Auckland Armageddon 06 wrap up

It’s been a week since Auckland Armageddon 06, and it’s only now that I feel even up to writing about it. Physically and mentally I’ve been exhausted. Still tierd, but I’ve got the urge to write, so write I will.
Be warned, long rambling entry coming up…

The Friday was, interesting. My friend Jen and I spent most of the day traipsing up and down Queen Street. Unfortunately I’m not much of a window shopper, but because Jen lives in Wellington, I put up with it… at the detriment of my poor feet. We did over 10km of walking that day, from about 11AM to 5PM ~_~

We also went into the Aotea Centre to check out the convention set up. It was really cool to watch all the stalls go up, and see the merchandise they had on hand. Ended up buying 3 figurines from the Pulsar Max stall, and meeting a woman I hadn’t seen in years. Natasha was someone I met years ago when she joined the Auckland Anime Club. She became a huge fan of anime and each Armageddon would buy up quite a bit from the Madman stall, so it was both to my surprise, and pleasure, to see that she was now working for them! Most definately glad she is there, they need someone who is a fan, and understands fans.

They were busy setting the stall up, but were kind enough to let us wander around and see the stock they had. They mentioned this year that they hadn’t brought all their stock, because in previous years they’d always had to take so much back. While it was disapointing that I couldn’t get some of the titles I wanted to get, I totally understand why they did it that way.

We met up with our mutual friend Helen for dinner at 5ish *grins* and she was thoroughly amused at how Jen had run me to the ground; unfortunately by the end of the day I was feeling rather uncharitable with the world, especially since I had been served the worst Chicken Donburi I have ever had – too much pepper and chicken so dry, not even soaking it in miso soup could help. Ended up dumping it back at the Japanese food stall at the IMAX and venting my displeasure; before going and getting a Jester’s pie.
Mmmm Kentucky Delight, custard and berries ^___^

We did visit an awesome shop called Beadbox though, and I ended up buying a lovely bracelet with matching earrings, as well as an assortment of beads. I need to learn how to make jewellery so I can make the bracelet I had in mind.
They had a cute little tortoise pendant that I had to buy, even though I can’t see myself wearing it *grins* I love tortoises, just in case you didn’t know.

Early Saturday morning all five of us, Jen, Helen, Nadea, Matt and I, met outside the Aotea Centre at 8AM, and entered the convention centre. Naturally we made a bee-line for the Graphic Novel Cafe (GNC) stall.
Unfortunately this year I was really disapointed by what they had. Most of their stock was stuff they had had in their store for some time, nothing really new. I had already visited their store on two occasions several days before the convention, just to get what I wanted without having fear of it being sold at the convention (stuff that had by in large been in their shop for some time already.) I even asked on the Thursday whether they had anything that I hadn’t seen, and apart from an artbook (which I bought) not much else.
I was really really hoping the GNC would have new stuff on show at the convention itself. Quite a few people have mentioned their disapointment to me (both in the lack of new stock, and the cost of items); especially since there were no other real “anime/manga” stores attending the convention. I had advised Seong 3 months in advance that he’d be the only one, so to stock up, but mreh *shrugs*
Nadea, Matt and I ended up buying cat ears from the GNC, and we’re glad we did because apparently those sold out fast and there were quite a number of people wanting to buy XDAfter that, it was straight to the Madman Entertainment stall.
Heh, they hadn’t fully set up yet, but once I started hitting them with the stuff I wanted; they were good enough to just set it aside in a big pile until I was done. As Nadea put it “The pile was about 4 feet high from the ground!”
A tally, and that was an instant spend of NZ$680.
Disapointing really, I had hoped to buy much much more.

Don’t be fooled btw, this will be the first time that I’ve ever bought anime in such a big bulk lot. I haven’t really been watching much anime in the last two years or so, preferring to spend my money buying managa, artbooks and merchandise. So this was really me playing catch up. It makes sense to do it at Armageddon as well, so much cheaper!

From there we just wandered around. I bought a wooden sword from the Medieval Shop, as I have been trying to for the last 3 years, but either they’d sold out or I’d forget and remember too late. Remind me to never again give Jen sharp pointy objects *grins and sticks tongue out at Jen.*
We also did the Beanie Baby treasure hunt, which was quite amusing because there were 5 of us hunting these things, and we’re supposed to be “mature adults” XD
Ah, I am glad myself and my friends are still in touch with the inner child.

