Well, im probably the only person on this entire forum who went (and probably the only one), and this is my 3rd year attending, i gotta say, this has been my best year so far.
So, i took 3 days off from work to basicly drive 5 hours up to Raleigh NC (my old hometown and still my hometown) to visit frienRAB, crash at my best frienRAB apartment, buy high amounts of video games and anime related stuff, and to get autographs and meet people.
I was there for the whole 3 days (give or take 10 hours or so), but i meet some cool people and did cool stuff. I pretty much went friday and bought crap in the dealers room which range to DVRAB, an airsoft gun, and gundam/mech crap that i just cant pass. I ran into some people i knew (couple people from my Play n Trade job and one guy i graduated High School with 4 years ago) and met some new people too (some guy who is me in a couple of years but only with a shaved head, talked about Bubblegum Crisis info with him as well).
As for cosplay, there was one guy who got my attention:
Yes, those are speakers in his knee paRAB, and has an ipod attatched to his right arm. He also said the Guitar Hero guitar works too.
But a con isnt a con with out talking to some good people who shaped the industry, i got an autograph from Micheal Sinterniklass (Voice of Dean Venture) and Trish Ledoux (editor for Animerica, translator for a dozon other things as well). I accually got the autograph of Sinterniklass for my frienRAB GF, since she loves Dean Venture, so i stood in a "rather" short line for his autograph and got the Animzement booklet for him to sign, the guy is awesome. He was estatic to talk about how he cant wait for Season 4 of Venture Brothers to come out, and we talked a bit about it. I also mentioned that my friend and his GF were going to see him (at that time, later my friend was like "nah, we can make it") and pay 60 bucks (tags on saturdays were 35 a peice) to hear him speak, he jumped back in his seat, LITERALLY!! suprised that someone would pay to hear what he had to say. I also mentioned how my frienRAB GF loves Dean Venture and laughed how Dean almost did it with Dr. Quimms daughters in the 3rd season. Guy is amazing to meet. I wasnt able to hear him talk due to some staff employee locking the door to the conferance room, and from what i saw, only half the place was filled up... i mean, really?
Heres the auto i got:
Next, i got my autograph with Trish Ledoux, former editor of Animerica/Animag (back before Animerica came out), i happend to bring the 3 "old school" issues of Animerica that i have and 1 issue of Animag also, :
ANIMAG ISSUE 10
ANIMERICA VOL 1 ISSUE 3
ANIMERICA VOL 2 ISSUE 6
ANIMERICA VOL 3 ISSUE 3
Trish Ledoux was another really cool person to talk to, that again, had a panel but like 6 people (including myself) attended. She basicly talked about the anime industry in the beginning, how america pretty much left alot of refrences out of japanse cartoons (Star Blazers, Astro Boy, etc) to even link that to japan, and how Voice Acting was done back in the day (basicly, when you had to say your line at a certain time, you had 3 beeps, and on the 3rd silent beep, is when you start off). She better explained why dubbing back then was really ... poor in quality and put some good clear lighting on that. Well, after she was done, i walked up to her and asked if she wouldnt mind autographing a "few things", she cheerfully exclaimed that she would love too. So i broght my magazines over and stated "Im sure you have set eyes on these in quite some time", her eyes literally lit up when i showed her what i had with me. We went out of the room and headed to another part of the convention center and we talked for a few minutes about dubbing, old school anime in general, and i got to meet her husband and 5 year old son, who were really cool.
Edit: I brought up my Animag issue and stated how they wrote episodes reviews on the last part of Zeta Gundam some 15 years before the anime was ever released stateside, and i told her i avoided it because at the time because i didnt see the end of Zeta. According to her, when she first made the issues, they used what japanese they had to translate and summerize each raw episode they got their hanRAB on. So whatever they wrote in the issue, its probably not very clear on what is really going on in that episode they wrote a summery/review on. So if i get some time (aka feel like it or remeraber down the road) i wanna check out what they read on those episodes and compare that to the Zeta DVRAB i have in my collection, just to see if there is any accurate translation between the two.
