Attended (sort of) A-Kon 20

I attended, well, more like, gate-crashed, A-Kon 20, in Dallas, Texas yesterday. I've had a rough week with not getting very much sleep at night, and after an exhausting day at SMU for library training on Friday, I stayed up later than I prudently should have watching the rest of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid including the bonus OVA found on Volume 4. By the time I was done it was past 1am, the Convention was to kick off at 9am sharp (i.e. less than 8 hours), plus it takes awhile to drive from Denton to Dallas. This year's A-Kon just kind of slipped up on me unexpectedly. I had meant to pre-register for it but forgot. I was exhausted and decided I didn't need to spend all day down there, so I slept in. I even returned my rental copies of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid to Hastings Books & Records, had a leisurely lunch, etc, before heading down to Dallas. I had missed the Q&As with voice actors Chris Patton and Vic M, which were the morning highlights, and the only thing that was of major interest to me was the talk on "Anime and Education" (being the Higher Ed geek that I am) late in the day (like around 5:45pm). I had gone fully intending to pay the $35 entrance fee, but when I saw the huge, snaking line for site registration, I had second thoughts. I should back up a little, though. Before I finally reached the on-site registration area, I had made it to Dallas, parked in West End, and rode the DART train over to St. Paul Station, which by my calculation, was the closest DART station to the convention. I was a little fuzzy on where to go once I got there, but upon spotting a girl in a nurse's outfit with pink hair, and her friend in an all-black ninja costume, I figured I'd just follow them, which I did, and they led me to the right place. I had fun taking pictures of the Cosplayers gathered outside, and eventually followed some of them up an outside staircase and into one of the Sky Bridges, where I found surging crowds of Cosplay people and just sort of mixed in with the crowd. I consulted maps and found my way over and down to the registration area. But I realized there was actually a lot to take in and enjoy in the "free" areas of the hotel as well. I wandered around the artists and comic book vendor tables and booths, enjoying the sights and sounds of the event, not to mention the ever changing crowds of people in beautiful, eye-catching costumes, especially the fan-girls. I would say as a rough guesstimate that I recognized maybe 1 in 20 costumes as characters from Anime I had either seen personally or was at least familiar with. One fellow had a Desert Punk costume that was spot-on, and I liked the Trigun cosplayers (pictured above). I saw more than one Seras Victoria a.k.a. "Police Girl", Alucard's sidekick from the Hellsing series. Lots of Full Metal Alchemist Cosplayers, as well as Naruto Cosplay. There were even a few Star Trek Next Gen people and Jedi wandering around. There were some Japanese people in attendance, but not as many as I had expected. Some were in traditional dress, others in t-shirts and jeans.

This one girl (of several) was conducting a fighting demonstration with a bo stick and striking these lighted poles that made a sound when they came on, and another sound when she successfully struck the lighted part of the pole. Very impressive. I did manage to see voice actors Chris Patton and Mike McFarland (of ADV and FUNimation fame) at the autographs table, but the line for autographs was fairly long; If I'd thought of it, I would've brought my boxed set of FUMOFFU for Chris Patton to sign, but alas, I didn't have it on my person. I bought an Anime-themed mousepad for my laptop (which I'm looking at right now), as a souvenir to show I'd actually been to A-Kon. My digital camera was also acting wiggy during the conference, and I swapped out batteries, but this didn't help. I got some okay shots but missed others because I'd line up the shot, push the button, and the camera would just inexplicably die on me, just shut down without warning. I'd take out the batteries, put them back in, jiggle the on switch, and it would be fine...though sometimes it would wig out x3 in a row before going back to normal. Very disappointing. Makes me wish I'd brought along an analog camera as a back-up.

So no, I didn't attend the "Anime in Education" talk, didn't feel like spending $35 just for that. I had plenty of fun without spending more than the cost of parking ($5), a day pass on DART($3), and the mousepad ($10). And of course the cost of gas and car wear-and-tear driving from Denton to Dallas and back to Denton yet again.

I also saw that if I'd decided to wear my kilt I would have fit in just fine with the Cosplay crowd (I saw a number of men in Highland gear). I am looking forward to A-Kon 21, and next year I will be pre-registering. I was glad that Chris Patton and Mike McFarland came up from Houston for this event, but kind of disappointed that Chris Sabat and Carrie Savage or Colleen Clinkenbeard (all local voice & directing talents from the DFW Metro area) did not put in an appearance as far as I know; this thing was practically in their back yards.

There's also an upcoming Anime Fest in Dallas around September that I will be looking into. I always love Film Fests, and an Anime Film fest sounds kick ass.