My favorite event all weekend, and the one I look forward to most is the Anime Cosplay Chess Game. The only thing I get more excited about is the AMV Contest, but that's not really a single event as there are multiple times to view and vote on the videos.


This years Cosplay Chess game didn't disappoint. The theme was Angst vs. Sugar, but the choices for pieces was a little off. Many of the characters chosen for each team didn't really fit my image of Angsty or Sugary, but I wasn't in charge so there was nothing I could do. I also didn't really like the way that each royal court (the King and Queen with their pawns) were all from the same anime. Instead of Angst vs. Sugar this game was more FMA vs Ouran.

*Team Sugar*'s captain and chess player was Sailor Moon, and #Team Angst# was headed by Sephiroth himself. I decided that rather than reporting a list of every move anyone made, I simplified my blow by blow and will only be telling you about the interesting parts.. and it got interesting before it even started.

So here are our teams:



Due to the ban on Pirate hunting at AB Cap'n Jack was not eligible to play in the Anime Cosplay Chess Game, that and the fact that he isn't an anime character. So, Sasuke volunteered to take his place. This is an especially eyebrow raising thing, because it would make Sasuke one of the members of Sugar rather than Angst. Just last year he also volunteered to switch from Team Shounen to Team Shoujo. Methinks perhaps Sasuke has something to tell the rest of the class, 'course first he has to admit it to himself. Remember kids "It's OK to be gay", in all meanings of the term. It seems that Sasuke is both a happy little fucker under that emo guise and apparently also just one of the girls. "YAY! WAY TO BE GAY, SASUKE!" I love rhyming. (^__^)



Poor Aerith didn't have a chance and Kadaj killed her off first thing. Apparently those Jenova boys really have a problem with her flower growing sugary ways. A newly depressed Cloud came and took her body off the board. ::SIGH:: and he'd just gotten over her first death.

Yuna promptly gets sugary revenge by teaming up with Rikku and Paine to take out Winry.

Now the chess game got a little sidetracked here as Renji, Urihara and Ichigo started running up and down the aisles fighting hollows that only those of us with spiritual powers could see.. Yeah, I totally saw the hollows, they weren't swinging wildly at thin air or anything.

The game progressed as Sano killed Chii and Count D killed Sango. Sango's death was particularly poignant as Kohaku came running out and dealt the death blow by decapitation before D got to it. That's sibling love right there folks, but don't worry he'll regret it later when he regains his memory.. again.

Greed and Envy burst onto the scene disrupting the game once again. Angst King Mustang and his Pawn Ed were ready to take them on, but the Chimera waved them aside declaring that they had come only for Angst Queen Hawkeye. Pain ensued and Hawkeye thoroughly whipped the Chimera boys. Pistol whipped.. OUCH!

Meanwhile Tifa poisoned Count D's tea with sweet and low. The poor sugar addict hit the ground writhing in pain, and probably withdrawal. Sugar Bishop Hughes took out Neji with one whack of the photo album upside the head, his Byakugan didn't see that one coming, and Mugen took down Hughes and ripped up his pictures of Alicia. Angst King Mustang faced off with Yuna. Unfortunately for him , Mustang was under strict orders not to use his fire powers as they violated the Hynes Convention Center's fire code. So instead he summoned Scar to blow up Yuna's head. Paine and Rikku had to drag Yuna back to the ship as they'd forgotten to stock up on phoenix downs before the game. Rather than leaving the stage, Scar decided to stick around and play Emcee for a while.



Having apparently learned some of Orochimaru's darker skills, Sasuke summoned Al's dead body to attack Ed, and the alchemist went down without much fight, unable to fight back against his brother. A deeply saddened Hohenheim of Light came and brought the boys back home to rest with their mother.

Pawn Kadaj created a commotion as he reached the far side of the board and tried to evolve himself into Sephiroth. Cloud supplied the other players with ammunition of Pocky with which they pelted Sephiroth off the stage. Instead Kadaj had to settle for being Queened. All Hail Angst Queen Kadaj! (still not as funny as Rose Bride Sasuke.)At this point Aizen-taicho had gotten sick of listening to Scar emcee and he took over the mic. Just at the perfect time too, because who could better narrate a fight between Rukia and Yoruichi. Rukia, unable to defeat former captain Yoruichi on her own called for backup from Ichigo. Without even drawing Zangetsu, Ichigo decked Yoruichi and took her down.

In an immediate turn of fate, Angst Queen Hawkeye summoned her newly whipped chimera Greed and Envy to take Rukia down. However, as Rukia so elequently states "You can't kill me, nobody dies in Bleach." So, instead, she is escorted off of the board.

