Fanime 2013
Fanime came and went in the blink of an eye! I'm very behind on a lot of stuff now, haha...
Anyway, Fanime 2013 in a nutshell: Ridiculous registration line. Endless Streetpass. Pics under the lj-cut~. Mostly of K, Magi, and Fire Emblem cosplay. And lines, since there was nothing else to take pics of. Snagged most of the pics from gem2niki's camera. The blurry pics are from my camera. =P
Thursday
I didn't go on Day 0. I had work and after work, I worked on my cosplay all the way through the evening. I wanted to go to the Swap Meet, but I couldn't because I still hadn't finished my cosplay, and I'd fallen sick to boot. I chugged down a lot of medicine on Thursday and slept a lot to recuperate. Getting sick right before a con? Not fun at all. ): I didn't think I'd have the energy to even attend Fanime because of this, but thankfully, the medicine seem to work. I felt a lot better Friday morning.
I realized on Wednesday that I had not pre-registered, ahhhhhhhh. I totally thought I did??? But apparently I hadn't, so that meant I couldn't pick up pre-reg on Thursday. T____T;; Swap Meet on Thurs didn't require a badge, so I still could have gone, but I think it was a good thing I hadn't gone. I was sick, and I really needed to work on my cosplay anyway.
Here's a pic from g2n of the lines on Thursday, ahhhhhhhh. Craziness! Since the convention center is under construction, the main area at the front of the convention center has been closed off. That's where registration used to be. This year, reg was moved to the Fairmont Hotel. Not sure if the Fairmont wasn't properly equipped, or if there just wasn't enough staff... (probably the latter), but this year, the registration line was ridiculous. And there wasn't even a power outage, unlike what happened last year.
After the line outdoors, there were plenty of lines indoors too. Endless lines... I heard it took people 6 hours to get their badge.
Friday
On Friday, I woke up and continued working on my cosplay. T____T;; So, so last minute... I didn't manage to finish until 3!! I had to make do without making the shoes too. I finally arrived at the convention center around 4 or so. More than half the day, gone...
This was the line that greeted me. It doesn't look as bad as Thursday's, but there were still a lot of people. There were two separate lines, one for pre-registration pick up, and one for at con registration. For the first time in 13 years, I had to get at con registration because I forgot to pre-reg, ahhhhhhhhh. No pre-registration badge for me this time... (I have a basketful of Fanime pre-reg badges dating from 2000~2001, hahahaha... oh how long I've been attending Fanime already....) I am quite disappointed that I didn't pre-reg because now my collection is incomplete. D;
After the line outside, you get taken indoors, up a flight of steps, and all the way around the building. It's like a maze! I just followed the line... Whenever people got to the second floor, they would wave at us from the window in this picture and make fun of us for still being outside, hahaha... People outside looked forward to doing the same. =P
After getting led indoors, there was no respite. We lined up outside a door... after we entered the door in groups, another line was there, waiting for us. In this room, at con registration people needed to wait in a line to use some laptops to fill out registration info. By the time I got to the laptops, they were already shutting them off!!! D: Noooooo, don't do this... don't close things right before my turn! T____T Thankfully, I managed to fill out my reg info, though I wonder what people behind me had to do once the laptops got turned off.
I waited so long that I took out the food that I'd brought with me and started eating. That was basically dinner. ^^;; I also chatted with people in line. There was one guy who came from LA for his first convention. He was doing some of his martial arts in line, haha.
After the previous line, we were taken to yet another line to pay for and pick up our badges. The end!!! It was in sight, ahhhhh.
Badge pick up, yesssss. In the end, it took a total of 4+ hours to get my badge. By the time I was done, it was already past 9. Artist Alley and Dealer's Room had already closed... At least I still made it in time to go to the Swap Meet. I feel really bad for any people who only wanted to attend Friday... Buying a one day pass would so NOT be worth it! The day was pretty much over already...
By the time I exited the hotel, it was already dark. OTL. I saw some Kuroko no Basket cosplayers who looked like they were waiting for someone. I felt somewhat bad asking for a pic. |D;; They looked cold taking off their jackets!
On my way to the convention center (finally!). This is from Portal, I think?
Before I got to the Swap Meet, two Fire Emblem cosplayers found me! :) I was cosplaying Henry from Awakening, so it was pretty cool running into other cosplayers cosplaying the same game. I didn't really know if there were a lot of other cosplayers from FE around... since I'd been stuck in line for the entire time I'd been at the con. OTL. Lots of people did recognize me while I was in line. XD; It was particularly funny when one woman finally asked me when we got to the last room what I was cosplaying. She said that it had been bothering her for four hours, hahahah, but she couldn't ask earlier since she was pretty far from me in line. We somehow ended up right next to each other for the last line. She's played Awakening, but I think her brother has the game now.
