Con Report

Whew. My head is spinning, my feet and back ache, and I'm half frozen and completely out of cash. And yet, I'm so happy. ^_^ These past two days have been spent at Anime Boston, Boston's very own anime convention. This is the second year that it has been held, and it was even better than last year's! So I'm sure I talked about last year's... well, a year ago. And it was fun. I went with Vivian and Amy and we just spent Saturday there and it was awesome. This year, I signed up with the anime club, and then pre-registration filled up and my other friends who didn't pre-reg couldn't go. So I had to go with the anime club instead. Nothin' wrong with that, though. ^_^

Last year, I was impressed by all the cosplayers. So much so, in fact, that I wanted to cosplay myself. So I dressed up as Hinata, one of the female ninjas from the anime Naruto. It was fun - I bought a long, hooded jacket, cut it way shorter, and added fur to the bottom part. I borrowed one of Ali-chan's Konoha headbands (ninja forehead protector) and wore it around my neck, and I cut up a holey old pair of jeans to make Hinata's capri-length pants. I added sandals and that completed my ensemble. Simple and easy, and not too shabby looking. :P Of course, I saw plenty of Hinatas at the con because it is such a simple outfit and because ninjas are popular. It's so amusing to see ninja mobs walking around.

I dragged Sarah along with me on Friday because she seemed a bit depressed, and the weather was so nice out... I thought a walk into Boston would do her good. It took about 45 minutes though... Mostly because I think we walked slowly. I signed in and met up with club people in the Clubhouse. Signing in was SO much better than last year. Took five minutes instead of an hour. :P Overall, I think the con might have been less crowded than last year. Felt that way, anyway. Maybe because the Dealers' Room was in another building, and was huge. Heh. Ah, back to Friday. We hung out, and Skuld and her girlfriend showed up in the coolest Guilty Gear outfits ever. Skuld must have been sweltering in all that vinyl, but she looked great. I wish I had taken a picture. This guy named Sean showed up too - he just moved into the area and he'd come to the con alone. I think he wanted people to hang out with, since he stuck with us for the rest of the day. :P After we finished hanging around, we decided to meet at 7 to go to dinner, and since it was only 5, there was time to hang out and do stuff. I headed down to the game room because Will had mentioned that there was a Naruto fighting game for the Playstation 2. So I went to check it out, and oh my goodness, it is the coolest thing ever. It's all cel-shaded and you can use chakra and execute special attacks on your opponents. It is SO freakin' cool! I just wish that they'd unlock the extra characters so we wouldn't be stuck with the same six over and over. I mean, come on, I totally wanted to play Hinata, but I had to settle for Kakashi-sensei (and died in about 20 seconds). I also played as Sasuke, and it was awesome, and I almost beat the other girl (so close!), but she got me first. Heh heh, ah well... I really enjoyed it. Reminds me that there's a Fullmetal Alchemist RPG out in Japan and it would so rock to play that too. Heh. After that, I went to a J-pop panel, which wasn't too interesting. But I was more interested in resting my feet anyway. Then we all walked to Chinatown to go eat at China Pearl, which is the best place there, and it was sooooo scary. Chinatown is a creepy place after dark. I was glad we were in a large mob. Food was good as ever, although we ordered a little bit too much. ^^; Then we returned to the con and instead of watching the anime music videos in the AMV contest, Adam, Sean, and I went to go watch the Urusei Yatsura movie. It was dubbed, and I was confused because I had to concentrate in a very different way from what I'm used to when I'm watching anime. Usually, I pay close attention to the subtitles and not the conversation, and this time I had to rely on sound. I'm so sad, aren't I? :P Anyway. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. It was SO weird! Aaaah! My poor brain was confused and sad that I didn't watch the AMVs. Oh well, at least I got to see the winning entries, but that wasn't until Saturday night. So. After Urusei Yatsura, it was 11:30 and Ali-chan and her sister were heading back to MIT, so I decided to go with them. We rode the T back and had a chilly walk back onto West Campus. I got back into my room and thought about sewing the flame patches onto my jacket, and then sat down in front of my computer and fell asleep for an hour instead. I woke up at 2 and got ready for bed and collapsed. I was wicked tired because I had only gotten three hours of sleep the night before because I was studying for a quiz (which I think might have gone all right).

