Con Piece: The Great AKon Adventure (Part II)

You can find a lot of interesting cosplays at conventions and the bigger the conventions then the higher the chance to find an interesting cosplay. One thing that I didn't expect to find at this convention was Waldo. Can you find Waldo in the picture above?

Well it wasn't that hard to find Waldo at this convention since I saw about four or five of them at AKon. During one point of time at AKon I saw them all in a group. Not sure if they planned this but if not then they had a lucky break here. I should have gotten a picture of them together but that is my mistake there. Though if you want a look back at before the invasion of Waldos then feel free to look at Part I of this series of Akon convention recap.

Stephanie Young
I can't describe to you how much Stephanie Young made this convention for me! This convention was great but the fact that Stephanie was there made AKon AWESOME! I may sound like some sort of raging fanboy here but the thing is that Stephanie is maybe my favorite voice actress from the One Piece dub. I love her as Robin and she is such a fun person to talk to. During this convention, I was thinking about just changing this blog to be a Stephanie Young fanblog. Then I realize it maybe a bit hard and could lead to a restraining order in the future.

I could  be over-exaggerating a bit but Stephanie was all over at this convention. She was doing autograph sessions and panels every so often that if you wanted to see her then it was possible. That kind of made it easy for the One Piece fans and me to find her. Stephanie was doing panels that involved voice acting, her experience as being a deep voiced voice actress and she even sung a bit. In case you didn't know (because I sure didn't), Stephanie has her own little jazz band which I guess she does on the side. I would give you more information on it but I was having bad luck attending her panels on time. They always happen right around the time I realize that I had to get something to eat. haha Though if you ever have the chance to hear Stephanie and her band, The Brehms, play at a convention then go for it. She only had her guitarist, her husband, there to play for AKon but it was a very good show. Her music is something that you can like without being a jazz fan. Also it is very relaxing and soothing which was perfect after a long con day.

Stephanie Young is a great person and a huge fan of One Piece. She was excited when I told her that I had a One Piece blog and when I asked if she would do an interview for the blog. I was on cloud nine after she agreed to it and was happy to hear that she was excited about it. Though I was a bit worry if the interview was going to happen since it was postpone a bit due to the autograph panel went over the time it was given. Though eventually the interview happen and just to give you guys my thoughts on it, I think this is one of the best interviews that I have done.

If you hear the audio of the interview then you can hear her excitement which I am hoping I could show when I finally transcribe the interview to text. Her excitement about One Piece and Robin appeared every time she had the chance to talk about One Piece and she even mention it on her own though her experiences with J. Micheal Tatum. It was a joy seeing Stephanine again after seeing her two years ago at AnimeMatsuri and her love for One Piece has grown a lot since them. I can't wait to see her again whenever that may be.

Con Overview: Day 1- Friday
I have to admit that this was one of the busiest first days of a con that I have ever had. That is saying a lot too since I have been to this convention before in the past. There were a good handful of good panels that were held and each one of them seem very interesting. I blame my friends for dragging me to all these panels. haha Then again what was a guy to do in the outfit that I was in that day. haha

One of the things that I love about AKon is how easily food can be found and cheap! The Sheraton is connected to the Westin (The hotel that we stayed at) via a skywalk. Though the Westin has the Plaza of Americas as part of it where it has many different shops and a food court on the ground floor. There was some leftover pizza from the mini-party that was held by my university's anime club the other night. Still there is this nice little donut place in the Plaza of Americas that has some good kolaches. Been making it an AKon morning ritual to visit the place since my first Akon in 2008. Still, the food court in the Plaza of Americas makes AKon a bit better compare to the cons that I have been to in the past since during the lunch and dinner hours you can find tons of con goers both in cosplay and not eating there with regular people just watching. Last year I was there in my Ikuto cosplay and I had some little kids wanting to take a picture with me. I know they had no idea who I was but it was cool that they wanted a picture. haha I am sure that the restaurants in that food court brought in a lot of money that weekend since that is the closest place to go to eat for the con goers and this convention has a lot of mouths to feed. I remember going past there along the way to my room around midnight and I saw con goers enjoying some Chinese food.

So the first panel that we attended on Friday was 'What a Con Parent Should Know'. It was an interesting panel run by a few experienced moms that have been to cons and also been working with cons. A few of the moms there had help run cons in the past. I have to say that a good half of the audience were parents themselves and one dad there was a first time con attendee judging by the questions he was asking. The parents went over some interesting topics as in how to handle young con goers and things to avoid. They gave an good definition about hentai since it is easy to find it if you are not careful. Though I think some of the survival tips they had could be used for con goers of any age like  carrying a photo of your child incase you lose them in the crowd. That is something that I am sure we could use in our group incase our phones die, break or just can't reach each other by text. Just go to con security and ask if they have seen this person and hope for the best.

