 |
 |
feeling: I'm coming down :p
listening to: Blood - Sweetest Disease
Another Ohayocon has ended. It's weird... feels like we did a lot less overall this year than last year, but actually we did quite a bit more, considering we got their earlier, stayed later, and actually spent some Sunday time there. In some ways it was much better, in others it was somewhat worse. The hotel was gorgeous, probably bigger and better than last year's, but everything was all spread out weird, which made things very hard to find. But fun was had. Ready for my crappy little biased review? Woowoo.
So Friday we arrived shortly before 4, and after getting registration out of the way, began by raiding the dealers' room. I was hoping to buy some of the many manga and DVDs that I've been trying to find for ages now, but bizarrely, among the millions of books and discs in that room, none were what I wanted. Either that or they were the wrong volume(s). So bluh. But the other thing I was looking to buy this year was some cool, non-astronomically-expensive Gackt item. There was plenty of Gackt memorabilia there, of course, but that astronomically-expensive thing got in the way, so in the end me and Dumplin' split the cost of a 2-poster set and we each kept one. So yay, I finally got me a Gackt poster~ Anyway... then we went to Anime Name That Tune, which is always a good time... I believe I knew a grand total of 4 out of the 60-70 songs they played, which was actually twice as much as I knew at last year's. >.> But one of the ones I guessed was a theme from Oniisama E, which no one else in the whole room knew, so that was cool. Ha. I rock. *ahem* So after that we briefly hit the dealers' room again, and got dinner, then went to Open Mic Night, which consists of people karaoke-ing Japanese/anime music. We didn't stay long though, and I spent most of the time just listening to the songs people were trying to karaoke while doodling in this little sketchpad I happened to be carrying. Then... hmm... we left there early and checked out the anthropomorphics workshop, but it consisted of a bunch of people who already knew each other sitting around talking about their favorite furry cons and the attributes of their 'spirit animals'. Not much of a workshop. So we left there early and, finding nothing else to do, decided to head home around midnight, then screwed around for a few hours, dancing Para Para and watching the Escaflowne movie until our eyes wouldn't stay open any longer. So that was Friday.
By all rights, I should label Saturday as the worst day of the three, but it was actually the best. We got there not long before 11 in the morning and went first to the AMV contest, but unfortunately we spent more time standing in line waiting for the room to open than we did watching AMVs, and we had to leave pretty early to catch the Haibane Renmei 1-4 showing at noon. It seemed pretty darn cool though. One of those more-than-meets-the-eye stories. I need to see the rest someday. So then we got lunch, and then we checked out Otaku Family Feud, which was highly entertaining. Mainly because the guy running the electronics stuff kept flashing messages on the screen making fun of the event's host and his apparent cross-genderal cosplay penchant. Hehe, good times. So that ended, then we headed upstairs to wait in line for the big cosplay event, but it ended up running late and we had an hour to kill before we were even allowed to form a line. So we got some ice cream, then came back and stood in line for God knows how long before they let us in... but fortunately we got fairly good seats, at least. The skits were pretty lousy compared to some of last year's, but there were a handful of good ones, so it was cool.
