[Power on...]
[Communications hub contacted...]
[Searching for compatible channel...]
[Channel found...]
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[Begin transmission...]
Hmm, guess the signal here is clear enough. Anyway, Djudge, taking
a moment from my hiatus here to give all you readers here at AS a small peek of
what happened, through my perspective, at FanimeCon 2004, one of the largest
conventions right here on the West Coast and in the U.S. for that matter. This
year's event was spread out over four days and spanned a good part of the San
Jose McEnery Convention Center, the adjacent San Jose Hilton, and the San Jose
Civic Auditorium just across the street. So without further adieu, let the con
report commence!
[Open log Agent Djudge...]
THURSDAY, 5.27.04
DAY 0
[Playlist highlight --- Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Kunkei Five M]
Well, while the convention didn't start until the next day some prep for the weekend festivities
started on the 27th. For starters, I spent most of the later half of
my day in line for the pre-registration lines so I could avoid the monster lines
for badge pick-up on later days. Happened to arrive at around four o'clock when the line was only around fifty people in length.
Over the next couple of hours though, I'd see the queue plump up to escape the convention
center's doors and spill out onto the sidewalks outside the complex. Several
hundred people were behind me by my estimation; some already decked out in some
makeshift cosplay and/or Fanime memorabilia of conventions past. The wait was
crazy stuff indeed, especially since I had to deal with a mysterious wandering
"fanboy funk." After collecting my badge, I ended up collecting a few of my
friends who also managed to pre-register in time and we spent a couple of
minutes wandering around the complex. We checked out the arcade (which was still
setting up) and the swap meet room where a few vendors were already selling some
of their used goods. All in all, nothing caught my eye - well, that's a lie, I
had an small urge to nab some Fullmetal Alchemist swag - so we just left at
around nine to catch some winks.
FRIDAY, 5.28.04
DAY 1
[Playlist highlight --- The Pillows, Fool on the Planet]
 So yeah, first day of Fanime just happens to start off while I’m still at school, so let's all just fast forward through my day until we get to about two o'clock. Got off the light rail at the convention center and proceeded through the glass doors and into the convention center to get my first looks at the revamped scene that the Fanime crew put together. To be honest, wasn't too impressed with the sheer amount of empty space that the guys didn't use up. There was just way too much bare carpet and it really detracted from the atmosphere in my opinion, should've fenced off some of the places (which will become more important for this day's log in a bit). As I cracked open my makeshift schedule, I realized that there was pretty much nothing for me to catch today other than the dealer's room. So for about the next hour or so, I ended up wandering the hallways of anime/Japanese merchandise. DVDs, plushies, posters, wall scrolls, cels, OSTs, models, toys, trinkets of all sorts were up for grabs and I pretty much laughed at everyone who was blowing all their money away on con-inflated price tags. So, with nothing in sight, I proceeded out of the dealer's room with a couple of my friends that I happened to bump into while meandering around in the hall. Enter my single biggest highlight of the con: the moment I almost got kicked out of the convention; so, with nothing to do (or to distract us otherwise) we wandered down an empty corridor and proceeded to pass the time by sliding down some staircase railings. In a matter of ten minutes, we had about six members of the security detail on site swoop down on us with seated motor scooters and chew us out about our activity (which was pretty stupid looking back on it). Thankfully, our group had a connection in the senior staff that bailed us out with some fine wordplay. After that, we were let go, and well nothing could possibly follow up that event.
Anyway, end day one, overall con experience so far: 6.0
[Close log Agent Djudge...]
[WARNING 'Unauthorized transmission detected...]
[Signal jammed...]
[HACK in progress!]
It'll get awfully tiring if I need to keep hacking in to give my report... Guess I'll fix
that. Well, I reached San Jose at about 1:30, got into my hotel, and was ready to experience my first day ever
at a con. I made sure to bring my wallet, though I didn't think I was going to buy anything the first day. I must say, as
I walked up to the San Jose Convention center, I felt mildly overwhelmed by its size (Hey, it was my first con).