After checking the entire convention out, we went to Borders and browsed for a bit, before bidding Matt goodbye and grabbing lunch at the Mezze. Mmmm such good food, and a great atmosphere too! A big thanks to Wong for introducing me to it.
After that, we headed up to work so I could show Jen and Nadea where I work (and the massive 50 inch high definition projector television) before we drove to my house.

Anime Music Video (AMV) judging, and much pigging out on bad bad food XD
I’ll tell you what though, I was just a tad disapointed at this year’s entries for the AMV competition. Most of the entries were mediocre at best, one was a complete rip off of existing ad material for the game in question, and only four really stood out, and even they wouldn’t have stood well against some of the entries we’ve had in the past. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s true.
Congrats to Chris (1st place winner) and Marc (2nd place winner) for winning. Hope you got dvds that you liked
p.s. before anyone screams BIAS! just remember, while I may know these two, Nadea, Helen and Jen do not. And they were a very active part of the judging process (quite often over riding me.)

To view Chris’ entry, click the magic play button

Sunday was a good sleep in for all of us, and we met up around 10.30 and had brunch on Aotea Square. Roast chicken ripped up and put into cheese buns, with Garlic, Dill & Feta spread and lettuce, mmmm yum ^_^
Heading back into the convention, we all went our separate ways. Jen and Helen to Gotham Comics to look through their deal boxes, Nadea to buy more Beanie Babies, and myself to the Madman store, where I spent another $100 buying the Full Metal Panic! boxed set, and setting aside Fumoffu to pick up later (but when I went back a few hours later they had sold it to someone else… boo! I’m going to tease David from Madman quite a bit for that!) After that I just wandered around taking photos of the event.As much as I love attending these conventions, I feel just a little bit disapointed sometimes because it’s often always the same sort of thing you see each year. This year especially there were really no new stores, and most of the ones there, weren’t really selling at deal prices. Selling stuff you could get from them normally, and at the same price too.A complaint I think that is shared by many, was how lacking the gaming floor was this year. Nothing new, nothing exciting. It was just one big advertising gimmick. Nintendo had the new WII system on display, but there was hardly anyone ever there, and you couldn’t even demo the system. Sony had a section highlighting HDTV/PS3 and were playing the same promo vids you can easily download online (and I had seen at work already.)
Give us something new, release a new game or console, or something to make it worth seeing your stalls. Heck, there were hardly any cool freebies this year either!

We had dinner with the Madman forum guys, and that was a lot of fun. Or, at least myself and Nadea had fun, I got the impression that Helen and Jen weren’t too wowed
Vic Mignola was nice enough to join us for dinner, really cool guy, funny too.

Monday dawned bright and early. By then, trust me, all of us were feeling pretty exhausted already, but it was the big day, when our actual work began.

The Meet the Otaku event went well, and a huge thanks to Edmund and Carl for coming in and helping with that. I really appreciated that gesture, especially since you both weren’t obliged to. Met several new people too, which is what it’s all about ^__^

The chat sessions with Vic an Steve Blum were a whole lot of fun. I found it terribly amusing to listen to the obsessive fan girl in the front row during Vic’s session; constantly trying to get his contact details XD
Would have been amusing to see her face when, in the end, he did give it out, but just not so publicly. Bought his music cd METAFICTION, and got it signed by him as well. He is so down to earth, and not in the least bit preachy, regardless of the fact that he is a devout Christian.

We had a brief respite, and then straight into the AMV session.
It just goes to show how popular anime has become in this country. The room was packed. You couldn’t move in some places, and we had to make sure no one was blocking the entrance for safety reasons.
I think most of the AMVs went down well, and that most people agreed with our choice of winners.

After that, cosplay judging.

Gah, each year it’s the same, especially when it comes to Auckland Armageddon.
You just know that no matter what, you’re going to have problems.

