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06-03-2011, 01:00 PM
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RAWR!
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 68
Rep Power: 175 
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Fanime 2011
I just finished Fanime 2011. This was my second year attending.
Background For those who don't know, Fanime is one of the largest anime conventions in North America. It takes place once a year towards end of March at San Jose Convention Center. It runs four days straight and features many events including panels, competitions, Fanimaid Cafe, Artist Gallery, Gaming Hall, contests, Black and White Ball, dance parties, autograph sessions, Cosplay Masquerade, swap meet, Dealers Hall, Dojo, and MusicFest. Not much has changed compared to Fanime 2010. Dojo and autograph still takes place in the Hilton. Dealer Hall, Artist Gallery, video rooms, karaoke room, Stage Zero, and Gaming Room are in the same location. Panels are still held in the Marriott hotel. Guests There were many special guests and a lot of familiar faces from the previous year including Haruko Momoi (musician, performer, composer, voice actress, writer, blogger, otaku, also know as "Queen of Akihabara"), Mamoru Yokota (illustrator, character designer, producer, and animation director who has worked on such popular titles as Macross Frontier, Death Note, Air, Kanon, Magical Canan, and Louie the Rune Soldier.), Gilles Poitras (author and librarian), Jonathan C. Osborne (voice actor and is also known as "The Man of 1000 Deaths"), Ric Meyers (inducted into five worldwide martial art halls of fame for contributions to martial arts), and most exciting of them all: FLOW (well known j-rock band). Yes ladies and gents, FLOW returned to Fanime! In addition, there were also a lot of new faces this year including Yuya Matsushita (singer and TBS TV drama star), Ryusuke Hamamoto (manga artist of Petite Eva series based on Neon Genesis Evangelion), Seiji Mizushima (anime director of many popular titles including Shaman King, Slayers, and Gundam 00), Takahiro Yoshimatsu (animation director and character designer who has worked on many popular titles including Slayers, Trigun, and Vampire Hunter D.), Tohru Furuya (legendary voice actor of Amuro Ray from original Mobile suit Gundam, Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, etc…), GASHICON (illustrator and character deisginer of hANGRY&ANGRY brand), Fumio Iida (character designer, illustrator, game creator, and manga artist), Yoshiki (musician from X Japan). Friday (May 27, 2011) Since most people were working or still in school, there wasn't a lot happening on Friday. I arrived early. There was a long line for pre-registration and even longer line for registration. This year Fanime didn't provide printed schedules. Attendees had to print out their own copy, use smart phones, or visit information booths scattered across the convention center. Fortunately my college was a few blocks away from the convention center. After meeting up with a friend, we walked back to our college where I printed out the schedule. By then it was afternoon. We went back inside the convention center and met up with another friend. We ate lunch at Hydration, a well-known Japanese café that serves pearl milk tea. After lunch, we returned to the convention center for opening ceremony. Opening Ceremony Opening ceremony started late. My friends and I got tired of waiting, so we went to “Create That Anime!” panel. Little did we know, the opening ceremony happened later in the day. Someone was nice enough to record and post it all on youtube: Create That Anime! The “Create That Anime!” panel is a game where two people, chosen from the audience, walk up to the front and pick four numbers. The first number generates a random anime title. The second, third, and fourth generate random popular anime memes. The contestants are then given two minutes to create an anime and describe it to the audience. The audience judges the anime and the winner receives a price. All the while the panel hosts teases the contestants with jokes and insults typed and displayed on a screen through an digital projector. There was lot of laughter and fun to be had. For anyone interested in playing “Create That Anime!” game, visit this site: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-anim.php Dagger Workshop The rest of Friday was spent wandering around the convention center with friends. We visited Dealers Hall, Artist Gallery, and Gaming Room. Later, we visited the Dojo and attended the “Dagger Workshop” hosted by the Twilight Knights. The Twilight Knights is a Renaissance Guild dedicated to educating the public about fighting styles and use of weapons. During the Dagger Workshop the guild master and his students taught the audience proper use of daggers. The audience were given boffers and