yo cez i gots teh cash post up 2 c when i can give it 2 u
My report of AX. Pretty much a copy paste of what I posted in a mailing list.
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The person who started the KOTOKO chant was George. He also started the standing up in our side of the hall during the KOTOKO concert.
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I lost second place in the EFZ tourney thanks to Luis. And his horrible laptop’s Keyboard.
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The CA vs TX all stars tied at 8 wins each team. Pretty good.
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Tony (AKA Usada Fanboy) is the one who got me the autograph on Stokesia on Friday. Mad props to him.
I had a lot of fun at AX this year, though half the time I was not at AX itself.
Friday - Because of work issues, I wasn’t going to go to AX until Friday night, which actually extended until Saturday early morning. In summary: the flight was going to depart at 8:00pm but it got delayed until 11:00pm. With the time difference, I arrived to LAX Saturday at 1:00am but my baggage got temporarily lost, making me lose another hour. At 2:00am, the shuttle I was going to take was lost, and I had to wait in there until freaking 4:20am when the shuttle of another company picked me up. I didn’t arrive the hotel until 5:30am.
Two of the four panels I was looking for this year (KOTOKO, Kazue Yamamoto) were on Friday, so there was not much I could do about those. One of the El Paso people I stayed with was able to get me an autograph on KOTOKO’s Friday autograph session (which I was told was limited to just 100 autographs), and I am still am grateful to him.
Saturday - The plan was to go to the Geneon Anime Festival/KOTOKO concert and have a doujin game gathering right afterwards. I barely slept some hours and I went to make line for the KOTOKO concert since 9am. I made it early enough like to get a seating in the third row (actually I should have been in the first, but a lot of people cut in front of me because the ‘line’ was officially not a line).
Schedule conflict: Miho Shimogasa panel and autograph session while the Geneon Anime Festival doors opened. That was three out of four panels missed.
The Geneon Anime Festival was pretty much some American voice actors trying to promote Geneon’s line. The festival was pretty much a video with past titles, a video with incoming titles, and a video of future titles. Of the future titles, it was pretty obvious that the focus was the Hellsing OAV, but I haven’t seen Hellsing so I wasn’t much into it. It does look nice though. For me the best part of the Geneon presentation was the Fate preview, as I became a Type-Moon fan short after the Tsukihime anime was released.
The Fate preview looked very nice. Unlike the Tsukihime anime the art of the Fate anime is very loyal to the game’s art, and they managed to integrate the game’s CGs into the animation very well. Voice acting was very good, able to display each character’s nature although I didn’t understand a word (it was in Japanese without subtitles). Anyways, this title is SOLD to me. I hope it fixes all the problems that made Shingetsutan Tsukihime a dissapointed as an adaptation, and there is promise.
On with the main show, I really liked the KOTOKO concert. The concert started with Suppuration Core, followed by Re-sublimity (white hair and all - if you have seen the cover of the single or the PV you know what I mean). After that I think she followed with Oboete Iiyo and Wing my Way. I am not sure of the order of the rest of the songs, but I do remember Shooting Star, Agony, the second track of ~Hane~, the track of Glass no Kaze with the acoustic guitar (my favorite), and I am pretty sure I am missing something else. She gave an extra song when people chanted her name (chant started by a friend actually) and she sang Short Circuit. That was the first time I heard that song, and I liked it.
The beginning of the concert was awkward. When she was singing Suppuration Core she barely moved and was wearing a cloak, so people was just sitting - I myself didn’t know what to do (I did want to stand up and some friends were actually pushing me but I was like WTF?). It was not until Re-sublimity started when people started to stand up the fun really started.
The concert was well done. Two clothing changes, a little more than one hour, good amount of lights, no play-back (or so I think - there was some improvisation here and there). People using cellphones as a lighstick replacement was funny. KOTOKO’s presentation is the main reason why I went to AX (I originally was not going to go) and the concert didn’t dissapoint. After this con and the open autograph session I officially am a KOTOKO fanboy ^^;;
After the concert the doujinshi gathering took place in the second floor of the convention center. The event was a Melty Blood and Eternal Fighter Zero tournament, and it was the first time I was going to play certain California players in Eternal Fighter Zero, currently my main fighting game. I won Melty Blood and got third in Eternal Fighter Zero (funny since I don’t play MBR anymore). I really choked in some key EFZ matches. Unfortunately the tournaments last until 8:00pm so I missed a whole day of dealer’s room and cosplay.
Sunday - this was the real AX day for me. I spend the morning in the dealer’s room, got an autograph from the Hellsing artists for a friend and spend a good while taking cosplay photos. I was going to go to the Gonzo panel but I went to the Sakamoto Maaya concert instead. After the KOTOKO concert Maaya’s concert feel, uh, unexciting ^^;; I know that the music styles are different, but considering that Maaya’s concert was ticketed and KOTOKO’s wasn’t, I expected a little more in terms of production. Also, people was sitting all the time, with some irregular clapping and any attempt to do the “cellphone as lightstick” thing was stopped pretty fast by the AX staff. But the music was good and that’s what counts.
After the concert I went back to the dealer’s room for a bit and took more cosplay photos. During the night I went to the Range Murata presentation of the English version of Robot vol. 1. My admiration for Murata as a guest never stops: he didn’t go for the usual ticket for autograph policy. Instead, he gave an autograph to every single person who was in the panel right there. I got his autograph on the base of the PSE Solid Collection - Skipper figure (its not part of the trading figures, but a bigger figure with limited release).
