Event: Sakura Con 2002
Date: 2002.04.28
Location: Sea-Tac airport, WA
Written: 2003.04.03
Ahh, the strange things we do as human beings. Don't know what I'm talking about? Look at the date this event took place versus the day I'm writing it. It's almost been a year! In fact, since they moved the date up this year, Sakura Con 2003 actually starts tomorrow. So why am I writing this up now? Well, for one thing, I just wanted to get it done with. I also think it's a nice way to pump myself up for the real adventure that begins tomorrow: my first full weekend trip to an anime convention! So now join me as I take you back to a (I safely assume) rainy day in 2002...
Since Josh (then boyfriend, now fiance) and I had so much fun during our one day trek to Sakura Con the year before (see Cherry Blossoms in Everett), we decided to go again the following year. Only the second time, Shannon came with us, too. Like the year before, we all rode up with Josh's mom so she could spend the day in Seattle with a friend while we all attended the Con. We left fairly early in the morning, resulting in me getting only about four hours of sleep (mornings are not my thing >_<). The drive from Portland to Sea-Tac was pretty uneventful, and we arrived at the Con hotel at about 10:30 AM. We got through registration pretty quickly and were able to catch the end of a Kendo demonstration. After that, it was off to one of the most important rooms at any Con: the dealer's room! We got in line (which stretched out the door, and, conveniently, it began to sprinkle as we were out there) and had to wait longer to get into the dealer's room than we did for registration. We eventually got into the room, and I immediately noticed that the dealer's room was substantially larger than it had been the year before when the Con was in Everett. This, of course, meant there were many more things to ooh, ahh, and drool over ^_^ The lighting system in the room was quite old, and a couple times the room actually blacked out for a few seconds. If I were a different kind of evil than I am, I could have grabbed and pocketed merchandise during those few moments, as I'm quite certain some other people must have done. But no, not honest little me ^_^ After about an hour in there, I ended up buying a plush Kuroneko-sama and a Da Pump remix CD. Josh and Shannon both got some Rurouni Kenshin OAV series action figures and some other stuff, and then we were off on our next adventure: sampling new anime.
We were all curious about Excel Saga, as we had seen previews for it and heard that it was funny as hell, so we went to the room where it was going to be shown. We showed up about a half hour early and caught part of what had been showing before it, the raw version of a show called Mahou Yuugi. It looked quite odd, what with a girl in a fish suit and another girl wearing a cat bikini that seemed to have a personality of its own (I can't explain it right, you'd have to see it). Since the episodes were short, they ended up showing them a second time while members of the audience did their own MST style commentary. Finally, Excel Saga began, and right from the opening theme song, I could tell it was going to be a hilarious piece of crackutainment ^_^ It was the dubbed version, which was kind of unfortunate, as shows that require the kind of screaming/overacting that Excel Saga does usually just sound much better in Japanese. But still, the English voice actors did quite well imitating a way of speaking that can sound really bad in English (*cough*Nadesico dub*cough*). It's a good thing no one was too upset about the voices, because the English voice actress for Excel was in the room during a couple of the episodes, sitting right next to Shannon in the front row. After seeing five insanely funny episodes, I knew I had found a series that I definitely wanted to see more of, and since then I've gotten access to all of the episodes, which makes me a happy Spazz ^_^
At some point after that, we got some stuff to eat at a stand near the video game rooms. Shannon made note of the lack of hot chicks at the Con. My thought on this is that his expectations were just too high. He used to live in Florida, where I'm sure you could see plenty of hotties strutting around that time of year, but we were in the Pacific Northwest in April! We haven't seen the sun in months, so it's no wonder all the people at the con were pasty and pale in appearance. I say, give us a break ^_^ Anyway, after that we went to one of the video game rooms, where I got to show off my "mad skillz" on Super Mario Brothers 3 (on an actual working NES!), which was one of the few games there I could actually play. There was an X-Box in there, which allowed Josh the opportunity to kick other people's asses at Halo ^_^ But what I was most interested in at that point was finding the room that had Dance Dance Revolution, which was in another part of the hotel. Once we found it, I got in line for one of the DDR machines, which was a 2000 solo mix (there was another machine there of a different mix, and also a Para Para Paradise). I was looking to play songs I hadn't played before that were of about a four or five foot difficulty (oh, I laugh now at my lack of skills back then ^_^). I passed a couple of songs at that level, but then failed "Super Star," a five footer. The stupid thing is is that when I got another turn, I'd already forgotten which song I had failed before and ended up playing the same one and failed again :P I got a couple turns to play, and before I knew it, Josh was there saying we should go line up for the cosplay show (we actually managed to get tickets that time, unlike the year before). So we went to where the show was going to be and waited in line for about 45 minutes (all the while I was calculating how many more games of DDR I could have played during that time ^_-).
Finally the doors were opened and we got seated. I, having brought my digital camera, hoped to take some good pictures of the masquerade, as I had been too shy all day to ask people to pose for pictures. However, being unfamiliar with things like the flash and zoom features of that camera, I ended up not getting any discernable pictures. Too bad, because there were several things that would have been worth saving and posting. The first entry was a huge Escaflowne dragon that people brought in through the back doors. They must have not rehearsed coming in that way very much, though, as they had troubles getting it through the door! One problem with the show in general was the sound. Being halfway back in the room, it was hard enough to just make out what people were saying during their skits, but some groups chose to elevate the problem by playing music in the background as they performed. I mean, yes, music is a very important part of anime, but when doing a skit in a large room in which the sound doesn't carry very far as it is it's not the best idea. I think the audience would enjoy hearing the dialogue more than they need to hear the music of an anime they can just go and buy the soundtrack for later (then again, if the skits were really bad, maybe it would be better just to let the music drown them out ^_^).
After the cosplay show ended, an episode from the new Sakura Wars TV series was shown. I haven't seen the previous series or played the video games, but it looked interesting at least, even if I didn't really know who all the characters were. After that we went to the front to wait for Josh's mom to pick us up, and thus our journey ended. As we drove back to P-town, the car was filled with the sound of the Da Pump remix CD (much to the dismay of Josh's mom and her friend ^_^) and we arrived home a few hours later, feeling satisfied with the experience, yet yearning for more.
And so went my second anime Con experience. I got to see some new anime, play some DDR, and see lots of people dressed up in pretty (and not so pretty) costumes (and I give the "effort award" to the guy who was dressed up normally except for the tie looped around his head in his own special way of cosplaying as drunk Vash. Bravo to you for saying, "screw spending hours making a costume! I'll just add one accessory to my normal clothes and call it good" ^_^). Tomorrow, I will depart for an entire weekend of anime madness, including my first try at doing some cosplay myself! Eeee, I can't wait! Stay tuned for the illuminating report...next time, on Dragon Ball Z!!! (better yet, just check my editorials page :P)