Just got back today from AX06... Anyone else went? Share experiences, highlights, and thoughts.
I stayed at a hotel with some friends for the whole 4 days... they really sucked at keeping things clean and came back drunk at like 5 in the morning almost every night...... I'll speak no more of that matter.
Hard to find a good place to eat though... I went to 7-Eleven most of the time. I got Subway for lunch and pizza for dinner one day... I went out with friends to eat at a grill restaurant for one night though, good food. We went through 3 baskets of tortilla chips before our food was ready =p
The arcade was expanded nicely this year. ParaParaParadise 2nd Mix... very amusing to watch people who memorized the computer's entire routine.
Cosplay was as abundant as ever. Man-Faye returns... I was told he lost weight and shaved... When I saw him, he did lose weight, but didn't shave... Last year he was banned from entering the expo building, but the same informant told me that Man-Faye was working at a booth inside. My friend recorded him dancing and a vid of the same dance has been uploaded to youtube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-px5rye3jdYWe also saw cosplayers of Happatai of Yatta! fame. A few Hard Gays were spotted. Man-Faye met up with Happatai, sadly not Hard Gay...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QC33xkeoJ7QAnd Man-Faye being spanked by one of the many Yaoi paddles sold this year, just to scar you guys some more.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4w3nzlMGyBYThankfully, someone fought back and bought a Yuri paddle.
Exhibition hall was disappointing this year, but the selection of anime DVDs and manga was very good as always. The problem is waiting until the last day thinking that there will be last day discounts like everyone else, then seeing that there isn't and seeing that what you wanted has been bought, forcing you to wedge your way through the crowds at every booth to see if another place has what you want, and if it's discounted, which was very uncommon.
I'm happy though because I bought all three volumes of the Scrapped Princess manga on the second to last day and saw that the stands that still had it didn't discount it, making it a good choice to get it when I did... Still don't like the prices though, MSRP price in almost every stand. Last day did get some discounts, but I was largely uninterested in anything by that time.
I am purely elated that I have the Scrapped Princess manga ^_^
And they're (Tokyopop) also working on bringing over the Scrapped Princess novel in November this year... I must have...
Last year I saw some Tales artbooks and manga, but I didn't see any this year... Not a lot of wallscrolls this year either, last year they were all over the place...
This year I saw live performances by the Indigo (did themes for anime like Ai Yori Aoshi and Someday's Dreamers)... I saw them on the second day and they performed again for the last two days... It was Miki Taoka's (main singer) birthday today also... They forgot to tie weights to her balloons and at the end of the performance before the autograph session, they floated to the ceiling... Yuichi Ichikawa (guitar) and the saxophonist played happy birthday music for her before the balloons floated off... A while later, there was a loudspeaker announcement for the whole exhibition hall to sing to her (at least I think it was for Miki again)... Now I have a new band to like.
Don't know how long this vid will be up because they asked not to be video recorded... it looks like the recorder was walking by and didn't hear the announcement.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hWb0Y2R4EG0The booth they were performing at (Geneon) had episodes for some of their recent releases... I got intersted in Shakugan no Shana... it has interesting concept of people who's very existence gets taken away and life goes on as if they never existed...
Good overall experience. My highlights were Scrapped Princess manga and the Indigo.
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