The AX Con Report
Jul. 8th, 2003 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
windandwaterBwah! I told y'all that I would do it!
-- THURSDAY --
A very trying day, but worth it. Woke up early to struggle into my school uniform outfit for the day, only to get a phonecall from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aoi that she was sick and burning up. *gerk* There was a bit of a panic there, as I had no way to get to AX since Aoi's dad was driving us. Still, she told her parents she was going anyway, and I promised to look after her, so off we went.
Of course, this put me into a very worried and protective mood, as I did not want Aoi-chan to die. She assured me she wouldn't.
We got to the hotel in one piece, butlove4anangel (Shira) and tenshiryu (Steph) weren't showing up until around 9 AM, so that meant a 2-hour wait. We camped out in the hotel lobby and I whipped out Solo (my trusty laptop) and we amused ourselves. I also told Aoi that a googol was a math term, but she didn't believe me.
After a quick to the ATM to withdraw my cash for the weekend, Shira and Steph showed up. We hauled our stuff to Shira's car and headed to the convention center. We were immediately accosted by a HUGE line. Of course, as I have been trained by previous AXs, I sat down in it. We lucked out. It was the line into the Dealer's Hall.
*cheers*
We considered going to Opening Ceremonies, but as the line for THAT stretched the LENGTH of the conventions center and then some, we decided we liked our nice places in the Dealer's Hall line and settled in for the seige. Of course, it didn't suck too badly. We were still waiting for Steph's friend Kiki to show up, and the hotel didn't have rooms ready yet. We pawed through my goodie bag, and ogled the cosplayers (and snapped pics, of course).
There was a neko!Duo and neko!Quatre who got huggy int he pic I snapped of them. The neko!Duo's badge read "Duo's Uke" and I applauded him for that. Actually, it's quite fun to just walk up and down the line, getting cosplay pics. Also met some of Shira's friends, who we would be hanging around with during the con.
Kiki finally showed up, and we finally got the room, taking turns to haul our stuff up. Then there was more line sitting. Then once the crowd started getting restless (I swear nothing starts on time at AX), they started throwing free stuff at us. Candies, Initial D card packs, all sorts of fun stuff.
Then the hall was opened and we joined the hordes. I immediately sought out the doujinshi and blew half my money on the spot. What can I say? The Doujinshi Guy was really funny and he was pretty helpful. And you can't resist a guy yelling: "RED HOT YAOI! BOYS KISSING BOYS!" so loudly that you can hear him from the other end of the hall.
I suppose you don't want to hear about my shopping experience, so I'll move on.
Aoi got a bit ill and had to take a lie down so I accompanied her happily. Actually, lugging around all those doujinshi and free stuff was getting to me. Also, the heavy walking is hell on my feet. >_<; I think we both ended up falling asleep, but since I'd been up since 4:30, I didn't mind.
After some roaming, we decided to to to the dance. Well, Aoi didn't because she decided to crash for the night. We also caught the last of the Duel Jewel concert, which ran WAY long. It was awesome! All the girls were screaming and the guys int he band were WAY bishy. There's nothing like joining a raving, screaming crash of fangirls all struggling to TOUCH the lead singer. Of course, I was one of them. ^__^ I was in the back and was somehow shoved to the front, and when the lead singer jumped into the crowd (for a second time) I was part of the pile of girls that fell ON him. I really feel sorry for the security/bouncer guy though. He was holding all of us back AND I was shrieking in his ear.
After the AWESOME concert, the dance started. It was okay, considering that I thought the DJ was lame and didn't spin songs very well. I do, however, like to watch the dancers with glowsticks. Kiki was girl of the con, as she kept getting offers to dance, much to her embarrassment. And I did not collect a stalker. *pumps fist into the air*
Steph and Kiki left the dance around midnight, but Shira and I stayed until 12:30 or so. We wandered back tot he room and crashed.
-- FRIDAY --
Outfit of choice: My "Bishounen. It's What's for Dinner" shirt, with a pic of Heero in a pink apron byponderosa121 on the front. It received many compliments and such, and I got to pimp out Pond everytime people asked. *cheers*
We hit Artist's Alley, in the morning meeting Akiko, mbp, and Mari... aka Lazy Kumquat. They're very nice and talented. I do so love to look at everyone's art. And GenkiGang.Com was there, so I ogled the super cute hats that I couldn't afford to buy. ^^;; Of course, it was still early and dealer's hall wasn't open yet, so we decided to come back when more artists were around.
