Anime Festival Orlando 2010 Convention Report

Corn welcome you to the Anime Festival Orlando convention post!

Welcome to the first post of many that will be flooding my blog in the next few days. I decided to start with blogging about my Anime Festival Orlando trip as it is the reason why I am so behind. Also I have to get it all down why it is fresh in my mind. Just spit it all out and randomly type. Hopefully the words make sense.

I want to add in a little disclaimer before I get down to it. I had a blast this weekend. There was a lot going on and there were a ton of nice people there. But…I can be a little snarky. And honest. Brutally honest at times. So yeah, I might say some things that aren’t all nice and rainbows and cupcakes. I want to give people a good impression of what AFO is if they haven’t been or share experiences that might have made others X_X too who were there. Here comes the honesty folks. The good, the bad, and the meh.

Also beware of lots of pictures. And maybe an overload of Corn the Giant Elephant. I hope if you went to AFO you had loads of fun. And if you were the ones screaming at the pool Sunday morning at 4 am….I hate you. Some people want to sleep! Actually most people at the convention were trying to sleep. I hope Popo shut you down (down).



Thursday- I have no idea what I was thinking. Well really I do. I thought I would leave work at 4, we be on the road by 5, get there at 7 because my husband drives like a crazy person, and there would be no one at the hotel. It was amazing in my head. Truly it was. However that is not what happened.

Calm before the storm. XD

After all was said and done we got to our room at 8 and threw all our crap in it. For the record we were in Building 8 which the lady at the front desk thought was AWESOME. You are by the POOL!!!!!! Um yeah we are not here for the pool but thanks for trying. I guess we can’t be super close every year but still meh.

After throwing all our crap in our room we tried to run to the convention center to get our badges. Slightly confused that registration was not where it usually is but we walked the entire hall and found everyone near check in. EVERYONE!!! I mean…it was not as bad as some horror stories that I have read about from other conventions (7 hours or 3 hours outside in the July sun this was not) but still. Yeah. A lot of people. Perhaps that is why we were in Building 8 because everyone and their cosplaying companions arrived before we did. Come on people, I thought we were all poor and couldn’t afford hotel rooms? Or are people still going 8 to a room? In any event X_X.

We reached the desk 8:55. I know that people who volunteer and staff conventions are overworked and under appreciated but that was a little bit longer than I thought it was going to take. Maybe I am spoiled because it has been years since I waited in line at AFO for registration but that is the longest I have been in line for AFO. Heck I think at AWA my husband was in line for only an hour and there were WAY more people. I think the line would have gone faster had each person had some of the badges instead one person with all the badges, one person with the lanyard, one person with the passport thing, and the last person with that random piece of paper. Just a thought. But yay for badges.

Now overall I was not impressed with the anime/random things that were played on the hotel room channel. I think someone was on crack this year. I mean there was always been crappy things on and old as crap anime. But mixed in were some random real life shows and some animes that came out within the last year. But this year was all let’s find the oldest animes ever and the worse subtitles ever. Or animes that no one in their right minds would like.

With that being said…really enjoyed the Power Ranger Movie. Not for the reasons you might think but because it was fun to snark. XD I mean, I love you Jason and David but dude. I totally forgot about the purple slime and how long it took the parents to walk to their doom (hours people hours). But I really loved it when the character Adam was all like “I’m a frog”. So cute!!! But my room really enjoyed the walk down memory lane and it’s always morphin time!

Waldo will help us forget our hotel troubles.

Thoughts on the hotel: Our hotel room/experience was fail in many ways. Some funny, some X_X, and others -_-. The pillows sucked. It was like sleeping on nothing at times. Next time bringing my own pillow. Which I probably have done in years passed but I forgot this year. Our hotel room door was broken. Like someone kicked down the door and broke in before we stayed there and the door was never fixed. You could see where the mental lock part and the door were separated. Now we noticed this when I went back to the room randomly…and the door was not closed. It wasn’t opened like door all ajar and crap but I pushed on the door and it opened. So yeah. That was super fun and scary. It was a pain in the butt making sure the door was always closed super tight. The toilet ran super funny. The AC at full blast wasn’t very cold. Good for me bad for the husband.

