Fanime 2010

[SaiQ]

I just got back from Fanime. It was my first time going to any con or anime related event.

For those who don't know, FanimeCon is one of the largest anime conventions in North America. It takes place one a year towards end March at San Jose Convention Center. It runs for four days and features a variety of events including Fanimaid Cafe, artist gallery, tabletop/arcade/gaming hall, contests, Black and White Ball, autographs, Cosplay Masquerade, Swap Meet, Dealers Hall, Panels, Dojo, and two concerts.

http://www.fanime.com/

There were also many special guests that attended including LM.C (visual kei), Haruko Momoi (musician, performer, composer, voice actress, writer, blogger, otaku, also know as "Queen of Akihabara"), Daisuke Ishiwatari (lead character designer, music, and voice actor for Guilty Gear series), Toshimichi Mori (producer, lead designer, and scenario writer for BlazBlue: Calamity Triugger, BlazBlue: Continiuum Shift, and game designer for Guilty Gear XX titles), Mamoru Yokota (Illustrator for various anime and video games), FLOW (well known j-rock band), Reuben Langdon (actor, producer, director, and stuntman for various tv shows, video games, and movies), Hiroyuki Yamaga (Executive Director for GAINAX), Carl Gustav (editor for Dark Horse Comics), Gilles Poitras (author and librarian), Jonathan C. Osborne (voice actor and is also known as "The Man of 1000 Deaths"), Karen Dyer (voice actor and performer), Ric Meyers (inducted into five worldwide martial art halls of fame for contributions to martial arts), and Ryan Gavigan (Host of Anime Hell).

http://www.fanime.com/guests/

Day 1:

I got there early. After waiting in line, I secured my attendee badge and received a packet containing schedule, guide, preview chapter of Vampire Knight, and a small stamp card.

 

I explored the convention center. It's a huge, wide, two-story building with exhibit halls, ballrooms, and video rooms located on the second floor. It’s also connected to two hotels: Hilton on the right and Marriott on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a couple of hours before opening ceremony watching AMV Hell 3. You have to watch it. Seriously, it’s one of the better AMVS out there. ROFL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aTgINExt2w

Afterward, I made my way towards the opening ceremony at Stage Zero, located in the main hall. Special guests were introduced. Some couldn’t make it, but will be appearing later over the course of the convention. Halko, with her wonderful voice and energetic dance, performed a couple of songs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LM.C couldn't make it the opening ceremony, but they posted a vid off youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYICCasOleE

Halko Momoi wasn't doing a concert this year. Instead she hosted an adventure game called "The Quest for Halko Momoi", where fans search and attend secret locations where Halko performs a mini-concert and fans collects stamps to win a prize. Her first quest event took place right after the opening ceremony at Stage Zero.

After “The Quest for Momoi”, I attended "A Decade of Death" panel ran by Jonathan C. Osborne. As some of you might remember, Kana did an interview with Jonathan, which you can find here:

http://918thefan.com/2010/kanas-korn...athan-osborne/

At the panel, Jonathan shared his experience as a voice actor. It was great seeing him in person. He has a great sense of humor and has been going to Fanime for ten years. The audience got to ask questions and he answered.

Right after "A Decade of Death" panel, I went to the "Halko Momoi & Akihibara panel". It was mostly Q&A between her and her fans. Halko, like many of the Japanese guests, didn't speak English very well, so she had a translator. A lot of questions were asked about her background.

 

 

I left midway to eat dinner and then walked across the street to wait in line for the FLOW concert. I found a good seat in the middle of the theater with a good view of the stage.

The FLOW concert was amazing! This was their second time performing in the U.S. They performed all their anime songs including “COLORS” from Code Geass, “WORLD END” from Code Geass R2, “Days” from Eureka Seven, “CALLING” from the new anime series Heroman, and I believe “WORD OF THE VOICE" from Persona Trinity Soul, and “Sign” from Naruto Shippuden. They even did Beach Boy’s “Surfin USA”, which I thought was epic. Throughout the concert, I was jumping up and down, cheering, and flailing my arms about with the rest of the crowd. Towards the end we all demanded an encore. After eight minutes of pounding the ground with our feet while chanting, “FLOW!” in unison, they came out and performed one last song. All in all, I had a blast. I hope FLOW performs in future Fanimes.

 

 

After the FLOW concert, I headed towards the gaming hall where the Swap Meet is held. It’s sort of like a garage sale with fans selling stuff to other fans. There were a lot of good deals and I bought Pride – High and Mighty Color cd for a cheap $5.