Anyway, I walked in and got my shiny pre-registration badge smoothly enough, and
proceeded to be slightly disappointed with what they had at first; you'd expect
there to be more stuff around for a con with roughly 7,000 attendees. But hey, I
figured nothing would really be happening the first day, either. This was
confirmed when I double-checked my schedule; there was nothing to do! The
only things that caught my interest were the showings of two fan parodies, and
the first one wasn't going to show until 4:30. So to pass the time I decided to
go hang out in the Dealer's Room and see if there was anything interesting there.
When I got there I noticed that the prices weren't anything to write home about, but I had hopes
they would go down by the end of the con. As I walked around, I nevertheless was
in awe of all the anime-related merchandise around, but Djudge
already went into enough detail about that, so I won't bother. Anyway, soon
enough it was time for the first fan parody: Tomoyo Does Cardcaptors.
Though I have never seen Card Captor Sakura before, I figured why not; it
was a parody, and I like those. I'll say that I didn't find it entirely funny,
but it had some good moments. After that I just walked around the con waiting
for the 8:00 P.M. parody to show: Evangelion ReDeath ReDux, which ended
up being one of the funniest things I have ever seen; parody or not. After that
I went back to the hotel for some nice sleep. Now it's time for Agent I
to begin her tale of Fanime through her eyes...
[Unidentified broadcast ended...]
[Resuming session...]
[Open log Agent I...]
Sadly, neither Lady Sage nor I were able to truly experience the first day of
Fanime. After a long ride, Lady Sage and I finally arrived in San
Jose. There were still cosplayers walking around everywhere, some loaded with
bags of merchandise. As my mother, who was gracious enough to drive us, checked
in, Lady Sage and I checked out the grounds. Nothing really big
was open at 11:30 p.m., so we just looked at the arcade (consisting of about 13
or so games including Dance Dance Revolution, Beat Mania, racing
and fighting games, and a few other assorted machines) and spotted out where the
registration line and the dealer's room were located so we knew where to go the
next day.
[Close log Agent I...]
[Open log Agent Djudge...]
SATURDAY, 5.29.04
DAY 2
[Playlist highlight --- Tamaki Nami, Greeting]
After grabbing some shuteye back home, today was the day that I would supposedly meet up with
Agents Phate, LadySage, and I to
exchange some greetings and what-not as well as to go over our strategy for the
anime reviews panel that was set to happen the next day. Well, before any of
that happened, I arrived at around nine o'clock and played on a friend's laptop
to pass the time away until the AMV contest was set to start. When the clock
struck ten, we went across the street (still avoiding SJCC staffers here) and
proceeded to enter the Civic Auditorium where the contest was being held. Wow,
talk about a yawn-fest! Let's just say that, for the most part, the entries to
this year's event were a bit lacking when compared to 2003's repertoire. The
only ones worth checking out should be on AMV++ so head on over to
www.animemusicvideos.org
and search for videos that were entered into the FanimeCon 2004 competition. So with that hell
over and done with, there was still quite some time to burn before the second big event of the day, Der
Cosplay (the convention's cosplay masquerade) was set to take the stage. So
once, again the dealer's room was hit up and, like before, there was absolutely
nothing to buy for the prices that I saw swimming out there. After about half an
hour of wandering aimlessly between Naruto: Narutimate Hero for the PS2
and several tempting Bleach tankoubon, I checked out the dreaded
Funimation booth to check out what they had on tap. Just then, my turn
apparently turned for the best, when I realized that the survey had participated
in the day before (why did I give them names of titles to massacre?) was
apparently some sort of prize drawing as well. So, instead of nabbing a DVD of
some crap title that they had on hand, say Blue Gender, or something good
that I had already seen before, Fruits Basket, I decided to pre-request a
volume of Fullmetal Alchemist as my free prize. Meh, it may not arrive
till next year, but I'll still be waiting and hoping that Funimation honors
their side of this whole deal.
