Sunday, June 15, 2014

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 8 - Prospectives and Final Thoughts

As FanimeCon 2014 and their 20th anniversary celebration concludes, there's a lot to look back on during all these years that I've been attending.

The first ever photo that I took starting in 2008.

And 7651 shots later...

Nate Reports: Fanimecon 2014 (Days 3-4)

It has already been an exciting day two of Fanimecon for me and we're only halfway through the con! What will we see in these next two days? Let's get right to it!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 7 - Day Four

All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, this also includes the task of checking out.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Ray Reports - FanimeCon 2014: Day 3, 4, and Conclusion

Not much happened on Day 3, and I barely spent any time on the floor in Day 4, so I will condense both days' reports into a single post.

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 6 - Day Three

Day Three of this report really doesn't start exactly at Day Three, but more like after MusicFest at the tail end of Day Two.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Lucas Chang Reports: Fanime 2014 Review

Hey everyone, this is Lucas and I’m going to talk and review about Fanime 2014. This was the longest con I’ve been to actually, considering I left on Day (-1) and left the day after Day 4. Just to let people know ahead of time, I was going to start my new job on Wednesday, May 28th, so I couldn’t push myself like I normally can at cons. This meant that I skipped out a lot of things and events, but was a nonetheless exciting and fun-filled weekend.

Ray Reports - FanimeCon 2014: Day 2

Day 2 was Touhou day for Lucas and me. As usual, we got up around 9 or 10 AM or so. I helped Lucas put on his cosplay of Eiki Shiki, his go-to cosplay for Touhou gatherings.

This is the part where anyone who has known me well would expect me to put on my Reimu Hakurei cosplay. For a change of pace, I did not. Instead, I chose to cosplay Renko Usami, a side character who only appears in non-game Touhou material. I had started this cosplay last fall, and over the past season I had picked up some new upgrades for this particular cosplay until it was "complete" on my terms.

I felt a sense of pride of being quite possibly the only person in the Northern California Touhou community, if not the overall California Touhou community, to cosplay as Renko, but at the same time it just didn't have the same fun as cosplaying as Reimu. While I tend to get my share of feedback cosplaying as Reimu--who, for those not familiar, is the series' central protagonist--from photos to people simply calling me out by name, I had almost none of this as the barely-known Renko. Still, it was a nice change of pace, as I felt that this particular character deserved some cosplay representation. For all I know, I probably made someone's day by cosplaying tuch a terribly underappreciated character.



Saturday, June 7, 2014

Nate Reports: Fanimecon 2014 (Days 0-2)

Alas, the summer convention season has begun and what better way to start it with the biggest anime convention in Nor-Cal, Fanimecon! But before we get into my coverage of this con, I have to explain that I did miss out on one day of the convention and I will explain more when I get to it on this report. Now onwards to this year's Fanime coverage!

Ray Reports: FanimeCon 2014 - Day 1

It came time to begin the con proper. We got up and conducted our morning routines, snacking on some of the stuff we bought at Costco yesterday in the interest of saving on cash.

I was feeling a bit lazy, and not much was happening just yet, so I lounged around in the room for a bit, getting my cosplay of Persona 3's main character ready. I arrived on the con floor around noon with Lucas.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 3 - Day One

Much like every other FanimeCon I've attended (or any convention in general), I'm always the first one to wake up while everyone sleeps in past the "normal" time since nothing happens until Opening Ceremonies happens.

Ray Reports: FanimeCon 2014 - FanimeCon 2006 and Day 0

Then and now

My first Fanime(Con) was in 2006. It was a rather bare-bones experience. I only went from Saturday through Monday, and each day I left by around 7 PM or so, getting dropped off and picked up by my parents every day as I had no car at the time and the thought of staying in a hotel room didn't cross my mind at the time. I didn't put on any cosplays, having not gotten into that hobby yet.

This being my first con, it also introduced me to a lot of firsts. It was my first time seeing cosplay in person--before I had only been minimally exposed to it through photos. I loved how people were replicating their characters via costume, and it was something I decided I wanted to do as well. It was my first time being in a space full of like-minded folks--15,000 fellow fans in one space? Hell yes! I had never experienced anything like it.

Blast from the past.

Now, we fast forward to 2014. I've attended every single Fanime, each one bringing new and unique experiences. This is no exception.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 2 - Day Zero

As Day Zero approached with FanimeCon's 20th anniversary in the backburner, some of my routine felt like I was going back to this convention for the second or third time while it also felt I was a grizzly convention veteran.

Matthew's FanimeCon 2014 Report: Part 1 - Prologue

In reality, this report should start all the way back after the end of FanimeCon 2011.