Thanks to an accident of convenience, I was able to attend my first actual anime ‘con! I have plenty to share, not much to brag about, and blurry photos aplenty.
First of all, let me tell you about how I got there. I took the #26 bus, as planned. The #22 bus that I was supposed to take wouldn’t arrive for another half hour, so I decided to hoof it for the next thirty minutes. I did manage to board the bus outside a McDonald’s, though by that time I was only a stop away from where I intended to stop. Unfortunately, the directions I had on hand weren’t good enough, so I relied on intuition to find my way to the hotel. After another half hour of walking, I stopped inside a pizza restaurant, asked for a yellow pages (since the Subway next to it didn’t have one), and called a cab. The hotel was just over a fence across from the restaurant <_ <. There were a LOAD of cosplayers in there... and not much else. I checked out the vendors and acquired exactly one common Yu-Gi-Oh! card that I'll get back to later. My goals were to absorb information, learn what this kind of event was all about, get my Tales of the Abyss laser cel signed by all four guests (they did the voices of Luke, Guy, Nebilim, and Dist), and hook up with a Selphie. Guess which was the only one I was unable to achieve. In order to burn up time, I checked into the maid cafe, where I was assigned table 7 and introduced to our maid, Usa-chan.
Don’t let the picture fool you; she was an AMAZING host (who looked a lot better in person… bloody camera phone). I believe we played some block-stacking game and half a game of Go Fish. By “we,” I mean everyone at Table 7, whom I affectionately referred to as 7’s.
Not pictured: the lady that took the picture (I don’t think it’s too much of her own fault that it’s blurry; my phone is extremely motion sensitive) and a girl I believe was her daughter.
There were two major games that everyone in the “cafe” participated in. And by “everyone” I mean “one person from each table.” First was the great pose-off. Mostly just a game in which the tables make the most noise for their rep. The second game was Jan-Ken-Pon. Basically, it’s elimination rock-paper-scissors, where everyone goes against their maid until one representative from each table is left standing. Then the reps go up against “the Jan-Ken-Pon demon” in a final round. Once all the reps had gone, it was down to the final rep and the demon to battle one-on-one for the grand prize: a marshmallow kabob. Obviously I won, flawlessly, because I’m the fucking man.
After the maid cafe event ended, I walked into a Q&A panel with Johnny Yong Bosch and Tara Platt.
Then it was time for autograph signing. I got my laser cel signed by Tara and JYB. As an added bonus, I made sure to get something for my sister, who is a huge JYB fan. On one occasion, I noticed she watched the Power Rangers movie (terrible to rewatch, BTW) and it seemed to me that she was anxiously awaiting just one scene:
And that is why I bought a certain Yu-Gi-Oh! card when I had the chance. Behold my swag:
As you can see, there are four signatures there, so you know that I later came to the second signings and got the last two. In between was time to kill, and I spent a vast majority of it taking pics of people in cosplay.
This first one is of Mousse, and I only took it because who the hell dresses up as Mousse?
Next up is, believe it or not, the ONLY time I took a picture of guys in cosplay. Gotta love joke weapons.
Not pictured: the hottie Tifa that they were with. Personally, I think my sister would make an AWESOME Tifa. Not only does she have the hair and build going for her, she actually takes martial arts classes AND wants to get into bartending. She was DESTINED to do this. I will make it happen, I swear.
Genderbent 11th Doctor. With miniature TARDIS. Yeah. I went there.
I met Alicia Melchiott, the ONLY VP rep there, in the game room, which is why it’s dark. The game room was also a land of overpowering sweat and body odor. After taking her picture, Alicia gave me a roll of bread. No, seriously. That’s dedication right there. Too bad the bread was slightly stale.
I tried to make it my mission to take a pic of every FF girl cosplayer there. I missed about four of them, though two of them I only guessed were probably a white mage and black mage, and one was a double (can you believe there were TWO Lightnings, and that would make her the most represented FF female there?)
What now follows are three of the hottest hotties I saw there:
This chick made me WISH I played FFXIII.
This pic was just perfect in every way.
Okay, YMMV on this one, but I thought Flonne was the best. I think it was the red eyes that stare into my soul that did it.
Lastly…
AW, SON OF A BITCH!
Anyway, overall it was a good day while I was actually there. There was a load more I wish I took pictures of. Swag-wise, I almost bought a figurine of Ein from Phantom of Inferno, but thought better of it. I hope one day to have a Cal figurine. I don’t need Ein nearly as much.
The day ended terribly as I was only just able to board the last bus, and having to walk from the transfer center to my apartment at 9:00 was scary as fuck.