Messages

Oh my post was deleted. But I think it was constructive, it made it very clear my feelings on how strongly. Fanime > Sakuracon. And most other cons that I have been to. As long as i got say so I'm happy.

I do want to give my two cents on the reg line. I was very impressed with how the situation was handled.

Even with the issues which were beyond their control they handled it far better than a..ehem.. certain other con  where the lines are 7 hrs long due to sheer stupidly and no unforeseen acts of God/Nature

There was nothing they could have done about the power outage.

Could they have done something about being two hours late? Probably.

However in the end they more than made up for it by competence and efficiency. When I got inline I started  more than a block away. It was maybe a half an hour before I was inside.

And best of all, when I got inside my friend took over for me  because we did group reg.

No it, was not perfect. But just consider how much worse it could have been if not for the experience of the staff and the Godsend that is group-reg.

I see no reason to give the staff any crap about it.

[Bad-]

Bad- It's only one but it's a BIG one.

The Masquerade. I usually don't attend but this year I was convinced to do so. I was not convinced that I should ever go again.
The contestants ARE told that this isn't American Idol right? I say 'American" and not 'Japanese" because while I am so very, very, sick of going to see creative skits and costume only to see MOE cosplayer in skimpy outfits murdering my ears with some  high-pitched, grating song and dance,  those ARE at least relevant .

What the fuck was with #28? They didn't  have costumes. Of ANY kind. The song didn't have anything with anime. NONE of it had anything to do with anything really.

I'm still reminded of FanimeCon many years ago (i think it was 2000 or 2001) when I was fortunate enough to be able to watch a rehearsal of all the skits before the actual show.  The Masquerade staff called up each group, and let them perform their skit once in-front of little to no audience, to make-sure their audio was in-sync, lighting, etc.  

One group, three guys wearing either T-shirts or bare-chested, did a skit from the anime "Fist of the North Star" but all it was was them punching each other, doing "moves" that Kenshiro does, and instead of blood, they threw confetti into the air.  It was absolutely pointless and boring, and after I saw that I said "why is this even allowed in the Masquerade?"

Well, when the show commenced, and I was dreading that the FOTNS skit would come up, low-and-mf-behold: it was axed!!  ;D

I'm unsure to this day if the guys dropped out at the last minute, or if the Masquerade Staff found the skit to be too plain/boring/idiotic/etc. so they canned it.  Sure, everyone is allowed to sign-up for the Masquerade each year, but having a dress-rehearsal if there's time to let the Masquerade Staff determine if a skit is appropriate or not and disqualify any skit they see fit, would be nice to have.

I recall a couple of years ago when one contestant stood on-stage wearing a Smiley-face mask from "Ghost In The Shell", normal clothes, and held a Zion flag from "Gundam", and just stood there for 3-5 minutes, while the "Mighty Mouse" song was being played.  Just terrible.. (I know Anime Central used to have a big GONG they used to use to get contestants off-stage when they were dragging, they no longer do, but that was one example where the skit needed to end.. and quickly.)  :P

Which brings me to this year's Masquerade.  Being backstage in the photo-area, I saw all the contestants before they went on-stage, but didn't get to see their skits.  One group, entry #6 "Pokemon Men" had 4 guys and 1 girl.  Two of the guys were half-naked, and the one Power Ranger(?) had holes in his costume in certain areas that were quite disturbing.  Once they stood in-front of us photographers, they immediately started doing poses where they grabbed each other, like one guy stood behind the other, and lifted the other's legs.  Just overall pretty distasteful..  

Here's their skit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17_9ipJMEKc

You mean they DON'T have rehearsals for the judges approval? I thought that would have been mandatory.

 Wow. Some good that make-up did me.

I look pretty mean though so I guess it works.

I haven't noticed anything said about this yet (and quite frankly, trying to even skim through some of these walls of texts is a massive headache!) but I wanted to make a comment regarding the nazi-themed yaoi booth in Dealer's Hall. What the hell, guys? That's incredibly offensive! I understand that some are more sensitive to this sort of thing than others, and some people just don't give a damn at all, but I really don't understand why FanimeCon would allow that sort of merchandise to be sold at the con.

