Anime Expo = Halloween in Las Vegas

I'd been looking forward to going for a few months, but it really wasn't all it cracked up to be. Probably the most memorable costume I saw was a guy dressed like ... I think he might've been Fay(e?) from Bebop, but I only saw him from the back, so I couldn't be certain. His a** was completely hanging out the back (and I'll bet Cousin It's barber has probably seen less hair..O.O).

I did get a few gorgeous fanart prints, as well as a two-sizes-too-big Kagome T-shirt (I was expecting the medium to be....well....medium. Guess not). About 75% of the costumes were gorgeous and/or reasonable, the other 25% were totally inappropriate, but still good for a chuckle or two. Musta been the hentai cosplays. And there were LOADS of Inuyasha/Kagome/Sango/Kikyo/Sesshomarus, but I only saw one Miroku (and a Jakotsu ^_^).

Ooh! STORY TIME!! My friend was dressed as Sakura (Naruto, not Cardcaptor) and this guy approaches her out of nowhere with a little squshy heart-shaped...thing and screams "I HEART YOU SAKURA!" and glomps her like mad. Definitely an eyebrow-raiser, especially since she's usually so prudish (and she wasn't making a move to REFUSE the hug either, I noticed ^_^).

Oh, and Kagome's dub voice actress is a BLONDE?! I cannot wrap my head around that....Naraku's was there as well and he was surprisingly smiley (bordering on cheesy comma nauseating actually) although I suppose his Jonny Depp style gold tooth redeemed my perception of him a little bit.

It was actually sort of empowering to see everyone else who showed up (and it was quite a substantial turn-out). Kinda made me feel like a little less of an oddball for liking anime. Well, to be more specific, it kinda made me feel like a little less of an oddball for being a Caucasian anime fan. I don't really know how to describe the feeling, but it's the same sort of sensation I got around the summer-camp campfire last year. Unifying, I guess. But at the same time it was so intimidating to be surrounded by real, hardcore otakus. I felt a bit like a shrimpy n00b...especially whenever I stopped by anything involving Inuyasha. (I think you guys can all agree that IY fans aren't exactly respected by elitists...most of them consider IY to be a stepping stone into anime, but not worth their attention. And the fanbase kinda damages their own reputation even more...the majority of IY fans I've met [outside of BJP] are not exactly helping the situation with their asinine cries of "SESSHOMARU IS MY HUSBAND LOL OMG WE HAVE BABIES WHO WEAR FLUFFY BOAS AND WORK FOR MODELING AGENCIES!" "KIKYO SUX()RS!" "KAGOME SUX()RS!" (You can't imagine how painful it was to type that last one).

Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm glad the journals are back up though...I can only imagine most of my friends' reactions if I'd posted this on my regular journal ^_^

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