Anime Weekend Atlanta Log

Day 1

Well, I'm back from my first day at AWA and I'll begin by saying that despite having a fun time, I really didn't go see a lot of stuff. This is mainly because of just going to see a lot of old friends and more or less follow them around and just chat with other fans of gaming or anime, and ultimately, I still had a lot of fun. Because of this, tonight's log isn't so much any new stuff that's happened, but more just a remininsing of various aspect about this conventions as well as just some remarks I came across.

Firstly, I'll start by saying don't rush your costume unless you're sure you can have all the piece. In the past, I'd always dress as semi-obscure characters, like Yuber from Suikoden III, Johnny from Guilty Gear, and Kamina from Gurren (though that last one has definitely gone up in popularity). This year I WANTED to be Hazama from BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, but certain aspects like unable to find a black vest, short tie, or wig around my home really limited that option, but the vest I did find was a nice little gray vest and I had gray pants and a 'gray-ish' trench coat, so I figured “Henry!” from No More Heroes fame.


Unfortunately, Henry is one of those characters that needs one prop and one prop only, his Beam Katana (AKA his Light Saber), and without that, no one could guess who I was and frankly, I don't blame them. Am I disappointed? Sure, but that's life sometimes. I sort of have a back-up Lucas of Mother 3 alternate color outfit, but again, I doubt anyone would see me as “Oh, it's Lucas” rather than “Huh... it's some guy in a striped shirt and shorts”. But hey if people recognize me, they recognize me. Power to them.

There is ONE thing I did go to and I'm glad I did: Totally Lame Anime, which is always amusing to watch how bad something is, even if it's old. This year, while some content was used again, there was a fresh batch of new content such as the 1980s anime film 'Frankenstein' which.... really like to rub in your face how Frank (Apparently Frankenstein's monster's name) is like Jesus... some how, and how he's not evil, he just can't help killing people. It does have one …. uh.... good thing about it, and that is it's tragically tragical tragic ending. It is so bad that it has to be seen to be believed.

As far as the costumes go, there a few nice surprises with two very well done Juris from Street Fighter, as well as a nice Bayonetta couple. One cosplay in particular I was happy to see was Friend from 20th Century Boys, an excellent movie and apparently manga too, but I'm reading it right now. Expect to see a review of that sometime in the future. There was a surprising number of comic characters wandering around the place as well, it was well... kind of weird to have Deadpool, Rogue, Wolverine, and so on hanging out at a anime con, but they were mostly good costumes so I can't complain.

But all of these costumes are outdone by one single costume so great, so awesome that it cannot be denied in it's superiority...

Awwww! Look at the wittle baby Keroberos. It's so adorabuul!

Ahem, sorry about that. In addition to those mentioned above, there were a fair share of interesting costumes: A snorlax dress, Final Fantasy white mages and summoners, a surprisingly well done elf hunter.... rogue... thing and so on.

To conclude the first day, AWA has the appeal of bringing so many people together to just have fun, give good conversations and ultimately, see a lot of interesting costumes and concepts.

I didn't spend too much time in the dealer's room today, but I'll be sure to update with my findings as the con goes on.

Day 2

So with the worry of pretty much wasting a ticket, I went into saturday planning to go to specific panels and do specific things, which got a little dicey due to showing up late and thus I missed, one star's autograph, Laura Bailey of Chun Li voice acting fame... oh and she also did some part in Final Fantasy 13, but whatever. Despite that, I did get scour around the dealer's room and take some time looking at the various things on sale. Granted, not much was new, but with my renewed interest in Final Fantasy 12, I was happy to find a Gabranth figure on sale. Granted, I didn't buy it, but the fact is that just because it's something that's always been there, doesn't mean I'd never want it and interests can change over time.

Having heard about one show that was playing in one of the rooms, I went to check out Hetalia, a fairly recent anime acquired by Funimation. The general idea behind the show is personifying various countries into characters, like Italy, Germany, France, and the other major powers, and then humorously retelling the events of World War 1 and 2 and so on in a very light hearted manner. It's cute and admittedly, kind of funny, though the five to ten minute episode length gets a little irritating when watching it as a marathon.

One thing I especially enjoy about this conventions is that even when standing in line for something, you can have nice conversations with the people around you. In my case, I spoke with several people in the line to meet Lisa Ortiz of Lina Inverse noteriety, talking about Slayers as well as her Autographing partner Michael Sinterniklaas, who is best known for his performance as Dean Venture from the Venture Brothers, but he was also responsible for playing the part of Xellos in the recent Slayers seasons. Sadly, he left before I could arrive to the stand.

After a quick dinner was when the real fun started. Beginning at seven was MAN-ime. A overview of the most manliest anime known as well as a stating of rules of MANliness, including one I know by heart, the input to the Hadouken movement.`

Afterwards came the Panel of Doom, a crowning staple of recent AWAs, where many come and enjoy the hilarity that comes from Japan. This year, there was plenty of new material with a recurring theme of Gatchaman team boss, Professor Nambu being a dick to the team for no reason, such one instance where he makes the team listen to a 'death song' that would kill anyone if listened to, all while standing there with his ears plugged. What a dick.

Another theme was beer, which came in the form of commercials from various brands like Bud Ice, Cheers, and another japanese brand whose name escapes me at this moment, but involves animated penguins that were so popular that they got their own animated movie... which happens to be a realistic setting, so we'd have chibi penguins going around shooting M60s at other chibi penguins. Yea, Japan is weird... a lot.

After the panel of doom came Mystery Anime Theatre 3000, or MAT3K, where con goers would come and watch a anime movie all while riffing it. This year showed Sailor Moon S: The movie, complete with awkward moments, beastility jokes, and putting logic in a show where no one can recognize someone just because they put on a tiara and pretty earrings. While the jokes were funny, was it bad that I was more interested in the plot? Ah, maybe I'll talk about that some other day.

Day 3

Sunday was significantly less fun after getting only 4.5 hours of sleep, but going to see Lisa Ortiz and Michael Sinterniklaas managed to perk me up, as well as getting Laura Bailey's autograph, though I feel stupid for not knowing Travis Willingham played Guile in the same game as Laura, so... yea. If you're reading this: Sorry Travis.

Beyond that, there wasn't too much to say about Sunday, it was your usually final day of con atmosphere with plenty of people around and nice deals at the dealers room, which I was happy to complete my fantasy Asuka/Rei set.

Closing ceremonies went over the excitement of the con, and brought a interesting realization, there were A LOT of newcomers this year, with suggestions for people to bathe and use deoderant, as well as other suggestions for the next year's con.

Overall

While I can say that this con was fun and definitely had some positive aspects to it from prior years, such as having returning actors like Lisa Ortiz and Laura Bailey, in addition to the usual Vic Mignogna, this year's AWA definitely stands out as the one with my worst con going experience, but that's not the con's fault itself but another detail that just really grinds my gears. Maybe, that'll be covered one day.

Besides that, the con was still a lot of fun and it's always good to meet new people and plays games with them (which I learned how much I really suck at Tatsunoko vs Capcom), and the dealers room still has some items I'm interested in. Will I come back next year? That's still to be determined, but I won't deny that I still had a good bit of fun.

More con pics to come soon. Till then.