Today was also AMV Line day. *makes face* There was an "unofficial" line to pick up the nonvoucher tickets to the AMV Contest in the morning and I plopped down in that. Of course, it soon turned into the "official" AMV line after we started blocking up the doorways and caused a fire hazard. They led us into this big empty room to camp out in and we were in the first row (it stretched to 6 rows)! Since we would each get two tickets, we pulled the switch-off, trading places with each other so the others could go into the dealer's hall or whatever. Also, we joined up with Shira's friends, and said we'd give them our extra seats. I'm glad I bought those Boku no Angel Tomodachi and That One Heero doujinshi from Lazy Kumquat though. I read them in the line. ^^;;
I also got a head's up about people turning in their vouchers early for Masquerade, so I dashed to the hotel to do that, found Shira and told her to do the same.
Once we scored the tickets (after a VERY LONG WAIT), we split up again. Aoi and I hit the dealer's hall again, I bought more doujin (eek!), and then we trucked up to the room to drop off all our stuff. Aoi was lucky and managed to score A LOT of very nice Harry Potter doujins. Oh... now I remember. Hit Artist's Alley again and got to talk to Shihaya (Shihaya.com) who does some beautiful work. She took pictures of my shirt. ^^v
After a breather and a consultation of the schedule, Aoi and I went to the Yuki Kujira concert. Of course, we once again staood in a HUGE ASS LINE (this one in the sun), but it was very much worth it. Yuki's work is beautiful and I was very tempted to drop the cash for her CD (though, I wanted the Duel Jewel CD, too >_<; my poor wallet).
After the concert ended, we were starving, so we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut at the Marriot (our hotel), and damn but they didn't get a lot of money from all us hungry otaku. Aoi went to run our bags up while I waitd for the pizza, and she actually RAN INTO THE GUITARIST AND VIOLINIST from the CONCERT! They rode the elevator up together and Aoi was able to tell them she enjoyed the concert in bad Japanese. She think they thought she was crazy, but she got a pic of them and the guitarist was staying on our floor. SCORE!
I rode up with none other than "Duo's Uke", still an adorable catboy. He had my GW pins, but was missing Heero. I was missing Wu. I decided that they probably ran off together. He was such a cute boy. Jailbait for me, but still... ^___^
We snarfed the pizza then went BACK to the convention center to wait in ANOTHER line for the AMVs. There was a bit of confusion since WE had ALL of the tickets for AMV and the other group was late getting there. Still, we made a general nuisance of ourselves, got our whole huge group in (about 14 or so) and got in the line.
The AMVs, I think, get better every year. Technology and all. There were some absolutelybeautiful one that I'm going to have to download. There was even one to YATTA! ^____^ It's ALL about Heero in a fig leaf. Really.
Of course, AMVs started late and ran late, so after that we crashed.
-- SATURDAY --
Outfit: My SEME shirt, since Aoi wore her UKE one, and I'm taller. Biiii-dah!
Considering that we stood in line for the others, they said they would get out places int he Masquerade line. It's much more fun to be sitting all together anyway. Still, that left the morning free for a good length of time, so it was the Dealer's Hall and Artist's Alley again. Also sat in on the Gundam Panel, but it sorta sucked because it was an indistry panel and not a fan one.
Oh, but we DID sleep in a bit late and watched Hamtaro and Yugioh on TV. :P
... and it saddened me that I didn't destroy my mind on anime in the film rooms this year. Most of the stuff they were showing, I've seen already! *pouts*
Anyway, somehow the WHOLE HUGE GROUP ended up in the damn Masquerade line. We decided to block up a whole row so that we could shuffle around as we wished. Once we got out tickets, we found and unoccupied bit of carpet and spread them ALL OUT. It was like angels started to sing or something, I've never seen so many event tickets in one place like that before. Then we accosted a Random Guy and made him take a BIG GROUP PIC of all of us. Poor man, we had like, 9 different cameras.
The afternoon passed in a blur and I can't remember much of what we did after we got the tickets, but we all gathered again to stand in the line to get INTO the Masquerade in the evening. We also made the cosplay rounds, snapping up photos. It's highly amusing to have Japanese cosplayers stare at our Seme and Uke shirts and gossip in Japanese about them. We were even asked to pose by this Inuyasha group, so they could have pics.
There was a rousing game of Bullshit played with Dragonball Z cards while we sat in the line, and I quickly typed smut (it was forzania). It's amusing to ask a mixed group of guys and girls about euphimisms for male bodily parts.
:P Not all the guys were cool with yaoi, but they didn't say anything or all us girls would've kicked their asses.
Now, I'm just going to be blunt.
Masquerade SUCKED ASS.
... and not in the good way.
