Anime Expo 2006

[Sasami Jurai]

There's going to be an anime expo today to Tuesday.

http://www.fansview.com/consked.htm

[Haoie]

Oh yes, that thing near LA, isn't it? My friend Jamie's attending, I'll ask her for details when she gets back.

[Sasami Jurai]

It's near where I live.

[Kyo_Kitty999]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
July 7-9, 2006 - ConnectiCon, Hartford, Conn. Guests of honor: actors Maile Flanagan, Chris Patton; musicians Piano Squall, Rob Balder
its too late for me!!!!!!!!!stupidstupidstupid THATS CLOSER TAHN THE ANIME BOSTON!!!!!!!!!
UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGH
i hate livin next to hartford((walk ten paces and your there))
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Sasami Jurai]

I'm too busy, so I don't think that I can go to the Anime Expo this time.

[Sasami Jurai]

Okay, I went to the Anime Expo yesterday, and it was great! I was so happy, but I only bought one thing.

[Theo]

WARNING, if you are easily offended by the phrase anime/goth freak you should really read this. It’s like a training session on what not to do in reality.

By the way, these events did actually occur in this order... I just wished I had brought my camcorder!

Okay, I’m about ready to talk about my experience at the Anaheim Convention Center that housed the expo. But before I start I have to lay a few ground rules. I’m 5’10” and 260lbs. In a word I’m fat. But don’t let that confuse what is coming next. I did my hand to hand combat training in the Navy with the Maries long before transferring to the Army. Yes, that was some time ago. Not to say that I can kick a 180lb persons ass, but I can take at least two. But since being a software engineer and a CEO for a company my life behind a desk hasn’t been good for my metabolism. Why is this important you ask? We’ll get there.

I have grown up with a background of Sci-Fi and Goth. So though this might sound a little out of left field I wanted to kick that out. Anyway, I too enjoy a good trip to Asylum on Sundays. After all, Goth is Goth. So please understand I believe I have some insight to some of this. But I must also qualify that I’m not an expert on Anime. I leave all of my Anime decisions up to Ken. He’s the expert on Anime; I’m the expert on Sci-Fi.

Let’s get down to business. It was decided that I would take my family to Disneyland for the weekend. I left the SF area on Thursday night at 7:pm and arrived at the Desert Palms hotel around 2:00am. It was a slow trip since they were doing a lot of work on highway 5. It was 91 degrees at 2:00am. A little humid as well. We got our room and went to bed. The next morning I started my day by going to IHOP. All was good. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. We hopped in a car and drove to Universal Studios for the day. We then came back, relaxed, changed our clothes and then went to Medieval Times. It was great. The kids loved it.

We came back to the hotel around 11:30pm. I remember that my wife was a little irritated because I kept singing “Back to the Hotel”. For those that don’t know it’s a rap song by a couple of my home town (as well as Ken’s) by N2Deep. That’s when the Anime people started to show up. It wasn’t too bad and I didn’t think anything of it. I thought that it might be cool because Ken might be there and I haven’t seen him in person in several years.

The next morning it was hot. I mean freakish hot. Not that it was over 90 degrees but it was hot and humid which was unusual for the area. I then started seeing people funnel over to the convention center. At first I was confused. Did the Goth club just left out or are these people really friggen confused. My answer was to come shortly. We decided on Denny’s for breakfast. That was a mistake. The service sucked that day. I stopped a few people (who were smart as they were sitting out of the sun) and asked about the convention. “It runs this Tuesday” was the only statement I could get out of most of them.

Here where is gets real friggen funny. I asked point blank, what’s your favorite anime site. One chick, who looked like she was in here late twenties, said “UTUBE.com, does that count?”. What the f^%$? My wife, who doesn’t related to anime at all, even said no. Then she said “Well then, myspace.com”. I smiled and went on. I then thought to myself are you f^%$ing serious. In all reality I think she was.

I asked another lady, who was dressed like she just got hit by a bus (all black, including back die job and lipstick) if she had ever been to absoluteanime.com. She replied “absolute what?” Where the f^%$ are you? You at the 2006 what expo! I didn’t reply to either of these two. I went to Disneyland.

We came back at lunch. F^%$ it was hot. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I walked outside and there they are. People dressed in full Goth standing in the sun. Now it’s not rocket science but if the only day of the year you go out is July 1st then your ass best be wearing sun scream. You’re milk f^%$ing white. But you came home red.

And yet it get’s funnier…

So I talked to a few other people about absolute anime and some people mentioned that they knew of the site but not much more. It seems that the bulk of the answers were myspace.com. I was confused. After lunch I went back to the Disneyland and continued to ride the rides with my family (until closing). Then we came back and then went to bed. It was uneventful.

