Reviews, Opinions, and Findings of/at AWA 2006!

[AnImEmAnIaC]

so what did everyone think about AWA 2006? I personally thought it wasn't AS exciting as last year's AWA (altho i say that mainly because of the premier of ADVENT CHILDREN last yr)...but i still thought it was an amazing experience and im very glad i went all three days! OOOO and what did everyone buy at AWA? if any artwork...post it on this thread cuz i wanna see :) ill be sure to post mine too when i get it scanned in!

[Rurouni Saiyan]

In comparison with last year, I think it sucked:mad: Everything ran behind schedule and was disjointed. For instance, one of my friends stood in line for almost an hour to watch the Hellsing OAV, but got booted out to the second showing. Also, a friend and I entered a Smash Bros. Melee tourney, but that ran behind because of the Naruto tourney and had to change the rule to single elimination, rather than double. On top of that, we wasted 10 buck to fight our friends who came with us...something that we could have done at home for free. Didn't get a chance to go to the rave. And the anime selection was really subpar in the sense that everything show was stuff that I either didn't care about, I owned, or already have seen.

All in all, my friends and I paid 100+ bucks to hang out, watch subpar anime, and attend a low budget E3.:rolleyes: All I have to say is that whoever ran the show this year f'ed up royally. I know it aint easy to coordinate such a large event, but geez. I had more fun hanging with my friends in our rooms than we did at the actual convention.

*whew* I'm done.

[Khorell Nataz]

Well I can kind of agree with you both on both your points...

Great year last year, however there really wasn't anything must see like FF7:AC...just felt like something was missing. Still had some good times though.

And yes there was a lot of craziness going on with the schedule...what was up with that? And things were crazy even during the cosplay contest. What was up with that lol?

All in all I enjoyed myself...I won't say that it was super bad or super great. It was better in some areas but lacking in others. Hopefully the problems they had with the hotel, the schedule and other things will be fixed.

Oh and I wanted to make the AN meeting...but I went to the Manga Writing class...sorry all!

[Alex Kaldara]

In comparison with last year, I think it sucked:mad: Everything ran behind schedule and was disjointed. For instance, one of my friends stood in line for almost an hour to watch the Hellsing OAV, but got booted out to the second showing. Also, a friend and I entered a Smash Bros. Melee tourney, but that ran behind because of the Naruto tourney and had to change the rule to single elimination, rather than double. On top of that, we wasted 10 buck to fight our friends who came with us...something that we could have done at home for free. Didn't get a chance to go to the rave. And the anime selection was really subpar in the sense that everything show was stuff that I either didn't care about, I owned, or already have seen.
Do you remember what the Smash idiots did last year to the DDR and Guilty Gear tourneys? I don't wanna hear **** about being behind schedule.

[Rurouni Saiyan]

^ Could you refresh my memory as to what happened? I didn't hear much about the other tourneys from last year.

[Suiko Eiji]

Everything ran behind schedule and was disjointed.

I think there were a couple of reasons this happened. There was another convention/show in the Waverly/Gallaria up to this Friday. When they finished Thursday, their tech crew wasn't going to break down that equipment until Friday morning. AWA's tech and set up crew got most everything set up to where it needed to be by 2:00 AM Friday, but other rooms like the Ballroom weren't completley finished until 2:00 PM Friday. This also caused havoc with the reservations in the hotel as some people got bumped and moved.

Great year last year, however there really wasn't anything must see like FF7:AC...just felt like something was missing. Still had some good times though.

When the theatrical showing of Conqueror of Shamalla was planned, I think it was planned really early. The film was fansubbed early on and tons of people saw it that way, and I am sure the most hadcore fans already had FUNi's DVD that they were showing. Advent Children, however, was just recently fansubbed before the con, hence causing a larger draw to see the movie.

And yes there was a lot of craziness going on with the schedule...what was up with that? And things were crazy even during the cosplay contest. What was up with that lol?

The folks in charge of cosplay this year admitted they made mistakes at Closing Ceremonies and were going to try and improve upon it. I don't care much for the costume contests or anything like that, so I don't know what problems exactly went on during the actual contest show. A couple of friends of mine were in the contest and there were some appearent problems with pre-judging, such as the judges being an hour late due to schedule miscommunications.

