At long last, it is the final day of AX 2022. It has been quite an experience to say the least during the past few days here in LA but hopefully this last day ends peacefully and without incident. This is a pure bonus day and is actually on July 4, so in many ways most Americans are also off today as well with the exception of major retailers and restaurants, feels weird tho still that it is on a Monday. During original planning I had scheduled that this day to be the day that we return back to Toronto, meaning that we would technically be leaving AX before it’s fully over; I’m sure many people in fact do indeed do this but after thinking about it for a bit, decided to just extend our stay for another night and leave on Tuesday, July 5. While the name of this post is titled Day 4, just for the sake of not creating another post, I’ll also be documenting the photos I have of the return home travel day as well, including some post-review loot inspections. Let’s go!
Last day, had no need to document the ride using the shuttle or rather, probably just forgot too. Nice cosplay of some sports show I’m sure.
The place to get covid wristbands in shambles. I think there are a few people still getting them, probably because they took it off or it broke.
This is quite a sad sight to be honest. The cute mascot balloon things were already being deflated and dead. Sad, I know it’s the last day and it’s a shorten AX convention day that ends early but guys, why did you kill them so early in the morning? Should have at least waited until it’s over.
These poor mascots, cut down early before their prime. I hope that they continue to use them in the future at AX 2023.
Probably because it’s Monday, July 4 and the fact it’s the last day, the line to get in what like, what line? Just kinda walk in, this was before 10am I believe.
Much less people than previous days, even Sunday, which is to be expected. Glad to see some people still cosplaying however.
Like wow, I can see the floor, and the crowds to get in you can see.
For some reason there was also a good amount of visible family’s/children here in attendance today. Maybe because July 4 was the only day that these people could attend AX.
The atmosphere is definitely much more lax than in previous days.
Proof of existence. You know for sure the guy in the back right of me is here for DBZ. No mask hooligan however.
I suppose our KN95 masks did their job these past few days. I would have thought almost for sure that I was going to get covid after attending AX for all these days but I never did.
We were actually close enough to the main stairs/escalator to videotape the people entering the main exhibt hall. I suppose everyone else recorded video as well.
Once again as soon as we got it, me and my sister went off to do our own shit. As almost tradition for me throughout these past few days, I went to the ASW booth to see what’s up. The traffic and volume have dissipated considerably.
After a short wait to get in, I decided to go back into the 18+ section to see some of the booths/sellers that I didn’t really take a look at because I spent most of my time at Fakku on the first day. A variety of galge and visual novels on sale.
From a distance, 18+ dakimakura pillows on the wall, not bad. Mans moving, but not me.
Stacks of naughty books ready to be purchased.
Wider view of that initial table/seller selling mainly games and visual novels, I believe this is Manga Gamer.
The entire 18+ area is actually walled off with curtains and this 18+ banner to remind everyone where you are. It’s interesting how over the years they ended up doing this, I remember in 2018 FAKKU had it’s own booth with the rest of the general merchants/sellers, but I guess maybe in 2019 they were forced to be in the 18+ area, which really only makes sense.
Gayyyyyyyyyyyyy. Something for everyone I suppose.
Even on the last day, the line to see/go into FAKKU was still there, although nowhere near as bad as it was on day 1.
I decided to go into the J-List/JAST booth, as they had books and other shit I didn’t see before that I ignored on day 1.
Still lining up to get into J-list/JAST, kinda weird setup they had to enter/exit. I ended up buying a couple of things here, to my surprise. I didn’t expect to buy anything here but that’s what happens when you window shop I suppose.
Taking a long distance shot of the FAKKU booth I can validate my skateboard purchase as the one that I brought, and many others are indeed sold out. Yas.
There was this very unusual booth that had a mixed variety of goods upfront and a curtained area where you had to pay $1 just to get behind the curtain just to see what other real goods that they had. Apparently they were touting signs that read “Real Japan goods, straight from Akihabara”. Very strange indeed the $1 admission fee.
They had some of their Yaoi selection out up front however, sure. They were also selling their form of a mystery hentai box which I’m sure if filled with garbage items no one wants. Funny how they are American Express boxes tho.
I swung around again and took a more detailed picture of that mystery box deal. Apparently the $25 dollar bag was sold out, while this $40 dollar one was still available. Heh.
They had boxes filled with original Japanese doujinshi books too for all sorts of tastes. Not sure what this women’s clear bag had inside.
