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Post by UNIT 0918 on Apr 19, 2006 19:35:05 GMT -5
Last Friday, I went to my first anime convention called Kawaii Kon. And I say, it was awesome! I met Vic, the voice of Edward in Full Metal Alchemist! There were lots of cool cosplaying people there, like a Stormtrooper, Scouttrooper, Miroku, Cloud, Sephiroth, and Yuna! There were many cool items being sold at the Dealer's room. But since I had other things to to on Saturday and Sunday and because admission is expensive, I only went on Friday. I missed meeting the voice for one of the characters from Radiata Stories and I missed some videos that I wanted to watch in the video room, like Azumanga Daioh or that drama about an otaku called Densha Otoko.
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Post by Pitch on Apr 19, 2006 20:14:00 GMT -5
Hahah. I've been to a convention once - going again this year.. it's actually coming up pretty soon, if I'm not mistaken. I wanna say it's in May, which is just on the horizon. It was pretty cool.
Now, when you say Yuna, you obviously mean the FFX-FFX2 Yuna, right?(most likely considering she was mentioned alongside a few other FF characters) Legends's Yuna's bound to be a rare sighting. In fact, pretty much all MegaMan characters are(which makes sense considering it's not an anime, except maybe that "NT Warrior" trash..). I think I saw an Iris cosplayer last year, but I was too shy to ask.
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Post by Santa Melty on Apr 19, 2006 23:00:17 GMT -5
Quite so, quite so. I was at the Kawaii Kon myself. Very nice. Lots of waiting, unfortunately. If you were there, perhaps you recognized me. I was the incredibly attractive fellow with the bangs wearing the ragged old red jacket and jeans.
Was Vic the man’s name? Great guy him. The voice actors that were interviewed all seemed a bit eccentric, though not any more than most of the other people there.
If you only came on Friday, I’m afraid that you didn’t see much worth the $20 admission. The presentations by Geneon and ADV were both pleasant. I was looking forward to that preview of upcoming anime dubs ADV was doing, though neither of the ones they presented particularly caught my interest. I’ll admit that second one with the girl and the regressed memory was a little entertaining, but it doesn’t seem like anything I’d like to keep up with. There was that premiere of the Fullmetal Alchemist movie sub, but it’s nothing you won’t be able to see on DVD (Or, with any luck, theaters) by the end of the year. Besides, it’s impossible to see any of the subtitles in that auditorium.
The second day was where it was at, sir. Aside from the wonderful art presentations/classes they had throughout the day, there was also the costume contest and, most notably, the concert with Yoko Ishida.
The art events were nice. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch one of them. It was with the artist who drew the original School of Rumble, Jin Kobayashi. Very enlightening. It was all pretty vague, since they needed to fit the presentation into the allotted time, but it was interesting to see a professional’s technique as he works.
As for the costume contest, I missed that. A shame too, because my friend was participating in it. Room was too crowded, you see. I did not think I’d be able to get in, so I repaired to the game room to lose at SSBM. Sure, some people may say that heading away from the auditorium without even shoving a few children off of the balcony was giving up a bit too easily, but it was fun all the same. And my friend won best in show for her... eh... Magna Carta cosplay, I believe it was. Never read the thing, so I can’t say I had much to go on with regards to the accuracy of her costume, but it won, so it must have been good.
Now, the concert, that was quite memorable. For anyone who cares to know, Yoko Ishida, aside from being a hit in the Japanese pop culture world, also sang several opening and closing themes in various anime. She is pretty popular, apparently. I never heard of her until I read the convention schedule of course, so I can’t say I had much time to be exited about it. I was lucky enough to grab myself a seat for the concert; most of the people either had to stand or could not get into the room at all. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe the songs she performed were Cruel Angel Thesis (Evangelion), Eternal Flower (Ai Yori Aoshi), Sugar Baby Love (Snow Fairy Sugar), the opening song from Chobits that I can’t recall the name of, a Fly Me to the Moon remix (Evangelion again), White Destiny (Pretear), and a few of her own original songs. There were also new albums for sale that they brought in especially for the Kon, and she was signing autographs after the concert. I got a photo with her, myself, and a couple of friends. If I can get my hands on a copy, perhaps I’ll post it up later.
As for the cosplayers that were there, I was largely unimpressed. There were a couple that were nice, but most were unrecognizable to me. And the ones that I did recognize were not of any incredible quality. I believe there was one fellow who came as Negi (Negima) whom had a very impressive staff, but other than that, nothing sticks out in my mind.