I went to Swap Meet after this, ate the rest of my food, finally met up with gem2niki, and browsed the Swap Meet. Didn't see much I wanted, but I did buy a stick poster of Dino. Question now is if I already have it or not... XD;; Oh well, more Dino doesn't hurt, haha. I also got to see yoshikochan who was selling at the Swap Meet. I've only done Swap Meet once and am now too lazy to do it again. XD Selling is difficult!
Saturday
Saturday (and the rest of the con), I went with gem2niki, who drove both of us. I improved the shoes (as in, actually attempted the shoes) for my Henry cosplay, but it didn't work out, so I had to go with my plain black shoes for the rest of the day. OTL Something to figure out for my next con...
On our way from the parking lot to the Artist Alley, I spied a Jack Frost on a rock. XD;
Anna from K~. G2n is really into this series. =P
Happy (from Fairy Tail) and... the Happy Bunny? LOL.
So yeah. We got to artist alley (fairly late...) and set up. Then, I went to wander the AA for the first time and to get my helper sticker! Having to get my helper sticker on Saturday because of registration lines... *sigh*
Loki~
Donnel from FE:Awakening!!! :D Took a pic with her too, but it came out blurry. Donnel cosplay looks so fun. You get to wear a pot on your head. XD
I spied a lot of Jack Frosts gathered together at the entrance, but it was too bad half of them left before I got to snap a picture of them. There were a lot of Jack Frosts running around the convention! XD;;
Fushimi from K. XD;; What a pose! I was taking care of the table at this time. Too bad g2n missed this LOL. He was looking at the K prints, and I had to look between the prints and him before it finally hit me that, oh right, he was cosplaying K. XDD;;;;
I thought it was pretty amusing that guys were also buying the Fushimi and Yata print, haha.
Shiro and Kuro from K~.
A Keima from KamiNomi also stopped by the table~.
When I went off to browse the artist alley once again, I saw some more Fire Emblem Awakening cosplayers! Too bad this turned out blurry... While I was taking pics of them, someone else wanted a pic of all three of us, haha.
Cute Aladdin from Magi! :D
Fishy and her sis (below). Utapri~. I love that she brought a microphone with her.
Yay, yay!
There were a lot of Shingeki no Kyojin cosplay around! We only snapped a pic of a few. Cooool swords and cool 3D maneuver gear. :DDDD
I love their pose!!!!
There were also a lot of fanart of SnK around in the Artist Alley! Wow, what a boom... only 8 episodes are out of the anime, yet it's already this popular.
Hotarubi no Mori e! What a cool mask.
Hahahaha, from far away, I spotted that mayonnaise bottle... XD; Gintama cosplay!
Yata from K~. She has both a bat AND a skateboard with her! *____* (I didn't even want to carry a book as my tome, hahaha)
Here's a pic of what the Artist Alley looked like! It was suuuuuper spacious. Lots of space from one row to the next. You could have had gatherings in front of the tables, and I'm sure it wouldn't have affected traffic much. =P
After the Artist Alley closed, g2n and I went to the MusicFest. Here's a pic of the auditorium as it slowly filled up. While we waited, I just continued playing streetpass on my 3DS. I did it throughout the entire weekend, hahahaha.
Two bands played! ROOKIEZ is PUNK'D played first. They did the 2nd opening for Durarara!! and Blue Exorcist. They really got the crowd into their music. <3 For their last song, they sang the Durarara!! opening. Really made me want to rewatch the opening. *___*
7!! played second. They were quite an adorable group, with their name pronounced as seven oops. Seven, because their singer is named Nana, which can mean seven. Their drummer did most of the speaking. They sang a Naruto theme song (with a Naruto video playing as they sang) among several other songs. I somehow felt quite touched. XD; Their last song was Bye Bye from Kimi to Boku 2. Ahhhhhh, a KtB song being sung at Fanime! ;______; I'm just really happy that KtB was made into an anime in the first place and that I got to hear the theme song live!
The MusicFest ran fairly smoothly! Pictures were allowed too, but no videos for 7!!
After the MusicFest, I wanted to wander around the convention center a bit to see how it was set up. I hadn't set foot outside of Artist Alley after all. T___T; Here's the room that had always been used as the AA in the past... This year, it's really, really empty. It was used for Swap Meet on Thursday and Friday, and then for the archery demo, I think. But the rest of the time, outside of the refreshments being sold at the front, it was super empty! I really wish Artist Alley could have still been here. The South Hall (the tent) has really bad lighting. I thought it made the art look dull, and the place was out of the way too... as well as dusty!!!
