Once again I attended the full 5-days of North America’s largest anime convention, and once again I had a great time despite a few bumps along the way…
Day 0 – Wed. July 2nd
Like last year, I decided to go for the full 5-day, 4-night AX experience by coming to the convention center on Day 0 to pick up my badge. I couldn’t come as early as I wanted because I had my summer class in the morning, but I wasn’t worried about having to wait in the hectic Day 0 line because, unlike last year, my Press badge had been approved beforehand, and that line is always just a fraction of the length of the regular badge pick-up line.
Our lovely hotel room at the Westin Bonaventure
My boyfriend Arktavious and I arrived at downtown LA around 4pm, checked into our hotel, then took the AX shuttle from the hotel to the LA Convention Center.
The Sword Art Online II shuttle pictured above was one of a few buses that drove AX attendees to and from the farther away hotels like Westin Bonaventure. The buses ran from Day 0 to Day 4 roughly every 20-45 minutes depending on the time of day, and I believe this was the first year they ran non-stop, day and night. It’s a great service that AX provides, but the downside is that the lines to get on the buses, especially at certain peak times, get very long, causing them to get full and make you wait until the next bus. It was a hassle as it would sometimes take as long as 40 minutes for me to get to and from my hotel and the con when the drive is just a few minutes long, not to mention that the lines to get on the bus were usually out in the sun XP So as much as I love Westin Bonaventure, I think next year I want to go back to staying at a hotel within easy walking distance!
Anyway, once we got to the convention center, I got in the “Media/Industry” line to get my Press badge, which was thankfully not located in the sun. By now it was about 6pm and badge pick-up opened at 3pm, so the line should have been moving smoothly by then. But unfortunately AX was having major computer/printer problems, so the thousands of people waiting in the regular pick-up line had barely moved all those hours! Even the Media/Industry line I was in, with only about 30 people ahead of me, literally took a half hour just to move up an inch! I was checking Twitter as I waited and saw AX trying to reassure everyone that they’re working on the problem and that they’d extend the badge pick-up time into the wee hours of the night to make sure everyone who waited could get their badge that day. But I think at one point they had to start sending people just coming to the line away because there were too many people still waiting. I even heard that they started throwing water bottles to all the poor people who were waiting in the hot sun, which seemed nice at first until they started hitting people and causing a mess. I think a couple of people fainted in line from the heat too. It was ridiculous.
I passed time in line getting Street Passes on my 3DS and battling someone next to me on Pokemon XY. Finally I got my Press badge and free Crunchyroll reusable bag plus Goku hair band pictured above. And yes, I did customize my badge with a Frozen lanyard and My Little Pony keychain. I don’t like to be a “plain Jane,” especially at Anime Expo XD
We also got this free Studio Trigger poster, with a convention map on the other side
So it took me about two hours to get my badge in a short line that should have just taken a half hour. But I can’t complain when compared to the thousands of attendees who had to wait 5+ hours out in the sun for their badge. Every AX has to have its share of disaster stories and this will certainly go down as one. We got back to our hotel around 8:30pm and had planned to take a swim in the pool before we knew about the whole mess with the badges. So by then we only had the time and energy to have dinner and then put our feet in the pool for a little while.
At least it was a cool night with a nice view, and the pool water was perfect for my aching feet
So after a tiring Day 0, I was ready for things to pick up on Day 1!
Day 1 – Thu. July 3rd
There weren’t too many events at this year’s AX I was interested in besides shopping, hanging out with friends, and going to some casual things. Usually my first thing to do on Day 1 is go to the Exhibit Hall to shop at all the booths before all the freebies and good stuff get sold out. The way it usually goes is that the Exhibit Hall opens at 12pm on Day 1, then 10am the following days, but Premiere attendees are able to get in an hour early at 11am on Day 1. Last year, Press attendees were able to get in early too just like Premiere, so naturally I took my place in the Premiere line (which was unfortunately out in the sun but luckily not for very long). However, when we started going in, the AX staff stopped me and said that this year Press is no longer allowed to go into the Exhibit Hall early. Of course myself and a few other Press people in line complained, with one lady even showing them on her phone how the AX web site says that Press can go in at 11 on Day 1. After passing us around to a few different staff members, they finally just let us go in with the Premiere people. It does pay to open your mouth sometimes, especially at something like AX.
