THE BLOG: April 2010

I feel like JAME-USA by writing(really just copy-pasting) my reviews/recollections(Maria's) of shows that took place several months prior. Yeah, Sakura-con happened last week but I believe I never really got down to rambling about my AnimeUSA experiences....so here goes.

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I just went to Seattle's Sakura-con to see Dazzle Vision but never wrote about Kaya. I have had this document on my desktop forever. Wrote about when I went to see Kaya in DC so I am just going to copy and paste it.

So I better write about Kaya before I forget.

We decided to fly to Washington DC and attend AnimeUSA because Kaya was going to be there . Joseph had just saw him last year at PMX without me so I was really excited to be able to go this time. The next week after we bought everything, Dir en grey announced they were coming back too and that they were both going to be in the same month! We were going to be super strapped for cash but we decided to go ahead and get the Sponsor level badges anyways. They were $50 more than the regular ones and limited to only 50 people. It would allow us to cut all the lines at the convention and we'd also get a special shirt and pin set, also your names printed in the program book they handed out to everyone.

So months later,

Airport

Catch a 6am flight the first day of the convention. We had book this flight really early because we weren’t sure when Kaya was going to be doing his stuff, they had barley released the convention schedule that Monday. I hate going to the airport but this time it was surprisingly a pleasant experience. Everyone was nice. Some strange lady worker said I was pretty and I was all like “Really?” I haven’t heard anyone tell me that for years. I had this suitcase that is in the shape of a car and I thought it was cute when it went on the moving conveyor belt because it looked like it was driving. The pilot behind me thought it was funny too.

After we got through security we were waiting but they changed our gate so we had to move somewhere else. I saw this girl who was wearing a purple wig and I was wondering if she was going to the convention too. The flight was about 3 hours, airplane was really cramped and uncomfortable.

We arrived around 9am DC time which is an hour time difference from KC. We were really confused about what to do so we went searching for the free shuttle and caught the one going to the Hyatt, which was where the convention was going to be.

DAY 1

When we got to the Hyatt it was really small and crowded. I didn’t realize it was going to be such a small place. There was already a long line for badge pickup but right away we saw a guy holding a sign that said “Sponsors” prompt service. He escorted us to go get our badges right away. They basically looked like everyone else’s badges. I thought they would be more unique, but the art we really good on everything.

We sat in the lobby area and it smelled like someone just threw up. It was next to a bar so I figured someone had too much to drink the night before. It was also where the “maid café” was suppose to be. I wanted to check it out to see if their were any good looking Asian girls serving people but I found out later it was just a bunch of average looking kids.

There were already a few kids dressed up and I was actually pretty impressed by their costumes. I remember seeing some kid with a computer monitor as a mask. I don’t know what that was all about.

When we were waiting in the lobby Joseph was facing this kid who was doing some amazing card tricks and he kept telling me to watch him. I wasn’t facing him so I couldn’t see what the kid was doing. This was also the time this big old dude with a Mohawk was staring at me and then started talking to me because he confused me with someone else. I thought he was drunk or something but I found out later he was the guy who was in charge of everything. He wasn’t drunk at all.

Hotel

So far the trip was turning out to be very interesting. We had booked a room at the Marriot which was right next door to the Hyatt. I thought it was further down the street because Google Maps had that shit all wrong. We were able to check in early and I don’t think they even charged us extra for it. The room had this humongous bed I think they called it a double bed and there was also a sitting area and they had an lcd tv. It was pretty nice

We got ready and just waited in the hotel till around 1:30, that was the time they were going to allow sponsor people into the dealers room. I really didn’t have a lot to spend and Joseph kept warning me about not getting too excited about what was going to be in there because he didn’t see crap at PMX last time. But he was totally wrong!

Dealers room

We came back to go to the dealers room and the line was fucking loooong. I don’t know what they were waiting for, but we got to go ahead and go in since we were sponsors.

The dealers room was huge! It had nice stuff but the first thing I noticed was some 17” blue boxed sailor Venus and Jupiter and 17” yellow boxed Venus which are ones I don’t have. They were all $50 each. I was excited to see them but I thought I could get them cheaper on eBay if I waited. Also saw $8 bottle cap figures. I have never actually seen them in real life and I never knew they were so small and I thought they were very overpriced. We left that booth and I was actually considering buying those dolls if I didn’t see anything else.

