After a long Friday night full of song, dance, and maybe one too many to drink it was quite hard to peel myself out of bed, but the show must go on. Grab a shower and Red Bull and its back to into the fray we go. The convention is going much like the rock star life; stay up way too late partying, pass out, and then wake up and do it again. Super fun, but it makes a dent in your well being after a while.
Our first stop was the artist alley and the dealer’s room where there was lots of good stuff to buy. Import items alongside fan made items of every kind were abundant. A wide selection of DVD’s, books, figures, posters, music, and more could be had from many of the merchants within the main room so we did our share of purchasing and browsing. The selection is big, but nothing compared to the majestic whale of a dealers room at Anime Expo. To put this in perspective the entire Red Lion Hotel could have easily fit into the dealer’s room at AX.
If the convention could have a mood I’d say it would be swinging wild on Saturday. People dancing, talking, and showing off their cosplay, pictures being taken and connections being made, social networking at its best. Words can’t describe the lobby of this hotel, so we took some photos instead.
The AnimeLand Wasabi AMV Contest was short but good. I was not expecting a huge production as this is a very small local convention. I was not disappointed with the AMV’s, but the order in which they were played could have used some shuffling. It is great that this show is primarily local editors; this format gives the locals a chance to compete with similar editors on a level playing field. This sort of environment also gives editors feedback and helps with their growth, learning from mistakes, and improving. We must all learn to crawl before we can walk.
The voting system at first was very basic, raise your hand for your favorite video, out of three presented to you choose one. Then those top videos with the most votes moved to the finals where a cell phone vote was used. This was a really cool system, but I’m not sure it will work with a multi category audience vote if that is ever needed. Still a very cool system and I like the idea.
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We decided to keep our seats and check out the “Happy Project” performance after the AMV Contest. Happy Project is a J-pop group comprised of female members who sing and dance to J-pop. It’s a very upbeat show with a blend of pop from various artists. The dancing is organized and uniforms match and this kind of group is definitely not something you see often. They are based out of Dallas Texas, so welcome to Colorado! Overall I enjoyed the performance; we took some photos of it and a short video clip so you too can enjoy it.
Shortly after the Happy Project concert was over, the guest panel to meet and greet the guests of honor and get autographs was held in the same room. This session kind of evolved into a question and answer session that was fairly entertaining and most definitely funny. We chatted with a few of the guests and the people in line to meet the stars of the show. I learned that the termnoise “wark” can be used to replace bad language. For example, “warking off” was something I’d not heard before but what the wark it was tons of warking fun.
Uncle Yo’s live standup comedy hour was very hilarious. It’s amazing to find standup comedy that relates to anime and gaming so well. Uncle Yo is most definitely one of the best of the acts at Wasabi if not the best comedy in the building, and his late night panels are even better to boot. This panel was held in the main events hall and was packed, with people filling in any available space, a smashing success if I ever saw one. I died when he started doing his “yo mama” jokes, trust me these “yo mama” jokes are different on an intergalactic scale.
Chairs, you sit on them after a while they make your bum sore but that that’s not the point. The cool people of AnimeRoot are always willing to help staff with events so we pulled up a chair or two for the costume and cosplay contest that was waiting in line to be seated. Between us and the rest of the volunteers we relocated an entire rooms worth of chairs in under 10 minutes, go team work.
A big shout out to the staff and volunteers who put in their time and effort to make this convention function, thank you for your hard work!
The costume and cosplay contest was the main event of the evening. The evening consisted of three segments; first the judged costume contests, then the skit portion of the show, finally followed by the open walk or masquerade portion of the show. The run time on the entire show was about 40 minutes shorter than I thought it was going to be. I saw many amazing cosplay costumes over the weekend but only a small few entered for judging, and even fewer put together skits. Once again much like the AMV contest this is a small convention and I know if you give it time and love it will grow bigger every passing year. We took many photos of the cosplayers who proudly graced the stage; make sure to check the gallery for their pictures and more (Coming Soon). I think another big shout out to the judges for bringing prizes and Gimme Anime for donating prizes for our winners is due again. Thank you guys!
A short break was due for us as we had been working non-stop all day so late dinner and more Red Bull and back at it for the long late night haul. We don’t stop for sleep, we Omni-bussing this boat.
The party gets good at 10PM because that’s when the all the 18+ panels begin and the rock gets rolling at the live concert. Pretty rocking concert overall and a really random late night panel that sort of digressed into a yaoi panel. We enjoyed the rock and roll more than the panel which both fought for the 10PM time slot. The adult panel with guests was not bad but it was very slow, had way too many technical break downs, and was just poorly planed. I must also add that both the karaoke and rock band were both very loud and made this panel even harder to hear let alone enjoy or understand. After a while it simply broke down to furry porn and yaoi which is not so much in our interest, so at that point it was rock on till “Late-Night Hentai” with your favorite Uncle.
The shirt came off, did not go back on, and then the pants followed. Yes indeed this panel with Uncle Yo was outstandingly funny. Words of advice: “Never go to Hong Kong!” – Uncle Yo. This late night panel was my favorite among the others, and was completely shameless, sometimes less is more and sometimes hentai can be more hilarious then it is sexy. That is what this panel aimed for and I vote that it succeeded.
The Saturday Techno-sabi was really good; I enjoyed the club and euro more than the happy hardcore of Friday’s ravedance. Good DJ’s, lots of glow sticks, and plenty of water were available; it was a good dance floor and the beats just kept coming, the Techno Viking approves.
After the late night panels and the dancing was over, the AnimeRoot team did a little bit of partying, good times were had, and the hangover was guaranteed.
It was a wild night throughout the hotel; both the convention and hotel staff were pulling their hair out looking for trouble makers, lost children, and out of control parties. Again a major props are due here, thank you guys for keeping things under control.
Wow that’s Saturday’s write up in a nutshell, trust me check-out seemed to come way too early.
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