Thursday, September 7, 2006

   Anime Evolution: Day Three
Oh crap! I knew I forgot something for Day Two!!! It seemed like there was a huge gap of nothing going on for a reason: I ignored a voice actor panel I went to that day!

After the Shinsengumi photo shoot, storming the PMK room, and seeing Alistair, Keith, Cathy, and Trevor, we bummed around for an hour or so, probably going to a dealer room or something . . . but then AFTER that, I went with a couple other people to the Vic Mignogna/Michael Dobson/Brad Swaile panel!!! Alright, you should all know Vic Mignogna, you might know Brad Swaile (Quatre, Dearka, Nightcraweler) . . . Michael Dobson is one of like, four Dobsons in voice acting; he was Minister Darlian in Gundam Wing, Starscream in Transformers, Dryden in Escaflowne . . . neat guy.

So there were a lot of questions asked in general towards the guys . . . towards Vic especially. I dunno, I guess it was a real treat to have Vic in Vancouver; we really don't get the Texas guys up here very much, if ever. So yeah, he used his microphone powers a lot, telling a lot of anecdotes about other cons and such - for instance, there's a famous story about him, Scott McNeil, some autographs, and a couple of teenaged breasts. Look for it on YouTube or something. I think Vic also answered someone's cell phone at some point too . . . it was pretty good. Heh . . . I can't help it, the man totally stole the show (for better or worse, I'm not gonna judge), but people love the man. They were throwing him FMA plushies to play with and everything!

I, of course, had to ask my question . . . again, Vic had heard me ask it earlier to the previous panel, so he knew to laugh. So yeah, the word came out:

"Hypothetically . . ."

Vic starts laughing. A decent percentage of the audience starts laughing - they know what's coming next. On the other hand, another very decent percentage of the audience starts whining, "nooooo!" - they also know what's coming next. But it had to be done!

". . . who do you think would win in a fight between Scott McNeil and David Kaye?"

Funny enough, Brad Swaile was the first guy to give the McNeilinator some props.
"Maybe," he said, "if he got into Wolverine mode..." For the most part, though, David Kaye still wins.

So yeah, they made Vic read some "Shorty" lines they wrote, they made Brad do the "crazy Quatre laugh", Vic made his stance explicit that he doesn't like yaoi - "I'll say it for the record... Ed likes girls!" - annnd. . . yeah, fun session. There was more, but y'know . . . time and all. Alright, let's get onto day three already . . .





Morning three was an interesting morning, because this was perhaps the first time I woke up mostly after everyone in the house had already done so. I came upstairs to talk to my parents, my cousin, and maybe my brother (I forget if he was there or not). I was still wearing regular clothes, so that wasn't an issue at the moment; what WAS, though, was that I didn't have shoes anymore.

Well, the mother found me some black flip-flops with red . . . um, top bits . . . so I wore those instead of those broken, worn out placemat sandals from the two previous days. Anyways, parents went to work, took the cousin with them to drop her off at a skytrain station . . . and I got changed and headed out - again, without breakfast.

This was a funny thing I noticed during this whole convention: I really wasn't eating much. Like, maybe one really small meal for a whole day . . . and sometimes I got hungry, but more often than not I wasn't. It was like my body just went into survival mode all weekend, living off what little fat reserves I had or something. It was strange . . . but, it also meant I went to the bathroom less, which - when considering I was wearing kimono and hakama all day - really didn't bother me so much . . . anyways, I got back into the damn car, drove back up to the damn university on the damn hill, put the damn bandage on my damn nose, put on my damn swords and damn headband, and walked into the damn Quadrangle. And damn, I was still kinda limping if I didn't force myself to walk less strangely.

It was actually kinda funny. As I came to the big sliding doors that lead from the parking lots to the Academic Quadrangle, a woman, maybe in her 40s or so, also came to the door. Well, she did a double take as she saw Nagakura Shinpachi walking towards her university, Shinpachi said "hello" back and immediately promised her that she was gonna see a whole lot more stranger things for the rest of the day. So yeah, as we walked into the building towards our respective whatevers, I filled her in as to what an anime convention is, what we do, and all that stuff. Heh . . . she said it sounded interesting enough.

