I am convinced that time shrinks each year.
This is because AX completely sneaked up on me this year. There was about a week remaining before it actually started when my brother said to me, "Hey, when are we going to buy our passes to AX?" My response was, "Wait, what, it's July already??" It seemed as if it were only a week ago that I was bitching and moaning about Long Beach.
However! This year was a new year and a new location. There was much bitching and moaning beforehand about the Los Angeles Convention Center as the new home of AX, but would it really turn out to be so bad? Personally, I didn't think it could get much worse than the Long Beach Convention Center, and, hey, I was right!
We arrived about 7:45 a.m. My dad dropped my brother, sister and me off at the area buses used to turn around, because there was nowhere to park except paid lots, and, um, nobody is going to pay $7.50 for the pleasure of dropping off his kids for two seconds. From there, it was just a short walk across the street to the convention center.
When we first stepped inside, we were struck by the LACC's enormousness. I may have mumbled, "Holy mother of fuck, this place is big!" a few times. We immediately experienced its bigness by walking from one side of the center to the other for registration.
As always, lots of people were waiting in line, as you can see here. Wasn't a long wait, though -- only about 15 minutes before things started moving. Before the con, I'd read about some mixed feelings people had about the system AX put in place this year; they liked the scanners (the e-mails had barcodes which you used to scan your information), but they thought it took too long for their badges to print out. I'm guessing there were just a shitload of people who were registering Day 0 and Day 1, because things went by quickly for us.
The booth where we picked up our badges.
Also, here is a picture of my brother trying to appear intelligent, while my sister ignores us.
Things moved along so quickly that we had nothing to do afterward. There wasn't anything playing in the video rooms that we wanted to watch, and the exhibit hall wasn't going to open for another hour and a half. Things were getting testy -- that's when I leapt into action.
"Let's just go read or something," I suggested.
So we went to the manga library. Here's a picture of people walking around inside! I hadn't been to the manga libary in about three years; the last time I went, I read Vol. 1 of the RahXephon manga, so I picked up where I left off three years ago and finished it. (The verdict: Um, I like the anime much more, but I guess the manga is OK.)
The important thing, however, was that we successfully wasted enough time to get to the exhibit hall just as it was opening. But there was something a bit off about the whole thing that we couldn't put our fingers on -- something strange in the air. That's right. There was no line for the exhibit hall!
That was when one of the volunteers shouted to us, "The line to the exhibit hall is forming outside."
This drew an immediate "WTF?" from all of us, because we had a horrible experience waiting in line outside in Long Beach, and L.A. is WAY hotter than Long Beach. It took us about five minutes to walk to the back of the line (no joke), but much of it was in a shaded area, so it wasn't too bad. Still, there was walking and waiting in the sun, and I was sweating like *insert off-color joke here about Michael Jackson/R. Kelly/Catholic priests* by the time we entered the exhibit hall.
And, hey, this place was ginormous too! It was nice and spaced out, which was very much appreciated, because there were a TON of people there, and we still kept bumping into people wherever we went. I can't imagine trying to fit that amount of people into the Anaheim Convention Center's exhibit hall.
Our first run was mainly to get a look at what people were selling and then comparing prices. My brother and I even brought notebooks to write down information like any informed capitalist would do. However, this got boring very quickly, and I decided to commit everything to memory, which, as everyone knows, always turns out well.
I was so busy concentrating on crap to buy that I didn't take many photos during that first trek through the hall. There were some choice shots taken, though:
Haggling is officially encouraged at AX.
Also, Godzilla is now officially the King of Monsters. This puts a clear end to THAT debate.
No convention would be complete without someone dressing up like Optimus Prime.
This person at the Bandai booth was the first of roughly 50,000 Yoko Ritona cosplayers I saw throughout the day. Naruto cosplayers dominated the expo, as usual, but I would say Gurren Lagann was a close second. My God, there were a crapload of Yoko, Kamina and Simon cosplayers.
It's Ike! Funny story: Right after I took this picture, I told the guy I played as him in Smash Bros. Brawl all the time. He was silent for a moment or two, and then he was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah." He either didn't understand me at first, or I kind of creeped him out. You decide.
