Monday, June 21, 2004

Ah, the once lost coolness of chats has returned.
With the glorious return of Karmi and Ken comes a new wave of Karmilicious and Kentastic AIM chats. Things have been kind of boring around AIM without 'em, and I just realized how empty it's all been last night while talking with them about unintentionally sharing sex toys and the deep bond such things can bring for two people.

So I've been spending more time online.

The past few weeks have been more about DanceDance Revolution and Final Fantasy X, but now that the most interesting people on the internet are back and better than ever, I have trudged back to this crappy delapidated chair, got out a popcorn bowl, and have returned to the novelty that is AIM Chats.

...Not to mention DDR and FFX have been a bit dull the last few days.

*ahem*

I've been giddy-as-a-schoolboy the past few days, for multiple reasons. I feel, for I have nothing else to talk about, a need to list these giddy-isms and rant for a while.

Reason 1: Anime Expo. Well, I bet a few of you could see this coming from a mile away. Anime Expo 2004 is just two weeks away (Less for some people, because they will be there on Friday and Saturday, *cough* Karmi), and I really can't wait to meet up with some of you OBers. That's right, you know who you are. *wink*

Last night I couldn't fall asleep because I was reminiscing about AX 2003, which was not only my first trip to a big convention (Anime Expo's the biggest anime convention in the US, I believe), but it was my first convention period. I had never been to any sort of convention, and I only learned about this one because of a thread on OB back when I was a little n00b of only 40-something posts. This happened, like, the night before Juuthena, Shy, and some others were all meeting there. Being an oblivious n00b, I thought I may fit right in with them, and ended up convincing my parents to take me to the Anaheim Convention Center.

I had everything planned out- what I wanted to do (Mainly the Yuki Kajiura concert), what I was going to wear.. All that stuff, you know? Well, unfortunately, I ended up waking up late. I found no point in going, considering the Kajiura concert was over and I knew nothing of the Trade Room, but we ended up abandoning my visiting grandmother alone in our house in favor of an anime convention.

I listened to the .hack OST on the way down, and found things to be rather hectic when we got there. I remember a gathering of a huge amount of cosplayers, the one sticking out in my mind the most being a really impressive Kakashi, Make-Out Paradise and all, but we ignored them and ran around for an hour trying to figure out where to get admission. We eventually got to the room, I put OtakuSennen on my little ID, which, because I was under 13, had Hamtaro on it, and we were on our way to the Trade Room.

I was in a state of ecstacy when we got there. Anime paraphenalia (God, am I spelling that right..?) as far as the eye can see, and a huge Evangelion poster thing hanging on the back wall. Right as you entered, there was the Viz booth, which had a little manga-reading nook, along with a ton of free sample manga, which got me hooked on Excel Saga. To the right was the Bandai booth, which was probably my favorite. They had demos of Grunty Racing in .hack//Mutation (I ended up talking to a nice girl cosplaying as Elk), a little table where you could learn to play .hack//Enemy, the whole Karaoke schtick, a big screen that was showing a medley of scenes from upcoming Bandai anime.. It was a really cool booth. I got a Witch Hunter Robin shirt for watching their little anime demo thing, and a really sweet Helba shirt for doing the .hack//Mutation demo.

Next to that was the Pioneer booth, which I don't remember having anything cool except for free decks of playing cards with Chobits, Lupin the Third, and many other popular titles on them.

On the other side of the Viz booth was the Tokyopop booth (You could just feel the tense rivalry between the two booths), which had a small little book of manga (Not as good as Viz's), but they were mostly just selling manga. Behind that was the Suncoast booth, which was doing drawings and contests, as well as selling DVDs.

There were tons of little website booths that had lots of cool free stuff, along with the Funimation booth (My brother got his Krillin action figure and DBZ manga signed by the US Krillin voice actor), and a place that sold extremely pricy import CDs that are probably the wrong regional coding to play on my walkman anyway, but it was a totally awesome experience.

I didn't go to any panels, though. I'm looking forward to that, but I still can't wait to hit the trade room and meet Karmi, Shin, and possibly Instant Ramen.

Don't forget to bring your cameras, guys. :P

Reason 2: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I don't really have anything new to say about this, except for that I hope that the stealth gameplay won't stay as outdated as MGS2 was, compared to Splinter Cell or Riddick or, hell, even Tenchu to some extent. The always-overhead-view thing bothered me, and I see that won't be too much of an issue in Snake Eater, but the AI doesn't seem as... Logical as it could be, with the stealth issue.



I mean, it's sort of obvious that Snake's there, isn't it? I'm just hoping that a guard won't see the shiny buckles on our hero's pants, walk over to you and admire the buckles without noticing you're there, leaving him open to a good bullet or two to the brain.

The camo is still going to be an awesome feature, but unless things are very close to perfect I won't be 100% satisfied with the game.



I'm afraid I'm going to lose track of where Snake is and accidentally try controlling one of the guards.. >.>

Reason 3: Shinmaru's new RPG- Apartment Building C. Once again, Shinmaru has risen from the grave and created another rare comedy RPG that's actually going to be good. It's such a simple backstory, but it has so many possibilities.. I really can't wait for it to start. Even if I don't get selected, I'm looking forward to just reading it.

And so, my friends, I leave you with an old Sennenese proverb: He who eats the last biscotti gets attacked by the rest of the Starbucks-addicted yuppies.
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