Yeah, Rei, I stole your cool phrase. Shush. ;P

Whelp, since I've been up since 4:30am and it's still a bit before actual class, I might as well give you my con report while it's still fresh! This year was a bit unusual, at least for me, and could probably best be described as bipolar. The company and friends were awesome. The con's organization? Not so much.

Damn j-rockers.


Wednesday-Thursday

So last Wednesday, after having a series of panic attacks about paying for school, I headed on over to LAX to pick up tegurunrampant. We ate at In-N-Out, got lost in the airport again trying to exit the restaurant, but finally made it home. There would be lots of airport-visiting this weekend. 8D

Especially since we had to get up very early the next morning to pick up lazzchan and her friends Lise, Alicia and Chris (sorryyyyyyyy that I couldn't remember names all weekend! D:) We then went and chilled at the Borders in the Howard Hughes Center (Where I kinda read all of Flight #3 without buying it, shhhh :x) Then back to the airport to pick up voodoobob and all of her stuff! Trying to fit seven people and all of their luggage into a six-person van was an...interesting experience. Something between a clown car and trying to solve a Rubik's Cube. D: But we managed! (Even if it was at the expense of a few crushed limbs.) The night was spent at the Ranch, where we ate spaghetti and watched Advent Children. There was much fangirling, and the discovery of Axel's true other! (No, it's not Reno.)

Friday

Early morning again, in which our clown car skills were put to the test! While we got down to Long Beach okay (free hotel parking, woot!) We then gathered together all of our stuff, and hit the registration line.

This is where the fun began.

Now, AX lines are notoriously long. But still, I think this is the worst I've ever seen them. There was only one line for all forms of registration, and it wrapped around buildings and parking lots for what I'm certain was at least ten blocks' worth of line.

I had also failed to put on sunscreen that day! Brilliant, no? :Db

So we waaaaaaited for at the very least three hours for badge holders and freebie bags (and by "freebie" bags, we mean bags with a program guide and no actual free stuff). I was actually the first to get done with registration, since my badge happened to arrive in the mail THE DAY BEFORE WE LEFT. PROTIP, AX: Getting the badge in the mail the day before the con starts? Which, in many cases, may be after people fly out to Long Beach? NOT HELPFUL. Others had to stand in line even longer than I did. tegurunrampant, who had not preregistered, had to wait six and a half hours for her badge. WHAT THE HELL.

In the midsts of this registration madness, we somehow managed to set up voodoobob's table, and also walk alllll the way back up to the hotel to check in. Of course, the hotel was kind enough to attempt to charge me 50 bucks more per night than what I originally reserved. However, the growing intensity of my You've Got To Be Shitting Me Face finally made them go LOL WHOOPS IT WAS $120 A NIGHT AFTER ALL OUR BAD. :B They also tried to pull the same crap with lazzchan's room (and gave her the wrong room besides.) Yes, I know hotels tack on extra and unexpected taxes, but dammit, I paid for that room as a this-is-your-price-right-now-no-refunds reservation. Don't go pulling that 'Uhhhhhh room rates haves changed' crap with me! /TravelAgentRage

SO. Hotel room secured, we went on back to the con, grabbed a bite of dinner, and then I invited Tegu to join me, corrielle and sir_snarksalot for the AMV contest. This is one of my favorite events at AX. You would think that, after so much hassle getting to the con, this last event would be a great way to finally kick back a bit and watch some awesome music videos.

YOU'D BE WRONG.

We got a repeat of that three-hour waiting in line deal. In the same damn parking lot. During which time we fought off boredom by doing dramatic readings of the program guide. (Yes, we're sad.) And then I had to deal with a few extra not-fun phone calls.

...And then my shoe broke. :(

What could possibly have kept us waiting in line for the AMV contest so long?

THOSE DAMN J-ROCKERS.

You see, the event right before the AMV contest was the S.K.I.N. concert, which included among other stars, Gackt and Miyavi.

Yeah, you can see where this is going.

For one thing, their show started late. And it started very late because they did not have a full house. Originally, the tickets to the concert were being sold for $50. Anime fans, being the poor schmucks they are, could not necessarily afford this. So less tickets were sold than originally thought. AX's solution? Start giving out tickets to the concert for free. Yeah, I'm sure the fans who paid $50 for their tickets reeeeeeally appreciated you hawking free ones every five steps outside the con center.

