Pro's and Con's about the... con?

[RoamingGnome]

Staff already have a mailing list and access to several hidden groups on the forums. If we can start the year with several willing volunteers this time we can definitely see about getting more of these things to the volunteers too. People who stick around year-round and develop an understanding of con polilcies will be essential at reg desk.

Add me to your list for volunteers!!

[guspasho]

Done!

[Squall]

-bakazoku.  Seriously, I love these guys, but this year everything just felt overdone.  Maybe I've just been to too many of the panels, so I hear stories told (differently) over and over again.  But I was generally not impressed with the post-contest show.  It was funny, yes, but it got old fast.  On the same note, I thought the whole mystery thing simply didn't make sense.  It was a cool idea, but did the clues actually connect to anything?  I went to closing ceremony, and I saw the presentation, but I'm still trying to figure out how the clues had any relevency.  Lots of love, and better luck next time!

Which part of the post contest show?  Our skit, the the filler after it, or both?  We're thinking about having two or three skits ready to go (instead of just one) so there's less filler afterwards while the judges do their stuff.

To help reduce yaoi (which sadly, the audience always wants), an idea has been mentioned to get more girls onstage....finding ones with potential is the only real problem there.  We may hold auditions for female extras onstage and such.

As for the mystery, it's something we had only been working on the last month or two, and that's around our work schedules...so at most we were only able to meet up once a week.  The director of programming loved the idea, and had been looking for something to replace the aging scavenger hunt, so we decided to give it a go.  The clues revealed that the ghost was indeed not a "ghost", and pointed to what the ghost was after....Grover Cleveland's treasure (random, huh?).  We would have loved to add more clues to the list to lead to this, but time and money constraints hampered that (not to mention I was the one making all the clues, and even the ghost costume).  Personally, I think we could have implemented it all better had we started planning earlier.  It was a great idea with lots of potential, but even I'll admit we could have done better.  Will we try it again and try to make it better?  Don't know right now... We may just come up with something new for next year if we're invited back, and hopefully we'll have done alot more planning for it.

Thanks for your constructive criticism.  

[Sinaj]

I was only able to make it to Saturday for a few hours, which comprised of the line, the Dealer's Room and one panel, so I don't have a lot to talk about unfortunately =(

Pros:
Con attendees were very polite and in good spirits despite the heat and the reg situation.

Dealer's Room offered a much better range of items than in previous years. I was happy to see the all the clothing at one of the vendors, and I picked up some jrock at another vendor. Lots of great stuff to choose from! Great variety!

AMV contest was run very very well. Lots of ballots and pencils. Smooth entrance (with tickets) so there was no big long line like last year.

Water provided by the staff for those waiting outside. I understand this wasn't going on all morning, but the fact that it was offered later was very nice. Thank you.

Great Cosplay costumes! I saw a huge variety of really nice costumes this year.

Cons:
Pre-reg/reg line. nuff said.

Narrow hallways

Small/lack of signage

I was gonna list the small program with map, but from the sounds of that, it was the hotel's fault. =/

Hotel staff seemed put-off. I thought the Double Tree folks last year were nicer.

Suggestions:

As one attendee suggested already, a map printed on one sheet of paper (8.5 x 11) in each bag would be great.

Signage printed on a sheet of paper (again 8.5 x 11) in big bold letters for each panel taped near the entrance to each room would be great. Some of the hotels have holders for such signs so that you can put the entire day's panels into the holders. That way when a panel is over, that host can just remove their sign paper from the hold and the next panel's title will show, etc...
If they don't have holders, each panel host can tape their own printed title sheet near the door for the diration of their panel.

Where the tickets for the AMV contest used for other events? If not, we could print the ballots on them so that everyone who gets a ticket to see the show gets a ballot on the back. If the tickets are used in other events, the front can be pre-printed ahead of time, and then some of the sheets could have ballots printed on the back of them (before they are cut) at a later date.

