chrisvenus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chrisvenus) wrote2005-08-25 09:53 am
chrisvenus) wrote2005-08-25 09:53 am
Ayacon Day 1
So, here's a write up of my weekend (well, the first day), now with added cuts!
Day 1 started not too well. I lay in for a while and was generally lazy. So I suppose it started pretty well actually. I worked out what I wanted to take and packed my bags. I figured it should take an hour to get there so aimed to leave at 12 to 1ish. I stopped off at sainsburys for some food for the weekend and some petrol and checked directions. And noticed that events started at noon, an hour earlier.
So, I Was now feeling annoyed and wanting to get there as soon as possible so I hightailed it up there. I made pretty good time and was there at about 2ish having managed to find the place with relatively few problems except for the traditional curb crawling when close to read the various signs to find the car park I was after. So I parked and got out to look for the registration building.
As I got to registration I put my hand in my pocket for my driving licence since they required ID and found nothing. I paniced briefly but then realised that I had had it when I bought petrol and things so I must have left it in the car. And I had. So I came back and registered and got my badge and bits and pieces and then went to find ops to register for gophering.
Ops was pretty nicely setup and I went and gave my name and details and got my second badge, my gopher badge. I was also very impressed to be given a "Ayacon staff" cap so that I could be easily recognised as, well, ayacon staff (even if just a volunteer). Next thing was to put my name down for some duties so I sat down to find out what anime I was going to watch anyway so I could sign myself up for things. I put my name down for half a dozen things and then went to wander around for a bit.
I decided to go wander around the dealer's room for a bit to see what cool stuff they had. I eyed up the wall scrolls a bit (including one with Sephiroth from FFVII:Advent Children and some Full Metal Alchemist ones). There were also DVDs that I wanted (like Last Exile) but I decided that I could probably get them cheaper elsewhere (like on import).
At 3 o'clock I went to VR2 (stop sniggering![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aquapixie and liceas) to watch Koi Koi 7, my first anime of the weekend. The description from the con handout had this to say:
I actually enjoyed this, mainly as a very silly anime. I don't remember it being particularly ecchi but that might just be me. I'd have thought I would remember it though. The rough premise as I remember it is new boy at school of only girls (I missed the very beginning so not sure why he was new boy there). One group decides to look after him and the other group decides to take him for their own (for no readily obvious reason). The sillyness is highlighted by the fact that as the good guys come to rescue the kidnapped boy the bad guys break out their huge 100 foot mecha and get beaten up. Very silly and kind of fun with implication that there might actually be some complicated and interesting plot. One I'll try to pick up if I can.
After a couple of episodes of that was Tsukiyomi Moon Phase.
The two episodes I saw didn't really relate to the description since they were more a set up (and basically covered the first sentence of the description). It was a really interesting vampire tale, where you were never quite sure whether the person trapping the girl was a good guy or a bad guy. I thoroughly enjoyed these two episodes as a stand alone thing but I'm not sure where its going to go for the rest of the series. I'd like to watch a couple more to make my mind up about the rest of the series. There were some cool characters and watching the vampire get really sdulky when the guy refuses to be her mindless servant after she drinks his blood (he's magically invisible effectively rather than adept).
After that was time to pick up my room key. Check in was only available from 3 (I think this is why I thought it all started then) so I got my key and wandered to my room. The room was nice. Compact but en-suiteness was nice. There was an internet connection as well if I'd had a cable (and of course the time to use the internet). Then having settled in my room I wandered back for the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony had some highlights from various anime that the committee reccomended. I was quite pleased that I had the majority down on my "to watch" list already. They also showed the exploding bishounen series. I'll hopefully find a link for it when online (I'm not on the internet as I write this) so you can see the first part from aya'03 (edit: http://www.ayacon.org.uk/multimedia/vebv2.avi). They had an update for aya 05 that was apparently not on the net yet (nope, not that I can see).
After the opening ceremony I decided to take a quite food stop before more anime so I ran to one of the food places, knowing that a lot of people would be wanting food after the opening ceremony. The burger and chips meal was very uninspiring. The greasiest and most falling apart burger in some time and uninspiring chips. I ate it and headed off for more anime - Futakoi Alternative.
I wasn't overly inspired by this. Certainly I wouldn't reccomend it as much as the committee did but it was fun to watch. I certainly didn't walk out on it or anything. I did however nap for a bit of it since I was feeling a little tired. :)
After this I bougth a quick pint in the bar and unfortunately only thought to check whether I was allowed to watch videos with it after buying. I wasn't. So I sank the pint as quickly as I could (it was carlsberg though so not that quickly) and then went to watch the next anime, "HE is my master".
It made me laugh a fair bit and had schoolgirls dressed up in maids outfits so I wasn't really going to complain. And a pervy alligator that kept trying to undress one of the girls for reasons I didn't quite get (apart from possibly it was funny...)
Next on the list was "Elemental Gerad".
This was a nice anime. Interesting setting gives this anime the potential to be very cool. However I can also see it being very lame if it isn't careful. Another one that I will reserve judgement for another couple of episodes. It really highlights the problems I have with anime cons, you only see the first couple of episodes of most things which isn't usually enough to get a good idea of whether you like something or not.
