Anime Weekend Atlanta Convention Report: Day Two

Hello there internet peoples. How are you doing this day? I am sitting here trying to catch up on posts and put the house back together as I wait for two packages to arrive in the mail. One being an 85 dollar doll and the other being the husband’s new computer. I am not sure which of us is more excited but hopefully all this waiting will help me be productive today.

Good morning convention!!

Anime Weekend Atlanta Day 2. Saturdays are usually the biggest days for conventions. People are trying to get there from work or school on Fridays so the convention is at its most hectic. That means more costumes, more people who need to take showers, and more lines waiting for fun events. So how was Day 2 for me and the husband? Lets find out!

I choose all of you pokemon!!

The first event we attended was the Pokemon photoshoot that was to take place on the lawn. Sadly the person hosting the photoshoot never showed up. Or if she did we already left as it was nearly the hour mark. She had costume problems or something along those lines. So the photoshoot got off to a late start and there were less Pokemon present than years past. I wonder if that is because the photoshoot was early in the day and it had changed days before the convention. Also why wasn’t it near the Pikabug? :( Maybe they got in trouble last year or something but I love Pokemon so I would go to the photoshoot regards of when or where it was. Stay out of the tall grass.

Some fashion show pictures!

The next two panels we went to were back to back in the same room so that was helpful. The Lolita Fashion Show and the h. NAOTO Fashion Show. The room for the fashion shows was much improved from the room the previous year. However it might have been better had they turned off the special concert lights that were on in the background. Made taking pictures almost impossible. And while I realize this was a concert room more chairs would have been nice. I would comment on the rudeness of some photographers but that is really not the fault of AWA or the people putting on the event so…you know.

Lots and lots of eyeshadow!

The Lolita Fashion show was rather brief. I would have loved to see more models but in the end what they showed was nice. It looked like a lot of time and energy went into planning the outfits. We only walked by the Lolita Frill store once during our trip but it looked busy. Hopefully they did well. The h. NAOTO portion of the fashion show had more models and some wild styles. I think the eye make-up was a bit distracting at times and last year there were way more male models. Still I enjoyed the crazy Japanese fashions that went across the stage. The husband was bit confused as he thought it was going to be more of a Lolita fashion show for both events. Silly husband. XD

More Goddess Madoka please!

After all the fashion shows it was time to run back outside to take pictures of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica photoshoot. This show was super popular last year, one of the top animes of the year. So I thought that this would be one of the shows that would be cosplayed to death and we would be tripping over Mamis and Madokas. For some reason that doesn’t seem to be happening. Perhaps that is because there is only 5 real characters in the show and none of them are boys. Still I am very happy with the girls (and boys) that did come out to the photoshoot. Yay for pictures. It seems that Mami is the most popular so yay for me again.

Run Mami Run!

There were several game show panels going on at this time but for some reason I decided that we would go to Know Your Anime. Looking back I might have chosen differently. There was no game show set up at all. Just the panelist reading questions from her computer. No score board, not game board, no nothing. The panelist lost control of the game show rather quickly, with audience members calling out what categories should be next or why that answer was technically not right. I felt as if the panelist wanted to do a game show but didn’t follow through or have the resources to make it a successful and fun game show for all.

Taking pictures after the costume contest. Here is a winner of an award.

Up next is a must for us at any anime convention. Costume Contest Time! This year they actually cleared the room. That would have pissed us off had we gone in like usual to the previous panel as that hasn’t happened before. I really didn’t believe the people we questioned if the room was going to be cleared or not because they said the room for the costume contest is ALWAYS cleared. We waited outside anyway just in case they were right and they were. I thought we had decent seats but they are only as decent as the people you are sitting behind. Given how strict the security people were in some aspects of the convention you would think the rule SIT DOWN during an event like the costume contest would be obvious. But it wasn’t and sadly most of our pictures turned out…well sad. Hurry take pictures after the contest where we are yelled at for “blocking” traffic.

The costume contest winner.....

Now the costume contest itself….well this is my blog and as such I get to express opinions that may not be positive or popular. Every year there seems to be less and less entries in the costume contest itself. The event ended at 9:08. It was scheduled to go from 8:00 to 10:00. And some of the entries were okay for walking around the convention and having fun. But most of them were not note worthy of running for awards. Maybe that is not why people entered but I love seeing over the top costumes and pieces that took hours to create. I want more breath taking pieces, not just oh okay. I don’t think I need to mention that there needs to be more anime/manga/Japanese video game entries and not…other things. Other things that end up winning the costume contest that have NOTHNG to do with Japan.

Our one illegal picture before we got yelled at.

Since the costume contest ended early we decide to catch what we could of Johnny Yong Bosch’s bad Eyeshine. We had to wait until there was space in the “full” room before we entered. We didn’t arrive in time to hear the “rules” nor were the rules posted/told to us when we were waiting in line. So when we were allowed into the “full” room my husband went to take pictures and was promptly yelled at by the like 15 security people walking the room. NO PHOTOS! Oh okay. Not sure why we weren’t allowed to take photos when last year I took as many pictures of Eyeshine as I wanted at another convention with tons more people in the room but okay. Pictures are overrated anyway. I tried to brush that rude event aside (thanks for assuming everyone in the room was there for the rules stated at the beginning of the event) and enjoy the concert. I think I was more amused by the people dancing in front of me and really getting into the music.

No concert pictures...so have some costume contest winners.

The room was not cleared for the Heidi Concert so we stuck around to have our eardrums blown out. Since we were there from the start we heard the rules about no pictures and what not. Which was still sad. I remember last year we were able to take pictures of the Japanese bad but maybe this is what their manager wants and what not. The music got a little loud and the previous concert ran over in time so we didn’t stick around for the entire concert. Plus the husband got “talked to” and “nudged” for sleeping during the concert. At this point I think security people were playing a game of Find The Husband and making up reasons to yell at him. It would have been funny had it been happening to someone else. But we stuck around long enough to be polite and went on to our next event.

Not the Panel of Doom. Have some giraffes instead?

AWO’s Panel of Doom was up next. While this panel had more anime clips than Anime Hell it did have a lot of real life/non Japanese related items. Anime Conventions should focus on anime/manga/Japanese video games as they are related to…anime. My Little Pony, Homestruck, and Doctor Who are not Japanese related. So while I found some of the clips funny and probably wouldn’t have been exposed to them otherwise I wish there was more anime at ALL the anime events. This panelist had the right volume going on though and his comedic timing was better than the other funny clip panels. Too much talking and you can’t hear what is going on and not enough talking makes the room feel awkward. So that was a positive that helped make the non anime related clips funnier.

Kyubey wishes you a good night sleep.

With roughly 9 hours of events behind us and tons of travel/eating/random pictures sprinkled in between it was time for sleep. I actually had an easier time falling asleep tonight but that was probably due to being tired rather than it being quiet. The dance was going on and people were glow stickin it all over the place. When we checked into the hotel we had to sign a piece of paper stating we would not bring booze into the hotel and would only consume it in restaurant areas. HAHA doesn’t seem like that was going down folks. But maybe if I tire myself out enough I can just fall asleep like the husband. Need some sleep to pack and travel back home anyway. XD One more post to go!!!