Anime Central 2008 was by far the absolute best convention I have ever been to.

Yes, that statement deserved its own paragraph. It was that good. Hell, it was fucking awesome…probably the most rewarding convention experience I’ve ever had. No, not quite as good as sex, but the feeling lasted far longer, heheh. I can’t say enough good things about it…I just wish I had the time to do everything I wanted to do. Outside of that, there’s really nothing I have bad to say about it.

Initially I wasn’t really planning on going to any other conventions outside of Fanime and AX until I was invited to ACEN by Cap`n_moonie from the chat channel I frequent, #TenchiFF on the aniverse network. At the time I wasn’t too sure about heading back that direction, but I checked my finances and my leave time, and found I could easily accommodate that. Also, I’d never met ol’ moonie and I was looking forward to that. Originally another member of the channel, aisu, was supposed to join us, but she was unfortunately unable to make it. It helped I wound up sharing the room with moonie and a few others so I could cut down on costs considerably…plane flights are rather expensive after all. It also helped that I had applied for a press pass and received one.

Let me segue off a bit and talk about my overall experience as a member of the press for ACEN. Vic, the guy who runs it, is an absolute god at this as far as I can tell. His press application is a little more intense than most others I’ve seen, but he more than makes up for it with quality of service to the members of the Press. The only thing I’d recommend to him in the future is that Press badge pick up be available for at least an hour or two the day before the convention, and not starting early morning of the convention. It’s not that big an inconvenience, but it’s a little more helpful to get all your ducks in a row on day 0 for planning purposes. In any event the entire convention staff was courteous and very helpful. I was allowed to video tape everything but the concerts, copyright being a concern, of course. However, seeing as how I wasn’t going to any of them, it wasn’t MY concern, heh. If I had wanted, I would be allowed to get a pass for one set of them, but not both, which would have been anything any member of the press could have wanted or required should the concerts had been their concern. As for myself I was more interested in the Idol competition, the Lolita Fashion Show, and the Masquerade (which required a press ticket, but that I easily got, so no big deal). For this, I was more than welcome to film any of those events…the staff even got me inside during setup so I could set up my own gear; going so far as to show me where I could do it that would be advantageous to myself and out of the way of everyone else. This was especially helpful during the Masquerade, but more on that later. Seriously, they had it together when it came to being Press. Anime Expo should take notes.

Before the convention this year, I had managed to acquire a Panasonic HDC-SD9, a full 1080p SDHC based camcorder. I briefly thought about getting the HDC-HS9, but though it has a 60GB hard drive which is more than enough space for anything, I was trying to get away from everything with higher failure rates, like a mechanical hard drive. The problem with the HDC-SD9 is that the technology is too new. The max capacity of the SDHC standard is 32GB, enough for my purposes, but the Class 6 (hell, even the Class 2 or 4) cards were only out in Japan at that point. If I wanted to drop $700 I could be the proud owner of such a card too…like Hell. I found this year, I was very fortunate that the three 16GB class 6 cards I got were more than adequate for each of the events I went to. With a laptop, and my external hard drive, I was set as far as recording went. The only other problem was power. The camcorder comes with a vw-vbg130 battery…which lasts for one hour; not even remotely adequate for my purposes. The VW series of batteries is replacing the CGA series for Panasonics…problem there is that though the VW is backwards compatible with devices that use the CGA series, the CGA series will not fit devices that were built specifically for the VW series. There was a five hour battery, the vw-vbg6, that one could special order from some stores, but it cost about $180 at bhphotovideo.com (the cheapest place I could find and since lowered) and would take awhile to get to me considering they were on vacation for a couple weeks. The battery actually DID get to me before I went to ACEN, but I discovered another problem that was mentioned on the message boards: It’s too big and requires a separate attachment, the VW-VH04. The only place I could find one of those was a store in Canada, so I placed my order for one about a day before I left for ACEN hoping it’d get to me in time for Fanime or AX. As a stop gap solution I found out that there were several 9 volt battery solutions that were meant for portable DVD players. Specifically I went for the Lenmar DVD-U9 battery which was more than adequate to power my camera for about five and a half hours. Only problem there was that I needed a long enough power cable from the battery to the camera so that the battery could remain in my pack and out of the way. The solution to this problem was found at Radio shack with the Female to Female Adaptaplug 6ft cable and a set of EIAJ connectors (only one set of four are needed). With this, I was fully armed and ready to go as far as video goes…just as long as I remembered my tripod, hehehehe.