Also in regards to door fail our door did not have a weather strip at the bottom of it. Friday morning they pressure washed the building. We came back and yeah, flood all over the floor. Thank goodness there wasn’t anything near the door…the floor beyond the bathroom….and near the carpet. Yeah it went that far. The maids would take all of our towels but never leave any new ones. And while it is not their fault…building 8. Also this is random but it looked like one of our beds were used as a battering ram against the wall and they almost succeeded. So in conclusion…this hotel used to be awesome but I am over it. Super over the long walks, the no parking spaces, and the water that smells like pee when they water the flowers. No more.

Love you Corn!!!

Friday- Today was so busy and jammed packed. We even got up early to go to the mall so I could raid the Sanrio store. So we stayed up late watching the Power Ranger movie, got up early to go to the mall, and did a lot of things at the convention. So after today I was super tired. Either they didn’t go a very good job planning out all these panels or everything I liked was on one day. So the rest of the weekend might look a little light but that is because I spent less time in line and more time actually doing things.

The Dealer’s room was sorta lacking in anime this year. More and more artists are coming skipping Artist Alley and invading the limited Dealer’s Room space. I am sure that some people were happy with the increase of clothing booths but I am not really into wearing lolita clothing and I just like looking at kimonos. That being said I did find ways to spend my money. Wish someone had the Mugi nendoroid but I did get one EXCELLENT one so that makes me happy. But I think that the dealer’s were either cutting back this year or they were hit hard with previous conventions.

Jason David Frank and David Yost Autograph Signing- Even though I complained about waiting in line yesterday, the fast pass/Passport to Orlandia proved to be awesome this weekend. After wondering around the dealer’s room we noticed OH HEY a signing is going on. So by the time we got to the room it was closer to 3 pm. But BAM we were sent right in and there were only about 10 people in front of us. All the normal badges (AKA us last year) had to sit down and wait while we got first dibs. AWESOME for us. But I do hope everyone got their autographs.

I wish David Yost had pictures to sign. But being it was his first convention it was understandable. That and maybe I should have been prepared. He seemed to be having fun so that is all that matters. And for of those in the room yeah I am the one who went on and on about how the pink ranger sucked. The camera dude apparently ZOOMED in on my while I went on and on…how fun. XD

Dan Southworth and Reuben Langdon Autograph Signing- After walking back to our room to put the autographs down (when I found out OH HI the room doesn’t closed) I ran into Dan Southworth. Since I can’t read it turns out he was having a signing at 3:30. XO Back to the signing area we go. Again yay Passport thingies. Both Dan and Reuben seem to be having a good time. And for those of you there yes I was the girl who didn’t know that Voldemort was the bad guy in Harry Potter and that both Dan and Reuben were in the Devil May Cry video games. So special I am.

This person should have been in the costume contest.

Let’s Make a Deal- I don’t think my roomies even knew about this panel/event. But I love Let’s Make a Deal the real show so I didn’t want to miss this. XD I wanted to see the zonks. However I think everyone can agree some of the Zonks were pretty awesome and funny. Instead of money people were paid in ramen and anyone who was a Hello Kitty fan should have been there. Had I been picked I would have lost the purse game as I try to carry as little as possible in terms of normal purse things. But the game was super fun. I wish I could have attended more game shows but I am happy that I attended this one.

Random cosplay picture!!!

Opening Ceremonies-Pretty tame in terms of opening ceremonies. My husband commented that they will never compare to the year when they had the drums. We were introduced to our guests and we saw part one of the Swords of Orlandia thingy. The only :( part is since we were in the Passport section no one threw the EXP into our section of the room. Sadness fills my heart.

Orlandia’s Got Talent- I am going to try to be nice here. But I really got some second hand embarrassment from watching this show. I hate watching people making mistakes or doing something I feel is embarrassing. I mean, I am not brave enough to go up there and do anything so maybe I should stop talking. But I do understand that nerves get the best of people sometimes. That all being said I do think the last two groups were the best. I do think Kakashi’s group should have won but I guess people like singers more. Good job guys.

