[2010.07.01] AKB48 Official Guest of Honor of Anime Expo 2010 (GIRLS ANNOUNCED!)

[boykun]

Same pictures are up on my Flickr if anyone wants bigger resolutions.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngelectricpop/collections/72157624410745842/

Just let us know if you're gonna use it and stuff, etc. Thanks.

[Sayange]

I may take some pix for my blog  Of course I'll link JPHIP.

[daigong]

HAHAHAHA JPHiP PIMPS! I Love it!!!

Fucking Baller Boykun and Tenkei, Basugasu all up in there abusing yo priveleges. Hope there's also Fenrir in the footage.

FUCK YEAH CKD!! Way to step you GAME UP!!! Pimping H&A and getting your moments, too EPIC Brother!!

SHIT NOICE DATA!! All the girls so interactive and making everyone feel awesome! Sayaka is the awesomeness.

to JPHiP bloggingpig! Feel free to cut and paste your report in your post too

I'm glad y'all saved a bit of money since they didn't attend the full four days and made the most of every second! This positive reception surely leads to future overseas appearances so GOOD JOB EVERYONE!

[littleteeeee]

Woohoo got my free ticket into the concert. Good seats too! I was on the left side, in the 7th row (row G). I was looking for booths that sells AKB CDs and only found 2. One from the Kinokuniya store which sold the imported cd for around $40 and Maru Music for the licensed version for $15. It's too bad there was not a dedicated booth for them. It was weird to see Morning Musume booth instead. The Nokia Theater and their panel were not full. There were plentiful room.

[Datalanche]

I just wrote a report, then quit firefox by accident. D'OH!

There's nothing to say about today that was AKB-related anyway. I just wrote about my day. Basically, I went to the con and got there at around 9:50. I waited to get in the exhibit hall which was still a circus. Dang, it just won't slow down! I bought a few random goodies. There is almost no AKB stuff left, just a few CD's here and there. I found the DVD's of the Space Battleship Yamato movies and bought them immediately. I also bough an AWESOME K-ON! towel, a School Rumble wall scroll, and some shirts. I've collected a LOT of shirts this year. I might wear one tomorrow for maximum geekness. I went to Nakajima Megumi's panel which was a lot better than MayN's. People asked good questions! After that was over the con didn't have anything interesting to me going on so me and my friend went to Little Tokyo via bus. We got to see Chinatown as well. Quite a busy place it is! Lots of hotties around the area too. Little Tokyo was fun but I didn't find a lot to buy. I bought a I LA shirt and and a tofu plushie. Also bought a Ranke Lee photo book and Halo Legends from the Kinokuya bookstore. The main reason for going was the food. I had chicken breast katsu and iced green tea with matcha powder. Best food EVER. Also had some green tea ice cream. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would but I finished it just fine. After we finished there I went back to the con for some random exhibit hall musings and bought the second to last "Looking for a Japanese girlfriend" shirt that J-List had. I then tried to get into the Gurren Lagann screening but the line looped an entire corridor several times over, and when it didn't move for 40 minutes past the time the first movie was about to start, I bailed. Didn't wanna be there till midnight and beyond. That was my day pretty much.

Here's some of my swag:



Also, I found this on the hotel TV. I'm thinking about buying it tomorrow. God.

[jafeijai]

日本人彼女募集中 Awesomeness!

Thanks for all the reviews/pictures everyone!

[cool_kickin_dude]

ok..back again at the Mayfair to write the rest of the report. May write a little more when I get home.

I told you earlier that Tenkei was filming me with the autos that I got from AKB earlier. Hope he has it up for you guys to see soon! Anyhoo, waited a good while for the girls until we got cut off. No bother though, since I already got them the night before. Hung out for the rest of the afternoon and such, waiting for the dance party that night. Met up with J-Triumf at Club Nokia and talked for a good while before heading out to the hotel for the dance party.

Next day, met up with a guy who does Blue Man Group show in Tokyo and we began to talk about Japanese artists going to America. He gave me his card and asked me to email him when I got home. Went to the arcade for a while and as I was waiting to play a game, I saw a girl beside me that almost looked like Ai Takahashi. I had to look a few times before seeing it wasn't her. Her hair was a little shorter than hers, but I just kept thinking, "What's she doing here?" Can't remember what else happened during the day except helping make a present(signatures) for AKB to give to the girls. Then, went to the party and saw DJ Kage(hope it's right, either way, hell of a show!) then stuck around for DJ Jinnai and DJ Amaya for a bit before turning myself home.

Today, not much else happened since it was last day. However, did get a chance to get my BENI signature I wanted the day earlier. Also, got May'n, MELL, SOPHIA for autographs as well. The best one has to be RSP for the fact  I saw them just before the AKB panel as I checked to see what time the booths opened up. As I was coming back, I saw them doing a video for something. I shouted "Hi1" and they said "Bye!" By the time I got to meet them, I told my story, to which the translated told the girls, they said "We're so sorry!" The translator said, next time, they'll say, "See you later!" They were really so nice. I may start listening to them now.

Also, went to the Hello!Shop booth as they were giving away a special prize. I won a Gaki-san metallic photo, however the guy I knew who had a green Risa Nine Smile shirt asked to trade it for a Reina metallic photo which I did. One of the main guys told me to trade, telling me "You might like Gaki-san, but Reina's better." He even showed me his personal copy of her Shojo R PB.

That's about it for right now. Gotta head back to the Mariott and sleep before getting on the shuttle at 4AM for my 7AM flight, it's the only one they had. More to report tomorrow.

[Datalanche]

Well, Anime Expo is completely over! Man, what a fucking ride.

I showed up after 10AM pimping my "Looking for a Japanese girlfriend" shirt, an AKB48 sticker in the middle, and my jphip sticker above it. Day 4 was almost dead except for the Exhibit Hall. I went in and did some last minute shopping but didn't find much of interest, which was probably a good thing. I ended up buying a slightly expensive K-ON! Azunyan shirt. After me and my friend got out of there, we got some lunch then went to the charity auction. It's always fun to watch. Some things got really expensive but that was a good thing. All of the proceeds went to the Children's Hospital of Orange County. There were two AKB48 items there. One was a CD and one was a signed Anime Expo program guide. Pictures of the items were not allowed there, so sorry. Not sure who won the CD, but some loser up front with glasses, one of those weeaboo shirts, an AKB sticker, and some upside down heart sticker won the AX guide.





The CD was the first of the two to be sold. It took a while because people asked for it to be opened and see the signatures. The bidding war on it was fierce. I thought I was willing to go the distance on it. Some random guy who didn't know who they were bidded 25, I bumped the ante up to 100. I stayed in the bidding war until my final bid of $425. Once it got to the point where you could buy several top girl signed photos on Yahoo auction, I had enough. It ended up selling for $550. Several items later they threw the program on and it was less desirable because it wasn't really merchandise and was only signed by the girls who did the panel(Sasshi, Moeno, Asuka, Rie, Ami, Sayaka, Reina, Akicha). The bidding war on it didn't last long. Someone was trying to best me, but I won it at $150. I'm thrilled. And also, the sigs look WAY better than in the photo. The money went to a terrific cause and I got my autographs. Double-win there. I also won a Gundam mini-puzzle that Nabeshin donated from his personal collection. It's cute! The rest of the auction was nuts. Some things I wrote down of note that went for lots of money were:

Bleach animation production cel signed - $675
Black Lagoon autograph and sketch - $2200
Big winner of the night - Cowboy Bebop sketch and autograph - $4600

It was an awesome auction, although much shorter than last year. After it was done I took a walk around the center one more time before heading back. We had to give up our front row seats to VIP's and press but still had a decent view. The closing ceremonies were pretty cool. We were allowed to film and non-flash photograph this time and a lot of guests were there including Nabeshin, Nakajima Megumi and May'N, SOPHIA, and many others. They were also screening Pumpkin Scissors while we were waiting, which seems like an interesting anime. And with that, Anime Expo was over. I took the shuttle back, had some iHop for dinner, and here I am at the hotel.

So yeah. Wow. What an insane ride. I loved every second of it. Anime Expo 2010 was a MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJOR improvement over 2009 for the most part con-wise. Also, seeing AKB48 was downright magic. I'm so happy that I got to go. I probably won't have the money to do  this again next year, Anime Expo or otherwise, but wow, I'm just so thrilled I got to see all this. I didn't think I could be a bigger AKB48 fan, but I am. It was just... amazing, all of it.