Con moms have such great wisdom and knowledge in them. Like what to do when your son is bleeding from the head after falling from jumping on the bed.

After that I decided to go solo and go see the 'Voice Acting vs Stage Acting' panel hosted by Stephanie Young, Jonathan Joss (John Redcorn from King of the Hill), and Anthony Brownrigg. I have no interest in voice acting but it is always nice to know about some of the inner workings that voice actors go though. Stephanie, Jonathan and John all had some good stories and advice to people who want to get into voice acting. Though you know you are a professional blogger when you are taking notes on a fan that you got from the convention. These notes are things that I got from fan questions that Stephanie answered (Can you tell that I am kind of borderline obsessed with Stephanie Young? haha).

• Weird Habits before going into the recording booth:
• Need to be able to fail: This is something that John and Jonathan both agree to. Still for anybody who is  planning to go into voice acting then they should expect to fail. They will go into auditions and may get the idea that they will get the part but it turns out that they didn't get it. Things like this are to be expected but you need to be able to bounce back and give it another try. Stephanie said that you need to be positive and just hope for the best.
• Singing in the car: Stephanie says that she likes to sing in the car because it warms her voice. I can understand how this is useful since if you are going to be in the booth for the few hours so it has to help getting the voice ready. Then it is always fun to sing in the car and everybody does it. It may not be that great but still singing is fun to do. Also I am sure that Stephanie can sing since she has her own band.
• Discipline and maintain health of your voice: I think this is self explanatory. If you are in a career where you depend on your voice then you need to take good care of it. Voice actors are athletes and you need to make sure you take good care of your voice.

• To calm nervous:
• Keep an open mind: Voice actors work in anime and I am sure we all know that some crazy things happen in anime. Just look at One Piece. Don't look at something and say, "That is strange...I can't do that." Instead just look at it and go for it. haha
• Don't be afraid to work: You got to be prepare for the things you do. Read the lines before going into the booth and figure out how you want to say them. You can go into the booth and coldread them then improve from there but if you want the very best read then you need to prepare a bit before recording.
• When walking into an audition: Remember that the person conducting the audition is human. They want you to be good. The directors have to listen to a dozen people that day just for one role so they don't want to listen to bad reads. Also with that in mind, they don't want to hurt your feelings but they may be silent after you did your thing so they won't say things like, "That was great! Still I have to listen to fifty more people after you so you may not get this part! Still  great!" So don't get discourage if the director doesn't say anything after your audition. Another thing to remember is to think of the audition as if a meeting and that you need to be you. If you are going to be playing a character for twenty or so episodes then that part is going have to involve a bit of you and you want that to shine when you are auditioning.

• When dealing with 'jerk' directors:
• Respect them: They are the ones calling the shoots and you don't want something like a disagreement to get in the way with working with them in the future. They are people and they may have something in mind for what is happening right now. If things get really bad then call the union or let somebody know.
• Keep your ego in check: I don't remember much about what was said here but I guess it has something to do with the 'director knows best'. Most of the time they know more about something then you do. Voice actors don't get much time to watch anything so the directors know more about the show then they do most of the time.
• Don't react: You never know what is going on with the director. The director could be in a bad mood because he is having a bad day or something. A flat tire first thing in the morning would put anybody in a bad mood and we say don't bring your problems to work but sometimes it happens because we are human. 

After these question, the trio allow us to take pictures and talk to them a bit. Very cool. It was nice to talk to Stephanie up close like that and listen in to what other fans had to say to her.

Some of the more interesting panels that we went to included one hosted by Robert Axelrod (Lord Zed from Power Rangers) and co-hosted(?) by Kyle Hebert (King Cobra) and Mary Mcglynn called "So You Want to be a Voice Over Star?". The panel was interesting for both non people who wanted to go into voice acting and people who wanted to go into voice acting. Some of the important things that people should do if planning to go into voice acting is to move close to the city where it is happening. That could mean that you may need to move from New Mexico all the way to Dallas, Texas since that is Funimation's big HQ is located. That way you will be close by for auditions and jobs when you do get them. It is only when you are making Vic bucks can you afford to be in a different city and fly over for jobs. They also mention things about having a demo tape and that your best performances should be in the first fifteen seconds since most of the time that is all the directors will hear. Good things to take out from the panel if you are interested in being a voice actor.

