Well, we made it there yesterday!
It was pretty much a spur of the moment decision, we got ready Thursday
night and waited to see what the Dr. said about my dad on morning
rounds. Everything checked out ok (thanks guys, for the good thoughts!)
and so we jumped in the ready-to-go van and headed out.

We got there in pretty good time, considering the traffic was scary on
the long weekend-ish Friday. We were inside by noon, when the 'spend
money' room  opened. Only it didn't open on time, I think it was about
12:40 by the time people were let in. That type of delay seemed the norm
for the day, btw.

We were overwhelmed by the sea of people in the exhibit hall. It was
impossible to see any thing unless you stood back and waited your turn.
This, obviously, caused a problem in crowd control, as there was no way
to get through an aisle that was clogged with people. Of course, it
seemed the cel tables were fullest, because you don't get a second
chance at a cel you want! I bumped into my family members off and on,
but basically, you never saw anyone again once you were inside!
There was a LOT of H stuff when we were there, Alan! ;-)

I quickly decided that finding anyone I knew from here would be
impossible, yet I found myself looking at every nametag I walked by! I
ended up finding a wallet, with a ton of money inside. I grabbed the
nearest person as a witness and opened the wallet. It belonged to a high
school student named Jane Hong, and I hope she got it back. I ended up
giving it to the dealer whose table it was closest to, two Japanese guys
who spoke almost no english but got the message and were very concerned.
I think she at least $300, and I heard her name paged so hopefully it
worked out. I would have been a wreck if I was her!

We had decided to meet for something to eat and then go to the Escaflone
movie. But after walking forever to find anyplace that served food (the
buffet closed at 2:00)
we found a hamburger place and ate. No chance at getting in Esca, which
was what I wanted to do most. They were full by 2:00 for a discussion
panel, and they stayed inside so it wasn't like TMiL2 where people could
go in and sit on each others laps!
They had a bouncer (really a nice girl) standing outside sending
everyone away. VERY DISAPPOINTING! Lots of disappointed people.

So now what? Well, we looked at the artist alley, not as impressive as
last year. I was surprised that people could sell their own fan art of
characters whose reps were right outside the door in the exhibit hall!
We went to see some tv shows, but most of them were ones we had seen.
Walking around looking at people (and nametags!) was a large portion of
our day!

We saw the Maison Ikukku panel, the Anime club panel, and a couple
others, just to kill time because everything was running so late. They
were entertaining and I liked the relaxed atmosphere that the 'regular
folks' brought to their panels. We hit the kerioke prelims, right at the
end, but it was enough for us to want to come back for the semi-finals.
We went back to the 'spend money' hall, and got a few things. When they
closed the hall (way too early at 6:00) we sat outside till 7:00 and
took pictures of people. Hopefully, we will have some decent pics to
make a little website. I don't think we got any pictures of us!
Shoot....

Anyway, when we arrived at the kerioke room, they told us that it would
be another hour, and after THAT hour, it was another half hour till it
really started. It was great, but it was getting very late for us
considering the long drive home.

It kinda went like this...if we stay for the Petshop Of Horrors showing,
then we would have to stay for the cel meeting after, and if we stayed
for that, then we would have to stay for Esca at midnight! With a two
hour drive home, we had to just end the day, even though nobody wanted
to go. :-(

Here is something strange that I hope you guys can answer!

At the kerioke semi-finals the third contestant was a Japanese man whose
name was just "Yuugi". When he got up there was a loud cheer. He
explained that he had just quit his job for Pioneer yesterday, and had
started his own company today. He said he was the producer of Tenchi
Muyo!, El Hazard and several other shows and that Tenchi was going to be
on CN starting Monday and that we should all be very happy about that.
Lotsa cheering. Then he sang a Kenshin song, (I thought of you TMP)
badly! His....er, testicular fortitude made up for his singing ability
and he got a huge round of applause at the end. My question is "Who is
this guy?"

All the Kerioke artists were really great, including a hilarious group
of guys singing the Oh, My Goddess! theme song in baby girl voices! My
favorite was a real wild woman looking woman with purple hair who sang
the Lodoss Wars theme song, beautiful. I hope she won, but of course, we
couldn't stay to the end because of the delay of an hour and a half.

Delays were the main problem of the day. And the fact that the rooms
were so spread out that there was much mingling with the 'general
public' who seemed very confused. The fact that it was spread through
three buildings made it impossible for one day patrons to see things
that they would otherwise have gone to visit. We didn't visit the hotel
that had the games set up, it would have taken too much of our time. The
registration was in a whole different hotel, so we waited in line to be
registered, then walked back to our car and drove to the next hotel!
This was reallllllllly poor planning, imho. The main goings on were in
the Disneyland Hotel, but scattered on three floors. So, if you took the
time to walk to an event held on the top floor, and found that it wasn't
going on (pretty much every time) it took a lot of time and effort to
make your way to the next event...just to find that that was off
schedule or cancelled, too!
If we went to see a show, chances were it was not what we came for. If
we didn't recognize it, we had to just wait for something to make us
know what we were watching!

At one point they had to stop the kerioke to clear the room, yet again.
The fire marshals had made them remove all the patrons who didn't have
chairs. That was our cue to leave and let people who could stay longer
have a seat. It was really sad.....

Just to make sure nobody (TMP) gets the wrong impression, we had a great
time!
I suppose it doesn't matter how much you do at something like this, it
is the atmosphere that makes it special. Being at Disneyland did come
close to squashing that feeling, and I personally dont think it will be
held there again, either. There was too much control by Disneyland, it
was mentioned everywhere we went. Things were changed at the last minute
and that made it all fall so far off schedule. That and the fact that
you were hit by the 'public' everytime you left a room, except for
downstairs on the basement level, (I liked it there best) that it was
kinda confusing all around.

Tenchi-wise I didn't see anything to buy that I couldn't live without
except for a great Japanses OAV poster that was gone when I went back
for it. I did see the Ryo-ohki backpack which was sooooo cute, but not
for sale. I think they were taking orders. I stood in a line for an hour
to get a free advertising Tee Shirt that had Tenchi characters on it,
only to find that they ran out of every size except small. I took it
anyway! ;-)

I will bet that this will not be held at Disneyland again, and I really
hope it doesn't. I have a feeling that there will be a big gripe session
this year, but I don't feel that it was the fault of the Expo people who
seemed for the most part very stressed, apologetic, and eager to make
things right.

I overheard many people talking, my ears perked up when I heard the word
Tenchi, and it seemed almost constant! I don't know what was discussed,
but I know I heard people talking about Tenchi a LOT, and every time it
made me smile a secret smile.

 Lots of people my age, and it wasn't even just the dealers! I don't
remember it that way last year. :-)
 Everyone was having fun, and I really found myself wishing this year
that we had costumes....

All in all, I felt very good to be a Tenchi fangirl, and to be an anime
fan in general. I can't imagine being in a group of that many people,
except maybe nuns without rulers, and feel that safe. There were lots of
opportunities for tension to run hight, and I never saw anyone get edgy.
Anime Geeks are cool, don't let anyone tell you any different. ;-)

Kath




Alan Zabaro wrote:

> Appears to be location. Specifically, Disney.
>
> Several shows have been cancelled, replaced with others.
> Kenshin, Mosquiton, Photon, X: the Movie. Which might be
> understandable - maybe they didn't have the tapes or
> films to play? - except that Photon *was* playing
> yesterday, and they could have just replayed the same
> tape to keep the schedule intact.
>
> It also doesn't explain why the late-night programming
> was cut entirely.