First I want to say that the Long Beach Convention center is evil... and that it's stupid that the convention is going to be in LA next year... dumb people.  What happened to Anaheim, did they kick us out or something?  Anyway... aside from the very annoying local (you had to take a fifteen minute walk even to get from one room in the center to another because you had to go outside and around...) the convention rocked!  I was a little concerned because I had just started a new job, and I had to take Friday off with no pay, but it was so worth it!  We wanted to go all four days ('we' being my father, my brother Brian, my best friend Josh, and myself), but we couldn't' afford a hotel room for that long so we only went Friday through Sunday.  Josh and I went down after work Thursday to pick up our badges because last year we had to wait in line for almost three hours... and that was with pre-registering and getting our stuff in the mail.  What's the point of sending badges in the mail if you still have to stand in line once you get there? Speaking of which... our badges didn't come until the Wednesday before, which was cutting it a little close if you ask me, especially since we registered in January...  anyway, it only took us about ten minutes to get all set on Thursday, though we did get lost on the way there... directions are lousy and so are LA freeways... 

So the dealer room was a little disorganized, and it was annoying because it was only open from noon to six every day, but artist alley was huge!  Last year we only went Saturday, spent hours in line, and then the badge holders were falling apart and my dad lost his... so really we only checked out the dealer hall and the little tiny artist alley (it was, like, 25 table, I swear).  This year we saw a ton of screenings, went to a Japanese voice acting workshop (in which everything was actually Japanese, so we had a little trouble figuring out what was going on, but it was still fun), and went to a panel on Mushishi.  Friday everything was so close (time-wise) and so spread out (location-wise - three of the four video rooms were in the surrounding hotels...) that we were constantly running around and had to eat both lunch and dinner in, like, 8 minutes flat.  That was also probably because the surrounding restaurants were not prepared for so many people.  By Saturday morning the Great Steak and Potato company was out of steak and French fries... We had to hurry to the ADV booth in the dealer hall after our Voice Acting workshop (which we had a heck of a time trying to find) to buy tickets for a late night screening of "Five Centimeters a Second" which is by the guy who did "Voices of a Distant Star".  Like most of his stuff it was rather depressing, but the art is amazing.  It was the one thing Josh really wanted to do, so we hurried over.  The showing we got was Saturday at 11:30pm, and it was in the cinema in the shopping center across the street.  Anyway, we had also heard they were debuting/premiering the English version of Death Note, but it turned out they were only showing the live action movies.  We saw them both anyway and they were great!  Prompted us to buy the manga, which is also great, and I can't wait for the anime in November!

Saturday we dressed up and since Josh and I were both in Geta (the wooden shoes with slats...) it was hard to walk around.  But it was fun, and the things we wanted to do were more spread out, so we were alright.  We saw three or four screenings that day, plus the second Death Note movie, and then Josh and I came back after dropping my dad and brother at our hotel (we had to stay about 4 miles away because my dad stalled too long on booking rooms...) and changing into normal clothes.  We got back early so we went and bought some manga at Borders (buy 3 VIZ get 1 free!), then we read the manga while sitting in the theater.  Actually... this is the second special anime engagement I've seen this summer.  I went and saw the Naruto movie with my dad and brother on June 6th and that rocked!  Anyway... We also checked out the Dealer room and more of artist alley on Saturday (it was so spread out and had so many tables it took us all three days to see it all between our other things)... Josh kept count of how many people wanted our picture.  We dressed as Samurai Deep Kyo characters (Brian was Kyo, I was Yuya, and Josh was Benitora), so not many people recognized us, but those who did were way excited... hey, people who love SDK LOVE SDK.  We saw a few other people dressed as Kyo in black, but only one other Yuya (though I heard there was one more) and no other Benitora's.  At dinner we saw a couple dressed as Kyoshiro (in the white) and Yuya, and we took some pictures with them.  I think total we ended up with 14 people who asked to take our picture, and my dad said a few people took our pictures as we were walking by, or when we stopped for someone else.  Plus, we ran into five random fanatic fans who had no camera but gushed at us about how great our costumes were, and one person who yelled at us from across the street...  It was fun ^_^