Thank you for bringing this up. While I was in the Artist Alley most of the con and didn't get a chance to see the Dealer's Hall, I am HORRIFIED to hear that something of such an offensive nature is allowed! My reaction is the same as yours: WHAT THE HELL? That is extremely, extremely offensive and I am so upset to hear Fanime let someone have a booth with something like that. It's a very real piece of history that affects many of us closely still, not a joke. It should not be allowed, period.

i can see how that would be disturbing to some people.

Just like
rape.
or MOE
and watching little girls get beat up/raped by monsters.
and just about every other fetish you could find that is so casually shown in anime/manga.
It's disturbing from the other side isn't it? Yah, welcome to our world.

I will say that making the 'Nazi' bit so easy to see-if it even was- is a bad idea.
I sure as hell didn't see it and I was looking at yaoi. Unless your referring to that ONE fanart ass Aizen dressed in a Nazi uniform. If that' the case...I don't even know how to respond.

Some guys do LOOK for these things so that they can bitch and try to get them banned. Just do what most woman and look the other way..oh wait When we do we're greeted with some other fetish.

Either everything is okay, or nothing is. You can't pick and chose just because YOU find something offensive.

I understand where your coming from but it's a slippery slope.

It will go from 'game management' to rule/safety Nazi's =no fun fun or even games at all. Trust me, it isn't worth it.

[Peace Bonding]

  Good-
Peace Bonding It looks like my complaints on being harassed over peace bonding last year were taken to heart.

The people at the peace bonding booth were polite and once I had my sword peace bonded I was not bothered even once. I am very impressed. Thank you.

Dealers Hall

I usually don't bother even going to the dealers hall.-at any con, not just Fanime-the crowd is not worth looking over he same stuff that I could by at a nearby store or online.

This year i was surprised to find a very nice variety. The down side, of coarse, is that I actually spent money.

Even more amazing was the lack of crowding and shoving. I wasn't even ran into once. Nor did I have to shove anyone out the way myself. Very nice.

Bad- It's only one but it's a BIG one.

The Masquerade. I usually don't attend but this year I was convinced to do so. I was not convinced that I should ever go again.
The contestants ARE told that this isn't American Idol right? I say 'American" and not 'Japanese" because while I am so very, very, sick of going to see creative skits and costume only to see MOE cosplayer in skimpy outfits murdering my ears with some  high-pitched, grating song and dance,  those ARE at least relevant .

What was up with #28? They didn't  have costumes. Of ANY kind. The song didn't have anything with anime. NONE of it had anything to do with anything really.

Am I back in Seattle where we can't say 'no' because we don't want to huwt thew witto feewings? I expect better quality control from Fanime.
Having said that, the skits that were actually about the costumes were very impressive. I also approved of the guest announcer. I am now aware of the terrifying  mind control powers of the   'Manamana"

mod edit: profanity

tThat blows. I was really looking forward to it. Oh well maybe i can sign up for another game later.

i'll put your friend as a rook Yuu>< ;) that's for bringing them

I'm sure he'll be glad to hear that. Do we have an exact time yet?

@Yuu, let's see if we can meet up before 2pm just in case we see other DGM cosplayers ^_^

You mean I have to pretend to be friendly? Alright, but no guarantee's it'll go over well. IAside rom the B%W ball I have no plans so I'm up for anything.

airanimechiic, I just checked BSaphire's gathering list.  She listed our gathering at our first choice 4:30pm, FiF CE MS which is Flowerbed in Front, Convention Entrance, Marriott Side.  This is confusing because we agreed to bump up early at 2pm.  We don't want to confuse and miss other D. Gray Man cosplayers.

What are we going to do?  Change the 2pm on the first post the match BSaphire's 4:30pm.  My suggestion is to change the time from 2 to 4:30 for consistency.  How about you airanimechiic?  You have your masquerade performance.

