Reflections on Florida Anime Experience 2012

This is my anecdote about attending last weekend’s Florida Anime Experience convention in Orlando, Florida. It’s all about me, so read on if you’re curious or just move along to the next article.

Saturday morning, I woke early, planning to get to the second Annual Florida Anime Experience convention in Orlando before the dealer’s room opened. Since Tuesday I’ve noticed the car making odd sounds and riding a bit roughly, but I assumed that I’d just have to get used to the changes as a result of having a new radiator and engine mounts. As I began heading toward the highway to Tampa, I first noticed that the engine seemed to be unusually aggressive. Then I noticed that the engine wouldn’t quit running. Even without my foot on the gas, the car wouldn’t slow. I pulled into a parking lot, cut the engine, waited a moment then cranked it again. Everything seemed normal until I gassed it. Then the engine roared and started revving in quick cycles. I tried the process again; same result. I decided that driving a long distance wasn’t prudent, so I decided to turn around and headed to the garage. Shortly later I discovered that even with my foot off the break, the car would slowly increase speed. I had to drive using the break periodically just to keep the car within the speed limit. I was able to drive about ten miles without stepping on the gas because the car just wanted to drive on its own. Since the Tire Kingdom is slightly closer and more convenient to my house, I stopped at it rather than the Tires Plus that I more frequently go to. Now I know I may have saved some money by going to the later store. At the Tire Kingdom I was told that any number of causes may be behind my problem, and an engine inspection would cost $96. If the problem was simple to fix, the repair would be included in the initial fee. After a short time the mechanic brought me out to the car and pointed out that the Firestone mechanics that had replaced the radiator earlier in the week hadn’t remembered to tighten the hose from the radiator to the air filter. As a result, the hose end was loose, and the car was sucking in surrounding air, and all of the dirt, leaves, and filth from around the engine block. The mechanic offered to tighten on the hose for free but recommended that I pay for an engine flush to expel the several days’ worth of junk that had been sucked into the engine. I said, “I can’t afford a new car, so let’s do whatever’s necessary to keep this one running.” About an hour and another $150 later, I was back out on the road with the car finally running smoothly the way I’m used to it feeling. I don’t know for certain, but I have a feeling that the Tires Plus garage up the road would not have charged a $96 fee just to look at the car, but I’m sure I’d still have ended up paying $150 for the engine flush.

I left the garage at 11 am, uncertain about still going to Orlando. I figured that if I stayed until evening, I’d be there the same number of hours as if I went on Sunday. Thus I decided to maintain my original plan. But since I was nearby home anyway, I’d stop first and put some sunscreen on my arms. Of course, as soon as I got home and checked the convention schedule, I forgot about the sunscreen until I was back in the car on the road again. In the near hundred-degree mid-day heat of the highway, I found myself periodically losing focus and drifting to sleep and out of my lane. About two-thirds of the way to Orlando, I stopped at a rest area to wash my face and get some water. Found the hotel and even a parking space with relatively little difficulty. This convention is run by Green Mustard Entertainment, a Florida based fan group that professionally operates anime conventions and convention anime programming. While I do think that conventions should avoid losing money, I’m not entirely enthused by the idea of “for-profit” conventions like Spooky Empire. I don’t know if Florida Anime Experience is a “for profit” convention, but I already had a bad feeling, which I probably should have acknowledged, when the girl at the registration desk could only have been more rude if she’d hurled curses and racial epithets at me. But since I’d come this far, I paid my $25 daily admission and was handed a single page printed weekend schedule with the second Saturday May 26 crossed out and “Sunday May 27” written in. I was a bit appalled because I don’t think I’ve ever attended a convention before, including even ones smaller than this one, that didn’t provide a weekend programming guide booklet.

