Thursday, May 28, 2009

AB 2009 Loots

And after all that coverage of the AnimeBoston convention, we get to the loots! I was carrying around a half-filled luggage when I went there and I filled it up when I got back. I was prepared to get lots of loots, but I was also limiting myself because I know I may not have all the room in there ^^;

I made close-up pictures of each item above except for two things. One is the Nanoha DVD box. It's actually just an empty box that I got from the Anime on DVD panel ran by Chris Beveridge. They're no longer called Anime on DVD anymore though. They're under the Mania banner ever since sometime last year. The second one is also from the same panel, which is Aqua Bless. No need to mince words here, it's a hentai manga. Yep, but it was free! Something that I could've bought from the dealer's room for $20 and I got it for free! So glad I attended this panel. Basically in the panel, you ask a question and you're allowed to take something for free from the table. He's got LOTS of free stuff there. Although by the time I was able to ask a question, all the good stuff were mostly gone. There were one copy left of this manga after I picked it up, I wonder who got the second one ^^;

I usually buy a lot of shirts from anime conventions, but there weren't a lot that interests me. The one on the left, Lucky Eva shirt featuring Tsukasa as Rei and Kagami as Asuka was one of the shirts I was looking to order from JList, but thankfully I waited and got it from the convention. Tsukasa being my favourite character from Lucky Star and Rei as my favourite from Evangelion ^_^

As for the Yoda shirt... I didn't really buy it. My brother who went to Disneyland around the same time I went on my trip bought it for me. I just had to take a picture of it since it looks so funny. The front of the shirt is in the image below.

I was saving space in my lugagge for figures, but I couldn't find any scaled figures that I wanted badly from there, so I got these smaller types instead. I've finally got my hands on the Yoko movie version, and was able to give my older Yoko to someone who wanted it more. I resisted on getting this cheerleader Haruhi, but the faces on this was so hard to resist... I may have a use for these faces for my comics. Since I bought a Ryomou figma, I thought I'd have Kanu as a part of my collection too, perhaps I can use it for the comic as wel, lol. And lastly the Oukachan Nendoroid; possibly the ONLY nendoroid that was being sold in the building! I mean, I did not see any other Nendoroids there at all except for this one. I've never even seen this one before, but it looked so cool that I had to get it, after going back and forth in my mind whether I should get it or not.

I usually don't buy trading figures anymore... but these ones are interesting enough that I manage to get one of each. Well the one on the left, Flat Style, was already opened, so you can pick and choose what you want.

Whereas the other one, the box on the right, have this mosaicced picture that caught my interest, lol.
So I got this twin tail girl with striped pantsu from the Flat Style box and got the nekkid girl riding on a goldfish for the one with the mosaicced picture on its box ^^; I really wanted that one with the mosaics, lol.

I was planning to get more DVDs but nothing else caught my eye and they were mostly expensive. I got Princess Blade for $5 from the ADV booth... though I'm thinking I may have this one already. I was going back and forth about the Macross Ace Frontier game too... I found out that this vendor was selling it cheaper than the other one, so I thought it was a pretty good pickup. Kinda hard to play, but that's because I was sleepy when I was trying it, lol. Lastly, the Kalafina CD. Really good songs on it, especially after listening to them live. I got mine autographed by the three vocalists along with Yuki Kajiura. Some of the songs are already some of my favourites.

Something I picked up from the Artist Alley, Samus in zero suit. I was going to buy a Miku from them as well, but they drew her with a bigger oppai which was not accurate ^^;

Here's the back of the eroge I picked up. Brave Soul, Bible Black and Kana ~Little Sister. I've been wanting to play Brave Soul since it's like an actual RPG and it's got the same art as Scrapped Princess character design. I heard Kana had a really good story. And Bible Black... is Bible Black. I had a stopover in Ottawa where I had to pick up my luggage for the connection... I was so worried because I had to go through Canadian custom and was asked several questions. Thankfully he didn't ask me to open my luggage or these three will not be here in this picture. At least Bible Black wouldn't be... It was quite nerve-wracking. Remind me to never go through a Canadian city stopover again.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

AnimeBoston 2009


This is the third AnimeBoston I've attended but the first time I've blogged about it. The shirt above is the one I wore on Thursday for pre-registration badge pick-up. It was quite a hot day on Thursday so I was just sweating like crazy especially this dark shirt. That day we had our "last supper" which is the last full meal we'll ever have for the next 3 days. We ate at Fire & Ice, an all-you-can-eat restaurant where you pick up raw ingredients and sauce then bring it to the center grill where someone will cook it for you. Kind of like a Mongolian Grill or Teppanyaki. I'd love to have something like this around Vancouver. I also got to meet up with friends and people that I know, but there were a lot of people I didn't know before and felt like a stranger in the whole group. At least I sat with someone I stayed with last year and got to talk to her for a bit. That night was also the only times I've slept on the bed. It was painful. The mattress was too hard. I woke up and walked as if I was an 80 year old guy, limping and holding my back from arthritis.


