Here I am with part two!
But before I pick up where I left off, though, here's a funny story that I forgot to include in yesterday's post: At the booth where I bought my wall scroll and Mario shirt and my brother bought his Zelda shirt, there was this lady who kept shouting, as salespeople are wont to do. But she would shout for minutes on end; I could actually feel the blood pooling in my ears while I searched through the wall scrolls. On the other side of the aisle, there was this diminutive Asian guy manning his booth. Apparently, he had crossed his limit a long time ago, so he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Shut up!!!!!"
And she actually did shut up! Many shouts and rounds of applause accompanied this. It was a great victory in the battle against noise pollution.
Anyway! Once we found Vincent and Jessica, we were at a loss because we had no idea what to do next. Both our groups had already been through the exhibit hall multiple times, and we didn't feel like going through it once again. So we decided to return to our beloved staple -- walking around and taking random pictures. Always works, I tells ya.
We decided the main hall would be the best place to hang out. It's the hub of AX; people are going to/coming from the exhibit hall, and the space is wide open, so we wouldn't get in anyone's way. A win/win situation!
Without further ado, some photos:
As always, Naruto is a popular choice for cosplaying.
Fighting games are not my strong suit, so I needed my smarmy little brother to inform me this is Hsien-Ko from the Darkstalkers series. Having my little brother correct you on something is like hearing a lecture from Jeff Goldblum.
Some rice balls, with the ever-present Bandit Keith in the background. People were running up to these and playfully biting them, so we tried to peer pressure Vincent into doing the same thing. Unfortunately, we failed. We're no good at this peer pressure thing. :(
Godot. Legendary prosecutor. He's never lost a case. This was the first Phoenix Wright character I took a picture of. He even did the Godot smile before going with the pose he used in the picture, haha. What a guy.
Around this time, a crowd gathered in the middle of the area, so we decided to see what was up. And what was up was very impressive, indeed: There was this group of guys who were leaping around, doing martial arts and back flips and whatnot. Their interactions were choreographed really well, and they were hitting the floor HARD. I mean, yikes, their bones must have been made of steel lol. If I hit the floor half as hard as they did, I'd still be picking up the pieces of bone today.
So, to commemorate their awesomeness, I took more pictures! Yay!
One of the guys executing a kick. With a gun.
A back flip.
Caught someone's flash in this picture.
Leaping over another person is no easy feat. Unless you're these guys.
Another back flip!
A shot of the crowd watching.
This guy was pretty crazy. He lined up five people and leaped over them. Then he said, "One more!" and brought in another person and leaped over them, too. I probably could have done one, two tops.
Just because I'm a nice guy and like to cover all the media: Here's a video of them in action (not shot by me; also, the Pikachu was not part of the group lol), here's their official AX video and here's their MySpace page. So much plugging! I am a very happy man right now.
After those exciting times, the rest of my group decided to sit down, trade stories and show off their swag to each other while I ran around taking more pictures. Here they are:
Yoko and Kamina from Gurren Lagann. You need a lot of confidence to pull off these outfits, methinks.
It's the Great Deku Tree! ... In high school, I guess.
This picture is most notable for the ultra-creepy Orochimaru on the far right. I don't even have a follow-up joke.
This guy has no chance of survival.
It's WWE superstar Rey Mysterio!!
Only at AX could you see Rey Mysterio teaming up with lucha libre superstar Mistico.
Two cute Amu Hinamoris (thanks to Nikaidou, I keep typing "Hinamori" as "Himamori"). There was also a Tadase, but I didn't get a picture of him. :(
Dahlia Hawthorne is out on a date with young Phoenix Wright. It's not pictured, but Phoenix is carrying a bottle of Cold Killer X!
It's Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3. Unfortunately, even he cannot defeat my lame auto focus.
Temari, Gaara and Kankuro hang out while a random Sasuke drifts into the picture.
The White Ranger and the Green Ranger battle for ultimate supremacy. Personally, my money is on the White Ranger. The Green Ranger suffered from the Final Fantasy "guy was super powerful when you fought him but suddenly lost a bunch of his strength for whatever reason when he joined your party" syndrome.
While I was taking pictures with the Power Rangers, two of my sister's friends, Christie and Jane, spotted me and demanded I lead them to my sister. I complied because they are scary when angered. This picture is the result of their visit. Kirby looks quite happy perched on her head! :P
More pictures!
Haruko from FLCL with a random Jack Skellington in the background.
A burly Asian dude interviews two Cantis from FLCL. This guy interviewed people all over the place. He talked to people, got them to explain their strange American ways to him and he also showed off his muscles a lot. He was sort of like a low-rent Hard Gay.
Our friends Dahlia and Phoenix pose with Iris. You can actually see Phoenix's bottle of Cold Killer X now. Awesome!
It's Marth! He asked me how I wanted him to pose, and I told him to do whatever he wanted lol. For whatever reason, this picture also sparked a massive geek fight between my friends Vincent (a different Vincent) and Eddie on my Facebook.
A better view of Canti.
