Hi everyone!  Today Danny will be introducing a new category of blog entries, aptly named…blog!  In the past, we’ve had updates (new art by Danny) and announcements (technical maintenance type stuff).  We now have an op-ed type where Danny can talk about movies or tv series he’s seen, books he’s read, new music or even event’s he’s gone to!  All blog entries will have something to do along the lines of art, animation or music.  So Danny, what will the first blog entry be about?

This weekend I went to the New York Comic Con/Anime Festival, as well as an X Japan concert on sunday.  I have a lot to share, but I will try to keep it short by giving highlights of the weekend.

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A convention eh?  You know, I never really got this comic book convention or anime cosplay stuff anyway.

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Is that something an animated character should be saying??

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Well, regardless, what was the first thing you did?

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I arrived Friday at the Jacob Javits Center at 7 am to get tickets to a limited Minori Chihara autograph session.  For those who don’t know, Minori Chihara is a very famous voice actress most notable as the voice of Nagato Yuki in Haruhi Suzumiya.  She also did the voice of Minami Chiaki in Minaki-ke, Natsume Aya in Tenjou Tenge and Minami Iwasaki in Lucky Star, among many others.  Here’s a pic of the line at 7 am.

Quite dedicated, aren’t you?  …wait, what time did the actual convention start?!?

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1 pm on Friday.

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I see… What did you do for 6 hours after you got your ticket?

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Didn’t really have anything better to do so I grabbed a good spot in line to get into the actual showfloor when the doors opened at 1.  To give you an idea of where I was, here’s a pic of the line in front of me at 7, then a pic of the line behind me at around 12.

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T-that’s quite a lot of people…  Is that someone dressed as a Jedi?

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Yes, yes it is.  There were a lot of cosplayers going around and since the comic con and anime festival were being held together, there was a nice mix between the two genres.  Here’s a gallery with some of the better stuff I saw.  (sorry for the blurriness in some of the pictures)

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Hm..? But I’ve noticed you don’t have as much anime stuff.  Were there not as much of that?

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Hmm…  I saw a lot of anime stuff there, but I guess I just don’t consider them good enough haha…

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Ho?  You have surprisingly high standards for certain things, eh?

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Hehe, guess so.  I also have high standards for figures and other merchandise.  Here’s some photos of other stuff at the con.

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Ahhh…. There were a lot of great figures for sale there!  Unfortunately many were a bit too expensive for me…

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How much do these things cost anyway?

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There’s cheaper stuff from $20 and below, but most of the figures here cost probably $50 and above?  The perfect grade Gundam models at the end all cost between $100 – $300+

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$300?!?!

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Well, they’re perfect grade after all, the highest series you can buy for gundam models.

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Well, I guess there are always people willing to buy those expensive things… And?  What did you end up buying?  (and perfect what…?)

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A Nico Robin figure and two books, Pixiv 2009 and 2010.  Pixiv is an artbook featuring a different Japanese digital artist on each page with their website and email address.  I’ve also included some of the free swag I got in this gallery.

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Ah!  You mentioned in the beginning you were in line for a Minori Chihara signing?  How’d that go?  Were you able to get anything signed?

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Yes, I was able to get a poster signed at the ticketed event.  I also saw her at her panel discussion as well as her concert on saturday night!  Chihara-san, thank you so much for singing 経験値上昇中☆ (Keikenchi Jōshōchū☆).  I’m so glad I got to hear Chiaki’s voice in person!  Ahhh yes and now we’ve come to the image gallery I’m most proud of!  My autographed posters and pictures of famous people!  I’ll be framing all of these posters very soon, but for now I just took pictures to share with you all.

Introducing the U.S. Premiere of the Haruhi Movie

Minori Chihara performing Keikenchi Jōshōchū☆

Last song of the concert – Hare Hare Yukai

Me waiting in line for my autograph

Wow, sounds like you had a pretty good time, huh?

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I was very very very happy to be able to meet and get autographs from Chihara Minori and Kanon, I was looking forward to those for a very long time!  Not to mention getting an autograph from Ryota Niitsuma and getting to speak with Yasu Kurosawa!  It was really cool to talk with him as we just chatted about Final Fantasy XIV.  I got to tell him what level my character was at, what I liked about the game, what I thought needed improvement… oh! and I was lucky enough to trade business cards with him!  Kurosawa-san, if you are reading this, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me!

Yes, Danny would like to thank everyone he got to meet and get autographs from this weekend, as well as anyone he met this weekend that is visiting the site.  Please feel free to leave comments and check back often!  Thank you very much.

Well, one day I’ll be the one giving out the autogra-

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I mean, thank you very much.

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Danny will give his blog on the X Japan concert in another post, as well as give a look back at all of the other amazing concerts he’s gone to this year!  Stay tuned for another entry coming soon!

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As a parting video, here’s the first half of Lucky Star episode 12, where Konata, Kagami and Tsukasa go to comiket.  Pretty much summed up my weekend… enjoy!

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