Seemed like most people had a good time. The area is not bad for photography either. I spent most of my time hanging out with various people and the day flew by. I’d go again next year just for that.

My Canon G10 is back in the shop again, so there were no photos from me!
However, a friend of mine borrowed a very nice camera, so be sure to check out his photos.
Scout’s Photos

The Sanrio booth at Comiket 78 announced Rio, from AH-Software. She’s still in development, but with a little help from Yamaha, she should be coming soon. She was illustrated by KEI, who was also the character designer for Hatsune Miku and more recently Lily.

Rio originally appeared as a character in “Hello Kitty to Issho! Block Crash 1 2 3!!” At first glance this PSP game seems to be a promotional project. It brought a lot of prominent character designers together for the purpose of illustrating different characters, all with an unhealthy obsession with Hello Kitty.

Update: Rio will not be the Vocaloid, and it won’t be illustrated by KEI. Still a work in progress. More details after the jump.

Via Moetron

These projects increasingly cannot stand the test of time. As their length rolls into the years, they fall apart. So something was created to try addressing this problem. To make it easier for more people to become involved with projects, TLWiki was born. Now you’re taking that daunting length of Japanese text and putting it into a multi-player notepad. Add several domesticated translators and you’ve got progress, right? In theory making it easy for translators to work completely at leisure, popping in bits of work here and there, would attract more translators. Now that anyone can pop in and help out, you’ve got a world of translators at your disposal.

For obvious reasons, which have probably been debated endlessly already, this has a few flaws. For example, translation consistency. Translators have their own styles and keeping a consistent feel in a work is important if you have production values. And perhaps not so obvious was, among the rise of popularity in western fans, was notice from the Japanese industry. In the past when it was a small, unprofitable and more importantly: harmless, niche it might of been welcomed. Now companies are worried about the potential responsibility that might come from an unauthorized foreign release. Perhaps a release where content of their games may be illegal. Other companies might worry that their efforts would devalue their work and hurt their image in the eyes of fans and foreign companies interested in licenses.

What happens when a fan project is asked to stop? Doesn’t it seem to work out well enough for fan-sub groups? While many fan-sub groups drop a title when asked, these are generally quick turn-around projects without as much dedication involved. It’s a lot easier to put down a magazine than a good book. As such, you start seeing groups who refuse to stop when asked by their creators. There may be other reasons involved, but it seems to come down to this: They’re contributing this translation as fans as charity. So, wouldn’t their actions now refute their beliefs?
For example: NNL was asked by minori to stop working on ef, but they released it covertly instead. TLWiki has removed works such as eden, but the majority of their projects have no known permission and could be halted at anytime. They also link to projects such as AIR, which was asked to cease by Visual Art’s, parent company of Key.

According to Agilis, who recently completed the English Narcissu 2 release, you can solve these problems. Agilis launched Proper-Permission.org today, which aims to eliminate the legal grey area for projects. The site gives groups a safe harbor for their projects, while giving them web-based collaboration tools. Furthermore, it claims to solve issues with web-collaboration that TLWiki has with its platform, targeting translation quality and concurrency. It offers an integrated wiki, file hosting, bug/issue tracking, and SVN integration to name a few. Not to mention the ability to keep your project private or share it publicly.

Agilis also launched a new project on this new site. Project “T0rama,” short for Translation Matsuri (festival), hopes to translate Kisaragi no Hougyoku with a group to build a community among translators. Based on the ideas of al|together, but doing more to promote more interaction between translators. The project has full cooperation with the author, with the benefit of new content to go along with the English release.

For more information, Agilis explains his motivations in his own reports:
Proper-Permission.org Announcement
Project T0rama Announcement
Proper Permission Homepage

Lily, the newest member of the Vocaloid 2 group, has a release date now: August 25th for 15,750 Yen. She is also available as a 30 day trial, so composers can start working on original songs for her debut. These compositions can be entered in a contest up until August 25th at 15:00 JST.

