First off, just a reminder that I'll be announcing the three characters I'll be doing for the commemorative project on Saturday, along with the fate of the finished pieces. Don't worry if your character didn't get picked this time around, I'm still working the bugs out of a more thorough, more interactive project to be done at the start of next year.
I'm skipping comments today, but I'll answer the ones for last post (and this one) on Saturday.
Convention Report
Acknowledgments
Before I begin this report, I would like to thank Cassie Richoux, who's weekly Otaku Survival Guide articles on Theotaku.com for the month of September covered the convention experience. Without those tips, I would have been completely lost the whole weekend.
Also, I owe Kiki-tink a whole lot of gratitude and thanks for helping me get to the convention in the first place. Without her assistance, I never would have gotten there at all.
The staff of Tsubasacon deserve kudos for putting together a convention for the state of West Virginia (thank goodness someone beat me to it!). They also made my first convention experience a memorable one. Thanks guys and gals.
Thursday, October 4: Before the Convention
Actually, the convention doesn't start until tomorrow, but my Mom and I came down to Huntington a day early to find everything so we wouldn't be bogged down in the morning. It was a good thing we did that. The directions to the convention center, and to the hotel (that I got from Google maps) weren't 100% accurate, but we managed to find the hotel, and the convention center all right. We're planning an early start to hopefully get in without too many lengthy delays.
The hotel itself is nice, having worked in housekeeping before, I tend to over-analyze every detail of the room, so I won't bore you with all that stuff.
Friday, October 5: Tsubasacon 2007, Day One
The turnout this morning was surprisingly light as the 9:00AM open time, which made the process of picking up badges easy for preregistered attendees. Things were expectedly slightly unorganized, but flowed smoothly and without problems. A neat piece of swag for preregistered attendees is a t-shirt which I wasn't expecting, but still very cool.
After picking up the badge, I sat down with the schedule and program, planning out the whole weekend as best I could. I'm thankful for the recent articles on TheO's main page on conventions for that tip and others which helped me through the whole weekend. It spared a lot of stress and running around doing nothing. With the plan in place for the weekend, I took some time to get acquainted with some anime I've never seen before. Black Cat was playing in one of the video rooms, so I checked it out. It's a good show that I'm interested in following up on later when I have the finances to obtain the DVDs.
After Black Cat, I took my first trip through the vendors room, somewhat curious, and wanting to idle some time till the opening ceremonies. That was overwhelming to say the least. There was so much to look at it was mind boggling. There was stuff there I'd never seen before (a solar powered bobble-head being among the unfamiliar), some things I had, and one booth, that of Wizzywig Collectibles had a large selection of Pocky, some Japanese candy, and soda. That was the first of several trips through the vendors room, but it gave me a good grasp of the layout, and what types of items the different vendors had.
The opening ceremonies were an experience to say the least. The convention staff lacked organization and bumbled through the whole event. It lacked any sense of order and barely provided any information. I made a note of the issue and plan to bring it up on Sunday at the "convention gripes" after the closing ceremonies.
From the opening ceremonies, I went to Artist Alley, which was cool in and of itself. The quality of artwork that was there was absolutely astounding to say the least. Kind of lit a fire under me to maybe work harder to improve my own art skill. I did get a caricature type piece done by an artist there Alex Heberling. I think it looks cool. I don't know about you, but I think the likeness quite remarkable.
I did attend a panel on old school anime, and I made some notes in that panel to present to the convention staff on Sunday. The panel presenter came off as ill prepared for the job, though he was not helped by ambient noise from Random Battle Group in the next room and the Spoony Bards (a really good band, don't get me wrong) out in the hallway. The noise drowned out the presentor's voice, so he wasn't at fault for that, he did try to get the PA working, but a short in the mic cord prevented him from using it. He did get some basic old-school anime facts spot on, but his research seemed hurried, and absent of thorough details. It was an entertaining panel for me, I rather enjoyed recalling points that the presenter overlooked to my Mom who came with me.
I made another trip to the Vendors room, picking up a couple things so I'd have them. A couple flavors of Pocky, and some things for my nephews, niece, and sister. I found some other things of interest then headed into the ADR Directing Q&A.
The ADR Q&A was very informative. I couldn't take notes fast enough to effectively discuss in detail all the questions Patrick Seitz and Caitlin Glass answered, but I did learn that ADR directing is quite a demanding, but not well paying job (VA work itself is apparently not well paying, they don't get residuals at all, they're paid for the hours they work only), but in both cases, the guests indicated that they enjoyed the challenges of the job. They also explained the process of doing ADR, and how complicated it is. Even for the English dub, the Japanese studios still have to approve alterations that are made. I was able to get their autographs after the Q&A session, now that's cool.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures today. Taking pictures at a convention is very different than my usual subjects (trees, trails, tunnels etc). There are processes, and courtesies (not to mention laws) that must be taken into account, processes and courtesies that are unfamiliar to me. I saw some very interesting Cosplay today, a lot of very elaborate costumes, many of characters I couldn't identify. I know I promised lots of pictures, hopefully I'll get those tomorrow.
Saturday, October 6: Tsubasacon 2007, Day 2
Day two of the convention wasn't as stressful as day one. There were a few little hitches, but nothing as abrasive as what went on yesterday. I still have no photos of cosplayers unfortunately, as I mentioned yesterday, there are things I'm not familiar or comfortable enough with to attempt to shoot yet. At this point, all I can do is promise I will try again tomorrow. I did get some photos today though, I'll get to that in a moment though, I think you'll be surprised, so be patient.
