Events first, opinions and notes later...
Thursday:
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Vic, Rob, and SSG got here at around 7ish. We ordered pizza, hooked up his computer, watched Coupling, some Strongbad emails, and Earth Defense Family. Jeff (Gambitt) showed up around 9:45. More Coupling, Nate Gone Wild (VicBond has the tape and is lying if he says that he doesn't), We stayed up, planned directions, looked at the DVD from Newtype Japan's March issue (Evangelion remastered), and did other things to fill the time until about 2:30.
Friday:
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So we got up after not nearly enough sleep and went to Plato's for breakfast. Had some waffles which were pretty good and a too-big bowl of homefries as well as some crappy tea (Why is it that nowhere short of a fancy coffeehouse has decent tea?). After a brief run to an ATM and Wawa for last minute supplies, we hit the road and after only getting lost at the last minute (and quickly correcting ourselves), we arrived at the con. Check-in went quickly, as did getting badges (although reg was slow as hell, but the advantage to getting a special badge is that reg is not an issue), got my press badge, and hit the con. Most of the time was just spent hanging around, the only events I really went to were the Opening Ceremonies (yay for press badges), which are always a balancing act between fun and annoyingly long when the american guests don't understand that we don't care about their speeches or giggling wives. Also picked up a Bandai 1/55 scale VF-1S in the dealer room.
The AMV contest...I don't think that I can really comment on this fairly, as I've only seen about 25 of the 35 videos, and that missing segment is effectively the whole of the dramatic category. Yes folks, they put the comedy vids first (thank goodness), then action, and so o. While last year's contest seemed to just be mediocrity, this year's round felt incredibly retro - "this would've beena cool vid about 5 years ago".
The AMV panel...I have never wanted to kill my fellow panelists before, but there has to be a first time for everything. Nate showed up plastered and brought everyone drunk and even remotely AMV related that he could find with him up to the front...which meant that they were being loud and obnoxious and socializing, etc. and leaving the three of us (Me, Vic, alan) who were trying to be useful in a very nasty position, namely that we were being drowned out by everyone else. CDs were given out, DVDs were sold, and the tip jar made $6.50, well below the target goal of $15 (which would have been donated to the org to help with the donut). Besides the forces within being against us, the AMV workshop/panel was scheduled opposite the Duel Jewel concert, so attendence was sparse. I also was a bit too mean towards a fanboy, even if he does annoy the crap out of us...on the other hand, he left all the AMV people alone after the panel, so maybe it was for the better.
After the workshop, hanging out went down. Had a Warsteiner right after I got back up to the room, a flaming poof an hour later, and then a mike's hard lemonade at Anime 54. Despite pacing myself, it still hit noticably.
Speaking of Anime 54, it was my first real con party. Fun time, stuck mostly to dealing with people I knew, although Chad Dietrichs was a very fun host, and was great during the great hentai giveaway, and even got a certain AMV contest ex-coordinator to cheer as loudly as everyone else when they gave out the live action DVD of La Blue Girl.
Oh, and somewhere in the midst of all this, Ashyukun showed us Afro-Ken. AK rocks.
Saturday:
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Woke up hung over. Was not a fun person to deal with until after we had the AMV brunch. Still felt drunk and out of it despite sleeping for a few hours (Well, OK, 4, but I hadn't had a drink in 7...) and just felt generically crappy. Met another AMV creator at the rescreening, seemed like a nice guy, had sent in a pair of GTO vids. I left after the comedy vids to walk around, talk to Nik at the Tsunami table, and just do generic...stuff.
The AMV brunch went OK, but would've been nice with more people...maybe. The attendees were me, Fungie 1/2, Ashyukun, Rob, SSG, Vic, Senta, and Waldo. The discussion was good, the food was good enough for the price, although I wanted a milkshake and couldn't get one because it was too early. IIRC they were around $5, for fans of Pulp Fiction (or was it more than that...can't remember). Vic really did get swamped by fangirls wanting to buy his DVD, which was entertaining enough. While it's a disappointment that some of the other folks didn't come, I don't know if things would have been better with them there. The number was still small enough that everyone could take part in conversation if they wanted to.
After brunch/lunch was Mr. Inoue's autograph time (yay, got my Blue Gender LD signed!) and panel. Great information at the panel, got a burning question of mine answered (the process behind R20). Kevin Lillard was there for a little bit of it, his report's up on fansview. People were filing in for the AMV awards during half of it, and some of them were quite disrespectful, having conversations at normal voices while Mr. Inoue was trying to answer questions.