So yeah . . . . . day three was on a Monday. We were at a university. Universities tend to have things going on on Mondays . . . we were gonna be seeing a lot of "civilians" walkin' around today . . . maybe . . . . . we'll see . . . aaaaanyways . . .

Got into the main area of the con', didn't see anyone I recognised yet, didn't really have anything I wanted to see that day (last day and it was a half day, you know how it is) . . . . . heh, so yeah, I went back to the stairs/pool area for a while. I think "Icecore" called me at some point, asking where I was and stuff . . . I'm pretty sure we met up after that . . . oh! I remember now! The two of us went to this little convenience store next to the cafeteria where they were doing autograph sessions! Yeah, 'cause we went there, he bought fruit, I bought a Powerbar and Powerade (heh), and we ran into another volunteer/ANBU cosplayer whom we met at the con. We chatted for a bit before she went off to volunteer and I wanted to get ready for the Open Autograph Session . . . I still had my Infinite Ryvius box I needed signed and stuff!

"Icecore" and I headed back to my car so I could grab my DVD boxes: the big box that holds all the Infinite Ryvius boxes, one Peacemaker Kurogane disk with Tatsu on the cover (if Vic was there), the second DVD box of "Gundam Wing", and . . . heh, I forgot my Ranma DVD with Shampoo on it. Didn't matter, though, only like, three famous people actually came to the open autograph session anyway - but I didn't know that yet.

"Icecore" and I walked back through the halls and stuff. However, we started talking about South Park . . . specifically, the episode "Good Times With Weapons" . . . more specifically, the Japanese/Engrish song they sang in that episode. Hehe . . . as we walked along, we both started singing it.

"Hey hey, let's go, kinka suru!
Taisetsu na mono..."
"...protect my balls!" a girl sitting on a couch with some friends shouted out to us. We all had a good laugh - she got the reference.
"Boku ga warui, so let's fighting!
Let's fighting love! Let's fighting love!"

Ahhh . . . otaku. Gotta love 'em.


Spent another half hour in the autograph room, waiting in line for people to come. Most of the time I was whistling different anime theme songs, seeing if anyone was noticing what I was doing . . . some people whistled back. I dunno, we were bored and the scheduling for the autograph session had a lack of communication . . . something the con' suffered from a lot, really. They're working on that, though. I did take a lot of pictures, though . . . including the part where a girl dressed as Edward Elric took off her pants. No joke.
And then a Winry started wrenching all of the Eds in the room. Good times . . . . . anyways, we all later learned that the people were gonna come in at scheduled times, so "Icecore" and I left the room and headed up to . . . . . yeah, you guessed it, THE STAIRS/POND AREA! AGAIN!!!

Played around with the new friends we made for another half hour or so, taking more pictures and stuff . . . . . eventually I went back in to check on the lines. There was a webcomic guy, Keith Miller, a guy from his band "Keith & Kosine", and Brad Swaile. Heh, guess which line was busiest? I lined up for Keith since I needed him to sign the Infinite Ryvius box while the majority lined up for Brad. It was okay, I didn't have anything specific I needed to do that day really. So I got his autograph on the box, then I got his bandmate to sign the box . . . then I bought their album, then I got them to sign that . . . it was nice. And really, there were like, three people left in the line-up after me. I could afford to eat up some time with 'em.

For the record:
http://www.myspace.com/xxkosinexx
He's an 18 year old voice actor with a band. You've got nothing to lose by checking this out.

I got into the long-assed Brad Swaile line after that. During the line, I saw Keith and co. leave, I heard a "Kamehameha!" shout, quickly followed by an abortive crazy Quatre laugh - apparently it hurts to do too many of those in rapid succession. While waiting for the girls to get their pictures, autographs and hugs, I just chatted with some guys in the line with me, telling them about Infinite Ryvius and stuff . . . all good.