Now I had to worry about still pictures. Well, not really. My old Panasonic DMC-FZ30 digital camera had bought the big one, and after three failed attempts by the Geek Squad at Best Buy to fix it, they just bought it back from me. With that, I acquired a Nikon D40x digital SLR, and though I had used it at Thanksgiving for the family dinner, this would be its first real convention field test. And I must say, the results are pretty impressive, all things considered.

Food and bedding would be a little trickier this year as I was flying in. Since I’d be sleeping on the floor, I packed basic camping gear for that purpose, and it never became a real concern. Now, food is always an issue, as I’ve mentioned in previous articles. As it turns out though, this year I planned quite a distance into the future and ordered some MRE entrées. Though I fortunately didn’t have to live off of them (I could have, though), these turned out to be a life saver on several occasions. I recommend these to any and all…Hell, if it were allowed I’d open a booth selling these and make a killing off of them at anime conventions.

Day 0

The day before the convention began early morning with a flight to Chicago. I’d talk more about that particular trip, but to be honest, I don’t remember much since I was asleep for most of it. ACEN takes place over at the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont and not the Hyatt in Rosemont…this distinction became important later. Originally moonie and co. were going to pick me up from the airport, but they had been delayed in traffic so it was up to me to take the shuttle that ran from the airport to the convention. While there I could easily pick out people that were heading to it by looks and the way they carried themselves. I had never realized it before, but there is a certain look and step about people that go to an anime convention for the most part, even with those that didn’t have the quintessential geek appearance. I expect I do as well, but I’m a hideous fucking CHUD so I try not to watch myself too much, heh. Back to the Hyatt; it was the driver who informed that I was actually trying to get to the Hyatt Regency…the one with the convention center. He went to both, so it was all good as far as he was concerned. I wasn’t mollified ‘til I got to the convention center and saw girls with primary hair colors and skimpy outfits running around. Ah, yes, this was the place; it was good to be home.

moonie and co. arrived about a half hour later. They’d taken a detour and wound up going a little further up than they had intended, heh. In any event, getting stuff up into the room was the immediate goal before trying to locate where we go to get our badges. While up there, I snapped a few pics of my roommates: Cap’n Moonie, Big Pearl (with my bottle of Cap’n Morgan, heh), and her sister Little Pearl. We were joined by a couple of others later, but I never did get around to taking their pictures unfortunately.

I did read when the Press badge pickup would be, and where, but I was hoping they’d still have something open the day before the con started. I needed to plan for the next few days and the most recent events list would be most beneficial to this endeavor. So I wound up walking back with moonie and them to the attendee badge pickup, who then directed me back to the Hyatt proper. Attendee registration had some serious problems this year, but almost none of them were the fault of the convention (and if they want to see some REAL problems, they should attend Anime Expo, heh). They were DDOSed and vandalized at one point which really fucked things up royally. There’s a whole thread about it over here at the ACEN message boards for those interested. When I got back to the Hyatt I wound up talking to a very helpful member of IRT (their volunteer and regular staff) who helped me track down someone who could say for certain what the status of the Press was on Day 0. As I had feared, the answer was wait until tomorrow.