Oh shit, it’s this guy again. Seems like this booth/seller is even here at AX, it’s the same guy you always see at AN selling 18+ goods. I always remember this guy’s face.
A selection of spicy pillows. I believe some of these are from Leaf games like ToHeart2? Kinda dated but still.
More pillows on the wall at Manga Gamer. It’s funny how some sellers put like tape and shit on nipples and etc but others they don’t even care. I mean, your in the 18+ area, what’s the point of covering a nibble or two.
Pillows certainly cost quite a bit but I suppose the element of rarity and exclusivity also comes into play.
Moving back out of the 18+ area I met up back with my sister to check out the Waifu Cups sellers booth. It’s kinda hard to see but Kaho Shibuya was indeed still here the last day doing autographs and promotional stuff. Lest to say, we lined up to get her autographs. The line wasn’t too bad, but was just slow.
We weren’t entirely sure what was the deal, it looks like based on pure observation that you had to pay or rather, buy some stuff from Waifu Cups or buy Kaho’s merch in order to get an autograph. As we got closer that was indeed the case, which is fine really by me.
As we are waiting, this interesting fellow with a giant yugioh card appears. Pretty good shit, especially since it’s right in front of the Waifu Cups booth.
And here I am, taking a baller commemorative photo of my meeting with Kaho Shibuya, former JAV porn actress now turned social media cosplayer and online influencer. Before you get to talk to her you have to buy some shit, I brought some mini photo book sleeve thing that has a spicy photo of her on it. You can also buy some gacha games with her to spin the wheel and win some rando prizes from her, like literally junk goods but whatever. I actually forgot to buy rolls but my sister, who was behind me in line brought two rolls, she allowed me to use one so I spun the wheel or whatever for fun, got some bag thing. I didn’t have much to say to her really other than I saw her here at AX in 2018 but didn’t meet her then, so I’m doing it now, now that realized who she was. Her English is basically fluent/native and was pretty chill/cool. Her cosplay today was pretty shit compared to what she wore yesterday but ah well, it’s the last day so she probably went low effort, I still am not sure what she is supposed to be cosplaying as. When you take the photo of her, you kinda have the option of what post you wanna do, lots of people were doing the heart thing, I just went with da peace.
We still had a number of good and ready Shikishi boards left over from my sister’s runs with the Trash Taste Boys, so we got her to sign these. Hmm..in retrospect I should have oriented it horizontally instead of vertical before giving it to her to sign as it looked like she was running out of room to write, lol. She was a bit surprised at first that I had Shikishi boards to begin with commenting, “Do you always carry around blank Shikishi boards with you? lol” to my reply, “Not really, only at AX and conventions I suppose.” with her like “Ahh, makes sense I guess”.
We are too prepared and ready for this kind of shit.
Before us we saw a variety of interesting people have stuff signed by Kaho, the most ghetto being a bottle of the powdered energy drink from Gamer Supps/Waifu Cups brought just before and the best being some cosplay clothes, a set that once belonged to and was worn by Kaho herself. Apparently in the previous days much like the ASW booth, at the end of the day there were doing some kind of raffle to win prizes and this dude in front of us apparently won the grand prize, which was her cosplay clothes. Damn, that means this is technically the second time meeting her and doing a photo/autograph cause you kind of have to I suppose if you won that shit. lol.
After successfully obtaining a bonus pay to win autograph from Kaho Shibuya, we decided to make our way back to the main hall when we saw these cool boiz. The light and energy effects for M.Bison are pretty damn good, A+
Close up of this man and his little led lights in front of his eyeballs for effect. Good shit. I am dumb so I am not sure what the other rock looking guy is. My thought it maybe some horror shit but not sure. PSYCHO CRUSHER!!! BITCH.
Back in the artist alley for the last time, it was kinda busy, people doing there final shopping runs just like us I suppose.
Just noticed these guy, I remember them from years back, they were at FanExpo in Toronto, a very long time ago and are still doing shit I suppose. I appreciate it but not for me.
This store in artist alley had some baller initial d shirts that I kinda wanted to buy buy they were all sold out of my size, only like extra small and small available. Too bad.
This shop had a variety of fairly interesting designs and wearable art unfortunately most of which not in my size, being that it is only a few hours left before AX ends after all.
Wooji huh, interesting store/shop name, will need to check them out online later.
