Subject: [FFML] AX con report!
From: Joshua Holmstrom
Date: 7/21/1999, 2:22 AM
To: ffml@fanfic.com, ronin@world.std.com

Whee... another year, another con... Hajime!

Anime Expo 1999 
Or... what to do in LA when you're an otaku... 

Thursday:  
Bailed out of my mechatronics lab at 1:30 to go to the Greyhound station
to pick up Damon "Mouse" Casale.  Thank god for cool lab partners.  

Left SLO around 4:00 with the rest of the Minna No Anime officers cadre
and a few minions for the trip down to LA.  We made it in about 5 hours,
not bad for having to fight though Santa Barbara and LA traffic.  Got
checked into the hotel and wondered over to the Hilton for
registration.  Much to our surprise, there was a good sized line waiting
for prereg.  As it turns out, they had a computer FUBAR that day and had
way more people there on thursday night than they expected.  It took
about 1.5 hours to get my badge.  On the other hand, I got to talk to a
bunch of people, including a few I didn't even know.  I also terrorized
Mouse for a while.  ^_^  Went back to the room, went to sleep. 

Got up sometime the next morning, terrorized Mouse for a while, hit
Denny's for breakfast and then went to the opening ceremonies.  They
weren't as good as last year, IMHO.  No taiko drummers this time.  I
_LIKED_ the taiko drummers damnit!  Mari Ijima and Yoko Kanno both got
thunderous applause.  As usual, the GoHs were shocked at the
enthusiastic reception they were getting.  ^_^ 

Just before the ceremonies, the schedules showed up, as well as some
nifty badge lanyards.  I realized that I was going to have a BUSY con.  

Immediately after the ceremonies, I went to the Mika Akitaka panel.  He
is a cool person.  Lots of tidbits about designing characters and
mechanicals for different shows.  FYI, Mika is the man who created
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna, and did mechanical designs for Gundam 0083 and
Nadesico, among other things.  

I also went to the Akio Takami panel.  More fun stuff.  There was a guy
in the audience who was trying to break into the animation industry, so
he kinda dominated the panel.  ^_^  Akio urged us to go watch the
Nadesico movie(which was being premiered at AX).  He told us to go watch
for his grave yard scene.  

Checked with the info booth to see if I got signatures.  Wai!  I'm on
the list for both Akio and Mika!  Two for two!  Promptly realize I don't
have anything for them to sign, and scramble off to the dealers room to
solve that problem.  One Nadesico artbook later, it's no longer a
problem.  

Make my first run to the dealers room.  I had intended to limit my
spending this year.  Originally, my plan was to buy _ONE_ CD and the
artbook.  Anyone know what they say about plans and first contact?  'S
what happened.   Round one was two Utena CDs, a Cowboy Bebop CD and the
artbook.  My will power starts crumbling rapidly.  -_-

Being the Yoko Kanno fanboy that I am, I got in line to grab tickets for
the concert that was scheduled for the next day, got good tickets to. 
^_^ 

Watched Blue Sub #6.  That kicked ass.  Will power degraded further as I
vow to procure a copy of it.  

FFML dinner.  Wondered off with a bunch of people.  Not all the people
who said they were going to go actually went(wankers!).  I don't
remember every one who was there(gomen), but the list included, the
Olsens, Jim Lazar, Dennis Carr, Mouse, Turtyl, and some others whos
names didn't quite stick.  Sorry.  There were a number of amusing
comments and observations made during dinner.  For example...

<during introductions> 
<person X>Hi, I'm X, and I've written <foo> 
<Pat Olsen>: I've read that!  It's not bad!  

I think he said that EVERY time.  ^_^  

also: <Pat>: Oh, he(Chris) is the one who's used to public embarassment,
not me.  ^_^  

Made it back in time to go to the showing of Tenchi Muyo in Love 2. 
Watched the projector eat the film reel _TWICE_ in about 1/2 hour. 
Figured it wasn't a good day to be Tenchi and left.  I'll go see it
later.  It'll be shown again on video(as opposed to the film from
Japan).  

Since nothing else was really going on, I decided to go to sleep.  Thus
ended Friday. 

Got up Saturday morning, became human again(as opposed to the Dragonball
character Mouse accused me of being when I sat up in bed).  Wondered
down to the line for Kanno.  Sat down, popped my Bebop CD into my
player, and proceeded to kill time and watch all the costumed loonies
wondering around.  What fun.  ^_^ The Kanno concert kicked ass.  I
_LIKE_ her music.  She's cool.  I didn't get an autograph though.  Oh
well.  On the other hand, I _DID_ get a sketch of Ruri-Ruri from Takami
when I was supposed to only get a signature.  I was happy.  ^_^ 

Saw Saber Marrionettes J to X again.  I still like it.  Then they showed
the first Kenshin OAV.  Oh.  My.  GOD!  That was the _SINGLE_ coolest
piece of anime I've ever seen.  Kenshin scared me.  Tomoe was right. 
"You make the sky rain blood."  <shiver>  I need to find a copy of
this.  