practiced against the Twilight Knights in attacks and blocks using forward and reverse grip techniques. Afterwards, my friends and I went out for dinner. Food is generally overpriced in the convention center. Just to give you an idea, a bottle of water from concession stand costs $3.50 and soda from vending machines costs $3.00. Having gone to college for the past year in the local area, We knew many restaurants with good food and good servings at the right prices. My friends and I ate at Taqueria, which serves the best burrito in downtown San Jose. It feels great walking back to the convention center with a full stomach. Rum Party In the evening my friends and I went to the Rum Party, a pirate themed gaming event where players gamble in cards and dice games using fake gold coins. At the end of the night, there’s a Pirate auction where players bid on “wenches” and “cabin boys” using their fake gold coins. By the way, the rum was a lie, but the rousin good times and laughter was truly entertaining. Dance Party Afterwards we headed over to dance party located in the ballroom. The room was dark and filled with flashing lights. The beat was sick and the music entrancing. Too bad I didn't know how to dance, but that didn't stop me from flopping my arms about and jumping up and down like the rest crowd. Swap Meet Soon after one of my friends left. What was left of our party headed over to the swap meet located in Gaming Room. Swap meet is like a huge garage sale. Anyone can bring their stuff and sell it to other attendees. I bought a CD, 'Moment' by Vivian or Kazuma, for $2. For anyone who doesn't know, Moment is the second opening to Gundam Seed. FanimeCon's Classic Hentai Nights! By now it was getting really late. The rest of my friends headed back home to get some rest. I headed off to the video room for one last special event: "FanimeCon's Classic Hentai Nights!" This event was 18+, so identification was required. While outside waiting in line, I bought this: Mmm tastes like rape.  The first show was "The Erotic Adventures of Tom Thumb". Watching hentai with a lot of people oddest experience. Normally when I'm in a movie theater or in another video room watching normal anime, everyone tries to keep quiet. But when watching hentai in a room with 66% guys and 34% girls (whoever knew girls also watch hentai?) everyone was loud. Every time an h-scene appeared, everyone broke out laughing. All the while, staff went around with LED lights doing hand checks, making sure no one was masturbating. All in all, it was a lot of fun. I wish I could have stayed the whole five hours, but I need my sleep. All in all, I had a good time. I went home feeling satisfied. Saturday (May 28, 2001): Mamoru Yokota: Anime Artist On Saturday, I arrived a little later. With six hour of sleep I felt recharged. I hooked up with a friend and went to "Mamoru Yokota: Anime Artist" panel. Like last year, Yokota used a digital overhead projector to display his works and live drawings. Throughout the panel he answered questions usually concerning the industry in Japan and lifestyle. Last year a fan requested Yokota to draw "mahou shoujou" or magical girl. Quote:
Even though Yokota is camera shy, he has a great sense of humor. After drawing "samurai no shoujo", he turned the page over and immediately drew this on the back: Yes ladies and gents, that's a man, with an eye patch wearing a bikini top and holding a sword. HA HA HA! Another fan requested Yokota to draw a super sentei character. It's amazing to watch Yokota draw good picture in a short period. To be able to visualize and draw in ten to fifteen minutes is a real hallmark of a professional artist. Ryusuke Hamamoto Q&A After the panel, my friend and I met up with another friend and attended "Ryusuke Hamamoto Q&A". Unlike Yokota, Ryusuke used a Bamboo Pen tablet and Manga Studio X3. He displayed his work using a digital over projector. Throughout the panel he answered questions from fans while drawing characters from his manga, "Petit Eva: Evangelion@School". He also shared his experience working as a mangaka. It was fun listening to Ryusuke. He's very energetic and has a unique style of drawing. The Petit Eva series is a cute parody of Evangelion. The panel ended around 2:00 PM. My friends and I went out for lunch. Luckily there was a small Safeway not too far from the convention center. I ordered a sandwich cut in two and ate half for lunch and saved the other half for dinner. We returned to the convention center and browse Dealers Hall. My friend and I bought “FLOW Anime Best” album and t-shirts in anticipation for MusicFest. Tohru Furuya autograph session We also planned to attend the Tohru Furuya autograph session, so we searched for anything related to original Gundam for Tohru to sign. My friend found a beautiful art book with illustrations from Gundam and Macross. I found an RX-78-2 