Anime Expo Con Report
ahhh anime expo was absolutely amazing. It renewed my love of cosplay and conventions in general and I hope I can go to another out of state con in the future. It was super exciting. To start off this con report, I give you a man in little clothing.
The whole con adventure started on Thursday when I first went to pick up Tori. I picked her up at 10:30 because I wanted to make sure she was absolutely ready. Sara had work that day, so we were waiting for her to get off and pick up Anya. It took until about 2, but eventually we were all on our way to pick up Aleyna...after a quick stop at circle K for some refreshments. THEN we were on our way.
As soon as we stopped at Aleyna's house, we pretty much had to take everything out to rearrange the trunk so everything would fit. It did eventually fit, but just barely. Let's just say that backing out of the parking lot was an adventure. We then stopped at Spence's to give her shit and she gave me money to buy socks. Then we stopped at Wells Fargo so I could deposit the gas money and then we stopped at Fry's for some extra snacks.
It was four PM when we finally left for the highway.
Even though it was a long drive, it was really made enjoyable by the people actually in my car. Sara and Anya are hilarious and Tori and Aleyna are amazing. The car trip would've been 1000x more boring w/o you guys. <3
We stopped a couple of times for a break, but it was around 10:00 when we stopped to be treated for dinner by my dad at some chinese restraunt. It was midnight when we finally checked into the hotel. Unfortunately soon after we checked in we realized we could've upgraded for like $2 bucks extra, and the only way we could upgrade is if we talked to the manager in the morning, you know, when we're enjoying the con. So we were stuck in our shitty rooms.
It's okay though, we weren't intending to spend too much time in the room.
We went to sleep around 1 AM, but I really didn't get a good night's sleep. So I was pretty tired when we woke up at 7 AM. When we woke up, one of the first things we learned is that our hotel doesn't even have an iron, or even an ironing board, so Aleyna and I were stuck ironing on the bed...until she burned herself. So we did it on the floor. For that day, I was frilly!France and she was Lavi. Sara was Zombie, Anya was Hanna, and Tori was Conrad, all from Hanna is Not a Boy's Name. As it turned out, I forgot to wash the tights from my french revolution photoshoot so I walked around all day with bloody tights. NGL it was kinda hilarious.
The costume didn't get as much recognition as I would've liked, but it was still well received. I got a couple of pictures taken, which was great. I got to meet Tessa and a couple of other DA artists that I watch and absolutely love. It was an awesome day. I didn't buy much, but it was still mindblowing.
I also got to meet Joker, who I have known for a long time. She makes an amazing Shizuo and Graham. <3
After chilling out for a while, I headed with Aleyna to the Durarara gathering, I was too short to get pictures, so I wandered around and took pictures of cosplayers.
The crowd around the DRRR gathering.
I love men in heels.
Aleyna, Tori and I wandered back to the hotel at around six to wait for Sara and Anya to return from getting us Taco Bell as was bitched about the pain in our feet. As soon as they arrived we pretty much dove into our food to the point where none of us were speaking...a rare occurance. We turned in relatively early that night after Aleyna and Tori came back from the apparently lame laser show.
The next day Aleyna got up early to fix her Joker cosplay, which was also a finalist in the cos.com cosplay contest. I was wearing Doll that day, which surprisingly doesn't require a lot of work. It just needs some eyeshadow, foundation, blush, and eyelashes. Putting it on is easy (with the exception of the shoes), and it's one of my favorite costumes. I really did enjoy it. We left for the con around 10 or 11 or so, and not even as we were entering the convention center we were stopped by like twenty japanese men who didn't even know who anime was for pictures. Sara was trap!Ciel that day and Anya was pirate england and we got a ton of pictures together. NGL it is a pretty adorable crossover. Poor Tori was standing off to the side.
Anyway, after a ton of japanese girls and men finished taking pictures, we left for the actual convention. Today was the day I was actually buying things, so I was super excited. Sara, Anya, and I got stopped a lot but we eventually made it to the Dealer's Room. As soon as I entered I got a Hanna is Not a Boy's Name poster and headed on over to Blue-Fox's booth to get some buttons (Canada and Sealand). After that, Sara and Anya and I lost Tori and we just wandered around.
