Fanime 2015: Robbie's Report (Part 1: Thur-Sat)

Ah, Fanime, one of the biggest anime conventions on this side of the state. With the construction long since finished and LineCon resolved, I was looking forward to this year’s convention. So without further ado, let’s take a look at how it went.

We begin, as usual, on Day Zero: Thursday. When the lines opened, they began moving at a good pace, and badges were picked up quickly by all. Of course, that didn’t stop many from arriving in the early hours to get a spot in line, but that itself is part of the Fanime experience.

There’s only so much to be done on Day Zero aside from badge pickup - mostly the Game Room and Swap Meet. But the Swap Meet was filled with attendees, and those on the hunt could land good deals on toys, manga, and DVDs they wanted, as long as they were fast enough to get to it on time. As for the game room, Fanime attendees know what to expect from it by now: lots of tables, a good amount of arcade cabinets, and crowds gathered around screens, hoping for the next turn.

So now we begin on Friday. I began the day cosplaying as Relius Clover from BlazBlue, though not for any specific gathering. Of course, that didn’t mean my day was to be a short one - as a member of the Cosplay Gatherings department, I was responsible for Cosplay Chess and the Cosplay Battles later that day.

Cosplay Chess is always a popular activity, with the one drawback being the amount of people we need to actually start the game. It took a fair bit of shouting, begging, and dragging cosplayers in before the game could get started, but once it did, the game went exceedingly well. Most all pieces got a few moves in and lasted a while before being taken down, the game was very close at the end, and all the players had a great time.

Then we had the Cosplay Battles, which once again took a bit of calling out to get enough people for. This is an event I’ve been hosting for some time, with mock fights between cosplayers for pictures. It had a pretty good turnout, and everyone managed to get in a few good matches.

Once that was over, though, it was time to change for the Digimon gathering. I switched into Kazu from Digimon Tamers, and made my way to the gathering location. The gathering went very well, with cosplayers from a few different seasons, including a fantastic Wargreymon and a giant Greymon puppet-suit. Everybody had a great time, and the gathering went off without a hitch.

Saturday tends to be the busiest day of any convention, and for most at Fanime, that was still the case. For me, however, I had a slightly lighter schedule; only three cosplays, my panel, and the Cosplay Battles. Compared to my usual Fanime Saturdays, that is pretty light.

The first gathering of the day was the Rumiko Takahashi Series gathering, for everyone from InuYasha, Ranma 1/2, Kyoukai no Rinne, and all the other series in the Rumic World. As usual, I was there as Ryoga Hibiki, and had to note the irony that some of the first cosplayers to arrive were all the perpetually-lost Ryoga. But once more, the gathering ran smoothly, got some great photos in, and was generally fun, plus we had a nice variety of cosplayers there for it.

Following that, I switched cosplays to join in a genderbent Yu-Gi-Oh group a friend of mine was organizing. I decided to go as a male version of Asuka Tenjoin to represent Yu-Gi-Oh GX. We had a photoshoot slightly off-site, at a nearby park, and managed to get back right in time for the YGO gathering. Every series, from classic to Arc-V, had at least one cosplayer representing them, including a few other GX cosplayers and someone as Gaia the Fierce Knight.

I also had the Cosplay Battles to host once again, although sadly, turnout was pretty minimal this time around. It was hard to get enough cosplayers interested when they had all their own gatherings to get to, but there was still enough attendance to get a few good battles in.

After the gatherings, and after dinner, Saturday night fell on Fanime. That meant lots of people hanging about and dancing around in front of the convention center (of varying sobriety levels as the night went on), but I had a Fate/Zero shoot with some friends to get to. We managed to find a good location near the Fairmont, and got some nice shots out of it.

But I had one more important thing to take care of that night: my panel. For the past several years, I’ve hosted the panel “Abridging a Series,” in which I briefly cover what goes into the creation of an Abridged Series, and have audience volunteers record lines for a one-shot episode.

This year, I had a late-night timeslot. The line was pretty short, especially when compared to the super-expansive line that was waiting for the Ero-Game panel. Still, the attendees all seemed to enjoy it, although we had to end before we could finish recording all the lines, so I’ll have to wait for the audience members to record the remaining lines and send them in before I can finish the panel.

With that done, Saturday was finished. We’ll get to Sunday and Monday in the second half of my report, coming soon.

Also, there was a cosplaying corgi. Did I not mention that? Because that's pretty important.