I mean, technically this is not initial d just some cars with some decal stickers on them, but at this point in time, all of these cars are so iconic that it might as well be. I suppose this is there way of getting around not having to pay license and permission.
Proof of existence for the not-initial d background. Too bad they don’t have anything in my size.
Back going through the rows of the artists, pretty good artwork and quite varied too.
Interestingly this guy was also selling some printed shirt designs too. Hmm..I wonder if he sold any.
Okami, Hololive Okayu and Korone, Pokemon Evee friends. Guess this guy likes fluffy eared creatures. Gud shit.
I like this. But I didn’t buy anything from them. Too bad. I don’t do stickers.
Alright, with the last couple of hours before the con is over this place is like Saturday levels of volume all over again.
Cool but I have no idea. The mini prints and some charms are $5 which is probably the cheapest shit i’ve seen all con.
Pretty nice FGO art and other varied stuff. I don’t think I brought from him however unless I came back to, I can’t remember man.
A number of fighting game girls artwork in the area for some reason, not bad but not good enough for me.
That Abigail Sterling girl with the plushies on preorder that moonlights as a vtuber, another view of her booth. Pretty filled with shit indeed. Noice.
Ohh, this artist had some of the newest Hololive members like Gen 6, La+ Darkness, Sakamoto Chloe and favorites Marine, Pekora, Korone as well as the Hololive EN guys. They also had some Demon Slayer keychains too, lots of shit in fact. I didn’t buy however, despite being good, $15 each is a bit too expensive for their size and quality.
Went back to this pillow seller, ended up buying this jokes marine pillow with her popular meme phrase of a year back or so. Quality is pretty good and smooth too, although you have to fill it with stuffing yourself later.
I also didn’t see it before but the pillow seller also had charms too and this very unique and highly creative crane game gacha charm of both hololive EN generations. Fuck…this is soo good. I brought that shit. If you shake them the little pieces around move about, I haven’t seen anything like this before so damn, no regrets despite the steep cost.
A return look of our Toronto boi Pidjun and some blanked out friend. I hope he did well selling. When I brought from him the other day I remember asking him, how come you don’t have anymore azur lane art, like you did 4 years ago, apparently he stopped playing which is too bad because there was too many waifus boats released to frequently for his tastes, hard to keep up I suppose. Looks like he’s on the Genshin, Arknights, Hololive train now, like most people are these day.
Yo, dis pretty gud shit.
Damn this pretty good shit. Brought like a butt load of these nice charms.
This artist is named papricots, she apparently is also from Toronto too as I looked her up on dem social medias. While her Anya mini prints are kinda low-effort work, her charm game is on point.
Looking pretty crowded like a Saturday for sure. Dying hours of the con does this I suppose.
Oh shit pretty nice FGO servant charm things. Brought some as well in collaboration with my sister who bore the cost. When we finished our purchase the artist/seller gave us a mini-fou bag charm as ‘good luck’ for rolling for Castoria. Nice bonus, but I don’t need it, I had already got her the night before. Yea boi.
This artist is decent but there is something wrong with the Shinji print with his mind blowing up or something, even more interesting is that it’s sold out. lol wut. The Asuka one I can get but this Shinji one? Man, some people must be desperate.
Not bad art but not good enough. It helps that the artist cosplayers herself, too bad I have no idea what she is though.
A fairly interesting mix of franchises and IPs represented here. Devil May Cry 5 huh, not bad.
Pillows and that Akizero not seller that I brought from before. Looks like they are beginning to pack up already.
I brought from this artists a few days ago, just didn’t take a photo of the booth itself, pretty good FGO art. Looks like a good number sold out as well. Noice.
Artist that I brought from is still doing business, noice.
Another angle of that burger one, with a direct view. Hmm, I didn’t even realize they had mini comics as well. Still not enough for me to buy however.
Very cute Hololive Korone mini finger yubi puppet. Damn, pretty cute. Would buy if they actually had them in stock now, only for preorder for October huh, wow.
Wow, I guess people really do love that Ranking of Kings anime with the little mute boy. Shit sold out. This artist probably intentionally undersold their works due to looking at other artists. $18 is cheap in this market.
This particular artist had a very poor looking display or rather, maybe most of her prints were sold out, even the samples on display were gone. I actually brought one of her fan art books yesterday I think, the Gura hololive one as that was the only one available at the time. Looks like that sold out as well. When I spoke to her she said that she also sold this at the latest comiket in Japan, so yea, this was all that she had left. Not bad. I always give props to artist who go that extra mile and print a book to sell.
