Animazement 2010 – page 2
“The Thursday Night Endurance Test” is well named. I couldn’t make it all the way through, though in my case it was due more to my lack of sleep than the sheer awfulness of the videos we were watching. Not to say that the videos (such as Chuck’s New Tux, referenced here) weren’t mystifyingly wrong.
Animazement had more stuff going on Thursday than just about any other convention I’ve ever seen. It’s not uncommon for there to be one or two Pre-Con events to amuse the folks who picked up their badges early, but this was practically a 4th day of the con. I approve.
(Historical Notes: That’s something that’s changed across the convention scene as a whole over the years, Thursday Night going from “one or two things to keep the early arrivals occupied” to “full-on first day that just happens to only be half a day long.” Part of me is actually starting to miss the more casual hang-out vibe of early Animazement Thursday night. One year they did a Guest Meet and Greet Dinner where they had tables with all the guests set up in the main events hall, and pre-reg attendees could just wander up to everybody and sit down and chat, no lines or fees anything. There’s no WAY Animazement could pull something like that today. Also, Kurt doesn’t do the Endurance Test panel anymore either, mostly because of bad experiences with audience members who got a little too… “into it.” You weirdos ruin everything.)
Ah yes, my old rip-off Anime Hell panel I somehow was able to do for a few years. Honestly the main reason I stopped doing it was that I felt it was harder to find interesting and unique material to have that wasn’t already all over youtube. Endurance Test luckily never had the weirdos, that was all at Matt and mine’s 18+ version we did at AnimeUSA. Lesson learned you do the adult panels you’re gonna get some people who definitely aren’t adults in spirit.
I remember those first few early Animazement’s at the Sheraton where they did those meet and greets. Definitely a thing of convention days gone by you don’t see anymore; I miss it to a degree but times change. I at least have my own fond memories of it.
Not to try and bloat your ego or anything, but I still feel like your panels were better than any “real” Anime Hell I attended.