I woke up at 11 and went to the 2/3E brunch that Sarah had invited me to. But she never showed up, and neither did Amy, and its their GRTs (graduate residence tutors) that were hosting the brunch. They even asked me where my friends were, since we're always together at these things. :P I had pancakes (with blueberries!) and sewed on the patches. I didn't get out from MIT until 1, and then I took the T over to the convention center. I went to the Dealers' Room first, and there was a bit of a wait to get in, but it was not nearly as bad as last year. Inside, it was huge, and there was so much cool stuff. I'd totally buy anime music if it wasn't $30 a CD. So I don't even bother looking. :P I totally spent two and a half hours in there. It's so sad. But there's so much stuff to look at. It's great! But it's also a good thing that I'm a miser and don't often feel a need to buy things - I'm just not like that. I am perfectly happy to wander around and admire stuff. But in the end, I went and bought stuff from the Sausuga Books stand - they're Boston's equivalent to Kinokuniya, but they're closing down at the end of April. Sheesh! Just when I find out about a cool Japanese bookstore that's nearby school, they have to get up and leave on me. >_< I felt stupid that I have all this manga that I have to read and that I didn't bring any of it, so I picked the first volume of Peacemaker Kurogane so that I'd have something to "read" while waiting for the masquerade. Heh, it's much more dialogue-intensive than my Zelda manga, so I really have no idea what's going on. I love the artwork though. All the guys are so hot, aaaah! And the fact that I can read about one word in every word bubble without help from a dictionary is beyond awesome. ^_^ I also got a mini pencilboard (shitajiki, yay!) with the Fullmetal Alchemist characters on it, which is awesome, because I have a full-size pencilboard that I've had for ages, but it's very white and very plain, and this new one is colorful, and it's also small, which means it'll probably fit in my small sketchbook, which is quite convenient. I also got a Fullmetal Alchemist keychain. Wai! I love that series so much. ^_____^; I was torn between getting that or a Naruto keychain of some sort, but my love for Ed won out, so now I have a cool Ed keychain and my old keychain that I've had since like, 6th grade, can finally retire. I looked for a FF7 keychain for Kristen because they were totally available last year, but I had no luck and it made me sad. I looked so hard too! But no, this year's hot merchandise was all from various shounen-type series - Naruto, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, DBZ, Inu Yasha and (aaah!) Prince of Tennis. I saw some stuff for D.N.Angel, but not nearly enough. And absolutely none of that cutesy stuff that I'm in to, like Pita Ten or Galaxy Angel, or even Digi Charat, for that matter (although I saw Di Gi Charat cell phone straps, but that was about it). Ah well. What can you do? After that, I went to go check out the "Name that Anime Tune" game. All the contestants were so horrible, it was hilarious. Most of the music was unknown to me, but I knew plenty that they didn't, like the Neko-bus theme from Totoro! I didn't realize they were giving out posters to audience members who guessed correctly.... There was this one song that stumped everyone, but I recognized it as the Battle Athletes main theme. Back in the day, when I first started downloading anime music, the first thing I ever downloaded was the Ah! My Goddess movie soundtrack, which I really liked. Then I downloaded the Battle Athletes soundtrack, and it was SO HORRIBLE. Aaah! I shudder to this day to think about it. They played this song from it today, and I recognized it, and actually placed it right away, and was disturbed. But the song actually sounded really nice, so I don't know what happened. Anyway, I didn't raise my hand, so no one knew what it was, and the music playing dude had to answer. Ah well, no poster for me. Not like I'd really have wanted one anyway - it was either a sexy Masamune Shirow girl or centerfold Fujiko from Lupin III. Heh. Thanks, but no thanks.