The relatively empty Exhibit Hall from 11-12 on Day 1
It was really nice going around the Exhibit Hall an hour before the regular attendees – so much more elbow room, plus you can grab all the free stuff many of the booths give away before they run out.
Daisuki’s booth
Nice Free! banner at Crunchyroll’s booth
Various banners at Aniplex’s booth
The other side of Aniplex’s booth
Sentai getting their booth set up
Sailor Moon cosplayers making preparations at Viz’s booth
Loved the Cowboy Bebop wall on Funimation’s booth
Sailor Moon figures in a glass display (someone needs to help Artemis!)
Loved this display promoting the new Harvest Moon game!
Lots of cool stuff on sale, such as these clear files
Every year the big anime companies give away free posters, poster cards, and other paper goods at their booth while supplies last, such as the ones pictured above. I actually got more than these, but I gave them away to my friends since they weren’t for anime I particularly like. I have too much stuff already XD
My favorite freebie I got was the one pictured below, a nice half-year calendar from Aniplex.
Pages 1-2 of the calendar
Pages 3-4 of the calendar
Pages 5-6 of the calendar
Kyoto Animation’s booth!
Kyoto Animation actually had a booth at this year’s AX, which was really cool =D Unfortunately their booth was kinda small and the only items they had were for their new series like Free! and Chuunibyou, not my old favorites like Haruhi and Lucky Star. But still, it was awesome to see them there!
More of the (cramped) KyoAni booth
A display showing some of their animation process using Free!
A free Free! poster they gave away, plus a cel of the anime’s logo if you took their survey
Since I got into the Exhibit Hall an hour early, I avoided the crowds and so was able to go to pretty much all the booths quickly. So next I visited Artist Alley (which is part of the Exhibit Hall) and bought a few things.
Artist Alley booths!
And more Artist Alley booths!
I actually went shopping in the Exhibit Hall again on Day 3 and bought more stuff, so I’ll share photos of all the goodies I bought on both days later in the post. So after I was finished there I met up with some friends, went back to my hotel to chill for a bit with them and drop off my stuff, then went back to the convention for the Frozen cosplay gathering at 4.
Beginning group shot
I took too many photos at the gathering to share them all here, so just a few…
Man Anna and Man Elsa XD
All the Elsas
All the Annas fighting over the one (genderbent) Kristoff
Jack Frost cosplayers proposing to some of the Elsas while the others look on
Hans and Anna poses
All the Annas and Elsas “building” the two Olafs
After the cosplay gathering, I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to my last event of the day, the Bushiroad panel.
The reason I’m interested in Bushiroad is because they release the anime crossover card game I like, Weiss Schwarz. They also release two other cards games in Japanese and English, Vanguard and BuddyFight.
The Bushiroad staff talking about their upcoming releases
Bushiroad freebies!
Their announcement I got most excited for was the English version of the Angel Beats! Weiss Schwarz cards coming out on July 25th! =D Kill la Kill, Persona 4, and Fairy Tale are the next ones to follow. I’m so glad that they’re going strong with their English releases. Compared to having just Madoka, Fate/Zero, and SAO last year, they managed to put out so many more Weiss sets in English in just a year. What also made me happy was that, like last time, they asked everyone in the audience what other sets they want in English. Of course everyone shouted out a lot of series, most of which got applauded, but the staff seemed to hone in on a few, and it might have been my imagination, but they seemed particularly interested in the Haruhi set. That would be so awesome if it got an English release XD
Day 2 – Fri. July 4th
Since I got done with my AX events too late on Day 0 and Day 1, it was too dark, cold, and crowded at the pool, so I didn’t get a chance to do anything besides dip my feet in. So I got up early on Day 2 and decided to head over there in the morning instead – best decision! They had just cleaned it, the water was perfectly pristine and the perfect temperature, the sun was out already so I could sunbathe, and it was nice and quiet with no one there but me.
There were a few events on Day 2 I was mildly interested in, but what took priority for me was DesuNation‘s Weiss Schwarz tournament, which I also participated in last year.
