Fight like a girl…

By:Sarah Chiafos 

My intrest was piqued when I saw the words “Kung-fu femmes” on the program list.  Unfortunately I got there a little late and missed the first part of their presentation.  What I DID see, though, was extremely cool.  The women known as the Kung-fu femmes dressed up like chun-li from street fighter and put on a fun presentation to music with props, fighting and a fantastic show of their abilities. The music began and the girls (and one lucky guy) flipped, kicked, punched and fought with prop weapons. The members of this group train in martial arts as well as dance.  Overall, a very entertaining presentation.  Check out their site at: http://www.kungfufemmes.com/

Maid Cafe

By:Sarah Chiafos

One of the new events at AV this year was the maid cafe.  It was located on the other side of the convention area so it took me a little bit to figure out where it was.  When entering I noticed a fleet of smiling girls dressed in matching maid outfits ready and eager to serve.  The signs said $2 (a resonable price considering the money I’d already dropped at the con).  When a guest pays they are given a raffle ticket and are seated in the cafe. Then they are served by one of the adorible maids.  The $2 pays for a beverage and a snack, as well as plesant company. The maids also play games every half hour.  This was definately one of the highlights of this year’s AV and I hope it will be a permanate fixture in AVs to come.

Yoko Ishida, A true voice for Anime

by Marcio Guastavino

One of the biggest guests to check out this year was singer Yoko Ishida. You may recognize her from her hits from anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion or Gundam Wing. Chobits was one of the newer series she was featured in. She sang what I want to say was a flawless performance. Her voice was perfect and the concert went without a hitch. Fans danced para para moves taught to them from on stage performers and they even threw some of their own mix in there. She sang some of our favorite anime themes, mine being the Gundam Wing intro. It had been a long time since I’ve heard it and boy did it bring back memories.

She did autographs right after the concert. The line was endless.  From what I heard she also sold out of her merchandise as well. Any fan trying to find a cd or even a t-shirt was going to have a hard time. I got lucky myself. She sat right next to us in the booth next door. So not only was I able to score a picture I even got a hug! Yeah, you guys know your totally jealous.  If she ever did another concert for us at a convention I’d gladly go and enjoy her beautiful voice over anything else. Congrats on her fantastic performance!

Anime Vegas…the good, the bad, the unforgivable.

   by Marcio Guastavino
There were many attendees this year. Lining up from the very first sign of sunlight and partying till the midnight hours. As an attendee I’m sure Anime Vegas was every Otaku’s dream (especially those old enough to drink and gamble) and that guests were plentiful and surprising. They even got Yoko Ishida to perform some of her greatest hits on stage! That and all the good stuff happening off the floor, including panels with the guests of honor, gameshows, panty raids, dance parties, a cat-girl maid cafe and Anime screenings going on all day! Unfortunately, there’s more to be said about the massive technical difficulties we encountered as exhibitors there.

One of the first things we had problems with were the TVs in the game room. We lost half of the working TVs the first day due to malfunctions. Meaning half of the potential video gamage we could have had going was kaput on the very first day. As we progressed through the weekend we slowly lost more and more TVs to what seemed to be faulty wiring. There’s different speculations about what happened, but in the end it didn’t matter what had caused it, only that we had just three working TVs to use.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, apparently we were put in a booth area that was too dangerous to supply power to directly. Don’t they check this stuff out before hand? We almost didn’t get to have any running power at our booth this year. Luckily it was averted by an extension having to cross the booth next to us, but jeez what a hassle. This of course messed with most of our initial schedule and we ended up skipping some of our planned events. No worries, we went out and bought our own extension cables just so we can keep going and continue with our plans.

Third day comes by and all I can tell is that we don’t have power for a bit. At this point we had one of our TVs at the booth burn out (we had two at first, but I guess someone up there decided one would have to do) so we could only have one system going on at a time. Once power was up we went about our business and decided to end the day with an old fashioned swag give away. When I’m an attendee I love getting free stuff thrown at me. Again, unfortunately we gathered too many people at our booth. Seeing as we had a corner spot next to another booth not only did we have fire hazard problems we also got complaints from the booth next to us. So…because we gathered the crowd favorite for that small amount of time WE get punished for having a crappy section? If I recall last year was much more different. There were NO problems and everything went down without a hitch. In fact, we did a similar routine and we had a blast doing it. Why was this year filled with so many issues?

Whether it be from a lack of planning or maybe an insufficient amount of man power to do th job, I’d have to say that for exhibitor’s this year’s Anime Vegas was on the down side. I’m not saying we all had the same problems, but I kid you not when I say that all of this happened to us on what was suppose to be a smooth, FUN weekend at AV’s 4th year out. Should I expect to go next year? Maybe, but not as an exhibitor. Problems need to be resolved first. Areas where potential problems could happen should be checked and confirmed and there should be a little more freedom for exhibitors. I understand that safety is of the utmost importance, but the fact that most of the safety rules prevented us from doing most of our planned schedule is kind of a let down. It may just mean that Anime Vegas needs to move itself to a better location. A BIGGER location.

