My Weekend at AWA 2009

This past weekend I unexpectedly went off with a large group of friends to Amine Weekend Atlanta (AWA) in... well Atlanta. AWA is some kind of 3 day anime, video game, pop culture convention that one of my friends go to every year and this year I was invited to go with him and his friends at the cost of 70 bucks. So I figured "what the hell", I've never been to anything like this before and it's been years since I've been on anything even remotely resembling a vacation. What followed may as well have been the most fun I've have all year.

("Part of my motley crew")

There were 12 of us on this trip, a few I've met before (most of them only a week ago) and we plowed into 2 vans and spent about 5 hours on the road heading to Atlanta. The hotel we spent our weekend at was ritzy, but cheap, charging five dollars for some stupid bottle of water and fifteen bucks a night for an internet connection. While in our conjoining rooms, I slowly but surely started bonding with these people. We all had similar interest and attitudes and just had a blast screwing around with each other. The day before leaving I bought the new Mario & Luigi game with intention of playing it when there was dull down-time between events, but I barely touched the thing as I was spending all my time laughing and messing around with my new friends in the room and during the convention itself. ("Various Kingdom Hearts Characters" )
("Angry Video Game Nerd Vs. Nostalgia Critic" )

The main attraction to this convention is seeing a bunch of people cos-play as bunch of different characters. Over the course of the weekend I saw a lot people dressed as my favorite characters: Mario Bros, Zelda, Pokemon, The Joker, and even The Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic. The thing I learned from all of this is that cos-play is less about people actually wanting to be these characters and more about people just wanting to show off some cool stuff that they made. One of the only things my friends complained about that I noticed more towards the end of the convention is that the cos-players showed an over reliance on certain franchises. Well over 80% of the people dressed up as characters from Bleach, Naurto, or Kingdom Hearts. It would have been nice if there had been more variety of franchise representation.

(It's Over 9000!!!!)

(The Comedian(Justin) and Rorschach)
(The Mario Sisters)

There was quite a full list of events planned at this convention from watching various anime to pokemon trivia contest to cos-play 101, but I didn't attend most of them. Usually the lines to these things were too long for me to tolerate, so I usually spent most of time with one of my friends in the dealer's room where you can buy rare Japanese merchandise. There were action figures, DVDs, video games, dolls, and swords. I managed to walk out there with a Dragonball Z and Sonic the Hedgehog figure, a Kirby doll, and a couple of Mario Galaxy cards. The downside was that everything was overpriced, a side effect of most of the items being imported I suppose.

(Rikki Simons: the voice of GIR)

(Set phasers to stunning)

The place I spent a huge chunk of time at towards the end of the convention was the artist room where people can go and view and buy fan art. Nathan and I spent too much time and money here, but all of the drawings were just too good to pass up. The coolest thing we managed to do in this room was meet Rosearik Rikki Simons who did the voice of GIR from Invader Zim. We got pictures with him and he autographed some pictures and it was just too cool for words. I really wished I had job so I could buy some more stuff. (I think I just rediscovered my love of Pokemon)
(A yeti eating chris's head, a flamer, and Nathan)

Come Sunday afternoon it was time for us to depart this wonderful locale and head back to our dull reality. Overall I had a blast and have come to find the friends I roomed with as people I can't wait to see again. Nathan and I made plans to go another convention in November, but I seriously doubt that would actually come to be. I'll definitely go back to AWA next year if these people go as well.

Dragonball Z (Review)

Dragonball Z is the follow-up series to Dragonball, a manga/anime about a really strong boy named Goku and his friends who love fighting and go on adventures to collect 7 mystical Dragonballs that grant wishes. Dragonball Z is basically about Goku and his friends protecting the world from increasingly powerful villains. DBZ is the show that got me a little interested in anime and after watching the complete series on DVD, I can say I still love it. It's a great action series and a classic among anime.

Running through 291 episodes with basically 4 major story-arcs, DBZ is a show that does drag on from time to time. This show does follow a standard "fight scene followed by exposition followed by more fight scene" path and the fights can go on for many episodes with little actual stroy development. The prime example is Goku's showdown with space tyrant Frieza which last for a whopping 19 episodes! Even though they run long DBZ has some of the best, well-choreographed fights...ever. These people go through tough fights and it shows.

The characters and their overall development are the highlight in DBZ. Old characters return, new ones appear, characters' pasts intertwine with the current plot and a lot of time is spent watching people change. My favorite development is watching Vegeta's inner conflict with the life of power and war he's accustomed to and the new one of peace he can't get used to. The show was just a joy a revisit and I don't have much else to say other than I'd recommend it to just about anyone who loves insane action.

Dragonball Z Double Feature: The History of Trunks/Bardock The Father of Goku Review

For the last 2 or 3 years Funimation has been remastering the Dragonball Z series and releasing it in nice affordable season box sets. In addition to the television series, Funimation has also been releasing the feature films based on the series in fancy double feature releases. The History of Trunks/Bardock The Father of Goku was the 4th release in the double feature set.

What separates these 2 titles from the rest of the DBZ movies is that they actually aren't movies, their television specials. The irony in this is that "The History Of Trunks" and "Bardock: The Father Of Goku" is far better than any of the theatrical films and may be one of the best parts of the Dragonball Z series period.

While the series and theatrical films generally favored action over a deep storyline. These specials do the opposite, offering intriguing stories and placing the action on the backburner. Both specials act as extensions of certain storylines from the series. The History of Trunks tells a story of a bleak alternate timeline where a bulk of the main characters have been killed by evil androids and shows why Trunks decides to go back in time to try and prevent this from happening (setting up the 3 major arc of the series). Bardock: The Father Of Goku is more less a prequel to the events of the dragonball series and details Bardock's attempt to expose the evil warlord Frezia for the villain he really is.

Both specials caught me guard with how well written they were; mainly because ,as stated before, DBZ isn't that great in the story department. I loved the dark tone of the titles and really wished they would have put this much attention into the regular show. I have to admit that preferred Bardock over Trunks, mostly because I felt it made me connect with characters more.Bardock's general lack of interest in his child, until he realizes their world is going to be destroyed, was interesting and believable. It's easy to take something for granted, but faced with the threat of losing that something, attitudes can change quickly.

I can't recommend this set highly enough to fans of Dragonball Z or people who are curious about the series. Neither special ends with happy ending as the overall stories are carried over and concluded in the show, but even then these two tales offer a unique take on the DBZ world.