Real Grade model kit. We arrived a little early for the Tohru Furuya autograph session. To our dismay, there were a lot of people already lined up. Fortunately the line moved really fast and it wasn't long before we before the great Tohru Furuya, signing our recent bought goods. It felt surreal having the voice actor of Amuro Ray standing right before me. He's truly a legend among seiyu. MusicFest Right after, my friends and I rushed across the street to wait in line for music fest. To our surprise, the line was super long. It wrapped around the block and a parking garage. To make matters worst, it was raining outside. After an hour and forty-five minutes of waiting, we were finally inside the San Jose Civic Auditorium. From past experience I knew seats on the floor weren't that great unless they were up front. Last year everyone stood the entire time, which makes it really hard to see the front stage. My friends and I were lucky to find seats on the second floor near the back middle. All the second floor seats slants downward and people usually sits throughout the entire concert. Plus, the speakers is less deafening and the acoustics isn't that bad. Sure it’s hard to see the performance from far away, but there are two giant screens displaying live video of the stage. Like last year, video recording and photography was prohibited throughout the performance. First up was Yuya Matsushita. This was his first time performing in America. Accompanying him were two male stage dancers. While he didn’t bring a support band, Yuya had a great voice and killer dance moves. For a whole hour, Yuya sang many of his popular songs including “Foolish Foolish”, “Trust Me” from Durarara!!, “Bird” from Black Butler second season, and “Last Snow”. I wasn’t a fan of Yuya before, but I am now. An embarrassing event happened towards the end of Yuya’s performance. Like most performances, Yuya left the stage to freshen up. Usually the audience is supposed to applaud and demand an encore, or one last song. However, instead of demanding an encore, the audience chanted, “FLOW!” repeatedly who was performing right after Yuya. Despite all of this, Yuya went back on stage and did one last performance. I feel sorry for him, but FLOW is better known in the anime industry and thus the reason why most people attended MusicFest. After a twenty-minute intermission, FLOW finally appeared on stage. The entire auditorium exploded with screaming fans and good old FLOW rock music. The next hour and a half was pure epicenes to my ears! They bring so much energy to the stage. FLOW performed all their hit songs from their newly released album, "Flow Anime Best", including “GO!!!” From Naruto, “Days” from Eureka Seven, “Realize”, “Colors” from Code Geass, “World of the Voice” from PERSONA -trinity soul, “Summer Freak”, "Sign", and "Calling" from Heroman. They also did a few remixes off their bonus tracks. Last year they surprise everyone by performing a cover of Beach Boy's "California Surfing". This year, FLOW did surprised us again by doing a cover of Siam Shade's "1/3 junjou na kanjou", which is the 6th ending theme to popular anime Rourin Kenshin. Personally, I think FLOW beat the original. It’s great listening to classic and newer Anime music live. MusicFest was the highlight of my Fanime trip. I enjoyed every minute of it. I would gladly go back in time and repeat it all over again. After the convert I felt exhausted. My throat was soar from all the whistling and cheering. My friends all left and went home. I bought mint tea from a concession stand for $2. It tasted like heaven. The Dub Show (18+) I attended "The Dub Show (18+)". People from the audience form teams and did improvs off of anime clips. Whichever team did the best improv wins a prize. Because this panel was 18+, much of dubs were sexually explicit, which earned a lot of laughter from the audience. It was a great way to end a stellar day at Fanime. Sunday (May 29th, 2011): Tohru Furuya: Q&A I started off Sunday morning by attending the “Tohru Furuya: Q&A” panel. Unlike other guests from Japan who are a little shy due to language and cultural barriers, Tohru Furuya was very open and had a great sense of humor. He mentioned cameras, video, hugs, and kisses were all ok in his panel. As expected, the audience requested Furuya to say famous lines from his anime. I recorded most of it, but my camera was on compact mode to conserve memory. Fortunately I found someone on youtube by the name of Scarlet Rhapsody who already posted video clips on youtube. My audio is slightly better, but their video quality is bigger and sharper. My Clips: Scarlet Rhapsody's Clips Seiji Mizushima Afterwards I headed over to the "Seiji Mizushima" panel. Not a lot of people showed up. Nevertheless, it was great hearing him discuss his experience working on Gundam 00 and Fullmetal Alchemist movie. After the panel was