By MisledYouth 1 year, 6 months ago
While waiting in line to buy my friend’s coffee and my tea, two cosplayers (a guy and a girl dressed up as Soul Eater characters) walked into Starbucks. When it came time to place my order, I told the barista that I was going to buy whatever these two cosplayers wanted. They ordered some food and thanked me for the generosity. I told them it was nothing and that there cosplaying was awesome.
We began talking about our favorite animes and manga and shared our thoughts about this year’s AX. Their order was called out and they grabbed their sandwiches and began opening the bags as they walked back over. Suddenly, the sandwich was on the floor; they had dropped it. So I immediately asked the barista if I could get them another sandwich. At first they refused for me to pay for another sandwich, but I insisted. The guy then told me that his name was Michael, that he and his girlfriend (at least I assumed it was his girlfriend) were artists and that they had a booth in the Artist Alley. To thank me, he would give me a print of my choice from his booth. I told him I would definitely be there later and we parted ways that morning.
When we got to the Convention Center, we immediately made our way to the Concourse Hall. It was just a few minutes past 9:00 A.M. and there was already a line of about 30 people. I didn’t mind waiting because I wanted to head into one of the front rows of the Hall. 10:00 A.M. rolled around rather quickly; they let everyone in and everybody immediately took their seats. A man came out for an introduction and they began showing us episode 9 of the Toradora! anime. It was awesome to see so many people fill up the Concourse Hall and enjoy an anime that I had also enjoyed.
Once the episode was over, the two seiyū, Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura, along with the producer and the translators went up onstage. They began talking about their experiences while working on this anime, did their best Inko-chan imitations (the bird in the anime), and they even sang a little for the audience. Though I wasn’t supposed to, I was able to snap a few pictures of the two while they were still onstage. When the panel was over, everyone stood up and began clapping and cheering for them.
I began making my way back to the Exhibit Hall because I wanted to get my hands on the Toradora! Volume 1 Premium DVD boxed set they had for sale at the NIS America booth. Once there, I ran into Prinny from the Disgaea series and asked him to strike a pose. Beside him were the Toradora! girls: Ami, Taiga, and Minori. After taking their pictures, I purchased a copy of the boxed set and made my way to the back of the hall towards the autograph area.
It was now noon, and at 12:30 P.M. both Ms. Eri Kitamura and Ms. Yui Horie were going to be signing autographs. As I approached the mass of people waiting for the line to form, I began wondering what the likelihood was of actually getting an autograph with 200 people in front of me. At 1:45 P.M., with roughly 60 people ahead of me, I got my hopes dashed when they announced that they had signed their final autograph. In rebellion I took out my camera and tried to get a picture of them before they left (again, they did not want people taking pictures like in the panel). All I got was blurriness and a threat from an AX Staff Member that he would take my badge away and kick me out for not obeying rules. Alas, I was full of disappointment at that moment.
The only person that could cheer me up now was Michael (from the Starbucks incident). As I made my way to the Artist Alley, I spotted a couple that were portraying Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid in both female and male versions. I eventually made my way to booth C-47 in the Artist Alley where I encountered Michael once again. He was quietly working on a sketch when I approached. I was amazed at the prints that he had for sale. There was one in particular that stood out because it emulated the cover to the movie Scarface, but instead read “Yotsuba!” and had a picture of a little girl with a gun instead of Al Pacino. Michael went on to ask me if I had heard about Yotsuba! before; apparently it was his favorite manga and he highly recommended it (I picked up the first 2 volumes after AX and they were really good!). He then allowed me to pick whatever print I wanted for free. I of course asked for the Yotsuba!/Scarface print which he gladly gave to me, but only after I asked him to sign his work for me. Once again, I was in high spirits!
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AX feels like it was just yesterday, and next year’s AX feels like an eternity away. I just wish I had some extra cash so I could go to San Diego Comic-Con this week to take some more awesome pictures of cosplayers there… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if I make it or not.
For more pictures of our first day, visit my Facebook:Anime Expo 2010 Saturday (Part 1)
Anime Expo 2010 Saturday (Part 2)
Anime Expo 2010 Saturday (Part 3)
Anime Expo 2010 Saturday (Part 4)
ok cosplay, do not recognize too many
brent_starks
11 months, 2 weeks agoaverage cosplay, the other articles had better ones.