And it didn't help that the MC was an ass. It didn't start to get passable until AFTER the second part of it. Really, we should've just gone to the Duel Jewel concert and dance instead. Still, I really liked the Yugioh skit (especially since we had watched it in the morning).
Yami: I play... FANSERVICE CARD! *Dark Magician Girl flirts with the crowd*
Kaiba: I block with the AMERICAN CENSORSHIP CARD!
Yami: I counter your block with HONG KONG BOOTLEG CARD!
*SNARF*
They really told it like it was.
Anyway, after languishing through the lameness (thought there were some nice costumes, just too may walkons), the best part of the evening was the announcing of the AMV winners. Plus, we got to see the videos over again and that was cool. There was a group in the back practically begging to see the Yatta! video again (I agreed), but we were denied. *sighs*
After that, Aoi and I decided to turn in (and I wanted to email off my fic), but there was a bit of hassle as the keycard to the room took offense at me sitting my fat ass on it all day. Shira's didn't work either (damn magnetic strips!), so we got new ones.
Once in the room, we were jiggling and couldn't sleep. We were so loud that hotel security was called on us. Geh! We decided to move down to the lobby so we could be as loud as we wanted (it was pretty packed for 2 AM). On the way there, we saw that the room that had narced us had the privacy tag on their door. I suppose our giggling interrupted hot raunchy sex.
We finally crashed after 4:30 AM.
-- SUNDAY --
Wow... we were really tired. We didn't haul our carcasses out of bed until after 10, but that's mostly because we had to check out at 12. *grump* There was a flurry of packing and organizing, but I'm sure we didn't leave anything behind. ^^v
We dumped out stuff in Shira's car and headed out for one last hit at the dealer's room. I always do my DVD and major shopping on Sunday so I can get the best deals. Also, I wanted to stock up on the free shit. ^__^ Bandai was most helpful and I scored two free shirts and a game piece from them. *pimps* JagunFighters.com *pimppimp*
Anyway, after the insanity, Aoi's parents picked us up at 3 PM and I passed out on the ride back.
w00t!
-- THURSDAY --
A very trying day, but worth it. Woke up early to struggle into my school uniform outfit for the day, only to get a phonecall from
aoi that she was sick and burning up. *gerk* There was a bit of a panic there, as I had no way to get to AX since Aoi's dad was driving us. Still, she told her parents she was going anyway, and I promised to look after her, so off we went.Of course, this put me into a very worried and protective mood, as I did not want Aoi-chan to die. She assured me she wouldn't.
We got to the hotel in one piece, but
love4anangel (Shira) and tenshiryu (Steph) weren't showing up until around 9 AM, so that meant a 2-hour wait. We camped out in the hotel lobby and I whipped out Solo (my trusty laptop) and we amused ourselves. I also told Aoi that a googol was a math term, but she didn't believe me.After a quick to the ATM to withdraw my cash for the weekend, Shira and Steph showed up. We hauled our stuff to Shira's car and headed to the convention center. We were immediately accosted by a HUGE line. Of course, as I have been trained by previous AXs, I sat down in it. We lucked out. It was the line into the Dealer's Hall.
*cheers*
We considered going to Opening Ceremonies, but as the line for THAT stretched the LENGTH of the conventions center and then some, we decided we liked our nice places in the Dealer's Hall line and settled in for the seige. Of course, it didn't suck too badly. We were still waiting for Steph's friend Kiki to show up, and the hotel didn't have rooms ready yet. We pawed through my goodie bag, and ogled the cosplayers (and snapped pics, of course).
There was a neko!Duo and neko!Quatre who got huggy int he pic I snapped of them. The neko!Duo's badge read "Duo's Uke" and I applauded him for that. Actually, it's quite fun to just walk up and down the line, getting cosplay pics. Also met some of Shira's friends, who we would be hanging around with during the con.
Kiki finally showed up, and we finally got the room, taking turns to haul our stuff up. Then there was more line sitting. Then once the crowd started getting restless (I swear nothing starts on time at AX), they started throwing free stuff at us. Candies, Initial D card packs, all sorts of fun stuff.
Then the hall was opened and we joined the hordes. I immediately sought out the doujinshi and blew half my money on the spot. What can I say? The Doujinshi Guy was really funny and he was pretty helpful. And you can't resist a guy yelling: "RED HOT YAOI! BOYS KISSING BOYS!" so loudly that you can hear him from the other end of the hall.
I suppose you don't want to hear about my shopping experience, so I'll move on.
Aoi got a bit ill and had to take a lie down so I accompanied her happily. Actually, lugging around all those doujinshi and free stuff was getting to me. Also, the heavy walking is hell on my feet. >_<; I think we both ended up falling asleep, but since I'd been up since 4:30, I didn't mind.
