Hello, Bitmob! For my first post on this site, I think I'll share my recap of my visit to the FanimeCon anime convention in old San Jose, CA. I just wrapped up a four day visit to Fanime with my cousins Andrew and Anthony. If you've ever seen any of my convention recaps over at 1UP.com, you should know to prepare for a long post. There will, of course, be plenty of photos to go along with the text.
I decided to don my Tuxedo Mask costume for Fanime, although my cane had to be left behind since it wouldn't fit inside of my luggage. Andrew, Anthony, and I arrived at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center bright and early on Friday. Based on my yearly trips to Sakura-Con, I anticipated a lengthy wait in the pre-registration line. I was wrong! I'd estimate that we only had to wait for about 30 minutes.
Once I'd stopped to pose for a few pictures, we headed upstairs and took a look at the arcade. Another difference between Fanime and Sakura-Con is that the arcade games are not free and require quarters. The arcade featured a variety of titles including BlazBlue, Initial D 4, Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2, Ghost Squad, and several redemption games. I cashed in a five dollar bill and went over to the fighting game corral, which had Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion. I've never been great at Tekken, so that fact combined with my decision to try out Miguel lead to a disasterous defeat by the AI. I think I'll stick with Law when I pick up the 360 version!
The dealer hall opened up about an hour ahead of schedule, so the three of us walked in to see what the vendors had to offer. Of course, I tried to navigate our group towards any booth that might possibly carry video games. During the scouting process, we passed the exhibit shown above, which sold creepy little Japanese dolls. No offense to those who buy these things or the shop's proprietor!
Aksys Games happened to have a booth at Fanime. The console version of BlazBlue was playable. There always seemed to be a line, so my cousins didn't get the opportunity to sample it. We did take a peek at the merchandise that they were selling, which was mainly games published by the company. The prices weren't bad, but I already had most of them in my collection.
After watching a few minutes of the Initial D anime and growing bored, we resumed wandering around the second floor. Around this time, we stopped to watch parts of the opening ceremony. Fanime's special guests were introduced, like Japanese performer Momoi. Several Capcom voice actors were making appearances at the show, but couldn't make it to the ceremony since they were working on a top secret project. I wonder what it is…
Our plans to see a Devil May Cry panel came to a halt when it was canceled at the last minute. I wanted to attend the swap meet that would happen later in the evening, but we ended up leaving the convention for the day since we were tired after spending roughly ten hours at the con. Recharging our spirits during the evening, we returned at noon on Saturday. To our shock, the number of attendees had EXPLODED when compared to Friday.
The three of us soon learned that part of the reason why many con-goers were lurking outside was because of protesters. Some crazed religious fanatics were outside holding signs and damning us all to Hell. Whatever, dudes. We got a bit of a chuckle from the chaos and headed inside.
We walked upstairs right on time to witness part of the Rock Band 2 tournament. A band dressed up like the main crew from Left 4 Dead was on stage. They played Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper. I have no idea who won since we didn't stick around for the conclusive round due to an autograph session.
Which autograph session did we go to? It was the one for Resident Evil! Our little group got to meet Ken Lally (Wesker in RE5), Patricia Ja Lee (Jill in Umbrella Chronicles), and Karen Dyer (Sheva). We had each of them sign the back of our badges since we didn't have any actual RE merchandise with us.
Andrew had to go to work, so Anthony and I stayed behind to watch a special Street Fighter 4 event for charity. Six people won auctions for the chance to do battle with Reuben Langdon, the voice actor who potrayed Ken Masters. If they won, Reuben would record a personalized voice message for their phone and they would also receive a signed lithograph of Ken. Five of the winners defeated Reuben's Ken. The sole loser, who used Ryu, lost a very close match. No offense to Mr. Langdon, but I think I had a pretty good chance of winning some prizes if I had paid up the money.
Later in the day, Reuben Langdon had an autograph signing of his own. My cousin and I got in line early since we needed to complete our Resident Evil signature collection. Reuben didn't voice anyone in Resident Evil 5, but he did do the motion capture work for Chris Redfield. Since he was also willing to do short video messages, we should have had him record something for Andrew or Anthony's brother Austin who was busy with school, but the thought didn't cross my mind at the time.
Before leaving for the day, the two of us looked around the artist alley. Many talented individuals were here to display their creations or take commissions. One kiosk even sold customized arcade sticks. I'd say my favorite piece from my time in the alley would be the plush Catbus shown above.
Sunday was not as busy as the previous day, but we still had a few things to do. Besides our usual cosplay hunting, we had two specific tasks on our agenda. First of all, Andrew's sister Julia wanted to invest in a cute hat. Julia gave us a quest to photograph some of the headgear being sold in the dealer hall so that she could see if they had anything interesting. I'd say that the vendor shown above had the best selection of hats.
Our other Sunday objective was joining in the Sailor Moon cosplayer gathering. I had been the only Tuxedo Mask at Fanime over the past two days, but for this occassion, several other masked heroes decided to make their debut! I didn't mind, the more, the merrier. I posed for several group shots like the one up there before reuniting with Andrew and Anthony for the remainder of the day.
On Monday, Fanime attendance was really starting to die down. Most of the major events had passed, so our day was spent trying to find last-minute deals from vendors. Julia ended up coming along with us since she wanted to try on some fancy hats and experience an anime convention. She ended up buying the purple and green caps before we all said goodbye to FanimeCon and those darn protesters lurking outside of the convention center.
