AnimeExpo 98 - Day 2
Peter sleeping in line           Wow, those 4 hours of sleep sure did help :) :)   At exactly 7 am or so, Lucinda came-a-knocking at the hotel room door for the Watase panel.  I hurried up and dressed, zooming down to the area.  Just our luck!  A friend of ours WAS dedicated enough to be first in line!  We got to get in line where they were :) :)  Woo hoo.  Thank you Peter! Tamahome wore himself out by playing. Awwww.
 Our goal set, we got our bouncie balls, cds, and partied down for several hours :)   I didn't feel that tired.  It was as if  I actually got a good 10 hours of sleep.  It must be that con weekend feel to it, because this would never happen if  I were in a real life situation ^_^;  This was my day to be a fangirl, and this probably was my biggest day as an anime fan ever.  And that's really sad, considering how many cons I've been to.  We wait a while, then finally they break open the doors to let us in.  We zoom into the main area, lining up along the walls and such.   There were tons of  great people in costume already!  I took pics of a lot, including the Fushigi Yuugi people.  It was all pretty spectacular if you ask me :)   All the neat people in costume to show their appreciation for Yuu Watase and her work.  There were people in different costumes too, I got a few of them ^_^x   Though, the FY'rs definantly took the cake.
 
  Tamahome!  Run!  Catch!  Do it like you wanna win!
  Click on them to see the cosplay pictures for the entire day of saturday!
 Nuriko: Hey Tamahome, me and Kenshin did Miaka's hair, how do you like it?  Tamahome: It's just as good as when I did it!   The Watase panel was really great.  Her answers were funnier then the confused questions.  I think one of  the best responses was, "That was a blow to my sleep deprived head.".  I really wish I remember what it was in reference to x.x  There were some really funky questions out there.  Things like if she had a choice in writing a dojinshi, it would probably be Tamahome and Tasuki together o_O   Another one was when she did a parody panel of  Koji with all sorts of  Tasuki products,Yes ladies and gentlemen, the head of Yuu Watase pictures, etc.  She said that was, "Fan service".   We also discovered that she didn't have much input on the Fushigi Yuugi Anime, and they went behind her back on a lot of the decisions, especially with certain plots and how they were handled, etc.   It was generally really great.  We got to be in the 2nd row, the first row was for the press.  Even so, all the pictures turned out looking like Yuu Watase's head was on the table, and that's it o_o;   Another thing that people seemed strangely surprised about is that Watase is a very attractive woman.  Not only that, she's TALL.  Somewhere around 5'7"-5'9"ish, and that really surprised me.   Her hair was shorter than in the art book I saw with her, and it was a lighter shade than her natural black hair color.  I could probably remember more details from the panel, but I'd have to actually think of some of  the questions.  And now, the raffle!  They gave out these blue little tickets at the beginning to raffle off who got signatures and who didn't.  Basically the artist gives off a number and they raffle that many signatures/sketches so the fans really don't have to wait in line, and if the GoH doesn't want to do anymore, the fans won't get disappointed.  It's a good concept, but sometimes you'll get a diehard fan who is really upset they didn't get a signature, the reason for going to that convention was that, etc... there are always some flaws.  They raffled in an odd way, first they'd say "Okay, these people get sketches" and listed off the numbers.  Then they did the signatures, in the fashion of numbers between here and here get signatures.  so it could be like from 458201 - 458212 or something.  If  you were within that range, congratulations ^_^;  Luckily, our small group of 6 or so was within one of the ranges :)  So we won the signature, and we were pumped for the cosplay meeting at 2pm ^_^;  The signature we won was part of the Sunday session.  They told us to be there at 11am to get the signature *_*
Miaka doing Miaka's hair.  How... ironic         Vaguely remembering what happened after the Watase panel... I think we split up for a bit, to go to our separate rooms to drop off items and to get ready.  I headed over to the dealers room to work a bit, since I hadn't that day at all.  2 or so hours go by, and It's okay Kamatari, you don't have to peacebond it.  But can we get a picture?
