Ok, it’s the last day of Anime Expo 2018. Pretty damn tired but this final Sunday is a chill day to make up for anything that you didn’t get to see or buy yet. I didn’t really have anything planned so I just went with the flow, it’s a short day, shit ends at like 3pm so yea, not much time at all. Once again the photo up top is probably one of the better cosplay photos that I took, of Rin/Ishtar from Fate, really outstanding but yea, still no time for cosplay photo asks in general.
So we woke up and decided instead of having asian buns for like the fourth time in a row, to go to a IHOP and have a real decent American breakfast.
This was that thing that even at home we were hearing about, changing their name to IHOB instead of IHOP to promote burgers.
Pretty decent wall wall art for a diner place.
It’s very busy, mainly a combination of locals and convention goers if you look hard enough.
Sunny dayyyssss Heartoo!!!
I ordered the american breakfast with steak tips with musrooms and onions, comes with pancakes too. Looks pretty solid and tastes pretty good too.
The famous IHOP pancakes with a generous dollop of butter. Honestly they were pretty ordinary and fluffy, what I would expect from a pancake. They had a bunch of interesting syrups that you could put on the panckes but I took it out from here cause it’s too long enough as it is.
Closer look at that American breakfast steak goodness. hmmmmm.
After a pretty filling breakfast we take our time walking to the convention space for the last time.
Oh wow, not sure if this is one of the many shuttles that I missed but it has a screen on it promoting dissidia final fantasy shit. Cool shit.
This giant screen with nike shoes man, these shoes.
Pretty chill outside heading in, I believe the main crowd was already in the process of going inside so yea, we took it easier today, no line up rush.
Not sure what this is but the balloon is huge.
Inside main hall again for another round of wandering. This Mari love live cut out is pretty cool, pretty accurate to the cosplay that I saw on Day 0 isn’t it? Nice autographs too, i’m surprised no one has tried to steal this yet.
Hmm, they fully re-stocked on glow sticks but they are the generic anisong matsuri ones, the love live branded ones are no where to be seen.
Banner inside the place, best girl, worst girl and whatever girl. Same.
I kinda forgot that DBZ Super is a thing with the blue hair and shit. Nice cosplay, guy in the center must be very happy, even though he doesn’t seem like it. “I owe you my life.”
Only in America can you see a pikachu holding a gun. Nice shot their pikachu, pew pew chuuu!!!!
Very accurate 1/1 scale vegeta figure. Lol, I wonder if you can actually buy this.
Same for goku. When you think about it, I kinda miss the blonde golden hair, blue is cool but it just doesn’t seem all that even though it’s probably 1million times stronger.
Look at this nice list of sold out goods, notice that post it notes also indicate that some stuff gets restocked like the Megumin. Looks like that dude was right, they do get restocked daily, at least for some popular new stuff that is.
I also ended up buying a nendoroid Young Nagato, feel good about that since it’s pretty rare and limited only to events like these.
Ended up buying the snow miku and sakura miku for myself too the other day, feel good about those being sold out too.
UUUUUIIIISSSSAAAANIIIIGGGAAAAAAAA!!!!
Lol look at this final day aniplex sold board. Good amount of stuff sold out, although I do notice that some still remains like a FGO Jeanne nenderoid and that mash lie down plushie. Cool.
This was here all days and only know do I notice that Dragonball had a presence.
Don’t have room for a 1/1 scale saiyan? Maybe these smaller ones will do, really well made and detailed, so good if your a fan.
Check back with the cygame peeps and yep, at the end of the day all of the pins sold out anyways. Feels good man.
Wow, it’s the last day and people are still lining up to play shadowverse? Guess the free card gacha irl is pretty attractive.
Finally managed to see this official vampy/vania cosplay. Pretty good even if she is paid professionally by cygames.
Might as well take more photos.
Yep. More cosplay photo of the same girl. Yep. I asked for this of course.
Didn’t see it before but there were more of these wallscroll star wars things. Pretty cool but honestly kylo ren’s one is among the top still.
I remember seeing these on reddit a few years. Guess these are the same. Pretty cool pokeball dome things.
Another angle of the spread. Yea cool but not for me.
So I went back into the 18+ area which is kinda jokes and I saw they had a japanese porn star signing some stuff.
Nice chun-li porn cosplay.
