One doesn’t really know the true nature of a convention during his or her first outing, and usually it takes several years’ attendance to get an idea of what a convention is like. Anime Central, or ACEN for short, was an event I had long wished to attend since my first anime convention, Anime Detour, in 2006. Unfortunately, ACEN always managed to plop itself right squarely in the middle of finals week for college. It wasn’t until after I graduated in 2011 that I had the chance to attend the convention, an event about 5 times larger than Detour. By this time, I had become used to how things ran at Anime Detour, as I had started to transition from being a mere attendee for the past 5 years to helping out with a little staff work. 2012’s ACEN was an event I particularly was looking forward to not only because of my previous experience, but also because it was their 15th year of the convention.
There’s no getting around the size of ACEN, an anime convention bested in number of attendees only by Otakon and Anime Expo in the United States, and it is something that sits on one's mind during the entire weekend. It’s a convention where one must manage meticulously both as staff and as attendee, with the plethora of events going on at the same time an invitation for things to go wrong. Meeting new people is rather easy if you know where to look and which events to attend, but most importantly one should always keep in mind that because of the sheer number of people, the attendees range from friendly and welcoming to the downright strange and horrifying, but more on that later. Other high notes include a huge number of events including concerts, autograph sessions, industry panels, a huge number of programming panels, and my personal favorite, photoshoots. There are also an enormous number of artist alley participants and a gigantic dealer’s room.
Photoshoots of all series are at ACEN, even if they consist of 1 or 2 people. Myself on the left, my friend on the right. Taken by someone with my own camera.
At first glance, my initial impression was that this year, the convention would be better-run and fewer catastrophes would happen, as security staff (known as IRT) were enforcing an elevator capacity rule at the main hotel, the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, to prevent them from malfunctioning, a problem in the past. This year and last year, I stayed at the Hilton across the street, a hotel that most don’t stay at, preferring the proximity of the Hyatt or free breakfast and better value at the Embassy Suites down the street. If you do choose to stay at the Hyatt, be prepared for lots of noise due to the openness. The Hilton is sort of a hidden gem, close to the action but not too close so you have a bit of a sanctuary. The only complaint I had this year was getting a corner room, so more of the outside noise is filtered in, a factor considering the proximity of the convention to O’Hare International Airport.
As for other positive first impressions, my cell phone which went haywire last year due to overloaded airwaves (a problem I later found out was shared by other fellow T-Mobile customers) was working with no major problems, and I had met many people who knew my most obscure cosplay (Lio Izumi, a dog-eared shinigami character from Full Moon wo Sagashite). A key piece of advice on this note, however: if you want to have pictures taken of you, either go as someone very popular or well known or someone in a flashy outfit to stand out. Going in a discrete uniform such as a school outfit will generally invite fewer requests for photographs. I had also met a person who introduced me to his close friends, whom I discovered we got along extremely well. Registration lines for badges also seemed to go a lot smoother based on appearances, but it’s worth spending the extra $2 to have your badge mailed to you. The dealer’s room seemed well-stocked as usual, especially considering this year I was able to locate multiple plushies I desired that I had previously been unable to find for a few years now, and many figurines seemed reasonably priced. Cosplayers were aplenty, though many this year were cosplaying characters outside of anime (My Little Pony, Dr. Who, and Homestuck being the ones that come quickest to mind). Also, as a result of the convention being scheduled in late April instead of May like last year, attendance seemed lower due to school schedules.
My Little Pony cosplayers were aplenty this year at Anime Central
However, the inherent problems of a large anime convention were still present at ACEN 2012, and one that I had successfully avoided last year and did this year as well was the sheer delay of some large events. To give you an example of this in 2011: I had wanted to go to a concert which was supposed to begin at 6:00 and go until 7:00, which is when I wanted to go to a photoshoot before meeting a friend for dinner at 7:45. The concert, which I skipped because I didn’t want to sacrifice so many other events, didn’t begin until 7:00 because the previous concert didn’t finish until that time and lasted until 9:00. Expecting a similar event this year, I wasn’t too surprised when I heard a 7:00 PM concert on Friday night didn’t begin until 10:00 PM. Basically, if you do wish to attend some of these large events such as concerts, autograph sessions, fashion shows and the masquerade, be prepared to wait a long time in line, most likely be delayed for several hours, be ready to give up attending many other events, and be ready to endure the possibility that you may not get into the event or get the autograph you wanted. I’m still not used to this sort of delay, having gotten too used to Anime Detour both as an attendee and a staff member, where heavy emphasis is placed on everything being scheduled down to a T, with gaps in between events for leeway and having near everything begin and end punctually.
