ANIME NORTH 2002

Pan's Journal of Events

Saturday, May 25, 2002

Anime North 2002


Saturday was the main day of the convention when the most cosplayers are around. I went as Lime from Saber Marionette J and walked around with a balloon on my head for the entire day. *heh*

PA, Rem, Eddy and Aggie came with me today!^^ Also, two boys from my Anime Club joined us later in the day.

The day started bright and early in the morning. I finished writing my convention report for Friday at about two am (if not later) the night before. I couldn't sleep either. Everytime I tried, I kept chanting "Anime North!" in my head. It's like some sort of strange obsession or something. Anyway, I got NO sleep (like usual) so I was exhausted all day long. You could tell too. Actually, but the end of this con report, you should understand. *giggles* I can fly!

I spent most of the day flagging down people and taking pictures. Since hearing about every single person I flagged down will get boring very very quickly, I may as well tell you about all the random things that happened.

I finished watching the Evangelion TV series just over a week ago. I hadn't yet seen the movies, and by pure luck, they were showing a screening of the dub at Anime North! YAY!

Before that started, I ran around and took pictures (I luv my press pass). I was going through the line to the Dealer's Room and taking pictures of people that were dressed up. I couldn't get everybody, and if I missed you, I'm really sorry.

As I was taking some pictures of girls dressed up, Scott McNeil walked by and joined in the photos. ^^ He's so good with the fans! No wonder he is so well loved!

Soon after, I ran into Tomoyo and Taina. They've been contacting me for a very long time and they told me ahead of time that they would be there. I recognized them which surprised even myself. ^^ And you know, they did the sweetest thing that surprised me and made my day. They both gave my some gorgeous pieces of fanart. One of Sailor Moon, and two of Lime (one which actually said "LELOLA.net" on it)! I honestly couldn't believe it! How totally awesome! *hugs* Thankees!!!

If you're wondering, I was still introducing myself as "Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gumbigobilla Blue Stradivari Telentrent Pierre Andre Charton-Haymoss Ivanovicci Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III"! Mwhahahahahaha! Fear me! Errr... it does make a great first impression!

Around this time, an Omi came up to me. I recognized her too, which was strange because I hadn't seen her before. It was my pal Laura from FireFlyPond.com! *smiles*

I was looking forward to meeting her so I was glad to finally get a chance to see her. She mentioned that it was a little confusing to find me considering the number of "Limes" at the convention. *heh* I talked to her for awhile and met some of her friends. I got some pictures too!^^

We ran into someone dressed up as Otaru! He was dressed up as Zechs from Gundam Wing last year so I went up and talked to him.^^ Plus, I was Lime! I needed a picture with Otaru! *smiles*

At some point around here, PA and I broke off from everyone else and headed towards the Evangelion movies. We're the only ones out of our group that have seen the entire series, so for spoilers sake, we didn't let them come.

When we took our seats, we first watched a replay of Anime North being mentioned on the news (the girl cosplaying as Davis from Digimon was on the news talking about her gloves^^) and then some music videos. One of the videos was incredibly well done and extremely funny. In fact, it was so well done that we all cheered for an encore.^^ We got it too! What a great music video! They also showed a Cowboy Bebop video with spoilers from the last two episodes. PA hadn't seen them yet, so I put her hat over her face. She was complaining that she couldn't breathe. *giggles* Oh, I forgot to mention that PA was dressed up as Tiger from Saber Marionette J.

Random people were sitting on either side of us. PA and Eddy's friend, Eydtman, came and sat next to me. I had no idea who he was, so I called him "guy in the green shirt" all day long. *giggles* Next to PA was a guy dressed as Gendo from Evangelion. I called him "Random Guy" all day long since I kept forgetting his name. *heh*

Anyway, they sat with us through Death and then through End of Evangelion. We got to sit in the front row! *smiles* I could go on about Evangelion for hours, but due to the risk of spoilers, I'll keep my mouth shut. Just a note - don't see the movies until you see the entire series.^^

Afterwards was a question and answer session with Amanda Winn Lee (Rei Ayanami) and Jason Lee (Shigeru Aoba) who also happen to be the directors of the English version. They answered a lot of questions and were very entertaining. I give them a lot of credit for handling a series like Evangelion. That takes a lot of work!^^ Plus, their "car key" comment was really funny. *giggles* You had to be there...

We left after this. Eydtman and that Gendo guy came with us too. PA kinda knew Eydtman, but I didn't know either of them so yes, we were hanging out with perfect strangers. But then again, this is me, so it is to be expected. *heh*

Some reporter person came up to us and asked us to cheer about Eva. Laura and her friends and a bunch of strangers joined in too. She taped us chanting, "EVA! EVA! EVA!" and we attracted a fairly large crowd. *heh*

I had a backpack with me and a camera so it was rather hard to balance all this stuff and take pictures. To add to this equation, whenever someone took a picture of me, I had to take off my camera and backpack, put down my clipboard and Toji (the pen I was using) and hide my media pass. I can't believe people took pictures of me! WOW! I hope they don't turn out horrible. If you took a picture of me and it did turn out horrible, let me know and I'll try and find you a decent one. If it looks really bad, please don't display it. I was so sleep deprived that it wasn't even funny!