The fans be lining up for this one. I have no idea who she is tho, just seems like a normal cosplayer if you dint’ know any better.
I’m sure if I looked it up I can find her name again on the pile of paper I have or online.
Probably the only good photo of our actress that I got. Heh, porn.
I when into another booth/dealer area store, a legit japanese bookstore chain called kinokuniya that had some nice goods. I ended up buying a neptune artbook since I regretted not buying one before. I can’t change the past but at least I can prepare for the next time if that ever happens.
Oh look, disney pins. I have no idea.
OH shit, some guy brought in his RX7 car to showcase on the dealers area.
Looks like it was for this guy, Initial D represent yo. They had a variety of initial D themed shirts but in the end the best one is the fujiwara shirt 86 or the red suns one.
Once again guy doing transactions with his phone. Apparently this guy is actually from Canada, Vancouver and sells his shit here. Spoke a bit about initial d and i commended him on doing such a great job on his stuff. Cool shit, cool guy.
BAIT.
So I was going to go back down to the artist alley again when I came across this FGO Gudako event commemorating the guarantee 5-star pull. Pretty jokes. They had several events like this throughout the con but this was the last one apparently. If you search for this on youtube you may be able to see me from another angle as losts of people were taking video and shit.
Gotta get stepped on, regardless of pull.
I think guy said he pulled karna and dude was like, yea, it’s karna but whatever, still 5 star so you still get stepped on. lol jokes.
Fucking tired already, sitting down in the cafe area in kentia hall.
You may be wondering why no one is sitting over there, that’s cause the ground is sticky, think someone spilled coke or some shit. Girl beside me kept on having to warn people, “It’s sticky, don’t sit here” lol jokes.
On my left was some other girl checking phone, yea, Is that cosplay? Not sure.
Making another pass through the tables and I see this, handmade custom IOU token a la konosuba. The amount of effort it took to make these is enormous, so yea, I just had to buy some from the guy.
What a nice way to showcase his warez. I suggested he make more coin type stuff but he wasn’t sure what. Maybe one day.
Pretty good art. I brought some, I think the Yuru Camp, Tamamo Cat and one more, which I forget. Now I see that he had an Illya so that’s cool and a full range of FGO characters. Good shit.
Same, pretty creative that they used the back of their display aswell, maximum efficiency.
10 MPH and NG.
Well look here, I see some fanart work of chink anime king’s avatar. Shit.
Wow, this booth is very empty. I actually saw this guy’s art online and he has other guilty gear characters but apparently they are all gone except for Jack-O’ and some FGO girl I think. Too bad, would have brought some if he actually had more in stock. Ah well. Nice cups and keychains tho.
Very painterly, but john snow? Seriously?
For a Sunday this is still damn busy.
Didn’t noticed it before but this guy is wearing a Tamamo hat, pretty jokes and creative. Cool.
Oh look here, it’s nier automata keychains that I brought at AN this yea. Yea, I don’t even know anymore where all these guys truly live. Before I had the impression that only some artists go to all cons, but it seems like it’s more than that.
Holy shit another familar artist.
This artist knows the niche. That FGO chibi one is pretty jokes, gotta steal that idea you know? Sold out too.
FGO and dragon maid and other stuff. They know whats up.
Fairy tale rendition of Disney princesses and girls in animu style. Pretty darn good I’d say but not for me. Good style tho.
KOREANSSSS.
Thought about this artist, kinda wanted to buy but then again it’s only Jam and Baiken, not my mains so whatever. Style is ok, but not good enough.
Getting crowed but this was pretty good in passing. Schatch and shit.
Shit another familiar artist, brought from you before.
Yep, I remember that miku and ice lady to the right. Good shit though.
Oh hay holy shit it’s our favorite boi that’s at every convention, of course he is here too!
Then I cam across this gem, this diamond in the rough. This nigga be doing his shit on pointtttttt.
I brought one of his prints, out of some strange niche of being nice and in awe at the sight of it but yea, he knows he is totally outclassed so only sold his shit for $5. Nice guy though, straight up nigga and was cool that I took a commemorative photo for the memories. Yea boi.
What is this shit, Youtubers? Fuck, this generation of youth is ruined.
Go back to this booth that I brought from to see what’s up. Wow, all of the Blend S prints sold, lots of shit in fact, Even Azurlane Unicorn sold out. Good good.