After that the first thing I brought was a Cure magazine with Kaya on the cover of it. I asked how much it was and the guy told me $10. I thought it was a good price and when I was going to hand the money over I realized it was that douche bag salesman who was on Dir en grey’s Family Values and Inward Scream tour and we also saw him at Taste of Chaos. Joe doesn’t like that guy but I went ahead and bought the mag.

After a long walk I came to this one booth with a whole shit load more of better Sailor moon stuff, I about had a heart attack! I saw some 18” excellent models, ART-books, those huge cutie model statues, spiral heat wand, chibimoon locket, ufo’s, bags…….I just passed it because I didn’t see prices on shit and didn’t want to ask because I thought they would be too much for me to buy anyways but I eventually found enough courage to ask the old man running the booth for the prices. First I asked about a Saturn ufo which was $35. Eh…reasonable. Then I asked about the spiral heart wand which was $65. Eh reasonable. Then I asked about an excellent team Saturn doll . I just referred to it as “ that doll” just because I didn’t what him to know I knew what it was . He told me it was $125 and I was like in shock, I was like WTF? I just saw one sell on eBay for like $200 and I was like "dude, I have to buy this doll". I don’t think I would get a better deal on this doll because of shipping fees and shit. So I went ahead and bought it. I also went ahead and brought this super sailor moon plush that comes with a plastic heart wand for $20. I hurried up and left because I still hadn’t even hit up Kaya's booth.

So we get to Kaya’s booth and he was just selling some headbands. I guess he made them or something, they had a “Kaya” labeled on them but I wasn’t really digging them. And there was some singles and a cd Joseph didn’t recognized and 2 posters. Best of all was this huge wall scroll with his coat of arms on it. So we went ahead and bought the wall scroll for $60 and the posters for $15 each. Oh and the feather fan. I liked it because there is a rubber key chain attached to it that says “Kaya” on it. Joe said he saw it at PMX. I am not sure why he didn’t buy it then because it was pretty damn cool.

Another booth we saw a whole bunch of Dir en grey music tab books and all these other jrock books like Malice Mizer, moi dix mois, x-japan . They were like $30 each so we didn’t buy any I really wish we had saved up more money L.

Spotting Kaya

After we were trying to figure out how to leave the room Joseph was like “is that Kaya’s dancers” and it was them. They kinda looked like shit with their 5 o'clock shadows and the girls without their makeup. When we saw them, we walked by and pretended to be looking at another booth, but really we were checking them out and that was when Joseph was like “ is that KAYA!?” and sure enough it was him! He was looking like a guy of course. he was wearing some giant ass sunglasses and some fur trim sweater. He looked so tiny! This was my first glimpse of Kaya in real life. I think he was looking at sunglasses or masquerade masks. He looked like he was having fun. Pictures weren’t allowed in the dealers room so I couldn’t take a picture. We just stared at him for a few minutes and decided to leave. We had to circle them again and were trying to find the exit and I saw it and I was like “Joe!” and I was standing right in front of the dancers when I said it and they all looked at me I guess they thought I was talking to them. It was kind of embarrassing. So that is when we left.

Opening Ceremonies

We went back to the hotel to stash our goods and waited for the next event which was the opening ceremonies .I really didn’t know if Kaya was going to be there but I wanted to go anyways.

We went at around 4:00PM when it started. I saw this boy dressed as the chool boy Kaya and I thought his cosplay was very cute, but I don't think he had the boots. That would have perfected the outfit. I kinda recognized him as the guy Joseph bunked with at PMX. I wasn’t really sure(Yes, it was him). Well anyways we get in and sit down and the room was practically empty. They did this hour long skit pretending to be news caster or something, a lot of just anime shit I didn’t understand and were about anime’s I knew nothing about. I remember hearing a Sailor Moon/Venus lesbian joke but I was kinda offended by it. They also did interviews with the guests who were voice actors and they tried to be funny too, but pretty much sucked. At one point a whole shit load of people left the room. So the room was even more empty. Even one the the persons who was suppose to be interviewed left before he could be. Well eventually at the very end Kaya finally came out. They didn’t say anything about cameras so I pulled it out and pushed record. He was being introduced by the guy with the Mohawk and came out on stage a little too early. I didn’t mind, I liked staring at him. He was wearing his Ophelia dress and was looking amazingly beautiful(Fuckin right).

