Friday and Saturday

written by Master Jedi
The convention season was started off by Sac Anime hosting the convention in 2008. The convention was held at the fan favorite and ever-so popular Scottish Rite Temple in Sacramento.
The Convention itself was a 3 day event and opened its doors at 3pm on fri. I arrived at 2:30pm and the line was already long out to the parking lot. All the eager fans just ready to get inside. The opening ceremonies kicked off the convention at 7pm on Friday night, where I was asked to come on stage as a pirate to help start off the show. The guests of honor were also there in the audience and were also asked to get on stage to participate. There were four guests of honor at Sac Anime this year. The guests included the Voice actors for FMA… Ed, Roy and Lust and Katie Bair was also there. Following the opening ceremonies was a Rave which started off at 10pm.
The next day Saturday was a regular con day filled with much to see and do. Guests signing, photo shoots a good size dealer room, Artist alley, several video anime rooms and friends enjoying cosplay.

Overall the convention was a good success, a great way to start off the New Year.

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Saturday and Sunday
written by Sai

I wasn’t able to make it to Sac-Anime on Friday. Me and Li were working like slaves on our new costumes (Phoenix Wright!) that was to be debuted at this convention.

We attended Sac-Anime on Saturday at 4pm. We were scheduled to Judge at that time. However, unfortunately that is not when the Judging started. It turned out to be a little over an hour later. During that time I headed to the Dealer’s Room. This room was quite impressive as usual. There were many shops with different anime/Japanese goods. I personally gawked at a GIANT Pikachu plush that was $200.00! The video room was in the normal place and had few attendees from what I could tell when I peeked in. The Gaming Room was busy with some tournaments taking place. So far, everything seemed to be pretty lively.

I went back to the table (where all the Judges were waiting) and finally they had told us to go up to the stage to begin Judging. We followed suit and turned out we had to wait even more before we could actually begin.

Very few entries showed up. This was supposedly due to people being uninformed or unaware of Masquerade activities, resulting in much confusion. Another downfall was that the Judges actually had to sit around and wait for the contestants to show, rather than the “No Show, No Go” policy most conventions have. Perhaps this is something that can be instated in the future to prevent time waste and insure serious competitors?

The concert was entertaining. It wasn’t too loud and it had a good turnout.

Afterwards we went home to continue our goal of Pheonix Wright! Man, let me tell you, tailored suits are HARD (especially functional zipper and pocket pants!)

Sunday we finally arrived as Phoenix and Edgeworth. The day was filled with photos and wandering around the con. Apparently between 10am and 11am on Sunday Morning, a Staff Vehicle was vandalized and robbed with broken windows behind the Con Center. After the robbing, the glass and mess was cleaned up and thrown in the garbage by someone.

Masquerade, once again, was delayed. I think these next few hours were probably the most disappointing of the convention. As stated, the Masquerade was to be started at 4pm. However due to poor planning and time management the Dealer’s Room was not broken down in time, pushing the actual Masquerade back an hour or more. Because of this, many contestants had dropped out.

The skits that remained were entertaining and I applaud those who decided to stay and compete. Though, the real confusion occurred during “Half-Time”. Out of no-where, one of the Con Staff had come out on stage and gave a huge “Closing Ceremonies”-style speech. As a Judge, this lead to much confusion! We were unsure if the contest was over even though there were entrants STILL waiting to go up on stage. Not sure if it was over or not, us Judges began to Judge entrants already until another Staff member came and told us it was just a “Half-Time”. Half-Time for what? There were only three or four contestants left, it could’ve easily waited until afterward.

I personally found this to be really uncalled for. It was unnecessary especially during the Masquerade! It was some big speech about Staff and the lady was even “awarded” a giant present. All in all, it should’ve waited. There appeared to be a lot of confusion once again at this convention with Staff not knowing what was going on nor when things were supposed to happen.

Speaking as one of the Judges in particular, it was very rude of Sac-Anime to ask us to be somewhere at a certain time and then actually abandoning us without information and wasting our time with poor management when we arrived, on time, to do the Jobs asked of us. Personally I know that the Masquerade Staff in particular did their best with the knowledge they knew to keep things in order. Thank you.

I think this convention needs to take more care and consideration in not just the Masquerade department but as the convention as a whole. They need better management, they need better communication, and most of all, they need to give more respect.

consplayers Reports