Anime Expo!

Yeah, I went there. That one. You Californians should understand.


The least I can say about it was "It was fun." The most...

It was freakishly awesome, to the point of spontaneous combustion.

There were cosplayers everywhere! Now, I'm not a big fan of fake wigs and all that sort, but you've got to admit it was pretty cool to see so many people dressed up as your favorite characters. My friend (who just happens to have been infected by my peer pressure and also has a blog on this site), whose dad was so incredibly generous and cool enough to buy me a ticket again this year, and I spent about ten hours walking around, watching the second Death Note movie, shopping for merchandise, attending the panels....


Better to say, we spent a good ten hours having the time of our lives.

So this is how we went about the whole thing:

First, we sat down for a while for a Copic markers and Steampunk tutorial orientation, which was actually kind of dull...personally, I think it had too many unnecessary details and personal discussions. I'll admit the two panels were somewhat interesting, though; as an artist, you can find a lot of the techniques and information useful and great to consider (for you nonartists out there, things like good quality paper and photocopying linearts on a printer).

The steampunk was...uh, just take science and a Victorianesque setting and mash them together. You'll make one butt-kicking world. Enough said.

Ah well, afterwards; we burned money.

My friend (I'll just call her kuya here) bought a green and orange Hetalia bowl, with Germany, Italy, and Japan on it; a tiny Kaito figurine; two other Vocaloid figurines for her youngest siblings; a fan for her brother; a grinning America figurine; a scowling Southern Italy phone charm; brightly colored Vocaloid stickers; new stockings to replace her old ones--which, to her dismay, kept on drooping down while we were walking...

And a gigantic wooden sword for her brother. Sheesh, kuya.


I was disheartened at the prices...but I bought a few things myself.

I got a soft, awesome-looking America pillow; three (smaller!) wooden swords, one for each of my three cousins (thankfully with their money, not mine); a "Seme Wanted" America shirt (Shut up. It was cool); a [temporarily censored because I don't want my other friend to know what I got for her yet]; and an Iceland notebook with the country's national emblem on the back.

Speak of the obvious: I was in high heaven. (Did you notice that all of the stuff I bought for myself were Hetalia related...?)


Ah, but, the end was the best. So, of course, it had to end with Hetalia.

We waited in line for a while for the Hetalia panel after we were finished shopping (the Katsuyuki autographing didn't quite work out...), then realized there was yet another line to the panel. We rushed to that line, and waited...

There were so many people; much more than any of the panels we'd been to before: proof of Hetalia's excitingly rising popularity. Imagine two, three lines, all just for that one Hetalia panel; kuya and I were dreading that we wouldn't get into the panel room at all.

We got in...but some others didn't. (I felt kind of bad for them, and guilty for bring glad I got in)

Everyone who did get in roared and awwed and laughed at the parts they recognized on the screen the directors of the panel were showing. Some of them (the Hetalia cosplayers) even waved their flags around, to others' delight. Most of the panel was about history(Hetalia, countries...history in a hilarious/awesome form), and how the seemingly meaningless little things the nations did in Hetalia meant a lot to the anime/manga/comic, but the fans loved it. Even the people who weren't quite sure about what Hetalia was all about laughed, and even tried to sing along when the ending song played. Which sort of failed, but it's the thought that counts.

It was epic. It's amazing how much fun you have when you're with people (a lot of people!) who enjoy the same things you do, or at least try. I think some people disapprove of the love we have for what we like, but it's not so hard to remind them that they have some things they like that way, too.

Or, at least, to some degree. It was fun. End of story.

Moving on...

You know what was the best of all?

After the Hetalia panel, when the fans flooded out of the room, the lobby exploded.

A whole crowd of fans erupted in a cheer in the middle of the lobby room, waving their assortment of flags in the air, laughing, and screaming for all their worth.
They were all Hetalia fans. So yeah, I had to start laughing with them.

And I'll wrap up my day with Mr. K and kuya at the 2010 Anime Expo on that note. Thanks kuya, for taking me with you; and thanks Mr. K, for being so cool even when I noticed you looked weary during a few of the events (which I feel guilty about...).


And So Ties The Lengthy Conclusion,

-Ama