Anime Expo 2016 (AX 2016) was amazing! I would say that this con has been my absolute favorite one that I have ever attended!
You have two options, you can either watch video version of my wrap up with included vlogging footage and pictures, or read my more detailed write up. Both are below! (Why not both??)
Day 0
Ordinal Scale Cosplay + Food
@Celtyfarron and I (mostly her!) had made cosplays for the newest variations of Kirito and Asuna back in March for Sakura Con 2016. They were made to look like the designs from the upcoming SAO Movie entitled “Ordinal Scale”.
We were pretty happy with how they looked, but Celty wanted to make them better. We got to work on doing what we could for the con. We ultimately were unable to complete version 2 of our Ordinal Scale cosplays and decided to put it on hold until next time so that it would not be rushed!
While Celty was working on the Ordinal Scale cosplays the night before Day 0, I compulsively decided that I would cook a lot food so that we would not have to worry about buying breakfast in the morning (or starving during the con). I ended up making egg fried rice along with bacon and spam! (Healthy, right?)
We eventually fell asleep around 6am (technically on Day 0 at this point!)
Picking Up Badges
After waking up late in the afternoon, we headed straight to our hotel, checked in, and then took the shuttle to the convention center from our hotel.
After grabbing our exhibitor badges, we were all set to go!
Chris Sabat
While picking up our badges, we ran into Chris Sabat! Chris Sabat is the English Voice actor for several roles (most notable in Dragon Ball Z as Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, and more). I have been listening to his voice since I was a kid!
After chatting with him for a bit, we took a selfie with him. He insisted he take the selfie since he has “mad selfie game” haha.
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs
If you have read any of my previous articles or watched any of my con wrap up videos, you will know that I LOVE the bacon wrapped hotdogs that are sold on the streets of LA! Celty and I had at least one of these per day.
Day 1
Day 1 finally arrived and I was pumped! Celty and I were cosplaying from the Aincrad Arc (first half of Season 1 of SAO). We got dressed and ready early and then hopped on the shuttle that took us from our hotel to the Convention Center!
Aniplex 2016 Booth Duty – SAO Character Election
I have worked at the Aniplex Booth a few times in the past but I was NOT ready for what was going to be happening at the Booth this year.
As stated earlier, Anime Expo 2016 was holding an election for the fans of SAO to decide which character would be most fitting to be a leader!
This was how it was expected to work:
- A few people stop by the Aniplex Booth now and then
- An SAO Cosplayer or other Aniplex staff member hands the attendee a character ballot
- The attendee fills out the ballot and hands it back to the SAO Cosplayer
- The SAO Cosplayer hands the attendee a button with the character that they voted for on it.
What happened was SORT OF similar to that but a lot crazier.
Instead, this election was a great hit! We were all completely swamped at the booth nearly the entire time. People were excited to cast their votes and grab a free button.
I enjoyed campaigning for Kirito by speaking up on the mic using the slogan “No longer a beater, now a leader”.
I also enjoyed trolling people that voted for characters that were not Kirito.
Filthy Casuals
After our shift at the Aniplex Booth, we were extremely tired! We took the shuttle from the Convention Center back to the hotel to change out of cosplay. We returned to the con as “Filthy Casuals”.
Erased
Our first order of business was to get in line for the English Dub premiere of Erased. We unfortunately had some trouble finding the line. (Anime Expo attendees know how it is). After receiving several different directions from different staff members, we found the correct line.
After waiting in line for quite a while, we were sadly cut off. Yay #LineCon2016
Dat Boy
What lifted my spirits was someone cosplaying as Dat Boi!
PA Works
We stopped by the PA Works area in the Entertainment Hall and I had way too much fun with the Cardboard Cutouts:
After we finished this up, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big day.
Day 2
I woke up extremely excited on Day 2! This was the day that I had been looking forward to the past month. Today was the main “SAO Day”.
SAO Festival
We headed over to the con pretty early and sat near LP1 and hung out. Since we had a little bit of free time, I was able to make a little promotional video telling people to get in line for the SAO Festival!
The entire main english voice cast of Sword Art Online 2 was present! This included:
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Bryce Papenbrook – Kirito
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Cherami Leigh – Asuna
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Cassandra Lee Morris – Leafa
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Stephanie Sheh – Yui
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Michelle Ruff – Sinon
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Ben Diskin – Death Gun (in-game)
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Sarah Williams – Lisbeth
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Patrick Seitz – Agil
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Kirk Thorton – Klein
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Erica Mendez – Yuuki
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Alex Von David – ADR Director
Back Stage
We headed into the room as soon as the previous panel was completed. Note: LP1 was NOT being cleared this year (sort of like a Comic Con-like move?). So SAO fans had gone into LP1 several panels before this to score a great spot in the panel!
After hanging out backstage with the other cosplayers and the English Voice actors, we were tasked with handing out the exclusive posters. Rather than hand out raffle tickets, a few of the exclusive posters were marked with a star on the back. Those with stars on the back were going to be winners of the raffle!
