Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009 Convention Report

Anime Weekend Atlanta has come and gone. I have been planning and saving for this convention since February so it is a bit bitter sweet that 4 days flew by so quickly. Overall I had a great time and I think everyone else who attended did too. XD

This post will be long and full of pictures. I apologize in advanced for the overall longness. And how random the post may be at times. XD I tend to get random.

I hope to provide an honest post about the entire weekend and not some blanketed MOG anime conventions are fun no matter what. I want to tell people exactly what happened so they can better decide if they want to attend this certain convention. Not that I was dragged in handcuffs by the police or maimed by crazy frangirls or anything. I just want to present honest feedback and give people a reasonable expectation of what to expect. So…ON TO THE HONEST.





Every single time my husband and I go on a trip something happens. Every single time. This time the trip was longer thus we got to experience more WTFness. We first get on the highway and were instructed to take a detour. We were on that detour for an hour because apparently one sign was missing. So our 5.5 hour long trip got that much longer. The husband was not pleased. I was a bit nervous since I was supposed to attend the SuperHappyFunSell and we wanted to walk around the hotel to get the lay of the land and eat before we set up.

Then it rained. Like buckets of rain God is flooding the Earth type of rain. Only this time no one’s car (namely mind) got 2 inches of water in it. So we couldn’t do the speed limit for quite a while as everyone was driving with their emergency lights on.

AC is overrate anyway.

Then the AC broke. The AC we just got fixed like a month ago. And it was raining outside so we couldn’t roll down the windows. Again the husband was no pleased.

We're all going to die down here.

So while in the rain and in a car slowly burning up the road we were on suddenly turned into another road. Usually you have to turn to get onto another section of highway but not in Atlanta. Tada! We are going the wrong way and have to fight rush hour traffic, such joy.

Welcome to AWA!

But because my husband is speed racer we got to the hotel at 5, only 1 hour after we planned on it. It is actually scary when you stop and think about how fast my husband was going in the non rainy sections of the road but I tried to keep my eyes closed or focus on my Pokémon losing skills. It is better if you don’t look directly at the road.

Those shall be packed in a matter of hours.

Check in was really quick as it was Thursday and most people probably checked in on Friday. Another miracle that happened was we got a room on floor 3. The first floor is the lobby and the second floor is all the conference rooms and stuffers. So that means we got the closest room possible. That means we would hardly have to deal with the elevators of doom and crowdedness.

The noise climbs upwards!

Now a word to people who have never attended this convention before. The hotel has all its rooms around an open lobby area. Sound travels. I am not sure how noising it was on the upper levels but where we were it was pretty noisy at night (meaning I was trying to go to bed at 2 am and people were still screaming and being special). It wasn’t like we could hear word for word. It was like background noise that bothered me but didn’t affect my husband at all. And the noise would pick up again around 9 am. So while we didn’t have to walk that far or wait for any elevators it was a bit noisy. Just something to think about….but I still rather have that room than wait on the elevators.

There were plenty of food options around the hotel. I wouldn’t recommend the Subway downstairs in the mall area as I think they were ripping people off. The Subway down the street (less than a mile away) was more reasonably priced and were not sloppily made. There is a walkway that connects the hotel to an actual mall that has a good court. The hotel also had a few restaurants but they were too expensive for my taste. I mainly survived on the convention stands near the dealer’s room. Given the fact that this was a convention I thought the prices were pretty decent (way better than Megacon’s). So food shouldn’t be a problem for anyone at this convention. XD Just plan ahead as the lines tend to stay long. Eat before you reach the moment of MOG starving.

So after having some Subway it was time to set up for the SuperHappyFunSell. I set up while my husband went in line to get our badges. Looking back he really should have waited to get our tickets. He was in line for over an hour (which isn’t that long at all considering) but later in the night no one was in line. We are silly.

Come and buy my stuff!

