AnimeNEXT Overdue Post!
Hey all! I know it's been awhile since AN, but all things considered, this is faster than normal, right? :D
As of a couple days ago, Deanna and I had some kind of wierd short flu - not con flu, though. Thought it was from the stress.
Despite not having nearly enough sleep this con, and too many people in my house (next year I'll just have to divvy up work/driving more or something) - I still had tons of fun!
THURS
Stef came the earliest, and since everyone was behind schedule, she had to deal with just me and my family for a while. Poor thing. Finally
Nicole, Erica, Venus, and Amanda came on the same bus. And I thought *that* was a lot of people orz We had fun, but unfortunately Venus and Erica had to finish their costumes on the sewing machine til late at night. The start of not enough sleep.
FRI
We decided to get up early since we wanted our badges just in case. We probably didn't need to be there that early, but better safe than sorry. I was Suki, Venus was Toph, and Abi was Sokka from Avatar, and Erica and Amanda were in adorable yukata/kimono, DAMN THEM >:(
Unfortunately, Friday was mostly running around finding people and taking cosplay photos. Like amazing Yugioh costumers, and some people from Soul Eater. It wasn't hard to spot a Hetalia group as soon as we got inside. Also the best Sango I've ever seen...SHE IS SANGO! And speaking of amazing cosplays, the best Princess Tutu group I have EVER seen, *and* they were en pointe O_____O We did make a quick trip to the artists' alley, and ran into some Avatar cosplayers, and later a Zuko who posed with us.
Also, a Digimon group! I didn't realize just how much I love it til I saw this group XO "YOU'VE! GOT! MAIL!!"
Right after, we ran into Guillermo! He was helping his friend Bee in the alley, who had some super cute art. And cuz he's a super-nice jerk, he had gifts for ichiP!: he gave Erica a Samurai Champloo art book, I forget what he got Venus, he got Michele a Trunks plush, and I got an SOS-dan pin and a Konata cell charm! <3 It was like anime Christmas come early. Thank yooooou Guillermo! :D
In the afternoon, we finally met up with SLA (Jessica, Melanie, Lara, and her brother Sebastian), who we had planned a skit with. Actually, they planned the skit with our input, and we were worried about how it was going to pan out, what with no group practice beforehand - but as you'll see later it worked out just fine. :) Using our ~NEW SPEAKERS~, we practiced a lot and gave everyone in our vicinity a taste of the masquerade XD After registering for the masq, we had missed the Hetalia panel, so we went a bit early to our own panel room, where we kind of learned how to play "go". I still suck XO
Our panel, "anime through the generations" (about how different generations react to the anime craze), was great! We had a lot of input from the audience, especially some older gentlemen who talked a lot (normally you want to stay away from those types at anime cons!) but these guys had valuable, insightful input. Everyone was really great and it was a great success~
Unfortunately, our next panel, "Cosplay Do's and Don'ts", was not so successful. I had written down talking points, and Venus had a lot of ideas too, but since almost no one in the audience participated, we were through them in like 15 minutes o_O It got awkward real quick. Well, we got through the panel somehow...
At one point we went outside to take some photos of our Avatar costumes. We got sidetracked by taking awkward prom pictures, but eventually we decided to fight over Sokka, dunk each other, propose to each other, and take a srs bzns photo.