Kauru calls upon Kenshin to kill Presea, K (the official chess emcee) manages to bribe Aizen-taicho to give up the mic in exchange for a brand new Wii and Sano kills Sora. Misa Misa calls upon Light to kill Kadaj with his Deathnote, but it causes a bit of trouble when Watari and L show up to investigate.

When Kyouya attacks Tifa, Reno shows up to rescue her, but they are both taken down by the elite Ootori private army. Beware the rich kids and their personal armies. The Ouran action hour continues as Nekozawa kills Haruhi. Sugar King Tamaki desperately tries to save her, but he is restrained by his own teammates and the rules, so he sits and cries forlornly on his square instead. Tamaki is further distressed when Riku kills Hunny and Hawkeye kills Kyouya. With the whole Host Club consecutively defeated Tamaki calls out Sephiroth to duel, but can do nothing but cry on his square when he is ignored.

Misa Misa defeats Ni Jianyi and is then taken down by Angst Queen Hawkeye. Misa Misa desperately calls for Light's help, but he just shrugs and leaves her to her fate. Hawkeye then goes on to kill Sakura, despite the summoning of the "Clow Card Meowth"... don't ask. There's something cruel about a military sharp shooter taking down a teen idol and a 4th grader.

Riku, Mustang, Renji and Hawkeye all have a part in checkmating Tamaki, and the game proceeds to the Quick Fire Elimination Round.. or excuse me the Quick WATER Elimination Round, forgot about the fire code thing.



Everything goes quickly as Riku beats Nekozawa, Lacus beats Riku with her singing.. Sasuke beats Lacus, Mugen gets Sasuke, Renji defeats Mugen, Sano defeats Renji, Kenshin beats Sano for Kauru and Mustang and Hawkeye defeat Kenshin. ##ANGST WINS##

But wait... King Tamaki comes back and seduces Hawkeye, causing Mustang to take off the skirt part of his uniform and wield it like a whip, Sephiroth kills Usagi and then Tamaki invites Mustang to be a Host and tempts him with all the women on the Sugar team. Mustang immediately surrenders and in a surprise turn around **SUGAR WINS**

Finish What You Start...

You won't guess what happened? I finally got some picks from Anime Boston in from the gals that went to the damn thing, and I thought I'd share a few with you as I've been HOUNDED by ya'll for them. [Which in turn made me dog the gal to get them to me, and they did!]

Well, to be honest Panda gave me a couple of pics while Magic came through big time with a plethora of cosplay goodness. I got so many in fact that I'm having to break them up into three categories: Naruto, Bleach, & Miscellaneous. The Bleach and Misc. groups aren't up yet, but I figured that Naruto would be a good place to start. So hit the link and enjoy bitches!

Finish What You Start...

Do I even need to tell you it's new podcast episode day? I didn't think so, but I did it anyways, because that's the way I roll here at the sistahood. This weeks episode just happens to be titled, "Episode 48: I French Fried When I Should Have Pizza'd" and is ready for a listen.

In this episode of the podcast Pandalicious tackles the tricky subject of Jesus in anime as discussed by a panel she went to at AB2k7 while MagicMysticGrl shares some cosplay "Do's & Don'ts" with you lovely folks in hopes of making your con experiences [and ours] better. And bringing up the rear as always is NinjaSistah with her take on the Wii game SSX Blur by EA Big. The conversation is deep at times, and for the other sixty minutes it's the usual laugh riot that you're used to.

All in all it's just another funMONday here in the hood, so grab your morning cup o' joe and enjoy the show.

Finish What You Start...

The sights unseen by unpress eyes...

This year Magic Mystic and I were able to walk Anime Boston not just as obsessive fangirls but as fangirls on a mission. We got to walk AB07 as members of the press. We were indeed the rookies this year. [We had no frickin' clue what to do.] So I did what I do best, looked for hot people or REALLY COOL costumes and hounded the person for a photo, while plugging the site.

Magic and I also didn't fully understand the power that press holds and learned one very important concept...outside of murder and drug use, on convention grounds we are SUPER ELITE PEOPLE, VIP BABY!!!!!!!!!!!]

