Akitafuki's Blog

AX Day 4

Day 4 is upon me. I am sad that the convention is coming to a close. I had a lot of fun here and met a lot of great people. I need to make the best of my last day :x

I started the day by heading to the Danny Choo panel. It was surprisingly packed. I guess everyone wanted to get their chance at winning the Black Rock Shooter figma ;) I primarily wanted to see the new footage for it.

The footage was a small snippet, but I am definitely interested in seeing this series now. I can’t wait to get it later this month. Afterwards, they had us scrunch together and take group photos, so we could tag ourselves when Danny posted it on his web site. If you tagged your face, you would be entered into the drawing.

For the next few hours, I hit up the general and musical guest of honor signing sessions. I mingled around the Exhibit hall inbetween to see if there were any deals to be had. Alas, everything was still too expensive. I met @mike_br whilst waiting in line for May’n.

Couple of pics of what I got.

One of the booths started playing Caramelldansen, and a whole bunch of people started dancing >.<

I headed over to the Funimation booth where I finally met up with @tristencitrine and @neumaverick. I also saw @Benu and the man behind @funimation twitter account.

I got some cool swag at the Funimation booth courtesy of @tristencitrine, yey *hugs* I spent a good while their chatting up a storm with her. But, she was a busy woman and had better things to do than wasting her time with me.

I decided to finish my day off with charity auction. I only managed to catch the last 45 minutes of the auction. I can’t believe how much some of the stuff in there went for. Granted, I would of loved to own a lot of it, but I would have needed some serious cash or credit to get them >.<

It's amazing how quickly some places return back to normal now that the convention is wrapping up. Here is a quick snap of the Nokia Plaza.

I know these blog post entries weren’t exactly posted the day of or day after, but I am glad I actually finished it. If you were following, thanks for reading! :3

Hopefully, I will be able to go again next year, but I am not sure it will pan out considering my trip to Japan is so close to the date.

Anyways, until next time, janee!

2010: 07/12
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

AX Day 3

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Nabbing Hacchan’s and Kitamura’s autographs as well the two awesome concerts made my day. So far the convention has been very fun, and I have met some Twitter friends along the way.

The first thing I decided to go to today was the MELL panel. I enjoyed the her concert a lot, and decided I wanted to get her autograph. Her panel and autograph session fitted nicely for once in my schedule.

The MELL panel ran a little late. She is a very funny woman and seems to embarrass very easily. This panel reaffirms that she is an awesome person. We got to see the new Black Lagoon trailer for Roberta’s Blood Trail. I can’t wait to see it when it comes out.

After getting my ticket, I decided to head on over to the Exhibit hall hoping to get Vic Mignonia’s autograph. The line was already pretty long. I decided to go to MELL’s later session since her first one was right after the panel and this session of Vic’s was the only one I could tell. I didn’t know if he was going to be here Sunday.

This line is probably the worse one I had been in so far. I’ve had to deal with a person with incredibly bad body odor and Vic’s suffocating fangirls. To make matters worse, the line was cut off. Vic got up on his table and announced he would be signing at a different location. Naturally, half the line made a mad dash trampling over everything in sight knocking down the barriers in the process. I almost became a victim. I got out of way in the nick of time. AX staff cancelled this other signing claiming it was a fire hazard. So that autograph attempt failed.

It was getting close to DancingQueen’s and Benu’s Indecent Otaku Comedy Show so I made my way over to the Nokia Plaza.

Saw this awesome Green Ranger.

The Plaza wasn’t too packed. I got a bag with a ticket inside. It ended up being for the raffle.

Saw some shenanigans on stage and the special guest Danny Choo.

The raffle was being done throughout the show, but apparently it was going too slow considering how much crap there was to give out. They decided to start throwing stuff out. I thought it was a bad idea, and sure enough it turned out to be so. People were destroying the stuff being tossed out. I got elbowed in the face when one item was tossed near me.

After all the loot was passed out, most of the crowd dispersed. I felt bad for Makenai, the band who won the Battle of the Bands. There performance was apparently at the end. Unfortunately, I needed to go to the MELL autograph session, so I couldn’t stay to watch them.

The autograph session went pretty quickly. MELL managed to sign everyone’s stuff. She said “woah!” when I walked up in my costume, lol.

I had some time before the Danny Choo meet up so I did a little wondering.

I thought this was freaking awesome. Both of Neliel’s forms from Bleach.

Death Note love.

