The 15th year of Anime Weekend Atlanta has come and gone, but with less than 365 remaining until AWA 16, there are a lot of events and panels I was looking forward to a couple of months (or years..?) before attending.

Sure, I went to as many panels as I could (even the late night ones..*ahem*), but I can’t help but feel like I was missing out on other things…

(Photo Credit: millermz)

The Maid Cafe

Even though I had a blast overall at Anime Weekend Atlanta, I’d bang my head on the table for missing out on the *only* (reachable from Chattanooga) maid cafe 100 miles away from home. Maid cafes at conventions are not the same as the actual maid cafes in Akihabara… But when you have just enough money to go to Japan-but choose AWA instead, this will have to do.

Photoshoots

I got a decent batch of photos from the Dragonball/Z/GT, Bleach (featuring yours truly), and Kingdom Hearts shoots, but it would have been nice to have a few Gundam, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Final Fantasy photos in my collection.

On a related note: bluesphx took a whole weekend’s worth of photos.

The Concert

After failed attempts of attending MTAC and previous years of Anime Weekend Atlanta, this would have been the opportunity to see Peelander Z for the first time (although I was hoping for The Captains, if it weren’t for the H1N1, perhaps).

When the schedule was released a few days before the con, I was already debating on what was more important: Yaoi After Dark or Peelander Z/Omodaka. I chose the ladder at the last minute: though I checked last 45 minutes of the “H” panel on Friday night, YAD was my first last night panel since “claiming legality” two years ago… Or: “6 months (from September ’09) to go ’til the drinking age!”.

I had fun at the YAD panel. But I promised myself that, in the event of the panel ending earlier as promised (at 1 AM instead of 2:30 AM), I would have checked out whoever was on stage at the time… Omodaka. (Even the concert had scheduling problems). But I was very tired…

Vic’s Panels

You can’t go to AWA without checking out Vic Mignogna’s panels-unless you’re a Sub fan. I was hoping to go to his Friday afternoon panel, but with it taking place a little after the Opening Ceremonies and me getting there after 3 PM, the only time I would get to see him again was Saturday night at 6 PM.

Vic also does his popular Sunday Reflections panel. I really wanted to check it out, but for some reason I thought the Bleach photoshoot was more important… In the end, I didn’t make it to the Bleach shoot. But I met Vic again (since ACen ’05) at the autograph session! ^_^

Sleep

Not much of a panel, but any experienced con-goer will tell you that this is just as important as eating filling meals. I ate what I could find around Atlanta (Burger King and McD’s, FTW), but leaving Chattanooga without sleeping (I was too excited!), spending the rest of Day 1, sleeping 4 hours in the morning, waking at 6 AM for breakfast at McDonalds, getting in cosplay for the Bleach photoshoot, almost falling asleep at the Classic Mecha panel, arriving back at the Sheraton after YAD a quarter before 3 AM, packing for the trip home, sleeping at 5 AM and waking at 8, searching for Vic and Bleachers, sleeping on the trip home, and sleeping immediately after getting home? Orz…

Other Thoughts

While it seems I missed out on a lot of events at AWA, I still had tons of fun! I met a few people I added on MySpace and Facebook prior to the con, as well as meeting old people I met at conventions past. Fortunately, many of the events, such as the maid cafe, will be back next year (’09 was the cafe’s second year, and with extended hours and an extra day).

While conventions as a whole are a lot of fun, this goes to show you that there are downsides to attending *every* event the con offers. This would be a piece of cake at smaller conventions, but with cons like Anime Weekend Atlanta and Anime Expo… it’s not easy.