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.

Otakus Invade LA, Day 3: Indecent Otaku, Funimation, Power Rangers and Last Comic Standing...and yes drinking!

So you know how they say anything is comfortable when you're exhausted? They're right; the floor, though hard provided me with a restful few hours of sleep...though my shoulders were rather sore. To start this day, I was not going to repeat the past two....I dragged myself from slumber at 7 AM to shower, dress and actually take the time out to eat some breakfast BEFORE heading to the con. And so, after an overpriced, not that great breakfast buffet in the Westin, I felt ready to take on another long day at AX. After briefly popping into the after hours video room in a hotel ballroom, I was back off to LACC to catch a panel being co-run by one my friends, Jeremy. The line to get into the Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour was long indeed, but there was plenty of room for me and Emily (today cos-playing as Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier) to get seats near the front. What a raucous and entertaining panel it was, complete with a catchy number from Makenai. After saying hi to Jeremy, it was time for Emily and I to meet up in front of Nokia Theater with our anime group for the official group meetup day, but not before pictures with a Chrona cos-player.

After gathering the members and taking many pictures of the official group cos-play from Tsubasa/xxxHolic, it was time once again to head back to the LACC and browse the exhibit hall. I paid another visit to the MoMusu booth that I had purchased my CDs from the previous day and picked up a MoMusu promo CD with their hit "3,2,1...Breaking Out" and as I once again had seperated from the group, I decided to rest my feet and meetup with a few of them at the Funimation Industry Panel in which one of the higher ups announced some of the exciting new and old titles being released and restored, the news of Funi's acquisition of Sengoku Basara was met with a great deal of excitement. It was time to head to the food court for a brief rest and some snacks...and though I told myself I wouldn't buy overpriced con food, my stomach was in no mood to agree, as the breakfast I had earlier wasn't satisfying enough. After a dried out chicken panini, I bade farewell to the group as it was off to the Power Rangers reunion panel...a two hour affair at that. I stayed for the first half, which focused on the Rangers and was met with genuine excitement and applause throughout; none greater than when Walter Jones, the original Black Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was introduced halfway through the first hour.

I decided to skip the second hour and made my way to the Exhibit Hall to try and score some Ranger autographs and perhaps even pictures. After waiting in a long line, I finally made my way to the front and proceeded to indeed procure autographs with all six guests present and pictures with most of those present (including the lovely Patricia Ja Lee, which is my profile pic). Euphoric at scoring said autographs and pictures from said cast members (who by the way were super cool and more than happy to take pictures), I headed off to the ESPN Zone to meet up again with my group for dinner. A nice dinner, lots of socializing and a couple of games in the ESPN Zone's arcade later, we were once again off to the con, some of the group off to Masquerade, while I was off to hit more panels. I decided to check out the VAMPS panel and learn more about the group from their manager, which was interesting at points and got me excited for a possible venture up to LA to see the group live at the Wiltern, but overall left me bored and falling asleep (though, maybe the long days and lack of sleep were catching up to me).

I decided to forgo the next panel, which was the VOCALOID panel and walk around to clear my head. Once again, as stated earlier, my attempts to go to the Manga Cafe were denied as the room was full. So, in the meantime I wandered around taking more pictures and stumbling across the arcade room. Along the way in my wanderings, I got the sense that this convention was close to over...though maybe it was the empty South Hall that did the trick? In any case, by the third night, the mood and overall atmosphere didn't appear any less than what it was on the first day...despite the exhaustion that had to have been manifesting itself in all attendees who were there since Thursday (some since Wednesday) and the nagging thought that the next day brought about the end of the festivities.

I walked back to the West Hall and was met by the surprise of staff out front handing out Masquerade tickets. Surprised because last year, they ran out of tickets...and years past had seen the Masquerade as one of the hardest main events to get into. So, out of curiousity, I took a ticket and went inside to kill a few minutes before Last Comic Standing, just for kicks and giggles to see what people came up with in the absence of our Best of Show winning entry last year (OK, shameless self promotion aside...I'm the Ike in the back by the way). Aside from a couple of entries that entertained me, I thought that the Masquerade overall was not that great...bad sound and camera work aside. So it was off to Last Comic Standing...I watched the first eight contestants strut their stuff and laughed my ass off at each one...good stuff all around; good show and I will be attending it again next year. I left to meet up with a few friends for drinks (and super large beers) at Yard House and had some fun socializing and signing the memorial wall for Michael Jackson while we were at it. Once again, and for the last time, I crashed upon the floor...content from another amazing day.

Otakus Invade LA, Day 2: Forum M & G, another epic concert, Midnight Tea and more drinking!

After the super long day prior, coupled with perhaps more alcohol then I should have consumed, I crawled out of bed at 8 AM on the morning of Day 2 in a not surprisingly alcohol induced fog, with a nasty headache to compund it. The fact that I only got about four hours of sleep didn't help matters either. But a hot shower and cleansing later, and I was somewhat ready for another long day...however, it looked like another day in which I would have to go without food right away, as I needed to get to the LACC and to Guest Services to replace my badge holder, which had apparently torn during the night. In line, I started up a conversation with a guy who had come all the way from Niagra Falls just to attend the Morning Musume concert later that afternoon who was in line to fix an issue he had about not getting his concert ticket; it was really interesting to hear from such a devoted fan and find out that people truly were coming from all over the world just to see what I thought of as another girl group. Of course, I didn't convey my true feelings at the time...which is good, as I would later change my opinion of said group altogether; but more on that later. A new badge holder later and it was off to attend the AX Forums meet and greet, a panel/workshop designed to help forum members meet face to face and to reconnect with friends that haven't been seen in awhile amidst very social games.

