This year's AX was a bit different than others- I went with only my bes' fren', I went for four days, and we both decided to actually go to panels instead of just console gaming -> arcade -> dealer's hall and AX Idol. It was...interesting, and fun in a different way.

Well, my adventure started with my leaving class Wednesday afternoon. Immediately after my presentation in my Management class, I headed towards my friend's place. Dragging along 4 days' worth of clothes. This would've been a considerably easy journey, had I known an event was going to be taking place on the street where I was going to be catching the bus that goes directly to his house. On top of that, I was sleep-deprived and not feeling very well. So, after realizing the bus wouldn't be going there (and getting off at a stop a few downtown city blocks away), I tried to follow the route by walking (so I could catch the bus at the nearest stop). Unfortunately, I wasn't seeing it. By now, the sun is shining down pretty hard, I'm wearing a blazer, and my stuffed luggage and laptop bag are starting to feel a bit heavier. I called my friend and told him the situation, and he helped give me directions. They were kind of iffy...I went to the destination after a lot more walking...but I was a bit uncertain. Because of this uncertainty, I walked...ugh this is taking to long. Basically, I walked a lot and sweated a lot and this probably led to my becoming sick for the next few days.

Day 0:
Though I was still feeling tired and a bit unwell, my friend and I decided to go get our passes on "day zero"; the day before AX starts, during which people can get their passes, meet with friends, etc. We had no idea the line would be as long as it was, but we toughed it out, got our passes, and left.

Day 1:
My friend was going to be in the Soul Calibur 4 tourney, so we headed towards the console room first. He got in a few rounds, and afterwards decided to go to the arcade for a little bit, followed by the "Otaku Parliamentary Debate". The OPD was just two groups of people debating on topics that weren't necessarily about anime. I felt it was pretty stupid, because groups were given unfair sides to represent (such as, "Is anime dying out in America"...for the people that had to say the whys and hows against anime...it was just bad). The winners of debates and whatever got prizes and money and such. Afterwards, we went to the Dealer's Hall and looked around. I bought Blazblue. We ended with his Soul Calibur 4 tourney which went from 6 to 10:30 PM.

Day 2:
We started this day by visiting Daisuke Ishiwatari's panel. He's the man credited for "creating" Guilty Gear, but definitely for doing all of the music for it (and BlazBlue). It was an interesting and fun panel...he got some requests to say Sol-Badguy lines (as expected). I learned some interesting things about Ishiwatari and about his work. Next, we got into the ridiculous line for Morning Musume's concert. It was a line for free tickets (standby line). Naturally, these weren't the best seats. It was a decent concert, but for MM's first concert in America, I feel sorry for them. It was pretty cheap...but the Nokia Theater was probably being used for something Michael Jackson-related. After the long wait in the sun and the pretty decent concert, I thiiiink we went to the Dealer's Hall again. This time, I bought Copic lining pens, a new sketchbook, an arcade style controller stick, some stuff for my friend, and almost artbooks. I think there was some console gaming at the end, again.

Day 3:
4th of July started with the BlazBlue X Guilty Gear panel (basically, another Ishiwatari panel). Right after it finished, we went to the Nightow panel. I guess I would've rather gone to the entirety of the Nightow panel, but I'm not an OMGOMG fan of his, so I didn't baw over it. I got some nice insight into his work. After that, we had lunch and we went to see AX Idol. It was smaller than usual, probably due to being during the time of other interesting events/being in the afternoon/not really being that great. It was sort of interesting, but there was a...degree of disappointment. Immediately afterwards, we went to the Power Rangers panel. We only saw the end of it, but there were old to newer Power Rangers talking about all sorts of things. It was kind of funny to hear them go into rants about how they were treated and things like that. Afterwards, they just had some villains (mainly the voice of Rita and Lord Zedd...and this...Red ranger guy...from this season...probably a space one). Even though a lot of people left, it was worth it to stay. It was really funny, even without Rita and Zedd being asked to say silly things in their voices (although it was pretty lulzy to hear Rita say, "I JUST LOST THE GAME!!" and "Go go Power Rangers (with Zedd)"). After that, we went to the console gaming room to kill time. My fren made me play something in there this time, so I tried out some BlazBlue against some gai. A while after, we went to the Vocaloid panel, which was surprisingly good. I might try something in that. We went to the arcade somewhere in there.

Day 4:
I didn't really want to go today, but I didn't care too much. My fren decided we should split up and do our own thing at first, which was fine. The last day is short, and we got there at about noon, so there wasn't much. I meant to go to this other panel, but the SPJA Board of Directors meeting was going overtime. It was surprisingly interesting...if I have the time next AX, I might go to that one in full. I stayed for the following panel "Animation in the Cheap" or something like that. It was about the growing flash cartoon series and how they made their decent animations with little time, few hands, and little effort. Good stuff. We went to the arcade, then the console gaming room, then that was it.

In retrospect, I gained a lot of insight. About how I look at and handle my own work and personal projects, about how I should handle things in regard to atoM (art circle), about Artist Alley tables, about AX and having fun there, about how talented artists like Nightow and Ishiwatari think and feel, and to be honest, I feel like I've changed as a person from the entire experience, as odd as that may sound. I just hope that was the case...the only way to find out will be through time, unfortunately.