Spoke to this girl a bit and brought some of her shit cause it reminded me of my sister’s drawing, especially the yugioh ones. Hmm, steal ideas right?
To followw if want.
Hmm, cons begining to die down now. Shit ends at 3 and at this time I think it was like 2:30pm. People begin to make their way out.
Heading out, see the crowds and shit. What’s with that mask cosplay right? Holy shit kinda scary.
Space to walk around. I didn’t notice that the main hall stairs had paint/stickers on them to form images of the con mascots.
Walking around when I saw this really outstanding Rin/Ishtar from Fate/FGO. Really really good. She was already on the ground after some other dude so I just asked her for another photo. Yeap. My photoshop auto processing kinda messed up the white balance/constrast on her skirt but whatever. Good shit.
Scully boi.
Awww man, it’s Rorona and Totori cosplay, pretty good ones too but they were busy had my back turned. I was going somewhere too so too bad.
While the guys went off to elsewhere I was going to line up for literally the “last” panel of the convention, which was a FAQ/QA session with one of the character designers of SNK and the other of NISA which does the Disgaea character art. The panel itself was like in a university lecture hall, a medium small one, fairly inmate and in all honesty, extremely boring and slow. It was cool to listen to the guys talk and shit but the translators were pretty bad and the atmosphere just kinda dead and tired; just power points and shit of their work explaining to the audience. Ah well. I could have also gotten an autograph from both of these guys here at the panel after too but whatever, I had nothing to sign.
Taking down that one piece shit. Cons over bro.
These mexican hot dogs probably did not bad, never did try them, ahwell.
Walking cosplay shot of Love Love Yohanne I think? Not bad.
No concerts or hype people here anymore, cons over bro go home.
“Looking at nothing” – M Night Shyamalan.
“Spectating the spectator.” – T Pain
Look at these generic asian bois, they look so similar. Can’t say shit when you say all asians look the same, cause it’s mostly true.
Goodbye Microsoft theatre.
Goodbye Wells Fargo, FGO banners.
Macy’s doing it’s shit.
Going back to hotel room to meet the guys. Some people were already getting ready to leave, holy shit that’s some tight schedule there.
All these people look so tired, especially white guy on the right.
Our boi here sitting in the lobby for that sweet sweet hotel wifi.
A slight rest and reflection before we head off to J-town, which is more of a gimmick for tourists but still cool.
Gotta Uber that shit man we here.
Red Xing crossing.
So they had a conveyorbelt sushi but you had to enter your name on the ipad for time and reservations. They would send you a text/email message when your time is ready. Our shit said like 3-4 hours wait. Okkkk thenn.
Ray Ban, nice lanterns.
Because the wait for our cheap sushi was so long, we decided to go to a more legit sit down sushi where the chef makes your stuff in front of you, omakase I suppose. It was pretty amazing shit, more real experience than what we had in Japan. Really good sushi but of course very expensive but worth it. They are of course old school and specifically say no photos or videos and to take off hats and such. Cool shit, real.
After expensive sushi we had more time to kill before cheap sushi so we decided to check out the complex/buildings in this “town”.
Suns coming down…suns getting low…lanterns coming out…
Bread shop, not sure what the characters are tho, maybe mascot.
Due to the time of day and the demographic of the area, it’s pretty obvious that a good portion of people had the same idea we did and came straight from AX.
Former con goers just chilling, just like everyone else.
Went inside a small grocery store with Japanese food shit. Saw nice snacks. It’s not really appealing with the little labels saying it may cause cancer but then again that’s California law, everything causes cancer so whatever yea.
Reminding me of convenience stores in japan.
Yum pretty affordable beef in nice Japanese style cuts hmmm.
This shit not so special, probably can find at TnT.
Beer can be brought here, America X Japan styleee.
More familiar drinks that I kinda remember seeing in Japan.
Oh wow, Cup Ramen Curry, probably known as one of the best Cup Ramen available but for some reason is unavailable in Canada. Just had to pick up some of these to go home with. Tastes pretty damn good, it is one of the best Cup Ramen flavors.
Ice cream shop is busy as fuck.
Famous huge Maruya ramen with so much meat. Yum yum.
Kinda strange that they also have sushi here so yea, whatever.
