Review Katsucon 2009

[Michaelangelo]

Well this event started yesterday and I still don't have much of a review for it myself.  So I'll give ya what I can.

We got here yesterday late afternoon, much later than I normally get to a con.  Finding ourselves at the hotel/convention center and a line outside.  We stand in line for a bit, than they lead the line down into the parking Garage to try and get us out of the cold.  This is where we spent the next few hours, slowly moving along with the line.  Slash got flirted on by a guy a head of us in the line... we had a dancing green thing near us... and a few groups of Mario brothers.  There was lots of costumes to look at, though our feet grew tired and there was no sitting in this line for it had this ever slow moving pace to it.

When we finally got into the hotel area we thought the nightmare of the line was near over... but the hardest part was to come.  They lead us up some escalators into a tiny lobby area... not usually too bad a thing, but when you're getting near the top and all of a sudden the person in front of you stops moving the floor under you keeps moving, and there's a full line of people piling up behind ya who now can't move... I was tip toeing back just to keep from touching the edge... because some con goers were cutting through the area right in front of the line.  Which you know the staffers were doing their best to try and prevent this by taking us in smaller groups than having us all come in at once.  Finally the people move and we get off the escalator and go into the line... getting our badge.

Checking the schedule I know that Slash and Crittle want to see Mike.  I know he's a director as well so when I saw the Director panel listed I lead them up to that floor though the panel was already over.  Crittle and I sat in the hall up stairs for a little bit while Slash and Miki went to check out the Artist alley floor... we were to come down for the AMV panel since Slash entered a video into it... though when we got down there we didn't see Miki or Slash in the crowd... so Crittle and I went to the front row and sat down watching all 35 videos... I was surprised to not see one Yu-Gi-Oh video cause that's what I thought Slash's video would be, and I didn't know what name she would of went by... so there was no way for me to vote for her video...  we got out of there and finally by phone got a hold of Miki and found out that Slash's video wasn't even played.  So there really was no way to vote for her video.   

Seeing the time we knew if we wanted any sleep we had to leave as it was after 11pm... so we took a shuttle back to the train station, went down into the train station and watched a "Specail" train go by... as confused as we were... we wanted Yellow... but than all of a sudden all the little computer screens went blank and than went up saying "Station closed"  Pentagon station was closed, we didn't know what to do so we stood there as we watched others still show up down there... this blocked our rout totally... finally a yellow train came by, it took us to Pentagon City where we had to get off, following the crowd up top side to get a bus... on the bus (free because of this delay) we got a ride to the station just after Pentagon Station where we could catch the orange line back to where my car was parked.  We ended up not getting back to Crittles till almost 2am.... I crashed right away.

... ok, looks like I had more to say about it than I thought...  and I got time so I'll do Saturdays as well right now....

Saturday morning we woke up at 9am, two hours after we wanted to wakeup... rushed to get on the road.. we got here at 1:30 after all the trains, buses and such....  we missed Michael S. autograph session at 11am, so we went to the "So you think you can Voice Act" panel with Michael and 3 other VAs that are here.  No video taping allowed... which I found as weird.. but found out it was because one of the things they were having people do auditions for was not released yet... so they couldn't allow us to video tape that.  After that panel was one for an anime called "Freedom" that has both Michael S. and John Campbell in it. 

After that panel we came out, went through the dealer room where Misty got a hold of me on the phone, so I found an area and planted myself which is when and where I decided to fork out some money for the internet so I can be on here for 24 hours... yay I'm here....  I sat where I was till Misty's mom found me, than Miki, Crittle and Slash found us (we got split up in the dealer room), and lastly Misty found us.  We went to the basement and talked a little.  Misty is going to be back in the morning for the autograph session with Michael.   Casey showed up while we were talking with them... once Misty and her mom left, Casey talked to us for a little bit.... than Miki, Crittle, Slash and I went out and got a bite to eat.

After food we came back to the hotel and started the line for the uncensored guest panel... we got let into that at 11pm and got front row.  At first Michael wasn't there, though the panel was great.  A web comic guy named Mookie kept the show alive with a lot of comic relief... and downing one of those huge pixy stixs.  That was great, esp when the pixy dust went flying everywhere when he couldn't finish it... all over his shirt, shoulder, table, floor... guest around him.... Miki caught a great pic with her camera of the dust in the air!  As the night went on though one by one the guest were disappearing...  till it was down to Tony Oliver and Mookie... I went to the bathroom, came back and found Michael finally joined the party... a little after 1am.  The panel lasted till 2am... which brings me just about to where we are now.