 Anyway, after that was all done and through with, I happened to wander off to the wrong side
of the dealer's room into the dark realm of yaoi and shounen-ai
which was conveniently placed to the plushy booths. So there I was, searching
for some knick-knacks when all of a sudden a yaoi dealer (a guy) cracks
out a megaphone and starts blasting out some very random and suggestive lines in
an attempt to hook the fangirls/boys(?) into snagging his product. My personal
favorite would have to be either: "When pants go down, smiles go up," or "Get
your red-hot yaoi right here!" It was a circus, that's for sure, and
apparently it worked; the man was swimming in money by day's end from what I
hear. So in an attempt to escape that painful ass-clown I tried to circumvent
the crowd gathering around the yaoi booths by continuing down the only
reasonably open path that I could take out of the aisle, besides there was
always time to buy Jr. Vice Commander Kuzu Ryu Sen a present
later. Well, guess what, that lane wasn't so open after all, and I ran into the
organic fanboy wall that was the Fred Gallagher autograph session going on right
in the MegaTokyo booth and smack dab in the middle of the dealer's room
floor. Needless to say as the line waved back and forth I was nearly trampled to
death by ravenous webcomic otaku who strangely reminded me of a line of
cattle minus the moo's and other onomatopoeia...
After finally managing to emerge from the oxygen-starved showroom, I got a call from Commander
Drake, who I only managed to talk to once before, back on
Thursday. So we chatted it up for a couple of minutes while I proceeded to wait
outside the assigned AS staffer meeting point: the "How to Pick up Women" panel
that was going on in LP4. Well, one thing led to another and suffice it to say,
miscommunication killed our linking up and before I knew it, it was due time
that I began to line up for the cosplay event. So after the assigned time had
come and gone, I got up and exited the convention center, and proceeded to
jaywalk to the other side of the street where I encountered one of the longest
lines that I had ever seen for one event. The thing whipped around a city block
and was set to spill onto another street if the con ops didn't corral folk.
After a few minutes of standing and shuffling, my friends and I were finally
seated inside of the auditorium. We got crap seating, way off to the side of the
room where an overhang managed to slightly impair my line of vision of one of
the large video screens. After about one or two acts, I received another phone
call, this time from LadySage and I's party. A few
garbled moments of correspondence, we finally set up a time to meet up the
following day seeing as how I was presently tied up with Der Cosplay. Sunday at
noon would be the next target time and that was the end of that. The rest of the
show was a bit too bland for me I must say. Just like with the AMV contest, this
year's entries for the cosplay bit was again lacking. Especially when compared
to last year's performances, which included a stripping Dilandau from The
Vision of Escaflowne, a creepy Sailor Moon x Sailor Mercury skit, and
an awkward moment involving an Armitage III cosplayer falling out of her
corset. The saving graces you say? Well, this year there was a strangely amusing
Tentacle Gundam that had a fixation on groping men and women alike and a pink
gloomy bear that had a tendency to beat up handicapped school children; WTF
indeed. Intermission highlights included a screening of the AMV contest winners,
a disrespectful Fanime crowd walking out on what was a splendid performance by
an amateur(?) singer who gave a wonderful rendition of Bonnie Pink's "It's
Gonna Rain!" from Rurouni Kenshin, and members of the U.S. Martial
Arts Team that busted out some trippy flips and assorted ass-kicking combos set
to various tunes off the Naruto OST. Lame? Just a bit. Cool? Hell, I'd
bet my badge that the crowd wants them back next year.
By the time I got the hell out of there, it was around eleven o'clock and frankly, I didn't
want to go home just yet so I followed my friends back across the street and
into the Hilton to catch a screening of the latest Zatoichi film. Damn,
that guy still kicks ass even after these many years. I'll definitely have to
check out that feature in its entirety one of these days. Fanime day two
checkout time: midnight. Overall con experience so far: 7.0
[Close log Agent Djudge...]
[Open log Agent Phate...]
After getting up from a good night's rest, I quickly changed and made it back to Fanime by
about 9:00 A.M. I just barely managed to make it to a showing of Madlax
episodes 1-2 (I was only slightly disappointed to see that it had nothing to do
with old Mel Gibson movies or constipation medications). After that, it was
nearly 10:00, and I had a choice of either hanging around more in the convention or going to the civic
auditorium to see the AMV finals. I had never been too exposed to AMVs before,
and since I had been told that they were going to show the winners at Der
Cosplay, I didn't bother with that. So I just went to the Dealer's Room again to
waste time until, which was when Area 88 TV episodes 3-4 would be showing. When that showing was
over, it was near noon, and time to see another anime parody: Nescaflowne.
