#saw some cool cosplays cosplayers are so goddamn cool

[whosname]

[Id. A photo of me cosplaying Ginpachi sensei eating a Pocky and holding a book. End Id.]

I just want to say hello to the only two people that knew who I was. Even if they needed to think about it. And only got it when they saw the strawberries tie.

[elismor]

I seriously loved this episode! And it gives me the perfect excuse to tell my 501st story, so I'm gonna.

I went to Dragon*Con in 2001 and it was my first time there (though not my first con) and my first pan-fandom con. I was absolutely not expecting to round a corner and find myself facing a squad of storm troopers walking down the hall in formation. I didn't even know people had trooper costumes. It was one of the most visceral and surreal experiences of my life. My gut sank like I was in real danger...fucking STORM TROOPERS! The OT was such an influential part of my childhood and this was like rounding the corner in a Marriott and finding myself on the Death Star. Amazing.

About an hour later, they did the Muster--where all members at the con march through the lobby in lock step and my mind was absolutely blown. Not 5 storm troopers...a hundred of them! TIE pilots. Biker scouts. Pretorian Guard. Darth Goddamn Vader. My inner seven-year-old lost her damn mind.

Look. I have seen lots of cosplay--lots of amazing cosplay, in fact. I am in awe of the skill and dedication cosplayers have. But at the end of the day, my brain looks at them and thinks cool, a guy dressed like Superman. But these are not men dressed as storm troopers. There is something about the faceless nature of the troopers in the movies and the mikes in the helmets and, I'm telling you...these are storm troopers.

And, as if that didn't have me in enough of a cognitive tailspin...later in the con, I somehow wound up in the lobby as a crush of programming let out and suddenly there were literally hundreds of bodies around me and in my space and, not gonna lie here, I was a hairsbreadth away from losing my shit. Like, real panic. I do not do crowds well and there was no getting out of this one. And then, a heavy hand lands on my shoulder and I hear raspy breathing up close and personal and turn around to look Darth Goddamn Vader directly in the chest and he says--in a remarkably good likeness of the voice "Are you okay?". Suddenly there were, like, 10 troopers forming a barrier around me and there I am, being escorted to the elevator by Darth Vader and a squad of fucking storm troopers, who remained in character the whole time. Vader's first words to me were the only indication that it was a real guy in the suit and then I was a prisoner of the empire being taken to the detainment block. And let me tell you, when 10 storm troopers and Vader tell people to clear the way, they fucking do.

Bad guys doing good in-fucking-deed.

In 2002, my husband joined and went as a TIE pilot, so I had a tshirt made that had the Imperial Cog and said In Bed with the Empire and, in retrospect, that might not have been as good an idea as I thought it was...but it did do marvels for my ego because just about every trooper I saw at the con responded in some borderline lascivious, yet polite way. Somewhere out there in the world, there is a picture of a much younger, much skinnier and hotter me with about 20 troopers posed like the end of a musical number on Broadway. Hubs was not amused but how do you say no to Vader's Fist?

I love them, your honor.

Those aren't just stormtroopers! This week, Emily and V head back to 1997, when two guys who really loved Star Wars started a fannish endeavor that has grown to epic proportions. The illustrious 501st Legion, Vader's Fist, began as a cosplay club for stormtrooper fans and now spans the globe as an elite society of 10,000 Star Wars fans who delight in all manner of Star Wars villains as they do charity, volunteer work, and official jobs for Lucasfilm. These nerds make nerdery cool. Do you cosplay? Have you ever joined a fan society?

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

[the-cadent-roses]

Goodbye World

August 1st 2022 (274)

._+ Mis-eye-ventures Day VII +_.

I stayed home.

it be calmed, it be lonely, it be good,

I feel both free and lost. 

