Sorry for the delay, minna-san! After a few days of resting up and messing around with WordPress 2.5, I have my impressions of Chattanooga’s first anime convention! Originally, I said there were 140 photos, but most of them are landmarks taken around the Choo Choo and the same cosplay photos taken without the flash… I plan to uploaded the rest on Flickr the gallery, and maybe Cosplay.com, depending on the conditions. On with the show!

Day One

The Shinra Corp from FFVII

On the first day of JAMPcon, there wasn’t much for me to do. The dealer’s room opened up at noon, where I finally got my hands on a Death Note (don’t worry, it’s not real), two Bleach and one Naruto posters, Volume 3 of the Excel Saga anime, and a few Shitajiki, featuring Bleach and Death Note characters. After that, I went to the opening ceremonies, marking the first year of Chattanooga’s first anime convention! After the ceremonies ended, I walked around the trains in front of The Gardens restaurant, where I ran into fellow Bleach fans and took a few pictures.

After taking pictures, I decided to go back to the hotel for a couple of hours until 6:30 PM. At 7:00, a discussion panel on Death Note was held in the Crystal Room of the hotel lobby. Originally, there was supposed to be a panel on Crisis Core at that time, but it was called off due to the lack of FFVII cosplayers. It’s a good thing I finished the Death Note manga before I attended the panel, however I have yet to finish the anime, so the ending was still “spoiled”. I won’t go into detail… The panel host had a couple of AMV made focusing on Episode 25 of the anime, and the ending. They were well done. Unfortunately, there are nowhere to be found on the internet, due to the growing trend of YouTube deleting AMVs.

After the panel was over, it was time for bed. It was a bit early, but I needed the rest since I got a few hours of sleep the night before. Waiting for this convention is like waiting for Christmas day. ^_^

Day Two

w00t! The first ever JAMPcon Bleach panel!

I woke up around 5:00 AM and drooled over the Shitajiki I purchased yesterday. Waiting until 8:00 AM to roll around, I ate a warm sandwich. Warm as in room temperature. I was hoping the hotel had a microwave…Oh, well. I wasn’t very hungry anyways.

I played a little Bleach: Blade of Fate to kill the time, and watched a little TV, although there was nothing on but Paid Programming. Then I took pictures of the swag I had. Finally, 8 AM came. I got into my Rukia costume and prepared to walk out the hotel back to the Theater.

Time flew by fast. I waited in the hallway until something opened up for the morning events. The events I wanted to attend was the discussion panel on Bleach, a panel on anime dances, then a panel on anime dubbing. That already took up half of the day. A Naruto cosplay skit that was to begin at 10 AM was canceled due to some circumstances. Maybe it’s because it was raining? I waited in the Finley room until the Bleach panel started and read chapter one of the first volume of D. Gray Man that they had on the Manga table as part of their Manga Library. 20 minutes later, three people entered the room: a Bankai Ichigo cosplayer, a Shunsui Kyoraku cosplayer, and a convention staffer with a widescreen TV. It was time for the panel to start!

When the panel began, they gave away a Bankai Ichigo plush toy to whoever answered a question about Bleach, which escapes me at the time of writing this (Gomen de!). They asked what their favorite opening and ending themes were (my answer was “Ichirin no Hana”), favorite character (Byakuya Kuchiki), and their favorite part of the series–along with a few spoilers from the manga, where me and a few others had to plug their ears until the conversation was over.

Before the panel ended, people who attended had a chance to win the complete first season of Bleach on DVD–on one condition: Name all of the Captains of the 13 protection squads–in order! I gave it a shot, but I stopped at the fourth captain, Retsu Unohana. I had a hard time remembering her name, until a Yumichika cosplayer mentioned her name on her try. She won the boxset after successfully naming all of the Captains, including the Vice Captains. Congratulations! Thinking back, I don’t think I would never get the rest of the captains name in order, especially Shunsui, Kaname and Saijin. ^_^;

Right after the panel ended, they held a Bleach photoshoot, (this is where I forgot about having the picture taken on my camera). After goofing around, I left the Ballroom and back into the conference room for the dubbing panel, where I got a shot to sing an anime song of my choice. I sang T.M. Revolution’s “Heart of Sword” from Rurouni Kenshin. I missed half of the song, one was because I missed the bridge, and the other because the page needed to be scrolled down…

After the end of the panel–it was party time! Back in the Ballroom, the crowd danced to some anime songs, such as the ever popular “Hare Hare Yukai” from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. There were some non-anime songs as well: The Macarena, Electric Slide, Thriller, and the Cha Cha Slide. Standing around watching cosplayers do the limbo, I was approached by the Yumichika cosplayer from the Bleach panel. She taught me how to do the dance from Bleach Rock Musical, “Hallelujah Goodbye”, here is an example:

After our little skit, Yumichika treated us all (11 other Bleach cosplayers) to Pizza! We had a chat about our favorite Bleach characters, and what our favorite gaming systems were. Otaku chit-chat! After finishing our Pizza, me and a Orihime had to leave, breaking up our newly formed Gotei 13. I went back to the Hotel until it was time for the Rave at 9 PM.

Around 8:20 PM, I went out to get a head-start in case things went a bit hectic. I was reunited with Chattanooga’s Gotei 13. Despite it being cold and raining, we performed the “Hallelujah Goodbye” dance in-font of a small crowd. 15 minutes passed and it was time to head to the Ballroom for the Rave. We got there and did the dance again while they were still setting up the Rave. It was so much fun.

10 more minutes went and the Ballroom was finally opened to the public. With me and a Ichigo, Orihime and Momo cosplayer, we spent the whole time on the sidelines, watching the show of ravers tossing around their glow sticks. An hour passed and it was time to go back to our hotel rooms. Everyone was really tired, including me: I thought the first ending theme to the Death Note anime was the first opening theme. ^_^;

Day Three

Renji vs. Deidara's Unholy Army of Cosplayers!

The time has come…it’s the last day of JAMPcon 2008. It’s hard saying goodbye…To make things worse, I couldn’t put my Rukia costume back on (I could have changed on the restroom, but…meh.). I had to settle for my new Bleach T-Shirt, my soul glove, and a Samurai sword I purchased Saturday to replace my Bushido sword for my costume. I went over to the Ballroom and waited for the Final Fantasy Tactics Battle to begin. When I got there, the theme changed: it was now a Cosplay battle. Everyone showed up, including half of the Chattanooga Gotei 13, excluding a couple of cosplayers who were absent (”Dark” Rukia (Sanjo-chan) and a Nel Tu). I watched the battles unfold until it was time to go home…

Conclusion

A group of Bleach cosplayers (plus a few Naruto) preform 'Hallelujah Goodbye' from the Bleach musical

In the end, I was tired and aching from the mini-rave on Saturday, and depressed because it was all over. There is no more JAMPcon until 2009. This is how I expected to feel if I stayed on the eve of the closing ceremonies of any anime convention. It’s sad when people start packing up, never to return until next year. Now I think I’ll leave as soon as I wake up on the last day. In the end, I was very satisfied, despite a few problems with scheduling. This is the first convention I attended for the whole weekend, rather than one day. I’m very optimistic of the other conventions I may attend in the future. I may not attend MTAC later this month, but I’m aiming for AWA in September. I’m going there for sure! I will also return to JAMPcon in 2009. The Chattanooga Gotei 13 shall return…

JAMPcon ROCKS!!