It was done by the same people who did Eva ReDeath, so I went in with
high hopes. Though the humor missed a few times, I was nonetheless won over once
again by Studio Sokodei's work.
Well, after that I had time to kill before the "How to Pick up Women" panel, the place where I
would meet up with Djudge, Lady Sage, and I. I
decided to check out the English Voice Actors panel. While I wasn't the biggest
fan of the guests at the panel, J. Shannon Weaver (Kenshin; Samurai X Trust
and Betrayal) and Jonathon Osbourne, I enjoyed the panel anyway. After that
I moseyed myself on over to the Director's Seminar with Yamaga Hiroyuki and, to
my surprise, there was barely anyone there. I got out of there by about 3:00 and
went on over to a Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex showing until 4:00, the time of the
"How to Pick up Women" panel. To keep it short, the panel started out very funny, but about 15 minutes into it,
the thing went to utter hell. Anyway, after being sorely disappointed in that, I managed
to meet up with Lady Sage and I. After
getting something to eat, we called up Djudge and set up a new
time and place to meet up, then Lady Sage and I headed on over to
Der Cosplay. I'll admit; while some of the performances were a bit mediocre, I
think that the better ones and the host, Brian "Deiter" Doan, more than made it
up for it. When it was over, Lady Sage and I parted, for I needed
some good shuteye. I had said I was going to attend the Midnight Madness
showing, but I decided that I was just too tired. A fun day overall, if I do say
so myself.
[Close log Agent Phate...]
[Open log Agent I...]
Next day I woke up at 5 for no reason whatsoever. I couldn't get back to sleep, so at 5:45 I went out to
tour the convention. I was able to play a couple of games of DDR and sucked but
had fun anyway. Also peeked into a few of the video rooms but didn't stay
anywhere for very long. I went back to the hotel room at about 7:30 after much
wandering and dragged Lady Sage out of bed for a day of fun-filled convention
grandeur. She was real happy about that, I can assure you. Let's see... we
went to the AMV competition, which had some of the best comedy AMVs I've seen
for a long time. They also had this absolutely charming little Kare Kano
video which I want to find. We got to go to the dealer's room, which I thought
was really nice; it wasn't extremely big like the ones at AX, but it was large
enough for you to find just about anything you want, such as imported CDs,
Japanese snack foods, DVDs and VHSs, manga (both English and Japanese), art
books, swords, kimonos, even some hentai and yaoi for those
interested. A good way to describe it is "comfortable"; it's hard to be lost
for long in there because of its size, but you still get the things you want. I
picked up the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's Adolf manga for 40% off
(score!), a lot of Japanese candy, and the first DVD and decorative box for
Texhnolyze.
We decided to check out the Bishounen Lover's Panel. It was packed with fangirls and
fanboys, and we stayed because they were giving prizes to people who answered
questions in Bishounen Jeopardy. I won a letter set! Lady Sage
and I then went to the "How to Pick up Women" panel. Dear god, the place was
packed. The problem was that it all ended up being... well... pretty dumb. I was
expecting something funnier; come on, it was a panel about how to pick up
women. Are girls such a mystery to guys that they need their own panel (and
later in the convention, a sequel to the panel) about how to pick them up? Sadly
enough, the panel was nowhere as amusing as we thought it'd be. After it,
though, we finally found Phate. We couldn't find Djudge,
so we all went back up to the hotel room to call his cell and decided to meet
him on Sunday in the lobby. Lady Sage, Phate, and I
then all decided to get food. We searched around a bit for a McDonalds and
found one after about 20 minutes. We then had to rush back to the con for...
Der Cosplay, I think it was. I decided to just stay at the hotel room and
sleep. Ended up watching a bit of Texhnolyze; that series is a bit
mind-boggling in the first couple of episodes; I was really happy when I found
out Gackt sang the ending theme, though. My mom came back before Lady
Sage did and started to flip between 13 Ghosts and The Ring,
so I sat down and watched a bit of each of those. Lady Sage
finally came back from Der Cosplay and we were able to catch Zatoichi 20
minutes into its run time. It was great and probably would have been better had
I been able to stay awake during it; I was too tired to keep my eyes open.
