Anime Central 2012, Day Three: Dazed and Enthused

Between his knee injury, my food poisoning and a 7 a.m. wakeup call to get Megan to Union Station for her return train to Champaign, Forsuk and I were weary voyagers when we returned to the Hyatt in Rosemont Sunday morning. We soldiered on, however, for we knew one critical fact:

Anime Central waits for no man.

What Anime Central does wait for, however, is 10 a.m., which is how we found ourselves at 9 wandering around aimlessly, eating day-old Giordano's and wandering by screening rooms showing bizarre and occasionally frightening anime. I double-checked the Guidebook app and discovered that one part was already open: card and role-playing games at the Hilton. Given my long-gestating curiosity about Magic: The Gathering, it was one of the few ACen goals I hadn't yet fulfilled.

After voyaging to the second floor of the hotel, however, I was reminded powerfully of why I wanted to go to the Penny Arcade Expo rather than ACen in the first place. Rather than a thriving meeting space, ACen's card gaming room was a couple lonely guys trying in vain to get a single game of Magic: The Gathering together, and a nearby room was searching wanly for participants to play an RPG I'd never head of. Perhaps I shouldn't pass judgment on a gathering for lacking tabletop and card players on a separate floor of a side hotel at 9 a.m. Sunday, but that moment more than any other kept my PAX fire burning.

We returned to the Hyatt to camp out for "Who Wants to be a Voice Actor?" next to a virtual reality game named Battletech that looked moderately cool but extremely intimidating - think Steel Battalion on steroids, and you're halfway there - and watched giant mechs kill each other for a half hour until the panel began. In between we nearly followed one of the panelists into the room, started a line on our own and waited, also in vain, for a couple volunteers to show up and check badges. Way to have your shit together, ACen.

The panel, like most of Sunday, was subdued; only about 30 people came to a room that would have comfortably seated 1,000, although we filled it with noise as one of two panelists led us in vocal and role-playing exercises that ranged from chattering excitedly about a party to recoiling in horror at a giant monster invading our fair imaginary city. I miss improv.

Despite the quality of the voice acting panel, we left about a half hour into the voice acting panel to line up for the simply-named Video Game Orchestra, Sunday's main event and the biggest reason I didn't take off Sunday morning and take Megan back to Champaign myself. There was no line yet, so we sat in on the majority of Samurai Dan's noon panel, which was way more entertaining than Friday - maybe I was just more in the mood for moderately suggestive schtick and rambling convention anecdotes - and left me wanting to see more of him next year.

When Samurai Dan was finished, we returned to the lobby and the VGO line already in progress. We weren't waiting long before we were ushered in and took our seats for the most memorable of my six ACen programs.

While the concert began in baffling fashion with the opener, IMERAUT, playing three songs and leaving without any explanation, VGO's performance was sublime. I screamed my head off during the unbelievable "Big Blue" guitar/bass battle below.

(Note: These videos are from PAX East 2012 April 9 in Boston, but apparently VGO played the same set at both conventions.)



I felt familiar Freeman-esque feelings of home when VGO played a Metal Gear Solid 2 theme tag after "Snake Eater" that made me tear up with joy.

The closer was, somewhat predictably, everybody's favorite insane-robot theme song, which nonetheless turned into a rollicking clap-and-singalong that left me smiling from ear to ear.

VGO was quick to note their CD was available only at the convention for $10, and I was ready to pony up the dough until I spied the line for their booth. It seemed longer than the line for the concert. Maybe the Internet actually does serve a purpose, VGO.

With family waiting in Illinois, real life calling in Indiana and a major sense of post-coital fatigue overtaking me, Sunday didn't last long after VGO. Forsuk and I accompanied a couple of his friends back to the still-buzzing exhibit hall, where I ordered Megan's birthday present - now I'll know if she actually reads these posts! - and passed on buying a badge for ACen 2013 because of the line at registration. After waiting with Tim, Jack and Megan, that line and I were more than well-acquainted.

After two and a half days trekking around geek heaven, my friends had gone home, my legs ached, my stomach growled and my soul was sated. It was time to head home and leave my next Anime Central antics for May 17-19, 2013.

So long, Bryn Mawr and River Road. I'll see you again next year.