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Anime Expo 2k1

Unfortunately this year only Yumi was able to attend AX so the report is based on her experiance and her opinions. The rest of PMC is not to blame ^_^ Check out Yumi's Report at the bottom of the page

On to the Pictures!!
(All taken by Yumi except where noted)
click the little pics to see big pics ^-^



There you go. If you don't want your picture here just email me. Also if you know any of the costumes I don't please send me an email as well telling me what character they are. Domo!

AX 2k1 Report - July 2k1

Thursday:
Arrived in Long Beach. Got my badge. Glanced around. Saw lots of cosplayers I recognised. Didn't have the courage to say hi. Met someone new. Exchanged cards ^_^ Left to visit relatives. Long tiring day ~_~ Weather - Rainy...

Friday:
I was hoping for an earlier start, but we didn't arrive until about 11am and we had to go get my brother-in-law's badge. Not too long of a wait and we grabbed our fortune cookies before heading to lunch. The cookies were a cute idea with the "fortune" being a line from an anime. I'm not putting mine here for certain reasons. Let's just say if you know Ranma1/2 and you know Happosai you know what I'm talking about ^_^'
My costume on Friday was Chikage from Sister Princess. Yep, an unkown costume for most people. I forgot the capelet and was sort of glad about it anyway. That outfit can be hot with all the heavy material that was used (think velvet). Unfortunately I forgot about photo ops and don't have any pics from the con of me in this costume :( *cry* I'll hopefully have a few up soon (with capelet).
Wandered around for awhile seeing what was happening and gawking at other cosplayers. Those Japanese Cosplayers Rule!!! Took a few pics and went off to the Dealer's Room. Didn't buy anything that day, but took note of what I would be after the next day. Got handed lots of free stuff. The room was very busy and it was really difficult to move around, but there was a lot of cool stuff.
While in the Dealer's Room some Japanese guys stopped me to take my picture. That was the coolest. Having your picture taken by the Japanese (and even taking their picture) is very different than the way most are done that I know of. When your picture is being taken each one waits their turn so you pose for one photographer at a time. When you take their picture if you wait patiently enough they'll pose for you as if you're the only one around. I actually like that ^_^ Anyway after they took my picture one of the guys showed me he had a keychain of Chikage. I couldn't help but laugh. It made my day! As far as I know no one else took pictures of me. I know I didn't pose for any.
Left the Dealer's Room and met Elfy at the Hyatt. I actually said hi ^-^ I had walked a lot that day, but decided to attend the Bandai & Pioneer BMP dance anyhow at the Renaissance. Had dinner with my brother-in-law and a friend. At the restaurant I droppend my camera!! *WHINE* I wanted to cry because the back popped open and the latch broke. Guess how many pictures came out of that one...~.~'...The evening became worse as I got very sick for about 3 hours. UGH! Decided to go to the dance anyhow. I had changed out of my costume for dinner and was happy I did.
The dance was a blast. The music was great, the DJs fantastic. It was just FUN! Took me awhile to get into a party mood after being so sick, but I ended up unable to resist dancing. I also want to say thank you to the "Ryo-Ohki Guy" who tried to make me smile earlier that evening. "We are of the Ryo-Ohki Continuum. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." *lol* It seemd like everyone was wearing a Ryo-Ohki backpack!
End Friday...Which at this point was very early Saturday...Weather - Muggy....

Saturday:
Got there *really* early - 8:30am and not having much to do went to the game room and watched people play DDR. Next time maybe I'll have the courage to try. Oh! and I changed the film in my camera and a friend duct taped it closed. Voila! It works!! Took more pictures and wandered some more. This day I was Duplica with some minor adjustments made to the costume and a Ditto to carry. Ditto was recognised alot and everyone wanted to know where I had bought it! Sorry, Mom and PMC made it for me ^_^ I had some people say "Oh! I wanted to do Duplica too!!" It's a simple costume, but obviously gets a lot of attention. This time I even got on a Fan's View (Thanks AshleyV for pointing that out!!)
Went back to the Dealer's Room and shopped! Bought presents and some stuff for me. I wished I had more money and that the room stayed opened longer (it closed at 6pm). Took more pics, got more free stuff, and got seperated from brother-in-law and friend. Oh, well. Went back to the Hyatt and waited for them there as I took more pictures ^_^ Need more film!! There I finally met Victoria (of In Repair Cosplay)!! I was so happy because I had wanted to meet her, but I hadn't heard from her before leaving for AX. She's really cool and I hope next year we can spend a little more time together (pushy bro-in-law's are a real pain).
I spent lunch and most of the afternoon out on the pier and even went on one of those boat tours (yep, even brought Ditto along). Very cool, very relaxing. It was a nice break considering how much walking I did that weekend. I have to plan my schedule better. Strange enough most of the cosplay action seemed to take place at the Hyatt or outside in line waiting for an event to begin. Of course the Dealer's Room was packed.
Okay, back to the Hyatt because we had plans to attend the Masquerade. No real dinner. Just a sugar kick before going to stand in line. Something really weird happened that I'm not going to explain, but just know everything turned out fine and the AX staff/security were really nice about it all. So there we were sitting for awhile waiting for the Masq to begin...Weather - Not Too Bad...

Masquerade:
What to say about the Masq...I actually enjoyed it (inbetween explaining some "in" jokes and the newer animes to bro-in-law. He hasn't kept up very well...) We had a Make A Wish kid named Omar introduced and get all his gifts. The crowd was really good and cheered him like a GoH ^_^ Unfortunately for the rest of the evening the crowd wasn't that well behaved. The MC was excellent in crowd control and made sure the kids that went on first weren't booed off the stage. The best were the three little girls and their CCS skit. Kawaii!!! They seemd to be having a lot of fun. They were my fave (and won), but all the kids did a great job!
As for the adults....First off I just have to point out how sick of "chair" I am (I know, I know everyone has brought this up...so am I). Some of the crowd were really obnoxious about it all and it's pretty embarressing to see that they were more easily entertained than preschoolers. And MAX (the computer generated anime girl that was supposed to help in the commentary) was okay. Most of the time you couldn't hear her comments anyway. But on the most part she was easily ignored. Unfortunately with timing being off and all she occassionally made the Masq acts last longer. Not a good thing for an energetic crowd.
Now for the performances and costumes...Most were enjoyable. Some left me a little confused. A few shouldn't have been up there. My fave were Fushigi Yugi Part 1&2. They had the characters down and their martial arts were fantastic. Wish I could do that ^-^!
Waiting for the awards wasn't bad at all. The videos they showed were on the most part very funny and then the Seiyuu (Japanese Voice Actress) for Belldandy came out and sang!! This was sort of one of those days you don't want to end, but don't mind if it really does. Sounds crazy. I had sooooo much fun even with all the bad stuff, but I couldn't wait to go home. Left Sunday morning to tour Beverly Hills and the like. End AX 2k1 fun....