AX 2001 Report!
Well I wanted to get this done right after I'd gotten back from AX, but unfortunately, my slacker lifestyle prevents me from actually operating like that. Luckily I'm only two days late, which for me is a major accomplishment. Anyway, on with the writings and stuff!
Wednesday 1:45pm
Road Trip!
Got up at 7:30 today after only 6 hours of sleep. Despite that, I was pretty psyched, as I was going to AX later today. I spent a while finishing up all that packing stuff and then sat around waiting for my ride to show up. He finally did at around 9:30 and we (my brother and I) loaded up his van with our stuff. Then it was over to another friends house to shift stuff around so everyone could better fit in the two cars and we set off. I managed to secure the whole back seat of the van to myself, which wouldn't have been possible if Vern hadn't managed to make it on Wednesday with the rest of us. We only got lost a few times, since our Co-Pilot/Navigator had trouble reading the road signs. Understandable really, but we'll still mock him for the rest of the trip. ^_^ I managed to finish my book in the car a few hours later. I've recently been re-reading some of my Piers Anthony collection before I sell them off to a used book store to make room for more books. The books seem... not quite as good as I remember them. Anyway, I'm currently listening to the only Beatles CD I brought, while spread out in the back seat. I'll probably catch some more sleep in a bit, since we're only half way.
P. S. - It's bloody hot down here!
Quote - "You don't need to be clean, you're OTAKU!" - to my friend who was making us later by taking a shower.
Thursday 7:30am
The First Morning
Well it's the first morning and all ready my ugly sleep schedule rears it's ugly head. Went to sleep at 11:30 last night and woke up at 2:00am for half an hour. Then after I fell asleep, I woke up again at 5:30. Fell asleep again another half hour later and finally woke up completely at 6:30 when the rest of the group woke up. Opening Ceremonies starts at 10:00 so some people went off to get our line standing practice in. ^_^;
Last night was nice. After we finally arrived at about 3-3:30ish we checked into the room (10th floor. Wah!) and then wandered off to get our badges. 3 wrong turns later we finally found the line (Line #1). After that was over we went out for food to the local Denny's then came back to the room to hang out. The fireworks over Long Beach were nice, and we had a great view from the 10th floor window, but watching the crowds of people crossing the intersection afterwards was more fun by far. Then we all watched some TV and crashed.
$$$ spent
$50 - Con Registration
$15 - Dinner
Sleep
6 hours
Quote - "Belldandy says "You will soon have your wished come true." (In bed.)" - Anime Expo fortune cookie.
Thursday 6:30pm
Well Opening Ceremonies was very nice, even if it did start 45 minutes late. Nice Guests of Honor and an interesting new feature I hadn't seen before, a virtual MC. They have in the backstage or a side room a girl hooked into sensors so that her every move is registered and projected onto the main screen. It's still a littler rough (the girl seems to have problems hearing the audience and kept talking over applause) but it was certainly an interesting effect. After introducing the GoH's the voice actor school that's at the con came out and did a short piece along with some of the GoH's. Including Inoue Kikuko (Belldandy, Kasumi Tendou), and Kawakami Tomoko (Utena, Noelle). After OC, I ran over to stand in line for the Inoue Kikuko panel. Waited to hours after getting one of my friends to bring me over some food. The panel was nice, with some good questions (Who is your favorite character you've played? "I like them all too much to decide.") some stupid questions (Will you merry me? "... No.") and some odd questions. (You've been quoted as saying you wanted to live like a banana, what did you mean by that? "Where did you hear that?") Inoue-san was a very interesting person, who even sang a few songs right there for the crowd. Afterwards I found out that I won the raffle for her to sign something of mine, so I had to head over to the dealer room to buy something for that purpose. After turning up empty-handed looking for the poster I wanted, I got a pencil board with the same image. I also got a CD in case she's unable to sign the laminated surface of the pencil board. Plus I wanted the CD. ^_^ Now I'm hanging out at the room before the ImproDinner, which I need to head over to in a few minutes.
$$$ spent
$60 - Room
$5 - Pencil Board
$43 - AMG CD
Quote - "All functional weapons such as crossbows, throwing knives/stars, bows, boomerangs, darts, rocket launchers, tazers(stun guns), etc., are prohibited." - Part of the AX weapon policy.
Friday4:30pm
Well I'm sitting in the second row for the first American showing of the Ah Megamisama (Ah! My Goddess) movie after sitting in the sun for an hour and a half. Can't really complain though since my friends camped out since a little before 1:00. It'll be worth it though, especially since the only people in the front of us'll be the GoH's and creators of the movie.
I got Inoue-san to sign my pencil board which looks really nice and I've gotta find a frame for it when I get home. With that and my similar posters of Skuld and Urd I'll have some nice wall hangings. If I can get those other two signed at some point in the future I'll be mightily happy, but I expect that won't happen anytime soon.
