The day started pretty badly with the friend I was going with (low powerlevel, he's mostly a gamer) running late, so I decided to queue by myself. I'd bought a ticket online, despite it actually costing more due to "booking fees", as I reasoned it'd save me time in line. As luck would have it, though, the pre-paid ticket line was over an hour long while buying the ticket at the door took 20 minutes. It's a pretty fucking retarded system if you're punished financially and in terms of convenience for booking ahead. While I was still outside, a staff member kept walking by yelling out for anyone that bought the $800 tickets to just come up to the front. I can't even imagine what sort of financial situation I'd have to be in to justify spending $800 on a VIP ticket to a convention, or what value they could possibly add to make it worthwhile.
I finally got inside and went for a look around the stalls selling merchandise. There's actually a pretty decent selection of plushies and figures once you get past the obligatory Bleach/Naruto/One Piece stuff that everyone seems to stock, but there was nothing that I couldn't get online for cheaper so I didn't end up buying anything. A company that was selling VNs caught my eye, but they can only legally sell games rated M or below because Australia's a bit backwards like that, so the only game on their lineup that I'd read was Ever 17, and it's not something that really has a lot of replay value so I wouldn't consider buying it I wouldn't have bought it regardless. I really don't see the point of trying to sell VNs when explicit content in games isn't even legal yet.
I was very interested to see the stall of a licensing company I hadn't previously heard of - Siren Visual. Pretty much all anime releases here in Australia are licensed by Madman, but I like the look of these new guys. They were selling box sets of The Tatami Galaxy, Trapeze, Canaan, House of Five Leaves, and a few others, and they were priced pretty reasonably with extras like posters thrown in. I didn't buy anything from them, but I can appreciate that they're making an effort to get something other than big shounen titles.
Oh, and there was a line to get to play Duke Nukem Forever as some sort of pre-release preview. I'd have liked to have a look at that but the line was pretty long and didn't seem to be moving. I've been waiting for so long that an extra few months won't kill me. There is no way that game will ever be able to live up to its hype anyway. I'm still betting on Duke.
I wasn't really interested in the special guests, which included whoever plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies as well as various other minor sci-fi celebrities. I saw a bit of a panel with Tiffany Grant and Yuko Miyamura (Asuka's VAs) but the questions asked were pretty bland. Miyamura tried to answer in English occasionally, which was cute but ineffective.
My friend wanted to see the cosplay competition so we headed there, but I found it all pretty uninspired except for a pretty fabulous Star Driver set. The number of Luffys who just put on a red wifebeater and a straw hat astounded me; I'm not into cosplay at all but even if I was, I think I'd rather wear normal clothes than make a very half-arsed effort. I saw a good looking Nagae Iku wandering around at a distance (hence the Iku pictures now), but like I'd have the courage to go up to someone and ask them for a photo.
Having only really wanted to go to look at the dealers' area, I was pretty sick of the whole thing by this stage. My friend was too, so we left. I wouldn't say it was a horrible experience, but it did reinforce that conventions really aren't my thing. I can't see me attending again unless there are some amazing guests. It doesn't help that most of the attendees were either more or less normals, or those really obnoxious weeaboos that go around telling everyone how kawaii their costume is.
Sorry for the shitpost about my day at a fucking con of all things, I'll try and post some actual content in the next day or two.
>spending $800 on a VIP ticket to a convention
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing those are for those richfags who don't have anything else better to spend their money on
>it did reinforce that conventions really aren't my thing
Guess so. Is this your first time going to cons tho? It's cool that you could get someone to go to the event (so far I've gone solo to the cons, and it isn't as much fun as getting another person to follow you if you ask me)
And I'd probably ask my friend to take the photo for me if I'm not feeling too brave. Or wait until someone other people are taking photo of said cosplayer, and slowly butt in (which is not really a good thing to do, I know).
I've never been to a con. Good to read about your experience though, thanks.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your bad time at the convention. I would've left too.
ReplyDelete>like I'd have the courage to go up to someone and ask them for a photo.
Cosplayers are usually nice about this kind of stuff.
>why do ugly cosplayers insist on making out in public
For some reason pizza came to mind when I read that.
$800 on a convention ticket? I hope that it includes autographs from every single celebrity there or something.
ReplyDeleteI had a chance to attend a major convention in the past, but I held off since I assumed the goods would be marked up too much.
I'm sure all the bad Luffy cosplayers were by normals who only like the major three.
>why do ugly cosplayers insist on making out in public
Attention whores.
Most of the time I though conventions have at least some thing exclusive.
ReplyDeleteNever been to a con, probably never will go to one either. I could manage to meet the massive weeaboos, but I'm too cheap to spend money on something like that.
ReplyDelete>Is this your first time going to cons tho?
ReplyDeleteI'd been to one other local con a year ago, I found it much the same.
>I'm sure all the bad Luffy cosplayers were by normals who only like the major three.
I got the impression most of the people there were normals, or at least their interest in anime didn't extend past the popular licensed shows.
"why do ugly cosplayers insist on making out in public " Hahaha, Thanks for the "shitpost" you made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to a convention and I don't plan on going to one either. The cons over here seems to be pretty bad. I asked someone who had been to one what they were selling. Mostly overpriced Bleach and Naruto plushies and manga.
ReplyDeleteAnd I rather enjoy my interests by myself than with the horrible fanbases, so.