Posters
Some cosplayers were tasked with handing out posters at the door entering while others were asked to hand the posters out to the people that were already in the room from previous panels. I was apart of the group that was handing posters out to the people that were already comfortably seated.
Perhaps I brought this upon myself, but I was mobbed by several attendees! Let me explain a bit more…
I walked up to the front and center of the room and held up a stack of exclusive SAO Ordinal Scale posters. People in front of me cheered. I expected to one by one hand out the posters to people sitting in the room but they had other plans. Instead, they all rushed at me asking for posters.
Joanna, the marketing director of Aniplex, jokingly had to tell people “please do not rush Kirito! I need him later to escort a guest!”
I eventually jumped on the stage and started handing out posters to the excited attendees.
I unfortunately am stupid and failed to take a selfie video. I pulled my phone out to grab a selfie video and accidentally hit the “Record” button twice… so I didn’t capture anything LOL.
After pulling my phone out to do a video, people starting chanting “S-A-O! S-A-O!” I REALLY wish that I had captured it! I hope that somebody else on the internet grabbed some footage from this.
After handing posters out, I posed for some pictures and then headed back stage to meet up with the cosplayers.
We discussed what would be happening at the panel.
First – The Cosplayers would be “escorting” the English Voice actor of the character they were cosplaying as.
Second – A few cosplayers would be escorting the surprise Japanese Guests.
Interestingly, we had FOUR surprise Japanese guests. We only expected to have one, but we had four!
The guests were:
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Haruka Tomatsu – Asuna
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Ayahi Takagaki – Lisbeth
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Luna Haruna – Singer of “Overfly” (SAO, Second Ending)
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Aoi Eir – Singer of “Innocence” (SAO, Second Opening) and “Ignite” (SAO II, First Opening)
Celty got to escort Haruka Tomatsu onto the stage!
Out of respect for the guests, no pictures/videos were permitted (even by the press).
The SAO Movie twitter did upload a photo on their website featuring Celty in it...sorta. (Click the link below, and you’ll see what I mean. She definitely didn’t “see” this one coming.)
http://sao-movie.net/news/?article_id=39134
Cereal
After chatting with Bryce Papenbrook a bit, I offered for him to walk onto the stage with my two swords. He excitedly accepted and then offered for me to walk up with his box of cereal, carton of milk, bowl, and two spoons. Cherami Leigh asked why he had two spoons and Bryce explained that it was for “Duel Wielding” (one spoon was black and the other was light blue) xD. Cherami also accepted to walk up with Celty’s sword!
I eventually walked up Bryce Papenbrook onto the stage! After we posed a little bit, we “traded”. He handed me back my swords and I handed him his box of cereal.
Watch the video of the panel and you will see why he did that!
Games & Bloopers
I filed off the stage with the rest of the cosplayers and enjoyed the panel!
The panel featured a few different games with the voice cast along with the long awaited SAO-bloopers!
Post-Panel
The panel was so incredible! It was great being able to talk to the voice cast! As stated earlier, I had already met a large chunk of them in the past but a few are hard to get! I especially looked forward to meeting Alex Von David, the ADR director. I believe that he has a “touch of gold”. Every anime he works on is fantastic! (SAO, Blue Exorcist, Toradora, Madoka, etc. just to name a few).
My biggest regret was not getting selfies with all of the cast.
Autographs
Right after the panel was finished, there was a ticketed autograph session featuring the entire English Cast.
Human Shield
This autograph session was held in the Exhibit Hall so it was crowded! As a result, part of the Cosplayers’ jobs was to create a human shield to prevent people without tickets from breaking into the line. This job was actually pretty fun! The English Cast was so gracious because they stayed far later than they were originally scheduled to. They did not want to turn down any of the fans that had obtained tickets.
I Got Autographs!
After our hard work as human shields, we were able to grab autographs from the cast as well!
The last autograph I need is from Michelle Ruff!
Concert
After our shift at the Autograph Session, we grabbed some bacon wrapped hot dogs and headed to the Microsoft Theater to watch Luna Haruna, Eir Aoi and more!
By the concert, I was already extremely exhausted and had trouble standing during the concert so I ended up sitting down through most of it.
Following that, we took the shuttle back to the hotel and slept hard.
Day 3
On Day 3, we definitely did not get enough sleep LOL! But we were surprised with some good news!
Luna Haruna Autographs
We were originally scheduled to work at the Bandai Namco booth but we were instead asked to work at a surprise autograph session with Luna Haruna and the producer of the new SAO game “Hollow Realization”. Not that I wasn’t excited to work at the Bandai booth, but I was super excited to work at an autograph session with Luna Haruna!
This event was NOT ticketed so it was first come first serve.
This was how it worked:
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The two guests sat on the stage
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I handed Luna Haruna a poster (!!! that was exciting!)
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Luna Haruna signed the poster, handed it to the producer
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The producer signed it and handed it to Celty
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Celty handed the poster to the attendee
Thankfully we were able to score an autographed poster!
