Anime Evolution 2007 Day 3
It’s the final day. While preparing for the day, I got the distinct feeling that I was forgetting something. Just as when Jan and I were about to leave, sure enough the phone rang and it was Eric. Doh! I was supposed to call him earlier to set up where we’re going to meet and stuff. Eric is another guy I convinced to come to the con just to see what’s up. Anyway, after getting to SFU, we met up with him and we all went to the convo mall.
The cosplay capture the flag game was going on there and I just snapped a few pictures. At 11, the Academie Duello workshop started and I volunteered to be one of those taking part in some rapier and sword training. I chose long sword training so that I can whoop ass even with just a piece of wood or a pipe. After some stretches and a few jumping jacks, we were assigned to be in pairs. I got paired up with a guy called Edwin who’s cosplaying as Allen from D.Gray-man. I actually took a picture of the guy on Friday. He had this nice red glove for Allen’s hand.
Anyway, after a bit of wrestling exercises, we finally got our hands on some swords. We only got wooden swords because all the metal ones were taken. Darn. But in retrospect, that was actually for the better. Because my partner was seriously swinging his sword. It was only supposed to be nice and slow strokes since the untrained defender doesn’t have the skills to deflect a fast attack. I had to block his swings seriously or else risk getting hurt. He hit me hard a couple of times on my hand but he said he was sorry. I accepted it since I’m pretty sure he wasn’t aware that he was swinging it hard. He was flailing wildly but I guess I should’ve told him. What can I say? It was pretty exciting trying to deflect his attacks. Anyway, I learned about the "five places of pain". No doubt that will be useful in some situations… fufufu. After learning some attacks, we learned some defenses. I especially like the defense techniques that also attack the opponent. I think it would look cool if it were actually done in real life. Later, my brother told me he took some pictures of my swordplay. Hehehe, it actually doesn’t look bad. As the instructor said, "If it looks good, you’re doing something right".
After lunch with Jenny, Eric, and Wayne (just a student, not a con attendee), I headed off to the charity auction. I was still a bit early so I watched a couple of AMV entries. I went back to where they were holding the auction and I didn’t really see anything that caught my eye except the Last Exile stuff. During the auction, I bid on a Kingdom Hearts necklace, an FFVII AC necklace and a Kadaj keychain. I won them with a bid of $15. I think that’s a pretty good price and even if it’s not, it’s for a good cause. The proceeds of the auction goes to the BC Children’s Hospital. Finally, the Last Exile figurine and mousepad set came up with an opening bid of $30. I was embroiled in a bidding war with this guy who, when I bid a value, would just bid $1 higher. We went up to $55 and he, of course, went to $56. $50 was actually my ceiling for this so I gladly just let him have it. I’ll get him back later. A Kiddy Grade DVD box set was soon up and my friend, Andrew, and that same guy got into a bidding war. Andrew went to $55, and the guy went to $56 (obviously). Andrew wasn’t saying anything so when the auctioneer said "going twice", I yelled "$60". The guy let me have it this time. I later told Andrew that this time, I wI was pretty happy with that. $60 for a complete DVD set is pretty good, and the DVD’s aren’t the thin-pak versions but rather the ones with the regular cases. Other highlights of the auction include a BACK-ON framed concert poster that went for $320 :O.
I had to leave the auction early so that I can get a poster signed by BACK-ON since we were only allowed one thing to get signed before. Since it was still a bit early, I went to the panel room where people were asking BACK-ON a bunch of questions. I only heard a few questions and their responses then it was time to go to the autograph place.
The autograph session was pretty much the same as Day 2’s. I line up, get one thing signed, and shake the hands of each member. Woot! I should have used my left hand to shake their hands so that I would have equal BACK-ON goodness on my hands. Anyway, I also took a photo of them while signing other people’s stuff because you can’t have a picture taken with them.
After getting my 2nd set of autographs, I ran into Jenny and we watched a couple of episodes of Elemental Gelade. It was decent, and I never knew that the main guy is voiced by Ishida Akira. I headed for the convo mall with her to attend the closing ceremony. The main thing was the Anime Idol finals. I missed the first contestant, but the last two were pretty good. The third contestant sang the Romeo x Juliet opening, which is a cover of "You Raise Me Up". I thought the music was too loud, but she actually sang the last chorus pretty well. The BACK-ON members were actually guest judges at this thing. The funniest part was during the judging of the third contestant when Teeda, the rapper of BACK-ON, said something in Japanese, and the translator said it means "Be my gf". The contestant shot him down saying that she wasn’t ready yet. LOL @ Teeda.
Anyway, yada yada yada and the closing ceremony was done. I stuck around for a bit to listen to Moo-ve play again while waiting for my brother and sister so we can go home. We all went to the townhouse she was staying at to get some of her stuff. A couple of staff members went with us so we drove them home and we were finally on the way home, listening to BACK-ON all the while during the trip.
It was definitely an AE to remember. I met a couple of new friends. I spent a bunch of money (I’ll feel the impact of this soon). I took a lot of pictures so it’s definitely going to be something I’ll remember for a long time.
Day 3 end! See you next year unless I actually post stuff in between.