Pre-reg - if we have enough volunteers, perhaps we can have pickups on both Thursday and Friday night before the con. Someone suggested mailing them, but I can see how that would be an issue (verifying ages, making sure no one tries to 'copy' the badges, etc...)

[Nekochi]

Pre-reg - if we have enough volunteers, perhaps we can have pickups on both Thursday and Friday night before the con. Someone suggested mailing them, but I can see how that would be an issue (verifying ages, making sure no one tries to 'copy' the badges, etc...)

One way to get around this would be to have some type of bar code on the badge. That would be hard to fake and would be much quicker than normal, even if you did add an extra day. It's just an idea. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have much practical experience in this area so I really don't know how well it would work.

[kekame]

Overall GREAT experience. Can't give enough love to the cosplayers and the cool people that I met during the con. Extra love if you gave me food! <3 I had so much fun just wandering around meeting you all and giving hugs!

Just to give some opinions/suggestions/shoutouts on various subjects:

Pre-reg Lines
I just wanna say thanks for extending the time limit on Friday night. I would have seriously cried if I waited an hour and a half just to have it all be for nothing.

Also, there is only so far people can squash against a wall. Yelling in people's ears every five minutes doesn't make them any happier to comply either. What needs to be done for next year is set up a rope that splits the hallway in half. Problem solved.

Furthermore, more staff needs to be registering people. More tables and further splitting up of the letters would be good. This is the same issue at every con, but I saw people still standing in line way late in the day on Saturday! What happened to the idea that pre-reg would save you time?

Hotel/Location
It was too tiny for that many people and their policies interfered with our cosplay.
However, I thought that the hotel beds were awesome, I had no trouble sleeping on them at all, which made my con experience better. I also liked the convenient location. No trekking through downtown on one way streets and tons of convenient food locations.

Communication
Looks like the hotel didn't really understand that they were hosting a crazy ANIME convention with 2000ish people! The miscommunications on the "leashing" and the masks were really annoying. Most of us just ignored those rules after awhile anyways, so it ended up being fine. I spent a lot of money on the handcuffs for my friend and I to have as Light and L (Death Note), I would have been distraught if I couldn't wear them.

Also, It seems like the cops showed up quite a few times, I assume because of misunderstandings?

If I was a regular person that wasn't into anime, I'd feel pretty gypped and annoyed that I paid for a nice hotel and there's a bunch of loud freaky people everywhere. (I love us! But from their point of view... that's what its like...) Some people were cool about it - I got some comments on my costume from an old lady.

However, there was the above mentioned drunkard. There were several kids around 10 or 11 yrs old that kept trying to get into the dance that I talked to for awhile. They were really cool, but since it was past curfew (but they weren't part of the con, so I guess it didn't apply to them?) I was hoping they weren't gonna walk in on any questionable activity. Also, the people eating breakfast in the cafe place kept acting like we were being intrusive, and honestly, when I am paying tons of money to stay there and be at the convention, I should not be made to feel intrusive.

Staff
I thought overall, the yojimbo did a great job. I was seriously glad they were there to take care of the drunk guy that wanted me to "sell my badge to him for 100 bucks" so he could "go to the pokemon party". >.>;

There was one point I saw one staff member be rude to another staff member. Me and my twin saw this and said, "Awww!" So we went up to her, gave her a hug, and told her we were glad she was using her time to help at Kumori-con. More people should definitely do this. It helps people a lot to know you're greatful... a lot of times we concentrate on the rude people that make us angry without thinking about all the people that are doing a great job.

AMV Contest
The videos were awesome AND didn't last forever and ever. It was just the right length! Thank you for making those tough decisions to cut a few to keep it within the time limit!

I was so ecstatic that Ouran won!

Creation Station
This place is just... woot. Keep it up!

Generalization
It seems like everyone gets together an act and if people don't think its funny enough, then they pull out the magic yaoi card for cheap entertainment. A little bit okay! But umm... *sweatdrop* it was overdone. People need to realize when something gets OLD.

Cosplay Contest -
Bakazoku is no exception to above generalization, though honestly to give them a break, I'm not sure what I would have done to entertain an anxious audience for 45 min. I thought some stuff like the gamer jokes, the scooby doo, and the cereal were funny.

