Ahh..where to start.
Friday: I get to the Hotel around Noon and am just totaly overwhelmed by the mass of people. (WAY more than last year) Thus even though I pre-reged the line I was in was quite long..probably a good 20min wait, not bad though really.
While in line I bumped into a gal friend I met last year. (which is good cus I was roomless
friend bumed out on our room at last min) Told her I'd catch up with her later. After I got my tag I went and explored a little bit, cosplay was light and nothing really grabed my attention. But as the day went on I started to see some really good cosplay. (Pictures later when developed
)
I finaly made it to the Merchandise Hall, and cruised the area freely...I should of Picked up the Love Hina DVD 2 while I was there, I bought the Boxed set...and I guess that number 2 sold out on Friday, the first day...doh! Heres a list of my purchases while I was there:
Love Hina #1 w/collector box
Tenchi Wall scroll
Inuyasha Plushies
Pair of Kick arse Daggers from Weapon dealer (Nice new addition to ACEN)
Bible Black DVD
Kite: Director's Cut
and...A box of
POCKY!!! (little bit of overused ACEN humor there incase ya didn't get it.)
I was very picky about my purchases, just about everything I bought was cheaper than what I could have got normaly..which was a surprise...especialy House of Anime, they were at least 5-10 bucks cheaper than their web prices. (where I got Plushies at)
The rest of Friday I mostly hung out in the game room before it was infested with B.O. and tournaments...then I met back up with my Lady friend. OH, almost forgot, I seen the Infamous Cloakactive finaly...was a dead give away with that description he gave
Too bad I didn't meet up with Captain and Megumi Girl.
Saturday: Well after a slow start on Friday, I hit the scheduled events and massive lines for Live Programming which included:
Tiffany Grant
Hilary Haag
Toshihiro Kawamoto
and
Ken Akamatsu
I grabed a nice meal and met this gal at the bar...she wanted to relax because her friends were cosplaying and dragging her all over, so I suggested one of the Anime rooms. We ended up seeing volumes 3-5 of Vampire Princess Miyu, it was really kewl...I have never seen it before and must say although some of the "Demon Spirits" (Sinjiahs? or sumthing) were alittle corney, and all the fights lasted like 2 minutes, the moral meanings behind each episode were really good...and also I made a new friend in the process ^_~
So, stag again I went to the purchasing room (not all purchases were made on friday, i just listed them all there) they had a line now, which was weird..some fire code I guess, they were having too many people in there...which wasnt bad cus when I went friday it was hell to get around.
Went to the Mens Health club and worked out...ate dinner, then braved the MASSIVE ACen Masquerade line.
Frank if your listening, this is my only and major complaint about the arrangment this year. Planning and staffing for the arrangment of that many people was poor to say the least. I know its hard to set up lines with that many people in that small of space...but I would of thought that lines would have been set up before hand, or some kind of, one door only entrance. People were clogged up for sometime...they had to line them up outside to set up the lines.
Also, the Ballroom just is not made for "viewing pleasure", meaning every seat was a bad seat unless you were 7 feet tall. I'm not short by no means but the stage just was not high enough. I missed ALOT of the Cosplay, people had to move around adjust...I was lucky enough to catch quite abit of it on someones camcorder while I was there (bless those LCD screens).
In short...the Hotel rocked as far as accomodations, but I felt last year was better as far as the setup of the Main Live Programming Hall.
One more thing...
TOO MUCH COSPLAY! I know, it takes alot of guts for people to get up there, and do their thing...but I just think that it needs to be cut alittle bit, you get to a point where your hoping that the next one is the last one. They should almost have private auditions to be in the main mascarade... /shrug
The dance was..the dance as usual. I always have fun at dances
There were even some kick arse breakdancers this year...its fun to watch at first, but then it just takes up room and people stop dancing
I only stayed till 2, I wanted to say good bye to some of the peeps I had met, I actualy left out at 2:30 back to Indiana...I was wired and I really did not want to wake up in the morning and get around, I figured it would be much easier for me to stay away and just drive all night.
I did have a blast, and the Acon definatly renewed a sense of anime spirit in me...and I think thats really the best thing I got from the Convention. In general they are too expensive, not ACEN's fault, but a product of conventions in general...I think if I do go to ACEN again, it would be for Saturday only...it might even be fun to cosplay, but I wouldnt want to do it unless I got into the character really good, AND did it well.
Overall...a GREAT experience, and I think we were really lucky to have such great guests and content.
LOVE AND PEACE!!
)
Pro and Cons of the con