***

So I had a fucked up dream, that we will aptly call:  “Cancun Pursuit into American Psycho”

First, some agents were pursuing my Uni fried. And I did a goddamn outstanding job sidetracking them. For starters I went trough elevators, dirty bathrooms and the whole, and I felt it (Iugh). At the very end, the outside reminded me of two places I visited in Cancun, one where I saw Caguama Turtles and a port where the light house is titled in the sand, it is even iconic. I swim a bit with the turtles, now closer due to decreasing pollution (that's cool), but the lighthouse was even more tilted. I got the agent into the wrong building one more time, so my Uni friend could get out. But he was walking with a younger and older guy, might they be the doc and my Uni friend's brother? Anyway, then the dream gets fucked. I enter the other building, for when I was following the agents, I saw a sign at the entrance of that dorm, that said they loved single/use plastic, and denying people's bodily autonomy, to which I said nah, I don't vibe with this shit. Some girls in the entrance told me that they were three factions, and only one was doing that shit, so I told them, get the three of you together, and dethrone them, coup d'etat style. Then I went across to the other building. For once, it closed like a bank who's security had been breached, but then again, one  elevator did open, and it posed the options to rent rooms, entire floors and Nannies, like damn by, that's some money. (Also, in the background they have been having some end of the year celebrations, I think, graduation and stuff.) As I was to pick the elevator, two girls and oke boy randomly got into the building, breaching said steel doors, I said "huh, you did the opposite". Thing is, we all got horny... And I'll spare you the details but we did our thing all together, than picked couple's of sorts. The thing is, after the other couple got done doing their dirty, they were rolled out in ambulances, allegedly having received mayor injuries, which was, I believe, their way to be prudish, but I don't know, I ended the dream at some point. I got out of there standing, and I don't recall leaving the girl behind, but she was also not coming with me, so I'm sure where she went. (Bonus points, I peed in my dream, but not in real life.) As I come out of the building, it is so late the sun is rising again. I see first a hunch of young College students cosplaying their favorite characters, I even overheard a conversation, on how Lando Calrisian was making new acquaintances with some other character, damn, I'm forgetting, let's hurry. After which I walk almost to a closed street, being closely followed by two girls, one interrogating the other on what happened last night... When we all reach the end of the street, it turns out to be the entrance to a huge ranch. It turns out they had their girls wrapped up in some street signs and delivered "safely" at their door step (for the dad, a cop, is a local hero), one of the girls points out how my hand has a similar "writing" (but it was just pressure marks), it does looks like my handwriting, but is made by a machine, so I go with "yeah, perhaps they attacked me too, let's find out". We take a bus and cross right in front of the school (besides the nightly cosplayers, some new kids have been arriving, with their luggages galore. And some other have been confusing their crushes on a mic, all under a white tent.) We past the school and I point how shitty it's planning is, I was expecting more, but it looks just like Iztacala, a strip of school in the right, a bunch of houses and small precarious businesses on the left, not much to see, "look, they even have a shitty and dubious beer depository". We keep going to the end of the line, one girl told me how she is a muralist of sorts, but how she only paints when the occasion arises. She told me how she had a chance on a nearby market, but at the end it got scrapped. We get to the market, which is filled with small, crooked streets, (it reminds me of the store's in out downtown, and a bit of the outskirts near Observatorio, for their streets where all but uneven, perhaps even that oje market in Tlalnepantla.) We walk past the building she was going to paint, and we see how it is plasters with a "plastic sign" and a guy in a moustached-wrestler'd "fursuit". At the end of the hall-street, there is an entrance, for supposedly branded "sensual (food) stores", half the lots where closed or vacant, at the very end their was a sushi/takoyaki stall, a newly met gal-pal, of all people was attending it, we spoke in English, I tried to be friendly, but I was a tad nervous, I pulled out a joke, which she didn't replied, and once I asked why, she said "because it's not funny*, she then took the others orders and started making them. I woke up after that, the bathroom couldn't wait any longer

~Roses~

[lygerzero14]

Since it was the last one of this particular tour, I decided to do a complete recap of the final NSP/TWRP Rock Hard Tour show, including the VIP Q&A.

All kinds of spoilers below

(but is it really since I doubt they’ll do the same thing for their next tour *shrugs*)

So, I had bought the tickets before I decided to leave California and I flew back to go with my bro.  We had went to the first show in L.A. and now the last show in San Francisco.  He called it a NSP sandwich.

We got there around 4:30pm and waited in the VIP line.  There were a lot of people cosplaying as Ninja Brian, which made me happy.  I saw a few Danny cosplayers and one Egoraptor cosplayer.

