Anime North 2006: Report = big dissapoinment?
hmm... lets see this weekend spent my time at Anime North 2006, and what do you know its celebrating its 10th anniversary... so yay and congrats... but now having finish attending it ... GAH it was one big dissapointment.
I guess the most pressing would be with volunteers and the general operation/logistics of many live events that have occured today.
Fri = Self imposed torture?
Personally I find the volunteers this year incredibly rude... Many of us people have absolutely no clue when things are happening, say for instance the many passes for the events (Kotoko, Masquerade, JRock) and the mere fact that we all understand the idea of first come first serve, means, first come first serve, hence line ups always form really early.. . instead we are always yelled at and treated badly for stuff many of us were never told of what was happening, and if we were told, it was seriously misinformed as we were constantly given wrong information at times and then yelled at later to disperse etc. (at the threat of having our con passes taken from us... sheash). Anyways Friday was basically a day of lining up to get passes for me (though i had to do it again the next day) as I had to obviously.. a) get my passes for myself (con, Kotoko, Masquerade, and JRock on the next day) and then repeat everything for all my friends who weren't there yet... ah well watse of a day perhaps? but i'm doing this for friends and don't really mind.. I get to meet people afterall and have random chats, despite having volunteers barking at you...
When i did finally get the passes taken care of, I went to dealers rom and what luck after about 5-10 min i had found Kotoko's 1st album "Hane" (wait a moment I thought these were not supposed to be on sale, and were being released 1 month from now...) ah well bought it, rushed over to the autograph area in the hotel, and lined up as much as i needed to get the Cd book, and cd signed (wow there was like no lineup either...).
Sat = VERY VERY BAD DAY
So we have the ANAL volunteers, and then on Sat we had the J-Star competition (which my friend was competing in), the Kotoko concert, and the masquerade. Essentially it was a day of lining up, and who monitors these lines.. OOO more ANAL volunteers. hmm it got to the point where it felt that the con has become a police state. The age old request from companies and artists (ie Geneon/Kotoko) to not take photographs etc, placed under the control of ANAL volunteers = bag checks, metal detectors, escorts to the washroom (what we hid a weapon/camera in the washroom??), and when the concert finally did begin... what did i get? heh it seems i've been lining up for many hours just to hear Kotoko's band and not her, not to mention because of the stupid mosh pit and the insane amounts of passes that were handed out, i didn't get to see her much at all (had to rely on the side video screens). Yes so basically her band overpowered her, and thus we were barely able to hear anything, and because it was so loud everyone walked out of the concert not quite satisfied (unless theu enjoy going deaf and not even hearing much from the vocalist when she was singing) and VERY deaf.
Hmm the biggest one was the case of the missing child... this occured while we were lining up for the masquerade. basically a little girl disappeared and obviously parents became worried. However this was the response of the volunteers "SIT DOWN/GET DOWN" and you see the volunteers running through the crowds forcing everyone down... and then they chased every single person that was wandering the halls not knowing what was happening... in fact practically all of us didn't know... anyways basically the hotel was now placed into "LOCKDOWN" mode, and NO ONE was allowed to move about... Now this is what i find stupid.. If the kid is missing and in worst case scenario kidnapped... is anyone seriously gonna find her by putting the hotel into lockdown while everyone that was outside remains free to wander... So what your telling me is just because we're in the hotel... then we're the obvious criminals here?? and that the criminals would not be smart enough to leave the place after commiting a crime??anyways to make a long story short.. a little kid (not the missing one) had to go pee, and another guy realising that hey we could go pee afterall (ANAL volunteers really scare us afterall and stress us out, on condition of being personally escorted to the washroom by the volunteer). less then a minute later we were told the child was found etc etc... reason? the girl was in the washroom all the time (guys washroom), and was only discovered when the aforementioned kid/guy went to the washroom... so in my view.. a) Volunteers can't do JACK, and b) they seriously did not handle the situation properly, afterall if one thinks about it, what is the purpose of these "Amber Alerts" that the police releases? to inform the public so we could all go and help find the child... However this wasn't the case, and in fact we were treated very rudely and poorly instead, when if they had simply and in a obviously non-joking manner could have told us about the child and requested us all to keep an eye out... hey to make matters worse this all occured in a PUBLIC Hotel... last i checked not everyone here is a Convention attendee... and as i said EVERYONE was chased down, and no one was allowed in or out.. I wonder how this will affect business and the future for the con at this particular hotel.
So once this extremely stupid affair had ended we were then allowed into the room for the masquerade... sigh so many hours of lining up in ths sun, then being packed like sardines, and then being treated like hmm in prison :P. we ended having to wait even longer, because due to the lockdown all the performers had not yet prepared their skits etc... (like err volunteers couldn't you have escorted them up to the room where they could prepare for this?? instead of forcing them onto the floor because of your rude stupidity? Man with all this distraction i'm quite certain at least the sound crew would have gotten things right and perfected since they got so much time now, but instead when the masquerade finally did start, for those performers that were smart enough to bring in cds, a number of them didn't have the cds running at all, we ended up having people standing on stage for a very long time looking like an idiot (as they aren't given mikes at all, hence the need for pre-prepared audio cds)
So yes basically my entire day was wasted in lineups for events that took hours to start (everything was like 40min-1.5 hr late from starting and even more in some cases...). Volunteers were always ANAL and barking up your rear, and treating us VERY VERY badly, and everything didn't run the way it should (which is very rude for the performers or the people who were supposed to be taken care of by whatever...)