I noticed that a lot of the bigger events started a little late (10 minutes at most) but I think a convention that size to have the only that amount of delay is still pretty good.


Oh and I wanted to make the AN meeting...but I went to the Manga Writing class...sorry all!

I was there all alone :cries:

Nah, it's cool; Suki's brother stopped by to say hi, but other than that, it was just me. Looking over the program finally, I didn't think there'd be the turn out we had hoped for just because there was far too much going on. I was quite pleased by the amount of events and diversity of topics, so I understand if people ducked out to those rather than a Meet-and-Greet. I'm kinda sad I missed one or two panels I wanted to go to because I was helping some friends set up for a party.

Some of the programming and planning glitches were unavoidable (such as rooms being added at literally the last minute, like for the Bebop Lounge) and some may have been a staffing issue but I think there were a few, what would have been minor mistakes and inconveniences, that kinda snowballed. By far, not their worst con in terms of operations, but some of the problems were noticable.

My personal opinion - my legs are still sore from all of the running I did, especially on Sunday having to move so much gear out of our room, down 10 stories, out to a car and get back to the room to check-out by noon. I'm not normally one to complain about elevators but this year there were, what I thought, serious issues both on the attendees and hotel's end. I think the hotel should have tried harder to get maintenance out there to fix the three or four elevators that were broken. Whoever designed the queue system for the elevators should probably look at re-writing it so full-to-the-brim elevators aren't stopping at *every* floor. People trying to get between floors 1-4 should only be using elevators to move luggage. I felt there were issues with the dealer's room, but I usually think there are issues with that in that not all of the vendors there deal in anime and manga. I saw a lot more manga there this year; though with all but one vendor selling English manga, it was hard for me to play deals off of different vendors for the one title I read in English.

Other than that, the other complaints I have are all merely personal - mostly people calling me and wondering where I am/come meet me, etc. Some of it got aggrivating, such as trying to vacate my room before check-out or when I'm in the middle of a panel. I'm kinda mad I didn't get to check out the classic anime room because there was some nice stuff in there I wanted to see and I missed practically all of the panels I wanted to go to on Sunday and Saturday night. But I missed all of this because I was busy with other things, so it's not like I was sitting around being bored. Some of the best moments I had were also personal, too, but the rest of the weekend was great and I had a great time.

[AnImEmAnIaC]

ok did anyone else go to Anime HELL friday night and expect something like AMVHELL?! cuz i certainly did and i was gravely disappointed by it...all they did was show this stupid crap...NONE OF IT WAS ANIME...after an hour I (along with more than half the ballroom) left...

[Suiko Eiji]

ok did anyone else go to Anime HELL friday night and expect something like AMVHELL?! cuz i certainly did and i was gravely disappointed by it...all they did was show this stupid crap...NONE OF IT WAS ANIME...after an hour I (along with more than half the ballroom) left...

Yeah, I went to Hell again this year. I didn't think it was as quite as good as last years; probably because the cut it from three hours to two and there just wasn't quite enough of some of the better material shown. I did enjoy the Segata Sanshirou karaoke that was played, which was new to me. There are some great videos that I've only seen once and wish I could see them again. At least we didn't have to watch Prince of Space again.

As far as the naming of it; sometimes there are anime thrown in there, many times not. I think since Totally Lame Anime was extended an hour into where Hell normally begins, Dave probably took some of the anime out of our Hell this year. The only AMV Hell I've seen which was anywhere remotely entertaining was AMV Hell 3. All other AMV Hells have paled in comparison to the original Hell. So, while it's not all anime, the name is a little bit of a misnomer in that it's mostly a tongue-in-cheek collection of videos meant to either make people go insane or leave the room.

I'm upset that our only Heino footage didn't include "Blau blueht der Enzian", or one better, have some Heino included on the karaoke tracks.

If anyone missed it and are confused by the conflicting opinions between myself and AnImEmAnIaC, I suggest checking out Anime Hell.org (http://www.animehell.org) and check out some of the videos they have posted there - typical Hell fanfare and make your own opinion. But then again, I'm biased in that I've been to Hell for six years straight and can't imagine going to AWA without going to Hell.

