Anime Conji is an anime convention that takes place in sunny San Diego, California. Well, it was overcast on the day I went but it was your usual anime convention. I don’t mean that in a negative way, I thought the convention was fine. Just that it was pretty much everything you expect from an anime convention.
Gallery
I was busy working on other stuff but I didn’t know I was that preoccupied. Kind of makes me wonder if I should still put a blog up if I don’t have that much material about it.
(I typed some descriptive comments into the pictures. Not all of them though. I don't want people to have to click through every picture. I might have to come up with a system to show comments. Maybe go back to my old system. I don't know why I have a hard time with the Giant Bomb image gallery tool.)
Notebook dump
- One of my favorites about anime conventions is representation of alternative fashion scene. I did see one at WonderCon. If you are a fan they represent at anime conventions.
- What happened to the Code Geass cosplay gathering? Also, what happened to the Model building contest? I needed those because I’m not talented enough to come up with content on my own. It happens.
- Cosplay photos I missed. There was a genderbend group of Sailor Moon. All the Sailor Scouts were males (some did not shave their beards). Tuxedo Kamen was a lady. There was a Homestuck cosplayer that had a flag of Nicolas Cage’s face on it. She was wearing it like a cape.
- I think around 3pm they had Djs playing music in the patio near Registration. I think the loud music playing over speakers actually worked for this convention. Made it more upbeat. Though, I think it can only work for this particular convention and the way it is setup and location.
- Anime Conji used flat screen monitors to display event programming. I thought it was nice but another one of those I think can only work with this convention.
- There was a wedding that coincided with the convention. The hotel must have told the couple about the Anime Conji event taking place on that day. I had no problem with a wedding being held at the same place. Hopefully Anime Conji did not ruin their wedding.
- Had the nicest conversation with a staffer while going down the elevator at the Regency Tower.
We stopped at a floor Pokemon Men Ash exited and an audible “Oh my!” could be heard.
Goku(staff) said something along the lines of “… already step out of the elevator and something happens.” I responded they are so funny I love what they do. Goku, “… yeah [real name] and [real name] are great. Goku then explains how his costume is breaking apart and needs go back to his room and fix it. We reach his floor and bid each other adieu.
- At the Regency Tower while everyone was waiting to take the elevator up a gentleman showed up with a rice cooker. I know people go to cons with their own food to save costs but this was next level. Or he was bringing it to the Press Lounge at the top floor.
I was going to applaud and post a screenshot of the WonderCon website where it had a nice explanation about why the convention has been in Anaheim the last 2 years and how they’re trying to get back. It’s not there anymore. Ookaay?
I’ve always known WonderCon as a Northern California convention. Reading the convention program it seems Comic-Con International will be trying to make 2 conventions WonderCon San Francisco and WonderCon Anaheim. Well, I guess good luck with that.
I only attended Sunday and one of my constant thoughts was “I hope Tony is here. I hope Tony is here.” Tony from Comic Vine was there! With a bonus of Norm Chan from Tested!
I forgot which year it was but it’s been a tradition since to visit Tested during San Diego Comic-Con. To wait for Norm to upload all his day’s work onto the site.
I was busy doing other stuff so I’m glad I can flake and lazily just post all of Tony's and Norm's works here. They are good anyways so it's worth mentioning
See all of Comic Vine’s fine work here. Most links should be on this page.
Anime Los Angeles is a medium sized anime convention held at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott. This was my first time attending this event. I will probably be saying that a lot until I circle back to Anime Expo 2013.
I sort of had an idea of what this con would be like from what people have said about it. ALA is one of those conventions where about 90% of the attendees were in costume. On Saturday morning, driving into the parking garage, it was cool to see people put on or do final adjustments to their costumes. The ballroom floor had at least 3 halls filled with cosplayers. It was such an awesome sight to see the lobby floor also filled with cosplayers that were just arriving, socializing, or meeting up with their friends.
The lobby level lead to the pool deck where a lot of people were working on making videos or photoshoots to take advantage of the pool scenery. I’ve never been to a convention where there was access to the pool area. LAX Marriott’s pool deck nicely blended pool, plants, and buildings. A professional media person can produce some amazing content here and from what I've seen there certainly was.
If you saw a cosplayer running from the parking garage to the hotel front on Saturday morning I hope you had a nice laugh about it. Long drive. Water. The hotel staff was nice people. The Jeff Gerstmann school of journalism says importance goes from top to bottom. So cosplay first. You can exit the tram once that’s over.
Cosplay
I am really glad I got to say hello to people I am a fan of in front and behind the camera. I missed some but hopefully that just means next time.
There were a lot of amazing cosplays on Saturday. So many that I could not function due to my non-clutch trait. I kept thinking, that is amazing, and this is amazing, I should go take a picture of that or I should go take a picture of this one instead. I need to train myself better and not be so easily overwhelmed.
(R = Row. There are 8 rows. S = Seat. Count from left to right. There is maximum of 10 seats across.)
R2 S4. From Tiger & Bunny series.
R2 S9. Soul “Eater” Evans from Soul Eater series.
R3 S5. All credit goes to these Links for this pose. I asked if I can take a picture. Their reply was how about from this bench. Me: Yeah! Sure! I don’t get to see these pictures until I get home. I thought it came out really well.
R4 S1. Really nice BSAA uniform.
R4 S3. From Mawaru Penguindrum series.
R4 S7. Thank you Teemo!
R4 S8. From Gundam series.
R4 S10. I love Pokemon Men. They are a funny group. Looking forward to their next appearances in videos.
R5 S4. Lady Nathan Drake.
R5 S6. From Bleach series.
R5 S9. I’m surprised at how well this picture came out. Speaking as someone with no photography skills and just pushes a button. All credit goes to these cosplayers. This was one of those things where I was just sitting at the pool deck area trying to get as many pictures as I can on Sunday making up for all the ones I missed Saturday. I like the South Park movie but I’m not really a fan of the series. But these cosplayers came by and sat next to me to take a break. I just had to take a picture.
R5 S10. From Bleach series.