The SuperHappyFunSell was pretty fun. I made 160 dollars which surprised me. The only thing negative about the experience was the seller who thought the rules didn’t apply to her. Instead of just taking up a table worth of space she put all her crap on the floor and blocked the lane to get into our booths with her box of crap. I am not sure why she wasn’t told she couldn’t do that but I hope people stepped on her stuff. So annoying. Other than that it was fun. XD I got quite a few mangas at decent prices and I thought the turnout was awesome. I had no idea so many people would come to a Thursday event. XD

I could see my car from our window. XD

I know other people had a problem with parking but since we arrived on Thursday we got a really good spot and stayed there all weekend. The weather was mostly bad all weekend with a few moments of sunshine so I felt bad for people walking in the rain. :( I am not sure where the other parking was but I hope it wasn’t too bad for the other people.

Early Friday morning and we are all set to go!

I really enjoyed the whole not driving the first day of the convention. Yes an extra night at the hotel did drain a bit of my wallet but it was really worth it so we didn’t have to spend 6 hours driving on the first day. It was nice to just wake up and go down to the convention instead of breaking our necks driving and missing part of the fun. It was also nice not to be in the registration line when all the fun was going on. XD

It's time for stuff!

After get all ready and taking a few pictures of early cosplayers it was time to wait in line for the dealer’s room. Here was our first problem with line management that seemed to plague the convention. We were in one huge line and our position was right in front of the artist alley. The doors didn’t open on time which I will never understand. These dealers have time on Thursday to set up and get ready for the fire marshal to give the okay to. So I am not sure why there was a delay or why one dealer had to tell us customers “sorry for the mess, they opened up early on us”. All lies. Get your act together dealers. But anyway since the doors did not open on time the line was getting longer. Someone had the awesome idea to break the lines into two groups. That part was fine as we were divided equally in line and we were basically in the same position as before. The problem occurred when they made a third line next to our line with people who just came up to the line. So we have been waiting in line for 45 minutes and people who just walked up are ahead of us. That doesn’t scream fair to me. If it had been an event with actual seating I would have been disappointed and angry. But since we all made it into the dealer’s room it wasn’t that RARW. Just I wish the line would have been fairer to those who were waiting longer.

Want them ALL!

The dealer’s room was huge. Back in 2000 I remember how big the dealer’s room was and how no other dealer’s room could compare to it (Megacon doesn’t count as it is not all anime). The dealer’s room was HUGE! My wallet was already hurting before I spent a cent. Here is my sway post for those who want to see all my treasures. XD

Lots and lots of food.

My first destination was the Wizzywig booth since I heard awesome things about it and saw all the cute stuff they sold last year. When I got to the booth…I was slightly disappointed. There was a booth near the front of the dealer’s room that had monokuro boo stuff I wanted. Wizzywig did have a few San-X and Sanrio plushies but they were mainly focused on selling their Japanese food items. My husband really enjoyed that booth though since he likes trying new foods out. I got a few blind packages of the Lego People and a plushie like looks like a naughty Cinnamoroll. I really liked the penguin Hello Kitty but it was kinda small and 15 dollars was a tad bit steep.

Shopping away from the annoying noise.

If you spent any time in the dealer’s room you heard the annoying song that played all weekend. I thought it was bad when people played the same CD over and over again. But no this booth played the same trance video game sounding music all weekend. If I had been near that booth selling my own stuff I might have broke their music player. Or crank my own music up beyond high. I wonder if anyone commented to them how annoying it was. XD

Tax is overrated.

One thing I wasn’t ready for was how almost every booth (that I shopped at) charged tax. That really isn’t a complaint as I think I have just been spoiled by other conventions but it was still a RARW moment. Especially when some dealers weren’t really charging accurate tax and were just tacking on a dollar to a 7 dollar purchase. I felt more comfortable when people actually had calculators and registers to charge us tax.

This is what my anime room looks like..or will one day.

