[convention] EPAC 2009

[EPAC website]

This years El Paso Anime Convention was held on

July 11th (saturday) and 12th (sunday) in UTEP's Student Union building.
The Sailor Moon button was made by psyconrikan and the other button was made by kenesukun.

The costum badge was made by winddancer9.

July 11th, 2009 [saturday]

I cosplayed as Orihime.

My day started out with staring at the long registration line that had formed because someone I had meet up with had to go wait in that line to register. I, on the other hand, was stuck staring because I had pre-registered and picked up my badge on the 10th (best descision to make because it saved me a lot of time). After about an hour or so of watching the line move very slowly, I went to check out the artist alley. I ended up buying this Vash print by kenesukun (which I got signed the next day). I also ended up buying a really pretty print (it's a different version of this one) from scotty6000 as well as a short manga called Bueatiful Blood which the artist has recently said on her DA blog that she will make "a branch off story that will be longer and go in depth of the story. [link]" With the purchase of the manga, I was also given a free bookmark and this print. I also donated some money (gave me a free print in return for my donation) to one of the members of Steam Machines and had him ctritique my art. He was pretty cool and gave me some neat advice and even said I had some good stuff (which I did not expect him to say).

After my friend finally got his con badge, I went with him to check out Steel Batallion which is a game where you get to controll a mecha. I ended up not playing the game, but my friend got killed in action. Haha. While he was playing (it takes a while to finish a mission in that game) I went to enter the hall cosplay contest and see when panels would start. The first panel I went to was the qualifications for anime trivia. It was a 50 question test of which I only missed 15, putting me in second place next to a girl who only missed 11. After that, I meet back up with my friend and his friend who's parents brought a type of california roll for us to eat. It was reeealllyyyy good! I believe after that I ended up losing contact with them because I went to an origiami panel while I waited for round one of anime trivia to start. I believe I also went to Santiago's manga panel before trivia started. I got 0 points by the time trivia was over during the first round. Haha. There wasn't anymore trivia untill the next day, but the people puting on the panel had said that 4th-6th place would be playing the next day. After anime trivia, I spent the rest of my day wondering around in the artist alley with a friend. She was dressed up as a geisha (she was the one telling fourtunes with the 7 sins. I ended up getting greed) so we decided it wasn't a good idea to go to the dance. I laughed so much during the 3 or so hours I spent in the arist alley just talking about how much I do not like yaoi/yuri and watched my friend make my custom badge while talking to one of the Steam Machine artists who she says is her inspiraton for a certain style of art. I didn't head back home untill the con staff kicked everyone out of the artist alley and Union building. All in all, day one was a blast!!

July 12th, 2009 [sunday]

I decided not to cosplay the second day.

I spent a lot of my day in how to draw manga panels and anime bingo/trivia (which I won at both). The second day was more relaxed and I didn't feel the need to do anything. I ended up buying more manga from scoty6000 and got two prints and two bookmarks. I'm too lazy to go into detail about day two. Haha. BUT I will say that I was the 4th person to get "BANKAI!" (aka bingo) and I got 1st place in anime trivia round 2. YAYYYY! I felt like such a celebrity/ nerd at the time. Since there weren't any panels left that I wanted to attened, I ended up going to watch Penguin Musume Heart of which I ended up runing into the same friend who gave me lunch the first day. We ended up eating pizza thanks to her parents before heading off to the RE:dance. All in all, day two was more layed back and less packed than day 1.

PICTURES!!

Mistral

C.C.

C.C. & Lelouch

Poison Ivy & Rorschach

masquerade crowed

origiami balloon

anime trivia r.1 (consulation prize)

anime bingo prize (also won pocky, not pictured)

anime trivia r.2 prizes (pencil case not pictured)

convention badge

scoty6000 swag

kenesukun & steam machine's swag

[Figures/Plushies] as of July 6, 2009

This is my anime figure/ plushie collection as of July 5th, 2009.
I will be taking higher quality pictures VERY SOON.
I'll be inclding details such as when I got the figures, links to buy your own and other such fun details.

[Naruto Shippuden] Collectible Mini-Figures: Ninjutsu Collection [Toyami]

Gaara

[packaged]

[Superior Defender Gundam][Bandai]
Captain Gundam

[packaged]

[Sailor Moon] Adventure Doll Series [Irwin]
Sailor Moon

[Pokemon]

Pikachu

[Naruto] 8" Plushie Doll [Great Eastern]
Garra

[Ghost in the Shell SAC] High Grade Real Figure [Kodansha/ Bandai]

Motoko Kusunagi (version B)

[Shaman King]

Lee Pai Long

[Ghost in the Shell] Movie Version Collectible Mini PVC Figures [Gargoyle]

Cystal ver. Tank

[Cosplay] Orihime- the shirt (so far) [EPAC 2009]

~Orihime Inoue~

Orihime's shirt so far....

