Anime Expo '18

Posted by Eva

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

at 6:10 PM Labels: , , , , ,
It's been years since I've written a post like this, but I'm gonna give it a shot! As my memory gets worse and worse, I feel like write-ups will be really helpful and yet also terribly difficult to compose since I've already forgotten what I did on this trip...... And I got back...3 hours ago.

Overall, this was a good AX that went fairly smoothly! Yay it wasn't a mess!!!

Admittedly I'm extremely spoiled/a bit numb because I'm privileged enough to be surrounded by my youtaite friends in my everyday life and it was also my 7th time (WTF IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE IT) going to AX so I don't necessarily get super excited about everything or get post-con depression anymore..... I'm truly happy for how this event has impacted others—people's tweets are so, sooo cute ;;;—but is it weird to say that I feel almost left out because I don't feel as emotional about it as others do anymore?? Regardless, AX is still one of the most special things to me each year! It's strange but I simultaneously feel like I was more social than ever this year, yet also didn't socialize as much as I feel I should have—but I'll elaborate later. ;o;

This time, my hotel arrangement ended up being 10 people split between two rooms that we were luckily able to get next to each other. My room was with Chiisana, Hinoe, Sophie/Kuroko, and Diji; and the other room was Fome, Myst, Chris/Hakuro, Toast, and Lisa. They're all friends that I've already hung out with a lot (everyone was NorCal other than Hinoe) and was pretty comfortable with, so that went super well!

DAY 0


The night of Day 0 was the Aqours concert—for which Chiisa and I had just decided to get tickets for 2 days prior even though ticket sales had been open for months LOL. AX concerts are expensive so we thought we would live without seeing Aqours (I saw them last year anyway, although it wasn't an Aqours-specific concert) BUT THE MORE WE THOUGHT ABOUT IT.... the more we feared regretting not going... It was their first solo concert in America after all! Q^Q Toast and Lisa had also decided the day of to buy tickets and surprised us by getting the seats right behind us LOL. Right before the concert, we got dinner with Lee, Yano, Dibur, and Chris. Lee casually mentioned that he had "back-up lightsticks" in case his lightsticks ran out of battery during the show, which prompted Yano to kindly uh....strongly hint at the fact that Chiisa and I were going to the concert without lightsticks, so Lee generously lent us his back-up ones!! Q___Q This ended up being really important because some extremely dedicated Aqours fans had planned for the entire auditorium to create a rainbow via lightsticks, asking everyone to make sure to have a particular color set depending on seating section during the bridge of a song. I had no idea how ... epic and emotional it would be until it happened?


Chiisana was seeing Aqours for the first time and JUST KEPT CRYING LOL WHILE EXCLAIMING ABOUT HOW CUTE THEY WERE. Me being horrible, I kept laughing at her for crying until T__________T we did the rainbow....and the camera cuts to close-ups of the Aqours girls' shocked...touched...teary expressions, and I think the entire auditorium collectively lost it. Almost everyone I know who went to this concert said they cried. T___T

I definitely enjoyed this concert more than I expected to! Admittedly I'm not too familiar with Aqours' music and I had low expectations in terms of performance judging from last year. They must have been hard at it over the past year because I can't believe how much their vocals have improved ;A; They also did performances as their subunits, which was refreshing since they were able to showcase styles other than the typical Aqours concepts. Then with Lee's recommendation, Chiisa and I ended up buying our own lightsticks at a pretty good deal at the con!


DAY 1


I already can't remember what I did. I'm now checking my calendar lmao. Oh right, I had no early obligations so I finallyyy got to sleep in! When I finally made it to the con, I immediately met up with a buunchh of youtaite (who had all unintentionally gathered as they kept finding each other haha), including many I was meeting IRL for the first time. ^^


That night was the Gemini & Friends dinner and GURL LET ME TELL YOU we spent hella money on "kobe beef" but it was HELLA GOOD. SO TENDER AND YUMMY.


