Sephi Hakubi

Sure I may have been working 36 hours over the convention weekend and driven to Oklahoma City, OK and back to Fort Walton Beach, FL 15 hours each way, but when I got back to “real” work, I wish the convention never ended. Before I start griping about reality like I have the right to, I’m going to summarize the trip to the 4th Izumicon in Oklahoma.

First off, the plans and preparation.  Rin and I were 2 weeks removed from FAN:dom FL and I was already working on posting the videos for that convention.  For those same reasons that I want to gripe about earlier but did not, Rin and I have not planned any big performance nor cosplay that we could do to compete or showcase, but I decided to make a “Memories of Izumicon” panel for that show just like I did at Kawaii Kon last year.  I also decided to bring Reno (FFVII:AC) and wear him again since Reno was pretty much the Mr. Izumicon cosplay since 2007.  We were suppose to leave at 9:00 AM but the house was a bit of a mess and did not want anything growing like last year so we stayed until 11:00AM to clean up what we can…so yeah, not exactly the start we had planned.

Next is the drive there.  We took off at around 11:00AM and decided to go through Mississippi’s state roads instead of cutting across I-10 and shooting up Louisiana’s most boring interstate.  For what I learned from driving both ways is that with state roads, you do not have the chance to stop for gas or eat for miles so be prepared and make sure you have a reserve tank and MREs, but that may be too much for some folks so take the interstate.  The part of the drive that blew my mind the most is when we were cutting through Arkansas and Northeast Texas; I swear to Jew-Christmas that I have discovered the legendary Wild West.  I never want to know what it is like to live somewhere and be 6 hours away from a McDonalds.  The drive was so enigmatic that I didn’t realize that I crossed the Oklahoma border until I was about 10 miles in the state.  I need to look up which state the village of Hugo actually resides.  I forgot to mention, we ended up stopping in Monroe, Louisiana after 8 hours of driving and instead of getting the rest I needed, I was working on my video of Melfina’s interview.  Of course, Cracker Barrel keeps me going on any drive, but I have more of that story later.

Rin and I get there about 5:00PM that afternoon but realize that our hair is not in regulation (as I would describe it).  After saying Hi to the con chairperson Jo and Bushido Brown, Rin and I went to Supercuts to get my high-and-tight while Rin finally got her hair trimmed and layered.  I say finally because we’ve been meaning to have that done for her for 2 years…maybe longer?  Who knows?  After that, we tried to go to Applebee’s to take advantage of me being a vet so I can get a free meal on Veterans Day, but the place was packed to where the line reached around the restaurant, so we said F it and went to Golden Corral across the street.  Some vets were asking for donations and Rin asked me to donate $10 instead of a couple of loose singles, her reasoning saying that they’re vets…umm, honey, I’m a vet too working an assignment more demoralizing than the battlefield. ^.^

