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Well, I am feeling a little sleepy, but am currently trying to re-watch Yu Yu Hakusho for old time's sake. Have not seen it since 2003 and have waited for a chance to check it out. I've also thought about reading Ghost Sweeper Mikami.

Black Jack 21 is without a doubt the best adaptation I've ever seen, since it feels darker than the 62 episode series, which I may not recommend very easily, being episodic and comedic in nature.

Yes, on CR, I just forgot to tell you about my MAL account.

Hi, Stephanine. Kurt Irving here, so how have you been?

Going with friends is the best way to go, really. That way when you retreat to the hotel you have someone to game with if one of you brought a console and some party games (at our last con, we played one of the Mario games for the Wii U most of the time we weren't at the con).

I think I spent most of the last con at the hotel in the dealer hall or in either the atrium or the foyer, haha. Would probably have gone to more panels if I wasn't in a streetpass race with someone else in our group (she won by 100 or so).

29k was the figure I saw. Managing 29k people at any event is hard, let alone at event types that have been known to have extremely rowdy attendees even with attendances that were much smaller in the early years. How early are we talking? 5? 6? I know that I've not seen anyone actually drinking until 7:30 at the earliest, and panel hosts weren't showing up buzzed until at least the 10/11 PM panels, despite the hotel having a bar right next to the lobby. You constantly have to flash your badge when going up or down stairs or entering and/or leaving halls at the panels here, though, so I'm thinking convention organizers here make a conscious effort to keep things tame and in line.

A whole Japanese marketplace? Sounds interesting. Only thing Japanese within 5 minutes of the DoubleTree here is a hibachi grill or two, iirc. There are a lot of Halal markets due to a sizable Somali population in the area, but those are basically just convenience stores targeted at and owned by Somalis.
I actually asked about going to a convention in Chicago last night to the other driver in my group (my brother), and he vetoed it on the grounds of thinking his minivan would not be able to go that far safely, and also because he absolutely refuses to go if were were to borrow a vehicle from our parents that I suggested we use instead of his minivan: their Chevy Suburban, even if I said I'd be driving the whole time. He's been chewed out for not paying attention and dinging up the vehicle on light-poles in parking lots and taking out a mirror while backing out of their garage, so I don't blame him for his paranoia, but those things were all at least 2 years ago. Actually, thinking on it, you guys have traffic cams that can issue tickets based on license plates legal down there (they're not legal here because plates are on a per vehicle basis and are replaced every 7 years, rather than being assigned per driver like down there), so it'd probably be best if he never drove if he changes his mind about attending. He actually claims he's hit 110 in his minivan in high school, and he still regularly drives with a lead foot in vehicles that can take the pounding still, so he'd probably get the registered driver of whatever vehicle he drives a ticket in the Illinois system. He also vetoed flying down there on the grounds of "IT'S EXPENSIVE!" and refuses to let others pay for his passes.

You should totally get a group together to travel to Minneapolis, though. Our cons are smaller than yours due to size constraints and attendance limits (I think AniMinneapolis and Anime Detour both are at about 3000 guest passes issued each year, though Detour sells out months before while AniMinne still has passes at the registration counter on Friday evenings and sometimes early Saturday mornings, and AniMinne doesn't have an official cap yet (though they've been saying they might impose one for a couple years now)), so they might feel less hectic, even with the travel you'd have to do to get here.

I think it's standard practice here due to the convention hotels being in close proximity to a lot of regional, national, and worldwide HQs for some medium and large size companies. I mean, Best Buy's HQ is maybe 5 minutes down the interstate from the site, for example, and the Mall of America is maybe 15 minutes away at most, so they'd probably fill up and hurt attendance if room blocks weren't reserved.

I don't envy being a visible public figure in the figurines reviewing field. I'm personally only a moderator on a Pokemon forum that has about 50 staff, so I'm just a faceless moderator to many users, especially since I don't moderate sections that are popular with the userbase of the site. I like not being too visible as it helps me keep a low profile and avoid being targeted/impersonated.

Well, yeah, but DVDs are cheaper typically, and I like to show support for the dubbing studios, and then I have DVDs I can loan out to friends, haha.

Well, yeah. Volunteering or being in a panel are a world apart from just attending.
Well, every con has its awful panels, but the issue I've found as an attendee at the ones I've been to to be more common is that there are a lot that don't interest me at a given time, and then later on there are 6 simultaneous panels that all interest me greatly (at least, of the ones that have 6 or more rooms here - I think Detour and AniMinneapolis cap out at 8 simultaneous panels and have more side events such as viewing parties, and room parties). No guarantee that they're all good, though.
I've never actually attended any of the raves or dances, because no one in my group is much for dances.

Packed in like sardines? There were moments like that in the dealer's room, but they were pretty rare. And from what I've heard, anime cons tend to have rowdier attendees than scifi cons, though that's mostly after-hours stuff. Nothing's happened a any of the ones I've been to since I started attending them, but that's not to say that the rowdier people aren't opting for other hotels instead.
Sounds like ACen might be a clusterfuck, compared to the ones I'm used to, though. They seem to be getting tamer every year.

The parking seems nice... though my group would want to go back and forth between places and then the parking ramps end up not being such a sweet deal.

The neighborhood near the convention hotel sounds pretty nice, and that's not a change that I would have to get used to, really. Most of ours are at this one DoubleTree in an office-park type area that is pretty quiet on weekends, so it makes getting to the restaurants a pretty easy task.

Room blocks are pretty standard for conventions, I've just never personally had any luck getting into the room blocks. My last con in April, I decided to book a hotel that was 5 minutes away by car, and despite booking only a week in advance, I ended up with an amazing 2-room suite.

