CON REPORT FOR MTAC OH SHI-
Borrowing the "Goood, Bad, Ugly, and WTF" format from shiimapan , I bring you my experiences at Middle Tennessee Anime Con!
THE GOOD
-despite the fact that it's maybe half the size of AWA, it has more energy and a better panel selection overall. I enjoyed it much more than AWA '10 :>
-GO NAGAI PANEL FUCK YES.
-Rave = muuuuch better than AWA's "dance". Much batter music selection, much better lighting/effects, the ridiculous line is gone within an hour, etc. There was one major thing that was very not win, see down.
-That hotel is classy as fuck. I would've loved to get more Ghinius pics in the main lobby area because it's the PERFECT backdrop for him.
-I wasn't planning on going to the Patlabor panel, but I did anyway and am glad I did. Yet another franchise is added to my "need to watch" list.
-awesome roomates are awesome. ALSO, TWO /M/ TRIPFAGS OH GOSH.
-picked up the first half of G for an okay price.
-picked up the rest of what I needed to compete Zeta for a nice price.Maybe I'll actually finish it for once!
-decent amount of good cosplayers, including THE BEST VENUSAUR GIJINKA EVER HOLY SHIT. Of course there were also some not-so good ones, but that's in another section.
-saw/met awesome people, including Paige/the Aina from AWA '09 who decided to come despite being 8 months pregnant. Unfortunately she didn't do a preggo Aina costume in time, but it was still good to chill with her. She also got mobbed for pics because her and her husband person were dressed as (a pregnant!)Neo-queen Serenity and Tuxedo Mask. At least one person was all I SEE U GOT SUM RINI THERE which was funny/cute (and will most certainly be the fate of her daughter when she gets to the right age. Such is the fate of children born to cosplayers).
-Puru'ing
-chillin' with the Seishun Gundam fan guys. They have the patience of saints to put up with my ravings, I swear.
- going through the Tennessee mountains part of the drive = scenery porn. Especially with the fields in bloom with wild flowers. Shit was fucking beautiful ;3;
THE BAD
-liiiiiiiiines. The one for the rave was ridiculous but at least was quick to die once the thing started. Risque Cosplay and Pokemon weren't so lucky. I didn't get to see the former because the line was all over the place and the thing was over an hour late. It was supposed to start at 11 or midnight, it still hadn't started when I decided to go back to the room because I was fucking tired after 1AM. Pokemon I had to stand in and was lucky to get inside the panel once it started (they had to turn down the poor souls at the back of the line because they'd already filled the room).
-only getting to wear Eusine for an hour or two on Sat.
-I missed the "My Life on the Mecha D-list" panel because I was lazy and eating/changing in the room ._.
-CROWDING D:
-dealer's room was pretty "meh" aside from my DVD buys. The again they generally are for me at every con.
-nothing of interest in the video rooms.
-never got to swim in the pool!
-Vic Mangina. Luckily he was easy enough to avoid, though I still rolled my eyes a bit at the obligatory gigantic line of fangirls for his autograph table.
-fanfiction panel was the epitome of meh. Plus one of the speakers did some fangirling over a HeeroXDuo fic that made me cringe/rage (in all fairness the fic could be decent, but Gundam Wing fangirling will probably always make me twitch because I'm bitter like that. Especially over fics that feature Heero and Duo singing karaoke and falling in lurv omg).
THE UGLY
-con funk D:
-Saber crossplayer who made absolutely no effort to pull it off. No falsies, no make-up, no wig, just the dress and ponytailed hair.
-Eusine + waiting in line in a very hot, cramped, and funky area = brb dying D:
-usual assortment of nappy wigs and people wearing things they shouldn't.
-liiiiiiiiines.
-heat/humidity D:
THE WTF
-the Gundam panel was hosted by the same guy who gave us this little piece of special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsN9a_8yv4I . He did do a significantly better job this time, though the presentation he gave was pretty meh over all (still kinda' tl;dr, and no visual stuff other than one Wing clip at the beginning). The audience discussion/comments however, were gold. I got pretty loud about some things, which in retrospect wasn't exactly win (though some things I said did cause laughter!). I have most of it recorded though it's probably shaky as Hell and loaded with my noise :X
-Raver Puru. Dancing like a bufoon. With Pedobear. ENOUGH SAID :V
-dealer wanted the same price ($44) for 0083 as they did for the G box with almost twice the episode count. Which was ten bux more than what they gave me the Zeta box for.
