Fri 15 Jun – Anime Mid-Atlantic
The only appropriate way to describe AMA is well, disappointing. The lack-luster convention was an unfortunate combination of bad time management, poor location, frustrating staff, estranged cosplayers, and an overall lack of enthusiasm that created a horrible atmosphere. To begin i would like to make clear that i was only there Saturday, thankfully. The $20 i saved buying a one-day membership, rather than a full weekend pass, open a new venue of opportunities not found in AMA. Maybe Friday was better, but Saturday is when everything is supposed to happen, right? Anyways, upon arriving at the Holiday Inn my group and I realized that the convention must be insanely crowded seeing as how there was absolutely no parking, leaving the con site to get food was just not an option. But had there been actual cosplayers there rather than girls and boys from high school that apparently paid $50 to just hang-out and practice being non-conformists, i wouldn't have second-glanced the no parking and huge crowd cramped in the convention center. Honestly, i wouldn't mind it as much if there was more of a turn-out of actual devoted cosplayers such as myself. But oh well, after all there were still some "serious" cosplayers there. I saw a few good costumes, and even most of the Naruto cosplayers (though over-done) looked pretty good too. So, the people that attended were one issue i had, but it was mostly superficial so i can look past that. Horrible, horrible, horrible dealers room and game room. Not much else was going on at AMA so i decided to see if i could find a relief of my boredom in the dealers room. I went in to buy some daifuku and just browse around, however it felt like a congested intersection. There was absolutely no room and also a lack of light in there, it was as though we were walking through the dark. The dealers didn't have anything too spectacular either, a mess of over-priced T-shirts, ramune (on a side-note i found daifuku there however it was priced at $5 so i left and bought some at the Asian market for $2 later on), hats, tails, etc. Usually the dealers room is full of selection and more variation but every dealer sold the same thing. The game room was a complete bust. I'm not particularly a big fan of video games however AMA's gameroom was just sad. There wasn't even enough to go around! There were waiting lists posted up, but people weren't budging anyways. To kill some time before the cosplay skits and rave started my group and i entered the artists alley. Which *shockingly* was ridiculous just like the rest of the convention. Actually, there were some stands that were pretty interesting. However, what happened to copyright infringement laws? Because i wasn't aware that the recreation and selling of a trademarked item was LEGAL. I thought you had to have a license for that, but i mean that's just me. Alright, so time passed and it was cosplay skit time! "Finally," i thought, "a true reflection of AMA, and may all my past assumptions of the staff and cosplayers be made void." Unfortunately, that ambition never became true. Before the cosplay even began there were complications. I guess AMA had no idea that a good number of people would like to actually attend the skits and so they underestimated the turn-out *shock* and many were not permitted entrance. My group and i were lucky enough to get in..or were we? I'd almost rather have been turned down admittance. Surprise surprise there were technical difficulties throughout a lot of the presentations and the fan base was horrible. Maybe it was just where i was sitting, but i was about to start throwing rocks at 5 girls in front of my group. The skits ranged from pretty good to pretty shiteaous, it was lengthy and the only real good thing about it were the judges. They at least provided comic relief and fairly awarded the prizes, for the most part. It ended, finally, and then we were informed that this same area will be cleared for the rave/dance/whatever you want to call it. Alright, obviously there was no way there would be enough room. But hey, my group decided to give it a try. Maybe redeem the pitiful convention a slight bit. Well, we ended up going back to the artists alley for literally 5 minutes. We returned and were directed to the end of the line which similar to the cosplay skit line trailed outside. There was blatantly no chance of us getting in, or half of the line, so we left and concluded our adventure. I'm surely not attending AMA again unless i get confirmation of severe changes and decisions being made to make next year not suck. I'll be attending Otakon in August, which is my personal favorite out of all the conventions i've been to in the past. So hopefully that will take the place of the bad memories i have left of AMA.
The only appropriate way to describe AMA is well, disappointing. The lack-luster convention was an unfortunate combination of bad time management, poor location, frustrating staff, estranged cosplayers, and an overall lack of enthusiasm that created a horrible atmosphere. To begin i would like to make clear that i was only there Saturday, thankfully. The $20 i saved buying a one-day membership, rather than a full weekend pass, open a new venue of opportunities not found in AMA. Maybe Friday was better, but Saturday is when everything is supposed to happen, right? Anyways, upon arriving at the Holiday Inn my group and I realized that the convention must be insanely crowded seeing as how there was absolutely no parking, leaving the con site to get food was just not an option. But had there been actual cosplayers there rather than girls and boys from high school that apparently paid $50 to just hang-out and practice being non-conformists, i wouldn't have second-glanced the no parking and huge crowd cramped in the convention center. Honestly, i wouldn't mind it as much if there was more of a turn-out of actual devoted cosplayers such as myself. But oh well, after all there were still some "serious" cosplayers there. I saw a few good costumes, and even most of the Naruto cosplayers (though over-done) looked pretty good too. So, the people that attended were one issue i had, but it was mostly superficial so i can look past that. Horrible, horrible, horrible dealers room and game room. Not much else was going on at AMA so i decided to see if i could find a relief of my boredom in the dealers room. I went in to buy some daifuku and just browse around, however it felt like a congested intersection. There was absolutely no room and also a lack of light in there, it was as though we were walking through the dark. The dealers didn't have anything too spectacular either, a mess of over-priced T-shirts, ramune (on a side-note i found daifuku there however it was priced at $5 so i left and bought some at the Asian market for $2 later on), hats, tails, etc. Usually the dealers room is full of selection and more variation but every dealer sold the same thing. The game room was a complete bust. I'm not particularly a big fan of video games however AMA's gameroom was just sad. There wasn't even enough to go around! There were waiting lists posted up, but people weren't budging anyways. To kill some time before the cosplay skits and rave started my group and i entered the artists alley. Which *shockingly* was ridiculous just like the rest of the convention. Actually, there were some stands that were pretty interesting. However, what happened to copyright infringement laws? Because i wasn't aware that the recreation and selling of a trademarked item was LEGAL. I thought you had to have a license for that, but i mean that's just me. Alright, so time passed and it was cosplay skit time! "Finally," i thought, "a true reflection of AMA, and may all my past assumptions of the staff and cosplayers be made void." Unfortunately, that ambition never became true. Before the cosplay even began there were complications. I guess AMA had no idea that a good number of people would like to actually attend the skits and so they underestimated the turn-out *shock* and many were not permitted entrance. My group and i were lucky enough to get in..or were we? I'd almost rather have been turned down admittance. Surprise surprise there were technical difficulties throughout a lot of the presentations and the fan base was horrible. Maybe it was just where i was sitting, but i was about to start throwing rocks at 5 girls in front of my group. The skits ranged from pretty good to pretty shiteaous, it was lengthy and the only real good thing about it were the judges. They at least provided comic relief and fairly awarded the prizes, for the most part. It ended, finally, and then we were informed that this same area will be cleared for the rave/dance/whatever you want to call it. Alright, obviously there was no way there would be enough room. But hey, my group decided to give it a try. Maybe redeem the pitiful convention a slight bit. Well, we ended up going back to the artists alley for literally 5 minutes. We returned and were directed to the end of the line which similar to the cosplay skit line trailed outside. There was blatantly no chance of us getting in, or half of the line, so we left and concluded our adventure. I'm surely not attending AMA again unless i get confirmation of severe changes and decisions being made to make next year not suck. I'll be attending Otakon in August, which is my personal favorite out of all the conventions i've been to in the past. So hopefully that will take the place of the bad memories i have left of AMA.
