Ichibancon 2010

This was one convention where it makes a person appreciate good small cons again. Aside from the lack of information on their website prior to the convention and what looked to be disorganized with their DNS, the convention itself came to be a first year success it seems. One of the main advantages of Ichibancon was location and the support of Collosocon that has been going on for eight years now.

Ichibancon’s first year was held in an unusual place called the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina (up the road from Lowe’s motor speedway) which is a resort geared towards family fun deal. I will admit the first time I walked into the lobby of the hotel to check-in the back of my head went, “Uh oh…” Fortunately when checking in the staff told us the convention was held in the furthest end of the hotel, which was a bit secluded from the rest of the hotel activity.

Speaking of the hotel, this was an interesting one for an anime convention on the east coast. The Great Wolf Lodge resort is a family resort with children activities and an indoor water park. Over the course of the weekend, there was a big divide between con goers and the hotel. For one during the day around the lobby area and the floors above, there would be kids running around with wands with RFID tags in them playing “Magic Quest” throughout the hotel. Then there is the water park itself where if you get bored with the convention there is 400,000 gallons of water to play in.

For the convention itself it was pretty unique since it was small. Not meaning that there weren’t many people, but the space was small. There were two panel rooms, dealer’s room, and main events room. Jokingly we said the video room was out in the lobby area since there was a LCD TV with some couches around it. Also with the layout, there was the “Business Hub” that was taken over as the video game room, so it was truly a small convention.

There were a lot of people for that size convention, especially during Saturday. This was probably one of those conventions where there were more cosplayers than non-cosplayers running around the convention. Notably there were the usual mainstream cosplayers; however, there were a good number of cosplayers from animes that have not been released in the US yet.

During the entire weekend the lobby area served a multitude of events. Some random fun from the con attendees come from what seems to be a combination of Who’s Line Is it Anyway and LARP, to the random projectors and consoles brought out at random times by the convention. In the lobby were the registration area and the Artist Alley.

There wasn’t a formal 24 hour video game room; however, Saturday night, one of the panel rooms was converted to a video game room until the late night.

Dealer’s Room wise, it was expected to be small with not many DVDs for sale. A lot of random tidbits and plushies, but that was about it.

Ichibancon’s main events had almost all the usual events such as masquerade and the rave, but also a few other things that was unique this time. Earlier Friday was a ramen eating competition where mostly cosplayers would outdo each other in eating two cups of ramen at a time. There were of course “Name that anime” where contestants would hear an anime tune and in a similar style to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” (minus phone a friend and 50-50 chance) would have to figure out the anime. There was also the formidable Cosplay Chess that was Anime VS. Video Games as their theme.

The same goes for the panel rooms where just various fan based events were held. Some of the notable ones that stuck out were probably the Pictionary and some of the 18+ such as Hentai Pictionary and Don’t Be That Otaku. Every panel at the Ichibancon looked a bit packed as they were enjoyable or had good stories from the host.

For the masquerade, the main events room was packed. There was a slight rush getting into the main events room at the time, but with the size of the convention, it really didn’t matter. During the masquerade, there was about eight skits and a bunch of walk-ons for the event. Like a small con, there would be some interesting skits on the stage and it showed.

Down to it, the convention was a first year success and hopefully the second year show that Ichibancon can be a future success.

Happy New Years!…from Magfest

One hell of a decade so far and it’s still going. I take a toast with a couple of friends with a flaming B-52.

More stuff from Magfest soon, not really much press work since this trip was last minute, but hopefully there will be things.

DSi Phone? It would be cool

Something interesting popped up on 2ch across the pond. Someone shopped together a DSi phone that seems to not follow the DSi xl (the bigger DSi) and went smaller. Neat concept, it would go well with the Idolm@ster Dearly Stars game I just got.

Ami Ami

Aside from HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search, a friend told me about Ami Ami. Like the other HLJ and Hobby Search, Ami Ami sells all sorts of products from figures, model kits, magazines, etc.

The site is pretty new to the international community (out of Japan) because of their recent English support and international shipping. One thing I didn’t like about ordering from the site is that they don’t use some form or automatic payment system but rather they use PayPal to receive payment from international customers. It would be nice to finish the ordering process at the end up checkout of the site.

So onward:

-Main site. Make sure you register for account first (towards the top left of the page)

-Items of the site are also a bit straight forward. It’s nice to know that they also put on their inventory amount too.

-After clicking “Add to Cart” this comes up (like any other normal merchandise site)

-Check out page. Note: Read the bottom of the page if you want to do SAL Registered. This is cheaper than EMS but slower in shipping. The price of shipping will not be shown until you get the second email from AmiAmi.

-Address and Contact verification

-Payment Selection. Of course, those who live outside of Japan PayPal is the only method.

