Tekkoshocon 2008

Tekkoshocon 2008 Review
Tekko ’08 was my second-ever anime convention, after the 2007 Erie Anime Experience, where in fact I pre-registered for it. Being rather shy and having no friends who like anime, it took a little while to get comfortable, and going on only 2 hours sleep on Friday, I found myself wondering if I would fall asleep at the con. Fortunately, things got straightened out.

I was Captain Aizen from Bleach for Friday, a costume that was confused right off the bat with Gin Ichimaru (something I hoped my glasses would offset). Nevertheless, I at first was confused as what to do, given my poor video game-playing ability (at least compared to most people) and my shy personality. And maybe I was shell-shocked; I had just been lost in Green Tree, or wherever that is, for 30 minutes just trying to find the hotel.

I watched Tenchi Muyo in Love by myself for about 45 minutes, and I found it to be very entertaining, given my love for Tenchi Universe. I felt bad that it wasn’t more popular; unfortunately Tenchi is sort of forgotten these days. But after that, the dealers’ room opened up, and I found exactly what I wanted: a Pen-Pen plushie. Pen-Pen is the official good luck charm of the Pittsburgh Penguins 2008 playoff run, so finding that plushie was a gem. Another gem was the one and only plushie of Asuka in a sundress, which came in handy later. After adding a sound-making Goomba plushie, I was set.

One problem I found was that the pants to my costume did not fit right; I was too thin for them. Thus they were falling down the whole day, and there I was, pulling up my pants every 5 minutes. This wasn’t much of a problem while I sat in the AMV room, which I kept on coming back to. The guy in charge there, named Vlad, was extremely informative on AMVs, which I know little about. He explained the history of AMVs, showing all these really old AMVs with some catchy songs that I’m going to have to get on my iPod (80’s and 90’s stuff!). I stayed there for maybe 90 minutes, still trying to keep myself awake, while wondering what I’d do next.

A little while later I made the mistake of trying to search for food. The problem was, I didn’t know I was allowed to eat at the hotel restaurant (which was apparently really expensive), and there was apparently some pizza place which I never saw. So the only way to get food, I figured, was to find some sort of fast food place like McDonald’s. The only problem was, I didn’t find one, and I got lost in Green Tree again, going the wrong way on I-279, having to turn around. After wasting about half an hour, I came back to the convention, now starving and hoping for something good to happen- which did.

I started meeting Bleach cosplayers rapidly, which was great because I of course was one. There was a guy in a great Kaname Tosen costume, who I got a couple pictures with. Later the Bleach photoshoot was held, where around 30 of us Bleach cosplayers gathered for a whole bunch of photos. Someone put on Britney Spears music on the jukebox, adding to the craziness. It was a whole lot of fun, one of my best memories of the con.

Then I quickly exited the photoshoot so I could meet the voice of Asuka Langley Soryu, Tiffany Grant. I brought my other Asuka plushie for her to sign, and I found her to be really nice. She seems to have embraced her role as Asuka, and why not? Asuka’s one of the best anime characters ever, after all. I wasn’t star-struck, fortunately, as I was afraid I’d be.

At that point I was too hungry and too tired, so I went home. The Penguins were playing that night anyway, so I don’t regret leaving early Friday (unlike Saturday).

On Saturday I came in my Miroku costume, which seemed to be very popular. This time I didn’t ask any girls to bear my children, maybe because there were too many to choose from. I revisited some things from the day before, including the AMV room a couple times, and the dealers’ room, where I picked up a bunch of Eva mini-figures (after fruitlessly searching for End of Evangelion on DVD).

The highlights of the day was probably the ADV panel. Matt Greenfield was there, later joined by his wife Tiffany, and he answered a bunch of questions about various ADV properties. Now I’m not going to lie; the only ADV property I know of is Evangelion. I was there to find out about Eva stuff, and sure enough, a bunch of others had questions on Eva as well. The Eva live-action movie project was brought up. We can expect that “before Third Impact,” as Matt said, meaning it’s a long way off. How about Rebuild of Evangelion? Again, a long way off, thanks to its success in Japan bringing up the cost of the rights. So unfortunately, no real news about Eva, although we did get a “what are you, stupid?” out of Tiffany. And I ended up winning a DVD called “5 Centimeters Per Second” for winning at Rock Paper Scissors.

Later I was back to get autographs from the same guests again (hey, I had another Asuka plushie for Tiffany to sign). I also had to tell her about the “ASUKA” license plate I saw in the parking lot… that was classic.

I then went to a showing of Ranma 1/2, which was very popular, getting a lot of audience participation (including clapping for the character Akane). I would have liked to have been at the Neon Genesis Evangelion showing later, but my stomach took over. I had to eat, or else. And that was probably the biggest mistake I made all weekend; instead of just walking around, taking more pictures, and spending more time there, I went home, just because I was hungry. I now regret that, because it would have definitely been more fun to stay longer, rather than get the one little meal I ate and the extra sleep. Unfortunately, that was it for this year’s Tekkoshocon.

I have a lot of good memories of this year’s con, although it went by way too quickly. If there was some readily available food (and caffeinated pop!) I probably would have stayed longer, and enjoyed myself more. If the ExpoMart hadn’t gone and messed everything up, I would have had the luxury of being in Monroeville for this con, and I could have even easily come back on Sunday. I guess I became an anime fan one year too late. Oh well, it was my fascination with seeing the fandom of those at Tekko ’07 (while in Monroeville for other purposes that weekend) that got me wondering what this anime thing was all about. Now I know.