There were tons more manga booths here than at AFO. Probably the reason I walked away with 56 of them. Some booths didn’t get the memo that at anime conventions you don’t charge full price for mangas or only offer 1 dollar off. They are free to do what they want but I stuck with the buy one get one free booth and the other booth in the far left corner. They may be lacking in some newer volumes but I was behind on so many issues it didn’t matter to me. Feel my poorness.

Boxes for us!

There were a lot of figurines and mecha kits. If you are into those two things you were sure to find something to spend your hard earn money on. Once again shopping around is important because prices drastically different from one booth to another.

Learn to haggle dealers.

Dealers seem to be less eager to haggle with figurine prices in my experience. One of my favorite booths was a booth that opened up the blind boxes/packages for you. Yes their prices were a bit more but you were guaranteed to get the one you wanted. I just wish they had more CLAMP 3-D land figurines. Of course I would be in debt instead of poor but you know. One booth had quite a few nendoroids so that made up for the CLAMP 3-Dness. XD

Need them ALL!

Plushies plushies plushies. If you are a crazy plushie lover like I am there was so many to choose from. One booth had great deals on Pokémon plushies which I am sure made a lot of people happy. Sanrio and San-X fans were also probably very thrilled to see so much merchandise. The booth that I usually buy my Sanrio products from had a low selection this year so I am glad other booths had a better selection.

Taking pictures with ease and no one gets mad. XD

One thing that is great about this dealer’s room is the hallway space. I am sure people could argue that they could put more booths in the room and make the hallway less crowded but I enjoyed the space. Sometimes people stop and take pictures in the walkways and it wasn’t a hassle this time. XD

No one steal the tail!

I also enjoyed the fact that the Pikamobile had its own section. The dealer’s room might be an odd place for it but in the end it worked.

MMMM yaoi.

So overall I thought the dealer’s room was good but slightly more expensive than usual. The selection was better and there was a lot of space to walk around. Tenchi approves!

I tip that.

The Artist Alley was SO GOOD. Much better than AFO’s sad excuse for one (in the middle of a busy hallway) and better than Megacon’s crowding them at the end of the dealer’s room. They do deserve their own space for people to look at their stuff and not just tucked in some place where people happen to be walking by. It’s in a place where people have to want to go into which makes the shoppers more serious about their purchases.

So very VERY cute.

I really enjoy the chibi style of art. So chances are if you had something chibified I stopped at your booth and dropped a little money. I didn’t spend a ton of money at any one particular booth but I tried to buy a little something for artist I liked. I seem to get a lot of buttons and stickers this year. A small purchase but if enough people buy a 2 dollar button you will make some decent money.

My favorite booth was the one booth that had the puddle bunny stuff. They had some of the cutest items in the entire room. XD I thought their prices were incredibly reasonable and they had a nice variety of merchandise with prints, pins, pens, shirts, and a plushie. If I go back to AWA next year I am sure to buy something else there. I hope they made decent money this year so maybe they can expand their shirt line. I would love a puddle bunny shirt.

An example of a funny sign. XD

There were a few annoying booths. I don’t mean artists whose art I don’t really find pretty. Art preferences differ from person to person. I can see that they put a lot of effort into their pieces even if I don’t want to purchase them. No I am talking about the few booths that were all DON’T TAKE PICTURES! NO HAGGLING! NO BLAH BLAH. I actually get the no picture thing. If I wanted a picture I would specifically ask because that is someone else’s work instead of just some stuff being sold in the dealer’s room. But when your booth has more signs than actual merchandise being sold…well. I guess that is more amusing rather than annoying. You just sit there with your three over priced plushies and 10 DON’T signs. XD I will go to booths with a slightly less abrasive attitude.

There were a few booths that I was less than impressed with. It was almost like the Artist Alley was a last minute idea for them to do and they through together some random sketches in the car. A few people need to have a bit more pride in their work and take things a bit more seriously. I need to be impressed with your set up and work to stop and look. Maybe these people had issues or it was their first year. Perhaps they will be better prepared next year.