After some roaming, we decided to to to the dance. Well, Aoi didn't because she decided to crash for the night. We also caught the last of the Duel Jewel concert, which ran WAY long. It was awesome! All the girls were screaming and the guys int he band were WAY bishy. There's nothing like joining a raving, screaming crash of fangirls all struggling to TOUCH the lead singer. Of course, I was one of them. ^__^ I was in the back and was somehow shoved to the front, and when the lead singer jumped into the crowd (for a second time) I was part of the pile of girls that fell ON him. I really feel sorry for the security/bouncer guy though. He was holding all of us back AND I was shrieking in his ear.
After the AWESOME concert, the dance started. It was okay, considering that I thought the DJ was lame and didn't spin songs very well. I do, however, like to watch the dancers with glowsticks. Kiki was girl of the con, as she kept getting offers to dance, much to her embarrassment. And I did not collect a stalker. *pumps fist into the air*
Steph and Kiki left the dance around midnight, but Shira and I stayed until 12:30 or so. We wandered back tot he room and crashed.
-- FRIDAY --
Outfit of choice: My "Bishounen. It's What's for Dinner" shirt, with a pic of Heero in a pink apron by
ponderosa121 on the front. It received many compliments and such, and I got to pimp out Pond everytime people asked. *cheers*We hit Artist's Alley, in the morning meeting Akiko, mbp, and Mari... aka Lazy Kumquat. They're very nice and talented. I do so love to look at everyone's art. And GenkiGang.Com was there, so I ogled the super cute hats that I couldn't afford to buy. ^^;; Of course, it was still early and dealer's hall wasn't open yet, so we decided to come back when more artists were around.
Today was also AMV Line day. *makes face* There was an "unofficial" line to pick up the nonvoucher tickets to the AMV Contest in the morning and I plopped down in that. Of course, it soon turned into the "official" AMV line after we started blocking up the doorways and caused a fire hazard. They led us into this big empty room to camp out in and we were in the first row (it stretched to 6 rows)! Since we would each get two tickets, we pulled the switch-off, trading places with each other so the others could go into the dealer's hall or whatever. Also, we joined up with Shira's friends, and said we'd give them our extra seats. I'm glad I bought those Boku no Angel Tomodachi and That One Heero doujinshi from Lazy Kumquat though. I read them in the line. ^^;;
I also got a head's up about people turning in their vouchers early for Masquerade, so I dashed to the hotel to do that, found Shira and told her to do the same.
Once we scored the tickets (after a VERY LONG WAIT), we split up again. Aoi and I hit the dealer's hall again, I bought more doujin (eek!), and then we trucked up to the room to drop off all our stuff. Aoi was lucky and managed to score A LOT of very nice Harry Potter doujins. Oh... now I remember. Hit Artist's Alley again and got to talk to Shihaya (Shihaya.com) who does some beautiful work. She took pictures of my shirt. ^^v
After a breather and a consultation of the schedule, Aoi and I went to the Yuki Kujira concert. Of course, we once again staood in a HUGE ASS LINE (this one in the sun), but it was very much worth it. Yuki's work is beautiful and I was very tempted to drop the cash for her CD (though, I wanted the Duel Jewel CD, too >_<; my poor wallet).
After the concert ended, we were starving, so we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut at the Marriot (our hotel), and damn but they didn't get a lot of money from all us hungry otaku. Aoi went to run our bags up while I waitd for the pizza, and she actually RAN INTO THE GUITARIST AND VIOLINIST from the CONCERT! They rode the elevator up together and Aoi was able to tell them she enjoyed the concert in bad Japanese. She think they thought she was crazy, but she got a pic of them and the guitarist was staying on our floor. SCORE!
I rode up with none other than "Duo's Uke", still an adorable catboy. He had my GW pins, but was missing Heero. I was missing Wu. I decided that they probably ran off together. He was such a cute boy. Jailbait for me, but still... ^___^
We snarfed the pizza then went BACK to the convention center to wait in ANOTHER line for the AMVs. There was a bit of confusion since WE had ALL of the tickets for AMV and the other group was late getting there. Still, we made a general nuisance of ourselves, got our whole huge group in (about 14 or so) and got in the line.
The AMVs, I think, get better every year. Technology and all. There were some absolutelybeautiful one that I'm going to have to download. There was even one to YATTA! ^____^ It's ALL about Heero in a fig leaf. Really.
Of course, AMVs started late and ran late, so after that we crashed.
