Easily one of the mos exciting posts of the year~! Anime Revoluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuution!
Anime Revolution! Vancouver's newest anime convention since the end and demise of our older one, Anime Evolution. This time it's got better sponsors, from big name companies like Glico, EA and Funimation, to smaller local businesses like Imperial Hobbies and Magic Stronghold.
For the first two days I was there primarily with Zelos, and occasionally with Ivy; both happen to be defunct members of this blog, so it became rather interesting to say the least.
Anywho, let's get this show rolling. First day lines were expectedly long. It's been a few years since Vancouver has had it's own anime convention, and I'm pretty sure we've (Vancouverites) have all been starved of a local convention.
The lines, Pre-Registered and Registration, were impressively long, snaking around several times within the convention lobby, and continued long out the doors. In the lines I found a bunch of great cosplayers, from the Madoka troupe (sans the titular character), to an impressive Master Chief (pictured later). And yes, Homura was really tall. Like actually. Cute too. An interesting quip you could make is that world saving soldiers, magical girls, and super villains have to wait in lines too.
For the first day, the Dealer's Hall (or vendor's hall) lay fairly barren. There were less people than I expected there, and some stalls were still setting up. It might have been because we were there so early in the day, but regardless, many of the bigger stalls were open for business. Lots of stuff to see and buy, from rare figures from Japan (they went for hundreds, if not thousands) to bluray box sets not due for another month or two in North America. I spent quite a bit on the first day, picking up the first two volumes of the limited edition Madoka Bluray sets. I'll be covering my, as well as Zelo's convention hauls in a separate post.
With so many different cosplayers, some interesting scenes would show up. Take this one, Ironman vs M. Bison (?), which I believe could be something straight out of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. This one's taken by Zelos, since he's a bit taller than me and managed to shoot over the crowd. Ironman was a two in one cosplay, as on the surface he's got the suit, and underneath he's got the Stark look. I think I caught him chewing a fake cigar at one point.
Zero Suit Samus! The only Samus I saw at the con, and one of the better ones I've seen. The only funny part: why is she wearing those toed ninja shoes? This is at Zelos' friend's stall at the dealer's room. Figures and posters galore! They had a challenge up: Perfect any song (Project Diva DT2) on extreme and win an exclusive Hatsune Miku poster from the Mikunopolis concert in LA. Sound easy? It ain't. Most people played Project Diva on their PSP and are used to the feel of the buttons. Even players of Dreamy Theatre are probably used to playing on their Sixaxis controller. Challenge made use of fight stick, emulating the arcade sticks used on the cabinet versions of Project Diva. It's a foreign feel - you have to get used to the placement of the buttons, and the feel of using the joystick instead of the D-pad.
I unfortunately work in the evenings, so I was only able to attend the convention for a handful of hours, missing out on many of the main events. We started at about 10 and went til about 3. Zelos stayed the full duration of the day, except the first day due to final exams, but came back after.
Zelos and I headed to the Anime Idol competition, squaring off with 12 hopefuls. My experience with these convention Idol competitions has been entirely comprised of J-Pop and anime openings, but this one was quite diverse. I was only at the first round because that's all I was able to attend given my schedule, but there was enka, Vocaloid (given it's popularity, I'm not surprised) and even someone doing a Sound Horizon song (massive kudos to her). The singers were pretty good, though some stood out more than others. I still await the day someone does 初音ミクの消失 and does it well. That'll be a sight to see.
A photo I snapped at the request of Zelos. I'm not entirely sure as to who they're cosplaying so I can't say too much.
Day 2 might be a bit late as I'm still waiting on Ivy's photos (blame her for delays). She has photos from Day 1 too, but I figured I'd put this one up without hers. Her friend has photos from Nakata Jouji's first panel and I really want those.
Anywho, here ends part 1. Keep your eyes peeled for the next part sometime during the week!
While you wait, have some highlights from Hypelife Films, the film crew covering the convention.