Bayonetta

Apparently, a ton of people gathered early. The bottom level of ESPN Zone was packed. I thought the meet up was for only those who registered on Danny Choo’s site, but I guess he announced it at his panels because there were a lot of people there. They diverted a lot of us to go wait upstairs. It was pretty lame up there. I was about to leave early.

I decided to stay a little. It cleared up a little downstairs and decided to sneak in there. I am glad I did. I was finally able to see stuff.

The daughters that were present. Crappy photo sorry.

From the line waiting to meet the big man.

Me and the big man himself

After going downstairs, the meet-up became much more enjoyable. I sat down at a random table and started chatting with some folks. I spent a good hour talking to them. I also met @rislim at the meet up. For some reason, I thought they were a guy, so it startled me when I found out it was a lady lol >.>

My day was pretty much over after I left the meet-up. I headed out with a friend to Little Tokyo later in the evening to check out the place and have dinner. He took me on an epic adventure of the city subways. We saw many interesting characters along the way.

In Little Tokyo, we ate at a Korean BBQ place. It wasn’t too bad. We also checked out Anime Jungle and Kinokuniya. Bought a cool Slayers advertisement and the first volume of Black Lagoon manga.

I didn’t grab too much loot today. Picked up a couple shot glasses and MELL’s and Danny Choo’s autographs.

That’s it for today!

2010: 07/11
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

AX Day 2

I was going to meet up with my twitter acquaintance @cowboybibimbop to get a leftover ticket he had for Yuu Asakawa. I didn’t have anything going on until the May’n concert at 1. I unfortunately could not locate him. And, they also closed the line. My luck continues with autographs, yey!

I sent out a tweet with the anime expo hash tags about giving out some free candy as a pervy, old man. I got a couple funny responses.

I wondered around the Exhibit hall looking for anything that caught my eye. Saw this at the NIS booth.

I also noticed a new sign up. Apparently, Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura were going to have additional signing sessions at the NIS booth. I noticed one was coming up at 12:30 PM and there was already a line forming for it. I thought this was my chance. The first session at 12:30 was just for Yui Horie. There was another one at 2:00 for both Horie and Kitamura. I figured this was my best chance at the Horie’s autograph without having to deal with the panel and official autograph session.

I didn’t have anything with me for Horie so I bought the first volume of Toradora at the booth. I waited for an hour or so. Hocchan started a little late and she was chatting with everyone so the line progressed slowly. Well, after one hour, the line was going to be cut off. The nice gentlemen at the booth was going to let us get the people in line around me go ahead and get Horie. We asked if we could just start the second line since the next session was less than 30 minutes away and we could also get Kitamura’s too. He went ahead and let us stay in line and let a couple others behind us go. This was an awesome chance, because now I was 4th in line for both autographs!

I was reluctant at first because it was already past 1:30 by this point. The May’n/Nakajima concert was due to start. From my experience with the previous day, I figured it was going to start late anyways. I decided to stick with my line and get Horie’s and Kitamura’s autograph. After a few minutes, I managed to snag both autographs. i was so happy, haha. Unfortunately, I didn’t dilly dally much after obtaining them. I immediately made a beeline for Nakia Theatre, so I could watch the concert.

By the time I got to the theatre, May’n was already on the stage singing. I don’t think I missed too many songs. After a while, Nakajima came out on stage and sang a duet with May’n. May’n left the stage and Nakajima went solo for a while. Eventually, Nakajima announced the secret guest as Yoko Kanno. I was surprised it was her, because I was expecting someone else. Nakajima was doing her famous Kira and Yoko Kanno joined in with her. Kanno played the piano a short while for Nakajima. Needless to say, the rest of the concert was awesome.

The concert ran a little late. I was going to try and snag RSP’s autographs, but it was already about 30 minutes into their session. The next two hours were also free now because I didn’t need to go to Horie’s panel or autograph session now.

I went back to the hotel. My freaking sandals broke on the way there. It was fun walking back to the hotel nearly barefoot on one foot.

After resting for a bit, I went back to the Exhibit hall to mess around a little before MELL’s concert. There was a live performance at the MangaGamer booth.

CooRie

UR@N

Minami Kuribayashi

MELL’s concert was coming up so I headed there.

I have to say MELL’s concert was probably my favorite out of all of them. She is an amazing woman. She was very cool on stage. I also enjoyed the little magic shows they performed in between sets. Her keyboardist was freaking me out too. He was definitely an interesting character.

