Jeikobu
October 8th, 2006, 01:31 PM
Yesterday, my brother, sister, and I went to our very first anime convention! It was awesome. Next year, we definitely are going to pre-register so we don't have to pay as much and can stay for all three days at the hotel (we also will have to try cosplaying).
But even so, the one day we spent there yesterday was well worth the $25 per person. It was quite an interesting feeling walking into a building filled with fellow anime fans (some good, some grossly disturbing, but thankfully there didn't seem to be too many of them). See all the different cosplayers was really exciting. We saw people cosplaying as Vash and Wolfwood (Trigun), Edward, Mustang, Hawkeye, and even Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist), and many various Naruto characters (there was even someone dressed as the Akatsuki member with the flytrap head!). There was even a woman who had to easily be in her 50s that cosplayed as Edward from Cowboy Bebop (proof that anime spreads to many ages)! One I enjoyed a lot was when we took a picture of three young teens dressed very well as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. They got into the personalities of the characters very well, too. My favorite though was probably when we observed a woman dressed as Sakura of Cardcaptor Sakura, and the person next to her had a big, full body Kero-chan costume. Those kind of costumes must be so hot inside, but it looked great, and he really captured Kero's personality. One of the neatest things was how he made so many people smile, from a cute very young kid (who was dressed as Naruto XD ^^) to adults. Yeah, I still don't know exactly what God wants me to do with CCS yet (see the thread I made a short while back in the Anime General form), but I still love it, and the cosplayers where excellent.
After registering, we decided to explore the place and see what there was (of course, we first needed to get a program with the scheduling, which sadly wasn't very helpful). Our top priorities coming in were to see the Fullmetal Alchemist movie showing, meet the director Mizushima Seiji-san, and meet VA Michael Dobson (voiced Saya in the English dub of the 3rd Inuyasha movie, as well as Blob, Pyro, and Caliban in X-Men Evolution). We found out when everything was, and then just browsed around until it was time for the first thing of importance. The upstairs wasn't incredible, but I thought it was cool how there were two rooms for watching anime. There was also a video game room, and two card playing rooms. I think there was also some sort of contest room, since there were a lot of people gathered, and most were chanting "Chouji! Chouji! Chouji!", referring to someone one in the room on a small stage dressed as Chouji of Naruto.
We soon went to check out the Dealer's Room, and I swear it was the most crowded, packed part of the convention. You could lose yourself in there. ^^; But it was awesome. Anime DVDs, VHS tapes, manga, wall scrolls, figures, keychains, magazines, candy, and just about any other collectible you can think of. My sister bought an Edward Elric keychain and I bought her an FMA art book that she desperately wanted, and told her she could pay me back later. My brother and I didn't get anything sadly (lack of money), but next year we should be much better prepared.
I think it was around then that we went to the main event room and watched the first good handful of AMVs in the contest that was being held. They were excellent, and very well made. However, before it was even halfway through we had to leave to go meet Michael Dobson. My sister and I stood a distance away (I took some pictures with the camera feature on our cell phone) as we watched my brother grin ear to ear as he meet one of his favorite VAs. Dobson seemed like a very nice, friendly person. Later my brother proudly showed us the autograph he had received from him. Even now, I look back on that as one of the biggest highlights of the day.