Finally got to the man himself, got my boxes signed, t'was good. Heh, I asked him if he remembered last year when I told him I got "Quatre" in an online "which Gundam Wing character are you?" quiz; he did remember that, as it turns out. So I told him about how I'm called "Dearka" at work now . . . . . he was amused.
"Yeah! See that? You win!" he said as I went on to tell him that Nightcrawler had been my favourite X-Man since the old 2-screen arcade game (which he also remembered well) . . . but yeah, I shook his hand, told him I'd see him next year . . . and yeah.


After all that, I found my buddies again and we went to watch the finals for the "Anime Walkoff". On the way to the "Main Events Stage" I ran into my buddy "Byakuya" from the day before - except this day she wasn't exactly anyone in particular anymore. Heh . . . it was like, Byakuya's coat over modern clothes, but with an ANBU mask and a whole buncha really funky weapons. Anyways, she told me to watch her in the Fashion Show that was after the Walkoff . . .

Ah . . . and here's where I get to finally tell you all about the Anime Walkoff . . . . .

So basically, remember that scene in "Zoolander" when Hansel and Zoolander get into a walkoff where they take turns strutting their stuff to music? Yeah, it was like that, but with cosplayers. And from what I heard (I still haven't watched the YouTube videos yet), the first two days were pretty disgusting. Essentially, guys were just dry-humping each other on stage, getting the easy yaoi-pops from the audience. They enforced the PG-13 rules more, though, and people started getting disqualified . . . Day three was the good day, I hear, and from what I saw it was pretty good. It's definitely an Anime Evolution invention that could very well become very popular in cons all over the place if it really catches on.

So yeah, "Zack" from FFVII won the walkoff. I was pretty happy about that, because he was really entertaining to watch. So yeah, have a linky and you can watch some walkoff videos for yourselves if you're so inclined:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0896F0D74D7110CE


After the walkoff, "Icecore" again had to run off to volunteer. Luckily, I found "Saya" at the front row, looking for good photo ops for the upcoming fashion show - oh, the fashion show was basically anyone who wanted a professional way to show off their cosplay outfits. I got a lot of photos then.

The walkoff and fashion show were running late, so the closing ceremonies were coming up sooner than originally planned. Heh . . . . . let you guess where we all went to chill after . . . ah, don't bother. Yeah, we went back to the stairs/pond area.


Again, random people running around, chilling, taking pictures, playing around . . . some guys figured the con was over enough and were trying to get a group to go to Denny's . . . . . a girl ran by wearing black pants with a pantsless Ed cosplayer chasing her, shouting "Everyone look! Scott McNeil's niece has officially gotten into Ed's pants!" (she could have actually been Scott McNeil's niece, though I couldn't confirm it) . . . what really caught our eyes, though - actually, no, what caught our EARS - were the musicians!

If you went to or read anything about AX or Sakura-Con, you might have heard something about a guy with a saxophone or a guy with a guitar playing anime/game themes. Yeah, they came to Vancouver; it took me the third day to learn they were around but I found 'em. "Saya" and I spent a lot of time talking with the saxophone guy for a while - turns out she was once a band geek just as I once was. So we talked a LOT, and had some good laughs . . . but then they started playing, and damn if that wasn't some of the most fun I had all con!

Yeah . . . I knew the words to "Shine", that Hellsing song . . . I had fun with that . . . . .

Funny enough, while the REAL closing ceremonies were going on below us (we could see the audience for that from where we were), none of us really felt like we needed to go over there for any closure any more. Heh, we were having our own kind of closing ceremony up past those stairs, on the grass around that dirty pond. Heh, my new friend "Byakuya-but-not-exactly-anymore" was starting to feel sad that it was all almost over now . . . buuuut y'know what? Seems like a whole lot of us are planning on going to Sakura-Con in 2007 now, so hey. It'll be alright . . .

. . . . . oh yeah, "Zack" turned out to be the drummer friend of the saxophone and guitar guys. Funny, huh?