Day 1 - Friday, May 22nd: "I Would Die for Haruhi"
The two people that I came to the con with two years ago have their hands quite full this year. They're running another convention in November and are trying to promote it this year at AB. So I didn't really spend much time with them during the convention itself. Well either that or they prefer doing their own things and I have my own agenda.

Since it was the eve of Haruhi's new episode I thought it'd be appropriate to the above t-shirt which I got from J-List... but many vendors at the dealer's room actually had it on sale there as well. The whole convention takes place indoors, so the lighting was not the greatest for taking photos.

Ah but I did go around with a friend for about two hours before we separated. The first thing we saw was the Monty Oum 3D Animation Panel. Monty Oum is the maker of the Dead Fantasy series, which is a crossover between Dead or Alive/Tecmo and Final Fantasy/Square Enix's universes.





He's currently working on parts 3, 4 & 5 when he was at the panel, but he did show some of the work in progress video... which is practically done IMO.

Here are the first cosplayers I ran into. The Gekisou SOS Brigade! Yuki looks great!

The Major, Motoko Kusanagi

Nintendo had quite a presence at the dealer's room promoting their new Fire Emblem game. Even had their own cosplayers.

A friend of a friend's panel. I thought I'd pop by near the end of it where they're having an actual kendo match.

Fran and Ashe from Final Fantasy XII. Fran's a bit short though ^^;

I thought this was the best find of the whole weekend. The whole cast cosplay of ToraDora!

Eureka! My friend might still be obsessed with her, so I took a picture of her. I still haven't watched the show yet...

I was taking a picture of Kero-chan, honest! I don't see any half-naked mermaid in this picture...

A quick crowd picture from the escalator.

Ah and here's what my friend's group was doing for this convention. Fairy Tail cosplay. They seem to be into that series a lot. He's cosplaying as MistGun... but seriously I haven't really been reading this manga...

Kingdom Hearts cosplayers while they were posing for somebody else and I thought I'd sneak a photo in.

A female Ryuk! I'd hit i... I mean... Never mind.

One of the rarest sight at the con, Macross Frontier cosplayer. Sheryl Nome's concert outfit. Would I be too forward if I ask her to wear the secondary concert outfit? ^^;

Kureha and Seena from Shining Wind... except Kureha's orange and Seena has a long hair...

Was too far away to ask this Sailor Saturn to pose, but snuck a snap in there :)

Hikaru vs Wizard from Angelic Layer

From the Kara no Kyoukai screening. They were introducing the Japanese guests. From left to right: Keiko, Wakana & Hikaru from Kalafina, the translator, Yuki Kajiura and the producer, whose name has slipped my mind...

Finally the day ended with the premier of the 5th Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of Sinners) movie. In the lineup the Aniplex staff was giving out surveys. The staff was Japanese and saw my shirt and commented on it. I thought that was cool ^^ The movie was quite confusing and I was somewhat sleepy, but I managed to understand some of what's going on. It's a good thing I already watched the first movie a few weeks ago. Makes me want to see the rest now. Shiki is the hawtness!

So that was pretty much the end of the day... Oh, I guess I went to this hentai panel for a bit. Mostly about terms in hentai and stuff, such as bukkake and panchira. The panelist didn't have paizuri though... Need to correct this exclusion :P

When I went back to the room, the bed was taken and there were a lot of people who decided to stay and drink... I was quite PO'd the fact that I don't have a bed anymore and the loudness of the room. After trying to sleep through the noise, I just gave up and put on my PSP at the loudest volume and listen to my MP3s til I fell asleep. It's also a technique to reduce my anger and as well as making me sleep.

Day 2 - Saturday, May 23rd: Saber Saturday!
After two and a half hours of sleep I just woke up and do my own thing again for the whole day, not caring anymore since I was still quite PO'd from the last night and was starting to regret coming to AB this year... I went and have breakfast and started the day early at the con. I figured I'd wear another Saber shirt for today, plus it works out well calling it Saber Saturday. A couple of people mentioned they really liked this shirt as I was walking around.

