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I'm still trying to piece together what all I wanted to write about the con but so far, what I have written here, is most just my thoughts. Keep in mind these are my own opinions. Also these aren't in order, I'm just writing them down that came to my head first.
Thurs. consisted of myself, Holly, Robert, Kelly, and the last to the minute roomie, Brian. First time we all got to meet Brian and it was fun that he was able to hang with us when he could. Plus we also got to meet Anna's friend Valorie.
To start things off regarding the con, Scott McNeil was able to make it. Fri evening, we all just chilled in my room watching the opening ceremonies on tv. I was standing out on the little balcony with Lucky, while glancing in through the door from time to time at the tv. First thing I saw was flannel and a cowboy hat and right away it clicked to me that it just may be Scott. I nearly broke my neck trying to get in the room and not tripping over Holly's leg. And to our surprise, it was him. The mood in the room changed drastically to those who were shocked by this last moment appearance.
Later we all decided to head downstairs and just check things out since the Dewl Jewl and Camino concerts were going on. Anna, Lucky, and I chilled out in the lobby for a bit with my laptop. I must say that the reaction to those who passed by, couldn't take their eyes off my desktop pic. Which was the 11x3 dominating pic that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ponderosa121 recently did for me *evil grin* Then Mike and Rachel stopped by and talked to them for a good bit while Lucky and Anna went to the bar to get something to eat. I joined up with them later and finally tried a Long Island Ice Tea.... very yummy but boy did it give me a hangover the next morning, not so much buzzing from the booze, just a headache. Kelly and Opie joined us later. Some big black dude came over and started to hit on Anna. I would say that he was trying to hit on "us" but he seemed to have picked on Anna the most. He finally took the hint and left and I believe not long after, Anna got up and went near the entrance to the bar. We turned around to see what she was doing and low and behold, Scott came in. Anna brought him over to our table and had ourselves a nice little pow wow. This was after midnight so we didn't have to worry about any fans coming over and bugging us. Scott commented on how long my hair got and I did a quick jab at him that I wanted to, about him being a blond. Its pretty nice that we can all sit together as our little group and have a normal conversation with him. He covered some ground about the Scooby movie and how he was able to make it for the con. He found out that they didn't need him for any shots till this coming Weds so he tried looking around for prices of airfare in such a short amount of time. Needless to say that it was VERY pricy but somehow, someway, Warner Bro's paid for Scott's flight. YAY for Warner Bro's!! We eventually got kicked out of the bar since they were closing up but for what time we were able to spend like this was well worth it since I had a feeling this was the only time we were going to get.
I pretty much decided to be Alucard all weekend. I went downstairs thinking that by now, the dealers room were open but I saw this huge clump of ppl standing around. It scared me at first thinking that it was the line waiting to get in but the rooms weren't open yet. I made sure though to head to the 2nd dealer room since I knew that was the place where most tables had dvds. I made a beeline to the Suncoast/ADV table to get Full Metal Panic on dvd. I was so happy that they decided to have it ready for us con folks since it doesn't come out till June 10th. I bought the dvd boxset, in fact, it was my first purchase at the con. I looked around for a bit and was satisfied that I did all of my shopping on Fri. and not only that, but got pretty much what I was looking for. Since both rooms were just too damn packed, I didn't really look around too much just cause you had to squeeze in.
Things I bought::
Big Shippou plushie *snoodles*
Naruto figures (a set for myself and for Wardove)
FMP! boxset and a reg single dvd for Wardove
Hellsing AxI hentai doujinshi
I didn't buy these but thought I'd mention it. Lucky FINALLY brought with her, the Hellsing manga's 1-4 that she bought for me last winter. I so happy to have them now and all I need is #5.
and pretty much, that was it. Now any other time when I'm not looking for it, they usually have a good bit of Trigun merchandise but this time when I AM looking for something, they don't have shit. Couldn't find anything that dealt with Wolfwood. Didn't see anything with Wolf's Rain. Didn't see SHIT for Hellsing merchandise including the mangas which I'm surprised I didn't see anyone have. I don't even recall seeing any FMP goods which was fine by me, there isn't much to begin with and what is out there, I have just about all of it. Course there wasn't squat for reg. GW merchandise.
