I arrived at Anime Expo on day 0, but I wasn’t able to relax! I still had a lot of Black Gold Saw prop work to do. So after finally getting settled down in my hotel I had to work all night to get stuff done -- and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get all done that night. I still had to work the morning of Day 1!

Day 1

I barely got to the convention as Black Gold Saw on day 1 by about 2 or 3 pm, which only gave me about two hours of time to relax before I had to go to a scheduled photoshoot with FiveRings.

Until then, VashFanatic (as Great Black Sword) and I roamed the convention for a couple of hours. We got pulled aside for a couple of mini photoshoots by photographers who were fun to work with.

Then we had to go to our shoot with FiveRings. The shoot was a lot of fun (like they always are -- FiveRings is so fun to work with!), but unfortunately the tip of my sword had broken off earlier in the day… so I’m not too satisfied with the photos considering the tip is blue in all the photos. Haha.

Once I was finished with FiveRings’s photoshoot I met up with FastMatt to do a mini video shoot of Black Gold Saw. I’ll include the video footage at the end of this post.

After the photoshoot I went to dinner with some friends from high school… It ended up being some extremely fancy restaurant. I wasn’t too happy about that. Hahaha~ The most expensive item on the menu was $140. The highlight of this restaurant trip was the fact that they asked me to remove my Black Gold Saw horns upon entry, but I told them I couldn’t, since the horns are attached directly to the wig. And then immediately afterwards they informed me that they would have to confiscate my sword for the duration of my stay. Oh man was that amusing~ Needless to say, once I sat down I realized what I was wearing and I began to feel extremely out of place. Once dinner was over, day 1 was pretty much over for me.

Day 2

Day 2 was .. very interesting nonetheless. It started off pretty bad for me because I completely had forgotten that I still needed to do some work on Miku before being able to Cosplay her. I had to fix a couple of my wire connections, as well as completely make the ponytail squares. I managed to fix everything and get everything ready in a (somewhat) timely matter. Honestly, I was very impressed that I was able to pretty much make both ponytail squares in one hour~

Right as I was getting ready to leave for con… I decided I would bring my solder equipment with me to con -- JUST in case I needed to repair any wire connections… I stupidly forgot to unplug the solder, so I grabbed it and burned my left hand. Fortunately I’m so used to burning/cutting/hurting myself in general while working on cosplay that it didn’t phase me at all -- I just put my ice cold AX Staff water bottle to it immediately.

When I finally got to con, I happened to run into acksonl, who asked me to do a Miku video shoot with him! I was extremely excited for this opportunity, even if I was in pain at the time hahaha.

The rest of the day before the concert was spent either meeting up with friends, resting, or fixing my cosplay. My Miku cosplay is so high maintenance. OTL

Hatsune Miku Concert

The concert was amazing. I can’t even fully describe how exciting it was to actually see one of these concerts live! And to be completely honest, I still don’t fully believe I was actually there.

(Photos courtesy of FastMatt/DriftDoctor)

The concert was extremely exciting, especially because they played almost all of my favorite previously-used concert songs! I was especially excited to see “Clover Club” used!

The main downside of the concert for me was my seat. I received complimentary AX Staff seating which was on the very far left -- so basically Miku looked “ghostly” most of the time, unless she walked to the left side of the screen. This is exactly why Crypton didn’t want the full Nokia theater being filled up for the concert.

My fellow staffers and I ended up standing in the middle-back area of the theater, so that we could at least see the concert the way it was meant to be seen. She was tiny on stage, but at least she didn’t look obviously fake by being semi-transparent most of the time!

Here’s the song list that was used at Mikunopolis (courtesy of Bamboo Updates.)

Project Diva desu.

World Is Mine

Electric Angel

Koi Suru VOC@LOID

Clover Club

PoPiPo!

Cinderella and Romeo

Ura-omote Lovers

Puzzle

VOiCE

1 / 6

Disappearance of Hatsune Miku

Butterfly on the Right Shoulder

Meltdown

Just Be Friend — Thanks LA

World’s End Dancehall english ver

from Y to Y

Saihate

Viewfinder DSLR remix-re: edit

SPiCa

Ai Kotoba

StargazeR

Hajimete no Oto

Amazing song list, in my opinion. The only thing that felt “off” to me was the English version of “World’s End Dance hall”. I know they were just trying to incorporate English Vocaloid to the American debut concert -- but for some reason the singing didn’t feel nearly as clear and crisp as the Japanese singing.

