I know I'm a little bit late in writing this, but I've been quite sick this last week or two.
So. Anime Matsuri. What can I say?
I've heard the most amazing things about this convention for years, from the location, to the cosplayers, to seeing the AMAZING photos turned out from it. I've never been able to go (due to having to work Easter Weekend), so I was SO excited to be able to go finally.
And quite honestly?
I might not EVER go back.
I have never had as worse a time at a convention as I had, at AM this year. Now, let me clarify something: I DID have fun. Hanging out with friends, cosplaying, and doing a few photoshoots. But that was about it. Nothing about the convention itself really appealed to me.
The venue was the WORST I had ever seen for an anime convention, in my entire life. And this is including Oni-con '09. For those who remember that. The Dealer's Room was in the basement, with NO signs or anything pointing to it's location. I found it on SUNDAY. They had no room for the arcade/gaming room... so they put the games IN THE LOBBY. So, it was loud, annoying and people were lining up for DDR where people should've had room for standing. The games were so loud, and since the lobby is open air all the floors up, you could hear the noise in your hotel room. Not. Fun.
The convention itself was very disorganized. Events start really late (the cosplay contest started almost two hours late). There was no room for anything. The Artist Alley room had VERY dim lights, and you couldn't see anything. The tables that were in the hallways were in a tight corridor only about 5 feet wide. And then they started feeding PANEL LINES through it. You couldn't move through them at all.
The Cosplay Contest itself was the worst I've ever been apart in. The prep room was a triangular room 25 x25x25. You try shoving 70 people in there, and see how you feel. WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING. Almost 20 entries dropped without notice. They didn't let the skits practice on stage with their audio and light cues. We sat in that room for about four hours. Once I got on stage, they didn't play the music I sent in, or show the backdrop that I did. A LOT of people suffered from audio issues like this. People who won skit awards weren't even skits-- I'm STILL trying to figure that one out.
All in all, the convention was a mess. I had fun hanging out with friends and cosplaying, but the venue was bad, there was no room, and all the places to eat closed early (THE McDONALDS CLOSED AT 5PM, WTH). One of the ONLY redeeming things for me, was that I got to see the WCS finals, which was amazing. And went on without a hitch. And I got interview by the SYFY channel on my Medusa cosplay.
I think that the AM's issue was that they were SO focused on WSC and having the SYFY channel there, that they dropped the ball on a lot. It's really sad, I had been looking forward to AM my whole life, but I think I'll just stick to Alll-con next year.
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