FanimeCon 2011

So we were lucky enough to get an artist alley table at FanimeCon in San Jose, CA this year. Having only been to conventions in Southern California, this was to be our farthest con yet. We left two days before to allow a full day of driving north with enough time to rest. We spent around 7 hours driving and arrived at the Marriot,, which is one of the 2 hotels attached to the convention center, around 10:30pm. This made everything a lot easier for us since we needed to haul our artist alley wares back and forth everyday. When we were given our keys we were delightfully surprised to find that they were made specifically for the convention. This is something that we had never seen before.

Thursday we waited in the pre-registration line for around 3 hours. I would love if conventions could make picking up your badge an easier experience, but at least it was Thursday and there was nothing else going on. We had reserved a spot in Fanime's Swap Meet for that night so we could attempt to sell off some of our older DVDs, manga and other merchandise. The swap meet was set up along the perimeter of the Arcade and had a lot of people selling there. We were able to unload a few of our items (yay extra shelf space!) and even found some good deals from other sellers. Swap Meets are great things to have at conventions and I hope more cons decide to incorporate them.

Artist Alley check-in on Friday was very well organized and we began setting up shortly after. Having done artist alleys for several years now, we spotted a lot of familiar faces. At 2pm, the alley opened and attendees began pouring in. Even though we were right near one of two entrances, the entrance near us wasn't where the majority of people were coming in. Most attendees check out the Dealer's Hall first and go from there into the Artist Alley through the entrance right next to the dealer's exit. Though we were happy with our spot, we would have loved to be on the opposite side of the alley.

The first day came and went with little excitement. Being the first day, it's never all that busy so we spent most of our time at the table, working on things and chatting with people. We brought some new items to sell at Fanime such as amigurumi plushies, lots of resin jewelry and updated hats with cute faces. We also brought a couple screen printed T-shirts of our popular Mortified Onigiri design, sadly we did not think to photograph them beforehand...oops. We've been working on getting t-shirts made and this was our first attempt. We'll be trying for more shirts for Anime Expo this July :D. That night we checked out the Swap Meet again as well as the Arcade. The Arcade featured an excellent selection of games and even had purikura photo booths! Unfortunately for us, it was very busy and we didn't feel like waiting around to play anything.

Saturday was our first full day in the alley and the convention really picked up speed. A steady flow of friendly con-goers came by the table throughout the day. We noticed throughout the convention that everyone at Fanime were exceptionally nice to us. Even in the crowded elevators of the Marriot, we found everyone to be very polite. We were both able to check out the Dealer's Hall Saturday, although neither of us found anything we needed to buy. There was a nice selection of merchandise from a good variety of dealers. Around 1:30pm, Cindy went off to wait in line for the Yoshiki Panel so I stayed and watched the table alone until she returned around 6:30. You can read about her experience here:

~~~Yoshiki Q&A + autograph session summary~~~
If you've read our past blog entries, you may know that I like X Japan a little tiny bit >.> <.< >.>....*hides hide costume in the closet* When I found out Yoshiki, leader of X Japan, (pronounced YOSHki) was to be a GoH I just had to go to his panel and get an autograph. I rarely ever go to any panels during conventions because of my artist alley table, but whenever X Japan/Yoshiki is involved I make exceptions. The panel was scheduled to start at 4PM, at a little after 1PM Brian informed me that there was already a line forming. By 1:30 I was in line decked out in my hide guitar print dress which I made for the X Japan concert in L.A. this past summer, surprisingly the line wasn't very long at all. I was maybe somewhere around #30-50th in line. I chatted with a few people in line while I waited, it's always nice to meet other X Japan fans. 4:00 came, and we were all still standing in line...I wasn't really surprised because every single X Japan/Yoshiki event I have attended has never started on time. We were eventually informed that the panel was to be delayed.

While we waited during the delay, the staff changed their position on photos and video 4 times. First no photography, then yes photography, then no flash photography and no video, to finally anything you want. We were finally allowed into the panel room and I got to sit pretty close to the front. Press was sitting in the first 2 rows and I made it into the 4th row on Yoshiki's side of the room. Staff announced that Yoshiki's plane was delayed and he wasn't even there yet and that autographs would probably not happen =_=. To keep us entertained they played the X Japan Last Live DVD. The crowd was pretty energetic, during the song "X" a lot of people (including me) shouted X and crossed our arms in the X formation. 

Yoshiki arrived between 5-5:30PM and the panel finally began. First we were shown a making of video of the Born to be Free music video that was shot at Club Nokia during the Yoshiki foundation party which Brian and I attended last June. Due to my bright costume, I was able to be spot myself several times. I was incredibly surprised O_O. We were also shown footage from the North American tour from last year. Yoshiki entered the room right after the video ended, and everyone went wild cheering and taking photos and video. The entire panel consisted of a couple more videos pertaining to Yoshiki's charity foundation and his fashion project. Staff asked Yoshiki some general questions and picked a handful of fans to ask questions as well. 

Finally at the end came what we had all been waiting so long for, the autograph session. Staff announced that there would only be 40 spots given...and it would all be determined by a game of rock, paper, scissors =_=. 4 round were played, and I lost on the last round. A lot of the people who were given a spot were not the ones who had waited several hours in line. This was honestly one of the dumbest ways Fanime staff could have determined who would get a slot. It was incredibly easy to cheat, and from what I have heard/read, there were people who were not honest. Since there was no way to monitor the game, there was no way to tell who was being honest and who wasn't. I was incredibly disappointed and I'm sure all the others who were waiting in line even longer than I did were. 

Overall the panel was rather bland. The video about the fashion project was almost 100% in Japanese with no subtitles and it was fairly long. The introduction video was also rather lengthy and I felt there was too much prior concert footage. Since the panel was advertised as a Q&A session I thought there would be more Q&A. The autograph fiasco kind of just topped it all off into blahville :(. 