R6 S3. What happened here was Nicholas D. Wolfwood was posing standing up and as I pressed the shutter button the battery goes out on me. I changed batteries but she already sat down. I asked for another picture and she said sure. I think this second one turned out pretty well.
R7 S1. I kept wanting to take a picture of people working out at the patio grass area.
R7 S3. Relius Clover from BlazBlue series.
R7 S5. Cut Rotom from Pokemon. I hope that’s correct, not good with Pokemon. He also has a nice K` from The King of Fighters series.
R7 S8. From Mawaru Penguindrum series.
R7 S10. This Bison was pretty cool. You can’t see from this picture but inside the wrists are LED lights that are activated when he bang his wrists together.
Thank you cosplayers for taking the time for a picture and all the effort you put in. I am constantly floored from all the amazing work you all have done. Thank you to all the cosplay videographers out there. You are all magicians with the videos you put out.
It should be no surprise that I’m a big fan of tank9. I’m glad tank and Mary were able to make ALA and it sounds like they got some good footage and had a great time. I can’t dance but I was able to muster enough courage to ask if I can participate in his cosplay dance video. I was extremely scared but I didn’t care. I’m too big of a fan to care about how I look in it. Hope it was some useful footage.
After the dance, as I was packing my stuff to continue on with the rest of my Saturday a fan in just regular civilian clothes came up to shake his hand and tell him he’s a fan of his videos. I know tank9 is well known but it’s awesome to see other people in real life that share the same fandom.
I am also a big fan of Lucy and her cosplay music videos. She makes some of the most super stylish CMVs I ever seen. Lucy’s pans, editing, and song selection all work so well together. I knew she along with her workgroup came into town to film for the weekend. I have to say I got a little excited when I saw her in the lobby Sunday afternoon. She is one of my favorite cosplay videographers.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona cosplay gathering
Special thanks to this nice lady who came by our gathering and handed out Atlus ribbons. This was a real pleasant surprise.
This was a lot of fun. So many nice people who were all fans of the Persona universe. Saw some really great stuff. A shadow Yukiko. Teddie wearing this hoodie that was fashioned as his Bear form. It even had a zipper in the back. I did not expect people to cosplay as Adachi. I’m not familiar with the Persona 3 universe but I think they even had some cosplayers you encounter on side quests. Really cool to meet some of the nicest people that share the same fandom. A nice lady came by our gathering to pass out ribbons. That was real nice because from what I read it is paid out of each individual's pocket. There was also a black lettering on red S.E.E.S. ribbon floating around. It’s cool what the ALA staff comes up with.
Dark Hour
I have never heard of a live Dark Hour until this cosplay gathering. Leave it to cosplayers to think up of everything. I originally wanted to go but as the night went on I started to get tired. Only went because a volunteer staffer I bumped into earlier in the day strong-armed me into going.
I’m glad I got to see what one of these look like. I think how this works is at midnight people would cosplay as shadow version of their character. One did show up in yellow contacts. It was really neat to see that.
Also, it was interesting to see what ALA looked like during that time of the night. What did it look like? People still around enjoying themselves.
King’s game was also played during the Dark Hour but I aged out of that age bracket so yeah I excused myself. I think it was Safe For Work and hopefully they had fun.
I was tired and left for home. The Kick-Heart panel ended around 9:45pm and it was only shortly after that did I eat dinner.
Anime Los Angeles Gallery
My cosplay post
First off, Thank You! I was not expecting the response that I got for my costume. I seriously was just expecting onlookers to remark to their friend oh hey look it’s that. I would have been completely happy with that. I did not expect Homestuck cosplayer or others to sing the Junes theme song as I walked by. I’m sorry I didn’t have any good come backs except for a Thank you because I was seriously shocked. Did not see that coming at all.
This really points out the amazing job the developers at Atlus did with Persona 4. A 2008 game that still have a connection with a lot of people.
My costume is not original. Cosplayers had already done this as by the picture of them drinking soft drinks. For some weird reason this idea popped into my head while I was walking around Reactorcon. I went there just so I can finally buy a copy of Cosplay in America from Ejen.
If I had to give my costume a grade I would say D. First, the wig was a fail. I spent so many hours shaping it that I had to go into damage control mode and accept I won’t be able to mimic the character’s hair. Props to any cosplayer that uses a wig as part of their costume. Wigs are difficult to shape and wear.
The rest of the costume was poor because I felt it did not evoke a whimsical feeling. Marcus Fenix makes you think how badass that character is. Rose of Versailles gives you this feeling of elegance. To me, mine looked like this weird Maid Café version of the character. But, I’m glad I still went forward with it. I got to learn basic sewing skills and it was fun planning and figuring out solutions to small problems. We all have to start somewhere.
I could not have completed my costume without the help of online resources. I hope I can contribute to the cosplay community as much as possible. Here is my interpretation of the Junes logo. On the upper right is a blue button marked Download. You can click on that and download directly to your computer without having to install Dropbox. [EDIT]Link is here for people to scan https://www.dropbox.com/sh/82hkkogo9q3neet/lQRu1HJelG
It is in vector. The font I found that was similar was called CenturySchoolbookBT Italic. I don’t know how to use Photoshop that well but there is a png version. All I did was open the original file in Photoshop and resaved as png format.
Panels
I can either do bad photography or do bad writing. For ALA, I figure I’ll do bad writing and let all the more skilled media record the scenery of the convention. I got to say there were times I wanted to leave the panels and go outside. I have seen some of the media coverage of ALA and they were excellent as usual.
I enjoy panels but I need to carefully select which ones to attend during the day. The next big con is Fanime. I’ll need to narrow down my selection to 1 panel that I really want to attend.
Eyeshine
10:00 – 11:00 AM
I’ll never make it to CMJ so this is the closes I'll get to watch a band play at 10am in the morning. I first saw Eyeshine perform an acoustic set at Reactorcon. It was really good and I wanted to see more of what the band was about. For ALA, Eyeshine went into full rock mode on 10am Saturday morning. Ok, so that’s how it’s going to be. It was good. I enjoyed it.
