PAN'S CN ANIME 2003 CON REPORT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24th, 2003

I was back bright and early Sunday morning. One of the first people I ran into was the girl reading the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comic the day before. She was dressed as Devi from the said comic. ^^ I took her picture.

On Sunday, a group of us were going to do Fruits Basket cosplay. Sadly, there were more complications that prevented much of the Fruits Basket groups from becoming a reality. Some of use still dressed us though. Laura was dressed as Kagura, Kira was dressed as Kyo, Rem was dressed as Ayame, and Becky was dressed as Kisa.

I met up with Laura and Kira early on. Shinji showed up soon after with waka-baka (his giant hammer). Kira and I ended up running off with waka-baka for a little while, and when we got back, Kira used to it in character as Kyo to defend herself from Kagura. ^^;

We spent a good chunk of the morning hanging around the lobby reading manga and hanging out. I spent it talking to people like the super uber nice anime guy, and other people I see at cons like Peter and Animerag. ^^

I stopped to look back at my friends at some point. Reena has handcuffed Chapel and Kenney to the railing. Then Chapel was shaking his head in disbelief after Bianco took Kira's handcuffs and handcuffed himself to Chapel and Kenney. The next thing I knew, Kira and Reena were fighting over Kira's Emishi whip while Kenney was holding Bianco's "Bishounen for Rent" sign. All the while, Chapel desperately tried to free himself while Bianco smiled innocently. *facepalms*

I'm not even sure how, but I somehow ended up handcuffed to Kenney (I blame Reena). I barely even knew Kenney at this point. He needed to go get something from the van, and I ended up tagging along. I tried desperately to make conversation since it was rather, errr... awkward. Kenney and I held hands while we walked down the street to hind the fact that we were chained together. When was got to the van, Kenney searched for something in the truck, and I looked in the side door to find Mike half-asleep. He was completely out of it, so I decided to be evil and took his photo before he figured out what was going on. He's going to kill me... again. ><;;;

After a run in with a revolving door, and being chased by a security guard, Kenney and I made it back to the convention center. We managed to free ourselves. I ran into Amanda and we headed upstairs together.

Neither Amanda nor I were in costume for Sunday. Both of us wore normal clothing and the Gundam Wing armbands she made. I wore my suit and my Genki Gang cat hat (I call it my "Kyo hat"). I was basically dressed as myself. Lack of time for costumes strikes again.

Anyway, Amanda and I made our way to artist's alley and looked around at stuff. I took photos of a bunch of cosplayers and came downstairs just in time to get pictures of Shinji, who was dressed as Ranma, and another Ranma pose for some pictures.

I took more photos in the lobby and ran into Becky a few times. I also ran into Chobrat and ScotiX and took more photos of them. ^^

Amanda and I ran into the girl that was cosplaying as the Digimon Emperor. We ended up talking to her about Digimon, cosplay, and all sorts of things. Amanda and her discussed making the Emperor's outfit since most had made the costume before. The Digimon Emperor cosplayer (I have forgotten your name ><;;;;) had her costume with her even though she wasn't wearing it. I put on her cape and looked rather funny since it didn't really go with anything I was wearing. ^^:

Soon after, I ran into more Jhonen Vasquez cosplayers. There was an actual Johnny the Homicidal Maniac! Since the Devi cosplayer was nearby, I got the two of them to pose. Yay Johnny! ^^

A Spongebob Squarepants cosplayer walked by a few minutes later. The soul trapped in the suit was glomped by a hoard of happy fans. ^^;

I wandered around upstairs after that. I stopped to talk to some people at artist's alley. At one of the tables, I stopped to watch the artist draw for awhile. He was really talented, and I noted his use of perspective. Wow. What amazing talent. ^^

I also stopped to talk to people at a nearby booth. They had a sign on their table that read "Each purchase helps give us the strength not to shoot ourselves in the head!" oO; Well...

After a little more photo taking, I ended up back downstairs. I spotted Taina and Tomoyo from Nona, and since I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to them yet, I went up to them and said hi. Sadly, I managed to catch them as they were heading out the door. Oh well. Maybe next con? ^^

Amanda showed up soon after and dragged me away. We headed to Brian Drummond's panel where he answered all sorts of interesting questions. ^^ Brian's really entertaining. He answers all the questioned asked of him lively and happily. He's not only a really nice guy, but also one that's fun to be around. All his fans that attended his crowded panel loved him. ^^

Part way through, a girl asked if they could read from a fanfic together. He agreed, and the result was rather funny. ^^;

I asked the last question. Predictably, I asked him if he'd play rock-paper-Zazel against me. ^^; I explained the rules and we begun playing. We played three or four rounds, and every single time, Brian chose "paper" and I chose "scissors". I'm not sure how, but neither of us managed to win. Since my scissors kept beating his paper, I kept trying to hit him in the head with a pen. I failed every time though. The game ended in a tie, but with Brian coming out on top since I couldn't seem to win. ^^;

After his panel (they had to let Leonard Nimoy go by, but that's another story...), I asked Brian if I could have the honor of interviewing him. He agreed, and I told him I'd find him later. ^^ About a minute later, while I was packing up my stuff with Amanda, someone recognized me and asked me to sign an autograph for him. *smiles* I gladly did, although I still can't see why anyone would want my autograph. He was a really sweet guy. ^^

I ended up talking to the girl hat read the fanfic with Brian. It turns out that she used to run a Digimon website. I think it was 'Lil Digi-Mage but I'm not sure. ^^; Her and her friends were really cool.

