Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Leave STL 8:00am. Am stoked. After two hours of cow county, am borrrred. We go over exactly what we’re going to see and who we’re going to meet. Get re-stoked. After two more hours, I start to get antsy and have a queasy stomach. Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t travel well. It gets hot in the car and rolling down the windows doesn’t help.
We finally roll into Mitsuwa after what seems like forever. We get there and go straight to the Hippo bakery. We had concerns that it might not have been wise to depend on Mitsuwa for our food hookup since it’s popularity and notoriety is growing amongst ACen attendees. We see some anime fans but they’re mostly attacking the ramen and Pocky. To each their own (I was worried about the daifuku). Grabbing some snacks to review and candy for our giveaway, we head over to the furikake section. We pick up a variety pack, get some nice instant udon and decide to head out.
Dave’s driving. We agree to cruise by a sushi restaurant we planned on going to. We go the wrong way, my bad, and just decide to come back to the restaurant after we check in at the hotel. We get back on I-90 and right into Chicago’s rush hour traffic T_T.
After an hour in traffic, Google’s f*’ed up directions and much finger pointing, we get to the Hyatt. After unloading, we all think that going back out into rush hour traffic would suck. Hard. So we order some Chicago style pizza. The pizza’s $32. I’ve never had it before and think $32 is a total rip-off. We get the pizza and I’m amazed. This thing’s HUGE! After we eat, we go down to the lobby and mingle. We hit the hay early, 10:00.
Friday, May 11th, 2007
Get up at 6:30. Am the only one awake. We, for some reason, had an adjoining room. Our neighbors were very excited about the con. They were up most of the night. Since the only thing separating us was a dinky door, I could and did hear their conversation almost perfectly. After I get up, I ask the front desk to move us. I mingle and hand out fliers. Some cosplayers, but not many. Go back to room. Collect the crew and head to the press room. Get there, pick up badges, talk to the ACen folks and finalize plans.
We head down to the reg hall to get a schedule. What greets us will forever stay in my mind: Huge disorganized lines snaking throughout the halls. Holy crap! I start handing out fliers like mad. People are pissed. I’m frequently asked if this is, in fact, the pre-reg line. I say I don’t know but I’ll find out.
We’re wearing our swank, The Anime Blog, t-shirts. A woman approaches me and knows my name. I stare at her blankly. She’s Julie from Manga Mania Cafe!! Cool. I discover this is the pre-reg line. I have a promise to keep and hunt down the folks who asked me if this was the line. I get us our schedules and buy the swag for the contest. We’re disappointed by the lack of 10th year swag. Kat behind the counter is very helpful and patient. Get swag, and go back to the hotel.
Dave and Chikashi head down to the OP Ceremonies. I head back to meet Carey at the Press Room. Go to Op Ceremonies after a brief “staff meeting”. Halfway through the ceremonies, we need to head outside due to a fire alarm. The IRT guys keep herding us towards the sidewalk where the building is and won’t let us cross the street. Great idea to have the attendees on the same side as the burning building. Turns out, there really was a fire. It was a small one in the kitchen.
Hand out more fliers, take more pics, and head back in. Go to panel “Way of the Lolita”. Meet panel head, Kuroloki Roku. She’s a very sweet, informed Aristocrat; it’s a pleasure to talk to her. Panel starts. Curiosity, another panelist, arrives halfway through. She’s an energetic loli who knows her stuff. It’s thanks to her and a panel ACen did last year that made me fall in love with loli style. Introduce myself to Curiosity after the panel. Invite her to write for the site. I really hope she does ^^!
Dave goes to ACen Idol and I mingle and take pics. I spot Greg Ayres and try to take his pic without bothering him (I’m not “that guy” so I didn’t want to be a salty ass and hound him). At 4:15 Chiakshi and I go to wait in line for Greg Ayres’ autograph for my cousin, Julie. But first, I tried to find some Chrono stuff for Greg to sign. Am not paying attention to booth signs and accidentally find myself at the yaoi booth after picking up numerous boy love manga without even knowing it. Can’t find anything Chrono. Looks like he’s signing my business card!
Talk to some awesome con goers in line. Get to have an autograph from Chris Ayres, Chris Patton and Greg Ayres. Sweet. This is my first time meeting voice actors. Nice guys. Greg says he saw me taking his pic (whoops! ninja class= fail). Says to catch up with him sometime later. No wonder Jules loves this guy!
We finally move our stuff into our new, quieter hotel room, which incidentally, is closer to the con.
The group then floats for a bit, mingles a lot, and then stands in line for Anime Hell. What a line! It was cold out there! Guys wearing president masks and brandishing hub caps cruise by and wave. They make another pass a little later. That was entertaining. We get good seats after a half hour wait.
What to say about Anime Hell? It’s crazy and wacky and just plain fun. Heino only made a token appearance this year, however. The best short, by far, was “Rolling Bomber Special”. Awesome.
After that, Midnight Madness; aw yeah. We didn’t get to bed till two thirty that night.
Saturday, May 12th, 2007
Crawl outta bed at 7:00. Head down to Artist Alley. Meet some awesome artists and interview them on digital recorder for the site. Go to Final Fantasy Cosplay panel.
Run into a group of fans from from STL on our way to a panel. Try to find Superflat panel but am delayed in getting there when I stop to take pics of an awesome Utena group (damn you, awesome cosplayers, you made me late all weekend!!) Learned much about Superflat art.
Mingle some more and hit the room for lunch. Do more interviews and get names of reps from companies.