So I went ahead and indulged in one of my favorite activities at conventions: that being snapping pics of various cosplayers. I always enjoy documenting the creations of the cosplayers, considering it takes so much work and enthusiasm for the art form to even make one costume, and it’s a real treat to see it. For the more advanced costumes, such as the ones with molded leather and even armor of one form or another it takes a level of skill and dedication that to this day I’m almost in awe of. Admittedly I’m also a sucker for the cute girl factor of a lot of them. One thing I’ve noted for awhile is that there are few of the male costumes that are as elaborate, or as flattering, on guys as they are on girls. It’s here we find out that women are indeed the fairer sex, and can look damn good in these costumes. Most guys aren’t bishounen by any stretch, and for walking CHUDs like me, that’s doubly true. There are practically no anime characters that look like your typical guy, and the outfits are usually pretty plain by comparison. Still, on occasion, you run into something like this.

Awhile later, moonie and co came back from pre reg. Before we had gone to registration we ordered some pizza, and I was in for a treat. Chicago deep dish; the cheese was under the sauce. Mmmm…good stuff, I could only eat two pieces, heh. Also found out that Pepsi Max goes great with the Captain Morgan’s Private Stock. I broke out my gear and bedding, borrowed moonie’s program guide to do some planning, and wound up crashing later on as they continued to work on the costume moonie was planning to wear the following day.

Day 1

Day 1 started at about 8 a.m. Jetlag was kicking in a little bit which sucked, however the show was going to go on with or without me, so I had to get my ass in gear. My main focus at that point was on getting down to the lower levels of the Hyatt and getting my press badge. This turned out to be less painful than I thought. It was here I met Vic personally as they tried to locate my name on their list. Eventually we did; the list was a little disorganized I’ll admit. Him and the girl there then explained that they could only get members of the press into one set of concerts, no video at the concert, anywhere else though was fine. At the Masquerade he mentioned there’d be power outlets set up and what not, so this man was doing his best to take care of us, and though it didn’t quite turn out the way any of us wanted. More on that one later.

The girls wanted to hit up a Japanese convenience store called Mitsuwa before Opening Ceremonies, and I went ahead and tagged along so that I could get some food, and possibly a Monster energy drink. Unlike a lot of people they don’t have the energizing then crashing effect on me; they just keep me calm if I limit myself to one can a day. The store was basically a Japanese grocery store, bakery, and even restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurants weren’t open, but pretty much everything else was. We wound up meandering our way to the bakery to pick up some bread. It was rather amusing, they had melon bread, curry bread…you know, all those breads you see in anime. They even had a yakisoba sammich, which screamed redundant to me, but I went ahead and bought out of curiosity. We shopped around a bit more, after which moonie and I went to chomp on some of our stuff while the other two continued shopping.

Thoughts on the sammich. It wasn’t that bad. I don’t know that I’d make a habit of eating one of them, as it’s a bit a like eating rice on top of mashed potatoes (which I’ve done), but it’s not that bad. It’d probably have been better warmed up, rather than stuck in the fridge like it was, but it was certainly edible. Carbs on carbs though; more than enough for a guy who doesn’t typically eat breakfast. I’ll have to ask Cap’n Moonie to share her thoughts on the subject since I fed her half, heh.

As it was getting close to the time of Opening Ceremonies we collected the other two under semi-duress and departed, making a quick detour to 7-11 to pick up a case of my addiction. As we figured when we got back, parking was full up. So they dropped me off with my camera gear and proceeded to head to the alternate parking zone. Getting inside I found out that Opening Ceremonies had been delayed a bit due to technical difficulties. I wandered around for a few minutes, taking the odd snap shot before I decided to make my way to the line. On my way over, one of the IRT staff looked at my badge and asked, “Press?” I nodded. “Follow me.” She showed me to the front of the line and they let me enter. Inside I was shown by one of the staff where I could set my camera up.

I wound up setting up right next to one of the ACEN camera guys, which was a very good spot. Still, I wound up waiting about 30 minutes as they configured their sound system which was okay, got to listen to some music blaring on a sound system designed for a stadium. Sure they did their own Rick Roll in the middle of it, but why not? Eventually they start letting the attendees in, which is pretty standard for an event like this. However, this is where the similarities ended.