-the hill and field outside the hotel was christened the Field of Dicks by me and awesome roomie #2 on Thursday night. No, it does not actually feature dicks of any sort, and yes, the conversation was very are-you-sure-they-aren't-on-drugs 'tastic.
-Ghinius got five or so Jareth mistakes/comments! Never fails to amuse me because 1. I can see why people would make that mistake 2. at least I'm not being mistaken for a Hetalia character 3. David Bowie>all. Including Ghinius himself.
-GO NAGAI PANEL. We learned that Kekko Kamen has some nice boots (and never fails to remind me of Schwartz Bruder for some reason. Now there's a mental image...), there are no panels of Violence Jack appropriate for a T-rated panel, I need to watch Cutey Honey like woah, and other such valuable lessons from Uncle Go. The fact that the panel was subtitled "Anime's Creepy Uncle" was perfect. Also my ever-growing fetish for Nagaiburns got some service, whoo boy (thanks Kyoji! :| )
THE UGLY + WTF
-SO THAT RAVE STORY. Yeah, it was better than AWA's until the thing got shut down early and everyone had to GTFO from not only that room, but from that entire section of the building. I don't know all the details, but from what I understand there were *nine* ambulance calls, the usually drug doing and selling (which possiblyprobably contributed to the former), and a search for a missing 14 year-old who was rolling off the chain that ended in DRAMU. Con raves/dances do inevitably have people passing out/getting injured/whatever and drugs, but from what I understand this year had it all way worse than normal and that's what lead to them pulling the plug. It was kinda' scary since the staff was on edge and there were three police cars and more than the one ambulance and firetruck I saw when I walked to the thing (which I figured was just the usual 1 or 2 kids passing out from dehydration or whatever). It really sucks since I and many others didn't do anything anything yet we have to suffer the consequences of a few idiots being stupid D8
If I can get clearer details of what happened, I'll edit them in here.
Overall I had a great time and would love to check it out next year. Definitely a nice change of pace from AWA's stagnation. Will see if I have any worthwhile pics I can post later.
THE GOOD
-despite the fact that it's maybe half the size of AWA, it has more energy and a better panel selection overall. I enjoyed it much more than AWA '10 :>
-GO NAGAI PANEL FUCK YES.
-Rave = muuuuch better than AWA's "dance". Much batter music selection, much better lighting/effects, the ridiculous line is gone within an hour, etc. There was one major thing that was very not win, see down.
-That hotel is classy as fuck. I would've loved to get more Ghinius pics in the main lobby area because it's the PERFECT backdrop for him.
-I wasn't planning on going to the Patlabor panel, but I did anyway and am glad I did. Yet another franchise is added to my "need to watch" list.
-awesome roomates are awesome. ALSO, TWO /M/ TRIPFAGS OH GOSH.
-picked up the first half of G for an okay price.
-picked up the rest of what I needed to compete Zeta for a nice price.Maybe I'll actually finish it for once!
-decent amount of good cosplayers, including THE BEST VENUSAUR GIJINKA EVER HOLY SHIT. Of course there were also some not-so good ones, but that's in another section.
-saw/met awesome people, including Paige/the Aina from AWA '09 who decided to come despite being 8 months pregnant. Unfortunately she didn't do a preggo Aina costume in time, but it was still good to chill with her. She also got mobbed for pics because her and her husband person were dressed as (a pregnant!)Neo-queen Serenity and Tuxedo Mask. At least one person was all I SEE U GOT SUM RINI THERE which was funny/cute (and will most certainly be the fate of her daughter when she gets to the right age. Such is the fate of children born to cosplayers).
-Puru'ing
-chillin' with the Seishun Gundam fan guys. They have the patience of saints to put up with my ravings, I swear.
- going through the Tennessee mountains part of the drive = scenery porn. Especially with the fields in bloom with wild flowers. Shit was fucking beautiful ;3;
THE BAD
-liiiiiiiiines. The one for the rave was ridiculous but at least was quick to die once the thing started. Risque Cosplay and Pokemon weren't so lucky. I didn't get to see the former because the line was all over the place and the thing was over an hour late. It was supposed to start at 11 or midnight, it still hadn't started when I decided to go back to the room because I was fucking tired after 1AM. Pokemon I had to stand in and was lucky to get inside the panel once it started (they had to turn down the poor souls at the back of the line because they'd already filled the room).