Asuna Car
After getting off our shift, we noticed an Asuna Car (designed and created by @HeyDevyn).
I thought this was one of the coolest things in the world.
Xanthe Huynh
After we finished our shift, we went to meet Xanthe Huynh at her unofficial autograph session in the entertainment hall!
She was actually the first Voice Actor I ever met back at my first con, Anime Expo 2014, while in line for the SAO 2 premiere so it was cool to talk to her again.
Vampy Bit Me
After meeting Xanthe, we stopped to eat a little snack and then got in line to meet Vampy Bit Me!
It was a long wait and there was a rude person in line that kept swinging his backpack into me...but it was well worth the wait!
We were excited to meet her because she was debuting her Monster Hunter (armor!) cosplay! She was super incredibly nice!
D Piddy
While in line to meet Vampy, we saw a giant Snoarlax… We had a hunch that it may be the one and only D Piddy but we were still uncertain! We then saw a man with a deadpool mask on so we were 90% sure it was him.
After we were out of line, we saw a TON of people surrounding him so that pretty much confirmed it was him! We of course wished to be in a video of his, but we were tired and wanted to find our daughter!
Search for our Daughter
Before you get alarmed, we don’t really have a daughter! @saizen.jpg cosplays as Yui, so we call her our “daughter”!
We search all over for her but got distracted by bacon wrapped hot dogs at one point.
Eventually we found her!
After finally catching her, we headed back to Little Tokyo.
Little Tokyo Crime
As we headed back to Little Tokyo, our Uber Driver informed us that there was a potential hostage situation in the plaza.
We REALLY wanted to get some boba, so despite the warning...we went shopping for it in LT. (Don’t try this at home, kids!)
After we got our Boba, we rushed back to the hotel just in case!
Day 4
The final day arrived and it was bittersweet. To be honest, I was super tired and ready to go home and sleep forever. On the other hand, there was the dreaded “post-con depression” and the fact that I would be returning to every day life as soon as the day was over.
We quickly packed up everything, checked in our luggage, and then headed to the con.
Bandai Booth – JRPG Panel
This was the first time Celty and I would be working at the Bandai Namco Booth since our shift from the previous day was cancelled in favor of us working Luna Haruna’s autograph session!
Working at the Bandai Booth was pretty cool! Rather than working character elections, we had the opportunity to watch people play the new SAO game, Hollow Realization, and chat with fans and friends that stopped by.
After only briefly working at the Bandai booth, we were asked to help out at the JRPG panel. It was really cool since they debuted some gameplay of Hollow Realization!
After that panel was done, our final shift was completed for the weekend!
Last Minute Shopping
By the time this happened, it hit us that we hadn’t made ANY time to go shopping at the con at all the whole weekend. We also realized that the exhibit hall was closing in just a few minutes.
Thankfully, Celty knew exactly which booth we wanted to go to! We headed over to the [Loki fashion name?] booth to find a couple shirt with corgis on them!
Aniplex Booth – Final Stop
We met up with our friends at the Aniplex Booth one final time a bit before the Exhibit Hall closed.
Though I wasn’t on duty, for old times’ sake, I helped hand out a few more exclusive SAO buttons.
The Metro
My friends and I decided that we wanted to go to Little Tokyo. We decided to head to the shuttle that was going from the Convention Center to Little Tokyo.
The line was EXTREMELY long. A couple friends suggested that we take the Metro (public transportation in Los Angeles if you are unfamiliar with it).
With most of us having no experience with taking it before, we jumped at the chance and started walking over to the nearest station.
Thankfully, two of our friends (@angelywencosplay and @lymin119) knew where they were going and we were lead to our destination! Without them, I am absolutely certain that we would have gotten lost and ended up in some other city.
Funny enough, we ended up walking a lot more and getting there later than we would have if we took the shuttle! Regardless, the experience was fun! We’re such weebs. We were pretending that we were in Japan while taking the Metro.
Little Tokyo
After arriving in Little Tokyo, we immediately headed to Curry House and put in our names. It became our “Last Supper” because after this, we began parting ways. @angelywencosplay and @lymin119 had to leave but the rest of us went to get boba.
Following that, the rest of us parted ways!
The End
I returned home and slept hard. I went into work the next day feeling like a zombie! Next time, I’m taking an extra vacation day off after AX weekend.
I am typically HUGELY obsessed with getting a good night rest (I don’t do caffeine at all) but I wouldn’t have traded my AX experience for the world.
Just two years ago, in 2014, I went to AX for the first time as a new anime fan. Since then, it was crazy to believe that I have gotten to where I am now. I now have so many great friends that share the same passion for cosplay, SAO, and anime. I even had the privilege of helping promote my favorite Anime that pulled me into this craziness in the beginning.
I want to thank you all for reading all of this! This reached 11 pages in my Word Processor… Kudos to you that read this all or at least skimmed it!