Special Review - Sakura-con 2009!!!!!!!!!!

WOAH! AMAZING! It pwned so much. Better than I thought. And I only spent about 200$ on merchandise! ;) I know a lot of people who wanted to go, and a lot who just thought it sounded interesting, and some people who laughed. And I wanna "in your face" them, so I'm writing this for all of you. (That last one may not completely be fulfilled, but your still a ignorant bias fools :P :P :P )
So I'm gonna list pretty much what I did in chronological order. Then other information. Then I'll link to photo's of stuff I bought and of cosplayers (people in costumes).

So back in August (2008) Caleb told me 'bout Sakura-con. "Magical place with anime lovers who dress magically and stuff sold is amazing." Pretty much defines "Yes, I'll Go!" But of course, in Seattle, things hard come by for Spokomptonites... Why I speak weird, know I do not.

Anyways, as the time approached, I decided to actually attempt to find a way there. AKA Ask my parents. Of course, my loving mother said I would have to pay her (seriously) about $450 since she'd drive me there, since she didn't want to go. (Even though she "always" wants to go to Seattle since we have relatives there, and she'd hang with them the whole time.) But then Sakura-con happened to be (sounds like it sucks) on Easter. However, we were already planning on going Seattle for Easter. My parents were gonna make me pay a bit, though, since I was gonna go on Friday (Sakura-con is from Friday Morn until Sun afternoon).

But my dad was busy, so we left and arrived Friday afternoon. Then I called Caleb, who decided with me that since the lines on Friday had been several hours long it, would be best to arrive around 6:30AM on Saturday to get a good spot, even though the registration didn't open until 9AM. My sister also deemed it necessary to watch a movie we'd already seen until 12AM in the room I was sleeping in...

So we woke up at 5AM, got Caleb and his friend SteveO, and went to the Convention Center. Went up all the escalators and into the registration place, which had few people and was... running! So I actually got registered by 7:00.

Walk into the main area... WOW, lots of games. Mainly rhythm games (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, Pop'n Music, Donkey Konga, etc.), plus about 3 arcade games, heh heh. Next door was a room full of Plasma TVs, Wiis, XBOX 360s, and PS2s, along with a booth to borrow games to play. The last room in that area was the best, the Classic Console room. It was full of regulars like the NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis, plus some amazing ones like Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and even an Atari 2600 (I have a 1600 and 2600 already :P ). Too bad the games there weren't as good of a selection as I would have hoped.

So really, one of our most hoped-for events was the Exhibitor's Hall, where the legendary treasures were to be beheld (and then sold). But it didn't open until 10AM. So after some gaming, and crowd drawing Dance Dance Revolution on my part (okay, Caleb said the crowd was like 5 people), we decided to check the theater schedule.

Now I'll point out here, I had printed a 12 page schedule off the internet that was 3 pages time length and 4 pages event length. I had sat down and made a big 'ol list that took hours to have all the events prioritized. When we got to SCon (new abbreviation), they gave me a schedule that had about 2 times the stuff, and a lot of changed stuff. This bumbed me.

But anyways, the only show we knew was Chi's Sweet Home. In fact, I was the one who suggested it. Chi's Sweet home is about... a cat... that is very "cute"... and it's interesting life... and... um... here, it would be better if you just watched the first episode, which is 3 minutes:
Chi's Sweet Home - Episode 1 (Eng Subs)
As you can see, it's pretty epic. We watched about 10 episodes of that (until it ended).

DA DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAA!!! The Exhibitor's Hall was about to open! We waited outside in the giant skyway over the street below (can be seen in the video). Got lots of good pics from people there with nothing more to do. Caleb and SteveO watched as I asked many people for pictures. Soon, giant pannels opened and we were allowed inside...

Woah...

TONS of awesome stuff. T-shirts, Action Figures, Keychains, Models, Plushies, Stickers, DVDs, Wall Scrolls, Manga, Posters, Hats, Phones Charms, Buttons, and oh so much more! I ended up spending all 200$ of the money I brought. Here's the album full of pictures of all the stuff I bought:
Facebook - Sakuracon Shopping Spree (Publicly Viewable)
I picked up a Wolfwood (from Trigun) Poster, Gurren Lagann Drill Phone Charm, and a FLCL Poster for Mattie.

After many hours wandering (and many things wanted but not bought), I headed over to the local convention center Subway, and Caleb and SteveO went to the dorm for some lunch. While they were gone, I went to what was pretty much number one on my Sakuracon To-Do list.

Halolz Panel.

Now, Halolz is a great website where people submit video game related screenshots that have funny captions. (WARNING: Some content on the site is inappropriate for the younger audience. YOU HAS BEEN WARNED). The owner is friends with the artist of the famous VGCats, and when Halolz went up, VGCats gave us the break down (C WUT I DID THER). So I've Been following the ol' Halolz ever since.

Anyways, I went in and waited for the current Adobe Illustrator lesson *yawn* to finish, and then it was on. Our main man came in, and gave us a run down on how the site was going (on important topics like the Church of Falcon, etc.). We got an awesome slide show full of Halolz's best (with some TUO and The Megas for listening pleasure). Awesome.

After that (and watching the final song in Lucky Star... stupid English Dub...), Caleb and SteveO were back. Wandered around with gaming, shopping, etc.

SteveO left for his Darude concert. Caleb and I went theater browsing. We decided to check out "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", a movie of which I had heard of a few times. As I've said with most anime movies, they are usually aesthetic, and so I assumed it would be like that. It... well... it was AWESOME! It was hilarious, then got serious and had some great plot. I had a hard time enjoying many other things we watched after since it was so good. I recommend it as a starter anime even.