Sign telling everyone where the AA had been moved... since I'm sure a lot of people couldn't find the AA right away, ahaha...
The Arcade~. Open 24 hours, but I never do anything in here. There were quite a lot of people about. There were lots of board games set up in addition to console games, and there were mahjong tables too! :3
There was also cosplay chess going on! It looks really fun!
Sunday
Sunday, another day! On our way to the convention center, we spotted this really nice looking wall... so here, have a pic of my cosplay as Henry from Fire Emblem Awakening~. I am not too happy with how most of my cosplay pics turned out. XDDD;;; (Must fix my cosplay for Anime Expo...)
I dropped by the AA and then made my way to the Dealer's Room for the first time. Saw some lovely Natsume cosplayers on the way (one of them was g2n's friend who I had met on Friday. XD;; So hard to recognize people in cosplay!).
In the Dealer's Room, I ran into yoshikochan and whitelilacs who were cosplaying Shin Tenipuri!!! :DDDD (OTL, blurry pic, yet again...)
I only stayed in the Dealer's Room for a little bit, and then I had to make my way over to Sato and Omori's panel. Saw this Timcanpy from D.Gray-man along the way. XD;; The person stuck their hand out as the tongue when I took the pic. XDDD
While g2n made her way to the same panel, she saw these two really cool K cosplayers! Their expressions are amaaaaazing! Especially that Yata. :DDD So intense!
Sato held a "How Anime is Made" panel and explained a lot of the process. *_____* Omori went after her, and both answered questions. Omori is quite amazing... How is he able to juggle being both being the director and the sound producer of several series?! Both worked on Natsume Yuujinchou, Kuragehime, Durarara!!, Baccano, and such. I really liked that Fanime had panels where guests got to talk about stuff, and that it wasn't just a Q&A.
After the panel, I went back to the Dealer's Room since I hadn't finished browsing yet. Bought some stuff~. The convention center is currently under renovation. It looks quite different from before! This entrance was new!
Back in the Artist Alley. Some cool cosplay. First up, Magi!
Really cute Aladdin.
Hiiro no Kakera cosplay! :OOOOO What cool horns and arms, ahhhhh.
I was at the table when g2n came running back about Fire Emblem cosplayers she saw. XDDD I basically ran out with her and jumped in to join the group. XD;; They were so cool! /pretends to be part of the group too, hahahahah
And then we proceeded to stalk them, LOL. (I think g2n must have taken pics of them at least 3 times) Because their group grew and included a Sully and a Lucina too! Too bad Lon'qu is hidden behind in the back in this pic, hahahaha.
Afterwards, I went off to the Cosplay Spectacular, but I could only stay for around an hour because I wanted to make it to the Fire Emblem panel which started at 7. The Trims were playing before the Cosplay Spectacular... and they played for around an hour or so. By the time I left, the show was barely starting!!! Darn, I was hoping I'd at least get to see a handful of skits. I left during the first two walk-ons. Saw this Sherlock cosplayer on my way back to the convention center.
The Fire Emblem panel was surprisingly packed!!!!! WHOA. Just as packed as the Sato and Omori panel that I attended in the afternoon. So many Fire Emblem fans, ahhhhhh. <33333 I was hoping that a lot of the FE cosplayers would show up at the panel too since there was no cosplay gathering organized, but sadly, that didn't happen. The panel was quite fun to listen to even though it was geared towards Fire Emblem newbies when most of the people who showed up were already long time fans. In the end, it was almost like a Fire Emblem support group, hahahaha, because people started sharing their experiences about getting critical'd by the enemy, or using the arena too many times and accidentally dying... XD;; I left before the panel ended to make my way back to the Cosplay Spectacular. Meanwhile, g2n held a panel next door with the Fanime art staff.
When I got back to the Cosplay Spectacular, I took the same seat I'd vacated, hahaha. I wonder if the people behind me thought it strange that I kept coming and going. XD;; I didn't know where we were since the MC didn't announce the groups with numbers. D: (Checking online right now tells me it was skit #20!)
From the skits I saw, I really liked these ones!
Epic Rap Battles - Oz from Pandora Hearts and Ciel from Kuroshitsuji have a rap battle that their servants try to solve for them, but the servants discover they actually have a lot in common. XD;; Really cool parallels between the two series!
Ninja of the Night - Hilarious Dragonball Z skit that ended with a to be continued, cutting off right before the climax! Totally reminded me of actually watching DBZ. Always cutting off right before the good part, and you know that in the next episode, the fight still woooon't end.