then I had to get to the RK Cosplayers room and get my scar applied, also be ready for the main masquerade meeting.  I remember settling down in the bed, closing my eyes because everyone was so busy and I was already ready... and then I heard flashes going off.  Apparently people thought it was cute that Kenshin fell asleep o_ox   Lucinda begins to head out the door, and I look up.  She asked, "Wanna come with?  I just want to walk around." and I nodded, getting my stuff quickly and hopping out the door with her.  Again, one of those faded moments in time where I think we talked a little, hung out, but mainly nothing exciting happened. ^_^;  At some point though, I believe we officially headed over to the Masquerade meeting to get things set up and along.  Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn there were a lot of people.  Some people combined skits or dropped out.  It was a long meeting. I remember eating a little bit of one of those nice lunches Steve got the folks working at his table, but it was only half really... and I was too nervous to eat.   Wandering around and such before we had to officially be back was crazy.  So many hours spent coming and going.  At some point we were Yes ladies and gentlemen, this bed was so dangerous it had to be peacebondedwandering around the hotel, and a Con Security guy stopped Lucinda with her huge weapon looking thing, and told her that she had to have it peace bonded.  It's like, WHAT? This thing needs to be peace bonded?  It's made of Styrofoam o_o   They hauled us to con security ops, and the first guy wandered off.  The other people in the room looked at her, looked at the prop, and kind of rolled their eyes.  They're like, "There's no way to peace bond that... what was that guy thinking?  Just make sure not to poke peoples eyes out with it or something." and took pictures of  her.
The crowd for the Masquerade line was lined up and ready.
         The masquerade was psychotic.  50 some odd entries, and we'd been there since like 6pm.  Maybe earlier.  We were stuck there till 10pm, waiting for judges decisions and all.  4 hours of waiting...and waiting...and waiting...  I got to see lots of neat costumes, and did a little bit of resting before we lined up.  During the judging, they showed these computer movies from the cg contest.  Unfortunately, some of them were either really boring, or I was really tired.  They had the doors open, and as I've realized, California nights aren't exactly very warm.  I nodded off several times.  At some point, I ask Lucinda what we're going to do after this.  I said I wanted to get something to eat, and she was like, "Yeah, and after that let's get a drink." I was like, yeah, I can handle that, that sounds cool actually.  It's good to see that to show my appreciation for my American independence is displayed by dressing up as characters from Japanese Animation.  It's irony, I think.  Anyways, after waiting and waiting... our skit actually won a Judges Award :)  All our work did pay off  x.x  The award was kept by Alice, who was dressed as our Tomoe. ^_^; And we ALL got AX magazines!  Woo hoo ^_^
We are the champions o/~
        After we got offstage, suddenly our entire group disappeared.  It was rather spooky.  Matt handed me my camera ( that he had been taking pictures of the cosplay and such that didn't really come out that well ), then Lucinda nudges me.  She said, "Oh my god, that's Yuu Watase RIGHT THERE".  I'm like, "No way, really?"  She said, "Go catch her!  We can get her picture!"  I was a bit hesitant.   Rushing over to that area, following what was Yuu Watase, I tell Lucinda that SHE has to ask for the photo though.  We paused, Watase has her translator ask the girls dressed as Tomo and Soi if she could take a picture with them.  It's like... SHE'S asking THEM?!  Shouldn't it be the other way around!?  We wait it out, then Lucinda goes for the kill. She quickly asked Watase for the photo.  Unfortunately, we realized the woman doesn't speak an ounce of english.  Her translator quickly says something to her, and she nods a bit confusedly.  We pose, Matt took the pictures with both mine and Lucinda's camera ( Only hers came out x.x  Luckily we traded doubles *_* ).
