I got up early knowing that I needed time to do my hair and put on my cosplay. FYI, the hairclips (which I glued with crazy glue) broke off again and I had to reglue them with the glue gun. >.< I spread the sticky glue all over the hair clip so that I was sure that it would not fall off. (And it hasn't as of yet. Yay for success! ^-^) After I was completely ready, I set out. The convention center is right behind the hotel, but even so, walking there in the heat wave was bad. On the way, one of the clips (to hold up my dress so that I won't step on it) broke and I ended up having to lift up a length of my dress. It isn't as bad as AnimeNEXT when I had to hold the entire END of it. ^^;

Traveling to Japan? Wait, I already did!

I sat in for the end of the 'Japan, Anime Style' panel which details about visiting Japan's more 'animated' side. I'm glad to note that some of the stuff they mentioned I had already known/learned due to my last trip to Japan. Ghibli museum, Harajuku and Akihabara were noted and something new I learned was that a certain type of drug/medicine was not allowed in Japan...though I can't remember which one it is. ^^; I think it starts with a 'e'.... The panelists said that you can accidentally bring in a couple tablets and won't go to jail because of it. However, if you bring in whole cases of the stuff.... *insert imagination here* ^-^; A website was listed...though I can't remember the address right now. (I'll add it to my blog once I remember. ^^;)

Remember last year's Otakon when I saw an Eeyore? Well...this year I saw Pooh! O.O lol Maybe I'll see Piglet next year. (I refrained myself from glomping Pooh. ^-^)

Animated craziness...Hare+Guu

I stuck my head in to catch a glimpse of a random anime...and stayed until the end of the episode. It was NUTS. Kinda like Kodacha craziness with an 'anything goes' kind of flavor. All I figured out was that a little girl was in some sort of strange world and that she was called upon by two 'grown ups' to console a woman who was suffering from heartbreak. This doesn't sound that bad except the woman in question had duo personalities that ranged from sweetness to utter insanity. Throw in random seals, strange flow of thoughts and 'moments' (like gazing into the sunset) and you'll get Hare+Guu. Oh yeah, I think the little girl was the main character...but I'm not sure who 'Hare' and 'Guu' is. When the episode ended, I still didn't know what happened. ^^;

Sieg Zeon! Gundam 4-eva!

The Gundam panel detailed ALL the gundam series, from MS Gundam to Gundam Seed Destiny, movies, live action and video games. And there is alot of stuff since Gundam has been almost a 30 year old franchise. Originally named Freedom Fighter Gunboy, Gundam was really the combo between 'Gun-' from 'gunboy' and '-dom' from 'freedom'. We're glad that this was changed. ^-^

The timelines were explained, along with the various compliation movies and some strange spinoffs. Gundam Wing was the first of the Gundam series to hit NA, though there was another series in the 1980s, specially created for NA audiences but never got off the ground: 'Doozy Bots.' o.o It was about 5 kids (minorities represented) that had their souls placed into these little robots that went off and saved the world. O.o A pilot episode was sent to the U.S. and was thankfully rejected. >.<; A clip of the pilot episode was shown and hilarity ensued. Chibi gundams fighting with footballs...and walking.... Cute, but I don't know what they were thinking when they created it. ^^; Superior Defender Gundam Force (SD Gundam Force,) a kawaii SD Gundam cg series that was created in the last couple of years was much better. (I have the first volume on tape. ^-^) We laughed over the strange Gundam designs (Gundam from Holland, G Gundam series) and gave tribute to the original creator of Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino. ('Hajime Yatade' is a pseudonym for all the different writors of Sunrise company.) Tomino-san created the original timeline of Gundam and all his series reflect his thoughts (with Gundam Seed being one of his angsty series. ^-^) The Bandai company influenced the creation for more MS since they wanted to sell more model kits. With the influence of so many people, no wonder the balance of creator and company was always precariously tipping in one way and the other (as shown in the various series.) All in all, I enjoyed all the series, though admitting that Gundam Wing was the one that got me into the whole thing (as many female fans of Gundam. ^.^) One last thing, one of the writers of Wing actually wanted Trowa and Quatre to be a couple. They wouldn't allow it to be spoken aloud in the series, but they kept the hints in. Yay! They're relationship is almost canon! ^.^

Dealers, Nobu, dealers, Nobu....

I left the panel early, around 1pm since I wanted to hit the Dealer's room before the Nobuteru Yuuki panel. (Wanted to find Yokan by Makoto Tateno so that she can sign it. ^^;) Alas, I hit Kinokuniya and Sasuga bookstores to no avail. I left so that I could get to Yuuki-san's panel. Yuuki-san, character designer of many series-Escaflowne and X and recently Paradise Kiss-spoke about his many different character styles. The anime styles were influenced by the original drawings (manga) as well as director's notes. Original video games and his own manga gave more freedom since he didn't have to draw based on any pre-existing characters. Later, everyone played jun-ken-po so we could 'fight' for 4 signed Paradise Kiss posters. (Of course, I lost. ^^;) I rushed for the dealer's room after this panel to continue my manga search. No good. >.< By than, I resigned to the manga I bought at Book off. *small sigh*