HOWEVER, I found most of their performance... (to be very nice about it) completely and totally inappropriate. Seriously guys, save that for the 18+ panels. I did not wanna see the guy spanking the other guy's butt, while I'm kinda pretty much stuck there as I am waiting for the results. If I wasn't in the cosplay contest, I would have walked out. Furthermore, does anyone happen to know why Lauren Doster wasn't in the room to receive her future ninja award? If you guessed a) she was in the bathroom, you are wrong. If you guessed b) her mom had to take her out of the room because it was too inappropriate, then you are correct. I just think we need to do a better job of keeping the 18+ stuff in the 18+ panels or after curfew, while keeping the on-stage stuff relatively 13+ or 15+.

Also, as a disclaimer, although most of the people in our skit were yaoi fans, our skit was in no way yaoi, as the handcuffs are part of the manga (Death Note), and I (for one) still thought our skit was awesome, though we aren't expert level or anything.

Bringing me to another issue... I thought the cosplay contest was fabulous in so many ways:
People were great to work with, informative to the best they knew, it didn't take up our entire day, and we actually got to watch the skits after ours (unlike Sakura-con, which is why I refuse to be in skits there).

It was a little disorganized, but everyone did a great job winging it and it turned out great. The only slight complaint/suggestion I have is I was wondering why the categories were split up differently than normal and in the past? Usually, I am used to Novice, Journeyman, Expert, and Staff, but instead it seemed like everyone was pitted against everyone. I think we may have some disappointed noobs??? I thought there definitely should have been a prize for "Hey I'm a total noob, I've never been in a skit, but somehow it turned out, yay!" because some of the people that were obviously beginners, still had really funny skits, and I thought they could have benefitted a lot from just a little recognition.

I'm assuming my group would have been in the journeyman category had it been split up that way. I had so much fun and our skit was like, flawless. But hey, we come up with our stuff a day or two before the con at the most... not like people who build doors/props for their skit. (Btw that skit rocked!) I kinda felt like I had no chance of winning anything cause I was going against groups that were better than me, though.

OH, and WHY is the premeet at EIGHT IN THE MORNING? *dies*

Besides those two details which are just a personal thing to me, I thought it was great. I can't say THANK YOU enough for not running things the way Sakura-con does.

[Nyco27]

Cosplay -

Yes there was some inapproperate things that happened. One of which I was too stunned to catch in time and will add to the cosplay rules for next year. But seriously - have you seen Sakuracon's cosplay? They're more family friendly than we are and they had two guys making out in one skit among other things. The truth is I was programming director (a 60 hour a week job) and cosplay manager (about a 30 hour a week job) and going to school full time - not to mention working. Overworked does not begin to describe it. You want to see cosplay better next year - you be cosplay manager or staff, volunteer, something to take some pressure off the rest of us so we can do our job.

Panels -

Yeah, there were a lot of changes and cancelations. Part of that was the hotel. Part of that was our relations director got screwed by his work and wasn't allowed to even come to the con. Also relations was understaffed and didn't have guest liasons to tell Guests when their panels were.

Also most of Programming was double, and triple staffing. My Video manager, karaoke manager were the same person as well as a panelists. My gaming manager was also the vice chair, hotel liasion and panelist. My panelist manager was also assitant video manager, assistant karaoke manager, and panelists. Most of the staff across everywhere signed up to do a panel and when there's not enough staff to go around something has to fall through and it usualy ends up being panels. When you havent eaten or slept for two or three days you stop wanting to interact with hyper, loud, and in my experiance often horribly rude con goes.

Something has to happen at 8:00AM Im sorry if you panel got pushed really early, but I never heard a complaint before con and you never specified a time. You want it at a different time, fill out the damned paperwork correctly and check up on it.

attendies -

There were many many good attendies. Many who volunteered and many who where like "I'll be 18 in a month, how do I become staff?!!?!" To all of you, thanks you. I love you all.