We both attended opening ceremonies which for me was the first time I've managed to a.) wake up on time b.) get to the convention on time c.) get my pass on time to make it to opening ceremonies. Upon arriving there prompt we proceeded to sit in the first two seats first row. [ZOMG!] At the opening ceremonies they pretty much introduce all the guests that will be there, so we all get some exposure to them. As usual, many of the attendees cooed and hollered when Greg Ayres came on stage. [I'll admit I did it too -_-;] The voice actor who [in my opinion] got the most applause was Travis Willingham [for those who don't know, he did the voice of Roy Mustang from FMA] The reason being was they showed the clip from FMA where Mustang is all pumped up about SHORT MINI SKIRTS [in that scene he is standing like a Greek muscle man statue] and then Travis the actual guy comes out and does the same thing, followed by Luci Christian, Greg Ayres and some others to fawn all over him ^^.

Another thing that they do at opening ceremonies is throw free t-shirts out into the crowd causing a MASSIVE MOSH PIT OF PAIN! Yours truly was donkey kicked in the left hand as a mosher passing by reached for a t-shirt. [BAKA!] He didn't even apologize, but Magic told me to get over it and grow up. [Which is funny since I'm several years older than she is. ^^]

FUN WAS HAD BY ALL!

Finish What You Start...

Hello adoring fans. Sorry this AB (Anime Boston) info has taken so long to get to you, but there was no wireless in my hotel and I've been sleeping off the weekend ever since I got home.


So this weekend I had delirious amounts of fun, going to panels, watching AMVs and actually cosplaying for the first time ever. I took 13 pages of notes, so please forgive me if I get a bit too long winded.

The weekend started out on a high note. Panda and I were eligible for press passes due to our phenomenal efforts as ESH members. We were allowed to pass by the whole reg/pre-reg line and get our passes almost immediately. On a sad side note, at AB our press passes didn't get us all kinds of cool extra swag the way Ninja's did at E3. We got the typical schedule and program of events, just like everyone else. This swag bag was actually where we got our WoW demo disks last year... and you all know how that turned out.

Our first event was the Opening Ceremonies. I'd never bothered to go before, expecting to be totally bored outta my skull, but it wasn't half bad. They introduced the guests and declared the theme of the convention. The theme was officially Japanese Festivals, but I will always remember it for the Pirate/Ninja drama. So, Panda and I traded on our press passes and got ourselves front row center seating without waiting in line, and when they were tossing free t-shirts at the crowd, I caught 2, one for each of us. All in all, it was a good start to the weekend.

Now, I didn't go to the Anime Dating Game where everything started but I caught the other segments of the whole Pirate/Ninja episode. Apparently something happened during the dating game that caused the need for a Pirate/Ninja truce, complete with peace treaty. So, on Saturday night during the Masquerade, Captain Jack Sparrow and the Akatsuki members got together to ratify the treaty, witnessed by Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye and Colonel Roy Mustang. However, when the Captain signed his name, the treacherous ninja revealed that it wasn't a peace treaty at all, but that all the pirate signees had just sworn themselves over as ninja.

So, since all the pirates were now officially ninja, AB official Hawkeye declared that pirates were an endangered species and it was hereby outlawed that they be attacked by ninja. The warloving ninja weren't happy with this development and demanded that they be allowed to fight someone. Mustang volunteered the alchemists for the position of official rivals of the ninja. Unfortunately, the ninja far outnumber the alchemists and remaining pirates. So, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed the Ouran Host Club volunteered to hire private bodyguards for everyone to protect against ninja attacks. Everyone went home thinking that the matter was settled, but it was to be continued the next day at the Anime Chess Game.

At the chess game, Soifon, Captain of the second squad in the Gotei 13 and Commander of the special forces and Executive Militia within Seireitei stepped forward with a complaint that the alchemists were the ninjas new rivals. Shinigami, she argued, were far better suited to the position due to their numbers and organization. Alchemists couldn't fight ninja head on because they didn't wield weapons, but every Shinigami is equipped with a zanpakuto and additionally it was within Soul Society's power to set up spirit shields to minimize the damages caused to the real world during battle. Alchemists on the other hand must deconstruct their surroundings in order to fight, causing unnecessary damage.

Before Captain Soifon and Colonel Mustang could start a battle right then and there, it was decided that since several shinigami and alchemists were participating in the chess game, the audience would be allowed to vote on who would become the next rival to the ninja based on perforamance in the game. The winners would become rivals with the ninja and the losers would have to declare their rivalry with the Ouran High School Host Club. Needless to say, we shinigami won and are now officially the rivals of the ninja. I say we because I was cosplaying as 10th Squad Vice Captain Matsumoto Rangiku. Of course this official announcement caused a problem between myself and one of my best friends who was cosplaying as Sexy no Jitsu Naruto. Luckily I'm only a part time shinigami and she's only a part time ninja, so our relationship hasn't suffered. I do however pity Panda who's boyfriend is a pirate and sister is a ninja.

