Toji: *at a random anime fan* NERRRRRRRD!!!
Valentine: Toji, that isn't very nice
Toji: Valentine, try to understand that there are two types of anime fans: jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time.
*Spots a random person*
Toji: Hey buddy, did you get a load of that NERD?
Cricket Fan: *confused* Pardon me?
After talking with my friend (let's just refer to him as Valentine) the previous day about what time I'd pick him up from his house, I left home at about 9:45 to get to Valentine's at about 10, and then leave right away from his house. However, upon getting there, I was greeted by his father, and politely asked if Valentine was awake yet. He said yes, and I just walked right in. Technically, he was awake, but he wasn't ready. Valentine just woke up - I should've expected that. So after waiting for Valentine to finish his breakfast, and nearly burning his hands from the hot bowl of oats he made, we were on our way to Perth's first anime convention.
I was making good time on the freeway, not much traffic, but I swear there was this one car in front of me that was going 70 Km in a 100 zone! What the hell? Considering we weren't in a rush to get to the convention, I just decided to keep my distance and go along with it, suspecting that it might be an elderly person. However, when the lane I was on diverged into two, i went up to 100 to overtake the car to find out who was driving the car. Turns out it was your average guy. I didn't believe it. But I let it go. So as we're going along, Valentine warns me that the area we were driving in was notorious for speed cameras, which didn't worry me as I was in within the speed limit. However, there were no speed cameras in sight.
So as we get to the venue, I ask Valentine to guide me to where I can find parking, since it's his uni the convention is being held at, so he'd know where I can get parking. There was some doubt from Valentine that we shouldn't be parking in the area he guided me to (...), but since it was a weekend, it was fine. So we go look for the venue, and we end up waiting in a line for 45 minutes, encountering the occasional cosplayer. I could tell which ones there were, including Rikku, Andy and Arucard. What? no Jam cosplayers! absurd!! Anyway, after Valentine and I registered, and waited for our cards to be laminated, we decided we should have a look at the dealers' rooms upstairs.However, upon setting foot within one of the dealer's rooms, I hear somebody yell out my name, and it certainly wasn't Valentine, because it was a girl's voice. Suspicious, I turn around, prepared for battle-- but it turns out it was my friend Annie. We exchanged greetings and wondering how we were and so on. She was drawing anime artwork along with a friend, and their work was pretty damn awesome. It was so awesome that it scared me away from trying to draw forever! ... well not really. I soon noticed that there were more and more people crowding around this stand, so I left Annie to it, knowing that we'd probably talk later on. We looked around, and I was disappointed about the lack variety, being the picky person I am. Valentine on the other hand was pretty damn excited about seeing some FF7 figurines, but decided to look around some more. We had a look at the wallscrolls, and I found a rather spiffy looking Generation 1 Optimus Prime that was commanding me to buy it. But, I resisted its temptations and left to go on to the next dealer's room, while Valentine mocked me for even looking at that Optimus wallscroll. There was plenty in the next room aswell, including plenty of DVDs and manga. I looked at the CD selection, and was annoyed about a lack of Bebop Original Soundtracks. So we left, and went wandering around again.
Along the way, we passed a panel regarding anime history in Australia. I was going to continue walking, until Valentine grabbed my arm and dragged me into the room. Valentine commented that the speaker's voice sounded boring. He was mostly talking about the anime that was on black and white TV, but never got shown again when coloured TV was introduced. He showed a couple of clips, including one called Gigantor, where a little kid could control a giant robot with a little remote control. I was struggling to keep a straight face, as the idea of psychotic little children controlling giant robots seemed to be quite trendy when I thought about it. Then he was continuing again, and showed some more clips from the 1990s, including the intro to Samurai Pizza Cats, which I had not watched since I was about 7. Those were the days. Then some guy was trying to show off his 1337 G33KD0M by adding more to what the speaker had to say. Eventually, it finished, and we headed back to the dealer's room, where Valentine purchased 3 FF7 figurines. We looked around some more at the other dealers' rooms again. Disgusted with the lack of variety of anime and jpop CDs, I settled with the first volume of the X manga for $15 dollars. After that, we decided to look at the screening times of what anime that was showing, and decided to go get some lunch. There was a BBQ being held, but Valentine suggested that we go walk to the local shopping area to get something to eat instead. After about a 10 minute walk to get there, we left with nothing, except Valentine getting a drink. Yeah, I should've asked Valentine what was there before leaving. So we decided to buy a hot dog instead from the BBQ area back on campus.
After that, we checked the times again for what anime was screening, and entered just when DNAngel was ending. Because of that, neither Valentine or myself had any idea what was going on. However, the first episode of Rurouni Kenshin was being shown straight after, and never seeing any Rurouni Kenshin (Aside from the first OVA series), I decided to stick around. It was pretty amusing, a nice change from the dark mood that the OVA presents. When RK ended, we left and went back to the dealers' rooms again and for the last time. Valentine decided to purchase some Evangelion 2 figurines, despite not knowing where some of the new designs shown on the box came from. Then I had to explain to him about the Japanese PS2 game called Evangelion 2. But whatever, he still got them anyway. Oh yeah, and he got vol. 1 of the X manga at a cheaper price from the same vendor! I was furious, and wanted to shoot that bastard vendor in the head for stooging me - However, I've got a copy of the X vol.1 manga, so yeah. I went back to the art table to tell Annie that we're going to leave, but not before looking through her portfolio of artwork. It looked so damn awesome... makes me wish I could draw well, instead of the random crap I keep producing. But anyway, after looking through her portfolio, we said our goodbyes, and said that we should catch up sometime. Then Valentine and I headed back to my car, with mixed feelings about Perth's first anime convention.
There you have it. While I was disappointed with the convention, I have to also admit that it wasn't bad for a first year attempt. The major problem that Valentine and I found was the lack of merchandise available. Sure there were plenty of manga and dvds, but what about music CDs and wallscrolls? And also the competitions. I know they didn't carry out a DDR tournament this year, but I reckon they should have more games and competitions going on, like maybe people could bring in their PS2(s) and gamecube(s) or Xbox(es) and have some multiplayer action tournaments. DDR would be nice too, but you can't have everything though. Perhaps I should bring a camera next year, so I can take pictures of the cosplayers and so on. I would also love to see some Jam and Auron cosplayers next year.
So overall, PANIC was ok, and I certainly wouldn't mind going back there next year either.