The first day was to be honest an unexpected uncontrollable headache. The university apparently decided to have an open day on the very same time and the actual venue for GACC was pushed to the nearby classrooms which was hot, small, cramped and ridiculously hot. Did I mention hot? Cause it was like HOT! The air-conditioning was futile with the large amounts of visitors packed into the small makeshift venue. The MC’s both veterans of the ACG community were however there to lighten up the mood and try to create a fun atmosphere.

Then came the usual mix of activities that one would have expect from a large ACG event such as stage performances, competition and tournaments. The second day was a relief as the GACC committee was finally allowed to use the Examhall and to the relief of the visitors as well as it was fully air-conditioned. Cosplayers and the number of visitors were well below the amount seen in previous years. I guess maybe it was just at the wrong timing and the long distance from Kuala Lumpur. In any case, it was still a memorable event with friends meeting up and enjoying themselves with the ongoing activities in and out of the hall.

Yes, I know this isn’t much of a review but I was busy manning the the Anime Depot and the Emina booth. Besides I was too damn tired anyways. My head was spinning the entire weekend I was there. Too bad for me I guess. Be cause of that I really wasn’t able to take much pictures that I would like too. Now that was dissappointing to say the least.

In other news, I’ve finally made a proper watermark for all my future picture uploads. Looks way better than the previous one. As I’ve mentioned previously, I did not have much of a chance to take pictures of cosplayers and the like during my time at GACC but take a look at some of those that I did. Did some experimental photoshop. Kinda like how it turned out. As usual, comments and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

[View with PicLens]

Sony A350 with kit lens. I so need to get myself a flash unit for the camera…sigh.

A cute bunny welcomes visitors to GACC

Review after the jump.

This year’s Games, Anime, and Comics Circle was honestly smaller than usual. The crowd was smaller partly due to the H1N1 scare but then there were various reasons as well in which you will see later. The setup was a mess due to the last minute screw up of MMU’s mismanagement forcing the committees to only prepare the hall on the day itself because of an exam from 8am-10am. The doors were finally opened at 12pm. For the first time in 2 years there was NO seiyu appearence. Shocking, Isn’t it? Well, for me it felt much calmer and relaxed compared to when there was seiyu’s appearing though. This brings back the core purpose of what GACC was first meant to be when I was involved in 2006 which was to have fun and fun it was with Zend and Krauser literally gave a killing performance as MC for the event. The crowd was entertained and that was another plus point.

Honestly, I will have to admit that the highlight of this years GACC wasn’t the event itself but in the cosplayers that attended the event. Cosplayers were an abundance at this years GACC and the quality of their costumes really showed what the local cosplayers could do when they put their mind and energy at it. The Code Geass anime cosplay group was hueg huge literally dominating the entire day 1. I heard that the group was supposed to be bigger but due to various epidemic reasons that prevented the entire cast from forming. (Writer goes into OTL mode right here…)

The cosplay competition was well done with a spice of craziness. The first day’s group cosplay competition was started off with one of the best cosplay sketch I’ve seen to date. Kudos to the Code Geass group for a job well done. The second day of competition was ramped up a notch with the MC’s personally handling the competition with random sketches, trials and laughter to test the cosplayer’s ability to improvise and creativeness.

Photography taken within the exam hall was a breeze. Literally. With good lighting there wasn’t a need for this writer to use his non-affortable non-existant imaginary flash unit to take picutres. The air-conditioning was trying its best to accommodate the visitors but there are times where it just wasn’t powerful enough. This particular problem has nothing got to do with the committees. MMU should just really get their systems upgraded. There were complains about a lack of dustbins a.k.a rubbish disposal facilities which were again part of a normal mysterious unsolvable problem for almost all ACG events that I have been to. Its a conspiracy by the mysterious underground secret organization the Global Trash United I tell you.

The Dragonball group’s presence was clearly felt on Day 2 while Vocaloid turnout was especially high for both days. Now with that done I’m gonna start the “lets be totally frank” part of the review. The chibi omatsuri promised was so small it was an utter disappointment. People left immediately just after arriving.  There was no food vendors for which starving visitors were clearly irritated about. The middle eastern food place near the exit was a killer since it killed many wallets with its exorbitant pricing. There was only some ice drink thingy at the entrance of the hall together with EMiNA Cyber selling some awesome delicious Edo and Dai approved food for cosplay champions uber puddings which I help sell for both days. The lack of basic plain drinking water was solved by the latter on Day 2.

Some administration matters such as registration and stuff were clearly a mess. There were no announcement of the cancellation of the Taiko Drum arcade machine and the tags for the competitions were apparently missing for some unknown reason. Certain rules such as ‘no taking pictures in front of the doujin booth’ were not enforced by the security team. The extension hall was empty and under utilised. The figurine displays were in a lack of a better word ’sad’. With only a small amount of figurines on display(although of very good quality) and the terrible lighting of the extension hall it would be better if it was placed in the main hall instead. At least it wouldn’t look so empty.

Overall, with the amount of last minute changes and problems it was done quite well looking at the circumstances. The cohesiveness of the working committees working together and having fun a the same time was truly something that I had envisioned long ago and thus very jealous at. There is still room for improvement seeing how most of the original members of GACC have already graduated *glares at a certain Edo*. I’m truly glad that I was able to attend this years GACC. It was more cheerful and relaxed for me. Although there were certain crap along the way it was certainly worth my time. I’m looking forward to next year’s GACC. but I do hope they would work harder in having it in March again.

As usual, I always get some spoils of war from GACC and this GACC is no exception. So here’s the complementary pic of what I call as a technology demonstrator. My metamo Haruhi. The bunny costume changes colour according to room temperature. Too bad we do not get below 16 degrees celcius though. I had to put it in the fridge to see it change to black then imagine your mom start asking questions when she opens the freezer to find a figurine in it. Hilarity follows. XD