Now time for Day 1 of the actual convention.  I love the con energy going on since Izumicon in my opinion has the best con atmosphere, but already I felt that this isn’t going off to a good start as registration started a bit late, somewhat screwing me out of my panel.  My memories panel is the first main event to take place and registration started an hour before scheduled, which is originally scheduled to be my panel so now you all get the idea.  However, I cosplayed as Reno for the day, conducted the panel, and my panel met its standard success, memories were shared, and reflections were made.  I will note that someone actually got the “Suck It” reference that time versus when Matt and I did the Akatsuki DX skit.  Happy! Project opened up the Opening Ceremonies and of course I go back to the videos to watch over and over again; they are a spectacular set of performers and really sweet girls.  Finally, Stan introduces the guests like he usually does; however, this is a mostly fresh crowd.  I won’t explain this situation that lead to it, but last year Trina Nishimura was the only new guest at Izumicon, now this year she’s the only returning guest (if you don’t count David Williams as he attends almost all if not every GE2 event).  This year’s newest guests include: Todd Haberkorn, a multi-talented actor who is getting over really well,  Jamie Marchi, another prior Oklahoman resident guest (Brina Palencia being the first) who did the voice for Liz Thompson in Soul Eater, and Troy Baker, who is known famous for Action Bastard from Shin-chan and voices Snow in Final Fantasy XIII; however, Troy had an obligation that kept him from arriving to Izumicon on Friday and flew in on Saturday.  Another guest who is not from FUNimation is Samantha Inoue-Harte, former voice actress now horror and stunt film makeup artist and technician.  It was a great privilege to have Todd and Sammy at the con as in 2009, Todd had a film obligation and Sammy unfortunately ended up catching H1N1; however, I got to meet Sammy at Kawaii Kon later in 2010 and I very briefly got to see Todd at Mechacon VI.  After Opening Ceremonies was David William’s panel, pretty much talking about his first experiences in anime and his time in ADV Films and Sentai Filmworks.  At Mizucon 2010 (may have been Kawaii Kon 2010 but probably didn’t pay attention @.@) is where I found out he ended up working for Sentai Filmworks.  I had the idea to make a new “Suck Bunny” for him to celebrate his new job so I bought the bunny from Build-A-Bear and asked Rin to make the voice and clothing for the bunny.  Sushicrowd is known for making impacts and doing a good show, and this gift certainly left a lasting impression on all of us. LOL.  After that, we went to the Gunfights in Anime Panel at the recommendation of the host, Cisco.  I was very interested due to my involvement in the military and as much as I can say, this panel made me rethink the way to play 1st person shooters and conduct gunfight sequences in films.  There’s a very long video that I am going to publish regarding this awesome panel so stay tuned for that.  Finally, we watch Happy! Project host their full-length concert that night and as challenging as it could be with a small stage, these girls made it work and put up an incredible performance.  Day 1 has passed and at that point I would say I was quite entertained…but the weekend just started.  I will also add that I met 2 other female Reno cosplayers and if only the 18+ panel events were going on so we could have made it an “All Reno Orgy”!!!

Day 2 would be the mania day for the con. This time cosplaying as Kaname Kuran from Vampire Knight and Rin cosplaying as Yuki Cross from the same show, we woke up in time for the Ball-Jointed Doll panel and placed our BJD Ester along the other dolls.  I’m still trying to figure out BJD’s myself and I’m glad that I was there for Rin’s BJD panel at FAN:dom FL because the BJD panel at Izumicon was more intermediate level so it flowed smoothly with me.  After that, I sat in and filmed Trina Nishimura’s panel, and let me tell you: I could hear this girl “ramble” all day.  Apparently I was told that I’m quite a “storyteller” myself and Trina wins mondo cool points with me because she knows how we should all communicate freely and have fun.  After Trina was Jamie.  I didn’t have too much of a clue who she was as she was brand new to my personal alumni of voice actors that I know, but I learned a lot of neat things about her after her panel and seems really down to Earth.  I hope to see and hear her in plenty of anime and video games.  After her was Sammy’s panel but I only got to sit through the end of it as I had to include filming of some cosplayers throughout that day.  I could only comment that Sammy is a genius with her horror makeup and I hope to hear her name in Hollywood like a couple of these VAs sometime soon.  Speaking of Hollywood, Todd Haberkorn hosted an incredible panel and it was for the first time I knew about his work in the film business and the film “Green Eyed Clown”.  A sucker that I am for indie movies, I am so sold in GEC.  I hope these movies turn out well and make a cult impact.  I know I’m already trying with my circle of movie freaks. LOL.  After the VAs come some performance main events.  The first one is Take One Productions, an improv comedy/acting troupe who are ridiculously hilarious.  Out of the 20 anime events that I have attended, I never laughed so hard in my life, and this was NOT an 18+ event, although they did push the envelope a couple of times.  That spinarooni that was suppose to represent a “Reno and Cloud making out” came out of nowhere.  After that was the Sunny Side Up ska band but I could not attend as Rin and I were attending the guest dinner.  Why the guest dinner runs through Saturdays major events I’ll never get even if it was explained to me.  As Rin would put it “I’m just not going to bother figuring it out”.  I left halfway through the dinner for the cosplay contest after that Jenga display that Troy Baker accomplish (see the image above).  The event was inappropriately labeled the Cosplay Masquerade but I knew what it really was and still it was an impressive display.  For the purpose of being discrete, I’m only going to talk about 3 entries.  The first one is the Best-in-Show Champion for the Cosplay Showcase: Queen Beryl from the tokusatsu Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.  She is absolutely the best rendition of Queen Beryl I’ve seen so far and I will professionally admit I’ve never been attracted to a villain before, so she is absolutely the clear winner.  Now Cosplay Theater is where it gets tricky.  I thought it was a major feat that Cory (The Kakashi Cosplayer who’s also in Take One), along with a cast member from Take One productions, ended up winning Best Skit at Cosplay Theater, making it the first time someone won Best Skit 2 years consecutively in Izumicon history.  The skit was very entertaining, probably the most entertaining as it got over the fans a lot; however, if I had to pick for Cosplay Theater, it would have to be the Black Butler skit.  Not to take away from the Naruto skit, but Black Butler presented something different to the stage.  All the other skits were geared to make people laugh.  The Black Butler skit actually made people cry; it was just that beautiful, although it had its campy moments but still really good.  Black Butler ended up winning 2nd place which is still not all bad, but congratulations to all the winners and the brave souls who went up there.  After the cosplay main event, Troy Baker ended up having his panel in one of the rooms adjacent to main events.  This guy epitomizes everything about cool, I could swear that he is actually David Bowie.  The final thing I can talk about for Day 2 since everything else after that is 18+ is the Reibu.  I didn’t get to stay as long as I did with DJ Ryudo’s gig, but Mixx put on a great show with his set and his lights.  Of course I was very happy that he played some stuff that I remember from Party 93.1 like Ian Van Dahl.

