On day 3, I went to 3 panels: Madhouse, Steve Blum, and some fashion show.
I tried to get an autograph from Yuki Kajiura, but unfortunately many of us weren’t able to.
The main event of the day was the LiSA concert. This was particularly significant, because it was her official USA debut.
Then in the night, I went to 2 hotel parties to cap off the final night of AX.
So here is the set list of the LiSA concert:
-"My Soul, Your Beats! (LiSA cover)" [Opening theme for the anime Angel Beats!]
- "笑ってほしくて(Laughing Star)" (From her album Lover "S" Mile)
- "妄想コントローラー (Delusional Controller)" (From her album Letters to U)
- "Crossing Field" (Opening theme for the anime Sword Art Online)
- "一番の宝物 [Yui Ver.] (My Most Precious Treasure)" (Insert song from the anime Angel Beats!)
-"oath sign" (Opening theme for the anime Fate/Zero)
- "Confidence Driver" (Single from oath sign album)
- "Crow Song" (Insert song from the anime Angel Beats!)
- "ジェットロケット (Jet Rocket)" (From her album Lover "S" Mile)
Here’s part 4 of my Expo adventures: (Sunday, July 1)
Once again, I logged about 4 hours of sleep. I woke up at about 8, then I must have day-dreamed for close to 30 minutes. I’m not even sure what I was thinking about during this time. I was probably in a state of trance trying to mentally prepare myself for the LiSA concert.
I wasn’t planning on wearing my crossplay for a third consecutive day, so I instead went with a FIFA jersey and some random shorts.
It was around 9:30 when I arrived at the convention center. I met up with 2 of the con-goers and we loitered around for several minutes before we headed to the location where the Madhouse guests panel was taking place. In the program book, it listed the following 3 guests: Kunkiko Hamada, Asaka Morio, and Takya Tsunoki. There was a fourth one but I can’t remember their name. So as usual for a panel, it started off with a moderator who introduced them to the crowd, and then they started off with some words. There were random clips and videos that were shown, but I guess since I’m not exactly that familiar with Madhouse, I just went with the flow and still enjoyed it anyhow. Then finally, as usual, the floor was opened up to a Q&A session.
After that panel ended, there was some time to kill, so the 3 of us wandered around the con center. While doing this, I saw some interesting cosplays so I just randomly snapped some pics of them. I did it for both people who were standing somewhere posing for pics and also for people who were just walking while I was also on-the-move.
So then next up, we went to the Steve Blum panel. So I guess he’s a voice actor for a variety of many random things like Cowboy Bebop, Avatar, and Final Fantasy XIII-2. It’s just ironic how I never realized he was the VA for many entertainment media that I got into from years past. So this panel followed a similar format as the previous Madhouse panel.
So after that panel ended, there was just a little over one hour to burn before getting into line for the LiSA concert. Once again, we quickly wandered around the con center before heading outside to the nearby food trucks to quickly grab some food to eat. I ordered some random sandwich and I decided to devour that so that we could hurry and prepare for LiSA. I’m not sure if maybe fewer people came to see LiSA than Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction), but the lines moved faster than the previous day for that other concert. Since we got into the hall rather early, we decided to get into another line to purchase some random stuff. I ended up purchasing a copy of her LOVER”S “MiLE album along with 2 glow sticks.
After I finished with this, the 3 of us split to go to our assigned seats. I ended up getting a seat at the front row, centered with the stage.
So as soon as LiSA came onto stage, many people stood up and started chanting her name. This concert was one of the more active/interactive types compared to the FictionJunction one. Hence why I was standing the whole time. It was fun dancing to her songs I must say.
Throughout her performance, she did her signature “What’s up LA!?!?!?”….”What’s up in the front??”….”What’s up in the back?!?!?”
In particular, her accent and the way she said those things was cute and adorable.
All in all, she performed 9 songs.
So she started out with “My Soul, Your Beats!” which I felt was a great opening song for the concert. I guess it made sense to start with something that was more on the happy side.
So for her fourth song, she sang “Crossing Field”, the opening song for Sword Art Online. That’s one of the reasons why I’m currently hooked to that anime.
Then next up, she performed the Yui version of “My Most Precious Treasure.” I guess this was perfect timing to have the most emotional song saved as the ‘middle song’ of the concert.
Then she immediately went with “Oath Sign” right afterwards. That was a perfect way to reverse the emotional tide. This song alone gives me no more excuse to not watch Fate/Zero (not that I ever doubted how good the anime is).
She finished off her performance with 3 more songs (shown in the spoiler above).
Afterwards, she wanted to do an encore badly, but due to the time constraints, the convention people wouldn’t let her unfortunately.
But she was able to at least to get photos taken of the crowd. So in the end, many people went to the front and got in whatever position they could to possibly be shown in those pics. Since I was already in the front row, I stood on my chair with a perfect ‘vintage point angle’ to get myself into the pics.
Overall, LiSA was the main reason I wanted to come to AX this year and I’m glad I attended it.
I’m very sure that she was happy about coming to LA, and she seems eager to return here next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wants to go to the other main USA markets like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Dallas.
So once the concert officially ended, I felt a lot different and better than from the beginning of the day. I met up again with the 2 other con go-ers and we headed to the AX Fashion Show to kill some time. It was hosted by Misako Aoki and Danny Choo. The opening performance was done by KYOKA, and the featured were dolldelight, Galaxxxy, and Kapi-Bara-San. I guess I had a good time basically spacing out at this event, but it was probably because I was day-dreaming about the LiSA concert.
So after that fashion show ended, I had a few hours to kill before the first hotel party began. I split off with the 2 people and met up with another guy who told me in advance that he was also going to the party. We met up somewhere in the con center, then we headed outside and walked around Downtown LA for a little. Then we took the shuttle back to the hotel and quickly grabbed some nearby food to put some actual “substance” into our systems.
The first hotel party happened to be at the same hotel I was staying at so convenience was great in this case. It started right around 20:00. In short, I lost track of how many times me and other people shouted for everyone to stfu. It was held in some mini-suite that had a fairly large living room and a section that worked well as the bar area.
I started off with a rather weak girly type of drink since I asked the bartender to make me whatever. My friend did the same thing and he got a much stronger drink. As soon as we finished our first drinks, we consumed some pizza and chips before we went on our streak of drinking a lot of random drinks.
I think the most random drink I had was probably 2 wasabi shots.
I also had some scotch with pop-rock candy poured into it. I liked seeing those things pop when they made contact with the scotch, and they sure added some “kick” to the drink.
The main highlight was me and my friend and like 2 other guys there all took 2 Galvatrons. The first one was when I was still kind of ‘warming up’ but for the second one, someone gave me and friend them randomly. We were already really buzzed at that time, but we still managed to chug it without any issues.
Throughout this room party, the 2 of us paced ourselves with the pizza and chips refreshment.
At around 2, the hosts made all of us go down to the hotel plaza area. We loitered there for about an hour with other people there. Afterwards, me and my friend followed some people to a hotel that was right across the street for another hotel party.
This one hour of idling got me a little sober. I ended up having 3 simple drinks at this second hotel party. I basically decided to take it easy and just chit-chat with people who were here.
It was around 5 in the morning when I returned to my hotel room. I decided to quickly rinse my face and crash for the night.
So that’s the final official night of my Expo adventures.
It's the sequel to The Last Airbender. So it's about similar things, but I liked it a lot better than the first series. It actually made me watch the first series now that I mention it.
So on day 2, I went to 3 panels: Vocaloid, Madoka Magica, and LiSA.
The main thing of the day was the Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction) concert.
I also went to the con dance in the night (albeit briefly).
Then the rest of the day/night is probably pretty obvious.
So here is the set list of the Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction) concert:
The beginning of the end
The battle is to the strong
The image theme of Xenosaga II
Vanity
In the land of twilight, under the moon
Hanamori no oka
Parallel hearts
Salva Nos
Forest
Sis Puella Magica
Credens Justitiam
Himeboshi
Duran Shoukan
Mezame
Stone cold
Zodiacal sign
Open your heart
Encore= The World
Here’s part 3 of my Expo adventures: (Saturday 6/30)
So when I left the NZ girl’s hotel and got back to my hotel room at around 8, I showered for around 30-45 minutes. It took me around 20 minutes to walk that 1 mile to get back to my hotel. I was surprised that I didn’t walk or feel like a zombie considering the fact I slept for barely 4 hours from the previous night. And I guess that long shower completely rejuvenated me for the day. So then I put on my crossplay and got my bag ready before heading out to the convention center. I got there by around 9:30 or so (far earlier than the previous day).
I started off by going to a Vocaloid panel at 10. It was the “Mirai no Neiro” (The Sound of the Future 2012). Since I really had no set schedule, 2 other random con go-ers convinced me to go to this panel with them. I still need to get more acquainted with the world of Vocaloid unfortunately. Anyways, I guess the MMD (MikuMikuDance) was probably the highlight of this panel. A lot of those popular music videos were shown and their creators also spoke. There were also “never-before-seen” Vocaloid music videos that were premiered here. I enjoyed them even though it would have been much better if I was at least a casually acquainted fan.
And to wrap up this panel, there was of course a Q&A session. Plenty of people got to submit their questions to the guests of honors.
After that panel ended, since the other 2 people had plans of their own, I ended up loitering and wandering around the con center solo. More people asked if they could take pics of me, and there were still more people than I expected who wanted to be in the pics with me.
During this free time, I met up with 2 other random MAL people (separately). As for lunch, I just quickly fed off 2 mini sushi sandwich-wraps that I got from a convenience store. I had some crackers and candy to keep me awake too.
Once again, I wandered around the main exhibit hall with one of them and his friends. It felt like I was sleep-walking here for at least 1.5 hours. It seemed like there wasn’t the right combination of merchandise that I wanted to buy here.
So time seemed to kind fly a bit faster from all this loitering and idling. Next up, I met up with the second MAL person and we went to the Madoka Magica panel. This was hosted by Aniplex of America. I happened to bump into another one of the random con-goers from the previous day, so the few of us sat together for this panel. I seemed to be the only one out of the 4 of us who hadn’t seen the anime yet, so it was like I was basically there just to hang around and kind of day-dream.
Since I wasn’t really paying attention, I can’t quite recall who the guests were at this particular panel. But I’m pretty sure that both Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi were part of this. When my con friend told me that the music was composed by Yuki Kajiura, I immediately jotted this anime down in my mind as an anime to keep in mind for watching purposes.
So after that panel ended, the MAL guy went on his way to his next thing, and I went with my one con friend to the LiSA panel. They lined us up in another room, and it got unbelievably hot and stuffy in there due to all the bodies and heat emitting from everyone. It was worse since I had long-sleeves for my dress so like my entire upper-half was burning and sweating. Even my legs and thighs were starting to burn.
So once they directed us into the actual room for the LiSA panel, there was some nice air-conditioning which made me feel much better. So as usual for panels, it started off with her introduction before they showed some random videos. They included clips from Fate/Zero and a special pre-screening of Sword Art Online. That SAO video included the opening song by LiSA. The main reason I came to this panel was because of Yui and Angel Beats. Many of the people seemed to come because of Fate/Zero (which I haven’t seen yet).
So once the Q&A session started, a lot of people tried their best to ‘power-walk’ to the line since the moderators said “no running.” Basically all of the questions were good ones. Not surprisingly, people asked her about Yui and Angel Beats related stuff.
Then as this ended, there were 5 trivial questions asked related to her, and for each correct answer, an autographed LiSA poster was handed out. The very last question (which was supposed to be the hardest one) was about the color of the flag of the main character in Fate/Zero (I think….). First person guessed wrong, and then the second person swooped in and got it.
So all in all, this panel was a great ‘prelude’ to the LiSA concert that would take place the next day in the afternoon.
When the LiSA panel ended, there wasn’t much time before the Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction) concert. So I wandered around the con center a little longer with my friend to try to meet up with a few of the other people who were also attending the concert. It was supposed to start at 19:00 but it got pushed back to 19:30. The place that they had us line up was outside so it wasn’t fun being stuck in the heat again. They kept telling everyone that sitting wasn’t allowed, but I sat down anyways with my friend and her friend. Besides chit-chatting, we ate some of my cheese-its to help kill time. When we finally got into the hall, those 2 went in one direction to their seats since they got seats together. I was stuck in some section that was like right in front of the mid-point of the hall. I wish I had gotten better tickets for this concert, but I still enjoyed it anyways. But unfortunately, the seat I got, I sat between 2 people and I basically had no moving space at all. One of them seemed to keep looking at me whenever I barely grazed him.
When it ended, everyone was screaming for an encore, and they came back out for one. Overall, the concert was great and I’m glad that one of the con go-ers convinced me to go.
So it was kind of already late when the concert ended, and I decided to take the shuttle back to the hotel. I was going back to meet up with someone else and to quickly grab some actual food with him before heading back to the con center for the con dance. Someone else had sent like a JPG marking the meet-up spot for everyone to go to, but we waited there a fair amount of time and no one else showed up. There were at least 10 other people who had expressed interest in coming to this particular day’s dance. The person who helped with a lot of the planning all of a sudden poofed while she was texting my friend. He later told me that she told him she was with some other random con go-ers, and that they left the dance for a few minutes and then headed back into the waiting line.
The line was close to 45 minutes just to get into the dance. The 2 of us stayed in there for just around 45 minutes. The music was average at best. I was hoping for more dubstep at least, but that wasn’t the case. During this time, I texted a few other con go-ers to see if they were doing anything.
So the 2 of us left the dance early, and we decided to meet up with some other random people for some bar-hopping. Since I hadn’t pre-buzzed from a few hours earlier, I felt sober completely. I spent at least around $60-70 on drinks for myself during this session. When it ended, I went to a hotel party that one of them hosted. There were more than enough drinks for everyone, so I continually gouged myself with the drinks. Luckily, this party was help in the same hotel I was staying at, so I didn’t have to worry about walking or taking a taxi afterwards. So I basically just kept drinking and talking with random people at the room party. As it progressed, we went to the plaza area of the hotel party to loiter around.
I had some rather unusual drinks at this hotel party. One of them was probably Bombay Saphhire gin mixed with some vodka and a little coke on top of those 2. I also had 2 separate Pop-Rock drinks, in which I poured a pack of candy into a scotch and vodka in 2 separate cups.
It was around like 5 in the morning when I got back to my room. I quickly showered and then I crashed. However, the biggest issue was that the third roommate who shared a bed with me lied down with his hands stretched out to the sides. So I had to be a little nudgy with the bed covers to get him to roll back over to his side.
So was this day 2 of the anicon more eventful than day 1?
Yep. I got pretty close with like several people at the Expo. I've been staying in touch with them ever since the Expo ended, whether it's via random texts or like Skype sessions.
And even the numerous other people who I chit-chatted with, they were all normal and cool.
Are you ready to hear more of my Expo stories?
But for the time being, my flight to Baltimore is in a few hours.
I guess I'm ready for 4 more straight restless nights at Otakon.
I actually haven't watched much anime in a long time. I'm in the mood to get back into it, since there are a lot of series that I've been meaning to check out. I think I will start with Fate Zero.
The last thing I really enjoyed was not even anime. Legend of Korra had my interest for a few months.
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I tried to get an autograph from Yuki Kajiura, but unfortunately many of us weren’t able to.
The main event of the day was the LiSA concert. This was particularly significant, because it was her official USA debut.
Then in the night, I went to 2 hotel parties to cap off the final night of AX.
So here is the set list of the LiSA concert:
Here’s part 4 of my Expo adventures: (Sunday, July 1)
The main thing of the day was the Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction) concert.
I also went to the con dance in the night (albeit briefly).
Then the rest of the day/night is probably pretty obvious.
So here is the set list of the Yuki Kajiura (FictionJunction) concert:
Here’s part 3 of my Expo adventures: (Saturday 6/30)
And even the numerous other people who I chit-chatted with, they were all normal and cool.
Are you ready to hear more of my Expo stories?
But for the time being, my flight to Baltimore is in a few hours.
I guess I'm ready for 4 more straight restless nights at Otakon.
The last thing I really enjoyed was not even anime. Legend of Korra had my interest for a few months.
And I agree with that. As long as you have something that defines who you are, you can always lean back on it when needed. It's always there for you.