History of J-Horror- XO Look at me, learning things while on vacation. Like did you know that all Japanese people are right handed? I didn’t! The girl running this panel was very informative and knew what she was talking about which sometimes is not the case with fan run panels. I am not sure about the Golden Skeleton being a national superhero but that was funny. A lot of their monsters are super ugly but then again so are our American monsters. Overall I liked this panel but I wish these rooms wouldn’t get so cold.

Horror Guy’s J Horror Panel- So now that we learned the history of horror…it is time to watch gross scenes that will give us nightmares forever. The volume was really loud during the entire panel so hopefully he can work on that next week. But the clips were really, really gruesome. Like at one point I can to look away because I am not into watching people get their nipples cut off. I just couldn’t handle that. But I learned that Japanese people can bite people after their heads get cut off and that most serial killers in Japan happen to be nice looking house moms.

But the last clip…-_-. Husband thought the “PMS Period Whatever Movie” was excellent. He is on my short list.

More people should cosplay like this!

America’s Funniest Cosplay- Why does this panel always get really bad time slots? And why do the people who attend this panel scream so much? Like seriously dude that was my ear. But I did enjoy seeing the crazy things people think they should wear in public but really shouldn’t. It would be hard to pick my favorite one but the Homer Simpson one will give me nightmares. X_X

I wanted them all!!!! Why so expensive?!?!?!

Saturday-I spent most of the morning sleeping because yesterday drained me. That and I don’t think I have ever gotten up to see a 9 am panel in my life. But once I did get up…we went back to that mall to get my huge elephant. Because apparently I came to an anime convention to spend all my money at the Sanrio store in the mall. Also we spent a lot of time going to Downtown Disney today (thus spending more money). That is kinda weird for us and I feel it affected how many pictures I ended up taking at the con. So I feel weird about spending so much time away from the convention but I had a blast. This was the anime convention/Orlando vacation apparently.

The Lego store had so many cute sets!

Also we saved a lot of money this year by bringing more food. We had a lot more walking to do in terms of going back to the hotel a lot but it helped our wallets a lot. We only went to McDonalds once and Cici’s once. But….then I spent 1/3rd of my budget at the Sanrio store and some of it at Disney. Fun was had by all but now I must work hard to replenish my funds before AWA.

Traveling to Japan-Since we are actually going to Japan next year we all thought this panel was important to attend. Again a very informative panel. I am also feeling a little safer about traveling in the subway/trains now. I know groping is a huge problem in a relatively crime free country but it makes sense that the men wouldn’t target the foreign women as we would probably react differently. Also I feel slightly better about not starving. I do wish that she covered more of the anime aspects of visiting Japan but I think we might be able to manage on our own. Or just walk around until we get lost.

But people. Please hold your questions til the end doesn’t mean keep asking questions. Also why would you come into a panel…and stand in front of the door. And then not move when other people are trying to come in? Like are you that dumb or something? Sit your butt down or move!

Behold the final product!

Kokeshi Workshop- XO Sometimes I am made of fail. This is especially true when it comes to it comes to crafts. XD This panel was super popular. We were the special people sitting on the floor because they ran out of tables. Probably another sign we are outgrowing this location. But we had fun with our random other people on the floor. I kinda underestimated how long it would take to paint so I had to have a bit of help because I am that special. XD But I think our dolls came out really cute. I have a feeling that we might have missed a lot of costumes as this panel was during a prime time during the convention but we had a lot of fun.

Dear people at the pool. You really sucked. Like seriously I wanted to go out there and toss a stink bomb at you. But seeing how you all broke the hot tub with your bubbles the hotel staff might not have appreciated that. I wish the hotel people would have kicked out faster than they did (if they did as I finally passed out at 4 am). However since someone else decided to pull the fire alarm in another building they were busy dealing with crap. Just be considerate okay. Your fellow convention goers want to have fun and have a good time but there needs to be a reasonable time when people go to bed. Or at least go to your rooms and get drunk or something. Also ya’ll set a really bad example for anime congoers in general. Several people asked my husband on Sunday when we anime people were going home and when he said Sunday they were super pleased. And since they were entering our building and we had NO neighbors I can safely assume they were talking about the pool people and not our room. So…..STOP BEING JERKS!!!

Everyone is so tired!

