Anime North 2010
I'm putting on hold a lot of critical thinking about writing so I can write. I think that is a pretty good long term strategy if I could get into it.
Being enveloped by sweaty nerds for 3 days is usually the highlight of my year. This time was lacking some of the normal drama that comes with it, but that's just because our crew was cut down. This year the only participants of the He Man Woman Hater's Club to go to Anime North were myself and Wes. Ties with Casey and Shannon were cut. The War Scooch I assume was kidnapping Mario's princess so it was a bit less of a club atmosphere and a lot more exploring on your own.
The ride up was about a million times worse because we went via bus and if you've ever traveled on a bus for 5 hours you'd know that it has all the qualities of a sleeping in your high school friend's basement on a couch with a spring sticking out. To up the ante a bit, Wes decided it would be a good idea to sit next to the washroom. So about every half hour I got a good whiff of chemical toilet. It was accentuated by my dancer legs being bumped into as they dangled ever so whimsically over the arm rest while I tried to find a comfortable passing out position. Still, for all those problems it was mostly harmless. I watched the Fantastic Mr. Fox which is a great movie if you've never heard of it. If you have heard of it, I think it would still meet expectations.
We got to the hotel and it was a wonderful sight again seeing all these nerds congregating in one area. Dressed as their favorites characters, simulators locked in simulation. They would hedge at intervals usually with like minded people and oh and aw and be in love with one another. I get the feeling it was like Woodstock from a different perspective. Maybe Woodstock for people with low self esteem. Woodstock with people who crave attention in lieu of sex, drugs and rock and roll. I like going just as a set of eyes to observe all this. I've never really entertained the thought of dressing up. Attention kind of frightens me, and moreso in this environment where the people are all awkward and over-compensating all weekend. Still, I must admit that as the years have gone by I have entertained the idea more and more. I think in a lot of ways I feel separate from the people there, and for good reason. But the more and more I go I think my separation from them is killing my fun to a certain degree. Well, regardless, I think some year I will.
Back on track here, Friday was the beginning and it was quite the beginning. I would like to clear up a misconception now, namely that Anime Conventions are full of ugly nerds. While they are in abundance there is a myriad of ridiculously attractive girls wearing practically nothing the entire weekend. You can look in any direction and for every 2-3 obese Narutos there is at least one girl who even Joe Sportspack would glomp. I'm not sure where all these girls are hiding while they're not at the con but I really need to get out more I think.
We got off to a good start by running into the Dr. Pepper party van! I could rock out to "Iron Man" while these dudes poured me free Dr. Pepper.
Rock on. Anyway, the first order of business is always the dealer room. I only had one purchase in mind for the year and that was Monster on DVD. I bought it right away for 60 bucks. In the future, I'm sure I will regret this as this particular release is only 15 episodes and I'm sure they'll release another box set for the same price with twice as many episodes, then three times, then just the entire series. But hey, you have to spend money to make money. That said, I really found myself NOT wanting to spend money. There were no spears or action figures bought this year, sadly.
Wes bought some weird Japanese gore dramas that are apparently making their way to America in abundance. Oh and Burst Angel which I still don't really care for even after two years of Shannon pimping it on me. In the evening, we went to Boston Pizza where Wes was freaking the hell out because our server would disappear in 20 minute intervals. He was brought a hamburger with a salad but wasn't given any condiments or anything. So after 10 minutes he got a waitress to bring him a fork and some ketchup and mustard. As we were sitting there I heard a noise and looked over and the mustard was gone. This waitress just ran by and took it without asking or anything. Then she did the same with the ketchup. Long story short, no tip was given.