Cute animals. XD

Overall the Artist Alley was beyond impressive and had great prices. Not sure where I am going to put the stuff I bought but I am glad they came home with me. I hope everyone made decent money. XD

So many cosplayers so little space.

The cosplayers were excellent. I have read on some forums that people think the cosplayers were down this year but to me they were everywhere. And while there were some cheapo Ls and Narutos running around many of the costumes were pretty good. People actually wanted to have a good costume and if people wanted to just dress up it was clear they were dressing up and not actually trying to be someone.

SO CUTE! Anime comes out in less than two weeks XD

For the most part the cosplayers were nice about having their pictures taken. A few brushed us off and said they were too busy. One person wouldn’t stand up to have their picture taken. I would totally understand if they had a large costume or it was late in the day. But it wasn’t. It was barely 11 am and their costume wasn’t heavy at all. I wish my husband hadn’t taken her picture if her attitude was going to be that snotty but apparently he didn’t understand the EYE thing I was trying to convey. But the vast majority of cosplayers were eager to have their pictures taken. Some were really excited and that was cute to see them be happy about their pictures being taken.

We all live in a pokemon world!!!

Yay for CLAMP XD

What I especially enjoyed was the cosplay gatherings. It is fun to just walk up at a certain time and find your favorite series all gathered together in one easy group. I felt a little bad for the gatherings on Sunday. The turnout left pretty low to the ones I wanted to go to and I felt bad for the lone Pokémon girl when no one else showed up. But on Friday and Saturday there were tons of people at the gatherings. My favorite was the Pokémon on Saturday near the car. I would say CLAMP but there were hardly any Fais! Fai is the best character ever people!

I shall cover up my RARWness with cool cosplay pictures.

I was really excited about the costume contest. I have heard horror stories in the past about the long lines and crappy seats so my husband and I started waiting in line at 5:30. That was our choice and we realized the wait was going to be long. However I wish the staffers would do a better job at line management. People starting to stand next to us when it was pretty clear we were in line. We told all of them where the line started and most of them moved except one group. We made sure they didn’t get ahead of us in line but they skipped 99 percent of the rest of the line. I think all of that could have been avoided if the line had been started in the registration line from the start.

Where's your ice cream?!

The contest started late. But I wasn’t really expecting it to start on time. I also wasn’t expecting to be in the first row because that is where the media goes and apparently the parents. I didn’t however, after almost 2 hours of waiting, expect to end up in row 14.

So awesome...

Yeah row 14. When we were let loose in the room the entire first section (minus where the contestants were going to sit) had people scattered about. There were empty seats but they claimed they were saving them. These people were not media nor were they parents. We were told the room was going to be cleared. We ended up sitting where the video guy was sitting in the middle of the second section. Then after most of the people were sitting down a staffer told the people in the first section they weren’t allowed to save seat and let people who were barely waiting in line at all sit there. To me those were my seats that were taken. I have no idea why the first section wasn’t told not to save seats and to squish together. This should have happened as the contest was late starting anyway.

Much Sakura love.

I ended up having to sit on the floor in front of the video camera (I wasn’t in the way of the camera at all). Someone in the first section had scouted out their seat into the middle of the isle and was holding their camera up high above their heads. Way to be considerate to the 45 people whose view you are obstructing.

Random pictures are always fun. XD

As for the actual costume contest I thought the quality of costumes was really, really great. The attention to detail was spot on and people seemed to be proud of their work. I am used to a host being a little less fluffy and AW that is so cute about everything but that is just my personal preference. The random music being played was random and special.