After that my anime was done. I wandered to the bar type area after a bit of a general wander for the Jrock party. I'd been feeling a bit lonely and so was kind of glad when a couple of guys wandered up and started talking to me after spotting my Sandman t-shirt. However, I wasn't really that in the mood for socialising so got very uncomfortable after a while and end up running off. They might have been very boring people as well or that might just be my mood not wanting to spend time with them.
I then wandered off to the games room and other stuff in the social studies building for a bit. It wasn't very interesting so I wandered off again and bumped into a nice guy called Jan on the way out. Initially I asked him how to get back since the social studies building was a bit off the beaten track. We got chatting though and we hung out for the next hour and a half (mainly in the JRock party). He's a nice guy who works as a microsoft games tester and it was quite interesting talking to him about various stuff. Much better than the last guys. :)
Around midnight or half midnight I got very tired and made my excuses and left. I wandered back to my room and wrote myself a bullet point summary of the day for reference in writing this up and then I set the alarm clock - a radio one that was provided for me - and then passed out, planning on arising at something silly like 8AM the next day.
Day 1 started not too well. I lay in for a while and was generally lazy. So I suppose it started pretty well actually. I worked out what I wanted to take and packed my bags. I figured it should take an hour to get there so aimed to leave at 12 to 1ish. I stopped off at sainsburys for some food for the weekend and some petrol and checked directions. And noticed that events started at noon, an hour earlier.
So, I Was now feeling annoyed and wanting to get there as soon as possible so I hightailed it up there. I made pretty good time and was there at about 2ish having managed to find the place with relatively few problems except for the traditional curb crawling when close to read the various signs to find the car park I was after. So I parked and got out to look for the registration building.
As I got to registration I put my hand in my pocket for my driving licence since they required ID and found nothing. I paniced briefly but then realised that I had had it when I bought petrol and things so I must have left it in the car. And I had. So I came back and registered and got my badge and bits and pieces and then went to find ops to register for gophering.
Ops was pretty nicely setup and I went and gave my name and details and got my second badge, my gopher badge. I was also very impressed to be given a "Ayacon staff" cap so that I could be easily recognised as, well, ayacon staff (even if just a volunteer). Next thing was to put my name down for some duties so I sat down to find out what anime I was going to watch anyway so I could sign myself up for things. I put my name down for half a dozen things and then went to wander around for a bit.
I decided to go wander around the dealer's room for a bit to see what cool stuff they had. I eyed up the wall scrolls a bit (including one with Sephiroth from FFVII:Advent Children and some Full Metal Alchemist ones). There were also DVDs that I wanted (like Last Exile) but I decided that I could probably get them cheaper elsewhere (like on import).
At 3 o'clock I went to VR2 (stop sniggering
aquapixie and liceas) to watch Koi Koi 7, my first anime of the weekend. The description from the con handout had this to say:Overly-ecchi action comedy and the eponymous group of high-school superheroines. Fairly mundane, but faintly amusing.
I actually enjoyed this, mainly as a very silly anime. I don't remember it being particularly ecchi but that might just be me. I'd have thought I would remember it though. The rough premise as I remember it is new boy at school of only girls (I missed the very beginning so not sure why he was new boy there). One group decides to look after him and the other group decides to take him for their own (for no readily obvious reason). The sillyness is highlighted by the fact that as the good guys come to rescue the kidnapped boy the bad guys break out their huge 100 foot mecha and get beaten up. Very silly and kind of fun with implication that there might actually be some complicated and interesting plot. One I'll try to pick up if I can.
After a couple of episodes of that was Tsukiyomi Moon Phase.
When magically inept reporter Kousuke accidentally unseals vampire Hasuki from a German castle, little does he realise that this young girl could be one of the most powerful vampirs in the world. The other thing he doesn't realise is that she is going to follow him to Japan, don a set of cat ears (in the process coining the phrase "Neko-mimi mode"), and describe him as "her useless servant" rather a lot. Thus begins one of the most unusual recent series - part romantic comedy, part action drama, Tsukiyomi hurtles rapidly between different genresk, but never fails to entertain along the way.
The two episodes I saw didn't really relate to the description since they were more a set up (and basically covered the first sentence of the description). It was a really interesting vampire tale, where you were never quite sure whether the person trapping the girl was a good guy or a bad guy. I thoroughly enjoyed these two episodes as a stand alone thing but I'm not sure where its going to go for the rest of the series. I'd like to watch a couple more to make my mind up about the rest of the series. There were some cool characters and watching the vampire get really sdulky when the guy refuses to be her mindless servant after she drinks his blood (he's magically invisible effectively rather than adept).
After that was time to pick up my room key. Check in was only available from 3 (I think this is why I thought it all started then) so I got my key and wandered to my room. The room was nice. Compact but en-suiteness was nice. There was an internet connection as well if I'd had a cable (and of course the time to use the internet). Then having settled in my room I wandered back for the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony had some highlights from various anime that the committee reccomended. I was quite pleased that I had the majority down on my "to watch" list already. They also showed the exploding bishounen series. I'll hopefully find a link for it when online (I'm not on the internet as I write this) so you can see the first part from aya'03 (edit: http://www.ayacon.org.uk/multimedia/vebv2.avi). They had an update for aya 05 that was apparently not on the net yet (nope, not that I can see).