~~~Yoshiki Panel Summary End~~~ 

Sunday & Monday:
Our squid plushies and amigurumis found loving homes over the weekend and both of our Onigiri shirts sold! This was very encouraging for us being a first attempt at shirts. We wandered the Artist Alley and got to see a lot of wonderful artists we hadn't seen before. Across the aisle from us was BoxKat who was nice enough to give Cindy a lovely Pikachu keychain they had been selling. She was incredibly impressed with it as this is something we had never seen in an artist alley before. It was great inspiration to see artists trying new things. Just look at the way the image grows when the light shines on it!

Monday being the final day of the con, we had low expectations since most attendees are usually gone by the last day, however, we were happy to discover plenty of business to be had and somewhat surprisingly, we sold the most buttons on Monday. This was also our last chance to buy things. I purchased a beautiful print from Elda The and Cindy bought a shirt from Azuzephre (one of her top 3 favorite artists) who was nice enough to take a picture with her. Our Fanime Artist Alley experience was very good overall and we hope to make it in again next year. The convention is big without being overwhelming and staying in a hotel attached to the convention center makes the experience much easier and comfortable. The surrounding area is also very nice with lots of good places to eat within walking distance.

After taking a few days off, its now time to get ready for Anime Expo next month. We'll be bringing all our Fanime leftovers and lots of other new things to AX. We look forward to another year there and will be updating our online store throughout the summer. Thank you to everyone who came by during Fanime and we'll see you next month at Anime Expo!

(To see all our Fanime Photos, check out our Flickr gallery here) 

Stars and Rainbows!

We're finally reviving our blog to announce a few things. We were lucky enough to get an artist alley table at Fanime Con in San Jose, CA this May 27th - 30th. This will be our first convention outside of Southern California! It's both exciting and scary at the same time. We'll also be returning to Anime Expo this July 1st - 4th in Los Angeles, CA.

In anticipation of these events, we designed a new business card. Our old card worked well for us but lacked color and just didn't pop. To fix that, we completely redesigned it with lots of color and printed on a glossy cardstock. The cards just came in yesterday and we're happy with the results.

Since we have two conventions coming up, our online store and etsy shop will be offline temporarily near the convention dates. Starting today through roughly June 5th, the store will be offline and then again June 22nd through roughly July 10th. Once we've returned from Anime Expo and have had time to recover, we will begin adding new items to the stores again. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to seeing you at the conventions! :D

Anime Expo 2010

We've returned from the biggest anime & manga convention of the year! Anime Expo happened just last week and we spent 4 incredibly busy days in the Artist Alley selling our plushies, caps and lots of jewelry. The convention felt even busier than last year with a lot of really amazing cosplayers roaming the area. The artist alley expanded this year with over 300 tables. We were located at Table C19 which was a nice location at the end of a row.