I was a new Weiss Schwarz player last year and didn’t do well in the tournament at AX 2013, but I managed to win a Madoka play mat in the raffle they had at the end. The deck I used was much improved this time, but unfortunately I lost my first two matches (got close with both!) causing me to be dropped from the tourney since it was double elimination. Just gotta practice more and try to find the cards I need to improve my decks XD But like last year, despite losing, I won another play mat as a consolation prize, a Fate/Zero one this time, so I can’t be too bummed ;)
Since I was done with the Weiss tournament much earlier than expected (it started at 11 and I was out by 12:45), I had some free time before the the next event I wanted to go to started, so I browsed around the Exhibit Hall a bit more (didn’t buy much) and continued to have fun with Street Passes on my 3DS.
As I explained last year, Street Passing is a fun feature on the Nintendo 3DS where you make an avatar of yourself called a Mii, and when you have your 3DS with you and pass within range of other people who also have a 3DS, their Mii will come to your Mii Plaza (called Street Passing) and their Miis will give you puzzle pieces and help you in other various mini-games. Since AX has so many people with 3DSs, you can literally just stay in a crowded area of the con and continuously get Street Passes. The 3DS keeps track of how many people you’ve Street Passed, including how many times you’ve passed the same person. There were actually a few people (besides my friends) I passed more than once, including a few guys who I’m assuming were my neighbors in the hotel since I passed them 5 times and always when I was in the hotel room XD
Around 2-ish, I got in line for the Sailor Moon English dub voice actor panel. I’m once again glad I had my Press badge and could wait inside the air-conditioned building while all the regular attendees had to form a grueling line outside in the hot sun. And by a cool and crazy coincidence, when I took my seat at the panel, my friend and fellow student at the university I used to go to, WaterPokemonMaster, who’s also the owner of the popular Pokemon web site PokeBeach, ended up sitting next to me XD You never know who you’ll run into at AX!
Pictured above from left to right: Jennifer Cihi (singing voice of Sailor Moon), Toby Proctor (Tuxedo Mask), Katie Griffin (Sailor Mars), Ron Rubin (Artemis), Susan Roman (Sailor Jupiter), Karen Bernstein (Sailor Mercury), Mary Long (Molly), Linda Ballantyne (2nd voice of Sailor Moon), and John Stocker (voice director for the Sailor Moon dub). Stephanie Morgenstern, the voice of Sailor Venus, was scheduled to attend too, but I believe she had to leave early and couldn’t come to the panel.
A bit of history – the old Sailor Moon English dub from the 90s was the very first anime I ever watched, years before I even found out what anime was. I watched it on TV from time to time and though I never really got that into the series even when I became an anime fan (still have only seen about half of the episodes out of order and never read the manga), it was still part of my childhood and will always have a special place in my heart as my very first anime. By today’s standards, the English dub was nothing short of awful – I would hardly call it a dub as much as a rewrite of the series as you could fill up hundreds of web pages on everything that was Americanized and edited. But despite those sentiments now, back in the day Sailor Moon was hot stuff for my generation and I just can’t help feeling a pleasant nostalgia when I hear the old English voices.
What was funny was that, originally, just a few of the voice actors were going to come, then AX kept adding more and more to the guest list. I think they got in contact with each other and decided to all come in “reunion” fashion. And much to their pleasant surprise, the panel had a total full house! They couldn’t believe that 20 years later people still cared about the Sailor Moon dub and were shocked at how many adoring fans filled that room to see them. I wasn’t the only one who has an undying nostalgia for Sailor Moon XD
The panel was basically just a Q&A and it was fun – they joked around, told some funny stories, Jennifer Cihi sang a little of the Sailor Moon songs and had us sing along, and one emotional Sailor Moon fan broke down in tears at what a big part of her life Sailor Moon was and how she couldn’t believe she was finally meeting them. She shook hands with all of them and Linda Ballantyne even came over to give her a hug. Good feels for all~
After the Sailor Moon panel, I just met up with my friend Neo-Shonen Fujoshi for dinner, then headed back to my hotel. I thought I was gonna be done for the day, but I had dropped my bag at the restaurant we went to and like an idiot I didn’t carefully check that nothing had fallen out and I ended up losing my Fate/Zero card mat! Luckily I called the restaurant and they did have it there, so I had to leave the hotel, wait a good 20 minutes for the shuttle, get off the shuttle at the convention center, walk a solid 5 or so blocks to the restaurant from there, get the mat from them, walk the 5 blocks back, and then wait 25-30 minutes for the shuttle back to the hotel. Plus it was 4th of July, the one night I didn’t want to go out late to avoid the noise and craziness. But I had to and there were a few loud booms that sounded like I was in a war zone. Lesson learned: if you drop your bag somewhere, always check thoroughly that nothing fell out!
