azzy_san

Well, once I said my goodbyes to Kristin for the evening, it was off to enjoy the insanity that is Hanzo. What is Hanzo, you ask? It's a series of 3 Japanese Live Action Movies that can be sort-of described as Shaft if it took place in Edo Period Japan. One of the more "unique aspects of the hanzo movies is the way he interrogates female suspects. Anyhoo, a lot of reason most of us even bather go to Hanzo to begin with is for tehe Secret Rice Party that follows right afterwards. The first rule of the Secret Rice party is that you don't talk about the Secret Rice Party. So I'll leave it up to you to figure what happened.

Once the movie and SRP ended, I made an attempt to get some extent of sleep. But a 90-long failed attempt on sleeping on the chair in the hotel room (cause my roomies were hogging all the bed space) led me to shower, change into my Mr. Kimura cosplay and stroll back to the con to kill time in the Video Game room until it was time for breakfast. After breakfast, it was time to do some random wandering until something interesting happened. Turns out that didn't take too long. It seems fellow forum member Cheesus was popping in and out of one of the rooms, trying to find people interested in the NoBrand ADR panel. Seeing as I had nothing better to do, I went to check it out. For those who don't know what Nobrand ADR is, it's kind of a online D&D-esque RPG that's available to play to those who are on the NoBrand Con forums. it was quite the interesting panel, as it was a discussion about all the aspects of the game, with a quiz at the end of the panel with various prizes awarded (including tons of Big Moola to use in the game and two pretty sweet swords that were only avaiable as Panel Prizes). I managed to secure a moola prize as well as an uber-powerful sword known as the Clemente (Praise Cheesus!).

It was not long after the panel ended that I ran into Kristin and her friend. This time Kristin was cosplaying as Abel Nightroad from the Super Special Awesome anime Trinity Blood. Since there was not much time between when the ADR panel ended and Adam's "Name That Anime Opening" panel, we wandered into Johnny Yong Bosch's Bleach panel. While this was going on (towards the end), Adam was wandering around the stage to see how he could set-up for the NTAO panel. I can't remeber if it was at this panel or another I went to that he was in, I got a quick couple of words in with Mr. Bosch. It wasn't anything too deep. Just pretty much a "Hello, glad you could make it to NoBrand Con (especially after he turned ACen down) and curse that Ohayocon staff for kicking me out of your band's concert (he has a band named Eyeshine) for no good reason!"

What happened with that last part was when I went to Ohayocon and attempted to see Eyeshine in concert there, a staff member kicked me out SUPPOSEDLY because it was too filled-up in the room (which was strange because I could count about a dozen empty seats). When I relayed this to Jhonny, he was equally as dumbfounded and hoped I could make it the next time I go to one his band's concerts.

But back to NTAO. It turned out to be one of the most entertaining panels at the whole con and not just because Kristin tripped on a cable or something when the naruto opening got played. Thamkfully, she was ok and that there were no further such incidents that occured in the panel. After serving a year-plus ban (cause I knida whooped some MAJOR tail when Adam ran a beta test of NTAO at Chaoticon 2007), I was finally allowed to participate and only end up on one of the teams that got elimniated by the eventual NTAO champions. It was well worth skipping out on the DDR tourney for.

Not a whole heck of a lot happened between the end of NTAO and the Cosplay contest with the notable exceptions of the post-NTAO lunch run and seeing two members of Beth Kinderman and the PC's play. With the lunch run, it was supposed to be a drive to the local A&W, but since Kristin's cosplay hair couldn't fit in the car, it was a walk over to the Acoustic Cafe. It was a lot tastier (and a lot better off for me) and we got to creep out the "normal" locals in the process. it was not long after we got back that I FINALLY ran into my good friend Kari. Turns out she was helping a male friend of hers who was having issues with a stalker-type person.

This year's Cosplay Contest was more enjoyable than ever, partly due to the fact that Trae's band (a lot of bands this year), Happy Wednesday, played a short set while the Judges were tallying their results. Kristin, who was entered in the Advanced (Individual) category, ended up placing 3rd. I was quite happy for her. Once I met back up with her and her mom(who came to the con to help her with her cosplay once she was done with it) only to see a pained look on her face. I thought it was because she was disappointed about how she placed. Turns out she was like that actually because the high heels she had been wearing all day were killing her. She said she would be bcak as soon as she could(we were gonna dance a little bit then chek out some more Random Battles), but alas, I never did see her the rest of the time I was there.

In spite of this, the dance was ginormously thrilling! We got to dance to numbers auch as "Caramell Dansen (Speedycake Mix)", "Japanese Girl", "Shake That Naughty Body" and of all things, the "Konami Code". Yes. The Konami Code. Anybosy who calls themselves a gamer should know this by heart. We also got to toss around the "Inflata-Vinnk" all over the dance floor before somebody decided to have his way(sort of) with him. Anyhoo, they finally chased us out after playing "Jump Around" and "Thriller". Oh, but the fun was yet to continue.

Now that the dance was over, it was time for one of the staples of the convention: Jasmine's Pinata Party. People were allowed to use anything they could to break this demonic structre (if you can consider Haro from the Gundam series demonic). Here comes the part where you get to laugh at my expense. One thing I should note here is that with each passing year, Jasmine's pinatas seem to get more and more indestructible(until we apply a little thing called Newton's Law of Gravity). You think I would've remembered this when I decided to try to punch it open with my mt bowling hand of all things(I bowl left-handed)! But NO! I just HAD to try to pucnch it open! Thankfully, I only scraped a little bit of the skin on my hand and some soreness. A couple of the more interesting weapons used, the "Inflata-Vinnk"(which won the award for Least Effective Weapon, a Guitar hero controller and even another person used as a baseball bat! Once we got the assit from newton, it was a scramble for the candy as well as the slip for the grand prize(which I had wrestled from my grasp).