But there were a handful of bad attendies. not simply rude or inconciderate, but when I say "The panel is done, I need to clean up please leave" and I have to fight to get a hot glue gun out of your hand - that is not exceptable. When my assistant is working his ass off with huge blistsers, a sprained knee and nothing but smiles, I do not need attendies teating him like crud. Do note if I had been the one was verbaly attacked like that you would escoted to ops and likely lost your badge. My staff does not get paid enough to be sent into tears. Just because you paid does not give you license to be rude.

Reg

Again, partially a staffing issue (anyone see a pattern?) and partially and organizational issue as well as an inexperiance issue. Really reg in the past few years has been spoiled. It's one of the only department that has had a consistant leader over the years. Our current Reg master got the job late in the game and did a really good job, but with all the other problems inexperiance complied them and made it hard for us to jump back on our feet. Also Kumoricon's archenemie shows back up. When job titles change information, advice and experiance doesnt usually transfer. We're working on changing that, but the problem often stands of there's no one to hand it to and someone moves far away or is really busy etc and can't.

Schedule/info booth

I stayed up late to make sure that we had a fresh schedule each day up on the site and a schedule next to every room. Also I tried to make sure info booth knew what was going on. But when someone wants to take a food break the last thing on their mind is all the changes and protocall they need to tell the next person. Furthermore I cant force panelists to show up. I can threaten to take away their funding, and I can't even do that with guests.

Communication was a huge problem this year. Part of that was because we have some con staff vetrans who simply know how we do things at Kcon and others who are completely green and experiance isnt trickled down as much as we'd like.

Know that as staff we will be working very hard to fix these issues as we do every year and I personally will work my butt of the make 07 better but as it sits there simply isnt enough staff. Really we need more of you - we will always need more, but nothing will get better if we don't have help. Even if that help is agreeing to watch a viewing room when you'd already planned to, or helping out a couple of hours behind a reg desk it all adds up.

Nyco

[Squall]

@ Kekame

As I've stated before and in other threads, we tend to cater to the audience demand...and sadly, the majority seem to want anything yaoi.  We're looking for ways to severely reduce the amount of yaoi.  Some constructive criticism has already been given to us, and some people have given us some good ideas, which we are discussing.

I personally can't think of anything we did onstage that would have been rated 18+.  There was no cursing (we even went so far as to change Greed's "pierceable ass" line to "pierceable behind" and changed "hit me in the nuts" to "hit me in the junk").  Yes there was innuendo in the filler, but it still wasn't really 18+ by most standards.  Humorous spanking such as seen onstage would easily be classified as pg-13 by the movie ratings board.

I'm sorry that you don't find yaoi entertaining so much, but the sad reality is that most of the people in the audience do.  :?   Granted, as I said, we are looking for ways to severely reduce it in our performances.  We too, are getting tired of using yaoi jokes, despite it's demand from the crowd.

Anyway, thank you for your input. =)

[Rushifa]

-bakazoku.  Seriously, I love these guys, but this year everything just felt overdone.  Maybe I've just been to too many of the panels, so I hear stories told (differently) over and over again.  But I was generally not impressed with the post-contest show.  It was funny, yes, but it got old fast.  On the same note, I thought the whole mystery thing simply didn't make sense.  It was a cool idea, but did the clues actually connect to anything?  I went to closing ceremony, and I saw the presentation, but I'm still trying to figure out how the clues had any relevency.  Lots of love, and better luck next time!

Which part of the post contest show?  Our skit, the the filler after it, or both?  We're thinking about having two or three skits ready to go (instead of just one) so there's less filler afterwards while the judges do their stuff.

To help reduce yaoi (which sadly, the audience always wants), an idea has been mentioned to get more girls onstage....finding ones with potential is the only real problem there.  We may hold auditions for female extras onstage and such.

