Con Piece: The Great AKon Adventure (Part III)

Anime fans have tons of different talents which range from developing websites for their favorite anime, doing anime music videos or video and/or audio editing. Then you have talents that are much more noticeable as in raving, cosplay, LARPing and as seen above, break dancing.

It is cool to see people just doing what they love for the fun of it and before you know it, there is a crowd. I have no idea how this crowd started but I am sure that these guys just started to break dance and while one was dancing, the others were making sure there was enough space and kept the watchers at a distance. Then one person came and another and another until a huge crowd appeared. That is the magic of conventions, creating crowds as you can see what happen a bit during Part II of this great AKon adventure and/or gathering around cool figurines in the dealers room like one of SailorSamus's new treasure as seen in  Figure Piece.

Con Overview: Day 2- Saturday
The second day of my Akon adventure is kind of opposite of the first day of this convention. I didn't really went to a lot of panels on Saturday. I was going to a lot of things and hanging out in the dealers room since I wasn't going to be able to do that on Sunday. Brought back a lot of stuff from there but that will be covered later on.

The first thing that was done on Saturday was attending the panel called "Using Manga and Anime in the Classroom". This was a panel that a friend and I wanted to attend since we are both aspiring teachers. (Well my friend is going to be working as one in a few months while I am working on it. haha) So we wanted to see what did these people have to say in implementing anime and manga in the classroom. The teachers there brought up some good points from what I was able to gather as in using manga to inspire students to read. They mention that the reading level for some high school students are very underleveled and that manga could help raise reading levels since has words and pictures.

Another thing that anime and manga could help in the classroom is that these medias can help expose students to different issues that normal books don't have. There are some animes and mangas that deal with homosexuality that could relate to how some teens maybe going though. There are no examples in high school reading have that help establish what relationships are outside of the norm which manga and anime could help fill up. They were not saying that anime and manga help make homosexual partners which some uninformed parents would claim but instead saying that it would educate students to figure out what they want for themselves. Then there are other things that manga and anime deal with. I have to agree with these people a bit since the books that schools contain in their libraries are limited in issues and exposure. The classics are good but the school systems are defining what are consider as classics which cover mostly the same things. Then you have a series like One Piece that may be silly but also has it serious moments where it deals with the class system, racism and slavery. Both are not light subjects as we saw how scary and demeaning some of these issues are during the Sabaody arc.

These teachers did mention One Piece for a bit but I forgot why. I think it has something to do with how manga and anime has a wide range as in how it can be. Speaking about One Piece they did mention how different networks look at the regulations that are put before them. One network may be okay with some swearing but another network will look at the regulations and say that the swearing is no good but some scenes involving minor nudity are okay. This kind of makes it hard for companies to adopt their stuff for TV since the regulations are interpret differently by the networks.

This was a long panel and I wish I could have stayed to get more information but I had to leave in order to get a spot in line for the autograph session that included Stephanie Young and Kyle Hebert since I missed out on it the other day. Apparently the people from AKon learned a lesson the other day and made sure that cut off the line after a certain time since they had so many popular voice actors there. I would suggest to them to not put all the voice actors in one session since the line will be made up of fans from all those voice actors. Instead have two separate voice acting autograph sessions so the fans of certain actors wouldn't make the line longer then it should be. I am sure they didn't have sessions all day so it could have worked. Then again maybe there was something going on that was making his option unable to do.

I got there about a good twenty minutes before the session began and there was already a long line for the voice actors. I was kind of surprise and was hoping that there would be a smaller line since I came early and the line from Friday was pretty long. Though it was a good thing that I brought my One Piece Vol. 49 to read (and finish) while I wait in line. Still I met some interesting people since the people behind me were Bleach fans. We had a discussion about the recent happenings in Bleach and what could be coming up next. I kind of butted into the conversations but we are all anime fans here and I just wanted to say what I thought was going on in Bleach. That was a great way to pass some time.

This picture was taken on Saturday but I used it in Part II because it was the best one with Stephanie

The people that were doing autographs beside Stephanie and Kyle were Robert Axelord (Lord Zed in Power Rangers), Jonathan Joss (John Redcorn from King of the Hill) and Mary E McGynn. I got all their autographs just to be nice though I did wanted Jonathan since I did watch King of the Hill back when it first started out. Though the best part is that I got Kyle and Stephanie to sign my One Piece Season 2, Sixth Voyage DVD since both of them had major roles in that set.

I was able to talk to Kyle a bit as he signed my DVD set about how I enjoy his roles in One Piece and in Gurren Lagann. This guy is prepare when it comes to autograph sessions since he has alittle card thing for people who don't have anything to sign. Not sure if I got one but I am okay since him signing the cover of the One Piece DVD was all I wanted. Though I was able to talk to him about doing an interview which will be done on a later date since neither one of us were able to do it at Akon due to time.