Among Gemini, it was me, Chiisana, Mimi, and Ryan that were able to make it out to AX ;u; I'm happy that we got to spend a pretty good amount of time together. I do really treasure the sort of family bond that we have~

(photos by Fome)
Our friends that came were Xephy, Erin, Sam, Marc, and Tristan. <3

COINCIDENTALLY, on this same night, Cypher (Fome's amazing CB group with Kura, Jae, Howl, Toast, and Squadus) was having their Cypher & Friends dinner....... which turned out to be in the same plaza as us. We realized that both Cypher and Gemini were in ACB (although we flunked out because of late deductions heh) and so one-sidedly decided that they're a rival group LOLOL. As we were leaving the plaza, we stopped by their restaurant to be nosy and found that they were sitting next to a window—so of course we stood by it and stared creepily until they noticed we were there and it was awesome AHAHAHAHA. Yano shed tears upon seeing how adorable Mimi and Erin were.


DAY 2


The big day I'd been lowkey afraid of for...months? It was the big youtaite meetup, hooray! We were also filming our Youtaite React AX episode, hooray but also oh my god it's so much work. We decided on having people do the challenge of watching a video of chorus battle winning entries (compiled by Fome) and guessing as much as they could of the song title, group name, and chorus battle.

From my work experience doing video shoots, I knew to expect that it'd be difficult. How could it not be difficult? We left a clipboard out during the meetup for open sign-ups, so we wanted there to be enough slots so that we weren't turning away too many people that wanted to participate. But we couldn't open too many slots or make the sessions too long or else we'd be there for many, many hours. Working, potentially stressed, and standing. 10 minutes per person is also not as much time as it sounds. The meetup was outside (plus we were unsure of AX's indoor tripod policy) and we wanted to be set up near the meetup so that people could find us painlessly. No matter how prepared we were—or how many documents, lists, and tables I made days in advance—there was no way it would go without unpredictable issues. Our crew was doing this sort of thing for the first time; we would need a bit of time just to adapt to our roles. With the amount of talent and the nature of the convention, promptness was going to inevitably be an issue. There was so much going on and so much to juggle, I was POSITIVE it was going to be stressful to pull off.

(photo by Vulkain, featuring Mercury)
Simultaneously, the filming went pretty well and also was terrible. The thing we couldn't have predicted or prepared for was the weather. :c We were outside (under shade at least) standing and handling stress while trying not to show it (it would freak out the talent which is very no-no) for 3 hours in fucking 108 degree weather....... I'm really thankful to but also feel bad for the crew for enduring it. Q___Q The shoot also required tons of quick thinking and problem solving. Among the issues we encountered was the fact that our camera continually overheated, so during our quick lunch break and whenever people were running late, we stuck the camera in a backpack on top of an ice pack that we made out of ice that Phonic asked a beverage cart vendor for and Mem's empty candy bags.


I LOVED THE CREW!! I was sort of in charge of flow overall and I conducted the interviews and did most of the communication to the talent. Fome was behind the camera, managed the technical aspects of audio, and also helped Phonic. Phonic had the intense task of monitoring audio loudness while making tallies for every correct answer each person made, then adding and calculating how much prize candy they get. Mem would keep track of time and signal me with how many minutes were remaining, and she was in charge of the clapperboard and prize candy. By the end of it, we were A SUPER EFFICIENT TEAM. THE BEST TEAM. I luff them.

It was way too hot for us to do the activities/game we had planned for the meetup (most of our gathering site was in the sun, so everyone was sort of cramped into the shady area) but because lots of people enjoyed getting to meet people and the jam session, I wanna say the meetup was a success! But......one of my biggest AX "regrets"—even though there was nothing I could do about it—was not really being able to mingle at the meetup? It was a convenient event that drew out tons and tons of youtaite, but I was just kinda busy through the whole thing trying to help with organization and then filming/setting up for Youtaite React so I do wish I had had more time to talk with people that I don't see outside of the meetup ;o;

Honestly I think being outside in the heat and under pressure for 5 hours (2 for the meetup, 3 filming) kind of messed me up. I pushed myself through all of it because adrenaline, it was what I had to do, and I refused to falter—but in the process I think I must have suppressed all of my stress and physical discomforts? It was only after the filming that I started feeling like my body was overheating and on overdrive, my brain fried to pieces, and I proceeded to feel dizzy for the next two days. @@

That night was the Anisong Matsuri Super Live concert with Mayn, Sayuri, Aimer, and Kajiura Yuki. The performances were amazing (Aimer's vocals blew all of our minds—Fome kept freaking out in his seat) but omg I was too tired and braindead to properly enjoy it... If Phil is reading this, shoutout to him!!! I bought etymotic earplugs after he wrote about them and not only did they probably reduce my dizziness that night, they actually work amazingly and let me hear better. They cut out a lot of bass, which left the vocals clearer to the ear! Bless!!