Even smaller programming events had problems- there were 4 versions of a schedule in circulation, one acquired online, a programming book, a smartphone application, and schedules posted outside programming rooms, which a staff member said were the most up-to-date. A panel I had wished to attend on importing merchandise Friday afternoon was listed on two sources but not listed on two others, and in the end I discovered was cancelled due to a miscommunication and double-booking. It would not be the only event to encounter difficulties. The same evening, a Wolf’s Rain panel I had wanted to attend was cancelled due to the panelists not bothering to show up, and a Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica panel (one of 3-4 over the weekend) ended about 45 minutes earlier than expected due to one of the main panelists having to cover for a no-show and being short on material. Perhaps the worst offender for me, however, was on Saturday.
Perhaps the best part of going to the cancelled Wolf's Rain panel was getting this great snapshot of two people cosplaying as Okumura Rin and Okumura Yukio.
Now, Saturday is usually the busiest day with the most schedule conflicts and potential for catastrophes to occur. A common occurrence is that events would either get rescheduled or the location changed, the latter of which occurred with a major photoshoot I was looking forward to greatly, Vocaloid. The large problem was that the move occurred nearly 10 minutes before the photoshoot was supposed to begin so many attendees were left in the dark on the new location and unable to participate. The leader of the photoshoot didn’t wait nor extend the event, nor put in the effort to try and salvage a compromised situation. This event is perhaps a key takeaway from conventions, large and small. Things happen and things change, but one’s experience is dependent on how others prevent it, react to it and manage it. The key difference between a large convention and a small one, as I experienced, is that large conventions have a much larger opportunity for errors to occur but a much smaller window of opportunity to change it, causing a ripple effect. For ACEN, as a result, you oftentimes put your experience not only in the hands of oftentimes questionable staff, plus attendees who oftentimes either don’t care or don’t know how to handle things properly. It makes for a large “he-said, she-said” feeling.
Strangely enough, the grand finale of surprises wouldn’t occur until around 7:50 PM that evening, just as I was about to wrap up a photoshoot for Rurouni Kenshin cosplayers. The fire alarm sounded, and as a result the main hotel had to be evacuated, a daunting task considering most photoshoots, programming panels, and large events were being held there, plus snaking lines for future large events. The temperatures were also not to everyone’s favor, being in the mid-40s all weekend, though I didn’t complain due to being dressed up as Takuto/Ginga Bishounen from Star Driver at the time. I didn’t know until later that someone had decided to wrench a fire extinguisher from the wall which set off the alarm, an event which concluded about 30 minutes later when everyone was allowed back into the main hotel. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was the shortening of the masquerade to allow for a 7-hour long dance/rave to start on time. Despite not having gone to a masquerade event since 2009 and avoiding dances and raves altogether whenever possible, this seemed to be a devastating blow to the convention, a revealing of the true colors and priorities of the staff at this convention and which triggered the angry reaction of hundreds of attendees. Keep in mind the rave/dance is an event where the lines are long, police and ambulances are oftentimes involved, and generally includes behavior which brings out the worst in attendees.
The fire alarm evacuation was orderly and well-coordinated, but unwelcome nonetheless.
Despite all the catastrophes, however, strangely enough, I managed to have a rather good time. The only problem is that the reason I had a good time was mostly due to my own planning and not entirely because of the convention itself. For 2012, inconsistent programming, questionable priorities, and a lack of acknowledgement that a 15th year milestone is something special dulled the experience for me compared to 2011. The measure of a convention’s worth should be first measured on how much the events that the convention puts forth itself to the attendees and how well things are handled. For ACEN, it’s a matter of the combination of events you choose to attend, luck, events which are beyond your control, and the people you spend time with that will determine whether you have a good time or not. It’s a convention which requires a lot of effort to be exerted by the attendee and a lot of meticulous planning and crisis management to ensure you have the chance of having a good time. Compared with a smaller convention, the inherent value of a quality convention seems to be more easily baked in for a smaller convention due to much easier logistics and required effort. What made the convention worth the 7-hour trip drive down to Chicago were the friends I met, the friends I went with, the cosplay, the photoshoots, and the dealer’s room. Would I attend again? Absolutely. Would I recommend this convention to friends? To some, yes, with reservations, but to others, no.
For a full gallery of my pictures, check out my Flickr
here. Photoshoots attended: Ao no Exorcist, Star Driver, Tiger and Bunny, Vocaloid, Gundam, Durarara, Code Geass, Rurouni Kenshin, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
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