A little bit before noon, I got a call from my friend saying that I should go to this anime con with him. Although I was reluctant, he insisted it would be a great experience and since that I was fluent in Japanese, he told me it would be easier for him to help him translate. However, before he finished speaking, he told me that the price of a single entry would be $25. The money I had saved for God of War 3 was sadly turned into an entry wristband.
I was already nervous as I approached the multistory convention center. Already I've seen rather strange characters entering and exiting the place like, with everyone from preschoolers to people in their 40s garbed in polyester and leather.
Entering the building, I got a call from my friend asking where I am. I got into a rather heated argument with him, and I accidentally proclaimed that anime was okay, but I don't love even though I'm Japanese. This caused a mixed reaction in the surrounding people, whom were interestingly much more vocal than the usual bystander. A bunch of girls went up to me and started to speak to me in Japanglish, asking for my name, and stating the reasons they love anime.
Me: Uh, my name is Yuitachi...
Girl 1: Like the character from Naruto!? Kawaii!!
Me: No! It's just my name, look I got to find my friend.
Girl 2: What's your favorite anime and Manga!
Me: Black Jack, and Osamu Tezuka's Buddha. Really.
Girl 1: Mine is Hetalia, and Code Geass! Mother Russia is awesome!
Me: That's nice. Gotta go, sorry about that.
They followed me for a minute or so, but later split off to go watch some random anime movie that was playing nearby.
After I finally found my friend and his friends on the roof, he told me to come with him to the merchandise shop to buy some anime paraphernalia. Well, I felt the odd one out since, 1. I don't have a costume 2. I wasn't wearing a hat or outrageous haircut and 3. I was 5 bucks away from being broke.
As soon as we entered the shop, my friend immediately dragged me over to to the "Anime Yourself!" booth. I immediately got a flashback of the caricature artists you usually see at amusement parks. Thinking this is just as harmless, I caved in. We took a picture together, and we gave it to the artist. He told us to come back in 2 hours.
By this time, I started to have a crippling migraine induced induced by the technicolor and insipidly friendly and bizarre dialogue. My friend, however was kind enough to point me to the video game room. Quite a bit of time passed between the moment we stepped in and actually started playing, and when we finally sat down to play Blazblue. That was about the second worst torture my eyes had to go through, next to Transformers 2 in 3D.
So, I wandered off to play L4D2. The problem was not necessarily waiting in line for this one, but having to contend with the jerk behind me that always yells "advice" and calling me by the name of the character I'm playing as. It was fun, but I had to turn my Ipod up to Bob Marley on full blast to keep me from punching that asshole in the face.
So after 1 1/2 Hours of zombie slaughter, my friends finally pulled me away from a medium that I was comfortable with. We then went around, taking embarrassing pictures with Cactuar and PedoBear and everyone from Organization XIII. When we finally went back to pick up the picture, I was slightly shocked to see that me and friends were all rendered in bizarre, photoshopped, anime format. And we all had animal ears...shit.
So I went home, slightly terrified, amused, and curious. How was your 1st anime convention?
I was already nervous as I approached the multistory convention center. Already I've seen rather strange characters entering and exiting the place like, with everyone from preschoolers to people in their 40s garbed in polyester and leather.
Entering the building, I got a call from my friend asking where I am. I got into a rather heated argument with him, and I accidentally proclaimed that anime was okay, but I don't love even though I'm Japanese. This caused a mixed reaction in the surrounding people, whom were interestingly much more vocal than the usual bystander. A bunch of girls went up to me and started to speak to me in Japanglish, asking for my name, and stating the reasons they love anime.
Me: Uh, my name is Yuitachi...
Girl 1: Like the character from Naruto!? Kawaii!!
Me: No! It's just my name, look I got to find my friend.
Girl 2: What's your favorite anime and Manga!
Me: Black Jack, and Osamu Tezuka's Buddha. Really.
Girl 1: Mine is Hetalia, and Code Geass! Mother Russia is awesome!
Me: That's nice. Gotta go, sorry about that.
They followed me for a minute or so, but later split off to go watch some random anime movie that was playing nearby.
After I finally found my friend and his friends on the roof, he told me to come with him to the merchandise shop to buy some anime paraphernalia. Well, I felt the odd one out since, 1. I don't have a costume 2. I wasn't wearing a hat or outrageous haircut and 3. I was 5 bucks away from being broke.
As soon as we entered the shop, my friend immediately dragged me over to to the "Anime Yourself!" booth. I immediately got a flashback of the caricature artists you usually see at amusement parks. Thinking this is just as harmless, I caved in. We took a picture together, and we gave it to the artist. He told us to come back in 2 hours.
By this time, I started to have a crippling migraine induced induced by the technicolor and insipidly friendly and bizarre dialogue. My friend, however was kind enough to point me to the video game room. Quite a bit of time passed between the moment we stepped in and actually started playing, and when we finally sat down to play Blazblue. That was about the second worst torture my eyes had to go through, next to Transformers 2 in 3D.
So, I wandered off to play L4D2. The problem was not necessarily waiting in line for this one, but having to contend with the jerk behind me that always yells "advice" and calling me by the name of the character I'm playing as. It was fun, but I had to turn my Ipod up to Bob Marley on full blast to keep me from punching that asshole in the face.
So after 1 1/2 Hours of zombie slaughter, my friends finally pulled me away from a medium that I was comfortable with. We then went around, taking embarrassing pictures with Cactuar and PedoBear and everyone from Organization XIII. When we finally went back to pick up the picture, I was slightly shocked to see that me and friends were all rendered in bizarre, photoshopped, anime format. And we all had animal ears...shit.
So I went home, slightly terrified, amused, and curious. How was your 1st anime convention?
