So here’s a rundown of Animazement 2009, and.. Yes, I do realize how late this is. However, those of you that have issues with my tardiness can suck it. (That’ll be the most anyone’s done for me in months.)

Aaaanyway.

This AZ was a fairly big deal for two reasons. Number one, the brand spanking new Raleigh Convention center would be hosting the convention, as opposed to the Sheraton Imperial in Durham, NC where the convention had been hosted since 2001. The other reason that this year’s convention was such a huge deal is that this year was the first time  The Sheraton was the spot where I had my con cherry popped, and the lobby of the Sheraton is where I ran into the assholes that I currently call my closest friends. In the 12 years that the con has been held, it spent 8 of those years in the Sheraton. Needless to say, there was a bit of trepidation at idea of a venue change, and the Raleigh Convention Center had huge shoes to fill.
My first reaction upon getting out of the car on Thursday afternoon was being so incredibly stoked on how absolutely HUMONGOUS the Raleigh Convention Center was. The building itself was very nice, waaaaay too nice for a group of obnoxious Japanophiles to be defiling it with their presence, and I couldn’t stop thinking that the staff at the Raleigh Convention Center had no fucking clue what they had gotten themselves into. Despite this, the convention center staff apparently said that we were the most well behaved group of people to set foot in the convention center, which is slightly alarming to say the least.

Holy. Shit. Really?

There wasn’t a whole lot of stuff happening on Thursday, so the majority of us just hung around outside of the convention center, talking to anyone that wanted to chat. At least 6 of the 15 people with us that weekend were outside until 4:30 the next morning, at which time I and the 5 others with me decided to go and take a dip in the hotel’s salt water swimming pool, which opened at 4:30. On Friday, we just kind of screwed around all day, and we were there pretty much all night.

…

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something. The Kigurumi. For the majority of the convention, starting on Thursday, most of our crew was decked out in Kigurumi. Kigurumi are ull-body animal pajama with hoods or hats styled after animals. They are worn non-commercially and are another form of Japanese street fashion. (Thanks for that wikipedia.) Our group had 2 foxes, 1 tiger, 1 blue beaver, 1 skunk, and a dragon. What that all boils down to is this: there were 6 morons running around the convention dressed like animals and fairy tale creatures. The first time we walked up to the convention center in the day light, a couple of big tough /b/tards started calling us furries from what they assumed was the relative safety of the patio. Oh how wrong they were.

Call us a furfags one more time. See what happens.

Guys, we are so mind-numbingly fucking cool.

I had a sick death hawk. Hell yes.

On Saturday, the WeBo* camp also took the opportunity to promote the website. The Weeaboobies decided to use Leis to promote, because collectively they have the maturity level of a 12 year old, and could make a bunch of stupid puns about “lei”-ing everyone who was unfortunate enough to receive one of their leis.

This right here? This is the danger-zone and you’re in it. Prepare to be lei’d. 80 times. consecutively.

This concludes part one of the The Extremely Belated Animazement 2009 Post-con Wrapup. Part two of this fantastic voyage will be up some time tomorrow. Don’t crap your pants in anticipation or anything. (Do it, crap your pants. You ain’t real.)