The AX Report 2001

by Xoth, Master of Black Magic

Introduction: Oh My Heck, They're Back!

    Yes, here I am again, fresh off another FFML/AX meeting and writing a brand new report on it.  Unfortunately, this time I have a problem.  I have to make this one funny without using all the same jokes as I did last time.  Jokes that weren’t quite witty or fresh the first time around are bound to be downright rancid now.  Still, I have to try, or the others will have my head.  So, here goes...

Anime Expo

    The 2001 Anime Expo marked the tenth anniversary of the annual Japanese comics and animation convention held by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA).  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the idea of anime conventions, just picture thousands of people dressed in anime costumes going to animation showings, fan panels, and gaming competitions, and spending hundreds of dollars each on anime and manga and all the derivative merchandise.  Anyhow, check out their website, Anime Expo.org, which is more informative than I could ever be.
 

AX ’99 Memory: Oh, the  things Sky had to endure to.. get a picture with Jaana...

As chronicled in last year’s edition of this report, AX 2000 was held at Disneyland in Anaheim, much to the disappointment of otaku everywhere.  Nevertheless, it drew at least 9,700 of us suckers to the expensive, costly, overpriced Magic Kingdom for a four day orgy of hentai-free hijinks.  Despite (and by “despite,” I mean “because of”) the family-friendly atmosphere offered by the Mouse and his army of jackbooted thugs, the con was moved to the Long Beach Convention Center for 2001.       This year’s con was different; rather than spending a lot of money on overpriced Disney concessions, otaku spent a lot of time walking between three hotels, a convention center, and a theater attached somehow to the side of that convention center.  It was a bit annoying at first (especially when you didn’t know you had to go all the way around the convention center to get to the theater), but oh well.  A lot of otaku probably needed the exercise anyhow.  And the extra leg room was probably a good idea, since this con brought in about 12,000 attendees, which, according to the SPJA chairperson, is about ten times the amount that the first one brought in ten years ago.  How’s that for synchronicity?

FFML and AX
 

The initial FFML-organized meeting at AX took place at the 1999 convention.  Basically, a dozen of us, both list members and invited guests, crammed into a tiny room at the Anaheim Hilton.  Then we spent time cruising the exhibit hall, blowing obscene amounts of money on anime merchandise, and watching plenty of Utena, Kodocha, and Yaoi Beard Man.  This meeting was satirically chronicled by non-list member Zack Knowles on his personal website, The Way In. (He also has reports on AX ’00 and ’01, which he attended with other groups)     The second meeting happened at the infamous Disneyland Expo.  This time, we tried to plan a little better, but, being the lazy bastards that we are, all of our planning didn’t go very smoothly—up until the last month, we still weren’t sure who was going to bring a VCR.  Even so, we still had a fun (and expensive) time.  The nine of us crammed into a slightly bigger (and more expensive) room at the Disneyland Hotel. Then we spent time not going to various events due to lack of space, cruising the exhibit hall, blowing obscene amounts of money on anime merchandise (and Disney’s expensive accomodations), and playing plenty of RPGs, Capcom fighting games, and DDR.  THIS (expensive) meeting was somewhat less satirically chronicled by me, Xoth, and can be found here.

AX ’00 Memory: Trying to— batter our way into the  sold-out Masquerade.

Acknowledgements

    Once again, I must thank Zack Knowles for his pioneering exposé of the AX ’99 FFML gathering.  Imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery.  Of course, my reports are not mere imitations, so take that however you will. ;D  Secondly, I must acknowledge the number of webcomic artists whose work I admire for once again stirring up my rather misguided artistic ambitions.  I can’t say I can draw anything like some webcomic artists, but I like to think I learned something in all the drawing and design classes I took.

    Thanks also to the members of FFML, particularly the ones who attended the convention; they still have yet to object to my lame jokes about them.  Going further out on this limb, let me also thank John Daley, who first began the FFML; the various founding, longtime, and other active members for keeping it going this long; Square for making the games on which the list was based; Locke, Piro, and whatever other FFML webmasters have graciously hosted my AX Reports; and of course, I must not forget the SPJA and Anime Expo people for all their dedication and hard work, and the staffs of the Long Beach Hyatt hotel and Long Beach Convention Center for doing their part to make this year’s con accomodating.

The Cast

    This year, rather than have an HTML table of pics and short descriptions, I decided to make you work harder and made a separate page for character descriptions.  Haha!  I control your hands and direct your attention!  I’m a god to you!  Worship me—or fear my wrath!  Please fear my wrath...</Homer>

The Report

Now onward to:

[ Day 1 ]        [ Day 2 ]        [ Day 3 ]        [ Day 4+ ]        [ Miscellaneous ]

Disclaimer: This account contains a lot that could offend people.  Sexual content.  Drug use.  Profanity.  Violence.  Celebrations of Japanese culture.  Non-white people.  Crudely drawn pictures.  Sentence fragments.  If anything in this account offends you, find another web page. If your kid reads something that offends you, tell them to find another web page.  If you’re really ticked off by it, then e-mail “cosmic_chicken” at “excite” dot “com” so I can ignore you.  Certain characters, events, etc. referred to and depicted in this account come from Japanese animated films and television series and are copyrighted by their respective companies.  Whatever the SPJA and Anime Expo have copyrighted belongs to them.

The pages were designed in Netscape Composer at 832 x 624 resolution.