Animazement 2013!

This year was my second year at Animazement. I went and stayed with a few friends. I will start off by saying, anyone looking to find a buttload of pics *hontou gomen nasai* I forgot to whip out my cam for the majority of the con as I was busy 'oooh-ing' and 'ahhh-ing' at everything >_<. 

Anywho...


Thursday:
We arrived at our hotel in Raleigh around 3ish, the girls got ready in their Disney/Hipster Disney for a D20 Girls shoot that was supposed to happen, but we got in line to get our badges so I think that fell through haha, also since I was wearing my Gangnam Style shirt which had the words displayed in hangul, a few girls rushed up to me and asked me about it and we talked about Kpop for a bit. Woohoo Kpop community getting bigger (lol)! Once we finished getting our badges, we went into the Marriott hotel because some buddies wanted to find the game rooms and look around, so we went in to look for them. 


We sat down and chilled, when all the Japanese voice actors and their crews suddenly were sitting across from us, staring at us, smiling and waving. Talk about being starstruck haha. Amy took this picture of us in the lobby right before the incident.

Friday:

For me Friday was the busiest day at the con.I was decked out in my interpretation of Girl's Generation Sunny from IGAB promotions. We got ready and were at the con around noon-ish? We split up in small groups doing our own things. First stop artist alley, walked around looking at the artists that were then set up, also stopped  a bit to watch a guy, whom I later learned was named Louis, beasting it to Psy's "Gentleman". We then did a second walk around, and I decided to get  artwork from a booth that had Supernatural artwork :D. We then migrated to the Dealer's Room and I got some Kpop posters and stickers.Later we met up with the others to get some noms and chill out a bit, then headed to the game rooms in the Marriott. I so wanted to play the drum rhythm game...but every time I looked there was always someone on it T_T fooey lol.

 Amy and I were planning on going to the Uchuu Sentai Noiz concert while everyone else went to the formal, so we headed out to the dealers room early in search of the Uchuu Sentai Noiz memorabilia table to buy stuff to get a chance to take a picture with them Saturday, and we were advised by a really nice staff lady not to buy anything quite yet, as they would be coming down in another hour to personally sell their items to us. Yahoo! So we wandered around the Dealer's Room. I got a huge Supernatural poster (had to fold it...cos I didn't think properly about the concert lol) and found another booth that was selling Kpop CDs and Jrock posters. I got Onew socks. People always ask me why socks? The chibis are cute, they are comfy, and less expensive ^^. 

So anyways, it's that time to get in line, we're like virtually a few of the first people in line, so Amy is ahead of me, and we're both flustered. Angel Taka staring at us scared all the Japanese out of me.He's so outgoing and friendly, but somehow so intimidating. Like I knew what I wanted to say, but it just did not want to come out, especially after looking at Yamato and Kotaro's faces, my inner fan girl was flailing and screaming, "Hontou daisuki desu~~~~~!" But outwardly, I was just a lax semi frozen stone of a girl, if you can imagine that haha. I managed to tell them I really liked the band and asked for a CD in Japanese, and Angel Taka handed me a pre-signed card along with the CD. I thanked and bowed towards the band, and Amy and I headed up to the Ballroom floor to wait in line for the concert.

------Go Time!------

The concert  was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggggggggoooooooooooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! I didn't film cos I was too enthralled where I was at. Gomen. I started out next to Amy fairly close to center stage, 2nd row from the bars, so really close to stage, I got shoved a bit by people that were friends with people next to the railing, but it's okay, cos I ended up in the line of sight with Kotaro and Yamato. I am totally okay with that haha. Met some friendly people in my area too ^^. Totally felt the Angel Eyes Love Lazers at the concert haha. I really liked the band's general interaction with the crowd. Masato's dj-ing  was awesome and the group mockings were pretty funny. Yamato dj and Angel Taka break "dancer" haha. Wish our side of the stage had a little more Masato and Kyo interaction though >_< Although I did hear from Amy later that Kyo whacked her earring off when he decided to jump into the crowd lol.

So, by the concert's end I was still pumped mentally, yet my body was screaming at me. Also my ears were not properly functioning. To my right ear everyone talking sounded like they had been sucking in helium or like digitized martians (especially if it was a voice coming from a radio or television).

Met up with the other D20 Girls and did a quick photoshoot. Headed back to the hotel. I stayed at the hotel instead of going to the rave, but the girls looked great!

Saturday:

This was the day where I dressed up full on Visual Kei Scar....but the tuft of hair on my tail fell off so I didn't get to wear it...and I forgot to put on my claws for the photo with Noiz...but I was kind of okay with it I guess...since they were feeling kind of loose, and in hindsight I would of been afraid of one of them falling on Kotaro's head if I had posed with them...but maybe it would of gotten a few chuckles out of mischievous Yamato? haha Who knows. *end sidetrack*

Anywho....

