Tekkoshocon VII (First Day)

Note: This review was originally posted on a message board forum in a conversational format. It is being re-posted here for posterity, and has been backdated to the date of its original posting. You can read the discussion in its original format here.

First Day:

I was in the city by noon, but it took me almost an hour to find a place to park. I suppose it was naive of me to think the Convention Center would have enough parking space to accommodate. I did a sweep and all the parking garages I found within a few blocks were also full. I eventually found a place that was within about 15 minutes walking distance, provided you know which direction to go - something I wasn't entirely sure of, but I did get off in the right direction, and was able to find my way without trouble (getting back to the garage was slightly trickier, though).

The Convention Center is huge, and nice. Plenty of room for the con. Plenty of room for the congoers. Panel rooms, video rooms, everything is huge. Except the Dealer's Room, which is about the same size if not bigger than it's ever been, yet when all the other rooms have so much extra space, it makes the Dealer's Room feel small, because it's supposed to be the biggest room at a con, right?

I caught the Claymore panel after orienting myself and checking out where everything was. There were less than twenty people at the panel, and it was basically a casual chat/question-and-answer session with Stephanie Young, the English voice of Clare. Naturally, the subject of the discussion focused more on voice acting (obviously from an American perspective) than Claymore itself, but I still stayed and listened in. You could tell Stephanie was very excited about getting the role, and loves the series. I learned that they call the boy "Rocky" in the English version. I think "Lucky" would have been a better choice, but hey...not like I'm ever gonna watch that version anyway. ^^ Stephanie, as I presume many voice actors do (for anime in America, at least), had a pretty laidback and charismatic personality.

And after the panel ended, one person there commented on my Behelit. ^^ When I originally got it, it was like, "cool, but I got it so easily, everyone's gonna be wearing them". But, with Suncoast not around anymore, I guess it's even rarer than ever before.

I saw a few cosplays that caught my eye. There was a good looking Gaara, complete with sand gourd, at the Claymore panel. I wanted to get a shot of her, but she picked up and left in the middle of the panel. :| I also saw a good-looking group consisting of Tsunade, Sakura, and Naruto. There was also a couple C.C.'s (unless it was the same one on multiple occasions, which is possible), accompanied by a Zero. Saw some Sailor Senshi. Even a Hidan (from Akatsuki). And a Saber. I have to admit I wasn't feelin' the whole camera thing, though. I did take some shots from the roof of the convention center, however, during a lull in the rain (did I mention that it was cold, windy, and rainy?).

I was happy to hear some Japanese anime in some of the video rooms, though other ones were sportin' English. That show Doug likes to see at cons was playing, the one with the hand-girl. I saw a Trigun AMV (not the "45" one) in the AMV room but didn't stick around long enough to see more. When I came back later, they were doing an AMV Creation Panel, which was somewhat interesting. I'm rather disappointed, because one thing I'd really like to see is the "R and NC-17 AMV Contest", but two out of three sources say that it's scheduled tonight at midnight, so I'm gonna have to miss it... :| Too bad they have to section those AMV's off from the main exhibition. Why can't they hold an adult anime convention? :(

Dealer's Room had this weird mood lighting. Made it kind of hard to see the merchandise terribly well. I'm not sure if it's entirely the fault of the room itself - that that's the only lighting that room has - or if it was the decision of the staff. Lots of neat weapons for sale, including a lot of steel replicas, like the Sword of Omens, and a miniature version of Zabuza's cleaver (and by miniature, I mean that it's about the size of a regular sword :lol:), those were two that caught my attention.

I saw a number of figures of interest. A couple Asuka's I've had my eye on (this one and this one), as well as a number of others I wouldn't mind having. A few of those "blind box" sets caught my eye, but I hate that I don't know what I'm getting. I don't want to end up with a stupid Shinji, when I could have a hot Asuka, or even a cool Rei! :cry:

That's it for now. Might add more if I think of it later.

Second Day