Huzzah! Finally, right? Well, it will be worth the wait because of the awesome videos. :)

Day Two

We all got a good night’s sleep in order to get up ~*bright and early*~ to change into our group cosplay. Both Vince and I woke up early to work out. He left earlier to go jog around the surrounding neighborhood while I hit the small hotel gym. Exercise is important! I did about 40 minutes of running on the treadmill before moving onto weight training when Vince met up with me and went back to the room to check our roommates who were either still sleeping or just getting up.

It was a bit surreal to see the pool area go from empty to completely PACKED in those two hours. Friday had been a little low-key due to many people having school or work that day so of course Saturday is the big no-holds party day from real life. It’s just really amazing how well this space works for an anime convention.

We all got dressed as characters from the series Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan (aka Buldgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan). Basically it’s a very silly and pervy comedy series about a high school boy and his guardian angel…who beats him to death and brings him back to life in crazy ways. We had cosplayed this series at Fanime but our friend Alice wanted to be part of the group as another character so we decided to do it again for ALA.

After we were all finally done (I have a habit of always misplacing my socks), we went downstairs and ran into Space Pirate Queen and MissTea! Both girls had decided to drop by for a half day so we chatted it up as we watched the youngsters filter by. It was also here that I discovered that Kelly also knew MissTea from high school. Small world…

L –> R: Me (as Dokuro), Space Pirate Queen, MissTea, and Kelly (as Sakura)

Continue reading

On St. Patrick’s Day, Meltdown Comics hosted a charity art event called We Heart Japan. Since I would be missing the rest of the charity art shows that weekend, I wanted to attend at least one event– and it has been awhile since I’ve made a stop at Meltdown Comics! My friend and co-worker, Liz Ohanesian, covered the event that night for LA Weekly and I accompanied her as her photographer. I got to watch her be a pro and interview some of the voice actors and artists that night!

The event was  put together by Stephanie Sheh, an American voice actress who has worked within the anime industry primarily. She recruited a long list of voice actors to come out and do autograph signings. Among the few actors present were Wendee Lee, Crispin Freeman, Travis Willingham and Daran Norris. There were a lot of wonderful artwork that were donated by different artists inside Meltdown’s art gallery.

We also got to see friends all night. Mike of The Wandering Kaijyu and Daniella of All About Manga were both present at the party. My friend, Shing,creator of Marlowe the Monster, was one of the artist who donated art and also volunteered for most of the night.

Money raised during the event and from the art sales went towards the aid of victims in Japan from the earthquake and tsunami.

Check out Liz’s blog on LA Weekly’s Style Council for a full report: Voice Actors, Artists and Anime Fans Say ‘We Heart Japan’ at Meltdown Comics.

Click here to check out my LA Weekly Slideshow and see more photos from the event!