Next was Yuuki-san's signing. It was one of the longer waits (for autographs) of the weekend. Turns out, Yuuki-san was giving quick sketches along with autographs. Unfortunately/fortunately, his sketches were very beautiful, but not so quick. ^^; Many people waiting with me had anime cels for Yuuki-san to sign. The guy in front of me was actually a collector with over 3000 cels. O.O He explained to me the merits of choosing the right cel to have artists sign. *makes notes* Cels of opening/ending sequences and eyecatch (commercial breaks) cels shouldn't be signed since they are worth alot in themselves. For a signing, the cel should have alot of white space so that the artist wouldn't have to write on the pic. Certain cels look worse with an autograph. (Pearl-chan, are you getting this? I gave you a CCS cel afterall.... ^-^) I missed Makoto Tateno-san's as well as Nana Kitade's panel. It's okay...I made it to the Voice Actor's panel and that was fun. ^-^

Before the VA panel though, I went back and changed out of my Asuca Hayashi outfit. It was too hot and too much of a bother. Also, I had aquired vast amounts of paper through my trips through the dealer's room and needed to drop them off at the hotel. ^^;

The usual questions...and Sakura and Sasuke.

The NA VA (North American voice actors) that were there were Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke, Naruto), Kate Higgins (Sakura, Naruto), Caitlin Glass (Winry, FMA), Monica Rial (Dante, FMA), Colleen Clinkinbeard (Riza, FMA), Mike McFarland (Havoc, FMA), Christine Auten (Izumi, FMA), Troy Baker (Archer, FMA), Patrick Seitz (Koshihiro, Koi Kaze) and a surprise guest, Monica's younger brother (broken train boy, FMA). (If I'm missing anyone, that's because there was two rows of VAs and I can't remember everyone since not everyone was listed in the program. ^^;) The panel began with 'How'd you become a VA?', the obligatory question from Hellcon 'What does your character smell like?' and 'What's your fav character?' Some of the highlights (that I can remember) was Caitlin speaking with a Texan accent (her real accent, ^-^) the crew saying something nice about the person sitting to their left and the crowd asking the VAs to speak in their character voices. One scenario was Sasuke confessing his feelings for Sakura and Sakura telling him off. ^-^ It was in this panel when they announced that the FMA movie premiere showing was indeed at 10pm that night (the way it was listed in the tentative schedule, but changed in the current programing) and I happily promised myself to be there.

After the panel, I picked up a few signatures and gave out some pocky: Caitlin, Colleen and 'broken-train-boy'. (FYI, Monica's bro is so sweet and I declare myself as his first fangirl. He is legal btw, 21-22 years old. Next, gotta find out what his name his.... ^-^) I rushed back to the hotel, ate some ramen and headed back to the convention for the movie.

The Fullmetal Alchemist Movie Premiere: The Conquerer of Shamballa...in English!

I must say, being a single person at a convention has it's advantages...and I don't mean single as in 'no boyfriend.' Looking for a seat in the front-middle of the room is alot easier since I don't have to save spots for others. ^_^ I sat next to some fangirls and joined in their convo about the movie. They haven't seen it yet and started to ask me questions. I answered some with no spoilers since I'm nice that way. ^.^ Except I was silent when she remarked 'As long as Alphonse does not die, I'm happy.' She was shocked when I didn't say anything and I gave a small smile. *evil grin* The VAs were introduced and the movie started. (It stalled about 2 times in the movie, but thankfully continued after a few seconds.) After the movie was Q&A and I actually got up to ask something. My major questions had to do with the Japanese limited edition dvds...like whether or not we're getting any extras and the OVAs. Turns out that they're working on coming out with limited edition dvds (but we don't know if they'll have pics like the Japan version ^^;) and they will put out a dvd with the OVAs. Yay! I so want the OVAs! *dances* Some other info was that the regular movie dvd(s) were coming out in September 12 (as mentioned in ads,) but the movie will be shown in theaters on August 25 (28?), earlier than their original announcement of Sept. 8. Of course, I'm definitely going to be at the first showing! ^.^ *dances some more*

I (and other fangirls) cornered Mike McFarland after the movie: I got his autograph and he got his pocky. ^-^ Caitlin stayed as well and I gave her another box of pocky. (I saw her munching on pocky before so I thought it best to replenish her supply while I can. ^.^)

No stamp? No yaoi!

It was after 12am when I got out of the movie panel and headed over the yaoi panel. Turns out, you needed a 'I'm over 18' stamp on your panel in order to get in. No IDs and bribes accepted at the door. Stamps were given at the info desk, but I decided to go back to the hotel. The current yaoi panel was 'History of Yaoi' and what I really wanted was 'The Yaoi panel and You' which was an hour later.

I stopped by the Otacafe where there was an open mic (for anime Karoke) and listened to a song before heading back to the hotel. (A girl cosplaying in a school uniform sang and danced to the 'Yappa pa' song from Ranma1/2-though I can't remember the exact title'-and she was very good as well. ^.^) I showered, ironed and slept. But not before I watched episode 50 of FMA and S-cryed on cartoon network. ^^Zzz