We woke up from a long, much needed, rest after our Thursday flight. We had arrived on day zero, but spent our time eating pizza and preparing for the long convention weekend. Waking up refreshed and ready to see what Anime Central had in store for us we got ready quickly. We decided to go as Giovanni and Persian from Pokemon so we could start our coverage of Anime Central in style.

Picking up our press badges was very easy and it was convenient to have the press station at the Hyatt, where we were staying. The first stop was the opening ceremonies. The MC revealed that Anime Central planned to make ten thousand paper cranes over the weekend and send them to Japan as part of the crane project. Then all the guests were brought out one by one, often with a slight delay due to backstage shenanigans. There Opening Ceremonies were fun and the audio/visual show was very well done. More video of Opening Ceremonies can be seen on Scarlet Rhapsody's Youtube.

After the Opening Ceremonies we headed out to the convention center to grab a quick lunch and do a quick look over the artist alley. We had to get back to the Hyatt in order to take care of some interviews; for full coverage of our interviews check out the ACen guest interview page. After the interviews we decided to take a look at the dealer hall, but along the way we ran into the Pokemon gathering. We had some fun with the other Pokemon cosplayers and really liked how the gathering was run. The gathering had great atmosphere and there was no sense of competition or cosplay snobbery. Guest interviews can be found here.

After the gathering we took some single shots and cooled off in the lobby before the Hetalia press conference. While Victoria covered the Hetalia press conference, I decided to go to the gaming area. The gaming area was made up of several rooms. The table top gaming room featured several pen and paper RPGs, a computer set up with a character making program, and an extra space for those who want to set up their own game of Big Eye, Small Mouth or White Wolf.

Then there was another room dedicated to card games, as is seen at many conventions. At the end of the hall was the video game room and the arcade. The video game room offered many titles from old school favorites like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Zombies Ate My Neighbors to modern games like Mortal Kombat 9 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The biggest surprise was the inclusion of E.T. for the Atari, considered the worst game ever made. Not surprisingly people were attempting to beat the game.

Before I could explore the arcade, I had to meet up with Victoria in order to meet the staff behind Hetalia. After the brief meeting, we decided to check out the dealer hall. We made our way to the convention center via the sky bridge that connected the Hyatt with the other hotels in the convention block. The hall was well spaced so that you did not feel claustrophobic. There was also a large variety of venders from figures, to manga, to clothing. The variety of venders and the hall spacing made our trip through the dealer hall a good one..

We concluded our time in that area by stopping by the Hilton for the Sailor Moon panel. However, the room was at capacity so we went to the overflow room. The Sailor Moon overflow panel was very fun. It featured several people cosplaying as the main cast leading the discussion about childhood memories of the classic anime series. After the panel wrapped up we made our way back to the Hyatt in order to recharge before the wild night started.

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