I had never seen anything like this at any convention. Anime Expo is too uptight, Fanime far too lax, and never attended a Comic Con opener. This thing was going off like a rock concert. First thing was that they still had some work to do before they started, but they kept the music they were playing going. The front of the area between the chairs and the stage turned into an impromptu dance party...and no one stopped them. It was fine, no one was getting out of hand and breaking anything, and no one was getting all uptight and stopping it. I've got that on film, and I may encode it just to show people how cool this really was. It didn't really last all that long, but people were keeping enthused and entertained while waiting and no one was jumping their shit for it. It didn't take too long for the Opening Ceremonies to start after it, so it was all good. Similarities to a rock concert did not end with the beginning of Opening Ceremonies, if anything they intensified. The MC was keeping people so hyped up it's hard to describe it. As the Guests of Honor rolled out they had straight out rock intros that kept the feeling and cheers going far better than those kookie AMV things they have at AX. One thing I noted almost immediately was that there were a considerably larger amount of U.S. based guests than there were at the other conventions I'd been to as well. Personally, I consider this a good thing. Not so much because I don't want to see more of the creators of the art form we're paying homage to, but because I want to see more evidence of our involvement and our activities within it.

As entertaining as the Opening Ceremonies was, there was a convention to get to, so it had to end. This was a good opener, and set the tone for the rest of the convention, I thought. There were only a few things I wanted to do this day. Basically, the plan was, walk around and take pictures (of course), but the events were the ACEN Idol part 1, Ranger Fans Unite, and the Gothic Lolita Fashion Show. After that, I'd be putting up most of my gear and hitting up Anime Hell and Midnight Madness. There was the music videos I had wanted to attend as well, but I never did...too many conflicts.

This day didn't turn out quite as I had planned. I learned today I really need to have a few more backup plans than I usually do. As a member of the press this year, I could have interviewed some of the Rangers, if I hadn't wanted to check out ACEN Idol. This was important as the ACEN Idol contest turned out to be a somewhat uneventful affair at this convention, or to be more accurate, what I was attempting to film was more the preliminary elimination rounds. Certainly not the big production that AX makes the contest out to be (though even they have the prelim elimination round)...that part happened in conjunction with Masquerade. Had I considered not attending one, I could have made plans to attend the other...though I don't know what I'd ask one of the former Rangers to be honest. Oh, right...had to eat somewhere in there, heheheh.

Regardless, not a total loss. The pics were certainly not a waste of time. Take this girl for example...she was absolutely fearless. Just out there in the Mikuru bunny suit, getting her picture taken. No escort and no friends around. Even took a pic with me. Noting she had some courage in what she was doing, she replied (and I badly quote), “Oh, you're all fine. There's nothing to worry about.” Later she dressed up as Naga...I certainly hope she didn't wind up regretting it, being as friendly and pretty as she was. I've also been told, by well...everyone who's seen this pic, that I should have asked this lady out for a drink. In retrospect...yeah, I probably should have, but there's a certain stigma at these cons when talking to pretty girls that one really doesn't want to come off as too creepy. Still, fear profits a man nothing...if I see her again, maybe I will, heh.

The path to the ACEN Idol thing was interesting in what didn't happen more than what happened, and what wound up happneing. I'd run into Cap'n Moonie in her adorable Horo costume, and she decided to accompany me to the showing. Finding it was the adventure...the map seemed to indicate it was somewhere in the same area of the exhibit hall. This didn't make much sense, all things considered, so we wound up going up to the very helpful information booth at the front of the exhibit hall. They pretty much just pointed out the way, that it was indeed, right there in the back...just keep heading to the back, and over in the corner they pointed to. And it was true; that's exactly where those places were...little rooms in the back of the exhibit hall, three of them to be precise. It's actually a pretty convenient place; you could shop a little first and then head over to whatever event you wanted to attend.