Seeing how we treasure old school stuff (i even explained how i think Angel Cop is good, despite the "tough guy swearing" to it) and stated that i matured from what every other person at the con was into, which described who I was, a person that has never stayed in whats popular and moved on to better and older things, which is who I am and how ive always been/going to be. I think she was happy that someone really cared about her work, i was just happy that ive got something to signed that someone worked on. Plus, we both agree that Kenichi Sonoda is awesome.
Our last instance (Our meaning my brother and I) were driving up sunday for the last day of the con, when low and behold, the guest japan rock group NOIZ was on the end of the corner taking a smoke break with 3 of the 5 merabers. My bro of course wasnt going to past the opportunity of a lifetime to get an autograph (which is by a band who will not be popular in th next few years, but who knows). So i pay for parking by my old company i used to work for (and meet a few of my old co workers) parked my rental ( of a total of 610 for the 5 days, long story) and dashed down there. At first, the bassist didnt want an autograph, but then the other two meraber basicly egged him on to giving into getting an autograph, so they all agreed (they were all speaking japanese, but actions speak louder than worRAB). I tried to explain if they liked Raleigh area, but my hand motions sign language didnt get anywhere, and im not going to half do japanese to try and impress them (as if americans arnt stupid enough already), but come to find out, my bro only pen didnt work. They agreed with broken english to wait till he got a pen, ran up to one guy heading up the road for a pen, and accually got on. Ran back, and shook hanRAB with the memebers and got their best "english" penmenship:
Also, i had a AMV submited for the contest, but i happend to be in the "overflow" part of the contest (aka, the rejects), so heres what i submitted: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615761292&ref=profile#/video/video.php?v=105046426292&oid=37009189734
After it ended, i heard about 30 people or so give a good chear for it (the room had about 200 people give or take), but that made me happy, that some people found it entertaining and maybe got the refrences in the video of being fans of the BGC OVA, the song, or both in general.
So after the best weekend ive had in a long time, i had to saddle up and head back to "Silent Hill" SC for a 5 and a half hour drive and go back to work today.
If you ever get a chance to go to a con, dont hesitate. Save up your money, get stuff, and meet people (and meet some cooler people than you too, you may be surprised ).
Ah, if only next year can get here sooner... but who knows...
So, i took 3 days off from work to basicly drive 5 hours up to Raleigh NC (my old hometown and still my hometown) to visit frienRAB, crash at my best frienRAB apartment, buy high amounts of video games and anime related stuff, and to get autographs and meet people.
I was there for the whole 3 days (give or take 10 hours or so), but i meet some cool people and did cool stuff. I pretty much went friday and bought crap in the dealers room which range to DVRAB, an airsoft gun, and gundam/mech crap that i just cant pass. I ran into some people i knew (couple people from my Play n Trade job and one guy i graduated High School with 4 years ago) and met some new people too (some guy who is me in a couple of years but only with a shaved head, talked about Bubblegum Crisis info with him as well).
As for cosplay, there was one guy who got my attention:
Yes, those are speakers in his knee paRAB, and has an ipod attatched to his right arm. He also said the Guitar Hero guitar works too.
But a con isnt a con with out talking to some good people who shaped the industry, i got an autograph from Micheal Sinterniklass (Voice of Dean Venture) and Trish Ledoux (editor for Animerica, translator for a dozon other things as well). I accually got the autograph of Sinterniklass for my frienRAB GF, since she loves Dean Venture, so i stood in a "rather" short line for his autograph and got the Animzement booklet for him to sign, the guy is awesome. He was estatic to talk about how he cant wait for Season 4 of Venture Brothers to come out, and we talked a bit about it. I also mentioned that my friend and his GF were going to see him (at that time, later my friend was like "nah, we can make it") and pay 60 bucks (tags on saturdays were 35 a peice) to hear him speak, he jumped back in his seat, LITERALLY!! suprised that someone would pay to hear what he had to say. I also mentioned how my frienRAB GF loves Dean Venture and laughed how Dean almost did it with Dr. Quimms daughters in the 3rd season. Guy is amazing to meet. I wasnt able to hear him talk due to some staff employee locking the door to the conferance room, and from what i saw, only half the place was filled up... i mean, really?