And as to everything that was for sale there, it had to be some of the most overpriced garbage I’ve ever seen. Most of them were small trinkets that were designed to break open after the first two uses and shower you with small pieces of metal that, going by the price, they’d probably been forced to excavate out of a mine somewhere using nothing but toothbrushes. I simply purchased some gifts and went on my way. Then I came back and bought myself a sword.
Really, the swords were the cheapest things there. For the price of a watch with gears made out of paper or an aluminum pin that has a clip, you could have gotten a 3-foot long sword complete with an ornate sheath and a cleaning kit.
Which isn’t to say that you have bad taste in the stuff there if you so happened to like it, but surely you agree that it was overpriced? o_x
All in all, it was fun. And there is the video room that you mentioned, where they were showing some very good shows. I caught a part of Tsubasa. Only a part, of course; the video room was directly across from the games room, in which I spent most of my time. But that was just while I was waiting for the good events.
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Post by Aim on Apr 21, 2006 9:08:32 GMT -5
Aw man... I really want to go to one of those. Where do they have them? How come we South Carolinians never hold one nearby? I would like to meet eccentric voice actors. They're always the best ones.
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Post by TronBonne on Apr 21, 2006 16:04:59 GMT -5
That convention sounds awesome, and only $20 for admission? Even better. It's great to hear you guys had fun, maybe you even saw each other. ...And I am going to ask why it was called Kawaii Kon
I've only been to one convention, but I'm going again in May. It was called Anime North, and it was a great experience for me. The last time I went I didn't know about the voice actors being there, but this time I'm going to find out who is going to be at the con, and get an autograph(I've heard the voice actor of Axel from KH2 might be there, so I'm keeping an eye out for that one). I hope the merchandise in the dealers room isn't overpriced...
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Post by UNIT 0918 on Apr 21, 2006 18:28:10 GMT -5
The truth is, I don't know why it's called that! That's why I said don't ask ! And you may meet the voice of Axel? Awesome! He was pretty cool in KHII. @ mltmlt22: Wha? Do you live in Hawaii? Or did you come just to visit? If you do live here, then awesome! I'm not the only forum member from Hawaii anymore! I was at the Kon wearing Sora's necklace. Waited in line and payed $20? I didn't really have to do that because when I got in the line, a little while later, someone who was going to leave early gave his pass to me(Was there a three-leaf clover stuck on my shoe?)! Man, if I mentioned Kawaii Kon before it started, we could've met each other!
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Post by Santa Melty on Apr 25, 2006 20:43:21 GMT -5
Eccentric indeed. The voice actors for Edward from FMA and those two from DBZ gave some very... interesting presentations. Edward’s voice (Whatever his name was, Vic or otherwise) gave an introduction to the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. Real entertaining guy. The two DBZ voice actors merely suffered from a severe dearth of sanity. I never saw their entire presentation on the history of Dragonball, though I did walk into the room about three-fourths of the way through their lecture to find them yelling obscene parodies of DBZ lines into their microphones. They then had a power-up contest with a few of the audience members to see who could maintain a scream at the top of their lungs for the longest period of time. The winner went for about 7 seconds and received a DVD box set as a prize.
I can only assume that they had concluded the serious portion of their appearance prior to my arrival.
The audience ate it all up. I’m not sure how fans go about celebrating their voice actors where you all live, but them Hawaii anime lovers are pretty hardcore. There were also three woman voice actors who stared in various other productions, though I can't recall any of them in particular. Equally eccentric, but much quieter than their male counterparts.
As for where you can find these things, just about anywhere, should you choose to look, though you may need to fly in. Which is fine, since they usually hold this things in or near a hotel of some sort. Costs more though. Those that live in the continental U.S. have got it made as far as anime-related events go. This year was only the second year Hawaii has had any anime convention at all. The first was last year’s, which I did not attend. It started small, but if these past two conventions are anything to judge by, the number of attendees will have risen exponentially by next year. Which means they will need to host it in a larger place, which means it will cost more to get in. Which brings me to my next point.
Tron, you’ve lost your bloomin’ mind.
Actually, perhaps I’ve lost my mind, though I have always considered myself fairly well-intact. Anyway, the convention lasted for three days in total. Each day, an admission of $20 was charged. Of course, you could purchase a 3-day pass for $35 dollars, but they just make up the difference in trinket sales. Either way, I’m a bit resentful over that admission fee. They must have made a killing off of those people who paid for each of the days they came on separately. Like me.