Playing Pretend for a Living
11:45 – 1:30 PM
I became interested in the subject of voice acting after Vinny and the rest of Giant Bomb would make jokes about it on the bombcast. Jokes in good taste like …just read what’s on the page …ok that’s good we got it, thank you, we got that, next page please.
Voice acting is a big part in anime and video games so it was interesting to see what people in the industry have to say about it.
-Question: What does a voice actor director do? The job is kind of like recording a symphony 1 instrument at a time. They need to make people sound like they are talking to each other. Like putting a big puzzle together.
-Question: How to get into voice acting? One advice, first try to get your mindset into being a regular performance actor and take acting lessons. You will be using those skills. Similar to acting don’t get into voice acting unless it’s something you really want to do.
-Advice: Practice at home by just reading a book out loud or donate time by recording audio books for the blind.
-About 25% of the time voice actors get to see visuals for a character. 75% they just get a description.
-Richard Epcar was at a Robotech convention and a staffer said you voiced 3 of the lead roles. Epcar’s response “I was?!” A lot of voices are being recorded and sometimes you don’t get to see the finished product.
Your Anime Sucks 2.1
1:30 – 2:30 PM
Entertainment group Panda Cubed presented a comedy panel about some of the problems with current anime. All jokes, no harm intended. Like Conan O’Brien monologues a lot of jokes depend on the delivery, timing, etc. Therefore these are just a summarization of what happened at the panel. Also note they know "You’re" was misspelled.
I enjoyed this panel because I do not have time to watch a lot of anything these days. This panel gave me a nice, funny, summary of all the animes released recently.
Panda Cubed hosts a variety of panels. I wanted to see the Kpop one because I’m really curious on how big that scene has become.
-Evangelion. Do you want to pilot this billon dollar mech? The only thing Shinji can do is get so emo oh I don’t know. “I’ll pilot that mech!”
-Yu-Gi-Oh! is getting kids into gambling.
-FLCL. Oh this is so existential, let’s just do an anime around that. At least the music was good. I think that anime was just a music video. Yeah it was just a music video.
-Sword Art Online. They already did this in .hack. Unequip clothing.
-Tenchi Muyo was created just to sell plushes.
-Gundam. All Gundams are the same, let’s just copy and paste from the 1st storyline. It’s marketing from Bandai so you can buy all those models from hobby level to expert level where there are metal parts and as big as me. FYI: at the Gundam café in Japan, lights will flash when you flush the toilet.
-Code Geass is a Pizza Hut commercial. [I love corporate sponsorship jokes. My friend’s ex-roommate told me there was an artist who liked Yoshinoya so much he kept drawing it in the manga.]
-D. Gray-Man. So many delays people in Japan don’t even know what’s going on in the series.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – 10 Years and Counting
L to R: Eunyoung Choi, Masaaki Yuasa, Maki Terashima-Furuta
On the kickstarter for Kick-Heart there is a really interesting statement made about the anime industry which could also apply to the video game industry
Recently in Japan, its been very difficult for the next generation of innovators to create more artistically driven projects-- mainly because of the economic situation in Japan. Most of the focus has been put on creating projects that carry less risk-- such as remakes of older animation projects or well-known established properties.
Because of this I wanted to attend the Kick-Heart related panels. I was expecting an “inside baseball” type panel about the anime industry but it was mostly a Q&A for director Masaaki Yuasa. No problem, I’ll take what is given.
Yuasa’s opening statement was it’s his first time being overseas at an anime convention. I haven’t seen anybody cosplay from my works (We all laughed at this).
-Production I.G is run like a very serious business. Probably why still active in bad economy.
-Art style similar to The Triplets of Belleville. They know that, Michio Mihara is a big fan of that movie.
-Animators work outside of Tokyo and FedEx their work from home. Still use paper for their anime.
-Anime consumes much of Yuasa’s life he tries to get away from it when possible.
-Eunyong Choi watched American cartoons like Looney Tunes and The Simpsons growing up. For The Simpsons, she thought this is yellow and the storyline is so fun.
-Yuasa say working on anime with a 1 million dollar budget would be scary because of trying to recoup all the money.
-Yuasa would like to be wealthy but lives a poor lifestyle. Choi also have a poor lifestyle.
-Choi studied animation in London and planned on staying there. Opportunity for her to work in Japan. Started in clean up and eventually lead to her role now.
-Yuasa could not imagine doing anything else besides anime. Wanted to be an animator since he was little.
-There were some kickstarter backers in the room he was very thankful and very encouraged from the support.
-Question about why Japan is still doing anime while America is mostly doing computer graphics animation. Response was the Japanese audience still prefers the hand drawn style anime.
Kick-Heart Crowd Funded Anime
8:45 – 9:45 PM
L to R: Stephen Weese, Maki Terashima-Furuta, Eunyoung Choi, Masaaki Yuasa, Richard Epcar, Ellyn Stern
This panel was focused on the crowd sourced anime Kick-Heart. I’m not a backer but I would still like to see this anime short. Looks very interesting. Stephen Weese worked on the kickstarter campaign. Richard Epcar is working on the English dub of this short.
-Masaaki Yuasa watched the anime Tiger Mask as a child.
-Yuasa is interested in the concept and fashion of S&M but not wear it.
-Stephen Weese reinforces the kickstarter belief you need a really good video and show people all this awesome stuff you’re working on.
-Yuasa wanted to use a wrestling nun because it seems very contradictory.
*****
I had a lot of fun and meet some of the friendliest people on this planet at Anime Los Angeles. It was time to leave around 4pm on Sunday. I don’t know why but man I felt sad and going to miss the place. How can that be? I don’t think I even felt that way during my middle school’s camping trip. My guess is being surrounded by some really nice people who are all fans of the genre. Thank you.
Misc thoughts
-On Saturday, there was a cosplay gathering on the 3:00pm hour that had League of Legends, Kpop Dance, and Modern Warfare/Battlefield/Metal Gear. I really wanted to see what those were about. Especially the Kpop dance gathering. I didn’t know that was a thing.
