kouject

Hiya everyone!

Yosh! Now that I’m not dead, I can tell everyone everything that happened at AX2004! Hooray for not being dead! X_x;; ^___^

Friday:

The adventure began with me attempting to wake Goddess up. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Goddess has two younger brothers, so she can sleep through the apocalypse. Once Goddess was awake, I began poking and prodding and begging and pleading for her to get dressed. I was the first to get into my kimono though, so that I could show Goddess how to do it. Rule number one: NEVER try to tie an obi on yourself. It comes out crooked and odd-looking. Nevertheless, I managed to fix it and then, in about a fraction of the time it took me, tied Goddess’ obi on with the greatest of ease. Dragon arrived then, bearing a GIANT BOX of Instant Ramen. ^____^ Happy!
So, I run upstairs (kind of) to send my Murder Game quiz. This was THE first time that I realized I wouldn’t be able to move in the kimono. Once I sent it, I attempted to print out Pre-Registration forms for both Goddess and Dragon. No dice with Dragon, but it turned out not to be a big deal. So, by now it’s around 8:30, 45 minutes AFTER I wanted to leave… but no harm done.
We all piled into the car and got the hell out of my house… only to discover that we’d left our lunch on the counter. So we went BACK for it. By now, I’m totally livid. I wanted to GET OUT OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD. Finally, we managed to make it to Anaheim, along with a panicking mother in the front seat, being a Passenger-Seat Driver, and wondering if we were on the map that I’d printed out yet. -_-;; I swan…
Then, there we were! Like a beacon in the night – THE CONVENTION CENTER! But first… mom and dad insisted that we check into the hotel first… -_-*** I was totally excited, and then I had to sit in a car again. I specifically didn’t want to get out of the car because there were around 5 20-year-old guys hanging around in the parking lot. Well, this is where I feel like a complete moron. One of them turns around and… they’re wearing an Evangelion shirt. I could’ve died from prejudice-syndrome. I think that’s the time when I realized, it doesn’t matter. WHO FRICKIN’ CARES?!! ^_^
We checked in, then dad drove us to the Convention Center, mom panicking all the way. -_- Blah. I finally got her off our tails and we ran in to get registered…
“HOLY FRICK! THIS CAN’T BE THE LINE TO GET REGISTERED!!” I kid you not, the line spanned from the front of the hall, to the back, FOUR TIMES. It looked to be a five hour line. But, as luck would have it, Goddess pointed out a line that was around 15 people long. Could this be the Pre-Reg line? We jumped into it and no one said anything/seemed to care. We got our badges (with one of the volunteers taking our picture. ^___^) and our free crap and we were on our way! (Little did we know that we had cut in line… O_o;; Whoops!)
Goddess, Dragon, and I made a mad dash up to the Opening Ceremonies where we heard Yoko Ishida sing the opening to Ai Yori Aoshi – Enshi, which was really pretty and I wanted to sing too… T_T Then, Yoko and another guest named MIQ announced that they were going to do a special duet! And as luck would have it, it was one of my most favorite songs: Cruel Angel’s Thesis from Evangelion! AH! I could’ve died! Then they started announcing the Special Guests. This was when I realized that I was a Screaming Fangirl™. They had invited the guy who does the voice of both Chichiri (Fushigi Yuugi) AND Van Fanel (Vision of Escaflowne). I thought that I would lose my voice I screamed so hard. Then, the cell phone rang. I could’ve cheerfully crushed it in my hand. It was my parents about our lunch. I told them where to meet me, during which I was missing the ceremony and much singing. I was furious, especially since it was my mother yelling into the cellphone about EXACTLY where I was going to be and me screaming back into the phone. It was hell.
Finally, they gave us our lunch and we went off to see Azumanga Daioh Episodes 1 and 2 (dubbed… but it wasn’t too bad). We ate lunch during the screening, then we stayed in the same room to see Gundam SEED Episodes 1 and 2 (subbed). I didn’t much care for Kira’s voice, but I wanted to kill the Adult Swim people for cutting the ending and beginning themes down into mere snippits. >_<
We were coming out of Video 1 when someone stopped us and asked us if we wanted to be in the Chibi-Masquerade. Dragon and I agreed and Goddess dragged her feet. *evil grin* But Dragon and I got on stage as “Dark Kenshin and Lackey.” She ran into me and I chased her off as she screamed “ORO~!!” ^_^ It was great fun…
Then we took a peek into the Artists Alley, where we grew insanely jealous and plotted to steal some Inuyasha prints… Ke ke ke… ^___^ Then we showed her the Dealer’s Room, which was, as usual, AWESOME. Full of awesome crap that I wanted to buy. ^_^ Heh heh.
Then, the grand adventure of this day… The Anime Music Video Contest. So, we had to wait on Standby because we didn’t have any vouchers. The Standby room was another hall with one and a half full lengths. Dragon walked to Carl’s Junior to get us some dinner. That’s when some guy who seemed to be cosplaying as some kind of Gundam official took a giant Azumanga Daioh group of eight people (sitting right in front of us) into the place with some extra vouchers! Goddess and I were LIVID. He went away and we thought “well, that’s that.” Then, I noticed someone passing out business cards down the line. He seemed familiar… very familiar… hell I knew it was him. ^_~ Brandon from my manga class! It was good to see him again. I asked him if he was going to be around all weekend and he said that he was. He moved on, giving people business cards. Dragon came back with food. Then, Gundam Official came back with his vouchers and asked if we wanted to get in. Of course, we hastily packed up all our crap and followed him along with a Rikku and a Wolfwood. He gave us all a blue voucher, then we got in. THEN, he took two of them back. I was slightly confused, but then it hit me: HE SNUCK US IN! (Violation #2 for those of you at home who are keeping score… ^_~) I was totally on edge the entire time. Then, disaster struck. Dragon announced that she couldn’t find her cellphone. I gave Goddess our voucher (feeling even MORE on edge) while I called the phone frantically. Someone picked it up. I told them that my friend had lost her phone. They asked to describe it, so I did. They told me to tell my friend to report to the Blue Voucher Entrance. Of course, we couldn’t do that because WE DIDN’T HAVE 2 VOUCHERS. Dragon borrowed someone’s voucher and retrieved her phone and Goddess. We sat down to enjoy some good AMV… goodness… O_o;;
Okay, recap of AWESOME waiting videos…

