Ah, yes, it is now my convention report to the only anime convetion that I will be going to every year (hopefully)! Yeah, I'm poor and can't afford to go to the other conventions in other states, but oh well! AX is worth it for my travel and spending ^^.
Just for a note, I have just started attending AX since 2001 on a Saturday in July, and since then I've been attending AX for as long as it is open. So...yeah, I'm not really experienced like some other people, but I try my best! This year again, I attended for all four days but now at a hotel! Why? Anaheim is just a bit too far from where I live to drive everyday (about an hour and a half away...excluding traffic) from where I live. I also went with my (former...I no longer am a student because I graduated!) high school's anime club and stayed in a room with nine other girls while the guys were splite into 2 (6 and 6) because that was all our club could afford. Of course, we had chaperons ^^.
My costumes for this year included:
I did have 2 other costumes, but I was too lazy to wear them. I'll cosplay them next year. Anyway, on with the report!
DAY ZERO (July 2)
Wednesday, the day before AX actually started. I spent the entire week before procrastinating on all of my costumes and had JUST finished Misao the night before (from scratch, of course...). So the entire morning on this day was dedicated to packing and picking up Juuhachigou and her boyfriend (whom I now deem Alucard), and off we went to the hotel.
The hotel wasn't as far away from the convention center as what AyanamiChan and I had thought to be. We were right behind it, actually!
Anyway, the first problem we ran into was the rooms. The room that the girls were assigned to (because we didn't know what all the rooms looked like) was WAY too small, so AyanamiChan and I had to check all the other rooms, eventually settling into a room that was for our chaperons but it was much too big for them! Better than nothing, right?
Once 4 o'clock struck, the entire club headed over to the Hilton to get our badges. When we got out of the area where the badges were at, we saw a Yuna in her FFX-2 costume. Oh yes...much pictures were taken.
Came back to the hotel, listened to some rules that AyanamiChan had set up, and hit the pool to relax...
DAY ONE (July 3)
Thursday. Woke up at 4am for no apparent reason. Well...two of my friends (known as Torch and Kaede) had woken up at around four and then I woke up and then the chain reaction started. We all did go back to sleep for a few more hours, I think. I knew that I went back to sleep after a while ^^. (And drew a picture at around that time which actually looked like me sleepy! Honestly, I didn't intend to do that!)
At around 8am in the morning, the lot of us began to dress into our costumes. The majority of the club went over to the opening ceremonies while I waited for Juuhachigou to wake up and headed over to the long line to the dealer's room (or as they say...the Exhibit Hall). My poor friend, kupochan, had to hold her kimono down from flying up going against the wind that came through (she was Kaoru from Rurouni Kenshin that day while I was Misao). Then...we kinda lost Juuhachigou and Alucard from there. I took some pictures of cosplayers along the way to the end of the line.
I was really impressed at how much BIGGER dealer's room was! It was a lot better than last year. I mean, we actually had room to walk in between the aisles! And there was no problem with lines; they moved rather quickly and became nonexistent after a while. I spent the rest of my money at dealer's room...buying a Metal Gear Solid 2 artbook for my brother (because he wanted a Solid Snake action figure, but couldn't find one, so I got this instead), the freelance Cowboy Bebop CD (which "Cats on Mars" kept on getting stuck in my head after listening to it later), and the Rinoa and Squall necklaces. I got some really cool artwork from Artist's Alley, too! Got to meet Laine (she has a website called tastygraphite.net.....her artwork is REALLY good ^^) and the go-GAIA admins who were running booths there (although I didn't realize at first...sleeplessness had hit me then...but maulie got autographs!). I still huggle and drool at my Vincent Valentine picture ^^.
kupochan and I were so tired that we went back to the hotel, missing out on the Rurouni Kenshin gathering, but again hit the pool after a long, hot day. I was so glad to get out of my Misao costume, but next year, I ain't going to miss the RK gathering!!
Later that night, some of the club members went on an AX sponsored scavenger hunt, ran into our room and asked for the following items: a 1972 coin, a Sailor Moon cosplayer, a movie ticket stub, a Viz video DVD, a Bishoujo manga, and some plushies. Well, we had most of the stuff (one of the club members had cosplayed as Sailor Jupiter) except for the Viz video DVD. I'm not sure what rank our club placed, but they got prizes ^_^.
