Info: Otafest is a festival (not a Con) held by one of the two Calgary anime
clubs, in conjunction with the other clubs in the provinve of Alberta.  It
was held this weekend.  Next week the club in Edmonton is holding Aminethon
6.

To start, I was rather peeved by the discovery that it WASN'T a con.  That
meant no cool guests, and VERY limited panels.  I was further peeved to
dicover that there would be no fanfiction panel, as Chris Davies and I are
the ONLY writers of any significant note in the province.  I was further
peeved (marginally) because I wouldn't be able to SEE Chris Davies because I
couldn't go up to Edmonton for Animethon the following week due to financial
and personal reasons.

ANYWAY:

Saturday:
- Woke up late thanks to the evil influence of Star Ocean the night before.
Since I was volunteering that day, I was kinda peeved.
- Caught the Slayers Great Movie and discovered Mecha and Slayers DO NOT
mix.  Funny, but silly even for Slayers.
- Resaw the first ep of Birdy the Mighty.  Had to beat an idea for a God's
Toychest entry out of my head.
- Saw Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro.  Originally fled because it was dubbed.
Tried to watch Child's Toy instead, and found it so absolutly ridiculous I
got irritated.  Went to check out the tables, tried to see a bit more of
Child's Toy, and eventually reluctantly decided on the Lupin.  Funny,
particularly for the voices of Goeman(sp?) and Zanagata(sp).  Still cringed
every time they called Lupin "Wolf".  I mean SHEESH, was it really necessary
to translate THAT?
- Went to the vendors, bought some graphic novels (oddly enough, all
Takahashi..he had the latest Inu-Yasha, MI, and UY graphic novels at 25%
off).  Found the BGC Best Collection CD - SM, but I was still happy.  Bought
a Kenshin wall scroll - bloody thickest ink on that thing I've ever seen.
$100CDN GONE.
- Went home for dinner, planning on napping for a few hours so I could catch
some Variable Geo.  Ended up sleeping until MUCH later.  Oops.

Sunday:
- Woke up late AGAIN.  Star Ocean is an EVIL EVIL game.
- Caught some Slayers TRY.  Twoflower's stories make more sense now.  Had to
beat another God's Toychest idea out of my head.
- Watched Whispers of the Heart.  Fell in love with the movie COMPLETELY.
That kicked ass.  Sucked having to spend the 15 minutes after explaining to
all the fest-visitors that the ending WASN'T completely out of line for kids
the age of the main characters.
- Went to the Auction.  Dicovered that I cheat - a few guys wanted this one
MKR SD poster featuring all the cast, and I kept on raising the bid by huge
amounts.  $3-$4-$5-$6-$10-$10.50-$15.  Guess which bids were mine? ^_^;;;
Also bid on and won a AMG wall scroll and an MKR wall scroll no one appeared
to want.  Another $40CDN POOF.
- Caught the end of Laputa, thought it kicked ass, then was fortunate enough
to get a good seat for Maze OAV so I could laugh my ass off.
- Went and watched Slam Dunk TV for a bit, and sat their wondering at the
difference between it and the manga.  Decided I liked the main character,
he's a poster child for lithium.
- Watched the Kenshim Movie, which was ruined for me by the fact that I
started to feel really sick.  Bleah.  Still feel nauseous now.

Overall:
Not bad.  Good turnout, IMO.  I would have prefered more panels, and the
people who set up the schedule need to be shot. (EoE and Kenshin Movie at
the same time? AAAAAARRRRRGGGGH!  Good thing one of my friends has EoE.)
Would love to go to Animethon and meet Mr. Davies, but I guess I'll save up
for something later.

Like that con Krista invited me to...that I can't remember where it is.  Oh
wel, it's not til Labour Day.

--
Christopher Angel, B.Sc.(CS), B.E. (EE)
c_j_angel@hotmail.com

M.Sc. student at UCalgary