Things Michael has learned from attending London Anime Con
- South West Trains is way nicer than First Great Western for long journeys. My six foot frame can actually fit in the seat of a SWT train without having my knees jammed up against my chest.
- London Waterloo is a hella nice train station.
- The little branches of WH Smith in train stations sell everything you don’t need and nothing you do.
- London Underground is frigging hot!
- Londoners are the most impatient bunch of people in the world. The trains arrive at the station literally every two minutes, you don’t need to run to catch it!
- Holloway is fucking grim. It’s dirty and grimy and yuck.
- That said, if you’re ever in the area and feel like having a milkshake, iShake on Holloway Road is awesome.
- London Anime Con needs a way bigger venue. Lord knows how 800 people packed into three rooms.
- It is nearly impossible to play Rock Band when you can barely hear the music.
- Me, my friend Eleonore and her friend Millie know a surprising amount of useless shit.
- I was the only person who it the most difficult question in the quiz right – as evidenced by me shouting wildly when the answer was announced and the rest of the room looking at me like a madman. It was a weird question where the description of an Anime series was given, and I somehow knew it was referring to Toaru Majutsu no Index, a series I have never seen.
- To win a pub quiz, you need to combine this knowledge of useless shut with a random guy in a green tie who joins your team halfway through and gives you five answers you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Thanks Green Tie Guy!
- Little Kuriboh does a very good Emporer Palpatine impression.
- People with cameras will always follow the guests around and intimidate people, stopping other people from approaching said guests and having a chat.
- Consequently I never for a chance to speak to Little Kuriboh of Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged fame or MasakoX of Dragonball Z Abridged and Naruto Abridged fame. Sadface.
- Cons never run to schedule. This is especially annoying if they were going to show your favourite anime film of all time but then moved it back by four hours, well after the time at which you had to leave.
- If you catch a train out of London on a Saturday night, you WILL share a carriage with drunk football fans.
- One of them may even set fire to something, whether it be a cigarette, the train or themselves.
- Shared train journeys are otherwise surprisingly nice.
- Travelling back to London by yourself for the second day of the con is less nice.
- Londoners will look at you suspiciously if you carry a tripod that looks just a little bit like a weapon.
- Cons are much less fun without company.
- It is even more impossible to play Rock Band if you can’t hear the music at all.
- Anime fans are very bad at improvisation.
- Anime fans are very good at cosplaying and putting on a show.
- Charge your camcorder overnight – don’t assume it’ll have enough battery to make it through to the most anticipated event of the whole con, the Q&A session with the Abridgers who were guesting.
- MasakoX does a disturbingly good woman’s voice.
- Little Kuriboh could make the phone book sound funny if he read it in YGOTAS voices.
- A Street Fighter tournament is serious business.
- If both fighters are using Guile you will hear “Sonic boom!” more than you would ever want to hear it.
- Nothing is lonelier than a train ride on your own in the dark. You’d think I’d have gotten used to it in the many months I went to see Kelly, but I haven’t.
- Southampton is so much nicer than Central London.