Eventually we found ourselves outside waiting for the Hetalia trainwreck gathering to begin. Sara and Anya left for the bathroom at one point and during the time it took them to get back, i got two free photoshoots. Suck it. It was around this time that we looked over the hetalia gathering and Sara, Anya, and Tori + her friends went off to go so Konishi. I went back to the Dealer's room because I am a slow shopper and like to look at things alone. I bought two prints from Haku and got a Neuro commissioned.
It was actually kind of funny, as I was wandering the dealer's room, I got stopped by some Japanese man with a microphone and a camerawoman. He started by saying he was from TV Tokyo and he started interviewing me. Which means that somewhere in Japan people are watching me mispronounce their words. Fucking awesome. 8)
afterwards, I met up with Joker again and I laughed as she failed at a para para game.
I met up with my friends again and we left the convention center to return to the hotel to change for the Hanna dinner. I decided to stay mostly in Doll. We wandered on over to California Pizza Kitchen where Tori ditched us for her friends as we waited to be seated. We eventually got in by being utterly obnoxious outside. Unfortunately CPK had pretty shitty service so we got our cheeseburger pizza late. So we wandered off to Dennys where I got delicious cheesecake and Sara downed a maple syrup shot.
Delicious.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel tired and wishing the con wasn't going to end. In the morning Tori borrowed my badge to go back to the con and say good-bye to people (she also got me another haku print). We then drove over to Little Tokyo which has everything I've ever loved.
Pic related.
I purchased two neuro manga volumes and a neuro figurine thing which ended up being Godai (I wanted Yako, but I'll take it). I then got some Calpico and Calpico concentrate. We were disappointed to discover that the bakery was closed, so we wandered around Little Tokyo some more and got lunch at a ramen place. I ordered the Kitsune Udon which was absolutely amazing.
After that we went back to the grocery store to get some creme buns and extra food. We went back to the car and started our long drive home. Most of the car slept during the beginning of it, but after that they started drawing, which ended up be hilarious.
Basically BEST CON EVER. Especially after the disaster that was PCC.
The whole con adventure started on Thursday when I first went to pick up Tori. I picked her up at 10:30 because I wanted to make sure she was absolutely ready. Sara had work that day, so we were waiting for her to get off and pick up Anya. It took until about 2, but eventually we were all on our way to pick up Aleyna...after a quick stop at circle K for some refreshments. THEN we were on our way.
As soon as we stopped at Aleyna's house, we pretty much had to take everything out to rearrange the trunk so everything would fit. It did eventually fit, but just barely. Let's just say that backing out of the parking lot was an adventure. We then stopped at Spence's to give her shit and she gave me money to buy socks. Then we stopped at Wells Fargo so I could deposit the gas money and then we stopped at Fry's for some extra snacks.
It was four PM when we finally left for the highway.
Even though it was a long drive, it was really made enjoyable by the people actually in my car. Sara and Anya are hilarious and Tori and Aleyna are amazing. The car trip would've been 1000x more boring w/o you guys. <3
We stopped a couple of times for a break, but it was around 10:00 when we stopped to be treated for dinner by my dad at some chinese restraunt. It was midnight when we finally checked into the hotel. Unfortunately soon after we checked in we realized we could've upgraded for like $2 bucks extra, and the only way we could upgrade is if we talked to the manager in the morning, you know, when we're enjoying the con. So we were stuck in our shitty rooms.
It's okay though, we weren't intending to spend too much time in the room.
We went to sleep around 1 AM, but I really didn't get a good night's sleep. So I was pretty tired when we woke up at 7 AM. When we woke up, one of the first things we learned is that our hotel doesn't even have an iron, or even an ironing board, so Aleyna and I were stuck ironing on the bed...until she burned herself. So we did it on the floor. For that day, I was frilly!France and she was Lavi. Sara was Zombie, Anya was Hanna, and Tori was Conrad, all from Hanna is Not a Boy's Name. As it turned out, I forgot to wash the tights from my french revolution photoshoot so I walked around all day with bloody tights. NGL it was kinda hilarious.