On another note, it was Erica's birthday and we were hungry, so we found a neaby Applebee's and bought her her first alcoholic drinks! 8D Well, legal drinks, anyways (what? She visits D.R. and Canada sometimes!) There were a couple other birthdays, and after the first couple staff singing episodes, Erica wasn't expecting anything, even with all of our not-so-subtle winks to the waitress. She got so happy afterwards she cried! *hugs*
After that we came back and farted around til hentai time. We found a great Gorillaz cosplayer; then we ran into Fred, who of course was on staff, and into a girl who was turning 18 at the midnight start of the hentai! Yay, her frst proper mass hentai! Unfortunately, she only stayed for Bible Black: an oldie but a hilariously bad goodie. Now, as good as Bible Black is for sporadically splitting genitalia and adorably unwearable uniforms, right after was "Viper GTS". We had never heard of it so we had low expectations. WRONG. First, it was 3 episodes so the animation and character design was SUPER-cute. Then, wait for it, IT HAD A PLOT. A plot that made you CARE and remember NAMES. In fact, on occasion - seriously! - it sacrificed porn for plot. Unfortunately we were all exhausted, and we didn't know that it was only 3 eps, so we left after episode two. When we had free time on Sunday we found the last episode and watched it with bated breath XD Oh, Ogawa, I'm so proud of you! <3
SAT
We would have slept in but Amanda had a panel on Yukata at 9am @_@ She said she was nervous but I don't believe her, it went really well! I learned a little bit more than I had so it was all good. Erica was a perfect little model XD
This was the premiere day of Four Swords Link! :D We found some other Links too ^_^ And a great South Park little group. Michele arrived around the middle of the day and we worked to fix the remaining parts of her costume. We met up with SLA again and rehearsed choreography some more, in addition to going to actual stage rehearsal and then craftsmanship judging. Here's Lara and Jessica in their Geass costumes from the skit. I also got a brief glimpse of Deanna in her adorable Haruhara Haruko costume. By then, it was time for the Paradise peach performance, which we were pretty curious about. Lo and behold, when we get there it was rescheduled for an hour earlier when we were busy! Darn. I wonder how we would have acted anyway, what with our baseless venomous rivalry XD
Then it was time for Nicole's panel, "Restricted Rock-Paper-scissors" based on the game in Kaiji. Unfortunately we had to be at masquerade green room 15 minutes after her panel started, so we couldn't help like we had promised (we didn't know this til about a week beforehand) and Amanda and Deanna helped instead. The turnout was waaaay more than she had expected (and she worked her butt off just trying to get the cards she was planning for together) and so it was hard to keep track of everyone. Apparently. Well, according to Amanda it went well, but Nikki Downer thought it just went okay :P
In the green room - which doubled as an overflow room, WTF? - they had the live video feed with the traditional pan-and-scan of the crowd for interesting things to occupy the audience while they were waiting. I was seriously flabbergasted when an L and a Light cosplay started to shamelessly make out, much to the deafening screams of fangirls. Sometimes I really can't stand fandom, ya know? -_-;;
The masquerade itself was only okay, with a few outstanding skits. One that had been performed before was an amazingly choreographed skit from xxxHolic, and a similarly awesome Utena one. Venus' friend (and I guess now Michele's BFFAEAE too XD) Mario was in a skit, and they actually used the words "Anime's Best Dance Crew" in their dialogue. We were fake!angry, and when Michele went to tell him about it, he said something equivalent to "Okay then, BRING IT".
Well, apparently ours wasn't so bad either. When we had the first few beats of "Tell Me" play, the crowd went bonkers - evidently it's popular? o_O We had a couple messups but it was still fun. Then afterwards, not really expecting anything (at least on my part), I first win an honorable mention for my workmanship on my Link costume! o_O WHA?! It's not a complex costume! That was awesome enough....then, Venus wins BEST NOVICE for workmanship! 8D The prize was a bunch of costuming supplies....and oh yea, a free membership to CostumeCon 2010. WHOOOOOORE. I haven't been to a CostumeCon in FOREVER and my Mom's friends practically run the thing! T^T Curse you and your craftsmanship, Venus! Curse yoooou!
Oh yea, P.S., did I mention we won first place for performance? Not grand prize, but hell, I wasn't expeting anything!! XO We were sooo obnoxious in the greem room OTL Worth it though, as Venus keeps putting it, "we cleaned up this year".
I had a small breakdown when we needed to get some food, but it was resolved quickly (and in the middle I was pumped up by an Ouendan/Elite Beat Agent member!) and we went to McDonald's for ourselves and poor Abi who was trapped in the LARP room all day and night. We wanted to go to the rave, but we were too exhausted and just went to the hentai dubbing, which was only so-so. Don't worry, Erica, next time we'll go to the rave if it kills us! >:O
SUN
We were so happy with our success in Four Swords Link we wanted to wear the costumes again. Somehow we thought it was a good idea to wash all of them in the morning. Since we had to do 2 loads (red and blue can't go together), it was impossible, even with my Mom's ample help. Venus quickly pulled together her Sunday!Haruhi (6-ponytail version, and later going WOW~) and we attempted to bring the costumes with us in hopes they would dry later. Twas not to happen, sigh. Some of us were successful, though, and later on I got a nice picture of Amanda dressed like a whore - no, really! We also ran into Mario again, who today was an enthusiastic Phoenix Wright.
As a result of our costume crisis we were a bit late for our morning...okay, afternoon..panel, and we were held up right before we got to the parking lot by, you guessed it, a flock of frickin' geese walking across the road! >:(((( The panel itself was "Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions" and we had a HUGE turnout, like 50 people. Josephine and co. held the panel room before us and we thought she had been lying XD
The conversation got really spirited and it went GREAT, the best out of all of them. Next year we wanna try for a 2 hour panel instead!
