So, back from my first visit to this convention. As usual, just some bullet points. Had a few unique experiences this time around, and picked up a few really exciting (to me) items, but had some frustrations, also.
- Location: I was not staying in the convention hotel and didn't realize that most of the convention activities were in the con-hotel when I was picking alternate hotels. All the hotels seemed quite close together looking at an overview of the area, but man was that deceiving. It turned out to be quite a long hike through the area's skybridge from my hotel to the con one. Inconvenient. Once you were at the con-hotel, though, everything was relatively close together except that the Dealer's Room was over in the real convention center. (Again, a fairly long hike...but a good division of resources if they had to choose something to put over there.)
- Small minus that made a big impression on me: con badges were provided with a cheapy little rubberband thing to hang around your neck and no other fastener option. But two steps past the registration, they would gladly sell you a REAL lanyard for a mere $5. I bought one, because I like to keep my badges and a nice lanyard or clip is part of that...but it felt like they made the "built-in" option as cheapie as humanly possible to "persuade" people to buy the special lanyard. Not a big deal, but it was a negative first impression to start out with.
- Attended a special showing of the
Trinity Blood "movie" that is showing in select theaters to promote the show. We actually got bussed to downtown Chicago to see it in a real movie theater. I was zonked and had already seen a couple of the episodes that make up the movie, so it wasn't terribly thrilling for me except for ooh-ing over the pretty anime on the big screen. But they had technical difficulties at the end of the film and promised all of us a free DVD to make up for the money we'd spent to see the movie. (Plus the AMC gave us free movie passes to make up for it too) so the net result worked out. :)
- Attended the preview concert for "
Voices for Peace". The CD is *awesome*. Can't wait for them to do more.
- I'm not sure what I did all day Saturday, but it was a very full day somehow. I barely had time to fit in fifteen minutes to eat dinner in between going to various panels and videos. Watched part of an
InuYasha movie, of all things. I *loathe* InuYasha, but I'm kinda fangirling Miroku right now. Wish I knew which episodes to check out for Miroku-goodness without having to deal with so many of the other 863-million characters in the show. These long series are a bitch in that regard. At least with
One Piece, I actually *LIKE* all the other characters, so even if I do wish it was "The Sanji Show!", I can enjoy the episodes with the others just fine.
- Attended premiere of Negima dub. It's a cute show, but the hour-long wait due to technical difficulties in a crowded-past-capacity room was very un-cute. I was dog tired at that point, so it was a bit frustrating.
- Watched "Otaku no Video" for the first time in a long time. I gotta get that DVD.
- I didn't actually watch very many videos, but I liked their video layout and scheduling scheme pretty well. It showed some nice thought, I think.
- "Shounen Ai: The softer side of yaoi" turned out to be a plain old yaoi panel with the same historical information you'd get at a regular panel, just with the more NC-17 content couched in euphemisms and "...but I can't really talk about that in this panel" comments. I was disappointed. The description had me hoping for something talking a bit more about other aspects of yaoi instead of the usual routine of adult women devolving into giggling teenagers at every naughty reference.
- I barely bought anything the first two days and was feeling pretty down about it. (Especially because I dithered for an hour deciding whether to buy a Portrait of Pirates Luffy figure, only to have it be gone when I went back. ) This morning, though, I did my final rounds and scored some cool stuff. My favorite is an art portfolio of Natsuki Takaya art prints (mostly Furuba, but also a couple others). Nice sized prints that come in a cool plastic binder. Much nicer storage than the other two art portfolios I have. Also got a little Tohru figure from Pinky St. that is adorable. With those and some other things I found, it turned out to be a pretty successfuly shopping con for me. Yay. :)
- Overall, the con seemed well-organized and sane, so that's a good thing. I'd probably go back if I was feeling a con urge at the right time. There wasn't anything mind-blowing about the experience, though, so I doubt I'll be EAGER to go back without the urge (like I am with AnimeUSA).
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