After some post-pinata party hanging out with Adam and friends, me and the roomies made out way to our room, watched a little TV on Comedy Central and got our stuff loaded in the car so we could get rolling right away later on Sunday. Given how my last attempt at sleep fared, I opted instead to take a quick shower and spend even more time in the Video Game room (at least until it was time for Hanzo 3). Among the multitude of games I played, I got to try my hand at the various facets of Rockstar. What made this one of the most enjoyable aspects of the con was that I got to jam with a couple of the members from The Slants! I did eventually end up getting talked into Vocals, which was, well, eventful to say the least. At least it kept Kari awake(or so she said).

It was soon time to head to the No Mercy Room for Hanzo 3(which ironically is actually a really good movie). I was one of the 4-6 beave sould who were awake enough to drag our tired and over-caffinated arses to the movie. After this was over, it was time for the Famicom Dojo panel, hosted by none other than SeanOrange himself. It was quite informative and equally as entertaining. I ende up satying put after that was over because right after Famicom Dojo was Adam's and Miles' writing panel.

I sadly remember very little about the panel. That was because the 2.5 hours I got the whole weekend (I managed to sneak another hour in somehow) was starting to catch up and I spent pretty much the entire second half of the panel in a semi-comatose daze(whih apparently got the attention of Miles). The one thing I do remember though was that Miles had brought along a little heart-shaped keychain that played the "death sound" from Super marion Bros. when pressed. Whenever somebody poked their head in and left or something silly was said, the button was pressed.

As much as i wanted to stay for the Variety Show, I was kinda outvoted by the people I drove up with and we left just shortly beforehand. I had some time to say my goodbyes to a few people then it was back t the reality that's known as College Life. The good thing though was that I was able to get some good sleep during the trip back.


If I missed anything(especially what happend in thelatter part of the writing panel), please fell free to let me know. Laterz!

Should I start panicking now?

Where to start, where to start. When I woke up early that Friday morning to see a gray and cludy sky, I had a feeling the first day of Nobrand Con 007 was gonna be an interesting one. It did end up raining when our group left and our driver had to end up changing a wiper blade. We ended up getting there an hour later than the rest of the group, but considering not much usually goes on at an anime con the first afternoon, it was no big deal. Once we got the lone key to our hotel room and our con passes, we made our way back to the Green Tree Inn, unpacked our goods and made way to the convention center.

My first objective: to locate Kristin. Turns out she hadn't gotten there yet because she was waiting on a friend of hers, but she said she wouldn't be hard to find cause she was cosplaying a Ryuk from Death Note. After our online conversations, I was looking very forward to hanging out with her. In the meantime, I went around checking the Vendor's room getting some merch(and picking up myself a NoBrand Con shirt AND a IMRD? stick in the process), running into old acquaintances and the like. The only big disappointment at this point was that a Game Boy Advance title I had requested (Eyeshield 21: DevilBats DevilDays) from the people at Rising Stuff somehow didn't make it. Guess I'll have to wait to unlock the Poseidon on my Eeyshield 21 DS game next year.

I made my way back up to check out one of the "Forum Meet-Up" sessions in the Main programming room, where I got to chat with some more forum pals and this killed enough time so that Kristin did eventually show, along with the friend of hers I earlier mentioned. Time passes (did some more vendor Room browsing) and we make our way back up for Opening Ceremonies. As usual, the Opening Ceremonies were zany and entertaining. The only other thing today that really went wrong was some guy that kept bugging the three of us (especially Kristin) throughout different points that first night, but thankfully that was the only day he was there.

After some more wandering around, we made our way back to Main Programming for the AMV contest and ended up there for the last 10-15 minutes of the Voice Actor Q&A panel. It was alright UNTIL our token annoyance tried to get Jhonny Yong Bosch to do some dialogue in a character voice and after much badgering, Bosch did eventually comply and in a way that told him to pretty much "shut the f*** up". When we saw him do this, all 3 of us (we were sitting in the back) couldn;t help but cringe in terror. We pretty much had the whole "hear no evil..." thing going on. Aren't rabid fanboys fun?

The AMV contest proved to be entertaining, but i had to leave shortly after Adam's AMV because NoBrand Bowl II was at 9 and as I was the host, I couldn;t exactly be late. Adam did meet up with me once we got to the top of the parking garage. There were 5 of us who ended up making it (it was still raining a little, which likely played a huge part in the lack of turnout). Kristin and her friend showed about halfway through to cheer us on briefly from the sidelines. Kristin was still in her high heels and last I checked, playing Touch Football (or any kind of football for that matter) in high heels didn't make for a good time. Me and Adam (Devil Bats) ended up victorious this year by a score of 28-7! We were all soaked and wet, but we had fun.

I ended up meeting back with kristin and her friend as they were showing filler AMV's for the remainder of the AMV showing, then they shooed us out so they could get ready for the con's musical guests, The Slants! To Slay Zombie Newton opened, which was always fun. Once The Slants hit the stage, the three of us were quick to make our way to the front and spent the concert dancing our shoes off! Those guys are a blast! Anyhoo, after the concert, a few of us got together to chit-chat but as it was nearing midnight, it was hanzo time! We exchanged goodbye hugs and i was off!

(To Be Continued!)

Just got back home from my Chicago trip. More about it later. Just wanted to let everybody know I got back in one piece. TTYL!