[07/02-07/05] Morning Musume @ Anime Expo (Schedule/Who's Down P.1)

[Kookyprincess22]

Wow, Amazing AX tales everybody. Though I do agree about the lazy lines though.
Makes me wish I was there even more.

[Datalanche]

AX staff

I had a feeling this was the problem. I'm going to just hold my tongue right there. I think those of us here at AX know all about this 'issue'.

Anyway, time to shower, throw on my UmeEri shirt, then concert time!

[Rei-chan]

I just got the following msg from Daigong, which, if I understood correctly, he wants me to post

"we went 2 guest receptions got questions dinny clowned by girls post now"

    

[Asmodai]

You beat me to posting it.

Sounds awesome.

[Slack]

Whoa, so they got an interview after all?

[ChocoMochaKei]

Yossie at Jpop House Booth:

AHhh so you did make it!!  You're so lucky!  ;_;  *sigh*  Bad timing I wish I could be there too!  I'm so excited reading everyone's stories meeting up with MM and Yossi

[Kimuuu]

ds12.  I love/hate you.  <3

I'm jealous but extremely excited/happy for you!  Gaaaaah!  S'ok... I'm holding out for when Yossy comes to the east coast, and we can take pics together too.   

[rndmnwierd]

I'm sitting here at the concert hall sec b row 12 btw just killin time on my iPod. OMB Cali is so expensive and Ax is disorganized but I'm havin so much fun. The Q&A was cute but I haven't gotten an autograph yet. The b4 concert music is some classic rock Lols. Ugh it's hard to type on this thing.  

[shirenuファクトリー]

HEY!! HAVE A BLAST GUYS!!!!!!

[ShoujoHino]

You guys, I just want to tell you that you are doing a great job to make MM feel welcome in their US debut. They must be so happy to see so many fans. Keep it up!

[reina's eyes]

I've been low on the radar here because though I live in west la I had a japanese friend coming in from san francisco for the weekend and we went to see mm together.

Wednesday I tried to take care of our registration and found myself in line behind thousands of people in the hot unshaded sun. Gave up on that.

Picked up my friend at lax yesterday and we decided to try to see morning musume today despite all the further reports of poor expo organization and sunburns. Within 90 minutes of leaving home, unbelievably we had our tickets for row a12! A bit far off to the side but we could still see them. (Rokun's mention on the previous page that there were likely still a lot of tickets leant us the confidence to go for it, so thanks!)

Seeing mm live was awesome. They were off key just enough to know they really were singing. :-)

They were obviously beyond thrilled to be performing here, sweated like crazy, and really pushed themselves to speak a bit of english. Definitely never seen a performance like it before.

I haven't been that into mm's recent stuff but it really works live. And some of the oldies had the speakers (which were just the right volume without earplugs) at their breaking point.

Tsunku and "hangry" even got on stage to announce the winners of the opv contest.

The turnout was good but I don't think the hall was completely full. And there were just enough local wotas to spread the energy.

They had several cameras videoing that could see way better than most of the audience so the dvd or whatever will be a lot of fun for everyone.

They had to have noticed how much of a singalong the concert was. I think we as the audience did ok!

[Ayabie]

Stream from the afterparty, SITS and tenkei currently on camera

mp122984

[Mugen]

went to guest reception, got to eat breakfast with MM, Eri likes my salmon, Reina and I both love miso ramen, Sayus either hates me or was checking me out for like 15 minutes LOL. me and kanki Managed to slip MM jphip's business card. Reina, Eri and Risa checked it out and then their manager saw it and kept it!

MM Concert was awesome. The medleys were great. my seat sucked. I was seating with Slack and we were surrounded by authentic MM wotas left right and back lol.

Hello! party was kinda lame. most of us left early. some stayed back.

CONGRATS TO DS12's SISTER for wiining the OPV CONTEST!

COMING SOON TO JPHIP, A TRANSRIPT INTERVIEW FROM TENKEI TO MM'S AIKA, KOHARU, AI, JUNJUN AND LINLIN!! STAY TUNED!

[Datalanche]

Well, today was the big day, but as it seems to often be the case with AX, things weren't hitch free. Me and rena got in trouble for taking a picture of the girls rehearsing from the lobby. Now, you might say we should know better. That would be a perfectly valid argument if there weren't seven AX staffers in front of us in the hall who saw me, her, and several others get their cameras out and practically wait for some kind of warning. They didn't raise so much as a finger. So, some guy who did know what the hell was going on rounded us all up like we just stole a crate full of Naruto headbands and punched our tickets with a star. LOL We're special! If I may be blunt, Anime Expo has some awesome events, but the execution of this convention is exceptionally poor. They can't even get two staffers next to each other the same information, the events have constantly been late, and the line management barely exists. I'm never coming back to this con. Ever. The events are great but the 'experience' getting to them is extremely absurd. As for the concert, there were some issues with it. In my opinion, the sound could have been better. The speakers were overblasting just a bit. Also, whoever was going the video work needs to learn how to master something simple like Windows Movie Maker before taking over a big screen. A lot of the shots were just.. BAD.

