Anime Weekend Atlanta Convention Report: Day Three

Hello there people reading my blog. Still sitting here on the couch waiting for the packages to come. Hopefully by the time I actually post these I will be sitting here with the precious. But for now I am getting things done so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. XD I did just get a pile of anime/manga goodies so why am I worried about getting something else? GREEDY XO

Oh no?! Where did Anime Weekend Atlanta go?!

While I apparently hide under the blanket from the scary rain…more blogging! How is it I am already at the end of Anime Weekend Atlanta? You look forward to something all year and in 4 short days it is over. But I guess that is what makes it worthwhile, despite all the crazy security people and drive time. It is money spending and cramming things into our vehicles before heading home time!

This is not cereal!

I am not the most punctual person ever so getting up in the morning is a bit hard for me. Perhaps we should have done some packing before we went to bed last night but we were much too tired to do things like that. Instead the husband did all the packing while I yawned my way through breakfast and getting ready. We tried to check out via the TV but it kept giving us errors. The husband called downstairs and since we were paying with a credit card we were good to go. No line in that aspect.

Is there room on the elevator for you?

Anime Weekend Atlanta is a hotel based convention. Thus people are spending the night in the same space the activities are going on. People try to get rooms at the hotel so they can be close to the action. I am sure some go to other hotels nearby but the price difference really doesn’t seem worth all the walking one would be doing anyway. The only thing that really sucks is the elevator usage. It gets backed up from time to time and of course it is majorly backed up on check out day. We ended up walking down to the lobby as each and every elevator was full. Not before a Staff Member told us we should just ride the elevator up to go down…which was against the rules. And that we were not allowed to use the stairs at all and gave us a look before we walked away. Okay dude.

So many wallscrolls, no room at all!

After getting all our stuff loaded in the car…it was time to buy more! Onwards to the Dealer’s Room. The Aisles were very large, perhaps a bit too large. I wonder how many more booths could have been put in the room had the super large aisles been slightly squished down. XD Tables get crowded because people can’t see, it doesn’t matter how much space there is across as people are going to wait to see what is in that booth.

HUGE OPEN SPACES!

X__X I ended up getting a bootleg nendoroid! It was in a blind box so I had no way of knowing it was a bootleg. The box was pretty legit but I thought something was up when the girls exchanged a look when I bought from them. Good thing it was only a petit and it was only 8 dollars. Besides that little snafu I came away with a lot of good merchandise. I think that people were overpricing their nendoroid petits as I know the TRUE price (miss you Japan) but I got the ones that were on the lower end of the scale. The husband got me some magazines that were priced pretty fair and I ended up walking away with a few T-shirts. My favorite T-shirt booth wasn’t at AWA again. Hope nothing happened to them. The husband bought a Steampunk shirt, pokemon badge pins, and tons of Japanese snacks. NOM!

No pics of the Artist Alley. Didn't want to deal with angry people.

After going to the Dealer’s Room there was one more spin around the Artist Alley. We had noticed that the food vendors were missing from the Dealer’s Room and main hallway. Well the vendors were located at the end of the Artist Alley. I know logically this move made sense. But the hallway smells so nice with the food cooking. Or maybe it helps cover up the confunk. I did miss the tables in the Dealer’s Room itself but it made sense why it was back there. Although the autograph lines could go back there as well and that would increase traffic for them. They needed to have better signage though to advertise the food. The sign in the middle of the walkway wasn’t very helpful as most people were busy dodging the random sign that appeared out of nowhere.

Again no pic of the Artist Alley. Has a huge open space in the Dealer's Room instead.

As for the Artist Alley itself…same old same old. The 50 percent fanart rule still prevails and some people….look like they are running an arts and craft booth at their local church. Almost like OH snap I forgot I signed up to do the Artist Alley let me get some things ready in this week I have left. I don’t like it when there are booths that say DO COMMISSIONS and only have 5 pieces of sale. I want my merchandise now. XD But while I complain about there being a lack of anime/manga at some of the panels I welcome plushies and jewelry of nonanime characters. Maybe because they are still done in an anime style? Or that I love plushies. I found several things to spend some of my money on. And my biggest regret is not buying the Daryl zombie killing poster. Because this is an anime convention!!!

Pikachu chooses....to watch other animes!

So after spending our lovely money in the Dealer’s Room and Artist Alley it was time for more panels. Off we went to the Pokemon Panel where apparently we should have gotten there beforehand. Once again a panel that was placed into a tiny room where it had been placed in a bigger one the previous year. The husband and I had to wait for two spots to open up but the wait was worth it. The panel was fun and entertaining. Oh and many spoilers from the Pokemon universe were shared. I would share them with you too but every time I tell someone else the information their minds are BLOWN! More Pokemon all the time please!

Piglu wants to be a contestant!!!

The last event we attended before heading back home was the game show Anime Press Your Luck. We missed the first minutes of it traveling from the Pokemon Panel to the Anime Press Your Luck room so we didn’t catch the rules. Of course the husband bragged that he already knew the rules but they were easy to catch on to. The game show was taped for a Youtube channel and I guess there were predetermined players. But I loved how excited the audience got and how great the prizes were. NO WHAMMIES! It was very entertaining and one of the best game show panels I have ever been to.

You'll get yelled at by security Piglu!

With that last event…it was time to head back to the car. We took a few more pictures and I pouted a bit as we left the convention center. After a brief stop at the Discovery Mall and Burger King it was time to map our way home. This time we took the highway which was probably safer as it started to rain. If you are going to break down you want to do so where other people might rescue you yes? The ride home seemed to take longer that the ride up. Probably because the excitement takes away some of the boring. But we tried to stay away by talking about the convention and what not.

Goodbye Anime Weekend Atlanta!

After arriving back home at 1 am….it was time to pet Kira and pass out in bed. Well not pass out as Kira was just crying and crying like the most neglected kid ever. But yes we were home and thus marks the end of another successful convention.

Until next time!

There were some ups and downs with this convention but I think overall there were more ups than downs. It seemed like attendance was down as the hallways were easier to manage. But we needed to get to panels sooner to assure seats. I think complicated cosplays were down while more casual cosplays were up. I didn’t see as much price gouging in the dealer’s room but the artist alley had less things I was interested in. I had tons of things on my list and while I didn’t (couldn’t) do everything it seems like we were very busy. Overall I had a blast, a nice vacation with the husband. XD But we are getting older. All these young kids…making me feel old. We have plans on trying to be annual pass holders to Disney next year so I don’t know if we will make it to AWA. I hope we do but if we can’t make it back for a bit we had fun this time around and look forward to the next. Hopefully it will continue to improve and be fun. Until next time!