Woo! Finally got back from Anime Expo two days ago, and it's time to post a ridiculously fun con report, since that's apparently the THANG to do now. ;) So without further ado...here's how my weekend went!



So we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive out to Anaheim. Considering our previous track record, we managed to get up, dressed, packed and loaded out in good time. The traffic gods smiled on us, and thankfully our hotel room was ready for invasion the moment we arrived.

Then came registration; a shining example in spectacular failures of communication. Since I tackled Artist's Alley this year, my registration was handled elsewhere. This consisted of waiting for a line to form, waiting in the line for the line, waiting in the line, rearranging said line seven times, then getting to the front of the line to discover that no, they did not have my badge; I would have to start from square one in the normal registration line. Absa-frelling-loutely brilliant. Thankfully, I was able to meet up with everyone else and had company for the extended wait. I was disappointed with the freebies this year; it seems they were on a tighter budget.

After securing my badge (literally, as they down-graded to safety pins this year...) I went to set up my table for the day, which was a feat in of itself considering Artist's Alley was already a madhouse. I spent most of Friday trying to sell prints, and was sorely disappointed when I only got rid of a measly six. I took a break to eat with Wyna, Famira, Mousse and zillions of others that I had last seen in high school, so it was both fun and bewhildering. We scarfed down fast food and shared otaku horror stories before I headed back again to more poor business.

Ending the evening with the anime music video contest made things significantly better, as I'm always impressed with the AMVs. Drama and comedy were great this year; action was decent, and the "eye-candy" category, while good, didn't completely blow me away like before. Azumanga Daioh, Bleach and Evangelion were in a bunch of different videos this year (but then again, Eva is always popular.) I nearly died of laughter at "The Wizard of Ozaka," which ended up winning both Best Comedy and Best in Show. Must download the video once I find it.




Saturday was as fun and busy as any day could be at AX. I started off the day in Artist's Alley again, and selling went significantly better. There were a few people who irked me with unnecessary comments (i.e. "I don't like Kingdom Hearts," when it's pretty damn obvious I'm a KH fanatic), but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with. So many of the artists down there were amazingly brilliant I was insanely jealous, but at least (most) were quite nice. I was happy to see the Alley so busy all the time considering they stuck us and our shameful, shameful profit-stealing fanart in the basement this year.

My unbelievably kind roommates were generous enough to watch my table while I did some con-going myself. I of course snagged pictures of the Kingdom Hearts cosplay group, which included among other things an Aladdin, Maleficent, group-hopping Jack Sparrow, a great BHK, a couple wonderful KH2 Soras, several Organization members and some absolutely adorable Heartless cosplayers. There was even someone dressed as the command menu, which made me laugh. I also hit the dealer's hall, and naturally spent way more than I intended to (more on that below.) I also gave big hellos and hugs to Beth and Alix, who were only able to come for Saturday, but still managed to do lots of good damage. Hopefully Alix had lots of fun, as she's a budding anime fan. Hooray for spreading the love! XD

After more table-sitting I caught some of the end of Rivkah's Tokyopop presentation. It's great to see Tokyopop doing as much promo of OEL manga as they have been, and I can only hope it will eventually sway the minds of purist otakus.

Following many crazy introductions, I went out to eat with Rivkah, Tentopet, Pink-chan and many other awesome Pseudome-goers. We invaded Coco's, which I had never been to before, and will probably never visit again consider the food was terrible. The company, however, was HILARIOUS. We spent nearly six hours chatting in total (three at Coco's and three back at the con) about comics and stupid people and anything else on and off-topic. I don't think I've ever had so much fun with people I had only met for the first time. I also chatted with a few of the TP editors who kept stealing Rivkah away, and may end up getting some kind of trial comic project! Woohoo! XD *does networking dance*




Sunday I didn't set up the table as I was too busy with other things. I went to the OEL manga panel and dragged Em and Kel along for the ride so that they could see all of the cool home-grown stuff that's coming out. All in all, the panel went quite well, and I got Tentopet to sign my RSOM 4, mwah! And in return, she managed to insult Pink-chan and I's screennames simultaneously. ;)

More damage was done to the dealer's hall, and I also stopped by the Art Show to oggle all of the amazing work. This year was a significant improvement on last year, thankfully! Then a good chunk of time was spent waiting in line for the Mayaa Sakamoto concert, during which I doodled some more. The concert itself was great of course, with Mayaa singing songs from Escaflowne, Card Captor Sakura and Wolf's Rain, among other things. She was completely adorable, which should've been obvious. I like the fact that she didn't feel the need to be overly flashy, and just sang. Makes you wonder what most American singers do when they visit foreign countries.