Anyway, onto the positive. The concert itself was fucking awesome. Lining up outside wasn't fun with my eye still being a little rough from yesterday, but I survived with Rena's awesome company and help. Me and Rena were in row 8 of section C. We got in and saw there was no one in our row yet. We both went and got the seats furthest to the left. It was AWESOME. Rena got the see and I ... am tall. We were almost in front of the right side of the stage, a PERFECT spot since our members are often to the side. Thankfully they also had bathrooms in there so after flushing the eye out a few times I was ready to rock. I was decked out in blue glow necklaces, my Umeda Erika shirt(no JunJun one for sale there and the one Rena made for me didn't come in time, ), and three blue glowsticks in my hand. The people around us were pretty cool. We sat next to an older guy who didn't seem to really be into Morning Musume, he was there just 'cuz. There were two Chinese wota in front of us. They had those really cool LED sticks that spell stuff in the air when you wave them. One was an Aika fan. The people behind us were fans. We didn't have any problems, it was a pretty cool area to be in. I was sad to hear Sayah and some others didn't have the same experience. When the concert finally began... Man, the room was set on fire. Cheers, glowsticks, and excitement I could never fully describe were everywhere. It was very exciting and a lot of fun overall. I was too excited to really memorize the set list, but they opened with Mikan, and also performed Yume Shouganai, they also did a medley of Love Machine, Renai Revolution 21, Happy Summer Wedding, The Peace, Souda! We're Alive. They also did 3.2.1 Breakin' Out in the concert and ended with it as well after announcing the winners of the myspace contest(videos were great btw!). And uh.. yeah, for me, it was all about JunJun. Before, she was my favorite member by a decent margin. Now, she's my favorite by miles. To me, after seeing them all in person at a good distance, she just quite simply the HOTTEST of them all. After they did their costume change, my gawd her legs are amazing. Her dance skills are sick. She was just..... amazing. Not to say the other girls weren't, I peeked around. They are a very talented group. But... JunJun is just... it. I'm a fan for life after seeing this. The MC's they had were fun. They tried REALLY hard to speak English and it was great. The only thing a little weird was Takahashi's thing on global warming. Where'd that come from? Another awesome couple of moments was when I caught JunJun's attention. It was pretty obvious I was cheering for her. I kept my glow sticks pointed at her pretty much the whole time, and finally, during Love Machine, she looked me dead in the eyes. It was like magic. I also got her attention one more time in the second round of 3.2.1. Breakin' Out. Wicked awesome! Rena also had a pretty similar story for the overall experience, just swap JunJun with Eri. As the concert ended, the wota started their "encore-ooh" chant, and we joined them. It was a lot of fun, but after ten minutes of letting us go on like lunatics, the AX staff decides to make us leave. Way to be on top of things once more, guys.

So anyway, that's my story from today. Despite this con's... impotence on execution, the event was a ton of fun and the girls were amazing. I'm so grateful to them for coming here. It's not very often that us j-pop fans get an opportunity to touch out hobbies, and it'll be something I remember forever. Thank you, Morning Musume!

Tomorrow is the ticketed signing. I hope it doesn't get too fucked up. >_>

Also finally met some fellow hipsters at the con! Me and Rena were having a rest stop and saw a big group. Turned out to be Kuno, Sayah, JFC and several others. Was nice to meet all of you even if just for a second. See you guys tomorrow at the panel and Tsunku panel if ya'll are going.

[StreakInTheSky]

Here's my recap of my adventures at the con. Typed some of it out earlier but forgot to post so I'll just edit it with updates. haha Anyways...

It was surreal seeing them pretty close at the panel after about 6 or 7 years limited to watching them on a tiny computer screen. They're so fucking pretty. lol Not much of a fan lately, but I couldn't help cheer like a fanboy when I saw them, I sorta fell for them again. They were just too cute, and pretty much exactly how they are on TV. Eri and Koharu left the biggest impression on me. Eri loved the "American cheer" and Koharu was just a huge airhead. Was really looking forward to seeing them closer for the autograph session after that. Especially, Aichan. I even chased after the Japanese wota who ran like crazy to find the damn place. haha

But they literally shut the door on me for autographs... I was ready to kill that guy. I was literally a few steps away from meeting them. Sucks even more for the few people in front of me, they were told them they can wait outside the door and they might be able to squeeze by, but they were denied. One even had some gifts. They started late and ended early. But probably everyone in that room will be back for the other sessions.