The AMV awards were a bit nerve wracking, and I'm not sure why. I doubted that I'd win anything, and thought that I had the contest pretty well pegged for winners (and I did!). The big surprises were Gendo, Son of God taking Comedy (I thought it would be Senta's AMO vid), and Ashyukun's taking of Action for his very cool Dark Metropolis vid. No surprises about Vic and Hsien, but were there for anyone? Hell, I was glad enough to see that people weren't out to lynch me for the utterly shit video that I made...
After the AMV awards, we did something or another. I can't really remember. I think that this is when we watched the second DDR project. Besides being an incredibly poor made DVD (Expert DV, my ass, nobody should give these people money or trust one of Pat's recommendations again), the project itself just seemed....boring.
The big event for Saturday night was the cosplay. While this year was another great year for the cosplay, it lacked something that last year's did, although I can't say what. The Pac-Man sketch was great, as were the Dueling Gundam Fiddles and FSS pieces. Halftime was cool, but lacked the great tag-line (Rob somebody!) of the prior year. Then again Pocky was battling a respiratory ailment of some sort, so the pressure was on everyone else to keep the show up. They rose to the occasion splendidly, and delivered a hillarious show. The cosplay awards were kept short and sweet (and full of puppet love).
After the Cosplay...
I really can't remember too well, which is sad because I stayed sober the whole time. I wasn't able to get a ticket for Anime54 Saturday, and just kinda bummed around. I remember going with Gambitt and Clark to the preview screening of Puchi Puri Yuushi 20 (still unaired in Japan as of this writing) and being amazed by the huge line to get into the room for Takeshi's Castle, which I unfortunately didn't get to see for its last run at Katsucon. Also watched the season finale of Coupling when it aired since nothing else was going on...at least nothing else involving me. Hung out more in the hotel, talked to Taka for a while, went to bed kinda early and slept.
Sunday:
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Got up around 10, and with the weather being how it was, nobody was sure if we would be leaving or not. I wanted to stay for closing ceremonies and had been waffling around on whether to stay at the hotel or not. By the time closing ceremonies finished, it was clear that getting home would be virtually impossible, and Katsucon 9.1 had been announced.
Katsucon 9.1 report:
Sunday:
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Following closing ceremonies, I got some dinner (hooray for knowing staff in the green room) and hung out for a bit (did a lot of that...). At around 8, Vic showed up at the room announcing that, if we could get everything together in time and agreed to help strike the video room, that we could run The Weakest Link afterwards. Despite a number of technical snafus, including the necessity of me having to go clear our prize with the con chair and Waldo and Gambitt writing every question from the computer down by hand, we were ready to go after Invader Zim. Unfortunately, I had wanted to see the unaired Zim episodes and didn't get to since we were trying to find a printer, as well as write an additional 20-30 questions to add to the ones we recycled from AnimeUSA.
So how did it go? The crowd was small, but hostile, and despite everyone's desires to get home and rest, they loved it. TWL is most likely a sure thing for next year's Katsucon.
After the show, there was more wandering around, a game of DDR at 3am, and sleeping in the adjoining hotel room which we had given up that morning but which housekeeping hadn't gone through, meaning that we could still use it without getting caught (we had adjoining rooms, got rid of one officially).
Monday:
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Hung out in con ops, watched AMVs with the Tidewater crowd, got a ride home at 3:30PM. Vic, Rob, SSG, Gambitt, Nightowl, and alan are still at the hotel. It is now 7PM and I'm totally wiped out and a day behind in all my work, which was not part of the plan. Classes were cancelled for today, though, and are already for tomorrow.
Overall, the con rocked on the events side. The staffers were very cool with us and extremely helpful at all times, even during the weather, with the running of 9.1 events. The hotel was a typical hotel, not being great or otherwise. Socially, though...
<last paragraph removed for forum post - personal journally stuff>
Katsucon 9 and 9.1 Reports
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- iserlohn
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2001 1:40 am
- Location: Wien, Österreich
Katsucon 9 and 9.1 Reports
"I'm recording an album tonight. Funny material and laughter will be dubbed in later."
--Bill Hicks
--Bill Hicks
- Super Sapien
- Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2001 3:27 pm
- Location: Maryland
- Contact:
There was a variety of events, of course, but I went for the people. You should have talked to me when I had more alcohol in my system, I would have been plenty social with you. Katsucon was fun, but it's still not a convention I'd go to for the actual convention, like AWA or JACON, I mostly go to see friends that I only see a few times a year.
Ere Cell Studios - The only organization I'm ashamed to be a part of.
Whatever happens, happens. - Spike, Cowboy Bebop \m/(-_-)\m/
Whatever happens, happens. - Spike, Cowboy Bebop \m/(-_-)\m/