We arrived in the early evening on Wednesday, checked into our hotel and quickly hurried down to the convention center to pick up our badges and check in for Artist Alley. Unfortunately for us and a few hundred other people, there was a massive line for registration that moved at a snails pace. Considering all you need to do to pick up your badge is scan a barcode, confirm your name and then get your badge, there was no excuse for badge pick up to take so long. Long story short, we got our badges but were too late for Artist Alley check-in. We spent the rest of the night preparing for our first day in the alley.

Day 1
We got up early that morning and gathered most but not all of our stuff. Our plan was to only stay until 4pm because that evening we were attending a few events happening over at Club Nokia. (More on that here) We arrived at Artist Alley check-in and it only took a few minutes before we were let in to start setting up. The doors officially opened at noon and it didn't take long before there were crowds of people streaming through the rows of the alley.

We brought some new items to artist alley this year which included Caps with Faces, Super Soft Onigiri & Kitty plushies, and our brand new Resin Jewelry. Our Mortified Foods buttons returned with a few new designs as well. It was a busy first day and we didn't want to pack up early but a once in a lifetime experience was waiting for us so by 4pm, we were on our way back to our hotel to change.

Read all about our experience at the Club 2 the MAX Event with X Japan in our previous blog post here: http://bit.ly/cxfBtU

Day 2

After getting only 4 hours of sleep, we dragged ourselves out of bed and got ready for our first full day. With the help of our friends, we carried all our things to the convention center including our overhead display. We arrived a bit late but got set up and settled in for the long day. Cute food cell phone charms were another item we were introducing this year. We've had some of these in the past but never this much variety.

Friday was spent almost entirely at the table with a very constant crowd coming and going. Everyone was very nice and we got a lot of compliments on our things. There were quite a lot of amazing cosplayers about on friday and the nice thing about being in artist alleys is that the cosplayers come to you. :D

Day 3
Saturday we decided it was our turn to dress up so Cindy wore her Baby the Stars Shine Bright bunny-themed outfit and I cosplayed as Ginko from Mushi-shi. The crowds from Friday carried over into Saturday which continued the trend of us not being able to leave the table. It wasn't until the last hour where we got to take turns wandering. As Ginko, I got stopped several times for pictures which is always a nice compliment. I haven't cosplayed since AX 2007 so it was nice to step back into that world.

After packing up from artist alley, we wandered the convention center for the first time since pre-registration day. We walked through the arcade briefly to check it out, looked at the menus of the many food trucks parked across the street, and eventually made our way over to the Nokia Plaza for the Laser Show. When we arrived, there was a taiko drum performance going on that was very good. We hung out near the back of the crowd to observe and as the sun started to set, glowsticks were being distributed to the crowd.

While waiting for the show, our friend from the X Japan event showed up in his hide cosplay. We had been searching for him earlier to give him our new hide fanart button. Luckily, we brought one with us for just such an opportunity and finally gave it to him. The hilarious part of this encounter was that Cindy was in her full lolita outfit while our friend had only seen her dressed as a male japanese rock star. She had to first explain who she was and a surprised look came over him when he realized who she was. XD The laser show was only 30 minutes long and wasn't that impressive but worth going to. You got a free glowstick and got to take part in a big, glowing dance routine.

Day 4

The last day of cons always begin with packing things up and checking out of our hotel. After two trips to the car, we got everything packed and headed to the convention center. Sunday was the first slow day and we didn't have a lot left by this point. We were nearing the end of our adventure which we had spent months preparing for and we were tired. The day flew by and as is tradition for us, we packed up an hour early so that we could finally wander the exhibit hall together. As much as we'd love to be at the table 100% of the time, we want to have a little fun too!

So for the last hour, we shopped the exhibit hall until it closed and then made our way back to artist alley to say hello/goodbye to a few of our artist friends. Our few purchases from the con were some art prints, Pon & Zi buttons, Pon & Zi shirt, a few Nanospore vinyl figures and a couple Tokidoki cell phone charms. Not a lot but we never got the chance to do any serious shopping. After exiting the exhibit hall for the last time, we hung out with our friend Spoon until finally leaving to get dinner in Little Tokyo and then go home.

