MANIFEST 2002 - Memories MANIFEST 2001

Home > About Us > Memories > MANIFEST 2001 - Day 1

Disclaimer: MANIFEST will not hold any responsibility should you find the content to be offensive or false in any way. MANIFEST holds no obligation for any allegation made by writer (Caroline Seawright) regarding any incident, individual or situation described in these Memories.

11th August 2001

I got up way too early on a Saturday morning for my liking, and headed off to the train station, toting my bag full of costume for MANIFEST. (I wasn't about to wear it on the Frankston line, thank you so very much! Maybe on the Sandringham line with the more wealthy suburbs on the line, but the Frankston - come on, it's got people from 'Franga' and other not quite so reputable places on it... such as Mordialloc!!! ^_~ )

Anyway, I ended up at the city, and took the first tram I could get to Melbourne University. On arrival, at the university, I was somewhat put out by the fact that there were no signs at all about MANIFEST. Not even any chalk writings on the ground on my way. (There was an obviously old chalk message about some BBQ or other and a poster about a night club, or something, on the ground... but nothing about MANIFEST!) The first sign that I saw about MANIFEST was once I'd managed to navigate my way to the Old Arts Building itself.

I hope for next year, there will be at least one sign and some chalk messages (with arrows pointing the direction when you get to different cross roads) helping people find the building where MANIFEST will be located! I wonder how many people got lost...

Anyway, I got in and got my badge, and went straight away to the toilet to get changed into my costume. Almost an hour later (with some help!) I was ready. My obi wasn't the best, but I couldn't do anything more - I had to go straight away to my first panel of the day!

Running along while dressed in a kimono and wearing geta on your feet must be done carefully, as does climbing up (and especially down!) stairs. I didn't fall, but I was rather slow to get to the panel. ^_^;

It was Anime 101. Nick, as Neko-Nick in his cat suit and green hair, and Justin (with yellow hair) and I were on. Well, it was alright, but ... err... Justin kind of took over. Nick and I had worked on what we were to say via e-mail (Nick doing most of the work), but with no input from Justin. So... he ad libbed and managed to take over the panel. I didn't even get up to saying the part that I had researched. I got ready in a hurry for nothing! ;_;

I still didn't have a chance to fix my obi after the panel was over - it was straight on to the Anime Travel panel with Jono, Peter and Bruce. Peter and Bruce talked about their travels to Japan, and Jono and I talked about Anime Expo (where I got to show off all of my badges and the Anime Expo 2001 guide book!)... though I don't think that a single one of us travelled to actually see anime... I didn't see a single anime while at any of the AX cons that I'd been at, apart from the first one (where I left my sister while I went to find some friends, and tell them where I was!). But it was good to talk about what happens overseas, anyway. ^_^

Finally, a break! I managed to have one hour off for lunch! Yay, BBQed sausages in bread and Coke! Unhealthy... Yum! ^_^

Then it was straight back to work! (I got a little help in fixing the obi then.)

I was to help judge the Cosplay!

Heh, it's good to be the judge, though. You can ask them to pose specifically for your camera, and they will. *grin* Usually I didn't, as you can see from the photos, but it was still good to be able to ask people like that - and have they do what you ask! ^_~

The only problem with judging is that you have to actually come up with winners. Now that is the unfair bit! It's hard to be a judge... thank goodness we only had to pick the role play winner, and the top three costumers. It was up to the audience to pick the actual costume winner! (But that job was still hard enough!) Amy's Digiko won the costume award, and David's Lina Inverse won the role play award! Widya, the MC, had it easy! ^_~

Then it was straight into the fanfic panel. If you don't count lunch, I was on for four hours straight!! @_@ (And the MANIFEST committee talked about changing certain panel times to let Andy have a break one day... but what about Caroline?!)

The panel was alright, except that a certain otaku thought he was on the panel, and tried to act like he was part of the panel, even though David had told him 'no' (I wouldn't stand for it! He butted in last year, and that was very annoying, especially since he's one of those rabid otaku type people that I find at least one of at every convention. *sigh*) he still tried to take over the panel from the audience!!! *sigh*

But finally I got my break... for the rest of the evening! Yay!! I ended up hanging out in the main hallway with some of the others, showing off my various AX photos (I wasn't about to hand them around to the audience during the anime travel panel) and just trying to relax. (Boy that kimono was hot ... even in the middle of winter! And my legs were aching from wearing the geta all day! I had to get off the costume before dinner!) Then the KFC arrived! Yay, food!!! ^_^

Lastly... it was the trivia competition. (But I was already dead tired from my day... what I really needed was a nice spa to soak in, in the sun... and a fine party with good drinks and company afterwards. Too bad there aren't any spas at Melbourne University, little sun during Melbourne's winter... and no party afterwards at all. It's at times like this that I miss Anime Expo...)

