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[ScarletRhapsody]

Now that Anime Vegas is done and over with, it's time to look back on the good, the bad, and the shenanigans.

What did you like about Anime Vegas? What did you not like?

Post here about your highlights, lowlights, and suggestions what Anime Vegas can do better in 2010.

I'll start.

The Epic
+ Wow...people recognized my Mistress Nine and Scarlet costumes.
+ Really liked the singles masquerade competition. Really happy to see a variety of series represented without too much of the Internet meme.
+ Mopping up the dance floor to "Baccano Swing" during the masquerade ball.
+ Four Queens was a decently priced hotel. Nice to see "classic" Vegas. I can deal with the baby boomer types.
+ Generally, people were very nice. Thanks for asking before you hug.
+ Nice stage set up for concerts and masquerade.
+ Friendly Guests of Honor folks. Nice to talk to voice actors and hear about their stories.
+ Impromtu dollfie gathering.
+ Baccano! gathering at the Venetian (all two of us! lol).
+ Crank up that AC! It didn't feel like it was 90 degree weather.
+ I liked the overall theme-ing of the Phantomhive Ball. The contest and overall atmosphere (ie: dress code) was rather nice.

The Fail
+ Not too impressed with The Deuce (aka The D**che). Took about an hour to get from downtown to the strip.
+ Con shuttle needed to make more stops during the later hours.
+ Two panel rooms meant for less live programming events. I like to have some alternative to masquerade, dances, etc.
+ No maid cafe and no anime music video contest. Aw. I heard that AV's Ichigo Cafe is one of the better maid cafes.
+ We're gonna need a bigger boat.
+ Questionable song choices for the ballroom dance. I understand the need for a classy atmosphere, but "I'll Make a Man Out of You," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Bring Me My Bride" are not tunes that are waltz-able.

The OMGWTFBBQ
+ Was that a cannon that went off at 12:30AM at night by the 4 Queens? Nah, just the 24/7 entertainment.
+ Running into SoCal people I thought that wouldn't show up.
+ Happy to know that people remember Slayers, YuYu, Fushigi Yuugi, etc. Yay for 90s anime!
+ "Yuri For All Ages" Panel.
+ Fun with airsofts - the Scarlet way!

[Kago_Sabaku]

The Good
Better than the hotel last year
Better dealer selection
Nice people
Fun games
Tons of seats in panel rooms

The Bad
UNRELIABLE WEBSITE!!!!!!
Not everyone asked to take pictures/hug
Would have prefered the side of convention center closer to theater/clubhouse
Didn't like the rudeness of gunshow patrons (Not something within relm of control)
Didn't like a few vendor's unmarked items that were diffrent (escalated) prices the later in the day you asked

The WTF
The cameraman that stopped and interviewed people leaving Steve's panel on Monday (what's that for?)
Randomly bumping into people I disliked from highschool and realizing they're retarded in new ways
Every Tobi had their mask built in a unique way
Being kicked out of masquerade ball because my silk Akatsuki cloak wasn't 'formal' then being let back in because I put my black gloves back on. (Seriously wtf?)

[Sasuke-Hime]

+ Questionable song choices for the ballroom dance. I understand the need for a classy atmosphere, but "I'll Make a Man Out of You," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Bring Me My Bride" are not tunes that are waltz-able.

I cant stress this more. The music for both dances were poor. The cutting of the beat every five minutes to shout he was the DJ or to switch to some off tempo song really killed it for me, plus the random Disney songs.

[Celcia]

Where to start?!

Pros:
-Meet some nice congoers and cosplayers
-Hanging out with my friends
-Meeting up with cosplayers I met online
-Vendors that sold sword props like Gunblades!

Cons:
-The panels were pretty lame (but I DID enjoy the Vocaloid panel)
-Some Miku cosplayer attending the Vocaloid panel grabbed and literally DRAGGED me in while I was catching up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time. I almost twisted my ankle because of this, could have ripped my gown (or lost a tooth), and my freshly detangled wig was RETANGLED because of this. Geez Louise, people!!! Don't attack someone in a gigantic costume, ESPECIALLY if it has 6 yards of fabric and they're wearing 4in. stilettos! Why didn't anyone stop her?! My ankle still hurts.
-The vendors were pretty lame. It felt like I was looking at the same stuff from every booth and there were no wig shops
-Music for the masquerade ball was pretty bad... I think more jazz or classical would have been more appropriate
-Staff could have been more attentive... there was too much rough-housing going on
-Few good places for photoshoots
-Website doesn't work 3/4 of the time
-Had to park waaaaay up there on the hill because of the gun show. This was very inconvenient because my whole group was in cosplay. Cosplay and heat do not mix

[Tenshi]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I know not all our staff members read cosplay.com so I'll relay it back.

I'm gonna comment on a few things too:

+ Impromtu dollfie gathering.

Haha, yes, that was a lot of fun . Getting to dork out about dolls and Takarazuka at the same time is amazing!

+ I liked the overall theme-ing of the Phantomhive Ball. The contest and overall atmosphere (ie: dress code) was rather nice.

