Anime Expo Report 2
Second AX report! Previous one is friends-locked. This is the public version, which includes pics of cosplayers, more of my rambling on panels and events I went to (AMV contest, Yuki Kajiura concert, Okamoto Nobuhiko panel, Fate/Zero panel, Madhouse/Chihayafuru panel, Kishio Daisuke panel), food, and merchandise.
Day 0: Thursday
This was the day I was supposed to set off for AX, but I ended up not being able to go! The rest of the group went without me and made their way to Los Angeles. Still, I picked out a few pics from their stash. XD
They checked in at the hotel, got their badges, and had dinner at Little Tokyo. I'm sure this isn't what they had. XD I would never, ever be able to finish this! That is just huge.
Here's a tiny glimpse of part of Little Tokyo. I went there twice during this trip~.
Was amused to find this in gem2niki's photos. =P (I also saw more than one artist sell art of Avengers + Shawarma in the Artist Alley over the weekend)
The area around the convention center was so congested this year, and the shuttles between the convention center and the hotels had to take roundabout routes because the main street was completely sealed off for X-games. (Extreme games?) Here's part of the X-games. They drove cars at high speed to go around these loops! 0____0; Construction was still being done on Thursday. Saturday, we saw the cars when they went through these loops. It was a crazy sight. (And then later that day, we heard that one of the cars had crashed. The person was hurt but survived). I took the shuttle a lot last year, but this year they weren't all that convenient and took a very long time...
Day 1: Friday
I was also not around during most of Friday. XD; I didn't get to the convention center until dinner time! But here are some pics from gem2niki and my brother's cameras. XD
gem2niki's table and Ethe's next to hers. :3
This is the main entrance to the convention center, though that's not the main point of this photo, haha.
These people were outside the convention center near the place where they were giving out inflatable rifles.
I see that a Bolin stopped by gem2niki's table. :3
A Hijikata also passed by her table. Sometime during the day, g2n texted me saying she couldn't go to the Fate/Zero last episode screening since no one was available to watch her table, and I texted back saying that I would miss it too. :'( (But it wasn't like I had finished watching Fate/Zero by that time. XDDDDD)
From my brother's camera. XD He returned to the hotel to wait for 2 of our roommates, and then he went to the convention center to wander around. Also got us tickets to watch the AMV contest, which I hoped I would be able to make in time!
The cuuuuutest Cloud, okay??? So cuuuuute. Look at the small weapon he has...
Inga~. With Kazamori!
I'm not sure. XD Alice?
Sakamichi no Apollon!! *___* They look so much like their parts. <3 I of course did not see them on this day since I wasn't there, but I saw them on Monday. :D
Penguindrum~
Oh look, another pic of the loop at X games!
Aha, this is when I arrived. XD My brother and I had dinner at Mr. Ramen, trying to get a meal in before we went to the AMV contest. I ordered a ramen set that came with curry and gyoza. It was too much food for me (what was I thinking). I thought the ramen would be a smaller portion!! But apparently it said on the menu that the ramen would be regular sized, oops. XD;;;
After dinner, my brother and I went to drop my stuff off in our hotel room. No one was there!! But later two of our roommates showed up, and we told them that we'd be at the AMVs. Off we went~. We took the shuttle (come to think of it, that was the only time I took the shuttle this year...) and goodness, was it slow. The traffic was just terrible because the main street was closed and it felt like we were stuck in it forever, and we watched the time tick by. We were definitely going to be late. The bus driver was quite some driver though, and maneuvered us with some very close calls with cars parked to the side. The people seated in front of us were looking out the windows in alarm, looking like they were very worried we would run into the cars to our right.
We showed up right in time for the AMV contest though, as it didn't start entirely on time. (Which was awesome for us. XDD ) Everyone received a sheet with the titles of the AMVs, who they're created by, the song used, and what series the AMV was about. The ballot was at the top and was detachable. I loved having all of the information in front of us!
Drama started us off, and then down the list we went. D3: Fairytale of Lies made me tear up a little. I suppose it did help that I knew the plot of that one fairly well (the rest are all familiar to me too, to various degrees though), but since it's Romeo x Juliet, even if people don't know the anime, I'm pretty sure they'd still know the gist of the story. There were parts where dialogue was used quite cleverly! ;) D2: Enchanted, the first Kimi ni Todoke video, was very full of shoujo vibes, haha, with Kazehaya and Sawako glancing at each other and blushing a lot. I was surprised there were two Kimi ni Todoke AMVs. D4: Beaten Down was the 2nd one, and this one showcased the series a bit more and made it feel like KnT was less just about Kazehaya and Sawako, since you get to see more of the other characters too. I'm not too sure what to feel about D5: Lum's New Love Song. It didn't feel like it fit the drama category very well... but I did like how Lum's zapping fit the beat. D7 and D8 both make me want to watch the series... D7 was about friendship while the drama in D8 was all about epic battles.
We were told from the start that if we left before the show ended, then our vote would be invalid, haha. I bet it's because usually most people like the Comedy section the best and don't care too much for the other categories.
Next, we got into Action~. I enjoyed quite a lot of these and had a super hard time voting! A2: Written in the Spirals was quite pretty and the music fit. A3: Naruto Ball Z Shippuden had me in stitches, laughing...which made me think it would have worked better in the Comedy section, but it was indeed full of action too. One moment in the AMV, you'd see Naruto and his friends, and then suddenly, Goku! Vegeta! Cell! It's just... the juxtaposition had me bursting out in laughter, and the people next to me didn't help either. When A4: Riot!! came on, I wondered if the song used was the actual opening song of the series since it fit so well. ;) A5: The Contract was a little disturbing... and I haven't even watched Madoka yet. XD;; A6: Ramen:Light... what is this anime???! I am deathly curious. Ramen Figher???!! A7: Put Ya' Guns On! is deliciously full of action and makes me want to give Sengoku Basara a try again.
After the Action section, came Comedy. C1: Ballad of the Nice Guy was pretty hilarious about how nice guys always finish last. Through the video, our protagonist from Full Metal Panic tries to learn how to become more popular with girls. He's given examples of good guys who fail to get the girl and bad guys who the girls go crazy over. C2: Sorry for Being Hercule, Sincerely Mr. Satan is just completely hilarious. It plays on Satan's delusions very well. XDDD I also enjoyed C4: A Brainless Video. I really want to look up that song... It was catchy. :) The other three comedy videos lost me with the humor...
