After endless plan revisions and delays, we finally made it to AnimeCentral!
...actually, before I start, I should inform you all of the dangers and perils of attending an Anime convention

#1: The Hideous Fan-Boys and Fan-Girls
You all know the type. College student (or beyond), no significant others to speak of...EVER, over 300 pounds, enjoys dressing up as an Anime character (Sailor Moon, for example), or, for the amateur Fan-Person, just a Anime shirt (most likely DBZ or Evangelion). Make eye contact, and you have a friend for life!

#2: Lightheadedness, unintentional "wetting" and stomach aches
If you're watching a fandub parody or a comedic music video, prepare to laugh your ass off. Watching Anime in large groups causes everybody to laugh more (Why? I dunno. I'm not an expert. I'm just tired.). Prolonged viewing of these Anime sub-genres will hurt you...but in a good way.

#3: There is no spoon...Wait. No. That's not it. Hmm...

We had to stand in line to register at the con mainly because we all forgot to preregister and save 10 bucks. Once we got our spiffy name badges, we were free to roam the hotel and watch all the free anime we wanted and lots o' other fun stuff.
We stopped at one of the video rooms and decided to stay a while. Oh! My Goddess! Was scheduled to play next. Unfortunately, the DVD didn't seem to want to play the the player they had, and the guy running the room substituted DiGi Charat instead.
For those of you who don't know what DiGi Charat is about, don't feel bad. I don't think anybody knows what it's about. We watched 16 episodes (DiGi Charat's episodes are less than three minutes long, btw.) The ENTIRE room was laughing non-stop the entire time. If anybody has the chance to see DiGi Charat and is in the mood for a plotless, psycho, cute-ish comedy, you won't be disappointed. ^_^

Afterwards, we realized Riske brought an iBook and it could be used for good purposes (I.E., writing rants and watching VCDs). So, we went back to my house to get my Inu Yasha and Evangelion VCDs. We went back to the con and attempted to hunt down the Music Video Contest people for a last minute submission (I'll give you one guess what it is). After enduring a 15 minute wait with Hideous Fan-Boys staring at us and one girl sobbing and having a nervous breakdown after being denied a chance to be in the CosPlay, we found Ms. AMV Girl, submitted my tape, and ran off to Anime Hell!

...What is Anime Hell, you ask? ...An Otaku's worst nightmare. HORRIBLE dubs, serious-type live-action remakes, fan-made parodies and other horrible things.
It was HILARIOUS! It...hurt...but it was...so good! Hundreds of people were huddled in a large convention hall all expecting and embracing the pain Anime Hell radiated.

Later in the night during Midnight Madness, things started to slow down. The stuff they showed at first was great. "It's.....GENDO!" ...but then they showed stupid stuff for half an hour, and we decided to leave. It was 3am.

We didn't feel like going back home and places, so we found an empty hallway, opened the iBook and watched some Evangelion. It's 5 in the morning now. We're talking to some guy we don't know, and we're contemplating food. Denny's? White Castle? Dunkin' Donuts? I dunno. It's to friggin early to figure out.
571 words already? Damn. I'm scared. ::snores::

Riske's update
We planned to go eat, go home and sleep for about 2 hrs., and then come back to do some shopping (the stores opened at 10). Heh, now its 12:50 and Karla's exercising her lead foot because of an unexpectedly lengthy amount of time spent sleeping on the part of all of us. (he means we're driving to the con now. sleep is good.)

After a short, slurred, and bleary-eyed debate on the subject of which place of nourishment to go to, we agreed on "shake 'n' bake," as a very dead-looking Tyler mumbled. (For those of you who cannot make the connection--

::yoinks iBook back from Riske::
It's now 1:30, and the music video competition is half an hour late. It seems that they got an insanely high amount of entries this year, and were up until 3 am yesterday pre-judging, and are still compiling the screener tape. Hopefully, it'll start soon. I don't like waiting. Luckilly, thanks to Riske's resourcefulness and his ability to con the school out of a laptop for a weekend, we were entertained by Inu Yasha for the first half of the delay. Now, Karla and Riske are walking around the dealer rooms without any money in hopes that some rich Anime fan (phht. Those don't even exist) will buy something for them. I'm saving seats. Fun. Grr...Suspense sucks. I wish I could take a nap. I can barely stay awake, let alone guard two chairs from lonely Hideous Fan-Boys.

::slays Tyler and pries iBook from cold dead fingers::
::resurrects Tyler so he can finish his rant later::
Heh, yeah right, like someone's gonna buy us something...we aren't even dressed as characters! (we did, however see an enterprising young individual with a sign: "will work for pocky") Anyway, to continue:

shake 'n' bake = shake 'n' steak...or maybe it's steak 'n' shake...Heh.) So ya, we went to that place of happy goodness and refueled ourselves. Then we went to our separate homes to sleep. Fun fun. Ok, now I'm gonna write a short ranting paragraph about misshapen individuals dressing up as adult anime characters in skimpy costumes.

