JUL.15.2025 1:23 AM: Anime Expo Blog
This will be the third time I've visited Anime Expo. The con was unfortunately a blur that felt like I did everything and close to nothing. I'm going off of all the photo evidence I could muster.
It began with Wednesday arrival early. The day before the convention officially starts. (We find out later that we got upgraded with no extra cost. Nice and cool. We ended up being very close to the elevators and could hear them very well throughout the con. Not very nice and cool at all. This affects our sleep throughout the whole con going forward too)
Our friends staying at a different hotel nearby asked on the drive down if we wanted to eat somewhere and we agreed to a Ramen shop nearby. We ate there, drank some drinks with them at their hotel, then went back to our hotel. Unpack what we can and end the day.
We planned for Thursday to be our main purchase day because things simply run out as the con goes on. We started off this day wandering around a lot.
We headed to the Girls' Frontline 2 booth. It was outside and the hot California sun beat down on us so bad. We did a small experience on one side of the booth. You threw velcro balls onto a velcro target and "faced" someone. (I just face my boyfriend). He naturally won and we got a cute Springfield headband and some stickers. Also realized after that the line wasn't for the merch. Found the line right after and it was capped so we couldn't wait in line
My boyfriend loves these plastic bag sodas that we got the past 2 years so we tried to ask for some help to find them at the help booth to no avail. Afterwards we ran into our buddy Blkawp (his gamertag). Turns out that he wants to visit the Dokibird concert being held in the Diamond Ballroom. We wander around looking for that for a good half an hour, waited in a weird line, got in, and enjoyed the awesome birthday concert she was holding.
We wander back to the convention center and my boyfriend hopes he can get into the GFL2 booth for merch. "Maybe it won't be capped", we hope. It isn't when we get there. I try my luck with the Love and Deepspace line hoping to get some freebies for my sister. Turns out you had to have a level 50 account and I don't play. Not only that, you weren't assured the man you enjoy. I waited off to the side of the GFL2 booth for my boyfriend for around an hour and a half and talked to Blkawp since he was around still. My boyfriend leaves after not having gotten a cool bag he wanted, receiving a slight tan from the sun, and still spent around 100$ or so on other merch. We got to also do a cute little experience including a Sharkry cosplayer.
My boyfriend and I have an appointment after said experience and head to the NIKKE merch booth to meet up with a few of our friends. We split with Blkawp on the way there (a lot of coming and going). I bought some blingbag pins from the booth and get some characters I like. Shared and traded a few of them among the friends attending. We eventually split from those friends at the booth and go to get the bagged soda my boyfriend wanted, along with some baby castella cakes- a little snack to wind down. We meet back up with them and decide to go for a full meal at a soul food place I can't remember the name of. The day basically ends there since we headed back to the hotel after.
Friday was the Fourth of July, and I decided I was only going to wear my Elphelt wig today (my shoes for the cosplay were left at home. Woops!). This was also the first time I decided to try on contacts to change my eye color. It was blue, because a lot of the stuff I want to dress as includes bright blue or teal eyes. I struggled with it for around 30 minutes before I found a couple videos to explain it; "don't look directly into the contact. Put it on the whites of your eyes first, then turn and look into it after the contact is in." It worked after a few tries (sob)! After that, I helped my boyfriend get ready as Guzma for the day; his makeup, wig, glasses, arm tatoos(?) and clothes.
There were shuttles running to the convention center and back for free, but this time the shuttle that came by only let around 3 people on because it was too full. We concede and walk to the convention center instead. A bit of a hot walk but we make it and I end up wanting a Dr. Pepper from anywhere and we get some and find a seat in one of the food court areas. With so many people around, we sat at a table that already has an older woman sitting at it. My boyfriend and her started chatting and basically gave our whole con life story and how we met. She's thrilled to have her ear talked off. She shared a few things about herself as well; turns out she was there working at the Sakamoto Days booth they had for merch! We ended up promising by the end that we would visit her at the booth with our bigger cosplays then parted ways.
We begin our wandering for the day after our lovely exchange. I only had my eyes set on the Panty and Stocking season 2 world premiere. While we wandered, we found the Honkai Star Rail collab with Fate Saty/Night promo booth, Atlus merch, our first general look at the actual exhibit hall.