We FINALLY got to the dealer's room, where we all spent a bit of time, and Venus almost bought a Shiek figure. The rest of us stayed while Venus, Michele, and Fred played Magic. NERDS. XD And because Erica, too, is a nice jerkette, she got me a strawberry-themed Rilakkuma cell charm! <3 I think ALL my cell charms by now are gifts~
Some more cosplayers:
Persona 3, thank Erica for this XD
Windmill Man
Zant? Gant? Fant? I DUNNO I FORGOT
Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji
...someone from a video game..?
Orenji XD
Emperor!LeDouche
Zero!Lelouch
IROH!
An Eureka 7 cosplay...
And now a Eureka/Anemone pair
Erica & Rourke
Erica & Persona people, again
A *male* Edward Elric, and Riza Hawkeye
Aang actually played by a young boy
Mallon
Modest!Winry
C.C.
Beatmania people!
That was the end of the con, really. Everyone left at different time Stef made a killing you alley machine! and we waited with Michele at the shuttle dropoff. While waiting there were 2 ninja cosplayers. One left and we thought the leftover ninja looked sad and lonely, and Erica wanted to give him a hug....so we basically dared her to do it and had a gigglefest when she did.
We came home and had the best meal I've had in a while...mmmmm lasagna.....*drool* And we sat outside on the porch discussing my newfound love Hetalia (I am so ashamed) and racism XD Later we found the emotionally satisfying end to "Viper GTS" and me and Nicole watched some Boosh together til we fell asleep.
MON
We finally got enough sleep, and fudged around, Nicole leaving first. Also watched pretty much all of the Hetalia anime. So bad, but so good...nee nee papa, wain wo choudai! On the way out I introduced Venus and Erica to the wonders of Great Wall Supermarket, my nearby haven for cheap japanese food and snacks. Dropped them off at the bus stop, and finally, I was ALONE <333 I love you all, but it was nice to be alone again.
THE END.
Also, at some point a couple of us are cosplaying different versions of Italy from Hetalia.....and when I took this quiz, I inevitably got Italy XD God why am I only useless characters XD
As of a couple days ago, Deanna and I had some kind of wierd short flu - not con flu, though. Thought it was from the stress.
Despite not having nearly enough sleep this con, and too many people in my house (next year I'll just have to divvy up work/driving more or something) - I still had tons of fun!
THURS
Stef came the earliest, and since everyone was behind schedule, she had to deal with just me and my family for a while. Poor thing. Finally
Nicole, Erica, Venus, and Amanda came on the same bus. And I thought *that* was a lot of people orz We had fun, but unfortunately Venus and Erica had to finish their costumes on the sewing machine til late at night. The start of not enough sleep.
FRI
We decided to get up early since we wanted our badges just in case. We probably didn't need to be there that early, but better safe than sorry. I was Suki, Venus was Toph, and Abi was Sokka from Avatar, and Erica and Amanda were in adorable yukata/kimono, DAMN THEM >:(
Unfortunately, Friday was mostly running around finding people and taking cosplay photos. Like amazing Yugioh costumers, and some people from Soul Eater. It wasn't hard to spot a Hetalia group as soon as we got inside. Also the best Sango I've ever seen...SHE IS SANGO! And speaking of amazing cosplays, the best Princess Tutu group I have EVER seen, *and* they were en pointe O_____O We did make a quick trip to the artists' alley, and ran into some Avatar cosplayers, and later a Zuko who posed with us.
Also, a Digimon group! I didn't realize just how much I love it til I saw this group XO "YOU'VE! GOT! MAIL!!"
