This was my first big convention, and I had tons of fun! Previously, I had only been to smaller conventions, so this was a huge leap for me. Because this was Sailor Moon's 20th Anniversary, I had to take time out of my busy schedule to celebrate my (gateway drug) anime.
So I packed my bags, stuffed our carpool car with cosplay stuff, and headed down to Los Angeles with some friends from college. All of us obsessed over Sailor Moon, and I remember how it drew us together during our Freshman year when no one really knew it each other. We even talked about going to a Sadie Hawkin's Dance as the Sailor Scouts, so it's hilarious now that we actually did it for AX!
All of the panels I attended were Sailor Moon panels. The way the schedule was set up was made so that the BIG panels (the Kill la Kill specials and Sailor Moon) conflicted, as a way to divert the crowds. Despite this, I had loads of fun browsing the booths and Artist's Alley on the days I wasn't cosplaying, as well as doing one other NGE cosplay.
Day 0: Pre-Registration and Badge Pick-up
The line was awful. We waited five hours in the heat to pick up badges we had already paid for. The computers and printers were down for two hours, which is pretty annoying since it meant people had to wait on the busy sidewalks (and this is downtown LA! It's not good to be standing idly on the sidewalk!).
The closer we got to the front of the line the more hyped up the crowd got. I couldn't believe people were in cosplay during pre-registration, but they were. We got in line at around 5 and got our swag bags at around 10-10:30pm. The line was pretty surreal, as I'm normally not around so many people, but the more people got hyper the more excited we got!
Afterwards, we got Dennys and crashed at our apartment.
We had a closet and used it solely for cosplay.
Day 1: No Cosplay
I was the entourage for two cosplayers I was traveling with: a Marceline from Adventure Time and Elsa from Frozen. I held up Elsa's trailing dress and made sure no one stepped on the train.
We basically used this day to get a sense of where everything was. There were not too many events on Thursday that we wanted to go to, so we wandered around and took pictures!
Day 2: Shinji Ikari and the Sailor Moon English Voice Cast
Due to some external personal circumstances, DDR Shinji (me) and DDR Asuka (Caitlin) were not able to cosplay on the same day. I didn't expect many people to recognize me without an Asuka, but because we couldn't go together I decided to just wear the cosplay all day Thursday instead of Sunday (Caitlin took Eva selfies on Sunday in her matching costume). For those who don't know, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a classic 90's mecha (basically like Pacific Rim where people fight in giant robots) anime that, like Sailor Moon, defined many childhoods (though I only watched it the first time through last year!). I DID find some Neon Genesis Evangelion cosplayers in the photobooths who recognized my cosplay and invited me to join their picture. Other than that, one or two people told me that I was a cute Shinji.
These cosplayers were nice. The Rei cosplayer recognized me at once and invited me to join the picture!
Then we waited in line for the English voice cast Sailor Moon panel (from the 90's!). They seemed like fun people, and they all were very excited to see the huge crowd of people!
Toby, Darian's VA, was taking pictures of the crowd because he could not believe how big the fandom is.
Day 3: Sailor Moon Saturday!
Day 3 was the big cosplay day. Unfortunately, our Venus cosplayer bailed before the con, so we were one girl short for our group. Nevertheless, because we were a Sailor Moon group with almost all of the inner Senshi lots of people took our picture.
This was taken before the line became madness.
To get to the 10am official panel in time we had to get up at 6am. That took some time, as we all hate getting up early, even for work! But we managed to eat breakfast, drink some coffee and get our butts in gear to get to the line at around 8am!
The original American voice cast was there for a brief appearance. Darian's voice actor stood next to the glass window while waiting for the panel to start, and he was super excited to see our cosplay group! He started waving frantically to us!
We also got to meet the new English voice cast for Sailor Moon Crystal! Five out of the six new cast members grew up with Sailor Moon, so I have high hopes!
There were some annoying technical difficulties at the panel (this is the festival of nerds! How could you accidentally play episode 2 instead of 1?!), the panel was super fun. There was a lot of crying involved, especially during the Sailor Moon Crystal primere. I think I cried a bit when Sailor Moon did her "in the name of the moon!" speech in the new anime!
Then we went to the big Sailor Moon cosplay group pic, where Viz Media representatives took our pictures to send to Japan!
Day 4: Rest
I had to go home Saturday night instead of Sunday morning, but I was so wiped out from Saturday that I don't even know if I would have made it another day. Never wearing heels all day again!
In short: would I go again? Sure! But I hope that the AX and LACC staff manage the crowds and lines better, as it was chaos (there was a stampede at the Kill la Kill panel!). Would I cosplay again? Sure! Group cosplays are fun! Glad I went and hung out with my friends, as well as pay tribute to the anime that defined my childhood!
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