I have never seen anyone pull off the Gothic Lolita look so perfectly in real life! He only said hello and introduced himself with the help of a translator. It was only about two sentences but it was well worth the wait. I felt kinda bad that the room was so empty, he deserved more attention but those lame ass jokes made everyone leave.

Dealers again

After that we had till 7 o'clock for the autographs so we scoped out the dealers room again and I hit up that Sailor Moon both and I saw a set of Sailor moon sitter plushes for $50 and saw a set of amazon quartet ufo’s but didn’t ask how much they were. I had already spent too much but I saw a few new plushes and saw a sailor mars and Jupiter scene plushes for $5 and $3 so I had to buy them.

We were suppose to buy merch for this girl Joseph went to PMX. She couldn't come to DC because she lives in Africa now(previously had lived in DC...aint that some shit). We bought here the wall scroll for $60. The guy selling the merch was taking down names for those who spent $60 or more on the merch to get autographs so I put both of out names down since we bought two scrolls.

I think this was the time we decided to walk to McDonald's . We kinda got lost and when I got there someone asked me why everyone was dressed up and when Joe was waiting for our food this dude was all staring me up and down and was like “hmm I like your outfit” in some creepy voice. I smiled and was like thanks.

Autographs 1

We went back to the hotel to eat till it was time for the autographs. When we came back the autograph were just being held right in the hallway with a bunch of traffic. He was going to sign everyone's autographs but since we were on the list we were one of the two groups who got to go first. He was still wearing his Ophelia dress. The girl in front of me was super freaking out and holding a bunch of gifts she was going to give Kaya and a dollfie. I asked her if she need me to hold something for her and she handed me her dollfie. I have never actually held one in real life and those things are fucking heavy. The girl started pulling booklets out of her cd’s for him to sign and left her tour book on the table and I was like “hey, is that yours?” She almost left it on the table because she was so nervous. After all that drama I looked over just in time to see Joseph shaking Kaya’s hand. He had both hands on his hand and Kaya had a grip on his arm too. Next to go was that nervous girl. She shoved some flowers in his face and told him she made them. He told her they were beautiful and she threw 3 cd booklets on the table for him to sign. He was nice enough to sign all 3 and he even chose the appropriate colored markers for each one. She walked away crying and I was next but I was still holding the doll and I was like ”hey wait your doll!” so I looked away from Kaya for a second and I felt kinda bad about it, but when I looked at him he was looking at me smiling and the translator hurried up and grabbed my poster and spread it out over the table for him to sign, he signed it really big. I grabbed it and said “thank you” and put my hand out for him to shake and he did, then it was over. We tried to watch him a bit longer but we were forced to leave because of all the traffic .

Q&A

So right after that was the Q&A. We just walk straight to where it was and able to get in front of the line for this too but there was this girl with a press pass who kept talking her way in front of the line every time. She was getting on my nerves. Joseph referred to her as “the ninja” because she would just appear out on nowhere. So anyways we get in and got to be in the first row so we got a pretty good view of where Kaya was going to sit. No cameras were allowed for this but I wasn’t going to follow the rules because I am a rebel! No I am just kidding, I just used the camera to record audio and only got about 45 minutes of it. I could have gotten more if I remembered to charge the battery. Well this was very fun I got to sit in a room with him and just watch him for an hour. He answered his questions so cute. I thought the question’s were alright. The highlights….

One was when the guy dressed like Kaya said

“there are two people close to my heart and that is you and lady gaga”

and Kaya was like “WOW” in a funny voice

then he said ”I won’t lose to her”

I just liked how he said WOW, he sounded like ET or something.

Also they asked his fav. Anime and he said saint seiya

then he also said “ I love Sailor Moon”

And everyone gasps and Kaya did the Sailor moon pose. It was sooo cute.

Then some guy asked what senshi he would be. Everyone loved that question.

of course Kaya said “sailor Saturn”

Hearing those answers put a smile on my face.

So that was basically it.