Day 3 – Sat. July 5th
The only thing on my agenda for Day 3 was going to the premiere of Sailor Moon Crystal in the big video room at 12pm and doing more shopping at the Exhibit Hall after. The Sailor Moon Official Panel was earlier at 10am, but I was tired and really didn’t want to get up early enough to make it there at a decent time. Two Sailor Moon events for the con was enough for me XD So I just took another swim at the pool and then headed over to where Crystal was going to premiere, getting in line about an hour early…and I was really glad I did because it looked like it was gonna be another full house! And once again, I felt bad for all the regular attendees who had to form a line outside in the hot sun. I think because so many people showed up, they decided to show the episode twice so everyone would get a chance to see it. They showed some random anime music videos on the screen while we waited for it to start, including a short but hilarious one called “Pokeball Z” that made the audience roar with laughter XD
Everyone who came to the screening got this nice poster card
To give my two cents on the first episode, I thought it was good. It certainly gave my nostalgia a kick, leaving me dying to see more =D It managed to have an old-school feel to it despite having a more modern look. Like any long-running family series, it’s hard to judge Sailor Moon by just one episode, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy seeing the rest of the reboot (but only one new episode a month I heard? What’s up with that?)
After that, I grabbed some food and spent a final few hours in the Exhibit Hall buying the rest of the goodies I wanted. So now would be a good time to show what I bought~
The above Cardcaptor Sakura figure was a steal at $35. What was funny was that I first saw it at one booth for $59 and was almost gonna get it, but I’ve learned from AX experience that many of the vendors sell the same item for different prices. So I looked at the booth next to it and saw it for $35. It pays to hold off and look around first XD
I really wanted to get a Pokemon plushie this year and it was between Mega Charizard X or a $100 giant Fennekin plushie. I decided on the slightly cheaper and smaller Mega Charizard X since I’ve been using him in my Pokemon card deck lately XD
Also picked up the above mini-plush of one of my favorite underrated pokemon, Furret. Also an Angel Beats! phone charm and a fan-made Okami keychain from Artist Alley.
Had to pick up some Frozen merch of course~ The wallet I found for only $5 in the Exhibit Hall and the gorgeous print of Elsa and the four cute pins were from Artist Alley.
Since Sailor Moon (along with Kill la Kill) was the most celebrated anime at this year’s AX, I wanted to get some kind of Sailor Moon figure. Unfortunately there wasn’t much selection (it was just the figmas or this one other figure that I didn’t particularly like) so I decided to go for this chibi one. It’s really cute and I love how Luna is a separate little piece you can put on the stand next to Sailor Moon XD
Speaking of Luna, since she’s my favorite Sailor Moon character, I couldn’t resist the above Luna plush and chibi figure =P
And speaking of cool anime cats like Luna, one artist in Artist Alley drew this adorable picture of pretty much every single anime cat you can think of (she had one for dogs too but there weren’t as many). I couldn’t resist buying it XD It even came with a list that tells you all the cats’ names and what anime they’re from.
Once I was done shopping, I planned to meet with Neo-Shonen Fujoshi again once she was done watching the premiere of the K movie, so I passed some more time by racking up Street Passes (also bumped into fellow anime blogger zzeroparticle).
I finally passed 500 different people on Street Pass! Most of them were from this year’s and last year’s AX
I didn’t have any intention of watching the K movie since I didn’t really like the anime series. But I had heard that angela, the group that sings the K opening “Kings,” was going to have a mini-concert with the premiere of the movie. The movie ended up running an hour late, and as I waited outside the room for Neo-Shonen Fujoshi, I saw that after the movie’s credits rolled, angela came out and it looked like they were going to start the concert! (I thought it would be before the movie) So I went into the room to try and catch it and managed to get a decent seat near the front.