I started it off by mentioning that letter, which accused me of being biased, and how winners of previous competitions shouldn’t be allowed to enter. Most people agreed, you could see it in their faces. At least two people didn’t agree, I could almost feel the daggers they were mentally throwing at me XD

Yes I do have a fair idea of who the spiteful, jealous, childish and immature people are, that have accused me of being biased. These same people have called some of the other cosplayers some nasty names (slut being one of them, too OLD being another.)
To be honest with you, I used to worry, but not anymore.

If these people can have such horrible personalities, thats their problem, not mine. I know, my friends know, and most of the cosplayers know, that I am not biased.
And as for stopping winners of past conventions from entering again, utter bullshit. I made it clear that if they wanted that to happen, they should go back to play school.
The cosplay event to me is supposed to be about having fun. About meeting others who share a common interest and networking; but it is a competition; and if you come to it with a competitive mind, you’d better bloody well prove you deserve to win.

If I stopped winners from previous competitions entering, what then? Give prizes to MEDIOCRE costumes? Whats the point of having a competition then? Having people who are skilled enter, should encourage others to raise the bar, to become better and better until they themselves can match those winning levels. If we stopped previous winners from entering, eventually we’d feel it across the board.
In any other competition in the world, do you see them stopping previous winners from entering? No. So why should we do it? To “give everyone a chance at winning?” How childish can you be? If you enter a competition and want to win, you’ve got to earn it.
Mediocrity BREEDS mediocrity, remember that.

And this year’s entry was proof that competition and the will to succeed, can encourage people to do some amazing things.
This year’s crop of entries was stunning!
I can’t begin to describe to you how amazed and pleased I was at the calibre of entrants we had, and even the photos in the gallery just don’t do justice to them.

As for judging, yes, it was very very hard.
In the end, while Michaela, Angela and Hayley won the top honours, I’d like to say that Kirsty (Padme), Rachel (Felicia) and Sarah Grace (Sesshomarou) were so close at the top, so so very close ~_~
In the end we as a group had to analytically break you all down and decide from there.

*grins* yes, we. Which means many, note that you disbelieving horrid people out there
Even in the cosplay my decision was not final until all the others who were helping me had had their input. And a note, just remember, bias swing both ways. I know who you are, and if I was biased AGAINST you, you wouldn’t have gotten the placings you did get, since if I did have that sort of nature, I wouldn’t respect the other judges’ opinions and made those decisions myself and given you the very bottom scores out of spite. And believe me, I do have utmost respect and trust in the people who help me during these events. I wouldn’t ask them to help if I didn’t.
Chew on that for a while why dontcha

In terms of personal favourites (not in the sense of a judge, but just another anime/manga fan) I adored the Naruto group the best XD
They were just so engagingly cute and funny! As Nadea said, “Give them another couple of years, and those girls are going to cosplay up a storm!” I can’t wait ^__^
Also the Pretear costume rocked, but thats because I love love LOVE the anime, and of course Alice and the Cheshire Cat from American McGee’s Alice. I adored those two too. The Bleach group looked so totally stunning, so calm, debonair & l33tz0r cool. If I hadn’t been judging I would have either wolf whistled, or swooned (I like the mysterious, aloof and often villainously evil type) XD

Other comments…

To the girl who cosplayed as Sakis, hun don’t feel bad that very few people knew the manga, just think about it this way, you’ve just got more advanced and upto-date tastes. I’ll bet you, in a few months to a year, that manga will be hugely popular in the fandom, and you’ll yawn in boredom and say “Been there, done that.”

To the girl who cosplayed as Yaone from Saiyuki, you looked stunning, but I noticed how badly you were shivering during the judging. Don’t worry, that didn’t affect your results, but you shouldn’t feel nervous. You did a great job with the costume and you looked great. There are many of us who’d kill for a figure like yours

To the girl who cosplayed as Vash the Stampede, thank you so much for the donut ;_;
I hadn’t eaten anything since 11AM and with all that running around, I just needed that sugar hit (although my thighs won’t thank me for it I’m sure!)

And to Macey. You’re the one person I will apologise to. I am really sorry I forgot your registration, and that we couldn’t judge you. It was my fault entirely, I remember emailing you about your friend’s entry, and getting a reply back saying you’d submit it on Saturday; so when I was moving all the entries to disk to get printed, I didn’t click I needed to move YOURS as well. I am very sorry, and I really hope this won’t put you off from entering in the future.

