Fanime 2009
Phew! Just got back a few hours ago from our annual trek to the nearest anime con; this time it was FanimeCon in San Jose. Last year was our first time at FanimeCon and we had a decent time up til when we discovered that our intended shared hotel room was apparently full of about 30 people, we had to stay up all night at the con, pesky con staff wouldn't let us fall asleep in the video rooms and we ended up not sleeping for about 30 hours.
This year we were much smarter and paid for our own hotel room near the station, about a 15 minute walk away from the con. Not as convenient as the hotels attached directly to the convention center but the walk probably acted as a good decompression chamber. I was already starting to see every person on the street in a white shirt as an L cosplay. If I hadn't left the building I might have gone crazy and, I don't know, actually accepted all the "free hugs" from desperate unwashed otaku in the hallway to the dealer's room.
The big event this year was a performance by otaku idol Halko Momoi. She did a spectacular job of getting a room full of nerds jumping around and having fun. I have a soft spot for terrible syrupy j-pop--in short doses--and I know I can't think of a better type of music to dance uncoordinately to, waving a glow stick while a girl in a maid costume dances around on stage. Honestly, I was expecting to slip out after a couple songs but it was so ridiculous I ended up staying the whole time.
I always think I'm going to go crazy and buy a ton of crap but honestly when 90% of the stuff is Rei Ayanami it's quite easy to be restrained. I still caved and bought a Nendoroid figure of Yoko from Gurren Lagann because honestly I can't get enough SD stuff in my life and a super-deformed super-sexualised character is, like, totally double great.
Now I am going to finish this post (several hours later because my attention span after this weekend is completely shot).
Oh yeah! And I spent almost the entire weekend wearing a plush bunny-ear hat. Which in my books is a GOOD WEEKEND.
This year we were much smarter and paid for our own hotel room near the station, about a 15 minute walk away from the con. Not as convenient as the hotels attached directly to the convention center but the walk probably acted as a good decompression chamber. I was already starting to see every person on the street in a white shirt as an L cosplay. If I hadn't left the building I might have gone crazy and, I don't know, actually accepted all the "free hugs" from desperate unwashed otaku in the hallway to the dealer's room.
The big event this year was a performance by otaku idol Halko Momoi. She did a spectacular job of getting a room full of nerds jumping around and having fun. I have a soft spot for terrible syrupy j-pop--in short doses--and I know I can't think of a better type of music to dance uncoordinately to, waving a glow stick while a girl in a maid costume dances around on stage. Honestly, I was expecting to slip out after a couple songs but it was so ridiculous I ended up staying the whole time.
I always think I'm going to go crazy and buy a ton of crap but honestly when 90% of the stuff is Rei Ayanami it's quite easy to be restrained. I still caved and bought a Nendoroid figure of Yoko from Gurren Lagann because honestly I can't get enough SD stuff in my life and a super-deformed super-sexualised character is, like, totally double great.
Now I am going to finish this post (several hours later because my attention span after this weekend is completely shot).
Oh yeah! And I spent almost the entire weekend wearing a plush bunny-ear hat. Which in my books is a GOOD WEEKEND.