After the opening ceremony I decided to take a quite food stop before more anime so I ran to one of the food places, knowing that a lot of people would be wanting food after the opening ceremony. The burger and chips meal was very uninspiring. The greasiest and most falling apart burger in some time and uninspiring chips. I ate it and headed off for more anime - Futakoi Alternative.
Not to be confusd with Futakoi, a series so saccharine that it caused several memebers of the committee to go into shock after accidentally overdosing on a 15 second clip of it... Futakoi alternative takes the characters and setting from Futakoi, and presents a much darker (and funnier) tale of the often-perilous lives of the three members of the Nikotama detective agency - Rentarou and his twin assistants Soujou and Sara. Cannot be recommended highly enough, particularly if you were unfortunate enough to watch the original - if you're lucky, this might just act as an antidote...
I wasn't overly inspired by this. Certainly I wouldn't reccomend it as much as the committee did but it was fun to watch. I certainly didn't walk out on it or anything. I did however nap for a bit of it since I was feeling a little tired. :)
After this I bougth a quick pint in the bar and unfortunately only thought to check whether I was allowed to watch videos with it after buying. I wasn't. So I sank the pint as quickly as I could (it was carlsberg though so not that quickly) and then went to watch the next anime, "HE is my master".
GAinax's latest series, based on the popular mange, He Is My Master, tells the amazingly politically incorrect tale of a rich schoolkid who inherits his parent's mansion and wealth, and then proceeds to hire two of his classmates as live-in maids. Primarily, as it transpires, because he likes the idea of having girls in exceedingly revealing maid uniforms around. Unfortuantely he didn't quite bank on them bringing Pochi, the Sexual Harrassment Alligator, another obsessed (not with him) schoolgirl maid and an entire self-defence corps. Highly amusing, He is My Master also finds time to ask deep and meaningful questions such as "at what point does it become actual porn?" and "they showed this on TV how?"
It made me laugh a fair bit and had schoolgirls dressed up in maids outfits so I wasn't really going to complain. And a pervy alligator that kept trying to undress one of the girls for reasons I didn't quite get (apart from possibly it was funny...)
Next on the list was "Elemental Gerad".
Action adventure series in which sky pirate Coud accidentally awakens one of the treasures from a recent raid - a girl called Ren, who is an "Edil Raid", one who possesses the power to react with a human, becoming a living weapon for them to wield. As various factions seeking Ren's power pursue them, the two embark on the perilous journey toward the legendary Rfil Garen. Stylish art and strong charafcters make this a very fun series to watch, even if the plot does move quite slowly.
This was a nice anime. Interesting setting gives this anime the potential to be very cool. However I can also see it being very lame if it isn't careful. Another one that I will reserve judgement for another couple of episodes. It really highlights the problems I have with anime cons, you only see the first couple of episodes of most things which isn't usually enough to get a good idea of whether you like something or not.
After that my anime was done. I wandered to the bar type area after a bit of a general wander for the Jrock party. I'd been feeling a bit lonely and so was kind of glad when a couple of guys wandered up and started talking to me after spotting my Sandman t-shirt. However, I wasn't really that in the mood for socialising so got very uncomfortable after a while and end up running off. They might have been very boring people as well or that might just be my mood not wanting to spend time with them.
I then wandered off to the games room and other stuff in the social studies building for a bit. It wasn't very interesting so I wandered off again and bumped into a nice guy called Jan on the way out. Initially I asked him how to get back since the social studies building was a bit off the beaten track. We got chatting though and we hung out for the next hour and a half (mainly in the JRock party). He's a nice guy who works as a microsoft games tester and it was quite interesting talking to him about various stuff. Much better than the last guys. :)
Around midnight or half midnight I got very tired and made my excuses and left. I wandered back to my room and wrote myself a bullet point summary of the day for reference in writing this up and then I set the alarm clock - a radio one that was provided for me - and then passed out, planning on arising at something silly like 8AM the next day.
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btw, I've added you to my messenger things (MSN, ICQ, Yahoo!) in case you wonder who the random person is. :)
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i need to log into msn actually that might help abit XD
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And iceland (I did get that bit right, yeah?) is meant to be very pretty. You never know, you might get to see the northern lights which would be cool. And getting in at 1am is probably preferable to getting in at 4am. At least 1am is just like having a late night (or early if you compare to aya). :)
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i need to log onto MSN anyway i kind of should check my emails >.
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And be warned, I may glomp you when you log on. :)
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I really must get off my arse and go to one of these at some point. :)
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Next one I think I will be going to is Amecon which will be august next year. I think registration for that is likely to open sometime in January though I dare say when I notice it open I will post on my LJ to let people know. http://www.amecon.org.uk/ is the website for ame which is claiming that it will be doing exciting things by the end of august...
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And I managed this time by being in the gopher posse and hanging out with gophers. Lots of nice people and not as idiotic as some of the random con-goers. :)
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