JAN 16 11
WINTER IN SACRAMENTO THE OTAKU WAY
Sacramento, the capital of California, (and also my home) just hosted it's winter anime convention, Sac Anime, which happened on the 7th through the 9th of this month. It was a big win for the convention, and the attendance is steadily growing. For me, this year's biggest highlights was meeting Yaya Han, hosting a panel, getting press access, getting good deals on anime goods, and as always- connecting and meeting up with readers and attendees.
Above is myself with Yaya Han, a professional cosplayer from Atlanta, Georgia. She was a guest at the convention, along with Johnny Yong Bosch and Eyeshine, Kairu, Akai Sky, Roger Craig Smith, Karen Dyer, and Sonny Strait.
Sac Anime's guests came from a wide range of talents- The ever popular Johnny Yong Bosch is vastly known for his roles in english dubbed anime, not to mention being the original "Black Ranger" from America's sentai-knockoff series called "Power Rangers". Sonny Strait is widely known for playing the English voice of Krillin, Son Goku's best friend from the Dragon Ball series.
As seen above, Karen Dyer is a mult-talented english voice actress known for her role as Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5, and will soon be starring on the popular TV show, "Glee".
She also sings and dances on stilts, does circus tricks, and is starting to pave her way into the music industry. She has been regularly appearing at Sac Anime and FanimeCon for a while now, and her events are always spectacular.
Sac Anime always hosts a splendid dealer's room, with plenty of lovely plastic 2D beauties, wall-scrolls, dvds, rare games, and more!
Dakimakura on sale, a first for Sac Anime! Dakimakura aka "hug-pillows" or "hug-pillow-covers" are very popular among otaku. Many western cons have been selling the fake kind recently, where official dakimakura images are printed on normal almost silky feeling pillowcases. You'll know a real dakimakura when you see one- they're about 5-6 feet long and very silky feeling. They are almost never sold with the pillow, just the case. You can find my Yoko and Hatsune Miku dakimakura review here. I was quite pleased with the pricing as well- we got 3 Daki for about $70 USD. They can sometimes be $100 a piece.
World's Best Comics's Dave runs a fantastic shop to stop by while you're in the Country Club area of Sacramento. Booth also at Sac Anime. Like most conventions, guest panels are always a great alternative to roaming the halls, and you can always learn a thing or two by visiting them. I hosted my own panel called "The Run Around", which focused on teaching about Consumer Generated Media, as well as featuring some guests on the panel who are great examples of CGM. This was an amazing and positive experience for me, as I was able to connect with RUN AROUND:NETWORK readers, promote and discuss CGM, and meet new folks to form new bonds for the future! I hope the 80 or so folks who came enjoyed our panel and giveaway, and may have possibly found some inspiration or enlightenment.
A look at our panel's description.
At "The Run Around" I happily talked about my work with KOTOBUKIYA and Mirai INC,, on being a collaborating project developer for the book, "OTACOOL". I also boldy mentioned that I would be taking on another similar project and that it would be mostly centered around RUN AROUND:NETWORK and Run Around Forums users- in which almost anyone can join and have their work/project/cosplay/room/etc, featured. Will be updating you on that in the future!
As usual at Sacramento conventions, you'll find the comicbook artist, Jason Dube, at his booth portraying his latest work. Jason is the driving force behind Scattered Comics, and is also the founder of the Sacramento Comic-book Creators Club. He is also part of the Sac Anime staff, and is the Director of the artist alley, and amateur art contests. I picked up his first graphic novel at the convention and so far I love it! You can check out more of Jason's work here.
As most conventions do, Sac Anime holds a cosplay Masquerade, in which Yaya Han appeared as the MC!
The Masquerade is always one of the most popular events at the convention, and sees the most attendance vs any other event at the con.
For those who don't know, at Masquerades a large group of cosplayers do "skits" on stage, while some simply do a "walk-on" to show off their cosplay. There are several big awards and a couple small ones that are given out by judges. Above, you can see the judges picked for this masquerade, just before they began giving out their awards. I'll be making an entire article about the masquerade soon after this one.
CD's for sale and what looks like some nice Sega Prize figurines.
More views of the Vendor's Room.
A little bit of the view outside of the Radisson Hotel.
Absolutely gorgeous view of the lake that resides in the center of the hotel complex.
And always there are lovely cosplayers to meet and take photos of- like this spectacular Dokuro-chan from Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan.
Will be posting an entire post with lots of pictures of cosplayers from Sac Anime Winter 2011 very soon!
Before I move on to my Final Score in my Sac Anime convention review, I'd like to say that I had a fun time meeting and connecting with folks, buying anime merchandise, and running around the convention through events, photoshoots, panels, meet-ups, etc...It is one of my favorite conventions to attend, and I suggest checking it out to anyone!