So that whole mess started late. But! The concert finished with the singers completely trashing the stage. They smashed drums and guitars, destroyed amps, and tossed water all over the stage. Which then leaves the staff the glorious job of cleaning up their mess and replacing equipment. HOW NICE. If I were a stage ninja, I would've punched Miyavi in the face.

Since then, we blamed the j-rockers for everything that went wrong at the con.

But wait! THERE'S MORE. 8D

So we finally get seated in the big arena for the contest. Hooray! Music video time!

...Only not. Announcer-dude gets up and informs the tired, highly irritated, restless audience that due to major computer theft, all of the movies for three out of the four categories are missing. They only have one category to show: the AmTV one, which is generally considered the least fun of the four.

THE HELL.

We watch this category nonetheless. "Old School Hollywood Baseball" stuck out to me as being particularly awesome. There were also some video favorites from previous years shown. But otherwise? The rest would have to wait until Sunday morning.

GREAT START, NO? 8)

Saturday

A NEW DAY. We started it off early as always, and headed down for hopefully more fun and excitement and less SNAFU. Tegu stuck with me, so we tried to hit up all of the things I (USUALLY) like about con. None of these included panels, however. (Was there even a TP original series panel this year? I didn't see anything about it! D:)

Also, I would just like to say right now that I really really missed the Anaheim convention center. While I think the Anaheim one was smaller in actual size, it was a lot less spread out and a lot easier to navigate. Even if the San Diego con center is equally huge, at least it's not a frecking maze. Having con staff harp at us if we ever attempted to walk from one place to another in a straight line didn't help, either. There was loooots of roundabout walking involved that I did not appreciate. And I wasn't even cosplaying! D:

Still! Teg and I went first to the Art Show, which I was...not terribly impressed with this year. There were a few terrific pieces (like that the Cheat cosplayers one and the Link vs. Ganondorf one) but otherwise it was just okay. Maybe because they hadn't finished putting everything out yet? Also, it made me sad that the one Sora/Kairi art posted there was just...crapilly drawn. :P

We then went in to see the first Death Note movie! :D I had heard good things, so I really wanted to see it, and thankfully was not disappointed! I liked pretty much all of the actors they picked for the characters, and I thought the different way they handled Light getting rid of Penber's wife was fascinating. While I usually get a huge cheese factor when watching live-action Japanese movies, I was hardly ever feeling that with this (mostly just when people keeled over from a heart attack) so wooo on that! And the CG animation for Ryuk (and later Rem) blended great and didn't feel pastede on yey. Best of all was watching it with a huge theater of DN fans, so people cheered and ooooohed and had all those great theater group responses at all the best parts. Occasionally it was unnecessary, but half the reasons I like seeing things in a huge theater is for that unanimous group response. And the response there was great! :D

We hit up the dealer's hall! And I got to introduce Tegu to its wonders, mwahaha. XD I was highly disappointed in there being no TP booth this year (as that's where I'd usually get my OEL manga from...) and the Square-Enix booth was equally disappointing. Got lost a bit, bought a few things (loot list below) and was annoyed at how much they were overpricing some of the KH play arts figures. $80 for Final Form!Sora, my ass. Friends got him for me at Little Tokyo for $25. :P

There was also a lot of badness as Tegu and I tried to find a place that would cash her out-of-state personal check. As it turns out, NO ONE wanted her money. Four banks we stopped by were closed, drugstores and grocery stores wouldn't take it, and TWO "checks cashed" stations would not cash it, either. WHAT THE HELL. It was madness.

And finally! In the evening, we held the great khfanficrants group meeting, and that was one of the few things that actually went RIGHT at the con! (For that, I am extremely glad! ♥♥) We lost a few people along the way, but it included (among many others) myself and Teg, lazzchan, mocha_cocoa, _fascist, ettezag, voodoobob and yuukihikari. There was also some kickass cosplay going on there! :D We went down to the nearby Islands for dinner. There was an hour and a half wait, but really, that's to be expected when you've got a group of 11 and it's dinner time at a convention. We kicked back with introductions, sharing of badfic and annoying fandom experiences, and general fandom love and discussion. This carried on into dinner itself, where we had lots of good food, got some fun pictures with KH action figures (and ourselves!) and had even more fandom love. So, YAAAAY SUCCESS! :D

Sunday

I suppose the rest of the AMV contest was this morning, but I didn't bother going. :P I heard there were a few good ones, so I'll have to try and catch them on YouTube or AMV.org later.

