Five_X

I very recently got back from Anime Revolution, an anime/video game convention held in Vancouver, and the successor to the old Anime Evolution convention which was sadly cancelled; the last time I went to a local con, then, was two years ago, and it's good to be back.

Above all things, Anime Revolution so far is an absolutely perfect successor to AE, and in many ways was better; I had plenty of fun, and yet this is only the first - and least busy - day of the convention!

The day started off with me joining two other friends, both driving. We headed off to Surrey (about an hour's drive from where we live) and got on the SkyTrain, Vancouver's super fast elevated rail system. To blather on about it for a bit, the Sky Train is a great, cheap and consistently on-time transit system that services the area from Surrey, on the outskirts of the Vancouver metropolitan area, to the coast of Vancouver, right on the waterfront. I wish it extended out to where I live, but I imagine that would be a tad expensive.

Upon arriving at the convention centre itself (Canada Place, right beside the Pan Pacific hotel) my friends and I stood waiting for about an hour to and hour and a half in line for registration, and after waiting that very long (but surprisingly fun) while, we got out three-day passes for the whole convention weekend. With it came a little bag full of pamphlets and containing a bit of pocky.

Eventually we split up, and I took lots of photos of people in cosplay, which you can see below. I also got food there, which was probably a bad idea because it cost $8 for a shitty sandwich, then $3.25 for a lukewarm Gatorade. I wasn't impressed by the food, but that just gave me another reason to pack my own stuff.

Though I initially promised myself I wouldn't buy anything, I broke that promise eventually and got two major things, which you can see below past the cosplay section.

There were two other main events that I got to enjoy, and don't mind me if I squee a bit or a lot.

First, I went to a meet-and-greet with none other than Jouji Nakata, who was dressed up in a white suit with a funny little white hat. He was really cool, and I was pretty much trembling with excitement when it was my turn to go up and see him. :P

The greetings and that were in English, and no, he didn't speak terribly broken English like in the Fate/Zero anime. Of course it was a practised line, but it was really col and surprisingly un-accented. I shook his hand, admittedly kind of in shock at meeting him right up close in person and everything, and then I asked some questions. First I asked how he got into voice acting, but I was told by the translator that that might be a little too long for the meet-and-greet, so I came up with something else.

I asked him what his favourite voice role was; he said that he especially liked voicing Alucard in Hellsing, but he also had some attachment to his role in The Count of Monte Cristo as, well, the Count of Monte Cristo of course!

I told him that I especially liked his work in Kara no Kyoukai (I never really mention it, but I've been a closet fan of KnK for a while; I like it even more than Tsukihime) and he picked up on that; he smiled and went "ah!" as soon as he heard me mention KnK, and then he noted that Kara no Kyoukai (the series, not just his role) is one of his personal favourites!

And so, for the finale, I asked him to do The Voice, namely Araya Souren to pick up from the earlier bit. He had to think for a while to remember a line from the movie, but when he did, it was just awesome hearing his Type-Moon Voice in effect. I believe the line he spoke was one of his introductory ones, when he talks to Shiki and tells her who he is. It was really, really, cool.

So, I shook his hand and was off, and I'm definitely going to his autograph session, especially since it's free. As a funny end note to that, he had two assistants with him, who were dressed as Gilles and Uryuu! I didn't get a picture of them, though, sadly enough.

The other major moment was meeting (briefly) with the legendary Sugar Lyn Beard, basically an icon of Canadian kids TV. She was on a YTV segment called "The Zone," hosting it for the period that spanned basically my whole childhood; I grew up watching The Zone every day after school, and meeting Sugar in real life was honestly surreal.

I mean, she's so short! When I was a kid she seemed much taller, but I'm not even sure she's five feet! And, her signature squeaky voice is totally normal and natural for her, and it's kind of hilarious and adorable. She even gave me a hug, and was giving out hugs almost like autographs except free.

Seriously, meeting Sugar was just... nostalgia, absolutely everywhere. I'm definitely going to get her autograph tomorrow or Sunday, even if it costs me an arm and a leg!

Last, but not least, I'll show the things that I got from the convention today, starting with the pictures of cosplay!

Cosplay

A really nice Asuka cosplay; I was pretty impressed.


This is part of one of the Madoka groups. I lost track of them all. :S

Hei there, buddy.

Note: the girl on the right there is Jessica Nigri, uber-hot professional cosplayer. I didn't know that I got a picture of her until just now, lol.

Waifu GET!


Yes, that is a female Anders. The beard is adorable.


No, that Diarmuid is not a girl. Though, there was a girl!Waver that I didn't get a photo of.

Did I mentioned that there were SO MANY RINS? I was definitely happy.

Kamina just be chillin'.

This guy was part of a larger Fate/Zero troupe going around. I was totally the best Kiritsugu (out of the many) there, though. /ego

This is just a maid, but I think the photo turned out really pretty somehow.

Close observers of my cosplay pictures may in fact note that this is the exact same guy I got a picture of two years ago at Anime Evolution, wearing the exact same costume.

This person is ready for some DayZ.

These two are actually people I hung out with in high school! It was good to see them again.

There were many Misties at the convention, but this lass pulled it off better than the rest!


I was impressed.

A Ryuk cosplay, but yet - there was not a single L cosplay to be found. I was shocked, I tell you!

They had no Mami, which made me sad, but their cosplay is really good. Also, all the other Madoka groups were made up of little Asian girls, so these three really stood out.

There you go, cosplay! And there will be even more tomorrow!

But last, I'll show you the stuff I got! It was decently expensive for my meagre, jobless budget, but I managed to get a really cheap (but high-quality) print and some other nice stuff. 'Twas cool! Maybe, just maybe, I'll get some more prints, because I like them.

Merchandise

Totalling $34 with taxes, I got this Irisviel figure! Also tempting me were a Red Saber figure and a Charlotte Yeager figure (for $35 and $30, respectively, and before taxes), but I decided to get Iri because she's awesome, but also less expensive and high-quality to boot.




Waifu GET indeed. I'd show a picture of the figure outside the box, but the lighting in my house is terrible. Currently, Iri's standing on my desk on her little platform, staring at me. Always staring.

Photo is crap quality, but here's the great, cheap print I got for $5 (compared to the $12 and up prices of other places...). I wonder if anyone noticed that pretty much all I cared about there centred around Type-Moon and Madoka. There were no K-On! things, so no waifu GET there. I'm sorry, Mio. ;__;

Anyhow, that's how the first day went. Expect an even BIGGER post tomorrow, which will take me an hour to compose and I will hate myself.