Via Moetron (More Lily Videos)
Lily Homepage
Contest Homepage

From early morning, Otakon seemed like a busier convention this year. Previously quiet spaces were already occupied with eager con-goers. The convention announced 29,274 unique attendees. A bump of almost 3,000 from last year, proving the convention did in-fact grow. Despite all this, the usual traffic problems seemed to be more rare. Some crowded hallways weren’t exactly fast moving, but tape was lined down to remind people to keep right. I can’t remember an occasion where I got stuck for more than a second or two. I might have been lucky, but I run around enough that I think there was definite improvement. Outside crowd control, most things I visited seemed to run on time without technical issues. Most of the complaints I heard were about the rave, which had a diversity from the line and it’s management to the crowd and music. I’ve never been a big fan of Otakon’s raves/dances, which seem to cater more to ravers than to fans who have a shared interest with raving/dancing. I’d love to see something that meshes the music and fandom as well as Hardcore Synergy at Otakon. Except, I worry that whoever decides on Otakon’s musical tastes has a disconnect somewhere.

Usually, I have a complaint with the staff. This year is no different, although just one and it seemed to be resolved at the con. Otakon staff was checking badges at the top of the escalators of the Pratt St. entrance. Despite not forcing people to stop, standing there asking for badges volunteers people to stop. For obvious reasons, stopping at the top of an escalator is a bad idea. Not wanting to see a repeat of Wonder Festival, I may of chewed out the staffer out a bit, sorry for this. This disappeared later on, so hopefully someone got the idea. Otakon just wanted to reinforce sloppy badge checking being done by the BCC staff at the doors below; but people weren’t expecting it and weren’t ready to re-show badges.

A big Visual Novel (VN) panel was held at Otakon, as a collaboration between MangaGamer and fans. The 25% Visual Novel and 75% MangaGamer panel was 25% Visual Novel 101 and 75% watered down disorganization. No, not that bad, but close. They scripted the panel but forgot to print the script. Between the two random VN fans, and the MangaGamer staffer, they introduced the audience to Visual Novels. Various titles from Cross Days to Chaos Head, were used with examples of different genres. They then proceeded to describe derivative media and hate on Toei Animation. I think the random VN fan (who did most of the talking) had something against Toei. MangaGamer didn’t have a show for us like Anime Expo and mostly rehashed news from Anime Expo. They showed off quite a few Zaishuu screenshots. The Overdrive and MangaGamer collaboration project, to produce a ‘study abroad’ visual novel for an English wasn’t mentioned. They answered a lot of questions, including a lot of licensing related questions, which they couldn’t really answer. Kouryuu did mention bamboo, president of Overdrive, sat down with the president of Key and suggested things are looking good. Finally they gave away various goods from a karuta set (card game) to a nice colored and signed sketch.
With cyanoacry‘s help, we UStreamed this panel, which several of you found it through twitter and watched. However, UStream didn’t save the recording properly so you can’t see the archive, sorry! However, bay was there doing transcriptions.

Otakon was evacuated Saturday at about 2pm after the fire alarm went off. The resulting mass of people clogged up Pratt St and the surrounding areas. It took staff over 20 minutes to evacuate the building and clear the area immediately around it. Many events, such as the English Hetalia premiere were interrupted, but resumed afterwards. Other events were rescheduled and the Dealers Room hours were extended by an hour. Despite the massive amount of people and confusion, it seemed to be handled well, considering the logistics of handling this number of people. At 3pm the convention was allowing people to return to the building, but the wait to re-enter was a major derailment in Saturday plans for many. Strong rumors point to a pan fire in a concessions booth around the dealers room. However, Otakon announced that the alarm was pulled by someone. Probably food staff are prepared for pan fires, but maybe someone pulled the alarm after a panic.

Kagamine, Len: Vocaloid

I want to say Cosplay at Otakon out did what I saw at Anime Expo. On the other hand, at Anime Expo I stopped focusing on Cosplay when my camera died. Not to mention, honestly Anime Expo had more going on, with a rather epic guest line-up. Of course, Otakon has had great guests in the past too, just nothing special for me this year. Anyways, if you’re keeping track, Otakon had the most Touhou, Vocaloid and Angel Beats cosplayers I’ve seen this year. I came across numerous K-ON groups. Overall, it was just a lot of good stuff. I think Otakon is a bit more photogenic too, but maybe I’m biased.

Leek: a vegetable

I mentioned somewhere that Otakon didn’t live up to the guests Anime Expo had to offer this year. Of course Anime Expo is a bit closer to Japan and has more industry support. Their attendance also dropped this year, so I guess it didn’t help them too much. Otakon still had some pretty good stuff. Concerts by Home Made Kazoku and the Yoshida Brothers were a major highlight. Not to mention Hiroki Kikuta (composer, ex: Secret of Mana), Hiroaki Yura (Eminence Orchestra founder), Shihori (singer/songwriter ex: Universal Bunny) for their work on the 2010 Otakon opening animation. Too many others to mention of course, but simply, still something for everyone here.