After that we just killed time in a Starbucks (my sister was thirsty) before getting in line for the FMA movie, which would take place in the main event area after the AMV contest was finished. After it was over, people came pouring out and we were then allowed in to grab some seats and wait for showtime. Thank God, we got some excellent up close seats, despite the many people who attended the showing. We rocked out to the sound of the 2nd FMA opening theme, "Ready Steady Go", playing on the speakers as we awaited the movie. Then, before the start, the director of the entire FMA anime, Mizushima-san, was introduced on the stage. He got a huge applause from everyone. Then we were ready for the movie. Sadly, this is where the big disappointment of the day landed for me. It had been sounding more and more like the movie would be shown subbed, or maybe even raw, but go figure, it was should dubbed. Instead of watching, I just read through our program book, glancing up occasionally. Yeah, I was a party pooper, but I made the mistake of getting my hopes high only to have them crushed, a second time (the first time was when my brother and I saw the movie in its limited theater release, so two times missing out on the Japanese version on a big screen with a great atmosphere made up of many fellow anime fans celebrating the big event was really discouraging). Worse yet, the Japanese version is apparently being shown today, but we didn't know in time (despite our efforts to find out ahead of time), and even so, we don't have the money to pay for tickets for another day. ><;;; On the bright side, my brother and especially my sister really seemed to enjoy the movie, and my sister was glad to have seen both the sub and the dub. If nothing else, I can view the movie at home on DVD (I still have the rental from Netflix until my LE arrives), but I cling to the hope that someday I'll be able to enjoy it on a big screen with an atmosphere like the ones at the theater or at NDK.
After the movie, fans were allowed to line up and ask Mizushima-san questions. I participated, asking about what he thought of the Japanese VAs themselves, what he thought of them in comparison to the dub, and if there was anything he would change. As he spoke through a translator, he sounded very content with both sub and dub, though he noted that the biggest problem with dubs is not being able to translate things as well, due to the differences in languages.
Now, it was finally time to meet the director in person. We lined up back in the lobby area, and all three of us met Mizushima-san and received his autograph. Now I have to get it framed! ^^ I spoke what Japanese I knew to him, and he seemed to find it neat that I'm learning the language. My brother and I also met and received autographs from two major people (Sato Yuzo-san and Umehara Takahiro-san) in the big-name anime company, Madhouse. They, like Mizushima-san, were very friendly people. Madhouse CCO Maruyama Masao-san was also there, but not available for autographs.
Finally, we decided it was time to head back (it was easily around 6 PM, and we were hungry and pretty tired from the big day). Really, this was a fantastic experience, one I can't wait to re-experience next year. I can't wait for another year to roll by so we can go again, and this time, we should be much better prepared. What can I say, we've been bit by the anime convention bug! ^^
Did anyone else go? Sorry for the giant post BTW. ^^;;
But even so, the one day we spent there yesterday was well worth the $25 per person. It was quite an interesting feeling walking into a building filled with fellow anime fans (some good, some grossly disturbing, but thankfully there didn't seem to be too many of them). See all the different cosplayers was really exciting. We saw people cosplaying as Vash and Wolfwood (Trigun), Edward, Mustang, Hawkeye, and even Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist), and many various Naruto characters (there was even someone dressed as the Akatsuki member with the flytrap head!). There was even a woman who had to easily be in her 50s that cosplayed as Edward from Cowboy Bebop (proof that anime spreads to many ages)! One I enjoyed a lot was when we took a picture of three young teens dressed very well as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. They got into the personalities of the characters very well, too. My favorite though was probably when we observed a woman dressed as Sakura of Cardcaptor Sakura, and the person next to her had a big, full body Kero-chan costume. Those kind of costumes must be so hot inside, but it looked great, and he really captured Kero's personality. One of the neatest things was how he made so many people smile, from a cute very young kid (who was dressed as Naruto XD ^^) to adults. Yeah, I still don't know exactly what God wants me to do with CCS yet (see the thread I made a short while back in the Anime General form), but I still love it, and the cosplayers where excellent.
After registering, we decided to explore the place and see what there was (of course, we first needed to get a program with the scheduling, which sadly wasn't very helpful). Our top priorities coming in were to see the Fullmetal Alchemist movie showing, meet the director Mizushima Seiji-san, and meet VA Michael Dobson (voiced Saya in the English dub of the 3rd Inuyasha movie, as well as Blob, Pyro, and Caliban in X-Men Evolution). We found out when everything was, and then just browsed around until it was time for the first thing of importance. The upstairs wasn't incredible, but I thought it was cool how there were two rooms for watching anime. There was also a video game room, and two card playing rooms. I think there was also some sort of contest room, since there were a lot of people gathered, and most were chanting "Chouji! Chouji! Chouji!", referring to someone one in the room on a small stage dressed as Chouji of Naruto.