Sun = Much better day
YES I didn't see those Anal volunteers from the day previous at all... (well actually i did see one but he was going walking away to another area... whew). Finally got a proper walk about of the dealers room, and artist alley. Had to question the guys from Crumpled Paper (UoT engineer magazine publication) as to why i didn't see any publications at all this past year... and bought something off my friend. Then off to lining up so my friends could get Kotoko's autogrpahs... wow... how a few days changes the atitude here LOL... all my autogrpahs were personally signed to me, and people were allowed photos... however today they forbid any photography at all, and obviously due to the many many people trying to get autographs no "To mark... etc" addition was added to the autographs... During this time i chatted with my friend and the volunteers, and the volunteer agreed that i was a smart person for getting everything done on the first day :P (yay a nice volunteer LOL). After this we got into the J-Rock Concert, which also started pathetically late (heck according to the schedule it should have ended just an hour before the convention ended, instead when the con ended, they probaly were still on the 2nd of 3 bands? I wouldn't know I left to do a final wandering of the dealers room with friends...). Oh and by the end of the day I had at leats 2 people come up to me thinking I was cosplaying Prince Of Tennis (you know that blue sport jacket of mine? had it tied around my wasit and everyone thought it belonged to POT)
Anyways if they could have someone taken out those draconian laws that the volunteers (well the ANAL ones anyways) seem to worship, and that things worked properly, and they did everything on time.. then I would easily say it was a good con, however it didn't. The only bright side to it all is that i saw many many friends from high school, and I got to spend a lot of time with my "convention friends" due to being stuck in line forever...
Oh and to end this... my total spending for the entire con (including food) I estimate to total to be about $75-80 (mostly going to food and the registration pass) hey afterall... for manga/anime hey your paying alot for cable... dl it for free. for Models/figurines... hmm expensive and end up taking space, posters = only if the guest of honor is related to it (and that i get it autogrpahed, elsewise no) and toys/keychains etc once you buy soemthing, its only best if you have the set etc...
bah.. I think this ended up being very very long... sorry about it... It could have been longer though so be happy :p.
I guess the most pressing would be with volunteers and the general operation/logistics of many live events that have occured today.
Fri = Self imposed torture?
Personally I find the volunteers this year incredibly rude... Many of us people have absolutely no clue when things are happening, say for instance the many passes for the events (Kotoko, Masquerade, JRock) and the mere fact that we all understand the idea of first come first serve, means, first come first serve, hence line ups always form really early.. . instead we are always yelled at and treated badly for stuff many of us were never told of what was happening, and if we were told, it was seriously misinformed as we were constantly given wrong information at times and then yelled at later to disperse etc. (at the threat of having our con passes taken from us... sheash). Anyways Friday was basically a day of lining up to get passes for me (though i had to do it again the next day) as I had to obviously.. a) get my passes for myself (con, Kotoko, Masquerade, and JRock on the next day) and then repeat everything for all my friends who weren't there yet... ah well watse of a day perhaps? but i'm doing this for friends and don't really mind.. I get to meet people afterall and have random chats, despite having volunteers barking at you...
When i did finally get the passes taken care of, I went to dealers rom and what luck after about 5-10 min i had found Kotoko's 1st album "Hane" (wait a moment I thought these were not supposed to be on sale, and were being released 1 month from now...) ah well bought it, rushed over to the autograph area in the hotel, and lined up as much as i needed to get the Cd book, and cd signed (wow there was like no lineup either...).
Sat = VERY VERY BAD DAY
So we have the ANAL volunteers, and then on Sat we had the J-Star competition (which my friend was competing in), the Kotoko concert, and the masquerade. Essentially it was a day of lining up, and who monitors these lines.. OOO more ANAL volunteers. hmm it got to the point where it felt that the con has become a police state. The age old request from companies and artists (ie Geneon/Kotoko) to not take photographs etc, placed under the control of ANAL volunteers = bag checks, metal detectors, escorts to the washroom (what we hid a weapon/camera in the washroom??), and when the concert finally did begin... what did i get? heh it seems i've been lining up for many hours just to hear Kotoko's band and not her, not to mention because of the stupid mosh pit and the insane amounts of passes that were handed out, i didn't get to see her much at all (had to rely on the side video screens). Yes so basically her band overpowered her, and thus we were barely able to hear anything, and because it was so loud everyone walked out of the concert not quite satisfied (unless theu enjoy going deaf and not even hearing much from the vocalist when she was singing) and VERY deaf.