1. Questionable Gender (I My Me! Strawberry Eggs! Music: Dude (Looks Like a Lady))
Okay, anyone who DOESN’T know the premise to I My Me, it’s about a guy (who’s name escapes me… @_@ He died in MG!) who wants to be the best Gym Teacher ever… at an all girls school. So, in order to teach gym, he has to dress up as a woman, with the prosthetics and voice-changing choker, the whole 9 yards. This video was, simply put, hilarious.

2. Chibi Things that Kill (Various Anime, Music: Little Things by Bush)
Who DOESN’T want to see Sumomo beat it out of Vegeta and then write “OWNED” across his forehead?! I mean, come on!

3. Vanilla Vash (Trigun, Music: Ice Ice Baby 2001 by Vanilla Ice)
This was HILARIOUS and cool at the same type. Lip synching, awesome Vash poses, funny Vash poses, Merill and Millie riding those… things… ^_^;; It was awesome.
4. If You Know What I Mean (Various Anime, Music: I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts)
So this one was a bit… weird… O_o;; But I felt that it needed mention.

5. Hound Dogs (Various Anime, Music: Hound Dog by Elvis Presley)
Anyone ever want to hear Van sing that to Hitomi? ^___^ Heh heh, I guess one of the funniest things about this one was that the mouths were synched to the words.

6. Stop the Rock? (Various Anime, Music: Stop the Rock by Apollo Four Fourty)
This was just wacky. At first I wanted them to play Hindi Sad Diamonds, but then they played this, and… wow it was worth it! ^_^ Heh heh…

So, those were the ones that I liked during the previews. Now! On to the main event… I happened to turn around, and, right there, sitting behind me, was Nick! I was so embarrassed that I hadn’t seen him come in! ._. Aaaarg… anyway, these were the videos that I loved that premiered at AX2004…

1. Disney in D Minor (Naruto, Music: One Jump from Aladdin)
I laughed so hard at this video! It was AWESOME! And it fit so well too… Seriously! Compare Naruto and Aladdin! You’ll see what I mean! Well… except for the… the ninja thing… eh heh… ^_^;;)

2. B-Ko’s Blues (Project A-Ko, Music: I Want Your Girlfriend to be My Girlfriend Too by Reel Big Fish)
I’ve never seen this series before, but it was fun to see these two characters fighting over this little blonde girl while the music was blasting “SHE’S SO FSCKING CUTE!!” There were points where I went… O_o;; “Na~ani…?”

3. FOOTBALL! (Various Anime, Music: The System is Down by Strong Bad)
“Dancing Robots… Dancing Robots…” Ohhh, this one was SO FUNNY! It featured a lot of Azumanga Daioh, but also had Sumomo and some other crazy stuff.

4. Shinji’s Nightmare (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Music: Heffalumps and Woozles from Disney’s Winnie the Pooh)
This was FULL of spoilers ^_^;; I had to keep covering Dragon and Goddess’ eyes! It was still funny though. Not as funny as Football or Disney in D Minor, but still really fun. ^_^

5. Hot Rod What? (A bunch of Initial D stuff, Music: Hot Rod Lincoln)
I’m not a fan of Initial D, but when You’re Under Arrest! came into it, it was fun. On a side note, the animation for Initial D is… O_o;; erugh…

6. Hold Me For A While (Final Fantasy)
Another one chock-full of spoilers. I had to keep covering Goddess’ eyes. ^_^;; It was sweet though. It had me singing “Hold… hold me for a while… I know… this won’t last forever…” My situation is somewhat like Lenne’s…

7. Key to the Secret (Vision of Escaflowne, Music: Keep the Secret)
I voted this one for best AMTV. It was cool. Action and romance. And Dragon kept screaming when Van came on-screen. ^_^ Heh heh, with a Bishie face that big, who wouldn’t scream?

That’s all I really remember right now. There were a LOT more, and they were all really good. Anyway, so we finish voting, and I get a panicked call from my mother. Worst thing ever: Crowd Control at the escalators. So we walked down the stairs as mom gave me skewed directions on how to find her. It was hell on earth, especially when she started screaming at me. Goddess finally took control. When we did find each other, there was no calming mom down. Jeez, nightmare and a half…
So we got back to the hotel, hosed down, jumped into our pajamas and fell asleep. Today was a great day, and tomorrow’ll be even better… right? ^_~

Quote of the Day:

Announcer: “We would like to remind our audience that food and drink is strictly prohibited.”
Nick: “I wonder if Bishonens count…”

Saturday and Sunday will follow! Stand by! ^_^