After many mornings of waking up and telling myself “Okay, I am going to do my anime convention blog post today”, I am finally going to do my anime convention blog post … today. I apologize for being lazy and putting this off but better late than never right? For those of you who don’t know, I attended Anime Expo, one of the largest anime and manga conventions in North America . It’s a four day convention that takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center
Day 0 (Thursday, June 30th)
Day 0 is the day right before Anime Expo begins and is usually the day people line up to pick up their convention badges. Even if you pre-ordered your admission online, you would still have to line up like everybody else to pick up your attendance badge and goodie bag (every attendee gets one regardless of how many days you are going to attend). My friends and I pre-ordered ours way back last Fall so we got our four day passes for a great price! (The earlier you order, the better the deal!) If you’ve ever heard any horror stories about how people wake up super early and line up hours before they start letting people in, then they’re probably true. On Day 0, attendee registration and badge pickups start at 3:00 PM. My friends and I arrived at around 12:20 PM and yes, there were already tons of people there. We were lucky we got there early though because while we were waiting in line under the shade, my other friends whom came around 1 PM had to sit out under the sun. After about three agonizing hours, the line finally starts moving but from where we were standing in line, it took about another hour or so before my friends and I got to the front to pick up our badges. The wait was long but it was definitely worth it. On the first day of AX, we didn’t have to wait in line or anything. We just went straight on through the convention and enjoyed ourselves!
Day 1 (Friday, July 1st)
For a complete list of events, go to anime-expo.org and view the schedule from there. My friends and I could not sleep the night before because we were all so excited for AX to begin! I did not attend the opening ceremonies and neither did my friends. They were too busy taking pictures of all the amazing cosplayers there! The first thing I did on Day 1 was head straight to the Bleach cosplay gathering! I took tons of pictures and had a blast! There weren’t that many cosplayers there but I think that’s ‘cause many couldn’t find the location where the gathering took place (to say that the LA convention center is huge would be an understatement.) And plus, Days 2 and 3 are usually the most popular and crowded days. There are always less people on Days 1 and 4. Other events I attended this day include the Viz Media panel and FUNimation industry panel, each of which announced new anime titles that they’ve recently licensed as well as upcoming products they would be soon releasing. The biggest news I got out of this was an announcement that Viz Media made. Bleach Fade to Black (movie #3) is finally going to be released on DVD & Blu Ray in the US
Day 2 (Saturday, July 2nd)
The only notable event that I attended this day was the Right Stuf / Nozomi Entertainment Premieres event (their industry panel was the day before but I didn’t go to that one). They showed us the first episode of the newly remastered Revolution Girl Utena as well an episode of a series they’ve recently acquired, Sound of the Sky. What’s interesting is what happened after the premieres were over. They had a little contest where they would name three characters from an anime they’ve licensed and people from the audience would have to guess which anime these characters were from (and yes, you had to raise your hand and wait until you were called on before you can answer!). Whoever guesses right receive free DVDs of that anime series. Well, I happened to be one of those people who guessed one of them right! And so, ladies and gentlemen, I got the entire first season of Junjou Romantica for free! Beautiful, ain’t it? ;D
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| Volume 1 + 2 |
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| Volume 3 + mini booklet |
Day 3 (Sunday, July 3rd)
I spent the entirety of this day (and Day 2) in the Exhibit Hall. The Exhibit Hall is where all the anime, manga and Japanese merchandise are sold! The area is HUGE.
There’s even a map to help those that get lost easily (like me):
For a complete list of all the exhibitors and vendors:
I took my time and literally spent hours checking out all the cool stuff I had. I purchased a lot and went all out! I had been saving money since New Year’s and I was definitely not going to let all that time go to waste! Anyway, near the end of the day around 6, my friends and I were debating whether or not we wanted to attend the Masquerade, which is a popular event in which cosplayers perform short skits and thereby compete with each other for prizes. Attendees would need to wait in line hours ahead of time in order to assure you get a seat inside. The event is always packed but a friend of mine and I was still interested in going. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to because a particular fangirl got caught up in an unofficial second Bleach gathering that just … well, happened.
It all started when my friend decided to go back to the hotel she was staying at to change out of her cosplay. I was waiting for her in the lobby of the convention center when I noticed a number of Bleach captains near the front. Of course I sprinted right on there and took as many pictures as I could. A couple minutes later, more and more Bleach cosplayers showed up and started posing as well. It attracted a crowd and one of the AX moderators told us to move it outside. In short, we got kicked out. The gathering continued outside as some more Bleach cosplayers showed up. For the next hour or so, I had so much fun taking pictures of every character, every pose and every scene they reenacted. I was practically smiling the entire time! Part of me felt bad ‘cause my friend called me six times straight looking for me and all I did was pick up, yell “Don’t bother me, I’m at a Bleach gathering!” in her ear, and then immediately hung up :( In the end, she decided not to go because it was getting late and by that time, we knew that the Masquerade was going to be full before we’d even get a chance to get inside.
Some Bleach pics I took:
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| So many people ... this is precisely why the gathering got kicked outside xD |
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| A female Mugetsu! She's so pretty <3 |
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| A fanservice scene I asked them to do ;) |
Day 4 (Monday, July 4th)
Due to the hours of walking, standing, and carrying stuff around the large convention center the day before, I woke up with a completely sore body. It literally felt like I had run a thousand miles and did hours worth of push-ups! The moment I got out of bed, I felt the soreness in both my legs and my arms. I originally did not plan on attending Day 4 mostly because I had no specific event that I wanted to attend that day. The friends I went with, however, convinced me to go. They said that we could just hang out and make the most of an event that only comes once a year. Needless to say, I agreed. And when I say “hang out”, I meant “more shopping.” Here are pictures of ALL the stuff I bought while I was there!
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| A Kon necklace + Byakuya keychain |
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| N bookmark + keychain |
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| A chibi Alice In Wonderland pouch |
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| Left: Ichigo's inner hollow + Zangetsu from Bleach Right: Kanda from D Gray Man |
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| Both characters from Bleach Left: Byakuya Kuchiki Right: Hirako Shinji |
I really like these keychains 'cause the front and back of each feature different pics of the same character!
Left: Maka Albarn from Soul Eater
Right: Ichigo Kurosaki / his hollow from Bleach
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| Junjou Romantica wall scroll of Misaki and Usagi <3 |
Clear file #1: Byakuya Kuchiki
Clear file #2: Ichigo Kurosaki
Clear file #3
Front: Hitsugaya & Ichigo
Back: Ukitake & Kyoraku
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| A very overpriced Bleach keychain that I had to have! |
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| A more close up pic of these super adorable chibi characters :) |
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| A Kon fan |
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| The complete series of Toradora on DVD (both standard edition)! |
Volume 1 of The Beautiful Skies of Huou High
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| Bleach keychains From left to right: Renji, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow |
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| Mokona Modoki from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles |
Pachirisu from Pokemon
AX was such a gratifying experience for me and I can’t wait to go again! I’m already pre-registered for next year’s! I mean, how could I not? AX was four jam-packed days of events, cosplayers, excitement and entertainment. It was basically the highlight of my year.
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