Summer Travels: Anime Expo 2012 – Part 4

Day 3: One Bad Judgement
Bright and early again on Sunday. I borrowed a press badge in the morning to line up for potentially extra press-reserved LiSA tickets. Being the first person in and out, I snagged two and made my way back to the hotel to "wake up." I headed out again when I was ready and went to Koyama Rikiya's panel, which was then followed by the Fate/Zero industry autograph session. I foolishly through I would have been able to get their autographs after trying for some Madhouse industry autos but I should have figured the autograph session wouldn't start on time. Regardless, I got a fancy King Kazma sketch from the character designer and moved on. Moved on to another autograph that just so happened to be there: Muvluv Total Eclipsers. The merch was more to be desired so I opted for a shikishi signing before me and Kozu mad sped to LiSA's concert.

LiSA's concert was fun but I only know of her music from Angel Beats! and Fate/Zero so most of her music escaped me. She also had a fun hand motion dance she had us perform to one of her songs. I was sad to not hear "alchemy" though her version of "My Soul, Your Beats" was decent.

After the concert we walked the exhibitor's hall's artist alley section this time. We stopped by to say hi to (ahem, bothered) the artsy friends and then finished up the exhibitor's hall (finally!). There was nothing else better to do that night so Kozu and I also checked out the Total Eclipse screening, which ended up getting delayed quite a bit. The actual screening consisted of Kuribayashi and ayami singing their theme songs live up on stage before showing us the first two episodes of Total Eclipse. Eh, safe to skip that series imho. Bring the original Muvluv to screens and we'll talk.

After the late showing, we went for food. Dinner ended up only being me and Sty at the Yard House across from our hotel. Verdict? Absolute shit.

Day 4: A Nice Surprise
Once again I did some press badge borrowing to sneak my way into the exhibitor's hall to see if I could get my hands on ANYTHING to redeem my failure yesterday. Unfortunately all the booth freebies were out for the last day and there were no additional Koyama autographs. With nothing to do, I started lining up at the LiSA autographs before Kozu showed up to take my place. I casually scrolled through the schedule on his phone until I spotted an interesting guest appearance by Kishio Daisuke (wut the fruit?!) at Anime Jungle's panel.

The panel itself was quite the squeeee fest, as it was not only super intimate (with only a dozen or so of us in the audience) but we had the opportunity to ask multiple questions. My one mission, the ultimate question: "seme or uke?" which I successfully asked, in which he took by surprise. Done and done~! After the panel, most of us girls stalked him to the side hallway (ufufufu~) and requested a group photo, which he was more than happy to join in for. It was unfortunate that he wasn't properly announced in the proper media outlets but I imagine Anime Jungle only mentioned it themselves. If only I knew he was coming, I would've hunted him down for an autograph as well. If anything, he's one of the bigger seiyuu out of all the other seiyuu present (second to Horikawa). Which well reminds of Kuribayashi Minami's situation as well (she'd be bigger than LiSA, at least).

I headed back to the exhibitor's hall for one last visit and was reminded of the autograph for Niikawa Souhei so I stopped by to snag that. While in line, I met up with Benji, whom I last and first met two years ago also at AX. After determining there really was nothing left (and unable to find that cheap full size body pillow store again), I went back to meet the rest of the crew who were chilling at the Starbucks for unlimited wifi goodness.

We said our goodbyes and parted ways, heading back to the hotel to grab our belongings. We bumped into the Touhous one last time and finally stuffed our stuff into Ken's car. As it was still early in the day, we decided to stop by another Fry's for some potential shopping, seeing the stores in Little Tokyo were not open because of AX. After the detour, we opted for Pho's for dinner since it was nearby. Later that night  I helped Ken get his PC set up for PSO2 after all the talk that was done at the Starbucks round table but I think the language barrier is still hindering him from playing further. :x

In Closing
Anime Expo was decent this year but relatively underwhelming compared to other years. It was almost a bit of a cheat for AX to bring Kajiura again this year, but at least the "group" was different and because of her return, I managed to complete my See-Saw autograph. It would have also been ideal if Kuribayashi and Kishio were upgraded to guest of honor status so they would get the publicity they deserve. Can you imagine a Kuribayashi concert? YUS. That would be amazing.

X-Games was definitely the reason for AX's underperformance this year. Having less the venue space (/hotel space?) prevents them from getting more people in. It also got in the poor little attendees way of getting to and from our hotel safe and sound, without being harassed by WOO EXTREME SPORTS! people.

Also wished I brought my own camera instead. The battery for my own cam seems to be failing so I opted to use my mother's and didn't realize just how bad it is. It's BAD. I wasn't able to get any celebrity shots with the camera at all (thus the lack of photos, you noticed?).

Regardless, it was still awesome to see friends I haven't seen in two years and geek it up at our usual convention. More AX years to come? We will see.