Recollections: Perfect Spin Off Cosplay

2005

Anime Expo, July 1-4
Location: Anaheim Hilton and Convention Center, Anaheim, California

It's the 10th year anniversary for AGSMA. Due to most of the cast showing up at Anime Expo rather than SDCC, we choose AX05 to be the venue for us to clean house, with Bleach!

Thursday: The fun, or lack thereof starts today! As I thought well, since I pre-reg'ed then perhaps I should obtain my badge on the early day! I set out to Disneyland and walk on over to the convention center at 6 PM. I see Jen there and we ultimately decide to stay. The line down in the basement is only 3 turns and "it's moving". Or that's what we thought. We saw Hai, Sara & Emi, Wing down there. 2 hours later and we are about to hit the escalators! YES This must be it! Salvation. NO. Up the escalators and at least another hour of waiting. Arty comes back successful but is smart not to stick around. The line for at con registration was practically non existent. Um, why did I pre-reg? Spend the extra $10 at the door and give me back my 2 hours of my life XD. So we get within 40 minutes of the computers and this nice fellow comes to our corner of the line and asks if we (me and Jen) are together. *hugs Jen* "Why of course we're together!" He then opens up the queue into the at con registration computers and we magically become first in line! That was some saving grace. Of course after I got the badge, I bolted out of there and back to work on Don.

Friday: I get a call around 10 AM to find out that Henry's arrived. Then I get a text message from him. He saw Liddos in Kaori. "Wow. Liddos is hot." Damn straight. They're staying in the in Marriot 9046.
RNR are staying at the Hilton 8412. I was scheduled for a Chobits photoshoot with liddos before dusk but that didn't happen because of a supply run, sword run, and while I was home, I decided to crank out working on Don. I arrived about 8 ish, too dark for a photoshoot. I was working on the fur collar to Don at the time but as the decoy I was wearing my leather jacket so I masqueraded as Squall for a while. Hand sew heaven. or hell. I did lose my handsewing needle at the Hilton somewhere with all the people I was meeting and the hugs. Saw E! Sana Lionel. Lance was running late so we held rehearsal on 2nd floor Hilton until 10:30. Poor liddos was running all over the place but we got the blocking down! Again, back across the street and drove home after that. Lance would show up at one AM.