By the way, Stephanie loved the Strong World Luffy cosplay. The other night she said she never seen Luffy dressed like this so she was looking forward to seeing me in this outfit.

By the way, this guy did got this sign signed by Kyle Herbert (voice of Aizen for Bleach)

The other panel that I went to was one ran by Stephanie called "Witches, Wise Women, Tramps and Queens". She was talking about the different roles she plays and her experiences with playing deep voiced women. When you have a deep voice and a voice actress then I guess you tend to get typed cast to play mature and older women (which Robin falls into nicely). It was a question and answer panel where the audience would ask questions and Stephanie would answer them. This was a favorite among the One Piece fans since about a good size group in the audience were dressed in One Piece cosplays. This was a pack room and I wish that Stephanie had a bigger panel room to host this since it was a tight fit in there.

Stephanie talked a bit about how she doesn't like to read ahead on what will happen to her character and how she doesn't mind doing characters that do have higher pitch voices that are super hyper, the other side of the voice acting spectrum. She finds them fun and different compare to the normal stuff that she does. She mention her role as Robin a few times on her own which was cool. I think she was fawning over Robin when she appeared on her powerpoint presentation. Then again I think she was fawning over how great most of the characters that she plays since they all look so great. haha Well at least she knows that she plays a bunch of great looking characters since we all know that they are good looking.

Afterwards, a huge group came to her and ask her to take pictures and sign some stuff since most of the people there were One Piece cosplayers missed out in the autograph session that happen early in the day. Though she loved the One Piece cosplays and took questions as in how she did handle the dubbing of Unlimited Adventure since the video game included the "I want to live!" moment from Enies Lobby. This was way ahead of what she was going to cover at the time since the recorded the video game happened before recording the Funimation One Piece TV dub. Stephanie told us that the director had to fill her in on what was happening.

Now time to include potential restraining order moment: Stephanie used the sharpie that I use to draw on my Luffy scar to sign the stuff after the panel! That was really cool! haha Glad that I remember to carry the sharpie with me. Now I will wrap it in plastic wrap to preserve it for the future. Hmm...nah...I still need it for my Luffy cosplays. haha

Saturday was really a day filled with a mix of things. Since clearly there were things that I wanted to as in attend one of the One Piece photo shoots that were happening that day. The hotel room kind of became our group's meet up place where we can relax and enjoy some of the snacks that we brought with us which included Koren pocky, nutty buddy bars, chips and ramune.

When we weren't relaxing then we went to the dealers room and spend our hard earn money since Saturday was going to be the only day we could make sure to get stuff. It sucks since we couldn't get any deals since a lot of the vendors were surely waiting to see how much they get sold before Sunday.  Got to say there was some great things to buy at the vendors room including some Strong World figures and great Funimation One Piece stuff. haha (Does anybody remember this?) Though there was a really good yogurt place in the Sheraton where we happen to walk into a Hetalia yogurt meet up. Sigh...I want to have a One Piece yogurt meet up because that sounds like fun. haha

If you squint your eyes then you can tell that is Kyle hosting the cosplay contest

After coming in second place in a few rounds of Speed while in the long cosplay line, we eventually saw the cosplay contest. There was only one One Piece cosplayer in the contest which was the Franky cosplayer that I saw earlier except he was  wearing the speedo this time. I commend the man for doing that and so did many other One Piece fans I know for sure.

There was some great cosplays and skits. One of the cosplayers that won an award were two friends  from the university's anime club with their Detroit Metal City cosplay. Some of my favorite skits were a Fullmetal Alchemist skit where they had Roy and Hawkeye dance and sing to a parody of Kesha's Tic Tok that was very good. They had props and a bed where both Roy and Hawkeye were sharing. haha Another good skit  was a Hetalia Axis Powers one that had a serious tone compare to the the series that showed the aftereffects of World War I. The cosplay was great and very well done. You can see how some of the things that happen in the skit could be used to help set up for the events that caused War World II. There wasn't anything funny about it but the delivery was breath taking.

Both skits that I mention won awards for their performances. The FMA skit may last longer in my memory but the Hetalia skit left me impressed. After the cosplay contest, I went around trying to catch photographs of some of the cosplayers and one of them was the person who played Germany from the Hetalia skit. It was hard to see on the stage but once you get up close, you can see the scars that were inflicted on him during  'WWI' in the Hetalia universe.

This was how great the Hetalia skit was

Then to close out the day was a walk though the Artist Alley for a personal mission to find a bookmark so I can read my One Piece manga with a One Piece bookmark. Didn't find a single One Piece bookmark but a One Piece fanbadge does do the job nicely. It was there that I meant the pair from Scuttlebutt Inc who turn out to be huge One Piece fans. We had a huge conversation about One Piece that was very enjoyable. I am impressed that they were able to watch Movie 10: Strong World and they had nothing but good things to say about the movie. This makes me even more excited for the movie when Funimation announce that they are going to dub it.

