Convention Reports

Since 2001, I had been maintaining a mailing list of friends, readers, and confidantes. After attending my first convention in 2002, I provided them a little recap with pictures and a basic summary of what went down, from my very subjective and self-serving point of view of course. In spite of that, future recaps became more involved with more pictures, and the recurring stories with my bizarre friends and run-ins with increasingly fan-friendly voice actors. As the reports originally had references to inside jokes and stories written by me and my writing circle, footnotes are included.

A little clone of No Brand for the fall means the same No Brand fun at half the cost! They have an equivalent of No Brand Bucks for me to both win and give away, a mascot, a storyline and even an equivalent of Hanzo that I never go to. And now, it has a First Agent Room Party!

Apparently, the hotel management isn't aware of how awesome I am.
Tiffany Grant finds me so fast, she has to stop and let me sign my badge.
Sometimes not dancing gets you closer to the girl.

More of the same from the free convention in downtown Madison! The vendors room is now in four tiny classrooms, the gaming room is across the street and the fanfic panel is twice that size. When my usual group bolts for State Street once again, there's more than enough friends to pick up the slack.

Tyler and Jasmine are formally introduced to Portal and Dragon. It is a triumph.
No Brand inspirations all around, including a cosplay of a beloved No Brand-verse character.
Time to see what Whitewater Nick has been up to and get him in with the Eau Claire crowd.

Rather than relaxing for a weekend, I bring NTAO to Anime Iowa and revive their fanfic panel. In response, bad luck with the schedule gives me more than I bargained for. But it also gives me plenty of free time Saturday to relax, enjoy the convention, and rant against the con's only real flaw.

Registration? Fixed. Dance? More than tolerable. AMV Contest? Er, um...
No Branders get their first taste of the Field Guide to Convention Cosplayers.
Oh hell, let's do the masquerade again. Now with balloon-oriented line management!

When the Cubs are in town and I can spend some time with my beloved grandparents, the actual convention after that becomes a bit of a drag. Especially when I'm hording a terrible cold and a headache that all the RickRolls in the world can't cure. But oh that cosplay...

Behind the scenes of Fast Food Anime and the much-maligned ACen fanfic panel.
Why working for registration should require a basic grasp of the alphabet.
For once, let's actually go to the masquerade. That's the main draw of this place anyway.

A band, a VA I haven't met eight times already, and an attendance over 1000. Surely No Brand Con isn't heading into the mainstream? Not quite, but it's another step towards respectability. They even put Duct Tape Boy in a tuxedo this year.

In the absence the real thing, we present... Inflata-Vinnk!
Not only do we play rooftop football, but we do it in the rain. Take that, Clerks!
Scott returns, this year as the subject of a tribute song.... Cthulhu Fhtagn.

An hour's drive for a one day quickie. No hotel room, no advanced preparation, and only $15 at the door. The quiet con that nobody in the area had heard of (and which according to organizers was actually in its second year) turned out to be a nice little respite from the norm.

It may be small, but I still blew $75 in the vendor's room. Because they're ninjas!
Warming up for Name That Opening by watching a game... participating when necessary.
Oh my... hentai!

The need to get away from the cold, snowy weather in Wisconsin leads me to join the Green Bay group across the Midwest to Ohio for the year's inaugural con. All the best and worst aspects of ACen and Iowa merge to form an experience that just might have been worth the drive.

Nope, Indiana is still no more fun to drive through... especially in oncoming traffic.
If you thought the Tiffany Grant run-ins have been stale lately... we got you covered.
Is it possible to have too much Digimon at a convention?

Good timing, good planning and good local support gave an upstart UW-Madison convention incredible momentum. Would Geek.kon take off and fly into lore or crash and drown in its rookie mistakes? Surprisingly, this was all the drama we needed.

Commuting from an hour away and still rooming with friends. 209! 209!
Back to the basics- DDR contests, fanfic panels and not dancing.
It's a Dalek! A bloody Dalek!

Now present for the full weekend, we set the corn jokes aside to spend some quality time at a quality hotel at what could possibly pass for a quality convention. Naturally, something's going to go wrong, but at least we got it over with early so we could leave on a high note.

Hey look, Iowa's got a disgustingly long registration line too! How cute!
Digimon trumps all takers in its most favorable arena- a karaoke contest.
Short Bus Cosplay? Old hat already. I give to you- Fusion Cosplay!

Sporting a YouTube account and a camera that actually could handle video (seriously, I tried at No Brand; it's what led to Sunday's camera crisis), Star Otaku offers up her own recap of the events at this year's Anime Central. New events! New pictures! Same old bitching about the management.

Star and 4chan's /b/tards invade cosplay photo shoots and scare little children.
The only question you ever really need to ask at a dating sim panel.
Hey! This one's got cosplay pictures! What a concept!

The annual bull in a china shop (or Asian marketplace, as the case may be) is back again. This time, Chromus finally pops across the pond (or makes the month-long swim if you trust Google Maps) to partake in LineCon. But it's more than just that... thank God or we'd never have anything fun to say about it.