-After all of that, this is the final page for order on AmiAmi. From there you have to pay via PayPal.

-So here’s the email that was sent to me. The final price of shipping and the item is included in the price (I chose EMS).

There was probably a glitch on PayPal because I did not see any option to pay with my credit card, even though it was on file. The drop down menu at the review portion only showed the checking account. Not quite happy about it because of the extra six days I have to wait until the money clears. One advantage of using the eCheck method is the amount of money one will save with currency conversion fee $0.40 vs $3.60 through PayPal. Truthfully if I did have the option, I’d pay the extra just to have my item a week earlier.

Obama the Anime

Okay it’s not really an anime, but it was quite funny finding this placed here. There was more than one there, so I think the DVDs were just misplaced? Crossroads Best Buy in Cary, NC.

Anime USA 2009

This year’s convention was a great way to end of the year for many people. From the day it started, the convention seemed to be the slow cooking stew that was cooked to perfection. All the ingredients were in placed and slowly made its way to perfection. This year’s Anime USA seemed to have less people than last; however, the same ol’ Hyatt was still crowded and the elevators jammed packed.

From every event, it started off very slow. From the concerts to dances, it felt a little lack luster until sparks finally lit up the entire scene.

Friday’s events seemed a little slow as only a few panels or events were really an eye popper. The usual Formal Ball and Formal Dance lessons were a big hit and no one can forget the rave afterwards. More notably, the panels are the events that kept the convention moving when there wasn’t much to do. Things from Ask a Ninja, world cosplay summit, Quaff Concert, and worst of the internet. But again most of the eye popping events did not start until the evening.

Saturday had a little more of a kick to the day as everything that a weekend of a convention can do was pretty much jammed pack into Saturday. Cosplay Chess, Cosplay Fashion Show, AMVs, Geist, and of course Kaya were just shoved into one day. This was a good thing as there was a lot more people attending Anime USA on a Saturday compared to the Friday. Most likely this was because of the amount of students getting out of school Friday and arriving Friday night.

One of the most formidable events for any anime convention on the east coast is the Masquerade. This year at Anime USA came with a big surprise. Typically a masquerade would have about thirty to forty skits and walk-ons; but this year there was about fifteen. It was probably one of the shortest masquerades to date. This helped with remembering most of them too since most of them were actually good. Everything from the Gundam and Kanye West skit, Ah! My Goddess, Resident Evil stand up comedy, it all went well. Since there were not many skits, some of the skits showed there was not much of a time limit. The skits seemed to just stand out from each other too by not having a repeating skit of one series or one joke. Even the channel surfing was well done too. Since the theme for this year’s convention was steampunk, there was a steampunk fashion during the masquerade as the judges went to their hideout to choose their winners.

One of the most anticipated events during the convention was the Maid Café and the Host Club. Up in the Cinabar restaurant of the Hyatt Hotel located the Maid Café where there’s not other way to explain it than Maids are waitresses, but with a little more finesse. The system goes arcade style, where you exchange money (even credit cards) for tickets that are worth $2.00 each down by the bar area. You then can redeem those tickets for ordering food on the menu. Along side the menu you could also purchase playtime of certain games such as Hungry Hippo, Jenga, Uno, and other various games with the maid that’s serving you and/or with your friends at the table. Of course the prices are paying a premium for the hotel food; however, whoever was the cook making the food that day, I personally tip my hat to you for making it worth the money. Personally I did feel bad that some if not many of them did not get to sample the food. It would’ve probably helped them with explaining how the food is in a personal point of view. Overall this portion of the convention seemed orderly, minus being able to obtain more tickets at the spot to get more food. This was a bit unavoidable as from what the head of the café explained; the point of sale machines were down to be able to get more tickets at the restaurant and it’s against contract to work the café like a normal restaurant. Hopefully this will be resolved by next year.

Then there’s the Host Club all the way on the 19th floor of the hotel in the restaurant. I did not personally go to this one; however, I did go up there to see what’s going on. For being a male, it was just too weird. As you walked into the restaurant, you meet the host who stands next to a poster with pictures of various hosts that’s working. From what that was told, you go in and merely it’s a lounge where you buy single drinks or bottles to share between your friends and host(s). Bottle varied on prices from $20? and up to much as $75 and more. From the stories that had leaked from the 19th floor, some of the hosts did get drunk and had to be pulled from the floor to the back to be fed rice. This is to get the starch to soak up alcohol that was consumed.

So on forth to the concerts. Two of the three bands that people wanted to see were Quaff and Kaya. Can’t go wrong with a jrock band and a metro performing on stage. Both of the bands were surprisingly good and were decent to hear, if not the audience. During the Kaya concert, people shoved themselves as close to the barricades as possible. Like all standing concerts, it was definitely hard for the shorter people to see what’s going on stage.