The Random/Fun category is very random. Some were trailers, some were not... I enjoyed F6: Smile because... Madoka is pretty dark, but the song Smile from My Little Pony is so not, and the irony is just... haha...
Last category was AMTV PRO, which our MC introduced with something along these lines, "The following feel they are a cut above the rest..." The way that was phrased amused my brother and me quite a lot (So you just enter yourself into the category, if you feel you're a cut above the rest...?). The category seems to be all about editing techniques. I found this category the least engaging because the AMVs didn't seem to be telling a story to me. There were a lot of prettiness happening, but that was about it...
After each category concluded, we were given recaps of the videos in the category and some time to make our votes. After all the AMVs were shown, we turned in our ballots on our way out.
Here's the list of AMVs, with some links for anyone interested.
Drama
D1 - Magic Eye - By Shin ("No Light, No Light" by Florence & The Machine - Stein's Gate)
D2 - Enchanted - By AimoAio ("Enchanted" by Owl City - Kimi ni Todoke)
D3 - Fairytale of Lies - By RiderG ("Faster" by Within Temptation - Romeo x Juliet)
D4 - Beaten Down - By Moonlight Soldier ("Annie" by the Safteysuit - Kimi ni Todoke)
D5 - Lum's New Love Song - By "L33TMEATWAD" ("Love you Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez - Urusei Yatsura)
D6 - Dreamer - By Radical Yue ("The Creationist" by Kerli - Card Captor Sakura)
D7 - Friends Forever - By Melichan923 ("Here's to the Night" by Eve 6 - Ano Hana)
D8 - Twelve Swords - By Chosen Exiled ("Stairway to the Skies" by Within Temptation - Katanagatari)
Action
A1 - Your Perfect World - By irriadin ("The Best It's Gonna Get" by Celldweller - Black Lagoon)
A2 - Written in the Spirals - By Shin ("Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah ft Mark Turner - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
A3 - Naruto Ball Z Shippuden: Heroes Come Back - By Random Destination Studios ("The Biggest Fight" by Kageyama Hironobu - Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Shippuden)
A4 - Riot!! - By Truffle Pig Studios ("Zoot suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Baccano!)
A5 - The Contract - By AimoAio ("Miss Murder" by AFI - Puella Magi Madoka Magika)
A6 - Ramen:Light - By Reversed Studios ("The Pure and the Tainted" by Blue Stahli - Ramen Fighter Miki)
A7 - Put Ya' Guns On! - By irriadin ("Becoming Insane" by Infected Mushroom - Sengoku Basara, Sengoku Basara: The Last Party)
A8 - Shut Up and Ride - By Jump Cut Productions ("Shut up and Drive" by Rihanna - Ride Back)
Comedy
C1 - Ballad of the Nice Guy - By MysteriousRyder ("Nice Guys Finish Last" by Chester See, Kevjumba, & Ryan Higa - Full Metal Panic, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid)
C2 - Sorry for Being Hercule, Sincerely Mr. Satan - By L33TMEATWAD ("I'm Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO - Dragon Ball Z)
C3 - The Butler Box Social - By Mr. Pilkington ("Jessie Buy Nothing, Go To Prom Anyways" by Hellogoodbye - Ouran Host Club)
C4 - A Brainless Video - By drewaconclusion ("What the F*** Was That?" by Evil Dead: The Musical - Highschool of the Dead)
C5 - Clubbin' With Lupin by L33TMEATWAD ("Jack Sparrow" by The Lonely Island - Lupin the 3rd Series II, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Squid Girl, GTO, Phoenix Wright, Panty & Stocking with Garter Belt)
C6 - Carrots and Corn - By Moonlight Soldier ("Unicorn in C Major" by Stuckey and Murray - Sailor Moon Super S)
Random/Fun
F1 - Another Destination - By Kireblue (Final Destination 5 Movie Trailer - Another)
F2 - FULLMETAL'S BACK - By RiderG ("Everybody" by Backstreet Boys - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
F3 - Evil Island - By Melichan923 (Shutter Island Movie Trailer - Resident Evil 4)
F4 - Safety Dance - By Shin ("Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats - Nichijou)
F5 - The Kingdom of L.F.S. - By DriftRoot (Knights of Badassdom Movie Trailer - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children)
F6 - Smile - By Sephiroth ("Smile" from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
AMTV - PRO
P1 - Fate Matrix - By Shin and Gunther AMVs ("Tell Me [Clock Opera Remix]" by AuRevoir Simone - Various Titles)
P2 - Quatro Stasis - By Perfect Blue ("Strike" by JunkieXL - Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Armitage, Neon Genesis Evangelion)
P3 - Illusion - By irriadin ("Sunshower" by Ume - Casshern Sins)
P4 - Go and Be Free - By 1MoonGoddess7 ("Pony" by Erin McCarley - Various Studio Ghibli Titles)
P5 - Shout! - By IsrafelMNG ("Shout vs. Pjanoo" from DJ Hero - Various Titles)
P6 - Save the World - By milkmandan and manganate ("Save the World" by Swedish House Mafia)
Aaaaanyway, that got long... it's been some time since I've gone to the AMV contest! :3;; I don't go very often. This one was run very smoothly, and I loved the ballot! I just wish AMTV wasn't put at the very end. That almost put me to sleep.
After that, my brother and I walked back to our hotel. When we got there, everyone was asleep already! It was pitch black! 0____0;; I was quite surprised that everyone had already retired for the night. I fumbled around in the dark for a bit and used my cellphone as a flashlight... I didn't even get to meet half of my roommates since they hadn't been there when I arrived, and now they were already asleep...
Day 2: Saturday
Finally, my first full day at the con, though Friday didn't turn out too badly since I did get to attend the AMV Contest at night~. We dressed up in our SKET Dance cosplay and set out for the convention center, a little behind schedule. We walked, which was...not very smart of us. It took its toll on us by evening!
Saw some Ao no Exorcist cosplayers when we reached the convention center~.
And two Sabers.
After we dropped gem2niki's prints off in the Artist Alley (we merely hung her prints up and then promptly deserted her table), we rushed to go to Okamoto Nobuhiko's panel. It was on the other side of the convention center. Saw these cosplayers on our way~. I know I know this series, but I can't recall the name at the moment... not a series I've personally consumed. :3;;
This thing was completely blocking the traffic! It was huge!
No pictures were allowed at Okamoto Nobuhiko's panel. We waited in a super stuffy room for his panel. The line was loooong. He has a lot of fans! The panel was basically a Q&A session. A huge line of people lined up. Not everyone got to ask questions. It was mostly girls, but there were also a few guys. Here's a write-up of questions he answered. He seems like a very friendly and nice person. :)
After the panel, gem2niki and I lost my brother. |D;; We headed off to the Fate/Zero panel held by the director and producers. When we walked in, a few Japanese speakers in the audience spotted us and went, "Oh! Bossun!" and then "Oh Himeko!" when they saw our cosplay. XD; First person turned to another and were talking about us, hahaha. It seemed that they were playing identify the cosplayer, because they then went on to point out a lot of other cosplayers. Quite amusing to listen to... Later on, a Berserker sat down very near me. XD
As for the panel itself, our guests walked in, led by Fate/Zero cosplayers. We were first introduced to what series each person on the team worked on before. And then the Q&A started. Whenever someone asked about Fate/stay Night, they played oblivious and went "What's that?" Haha... Sadly, Berserker didn't get to ask a question before the panel was over! That cosplayer was shaking his armor plates as clapping though. Made quite a lot of noise. :3;;
Here's the cosplayer. :D
After the panel, we finally headed back to gem2niki's table in the Artist Alley. She was only there for 3 hours on Saturday!
Some some Katamari Damacy on the way back~
Once we got to her table, someone was already there, wanting to buy something. |D;; We finally met up with my brother again. He and I went to browse the Artist Alley. He bought a lot of prints. :3;; I also ran into seta_suzume in her Kimbley cosplay. She pointed out later online that we were both dressed as characters voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino. How funny! XD (Kimbley and Bossun are both voiced by the same seiyuu)
Saw a very cool Okami cosplayer while we browsed.
And a Steve! Lovely shield. The Steves multiplied after that, because suddenly, there were two of them... XD;;; Didn't get a pic of that though.
The Artist Alley was quite crowded and hard to walk through. And very large! We only managed to finish going around the AA once before the place was about to close. We then started heading back to g2n's table. I only bought a bookmark of Renton from Eureka seveN. :3;; Unfortunately, I didn't see much art of series I cared about... the woes of liking obscure series!
Gosh, does he have the hair down...
After that, g2n dropped her luggage off in the hotel while my brother and I wanted in line for Yuki Kajiura's concert. It was a very awesome concert! She brought the entire band with her, with four singers, each responsible for different pitches. Wakana, Yuriko, Keiko, and Kaori. I really liked Keiko's voice! (I think it was Keiko, I'm forgetting who was who already :3;;;). But it was the singer responsible for the deeper pitches. She speaks in such a high voice, but she has such range. It's really amazing. Yuki Kajiura mostly spoke in English, introducing us to her crew and many of the songs.
Here's the songlist of what was played at the concert! I know the .hack and Noir songs better than the others. :3;; My favorite was Salva Nos from Noir, and I also loved it when Yuki Kajiura also sang a bit herself. I think that was in Stone Cold from Sacred Seven? Or was it the next song...
I look forward to hearing Yuki Kajiura in Sword Art Online. Another reason to watch that series. XD;;
We were all starving by the time the concert ended. My brother and I hadn't eaten lunch (or much of breakfast either) which was...really stupid of us. -___-;; It was fairly late, so we went to IHOP, one of the few places that was still open.
I had crepe. :3 Spinach + mushroom.
G2n also had crepe. Chicken.
My brother had breakfast food and fruit. We all had orange juice, hoping that would prevent us from getting sick. Thankfully, none of us got sick!
Day 3: Sunday
My brother was pretty beat, so g2n and I let him sleep in. We headed off to the convention center, taking the metro there instead of the shuttle. We bought day passes, thinking we might take the metro many times...but in the end, we only took it once!!! What a waste!
We dropped g2n's stuff in the Artist Alley and then hurried over to the Madhouse panel with the Chihayfuru team. We were half an hour late. -____-; But at least we got to be there for some of it.
There was a Kero-chan sitting in the back, haha. Lots of people took photos!
Here's a write-up on the panel!
I was really happy to hear lots of people ask questions about Chihayafuru. It feels good to know there are so many fans of the series around! I can't wait for the second season~
We briefly saw jen_kat as we left the panel, but she rushed back to the Dealer's for the autograph session. :3;; We took our time walking back. XD
There were some origami displays about~. Would have been perfect to pose in front of them in my Bossun cosplay! There's an episode where Bossun gets completely obsessed with folding origami... XDDD
G2n went back to her table. I watched it for a bit as she bought her AA table for 2013. Then I went out to buy my 2013 membership. While I was there, I saw...this! Just...what the...?? XDD
From g2n's camera!
From my camera. XD I spotted a Bossun! His clothes look like it fit him really well (mine are so baggy on me. XDDD)
Shaman King~
Saber again!
My brother finally arrived around this time. We went around the Dealer's Room for a bit before I had to go back to g2n's table so she could get her autographs. This was from the El Sword booth!
The character the guy was cosplaying. :3
We saw some pretty cool gaming tables! They have lots of compartments.
I was quite amused by this Shizuo who was examining the weapons in this store. XD
These wooden mustaches were also quite amusing. XDDD Maybe I should have tried one on after all...
When I went back to g2n's table, she went off to get her autograph (failed with the Fate/Zero crew. Too many people!) but then when she returned later, the Chihayfuru team dropped by her table! *___* (Photo included in previous post)
Penguindrum~ (also a friend of g2n's)
Haha, I asked them if I could take a photo of them while they were browsing. XD;; Avatar cosplayers~
I deserted g2n again after that to finish browsing the Dealer's Room. Cuuute cosplayers right here! Sango and Mako with huge weapons.
SKET Dance figures!!!! These are all voiced. I only bought Tsubaki. They were quite expensive. Dante is the most ridiculous...
Around this time was when I walked right into Kishio Daisuke's autograph session at Anime Jungle, aaaaaaaaaah. I rushed back to g2n's table for an autograph board since she had just bought some (and still had an unused one because she didn't manage to get the Fate/Zero signature...). When I returned to Jungle, I ran into revenus at that time! :3;;
KDLA;FJA;DFA I still can't get over the fact that I didn't even know Kishio Daisuke would be at AX. OTL I'm glad I walked right into his autograph session!
After that excitement, I went back to help g2n at her table. XD;
Natsume cosplayers~. I've actually seen them before during a previous AX! Same Natsume cosplayer.
Oh, and my brother was absent this entire time because he went to the Maid Cafe, hahahaha. And to drive our car over so he could pick us up for dinner.
We were going to go to Little Tokyo to a famous ramen shop (yes, ramen again), but one of our dinner mates decided not to go with us. We still went. It was super crowded...so we decided not to wait. Instead, we drove all the way off to Book Off (quite a distance away) because I really wanted to go to the second hand bookshop. :3;; There isn't one around where I live! G2n and I both bought a bunch of manga, haha... All the while, I walked around in my Bossun cosplay. XDD Garnered quite a few weird looks since we were so far away from the convention center. I wasn't too out of place in the bookstore though, but someone thought I was a worker there and asked me where something was, haha... However that might have been because I was holding a huge stack of manga I planned on buying in my hand instead of because of my cosplay.
After we bought our manga, we looked up a ramen place. It had spectacular reviews, so we went. Yeah, we still went for ramen. XD;;
There we were, at the restaurant. We got even more weird looks here, or well, mostly me... |D;;;; It's that hat and goggles!!
The place was called Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi.
The seating was cool. :D
Food we ordered! There was a slight wait. They even have a table outside where we were supposed to fill out our order so that we could hand them our order the moment we were inside. We didn't quite manage to figure out what we wanted to order before we went inside. :3;; But in the end, this was what we ordered~. Very filling and very yummy! We were able to specify how much oil and how thick we wanted our broth. We all went for light oil...so uh, it was very light indeed. XD;
We completely skipped the Masquerade for dinner (none of the others are interested in the Masquerade) though we did hear people talk about it in the elevator. We had our mini SKET Dance photoshoot in our hotel lobby at this time~ (photos in previous post!)
Day 4: Monday
Before we knew it, the last day rolled about! Had to check-out and toss everything into the car. My brother didn't even go to the convention center on Monday. He dropped us off and then went elsewhere to occupy his time.
At the convention center, I did some last minute shopping (didn't see much that interested me) and helped g2n sell. At 12, I left for Kishio Daisuke's panel. It was a great panel! He opened the panel with enthusiastic English. It was so cute. <3 Not a lot of people showed up (last day + not well advertised...), so many people got to ask multiple questions. It was cozy and pretty cool since it meant we could ask follow-up questions if something he said sparked our curiosity and made us want to ask more. :D He accommodated us with doing voices, so I also ventured and asked him if he could do Yunoki's voice for us. He asked what line he should do, something like, "Ohayo, Hino-san?" but I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head either. |D;; A girl in the front looked up Yunoki's line on her cell phone though and handed it to him. He took one look at it and said "Nagai!" But then he said that he might as well do it, so he performed the whole thing for us. <3333 Yunoki has a nice side and a dark side, so he was all speaking in a polite and kind voice, and then in the middle, he switched! XDDD Cue screaming. XDD I really wish I had recorded the entire thing... but I didn't manage to record it all. ;__; He got asked what his favorite anime was (Dragonball) and then after that, he answered "Dragonball" for a lot of other questions too, so much that someone asked him who his favorite character in DB was. XDDD;;; He even did an imitation for us, and a Kamehameha. XDDD He was asked what he would have become if not a seiyuu, and he answered "Comedian." Oh, I so very believe he could have become a comedian after meeting him in person! He is hilarious and so lively!
Anyway, awesome panel. <3333
Back in the AA, I spotted some Suikoden cosplayers. :D
Here are the Sakamichi cosplayers again. :3
I don't even know. XDD
This was also grabbed from g2n's camera. XD;; I don't know where they're from.
Madoka~ seta_suzume! :DDDD
And so concluded our AX experience. Artist Alley and Dealer's closed at 3. We tore down our stands once the place closed and tried to pack as quickly as we could. My brother dropped all of us off at the airport for our flight back.
G2n bought dinner for herself, yum~.
While I bought this. XD;; Which was definitely not dinner, but I was feeling warm! XDDD And not hungry.
Here's our plane. :3
Saw the moon too. :D
Merchandise
Stuff I bought!
I actually didn't buy much at the convention itself. All the manga in the back was from Book Off, and most of my figures were from Nijiya supermarket. I got all of the posters for free except for the one in the middle of Mother 3. :3;; Second one from the left is a print from gem2niki while the Angry Birds one is from Ethe, g2n's coworker and one of our roommates. :3
Bought myself a Kuwabara plushie (I already have a Kurama and a Yusuke, now only missing Hiei), Hakuoki for the PSP, and Mugen Spiral in English. All the rest of the manga is in Japanese. :3;; Gotta update my manga list with all of these! Some volumes here and there of Oofuri, Bokura no Kiseki, S.A., Shishi Doumei Cross, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, +Anima, Ouran High School Host Club, Rozen Maiden, Daiya no A, Boku to Kanojo no XXX.
Fishbooooooones! :DDD From left to right: Dragon earring, fishbone earring, fishbone earring, Soujirou, and Kishio Daisuke.
Soujirou is so cute. :3
Fishbones make me happy. ^___^
My figures~
Tsubaki from SKET Dance~. This I bought at the convention. He's voiced and speaks two messages when you press a button. :3 My favorite character from SKET! XD
Killua~. My brother bought me this random box. So happy it turned out to be Killua! Lucky! XDD
SKET Dance figures from Nijiya supermarket. :3 G2n and my brother both bought one on Thursday. It was funny because my brother was telling me how they happened to buy who they were cosplaying as (g2n got Himeko, my brother got Switch, I was sad they didn't buy me one!). When I went on Friday to buy one for myself, I picked up the box and read "This box contains Bossun (Fujisaki Yusuke)". I picked up a few other boxes and read them, and they all had the characters' names on them. It wasn't random!!!! XDDD They were lucky they didn't buy repeats even though they thought they were random boxes and didn't read the top. =P
In any case though, we all wanted all three of the characters, so it wouldn't have mattered if we did end up buying repeats. In the end, we bought nine of these, three for each of us, haha.
I'm a little sad I didn't take more pics during the convention. There were a lot of cosplayers that I was too tired to stop, or it was too crowded to stop them... I spotted a lot of amazing Loki cosplayers! :3;; One girl had her skin painted blue, with Jotun markings, and she was carrying a glowing Casket with her. Very cool.