Lace Graffiti - Super beautiful Utena skit! They cosplayed the story part of Utena that gets told at the beginnings of the episodes.
Ninja of the Night part 2 - I DIED LAUGHING. I DIDN'T THINK THEY'D ACTUALLY DO A PART 2 OF THE SKIT. They actually came back on stage, ahhhhhhhhh. The time was perfect. Goku and Vegeta basically charged for half the skit, hahahahahaha.
I left after the last skit and didn't stay for the announcement of the winners since I had to meet back up with g2n, but I enjoyed the skits I managed to see.
Met this Gaius cosplayer! (FE again) :DDDDDD Bear lollipop!!!! (I adore Gaius, ahhh.)
Super cute Toradora cosplayers, omg.
We wandered around a bit since it was still early. Wandered back to the arcade. Saw this really funny Excalibur. He and the guys behind him pretty much put on an impromptu skit where he commanded the guys to put his pants back on (because they'd taken it off lol) and he slapped them with his gloves. They promptly fell to the floor in an exaggerated fashion. Ahhh, people who can be their characters on the spot...
Ike! :DDD
We also saw a Maou from Hataraku Maou-sama!!!!
Went home after that. :3 On our way out, some guy asked me what my Henry ship was, haha. I had to think a bit... I'm reaaaally not much of a shipper. XD; I paired Henry off with Tharja in my playthrough, but I quite enjoyed Henry's supports with Olivia (especially the Japanese version), so I answered Olivia. The guy said, "I knew it." Lol. Well, I think Henry x Sumia is pretty interesting too because of the canon bodyswap... I might even want to write a fic about that... someday. XD;;; Henry x Ricken is also cool. XDDDD Really sad too because aren't we killing Henry's friends? DDDD:
Monday
We went bright and early on Monday, finally making it to the AA before it actually opened, lol. (We were always late... by a few hours...) I wore a casual Bossun cosplay from Sket Dance. I'd made a lot of his alternative shirts after all. XDDD Didn't take any pics of myself though. ^^;; I was pleased that several people recognized me. :) Yay for SKET Dance fans! <3333 Though I wonder where all the cosplayers were... I didn't personally see any through the entire weekend. ): But people did buy g2n's SKET Dance print.
The AA before it opened. So spacious!
Amy from Gargantia! :O That bag must be handy. XD
Kuroko no Basket again~. Same Kise as before (and... same Kuroko?) but the others are different! Rainbow hair~
More Magi. :D
The Yata cosplayer came back, and this time she did a middle school version! With a Gameboy Advance! XDD Hilarious.
The convention near closing time.
G2n and I attended the closing ceremonies to hear what complaints and feedback people would have. As expected, it was mostly about registration and the location of the artist alley. There were also some suggestions about hotel room blocks and panels. Fanime is truly growing larger and larger, huh? Hard to believe that it used to be so much smaller!!
And that concluded Fanime 2013. Monday, I pretty much sat at the table and sold stuff while playing endless streetpass on my 3DS. I was determined to finish all of my puzzles. I acquired all of the pieces except for 1 piece! No one at the convention seemed to have it. I also beat Find Mii 2 twice. XD;;
...I really didn't do much at the con... or even talk to that many people. (At least I went to two panels and two events, OTL) Ahhhhhhh, Streetpass, what have you done to me.... XD;;;; A ton of people were walking around with their 3DS, hahaha. I met around 500 people or so through Streetpass... Several were playing Fire Emblem Awakening! Though it's too bad I didn't end up making any new Fire Emblem friends in person. ):
Merchandise
Stuff I bought!
Niou x Yagyuu poster, Dino poster, two t-shirts (a fishbone t-shirt, heck yeah!), a Soujirou strap (I will forever love Soujirou), a Haikyuu (omg, someone drew Haikyuu!!!) and a Kuroko no Basket pouch, Fire Emblem pins, and a Fire Emblem Awakening print.
Awakening print by Hasuyawwn! So detailed! The paper is kind of thin though, and easily damageable. G2n ended up buying me another one because the previous one got damaged. D:
Closeup of the cute Fire Emblem Awakening pins and the Soujiro strap! I bought all guys, hahaha. |D;; Libra and Gaius are my favorites. Was also tempted to get Morgan and Lucina.
This year, I did not pre-register at the convention on Monday (don't know if it was being done or not, couldn't really hear any announcements in the South Hall. It was too noisy). Must remember to get registration online when it opens!