Pretty chunky key chains, those ice cream Popsicle ones are quite nice.
Wow, even this seller has lanyards being sold. Wow. Pretty fancy selection of goods we have there too. I like that little jar with the note that reads “Fund my Web Novel/Toon Addiction >_<“, heh, Koreans.
Another angle of that Korean lanyard seller, indeed quite a selection of stuff I don’t know about or at least can’t recognize.
Wow, this guy even had rubber keychains for Hololive, whoa whoa whoa, this girl/boi is breaking the acrylic charm meta. If they were a bit cheaper I might have brought some, but they don’t even have a deal so that kind of turned me off from buying. Too bad. Noice shit though. It’s interesting to see what members of hololive she/he decided to make which I can only assume are based on guessing on popularity and or their own personal preferences.
They also had some genshin and arkights rubber charms on the left as well. The Gacha for stickers I think are nice but yea, not my thing. Nice banner at the top of the booth though.
A distant view of one of the artists I brought from, some choice initial d works under the group that initial d man is in. Good shit.
Food is always good but it always surprises me the wide range of goods that some of these artists produce, like hats, tucs and even plastic cups.
I think this is like less than a hour left before AX main exhibt hall and artist alley closes.
This artist unfortunately closed early at 1pm. Too bad, might have gotten a few more sales in these crucial last hours. She didn’t even really pack up all her shit? Is she just going to leave it there or maybe she just gave up to do something else like roam around the rest of the con before it’s over is my guess.
Spy x Family is really hot, but honestly I wouldn’t buy art for it. Obviously this artist reads the manga since I see that nice dog in that work above. Damn man, they didn’t even need to show the dog in the anime, just makes you wonder for the future.
A wider look at one of the first artists I brought from, that nice FF7 remake art from Christian Angels or something. Good shit.
Nice art, not for me tho. Heroes and Jujutsu Kaisen.
I like the women in yellows shirt design, tako yaki indeed. The art is nice too but I wished it wasn’t so crowded so I can read more and get a better view of what “Build your Team” means. I think maybe custom acrylic stands?
Just passing by our resident OG initial d man, not there I don’t think. Looks like he did very well indeed, most of his initial works have sold out sticky notes.
Last photo of artist alley before we make our way out. Overall art was really good, it’s no surprise for many people the artist alley is considered the ‘real merch’ in the eyes of some con patrons.
Pretty tired and hot, we took a quick pit stop to rest a bit and gaze upon the last minutes of the convention while sitting.
People beginning to head out, some people going home, others, want to just linger and go to some final panels I think.
This security guy knows whats up, just packing some sips of his diet coke.
Hmm, I don’t know much about Kirby but this is very well made.
Ash and his duck pokemon that is not called farfeetched and is not psyduck. I have no idea.
KFC girl or something. I thought for a second that this might be a KFP employee aka hololive kiara fan but I have no idea. What other reason could there be for bringing KFC here?
I can’t remember but wasn’t this some bleach girl I think? It’s been so long I have no idea. Good job tho.
They are all among us, even this black one.
Now that the main exhibit hall was officially closed the only thing to go was the Entertainment Hall. I didn’t see it before but nice Salter cardboard cutout.
Very cool, makes me wonder if this can actually drive on the road.
These are some art concept work arts about twisted wonderland.
The boys are loosely based on Disney villains although honestly I can hardly tell where the inspiration comes from.
They had these cosplayers here and I am honestly not sure if they were paid by the booth or they were fans themselves.
They had these very interesting capsule machines where you can get your gacha game on for a variety of goods.
Pretty nice selection indeed, especially the sumikko gurashi stamps in which my sister went for a few times.
Quite a lot of people doing there gacha runs, that sumikko gurashi was quite popular indeed and I think it was only like 3 dollars per spin. Not bad, pretty worth it I think.
I wasn’t entirely sure what this booth was, Nikke, I think it was some game? Not sure but they were already packing up all their shit already.
The art for this thing is pretty good, very sexy indeed.
Just like in previous years they had these big scenes where cosplayers can match their set and shit.
Bait gates but it works I guess.
Very odd setup for this Blend S cosplay crew, I guess since they don’t have a cafe set, this is the next best thing and or no one else was using this one so might as well.
