BIG APPLE ANIME FEST 2003
(how I spent my last weekend of summer) :3
Friday:
I was uber late to BAAF. My San costume didnt take the purple dye so I had to repaint all my accessorys and I was takeing a lactose tolerance test (u drink 2 glasses of milk, and blow into bags every 30 mins). I decided to grab my mask and head off to the staion.
We were supposed to meet a friend and his friends but we arrive 10 mins late and we had to search for the pre-registered ticket line (I loved how every thing was labeled *cough sarcasm cough*). After tickets were done and we figured out how to read the event schedual we decided to go to the dealers. We saw the long ass line for the dealers room and I decided to buy a little time by signing up for the cosplay contest. Once we saw the long ass line we decided to look for more things to do. That was a flop and we went back to the dr room line from hell. An hour and 15 mins later we managed to get in. To my dissapointment I relised prices compared to I-con were alot higher (then again renting all that space in a NYC hotel cant be cheap). I came out w/ a wind up ikura sushi toy and a Kero neko sama key chain (NYA!!!x3). Me and shorty also caugh 2 episodes of Furi Kuri and one movie that I cant remember (it was kinda like slayers only in space).
Unable to decide on something to do we walked around the hotel and decided to sit and chill. A guy came up to me and asked me to have his child and we had a communal cookie shareing w/ some really kick ass ppl outside the ballroom b4 karioke. Over all the people were ok and I got to see a nekked guy in a box running around (censored streaking!!).
We began to wander again and we decided to go see Inital D the movie. It was a pretty good movie. There was a stoner dad, really kick ass music, fast cars, a ho, a lecher, attempted rape, and a constipated asian. The Q/A session with the director was a hit. He compares himself to the lecher (sempai 4 u ppl who have no idea what Im talkin about) and I reminded myself to stay as far away from him as possible. They had a raffle and they gave out inital d porcelan coasters w/ matching stand.......how manly (I wanted one!!). Afterwards we headed home and I proceeded to work on my costume till 2am.
Saturday:
Saturday rocked the casbah! My dad drove us in because he was going to go kyacking on the hudson (crazy bastard). I threw on my costume in my friends house and hoped it looked good. At the con it was 10x more mobbed than Friday. I ran to the cosplay competiong rehearsals. I have never seen that many confused people running one event. The majority of the judges showed up late and the cos players list was lost and every one had to reregister again. After the mayhem the judges judged my costume (not the most amazing costume but then again, san doesnt have much of a elaborate cos). A volenteer baught me and 2 other people through what we were to do on Sunday and we did a practice run on stage. This guy did some crazy freakin matrix moves (not to mention his costume was hot). I got out and did my walk on thang *giggle* and got outta there as fast as I could. We hung outside the ballroom w/ Rob and a few other people. Minuits passed and suddenly these 2 people in giant, padded latex monster suits came out. Me and thsi other girl being on a cos pics rampage ran over to see what was going on. We found out there was a Kaju battle at 6 in the ballroom that night....sweetness. Every one began to disperse and Rob reminded us of his panned he was speaking in. To pass the time we caught part of the screaning of lupin the 3rd the movie. I want to know one thing though....how does fujico keep her busumbas in that bikini top (and where can I find one like that!xD). We left early as shorty was falling asleep and complaining about wanting to go to the dealers (I think 2 people stopped me to take pics of my cos on the way there).