Also, as for that "multimedia" I said was coming, it still is, but it'll have to wait till I'm back home. The internet at wilshire drops a lot so I can't upload it, nor have I had the time to clean it up and fix it anyway, so... keep an eye out in the next few days. Also, dai has said I can post my reports in the news thread, so be looking forward to that with some cleanup and additions after I relisten to a few things and revise from my notes. This is probably my last post from LA, so... it's been real. Thanks AX, thanks AKB48, I love you all!

Also, ckd, I'm glad you got a shit ton of AKB exposure. Now you have a good foundation for diving into the group further.

Anyway, I gotta get to packing. Hope people have enjoyed my ramblings. Mata ne~ AKB, LA, AX daisuki!

[writerserenyty]

Sasshi wins with 48,000,000,000,000 points.

Yesssssss
 
I've recently been getting more into Sasshi, and her being into H&A seals the deal 

[daigong]

Dem auctions are insane, eh!! Robot Chicken sold for a few G's last year. NOICE CKD, congrats winnng the Gaki shit! and glad u got some more pimping autographs! and lmao Data, I'm a go find that Batman Porn. Tori Black baby! wonder if Jade Starr went this year.

That's great to hear AX overhauled and got some glowing reviews! Of course, having Fenrir bark at all of y'all had something to do with it!

[Masa]

[boykun]

Gangster! I'm in the video


 


More news shit

[boykun]

Sorry double post again.

Got some HiPsters getting interviewed/giving shoutouts on cam. Ran into them in the line at the second autograph session. Good stuff.

[daigong]

FUCK. YEAH!!

Epic tie boy!!

Hey that's that Gatas Coach

[SomethingWild]

Too awesome  thanks for all the coverage boykun!

Good to see you smile CKD, keep being positive 

Wooh shoutout from Data, thanks man 

[Datalanche]

LMAO I look like a total geek... probably because I am. I promise I'm not always that inarticulate in real life.

[cool_kickin_dude]

^ too bad I didn't get a chance to meet you Data..would have been cool to.

btw, I have a spare AKB cd of their newest alum..if anyody wants it, it's 10-15 bucks..let me know!

[Mugen]

great seeing you having fun CKD, you were so stressed out last year and all   

[tenkei]

Alright, guess I've waited long enough, so here's my report of AX. I'll write the concert report later for news.jphip.com though lol

Went on Wednesday to pick up press pass with boy. We weren't lucky enough to be granted an interview slot with AKB though, so we didn't really hang around. Asked them about our press concert tickets and they told us we have to come back in the morning, aight w/e.


Thursday got up bright and early (fuck you, 5:30AM) to get down to LA for the red carpet event. Got there with about 5 minutes to spare. Was kind of worried that we wouldn't get a decent spot since almost everyone else was already there, but they had this little section cordoned off because it was reserved for some press hotshot. Luckily they didn't take up the whole area so we just slid in right next to them, right in front of the red carpet start. Took pics of everyone, check them out on my facebook. Once everything there was done, I ran over to the press booth (literally RAN) so I could grab our AKB tickets. Met up with this writer from Rolling Stone who we kind of talked to the day before and went on in. Press booth guys told us they changed the time of the ticket hand out since it was unfair that we would have to miss opening ceremony. Got kind of uppity with them, but there was nothing they could do. Had to come back at 11:30. We asked if we could put our names down on a list or something, since we came at the first announced time and didn't know of the change, but they said no and to just come back at 11:30. Pff.

Hiked back over to Nokia Theatre and got a spot on the press floor for opening ceremony. Took pics/videos, had fun. Thought this girl behind us was Saki Aibu, but we were wrong lol. We were supposed to leave early to head over to Club Nokia to check out the Mano Erina thing, but we decided to stay the whole thing. So we ran out when everything was done and headed over to Club Nokia, about 45 minutes late. Ran into CKD in line and talked to him a bit, then headed back downstairs to get our press stuff. The girl had to call down Chase Wang himself to come get us, so he took us inside and seemed a little miffed that we were late lol. We went in and found Slack chillin, he told us we hadn't missed anything despite being so late. We took a few pics, a little video then jammed out. We left the rest to Slack since we had a lot on our plate for the day.