After taking my stuff off and putting it back on a few times, for some reason I started handing things to Gendo and that Eydtman guy. They were following PA and I around. I wasn't complaining. Heck, we were practically dragging them around!^^ They're really nice guys! They may have been random strangers, but Eydtman carried my backpack for most of the day and Gendo kept getting hit with my clipboard. *heh* A huge thankees to them for putting up with little old me!^^

And yes, I let random strangers walk around with all my belongings including my wallet. I am WAY too trusting of people sometimes. But they didn't run away! That's always a good sign! *heh*

Eddy, Rem and Aggie-chan were also dressed up. Aggie was dressed as Impmon and her costume was soooo cute! I loved it! Eddy was wearing an oriental dress and Rem had an oriental style shirt. Sorry - that's the only way I can really think to describe it.

Oh, just to let you know, PA and the others were looking for that Vash cosplayer all day long. PA chased some people around thinking they were him. *heh* I was looking for Inuyasha so I could apologize/thank him. Boy did I have explaining to do!

Eddy and the others went to see a movie while we went to see the Evangelion stuff so PA and I lost track of them for a while. PA and I (mostly PA) were hugging random people. The poor Gendo that was following us got jumped by us the most. Actually, I was surprised they stayed with us. I was stopping every ten seconds to take pictures. *heh*

We ran into Chapel around this time. He was leaving shortly so PA got his media pass. I joked with him a bit. He didn't look to happy, so PA hugged him and embarrassed him.

Some person asked me about my shoes. I recognized her from CN Anime last year. I talked to her for a bit then took more pictures. Around this time I ran into Tomoyo and Taina again. They were waiting in line for meeting Scott McNeil. I talked to them some more. They said that I was not what they expected and found me to be friendly. *smiles* I'm glad because I was fearing that I may had scared them. They were really nice to talk to and their costumes were great!^^

I think we met up with Eddy, Rem and Aggie-chan after this. They had met up with Sugar from YTV and were excited about it. I missed her because of the Evangelion movie. If I'm not mistaken, we then went to the Dealer's Room and wandered around for awhile. Eydtman was still walking around with all my stuff so I had to stay near him in case I wanted to buy something. I was looking for a Kaworu plushie but failed to find one. Eydtman did find some DVDs though. Actually, the Dealer's Room was quite a mix. Some places were over priced and some places were under priced. However, if you looked around, you were sure to find some sort of deal.^^

I went off with Aggie-chan at some point and we ran into the girl dressed up as the Digimon Emperor from the other day. Since Aggie-chan was dressed as Impmon we took some great pictures of the Digimon Emperor vs Impmon! It was great! ^^

After taking more pictures, PA and I headed to "Anime Name That Tune" with Gendo and Eydtman. To be chosen to compete, you had to win this draw thing. PA kept predicting that Gendo would be chosen.

Some of these songs I had never ever heard before. To win you just had to name the series the song came from. I had no idea half the time. Lots of other people did though! That just means I have a lot of anime music to listen too.

In the second round they played Saber Marionette J background music. If me being dressed as Lime didn't tell you something, I recognized it right away. PA did too and I started to squeal in the background. No one knew it! It went to the audience and I got it right! *smiles*

Eddy sent me a really weird El Hazard song a few weeks ago. Sure enough, they played it. Thanks, Eddy! I got that one right thanks to you!^^

PA's prediction came true and Gendo was chosen in the third round. The opening to Inuyashu by V6 started to play and Gendo got it right! Yay! Actually, he won with one point. No one else got any of the other songs so they went to the audience. Eddy and I recognized a song from Metropolis, but we couldn't put our finger on it. They played a song from Initial D and no one got it! I got to answer it and get it right! Yay me! *heh* They also played the song Charm from Escaflowne. It sounds like the ticking of a clock and no one got it. PA and I were jumping up and down to get it right. *giggles* Too much Escaflowne for us...

Anyway, Gendo won and he got some DVDs and stuff. He was happy.^^ Oh, and the media director, Chris, was hosting the contest. He was also dancing around to the songs being played. Go, Chris!^^

Oh, and PA we singing "peanut butter and jelly time" all day. I have no idea...

When we left "Name That Tune", we ran into the Heero and Duo cosplayers (I think they may have been girlfriend and boyfriend). I asked for a picture and they did a kissing pose. *smiles* It was great and I got some great pictures! I then talked with Heero for a little while. He was fun to talk to and knew a ton about Gundam Wing.

I think someone asked if I was Pan-Chan of LELOLA somewhere around here. I think they took pictures of me too. I was so tired that I can’t really remember anymore. Ugh! Pan no baka!

The masquerade was running a little late but the head of security told PA and I to follow him. We did and got seats near the front (yay, media!). Aggie-chan and Rem found us and sat next to us. Eddy had mysteriously gone missing and PA went to look for her. She couldn't find her. Since I had a media pass and could go in and out, I found her and "saved" her. *heh* I wasn’t going to abuse my media privileges and help other people get in. Therefore, we lost track of Eydtman and Gendo for awhile.

