Event Coverage: Anime on Display 2012

AOD 2012 photo gallery link

I was anticipating AOD not too much as a con, but just a way to see friends all in one place. However, AOD 2012 ended up being the con where I've attended the most panels.

AOD SATURDAY Three Panel Soul Panel @1pm: http://threepanelsoul.com/ 3PS is a humble webcomic series written by Matt Boyd and illustrated by Ian McConville, who is also the Lead Artist for SEGA's MMO game Spiral Knights. The panel was not fully crowded, but it was also competing with the popular panel MadWorld as well as Yukie Dong's performance on the Main Stage. This was a very casual panel, as Ian and Matt spoke about how they started working on comics together (explained in comic form, of course), how the comics come together, and other fellow webcomics they enjoy reading on their spare time. They showed us various examples of their comics, in which the small group of us in the panel had the pleasure of reading and laughing together.

Vocaloid Animation Concert - VOCALEKT VISIONS @3pm https://www.facebook.com/VocalektVisions To give a brief summary, Vocalekt Visions consists of Vocaloid Producers Neutrino-P and Tempo-P. They are a US based team who's gaining recognition in both the US as well as Japan- they are also the most active Vocaloid team in the west. The Main Stage was packed to say the least, and for good reason!

AOD was VV's debut of their dance group, WVD01. They had live dance performances, as well as a serenading performance by WVD01's Gumi (pianist) and Len (singer), who performed "Love is War". 

Onto the concert! The technology was quite impressive. Much like SEGA/Crypton's concert in Japan and during Mikunopolis at AX 2011, the Vocaloids are projected on a screen. Having attended Mikunopolis, I was quite pleased with the projection for this concert; the Vocaloids remained visible, no matter what side of the screen they displayed. There were appearances from various Vocaloids, such as Hatsune Miku, Megpoid Gumi, Kamui Gakupo, and a special "guest" who performed the encore song.

AOD SUNDAY Spiral Knights with Ian McConville Panel @12pm http://www.spiralknights.com/ The same Ian from the Three Panel Soul held a panel dedicated to the art in the awesome (and free!) MMO Spiral Knightsas a Guest of Honor for AOD. As mentioned previously, he is the Lead Artist for the game. It great to see old concept art before the game (previously known as "Project X") came to fruition. He showed concept art for the Knights, Weapons, and enemies.

If you are very much into Spiral Knights, here is an article that summarizes the panel in greater detail.

The panel was pretty casual, yet very informative. It was entertaining for those who are only briefly familiar to the game (like myself) as well as individuals who are hardcore fans of the game. Ian's great sense of humor and the enthusiastic attendees made the panel very enjoyable. Attending this panel gave me a better appreciation of the game- time to play more and beef up my Knight!

Random Encounters Musical Panel @4pm http://www.youtube.com/user/RandomEncountersEnt Random Encounters create musicals based on video games- a simple concept, but it takes a lot of creative energy to execute. The main writer, actor, and director is AJ Pinkerton

After the success of "Needlemouse: The Musical", RE proceeded to make several other musicals, relating to favorites such as Pokémon, Assassin's Creed, Pac-Man, and Legend of Zelda. Throughout the panel, they showed other musicals made ("Singachu" is a highly recommended watch), answered fans' questions, and celebrated the birthday of their fellow sweeper. Also they introduced a new member that makes brief appearances in virtually every video- The Beard. If you like video games, you'll like Random Encounters. They'll take you through nostalgia in a joyful manner, as well as sing about some more recent games, such as Dead Space. I wish I could have seen more at AOD, but that's every story when attending cons, right? Overall, AOD was a pleasant experience that had me grinning from ear to ear, and all the panels attended ended up having to do with SEGA- what a small world! Written by Yona