Next convention, Anime Expo in the beginning of July! I'll need to fix up my Henry cosplay a bit~. Hopefully not last minute. XD
Anyway, Fanime 2013 in a nutshell: Ridiculous registration line. Endless Streetpass. Pics under the lj-cut~. Mostly of K, Magi, and Fire Emblem cosplay. And lines, since there was nothing else to take pics of. Snagged most of the pics from gem2niki's camera. The blurry pics are from my camera. =P
Thursday
I didn't go on Day 0. I had work and after work, I worked on my cosplay all the way through the evening. I wanted to go to the Swap Meet, but I couldn't because I still hadn't finished my cosplay, and I'd fallen sick to boot. I chugged down a lot of medicine on Thursday and slept a lot to recuperate. Getting sick right before a con? Not fun at all. ): I didn't think I'd have the energy to even attend Fanime because of this, but thankfully, the medicine seem to work. I felt a lot better Friday morning.
I realized on Wednesday that I had not pre-registered, ahhhhhhhh. I totally thought I did??? But apparently I hadn't, so that meant I couldn't pick up pre-reg on Thursday. T____T;; Swap Meet on Thurs didn't require a badge, so I still could have gone, but I think it was a good thing I hadn't gone. I was sick, and I really needed to work on my cosplay anyway.
Here's a pic from g2n of the lines on Thursday, ahhhhhhhh. Craziness! Since the convention center is under construction, the main area at the front of the convention center has been closed off. That's where registration used to be. This year, reg was moved to the Fairmont Hotel. Not sure if the Fairmont wasn't properly equipped, or if there just wasn't enough staff... (probably the latter), but this year, the registration line was ridiculous. And there wasn't even a power outage, unlike what happened last year.
After the line outdoors, there were plenty of lines indoors too. Endless lines... I heard it took people 6 hours to get their badge.
Friday
On Friday, I woke up and continued working on my cosplay. T____T;; So, so last minute... I didn't manage to finish until 3!! I had to make do without making the shoes too. I finally arrived at the convention center around 4 or so. More than half the day, gone...
This was the line that greeted me. It doesn't look as bad as Thursday's, but there were still a lot of people. There were two separate lines, one for pre-registration pick up, and one for at con registration. For the first time in 13 years, I had to get at con registration because I forgot to pre-reg, ahhhhhhhhh. No pre-registration badge for me this time... (I have a basketful of Fanime pre-reg badges dating from 2000~2001, hahahaha... oh how long I've been attending Fanime already....) I am quite disappointed that I didn't pre-reg because now my collection is incomplete. D;
After the line outside, you get taken indoors, up a flight of steps, and all the way around the building. It's like a maze! I just followed the line... Whenever people got to the second floor, they would wave at us from the window in this picture and make fun of us for still being outside, hahaha... People outside looked forward to doing the same. =P
After getting led indoors, there was no respite. We lined up outside a door... after we entered the door in groups, another line was there, waiting for us. In this room, at con registration people needed to wait in a line to use some laptops to fill out registration info. By the time I got to the laptops, they were already shutting them off!!! D: Noooooo, don't do this... don't close things right before my turn! T____T Thankfully, I managed to fill out my reg info, though I wonder what people behind me had to do once the laptops got turned off.
I waited so long that I took out the food that I'd brought with me and started eating. That was basically dinner. ^^;; I also chatted with people in line. There was one guy who came from LA for his first convention. He was doing some of his martial arts in line, haha.
After the previous line, we were taken to yet another line to pay for and pick up our badges. The end!!! It was in sight, ahhhhh.
Badge pick up, yesssss. In the end, it took a total of 4+ hours to get my badge. By the time I was done, it was already past 9. Artist Alley and Dealer's Room had already closed... At least I still made it in time to go to the Swap Meet. I feel really bad for any people who only wanted to attend Friday... Buying a one day pass would so NOT be worth it! The day was pretty much over already...
By the time I exited the hotel, it was already dark. OTL. I saw some Kuroko no Basket cosplayers who looked like they were waiting for someone. I felt somewhat bad asking for a pic. |D;; They looked cold taking off their jackets!
On my way to the convention center (finally!). This is from Portal, I think?
Before I got to the Swap Meet, two Fire Emblem cosplayers found me! :) I was cosplaying Henry from Awakening, so it was pretty cool running into other cosplayers cosplaying the same game. I didn't really know if there were a lot of other cosplayers from FE around... since I'd been stuck in line for the entire time I'd been at the con. OTL. Lots of people did recognize me while I was in line. XD; It was particularly funny when one woman finally asked me when we got to the last room what I was cosplaying. She said that it had been bothering her for four hours, hahahah, but she couldn't ask earlier since she was pretty far from me in line. We somehow ended up right next to each other for the last line. She's played Awakening, but I think her brother has the game now.
