Hotel is well-equipped, rooms are nice and so far the room is quiet (almost unheard of when you are staying at the hotel where the con is hosted). The hotel's restaurant is pretty decent, and there is a mall and tons of stores around here.
But, more importantly, the guests are AWESOME. Went to the first autograph signing, which featured Troy Baker and Chris Patton (both voice actors), and D. C. Douglas (actor). They were given a microphone and continually offered humorous asides (making random announcements to the crowd about someone with their lights on in the parking lot, and then repeating the message in a variety of langauges; asking autograph seekers for their name and hometown and then announcing such information to the crowd; just generally being silly).
I brought an obscene number of DVDs up to be signed, fully expecting to only be able to get some of them signed. I asked Troy what the limit was, and he was kind enough to say "For you, no limit." I immediately handed Troy Trinity Blood, Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist, Darker Than BLACK, and Naruto Shippuden. Well, I think Chris Patton may have regretted Troy's "no limit' pronouncement because I promptly presented him with Welcome to the NHK, Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Ghost Stories, Peacemaker, RahXephon, and Peacemaker. And for tomorrow's signing, I plan on bringing down Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Princess Tutu, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Wallflower, Baccano!, and Soul Eater.
Last event I attended for the day was a panel, "Chris Patton Shares Too Much." Chris said the genesis of the panel was his idea to have a panel where he basically shares TMI. Apparently he often would just have things slip in regular panels and figured having an 18+, no-holds-barred panel would be a good idea. The whole panel had high energy, copious curse words, and topics not for the faint of heart. No questions were out of bounds, and the only questions he said he would not answer is anything that would require badmouthing any companies he worked for or other voice actors, and he refused to give out his room number (seemed a wise decision).
Within a few minutes of the panel starting, whenever anyone opened the door to see what the panel was about, Chris would loudly yell out "Come on in, bitches." Most came in, though at least one or two women left in quite a huff. He admitted and it was pretty obvious that he had consumed a good deal of Red Bull earlier in the evening. Something that many panel-attenders knew, and which would become clear to anyone in the panel, is that Chris is gay. Sorry, ladies - the voice of Sousuke Sagara will not be going home with you. At one point he made a comment about someone and said: "That's so retarded. Damn, I mean 'That's so special needs!'"
Many highly inappropriate questions were asked. For example;
Q: How big is your penis?
A: It isn't embarrassing or impressive, around 7 inches. But I don't know the circumference.
This line of questioning went on for a bit. We heard con stories (fans camping out outside his room, fangirls rubbing their naughty bits on him at anime con dance parties, cosplay outfits that shouldn't have seen the light of day). We heard about fans from his Facebook page who also joined Facebook pages opposing gay marriage and gay rights (Chris' response: Really? I mean, really? Why are you a fan of mine, then?). He told stories of growing up Catholic, with a Jesuit priest for an uncle (who apparently was wonderful to him and very supportive of who he is), dating girls in high school, his mother doing an occult banishing spell to get a harmful influence out of his life, and when he "dated" a guy who believed himself to be a vampire (they broke up when the dude tried to bite Chris' neck). Also, he has dated both men and women, but (in his words): "Women are crazy and guys are stupid. I can deal with stupid. But I can't handle crazy." (or something very close to that). He also enumerated his general dislike for butt sex ("dookie comes out of there!"). All in all, definitely not safe for those under the age of 18.
Upon request, he did Sasame's voice from Pretear and did a Word's Gate segment (Pretear is a somewhat mediocre series, but with some great voice actors, and Sasame is a character who's power lies in sound, his day job is as a radio personality). Something along the lines of: "This is Sasame's Word Gate. This is for all the ladies out there. And by that, I mean this is for the guys trying to get some pussy. If you are at a con and want to get some taco, it's better not to smell like taco. I'm talking about con-funk. I want to introduce you to a wonderful modern invention. It's called soap....." And so on.
Chris was great for the hour panel. He was forthcoming and funny, demonstrating quick wit, an irreverent sense of humor, and a great level of energy. From telling us what city had the most attractive con-goers (apparently it is hands down Toronto, Canada), that he enjoys Lady Gaga, is techno fan in music, and that he suffers from agoraphobia (which made doing Welcome to the NHK a rather introspective project). Definitely still a huge fan of his work and meeting and hearing him talk about himself and his work only makes that work seem better.
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