I'm not going Saturday. Only got the two day pass, and already gave away my priority ticket to boykun. I also gave my album that I bought with the group photo card to tenkei, since someone apparently stole his bag with the album in it.

I was also supposed to go to the reception but couldn't sleep the night before even though I was completely exhausted, and ended up sleeping through it all. I think I was half awake, turned off the alarm, and fell back asleep, but I don't remember anything. When I heard about it I wanted to kill myself. How can I miss meeting them up close and personal?! Some jack ass near the line for the Yossi signing was showing off his pic of Aika and Reina at the hotel, and then meeting them at the reception. He was laughing like a fucking idiot. Not jealous, just hate people like that.

^^^^ I was 4 rows in front of you reina's eyes. I was in the middle of sec A row 8 with the blue and green light pen, pretty much the only one in my area who was a fanboy. I hated the camera work in the concert, and the crowd around me was lame, but I still managed to have lots of fun, especially when the old songs went on and I actually knew them. haha I would have rather been with the wota than a dead crowd who seemed like they didn't even want to be there. Why the hell did they buy the reserved ticket? Pretty much only the middle section and the section to the left were filled with fans. I could have had a closer seat.

^^^ I didn't see the stream, how'd you know it was me? Hello! Party was pretty lame, I thought. It was more like a mixer than a real party. I ended up leaving early since I was starting to fall asleep sitting on the floor. haha

I guess my adventures with AX and MM are over, but I'm looking forward to do more stuff with the rest of the JPHiP peeps.

[boykun]

^ Haha, that fuckin' guy with the picture.. whatever.

Posting from the hotel lobby. Computer is hella slow. Anyway the concert was pretty good. I didn't know half the songs, but the little medley thing they did was pretty awesome. Seeing them perform like that almost got me back into them. Reina left a pretty big impression. She handles herself well. Aichan was fuckin hot, also really small. The area where I was sitting was pretty dull though.
I didn't get the chance to talk to them up close at the reception. Some jackass stole my seat right in front of me. But a bunch of us got up there and did an impromptu interview shit. Hoping I can get into the autograph thing with Sits' ticket tomorrow.

[Slack]

Once again, AX's line control stupidity was in full effect today.  They made everyone who was trying to get in go outside to line up IN THE SUN.  I was chatting with a guy in front of me who said he used to do line organizing for conventions for like 25 years, and he was just confirming how the whole con's line control was idiotic.  Really, all they need are more pylons, some signs that say what line it's for, and maybe maps that show where the lines are.  He also brought up how it would only take one case of heat stroke for some fan to sue the fuck out of AX.

About half an hour before the concert started, right after the AC/DC music, was a bunch of AX Backstage videos that everyone was absolutely sick of after a while.  It was getting pretty restless in there.

The concert itself was pretty awesome.  Had my seat right in the middle next to Mugen and a guy from H!O, section D row 10.  If you were there, I was sitting directly in front of probably the two loudest wotas in the entire place.

The medley they sang was the same as the second one from their 2008 Spring Single Daizenshuu tour (track 29).  The costumes were from Platinum 9 Disco, starting with these:

then changing during the medley to these:

(Pics from this spring's concerts via H!O)

Being that close, I didn't notice much on the video monitors cause I wasn't watching them at all.  I was getting into the wotas' energy, pumping those glowsticks till my arms died, and just going nuts.  Only a few complaints:
-First there was a tall guy right in front of me, so I had to move side to side to see everyone.
-Second, the sound system really wasn't doing too great from where I was.  Sure, it was loud enough, but I wasn't catching much bass at all and that made the girls sound a little like chipmunks.
-Third, I didn't have enough room to jump around as much as I'd have liked.

During the break with Tsunku and Yossy, I think Tsunku was talking about how he was tearing up a bit at how the interaction between the girls and the fans went (not translated by the translator), and Yossy said she was dancing along backstage.  The winning OPVs were quite impressive, and the wotas around me thought so as well.  I felt like some of the concepts from the official PV might have actually been taken from them, but it was only a vague impression.  Whoever put together the DVD they used at the concert (I think a DVD menu popped up for a second during the show) didn't do a very good job, cause there were syncing problems all over the place.

