Okay, Mom drops me off early (9am). I wait a while in line for the dealers' room to open, but it wasn't for another 30 minutes. So I leave and go see NightWalkers (a series that recently sparked a bit of interest). I really liked the animation. I also like the opening song. The characters are okay. I wish I'd have seen the beginning. I came in at Shido feeding off Yayoi in the car and the scene is lookin' all seductive what with the lighting and music. I really liked it. I saw the beginning of episode 2, but my mind made me go to the dealers' room and spend money. So I come back to the video room intent on getting a good seat for the music video contest to come. So some show called Getter Robo comes on and I really had no interest in it. So I was browsing through my Harlem Beat mangas. I, sometimes, paid attention, but I wasn't really impressed. I think I "saw" both episodes 1 & 2. Then comes the music videos.
Scott McNeil Panel: Basically, this was a panel…with Scott McNeil. So we heard some of the same stuff from last night at the VA panel. Anyway, we got to learn a little bit more about Scott McNeil. A bunch of hijinks went on and a lot of different voices were flying around. The plushies also made their return. It was a fun panel. I remember being startled out of my reading when I heard a lout, "Yeehaw! How's everybody doing?" and seeing Scott McNeil right next to me walking down the aisle. After his panel, I met my parents and went up to the hotel room and ate (I was starving!).
Gundam Panel: I came back down hoping to catch the end of the "You Don't Know Jack! About Anime" game show, but I missed out. So I got myself ready for the Gundam panel. Now this was a simple panel with five moderators. Four were on stage and one was coming and going. I think I actually have read 3 out of the 4 moderators' fanfiction. If I think they are who I think they are. If they are…wow! So this was just a panel that asked questions about Gundam, how many number of whatever Gundam was created, why Gundam Heavyarms sucks (it really isn't all that useful), thoughts on particular dubs, and such. It was also of the consensus that we all really hate Relena and we wanted to kill Mariemeia in Endless Waltz. We also got to know what the mods' favorite Gundam series is and what their least favorite is. Oh yeah, there was flying candy.
Then I waited in line for nearly an hour waiting for the cosplay to start…
Cosplay: wow, these people were great. There were so many costumes. It was just so hard to choose. Some of my favorites were Suzaku (Fushigi Yuugi), Lulu (Final Fantasy 10), Alucard (Castlevania), Link (Zelda), a bunch of very cute kids dressed from Cardcaptor Sakura and one as a Clow Card, Padoodoo (sp.?) from some anime -a very good costume, there was an Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena in there somewhere, and, the one I voted for, Mokona from Magic Knight Rayearth. This was a wonderful costume and I so enjoyed seeing the cosplayer hop down the aisle. The person, literally, could not walk! The costume wouldn't allow it! I also liked one cosplayer as Cid Highwind (possibly the most underrated character in Final Fantasy 7). So the long and short of it: Padoodoo won a lot, Mokona won a lot, and the cute-cute kids won a lot. There were others too, including Link & Alucard.
There were 4 skits to be performed. Skit #1 was Anime Survivor and it was highly entertaining. It was filled with shameless plugs (I liked the "whatta guy!" and pointing to Scott McNeil) and bad puns (more like bad jokes-they weren't really puns). There were some really great moments when the host, Ryu (Street Fighter), said, "Gendou, your EVAs are in the way (something along those lines) and you have 30 minutes to move them or they'll be towed." Tristan MacAvery suddenly gets up and runs like mad to move the EVAs (a joke of course). Ryu also took turns to talk to Meiling and Li Shaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura and Meiling says she's from the dub and Ryu says, "Goodbye!" (much to the delight of all of us who hate the dub) . Then he talks to Li who says one word in Japanese. Then Ryu talks to Lupin who says something in Japanese. Ryu asks if he's a subtitle, but Lupin replies, "No, just a high something DVD!" (damn, I forgot…it was funny, though!! Uh…yeah). So he gets to stay in. others are eliminated until it's only Li and Lupin. Li has to now prove he speaks Japanese so he starts spouting off words in Japanese, but he speaks in English and loses. Resolve? Resolution?! Maybe that was the type of DVD!! So Lupin wins, but the show needs the money and Ryu takes it. All the survivors are mad and beat him up. Owari. Great skit!
The second skit was 'Slayers in La-La Land'. It started out really well and then it got so chaotic, I couldn't grasp anything that happened. It was funny but as it wore on, more and more people couldn't understand a thing. But, it was all worth it just to see the cast doing the butterfly splits exercise. The third skit was a song that was lip-synched that would've been funnier-had we heard the song. It dealt with Ranma ½. The last skit also dealt with Ranma ½ and it was Ranma & Akane's wedding. Madness ensues and different couples end up together and whatnot. Oh yeah, Akane thinks it's really cool Ryoga is P-chan. Skit #1 won both the judges' and viewers' choice. After the show I went to catch the Whazzit-whozit-Slumber-Party (I forgot the name).
So I leave the slumber party and head off next door to catch NightWalker. I enter the next video room and I decide to catch the last 30 minutes of Akira, then see NightWalker and then go to bed. Well, Akira must've been running late because I saw the last hour. So I got to relive the weirdness that is Akira. I'm not dissing the movie, but I was unbelievably tired and it did not help that the room was freezing cold. I found it amusing to think that going "DUN…DUN DUN…" constitutes as dramatic. I was ready to fall off my chair laughing. But I think that was because I was gone at this point. Akira ended, NightWalker began. Jumped to Episode 9 and 10. Episode 9 really threw me for a loop at the end. I liked how things turned out like that. Episode 10 was pretty emotional and I nearly cried at the end. And it's times like that where I wonder why I always score so low on emotional IQ tests. Maybe it's because I'm more compassionate when I'm an outsider looking in than right in the whole mess. Anyway, a pretty sad episode. Then I headed up to bed.
That was Saturday. Hours of sleep: 3 ½ (4:30am-8:00am) now that's more like it!