As for my gallery… I typically shoot with a Canon G10. It’s a point and shoot camera portable enough stash in a pocket but advanced enough for full manual control and focus. Not to mention quick shooting with my Speedlite 580EX II flash. I’ve taken exceptional shots with this pairing in the past and thanks to the RAW+JPG mode it offers, I can hold my own against the growing number of DSLRs roaming conventions. After nearly 2 years of hard work, it jammed at AX. Then was repaired just in time for Otakon. Sadly, Friday morning at the Touhou shoot after re-inputting all my settings I learned it wasn’t fixed properly. It managed to take some great shots, but only with a little patience. Wide shots it could not focus, likewise fully zoomed shots. There seemed to be a sweet spot in the middle, but after going through photos it still seems like the focus was off in many. Parts of several images are out of focus in places the aperture would make me think would be okay. Oh well! It’s now back in for repair, but I think I’ll be keeping my eye out for the Nikon D95. If anyone is interested in buying G10/G11 series accessories, let me know!

Otakon was fairly light in terms of loot. I bought an awesome Ayu sketch from this guy. Kinokinuya had the “Toy Box” Vocaloid album by OneRoom from which came “The 9th” and AngelBeats! cds. Finally, a friend gave me a towel from Toppara (a game by FrontWing) that he won at the MangaGamer panel. Suprise trips to Anime Expo and a New York this year ate up all my money, so I’m suprised I got away with this much. I also got another little FrontWing charm from MangaGamer.

Shoutouts to all the Vocaloid and Touhou cosplayers from the many, many photoshoots! Thanks to a Rin, a local perhaps (say hi!), for organizing during the photoshoots. Another Rin from New Jersey, for being awesome. And Miku, Neru, etc. who I’ve run into before for leek stealing. Hello again to Link, Wildarmsheero, TheBigN, omonomono, rabidkimba etc. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. And my crew, you know who you are. ゆっくりしていってね！！！

Photo Gallery
Note: Since originally posting the gallery a few days ago, I noticed many photos were processed with the wrong type of interpolation. Adding to my already hectic image issues this summer! I’m re-uploading those to a sub-folder called Edits! Feel free to ask for originals or re-edits of other photos, or etc!
Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who took a photo of and commented on my car.

HenDaNe (booth 111-115 in the dealers room) is having a raffle for some exclusive Yoshitoshi ABe goods! Two autographed sign-boards with sketches and two autographed doujinshi (photo above)! Aside from that, the artist supplied HenDaNe with a number of out of print doujinshi. That’s exciting considering you’d be hard pressed to find those books in Japan. Any purchase of $40 or more earns you a raffle ticket. Then just return to the booth Saturday at 4:30pm for the raffle. If you’re not in attendance, you miss your chance to win!

MangaGamer (booth 214) returns to Otakon, and they managed to bring a limited number of various goods from AX with them. Hardcopies of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Kira Kira! They  also have “less than two dozen” copies of Love+ available. Finally, like AX they are doing another 18+ panel. Sadly they probably can’t have the same surprise concert here, but there will be prizes! Look forward to the panel “Visual Novels: Drama, Moe and Everything in Between!!” in Panel 4 (Hilton Key Ballroom 11-12) at 12:30AM on Friday night. Hopefully, being a Key ballroom means there will be lots of AIR. Cosplayers and everyone else take note! I’ll settle for any Key representation.

I’m sure some more side notes will come down as the clock counts down. Of course it’ll probably be when we’re all traveling at this rate! So, pay attention to my twitter, misuzulive. There will be posts and updates as the convention goes on. And if you see a little blue convertible with several Vocaloid characters on the side as you’re headed up I-95, wave!

Update: No, I’m not implying there will be a Key related announcement by MangaGamer. I just want to see more Key cosplayers.

Welcome to Los Angeles, the biggest city in the USA that I can drive through at full tilt. It’s also home to the 19th year of Anime Expo, the biggest anime convention in the United States. Last year they brought in 44,000 unique fans over the course of 4 days. This year they’re back at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with events in the nearby Nokia Theater, Plaza, JW Marriot, and Club Nokia. The convention boasted a wide variety of Japanese and American guests, events, panels, and dealers.
Anime Expo typically offers the most industry guests and events of US conventions, as it is mostly industry supported as opposed to fan run conventions. Many US market companies also make announcements during the convention. 2010 is also the first year since Michael Lattanzio was hired as the CEO of the Anime Expo head organization Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). Attendance suggests this is also the first year since 1993 that the California event has failed to grow. Anime Expo did not release a unique count for 2010, only a turnstile count (4 day pass = 4 people) of 105,000.

