Just got back from Anime Iowa 2006, very nice con, with very nice people. Have to admit my fandom for anime is not extreme like my fandom for sci-fi or comics, but there is a periphery(sp?) knowledge because of cross-polination. I know the basics, and can tell my Ranma’s from my Rick Hunters. So yeah it was a nice weekend but I took more of a laid back aproach to everything, since I really wasn’t as in to it.
Friday was pretty fun, glad i preregistered as the line for others was pretty long. The elevators at this hotel were too few and I learned pretty quickly how to navigate the 16 floors of the con by stairs by late friday night. Opening ceremonies kicked things off and I attended a room party panel to learn some ins and outs. Played some Smash Bros, watched some Anime, watched some Karoke got a new Lupin Radio and some Pocky in the dealers room and headed home.
Saturday was the long day for me. Got there pretty early ate plenty of rice throughout the day, played some Pachinko, watched Kamikaze Girls(awesome live-action movie by the way). Played in an apples to apples tourney, went to a great panel by Lea Hernadez, and headed out to watch the cosplay at the beautiful Paramount. This theatre is amazing. I hope Cedar Rapids uses it. After this I got a drink at the Gojira party and went to see some great skit readings by the folks at Gaurdian Sun Studios It was really funny stuff. Headed upstairs to see Final Fantasy:Advent Children which I had been meaning to rent. The Computer Animation is like nothing I’ve seen before and since FFVII was so important to us video game geeks the movie was really pretty good. 3:00am lets drive home for six hours of sleep.
Took today really easy. Watched some anime, that wasn’t really that good, went to the Anime Improv, went to a j-pop music panel and did one last hunt for pocky. Next years Anime Iowa will be closer in Coraville, so I guess I’ll be heading out to that then. I’ll put up pictures tommorow. Pretty good con out here in the middle of corn.