Quaff

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/10385311_7HkeB#719362150_uQbCL

So right after that was the quaff concert. We were really tired and I had only been running on an hour of sleep but we still decided to go. I had checked out their myspace and I wasn’t really into it. I really just wanted to go to see how it will all worked to look forward for Kaya the next night, to test if we could cut the line. Well we were able to and we stood stage right in front of a speaker and I told Joe this is where we are going to stand for Kaya because if he want’s to touch the audience he could step on that speaker and touch us. So now on to quaff, there were 6 members in that band. We stood in front of this blond curly-haired white looking guitar player. There were also two singers and one was wearing a lacy face-mask. Another guitar player with crazy braided Mohawk hair. So far they all looked pretty cool and I was really impressed by their performance, it was fucking entertaining. They did a lot of synchronized dance moves I thought was cool. Like at a certain part every band member would kick their foot or look to the left. Also they would talk to the audience a lot and spoke a fair amount of English. I remember them pulling out flash cards, I guess it was Japanese for naked and were teaching us the word naked or something and pretended like they had goggles that they could see people naked with. There was also this long part where the two singers were pretending to throw an invisible ball at each other and throwing it around the room. The concert was really fun but when they got to some song where they kept repeating “shake your booty” it was kinda annoying because they brought a few people from the back on stage and they were dancing on stage. It was a few old people and three half naked raver girls. They weren’t even hot, one of them was really flat chested and looked like Olive Oil. And the old people just made it seem really lame but after that the singer was like “this is for MJ” and they did this awesome performance of “beat it” really really cool. It made me want to shed a tear. They did synchronized classic MJ dance moves even Thriller moves. Think that was their last song .

Since I was so blown away by Quaff I decide to go ahead and buy their shirt. There was also an autograph session for them afterwards but we were too tired to wait any longer so we just decide to go back to the hotel and go to sleep.

Day 2

Next day, the only thing we were looking forward to was Kaya at 10PM and autographs at 1am.

There was a Geist concert at 1pm Joe wanted to check out so we went ahead and did that. It was in the little ass room Kaya’s Q&A was in and everyone went in and sat down in chairs but me and Joe and a few others stood in front of the stage. Geist weren’t Japanese but the girl singer sung in Japanese. I don’t know I kinda felt like I was getting tricked by her. I watched the show for maybe half an hour but then we started hearing Kaya’s techno music because he was doing rehearsal and we could hear it through the wall and the band was all like “WTF?” Right then my brother called so I told Joe I was going to leave and call him back but really I just wanted to stand by the door to hear Kaya rehearse. I pretended to use the phone as I stood by the door listening to Kaya’s rehearsal. People were coming in and out of the room so I was hearing it very loudly. One time a girl came out and was complaining to the security table next to me that the music was way too loud and that they needed to turn it down. The security people were like, no it sounds fine. Well eventually Joe came out of the geist concert and I think we went to go find something to eat. We walked to a Chipotle, I never ordered from one before and the dude put my shit in a bowl but Joe got a tortilla and I was like where the fuck is my tortilla? So the bitch just gave me one on the side. I was wondering why the fuck someone would want stuff that goes in a burrito in a bowl without a tortilla! What the fuck Chipoltle! Bowls aren’t Mexican! Also their pop was flat as shit! Fuck you motherfuckers!!

So we went back to the hotel to eat and Joe browsed the internet and I slept before the concert, We decided to start lining up around 8:00PM, the concert wasn’t till 10:00PM.

Kaya Concert

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/10395458_TcZDg#720173233_NLRnK

So we get there at 8 and there is already a huge line, but we were able to wait with two other sponsor people, I think these crazy raver kids were all mad because we cut them. Well the two other girls said they liked my sailor moon hair bows. I think they were sailor moon collectors too and I kinda wanted to talk to them but I didn’t.

Well anyways when we got into the concert hall we got the same spot we had for Quaff.

I really am not good at remembering concert shit but I remember the first song started (Kaleidoscope) and the first thing that happened was the Guy dancers came out and did this dancing number and then right before the singing was about to start Kaya came strutting in from the back , up to the mic and started singing. GODDAMN! I was impressed by how good he sounded! He sounds just as good as he does on albums.

Mostly the show was a bunch of dancing, I remember some simulated fellatio, he lifted his skirt once and he had these shiny black hot pants on underneath his skirt and like three petticoats on. He talked to the crowd a lot between songs. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but he spoke a little English. When he would bring the mic stand back out he would bend over and drag it to the stage like it was too heavy . He was just being cute. He wore his Ophelia dress for the first few songs, then a Kimono dress after that. When he talked to the audience after the dress change he did a spin and asked if we liked it I guess, it was beautiful but I can’t remember what it looked like. I know it wasn’t purple like the one from LA. I think it was red. Damn, should have typed this when it was still fresh in my mind. The third change was a prince outfit he referred to himself as “Prince Kaya”

Luckily he posted a photo on his blog so I can remember the outfit. Also on the back was this big embroidered patch of his coat of arms logo and all the dancers had them on their coats as well. He would come to our side and stand on the speaker a few times and I would always put my hand out and yell but I never got touched but he looked really good up close.

