Back from AP. Had a great time, even if we more or less skipped out on Sunday. We were gonna hit up Animass, Studio Ghibli, and Closing Ceremonies, but we were tired, and kinda ready for home. I was missing the Minion, little sister was missing her mice and her Punkie, and yeah.
Got a citation on the way home, and one of little sister's mice had died over the weekend. So, a somber and unfun ending to a weekend that was otherwise a blast.
My final Achievement score was 186, and we got to see some seriously kick-ass costumes. Typically, Anime Punch is for -anime ONLY- costumes, but there was a killer Jack Frost cosplay that was stunning, and I was thrilled to see her take "Audience Favorite". The awards this year were made by a seriously talented staffer... I kept thinking they were store-bought, because they were bad-ass. The con-chair dropped one from the stage to demonstrate during opening ceremonies, and the damned thing BOUNCED and rang like a friggin magical bell. They kept saying you could kill someone with them, and I believe it. Kind of regretful I quit the armor cosplay, but I'm seriously tempted to switch it a bit and keep going. The other armor I was looking at was worn by a fat guy, so I can pull that off, yeah?
Opening Ceremonies was awesome as always, and we pretty well hit the ground running. Distraction was utterly hilarious and vaguely disturbing, as always, and how often to do you get to see a nun whack a fully grown man with a huge ass dead carp, and then pet it when it winds up bouncing across the stage? Kathy and The Trial was enlightening and entertaining, and led to an awesome burning effigy during The Execution on Saturday. We did have some slight problems with the schedule, as you had things like Blitzball and the Puppet Show going on at the same time, so we did a half-hour at Blitzball (it's always awesome to watch!) and then flopped over to the Puppet Show, which was possibly a mistake, because it was insanely confusing to walk into the middle of. But still hilarious, and I thought I was going to wee myself I was laughing so hard at a few points. We had another scheduling conflict with Your Favorite Anime Suck, Science in Anime, and When I Was Your Age, but Kathy won again, and it was a very enlightening panel. I would have loved to see "20 Years of Sailor Moon", but it clashed with HO, and we ALL know, you don't miss HO. We crashed early Friday, and I woke up Saturday a little hoarse from screaming all night. Still though, LEGENDS man. Legends was nothing short of the epicness we always expect, and Nate and Mike really outdid themselves this time. Though, I may start cosplaying as Nurse Joy and dragging down my first-aid kit during that panel, because yeesh! I did offer it to them after the panel, and was told that Con-Ops had one, and little sister muttered as we headed to The Execution "Yeah, maybe, but theirs doesn't have sutures I bet!". Thankfully, the injured dude was pretty bad-ass, and didn't let a little blood (okay, a helluva lot of blood!) interfere with his weekend. We took a slight break to head upstairs to refuel, and then went to watch Swimsuit Cosplay. After 15 minutes and not seeing anyone, we went to Trolls Trolling Trolls, and again, about died with utter laughter, then hit up Whose Line (which, I'll admit, I was wary of, because I hadn't seen it be funny without Kiyo before, but was utterly hysterical this year. We hit Dealer's Den while they set up for Cosplay, and damn son, some of the outfits this year! The staffers running Cosplay did a stellar job, really encouraging every cosplayer and complimenting their jobs, letting those that wanted to preen have the stage, but also not forcing those that just wanted to try to dash across the stage to preen. They had some really interesting categories for awards, and the only issue I had was I would have preferred to see the "Trash Picker" award renamed as "Recycle Master" or something similar (dude did a helluva job on a truly kick-ass armor, and made the whole thing out of duct tape, cardboard, and a 2-liter bottle!), but that's nit-picking. We are while they were setting up for the Concert, and then went to see 2D6, a duo of rapping nerds, and had a fun time, even though my leg was spasming and numbing at that point, and I had to sit for most of it. The fire alarm wound up getting pulled, and the staffers were excellent, seriously, truly awesome at getting everyone out of the building, and then resuming everything without a hitch. I'm not a fan of rap, and if I had read the program better, I probably wouldn't have gone, but we had a great time, and I wound up buying the CD's. "DJ Stuck Down A Mineshaft" had some incredible energy, bouncing around the attendees like a wee chipmunk on speed, and still rapping and never slowing down.
Little Sister walked in part-way through Mike's interpretation of the War in Pokemon, and that was in 2011, and has been grilling me since about it, and mentions it at least once a month, so when we saw Pokemon Uncut as a panel, we marked it as a "I-don't-care-if-you're-bleeding-to-death, we're-attending-this-friggin-panel". I was a little sad that he skipped Lt Surge, but considering I still have such sad dreams about it (and I heard that one in 2010!), that's probably for the best. We were gonna hit the rave, but my leg was absolute crap, and little sister was starting to crash, so we checked out early.
The staffers were A+ as always, busting ass to make sure the whole weekend went smooth, but making it look completely effortless. Never at any point did a staffer make us feel like we were bothering them for asking questions or saying something, and the one time a staffer didn't know the question, she told us she'd get back to us. I told her not to worry about it (it was a silly little question), but she actually tracked us down and answered it later, which blew me away (YOU try to find 2 specific people during a convention!).
I was completely surprised by the number of people that remembered us from past years, and was vaguely worried that it's because we've done something in the past to make up memorable. Then little sister mentioned that I love this con because it's like coming to an awesome family reunion, and maybe they feel the same way. After all, I can pick out several staffers, and several regular attendees without trouble, so maybe it goes the same in reverse? Still slightly paranoid I made an ass of myself somehow though. I was bracing for this weekend to be a miserable mess (not through AP's fault AT ALL, but because I invited someone who I thought would enjoy it, and then all the friggin drama Thursday and Friday), but she wound up bailing to hang with her friends all weekend, which made it a great weekend to relax and have fun and rock out. I know AP was struggling this year, but it was sort of nice to have a 'throw-back' to earlier years, when it was smaller and panels were still being thrown together 5 minutes before it went live.
We also saw some great cosplays, and while I know it's an Anime-Only convention, there was a stunning Jack Frost, a hella-cute gender-bent Elsa with Anna and Olaf, A FRIGGIN KATE BISHOP HAWKEYE OH MY GOD, Deadpool, a hella cute gender-bent Tony Stark, and an incredibly cute little blue wolf furry that my little sister (who ran in terror from furries that chased her in 2011!!) kept squeaking in glee when she saw them during the rest of the weekend.
Also, random bit is random, but whoever did the big background in the main panel room? Did a HELL of a job. Several (I want to say 5?) HUGE wooden panels, painted with silhouettes of anime characters that were instantly recognizable, and a very elegant font for Armageddicon 8. These things were massive, beautifully done, and as silly as it sounds, made the room smell lovely (like a lumber yard, the scent of freshly-cut lumber. Much better than sweaty bodies or the dreaded ConFunk!!!). I know I spent several minutes just oggling at it. They did a stellar job, and I wish I could have told the staffer who did it!
All in all, we had a helluva time, and I'm quite pleased with how this weekend (mostly) went. I'm desperately hoping we see Armageddicon again next year, and I'm spending tonight recouping, and then The King comes out Tuesday, and then we're hitting up Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, and then it's time for Shatterdome! (still largely panicking over that, you have absolutely no idea!!!)
