Preview - two months before con: "Would it not be uber hyper cool if there was an awesome Gattsu cosplayer at Fanime!?"  -me

 

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Fanime 2003!

 

This was my second Fanime attended, and I've gotta say, it never lets me down.  No matter the circumstances, I always manage to have a blast at this con.  ^_^

So, specks:

Koi to nan ka?

Series I'm into this con: 'Prince of Tennis', 'Get Backers', 'Berserk', 'Angelique', and forever 'Sotsugyo M'

Doko doko!?

As it's been in the past, Fanime this year was held at the Santa Clara convention center and Westin hotel in Santa Clara, California.  That's NorCal, people.  Though I've heard it's going to be someplace different next year.  o.o  But this is a good location, with everything conveniently in one place and close together.

Dare dare!?

It seems to be my tradition to do one cosplay per Fanime (...I say after going to two ^^* ).  This year was the muchly ambiguous Hiromu, from the boy's love game 'Sukisho!'.  Along with Mew-chan as Matsuri, Tara-chan as Chris, and Slave as Sora, we were probably the first ever 'Sukisho!' cosplayers in America.  ^_^  Go us.  And a whole two people at the con knew who we were.. ^^*  Go us.

Nani nani!?

With AX only two weeks away, and how stupidly broke I am this year (car trouble, et. all..), my spending was muchly limited.  ...Wow, I think I only spent $35 this year. ^^*  Getting:

Angelique - lami cards of Sei-lan (for a friend) and Zephel (for me ^^ ) 

Angelique - fastener mascot of Oscar (bought for me by Mew-chan ^_^  arigato!)

Berserk - figurine of Gattsu (which got much molestation ^^* )

D.N.Angel - lami card of Dark & Daisuke

Get Backers - two lami cards of Kazuki ( ^^ 'cause I love him so much!)

Prince of Tennis - lami card of Kaidoh

Prince of Tennis - clear lami card of Kaidoh

Prince of Tennis - pin of Kaidoh

Shaman King - lami card of Jun & Pailong (just because I love Pailong ^^  don't care for Jun)

Sukisho! - clear lami cards of Kai & Gaku and Chris & Hiromu

And that's all!  Go me, with my ability to show restraint. ^_^

 

 

Hajimete!

The moment you've all been waiting for!  My con report!  ...riiiiight.... ^^*

 

Day 1: "Nothing!"

Because of the cruise planned right after Fanime, and AX the weekend after that, all my vacation time (and then some..) was sapped, so I actually spent the first day of the con working (err...working as much as one can when bouncing around the office yelling "four more hours!  three more!  two more!" ^^ ).  After work I got my stuff together and soon Tara was there to pick me up, and off we were!  Stopped briefly at a Starbucks (effectively getting lost in Gilroy trying to find it ^^* ) to get some sweet goodness that is caffé mocha, then...some time later...because Tara drives like an old woman on downers...we finally got there.

After getting into our cosplays...in the parking lot... ^^* ..our first goal was to register, and instinctively went to where it was last year...to discover it wasn't there again this year.  -_-  Heh...  So we asked at the info desk and they told us where it was (being on the complete opposite side of the con center), so we headed there, and managed to run into Mew-chan, looking adorable in her Matsuri jacket ^_~ , and her Slave, who made a very glomp-able Sora.  ^_^  Our 'Sukisho!' group was complete!

And then they informed us that registration closed 45 minutes ago.  -_-

So we waited around for Slave's mom, who'd gotten the hotel room and brought snacks and water, and then went to the room and put our stuff in.

Went down to the lobby, and there was a whole one person there who recognized us!  =D  Believe me, it's more than we thought we'd get.  ^^*  So we chatted with her a bit, and it turned out she was hangin' out with another con buddy of mine, so I got to chat with her a bit, and...anyone else standing nearby.  ^^  Fun chatting.