Yui Horie, Eri Kitamura & NIS America
NIS America, subsidary of Nippon Ichi Software (of Disgaea fame), recently dove into licensing anime. Their first title is Toradora and they were promoting in full force at Anime Expo. They brought both Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura over and hosted 3 panels. Yui Horie is best known as Naru from Love Hina, Ayu of Kanon, Hanyuu in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai and of course Minori in Toradora. Eri Kitamura seems to be growing in popularity quickly and has played Rin of Kodomo no Jikan, Makoto in Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, Ami in Toradora and more recently Yui in Angel Beats.
Horie and Kitamura both had panels in addition to a Toradora panel; however each panel seemed to be a bonus Toradora panel. Kitamura’s was normal enough until they asked that attendees refrain from asking questions unrelated to Toradora. Then later when Horie’s panel came along, a quarter of the time was lost to delays, half was dedicated to showing Toradora episode 1, and the remaining 12 minutes or so went to prescreened questions. No questions were taken from audience members for Yui Horie. In addition, many con attendees were informed that panel attendees would receive tickets for priority in lining up for the autograph sessions that followed the panels. There seemed to be no distribution of any tickets after the panel. However, these guests stayed a bit later for their autograph sessions than originally planned.
A press conference with both Eri Kitamura and Yui Horie was held Saturday. The small room, with equally small attendance, made for a rather personal atmosphere. Everyone was given a chance to ask their questions. This was an opportunity to ask questions and make up for the previous panels.
Eri Kitamura Panel Transcript
Yui Horie Panel Transcript
Press Conference Transcript

MangaGamer
Of course it’s easier to complain than compliment. Still, despite issues, MangaGamer’s panel was one of the stealthy highlights of Anime Expo. It had its issues as well, a lack of translation ability held them up a bit during the discussion segment, but it worked out and the laid back atmosphere brought out a lot of entertainment. The Japanese guests, such as artist Shinji Katakura and Overdrive president Bamboo were quite humorous. By the end the room remained rather full of enthusiastic fans, to the point where attendees requested they raffle off the box from which they drew raffle tickets. Not to mention, they put on mini live shows during the panel, bringing the otagei out of the audience.

Photo by Cyanoacry & Agilis

They also announced the latest Higurashi chapter, Matsuribayashi, which is available now. As well as De Capo: Innocent Finale, De Capo II, Koihime Musou, and Dear Drops. Finally, they announced Overdrive is producing an exclusive visual novel for the English community on their behalf. The game was likened to a digital study abroad, which they hope to have available for sale at Anime Expo 2011.
The panel was actually just a fraction of the activities MangaGamer led at Anime Expo. They invited many other guests from Japanese game companies Overdrive, Circus, Age, and Frontwing. Singers UR@N, Kase Aina, and rino (CooRie) performed several concerts over the course of Friday and Saturday at their booth in the exibit hall. Artists from the individual companies were at the booths most of the weekend for sketches. In addition, they also brought Hobibox out who resold various goods such as the newly released Super Shot 2 album, a bishoujo game remix collection. Hobibox also had some interesting School Days goods for sale and a display of the “English trial” of Summer Days (School Days sequel). The trial was originally distributed as an April Fools joke, but rumor has it an official English release is being contemplated.
MangaGamer Panel Transcript
Panel Photos by Cyanoacry
MangaGamer Homepage

Staff
I have a lot of respect for the people who work to bring these conventions together and keep them running. Most of the staff I encountered over the course of the con tried their best to be helpful and usually addressed people with respect. For example, you would think event staff would tire of badge checking photographers in the audience. Many events prohibited non-press photography. I was asked to show my badge numerous times but I wasn’t treated rudely and even got apologizes for the interruptions.
On the other hand there are always going to be short comings. Event staff for a concert informed me that I would have to shoot from my seat but I later learned some press, other than the Anime Expo crew, were allowed to shoot from the floor up front. Most annoying was the convention center staff, who were more often than not rude. They would randomly forbid sitting almost anywhere that wasn’t an actual seat for reasons of fire hazard. An out of the way wall, in a quiet area of the con center, recessed from any possible traffic path shouldn’t be a fire hazard. It should have been obvious in planning that there would be many people trying to sit or gather in places. Not to mention being repeatedly told to move, after only getting seated, would agitate many people. Signs would have gone a long way towards keeping people happy and more efficient staffing.
In January, four of the seven Anime Expo division managers publically resigned over decisions the board was making. As I wasn’t in attendance in 2009, I can’t speculate over a direct impact. However, such a large change in management shouldn’t be quickly dismissed.

