For the first time, I attended SacAnime while not actually living in Sacramento.  I did go with my sister and her friend though, so it was kind of a different experience.

I decided to only attend the first two days.  I planned on all three, but I wanted to save on gas, and I didn’t feel like driving back just to stand in line for two hours trying to get an autograph of Michelle Ruff and/or Janet Varney (would have gotten hers if I had remembered to bring my Korra BD the first day).

I spent Friday morning waiting in line for the exhibition hall to open.  There was some preacher dude going up and down the line telling everyone that God does not approve of what they’re doing.  Not entirely sure what specifically he took offense with.  The guy in front of me suspected he might actually be a cosplayer trolling everyone.  Could have gone either way.

VERY quickly, I found my way to some vendors selling VHS tapes, and I snagged me a Firetripper cassette.  Cost me $10, which is more than I want to spend on VHS tapes, but Firetripper was on my shortlist for years.

Next, I met up with the great Toshio Maeda, the creator of La Blue Girl and Urotsukidoji.  He really lit up as soon as I pulled out my Urotsukidoji DVD for him to sign.  He even invited me to take a picture!

I didn’t expect him to speak English so clearly, but he did.  I took the opportunity to ask him a question that has been on my mind for years: in Demon Beast Invasion, what was the deal with Muneto and Kayo having their designs completely changed every two episodes?

He explained what pretty much anyone would guess (but it was nice hearing it straight from his mouth): that he merely provided the original designs and story, and it was the studio’s decision to change the designs; he basically had nothing to do with it.  He had a panel that I REALLY wanted to attend, but I had no plans to stay in Sacramento late enough for it (it started at 10PM).  If only I still lived there…

This year, autograph signings were done inside the exhibition hall.  Unexpectedly, this did not result in it being harder to get into the hall at all.  Unfortunately, this did result in a much worse autograph line experience overall.  The con I attended before this one was had the best autograph experience, so I don’t understand how it got screwed up this badly.  It was a combination of things, really.  For starters, instead of having the line entirely indoors like it was before, we had pretty much a three-step system.  First, everyone had to wait in line outside the convention center so they could get in.  Once they got in, they were handed a ticket.  The concept of having tickets for the autograph line is itself perfectly fine.  In theory, one could choose not to wait the entire time and come back when the line was shorter.  In practice, this couldn’t happen because of how slowly the line passed.

I was among the first 20 people in line (outside), and it took me nearly two hours to get one thing signed by the three guests at the table I lined up for.  Now, if I was one of the first few, how could this happen?  Let’s take a look at the first problem: fast passes.  You could spend an extra $35 (I think) to skip the line, which kinda spits in the face of people who lined up patiently.  Now, you wouldn’t expect THAT many people to buy fast passes.  Here comes the second problem: bypassing the two-item limit.  You have a two-item limit to get swag signed, which is reasonable.  If you wanted MORE items signed, you could pay for it.  A handful of people chose to pay this money and had the guests sign A FUCKING SHITLOAD OF STUFF.  I saw at least three people take up close to 10 FUCKING MINUTES getting their stuff out, having them all signed, and unpacking them.  10 FUCKING MINUTES.  I mean, on a conceptual level, charging for fast passes and extra signage makes perfect sense, but YOU NEED TO PUT SOME LIMITS.  Finally, the event staff simply wasn’t on top of keeping the line moving at all.  There were little things they could have done, whether it was asking fans to move things along, asking the guests not to humor the fans too much, or a bit of both.  They just didn’t put any effort into it.  And this was FRIDAY.  When I saw how long the line was on Saturday, I just went “fuck it” and canceled my plans to get anything signed by Michelle Ruff.

Moving on to less stressful events: commissions!  This time, I made two commissions.  The first was for Lucia.  I decided to overspend since I love her so much and was working on VG Lucia a lot recently.  Cost me $50 for a waist-up full color commission on a thick board.  My checking account weeped a bit, but I have no regrets.

Take a look at Nathan Ng’s DeviantArt page for more of his works.

The second commission I made was for the two main characters of Millennium Match, Ryogo Misaki and Saki Satoumura.  They were just chibi commissions I made out of cheapness, but they turned out okay and work well as general reference material if nothing else.

Check out Yojambo’s DeviantArt page for more of their works.

My first choice for a commission was Ayasal, but she didn’t have any of her tools, so she didn’t take any commissions.  I think her art would have been a great match for Lucia, though.  Something to consider for the future, I suppose.

Funnily enough, Toshio Maeda was also available for commissions, at least for the first day.  I didn’t have the money for it, otherwise I TOTALLY would have gone for it.  I would have to be some kind of maniac not to be interested.

I only attended two panels.  The first was a Futurama reunion panel, which was AWESOME and a lot of fun.  Maurice Lamarche, Lauren Tom, John Dimaggio and Billy West all had their moments, though it was primarily Dimaggio and West.  Unfortunately, the Memorial Auditorium was pretty dark, so none of my photos came out okay.  Luckily, I took a LOT of footage, and screencaps are an option.

To be fair, I spent most of my time standing in line for a question I never got to ask.  Otherwise… nah, I was still seated too far away for anything good.

The second panel I attended was only listed as a “Viz Media” panel.  To be honest, I kinda wanted to pester someone about getting hired as a copy editor.  Still determined to get some use out of that journalism degree.  Anyway, it turned out to be a Sailor Moon panel.  We had a look at the next Sailor Moon BDs and DVDs, we heard the voice acting for Sailor Moon Crystal (with Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter), and we had some trivia with prizes.  I answered the question about Sailor Neptune’s first attack name and was goaded into screaming it with feeling (DEEEP SUBMERGE!) and was given a prize bag for my trouble.  Got me a lanyard, buttons, and a set of Sailor Moon cards (pack-ins for the first DVD set, I believe).

Finally: COSPLAY!  I didn’t go all gaga for hot cosplayers this time around, so I pretty much just took pictures of people in passing that cosplayed characters I was personally interested in.

I tried to convince my sister to cosplay as Fubuki, but she simply wasn’t familiar with Onepunch Man.

I really need to go as Raymond Shields one day.

I don’t need to explain anything.  It’s the fucking OX KING.

So yeah, another great weekend spent at an anime convention.  Could have gone better, especially when it came to signings.  Money would have helped a lot.  I really wanted to get those Tattoon Master, Ogre Slayer, Goku and Gunbuster tapes.  And of course, a whole lot more commissions.

This winter, CRISPIN FREEMAN will be a guest.  I really hope I have a proper job by then.