ImproDinner last night was nice though not many people showed up. Rutt and Rags were fairly much like I expected them, take that however you want. And for some reason I thought Calc would be taller though.
Last night I had to sleep on the hotel window-sill, which makes it odd that it was one of my better nights sleep in a while.
$$$ spent
$15 - Dinner
Sleep
9 hours
Saturday 9:30pm
Where to begin? How about at the high point of yesterday after my last entry? With the AMV contest. It was a great contest, if a bit predictable with the audience reactions. The audience in these things almost always goes with their favorite anime, often because it's so hard for casual AMV watchers to spot some of the really technical stuff in one viewing. Granted it's hard for myself too, but at least I look beyond the anime used and the simple theme. One rather annoying thing about the contest was the video which one Best Comedy and Best of Show. It was a video which did a lot of editing to make it appear that Spike was tracking down and then fighting Vash. There was nothing wrong with the video, in fact it was extremely good, but the annoying thing was what it did to one of our ideas. We had planned on doing a similar AMV with Spike and Vash 'fighting' to Dueling Banjo's. Most of my friends fell the idea is shot dead, but I'll have to talk them out of that. Anyway, my friends who I thought were lost just showed up and we're gonna go down to see the Blood movie so I'll talk about the rest of the day when I get back.
$$$ spent
$10 - Breakfast
$10 - Tenshi ni Narumon LD
$40 - Hameln CD
$25 - Nadia DVD
Saturday 11:30pm
Well Blood was a pretty good movie, if a bit devoid of plot. Granted it was only an hour-long movie, but it seemed like the start of a series more than a movie. It was nice not having to stand in line though. We actually walked in right as they started the pre-show, a short Kero-chan flik, with him chasing some takoyaki. It was oddly reminiscent of the old Warner Brothers shorts. I did miss the Masquerade though, because we only managed too get 4 tickets and other people wanted to go. From the sound of things though, I didn't really miss all that much, except for Inoue-san singing during judging, but I may go ahead and buy the tape just for that.
On another note, I got to meet the infamous W4 on my way to see Blood. Didn't get to talk long but he seemed like a nice guy.
Final Thoughts
All in all AX was a fun trip, but I may not go next year. The whole thing seems just a bit too big too me. Too spread out, too much to do, too many people, too commercial. Too big is a really good way to describe it actually. My friends and I are also getting a bit turned off of the contests for AMV's, so our efforts might start swinging away from that end to just be more fun light-hearted stuff. We'll see on that end. Anyway, that ends this long post from me, we'll see when my next one might be.
$$$ Spent
$273 - Total
Sleep
Uhh... I lost track somewhere. ^_^; More than I expected to though.
Wednesday 1:45pm
Road Trip!
Got up at 7:30 today after only 6 hours of sleep. Despite that, I was pretty psyched, as I was going to AX later today. I spent a while finishing up all that packing stuff and then sat around waiting for my ride to show up. He finally did at around 9:30 and we (my brother and I) loaded up his van with our stuff. Then it was over to another friends house to shift stuff around so everyone could better fit in the two cars and we set off. I managed to secure the whole back seat of the van to myself, which wouldn't have been possible if Vern hadn't managed to make it on Wednesday with the rest of us. We only got lost a few times, since our Co-Pilot/Navigator had trouble reading the road signs. Understandable really, but we'll still mock him for the rest of the trip. ^_^ I managed to finish my book in the car a few hours later. I've recently been re-reading some of my Piers Anthony collection before I sell them off to a used book store to make room for more books. The books seem... not quite as good as I remember them. Anyway, I'm currently listening to the only Beatles CD I brought, while spread out in the back seat. I'll probably catch some more sleep in a bit, since we're only half way.
P. S. - It's bloody hot down here!
Quote - "You don't need to be clean, you're OTAKU!" - to my friend who was making us later by taking a shower.
Thursday 7:30am
The First Morning
Well it's the first morning and all ready my ugly sleep schedule rears it's ugly head. Went to sleep at 11:30 last night and woke up at 2:00am for half an hour. Then after I fell asleep, I woke up again at 5:30. Fell asleep again another half hour later and finally woke up completely at 6:30 when the rest of the group woke up. Opening Ceremonies starts at 10:00 so some people went off to get our line standing practice in. ^_^;
Last night was nice. After we finally arrived at about 3-3:30ish we checked into the room (10th floor. Wah!) and then wandered off to get our badges. 3 wrong turns later we finally found the line (Line #1). After that was over we went out for food to the local Denny's then came back to the room to hang out. The fireworks over Long Beach were nice, and we had a great view from the 10th floor window, but watching the crowds of people crossing the intersection afterwards was more fun by far. Then we all watched some TV and crashed.
$$$ spent
$50 - Con Registration
$15 - Dinner
Sleep
6 hours
Quote - "Belldandy says "You will soon have your wished come true." (In bed.)" - Anime Expo fortune cookie.