My Hero Academia cosplayers in the school classroom cause of course they are.
Very edgy indeed. Unless you are cosplaying as some kind of edgelord or vampire character you would be definitely out of place.
They are all among us.
Nice spear, probably Genshin impact. This Japanese traditional house I can imagine being pretty popular.
I didn’t realize they had a lot of other cars here as well, the one here I am not quite sure what the source material is from.
This sword art online RX7 FC, I’m sure in another life it was decal-ed to look like the one in initial d.
Tsunderia booth, another vtuber group that has had some problems over the past year or so with their first founding talent, Kana Kamiko quitting and going independent. They have a lot of problems keeping their talent in general but maybe one day they will get their shit together.
Round one arcade was here and if you did some shit you could win some plushie or some shit.
Classic Japanese style arcade cabinets, reminds me of japan for sure.
Man, they even brought some bullshit newer games on the left which I have no idea about.
Hmm…doesn’t this game seem familiar yes?
Wow, this really takes me back to 2014 when I went to Japan, they had these music touch games still. Cool.
Wow, they have some old initial d arcade stage 8 infinity. lol I had no idea they had so many numbered versions.
Bringing it back even older school, they got the classic dance dance revolution. These two dudes were pretty good.
Gundam Evolution which I believe is a mobile game. It’s hard to tell but it is. Noice.
They had this kinda small stage where they were doing some kind of auction thing for charity. Kinda reminds me of AN.
E gaming section had a wide range of tv setups and consoles for fighting games and other popular anime games. Klee genshin cosplayer playing some game I’m not sure about.
When the convention is over and this is the only place that is open, I suppose it would be bumping at this place.
Guy on the right: “Walking, to nowhere”
Nice May hat patron playing some fighting game, I don’t think this is guilty gear however unfortunately.
This one is guilty gear strive however for sure, nice yellow shirt and purple hat mang.
I think this car is new or I just didn’t see it previously, they actually have a car celebrating Vshojo Japan starting with Kson and Nazua (former Hololive Rushia) on the hood. Noice.
Another angle of this Projekt Melody Lamborghini I believe.
Among the cars they had these dudes trying to rave with the DJs and etc, kinda jokes but I suppose it’s what you might expect when you combine EDM, anime and car culture I suppose.
I have no idea what these guys are playing, maybe my hero academia card game? “It’s my turn now bitch!”
Nice cosplay of something I have no idea about, just assume Genshin and carry on.
I know this one, it’s dark magician girl, kinda I suppose but with more bunny powers.
At the Aniplex stage they were doing some bullshit trivia game for prizes about general anime stuff. Didn’t want to bother, AX is over anyways.
Making our way out, a common sight with the May Hat and shirt.
A pretty good Castoria but I couldn’t be bothered to ask her for a proper photo anymore, AX is over and everyone is heading out.
Stop Buy Fusion Indonesia huh. Hmm, nice logo.
Unlike yesterday, the Pocari Sweat guys are still there selling there Miku merch but I had already brought too much shit, gotta hold back you know.
One of the things people tell you about AX is that you should ignore those Mexican hot dog vendors because its not safe to eat because it might give you a stomach ache or diarrhea, not exactly the best things you want during a convention. However, since AX is over, I thought to myself; “Fuck it, I wanna try these Mexican Hotdogs that are wrapped in bacon” and wanted to see for myself if the advice held true. Alright Pedro, one hotdog to go!
And here it is, one example of many other Mexican hot dog vendors warez, this one with grilled onions, mustard and ketchup. After having consumed the Pedro Dog fairly quickly, it is safe to say that I am still alive and had no ill effects other than it’s high cost on my already sparse reserves of cash. This hotdog cost $8 dollars. Holy shit that’s expensive. I can see why now people say to avoid these things, they simply are not worth it in value as well. Even though it’s wrapped in bacon, the bacon is not salty or smoky at all, it might as well have been just extra casing for the hotdog, tasteless. Not worth.
Finding the shuttle back to our hotel, like all the other peeps in the around.
We were waiting quite a fair bit, mainly because we were retarded and we lined up for the wrong hotel and only realized once it was boarding. Fuck, ah-well, more reflection time I guess.
Nice we can do it badge from Kancolle. At this time, Kancolle is pretty dead except for a few diehard pockets of fans, everyone else who likes boat girls have moved on to Azurlane or some other shit. I like Kancolle so it’s sad how it never reached it’s full potential because they didn’t want to appeal or even try to make an effort for English or overseas audiences.