When not lurking around Artist's Alley (since both voodoobob and Lise had tables there for the selling of wares, we were basically doing our best to navigate that nasty maze of a con center or getting foods. We headed into the dealer's hall again for more shopping, then ran over to the KH cosplay gathering, which was a bit more organized but a bit less enthusiastic than last year. Among the usual plethora of Soras, Rikus, Roxas...es and craploads of Organization members, here were some things that stood out to me as kickass:
- There was a GUMMI SHIP OMG YAY. I didn't get a picture of it, sadly, but I think a few people were snapping photos around it.
- There was one particularly good Antiform Sora with yellow contacts and black streamers coming from his hands and everything. :D
- There was a Carpet. Totally kickass.
- There was a Tron!Sora and a Tron!Kairi. HOMG ♥♥♥
- I saw that one black Riku there again, and I still think he's one of the best KH1!Rikus I've seen.
- There was a Maleficent and Pete going together! YAY.
- Didn't see them at the gathering, but there was ALSO a King Mickey and Queen Minnie going as a pair! EVEN MORE YAY.
- A Lion!Sora, but dressed as a Broadway Lion King version. :D How original is that?
- There was one extremely kickass cosplay of Final Boss!Xemnas. Not the zebracoat (since there were about three or four of those) but the armored version where he's on the throne. :D

I pretty much used up all the pictures on my teensy disposable camera there. Also ran into some of the dudes from the KHFFR gathering the night before who were cosplaying. ♥

Onward ho to the second Death Note movie! The crowd was a bit rowdier, which made me a little glad I was reading subtitles rather than actually needing to hear what was being said. I will say, however, that I was a lot happier with the way the movie ended than the manga. I was sad that L still had to die, but I was happy with the fact that he still ended up beating Light I was never much of a fan of Mello or Near anyway :x. And Ryuk still got to be awesome. And Light's dad didn't die, YAY. But WOW, they made Light SOOOOO bastardly in the movies! It just captured him perfectly. I enjoyed both of the movies a lot. :Db

Well, I suppose normally this would be the point where I would talk about Masquerade. But after the total crap that was the AMV contest, the last thing I wanted to do was stand in another four-hour line only to be told SORRY BUT YOUR MASQUERADE IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE. :B

So instead, Tegu, lazzchan, voodoobob and I met yuukihikari in Artist's Alley, as we were invited over to her hotel room to see Final Mix and Re: CoM on a Japanese PS2! :D And dude, I don't care what may or may not have happened at Masquerade, fangirling over Final Mix was WAAAAAAY more fun. Nearly all of us tried our hand at the Roxas boss battle in Final Mix AND GOT OUR ASSES HANDED TO US. 8DDDD And then there were the data!Organization boss battles in Final Mix that were NOTHING BUT BOSS BATTLE-Y RAEP and terrified me into wondering if I really did want to get Final Mix after all and have my already-miniscule gaming ego crushed like an egg in a monster truck rally. VEXEN, YOU ARE CHEATING, AND WHY DOES AXEL CAST SAP ON YOU WTFFFFFFFFF.

But! We also watched tons of new and interesting cutscenes from both Final Mix and Chain of Memories, and there was tons of general fandom love and fangirlish screaming at certain scenes (like any scene with Mickey and Riku together ♥♥♥) and fweeeeeeeee and I really wish I knew any Japanese. :P SO THAT WAS MUCH FUN.

What was pretty much the opposite of fun was the hotel's complimentary shuttle, which was far from complimentary. There was no set schedule for it, so it just kind of showed up whenever the hell it felt like it. So what if you had to wait an hour for it? Too bad for you! And so what if you wait an hour for it, only to HAVE IT DRIVE RIGHT PAST YOU AND A GROUP OF EIGHT OTHERS ALL WAVING FOR IT TO STOP? Sucks to be you! Guess you've got to pay for a taxi now! :Db

Monday

LAST DAY OF CON. Honestly, I didn't do much today, which isn't saying much considering I didn't have the time to do that much during the rest of the con, either. But we checked out of the hotel with little incident, managed to pack everything, and headed down for the rest of the day. This mostly consisted of browsing around Artist's Alley and the dealer hall, where I SOMEHOW MANAGED TO SPEND EVEN MORE MONEY ASDJSAKDJSAKLD.

