CNAnime 2001

by Daniel Kurland

I woke up early next morning to see the premiere screening of the "Babidi: Descent" video. This was aired in English because the DVDs are not out yet. I must say I am generally pleased with what I saw. I kept an eye out for Mike McFarland’s Pui Pui (I am sure you can think of many jokes to go along with that sentence) and it was pretty good. Dabura’s voice though is simply amazing. I also got to hear the world renowned "Pink Hat Guy", Jon Allen at his best ,heh. I know many of you have probably heard that, but it simply is fantastic. The hilarity of the "Rock, paper, scissors scene" was just as funny and all the original names were kept intact including Babidi’s "Paparra Pa". I quickly rushed out of theater because Blue Gender was played a few minutes before DBZ ended in another theatre. When I made it to the theatre I found out the con did not receive Blue Gender so they were playing the last 2 episodes of Cowboy Bebop subtitled. I was kind of disappointed but I was very impressed with Bebop’s last 2 episodes. If you have never seen them, check them out. They will definitely blow you away. It was truly a good end to a good series. I also found out that "Blood: The Last Vampire" was canceled and replaced with "Ah! My Goddess" Episodes 1-3.

I then went on a spending spree at this point and purchased the 2nd Trigun CD, a DBZ Wallscroll showcasing EVERY single character (No, that isn’t an exaggeration). I also bought a kickass DBZ over-shirt which showcases Vegeta. I paid Scott another visit and I got him to sign my poster for me and explained to him who the Great Saiyaman was. This time I had my camera and I got a few pictures with him (I got some pictures taken with Eric and Chris yesterday as well). I then visited Mika Akitaka and I got him to autograph my limited edition picture I received of him when I entered the con. I also got him to sign one for Aaron Davidson (FUNi’s ADR looper) because Aaron just did a HUGE favor for me and I appreciate it a lot. Aaron is a pretty awesome guy as well. Mika however did not speak English and I unfortunately found this out the hard way after having a long chat with him and his responses were "OK" and "English no". Well, he looked pretty cool, that’s all I can say.

I am a huge "Love Hina" fan and the first 2 episodes were premiering. Unfortunately another 100 people also seemed to be huge fans, so I did not get into its screening. I really didn’t have much to do at this point so I went shopping again. 2 Slayers Cels were being sold for 2 dollars each and only 1000 were made of each design. I sprung on this and it was probably the best deal at the entire con. I also bought some more Trigun stuff. You have to love that crazy Vash.

Next thing on my agenda was the Anime Music Video Contest. While I was waiting in line I spoke some more anime fans and I did some character impressions for them (Mostly Cell and Legato). The music video contest was actually a big disappointment. Apparently only 20 or so people entered, so the contest was basically just a screening of each categories winner. I found this as a down side and I thought if I had entered my music video (I ran out of time), I probably would have won. There was one Bebop video though that was pretty good though. After the music videos, I did what else? Visit Chris and Eric! I stopped by and this time the line was bigger. I got Chris to sign my Vegeta shirt and I talked to them briefly. The 2 of them also had free DBZ mini posters that they gave out with every signing which I found was VERY nice and showed they really cared about the fans. I saw a bunch of costumed characters walking a direction so I decided to follow them, boy did I make a mistake.

Apparently the costume contest was just starting and I had gone backstage with all of the costumed characters who were performing. I was very close to having to perform a sing and dance routine but I got out of it by coming up with some clever excuse which I can’t even remember anymore. I carefully escaped and made my way into the audience. Scott McNeil also appeared and got 2 girls to sit with him which probably made their day. Scott was doing a lot of stuff with the fans and it looked like he was having the time of his life. The costume contest was alright. Some people had good costumes but just stood there and didn’t do anything. While others had complex skits. My Vash friend who I met at the con’s beginning entered and she (YES a SHE) did a perfect impression of him. I retreated to the hotel’s restaurant to relax, relaxation is the last thing that I got.

The waiter gave me everything wrong that I ordered which particularly annoyed me because I was tired already and wasn’t in the mood for this. I complained to the manager (Don’t mess with Daniel Kurland!) and apparently he had fired the employee a few days ago but he was the only one who had known. The employee apparently was trying to give the restaurant a bad reputation. The manager and I teamed up on the employee and we all had a good laugh at the end (except the employee who was banned from the hotel and was never seen again). I went to my room, watched some good Canadian TV and fell asleep.