Well, the official ceremonies ended, and people started funneling up the stairs to the parking lot and stuff. Yeah, everyone was tired, but at the same time everyone was kinda . . . y'know, just chill because it was all finally over and stuff. The musicians set up again under a tree; a bunch of us ran over there to sit with them while they played some more. Just off from us was a video camera set up where some people were interviewing people, whether they were the "2006 King of Bishounen, First Class Soldier Zack" or other random fans just wanting to get some thoughts on tape. I am hoping that the guys working on that documentary get it pulled together soon, I'm really curious as to how that looks . . .

But yeah, even the musicians had to go. Of course, everyone really wanted "Zack" to stay since everyone loved him now, but y'know. "I have to go back to the Lifestream," he said as he crossed over the bridge over the pond. The other two said, "We'll be at Sakura-Con! See you there!"

Guess I need to go to Sakura-Con . . . . .


The final things we - myself, "Byakuya-but-not-really", "ANBU-Sasuke" and another friend of theirs - did as we finally headed back to the parking lots was take a few final pictures on this waterfall-type thing. Heh, being that we were hopping along rocks along the side of a fountain, I got into "SG-Mode" and kept close to the other girl nearby - y'know, just in case. Heh, she commented that I worry too much.

Funny enough, though . . . she and "Byakuya-etc" eventually came down to the bottom platform of the fountain/pool thing to get one last posed shot of them squared off against each other. So yeah, "Byakuya" is now in a crouch step along the top of a foot-wide thingy; grass on one side, a pool of water on the other. As she steps forward to get closer to her friend, a mosquito bites her in the leg. She shuffles funny. She attempts to regain balance. She fails in doing so. She tells us, "I'm falling, I'm falling..."

. . . . . I run over quickly, grab her arm, and as she falls backwards towards the water I pull back, making her swing around and fall onto the grass instead, her hand still in mine, her head on my foot.

That was damn fun.


Well, the other guy drove and so did I, so he drove "ANBU Sasuke" home while "Byakuya" came with me. We were hungry, though, so instead of taking her to her townhouse just a few minutes away, we drove down the mountain/hill and went to Denny's.

As expected, we weren't the first cosplayers to enter that Denny's that night - or that weekend, for that matter, though we were the only ones by that point. The host just kinda sees us, goes, "let me guess, you just came from SFU?"

So yeah, chatted with "Byakuya" for a bit, learned she used to live in my city, talked about animes, Sakura-Con, martial arts . . . . . good times. Afterwards, I dropped her off at her townhouse where she was spending one more night before getting picked up by her dad and I went home.


Heh, and just think, I never would have made this friend if I hadn't cosplayed this year . . . who knew?



So that was my Anime Evolution, 2006. I say it was mine because I'm sure my experience was quite different from everyone else's. I missed out on "Anime Idol", where people sang. Didn't see the Charity Auction, the GUNDAM Modelling Contest, didn't get nearly as many autographs as I wanted . . . heck, I even missed the cosplay contest! But yeah, there was a ton of things to potentially do, and you'll always only ever get to do so much of it. Well . . . last year I did panels and lectures. This year, I just dressed up and made friends. It's all good.


Here's my Day 3 Photos:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/emonkataren/AE%202006/Day%203/

Some of my faves:
Domo-chan, since she was a girl.
Rendition of Vic Mignogna playing with plushies.
My new friend in her "crossover" cosplay
A very Ed thing to do . . . note the stairs behind her . . .
This guy was the MC for a lot of stuff - he was short.
Icecore and I talking on Kenshin - we stalked her for a long time to get this shot.
A brilliant photo with "Saya"
"Byakuya" and "Saya" groovin'.
The musicians! In Ranma cosplay!
"Zack" getting interviewed.
Note the beautiful sunset effects . . .
"Byakuya" carries yesterday's "Hisana" . . . aww . . .
The picture we took BEFORE the one where she almost fell into the water


Oh yeah, last thing: "Byakuya" made an AMV some time ago. I'm gonna share it now since it's kinda neat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vvEbDUww7E


And . . . . . I'm officially done with AE2006 now! Any questions?
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