During costume changes they would play techno remixes of songs and the dancers would be dancing to them.

Here is the set list I copied from livejournal

Ophelia Outfit -

Kaleidoscope -

Pervous Renezvous -

Carmilla -

Pourriture noble -

MC -

Ophelia -

Masquerade -

Dancer interlude (Techno remix of chocolat) [Outfit Change]

Pink Kimono -

Ouka -

MC -

Kagami Oni -

Kugutsu -

Dancer Interlude (Techno remix of Silvery dark) [Outfit Change]

Prince boy outfit -

Rose Kingdom *** -

Walkure -

Ryuran -

A new song (Title unknown) -

MC -

Epicurean -

Rose Jail -

Kasha -

Encore -

Another version of the prince outfit -

Chocolat -

Glitter Arch

Since they were being super anal camera Nazi’ s all I was able to get was audio. I am glad I at least got that. It was fucking fun! Well the best part for us was when Kaya Sung “Rose jail” because that is when he gets all crazy. He came to our side of the stage and he finally started touching people and Joe wouldn’t put his hand out but I elbowed him and then Joe decided to reach for Kaya which was a lucky choice because right when Joe did Kaya grabbed Joe's hand and pulled it toward’s his face and kissed Joe’s hand!!! PRINCE KAYA KISSED JOE’S HAND!!!!! I am so happy for Joe!

These videos were uploaded later he gets kissed 4:48 in.

It was the best concert moment of my life!! After that I was jumping around ( because Kaya kept saying “JUMP”) and was so happy! Also I guess Kaya finally noticed I was always putting my hand out when he would come over to our side so when he came over the last time I waved my hand and he pointed at me and smiled and waved at me! I was in shock and like froze for a second. And I waved back.

i am not delusional in this video 4:05

Also one of the dancers were making heart shapes with their hands and encouraging the crowd to do it too, so I did a few times (super fruity) .

I can’t remember anything else, well the last time he talked to the audience he said “I love you” which was sweet.

Autographs 2

Well after the show it was announced that the autographs would be like in 30 minutes so we started forming a line. Joe and I waited in line but then that guy came by and told us we could get in the sponsor line to be first to get autographs so we moved to that line. There was another line for people who spent $60 or more also, so we weren’t sure who was going first. It was confusing.

Well this time the dancers were all out there too but I didn’t ask them for autographs because they didn’t have a marker in front of them and I wasn’t sure if they were able to. Kaya was in his Pink kimono dress for autographs. I had our other coat of arms signed and I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to shake his hand again because the translator yelled at the person in front of me for some reason, so I just waved at him and told him bye and he wave back. Joe got our other poster signed and was like “did you see that” and I was like “no, what happened?” He said Kaya winked at him. So cool!!! So after that we waited and just watched Kaya sign everyone’s stuff. Also there was a rave and all kinds of crazy kids were everywhere. We saw these 2 whore-likes on top of each other. I actually recorded video of them because I was trying to record Kaya signing stuff. I also dared Joe to go into the rave, and he did! He said it was insane in there. So we were very tired and hung around and watched him for like an hour then we weren’t paying attention and almost missed him leaving. We just watched him wave at people and then disappeared. So then we just went back to the hotel.

The next day we missed the Quaff concert and took a bus/subway thing to see all the monuments and some museums. We stopped to eat at some expensive ass McDonald's that was inside one of the museums , I think it was like $9 a meal!

oh and the fucking White House was blocked by something. Ruined my photo op!

So watch all 12 videos. I am so glad they uploaded the whole show!

http://www.youtube.com/user/AnimeUSAVideoCoord
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That's that...Dazzle Vision recollection in about 4-5 months from now.

Onto other things, I about fell out my seat when I saw X JAPAN was going to be performing at this years Lollapalooza. They were honestly on of the very first Japanese bands I became obsessed with when I stumbled onto this genre 5-6 years ago. We'll see, right now $200+ seems kinda steep. D'espairsRay, hurry up and announce something. hehe....