FanimeCon 2012: Sierra's Report

(Note: Cross-posted to the new blog, Conventioneers Gazette!)

We arrived at the hotel in San Jose at approximately 11:30 AM on Thursday morning, giving us ample time to check into our hotel room and pick up our badges. Being rather tired, I decided to check out the local area and pick up my badge the next day instead. The Hyatt Place hotel was located almost directly across from the convention center, making the walk easy and pleasant. The weather was very clear and a little hot. As for the convention center itself, it seemed packed with people picking up their badges, both in and out of cosplay.

Newspaper Clippings, Part 1 - Anime Expo

At Sacramento State, we have a huge media library which includes microfilm from various newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times. I've started to dig into these archives to see how newspapers covered anime and comic conventions, and I started with the biggest article that I've seen in any newspaper - Los Angeles Time's half-page article about Anime Expo 2011, published July 1st 2011.

CCB Report: Battle at the Capitol - Final Thoughts

6 months ago, I had only tasted a small portion of the fighting game community (or FGC for short) though anime conventions and watching streams of EVO. I never pictured myself being involved in the FGC, let alone hugging a player after an incredible run-back to win it all...again.

CCB Report: Battle at the Capitol - Championship Sunday

On this Sunday, I dubbed today "Championship Sunday" as the major tournaments in UMvC3 and Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 would crown their champions, as well as running the awaited UMvC3 5v5 Sacramento vs Davis Team Challenge and the 3v3 Team Tournament. I threw it back for today, wearing my Tiger Woods black hat-red polo-black shorts (since it was almost 90 that day). This was the barn burner, and it was exciting from start to finish.

CCB Report: Battle at the Capitol - Prelim Saturday

Coming into this past weekend's Battle at the Capitol, I really didn't know what to expect. Prior to this, I've never covered a "major," just a bunch of small tournaments at SacAnime, SacCon, and Capitol Fight District. But by the time the event was over near 10pm Sunday night, I have this certain feeling, something that I haven't felt in such a long time.

CCB Report: DAiCon 2012

For myself, the next two weeks is my Fanime. Due to finances hitting rock bottom in the last month or so, affordability issues have been raised about this convention that I would attend yearly. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't go, despite having many obligations to go including running gatherings and reporting for the California Conventions Blog. I have since delegated a team to go on my behalf, but I still feel that something would be missing come Memorial Day, which will be addressed another time.

As for now, we have DAiCon, today's report, and the Battle of the Capitol, an event that I'm covering this weekend for the blog. DAiCon was in Davis, California on the campus of UC Davis and offered a wide variety of things to do during the convention, and I enjoyed it very much.

CCB Report: (Impromptu) Capital Fight District, April 14th, 2012

As the "Battle at the Capital" approaches, I wanted to check out Capital Fight District (CFD for short) as a tune up for not only the players, but for myself.

The reason why I call it the Impromptu CFD is that Artisan Building was overbooked and they had to change venues on a dime, moving the entire event over to Great Escape Games off of Howe and Hurley. I got there about around 2:15 only to find out about the move, and I got there just in time to watch some Marvel vs Capcom 3.

At the same time, a tournament for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Melee was going on, and I haven't seen a massive tournament for this game in such a long time. As most people will know, the Brawl and Melee tournament scene can be a bit complicated; after all, the phrase "no items, Fox only, Final Destination" originally came from this fan base and all the changes that the people have done to "balance" the game. But still, it was nice to see this fan base still alive and kicking even for a game this old, and I just as much fun watching Brawl and Melee as much as watching Marvel vs Capcom 3.

CCB Insider #002: Fandom Wank

Recently, while surfing the net, Matt and I stumbled across this video.

I want to grab this person and shake them really really hard. I want to scream at them for dissing pretty much every fandom that ever came out of a country that is not Japan. And then defending like two extra TV shows anyway because "at least it's a cartoon". That's just sad. I bet this person doesn't even enjoy fandom anymore. This person is a perfect example of what a hipster really is--someone who cannot enjoy something in any way shape or form just because it's popular.

Byline - Episode 01: SakuraCon 2012

Episode 01: SakuraCon

Canadian artist Jackie and her fiancee Zanney travel to an anime convention in Seattle, WA to celebrate one year living together and meet up with some friends!

CogsCon 2012

When I received an invitation to CogsCon from a friend of mine, who happens to be on the staff, I thought it would be a good opportunity to visit a college-held con in its first year. It's always a gamble, when a convention starts off, and ones held at colleges can either rise to great heights, implode, or remain stagnant. Now that I've seen its startup, we'll see what I think.