[Alex Kaldara]

^ Could you refresh my memory as to what happened? I didn't hear much about the other tourneys from last year.
Smash spit on the faces of everybody and delayed the DDR and GGXX#R tourneys for over 2 hours. The DDR tourney was held really late that night because of it, when everyone was winding down and being tired. And then, after that, the Guilty Gear tourney was held even later. It was terrible. This year's gaming delays were nothing, although the DDR tourney cancellation/ITG fake tourney was really awful.

[Suiko Eiji]

^What was the reason the SSB tourney took so long? Did the rounds just take too long to eliminate all of the participants?

[Alex Kaldara]

^What was the reason the SSB tourney took so long? Did the rounds just take too long to eliminate all of the participants?
Last year, they had like... 1-on-1 and team battles, all double elim or some crap.

[Khorell Nataz]

Yeah some of the stuff was good. I went to check out unlicensed anime as well on Sunday.

Blazing Transfer Student might possibly be the baddest thing on the planet lol...I can't remember the last time somebody got beat to death with rhetoric lol....

[Milky Mixer]

I had a good time overall, especially with regard to the actual activities at the con. My biggest complaints are mostly non-con-related, like the ridiculously overpriced $13 breakfast bar that featured runny scrambled eggs, grits, and little else. Also, the legendary "southern hospitality" was nowhere to be seen, and I'm not speaking from the con-goers who I'm sure came from all over. I'm talking about with regard to the local folks, from the woman at my hotel's front desk more interested in her personal call than in checking me in to the shuttle service drive who told me he expected a tip when he handed me my bag. But anyway, didn't come here to *****... this time...

Sorry I missed the AN meet up, and I feel so bad you were the only one who showed, Suiko Eiji. I went to the Tofu Records panel at 6 and planned to sneak out at 6:30 and come downstairs, but as with many of the events and panels, things started super-late due to technical difficulties with a projector. Time got away from me and I did wander downstairs to the meetup site about 7 or so, but no one was to be found. Ah well... sorry.

As for what I got up to at the con... enjoyed the panels I attended: Fans Before Time, Forgotten Silver, Dark Horse, Tofu, and Eva Impact. The one panel I was disappointed in was Unlicensed Extravaganza, if only because after sitting in the classic anime vid room til 2 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning watching the Old School Classroom, I'd had enough of Prince Planet and a lot of the older shows (which is really odd since that's one of the things I love about cons... the chance to see stuff like the Dirty Pair movie... I guess I was just hoping for more of a mix of "unreleased classics" as well as new series that might be "under the radar" like Simoun). Of course, my favorite thing to do at the cons is just sit and watch anime and I caught a LOT of stuff I either liked or loved. On the like list: the Dirty Pair movie, the silly boy gets turned into girl Kashimashi, and the surprisingly good Gun/Sword. On the loved list: Rozen Maiden and the yuri sci-fi Simoun (neither of which are licensed... sigh, now I have to wait). On the somewhat disappointed list: Ergo Proxy, which looked incredibly smooth and gorgeous and which I thought was going to have a really intriguing storyline but instead just seemed sort of slow and dark (though that Re-L chick's blue eyeshadow looked hot!). On the hated it list: some new show from ADV about a little girl school teacher? So yeah, had the chance to go to some cool panels and see some cool shows, too. I would have really liked to have seen SSX, the sequel to Arcadia of My Youth, but it was stacked against the Dark Horse panel and although Carl Horn sometimes comes across like a bit of a know-it-all, some of his observations are really quite keen and true and I enjoy his panels overall. (Of course, the chick having a full-on conversation on her cell phone at regular speaking voice for several minutes right in the middle of the panel was a bit annoying.)

Other than the non-con related gripes (who charges $13 for runny scrambled eggs??), I guess I was a bit disappointed in the Dealers Room. They had tons of cool stuff, just none of the cool stuff I was looking for and tonight after I got home I spent about $250 that I'd brought back from the con buying online the stuff I'd hoped to find in the Dealers Room. My other gripe: really seemed like a lot of things didn't start on time. I had no idea about the issues with the Opening Ceremonies room, I just thought someone was lazy and didn't bother to setup in time... I wandered around until 11 or so and just assumed the Opening Ceremonies wasn't gonna happen afterall. I thought, well, I'll kill another hour and then the Dealers Room will open at 12... and then that didn't open until after 1. So I thought, perfect, I can catch Voltron at 12 instead... but the classic anime room was also having tech problems - the poor guy couldn't get the projector to work, then no one could get the lights turned off, so we were watching Voltron with the lights on and people who wandered in after-the-fact kept saying "Why don't they turn off the lights?" Then they called some tech people from the hotel and instead of getting the lights in the anime room to go down, the lights next door in the gaming room kept going down. And then the technical problems with the Tofu panel... yeah, it really seemed at times things were kind of disorganized or just not working right, but all in all, I had a good time and I got to see some cool anime and that's really what it's all about, right?