Pretty decent menu, in CAD the chashu ramen would be like 22 dollars.
Wow, they also have a hiroshima style okonomiyaki place! They also have takoyaki, want to try.
I can see the due make the balls out front.
Mexican guy cooking takoyaki? Sure, this is LA whatever man, as long as you do good. In the end we didn’t end up going here for the rest of the trip, one of the small regrets but ahwell.
This truck was only here on Sunday, probably because they knew the convention was over and people would be here.
Some other nice place that we didn’t go too that was outside of the “j-town” complex.
Underground the area is a bunch of anime and otaku themed stores since obviously they know how to cater to their target demographic.
Jungle Store specializing in each different hobbies. This one is I think figures and general merch.
Card store.
More card store angle. It’s unfortunate they they are closed early cause of timing but in the end we did eventually go to all of these stores when they were open.
Nice Korean BBQ place, nice small place. This was the place of our last meal in LA.
Not your average yogen fruit I would hope.
Night time, look they have a tree with messages, how quaint.
Motherfucker finally we are in cheap sushi. Got a text message and we are promptly showed to your seating.
They apparently had this system of if you buy alot you get mini stuff but I didn’t pay attention so go nothing. Ah well.
Compared to the sushi we had earlier in the evening, this is like nothing. But still good for the price.
Hmmm…shari not exactly formed at all, just laid on top of rice. As expected from cheap sushi.
Had some interesting cooked meat ones like this seared beef ones.
Another cooked one with steak and fried garlic.
Nice menu, very tasty looking. Convinced me to buy the Chicken Namban.
Yum Yum real kinda.
Standard.
Chicken Namban came on special coaster rail thing to you, just like the one in Japan. Nice. Tastes pretty good, fresh fried.
Also ordered a box of mixed fried shit with rice too. It’s interesting how their tempura is nothing like the ones we have back at home, I suppose this is what Americans expect. Mark said their shit was generally more saltier overall, I tend to agree as well for some reason that’s how it is with all food in America.
Ebi Fry corner friends.
Ebi Fry corner friends redux neoclassical frame shot story.
The place we just ate at, overall not bad, it’s not to be compared with Hama sushi for quality real shit but it’s good for cheap fast eats, which is perfectly fine by me. Would go and eat again, at both places in fact.
Some final thoughts to wrap things up. Didn’t take a pic of all my art and goods but yea, whatever, you get the idea.
All in all, despite it’s minor flaws, crazy heat, line ups and general craziness; I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Anime Expo 2018. It’s an experience that any anime fan or fan of Japanese culture should experience at least once in their life just to say that they done it. It’s on a to do list of things such as Go to Japan if you are serious about anime and shit and I would fully recommend anyone interested into going, to do so. Compared to the cons in Toronto and at home, it’s no comparison, the sheer size, scale and industry presence at AX makes it THE place for anime shit and fandom in North America and maybe even the world outside of Japan; maybe’s there’s a super con in Europe but I have no idea. The fact that real companies like goodsmile, aniplex, nisa, ideafactory, cygames, arcsystem works and many others had booths here and sold official shit makes all the difference and brings a certain level of legitimacy to the event that fails in comparison to fan run conventions such as Anime North. It’s quite literally like 10 times the size of anime north and about just that much in attendance and dealers/artists and whatnot. However, one of the things that I don’t really like about AX is this whole Premier Fan badge system, the privilege is just too much and so undefined in certain cases that it’s bullshit. Sure, the main reason to get the premier pass is to get early access to the Anisong world Matsuri ticketed event concert and hotel block but outside of that it’s really just a free pass to get into everything early and a free lounge area to chill/rest. The layout of the convention space needs work, all of the popular companies were in the main entrance blocking the path and causing bottlenecks which is stupid but maybe intended. Who knows. I’m sure they would improve in time as this was the first year where they also made use of the Kentia hall underground for the artist area, so yea, trial and error. So yea, would I go again to Anime Expo? Definitely, for sure. Would I go again next year? Well, maybe not; well see pending finical situation and guests and or other things at hand. I don’t think this is a con you go to every year unless you have lots of money or live in LA. Hotel and airfare are expensive and the USD to CAD is so horrible, it’s a killer. Maybe every other year or more. Either way, I am pretty happy with my time and money spent at Anime Expo 2018.
Rating: S, would go again.