Anime Expo 2010 @ LA
Day 2 part 1

I think I'm the only person in the group that watched Bleach, so needless to say everyone else went into the line-up for the Kitamura panel starting almost 2 hrs later. We also got a glimpse of the end of the line-up for the AKB48 panel outside and the AX staff preventing more ppl from lining up. I was genuinely surprised at the number of AKB48 fans on this side of the Pacific...

[Bleach Panel]
Since there's still time before the Bleach panel, I decided to walk around and take pictures of cosplayers as I didn't have much chance to the day before. When I got to the hall where the panel was to be held, there was no line-up. The majority of the people who would attend the panel were already inside the theatre watching the showing of Ulquiorra vs. Ichigo director's cut. I had already seen the respective episodes so I didn't feel like arriving early for it.

The panel itself started with a mini-performance by RSP before Morita entered the stage, followed by a Q&A session for Morita. One of the questions was asked by a Hitsugaya cosplayer who demanded to know why Ichigo wouldn't call him (Hitsugaya) by his captain title no matter how many times he asked Ichigo to, to which Morita just smiled and apologized politely, then proceeded to call him Toushirou. XD

The last corner of the panel was a room-wide rock-scissor-paper match against Morita to decide the lucky few for the rare Bleach goods Morita brought from Japan. I lost in the 2nd round. T__T

After the panel, I took more photos of cosplayers before peeking in the Kitamura panel. I sat there for a few minutes and heard (I was too far back to see her expression) Kitamura said the famous Yui line from Angel Beats! Unfortunately I hadn't watched Angel Beats! at this point so the reference was lost to me... Acoording to Neko-tan, even though Kitamura was there to promote Toradora, most of the questions were Angel Beats!-centric. Angel Beats! just finished airing in Japan the week before AX, too. XD

There was still time before the panel would end so I went to the Exhibition Hall and browsed around. There, lo and behold, was Horie Yui having an autograph session at the NIS booth! I didn't have anything for signing on hand and didn't really want to try my luck with the long line-up so I just looked from the side. Of course, no photos allowed. :x

Then I went back to the Kitamura panel and waited for Neko-tan and Magic Frog so we can go to the...

[May'n & Nakajima Megumi Concert]
ｷﾀｰｰｰｰｰｰｰ（°∀°）ｰｰｰｰｰｰｰ!!
This was what spurred me to flew across the continent to attend AX. I watched the Macross Frontier concert @ Budoukan before coming and, despite knowing that the scale and program would be far from comparable, had been anticipating anxiously for the AX concert. I wasn't hard core enough to buy glow sticks, but a lot of people at the concert did. There were three guys from Japan a few rows in front of us fully equipped with hoards of glow sticks, clothes wrapped around the neck, and the blue T-shirts from May'n's BIG★WAAAAAVE!! @ Budoukan concert. My first time seeing professional glow stick waving techniques in person. さすが職人技！　XD

The exceptional musical treat started off with "Welcome To My FanClub’s Night!" and May'n performed Sheryl's and her songs for the first 20 minutes or so. The speakers at Nokia Centre weren't the best and the stage was small (reduced to almost half the size with the grand piano there), but May'n vocal and dance prowess was evident. They sounded exactly like the CD's and more! The air she maintained while singing Macross Frontier songs was fitting to Sheryl's character, but she's just cute being herself during "May’n☆Space." I hadn't seen the Macross Frontier movie at this time so I didn't quite understand fully the different tones she used for "Universal Bunny", and only now realized that her dance moves were exactly the same as Sheryl in the movie! 生May'n最高！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )

After May'n left and Nakajima took centre stage, you can tell ppl were still in the mood, but the number of glow sticks in the air decreased drastically, especially when she sang her own non-MF songs. 一気にテンション下がったって感じ。無理もない、こっちもそうだった... Her stage costume was fitting for the idol-wannabe character of Ranka but also kinda made her looked like a cosplayer for a Disney princess when young. The changed-lyric carrot song about her coming to the US was nice, though XD.

And the special secret guest...!! I kinda expected it to be that person, but actually seeing her was something else. 菅野よう子！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ ) The place went wild when Kanno-san appeared on stage as everyone clapped and screamed like crazy. Kanno-san performed on the piano for the next couple songs with Nakajima: アイモ, VOICES, 蒼のエーテル, 愛・おぼえていますか, ダイアモンド クレバス (acoustic duet version with May'n).

With Kanno-san's exit, the concert was coming to an end as May'n and Nakajima performed Lion and Triangular together. There was no encore, but it was still a satisfying closure. There were a few instances when Nakajima went off-key or couldn't get her voice up enough for the faster songs with May'n, but May'n alone made up for everything. 来てよかった。（つд｀）