This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!'... and Gon's Balls will whisper 'First... comes... rock!' Hah!  Made you stare at Naruto's Marshmallow!  Pushing the logo off-center to drive TheOcean insane.  
 
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  #1  
Old 06-08-2014
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Haruhifan Haruhifan is offline
 
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Lightbulb Anime North 2014 Post-Convention Report

Anime North 2014 Convention Report – May 23-25 from Toronto, ON at http://www.animenorth.com/live/

Greetings, as another Anime North season is in the books! There was a ton to do like always each year so let us get into what there was that I was able to attend or participate in this year! The 404s http://www.animenorth.com/live/index...mers&Itemid=57 had 5 big shows over the weekend. The 404s debuted a new T-Shirt and group poster along with their other merchandise for this year. Shows occurred back in the Plaza Ballroom (seating over 1,200) and the Toronto Room (160 seats) that just about filled up with some big line ups of new and dedicated fans alike. Each show had its own twist this year. The Opening show followed the Opening Ceremonies that showed the new T-shirts off and a few new things like Jekyll and Hyde which produced some lovely and scary art depending on who you talked to in the scene. The sun became an enemy all weekend as it apparently causes spontaneous human combustion on stage...even in space! There were other fun scenes throughout all 5 shows from emotion objects to pamphlets and even a Philosophy book helping fill in every other line. The second show debuted the new format in long form improv comedy as lost episodes of Free! As a new type of club and Attack on Titan with the lesser known cast members got the crowd going. Saturday had the return of first the League Format which had 4 teams, Blue Lawyers from Finch and Abercrombie, The Team formerly known as the Red Team, Team Toga and Team Cosplay which I got to be Barazo Mankanshoku from Kill La Kill (my cosplay of choice for a Photo shoot that same day that let me meet so many new cosplaying friends!) along with the Red Power Ranger, Young Hercules and Miguel of The Road to El Dorado. Tons of crazy scenes in head to head hockey style improv occurred from the meeting of the power of Nicholas Cage, a singing sword, frat boys with a pig, and a Totoro admission during a never-ending convention were what the fans got to vote on. In the end everyone won, including the ref who got his ‘sweet revenge’ in his own way. The other returning tradition to Anime North was the infamous “Late Night Last Pants Standing” show where fans got to see The 404s dance in their boxers/other ware as fans voted after many games which ended with the Hoedown and then a specially filmed Mousetraps finale. Those videos and more will soon be up at http://www.youtube.com/user/the404s

The final show was very special, a farewell to one of The 404s retiring from performing. Anime North made this feel so special with the great chants and applause for the entire show that even went into the Closing Ceremonies as well. The Ceremonies were very packed with talk from the guests, con chair, a performance each time by the Nagata Shachu Taiko drummers and AN Idol winning singers. Each ceremony was a bookend for a grand weekend.

There was the All Star Charity Auction for the Hospital for Sick Children’s Foundation based in Toronto http://www.animenorth.com/live/index...apanese-guests that went at the end of the weekend. Having to go a bit long as attendees did a great job to keep bidding until over 150 lots were bid upon, with the total with added incoming merchandise sale money from various generous guests as well hitting over $11,000! The final total will be up at the link soon once things are totalled but lots of great items went up for bids like photo shoots, cast autographed sets, artwork, tons of anime and manga, figures, rare items from the guests just to name a few things, as more is in store for next year!

The Anime Pro Wrestling brought to Anime North by Great Canadian Wrestling (GCW) http://www.canadianwrestlingexpo.com/ had another awesome Super Extreme Anime Wrestling show that even got coverage like on Wrestlecrap at http://www.wrestlecrap.com/icfyt/it-...on-ball-z-guy/for its great fun mix of pro wrestling and anime/video game/comic book characters. Everyone from Tuxedo Mask, Pac-Man with Inky, Blinky, Pinky & Clyde and the Terminator to the casts from Mortal Kombat, Nintendo and Street Fighter got into the action, while everyone had fun once the Anime Champion Elmo got into matches for 2 big shows. It’s something else seeing Elmo do a Canadian Destroyer to Johnny Cage from the top rope! Even fans got into the cosplay mood as CM Punk, Mankind and “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels were seen in the raucous crowd that got some crazy chants about mustaches, campy Batman fight sounds (BAM! KAPOW!) and Adam West chants to even the Charlton Banks cheers.

The Saturday Brunch with the guests was a fun time to talk to them casually over breakfast while the yearly Momiji Award for contributions to the anime community went to special Japanese Guest Hidekatsu Shibata who has been doing it for over several decades in big roles like King Bradley of Full Metal Alchemist and Hiruzen Sarutobi of Naruto to current roles like Igneel of Fairy Tail and Amon of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. It was great to meet some of the pioneers in Canadian voice acting like the Sailor Moon cast (John Stocker as Grandpa Hino, Katie Griffin as Sailor Mars, Linda Ballantyne as Sailor Moon, Susan Roman as Sailor Jupiter, Toby Proctor as Tuxedo Mask), Transformers voice actors (Michael Dobson as Starscream, Scott McNeil as most of the Beast Wars cast, Brian Dobson as Red Alert), Beyblades duo (Deven Christian Mac as Zeo Abyss, Ben Israel as Toby/Faust), and many others like the original Bob from Reboot Michael Benyaer, Brian Froud of Total Drama Island fame, and other Japanese guest making their first Canadian trip in Mai Goto (Mika Nogizaka of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu) and Yumi Hara (Sawa Yamauchi of SKET Dance). They had tons of other panels, autograph sessions and appearances like at the Charity Auction as they all went out of their way to be with the fans.