RANDOM EVENT:
While I went to take a picture of a Xellos that was standing in the line to dealer's room, kupochan had sat down and got her picture taken ^^. Then I was waiting for it to be taken when someone looked at me and said "Misao?" and the asked for a picture ^_^.
DAY TWO (July 4)
Friday. The fourth of July, but it didn't really feel like it because of all the AX excitement. On this day, I came in two costumes: Rinoa Heartilly in the morning and Nekoi Yuzuriha in the afternoon. My friend Torch and I waddled over to the Final Fantasy gathering...in which many pictures were taken of us and other people. She was dressed as Selphie and matched the role PERFECTLY. Give her a couple of blueberry muffins and she'll be hyper for the rest of the day.
After some random picture taking, the two of us headed back to Artist's Alley where I gawked at some more pictures (can't you tell I love that place?? Screw dealer's room...Artist Alley is where I would like to spend ALL of my money! ^_^). I eventually bought 2 more pictures with my newly restored money. It would be the last day where I would spend any money whatsoever...but took more pictures of cosplayers ^^.
Then...came the incident of trying to find the line to the AMV contest. The two of us travelled the entire convention center until, by pure accident, I saw a crowd of people in a room. The both of us went in and found our friends who were waiting in line and watched two of our friends (Kaede and someone I now deem as Shuichi because...well, he is when he's cosplayed ^^) participate in a limbo contest where they got some cool items (a poster and something else, I think). Then we got our tickets. AyanamiChan took half, I took the other half, and then went back to the hotel were I changed into my Yuzuriha costume. We went to the Marriot (by this time, I lost Torch and was travelling with Kaede, Shuichi, kupochan, and another kid from the club named Matt) to watch some people at the arcade play Dance Dance Revolution. Now those people are insane. I've never played the game, but I know from watching them that I'll probably suck at it, knowing my coordination skills ^^.
We asked for directions where the hotel for the CLAMP gathering was, headed towards there, found nobody there, and then treaded back to the convention center in search of it elsewhere. I was SO disappointed...Yuzuriha was also the only costume where I never got any pictures taken....
Well, we rested at the convention center for a while and met with some other people that the others had met on the scavenger hunt and on the first day. One of the girls started sketching out a Graviation picture while I was out scouring around dealer's room again (both Kaede and Shuichi were cosplayed as characters from Gravitation...Shuichi being Shuichi from it, of course, the only good male Shuichi there) and we all just had a mini drawing and card game sessing with pictures in between.
The Gravitation gathering was much fun. I didn't realize that Yuki was standing right next to me (acting all cool and calm as usual) until Kaede had asked in the madness:
Kaede: Are you Yuki?
Yuki cosplayer: Yes.
*is glomp-tackled by random Shuichis and loses her composure for the moment*
....And so that's how the Gravitation gathering goes ^^. We had to pry Shuichi off of a Ryuuichi (sp?) in order to move on ^^.
Towards the end of the evening, we headed back to the hotel and then headed back to the convention center for the AMV contest. There was an hour delay because the seats we had didn't exist, so the AX staff just let us sit wherever we wanted. Plenty of empty seats.
My favorite vid was at a tie between "Chibi Things that Kill" and "Leaves of Happaness" (which its song is stuck in my head...STILL). Too bad they were in the same category (Comedy) because I had a hard time choosing what to vote.
Collapsed back into the hotel at 1:30am, didn't go back to sleep until around 2am after my shower...with "Yatta!" stuck in my head...
THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE MAN-FAYE VALENTINE:
Oh yes, I am one of many who encountered the infamous man-Faye (we call him the Him-Faye....much easier for us ^^) who started to appear at AX last year. Torch, kupochan, and I were heading out of the convention center when I spotted big, hairy, yellow. My mind thought aloud: "That has to be the him-Faye." I told my friends this and we began heading back to our hotel (which was in the opposite direction of where he was at) when AyanamiChan saw us and called us over...in the direction of the him-Faye. Oh, it was SO hard not to look over and be traumatized...miraculously, we survived ^^.
