Anime Central 2004

By Keith "JC" Hayward

Clocking in at approximately 8200+ attendants, a ton of panels, more catgirls and Vash the Stampede costumes than you could shake a Pocky stick at, and even two Toku panels (one for tokusatsu and another for sentai) Anime Central 2004 was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in recorded history!!!

I’ve been to one geek-convention before. Back in high school my friends and I were hard-core tabletop gamers and since the largest RPG convention was once held in our hometown of Milwaukee, naturally we hit Gen Con every year. But after the second year it lost gas for us. There wasn’t much there that we absolutely needed. Like I said in
another review, tabletop-gaming’s kind of like poker night with your closest friends.
A night that was just for us with lots of laughter and lots of fun. Going to a convention
where people brag about their character sheets and gaming “competitively” was just not
our thing. It was worth it to see my favorite fantasy writer
R.A. Salvatore, for in those days he was pretty much our own personal Jesus and the books he’d written were our high school bible. But that was it. Once we’d gotten our autographs from him and maybe a favorite artist or two… it was time to jump in the car and hit my friends basement and continue the fight for Palledorn as the dark elf, Archer and the barbarian Gareth Stormfury.

Anime Central was another animal all together. In fact,it’s not an animal at all, it’s a monster.

When you want to sum something up best, it usually happens when you’re not
trying. So I’ll leave it up to my friend Radical Brant who had this to say about his experience at this year’s Anime Central (“ACen” for those in the know):

"I just gotta chime in and say that it wasn't all about good looking women
in outlandish outfits. there were plenty of dudes in unbelievably kick-ass costumes that made your jaw drop or your ass fall off from laughing so hard (I love the one of solid snake sneaking up on a solider with a big styrofoam exclamation point
over his head... omfg). It was like State St on Halloween sustained for 2 days.and it wasn't even just all about the costumes. there was tons of cool artwork, breakout sessions on how to draw, how to edit video, basic Japanese culture and language, some frelling hilarious "anime music videos," not to mention a kick ass dance party as the main event. All in all it was about 8000 people who came together to endulge in something
they enjoy and not give a frell about being shamed for it. as i said i'm barely into
anime at all and I was impressed with just the...positivity of everyone and
the whole thing, all the time. Everyone was smiling all the time. Nobody putting
each other down. It was a high energy weekend and fun was at the top of the list,
and that's all that mattered.”

He wrote that in the moment he was in, where he was swept back into a sea of colorful costumes, smiling fans, and all the Pocky you could eat.

Having a job, I wasn’t able to hit ACen for its opening ceremonies on Thursday.
Instead it was Friday that, once my day ended, we hit the road we drove straight to…
Milwaukee, for “Old School Brewer Night” at the Miller Park Stadium. Brant had prior plans already made and since he was my ride, I was in no place to tell him he had to miss it. The Brewers lost as a result of two back to back homeruns, but enjoying an immortal
American pastime full of hot dogs, soda, and hatin’ on the Ref was fun in and of itself. Coolest part had to be seeing Gandalf up on the giant uber-screen roaring, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!" when the opposing team tried to steal a base and failed. It
was about 9pm when the game ended and when Brant and I hit the road.

Straight from Milwaukee we drove down to Chicago shooting the breeze, reading from our Mapquest printout and then arriving at a desolate and very unremarkable Hyatt. Our first impressions of the much-vaunted Anime Central were pretty underwhelming to say the least. It was quiet, very quiet. Not a fan in sight and a few people who looked like they’d just gotten into town for a business meeting. Still… it was, like, almost midnight by time we arrived, so it was understandable.

It was more understandable when we found out that we were at the wrong Hyatt.

With the right instructions now, we headed down the road to a Hyatt about six times
as large and it was overflowing with fanboys and girls in a virtual kaleidoscope
of psychedelic costumes!!! Catgirls, Naruto ninjas, guys in Vash the Stampede gear and a heckuva lot of Inuyasha characters!

“Now this is more like it!” said Brant.

So in we went, our eyes wide, our hearts a flutter and just beholding all the laughing and smiling faces in and out of costume. Walking by a guy in a cat-costume and holding a “Neko” sign even spotted my unremarkable Aqua Teen Hunger Force t-shirt and said, “Hey! Ignignot! Where’s Er!?”

And this is around midnight!