Once we got back to the hotel, we dropped off our last AX goods and rested a bit before trying to figure out what to eat for our last dinner in LA. After some discussion, we decided on Jinya Ramen because it’s relatively close and we didn’t really want to Uber anymore to Little Tokyo, since it’ll be too busy again.
No line up yet so we were seated instantly. Ramen is All the Craze huh.
Looking at that menu, choose dem broths.
Everyone in this ramen place is like fresh from coming back from AX, some still in cosplay and holding their merch around. They also had My Hero Academia playing on the TV, I suppose they came prepared for this day.
Jinya menu, admittedly, the menu design is kinda shit.
Why is it bad? Because the entire thing focuses on other shit like appetizers, desserts, salads. Only that far right wood background area is there main ramen selection which is hard to find/see.
I don’t remember their menu having this much stuff, maybe for lunch they have a much simplified offering.
Dem Heros.
Proof of existence and background photos of some fellow AX peeps in cosplay at the table behind us.
We both got the combo set that comes with salad and fried chicken. Pretty good shit. Juicy tender karrage. Salad was just whatever.
And here is my Spicy Black Garlic Tonkatsu Ramen. I think this is the same thing I ordered before 4 years ago too. lol. My sister had the exact same thing. Good shit, very good ramen for sure.
Once we cleaned up our meal, there was now a lineup outside of Jinya with more AX peeps. It’s a good ramen place that is not in little tokyo, what else is there more to say for this franchise. Good shit.
I always forget that this place is literally right beside 85 degrees bakery. In the end, our bun game failed because they were closed for all but one day of AX, sad. They had tasty savory buns, too bad.
Walking back we decided to stop by a Macy because why not, see what’s inside. It’s the July 4th after all.
Yea, this place pretty much looks like the Bay, or rather, the Bay is probably just copying their look and feel.
After a rest, we decided to lay out all of our loot and merch that we have obtained over the past 4 days.
Keychains, shirts, plushies, Fakku books, acrylic stands and more!
Focus on Fakku /Jlist 18+ goods and books, some Shindo L tote bag, Saki metamorphosis acrylic stands. And yes, motherfucker, I did buy an Ahegao shirt! lol I will never wear it, it’s just something that I have as a souvenir. Although some of the other Fakku shirts I’ll just wear at home only maybe.
Close up of all the nice little plastic and metal things I brought. These charms/keychains cost so much. Plus the hololive acrylic stands too and guilty gear key chains of some of the characters weapons, pretty cool.
Got that nice Nekopara skateboard, so happy that I actually got one. Contrary to what is seems like, only the two left most books are adult, the two right most ones I brought from artist alley and are not adult, although the big titty MHXX summer is a bit of a grey area.
Man these key chains are so nice. Only like $15 dollars each, although the ky sword is probably the least worth it since it’s so small.
I brought Ram and May hats as well as a generic Anime Expo Hat. They are nice.
A view of my sister’s spread of her merch that she brought. Quite alot of soft plush things too.
Nice key chains and some bag shit. Nice Katamari plush princes.
That cat thing plush is apparently the mascot of Twisted Wonderland, which my sister started playing a few weeks back.
This dumb looking dog plush was the free gift they gave you if you brought over a certain amount from that Ohmonah shop. She brought too much shit and this was the thing that caused her to go back to the hotel on day 2. Hmm.
Looking back at my own goods in details, here is Shindo L goods and the prized autographed Metamorphosis by the man himself. Legendary degeneracy energy.
Asanagi related boxset and the infamous Ahegao shirt that will never be worn lol. A god of degeneracy truly, that box set art is very nice indeed.
This pillow is just to jokes to not buy. Very soft and well made.
These Azurlane sleep masks are so jokes I couldn’t resist, on the inside are printed images of boobs of said boat girls, Zara, Sirus and Formidable.
Well then, that was quite alot of shit me and my sister ended up buying. I can’t say for sure the exact total money I spent since not shown here are artist alley prints but my guess is just for me upwards of over $1500 for sure, maybe even $2k on goods and merch. Damn. I think my sister also spent around the same, maybe on the lower end of that number however. Despite the high costs for merch, I have no regrets whatsoever.
After reviewing and gazing upon the glory of our loot and warez, we packed up all of our shit, skateboard and all into our luggages.
