Razorclaw X's Anime Expo 2000 Experience This year the event took place at the Disneyland Hotel and Convention Center. Parking, as always, was a major issue, but apparently this year all the parking was a flat rate of $8.00 no matter where you parked around the convention center (on Disney-owned lots, of course), which was a plus. On the other hand, the setup was the pits; registration was located in the Pacific Hotel, the one building set apart from all the other buildings near the convention center, and through a lot of construction work, too. I swear, if I ever had to put up with this kind of trash for next year I'm not going. This year my traveling companion is Darkon. None of the contents in this report reflect his views except where noted, and it's no use trying to contact him. Friday, June 30 Needless to say while I've had nightmares of last year's AX registration lines in mind we went ahead and got in line at around 7:00am, and found some friends already in line, so we joined with them. The line for registration would not open for another hour yet, and it was time we broke out our Neo Geo Pocket Colors to kill time; I opted to play Faselei (which I ordered from the UK) and Darkon Card Fighters. Noticed the guy ahead of us had NGPCs of his own, but didn't offer to play Match of the Milennium, the only game the two of us had in common AFAIK. Anyway, from my friends I've heard lots of good stories about their Masquerade skit, which was to be a definite improvement over their previous one. Last year they did a martial arts skit involving Dan and Ash from Pokemon; they specifically asked to go last. Well the technical difficulties in last year's Masquerade they didn't want to go last anymore because they were dying back stage :) This year, they were going to redeem themselves from their shoddy performance by showing AX con-goers a life-sized mockup of Boneparte from Dominion Tank Police. I hadn't seen the whole thing put together myself (they had to take it apart to fit it in their van), but I hear, as they built it, it was originally going to be half-sized... then it became three-quarters. Then it became full-sized. Then it became 110% larger :) At 8:00am the registration line opened, and I was surprised to see that there were actually two lines, and I was near the beginning of the second. I am pleased to say that registration was VERY fast this year. On the other hand, after that everything started to go down-hill. Milling about with nothing to do I hung out with these guys, and one of them went on ahead without anyone else knowing. Therefore we spent a lot of time running around looking for him until they decided to screw him and leave to register their skit with the Masquerade people. And then it turns out the missing guy went on ahead without them.... On the way there saw a good-looking Sakura from Card Captor Sakura, wearing that poofy-skirt outfit of hers. It looks good for something from a series I don't watch, but what the hey :) Darkon made an observation on the voting ballot included in the registration packet: for the best sountrack category it was a choice among Pokemon: 2 B A Master, Pokemon: The First Movie, and Princess Mononoke Original Sountrack. Uh... big surprise who'll win :) Anyway, I listened in while they registered, and one of the officials was giving them a hard time about the tank. Not only that, but they didn't have the benefit of microphones this year, because the con decided that it wasn't worth the trouble (last year there was a 3 hour delay because of sound problems). Their tank was so big they had to go first, which made them really happy :) OTOH, they had to revise their skit to be a silent movie type, but it wasn't a big deal for them. We had another hour to kill before something opened up, so we all just wandered around for a while. On the way to the dealer room Darkon noticed that Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix was set up in one of the rooms, drawing a large crowd (no surprise there). The machine was straight out of Japan, I could tell, but it made it no less playable. People were lining up for this sucker, but it was $2.00 to play! Even then, I was tempted to wait in line AND pay that much, but reason got the better of me and we headed for the dealer room. We found out it wouldn't be open until noon, so we screwed it (didn't want to wait 2 hours in line). So we met back up with our group and started looking for the game room... only to discover it was back at the Pacific Hotel where the registration was. I wanted to sign up for the Dead or Alive 2 tournament, so we went off. Getting there, we had no idea where the room was. One of the guys got an idea to go up to someone's room and sit around there, but when we got there nobody was there. So we milled around a bit until we jumped into the glass elevator. The moment it started moving we all screamed at once, and Darkon noticed that people looking at the elevator was staring at us :) The car stopped a couple of times, in which case we'd start to act normal, but the moment it closed again we screamed again :) We found the game room at last, and there was very few people there. An eight-player PSX game I think was Lords of Lunar was the hit of the area. I played a few practice rounds on Dead or Alive 2, until I finally realized I hadn't a chance in hell to win :) Besides, the tournament overlapped with the first screening of the Escaflowne movie, which I wanted to catch. So we killed time playing Lords of Lunar ("don't hit the kitty!" was the line of the party) until the dealer room opened up, so we left and headed there. On the way we caught up with acquaintances with our