Day 3


(photo by Gino)
YAY Gemini members finally got to get together with Saw, who was our animator for Ascension CB!! We and friends (Hinoe, Xephy, Gino, Erin, Rex, Sam, Marc, Tristan) had lunch then karaoked! I tend not to sing much at karaoke if at all, but this time I sang more than usual?? Chiisa and I were leaving early, so we put in Gemini songs first. ;o; We sang Way Back Into Love and Tokohana! Xephy, Ryan, and Chiisa are all Parefura members so they sang Hyakunen no Koi. ^^ Most of the group was into k-pop so this session had a lot of k-pop, dancing, and shouting.


(photos by Hinoe)

Then we made it over to the very first Youtaite Open Mic sponsored by the official AX karaoke room!! We had planned to get there late since it overlapped with Gemifriends karaoke, but we didn't expect it to be a challenge just to get into the building... Basically, there was an overwhelmingly popular panel that the staff was trying to keep people from sneaking into, so they blocked all entries. =_= Eventually we got in and got to see a little bit until Chiisa and I ran out to catch Denny before he left town. And then we finally got to make it to one of Sally Amaki's appearances QUQ!! She was even prettier and more charming in real life... And the other 22/7 members Meimei and Reinyan were THE CUTEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN FROM THIS CLOSE UP. EXTREMELY PRECIOUS.

I got a clear shot of Sally during photo time ///v///

Then a bunch of youtaite—25 of us, to be exact—raided Denny's (not affiliated with our friend Denny) for dinner and I got to sit and chat with Xephy, Arianna, and Angelica! ;v;

Afterwards, some of us tried to make it to the Cosplay Wrestling Federation panel (it's basically actors in cosplay roasting each other and it's super fun) but it was full... Instead, we invited friends to come back to our hotel room to talk and drink. :> Fome had said that this sort of chilling out at the hotel, chatting, and drinking was the exact sort of experience he had been wanting at AX for years and it finally came true—and I think I feel the same way? I really liked being able to spend this kind of intimate time with friends. ^^ Aside from folks from our rooms, we had Kurono, Vulkain, Ventus, Char, Sho, Jefferz, and Justin/Kotetsu join us and I guess other than still feeling dizzy, it was really a blast!! In particular, drunk Myst and Fome were quite the spectacle for everyone.


Day 4


Ah yes, the traditional day of loitering in a giant circle in the hallway and people going around the circle for hugs whenever it came time for them to leave for the airport... A bittersweet day but I like having the time to just sit around and talk with people!

Chiisa, Diji, and I also attended the Bang Zoom! Audio Engineering panel where I felt very validated because everything they mentioned that was relevant to me (basically the stuff that applied to more than just voice acting and mouth flaps) were things that I fully understood and already regularly do for my mixing hobby and at work. 8D Yayay~

Also I was a meido.


After the con closed, a bunch of us went over to koreatown to eat and chill. That night, we did a round 2 of talking and drinking at our hotel! This time with Kurono, Char, Xephy, and Mero! Many, many interesting stories surfaced lololol. I really enjoyed the company of everyone that was at both of our hotel hangouts ;u;


Day (5)


The day of departure! Hinoe was flying back to Canada and the rest of us took 3 cars back to NorCal. But before this, we had lunch together and were joined by Xephy and Jae, both of whom I was really happy to be able to talk to. ^^

At one point, Fome out of the blue asks to borrow my sunglasses and Hinoe's cap and ??? he transforms Toast into a fake youtuber vlogger???? LOLOLOL IT'S KIND OF THE BEST.

Then we made the 6-7 hour road trip back home and now we're all caught up!

Going back to what I said about being simultaneously more social than ever, yet not as social as I should have been... The latter part I think is because I didn't take part much in the big group events? Lots of people I wanted to say hi to, but I didn't get a chance to because I never saw them or was too busy. :c There were only a few people that I got to chat with whom I never spent time with in previous years, so I didn't make that many new friends even though AX is the ripest time for that? I also feel like I was still fairly awkward and don't know how to have interesting conversations. These things are what I regret the most this year.

However! I think I was able to strengthen bonds with the friends that I did get to hang out with—and that was important. ;u; Just sitting and talking, getting to know each other, gossiping and joking, laughing together, sharing heartwarming words... That was really nice. ♡

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