After a couple of entertaining icebreaker games in which I got to meet quite a few people, it was time for the forum awards, in which forumers voted on award categories, then on forumers they felt best deserved said award. This awards ceremony so to speak had its highlights in which a long absent member made a truimphant return and surprise appearance, I was voted as Most Helpful Forumer and another forumer was 'escorted' out in jest to his award (Most Likely To Be Dragged Out by Security) and an epic cos-play walk off resulted in No Face (Sprited Away) being crowned as the winner. It was then time to conclude the panel and take some pictures of cos-players as a group of us headed off to Denny's for much needed food (how my body held up is beyond me...I'm sure I did it no favors). Once again, with food and caffeine in my system, I felt much better and once again ready to explore as I split off from the group (recurring theme here, me splitting off) to check out the rest of con...bearing in mind I still hadn't been to Exhibit Hall or Artists Alley yet. Why is that worth noting? Well, it's because last year I spent a lot of the first day wandering around the hall...but enough about that. I was headed off to Petree Hall to catch the focus panel for Mana/Moi dix Mois; along the way, I noticed staff out front handing out tickets for the Morning Musume concert; I wondered, attend the panel or the concert?

I decided on the panel as I wanted to find out more about the group that rocked the hall the previous night. As expected, many of the questions were focused on Mana, the lead guitarist of the group and one of the members of the currently defunct Malice Mizer and also a fashion designer to boot. Halfway through, I decided on a whim to go out and see if they were still giving out tickets to MoMusu, considering that I knew this was to be a very popular concert, I didn't expect to see anymore tickets being handed out, but how wrong I was. So, I figured I'd give the pop group a chance...and once again, I was floored. A solid set of what I figured to be their hits coupled with precise choreography and a surprise appearance of Hangry (from Hangry & Angry and former group leader) couldn't dampen the fact that the sound quality was not at its best.

Ears once again ringing, I set off in search of more cos-play photos and perhaps, for the first time, browsing the exhibit hall. Finally having set foot in the exhibit hall for the first time, I proceeded to take in the myriad of vendors selling their wares, noting that the lack of extravagant booth displays and a number of major studios missing in action were yet another sign of a bad economy and an industry in recession. But still, the hall seemed pretty full in my opinion. On my search list were MoMusu and Moi dix Mois CDs; on the MdM front...no luck everywhere I looked, but the knowledge that one of my friends has an extensive catalog of their music kept me from being too disappointed. On the MoMusu front however, I scored a win as I picked up their latest CD, the newest Girugamesh CD as well as Hangry & Angry...at this point, I decided I'd had enough shopping for the day and decided to swing by my friend's Artist Alley table to pay him a visit and show my support for him and his brother's amazing creations. I was pleased to hear that business was good on their end and after a bit of browsing, it was off to another panel...Anime OP/ED, which provided a very informative and humorous look at the background of openings and endings through the years from the OG (Astro Boy) to the very recent (Eden of the East), with the moderator's unique input into each presentation.

At this point, I decided to head back to the hotel to meet up with Yvonne and Seth for dinner at Bonaventure Brewing Company as my stomach protested the length of time between meals and I figured that I needed a brief respite from con. After a nice meal and a cold beer, I was once again back off to the LACC, this time to support a few friends as they were competing in the Midnight Tea competition which is an exhibition competition in which entries are judged by theme, costumes and table setting. It's a faux tea service and the judging focuses on the theme and the competitor's costumes and how close they are to their theme among other things. After being allowed to enter and take many pictures of some elaborate and some not so elaborate entries...and then take more pictures of my friend's entry, I decided to split off and check out the Manga Cafe for a few minutes, as I hadn't yet had the chance to do so. Unfortunately, it was a few minutes from closing for the night, so I barely had the chance to view the latest mangas they were offering. Shame, as it was the only time I was able to get inside (it was always full every other time I walked by).

A few moments of tenseness ensued as I, along with some friends awaited the judging results of the Tea. Turned out, my friends' entry had gotten third place...while I was disappointed and thought they should have placed higher, I was still happy that they had success. Midnight rolled around, and it was time to vacate the LACC for the night and wait in the line of doom to board the shuttle buses back to the hotel. After seeing exactly how long and slow the line was, Thien and I decided that we would probably get there faster by walking; and so once again, I hoofed it back to the hotel to collect some soda and munchies to bring to the room party in Yvonne's room. Along the way, I took epic shots of an equally epic Final Fantasy XIII advertisement on the side of the Figueroa 'Hotel'. A short time later, I was back at the hotel, with sodas and chips in hand and off to a room party. Turns out, we did beat the group back to the hotel on foot...after some alcohol consumption and socializing, it was back to the room to once again crash for the night and get ready for another early day. And so I ended another long day passed out on the floor...another great day!