Immediately after we checked out the Studio Ghibli movie "Tales from Earthsea". Like other Ghibli movies (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle), it was good, but nothing amazing.

After that Caleb said "Crayon Shin-chan" was a good one. So we went up stairs to endure one of the most amazing and inappropriate shows I've ever seen. I've never laughed so hard in my life (some people say that, but this was for sure one of the top 5). Not so many explicit things, but if they weren't innuendo after innuendo they would go right over your head. It ended an hour later, but they couldn't find the DVDs for the next show, so they announced another hour of Shin-chan and the theater cheered.

Midnight. Of course, we were planning on staying all night. We weren't too tired at this point. We checked out a few shows, some partway done, some we walked out of right after walking in for "interesting" reasons, heh heh. At 2:00AM we checked out AD Police files in the Classics theater. Like any older 80s anime, they overdid it in violence, profanity, nudity, etc. I went and played some DDR, and almost passed out (being this late at night).

Next was Rosario + Vampire. Hilarious series about a human who accidentally ends up in "yukai" school, a school full of monsters, vampires, werewolfs, witches. And they all hate humans. Of course, the klutzy vampire girl falls for him, and LOL ensues. (Much Fan Service)

After that was Black Cat, which was enjoyable but only 1 episode. I was falling asleep a bit here. Hell Girl came on, and Caleb and I dozed off with some other sleepers in the back of the theater.

About a half hour later, we were woken by monitors who told we "were not allowed to sleep at the convention". Ha ha, but we were luckily refreshed enough to go on just fine after that. SteveO came back, and I got a chance to check out Katamari Damacy in the big ol' game room, which I played for about 2 hours. We checked out Gunslinger Girl, which was enticing (and I plan on purchasing).

EXHIBITOR'S HALL OPEN! We went in and finished off the remains of our cash supply. We headed down the long trail of escalators, and hopped in the car with my dad. Dropped Caleb and SteveO off at the dorms. Went back to my family in Seattle's house. Fell asleep (about noon). Woken up to hunt Easter Eggs, heh heh. Drove home. Finished Disgaea (AWESOME) in the car. SLEEP.

THE END


Everything Else - That's it for the time log. Everything I forgot or doesn't quite fit follows.

Cosplay - Lot's of people had outfits. Some amazing. Some... terrifying. Sure, most people don't actually look like the characters. But you start to get used to this, as work on costumes in itself deserves much admiration. Here's the album I made with descriptions. All these photos were taken by me. (Apologies for blurry photos, dunno why.)
Facebook - Sakuracon 2009 - Cosplay Collection (Publicly Viewable)
(The text with each picture is considered part of this review. Please check out the album.)

There were a bunch I wanted to but didn't get photos of. Off the top of my head: Pikmin (from Pikmin), Sumomo (from Chobits), Haruko (from FLCL), Etna & Flonne (from Disgaea), etc.

May times I would look around and see a person (or group of people) in a costume, and they'd be stopping to pose for someone who was taking a picture. Once they posed, about 10 other people (sometimes myself included) would gather around to join in the picture taking. After a full minute of pictures, the person would "de-pose" and begin walking. After about 10 feet, another person would ask for a picture, and they would pose as a crowd of people gather. And this would happen over and over. (Poor Mewtwo, I watched him walk all around the Exhibitor's Hall like this.)

Now even if you talk to cosplayers, you don't here much about what happens. But Caleb had a friend cosplaying as a character from Inuyasha, and he told us a little about what happens. First off, he was very bummed, because no only did people think he was dressed as somebody else, it was a different character in the same show. Second off, he said that lots of people ask for hugs. Lots. I read somewhere else that people often want hugs. I lol'd.

Merchendise (In case you didn't check it above)
Facbook - Sakuracon Shopping Spree (Publicly Viewable)
(The text with each picture is considered part of this review. Please check out the album.)

I was really wanting to buy a Gurren Lagann Core Drill necklace, Gurren Lagann and Lazengann Figures, more Gurren Lagann Minifigures, a FLCL Shirt, some Halolz shirts, some Snafu shirts, some other shirts, and some other stuff. But I ran outta cash ;)

Missed Events - There were a lot of thigns I wanted to do, but couldn't. Some were shows (Wings of the Honneamise, Golden Boy). Some were panels (Fullmetal Alchemist, FUNimation, Peter Fernandez). And some sounded... interesting. Caleb and I were tempted to look, just to see how creepy they were... here's a handful: The Anime Dating Game, Anime That Scarred Me For Life, Competitive Eating, Meet the Miniskirt Army Uncensored, Con Flirting Guide, Ouran High School Host Club Pajama Party, and Gay & Lesbian Speed Dating (AGH!). Luckily, I pretty much avoided these.

Selection - I was really surprised at what series were abundant and what wasn't. The only cowboy Bebop thing I saw at the whole event was one cosplayer. And Cowboy Bebop is POPULAR. Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't huge either. Gurren Lagann, being amazing and recent, received a lot of attention.


...and that's about it. I hope you enjoyed my in-depth review of Sakuracon. Sorry for those of you who couldn't come. I can't wait for Kumori con in Oregon this September, and Sakuracon NEXT YEAR!!!
SAKURACON WEBSITE - Seattle, Washington
KUMORICON WEBSITE - Portland, Oregon

(I love comments. Thanks for reading!)