As for the mystery, it's something we had only been working on the last month or two, and that's around our work schedules...so at most we were only able to meet up once a week.  The director of programming loved the idea, and had been looking for something to replace the aging scavenger hunt, so we decided to give it a go.  The clues revealed that the ghost was indeed not a "ghost", and pointed to what the ghost was after....Grover Cleveland's treasure (random, huh?).  We would have loved to add more clues to the list to lead to this, but time and money constraints hampered that (not to mention I was the one making all the clues, and even the ghost costume).  Personally, I think we could have implemented it all better had we started planning earlier.  It was a great idea with lots of potential, but even I'll admit we could have done better.  Will we try it again and try to make it better?  Don't know right now... We may just come up with something new for next year if we're invited back, and hopefully we'll have done alot more planning for it.

Thanks for your constructive criticism.  

I was refering mainly to the filler, and I know alot of that is just you guys going and tyring to do your best to entertain a huge, tired, overheating crowd.  I actually don't remember the skit at all...but I was pretty out of it by the end.  

I think there should definately be more girls on stage, but then, you can't really help the way a group forms.  I don't really have any useful ideas for cutting down on the yaoi, since the fangirls seem to like it so.  Just bare in mind that not everyone squeals so easily  :wink:

As for the mystery, as I said, it was a nifty idea, it just felt like it fell a little short.  This time, anyway.  I really liked the idea of having clues hidden around for people to find, and I'm sure with more planning and forthought it could really be a hit.  Well, good luch for next con, hope none of my comments came off as too offensive!

@Kekame, about the levels in the cosplay contest.  I can't be sure, since you'll have to ask a judge for the first-hand opinion, but a question similar to yours was brought up at the Ask the Experts panel.  From what I remember the judges saying, when the contest is devided up the way you mentioned (Novice, Journeyman, Expert), there are often alot of contestents who end up in the wrong category.  Everyone has a different idea of what fits these sections, and apparantly there can be alot of confussion.  Since the judges can usually tell just by inspecting the costume, I think this year they took all that in to consideration individually, and judged with it in mind.  From what I saw, the judging seemed pretty fair.

[FizzTheCarbonated]

For those that asked, yes Bakazoku mostly just talk during their panels. It's not an act though, Brian will begin to discuss genitalia in the middle of a small dinner party, so I'm sure the others do as well :p

>_>....giggity! lol

That's pretty much what our panels are though....us making people laugh with stories of our weekend exploits, taking questions from audience members, etc.  I've already mentioned to Joe the possibility of adding some kind of game to future panels (I've already thought of one that has potential).  But honestly, we'd rather not rip off the format of Whose Line, like some other comedy groups rely upon.

Argh, this is a pet peeve of mine...  The 404's (who I am assuming you are talking about, since no other group does improv comedy at cons like they do) are NOT ripping off of "Whose Line is it Anyway?".  They practice a style of improv comedy that came out of Chicago in the 60's and 70's, called Theater Sports.  It is based on audience participation, short, fast moving skits, and comedy.  There is another school of improv that developed at about the same time, that involves longer skits (sometimes full-play length) and tends to be more serious.  This group puts on what are essentially improvised plays, rather than short comedy sketches.

The original Whose Line (the one aired in England) was simply taking the Theater Sports outline and putting it on TV.  The one in America just made an American version of the English show.  Whose Line did NOT invent Theater Sports, they just made it popular.  The reason I suspect that the 404's say in their introduction that what they do is like Whose Line is because that's what people associate with improv now.  If they asked how many people had seen a Theater Sports show, almost no one would know what they were talking about.  Most large cities have at least one group that does improv comedy in the Theater Sports style.  There's one that performs at Pike Place Market in my city of Seattle.  Ryan Stiles actually does improv shows in Bellingham, I think.  None of these groups are ripping off Whose Line.  Many of them were around before the American Whose Line was even aired.

If you were referring to someone other than the 404's, then fine.  I just get sick of people assuming that since they do short, skit-based improv comedy they must have gotten the idea from Whose Line, rather than, I dunno, one of the improv troupes that perform Theater Sports around the country.

Can ya tell I was a drama student?