 

 

I walked back to the convention center, watched a little bit of anime, and then headed home.

Day 2:

I arrived at the Convention Center a little later than I did on day 1.

After exploring for a bit, I stumbled on one of Halko Momoi’s quest events in the karaoke room. There, she performed three songs including City Hunter ending theme “Get Wild and Tough”. A lot of her die-hard fans stood up and did coordinated cheers throughout the mini-concert.

 

Later, I attended the “Dark Horse Manga” panel hosted by Carl Gustav. Carl gave us the low down of how Dark Horse is working with CLAMP to translate and publish CLAMP’s original titles such as Ah My Goddess, Card Captor Sakura, and more. Throughout the presentation, he passed out preview copies (to look at, but not to keep) of manga and art book due to hit stores later this year. Carl also told us about “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku,” an adaptation from Evangelion, which will be released later this summer.

 

After the Dark Horse panel, I waited in long line for the FLOW panel. A lot of people showed up and at one point, I was afraid they might run out of seats. Fortunately I got in, but was seated towards the back. Like the Halko Momoi panel, this was Q&A. None of the members of FLOW understood English very well, so they had a translator. A lot of fans asked typical questions such as hobbies, favorite anime, or the how the band met. There were also a few outrageous questions. One fan asked, “if the band was marooned on an island with no food left and had to resort to cannibalism, which FLOW member would be eaten first?” Four of them pointed to Gots (Bass). Another fan asked about Iwasaki’s (drummer) tattoos. Iwasaki proudly took his shirt off and displayed it to us.

 

 

I bailed out a few minutes towards the end of the panel, determined to get a head start in the FLOW autograph line. To my dismay, others beat to it. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I finally got my chance to see them up close in person. I got to shake their hands and all five them signed my tee shirt. Best day ever!

 

 

 

 

After the getting my autograph, I went to the “Abridging a Series” panel hosted by EliteslayerX, whose currently abridging Ranma ½. Here’s his youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EliteslayerX#p/u

EliteslayerX gave us a brief presentation of the basics to abridging followed by Q&A. Towards the end he did a demo he requested 10 volunteers from the audience to help voice various characters for abridgment of Kobato. Lols were had from many jokes, including references to pokemon. The volunteers did a great job with the script and I look forward to seeing the final draft posted on youtube.

 

 

After the panel, I had an hour to kill before the big Cosplay Masquerade event. I rendezvous with friends, explored the dealers hall and artist gallery, grabbed dinner at Jack in the Box located a few blocks away from the convention center, and watched a couple episodes of Hayate the Combat Butler in the video room.

Like the night before, the Cosplay Masquerade was held across the street at the Civic Auditorium. The line was jammed pack with more attendance than the FLOW concert. Cosplay Masquerade is a compilation of skits performed by cosplayers. Group or individuals performed on stage. One group did a skit centered on K-On receiving a new band member: Hatsuune Miku! Another group did a hilarious skit of the Bleach captains, drinking at Urahara’s bar, while singing a Pirate parody “Yo Ho A Shinigami’s Life for Me”. There was also a “Gee” Girls’ Generation dance and “Sorry, Sorry” Super Junior dance. There was also a disturbing amount of Yaoi themed skits. Not enough Yuri if you ask me. All in all, I had a great time watching the theatricals and comedy.

Cosplay Masquerade ended a little later than expected (46 skits!). Evidently, I missed the light rail. With thirty minutes to kill, I headed back towards the convention center and attended one of the late night panels. For those of you who don’t know, Fanime runs all day and all night, featuring late night anime and events for the mature audience.

I made my way to the “Sex Trade in Anime (18+)” panel ran by Gilles Poitras, author and librarian of anything anime related. He talked about the elusive sex trade in Japan and how some of it is reflected in anime or manga. Such titles at Chobits, City Hunter, GTO, and other titles contain elements that surprisingly connect to the Japanese sex trade. The panel was very provocative (in an intellectual way :P) and I learned a lot things about Japan.

With nothing better to do, I hopped on the light rail and headed home.

Day 3:

After eating a hearty breakfast, I returned to the convention center late morning.

I attended the “Older Titles for Newer Fans” panel hosted by Jonathan C. Osborne and Gilles Poitras. Both have been watching anime far longer than I was born. They began with a brief summary of different anime, why it’s worth watching, and then play a short clip. Some of the anime titles they mentioned included Cowboy Bepop, Metropolis, Escaflowne, Gundam 0083, Lupin III, City Hunter, Hakkenden, and two other titles I forgot names of. Four of the titles I’ve already seen, but the ones I didn’t looked interesting.

