Otakus Invade LA, Day 4: Robot Chicken, last minute shopping, Gundam, Charity Auction and Closing ceremonies...a fitting farewell to AX

They tell you that the last day of any con is laid back and low key...well, they lie! Once again, I awoke at 7 AM, as did the rest of my friends, as it was check out day...and we had to be out by noon. That, and Hugo and I wanted to attend the Robot Chicken Panel at Noon. As we pre-packed a bit the night before and the room this year wasn't much of a mess, it took very little time for us to be ready to go. We bid farewell to Mark who was headed home and were soon on our way out of the hotel, having checked out and gotten Daniel's car back in decent time (15-20 minutes as opposed to almost an hour last year). We were headed one last time to the LACC, where Hugo and I parted ways with Daniel and headed towards Petree Hall to sit in on the two panels prior to Robot Chicken (we had seats near the front, we weren't giving them up). Along the way, it was a bit sad to see the Main Events hall all cleaned up with the chairs stacked and ready to be hauled off, but I didn't focus on that. There was still much to be done; including the last half of the Director's panel, a very funny Voice Actors panel and then, the main event, the Robot Chicken panel...which was preceded by three selected clips from said show, met with appreciation from the packed room. But that didn't match the roar that went up as the creative team took the stage and didn't let up even as Seth Green launched into introductions and whatnot. A very entertaining panel ensued in which included among other things, much news about the show itself and other creative ventures, the creative team striking goofy poses on the table and Seth Green obliging the request to do a line in Chris Griffin's voice.

After that, I split off for a quick bite to eat and then to wander the exhibit hall one last time. I was able to score box sets of Green Green and Moon Phase for dirt cheap and was then off to the Gundam 00 Focus panel in which I met up with a few forumer friends. The panel itself was rather boring to someone like me who wasn't familiar with Gundam 00 as a whole, aside from a cos-play competition at the end, which was won by the boyfriend of Emily's friend, the one who designed her Allelujah costume. That done, wrapping up the panels at AX, I met up outside the panel room with Emily and we proceeded to head down to Petree Hall for one last time to sit in on part of the Charity Auction. I was surprised to see the insane bidding going on for items, in particular an AX poster signed by all of the GoH that fetched $2,000 and a signed MoMusu poster for $1,700. In the end, CHOC was the big winner, with the proceeds of over $29,000 to go towards the hospital.

It was then after much waiting and one last delay, time for the closing ceremonies, as the Guests bid farewell and thanked AX for an awesome time while in the US and the announcment that next year's AX will be from July 1st to 4th, 2010...right back here at the LACC. With that announcement, the festivities of AX drew to a close amidst raucous cheer from exhausted, broke and sad otaku...and it was time for us to head back home, back to the real world. Time to catch up on sleep and relive once more, the memories of one of the best weekends EVER...so in response to the last page of my program guide...HELL YEAH! I will definitely see you next year!

In retrospect, I present some of my highs and lows for AX 2009:

Highs

* Epic Moi dix Mois concert was epic
* MoMusu, despite sound issues = ALSO EPIC
* Being able to attend nearly every panel/event I wanted to attend
* Making new friends and running into old friends I haven't seen in a while
* Hanging out all weekend with some amazing friends
* Meet and Greet at Weiland's Brewery FTW; not having any issues with the bill = EPIC WIN
* Watching the Gurren Lagann movie premiere with an enthusiastic crowd = WIN
* Last Comic Standing
* AX Forums meet and greet
* West Hall A = pretty good main event venue

Lows

* School buses being used as shuttle buses more often than not (chalk it up to bad economy)
* Delayed Opening and Closing Ceremonies
* Poor sound mixing during MoMusu
* Poor sound mixing, camera work and technical difficulties during Masquerade
* Lots of TBAs for video rooms on the schedule and panels being cancelled
* LACC closing at Midnight and late night events at the Westin, while this didn't affect me, I'm sure it was a
source of hassle for those not staying in the Westin
* Westin staff...rude to me a couple of times, but EXTREMELY rude to some of my friends; such attitude is
unacceptable for such a high class hotel; even if the new JW Marriott isn't available next year, I'm staying
in a different hotel.