When we were let in, we just all walked up to the stage and waited for Brian and Dan to come out.  The tour producer, JP came out and made us do a pledge not to upload videos to youtube. (kinda don’t understand that for the Q&A, some really good information comes out of those but whateves)

So Brian and Dan come out and of course there’s cheering.  And Brian starts off saying they love us more because we paid more money (the dork).

Gonna just do a few highlights.

Someone asked Brian an academic question and Dan was like, “I’ll take this one.”

A mother then thanked Brian for taking time to do these shows, even though it takes him from Audrey, cause she travels a lot too and knows how it feels.

Someone asked about Dan continuing the Leisure Suit Larry game and he said, he didn’t know cause Youtube has gotten pretty touchy lately and then he said quickly “Thanks to Pewdiepie” (didn’t he call out Pewds at a grumps live recently too?)  Then he said he’d see if he can talk Arin into it.

Oct 12 for Under The Covers 2 according to Brian.

Dan called on a Danny Sexbang cosplayer and said she was very well-dressed but she ended up having a question for Brian about academics and balancing that with the arts and Dan just went “Fuck!”

Brian starts talking about STEM, which is Science Technology, Engineering and Math and goes into how he balanced the different degrees and then Dan comes in and says, “I also am into STEM.  Sexually Touching Everyday Man.”  Then Brian says, “Did you say Sexually Touching Every Man?”  Then Dan says, “Don’t make this about your own agenda Brian.”

A guy asked what do they do in their spare time between shows….Brian said, “Fuuuck.” Dan said, “Just look at each other and think about how there’s no words to say.”

Dan said two days ago, Brian was listening to a Linguistics podcast and he was reading a book about plants. Then he said, “Oh my god we are lame.”

One girl asked them to flip her off and Brian said, “I would love to but it’s strictly against my morals.” (this guy) He still did it.

NinjaTupperwareSexRemixParty would be the name according to Dan, when they one day join TWRP to do serious music.

A question was asked about song titles that they wanted but skipped over.

Brian said the one he wanted sounded kinda creepy.  ‘Me Watching You Wanting Me Humping You’

Dan said they started a song ‘It’s Never Too Late To Give Up Your Dreams’ but said it was too depressing. (pretty sure Brian tweeted that on their twitter) but that song became ‘Orgy For One’ which they admitted was still kind of sad.

Someone asked Brian if he had heard of the book ‘Quantum Physics For Babies’ and he had and listed off a whole line of books and Dan asked if it was actually for little kids and Brian said yes.  Then Dan shook his head and said “What happened to playing in dirt with a stick?”

One girl asked if there were any bands they were recently into.  Dan said he was embarrassed but the band’s name was FartBarf.  Brian said it at the same time and Dan said, “Brian, shut the fuck up! Stop stealing my thunder every goddamn ti-FartBarf.” (They are so silly)

They have a song on the next album called ‘Smooth Talking’ that is, according to Brian, “a bunch of dumbass nonsense words.”  It’s his favorite song.

Most of the skits they write are usually intended to be animated but they may do live action ones again.

One girl was like “I love you and I’m legal, wink wink.”  Dan laughed and said, “So subtle.” And he took off his glasses and posed seductively.

Brian ended up talking pretty deep about particle physics and when he was done, Dan was like, “My entire brain shut down.”  Brian said he’d give him one of those baby books and Dan said, “I’ll love while I throw it.”

Someone asked Dan to say, “I’m a sexy widdle baby.”  Brian brought up the twitter account of the same name and he highly recommended it. Dan cuts him off saying, “It’s you, Brian.”  Brian said it wasn’t but he kept winking at us.  

Someone asked who Dan’s Dream Daddy is.  Of course Brian jumps in with, “It’s me.”  Dan said Robert, since he voiced him.

Brian did a shoutout to Quizmaster Quinn, saying he was a sad man who loved trivia, so based on him.

Someone asked their favorite NSP song.  Dan said it was one we’ve never heard, which would be ‘Danny Don’t You Know’ (although I had heard it at the L.A. show)

They took the extra stuff off their channel because they didn’t think it represented what they wanted it to be and wanted to focus on the music videos.  They may release a dvd containing the shorts.