Some really good Legend of Zelda cosplayers. That Ganondorf is especially impressive. Nice Hurley beard on him, too, haha.
As you can see, Spider-Man REALLY loves that banana. He just needed a little something something after Spider-Man 3.
Maya Fey and Ema Skye!
My brother and Vincent hit each other for about two minutes. It's something only guys understand.
Marvin the Martian. I saw another Marvin with a much tinier head. He was frightening.
At around this point, Jessica had to leave because some of her cousins were coming to her apartment. Also at this point, we realized we were hungry, so we ate some pizza. However, not all enjoyed their pizza -- while we were in line, this one guy saw the lady working the counter drop his plate on the floor, pick it up and then put a pizza slice on top of it. He was basically, "Um ... WTF?" but she refused to get him another plate. Poor guy.
We went out to the food court and ate, but, unfortunately we were without chairs much of the time because there were roughly a jillion people also eating. Luckily for us, this nice couple gave us their chairs when they were finished eating. :)
Really funny story: Vincent is a Yu-Gi-Oh! nut -- he played the card game when it first came out in America, and he's a hardcore player to this day. When we approached our table, he noticed a 10-year-old with this card, and he was suddenly like, "OMG I MUST HAVE THAT CARD!!!!!" He practically turned into a 10-year-old kid himself. This is the best part, though: He goes up to the kid and then enters into a 20-minute negotiation with him for the card!
I'm telling you, this was phenomenal comedy. What made it even better is the kid was one of those kids who acts super tough and cool (my little cousin Eric is the same way), so it was like they were bargaining for a contract, except it was a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old geek. My sister and I were rolling. Vincent ended up with the card and immediately called his friend Tommy, who then rushed over to see it. Vincent then claimed he could walk into the tabletop gaming room and immediately sell the card for $200 if he wanted.
Is there anything funnier than being a geek and having a bunch of geeky friends? I don't think so.
To add to the geekiness, a bunch of my brother's friends spotted my brother, walked to our table and immediately mocked my brother for not being in the Smash Bros. Brawl tournament (which he didn't know about). Then they made plans to see the new live action L movie; unfortunately, it started at 8 p.m., so we couldn't join them. Sadness.
With nothing to do, we decided to test Vincent's claim that he could sell the card for $200, and we went to the tabletop gaming room. However, there were precious few Yu-Gi-Oh! players there, and they were all playing in a tournament that had been going on since the morning. I'd make fun of them for sitting on their asses all day playing cards, but I've done far lamer things sitting on my ass all day.
It was then that Vincent remembered that he was supposed to meet up with someone at the Artists' Alley, so we went there. He wandered around looking for his friend while the rest of us took the opportunity to rest. And take one photo. Wait, that was just me.
Franziska von Karma! Side note: Franzy is such an underrated Phoenix Wright character -- a lot of people online don't like her, but she's hilarious.
Rest of the day was spent, of course, taking photos. I am a photo whore:
Sonic has really let himself go.
This is possibly the most bizarre picture I have taken and will ever take at AX. I dubbed the guy on the right, "Ronald McSephiroth." What a weird costume. Right after this picture was taken, a Naruto cosplayer rushed up and started air humping Hard Gay. These are the kinds of things you never see on the outside.
Tobi is officially a member of Akatsuki. This Tobi was the moderator of this big break dancing thing where random were breaking and jumping around. There was a ninja, a Pikachu, and a guy in a gray Pepsi jumpsuit. The latter guy was involved in a strange moment where all the guys surrounded him and started pelvic thrusting while shouting, "Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi!!!!" He seemed to enjoy it, but he was definitely dazed afterward.
Dr. Mario takes some time off to hawk his new line of medicine.
Scooby-Doo is also with the Akatsuki. Who knew?
Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes! Picture is super blurry because I had my camera on a low ISO (which determines the amount of light needed to get a good shot), so my camera compensated by making the shutter speed REALLY slow. Thus, this crappy shot of a great character.
Last photo: No con is complete without Haruhi Suzumiya hoisting some major firepower.
This eventful day ended with some eventful athletics. My dad called me to say he was almost off the freeway. Just then I looked down and realized I'd left my wall scroll in the bathroom. I put down my stuff, took off and ran as fast as I could to the bathroom. Once there, I threw open the stall, grabbed the scroll and weaved through the crowd, pretty much collapsing upon the ground as I made the trip in a couple of minutes. My siblings were very impressed. Of course, my legs hurt like hell the next day, but that's the price you pay for greatness ...
Overall, good times were had by all. By next year, I'm looking to have a car of my own so that I can go more than one day and have more time to partake in the many wonders of AX that I've been forced to skip these past five years (it's weird to think I've been attending this con for five years now!).
EDIT: Forgot -- if you're interested in more photo galleries, then take a look at this thread on AX's message board listing links to a shitload of galleries. There are a couple of galleries with some amazingly done, professional-quality photos that are worth looking at. And, of course, you'll see tons of characters I didn't see. :) (Including more Phoenix Wright characters, yay!)