[superjaz]

thhe audienc wouldnt let them get far from yaoi it seems it me (a over 21 female not obsessed withh yaoi) , it gets to a point get the people what they want
can openers!!

[Squall]

@ Fizz

I wasn't referring to the 404's directly, though they are one of the groups I have seen over the years that use that style.  I'm not talking about just at anime conventions, but regular, everyday, non-anime events and shows as well.  I referred to it as the "format" of Whose Line because that's how people know the comedy style.  Yes,  I know the style has been around long before the creation of Whose Line, but as you said, if you ask someone about Theater Sports, nobody will know what you're talking about.  The reason I say Whose Line is the same as why the 404's mention it in their introductions....because that's what people associate with that style of improv comedy now.  Not that we have anything against the 404's, as we're actually friends and on quite good terms with them.  At conventions both groups are at, we attend eachothers parties, hang out, talk, etc.   While our styles of comedy greatly differ, we actually get along quite well.  

[Squall]

the audience wouldnt let them get far from yaoi it seems it me (a over 21 female not obsessed withh yaoi) , it gets to a point get the people what they want
can openers!!

This is true. x_x  We really didn't want to resort to constant yaoi antics, but the crowd kept screaming for more. x_x

[FizzTheCarbonated]

Alright, I can understand why you wouldn't want to start another Theater Sports group (kinda.  I love theater sports myself, and don't know why you WOULDN'T want to start a theater sports group ^_~), it's just a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people say the 404's are just ripping off Whose Line.  It's like...  I dunno, someone saying that Gundam Seed is ripping off of Evangelion, since both have giant robots, when they don't realize that there were Gundam series back before Eva came out.

Glad to have that cleared up, and I hope I at least educated a few people on the general history of improv comedy.

Cheers!

Edited because I while I have an idea what "leather sports" are, and I might like them, but they are not what I was talking about in this post.

[ObiJay]

the audience wouldnt let them get far from yaoi it seems it me (a over 21 female not obsessed withh yaoi) , it gets to a point get the people what they want
can openers!!

This is true. x_x  We really didn't want to resort to constant yaoi antics, but the crowd kept screaming for more. x_x

Of COURSE you didn't Captain Trouser Snake.

[kekame]

Wah~! I don't mean to come off bluntly!!! I really love everybody!

@Kekame, about the levels in the cosplay contest.  I can't be sure, since you'll have to ask a judge for the first-hand opinion, but a question similar to yours was brought up at the Ask the Experts panel.  From what I remember the judges saying, when the contest is devided up the way you mentioned (Novice, Journeyman, Expert), there are often alot of contestents who end up in the wrong category.  Everyone has a different idea of what fits these sections, and apparantly there can be alot of confussion.  Since the judges can usually tell just by inspecting the costume, I think this year they took all that in to consideration individually, and judged with it in mind.  From what I saw, the judging seemed pretty fair.

I see your point. ^_^

Not that this really applies to me at all, but I was just suggesting that maybe there should be a special award for first-timers? Like a beginner award? I guess I'm just a person that likes to encourage people to step up and try new stuff.

Anyways, I have absolutely no arguement with you. The people that won were fantastic entertainment and 100% deserved it!

@ Kekame

As I've stated before and in other threads, we tend to cater to the audience demand...and sadly, the majority seem to want anything yaoi.  We're looking for ways to severely reduce the amount of yaoi.  Some constructive criticism has already been given to us, and some people have given us some good ideas, which we are discussing.

I personally can't think of anything we did onstage that would have been rated 18+.  There was no cursing (we even went so far as to change Greed's "pierceable ass" line to "pierceable behind" and changed "hit me in the nuts" to "hit me in the junk").  Yes there was innuendo in the filler, but it still wasn't really 18+ by most standards.  Humorous spanking such as seen onstage would easily be classified as pg-13 by the movie ratings board.

I'm sorry that you don't find yaoi entertaining so much, but the sad reality is that most of the people in the audience do.  :?   Granted, as I said, we are looking for ways to severely reduce it in our performances.  We too, are getting tired of using yaoi jokes, despite it's demand from the crowd.