By my very rough guess, the convention probably had about a thousand attendees, many of them in costume, as expected. The dealers’ room was not the smallest I’ve been in, but was smaller than I’d hoped, and a third of it consisted of home-made jewelry, clothing, and costume accessories. I have no objections to that type of material; it’s just not what I’m looking for. Only one dealer specialized in video. While her prices were reasonable, I already own nearly everything she had available. One dealer had the Synch-Point Aquarion Age “movie” limited edition box, slightly scuffed up, for $15, which I briefly considered but don’t actually “need.” She also had cute solar powered SD maiko toys with bobbing heads for $10, which I also considered because the toy was quite cute. A figure dealer had the Bomé Wild Arms fig, which I should have but couldn’t recall for certain, and a Comic Con exclusive color variant of another Bomé fig which I can’t recall whether I have. I know for certain that I have the green and red dress versions but can’t recall if I own the blue dress version. At $20 and $24 respectively, the prices were reasonable, but I was still hesitant to buy big figures that may be duplicates. Ultimately, I ended up only purchasing a $7 inch-and-a-half gachapon figure of Chen, the Chinese nekomimi from Tohou Project.

Stepped into the main panel room for the Robotech panel, hosted by veteran Robotech fan “Fuzzy” and Roy Foker voice Dan Woren. The small audience had a proportionally large number of adults present. I’m also glad to see that Mr. Woren appears to be a very gracious and grateful actor, a very personable man without any hint of celebrity ego. The panel ended with simple trivia to award Robotech prizes. Even though “Fuzzy” had mentioned all of the answers during the panel discussion, I appeared to be the only person who remembered the name of the protagonist of second generation (Robotech Masters’ Dana Sterling), so I was awarded a Harmony Gold issued George Sullivan character single EP CD and an unopened pack of vintage Robotech trading cards (which are far cooler to me than the CD). As the panel ended, a staffer came in and announced that the line for Sailor Moon voice actress Terri Hawkes’ autograph had already started forming two hours early. So I went out the car, grabbed my DVD covers, and came in to line up. By this time I was at the back end of the middle of the line. About 40 minutes later a convention staffer with a microphone came by and announced that since the convention hadn’t expected such a big response, autographs were not guaranteed for everyone in line. I found this statement ironic because people in line were told to stand on a strip of black tape on the floor, and the black tape snaked its way far behind me, suggesting that the convention staff had indeed planned for a lengthy line. Furthermore, Mrs. Hawkes had already done one autographing session earlier in the day. When four o’clock rolled around and the autographing session started, the line condensed and shifted forward, then twenty minutes later shifted forward once again, then stopped permanently. Curious fans inquired and, according to the word of mouth passed through the line, were told that since Mrs. Hawkes wasn’t paid per autograph, she was taking her time getting to know her fans. Angry murmurs rumbled through the line including, “She’ll make 20 people happy and piss off 200.” That sentiment was probably an understatement because by my observation, there were possibly as many as 500 people in line, and I only saw evidence of no more than a dozen fans actually getting an autograph because Mrs. Hawkes evidently spent a good five-minutes conversing with each fan. Several girls in costume in front of me bitterly complained that they’d driven 200 miles for this convention and couldn’t even get a chance to see Mrs. Hawkes in person. Privately, I grumbled to myself that the staff evidently couldn’t or wouldn’t do its job and either implore Mrs. Hawkes to pick up the pace or just limit the number of autographs available so that people could stop waiting in line in vain. At five pm, when 90% of the line was still waiting in line, the convention staff announced that the autographing session was over, but Mrs. Hawkes would add another autographing session for Saturday-only convention attendees that evening. Weekend attendees would have two additional chances for autographs on Sunday. Immediately I heard speculation within the line that an additional evening autographing session was still pointless if Mr. Hawkes was only going to sign a small handful of autographs. As the line drastically condensed, I moved forward for the Dan Woren autographing session that was scheduled to begin at 5. Since Mrs. Hawkes was still talking to the second group of fans that had entered the room an hour before, the Dan Woren autographing session began 15 minutes late. But I’m pleased that I was able to shake the man’s hand and get his autograph on my Robotech postcard with my signatures from Melanie MacQueen (“Lisa”) and Tony Oliver (“Rick”), and his signature on the cover of Bleach DVD 13 which features his character Byakuya.