A Japan Access board member who’s an old pro at this sort of event told me that sleep is
not much of an option at a good Con. Basically, what you get is a 72 hour fanboy party where sometimes you slept. And with the maximum 4 hours of sleep we got while at ACen, he wasn’t joking

By time we got there an event called, Anime Hell was in full swing. We didn’t make
it for registration, but were able to slip in anyway to check it out. The convention hall
was packed with uncountable masses. All eyes were forward on the three screens, which showed a several hour presentation with Con Staff commentary on some of the most cracked out things the Asian and American cultures had to offer. Included was the horrifying Faux-Sailor Moon (The Saban Nightmare) that almost hit the airwaves, some G.I. Joe public service annoucments and some G.I. Joe public service announcements…
on crack, some live action Chinese produced Dragon Ball Z, Korean DBZ (not as bad as the Korean Batman, that Jeff scared us all with, but in their version Saiyans and Androids just didn’t cut it… they added super robots!!!), and one more clip of note was of this Kung Fu flick   where a guy got seriously pissed off, screamed into the air Super Saiyan
style and his shirt that was animated on (…and badly) splintered off him and into the air! Hey, now that I remember it, they even showed some of the live-action Spider-Man.

While there and enjoying the “Hell” of Anime, a tall figure swooped past me in a
Miroku costume. I got up to chase him, cuz he’d shown me his picture before and it turned out to be none other than our resident Access troublemaker, Mega Ranger. Meeting a face in person that you’ve laughed and buddied with online is an experience like none other. This complete stranger you’ve never actually met before is just instantly recognizable. After finding him, I attempted to go back for my friend who was still in Hell, but this time around they laid down the law and wouldn’t let me back in. No worries though, Mega Ranger was fully already registered and snagged Brant.

From there we went on to behold another facet of the Anime Con: the hotel room “parties.” What Brant and I experienced was a bit different than what we’re used to. We went to check out this other room which had a sign saying, “Just come on in!” The room was dark and alien. We saw faces in the shadows that welcomed us, but it just didn’t feel right walking into a complete strangers room, we didn’t care if they were playing a kung-fu flick on the wall with a projector camera or not. We bolted out of there in short order. The other one was Mega Ranger’s room, which was cool. All his hometown buds just hanging out, watching GranSazer/Seizer/Popscicle, and just chillin’ in general. That was cool.

Our first night ended sometime around three in the morning to our surprise. And even then there was just even more to do and experience. Anime Hell was still rockin’ and just being out in the lobby watching all the costumes go by was more than fun enough, but I had to hit the Tokusatsu panel the next day so we headed back to my friend who lives in Chicago’s place and crashed. He was a real sport about it. I don’t think he could’ve been made too happy with us coming back to his place to wake him up at 3:30 in the morning. Thanks, Ryan!

The next day we rolled out at 9:45 or so. It was a bit of a trip from Chicago, back out to
Rosemont, but with a bit of running, scrambling, and going form Help Desk to the Press Room, back the Help Desk, back down to the Press Room and then employing the help of an ACen Staff member I was able to score our passes for the evening and make it to the Tokusatsu panel with time to spare.

Hosting the Tokusatsu panel was Access members, Topher and DaveZ, the latter of which was one of the guys behind Anime Central 2004. I was asked to join the panel as was Mega Ranger, but the presentation that Topher and DaveZ already lined up had just about everything ever needed tied down, so I mainly stood by and tried to look pretty.

Their presentation was incredible and a HELL of a lot of fun. Mega Ranger and I even learned a thing or two, such as the show that the White Kakuranger was on before Kakuranger was a kind of Magical Girl show crossed over with ninjas. Her co-stars on the show even came onto Kakuranger as a homage to this show who’s name slips my mind, but maybe Jeff can put in an Editor’s Note here: (I think Keith is talking about Shu Shu Trian) once he posts this up.

We saw a ton of things we’d never knew existed and were starving for more!

After that was the Q & A session where Topher and DaveZ also stole the show. I think I was allowed to answer maybe one question. :P

Like with meeting Mega Ranger and his friends, Topher and DaveZ were both awesome guys. It’s rare, if pretty much never, that I actually get to meet anyone who’s into Tokusatsu or Power Rangers as much as I am and it’s such a breath of fresh air to be able to talk intelligently with others about shows that normally gets me strange looks.

As much fun as I was having kicking it with the Heroes of the Access, there was still much to be seen and more pictures to be taken! After a couple more handshakes and respectful well wishes, Brant and I headed out into the vast undulating colorful costumed sea of the Convention to take more pictures. Our destination: The Dealer’s Room.