The costume didn't get as much recognition as I would've liked, but it was still well received. I got a couple of pictures taken, which was great. I got to meet Tessa and a couple of other DA artists that I watch and absolutely love. It was an awesome day. I didn't buy much, but it was still mindblowing.
I also got to meet Joker, who I have known for a long time. She makes an amazing Shizuo and Graham. <3
After chilling out for a while, I headed with Aleyna to the Durarara gathering, I was too short to get pictures, so I wandered around and took pictures of cosplayers.
The crowd around the DRRR gathering.
I love men in heels.
Aleyna, Tori and I wandered back to the hotel at around six to wait for Sara and Anya to return from getting us Taco Bell as was bitched about the pain in our feet. As soon as they arrived we pretty much dove into our food to the point where none of us were speaking...a rare occurance. We turned in relatively early that night after Aleyna and Tori came back from the apparently lame laser show.
The next day Aleyna got up early to fix her Joker cosplay, which was also a finalist in the cos.com cosplay contest. I was wearing Doll that day, which surprisingly doesn't require a lot of work. It just needs some eyeshadow, foundation, blush, and eyelashes. Putting it on is easy (with the exception of the shoes), and it's one of my favorite costumes. I really did enjoy it. We left for the con around 10 or 11 or so, and not even as we were entering the convention center we were stopped by like twenty japanese men who didn't even know who anime was for pictures. Sara was trap!Ciel that day and Anya was pirate england and we got a ton of pictures together. NGL it is a pretty adorable crossover. Poor Tori was standing off to the side.
Anyway, after a ton of japanese girls and men finished taking pictures, we left for the actual convention. Today was the day I was actually buying things, so I was super excited. Sara, Anya, and I got stopped a lot but we eventually made it to the Dealer's Room. As soon as I entered I got a Hanna is Not a Boy's Name poster and headed on over to Blue-Fox's booth to get some buttons (Canada and Sealand). After that, Sara and Anya and I lost Tori and we just wandered around.
Eventually we found ourselves outside waiting for the Hetalia trainwreck gathering to begin. Sara and Anya left for the bathroom at one point and during the time it took them to get back, i got two free photoshoots. Suck it. It was around this time that we looked over the hetalia gathering and Sara, Anya, and Tori + her friends went off to go so Konishi. I went back to the Dealer's room because I am a slow shopper and like to look at things alone. I bought two prints from Haku and got a Neuro commissioned.
It was actually kind of funny, as I was wandering the dealer's room, I got stopped by some Japanese man with a microphone and a camerawoman. He started by saying he was from TV Tokyo and he started interviewing me. Which means that somewhere in Japan people are watching me mispronounce their words. Fucking awesome. 8)
afterwards, I met up with Joker again and I laughed as she failed at a para para game.
I met up with my friends again and we left the convention center to return to the hotel to change for the Hanna dinner. I decided to stay mostly in Doll. We wandered on over to California Pizza Kitchen where Tori ditched us for her friends as we waited to be seated. We eventually got in by being utterly obnoxious outside. Unfortunately CPK had pretty shitty service so we got our cheeseburger pizza late. So we wandered off to Dennys where I got delicious cheesecake and Sara downed a maple syrup shot.
Delicious.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel tired and wishing the con wasn't going to end. In the morning Tori borrowed my badge to go back to the con and say good-bye to people (she also got me another haku print). We then drove over to Little Tokyo which has everything I've ever loved.
Pic related.
I purchased two neuro manga volumes and a neuro figurine thing which ended up being Godai (I wanted Yako, but I'll take it). I then got some Calpico and Calpico concentrate. We were disappointed to discover that the bakery was closed, so we wandered around Little Tokyo some more and got lunch at a ramen place. I ordered the Kitsune Udon which was absolutely amazing.
After that we went back to the grocery store to get some creme buns and extra food. We went back to the car and started our long drive home. Most of the car slept during the beginning of it, but after that they started drawing, which ended up be hilarious.
Basically BEST CON EVER. Especially after the disaster that was PCC.