Sorry I haven't posted in a while, been quite busy this month. First off I had a wedding to go to in West Virginia, which was quite fun. ;^P and then this past Saturday (6/18) my friends and I went to AnimeNext in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was a total BLAST!! First off the set up of the convention was convenient for con goers with panels, art gallery and autograph lines were set up before the dealers room. I've only been to one other con and that was BAAF (Big Apple Anime Fest) in 2003. At BAAF evrything was kinda squished together even though it was on multiple floors. Anyway more floor space that was put to good use. The Dealers room was fun too everything from Central Park Media to Cartoon Passion to Funimation booths. Speaking of the Funimation booth I made sure to make an origami crane (or rather tried to, my Friend Kim really just did two and I handed it to the attendant!) The purpose of the cranes, if you don't know already is to raise a demand for another season of Fruits BAsket. The cranes will be sent to Japan to show the popularity of the show. Cross your fingers! Also this year Funimation introduced the next generation of Fruits Basket hats. This year it's Shigure and Hatsuharu. I picked up the Hatsuharu one, very cool! The con also had a great batch of guests: from One Piece they had Marc Diraison (Zolo), Kerry Williams (Nami), Wayne Grayson (not sure which one he is, someone fill me in?) and Mike Pollock (the "next piece of One Piece . . " guy) very nice and entertaining group. I was really looking forward to meeting Wayne Grayson since he did the voice of Benitora from Samurai Deeper Kyo. But nothing could beat the combination of Travis Willingham, Caitlin Glass, and VIC MIGNOGA!! this group is from Fullmetal Alchemist their characters being: Roy Mustang, Winry Rockbell, and Edward Elric. They were fantastic and Hilarious! Travis and Vic kept teasing each other with the "rivalry" between their characters, especially playing off episode 13 Flame versus Fullmetal. They were great together. Also Vic had put together a short film called "Fullmetal Fantasy" where he and a few of the other voice actors cosplayed their characters for the story. It was hysterical. What really pleased me though was the film was only supposed to be 15-20 minutes with the overall "event" being half an hour. Vic and Caitlin stayed an extra half hour to answer questions and show outtakes from the film, and then after THAT they stayed about another hour signing autograph and taking pictures. heheheh Do you want to know what Vic Mignogna's license plate is? it's actually FUL MTL. He loves the show so much! But they were really great. If this opportunity ever arrises in your area I highly suggest you going to see them. Anyway that's it from me. I got a bunch of anime at the con, plus I'm finishing up Escaflowne. so hopefully I'll have another review up soon. toodles
Boma at 4:23 PM