Lady Sage and I ended up skipping Evangelion: ReDeath because
we could both barely keep our eyes open, so we both went to bed at 11. I feel
like such an amateur. Oh, and my mom apparently went to see a LOT of Hong Kong
flicks in the Asian cinema room. She loves them now.
[Close log Agent I...]
[Open log Agent Djudge...]
SUNDAY, 5.30.04
DAY 3
[Playlist highlight --- Bad Religion, Stranger Than Fiction]
Sunday morning started off with me having the fattest headache of them all, so I brewed up some
Joe and left my house at about eleven or so to catch the light rail at the bottom of the hour.
Ended up arriving at the convention center at about 11:50. Once again, my networking skills failed and the party
didn't meet on schedule. At about 12:15 or so, a couple of other friends that I knew called up and so I proceeded
to wade through hordes of otaku to find them on an outdoor balcony for some lunch. At about the bottom
of the hour or so, my cell went crazy and this time it was LadySage
and I's party on the phone. This time the plan had a solid
foundation and wasn't interrupted or distorted by rowdy cosplayers so a set time
was established outside the LP2 room which was currently hosting the "Great
Teacher Largo" (of MegaTokyo fame) panel. After waiting about an hour or
two, and listening lectures on the wonders of 1337 and classic gaming, the panel
finally got out and in the midst of a dispersing crowd of salivating fanboys I
heard two girls calling out "Anime Secrets!" and "Djudge!"
Whew, finally.
 And that was that, the AS team finally meets up on the third day of the convention! Heh,
after exchanging greetings, handshakes, and the like, we wandered around the
dealer's room looking for random stuff to buy, namely the Voices of a Distant
Star DVDs that we'd need for the panel later that night. Since it seemed
that I had the most amount of cash, it fell upon my shoulders to acquire the
goods and so about fifty dollars later, we were completely prepared. Another
pass at the YaoiCon booth once again did not yield any sort of present for
Kuzu, so Phate and myself, moved onto the shounen-ai
stands where once again our searches proved fruitless (holy crap, that's a bad
pun). When the AS crew tired of roaming around pricey merchandise, we split up
and decided to meet up at the panel room half an hour before showtime. In the
hours that followed, I decided to hit up the Tofu Records panel, dragged
Phate to Nami Tamaki's guest panel, and went back to the dealer's room
to buy some swag for Yamaga Hiroyuki, probably the con's most important guest,
to sign. My last two hours or so before the Anime Reviewing panel, was spent in
line to get Inoue Hiroaki (ONRIO Productions pres.), Hayashi Akemi (Character
designer for Fruits Basket), and Yamaga's (Studio GAINAX Pres.)
signatures in addition to shuffling from hallway to hallway to catch a couple of
fan parodies. So, before I knew it the meet-up time was finally upon me and so I
proceeded to the LP1 room where LadySage and I had
already set up shop outside of the AMV panel that was entering its last leg in
our room. Seeing as how we would pretty much handle the presentation on an
open/loose agenda we skimmed the planning phase of our last-minute meeting and
moved on to taking some pictures and loosening up. The AMV panel going on inside
just had to show that one freaky Fushigi Yuugi video that won the judge's
award for Best Drama at the convention's competition. Wow, the fanart that was
thrown into it for effect, while quite good in my opinion (it would make series
creator Watase Yuu proud), seemed to exaggerate on some parts of the female
anatomy...