Made my second run to the dealers room.  Kissed all my will power good
bye.  Walked out with two wall scrolls, all the Utena CDs, the Kenshin
OAV and movie soundtracks, and Blue Sub #6.  o.O  Will power was
restored after this.  

Also saw TMiL2.  It worked this time.  ^_^  It was about the least
violent piece of Tenchi I've ever seen.  Even Ayeka and Ryoko were
getting along!  Scary... 

Got some food, and then went to the Fanfic panel.  Pat continued to be
the more talkative of the Olsen twins.  At one point, Zoner offered him
the vacant chair on the panel.  ^_^  Pat declined.  Many many things
were covered.  Every thing from SI to dealing with writers block... 

Met up with Rob(another of the MNA officers) and went to his room to
watch the telecast of the Masquerade.  I really don't care to much for
the thing, but we had nothing better to do while waiting for the music
video contest, which was scheduled to take place right after the
masquerade.  We waited.  And continued waiting.  For 2 hours.  It turns
out that just before the masquerade was to start, the AV system had a
major meltdown.  They did a marathon rewire of the room.  D'oh.  To
quote the head of tech services. "All the parts checked out fine
individually, and once we integrated them all, they still worked.  For
about 20 minutes.  Then it all went to hell."  Eventually though, they
did get it all going, and the masquerade went on(it was simulcast over
the hotel TVs, and broadcast on the net).  Finally, around 1:30 AM the
music video contest FINALLY began.  The comedy ones were all right.  The
winner was an El-Hazard one titled "Bug-thumping."  It was set to
Chumbawumpa's "Tub thumping."  Pretty funny.

The Drama catagory was EXCELLENT.  It was kind of funny though, there
were reoccuring themes.  Oh my goddess had two entries, and the song
"Sleep now" from the Dark City sound track was in _THREE_ videos.  One
was Vampire Princess Miyu, a second was Serial Experiments Lain, and the
third was Key the Metal Idol.  Key took the category.  Kevin Caldwell
made the Key video.  This didn't surprise anyone(he swept the awards
last year).

Then the action videos were played.  There were a number of really good
ones.  Winner by a landslide though, was an Evangelion one put to a
german song I really can't remember the name of.  It was about Asuka. 
Between tone and lip syncing, it was _PERFECT_.  To no one's suprise, it
took both the action catagory and best of show.  People yelled out that
there needed to be a "Kevin Caldwell" catagory next year so someone else
can win some awards.  ^_^  Clock hit 4:00 AM, and my brain turned off. 
Needless to say, the rest of me did soon there after.  

Sunday, became mostly functional, and got cleared out of the room(had to
be out by noon).  Threw all mine and Damons stuff in my car and wondered
off to see what I could see... 

Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness was shown in raw form.  COOL! 
Ruri-chan was in top form.  <g>  I think I understood about 1/4 of what
was going on(what was up with Lapis?).  

After that, I watched a few other random bits, gnashed my teeth and
wailed over missing the second Kenshin OAV(didn't see the schedule
untill to late).  Attended about half the charity auction.  That was
fun.  A color sketch of Gundam-04 from Gundam 0083 was the subject of an
entertaining bidding war by two staff members.  1! 2! 3!  5!  10!  This
happened in about 10 seconds.  And that's hundreds of dollars, not
dollars.  ^_^  Eventually it topped out at $2200.  I wish I had that
kind of money...  That was the fastest, but certainly not the only high
priced bidding war.  A number of Sailor Moon sketches broke $1000...

Finally, there was the closing ceremonies and the gripe session.  There
was, not surprisingly, quite abit of discussion about the screw ups in
Reg and at the masquerade.  Some things useful were said, and there was
the usually bitching as well... all in all though, it was better this
year that in past years.  For handling 6000+ fans with a volunteer
staff, they did a very good job.  Next year will be four days long, and
will take place in the Mouse House, AKA the Disneyland Hotel.  _THAT_
will be interesing.  I wonder if they know what they're in for... 

-Josh
-- -=Webmaster, Minna No Anime, http://www.calpoly.edu/~jholmstr/anime/ = | Joshua Holmstrom | | | Mechanical Engineering Seinor | "Liberty means responsibility. | | California Polytechnic, SLO | That is why most men dread it." | | jholmstr@polymail.calpoly.edu | -- George Bernard Shaw | | jholmstrom@mindspring.com | | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- http://www.calpoly.edu/~jholmstr -=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=