Then once again we slept at three am because we can.

Cosplay: Luffy (One Piece Movie 10: Strong World)

Though some luck and hardwork from the night before leaving for AKon, the jacket for Strong World Luffy was completed. This cosplay was done for AnimeMatsuri but the jacket was incomplete because it turned out that the fabric I had gotten for the buckles wasn't working. So this time we got some foam sheets and cut them up to what looked like horseshoes and then spray painted them gold. Well the spray paint color sucked so we just got the gold  fabric that didn't work and hot glue them to warp the buckles up and then did the same with some cardboard in order to create more buckles. Though with that done, this cosplay was made awesome since the jacket was completed. Then because of my laziness and not-know-how, the gun was unable to be made.

Got to say that it felt good to be wearing pants again and I love wearing that jacket since sometimes it can get cold at conventions. A lot of One Piece fans liked this cosplay and were able to recognize me as Luffy even though I know one person has never seen anything from Strong World. This guy was asking questions about when does Luffy wear a jacket and I had to explain to him that this was a movie outfit.

This jacket fluttering in the wind makes this cosplay look so cool!

One thing that I didn't want to do in this cosplay is go outside since the jacket is made out of wool or some sort of thick material. Though it didn't seem that much of a problem since I didn't break a sweat during one of the One Piece photoshoots. This could have been because it wasn't as hot as I thought or there was a nice breeze happening that day.

I love my Luffy cosplays and I am looking forward to cosplaying this one again. I am not sure when I will do Strong World Luffy again. I want to do it at OniCon but I am thinking that maybe I should hold off on doing this cosplay again until Funimation announce the acquirement of Strong World in the US (who knows when that will be but I know it is coming). Maybe I will keep cosplaying this but hold off on making the gun until Funimation announce that they got Strong World. I am not sure. Though now I am tempted to try to make the sandals that Luffy wears since the ones I have right now seem kind of off. Just some thoughts I had while doing this cosplay on Saturday.

Con Overview: Day 3- Sunday
Then first thing that was done on Sunday was to pack up the things and get them loaded onto Merry to get back home. The time at AKon had to an end on Sunday morning because I (and a friend) had to get back home before two pm in order to see our little sisters' high school graduation. That was something that I as a big brother can't miss. If I did then myself, my parents nor my sister wouldn't let me live down which was why we left at the time we did.

Our sister's graduations were the reason why I had to buy everything I wanted on Saturday instead of wait till Sunday for discounted merchandise. That meant that I couldn't go to any panels on the third day of AKon. I wanted to but there was no way I was going to miss my little sister's graduation. Though if I (and my friend) didn't have a graduation to attend to then really I think we would have done one last raid of the dealers room. Some of the panels that I would have attended would included "Sociology of Cosplay" and if I wanted to stay long enough (most likely I wouldn't since I would have liked to leave AKon way before 4:15) then it would be the "Voice Actors Cold Read" panel.

As a cosplayer, the "Sociology of Cosplaying," sounds like an interesting panel since I know there is a reason why we cosplay. It is fun to dress up as our favorite characters and I understand that there is some sort of hierarchy within the cosplaying community. Some cosplayers look down on cosplayers who buy their outfit while others don't like cosplayers who cosplay certain animes. Some people cosplay because they know that they look cool in the outfit while others do it out of the pure fun. Though one thing that I think all cosplayers have in common is that we are all attention whores. haha We love it when people come up to ask for our pictures because they love the character that we are cosplaying or just think that our outfit is great. There is even proof of this since one of my friends has never cosplay until we got her to agree to be our Mikuru. One of the things that she loved was when we were stopped for a picture. The only reason we did our Haruhi cosplay at AKon was because she wanted to. haha So I wanted to see if the people that were running the panel also agree that cosplayers were also part or had a little bit of an 'attention whore' in them. haha

The "Voice Actors Cold Read" panel just sounded like something fun to sit though. I am not sure if it was good but at least it could provide a few laughs.

I am not sure if these were good panels but if you attended one or both of these panels then feel free to tell me how they went in the comments.

Then above is where you can view all the photos that I took while at AKon. They include all the cosplays and fun pictures that I took. There are some good Pokemon cosplayers that are worth looking at including a Jynx and Dragonite. A personal favorite is one of a vending machine that isn't a very good vending machine. haha The money kept on coming out of the machine and wasn't vending.Though if I want to go beyond anything then the Raptor Jesus and Yaoi Bunny are two of my favorites that do make me laugh when I think of them together. haha

On the way back there was a stop at Buc-ee's since it wouldn't be a roadtrip without stopping there. Decided to get some lunch there. While there, we saw some other people that were from our university (but weren't part of our group) heading home. I am guessing they left around the same time as we did and just wanted to get home. They seem to have enjoyed AKon just as much as we did from what I was able to gather.