I exited the room then sat down fourth in the line for the 6pm Darrel Guilbeau autographing session. While the actor arrived on time with his convention staff liaison, no other staffer did. At ten past six I finally stepped into the room, noticed Mr. Guilbeau already signing, and asked if we could finally bring the line into the room. The con staffer inside apologized, saying that she hadn’t even realized that a dozen people had been waiting in line out in the hallway. Immediately, the line rushed into the room, and sadly my fourth place in line disappeared when I went back to fetch my DVD covers that I’d left to keep my place in the hallway. But thankfully the line was short, and I was able to meet Mr. Guilbeau, get his autograph on a Durarara postcard, get his signature on an Overman King Gainer volume one DVD cover, and briefly talk to him about our mutual regret that Bandai was no more and King Gainer was now so obscure.

With an hour yet before the costume contest and nothing to do, I decided to abandon the convention. So I made my way back to Sand Lake Road and eventually found the shopping plaza which I expected was home to a MovieStop store. I didn’t see the store, but as I departed, I spotted it one the side of the mall, facing a different direction than all of the mall’s other stores. So I made a u-turn and stopped. To my great surprise, I found and was able to acquire a used, nice condition set of all four of FUNimation’s Hellsing Ultimate steelbooks for about $20. I certainly don’t mind owning a second set at that price. I was equally surprised to see a used copy of Kyo Kara Maoh Season II volume 9 marked at only $5.99 – far less than the $88 it starts at on Amazon. While it’s now my third of fourth copy, I don’t mind hoarding. I also picked up Dunbine DVDs 4-6, so that I now own the first 7 DVDs, and in order to qualify for the buy-2-get-1-free discount, a used DVD copy of Summer Wars. After a stop at Five Guys for a hefty cheeseburger, fries, and Coke, I made my way up South Kirkman Road to a second MovieStop, which proved even more rewarding than the first. I initially found a $2.99 used copy Anchor Bay’s release of Dario Argento’s Trauma. Since I don’t recall having watched this particular flick, I picked it up. In the anime section I was stunned to see a used complete set of ADV’s City Hunter TV series DVDs. Sticker price was $109.94 on all of it. Since the cheapest used Amazon price is $302.02 even without City Hunter ’91, which Amazon doesn’t have available at all, I was excited to pick up all of it since I’d get all of it for well under $100 after discounts. Once again, I don’t mind having a second set of ADV City Hunter TV series releases. I spotted a used Genesis Climber Mospeada collection stickered at $7.99. I don’t need it, but it was too cheap to pass up. The rare Black Jack OVA 10 DVD was a mere $1.99, so I bought it (I think, now my third copy). I spotted the rare El Hazard: The Magnificent World DVD 1 stickered at $5.99, so I grabbed it. Then I was especially excited to find a used copy of the domestic Akira Blu-ray stickered at only $27.99. After “Director’s Club” discount and sale tax, I walked out with it for only $26.83. At check-out, the clerk mentioned that the next nearest MovieStop was only ten minutes away via the Florida Turnpike, and she kindly gave me the store’s phone number. Especially upon her telling me that the nearby store routinely received “really good” trade-ins, I was eager to go, but also a bit worn-out from the day and worried about finding my way home from Kissimmee. The decision was eventually made for me when I didn’t notice the left-hand fork leading to the Florida Turnpike until I was already on the right-hand fork leading to I-4 West. Since I discovered that the single-day Anime Day 1-Day Anime Marketplace convention will be held in Orlando on July 14, I expect I’ll plan a day to attend that and visit more of the five Orlando-area MovieStop stores for more treasure hunting then.