This past weekend in Toronto was held Anime North 2013. A con that would soon be renamed Eriko North ( EriCon for some ) .
I decided a couple months ago to attend to hang out with my Toronto peeps regardless of the guest.
Oh boy was I in for a treat when they announced that Eriko Nakamura would be there.
Indeed she managed to make a couple of US peeps cross the border and then some Japanese folks cross the ocean to see her.
Eriko North was so charged that I pretty much didn’t get to do ANYTHING else at that con other than her related activities.
I went to room with the US peeps : Exciel, Neo Zero, 7thwraith and two of his friends.
Lots of alcohol was ingested that weekend. As a matter a fact when I arrived on Thursday night, we got to hear some magic spells from Exciel .
( remember when he said he wouldn’t ever drink with Canadians?
Also I'm not drinking with Canadians ever again.
— Exciel_Z (@exciel_co_log) July 3, 2012
In a way, he was true to his word as he was wasted before I arrived lololol )
Friday was a pretty charged afternoon,
We got to go Eriko’s first Q&A*
Unfortunately pictures were not allowed.
We got to learn that Eriko is rather playful (borderline trollish had time ) like when I asked her what her Favourite im@s song was , she told me to wait for the booklet of her next event in Japan that had the answer to this question .
After having had the satisfaction of crushing my hopes for answer, she did say that since it was a special occasion she would answer for me.
She’s also very good at dodging questions , like when someone asked her why she didn’t have a concert ( planned for Anime North, unfortunately asked in a very round about way ) she answer that she Did had a concert. … Last year in Japan .
The Q&A done, I ran to the dealers room to buy something for her to sign. I was able to get my hand ( on an overpriced) Haruka figure.
Had her sign the base and the front of the box ( to Kurotsuki ), Exciel offered her flowers , and 7th a JP post box…with flowers and a bear inside .
And we were pretty much done for the first day.
The second day , she supposedly had an idolm@ster panel at noon, but it turned out to be a screening of episode 23 & 24, but she did pop up in between episodes to say hi and answer two questions .
I must note that she was supremely cute on that day ( pony tail and all ).
Then we went to a panel called “Voices in video games” with was with the two dub guests John Swasey , Chris Cason and Eriko.
The way the panel worked was you asked a question and the three would answer .
I have to say that panel was bloody brilliant, of all the years I’ve been to con, I’ve never seen a panel where you have dub and Japanese v.a in the same room answering the questions with their different point of perspective .
Also I may not like dub, but those two were rather fun people.
The panel over, we ran again to line up for the second day Autograph & picture session.
This time I had her sign an im@s poster.
Exciel took a pictures where he is doing a high touch with her, I got mad jealous and carefully planned to strike back on the next day.
Hi-touchだよ！I will never wash this right hand again! pic.twitter.com/EqUtMKNdSi
— Exciel_Z (@exciel_co_log) May 26, 2013
We waited to try to get a group picture with her but were denied it.
So we had to take one outside without her.
And then we went to eat overpriced Steak with the Japanese Ps, and later at night drinking with Kevo and Krizz and fnzna.
On the final day, we headed to her last Autograph & picture session and had her sign my badge.
i suspected on the 2nd day that she had recognized me, but this was all confirmed on the 3rd day when she said ” Hi, 黒月さん” . At that point I probably died of happiness for a couple of seconds.
I then proceeded exacted my sweet revenge by taking this badass pic with her.
( yes, I am wearing a 黒月(Kurotsuki) shirt )
She then shook my hand as I was leaving . 幸せ ~
We roamed around a bit before lining up an hour ahead of her final panel.
During the panel one of JP-P was coughing, so she went to grab some cough candy from her bag to give some to him. Cue everybody in the room coughing as well.
And then it was time to say goodbye.
It was overall a super fun weekend.
Got to meet great people and saw some old faces.
My first anime expo was a rather great success. Lets see if they top that next year ~
* you can find a good transcript of that on the interwebs.
link here when I unlazy and find it.