So, some things happened at Anime North. Some other things also did not happen, such as alien invasions (to my knowledge), but for the most part I will talk about things that did happen instead.

I’ve been writing a report of sorts for the past little while, but now that I look at it I think it might be too much for just a blog post. So maybe I’ll save it for now and leave it alone. If people tell me they are interested, I’ll do a proper report with more detail. For now I will just point out some of the highlights.

So, the panels I was on all went ok. But in all but 1 of these cases, I was probably the guy who knew the most about the subjects at hand. So, it sounds arrogant to say it like this, but I guess it was a good thing that I was there. The Transformers panel, however, went really well. This is thanks in no small part to my buddy Larry, who I had asked to be on the panel a month ago.

I had something of a goal for myself to win something, hopefully a DVD, by answering trivia correctly like I did last year. I accomplished this goal twice! First was at “Totally Lame Anime” for knowing that the motif of the super robot anime Diapolon is football. Yes, it’s a football robot. For this impressive victory I was awarded the DVD “Beauty and Warrior”, approximately valued at $1. The second win was at Anime Hell, for knowing that the guest attending the convention that year who had worked on the English version of the original Ultraman was Peter Fernandez. The prize for this was a Kimba the White Lion DVD, approximately valued at $1. I was immediately asked by a girl in the audience if I would sell it for $4. Now, I love Kimba, but I just can’t say no to making a 400% profit off of something I didn’t even pay for. So I took the money and used it to buy ramen and a Red Bull for the next day. I’d need it!

I didn’t have a hotel room, so I went home on Friday and wound up slumming it on Saturday night. I stayed in the all night video room the whole time, saw a few recent shows, and laid down on a row of chairs to catch maybe 2 hours of sleep, tops. So much for the 6-2-1 rule. I was definitely not the only person who did that, most of whom seemed to have more success at sleeping that I did. I can’t say I’d want to do that again, but it was an interesting experience for what it was at the time.

Other interesting things were the live wrestling featuring Raven in the main event, the “Yakitate!! Japan” panel, the Worst Toon Challenge featuring the South Korean epic “Solar Adventure“, and seeing people I have not seen in awhile, even though none of those encounters lasted very long.

I bought stuff, of course. I took home the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Limited Edition with box (not available at retail until this week), GaoGaiGar Vol.5 (Not available at retail until later next month), and the live action Cutie Honey movie.

On Sunday morning I lost my Decepticon baseball cap at the hotel. I would really like to get it back. If someone has found it, please contact me. I will give you free artwork if I get it back!

All in all, the convention was pretty good. About the same as last year. In retrospect I can look at the things I did and say I had an enjoyable time, but while it was all happening I have to admit that I was pretty lonely and didn’t like it that much. I missed a lot of the people I would usually see at this convention who I either didn’t catch up with or were not there. I’m glad that I did the panels though, because that made things more entertaining and gave me something to do.

Anyway, that’s all I feel like writing about it right now. Enough convention stuff for awhile.

Sayonara.

Finally, after searching for at least a year, I have found a copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for Nintendo DS!

Best of all is that I got it for $20. That’s pretty lucky, considering that this is supposed to be a rare game.

I can definitely see what all the hype has been about. This game really is truly enjoyable. The characters are all very well realized and there’s a lot of humor. Yeah, it’s kind of weird to be playing a lawyer video game, and you don’t really “do” a whole lot except look around and present evidence, but it’s fun! I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something really engrossing about it. I can totally seeing myself quickly going through the entire game in no time, and then picking it right back up and playing through it again.

It’s good to see that this game has not only been released in English, but also that it’s gained a significant fan following. We should have more games like this.

Sayonara.

Geeze, I’ve been so busy with posting on other message boards and responding to threads about the convention this post weekend that I haven’t had any time to update my own Weblog.

Well, anyway, TransformersCon was awesome. But I knew it was going to be awesome.

I won first place in the trivia on Friday night. I’m awesome. In the final round, I was up against a good guy from LA who has a website that I bought from a long time ago, and who I had met at BotCon 99 in Minnesota. One of the questions we had to answer was about a toy that I bought from his table back then. The circle of life is complete. I won a piece of paper with my name printed on it. Yay.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the comic. I even signed a few.

My art contest entry was finished just about an hour before I got there on Saturday. It was a bit of a challenge to even be ready by then. I stayed up all night with only a few hours of sleep. My printer wouldn’t print on the large paper I wanted to use, and when I switched to regular sized paper, it was out of yellow ink. Then I got a paper cut. But it was all worth it because I really wanted to finish, having started it a year earlier, and people really liked it so I got to talk to some cool folks about my art. It’s now on my deviantART account, so take a look at Cybertron Forever, featuring Vector Prime and friends.

While I was hanging around the art table and overheard another artist badmouthing the other art to his friend. He was saying things like how this was copied, that was cheating, his was better, and so on, all with a very whiny tone of voice. Then he looked at my entry and said “Oh, look at this anime! That’s copied from a poster!” (or something to that effect, I forget exactly). So I questioned him on it, not letting on at first that I was, in fact, the artist he was talking about. When I finally clued him in that this was my artwork, that it was most assuredly NOT copied from anything, and that I didn’t appreciate the insinuation that it was, he continued to insist that he had seen it before and that he had no reason to lie to his friend who was listening to him ragging on the other art on the table. Of course, he wouldn’t look me in the eye and say any of that. Probably because he was scared. And rightly so! After all, I’m Ninjatron, dammit. Anyway, I’ll just take it as a backhanded compliment that he thought the art was so good that it had to have been copied. I don’t sweat it, but that was pretty much the only negative experience I’ve ever had at this convention in all the years I’ve gone.

The highlights were definitely the times spent sitting with friends and chatting over pizza. On Saturday Michael Bell even joined us, and listening to him share his stories about the voice acting industry (without having to worry about any kids hearing it) was something I will not soon forget.

I didn’t buy anything. At all. Unbelievable, I know, but it’s true. Didn’t need to. I was there to see my buddies and promote my artwork, and that was successful on both counts. Looking forward to next year!

I’ll make another post when the comic I drew is available online.

Sayonara.