Report from San Diego Comic Convention 2006

Hi, everybody! I feel like such a flake for not doing what I had intended and promised to do for all you who came to my panel at AX 2006. Yes, that's right! I was supposed to do another Production I.G panel there. I'm deeply sorry about it, but I promise I will do one next year.

Though we left early enough to arrive at the destination in the morning, the hideous traffic made it ultimately impossible. Then, once we got to the convention center, we saw absolutely no parking lots without a 'FULL' sign in the entrance. We made several U-turns and finally parked at the Hyatt. They should've just dropped me off at the convention center so that I could get in the hideously long registration line to pick up the badges, but the 'slow' driver didn't know any better. Turns out that it's the hottest day of the year in California, and the temperature in supposedly-cool-and-breezy San Diego had hit a shocking 105F! Another good reason that they should've dropped me off at the door...

San Diego Comic Convention 2006

Even before we picked up our badges, I was already worn out from the heat and over populated atmosphere. I meant to make a positive first impression to my new client from Japan whom I was supposed to meet at 2pm, but then my dress looked like I had just been pushed into the pool, my make-up was nearly gone from the sweat, and my face was like a palette of different color paints from the insane heat, exhaustion, motion-sickness, hunger, and thirst, not to mention an enormous zit on my cheek from lack of sleep. Yet, in order to encourage them to like me in spite of my not-so-enticing visual, I offered them to be in front of the camera with for a local TV interview, whether that helped at all or not.

Since I didn't do a panel this year, this report is going to be a bit hollow, but please at least allow me to put up the photos I took inside the Dealer's Room.

Dealer's Room

Oh look, the new Canti figures from FLCL! They have blue and red. How classic!

Canti Figures

Right on, guys! You'll need a lot of those in order to buy a Canti figure. It's good stuff!

Fans withdrawing money from the ATM

And here's a distinguished poster of our latest show xxxHOLiC! I hope it does as well just as it's doing in Japan!

xxxHOLiC poster at the FUNimation booth

After that, I had not even a second to breathe as I had to meet with 4 more clients in 2 hours all in different places! It was already 6pm when I got through with my last client. I phoned and reconnected with the friends I carpooled with (who seemed to have had way more fun than I did) and we all left the convention center. The minute I walked out, the burning heat, fatigue, thirst, and hunger had all hit me simultaneously! I realized then that I hadn't had anything to eat or drink for more than 10 hours! My friends thought I was going to pass out, so they immediately drove me to a place to eat, which incidentally turned out to be one of the best Chinese restaurants in San Diego! Boy, we all ate like pigs! One of our friends ate over 7 bowls of steam rice! You go boy!

The 405 traffic going home was much better than this morning as it was already past 10pm when we left San Diego. It was an extremely long day, but I was glad that I went and spoke with all my precious clients (for future business opportunities), and most of all just to hang out with my irreplaceable business buddies who generously let me ride in with them!

(Maki Terashima-Furuta, IG-USA)