My blue luggage had mainly my merch and the red one had mainly my sister’s merch. The new luggage we brought we ended up putting in dirty clothes and snacks/less important things.
This duffel bag housed most of my heavy ass Fakku and Jlist books and god damn it was so heavy. Not to mention this bag also would carry my laptop, chargers and other stuff as well.
One last photo of my side-bag, just in case it gets lost or whatever. Had this thing for a long time, still holding out good.
With that said, everything is packed and ready to go to the airport tomorrow morning. We did it.
The day is travel home day. Navigating into LAX we see this nice thing on the wall. Cool.
Shit, to be honest I can’t even remember how we got to the airport. I think we called a yellow taxi cab the night before and they had an automated robo setup system to book the ride. Interesting. I had thought about using Uber but in the end I think it just feels better to use a taxi cab at least going to and from airport but maybe that’s just me.
Unlike Pearson, LAX bag checking was pretty easy, I had also prepaid the additional cost of our new luggage earlier to so that’s one less problem as well. While the airport was busy, it was nowhere near the shit show we had leaving Toronto.
The line for security was also the line for customs and passport which was completely different and faster than the shit at Pearson. While it was indeed busy, we were pretty early with ample buffer time.
Looks like our flight is on time for 11:40am. We were pretty early, I think it was only like 7am or 8am once we got through the main gates.
We found some seats next to our gate and my sister was feeling hungry so brought this shit sandwich. “It was whatever, kinda shit” still overpriced I think.
It was around 10am ish when I decided to look for some food too. Slim pickings.
Pizza place didn’t even have pizza ready.
The burger place however was active and busy tho.
Lots of seats to eat with no mask mandate in sight.
The most busy food place was Jersey Mikes, basically slightly fancier subway subs from what I can tell.
They had a selection of hot and cold subs and even breakfast sandwiches. Pretty expensive shit, the days of 5 dollar footlong are long gone, it’s more like $10.60 for 8-inch sub.
After a moderate wait, I return to our seats with some subs and shit.
I brought 2 subs for myself, one is I think philly cheese steak and the other their classic Italian cold cut sub.
The philly cheese steak was decent, but mediocre in general. Not really worth $10 dollars for honestly.
My sister got this breakfast egg and cheese sub. She says it was alright, better than the shit sandwich that she brought earlier.
I brought the cold cut sub because I originally intended to take it with me on the plane to eat, then I figured fuck it, just eat it now anyways, what’s a few hours anyways. The cold cut has options of putting some spice and ‘juice’ on it to make it tastier, everyone was doing it so I asked for it too. In the end, it only marginally helped the cold cut sub, while still decent and nothing special, i would say it’s actually better than the philly cheese steak sub because I had to wait like 15 minutes for hot subs, whereas cold ones like this they make it in front of you and getting it is alot quicker. Overall, Jersey Mikes, you are mediocre sandwich place but still better than subway somehow.
Looks like we in the right place, we actually had time to chill for a bit.
Sitting across from us was this group of school kids going or coming back from somewhere, which what I can only assume is some church or missionary group. Sure whatever I guess.
On the plane and I found the wing tip curved. Is this normal?
Hello westjet service, I look forward to my juice, coffee and pretzels again.
Yay, looks like we arrived back home safely. I should have took more photos but it’s the same shit whatever on the place so yea. I think like 60-70% of the people on the plane were coming back from AX cause you can tell based on their bags and shit.
Back at Pearson we had to wait a bit to collect our luggage, these peeps which seem to me late high school or early university/college were quite a sizable group. I know because a few of them were sitting in front of us and I heard them talking about hololive shit.
Waiting still but once we got our shit we took a cab back back to my family’s house to drop off my sister and get my car, I left it there for the past few days after all.
After some mild lingering, dinner and re-distribution of goods I left my family’s home to return back to my place. Tadaima bitch. I lived.
Shit, looks like I ended up taking that dumb dog freebie plush with me, ah well. I’ll return it later.
After a few days back home I ended up actually doing some inventory of all the paper prints that I ended up buying. Each pile here represents a artist/booth that I brought from. Looks like I brought from 9 different artists. Wow.
Top row: FF7 Remake x3, Konosuba x3. Bottom row: FGO x3, hololive group x1
I’m not actually a big fan of Konosuba but the art and composition was so well done, I can’t really ignore it.