Sadly no photos were allowed at the angela mini-concert
I’ve always liked angela’s songs, with “Kings” being one of my favorites along with “Beautiful Fighter” (Shikabane Hime opening), “Gravitation” (Heroic Age opening), and “Aoi Haru” (Seitokai no Yakuindomo ending). Despite the concert being only about 15-ish minutes, the duo was full of energy and really had me into the music! Unfortunately they only sang two songs, both of which were from K – “Kings” and “Different colors,” the ending song for the movie. But still, it was awesome hearing them sing “Kings” live! It’s too bad they didn’t get a real concert at the con but I’m glad I stopped by and didn’t miss out on this mini one.
After that, I went back to my hotel to drop off my loot and pack (so I wouldn’t have to do it on the morning of Day 4) then returned to just chill in the Tabletop Gaming room and maybe get some games going with someone.
Background set up for cosplay photos
A cool new thing in the Gaming room this year was that they set up all these different backdrops, like the cherry blossoms plus Torii gate pictured above, for people to take photos in.
There was also a classroom
And a tatami room
And a graveyard
Other backdrops they had set up were a forest, a school rooftop, and the most random one, a play pen of plastic balls XD
When we left the con that evening we found these guys playing and singing a nice rendition of “Haruka Kanata,” the second Naruto opening. I always love wandering around AX and finding cool “unofficial” happenings like this XD
Day 4 – Sat. July 6th
The only thing on my agenda for Day 4 was the Pokemon Trading Card Game tournament from 11-3pm. About 30 or so people were in the tournament and I was pleasantly surprised that there were a handful of women playing as well as men, all of which were adults (all the smaller Pokemon leagues I’ve been to have been made up of mostly adult men and little boys). Since the Gaming room closes early on Day 4, we only had time for five rounds (the organizer said he would try to have the tourney on another day next year so it could go longer).
Used my new Fate/Zero mat and had matching Pokemon XY sleeves and deck box
I won my first round, lost my second, tied my third (though I would have won if we didn’t run out of time!), won my fourth, and lost my fifth. What was weird is that for the two rounds I won, I won really easily – the match barely lasted 10 minutes and both times I won because my opponent didn’t have any pokemon left (as opposed to taking all my Prize cards, which is the usual way). And for the two I lost, I lost terribly – for both matches I only took 0-1 out of my 6 Prize cards before being defeated badly XP So yeah, it was one extreme or the other! They had prizes for 1st-4th place, which included trophies, medals, an exclusive Anime Expo play mat, and a bunch of Pokemon booster packs. I didn’t win anything but it was still fun and now I’m psyched about improving my deck!
After that, I hung out with MenmaLives for a while and he helped me make my Weiss Schwarz decks better. Then when the hall closed at 3 we headed home~
Cosplay
Now for all the cosplay photos I took during the 5 days =)
Ultimate Madoka
Armstrong (getting photobombed by the Ice King from Adventure Time XD)
Full-suit Lucario!
Ghibli girls
Kyoukai no Kanata cosplayers
Genderbent Sailor Moon group XD
Full body Garurumon
Star Wars group
Elsa and Anna, superhero versions!
Chef Titan serving human-shaped cookies
Mekaku City Actors group
Charmander!
Totoro!
American samurai, complete with french fry swords and basketball hoop shields XD
Sword Art Online II group
Courage the Cowardly Dog XD
Kuroko’s Basketball group
“Real” R2D2s that actually moved and made sounds
Found a legendary pokemon on the last day, Lugia!