So I missed out on the last day of the convention which included cheap items in the dealers room and maybe great panels. Though I am glad that I made it home in timeto see my sister walk the stage to get her diploma. There were no tears shed but deep inside me I was very proud of her and glad that she took another step into adulthood and that I was there to witness this moment.

Strong World Figure Contest
During the adventure at AKon, I was finally able to award the last of the Strong World figures that I been trying to get rid of! The lucky winner was Paul which should be a familiar face since I mention him and his cosplay group during my coverage of AnimeMatsuri. As mention during an earlier AKon post, he was sporting one of the Strong World outfits that Zoro that I was impressed with.

The funny part is that Paul actually said what I asked people to say when they found me and wanted the Strong World figure which was, "Hey Mikey! I read your blog!". I wasn't expecting that and was surprise. To tell the truth I kind of forgot that I was doing this contest but then remember at that moment. Guess I was having too much fun but I wasn't forgetful enough to forget that I brought the figure with me. Once all of that was covered, the prize was awarded and now Paul is the proud owner of a Chopper figurine dressed in one of the Strong World movie outfits! Congrats to Paul on finding me and I hope you enjoy the figurine.

Stuff I Got
There was a treasure trove of One Piece merchandise at Akon and thus I was able to bring back a good fair amount of booty back with me. It was very hard to hold myself back and if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want to face the possibility of using an ATM at a convention then I think I would have spent more then I had planned to.

Though one thing that had to be bought was what you are seeing above which is one of the famous three million print One Piece Volume 57. This was something that I didn't expect to see being sold here but apparently there was a guy that was selling a lot of manga from Japan which included some One Piece manga. I saw two copies of Volume 57 and I was going to grab both so I could use one in a future contest  but I found out that the second copy had been picked up already. Sorry guys but I guess I won't be giving away Volume 57.

Though I have to say it is strange to own a Japanese One Piece volume since it is kind of different. The manga has a jacket on it and much smaller compare to the stuff that Viz gives us. I kind of like that the Viz version is bigger since it is easier to look at the images. The cover is a nice touch. Though it is kind of amazing to own this volume since in this volume contains the first chapters that were covered in this blog. Kind of awestruck at this fact and pretty soon the American manga will be up to what is being cover in this volume too.

Click on image to witness its greatness

Then I present you the shirt that is made by epic and awesome! haha This is currently my favorite shirt right now since it has a mostly full StrawHat crew on it. The shirt is black and all of the StrawHats are on it. Though the problem with this shirt is that it is a bit big on me since I didn't expect it to be so big for an XL. Normally I wear XL since I like how long the sleeves are but everything else on this shirt is so big. Though the shirt is still great to wear!

It took a while to find this wall scroll among the pile of wall scrolls but it was worth the work! There was another wall scroll that had the crew back from the East Blue with a map behind them but I wanted this once since it had most of the crew and features them from Skypeia. This made me excited since I feel that Funimation may try to do something of a huge One Piece push soon. The upcoming DVD sets will feature the first time release of the stuff that Funimation showed of One Piece on Cartoon Network. Maybe it just me being hopeful but it seems like all signs are pointing in a certain direction. This is one of those signs along with the shirt that I bought.

The keychain will be used in an upcoming contest

Other things that I got included the Season One and Two of YuYu Hakusho DVD sets. Now I have the complete series of YuYu Hakusho to enjoy whenever I want without the commercials. Looking forward to these little joys of entertainment. Also decided to get some fanart by accident. How did I get it by accident? Well while I was cosplaying as Yuki on Friday. In order to stay in character and keep the 'illusion', I decided to stay quiet when I wasn't around my friends. I just pointed at the fanart of the StrawHat Crew and the person told me how much it was and then I nodded to say I understand. The person on the other hand took the nod as 'I want to buy it' and soon I became the proud owner of a cool piece of One Piece fanart.

Then the Pokemon shirt is just something funny that I wanted to own. Going to have fun wearing it once I figure out how to use the PokeWalker. haha As for the keychain, I have plans for it which involves this blog.

Thus ends the great Akon adventure! There were plenty of fun times with great friends, people and whatnot! Have to say that this was one of the best AKons that I have attended in terms of panels, cosplayers and memories. It was a shame that I had to leave early but I had a great time at AKon.

Though just because this adventure has ended doesn't mean that I don't have anything else to show! There is still one little gem that I want to show which came out of this convention and that is the fabulous interview with the lovely Stephanie Young! So keep an eye out for that because there are wonderful bits of information there that I am sure you guys will like!

Till next time fair AKon where I plan to have just as much fun as I did this year. May the memories I have received from this year's convention shine brightly.