On our way there, I saw some of my favorite costumes of the convention. There were the Poke` Pimps, the once unknown to me PEPSI MAAAAAN (who’s unseen in America commercials can be seen here), and inside we got to see Solid Snake and a surprised guard; complete with Styrofoam exclamationpoint on top of his noggin! The Dealer’s Room is where all the biggest anime companies and their enigmatic reps reside. Them and other dealers who sell lots of rare schwag you can’t find anywhere else save for the internet or somewhere deep within your local China-town. Inside we saw this gal sporting a Nadia costume, from one of Jeff’s favorite anime, Nadia – Secret of Blue Water.

Nothing caught my eye and I wasn’t much on spending money. I did pick up the final issue of my beloved manga series, Love Hina tho. One last story with my buddy Keitaro and one thousand fan service shots. It was a helluva ride and now I’m reading the creator, Ken Akumatsu’s next joint, Negima, which basically is just like Harry Potter’s world, with a Love Hina spin on it. So far not as good, but it has potential.

One thing Anime Central was severely lacking was enough places to score decently priced food. If someone had themselves a hot dog vending cart or some kinda Truck o’ Food Stuffs, they’d make a serious killing. One morning there was over priced sandwich and fruits, but that was it and swiftly it disappeared. What the folk of ACen are kind enough to do is in their schedule brochure there’s a map to a bunch of food joints within a few mile radius. Feeling like Mexican we hit a restaurant not too far away and had some of the best chimichangas and steak fajitas that we’d ever had the pleasure to mow upon. Washing that down with some insanely tasty mango margaritas, we were ready to hit the con once again.

Let’s see…. upon our return we too even MORE pictures. The favorites of that batch
had to be the Guilty Gear Girls, Naruto and Trigun photo shoots, the Battle Royale gals, Excel Saga Chicks, Dark Vash, the guy in my avatar, K’, Aysha Clan Clan from Outlaw Star, and the Kiss for a Dollar Girl. Not to mention plenty of others that you can find in the Japan Hero Cosplay Gallery (which doesn't exist currently, but if we bug Jeff enough, maybe he'll hook us up with a genuine Japan Hero Cosplay Gallery.) I’d say the most popular costume for men had to be Vash the Stampede, where as the costumes most worn by women were Final Fantasy X-2 gear, in particular the character know as Rikku. But everyone be they in costume or not had themselves a Naruto headband.

There were lots of rooms to steal away in to see a multitude of panels and whatnot. One of these dark rooms we found ourselves resting in was showing what’s called, AMV’s or Anime Music Videos. Alas, among the ton of other awesome things we missed we also missed the Anime Music Video Contest. But worry not, young squire and squire-ettes, contest entries and winners have been posted up over here and even more at AnimeMusicVideos.Org. Two tho caught my attention that were far and away some of the best I’ve ever seen! I think they may have been entries or winners from the previous year, but for your viewing pleasure I’ve posted up:

"Crazy Ass Violence" Golden Boy	"Gotta Have Faith"

The CAV video has clips from more than 30 different anime, all perfectly timed and selected, and down to its last second, the Golden Boy video will have you dying of laughter, so for both make sure you don’t blink!

Heh, just before the Masquerade we found our way to one of the many educational panels that were held at the Con in addition to the ones I sat at. So many were held at once, that it’s virtually impossible to hit them all, but the fact that there are so many and that your options are open is wonderfully overwhelming. The one I went to will have to go unmentioned and if you were there on Saturday you’ll more than likely know why it has to go unmentioned. But for all it’s snicker value, the biggest surprise was how maturely it was run and how actually educational it was, academically and historically! With the lights turned down low so that the projector image was more clear, Brant and
I slipped away in the darkness to make sure we had good seats for the Masquerade Contest.

The Cosplay Pageant was a-friggin’-mazing. This is where all the best of the best costumes came up on stage to strut their stuff and although the vast majority of contestants were not only in full costume, but also in character! Even if your costume wasn’t badass, what was beautiful was that everyone got enthusiastic applause for the mere fact that they had the courage to go up on stage and smile. And afterward followed some incredibly creative skits, including some Star Ocean character who sung a song that had to be heard to be believed. I laughed so hard my throat began to hurt and a good number of skits did this to the audience. There were an unfortunate few that while they might have had a good idea, the concentration it took to stay in character and brave an audience was just too much for some actors to be able to speak into the mike properly so that we could hear their lines. This would draw the audience of thousand to shout, “WHAT!?!?!?” and laughter. But what was nice was that even at the end of this unfortunate skit they still got a round of sincere and enthusiastic applause.

This pageant lasted forever, but it never really got old as you found yourself on the edge
your seat, eagerly awaiting the next outlandish and frighteningly detailed costume or what crazy idea someone would come up with for the next skit!

Afterwards, ACen attendees left the hall so that the DJ could set up and chairs could be
cleared for the ensuing ACen Rave.