As for me, I didn't end up buying much during FanimeCon. I did go back to the Aksys Games booth so I could purchase one of those neat BlazBlue portfolios in the upper-right. It only set me back a single dollar!
In the swag department, I received everything shown above. I never was a fan of Gargoyles, so I kind of wish that I had received a different free comic. Most of the other items were promotional flyers, which I may check out later when I have more free time. Now that my personal recap is over, it's time to share the Fanime cosplayer gallery!
The Shinigami Ryuk
Dr. Mario is in the building
Taokaka shows off her paws
Gotham's Poison Ivy
A trio of Guilty Gear fighters
Can't Ryu and Sagat just get along?
Cloud faces Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue
I didn't know that Yuna was friends with the Joker!
There's no point in hiding
A pink maid
Sailor Venus lived up to her name
Danbo, the cardboard robot
Akuma has Ryu in his clutches
Chun-Li prepares to stomp all over Akuma
A dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh!
This fellow's from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
They look so familiar, but I can't identify who they are
Professor Kawashima from Brain Age delivers some bad news
A Moogle and its owner
These models from Sublimoto.com loved my outfit
CAPtain COMmando, get it?
Jin Saotome forgot to bring Blodia
I was asked to pose with these Sailor Scouts in formal wear
The Blue Badger from the Ace Attorney series
Your guess is as good as mine
Bao and Whip from King of Fighters
A strange "nude" Kamina from Gurren Lagann
This maid stole my soul with her camera
A tall Afro Samurai
Strider Hiryu hangs out at Fanime until Capcom makes another sequel
Azure Dragon or Masamune Date, depending on your region
Lara Croft raids FanimeCon
One of the Mizune from Soul Eater
Not Spider-Man, but Hunter Rose, AKA Grendel
Hugo's NUMBA ONE when he's hanging with Poison
COBRA!!!!!
The Final Fantasy X cosplay gathering
William F. Guile from the game, based on the movie, based on the game
A knight in cool leather armor
Eva from Metal Gear Solid 3
Several members of the Resident Evil cast
Blair from Soul Eater
The Venture Bros. character formerly known as Dr. Girlfriend
Lady, Trish, and Dante
The Merc with a Mouth
Another Blair
Kirby befriends several Pokemon
Golbez has brainwashed Kain
A Prinny gets some action
A closer look at Kirby
Francis heads to Fanime for his next campaign
Go, Green Ranger, go
I-No jams on her guitar
M. Bison has formed a symbiotic partnership with Venom
Crimson Viper was spotted on her latest mission
Officers of Wei and Wu
Vegeta going ape
Lolita fashion
E. Honda's shows off the power of sumo
KOS-MOS is armed and dangerous
The succubi Morrigan and Lilith
Felicia sporting alternate colors
Hsien-Ko or Lei-Lei
Shrek wonders how he got out of the swamp
A famous fight scene from Family Guy
Mario and Yoshi are surrounded!
Zack and Tifa
Ninjas and a pirate
A poor man's Gundam
Me and my masked colleagues
Pop idol Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier
The Mad Hatter checks to see if it is tea time
Dorothy and her little dog, too
A genuine Nazi
Punk fashion
Gan Ning, I guess Fanime doesn't like the Shu kingdom
A gathering of Tales stars
Two of the leading ladies from Magic Knight Rayearth and Zagato
Cheese-kun, Pizza Hut's Japanese mascot
Rayearth shows off his neat armor
Edward Nigma steals a box of Pocky
Mr. Morooka from Persona 4
Tommy's cheating on Kimberly with Lum!
A couple potraying Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask
Felicia in her default color scheme
I am vengeance… I am the night… I am Lego Batman!
This buff dude is Freddie from Cromartie High School
Master Chief wields a Plasma Rifle
A bunny girl sporting shades
A masked Raphael Sorel from Soul Calibur
Part of a Resident Evil gathering
The ladies of Resident Evil
Bowser is ready to rumble with Mario
This mysterious creature would pretend to grab you, then stop
Fairies
People are already cosplaying Bioshock 2 characters
Not sure, but I liked the fancy costumes
Lenne from Final Fantasy X-2
A female version of Sweeney Todd
Dressier Naruto characters
Chibi Moon stands beside Sailor Mercury
Several of the World Warriors
Beachead will send your butt to boot camp
King Dedede gets ready for hammer time
First Encounter Assault Recon
Tira faces Talim
Domo-kun and its interpreter
Wartortle evolved into Blastoise
Ayane takes a break from hunting Kasumi
Cowgirl Tifa
More interesting fashion
Just add water
Sniper Wolf knocks out Solid Snake
Cream the Rabbit
Lucca time traveled to 2009
Watch out, children, Pedobear is here!
Cousin Marcy attempts to roll me up
These people were desperately seeking hugs
A dude on stilts from Howl's Moving Castle
Three of the lovely ladies from Rumble Roses
A closer look at Rowdy Reiko
That's one badass corn cob
Nurse Joy taking care of a poor Magikarp
The odd pair of Temari and Sora
A purple maiden
Jesus defiantly challenged the Fanime protesters
Congratulations, you reached the bottom of my FanimeCon convention report! Thanks for reading, and as always, I do enjoy reading any comments you may have. I plan on possibly taking one more trip in the next week or so, but we'll see what fate has in store for a guy like me. Farewell, for now!