Anyway, thank you for your input. =)

I might have done the same thing? I mean, it puts you in a really hard spot to entertain an anxious audience for 45 min as they are growing more impatient for the results... and yeah, you have to do what the audience wants, or else people are gonna go nuts... I dunno what to say really, except that the majority of people rabidly screaming "yaoi yaoi!!!" were far too young to buy it.

For the record, the beginning skit part and the whole scooby doo drama I thought was really funny and cute. Keep it up on that end. Inuendos are great fun, and I could care less how many times you say "ass" so long as no one's touching anyone else's while onstage.

I didn't mean to be offensive to you guys, and in general you guys are great as pleasing the crowd. I really appreciate the sacrifices you are making to keep things cleaner and more original.

Cosplay -

Yes there was some inapproperate things that happened. One of which I was too stunned to catch in time and will add to the cosplay rules for next year. But seriously - have you seen Sakuracon's cosplay? They're more family friendly than we are and they had two guys making out in one skit among other things. The truth is I was programming director (a 60 hour a week job) and cosplay manager (about a 30 hour a week job) and going to school full time - not to mention working. Overworked does not begin to describe it. You want to see cosplay better next year - you be cosplay manager or staff, volunteer, something to take some pressure off the rest of us so we can do our job.

I know all about it, as I was actually part of that cosplay contest at SC 05 when the guys kissed onstage. Those guys didn't TELL anyone what they were gonna do. Not that I can say this for sure, but if you ask Sakura-con, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't say, "Oh yeah, we condoned that!"

Anyways, I don't really think anything inappropriate happened in any of the skits I saw. I said I thought Bakazoku's spanking was inappropriate and that people pulled out yaoi any time they had nothing better to do. As a side note, I wouldn't cosplay the Ouran twins if I completely hated yaoi, I'm just saying I thought it was overdone. Or maybe the only reason it got old was that it seemed like an incessant amount of preteen fangirls sat behind me screaming "yaoi yaoi!" the entire time regardless of who was onstage or what was going on.

Kumori-con's cosplay contest I thought, was ran absolutely great. I liked the fact that you allowed us to sink back into the audience afterwards - a luxury denied at above stated con. People were totally cool about stuff even though we had a bunch of special requests for our skit. You mentioned in the morning, that everything was still in the process of coming together, but in the end, quality of entertainmentwise it was the best cosplay contest I've watched. I think you guys did a great job, and I much prefer the laid back atmosphere of Kumori-con than I did to the environment of Sakura-con 2005.

And way end of story: you guys did great! *mwah* it looked like you were stressed, but it turned out absolutely awesome I had lots of fun! Sorry if any wording made it seem anything otherwise.



Aside from that I forgot to mention:

WOOT DEALERS ROOM! WOOT ARTIST ALLEY!

Woot for the dance too, but... more slow songs please? I'm in a hot costume and its tiring so a slow one is a welcome break! <3

[Negima]

WOOT DEALERS ROOM! WOOT ARTIST ALLEY!

Woot for the dance too, but... more slow songs please? I'm in a hot costume and its tiring so a slow one is a welcome break! <3

I agree with you on all accounts here.

I thought the dealers room really improved.  Someone on the forum (I forget who) said they didn't like it very much and it had a lot of the same stuff but I think it all depends in what you're looking for.  For example I'll talk about wall scrolls.  Several booths sold wall scrolls but if you looked carefully there were different kinds at different booths.  The 2 Negima wall scrolls I bought were only at one booth.
Then there were similar plushies but depending on when and where the price would be different.  I bought one plushie originally $12 for $9 and saw another booth selling the same for $20 on the last day.  If it's one thing I learned while walking around art fairs it's to look around, see something you like, and see if you can find something similar for a better price.

The artist alley was really cool.  I liked looking around at all the different works and meeting the people there.

And yes on more slow songs.  I only heard one while I was there (maybe two but you couldn't really slow dance to it).  Plus I'm sure there are some slow Anime songs which would be kinda nice.