One Piece More: Long Over Due

Dance my little puppets dance! Dance!

Well this More piece is long over due. When was the last time we had one? Like March? Heck I didn't even do that one! Who the heck is in charge of this blog? They been doing a horrible job in keeping things together these last three months! It not like they been busy trying to get interviews planned and graduating from college and junk....Wait? They have? Wait! That person is me! Umm...To the meat of the post!

-Mikey

Con Piece: The Anime Matsuri Rodeo Round Up

Welcome to Anime Matsuri 2011 where you can find anime, manga, girls in hot outfits, guys in skirts and....cowboys? Well that what happens when you put your anime convention across the street from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Anime Matsuri went down during the last few days of Spring Break (March 18th-20th). There was clearly some problems that arose due to having the convention close to Houston Rodeo but it was interesting to have a mix of anime congoers dressed in cosplay next to people dressed in rodeo get-ups. Then there was the fact that this year Anime Matsuri had a cast of awesome voice actors that were worth seeing.

One Piece More: With the Pokey and the Man

So I think I may have a problem. My mind can't focus and it has been on my mind all week. I want to stop doing what I have been doing but I can't. I believe I am addict to it. I try to pull away but I just keep finding myself going back to it. Then sometimes I decide that I just take it for a bit. Only a few minutes. Fifteen or thirty minutes tops but then I find myself an hour later still doing it. I really don't know what is going on here and it is scaring me. Even right now my hand is shivering since I am not on it right now.

That is right guys....I think I am hooked on Pokemon Black.

-Mikey

Mikey's Note: A majority of this post was written before the events of the earthquake in Japan

Anime Matsuri Update

 

Here is an update on Anime Matsuri since it been awhile since we last talked about the convention.

The One Piece FanPanel hosted by One Piece at a Time Blog has been approved for Anime Matsuri 2011! The panel will be hosted by Mikey and his good friend Pablo. This panel is something for any One Piece fan attending Anime Matsuri to look forward to. The panel will be on Friday, March 18th at 9pm in Panel Room 3.

Den Den Video: One Piece FanPanel- OniCon 2010 Part 1

Straight from the One Piece FanPanel at OniCon 2010! Record just for the people that couldn't make a trip all the way to Houston, Texas (and also for those who couldn't get inside the panel room due to it being full) is the One Piece FanPanel!

One Piece More: A Storm is Coming

So currently I am facing a storm of stuff from everywhere. There is school work facing me on one side raging for me to get hammering on it while on the other side a storm known as OniCon is slowly brewing. Lots of busy stuff for me but surely it is like this for everybody too. There is always tons of stuff that is raining down and the best we can do is stay strong during the storm until the gray clouds disappear.
-Mikey

OniCon 2010 Panel Announcement

For the ones attending OniCon or in the Houston area during the weekend of October 29th-31st then this is announcement some special news! The One Piece at a Time Blog has been approved to host a One Piece panel at this year's convention. The panel will be hosted by Mikey.

One Piece More: Do We Ever Talk About One Piece Here?

So summer is finally over and by now everybody should be back to the grind of school. May you be rushing to finish last minute assignments or just being the good student by getting your assignments done in time. It seems like the dogdays of summer have clearly ended as the days become cooler and autumn is beginning to set in if you live in the northern hemisphere. The ones in the southern part of the world I am guessing things are getting hotter and I wish I could be there because I surely hate the cold. Still for the ones that are starting school then I wish you all to stay strong because we need to live in a strong world as both One Piece fans and people.

-Mikey

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 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.

Con Piece: The Great Akon Adventure (Part I)

Alternative title for this post was going to be 'The AKon Adventure and Dallas Sucks' but I decided to drop the last part even though it was very true. Their freeways and streets are horribly designed and the signs don't make sense. Anybody who plans to go to Dallas and travel around the city needs to make sure they carry a map with them, GPS, life insurance, car insurance and plan to leave an hour early when traveling. If you don't do that then expect to get lost, upset and suffer dire consequences. 

In order words...Dallas sucks.

Still enough about me hating on Dallas. I did enough of that already and I am sure nobody wants to hear me talk about that. Instead lets talk about how great Akon was because it was! I had a great time at the con and I am sure the tweets I sent from the con were showing that. First thing first, Stephanie Young (voice of Robin of the Funimation dub) so made this con for me and she was totally awesome! Special thanks to her since I really enjoy attending her panels. Then we saw so much great cosplays which you can see in the 200 plus pictures I took! Still just an amazing con and my friends and I had so much fun!

Though enough about me talking about how much fun I had and more about why I had so much fun or whatever I do in these post! haha

One Piece More: Summer Love

I love Summer. It may be as hot as heck and makes people sweaty but I so prefer it over the cold winter. Also it is a time of the year where a person can relax and just do whatever they want. May it be small little side projects, doing summer school or just doing nothing. It is all your choice as in what to do during Summer vacation.

Though this summer I have been waiting for a long while now. A chance where I can finally relax and chill. Last two semesters of school has really been something for me then the last two summers I was busy with either Summer semester or an (awesome) internship. This summer is just me doing whatever I want. Not sure if that is a good thing but I am looking forward to whatever small projects I decide to undertake. One thing for sure is that I am going to have fun and hopefully not be bored! haha We just have to see.