Along with the developing news at the main events, there was also a secret competition going on behind the scenes for the pirate/ninja/shinigami/alchemist cosplayers. Those of you who went to AB2K6 might remember the ninja barrel that was being passed around, well this year there were 4 of them, one for each faction. Any cosplayer belonging to one of the factions had the right to challenge the holder of the barrel to a game of Ro-Sham-Bo (Rock-Paper-Scissors) and the winner then got to carry the barrel, until they loose it to another challenger. People were walking around the halls with the barrels and would be mobbed by members of the opposing factions. In the end the results were clear, the shinigami really were the best choice of opponents for the ninja. The Barrel capture results were Pirates (27), Alchemists (127), Shinigami (311) and Ninja (323). I'm proud to say that 2 of the Shinigami wins were mine, but ashamed to admit that 5 of the Ninja wins were my friend kicking my arse.

This whole gang war took place all weekend. There were photo shoots scheduled for all the major cosplaying favorites, but unfortunately the Bleach and Naruto shoots were scheduled at the same time on different floors. Basically the Naruto fans were at the bottom of the escalator and the Bleach fans were at the top. The big mistake here was that they were in full view of each other, so as a cohesive mob the Bleach fans decided to crash the Naruto photo shoot. Seeing as I was wearing a Bleach costume it was impossible for me to remain an impartial spectator, but I feared for my life for a few minutes as this real life West Side Story played out right in front of me (and behind me and to both sides, it was kinda scary..) Luckily, it was nowhere as bad as being at UMass Amherst when the Red Sox won the World Series. Although fascinating to watch it was also damn scary to be in the middle of it all. However, anime fans aren't nearly as rabid as Red Sox fans, so although post traumatic stress scared the crap outta me, I was never in any danger.

I must declare as a veteran of these things that the occasional riot is exhilarating and refreshing. It really gets the heart pumping and circulates large amounts of adrenaline for a great rush without the need of drugs. So, next time your friends ask you to go out on Friday night and have a friendly riot with them, say yes, it will be one of the most memorable experiences of your life.

On another note I actually went to some panels this year. Last year I managed to spend all weekend in artists alley and the dealer's room. I went to the "Creating Your First Webcomic" and "Inside Manga" panels on Friday and "Character Creation" on Saturday. Although the Baby's First Webcomic panel had some great advice and it was really interesting to hear about how Bettina Kurkoski works behind the scenes, my favorite of the three was Character Creation. I mean how could you not love a panel where you spend the whole time talking about your example characters Raven McAngst and Twinkle McFancyPants. It was basically a panel where we discussed what works and what doesn't with each character, and how it's OK to work with stereotypes as long as you try to do something new with them.

Your basic character stereotypes are:
The Master - The old hermit on the mountain who knows the answer to life, the universe and everything (it's not actually 42) and is the guy who sends the main characters on their quest/sets their task.

The Student - Still learning, full of questions and is a master in training. As the reader, the questions they ask usually end up helping you to understand the world your characters are living in. The student drives exposition.

The Hero/Heroine - Your main character, they are the most well thought out and have the most depth

The Sidekick - Always hanging around to help the hero, surprisingly enough they have the most potential of all the stereotypes

The Villain - This is the character who's actions most move the storyline, most heroes can only react to the actions of the villain

Villain's Lackey - Nameless red shirted characters who exist only to be brutally defeated by the main character, or in the case of Star Wars, brutally defeated by Darth Vader in desperate need of anger management classes, or at least someone needs to get him a rubber band he can snap on his wrist.

Villain's Minions - Unlike a lackey a minion is irreplaceable to the villain. They are often the only one the villain trusts, and are responsible for how smoothly things run behind the scenes. Unfortunately for the villain, minions are in the perfect place to screw the villain over.

In order to create an interesting character it's important to mix stereotypes, give all the characters depth and to make sure they have flaws. NO ONE likes a Mary Sue who can do everything perfectly and has no problems at all, it's just too unrealistic. Another important point that was made is that an Anti Hero has a purpose, while random angst is pointless. Along with this vital information there was an incredible amount of geeking out and referencing characters and titles that many a part-time otaku/comicbook dork wouldn't get. We even spent some time discussing why Superman wasn't a Mary Sue.

I'll be writing up details of the Masquerade, Anime Human Chess Game, Cherry Blossom Ball and AMV Contest within the next few days.

Finish What You Start...