. There were certainly a lot of Homestuck and MLP cosplayers, as there tends to be at Sac, but they were all as well-behaved as any other attendee, despite the stereotypes surrounding them.

Of course, it did have its problems, such as the aforementioned issues with Whose Line, not to mention the crowding situation.

With over 7,000 attendees, it was a really freaking busy convention. The small halls of the hotel proved super crowded, with lines stretching out the building for not only the events and autographs, but even for registration. It became a difficult task to move around anywhere inside, and even the outdoors areas were filled with people.

The move to the convention center is well-needed, as it will be large enough to comfortably hold all the people here; at least it'll be easier to move through the halls without running into someone every other minute. Of course, just being gone from the Woodlake Hotel will be nice - no more trying to screw us over.

So all in all, it was a good enough convention. Maybe not the best ever, but I enjoyed myself, and by Sac Anime standards it was quite good.

Harison Randall, 1990-2012

2012-09-02T18:50:00.001-07:00

The reason why I haven't posted on the blog about the death and mourning of Harison Randall, a cosplayer that was well-connected to the SacAnime community, was that I knew that the Summer 2012 edition of the convention would bring a weekend of not only sadness but also a time of celebration, to celebrate his life and the impact that he had on attendees and the community.

I had plans to visit the memorial service that was held today (Sunday) and pay respects, but by the end of of the service I had gained a sense of friendship with companions that needed comfort in this greatest time of need.

This all started Saturday night when I was supposed to film a portion of the Masquerade and then head out for dinner. Behind the press row was two rows for the family and friends of Mr. Randall and once I found out about the row behind me, I started to converse with the family and friends. Their presence was for a tribute video that was going to be shown during the Masquerade. I saw his girlfriend, who was still recovering from her injuries, and I started to talk to her about him and the events that transpired that night when he had saved her from a drunken motorist. I also mentioned to them that I was the one who had filmed him in Summer 2008 at the front of the conga line. They asked me to speak at the memorial service the next day, and I shared my condolences with everyone in attendance. I broke down in tears as we comforted each other, something that I didn't expect to happen. I may had not reacted the same way when news of his death was first reported, but it sank in pretty quick and will stay with me through the end of time.

I spent my free time on Saturday and Sunday writing up some notes on what to say at the memorial service. Eventually, I ordered my notes and made sure that I didn't take up too much time so that other friends, family, and the community could speak at the service.

This is what I said:

The California Conventions Blog sends out their condolences to Mr. Randall's family and friends as they continue their period of mourning and celebration. And I said at the end, I may have staffed and pressed at SacAnime since the beginning but this was my greatest honor, to be able to speak alongside his family and friends as we paid tribute to a great man and a savior to all of us.