Anyone go to the anime convention at the Valley Force Convention Center outside of Philadelphia this weekend? I went today and had mixed feelings. Pretty overwhelming and I didn't get enough time to see everything (I guess that's why it's three days long). I would have liked to look at the booths more, but it was just too crowded. I went to an Asian music panel that I figured would touch on a variety of styles of Asian music (including J-rock), but was disappointed to see two girls talking about and demonstrating the moves of Japanese and Korean boy/girl groups. I blame myself as I am sure I misunderstood what the panel was supposed to be about.
The highlight was a game of Password between voice actors Vic Mignogna (Full Metal Alchemist among others) and Todd Haberkorn (Darker Than Black among others). These guys were hilarious and they had a couple of convention attendees as their partners. They treated them and the entire audience great! At the end they had a bonus round where the two played against each other. The winnings were donated by the emcee to the Japanese disaster fund (and matched by Mignogna). Pretty great! This was my first experience witnessing cosplay... some were amazing... some were sexy... others were....
I do respect everyone's confidence. I could see that they realized they were among friends - everyone was very supportive. It was pretty heartwarming. I could tell everyone was a stranger, but you wouldn't have known it.