Back at the convention we went to visit Stephen (a guy I work with who is SO an anime fan that he just reeks of it) at his 4chan panel. This was valuable to me on so many levels. Here, I got to see the absolute cellar of the internet. Both digitally and in human form. The room was soooo hot, to start out with. As soon as the panel began it just became 'random nerd shouts out internet meme' ad nauseum. Meanwhile Stephen would click on pictures of internet memes and people would laugh at stuff they've already seen. I lasted for about 10 minutes before I had enough of that. So then we opted to go to the Sheraton which was the house for such abominations as Yaoi North and those haunting ball jointed dolls. I peeked in on the Street Fighter IV tournament and quickly realized I would be eaten alive if I participated, but I was ok just watching for a bit. On the other side of the room this nerd was doing the barrel breaking SF game. I have no idea why they had a tournament for that but they did. Once he beat it he decided to tell me all about it in his high pitched voice. "That was my first time ever doing that" "Oh, well good for you" And that was about how much time I gave him. Wes started to wander out but I stayed behind and was watching the barrels then I hear "Fox do a barrel roll, barrel roll, barrel roll, Fox do a..." and I turn around and that kid was staring RIGHT at me singing this song. I lost it, and was laughing in his face and then stumbled outside to catch up with Wes still guffawing. Weird.
That was pretty much Friday night. I believe Wes made me watch the live action Death Note movie. Meh.
Saturday is the apex of the convention really. All the nerds are here, all day there's stuff going on and you will be lucky if you escape un-hugged. For us, it was a lot more time in the dealer room, that is when we weren't ailing from the Kelsey's food. That stuff did a number on us. Anyway, they had Wrestling yet again this year. I was promised Jyushin Thundr Lyger at an earlier date and they failed to deliver hard. Still, the wrestling is always a lot of fun. There are some really terrible wrestlers, but there were some that were great as well. I'll post some pictures here.
Scorpion getting taken out by Ryu and Ken
Mario cutting a promo
Uh oh! Lex Luthor brought out a Nazi to attack Mario and steal the princess!
This was pretty golden. Luthor put up the Princess' freedom in a Battle Royal. Mario was the first entrant but got eliminated right away. Then Luigi came in (which was just Mario in a different shirt) and got the win after the last guy belly flopped on the corner and Mario got under him like he was a question box and jumped up into him (complete with sound effects). Then he threw a fireball in Luthor's face. I loved it.
Austin (formerly Consequences) Creed was there and he probably did the best job of any wrestler of maintaining his gimmick and totally embracing the anime audience. He used pocky as kind of a crowbar to open up the way. This included taking a beatdown on the floor, then eating pocky to fuel his hulk up. Turns out he's a huge nerd I guess. I kept seeing him in the dealer room (hard to miss the huge black guy with an afro in his underwear....well, actually that's not so unusual but still). He was sporting a cut-off Mario World t-shirt on Sunday which I found pretty hilarious and apparently Wes was by him as he bought FFXIII figures.
There's a picture for reference.
Anyway, that was pretty much Saturday, we watched UFC at night, not eventful at all. I had alcohol and it didn't even really do anything for me sadly. We wandered around the games and stuff again, then retired to the hotel as Wes explained how roleplaying works in waaaaay too much detail.
Sunday is always a day of immense sadness. My mood, too, was affected via the below mentioned goings on. Still, I ended up spending some money to pick up 40 episodes of Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl as well as the complete Wolf's Rain. Some more random pics because Sunday didn't have much to do.
I couldn't decide if I found this Warcraft troll girl hot or not. Then she did the troll dance I realized what the internet had done to my sexual preferences
Three Keyboard cat moon girl, though...Man, I didn't want to sex her up, I wanted to marry her. Instead I couldn't even take a steady picture of her :-( I think the moral is, glasses + nerdy shirt = Scott's in love
That was Anime North in a nutshell. I ended up going to bed at 5 PM on Sunday (rock on, I know) and then I didn't sleep all night, instead choosing to watch a Billy the Exterminator marathon and write that iPhone post. I'm sad that it's over and even a little sadder because I felt like I could've done more with the time but let myself get down over things I have no control over. But there's still next year :-)
I may steal some of Wes' pictures and post them on here later with some more details. That was Anime North 2010, though. I wish it lasted for all times!
