I had such fun at my first convention (hopefully, it won't be the last, but politics right now are scaring me to death) that I want to immortalize my memories on the internet beyond my social media posts on Facebook, Twitter and BlueSky.
As soon as I got in, I made a beeline for the 5th floor, knowing that's where the meet and greets were. I had an almost need-like feeling to meet Tara Platt, she has helped and encouraged me a lot over Twitter and Edelgard helped me deal with my feelings of beating on a brick wall, desiring change in a rigid society, as well as surviving fear and sadness by letting it out. I told her Edelgard was invaluable during 2020 and that I like Kali Belladonna and Sailor Moon's Mom and we got a picture with my Edelgard and Byleth plushies and her holding my Mitsuru figurine, which I told her I got on eBay. I saw how massive her husband, Yuri Lowenthal's, line was, and decided to come back when it thinned out. It never did, but since they were by the water fountains, I passed by multiple times refilling a water bottle.
I then met Brittney Karbowski, the voice of Wendy Marvell in Fairy Tail, Camie in My Hero Academia and Citrinne in Fire Emblem Engage. She was exuberant and gave me and another person and herself mints, and was overjoyed to see my Wendy plush and take a picture with it. I had pretty much run out of money and later made the mistake of buying 2 Persona CDs from a vendor, which put me in the red temporarily until I got paid next, which was especially irritating because in hindsight I just wanted one, but couldn't have known that because the track listing was inside the CD package, so I thought I was buying heavy metal interpretations of Persona 3 and 4, instead of just 5 with one sung by men and one sung by women. I told Brittney I liked Wendy, Camie, Citrinne and one of the artists who made her prints, later remembering after the con that I had commissioned them for a Wendy and Erza artwork.
And this is an artwork I mentioned to Brittney at the convention.
I then went over and saw the lines for Barbara Dunkelman and Arryn Zech of RWBY weren't so long, so I went to Barbara and complemented Yang, Blake, Bumbleby and also mentioned I liked the pictures of her up to her neck in packing peanuts, they make me think of the Homsar quote "IIIIIiiiIIII Bathe Myself in the Shipping Supplies!"
I then went to Arryn Zech and complemented Blake and Yang and Bumbleby again, also mentioning I just met Tara, who plays her character's mom and that I love Kali and Blake. I also asked if she was okay (she had had some hard times, which is why she's not on social media anymore) and she said she was.
Erika Harlacher wasn't there (and by the time she was, she had built up a line similar to Yuri's), so I went to see Dawn M. Bennett, who plays Frosch in Fairy Tail, Elm in RWBY, Shez in Fire Emblem Warriors; Three Hopes, Nabbit in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and dubbed Hiroko Asami in Shin Ultraman. We chatted about Shin Ultraman, her character enlarging being a reference to Episode 33, Chris Hackney also being in the dub and him and Matthew Mercer being in Legend of Zelda; Tears of the Kingdom.
After that, I saw mostly long lines for the people I wanted to talk to, so I browsed the vendors and looked at cosplays. There was a woman dressed as Makoto Niijima from Persona 5, a few Princess Peaches, a lady dressed as Aqua from Konosuba, a man dressed as Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls, a Pikachu-Among Us crossover cosplay, many people dressed as Shinobu from Demon Slayer (hoping to meet Erika Harlacher, I presume), a pair of brothers dressed as Fire Mario and Fire Luigi, a man in a Bowser costume and 3 women with Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus wigs, though the Sailor Moon one's clothes suggested she was doubling up and also Android 18, and Mercury could've been doubling up as Bulma and Venus doubling up as ChiChi, I don't know Bulma and ChiChi's outfits so well. There was also a woman in a red wig and a black bunny suit who could've been Erza Scarlet, but if so, they forgot the guild mark on her arm and cosplayers tend to be more detail-oriented than that.
There was a bunch of merchandise, mostly Funko Pops, but there was a small music store as mentioned above briefly. They also had the soundtrack to the original "Mother" game on CD, or "Earthbound Beginnings," as it's also known. Some vendor was selling expensive giant monster action figures, with Gamera 2023, a Godzilla, Kiryu and two Megazords from Power Rangers. The nerd in me got a little annoyed that the Power Rangers figures were labeled "Astro Megazord" and "Gouryujin," when I like Megaranger better than Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Season 1 better that Zyuranger (though "Gouryujin" is a better name than "Dragonzord in Battle Mode").
I also checked out the 3rd Floor gaming center, but didn't play until 5:00 pm, when I was waiting for my uncle to pick me up. I went to the end of the "Attack on Titan" panel to catch the Naruto panel. There, I saw a lot of the voice actors behind the show, and while I've only been exposed through the fighting games, it was fun to see Tara Platt talk about her craft with her husband, Yuri Lowenthal, as well as Kate Higgins and Neil Kaplan. Tara and Yuri revealed that the show had gotten their son interested in learning "Drunken Fist" style Wushu Kung Fu, Yuri revealing that the overarching story of Naruto is great, he does wish Sasuke let go of his vengeance quest earlier and Tara also revealed she grew up without a TV or video games, yet she is the one who decided Yuri and her should do voice acting to pay the bills (Yuri, who grew up the opposite, is embarrassed he didn't think of it), as well as a tip for voice directors, let actors know who the character is supposed to be before the session, or if they seem out of character during the session, she once did a session and at the end, the director said "This doesn't work, let's do the whole thing over differently." Neil Kaplan also talked a bit about how he was Optimus Prime in Transformers; Robots in Disguise (2001 Anime) and wishes he was "Full-Budget Peter Cullen" instead of "Budget Peter Cullen." He also mentioned he was called Eeyore growing up and since he and Peter Cullen have voiced both, he sees Eeyore as "Depressed Optimus Prime." "All right, Megatron, you can take over the world."
Afterwards, I went back to the 5th floor and got to meet Kate Higgins, where I complimented her performance as Purah in the latest Legend of Zelda games. After this, I went back to the third floor and wrapped up the day playing video games; a WWE game, Smash Bros. Ultimate, Gunstar Heroes and Turtles in Time. I saw they had a new Rock Band game and I wanted to sing, but I was too shy, plus I wasn't sure the microphone was working, there wasn't a player attached to it or scrolling lyrics and I only heard one song being sung. Oh, well, I have Rock Band 3 and Beatles; Rock Band at home. Overall, an amazing event and I hope to have more like it in the future.
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