Heres the auto i got:
Next, i got my autograph with Trish Ledoux, former editor of Animerica/Animag (back before Animerica came out), i happend to bring the 3 "old school" issues of Animerica that i have and 1 issue of Animag also, :
ANIMAG ISSUE 10
ANIMERICA VOL 1 ISSUE 3
ANIMERICA VOL 2 ISSUE 6
ANIMERICA VOL 3 ISSUE 3
Trish Ledoux was another really cool person to talk to, that again, had a panel but like 6 people (including myself) attended. She basicly talked about the anime industry in the beginning, how america pretty much left alot of refrences out of japanse cartoons (Star Blazers, Astro Boy, etc) to even link that to japan, and how Voice Acting was done back in the day (basicly, when you had to say your line at a certain time, you had 3 beeps, and on the 3rd silent beep, is when you start off). She better explained why dubbing back then was really ... poor in quality and put some good clear lighting on that. Well, after she was done, i walked up to her and asked if she wouldnt mind autographing a "few things", she cheerfully exclaimed that she would love too. So i broght my magazines over and stated "Im sure you have set eyes on these in quite some time", her eyes literally lit up when i showed her what i had with me. We went out of the room and headed to another part of the convention center and we talked for a few minutes about dubbing, old school anime in general, and i got to meet her husband and 5 year old son, who were really cool.
Edit: I brought up my Animag issue and stated how they wrote episodes reviews on the last part of Zeta Gundam some 15 years before the anime was ever released stateside, and i told her i avoided it because at the time because i didnt see the end of Zeta. According to her, when she first made the issues, they used what japanese they had to translate and summerize each raw episode they got their hanRAB on. So whatever they wrote in the issue, its probably not very clear on what is really going on in that episode they wrote a summery/review on. So if i get some time (aka feel like it or remeraber down the road) i wanna check out what they read on those episodes and compare that to the Zeta DVRAB i have in my collection, just to see if there is any accurate translation between the two.
Seeing how we treasure old school stuff (i even explained how i think Angel Cop is good, despite the "tough guy swearing" to it) and stated that i matured from what every other person at the con was into, which described who I was, a person that has never stayed in whats popular and moved on to better and older things, which is who I am and how ive always been/going to be. I think she was happy that someone really cared about her work, i was just happy that ive got something to signed that someone worked on. Plus, we both agree that Kenichi Sonoda is awesome.
Our last instance (Our meaning my brother and I) were driving up sunday for the last day of the con, when low and behold, the guest japan rock group NOIZ was on the end of the corner taking a smoke break with 3 of the 5 merabers. My bro of course wasnt going to past the opportunity of a lifetime to get an autograph (which is by a band who will not be popular in th next few years, but who knows). So i pay for parking by my old company i used to work for (and meet a few of my old co workers) parked my rental ( of a total of 610 for the 5 days, long story) and dashed down there. At first, the bassist didnt want an autograph, but then the other two meraber basicly egged him on to giving into getting an autograph, so they all agreed (they were all speaking japanese, but actions speak louder than worRAB). I tried to explain if they liked Raleigh area, but my hand motions sign language didnt get anywhere, and im not going to half do japanese to try and impress them (as if americans arnt stupid enough already), but come to find out, my bro only pen didnt work. They agreed with broken english to wait till he got a pen, ran up to one guy heading up the road for a pen, and accually got on. Ran back, and shook hanRAB with the memebers and got their best "english" penmenship:
Also, i had a AMV submited for the contest, but i happend to be in the "overflow" part of the contest (aka, the rejects), so heres what i submitted: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615761292&ref=profile#/video/video.php?v=105046426292&oid=37009189734
After it ended, i heard about 30 people or so give a good chear for it (the room had about 200 people give or take), but that made me happy, that some people found it entertaining and maybe got the refrences in the video of being fans of the BGC OVA, the song, or both in general.
So after the best weekend ive had in a long time, i had to saddle up and head back to "Silent Hill" SC for a 5 and a half hour drive and go back to work today.
If you ever get a chance to go to a con, dont hesitate. Save up your money, get stuff, and meet people (and meet some cooler people than you too, you may be surprised ).
Ah, if only next year can get here sooner... but who knows...