While I was away from the blog this past weekend, I attended Colossalcon in Sandusky, OH.  Outside of Otakon, this is easily the furthest I travel for a convention, clocking in at about 9 hours.  It’s worth the trip to attend a well run convention which has managed to capture a good venue for the show.  Also, I managed to see a few friends I haven’t seen since January and might not see again until next January.  Anyway, let’s get on to my time at the convention.

My, what big swords you have.

My group and I rolled into the Kalahari parking lot at 4 AM on Friday.  Yes, we’re a little bit crazy for this convention.  We managed to make our way up to our room and get at least a little sleep before the convention started.  The wonderful ladies in the con suite made breakfast, and in fact kept me fed all weekend long, so major props to them for doing a wonderful job.  At about 11 I went down to the con floor to get my badge and start poking around.

I ran into the Yu Yu Hakusho cosplay group, exactly who I wanted to see.  I spent a lot of the weekend hanging out with them.  We all stood around waiting to get into the Dealer’s Room.  They had a lot of variety this year, but nothing which really caught my eye.  I think everyone else I ran with was pleased in some way, because they all picked up merchandise at some point during the weekend.  I guess I’m just cheap and picky about my purchases.

Super-teen extraordinaire! Freakazoid! Freakazoid!

At 3 I had my first of two events for the weekend, the Improv Experiment.  Basically, we try to run what’s known as a Harold.  One person tells a story, and then the cast tries to make scenes riffing on the story.  It’s far harder than it sounds.  It also went far better than we had planned, so I would call it a success.  We should be able to take what we learned from the experience and improve the event for next time we decide to run it.

Afterwards, I did some more hanging out up until it was time for the Friday Cosplay.  On Friday, they do a walkons and then a character portrayal competition, which is honestly something I wish more conventions would do.  Kuwabara stole the show, and pretty much all of Colossalcon at the cosplay.  Then I immediately went on to the Yu Yu Hakusho panel.  They were all cosplayers and ran the panel entirely in character, which I’d say was a pretty cool idea.  It went very well, and hopefully they can get together to do it again at some point.

Unfortunately, Yusuke was busy taking care of little Botan and couldn't attend.

I only went to the rave on Friday this year.  It was all just a bunch of generic techno mixing for the most part, but I was amongst friends so I still enjoyed myself.  They also had a guy playing Star Fox on the projectors, which was fun to watch.  Unfortunately, I managed to hurt my shoulder pretty badly and had to retire from it early.  Fortunately my friends had some very effective painkillers to get me back on my feet, and the next day I was pretty much back to normal for another day at the convention.

Saturday morning I met up with the talented Del Borovic, which added to my merry crew of con friends.  My only real agenda was to perform at Whose Line is it Anime, which is our usual show at conventions.  We played to an almost full room and got a lot of positive feedback on the show.  We also tried out a new game, which I’m calling Plot Twist for now since I can’t remember what it’s actually called.  In it, I have to act out a scene someone else narrates for me, while volunteers shout various plot twists which the narrator immediately has to use.  It’s quite chaotic and makes for some great physical comedy.

Nothing to do with the post. I'm just a NIS fanboy.

I spent the rest of Saturday just milling about meeting up with friends.  I did go down to the water park for a bit, and holy cow does it have a lot of slides.  Unfortunately, a lot of them require at least two people, and Alie couldn’t attend this year so I was a bit limited on options.  I still managed to have a good time though, and hopefully I’ll have more time to spend down there next year.

Late night Saturday went quite chaotically.  First, something triggered the fire alarm in the convention center, so everyone had to evacuate the building.  It was raining and a bit cold, so needless to say everyone was a bit unhappy.  We went back around to the hotel and started to turn in for the night when the tornado sirens blared.  I ran down to gather up my friends and get them all into the basement.  Fortunately, it didn’t go near us and no one at the hotel was injured to my knowledge.  Still, this is the second tornado siren this year, and I don’t want to deal with another one any time soon.

Of course, with Meryl on the job, we were ooooootay.

Finally, I spent Sunday at the Otaku Flea Market.  Again, this is a great idea I wish other conventions would use.  Everyone brings stuff they don’t want anymore to make a few dollars and pass them on to others who do want them.  People brought a little bit of everything: anime, manga, video games, toys, cards, and even some bits of cosplay.  I know my friends managed to collect a sizable chunk of money before the room closed down.  I’d call it a very successful event.  Afterwards, it was time for goodbyes and get on the road for the long trip home.  It’s left me really looking forward to next year’s 10^th anniversary, which promises to be excellent.

Hiei tested, Kurama approved!