I went to Swap Meet after this, ate the rest of my food, finally met up with gem2niki, and browsed the Swap Meet. Didn't see much I wanted, but I did buy a stick poster of Dino. Question now is if I already have it or not... XD;; Oh well, more Dino doesn't hurt, haha. I also got to see yoshikochan who was selling at the Swap Meet. I've only done Swap Meet once and am now too lazy to do it again. XD Selling is difficult!
Saturday
Saturday (and the rest of the con), I went with gem2niki, who drove both of us. I improved the shoes (as in, actually attempted the shoes) for my Henry cosplay, but it didn't work out, so I had to go with my plain black shoes for the rest of the day. OTL Something to figure out for my next con...
On our way from the parking lot to the Artist Alley, I spied a Jack Frost on a rock. XD;
Anna from K~. G2n is really into this series. =P
Happy (from Fairy Tail) and... the Happy Bunny? LOL.
So yeah. We got to artist alley (fairly late...) and set up. Then, I went to wander the AA for the first time and to get my helper sticker! Having to get my helper sticker on Saturday because of registration lines... *sigh*
Loki~
Donnel from FE:Awakening!!! :D Took a pic with her too, but it came out blurry. Donnel cosplay looks so fun. You get to wear a pot on your head. XD
I spied a lot of Jack Frosts gathered together at the entrance, but it was too bad half of them left before I got to snap a picture of them. There were a lot of Jack Frosts running around the convention! XD;;
Fushimi from K. XD;; What a pose! I was taking care of the table at this time. Too bad g2n missed this LOL. He was looking at the K prints, and I had to look between the prints and him before it finally hit me that, oh right, he was cosplaying K. XDD;;;;
I thought it was pretty amusing that guys were also buying the Fushimi and Yata print, haha.
Shiro and Kuro from K~.
A Keima from KamiNomi also stopped by the table~.
When I went off to browse the artist alley once again, I saw some more Fire Emblem Awakening cosplayers! Too bad this turned out blurry... While I was taking pics of them, someone else wanted a pic of all three of us, haha.
Cute Aladdin from Magi! :D
Fishy and her sis (below). Utapri~. I love that she brought a microphone with her.
Yay, yay!
There were a lot of Shingeki no Kyojin cosplay around! We only snapped a pic of a few. Cooool swords and cool 3D maneuver gear. :DDDD
I love their pose!!!!
There were also a lot of fanart of SnK around in the Artist Alley! Wow, what a boom... only 8 episodes are out of the anime, yet it's already this popular.
Hotarubi no Mori e! What a cool mask.
Hahahaha, from far away, I spotted that mayonnaise bottle... XD; Gintama cosplay!
Yata from K~. She has both a bat AND a skateboard with her! *____* (I didn't even want to carry a book as my tome, hahaha)
Here's a pic of what the Artist Alley looked like! It was suuuuuper spacious. Lots of space from one row to the next. You could have had gatherings in front of the tables, and I'm sure it wouldn't have affected traffic much. =P
After the Artist Alley closed, g2n and I went to the MusicFest. Here's a pic of the auditorium as it slowly filled up. While we waited, I just continued playing streetpass on my 3DS. I did it throughout the entire weekend, hahahaha.
Two bands played! ROOKIEZ is PUNK'D played first. They did the 2nd opening for Durarara!! and Blue Exorcist. They really got the crowd into their music. <3 For their last song, they sang the Durarara!! opening. Really made me want to rewatch the opening. *___*
7!! played second. They were quite an adorable group, with their name pronounced as seven oops. Seven, because their singer is named Nana, which can mean seven. Their drummer did most of the speaking. They sang a Naruto theme song (with a Naruto video playing as they sang) among several other songs. I somehow felt quite touched. XD; Their last song was Bye Bye from Kimi to Boku 2. Ahhhhhh, a KtB song being sung at Fanime! ;______; I'm just really happy that KtB was made into an anime in the first place and that I got to hear the theme song live!
The MusicFest ran fairly smoothly! Pictures were allowed too, but no videos for 7!!
After the MusicFest, I wanted to wander around the convention center a bit to see how it was set up. I hadn't set foot outside of Artist Alley after all. T___T; Here's the room that had always been used as the AA in the past... This year, it's really, really empty. It was used for Swap Meet on Thursday and Friday, and then for the archery demo, I think. But the rest of the time, outside of the refreshments being sold at the front, it was super empty! I really wish Artist Alley could have still been here. The South Hall (the tent) has really bad lighting. I thought it made the art look dull, and the place was out of the way too... as well as dusty!!!