over, I hooked up with some friends and visited Dealers Hall and Artist Gallery. There’s something about the atmosphere there that always attract us. It’s not every day you see row after row of anime related merchandise or artists displaying their work. Both rooms are always jam-packed. Being a huge 40k fan, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the first 40k cosplay. FLOW autograph session After grabbing a quick bite from Jack in the Box, my friends and I headed over to the FLOW autograph session an hour early. Originally I planned to get their early well before the “FLOW Q&A” panel. If I got my autograph early enough, I could attend the Momoi Concert, which started thirty minutes into the FLOW autograph session. Unfortunately the waiting room was jammed pack and it got warm really quick. The air-conditioning wasn’t turned on high enough. After what felt like eternity, the line started moving. Just as I neared the door, I felt relief, knowing the end to my suffering was near. But to my dismay, what waited for me past that door was a second room with another waiting line. My friend and I finally reached the last room where FLOW was signing autographs. I had flashbacks of the previous night of FLOW performing at MusicFest. It felt great seeing them up close in person. I had them sign the front cover of my “FLOW Anime Best” album. Momoi Concert It took an hour to get FLOW’s autograph, a lot longer than expected. I rush across to the ballroom where the Momoi concert was held. The concert took place in the same room where the dance party was held on Saturday Night. Halko Momoi was performing on stage. There was a large group of fans crowding the front, dancing and cheering with glow sticks. Momoi is cute and super energetic. It’s uplifting watching her live. I recorded Momoi performing two of my favorite songs. Youtube user aeugchar posted a good video of Halk Momoi performing LOVE.EXE: Throughout the concert, I was standing next to a speaker. I felt half deaf, but it was nothing compared to MusicFest. My friends and I went back to the Artist Gallery. To our surprise, we met Mamoru Yokota there, working on commissions. There were four people in line. My friends and I decided this was a golden opportunity to commission Mamoru to draw our favorite characters. Mamoru Yokota in Artist Gallery The translator told use we should provide our own paper. My we freaked out, as we had no paper on us. After scouring the Artist Gallery, I spotted a printer up front. The staff was kind enough to give me a few pieces of printer paper. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not high quality paper, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Yokota put a lot of time and effort into each of his drawings. Three people waiting ahead of us must have been huge fans of the anime “Mahou Senshi Louie” because they each requested Yokota to draw a picture of Cecilia. The fourth person wanted Yokota to draw Final Fantasy white mage. One of my friends is a huge fan of Trigun. He wanted an autograph from Takahiro Yoshimatsu, who worked as animation director and character designer for the series. However, he didn’t want to lose his spot in line for Yokota commissions, so I saved it for him. After waiting for half an hour, I finally made it to the front. I requested Yokota to draw me a picture of Sheryl Nome, songstress of Macross Frontiner, which is also one of my favorite animes. For the next fifteen minutes I started in awe as one of my favorite characters came to life. I felt utter joy! After he finished drawing Sheryl Nome, he told me to hold it up right and took a picture of it with his camera phone. I didn’t know why he did that, but the translator told me Yokota wanted to save a picture for future references. Little did I know, my drawing was tied to something else on the last day of Fanime. By then, my friend returned in time to request a drawing from Yokota. He told me the autograph line for Takahiro Yoshimatsu was super short and now is the time to get it. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything for Yoshimatsu to sign on, so I rushed to the Dealers Hall five minutes before closing time. I searched for Slayers manga, but to my dismay I learned Slayers was published through Tokyo Pop and was out of print. So I bought the Slayers complete season 1–3 box set and race back to the Hilton for the autograph session. Takahiro Yoshimatsu autograph session I knocked on the door to the autograph room. One of the staff opened the door and told me I was too late and the autograph session was closed. I told him how I just spent $52 on a DVD collection and that I was a huge fan. He told me to wait one moment and closed the door. A minute later, he opened it and invited me in. I stepped inside. To my relief, Yoshimatsu was still sitting at the table, working on a drawing. He happily signed my Slayers