Then we had to clear out of the ballroom while staff got it set up for the main event of the weekend - the Blood concert. Blood being a real-deal visual kei J-rock band. Every bit as pretty as Malice Mizer and Dir en Grey. ^o^ Of course, we had to stand around in line for like, 2 hours, before the doors opened... I guess we got dinner somewhere in that time... but when the room finally opened, me and Dumplin' shunned our seats and managed to nab standing spots right in the front, where the more rabid fans were gathered, with only a few crowd control folks and a ribbon barricade between us and the stage. Even considering that this was small-time deal, with no fancy stage effects, minimal fancy lighting, and no stage backdrop at all, the concert was amazing. Our favorite of the members, of course, was the most disturbing one, Kiwamu... he was the one who reeled around the stage as though possessed (literally) and started gushing fake (I assume O.o) blood from his mouth halfway through the second song. You'd have never thought it by looking at him, but he was the one who spent the most time appealing to the fans, pointing at people individually (I swear he pointed at me at least twice! *swoon*) and repeatedly throwing himself off the stage and leaning back over the barricade, allowing us to grab at him as much as our little fangirl hearts allowed. Every time he left the stage he ended up either falling over someone or being pulled so far behind the barricade that he had to be pried loose by the crowd control people, at which point he took off running back to his place onstage. I think we freaked him the heck out, poor Kiwamu :3~ ...but he kept coming back for more. The first time he ran by me, I got a piece of his shoulder and possibly face, which resulted in a little streak of fake blood that remained on my wrist until I showered it off this morning because I refused to wash it off any sooner than I needed to. ^^ Anyway... not only that, but amidst another of his offstage journeys... get this... I got to pet his hair. That's right, I got to fulfill every freaking fangirl's dream - petting a J-rocker's hair. Dumplin' got the same privilege, but she also got to rub his cheek, the lucky brat. >:P So... my highlights of the concert, besides getting to pet Kiwamu... 1) two of the members - Kiwamu and Kaede, I think - literally tongueing each other *squee! :P*; 2) their cover of U+K by Gackt, complete with the cheesy arm-swinging; 3) the double encore, which lengthened the concert to juuuust about 2 hours; and 4) walking away with a feather from one of their costumes. Well, actually, when Kiwamu came out for one of their encores, he brought four costume black wings with him and threw them into the crowd... me and Dumplin' both had our hands on one, but some girl yanked it out of our grasp. But at least we got feathers. I kept sniffing mine for the rest of the night. X3
*end fangirl rant*
Sooo... concert ended, then we waited around for another two uneventful hours while the ballroom was converted from a concert hall to a dance hall. The best part of that downtime was glomping random strangers. Yegods, that was fun. I gotta remember next year to walk around the con wearing a sign that says "Will glomp for Pocky." X) Anyway, so then we spent a bit over an hour at the dance, which was disappointing. We were really looking forward to it, but as it turned out the only music they played was an endless loop of nondescript dance beats interspersed with the occasional otherwise-familiar-but-remixed-beyond-recognition anime or J-pop song. Oh, and Yatta. Yatta was the only fun part. No Para Para. *sigh* Anyway, dance music really isn't my thing, so the dance was kinda a letdown. So we left there and went to check out... um... either Anime Hell or Midnight Madness, I'm not sure... where we caught the tail end of a parody fandub of Escaflowne. What we saw of it was hilarious, and I'm sure it'd have been that much better if we'd seen more than just the last 15 minutes. Sooo that was about all for Saturday... we got back to the dorm just before 4 a.m. and conked out. So basically, we spent the majority of Saturday either getting batted around and lost amidst the biggest crowd Ohayocon's probably ever seen, or standing/sitting in ridiculously long, unmoving lines waiting for the big events to start. So in that respect, you might say Saturday was the worst con day, but the Blood concert made the whole weekend worth it. I am officially a fangirl. No exaggeration - not only am I still hoarse, but my left ear is still buzzing.
And finally, Sunday. Not much in the way of panels or anime showings, Sunday being the last day, so we were only there a few hours. First stop was the dealers' room, where I had hoped to buy a Blood poster to be autographed by the band at the Q&A panel/signing session later, but they were out of posters, so instead I got this set of little photos that included one shot of the whole band and one individual shot of each member. I also bought what was advertised to be the box set of the Apocalypse Saga of Utena, but I got ripped - what should have been 13 episodes on 2 discs was actually only 4 episodes on 1 disc plus a free T-shirt I'll most likely never wear. And of course, everything bought in the dealers' room is nonrefundable. Go figure. I've been to 2 conventions now - I was overdue for a good screwing-over.