We see cosplayers everywhere!! I can’t take pics fast enough. I see a Sailor Moon that looks like she was born Salior Moon. She looked like she rolled out of bed that morning and got dressed in her sailor outfit (not costume) and decided to check out the con for grins. She looked that natural. Saw an Asuka who looked the same way; natural and hot!
Regroup at hotel room. Head down to the Masquerade. See enormous line and am happy that so many fans will see it this year. Get inside and discover press is kinda screwed for pics. Head outside for interviews and to hand out fliers. Talk to some guys from Cincinnati. They’re pissed. They won’t come to ACen next year if there’s a frat party the same day. Wow. That says a lot… about ACen. Hell, frat parties are every weekend and Anime Central’s once a year. They were truly unhappy with ACen’s disorganization this year. I won’t go on too much about the Masquerade since I already ranted.
After Masquerade, we head out for dinner and to upload more pics. Went down to gaming room. We’re always amazed at the super fast DDR players. Kuh-ray-zee! See a group of Spartans…picture time! Inspiration sends a bolt from above: Group shots are good. Spartans are good. Lolitas are good. A group shot of Spartans versus lolitas would be great! Ahhh, but what looks good on paper doesn’t always work out in real life. The Spartans disappeared with a promise (more like a suggestion) that’d they’d show up before the Gothic Lolita show for the shoot. The lolis were game, but they had to work the show. Needless to say, that sweet group shot didn’t become a reality. Maybe next year…
We see a group of fans doing a jig in a corner on the lower level. They’re getting down to the Chocobo theme from FF. Cool. The band, The Spoony Bards, is rocking the place with their eclectic music. After listening to the band we decide to step it up and go check out the Soap Bubble.
The line is just starting to be let in so we jump on the end and manage to get in to watch the opening band, Plid. Chris Patton is in the band! I didn’t know he was in a band… Plid has the chops to bring down the house and they’re working the crowd like their lives depended on it. Their techno beats and keen vocals take me back to my Erasure/ Pet Shop Boys days. I’m not quite dancing but I’m still having a blast. And then they announce “We’re going to do a cover. Anyone who remembers this is ollllld.” The opening notes make me jump up and clap like a silly fangirl. They blast out the words to Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” and I’m rocking out to it like there’s no tomorrow.
Then I look up and see the blank look on people’s faces. I think to myself, “Really?!” I couldn’t fathom why they weren’t singing along and getting down. It hit me then, I’m old. Oh, well, they still played the song like they owned it, and I enjoyed it even if the “youngsters” didn’t. Plid was one of the most enjoyable acts I’ve seen in a looong time and they kept up their amazing energy and vibe for the entire set.
After an hour or so of hanging out at the Soap Bubble we take off. We wander the halls and settle in for more Spoony Bard goodness. At 2:30, I’m ready for bed. Hey, remember, I’m olllllld.
Sunday, May 13th, 2007
Sleep in till 7:00. To avoid the absolute insanity that will ensue at the noon check out time, we load the car up. My cousins knock on our door at 8:30 and Dave walks them to reg. Reg was supposed to be at 8:00. But when did “supposed to” ever stop anything from going wrong? They get there, are turned away once, then alternately told that reg was now at 10:00.
I’m now POed. Go down and discuss this problem with ACen staff. The cousins finally get through after much ado by IRT and we wait in line for the Gothic Lolita Fashion Show.
The fashion show was packed, and with good reason. This was one of the best events of the con. I’ll go into much further detail in a later post, but I’ll say this now; these lolis have their petticoats together.
Our group of staff and family head down to another important area of the con…the dealer’s hall. I don’t spend much at the dealer’s but I do lay some cash down at Artist Alley.
I interview one more artist and get details for a later interview from another. Take more pics.
Start to slur speech and realize I’m 30 minutes away from crashing. We leave the con at 3:00 and head to Mitsuwa for our on-road dinner.
That’s about the end of my personal con experience. I’ll be writing up all the panel coverage we did over the next week and get into some topics with more details. I once again would like to thank all the ACen volunteers for their efforts. Thanks!!
O jeez, $32 for a pizza… But it looks soo good.
I should really try going to a con sometime.
Hi Cousin!
Had fun on Sunday! I loved meeting the Red Vs Blue guys!
Thanks for posting the photo of Greg! He is such a cool guy.
I believe you win for most random picture of me at a con ever. I’m the one with the green backpack up in the Greg Ayres picture.
zoku88 – Yes the pizza was worth every penny. And I highly recommend going to a con – especially an anime one. The others aren’t nearly as cool!
Julie – It was awesome we got to all hang out. We have some photos for you BTW
Ann Packrat – Hello Ms. Green Backpack! Did you have fun at the con?
Rachel – Great writeup. When mine is written, I’ll post it too! I just have to come up with a different title…(goes off to brainstorm titles)
David: Yeah I did with minor annoyances. (Thus what I voted for in your all poll. ^_^) The disorganization sucked, but Nabeshin rocked. And people liked my Menchi.
I was in IRT for 2007 and the fire alarms werent set off by a fire, a con-goer with a costume that violated the hieght rules set by the convention (for this reason) smashed a sprinkler, and set off the alarm system. If anyone remembers it was the guys dressed up as the Moonanites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
@Cigarette, I spoke to an un-named source who commented that there was a small fire in the kitchen. It’s hard to get the proper info when you need it- thanks for the update ^^!
@Rachel
No problem, alot of rumors were flying about that, it was no wonder you got bad info. The hotel security and some gophers were saying there was a fire though T.T. No such luck.