DVD and even took a picture with me. Wow. I just got a drawing of Sheryl Nome from Mamoru Yokota, who worked on Macross Frontier, and I got a signed autograph plus picture with Takahiro Yoshimatsu, who worked on Slayers. Best day ever! By now it was evening. My friends and I got dinner at McDonalds. Instead of returning to the convention center, we headed to the Civic Auditorium where Cosplay Masquerade was being held. Unfortunately the Civic Auditorium had already reached max capacity. We had to wait in line for people to leave so we can take their spot. Inside the seats were packed. The theater staff seated us too close to the stage. A huge wall blocked our view. I spotted some empty seats on the second floor. After getting permission, we went upstairs. A lot of the skits were entertaining. One group reenacted portal. They set two cardboard panels side by side. One had an opening lined with blue LED lights while the other panel had an opening lined with orange LED lights. Two people cosplayed as test subjects, mirroring each other’s moves through the two portals. Bravo! There were a lot of other skits and dances. There was also a disturbing amount of Yaoi. I didn’t take a lot of cosplay pictures. I left it to the professionals. You can find pictures here: http://www.acparadise.com/acs/cons.php?cyid=3982&t=4 Cosplay Masquerade ended an hour earlier than scheduled. One of my friends went back home to sleep. Two of us remained. My other friend wanted me to attend the “What the Heck is Touhou” panel with him. However, it was scheduled late night. We had a lot of time to kill, so we went to “Mamoru Yokota: Anime Illustrator (18+)” panel. Mamoru Yokota: Anime Illustrator (18+) Unlike the previous panel on Saturday morning, this one was for the mature audience. Apparently Yokota had also worked on character designs for several hentai such as Angelium and Magical Kanan. Yokota was more relaxed and in high spirits. Everyone had a good time. A lot of questions were asked regarding the nature of Yokota’s works. In return, he asked the audience questions. He asked for a show of hands of how many people like big breasts and how many people like small breast. Another question he asked, which I’ll never forget, was when he asked everyone to close their eyes and raise their hand if they have masturbated. He also displayed some of his works over an over projector. Given the nature of its content, I cannot show them all. After the panel was over, my friend and I still had an hour to kill. We jumped into the middle of "Banzai Arcade 2.5" panel held next door. Banzai Arcade 2.5 Banzai Arcade is trivia done through an animated arcade style game. Two teams compete: the game hosts and a team from the audience. A virtual game board, displayed on a screen, shows characters representing the hosts and the group from the audience. Both characters have health points. During the game, team hosts ask a series of challenging questions either anime or video game related. If the team from the audience answers correctly, their character will deal random damage based off a virtual 10-sided die. If the host wins, their character will either perform a trick or also inflict random damage on the team audience’s character. The audience’s character must past three levels. If they succeed, the team wins a prize. Banzai Arcade was very entertaining. A lot of the questions were challenging. Some teams won, but most of them lost. What the Heck is Touhou? Afterwards, my friend and I attended the highly anticipated “What the Heck is Touhou?” panel. Prior to the panel, I knew that Touhou was an intense shooting game. I’ve played the 10th edition and found it really challenging. The boss shoots bullets in huge patterns, making it difficult to dodge. Even though the panel was two hours long, it was very provocative. It turns out Touhou has a huge fan based in Japan. Jun’ya Ota, or better known as ZUN, designed, programmed, and wrote the script for Touhou all by himself. He also created most of the soundtracks. Touhou is considered “doujinshi” or self-published work outside the industry. It captures the “For fans by fans” spirit. ZUN is open to other fans creating doujinshi off Touhou, but he will not permit anyone commercializing it. By the time the panel was over, it was really late. I headed home for some well-deserved sleep. Monday (May 30th, 2011): It felt sad knowing this would be the last day of Fanime. There were fewer people attending. Selecting the Perfect Fabric After seeing so many cosplayers, one of my friends decided he wanted to cosplay next year. We met up and went to the “Selecting the Perfect Fabric” panel. I got there a little late. When the Panel was over, we met up with another friend and checked out Dealer Hall for last minute deals. Knowing my sister is crazy about pandas I bought two t-shirts for her. By the time we got out, it was