What can I say then? A complete failure? No not exactly we’re still getting great guests to come down here (it’s Vegas, they may come down for a little extracurricular activities as well)  and music artists as well. It’s just the overlooking of the more potential problems that could have been easily averted this year. I hope that next year Anime Vegas is given the chance to expand like it should. It’s not just the guys whose hard work goes into throwing the convention either, but the fans need to rejoice and speak there minds a little more. Nothing is scarier than a crowd of Otaku who demand a little bit more for their buck.

Anime Vegas; stripping the fun out of Strip Poker since ‘07

by Marcio Guastavino

It’s beyond my understanding how you can throw a celebrity strip poker game without…both genders.  For about almost an hour we waited to see if a female celebrity would actually join the game. Let’s face it, as much as the girls wanted to see the guys strip down, the guys wanted to see at least ONE girl strip down as well. After much searching one single girl rose to the challenge. I wasn’t sure who ANY of them were, seeing as I refused to be there if there wasn’t a girl playing. Rich Stott(Director of Anime Vegas) was in the game and that’s all I know for sure. Once the game was under way it lasted all but ten minutes. Not only that, we had one of the players walk out midway. THATS NOT FAIR! Rich and the girl contestant lost along with one other player. No, there was no nudity, but I think I’m thankful for that. Rich did have a very nice maid costume on under everything though.

Really though, it was a failed attempt at something that should have been just a little more fun. Maybe next year we can get players that don’t run out at the last minute eh?

Anime Vegas: Another point of view

By Sarah Chiafos

When we arrived at con at 6am attendees were already lined up and waiting to get in.  Everyone was primed and ready for an awesome con but would AnimeVegas fall short of being all it could be.  Not for lack of dedicated leadership or regular staff, but I really feel this con had much to be desired

As I looked forward to the extensive programming scedule, I saw that there was  much potential for one to go around to see and hear interesting things.  For the most part Anime Vegas  delivered great  programming.  Unfortunately a few of the panels (not labeled 18 or over)  dissolved into a group of people telling personal(and sometimes raunchy) stories rather than talking about anime (or anything useful for that matter).  For families that might be a big turn off.    Maybe more panel moderation next year?  One positive thing was that many of the panels were smaller and allowed for some really in-depth conversation and audiance participation (specifics of panels to come in future articles…stay tuned )

The con floor was a frenzy of attendees and cosplayers.  The dealers had a variety of wares to satisfy everyones fandom. Cosplay dresses, keychains, plushies and yummy snacks were among the things being sold. The floor of AnimeVegas is relatively small in comparison with other cons but it had a good variety and made use  of  the most of the space provided.  I can only hope that more dealers are able to come in the future. 

Soon to come: pics and video- maid cafe, panels,the dance and more coverage-technical problems- and why you should never drive from vegas to san diego on labor day….all this and more, keep checking back!

An overview of Anime Vegas 2007

By Chris Hori

Voice actors, cosplay and Para para dancing… in Las Vegas? Thus the fourth year of the Anime Vegas Convention at the Cashman Center has come and gone.

Looking to top their 2006 year which featured big names such as Hirano and Kurata, the 2007 convention brought from Japan, Yoko Ishida for a live concert. However, before the concert there was a special performance by the Kaminari Taiko Drum Corps. Giving the audience a traditional Taiko Drum Performance, it was an excellent lead in to get the audience in the mood for music.

The Japanese singer was introduced to the anime world for the ending theme for the Sailor Moon R anime. Since then, she has gone on to other projects such as the theme song for Ah! My Goddess (TV anime), the end theme for This Ugly Yet Beautiful World (tv anime) and the opening theme for Ai yori Aoshi. She also has performed on the Para Para Max CD series. The live concert featured her best known songs, as well as a Para Para dancing, and an anime remix featuring fan favorites which included the openings to Gundam Wing and Evangelion. They even took the time half way through to teach the audience a bit of Para Para dancing, as well as the routine to a song so the audience could participate with the dancers on stage.

The second draw to the convention was the large cast of American voice actors. Anime Vegas has always drawn the voice actors of popular anime shows and this year was no exception as the list of actors included Maile Flanagan (Naruto), Yuri Lowenthal (Sauske), Laura Bailey (Tohru Honda), Rachel Hirschfeld (Anita King – R.O.D. TV)and Aaron Dismuke (Alphonse Elric). A combination of Q and A panels, game shows, and open mic sessions with the voice actors gave the attendants ample time to meet their favorites and have them say (in appropriate character voice) all the lines they wish were in their favorite anime.

A nice change from last year was an attempt at more 18+ focused panels for attendants during the late night hours. While by no means the focus of the convention, this year featured an uncensored Q and A session with the voice actors, a panel with The Gamer Girls, and a screening of the Hellsing Ultimate series, including the premiere of Hellsing Ultimate 3.

Finally throw in the AMV contest, Masquerade Cosplay Contest, Maid Cafe (with real girls in maid outfits), Funamation, and Saturday/Sunday night dancing and you have a successful convention in Las Vegas.