Dan, comparing notes with the number of KOF cosplayers this year. Up until then I'd only seen Kyo and King, but then Terry showed up, and then Shermie, Kasumi, and Athena ('98 costume) passed by (supposedly Heidern was walking around, too, but I never saw him). I thought the girl dressed as Kasumi was cute, but I didn't have the courage to go up and talk to her... (note to self: get a camera). The Trigun guy was pretty popular; ran into him many, MANY times. Also mingled at the Artist Alley and with Capitan Cartoon, who seemed a cool guy, but we caught him just before he was leaving for lunch. The guy dressed as the Guardian Force caught my attention more than once (no clue what the name was, didn't play Final Fantasy 8 long enough to appreciate that). Got separated from our group, but that was no big deal, as I was looking for items of my own. Sadly, the only thing I pulled out of it was a King of Fighters Kyo CD; I was looking for DDR Club Mix and KOF: Evolution for Dreamcast. Might pick up an ASCII Fighter Pad later, but it was too busy for my tastes, and I was feeling a bit claustrophobic. Darkon and I sat down in one of the video rooms, and I cursed my luck when I learned I missed the Nadesico screening (I wanted him to see it). He complained of food so we got up and started looking, but we didn't want to pay the rip-off prices of the Disneyland Hotel. I finally remembered Escaflowne, but by the time we got there they weren't letting anybody else inside. Cursing my luck we left. We went back to our car and tried to think of a good reason to stay. Finding none, we decided to leave (the main events weren't happening until tomorrow), only to have a chance encounter with our Tank Police guys at their van, where I got my first look at the (disassembled) Boneparte. I must say, I need a camera for that one (see? I don't need it just for Kasumi!). After leaving the parking lot we hit the town. P.S. Not staying up til midnight for Esca-blow-me, and not going to catch the one showing during the Masquerade, so I'll likely not see it. I don't know if it was subbed or not, but likely it was raw (Nadesico The Movie was raw last year). Saturday, July 1 Today I learned the reason why people don't like to go to big cons. Met up with friends in time to watch Outlaw Star, so we went and saw it. It must've been in the middle of the series because I didn't get it (Shuzuku was kinda cool though; I think she's voiced by the person who did Lady Une in GundamW). Overall, didn't like it, and neither did Darkon. We split up our groups because the others were going to get lunch, then put together their toy tank (heh) for the Masquerade. So leaving their company we took off for the dealer room, but STILL didn't get a thing. Eventually, we spent the rest of the day playing video games (because the video rooms were spread so far apart we decided they weren't worth it). Must've spent at least $20 on Dance Dance Revolution, and played a few rather pathetic matches on Marvel v. Capcom 2, prompting me to never buy the game (because I have no incentive to actually get better at the game). We needed tickets to get into the Masquerade, but they were out of them by the time we figured that out, so none of that for us. Escaflowne was showing at the same time, but the line was too long for our tastes. Sucks that the Masquerade won't be telecast like last year. So we went back and binged on DDR :P It was great to see Ryoga, Iori, Mousse, and Kero play the game (it was hilarious for Iori because he had his legs tied at the knees, so he had to get them off during the game just to play). Tired from all the dancing, we crashed for the rest of the day. It was a terrible waste of time and money, but it sure as hell was fun, with all the people watching us do our crazy dancing. I think that's part of the reason I enjoy playing DDR so much. Thought of the day: I started using a new insult, called "Squch this!" It refers to an AD&D monster called a Scaladar, and their leader is Squch, who is biding its time to turn on its master. In insult it refers to things at the con not going my way, and that was a lot of stuff. Costumes: the Sailor Moon characters came out today. Didn't catch Kasumi again; damn shame, now I'm going to have to look for her picture (I'm getting obsessed with Ms. Todo like you won't believe). Saw Terry again (same one as yesterday) at the DDR game; he admitted to me that he wasn't going to be playing long (I saw why, too). Saw three Limes and two Otarus (Saber Marionette J), a group out of Five Star Stories, a Final Fantasy White Mage, and more Slayers groups. Trigun was also drawing lots of attention (I feel like I'm stalking the guy; he shows up at the same places *I* go). Sunday, July 2 Didn't go to the con at all; we hit the town for the bulk of the day, and then it's off. All in all, this year was very disappointing; I swear that if it's at the Disneyland Hotel next year I'm not going. I'm going to have to catch another's account of what happened at the Masquerade later, and I STILL didn't get to see the tank. I'm jinxed :P OTOH, as a consolation if I can get my hands on it maybe I'll watch the tape those guys made called 'The Making of Boneparte' and see how it goes. Yes, they documented their construction of the sucker; I saw the tape but didn't watch it. --- P.S. I went to "A Fan's View" at http://www.fansview.com/2000e/ax2k.htm and I managed to find myself (and the tank) in the pictures. While I won't point out to you which person I was, I'll tell you I wasn't one of the people in the costumes, and you can't see my face anyway. Bwahahaha.... Still can't find a pic of that Kasumi. It's driving me nuts.