That's it for conventions for me, until next year! Unless I suddenly go to some other convention out of the blue. XD
Day 0: Thursday
This was the day I was supposed to set off for AX, but I ended up not being able to go! The rest of the group went without me and made their way to Los Angeles. Still, I picked out a few pics from their stash. XD
They checked in at the hotel, got their badges, and had dinner at Little Tokyo. I'm sure this isn't what they had. XD I would never, ever be able to finish this! That is just huge.
Here's a tiny glimpse of part of Little Tokyo. I went there twice during this trip~.
Was amused to find this in gem2niki's photos. =P (I also saw more than one artist sell art of Avengers + Shawarma in the Artist Alley over the weekend)
The area around the convention center was so congested this year, and the shuttles between the convention center and the hotels had to take roundabout routes because the main street was completely sealed off for X-games. (Extreme games?) Here's part of the X-games. They drove cars at high speed to go around these loops! 0____0; Construction was still being done on Thursday. Saturday, we saw the cars when they went through these loops. It was a crazy sight. (And then later that day, we heard that one of the cars had crashed. The person was hurt but survived). I took the shuttle a lot last year, but this year they weren't all that convenient and took a very long time...
Day 1: Friday
I was also not around during most of Friday. XD; I didn't get to the convention center until dinner time! But here are some pics from gem2niki and my brother's cameras. XD
gem2niki's table and Ethe's next to hers. :3
This is the main entrance to the convention center, though that's not the main point of this photo, haha.
These people were outside the convention center near the place where they were giving out inflatable rifles.
I see that a Bolin stopped by gem2niki's table. :3
A Hijikata also passed by her table. Sometime during the day, g2n texted me saying she couldn't go to the Fate/Zero last episode screening since no one was available to watch her table, and I texted back saying that I would miss it too. :'( (But it wasn't like I had finished watching Fate/Zero by that time. XDDDDD)
From my brother's camera. XD He returned to the hotel to wait for 2 of our roommates, and then he went to the convention center to wander around. Also got us tickets to watch the AMV contest, which I hoped I would be able to make in time!
The cuuuuutest Cloud, okay??? So cuuuuute. Look at the small weapon he has...
Inga~. With Kazamori!
I'm not sure. XD Alice?
Sakamichi no Apollon!! *___* They look so much like their parts. <3 I of course did not see them on this day since I wasn't there, but I saw them on Monday. :D
Penguindrum~
Oh look, another pic of the loop at X games!
Aha, this is when I arrived. XD My brother and I had dinner at Mr. Ramen, trying to get a meal in before we went to the AMV contest. I ordered a ramen set that came with curry and gyoza. It was too much food for me (what was I thinking). I thought the ramen would be a smaller portion!! But apparently it said on the menu that the ramen would be regular sized, oops. XD;;;
After dinner, my brother and I went to drop my stuff off in our hotel room. No one was there!! But later two of our roommates showed up, and we told them that we'd be at the AMVs. Off we went~. We took the shuttle (come to think of it, that was the only time I took the shuttle this year...) and goodness, was it slow. The traffic was just terrible because the main street was closed and it felt like we were stuck in it forever, and we watched the time tick by. We were definitely going to be late. The bus driver was quite some driver though, and maneuvered us with some very close calls with cars parked to the side. The people seated in front of us were looking out the windows in alarm, looking like they were very worried we would run into the cars to our right.
We showed up right in time for the AMV contest though, as it didn't start entirely on time. (Which was awesome for us. XDD ) Everyone received a sheet with the titles of the AMVs, who they're created by, the song used, and what series the AMV was about. The ballot was at the top and was detachable. I loved having all of the information in front of us!
Drama started us off, and then down the list we went. D3: Fairytale of Lies made me tear up a little. I suppose it did help that I knew the plot of that one fairly well (the rest are all familiar to me too, to various degrees though), but since it's Romeo x Juliet, even if people don't know the anime, I'm pretty sure they'd still know the gist of the story. There were parts where dialogue was used quite cleverly! ;) D2: Enchanted, the first Kimi ni Todoke video, was very full of shoujo vibes, haha, with Kazehaya and Sawako glancing at each other and blushing a lot. I was surprised there were two Kimi ni Todoke AMVs. D4: Beaten Down was the 2nd one, and this one showcased the series a bit more and made it feel like KnT was less just about Kazehaya and Sawako, since you get to see more of the other characters too. I'm not too sure what to feel about D5: Lum's New Love Song. It didn't feel like it fit the drama category very well... but I did like how Lum's zapping fit the beat. D7 and D8 both make me want to watch the series... D7 was about friendship while the drama in D8 was all about epic battles.
We were told from the start that if we left before the show ended, then our vote would be invalid, haha. I bet it's because usually most people like the Comedy section the best and don't care too much for the other categories.
Next, we got into Action~. I enjoyed quite a lot of these and had a super hard time voting! A2: Written in the Spirals was quite pretty and the music fit. A3: Naruto Ball Z Shippuden had me in stitches, laughing...which made me think it would have worked better in the Comedy section, but it was indeed full of action too. One moment in the AMV, you'd see Naruto and his friends, and then suddenly, Goku! Vegeta! Cell! It's just... the juxtaposition had me bursting out in laughter, and the people next to me didn't help either. When A4: Riot!! came on, I wondered if the song used was the actual opening song of the series since it fit so well. ;) A5: The Contract was a little disturbing... and I haven't even watched Madoka yet. XD;; A6: Ramen:Light... what is this anime???! I am deathly curious. Ramen Figher???!! A7: Put Ya' Guns On! is deliciously full of action and makes me want to give Sengoku Basara a try again.
After the Action section, came Comedy. C1: Ballad of the Nice Guy was pretty hilarious about how nice guys always finish last. Through the video, our protagonist from Full Metal Panic tries to learn how to become more popular with girls. He's given examples of good guys who fail to get the girl and bad guys who the girls go crazy over. C2: Sorry for Being Hercule, Sincerely Mr. Satan is just completely hilarious. It plays on Satan's delusions very well. XDDD I also enjoyed C4: A Brainless Video. I really want to look up that song... It was catchy. :) The other three comedy videos lost me with the humor...
The Random/Fun category is very random. Some were trailers, some were not... I enjoyed F6: Smile because... Madoka is pretty dark, but the song Smile from My Little Pony is so not, and the irony is just... haha...