I also had a new badge drawn up by Robert DeJesus in my Alucard costume which is way cute. I walked around for a bit but since it was too crowded, I went back to the room to drop my stuff off and just cool off in the room since it was way too fucking hot downstairs. There were times while just standing around in my costume I could feel the sweat trickle down my back.
Saturday just walked around a bit and showed Lucky around. She shopped while I went to check out one of the voice panels. Didn't do too much all that day but I did win a free dvd from Funimation. All you had to do was sign a form and they would have a drawing. I had a few choices to pick but I stuck with Fruits Basket dvd #3. Sat night, we all just hung in the room watching the masquarade on tv but we're so glad that we didn't bother to wait in line to watch it. The parts that I saw before I dozed off sucked. The camera person sucked to where they had the camera panned so far back, you could barely see the ppl on stage. They only zoomed in one time and that was it before they panned back out. I'm glad I slept through most of it. Later we went downstairs again, went to the bar to have some real food (even though expensive) and not long after did we all settle down to eat and drink that they were soon closing the bar. It was only a bit after 1am. We checked on things downstairs and the dance but didn't stay long. We all went back to the room and decided to watch anime. Lucky and Opie gathered around my laptop and myself to watch the FMP! dvd while Kelly watched Gravi on her's. Oh yes, and I can't forget about the incident that Lucky had with her water cup *holds sides from laughing so hard*.
Sun morning came around, did the brunch banquet, sat at Chris Patton's table (english voice for Sousuke) and had a nice time being able to converse with him and the winning AMV's sucked ass too compared to the good ones last yr. Then later during the day we all just waited around since there wasn't anything to do and waiting for Anna to get off of working the con. When it was time for us to part, we went to say goodbye to Scott but these fucking morons who stayed afterwards kept holding things up. These assholes were staying another night at the hotel, it wasn't like they couldn't get him to sign their stuff later. Needless to say, Anna not only surprised us with what she did to get Scott's attention but shocked Scott as well to where he didn't blink for quite a bit *snickers* You can read up on that inguardianhunter's journal.
My view of the con overall::
I think this yr, just something about it wasn't all that great. Of course there were still many areas that were fucked up when it came to planning and I heard a few voice actors speak their thoughts on the matter which wasn't too good. (they didn't speak it out during a panel, just to those privately). Maybe its the way they also changed it to how they set it up to do registration but all that weekend, the lobby didn't look too crowded like last yr. It also seemed though as if last yr they had more ppl but I think that this yr they had more than last *shrugs* I also didn't feel that high that I experienced last yr. Maybe it was cause I met alot of new ppl who I became friends with last yr and the hype that for once we had a nice turn out of GW cosplayers last yr. The only high points for this yr was having our Afest gang there for Akon this time around. Its always fun to hang with the ole gang again. Plus it was cool to have Jase and his friend come in and hang with us in the room, also found out how close Jase's bday is to mine as well as our age.