Saturday:
This was my pre-ordained day to spend with Cici on her Vivichan cosplay! Cici and Sherwin were in Hilton 12202, right near the elevator and so convenient! But she forgot her duel disk and needed a shower so we pushed back the 10 AM meet time a bit. That was okay because I checked in with Lance at Hilton 6249 and basically moved all my stuff there. I pretty much finished all the major work needed on Don and was just doing miscellaneous trim type stuff. Cici showed up and it was time to duel! I whipped out my business version Kaiba from 2 years ago that previously had only been seen in Kyle's cosplay.com photoshoot. And Cici was so Chinese <3!>
Sunday: I showed up in the morning to catch up on the Chobits cosplay with liddos that I postponed from Friday. So after parking at the Marriott I head up to that room to find liddos in a frenzied change. I hand sewed some ribbons to her bloomers (wow I'm so lucky). We were Ueda and Baker Chii for about 2 hours and had various shoots with Lionel and AgentSakur9 until Liddos saw too too cute Japanese Katamari cosplayers. So in an instant she rushed back to change and I was free! So over to Lances to put on make up. Instant tan! Too bad it smears over everything. I duck down to Palisades at 3 to pick up our backstage passes. Before I know it 4 PM rolls around and so I pack up all my stuff and head to LP in the convention center. I take 2 bags of Komamura and all my Don stuff. I initially didn't take my cellphone but on retrospect I should have, so I switched phones with Henry for a little while. I waited and waited. MooN*Sync crew showed up little by little. I took a break to put on my moustache and look all "ho ho ho if you don't pay your rent I'm going to tie you up to the train tracks." Finally my Bleach team showed up at 6:30. Just a wince stressful. We all got changed into complete gear. We were introduced to our den mommy Lisa. Henry was in Kon at the time and was all "is it just me or is our den mom cute?" She brought us some granola bars and bottled water. What a sweetheart. iPLAY and AGSMAND showed up in their awesome KH cosplay. They managed to rehearse outside. Bleach crew did one rehearsal back stage but most of the time was spent schmoozing with Maiyu, who snuck in with ReyRey. Managed to watch the iPLAY, Fish Fight skits while waiting. The masquerade ran quite smoothly and before we knew it 45-50 including us at 49 was called up. I managed to watch MS3 from behind the screens and it came out fantastic. There was bit of a snafu trying to get Lance queued up on stage left but it all worked out in the end. Brad the emcee even did the BOHAHAHAHA as we had orchestrated. Right after we completed, we went to take the press photos and then off to do the re-enactment photos with Karrie as our photographer. We nearly finished when Lance was called as winner of Best Individual Craftsmanship! Then he got called again for Best Expert! Go Lance! I suppose the biggest surprise was the Bleach group 49 being called for Best of Show. O_O *disbelief*. I'll believe it when I see it. And sure enough, they got Kon on the hydraulic lift, and to close the masquerade, the Best of Show trophy was presented to us. Wow. just wow. That is the sweetest 10th anniversary anyone could ask for. Awesome cast, awesome skit. Liddos dropped my Spirit Javelin and broke it from all the excitement I'm sure. XD. We took press pictures for the AX Newsletter and then had the mad rush to clean up. I let Al get pictures of everyone else while I was working on clean up. Henry was dying and needed a breather. Liddos, Mich and I did the first run to Lances room to move all the stuff. Kim, Henry and Lance stayed for pictures. On the way down, with my decreased vision, I managed to clock a concrete wall and bruised both knees. Still we made it over to Lances room, and Liddos had to go meet up with friends. So Mich and I went back to rescue the rest. They had made it down to the convention ground level and had Sho helping with bags. I finally am introduced to Sho at the time. We move all the stuff into Lances room, and I go back yet again to find Al, because I promised him pictures. Get that done and finally change out. I sacrificed a room towel to get all that make up off and it still wasn't enough. I basically turned that towel brown hahaha. I got out of there at about 1 AM. Of course no parking charge when I leave.

Monday: Henry picked up my Ichimaru Gin shoes from Gina. The crew did a Bleach shoot without me in the morning but were nice enough to do it again in the afternoon. I went to pick up the "random DVDs" and we got box set of Kare Kano (that went to RNR), 1-4 of Pretear (that went to liddos), 2-4 of Nuku Nuku which we made RNR take (but was originally Lances), and then Exlax, errrr Maxlax or something that Henry casually disposed of. I totally forgot to pick up the AX Newsletter like I usually do but I heard many of them were lost. I officially showed up about 2 PM and we got into the Bleach gear for 3 hours of photos and walking around. I was still dark from the night before so I didn't need any new make up. (Even though I thought I washed most of it off). Sho was around to take some pictures for us, very nice. Liddos left early because of the long drive back. By the time we were done it was 5:30 and RNR had to go too T_T. Well everyone basically had to pack up because I had to get Henry to his redeye flight home. I brought over Mataza the Zapper and Insect Knight with Henry for his YGO deck. After we said all our goodbyes, Henry and I quested out for Curry House in Irvine, which he was drooling over for the past month. Wow, so open parking. But nobody home. Foul! Curry House was observing July 4th. Henry was jacked. Knowing that Chinese people don't give a crap about holidays and business is business, we drove down a few blocks over to Sam Woos. That pretty much made up for any disappointment with Curry House. They were open and we were seated immediately. I had a big bowl of congee and jack fruit milkshake while Henry got stir fried noodles, potstickers and Thai iced tea. They brought out alot of food. So much that Henry couldn't finish the potstickers so in a box they went. That was concluded about 6:50 so we had about 10 minutes to get to Kixies and pick up the FMA fabric from last year and then to LAX. That worked out rather well. Henry made a small deposit at Kixies and picked up the bag of fabric for Havok. And also toured the apartment and all of Kixies new belongings recently purchased at AX. I dropped Henry off at LAX 7:50 PM, 10 minutes early. It was overcast but fireworks were still being shot. A very quiet conclusion to a great con.