Fan Expo Vancouver 2012

Fan Expo has finally taken over the west side of Canada and as a big name convention in Canada, it had to be checked out.

The pre-registration pick-up line was long but moved quickly, although it was ridiculous to see how there was absolutely no line for the on-site registrants. The convention pass was a mere glittery wrist band, or a stamp on the hand for single day passes. The simple wrist band made it transferable, which was nice (whether transferring was even allowed or not is another story). The convention *was* the exhibition hall where practically everything was held: autographs, photographs, dealers, and artist alley. They had one relatively giant area broken off from the hall and one extra, smaller conference room upstairs that were used for panels. The smaller room was way too small for the people they should've expected to show up so if you weren't lining up early, you have basically missed your chance. And if you missed your chance and had already strolled around the exhibition hall enough times, you've just set yourself up to be bored for the rest of the event. The dealers present were of a nice variety, mostly focusing on comics, and then there were the other geeky cultures covered. Speaking of other geeky cultures, the anime cosplaying crowd were the most prominent (an excuse for them to dress up?), but there definitely were a number of awesome old school appearances from childhood cartoons as well.

The sketching panels, which featured a few named comic book artists per panel, were the most interesting at the event. While questions were asked, they sketched and by the end of it, they had an amazing piece of art which they gave away to the audience. Other than that, we chilled out at the Bongo Comics panel to cheer on Space and rolled our eyes at the Anime Revolution panels.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the event was successful so I imagine we'll be seeing them again next year.

Sakuracon Repo 2012

Come Easter weekend, come Sakuracon.

This year's convention landed early in the month, mauling my birthday weekend but, hey, the regular dose of geekery was needed. The weekend started slightly earlier for me as I took the Thursday off to give myself some time to get some last minute things done. I ended up spending the Wednesday night finishing up small costume tweaks and my absolutely divine durian-filled cake. Caught a bit of shut-eye before waking up early to pick up Xenoblade Chronicles, a bday package (from my smexy mango sister) at the post office, and some delicious Chinatown nam sammiches with my brother. Mid-afternoon ToFu, Sty, and I made our way down to Seattle to arrive sometime in the evening and followed to unload our stuff at Garret's. Unfortunately the gang wasn't very pro-karaoke and were feeling very pro-pizza, so pizza happened. Ion joined us for food and brought over a Pokemon board game which we tackled for the rest of the night. Also, discovered that beer floats are generally pretty gross (at least the dark beer and vanilla ice cream combination).

Day 1: LineCon.

The convention decided to scrap the Will Call idea without notice this year so me and Sty ended up having to line up to register. Sadly their registration did not improve since I last experienced it a previous year where the wait time was a solid 3 hours. Regrettably, this year was no exception, as we ended up waiting about the same long 3-4 hours (I completely lost track).

With the registration horror finally behind us, we moved to our first panel of the day to a manga work-related talk panel with Zekkyo and Retsu Tateo. Some pretty interesting fetishes were revealed thanks to some smart questioning. We waltzed into the room next door after for the Gen Urobuchi, Atsuhiro Iwakami, and Katsushi Ota Q&A panel. There was a bit of an intro vid for some of their recent works (interestingly enough, all shown were scored by Kajiura Yuki). While barely paying attention to the less then stellar questions, I spotted LightningSabre a few rows in front of me (actually more like I saw his signature Shana jacket.) and flagged him down afterwards. His fancy press badge got me thinking about BLOGGING (= Press = Free). Something to consider! We stayed for the following panel for Wakeshima Kanon and she came out looking a bit rundown with the wig? bleached-dyed hair? that didn't seem to quite suit her. After the Q&A, we headed to the exhibitor hall's final hour to do some quick browsing. Fortunately nothing really caught my eye this time around, except for an artbook or two.

We reassembled our group, met up with ToFu's friend, Magister, and then headed out to finally get our first meal of the day at the Taphouse. I ate his caesar salad. Sorry, dude. :|

The Stereopony concert was already well on its way when we got back to the convention. None of us were huge fans and I wasn't particularly a fan of their music either so it wasn't a loss for any of us. We then spent the next while in the boardgaming room before the Iron Artist panel at 11. The panel turnout seemed bigger than the years past, but it might've been because of the the room size and layout. Unfortunately there wasn't an 18+ version of the panel this year either, but it was still pretty entertaining.

Day 2: Omiyage.
We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit before making our way to the convention for some artist Q&As. Both panels featured a slideshow of some of the artists' work, projected on a wall that wasn't completely flat. Nothing out of the norm for questions but we did try and prod Zekkyo on her BLing and Retsu on her hot, bald men fetish.

After panels, I headed to check out the AoEx photoshoot which wasn't situated in the best location imho and then visited the ending of the PanSto photoshoot where Lester was at. Made our way to the autograph lines and started with the Aniplex trio, Urobuchi/Ota/Iwakami. Bumped into LS again before the lines started forming were allowed to be formed.

When it got to my turn as I handed my to-sign piece around the table, Ota reached under the table, handed me a Fate/Zero desk mat featuring suit!Sabre, and said "omiyage" (souvenir). So, the surprised me looking like @__@ thanked him, got my autographs, and moved along, still dazed. With a new desk mat in my hand, we wobbled to Steve Blum's extended Q&A panel and caught the last bit of it before returning to the autograph room for HIS autograph.

Fortunately he had some neato postcards featuring some of his work so me and Sty both picked ourselves one each for him to sign. It was a real shame we weren't able to sit in on his panel though. With the remaining time, we took a last visit to the exhibitor's hall before meeting up with the people for that day's round of food at, yet again, the Taphouse. Although this time around, we had a table of at least ten of us but food and drinks came quickly.

With filled bellehs, Sty, Lester, Ion and I returned to the convention to check out Wakeshima Kanon's concert (or at least the latter half). I felt the concert was a bit underwhelming, although it may have been because of the lack of songs I personally enjoyed of hers, so I'm probably just being bias. We trekked along to the autographs line afterwards and nabbed myself an autograph. We spend the next bit in the boardgaming room (a fancy anniversary version of Settlers of Catan which was defective!) before the swimsuit contest. I regret not snapping a photo of team Seigaku playing DDR outside the panel room. SO REGRET ...because the swimsuit contest was a huge disappointment. Not even worth mentioning the details.

Day 3: Finishing Up.
Autographs were held for both the Japanese artists in the morning. Sadly they only gave sketches for ticket lotto winners (none of us were lucky enough) so we still got ourselves autographs. Bumped into LS again somewhere here. :D

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, but I do recall checking out the Charity Auction and seeing people bid ridiculous prices on stuff. I do regret letting someone get away with a signed and framed Capcom poster at a mere $120. Oh and watched some of the Gundam EXVS tournament. Aside from that, we bummed around a bit before deciding on dinner and packing up our things for the drive back.

We finalized on Crab Pot again this time around, got our hands and faces dirty, and had a good seafoody feast.

No real loot this year... but I did come back with stuff: