Anime Expo Con Report PART TWO
SATURDAY:
I woke up around 6:30am and went right to work ironing my Joker cosplay. On the floor. Since I was on the floor though, it was extremely hard to iron one section of the clothes without creasing another. I became very frustrated and the whole event took THREE HOURS to do. DX Once I had everything ironed I started getting dressed. Everyone else was pretty much ready to go at this point though. I had Tori do my makeup for me, since I suck at it, and then I tried to restyle my wig that had been messed up in the car ride. Good thing I brought Aquanet.
I got a call from Tako that morning explaining that the Joker for the circus group that she was supposed to be a part of never finished her costume and so she couldn't do photos with the group that day.... meaning that I got to be the group's Joker! How awesome! 8D
Apparently I was taking too long to get ready that morning though, so Sara, Anya, Tori, and Melissa all left without me. I was severely pissed off by this because I really wasn't taking that long! I was moving as fast as I could! I needed help getting my outfit on too, but no one was there anymore. I left the hotel fuming, and went to the Nokia Theater to meet up with Tako, Tasu, Ivy, Mel, and the rest of their circus group. I called Emma on the way to wish her a happy birthday, and we talked about the silly "present" that Terri, Cheryl, and I made for her.
I got to the theater but I couldn't find anyone, so I called them and just waited for them to show up. There was a concert that morning, and a LOT of Japanese girls with sunflowers were walking around. Several of them asked for pictures with me. It was funny because one girl did a peace sign, and I wanted to do it as well.. but because of Joker's hand I had to do it backwards... which is not a nice symbol. Oh well.. I hope they forgive me for practically flipping them off. A couple of them copied the backwards thing though.. so I don't think it was that bad. XD
I finally saw the circus troupe coming around the corner, and so I ran over to meet them. We kept being asked for pictures and it took us about twenty minutes to walk the length of the theater because we were getting stopped so much! It was kind of funny actually.. but also a little annoying. We got to the con just in time to see the One Piece gathering! We met the group's Doll cosplayer there as well as a lot of people that Tako knew. I wanted to get pictures of the One Piece cosplayers, but it was hard for me to move my hands wearing gloves, so I only got a few. I found pictures that other people too though!
This guy was awesome! He was a friend of Tako's, I could figure that much, and he took some silly pictures with the people in our group:
Doll tried to hug that guy, but her parasol got stuck in his cape. He was like, "AGHH! This thing keeps getting caught on stuff!!" XD
I don't get it because I don't read One Piece, but this looks horribly offensive to me. ^^;
I was only at the One Piece gathering for a short while before I had to go to Room 401 where the Cosplay.com Hallway Cosplay Contest craftsmanship judging was taking place. Shockingly, I was one of the 48 people chosen to be a finalist in the contest, so I had to go to judging. I already knew that I stood no chance against the other costumes I was competing against, but as soon as I rounded the corner, I was face-to-face with the competition:
This girl ended up winning third place in the contest.
Just to put it more into perspective for you, this girl didn't even get an award:
Here's a link to the photos of all of the contestants: http://www.cosplay.com/gallery/186924/p1
(WTF IS GOING ON WITH MY HAND IN THOSE PICTURES?! D: )
Here's a link to the post with the winners: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=212209&page=3
I'm still a bit shocked at how many people said this was their first costume contest. REALLY? Who enters a contest at the biggest convention in the country for their first time?! Scary!!
Anyway, it was obvious that I wasn't going to win the contest with competition like that. A lot of the entrants would have been Best in Show material for an AZ con. It still baffles me how I made it in. I just entered on a whim to see if I would even make the finalists, and I wasn't even expecting to do that. All in all, I'm flattered that I made it to the finalists, but now I realize that I have a long way to improve before I can even think about winning a contest like that one.
After judging I left to find the rest of the circus once more.
I met up with them and all of us wandered around the main atrium looking for the Doll cosplayer we had seen earlier. We ended up just dropping out stuff and staying in one spot. Then began the stream of cameras! So many people with cameras kept coming, so we ended up just standing in the same poses for several minutes at a time. We were joking to each other, "Haha.. hope you like your pose. We're not moving for a while!"
We got some nice serious shots:
As well as some not-so-serious ones!!
(LOL.. William's book is The Book of Mormon. I think he got it from his hotel...)
Tako had to leave after a while to go change into Nightmare from Heart no Kuni no Alice for a masquerade skit she was doing with some friends. Mel, Tasu, and Ivy, all wanted to change into their HiNaBN cosplays too. This left me and William with nothing to do. XD I ended up following Mel, Tasu, and Ivy back to their hotel room. Tasu found a freind of hers who is a photographer though, and so she took some pictures of us up on the third floor of the building before we left.
Wheeee~ I'm a derp.
I soon learned that the hotel that they were staying as was A LOT nicer than the one we were staying at. I kept making comments about how cool I thought the furniture and stuff was! XD
My feet were hurting really really bad because of Joker's shoes, so I plopped on their couch and took them off. I had put jelly insoles in them that morning to make them more comfortable, but it turned out that the insoles just took up more space in the shoes, making them fit tighter, and therefore making them more uncomfortable. OTL
Mel and Ivy and Tasu were all changing costumes, and then Tasu realized that Ivy's wig had been left in Arizona! Oh noes! Thankfully, there were like, three different wig stores in the vendors hall, so I put my feet back on and followed Tasu back to the con to get a new wig. It was pretty fun hanging out with her for that little while, because I hadn't ever really talked to her about much of anything at all before. I discovered that we have similar tastes in clothing though! There were a lot of very awesomely dressed people walking around... including these guys:
and this girl...
Anyway~ Tasu bought a new wig and we headed back to the hotel room again.
I saw this guy on the way back:
It was a different Danbo from the day before. This one would stop moving unless someone put money in him and then he would come back to life! And his eyes lit up! 8D
We also ran into a lady wearing a really cute hat! We talked to her for a little bit and found out that she lives in Sierra Vista! More Arizona people! Woo~ I asked for a picture of the hat. XD
I saw Morgan ans Susan in the hallway, and they were making their way to something involving the masquerade. I followed Tasu back to the hotel again and sat around taking up space and talking to people a bit. Then, around 4:45, I left to go back to the cosplay room to find out who won the contest.
I was in a lot of pain at this time because of my costume, and it had become really windy outside too. The hair tangling up and smacking me in the face as well as the jacket refusing to stay on did not improve my mood at all.
I wandered around the vendors hall a final time after leaving the cosplay room. I looked for some of the prints and stuff I had wanted to buy earlier and spent a bit too much money on some D.Gray-Man prints that had been drawn by one of my favorite artists. XD
At 6pm the vendor's hall closed and everyone poured out into the main atrium area. I wish I had gotten a good picture of just how many people there were, but I didn't. You're just going to have to trust me when I say that the floor was nearly invisible from the second level because of all of the people. D: Basically, from where those first few people are standing, all the way to the tiny doors in back of the picture, was a gigantic sea of people:
I saw some really cool costumes in the mob though!
- Lolita Buzz Lightyear and Cowgirl Woody
- Steampunk R2D2
- Steampunk people with movable wings
There was quite a sizable crowd surrounding the steampunck people, so that's why I went over to see what was going on. I didn't care about those two so much though because when I looked across the crowd I saw Kynt from the Amazing Race! It could have just been someone dressed like him, but it seriously looked like him... so I assumed it really was him. I freaked out a little bit and whipped out my camera and tried to make my way across the crowd... but there were so many people in the way he disappeared before I could even move a few feet. It was really disappointing. D:
You're probably not going to know or even care about who Kynt is unless you watched The Amazing Race a few seasons ago. He and Vyxsen were the only reasons why I watched the show for as long as I did. I just thought they were so cool looking!
But yeah~ Anyway~
After that I began my slow and painful walk back to the hotel. It took me twice as long as any other time because my feet were in SO MUCH PAIN. I was practically forcing myself to keep taking steps. I was nearly to the point of tears, not only because of the foot pain, but because of a number of other things. My friends ditching me. Not being recognized unless I was with the rest of the circus group. Feeling like I had humiliated myself for joining that cosplay contest.... yeah.. just a lot of stuff. :C
I got back to the room to find everyone else pretty much ready to go to the HiNaBN dinner party at California Pizza Kitchen. I desperately needed to change my clothes, and I did so quickly. I was trying to wipe off my clown makeup when people began telling me to hurry up and I tried my best not to snap at them. Anya, Sara, and Tori all left, but Melissa stayed with me (thankfully), though I think she only did so because she couldn't find the door key and was looking for it.
We left the hotel pretty much running to get to the restaurant on time. When we arrived, there was a huge crowd outside! At least thirty or forty people had shown up to eat dinner with Tessa Stone, and about a third of them were cosplaying her characters. I don't know what I would have done if I were in her kind of situation. I'd be freaked out probably...
The restaurant didin't have enough room to accomodate everyone who wanted to eat there, so a group of maybe twenty or so went in while the rest sat outside. We were told there was going to be about a 40 minute wait. Tori had snuck inside with the first group, leaving the rest of our party outside. I found Mel, Tasu, and Ivy once more and sat and talked with them for a while.
Ivy and Tasu as Adelaide and newly-vampirized Conrad.
The tallest CPK you will ever see!
After assaulting the people who had already gotten in the restaurant and were sitting on the patio for a while, mostly just Tori, Sara managed to get her, Anya, Melissa, and myself in there... we just walked in and sat down really. I don't think you're supposed to do that. D:
It kinda sucked though, because the sun was setting and it was windy and I was wearing a skirt and a t-shirt. There were some space heaters on the patio to keep it warmer, but they were all towards the opposite side from where we were.
After about half an hour, the rest of the massive HiNaBN group made it inside too. The people who had sat down first were getting their food, but since we just seated ourselves, no one ever came to take our order! Oops! It took a long time for us to get our dinner, which was a delicious pizza that tasted just like a cheeseburger. After we split it four ways, we discovered that we were still hungry. So, three hours after we had arrived, we left to go to Denny's with a smaller group of people that were also at dinner.
We got there and found that the place was packed with convention people. Even at 11pm! XD I guess they had been getting a lot of business because of the con because a sign had been posted telling all Anime Expo guests that the business would not be able to split checks more than three ways anymore.
At Denny's! 8D
While we were there was saw a really gorgeous Lulu cosplayer... who turned out to be a trap.
This seriously was the con of traps. SO MANY boys were crossplaying! It was really kind of shocking because there are hardly any boy crossplayers in AZ, but there were tons of them here. I kept getting confused. Successful traps are successful:
Around midnight we all headed back to the hotel. We packed up some of our stuff and began to get ready for the next day.
Before I move on to Sunday, I'm going to post some more of the epic cosplays I saw in the halls at the con. I couldn't get pictures of all of them, so I collected other people's photos instead, but here they are:
Man Yoko! D:
VUVUZELAS!! VUVUZELAS EVERYWHERE!! D:
Because of FIFA these things were really popular. Almost no one knew how to play them correctly though. One person would blow into it, making a really awful noise, and everyone else within the general area of that noise would blow into theirs too, making it sound like a heard of elephants were being murdered. D:
This guy was cool. He was outside the con a lot of the time just playing songs on his saxophone. There were some girls in the Artist's Alley who were playing violins for people too.
David groping the male Celty. XD
ADVENTURE TIME!!!
The 1st place winner of the hallway cosplay contest
Mel being awesome as Seymour. 8O
These next ones were really awesome too!
They're cosplaying as the Shiva bike in FFXIII. They transformed from being two separate people into a motorcycle! The whole transformation took a really long time, or so I heard. O:
Also, I didn’t actually go to the masquerade, but I did find some videos of the skits on youtube. I really liked the Heart no Kuni no Alice skit that Tako was a part of. They ended up winning Best in Show Honorable Mention for it:
Click to viewI also thought this skit was hilariously offensive:
SUNDAY:
We packed up the rest of our stuff and packed it all into the car once more. We had to play Tetris again to make it all fit too:
Tori took Melissa's 4-day badge and went back to the con to buy more prints that people wanted. Sara, Anya, Melissa, and I all sat in the hotel and watched a 4th of July hot dog eating competition. It was disgusting.
After a while, we checked out of the hotel and drove over to the con to pick up Tori before heading out to Little Tokyo. While driving there, I saw a Yamamoto cosplayer walking down the street when we were waiting at a light. I pulled out my camera to take a candid picture, but Melissa rolled my window down. I yelled at them "Heeeyy! Yamamoto! Can I take a picture of you?!" and they just stood there looking utterly confused for a few seconds, nodded, and posed for me. It was kind of funny yelling at someone from a car like that.
This reminds me... on Saturday I saw a bandaged up Yamamoto. I think he was supposed to be cosplaying the version after Squalo cuts his face. I didn't see any wheelchair Yamas though!
Once we were in Little Tokyo we parked and began to wander around the shops. There was a lot of really awesome graffiti, as well as some really strange artwork:
We went into a few grocery stores as well as a Kinokuniya Bookstore. I found the Reborn artbook in there as well as these; 3rd season DGM keychains! I would have bought them if not for the fact that they were $15 each. D:
We wandered around for a while looking for a bakery that apparently has godly curry buns. We finally found the bakery... only to see that it was closed for the holiday. Sara was mad because she really wanted to go. We wandered a bit more, looking for a place to eat. Finally we decided on a ramen shop. I was going to get some tasty looking udon until I realized that they had takoyaki! Being a massive nerd, I really wanted to try some. XD
It was super tasty, but I felt bad eating it. Octopuses are such cool animals. D:
I just wanted to try it once for the sake of saying that I did.
After lunch we wandered around a bit more before going to a grocery store and loading up on snacks for the car ride home.
MASSIVE Sanrio store! I didn't even go in there because I was afraid that I would want to stay for a long time.
- Strawberry cream puff
- Banana omelet
- One Piece coffee
- BOSS COFFEE
I bought some DELICIOUS milk tea here that was made by Lipton. I didn't know they made that! I guess only in Japan... D: I also bought a cream bun which I ended up eating on the ride home. All the cream buns I've ever eaten here have been a bit soggy with like, custard inside... so that's what I was expecting this time too. OMG it was So much tastier! It was fluffy bread that wasn't soggy at all filled with Bavarian cream. Yuuuuummmm~ I wish I had bought more of both of those foods.
Driving back, I got to see the windmills again. We entertained ourselves by drawing ridiculous pictures most of the way home. This just about sums up the drawings:
We arrived back in Phoenix around 8pm. I ended up locked out of my house for a while because I had no key and my family was out watching fireworks. I never got to see any. :C
My haul from the weekend:
That little censored area is Cheryl's birthday present! ;D
All in all, it was a fun weekend. I'd love to do it again once I have a job. XD