June 15: trip to Amherst, where I would be staying. Nothing majorly exciting to report. Had dinner in Nashua at a buffet style restaurant with the Namagomi (Andrew). I didn't think a buffet type restaurant like that existed anyplace but in my dreams and my Big Eyes, Small Mouth game because they had Chinese food, Japanese food (sushi and sashimi), Italian food, and some American food. What surprised me was the fact that they had SIX tables side by side filled with food, plus a front counter area for the sushi and sashimi, Italian, and make your own stirfry. One wall was dedicated souly to dessert, like ice cream and pastries. I have to say I ate like Lina that night.... 3 heaping plates of food, plus a bowl of noodles, plus some other things. Advice to all who eat sushi - beware of the ones with little green circles in the rice. Those are SPICY. I nearly belched a fireball from the intensity.
    On the trip home we stopped to watch hot air balloons. I'm gonna have to scan in those pics at a later date. It was fun to watch them land, and try to track where they would go. Idiot helped one to land, and they used my head as a target for the drop line (memo to self: when somebody shouts 'Look out!' don't just stand around, RUN!).
    Memo for the next Mikkakan: get a room at the hotel so that all will be easier on everyone.

    June 16: My first day at the convention. My first anime convention ever. I was NOT about to miss a minute of it. Considering my relatively sleepless night (kept waking up to a clock chiming the hour and half hour.... oy vey) I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Got a nice image that I would like to draw some time (if I ever get good enough to make it look good). It's of Zelgadis laying back with me (err.... Alex... well, me since Alex is a part of me) resting his head on Zel's stomach.
    Decided to cosplay as Laguna Loire from Final Fantasy 8 for a few reasons. 1) I had all the clothes in my closet and didn't have to buy anything and b) it was the easiest thing to throw together and lighest thing to carry in my bag. Coulda gone as Trowa, but that would have meant hairspary galore. Coulda gone as Chichiri (I have the costume already made) but that would have required blue hair color (have it) and hairspary (ick). Coulda gone as Cid Highwind, but that costume was MAJORLY heavy (and heavy weight... I woulda roasted to death that day). Stupid me forgot to take any pictures of myself as Laguna... but lots of people have my picture.
    Got to the convention shortly after 11am (they began registration for the day at 10), registered, and immediately went to the dealer's room, where I proceeded to get stuck in a wave of people (help... claustrophobia... get away from me you pervert! HEY!!! Watch where you're grabbing!!) who were all purchasing things. I bought 2 CD's (Tenchi Muyo soundtrack and Slayers TRY BGM treasury #1), 2 packs of Slayers trading cards (god I love 'em!!), a deck of Slayers playing cards (kawaiii), 4 posters (3 for me, one for Rachel), and a package of Final Fantasy 7 stickers. I also took a buttload of pictures throughout the day (memo to self: USE THE FRAGGING FLASH AT ALL TIMES!! 400 speed film does NOT mean that it will turn out well in artifical lighting).
    I met and made friends with Kandy that day. She was dressed as Shiras (sp?) from Record of Lodoss war, and her friend Kate was dressed as Little Neese (sp?). We walked around a lot, talked, and had a good time. She knew I was dressed as Laguna, but couldn't name it right away (and if ANYBODY has pictures of me as Laguna, could ya please e-mail 'em to me?? please? I didn't think to have anybody take pics with my camera).
    The costumes that people wore that day were incredible. There were 3 Cardcaptor Sakuras, and 2 of them were wearing the catgirl / neko outfit she wore for capturing the Thunder card. There were 3 or 4 Sanosuke's (one of them being Kandy's friend Sean.... I'll post a link to his site near the bottom). There was 1 Lina Inverse, but her costume was incredible 'cause it was the Lina from the OVA's. There was a group dressed as Dark Serge, Harle, and Lynx from Chrono Cross, and I nearly squeaked when I saw their outfits 'cause they were totally incredible. And there were 4 girls dressed as Heero, Quatre, Trowa, and Duo from Gundam Wing. I think they called themselves the Gundam Girls.
    Kandy had to leave for a short while, and that's when I met Bonnie... err... make that Ryuu-chan (she's gonna kill me for calling her Bonnie), and some of her friends. They were doing a karoke contest (or somethin like that) and I decided to try to sing. Man, I made a butt out of myself 'cause I chose What's Up Guys, which is the theme to Bakeretsu Hunters, and I couldn't sing half of the words. Oh well.... next year I'm gonna sing Mask by Masami Okui.... or maybe bringsome of my Slayers music and sing Get Along or  Give A Reason. Ryuu-san and I got really screwed up from the amount of soda which we were drinking (dehydration really bites, ya know). We went to a convenience store near the hotel and bought 2 liters of Mountain Dew and some candy for a major sugar boost.
    The panel discussion which we sat in on for Gender in anime was kinda fun. I sorta met Tristan McAvery, who does voices for ADV films (didn't know who he was until much later on.... he wanted to sing Honey Flash for karoke, but strained his voice). Had to tell Namagomi that I was gonna need a pick up around 9:30ish or later so tht I could be in the costume contest.
    I ran into Kandy again when it was time for the costume contest, and met Sean. I nearly died when I saw all of the cool costumes (and I also nearly died from the heat. That room got really, really, REALLY hot!!). Wonder who I'm gonna go as next year... maybe Chichiri... maybe Ryu from Breath of Fire 4 (Sean agrees that we should get a group together to do something like that). I gotta send Rachel the websites for all of the pictures that I've seen from the contests, since there were quite a number of Wolfwoods from Trigun (and one Vash the Stampede... a girl dressed as Vash-kun... and her outfit was stylin), and also the number of Sanosuke's from Kenshin. I didn't win any prizes, and neither did Ryuu-chan, but we had fun none the less. The Gundam Girls and the Chrono Cross group and the Kenshin group won prizes.
    On a side note Kandy had a real sword with her, which I thought was really cool.
    Had to call the baka no hentai (don't ya just love the names that I'm calling him? He's a *beep*ing *beep*head) for a pickup and then went with Ryuu-chan and Caroline the bottomless pit to get food at Papa Gino's (stupid Burger King closed 5 minutes early).
    Saying of the day: Welcome to insanity. Population: 2 full time, 1 part time, several visitors.