Thursday 6:30pm
Well Opening Ceremonies was very nice, even if it did start 45 minutes late. Nice Guests of Honor and an interesting new feature I hadn't seen before, a virtual MC. They have in the backstage or a side room a girl hooked into sensors so that her every move is registered and projected onto the main screen. It's still a littler rough (the girl seems to have problems hearing the audience and kept talking over applause) but it was certainly an interesting effect. After introducing the GoH's the voice actor school that's at the con came out and did a short piece along with some of the GoH's. Including Inoue Kikuko (Belldandy, Kasumi Tendou), and Kawakami Tomoko (Utena, Noelle). After OC, I ran over to stand in line for the Inoue Kikuko panel. Waited to hours after getting one of my friends to bring me over some food. The panel was nice, with some good questions (Who is your favorite character you've played? "I like them all too much to decide.") some stupid questions (Will you merry me? "... No.") and some odd questions. (You've been quoted as saying you wanted to live like a banana, what did you mean by that? "Where did you hear that?") Inoue-san was a very interesting person, who even sang a few songs right there for the crowd. Afterwards I found out that I won the raffle for her to sign something of mine, so I had to head over to the dealer room to buy something for that purpose. After turning up empty-handed looking for the poster I wanted, I got a pencil board with the same image. I also got a CD in case she's unable to sign the laminated surface of the pencil board. Plus I wanted the CD. ^_^ Now I'm hanging out at the room before the ImproDinner, which I need to head over to in a few minutes.
$$$ spent
$60 - Room
$5 - Pencil Board
$43 - AMG CD
Quote - "All functional weapons such as crossbows, throwing knives/stars, bows, boomerangs, darts, rocket launchers, tazers(stun guns), etc., are prohibited." - Part of the AX weapon policy.
Friday4:30pm
Well I'm sitting in the second row for the first American showing of the Ah Megamisama (Ah! My Goddess) movie after sitting in the sun for an hour and a half. Can't really complain though since my friends camped out since a little before 1:00. It'll be worth it though, especially since the only people in the front of us'll be the GoH's and creators of the movie.
I got Inoue-san to sign my pencil board which looks really nice and I've gotta find a frame for it when I get home. With that and my similar posters of Skuld and Urd I'll have some nice wall hangings. If I can get those other two signed at some point in the future I'll be mightily happy, but I expect that won't happen anytime soon.
ImproDinner last night was nice though not many people showed up. Rutt and Rags were fairly much like I expected them, take that however you want. And for some reason I thought Calc would be taller though.
Last night I had to sleep on the hotel window-sill, which makes it odd that it was one of my better nights sleep in a while.
$$$ spent
$15 - Dinner
Sleep
9 hours
Saturday 9:30pm
Where to begin? How about at the high point of yesterday after my last entry? With the AMV contest. It was a great contest, if a bit predictable with the audience reactions. The audience in these things almost always goes with their favorite anime, often because it's so hard for casual AMV watchers to spot some of the really technical stuff in one viewing. Granted it's hard for myself too, but at least I look beyond the anime used and the simple theme. One rather annoying thing about the contest was the video which one Best Comedy and Best of Show. It was a video which did a lot of editing to make it appear that Spike was tracking down and then fighting Vash. There was nothing wrong with the video, in fact it was extremely good, but the annoying thing was what it did to one of our ideas. We had planned on doing a similar AMV with Spike and Vash 'fighting' to Dueling Banjo's. Most of my friends fell the idea is shot dead, but I'll have to talk them out of that. Anyway, my friends who I thought were lost just showed up and we're gonna go down to see the Blood movie so I'll talk about the rest of the day when I get back.
$$$ spent
$10 - Breakfast
$10 - Tenshi ni Narumon LD
$40 - Hameln CD
$25 - Nadia DVD
Saturday 11:30pm
Well Blood was a pretty good movie, if a bit devoid of plot. Granted it was only an hour-long movie, but it seemed like the start of a series more than a movie. It was nice not having to stand in line though. We actually walked in right as they started the pre-show, a short Kero-chan flik, with him chasing some takoyaki. It was oddly reminiscent of the old Warner Brothers shorts. I did miss the Masquerade though, because we only managed too get 4 tickets and other people wanted to go. From the sound of things though, I didn't really miss all that much, except for Inoue-san singing during judging, but I may go ahead and buy the tape just for that.
On another note, I got to meet the infamous W4 on my way to see Blood. Didn't get to talk long but he seemed like a nice guy.
Final Thoughts
All in all AX was a fun trip, but I may not go next year. The whole thing seems just a bit too big too me. Too spread out, too much to do, too many people, too commercial. Too big is a really good way to describe it actually. My friends and I are also getting a bit turned off of the contests for AMV's, so our efforts might start swinging away from that end to just be more fun light-hearted stuff. We'll see on that end. Anyway, that ends this long post from me, we'll see when my next one might be.
$$$ Spent
$273 - Total
Sleep
Uhh... I lost track somewhere. ^_^; More than I expected to though.