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Centralized Anime, Lines, and You! [permalink]

Posted on 23 May 2008 at 11:56am PDT

So, a blog about Anime Central 2008, my big summer trip. Where do I start?

PRE-CONVENTION

Let's start with me. I went as Phoenix Wright, from the game series of the same name. I did not go to the photoshoot, because it was on Friday and I didn't wear the costume until Saturday. In order to make the costume, I had to leave a day early and head down to my grandma's, which was on the way.

Grandma is a miracle worker. I handed her a pair of lounge/pajama pants that were 4 inches to long and 10 inches too fat, and she gave me a pair of suitpants that fit. I gave her a XXL hooded sweatshirt, and in just over 24 hours she handed me back a suitcoat with lapels, buttons, pleats, folds, collar, cuffs; the whole nine yards. I don't know how she did it, but it was amazing. That was my Wednesday and Thursday morning.

After that, it was off to my next stop; a friend's house in the Milwaukee area. In exchange for a ride, she was willing to pay for my gas. We rocked out to some Guitar Hero, did some shopping for bare-minimal foods and cosplay requirements (she needed jeans, I needed a tie to replace the one I left at my grandma's, and we both needed hair gel - look at that hair!), and packed it all up in the morning.

FRIDAY - DAY ONE

Friday morning, the day of the Convention. The Con started at 10am. By 10:30 we were finally loaded up and armed with a freshly burned CD. We picked up another friend on the way and started making for Chicago. Traffic wasn't too bad, but the whole tolls thing sucked. We may or may not have neglected to pay one of them. There was a sign saying it was closed, the light was green, no one else was paying, so we drove through. The light turned red as I was half way through. So, to the state of Illinois, I owe you a buck! Sorry! ^^;

We got to the Con right about 1pm. Unfortunately, the hotel wasn't going to let us check in until 3pm. So, we parked and wandered around the dealer room for a while. It was at this time that we discovered LINECON. We had preregistered for the Con with our college's Anime Club, and the President was nice enough to pick up all our badges for us. Those who neglected to preregister had to wait in like 4 different lines. Some people were there for TEN HOURS just waiting to get into the Con. So, MAKE SURE YOU PREREG if you want to go in the future. Oh, and pay the extra $1 to have the badge shipped to you to save another line and get a SHINY badge. :D

So, we had two hours to kill. We wandered, picked up a belated birthday present for a friend, and then we spent more money. There were several stores to look at. They had shiny things, pointy things, and shiny pointy things! I bought myself a Master Sword (a la Legend of Zelda) and my friend snagged a nice Godsend (from "Heroes"). Then it was time to check in, run back to the car, grab stuff, bring stuff up to the room, etc. Run run run!

After that, there was more wandering around and visiting of panels while we waited for a friend to work his way through LINECON (it took him 9 hours). From there, it was time for REAL Chicago pizza (which was free!). We had to walk and wait like an hour in line, but it was worth it. From there, it was back to the Con. We went to Midnight Madness, most of which went over my head; I've never seen Escaflowne. I can say this about MM though: It's GENDO! Oh baby!

At 3am, we crawled back to the hotel and passed out. I was happy to take the floor and leave the bed for others; it was a THICK, COMFY floor. We were all exhausted, and there were 6 of us in the room; 2 to the bed, 2 to the pull-out couch, and then me and our buddy from LINECON each snagged some floor in the two different parts of the room.

SATURDAY - DAY TWO - COSPLAY DAY

At 8am, the alarms went off. We were supposed to meet people at 9 for breakfast, but that didn't pan out. By 8:30 we were all showered and getting ready. My friend I gave a ride to went as L from Death Note, and the other person in our half of the room was Witch Hunter Robin (she got stopped for pics a lot). They only took a few minutes to get ready. I asked them to help me with my hair because, you know, it defies the laws of physics! NINETY MINUTES later we finally had 6 spikes of hair sticking out from the back of my head. My hair only sits about an inch-and-a-half above my shoulders, so it wasn't easy. But that's what the "Spiking Glue" was for. Stuff works well; more on it later.

Shortly before 10:30 we went down to breakfast. There were other people in the hotel too; at least one wedding was going on. We got some interesting looks as we sat down to eat. We smuggled some food back up to our still-sleeping friends since they didn't have food cards. If you've ever wondered how to wake a guy who refuses to get out of bed after two hours of yelling, shaking, and noise, the trick is bacon. As soon as I mentioned having brought that, he got up. We left them to eat as we went off to the Con.

We spent a lot of time wandering the Dealers' Room and Artists' Alley, getting our pics taken and taking pics of others. There were a LOT of really good cosplays there. There were also a LOT of L's. Hundreds of them. Everywhere! We bought a bunch of stuff, including t-shirts, wallscrolls, and plushies galore. I saw a few other Phoenix Wrights, but they all had really short hair or wigs. I was the only one around, that I know of, who had half-foot spikes of real hair. o/

We made our way over to "Your Favorite Anime Sucks," which was made of win, lulz, and awesome. We were the last five let in the door before they started seating people on tables; talk about luck. The panel was great; definitely worth going to if you ever attend the Con. As we left, we passed this elderly couple sitting in the lobby. When we explained why we all looked so odd, they asked for a picture; they were from a small town and were convinced no one would believe them if they shared the story. It made me smile.

After that it was break time, so we went off to McDonald's. By that point L and I were the only ones left in our costumes. It was kinda raining on the way there and it started coming down really hard on the walk back. I objected for a few cars stuck in traffic and explained to a few other people just why I looked so funny. Upon returning to the hotel, I dried off my hair and suitcoat. Despite a day of walking around and a good shower in the rain, my hair was almost entirely unphased.

From there, I ran down to the front desk and asked the nice lady working there if I could make use of the grand piano sitting in the breakfast area (all the rooms on all floors surround the area, building up with an open center). Surprisingly, she said yes. So, I did. To some cheers, some jeers, and many a "hey I know that song!" I played Final Fantasy X's "To Zanarkand" and a little bit of "He's a Pirate" for the hotel. After about 20 minutes, the head manager guy came and told me to stop. It was fun while it lasted! :D

Next on the list was the Soapbubble; the big rave. After making our way over and finding out not once, but TWICE that the end of the line that we had joined wasn't actually the end of the line, we finally found where we were supposed to be and waited another 30 minutes in the rain. I was quite tempted to start a bout of "Still Alive" to entertain us all, but I can't sing and couldn't get enough support from the immediate area to get the ball rolling. ;.;

Once inside, there was much loud music, glow sticks, and jumping around like the white male that I am. We were there for about 3 hours, with a 30 minute break to just collapse into a chair. I lost 5 pounds and was noticeably thinner when we finally left. @_@

We slowly made our way back to the hotel room, and began the deconstruction process. Post-rave and sweating off 5lbs, my hair was STILL ALMOST PERFECT. It was shower time. After two minutes of running water on it, the spikes remained strong. I had to wash my hair 5 or 6 times to get it out (I honestly lost count). From there, we passed out at like 4am and then woke up at 9.

SUNDAY - DAY THREE

Sunday morning, we packed everything up, ate, browsed some last minute deals, loaded up the car, and made it home (we even paid both tolls that time!) to pass out too exhausted to continue the journey.

Following ACen, I had further escapades, but they're not the sort of thing that makes for good blog material, you know? I'm home now, trying to find a job for the next 3 months before I head back to campus. Hooray.

If you're looking for pictures from the Con, I've placed a few of the ones that I took while there onto a Photo Gallery if you'd like. Or just Google for them. There's lots more that I didn't take pics of, obviously.

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