One thing that really excited me about the concert though was that they pulled off the whole “encore” break in the concert! I’ve always loved that in the concerts in Japan, and I was praying they’d do it here too! It was also great seeing Rin, Len, and Luka -- but I do wish they would have had more songs! Well, in general I just wish the concert could have been longer in general~

And just cuz, I’ll include a concert coverage video which is provided by SEGA!

But that’s not it for day 2, the night definitely didn’t end there… I met up with FastMatt and acksonl to do some Miku video shoots right after the concert! It was a very fun, eventful, and productive two hours! Here’s some photos from acksonl’s video, as well as the video itself!

I really love these shots, especially because of how dynamic they are. And so many colors~! I definitely didn’t expect to spend around two hours of shooting right after the concert, but it was definitely worth it. :) During the shooting, I was interviewed by the sponsors of the Miku Hatsune concert -- some Toyota representatives from the Miku Hatsune Toyota commercials! That was really exciting.

We were also around when they began putting away the Miku Toyota cars, so we were able to get some footage of me standing around the cars as they were being driven~

I also ran into a couple of my friends -- IdolYuuka and Kiyoko!

Once we were finally done with that shoot, we split ways and went back to our hotels and retired for the night.

Day 3

The third day of AX was probably the most hectic for me out of all the days. I was asked to be on the Vocaloid panel “Mirae no Neiro” -- which was both extremely nerve-wrecking but also just as exciting! @_@ I didn’t want to just cosplay Miku on day 3, since I had already cosplayed Miku on day 2… so I decided to pull a cosplay switch -- which I hate doing.

I ended up doing Black Gold Saw during the first half of day 3, and then switch into Miku for the panel. It was fun taking all my Miku stuff to AX on the shuttle, while wearing all of Black Gold Saw (and carrying the sword). Thankfully Kisuka was nice enough to help me get from the shuttle to the AX Live room, where I was able to put on the rest of my Black Gold Saw armor as well as store my Miku cosplay. Big thanks to Kisuka and Frances for helping me get Black Gold Saw fixed up at the Cosplay Repair Station! Your help really meant a lot to me.

I was able to wear my Black Gold Saw for a good two or so hours before I had to leave, start practicing my script lines for the panel, and change. Those are probably my two favorite pictures I’ve gotten so far of Black Gold Saw. On day 3 my sword was fixed, so I didn’t see painful blue tips in any of the photos that day!

It was funny though because I could barely even move as Black Gold Saw. @_@ I was constantly getting stuck in poses for anywhere between two and ten minutes per pose… Until I finally had Q, my boyfriend, help me not be stuck constantly by people. Hahaha~

After that was time for “Miraei no Neiro”, the Vocaloid panel of AX 2011. I had gone to “Mirai no Neiro” last year as well, but as a regular attendee. This year I was actually on the panel. @_@

The panel was a lot of fun, especially after I met the Rin and Len that were on the panel with me! They were so adorable~ Vi-vi (Rin) and Tsubasa Gaki (Len) were so much fun to work with.

I have to thank them because once we did start talking, my anxiety/nervousness levels definitely went down a lot! Most of the photos and information I will include here about the panel are referenced from Behind the Nihon Review.

“Mirai no Neiro” was broken into two parts because of how much information/content was to be shown! The first part of the panel featured PVs as well as messages from the authors about the PV/song. I didn’t get a really good look at the videos because I was on the panel, but I could see a mirrored version from the back of one of the projectors!

Here are all the videos (or for the PVs that haven’t been published yet, then the songs are included) that were played during the first part of the panel!

【Kagamine Rin】 honey & clover club -rearrange-

【Kagamine Rin】 Daughter of Evil

【Kagamine Len】 Servant of Evil

【Megurine Luka】 DYE/Re:flection+

【Hatsune Miku】 Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!

【Hatsune Miku】Ronde of Possible World

【Hatsune Miku】Strobo Last

【Hatsune Miku】Sweet Devil

【Hatsune Miku】Electric Love

【Hatsune Miku】Memories

【Kaai Yuki】Innocent Girl

【Miku + Rin】Amayumerou

That’s all the PVs which were played during the first part of the panel! A few of these were actually world premier’s, which were shown at this panel for the first time! For more detail on each one, please visit Behind the Nihon’s -- Mirai no Neiro Part 1 article!

Now on to part 2 of the panel! Part 2 was extremely exciting because we basically got to introduce all the guests!

The panel featured many Vocaloid producers as well as the father of Hatsune Miku, Hideki Kenmochi! The Vocaloid producers which were present at the panel were:

すんｚりヴぇｒP　（SunzriverP） -- Twitter -- Website

思春期P (ShishunkiP) of PENGUINS PROJECT -- Twitter -- Website

ざにおP (ZanioP) aka パイパンP (PaipanP) of ZANEEDS -- Twitter -- Website

ゆうきP (YuukiP)

It was really cool to see all these producers and hear what they have to say! For more information about what each one of them said, please visit Behind the Nihon’s -- Mirai no Neiro Part 2 article!

