Day 1 of Anime Weekend Atlanta!

I attended the opening day of Anime Weekend Atlanta, an anime/gaming convention. A good turnout like last year, and a lot of neat cosplay going on here! You'll get some pics of those later on. First off, the line at registration was huge. Like what the hell huge. I had pre-registered, but the walk-ins were in a line 5 times shorter than the pre-register line. That was a bit annoying, but whatever, no huge deal. I still was able to make the first target panel on time.

Speaking of the first target panel, it was a Q&A panel with Chris Sabat, a well-known anime and video game voice actor. You may know him as Vegeta, Piccolo, and Yamcha from Dragonball Z/GT, Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist, Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, Roronoa Zoro from One Piece, Kurogane from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Ritsu Kasanoda from Ouran High School Host Club, and he's also Garterbelt from the English version of Panty and Stocking. He was a really cool guy in the panel, with lots of funny things to say. Someone asked him to do the "OVER 9000" line, but he messed it up so many times I'm pretty sure he was screwing with everyone. xD Then someone asked if he was sing happy birthday for her friend (who was too shy to ask herself), and he made her come up on the stage and sang it in the voice of Kuwabara, and kept mentioning Yukina (if you don't know, Kuwabara's madly in love with Yukina). xD

After that was a panel featuring Johnny Yong Bosch and his band, Eyeshine. If you don't know Johnny by name, you may know him form his work in anime and video games (he's in almost everything). Notable examples include Ichigo from Bleach, Lelouch from Code Geass, Itsuki Koizumi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuu Naukami and Touru Adachi from Persona 4, Vash the Stampede from Trigun, Kuhn form .hack//G.U., Nero from Devil May Cry 4, and Almaz von Almandine Adamant from Disgaea 3. He was also Adam Park, the second Black Ranger from the original Might Morphin' Power Rangers. This panel was particularly fun, because instead of just answering questions, he answered them with improvised song every time. He was asked to sing happy birthday for someone who couldn't make it to the con, and instead of the usual happy birthday song, he did his own thing that went something like this:

Happy birthday. it's your birthday.
You're not here, and I don't like that.
I hope you don't get hit by a bus cuz it's your birthday.
Don't die on your birthday. You can die after your birthday
But dying before would suck really bad.

This had the crowd in stitches. It was pretty awesome. At one point, his guitarist had to duck out for a bit, and Johnny claimed it was because he had to take a dump, but he was just speculating. A bit later, someone asked him if he liked the newer Power Ranger series, and he started an intro to a song. 20 seconds later, he sang:

I don't watch it.

And the music stopped abruptly to the laughter of everyone. He then said he's met the people who play the new rangers and they're cool guys, and eventually got off on a tangent and started a song that went something vaguely like:

I was the crotch of the Megazord.
I was the crotch of the Megazord.
But I'm not bitter, no no.
I'm not bitter cuz I'm not a crotch anymore.

This cracked everyone up, myself included. Around this point, the guitarist came back and Johnny asked how the poop was, and he started a song about how everyone poops, pees, and farts, and that we're all alike: disgusting. Then he started a song with these lyrics:

Diarrhea diarrhea diarrhea
Diarrhea diarrhea diarrhea
Diarrhea diarrhea diarrhea

Everyone was laughing their butts off, naturally. All-in-all, it was a fantastic panel and I much enjoyed it.

My apologies go out to Vic Mignogna, whose panel I opted out of due to hunger. I saw him at MomoCon in March, so it wasn't a big deal to me to miss this. I'll see if I can attend anything else he does over the next two days.

After leaving the panel room, I decided to browse the Dealer's Room and Artist Alley. Found some neat stuff and bought it. Then got some lunch at a Subway stand. After eating, I browsed the Dealer's Room again to kill time waiting for the next event: a screening of One Piece: Strong World, a new-to-America One Piece movie. Before the movie started, it was introduced by Chris Sabat (who voices Zoro, as I said before), as well as Ian Sinclair, who is the recently-announced voice of Brook. Strong World is the first One Piece thing to feature Brook in America, and I have to say, Ian did a fantastic job, from the polite asking to see womens' panties right down to the YOHOHOHOHO laugh! The movie itself was pretty neat. Just the usual of the Strawhat crew being badasses and fighting to defend the defenseless and protect their own.

Now, pics! Cosplayers first.

Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell from Fullmetal Alchemist - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73613383/Conventions/AWA 2013/IMG_8054.JPG

TARDIS girl - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73613383/Conventions/AWA 2013/IMG_8055.JPG

Rarity and Spike - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73613383/Conventions/AWA 2013/IMG_8056.JPG

Gundams - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73613383/Conventions/AWA 2013/IMG_8060.JPG

Zarbon form Dragonball Z - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73613383/Conventions/AWA 2013/IMG_8062.JPG

Spoiler: Pika Car and Pikachu as various anime characters

Spoiler: Kid Buu from Drgaonball Z

Spoiler: Tenchi and Ryouko from Tenchi Muyo

Spoiler: The Doctor and Rose Tyler

Spoiler: Aokiji from One Piece

Spoiler: Trafalgar Law and his crewmates, Shachi and Penguin from One Piece

And now for the stuff what I bought.

Spoiler: Marco kicking Aokiji, from One Piece

Spoiler: Trafalgar Law from One Piece

Spoiler: Pony buttons

Spoiler: Sylveon art print

Spoiler: Gurren Brigade symbol vunyl sticker from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Spoiler: Alderaan weather forecast T-shirt

Spoiler: Weeping Angels T-shirt