Back in the tech crew area was a whole different story. Crews were just in the zone when an event happened, since every second counted to keep the performance going. Everything from the video to sound was synchronized with thousands of feet of cable running from the back to the front.

Overall the convention was a success, as typical of the convention of Anime USA is. Probably the hardest part of the convention was taking pictures of cosplayers.

On The Road to Anime USA

Raining cats and dogs right now on I-85 N; however, this Dodge Caravan is working on it’s way to NOVA (Northern Virginia). Good times having the internet and some music on the road. Been a while since I’ve been in a car full of people going to a convention, if not a odd group of people. Got an Anime USA host to the right, AnimeUSA maid behind, and neonpixie.com photographer to the rear left in the van.

Yumeiro Patissiere

When this series came out, it was much of a gamble whether or not it’s going to waste my time sitting at my desk. Jumping to conclusions, it wasn’t a waste of time. The story goes with a girl named Ichigo Amano who since she was a child be a pâtissière (female pastry chef). Starting off (so far with 3 episodes) telling her depressing story of how her grades aren’t all that great and she’s not good with sports or many activities. On top of that she goes on telling about how her sister is good with the piano while they are on the way to a recital. Afterwards is when the story really kicks in with a few flashbacks of when Ichigo was with her grandmother (is is a pâtissière). Then after that story, it’s Ichigo ending up finding a pastry festival where all sorts of things happen at once. Everything from getting food to the stereotypical forgetting money then another story time about the grandmother who some random guy knows about. From then on, the main part of the story comes into play with Ichigo being able to transfer to St. Marie school of cullinary arts, after a blackmail incident from the mother to the father about some golf clubs. This is all in the first episode so it’s more of a stage for the entire series.

After the enrollment into the new school, there’s the whole new school experience that’s almost like when Nagisa entering Astrarea Hill from Strawberry Panic, minus the yuri scenes, but things takes a downhill turn for Ichigo right afterwards. Things turn out that Ichigo never really had much experience in the culinary field, so she’s scolded left and right by some douche students, and nearly leaves the school. But like most any shows (not just anime), life lessons are thrown in; in this case, not giving up. After the long wet wait at the bus stop, she returns to the school and starts her own crash course in the kitchen. While in the kitchen attempting to make crepes, a fairy shows up wanting to help Ichigo. From this on out, it’s starting to be a pattern of screw ups, fix ups in the kitchen, and finding the inner Ichigo.

Truthfully, this has been an interesting series…so far. In the outros, there are showings of other fairies in the show that will most likely pop in later on.

After each of the series, there’s a little special on some real life Japanese pastry chefs. Man I’m hungry.

Windows 7 Whopper…ugh…

So over at Engadget they were talking about how there’s the Windows 7 Whopper. It’s a burger to commemorate the release date for Windows 7. A whopper with seven patties.

Knowing the US vs. Japan, burgers are cheap here. Also knowing Burger King, I can supposedly have it my way. So I work at a computer store while in college and knowing me, I saw the ad and went, “Where’s my Windows 7 Whopper here on the east coast?” During a lunch break I went to a Burger King to ask for a 7 patty Whopper.

This burger is a burger I nearly gave up on finishing. Using a few techniques from Monster Burger (Hardees), Triple Stackers from Wendys, and such, I went for THE burger. I rarely show myself on the internet but this could have been a Darwin award.

Technically this isn’t the Windows 7 burger in the states, but a Tripple Whopper with four extra patties. Total cost, $11.95 after tax with a medium drink (North Carolina).

Man I feel sick…and I have 3 more hours of work left.

If you’re wondering about the Windows 7 package, it’s an OEM copy since Intrex is a small system builder partner with Microsoft.

Ichibancon

In the last few years people have complained about there wasn’t a convention west of the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham). Januaury 8 – 10 will be Ichibancon located in Concord, North Carolina (North of Charlotte). It’s located near Concord Mills mall and up the street from Ikea where you can pick up your Detolf glass display case after buying figures from the convention.

Website: Ichibancon
Date: January 8 – 10, 2010
Registration: $25 (by December 13) $35 at the door
Address: 10175 Weddington Road, Concord, NC 28027 (Google Maps hasn’t updated yet)

Room Rate: $199 / night ($232.05 / night with tax)
Reservation Requirements: First night deposit is required. If you cancel the room any time before 3 days before the arrival date, there will be a $25 penalty. Canceling or not arriving will forfeiture your deposit.

Aside from the bad things about the reserving a room, each registered attendee under the room will receive a pass for the INDOOR water park at the hotel (up to 4 people in the room). A 5th and 6th guest is permitted for an additional $40 per person.

There has been little information provided by their website. This is a bit skeptical for anyone attend, especially with three months to go.