Vancouver Anime "Festival"

Picked up a nicely made flyer for the "Vancouver Anime Festival" over a month ago. It's a one-day event, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Croatian Cultural Centre, with "video room" and "dealer room". Free admission! Yay~! I'll definitely be there!

Reality is away so cruel. The day came, and I got there around 2:15 p.m. with two friends. It was so quiet, we thought it was the wrong place! So we entered the building, welcomed by a huge (not-so-well painted) mural. There was a big hall with a stage that looked like someone had a wedding banquet last night and the clean-up was still in progress.

Ah, found it! To the side of the hall was a small room labeled "dealer room". I went in with high hopes of finding lots of stuff. Only to find merely 5 dealers! Plus one table advertising for the SFU Anime Evolution in August.

Only one dealer had stuff that was descent and recent. CDs, posters, tapestry, some capsule toys, key chains, plenty of wallets, watches, lighters, accessories, bags, shirts, and most surprisingly, cosplay items! (Ed's jacket both black and red, pocket watch, Mustang's gloves...) Hmm... there was one set of capsule toy that I was kind of interested in, but there were enough bootlegs on the table that stopped me from doing anything. Argh! Should have at least asked for the price. (Guess I was still too shocked.)

One other table had some figurines and toys that were borderline recent. Nothing interesting. But one of my friends bought 2 Gundam Seed figurines. Congrats.

The rest of the dealers were like second-hand stores. The items were old and out-dated. There were anime magazine, manga, and art books from the 80's that had turn yellow!

And the "video room"... was just 10 or 12 chairs in front of a 17-inch TV, in the darker end of another tiny room. Sigh... The other friend identified the video as R.O.D. which I guess wasn't too bad. There were a few people watching the show. And another few looking around in the dealer room. At least the place wasn't completely empty.

I'm so going to the one in August...