But yeah, then we went to the Blood Q&A panel, which was short but sweet. The guys were great... they granted requests for hugs, and they smiled and gave V-signs when they noticed people aiming cameras at them - especially Kaede. His smile is so pretty. ^^ However, the session didn't really last as long as planned because their translator never showed up, so a few random people either attending or working for the con had to do the translating, and they weren't too good at it. The only one of the guys who knew any decent English at all was Kiwamu (go figure), so he did his best, but after a while the questions just got too specialized for both him and the translators. So instead, the band members decided to demonstrate their hair and makeup techniques on a lucky freakin' audience member. Of course, pretty much every arm in the room went up, but Kiwamu ended up picking some girl who looked about 13 and had extremely long, straight, plain, messy hair... and the four of them broke out their prettification supplies to make it even messier. Like, two of them would work on her hair while the other two did makeup, and such. Rarr, I hate that girl. XP And Kiwamu also did a quick makeup job on some guy working as con staff, which was amusing. A few more photo ops, and the session was dismissed, which meant everyone in the room took off on a mad dash upstairs to the ballroom floor, where the autograph signing would be held. Luckily, me and Dumplin' got one of the better spots in line, so it wasn't nearly as agonizing as Saturday's monstrous lines. So we got everyone's autographs and our pics taken with them, and I spent the next few hours kicking myself because I gave Kiwamu the wrong picture to sign. I mixed up his photo with Taichi's. >_<;; I just about fell over dead... Kiwamu held the picture up and gave me this look that just silently screamed "Does this look like me, you fool? *points 2 fingers and Becky's chest explodes in a fountain of blood*". God, talk about embarrassed. Baka. Baka baka baka. >.< But... thankfully he was a sweetheart about it... he was the only one of the four who attempted any kind of English vocal exchange at all, so he asked for my name, which the other 3 didn't do, and then conversationally asked me if I'd bought their CD. And suddenly I felt very, very tiny. First I mix up the stinkin' pictures, then I didn't have their CD. 9_9 So I said not yet, but I was on my way back there after the signing to see if they had any left. And by freakin' Bob, if I didn't hightail it to the J-music booth in the dealers' room as soon as I got my autographs to snatch up that CD for $20. It's good though. Short... only 7 tracks, all standard length... but it's good. I keep listening to it over and over. Anyway... that was about it, really. We wandered out of the dealers' room and headed back to the dorm, then watched the last episode of FLCL, which Dumplin' had bought, and then she went home, and then I sat down and typed up half of this blog, and then my computer ate itself and I lost it... and here we are.
So that was the con from my ever so influential POV. Only thing I haven't covered was the realm of cosplay, which... kinda disappointed me this year. I would say literally 30-40% of all the cosplayers I saw were dressed as some Inuyasha character or another. Now, I like Inuyasha, but... geez, people. A little originality. Anyway... there were also a great number of Vash cosplayers, some of which were accompanied by Wolfwoods... one such couple actually looked pretty darn convincing, but I didn't get a chance to take their picture, which sucked. There were also loads of Final Fantasy cosplays, especially from FFs 7, 8, and 10. No Kuja though. :P And we saw a few different Edwards (Cowboy Bebop's Edward) running around, which would've been pretty annoying, but at least two of them filled their roles very, very well. They talked like Ed (think "Nyo?", "Aiyaaa", and "Zooooom!"), they walked like Ed (for an example, watch Mushroom Samba), and they were toothpick-skinny like Ed. At least one of them carried around an Ein plushie, too.
But the single best costume of this Ohayocon, by far, had to be the guy dressed up as the mysterious Sephiroth-resembling short-haired stranger from the as yet unreleased FF7 movie. Skinny, butt-tight leather, convincing Masamune, perfect wig (which is very rare in the cosplay world), perfectly cut costume made entirely of butt-tight leather, perfect face and attitude... butt-tight leather... he was fecking perfect. Butt-tight leather. XD He was actually better than last year's Kuja. Gasp! No, seriously. :s Kuja was awesome, of course, but... his wig was all fake-looking and a complete tangled mess of lavender-silver. But this Sephy-clone guy's wig was remarkably accurate. And holy crap, I'll never know how he managed both to find all that leather AND to make it into a die-cast replica of the character's costume. Just... yum.
So I guess that was my con. I don't think I left anything out... lines, Blood, blowing lots of cash, glomping random strangers, Blood, the wonderful world of cosplay, more Blood...
Blood!
KIWAMU DAISUKI!!!
*ahem*
I'm finished now. Just about time to trudge through the big Winter Storm to pick up some dinner. I haven't spent enough time outside freezing my butt off this weekend. :p Late.
comment! (0)
dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 1/25/2004 06:28:00 PM
|
|
