LOL So i had every intention of posting these pictures/videos up last night but I seriously just couldn't keep my eyes open ahah I guess this is better late than never!
So I arrived in NY around like 9AM and seriously, the first thing I spotted with Novaforever while we were walkin' along the streets of NY was a hANGRY & ANGRY street banner thing. LEGIT!
Then after grabbing some pizzacones (REPPPPPIN!!!) to fuel up for the rest of the day, we headed over to the convention center! We dropped by the h.Naoto booth in the comiccon section and seriously, Gashicon was just chillin' there in the booth, folding clothes, taking pics, signing whatever you wanted her to sign! SHE WAS SUCH A SWEETIE!
Afterwards, we made our way to the NYAF section of the con and literally loitered and SAT our asses down in front of the kinokuniya booth at least 2-3 hours before Rika's autograph session LOL Call us crazy, but hey LOL we wanted to be first!
Rika had appeared like at least an hour to 30 minutes before she was supposed to sit at her table and I caught sight of her before many other people did. LOL I think what gave it away was my hyperventilating LOL I seriously started to like cry ahhahahah xD This was like a split second encounter and she walked backstage somewhere with her posse ahah
I'm first in line for the Firday autograph session and I brought my guitar for her to sign! Despite being obviously jetlagged (as mentioned by the several workers manning the booth) she was nothing but smiles! Really, she was smiling from ear to ear and was sooooo happy to see everyone.
SPEAKING OF HAPPY! Novaforever asked Rika is she could do the "Happy" pose with me and her and she TOTALLY did! It's such a shame we couldnt capture that moment on video (DSFHSLHFLKSFLKSFSFLSDF*%&*($#($#^#) but let it be known, Ishikawa Rika did HAPPY~ with us! ahha
And my guitar <3 Now to get Yossi to sign it and gashicon to draw H&A on it! It'll be so complete!~
After she signed our stuff, Nova and I jumped back into line LOL cuz we're just that hardcore hahahha This time around, her manager ( we think she's the manager anyway lol) finally warmed up to us and we seemed to have gotten a less than silent seal of approval from her ahha YA BABY, NETWORKING! I got my Sadistic Dance CD signed by rika as well this time around. After us, there was pretty much no one left so Rika was gonna be off her way~ But of course, like crazy rika ninja fans we were, WE DASHED after her LOL Dai was with us too LOL We seriously tackled and dodged every person in our way to keep up with Rika. We kept a safe distance mind you, cuz we're crazy but not stupid =P We finally let her go through the escalator and she caught sight of us and waved back <3
After our mad dash around the con, few pics were taken (i never got around to taking one of my own of the crew T__T sad times lol) and we were directly off to FIT to see the H&A exhibit. Oh wait, jk about not taking a group pic LOL it's a bad and blurry shot, but whatever lol
That picture that I recorded in that video was seriously EVERYWHERE! It was on 3 different doors and 3 different walls, IN ADDITION to that one in the video. The girls are getting madddddd reps! and here's the pamphlet they gave out at FIT:
The exhibition was really baller! I didn't take any pics cuz the security was all up on my grill while i was there, so i decided to just sit down and admire the view. They had this video on rotation down there and thank lawd they did!