Sunday we saw Ergo Proxy, which was exciting because it was the next four episodes that won't be released until August in the US...  It was a little strange to hear it in Japanese after growing accustomed to the English voices... but it was still great.  I hate that Deadalus' voice is a female in the Japanese though...  Then we checked out the dealer room one last time, and finished up Artist Alley before hitting the Mushishi panel.  They had shifted it an hour earlier than the schedule said (they were moving things around a lot, for example, Saturday morning we were going to watch .Hack//roots and then Tsubasa, but when we got there .Hack had been replaced by Gundam Seed: Destiny, which I liked much to my surprise), so we missed most of the panel and a few minutes of the first episode, but they showed 3 total and then had a half-hour for questions.  Mushishi wasn't at all what I expected after seeing FUNimation's preview for it, but I still loved it!  After that we got Cold Stone ice-cream and then decided to wrap it up and go home.  We had to pick up my mom from my Aunt's house because she'd had surgery two weeks before (my mom, not my aunt) so we couldn't stay too late... 

Overall I think we saw three movies, six anime screenings, and the Mushishi preview.  I bought a T-shirt (Ichigo from Bleach) in the dealer room, and got some free stuff, and I bought lots of fanart (I tend to do that... I can get official stuff cheaper through my club online so the Dealer Room is practically useless...).  In the Dealer room I did see a very cool sword stand with excellent Zelda reproductions... and I saw some awesome concept art for a game, but I'm sad because I lost what the name was and I really wanted to look it up and see if I could find the art online...  We took a lot of pictures, which i will post below, ad were hardly in our hotel room at all - so it rocked!   

And now... on to pictures, there are lots...

This guy was working a booth in the Dealer room (obviously), but when I asked my dad to take
a picture he whipped out his book and posed for us ^_^

My dad was taking candid shots from the second story... but it looks like this girl caught on, ne?
 

I don't know if this is CLAMP in Wonderland or what, but I want that fan so bad!                       

... Hikaru and her 'deus' um... Misaki from CLAMP's Angelic Layer. Hikaru is making a rather...
interesting face, but, in her defense, it was rather late, and the costumes rock!

Another candid shot - Artist Alley!  They pretty much separated Artist Alley into those who
only sketched, and those who were also selling prints.  This was the prints side (it was much
larger than the other side)

Candid shot on the last day, my dad just thought the dresses were pretty. This is in "the Pike",
a shopping center across the way that was mostly restaurants. It was funny to see all the
cosplayers in the California Pizza Kitchen, Islands, and Borders too!

This woman had her things all laid out on the ground in the Westin Lobby when we went up to
a screening, and when we came out she was standing there posing... those wings looked way 
heavy!

We saw these two all three days, each day in a different costume.  And each day the costumes
got progressively skimpier, until my dad wouldn't take a picture on the third day... we were
wondering if they were coming day 4, and if they'd only be wearing handkerchiefs if they did...

Death Note was a popular cosplay choice this year, though Bleach definitely beat it out. I
believe the girls are the same two as the photo above.  The pink and plaid outfit is awesome!

A candid Death Note shot from  the beginning of day 1 - their wigs are a little frizzy, but they look
very in character despite the fact that they didn't know they were being photographed.

This girl was probably thirteen and she sewed that all herself.     Now this girl and her friend had a booth for cosplay commissions
We stopped her to ask how she did her piping (the white) - the  and a raffle.  They made their piping from strips of cloth rather
outfit is the "day class" school uniform from Vampire Knight.        than ribbons.  Night class uniform from Vampire Knight!

Tsubasa cosplay!  We recognized him right away and wanted a   Random detailed cosplay outfits... they were just cool ^_^                                                                                               
the Sakura to go with his Syaoran ^_^" our bad!

This dress was gorgeous, but I don't know if it was supposed     And even more random armored cosplay, looks as though that
to be from anything.  We just liked it ^_^                               took some real work... 

