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The Comiku Girls'
Animazement 2004 Con Report

The theme for the weekend was Pirates vs Ninjas. "Buy our art, arrr!" (You had to be there.)

Precon

Normally we dont bother writing about our adventures getting to the convention, but when they involve a 13 hour drive, it seems to warrant a few words. This year, Li and Akiko were joined by our friend Fyre from DiscountCandyWarehouse. We met Fyre at a random restaurant half way between our places and loaded her things in around everything we had already packed, including Akiko's cat and dog in the back seat, and started our journey south. The trip was generally uneventful, although we were mired in fog for a while in Pennsylvania during which time we had to get gasoline. When we exited the highway, the gas station was closed, and our quest for the other gas station at that exit led us through a foggy graveyard, with no other cars or people or civilization. And the graveyard went on and on. It was very, very much like we were in another world.

We spent Thursday, the day before the con, doing out printing, finishing pieces, recording our dialog and the like. Oh yeah, and playing video games *grin*.

Friday

As per last year, there was no line for the pre-Registration, though Fyre had to wait in line to Register, it was a fairly short wait. While she waited, Li and Akiko found our way to the Artists Alley (without having to get a wheelchair this year!) and set up our display. The bamboo sign that we debuted at Otakon and fixed over the winter actually worked this time (without requiring an entire roll of duct tape!), and stayed up the entire weekend with occasional bumpings into.

The Convention started slowly, without many activities until the afternoon. And the lack of Tea was a difficult thing for Fyre. Creatively, she offered to Sketch for Coffeeand had a nice guy from the dealers room take her up on it. Another congo-er became her regular supplier of chocolate covered expresso beans, and the table next to us provided her with occasional sugar.

Fyre and Akiko stayed at the table for the day, while Li represented us at the Opening Ceremonies and the Fan Panel before that. She managed to get autographs of the Japanese Voice Actors Akira Kamiya (who she thought was very funny) and Chika Sakamoto (who she thought was SO CUTE). Chika Sakamoto also came down the Artists Alley at one point later in the evening and laughed at Li's "baka" Calligraphy displayed on our table.

During the course of the afternoon, we got a chance to see and talk to several people from last years convention several of whom remembered Aki as Injured (and wheelchair bound) Rei and congratulated her on her renewed ability to walk. And of course, Kaji was back with a friend and a whiteboard running a critical poll for the afternoon: Pirates vs. Ninjas. No contest. Anime con or not--PIRATES!!!

Li also represented us at the AMV competition while Fyre and Akiko got bored as customers disappeared. By 9:00 when the AMV competition was supposed to end, we were watching the end of the Alley for Li to return. But alas. Finally at 9:30 Akiko went in search of her, to find the AMV contest still well underway. However after one overly tired comment, Li relented and we returned to the alley to leave for the night, as Li was not overly impressed with the videos this year.

Saturday

One quick trip to the printer (in full costume mind you) and we got to the convention and back to our table to find, thankfully, our sign was still intact, and settled in for another slowish morning, punctuated by the un-begged for delivery of coffee from our dealer. Notable events of course included Lis frequent harassment of a Sanzo and Gojyo. The Sanzo found her trying but cute. Li skipped the panels, but did get Yu Watases autograph in her Art Book.

The rest of the day was spent with Cosplay work. There was a meeting at noon during which Akiko was paranoid that we wouldnt get in when she saw the line and how slowly it moved. Li was confident. Then we met again at 6 to get into the proper order. It was then that we discovered, we were not the only Shakespeare group in the competition. Our competitor Chi group had the advantage of being beginners, and thus, went before we did. However, Fyre had done such an excellent job of editing our dialog the night before, that ours at least sounded great, even if we went second.

Being an intermediate also meant we were competing against other winners from previous years, including the Glass Fairies from the previous year, who this year took on Angel Sanctuary (and won of course, but well get there shortly).

Part of the fun, and part of the problem with this cosplay is that the performers can not see the performaces before them; they are kept sequestered in the auditorium until it is time to perform. For Li and I this was bad in terms of our performance, since we did not get a chance to get a read of the audience and feed off of their energy before we began our skit. However, all the performers had a great time entertaining ourselves and each other in the Auditorium before each group was called to the stage, beginning an impromptu sing-along that started with Do Ray Me and ended with 99 bottles of Sake on the wall.

As implied, Li and Akikos energy was off, in part because we didnt get a chance to feel the crowd before we got on-stage, in part because they were slow to cue our soundtrack and so we stood on stage just waiting for what felt like forever but was probably much less. Regardless we got through it without my spear breaking this time, and exited to find seats in front of the rudest jackasses on the planet.

We got to watch the winners of the AMV contest, and then the winners of the Cosplay competition were announced. As we had hoped, the Angel Santuary group won both our division and Best in Show. And Gene Starwinds impression of Captain Jack Sparrow netted him an award as well.

Then we rescued Fyre, or intended to, but ended up hanging out for a while longer instead. The OC fox-cat complimented my breasts, which were quite well displayed and visible across the entire auditorium. And we got a chance to say hello to Kat from last year, and finally met up with Jared and his friends, and Matt and Brianna of Connecticon Fame.

Sunday

Sunday was even slower than Saturday or Friday mornings, two nights of staying up finally catching up with congo-ers. Li dressed as a punk-kitty, Akiko as a modern, domesticated griffin, and Fyre added mesh gloves and a feather boa to her ensemble. It didnt do much to improve our sales really and we resorted to shouting buy our art, arr!a lot. The final show down between the pirates and the spatula ninjas occurred before our table on Sunday afternoon as well, resulting in the loss of chibi Asuka's body and no clear winner.

Finally, declaring it done, we drafted the help of Kaji-Chris and his friend (after Kaji-Chris took a brief nap under our table) to help us carry our things out to our car. Coincidentally, they were parked next to us. On the way out, we offered help to Gene Starwind, who was having car troubles, but fortunately was able to get it started without our assistance. And with final pirate shouts, the convention was officially over. And so we went out for Asian food for dinner.