  Does it really need to be pointed out, but Yuu Watase is carrying around one of those Hentai fans O_O; That poor woman looked so scared.  I think it was the fact that Lucinda had that huge weapon looking thing over her head.  Ah well, it was our brush with greatness.  We soon went to the lobby and posed for pictures with the masses.  Our RK group already gone for food and music videos... oops.   It was fun :)
         As we traveled back to the hotel, I made a quick observation, "Wow, look, Yuu Watase's in front of us again.".  Lucinda comments, "Wow, we really ARE stalking her."   Our pathway just happened to be the same from the convention center to the hotel.  We push the button to go to the room, but it doesn't seem to come down fast enough, so they're like, okay, let's go up the escalator.  Sure enough, Yuu Watase is there again, in front of us on the way to the escalator.  We keep walking, until we get to right before it.  There we see Akira Kamiya, visiting voice actor from Japan.  I said, "Hey, let's get a picture with Kamiya."  Lucinda said, "No!  She's getting away!"  "...."
 Akira Kamiya looks so happy :)
         Checked out Karaoke... still setting up.  Okay, so we had already decided to get dinner, get drinks, and party all night.  Or something like that ^_^;   This was an awkward situation.  Basically Bryan wanted to do all this with us, and to be quite honest, I wasn't happy with him, and I definantly did not want to drink around him.  We ended up going to the store as me, Lucinda and Matt.  We of course end up at Ralphs ^_^   Our Ralphs card came in handy this fine day.  The people in front of us in line asked to use it, and they saved 4 dollars on beer!   They were so happy.  So happy, in fact, they took our picture in front of  the lottery machine ^_^;  How nice of them.Yes, we are kicking it at Ralphs!
         Okay, so here was the game plan.  Matt gives Bryan the drink that he had requested, but said that he had a fight with me over something.  Lucinda and I go back to her room and drop off the alcohol, remeeting Matt over at the Karaoke room.  Over there we got to witness Akira Kamiya singing it up ^_^;  After remeeting up, we get the alcohal and go to that lovely open deck that we heard about not but 24 hours before!  We set up and chill.  A few friends head over, and join us.  Everything was just cool and fun.  It was great, to just sit back and hang out for a bit.  Relaxing I guess ^_^;  I don't drink.  Not at all really.  I think this is the most I'd had in one sitting, and it consisted of  about 2 wine coolers.  Oooooooo.  I'm breaking laws now o_o   I think Lucinda's cheeks flushed after the first beer.  She wasn't drunk, she just flushes easily.  How strange.  At about 4AM, a lone security guard came along to break up our fun.  He told us the foyer was closed.  I  mentioned how another guard told us to go there to do this, and he said "Well, it's CLOSED now." ... gosh darn party poopers. Lookit what we found in the hallway...
          Once we got back inside, we girls decided it would be a good idea to use the bathroom.  This is where things got interesting.  Lucinda, Marla and I are in the bathroom, while Peter and Matt are outside waiting.  Apparently at some point, Bryan happens to wander by!  Doh!  Luckily we started to BS in the bathroom for a little.  Suddenly, we heard this knock at the door.  Matt looked in and blinked. "You guys get COUCHES?!" You guys get couches!?
He came in and explained how Bryan was right outside our door a minute before, and how we all were this close to getting caught ^_^;;;  Peter then comes in, and so we decide to take pictures :)  Figure if we're gonna go all out, might as well go for it.  We then decided that it's time to head out of  this bathroom, and to explore others!  A voice echoed down the hall!  Oh no!  It must be Bryan!  We 5 bolted down the corridor to the stairs entrance,  opened the doorway and hid.  We traveledShe's asleep!  How cute! down the steps to the first floor, where Matt and Peter showed us the pathetic mens bathroom.  We then showed them the other bathroom.  Even though security harassed us for doing absolutely nothing, when we were actually causing 'trouble', no one was there to stop it ;p   I think the only person who actually noticed was this poor soul on the phone who gave us strange looks.  The evening ended there, with Marla who played on the downstairs internet terminal and Lucinda passing out in her chair.  We helped her to her room and went up to go to sleep.  A nice and full day. ^_^;

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