I really don't know how on earth we did it, but our team came second in the competition! We'd been one of the trailing teams through the whole game (with the only one behind us being the team with only two or three members!) ... and at the end, with our double points round, we managed to get a number of the questions right! And we came second! Yay for 'Bakamono' (no, not bakemono - bakamono!)!! ^_^

The problem that needs to be fixed for the next trivia night, though, is to actually get questions from a wide selection of anime. These questions were limited... and if you hadn't seen any of the five or six anime shows, there was no way you could answer any of the questions. (They did have a few 'extra' shows with one question, but there were only two or three of those.) Next year, I hope they have each question from a different anime, instead of the horribly narrow focus they had this year. I think I answered two questions correctly - one from Fushigi Yuugi (about what coin Miaka put into the vending machine before finding the book) and one from DNA^2 (about how many children the Mega Playboy had). I'm glad we had others on my team who actually had seen some of the anime they were talking about!!

Anyway, that was it for the day. MANIFEST would continue tomorrow... some of us just headed out to the Clyde for some after con drinks, and finally we all went home for some sleep before tomorrow's MANIFEST!

MANIFEST 2001 - Day 2

Here's a list of the images - select the link or the thumbnails (they have been cropped, so the largest images are shown in full) to view them!

The Anime 101 Panel - Myself, Justin and Neko-Nick at the panel. Purple, yellow and green... if I'd have had red hair, we could have been a traffic light. ;p
The Anime Travel Panel - I'm not sure if any of us traveled for anime, but we've all travelled. Jono (doesn't he look thrilled to have been dragged into the panel by yours truly?) and myself to Anime Expo (for the parties! I didn't see a single anime...) and Peter and Bruce to Japan.
David Eddy - Working the Melbourne Anime Society table! (Alex won the DVD... lucky thing!)
Food and Drinks - And here were some of the important volunteers, working away at providing us with tickets for the BBQ, cold cans of drink, tea, coffee and (most importantly) chocolates!
The Dealer's Hall - The dealers had their tables setup, and a long hallway in which to sell their wares.
The Cosplay Audience - Look at the turnout for the cosplay! Much bigger than last year's turn out (at least for the day I was there, anyway)!!!
Random Samurai Sidekick - Alex, talking to Widya, dressed up in one of his kimono.
Lina Inverse - Cara as Lina Inverse. (She did her Dragon Slave spell... with some hair spray and a lighter!) ^_^
Kagero - Kate dressed up as the kunoichi (female ninja) from Ninja Scroll.
Sailor Moon - Kat dressed up as Sailor Moon, doing a pose.
Digiko - Amy dressed up as Digiko - no wonder she won the costume part of the Cosplay!
Sailor Moon - Kelly as the second (short haired) Sailor Moon!

Generic Kendo Club Member - David dressed in a kendo outfit.
Ralf Jones - Daniel dressed up as Ralf Jones from King of Fighters.
K' - Andy, dressed as K', posing for Nick's camera. (He didn't enter the cosplay - he was a judge! But he and Daniel had a little 'fight' for the audience.)
Lina Inverse - This Lina was a little different - a CROSS-play Lina - David Lin managed to win the role playing section with his impersonation of Lina. ^_^
Final Fantasy VIII - Mark as Squall, Mike as Irvine, Diana as Selphie, Luke as Zell, Fiona as Rinoa and Alicia as Quistis. They did the dance from FFVIII, and it was perfect! Excellent dancing there.
The Final Fantasy Group - The whole group, pointing to who was to blame for their skit. And me, with my purple hair in the bottom left, taking a photo of them. ^_^
The Saturday Cosplayers - I couldn't take a photo of each person (not enough film in the camera for that!) so here's one of everyone who entered the cosplay contest!
The Fanfic Panel - Myself (looking rather frazzled after the long day of being on panels or judging cosplays!) and David Eddy doing the Anime Fanfic panel.
The Guys at MANIFEST - A few of the guys who either volunteered or helped out (or just happened to be there when I took the photo) at MANIFEST.
Saturday Night Dinner - Peter, Thai, Brad (hiding), myself, Jono, and a few others all hiding behind someone or other (I can't remember and the photo is too dark to tell!) Although you can't see it, we sat in the hallway at one of the tables and had KFC for dinner. And as you CAN see, we had plenty Coke to go with it. ^_^
Trivia Night - A number of people formed teams (sitting at the different tables) and had a go at the trivia night. I can't believe that our team got second place, after being second last for most of the game...