Last category was AMTV PRO, which our MC introduced with something along these lines, "The following feel they are a cut above the rest..." The way that was phrased amused my brother and me quite a lot (So you just enter yourself into the category, if you feel you're a cut above the rest...?). The category seems to be all about editing techniques. I found this category the least engaging because the AMVs didn't seem to be telling a story to me. There were a lot of prettiness happening, but that was about it...
After each category concluded, we were given recaps of the videos in the category and some time to make our votes. After all the AMVs were shown, we turned in our ballots on our way out.
Here's the list of AMVs, with some links for anyone interested.
Drama
D1 - Magic Eye - By Shin ("No Light, No Light" by Florence & The Machine - Stein's Gate)
D2 - Enchanted - By AimoAio ("Enchanted" by Owl City - Kimi ni Todoke)
D3 - Fairytale of Lies - By RiderG ("Faster" by Within Temptation - Romeo x Juliet)
D4 - Beaten Down - By Moonlight Soldier ("Annie" by the Safteysuit - Kimi ni Todoke)
D5 - Lum's New Love Song - By "L33TMEATWAD" ("Love you Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez - Urusei Yatsura)
D6 - Dreamer - By Radical Yue ("The Creationist" by Kerli - Card Captor Sakura)
D7 - Friends Forever - By Melichan923 ("Here's to the Night" by Eve 6 - Ano Hana)
D8 - Twelve Swords - By Chosen Exiled ("Stairway to the Skies" by Within Temptation - Katanagatari)
Action
A1 - Your Perfect World - By irriadin ("The Best It's Gonna Get" by Celldweller - Black Lagoon)
A2 - Written in the Spirals - By Shin ("Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah ft Mark Turner - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
A3 - Naruto Ball Z Shippuden: Heroes Come Back - By Random Destination Studios ("The Biggest Fight" by Kageyama Hironobu - Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Shippuden)
A4 - Riot!! - By Truffle Pig Studios ("Zoot suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Baccano!)
A5 - The Contract - By AimoAio ("Miss Murder" by AFI - Puella Magi Madoka Magika)
A6 - Ramen:Light - By Reversed Studios ("The Pure and the Tainted" by Blue Stahli - Ramen Fighter Miki)
A7 - Put Ya' Guns On! - By irriadin ("Becoming Insane" by Infected Mushroom - Sengoku Basara, Sengoku Basara: The Last Party)
A8 - Shut Up and Ride - By Jump Cut Productions ("Shut up and Drive" by Rihanna - Ride Back)
Comedy
C1 - Ballad of the Nice Guy - By MysteriousRyder ("Nice Guys Finish Last" by Chester See, Kevjumba, & Ryan Higa - Full Metal Panic, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid)
C2 - Sorry for Being Hercule, Sincerely Mr. Satan - By L33TMEATWAD ("I'm Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO - Dragon Ball Z)
C3 - The Butler Box Social - By Mr. Pilkington ("Jessie Buy Nothing, Go To Prom Anyways" by Hellogoodbye - Ouran Host Club)
C4 - A Brainless Video - By drewaconclusion ("What the F*** Was That?" by Evil Dead: The Musical - Highschool of the Dead)
C5 - Clubbin' With Lupin by L33TMEATWAD ("Jack Sparrow" by The Lonely Island - Lupin the 3rd Series II, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Squid Girl, GTO, Phoenix Wright, Panty & Stocking with Garter Belt)
C6 - Carrots and Corn - By Moonlight Soldier ("Unicorn in C Major" by Stuckey and Murray - Sailor Moon Super S)
Random/Fun
F1 - Another Destination - By Kireblue (Final Destination 5 Movie Trailer - Another)
F2 - FULLMETAL'S BACK - By RiderG ("Everybody" by Backstreet Boys - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
F3 - Evil Island - By Melichan923 (Shutter Island Movie Trailer - Resident Evil 4)
F4 - Safety Dance - By Shin ("Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats - Nichijou)
F5 - The Kingdom of L.F.S. - By DriftRoot (Knights of Badassdom Movie Trailer - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children)
F6 - Smile - By Sephiroth ("Smile" from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
AMTV - PRO
P1 - Fate Matrix - By Shin and Gunther AMVs ("Tell Me [Clock Opera Remix]" by AuRevoir Simone - Various Titles)
P2 - Quatro Stasis - By Perfect Blue ("Strike" by JunkieXL - Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Armitage, Neon Genesis Evangelion)
P3 - Illusion - By irriadin ("Sunshower" by Ume - Casshern Sins)
P4 - Go and Be Free - By 1MoonGoddess7 ("Pony" by Erin McCarley - Various Studio Ghibli Titles)
P5 - Shout! - By IsrafelMNG ("Shout vs. Pjanoo" from DJ Hero - Various Titles)
P6 - Save the World - By milkmandan and manganate ("Save the World" by Swedish House Mafia)
Aaaaanyway, that got long... it's been some time since I've gone to the AMV contest! :3;; I don't go very often. This one was run very smoothly, and I loved the ballot! I just wish AMTV wasn't put at the very end. That almost put me to sleep.
After that, my brother and I walked back to our hotel. When we got there, everyone was asleep already! It was pitch black! 0____0;; I was quite surprised that everyone had already retired for the night. I fumbled around in the dark for a bit and used my cellphone as a flashlight... I didn't even get to meet half of my roommates since they hadn't been there when I arrived, and now they were already asleep...
Day 2: Saturday
Finally, my first full day at the con, though Friday didn't turn out too badly since I did get to attend the AMV Contest at night~. We dressed up in our SKET Dance cosplay and set out for the convention center, a little behind schedule. We walked, which was...not very smart of us. It took its toll on us by evening!
Saw some Ao no Exorcist cosplayers when we reached the convention center~.
And two Sabers.
After we dropped gem2niki's prints off in the Artist Alley (we merely hung her prints up and then promptly deserted her table), we rushed to go to Okamoto Nobuhiko's panel. It was on the other side of the convention center. Saw these cosplayers on our way~. I know I know this series, but I can't recall the name at the moment... not a series I've personally consumed. :3;;
This thing was completely blocking the traffic! It was huge!
