Today was the first day of Anime Expo and, since I have a pass for all four days, I attended. I had some difficulty finding both the exit from the interstate to the Staples Center and then once off the Center itself, but I still managed to arrive by about 9:30. Waiting in line for my badge was relatively straightfoward, though they forced us to queue up outside in the July sun.

After looking over my options for the day, I realized that there was nothing that I was really interested in going to until the 5pm panel from Right Stuf/Nozomi. I initially tried the tabletop gaming room because I've been doing a fair amount of board gaming recently, but it was devoted entirely to people playing the Yu-gi-oh! boardgame. Also, the Exhibition Hall (a.k.a., the Dealers' Room) didn't open until noon, so I spent the next several hours waiting in line (outside again) to get a ticket for tomorrow's Morning Musume concert. I'm hoping that I didn't get a sunburn from the waits. In line, I saw a really good c(r)osplayer of Wander. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture because the cosplayer was taking off her parka at the time and she was like 2/3 of the line away around a bend.

After that, I went to the Exhibition hall. I mostly restrained my spending: I only purchased two things there. Those two things were box sets two and three of Utena which are basically impossible to find as far as I'd been able to tell. They cost me $65 and $50 respectively which seems like a hell of a deal when compared against Amazon used prices or buying the discs individually. I was also severely temped by a print of a painting rendition of the Disgaia 2 cover. It was listed at $325, however, and that seems a bit too much for a game that I've neither finished nor am entirely sure that I like. I'll hunt more for the first Utena box set tomorrow if I make my way to the Exhibit hall again.

In the afternoon, I went to an "Anime Debate" panel because my feet were begining to be tired of walking all day. It was mildly interesting, but two of the three debate options which came up were severely one sided (Is the Anime Industry dying?; Xbox 360 vs. Wii) due to the demographics of congoers. If I'd been on the first one, at least I could have made good arguments about the death of the smaller US licensors and the pain caused by easy access to fansubs. The panel there instead made arguments about nostalgia for the "better" old series like Macross. It went poorly for them.

By that time, it was almost the Right Stuf panel's start time so I headed over to it to get a seat. On my way, I got flagged down by Andrea which was a strange thing to be sure. Seeing her there was entirely unexpected, but seemed eminently reasonable given that she works in Arizona. I hadn't seen her in over two years, but I guess my trademark ponytail + labcoat is recognizable even from behind. We chatted briefly before heading to our seperate locations.

The Right Stuf panel was mildly interesting, they announced that they are licensing Aria, Rental Magica, the fourth season of a shoujo-ai show, and a pair of shounen-ai shows. I managed to snag a copy of the first DVD of Aria by asking a question.

After that was a panel by Mega 64 which was rather entertaining, but tapered off near the end. I personally would have prefered Loading, Ready, Run, but I don't think they make decisions that way.

The last thing I saw today before heading home about an hour ago was the US Official subtitled premiere of the Gurren Lagann Movie. It was about 100 minutes long of which the majority of the first 60-70 minutes were recycled directly from the series. However, the final half hour or so consisted primarily of new, awesome work which includes [spoiler]Simon climbing an enemy mech by stabbing it with drills[end spoiler] in addition to other brilliant moments. According to the person who spoke briefly before the showing, there is currently a second movie running in Japanese theaters, so we can expect to see it in the near future as well.

And then I came home and wrote this post, and then it was now, and then I don't know what happens.

Tomorrow, my main priorities are going to the Morning Musume concert and seeing the screening of the Evangelion movie. I'd also like to try to BESM 3E tournament, but it conflicts with the Eva movie, so it seems unlikely.

Saturday, I'm only really interested in the FUNimation panel and seeing the AMV contest replay (I don't want to go to the first showing because I'd have to stand in line at it to get tickets for an indeterminate amount of time).

Sunday, I'll probably just go to see what deals are in the Exhibit hall. One of the days, I'll also try to do a Collateral Damage "learn to play" session as it is a game made by the same people who did Whack a Catgirl which Nate used to praise quite highly. I'll also probably look into getting a new bag of some sort. My Lain bag is really a poorly designed courier bag and my old backpack is begining to degrade in some bizarre way that involves the fabric shedding some sort of plasticy stuff that (I hope) is the waterproofing.

All in all, decent start.

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