Ani-com Day 1 - part 1

Hey guys,  here are the first set of pictures i took yesterday at the Ani-Com/Game Fair here in Hong Kong.

I've never been to an anime convention before... but having lived in japan for two years and been a frequent customer at many a maid cafe,  i'm quite familiar with anime, cosplay and the whole deal. 

We were going to ani-com because AnD artists Josie and Ryan were performing in the stage area at night.  I got there around 5pm to find Pat his nephew and a bunch of AnD members (Andrew, Jezz, Yuki, etc)  already there passing out fliers for AnD and generally checking out the scene.  it was quite packed! (especially the video game areas!)

昨日僕達は香港のアニメコンベンシュンを行った。僕はコスプレしません、漫画とアニメあまり好きじゃない、日本に住んでいましたから、そんの日本文化を一寸知って居る！僕達はAnDの芸の人コンサートするために行った。面白かった：

They had one giant room, at one end was a stage area, the rest was tons of booths from big and small companies promoting their new products and also stalls selling comics, videos, games, toys and collectibles.　　この所広いょ！館の隣でお立ち台が有った。

Here's some of my pictures,  rather than doing it chronologically like I normally do, this time let me group them by type:

Here's some of the promo and vendor booths they had set up:

Doraemon and Peanut M&M Star Wars

ブースが一杯が有った。色色な会社。。。

Domo-kun!

Selling all the perverted sex figurines you could ever want (actually they were graphic, but not nearly as bad as japan...)  I'm so jaded! :-P

日本からの嫌らしいトイを売ります。でも秋葉でもと変体を見た事があるよ！

Probably the single coolest one of all was the Oompa Loompa figure army from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory!

一番面白い！オオムパールムパー！

Some of the booths had stages and big projection screens, and some even had 'Trade Show Models' (referred to as 'Campaign Girls' in Japan and  as 'Booth Babes' at the big US game shows like E3...).   But I was a bit disappointed,   even in HK i have seen a lot better (I went to the Telecom convention at Asia World Expo last December,  wow those Korean cell phone companies go ALL OUT! :-P

キャンギャル(PRギャル）も居た、でもあまり。。。

Here you're lucky if you get one or two girls standing in front of a TV... :-P

  Still a clamor of photographers hovering around anything in a skirt. :-P

You know I didn't want to switch to Windows Vista... but this girl in this metallic mini-dress has convinced me.

One more humorous thing I spotted was this guy - presumably a ' superotaku' who was being interviewed by a TV crew (anyone recognize him?):

But I quickly realized he was a fake! posing as 'Train Man' type nerd for a TV show or something.  He walked up to these two models and snapped a picture with them (for the benefits of the TV camera).

この人はオタクの服を着た。でも見る時早く分かる、彼はファクですよ！テレビのカメラは彼達を撮った。

Of course there were lots of 'amateur' cosplayers, some of the fancier ones are competing in a cosplay competition (the finals are on the last night, Tuesday i think):

分かる？ These guys had a whole crew... as i don't really like anime, I don't even know what show they're dressed up like, but they definitely were the biggest group.

Strangest Team-up ever:  Masked Rider and Desert Storm Trooper!

Another small branch of cosplay is 'military uniform cosplay' - this guy was the only one I saw yesterday... this is when he came up to take a picture of Andrew.  I can't say I'm a fan of this uniform... dressing up like a nazi is kind of a sketchy hobby... :-P

この人の服あまり好きじゃない。。。変よ！

As I was quite a fan of the maid cafes in Japan I had to stop and ask these girls to take a picture:　実は僕は日本に居た時メード吉舎店へ行ったことがあるから、メード服が好き、それからこの女の写真を撮った：

They were quite 'kawaii'.  and before you ask, I didn't even ask the one in front to do that pose...

可愛いですか？

But let's take a closer look at the photo... something fishy in the back:

Holy crap!  Where'd that guy come from? Its Bob!　怖い！

And here's a few of the crew we had out here for the day:　友達の写真も撮った：

Rottendoubt is all geeked-out, and showing off his newly purchased 'One Piece' wallet.

アニメオタクですよ！

  Terence came down and even helped pass out fliers too!  For some reason the girls standing in line for a game were much more willing to take fliers from him than they were from the rest of us . :-P

   Terence and Bob stopped to look at some comics too, but they kept getting interrupted by people asking for photos (with T, not with Bob or me!)

T-さんは女ファンスと写真も撮った。

As we were passing out fliers I said to Bob 'hey those two girls are really hot,  go give them a flier! get them on alivenotdead.com!'... amazingly he listened to me:

  But ironically the beauty queen on the right wasn't only ALREADY on alivenotdead.com,  she's already a featured artist! none other than featured artist Aimee Chan, Miss HK 2006! (this is the first time I've met her, so i have an excuse for not recognizing!)  Artist Pat Lee met up with us too!  sounds like a godo excuse for a picture...

他の友達も来た、友達の友達も来た。一番右は綺麗女よ。。。アイミーチャンです。今年まで香港小姐ですよ。すごい！

Bob, Terence, Pat 'patlee' Lee, Pat 'rottendoubt' Lee, his nephew Sam, Aimee's friend Jan and Aimee.

Before the concert stuff started we got another picture with two more AnD artists:

Ryan Hui, Bob, Pat, Pat and Kevin Li(and his obscene t-shirt!)　コンサートの芸の人

OK, i think this entry is already long enough!  Day 2 will be over by the time i finish writing it!  i have a bunch more pics from the concert part,  but i want to compile my video and put it on youtube, so you may have to wait a few days on that. ;-)

OK, wait, one more bonus picture:

One more for my Kigurumi album!　一寸怖いですか？大き過ぎ！