Concluding thoughts on Anime Expo 2014
As I mentioned in my AX coverage last year, although I still love going to the con, I feel that in recent years it’s simply gotten too large, making every individual person’s experience suffer. Last year was especially busy, causing all kinds of crowding and lines from here to eternity. And the attendance only continues to grow as I believe even more people came this year than last. In fact, Saturday was the busiest day and it got so bad that they actually had to cap attendance on Saturday only, something I don’t think they ever did before. Perhaps because of my apprehension from last year that this year would be even worse, I purposely avoided going to a lot of panels and popular events; this was probably my most chill AX as most of my time was spent hanging out with my friends, shopping, and doing less busy events like the card game tournaments and cosplay gatherings. Besides the craziness with the printer issues on Day 0, I heard that there was a lot of disorganization this year in terms of badge pick-up even after Day 0, panels changing rooms causing a lot of confusion, and as always, things starting late. Luckily I didn’t experience much of this with the few panels I went to, but what I did notice and didn’t like was the fact that so many lines for popular events were put outside in the hot sun. People had to wait outside in long lines with the sun beating down on them for hours, often in locations that weren’t even close to where the panel was held. AX probably did this to avoid the extreme hallway crowding that happened last year, that was nothing short of a fire hazard. But still, they should have at least set up tents where the lines were so people didn’t have to repeatedly bake in the hot sun for every panel they went to. My Press badge thankfully helped me avoid waiting outside, but I still felt bad for everyone who did. Setting up shade outside for everyone is definitely something they should plan for next year.
If AX still doesn’t decide to cap their attendance next year, things are only going to get worse in terms of line-waiting, crowding, and disorganization. The LACC isn’t an infinite space and there’s only so many people you can cram into it and only so many people you can staff to keep track of them. But even if AX doesn’t want to realize this, that’s not gonna deter me from enjoying the con. I’ll simply continue to do what I did this year and just spend time hanging out with friends and doing casual things, only attending the big events if it’s a guest I’m dying to see or a panel for something I’m a huge fan of. Out of my now eight Anime Expos, so far the only one I would say was more bad than good was back in 2007. So until the crowding and disorganization gets so out of hand that I can’t enjoy much of anything, I’m sure I’ll find myself heading back to AX next year.
So long AX, see you in 2015~!
That Cowboy Bebop wall is indeed fabulous! I WANT IT. And as you probably know, figurines are probably the type of merchandise I’m least interested in, but I would LOVE to get my hands on that Sakura figurine, too!!
I already saw all the Frozen cosplay pics on your Facebook, but the superhero versions of Elsa and Anna are fabulous. Courage the Cowardly Dog cosplay is best cosplay.
I’ll go to AX someday!!
Yeah, finding that figure was a pleasant surprise =D The only CCS one I knew about beforehand was the Nendoroid.
I do hope you get to go to AX someday! Meeting you in person after all this time would be awesome~
Thanks for sharing! Well, I guess not having everything work out properly is also part of those kind of trips. Glad you had lots of fun. That calendar from Aniplex looks really good, and the SAO bus as well (I would take the bus as a souvenir >.< ). It is good to see so many people excited for anime, and something that keeps growing and growing. I'm just not so good with large crowds, so I really appreciate the coverage!
What was cool about the SAO bus was that the windows were tinted, so we could see out the windows from inside the bus but people outside couldn’t see in. It was funny watching people on the street stare at the bus in wonder/confusion XD
I don’t like crowds either but I can handle them as long as it’s in a (somewhat) controlled environment and I know the people aren’t gonna get too out of hand. That’s why I can deal with something like Anime Expo and Disneyland as opposed to something like a big sporting event or late-night party where people tend to get rowdy and out of control.
I was surprised at how nice the Aniplex calendar was too =) Glad I got one because they were gone quickly.
I hope you had fun as it looks interesting, but I’m surprised that they have that many problems. I suppose that finding a bigger convention hall to handle the demand will be kind of difficult.
Aside from that, if things goes well once I finished my degree, get a job and save enough money to go to one since I imagine that hotel and plane tickets are going to be expensive (the New York one is not worth going to). But I’ll figure it out once everything gets settled.
I think they just need to start capping attendance as opposed to finding a larger convention hall. Maybe they can start by eliminating on-site registration or something like that.
Yeah, that would be really cool if you could come out to LA for Anime Expo one year. I’d love to meet you in person of course XD If you don’t want to wait until you get a job, maybe you could ask your parents for the money as a birthday/Christmas/graduation gift XD
Actually, I have been in Southern California back in 2005 when I went with my parents and my sister to Disneyland. But of course when I start working after finishing my master’s degree, I think money will become less an issue since there is a good possibly of me getting a decent paying job, meaning it will be easier to save money up to go to a convention. Of course, I should only use money I earn to go on my own vacations.