We came out and realized we needed a place to hide out for the night... and found video room 2 which was showing fan made videos of anime thingies... went there, sure enough dark, not many people and most of the others in there were doing what we were there to do... crashing...  I kept nodding on and off till a little after 4am, packed up my stuff and came out to the lobby of the basement (where I can get internet) and started to burn copies of the DVDs from NYC Comic Con and now for Slash.

Today there's not much we're doing and Slash's flight leaves at 10:30 which means we have to leave the convention center no later than 6:30pm.

I'll shoot my next review out when I can.
 

[Michaelangelo]

Well after sitting around in the hall where I wrote the first review.. we went up stairs to the autograph session time.  Misty and her mom joined us in line, only to learn that Mike was going to be late... his autograph session was pushed to 1:30... so we spent time in the dealer room.  Got some candy from Wizzy Wigs and picked up a DVD for $10...  than found an area to sit down as my arm got bumped one too many times.  Misty sat with me, she was nice and gave me a print up of a picture she really likes.

When everyone was ready to leave the dealer room we went out to the autograph area... others were sitting there autographing including Tony Oliver.  I decided to get my programmed autographed, while up there I talked to Tony a little about his time working on the TMNT PR cross over.  Found out the reason that the directors changed so much on those shows was because the same director would be with the show all the way through, not just on the set with the actors but in charge of the VAs and all.  So it made sense why they changed so much.  Also how they had nothing on the Next Mutation to go off of for the show, so it was written more off of the cartoon.  He also told me how Saban passed on TMNT once before and took this chance to do his own version of the Turtles... he wasn't going to pass on this chance again after seeing how far they went the first time.  You know, just because of all the un opened questions about that series I would love to meet Saban.  And Power Rangers won't be my number one topic with the guy.

It was an interesting chat, I showed him the T-Shirt and how many new autographs are on it.  Than went and sat off to the side waiting for Michael to show up.  As we waited Misty got out her TMNT coloring books and colored some pictures, these were deff from when the show first came out they said "Fox Box" on them instead of 4Kids.  I use to bring art supplies in line, maybe after my arm heals I'll be able to do so again.  When Mike got there we got him to sign a few things, I was video taping for his reaction to one of the DVDs that Slash had which he worked on.  So Mike picked on me for video taping on how no one should ever question if the autographs I have are real or not.  I told him that this stuff will never go for sale.  I got into the end of the line, thinking he'd be around a bit longer like the others were... got up there again this time with trading cards for him to sign... though he had to rush sign them and picked on me saying they were going to be for ebay (nope they sit in the folder which I hope to get every card autographed by their VAs).  Than he had to run off for closing panel.

We went down and came in for this, though by this time I was feeling very out of it... I couldn't even bring myself to set up my tripod to video tape... so I only taped the part where the guests said good bye, than I turned it off.  I realized I was going to break down and didn't want to do so in front of my friends so I took my stuff and left the panel room... I sat a lone a little just to try and clear my head when I got up I learned the others left the panel room... I went to where they were... they didn't know what to do now... we went up to the lobby for a little bit where I got to say good bye to Casey and he gave me a bottle water.  Which I really did need at the time (THANKS CASEY!)

We left the convention center about 5pm, took the long broken down train/bus/train ride back to the car... this was the hardest ride yet for me as the pain and some emotional issues has reached their peek on me and I was just totally broken down.  We got back to the car and I made a wrong turn before Miki got the GPS working... which lead us into down town D.C. which was the LAST thing I wanted... thankfully while in DC I only made the wrong turn once...  which is a new record for me.. of course it had to happen where I get lost everytime I'm in DC only difference this time was I knew the street I turned onto... just a good record of how often I get lost there so getting back to the street I needed wasn't too hard.

We got Slash to the Air Port in time, I felt bad cause we ended up on a side express way that was just for air port traffic and didn't have any off ramps for food or anything.  We were hoping to get her a bite to eat before she had to go.  There was a sign of no waiting and a officer kind of watching me, so our good bye couldn't be as long as we would of liked it to be. 

After saying good bye I drove back to Crittle's and we all crashed for the night....

[Danceingfae]

Yes I finally got around to replying to this!

Just had to comment about Mookie. He is an awesome comic artist and hilarious guy! I got lucky enough to meet him last year when I went to Katsucon. There is a web-comic he does that is fairly popular. It's called Domonic Deegan

Check it out! It's a fun read

As for the rest, phew! Crazy! I would not be able to do a convention with so little sleep that you got.

[Michaelangelo]

Heh I don't mind doing conventions on little sleep as long as I don't have to drive too much... driving while like that is scary.  Though I find putting sleep on a back sleep during cons is normal so that you can squeeze more out of the money ya spent on the event.  Try to enjoy it to the fullest.