Back 2 Back

Yet another Katsucon/Magfest has come to pass, and in its wake, a slew of renewed hopes and opportunities remain. This year has been a "so far so good" sort of affair for me personally, but these two February weekends have stood out as the exceptions. From simply having one hell of a fun night with good friends, to getting another chance to talk with the ever amazing power couple of John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain, my time at these back to back conventions (while not perfect) was nothing short of fantastic.

If I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really all that happy going into 2016. I was having a lot of difficulty finding inspiration/energy with many of my projects, and I was extremely self-conscious about my current circumstances. Be it from the swinging pendulum of my mother's health, or to my over-one-year-long delay in getting the commissions I've owed completed, there were numerous factors bringing my normally positive mojo down to the carpet. Despite my somewhat depressed state of mind I had coming into 2016 though, I managed to have a great time at these cons. I'm sure, if nothing else, that it had a lot to do with simply being surrounded by friends, and being able to step back from everything to take a few deep breaths.

Sorry everyone for the exceedingly long wait in getting this latest con report completed and posted. Several things have all been sort of happening at once for me, which unfortunately made this write-up just go to the bottom of my somewhat large "To Do" pile. Thankfully I've managed to squeeze in some free time recently, so now I can do the reports, as promised, on Katsucon and Magfest 2016 properly!

Katsucontinuum

Much like the many Katsucons of the past, I only went to this year's Katsucon for the Saturday. Even though I've had my gripes with the con before, I do feel that Katsu's performance has somewhat improved over the recent years. The staff has been far more organized (thus making things like lines faster) but that's about it. I don't know if it's just the result of my getting older, but Katsuon doesn't seem to have the same magic it did for me ten years ago. Some of us were even joking that attending Katsucon is simply more of a reflex now then it is out of legitimate desire. Well it's that, and I can only attend one of these cons in their entirety, which Magfest wins by default.

What can I say? I just have a better time at Magfest...

It was a slight bit of an interesting experience this year having Katsucon actually come before Magfest for once. Typically Magfest is held during the first weekend of the year, but with the New Year holiday recently falling close to, or on a weekend (like in this year's case) the decision to move the event into February was made. While a part of me does miss kicking off the new year with Magfest, I understand that it's ultimately better for business for such an occassion to simply take place at a later date in the first quarter.

Regardless of the timing, Katsucon was a fun day while it lasted. I got to hang out with a good deal of my friends (such as Shonuff44, Bitmonkey, Razerfox, and Riftwalker) upon arriving, and even more of them come that night. Playing cosplay bingo with Crybringer is always a highlight of the event, as well as just getting together, sharing some drinks, and having some damn good conversations.

There really just wasn't much to Katsucon for me this year. Barring a few cool bits of swag I picked up (like the hardcover edition of the awesome Star Power comic, and a swanky Super Pochaco statue) I couldn't find much else. The cosplay even felt a bit dry this year, as I only came across two situations where I had the urge to take photos. But that may also be due to my mostly being in few locations throughout the hotel during my stay. I don't want anyone to think that this con was bad, because it wasn't. In fact, this con didn't even need to be great. It just needed to be a fun reprieve from everything I was going through at the time, which it was. I can't hate it for that.

Stupendous Star Wars cosplay!

Awesome Ayane!

Magfest Mayhem

Now here's where I really started to have a great time. With Katsucon happening a mere week prior, it felt more like a pre-show party to the real event that was Magfest. From the gaming, to the music, to simply the cosplay, everything at Magfest was solid. My only disappointments with the whole con was that I didn't get to play every single game I wanted to play, and Crybringer couldn't join us due to a nasty case of bronchitis. Other than those two things, I had a blast all the way through Magfest's Thursday opening to Sunday closing.

In an odd turn this year, the weather was surprisingly warm during the con (it was over seventy degrees outside) which lead to tons of con-goers pouring out into the National Harbor, myself included. I don't think I've ever been able to enjoy an outdoor meal at the National Harbor during February, but here I was, doing exactly that at the local restaurants. Having absolutely gorgeous weather conditions only helped to sweeten the pot that was Magfest for me, seeing how the weather was well below freezing during Katsucon the week prior.

The National Harbor

A near-by ferris wheel attraction.

I honestly don't know where to start with all the fun, since there was so much we did, but I guess we'll start with the gaming. Holy crap the gaming here you guys! This year my good friend Clear Skies joined me for the entire con, and we very much gamed our asses off. From arcade games, to pinball, to card games, we were playing it all. I've had some heavy gaming runs in the past, but I'll admit that I haven't gamed this hard in quite a while. Granted, it wasn't to the point of us being unable to tolerate the burn of natural light upon leaving the convention type of heavy, but it was still some heavy sessions all the same.

