California Conventions Blog: SacAnime Summer 2011 Report: Part 4

Despite only getting two hours of sleep after recovering everything and preparing everything for Sunday, I get to the convention relatively early once again, this time rewarded with a parking spot with some shade. Once again, I went to Bel Air for more ice and some breakfast, but the decision to not dump the ice and leave it in the bag would sort of come back to bite me later.

My first order of business was to cover the early morning VIP-only autograph session. For a 9am VIP-only autograph session, the line looked pretty long but from what I saw when I came back later things went very smoothly.

I sat down and talked to the ones that were already up before heading off to the main events area and one of my favorite panels of the weekend: Anime Let's Make A Deal. Here, everyone wins a prize...well, not exactly. Some of them were really awesome and useful, like the organizer that I won. Other prizes...well, let's just say that someone won some Tinkerbell panties. I also stepped outside to check out the Homestruck Panel, which was happening next door. I know about the series from other staff members, and I would learn a lot more later.

Right as I head on back for Jason's Panda Days Gathering, I squeeze in last-second at the VIP-only autograph session with some staff members who were looking to get things signed. I was very grateful to be there, and I finally got my copies of Persona 3 and Persona 4 signed as well as a convention poster.

It was here that I had to ask Yuri Lowenthal the one question that was plaguing me for the past three to four years: why he got replaced as Renton in Eureka seveN. According to Lowenthal, it was miscommunication between Bandai Japan and Bandai America. Originally, Bandai America had asked Lowenthal to voice Renton in a certain key, but when Bandai Japan got a hold of the dub they flipped out, fired Lowenthal, and "hired the guy next to us," referring to Bosch who was signing autographs the table over.

Back at the Panda Days Gathering, I snap some photographs of the gathering while eating my second tuna sandwich and listening to the DJ somehow mix Nyan Cat with Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites." Remember how I told you I didn't dump the ice and left in the bag earlier? Well the top of the bread was moldy; I was about to eat it, then Mana, Kazu's "wifey," stopped me. So I threw away the top and ate my half-breaded tuna sandwich.

I attend the Lolita Gathering for some photographs and catch a couple more cosplayers before heading to the Durarara!! Panel.

The Durarara!! Panel was a Q&A session with cosplayers acting as their characters, with all of them playing them spot on especially Izaya's sisters and Anri. She even gave me an accurate response when I tried to recruit her over to SEES playing the role of Junpei.

I swing by the Dealers Hall, Maid Cafe, and gaming room once again on Sunday, taking more photos and recollecting with people about this convention.

I get a text from Robbie asking me when we wanted to do our video recap and review. We find a nice spot across the lake looking towards the main part of the convention, and start filming. It was really nice to finally do a video review from Robbie and brought a fresh perspective to the table alongside his humor.

With Robbie heading out since he's driving back to Santa Rosa, I head on over to the last VA Q&A session where apparently Twitter was in play after someone was live tweeting from the event. I was going to stick around for Closing Ceremonies, but it was one of those Closing Ceremonies where I would have to sit through the AMV results first, so I took off to cover something else.

At this point I remember that I still have that Junpei x Chidori commission portrait to pick up. I would check back constantly between now and when I left.

This is when I catch the biggest gathering of this whole entire convention: The MS Paint Adventures Gathering, the website behind the phenomenon Homestruck. There are a number of other titles that they produce, but everyone knows them for Homestruck. I would have to guess that in this time of the gathering, I probably got a crash course in Homestruck.

Other highlights in between the gathering was Wendell finishing off the game room with his rendition of Biz Markie's "Just A Friend," pinatas, one crazy scavenger hunt, and everyone lying down dead.

The convention is winding down, so I take one last stroll around the grounds, talk to more people about future events, and finally pick up my commission. She did a wonderful job, and I promised her that I would frame the art and hang it up.