In short, there is a good possibly of going to one as long I have enough vacation time for 4-5 days. :)
I had heard that Anime Expo 2014 grew even larger in attendance. Disorganization issues seem pretty unavoidable.
Still you got to see Angela. I also loved their Beautiful Fighter song from Shikabane Hime. I also liked their work for the K anime series.
It’s understandable that a few things are always disorganized at every AX. It’s inevitable when you’re dealing with such a large quantity of people even for the most organized staff. But there are still some things I feel they should have been able to handle better this year, especially after all their previous years of experience.
It’s too bad angela didn’t get a “real” concert where they could sing all their non-K songs too. But oh well, at least I got to hear them sing “Kings.”
That anime cats poster is precious. I didn’t know Doraemon was a cat though. O_O
Your pictures are always so great, I’m jealous. =D
It was great getting together with you so often at this year’s AX. Usually our schedules conflict more. I guess we’ll have to see if AX makes any changes from their snafus from this year to next!
Yeah, Doraemon is a robot cat XD I think that’s a well known fact in Japan, LOL.
Glad you like my pics ^_^ The camera I’m using is, like, five years old already and still works fine for blog photos, so I’ve seen little reason to get a new one.
It was lots of fun hanging out with you too. Even if you only decide to come one or two days next year, hope we can match up our schedules again ;)
I love reading your annual AX reports. This one was no exception. I plan to go to it one day, maybe next year, so I hope to learn from reading them to plan my trip: what to do and what not to do. I like how you pick a few events to attend per day, so as to not overwhelm yourself due to the long lines. Biggest con I’ve been to was ACen, so AX will be something to attend.
Love the cats poster, do you remember the AA vendor’s name? I’d love to get one myself. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed my con coverage =D Let me know if you need any more tips or help with planning your trip. Hope you’re able to make it to AX soon~
Over the years of going to AX, I’ve noticed that everyone has their own way of enjoying the con. Some people run around to panels and big events non-stop while others just go to hang out, whether it’s just standing around in cosplay or playing with people in the gaming room. I’m sort of in the middle in that I like to do some panels but also like to have plenty of time to casually shop and hang with friends XD
Unfortunately I don’t remember the artist’s name and strangely her name isn’t written anywhere on the print or even on the little paper that came with it that lists all the cats’ names. Sorry about that =/
Loved the coverage! This time of year always rolls around so quickly that I almost forgot XD
That sucks that everyone had to wait outside in the heat, I definitely wouldn’t have been a happy camper, glad that you still had fun though. With the attendance being through the roof I’d imagine it would make it difficult to get from one part of the facility to the next.
And that Garurumon cosplay was great! I like to see that people are still a big fan of the franchise like I am (even know I haven’t kept up with current installments).
Glad you enjoyed it ^_^
Yeah, AX can be really exhausting if you don’t come mentally and physically prepared for the intense crowding and having to stand in line in the heat. Like I said, they really should address that by setting up tents outside where people are going to stand in line. It actually isn’t that hard to get from one end of the convention center to another since people are always walking and you just squeeze into the flow of traffic (I’ve heard Comic Con is worse in terms of walking around). The only times it gets so crowded you can barely get anywhere is when big panels end and everyone comes out, and in the Exhibit Hall/Artist Alley at peak times.
Heh, now that you mentioned it, that digimon is WereGarurumon, not regular Garurumon XD It’s been a while, I need to brush up on my digimon!
Oh wow, your right, I didn’t even realize that it was WereGarurumon. I too need to brush up on my Digimon XD it’s been years since I’ve watched the older installments.
Looks like a superb con! I’ll probably head to the States and check the cons out sometime. I hope to visit various places on the West coast at some point…
Love those vehicles with the big decals. They look amazing. I want that calendar too – Magi <3
That would be awesome if you could come to Anime Expo someday, or even just LA. I think you’d like Little Tokyo (and Disneyland of course XD) It would be cool to meet you in person too if we get the chance.
Since I won’t be working next summer, I probably won’t be able to afford the full 5-day AX trip next year. But I do want to go at least 1-2 days :3 I also want to check out D23, the Disney expo that’s going to be held next August in Anaheim.
Big Fans of anime.