Post Akumakon Thoughts

Greetings fellow internet wanderers!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while :( The awesomeness of Akumakon left me so exhausted I caught the flu and have been sick for the last week and a half. Now that I'm on the road to recovery though I thought I'd tell you how the convention went.

First of all well done Akumakon people! The convention was loads of fun and your best one yet! The Japanese guests were amazing, their panel was definitely the highlight of my weekend maybe even my year (though its early days). For those of you who don't know their first guest was Hirokatsu Kihara who used to work for Studio Ghibli and has worked on Laputa Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro and Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind. He also worked on Code Geass and Gundam Seed. Their second guest was Michihiko Suwa who produced Inuyasha (one of my favourite anime), Detective Conan who is celebrating its 18th year in production, and Rinne no Lagrange. They also had their recurring guest Lawrence Simpson who has done Kampfer Abridged and Naruto Abridged and is currently writing his own comic series called Project Jikoku.

The panel for the Japanese guests was amazing. Though they couldn't speak English and had to use a translator they were still very interesting and absolutely hilarious! If Kihara didn't get into animation then he should have gotten into comedy. Simply by using his small bit of English he had the crowd in stitches and really had a way of making us adoring fans feel part of something instead of us just sitting there listening to what they were saying. The best was yet to come though! Upon entering the panel everyone was handed a FREE raffle ticket that we were told to cling to for dear life and told nothing more. At the end of the panel it turned out that Kihara and Suwa had brought about ninety different items from Japan that they were handing out for FREE! I couldn't believe their generosity! The items they had weren't exactly cheap! I believe there were Miku Figurines, Inuyasha merchandise, posters that were even unbelievably rare in Japan and loads more! If you were lucky enough to have your number called you were getting an amazing item! I bet all the people that didn't go to the panel felt sorry afterwards!

As much as I would love to fan girl over this panel some more Akumakon did have some other great events! One of my favourite ones was on the Friday Night and that was the Man of Action Panel. It was three guys reading a Twilight Fan Fiction in funny voices and it had me on the floor laughing my ass off. Jim Fitz who is a regular con goer and staffer put on a Northern accent, Andrew (I don't remember his last name sorry!) had on a pretty boy English accent that I think was actually his own and John Burke last year's Akumakon Co-con director switched between Mickey Mouse, Bane and David Attenborough! The three of them together was just so funny, I would definitely see something like that again.

Another event that is worth mentioning is the Charity Auction. It was the first time Akumakon had done something like this and I must say it went amazingly well! They made over 1,200 euro! It's not surprising though when you hear some of their items they had. Kihara donated a Japanese Lucky Charm that contained 24 carat gold that ended up selling for over 200 euro! They had an over 18's goody bag with contents brought over from Japan that sold for 180 euro (I think!), an unopened original copy of Final Fantasy 9 and my personal favourite their mystery box that was hand crafted by Tadgh Tynan (a committee member and cosplay prop maker) and signed by Kihara and Suwa. It was a great success and I only wish I had money to bet on some of the items myself!

Their Maid Café which is run every year by the Wá Café, a local Japanese Restaurant was once again amazing and I really enjoyed their Noodles and Sushi. Akumakon is definitely the best Irish convention when it comes to food  as it is authentic and really reasonably priced. I go to a lot of Irish conventions and they always have the basic chips and sweets that are always ridiculously overpriced so I'm always happy when I go to Akumakon knowing that I don't have to pack a load of cheese strings and pot noodles!

Of course their Traders Hall was pretty good as always and included a make your own donut stand which was really fun and had delicious results! Their Artist Ally had some amazing talent and their Cosplay Masquerade was once again really well put together. All in all this was a great convention and I really hope Akumakon continues to get better and better. Well done to all the staff and committee you all did a fantastic job and you should all be really proud!

So guys those are my thoughts on the weekend! Did you guys go to Akumakon? If not do you want to go next year? What do you think about conventions? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time!

-BGG