The encore was 3.2.1. Breakin' Out, and then the girls did their end-of-concert bows.  Even though that is normally the signal that a concert is completely over, the crowd started the encore chants.  The wotas were commenting on how they didn't do individual closing comments, which may have confused people, but they chanted along anyway.  Loudly.  After a few minutes of that, they started up the AX Backstage videos again, which was the cause of much booing.  Some 10 minutes passed, then someone who I think one of our members started up the "Musume Saikou!" chant, which surprised the wotas behind me.  Then the staff kicked us out.

Outside, I caught a glimpse of a Sayumi from Kanashimi Twilight cosplayer with these Onna ni Sachi Are cosplayers:

Then I caught some lunch and went to get my Hangry/Yossy stuff signed.  A bunch of jph!p people with Jade Starr(!) were right ahead of me in line. (which was also dicked up by AX staff)  Contrary to what was said about the rules, I actually got a Hangry autograph on a photo AS WELL as a Yossy autograph on my 10th Anniversary UTB mook!

I can only guess that it may have been because I was representin' with the jph!p AX shirt and went right behind the others who brought gifts.  She's soo pretty, but what made an impression on me was how thin her hands are.

Tomorrow:
Tsunku panel & getting the current members to autograph my mook!

Edit:
I heard something about another public autograph session in addition to the ticketed one.  Does anyone know the time/location?

[Mugen]

i think the first autograph session is free for all and tis first if you have the yellow ticket from the panel u get priority. starts at 11 i think but dont take my word for it

[japanfiles]

@Mugen
i think the first autograph session is free for all and tis first if you have the yellow ticket from the panel u get priority. starts at 11 i think but dont take my word for it

Many people asked us at the JapanFiles booth and at the Hello!Party about the times/locations for tomorrow's autographs. We're very sorry for the confusion, but we have no control over Anime Expo policies or communication.

However, we'll try to clarify what we can for those who still have questions.

* * *
SESSION 1
ANIME EXPO SESSION

IF YOU RECEIVED THIS TYPE OF TICKET FROM ANIME EXPO:
(looks like this:)


Please see Anime Expo staff for time/location.
 
 Q: Do you need a ticket for the Anime Expo session?
 A: Please see Anime Expo staff for time/location.
 

* * *
SESSION 2
JAPANFILES/JPOPHOUSE SESSION

IF YOU RECEIVED AN AUTOGRAPH TICKET FROM JAPANFILES or JPOPHOUSE
(looks like this:)


Your autograph ticket time is:

 Saturday, July 4 - 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Location is on the small map you were given when you received your ticket.

Q: Do you need a ticket for the JapanFiles/JPopHouse session?
A: Yes.

Q: Are there more tickets available for the JapanFiles/JPopHouse session?
A: No.

* * * * *
* * * * *

PLEASE help us keep things going by cooperating with UFA, AX, and JapanFiles staff.
We may still have to make some adjustments  in the 2PM - 4PM line procedures.
This is a big crowd of fans and we don't want any delays/problems.
We must move this line through fast, so if there are changes in gift/autograph item policies please do your best to work with us.

PLEASE help us spread the word so everyone has as much information as possible.
We'll print this information for display at our booth tomorrow also.

Thanks for all the great energy all of the fans have shown to Morning Musume and the JapanFiles/JPopHouse staff so far.
And special thanks to to the coordinators of the Hello! Party -- let's all work together to keep this momentum going all year round!

[tenkei]

tenkei things:

-interviewed aichan, aika, linlin, junjun, and koharu. transcript of said interview coming soon. before i could even sit down, junjun said to me in english, 'your shirt is sooo cute ' referring to the black and pink MMxJPHIP shirts we made for AX. and i told her we would be giving her some the next day at the signing.
-before the panel, mm passed by me in the hallway about 6 inches from me, i called out to eri and she turned to me, waved and said 'hi hello~' then i waved and said hello to aika and reina at back of the group and they smiled and waved and said 'hi hello hello~'
-got stuff signed today but the handlers were kind of douchy in the last signing event so when reina's hand was like 2 cm from shaking mine (i could feel the heat from her hand) the handler made her stop. aika, koha, and junjun remembered me from the breakfast interview, aika actually said 'oh! you ' and i asked 'oboeteru? ' and she nodded quite fervently and said 'hai hai, oboeteru' then the handler lady yelled at me to stop making small talk... i asked koharu 'oboeteru?' and she said 'un...oboeteru' but looked like she didnt lol. junjun remember the shirts and told her about the gifts we brought her.

other things later i guess lol