A week has passed since the close of Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA)
and I find myself within the grasp of one of my worst bouts with con withdrawal
in recent memory. For the uninitiated,
con withdrawal is the feeling of malaise one has after being ripped viciously
from one’s convention “family and friends” and being thrown back into the
“reality” of what is one’s “normal” and mundane life. I may have exaggerated a bit, but I think I
have expressed my point poignantly.
Anyway, I know that I have yet to write anything about the
convention despite stating that I may do so during the convention, but
volunteering at an all-volunteer run convention that hosted 20,000+ attendees
made that more difficult than I imagined.
So, here now is a rundown of my AWA in as close to chronological order
as possible:
Friday:
I arrived about a half-hour before the start of my first
shift and prior to retrieving my staff badge holder and badge, I came across a
younger cousin and his girlfriend; it was the only time I saw him during the
weekend.
My first assignment was assisting with the line for the
Grand Opening ceremonies. The line was
big, we had to “snake” the line three-fold, and it was without a doubt, the
largest line for an event that I worked during AWA.
Following the clearing of the Grand Opening line, I was
assigned to badge check at the Kennesaw panel room for a panel about anime
references in mainstream pop culture (I think).
Of course, my first panel of the day would not go off without a hitch
and that hitch: the panelists were unable to operate the soundboard. Since I refused to take on a supervisory
role, I had no means of contacting Tech staff (i.e. – I had no walkie-talkie on
hand) and I needed to track down this section’s supervisor, which I eventually
did. At that point, I was assigned to
organize the line for my first guest panel of the convention, a Q&A session
with Scott McNeil. In truth, organizing
the line was rather simplistic and I was able to make my exit before the trouble
arose. In case you were wondering, the
Q&A did not take place Friday nor did Mr. McNeil’s autograph session
because Mr. McNeil had not yet arrived at the convention. Apparently, he was caught up in the mess at
the Chicago airport and had his flight cancelled; he did eventually make it to
AWA and was very generous with what time he had left.
From Section 4(?), I was then assigned to Section 5(?) (AKA
Autographs) since my assigned Section 2 was not needed. My first autograph line assignment was Home Made
Kazoku (HMK), a Japanese hip-hop trio known for tracks that served as the
opening and closing themes for popular anime series like Naruto and Bleach. For Japanese guests at the convention, the
instructions were simple: 90-person
limit, one item autographed and no photographs.
HMK did not hit their limit, which was disappointing in my eyes, but I
think the AWA attendees more than made up for it during their Saturday evening
concert.
The second guest I work their autograph line for was Junichi
Suwabe, a Japanese voice actor who is currently voicing the lead character in Space Dandy. His lead did get capped and I ended up being
the individual that held slips of papers that attendees could fill out if they
wanted a personalized autograph; this was a rather smart idea in my opinion
since there was a clear language barrier.
This line moved rather efficiently and the highlight had to be the fact
that he cosplayed as Dandy and there was Meow cosplayer on-hand for photographs
too.
By the time the Suwabe line cleared, I was well over my
scheduled shift time and I had yet to check into my hotel room and my next
shift was scheduled to start in just over an hour-and-a-half. Also, I hadn’t eaten anything yet aside from
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
After settling into my room, grabbing a quick bite to eat at
Chick-Fil-A and returning to the convention just in time for my shift, I was
assigned to Events for badge check duty for the premiere of the English-dubbed
version of the second season of High
School DxD, but before that took place; I needed to relieve someone at the
Highlands(?) panel room until it was time for me to work the Grand Panel room.
When I arrived at Highlands, the Yuko Minaguchi panel was
just wrapping up and Ms. Minaguchi, the Japanese voice actress for Sailor
Saturn in Sailor Moon S, was
preparing to take some photographs with some of the attendees of her
panel. The next panel on tap was a panel
about Marvel anime series, but I did not stick around too long since I had
another assignment to tend to. And here
is where the fun began for me on Friday evening.
In truth, badge check duty is simple and rather monotonous
unless it turns out that the premiere you are working at is for anime series in
which the American production company sends the uncensored version of the
series and fails to mention it to the convention organizers and you have
already let a number of minors into the screening (d’oh)! Fortunately, there were no complaints that I
know of and too be honest; I don’t expect any to be made.
Now, the real fun began as the time drew closer to karaoke
and the people were beginning to line up—at this point, I had already organized
the line for another anime world premiere and now, it was time to organize an
even bigger line. In truth (and you may
call me a bit of a glutton for punishment for it), the real fun occurs when
there is a complete lapse in communications between two departments and you and
your department get thrown under the wheels of the bus (it was Touhou all over
again for me). Anyway, we had received
two sets of directions: (1) karaoke participants could go ahead and enter the
room and wait for High School DxD to
clear and then (2) everyone needed to clear out and a line needed to be formed
immediately outside of the registration area.
Of course, there is nothing like contradictory directives to create
chaos, but my partner and I did the damn thing, made it work and got everyone
inside and out of registration’s hair.
And like with my previous shift, I ran over my scheduled
time (which will be a recurring theme), but I clocked out at 10 PM and checked
out a bit of Anime Hell before grabbing a late dinner and calling it a night.
On a side note, I have a feeling that if I am back next year
to work AWA; I’ll be getting my own room because I don’t know if I can deal
with roommates, especially, roommates that are loud and obnoxious at terrible
hours of the night.
So, this has recap has gone on for way too long and I have
only covered one day of it. I suppose I
am going to have to cut it here and come back later to recap the rest of my
con. Until then, stay safe and don’t
forget to be awesome!