As I've made it known on here before, I love me some pinball, so you best believe Clear and I spent a great deal of time fighting for points as pinball wizards. I got to play the Tron: Legacy pinball table at length, and I gotta say that I instantly fell in love with that bad boy. Everything about this table is cool as Hell to an easily amused nerd such as myself. From the colorful lighting effects, to the slammin' Daft Punk music, to the miniature Flynn's Arcade machine actually playing games while you play the table, everything on Tron: Legacy is downright awesome! The only other ones that came close to being nearly as cool and time-consuming as this table was the classic Jurassic Park table, an ACDC table, and an Elvira: Scarred Stiff table. Despite the nostalgia of how fun they all were as well, they were frankly competing for second in my eyes to the might of Tron. If I can ever get the money for it, you better believe I'm going to be purchasing one of these bodacious beauties.

 
The arcade games were incredibly fun as they are each year, and having Clear Skies with me gave me good reason to hop into a lot of the fighting games that were available. Getting to play some titles I hadn't touched in years (like the Fist of the North Star fighter, Primal Rage, and Killer Instinct) was one heck of a trip down memory lane. I'm glad I still know how to pull off some sweet combos when it comes to Fist of the North Star, but Clear Skies maintains his dominance when it comes to classic Killer Instinct. (I swear it's like that dude breathes those games...) Even though it was only for a day, I did get to play some serious rounds of The Rumble Fish 2 (a personal favorite fighter of mine) and experience the joys of its insanely fun custom combo chain system. It was also pretty rad to play some Virtual On with the original arcade cockpit setup, even though I lost each match I played. I even got to finally play Border Break (a giant-mecha game I've been wanting to play for years now) with the official touch-screen and dual joystick setup. As a mecha fan, I can say that Border Break was everything I wanted it to be and then some. For those of you out there who've been waiting on a spiritual successor to the likes of Virtual On, you'll find it in Border Break.

Seeing as how I still don't have a PS4 or XBox One, Magfest was a good place to sit down and try out some of the current gen games I've missed. Mortal Kombat X turned out to be everything I hoped/wanted it to be, and I'm practically sold on purchasing the new Killer Instinct for my PC. While I'm still not entirely sure which system I want to get first (I'm currently leaning to PS4 because I'm such a weeaboo for all the Japanese games that system has) I can at least say that some of the titles out there now are definitely worth my time and my money. Gravity Rush: Remastered on the PS4 definitely had my focus at the con, and some of the upcoming titles (like Gravity Rush 2, Grand Kingdom, and Nights of Azure) look to be amazingly fun to play.

As for the indie circuit, to my slight disappointment, there wasn't much in the way of new games that caught my attention this year. Still, some of favorites from last year like Red Shift Blue Shift, and Nothing Good Can Come Of This were available to play. I can safely claim that they're just as addicting to play now as they were a year ago, seeing as how Clear Skies and I spent easily close to two hours gunning each other down in NGCCOT.

I even fumbled across a new card game to play. Normally I'm not one for the whole collectible card game deal (as they can be an expensive hobby) but I think I've finally found one that suits my tastes. It's called Force of Will, and I got to demo quite a few games during the con. For those who don't know what Force of Will is, it's pretty much Magic the Gathering, only with an anime-edge to it, that pulls it's mythology and characters from real world fairy tales and folklore. I have no qualms to admitting that I'm a sucker for anime/manga art, as well as stories that take fairy tales and turn them on their ear a little bit. As an example, one of my favorite characters in the game so far is a somewhat evil version of Little Red Riding Hood (called Little Dread) who turns into a werewolf. She's a snarky bugger who plays a fairly large roll in the game's lore, and her respective card has some sweet artwork on it, never mind the fact that her card kicks nine kinds of ass in the actual game.

Force of Will is starting to pick up momentum here in the U.S. and thankfully a few local stores carry booster packs for it. While I don't think I'll ever be a regular player with Force of Will, I can say that it is nice to simply collect some cool cards from time to time, and to read Force of Will's robust mythology. I don't know if I could recommend it to anyone though, as I'm not nearly versed enough in the game's mechanics to accurately say whether it's objectively good or not. I'm pretty much only into this game because it speaks to some of my sensibilities as a gamer, and an anime fan. 

Of course we all know it wouldn't be a proper Magfest without some kind of proper concert to attend. While Clear Skies and I only managed to sit in on one of the several shows going on, it was quite possibly the biggest of the whole con. To anyone who may have been there, you know I'm obviously talking about the craziness that was the Tupperware Remix Party / Ninja Sex Party concert. Over five thousand people were crammed into Hall A for this show, and even though the crowd was packed in tighter than a can of sardines, it was still a total riot of a great time. If you want to see how electric it was there, you can check out the official video of the set below.

