Project A-kon 2013

[davemerrill]

Glad Danno is still making them laugh with his Anime Hell. I have been hearing a lot of talk about the lines at A-Kon, some parking shenanigans, and other hotel-convention interface issues.... seems like they had a lot of friction with their new facility.

[usamimi]

Glad Danno is still making them laugh with his Anime Hell. I have been hearing a lot of talk about the lines at A-Kon, some parking shenanigans, and other hotel-convention interface issues.... seems like they had a lot of friction with their new facility.

Yeah I heard there were parking issues...it didn't effect me because I don't own a car, so I can't give an opinion there.
The lines, that had to do with the layout of the hotel mostly. While its larger, the space where the reg line is super narrow...so instead of being able to snake the line like we had in the past, it ended up being one continuous straight line...making it look and seem a lot longer than it really was. So I can understand why people were mad. :/ hopefully they can figure out a better set up next year because it was discouraging.
As for hotel staff, I personally had no problems. Every time I had to deal with was super nice and helpful. I heard some had problems, but the staff is so huge there's bound to be a few people that are hard to to deal with.

[usamimi]

Ok, I'm finally HOME from the trip and not forced to use my phone for replies. XD

I recorded my first podcast with a guest (oooh!) on Sunday, in which I talked a bit about A-kon this year, and about cons in general. I should have it up by the end of the week, since I still gotta pull it off my laptop and edit it.

I gave away every single flier I brought with me at the con, so hopefully we might get some more members around here!

[usamimi]

Started to pull some photos off of my camera...I'll try to post some cosplay ones up later, but here's some of the stuff I brought home:


Starting from the top left & going clockwise: English Lum vol 7, Ranma 1/2 vols 19 & 29, Giant Robo Complete box set, Bubblegum Crisis "Chromacel" (haha, remember when these were a thing? I got it for $2), Mikimoto Illustrations art book, Paradise Kiss vol 1 (Vertical's re-release), Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku gashapon, Cutey Honey keychain, Fujiko Mine gashapon, Sailor Moon vol 11.

Funny enough, the Lum, Ranma, and BGC cel all came from Half Price Books not far away from the con (a friend took me there on Thursday before the con actually started). The Mikimoto art book I got for a STEAL (about $9), and the gashapon & keychain were in a bargin bin for only a few bucks. Giant Robo I bought from Media Blaster's booth (they only had 2 of them) for less than $20, which wasn't an amazing deal, but it'd been on my "to re-buy" list anyway. The guy who was at the booth seemed impressed that I'd used to have the series on VHS and we chatted about old stuff for a while.


These are all things I picked up from the Swap Meet on Saturday:

Starting from the top left & going clockwise: Fruits Basket vol 2, Go Nagai's Harenchi Gakuen vol 1 (it looks like an old copy, too. Someone gave this to me for nothing because it was in Japanese and she had no idea what it was), Ayashi no Ceres vol 1, vol 18 of "Osamu Tezuka THE BEST" short stories manga (again, given to me for free because the gal had no idea what it was and didn't know any Japanese), Sakura Hime vol 9, an old issue of "Zipper" magazine (again for free, from the same gal. I only wanted it because Chiaki Kuriyama was on the cover, really. xD), vol 14 of the first printing of Sailor Moon, a Japanese CardCaptor Sakura plush from '99 (seriously, I wish I had had more stuff with me to trade because the girl who had this had an ENORMOUS bag full of CCS items, it was crazy!), Maison Ikkoku Forever Remix CD (an EverAnime bootleg, sadly, but it was brand new), Magic Knight Rayearth CD keychain, vols 1 & 2 of the Ace Attorney manga, and vol 2 of 3x3 Eyes (which I got for free because the girl who had it said it "wasn't that great" and she hadn't had anyone ask about it all day). Not pictured: a couple of American DVDs and a Soul Eater headband.

I was surprised at how many older things some people brought to the swap! I ran into one of the heads of Otakon there, and he had Slayers figurines, a Sony Pocket Station, and other random things. We talked a bit about old stuff and how much cons had changed since we'd been around. The swap this year was SO much better than last year's--I brought a pile of stuff and didn't get a single thing. This year I pretty much doubled what I brought and only brought back 2 things with me from the original like, 10 I brought.


And stuff I got at Artist's Alley and the Exhibition Hall:

Starting from the top left & going clockwise: Adventure Time fan, some Funimation trading cards, Season 4 of One Piece on DVD that I won in a raffle (I'll prolly sell it or trade it in, though), a P-chan button from Artist's Alley, Lain poster, Woman called Fujiko Mine poster (I got signed by Sonny Straight, the dub voice of Lupin), Famous Monsters lanyard, Lum print from Artist's Alley, and a Psycho-Pass poster. Not pictured: a Famous Monsters postcard signed by the artist.

The Lain and Psycho-Pass posters are printed on heavy cardstock, actually, and Funimation would only let you take one of each (while I got multiples of the Fujiko ones to give to friends). I was shocked to see that Lum print at Artist's Alley and it was basically an instant-buy for me. XD I never see Urusei Yatsura anything in there, so I kinda gushed at the artist's table about it. She has a shop on Etsy here if you want a better look.


And of course, I basically left fliers for the forum everywhere:

I spread them out on tables, handed them out at the Pre-Y2K panel, and left 2 piles on the info desk and the Exhibition Hall table in the dealer's room. I didn't have as many as I would've liked, but hopefully some people saw them and will come check us out!

Ok, more later. ;D