As they were finishing setting up for the masquerade, the girl in front of us starting to sing "The Song that Never Ends". *heh* We somehow joined in the conversation going on behind us with a lot of people we had never seen before. We ended up talking about fan fiction and I actually learned some stuff considering I'm not big on fics. Turns out one of the girl's was a Daikeru fan.^^

The masquerade was a ton of fun! It was the longest ever and had a grand total of 99 entries! The hosts were Honeychan and Tristen Citrine - both well-known in the anime fandom as experts on everything to do with costumes and cosplaying. They were dressed as bunnies and were great comic relief - especially with all the sound problems. *heh*

The entries were great! I'd go into more detail, but PA took some, errr... rather interesting notes. I'll post them later.^^ Actually, the people behind us were getting a kick out of the notes. *heh* Oh, at some point, Eddy found my sewing kit and some paper. She used it to make a paper "sweatdrop" (like the ones that show up on anime characters when they're embarrassed, etc.). We have good ones somewhere that we made out of bristle board and wire, but we didn't think to bring them with us so these new paper ones would have to do. PA and I made "sweatdrops" too. The people behind us asked us for sweatdrops and we handed them paper and scissors. Pretty soon they were using sweatdrops too.^^ We were holding them up when appropriate.

For an irrelevant fact, my contacts decided to go blurry during the masquerade. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had been wearing them for some insane amount of hours. Since I needed to see, I took them out, cleaned them, and put them back in all at the masquerade! *giggles* Go figure...

The masquerade was one of the best ones I've ever seen! It was great and every entry had charm.^^ I luved the skits - like the Digimon vs DigiCharat Medabots one, the one featuring the Digimon Emperor, Dilandau's yaoi explaintion, the "Yata" dancing one, the Windy dancing, a great Inuyasha "sit" one, and many others. There was a great Angelic Layer skit. I luved it! It was done extremely well! Too bad Angelic Layer is lacking a huge North American fan base. Also, there was one featuring the outer seishi that involved "Happy Happy Joy Joy". That had to be one of my favorites!

After the masquerade, we managed to meet up with Gendo and Eydtman again. I took more pictures and tried to find Inuyasha again, but I failed. Mr Satan was holding a martial arts contest outside the masquerade and I stopped to watch for awhile. I spotted the Digimon Emperor who I had talked to the day before and random times throughout the day. She was sitting on the floor waiting for the dance to start, so Aggie-chan and I joined her. We talked for awhile and we asked her about her costume. She was bright! She knew what material my costume was made out of!

She was also surprised to learn that I was seventeen. She thought I was in university! That's never happened before! Most people think I'm younger than I look so this was a first.^^

I noticed that Gendo had somehow gotten a bag of chips and that he looked bored, so out of nowhere, I stood up, grabbed him and dragged him to where we were standing. Needless to say, he sat with us until the dance started. ^^

At some point, I spotted a Takato walking around. This guy from school was with me at this point. I got Takato’s picture, but before I could get his information, he ran off. I made my shoes myself so the bottoms of them were fabric and therefore had no traction. I ran after Takato with my guy friend from school behind me. I saw Takato and slid in front of him. Thanks to my shoes, I was able to cut him off just like you do when playing ice hockey. I was really tired at this point and asked him for his info. I was so tried that I though I was going to fall asleep any second! I mumbled something about a lack of Kaworu, said something about episode 24 of Evangelion, then pretended to cry into the shirt of the guy from school. I then fell on the floor, then stood up perfectly fine screaming "good morning". In the meantime, Takato was still signing my sheet. I gave him my URL and he recognized it! Man, he must have though I was a nut! *giggles* Oh well. A lesson to all you kids out there: Sleep = Good!^^

We went to the lobby to wait for rides. My shoes slid even better on the tiles in the hotel lobby. I was "skating" around for awhile. Please note that I was pretty much asleep at this point. Anyway, Eydtman got this idea to drag me around. He started to drag me around and it reminded me of water-skiing. Some people took pictures too.

I remembered that my bag had wheels and switched it to "luggage mode". I held on to it with one hand and Eydtman with the other and he dragged me and my bag around!^^ It was funny!

This random guy who I heard talking at Anime Name That Tune earlier, came out of nowhere. This random stranger asked if he could try dragging me around. I agreed and he grabbed my wrists and started moving. Pretty soon he was spinning me, but he was strong and very fast. He spinned me in such a way that I was off the ground and flying! I got to fly! I was screaming "weeeeeeeeee!" and "I can fly!" throughout the entire thing! *smiles* It was soooo much fun and it came out of nowhere!

Aggie-chan and I saw the girl cosplaying as Davis and talked to her. One of Laura's friends asked me for batteries too.^^ Very random...

Soon after that, we all left Eydtman and Gendo with the promised that we'd see them tomorrow.

Now, if you thought that was random, wait until you see what happens next!