<_<; (LadySage would definitely agree with me there, that segment was just "wrong")
Anyway, after the AMV panel sucked up ten minutes of our timeslot, all four of us AS staffers
on hand were getting pretty livid in that no Fanime staff was on hand to
supervise the panelists and pull the plug on their operations. Enter
THEM Anime: they just burst on the scene,
and I really have to thank Jason Bustard (our contact with THEM) for taking the initiative and swooping down on
the panel table at the earliest possible moment. Hmm, now that I think about it, THEM
arrived out of nowhere that it was pretty eerie how they just rushed the room,
especially Jason, who was still carrying around a goban from the Go room. Once
we all got seated at the head of the room, we all found our seats and got
ourselves comfortable. Sensing that I was the de facto leader of the AS party, I
took it upon myself to snag a chair closest to the center as possible. (Phate,
interestingly enough, who was still wowed by the earlier Nami panel, decided to
snag the chair that the pop idol sat in for himself and conveniently found
himself smack dab in the center of the panelists.) Just as we were set to go
however, disaster struck, when we all discovered that the tech guy who was
supposed to be assigned to us apparently packed up and left! A few muttered
curses later, THEM once again came to the rescue by having one of their pals in
the audience jury-rig a solution to our video problem, but as I'll explain
later, that really didn't matter much in the long run. So with nearly twenty
people in attendance (>10% of our room's capacity), among them esteemed author
Gilles Poitras, we proceeded to introduce ourselves and opened up the floor to
Q&A with Jason and myself assuming MC status of sorts. To be truthful, the
discussions and the level of analysis that THEM brought to the panel really
brought forward the fact that despite the fact we don't always agree with their
methods and conclusions, they've definitely been at this longer than we have.
But, not to be outdone, AS drove home the connection that could be made with the
younger, less experienced fans in the audience by showing that people their age
could enjoy anime at this level. This was especially brought on by how all four
of us tackled the on-the-spot analysis of shows that were belted out by members
of the audience. Just as personal highlight, the time I got to address Mr.
Poitras'inquiry on what we thought about Maison Ikkoku, as well as other
fans'requests on shows like Serial Experiments Lain, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, and Grave of the Fireflies was pretty damn fun. Taking my
hobby to this level is an experience that every serious otaku should do once in
their life; it's definitely a unique experience. I mean, come on, where else can
you seriously bash Kimi ga Nozomu Eien in such a serious forum? In a
night filled with so much success, I guess it was inevitable that the wheels
would come off somewhere, and it did when we tried to show Voices of a
Distant Star. The AMV panel cut off those precious few minutes that we
needed to at least show key parts of the piece and I was frankly a bit pissed
off when Fanime was trying to sweep us out of the room when we were the last
panel scheduled there. Thanks to Jason yet again for holding off the scathing
Fanime staff and buying us some time to hand out those DVDs that I bought for
the panel. In the end, it was just one massive jan-ken-pon between the
audience and me. When the dust settled, three happy otaku were able to
walk off with a copy of Voices of a Distant Star.
In the aftermath, we were accosted by Fanime personnel, once again, and literally
shoved out of the room by angry techies who wanted to collect their video
equipment, so our debriefing of sorts resolved in the hall outside. We snagged
some last minute pictures with THEM as part of the Anime Reviews panel team of
Fanime 2004, shook hands with Mr. Poitras and said our goodbyes. THEM had to run
off to catch some dinner and proceeded ahead of us and so the AS team was left
to follow suit. Sensing that this would probably be the last time we see each
other, we all gave each other hugs, wished everyone the best, and proceeded to
part ways. LadySage and I ran off to do their own
thing, so Phate and I ran across the street to catch the fading
moments of the Nami Tamaki performance. By the time we got seated, the only song
we caught was "Shining Star." According to some friends who were in attendance
for more of the MusicFest, Nami apparently only played several singles and that
there wasn't anything to spectacular. Personally, I was a bit bummed by the
facts that I missed the two Mobile Suit Gundam SEED songs that Nami
("Believe" and "Realize" and that she didn't perform a personal favorite of
mine, "Naked." After buying Phate a coke during the Camino
performance (those guys rock), he decided to pass and slipped out to move onto
something else. About an hour later, my ears were beginning to feel the effects
of very loud rock music constantly blaring out of giant speakers only a few
yards away and the scream of rabid fangirls, one of whom apparently threw her
bra on stage for the J-rockers. Needless to say, I was pretty tired at this
point and decided that sleep at home was a very tempting option. A few seconds
of deliberation later and I conceded to defeat. Fanime day three ended at around
eleven o'clock. Overall con experience so far: 8.5
[Close log Agent Djudge...]
[Open log Agent Phate...]
