I WENT TO ANIME MATSURI in Houston!!! AS A VOLUNTEER! It was possibly the greatest time of my life. Before you go judging that my life must be pretty sad, at least get into the meat of what I have to say first before you judge the dish!
It all started here.
I was offered a chance to work with my good friend at an event called Street Fighter V: Beat a Pro. The gist of it was that we flew a Japanese Street Fighter pro over and he sat down and played anyone who payed 5 dollars at a chance to win a copy of Street Fighter V. If you don't win, you still have the money you pay donated to Texas Children's Hospital, as well as getting entered into a raffle for free stuff. It was really fun; I met a lot of people who knew they weren't going to win, but entered anyways to donate. My heart grew 3 sizes larger that day.
it
sure is
empty in here
It was surreal. The whole experience I mean. Watching a convention build itself from the ground up was a sight to see; From empty giant warehouse to a warehouse full of life and lots of merchandise. It was awesome. Day One my friend Ethan and I met up with the heads of some of the departments there and we had helped the logistics team bring in sets for cosplay photography. It was interesting seeing a whole team of people bring in what looked like walls and pieces of a castle.
Pictured here is SFV Beat a Pro Prototype A. My good friend Ethan and I waited around until our translator, Dane, got their. Really cool guy. When we finally got to meet Tonpy around a whole hour after he was scheduled to, we decided to do 'button tests'. Namely just dicking around and setting up SFV to play some rounds. Not pictured above is Tonpy bodying everyone. Oh, also he gave us Green Tea Kit-Kats from Japan. Really nice fella. Also saw a bunch of Japanese guests running around that day in the hotel.
My friend explicitly looking at me after finding out our dinners will not be covered for by Anime Matsuri. Also Dane and Tonpy.
I believe there were 145 dollar choices on the menu, but for some reason only took a picture of these.
Afterwards, we went out for dinner at this place called Three Forks. We didn't really choose the place, but my friend and I tagged along for the ride. This is one of those places where it's assumed the patrons will be sipping on liquid gold, so they have wine glasses set on the table just for that. Oh! I didn't mention that we were also eating out with three of the Japanese guests. An animation group called MADHOUSE, with two of the members sitting with us; the storyboard artist and character designer. Insanely cool people. As well as RamRider, a Japanese DJ, and Tonpy of course, our guest for SFV Beat a Pro. IT WAS CRAZY MAN. I'm not sure how everyone else was taking it, but I was sort of freaking out. Three celeb figures from Japan, and I, some kid from a rural town, eating overpriced 90 dollar steaks with them! Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy? Besides our guests, our other lovely friends Dane, Rei, and Jasmine were sitting with us as well. I sat on the end with all the Japanese guests, and oh boy the language barrier was real that night. Although we did get some words across in the end, and we talked mainly about video games and anime lmao. They showed me some of their drawings for Death Parade, which I recently checked out.
a sneaky peaky at our hotel roomy
Afterwards we just went back to our hotel, and that was the end of Day One. Day Two consisted of spending literally all morning putting up a huge projector screen. The result of being behind schedule by a few hours, it took 4 other volunteers and I to finally get it up and functioning. The only thing it needed was an actual projector. Of course, right?
pictured above is one of AnimeMatsuri's seven marvels.
LOOK AT THAT BASTARD. The saddest part being is that we built it, but it saw no use that day. It idly sat that mockingly, 5 hours of labor laid to ruin. Despite my heavy bitching, I did get the meet some other volunteers that day, so it was awesome. Oh, and that prototype of the booth we had? We made a few adjustments and set up 4 TVs and setups with Street Fighter V. Had a lot of people coming by on first day; got to know a few as well. Even ran into this guy.
That's right. Brolylegs and his brother came by. The hypest Chun to ever Chun. It was so cool seeing this man at work. I even got a to play a few matches; immediately bodied me. Before our first match, I even told him how I felt. "Oh shit, I'm scared." He reassured me and said, "Don't be scared." Wow.