Some of the other interesting panels we went to included "Origami" and "Sewing for Cosplayers". I made a bull or at least it's head. I tried following the directions and it kind of looked like the picture. I could have learn a bit during the cosplay one since I don't really make my own cosplays. I am more of an 'alter and fix' cosplayer which is useful for most One Piece cosplays since they do look like normal clothing. Anything that is beyond altering and doesn't involve simple sewing then I get help from my mother since she knows how to use a sewing machine without causing body harm to myself or to the machine. We did attend the Anime Jeopardy game for novices. There was this one girl who was bring in the points and the host commented that she should have gone for the expert game. Though one thing that got me and maybe a good three-fourths of the audience a bit upset. One of the questions being asked was which anime was the names Miss All-Sunday, Sir Crocodile and Gecko Moria were from. Any good One Piece fan would know the first two names on the list or at least the second one. Though apparently the contestants were not One Piece fans since they didn't get the answer which lead a good amount of the audience to yell out One Piece. haha Got to love the One Piece fans.

Then I kind of closed off my daytime con day with a performance from Stephanie Young. I am really glad that I attended her little concert panel. Her music is very relaxing and has a jazz feel to it. She only had her husband on guitar to accompany her but the performance was great. I think the people that were listening were getting the same relaxing feeling from her music which is nice since we all know how hectic cons can be so a nice quiet room with soothing music is nice at the end of the day.

Then after the performance was the long awaited interview with her! There are so many things I could say about this interview. Stephanie is really awesome to talk to and I have to say this is a blogging dream come true! Not only she is a voice of a StrawHat but she is just one of my favorite One Piece voices! I wish I could just post this interview but I just can't! Not yet. I tweeted after the interview about how I could now die but then I remember that I must first transcribe and post the interview before that could happen. So you guys know that I will get to that as soon as I can!

This was a long first day of the convention. I didn't went to sleep until three o'clock and that is because I was play a few rounds of War with my friends as they switch out to go see "Yaoi Fest". After a long fought match that I won, we decided it was time to leave from our spot in front of the doors of "Yaoi Fest" and head back to our room to get ready for bed. It was a tough match but a great way to finish off the day.

Cosplay: Yuki (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

 If you haven't tell, our Haruhi cosplay group made an appearance at AKon this year. The people that are apart of the Haruhi Cosplay is myself as Yuki, the girl with the bushy reddish hair as Mikuru, the Haruhi in the school uniform and the girl with the green hair as Tsurya. The bunny girl Haruhi is a friend of our Tsurya. (Side note: That girl in the bunny girl Haruhi outfit really took a liking to my Yuki cosplay since well...yeah....guy...Yuki...Put the dots together and really loved my Strong World Luffy that I did the next day haha).

This cosplay took a lot of prep work  this time since I wanted to go a bit all out on it. A girl from the university's anime club that came with us is really good with stage make up and she did an awesome job on my face! She did my foundation, eyelashes, gloss, blush and all bunch of stuff that normal guys shouldn't have on their face. haha I have to say I was really impress on how it came out and I have to admit that it was a real shame that I had to remove all that stuff from my face that night. Though that was a task that involve a lot of face washing, wipes and whatnot to remove. Still it was all worth it since I think it really help push the illusion that we had an all girl Haruhi group cosplay. haha

Damn I look great! (Or that is what I keep telling myself.)

There seem to be a good turn out when it came to pictures since we got a lot of people asking for a picture and during the moments when I was wandering alone was some solo shots. During one moment when we were taking photos, we seem to have gather a huge crowd around us taking our picture. We stopped to take just three pictures soon turn into a good four minute mini shoot by fifteen to twenty people. I was really surprised by the attention that we got. Also as I said before that I think people really mistaken me for a girl that day if they weren't looking close enough or weren't thinking about it. I did get some people who were impressed or happy to see a guy cosplay as Yuki but it wasn't as much as usual or there was no time to say it. haha Still if I was able to pass as a girl in the Yuki cosplay then that makes me feel a bit better and makes it damn less awkward. haha

Don't fall asleep just yet! There is still one more part of this great AKon adventure for me to go over which is the second and third day of this convention! There are some interesting things that happen during the second day including maybe one of the most awesome cosplays I have done (I mean I have to do something to regain the little manhood I have right? haha) and other great cosplays. Then I can promise you that I got some awesome stuff from the dealers room that you guys have to see!

Though I think this first day of AKon has to take the cake for the busiest first day of a con that I have ever been to. A lot of photos were taken by me and by others, a ton of great panels and an interview with a great voice actress. It wasn't just a a busy day but a successful one if you want to look at it like that. Though I think I would prefer to call it a great and fun day.