Sunday- Early Sunday morning my husband went to go watch some hentai. I would have gone to the yaoi panel but…..after last year I was a bit meh about the situation. So I decided to hang out in the room and take pics of all my awesome stuff/pack. My friend was busy mourning over her Disney blind box purchase. But the really entertaining thing was that we learned how to cook soup in jail. And how to make a guitar in jail. And how make tattoos in jail. Yeah the anime was so fail we decided to watch Life Behind Bars. Note to all never borrow 38 dollars from anyone. They will kill you.

But overall this was a pretty laid back day at the convention. Us arriving on Thursday kinda threw us off our regular schedule and it felt like Monday to us. Also us waking up at 10:11 in the morning really didn’t help us in regards to…well anything. But since we did check out so late we got to watch the failest fan subs of all which was fun.

I feel as if some of the dealers really wanted to get out of there and weren’t willing to make deals. But I still managed to spend almost all of my money so go me. Also go posters that I need to hang on my ceiling. Of course I just realized I don’t have any tacks… :( so I need to wait until I has money (see MONDAY OF NEXT WEEK) to get some. Also it felt as if attendance was down. I mean I don’t like running into people AKA getting run into but my cosplayers were not out in full force. Stupid rain.

Super close seats for the win.

Woohoo for no Alois cosplays. XD

Cosplay Contest- Speaking of cosplayers…X_X The entire contest only lasted 38 minutes. I spent way more time in line (but yay Passport line) than at the actual event. Only 38 minutes? It didn’t feel like there was many entrants. Maybe the problem was the rain but I think the fact that cosplay judging took place on Saturday at noon was the real issue. I saw several costumes that would have been great in the contest but I bet this missed the deadline. I always thought the judging was on Sunday but I could be wrong.

Dangerous to walk in costume.

XO This greeted us when we exited our hotel room one morning.

That being said I am glad that some people did show up for the event. Almost had a heart attack when that person almost walked off the stage but overall it went smoother than last year. That meaning that most people actually posed on stage instead of running off. However…I really think anime costumes should be more featured in the contest. The people who won really had nice outfits but it felt like other genres were overwhelming the winner’s circle and the event itself. But yay for great seats!

It was hilarious people!!!

Closing Ceremonies- XO The best part of the show was Dan Southworth throwing the shirt. I mean his spin was super awesome. I don’t think anyone can argue that. I am not sure if people in the back could see but it was awesome. But the fact that the shirt hit the ceiling and it only landed in the 2nd row was awesome. I couldn’t stop laughing. XD

I miss the clues!!!!

But I am sad to say I really couldn’t get into the interactive game this year. Last year it was easier to play in my opinion. I really missed the clue papers that were scattered around the convention as that was my main way to earn EXP. But the costumes were much better this year in my opinion. I just wish I could have felt the excitement with the game this year.

So that is my trip in a few brief words. MMMM brief. I feel weird about spending a lot of time away from the convention. I really enjoy taking pictures and I wish I had gotten more this week. Also there were a few panels I would have gone to had they been at better times. Like why was Dark Moments in Anime shown at 9 am on Sunday? I mean not only was I sleeping at the time but if I wasn’t I would be packing my stuff up. Also it sounded like a 18+ kinda panel. So that was slightly disappointing.

But I did have a lot of fun. I liked that there were more artists this time yet maybe that hallway was not the best place for them. I do think we have outgrown this place yet I think attendance was down thus less crowded this weekend. And the Passport thing was excellent. Yes it was extra hotel money but we got good seats at the events we wanted to go to. Yes we still waited in line but it was more rewarding knowing the line was actually going to bring us to see what was going on instead of straining of heads and eyeballs. And while the dealer’s room was slightly empty this year I still spent all my hard earned money.

Get more candy!!!

This Anime Festival Orlando was a bit bitter sweet though. Next year we won’t be able to attend as Otakon will seriously drain all our convention money next year. I have only missed one AFO since I started going to it will be a little sad. But I had a great time this year and that is all that matters. So my fellow AFO people I will see you in two years hopefully.

Also a side note, confunk was down this year but I think my group caught the conflu. So very sad.

Check ya later!

A few things I remembered while doing some laundry and putting all my treasures away. I am super glad I went on vacation because work was apparently hell. Also why was there someone cosplaying Kesha? X_+