Monday - hits and misses. After my friend managed to get me KOTOKO’s autograph on Stokesia on Friday, I really hoped that she would be present on the open autograph session so I could get her first album autographed with me in there. After hearing something about KOTOKO not being happy the way she was pushed for the autograph session after her panel on Friday, I was afraind that she wouldn’t be present. But she was there. Her line was the longest but also the fastest moving, so I managed to get Hane signed. Even better, after a while I noticed that her line was pretty much empty, so I managed to get in line again and I got an autograph on Glass no Kaze. Using my broken Japanese, I managed to say “KOTOKO-san no koe wa subarashii desu” and she giggled. I guess I earned some points because she added some little cute stars to the autograph. After this I guess I can say I am El Paso’s #1 KOTOKO fan ^_______^
The misses were my own fault. When I was in Miho Shimogasa’s line I noticed she was taking too long because she was giving a sketch to everybody and I got impatient. At about 10:00am, the dealer’s room opened and I tried to rush there to get a ticket that would get me a sketch from Kazue Yamamoto. Unfortunately the tickets were gone whe I arrived, and when I returned to the autograph line I was not allowed to get back in. Kind of sucks since I bought a SuperS poster especifically for the autograph.
I spent the rest of the day playing Eternal Fighter Zero casuals with the California people, and the “California vs. Texas EFZ All-Stars” round robin “tournament” started. We tied with a score of 8:8, so it was pretty even. I wanted to go to the dealer’s room for a bit before it closed, but I lost my badge while running around looking for the rest of team Texas. So that was pretty much the end of the con for me. CA vs. TX ended at 3:00 and the shuttle to get me to the airport arrived at 4:20.
At the end, I just bought the AX t-shirt, a Hisui “You Are Criminal” t-shirt, and the Sailor Moon SuperS poster that I couldn’t get autographed. I wanted to buy but was sold out/missing something of Kazue Yamamoto and AIR poster.
So in summary, I spend half of the trip in the AX area but not really in AX all the time. The trip was KOTOKO concert + doujinshi gaming, then AX day, then more doujinshi gaming.
The good:
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KOTOKO’s concert. I went to AX specifically for that and it didn’t dissapoint me.
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KOTOKO’s autographs. Not one, but three CDs signed \o/ She also giggled at my broken Japanese for bonus points.
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Murata: when he comes to convention guests, he is the champ.
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Found real human competition on Eternal Fighter Zero.
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Favorite cosplay: Misuzu from AIR, Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters (I am not a Mai fan but credit has to be given), ME-tan, Sakura/Inner Sakura couple (very original)
The bad:
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I could only go to one out of four panels I wanted to go.
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Something was missing in the dealer’s room. I don’t know because my first day there was Sunday, but it lacked some variety. Jungle didn’t have Laserdiscs. Akadot didn’t have Shitajiki (they used to have for cheap), less variety in figures, I didn’t find the cheap manga place, no AIR posters (though there were some Clannad ones, but I already have one).
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Missed two autographs for being a fool.
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Only one day of cosplay photos. Last year I finished seven or eight rolls, this year just three ^^;;;. Also, I had the feeling that there was a lesser amount of outstanding cosplay, but that can be to the fact that I was only walking around and taking on Sunday.
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Lost my badge on Monday so I couldn’t do some discount hunt in the dealer’s room.
And, that’s it for now, I guess 
WTF, DOES THIS LOOK MY MYSPACE JABEL, AND DOES IT SEEM LIKE WE CARE ABOUT YOUR LIFE’S STORY ABOUT A GIRL YOULL NEVER GET TO TAP, STFU
FIND A REAL WOMAN, NOT SOME IMAGINRY DOLL YOULL DRESS UP AND UNDRESS TO HAVE YOUR WAY WITH HER.
he already has linalis from CA!
Yeah, The Kotoko concert was quite fun! ^-^ I’m a fan now.
damn i dont even want to start reading that chapter from J-san’s life lol but now that u say there’s a story that he got some tail maybe ill read it :lol:
hey luis did u buy something for me???
also, has the shit i ordered from ebay get there yet?
Oh yeah, forgot to let you know guys.
Sam, AKA Lovely Kitsune AKA the Sayuri player knows Spanish, so he pretty much understood most of what you guys said, including the trashtalk.
penpen dies
I keep telling myself that I want to learn spanish, but then I think to myself, damn, what a lame lanuage!!! heh
I dunno, you could pick up some random Juarez girls, like “Pimp C”. If you work, can’t you also get increased wages for being bi or multi-lingual?
Do it for the chicas.
you dont get increased wages for being bi…
maybe you get them for being bilingual or multilingual lol
No Mike! Don’t do it for the sexist reason! If you’re gonna learn Spanish, learn it for you and if some girl doesn’t like you just because you don’t know Spanish, you’re better off without her.
Besides, if you want easy pussy, I’m sure you can get it without having to know Spanish. :bgrin:
Damnit Pablo, lol…
Do it for the mamasitas, Mike!
Hmm, some ABQ guys want to come down next week. Are you guys down to play next weekend, then? Cez, you’re still my local (sorta) MVC2 hero!
wow…thats coo, just for that qoute…im down fo sho
Just talked to Chew by phone.
He says that he is up to play on Monday.
hey guys I ordered my 1’st stick. Any opinions or comments welcome, one of the people that reviewed it said it wasnt too good for 2-d fighting games due to the fact because it has an ultra sensitive 8-way stick. But I tried to find the best yet cheapest stick I could find, if worst came to worst I might try and mod the stick. Anyways here it is
i would spend about 10 more to get this http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-37-e054e02073eec8b69a6bfcfe7684f4b7-71-m-70-imt.html …i have played on that stick your ordering, gauranteed teh ghey…trust me on this…save up a little more i suggest
shit, guess I should have asked for your opinions before I ordered then lol. I heard it makes that clicking sound, is that right?
I think I should be alright for right now, at least until school starts, then I can blow all my lunch money on a mas or a hori real arcade pro fairly fast.