The weirdest gift they’ve been given or asked to sign.  Dan said all of the lower parts.  Brian said one girl asked Dan to sign her boobs and looked at Brian and said she wouldn’t ask him since he’s married and he was like, “What the fuck!”  

Weirdest gift was a shoebox of randomly assorted knives with no note and they met the person a year later at Disneyland.

What would their opening song title be if their life was a musical?

‘Dicks! A Journey.’

After a while the show started.  MC Chris opened again and he confirmed that he was MC Pee Pants from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  I don’t know why he didn’t say that at the L.A. show.  I was thinking he was just an imitator.  He was in quite a bit of episodes.  His voice is also a love or hate kind of thing.  I wonder if it’s his real voice.

TWRP came out after the longest build up ever, I was actually starting to get annoyed.  But they were awesome as always, hyping the crowd with their energy.  I do remember there being more in between segments at the L.A. show.  They seemed to just play through their set list.  I found it funny, how when Sung would say this is the last song and the crowd would go ‘awww’ and he has to remind them that they aren’t technically leaving.

Then TWRP leaves the stage and an animation plays of one of the many, probably non-canonical, first meetings of Danny and Ninja Brian.  It was pretty funny.  Danny saying that Ninja Brian was a homeless beggar he took in and Ninja Brian having saw an ad that said “Toe-thumbed single guy looking for best friend. Ninjas Preferred.”  

TWRP then comes back out and starts playing the NSP theme and NSP comes out, with a significantly shorter build up, thankfully.  Ninja Brian going around flipping everyone off and Danny being his joyful, bouncy self.

Ninja Brian was pretty energetic, he was running all over the stage, hyping the crowd and all I could think was this guy is 42 and has a Ph.D.…

They played ‘Cool Patrol’ and man, I love that song so much!

After the song, someone threw up a Danny Sexbang bra (it was blue with the star of david on each cup)…Ninja Brian put it down his pants and then a Ninja Brian bra flew up there and…he put it down his pants too.  This guy is 42.  

Then Danny segued into Unicorn Wizard, telling the story about how Arin randomly came up with it. Danny crouched on the ground and Ninja Brian kept trying to quiet the crowd and just as he is about to start playing, someone would make a noise and he’d cross his arms and glare at them.  This happened several times.  Danny starts getting annoyed, telling Ninja Brian to start the song.

(I didn’t notice this at first but as Ninja Brian is having his fit, Lord Phobos goes to Danny and says something and Danny starts laughing…isn’t Phobos one of the silent ones?)

Finally Ninja Brian starts the song.  There was quite a lot of attention on Phobos.  I also liked the ending.  Where they all failed to bring the song to a proper ending.  Just a whole lot of fail all around.

Someone threw up the picture of Dan as Papa Sexbang 69 from Ghost, Ninja Brian tried to take it, then a short game of keep away happened.  Then someone threw a cup up that said Danny on it and…Ninja Brian put it down his pants and offered it to Danny, who reached into Ninja Brian’s pants and took it out. Danny said he’s not putting his lips on that.  

Then he asked people not to throw stuff on stage.  That lasted about two songs.  Then people started subtlety tossing things to the sides of the stage instead of at them.

They then played ‘Spin Me Round Like A Record’.  Danny had some…interesting moves during this song.

After they were done. Ninja Brian did a Rock Fuck chant with the crowd.

The next song was supposed to be ‘Road Trip’ but my gosh, Ninja Brian milked the ‘Bloopy Reggae Jams’ and they ended up doing ‘Let’s Get Together and Do Butt Stuff’.  Just when Danny thought they were done, they start up again and he crouched down in curled up in a ball, like an anime character. I love Ninja Brian.  

Then they finally played ‘Road Trip’.  I really like how this song sounds live.

Danny called TWRP “The greatest backup band in the world.”  TRWP then went off stage and the stagehands pulled Ninja Brian over on his bigger piano.

The person behind me dressed as Ninja Brian managed to get their homemade plush Grubba on stage and Danny thought it was awesome.