Maybe cause I didn't hang around much to check everyone and thing out downstairs but to me, there didn't seem to be all that many ppl that were in costume. And half that I did see was nothing special. It was also funny how last yr's Akon seemed to have alot of the J-rock/pop theme for costumes but this yr I didn't see as much. Also I noticed that the pics for fansview are shit as well, kinda shows the poor quality of those who were in costume. The one thing I am tired of seeing already for this yr is Chobits. Must be the IN thing right now. Holly's Malice Mizer costume was awsome but ashamed that their group didn't win shit during the masquarade. Didn't see hardly ANY Hellsing peeps except for a handful of Alucards, a bit of Integra's, a few Ceres, and one Alexander. Course I take it that not many ppl knew who I was just cause of wearing black instead of the anime trademark Alucard. I guess I need to make a sign that says what version I am. Plus I wasn't able to do any Alucard and Integra moments withstella195 cause her luggage was misplaced and she didn't get her bags in till Sat night. This yr was scarce for GW cosplayers. But one set of cosplayers that REALLY blew my mind were for Naruto!!!! I saw at least 2 Naruto's, Sasuke's, Sakura's, Kiba and Hinata, and....AND....AND someone cosplayed as KAKASHI!!!!!!!!!! I saw him earlier when I was outside but he wasn't fully in his costume yet. I later caught him in the lobby and snagged a pic of him, he was great!! I also had one of the Naruto's give me a suprise gift. We got to talking about the series and he later saw my Kakashi keychain on my bag. He found me later and presented me with a Kakashi plushie!!! I wasn't expecting that at all and thanked him dearly for it since they ran out of those plushie's when I was looking for them.
Back to the con stuff. The choice for animes in the viewing rooms sucked (not as in me not liking them), half of them I already seen and half of them were also played at Ushicon and half of the titles I never heard before. But I was told they did show the dub of Scryed and that it wasn't too bad with the voices. The choices for panels sucked too, there wasn't much on the list that I really wanted to go see. The rooms that they had the match games and such in were full so it was no sense in trying to get in.
For the FMP! voice actors, there was Chris Patton as Sousuke, Monica Rial as Kyoko, and Greg Ayres as Shinji. I got all their signatures on the FMP! stuff that I brought with me to sign, I'll post pics once I get bubba to take them off the camera.
But to sum it up since I'm boring myself and I'm sure others who are reading this, those that couldn't make it this yr that normally go any other time, you didn't miss a damn thing, be glad you saved your money. And THANK GOD! This was the last yr for Akon to be held at the airport hotel. Next yr it takes place at the Adam's Mark Hotel which by the look of things on a map, looks like its off of 75 expressway. I hope this hotel will be bigger and much nicer. The dates are also June 4-6 '04.
If I had to pick my fav's out of all the Akon's I've been to since '00, I would have to say last yr tops my list and till something better comes around to knock it off the top of my list, it shall stay where it is at.
Thurs. consisted of myself, Holly, Robert, Kelly, and the last to the minute roomie, Brian. First time we all got to meet Brian and it was fun that he was able to hang with us when he could. Plus we also got to meet Anna's friend Valorie.
To start things off regarding the con, Scott McNeil was able to make it. Fri evening, we all just chilled in my room watching the opening ceremonies on tv. I was standing out on the little balcony with Lucky, while glancing in through the door from time to time at the tv. First thing I saw was flannel and a cowboy hat and right away it clicked to me that it just may be Scott. I nearly broke my neck trying to get in the room and not tripping over Holly's leg. And to our surprise, it was him. The mood in the room changed drastically to those who were shocked by this last moment appearance.
