Report of Anime Expo 2004
Or rather...a report of DISASTER CON! Now please, don't take this offensively; my sis and cousin joke about AX being "Disaster Con" in a fun way. By no stretch of the imagination was AX a disaster; it's just certain aspects of the con that we ourselves laugh at.
So what really happened for us to have conjured up this name? Was AX 04
better than last year's AX? How come I had a BLAST regardless?
If you're interested, then please continue reading. Otherwise you can leave or
choose the day of your preference for easier reading.
-Thursday- -Friday-
-Saturday-
-Sunday- -Monday-
It feels odd to say that the first day of the con WAS NOT on a Thursday. Instead, Thursday became "Early Pre-reg" day. We ended up arriving at the hotel real early so I killed some time by studying Psychology while Somethinglulu and Sana-chan headed to California Adventure. I eventually joined up with them 2 hrs later.
Sparing you the boring (albeit funny) details of California Adventure Land, the only con related stuff we did was pick up our badges, hang out with Eurobeat King Al for photos, and went to 7 Eleven for "con food necessities."
Concerning the lines for pre-reg...I don't believe they were as long as last year's....were they? It seemed like FOREVER until our line started to move, doubled with the fact that lines were forming when they were NOT the official lines.
It might not have been so bad if it weren't for the fact we ran into some friends and filled out a survey, but I felt rather stupid for having forgotten some other mental stimulus; i.e. playing cards.
We eventually got our badges but another dilemma presented itself when we tried to redeem our masquerade tickets: we couldn't get them initially without confirmation of our hotel registration (which included receipts from each occupant individually and yet we only had one to begin with) and unfortunately, due to miscommunication between both parties, the hotel never got word that they needed to GIVE individual vouchers. Lot of confusion but we eventually got the tickets and now I wonder why I even bothered (see Sunday for further analysis). It was almost a disaster in obtaining the tickets...
Anyways, the photoshoot with Eurobeat King was fun: I dressed up as Seira from Saint Tail and was accompanied by Somethinglulu as Asuka Jr. and Sana-chan as Saint Tail. There we met some new friends (the Hamburgler, KH-2 Sora and others), and we garnered attention from the "Princess House" group going on at the Hilton. Basically they asked us questions related to "why we were dressed up", "can we borrow your costumes" and the like.
So then comes Friday; the OFFICIAL first day of the con! What a difference. First off it took forever before I finally found some familiar faces, because it seemed like a lot of new people were at AX. I know that's an unfair assessment but take the fact AX nearly DOUBLED in size this year...it makes sense I couldn't find anybody!
For the first part of the day I was dressed up as Urd with SomethingLulu as Skuld and Sana-chan as KH Rinoa. I met Pikminlink dressed as Sailor Moon and saw Richiied as Sailor Mercury and they were both really cool!
Basically to sum up Friday; it meant hanging out with friends, perusing the dealers hall...and oh yes...my first time entering the Karaoke contest.
I figured it would be something cool to do for a long time. Doubled with the fact I'm studying to be a performer in voice, I thought it would be great to test my skills. SomethingLulu reminded me however that power and stardom don't emerge from a "convention karaoke contest." I knew that quite well and was only interested in participating for the heck of it. For the preliminary song I sang Tenshi No Yubikiri from Kareshi Kanojyo no Jijou.
It went pretty well considering the fact I thought I was wearing the wrong costume for the song (I was Lina Toin aka Green Pearl Voice from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch). It was great that my hotel mates and friends came out to cheer me on. Thanks guys, you all rock!
I didn't stay the entire night for karaoke because I wanted to get things ready for Saturday; however I must say for what little I saw, that "flag ceremony" was quite weird. I guess if I had gone to previous karaoke events I might have realized and come to love this "little tradition." I think what annoyed me the most was how it started late even though I was expecting it to be on time. *sigh* I keep forgetting that AX is HARDLY on time if ever.
The next day I went down to the karaoke area (dressed as Princess Garnet) to find out if I made it to semi-finals. I was surprised that I did! But then the overwhelming factor that I hadn't memorized my semi-final song kicked in and I immediately became stressed. Before I could stress any further, I ran into hoshikage and heard about her masquerade endeavors. I wished her the best of luck before finding my Zidane, aka Sana-chan. I took a few pictures as Garnet before heading back to the hotel to change for Semi-finals.
Things started to heat up when I realized my Lina costume was stained and how my wig was giving me much trouble to put on. It took me forever before finally deciding just to wear the wig (even though it was causing me problems) along with the Pearl tear and earrings. Needless to say I had no time to really practice. I checked in and I dreaded when I'd appear on stage again. Regardless I went up and gave it my all. I wouldn't say it was the best performance since I screwed up the Japanese lyrics on some lines (making up lines for example), and really looked like an idiot on stage.