There were quite a few Final Fantasy VII cosplayers, and I was determined to get at least one
shot of Cloud before we left... fortunately we got a whole crew!  We missed an awesome Tifa
while my dad was buying water though... perfect costume, perfect pose... *sob*

Final Fantasy.. XII (Josh told me, I didn't know...), there was a huge group posing and I said
"Daddy! Quick!" The bunny girl on the bike does have a flesh colored body suit on.  Ooo! And 
there's a Toushiro from Bleach walking in the background.  I just noticed that!  I love you Shiro-kun!

Lust and Gluttony from FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist) they had this    Josh told me her name (Chun Li?) but all I remember is that I
pose down pat, but my dad's camera didn't like the dark colors.   think she's from Street Fighter or something like that... she was
                                                                                        very "in character".

I know I've seen a picture of this character, but I can't remember what she's from.  Still, very
cute, and that wig rocks!  The giant ball beside her is actually on a guy's head. See the eye
peeking through?

This is us with the other Yuya and Kyoshiro.  They brought weapons!  I wanted to bring a gun,
but the guidelines said 'no'.  So she let me pose with hers. From left to right: other Yuya, me as
Yuya, Brian as Kyo, Josh as Benitora, and the other guy as Kyoshiro.  They were very nice.

We didn't take any other Bleach cosplay photos, but I couldn't resist this Nanoa and Shunsui
best Bleach costumes there I tell you.  Though I did see one very good Toshiro... but he was
too far away to catch. The ugly pink strands on the swords are the peace bond tags... ugh...

Still lots of Naruto cosplay this year.  Sakura, Tenten, and Shikamaru, I believe.  There were a
lot of Sakura's, mostly in post time-skip clothing.  I really wanted to take a picture of every
Sakura we saw and put them up together, but we didn't get around to it...

These kids were adorable, and I doubt they got much done because everyone wanted their
picture, but they were good sports.  Sasuke and Naruto of course.

Shino is my favorite! And this guy was by far the best.  I'm really sad my dad didn't get his
entire costume, it was very nice quality.

By far the best shot we got the whole trip.  The lighting is perfect, the pose is perfect, the
focus is perfect... this costume and the next ones were amazing, and she was very in character.
San form Princess Mononoke, if you didn't know.

And the rest of her group.  The Spirit of the Forest, from Princess Mononoke, and Kiki, from
Kiki's Delivery Service. All that fur must have been sweltering!

Brain, Josh, and I.  The sun was in our eyes, so we're all            Just cool.  No idea what he's from, though it does look vaguely
squinting.  But Josh's eyes are closed on purpose, because         familiar...
Benitora does that as his "disguise".

Sano, Kamatari, and I believe that's Yumi on the ground?  We     Link, from Twilight Princess.  This guy did the leather work himself

actually had to wait in line behind the news people to get this    and he even made the chain mail from a "do it yourself" kit.  The

picture, and the reporter thought we were waiting for him...       tunic he bought, so it's not as high quality.

Kingdom hearts 2 characters.  Now the one in black is dedicated... absolutely amazing I tell you,
and the pose is cool too.  It looked even cooler at an angle.

No idea who they were, but they look cool!  Those have got to be wigs, but they're very good.

Umi, Hikaru, and Fuu from CLAMP's Magic Knights Rayearth.  The girl dressed as Fuu is a friend   
of mine from high school.  Most of the Pokemon fanart, and some of the Inuyasha stuff is hers. 
lHer name is Jenny (artjenesis) and she's very talented.

Trinity Blood characters, though I don't know their names.  These girls made everything by hand
(well, probably not the wigs, though they probably styled them themselves.) I was so jealous!

All the Links from the Legend of Four Swords.  So adorable!  We almost missed this shot, as we  
were running late for our first anime screening of the day, but I insisted!

Not cosplayers, just statues, but they were very cool.  And I had space to fill here.  Actually
I think we have 80 pictures, and I've only posted a little under forty, but this was cooler than
the rest of the costumes...

By the way... the new avatar is from aethereality.net - credit where credit is due ^_^

 
Current Mood: excited
 

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