 

After the panel, I went to the “Yokota Mamoru: Anime, Illustrations, and Manga” panel. Yakota Mamoru is an expert artist and has worked on many famous series including Macross F, Death Note, Kanon, Air, and more. He started off the panel by asking the audience what they would like to see him draw. One fan requested he draw “mahou girl”. For the next hour he drew a magical girl, which we got to see on an over projector. While drawing, he did Q&A. Many of the questions asked were from artists, who wanted to know about his technique or equipment he used.

 

 

Afterwards, I went out to get lunch. Came back and explored the Dealers Hall, buying souvenirs and gifts to friends and family. There were many vendors at the Dealer Hall selling a variety of Japanese goods including PVC models, manga, anime, weapons, cosplay outfits, posters, shirts, messenger bags, gundam models, and more. I bought for myself a 1/100 scale Strike Freedom Gundam model from the anime Gundam Seed. It’s an impressive model with eight wings, dual guns, shield, and side railguns. As soon as I got home, I clipped and snapped it together.

 

For the next few hours, I went to the video rooms and watched Soul Eater in English, Kaze no Stigma, and Code Geass R2. Later, I went out, got dinner, and ran across the street to Civic Auditorium for the LM.C concert.

If there were one thing to describe visual kei, it would be fan service. Both LM.C members wore heavy make up, resembling goth. Throughout the concert, a man dressed up as a rabbit (LM.C’s mascot) was dancing on stage wearing spring stilts and glowstick fingers. While I’m not a huge fan of LM.C, or any visual kei, I got to admit, they sang well.

Right before the concert started, I spotted FLOW sitting with the crown on the second floor. It was surprising to see them sitting with the fans, watching someone else’s concert. Although I don’t think they were fans of LM.C. They pretty much kept quiet and sat throughout the concert. Someone else told me LM.C sat in the same seats two days earlier and watched FLOW performed.

Feeling content, I hopped on the light rail and headed home.

Day 4:

This was the last day of Fanime. There weren’t many events and fewer people cosplayed. I spent most of the morning watching Soul Eater in English and Slayer Revolution in the video room. Around 2 PM I headed towards one of the larger video rooms where the closing ceremony will be held. A couple of AMV’s were playing.

To my dismay, most of the special guests didn’t attend the closing ceremony. They were off together exploring San Francisco and watching a Giants baseball game. Ric Meyers did a great job closing Fanime 2010.

 

I had a blast at Fanime 2010. As I said earlier, this was my first time going to a con or any anime related event. It had a great atmosphere and with plenty of people dressing up as anime or video game character. Some noticeable cosplays I saw were Pacman, Tetris, Pedobear, Team Fortress 2, Hatsune Miku, Hellsing, Bleach, Macross Frontier, Code Geass, and much more. I didn’t take a lot of cosplay pictures. I figured it would be better to leave it to people who went around taking pictures using professional cameras.

Here are a few that I did take:

 

 

 

Here are a few my cousin took:

http://www.acparadise.com/acs/display.php?c=4398

You can find thousands at American Cosplay Snapshots’ website:

http://www.acparadise.com/acs/cons.p...&t=4&s=&c=&p=2

While wasn’t able to attend all of the events, the ones I did were very entertaining. I will attend future Fanimes and perhaps other cons or anime related events.

Kibs: Post edited for page breaking images, please make sure you spoiler large images next time~

[EagleEyes]

Wow, awesome report my friend.

+ Rep for you!

[SaiQ]

Haha thanks EE!

Ok, here's a little update.

Someone finally uploaded Fanime 2010 Halko Momoi videos.

Edit: It seems Autolooper's Youtube Channel got banned. Here's a few more vids I found off youtube:

 

 

[toyNN]

@SaiQ - great post. Thanks for sharing all the con experiences and taking the time make for such a huge post for the forum.

[SaiQ]

@ToyNN: Thanks!

It seems youtube suspended Autolooper's account. *sad panda*

Just added a few others, not as good as Autolooper, but decent audio and video quality. You can find a few more off youtube if you search "Fanime 2010 Momoi", but they aren't as good.

[Chris]

Awesome, SaiQ!

As someone who doesn't get to regularly attend anime conventions and is very inconveniently placed to do so, it's fun to see all these cool pictures and read the experiences from some of the larger conventions in America.

Good job.

I encourage anyone who goes to conventions to do this! Not only is this fun for the readers, I'm sure SaiQ had fun re-living his experiences and putting this all together.

Very cool!