Anime Expo 2011 --

It's been a long, long time since I've attended an anime convention.  In fact, the last one must have been back in 2003 or 2004.  (This would be back when I was dating my now husband!) So wow, it's been a long time.  Sure, I have attended Comic Con a few times more recently, but not for the same reasons.  For AX we attended Friday, Saturday, and a little tiny bit on Sunday.  Overall, we actually had a lot of fun.  Strange to actually admit that, as we're definitely not as tangled in Japanese sub-culture as we used to be.  Granted, we still indulge whenever we can just because we're nerdy like that, yo.

At any rate, the Los Angeles Convention Center that houses Anime Expo is huge!  We traipsed around for hours and hours, and still didn't manage to see the whole thing!  Upon pulling up to the convention parking area we observed an astonishing amount of people dressed in costumes as well.  Cosplay at this convention must have been at least 50-60% of the attendees, really.  My inner-costuming-nerd-heart must have skipped dozens of beats throughout the weekend.  The range of skill in the costumes were all over the place, some were decent, others were finished strangely -- but others, my goodness.  It's hard to think that these people are not professional!  Some of the costumes must have taken months to put together -- and you could really tell how proud they were of their work.

It should be mentioned that the age range that attended this convention were from very young to over 60.

Of course, we busted out some "cosplay" of our own for one day, just to see how many people would:

a) Recognize the characters.
b) Take pictures?
c) Freak out and yell "Objection!" at us!

So we donned Gyakuten Saiban costumes (Or Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) for Saturday.  Myself as the busty defense attorney Mia Fey, and my husband as the enigmatic coffee-addicted prosecutor Godot.  Here are some of the better shots we had taken.

(I may do a construction notes of sorts for both costumes, just to take it to another level of nerd!)

To answer the above a, b & c -- YES.  Ton's of pictures were taken, lots of "OBJECTION!" had, and for the most part, people knew who we were.  Though, Godot was mistaken as "Anime Cyclops" a few odd times, much to our amusement.

Overall, we didn't do a whole lot during the actual convention -- we mostly just walked around, took pictures of other cosplayers, bought nerd stuff (Yay for Katamari Damacy and Apeture Science t-shirts, hentai books and art prints!) and talked to random people.  If we decide to go next year, we'll prepare to do a bit better in terms of actually going to panels if we're interested in the subject matter.  It would have been nice to attend a concert as well (Both the Hatsune Miku concert and Kalafina were sold out) or actually come with enough $$ to pick up more merchandise.  I regret not checking out the massive Copic booths and picking up a couple of new markers, though.

Though, the highlight of Anime Expo for myself was easily meeting Peter S. Beagle.  (For those who are unfamiliar with him, he's the author of, "The Last Unicorn")  My wonderful husband bought me the hard-backed graphic novel, and I had it signed by Peter!  It was wonderful to meet the creator of such a beloved story.  I was ecstatic to chat with him and convey how important his works were in the shaping of my early childhood.  It completely satisfied my inner child.

I hope to make it to AX 2012 next year -- new costumes in tow, and commission business cards in hand!

-- Elysium