June 5th, 2004

A-Kon 15 Day 2

We got up around 11 on Saturday, had breakfast bars and took turns for the shower. We went to the third floor so they could tryout for the game shows and me go to the studio panels. I noticed that they had moved the arcade machines to one smaller area fenced in except at one point, where staff were sitting selling bracelets to allow access to play as many games as they want, with all the machines on free play. I believe this was a good move, as it saved on having to restock the change machine and gave the staff more control. One flaw in it though, the $10 for a bracelet would be good for the 6 hour period you bought it in. At that point, it was for 12 – 6, and then reverted to 6 – midnight after. I think the bracelets should’ve been all day for like $15, main reason being that in a 6 hour period, if you play DDR there’s no way to get your money’s worth for the 6 hour bracelet. You’d have to play about 13 rounds for $10 worth of DDR (75 cents a round), and with many people playing DDR, the bracelet is more of a ripoff because there’s no way to get that many rounds in a 6 hour time block, and even worse, no way to keep track of order. They eventually put up sheets for people to keep track of it though. So I didn’t bother playing any more DDR, I got change the night before to play the game as many times as I can afford to, not to pay them more money for only a few rounds. I killed some time watching people play before the panels. Eventually I just got bored and sat down next to the door to the room Funimation was going to be in. Soon other people started, and by the time the panel was about to start, there was a pretty long line. It was PS2 day all over again, only this time I wasn’t spending money for a poorly built system, rather not spend money to listen to a great man from a great company speak and announce stuff.

I was in the second row (don’t know how I didn’t get in the first but I didn’t care since I was close to the front and in a chair), and must admit I now have a con pet peeve before the panel started. It almost happened in the Super Milk-chan premiere, but because a peeve because it was a tad worse in the Funimation panel. I apologize if I seem rude or offensive to those people who this might apply to, but it’s something that must be said. This pet peeve is sitting next to a really big person. I don’t mean like overweight, I mean really fucking big. As in the person sits in the center in a chair and their ass is taking up half the space of the chairs on both their sides. It is fucking ridiculous, and kind of rude to be taking up so much space on chairs when rooms stuff full and people, such as myself, can only use half a chair to sit in. I am already scared enough of people when I can curl into a ball and seemingly fit inside of them, dead terrified if I can stand up straight inside them. If you’re that big, for the sake of yourself, and others around you, do something about it. Don’t make excuses for not doing anything, or that “nothing works,” if you work hard at it then you can do it. Nothing happens immediately, it takes hard work, and I know it can be done, I’ve seen living proof of one person working hard and losing more weight than I have in my entire body. If you are massively big, do something about it, you’re hurting yourself in the long run and in situations such as this one in the panel, it’s hard and annoying for people to sit and look around you. At the very least, have your ass take up two full seats instead of taking up half of two and all of one so that people don’t have to stuff themselves into the half. I’m a smaller guy so it wasn’t too big a deal for me, but do something to be courteous to others. I again apologize if I have offended anybody in any way, but it really is ridiculous and should be addressed.

Now that I got that off my chest, onto the panel itself. Lance started off passing out extra Tenchi Muyo GXP calendars that was included in the DVD + Box LE, saying that when he ordered them, he could’ve gotten a bunch more for only a little extra money, and said he ordered the extras for giveaways for us. Score more points for Lance. He then told us who he was and everything he does, which I loved because it gave me more of an idea of what goes on when working on shows and products for them. He then read off release dates for products for the year, and teased us when he got to August starting off saying stuff about 4kids releases and generally poking fun at us, getting our hopes up for uncut 4kids shows coming out. He then was like “And the 4kids release in August…. Volume 1 of…… Cabbage Patch Kids.” Ah, fun stuff as some people booed, and then he laughed saying he would talk more 4kids later. He skipped over October, and after he finished, said that October would be when the second Yu Yu Hakusho Dart Tournament Saga box would be released, with joy from all of us. He said acquisition announcements were next, explained that when Funimation picks up the rights to a show they pick up all the rights including game rights and such, and with that, announced the acquisition of Gunslinger Girl, with good response from the audience. He then said it was time to talk 4kids, and eventually said they were releasing uncut versions of Shaman King, which was responded with lots of cheering. He explained that the uncut dub would retain the SatAM names, but that the sub would be true to the show. He then said that Shaman King wasn’t the only 4kids property to be released uncut, and said Yu-Gi-Oh would be released uncut as well, with more cheering to follow. Lance explained that they would be starting from where 4kids started, that sadly the true first season would not be coming over here yet. After the announcements, he showed off the limited edition figures of Eclaire and Luminare of Kiddy Grade, which will be limited to 500 units sold inly in the Z store, and they looked beautiful. There wasn’t a zoom function to Kere’s camera that I borrowed though, but it does take pics at really high resolution, so I hope the pic I took came out ok from where I was, will post it later if it did. He then started a Q&A session, which for the most part was really insightful. There were a lot of good questions and he did a great job answering them. I wish I remembered my notebook. That was it for the panel, overall a great panel done by Lance and I look forward to Fumination’s work as the year goes on.