We got there a little early so we did a little of that shopping first, but then headed in for the ACEN Idol thing. It really didn't seem like anyone was doing much of anything in there, and this was well beyond the time of the sound check scheduled in the guide. moonie had expressed an interest in the Lolita Sewing panel. I was kinda interested in it as well, so we packed up and headed over there.

It was interesting stuff, from a simple observer's standpoint. I found out the girls there were quite opinionated on what constituted Lolita and what did not. I can see that was one of those things one did not argue unless one brought guns and atomics. They discussed everything from fabrics, where to get their materials, where and how to get their tools, shortcuts, and the like. I also marveled at the demography a bit. Ages ranged from teenage to...well, there was one lady there who had to have been in her sixties at least. Nothing wrong with that, but it certainly wasn't something I was expecting.

Next up on the agenda was hitting up the Ranger panel. This consisted of Karan Ashley, the Yellow Ranger after Thuay Trang (rip) left the show; Robert Axlerod, an accomplished VA whose work on the show included Finster and Lord Zed; Steve Cardenas who played Rocky, the second Red Ranger after Austin St. John left the show the first time, and finally Jason David Frank...who has been the longest running recurring Ranger of them all, and needs no intro to be sure, heh. I had thought about filming it, I really did...even had my camera gear with me. Next time I will likely see if they don't mind if I film it, but I was thinking more about filming the fashion show than this event. They all got massive applause as they walked in, though Jason was walking around at first...I think he and the guy that was filming had something worked out. In any event, it was great to see all these fans, all the people like me who were children and teenagers, and the people who were part of the show who were all around cool people.

Some highlights of that. I'll start with Mr. Axelrod. No offense to the man, but I was seriously worried. He looked like he was having problems walking around; he looked pretty bad. He still sounded good, but damn I hope the situation wasn't too taxing for him. Found out that Lord Zed's voice was originally supposed to be another character, but he never got to use it for that character. Also found out that during the production of the movie back in '94 that Fox had wanted to hire all new VAs for the movie, but it was Haim Saban that had to go to bat for the VAs. I swear, companies have absolutely no respect for the VA. Never did find out what Karen was doing. She might have said it, but I didn't pick up on it. She looked and sounded okay, so I wasn't that worried. One of the things that bugs me about the actors that play on things like the Power Rangers is that they may go nowhere afterwards; just waste away into nothing, and that...disturbs me. So it's good to know they're okay...like finding out an old friend is alive and well after dropping off the face of the world for awhile. Steve is an instructor of children's Karate which was interesting to find out. Jason has been the actor longest on Power Rangers, but also is CEO of his own martial arts academy and goes to tournaments around the world. Karan, Jason, and Steve all shared anecdotes about their time on the show; turns out that Jason was a bit of a prankster...especially on the movie. The fly sandwich story had us rolling...no I'm not going to tell it...trust me, just get one of them to tell it if you see them at a con or somewhere. Turns out Jason and Austin St. John...have some issues to settle...hopefully Jason was right and after that fight, if it ever happens, the air will be clear...but both of them need to stop talking shit to each other, I can tell, and just throw down.

I almost wish I could have been in that panel forever. Being a kid again felt so...nostalgia is too weak a word. It was like being back there with Peter Cullen, Dan Gilvezan, and Michael McConahie in '04...like being back in a better time. Still, time flows...and we all must grow up...and there I had a job to do; one that I enjoyed, heh. So it was a fond farewell to the Rangers and off to the Lolita Fashion Show.

Finding the place was interesting. I had no idea where it was or how to get there. Had to call up Cap'n Moonie for that one. Turns out it was in an Hotel across the street, and I didn't have much time to get there. Fortunately I misjudged how much time I really had, got there well ahead of the starting time, and as before, the con staff escorted me inside ahead of everyone. They were quite helpful in showing me where to set up out of the way of the cameras they had set up for the fashion show, and I managed to snag it all on highest quality that the camera had.

