"Track 3": Trev's AnimeExpo Report
Trevor Menagh (jumex1@hotmail.com)
Tue, 20 Jul 1999 00:05:21 GMT
Hi All,
This is my AX99 report, I am sure some parts will bore some of you so I have
seperated it into sections much like a Trev Report. Enjoy!
Trev's Trip to AX (Friday goings ons)
-----------------
Well, this is a tip to anyone stupid enough to do this. Don't drive in the
I5 from the Valey to Anaheim from 3-5pm on a Friday. Bad idea. It took
C-Chan and I many many hours to arrive at the Hotel and Register (although
we made it in time 6:30pm) and we found Frank there in the game room (much
to our surprise) while looking for Scott, who we were to be rooming with at
the Confort Inn down the street. So we eventually checked in and searched
and searched for Scott, finally he called the room while we happened to be
there (his plane was delayed and he had to miss a connecting flight), but
the night was still young (at 12:30am) andwe all went to Midnight Madness in
Video Room 3 which was showing fandubs (woohoo). Which was good since then
people who don't like fandubs wouldn't have to watch them. Then the three of
us meandered on back to the hotel and slept.
Trev's attending the LoGH Panel
-------------------------------
(I thought I'd do this early) Well, I was about 15 minutes late for the
panel (I was watching Spriggan subtitled in 35mm, I was mesmorized) and I
ran in and fell into the floor and started watching the show. They decided
to show the first battle between Yang and Von Loengramm, the two episodes of
the battle of Verlon (sp?). Well, I loved the dub, I think that they got
Poplan down perfect and none of the actors overacted, it was the first dub I
ever saw where the people acted like, well people. Very well done.
The bad news was that there are no plans currently to make any more dubs of
LoGH, this was basically a fan service, but a much appreciated one.
Afterwards there was a long Q&A with the Producer and Director where we
learned more about the creation of LoGH and it's evolution ("12 years
ago..."), not to mention it's future. It was recommended that we start a
petition to bring the novels over to the states, and that the dub could be
done throught mail order, as the first season was. All and all it was a
great panel, and it gave me an opertunity to see many of those I had only
read of before, Jennifer, Hank, Scott, Walter, all these LoGH fans in one
place was very fun.
Trev's Money losses
-------------------
About $170 is all I spent this weekend. And I am very proud of that fact.
PLUS I will be making some money back since I bought some items with the
soul intend of selling them on eBay for a higher price (all of which are up
on eBay now). The Hotel was about $54, Admission (which I had already paid,
was $40, the AX99 t-shirt (which I am currently wearing was $17, I bought a
poster of hundreds of little anime characters from different series (the one
Katty has) $5, a little Pikachu for my laptop bag and a skuld button for the
same for a total of $9, an Assemble Insert CD for $10 (if you knew just how
rare a find this is...I was amazed), and a SIGNED CD of Mari Iijima the
Japanese voice actress of Lynn Minmay of Macross (or Robotech in the US) for
$20, and about $15 in food for the three days. About $120 of that will be
returned to me in profit from my eBay sales though, so I did alright. I
maintained most of my control. ^^;
Lines and Costumes (Daytime Saturday)
------------------
We got there at 8:30am and there was already a line for the Yoko Konno
(Escaflowne composer) concert which we didn't attend, but we got a picture
of a kawaii Skuld cosplayer instead. :) So we went and stood in line for
about an hour for the Dealers' room opening at 10am. after about 1-1 1/2
hours in there Brian had spent all his money and we were done. We walked
outside and saw another big line, this time for the Masquerade at 8pm. So we
found Frank in the line and stood/sat in the blistering sun for many hours
waiting for the tickets to stand in line for the Masquerade, we got the
fourth best tickets you could get, so we were pleased and we went off to do
stuff, mostely we took lots of pictures of cosplayers and went to a few
panels (and ran into fntc at the Spriggan showing), went to the LoGH panel
at 3-5pm and then around 6pm we got into the line for the Masquerade...
"Track 3..." (The Masquerade and the rest of Saturday night)
------------
Earlier that day we befriended a guy named Ian and we three (Ian, Brian and
I, Scott was off playing video games or something :P~) and we got to our
White One seats about 3/4 the way back of the room (which sat over 2000).
Webefriended another otaku there and the four of us started talking and
chatting (this was around 7:30pm), 8pm comes and goes...2 1/2 hours at
10:30pm The audio starts working (it was out because a piece of equipment
blew) much the the delight of the disgruntled audience. Gendo Ikari was our
Master of Cerimonies and the romp began.
