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Kunicon 2005
Breaking ground in St. Louis as the
first anime convention in the city Kunicon was certainly interesting.
Arriving midday Friday things got off to a slow start and really for the
majority of the convention stayed that way. At least the registration
line was short… for attendees, anyone else attempting to get a badge had
to wait while staff fished around for their badge. It was even worse for
those who were working with or around the con, they had a near half hour
wait while staff members bounced them around the convention in search of
their badges.
Seeing as we arrived later
then expected to the convention we were unable to attend many of the
early convention events. Although even once we had our badges and were
set there was very little to attend, many of the video rooms were
running fan-subs that most any up to date fan had seen months in
advance. So, in contrast to sitting around and doing nothing, exploring
the game rooms came next, hoping for a wide variety of games I was
sorely disappointed. It was just the usual suspects, a crappy Dance
Dance Revolution set up, on bad pads that broke half way through the con
no less. A couple of knock off Bemani, better known as Taiko drummer,
Karaoke revolution and Donkey Konga populated the scean. I am sorry,
even when you put a bad game on a big screen, it is STILL a bad game.
Across the hall there was another room, this one dedicated to fighting
games and other assorted things, Halo, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter,
Smash Brothers, nothing terribly out of the ordinary. It was nice
however to see large quality screens all of the same make and model, it
gave the room a more professional feel then the rest of the convention.
Down the hall from that laid the “LAN” room, multiple P.C. set up for
computer gaming, what exactly people played I can’t be sure.
However, at the very least the videogame tournaments, which could be
entered for an additional 15$ had nice prizes, which the winners of said
tournaments were cheated out of. Instead of refunding the participants
or giving the winners their deserved prizes the convention chair decided
to bribe the winners of said tournaments with a couple video game guides
some Kunicon merchandise and a promotional video for “The Ring2”.
Needless to say the participants were sorely disappointed. I think the
best thing I can say about Kunicon’s game room was at least things were
spread out enough and ventilated enough that at the very least it didn’t
SMELL like shit.
Friday night there were a host of random
events ranging from the Inuyasha unleashed, to the Full Metal Alchemist
panel and “celebrity whose line” each of which were packed. One large,
repetitive disappointment that began Friday night and lasted the rest of
the convention was the cancellation of Steve Bennett’s panels, to the
dismay of the attendees.
Saturday morning was slow… along with
the majority of Saturday really. The morning Inuyasha panel drew an
exceptionally large crowd. Joining the three Indiana natives on their
panel was Scott McNeil, the voice of Koga in the series and Toshi, the
consultant for the series. I think the most disappointing thing about
the panels I attended were not the panelists, but the fans. The rude
questions and comments, to the boring stories that have little to no
relevance to anything going on, really people, learn to sit down and
shut up if you don’t have anything intelligent to say.
Saturday dragged on after the panel, the
Masquerade was mediocre at best. The skits were amusing, but nothing
really outstanding crossed the stage. After which there was another long
period of nothing, however as darkness fell so did the convention.
Somewhere around Seven, Eight o clock the entire con seemed to come
apart at the seams. No one, staff or guest seemed to know where they
were supposed to be due to the sudden and frequent room changes. The
band Ten Sheen also began their concert around this time. The only thing
I can say about that is as a friend and I approached the main ball room
to see what all the noise was, neither of us could get within thirty
feet of that room without having our ears offended by what could only be
described as the screeching of tires and screaming of a driver and
passenger you would hear before a car collides with a lamp post.
The con only got worse from there, it
seemed everyone brought out the alcohol around nine. The drunks started
to filter out into the convention areas and even staff seemed to dwindle
not just in numbers but also in sobriety. Somewhere around midnight it
seemed things would calm down a little, the uncensored panel was in full
swing and it seemed that the drunks had mostly shuffled off. Then the
karaoke room opened. My god what a mess, first off instead of running
traditional karaoke the convention decided to instead steal the game
from somewhere else and run Karaoke Revolution. This was very
disappointing to the “veteran” congers who had been looking forward to
getting to sing. Soon after the entire thing degraded and was shut down
due to a group of drunks who could not control themselves.
I can’t
really tell you much about Sunday’s events. My entourage and I were sick
and tired of this train wreck of a convention and could barely wait to
leave. The only thing I can really say about this con is that it was
bad. I pity every city plagued with this traveling circus and I hope
that it gets shut down before another place victimized by it.
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