And...umm...I don't think we did much else.  Since Tara and I didn't have badges we couldn't really do any conly things.  Mew-chan had to leave at 10:30pm, so we waited for her dad to pick her up, then the three of us staying drove around to find an ATM for Tara to get some cash, then grabbed some McDonalds to go and ate at the hotel (after having a little trouble getting back  ^^* ).  Then Tara went to the dance for a short while (using Mew-chan's borrowed badge) while I dyed my hair.  By 2:00am I had grey hair, and about 12 pillows...and a Tara...on top of me.  ...And that's how we fell asleep.  ^^

 

Day 2: "All your Gattsu are belong to me!"

I woke up at 6:00am...  Look at me, I don't need sleep!  ^^**  Took a "Heavenly" shower and dressed, etc.  Slave got up too and we woke Tara up (by taking a picture of her ^^ ) and once we were all ready we went and registered, then got in line for the dealer's room.  Had to sit there for a while, so Slave got a deck of cards and we played a game of 'go fish' (which I lost.. ^^* ), then played 'war' until it opened.  And zooooom! the feeding frenzy began.  ^^  And it wasn't long before Mew-chan caught up with us.

Sword is tasty!There was one booth in particular I was looking for, because they sell the 'Angelique' rings, and I wanted to get Randy's to go with my Zephel.  But, alas, they weren't there.  ::sigh::  But I did accomplish my secondary goal of getting the Gattsu figurine, as well as a bunch of random cards and a pin. ^^  After I bought the figure we sat in the cafeteria (after first accosting the 'Tenipuri' cosplayers ^,^ ) and I played with Gattsu, moving all the little parts and putting him in cool poses and taking pictures of him.  =P  Then we decided to go back to the room, and the whole time walking back, all through the convention center and hotel, I was just following behind blindly, playing with my new toy.  ^.^

When we got back to the room I put my treasure up on top of the TV stand, so he could look over the room for us  ^,^  then we sat around  for a bit.  I was idly staring out the window when I saw...him.  *bum bum bum!*  That red cape, flapping in the wind, the armor...and the unmistakable giant sword...my beloved figure come to life.  Gattsu! ^.^  Seventh floor of the hotel, and I was able to spot him all the way over in the parking lot.  ...I must have Hawk vision for Gattsu.  =P  And I was so excited I smacked my head on the window.  ^^*

We watched until his group was out of sight (with a few attempts by Mew-chan at yelling out the window, to no avail), then I proceeded to squeak around the room until the others decided that I would go nuts if we didn't find them soon.  ^^  So we went down and instinctively headed to the dealer's room (because...that's where everyone goes first ^^ ).I think this calls for some GattsuxHiromu action!

It wasn't long at all before we found them there and molested them.  ^^*  I mean...bugged them for pictures (their whole group consisted of Gattsu, Onime no Kyou, Enishi, and Legato - I aptly named them the "Bishonen Brigade"  ^,^ though their official group name is the "BACA Boys"..).  And I got a pic holding Gattsu's sword!  ^^*  It was bigger than me!  ::chuckle::  And he leaned on me, using my head as an armrest. ^^  Was cute. (being so damned short...I get that all the time... ^^* )

We were near the booth where before we'd entered our names for some raffle, and as we were there they happened to call out Mew-chan's name as a winner!  =D  Wai!  She won a dubbed 'Gundam Wing' video...yay...  ^^*

Then...umm...I don't think we did anything significant, but eventually ended up outside.  ...Not that we were stalking them or anything (^^*), but again running into the "Bishonen Brigade."  Got a few more pictures, as well as some cards with their names (somehow I knew his name would be either Jason or Aaron...), e-mail, web page, and all that good stuff.  I asked Gattsu if I could keep him (^^), and after some thought he remembered that someone at AX had already bought him.  ;_;  For $2!  ^^*  (worth so much more..)

