When weird stuff starts happening...
You know you're in...
ANIME CENTRAL
2002
April 19th-21st,
2002
So be thankful this is just a con report...
By: Blue Taboo
Okeedokee...I'd like to start off by saying I've never done
one of these before and I have no idea what it's supposed contain, besides
pictures.
Now that we have that cleared up...I'd love to tell you all
about my con experience.
I went with my high school's Anime Club (that I never go to
because of theatre and such) and I shared a room with NINE other
girls...Needless to say, I almost didn't get any sleep and when I did, it was on
the floor.
Since I'm still doing this school thing I had to miss out
on Friday...which was no biggie, since all the events I wanted to go to were on
Saturday.
Here's what I WANTED to do- Arrive at 9:30 AM, see Tiffany
Grant at 10:00AM, go to lunch at 1:30 PM, go to the Fan Fiction Panel at 3:30PM,
go to the Eva Fan Panel at 5:00PM, go to the masquerade at 6:00PM, eat
when it was over, go to the rave thingy at 12:00AM, and sleep when I fell
down.
Here's what HAPPENED- Arrive at 9:30AM, wait around
because our rooms got messed up until 10:55AM, go to lunch at 2:00PM, miss
most of fan fiction panel at 4:00PM and get bored when I actually go in, go
to Eva Panel at 5:00PM, go to masquerade at 7:00PM, foooood, go to rave and get
bored at 12:45 PM, sleep 3 and 1/2 hours.
NOTICE HOW THEY DIFFER?!?!?!?!
Oh well...the only things I REALLY wanted to do I actually
got to do, so it was okay...
Anyway...I cosplayed as Asuka...yea...in this
outfit...
Do you know how hard it is to find a yellow dress like
that?! IMPOSSIBLE!!!
I managed somewhat though...through my mom making it...and
using the wrong pattern...
This section will be forever know as the "Hehe...Blue's
blinking in every goddamn picture!" Section. It makes me sad...because I never
blink in pictures...I mean never. Oh well...enjoy...
Gendo-man
Blue
Taboo Dusted
Pyxie
Gendo-man has a story of his own...I'll tell you about his
adventures later.
Misato-lady Blue
Taboo
Dusted Pyxie
My eyes were...ALMOST OPEN!!!
And that concludes that wonderful section.
This all happened during Saturday morning and we were
pretty much blinded by flash bulbs. There were six Asukas there including me and
three Reis (which DP was sadly the best of). Tiffany Grant's plugsuit kicked my
ass...so, oh well. She had the voice too and...well...let's just say I sing the
lowest note in my girls' choir. We were the only pair there on Saturday though.
Another one came on Sunday, when we were not in costume. As for the Eva cast:
four Misatos, six Gendos, two Ritsukos, one Maya, one Hyuuga, and one Shigeru.
Not bad at all... if you ask me. At least we weren't everywhere like the Trigun
and Inu-yasha cosplayers...agh...it was just too much, though one of the many
Vashes would give you a Krispy Kreme dounught if you gave him a hug.
But I can't go on without saying something about all
the Gendos. One was INSANELY good and his beard was real too. Another,
was Gendo-man, who, with his friend Spike-man, were apparently
stalking us through the whole con. We'd turn around and out of the
thousands of people, guess who'd be there? GENDO-MAN!!! Then there
was Gendo-pimp, who I never got to see, but he had a Ritsuko on one
arm and a Misato on the other.
Then we went to lunch at Mitsuwa Plaza (pretty much just
like a Japanese mall/supermarket). We got there late...I had really good
sushi and wasabi that made my brain hurt...and we got back late.
A bunch of people from or relating to the NVHS Anime
Club.
...And I missed the beginning of the fan fiction panel. DP
and I ran in for the last half, but got bored in about two minutes. Whoever was
doing it...you're lame and probably would've burned me for being Yakuza because
of all your crazy talk I was hearing about dealing with flames and such. We
slipped out and decided to waste our time otherwise.