Vocaloid: The Sound of the Future 2010 Panel
I heard good things about the Vocaloid panel at Anime Expo 2009. The same crew returned to present Vocaloid: The Sound of the Future 2010. I wasn’t in attendance at 2009, but 2010 showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately, technical issues kept the panel from starting on time. Audio from their computer didn’t want to cooperate with the house equipment and the translator’s microphone was tough to hear. As a result, they ran out of time and AX staff had to cut them off before the raffle or questions. Still, they showed off an original opening PV for the panel. Personal messages from Japanese artists for the fans at the panel were a nice touch. I hope they return with things in order for 2011.
The majority of the audience seemed to stick through the issues. They collected many surveys at the end of the panel with input for their panel and fans knowledge of Vocaloid. Personally, it’s always nice to find good music I miss. I picked up a few new favorites from the PVs shown at the panel. Mr. Circus by Swing Holic with a PV by Hazumu Sakuta; Tower by Eshijanai-KEI, PV by tsukimido; and Suteneko Russian Blue by SHUN & Mucchi (sorry the PV author is unknown).
AX Forums Thread
Panel Homepage

Cosplay
Trips to the west coast generally leave me inspired by the diversity and freshness of Cosplay. Anime Expo was no exception! This year at least half a dozen Angel Beats cosplayers were running around. Touhou and Vocaloid, some of my favorite niches were in full force as expected. I can’t exactly call them niches anymore as I’ve started seeing them in the smallest east coast events. While I’m at it: a shout out to the Cirno whom first I saw at Anime Central, the strongest Cirno. The May’n & Megumi Nakajima concert had at least 10 Macross Frontier cosplayers infront of me. I saw more Vocaloid cosplayers scattered about than I could count. There was even a little Ayu (Kanon) cosplayer running around, surely hunting for a taiyaki stall.

Concerts
Speaking of concerts, Anime Expo held quite a few at the Nokia Theater. In addition to May’n & Megumi Nakajima there was AKB48, MELL, and Sophia. Except, to make up for it they were charging $15 to $30 for tickets (depending on full weekend registration). I can’t comment much on that, I don’t know if AX charged for tickets to concerts and masquerade in the past. I feel the masquerade should be free, but if the concerts were free they would be filled with all the bored fans who want to get the most out of their tickets, rather than fans.
I went to the Megumi Nakajima and May’n concert, or Macross Frontier concert for short. There were lots of excited fans with glow sticks in hand. This was a great venue but the performance they put on was nothing short of awesome. Yoko Kanno made a surprise appearance and convinced me to switch to Nikon. At the beginning of the concert my Canon camera actually died. It’s still in repair now. Yoko Kanno was awesome though, she can be described by nothing less. If you missed this, I’m sorry. For me, at least I wasn’t as distracted by taking photos.

Hardcore Synergy
Friday night, the alleyways behind the Nokia Plaza were alive with the some of best names in Japanese Hardcore. Hardcore Synergy, care of mydjsobad.com, brought REDALiCE, M-Project, and DJ Amaya among other popular names to Anime Expo. Hardcore Synergy introduced many American fans to these styles at Anime Central, following what started with the Soapbubble in 2007. Club Nokia hosted the event for Anime Expo, which was definitely the best venue of any con I’ve attended for an event like this. The crowd kept up with the event late unto the night, definitely a success for this style in California. During the REDALiCE set, there were plenty Touhou tracks and cosplayers. I came to AX for Yui Horie, but if Hardcore Synergy returns in 2011, there is my excuse to go again.
mydjsobad.com has a nearly 30 minute sampler clip of the tastes of Hardcore Synergy.
Video Clip from Bad Apple during REDALiCE set

Wrap up
I had fun at AX, and despite the disappointment of camera failure, I wasn’t let down after flying cross-country to attend. It has a bit of west coast charm and the weather was a lot nicer than what I am expecting for Otakon. Too early to say if I’ll be back next year, but if they keep the temptations coming then I won’t have much choice. I got a chance to meet some of the encubed staff, MangaGamer staff and guests, and many others. Those of you mentioned above for lending me photos, etc. You know who you are. Thanks for taking it easy!