There was a big ruckus nearby, and we went over, thinking they were calling over all nearby cosplayers for a group photo.  So we got in and there was this whole big ol' group of cosplayers and people were snapping away, and I slowly came to realize that it was actually a group picture for the members of cosplay.com...which none of us are a part of..  ^^***  (though give me some time and I'll probably end up joining eventually...)  Oops....  But... ::shrugs::  Smile for the cameras! ^^

We hung out for a while after that, getting various photos of various costumes, and eventually Tara left to see the web comics panel and hang out with other friends for a while, so Mew-chan, Slave, and I wandered, then decided to hang out on the balcony for a while.  Got a nice spot in the shade to cool off (though I would occasionally run over to where it looked down onto where we'd just been for pics, where the "Bishonen Brigade" just happened to still be, saying I was admiring the scenery ^^ ) and chilled, chatting away.  After a short while we went back over to that area overlooking people, and got cool pictures of cosplayers from above.  ...And then people started getting pics of us!  ^^*  I think we got more pictures taken up there than anywhere else.  Then as our boys went to go back into the convention center, we called out to them and got a cute shot of them from above.  ^_^

And...I don't remember if we did anything else.. ^^ ..but when it was getting near time for our... *ahem* ...performance, we went to the room (Tara showing up, literally, a minute later) and tried getting ahold of Karla to use her camera to record it.  We did get it from her, but when getting to the right place we realized we wouldn't have enough time to do our thing then get the camera back to her so she could record her thing.  So Slave ran it back to her while we waited in line to sign up.

Who knew karaoke was so popular!? ^^

LOVE "Love ai to wa mada yobenai!"Then waited...and waited...and waited....  None of us had ever done karaoke before, so were all pretty nervous.  But eventually they called our song and Mew-chan, Tara, and I went up and sang Matsuri, Chris, and Hiromu's triad song 'Koi de All Right!'.  ^_^  And it was sooooo much fun!  ::giggle::  Once up on the little stage all my nervousness seemed to melt away and I just had fun.  And it makes me happy...because that's what it's all about.  Having fun.  ^_^  And then right after Mew-chan and I signed up to do the Sora/Sunao duet 'Believe Me Again', which we did a short while later.  And some Squall in the crowed ended up recording both performances on tape, so we chased him down and asked if he could get us a copy, and he said he would make a copy that night and get it to us the next day (which Mew-chan got).  So nice!  ^__^  Thank you so much!

And I think Mew-chan is now addicted to karaoke.  ^^  She started going through the song book "lets do this! or this! how about this!?"  ::chuckle::  But I didn't want people getting sick of seeing us.  ^^*  But we are now plotting what we should do next year.  =P

Let's see...

So after that we went and watched what was left of the masquerade and see the winning AMVs (some of which were quite funny ^^ ).  But we didn't stick around to see who actually won the masquerade.  ^^*  Left before that.

Stepped out of the theatre to see a group of people sitting on the floor nearby, amongst them (standing) being the "Bishonen Brigade's" Kyou (though out of costume at this point).  ^^  So Mew-chan started talking with him, and of course I sauntered over to see who else might be about, and sure enough, there was a now uncostumed Gattsu.  ^^  He looked up at me with these adorable eyes, raised a package of sugery-goodness, and asked "wanna Pixie Stick?"  ::chuckle::  How could I resist?  Pixie is good!  =P  So we ended up joining their Pixie Party.  ^_^  Though it eventually got moved fromthe floor in front of the theatre to a table under the stairs (which was more comfortable anyway).  Everyone (which ended up being a pretty large group of people) ate a ton of Pixie Stix, drank Pixie Water (little bit o' water, whole lot of Pixie), and laughed and had a total blast.  ^_^  We even had a...a.... shit, I don't even know what to call it.  ::laughs::  We all put about 8 Stix in a napkin, then ate them all at the same time.  ^^*  Whee, mouth full of Pixie!  But was so much fun!