This is my short ranting paragraph about misshapen individuals dressing up as adult anime characters in skimpy costumes. I must say, the thought crossed my mind that the 'con is a breeding ground for perverts and other degenerate low-lifes. While it is admirable that hardcore anime fans put enormous effort into accurately replicating costumes that their favorite characters wear, it is NOT admirable when there are 13 year old girls running around in extremely revealing attire, showing off their non-existant figures. Same goes for the larger end of the weight scale. With few exceptions, 3 whales worth of blubber bulging around a small bikini bathing suit is the most revolting, nauseating, and disgusting sight in the world. So ya, drool-on perverts, and get a clue ye not-so-attractive!

::snags the nifty looking, BLUE ibook away from the males for a moment, however PCs still rule :)::

This is to take another viewpoint of the previous rant. Fan Boys. What can be more scarry? Seriously, being the cutest girl in the world at the con was no easy task, why? cuz these forms of life were everywhere!!!!! They're on the stairs, in the hall ways in the bathrooms...its so horrible! Earlier this morning I couldn't tell if this fan boy was a fan girl.....they both have breasts and some how show them off better than myself, OR they have none at all and try to show them off! This is what's wrong with the world today! I admit that not all boys who like anime are the typical fan boys, I mean there are some really nice looking males there (tyler and riske arn't fan boys, but I'm not saying they're sex machines, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, HOWEVER they are not fan boys....they protected me from them :) ) I'm not trying to poke fun at fan boys, but just PLEASE DO NOT THROW YOURSELF AT A GIRL CUZ SHE LIKES THE SAME ANIME AS YOU!!!!!

My last big complant is don't show REALLY COOL ANIME WITH NO VENDORS THERE THAT SELL IT!!!!! This is also equally as frustrating as being stalked by the fan boys, then when you run up to a few vendors to ask them if they have the series, the fan boys follow you everywhere and check you out! Some how they can see through my extra large shirts! Its not cool! And even though superman is a comic hero, may I add that fan boys do not posses the same powers as their cartoon idols! They shouldn't be able to see through my shirt, argue about who has a better working fast plastic gun, or pretned they can fly! SORRY YOU JUST CAN'T DO THAT!!!!!!!! STOP PRETENDING YOU CAN!!!!

If I can get away from the topic of fan boys, I did enjoy bits and pieces of the con. Anime Hell was a lot of fun,but it was late....next year they need to supply free caffenee, then more people I think would stay, and for a hell of a lot longer. If they gave me an unlimated supply of caffenee I would never leave, never change clothes, never ditch the contacts, and never shower! Theres the rest of your life to shower and take on all of those novelties, however there is one weekend to spend all the money you can, watch all the anime you can, and .....never mind I was just informed....there is nothing worse in this world than a smelly fan boy/girl....Got Soap?

.....maybe they should reward you with the caffenee if you have signed varification that yes you did shower that day, and if you smell, they'll send you back agian to take a shower.

Well I guess the only thing wrong were the fan boys...and the time constrants, the con should be for a solid week :) If more people were wondering around at 3 am it would have been a lot cooler to meet perfect strangers that were not talking to you because of love at first sight....So thats a hint for next year fan boys, wink wink nudge nudge, work on it, then the world will be harmonious again, it'll be like world peace...probably not, but itwould make me a little less bitter....

They didn't show my music video. Dammit. What did I do wrong? Is a plot and good quality video mixed perfectly with the music frowned upon...or am I glorifying my video too much?
[sigh] ...It's really discouraging. Anyway, after the music video contest, we headed off the the dealer rooms to see if there was anything worth buying. Unfortunately, one of us had more than 20 bucks to spend an stuff, and all the good stuff was over 50. I was seriously considering buying what we called the "What The Hell Is That?" creature from DiGi Charat, but we couldn't find a price tag, and we were being pushed down the tables by other people, and I just gave up. Yeah, I'm a wimp. no What The Hell Is That for me. If anybody has $150 to spare, I'd like the 1:64 Wing Zero Custom model...

We had lunch and went back to the con 'round 2pm. At Karla's request, we saw Saber Marionette J. It's a VERY good series (IMHO), and it has a chance of coming to Toonami (albiet edited). A comedy/action/semi-romance about some kid and his robo-women. We stayed in the video room for about 5 hours before deciding to leave the con for good that year. It was fun, and much anime was appreciated.

One of the amusing things about actually living in the immediate vicinity of an Anime convention is seeing Fan-Boys/Girls and CosPlayers out of their natural habitat and in the stores and resteraunts of the area. My Friendly Neighborhood Japanese Mall was CRAWLING with con-goers. They even ventured 5-10 miles away to where we ate for lunch one day. Hell, I even saw Hikaru Shidou at Dunkin' Donuts!

Anime is good. Go watch some anime. Yes.

What the Hell is that, anyway-nyo?!?
...It's... GENDO!
Sit!

Hm...I think that's it.

Go back.