After the spectacular concert, I headed back to the hotel. I wanted to go to the hardcore synergy event, but I was pooped. I didn’t want to stay up until 2 AM for it.

Once I got back to the hotel, I found out that the Funimation panel was starting soon. For some reason, I decided to go to it. I accidentally went to the JW Mariott, but that was for the panel that was replaced. It ended up being in Petree hall. So, I hurried over there.

All I have to say is Funimation owned Anime Expo. There were a ton of epic announcements. Many shows that I am very happy to see being licensed such as Shakugan no Shana season 2, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun/To Aru Majutsu no Index, and the list goes on.

Crashed at the hotel again afterwards.

Glorious autograph!

So long to you Day 2. Awesome concerts and got some great autographs. This day was good :3

2010: 07/10
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

AX Day 1

I ended up passing out last night because I was exhausted from the previous day. I am glad I didn’t oversleep for the first day.

I forgot to get my ticket for Opening Ceremonies yesterday, so I rushed over to South Hall to get it real quick and headed to Nokia Theater afterwards. I showed up a little late for the Red Carpet event, so I missed it all.

The opening ceremonies was just a few speeches and an introduction for most of the Guest of Honors. Danny Choo danced a bit before it began. I couldn’t snap many photos because the staff was walking up and down the walkway so they were constantly in the way. No flash was allowed either so I just managed to capture this crappy photo of AKB48.

I had some free time so I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. I swung by and took a quick peek at the Exhibit hall.

I found a couple interesting cosplays during my wonderings.

I should of went to the May’N panel, but at the time I wasn’t really aware of the importance of getting a ticket for the autograph lines. If you went to a Guest of Honor panel, you would get a ticket at the end for priority in the autograph line. Seeing how this was my first con, I didn’t realize the lines would be so bad.

I headed to the RSP concert at 1 PM.

Unfortunately, I stayed only until they did the initial checks. I had the stupid idea of going to the May’N line without a ticket.

On the way to the May’n line.

So in the end, I missed the RSP concert outside and failed to get the autograph. I was a little bummed out, but shit happens I guess.

After failing to get the autograph, I found myself with more free time. I wasted a little time in the Exhibit hall until it was time for the AKB48 concert.

Saw this one and had to stop and snap a photo.

I couldn’t take any photos, so I have none from the concert. It lasted a good while. The concert was pretty awesome. It sucked that my section stood up the entire concert. My feet were already hurting at this point.

I decided to hit up the autograph line for AKB48 at 7:45PM. I found this a little before I left for the autograph line.

Yey Earth benders!

My streak of luck continued with the AKB48 autograph line. I was even half hour early before the start time. The group was incredibly late, and I don’t think they stayed the full hour. They cut the line off pretty far up and didn’t even offer tickets for the rest of us who had been waiting. They told us good luck the next day. Most of us were pretty pissed, but they were getting close to threatening everyone to disperse immediately.

It was late at this point after finding out I wouldn’t get the autograph. I figured I would swing by and get a free ticket at the door to get into the AMV contest. The guy who was handing them out had already left. The laser show was about half way done next door, so I decided to stay and watch it.

Today was made of fail. Hopefully, the rest of the con isn’t this bad D:

Here is what I acquired on the first day.

I bought the AKB48 CD hoping I could get it signed, but as you have read, that failed miserably. I bought ur@n’s CD since she was at the MangaGamer booth. I also met up with CosplayAmerica

2010: 07/09
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

AX Day 0

Yey! It’s Day 0. I started my morning by having a friend drop me off at the airport at around 4:15 AM. I constantly bugged him until he agreed. ;) This was actually the first time I had flown alone, so I was a bit nervous.

The first thing that greeted me was an empty airport. Sorry for the blurry photos. I didn’t realize they came out so poorly.

The flight boarded a little according to the schedule, but we still managed to leave on time.

After arriving in Minneapolis / St. Paul, I noticed I was in Concourse B. My next departure was in Concourse G. If you have never been to that airport, it is freaking huge. I had to use a shuttle to help narrow the distance.

Luckily, the flight to LA left on time too. I thought i was going to fly on a 757, but it was just an AirBus with 6 seats across.

I was sort of worried that my luggage may have dropped off at Minneapolis / St. Paul, because I never told the lady whom I checked in with at SGF, that I wanted it checked through to LA. My fears were calmed after I saw my baggage at baggage claim, haha.

