This year I attended
Armageddon Expo for the very first time, after
wanting to go for several years. Armageddon is an Australia/New Zealand
convention with a focus on sci-fi, comics, anime, gaming etc. The main
attraction for me this year was voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch who you
may know as the voice behind Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, Vash the
Stampede from Trigun, Lelouch vi Britannia from Code Geass, or as the
Black Power Ranger. Once I knew that Johnny was a confirmed guest, I
just had to go. Being an artistic person, I decided to create my own
artwork to have him sign - you can see it properly here on my deviantART
(link).
So in the weeks leading up to the convention I drew, scanned and
digitally coloured an artwork of my 3 favourite characters voiced by
Johnny - Ichigo (Bleach), Lelouch (Code Geass) and Izaya (Durarara!!).
I'll talk more about that in a minute.
Exporing Chinatown the night before Armageddon.
Armageddon started off a little bumpy when my best friend who I traveled
to Melbourne with the day before woke up on Saturday morning with a
migraine. A legit, hardcore migraine. So she dossed herself up on her
prescribed meds and went back to bed while I worried about what was to
become of our weekend. It was a 6 hour drive from where we live to
Melbourne, so we had traveled quite a long journey. But 4 hours later,
she was awake and feeling human enough to make the journey to the
Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. We put off cosplaying until
Sunday and went off to the convention dressed as civilians. We walked
around, looked at all the exhibitors and the stalls. Straight away, I
purchased 2 wall scrolls, which I ended up kinda regretting pretty
quickly because they weren't easy to carry around in crowds of people.
We checked out the Madman stall, where they were selling all their manga
at $10 per issue, which is fairly cheap for Australian prices. I
grabbed some Bleach, volumes 18, 20, 21, 23 and 24 because they had sold
out of 19 and 22. I absolutely adore Bleach but I'm very behind on the
manga so I need to fix that. I really want to get up to date because
avoiding spoilers is getting harder and harder. We joined the autograph
line for the animation guests early to get a decent spot, but not early
enough to be close to the front of the line. I played with my 3DS and
collected lots of Miis with StreetPass which is always a fun way to pass
the time at a convention. A stranger in line noticed I was playing
Mario Kart 7 at one point and we played together for a bit but he easily
kicked my butt.
Figures at MoeMall
Before I knew it, the guests returned to the signing table and the line
was moving - slowly but surely. First up was Charles Martinet who is the
voice of Mario! He was fantastic, he was so lovely to absolutely
everyone. He signed my autograph to 'Princess Jena' followed by 'Mama
Mia!' and 'You da best!'. He was a really great person. Next up was the
one I have been looking most forward to - Johnny Yong Bosch. I don't get
starstruck but I was flustered by the time I got to him and I was still
struggling with my A3 folio in which my artwork was in, my purchases
and my handbag because I'm a woman and that thing is a necessity! I
tried to tell him that the characters I drew were my 3 favourites but it
all came out jumbled but he knew exactly what I was trying to say
because the next thing he said was "You drew this?!" so I told him that I
spent quite a few hours working on it specifically to get him to sign
it and he was just so impressed, he couldn't believe I drew it and at
that point I handed over the one that I printed for him to have. He was
like "Wait, this one is for me!?" - he was just so stoked and he said he
was going to frame it. SO HAPPY! I was just so overjoyed. But as I sit
down to write this all out, I realise that I wanted to get a photo of
him holding it but in all the craziness I totally forgot! So bummed! But
I still got it signed, he signed it in the empty space I left without
me even needing to say anything. I tweeted a message of thanks to him
later that afternoon to let him know how much I appreciated it and I was
amazed to wake up the next morning to find that he had tweeted back to
me! I hate to sound like a little teenybopper but it really just made me
so happy that he loved it. That entire encounter was definitely the
best part of the weekend for me. I tweeted him again yesterday to say
that I forgot to ask for a picture of him holding it and I asked if he
could take a picture for me but he replied saying he is twitter
handicapped so I'm assuming that was a nice way of saying no. Bummer!
My friend and I walked back to the car to rid ourselves of my folio and
shopping. We browsed some more once we returned to the convention centre
and I spotted some stalls selling bootlegs. I saw some bootleg Miku's
and a Sakura Miku. The worst part was that when I walked by later, I
noticed that someone had purchased the Sakura bootleg. My inner bootleg
alarm went off quite a few times over the weekend, it just goes to show
that you have to be careful at conventions and know what to look for.
On Sunday we returned to Armageddon Expo but this time we were in
cosplay. We were dressed as Matryoshka versions of Miku and Gumi. It was
such a fun cosplay, I enjoyed doing the makeup and I liked the freedom
that came with that cosplay because you can basically wear whatever you
want on the lower half because it's never shown in the video. We were
asked for a few photos and a few people told us we looked awesome which
makes it all worth it. The sad part was that we didn't get the chance to
get a photo together other than some crappy iPhone photos we took of
ourselves at the apartment we were staying it, so now we're trying to
hunt down some photos via Facebook. Fingers crossed!
The best part of Sunday was the Eyeshine performance. For those of you
who aren't aware, Eyeshine is Johnny Yong Bosch's band. They were really
fun, great tunes, awesome performers. They got everyone to come nice
and close so it was super intimate. It's not every day you get to hear
your favourite voice actor sing in his own band and stand super close as
they perform. I shot some video with my DSLR although the audio isn't
fantastic because I was right next to a paid of speakers. And the video
has a few focus issues because it was the first time I'd ever filmed any
video with my DSLR so I didn't really know what I was doing! The
performance was awesome. A group photo was taken at the end so I'm
looking forward to seeing that too. You can find my video here:
(link)
I didn't buy any figures because there wasn't really any that I wanted
and I didn't want to accidentally end up with a bootleg. But I did buy a
few cool things. MoeMall had the Wonderfest K-ON! Nendoroid sets and oh
boy those were hard to walk away from! Those little beauties. As
mentioned above, I got Bleach
and Code Geass wall scrolls, Bleach manga, Heroes & Heroines Character Design Book
, Wacom Bamboo Stylus for drawing on the iPad and extra nibs, a Link plush, a Kon plush,
a Zelda iPhone USB cable, a cute little keychain that looks like a
gameboy, the Limited Edition 25th Anniversary Copic Marker set
(link)
(SO AMAZING!) and the lady gave me a free carry case that is some
Japanese exclusive and a 'Keep Calm and Gangnam Style' pin even though
I'm over that fad but I still find it funny. I think that's it.
I think that just about covers it! It was a great weekend.
You can find more pictures on my
flickr.