Immediately after that we all went out to eat dinner with Jeanie, who was lookin' mighty swanky in her Silent Mobius and Gargoyles cosplays (again, must post pictures later.) We went to one of the restaurants in the Marriott and had some great good (for considerably less than the dreck at Coco's too). It was mucho fun spending time with her, and we'll have to do so more come Comic Con.

I later tried to meet up with the Pseudome-ers again for the equivalent of a live paintchat, but ultimately failed. I was too exhausted to go to Masquerade, although I somewhat wish I had, as there was a very good KH2 cosplay skit. XD Really though, all of that activity wore me out, so I was glad for the sleep.




The last day of con I was pretty much chained to my table, but it was okay as I needed to make some sorely-missed money. With the help of ever-kind roommates I was selling up until the last minute, and ended up selling about two-thirds of my prints. I made back the cost of printing, AX registration and the table with profit to spare! I was quite happy with this, as before I was worried I wouldn't even make back what Kinko's leached out of me.

Also, towards the end there was fun and exciting drama involving an insulting sea captain and some pie, but Wyna Hiros and Famira have more of the details. ;)

Things I learned from Artist's Alley:
- the first day will always suck.
- business cards are always a worthy investment.
- just because you like a picture doesn't mean your customers will, and vice-versa.
- Kinko's is evil.
- if it's funny or cute, it'll sell faster.
- the louder you are, the more attention you'll get.
- it pays to be friendly to everyone, even the creepy people with terrible teeth. Even if they don't buy anything, they at least leave with a good impression of you.




And now, a quick list of the loot I got away with:
- A gorgeous Wolf's Rain art book
- Two Kingdom Hearts action figure sets
- A cute Wiz pin from D.N.Angel
- An adorable little Heartless figurine (it even has a Wyvern Heartless on it, squee!)
- A Kingdom Hearts 2 poster
- Wolf's Rain manga #2
- Wolf's Rain DVD disc #7 (last one!)
- A Final Fantasy X doujinshi (first doujin I've ever bought)

And finally, some random con info that I just thought I'd stick here:
- Naruto was an immensely popular cosplay this year. Gee, we're shocked.
- Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach were also owning the con. I never thought I'd see so many Eds in the same place at the same time.
- Man-Faye was being his usual attention-whore self. Again, shock.
- Considering how bleeding unorganized the staff was this year, the wait for big events was surprisingly manageable. My heart goes out to those poor volunteers.
- A note to the Coast Anaheim: NO ONE wants room service at 7:30 in the morning. Even families visiting Disneyland aren't up that damn early. KTHXBYE.
- A note to a very large percentage of male (and some female) otaku: you smell like crap. Nobody wants a whiff of your armpit juices in a crowded elevator. Take a shower, or I'll have Tsume rip your throat out.
- A note to vendors; stop selling Inuyasha plushies. Everyone's already got one. We'd like to move on, thanks.
- Why do I always miss the DDR room?!


And there you have it: Anime Expo 2005! It went a lot better than I was expecting, I met tons of cool people, and had a great time. Now all that's left to do is catch up on craplods of anime and manga we bought...woo! XD

Operator status: Where have all my work hours gone? I really need the money, dangitall...

Drawing: Am going to begin working on finishing several comic pages for portfolio reviews at Comic Con, which is right around the corner, holy crap! o_O Also need to finish coloring a KH/FFX fanart. And V-chan just passed on a bunch of blank sketchbooks, woohoo!

Writing: This journal, obvious. Also started writing a few short Kingdom Hearts-related essays because I was feeling extremely bored and geeky, except now I realize I don't have a real focus. o_O Also need to do more research on what I'm talking about.