The major point of this day was the concert they're having. One was Video Game Orchestra (VGO) as a pre-show and the main show was Kalafina in concert. The VGO was almost like a smaller Video Games Live, and consisted of actual people from the local music schools. Sounds like a great exposure and experience for them. They played music from Final Fantasy, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Chocobo, Halo and the One Winged Angel. I was still in annoyed mood even as I sat there... but it was the music that they played from Chrono Trigger that almost brought me to tears and made me glad I was there for the concert.

Then the Kalafina concert started right after. I was hypnotized by their songs. I've never heard any of their songs before, but it almost sounded like something I've heard before long ago in my previous life. I can't help but buy the CD right after... and actually able to line up to get their autographs too! Definitely one of the highlights of the con. Listening to the CD right now as I type this. It's too bad that no one else didn't bother going to the concert in my room... like I care! They went to see the masquerade, which was a disaster I've heard.

First cosplayer of Saturday... and seem to be a lot of Maka and Soul Eater cosplayers these days, but this was the only Maka cosplayer I took a picture of because hers looked quite accurate.

Many Vocaloid cosplayers too! This is one of the many Rins at the con.

Kaito and Miku! Which only later that I see that her Miku isn't quite accurate...

Selphie!!! I like her pose too ^^

Fumoffu! Bonta-kun makes an appearance at AB!

The Kagamine twins, Rin and Len

The guy from No More Heroes Wii game... his name escapes me at the moment...

At the autograph session for Kalafina. I couldn't pose with them since there's a long line so I sneak in a few pics here and there.

Wakana saying, "thank you" as I took a picture of her... which is why it's blurry... Wakana is my favourite of the group... Although it looked like as if she was separate from the other two during the concert.

Epic picture is epic! I had to have a picture of C.C and the giant pizza guy!

Kiki! Kiki's Delivery Service is still one of my favourite movies to this day.

WiseFreeman at AnimeBoston??? Not really... Something that seemed to be everywhere on everyone's sign at the dealer's room.

Duke Nukem! I was just walking along and suddenly I spoke out loud that the guy heard me... so I took a picture of him anyway. And asked him when his game's coming out :P

Yay! Saber!! Ok fine... not blonde, but beggars can't be choosers. Probably the only Saber cosplayer at the whole convention... Great shiny sword. I'm thinking of cosplaying as Saber next year......... from Fate Zero.

KOS-MOS and guy with Gundam head...

The female cast of Cowboy Bebop

I didn't get to sleep on the bed again that night... I tried joining in their game they were playing at least... until 5 AM! So another 2 hours of sleep...

Day 3 - Sunday, May 24th: John Smith Makes an Appearance

I finally got to wear "My Name is John Smith" t-shirt! I've been planning to wear this shirt for AnimeBoston, but was afraid that the new episodes of Haruhi wouldn't be shown yet. However Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody finally aired in Japan by today. Although I'm sure not many know about it, but I wore it anyway. Go see the episode now and find out why I use "John Smith" :D

Not many things going on the last day... and hardly any cosplayers too. Lots of people dragging their luggages around the vendor room trying to get the best last day deal. Just before I went back to the hotel room I walked around first and said my farewell to a friend that I made last year. She makes plushies and was quite popular this year at the Artist Alley. She got lots of commissions to make more ^^ Drop by So and Sew Plushies at DeviantArt to see what I'm talking about :D I had to stop talking and get out of the way of her table so that I don't block her display ^^;

Wow this was a rare sight... Saito and Louise cosplayer!

Another rare sight: Ranka Lee. She even did her *kira* pose ^_^

Lots of cosplayers that are rare coming out on the last day. This one is a Love Me member from Skip Beat. I actually asked her about the costume and she said she purchased it.

This Prinny was quite a popular guy ^^;

Where's Waldo?

So another AnimeBoston gone into the books. I was pretty much following my own agenda this year otherwise I wouldn't be able to see what I wanted to see. I pretty much went by myself throughout the weekend. Everyone was busy at their own thing this year, so I hardly talked to some of the people that I knew from last year. I'm very sure I won't be going to AB 2010... unless I win the lottery or someone pays for my flight :P Although there were many people I didn't know this year, I did get to talk to some of them. I can't say I made new friends or not, but at least if I do go again the people that I know will be there as well.

And now for Anime Evolution 2009 in Vancouver!