Anime Expo 2010 Report [Day 2 & 3]

...and the report continues!


Day 2 - July 2
The day's first order of business was Kitamura Eri's panel at 12:30p. We ended up showing up an hour earlier accidentally thanks to my bad sense of time but that turned out to be a good thing. They featured Kitamura and one of Toradora!'s directors, Yamanaka Takahiro on the panel. Kitamura answered a series of questions picked from the open question box that was at the NIS America booth and they apparently liked and picked my question. I had to go up and ask my own question =_= but because of that, I got the Toradora! premium box set vol.1 as a prize plus her autograph as well. Since the panel was running late into the May'n and Nakajima Megumi's concert, I went to get my prize at a later time.

So, the CONCERT. WAS AMAZING. They sang through the Macross Frontier songs plus some from the MF Movie and their own personal tracks. I was disappointed that Nakajima wasn't as cute as I pictured her. May'n definitely takes the cake. Ahem.

The real amazing part was definitely the appearance of Kanno Yoko out of all people. For the secret guest, we were debating over Kanno Yoko, Sakamoto Maaya, or even Toyoguchi Megumi (Klan) to complete the girls... but wow, she showed up and danced to Seikan Hikou as Nakajima sang it. Then followed to play the piano for a few tracks like Aimo.

After the wicked concert, we came out and swung by check out what was left of the Touhou gathering. The concert ended late, so they had already disbanded by then.

Next stop was Horie Yui's panel. She apparently was behind on schedule so the panel forced us to watch the first episode of Toradora! With only a half n hour left, they answered some questions from the question box and called it a day. I went to pester the Toradora! guy for my goods and tried my luck to ask if he could snag me Horie's autograph as well. He shrugged and said he could do the best he can and asked me to follow him back to the booth to get Kitamura's part at least.

By then, the exhibitor's hall was closing up, so Tofu and I went to meet up with the Touhou group again where we hung out, munching on the genderswap Mokou's snacks while waiting for the rest of the group to show. 8pm rolled around, and HARDCORE SYNERGY was about to start so we skipped real food and went straight there.

For the next 6 hours, I tried not to overexert my energy so I wouldn't sweat to death and feel disgusting. Regardless of me trying to stay cool, there was more than once instance where a really sweaty guy would be jumping, dancing, fist pumping into me and yes, it was very unpleasant. Anyway, the lineup was much like: DJ AMAYA, NO+CHIN, GUHROOVY/DJ CHUCKY, M-Project, DJ Schwarzenegger, REDALiCE, DJ CHUCKY, m1dy, DJ DA/LE. The most strangest thing was probably the KISS wannabe guy who was apparently another host up on stage. He was out of place at a j-core dance, seriously.

Speaking of j-core and out of placeness, a guy asked me to dance. When he poked my shoulder and asked me, I first thought: "How [the hell] do you dance together to j-core?!? Headbanging? Fist pump together?! Jump in unison!?!" I recall pausing for the longest time, trying to figure out how to answer him while he tried to fill the void with "It's okay if you say no" and I finally was all like "(errrrraghhhh) uh I'm tired! sorry!" And then he disappeared forever. K I felt really bad but really, how! I heard I wasn't the only one to be asked that question either.


All us touhouers made our way to the front to cheer REDALiCE on. When he was done with his performance, I was done with mine and stepped out to _not_ dance to m1dy's speedcore. I like him and his music, but only from a distance and for my ears... nothing more.

When it finally ended at 2am, we went to the Marriott and waited around for other people (plus REDALiCE). It wasn't until way past 3, we finally headed to out for food. By then, I was THIS close to bailing, considering the time of day it was. We had dinner..? er breakfast?.. at the Original Pantry Cafe. Too bad we had it at like effing 4 in the morning though.



Day 3 - July 3
With only an hour of sleep, I started the day with MELL's panel at 10a but got there later that I should've. It sounded like the concert was awesome. :( But VS REDALiCE is a tough one. Anyway, after the panel, I mad dashed to the autograph line up and finished pretty quickly. I headed to the NIS America booth to check on the status of my signed goods but found that Horie's autograph signing was not successful so I hurried to join in on the lineup already forming. Since Kitamura Eri was there again, I had her and the director who was there sign the inside of the DVD book I got. Afterwards, I found Tofu and Kozu already lined up for Nakajima's signing and joined in. It went slower than expected and it delayed into the Konishi Katsuyuki's panel. When I got there, the room was full and all hope was lost. I stood around outside the room for 20 or so minutes figuring out what to do until they suddenly decided to let SIX people in and so I hurried and managed to be that 6th. Man, at least 80% of the fans there were diehard Hetalia fans. I should catch up and get on that bandwagon. P:

After the panel it was another mad dash to the autographs. The amount of people who wanted his autograph was so overwhelming, personalizations were prohibited and photos were limited. Either way, my Tales of Festival book was successfully autographed and I was happy.

With little time left for the exhibit hall, I went over to the MangaGamer booth and got Katakura Shinji to sign his Boukyaku no Senritsu manga. He was super happy to see his own manga from years ago :D Sadly, Kuuchuu Yousai was nowhere to be found (it was my 2nd attempt already then).

The exhibit hall closed up and I headed to the ESPN Zone to check out the Danny Choo meet up. It wasn't particularly packed by the time I got there, and everyone was scattered in their little own groups. It was strange... and I was confused. There was a line, so I lined up and found out that it was to get Danny's autograph/picture so sure, what the heck. When it got to my turn I just asked for a photo and proceeded on. I suppose mingling sorta happened and met with lightningsabre, Ben, Jennifer and her friends. It seems like most people there were waiting on the free stuff but it never happened.


After the rather anticlimactic meetup, I took a quick detour back to the hotel to drop off stuff and returned to the convention to meet up with Tofu and his two friends at the Gurren Lagann movie screening, followed by the cosplay contest. The contest was disappointing but Konishi ended up cosplaying as Kamina so it was all worth it at the end.


Food was in order by then so we drove to Little Tokyo for Daikokuya Ramen. We had to wait outside for [I think] at least an hour before we got a spot but it was awesomely worth it. For some reason, I had ramen three times on the trip and Daikokuya's was by far the best.


The food was great AND they played old school anime music - Digimon, Utena, Kenshin, Shaman King, FMA - which of course rocked super nostalgia socks.

When we got back to the hotel, it was already packing time. The flight back didn't allow for much additional packing, so I decided to put away the costume for the last day.

Next: Anime Expo 2010 - Day 4, Final Thoughts & Loot