Sign telling everyone where the AA had been moved... since I'm sure a lot of people couldn't find the AA right away, ahaha...
The Arcade~. Open 24 hours, but I never do anything in here. There were quite a lot of people about. There were lots of board games set up in addition to console games, and there were mahjong tables too! :3
There was also cosplay chess going on! It looks really fun!
Sunday
Sunday, another day! On our way to the convention center, we spotted this really nice looking wall... so here, have a pic of my cosplay as Henry from Fire Emblem Awakening~. I am not too happy with how most of my cosplay pics turned out. XDDD;;; (Must fix my cosplay for Anime Expo...)
I dropped by the AA and then made my way to the Dealer's Room for the first time. Saw some lovely Natsume cosplayers on the way (one of them was g2n's friend who I had met on Friday. XD;; So hard to recognize people in cosplay!).
In the Dealer's Room, I ran into yoshikochan and whitelilacs who were cosplaying Shin Tenipuri!!! :DDDD (OTL, blurry pic, yet again...)
I only stayed in the Dealer's Room for a little bit, and then I had to make my way over to Sato and Omori's panel. Saw this Timcanpy from D.Gray-man along the way. XD;; The person stuck their hand out as the tongue when I took the pic. XDDD
While g2n made her way to the same panel, she saw these two really cool K cosplayers! Their expressions are amaaaaazing! Especially that Yata. :DDD So intense!
Sato held a "How Anime is Made" panel and explained a lot of the process. *_____* Omori went after her, and both answered questions. Omori is quite amazing... How is he able to juggle being both being the director and the sound producer of several series?! Both worked on Natsume Yuujinchou, Kuragehime, Durarara!!, Baccano, and such. I really liked that Fanime had panels where guests got to talk about stuff, and that it wasn't just a Q&A.
After the panel, I went back to the Dealer's Room since I hadn't finished browsing yet. Bought some stuff~. The convention center is currently under renovation. It looks quite different from before! This entrance was new!
Back in the Artist Alley. Some cool cosplay. First up, Magi!
Really cute Aladdin.
Hiiro no Kakera cosplay! :OOOOO What cool horns and arms, ahhhhh.
I was at the table when g2n came running back about Fire Emblem cosplayers she saw. XDDD I basically ran out with her and jumped in to join the group. XD;; They were so cool! /pretends to be part of the group too, hahahahah
And then we proceeded to stalk them, LOL. (I think g2n must have taken pics of them at least 3 times) Because their group grew and included a Sully and a Lucina too! Too bad Lon'qu is hidden behind in the back in this pic, hahahaha.
Afterwards, I went off to the Cosplay Spectacular, but I could only stay for around an hour because I wanted to make it to the Fire Emblem panel which started at 7. The Trims were playing before the Cosplay Spectacular... and they played for around an hour or so. By the time I left, the show was barely starting!!! Darn, I was hoping I'd at least get to see a handful of skits. I left during the first two walk-ons. Saw this Sherlock cosplayer on my way back to the convention center.
The Fire Emblem panel was surprisingly packed!!!!! WHOA. Just as packed as the Sato and Omori panel that I attended in the afternoon. So many Fire Emblem fans, ahhhhhh. <33333 I was hoping that a lot of the FE cosplayers would show up at the panel too since there was no cosplay gathering organized, but sadly, that didn't happen. The panel was quite fun to listen to even though it was geared towards Fire Emblem newbies when most of the people who showed up were already long time fans. In the end, it was almost like a Fire Emblem support group, hahahaha, because people started sharing their experiences about getting critical'd by the enemy, or using the arena too many times and accidentally dying... XD;; I left before the panel ended to make my way back to the Cosplay Spectacular. Meanwhile, g2n held a panel next door with the Fanime art staff.
When I got back to the Cosplay Spectacular, I took the same seat I'd vacated, hahaha. I wonder if the people behind me thought it strange that I kept coming and going. XD;; I didn't know where we were since the MC didn't announce the groups with numbers. D: (Checking online right now tells me it was skit #20!)
From the skits I saw, I really liked these ones!
Epic Rap Battles - Oz from Pandora Hearts and Ciel from Kuroshitsuji have a rap battle that their servants try to solve for them, but the servants discover they actually have a lot in common. XD;; Really cool parallels between the two series!
Ninja of the Night - Hilarious Dragonball Z skit that ended with a to be continued, cutting off right before the climax! Totally reminded me of actually watching DBZ. Always cutting off right before the good part, and you know that in the next episode, the fight still woooon't end.