After we left Club Nokia we went back to the Press Booth to get our tickets. When we got there, we found out there was a sign-up sheet for the tickets and there were already about 40 names on it. I went apeshit on the staff since I had been there earlier that morning and even asked for a sign-up list or w/e. The guy was actually pretty helpful and told me he'd hook me up with tickets since shit was all fucked up (as usually is at AX). So we waited around for about 10 minutes that finally got our tickets, hurrah. After, we went to go check out the Press Room to recharge all our stuff since everything's batteries were dying. We hung out in the Press Room a bit then hit the exhibit floor to find some AKB swag and to film some non-AKB stuff (which we never really got around to doing). We found the kino booth and bought some autograph signboards cus the singles were expensive and they wouldn't sell us the posters they had.

After walking around the exhibit hall for a bit, we went over to Nokia Plaza to grab some lunch and watch RSP's outdoor concert. Ate at ESPNZone with a good a view of the stage. Only caught about a third of the show before we went back into LACC to catch the screening of Saki Aibu's movie Koisuru Napolitan. They announced that Saki Aibu wasn't even at the con yet, but would be by the end of the movie, so we were pretty disappointed. They also told us no pictures allowed since Saki is really strict about how her photo is taken lol. We watched about 20-30 mins of the movie before we left (the movie was pretty bad, from what I saw). We took off and headed back to Nokia Theatre for the AKB concert, which was pretty fuckawesome.

After the concert, we took off to get in line for autographs. When we got there, there was already a long ass line, so I grabbed a spot for us while boykun went back to the Press Room to update and unload all our pics/vids. I stood in line and talked to some guys behind me who were pretty cool. We pretty much knew there was no way we were getting in. We waited for as long as we could before they were about to close the door, then just ran into the room as press.

As press we were allowed to basically get right up next to them and take as many pictures as we wanted, which if you were just an attendee was impossible. So we got to hang out in the room with AKB for about 30 minutes while everyone was getting their stuff signed and just took a fuckton of pictures. At one point I got down on one knee and had my camera angled up to get a shot of Sayaka's face as she was signing something. A staff member grabbed me really hard on the shoulder and yanked me back and when I looked up at him like 'wtfbro?!' he started immediately apologizing. Later on I walked past him and he apologized again and told me he thought I was trying to take up-skirt pictures under the table...lol.

I was pretty upset that the staff/security were so strict. There were times when the girls were just sitting there waiting for the next person and I wish I would've tried to talk to them more or get a handshake. I just didn't want staff/security to get on my case and kick me out or something. I caught Sayaka and Mocchi acting like dorks and doing sentai poses and stuff. When they saw I had noticed, they got all embarrassed and I asked them to pose again and Sayaka was like 'fffuuuuuuuuuuuuu you saw that?'.

After they finally kicked us out cus AKB was leaving, we met up with fen who had been waiting for us for hours and got some food. We dropped fen off at her hotel and just went home cus we were so tired. We were supposed to go cover the Yoshiki Foundation opening, but we couldn't bring ourselves to get over there.


Friday we weren't actually planning to go back, but we decided to attend the panel and try for autographs again. Went to the panel and got our press on again, all hanging out on the floor at the front taking pictures and video lol. Before hand, saw Arashiro Beni in the hallway, said hi and told her she looked good. The guys I had talked to the previous day were there again and we chatted with them a little more. AKB came down the hallway while I was still outside so I pulled a hallway hello on Sayaka like I did with Eri last year. She turned and waved and said hello, so I was jazzed. Went inside to where boy was saving seats and got ready to take pics. Panel went pretty well, look for boykun's report on it later.

They didnt hand out tickets to the autograph session like they were supposed to, so it was all kinds of chaos at the line. Boy went to the press room to charge stuff and I went to check out the line. Got there and it was already so long that I didn't even try. Found out they were letting press go through the line first to take pictures and stuff, so I jumped in and got pictures all up front. Akicha wouldn't look up for me for some reason, but Sayaka posed for me. After I took pics, boy came down and took some video and we went around the exhibit hall again. After a little walking around we ended our AX adventure and went home early. There wasn't really anything else to see for us, so we were happy to be done.

[Datalanche]

Might I trouble one of our Japanese skilled members for a summary or translation of this? From what I'm gathering through google and rikaichan it sounds like it might be an interesting read. Thanks in advance.

http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/4864226/