While waiting my team and I decided to hang out with some of the Contest Judges for the pageant. One of them was, Access member and speaker at the Toku and Sentai panels, Topher and the other happened to be famous voice actor, Scott McNeil! They told us how it killed them that they had to only choose a few costumes out of all the outstanding ones they’d seen throughout the night. What’s important to note, if you’re out there anywhere, is that the woman who portrayed the Dirty Pair Agent complete with Jim Henson quality Moogie was in fact suppose to get a well earned award and they were really down on themselves for only remembering it after the fact. So, if anyone knows her, let her know that she did not go unrecognized. It just came too late.

The dance was a jam and a half. Smoke, lasers, and plenty of dancers in and out of costume filled the dance floor to rock the night away. Got a couple pictures that don’t do it full justice, which include Spinny Light Things Girl, the break dancer , and Sailor Saturn
who I mistook for Dark Mercury when I met her… gomen! ^_^ And I gotta give it up to Asuka Langley Soryu and Rei Ayanami in “gym gear”. Oy. I even by chance ran into a fellow that I’ve known for almost a decade now, but
never met in person. TylerL of the oft referenced and linked, Toonami Digital Arsenal.

So we danced and danced, rested and danced some more. Met cool people, hung out, and took a load off at Mega Ranger’s hotel room where we turned up the geek to “warp factor 7” as we found ourselves arguing over Star Trek, and went back to get our respective grooves and dances on until, fueled only by the atmosphere alone that kept us all smiling and laughing, we realized it had turned 4 in the freakin’ morning! If we didn’t have another panel to hit the next day and had a place to crash, we no doubt would’ve just kept partying ‘til dawn and into the next day. I mean, you didn’t even have to dance really. Simply just watching the costumes walk by was easily entertainment! I mean check out this guy. I mean, if that’s not entertainment enough, I don’t know what is.

So we rolled out again, back to my friend’s pad where we woke him up again at 4:30 in the morning with a shower of apologies and then proceed to grab about…. 4-5 hours of sleep before we were back on the road to close out our time a Anime Central 2004.

The Sentai Panel that morning was not unlike the Tokusatsu Panel, but with the added advertisement that it was Power Ranger related, even more people showed up. Not many know what the word “Tokusatsu” means, but there’s not a person on planet Earth now that doesn’t know the name, Power Rangers. This presentation, once again held by DaveZ and Topher, with Mega Ranger and I standing by to give “look pretty” support. The presentation was tight, and I mean that in both the slang sense and that it was focused on just the one franchise versus the Toku Panel where all manner of show
was featured along with some Sentai. More things were learned, such as after seeing clips on some rival martial arts assassin to Ryu, DaiRanger has become the Sentai series I most want to see. I won’t spoil it for you, but there’s a villain in this series that does something that made the whole room’s jaw drop. There’s evil… and then there’s this guy. This DaiRanger side-villian (he’s not even a major villain! He’s a walking badass subplot who even the major villains fear) is on another level and doesn’t have the excuse that, well, he’s a demon. No, he’s human, and just happens to be as ruthless as any supernatural demon in the multi-verse. Big thanks go out to Topher and DaveZ for their excellent presentations and I look forward to next years, which I hope we can make even bigger, better, and maybe even actually be able to say something this time. ^_-

And that was it. It broke my heart to leave this Otaku Utopia where everyone was groovy and cool and excellent to one another. This world were people, besides me, said words like, “Nani?”,“Gomen…” and “Sugoi!!!” Brant had duties to attend to back in Madison, so we weren’t able to see the closing ceremonies. With a brief stop down to the Dealers Room where I scored myself a “ Know Your Roots t-shirt and a Kingdom Hearts poster for a friend, we rolled out, soaking in as many glorious smiles and costumes we could before the waking dream finally came to an end.

Anime Central 2004 was a blast! I met great and fun people, was able to meet in person
faces I’ve known for years online, and just immerse myself in a world of the greatest collection of otaku geeks this side of the reality wall between the real world and the internet. And that’s what it was like. Think of your favorite internet message board haunts where the posters are polite, creative, and into all the same weird things you’re into, complete with people who were walking avatars and sig pics and that’s what you get at Anime Central.

I’d like to thank the ACen Staff for having Japan Hero attend this year’s festivities. So, after having “seen it all” like a Gen Con convention where once is pretty much enough? Do I really need to do this again at Anime Central in 2005?

Oh, helllllll yeah , I do!

See you all next year! ^_^\/

Keith "JC" Hayward

Unofficial Japan Hero Cosplay Gallery
Anime Central - Japan Access Talkback