I’ll also include the videos which they included in part two of the panel, and for the guests that their videos haven’t been released yet I’ll include examples of their work until the pieces from the panel do get published.

SunzriverP【Kagamine Rin】Boring Bowling

PENGUINS PROJECT【Hatsune Miku】Galapagos

ZANEEDS【Kagamine Rin】 Socialist Darling

And then Hideki Kenmochi spoke about Vocaloid software, but I couldn’t really see the screen very well so I didn’t get to see it. I do know he basically made Sweet Ann sing “Happy Birthday” for someone in the audience!

After the panel we had to stick around to help out with the raffle, but it was pretty entertaining to do. Masa also gave Vi-vi, Tsubasa Gaki, and I cute little knitted “Toeto” hats. :3

After waiting for everyone to clear, all the producers and Kenmochi-san came back and we were able to take some photos with them!

FastMatt was kind enough to wait around with me for everything to calm down, as well as take those two photos for me! I really appreciated his company, especially because the panel ended so late.. and I didn’t really want to walk to the shuttle alone at night -- especially while having to carry all my Black Gold Saw props and stuff still.

After the panel FastMatt and I did a few more video shoots of my Miku cosplay for his videos. He asked me to do some specific things to be used for the closing shot of his last video. It was a lot of fun working with you, Matt! I hope to work with you again at future conventions!

Here are all four videos that FastMatt made for Anime Expo!

After the shoot with FastMatt, I finally went back to my hotel room -- where I finally had my first drink of the convention! An “Adios Mother Fucker”. How classy, but -- please excuse the language -- fucking delicious. :) And that wraps up day 3.

Day 4

The last day of any convention is always the most depressing. Fortunately our hotel room didn’t have to check out until day 5, so we didn’t have to scramble and pack everything away.

I decided to bring out Touhouvania Suika at least once during AX, so I brought her out on day 4~ A big thanks to my hotel roommate, Nic, for helping me numerous times with getting to con! I really appreciated it! As soon as I got to con I decided to drop by the AX Live room because I knew that Jean wanted to see my Suika cosplay.

It was fun taking pictures with the little mini-me! After stopping by the AX Live room I went down to the convention center lobby where I hung out for a little bit. I finally got to see some of my friends, since that was the only day of the whole convention where I basically was able to relax… I got a free Mikunopolis poster from the Toyota table in the lobby -- if I had known they were giving out different posters each day I would have gone each day! Oh well~

A fun thing about day 4 was that I got interviewed as Suika, and I totally played the part of Suika! A drunk lesbian!

I’m at 3:27!

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. I just mainly hung out with friends that I either didn’t see at all during con, or that I barely saw during con. Otherwise I just wiggled my way around con, having my last few hours of actual con-relax time. Hahaha~ Fun fact: I drank all of day 4 as Suika~ I was drinking sake out of my gourd all day while at con. That’s the most I drank all con too! I also was randomly given some Touhou keycharms as Suika! That was really sweet of the attendee. ♥

I dropped by the NicoNico both on day4, which was an interesting experience I think I can easily say… I was too camera shy to do much on there. ; -; But from what I did get to show of myself and say, I think I did ok. I need to get better at talking to the camera! OTL The comments I got on there were .. interesting to say nonetheless.

Q and I then went to Dead Dog, the Anime Expo staff dinner on day 4, where we got to hang out with our good friends Elie, Ricky, and a few others registration. It was a fun last few hours…

And then it was all over. :C Dun dun dun~! I’m pretty sure that’s all there is to day 4!

That’s all the loot I have from AX! The first picture features everything I got.

Art print from my old friend Lavender-Ice

Sylvanas art print from exhibition hall

Sylvanas figurine (refernece for my cosplay of her that’s coming up!)

Toeto cap that Masa gave me

Hair scrunchie that Masa gave me

Touhou keycharms that the guy gave me at AX on day 4

Hatsune Miku AX posters

That’s pretty much all that I got, mainly because I had already spent so much pre-con on cosplay that I didn’t quite have the funds to buy more!

At least I’m responsible-ish with my money right? Haha~

So I think that’s about it for my AX2011-Recap post. If anyone sees / knows anything I might have forgotten to cover in this post, please feel free to let me know. I had quite a bit to cover as is that I may have easily forgotten to remember to write about some things.

Shout-out to everyone that helped me out during con! Thank you to everyone!

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