It's not that I despise and wish death for this crossplayer like many do. He's got a lot of guts to do what he did, and you'll never have the true cosplay experience without encountering the him-Faye ^^.
Just be warned that you might have to gouge your eyes out later.
DAY THREE (July 5)
Saturday. Waking up at 9:30am, pumped on 7 hours of sleep, I went down with my dad to Westminster to get food and had a sandwich...my breakfast for the day. Seriously, I'm surprised that he didn't see the rings under my eyes.
Afterwards, I changed into Seras Victoria (how fitting...since I looked pretty dead) without the orange hair because I was too lazy to spray the orange spray ^^. I had first skimmed thought the dealer's room really quick (and Artist's Alley, again ^^. I got my picture taken over there, too!) before headed to the line for the masquerade. I met another Seras Victoria that I saw the day before (but she wasn't cosplayed as her today) and we talked for a little while before getting out tickets.
kupochan and I headed to see what "Anime Trivia II" was all about for around two hours and left it to go back to the hotel for lunch. kupochan, Kaede, Juuhachigou, and Alucard talked for a little while before heading off to the Cowboy Bebop and the Hellsing gathering.
Hellsing gatheirng wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be...mainly because it seemed the everyone knew everyone else and they were all...pretty serious ^^;;; Kaede, Juuhachigou and I felt a bit left out. We did have our own mini Hellsing gathering afterwards and decided that next year we would also have a mini Hellsing gathering as our group (Alucard as..Alucard, Kaede as Alucard and Integra's daughter from a fic of Juuhachigou's named Sophia, Juuhachigou as Integra, and our friend known as ProvostCheckmate as Walter, with me as Seras Victoria) to be a little more fun. Crashed at the hotel for a few more hours again.
Torch wanted to go back as Selphie for the masquerade, so I re-cosplayed as Rinoa again. Oh my was that girl hyper..off a bag of crispy M&Ms ^^.....
Torch: Hey SORA!!!
*Sora turns around*
Torch: Your keyblad looks so COOOOL!!!! *jumps and dances around*
And I got to glomp a Squall! ^_^. My eyes hurt so much due to all the camera flashes we got.
Masquerade wasn't as fun as I thought it would be; there were too many costume contestants than skits. However, we all had our laughs. The first skit ruled over all, displaying Kingdom Hearts in its true form:
Narrator: But another evil more powerful than Ansem still remained...
Sora: *in attack posture* I didn't know that there was someone more powerful than Ansem! I will defeat you!
Sephiroth (KH form): You pathetic fool.
*Sora attacks, Sephiroth waves a hand, Sora falls*
So, so true, that was ^^. The skit went something like that, but knowing my head, you get the idea.
Then...the Yu-gi-oh script:
Yugi: I call the fanservice card! (a random description of what the fanservice card does)
Other player: The U.S. censorship card! (another random description)
Yugi: Counter attack with the Hong Kong bootleg!!
*much cheering from audience*
And..oh yes...the "How to Make Your Own Videogame":
Narrator: First off, you'll need a cool and snazzy outfit. *character changes clothes* Yes, that'll do!
(some time later)
Narrator: This evil boss has a super special summon that will kill you instantly (out comes an HP bar that says "1/999") but if you got that special item in village #43 just behin dthe bookshelf over in the item store...if you didn't...well, there's no use to it anyway ^^. Don't worry, though! You'll beat the evil boss...three fights later!
*much more laughter*
Ah yes...those skits are stuck in my head for eternity ^^> Got to see who won what in the AMV contest and they played the full versions of each winner because the other player was really random. We were shouting for "Leaves of Happaness", but the AX staff wasn't listening to us...made me sad =(.
We stuck around for a little bit to take pictures of the winners for the Masquerade and whatnot, but I was SO tired. Fell asleep and crashed again at the hotel at 1:30am....
DAY FOUR (July 6)
Nothing much reall happened on this day ^^. My dad picked me, Juuhachigou, and Alucard up and went home (after some really bad problems with my stomach...). Couldn't tell you how happy I was to be back home ^_^.
SOME ADVICE....safety pins are the gods of cosplay!!! ^____________^