As it's always been, AX is different every year with whole new experiences and we had a great time again this year. We hope next year is just as good and that we have more opportunities to get away from the table to run around and play. :)

Thank you to everyone who visited us and we hope you'll check out our website and Etsy shop (when it's back up). We look forward to making next year even better and hope to see you all again soon! Thank you!!! 

For more of our pictures from Anime Expo 2010, visit our Flickr gallery.

X Japan at Club Nokia

Club 2 the MAX Event

Thursday (July 1st) evening we arrived at Club Nokia to attend an Animaid Cafe dinner followed by the Yoshiki Foundation America kick-off party with h. Naoto fashion show, acoustic performance by X Japan and finally an X Japan music video shoot. Cindy wore her infamous neon green vinyl hide cosplay and was instantly stopped for a short interview. We went up to the club, checked in for the Animaid Cafe dinner and were seated. We played a fish catching game and whack-a-mole with our maid while watching a few dances on stage. Dinner was catered by the Wolfgang Puck restaurant next door and it was delicious although we had to hurry to finish. They needed to quickly vacate the club to prepare for the Yoshiki/X Japan event.

With our paid Animaid Cafe dinner we were guaranteed premier seating for the X Japan event and were led to a special waiting area outside. We made conversation with another hide cosplayer we had met last year. The show was to begin at 8pm but the doors didn't reopen until nearly 9pm. We were lucky enough to be some of the first in line back inside and were astonished when we were able to walk right up to the bars at the edge of the stage. We could literally reach out and touch the stage. Unbelieveably awesome.

It was about another hour before anything actually got started but we were entertained by Ginger Fish of Marilyn Manson DJ-ing some music for us to listen to. Did I mention we were right near a very large speaker? Yeeaahh... luckily we had napkins which we used to plug our ears. That saved our hearing. Finally, we met our host who quickly learned the correct pronunciation of "Yoshiki" from the crowd. (Never say "Yo Shiki" in front of a horde of X Japan fans) The night finally got underway with a video explaining the purpose of the Yoshiki Foundation and Yoshiki himself coming out to say a few words. It being a fundraising event, large checks were given to St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, the Grammy Foundation and the Make a Wish Foundation.

After another break, we were treated to the premiere of X Japan's new music video for "I.V." they had shot in Hollywood back in January. Curiously, that was shot while Anime Los Angeles was going on not too far away. Following the music video was the h.Naoto fashion show which was interesting although a bit long. Finally, we came to the main events. Yoshiki, Toshi and Sugizo came out to perform a rare acoustic version of "I.V." Yoshiki on piano, Sugizo on violin and of course, Toshi on vocals. Unfortunately, we have no pictures or video of events up to this point due to one of the very large security people standing nearby stopping several other people from taking pictures/video.

However, after the acoustic performance, the entire band walked out on stage to shoot the music video for their brand new song, "Born to be Free." This we were able to get pictures and video of. The music was pre-recorded so the band members weren't actually playing but it didn't make the experience any less amazing. Japan's biggest rock band was only a few feet from us rocking out with all the enthusiasm as if they were playing live. Check out all of our pictures from the event on our flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catnapcaps/sets/72157624438373202/

Our video from the second take of "Born to be Free." (Best viewed full screen in HD)

As you can see in the video and pictures, we were right near one of the flamethrowers on the stage. We overheard one of the security guards being told to keep their distance and you can see at the start of the video above one of the photographers being yanked away because they were too close to the fire. Those fire blasts were really cool but a little scary being so close to it. Between takes, Yoshiki briefly stopped to chat with the audience which was entertaining.

After four takes, the band walked off stage for the last time and security immediately began to disperse the crowd. We hung out near the bar area for a few minutes checking out the X Japan pachinko machines and Cindy posed for a few pictures. The event ended a little after midnight and we hung around outside for a while with many other X Japan fans and cosplayers. It was a truly memorable experience that we won't soon forget.


Highlight of the show: Pata's amazing golden pants. XD no, seriously. Pata is awesome ♥