The Cart Driver

The amount of Zvezda promoted at AX this year gave me hope for the future.

Day 0

4:30pm

After only an hour and a half of trying to navigate LA mass transit with the grace that I’ve come to expect from myself (none), I arrived in one piece at the LACC, expecting to get my badge in less than half an hour. To nobody’s surprise, AX did not intend the same, and I was left waiting in the press line with Kevo and Shinmaru for an hour while the AX staff attempted to de-shit their software.

5:35pm

Finally got badge after the registration system was de-shitted, so went with Kevo and Shinmaru to our room at the Marriott, where we listened to Symphogear music and Super Special, the much-maligned Chaos;Head ED. Normalmar joined us soon after, and we killed time until Usny got out of the pre-reg line for the proletariat.

8-ish

Looked for places to grab food around the convention center, with most either crowded, expensive, closed, or any combination of the three. Finally settled for a sandwich place and wallowed in the shame of spending $12.00 for a sandwich that was in no way worth the price. Overpriced, mediocre food would become a recurring theme in the days to come.

 

9:00pm, I think

Went back to JW lobby to play Tanto Cuore for roughly an hour with Kevo, Shinmaru, and Usny in tow, while we waited for the last roommate to show up. My memory’s a bit hazy, but I’m pretty sure I kept my crown as King of Maids while the other three wept with impotent jealousy.

12:00am

We went to Kurotsuki’s room a few doors down with newly arrived roommate Toastcrust to drink extremely weak beer and 50APV rum, while discussing the merits of idols. For some reason Kevo kept talking about dicks.

2:30am

Passed the fuck out, dreading the hangover that thankfully never came, with dreams of the transcendent English in Moetan dancing in my head.

Day 1

 

10:00am

Arrived at the convention center with Kevo, Shinmaru, and a slight hangover in tow, expecting to use our press privilege to take a preliminary look at the exhibition hall, as has been permitted in previous years. Evidently event staff didn’t get the memo about press privilege, and made us wait outside the hall for the arbitrary ribbon cutting ceremony. Snapped a few good shots of the crowd while arguing with Shinmaru about when the hall would open. He said 12, and I said 11. Only time would tell who was right.

12:00pm

For the first time in ever, Shinmaru was right. Exhibition hall opened a little after noon, and we spent an hour meandering in a stream of anime goods and weeaboos. Not even a minute passed before I dropped money on a Kancolle pin and some Zvezda card sleeves, which were thankfully the only purchase I made on this particular exhibition hall visit.

1:30pm

Made my first official move as press by going to the Trigger press event. In stark contrast to normal panels, it was a natural, fluid Q&A, where nobody missed a beat and Trigger gave their insight on the creation process and their mindset on going into Kill La Kill, without resorting to a pre-made spiel. They even touched on the potential objectification of their female characters, without either hand-waving it or drawing it out too long. It was as enlightening as I would have expected, and set the tone for the rest of AX: Great content, tempered by horrible planning.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my laptop and anything resembling paper, so I hoped I could mentally jot the questions in time for this write-up. Booze and sleep deprivation did a number on that plan, so have a slightly blurry picture of Trigger staff instead, and the knowledge that they’re pretty great people.

2:30pm

Went with Kevo to an Anime Journalism panel hosted by Zac and Bamboo from ANN. It was an honest, informative panel that addressed the realities of writing about media in the current journalism environment, and what sites that pay look for in new writers. The two knew their shit, and the brutal honesty was refreshing.

4:00pm

Went back to the exhibition hall to meet up with Usny, which led to me dropping nearly $200 more on useless shit, along with an eye-assaulting shirt with Shiro from No Game No Life plastered on the front. Just one day and I blew through the totality of my budget for AX2013. At least in the days to come I’d get an obscene number of compliments on the purchases that drove me back into grinding poverty.

7:00pm

After I changed into the eye-searing No Game No Life shirt and had dinner, our group of four headed to the Urobuchi/Nitro-Plus panel. Rather than sharing equal ground with premiere badge holders, aka Pay To Win No Lines, press was relegated to their own section to seethe in bitter resentment at AX’s sudden disregard for their god-given rights. It got even worse when the announcement was made that press were forbidden from taking pictures, without any explanation whatsoever. Upon actually hearing the reason later, which made perfect sense, I felt much less aggrieved, and avoided constantly snapping pictures out of spite.

Despite being played up as the main draw, the actual panel consisted of very little Urobuchi; most of the time was spent on going over Nitroplus’ sizable output (Chaos;Head, of course, drew enthusiastic applause from nobody but myself), and them being bizarrely proud of their minimal involvement in Suisei no Gargantia.

It honestly wouldn’t have been terribly notable, were it not for a cringe-worthy Q&A that had a mouthbreather talk nonstop at Urobuchi about the fruit symbolism in Kamen Rider. There was a two minute stretch of the guy not understanding that the audience’s chattering and the curt answers he was given were signs that he should shut the fuck up. The rest of the questions were solid, if unremarkable, but that one guy completely stole the experience. Nearly got to ask my question about Urobuchi’s experience with the references in Psycho-Pass, but I refused to push a woman out of the line to do so. Kevo never let me live it down.

11:00pm

Met up with more Twitter folks (bobbierob, Fuyu, Hacaplus, and Toast again), and parted ways with Kevo and Shinmaru to look for somewhere open late to eat. Just like Wednesday night, our search ended up all for naught, with most places either closed or unaccepting of people under the age of 21. We finally settled for a gentrified pizza place in a sketchy part of town, which had nutella pizza and golden-age movies playing on a projector. Not the worst choice.

1:00am

Played mahjong in the JW lobby with Toast, Fuyu, and Haca, where Haca won an inordinate number of times, proving that I will never be Saki enough for mahjong. After an hour of playing terribly and forgetting to draw at the beginning of each round, I decided to head off to sleep.

Total money spent on useless anime merchandise: $218

Total number of compliments for terrible No Game No Life shirt: 4

Day 2: TBA

Days 3-4: TBA