The next morning I did my daily stuff and came back down to the lobby to go back to Disneyland for another ½ trip. I then started seeing a much different crowd. Besides the Goths there were some plain clothes people and a couple women dressed in typical anime dresses. I was impressed with them as they were fairly detail outfits. We decided to go to IHOP again. This time we had to deal with crowds of anime fans. Here’s where my word of advice comes in. Just because you’re dressed like a Goth and holding a plastic sword you really shouldn’t act like an ass to people being nice. No matter how much [censored] I might be talking now I was extremely nice to the crowd. But the crowd wasn’t. I was personally waiting for the lame f^%$ with the plastic sword to ask me to come outside. I was personally ready to kick his ass. Not because I was offended but rather he continued to use an extreme amount of profanity in front of my 8 and 10 year old kids. It’s not that I think I can kick his ass, I know a can. Remember, I think like many of you except I’m well trained and fairly bright.

While we were waiting inside and I notice a couple guys dressed in normal clothing wearing the exhibit tags. So I figured I’d talk to them. I asked one guy the question about what sites he goes to and the other guy snickered and asked why I was talking to them. Once again, what in the f^%$ is going on. You mean I can’t talk to people in public. As a side note, if you ask yourself why you have no friends, sometimes it’s obvious! I continued to talk to the other guy until his buddy got up and left and he followed. This was around 9:00am on Sunday. Aren’t you supposed to be nice on Sunday or something? At this time IHOP was full of mostly Goth/Anime freaks.

We had our breakfast and tried to bear through the noise. Then we left. After walking out of the restaurant my wife discovered that she left her Nascar baseball cap in the restaurant. So she immediately walked back in. It wasn’t at the table where I handed it to her. Yet all of the food stuff was still there. She then asked the surrounding tables and got “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. I was really irritated but I didn’t say anything and just walked about.

On our way from IHOP to Disneyland (a decent two block walk) we walked passed a ninja with a Katana and some other jackass with a square plastic sword being spoken to by Anaheim’s finest. Dumb asses! Don’t sword fight in public in a tourist town. It’s not rocket science. What the hell is with the plastic swords anyways? We stopped back at the hotel for a minute since it was on the way. We had to grab some additional sunscreen. You know, that stuff that prevents your skin from changing from milky white to fire engineer red. I guess some of you don’t (they sell it in tubes if you’re interested). There I saw a teenage girl, probably 14 or so and her parents. I guess they escorted her to the expo and they were going to wait at the hotel. HELLO! Do you see what the hell is out there? It looks like a bad zombie moving, midday in Anaheim during the summary. But I guess that they only say one cop talking to people entering (or leaving the expo) so that was good enough for them. At least walk your kid to the door if you take the time to escort her this far.

I continued to Disneyland and my wife bought a new had. It’s not like the last one was worth much, it just fit her real well. We came back for lunch. After that we went to California Adventure park where we continued to ride the rides until closing. From there we went back to the hotel (once again, singing that song) and then went to bed. The next morning we hopped into the blazer and drove home. The trip home wasn’t too bad. There were too many cop’s on the road to maintain a good speed. But we made it.

To recap, there are a couple important things to remember about an anime convention. Here they are.

• Goth is Goth. Goth is not anime. If you think anime is Goth then you are confused. The best way to resolve this is to not listen to Depeche Mode while going to the expo. Normal clothes are acceptable.
• Character dress is elegant and really complements many people (of various sizes). The one that I don’t believe fit in was the Klingon looking woman. It’s not that she had a bad body shape or anything but I thought this was an anime convention, not Star Trek.
• Acting like an ass at 25 is unacceptable even at Denny’s.
• My wife says Jutsu likes mustard. Yes, I'm confused as well!
• Even though you might be in better shape than a fat ass, a CCW backed by a gloc means that the fat ass can still win, even though you have a plastic sword.
• Milk white skin in the July sun requires sun screen. Most doctors agree.
• Acting like an ass at 25 is unacceptable even at IHOP.
• Just because you don’t like talking to people doesn’t mean you have to be an ass to people talking to your friends.

Overall, I’d rate my weekend as a 9.5 out of 10. Though the Anime Convention definitely put a stranglehold on my food options, I didn’t let it spoil my trip. We took off .5 because the wet ball was fairly high (that’s a military term for heat plus humidity).

On a more serious note, I hope those of you there that weren’t acting like asses had fun. Some of the people I talked to that were sociable seemed to be really enjoying the expo and had many good things to say about it. Not everyone was an ass but it only takes that 1% to f^%$ it up for the rest of you.

Next year I’m going to implement a grading scale.

[Sasami Jurai]

I never heard of anyone saying that anime is like goth before.

[Tsukasa]

me neither

[Theo]

Hmmm, then you obviously have never been to a Goth club before.

[Tsukasa]

Nope

[Theo]

Then there is still hope for you.

[Tsukasa]

cool..Wait! Whats that sposed to mean???

[Vash]

cool..Wait! Whats that sposed to mean???

It was something positive about you so don't worry.

[Tsukasa]

I know I was kidding

[Vash]