Saturday was another early start that began with meeting at panel ops. The Funimation panel started at 10 and I was staffing that too, the first of many to come for the day. Due to their monopoly of anime licenses at the moment, they were announcing things right and left throughout the hour, naturally including all sorts of Dragon Ball as well as the Evangelion Rebuild movie. Too many versions of the same thing, I say. By the way, they're also making a social networking site called sho-dojo for the anime fandom.
I met up with Jasmin after the panel and got a lunch voucher, then used our total of $16 in vouchers to buy a self pizza, 2 hot dogs, and pocky. Doesn't seem like much for the price, but it was free so who's complaining? We ate while waiting in line for the Anime's Craziest Deaths panel, run by Daryl Surat of Anime World Order (AWO) podcast and Otaku USA magazine. Aaron was at the door doing line control and I offered to help, so before I knew it I was in staff-mode again, for a panel I was going to watch anyway.
By the time we had gotten most people in and settled down, I looked around and noticed quite a few staff - at least 6, probably more - and only the one host of this packed panel. And so the clips began. Blood spraying, brains exploding, skulls cracking, you name it... those looking for crazy deaths came to the right place. Considering it was the middle of the day, I started wondering how far the clips could go. I mean, if things got too graphic, the panel needed to be 18+ and everyone would have to wear bracelets to get in. I asked Aaron and he said that the main panel ops staff was on his way to check it out, and when he got there he said he was willing to let it go since people came knowing what to expect. Until... a clip came up of a huge lady with no top and spikes covering her crotch, and immediately the staff member went up and had to pull the plug. The panelist, Daryl, was initially willing to skip the clip, but when he found out the whole panel was canceled he started saying that the content had been made for kids, and then asked the crowd to confirm what he said at the beginning about a brief shot of "something." Obviously the staff didn't like this at all and his mic was disconnected. It was a huge mess, but luckily did not result in Daryl's remaining panels being canned.
With the extra time, Jasmin and I waited with some friends for their upcoming panel. My friend Liz had come up with this idea for a panel called How to Heckle Bad Anime Good, which involved heckling not only anime but all parts of anime fandom (cosplay, crosplay dubs, etc.). She was putting the finishing touches on her presentation when we arrived, and at go time she went to sit at the front with my friends Winston, Erin, Craven, and even Jasmin. Something you should know about Liz is that at my school, everyone knows the tall and loud girl named Liz. She's the one who brings the party with her when we hang out places, and she has had plans for doing stand-up comedy for a while now. The panel starts and naturally people are going to heckle in the audience. What does Liz do? She calls them out on it, has them stand up and repeat what they said, and absolutely destroys them on every level. It's really hilarious, and everyone should watch the short video that I took during the panel. Oh, and Aaron and I were staffing it, so we had complete control of that packed room.
I stayed to staff the next panel, which was done by a guest named Fred Schodt, who has translated a number of manga and written books about manga in general. I happened to run into a friend from school there, the assistant Japanese professor Murakami-san, who told me that she had written her senior thesis on his work. After this panel, I met up with my friend Merkle but had to go next door to staff one more panel - Cover Your Bases - which discussed anime that everyone needs to see to consider themselves an anime fan. It was mainly stuff that I had heard all about before, and the guys who ran it weren't great either.
Finally my long streak of panels had come to an end, and I could meet back up with Jasmin. I was still with Merkle, and we contacted Leeann as well, so the four of us headed to the Staff Suite. I went up to the room alone and brought back various sandwiches and food for everyone, and we hung out for a little bit. Jasmin and I said our goodbyes to the other two, and I went to see an old friend of mine, Steven, whom I hadn't seen since probably middle school. Jasmin waited elsewhere until I was finished, and then waited with me as I sat in the How to Review Anime panel with Daryl and Clarissa from AWO until it got to be too much for her, and we returned to the hotel room.
Dinner involved ordering pizza with the girls, but first we needed to make a stop in the convention center to see K.K. Slider from Animal Crossing play his guitar. It was Saturday at 8pm, and damned if we're going to miss K.K.! I have a video of that too. We got some drinks and headed to Erin and Cat's hotel room for the girls' night pizza party. Woo for being a girl if it brings me pizza, am I right? We left an hour or two later to take more pictures and then pass out for the night.
And yet, there's still ONE MORE DAY!!
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<3 kk!
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