I has this artbook! XD

But……the contestants spent like 2 seconds on stage. It feels funny to be all RARW about my seats after the fact since half of the constants didn’t stand long enough to take a picture anyway. According to other forums the staffers were hard core about some 5 second rule and the contestants were scared or something. I just found it funny that they were told 5 seconds and despite the contest starting late it ended before it was supposed to. I wish they had spent more time on stage. A lot of those costumes deserved more time that they received.

I do think she deserved to win something though.....

I pretty much agreed with the judge’s choice of winners although I think a Tsubasa Sakura deserved at least a judge’s favorite. Congratulations to all the winners. XD A lot of hard work was put into those costumes.

Our last disaster in line management made me the angriest. We decided to go to Anime Hell after munchin on some more Subway and taking random pictures. By the time we got to the line it had reached the door to another event and we were told by a security staffer to start the next part of the line alongside the way away from the entrance of the door. We did…and he walked away. Leaving us to tell people no, that’s not the line we are in line get behind us. Some people didn’t listen to us. We told the staffer at the door (who was also wearing a security badge) what was going on and she basically did nothing. Well, 2 second before we were let into the room she called someone on her radio to deal with the line but that was about 30 minutes too late for that. It makes me mad that we had to keep telling people where the line was when (it was clear where the line was) a staffer was right there. It would be nice if people listened to other random congers but it isn’t my job to be the bad guy and tell people to get the eff out of wrong line. I don’t like being skipped. It’s bad enough one person saves a spot for 13 people and the line gets thicker and thicker.

People better not consider this old school!

We attended both Anime’s Craziest Death and Anime Hell. I kept hearing how AWESOME Anime Hell was so I decided we should go. And…really I am not sure what the hype is all about. I mean, it was an interesting panel but at times I felt left out of a big joke. Especially during the GI JOE clips. Also at both panels the content was so old! I am sure people will say that about my love of Sailor Moon but seriously! I guess it the genre of shows the panelists are into but it was hard to connect with the content. And the person running Anime Hell was really….adamant about having every single seat filled rather than starting the show. It gave me the feeling he wanted to brag about how full his show was and could have actual numbers to back it up. But the staffers could have just let people in instead of him going on and on about how there are still seats. People can see in the semi darkness I promise you.

When in doubt an a cosplay picture. Favorite Fai all weekend. XD

This is going to sound weird….but I think con funk was nonexistent for me. The stinkest part of the whole weekend for me was at the SuperHappyFunSell (which boggles my mind since NOTHING had happened yet). I guess people don’t believe in refreshing after a long car ride but seriously ew. Other than that it was just hit and miss with random funk. The part of the convention with the dealer’s room actually smelled good because of the food booths. Other parts of the convention smelled almost like chlorine which is better than funk any day of the week. I know this might not be the case for everyone but since there was more space it was easier for the smell to spread out into nothingness. I will not pretend it is actually people showering. XD

No idea who you are but super cute!

In fact I think overall rudeness and bad behavior was down for me. I think it goes hand in hand with there being more space so if there was stupid behavior going on it was away from me and didn’t affect my walking around ability. No one was really overly rude or made me want to blow up some teenagers. I do wish people would keep their voices down at night but that just might be the layout of the hotel. There was less trash than I expected from convention goers and overall I think people were good about watching where they were going and stopping when pictures were being taken.

WTF hat?!

I had only one real WTF turn WOW moment the entire weekend. My husband was watching a panel waiting for the Anime Hell panel. I was walking around taking pictures and I was making my way back to my room to get something to snack on. I was behind someone and they whipped around fast to take a picture of someone. However they got my face and I was instantly blinded. The WTF is the fact they didn’t even say sorry and just walked away from my blind self. I got myself to a wall so I could blink back some sight into my eyes. I took off my glasses and out of habit I started to clean my glasses off in my shirt when suddenly the lens was in my hand.

Bash them glasses!