Being enveloped by sweaty nerds for 3 days is usually the highlight of my year. This time was lacking some of the normal drama that comes with it, but that's just because our crew was cut down. This year the only participants of the He Man Woman Hater's Club to go to Anime North were myself and Wes. Ties with Casey and Shannon were cut. The War Scooch I assume was kidnapping Mario's princess so it was a bit less of a club atmosphere and a lot more exploring on your own.
The ride up was about a million times worse because we went via bus and if you've ever traveled on a bus for 5 hours you'd know that it has all the qualities of a sleeping in your high school friend's basement on a couch with a spring sticking out. To up the ante a bit, Wes decided it would be a good idea to sit next to the washroom. So about every half hour I got a good whiff of chemical toilet. It was accentuated by my dancer legs being bumped into as they dangled ever so whimsically over the arm rest while I tried to find a comfortable passing out position. Still, for all those problems it was mostly harmless. I watched the Fantastic Mr. Fox which is a great movie if you've never heard of it. If you have heard of it, I think it would still meet expectations.
We got to the hotel and it was a wonderful sight again seeing all these nerds congregating in one area. Dressed as their favorites characters, simulators locked in simulation. They would hedge at intervals usually with like minded people and oh and aw and be in love with one another. I get the feeling it was like Woodstock from a different perspective. Maybe Woodstock for people with low self esteem. Woodstock with people who crave attention in lieu of sex, drugs and rock and roll. I like going just as a set of eyes to observe all this. I've never really entertained the thought of dressing up. Attention kind of frightens me, and moreso in this environment where the people are all awkward and over-compensating all weekend. Still, I must admit that as the years have gone by I have entertained the idea more and more. I think in a lot of ways I feel separate from the people there, and for good reason. But the more and more I go I think my separation from them is killing my fun to a certain degree. Well, regardless, I think some year I will.
Back on track here, Friday was the beginning and it was quite the beginning. I would like to clear up a misconception now, namely that Anime Conventions are full of ugly nerds. While they are in abundance there is a myriad of ridiculously attractive girls wearing practically nothing the entire weekend. You can look in any direction and for every 2-3 obese Narutos there is at least one girl who even Joe Sportspack would glomp. I'm not sure where all these girls are hiding while they're not at the con but I really need to get out more I think.
We got off to a good start by running into the Dr. Pepper party van! I could rock out to "Iron Man" while these dudes poured me free Dr. Pepper.
Rock on. Anyway, the first order of business is always the dealer room. I only had one purchase in mind for the year and that was Monster on DVD. I bought it right away for 60 bucks. In the future, I'm sure I will regret this as this particular release is only 15 episodes and I'm sure they'll release another box set for the same price with twice as many episodes, then three times, then just the entire series. But hey, you have to spend money to make money. That said, I really found myself NOT wanting to spend money. There were no spears or action figures bought this year, sadly.
Wes bought some weird Japanese gore dramas that are apparently making their way to America in abundance. Oh and Burst Angel which I still don't really care for even after two years of Shannon pimping it on me. In the evening, we went to Boston Pizza where Wes was freaking the hell out because our server would disappear in 20 minute intervals. He was brought a hamburger with a salad but wasn't given any condiments or anything. So after 10 minutes he got a waitress to bring him a fork and some ketchup and mustard. As we were sitting there I heard a noise and looked over and the mustard was gone. This waitress just ran by and took it without asking or anything. Then she did the same with the ketchup. Long story short, no tip was given.