Iight so here's day 2! I swear I'm good luck or something LOL cuz seriously, we once again arrived to the venue MAD early. We managed to get through the clusterfuck of people and got to the entrance of the area where rika's fashion show was going to be. While waiting outside, we found a station/exhibit table inside that had this awesome H&A towel/picture thing from their Kill Me Kiss Me video =D
AND AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH! Once again, I caught sight of RIKA walking RIGHT PASSED US! She recognized us from the day before, smiled and waved! SHE HAD NO WIG ON! I REPEAT SHE HAD NO WIG ON! She had her regular, GORGEOUS TO THE MAX lightish brown hair (seriously, that woman is only even more gorgeous in person AND PETITE TO THE MAX!) and regular casual clothes on. Seriously, we were FREAKING out LOL and she walked away towards the area where the fashion show would be and we stood there as our legs gave out LOL
We made a mad dash to line up for the fashion show and we were, as always LOL, the first people there xD
I found these girls waiting in line with us cuz i seriously got bored just standing there LOL They were legit yo~
FINALLY we walked into the venue and here's the intro vid that was playing:
After the models did their thang~ OUR GIRL APPEARS! LOOKING HOTTER THAN FIRE AND WORKIN THAT CATWALK LIKE NO OTHER! Note: I freakin' LOVED the music they played LOL
(blurry pic from my phone >_< sorry i was trying to work 2 cameras at once ahha)
Then she walked away LOL but Gashicon came out and had a Q&A and she was mad sweet! I kinda regret not having enough battery life on my camcorder to record her segment =[
Afterward, rika's manager got the crowd PUMPED for her appearance so we were like WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WOOOOOO! etc etc LOL Everyone was like RIKA RIKA RIKA~! but the manager was like, "There's no rika here!" and it was awkward silence. Then the lightbulb just flashed above my head and i screamed, "ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY!" FWAHAHHAHAHHAHH success!!!
OH LAWD! And here's one of my favorite videos recorded from that 1st interview segment. Even though it's a bit shaky and obscure, Novaforever and I started fist pumping around 0:33 when she and i are screaming DO ITTTTTT! ahhaha It's mad shaky cuz i was fist pumping too LOL but she made eye contact and totally fist pumped with us HAHAHHAHHAHHA This is also the part where it was strongly hinted that H&A was up for a North American USA tour. I SAY YES! SPREAD THE WORD GUYS, LET'S MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
After that mad intense screaming, we lined BACK up ONCE AGAIN LOL for her 2nd interview session LOL once again, front of the line (we are so crazy xD) Gashicon randomly appeared out of nowhere at one point ahhah and she signed stuff and drew stuff for Rika ahha we LOVE her =D
And we ran into Dai again and he started pimpin out what he brought/made lol
Ran into this chick who was rockin out a 3nin Matsuri outfit! she was legit!
Anywho, now it's time for the personal Q&A. I only got to take one picture throughout the whole thing with my camcorder because I tried to record the whole thing. The ones i took from my phone were MADDD blurry ahha I could only upload the 1st bit where she was walking in LOL cuz the other half was 48 minutes long. Be patient, i'm uploading that half via megaupload haha
After all that silly fun LOL We went back in line to ready ourselves for the 2nd round of autographs. We went in line twice LOL EVEN IF THE LINE CIRCLED THE VENDORS AREA! It was MUCH longer and a great turn out on saturday, but we still managed to hit Rika up twice! She looked much more tired this time around =[ but she was still being a good sport about it and being all smiles =D What a trooper <3
Also, we got her a souvenir this time around from NYC =D It's the Glee NYC with splatter paint shirt lol Here's the message we wrote:
GROUP PIC!
And that was pretty much it for the convention. We ran into the j-wota for dinner and chatted it up like crazy! They gave me and novaforever and our other friends some mad awesome insight on what Rika's like. They got me green with MAD envy when they showed us some pics from her dinnershows and bahhh i seriously wanted to cry LOL They got to shake her hand (which are apparently reallly really small and incredibly soft X__X) and she apparently smells heavenly LOL im boiling in rage xD
Anywho, I'm really sorry about my craptastic pics and my shaky videos with my obnoxious laughter/commentary. It's hard to keep yourself thinking straight when you're in the presence of perfection!
HANG TIGHT FOR THAT MEGAUPLOAD VIDEO! SO MUCH EPIC IN SO LITTLE TIME!
EDIT: HERE IT IS! 2nd half of the 2nd Q&A Uploaded!
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=MSL9TCKH
Topic: [NEWS] Rika Ishikawa Guest of Honor at New York Anime Festival (10/08 - 09) (Read 47091 times)