Danny then took out his earpieces and winced at the loud cheers and did the heart symbol with his hands. Then a Danny chant started that Ninja Brian tried to stop by pointing to himself and the chant switched to Brian. Then Danny got upset and Ninja Brian started pointing to him to start the Danny chant again. (aww)

Then Danny said he and Ninja Brian have been in Ninja Sex Party for nine years now.  He said when they started out, they were doing shows for ten people in basements in New York.  And he said, this was better.

They then did the slow version of ‘Dinosaur Laser Fight’ for the longtime fans and everyone was singing along and holding their phones up with the flashlights on.  I gotta say, I just love listening to Brian play.

He said that it’s strange that he gets emotional over that song.

Then he had us do the golf clap and gotta admit his little laugh at that is adorable.

He had us take a pledge not to record the new music video and not upload it

Then they played ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ and it was…something.  Like I wouldn’t want to upload this anyway.  The Porn stars to Danny, Ninja Brian, TWRP ratio was greatly unbalanced. I didn’t like it.  Watching a bunch of girls in candy bikinis suck on lollipops…naw.

 Then Ninja Brian came out and a voice over talked about a piece written, recorded, arranged, produced, directed, scored, figured out, and done completely alone by Ninja Brian. TWRP came out and they played ‘Concerto in P Minor’.  This was very interesting to watch up close.  Man, it sounded so awesome.  Ninja Brian got up and shook the other’s hand but completely ignored Phobos.

After it was over, Danny came back out and Ninja Brian took the mic…and said nothing.

Then Dan talked about messed up stuff happening in the world and said fuck it.  Then they played ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and everyone was singing along.  I love Brian’s solo.  Danny patting Ninja Brian on the head was adorable.

After the song, someone threw an ankle bracelet…take a guess what Ninja Brian did.

The next song was a philosophy and lifestyle they live by.  ‘No Pants Dance’

For like a full minute, Ninja Brian just stared at Phobos, shaking his head.  Ninja Brian started grooving and thrusting his hips…huh.  Then he started staring at Phobos again.  Then Ninja Brian pulled a blue Yoshi plush out of his pants and threw it into the crowd at the end of the song.

Then someone threw a dollar on stage and Ninja Brian gave it to Phobos, then he took it back and Dan said, ‘Now you have to kiss him.’ The crowd started chanting kiss him and Ninja Brian did and Phobos took the dollar back.  

Then someone threw a penguin(from adventure time?) on stage…ya’ll know what Ninja Brian did and it created a huge bulge.  He then walked over to Phobos and pointed at the bulge and then at Phobos.  (Brian must not know that TWRP aren’t okay with shipping)

The next song was ‘Danny Don’t You Know’ and Danny reminded us of the pledge.  They really need to release this song though.  It’s really good.  And I could actually hear the lyrics this time, without those youtube red people yapping behind me. (by the way, I now know that I did see Michele up there last time)  The photoshop visuals are a lot funnier up close.

After the song they all left the stage.  A few minutes later Danny and Brian came back and people started chanting encore and Danny was laughing saying that’s what this was.  Danny joked that it’d be dickish if they just came back out to wave and then leave again.  Then Ninja Brian waves and walks off stage.  

They then played ‘Wish You Were Here’ and that song is just beautiful.  This was the only song my audio recorded perfectly.  Just having a piano helped a lot.  At the end, Danny and Ninja Brian hugged.

My footage cut off before they played ‘The Hit’ but I still had the audio.

Danny did his ‘Love everyone, forgive yourself’ speech, then they played ‘The Hit’

After they bowed, Ninja Brian lightly touched Phobos before going over to the other side of the stage to wave bye to the crowd with Meouch and Doctor Sung, who were taking a selfie. It was obvious Phobos was lingering behind on purpose.  

When it was just Ninja Brian and Phobos left on stage they approached each other and Ninja Brian kissed him again.  Then they slung their arms around each other’s shoulders and walked off stage.

And thus concluded my third NSP/TWRP concert.  

Gotta say it was still a fun and amazing show.  If you ever get a chance to go, do it.  

It’s worth it.  

[a-x-ce]

My Anime Expo Experience

Finally writing this up before I forget because my memory is CRAP.

First con woot woot! This is mega long, probably don’t read it unless you absolutely MUST know about how this went.