[Khorell Nataz]

What the deuce? We were at the same panels lol....

YES! Cell phone chick was RUDE lol...I thought someone might have hopped up and resorted to violence.

I didn't do anything because I was reading Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service...I wonder if it will catch on.

It's funny though...perhaps we should all post the events we went to. I bet we all ran into, passed by or threw random junk at each other sometime during the weekend lol.

Yeah the Unlicensed Extravaganzawas a little lame...still Blazing Transfer Student or whatever it was looks like it would be really funny lol.

How can you deny the power of The Railway Punch lol?

Oh as for panels and such I went to:

Cartoon Network's Panel
Manga Writing
Dark Horse Panel
Anime Hell
Cromartie High School Showing
Cosplay Awards
A few others...will have to come back to me...went all over lol.

Give props to the old timer coming through as a certain alchemist lol. That took freakin' heart. It's good to see people of all ages enjoy anime and manga.

[Milky Mixer]

I was going to go to the Cartoon Network panel but never made it... Did they reveal anything interesting?

[Khorell Nataz]

No not really. They talked about the guy from Outkast (Andre 3000 I think) getting his new show on CN. They also talked about plans for Jetstream. It was more or less kind of talking about the goings on of CN...

Perhaps they had more info, however most of the questions were "WTF you butchered my fav shows dood" "bring back _ _ _ _ "etc etc lol...they had a guy who does edits for several shows and they kept getting after him for a bit lol.

You didn't really miss too much...if anything I'd call it more of an "hey we are CN, this is what we do, we have some stuff coming up" sort of thing.

Not bad or boring, just nothing to get too hype about. The new show isn't my cup of tea, however I could see some people liking it.

[kiyomi]

Give props to the old timer coming through as a certain alchemist lol. That took freakin' heart. It's good to see people of all ages enjoy anime and manga.

Yeah..give a round of applause to us OLD TIMERS for getting into anime. :naughty:

[Milky Mixer]

Yeah..give a round of applause to us OLD TIMERS for getting into anime. :naughty:

I'm 31 and actually enjoy a lot of older (read 70s, 80s) anime and when I go to cons these are the types of panels and viewings I tend to gravitate towards, as well as the industry panels. In a way I guess I feel like I "missed out" on a lot of them because I was too young at the time when people were trading videotapes of whatever they could get their hands on. As a kid in the 80s I guess I understood the concept of what anime was and of course had seen Voltron, Robotech, Battle of the Planets, Mysterious Cities of Gold, etc. and knew that these shows had a different look and style to them, and I owned a few videos (Harmageddon, Fist of the North Star) when video stores actually created an anime section on their shelves in the 90s. But I'd rather go old school and check out the Dirty Pair movie than go with whatever's trendy at the moment, like Naruto or whatever. Not saying Naruto is a bad show, it just doesn't appeal to me as much as some of the older stuff does... Guess those titles have a bit of "mystery" about them, having always heard the titles "Dirty Pair" or "Harlock" or having a Viz single issue comic book of "Cobra" as a kid and now I have the chance to really explore a lot of these things that seemed so vague and alluring as a kid.

As for CN, I personally don't care much for their non-anime stuff and even the anime-inspired Boondocks. I think so much of their "original" or "American" programming (not sure what the right term is) like Aqua Happy Meal Force or whatever it's called is so sophomoric and cynical and, well, lame. I wish they'd return to having a stronger anime lineup... shows like Big O and Outlaw Star.

[Alex Kaldara]

Oh yeah, sorry about not attending the AN meet. The gathering occurred DURING a Risembool Rangers meet with Vic Mignogna. >__>

[Rurouni Saiyan]

I tried to get there, but I got held up due to some craziness in my hotel room. Namely due to the large Nintendo DS party my friends and I had, via Bomberman and Tetris.