Day Two
The second day of Anime Expo was relatively uneventful. The first thing we actually did was go to M Grill, a Brazilian steakhouse in Koreatown in LA. Edward wanted to join us and use our hotel room, so taking us out to eat was his payment. It was a fantastic restaurant. Like the other Brazilian steakhouse at which I’ve eaten, various meats are brought around the room and offered to you. It’s all you can eat, and you pick on a per-meat-basis if you’d like a piece.
As for the actual Expo itself, we didn’t have a lot plan. We walked around a bit looking at cosplay, spent some time in the Exhibit Hall, and read in the Manga Lounge. We went to the laser show, but it was kind of boring. AX staff were also passing out tickets to the MELL concert. It seems they were having trouble filling the audience (as usual). We said we weren’t interested because of the laser show, but they gave us tickets anyways. It’s lucky they gave them to us even though we didn’t want them; we went to the concert after getting bored of the laser show. MELL is a techno/trace inspired rock singer, and the concert was a lot of fun. Juan, a friend who was with us, got removed for taking photographs, but they allowed him to come back after confirming that he deleted the photos.
Day Three
The third day was packed full of events! In the morning, gem and I went to a panel on creating steampunk characters. The emphasis was on creating characters to cosplay so it talked about making the props. It was a lot of fun! The panel was hosted by the League of S.T.E.A.M., which is a group that does live performances and webcasts of a steampunk verson of Ghostbusters. They had a lot of cool props, including a plunger gun that actually worked (after building up pressure for what seemed like forever – something that’s actually cool since it’s steampunk) and a gun that launches a net.
I guess I forgot to mention what happened on the way to the panel. I was eating a banana nut muffin that tasted a little strange. It had the taste of bread, bananas, nuts, and… dental adhesive. How strange. Then I noticed that my crown fell off. After the panel I cleaned everything as best I could and popped the crown back on my tooth. It seems to be staying pretty well, so I’m going to wait until Wednesday when I’m more free to go see the dentist. It should be relatively easy to adhere again. After that was all taken of I ran into Jennifer Damm cosplaying Princess Peach! That was pretty fun!
Next we went to Chibi Masquerade. It seems that Masquerade is an event for cosplay skits and is a competition. Chibi Masquerade isn’t a competition and accepts anyone in costume. It’s like a training ground for Masquerade. It was really fun! Some people had lines and dialog, other groups danced, and some just came on stage quickly to show off their costumes. Two cute little boys dressed as characters from Naruto fought on stage for example. Tuxedo Mask gave a monologue about being divorced from Sailor Moon and living with his brother. He was hoping to meet someone new and gave out what I assume is his actual phone number. Also, War Machine got on stage! His costume was amazing! It had a shoulder-mounted gun that really moved and the glowing core.
Next we went to AX Idol. We got there an hour or hour and a half early, which kind of sucked because the show started late. Idol was as the Nokia Plaza in LA Live so we wanted to get there early due to limited seating. Jennifer and her friend ended up running into us there and sat with us. gem noticed someone sitting near us in a fleece panda sweater. She wondered who would buy such a thing, then realized that Linh-Nam did, and then realized that it was Linh-Nam! We talked a little, and I met his girlfriend, but then the show started. AX Idol opened with a song by the host’s band, and then Idol itself started. It was a great show! I really, really enjoyed it. Then we went down to see Last Comic Standing. As usual, Last Comic Standing was very funny. I saw a lot of returning comics, including Soap, who made it into the finals. Unfortunately he lost to other person in the finals. Luckily though most of comedians were great.
Day Four
We woke up on the fourth day to find that the power was out in our bathroom. This made taking showers and going to the bathroom more difficult. We took turns going to the bathroom with the door wide open and the rest of us waiting outside the hotel room. Edward the only person who didn’t shower the previous night, so he was the only person who needed to shower. He just left the door open a bit and took off his clothes after closing the shower curtain.
The last day was much less crowded. Edward and I went to an anime podcasting panel that gave tips on podcasting hosted by Anime-Genesis. It was short but fun, and we got free t-shirts! Although we went to get tips because we want to start a gaming podcast, I think I’ll also check out the Anime-Genesis podcast. Afterwards we spent a little time in the Manga Lounge and Exhibit Hall. I read the first volume of Cheeky Angel, a manga about a boy who wishes to be the manliest man but gets turned into the womanliest woman. It was pretty amusing. In the Exhibit Hall I got a sweet Sonic tshirt and a cool Shy Guy tshirt. Yay!
We left as the Exhibit Hall closed and went to Orochon Ramen like we do every year! I had a tasty miso-based soup with egg and tofu! Yum yum! And then we went home! Yay!