As I planned, I got up on Sunday morning at around 8:00 and got to the con about an hour
later. I managed to catch a showing of Kyou Kara Maou episodes 1-4, which
pleasantly used up about a hundred minutes of my time. I walked around for about
twenty minutes, and then took some time to stroll around the Dealers'Room. I
didn't bother to buy anything with the money I had left (I had purchased the
first Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful DVD along with the second
Azumanga Daioh DVD on Saturday), so I just looked around at the various
things being sold. While walking around, what to my eyes should appear? Why,
none other than a Tales of Phantasia hardcover artbook. I was tempted to
get it, but decided not to after much deliberation. I managed to get the last
few minutes of the "Anime for Parents" panel, run by author Gilles Poitras. When
it was over, I looked at my watch to see that it was five minutes till the
planned meeting time with Djudge. So I hurriedly got out of there
and went on over to what I assumed was the meeting place (a "lobby" or
something). After waiting there for a bit, then walking around and basically
back and forth between places could have been the "lobby" my legs were growing
tired and I rested a bit in the area outside the Exhibit Hall. Not too long
after that I caught sight of Lady Sage and I walking
rather quickly into the Exhibit Hall. Not knowing anything else to do, I quickly
caught up to them and asked about Djudge, with them replying that
they were going to meet him at the "Great Teacher Largo" panel. Though I was
barely familiar with Fred Gallagher's MegaTokyo, Lady Sage
filled me in on the needed info, so I could still enjoy the panel; though I
don't think I enjoyed it nearly as the other attendees there. When it was all
over, the Anime Secrets team was finally able to meet up.
I'll spare all you readers out there stuff that Djudge already touched upon,
considering that after we met up, I pretty much spent the rest of the day
hanging with him. However, I will tell you right now that he sure as hell didn't
have to drag me to Nami Tamaki's panel. =) I must say, the best part of this
panel was clearly when I got to up to Nami Tamaki and shake her hand and get
wished a happy birthday along with a select few from the crowd. Excellent, if I
do say so myself. After that, I took the time to split and go have dinner in the
restaurant inside the hotel I was staying at. When I got back, I got in line for
the autograph session with Inoue, Akemi, and Yamaga-san, and whipped out my
Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden Visual Book I had purchased earlier just for
this event. When the autograph session was done, I walked out a happy boy with
my badge signed by Inoue and Akemi, and my visual book signed by Yamaga.
Djudge was outside calling for me to get my butt over to the entrance to
the room where we would be holding the Anime Reviewing panel. While we waited
outside for the AMV panel to end, I got to meet Djudge's friend
TheCheeseGod, and managed to spot Aaryess from
Anime
Academy outside as well.
When the panel was over, we got one last group shot with THEM before parting, I went on over to
MusicFest with Djudge. After about ten minutes of camino playing,
I decided to leave; I was a little too tired to handle the incredibly loud music
and fangirls (Well, I was seated just yards away from the stage). As I
left, I kept note of how TheCheeseGod seemed to be calmly sleeping
through it all.
[Close log Agent Phate...]
[Open log Agent I...]
 On Sunday we got a breakfast in bed of sorts: my mom brought up some cheese danishes, a bagel, and hot
chocolate. Lady Sage and I ate while watching more Jungle wa
Itsumo Hale nochi Guu on my laptop before rushing to the events of the day.
We weren't able to play any DDR for the rest of the con, because it was
always taken for the next 8 games when we checked it. We stopped in the “Anime
for Parents'panel and told Gilles Poitras, who was hosting it, to come to the
anime reviewing panel. That panel was actually pretty cool; although it was
only one hour and it consisted entirely of a Q&A session, but Mr. Poitras is an
awesome person and he had relevant things to explain rather than mindless
babble. We watched Animation Runner Kuromi, which was an enjoyable
little OAV, and then realized we had no idea what lobby Djudge
meant to meet us in. So 20 minutes later we ran into Phate and
told him Djudge had decided to meet at the Great Teacher Largo
panel, so we went there. The panel was actually really fun; looking back on it
it sounds really cheesy, but at the time it was entertaining, especially if you
read Megatokyo. We FINALLY met Djudge after the panel. In any
case, we all went over to the dealer's room so Djudge could pick
up a few Voices of a Distant Star DVDs for prizes at our panel. I bought
a Magic User's Club DVD, though that ended up being stolen; that made me
sad. I DID also get an awesome shinai, though for only $20. I waved that
around for the rest of the day. Then at 7 came the moment of truth: The panel!