Back at the convention we went to visit Stephen (a guy I work with who is SO an anime fan that he just reeks of it) at his 4chan panel. This was valuable to me on so many levels. Here, I got to see the absolute cellar of the internet. Both digitally and in human form. The room was soooo hot, to start out with. As soon as the panel began it just became 'random nerd shouts out internet meme' ad nauseum. Meanwhile Stephen would click on pictures of internet memes and people would laugh at stuff they've already seen. I lasted for about 10 minutes before I had enough of that. So then we opted to go to the Sheraton which was the house for such abominations as Yaoi North and those haunting ball jointed dolls. I peeked in on the Street Fighter IV tournament and quickly realized I would be eaten alive if I participated, but I was ok just watching for a bit. On the other side of the room this nerd was doing the barrel breaking SF game. I have no idea why they had a tournament for that but they did. Once he beat it he decided to tell me all about it in his high pitched voice. "That was my first time ever doing that" "Oh, well good for you" And that was about how much time I gave him. Wes started to wander out but I stayed behind and was watching the barrels then I hear "Fox do a barrel roll, barrel roll, barrel roll, Fox do a..." and I turn around and that kid was staring RIGHT at me singing this song. I lost it, and was laughing in his face and then stumbled outside to catch up with Wes still guffawing. Weird.
That was pretty much Friday night. I believe Wes made me watch the live action Death Note movie. Meh.
Saturday is the apex of the convention really. All the nerds are here, all day there's stuff going on and you will be lucky if you escape un-hugged. For us, it was a lot more time in the dealer room, that is when we weren't ailing from the Kelsey's food. That stuff did a number on us. Anyway, they had Wrestling yet again this year. I was promised Jyushin Thundr Lyger at an earlier date and they failed to deliver hard. Still, the wrestling is always a lot of fun. There are some really terrible wrestlers, but there were some that were great as well. I'll post some pictures here.
Scorpion getting taken out by Ryu and Ken
Mario cutting a promo
Uh oh! Lex Luthor brought out a Nazi to attack Mario and steal the princess!
This was pretty golden. Luthor put up the Princess' freedom in a Battle Royal. Mario was the first entrant but got eliminated right away. Then Luigi came in (which was just Mario in a different shirt) and got the win after the last guy belly flopped on the corner and Mario got under him like he was a question box and jumped up into him (complete with sound effects). Then he threw a fireball in Luthor's face. I loved it.
Austin (formerly Consequences) Creed was there and he probably did the best job of any wrestler of maintaining his gimmick and totally embracing the anime audience. He used pocky as kind of a crowbar to open up the way. This included taking a beatdown on the floor, then eating pocky to fuel his hulk up. Turns out he's a huge nerd I guess. I kept seeing him in the dealer room (hard to miss the huge black guy with an afro in his underwear....well, actually that's not so unusual but still). He was sporting a cut-off Mario World t-shirt on Sunday which I found pretty hilarious and apparently Wes was by him as he bought FFXIII figures.
There's a picture for reference.
Anyway, that was pretty much Saturday, we watched UFC at night, not eventful at all. I had alcohol and it didn't even really do anything for me sadly. We wandered around the games and stuff again, then retired to the hotel as Wes explained how roleplaying works in waaaaay too much detail.
Sunday is always a day of immense sadness. My mood, too, was affected via the below mentioned goings on. Still, I ended up spending some money to pick up 40 episodes of Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl as well as the complete Wolf's Rain. Some more random pics because Sunday didn't have much to do.
I couldn't decide if I found this Warcraft troll girl hot or not. Then she did the troll dance I realized what the internet had done to my sexual preferences
Three Keyboard cat moon girl, though...Man, I didn't want to sex her up, I wanted to marry her. Instead I couldn't even take a steady picture of her :-( I think the moral is, glasses + nerdy shirt = Scott's in love
That was Anime North in a nutshell. I ended up going to bed at 5 PM on Sunday (rock on, I know) and then I didn't sleep all night, instead choosing to watch a Billy the Exterminator marathon and write that iPhone post. I'm sad that it's over and even a little sadder because I felt like I could've done more with the time but let myself get down over things I have no control over. But there's still next year :-)
I may steal some of Wes' pictures and post them on here later with some more details. That was Anime North 2010, though. I wish it lasted for all times!