I had two hours to kill before ADV’s panel, so I went to the room to make a sandwich to eat. Derek was still in bed so I was really quiet about it. I still had time to kill, so I collected freebies, and about an hour before the panel, me and someone else started a line for the panel. Must’ve sucked for whoever was in there before ADV, a bigger line outside waiting for them to get out than the people inside the room. The line grew enormously, a ton bigger than Funimation’s. We stuffed the room full and then some, people sitting in any open area. The panel was led by Matt Greenfield and David Williams with other staff present. Matt was going to run a quick DVD explaining who ADV was and what they did, but Dave said there wasn’t enough time (and in my opinion, no point, why would so many people overstuff a room for a company they don’t know anything about?) and went straight to business. He popped in a DVD and the clean OP to Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch! Played, confirming ADV had gotten it. The next acquisition was E’s Otherwise, and after that Cromartie High School. After the announcements, they showed off new trailers, including the Excel Saga box and Getbackers. A Q&A followed, which gradually led into pet peeve number two, people who don’t get it. To be more specific, ADV and any other anime company for that matter, cannot comment on who has what and if something has been picked up until they are allowed to say something, therefore any questions about a license for a show not yet announced was always answered with “We can neither confirm or deny.” I can understand the first couple happening, and then the lengthy explanation Matt gave as to why exactly they can’t say anything, but any questions after that point were just annoying because people couldn’t get it. There could’ve been time for a lot more good questions if people got the hint and didn’t waste so much time asking about unannounced shows. It was still a good session though, since ADV does a lot more than release anime, and it was good hearing info of the Anime Network, manga, and music releases. I didn’t ask anything, since my only real good questions for them involve Sailor Moon, and there’s no point in asking about it with the license gone. They then had trivia, giving away DVDs and manga for each correct answer. A very good panel by ADV. With that panel done, me and a bunch of others, including David Williams, scurried over to Bandai’s panel.

There was some difficulty getting stuff setup, but Jerry, introducing himself under a different name (because he was caught sleeping in the Bandai booth the night before, heh) took control quickly. I was sitting behind someone with a laptop with wireless internet giving play by play over IRC, I believe it was in #animecentral on the Enter the Game servers. Jerry started playing parts of the first episode of Dear Boys, at this point we were unsure if it was because he liked the show or that they had picked it up. After the clips, it was because of both. He then announced they had Overman King Gainer and started playing the first episode, with the timecodes present. It was actually the dub, which would’ve been nice to hear more of, but dub haters bitched and moaned so he stopped the tape. You’ll see this as a general pet peeve of mine, when people bitch and moan and get their ways, not caring about what anyone else wants or screwing over those who are patient and quiet. I wanted to see the first episode, dub or not, and it sucks that myself and others couldn’t because of dub haters feeling the need to be dicks. Jerry announced some dates for stuff, including Zeta Gundam in September, Galaxy Angel Zeta in October, and Please Twins in November. He also stated that some of Gundam Seed’s releases would have LE versions with CDs and others no LE at all. He also explained why Bandai normally doesn’t release music CDs separate from LE releases is that he and other people in the company feel that the people who would be buying the CDs are buying the DVDs anyway, so why not just bundle them together for cheaper? Makes sense to me, I would’ve bought all my .hack CDs separate, but I could get them with the DVDs, and I have three of those CDs that aren’t available separate. He then held a Q&A, giving away various merchandise to people who asked questions. There weren’t as many good questions as I had hoped, but still a fulfilling session that ended the panel.