-While I was waiting for the Kick-Heart panel there was a cosplayer that was sort of like a cross between a gypsy and a belly dancer. What was cool, she did not talk but held up a sign that said “Will dance for ribbons” and had a hat on the floor. Her way of communicating to you was the sign and a group of tiny metal jingles attached to the hip of her costume.
When people walked by she would jingle and try to get their attention. It wasn't annoying at all! It was pleasant. Some of the responses were, “You have a ribbon? I don’t have a ribbon. Sorry.” “You have a ribbon? You’re staff and you don’t have one?!” [Laughter ensue]
I wanted to get a picture as in I actually got up and stood in front of her but she was standing behind a big mirror so that wasn’t going to work.
-Goal for 2013 is to make at least 1 montage video. Will try to make this happen at Fanime. Which means I will have to try and make test videos at conventions along the way. If I ever want to make CMVs in the future I need to start somewhere.
-Fanime will be my first travel-to con. I understand now why so many people are not in costume on the last day of convention. It is pretty much a travel day.
-I sort of have an idea of what I want to cosplay next. Anime Expo is the big one so maybe beaten up Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3. So I guess that means I can do regular Big Boss for Fanime before I rip things up. I do want to try and make an anime based costume. I would like to try and do Asuma Shinohara because Patlabor: The Movie is one of my all time favorites. But trying to reproduce that uniform will be very difficult. All plans are on paper so I’m glad they are months away. I may come up with something else instead.
-I think there was a cosplayer who did the PMC costume I saw at PMX. He did another variation and it was done so well. Maybe I’ll do one of those for the smaller cons. If I did I want to do something different like carrying around high-tech gear instead of an airsoft or something like that.
- In senior year of high school we were taught how to write a formal letter to companies to file a formal complaint, request a free sample, etc. That summer of 1994 I wrote a letter to then Washington Bullets suggesting an idea for a new uniform. I drew a uniform that had a woodland camouflage pattern with military stencil letters. In 1995, the Washington Bullets changed their name to the Washington Wizards.
I am a big fan of the original Ghost Recon game on PC. What made that game even better were all the mods fans made for the game. It was so much fun looking through all the new character skins people have created.
I guess I always liked that uniform thing but I didn’t really get into costume stuff until 2012 Anime Expo. Weird. But, I guess I’m in it now and it is fun.
I don’t know why but 2012 wasn’t a particularly good year for movies. They weren’t necessary bad, just mostly bland. Some quick notes before the list.
The Grey, I heard a lot about is the movie I regret missing this year. The Hobbit was really good considering I’m not a fan of the sword and sorcery genre. I thought the Lord of the Rings trilogy were high quality made movies but never held my interest.
Cosmopolis is a movie worth watching if you’re in the mood for something really different. Red Dawn is actually a passable action movie. It’s not great, but it’s not the disaster I thought it would be.
While 2012 did not have the greatest movies it did have some amazing end credit songs that I can remember. Hey yeah we’re just standing here looking at the credits not metamorphosing into jelly with Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars haunting Safe & Sound.
Metric had this great futuristic sounding pop song Long to Live at the end credits of Cosmopolis.
Silent Hill: Revelation was not that good. When they played the second end credits song Silent Scream [Edit] I thought Oh, Evanescence has a song on this. It was so good that I couldn’t leave until it ended. I did a little research it turned out it was just Jeff Danna and Akira Yamaoka with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn on vocals. Who? Oh, The Major from Ghost in the Shell aka famous voice actress. I was completely rocking out to this song.
Rain of Brass Petals, the first song of end credits was really good too.
I think the song is called Hikari Furu by Kalafina at the end of Madoka Magica movie Part 2: Eternal. An amazing song, fitting with the color scheme of end credits. This just blew me out of the water.
2012 Movies
1. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 1: Beginnings / Part 2: Eternal
I first learned about Madoka Magica series from cosplays at anime conventions. I thought well, ok they’re still making Sailor Moon type animes. Nothing surprising there, I’ll never watch it though. But then Liz Ohanesian wrote an article about the U.S. premiere of the movie and that this anime isn’t what you think it is. Really, hm. I became really intrigued and had to see it.
Madoka Magica was amazing and then some. Unfortunately, I don’t want to spoil it. This is one of those that’s best going in without knowing much about it. The few things I can say is the words deconstructing magical girl genre has been used a lot to describe this. Also for me, I am a big fan of this American thing is why I became a big fan of Madoka Magica.
Quick note this movie is basically all the TV episodes put together into a movie format. Plus or minus a few things and some scenes moved around. I preferred the movie version and will be buying this when it becomes available.
Watching this I regret missing Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos. I remember seeing ads for it in theaters. Never thought much of it. But when a major newspaper from a major metropolitan put it on the front page of their website and gave a positive review about it I became interested. I tried looking for show times but did not try hard enough and the movie just got past me. I’ll have to check it out sometime.
2. The Hunger Games
I thought this movie was going to end up as number 1 considering this year’s crop of movies. I think the reason I liked this so much is because I like The Running Man. This wasn’t one of those movies where I was eagerly awaiting to go watch. I actually can’t even remember why I wanted to go see it. But any movie that can turn me scores high on my list.
Pretty much the rest of the movies on this list were alright. The ranking doesn’t really say how much I like them.
I liked Point Break and I thought hey I would like The Hurt Locker. I thought The Hurt Locker was pretty remedial. All the praise that movie got I didn’t see it. Zero Dark Thirty was a good manhunt movie just like it was advertised. I don’t know about the high praise but worth watch.
5. Battleship
The most fun and relaxing movie I seen this year. I had no interest whatsoever in seeing this movie but all the advertising got me so credit the marketing department and their illegal use of subliminal advertising. Put on the glasses.
I also think of directors as vendors sometimes. The studio comes and asks can you make a summer action movie? Great, you’re hired! This is a summer action movie, sit back and relax.
6. The Dark Knight Rises
A lot of complaints were filed about this movie and I can see their point. I felt TDKR had so much studio intervention involved in it. There were scenes I was thinking noo.. don’t go there.. oh he went there. Maybe that around $250 million price tag had something to do with it. Because you see a pattern, a consistency with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and then this. I don’t know. Hollywood. Business. Business not meant for me to know.
