Gooooood Morning FFML!

Yeah I know that technically 2 o'clock in the afternoon isn't morning, but 
hey I just woke up.  Anyway I thought I would entertain/bore the hell out of 
you all with my little report on Anime Express, the convention held every 
year in beautiful Daytona Beach, Florida.   That's right Daytona Beach where 
nothing bad ever happens and if you come here you will have nothing but fun 
with your family.

Okay now that the guy from the chamber of commerce is gone I can continue 
with my report.  Every year during March the Anything Goes Anime club from 
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University hosts an Anime convention.  The 
interesting thing about this, is that during this weekend Otaku from wherever 
it is everybody comes from take over ERAU's IC building.  The IC is a huge 
building located in the middle of the campus that features a full size 
theater as well as many smaller rooms that are converted for the con into 
various viewing rooms, a gaming room and of course a dealers room.  

There aren't any hotel rooms anywhere near the university, but sleeping at 
the con is not a problem.  Transportation from the airport is easy.  ERAU is 
an aeronautical university so they are located adjacent to the airport.  Go 
ahead and walk it won't hurt you.  If you are doing a road trip the con site 
isn't that far from I95 just follow the signs to the airport and you should 
find it on Richard Petty Blvd.  (It's Daytona turn right at the race track)  
Scheduling generally puts the con right in the middle of spring break so if 
you are of a mind you can head over to the beach and the clubs.

Get the picture?  Good, now your favorite Harley riding otaku biker is gonna 
tell you about his weekend at Anime Express 5.

Friday

The con starts at 6pm.  Unfortunately I missed the opening ceremonies do to a 
scheduling conflict.  Read this as I was in the dojo training.  Once we bowed 
out I hustled over to the con front desk to find out just how much the 
weekend would cost me.  While I was there I noticed a girl dressed up like 
Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth,  while I don't normally ogle High School 
girls I was interested to see her toting a shinai.  Now if you know me you 
know I like martial arts and just about anything violent, so using my 
considerable charm I arranged for a little duel later in the evening with her 
and ran off to get my shinai.

Once I got home I called up a friend of mine with an interest in anime and 
getting hit upside the head with sticks and bamboo practice swords in hand we 
headed back to the con.

Thus started one of the most violent episodes in my life.  Don't get me wrong 
folks I love a good fight but damn it I got into seven sword fights and two 
hand to hand fights inside of four hours.  I never did find Hikaru-chan again 
but I did meet up with some old friends who share my love of the sword and 
pain.  So irrepressible gnomes that we are we got out our weapons and went at 
it in front of the IC building.  Can you imagine the response?  People 
started coming out of the woodwork wanting to join in the fun.  Honestly my 
memory of that night is kind of hazy, but one thing that stands out was 
getting into a match with a young lady cosplaying as Kamiya Kaoru from 
Rurouni Kenshin.  I just can't describe to you how strange it was crossing 
swords with Kaoru while a guy dressed as Yahiko watched from the sidelines.

Later in the night some really good Kendoka showed up and I got my ass handed 
to me a couple times.  That was fun because I got to see the holes in my 
technique and I finally got to where Kendo armor in one of these little 
matches.

That is about it for Friday.  I got to see the very end of Ah! Megami-sama 
movie on the big screen and got trampled at Soul Edge in the video game room. 
 Then I went home for eight hours sleep.  Yeah don't look at me like that, I 
sleep get over it.

Saturday

Saturday started with a side trip to the gunshow that was being held in 
Deland.  Nothing most of you would be interested in but I saw alot of cool 
stuff that I couldn't afford. Nuff said.

Saturday evening I made my way back to the con for the cosplay.  While 
waiting for it to start I got a chance to meet the FFML's own Redneck Ryoga, 
a fellow Floridian and all around cool guy.  His taste in clothes however is 
odd.  I like the fur though.  

After a little wait the show got underway  Once again violence seemed to be 
the theme.  That's right most of the cosplayers were carrying weapons of some 
sort and most of the skits had some form fight going on.  One of the ones I 
remember best was a late entry of two guys dressed as Spike and Vicious from 
Cowboy Bebop.  They reenacted the last fight scene at full speed with a real 
sword.  I am not sure if it was sharpened but wouldn't want to have it 
swinging at my head either way.  On a nonviolent note a girl dressed as 
Belledandy won a prize for her costume.  She was an almost perfect replica 
about the only difference between her and the anime is the fact that she 
wasn't animated.  I really want to know how she got her hair to look like 
that.

After the cosplay I closed out the night talking about what is wrong with the 
world with a group of the people I had fought the other day and Spike from 
the cosplay.  About the time we were talking about US peace plans in the 
middle east a friend of mine on the con staff came up to me with a proposal.  
Since I know half the con staff (it is a small town) I was asked to act as 
security thug for the registration table while they got some food.  
Fortunately Otaku tend to be a good crowd and I wasn't called upon to dent 
any faces. 

At around 4 am I called it quits and headed for home, but not before running 
into Hikaru-chan again and promising to fight her next year.


Sunday

Actually I didn't go back to the con Sunday.  I was sore all over and nothing 
I wanted to see was playing.

So that ended my experience at Anime Express 5.

It really isn't a bad con or a bad town this was just one of those weird 
things that happened.  If you come to Daytona Bch for Anime Express 6 you 
will be well treated won't get into any trouble you don't want to get into.   
However I am bringing my Shinai next year and I hope anyone reading this who 
is going to be there will too.  Heck I love this stuff even when lose I can 
learn a lot.

Later

Outlaw 1

             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'