We soon went to check out the Dealer's Room, and I swear it was the most crowded, packed part of the convention. You could lose yourself in there. ^^; But it was awesome. Anime DVDs, VHS tapes, manga, wall scrolls, figures, keychains, magazines, candy, and just about any other collectible you can think of. My sister bought an Edward Elric keychain and I bought her an FMA art book that she desperately wanted, and told her she could pay me back later. My brother and I didn't get anything sadly (lack of money), but next year we should be much better prepared.
I think it was around then that we went to the main event room and watched the first good handful of AMVs in the contest that was being held. They were excellent, and very well made. However, before it was even halfway through we had to leave to go meet Michael Dobson. My sister and I stood a distance away (I took some pictures with the camera feature on our cell phone) as we watched my brother grin ear to ear as he meet one of his favorite VAs. Dobson seemed like a very nice, friendly person. Later my brother proudly showed us the autograph he had received from him. Even now, I look back on that as one of the biggest highlights of the day.
After that we just killed time in a Starbucks (my sister was thirsty) before getting in line for the FMA movie, which would take place in the main event area after the AMV contest was finished. After it was over, people came pouring out and we were then allowed in to grab some seats and wait for showtime. Thank God, we got some excellent up close seats, despite the many people who attended the showing. We rocked out to the sound of the 2nd FMA opening theme, "Ready Steady Go", playing on the speakers as we awaited the movie. Then, before the start, the director of the entire FMA anime, Mizushima-san, was introduced on the stage. He got a huge applause from everyone. Then we were ready for the movie. Sadly, this is where the big disappointment of the day landed for me. It had been sounding more and more like the movie would be shown subbed, or maybe even raw, but go figure, it was should dubbed. Instead of watching, I just read through our program book, glancing up occasionally. Yeah, I was a party pooper, but I made the mistake of getting my hopes high only to have them crushed, a second time (the first time was when my brother and I saw the movie in its limited theater release, so two times missing out on the Japanese version on a big screen with a great atmosphere made up of many fellow anime fans celebrating the big event was really discouraging). Worse yet, the Japanese version is apparently being shown today, but we didn't know in time (despite our efforts to find out ahead of time), and even so, we don't have the money to pay for tickets for another day. ><;;; On the bright side, my brother and especially my sister really seemed to enjoy the movie, and my sister was glad to have seen both the sub and the dub. If nothing else, I can view the movie at home on DVD (I still have the rental from Netflix until my LE arrives), but I cling to the hope that someday I'll be able to enjoy it on a big screen with an atmosphere like the ones at the theater or at NDK.
After the movie, fans were allowed to line up and ask Mizushima-san questions. I participated, asking about what he thought of the Japanese VAs themselves, what he thought of them in comparison to the dub, and if there was anything he would change. As he spoke through a translator, he sounded very content with both sub and dub, though he noted that the biggest problem with dubs is not being able to translate things as well, due to the differences in languages.
Now, it was finally time to meet the director in person. We lined up back in the lobby area, and all three of us met Mizushima-san and received his autograph. Now I have to get it framed! ^^ I spoke what Japanese I knew to him, and he seemed to find it neat that I'm learning the language. My brother and I also met and received autographs from two major people (Sato Yuzo-san and Umehara Takahiro-san) in the big-name anime company, Madhouse. They, like Mizushima-san, were very friendly people. Madhouse CCO Maruyama Masao-san was also there, but not available for autographs.
Finally, we decided it was time to head back (it was easily around 6 PM, and we were hungry and pretty tired from the big day). Really, this was a fantastic experience, one I can't wait to re-experience next year. I can't wait for another year to roll by so we can go again, and this time, we should be much better prepared. What can I say, we've been bit by the anime convention bug! ^^
Did anyone else go? Sorry for the giant post BTW. ^^;;