If theres one thing I've learned in this con is that the dealers room on a Saturday is like hellish chaos. The escalators were getting jammed because of the massive amounts of people. They closed off the dealers floor for a while because of the glut of people, leaving most of the major events unaccessable (and leaving a few people unable to get to their booths!). We managed to survive the masses (people kept recognizeing my cos...I feel special!!!). We found hello kitty vibraters at a vender. This puzzled me. How could u use a sex toy with hello kitty on it (did I mention it was pink w/ a hello kitty figure on top). It's useing a tickle me elmo or something, I wouldnt be able to use it cause I'd be ashamed of myself for useing a vibrator with a cute plastic figure found on most little kids lunch boxes!On our way out some guy gave me a ryohki backpack cause he loved my costume!!!xD
Later on we went to Rob's speaking pannel. It was on anime and the internet. I lerned a little bit about Fan site createing and that almost every one gets their anime offa KaZaA. Afterwards it was off to the kaju big battle in the ballroom. At first I thought this was going to be an actual battle but it turned out to be a viewing of a dvd of these people dukeing it out in monster/food costumes. I thought it would suck but I laughed my ass off!!!!! Silver potato, the plantain bro's and all the commercians were absolutely great. Afterwards we harrased the people with a cabbit on a stick. We met more people also. I hovered over to the piano on the right side of the ballroom enterance wher ea girl was playing the piano. A guy dressed as Squall began to play (he was pretty kick ass himself). I later joined up with rob and shorty. They were talking to a girl dressed as subaru and her cousin. We all decided to go to the 45th floor and look down. I never relised how high up 45 floors were!O_o
Tired and a little lagged down from carry bags of stuff from the dealers room we crashed at robs hotel room. 9 other people were doing the same (we were told later that these people were also shareing this room with him). We sat took a load off and watched Ice age (poor squrril). Subaru and her cuz had to left at 7 so our group became smaller *sob*. After an hour of talkin to the remaneing people in the room we found out that the three of them were cosplaying as inuasha (that was a girl every one), kagome (she was also sango and countless other chars that day), and kirara (I still dont know how she braved the down escalators in that cos). We all decided to go eat at McDonalds. It was almost as crazy as the dealers room in there. We managed to get food and eat (while people stared at our strange outfits).
Nine-o-clock and it was time for the dance!! I must remind you that the extent of my danceing skills are minor moshing and skanking. These involve the proper music. I wish they didnt play hip hop and rap but they, thankfully, played more techno then those. I knida just sat around being the wallflower I am and watched this guy jump over people. We left at 12am and I passed out on the train.
Sunday:
The wonderfull ending to 3 days of nonstop fun. I slept through my cell phone alarm and woke up to my mum telling me to wake up cause Louis (my bf) was comeing in 10 mins. I jumped in the shower and jumped out right as louis rang the door bell. I dumped the contents of my Raijin comics bag on my bed, stuffed my cos in it and bolted out the door to greet squishy (louis). We picked up shorty and we headed out for the city. After arriveing at the 57th and 3rd (?) subway enterance (, me a little shaken from lou stalling on the parkway,) we took the train downtown and ran to the marriot. I was not in costume and wasnt used to people not takeing pictures of me (but it was a nice break!). We went to the dealers room. I was talking with one of the guys at the manga booth with the ein dolls and we got into a disscussion about DDR. He told me he had a rom on his cpu and would send it to me via AIM (weehoo!). I baught the 1st and 2nd ragnarok manga books and an oh my goddess manga (leader of the pack). Afterwards I got changed into my cos and we headed downstairs to the anime Idol competition. Purposly early, we sat down and rested. Shorty had a much needed nap and I read my manga. Soon the flood gates were opened (3 people asked to take pics of me). We sat down and watched a little breif movie of the finalists and the people who didnt make it. Then the fun began!
The 12 (?) contestants got up and had to read a monolog of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. The catch: you had to read it in the type of character voice that the speaker/ host read to them. These included a drunken naucious scotsman, 104 year old man on viagra, a sex phone operator, a soft spoken mom with terets, a parinoid schitsophrenic, William Shatner, an old man, a old woman with bad hearing, a 6 year old girl, a 14 year old girl with large braces, A six year old girl on a sugar high, the sexiest computer voice in the world, Tony Soprano, a California pimp, queen elizabeth (?), a 50's robot, a 1950's house wife, a vally girl, a cheerleader with narcolepsy, a stoner that is really stoned, a woman giving birth to a very large baby, an overprotective jewish housewife, and a Russian weapons dealer (?). I beleive there were more but trying to remeber them while I was laughing was extremely hard! The final round was that they chose a random number and that number chose the scean that they were dubbing. I relised from these that as soon as a char turned around and had line every one was off in the dubbing (obviously, this is no simple task especially if you just got the script). 2 people got sceans from Ping Pong club. I must go get this movie now. In the end the girl from Boston won (I beleive). She was really good too so she deserved it! I hope the anime dubbing contract works for her!