But looking past all the missteps it still has enough of Christopher Nolan in this movie to make it good.
Quick take on comic book movies. I thought Iron Man 1, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight were the only comic book based movies that were great. Everything else has been mediocre. They weren’t bad, just quality movies that were uninteresting.
7. Prometheus
Another one of those movies where you are transported to this wondrous fiction land. It did a really good job of taking me on this journey and I enjoyed it.
8. Haywire
I thought this spy fiction was done really well. Gina Carano’s character was really well written and she did a good job performing it.
9. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Morgan Spurlock made a nice movie about San Diego Comic Con. Captivated from beginning to end.
10. Skyfall
I grew up watching Bond movies so that traditional Bond format doesn’t bother me too much. I thought Casino Royale was great and Quantum of Solace was a misstep. Skyfall was kind of in between that.
What they started with Daniel Craig was really good. Casino Royale had that amazing black and white opening. I like Daniel Craig as Bond but I fear the direction this series is going if he is going to continue as Bond. Daniel Craig is under contract for 2 more Bond movies. I hope they stick to the original direction or go back to the "traditional" Bond with a new actor.
Something that I notice, if you watch Die Another Day then immediately watch Skyfall it would make Skyfall a lot of sense or similar.
I lived in Los Angeles most of my life and there are still plenty of “I live here but I’ve never been to (blank)” LA Auto Show is something I knew about since I was little but I’m not a car enthusiast so never had a reason to attend.
LA Auto Show is open to the public and with a mainstream subject such as vehicles it’s probably one of the few that uses all the convention space. I didn’t know the convention used studio lighting. As seen in these 3 pic below they attached studio lights on scaffolding to put an emphasis on the cars on the floor. Upon entering I was thinking it is really bright in here. I like brightness, just was not expecting it.
These pictures show my no photography skills. The studio lights made everything way too bright on my point and click. I try to adjust the white balance which ended up with mixed results. Still need to take that beginner photography class at local community college.
Also, I didn’t know how to take picture of a car. Only thing I could think of was Forza screenshots and magazine covers. All pictures on this post is a mix of pics from camera and phone. Ran low on camera battery so had to resort to phone. I don’t know how people take pictures with those. Difficult.
My mindset is so trained on the museum mentality that I don’t want to touch the exhibit. I was surprised to see the cars they put on the show floor you can just open doors and get into. I did go in a few, it was like an amusement park ride of constant stream of getting into new vehicles.
I spent quite a lot of time at the Ford exhibit. They had a car where you can swing you foot below the rear bumper and the rear door will open. It's pretty amazing when a concept works right in front of you.
Design by Jeremy Scott
Before the convention I was thinking about only taking pictures of concept cars. But once I was inside the convention I could not tell which car was which with my limited knowledge. Here is a car designed by Jeremy Scott (Video clip is here) I didn't even know who Jeremy Scott was until I stumbled on a CBS TV infomercial about the convention. It's one of the most unique designs I ever seen.
Kia had the Forte which I’m guess they’re trying to market to the 18-24 age demographic. If someone gave me this car for free I would drive it. DC comic characters wraps/modifications done by West Coast Customs.
Another revelation is the ability to test drive some of the cars on display at this convention. That sounds like it can go really bad but I'm sure they have their system worked out. I wanted to get daylight shots and most end test drives around 5pm. Unfortunately I was still inside trying to comprehend the whole convention.
The LA Auto Show is a very beautiful presentation and professional ran convention. All the exhibitors did such a wonderful job with their presentation. I would recommend it as something to be experienced. I probably won't return only because of the subject matter but this is a very good convention.
I thought they closed down the adjacent street for the auto show but it was just for KIIS FM pop concert Jingle Ball. The pop concert coincide with a Clippers game made it a capacity crowd at LA Live. I don't think I ever been in this area where all 3 venues were in operation.
It's a good thing I did stop by the plaza because there was an advertisement sign for the Dark Knight Legend exhibit. I think most people who have attended San Diego Comic Con have already seen this. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This was my first time at Pacific Media Expo (PMX) held at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel and upon stepping into the lobby it seem like 80% attendees were in cosplay. That figure sounds unreal but every other person I saw was in costume. Also, 2012 PMX had a Miku concert. I wondered if that had a factor in attendance. I liked the high attendance and in costume. One of the best things about this convention.
PMX isn’t an anime convention, it also has music and fashion from the Asia region. The exhibitor hall was selling music items and fashion accessories as well as anime. There were a handful of people interested in the Lolita fashion scene and visual kei stuff. I’m disappointed with myself for not getting pictures of that. Really wanted to capture the whole spectrum of PMX.
Cosplay
Here is only a small sample of the cosplay at PMX. Really cool to see what everyone was displaying. Got to bump into Ejen, Vash Fanatic, and Sailor Bee. Big fan, really nice people.
(R = Row. There are 4 rows. S = Seat. Count from left to right. There is maximum of 10 seats across.)
It's Cosplay in America!R1 S1.Someone call the Resident Evil hotline! At first I thought this was a Call of Duty gathering because they wore PMC style clothing. But upon closer look most of them were wearing a BSAA badge. There were probably around 10+ RE cosplayers standing in the middle of the lobby when I first got there. I wanted to get a picture of that but I got too greedy wanting to wait until the rest of the RE cosplayers all convene at that point. These cosplayers were still good though. Thank you. It’s weird because I’m a fan of the military styled gear but I get so burned out from seeing it on an almost everyday basis. I don’t know why I liked it so much on that day.
R1 S6. I never knew League of Legends had such a big presence in everything until this year’s Anime Expo. I don’t LoL but I finally recognize what a few of them looks like.
R2 S3. These two told me they were cosplaying from the Touhou Project game. One thing about otaku based cosplays is that they reference some really obscure video games. I would say I know a fair amount about video games but I had to internet search such games as Shining Hearts and Shining Blade.
