I just got back from AXNY a few hours ago...
I thought it was an okay con. Didn't get to all of it.
Over all the panels were awesome. The Bebop panel was way cool, even though it was just people asking questions. The few other panels I got to see were great as well. Funimation gave away DVDs and showed a copy of their dub of the first episode of Fruits Basket (which I definately want to see now: It's great!).
I was rather disppointed with the AMV contest. First off Started about 1:15 late (supposed to start at 8:00, but they let us in after 9 and it didn't start right away). I was particularly upset because I had tickets to see the Cowboy Bebop Movie with friends at 11:00, and they left at 10:00 to get the tickets (they had them reserved). I had submitted two videos and certainly wanted to see how they would be received.
One of the reasons that the AMV contest started late is that they split the contest up into the two main ballrooms (and maybe more rooms, I'm not sure) and simulcast them into the other rooms. This took some rewiring and doing. It was very nice that they reserved the front two rows for creators and judges. I felt very special as I was led down to the front (even though it was kind of a small room, by comparison), but then I found that there were only about four other creators there. Maybe some were in the other room? The whole thing of giving tickets out seemed grossly unnecessary as there was a lot of space left after they filed everyone into the two (or more?) rooms.
To keep people calm (as I meantioned, Megazone was pretty cool and handled the self-deprecating humor rather well) they played a couple of videos. The first was Aluminum Studio's "Try" followed by Kevin Caldwell's "The Phantom of the Opera." They were both received quite well, but it was EXTREMELY unfortunate that one of the drama videos ALSO used "Phantom" (different version though). Who wants to be compared to Kevin? I thought that was a bad decision, but it was probably an accident.
The big problem was that they didn't make a compilation tape of all the entries. They turned on the lights and swapped tapes between each video. Now, admittedly the guy who ran the contest was a really nice guy (name of "Megazone") but I just found this to be incredibly distracting and time consuming. Plus, we had to wait for everyone's 30 seconds of black (usually a good idea) and the inevitable "Video Calibration" flash on the screen. Usually, that option CAN be shut off! Another thing was the decision of the order of videos. If you submitted multiple videos (in the same category) then you got shown next to your own work. One poor girl had the first three videos at the show. She sat next to me and left in tears. I didn't think that it was THAT bad but she seemed to feel extremely embarassed and rushed out of the room after the vids were over. It was curious that both of my videos were the last ones shown in their respective categories. I'm assuming, then, that mine were received last and they actually showed the videos in the order in which they were received instead of trying to spread them out.
Any way, the first of my videos played at 10:21, and I couldn't wait for the second one, 'cause I was already late to the movie. I was really upset, 'cause this was really the first time that video has been shown in public and I really wanted to see the reaction. *sigh*
I was disappointed at the lack of fan video works, but I did EXPECT this. No AMV panel, no fan parodies (I was told a flat "no" when I had asked months ago if they would show ours). There were panels on cosplaying, how to write fanfics and design a fan website, but over all there was a definate lack of fan based programming, which is usually what I look forward to.
I left around 11:00pm Sunday night (the con ran from Saturday to Monday, 'cause o' Labor Day) and don't know what happened afterwards. I skipped the Cosplay on account of not being able to hold back the anger/tears when crowds start chanting "Chair!" but it looked like it might have been good since the people coming out seemed to be in a good mood. Instead I caught up on a LOT of anime watching this weekend. I have almost all of it (very little was new, but there were a few premiers, albeit for disks coming out within the next month or so) but I haven't watched it, so it was cool. I actually didn't have a hotel room Saturday night (and couldn't find anyone who would share one with me...

) so I just stayed away and watched anime in the 24 hour video rooms. And passed out for 1/2 hour at a time incriments all day Sunday...
All in all it was... okay. Much of my downside was due to having no friends around on Sunday, so it was kind of depressing. But seeing Bebop in the theatre was really awesome. The Dub's really great, too, and I could appreciate the graphics a lot more than the one time I saw it with a huge fever at four in the morning at NekoCon last year. Also, the Virgin Megastore was having a $10 sale, so I bought a bunch of CDs.
Speaking of which, I really didn't like the Dealers' Room. It was kind of small (for a con that size) and I found several dealers selling bootlegs. One guy didn't know that "Ever Anime" was a bootleg company, like Son May. Sure, some people don't care, but I despise bootleggers as people who make money by leeching off of others.
The day that I find a copy of "This Is Otakudom" for sale at Pandora's Cube is the day that I probably get sent to jail for a looooong time...
Hope everyone else had fun. Anyone know who won? I'm rooting for the "Big O" vid in Drama myself...