Hmm the biggest one was the case of the missing child... this occured while we were lining up for the masquerade. basically a little girl disappeared and obviously parents became worried. However this was the response of the volunteers "SIT DOWN/GET DOWN" and you see the volunteers running through the crowds forcing everyone down... and then they chased every single person that was wandering the halls not knowing what was happening... in fact practically all of us didn't know... anyways basically the hotel was now placed into "LOCKDOWN" mode, and NO ONE was allowed to move about... Now this is what i find stupid.. If the kid is missing and in worst case scenario kidnapped... is anyone seriously gonna find her by putting the hotel into lockdown while everyone that was outside remains free to wander... So what your telling me is just because we're in the hotel... then we're the obvious criminals here?? and that the criminals would not be smart enough to leave the place after commiting a crime??anyways to make a long story short.. a little kid (not the missing one) had to go pee, and another guy realising that hey we could go pee afterall (ANAL volunteers really scare us afterall and stress us out, on condition of being personally escorted to the washroom by the volunteer). less then a minute later we were told the child was found etc etc... reason? the girl was in the washroom all the time (guys washroom), and was only discovered when the aforementioned kid/guy went to the washroom... so in my view.. a) Volunteers can't do JACK, and b) they seriously did not handle the situation properly, afterall if one thinks about it, what is the purpose of these "Amber Alerts" that the police releases? to inform the public so we could all go and help find the child... However this wasn't the case, and in fact we were treated very rudely and poorly instead, when if they had simply and in a obviously non-joking manner could have told us about the child and requested us all to keep an eye out... hey to make matters worse this all occured in a PUBLIC Hotel... last i checked not everyone here is a Convention attendee... and as i said EVERYONE was chased down, and no one was allowed in or out.. I wonder how this will affect business and the future for the con at this particular hotel.
So once this extremely stupid affair had ended we were then allowed into the room for the masquerade... sigh so many hours of lining up in ths sun, then being packed like sardines, and then being treated like hmm in prison :P. we ended having to wait even longer, because due to the lockdown all the performers had not yet prepared their skits etc... (like err volunteers couldn't you have escorted them up to the room where they could prepare for this?? instead of forcing them onto the floor because of your rude stupidity? Man with all this distraction i'm quite certain at least the sound crew would have gotten things right and perfected since they got so much time now, but instead when the masquerade finally did start, for those performers that were smart enough to bring in cds, a number of them didn't have the cds running at all, we ended up having people standing on stage for a very long time looking like an idiot (as they aren't given mikes at all, hence the need for pre-prepared audio cds)
So yes basically my entire day was wasted in lineups for events that took hours to start (everything was like 40min-1.5 hr late from starting and even more in some cases...). Volunteers were always ANAL and barking up your rear, and treating us VERY VERY badly, and everything didn't run the way it should (which is very rude for the performers or the people who were supposed to be taken care of by whatever...)
Sun = Much better day
YES I didn't see those Anal volunteers from the day previous at all... (well actually i did see one but he was going walking away to another area... whew). Finally got a proper walk about of the dealers room, and artist alley. Had to question the guys from Crumpled Paper (UoT engineer magazine publication) as to why i didn't see any publications at all this past year... and bought something off my friend. Then off to lining up so my friends could get Kotoko's autogrpahs... wow... how a few days changes the atitude here LOL... all my autogrpahs were personally signed to me, and people were allowed photos... however today they forbid any photography at all, and obviously due to the many many people trying to get autographs no "To mark... etc" addition was added to the autographs... During this time i chatted with my friend and the volunteers, and the volunteer agreed that i was a smart person for getting everything done on the first day :P (yay a nice volunteer LOL). After this we got into the J-Rock Concert, which also started pathetically late (heck according to the schedule it should have ended just an hour before the convention ended, instead when the con ended, they probaly were still on the 2nd of 3 bands? I wouldn't know I left to do a final wandering of the dealers room with friends...). Oh and by the end of the day I had at leats 2 people come up to me thinking I was cosplaying Prince Of Tennis (you know that blue sport jacket of mine? had it tied around my wasit and everyone thought it belonged to POT)
Anyways if they could have someone taken out those draconian laws that the volunteers (well the ANAL ones anyways) seem to worship, and that things worked properly, and they did everything on time.. then I would easily say it was a good con, however it didn't. The only bright side to it all is that i saw many many friends from high school, and I got to spend a lot of time with my "convention friends" due to being stuck in line forever...
Oh and to end this... my total spending for the entire con (including food) I estimate to total to be about $75-80 (mostly going to food and the registration pass) hey afterall... for manga/anime hey your paying alot for cable... dl it for free. for Models/figurines... hmm expensive and end up taking space, posters = only if the guest of honor is related to it (and that i get it autogrpahed, elsewise no) and toys/keychains etc once you buy soemthing, its only best if you have the set etc...
bah.. I think this ended up being very very long... sorry about it... It could have been longer though so be happy :p.
posted by dragonlord at 11:55 PM
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