Right after, we ran into Guillermo! He was helping his friend Bee in the alley, who had some super cute art. And cuz he's a super-nice jerk, he had gifts for ichiP!: he gave Erica a Samurai Champloo art book, I forget what he got Venus, he got Michele a Trunks plush, and I got an SOS-dan pin and a Konata cell charm! <3 It was like anime Christmas come early. Thank yooooou Guillermo! :D
In the afternoon, we finally met up with SLA (Jessica, Melanie, Lara, and her brother Sebastian), who we had planned a skit with. Actually, they planned the skit with our input, and we were worried about how it was going to pan out, what with no group practice beforehand - but as you'll see later it worked out just fine. :) Using our ~NEW SPEAKERS~, we practiced a lot and gave everyone in our vicinity a taste of the masquerade XD After registering for the masq, we had missed the Hetalia panel, so we went a bit early to our own panel room, where we kind of learned how to play "go". I still suck XO
Our panel, "anime through the generations" (about how different generations react to the anime craze), was great! We had a lot of input from the audience, especially some older gentlemen who talked a lot (normally you want to stay away from those types at anime cons!) but these guys had valuable, insightful input. Everyone was really great and it was a great success~
Unfortunately, our next panel, "Cosplay Do's and Don'ts", was not so successful. I had written down talking points, and Venus had a lot of ideas too, but since almost no one in the audience participated, we were through them in like 15 minutes o_O It got awkward real quick. Well, we got through the panel somehow...
At one point we went outside to take some photos of our Avatar costumes. We got sidetracked by taking awkward prom pictures, but eventually we decided to fight over Sokka, dunk each other, propose to each other, and take a srs bzns photo.
On another note, it was Erica's birthday and we were hungry, so we found a neaby Applebee's and bought her her first alcoholic drinks! 8D Well, legal drinks, anyways (what? She visits D.R. and Canada sometimes!) There were a couple other birthdays, and after the first couple staff singing episodes, Erica wasn't expecting anything, even with all of our not-so-subtle winks to the waitress. She got so happy afterwards she cried! *hugs*
After that we came back and farted around til hentai time. We found a great Gorillaz cosplayer; then we ran into Fred, who of course was on staff, and into a girl who was turning 18 at the midnight start of the hentai! Yay, her frst proper mass hentai! Unfortunately, she only stayed for Bible Black: an oldie but a hilariously bad goodie. Now, as good as Bible Black is for sporadically splitting genitalia and adorably unwearable uniforms, right after was "Viper GTS". We had never heard of it so we had low expectations. WRONG. First, it was 3 episodes so the animation and character design was SUPER-cute. Then, wait for it, IT HAD A PLOT. A plot that made you CARE and remember NAMES. In fact, on occasion - seriously! - it sacrificed porn for plot. Unfortunately we were all exhausted, and we didn't know that it was only 3 eps, so we left after episode two. When we had free time on Sunday we found the last episode and watched it with bated breath XD Oh, Ogawa, I'm so proud of you! <3
SAT
We would have slept in but Amanda had a panel on Yukata at 9am @_@ She said she was nervous but I don't believe her, it went really well! I learned a little bit more than I had so it was all good. Erica was a perfect little model XD
This was the premiere day of Four Swords Link! :D We found some other Links too ^_^ And a great South Park little group. Michele arrived around the middle of the day and we worked to fix the remaining parts of her costume. We met up with SLA again and rehearsed choreography some more, in addition to going to actual stage rehearsal and then craftsmanship judging. Here's Lara and Jessica in their Geass costumes from the skit. I also got a brief glimpse of Deanna in her adorable Haruhara Haruko costume. By then, it was time for the Paradise peach performance, which we were pretty curious about. Lo and behold, when we get there it was rescheduled for an hour earlier when we were busy! Darn. I wonder how we would have acted anyway, what with our baseless venomous rivalry XD
Then it was time for Nicole's panel, "Restricted Rock-Paper-scissors" based on the game in Kaiji. Unfortunately we had to be at masquerade green room 15 minutes after her panel started, so we couldn't help like we had promised (we didn't know this til about a week beforehand) and Amanda and Deanna helped instead. The turnout was waaaay more than she had expected (and she worked her butt off just trying to get the cards she was planning for together) and so it was hard to keep track of everyone. Apparently. Well, according to Amanda it went well, but Nikki Downer thought it just went okay :P
In the green room - which doubled as an overflow room, WTF? - they had the live video feed with the traditional pan-and-scan of the crowd for interesting things to occupy the audience while they were waiting. I was seriously flabbergasted when an L and a Light cosplay started to shamelessly make out, much to the deafening screams of fangirls. Sometimes I really can't stand fandom, ya know? -_-;;
The masquerade itself was only okay, with a few outstanding skits. One that had been performed before was an amazingly choreographed skit from xxxHolic, and a similarly awesome Utena one. Venus' friend (and I guess now Michele's BFFAEAE too XD) Mario was in a skit, and they actually used the words "Anime's Best Dance Crew" in their dialogue. We were fake!angry, and when Michele went to tell him about it, he said something equivalent to "Okay then, BRING IT".