My overall thoughts on the studio panels is that I loved them. It was great to see some of the people who worked on products and post on AoD, and they all seem like really cool people to work with and even just hang out with. After seeing them and the panels they held, I can honestly say I would love to find a job in the industry somewhere. They do great work and seem to have a lot of fun, and I can definitely see myself doing something for them in the future. I have a much greater respect and understanding of everything that goes on for anime on this side of the ocean, and I’m glad that I attended these panels.

After the panels, I managed to find the group, with us circling around the escalators twice trying to catch each other on the same floor. After both trips, I stayed on the second floor and waited for them. We went back to the room for some snacks, TV watching, chilling, some drawings (which Tiff has to scan sometime), and eventually headed back to the pool again for a while. After getting back to the room to change, we decided we would try to go see the Psycho Le Cemu concert and headed to the main convention room. I must say, I give the security a lot of credit there. They handled everything very well and had a great way of making the line and getting people in there as quickly and orderly as possible. While we had to wait quite a while before they even started to make the actual line to get in the concert room, once they did they made a great layout of a single file line, checked everyone for cameras to give them up before the concert so they wouldn’t be in trouble later if they managed to sneak a camera in and use it. I accidentally left Kere’s camera in my pocket, but I also didn’t want to give it to security since it wasn’t mine, so I played cool and was smart about it, saying I had no camera and I wasn’t stupid enough to take it out in the concert. Even though the four of us got separated when the line was being made, we were able to find each other easily in the concert room itself once we got in.

The concert was great. I had never heard of this group prior to them being announced to perform at A-kon, but as a fan of J-pop and J-rock, I really enjoyed their performance. This was also my first concert experience, and I have to say it was a good experience. The whole crowd was into the music and participating in various body movements that went with certain songs, there weren’t any idiots starting any mosh pits or anything of the sort, it was very enjoyable. After they were done and left the stage, we all were chanting their names for an encore, and we were given that a few short minutes later. Also after a brief intermission, they put on a little skit which was pretty enjoyable and a nice little change of pace.

After the concert, we decided to go back to the room to get some before rave dance that was taking place right after the concert. Before we got there though, we had an interesting experience. For a little background, in the center tower on like the 38th floor or something like that, there was a wedding reception going on. I still wonder why whoever’s reception it was decided to plan it during the weekend of A-Kon, as I know A-kon was booked at least a year in advance and I’m sure the hotel staff notified the couple of the con before they booked the reception. Because of the con being as populated as it was, and the reception going on, there was a police officer holding one of the center tower elevators for only reception guests, which was a huge pain in the ass, as it was hard enough to get in and out elevators, now there was one less to use. However, while we were waiting for the next elevator for us, there was a couple waiting for the reception elevator, and let me say with full honesty that the woman of the couple was one of the stupidest bitches I have ever met. I use such harsh words as when her man (dunno if he was a husband or boyfriend) was going to check on something and told her to stay there real quick, she was all scared of us. She was like “Don’t leave me here, they’ve got glow sticks, and there’s a Hello Kitty! You can’t leave me!” I managed to keep my thoughts to myself, I took this trip as a stress relief, not to try to cause more, Lydia didn’t say anything out loud either, but Tiff and Parakisu weren’t about to stay quiet. Before they had fun with her, Tiff was like “What, we’re not allowed to stand here and wait for an elevator?” and the bitch was clinging onto her man, begging him not to, so Tiff and Parakisu were talking to each other about sacrificing virgins and having mass orgies to scare her more, and succeeded in doing so. Then just before our elevator came, the bitch after all her insults and such about us had the gall to ask us if we had a cigarette. We’re just like “No, we don’t do that shit and why would we give one to you even if we did?” Man, her stupidity just amazed me having to act the way she did and going off about us. We had a great laugh once we got to the room though and started to think of ways to scare her if we saw her again. We ended up deciding that if we saw her, we’d run to her and be like “Hello Kitty requires LIFE!” Sadly, we didn’t see her again, that would’ve been awesome.

The dance was a lot of fun. I haven’t been to anything of the sort in a long time so I let loose and danced with the music. And yes, I can dance for real outside DDR, maybe it’s only basic type dancing, but it’s still dancing and I enjoy it. It’s one of the reasons I like DDR so much. At the dance, there was a guy in a huge cardboard Egnicknok costume. Best costume ever. He had made the thing perfect with the pixels, middle finger and all. After a couple hours there, we decided we should get to bed so we could get up fairly early to get ready for checkout.