Convention Madness!: Anime World Chicago

[Gamesta_64x]

Convention Madness!: Anime World Chicago 2012

Hello Gaia! Gamesta here again with another convention to talk to you about! For the weekend of August 3-5, I returned to Rosemont, IL for Anime World Chicago 2012! AWC held its second year in the same hotel as Anime Central, the beautiful Hyatt Regency O'Hare. While a smaller convention, AWC did a great job with gathering top notch guests and putting together a nice amount of events, panels and gaming. All of this was MC'd by none other than Todd Haberkorn.

My Friday started out with a hilarious Q&A session with Monica Rial, Alexis Tipton and Christopher Smith. They talked about their various experiences in voice acting as well as some insights into their favorite roles, what they are most proud of and even what they think was difficult for them.

From there I moved on to watch Samurai Dan and Lady Jillian perform their samurai history demonstration for us. As always Dan and Jillian are utterly hilarious and their skills with the katana are sharp (ha ha). As soon as they finished I snuck over to the room next door to catch the final few games of the Ninja Ninja Challenge. It's always great to see contestants looking ridiculous as they try to eat ramen as fast as they can or try to eat powdered donuts on their knees while blindfolded. Once that ended I hung around the gaming rooms for a bit and relaxed before leaving the con for the day.

Saturday started late (I slept in way too much ;A wink with a great panel from Christopher Smith. He invited con-goers to participate in a voice acting audition where they could actually read the character descriptions and lines from the new show Monsuno. Those that went up were absolutely amazing! They certainly impressed Chris before he then gave them advice and instruction that honed their skills. Afterwards I walked around for a little bit and took some great cosplay pictures.

I decided to skip the masquerade to attend Samurai Dan's Samurai Vs Ninja class. I actually got to participate as a Samurai and learned a few basic moves! Dan and Jillian taught us some interesting facts about the samurai and ninja while teaching us moves for both. Satisfied, I skipped the rave and went home to rest.

Finally Sunday came, though it was very short. I only attended the all voice actor Q&A which proved to be a very fun time. With Closing Ceremonies to end the con, I left Rosemont with a smile and the anticipation of next year's convention.