    June 17: Forgot to mention something funny that happened in the Con suite yesterday. Got involved in a conversation about good VA's and bad VA's. David Moo was mentioned (*gags profusely*). Learned that Crispin Freeman really hates Moo for something that happened during the dubbing of Slayers NEXT. According to Touga (or was it Akito) Crispin recorded his lines first for Zelgadis in the second episode (the one where Xellos first appears). They called him back to rerecord the 'That is a Secret' line since Moo couldn't do it like Crispin had done. Finally, more people who agree with me that David Moo must die (or at least be painfully tortured). All of us agreed that Crispin Freeman and Veronica Taylor are way better as Zelgadis and Amelia than Daniel Cronan and Jonnie Baker.
    Forgot to mention that I saw Sarah at the con (Sarah as in a friend of mine from the UNH anime club and games club). I was hanging out with Kandy when Sarah walked in and I was like "Sarah!" and Sarah was like "Bill!" and neither one of us expected to see the other on there. Also while I was with Kandy somebody dressed as Optimus Prime walked in. I totally had to take his picture. Unfortunately he wasn't in the costume contest *sighs* oh well.... his costume ROCKED!!
    *side note* There is a Lord Jeffrey road in Amherst. When I saw it I totally had to laugh, since the second episode of Slayers: Dragon Slave (ie. the OVA's) features a Lord Jeffrey.
    Well.... yet another sleepless night (stupid clock *pulls out Giga Grazer cannon and blasts the fodder out of the clock* ahhh.... much better). Finally got an early start (as opposed to the late start I got on Saturday). Had a delicious and healthy breakfast (gotta love fresh strawberries *drools*). Got to the con shortly before 11 yet again, and it was beginning to thunderstorm when I got there (the end of Hurricane Alison's legacy no less). I hit the dealer's room right away again (need to shop, need to buy, need more cards) and spent most of my money on 3 anime tapes (both tapes of Agent Aika, and the second tape of Luna Varga), an address book (Fushigi Yuugi), and 3 more packs of trading cards. I scoped out another table and saw a Sailor Starlights microphone and chest emblem (*dies 'cause he couldn't afford it*). A Seiya fangirl purchased it... or maybe she liked Yaten... or Takai... I can't recall, but she had one of them pictured on her T-shirt. Damn them for closing the con suite today.
    Theater one was showing a surprise movie that turned out to be Shinesman ("Shinesman Salmon PINK!!"). I dragged Ryuu-san into the theater and she totally loved it. She wants to see more of it (and I quote it way too often). Wandered around some more and found Caroline in theater 2, which was going to show Kodomo no Omocha (Steven Kelsey's contribution to the surprise anime for the day and the convention *waves to Steve*). Went back to the dealer's room and fell in love with a Sorcerer Hunter's daily selection program and Slayers TRY encyclopedia program. I spent $45 on the two and totally love 'em.
    The girl who was running the table that had the imported Sailor Starlights stuff was setting up a Playstation with Dance Dance Revolution and the imported dance pad, not the domestic one. The game occupied much of that day, since there was a HUGE group who wanted to play it. Bonnie and I decided to make a deal and try it together. We met Justin, who was from that area, and Bonnie stole his shoelaces and Caroline's shoelaces. I want to get that game. Bonnie had a blast and she wants Caroline to get the game.
    Popular songs of the day:

    That night I downloaded the first three songs, plus Drop the Bomb, and later on I picked up Oh Nick Please Not so Quick. I got to be #1 when the girl started to hand out numbers (we were in front of an emergency exit and needed to keep it clear). I did fairly well on my turn, and had people applauding me. I danced to Boom Boom Dollar, Dub I Dub, and Paranoia.
    Somebody tried to cut in front of Bonnie, but everyone told him to get to the back of the line 'cause she was gonna be #2. I got to select her music (part of the deal) and she scored a 21 combo on her turn, which wasn't bad for her first try. The stupid pad kept bunching up and sliding, though. However we got blown out of the water by people who own the game. One guy got a 199 combo and an AAA+ rating on one level, a 240+ combo on level 2, and on level 3 he totally bombed. The really cool thing about the game was that everyone was doing the dance along with the player (our own cabaret act or something like that... maybe a chorus line). What sucked was that Bonnie bumped me and somebody landed on my foot.
    2PM came all too soon, and I needed to call the idiot. It was still raining *blech* and we trekked across the parking lot and across traffic to Burger King to get lunch. Bonnie agreed to let me take her picture (she wore my goggles and my gloves for my Laguna outfit), and it took me a while to get the gloves and my Laguna figure back from her.
    I don't want to go into what happened after I left the convention, since it's really painful and I'm still mad at that certain person *glares daggers at the Namagomi*.

    A side note about the costume contest: While we were hanging around in wait I glanced over at the Gundam Girls and their Quatre. I nudged Bonnie and told her to look over at Quatre. Then I said, "According to Quatre's goggles, it's really damned hot in here." And the goggles were INCREDIBLY fogged up.

And now for what you've been sitting in suspense for:

PICTURES!!!!
Some of these are done by me (like the top 2 or 3 rows). The remainder I snagged from Sean's website and also from a page called Poro Poro (or something like that). You can find links to fan sites on the Mikkakan webpage. A few pics are added randomly at the end because I don't have anyplace else to put them, and this seemed convenient.
 
 
Bonnie, Touga, and Justin's butt during DDR Shiras and Little Neese Shiras and Neese again one especially for Sadie. This Sun was kawaii.
Kareoke with Sakura, Ryo-Ohki, and Usagi Umi, Hikaru, and Nova stopped by Sakura Neko. She's kawaii, isn't she? Ryo-ohki with Ken-Ohki
guess who and win a prize. Kidding. It's 4 words for collaterol (sp?) damage Autobots, transform and roll out! *giggles* It's Optimus Prime. I wonder if he transformed. me and Mikka-chan, the con's mascot, on May 18 at Jumpgate. I just graduated. a little something from the anime club's halloween event. Me as Laguna, Sadie as a catgirl.
the Chrono Cross group. Lynx, Harle, and Dark Serge. Bonnie Ryuu-san for the costume contest. not very flattering, ni?? CC group again. Would have loved to see their skit. CC group yet again. I love their costumes.
Teenage Gohan and Pan-chan from DBZ. Kawaii!! A pretty sailor suited fighter for love and justice. In the name of the moon she'll punish you. She is Sailor Moon!! The Gundam Girls. From L to R: Quatre, Trowa, Heero, and Duo (guess it's hot 'cause Quatre's goggles are fogged.) Lina-san, Vash-kun, and Wolf-kun.... or should that be Vash-chan and Wolf-chan??
Didn't know who this was until later. It's Martina, from Slayers TRY, ready for a game of Brass Rackets. Yamato-chan, Melfina, Bonnie / Duo, and San (incidently, San can immitate Mimi *shudders*) Shiras, Sanosuke, and Neese... or Kandy, Sean, and Kate. pic I nabbed from Sean's page. He's facing front, the other Sano's facing away. Kewl how it turned out.
Sean as Sano again. Damn I wish my pic turned out. Shiras and Sano again. Not from Mikkakan, but on the same roll. This is the fuzzy elf and yes, Deathscythe is holding an umbrella. Pic title: 'Ways to make RC bang her head.' This is the UNH Wildcat Knights: D&D division. (From L to R): back row: Rach, Rob, Kelly, and Sarah. mid row: Amanda, Rich, Bekka, and Jason. Floor: Joe (and our shoes)

    OK.... links... umm.... already mentioned www.mikkakan.org. There are tons of sources here, like some for cosplaying things and patterns and materials and shoes and whatnot. I should also mention Jumpgate, since they were key in distributing things about the convention, not to mention they were there. Black Knight Comics had a large table set up, and I bought most of my stuff from them. Then there was the table for The Granite State Otaku, which is an anime and manga club. They're the ones who had the PSX with Dance Dance Revolution. They also have a mailing list, which I might join for the heck of it. Finally, I want to post a link to Sean's webpage here, since I'll probably wind up forgetting to put it someplace else.

return to Main?


People have visited this page since August 8, 2001.