| Walk into the lobby of the Anaheim Hilton and Towers during Anime Expo,
and you're confronted by this awesome sight: a large Pikachu banner, placed
where everyone can see. This view greeted the author around 4 a.m. Friday
(after the shuttle van driver finally found the hotel after a half-dozen
wrong turns). Was the author the only person crazy enough to be hanging
around a hotel lobby before sunrise? |
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| No, the author wasn't alone. On hand at 4:30 a.m. was this vanguard
force of anime fans, determined beyond all reason to be first in line when
the at-the-door registration line opened a few hours later. A similar gathering
was on hand at the pre-reg line on the other side of the hall (and Anime
Expo had around 2,400 people who registered in advance). |
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| For those who attend anime convention for the video rooms, a small
but stalwart collection of fans will toil day and night. They will set
up the equipment and tend it over the weekend - and a few were already
in place in a ballroom on Friday morning. |
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| Anime Expo has a newsletter, released a couple of times a day. These
volunteers were up at 4:30, working on the first edition. They appeared
to be the only people at that time of morning who were capable of standard
daytime activity (read, they looked like the only ones awake and moving). |
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| First interesting flyer spotted on the bulletin boards: this missive
encouraging people who live a virtual life on the #fansubs internet relay
chat channel to find each other, risking the shock of learning what the
others behind the keyboards really look like. |
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| Another floor up was a pile of flyers advertising two conventions in
June of next year: the AgamemCon sci-fi con in California and Project:
A-Kon. That was fast work on the A-Kon flyer, by the way, because the convention
had just announced their 2000 dates a few days earlier. |
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