WHAT A FUCKING LIE THIS MAN IS SCARY AND WILL DESTROY YOU
It was still a really cool experience. His brother is really good as well. A Nash player, although I didn't get to play him. :(
Afterwards, I just watched the booth for a good while until my bud Ethan came back. Afterwards I sort of just chilled around.
im not sure what this is or was
At around 12 that night, I was told there was a Nerdlesque. A burlesque for nerds. I've never heard of the word burlesque, but boy was I in for a pleasant surprise. The whole thing was dirty jokes and strip teasing, with lots of game references and stuff. Best night ever; hearts and nuts were stolen. Stella Chu still has my heart. Breakfast cosplay. <3 Oh, and also met this random guy from the area who knew a lot about the performers. Even knew some of the performers personally, as he frequents their burlesque. I thought that was sort of random and coincidental. They actually have a place in Houston, but I couldn't tell you where. I sat with him, but I couldn't remember his name for the life of me, I'm sorry gent! Afterwards I believe is when we went to get some ice cream. We went to a shop recommended to us by a waiter. It was cool; Tonpy, Ethan, Dane, and I sat down for some scoops and chatted about how America gets way more ice cream than Japan does in their scoops. I wish I took a picture of it.
Afterwards, after the storm came the calm. I happened to catch a rare sight of the hotel. Empty, and not a soul in sight. Really different from the humdrum of its usual caterers, so I decided to at least capture this for myself and for you as well. Nice, right? It's at the Hilton, which I should've mentioned but whatever. Went back to the hotel and went back to sleep for the next day.
some oraora cosplay, the gender bend Joseph is godlike
After getting back to our booth, we started to set up. It takes us five minutes when we don't have to set up TVs and TV stands. During the early morning break before we actually opened up the shop, a couple of vendors popped by. A gentlemen by the name of James Ghio aka Jimbobox, his girlfriend, and this really awesome artist who I can't remember the name of but I'm thinking it's Rudy (I'm sorry man, I really do hope you find this blog by some intervention of god) came by to play some Street Fighter. Jimbobox did some art for the UDON, the guys who do the Street Fighter comics, and Rudy is straight badass. After playing a few matches, Rudy wanted some runbacks, so I told him I'd be waiting. Ah man, if only we got them. Hey man, if you're reading this, I'm still waiting. My fighter ID is priv_bryan. Also, I'm eternally grateful for the One Punch Man print, I can't read your signature at all lmao.
After, we went and saw a concert..
After the day settled down, and we finally got to cool down time, my friend told me there was going to be a concert, and Tonpy is more than on board for that.
Morning Musume
Tonpy turns out to be a big Morning Musume fan. I asked my boss man if I could go with, and he agreed to let me. Sadly Ethan couldn't be with us, but he at least got to see it. BUT NOT AT THE FRONT WITH ME AND TONPY. AHAHHAHA sorry. Actually, I wasn't at the front at first. But I did strike a conversation with a man who is from Chicago. He's actually very Scottish, as his accent is apparently heavy. He's told me that he once went to Golden Week in Japan (Sometime in April) and saw 20 Morning Musume concerts. We three talked a bit more, and I told him this was actually my first concert ever, besides classical ones. He was very surprised. When the concert started..
is this real life wow
He pushed me to the front. This was seriously as anime as it gets, as I turned around and he told me, "This is your first concert, and you're going to be at the front!" At this point in my life, I just had to ask myself, "Am I in some sort of show? Is this real life?" As I thought this to myself, the lights began to flash, and Morning Musume came out with their first song. What a show. Everyone was lively. All our souls combined into one idol worshiping machine and this machine was oiled up! That was the worst metaphor I could possibly pull out of the bag, but I felt it! My good friend Tonpy felt it, too. He knew all the words, and swung his glow stick in all the right ways. Also, he told me in Japan, they couldn't take pictures or videos during concerts. I thought this was strange. Even more interesting is Tonpy taking a million pictures during the concert. It was pretty funny to watch. Also he chanted USA on the bits where Morning Musume was wearing an American flag. It was glorious to watch. As I was watching and shouting and embarrassing myself, there was a camera rolling around the front of the audience. Look for me on the special features of Morning Musume '16 at Houston.
 |
| bumpin |
Afterwards, around 12, there was a rave that night. It featured RamRider, and it was certainly LIVELY. It fucking rocked. I only remember one other instance where I could feel the bass through my whole body, and this is the most memorable one. He did a lot of remixes on songs from video games and anime that night. It was super chill. He did a song with Ken's Theme from Street Fighter, the main theme of Final Fantasy, among others. I faintly remember the Cowboy Bebop OP song too. Besides that, he also played music from his own album, Audio Galaxy. Here's a single he did, I couldn't find anything from Audio Galaxy. But really, listen to his stuff. It's great. I really loved Goodbye. Besides good music, there were a shit load of dance offs and congo lines. Is this what people do at raves? Jesus Christ, I cannot handle this many congo lines.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel. Found out we had a new roomie as well. Stephen I believe was his name, but really interesting cat. He had ordered some Chinese, but couldn't stomach any food because of a food virus. I hope you're feeling better bud! We had a lot of good times roomie, and by a lot I mean one night! Oh yeah, the day after, guess who came to see us..