Day started with splitting into small groups again, but I kind of ventured off since someone stopped to ask me something and everyone else was gone lol. So I went to the Dealer's Room and bought an Uchuu Sentai Noiz shirt from the nice lady on Friday (apparently Noiz did another one of those meet and greets again at the booth later on). But, as soon as I bought the merch I dashed off to go see the shamisen concert. I had really wanted to go see that, and I was a little worried flying solo, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Sho Asano was so adorable with his little "cheat sheet." He's a really funny and friendly guy. I also really liked how passionate he was about the shamisen. It really showed in his performances, his whole body and mind was just into it. Those kinds of performances I love, because then everyone gets sucked into that, and it really ups the atmosphere. 

So the concert was supposed to be like 30 minutes, but it lasted an hour, like the previous day's concert (thankfully because I missed the 1st showing as we didn't get to the convention until like noonish...or else I would of gone to see him twice^^) I got to converse with him a bit after the concert, since he was asking me about my cosplay, and then I got the picture above ^^.

Just as I finished up the photo-taking, as if on cue, Amy comes down the stairs from the ballroom floor and we get in line for the Noiz photo session. We made it in good time. We were at a fairly decent spot in line, so we got in to take pictures around 3:30. The band translator and what looked to be the road manager or coordinator were really nice and cool every time I saw them around the convention. They let me stand cos I felt uncomfortable sitting, thinking my cane would get in the way of the picture( plus I had this sinking feeling the cane would magically fall and hit Angel Taka or Masato in the face...possibly cos I dreamed it lol), so it worked out cos I was next to Yamato and behind Kotaro :D <3 The road manager/coordinator had some issues taking a picture with my Samsung Galaxy Tab, which was awesome for me...lol. I asked her if everything was okay in Japanese as she was making some wtf faces at my Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the members seemed to find all this amusing, as Angel Taka replied that he was fine, probably thinking I was asking him lol. After the shoot was over I again thanked them and told them how awesome their concert was and headed out.

We went to go eat and then I left later on in the afternoon to hang out with my friend Molly for a bit, at dinner with her and her sister at IHOP. Then headed back to the hotel to relax a little and start getting ready for the Rave, since I was meeting everyone back there. The girls arrived we got ready and woohoo rave party! I would of had footage, since I am a total fan of dj Amaya's stuff,  but for some reason the file was corrupt and I couldn't transfer it >_< so no rave footage sorry. Crazy stuff happened to my friend Momo at the Rave, she got hit on by some drunk guy then somehow he turned to me and tried to steal my cane ( I can still walk a little without it since my injury is healing a bit better)...but WTF lololol. I don't even know. 

Sunday:

Sunday was all about the JACABALS for me. I missed a lot of panels I wanted to go to, but I really really strove to at least go to the three I wanted to see Sho Asano, Noiz, and the JACABALS for the last Tate Class.

 I did want to see how the Cosplay chess would turn out, but I didn't get to see it from the beginning, because we again did not arrive at the con early, so I watched the last 30 minutes or so of it, which ended early, and I waited in the room for a bit because the room where the Jacabals were supposed to be was roped off as there was an autograph signing panel there first. 

Soon after I got in line for the Jacabals, talked to some people in line about Jrock and there was a girl that gave a bracelet to Angel Taka that he's now wearing, which I thought was pretty cool. ^^ 

So the room is cleared for the Jacabals and we all go in, and instantaneously mesmerized by their intro choreographed fight. They were of course awesome, and I loved their death acting scenarios, side splitting hilarious, especially the ones in the checkered pattern next to me as well as the kneeling one. The audience interaction pieces were pretty neat. The last three that went had the most difficult routine but were near flawless. I know I would of botched that, like I botched my pic lol. 

The guys had serious poses initially and the person who was taking pictures was having a bit of an issue? So they all were smiling without me noticing... So I killed the mood of the pic haha. T_T. Sorry for I am not photogenic. 

So then after the Jacabals I met up with everyone else outside and we lounged around for a bit and then around 6 went out to dinner at Irish pub Tir Na Nog, the last D20 Girls meetup of the con. After that rendez-vous we got our butts home to Jville and thus ended the crazy, fun filled weekend.

These pics below were taken by Amy since, I asked her to, after my device died from filming all the things .It's some of the friends I was with ^^. They're great cosplayers! So jealous of their talents ><...And I was a bit shameless...I wanted to take another picture with Sho Asano, but instead got my friend to do it lol.