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The Comiku Girls'
Animazement 2003 (full) Con Report
Day One: In which the convention begins and it is rainy
Our first convention was Otakon in 2001, which was beset by disaster the entire time. It started before the con even started, with thunderstorms in Boston canceling Li's flight. She was forced to drive down Saturday, thereby missing most of the first two days of the convention.
This was also the year that Baltimore blew up. Literally. The week preceding the convention, a train accident occurred below the city, with fire and toxic chemicals and everything. And or course, there was the water main break out in front of the hotel we were staying at. And that Saturday night, something blew all the manholes off the street right in front of the convention center.
Initially, it looked like our first trip to Animazement might follow that same pathway. First of all, it was raining. We forgot the blanket we were going to use to cover my legs for my costume (fortunately I keep a blanket in the car for emergencies). As soon as we got on the highway to drive the 15 minutes to the convention, we got stuck in traffic from an accident. We borrowed a digital camera, but forgot the battery charger, so we could only take 8 pictures before the camera died. Fortunately, these were the worst events of the first day, and otherwise, the convention went smoothly.
For starters, there was NO LINE for the registration. And someone asked for Li's picture as soon as we walked in the door, while we were waiting for the wheelchair. Although Li's Kamikaze Kaitoh Jeanne costume was ready out of the car, my wounded Rei needed some finishing touches at the convention hall. We sprayed Aki’s hair blue, added the bandages and hooked up the (fake) IV bag to the (very necessary) wheelchair. The wheelchair made it easy to carry things like our purses and our lunch by hanging them off the back of the chair.
Finally in full costume, we moved to the Artist's Alley to finish a couple drawings for the Art Show. While signing in at the Art Show, one of the convention organizers came up and asked if I was Akiko, who had emailed for info earlier. After a moment of confusion, I remembered that I had indeed emailed. In hindsight, emailing them about handicapped access was a BRILLIANT idea. They were prepared for me, and had made arrangements for me to get into the major events without having to fight the crowds, but more about that later.
After checking in at the Art Room, we made our way back to the Alley and set up in a new location to camp out for the afternoon. The new location had two advantages over our earlier placement – it faced the doors so we could look out on the outside world, and it was across from a table playing Jrock music.
We worked the Alley all afternoon, taking pictures, posing for pictures, petting Inu Yasha ears - we also met our "stalker" InuYasha, Jared, who we kept running into the rest of the afternoon (and the rest of the weekend which was cool - more on this aspect of the con later). We also started a list to count various events, such as the number of pictures taken of each of us, the number of double takes Akiko's red eyes got, the number of InuYasha ears Li was able to pet, and of course the number of times Li was mistaken for an Ah My Goddess Cosplayer. This last list was inspired by Otakon 2002, where Li first wore her costume (and was repeatedly mistaken as AMG's Belldandy).
That evening, the one real benefit of the wheelchair made itself apparent as we bypassed the line to get into the Anime Music Video contest by going to the "special" door and speaking to a staff member. We were able to get in before the crowd. We would like to stress though, that while this advantage was rather nice, it was pale in comparison to all the disadvantages. The wheelchair made movement through crowds very difficult. Akiko couldn't really get into the dealers room at all. She made one pass through, but couldn't check out any of the tables. Little things like opening doors was difficult, and don't even ask about how impossible going to the bathroom was. Also, we couldn't go into a few panels that we were interested in. Akiko really wanted to see the Origami panel, but the auditorium room that it was held in was terraced. There was only one level that was even, but the one spot that Akiko's wheelchair could be placed had a table blocking her view of the demonstration. To say that Akiko is looking forward to walking through Otakon (our next con) is an understatement.
We slipped out the the AMV's just in time to make it to the Fan Panel Anime Stand Up Comedy. Cat, the girl who ran it was quite clever. She needed a little polish to her act, but the crowd was into it and picked things up when she lagged a little bit. It was really neat as a fan panel, because we in the audience could chime in with our own little antidotes and one-liners. What impressed us the most though, was when she explained how she brought her father to Yaoi con. Now that's love.
After the end of the Comedy - we decided it was time to head for the apartment, and Li, not paying attention took 147, which meant it took longer to get home, since apparently neither of us had to go to the bathroom badly enough. We washed out Akiko's hair-coloring and went to bed.
Day Two: In which Akiko and Li learn the perils of Fanboys, and why one NEVER admits they are single.
The morning started as auspiciously as the previous morning, when we couldn't find my hair-colorant, and then left the blanket at the house (again). But we got to the con earlier than the previous morning, and got set up in the Alley at the same table as the previous afternoon. The table wasn't as prime the second day though since they had moved the tables in the course of the night, and now they were much closer together. That meant with Akiko in her wheelchair, it was hard (read impossible) to get around her to get out from behind the table without Aki moving into the main traffic area. But as before, it was nice to be able to look outside, and today the table across from us was showing Jrock videos.
One of the coolest things about this con was that we were able to talk to some of the same people as we had the day before – actual conversations, and repeated interactions with the same people. And people would ask what other conventions we were hitting this summer - very, very cool. A definite advantage of a smaller con.