No pictures were allowed at Okamoto Nobuhiko's panel. We waited in a super stuffy room for his panel. The line was loooong. He has a lot of fans! The panel was basically a Q&A session. A huge line of people lined up. Not everyone got to ask questions. It was mostly girls, but there were also a few guys. Here's a write-up of questions he answered. He seems like a very friendly and nice person. :)
After the panel, gem2niki and I lost my brother. |D;; We headed off to the Fate/Zero panel held by the director and producers. When we walked in, a few Japanese speakers in the audience spotted us and went, "Oh! Bossun!" and then "Oh Himeko!" when they saw our cosplay. XD; First person turned to another and were talking about us, hahaha. It seemed that they were playing identify the cosplayer, because they then went on to point out a lot of other cosplayers. Quite amusing to listen to... Later on, a Berserker sat down very near me. XD
As for the panel itself, our guests walked in, led by Fate/Zero cosplayers. We were first introduced to what series each person on the team worked on before. And then the Q&A started. Whenever someone asked about Fate/stay Night, they played oblivious and went "What's that?" Haha... Sadly, Berserker didn't get to ask a question before the panel was over! That cosplayer was shaking his armor plates as clapping though. Made quite a lot of noise. :3;;
Here's the cosplayer. :D
After the panel, we finally headed back to gem2niki's table in the Artist Alley. She was only there for 3 hours on Saturday!
Some some Katamari Damacy on the way back~
Once we got to her table, someone was already there, wanting to buy something. |D;; We finally met up with my brother again. He and I went to browse the Artist Alley. He bought a lot of prints. :3;; I also ran into seta_suzume in her Kimbley cosplay. She pointed out later online that we were both dressed as characters voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino. How funny! XD (Kimbley and Bossun are both voiced by the same seiyuu)
Saw a very cool Okami cosplayer while we browsed.
And a Steve! Lovely shield. The Steves multiplied after that, because suddenly, there were two of them... XD;;; Didn't get a pic of that though.
The Artist Alley was quite crowded and hard to walk through. And very large! We only managed to finish going around the AA once before the place was about to close. We then started heading back to g2n's table. I only bought a bookmark of Renton from Eureka seveN. :3;; Unfortunately, I didn't see much art of series I cared about... the woes of liking obscure series!
Gosh, does he have the hair down...
After that, g2n dropped her luggage off in the hotel while my brother and I wanted in line for Yuki Kajiura's concert. It was a very awesome concert! She brought the entire band with her, with four singers, each responsible for different pitches. Wakana, Yuriko, Keiko, and Kaori. I really liked Keiko's voice! (I think it was Keiko, I'm forgetting who was who already :3;;;). But it was the singer responsible for the deeper pitches. She speaks in such a high voice, but she has such range. It's really amazing. Yuki Kajiura mostly spoke in English, introducing us to her crew and many of the songs.
Here's the songlist of what was played at the concert! I know the .hack and Noir songs better than the others. :3;; My favorite was Salva Nos from Noir, and I also loved it when Yuki Kajiura also sang a bit herself. I think that was in Stone Cold from Sacred Seven? Or was it the next song...
I look forward to hearing Yuki Kajiura in Sword Art Online. Another reason to watch that series. XD;;
We were all starving by the time the concert ended. My brother and I hadn't eaten lunch (or much of breakfast either) which was...really stupid of us. -___-;; It was fairly late, so we went to IHOP, one of the few places that was still open.
I had crepe. :3 Spinach + mushroom.
G2n also had crepe. Chicken.
My brother had breakfast food and fruit. We all had orange juice, hoping that would prevent us from getting sick. Thankfully, none of us got sick!
Day 3: Sunday
My brother was pretty beat, so g2n and I let him sleep in. We headed off to the convention center, taking the metro there instead of the shuttle. We bought day passes, thinking we might take the metro many times...but in the end, we only took it once!!! What a waste!
We dropped g2n's stuff in the Artist Alley and then hurried over to the Madhouse panel with the Chihayfuru team. We were half an hour late. -____-; But at least we got to be there for some of it.
There was a Kero-chan sitting in the back, haha. Lots of people took photos!
Here's a write-up on the panel!
I was really happy to hear lots of people ask questions about Chihayafuru. It feels good to know there are so many fans of the series around! I can't wait for the second season~
We briefly saw jen_kat as we left the panel, but she rushed back to the Dealer's for the autograph session. :3;; We took our time walking back. XD
There were some origami displays about~. Would have been perfect to pose in front of them in my Bossun cosplay! There's an episode where Bossun gets completely obsessed with folding origami... XDDD
G2n went back to her table. I watched it for a bit as she bought her AA table for 2013. Then I went out to buy my 2013 membership. While I was there, I saw...this! Just...what the...?? XDD
From g2n's camera!
From my camera. XD I spotted a Bossun! His clothes look like it fit him really well (mine are so baggy on me. XDDD)
Shaman King~
Saber again!
My brother finally arrived around this time. We went around the Dealer's Room for a bit before I had to go back to g2n's table so she could get her autographs. This was from the El Sword booth!
The character the guy was cosplaying. :3
We saw some pretty cool gaming tables! They have lots of compartments.
I was quite amused by this Shizuo who was examining the weapons in this store. XD
These wooden mustaches were also quite amusing. XDDD Maybe I should have tried one on after all...
When I went back to g2n's table, she went off to get her autograph (failed with the Fate/Zero crew. Too many people!) but then when she returned later, the Chihayfuru team dropped by her table! *___* (Photo included in previous post)
Penguindrum~ (also a friend of g2n's)
Haha, I asked them if I could take a photo of them while they were browsing. XD;; Avatar cosplayers~
I deserted g2n again after that to finish browsing the Dealer's Room. Cuuute cosplayers right here! Sango and Mako with huge weapons.
SKET Dance figures!!!! These are all voiced. I only bought Tsubaki. They were quite expensive. Dante is the most ridiculous...
Around this time was when I walked right into Kishio Daisuke's autograph session at Anime Jungle, aaaaaaaaaah. I rushed back to g2n's table for an autograph board since she had just bought some (and still had an unused one because she didn't manage to get the Fate/Zero signature...). When I returned to Jungle, I ran into revenus at that time! :3;;
KDLA;FJA;DFA I still can't get over the fact that I didn't even know Kishio Daisuke would be at AX. OTL I'm glad I walked right into his autograph session!
After that excitement, I went back to help g2n at her table. XD;
Natsume cosplayers~. I've actually seen them before during a previous AX! Same Natsume cosplayer.