Vash brony-ing!R2 S4. You can’t say I never took a Homestuck cosplay picture. Homestuck is completely fine. I have no problems with that ever dominating scene.
R2 S8, 9, 10. I think this might have been 1 of the BSAA cosplayers. I could be wrong. He offered me 3 poses and I will take them. Anyone offering free poses I will accept.
This cosplay was interesting. It’s good but this person had a handler. I asked for a picture. He asked handler “1 pic?” She nodded yes. I’m not ID’ing it because I don’t want anybody getting in trouble. You can ask me in person about it.
R3 S5. This Kefka said I’ll give you this pose and you’ll be the only person that has it. Thanks! Again, I want free poses.
R4 S4. Heck yes Blade! This was so awesome. I’m glad there are people doing other genres as well as anime cosplays at these events. Some of my favorites at Anime Expo were Jean Grey and the Avengers. And I didn’t even like that Avengers movie.
It's Sailor Bee!
Gallery, etc.
The picture outside is line for the Miku concert.
Picture to the right of that was PMX fashion swap meet. I guess there was stuff people could purchase at low prices.
Masquerade
The line for the masquerade made me thought it was 80% attendees were in costume. People in front and behind me were in costume. I wasn’t in costume.
The Loki cosplayer won best craftsmanship. She made both Loki and Thor costumes.
Katamari Damacy won best in show.
There was a para para dance for halftime. Yes I know para para. I’ve been to the arcades and saw that Para Para Paradise cabinet. My knowledge of culture through video games :( Not a good thing.
PMX was really cool. Enjoyed it. So many people. People working. I’ll have to go again to gauge if there was a difference or why this year’s version was like this year’s version.
I’ve never been to a comic convention before so the Long Beach Comic & Horror Con was a good opportunity to see what these are all about. LBCHC would be classified as a smaller convention but there were plenty of activities. 5 rooms stacked with panels on both days, an exhibit hall and what the organization prides itself in the rows of artist alley.
It's tank9 & Mary Nine!
I spent most of my time in panels learning some of the most interesting stuff. This convention was nice. I will be back next year for Long Beach Comic Expo and Long Beach Comic & Horror Con to see what difference transpire over the year.
Annnnd, got to meet tank9 and Mary Nine in person. They weren’t there to make a dance video just to get back into the swing of making videos in general again. Being a fan of tank's work I was nervous but they are some of the nicest people around. Hopefully will meet them again in the future and have the courage to make a complete fool of myself aka me dancing when I do not know how to at all.
I’m not trying to be a cosplay photographer but I at least should try to make these look presentable. Wasn’t really feeling it Saturday. It’s been a while since I done this convention thing. Thankfuly friends were around Sunday. They gave me a boost to somewhat hash together this cosplay gallery.
To try and make this somewhat of a worthwhile post here are some commentary.
I was resting, as usual, on that couch when Deadpool and his friends came to take a break. I asked for a pic. The pose was all him. Thank you. Something I never knew. I don’t know how much this applies to everything else but they were talking about how he was able to be in costume for so long. Because the mask has no visual holes for him to look through.
Yes Rana McAnear in Samara cosplay is that amazing.
The spider cosplayer on stilts was really tall. Everyone was looking up. I don’t know why this pic makes it looks short. Camera phyics?
There was a group cosplaying as Umbrella soldiers from the Resident Evil series. They were in the black uniforms some with gas masks. I really wanted to get a picture of that one.
Panels, etc.
Here’s a bullet list of what I learned from all those panels
501st Legion has requirements to get in but there are a lot of resources to help one get in. The requirements are there because they want that wow factor associated with the name. They are very detail oriented. Something like there are 3 bolts to this stormtrooper armor versus the desert version. Also, I completely did not know there was more than 1 version of Darth Vader.
Star Wars Origami was really interesting. Every one in attendance gets a packet to work along. Paper magic especially when you seen the end product. If I can practice enough I can make that Boba Fett out of any office scratch paper. That was one of their tips. Get any kind of piece of paper. Cut it to size and practice until you feel you got it right. Then you can always go make color copies because the book only includes 1 set of preprinted paper.
Thomas Jane and Tim Bradstreet Raw Studios Q&A
Thomas Jane and Tim Bradstreet were there to talk about what they were working on. As I have never been to these comic-cons before I’m still in a state of disbelief when an actor is sitting there right in front of you.
A lot of this is probably old news as they were most likely announced/discussed at SDCC. But they’re making a western called A Magnificent Death from a Shattered Hand. It’s going to be the type of Western before the Sergio Leone style. They’re filming in Monument Valley which apparently is iconic. I never knew.
They were going to get into the Punisher short Dirty Laundry but technology prevented them from having proper internet. Live show, things happen, did not bother me.
Quick info on Dirty Laundry. Thomas Jane said no to Punisher: War Zone. The filming was during the Golden Globes weekend so Jane had to finish filming and hurry to the event. Jane was one of the last people to show up at the Golden Globes and had to wear some hat to cover his black hair. They didn’t want people to think he was making another Punisher movie. Jane gives high praise to director Phil Joanou for putting Dirty Laundry together. Scheduling, fight choreography, production etc.
I normally don’t buy stuff at conventions because I don’t like to have a bunch of stuff lying around. But there was 1 comic called Bravest Warriors. What got my attention is they enjoy a slice of pizza and it was created by Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward. Interesting. Like most things these days I have not got around to reading it.
I haven’t read comic books since high school. About the only time I read comics is summer when it gets unbearably hot and I go freeload air conditioning at book stores. The few that I’ve read were alright. Marvel’s Civil War was interesting. Watchmen was great but completely messed up. I think I was able to enjoy Watchmen after watching tv series Lost.
It’s interesting to see the state of the industry with the current offerings.
I didn't put much thought into it after watching tank9's Anime Expo dance video. I thought, cool someone’s doing their thing. That Seattle dance was cool.
But for some weird reason, a few months later, I went back to watch tank’s videos again and I started with 2009. I think I watched Anime Expo 2009 video 8 days straight. I ran to the virtual store to get Imperative Reaction’s As We Fall LP and I still need to get Ginger Snap5 Shadow gHost and Say Just Words This is Not Salvation. Yes, this is how it all started.