I was fine with this at first, but after finally having considered things, I performed a quick spurt of arithmetic and now can’t help but feel that I’ve been had. And next year it’ll be more.
But expensive or not, it was worth it.
Why do they call it Kawaii Con, you ask me? Well, using my razor-sharp amateur translation skills, I have a plausible answer. Kawaii is Japanese for “cute”. Kon is most likely short for “convention”, using the syllabic Japanese spelling. So, we get something like "Cute Convention", which makes some sense if you consider how often the term Kawaii is used when referring to anime. Of course, the whole thing was spelled in katakana on the fliers, which either signifies a minor grammatical misunderstanding on my part, or a major advertising or locality error on theirs.
If they printed a Japanese word in katakana when it should be in hiragana, they no doubt would upset a few of the more aggressive Japanese animation followers out there. Believe me, them anime folk are ravenous.
The second possibility I can make out is that they intended to have this convention on the almost identically pronounced island of Kauai and got both the spelling and location wrong by a few hundred miles. They had it on Oahu, you see. Oahu is not Kauai. Not by three long shots and a leap.
Rockman: Indeed, I do live in Hawaii. Not a fact I state very often, but I do. For a pretty long time, in fact. Born and raised there, if you want to get specific. o.o *nods*
Really cool place, for anyone who’s never been there. Nothing you can’t get used to, though. Lack of seasons, nice trade wind, green trees, fresh air, friendly faces, cost of living bludgeoning you over the head at all hours, appallingly cute girls being permitted to run loose on the beaches, and that whole thing about being surrounded on all sides by ocean. If you don’t like water, I suggest you move here. You’ll have a blast.
You are lucky to have gotten a free pass, sir Rockman. The first hour or so of my time there was spent in line. Wasn’t as bad the second day, thankfully. Most people had already purchased their 3-day pass, and management got productive and moved the line for the pre-registered people away from the normal one to avoid the confusion of the first day. Sorry to say, I never saw you. I’m very nearsighted, so if you’re not right up to my face, I’ll probably not remember yours. I’m glad to hear that I wasn’t the only member there though. It’s nice to hear second opinions.
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Post by TronBonne on Apr 26, 2006 19:02:34 GMT -5
I haven't lost my mind my dear mlt, you are for paying single admission for each day. A three day pass is $45 here, and a single day pass can vary from $30-$35 (depends on the day). I would have bought a three day pass if I were you. I only went for one day last year on the Sunday, the cheapest day - $30.00 I think, so paying admission more than once wasn't an issue for me.
That DBZ thing sounded so cool, I would have loved to see them yelling to their hearts content, and I probably would have tried to see how long I could yell at the top of my lungs with them.
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Post by Pitch on May 7, 2006 22:40:14 GMT -5
Yeah, the convention I was going to go to would've been yesterday. I didn't end up goin this year though. No one else was goin, and I really didn't wanna go alone.. so I decided simply not to go. Ah well.. I suppose there's always next year. It would've been a waste anyway. You all really seem to have gotten more out of 'em than I did. Pretty much just hung out and got dragged around last year. Saw an AMV, half of another AMV, we all realized we didn't like the AMVs and left.. uhh.. found free food which was good because my money was gone by the time we left the merchandise area(the first thing we hit).. umm.. saw some people play DDR, didn't play though because, c'mon, it's DDR. Watched the cosplayers show and that was it really. Everything worth seeing had like a massive line, and we'd already waited in a massive line to get in. Coulda seen the Pillows - that might've been phun. But we didn't. =/ It was a pretty sweet establishment they had runnin there though, I guess. Pretty phun. Again, maybe next year.
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Post by Dash on May 8, 2006 4:05:06 GMT -5
Geh, this makes me depressed. I've not been to a single Convention... D:
That's ok, the next one coming up, me and a couple of friends are going to sign up to be Staff. Free food and discounts on anything we buy anyone? xDDD
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Post by Dashe on May 15, 2006 16:50:08 GMT -5
Everything worth seeing had like a massive line, and we'd already waited in a massive line to get in. Coulda seen the Pillows - that might've been phun. But we didn't. =/ It was a pretty sweet establishment they had runnin there though, I guess. Pretty phun. Again, maybe next year. I used to go to Otakon, and I never really went to do ANYTHING that required a line, or much of one. Heck, I was always perfectly content just running around in a costume waiting for people to take pictures of me. That's the best part of anime conventions! That, and the karaoke. I'd practice all year for one shot at karaoke. But that's worth waiting in line for, cause you get to hear everybody else who goes before you. If the person who went before you sucks, you're in the clear, and if the person who went before you was amazing, think of a creative intro for yourself so people will like you better and forget about how good the person who went before you was. What I don't understand is why people go to anime conventions dressed like video game characters. I know they're from Japan too, but if it was really about dressing like game characters, shouldn't they call anime conventions something different?