And that pretty much used up the rest of the Pixie Stix.  ^^

But wait!  There's still some powder spilled on the table!  ^^  A few people started licking it up from the table, and one guy went so far as to lick it from the floor...in several places.  ^^*  Scary...but funny.

Ah!  And I did get a more formal introduction with Gattsu...err...Aaron.  ^^  He was really cool.  Everyone was.  ^_^  I had a really good time; this all totally made the convention for me.  ::wistful smile::  Thank you.

After all that it was about time for Mew-chan to go home, so we again waited with her for her dad to pick her up, then we went back to the room and I laid down.

....

.......

..........

Six hours later I woke up.  ^^*  Wow, I crashed HARD!  I don't think I woke up or even moved at all through the night, which is pretty odd for me.

 

Day 3: "Would you like some coffee with your goodbye?"

So Sunday I got up at about 6:30am, and got all showered and packed up all my stuff.  Went to the cafe in the hotel and got some coffee and a muffin for breakfast, and while I sat there Slave joined me and we talked about all kinds of things as I ate.  Then went back to the room.

Tara and I had to leave really early to be on time for *another* vacation (^^), so we really didn't do anything this day.  By the time Mew-chan arrived, all we had left to do was walk out to the car.

...Our goodbyes lasted 45 minutes.  ^^*  Was sad, but we look forward to next year.

 

And...that's it.

This year was an absolute blast, thanks to Tara, Mew-chan, Slave, and the group I shall forever call the "Bishonen Brigade."  ^_^  Thanks everyone!  Can't wait until next year!

 

Forget-me-nots (things I did but forgot to include in the report ^^* )

 

 

Pictures

Took me a while to get my pictures developed, only to discover...most of them didn't even come out..  ~_~  Though I was able to salvage some of them, the quality is sometimes really bad....  Sorry 'bout that...

...good thing I was able to steal some from Slave! ^^

 

View from the convention center's balcony

And another! ...which just happens to have the BACA Boys waaaaay far off... ^^*

And a better shot of them, looking up at us.  (very cute pic! ^,^ )

Group shot of the Boys from when we caught them in the dealer's room.  Kinda bad quality pic.... ~_~

'Fruits Basket' group!  +one extra

Joe Higashi playin' volleyball.  ^^

And...umm...I don't know what the heck he's doing here, but it's awfully cute.

'Prince of Tennis' Seigaku Regulars, Kaidou and Inui.  Bad quality...  ~_~  ..but they looked really cool!

Ryoma, Tezuka, and Kaidou.

Tidus (I think) gets a new kind of chocobo.  ^^

Ride 'im cowboy!  (note the awesome M. Bison in the background too  ^,^  sugoi!)

Wakey wakey, Tara-chan!  ^^  (she'll kill me now...)

Umm...tasty??  ^^*  Wow, I have no comments....  ::laughs::

Mew-chan fondling my Gattsu.  =P

'Trigun' group.  Bad quality..

Very bad quality pic (can hardly see.. ;_; ), but...  Vash doing dirty things to Wolfwood's cross..  =3

And finally...  The view from our bedroom window.  ^_^ (and that's from how far away I was able to spot the Bishonen Brigade.. ^,^ )

 

Stolen...err...borrowed from Slave  ^^

Bishonen Brigade, take one!

Take two! XD

Cape is yummy. ^,^

Have I mentioned I LOVE the sword?  =d

Awesome looking Joe Higashi!

Lovely Kaidou and Inui

I don't know what the hell I was doing, but...me and Mew at karaoke.

Poor guy...someone give him pants! (but I wanna see the yaoi!)

More 'Tenipuri'!

TOO - MUCH - SMEXY!!

 

And that's it!

Thanks to Slave for letting me use his pics!  Thanks to everyone I bugged for pictures for letting me take them!  Sorry for being a bother!  ::blush::  And I can't wait to see everyone again next year!!  =D

 

 

now go back!