-only getting to wear Eusine for an hour or two on Sat.
-I missed the "My Life on the Mecha D-list" panel because I was lazy and eating/changing in the room ._.
-CROWDING D:
-dealer's room was pretty "meh" aside from my DVD buys. The again they generally are for me at every con.
-nothing of interest in the video rooms.
-never got to swim in the pool!
-Vic Mangina. Luckily he was easy enough to avoid, though I still rolled my eyes a bit at the obligatory gigantic line of fangirls for his autograph table.
-fanfiction panel was the epitome of meh. Plus one of the speakers did some fangirling over a HeeroXDuo fic that made me cringe/rage (in all fairness the fic could be decent, but Gundam Wing fangirling will probably always make me twitch because I'm bitter like that. Especially over fics that feature Heero and Duo singing karaoke and falling in lurv omg).
THE UGLY
-con funk D:
-Saber crossplayer who made absolutely no effort to pull it off. No falsies, no make-up, no wig, just the dress and ponytailed hair.
-Eusine + waiting in line in a very hot, cramped, and funky area = brb dying D:
-usual assortment of nappy wigs and people wearing things they shouldn't.
-liiiiiiiiines.
-heat/humidity D:
THE WTF
-the Gundam panel was hosted by the same guy who gave us this little piece of special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsN9a_8yv4I . He did do a significantly better job this time, though the presentation he gave was pretty meh over all (still kinda' tl;dr, and no visual stuff other than one Wing clip at the beginning). The audience discussion/comments however, were gold. I got pretty loud about some things, which in retrospect wasn't exactly win (though some things I said did cause laughter!). I have most of it recorded though it's probably shaky as Hell and loaded with my noise :X
-Raver Puru. Dancing like a bufoon. With Pedobear. ENOUGH SAID :V
-dealer wanted the same price ($44) for 0083 as they did for the G box with almost twice the episode count. Which was ten bux more than what they gave me the Zeta box for.
-the hill and field outside the hotel was christened the Field of Dicks by me and awesome roomie #2 on Thursday night. No, it does not actually feature dicks of any sort, and yes, the conversation was very are-you-sure-they-aren't-on-drugs 'tastic.
-Ghinius got five or so Jareth mistakes/comments! Never fails to amuse me because 1. I can see why people would make that mistake 2. at least I'm not being mistaken for a Hetalia character 3. David Bowie>all. Including Ghinius himself.
-GO NAGAI PANEL. We learned that Kekko Kamen has some nice boots (and never fails to remind me of Schwartz Bruder for some reason. Now there's a mental image...), there are no panels of Violence Jack appropriate for a T-rated panel, I need to watch Cutey Honey like woah, and other such valuable lessons from Uncle Go. The fact that the panel was subtitled "Anime's Creepy Uncle" was perfect. Also my ever-growing fetish for Nagaiburns got some service, whoo boy (thanks Kyoji! :| )
THE UGLY + WTF
-SO THAT RAVE STORY. Yeah, it was better than AWA's until the thing got shut down early and everyone had to GTFO from not only that room, but from that entire section of the building. I don't know all the details, but from what I understand there were *nine* ambulance calls, the usually drug doing and selling (which possiblyprobably contributed to the former), and a search for a missing 14 year-old who was rolling off the chain that ended in DRAMU. Con raves/dances do inevitably have people passing out/getting injured/whatever and drugs, but from what I understand this year had it all way worse than normal and that's what lead to them pulling the plug. It was kinda' scary since the staff was on edge and there were three police cars and more than the one ambulance and firetruck I saw when I walked to the thing (which I figured was just the usual 1 or 2 kids passing out from dehydration or whatever). It really sucks since I and many others didn't do anything anything yet we have to suffer the consequences of a few idiots being stupid D8
If I can get clearer details of what happened, I'll edit them in here.
Overall I had a great time and would love to check it out next year. Definitely a nice change of pace from AWA's stagnation. Will see if I have any worthwhile pics I can post later.