The Good

Before I even got to the con I researched and planned and bookmarked and researched some more and came to the conclusion that for me, the highlight of a con, is to do things you can only do at that year. I looked over the panels, the premieres, and decided THAT was what I wanted to prioritize. They did not disappoint. I went to two premieres, the Welcome to the Ballroom premiere and The Ancient Magus' Bride premiere, for the first one we got to watch the first two episodes, and for the latter we saw the first THREE episodes. And they blew me away, especially Magus which by episode 3 already had me crying, I could not be more stoked for that to start airing. I then went to two panels which I HAD to go to, one being the FLCL panel, where we got to see the season 2 and (kind of) season 3 trailer a whole 5 minutes before they dropped that shit everywhere else (kind of lame) but what we got added on was “some” information in regards to the series, which made up for us not really getting to see the trailers before everyone else. And then I went to the Studio TRIGGER panel which was awesome! It started with them shooting fake money at us and if you got a special stamped version it got you access to their signing (didn’t get one but kind of didn’t care) and then followed into them playing a hilarious short video which was this bizarre mix of all kinds of shit and ended on them singing the national anthem?! It was funny as all hell. They pretty much spent the majority talking about Little Witch Academia which, I’ll admit, I kind of put on hold after like episode 5...BUT they spent that time giving us all kinds of back story and information on the various characters which was fascinating. Finally though, the main focus was them releasing information on their upcoming projects (which was why most of us were there) and the first two were kinda okay, nothing too much to get us excited, but boy, the hype they built around the last project got the room in a frenzy of excitement! Promare has the potential to be another classic anime for this studio, working with the people who helped bring Kill la Kill to life, as well as Gurren Lagann! You bet your asses I was stoked for this! 100% worth it. I also got free shit at all of these premieres, posters mainly, but I also got a cool Anime Strike pin when going to see Welcome to the Ballroom.

Another thing I ended up loving was actually doing shit in the exhibit hall. When I was sitting my butt in line for an autograph ticket to meet Miyu Irino I got to talking with my fellow line sitters, and one person I talked to gave me all kinds of tips and tricks to getting even more free stuff! She told me about 2 scavenger hunts going on for two of the booths, one got me a free Sailor Moon scarf, and one got me a free CD and a poster for a new game! They were a pain in the ass to get, but that’ll be talked about more in The Bad.

After having figured out you can just ask cosplayers for a picture I manged to get the coolest picture of a Guts and Casca pair and it’s the highlight of every image I took at the con. I wish I had taken more because there were a lot of cosplayers I wanted pictures of. I missed out on a Euphie and Suzaku and I’m still sad about it :’(

The last thing I’ll say I loved was the actual experience of trying to get Miyu Irino’s autograph. Not the actual getting his autograph, but sitting in line with other fans and con goers in the line to get tickets...to get an autograph...in which I met and talked with quite a few really cool and nice people! 

The Bad

The sheer size of this event is ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous in fact they split events between the Convention Center and the Marriott hotel behind the Staples Center. And whoever ran this event was a dumbass and decided that the doors open at 8 am, but none of the major halls open until 10, soooooo, you had a 2 hour gap where hundreds to thousands of people flooded the main floor creating the most hazardous sight I’ve ever seen. Seriously, this was a fire martial’s worst nightmare if you saw this mess. Luckily I only saw this disaster on day 4 ‘cause I had spent the whole damn night on the street. Otherwise I came later on day’s 2 and 3 because to me coming early was meaningless. 

And I did that because getting into the center on day 1 was absolute bullshit. I came a day early to pick up my badge thinking it would cut out waiting in line even longer. No, it didn’t matter. The mass of people outside waiting to get in, and the chaos of even trying to FIND the line TO GET IN, took hours! It was such a goddamn mess that they released a statement that same day saying they WOULD fix the issue. Luckily they did and getting in on day 2 and 3 literally took minutes. What a joke.

Staff for the most part was utterly clueless when it came to finding anything and I fucking hated it. When trying to find the line for Miyu’s panel I got run around the whole damn building, which in the end paled in fucking comparison to the run around I got put on trying to find the autograph booths which were different from the general ticket booths which in the end had ANYONE known fucking anything was a whole lot easier to find if they explained it better...

