(image by Culture Japan )

So here we go again, 3rd year in a row, Linecon 2013 edition.
Except this time I had a premier fan badge and I got to skip a couple of lines/ get ahead of the general plebs.  Complete game changer:

Day 0

Well this was a pretty short day in terms of lines. Lined up an hour ahead for premier line, which in turn opened an hour late so in total I spent 2h there.
Got a poster and then met up with Conner and his group to eat at Curry House.

We then headed back to watch FREE ~

Rewatching #TV_Free again, just because ! pic.twitter.com/jYzfBKxcFG

— Chris (@Kurotsuki) July 4, 2013

Day 1

What an interesting day.
First off, let me say that the AX new bag check thing is an awesome joke.
The first time I entered the con center I didn’t even get bag checked.
And the second time the guy just patted my bag.
other times you could just sneak in and people would not noticed you. Made worse at night when there’s one guy at the table and a large group entering.

Anyway, day 1 started with coffee with Madotsuki, Toast , Conner and his group.
Then headed to the exhibit hall to jump on Sentai’s VIP tickets for cocktail with Makoto Shinkai.
One that was acquired I went to preorder “The Guided Fate Paradox” so I could get a guarantee ticket for a Noizi Ito autograph an the NIS booth.

Went to Vertical Manga booth with Conner and had a cool chat with Ed.

Then I went to Project-H booth , and I got me some Yamatogawa eromanga and poster (which I forgot at LAX  airport )

Shounen Jump Panel

The panel was “the history of shounen jump” with Brown asking questions along the way to Sasaki, and the later answering by reading from a script for my greater disappointment.

That being said, at least I got to see Sasaki in real life and told him about my love for Shokugeki no Soma which I hope to see released in English someday.

Vertical Panel

Ed went trough the catalog, announced a new manga series “insufficient Direction” by Moyoco Anno (wife of Director Hideako Anno ),  took a few jabs at Conner and then went quickly trough the manga licensing process.

Really nice panel.

That Panel over, I went back to the dealers room, got a picture with Jessica Nigri because that’s a thing apparently, then went to roam around a bit to take pictures of cosplays and then somehow ended up at the :

Aya Ikeda x Carat concert

The Aya concert itself was pretty fun.

Aya had lots of energy and she did sing all her major PreCure songs, so that was great.

Carat however…

The main DJ ( Mona ) played sorta remixed anisongs and while the song themselves weren’t bad , the sound effect she put were out of this world awful.  But then the other 4 girls appears and started singing their own stuff and it was actually decent.

That over I went to get some food with blitz and Franz.
Birdy joined us, we went to get alcohol and play some idolm@ster with a bunch of people.
Pretty fun until I got a call from the hotel complaining about the noise Orz.

Day 2

Got up, ran to line up at the 9 for the dealers room so I could then line up for the

Noizi Ito Autograph

I’m really happy that I got her to sign this for me.

Noizi Ito Autograph GET ! pic.twitter.com/2eOufdFqYj

— Chris (@Kurotsuki) July 5, 2013

Then I went to line up for three hours  for

Huke autograph

Linecon2013 for real.

So yeah, Huke autograph GET ! He put three dots too, apparently I’m the only one he did that too. I’m special ~ pic.twitter.com/2UL5zVEw8c

— Chris (@Kurotsuki) July 5, 2013

Saw a line to get into a pic with Jessica Nigri and jumped into the bandwagon (again).

That being done, I ran to the little witch academia screening.
It was actually my first time watching it.  As expected of studio TRIGGER , the animation was top quality.
At the end of the panel they announced that they would open a kickstarter this week for the production of a second episode.

Went to get dinner with Exciel and then chilled in Conner’s room, and then we hit the Original Pantry at 1am for breakfast like pros.

Day 3

Vocaloid Mirai no Neiro panel

I went to both  back to back panels.
The intro to both panels was : 「Giant Recital」by kagomeP with video by Zanio and G-2

The First panel:

we got the usual mini Miku concert.
The songs played were:
– 「Sadistic Love」by Junkie
– 「Mr.Wonderboy」by
– 「1/6 out of the gravity 」
– 「Freely Tomorrow 」
– 「Packaged」
– 「Tell your world (English)」
And it ended with a song in Spanish
– 「la bikina」

Then they showed us new videos
– 「Galapagos Girl」by Penguin Project
– 「Q-est 」by K
And finally a song by a Mexican P
– 「Len vs Warrior Quest XVII」by Ankari

The Second panel:

We got introduced to Japanese P who like last year paid from their own pockets to come see us.
We saw the return of Dixie Flatline & KagomeP and new Ps:  Buzz G, Tennen, UtataP and his illustrator Wogura.

