THE PARTING OF WAYS & THE DEALER'S ROOM 3

Afterwards, I wanted to find Michelle, Ryan, and Haley, so Dylan went off somewhere, and I never saw him again! After I bit of wandering, I found Haley and Michelle. Ryan, in the meantime, was off watching the Ah! My Goddess movie, someplace. We all then went into the dealer's room through the secret back door, as Michelle knew the people from the Cyber City comic store who were running a booth in there, so they let us in, thus bypassing the long line up! We all chatted to them for a while, then Haley had to go home. Michelle and I, after finding Ryan, headed off to see Psydoll, an actual Japanese rock band, who were performing a live concert!

PSYDOLL: HOW I PRETEND TO FEEL CULTURED

Being a big J-Rock fan, I'd have to say this was the highlight of the con for me. It was so great to hear some live J-Rock and be in a crowd of people who felt the same. Psydoll really put on a great show. The members of Psydoll are Nekoi, on vocal and keyboard; Loveless, on digital percussion; and Ucchi, on electric guitar. They had a little technically difficulty with the sound at first, but it was fixed after the first song, and everything else ran smoothly.

Nekoi, I must say, was very cute, and even though she sang with a strong voice, she had a very soft speaking voice. Her English was pretty good, but because her speaking voice was, as I said, a little soft and quiet, I wasn't always sure what she was saying when she spoke between songs. At one point, everyone kind of chucked, because, I have no idea if this was what she was actually trying to say, she asked something which sounded like "Does anyone know if there is a Godzilla near here?" or something to that extent. I still have no idea what she meant.

After they were done their set, everyone in the audience started screaming encore, especially one very loud man in the center of the audience, so they played one more song! That was really nice! Everyone enjoyed the show a lot! Afterwards I bought one of their CD's, entitled, Psyber Doll, which is very good!

THE HOTEL ROOM

We then went up to Ryan and Michelle's hotel room, so they could drop off some of their goods. I wanted to go to the masquerade after, but they were being very slow, and Ryan kept insisting he had to eat, or he would die. I said food was for the weak, and that we must see the masquerade! When we got down to the lobby, we found the masquerade line was insanely long. There was no way we'd get in, so we decided to go eat, after all. Now I will tell the story of dinner, which is, on it's own, an event in itself.

THE STUPID DINNER

We went to the hotel restaurant to eat. There's a large sign there that says, "Please wait to be seated." This didn't seem to stop Ryan from just wandering right into the restaurant and aimlessly staring at people eating! As he began walking back to Michelle and I, who respectfully were waiting to be seated, a waiter arrived and gave Ryan a very perplexed look. He then seated us, and asked what we wanted to drink. I just had water, and Michelle coffee. Ryan then decided he wanted coffee too, even though he doesn't drink coffee, and then as the waiter goes to leave, blurts out he wants a Sprite too, for the hell of it!

So he gets his coffee first, and haphazardly, starts throwing sugar and milk into it. It tastes so bad he takes a couple sips, and the spits it all over the table! Lovely! Especially since I was sitting right next to him. After witnessing that, I sure feel hungry! So Ryan doesn't drink his coffee. Both he and Michelle order chicken fingers, I just have a side of fries. None of us even finish our meals, in trademark style! We then wait an absorbent amount of time for the waiter to bring us our check!

MASQUERADE: INSANE RAMBLINGS

Finally we go to where the masquerade is to take place, but a man at the door tells us the room is full, but we can head over to another room and watch a live feed of it, so we do. Ryan then leaves, suddenly, saying he doesn't wish to watch it. Michelle and I stay and watch the first 60 odd entries out of 99. The only problem is sound, again. The two girls, dressed as rabbits, hosting the show, are very quiet, and nobody put microphones in front of the stage, so we couldn't hear what the contestants were saying!

These two girls hosting the show seemed to have no idea what they were doing! They could barely read their cue cards, and they didn't pronounce stuff correctly! The one girl called Digi Charat, diji-carrot! The other girl had this insane laugh, and every time it was uttered, everyone in the room started mimicking it in funny voices and making fun of her. The best part of not being in the main room was that we were all allowed to rip into anyone we saw on the screen, so there were lots of funny comments being made at everyone's expense!

Some highlight I recall where: "TAKE IT OFF!" -Some girl in reference to a female cosplayer on stage. "Do you want me to molest you?" "I'll hold you to that fact." -Two people beside and in front of me conversing. "Kame-ha-me-HA'I'm constipated!" -Someone dubbing the voice of a Goku cosplayer on stage. "Oh DEAR GOD NO!" -Almost the whole crowd in response to very large and scary woman in some sort of costume. "Give that girl the prize!" -Me, in reference to this cute little girl dressed as Card Captor Sakura, who was just adorable!

CHOBITS: THE CROWD WHO REFUSED TO STOP LAUGHING

Michelle and I then had to leave, as the next thing we wanted to watch was starting soon. We collected Ryan, and went off the see Chobits, which was a great show!

We managed to get seats in the front row by getting in early, and pushing people out of the way as they left the room. Chobits was an extreme funny show, but it seemed some people found it almost too amusing. I'm not saving it wasn't hilarious, but the woman in front of me on the floor was practically falling over, laughing hysterically. As well, people seemed to laugh insanely over sight gags, that were funny, but not insane-laughing funny. Oh well, that's just my take. The people in the crowd laughing were just as fun as the show in some aspects.

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION 2 & WANDERING AIMLESSLY 3

After that, we wandered more, then played a bit of Dance Dance Revolution and wandered even more. It was then time for me to leave, as it was 2 in the morning, so I went home.

THE NON-EXISTENT DAY

Well, there actually was no day three for me. I got home very late the day before. When I woke up Sunday, I looked at the clock and realized it was almost 1:30 PM!!!!! The con was over at 5 that day, and it takes an hour to get there and back, so no one wanted to drive me, so I ended up staying home. I got a nice angry phone call from Michelle and Haley, who wanted to know were I was, though!

So that was my trip to Anime North 2002. There were many fun and insane moments, and I enjoyed seeing everyone in cool costumes and being crazy. I look forward to it next year, as well as the next upcoming convention, CNAnime 2002! See you there!

- Shawn Allison is an artist and insane person who lives in Aurora, Ontario. He actually wrote this whole paragraph himself in third person to make it seem all official and article-like. He is Dylan's assistant teacher for the anime classes he teaches at David Bluestein's Comic Book Masters art class. When he is not working, drawing, or watching anime, he is doing nothing (or sleeping)!