Well, apparently ours wasn't so bad either. When we had the first few beats of "Tell Me" play, the crowd went bonkers - evidently it's popular? o_O We had a couple messups but it was still fun. Then afterwards, not really expecting anything (at least on my part), I first win an honorable mention for my workmanship on my Link costume! o_O WHA?! It's not a complex costume! That was awesome enough....then, Venus wins BEST NOVICE for workmanship! 8D The prize was a bunch of costuming supplies....and oh yea, a free membership to CostumeCon 2010. WHOOOOOORE. I haven't been to a CostumeCon in FOREVER and my Mom's friends practically run the thing! T^T Curse you and your craftsmanship, Venus! Curse yoooou!
Oh yea, P.S., did I mention we won first place for performance? Not grand prize, but hell, I wasn't expeting anything!! XO We were sooo obnoxious in the greem room OTL Worth it though, as Venus keeps putting it, "we cleaned up this year".
I had a small breakdown when we needed to get some food, but it was resolved quickly (and in the middle I was pumped up by an Ouendan/Elite Beat Agent member!) and we went to McDonald's for ourselves and poor Abi who was trapped in the LARP room all day and night. We wanted to go to the rave, but we were too exhausted and just went to the hentai dubbing, which was only so-so. Don't worry, Erica, next time we'll go to the rave if it kills us! >:O
SUN
We were so happy with our success in Four Swords Link we wanted to wear the costumes again. Somehow we thought it was a good idea to wash all of them in the morning. Since we had to do 2 loads (red and blue can't go together), it was impossible, even with my Mom's ample help. Venus quickly pulled together her Sunday!Haruhi (6-ponytail version, and later going WOW~) and we attempted to bring the costumes with us in hopes they would dry later. Twas not to happen, sigh. Some of us were successful, though, and later on I got a nice picture of Amanda dressed like a whore - no, really! We also ran into Mario again, who today was an enthusiastic Phoenix Wright.
As a result of our costume crisis we were a bit late for our morning...okay, afternoon..panel, and we were held up right before we got to the parking lot by, you guessed it, a flock of frickin' geese walking across the road! >:(((( The panel itself was "Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions" and we had a HUGE turnout, like 50 people. Josephine and co. held the panel room before us and we thought she had been lying XD
The conversation got really spirited and it went GREAT, the best out of all of them. Next year we wanna try for a 2 hour panel instead!
We FINALLY got to the dealer's room, where we all spent a bit of time, and Venus almost bought a Shiek figure. The rest of us stayed while Venus, Michele, and Fred played Magic. NERDS. XD And because Erica, too, is a nice jerkette, she got me a strawberry-themed Rilakkuma cell charm! <3 I think ALL my cell charms by now are gifts~
Some more cosplayers:
Persona 3, thank Erica for this XD
Windmill Man
Zant? Gant? Fant? I DUNNO I FORGOT
Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji
...someone from a video game..?
Orenji XD
Emperor!LeDouche
Zero!Lelouch
IROH!
An Eureka 7 cosplay...
And now a Eureka/Anemone pair
Erica & Rourke
Erica & Persona people, again
A *male* Edward Elric, and Riza Hawkeye
Aang actually played by a young boy
Mallon
Modest!Winry
C.C.
Beatmania people!
That was the end of the con, really. Everyone left at different time Stef made a killing you alley machine! and we waited with Michele at the shuttle dropoff. While waiting there were 2 ninja cosplayers. One left and we thought the leftover ninja looked sad and lonely, and Erica wanted to give him a hug....so we basically dared her to do it and had a gigglefest when she did.
We came home and had the best meal I've had in a while...mmmmm lasagna.....*drool* And we sat outside on the porch discussing my newfound love Hetalia (I am so ashamed) and racism XD Later we found the emotionally satisfying end to "Viper GTS" and me and Nicole watched some Boosh together til we fell asleep.
MON
We finally got enough sleep, and fudged around, Nicole leaving first. Also watched pretty much all of the Hetalia anime. So bad, but so good...nee nee papa, wain wo choudai! On the way out I introduced Venus and Erica to the wonders of Great Wall Supermarket, my nearby haven for cheap japanese food and snacks. Dropped them off at the bus stop, and finally, I was ALONE <333 I love you all, but it was nice to be alone again.
THE END.
Also, at some point a couple of us are cosplaying different versions of Italy from Hetalia.....and when I took this quiz, I inevitably got Italy XD God why am I only useless characters XD