Later we all decided to head downstairs and just check things out since the Dewl Jewl and Camino concerts were going on. Anna, Lucky, and I chilled out in the lobby for a bit with my laptop. I must say that the reaction to those who passed by, couldn't take their eyes off my desktop pic. Which was the 11x3 dominating pic that
ponderosa121 recently did for me *evil grin* Then Mike and Rachel stopped by and talked to them for a good bit while Lucky and Anna went to the bar to get something to eat. I joined up with them later and finally tried a Long Island Ice Tea.... very yummy but boy did it give me a hangover the next morning, not so much buzzing from the booze, just a headache. Kelly and Opie joined us later. Some big black dude came over and started to hit on Anna. I would say that he was trying to hit on "us" but he seemed to have picked on Anna the most. He finally took the hint and left and I believe not long after, Anna got up and went near the entrance to the bar. We turned around to see what she was doing and low and behold, Scott came in. Anna brought him over to our table and had ourselves a nice little pow wow. This was after midnight so we didn't have to worry about any fans coming over and bugging us. Scott commented on how long my hair got and I did a quick jab at him that I wanted to, about him being a blond. Its pretty nice that we can all sit together as our little group and have a normal conversation with him. He covered some ground about the Scooby movie and how he was able to make it for the con. He found out that they didn't need him for any shots till this coming Weds so he tried looking around for prices of airfare in such a short amount of time. Needless to say that it was VERY pricy but somehow, someway, Warner Bro's paid for Scott's flight. YAY for Warner Bro's!! We eventually got kicked out of the bar since they were closing up but for what time we were able to spend like this was well worth it since I had a feeling this was the only time we were going to get.I pretty much decided to be Alucard all weekend. I went downstairs thinking that by now, the dealers room were open but I saw this huge clump of ppl standing around. It scared me at first thinking that it was the line waiting to get in but the rooms weren't open yet. I made sure though to head to the 2nd dealer room since I knew that was the place where most tables had dvds. I made a beeline to the Suncoast/ADV table to get Full Metal Panic on dvd. I was so happy that they decided to have it ready for us con folks since it doesn't come out till June 10th. I bought the dvd boxset, in fact, it was my first purchase at the con. I looked around for a bit and was satisfied that I did all of my shopping on Fri. and not only that, but got pretty much what I was looking for. Since both rooms were just too damn packed, I didn't really look around too much just cause you had to squeeze in.
Things I bought::
Big Shippou plushie *snoodles*
Naruto figures (a set for myself and for Wardove)
FMP! boxset and a reg single dvd for Wardove
Hellsing AxI hentai doujinshi
I didn't buy these but thought I'd mention it. Lucky FINALLY brought with her, the Hellsing manga's 1-4 that she bought for me last winter. I so happy to have them now and all I need is #5.
and pretty much, that was it. Now any other time when I'm not looking for it, they usually have a good bit of Trigun merchandise but this time when I AM looking for something, they don't have shit. Couldn't find anything that dealt with Wolfwood. Didn't see anything with Wolf's Rain. Didn't see SHIT for Hellsing merchandise including the mangas which I'm surprised I didn't see anyone have. I don't even recall seeing any FMP goods which was fine by me, there isn't much to begin with and what is out there, I have just about all of it. Course there wasn't squat for reg. GW merchandise.
I also had a new badge drawn up by Robert DeJesus in my Alucard costume which is way cute. I walked around for a bit but since it was too crowded, I went back to the room to drop my stuff off and just cool off in the room since it was way too fucking hot downstairs. There were times while just standing around in my costume I could feel the sweat trickle down my back.
Saturday just walked around a bit and showed Lucky around. She shopped while I went to check out one of the voice panels. Didn't do too much all that day but I did win a free dvd from Funimation. All you had to do was sign a form and they would have a drawing. I had a few choices to pick but I stuck with Fruits Basket dvd #3. Sat night, we all just hung in the room watching the masquarade on tv but we're so glad that we didn't bother to wait in line to watch it. The parts that I saw before I dozed off sucked. The camera person sucked to where they had the camera panned so far back, you could barely see the ppl on stage. They only zoomed in one time and that was it before they panned back out. I'm glad I slept through most of it. Later we went downstairs again, went to the bar to have some real food (even though expensive) and not long after did we all settle down to eat and drink that they were soon closing the bar. It was only a bit after 1am. We checked on things downstairs and the dance but didn't stay long. We all went back to the room and decided to watch anime. Lucky and Opie gathered around my laptop and myself to watch the FMP! dvd while Kelly watched Gravi on her's. Oh yes, and I can't forget about the incident that Lucky had with her water cup *holds sides from laughing so hard*.
