[AX] Prisoner's Anime Expo Report
Kent Keltner
Just a quick note:
Hi all...
Being a Staffer on these things since we first started back at Baycon '90
in San Jose, CA and the same team eventually lead to AX'96, I thought for
the first time I'd be wacky enough to post my views on the con, as I had
a interesting time (People always tell me I look half dead at the cons, I
guess I just try to put as much as possible into it. whatever...) Anyway,
here's my con report from the PoV of a staffer. Enjoy!
...and if this is boring as hell, I appologize. Like I said, it's what
a staffer does. I just wished I could remember it all (trying to write this
now and most of the con is just a blur except for the really good parts ;)
-
Prisoner's AX review
(aka "How I spent my Independence Day Weekend")
I was originally planning to leave for AX on Wednesday, and expecting a
check from my employer to arrive that day. It didn't, and this made this
expo all that much more exciting (Leaving with just enough money to barely
have enough for food all weekend, nothing for dealer's room or other stuff.)
Found another ride which we were planning to leave Thursday at 6pm for the
con. Things didn't work out as planned and we didn't leave the Bay Area until
1am. We arrived at the con site around 9am the next morning after all the
stops and such. (didn't get much sleep in the car either, so I was rather
zoned all day...)
Friday there was hordes of crowds waiting for things to open (such as
Dealer's Room). My first Panel I helped out with was Allen Hastings. Allen
wanted to get a little time in the Dealer's Room so I went and grabbed some
breakfast while I tried to wake up/freshen up from the long trip. There was
some technical dificulties which caused us (being the first panel and all plus
all the AV Equipment we needed) to be a few minutes late. After that, though
things seemed to roll smoothly and Allen showed some really cool stuff I
hadn't seen before, such as the Eva Prototypes in Lightwave 3D format. Cool
stuff... walked around the con, checked out the dealer's room after this,
and saw some friends who also just arrived (Dave Van Cleef (Koutarou on IRC),
a fellow "TokiMemo" fan) and was on the lookout for some attendees from
Konami Japan who I was really hoping to meet up with.
While in the Dealer's Room I did find some TokiMemo merchandise I didn't
expect to see. I drooled over the models and postcards they had there.
Drawing a blank for the next few hours of the con (I don't remember what
I did! wah!), but I remember being invited for food after catching a personal
Pan Pizza at the in-hotel Pizza Hut with some really cool friends from
Br0derbund. We walked over to Coco's and relaxed and ate. With plans to see
the guys from Konami at the Party which I thought started at 9, we went to
see the Subtitled "Memories". We stayed for the first part (Magnetic Rose),
and it was a little weird yet interesting... the subs were low on the screen
so everyone was trying to stand to see over the rest of the audiences's heads.
We left but realized we missed the Party. DOH! Oh well, picked up my AX 5-year
shirt from Aaron Pon (J0KER) hanging out at the Info Desk, then proceeded to
see what else was going on. Ended up catching Goldenboy with all my friends
who I had told to see it earlier. As a Ex-Unix Admin at Sun Microsystems, that
First episode really makes you cringe, though overall the thing is funny as
hell. Everyone agreed and had a good time.
Saturday was extremely cool. I was on the lookout for the Presto Studios team.
I was working with them on the unveiling Panel and following demo of their
domestic Gundam game at AX. They only showed a really small trailer at E3, and
since that's an Industry show, this is the first time this had been shown to
the public, and they had brought a ton of stuff created since then. I was
worried we'd never find each other in time for our 11am meeting, but the second
I walked downstairs I ran into the one guy I know really well from Presto who
was being used to spot me at the con ;).
Now, let me explain. If you're a Gundam fan, you wanna check this game out.
There's been Gundam games before on the Playstation, and the Saturn, but those
are nothing compared to this. I even dragged 2 of the most knowledgable Gundam
authories in the US (the rest were in the Kitazume Panel next door which I
found out at 10:45am that we were running against. DOH! No wonder our Turnout
was only about 50 people... still, it was incredibly cool.) to the panel and
they were REALLY impressed. The game comes out in January in Japan and the
US simutaneously.