AN Idol had another big turnout for tryouts that crowned a new winner at the finale who went on to sing at the Closing Ceremonies nicknamed Five-Chan, the youngest champion to date. A retrospective can be seen of the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha4-05yLxrE that included a bunch of special performances by past winners as well.

There was so much I got to see this year with some careful scheduling thanks to the Guidebook App. Panels gave a lot of different things to discuss from Lolita Fashion to Doctor Who. Video rooms or TV screens filled the place showing everything from newer Toriko episodes to older GUNDAM series. And this was what I could make it to as there was another location for Doll North, all forms of gaming, dances, concerts and cafes for those fandom tastes too.

My Bounty This Long Convention Weekend:
-An artist alley made water bottle with Skip Beat’s Kyoko Mogami on it from Catherine Bulot at Katsuke.does.it
-Some hard to find Mahou Sensei Negima figures with Nodoka and Yue, along with Nichijou’s Misato who comes with her signature bazooka, all from Navito World at http://navitoworld.com/shop/
-A special Studio Ghibli set from the Japanese Museum that included a set of samurai sword-shaped chopsticks, a cookie tin, a Totoro pin, print and tiny plushie hood ornament won at the Sunday Charity Auction
-Several pro wrestling DVDs from GCW Wrestling and one from indy wrestler Rip Impact https://twitter.com/ripimpact
-From different artists, I got some keychains for Mikado & Masaomi of Durarara, and Fight Club Mako & Ryuko from Kill La Kill
-Some free poster ads for a Studio Ghibli film festival with My Neighbor Totoro on it, and another with the American Dragon Bryan Danielson
-Several artist-made pins for Kill La Kill, Attack on Titan, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, & Pokemon, a set of bookmarks from the Legend of Zelda & Adventure Time, some random cute stickers & pins, and a bear burger mini-plushie keychain all made by http://www.gumgumpins.ca Other artists I want to note who I got the above items from and/or who donated to the Charity Auction include Geek @ <3 at http://www.geekatheartshop.etsy.com Joker’s Info at shibird@DA
-A photo done by Cosplay for A Cure with mutant Ryuko from Kill La Kill while in my Barazo Mankanshoku cosplay at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cosplayforacure/sets/
-A special note of the fine food on the weekend to be had. I had some sit down meals sharing sushi and BBQ ribs at Sushi Dragon, burgers at Kelsey’s and a full Buffet at Tucker’s Marketplace with friends. There were also some new food trucks this year at the TCC. On the hot days with no rain to dampen the weekend, the ice cream trucks were busy with slushies and milkshakes being bought aplenty. I got to eat my first and second ever Beaver Tails (think of a flat pastry with any topping you wish for a neat dessert that’s famous in Ottawa and Montreal and now in Toronto as a food truck), but my favourite treat was something I’ve had before once: Gorilla Cheese! http://gorillacheese.wordpress.com/ I saw them on Eat St. They have a great grilled cheese selection so I got The Canadian Lumberjack sans bacon (they had run out but I was fine with the adjusted price for it) that has Cheddar Cheese, sliced Granny Smith Apples and real Maple Syrup on White Bread. Even indoors at the International Plaza Hotel the Japanese restaurant served Onigiri (rice balls) which were nice with salmon and tuna in them. There were also even some snacks in the Dealer’s Room like Strawberry Pocky and Hi-Chew candy I’ve gotten hooked on that I bought. There was not a lack of food selection this year for sure!

As always, I collect all videos of the Eastside 404s shows that can be found on the following playlists.
The Current Updated, Ongoing Video Set – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...uObMY2lv72Shcb
The Older First Sets of Videos - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2940D4CF10ED601B and
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0B3C6356020E27B
Finally, check out this regularly updated public photo album of my convention photos (newest photos are at the end of the album) at: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showphotoalbum?id=10061028The latest events and links to The 404s can be found as well at the main website at http://the404s.com/
Enjoy!

I have to say hands down this ranks up there as one of my all time favourite Anime North weekends, possibly best overall weekends at a convention. I can’t thank everyone enough who made it possible and that the bar for success and fun keeps getting better for years to come. So don’t lose your way until we meet again!
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  #2  
Old 06-11-2014
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Xanadu Xanadu is offline
 
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Did you see a guy there with a Lamb Chop puppet?
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Old 06-13-2014
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Haruhifan Haruhifan is offline
 
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First of all thanks Xanadu for taking a look at the report! I was told of that cosplay but didn't run into Lamb Chop. I will say there were a LOT of cosplays for older kids shows aside of course Elmo in the wrestling ring. I saw Polkaroo from Polka Dot Door but lost him in the crowd to photograph him. I DID get the Winnie the Pooh huge outfit that's in the Photo Gallery I note at the end of my report. It's great to see such a diversity of cosplay, not just anime but video games and TV shows too. Take care!
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Old 06-14-2014
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Xanadu Xanadu is offline
 
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Oh my God you actually heard about Lamb Chop?!
That was me btw, I had no cosplay, it was all about Lamb Chop, went around taking photo's with people with Lamb Chop, I guess she was more of a hit then I thought...
It wasn't a cosplay so much, it was an actual Lamb Chop puppet btw

Last edited by Xanadu; 06-14-2014 at 01:42 AM.
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Old 06-25-2014
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Haruhifan Haruhifan is offline
 
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Very nice, and if my knowledge of older kids shows showed, I recall the old shows like Lamb Chop's Play-Along. That's neat you got to take photos with your puppet and had fun! Thanks for reading the report and have fun at all the conventions you get to attend!
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