I haven’t watched anime consistently since mid 90s and I have never been to Anime Expo before. But tank9 and Mary Nine make all those videos so much fun that I had to see the spectacle first hand. My friends have always gone so I decided to tag along with them this year. Cosplaying no less, tank’s vids seem to have that effect on people.
So the plan for my first Anime Expo was to just have fun, take it all in, not worry about pictures. There are plenty of professional media people out there and they do a much better job presenting all this material that I didn’t need to do anything. First timer mistakes, it's cool.
Saturday was the best. There were so many people that I couldn’t even see the floor of the South hall lobby. I love being in that sea of humanity. The hall connecting both South and West was really amazing. So many cosplayers and people just hanging out. West hall, a good presence too. Saturday was overwhelming but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Sunday crowd felt more like a normal convention crowd size. Also it felt like more people arrive later on in the day.
Persona!
A lot of people read Giant Bomb because of the Persona 4 Endurance Run. So this goes to the top then. Sunday was the first day I took cosplay photos and what a way to start it with none other then Chie Satonaka! It was “early” Sunday so I still had a few cobwebs. I was slow to realize Chie had just passed me so I had to do quick 180 and ask for a picture. I readied my camera and she said “Oh wait.” She pulls out glasses from her small bag. I was gushing inside! It was my first time seeing a Persona 4 cosplay so I didn’t know they also had use glasses as a prop. Her pose was also the Guard stance, how cool is that! My first cosplay photo is of Chie from Persona 4 and I could not be happier about that.
This Yosuke pulled out a Persona card. First time seeing that, it was awesome. He said there was a bunch of Persona cosplayers Saturday. I didn’t see them, yeah it was a big crowd Saturday.
Hey maw! There’s a creeper outside the restroom again! I went to use the restroom and saw a Yosuke in there. Outside, I waited for him to come out with camera in hand. Lo and behold not one but TWO Persona cosplayers.
Another amazing Chie Satonaka. Me: I love Persona. Chie: Me too.
A very cool combo of Detective Prince and Charlie Tunoku.
What better to end the Persona 4 cosplayers I seen then with a very cool Chie. She’s also doing an official pose.
Cosplay
There were so many amazing cosplay at display that I decided to just go on instinct and take pictures of ones that grabbed my attention. Again, there are a lot of people that put out high quality content of all these cosplayers. Seek them out in the coming weeks it is worth a look.
(R = Row. There are 4 rows. S = Seat. Count from left to right. There is maximum of 10 seats across.)
R1 S7. This cosplayer was so badass I had to take a picture of it. Really good.
R2 S4. The Amaterasu was pretty cool. She was standing up, I ask if I could take a photo she leaned forward and transformed what you see in the picture.
R2 S6. This cosplayer looked really cool holding the sword upright while checking their phone. I had to be a jerk and interrupt didn’t I.
R2 S7. I asked Solid Snake for a picture. The lady next to him “No he’s mine!” I lol’d.
R2 S8&S9. In Anime Expo 2011 dance video at 3:38 a cosplayer rotates the scythe and tank ducks underneath. I thought that was hilarious. I am also insane. I became a fan of that character since, so I took a picture of these really good cosplayers.
R3 S1. The chest piece is actually some kind of metal material because I can hear the clanging.
R3 S2. The dog was actually cosplaying as Amaterasu. I hope animals don't get stressed at cons.
R3 S5. I liked this cosplay. Also got me thinking did they decide to cover Raiden’s eye with cloth in Metal Gear Rising inspired by the anime world.
R4 S1. My mind exploded when I saw David from Prometheus. I hurried up to him and said, uR cOsTuMe Is ThE gReAtEsT *crazy eyes*. Noo, I just said, your costume is really awesome *crazy eyes*. I really wanted to get that point across. He smiled back. His pose was totally in character. I loved seeing all the cosplayers, David and Persona were highlights.
R4 S7. That Chell is wearing a tutu?!?? I like when cosplayers do reinterpretation of characters. You may not be able to tell in the picture but she’s wearing blue and orange eye shadow in addition to the ear rings and necklace. And she pulled out a potato! People are so funny.
Cosplay Gatherings
You can't read this so let me read it for you. It says "Friday, June 29th (Day 1) 12:00pm Shin MegaTen/Persona LACC Site #7." Alright put that in your calendar.
This is my first anime convention so there is so much I do not know about. There are these cosplay gatherings where you go and meet up with all the other characters who dressed up in the same universe. When I saw a bunch of cosplayers fill up the staircase I didn’t know what it was, so better take a picture of it. Apparently it was some Homestuck gathering.
On Sunday, I got invited to a cosplay gathering. I was surprised, had no idea what it was, and was scared but hey I’m just a guest in this house. I better not be rude to my hosts. When I arrived, thought that came to my mind was “Jeez, where are all your parents?!?” Cosplay/anime skews towards the younger age demographic. But they were all very kind. A bunch of them already knew each other and they treated me and the few strangers that came by with nothing but kindness.
So how this works is there’s 1 director and he or she will say all these characters go up or all from this class go up. Normal pose 30 seconds. Ok silly pose for 30 seconds. Hey I want you character in this shot.
It definitely was an experience. I’m not going to post those pictures here. I’m pretty sure they’re floating around the internet. Hope you don’t find them. Yours truly, le Fat Face.
Mega64
Mega64 had a panel at Anime Expo and if I heard them correctly they’ve been going to it for around 6 years. It was really cool to see this panel at capacity. We came to see the crew’s comedy routine and they delievered. They also mentioned their funny encounters with Kojima at E3 and SDCC. I’ve never heard it before but just reinforce my fandom for Kojima and his corniness. They showed some videos that got rejected from their corporate clients. They were good, you can see why they were not approved. For example, Game Trailers rejected 1 because they were afraid Nintendo would blacklist them because of the Iwata impersonation. Good panel.
Scenery
I tried to get good pic of the connecting hall. A really amazing view of people.