I have no clue what they were selling here.
Our plan was to look through the hall and then run quickly to the other side of the LACC, where the Robot Chicken panel was held. I swiftly decided what I wanted to buy -- all the swag you lovely people saw a couple of posts ago -- but I was kind of disappointed with the first look because a lot of the box sets and movies I was looking for weren't being sold. It seemed like in general there were fewer vendors actually selling anime and more vendors selling figures, cosplay items, shirts, etc. But oh well. I can always find them for relatively cheap online, I guess.
Anyway! We sprinted to the Robot Chicken panel. On the way, I snapped this photo of Mario, Luigi and Wario. That Wario is especially great; he has this awesome crazed look in his eyes, haha. What a guy.
The Robot Chicken panel was pretty fun. Before the panel started, they showed the anime-based skits the show has run, including the Dragon Ball Z Christmas, Pikachu and Squirtle talking, and, my favorite, Voltron getting served. Afterward, the panelists were introduced: Head writer Tom Root, co-creative directors Mike Fasolo and Kevin Shinick, director Chris McKay, costume designer Jeanette Moffat and animator Cameron Baity. They talked about the creative process of the show (each writer submits about 50 (!!!) ideas per day), the show's hectic schedule (each show is produced in about six days; I think only South Park rivals that schedule), and Shinick sleeping with Seth Green to get his job.
Funniest moment was when Shinick mentioned he was the host of Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? and at least 3/4 of the room let out a massive cheer, while Shinick was basically like, "People remember that??" There was also a funny moment when Shinick and Fasolo were talking about a sketch they decided not to run for Robot Chicken's next Star Wars special. It was during the scene in The Empire Strikes Back when Han Solo is going to land on Bespin and Lando Calrissian's guys start shooting at him, after which Han turns to Chewbacca and says, "That was years ago; he's probably forgotten all about that." The Robot Chicken sketch would have revealed exactly what "that" was.
I'm sure all of you can guess where this was going, haha.
Anyway, lots of fun, lots of fun. I was going to ask them where the idea for my favorite sketch -- the one where Walt Disney's head is grafted onto a killer machine and he develops a taste for young Cuban children -- came from, but there were just WAY too many people who wanted to ask questions. Sad.
After the panel, we made our way back to the exhibit hall. Before we got there, we had our first sighting of the Caramelldansen group. The line of people was roughly as long as a recent Peter Jackson movie, and their arrival would be announced about a minute beforehand by loud thumping. It was like being in the middle of the wildebeest run in The Lion King, only with the suspense of the T-Rex's approach in Jurassic Park. I didn't take any pictures of them because I was afraid they would absorb me like the Borg.
(That paragraph was a pop culture tour de force. I'm quite proud of it.)
Then, just before we entered the Exhibit Hall, I spotted America's greatest hero, Bandit Keith. I don't know if it's because Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged has become so popular, but I saw WAY more Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplayers than normal, many of whom were dressed as Bandit Keith. True Americans, those guys.
After re-entering the hall, I bought my stuff, my sister bought a Fruits Basket bag and my brother bought a Death Note bag and a Legend of Zelda shirt. Excellent buys, all around.
This was one of the highlights of the day: April O'Neil, Casey Jones and The Shredder!! I just randomly saw them out of the corner of my eye and knew I had to take a picture of them. Don't think I've ever seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cosplayers at AX, so this was cool.
Meet Roboreptile and Roboraptor. I guess they're the next step in the evolution of annoying pet toys. First time dinosaurs have been the next step in the evolution of anything since they died off. Good for them!
After we made our final round in the hall, we met up with our friend Vincent, seen here circling my sister and his girlfriend, Jessica. We wanted to meet up with him at the beginning of the day, but he and Jessica were making cookies, which we then got to eat when they showed up. A delicious trade-off.
Unfortunately, this is where today's post must end. I've been writing this for the past hour, and it entered tl;dr territory about eight paragraphs ago. You can read all about our wondrous escapades tomorrow -- I still have about fifty or so pictures to show, too! Yay!