First up on the agenda today was a Pocky panel, in which Pocky was discussed and sampled. I learned a few things about Pocky, but more importantly, I got to try a few flavors that were interesting. If you happen to get the chance to try the black sesame Pocky, do it, that one was good. Other flavors of interest were the dark chocolate (men's) Pocky, a winter chocolate Pocky, and a honey and milk Pocky, though we tried others as well. That panel also had us trying other things, like Poare, which in simple terms is a reverse Pocky (the filling is inside the biscuit stick). The banana was good, we also tried a milk Poare which was nice. Other convections we tried included Caplicos, and Happy Burgers which I liked in both cases. And I can't forget Pretz. We had sweet potato, tomato, salad, chocolate, shrimp, and roast, they all had unique flavors that can't really be described off-hand.
After the Pocky panel, and a quick trip through the Vendor's room idled time till the Voice acting Q&A which was as fun as the previous night's ADR directing Q&A. The crowds were a little quieter this afternoon, but it had it's high points. Patrick and Caitlin went through an FAQ session covering question's they're asked at every con which was nice. Like many VAs, they get asked by fans "how can I become a VA?" The answer wasn't really surprising. It went along with what other VAs have said on the matter, just watching anime doesn't give a person the qualifications to do voice work, and they suggested that acting, whether it be for community theatre, or in a college or high school class was a good start, that it would help, not only train the voice to emote well, but be a good source to learn how to take direction. Having been in theatre throughout high school myself, I can certainly appreciate that advice. It was a good panel to sit in on, very valuable.
Next up, I took an origami lesson, sounds simple right? Well, the piece (pictured) was a three part origami box that took all of the hour panel to make, and the teacher of the panel was Caitlin Glass. It wasn't all that intimidating to learn, Caitlin was a great teacher. As you can see, the final result resembles a box with a lotus decoration on the top. Honestly, I've never done origami as well as I did that piece, I think having someone actually explain the steps makes the process easier than trying to read off a piece of paper with crudely drawn diagrams. It was a challenging, and fun to do, I'd do it again if I had the chance.
I may not have gotten a lot of pictures, or really good entertaining ones, but I did manage to snag a gem that I thought you guys and gals would be interested in seeing. I got that one after the origami panel with a free moment. and I think this picture alone is worth the whole trip.
Sunday, October 7: Tsubasacon 2007, The Last Day
There was a bit of a scheduling snafu (pardon my language) today, apparently no one checked to make sure the times were aligned on the printed schedule, my Mom and I rushed to get to the convention at ten for a panel on the history of Toonami, only to find out it didn't begin till 10:30. Anyway, that panel was interesting since it filled in some of the gaps for me. I came into Toonami late in the game, so there was a lot I didn't know about it's early years. I think I came into Toonami just after Tom v. 2 came onto the scene (if anyone really knows what that means). I learned some things about the origins of the programing block (which always followed the premise of showing action cartoons, not specifically anime). The presenter was a little unprepared, but he did have some nice aids to his presentation, both audio and video which helped him along.
One last spin through the vendors room actually landed my a gem of an item. I don't believe I mentioned it before here, but I collect pocket watches. I found a vendor with a replica from Fullmetal Alchemist which I absolutely had to pick up. The neatest thing about it, the vendor took the time to have it set to the correct time before putting it on display which was completely unexpected.
At the end of the convention itself, the staff hosted a "gripe" session in which they sought feedback on the convention. As much as I hate to say it, that session, which was the staff's last chance to leave attendees with a good impression, didn't. The staff was very interested in getting the positive comments about the convention, but they pulled a classic West Virginia when it came to the "negative" feedback. There were some issues with Artists Alley being cramped, which I briefly mentioned earlier, the convention staff's response to those statements wasn't really positive. The same happened with concessions (there was no onsite food or drink vending other than two coke bottle dispensing machines), they passed the buck of not having concession onto the arena, which can't entirely be faulted. To make a long story short, Tsubasacon staff welcomed positive feedback, but had excuses to counter any statements that had to deal with issues. As with the other issues that came up for me, I noted that on the back of the exit survey with my other concerns. They can't hope to improve the convention if no one brings up concerns like these to them.
All in all, for my first convention experience, it was all right. I certainly did have a good time while I was there, and I learned a bit about anime that I didn't know before, and I got to see interesting people, great artwork, and so much stuff on which English was the secondary language. There were a few hairy moments, like when my Mom had to get the car out of this spot. The red Jetta was not in a legal parking space, there was a support column to the parking garage in spot, look at the paint line on the ground. Good thing my Mom learned to drive in New Jersey. There was also the, well, I don't know what it is sculpture thing in front of the arena. For three days I walked by that thing and still can't figure out what it's supposed to be. I suppose the convention experience could have been better, but I'm chalking up a lot of the negatives of my trip to the fact that it was my first time attending a convention. Since I've never been in that environment, there's a lot of things I don't know, and wasn't expecting. I am more than a little disappointed in myself that I didn't get more photos as pictures do indeed tell a story far better than words alone.
I'm going to make up for not having the photos I promised (I really don't like breaking promises I make), so to do that, I'm going to do, I have an image in mind that I'm going to do for you, but I'd like you all to choose the medium: wood, or paper. This is a majority rule system whichever gets the most votes, that'll be the medium I use. I'll give you all a couple weeks to decide, so by the end of October let me know and I'll do the piece in the medium you chose.
Now I'm open to questions.