Lines for larger events were a NIGHTMARE. The Marriott is NOT designed for the sheer number of people lining up for the events held there. I thought it was bad for Magus, oh no, oh no no no, even the Lupin the III game premiere line was not remotely as horrible as what I caught just a glimpse of for the Tokyo Ghoul live-action premiere. That was capped off practically THREE hours before it even played, that’s how crazy popular this event was. I missed it because of that and ended up kind of disappointed. 

Crowding. Holy fuck was this bad. Not even splitting the con between two buildings reduces the sheer number of people in EVERY given space. The artist Alley, crowded, the Exhibit Hall, FUCKING MEGA CROWDED! Moving in the Exhibit Hall was the worst. Add on terrible cell service, add on the fact that the ATM’s were few and far between (and sometimes not fucking working), add on the fact that some sellers use onsite conversion so if your card doesn’t automatically accept you making a purchase in like, Canada, you’re gonna have a bad time...the crowding even makes the fun things not all that fun.

The Disappointing

Cosplay gatherings. Oh boy were these underwhelming. I think the only one I ended up kind of enjoying was the Osomatsu-san gathering I went to on day 1, but aside from that the bigger they got the more chaotic they got, the ruder people become, and just overall super frustrating. What was even more kind of a bummer was that for most of the gatherings I saw the cosplayers walking around the convention at various points and could have MUCH EASIER asked them for a picture rather than deal with the crowding of gatherings. Not to mention when smaller gatherings were made up of people who had gone before and knew each other, as a newcomer you definitely feel left out. It gave off that click vibe and that was really disheartening. Some of these gatherings were definitely not “newbie” friendly which made them even less interesting and makes me not want to go to them again.

Miyu Irino. I have gone back and forth on this one, but after this much time I realize between his panel and the actual autograph this was one of the more disappointing experiences I had. First off, his panel. It lasted one hour, if it was not already bad enough that they split the line where premiere fans got to be inside the building, the rest of us had to figure out where the fuck the OUTSIDE line was. This was a pain in the ass, really, I was run around the whole fucking building to find this line, and by the time I did I was fortunate the line wasn’t too long, but I knew the reason for that was ONLY because no one else could find this fucking line.

So after getting let in late, we sit and we’re told right away we can’t take pictures or video. And originally I thought that was fine, maybe we’d hear some new content they didn’t want getting out. No. No we spent an hour talking about old roles and getting information that I’m sure we could have gotten through any magazine or interview in probably ANY Japanese source. We learned literally nothing about any new work, there was honesty no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to take at least 1 or 2 pictures. It was also incredibly frustrating seeing someone in the row next to us break that rule anyway and got warned THREE times and STILL got to stay and see the panel. Like why make a rule of no pictures to the point where you threaten to remove anyone breaking that rule only to not enforce it? Pointless. 

But anyway, so we spend our hour listening to him talk about various roles, pretty much skipping the one series I was even there for (Osomatsu-san, he voices Todomatsu) and essentially we run out of time for the Q&A where only 3 questions were asked. And no one could even bother to answer one of Miyu’s questions on why Americans like Osomatsu-san, since the ONE person he did try and ask didn’t even watch the show! It was so disappointing.

So I was not all that disappointed at the time but reflecting on it, it was kind of a bust. But I did not realize just how much worse it could get. Because Miyu was one of the most popular guests for AX this year a LOT of people wanted to see him. So many in fact that while I heard lines could start for autographs anywhere from 2 am to 4 am, people got in these lines starting on day 2 (for his session on day 3) at 8 fucking pm. And it was the exact same way on day 3 (for his session on day 4) in which as soon as I go turned away from the Tokyo Ghoul premiere I had really nothing else I wanted to do so since I saw someone on twitter already experience night 2 I went ahead and got in line at like, fucking 7 pm! I was 5th in line...

So I stayed awake for over 30+ hours to get a ticket, which I wasn’t even all that crazy about, I’m not a fangirl so this wasn’t some life changing thing for me, I just wanted the experience. I enjoyed the hell out of the actual staying awake and getting to know people though. So at 8 am they opened the booths, and everyone with a handicap got to go before anyone so while I was 5th in line I got the 12th ticket (kind of bullshit but whatever, given how the rest of us literally had to sleep on the sidewalk seeing people just walk up last minute and get tickets was frustrating). But once we had those tickets it was another 2 and a half hours until the signing, which was in the Artist Alley hall, which didn’t even open until freakin’ 10 anyway. So again there was nothing to do but wait.