We got out and tryed ot play what to do next. No more than 3 mins after we hear "All cosplayers entering the cosplay on broadway come ot the green room". I couldnt beleive it. 3 hours before the competition they wanted every one there...and I hadnt even eaten breakfast yet! I walked to the green room...or the one I thought was the right one ( I passed a whole bunch of cosplayers in one room). I get there and theres one other guy in there. A judge entered (the same one I talked to on Sat) and I asked her what was goin on. She was about as clueless as I was. All the judges were late, as well as the cosplayers and there was a whole bunch of cos players in another room. Confused, hungry and tired I ploped down at the nearest table and relaxed. Soon judges arrived and subaru joined me (found out her name is Mati). We left the chaos of the room and saught refuge by the water cooler in the hall where I found Micahel (squall from waltz for the money) all happy. I found out that the guy from I-con heard him playing the piano (he was playing some FF music on it). Well it turns out that he invited him to come to i-con for name that FF tune and he is going to pay for this plane far and cab tickets (hes from Florida). He was so excited and I told him about my experience last year with I-con. We exchanged e-mails, wished each other luck and I headed back to the green room.
Every cosplayer had to be re-registered again. This caused a bit of mayhem and even the stage manager came in and bit the heads off of two volunteers which he told to leave (reminds me of my stage manager when I was a floodlight operator for hello dolly). Of course because of his attitude all the volunteers became super bitchy (who can blame them). Me and Mati were cowering in fear of the angry stage manager and the volunteers he possesed with his bitchy-ness. We started up a convo with the DBZ cosplayers in back of us. One girl let out a manly belch just as an angry volunteer started up a speech about shutting up and getting all the people organized into groups. We all couldnt help but laugh, thank god the angry volunteer didnt kill us. They finnaly started organizeing people to go up on stage. Being act number 6 I was one of the first to go up. I was nervous as hell. Even thought I was only doing a walk on I was wonder what people whould do when I got on. Would they boo? Hiss? Yell how crappily made my cos was? I didnt know. I was sitting in between the girl dressed as orphan and the guy dressed as a char from dead alive (Mario was his name I beleive). The orphan girl was nervious because she didnt know what her sock puppet was gonnna say and Mario was afraid that all the sitting might of messed up his morning streches. We were all nervous. Even the DBZ people were a little antsy.
Finnaly it was the moment we all were anticipateing. They pulled mario, me and orphan up backstage. We heard people cheering. We guessed the whole con was sitting out there. I tryed to look out from under the curtain but I could barely see the first row. We had a movie screen backstage where they were showing what was going on on stage. The host was getting boped in the head with a squeaky mallet by another host. The flag guy from the dealers room came on and did some pretty kick ass fighting and then it was our turn. I tryed to fix my mask as best as I could as we were marched to the enterance of stage right (left if u were in the audience). Mario got out and did his kick ass kung foo and every one cheered for him. "Thsi cant be so bad" I though. I was my turn. I coukldnt see outta my mask. The lady introduced me and every one cheered really loud! It was so cool! I got up and people were screamin and cheering even though I wasnt even on stage for a full min. I was happy, shaken a little from adrenalin but I loved it.
Happy I got that over with I got my stuff from the green room and went to the back of the ballroom to watch every one elses acts. I relised that the whole con really was sitting out there!!!I couldnt get a seat there were so many people. I sat in the middle isle behind the camera lady and watched every one. The girl who did the witch hunter skit was amazing. Not only was her costume kick ass but the candle thing was really sweet! The DBZ sketch was absolutely great. Hercule getting knocked down from the flying gohan plushie was great. FFU was hysterical. It remindind me of all of my friends playing D & D (Brian being the white mage asking what spells he can cast!). I wish the mikes worked better for Mana wars. Their group was dressed amazingly and I heard a little bit of their comedy lines. Waltz for the money was hysterical! They played it out extremely well (if only the mikes worked better!!). The danceing moogle was hysterical. The inuasha fighting skit was hysterical. The lil kid from card captors killed every one!! Subaru got the same applause for her cos as I did (we were the only 2 walk ons that it happened to). I wish I caught the beginning acts. I caught the last bit of orphans skit (it was hysterical!!). The girl in the pink lookin geani outfit from chobits who did the morning exercises was cute. I wish it was longer and she asked the audience to do some. The zelda group was hysterical. I missed most of their skit because of the people skrewing up their tape. The legend of mana skit was absolutely amazing. The costumes were great and the skit was sweet.