While I don't think Danny Sexbang's voice was in the best of shape for the show (there are a few times you can tell he's having issues carrying some of the notes) I will say that he rocked the crowd regardless. Trust me when I say that the chemistry he and Ninja Bryan have on stage is hilarious and immensely contagious. I honestly haven't laughed this hard since I went and saw Weird Al in June of last year. Also having the likes of TWRP added into the mix made for a performance where the laughs just kept on consistently rolling. Seeing live events always has a certain sense of spontaneity to them, and this was no exception. The crowd reacted in ways that I don't think the band was expecting at points by doing chants that apparently took them by legitimate surprise. I could go on and on about how fun this concert was, but I don't think my words could do it anymore justice than the video of it does already. Once again Magfest provided one hell of a show for the con-goers and I'm happy as hell that I was able to attend in earnest for it.

Then there was the awesome cosplays at the convention. I don't think Magfest has ever really been a major cosplaying attraction, but this year things were certainly different. Perhaps due to Magfest's and Kastucon's proximity to each other allowed for more cosplayers who would've normally showed up at Katsucon, to instead attend Magfest the following weekend. Whatever the reasons or circumstances were, it's irrelevant to the fact that the cosplays at Magfest this year were totally amazing. Ranging from classic to modern videogame characters, and almost any kind of anime under the sun, there was no shortage of kickass cosplays to take pictures of. In fact, I almost ran out of room on my little camera phone simply trying to take as many photos as I could.

Sadly, not all of them turned out too great, and I had to sift through quite a few piles of shoddy jpegs to find the exceptional ones to post. Still, I think that you can get the idea of how many cosplayers were at Magfest after seeing some of these. One day I'll have a far better camera to use, and then I'm really gonna start getting some high quality images for your viewing pleasure. Til then though...

A gorgeous Fallout survivor.

Yoko

Q. Bee

Jinx

Velma

Sniper Wolf

Cammy

Elizabeth

Bunny girl Ganondorf & Midna

Baymax

The picture says it all.

Cloud & Tifa

Geralt & Triss

Geralt of Rivia

Triss Merigold

A brave Pokemon Archer

Teemo

League of Legends Heroes

Lucina

Steampunk Bunny & The Awesome Hat Guy.

Another Steampunk Bunny

Bunny girl Mara Sov

Winifred

Moxy

Storm

Optimus Prime

Sub-Zero

She Hulk

Samus Aran minus helmet

Samus Aran

Revolver Ocelot

Uncle Festor

Star Wolf

Ruby Rose

Borderlands Psycho

Another Cammy

Vivi

Alucard

April O'neil

Not one but two lovely Amaterasu

Awesome Griffin selling drinks

Foxy and Bonnie are bit far out from Freddy's

It's time for the Final Fight

Cloud and Tifa strike a pose for the win

So a FF:Tactics Mime, Elizabeth, and Zelda walk into a con...

Renewed Hope

The best I've saved for last. During the convention I managed to meet up with Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie once again and (through some stroke of magnanimous luck) got to do another sit-down interview/conversation with them. I even got a decent recording of the conversation this time, and it's officially one of the first sessions for my podcast/radio show I'm working on called Blood Code Radio. John and Ellen were even gracious enough to do some bumpers for it, and I can't wait to get all the audio balancing done so that you all can hear the awesome talk I had with these awesome people. Once again these two took what was already a great experience and turned it into something phenomenal just by giving me some time out of their day.

If you want to see me actually talk to Ellen at a panel she did this year, you can watch the official video here. Clear and I are featured in the video, but only briefly. Clear is the well dressed man who asks Ellen about the types of impressions she likes to do, while I'm the guy with the pony-tail who comes up to her near the end and asks her about some of the types of music she listens to. The whole panel is actually a really good watch, and we got to sit in the first row for most of it, until we came up for questions.

And it's things like that which helped to truly renew my vigor. Like I said earlier, I came into 2016 not having the best of attitudes/mindsets, but after Magfest, I felt refreshed, and most importantly inspired. I got to play some great games, attend an awesome concert, and make some real, tangible headway on a project I've been trying to get up off of the ground for almost a year now. Blood Code Radio feels like it's right around the corner now because of this con. In fact, it's one of the reasons I haven't been updating as frequently as I'd like to. I've been so busy with getting everything in regards to the show up and running, as well as doing many other things, that I simply haven't had time to type up posts for this blog.

Sure it can be hectic and draining some days, but it's the good kind of hectic. The kind where you know each day you work is bringing you closer to your goals. I can see my plans starting to come together now, with the finish line well within view on the closing horizon, and all I can think to myself sometimes is "Here it comes..." as I crack a smile and continue moving forward.

Thank you John and Ellen!