Convention Report!

Okay, so this is just going to be briefly about my past weekend. Probably.

I went to an anime convention called Anime Detour over the weekend. Largest one in the State of Minnesota, and it is probably the largest one for 400 miles in any direction (which, coincidentally, is the approximate distance from Minneapolis to Chicago). You have to purchase your passes at least 4 months early because their 3000 weekend pass limit is basically the max number of people they can have at the event at the hotel it is at, which is also the largest convention-friendly hotel for 400 miles.

Anyway, I attended the fewest panels I've attended at any anime convention for this one, primarily because I didn't get there until 8 PM Friday night. I did do quite a bit of shopping and lazing about hotel rooms, though.

Anyway, Friday night I got in about 8 into my hotel room and drove over to the con, caught up with my circle at some Utau no Prince-sama comedy panel, made a run to Target for Wii remotes and other things, then we went to back to their hotel room and played Super Mario Bros Wii U for a while, before heading to an "introductory" panel on hentai (btw, if you ever see an "introductory" panel on the stuff, it's probably not an introductory panel - your sensibilities will be offended - it will probably be some very ridiculous and offensive material that's not exactly in the mainstream for tastes in the slightest) late in the night, and then lazed about their hotel room until 3 AM before I went back to my own awesome 2 room suite. Mine was infinitely superior to their "suite", which was a single room with a single TV (my brother booked that room) and a pull out couch for the second bed.

We woke up around 10 the next morning and went to the dealer's room. We browsed for quite a while, and I'll cover what I got later in a huge photo rush at the end of the blog. Anyway, back ot the day. Myself and the girl from the group caught a Pokemon Adventures panel, then the guy from our group sought us out after the panel and ditched my brother because my brother was playing Magic. We proceeded to the room where this "make anime eyes glasses" panel was going on, but it was packed for its small size, so the 3 of us went to get lunch and ditched my brother since he was probably still playing Magic. If any of you have heard of it, we went to Culver's, which is a better fast food burger place than pretty much all the major national chains that's basically spread across the midsection of the country from Texas all the way up to Minnesota. I had their bacon deluxe burger and a root beer float, because those foods of theirs are amazing.

We then returned to the hotel to play more Super Mario Bros Wii U, while my brother was probably still playing Magic, and he did not join us until sometime later. We then proceeded to laze about before finally getting some energy and initiative to go somewhere at about 8 from my craving for Chili's. We spent about 2 hours there (I had the spicy shrimp tacos) and just barely made the cut for Horrors of Anime: The Movie, a panel basically poking fun at the mainstream media's opinions and coverage of anime and its fans over the years as well as poking fun at anime fans. The second half of the panel basically turned into a clip show where they showed very offensive and violent anime clips. We then went to the PG-13 panel of the Horrors of Anime panel afterward and listened to them talk about the weird convention stories from years past and all that. After that was lazing around their hotel room until 3 AM again before going to bed.

Sunday morning we actually woke up early enough to get the continental breakfast from the hotel and check out. We went over to the convention and then spent most of the day shopping, which is actually the day I spent most of my money. Some of the group caught a panel on the lolita style, which I sat in on for the last 10 minutes of because I was tired of shopping. We wanted to make some more panels afterward, but 1/2 of the group was too preoccupied playing Magic (my brother and the other guy in the group) while the other half was too lazy to make any panels (myself and the girl in the group). We left early because we were starting to really get burned out. Most of my free time since has been spent unpacking, assessing everything I bought this weekend, and lazing about in recovery because I was also away for the whole 5 days before the convention on a business trip in another state.

I managed to street pass about 140 additional people at this convention, which is more than the previous 2 conventions I went to combined. Those had me at about 100.

Oh, uh, my Favorite Set Poll thing is still going on, too. It's in Week 8, and the final poll will be posted up in about 24 hours. The final will run for two weeks and will determine what set is PC's favorite! Be sure to check out the Pokemon Trading Card Game section to vote in these! Actually a pretty accessible poll. Provide your vote and post your reason for it, even if it's a simple reason! /obligatory section plug

And now for the thing you were all waiting for - the pictures of my goodies!

Saturday Booth 1:


Saturday Booth 2:


Saturday Booth 3:


Sunday Booth 1:


Sunday Booth 2 Trip 1:


Sunday Booth 3:


Sunday Booth 4:


Sunday Booth 5:


Sunday Booth 6:


Sunday Booth 2 (final trip since the horde of people at their booth cleared out so I could browse more easily):


Freebie from friend:


The Convention's Official Shirt they sold for 2014:


Bonus - Some things I spotted at Target and bought:


Bonus 2 - Some Xbox 360 Controllers I bought on my way out to the Con:


Okay, that was more than "brief", whoops. Oh well. It was oodles of fun even with being too lazy to make panels. I highly recommend giving going to conventions a try with your friends.

I'd also like to note that despite all of what I bought at the con, I was on the verge of buying even more things, such as a wall clock and several more character figurines. I may have a bit of an impulse spending problem, haha.