After that, it was time to wait in line for the masquerade! Dan was cool and got a spot quite close to the front, so we formed an MIT mob around him, and it was cool. Steph looked quite lovely in her Miyu costume, and I was sad that Ali-chan had changed from Claus (Last Exile) to Ryoma (Prince of Tennis), because her Claus jumpsuit was so cool! And her wig was awesome. ^o^ Sean was back and dressed as Xelloss (yay!) so I took a picture. OH YEAH. I forgot to mention that Rosie and Caroline showed up at the con! It was so cool! Rosie dressed up as Sesshoumaru from Inu Yasha, and looked really cute. She couldn't smile for pictures though... She had to stand and look all serious instead. :P Woohoo, it was exciting to see high school friends at the con. Anyway, back to the line. We finally got to go and get seated, and instead of having much reading of manga, they shut the lights off and played DDR AMVs and they were a lot of fun. Then the masquerade started, and that was great too. All of the costumes were really good, but the Gothic Lolita one from Alichino, and the Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess with the huge, foldable wings, were some of my favorites. Oh, and Vash the Stampede from Trigun. OH MAN. He had the coolest-looking costume ever. It was all made out of brown leather, and was so intricate. It looked amazing. And he acted the part too! He came in and did his Vash-dance and it was great. Not surprisingly, he won Best in Show. ^_^ Well, after that was over, and they'd finished announcing the winners of the AMV contest (and showing the winning entries) and announcing the masquerade winners, Adam and I decided to go eat because we were starving and it was 11:30. We ended up going to Legal Seafoods and I had some lovely fish and chips and we had a good time together. It worked out well because Adam likes to talk and I like to listen. :P It was cool to hang out with someone different for a change - someone who I've seen at the club all the time, but have never really talked to. Heh, I'm sure that the people in the restaurant must have been confused by a samurai and a ninja coming in to eat (Adam was dressed up as Kenshin - he's got long red hair, it's perfect ^^).

When we went back to the con, it was already 12:30, and the dance party was underway. It was the first rave-type dance party that I've ever been too, and it was the best thing ever. Man, the music was so much fun - it was all hyper and hardcore and fast, and totally addictive. It wasn't hard to start dancing at all. Dancing is great, and I've discovered that the best thing about dancing is to go to a dance where you don't know anyone. Then you can feel free to jump around and look stupid, but it's okay because everyone else is doing the same thing, and best of all, you don't know each other and you'll never see them ever again. The music was a good mix of stuff, though they could have used more anime songs. Still, they played a rave-style version of Neverending Story, which I liked very music. And there was plenty of DDR goodness to be had too. Heh, my ears are still ringing - the music was so loud. There was a screen that would usually show random swirly patterns and stuff, but every now and then, they'd play a video of old-school video games, like Mario Brothers or Megaman or Contra, and it was amusing to watch. Adam and I danced for nearly two hours, mostly in a circle with some other girls, and it was (whee!) so much fun. That was probably the best dance I've ever been to (sad, huh?), just based on the quality/type of music, and the fact that I didn't know people, so I could enjoy myself without feeling self-conscious and stupid. I think I need to go dancing more often, and I think it has to be at good places that don't play hip hop. Rave music, yeah! Glow sticks, yeah! Impromptu conga lines, ohhhh yeah! :D

So around 2:30, I figured I ought to get back to MIT. Adam decided to leave too, and so we walked down Boylston Street, all the way back to Mass Ave, and we split up from there. We figured we ought to hang out more often - maybe watch more Cromartie High (are we the only two people in the world who are amused to no end by that show?) or something. That would be cool. I mean, my friends are great, but it's also good to hang out with other people. And whoever is reading this had better not be getting evil ideas in your head or I will have to come over and beat you. Hm, yeah.

So this year's Anime Boston was a total success, and I had a great time. There's still stuff going on tomorrow, but I can't go because I need to hang out with my 6.170 group and do all the design stuff for our final project. Yay. So I'll just have to settle for playing with my new keychain and enjoying my memories (and photos if/when I ever get them developed :P). I am already looking forward to Anime Boston 2005 - it's going to be in the Hynes Convention Center, woo hoo! But before then, I must catch up on sleep. Heh. Hm, I don't understand why all these people have requested wakeup calls in their AIM away messages. I'm totally sleeping until noon. I've gots to recover from my con-going frenzy. ^_^;

Oh, one last thing. It was so amusing... I got hugged by random ninjas, but that was about it. Ninja camaraderie, yeah! ^_^ There was this girl that was dressed up as Kiba that hugged me on Friday, and then she hugged me again today, except she was dressed up as Ino (I had to get a picture of that - she was the only Ino that I saw, and her armbands looked great!). I also got hugged by a Shino - she's the one that beat me when I was playing that Naruto game with Sasuke. Ah, and a random person with a ninja headband took my picture. I felt so special. :P At least I wasn't like those shameless attention whores that walk around with signs that say things like, "Please pay attention to me" and stuff. >_< But the recognition is nice - I appreciate it. I totally need to make a rare, uber-complicated costume for next year. :P Yeah, as if. Ah well, cosplaying as Hinata was good - my own personality is very similar to hers - we're really quiet and shy. Next time, I should go for scary contacts so that my eyes are all white. That would be the best thing ever, but it would be ridiculously expensive. Oh well then. ^_^; Sleep now.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: None
Current mood: Let me sleep already!