Breaking your glasses at an anime convention when you are near sighted and a lot of things involve subtitles is not a good thing. I admit to being a little panicky. I managed to get myself to the information table that was directly in front of me without bumping into too many people. I explained my issue even though it didn’t appear anyone could help me. Suddenly a girl appeared and she just screwed the tiny screw back in with her finger nail! The stupid thing wasn’t even stripped so I have no idea how they got broken but that is beside the point. The point is this awesome stranger saved my weekend and in no time flat. Thank you stranger for saving my glasses. I promise to get new ones as these are way over 4 years old. XD Random acts of kindness make me happy.

No my favorite Code Geass character personality wise but her outfit is the most fun.

I think the overall crowd was a bit older than conventions I have gone to in the past. Maybe that is because I am getting older and as time goes on the people who were into anime because it was on TV or seemed like the cool thing to do are weeded out and people who actually enjoy the hobby are the ones who make up the core of the convention. In any event it was pretty positive crowd of people. I tend to keep to myself so it’s not like I seek out tons of human interaction anyway. But from what I can see there wasn’t that many angry faces in the crowd and people were having a good time, despite how many times we were told we lost the game (which my husband turned and asked what the game was…).

We shouldn't be fighting at all!

The hotel staff and the official police didn’t bother me at all. All we needed was someone to help bring up all of junk and that was basically all we needed. My husband did forget something after we checked out but that issue was taken care in no time flat. So I can’t say anything bad about either of these groups. I don’t really ask for much so I don’t expect much.

Example of fail signs.

Even though I hate people with signs I thought the person who had the Kanye sign was awesome. XD Wish I took a picture but I was busy thinking FOOD at the time. Hopefully someone else did.

Very lovely room.

I am trying to think of anything else that I failed to mention. The cops on the roads in Atlanta are pretty hard core. They were pulling people left and right when we entered and left the city. Be careful out there you speed demons. The rooms were really spacious but I wish I brought my own pillows. Being able to check out via the TV was pretty cool and saved us a lot of time since the line on Sunday was horrible.

Tired cosplayers are tired.

Oh and one more WTF. On our floor someone had ordered room service and apparently didn’t like their little sandwiches. They had the tray out in the hallway. Later that day when I went back to my room the sandwiches were gone. Some random stranger ATE THEM. My husband thinks he has faith in humanity and that they were eaten by the owner of said sandwiches. Even still those sandwiches were out in a hallway for hours. People could have done gross things to those sandwiches. So I really think it was some random person who was starving. It amused me…and makes me want to remind people that saving money for food is important!

The lack of lights kinda sucks.

So that is my very long blog post about AWA. It had some RARW moments that I wish went a little more smoothly. I wish I had attended more panels (namely the Host Club panel but we got locked out of that 5 minutes after it started) but it always felt like we were busy with something else. XD Which is always a good thing, dull moments are never fun. I think if there had been a few more staffers with actual line management skills and things would have gone much smoother for me and my bag holder.

Let's be friends. XD

I think for this convention a little more planning is necessary on the part of the congoer. You need more money and spending the night on Thursday is highly recommended so you can get your badge before the con and nab a good parking space. That and checking into the hotel was a mess on Friday. Lines get long so there is no walking into a panel right before it starts. But the dealer’s room is huge and the amount of great costumes is mind blowing. Those are the two most important aspects for me so despite any down falls the convention is a success for me.

Come back next year or else!

Now this is the part where I should say I am planning on attending next year because
I had a great time. I normally would but I am seriously thinking of visiting my friend in DC next year and attending Otakon with her. But if that turns out to be way too much with the plane tickets and other expenses then the chances are I shall be attending AWA again next year. With a different game plan of course but I had a really great time and it was worth all the anticipation. For those of you who are planning on attending the convention I suggest going to the Anime Weekend Atlanta forums to decide for yourself if you want to attend. There people will have feedback on events that I didn’t attend like the Rave and the Maid Café. But speaking for myself it was worth the long drive and sleepless nights. XD Good bye AWA maybe I will see you again next year.