It was a popular event, people lining up on walls to watch it. The event itself didn't last nearly as long as they thought it would because, as they found out, when you get out on stage, you tend to move a little faster than you realize. The rest of the time was spent talking about Lolita stuff and answering questions. The coordinator of this event, a young lady going by the moniker Alice, who was so sweet I could FEEL the cavities forming, fielded most of this.

Let me segue a moment. Alice, you're a lovely girl, and adorable in the dress you wore, but you nearly killed the room when you walked up to your friend and, in that voice of yours, said, “I'm such a sweet loli, tee hee!” I saw people wincing in pure diabetic shock. I was one of them. I hope you're proud of yourself! Heheheheh, seriously, it was a fun event, and I hope to be able to perhaps record the tea party next year, if you have one. Thanks for putting it on!

To be honest, I think, outside of the presentation of the Gothic Lolita Bible, I may have asked the most time intensive question concerning brands for guys. This involved talking about what brands one MIGHT be able to wear depending on body shape (I'm right out; I'm 5'3” 180lbs of weight lifter...there's no way I can fit in that stuff) being close to a Japanese guy's, keep a look out for stuff on sale over here, and a guy by the name of Ken coming out on stage and modeling for everyone. He had the Gothic Aristocrat thing going...the only thing guys actually look good in as far as I've seen (most other types of male fashions make us look pretty dopey). Gotta admit, that was pretty good...I may be tempted to put an outfit like that together, but then I'd probably look very out of place. Ken fit the part, and me? I do a decent Dark Lord and look real good as man in a suit (the kind that would put a bullet in you), but Gothic Aristocrat? I don't know that the clothes would actually be flattering on a guy like me, heh.

Filing out took a bit of time since I had to break my camera gear down. Still, I managed to take some pics afterwards (continues on to the next page) and even converse with a few of the girls who modeled their clothes. Still, main thing on my list of stuff to do was get my camera gear up to the room and drop that off so we could hit up Anime Hell and Midnight Madness. Before that, Cap'n Moonie and the rest of us grabbed a quick bite to eat by killing the rest of that Pizza from the day before, some munchies, and I think I opened up one of my MREs as well.

We headed out to the line for Anime Hell which was already around the block...I shit you not there. I sort of got side tracked with some pics to be taken while the girls went on ahead. It was here I realized that ACEN was always awake. This con did not slow down, it did not sleep for anything. Here in the Hyatt it was pretty late and people were traveling around in massive numbers just as they did at the beginning. This place just did not stop! I managed to pull myself away from the pic taking, eventually, to get in line for Anime Hell, though I missed the girls the first time through, heh. The line was relatively quick, all things considered.

What can I say about Anime Hell? Wasn't as good as it was last year at Fanime. It was still quite entertaining...it had an unforgettable entrance, that's for sure. No, I won't spoil it, suffice it to say, you need to go watch it. If you're like me, you may have the chance to see it at different venues...you'll find if you do that they don't show quite the same one at the differing venues. What I mean to say is there was different stuff shown at Fanime than there was at ACEN; not all of it, just some...which is interesting to see. And then came Midnight Madness.

Midnight Madness started off with Nescaflowne, a fan parody by the guys who brought you Evangelion Re: Death and Fisting the North Star. Yes, FISTING the North Star (saw part of that at Fanime...added more mental scaring to my impressive collection). Nescaflowne is basically a coffee based fan parody of the Escaflowne anime series with some stuff from the movie tossed in for good measure. Humorous, certainly, but not quite as harsh on the ribcage as Re: Death. The second showing was a bunch of trailers for parodies they were never going to do, though I wish they'd do “Robotech: Remeber the Pain” at the very least...hehe.

About this time, it was 1:30 in the a.m....and I was near dead. I got up to walk back to the room, when I heard, “Evangelion. Re: Death Re: Duex” and I cried. I'd been wanting to see this souped up version of Re: Death for ages, but there was no way I was going to last through it. So, with a heavy heart I made my way back to the room to take a shower and crash and burn...because there was a lot to do the next day, and I had to get up both as late as I dared and as early as I could.