So finally 10 roles around and we can get inside, I have my ticket and I go to find the line for Miyu, and as I get in line and waiting we’re eventually told that he will not be signing anything that isn’t related to his anime work. 

Now, this is where I’ll deviate to tell you why this pissed me right the fuck off. Because I live in NV I had to leave unbelievably early to get to L.A. within a reasonable time to check into my hotel. There really wan’t much time earlier in my week to make a run to wal-mart or somewhere to get my pre-chosen images printed for his autograph. So, we had to run around parts of L.A. which is a shit hole for traffic because Californians CANNOT DRIVE (seriously, that’s not a joke, California drivers are THE biggest morons on the West coast) and getting anywhere was a headache. Then the actual process of getting these pictures printed was also a nightmare, because the printing station cropped the images so badly they ended up looking like shit, until finally, after about 40 minutes I got ONE (1) good image of him. It was a picture of HIM.

And he was only signing material that was anime related...yeah. So, now that the picture I had a nightmare printing was not an option, the only other one available to most was that they gave you a pre-signed poster from Akito the Exiled. Which was shitty, it was pre-signed so you wouldn’t even be able to get it autographed and talk to him even a bit! Why the fuck would anyone be happy about that when people stayed awake for HOURS specifically to get an autograph FROM HIM???? Luckily for me I invested time and money into making my Kara and Totty ita bag and had at least ONE official Todomatsu item which I ripped right out of my bag. I was ushered through the line by multiple people and spent a total of maybe 15 seconds in his presence. I said hello, he said hello, he signed my badge, I said thank you, he said thank you, and the experience was over. That was it. 

And as I was leaving the line I was then asked by others in the line what the hell was happening because other people were also being screwed over by not knowing what he would or would not sign (this was literally something they needed to tell us BEFORE actually getting in line for the autograph for fucks sake). I spent some time answering them and leaving. Where I proceeded to notice quite a few girls crying as they were the ones who were denied an autograph being ‘standby’ ticket holders. Miyu did NOT take ANY standby ticket holders on either day. So for anyone who sat up all night and managed to get their hands on one of the extra tickets, it did not matter. Which really, was kind of shitty seeing he really didn’t even do much while there. He had 2 panels, and two autograph sessions, one on each day. One of his panels wasn’t even a focus on him, he was included in the Akito the Exiled panel since he was a VA on it, but he was with others who worked on the show. And since our hour and a half Miyu exclusive panel was cut short to being only an hour since it started late!!! he spent even less time doing things he was signed up to do.

I decided that as a result unless it’s Tanaka-san or anyone else from One Piece I am never sitting in line for an autograph again.

Lastly, I learned that while it’s fun to meet up with people to hang out and try and do things together, you cannot let them try and control your experience. I missed absolutely everything I wanted to do on day 1 because I allowed myself to be guided around by another person. Which initially I was grateful for, as a first-timer I had no clue where things were, but that’s where my day 1 was fucked. There were things and ways to go about this that I planned that didn’t work out, and as a result I missed things I wanted to do. And I told myself at the time it wasn’t a big deal, but since I ended up so goddamn exhausted on day 4 I left early and missed even more stuff I wanted to do...so essentially of my 4 days I only truly enjoyed 2 of them to the fullest. Because on days 2 and 3 I put my foot down and decided no matter what I would do the things I fucking came to do regardless of anyone else and I ended up having a blast. It wasn’t even lonely doing those things by myself, because I had fun! And that’s what mattered.

So yeah, in the end I learned some valuable lessons for my first con, especially at one as big as Anime Expo! I know what I want to do next year, I now know what I don’t really care about, and I know what I absolutely will not be doing again. I hope from these lessons next year I can have even more fun and thoroughly enjoy my 4 days! Also there’s probably some stuff I missed in this post so not sure if I’ll do another part, most likely not since this got hella fucking long...