I would like to keep at 4:30. It seemed to work for more people. Furthermore, it will be easy to gather more people for the shoot as we can inform them at the SJ shoot. We can always have an unofficial meeting at 2PM.

Kite- soooo not tru they are the first to move and while they might not last as long as the back pieces they have more "fights"
Yuu- sure! i'll put you one the black side as rook#1

Sweet! I'm looking forward to this.

oh i can get people from the area-i just prefer not to- i hate begging people to come play (i'm actually very shy even thou i dont always appear to be ^^) that's all with most of the people all ready signed up getting the rest wont be too hard, it's when there's 2 people signed up and no one shows....that makes for a hard game ^^; (happened last year hence why i like to have a lot more signed up for this year)

I will bring at least one person with me.

 And some pawns last until the end o the game. I'll play. I'd love to be a rook-more appropriate to the character-but I'll be a pawn if I have to.

so i've made it Sunday, 2PM, FiF CE . you've sent BSaphire the pm?

Good. At least we've got something.

No I was just about to do so when I saw this. If your running the gathering you should should PM her.

oh i wasnt intending on running the gathering but i just noticed no one made a thread so i freaked out and typed this up... i've never run a gathering before... so if you could... :DDD

You should have said so. -_-;
I would have had everything done by now.

No harm done I guess. I'll take care of it.

so i've made it Sunday, 2PM, FiF CE . you've sent BSaphire the pm?

Good. At least we've got something.

No I was just about to do so when I saw this. If your running the gathering you should should PM her.

Actually, how ok are you guys with moving this to Saturday? Saturday seems to have more space and it looks like CE just got taken at Sunday 4:30 :S

Do whatever you want. Just do it now.

Make it official.  4:30pm Sunday FiF CE or Flowerbed in Front, convention entrance.  And this is the official gathering thread.  I hope BSaphire can add the URL =)

I'll do it. I  was waitingo nthe TS because I don't want to step on any toes, but we don't have time for that anymore.

We have 30 minutes after Shonen Jump to walk to the convention entrance.  We can't use the Hilton grassy area because there is a 4:00pm official gathering.  I just checked the list.

I like the area just on the other side of Hiltin, with the tables and things. Hell, I'll get us what I can.

Where have you been?!?  I was concerned you're not attending this year.  I found out yesterday Ken and A. are coming.  I should have thought that implied you're coming.  Yeah, we get pics of us.  Perhaps before the gathering or after dinner and before B&W?  I'm cosplaying Allen all day on day 3.
@everyone else, Feel free if you want to join us in the B&W ball.  I suggest we eat dinner before.  How about cafeteria style? lol

I've been pretty busy. Especially these past few months. The only reason I didn't take care of the DGM gathering earlier is that I figured someone else would have done so by now.
Well, That'll learn me.

The DGM gathering is the only thing I plan all con. So I'm free all day.

Please explain in more detail as this use of "Harass" is not well defined.

That's a reasonable request.

However it was a year ago and the details aren't so great. I did post what happened in great detail in an another thread immediately after the convention. But I can't recall exactly which thread. It would have been this forum version of ' Suggestions/complaints/feedback.

If I can find it I will link it to you.

For now suffice to say that once I had it Peace-bonded I was constantly asked and sometime demanded that I have it peace bonded. Several times a day.
On one occasion another attendee asked if it was Peace-bonded. He had his weapon taken away because the staff couldn't see the tie on it from far away.

 
I've cosplayed as Kanda every year since I've goen to Fanime and never attended the SJ shoot.

Guess I will this year.

get peace-bonded, just so we have a conversation about being conscientious about crowds and that you get marked as having had that conversation with one of our peacebonding team.

I understand this reasoning very well and have no complaints. I will hear the conservation and get my weapon peace-bonded with no quarrel.

But as this is a CONTRACT between myself and con staff I ask that once my part has been upheld-IE hearing the conversation, (several times) and  my weapon peace bonded- that the second party keep up thier end and not continue to harass me about it 12+ times over the weekend.

If it happens again I will not be attending next year.Which is very sad since Fanime is my favorite con by a large margin.