This year's WAI-con was held in the suburb of Joondalup, also known as too far out of the way for most people. However, the group behind the con had made deals with the nearby hotels, to allow discounts for those that were going to be attending both days. However, due to going to a friend's 21st that evening, and possibly going to work the following morning, staying overnight at one of the hotels was out of the question.
Anyway, Valentine and I agreed that I'd pick him up from his house at 9:30, then we'd head off straight away . But, in a repeat of two years, he wasn't ready. So here I was, waiting for him to finish his breakfast. After that, we checked online where in Joondalup this venue was, and how we get there, as neither of us have ever set foot in Joondalup before. We pretty much had to take the freeway into the city, go through the city, and take the mitchel freeway to get to Joondalup. Because we thought we may get hungry along the way, we raided the pantry and got whatever snacks we could get a hold of, and stuffed them in the back seat of my car. Onward!
After about 30 minutes into the trip, we arrive at Joondalup, and began figuring out how to get to the venue known as Arena Joondalup. However, my boss called up while I was driving and, while finding out that I was indeed going to be working the next morning, I completely missed the turn without me or my friend noticing it >.>. It was only a short time after before I decided to park in a neighbourhood area and check the map to find out where we were now, and where we were supposed to turn off. After finding out where we need to go, I drove like a madman to get to Arena Joondalup, in hopes of not having to wait in a long line.
But, even before we began searching for parking, Valentine was already expressing his despair about how long the line was, and it was still a bit of time before the doors opened. So after parking, we hopped in line for 20-30 minutes while waiting in the sun for biggest part of the time, forced to endure the annoying babbling of teenage girls behind us. I hadn't even paid for admission and I wanted to break their jaws already! After enduring such torture, we finally paid to get inside, while Valentine and I discussed why admission was so much more expensive than previous years.I'll just sum up the sections, since there weren't all that many this time around
Traders' Section
In terms of space, it was definately a big step up from last year. It was much easier to make your way around the place without bumping into someone every 3 seconds. However, with the huge amount of space, it appeared that the number of traders that were there were few. Anyway, I purchased two volumes of X/1999 and the first series collection of The Big O. I wanted to get the second series also, but alas, I didn't have enough for that and lunch... grr. Valentine on the other hand got a model of Bahamut sin from the Advent Children movie, and one of the armoured fiends from Final Fantasy X.Panels
I don't think there were that many panels this time around, although there was a martial arts demonstration being held (can't remember which type of martial arts it was), but I wasn't particularly interested in watching. The one panel that I really wanted to go to was the How to Draw Manga panel. Unfortunately, this was on at the same time as the Mario Kart legacy tournament that I had just entered, which was a real pain. It would've been nice if the panels and tournaments weren't running simultaneously, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.Gamer's section
Once again, a big step up from last year, which meant spectators could also watch! They held a few competitions including a Mario Kart legacy tournament (covering Double Dash, Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario Kart), and a retro gaming tournament which comprised of several different games. Valentine and I entered the Mario Kart legacy tournament, where we both got our butts handed to us in the first round. Valentine also entered the the retro gaming tournament, and he did pretty damn well in a few of the rounds, where he ranked in the top three, but he didn't do so well in other rounds.
Aside from the tournaments, other consoles were set up for general play, including Lylat wars, and Guitar Hero, which I played for a few rounds. There was also a pool table available for use for those that wanted to play something else for a change. All in all, I was very pleased with gamer's section this year.Cosplay
A bit of mixed bag this time round in my view. What is up with people dressing up as Cloud in Advent Children attire? Can't someone be a bit more original and cosplay as Cloud from Kingdom Hearts? I mean really! Anyway, I saw a few Yuffie cosplayers too, some in Kingdom hearts attire, and others in advent children attire. I also saw a decent Iori Yagami cosplayer there, though he didn't enter the cosplay competition. Again this year, Bleach was fairly popular, and one that was cosplaying as a Bleach character did some incredibly terrible stand up comedy, trying to make fun of Naruto dub, which I like only because I love seeing people shitting their pants in rage over something so insignificant. But anyway... I also saw a few people cosplaying as Sora from Kingdom Hearts II.
Aside from the Iori cosplayer, the rest of it was pretty much a repeat of previous years. When the hell are there going to be Guilty Gear cosplayers? I want to see a decent Jam and/or Millia cosplayer!Final Verdict
While there were definately some big improvements over 2005, it just wasn't that exciting for Valentine and myself. Most of the stuff that was there has been done before, and it's just the same characters being cosplayed again and again, with something different here and there. The other big insults were the distance of the venue from most people and the price of admission. I would not be prepared to travel nearly an hour to get to a convention a second time, and it cost $35 for the general public, which I thought was bullshit, even though I understand the admission also had to cover the cost of renting out the rather large venue.
After this year's experience, Valentine and I will be giving 2007's convention a miss. As for future conventions, that depends on what we hear from other people with regards to 2007's anime convention.