-- SATURDAY --
Outfit: My SEME shirt, since Aoi wore her UKE one, and I'm taller. Biiii-dah!
Considering that we stood in line for the others, they said they would get out places int he Masquerade line. It's much more fun to be sitting all together anyway. Still, that left the morning free for a good length of time, so it was the Dealer's Hall and Artist's Alley again. Also sat in on the Gundam Panel, but it sorta sucked because it was an indistry panel and not a fan one.
Oh, but we DID sleep in a bit late and watched Hamtaro and Yugioh on TV. :P
... and it saddened me that I didn't destroy my mind on anime in the film rooms this year. Most of the stuff they were showing, I've seen already! *pouts*
Anyway, somehow the WHOLE HUGE GROUP ended up in the damn Masquerade line. We decided to block up a whole row so that we could shuffle around as we wished. Once we got out tickets, we found and unoccupied bit of carpet and spread them ALL OUT. It was like angels started to sing or something, I've never seen so many event tickets in one place like that before. Then we accosted a Random Guy and made him take a BIG GROUP PIC of all of us. Poor man, we had like, 9 different cameras.
The afternoon passed in a blur and I can't remember much of what we did after we got the tickets, but we all gathered again to stand in the line to get INTO the Masquerade in the evening. We also made the cosplay rounds, snapping up photos. It's highly amusing to have Japanese cosplayers stare at our Seme and Uke shirts and gossip in Japanese about them. We were even asked to pose by this Inuyasha group, so they could have pics.
There was a rousing game of Bullshit played with Dragonball Z cards while we sat in the line, and I quickly typed smut (it was for
zania). It's amusing to ask a mixed group of guys and girls about euphimisms for male bodily parts. :P Not all the guys were cool with yaoi, but they didn't say anything or all us girls would've kicked their asses.
Now, I'm just going to be blunt.
Masquerade SUCKED ASS.
... and not in the good way.
And it didn't help that the MC was an ass. It didn't start to get passable until AFTER the second part of it. Really, we should've just gone to the Duel Jewel concert and dance instead. Still, I really liked the Yugioh skit (especially since we had watched it in the morning).
Yami: I play... FANSERVICE CARD! *Dark Magician Girl flirts with the crowd*
Kaiba: I block with the AMERICAN CENSORSHIP CARD!
Yami: I counter your block with HONG KONG BOOTLEG CARD!
*SNARF*
They really told it like it was.
Anyway, after languishing through the lameness (thought there were some nice costumes, just too may walkons), the best part of the evening was the announcing of the AMV winners. Plus, we got to see the videos over again and that was cool. There was a group in the back practically begging to see the Yatta! video again (I agreed), but we were denied. *sighs*
After that, Aoi and I decided to turn in (and I wanted to email off my fic), but there was a bit of hassle as the keycard to the room took offense at me sitting my fat ass on it all day. Shira's didn't work either (damn magnetic strips!), so we got new ones.
Once in the room, we were jiggling and couldn't sleep. We were so loud that hotel security was called on us. Geh! We decided to move down to the lobby so we could be as loud as we wanted (it was pretty packed for 2 AM). On the way there, we saw that the room that had narced us had the privacy tag on their door. I suppose our giggling interrupted hot raunchy sex.
We finally crashed after 4:30 AM.
-- SUNDAY --
Wow... we were really tired. We didn't haul our carcasses out of bed until after 10, but that's mostly because we had to check out at 12. *grump* There was a flurry of packing and organizing, but I'm sure we didn't leave anything behind. ^^v
We dumped out stuff in Shira's car and headed out for one last hit at the dealer's room. I always do my DVD and major shopping on Sunday so I can get the best deals. Also, I wanted to stock up on the free shit. ^__^ Bandai was most helpful and I scored two free shirts and a game piece from them. *pimps* JagunFighters.com *pimppimp*
Anyway, after the insanity, Aoi's parents picked us up at 3 PM and I passed out on the ride back.
w00t!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 12:17 pm (UTC)Duo Neko! Kawaii!! I was actually thinking about getting some fuzzy cat ears for ycon.
'Red hot yaoi. Boys kissing boys' I think I just might use that for an icon. ^^
Hary Potter Dj, ok I'm scared.
It sounds like all in all you had a great time.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 05:44 pm (UTC)You're going to YCon? Sugoi! I'm sure there will be many catpeople there. And the HP doujin are cool. They're mostly of the Maurauders!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 05:53 pm (UTC)And if you see the Yatta AMV online, you'll have to share with us!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 07:29 pm (UTC)They're SOOOOOO pretty! *___*
And yes, if I see that AMV, I'll pimp like a fiend!