It started with a man in a Kikkomen Soysause bottle costume ("Kikko-Man!")
fighting a female cube of ramen which won the fight using it's fish cakes to
attack Kikko-man.Some of the most memorable skits were Kagi: The Spy Who
Shagged Me (an Eva/Austin Powers x-over) where we saw Kagi shag Asuka and
the unforgettable Mini-You clone of Gendo Ikari. The costume that got the
most cheers from the audience though had to be the 8 foot Pen-pen which came
onto the stage and started dancing to the cheers of over 2000 insane fans,
the best part though was when Gendo (the MC) threw off his gloves and
started dancing with Pen-pen, which was a truely great site indeed.
I had a personal dream come true that night when Fire Bomber was announced
and the Fire Bomber cosplayers stepped onto the stage a Basara thrust his
hand up yelling "Fire!" and we in the audience thrust our hands up screaming
"Bomber!" That was a real dream come true, I did that while watching Macross
7 SO many times.
A Zion recruiter came on stage at one point trying to recruit all the anime
fans to the Zion side (sizg Zion!) to fight for freedom. A Pi from 3X3 Eyes
mad a bad Camera joke (holding her camera to her forehead), and none can
forget GatchaMan Omega who was announced ran onto the stage posed and ran
off. But the most impressive costume (by far) was the human-sized Giant Robo
made out of plastic, it was simply amazing, in the newsletter the next day
there was a picture of the Giant Robo superimposed over the hotel with a
caption of "angered that he did not win every award at the masquerade Giant
Robo loses control and destroyed the Hilton." The Violenist Hameln skit was
also wel done with me cheering for flute the entire time (man, Flute rocks,
I can't believe she got her hair to do that).
But the funniest one had to be the Escaflowne/BustAGroove skit. So we all
hear the Playstation logo sound and we all cheer, but then the Escaflowne
crew come on Van, Van's brother, Merele, and Delandu. Van and his Bro start
to fight and then all of the sudden you hear, "Here comes a new challenger."
The audience dies laughing. They all line up and stand striaght, in turn
each player's name is called and the player steps out and does his or her
pose (like you are selecting them in the game), Delandu's was the best, he
stood proudly with a wide opened laughing face looking to the sky. Merele is
selected and she gets into a fighting stance againist Van's Bro. Then you
hear, "Ready Fight!" and they start to dance. The audience dies again. It
was a game of Bust A Grove! Full with thrown pieces of candy! Van's Bro and
Delandu eventually won since Van wouldn't dance with Merele. It was a great
skit.
There were too many more to mention, but these were some of the best.
The Masquerade wound down to a close and some Japanese Voice acting students
came out and did some live voice acting to a brand new series which we were
the first in the world to see. And we saw the premeir of the CG animated
Star Troopers series, it was...wow. Not to mention the FF8 opening. The
winners were announced with Pen-pen being the BIG winner to much cheers and
chanting of "pen-pen pen-pen".
Then there was a 1/2 hour break and the Music video contest started, we left
at the end of the Drama section it was about 3:30am and we were all tired,
so off to sleep we went at the hotel.
I got over 70 pictures that night of the cosplayers!
The day of rest (Sunday and leaving)
---------------
We got up at 10am, and checked out. Brian and I caught some SD Oh My Goddess
and a panel on English Voice Acting with a Hung Over Amanda Winn Lee and an
annoying freak of a fanboy asking all the wrong questions. Got some more
pictures, including a great Japanese Merlene cosplayer. And then My Dad and
Debbie picked me up and we went to the airport and I flew home.
Last thoughts
-------------
The anime environment is a completely different world and I love it. It is
wonderful and fulfilling, in my opinion the only thing better than being in
the anime world is being with my pooh-bear, the woman I love. For me it is a
wonderful and full world full of interesting people and great entertainment.
Like I have said a million times before, I can't explain it well enough,
it's the experience that makes it worth it every time and AX99 was no
exception for me.
Yours,
Trevor 'jumex' Menagh
PS: I love you, Pooh-bear. ~.~
PPS: Katty, Jen the Great, Ben, Andy & Liz, and Aaron. Matt and I are coming
to see you all this weekend from Friday-Monday (Fri-Sat I want to see Katty
and Jen the Great, and Andy & Liz, sunday I want to visit Ben, and Monday we
were hoping to go to Lake Chalane to visit Aaron) is that cool with you
guys?
--
メナ トレヴァ
ワシントン州立大学・関西外国語大学
Email: jumex@email.com
http://jumex.homepage.com/
"You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
how are you going to have a dream come true?"
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