Just outside baggage claim in LAX, is a messed of shuttles and taxis. Friends on twitter told me to check out SuperShuttle, but I had no idea where it was. I saw random SuperShuttle buses driving by, but I never spotted the pick-up location. I wondered a little bit, and started panicking. I asked someone for help, he wasn’t certain himself, but he pointed me down a little way and there was a section called Shared Ride vans I believe. This is indeed where I needed to be. I was waiting at the spot where SuperShuttle picked up, and someone from Prime Time came up to me saying they offer cheaper service. I decided to go with the cheaper fare.

Shared ride vans are interesting. They gather a whole bunch of people with somewhat same area of destination. You give the guy the address you are wanting to head to, and you just wait until you get there. It would suck if you were the last one to be dropped off. After a few stops, I managed to reach my hotel at the Luxe City Center Hotel.

After checking in, I immediately headed to South Hall.

What greeted me was an epic line of doom.

The line got even worse, because they had to scrunch us down a little more and the side road ended up being completely full as well.

After finally getting my badge, I had to wait in another line to get my tickets for main events. Oh joy!

I didn’t really do much else the rest of the day. I ended up laying down in bed and passing out by accident.

2010: 07/03
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

Otacool 3 entry

This past weekend, I finally put the finishing touches on my Otacool 3 entry. It was a long, arduous(actually lazy) process to get everything set up. I’ve always wanted to finish up my workspace area, but lacked motivation to do so. I’ve also had a many ideas of how I wanted it all set up. I managed to accomplish, but there are so many more I would still like to do.

The whole Otacool project was a collaboration between Danny Choo and Kotobukiya where they would gather photos from otakus around the world based off different themes. In the first book, we saw otaku rooms. For the second book, cosplayers from around the world were featured. Lastly, the third book contains otaku workspaces.

I think the books are a cool idea. I wasn’t able to enter the first contest because I was in between houses. When I saw the third contest was workspaces, I knew I wanted to enter. I played with the many ideas of what i wanted to do. I did some initial planning and eliminated some of the ideas that were not feasible enough to accomplish in the allotted time or due to financial reasons. I knocked them out one by one and managed to finish just a few days ago.

There are prizes involved, but I do not really care about them except for maybe the Ita laptop. I just thought it would be cool to be in the book. Another reason I wanted to do this was after posting my scans of a section of the Otacool 2 book on my Flickr, I had several cosplayers come forth and say thanks for letting them have a sneak peek at the book before they could get it. All these guys and gals were great people, and I was glad to have had an opportunity to meet them. My hope after submitting my entry, I will have an opportunity to meet more people.

Here are the scans I mentioned earlier from Otacool 2.
Here is a link to my Otacool 3 entry.

2010: 06/01
CATEGORY: Otacool
Leave a comment

30 days until Anime Expo

I can’t believe there are just 30 days left. Time has been flying by. I am really looking forward to the convention and meeting up with everyone I’ve met online. A majority of them have been through Twitter, but I have also met a couple through the scans I had posted on Flickr.

After much frustration and a dash of procrastination, I finally registered my flights to and from LA. Going to fly Delta out to LA to give me some breathing room with my Delta SkyMiles. They give you two years before they expire from your last flight. My Japan trip is next year, but the date has not been set so I would run the risk of all my accrued miles expiring. I am flying back via Allegiant Air. I was hoping to snag cheap air fare back, but due to my procrastination, the price kept creeping up. Also, it sucks not realizing it was only the base air fare and that I would have to pay for all the extra crap. -.-

Going off on a slight tangent, the Delta SkyMiles program sucks hardcore. I’ve accrued approximately 22,000 miles with my two recorded round trip flights to Japan. I decided to browse Delta’s online catalog to see what I could get. About the most expensive thing I could by that remotely interested me was a Wii Fit. A PS3 costs almost 80,000 miles. I know the recession was a big deal, but that is a bit ridiculous. Okay, I am done ranting about that.

About the only thing left to do for trip preparation is to decide what I want to get autographed. I think I have a couple things but I am not sure what is better to get signed. I also need to collect my crappy, cheap costume I am taking and also track down something I could change my hair color. Old, perverted man ftw! I am not sure if I should get a basket and hand out candy. Maybe that will be going a bit overboard, haha.

Well I suppose that’s it for now. Until next time… :3

2010: 05/31
CATEGORY: Anime Expo 2010
Leave a comment

Random musings of an otaku