Lace Graffiti - Super beautiful Utena skit! They cosplayed the story part of Utena that gets told at the beginnings of the episodes.
Ninja of the Night part 2 - I DIED LAUGHING. I DIDN'T THINK THEY'D ACTUALLY DO A PART 2 OF THE SKIT. They actually came back on stage, ahhhhhhhhh. The time was perfect. Goku and Vegeta basically charged for half the skit, hahahahahaha.
I left after the last skit and didn't stay for the announcement of the winners since I had to meet back up with g2n, but I enjoyed the skits I managed to see.
Met this Gaius cosplayer! (FE again) :DDDDDD Bear lollipop!!!! (I adore Gaius, ahhh.)
Super cute Toradora cosplayers, omg.
We wandered around a bit since it was still early. Wandered back to the arcade. Saw this really funny Excalibur. He and the guys behind him pretty much put on an impromptu skit where he commanded the guys to put his pants back on (because they'd taken it off lol) and he slapped them with his gloves. They promptly fell to the floor in an exaggerated fashion. Ahhh, people who can be their characters on the spot...
Ike! :DDD
We also saw a Maou from Hataraku Maou-sama!!!!
Went home after that. :3 On our way out, some guy asked me what my Henry ship was, haha. I had to think a bit... I'm reaaaally not much of a shipper. XD; I paired Henry off with Tharja in my playthrough, but I quite enjoyed Henry's supports with Olivia (especially the Japanese version), so I answered Olivia. The guy said, "I knew it." Lol. Well, I think Henry x Sumia is pretty interesting too because of the canon bodyswap... I might even want to write a fic about that... someday. XD;;; Henry x Ricken is also cool. XDDDD Really sad too because aren't we killing Henry's friends? DDDD:
Monday
We went bright and early on Monday, finally making it to the AA before it actually opened, lol. (We were always late... by a few hours...) I wore a casual Bossun cosplay from Sket Dance. I'd made a lot of his alternative shirts after all. XDDD Didn't take any pics of myself though. ^^;; I was pleased that several people recognized me. :) Yay for SKET Dance fans! <3333 Though I wonder where all the cosplayers were... I didn't personally see any through the entire weekend. ): But people did buy g2n's SKET Dance print.
The AA before it opened. So spacious!
Amy from Gargantia! :O That bag must be handy. XD
Kuroko no Basket again~. Same Kise as before (and... same Kuroko?) but the others are different! Rainbow hair~
More Magi. :D
The Yata cosplayer came back, and this time she did a middle school version! With a Gameboy Advance! XDD Hilarious.
The convention near closing time.
G2n and I attended the closing ceremonies to hear what complaints and feedback people would have. As expected, it was mostly about registration and the location of the artist alley. There were also some suggestions about hotel room blocks and panels. Fanime is truly growing larger and larger, huh? Hard to believe that it used to be so much smaller!!
And that concluded Fanime 2013. Monday, I pretty much sat at the table and sold stuff while playing endless streetpass on my 3DS. I was determined to finish all of my puzzles. I acquired all of the pieces except for 1 piece! No one at the convention seemed to have it. I also beat Find Mii 2 twice. XD;;
...I really didn't do much at the con... or even talk to that many people. (At least I went to two panels and two events, OTL) Ahhhhhhh, Streetpass, what have you done to me.... XD;;;; A ton of people were walking around with their 3DS, hahaha. I met around 500 people or so through Streetpass... Several were playing Fire Emblem Awakening! Though it's too bad I didn't end up making any new Fire Emblem friends in person. ):
Merchandise
Stuff I bought!
Niou x Yagyuu poster, Dino poster, two t-shirts (a fishbone t-shirt, heck yeah!), a Soujirou strap (I will forever love Soujirou), a Haikyuu (omg, someone drew Haikyuu!!!) and a Kuroko no Basket pouch, Fire Emblem pins, and a Fire Emblem Awakening print.
Awakening print by Hasuyawwn! So detailed! The paper is kind of thin though, and easily damageable. G2n ended up buying me another one because the previous one got damaged. D:
Closeup of the cute Fire Emblem Awakening pins and the Soujiro strap! I bought all guys, hahaha. |D;; Libra and Gaius are my favorites. Was also tempted to get Morgan and Lucina.
This year, I did not pre-register at the convention on Monday (don't know if it was being done or not, couldn't really hear any announcements in the South Hall. It was too noisy). Must remember to get registration online when it opens!
Next convention, Anime Expo in the beginning of July! I'll need to fix up my Henry cosplay a bit~. Hopefully not last minute. XD