Last day of the show. Easter Sunday. Like any true Christian, I commemorated the death of our Lord and Savior by trying to see a video game composer. The panel was at 11. I arrived at 8:30, sharp. I killed an hour in the screening rooms, but my thoughts were fixed on 11 o’clock, and getting in at the front of any line.
I looked at my schedule, and winced as I noted everything I would be missing in this endeavor. The Cosplay Chess game I had been hearing of all weekend. A voice actor round table with all the show’s guests. And in the same room Uematsu would be speaking in an hour later, a panel on the best Anime You’ve Never Seen. This intrigued me. What anime I have seen has always been select. The sorts of things so good my friends have hunted me down, shoved them in my face and said “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF ANIME, BY GOD YOU MUST SEE THIS.” So an entire panel devoted to hidden gems of anime was something I was keen to see. But it was in the same room as Uematsu. They might let me stay in my seat for a thinly-attended panel on post-production, but not for Uematsu. Which would mean being kicked out and getting in the back of the line…oh dear God the line…
I went to the information booth. I laid out my case, that I wanted to see both. “Oh, no, you definitely wouldn’t be allowed to just stay in the room,” they said. “If you want to see him, you’ll have to get to the back of the line after.” That line…
Maybe I could see SOME of the first panel, though. Was their half-hour line forming rule in effect? “Normally, yes, but he’s so popular that we’re letting the line form whenever people want to start it.” Damn it.
It was at this moment that I made a decision. Because of the last-minute nature of Victor’s assigning me, I hadn’t gotten a press badge. Generally this only meant I wasn’t allowed into official press events, but I had been assured, they knew who I was, and knew I was coming. On a few occasions when I’d wanted to snap a few photos of a closed-door event, the staff had accepted my story without question, and I came and went with no trouble. But this was about more than a few pictures. I wanted to get close, and STAY close to the front of the room. I decided to give it a shot.
“Would it matter if I was a member of the press?” I laid out my story, the reason behind my lack of press credentials.
“Hunh. That seems alright, I don’t see why not…but you really need to talk to the security in orange shirts at the door.”
I went to the man at the door. I laid out my story.
“Hunh. That seems alright, I don’t see why not…but you should ask my supervisor over there.”
He called him over. I laid out my story.
“Hunh. That seems alright, I don’t see why not…but I should check with the security desk.”
He talked on the radio for awhile, then returned. “I think it’ll be okay, but they’re sending someone up to talk to you. A few minutes later, a third orange shirt arrived, and asked me for details. I laid out my story.
“Hunh. That seems alright, I don’t see why not…but you should come with me to the security desk just to make sure.”
We walked down to the security desk. The guy in charge asked me for details. I laid out my story. In a stroke of luck, one of the other security staffers recognized me from an earlier time when I’d just stepped in and out for pictures at a panel, and backed me up.
“Hunh. That seems alright, I don’t see why not…but you should talk to the Con Organizational staff right over there.”
I crossed the room. I laid out my story.
“Hunh. No.” No press badge, no staying, no exceptions. I needed to get in line with everyone else.
And so I climbed the escalator back to the third floor. Sure enough, over an hour in advance, there was already a good forty people in line. I joined the queue, pulled out my comic history, and tried to make myself comfortable. I watched as everyone waiting for the panel filed in, feeling a twinge of anger at the daisy chain I’d gone through only to be rejected. A short time later, the security staff approached. We all had to move to the other side of the hall. Due to an unexplained mistake on the part of some of the staff the day before, people who had not gotten to see Uematsu at his signing the day before were being given first priority, and we would be seated. My heart sank as I remembered the eternal line of people, but it was too late now. I crossed the hall, and waited for the wall across from me to fill up with people.
Eventually, maybe fifteen minutes before the show this was that line:
That’s not a part of the line. That’s it. The entire priority seating line. It never got longer than that. At all. And for the first time since moving across the hall, I looked to my right at my own line, and was stunned. I could see the end of it. It wasn’t that long. Maybe a hundred people, total. Maybe it was because it was Easter. Maybe it was Sunday. Maybe it was because large events like Cosplay Chess and the Charity Auction were siphoning participants away. Or maybe most everyone who really, REALLY wanted to see him had gotten in the other day. But the end result was that only the first 5 rows of a 700-seat room (a much smaller room than he’d been in the day before) were occupied. All the trouble, nearly 2 hours of begging and waiting…all for no purpose. I could’ve seen the previous panel and still been close.
All the same, I was glad to be there. And it was worth it. In my enthusiasm I made the mistake of keeping recorder and camera in my hands simultaneously. The result is blurry photos and a sound recording with lots of shuffling, and a persistent beeping and clicking of a camera shutter. I apologize for both.
When it ended, I felt I had little else to do. It was noon, and I had to leave within the hour for Easter dinner with my family. (The Lord may forgive my truancy, but my dad wouldn’t) Uematsu was signing autographs downstairs, and I thought I might give it a shot, but I was to slow, and…one last time.
This was the line:
It wasn’t too long, really…but the staff had learned their lesson from Saturday, and it was cut off there. And so, being at the end of the line in more ways than one, I decided to go.
But there was one last thing I had to do.
Me with Kitty Hat.
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