Anime Park 2012 Recap

I say, I must be getting old! I'm just now recovering from a ONE DAY convention I attended last Saturday called "ANIME PARK".

For those not in the know, it took place at my old High School known as "Plymouth Canton Educational Park" or PCEP for short. And yes, it is as big as it's name sounds. It's composed of now 3 buildings plus one extra band/sports building. We did indeed walk between buildings for classes, and in essence it was like a mini-college campus (we even had catalog sized books to pick classes from). When I was there, it had about 5,000+ people, and I'm sure that's increased since then.

I loved my high school. It was so big you could find friends ANYWHERE and with ANYTHING. In my senior year, we finally founded an Anime Club (and I recall watching Card Captor Sakura fansubs down in a classroom in a side hallway with like 8 other people). Since that time, it's apparently grown to 60ish plus people, which is AWESOME.

So they had the idea to put on a convention for a single day at one of the buildings. For a first year con, I'll have to give em props for doing quite well!

Long booth is long!

Dave and I woke up at the crack of dawn. Literally. We were up at like 6 am prepping our costumes (I finally decided on Zero), and filling the car. Ech. I much prefer getting there the day before, but it's so close, it'd be silly to do so. That and the building wasn't available for set up the night before.

We got into the area around 8:30ish (we stopped for breakfast and things), and wheeled our carts in to get set up. It was a small, quaint alley and for once, I had the "tallest" set up. We were spread out down a side hallway, and we chose a booth near a hallway and the door to the outside, which was GREAT.

I think I was talking when this pic was snapped, but I still like how it looks.

We met up with Sil early on too, and she helped us set up as an unofficial boothmate/helper/photographer/general heckler. She took like, all the photos here.

The vendor hall was set up in the cafeteria, and they filled in all the space, which was great!

I can't really do a play by play, since it was just one day, but here's some highlights:

• I knew a couple of the artists on the list, but only one I knew showed up. I knew one was missing due to scheduling conflicts, but I don't know where the others were! I was sad! :( 

• Met new artists down the alley, and they certainly had the right way of thinking and I could see em growing in further years. :)

Shiny colors....

• No annoying music from booths this time, but they DID set up some sort of Vocaloid game in front of our booth. It's some sort of rhythm game set up like Elite Beat Agents, or Ouendan, and it was MEAN. But I did enjoy the smattering of music (nothing too annoying to me), and they were courteous enough to keep the volume to a pleasant level so I can still talk with customers.
  
  And it brought people down the hall near my booth, so I couldn't really complain.

Drawing. It's what I do.
Along with drinking lots of Dr. Pepper.

...

Lots.

• Did a few commissions, which was fun!

• Lasted till about 6 pm, when we were all tired, and then packed up and went home.

• I actually bought a couple of things while I was there - I picked up a couple of blind box Madoka Magica figures (one of my new obsessions - GO WATCH IT).
  
  Managed to accidentally get the super special hidden figure. Yay me! They're so pretty. I want to get the rest of em for my art cave (once we move again).

Why yes, I do dance at my booth, why do you ask?

Got home. Went unconscious. The End.

Overall Thoughts

For it being run by a high school club, I did not have high expectations. But I was very pleased with how it went (organiziation, WHAT? No way). My booth was inexpensive (I made it all back plus gas money and a little profit), and the clientele was pretty friendly for being anime kids. (Sometimes it's a gamble).

I gave em a few tips and ideas on what to do/change for next year, so hopefully they'll remember! Namely, please don't make it on the weekend of ACEN next year.

Would definitely go back again next year if I'm in the area.

Next up... JAFAX! And a bunch of cosplay and artwork I need to work on. I'll probably talk about that for a while if I don't touch my "How to Artist Alley" or decide to post a rant anywhere.