Anime Oasis 2012 - Part II: Events & Panels, Tea Parties, and What Happened To The Video Game Room?

Continued from Part I...

Events & Panels

Cosplay of the year, all years.

As with any anime convention, there were a lot of events and panels taking place over the course of the convention. Events included cosplay chess inside the main event arena, several Q&A panels with the celebrity guests, battle karaoke, a dating game, an AMV contest, the high society formal, and more. I'm notoriously horrible at going to panels, and it isn't because I think I'll find them boring or anything, it's just that I feel if I'm sitting down in one panel for any length of time I'll be missing things going on throughout the convention that I could be taking pictures of. I'll generally always make an effort to sit in on celebrity Q&A panels, although I've somehow always missed Michael Coleman's due to scheduling conflicts, which is sad because I've heard the guy is legitimately nice and does great interviews. Should he return next year (and odds are he will) I will go out of my way to attend one of his panels and get an interview. And I'll endeavor to make it to a non-celebrity panel if only for a few moments.

Twinsies!

I had the pleasure of sitting in on the majority of Sonny Strait's Q&A panels, which are always a lot of fun. As I mentioned in Part I, Sonny brought his wife Gayla this year, who was able to provide further insight into some questions and pose a few of her own. I actually bumped into Chris Rager sitting near the back during one of Sonny's panels. Chris was a really easy interview, making conversations feel casual and friendly. That's huge with me, as you never want to meet somebody you admire and find out they're a tool bag. Luckily, every celebrity guest I talked to this year was friendly and courteous, and I returned the favor. There are a few rules I have for talking to celebrities that I want pictures with or that I just want to talk to, and I feel that others might benefit from this advice.

1. Never interrupt them while they're eating and ask for a picture.
2. Don't pester them for an interview or pictures while they're talking with their family.
3. If they look like they're in a hurry, they probably are; let them get where they need to go.
4. Don't creep around outside the bathroom to wait for an interview/picture. It's just weird.

Now that that's out of the way, let me shamelessly show off pictures I made famous people take with me:

You rule, Mr. Satan!

Like OMG!

She kept doing her Cammy voice. I may have fanboyed.

Tea Parties

I didn't think I'd end up here either.

I don't remember exactly how I ended up at the gothic lolita themed tea party, but I think it had something to do with me randomly walking around the third floor looking for things to do since the video game room was so lackluster (more on that later). I happened upon the tea party room and thought, "Why not? I'm thirsty and it might be fun". So I popped in and decided to take in some green tea and brownies. We played a few games, too, such as "The Minister's Cat", where the goal is to use one word starting with each letter of the alphabet at least once. My table, proudly titled "Team Mmm Bananas" came up with some interesting descriptions for the poor feline in question.

Fancy gothic lolita ladies.

I chose green tea, and I have to say it was pretty good. You never really know what you're going to get at an anime convention in terms of refreshments, but I have to say the tea was really enjoyable. My choice for the evening was green tea with a bit of lemon and sugar added in. I enjoyed my healthy drink, and proceeded to dash any benefits I might have received from it by immediately shoving a delicious brownie down my craw.

Hard workin' tea ladies.

I had no expectations going into the tea party but I have to say it was a lot of fun. I'll be sure to cover another one of these events next year. Thanks to Steven Barber for making me feel comfortable and welcome in the highly unfamiliar atmosphere of a fancy schmancy tea party.

I guess he couldn't handle the sight of them.

What Happened to the Video Game Room?

At least Samurai Showdown showed up.

Shocking as it might sound, not everyone attends anime conventions for the anime, the cosplay, or the events and panels. Some people attend anime conventions because of the video game rooms, where fighting game tournaments are often held. These tournaments can be attendee run or staff run, and generally have some sort of cash prize or convention bucks to throw out at the winners. Generally these tournaments are played on consoles via a projector or TV donated by an attendee or staff member. In any case, these events are generally a lot of fun and are where I spend the majority of my time downtime during conventions. This year there were no console games to be found, and instead there were arcade cabinets shoved into every corner of the two game rooms. There were some traditional favorites like DDR and some other rhythm/dance games, which I've never really been too keen on.

Don't be fooled by its colorful appearance, this machine is pure evil.

While there were some fighting games present, the majority of them were older games that I didn't hold much interest in. I asked a few staff members why there weren't any more console games, but I never really got a satisfactory answer. I suppose I could have asked Jeremy, the con chairman, but I felt he had enough things to worry about. In any case, the video game room fell short for me this year. I'm not saying there should be a huge variety of every obscure fighting game known to man, but there should always be a few basic hits that everyone enjoys playing: Smash Bros., Marvel vs Capcom 2 or 3, Street Fighter, Tekken, etc. To be fair there was a Tekken Tag Tournament arcade cabinet set up but it's extremely hard to run a tournament off of one arcade cabinet. Along with some good games, the following should be present in every video game room:

Sorry old friend, maybe next year.

- As mentioned before, fighting games: Smash Bros. Melee or Brawl, Marvel 2 or 3, the latest version of Street Fighter IV, the latest Tekken, Soul Calibur, etc.

- Memory cards/HDD's with every character unlocked. Nothing more annoying than having to unlock your favorite character just so you can have some fun.

- Controllers that work properly. I've been to some cons with some egregious controllers that look like they've served a couple tours overseas.

- Fans. Nothing worse than having a gigantic stank cloud hovering around the players.

- Chairs. For those of us with horrific backs, its nice to sit down on occasion.

That's all I ask from a game room. I don't think these are ridiculous requirements/demands, particularly with enough time to prepare.

 Hopefully next year the video game room(s) will get some more attention, but we'll just have to wait and see. On the plus side, I did manage to win a game of NBA Jam against my buddy Mario, smashing the backboard in the process. 'Twas a good feeling, 'twas a good feeling indeed.

Next: Part III - The High Society Formal, Burlesque Show, and Wrap Up.