After the panel, Amanda and ended up hanging out in the lobby. I hung out with Aminerag, Peter and the super uber nice anime guy some more. My friends were running around with a giant sign they were getting everyone to sign. I signed it and noticed that Kira has written "I LOVE RUE!" on it in big letters. ^^

Gordie (the masquerade host) came by and we ended up having some fun with him. Aggie put her Kuma in his hands, and I put my Kyo hat on him. Shinji added his giant hammer, Amanda added her Vash doll and Aminerag added his little Greymon plushie. Then we forced Gordie to stay like that while we took his photo. ^^;;;

A Vash cosplayer was nearby, and Amanda and I forced him to pose with her Vash doll.

Josh and his friend were running around the lobby dressed as male and female Ranma. They were posing and looked very Ranma-ish. ^^ I took they're photo.

I walked off for a bit, and apparently missed a group of people (including my friends *sweatdrops*) sitting in a giant circle crossed legged chanting "Anime North". Apparently, Josh did I ran dance in the center. ^^; That's Josh for you. *glomps*

Some time later, Amanda and I went back upstairs to find Brian Drummond. He was finishing up another autograph session. Nearby, I ran into Steph. She's a friend of the Amiboshi I have a habit of glomping. ^^; I had taken her photo with Hikaru Midorikawa at Amine North. Anyway, we talked about all sorts of stuff for a while. ^^

The really nice guy that asked me for an autograph later came by with his friend. His friend asked me for my autograph. I wrote him something very random. I told myself that I wouldn't forget his name, or the name of his friend, but sadly, my horrible memory has already made it disappear. Sorry! At the next con, you guys have full permission to yell at me and hit my over the head with a giant [Edit: Their names were Eric and Danny! ^^ Thankees to Eric for contacting me refreshing my memory. ^^;;;]

The interview was about to begin. Amanda was videotaping it for me. I asked Steph if she's like to take pictures for me. She agreed and I showed her how to use my camera. The two guys were still nearby and I invited them to watch. ^^

I greeted Brian again and hopped on the table. And so another crazy interview began. I asked him all sorts of questions (it'll be transcribed soon *winks*) and we ended up talking about all sorts of things. It was a ton of fun. ^^

At the end of the interview, we finished up our rock-paper-Zazel game. He still continued to select "paper" and I kept choosing "scissors". ><; After a few more rounds, he beat me. Yay, Brian! ^^

I asked him if he's ever had a weirder interview. He said that the other thing that really compared were the questions I asked him at Anime North earlier in the year. ^^; It was so much fun! I thanked him for the interview and we posed for some pictures. We ended up straggling each other. Fwee! *smiles*

After thanking Steph for taking the pictures for me, we headed back downstairs. Near the elevator, I spotted the Ragnarok cosplayer I like so much. He wasn't in costume, but I took his picture and glomped him anyway. ^^;

Sunday is usually a slow con day regardless of the convention. It's the day where most people just sit and chill with their friends. Guess what I spent the next hours or so doing? ^^ I love my friends. *glomps them all*

Remember Random Guy from Anime North? He showed up half-way through the afternoon and hung out with us for a bit. He got taller over the summer. Mind you, I'm so short I don't think it really mattered. It turns out he was at summer camp all summer. It was nice to see him again. ^^

I went over to both Gackt Dan (he has a name!). We annoying each other at every anime event and convention. It's tradition. ^^; After play fighting with his weapons for a bit, I stopped to talk to his friend. We were joking around and Amanda showed up. Then Gackt Dan's friend said something about hurting me, and Amanda explained to him that "hurting Pan would result in an army of crazy fans trampling him to death". ><;;;

Mike, Bianco and Kenney were wondering around in the lobby. Amanda and I joined them and I played with someone's sword. Bianco was dressed as a character from Resident Evil and had drawn this really neat pattern on his arm. After talking with him for thirty seconds or so, I asked Bianco to marry me. He agreed and I happily gained my eighteenth husband! Hanyaan~! He's such a sweetheart. ^^

Kenney was dressed as Reno again. He had the words "follow me to yaoi" written on his chest. *sweatdrops* Long story short, I asked Kenney to marry me too. He agreed to be my nineteenth husband. ^^ Amanda decided we should have a ceremony, so Kenney and I knelled down while Bianco held a sword over our heads. Amanda preformed the "ceremony".

"In the name of the state of New Jersey, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now, uh... glomp the husband."

I disappeared with super uber nice anime guy for a bit. Afterwards, I spotted Kira and the gang leaving the con through the window. After chasing them down the street, I tackle-glomped Kira and we did a group huddle thing before I said goodbye to them.

The convention winded down. I ran around in the lobby doing this and that and taking some last pictures of the con.

A groups of us -- Rem, Aggie, Eddy, Yui, Amanda, Kenney, Bianco, Mike and I -- ended up hanging out just outside the convention center.

At first we were singing Simpson's songs horribly out of tune, then it degraded to other songs, such as Dennis Leary's infamous "Life's Gonna Suck". Amanda gave us a dance lesson and Aggie stole Mike's hat. I stole the hat off Aggie. At some point, Kenney pretended to be the "Crocodile Hunter" with his "lovely wife" (Mike) and attacked some nearby pigeons. Don't ask me why, but we all had plastic drinking cups. Rem videotaped random people. Aggie, Yui, and Eddy giggled and ran around in circles. And Bianco sweatdropped.

As the day was coming to a close, we ended up in a circle. Amanda and I began to do a Scottish dance everyone else in the circle clapped. It was a lot of fun, but it stopped suddenly when someone came up behind us, grabbed the hat off my head and ran down the street.

We all stopped and stared, and I stared running after this mystery person. I took three steps before figuring out who it was. It was Brian Drummond! ^^

I ran up to him, and he gave me back my hat. I hugged him before we both turned our own separate ways. He walked down the street, and I returned to my friends.

You know, I couldn't have asked for a better ending myself. ^^