Top Row: Azurlane Boats x3, Bowset x1, Marin x1 top row. Bottom row, Hololive EN x5 and Marin x1
Hmm I realize now that I ended up buying x2 Marin prints both with her in her swimsuit, ah well. It’s interesting how all of the prints I brought were Hololive EN, none for JP which is surprising cause I do like JP as well, just the art wasn’t good enough for my standards.
Top Row: FGO x2, Guilty Gear x1. Bottom Row: Hololive En x2, Genshin Impact x2.
Those big boob ones on the top row is the same artist I saw last time in 2018, no regrets this time. The artist/booth guy actually gave me the wrong Gura print, I wanted her in her normal clothes to match Ina but instead gave me the cat shark clothes with emphasis on FEET. He had like 2 versions of each girl so I guess he got confused, sure i’m ok with that I guess, the art is still good. I don’t play genshin impact but the art for these two are so nice I couldn’t resist, dat ass you know and they are like foil prints, it’s like getting a shiny yugioh card!. I got these 4 in the final hours of AX in artist alley and he was doing a discount so that’s good shit.
A collection of free paper and that photo booklet thing that I brought to get a autograph from Kaho Shibuya. I’m glad that free paper is still alive and well.
A closer look at my key chain plastic goods. Some from artists, others from official booths, the pixel art ones are from OmO Cat.
These Azurlane key chains from official booth. Not bad, too bad they are vary is size so much, I would have been nice if they were all bigger.
…
And that about wraps up my historical documentation of Anime Expo 2022!
Although it was only like 4 days, it really felt like a full week of activity considering travel to and from but aside that I had a great time going back to AX after 4 years. These past couple of years of the covid19 pandemic have made me realize how much I miss big conventions and events in general either at home or abroad. Although this trip is not a replacement for a real Japan Trip, it’s definitely something that I would do again, maybe even next year depending on the world situation and if Japan is even open again for tourists, which has been sadly extremely conservative in terms of opening up.
There is no denying that AX 2022 leaves much to be desired in terms of guests, concerts (or rather, lack thereof of any note), industry presence and even official merch offerings in comparison to AX 2018. In particular, the hololive booth was honestly kind of disappointing, offering bland merch and nothing else, you would think that because of the explosion in popularity of vtubers and Hololive they would put more effort and have more presence at AX, but I guess not. As of this writing, Crunchroll Expo 2022 was held in San Diego during August 5-7 and Hololive had a huge industry presence, so much so that they basically hijacked the entire convention; they had meet and greet events with talents, concerts, talk panels, better merch, things to actually do and see related to hololive, they even had best girl CEO Yagoo personally attend the convention walking around meetings the talents and fans. Lest to say, Crunchyroll must have paid them a huge sum of money to make Hololive do all of their big things at Crunchy Roll Expo, which honestly is the only reason I can think of for their lack of presence at AX. That or, because Vshojo was also having big events at AX with the unveiling of Kson and Nazuna (Formerly Rushia) with the formation of Vshojo Japan, they didn’t want to interfere with that maybe out of respect. But fuck man, I’m not the only hololive fan that feels this way, they should have had more shit still.
If this convention can be summed up, it can be characterized as being a convention about Trash Taste, Vshojo, Genshin Impact, FGO, Azurlane, Arc System Works, Hololive, Demon Slayers and Kaguya-Sama; if you like some of these things, you’ll have a great time. If you are here for concerts, panels, exclusive AX only merch, Japanese guests and industry hololive presence, you’ll be disappointing. However, despite my criticisms of what this year lacked in comparison to 2018, it’s also important to remember that this is the first AX in the post-pandemic lock-down world so it’s somewhat to be expected it’s lack of guests and hype and considering all factors, I think they did a great job running the convention overall, while it was indeed still line-con, as the days went by, it became less of an issue. Considering that me and my sister’s AX2022 experience has been a full complete success in terms of ‘missions’ and goals with me buying thousands of dollars worth of stuff, I guess you can say that I am fully satisfied and happy with my trip. It’s not the best AX, but it’s certainly the best in our post-covid world and that in itself is worth something I suppose.
I went to AX 2022. I didn’t get Covid. I brought lots of shit. I Lived.
Super Success.
Would go again.
AX2022 Day 4 End.
To be continued…later..in a ‘B side’ post with comments and photos from my sister’s phone when I get around to it.