They started with Buzz G who introduced himself.
He said that he used to be part of a band, and discovered Vocaloid trough a friend. He was surprised to see the incredible response from Japan and around the world to his music.
He presented his latest video : 「A.I.210」

Dixie Flatline presented 「アポカリプス」
He wanted to give it an RPG setting based on the politics of Japan. He reiterated that it was for entertainment and that there was no political message behind.
He ended by saying ” find the truth of your world ” and ” go vote”

KagomeP presented 「Good Night, and fxxkin’ anthems」which he said he drew from all the inspiration he received last year in America and from AX
After catching back his breath from having dancing too much during the video presentation , he reiterated that it was based on all the inspirational and shines music he heard in the U.S , such as “Shots” by LMFAO
he then presented extract of his 「Wonderful Nippon」video and approached the subject if what is right and plagiarism.
He asked that people stop slamming artist by improperly reporting their homages and inspired work as plagiarism.
He also explained that he made this video because he got jealous of Gangnam Style.
Unfortunately Kpop is largely discriminated against in Japan and there is a lot of Korea bashing, he hated seeing it in the web so he made this song as a joke to all these people.
He warned that he is not Justice , and he dislike people who puts down others with such pretence.
“Why so serious?” He asked, we should all dance our problems away he added.
He concluded with “Love Music, Japan and America”.

Tennen presented 「ハイハハイニ」
He presented himself as someone who works in the game industry ( I didn’t quite catch what he does, but he worked on God Eater for example )
He discovered Vocaloid in 2008 after being project exhaustion, he walked into an electronic store looking for anything interesting and saw a Kagamine twins video.
He who had given up on music became engrossed into composing songs and listening on others on NicoNico.
The result of all that being that he could be there with us.
He wanted to clarify that his song being included in Project Diva F had nothing to do with the fact that he works in the game industry, he’s never even met SEGA before.
As a matter of fact he was so concerned that it would be a breach of contract with his current that he went to check with his boss that it was ok.
He’s glad that Vocaloid is a hobby that made him reconnect with music.

UtataP and Wogura presented 「こちら、幸福安心委員会です。」
Surprisingly, he lives in L.A , so if you want to go drink with him, he’s up for that.
he said he that he used to only make instrumental music, but got introduced to Vocaloid (Miku ) trough a friend as well.
He had almost given up because it’s a rather difficult software, but he decided to post a demo of his song.
incidentally, his P name comes from one of the comments.
In 2009 he met Wogura by finding her work on the internet and got to use her work in his videos.
His song was even picked for Mikunopolis.
He had album plans for 2012, so he contact Wogura again, and since she liked techno she agreed to a collaboration, and they’ve worked together since then.

She added that she often gets crazy orders from UtataP (such a Miku with facial hair), but it’s very fun.
He concluded that it is indeed difficult, but very fun , combing talking voice and music.  He finds Miku cute, but often want her to say cruel things, despite not being M.

Q&A:

– How do they feel when people upload their videos on YouTube ?

BuzzG said that he’s happy they get translated. Dixie said “why not?” , and KagomeP understand why people do it. UtataP said thanks.

– why you so awesome ?

BuzzG said, he doesn’t do anything particular. Basically, Eat, sleep, exercise. utata and tennen agreed.
Dixie joked “Eat more sushi” and KagomeP realized that he created a monster.

– what would your lives be if vocaloid was never made ?

BuzzG, Dixie and Kagome all agreed on being homeless, while tennen would still be crawling under mountains of work.

And finally, a question for KagomeP

– are you going to make a parody of gentlemen ?

He replied that he Wants to do it but hasn’t found a way to make it funny yet. He asked to Wait for it.
He wants to make a shiny song.

