Janicon was my last hurrah this year, and it was interesting to see it develop online and play out as things...well...happened. The Jacksonville Wyndham was the site for this first year conventions, and I'd heard a few rumors about it long before the opening ceremonies. To make a long story short (we'll get back to long stories when I polish off my little Resident Evil dealy), lack of a former presence was made up for with an experienced staff. How'd they stack up? Let's take a little look see....

The hotel itself was a bit of a double edged sword. Unlike the Orlando Wyndham, the Jacksonville branch does not come with it's own convention center. I believe the staff expected much less of a turnout than actually showed. Crowded halls were a constant problem throughout Friday and Saturday, with traffic almost literally being bumper to bumper. On one hand, this put a number of shots on an opportunity basis, but it does prove one thing: the staff knew what they were doing. They found a good setting, they secured good guests and put up all the events that bring the crowds in for amusement (The opening ceremonies were especially amusing). They may want to consider moving to a larger setting next year, as they certainly have the credibility based on their display this year.

I'm missing a few pieces since I had to leave early today, but the story of the con originally led us to believe that there would be a sort of Alice in Wonderland theme to the events...they led us to believe that, but then Lucca Ashtear came in speaking techno babble about how she and another Alice somehow ended up...uh...here? To clear up some of this confusion, the Acme Detective Agency came in to warn the staff that the con was suspected to become the victim of a network takeover, effectively putting the weekend in the hands of another entity. They scoffed at the Lead Agent's claims until Carmen Sandiego came in with Albert Wesker (w/Umbrella Agent) at her side to begin their takeover. Of course, these two are just thieves. When in came right down to it, they needed somebody EVIL to fill in the gaps, which of course meant Kefka Palazzo would be the next to stand at their side. The mighty jester requested a reminder as to why he was providing his services to Carmen when she revealed she had something called a Chorno Skimmer which would allow him to travel in time. His goal? Go back in time and kill Sephiroth's creators so he'd resume his rightful role as the pinacle Square villain. For the meantime, he called Ifrit in to supplement the villain ranks (and treated it like a cute little pet to boot) with Harley Quinn following in, and in The Joker's abscence, turned to supporting Mr.K for the festivities. Furthermore, Gannondorf arrived to help fill in the ranks, but walked off in tears after being called a "pathetic emo loser" by Kefka and suffering a slightly less than epic loss against Link. At this point, we've got a fair sum of heroes and villains standing on the stage (The Acme Agency ammounts to quite a few agents), but the good guys are still outnumbered...until Waldo (As in "Where's") walks in. Carmen is scared out of her mind, because Waldo's been actively stalking her. When several disturbing details about his activity comes to light, even Kefka gets freaked out by this guy....and at some point, Carmen got over it. Using the Chrono Skimmer, she turned her attention to convincing Japan not to trade with America (No stateside manga....AAUUUUGH!) and using her control over the con to make it more about Japanese history (and there were some panels pertaining to such culture), To keep this short (and for the fact that I couldn't be at closing ceremonies), the goal was apparently to overturn the effects of the Chrono Skimmer in some sort of event...but I don't know what became of it, since it didn't seem to go off at the specified time the following day...maybe it fell behind schedule, or maybe I just missed it. In any event, I'm not quite sure what happened.

I should also note that this guy doing Kefka was awesome, placing himself into character and being amusingly evil at all the right times. One of his finer moments was addressing a Vincent Valentine cosplayer and saying "Hey Vincent, guess what? Your girlfriend's still DEAD! HEEE HEE HEE HEE! Yes, yes! I know because I played that awful game you were in!". Much laughter, even from the cosplayer in question, followed (and while Vincent is pretty cool, Dirge of Cerberus did suck pretty badly). He even did a promo for a local radio station broadcasting from the con to give them publicity, denounce Sephiroth once more, and to put icing on the cake, did the Kefka whooping laugh SO well...hoo man, that guy just freaking wins for being in character. 

As far as photography goes, I remade the sheets once again and took down names as per usual. There was no shortage of good costumes to get pictures of. Faces I'd seen from Tampa to two different points in Orlando were all over the place sporting everything from simple and sharp to elegant and extravagant. My shots are currently being processed and I'll be able to start distribution tomorrow evening (I'll link as soon as everybody gets their stuff). In all, I got 99 shots at this con...yep. 99. The missing shot? Well, we're going on a little side trip now....

About a month earlier, somebody I met at AFO was in need of a lift to something called Ancient City Con, which just happens to be somewhere in St. Augustine (don't let the technical details fool you: It's really out in the middle of NOWHERE!). ACC was also a first year job, but it was a pretty small affair built more closely to tabletop gaming with anime, video games and such taking a back seat. There wasn't much of a turnout, but everybody seemed to have a good time, but it was because of that turnout that I didn't take any pictures....save one. I was wearing my Phoenix Wright t-shirt (the one that parodies the iPod with the iObject theme) and a Bleach cosplayer takes notice. She falls in love with the shirt at first sight, nearly pinches my nipples off grabbing it and proceeds to ask where I got it and where she could get one (AFO and I don't know). Following the interrogation, I'm still being held at, for lack of a better term, fingernail point for desire of the shirt (and I'm not staying overnight. I got no other clothes to wear!). Only one thing could break her grip...you guessed it. "Mind if I take a shot?". The request that gives me the best mementoes of a con was used that day for the sake of my nippular region.

Back to the Janicon news. The website advertised a DDR Tournament...this too, much to my dismay, was cancelled! It wasn't even on the tourney roster at the desk...narts. Anyways, there were two of the soft pads set up with a copy of SuperNova ready to roll for free play, but that didn't last too long. I decided a little free play would be better than none at all, so I stepped in, tossed my sneakers off and took to Doll (Terra) on Expert mode. This is one of my best songs...but the carpet had other plans. Those dance pads slipped around so badly, it reminded me of when I was learning to roller skate as a kid. Lots of slippin' and slidin' around, but not quite able to fall on one's ass. The pads were used for the remainder of the day, but removed for reasons unknown (safety, most likely).

Despite all that Janicon could overcome, there is one element they suffered at the hands of: once again, the hotel came back to bite them in the ass. The convention itself, aside from the dealers room, offered a few other odds and ends to sell, like pocky, bottles of water, and some of this caffeinergy drink called "Game Juice". They sold these at fairly cheap prices, and I think that's what irked the hotel. They set up their own little lunch deal for the conventioneers in one of the side rooms, and when they learned they could make a little more money, they forced the staff to stop selling off the water and Game Juice. This way, they could sell off their lunch wares without competition (at inflated prices...three bucks for a can of soda? What the hell?). In spite of this, the con found a way to strike back. They could not sell, but yes, they did in fact GIVE away some of their drink stock. I'm not sure how long that ran, but they gave me a free bottle with that explanation when I tried to buy one. 

In the end, I can see Janicon itself having a future, but in all odds, it'll probably be somewhere else next time. It was a great time to be had by all, the staff and cast were a fun bunch, the guests were cool about everything, and the panels/events were clever and amusing. Definately worth looking into again next year.

...learned a lot this year, hands on and ears open....alrighty, Mister Methodical. You've got the plans...come the end of these shot returns, time to put em to work....but those won't be ready until tomorrow, so I'mma get some shuteye now.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: I Am The Eggman (From Sonic Adventure 2)