Yesterday I spent most of my time on the interent and in my manga volumes/ magazines/ anime folders deciding who to cosplay as for EPAC '09. This was much harder than I anticipated it to be (especially considering I had to figure out a cosplay that was simple enough to make in 6 days so I could enter a hall cosplay contest). I ended up narrowing the search down to Riku from D.N.Angel, Yui from K-ON, Lenalee from D.Gray-man, Elie from Rave Master and Orihime from Bleach. In the end, I decided on Orihime because I already had a shirt I could modify into her school uniform.

I ordered a wig last night for her in an online shop that says shipping takes 3-5 days. I know that's cutting it EXTREMLY close... but I have faith my orange hair will arrive in the mail on time ;P I also added the orange details to the sides of the shirts sleeves and made a bow using a red t-shirt I no longer use. The bow isn't completed and the shirt is missing a pocket (which I probably won't add... oh well).

What Akia Cares About [#1][video games]

[review blog][deviantart][twitter]

~Video Games~

[teaser][E3][offical english site]

Trauma Center series [under the knife][second opinion][new blood][under the knife 2]

Trauma Team is set for a spring 2010 release in the states and Japan (but the game is tentavily called Hospital for the Japanese release). I'm a HUGE fan of the Trauma Center series, but this game will not have Derek Styles as a main character. Instead, there are 6 main characters you get to choose to play as- Gabriel Cunningham (diagnostician), Hank Freebird (orthopedic surgeon), Naomi Kimishima (medical examiner -she was also a nurse in Second Opinion-), Maria Torres (paramedic/ EMT), Prisoner CR-S01 (surgeon). Atlus has not given much info out about the game other than character names and positions. The teaser (linked above) does not show much game play.

If you have yet to play a game in Atlus' Trauma Center series, I reccomend those with the choice between playing the Nintendo DS releases (Under the Knife and Under the Knife 2) and the Nintendo Wii ones (Second Opinion is what could be called a 'Wii-make' of Under the Knife where as New Blood is the true Trauma Center release for the Wii), to play the DS releases. Second Opinion was extremly easy to play on any of the difficulties, and I can not give an opinion on New Blood because I have not played it... but I hear it is hard to beat.

Persona PSP
[E3 demo][official english site]
I've never played the original Persona, but I am pretty excited about the PSP release. The main reason I have yet to play the origina version is because I have had a hard time finding one to buy that isn't over priced. The game was originally released in 1996 as Persona Revelations. It was released for the original Play Station. Even though the PSP version is considered a PSP-remake, Atlus promises the game will be "fully rebalanced, visually enhanced, and completely relocalized." There's also a level that was not included in the original english release! The game is set for a September 22 2009 english release. If you preorder the game, you'll get a 2-cd soundrack.

I'm also looking forward to...

1] Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. [official japanese site] It's the 5th game in the Ace Attorney series by Capcom. This time around, you get to play as Pheonix's frienemy Edgeworth. The game focuses more on investigations rather than time in court. Edgeworth is a presecutor where as Pheonix is a defense attorney. The game was released last month in Japan and is expected to be released winter 2009 or early 2010. I've beaten the first game in the Ace Attorney series (the DS release, not the original Game Boy one) and am currently working my way through the second game.

2] Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams. [official website][teaser][gameplay] I'm still working my way through the first game, but that doesn't keep me from being excited about the second. In the first game, you play as a human but in the second you get to play as a Big Daddy... a very scary drill handed creature. Set for a fall 2009 release.

[Movie News] New Moon teaser

I came really close to hyperventalating.

NO JOKE =D

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD

[YA Novel News] September of 2009

I seriously CAN NOT wait for September 2009 to roll around not only because I might be going to my first anime convention, but also because there are some young adult novles coming out that I am extremly anxious to read.

The first one on my list is the sequel to Skinned, Crashed. I read Skinned earlier this year and fell in love with the complexities of the characters even though the book itself wasn't too full of character development simply because there were not enough pages to do so. I'm a huge fan of anything (such as movies, manga and novels) having to do with human like robots- but in Skinned, the brain is completly scanned in order to allow the person to reatain what made them human which is their memories.

The second one on my list is the sequel to the Hunger Games, Catching Fire (which will be the second in three planned books). I'm currently reading the first book and am in love with the story, even though it is very much like the Battle Royal franchise.

[Anime News] Eureka seveN: Pocketfull of Rainbows

Fans of the hit anime Eureka seveN (which played several times through on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up) have something to rejoice about ever since April 25 2009 rolled around- a movie entitled Eureka seveN: Pocket Full of Rainbows was released in Tokyo's Theatre Shinjuku, Osaka's Theatre Umeda, and other theatres throughout it's release during 2009's Golden Week.

I'm a HUGE fan of the Eureka seveN anime, so I'm really shocked that I forgot about the movie release!!! I'll definantly be watching this once I find a sub or when the english dub is released (I'll most likely watch it in Japanese with subtitles because I don't like the english voices).