Thank you so much! We're so glad that for the most part people enjoyed our little experiment.

+ Two panel rooms meant for less live programming events. I like to have some alternative to masquerade, dances, etc.

I agree. I'll be bringing this up at our staff meeting, but I felt that there wasn't really a need for the poster gallery to be at the con the ENTIRE weekend. We could have used that space for more panels, or maybe even karaoke. I enjoyed the posters but I think it would have been fine to just have it there one day. I ended up getting kicked out early of my Takarazuka panel for some impromptu thing that wasn't even originally on the schedule, and I was upset that my attendees couldn't see my last clip. If we would have had another panel room I might have been able to finish my presentation .

+ Questionable song choices for the ballroom dance. I understand the need for a classy atmosphere, but "I'll Make a Man Out of You," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Bring Me My Bride" are not tunes that are waltz-able.

Since the DJ reads the forums here I'm sure he'll take all of your comments under consideration .

UNRELIABLE WEBSITE!!!!!!

I completely agree. From what I was told, it's the Joomla software that slows the site down terribly. I hope we can have that redone soon.

Would have prefered the side of convention center closer to theater/clubhouse

That side doesn't have meeting rooms, so we would have had no panels or video rooms!

Being kicked out of masquerade ball because my silk Akatsuki cloak wasn't 'formal' then being let back in because I put my black gloves back on. (Seriously wtf?)

I'm going to guess you were let back in because later in the night, when the crowd thinned down a bit, we let everyone in regardless of what they were wearing. Seriously you guys, the rules for attire were not that difficult or complicated. The amount of people throwing fits over the dress code was silly. We will not be so lenient next year, so please read the rules carefully for AV 2010.

-Some Miku cosplayer attending the Vocaloid panel grabbed and literally DRAGGED me...*snip*

Did you tell a staff member? We don't tolerate that sort of crap - especially me. Believe me, I've been tackle-glomped before and it is not pleasant. But we can't be every place at every time, so you have to TELL us if someone does something inappropriate like that. If you would have told me I would have had a VERY long talk with that individual XD.

[Lady Saya]

I only went one day so...

Good:
*Cashman Center
*I liked the panels I attended on Monday especial the Steve Blum one. :3
*Got to meet Brad Swaile and Steve Blum!!!
*Everyone's pretty friendly.

Bad:
*Dealer's hall didn't have much of a selection and some of the stuff seemed pretty overpriced (I think one dealer was selling a keychain for $10). :s
*Super slow AV site. :c
*Didn't get to meet Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt (I'm sad they weren't there on Monday).

[jinnai]

As for people on music selection for both nights...every working DJ worldwide cant please everyone. It's impossible. I don't need to reply back to those comments.

Thank you to whose who did enjoy the dances because I am a lone wolf. No DJ crew, no major label backing me up. No Japanese sponsors. 100% Independent hard working DJ talent.

MY OWN EQUIPMENT. MY OWN SPENT MONEY ON NEW DJ TECH ($2000+). MY TIME. AND I DJED AT ANIME VEGAS 2009 FOR FREE.

[Rellian]

As for people on music selection for both nights...every working DJ worldwide cant please everyone. It's impossible. I don't need to reply back to those comments.

I would have to agree it is an extremely difficult thing to try and predict people's attitudes and tastes before hand. You can try and put together a show or set that you think will be good and for any one of a hundred reasons, some people just don't agree with your choices. It can be extremely frustrating. I myself have always welcomed constructive criticism because it does help (though it can sting a little too) in evaluating my own situation, but even then it must be taken with a grain of salt. And to be fair.... there really isn't much music written these days outside of Broadway or academia that is what I would call waltz-able.

[jinnai]

Originally Posted by Rellian

I would have to agree it is an extremely difficult thing to try and predict people's attitudes and tastes before hand. You can try and put together a show or set that you think will be good and for any one of a hundred reasons, some people just don't agree with your choices. It can be extremely frustrating. I myself have always welcomed constructive criticism because it does help (though it can sting a little too) in evaluating my own situation, but even then it must be taken with a grain of salt. And to be fair.... there really isn't much music written these days outside of Broadway or academia that is what I would call waltz-able.

I had factors riding against me.

- I was told about this Ball Event during almost MID-SUMMER 2009. Gave me like less than 2 months to find music in a video/AMV format.

- I had NO EXPERIENCE running a ball.

- No waltz music (I'm a techno DJ)

- VERY important people flaked out LAST MINUTE without telling me. MORE than 10 people.

- Gathering 8 hours of music videos total, Boiling it down to 3 hours, and converting 3 hours of Music Video Programming to the appropriate format.

For a first year Ball, and the first Ball in AMERICA to have real-time video mixing technology, VERY DAMN BRILLIANT, I must say.

Maybe with all these factors, you all would think twice overall about our hardships to bring you something special.

[SakuraMikage]

I forgot that I even registered here...