"Gundam 0079: The War for Earth" (Currently for Pippen and Playstation)
has all feel of the Gundam series, with some rather interesting twists. One
of the features in the game that differs in the series is in the game the
White Base lands in the remains of the Luxor hotel in Vegas. You pilot the
Guntank in a Maze. they showed via Quicktime VR the parts of Vegas you
drive through, and they look really neat. A few injokes hidden as well. The
other really cool thing is all the main characters in the game are cast
perfectly to match and look exactly like the characters from the Anime. You
get this interesting twist of using the same production stuff done in "The
Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time" with the Gundam Cinemas. PLUS, they've
said for the Japanese release of this game, they will redub the voices for
the cinemas using the original voice actors from the Gundam series. that
version should end up REALLY cool. If you have a Playstation, and weren't
impressed by the previous 2 Gundam games, pick this one up. It looks to be
worth every penny and was one of the real Gems I enjoyed at Expo. (sorry to
hype the thing so much like a review, I just thought it was REALLY cool and
no one even mentioned this so far in the other reviews I've seen. I know
there's a lot of people out there playing the current Gundam games and thought
they'd like to know of this one as well).
After this ended, I waited around for some friends and I was to contact a
film crew from the rather cool film TV show "Reel Life". I was so swamped
before that I never got around to it and I feel REALLY bad about it. I ran
into the Magazine staff from "Orbital 32" (Now for them to get their AX
coverage listed in the mag), as well as the team from Gamefan was expected
to show up and cover the con (They couldn't make it, ah well...) While
hanging out, the president of Nemicron (They created "Angel Devoid", then
went off and formed this new company) showed up. They even showed off a
model for their new game "Speed Tribes" which looks pretty cool (I saw some
Quicktime movies on his Powerbook. Spent some time hanging out with him at
the con and talking about the Industry. After lunch, I saw one of my favorite
VIPs at the con: the person who the newsgroup rec.games.video.sony and all
the software from Interleave Entertainment is dedicated to, THE Trulee Lee.
This was a major highlight of being at AX, and it was a personal highlight
for me. (I even have Photos for my webpage! Wai! ;) After this I went to the
SakuraSoft panel and compared how we localize our games to the methods they
use. It was rather interesting to hear their ideas and I wish them success.
The big event of the evening was about to start though. Last year, I co-
hosted the IRC party. This isn't just some @ party for any d00d with an
e-mail address to attend. Anyone from AOL or Prodigy can do those. This is
for those Internet Relay Chat users who hang out on #Anime! (Which I've been
doing longer than Anime Expo's been around... We even got the people on IRC
to come to AnimeCon '91, although the one who flew to the con from the East
Coast at the last minute ended up buying $400 worth of Manga at a local
shop before the con started and never really left his hotel room except for
food...). This year's party was packed! Another Watermelon, (if you remember
the reports from last year's con ;) a N64 fresh from Japan, and lots of
surprises. Lots of party crashers, but everyone had a blast. This was a major
highlight for all the IRCers of the con and we have to figure out how to top
this year's party. I won't spoil all the secrets and surprises that went down
at this year's party, I'll leave that for the other's reports... or to stay
hidden to avoid embarassment by some parties ^_-
Sunday was the last day and it was mostly a wake-up/recover from the con
and get ready to take off. I did find the one dealer with all the TokiMemo
stuff had some MORE rare TokiMemo stuff I was drooling over (With only $10 to
your name and like $300 worth of goodies you'd like to have, what CAN you do?)
it was sad. they also had the "Key: The Metal Idol" soundtrack for only $25!
I hope I can get these prices from them when I have some money! I tried to
catch the last screening of the Tenchi Muyo film subbed, but my ride wanted to
leave at Noon back to the Bay Area. I asked a friend and they said "Oh, your
ride was looking for you. They already left..." Doh! had to catch a ride back
with another friend the next day and juggle things inbetween... and that night,
in Torrance we stopped by a shop called "Excel". If you're looking for good
deals on CD's or other goods, and you're in the LA area (say, for cons like AX)
you should stop by Excel. Neat shop.
Ah well... despite all the little things and looking "wasted" to many people,
I had a great time at AX, and hope it's as much fun next year.