I think inwardly, God was telling me I had other priorities. I couldn't help but think how I wished I could be at the cosplay.com group photo, the Fruits Basket gathering, and the Meet the Guest Reception.
Thankfully I didn't make finals. I almost wished I did too (and unfortunately since I'm a competitive person when it comes to singing, I had a good cry afterwards feeling cheated out of that level), but it was a good thing because I was able to change into Yuki Sohma and go to the Meet the Guest Reception and BOY HOWDY how happy I was!
How come? Because the master of voice acting arrived; Tomokazu Seki! Ever since watching Vision of Escaflowne when I was little, I loved his voice acting! My sister more so than me has been his little "fangirl" but I still appreciated his work in the realm of anime.
You can tell how ecstatic I was to be able to sit NEXT to him! I asked him in Japanese to say something in Van's voice and he said "I'll protect Hitomi" to which I and others around the table gleed. I ended up calling Sana-chan and let the phone sit there so she could listen to Seki-sama speak. Hehe, her expression (as I was told later) was priceless.
On a more serious note I did ask him which character out of all the characters he portrayed was his favorite. He said that his very first role from this one Gundam series. Although he loves all his roles equally, this role launch pad him into a voice career he never dreamed of.
As you can tell, Meet the Guests saved the day and almost the entire con for me. Later I found Richiied as Akito so we had a mini-shoot with Pikminlink's brother taking the photos!
Now with Sunday being the 2nd to last day of the con, I was a bit off kilter. Nonetheless I still cosplayed; I was Electra for the infamous Cowboy Bebop gathering. It was a lot of fun, however, we were missing Jets! At least we had Jets last year...but what can you do? I felt this was the only "cosplay gathering" I actually attended.
I ended up leaving early to stake a place in line for the Seki-panel, which ended up being another highlight of the con! He's such a fun guy to listen to and answered a lot of the fan's questions. Props to AX for actually having the questionnaire format organized! Only qualms I had were that some of the questions seemed to overlap, but you could tell he was generally enthusiastic to know of American fan's genuine (albeit fanatic) interest in him.
The even cooler thing that happened was that everyone who attended the panel got a ticket to go to his autograph session. Unlike in the past where the the tickets were a raffle, anyone who went to the panel got the chance provided you had the ticket. Heck yeah was I willing to go and wait in line! It was great to have one final closure with Seki even if it was short and just to get his autograph, but hey, I'm happy!
The rest of the day I spent hanging out with friends and I didn't cosplay at all, even when it came to the masquerade. We were hoping it was going to be good considering the greatness of Seki being there...but that obviously had no effect.
The masquerade had only a few good acts (of whom I know personally and won; which was pretty cool), and others that were ok but some that had technical problems (of no fault of their own). Thank goodness the MC was better than last year, but the AX masquerade AGAIN started late.
Not that starting late was the most annoying thing (and traditional) part
of the convention, but the most ANNOYING aspect was the screaming kids of
"ADV SUNCOAST!" Get a grip people! Just because you're at an anime
convention doesn't mean you should be idiotic...or even RUDE when people are
up on stage. I felt bad for people on stage in particular who were standby's
with no music and people shouted rude comments; it's like, do you not have
feelings for these people?
Considering the disaster of the masquerade we left at intermission. We figured
the judging would be announced tomorrow in any case.
Monday I felt naked; I wasn't cosplaying. But I still was able to hang out with more friends I hadn't during other days of the convention and find those last goodies in the exhibit hall.
It just seemed weird that the last day of the convention was on Monday. I should've expected or at least remembered that the last days of the con are always anti-climatic, but it was nice to walk around in civvies for a change; it was nice to just shop without having to be stopped for a picture.
Of course the con wouldn't have ended without our luncheon at the Hilton Hotel's restaurant. It was funny how Yoko Ishida ended up sitting a table away from us (only for me to realize this as she leaves); and then to see Ashley, Ludick and their friends eating lunch as well!
Reflecting now on the con situation, I don't think it was THAT much of a disaster. It was more like disaster with our costumes falling apart. Hehe, oops. Oh well, you can't carry the hot glue gun around with you ALL the time.
Definitely for next time I will do a more thorough check list of my costumes because I ended up not having costume parts (like my Yuki pants in which I had to borrow SomethingLulu's Asuka Jr. pants).
Even with these minor setbacks, Seki-sama, and being able to hang out and cosplay were the cool aspects of the con. I can safely assess that this year and last's were fun in different ways; none being better than the other.
To me each AX keeps getting better and better while at the same time still has its gripes (Like the masquerade and lack of organization). Whose to say what the future will bring for AX 05...
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