Sun morning came around, did the brunch banquet, sat at Chris Patton's table (english voice for Sousuke) and had a nice time being able to converse with him and the winning AMV's sucked ass too compared to the good ones last yr. Then later during the day we all just waited around since there wasn't anything to do and waiting for Anna to get off of working the con. When it was time for us to part, we went to say goodbye to Scott but these fucking morons who stayed afterwards kept holding things up. These assholes were staying another night at the hotel, it wasn't like they couldn't get him to sign their stuff later. Needless to say, Anna not only surprised us with what she did to get Scott's attention but shocked Scott as well to where he didn't blink for quite a bit *snickers* You can read up on that in
guardianhunter's journal.My view of the con overall::
I think this yr, just something about it wasn't all that great. Of course there were still many areas that were fucked up when it came to planning and I heard a few voice actors speak their thoughts on the matter which wasn't too good. (they didn't speak it out during a panel, just to those privately). Maybe its the way they also changed it to how they set it up to do registration but all that weekend, the lobby didn't look too crowded like last yr. It also seemed though as if last yr they had more ppl but I think that this yr they had more than last *shrugs* I also didn't feel that high that I experienced last yr. Maybe it was cause I met alot of new ppl who I became friends with last yr and the hype that for once we had a nice turn out of GW cosplayers last yr. The only high points for this yr was having our Afest gang there for Akon this time around. Its always fun to hang with the ole gang again. Plus it was cool to have Jase and his friend come in and hang with us in the room, also found out how close Jase's bday is to mine as well as our age.
Maybe cause I didn't hang around much to check everyone and thing out downstairs but to me, there didn't seem to be all that many ppl that were in costume. And half that I did see was nothing special. It was also funny how last yr's Akon seemed to have alot of the J-rock/pop theme for costumes but this yr I didn't see as much. Also I noticed that the pics for fansview are shit as well, kinda shows the poor quality of those who were in costume. The one thing I am tired of seeing already for this yr is Chobits. Must be the IN thing right now. Holly's Malice Mizer costume was awsome but ashamed that their group didn't win shit during the masquarade. Didn't see hardly ANY Hellsing peeps except for a handful of Alucards, a bit of Integra's, a few Ceres, and one Alexander. Course I take it that not many ppl knew who I was just cause of wearing black instead of the anime trademark Alucard. I guess I need to make a sign that says what version I am. Plus I wasn't able to do any Alucard and Integra moments with
stella195 cause her luggage was misplaced and she didn't get her bags in till Sat night. This yr was scarce for GW cosplayers. But one set of cosplayers that REALLY blew my mind were for Naruto!!!! I saw at least 2 Naruto's, Sasuke's, Sakura's, Kiba and Hinata, and....AND....AND someone cosplayed as KAKASHI!!!!!!!!!! I saw him earlier when I was outside but he wasn't fully in his costume yet. I later caught him in the lobby and snagged a pic of him, he was great!! I also had one of the Naruto's give me a suprise gift. We got to talking about the series and he later saw my Kakashi keychain on my bag. He found me later and presented me with a Kakashi plushie!!! I wasn't expecting that at all and thanked him dearly for it since they ran out of those plushie's when I was looking for them.Back to the con stuff. The choice for animes in the viewing rooms sucked (not as in me not liking them), half of them I already seen and half of them were also played at Ushicon and half of the titles I never heard before. But I was told they did show the dub of Scryed and that it wasn't too bad with the voices. The choices for panels sucked too, there wasn't much on the list that I really wanted to go see. The rooms that they had the match games and such in were full so it was no sense in trying to get in.
For the FMP! voice actors, there was Chris Patton as Sousuke, Monica Rial as Kyoko, and Greg Ayres as Shinji. I got all their signatures on the FMP! stuff that I brought with me to sign, I'll post pics once I get bubba to take them off the camera.
But to sum it up since I'm boring myself and I'm sure others who are reading this, those that couldn't make it this yr that normally go any other time, you didn't miss a damn thing, be glad you saved your money. And THANK GOD! This was the last yr for Akon to be held at the airport hotel. Next yr it takes place at the Adam's Mark Hotel which by the look of things on a map, looks like its off of 75 expressway. I hope this hotel will be bigger and much nicer. The dates are also June 4-6 '04.
If I had to pick my fav's out of all the Akon's I've been to since '00, I would have to say last yr tops my list and till something better comes around to knock it off the top of my list, it shall stay where it is at.