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Post by TronBonne on May 29, 2006 16:54:51 GMT -5
I just went to Anime North this weekend with my brother, and I had such a fun time. I didn't dress up, I just went as myself. Maybe next year I'll dress up though.
Anyway, I had to wait an hour and a half in line before I could register. It was worth the wait, I saw so many cool cos-players waiting. These two guys dressed up as Game boys. That's right. They had original Mega Man music coming out of their costumes and everything. They even had a bar code at the back. Funniest costumes I've seen! I saw this boy who was no older than 4 as a little Sora with a KH2 outfit. Awwwwwww...
When I got into the dealers room I decided to check out the manga...there's a lot of them. I'm telling you I never knew so many of those things existed. I decided to pick up KH issues 1-3 since I've been interested in those for a while. I bought a cute Kilala, too! I didn't spend that much money, after I bought all of my things I only spent $31. However, the weekend pass was $45 (luckily my brother paid for me to get in). I'm starting to think these fees are a little too expensive to get in...maybe if I pre-register next time it will be slightly cheaper?
I know it was an Anime convention, but I did see a lot of video game characters. Basically Kingdom hearts and Final Fantasy. Maybe people dressed up as video game people because there aren't any video game conventions around...are there any video game conventions anywhere? 0_o;
I didn't get to meet the guy who did Axel's voice The line was huge, and I really didn't feel like spending my time waiting to get a scribble on a piece if paper. Oh well, I watched a lot of Anime instead. I had fun overall! Can't wait for next year....
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kohdok
Fritto
Miss Tron, There's something painful-looking in front of us!
Posts: 79
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Post by kohdok on May 30, 2006 0:49:00 GMT -5
I'll be at A-Kon 17 in Dallas this coming June for the entire weekend.
I probably won't be in legends gala, however. More likely, I'll throw on a red vest and black cargoes and cosplay as Resident Evil's Barry Burton.
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Post by UNIT 0918 on May 30, 2006 19:57:27 GMT -5
To Dashe: I think Anime Conventions basically mean an anime, manga, and video games convention. I think it's basically Japanese pop culture with the exception of some like Star Wars. Having a name called "Anime, Manga, and Video Game Convention" would be too long. I think anime is the most popular of the three, so I guess that's why they're called anime conventions.
To TroneBonne: So you didn't get your Sora's necklace? That sucks. But the again, the chain rusts(Only the chain). Actually, all FF necklace chains rust, so some people get new ones. Lots of FF and KH cosplays? Then I guess there are a lot of those fans in Canada. There weren't any FF or KH cosplays at Kawaii Kon except for Cloud, Sephiroth, Vincent, and Yuna. Tons of people in Hawaii are Naruto fans so there were many headbands and costumes of them. That's not cool for me. My local import shop had no t-shirt except for Naruto. I don't get why everyone likes Naruto. Is it the ingenious tactics? Is it Satsuke? Is it the fashin? Whatever.
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Post by TronBonne on May 31, 2006 21:07:52 GMT -5
No, I didn't get the Sora necklace that I wanted...I didn't see it in the Dealer's Room. If it was, I bet it would have been expensive, and I tried my best not to spend that much (only $31 spent, yes!). If they rust I'm glad I didn't find one. I wear my jewelry ALL the time, so I'm sure it would rub off/rust really fast. I could just buy one of those fake necklaces on ebay for like a penny (of course they don't look too good, but for a penny, how could you go wrong?).
How could I forget about Naruto? I saw lots of them too. I don't know why it's so popular, I like the dub (which my friends can't believe I watch), so I can see why people like it. I guess we just like ninjas or something.
Apparently there's a convention called CN Anime convention that's also in Toronto, and it's during September 1-3. I would like to go, but I think I'm too cheap. I don't want to pay $40+ for another convention. I also wanted to cosplay (May or Ash from Pokemon), but I'm clueless when it comes to things like that.
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