This was also a downside too, as it was harder to get away from fanboys. We had a couple hard core Rei fans hanging around the crippled Akiko who couldn't get away from them easily, and one genuinely nice guy who was just a little too persistent, particularly after Li mistakenly mentioned she was not currently seeing anyone, and her hints of a recent bitter break-up and therefore not being interested in a relationship fell on deaf ears.
Besides the scores of regular cosplayers, there were a couple of Star Wars cosplayers too. First there was a storm trooper. Li accosted him for a picture, and then couldn't resist the urge to say the quote "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?" He apparently had heard that line too much, and left with a grumble. A little later another group of Star Wars cosplayers came around: an imperial palace guard, a Death Star technician, and Darth Vader. Darth Vader brought out the drooling fangirl *tm* in Li. After taking a picture of the group, Li asked Vader if she could give him a hug. He agreed. (Li had to ask... she feared that if she just hugged him without asking first he would have chocked her or something.) Akiko would like to apologize to all the Star Wars cosplayers for the drooling fangirl-ness of her partner Li.
While the highlight of the afternoon for Li was Darth Vader, the highlight for the entire convention was definitely the Cosplay event. The line to get into the Cosplay panel reached the Artist’s Alley an hour before the event began, and had looped back to the lobby by the time they actually began seating. Fortunately, we already had seats set aside for us with the dealers and constaff, so we didn’t have to wait in that line thankfully.
I don't think I can describe how cool the cosplay competition was. It started with two of the most beautiful costumes I've ever seen, original creations that were ethereal and stunning and beautiful, and the cosplayers (male and female) were equally beautiful and graceful. (as Li described, they were both, though particularly the guy, 'quite tasty.') Their skit, if you could call it that; matched their stunning costumes - lovely and graceful. They (quite justifiably) won their category.
Other memoriable skits included a Kaji (from Evangelion) cosplayer who made a snide comment about Asuka, without realizing that the English voice actor for that character was sitting in the audience as one of the judges, in an Asuka costume and everything. She stood up and protested the remark of her character, which really added to the skit we thought.
We also liked the pirate skit, with the scarily stereotypical cat girl. And the really great chant "Rape, pillage, and burn... eat the babies!"
Though Akiko didn't quite get it at first, Li, and the rest of the audience loved the Evangelion-Roboto skit. That one earned a standing ovation.
Li also really enjoyed the Gravitation skit. The group was really nice, as we ran into them a few times throughout the convention and chatted.
The X skit had a few good moments, but wasn't quite there. The interactions between Kamui and Fuuma were great. Li thought the skit with just those two would have been perfect, but then, with two actual males in the roles of a shonen-ai pair was enough to bring out the drooling yaoi fangirl in her.
We also enjoyed the Ronin Warrior humor as told by Lady Kayura, and very nice girl who we had run into and talked with several times throughout the weekend.
Both Akiko and Li enjoyed the Final Fantasy family. The skit was quite clever, a choice-your-own-adventure type of thing, where the audience got to pick what was going to happen. But what really made it was the family... the husband the black mage, the wife the white mage, the older of the two children, though still a toddler, was the red mage. The second child, a baby, wasn't in this particular skit, though he made an appearance as the only entry in the junior costume contest as another black mage. The two children were just too adorable.
After the cosplay, we stopped in on a Jrock fanpanel, watched some Jrock videos, then went back to the apartment for the night.
Day Three: In which the convention ends...
We got to the con earlier than the previous days and although the place was DEAD when we arrived, we did good business in the morning, making more money in the first couple hours than we had all Friday, and this was not including the money from the art show. After noon though, we stopped making any sales, but we had a great time chatting with several congers and generally had a good time hanging out. It was funny for a while sitting at our Table - I was wearing my red contacts, which tended to cause passers-by to take longer looks, Li had sparkle-ys in her hair, and the guy we were sitting with had fire-burst eyes, so his eyes looked a cool golden color.
We ran into a girl who had cosplayed as Yuna the day before in the Cosplay, though today she and her little friend were dressed as Griffyndor Quiditch players. We complimented her on her Yuna. Seriously, she was like Yuna who just stepped out of a FFX game... her outfit was really well done... her hair was exactly the same as the characters... even her face was the same shape. And she was gorgeous; she had this great smile that just lit up her face. Beyond that she was really nice to talk to.
Kaji came by our table several times. We chatted a bit; he had a great sense of humor. Most notably was the time he came by with a drawing one of the artists drew of him in costume singing "one of these Kaji's is not like the other..."
Another guy that was hanging around the artists alley a bit was dressed as Kero from Card Captor Sakura. To further encourage hugs from fans, he had a "glomp me" sign on his back.
Anime fans are generally a silly bunch, but third-day-of-con lack-of-sleep anime fans are even sillier. Li joined several other fans in rather loud and exuberant round of evil laughter with a full-blown Naga laugh, for which she earned compliments from the others.
We officially closed our table when the dealers room closed, although we hadn’t made a sale in a couple hours, and made our way over to the Art Room to get our non-selling art and our money. While waiting, Ms. Grant, the voice actress of Asuka Langley from Evangelion stopped as she was walking by to compliment my Rei costume, which was really cool. Two hours later, we finally were on the highway back to the apartment, and after dinner, were driving through the night to get back North.