Rei Ayanami (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Just got back today from Oni-Con XI (that's 11 for you non-roman numeral reading types), which I, by pure coincidence managed to pair with a special marathon screening of Rooster Teeth's RWBY Volume 2 at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park. The RWBY Vol.2 screening was awesome, you can see a definite improvement in overall graphic design, background detail, etc. between Season (volume) one and Season (volume) two. I was very happy to see the RWBY characters on the large cinema screen. The audience was a mix of hard core Rooster Teeth fans and casual anime fans, and more than a few of my fellow audience (especially the two RWBY cosplayers who sat next to us) we later saw in attendance at Oni-Con. Apparently they also attended RTX earlier this year. After the screening there was a live-streamed Q&A from the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, but they accepted questions via Twitter from the remote Alamo locations.
After all that was done, it was still much earlier in the evening than I'd expected it to be, which was fortunate for us, because traffic on I-45 South was positively attrocious that night. Despite the headaches and traffic jams on the way to Galveston, we managed to put ourselves on the island just before 10pm. We checked into our room at the Red Roof Inn in Galveston, unloaded our car with our stuff, and traipsed over to the Galveston Island Convention Center to pick up our pre-registration all-con passes during the alloted pick-up time window (8pm to 11pm). It was a lovely, cool night out and a very pleasant walk both coming and going.
We got up bright and early, had breakfast at McDonald's over on 61st Street, then came back to our rooms, showered, dressed and headed to the Convention, I in my TOS Star Trek Science officer uniform, while my friend Stephen wore his favorite Naruto shirt. We hit the dealer's room first and I completed my first objective within 30 seconds of walking through the dealer's room door: finding an buying a full-sized Rei Ayanami figurine that would round out my Evangelion figure collection. I found her, pulled her off the shelf, handed the man my $40 USD and walked away beaming. I got an Erza Scarlet plushie that's coming with me to work next week. I also picked up some more adorable Fairy Tail keychain charms, including a Happy The Cat, a Lucy Heartfillia, and a Wendy; I also found a 3D charm/figurine of Mirajane that I added to my keychain also, along with my existing Erza Scarlet keychain figure.
And although as a general rule, I avoid purchasing DVDs and Blu-Rays at Anime Cons (prices are nearly always inflated and much cheaper online), I did make an exception and buy a remastered edition of the film KITE, which Right Stuf! keeps putting on back-order repeatedly. I decided to just grab it at Oni-Con this year so I can just flat out cancel that backorder (and maybe put in a pre-order for the next Kill La Kill volume instead). Speaking of Kill La Kill, I gave some serious thought to buying an awesome Ryuko Matoi charm but was at a loss to figure out where I'd put her. They had another one of her wielding her giant scissor blade but I didn't like that one nearly as much. I resolved to get it the next day but by then they were sold out and I was sad, because I'd had the flash of brilliance to add her to my ID badge at work instead of my keychain, but alas, not this year. Also, I found that Section 23 Films, a.k.a. Sentai Filmworks had a booth of their own doing direct-to-consumer selling, and I couldn't pass up the remastered Fate/Stay Night original series on Blu-Ray, nor the re-imagined Fate/Stay Night spinoff, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya on Blu-Ray. I was suitably impressed by this "Magical Girl" re-imagining and its eye-popping visuals that I felt the Blu-Ray purchase was justified. It wasn't until I looked at my receipt later that I saw it read "Section 23 Films", which is one of the partner companies with Sentai Filmworks. I wavered over this decision a little, but not long.
I passed on some adorable plushies, in particular one of the "Palm-top tiger" tiger-stripped cat from Toradora! I do like me some plushes, but they attract dust like crazy and I'm running out of shelf space. There was also a plush of Aisaka Taiga herself, but honestly I'd rather have a normal PVC figure of Taiga than a plush doll. There were also some interesting/risque hug pillows that I gave a pass on, including one lewd one of Rei & Asuka from Evangelion going full lesbian on each other while half-dressed in their plug suits. It was kinda hot, but no way I'm keeping that one around the house where others might see it.
The figurines were once again very reasonably priced, unlike the Highway Robbery prices generally on offer at Anime Matsuri at the GRB in Houston earlier this year, that I mostly simply pointed at and laughed and walked away from. Speaking of figures, I'm also super stoked to pick up the second generation of RWBY figures that actually resemble the show's character designs like real anime figurines. The first gen figures were, let's face it, pretty rough. Looks like they hired someone who does anime figurines as their primary business and the 2nd gen versions look fantastic.
I had very good luck with the panels I attended, all were entertaining and/or informative, usually both. I do lament that the "Understanding Evangelion" panel failed to happen, but that was one of my only disappointments this con season.
More later as it's time for dinner, but that's the immediate "after action" report ;-)