 |
| pictured is the projector actually being used. It drew crowds man, modern marvel. |
Okay, he didn't come for us, but he did come by us. Anywho, he went to the booth to play against Tonpy. Ram Rider himself. Look how trendy he is with his weird cat shirt. He mashed pretty hard, but it was funny to watch. The motion blue on Ram Rider's hands were cranked up to 10 man. Afterwards, Mark, who ran another convention dropped by as well. Also, we're up to Sunday now, the last day of the convention. Afterwards, Ethan, Dane, and I just chilled while we let volunteers watch the booth. We went over to the arcade being hosted on the other side and played a few rounds. I unfortunately do not have footage of my friend Dane playing, but he is a godlike rhythm game player. He does not play osu, but he plays literally everything else. He's usually top 5 in the leader boards for music games and no I am not making this man up. He's in the .4% of the leader boards for Puzzles and Dragons, and is a lowkey god damn genius. Like what the fuck Dane, show off a bit more man. You deserve it. Anywho, last day we chilled and Dane accompanied me around the convention and gave me pro tips, which I will share with you today.
1. Don't buy shit at a convention unless you know it's rare.
Most of the stuff will be marked up at weeaboo pricing, so be wary! A lot of the merch besides t-shirts and stuff can be bought online for cheap; lots of figures can be won for about 100 yen in Japan in crane games. We don't have that, so use Amazon.
2. Be careful with Eroge purchases, some of them are only an hour long.
I don't know this from personal experience, but I heard that if you go to an eroge shop there, only buy what will be worth your money.
And that's it. Just be careful I guess for a tl;dr. Besides convention tips, my friend Dane was sharing some life stories. Teachers told him he couldn't learn Japanese, and he a good chunk of his life proving them wrong. It was a bit longer than that, but I do keep that story close to my heart.
Besides that, we finally wrapped up the convention and was invited to staff only dinner. Look at this dish. Does it not look like you can just buy the ingredients at an HEB for 10 dollars and serve it up? It was delicious nonetheless, though. Just surprisingly simple. During dinner, my friend Dane and I talked to Tonpy and taught him dem fighting words. "I will body you all" and "You are all free." Tonpy jokingly said he will get on the microphone and say those very words at Evo2k16. Praise based god, let this happen.
The day after, Monday, we spend the morning saying our goodbyes to everyone. We even got some Japanese barbecue on the way back. A first for me, it was really interesting cooking the meat in front of you. Very efficient. My fingers are getting tired of typing.
SO
Merch. I got me a Senjougohara Hitagi figure, a Street Fighter Ryu shirt, a Hori Stick, two mangas, and a One Punch Man print that I will treasure forever. As well as a picture with Bryan Tee.
I swear I'm missing a lot of things here, but the stuff I haven't written down here were just as memorable. Besides the sweet merch, I've been given so many memories that I will no doubt remember for the rest of my life. Thank you Anime Matsuri, all the volunteers, and everyone who came. The times I've shared with you all are my favorite take homes from the con.
Also we raised $2000 dollars for the charity, booya!
Also we raised $2000 dollars for the charity, booya!
I'm tired of writing, so I'll end this now.
I've watched an anime or two, but I'll save it for next week. ;)
Goals:
*Applied for UT
(x)Working on the LP
*Did some marketing (no really i did)
*Transfer Day at the college made this easy
(x)Two pounds is hard. I lost a pound
(x)Did not get two runs, but got one
(x)Did not get two runs, but got one
*Finished quiz
*Watched some Ergo Proxy
*Did some of Yakuza 5
*Worked a little on the english lyrics
Next Week:
*I'm taking a break! ^^' Playing it by ear this time. I'll give ya an actual list next time.
*I'm taking a break! ^^' Playing it by ear this time. I'll give ya an actual list next time.
And that's it. Thank you to anyone who read this far; it means a lot to me. Thanks to anyone who even looked at this, it means a lot to me. Infinite thank yous. See you next week, space cowboy. Bryan out.
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