We skimmed through a decent amount of the convention center, including the artist alley and the 18+ section. After perusing the area we headed to a nearby food court and spent around 60$ for the most average burger meals you can imagine- I wouldn't recommend doing that. After that it was time to check out the line for Panty and Stocking after Blkawp texted us about it. It was pretty terrible. This was not a line and an awful experience.
No line, no organization. Nearing hundreds of people in front of the Peacock Theater with no idea what's going on or how to get in. We found out after 2 hours that they were letting people in finally but in an awful way. They would simply walk up to a part of the crowd with megaphones and tell people from the section in front of them to go in without pushing. Based on how they were doing that, if you just were shitty and shoved your way closer to the building in general, you probably got in first. They got our group near the end to go in pretty early on, which I was surprised about, so we were in on time. The Peacock theater seats over a thousand people as well so everyone might've got in. Just extremely slowly.
The first episode was a blast to watch. Awesome comeback after 15 years with no return in sight. The creators and everyone else were hyped; Studio Trigger ended up showing off a lot of their general work as well. We were given freebies of Panty and other cute fliers. After that we got back to the hotel after a bit, hoping to order dinner through room service, but it closed the moment we were ready to order. Tomorrow was the big day, and we couldn't really wander around to find anything, so we headed to sleep for the night.
Saturday is probably the biggest day for us seeing how I was to be cosplaying as Lancer Artoria from Fate Grand Order and my boyfriend to be Ozymandius from Fate as well.
Shuttle waiting time began because there was unfortunately no way I could bear to walk as much even with insoles in my boots. The bad luck with shuttles continues and we wait a decent amount of time for them for some reason. They were originally supposed to be running by at most, every half hour. At least I don't have to walk. An hour passes, we get our shuttle and head to the convention center. We head straight to the Fate panel happening and wait in line for a half an hour then are ushered in to the panel planned before the Fate panel. Turns out this was a panel for The Anime Men. It was a pretty fun and chill panel all things considering as well as them having bbno$ on as a guest for their panel. Some photos were taken when the shift for the Fate panel to start soon actually began.
The Fate Grand Order panel was fun and jam packed with new content that had to be skimmed through because there was a limited amount of time. After the panel, we dipped to the Aniplex booth in hopes of taking a couple of photos in the interactive hallway with FGO cards. As well at a couple of the little photo booths they had.
Unfortunately, my body started to give out on me a bit because I was dealing with my period. We headed back to the hotel as quickly as we could, waiting for the shuttle for half an hour again. Disappointed, thinking I was going to be in my cosplay for a restaurant we were going to eat at, I got out of it and we headed to meet up with Blkawp and another buddy for Pasta e Pasta.
My boyfriend rants and raves about Pasta e Pasta all year long until we go again. He loves the carbonara they serve there.
Afterwards, we head out to walk around Little Tokyo because Pasta e Pasta is nearby. We visited the gachapon stores they have there, Anime Jungle, and the SEGA Pop up store. Most of these stores were near closing so we weren't around for too long.
We went drinking after at a place I forget the name of every time. Relaxing time. Headed back to the hotel after
The final day of the con here and we are on a time limit. The hotel lets us keep the car parked until 2 or 3 according to some of the attendants. My boyfriend was still hoping to nab the GFL2 bag but no luck... We decide to split up. I'm heading to the artist alley for a bit to find gifts for my sister and friends. Primarily that Love and Deepspace stuff for my sister. Do what I need to do in artist alley then head back up and have no idea where my boyfriend is. We find each other then get lost for a bit, don't find anything he wants because it's probably sold out.
Back to the hotel to grab the car. I was eager to go a food place and a figure store closer to home than to buy figures at the con.
As an extra; Anime Expo barely stopped there. A week after, we attended a maid cafe collab with a ramen chain nearby and some of the same cars we saw at the convention were owned by someone's group of friends that we talked to in line. We saw a lot of those same convention cars roll up while the maids greeted everyone in line. We showed up early by maybe a half an hour or so and were greeted by a line that ended up being around 2 hours long of a wait. It was a very sweet experience with a lot of enthusiasm. I hope they do well at future events because this was their first collaboration.
