It was late Thursday night... or more like early Friday Morning it's all really the same sometimes. I had just gotten back from my local Wal-Mart I had to pick up some extra stuff for my trip. You see it was the end of January this was the time I planned to head up to the state capitol of Austin to attend the second annual Ushicon. I still hadn't packed the snack foods I had bought earlier that day were still on my chest of drawers and all the clothes I was bringing were still in the dryer. I quickly had to start because just moments ago my best friend Daigo* called me and said he was coming... damn not to much time five minutes max. I start packing quickly, madly, I'm packing like there's nothing else to do. Somehow Daigo was late by a little more time then expected so I still had enough time to put the trash out before he got there.
But this is when the jam came in... I was broke, something had come up the family needed one of those special family loans... you know like the kind you give the mob, where you have to give no matter what and you may never get paid back. I was told I was going to get at least some money back, but I was also told that using it was highly discouraged; however due to the time I was unable to get even that, so I was going to have go to this convention without spending money. I will add doing such a thing is practically impossible at an anime convention, that's why some people go to them, to spend money and get some really cool looking shiney things. Honestly I was considering not even going... what fun is going to a convention without getting shiny things? I came to my sense moments later that I would already be out some fair money for registration fees and the hotel room so not attending was really not a choice. I was on the road now about 5 in the morning on our way to Austin. Daigo was surprised that we came in so early, it was so early that nothing was even starting. My friend had been bitten by the spirit of generosity and had volunteered some of his time to work security, however the person he needed to talk to was not around yet. At times like this I'm glad I brought my Neo Geo Pocket with me, and more or less played with that until I was able to register.
The room was not ready yet when we arrived, being a hotel worker I knew why, it's difficult as hell to check people in when you're still attempting to kick people out. I had spent most of my time before then watching Digi-Charat... something I had heard was great from other people but had personally never seen it myself; it was quite hillarious and got over the fact that the main characters are little girls. Other anime that I had seen during the convention were fan-subbed, and included Naruto and Samurai Deeper Kyo. I was impressed by all three shows but Naruto was my favorite and can hardly wait to see if it comes stateside. A show that I had missed but really wanted to see and regret not seeing it was "Anizumanaga Daioh" (that is probably spelled wrong) because so many people have seen it and make lots of references to it. Although I was not able to afford anything in the Dealer's Room I would have to say that they had some pretty impressive stuff that I would of been forking over my dough for. However something that was very interesting was that one table was occupied by what was a company who was planning to make a Anime Magazine in DVD format, and were giving questionnares out for people to fill out and in return for our time they gave out trading cards. I picked up some cards that were from the anime "Ultimate Muscle" I must admit now that just the sheer look of these cards were hillarious and laughter had ensued for hours upon hours. Robert DeJesus was also there and was selling personalized ID tags with a drawing of yourself if you were a little kid, I so wanted one.
The game room was usually split between XBoxes that were playing Halo and the Neo Geo, Daigo brought some of his cartridges so the people were able to play King Of Fighters 2002, according to what I was told he spread the ownage like one would spread peanut butter on toast and had scored a win count that went well into the double digits. Were it not for the Game Room I would not of found my other friend from College Station. I hung out with him and his friend most of Saturday evening and farted around with him. Speaking of meetings I attended the Ushicon Board Social but unfortunately didn't feast upon the free pizza since my stomach was queezy from the amount of caffeine pills I had ingested to stay awake the first day. People I mostly saw the entire convention was Tolarin, Mikayla, Aya, Drew, Orochiflame, Goat Boy, DiscoRanger, and Da Mental Oriental. I actually spent some fair time with DMO playing a game called "Star Munchkin" outside of the gaming rooms, and as always when around Tolarin, Mikayla, and Aya hilarity ensues. Also I watched all the DDR players jump around, I always dug the music coming out of these machines, but personally could never see myself playing them. Also one of the members of the Ushicon Staff had rigged their computer to play Stepmania and had a large number of anime and video games to play in a fashion that was like DDR I was impressed by this display and would I be willing to play it I so would of tried the theme to Trigun... and fall over in a stroke.
I also attended some panels, No Lyfe Productions is a fan based company who performs fan dubbing in the most peculiar fashion, the crew was on board for this convention and showed their work which I might add was very hillarious. Some of their work may be familiar... they re-dubbed the Panzer Dragoon anime into something that has to be seen to be believed. I wanted to head over to the con suite and assist in some voice work for their next peice of work... but found myself to busy to do so. Another group there was the Paper Wings cosplay group who did an Iron Cosplay Panel, to understand think of Iron Chef only now you're given every day household items and will have to form a costume out of it. Judges included Steve Bennet from Studio Ironcat, Jason (teller of bad jokes and the head Ushicon cosplay dude), and of course Goatboy (because it wouldn't be a party without Goatboy). Actually Jason was seen in a lot of places and I wanted to get his picture while he was crossplaying to show the ladies back home that whenever I do dress in costume I am not the one with the most intricately designed one since Jason has to include breasts in his, however I was unable to build the gall to ask him. Strangely enough had I not known beforehand that Jason was really a dude I would of thought he was a woman, I'm not kidding, have you ever seen him? It is totally uncanny.
Autographs were plentifully given to me by some of the more well known men and women from the voice acting community. Monica Rial (voice actress well known for playing Hyatt in the dubbed version of Excel Saga) had accidentally stepped on my sunglasses and I was not aware till she had freaked, it was kind of sad because I had just gotten those sunglasses not to long ago and they were already broken; proving that I am unable to keep a pair of sunglasses for no longer then 2 months. She felt really bad about stepping on them, and I tried to tell her that she really didn't need to worry about it (simply because it was really my fault, I shouldn't of put my glasses on the strap of my bag). However she would hear nothing of the sort and by the end of the convention she had given me a Zone of the Enders DVD, which I was happy to receive since I was unable to buy anything at the dealer's room. Also Zone of the Enders was good, but I probably would not of bought it to find out, so it was win/win. Also I discovered that voice actors (at least the ones I met) are very down to earth people and are some of the nicest people I've ever seen.
While I did wanted to catch Anime Match Game and Fanboy Fued time would not enable me to do so. I however did catch Jeoprady, but was unable to participate. I wasn't to disappointed since I really had no inention to win... I just wanted to act like Sean Connery in Celebrity Jeoprady and get every question wrong, DMO was able to do that for me. Overall though memories were had, Goatboy rampaged into my room while I was meditating, I had slept through a boardie uniting, and I was able to expose Aya (one of the most innocent girls I've ever known) to one of many distasteful scenes from Meet the Feebles. However there were some things I wished I had done (such as dressed up in costume) but I don't regret not doing them as memories were overall had everywhere.
And so as Ushicon finally settled down I was sad to see things end, and for friends that I have met to go. However the point remains, while Ushicon is a small convention it is greatly improving itself and always has promise. Without a doubt not a convention to shrug off. I myself can't wait till the new year comes as it is always the sign to go back up to Austin.
From the Chilli Hut this is Mick Kensou, have a nice day.
* the names have been changed to not piss people off
Links:
Ushicon's Main Website- Where you can learn the details and register for this great con
- The group of Cosplayers who featured the "Iron Cosplay" Panel
No-Lyfe Productions- A group of fan parody dubbers who featured a hillarious panel themselves
- Ushicon showed their subtitled version of Naruto. Check them out they do many other things too!