As for the one girl we couldn’t judge; I really did not get your registration form. I checked and double checked when I got home on Monday. Nothing in my inbox, nothing in my junk mail or deleted folder. What really gets me is that I have a sneaky suspicion that you were cosplaying either as Illusen or an Earth Faerie from Neopets, and it would have been totally cool to have seen you in your full glory
And yes, I play it

On stage in front of the public went well, and not so well.
Well in the sense that I didn’t muck up, and no one had any trouble.
Not so well in the sense that we were stuck right next to the wrestling rink!!!

God I can’t believe how difficult it was to HEAR myself speaking (even with a microphone) above the noise of that wrestling rink, and some of the poor cosplayers, who, by nature, don’t speak loudly, could barely be heard as they introduced themselves, or did their skits. While I admit that cost cutting was necessary, I just don’t think the set up was well planned this year. That same area was used for the guest talks, and I can just imagine how embarassing it would have been for some of those famous actors to have to compete with wrestling ~_~

Bah, after getting the winners their prizes (what part of “Come get your prizes from me” do people not understand, I had to go upstairs to the photo session in the end before I could give the prizes out, since one of the winners had decided to go straight there) Nadea, Matt and I headed into Starbucks to de-stress, relax, and chat about the entire event.
Helen and Jen had left already, as Jen’s flight was at 6.

*sighs* so it’s been almost a week, but I still can’t quite let it go
Sure there was a lot of stress, but I, like many others, had more fun this year, than in previous years. Don’t know why this year was different, but it just was.
Nothing about the event itself had changed XD

I think, as Matt put it, it was more about hanging out with friends and meeting brand new and exciting people. I had a lot of fun at that Madman dinner (first one I’ve been to, ever, especially since I have been meaning to go to one since they started 3 years ago!) and also meeting some of the members from the Armageddon forums.
Those guys may be annoying brats on the Madman forum, but in person, they are much cooler and nicer than people I’ve met in other, more cliquey NZ anime/manga forums ~_~

I also don’t feel as disheartened as I have in previous years by those catty cosplayers. I’ve come to the realisation that I shouldn’t let people like that ruin the event for me. Sure, it bites to see and hear some of the things they have said about me and other cosplayers, but in the end, they are a minority.
It would be a sad day indeed if all the cosplayers thought like they did.

It’s also been kinda cool catching up with cosplayers who took up my offer to get to know me. Several are already on LiveJournal, and if you’ve got a LiveJournal account yourself, mine is asgard. And if you’ve got MSN, mine is asrafrate@hotmail.com (although thats not my email address so don’t use it like one!)
I want to get to know as many of you as possible.

In terms of this website. Well I introduced it earlier than I had planned, there is still a lot of stuff missing, but I hope people will see whats coming, and check back often. I’ve added the links page, and while I’ve added most of the links I know about, I know there must be some out there that I don’t know about. So if you, or a NZ friend, has an anime/manga website that isn’t listed, please comment with details.

I hope I’ll get time this weekend to also take updated photos of my collection for the collection gallery.
In the mean time, photos and a list of all the stuff I bought during the convention period.

You can find more detailed photos of the event, the cosplayers and my swag in the Auckland Armageddon 2006 galleries.

Anime DVDs

Azumanga Daioh box set (free from Bill)
Chobits box set
Elfien Lied box set
Final Fantasy Advent Children
Full Metal Alchemist tinned box 2
Full Metal Panic box set
Grave of the Fireflies (free from Bill)
Ikki Tousen box set
Jubei-chan series 1
Jubei-chan series 2
Kaleidostar
Project A-ko box set
Ranma 1/2 series 1
Ranma 1/2 series 2
Ranma 1/2 series 3
Ranma 1/2 Movie 1
Ranma 1/2 Movie 2
Scrapped Princess box set
Serial Experiments Lain box set
Slayers Movie Collection
Slayers OAV Collection
Spirit of Wonder
Twelve Kingdoms box set
Vision of Escaflowne box set

In total I think I must have spent around NZ$800 on dvds, most of it at the Madman stall. They were really patient with me, even taking the time to write all my purchases and their costs down for me