Oh, and my brother was absent this entire time because he went to the Maid Cafe, hahahaha. And to drive our car over so he could pick us up for dinner.
We were going to go to Little Tokyo to a famous ramen shop (yes, ramen again), but one of our dinner mates decided not to go with us. We still went. It was super crowded...so we decided not to wait. Instead, we drove all the way off to Book Off (quite a distance away) because I really wanted to go to the second hand bookshop. :3;; There isn't one around where I live! G2n and I both bought a bunch of manga, haha... All the while, I walked around in my Bossun cosplay. XDD Garnered quite a few weird looks since we were so far away from the convention center. I wasn't too out of place in the bookstore though, but someone thought I was a worker there and asked me where something was, haha... However that might have been because I was holding a huge stack of manga I planned on buying in my hand instead of because of my cosplay.
After we bought our manga, we looked up a ramen place. It had spectacular reviews, so we went. Yeah, we still went for ramen. XD;;
There we were, at the restaurant. We got even more weird looks here, or well, mostly me... |D;;;; It's that hat and goggles!!
The place was called Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi.
The seating was cool. :D
Food we ordered! There was a slight wait. They even have a table outside where we were supposed to fill out our order so that we could hand them our order the moment we were inside. We didn't quite manage to figure out what we wanted to order before we went inside. :3;; But in the end, this was what we ordered~. Very filling and very yummy! We were able to specify how much oil and how thick we wanted our broth. We all went for light oil...so uh, it was very light indeed. XD;
We completely skipped the Masquerade for dinner (none of the others are interested in the Masquerade) though we did hear people talk about it in the elevator. We had our mini SKET Dance photoshoot in our hotel lobby at this time~ (photos in previous post!)
Day 4: Monday
Before we knew it, the last day rolled about! Had to check-out and toss everything into the car. My brother didn't even go to the convention center on Monday. He dropped us off and then went elsewhere to occupy his time.
At the convention center, I did some last minute shopping (didn't see much that interested me) and helped g2n sell. At 12, I left for Kishio Daisuke's panel. It was a great panel! He opened the panel with enthusiastic English. It was so cute. <3 Not a lot of people showed up (last day + not well advertised...), so many people got to ask multiple questions. It was cozy and pretty cool since it meant we could ask follow-up questions if something he said sparked our curiosity and made us want to ask more. :D He accommodated us with doing voices, so I also ventured and asked him if he could do Yunoki's voice for us. He asked what line he should do, something like, "Ohayo, Hino-san?" but I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head either. |D;; A girl in the front looked up Yunoki's line on her cell phone though and handed it to him. He took one look at it and said "Nagai!" But then he said that he might as well do it, so he performed the whole thing for us. <3333 Yunoki has a nice side and a dark side, so he was all speaking in a polite and kind voice, and then in the middle, he switched! XDDD Cue screaming. XDD I really wish I had recorded the entire thing... but I didn't manage to record it all. ;__; He got asked what his favorite anime was (Dragonball) and then after that, he answered "Dragonball" for a lot of other questions too, so much that someone asked him who his favorite character in DB was. XDDD;;; He even did an imitation for us, and a Kamehameha. XDDD He was asked what he would have become if not a seiyuu, and he answered "Comedian." Oh, I so very believe he could have become a comedian after meeting him in person! He is hilarious and so lively!
Anyway, awesome panel. <3333
Back in the AA, I spotted some Suikoden cosplayers. :D
Here are the Sakamichi cosplayers again. :3
I don't even know. XDD
This was also grabbed from g2n's camera. XD;; I don't know where they're from.
Madoka~ seta_suzume! :DDDD
And so concluded our AX experience. Artist Alley and Dealer's closed at 3. We tore down our stands once the place closed and tried to pack as quickly as we could. My brother dropped all of us off at the airport for our flight back.
G2n bought dinner for herself, yum~.
While I bought this. XD;; Which was definitely not dinner, but I was feeling warm! XDDD And not hungry.
Here's our plane. :3
Saw the moon too. :D
Merchandise
Stuff I bought!
I actually didn't buy much at the convention itself. All the manga in the back was from Book Off, and most of my figures were from Nijiya supermarket. I got all of the posters for free except for the one in the middle of Mother 3. :3;; Second one from the left is a print from gem2niki while the Angry Birds one is from Ethe, g2n's coworker and one of our roommates. :3
Bought myself a Kuwabara plushie (I already have a Kurama and a Yusuke, now only missing Hiei), Hakuoki for the PSP, and Mugen Spiral in English. All the rest of the manga is in Japanese. :3;; Gotta update my manga list with all of these! Some volumes here and there of Oofuri, Bokura no Kiseki, S.A., Shishi Doumei Cross, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, +Anima, Ouran High School Host Club, Rozen Maiden, Daiya no A, Boku to Kanojo no XXX.
Fishbooooooones! :DDD From left to right: Dragon earring, fishbone earring, fishbone earring, Soujirou, and Kishio Daisuke.
Soujirou is so cute. :3
Fishbones make me happy. ^___^
My figures~
Tsubaki from SKET Dance~. This I bought at the convention. He's voiced and speaks two messages when you press a button. :3 My favorite character from SKET! XD
Killua~. My brother bought me this random box. So happy it turned out to be Killua! Lucky! XDD
SKET Dance figures from Nijiya supermarket. :3 G2n and my brother both bought one on Thursday. It was funny because my brother was telling me how they happened to buy who they were cosplaying as (g2n got Himeko, my brother got Switch, I was sad they didn't buy me one!). When I went on Friday to buy one for myself, I picked up the box and read "This box contains Bossun (Fujisaki Yusuke)". I picked up a few other boxes and read them, and they all had the characters' names on them. It wasn't random!!!! XDDD They were lucky they didn't buy repeats even though they thought they were random boxes and didn't read the top. =P
In any case though, we all wanted all three of the characters, so it wouldn't have mattered if we did end up buying repeats. In the end, we bought nine of these, three for each of us, haha.
I'm a little sad I didn't take more pics during the convention. There were a lot of cosplayers that I was too tired to stop, or it was too crowded to stop them... I spotted a lot of amazing Loki cosplayers! :3;; One girl had her skin painted blue, with Jotun markings, and she was carrying a glowing Casket with her. Very cool.
That's it for conventions for me, until next year! Unless I suddenly go to some other convention out of the blue. XD