Interview Piece: Leah Clark

Here is the interview with the lovely Leah Clark. The voice of Coby and Miss DoubleFinger from One Piece. I have to say that it was a fun interview. Leah was really cool to talk to and thank goodness she was very patient. haha It was a cool experience too since Anime Matsuri made sure to give us a room away from the noise of the convention. Got to thank the guys for doing that. During the interview we discuss several things including her roles as Miss DoubleFinger and Coby which led to a bit as her future with possibility one of the roles.

Some things to know, I was late to meet with Leah. I sat in front of the room for a few minutes before getting a  call by the Anime Matsuri staff telling me that she was already in the room. That was sheepish of me. haha Also I had problems looking up the names to all of the people and works that Leah mention during my spell check of them so they will have (CITATION) next to them to let you know that I couldn't find them.

So to the interview!

One Piece More: House Keeping

Sleep is very important. It helps with your health and helps you be at all gears when doing things the next day. A full night's worth of sleep means you won't have to be napping during the day and more work will be done. Boy do I miss those days. Sleeping at nine pm and being able to wake up at six for school. Those were the days. Almost four years ago. Now I am up till at least one am doing who knows what. Hmm....I should try to sleep earlier but oh well. When else will I do these post? haha

Con Piece: Hanging with the Peeps at Anime Matsuri

Four years ago, a young anime fan went to his first anime convention. He made his first cosplay two days before the convention with glued on buttons. Four years later, this fan attended the same convention as a member of the media and is some what more knowledgeable about anime. His cosplay was much better prepare compare to the last first one. That anime fan was me and that anime convention was....

ANIME MATSURI!

This con holds a special place in my heart. Even though none of my friends liked this convention the first two years it was held, I just love this convention so much. Maybe it was because Anime Matsuri was my first con or maybe  because I actually love it. Still we all left this convention liking our experience this year and having fun. I only went for a full day and a few hours on Friday but it was really fun. I love all the One Piece fans that were here from the dealers room to the cosplayers.

Still enough of me doing all this reflecting, let just go to the stuff!

Interview Piece: Greg Ayres

Well here is the last piece of my coverage of KamiKaze Con! An interview with Greg- I mean Ch-, wait? I mean Greg Ayres! There was no mess ups with names here even though I should have mess up his name a bit after doing that with his older brother.

Greg is really just a huge anime fan simply as that. The interview was very long and took forever to get though. Then again maybe it was a bad idea to transcribe everything in one sitting. Still you guys are in a treat since you get a lot of good information from the voice actor and some One Piece stuff. A little bit of everything.

Interview Piece: Chris Ayres

So here is the first ever interview on One Piece at a Time! Exciting things here. I was a bit nervous going into this interview. I didn't know what to expect from this and was hoping that it won't be too bad. Chris (Johnny from One Piece) was a great guy to talk to and as I said before in my report on Kamikaze Con that I was able to be his guest relations person for the con. So I was able to talk to him a bit before this interview.

So this interview was done in the lobby of the hotel that KamiKaze Con was in. Congoers were going in and out in the background as I talk to Chris. Still one thing that I told myself before going into this interview is to not call him Greg and I did! My 'assistant' for the interview told me that I called him that three times. I don't believe I did that. Still Chris was cool and didn't mind and because of that we got a great interview.

Con Piece: Going KamiKaze Con! Part 2!

Ahh....Voice Actor love. No other purer love then that. Or was that something else? I don't remember.

So here is the second part of my coverage of KamiKaze Con, the little con that could. Got to say that this con really let me get close to the VAs since it was so small. I mean I was able to take a picture of Chris and Sammi hugging though I don't think they knew I took this picture. Either way there were some good moments involving some of the VAs here. An example of one was us trying to fill up Chris's big orange cup with ice. Apparently it was too big to fit in the ice machine on one of the hotel floors. So I got my plastic folder and bent it a bit so it would funnel the ice into the cup. That was fun and now I got a great con story involving a VA, volunteering and cosplaying as Yuki.

Still to the meat of the post! Also check out Part 1 of my coverage of Kamikaze Con if you haven't done that yet.

Con Piece: Going KamiKaze Con! Part One!

What a con! It is Kamikaze Con! The con where all your dreams can come true! A place where you can get up close and personal with your favorite voice actors and actress! That is how this con was because it was just such a small convention. 

Really, this was a kind of small convention. I went to this convention last year and it was small too but for some reason it felt like it was smaller then last year. I didn't see that many cosplayers and the rooms for the panels weren't full. It was kind of lame but overall I think it was cool since it allowed the voice actors to get even more up close and personal with the fans. So that was cool which made my job as a blogger even easier and cooler. 

One thing that kind of annoyed me was that it didn't felt like we were going to a con till the day we got there. Usually you can feel excited about going to a con a few days in advance but I couldn't feel it for this one. I go into detail later in this the coverage of this convention.

One Piece More: Con Updates

Remember this? From a few post back right? The One Piece Movie 10: Strong World figure right?

Well this One Piece Movie 10: Strong World figure can be yours! You guys remember the one that I had right? The Zoro one. Well inside this box is another one of those figures and I will be giving it out at the next two cons that I will be attending. Want to know how? Read on!