Day 3 is pretty much the wrap-up, although one last big main event went on that morning and that’s the Bleach Wedding.  My friends Becky and Robert cosplayed as Orihime and Ichigo respectively to perform at the cosplay wedding.  There were a couple of ops issues but I didn’t really notice, I thought the show turned out great.  After the wedding, everyone hung out at Caitlyn’s table until the Lolita Fashion Show.  I’ve actually missed those shows since the last one I saw was at Izumicon 2009.  The thing about this lolita group is that they actually go out to have fun as I don’t really see in other lolita groups so far, I bet Hotaru230 would love to see that show.  After that, we said our goodbyes to our friends and staff.  Of course every con ending is sad and the after action pow-wow is never fun, but Rin and I spent the last moments at dinner with the staff and was asked a lot of questions by the other staff about ourselves and Sushicrowd (“Wait a minute? The con’s over and I’m giving an impromptu panel about myself.).  It wasn’t that great of a finish though as I found out that the dates for Izumicon indeed collide with next year’s FAN:dom FL, which so far I am more likely augmenting.  Nothing is for certain so we’ll finally find out 11-11-11.

Rin and I quickly packed up Monday morning and it was back to Ft. Walton Beach, FL.  Somehow, we felt like we got back a lot faster than we did but it ended up taking the same amount of time anyway.  Funny that we stopped at Monroe, LA again at the same hotel, just in time to catch old school WWE Monday Night Raw.  The crazy thing that night too is that Jack Swagger from Smackdown and Jim Ross who retired from play-by-play(both Oklahomans) made an appearance that night.  Rin and I arrived Tuesday afternoon and besides the mildew that was building from us being gone for a week, everything else was a blank.  Oh yea, I caught a cold when we came back which I dubbed, the Okie Flu. LOL.

Well that’s my long spiel.  Hope everyone got to read it all.  Right now I’m still working on posting videos on the Sushicrowd Youtube channel so if you all want to see what I’m taking about, check out www.youtube.com/Sushicrowd.  Until next convention y’all!!!