And since we're talking of buying stuff, here is my loot list, to the best of my memory:
- The last two volumes of Death Note! :D And think this is actually the first manga series (that's longer than, say, three or four volumes) that I've actually FINISHED. Go me!
- Evangelion manga #10! I thought that thing was never going to come out...heck, I thought they'd actually abandoned the series!
- I found, completely without looking and entirely by accident, THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE KH2 MANGA. :DDDDD It was just kind of chillin' at the bottom of a shelf, and it was the last copy, so I went OMG MUST HAVE and bought even though it was more than the other manga I bought. All of the KH manga is such crack. I won't even ask what Amano is on.
- A huge bunch of single-issue comics from SLG, for the Gargoyles, Tron and Haunted Mansion comics. (Maybe this says something about me that I'm buying more American-based series than I am Japanese ones nowadays? -_-)
- I caved and bought a Balthier play arts figure. ♥♥ He is seeeeexy and will make a great reference for fanarts! I wish there was a Fran to go with him, but I liked that they had Vaan and Ashe, too. Including Gabranthe is just kind of Hunh?
- This is not something I bought, but the few FFXII cosplays I saw were goood! There was one particularly great Fran, a Basch and an Ashe that kicked ass, A CUTE LARSA YAAAY, and THEN, there was this Balthier that was absolutely PERFECT. The costume looked exact, his hair looked the same, his body type was the same, and he even had Balthier's ass. ♥ I'm kicking myself for not having my camera then!
- ANYWAY. I ALSO bought a Roxas play arts figure! :D I spent a lot of time searching around for one since everywhere I kept seeing it, it was overpriced. But I finally went with one for $30 (not as cheap as I'd prefer, but better than $50, kthx) so now I have all four of the main KH2 play arts figures! :DDDDD /dorkery
- I also did a bunch of shopping in Artist's Alley! Got some puuuurdy KH2 and FFXII fanarts, some original arts (because they need love, dammit!) and I picked up the Death Note doujin from pinkchan's table. :3 I am debating if/when I want to do AA again next year...so much work, and while I love the whole experience of it, I'm not that motivated about drawing fanart for series I don't obsess over (being KH and a few others 8D) and I should really be using the extra time to either focus on schoolwork or get ahead on webcomics.
UUUUUUNNNNGH I HAVE SPENT SO MUCH MONEY THIS WEEKEND. I NEED TO NOT BUY ANYTHING EVER AGAIN FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS OR SO. @_@ DAMMIT WHY DO I DO THIS WHEN I HAVE NO INCOME.

ANYWAYS. We had to pack up early, so we didn't stick around for Whose Line Is It Anime, but that is okay. We got voodoobob to the airport, and I get the rest of the crew eventually back home, where we had parent-made dinner and watched movies and MST3K. That is, until another super-early airport run this morning. 8D So now here I am, completely putting off my surface modeling homework to do con reports. WOOHOO!

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. I will post any of my pictures and drawings whenever I get them developed and scanned. For now, my plan is to survive class and then go home and sleeeeeeeeeep for many, many blissful hours.

But honestly? If the con is at Long Beach next year, I don't think I'll be going. Especially if it's during class time again, like it (unexpectedly) was this weekend. As far as Anime Expo experiences go, in my short time going to them, this was probably my worst. The horrendous organization pretty much either sucked the fun out of the events or MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO GO TO THEM. I can't even imagine what it would've been like for the volunteers or con staff trying to ran that thing in that awful layout of a con center. Absolute hell. SHAME, SHAME ON YOU, AX, AND YOUR SHODDY PREPARATION.

That said, the best part of the con was the friends I got to meet, both old and new and internet-y, and spending time having fandom fun with them. That part I would definitely do again any day. So despite the con's suckiness, I did have fun with you all and hope to see you again one day! :D



Drawing: So much to catch up on it's ridiculous. Should probably focus on schoolwork now, though.

Writing: THIS HUGE POST DURR.