Man, what a weekend! I had to take a few days to collect my thoughts after such an action filled weekend. What happened? Buckle up and find out!

Thursday rolled through with a nice half-day of work for me. On our way down to Tampa, we made a pit stop in Ormond Beach to collect an old friend whom we hadn’t seen in almost two years: Eevee! She had moved to Oklahoma and it was nice to be able to spend a con weekend with her. She brought along her brother Parks, who was quiet at first. But anyone who has ever hung out with aniRAGE knows: that didn’t last for long! The road to Tampa was calm, and we soon got to our hotel room and settled in. We did our typical pre-con ritual: order pizza. Steak + pepperoni = massive win, in case you were unaware. Highly recommended.

Friday opened up with some practice for Animebelle’s Japanese Fairy Tale Theater. For the third year, we brought the con-goers some great fairy tale reenactments, and it was an amazing show…but I’ll get to that later. Soon it was off for Opening Ceremonies, and Animebelle had quite the plan for that. Both myself and Miroku got to emerge from The Gate and join Animebelle on stage to help pimp out Fairy Tale Theater…it was definitely an awesome experience…one I hope to do again!

Following that, I made a surprise appearance as Ninja Tech Support ™ at the Sasori vs Kankuro panel, put on by our friend Chris our very own Miroku. They needed a computer, and i delivered! I got quite the pop when I entered the room and announced Ninja Tech Support was there to save the day (if I do say so myself). Their panel was quite hilarious, and Sasori ended up trumping Kankuro at the end.

After joining Kayla at a Crispen Freeman meet-and-greet, we got a bite to eat before getting ready for the Metrocon Fantasy Masquerade. There was a lot of preparation to go into that event, and it was all hush hush because someone was in for a surprise. After getting dressed as Lupin the Third, and Kayla joining me as Fujiko, we were able to witness our very own Jeshua Cook (aka Miroku) get down on one knee and propose to his (now) fiancee in front of the whole crowd. Needless to say, the crowd went wild, and it was definitely a special night. You’re welcome, buddy!

The night ended with some delicious cheeseburgers, and a not-so-delicious redneck whistling at the helpless food workers that his “food was getting cold” as they were preparing his order. Thankfully, we didn’t have to put up with that for very much longer.

We got up early once again to do more Fairy Tale Theater preparation. Afterwards, yours truly crashed for the next few hours. But I still managed to make it out to catch the AMV contest and the costume contest. Congrats to our good friend Shella Maxhimer for winning “Best Instrumental” in the AMV contest, and Lottie Warren for “Best Convention Photo” in Metrocon’s “Picture This!” contest!

Then it came the big moment, it was the third year of Fairy Tale Theater. I always love performing in this event, and not just because I get to take on some awesome roles in timeless Japanese Fairy Tales. I also have, for pretty much 3 years now, been in charge of the Manzai Comedy bits. Manzai Comedy is your standard straight-man/silly-man comedy duo, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun! This years, we did 4 manzai bits, one of which was a recurring joke throughout the whole show. It was a lot of fun, and if you missed it, you missed a ton of fun! Despite some technical difficulties, we managed to do a hell of a show, and if you wanna catch it again, stay tuned for our next big con! It was definitely a fun way to end the day.

Sunday began as all sundaes do at Metrocon…sleeping while everyone else is busy packing! Go go gadget: leaving monday morning! Definitely makes things less stressful! We got up in time to make it to the Sunday showing of the Metrocon Original Anime Human Chess Match! After last year, we were a bit worried, but this year was awesome, and it definitely got me pumped up. After the Chess Match, we got to kill some time before closing ceremonies, and we definitely got excited to hear that next year will be the 10 year anniversary blow-out, and that Metrocon is going to be working with the Japanese Embassy to get some high-class guests! And not only that, but the theme for next year is Agents vs Outlaws. Outlaws you say? Lupin the Third, my newest favoritest cosplay is an outlaw, hmmm? Perhaps he’ll be in the show…and perhaps I might just throw my name in the hat to play him. Mwua ha ha.

It was definitely a fun year…and we are busy at work here at the aniRAGE Home Base to get our awesome Pictures and sweet videos out for you guys to enjoy, and to relive an awesome weekend. So stay tuned!

-Zeke