The AMV panel went 10 minutes over their time limit, so we started a bit late.
We met with THEM anime about 2 minutes before the panel started. About 15
people showed up to our panel, among them the wonderful Gilles Poitras. That
number wasn't bad, considering our panel coincided with the music fest. We
started off with introductions - the first 15 minutes I talked way too softly,
which wasn't good. I got more vocal later, which was stellar, but people kept
moving on to the next question before I could give my answer. Note to self:
next panel, be more assertive. We never got to the mock review, so instead we
just gave our opinions of series, the names of which the audience gave. We
continued about 15 minutes past our end time, but that was okay because there
was no panel that came right after ours in the same room. Overall, Fanime was
quite the success.
[Close log Agent I...]
[Open log Agent Djudge...]
MONDAY, 5.31.04
DAY 4
[Playlist highlight --- L’Arc~en~Ciel, Clicked 13 Best Singles]
So with the vast majority of the festivities for Fanime done with, the last day of the convention
was mainly spent wandering around looking for last minute deals in the closing
moments of the weekend. I arrived fairly late at the convention center, at
around two in the afternoon or so, in order to catch the vendors in their last
hour of operation. Some had already packed up and left, but most of the major
merchandise booths were still in business. After some deliberation I snagged the
second season of Rurouni Kenshin for seventy-five bucks, went on to nab a
spiffy Serial Experiments Lain wall scroll for ten more, and ended my
little spree by collecting some back issues of Newtype. With the
dealer's room finally shut down for the year, I collected my new swag and
wandered around a bit more before coming to pass on the closing ceremonies. All
in all, while the convention didn't rock my face off as much as it did last
year, I'd say that the transition to the newer, larger venue was for the most
part pretty smooth. I left the premises with loot in haul at around four.
Final overall con experience? 8.0
[Close log Agent Djudge...]
[Open log Agent Phate...]
 When I woke up on Monday, I was amazed to see that I had slept in an hour (the horror). I quickly got dressed
and left the hotel for my final day at FanimeCon 2004. There wasn't much I planned to
do today, but the things I needed to get done were tight, and I needed to get
out of the convention (and San Jose) by 12:30 P.M. I quickly made my way over to the Dealers'Room so I could get
something with my last ten dollars: Love Hina manga volume 10. After I
bought it I got out of there to catch the final showing of Evangelion ReDeath
ReDux; it was just too funny to only see once while there. I only wish that
Studio Sokodei would distribute it publicly. When it ended I went on over to
Gilles Poitras' "Anime Librarian" panel, and managed to catch the last fifteen
or twenty minutes, since it was going against ReDeath. While I haven't
read any of his works, I couldn't miss the chance to get even a few minutes
worth of time at a panel headed by someone so knowledgeable in anime and the
things related to it. I had planned to get his autograph as well, along with J.
Shannon Weaver's and Jonathon Osbourne's. Unfortunately, as I looked at my
watch, I saw that I had already reached my time limit, and J. Shannon Weaver was
nowhere to be seen, so they were halting the autograph session. Disappointed, I
got out of the frozen line and left the convention center. Still though, my
first con experience was in the end immensely satisfying and enjoyable, and I'll
make sure to be there next year.
[Close log Agent Phate...]
[Open log Agent Djudge...]
"So there you have it, that's what Fanime was like through my
eyes. Without the wow factor that was GAINAX, the convention seemed to be on a
notch lower than it was last year when it came to anticipation. Still, I have to
admit, that the con is heading in the right direction and that I'll be eagerly
waiting for what their staffers have in plan for next year's event (which I
should add, has been scheduled to also be held over Memorial Day weekend).
With this, my duties to AS come to a close for now, but keep on reading! The guys here are set
to make some changes this summer and the months ahead will mark a new chapter in
Anime Secrets history.
Signing off,
Agent Djudge
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