I'll see your weird Tiffany Grant run-in and raise you Kari Wahlgren and Chris Patton!
At long last, the English Anime Lyrics Archive gets a field test before a live audience.
Ghetto Cosplay? Let Natsuhiko Taki introduce you to Short Bus Cosplay. A-ha-ha!

A new year brings a new convention season and there's no better way to enjoy the year than by helping produce the fun instead of simply drowning in it. Back in the Ramada for a second-straight year, No Brand Con again topped its record attendance, while still easily maintaining its small-town charm.

An Eyeshield 21-themed room party, including a Friday afternoon tailgater.
The hottest cosplay picture in the history of the world. Period.
Teasers galore, including a sneak-peek at Magical Security Taskforce.

What started as an excuse to hang with friends and avoid trekking to Otakon turned into... an excuse to hang with friends and avoid trekking to Otakon. Anyone have a problem with that? Didn't think so, because while the con itself had a few structural flaws, any excuse to indulge for a weekend is a good one.

More corn than you can shake a yaoi paddle at.
Finally, I steps up to the microphone for some karaoke. Yeah, I can do Japanese lyrics too.
It may be Iowa, but there's no escaping the grasp of Eyeshield 21. YA HA!!

After last year's mediocre ACen entry, this year was highlighted by three online pals coming in from as far away as Edmonton. Not only that, but I'm rooming with both my No Brand friends *and* my Whitewater friends who still don't quite see the appeal of small conventions. In Chicago, worlds collide.

Anime Improv, Anime Hell, AMV Hell, and the world is finally saved by S.T.E.A.M.
Some serious No Brand Pimping at Otaku no Yen Live Action: Kouga + Nurse Joy OTP!
The good, the bad, and the ugly of Anime Music Videos- lens flare nipples fits all three.

Armed with a day off work and some fancy equipment, I head up to Eau Claire with the full intention of partying hard with all my No Brand forum buddies. In a new location downtown, the successes were many, the failures were hilarious, and with an increasingly respectable size, we got a little of everything.

A new car, a new job, and eight missions, including the impossible task of avoiding Tiff.
Dear God, can I actually get to round 2 of a competitive DDR tournament?
Hunting for Digimon fans on Sunday morning... and getting a blast of Taito in response.

Despite no job, no money, and no real reason to go (what with anticipated guest Chiaki Konaka calling in sick three days prior), I went anyway to help my Green Bay friends with their first convention. Determined to avoid as many lines as possible in a convention known for them, this was quite a ride.

A midnight escape from Wisconsin, only to spend two hours hunting for a hiding hotel.
Eau Claire friends, Whitewater friends, voice actor friends not named Tiffany- we got it all!
Who needs a convention? Ace is the place for your crazy cosplay needs.

By now, little No Brand Con in Eau Claire had grown to a respectable 400. Not big by any means, but with a cozy size, a forum full of friends, and an official convention storyline, the best con is in Wiscon... sin.

No lines! No lines! No lines! Well... maybe one.
The first public screening of my music video, and karaoke performances of EALA music.
Men in kilts, boys in duct tape, and ninjas in the garden.

After missing No Brand due to work and ACen due to graduation, Otakon seemed like a great way to celebrate the start of my new job, and with six of my friends and a detour through New York, it would be even better! Famous last words before a crazy return trip to the Atlantic.

A bunch of Wisconsin hicks driving aimlessly around New York... including Harlem.
Harassing, injuring, and messing with the heads of anyone with a "Hug Me" sign.
Tiffany Grant's not there? Guess we have to settle for Luci Christian and a bunch of fanfic references.

We leave the comfort of the Midwest and head to the east coast in a stick-shift. It's one of the largest conventions in the country, yet I'm still stuck on how close it is to Camden Yards.

Crusher Joe... and our ability to recite fan parodies word-for-word.
Rica Matsumoto and her a cappella Pokémon tunes. GET da ze!
Yep, Tiffany Grant again. And this time, she wasn't even on the guest list!!

The return trip to ACen happened two days after finals, with several friends, and in nearby Chicago. Needless to say, it was a blast. ACen '03 also spawned the first official recap. Inside:

If you need to take separate cars, do not under any circumstances take separate routes!!
Chiyonochichi sightings all over the place. Before it was licensed!
Meeting up with a friend from the mailing list... and Tiff... again.

A little convention up North that I attended because a friend wanted me to come up (and provided room and board). Little did I know that No Brand Con would spawn to be one of my favorite cons ever. Too small to warrant a report (especially since I didn't bring a camera), but notable for:

Driving up in a classic Wisconsin April blizzard, and spending an hour in a ditch along I-94.
The only Tiffany Grant incident I actually initiated- this one a hearty half-hour conversation.
My first official EALA-pimping; Tiffers wondered how I'd dub the Engrish-laden Blue Seed theme.

My very first convention, and my very first convention report. Not very good and not very informative, and therefore not very listed here. Not that I didn't live it up. Among the highlights-

The first of several bizarre run-ins with voice actress Tiffany Grant.
Meeting Ken Akamatsu, creator of Love Hina.
An all-night binge of Serial Experiments Lain- 13 eps from 1:00 to 6:30. Subbed.