After that, I got the Dixie, KagomeP and UtataP to sign my iPad mini ~

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot that got Dixie Flatline, KagomeP, and UtataP to sign my iPad mini. pic.twitter.com/7W9jzFX5cd

— Chris (@Kurotsuki) July 8, 2013

Sunrise Official Panel

I then rushed to see the ending of it and arrived as they were announcing that Daisuki.net will exclusively be streaming the never released before in North America : Gundam ZZ
Also, they reassured that they are currently in talks with Funimation and Sentai for formers BEI titles.

Garden of Word premiere

with special guest appearance by Makoto Shinkai.

It was my first time seeing the movie, and despite it being dubbed in English, I have to say I really, really loved it.
After the movie, Shinkai came for a couple of quick words.
He said that he wanted to make a story about hiding from rain. Actually there two main stories he wanted to tell
One is a story about two people meeting I rainy season; and the other one is about hiding from rain in their life
in that story, Yukino had trouble and couldn’t go to school, while Takao is at a particular moment in his life.
Takao finds love in the similar way that rain fall (didn’t quite catch that one).
That’s what he wanted to tell, a story about two people who meet about a special moment in their life.
he was also Impressed by English dub, but nonetheless recommended checking the original Japanese track in the BR.

Garden of Word reception

Right after the screening, in Lounge 21.
we were given one coupon for a free drink.
I got myself a rum cola, which was more ice than anything else.
We got in line for the autograph session, I got him to sign my Garden of Words BR and to exchange quick words with him, I’m super happy about that.

Porno Graffiti concert came next.
We made it into the pit and I can truthfully say that the concert was rather awesome.

He is the set list curtsey of Japanator
01. アポロ
02. 今宵、月が見えずとも
03. 瞬く星の下で
04. ヒトリノ夜
05. アニマロッサ
06. サウダージ
07. Winding Road
08. 愛が呼ぶほうへ
09. Century Lovers
10. Mugen
11. メリッサ
12. ハネウマライダー
13. ミュージック・アワー

Encore:

13. アゲハ蝶
14. ジレンマ
15. メリッサ

Unfortunately, I only knew two of these, but so happy they did Winding Road because I love that song so much.

Project-H panel

Took a sprint right after the concert to get there.
Almost didn’t make it and they were capped too, thank you based Premier Fan.
It was a pretty interesting panel, got to hear a bit of the mindset of the president of DMP and how they work.
The only thing I didn’t like about the panel was people laughing a immature things, but I guess that was to be expected.

The night being almost over, Exciel and I decided it was time to finally make good use of the alcohol we had bought.
After being sufficiently inebriated, I went to meet Eternal, Kevo and Inushinde in the lobby. To get at my level they headed out in the quest for Alcohol, and so did I with Exciel and Dave but we got lost.
We still managed to stumble upon Ralph which was still open and still selling alcohol. Met the rest in the lobby our new quest was to find a place to drink the acquired loot, which is when a random dude appears before us and says
“You guys wanna party ? Ice Room, 7th floor. Tell them I sent you. ”
we all thought it was sketchy but decided to check it nonetheless.
I was expecting to be a bar with an cold room or sorts, but nope, it was really only a room on the 7th where you go get ice from the ice machine.
And there were a dozen of severely inebriated people in that room.
Needless to say it’s the most brilliant idea I had seen in a while.
I went to drop my camera in my room by fear of it being broken by the alcohol impaired people in that room, manage to stumble upon Chris Macdonald and found out he speaks French too ( Mind you that not everybody in MTL does).
As I was about to head back to the ice room, I was stopped by Exciel and Bbjobs who informed me that security had arrived and crashed the party.
I am saddened that I lost my bottle of wine in the process.
Went on a quest to find where Eternal and the others had disappeared to, and ended up playing drunk Tanto Cuore with them until Kevo called it quit because it was too hard. Orz

Day 4

Woke up with a sort of hangover, and circumstance made me skip the whole last day of the con.
But it wasn’t all that bad, went to Karaoke and had Ramen one last time before leaving.

Final loot :

In retrospect, I’d say it was a pretty awesome con, unfortunately this mainly because I was a premier and got to skip many lines, which are becoming a bit insane due to there being more people.
I was not able to obtain it for next year because it apparently got sold out at the con, so I may not go to AX2014 , we shall see how it goes.

And now for the cosplays:

 

 

^ Exciel making 765pro proud. ^