Manga

Angel Sanctuary Vol. 1
Angel Sanctuary Vol. 2
Catgirl Nuku Nuku
Ghost in the Shell Uncensored
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne Vol. 1
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne Vol. 2
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne Vol. 3
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne Vol. 4
Record of Lodoss War comics 1 – 6
Anita Blake #1 comic

Most of these were bought from Borders. Taking advantage of the fact that there would be so many people around for the convention, they did a special deal where, if you bought 3 graphic novels, you got the third for free. Basically getting 3 books, but only paying for 2. Got Catgirl Nuku Nuku and the Ghost in the Shell Uncensored from Heroes4Sale on K-Rd. How could I resist Nuku Nuku!? And while I already had the translated version of Ghost in the Shell (in THREE variant prints) because this was the uncensored version, it had to be purchased @_@
(Zeb is a big fan of the artist Masamune Shirow.)

As for the Anita Blake comic *lol* how could I resist?
I used to be a really big fan of Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, but once she started making the story all about sex and Anita just getting more and more powerful, the story became ridiculous. So when I saw the comic for sale, I couldn’t resist getting myself a copy to see what it was like.
Brett Booth’s art does justice to the story, but dang, they jumped straight into the sex! XD
Definitely going to follow, just to see what happens next.

Artbooks

Final Fantasy Advent Children artbook
Serial Experiments Lain (english) artbook
Robot 1 (english) artbook

Got the Final Fantasy Advent Children artbook from the GNC on Thursday. I had hoped that they’d have more things for sale but mreh. Plus the book isn’t all to my tastes to begin with, so am contemplating whether or no I should sell it.
I have the Serial Experiments Lain Omnipresence in Wired artbook in Japanese, but when they reprinted it in Japan, they had a different cover (the one pictured.) I was humming and haaing about getting it, then they released the English version of the artbook. It made more sense to get the English version, since there is a lot of information in the book that makes for interesting reading (and yes, I am a fan of Serial Experiments Lain.)

The Robot artbooks I am getting in English because I’d like to be able to actually understand the manga. I did get the Japanese version of volume 6 because it came with a limited edition Range Murata figure, and a mini booklet.

Figures

Air Gear gashapon
Negima gashapon
Ringo from Air Gear figurine
Sera-Chan figurine
Monsieur Bome: Carmine
Monsieur Bome: Jungle Girl
Monsieur Bome: Ignis
Monsieur Bome: Kisaraki Mai (red)
Monsieur Bome: Kiddy Grade
Monsieur Bome: Bunny-Girl
Deunan from the Appleseed movie
FMA manga with blue Alphonse figure

Mmm I love anime/manga figures because they are a 3-d representation of characters, series & artists I love. Sometimes I may not really know them, but am attracted to them simply because they are so stunning.
I was very pleased with this haul ^_^
The gashapon, Air Gear and FMA figures were bought from Graphic Novel Cafe.
The Deunan, Kisaraki Mai and Bunny Girl were bought from Heroes4Sale.
The rest of the Monsieur Bome figures were bought from Pulsar Max.
The Sera-chan figure was bought from Gotham Comics, and Jeremy was nice enough to give me a discount on it.

Random

EZYDVD Limited Tinned Set Serenity movie (signed by Summer Glau for free.)
EZYDVD Limited Tinned Set Firefly set (signed by Summer Glau for free.)
METAFICTION soundtrack signed & by Vic Mignogna
3 Beanie Babies (2 were free)
Wooden sword from the Medieval Shop
Two tiny Gundam figures from Madman (free)

I’d been wanting to get Firefly and Serenity on dvd for some time now, but kept putting it off. Now I am glad I did. I discovered that EZYDVD in Australia had put out special, limited edition tinned sets of these dvds (fully lisenced and exclusive to them.) I ordered both, but the clincher was that the Firefly tin wasn’t going to be released until the 16th of October, a week before the event.
I emailed them and asked if they could ship it using the fastest post available, as soon as it was released, explaining that Summer Glau would be coming to a convention, and I wanted her to sign it. But EZYDVD did one better, they shipped it to me on the exact same day I sent the email, 4 days before the 16th!
The extra special part is that in the end, I didn’t have to pay the $60 price tag for the signatures. Got both tins signed by Summer for free ^_^

All in all a nice haul, a great event, and to be honest with you, despite all the issues I had, it was all worth it. ^__^