Saturday

Breakfast

It’s the most important meal of the day, and as such, I ventured over to the hotel continental breakfast buffet. I deftly navigated my way past a fourteen year old Naruto and Sasuke. Upon my entrance , I was visually assaulted with a bemused cross-section of Hotel Staff and non congoing guests. One business man in particular, fresh off a plane, with his bags still in tow walked into the dining area only to grimace and and do an about face. “Look, I just want to sit by myself!” sums his sentiment up well. So obligingly, the hostess sat him next to the guy who was completely painted blue.

Food was the standard affair, though I still don’t entirely understand this whole ‘I’m going to eat while wearing the very delicate and one-of-a-kind costume you worked on for six months’ thing. Look, I like your costume, but please, no need to bring your nineteen foot glittery and expansive entourage of clay deities, to hang from your shoulder as you dine. I half hope one of those little guys falls down into your cream of wheat.

Panels (Wooden is my Favorite)

As many of you know, I generally don’t go to panels. It’s not that I don’t want to go, as there were many interesting panels and speakers. I just don’t end up going, unless a serendipitous turn of events pushes me to down into a seat. Actually, I wanted to go to Ghost In The Shell: A Discussion but after dropping over one-hundred dollars on sushi and sake, it seemed wise to retire to something less interactive. (Like the bathroom.)

Eventually, I will have some sort of panel or table at one of these cons, and I fear no-one will care to stop by because, well, panels are boring! Let us begrudgingly cross that bridge next year.

Dealers Room Part II (Empty Wallet Cometh)

Let me get it out of the way: I’m a sucker. I bought a twenty dollar grab bag from the Anime Sekai booth. I ended up with a Death Note fan, Fruits Basket mouse pad, a deck of cards from some random anime, a mini Godzilla key chain, and an Evangelion figure. All of which, I can use practically on a day-to-day basis. Well worth twenty dollars, in my opinion! -_-*

I did score an awesome Famicom Music Compilation which contains one of the most interesting arrangements of the Super Mario theme I’ve heard to date. I was drawn towards the cd because of it’s clean yet enticing packaging. Doesn’t it just make you want to buy it?

I also wish to share with you one of the worst Hentai DVD covers I have even seen in my dear life. How can you go wrong with a title like Milk Money? Oh, here’s how.

Game Room

The air in the game room was thick and wrought with a distinct spritz of bawls and unwashed male testicle (not to be confused with the rare and oft sought female testicle.) With the assistance of an outside vendor Anime USA pulled all the stops this year with the next gen systems and flat screen televisions. Sadly, missing from the game room were several dance and rhythm game staples (including any kind of actual arcade unit) that should be at every convention. In the Groove was to make an appearance, but in an apparent last minute foible by a truck rental company the arcade machine could not make an appearance. Some games from previous years that were missing in action: Para Para Paradise and Taiko no Tatsujin.

Artists Alley

The Artists Alley wasn’t as centrally located as it had been at Tyson’s corner, and inevitably there were artists who sat in dark obscure corners. I had a chance to sit down at one such obfuscated table with Cosmos and Hunter from Cosmos Studios. Since no one was buying anything from them, I took the opportunity to make myself comfortable behind there table, where I began attempting to create free hand drawings and sell bookmarks! By the nights end I had somehow managed to sell my unfinished drawing to a nice woman who had already purchased three bookmarks an hour earlier. Want to know the best way to sell a bookmark?

Ataru: ‘Excuse me sir! Do you read books?’

Confused Patron: ‘Why yes! Yes I do!’

Ataru: ‘Me too! But I always would loose my spot, and if I lost my spot, I’d have to start the book all over again, I’m still reading Moby Dick. This is where the new state-of-the art bookmark technology comes into play!’

*Ataru Picks up book and places bookmark at page 480*

Ataru: ‘Oh no! I’ve lost my page, however will I find it? Was it page 210? No. It was 316? Curse this dangerous dystopic future! Oh here it is, page 480.’

Confused Patron: ‘I’ll take eight!’

Cosplaying and Randomness

In the afternoon I donned my increasingly infamous Amy Rose costume. I met up with Cream and we walked the circuit confidently. Without peripheral vision. This was the fourth time I wore Amy, and it seems I’m pretty easy to pick out. I was constantly lost in a sea of people shouting “AMY.” I think the gig is up though. Enough people were yelling “There’s a dude in there!” to soften the surprise of a man being under the suit. I received many comments this time around. Most notable were, “Wow, it must be hot in there!” (No Shit!) and my favorite “You are so Warm!” (Thank you?)

Fellow podcaster Tyler from Rangercast caught up with me while I was in costume and wanted to provide his listeners with an update of “That guy in the Amy Costume from Katsucon.” As usual, I ran at the mouth, and I can’t even remember what I said. Look for his Anime USA podcast sometime soon, hopefully, I’ll make the cut.

The Podcast

Despite going analog and lo-fi I’ve got some great audio which I hope to dump and edit this week. I hope to have it out and edited shortly after Thanksgiving. Until then, tide your hunger by downloading last years Anime USA podcast.

Please send any pictures and or video you’d like to share with me at Ataru_@_Atarumoroboshi_.com

-Ataru