close to noon. One of my friends wanted to visit the “Con Survival Cosplayer Style” panel in preparation for next year. After grabbing lunch from Subways, we headed over. Con Survival Cosplayer Style Three veteran cosplayers hosted the panel. They told us their experience traveling to other cons, how to pack multiple outfits, and rooming with other cosplayers. They also shared a lot of hotel horror stories. Note to self, don’t leave a bathtub full of red dye as some might mistake it for real blood. Gamers Hall The one thing my friends and I have not done throughout the whole convention was playing arcade games. We headed over to the Gaming Room. Even on the last day there were a lot of gamers. One of my friends recognized Technika 2, a music arcade game that uses touch screen. He wanted to try it. I also tried it out. I got past the first level, but I failed miserably on the second level. All in all, we had a good time. Closing Ceremony The end to Fanime was approaching. We headed to Closing Ceremony. Fortunately we got there early and found good seats near the front. Most of the guests from Japan had already flown back to Japan. It was a sad event filled with sweet memories of the previous days. Towards the end, they announced Mamoru Yokota was hosting an auction to raise money for Japan, devastated the earthquake and tsunami. Yokota auctioned off exclusive autographed shikishi art boards from famous professionals working in the anime industry. You can view the auctioned off items here: http://www.fanime.com/special-auction/ If you scroll down the list to cart 18, you may recognize a drawing from Mamoru Yokota. That’s right! One of the drawings auctioned off was Sheryl Nome, the same character that I commissioned Yokota to draw me back in the Artist Gallery. When he took a picture, I think he wanted to make sure the piece he had drawn didn’t match the piece he would draw for the auction. Here are the auction results: Conclusion My four days at Fanime was amazing. This year was better than last year because I had friends with me. It’s more fun experiencing Fanime with people you know. I saw a lot of familiar faces and visited events I skipped last year. I got to meet character designers, producers, animation directors, and voice actors from my favorite anime series. The MusicFest was mind blowing. At first I didn’t know much about Yuya Matsushita, but now I recognize he’s a really good singer. FLOW was amazing as ever. It was great seeing their performance live again. I bought a lot of souvenirs, most of it signed by guests from Japan. My most memorable moments was when Mamoru Yokota drew me a picture of Sheryl Nome and Takahiro Yoshimatsu accepting my last minute autograph request and taking a picture with me. I will never forget my time at Fanime. This report cements my sweet memories and I will look back and remember the good times filled with fun and laughter. For those who have never experienced an anime convention, I highly recommend you visit at least one. It’s fun intermingling with other people who are just as passionate about anime, manga, and the Japanese culture. I look forward to Fanime 2012! This is SaiQ signing out.
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Last edited by SaiQ; 06-03-2011 at 04:09 PM. |
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06-07-2011, 06:19 PM
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Fan
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South San Francisco CA
Posts: 156
Rep Power: 0 
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Re: Fanime 2011
so sad my friend got to go to that. i had school tho he hooked me up with some stuff tho
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06-08-2011, 07:58 AM
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#3 |
Super-Fan
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 1,234
Rep Power: 188
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Re: Fanime 2011
I'm a little late to the party on this one.
Buy wicked! It looked like it was entirely spacious. the girl on "Zero Stage", the 2nd to the right one looks like she was freaking out. Did I overlook it, or did you not post a list of your booty? I, for some reason, love seeing people's hauls from a convention
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06-08-2011, 07:07 PM
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RAWR!
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 68
Rep Power: 175
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Re: Fanime 2011
Quote:
As for my "booty", I bought: -FLOW concert t-shirt -T-shirt that reads "I have not lost my mind. It's backed up on the server. (And the network is down again.)" -2 Panda t-shirts for my sister
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Last edited by SaiQ; 06-08-2011 at 07:34 PM. |
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