I love watching people work at cons. It’s really interesting to see all that behind-the-scenes work. I first seen those steadicam cosplay videos based off of tank9’s Sakura Con vid. You can find a bunch of them if you youtube search Sakura Con. What happen is the camera person say you’ll walk to this point and then I’m going to orbit the camera around you. Really cool.
Not pictured: tank9 and Mary Nine working. When I watch their videos it is so much fun, I’m thinking I can do that easy. Instead, I walk up, see a lady dancing with Mary Nine and tank9 filming. I’ll just stand here and watch. They really care about their work and they do it so well. Maybe next year.
This was what the line to AX Dance looked like on Saturday AND Sunday night. I just wanted to see what inside was about but it started getting late so I grabbed my walker & prune juice and headed back.
There was a bar inside Anime Expo this year called Lounge 21. This band was called Lolita Dark. They were well enough (I was only there for a few minutes).
Masquerade
I’ve never been to SDCC and my favorite part of Spurlock’s movie was the masquerade. I wanted to see what Anime Expo’s version was like so I went. It’s good. Um, I had to leave at halftime though. It was on a Sunday with a planned end time of 12:00 AM. They first showed walk-ons. Yeah, good cosplay stuff. There was 1 cosplayer though. I don’t know who she was but I hope she really promotes her material, her work must be seen by the world.
The costume was described as some kind of Lolita hybrid. I’ve never paid attention to the Lolita fashion scene but this one. When she walked out her train was like floating in air for a few seconds. The collective ohhhs from the crowd because I was ohhh-ing too. It was dress, with a lace blindfold, I think a small lace hat, and a lace umbrella. Man, everyone was floored seeing that.
Next they had skits. They were good. It’s really difficult to write a script and then to rehearse that all probably in your spare time while you work your day job.
Halftime came and I took off. The masquerade was good, I just need higher endurance and stuff and energy or something like that. Will think about going again next year.
*****
I’ve heard bits and pieces of what an anime convention is like, Anime Expo was that and beyond. People were so friendly, we all spoke the same language and on the same wavelength. I’ve never felt so at ease before. This con helped me on so many levels. I never keep pass & lanyard but I did. I also kept the program my friend gave me. I never do that. I guess this must have really meant something to me. Looking forward to next year’s Anime Expo.
Notebook dump
- A lot of first timer mistakes. Like only taking scenery photos on Saturday. It’s cool. Hoping to see some I’ve missed. There was a lady, she was tiny but she was cosplaying as the Heavy. That’s so ironic and funny. She was carrying a big gatling gun too.
- There was another tiny lady, she had the long blond hair and black Victorian dress. I wanted to tweet the Hey it’s Zola Jesus joke. It was on Saturday though.
- It’s weird, I think Persona 4 is my favorite RPG but it’s not a game I would decide to just pop in and play randomly. But, when it comes to cosplay, Persona and something like Final Fantasy will get my ears perked up. Would be a dream to cosplay as Persona 4 next year but a lot of it seems really difficult.
- Vocaloid like wobble bass is big in their respective genre right now. Glad I have grown to like both.
Guy: *shouts* What time is it?
Cosplay lady: *shouts* Adventure time!
Guy: *shouts* What time is it?
Cosplay lady: I’m not saying that again :)
- There was so much to do (panels etc) that one really needs to plan what they’re doing. First timer mistakes.
- Another obvious statement of the year. Otakus are really knowledgeable across genres.
- I like lunch at Anime Expo. A bunch of us costumed freaks sitting around eating.
- Being thirsty at cons is real.
- The exhibit hall closes at 6pm. But the convention is still open. How does that work? I'm mean security wise, there weren't any staff around. It was really cool to see people were still around "late" into the night.
That SNES. How is that wireless? Was there a wireless model made back then??? That Duck Hunt, wow.
As always my output is poor. Here is some more material to fill up this entry.
In the old news department. After watching the movie Kill List, I was going back and saw a crowd outside a storefront on Fairfax ave. Being the jerk that I am I just had to stick my nose into somebody else's business. Apparently, from what the internet search told me this was a gallery to show the pics from upcoming photobook. Yeah, they're definitely images I've never seen before. I didn't take much pics. I try to strive that balance of showing others that can't be present and not spoiling things. I'm sure this is popular enough you can search on the internet for it. They were nice photographs.
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown pre-launch showcased the game in its retail version. Fuudo and Chibita from Japan showed how these games were played with expert hands. Thanks for showing us the game and how it’s played.
Jim Rugg Notebook Nerd & The Sketchbook Project
Jim Rugg Notebook Nerd & The Sketchbook Project was just amazing. Rugg draws some of the most interesting subjects and all with a pen and everyday notebook. A lot of credit goes to Jim Rugg and/or peoples who framed the artwork. It made the artwork look even better. Iam8bit has really nice pictures up on around the internets. You should go look at them. Here’s mine with some personal commentary.
Drive was really good. Funny and just good looking.
I think this was called AK Deer. This was really awesome. Rugg created depth by adding layers onto the artwork. I hope these pics can show that. Also another funny one.
Another layered work, the patch on Ghostbusters is lying on top of the drawing. Has an almost emboss look to it. I was never good at art but this drawing shows a lot of crosshatching which gives all these ballpoint pen drawings more depth. This one really beautiful.
In my opinion, there was something really special about the Aphrodite from Tranzor Z. The drawing is obviously great. But what really got me was the display. I tried to show it in these pics but I don't think I was able to convey it. Walking in and seeing this big horizontally piece was breathtaking. The frame really makes it.
It was really cool to see quite a few movie related works. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was really nice. The Micro Uzi is actual size, wow haha! I really liked the window display 1) it’s just a really good drawing and good use of a dinosaur 2) used actual pieces of notebook paper on it.
The Sketchbook Project was really cool. People selected a theme and did drawings or made pieces of art into it. It was fun, they had you get your library card, go to a computer to check out a book (they'll give you two even if you select one) and wait with your fellow patrons as the nice staff busily follow their smartpads to grab sketchbooks for you. Check it out if you can.
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