Hungry, tired and releifed the hard part was over shorty, subaru, her cuz and I went to McDonalds for brealuninner (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Once again we got stares but this time we were not alone. Numerous cosplayers were sitting around us and the public was a little freaked out *giggles evily*. We looked for the naked cowboy to take pics with but he was gone (no wonder, it was getting cold out there!). We all "camped" outside the ballroom with the people from the DBZ skit. A girl asked if I could be her teddy bear and I agreed to do so (beware of my fuzzy cap, it has hypnotic powers!!). We saw people with a "We hate DBZ club" sign over them so we did what any crazed anime cosplayer would do....make a "We love DBZ (and pie) Club" and offer hugs from San and Subaru and cookies to new members. We got a large folowing, I hugged many people and my rhyoki bag got peraded around on a sword sheith while some one wore my mask.
Soon it was time for the closeing cerimony and all us cosplayers got in first. They had a photoshoot and people took pics of all the cosplayers. I burned my leg on one of the lights next to the stage (it still stings too!). After the paparazzi maddness was over we all sat down. Subaru, me and inuasha were sitting first row together. Some one was blowing plastic bubbles and we did another thing any crazed anime cosplayer would do....attack them with a large boffer stick! Of course this was a bit hazardous so the angry satan stage manager told us to put the boffer stick away. The host and the lady with the squeaky mallet came up onstage and talked to us. One of the girls from Mana wars (the hyper j-rocker) noted that the mallet lady bonked him on the head a total of 67 times durring the cosplay....it soon went to 76. The flood gates were opened and every one pured in. I really mean every one, all the convention people poured into the ballroom (minus rob and his crew cause they had to go home at 12pm that afternoon). Every one was giddy. Who was gonna win the trip to Japan?! I humbled my self at the fact that my costume couldnt win it cause of the lack of time I put into it. Oddly enough though there was still a little spark of hope. They roled a little film of the convention and thanked the guests of honor for comeing. The organizer came up and said that last year 7,500 ticket sales were recorded and this year 12,000 ticket sales were recorded (the anime population is growing!!!). Finnally the moment of truth came. The winners of teh BAAF cosplay. Subaru won for judges favorite in the novice catagory and Riku won for 1st prize in the novice catagory. The winners in group preformance was mana wars, FFU, and the DBZ skit. All the little kids won (the little kids dressed as chars from utena were adorable!). And the winner of the trip to Japan was the geni lady who did the exercises!! (congrats guys!!:D). After saying my goodbyes, switching cloths and finding shorty we went home completely exhuasted and sad that every thing was over.
If ne of u guys are out there reading this you absolutely made my weekend. Moogle lady (dance moogle dance!), subaru (the coolest 14 year old ever), rob (the pimpmeister) and your crew (thanks for letting me and shorty crash at your pad), mario (good luck with the kung foo buisness), all the inuashas, the vashes, The DBZ gang (Congrats guys!!), the waltz for the money gang (Congrats you guys and congrats mike, see ya at I-con!), the members of the We love DBZ (and pie) club (hugs to you!!), All the people that took pics of me (you made me feel awsome), the people that screamed for me when I was onstage (I love you guys and I want to bear your children), The witch hunter chick (that trick was awsome!!), All the people that randomly glomped me (*squeek*), and lastly Shorty for actually going with me and stickin by me in the cosplay!You are truly an awsome friend and my the gods bless you with many hot women.
Oh and the cos pics are someing as soon as I can find the camera plug for my computer.-__-**