From there we went on the afternoon run of the place, where
I took most of my other pictures of good cosplayers.
This...was the only one that turned out...damn Walgreens!
Oh well, Vash is great here...hehe!
We actually did go to the Eva panel, which was almost as
boring. Basically...some jackass lectured us for an hour on all of his Eva
knowledge, which I knew all of, and the whole room didn't. There were two good
points, though. There was a raffle...where I won this original English version
manga cell-style layout. I couldn't fit the whole thing on my scanner at one
time...so it looks kinda crappy. One side turned out a lot better than the
other...
I like it because it says "Splenic
Rupture"...heh.
Good point #2 was that we got to watch about 5 minutes of
the director's cut!!! And guess what?! IT HAS EVEN MOOOORE S/A PROOF!!!
MWAHAHA!
Right after that, DP and I got our picture taken for the
con report by A Fan's View.
My eyes were just starting to close there...
Then there was the masquerade. For all those of you who
haven't had the pleasure of ever attending Anime Central, the masquerade is the
event where brave cosplayers show off their costumes and sometimes perform
skits. IT IS AWESOME! But first...we had to wait outside in the cold, cold
Chicago weather. If you were there...you heard the "WE. ARE. COLD." Chant. Guess
who started it...me! Come on! If you were wearing that little dress, wouldn't
you be just a little bit FREEZING! The masquerade had some great skits..."All
your Eva are belong to us," "The big dragon-thingy that danced to Bohemian
Rhapsody," "Various anime characters meeting up with those damn Ranma pools,"
and this guy in a suit of nothing but skin colored fabric and soap. It was
great...and none of my "illegal" pictures of it turned out
well...Sorry.
So we went back to the room and ate...mmm...fooood. Then we
headed down to the rave...which sucked, blew, and bit all at the same time. The
music was...okay...and the stuff they put up on the giant screen was just
Windows Media Player visualizations...sadness. We didn't stay long. I got to bed
at about 2:30ish and woke up at 6:00 or so because of those damn little freshmen
girls and their whispering...err.
Sunday, my group didn't cosplay and I was glad. Let's just
say that (guys...um...you might not get this) strapless push-up bras suck.
*COUGH* That said and done, we meandered around the dealers' room...and I spent
all my money...for the morning hours.
My friend Nuri-chan got bored and found some cosplayers who
forgot their face paint. You see, she'd gone as Skuld from Oh! My Goddess the
previous day, so she still had some handy. In this picture she displays her
wonderful makeup job.
We wanted to go to Iron Guest (drawing contest Iron
Chef-like thing) before we headed back home, so we still had time to kill until
it started at 2:30. He went to the game room for a few rounds of wonderful fifth
mix DDR. Now, normally...I'm pretty bad at it, only barely pulling off most
4-footers, but this thing had moded pads like a dream! They were so responsive
and fifth mix had all these great songs, even if it was in a third mix
box...Nuri put in two good rounds.
After watching the "Kaiju" (giant monster) contest at Iron
Guest...which was boring and cool at the same time, we waited for our group to
get itself together so we could leave, because most of us were pretty much dead
by then. We then ran into Kat, who ditched us on Saturday. She crossplayed as
everyone's favorite crossdresser, Nuriko.
And as we headed out the door, we had to have a group
hug...actually...it was more like "AW GOD! NURI LET ME GO!!!" "After the
picture!" "THE LIGHT! IT BURNS!!!" "Smile!" But hey, my eyes are
open...
And then we went home...and, sadly, I had to go to school
the next day. It sucked muchly...
Looking back on it now, I had a shit-load of fun, despite
all the scheduling disasters. Next year...I'm driving...
OH YEAH! One last thing...when I got home...I hung up my
free posters, and being the creative genius I am, I lack any kind of logic, so I
stood on my desk rolly chair and fell off. I almost broke my foot! Just goes to
show you...free isn't always good...or not cursed...