I picked up quite a bit of loot too. I bought too much but I needed an outlet for my camera rage. Sorry for the camera quality, like some of the photos in the gallery (again, sorry!) Nexus One camera phone. Great phone, but like all camera phones, low light performance is quite mediocre. Anyways: Little Busters doujinshi and Chibi-Miku-san from HenDaNe, MangaGamer’s KiraKira and Higurashi and extras like T-Shirt + Mousepad + DearDrops books, Cross Days pillow + phone strap and Super Shot 2 + DJ Shimamura’s Essential Works from Hobibox, Hardcore Syndrome 2 and Loungesta Session:01 from mydjsobad.com, GIFT’s Marisa puppet and Maikaze from Toylet, and several prints from artists alley. Finally, the Ayu sketch in the middle should look familar. It’s from RyuMoto at NYAF ’09, but I got it signed by Yui Horie.

MisuzuLive Gallery
Thanks to Kyosuke for helping with photos and gear after my camera died early Friday.

I captured a lot of video clips from Saturday’s night dance at Animazement. A great show was put on by DJ Speedycake and DJ Amaya. Finally, I’ve got the video online for your pleasure.

Plugsなう

Omonomono, who I finally got to meet this Animazement, now has their report up too. It’s a good read!

Con Report | Gallery

Animazement returned to downtown Raleigh to celebrate its 13th birthday by the newly completed City Plaza. Despite growing pains as they settle into their second year downtown, they’ve managed to grow and keep things running smoothly. This year they put their hard efforts on display with more to offer than ever.

Last year con goers got their first look at the newly completed Raleigh Convention Center. A beautiful new building with more than double the space of the old building. Not including potential space from the connected Marriott City Center and the newly built Raleigh Amphitheatre next door.
By this year, the City Plaza was opened with plenty of photogenic scenery and many new eateries, including the affordable Krispy Kreme, Jimmy Johns, and Shish Kabob. Easily missed too, was an interactive colorful fountain by Jimmy Johns, which lights up at night when anyone strolls by.

Since last year, rumors circulated concerning AZ staff leaving and the financial footing of the convention. And it doesn’t help when staff make poorly thought out posts on their web forums. Once the ball started rolling Thursday, glitches were mostly absent. However, the Friday night dance was interrupted when the convention center was evacuated at 1:02am. The fire marshall permitted the Ballroom fire detectors to be turned off for the fog machines, but they still triggered nearby detectors outside. That and the cosplay line, what happened to that nice numbering system.
Otherwise, they continued trying to improve. Last year the biggest complaint was lack of escalator service, and this year they were switched on. Attendance jumped from 2009s record breaking 5,964 to 7,070. Events started and ended on time. More dealers than last year, more cosplayers, better DJs (Saturday’s DJ Speedycake and DJ Amaya), and great Japanese guests (too many to mention, always a good thing).

A lot of what people go to cons for, things like panels and cosplay, are volunteer efforts. Like most of the fan run east coast conventions. As such, I’m glad to see a growing number of cutting edge and niche Otaku at Animazement. A personal shout out for the Angel Beats TK cosplayer (pictured) and the Kanon, AIR, Vocaloid, and Hetalia cosplayers. And, not that it’s as unknown anymore, but I was also amused by how many Higurashi cosplayers I saw. This year a nearly full Vocaloid and Hetalia panel stood out among more normal, but usually still awesome, events such as Anime Hell. Noiz also returned for two concerts at AZ this year.

Animazement proved this year that they’re a fit convention. Despite possible internal difficulties, you wouldn’t of guessed if you hadn’t heard about it. A smooth weekend with Raleigh’s newest offerings shining and keeping congoers fed. Over 20 Vocaloid cosplayers and sub shop across the street with filling meals for less than $5 – hell yeah.

Thanks to DJ Speedycake and a Poland cosplayer for doing some photography for me during Vocaloid and Hetalia photoshoots.

My gallery is online. I also took a short video of a Miku cosplayer dancing at the Vocaloid panel. I might also be able to upload a few video clips from the dance Saturday, stay tuned..

If you have media to share or shout-outs to make, feel free to drop a comment.

Update post.