The Epic
+The level of cosplay really stepped up this year and seemed like there were more people in costume this year.
+Also that more people are coming in from out of town/state to AV too. This year is the first time I've attended Anime Vegas not as a staff member. It's a nice change to be on the other side of the convention experience. I haven't been to too many cons in general so yeah..
+Masquerade Ball. Granted I helped out and made my costume this year just for it, but I really enjoyed the classy change mixed with anime. :3
+More people asking permission for hugs rather than just jumping you.
+ Mini dollfie meet was awesome. BEST EVER. trufax.

The Fail
+ Gun Show (nuff said) I heard that Cashman Center lied to our Con chair about them having the center over for the weekend. Jerkfaces.
+ PROGRAM CHANGES BEYOND ACCEPTABLE REASONS. I know that things can change, but just shortening programs and then moving them without making an announcement over the intercom system is unacceptable to me. I would've missed the BJD panel if we didn't run into the person running it by mere chance of cosplaying from the same anime series.
+ That all the time me and another staff member constantly ask for a Karaoke room and get horribly denied every time. Seriously, anime conventions should never go without a karaoke room/time and we've done so for 6 years now. No excuse anymore with all the space we get at Cashman.
+ Most of the dealers had so much mainstream stuff that I wasn't interested. I set aside $200 and actually came back with $100 back. The imported game booth and the booth with the giant penguin pillow got my funds.

The OMGWTFBBQ
+ That dude in the makeshift loincloth.
+ The L that complained about his cosplay not being formal for the ball. YOU'RE L, OF COURSE IT'S NOT. Also you were doing it wrong since you were wearing shoes.

@ScarletRhapsody, it was very nice meeting you despite how briefly it was. I somewhat ADD when I'm around so many friends I rarely get to see. I'm so glad there's more TWEWY cosplayers out there. You have the best shop despite the difficult stats, Princess K.

@Celcia, I apologize for that. Everything was a blur from sitting on the stage out at so many people with my glasses off in my pseudo-Neku cosplay. If you're the Cendrillion!Miku in that beautiful gown, I do remember me and Seishun asking someone to make sure you get into the room to attend the panel. Once again, I apologize if that Miku was rude about our request. >_<

[jinnai]

Karaoke...

Hmm.. I mean, we can totally DUMP the dances and do just Karaoke for both nights. If that's what people are wanting. I have no problems with that!

[にかいと]

The Epicness
-SPACE! Renaisance was really pretty but I'd prefer space and ventilation than shiny floors
-ball was awesome, even though I was only able to stay for an hour, I still had a bunch of fun
-Grell got lots of love and glomps xD This was probably the "funnest" and most successful cosplay I ever did
-Vocaloid gatheirng lasted almost 2 hours, I had as much, if not even better, fun than I did in the Vocaloid gathering as AX and that was epic
-artist tables were great, I'd love to see more of them next year

The Phail
-need more panels, my friends and I were kinda bored waiting for the masquerade and we played cards in the loft upstairs xD
-kareoke would be fun, you don't have to dump dances, kareoke is still good during the day too :]
-where's the DDR/Parapara? o.o
-AV needs to update their site, sloooooooow pooooooke hahah
-can AV get a better/safer location? like a place that has just as much size or even more than the Cashman Center and an area where parents aren't always going to be worried (I drove there alone and I had to text/inform my parents like every hour hahah)

@Celcia, I'm sorry they dragged you into the panel room and almost injured your ankle, the Vocaloid fans were just so happy to see you, but yeah we need proper etiquette

@Jinnai, thanks for all your hard work, you guys still did an awesome job for running AV's first ball

Overall, looking forward to AV 10 =D

[jinnai]

Originally Posted by にかいと

@Jinnai, thanks for all your hard work, you guys still did an awesome job for running AV's first ball

That's what I'm talking about! For an event that had only less than 2 months to plan out and prepare for, pretty IMPRESSIVE.

Thanks

[Celcia]

Originally Posted by Tenshi

Did you tell a staff member? We don't tolerate that sort of crap - especially me. Believe me, I've been tackle-glomped before and it is not pleasant. But we can't be every place at every time, so you have to TELL us if someone does something inappropriate like that. If you would have told me I would have had a VERY long talk with that individual XD.

It was stupidity on my part, but I didn't. I thought the person sitting next to the panelists making sure they didn't run over their allotted time was a staff member, but I guess they weren't since they didn't do anything. Either way... if I ever decide to go back, I'm going straight to Sanji about it so she can have a nice long talk with the offender (if I am attacked again).

[Phork]

As far a I can see Sasuke-Hime was giving you constructive criticism and I agree with her comments.

I attended the dances for AV 06 & 07 and the music was much more fitting and seemed to have a Happy Hardcore feel with smooth transitions through out the night. This last dance seemed to feature a lot of trance with VERY inconsistent beats making it impossible to dance for more that 30 seconds without having to stop and wait for the beat to pick up again.

The AMVs are completely unnecessary. We're there to dance not to watch youtube videos. The TVs flood the room with light as well which doesn't help ambiance.

Im hoping you can take this as constructive criticism for future events. I have enjoyed your pasts sets and I mean no disrespect by my comments.