Anyway, continuing the conversation from that thread since we're probably straying too far off-topic over there:



Because they have ulterior motives when they find out that ~OMG A GIRL!~ "likes" their hobby enough to buy the figurines.

Ah, so that's where the $18,000 has come from. I've spent a metric fuckton on junk food these past 5 years.

I have a question for you since I noticed you're from Chicagoland: Would ACen be worth a road trip down from Minneapolis? I notice attendance is dramatically higher than our biggest one here (that being Anime Detour, which caps registration at 3000 attendees due to the host hotel's event capacity limits), so obviously that means it's bigger and held in a bigger space, but how are the crowds and hotels and all that? Even with the primary hotels booked up at Detour, I have no problem finding hotel rooms nearby and no problems finding parking at the main hotel, so long as there is no snow on the ground. Is this better or worse at Acen? And are people terrible at parking or are they actually orderly?

Oh, I appreciate the thorough response. Honestly forgot I had asked that question haha. I've been doing a bit of investigating on my own, and what I've come up with to watch first is 'Garo' so it's nice to hear that confirmed by someone who knows what they are talking about.

I prefer something dark and mature-ish but have a really wide range of taste, so 'fun and comedic' sounds great as well. Kamen Rider is another I was looking at but it kind of overwhelms me with all of the different offshoots and seasons and whatnot. I'll just take your advice and go for the ones you mentioned. And yes Sentai does look to be a bit too childish for me as well so we're pretty much on the same page with that.

I didn't realize until recently that tokusatsu was a rather broad genre term and that even kaiju like Godzilla is apart of it. I'm very familiar with Godzilla and rather like the kaiju genre. Also a favorite classic movie of mine 'Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People" is tokusatsu as well. Not sure if that is 'your thing' though, it's kind of a weird movie lol.

Thank you for answering me, perhaps I'll let you know what I think of Garo or other series and movies when I get around to watching them and if you find anything else let me know. ;p

Well it's like posting your picture on facebook where tons of people can see you. I know it's not a forum website, but I don't see a big deal honestly. I don't really care about showing myself. Again it's all up to the person of course. After this I agree with you that this community must be filled with a bunch of immature teenagers indeed.

ya that topic got locked haha

hello, i am so sorry for the late reply, i haven't been able to log in due to some reasons.

anyway how have you been doing? still watching lots of anime and collecting figurines i assume? :)

you are such a bad influence to your friends! haha just kidding. i wish i could influence my friends to watch anime too, but i prefer not to talk about anime to any of them.

yeah i think you should go and get a degree to be a librarian, do you need any specific degree to be a librarian? or any general degree would do?

i been thinking of getting a degree in the future too, but i abhor studying, i have never been a studious type of person lol :( and university fees are expensive, damn!

haha are you serious? did she really put them in her will? next time if she were to have kids she could just ask the kids to take care of it for her :D

thanks for sharing so much enriching information. i noticed that besides figures, you collect manga and games too. wow you collect quite a lot of stuff haha :)

actually its hard to find people who watches anime in real life, so its even harder to find actual collectors. luckily we have the internet to turn to.

in your profile it says you work as a bookseller. how is it like to work as a bookseller? do you enjoy working as a bookseller? i am guessing its a yes because you enjoy reading books. if my guess is correct then you are very fortunate, not many people get to work in a job that they like :)

those turtles were just ordinary green ones, i don't really know what species they are lol. i heard turtles can live for a very long time so i released them back into the nature after having them for close to 8 years.

the "Bootleg Awareness – 2010 Racing Miku 1/8 " comparison was good. i could see the difference between bootleg and genuine when you place them side by side. however if i were to see only one figure i would not be able to tell the difference. i guess it takes experience to spot the differences.

btw the part about the ultimate madoka bootleg coming out before the legit figure was funny. haha.

thanks for the tip, i will definitely create an account at MFC soon.

being able to get your stuff in 3-5 days is definitely a good thing. i would also be very impatient if i were you :) how much more do you have to pay for EMS?

do people usually sell bootlegs at a cheaper price? or do they just try to scam people by selling the bootleg at the genuine price? i am guessing its the latter? oh man i would never ever want to be con into buying a bootleg for the price of a genuine.

seems like collecting anime figures is quite an expensive hobby. haha. i think my parents will definitely nag and object to it if i were to start collecting. what did your parents said about this hobby of yours? haha.

i think keeping the boxes is a good choice. i was thinking if you were to sell your figures in the future it will fetch a better price with the box.

many years ago i had a pet turtle. he was quite a loner, so i went and brought another 3 turtles to keep him company. haha. for some reasons looking at your pet fish reminds me of my turtles.

wow that's quite a large sum of money you spent every month. but its worth every single cent if you enjoy it :) so far i have not started collecting any anime figures yet but i am planning to do it in the future. your photos and post is very tempting haha. when i get started i will collect mainly one piece figures since its my favorite anime.

thanks for sharing the websites and your experience. i have bookmarked the 2 websites and i will be checking them out. how did you differentiate between bootlegs and genuine figures when you started collecting? any guides or something?

generally, how long does the shipping takes when you order figures?

btw, my jaw dropped when i saw the "StarshipPooper"'s collection. i totally agree with you that he is rich and has lots of figurines. he spent like over 25K~ annually on figures. damn, i really need to strike the lottery. LOL.

i would love to know more in-depth, i am totally clueless when it comes to collecting figures so it would be a pleasure if you could tell me more things :P i am all ears. hehe.

and please bear with me if i were to ask you any stupid questions :)

btw thats a cute goldfish you have there. i like goldfish. the way they swim is so cute. haha. but i think that little fellow must be lonely sometimes as you only have one goldfish xD

what did you do with the boxes when you take those figures out for display on the shelves?