[EVENT] AKB48 at Anime Expo 2010, Los Angeles

[RocketStarLauncher]

^I'm pretty sure extomomi meant Kasai Tomomi.

[jellymomo]

Did anyone see Tomo~mi?
She went to LA but seems like she didn't attend any AX events...

Check out TheAnna18's post in this thread on page 35

I have a feeling she was either here to promote something completely unrelated to AX or was just simply here to support/celebrate her BFF tomochin during her birthday (unlikely, but eh)

[ucla10]

Then the next day was the q+a, I got there at like 10:15 which was way later than I actually wanted, but it ended up being alright. The line was so long and outside it was like "omfg". I sat next to a very nice guy, and his favorite was Sasshi! I can see why! :3 His name escapes me though, I'm so forgetful with these things....

Hi, that was me. Nice meeting you and nice report! Your Sasshi experience at the second session sounds really cool.

[Kazuma2387]

Yep... aakun is so right.

International fans have the reference of MM as they first (not the best anymore) idol group. Now, as I said AKB48 gathered 7000 last year too (I checked) so its all about the place, I mean Japan Expo and I think that has to do with the organization.

Anyway, AX do something wrong this time, im sure.

MM concert was inside the convention center last year and they let people in for free if you waited in a standby line. There were lots of people in the free line. I dont think they let anyone in the Nokia theater for free this year. the price for tickets also went up from $20 to $30.

So its not surprising that this concert had less ppl

[SakuraTheShadow]

^ They wouldn't
Right before I was gonna go in a guy ahead of me was told that he had to go and actullay GET the ticket.

[xl3lueazndragonx]

Havent been on here for ages but after going to the concert in AX i decided to become active again! OMG my first ever concert and having it be AKB48 made it super awesome! Got near front row seats, racing to the autograph session, everything was amazing! Best time of my life! The girls were sooo cute and seeing all these fans that came to support made me extremely happy! AKB48 fighting!

[moyism]

for AKB, I don't think they gave any tixs out for free but I know for a few of the other concerts in Nokia, they were handing them out as such (i.e. MELL).

Also for Kasai, I believe it was mentioned she was probably at AX for that ICE movie/ova they premiered. Did anyone even attempt to go considering it was the same time as the autograph session?

[gyan]

Some members checked it out. Apparently no one showed up and they canceled then rescheduled the screening the next day however, the staff said no voice actress or idol came, just bunch of dudes who brought the footage over to America.

[gyan]

ANIME EXPO REPORT PT.1 Day 0
AKB48 IDOLS YOU CAN MEET... ... IF YOU ARE LUCKY

Upon arriving AX at around 8am there were already 100 in line to get into registration. Speaking of registration it was a mess, serving regular customers instead of "premium members" and as a result some of the regular customers were assigned better seats @ the akb concert. Well at least there was the meet and greet raffle which actually ended @ 6:20 ( 20 minutes after the event started) making some late and not able to experience the whole thing.

Well not winning the meet and greet and feeling emo for yourself but happy for the fellow s48ers that got in we all decided to just relax in the lobby until: (am preety sure a longer version was posted of this before)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl9lMiQM6aw
They just exited the building in the front lobby instead of some kind of secret or back entrance! Best part is they were literally a few meters away. The girls in the same meet and greet that i missed was so close to me that I was already happy about that. So after following them out the door (of course giving space) this happened:
PLEASE LISTEN CAREFULLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wToxCDtJIcU
The other members went through the side but we somehow still caught them lol. So i was rushing to greet itano happy birthday and she heard it turned around and smiled. But hey aachan's is like a week away so why not greet her too.
BUT IF YOU LISTENED CAREFULLY

yuko quickly reminds meNot yet!

Well almost everyone was in an all time high and we decided to eat at a place called LAWRY's CARVERY

Look farmiliar? if you look at blogs it should.

CONT...

[TomoTomo]

Some members checked it out. Apparently no one showed up and they canceled then rescheduled the screening the next day however, the staff said no voice actress or idol came, just bunch of dudes who brought the footage over to America.

I went to the ICE screening right after the concert. They were already showing the screening by the time I got there. I sat there until it ended... and pretty much finished watching the series (4 episodes I believe). There were a bunch of people with video cameras interviewing people afterwords. If you look at the AX schedule... there was an introduction portion before the ICE screening. That was probably when Aki-P and Tomo~mi were doing the promotion. It was also explain why some people saw Aki-P and Tomo~mi after the concert... they were walking from the Concourse Hall to the VIP Lounge probably to return back to the other girls. The Concourse Hall isn't that far from Nokia Theatre.

By the way, the people who saw Tomo~mi... darn you lucky ones!

P.S. ICE itself was alright... It was kinda like wtf is going on (well I jumped right into it in the middle). The roles that they played was sort of ridiculous and unexpected. Tomo~mi is superior at voice-acting. Yuko is pretty good. Erena just downright sucks She was pretty much monotone the whole time.

[IANF826]

Red Carpet near the entrance to the Nokia Theater.

[Iori]

So which one of you did this? Confess!

[gyan]

@Tomotomo
Hmm thanks for clearing it up I guess we were a victim of AX staff talking out of their ass. Maybe went too early or too late.

@IORI
i think you should explain where that was placed.lol

[richardthebrave]

So which one of you did this? Confess!

look veerrrryyy closely at the stickers.. it should give you a place where to start looking for the culprit

[Wordsmith]

THIS is definitely among the fun stuff you can do with these stickers =)

[RocketStarLauncher]

For some reason I find this incredibly rude.

[IANF826]

Opening Ceremonies Intros before girls left for rehearsals.

Haha...HelloStore you have just been 48ed. Sad that there was no official AKB48 booth at the expo.

[Des-LAW]

@Tomotomo
Hmm thanks for clearing it up I guess we were a victim of AX staff talking out of their ass. Maybe went too early or too late.

@IORI
i think you should explain where that was placed.lol

Well at first it was stuck onto the front table cloth of the H!P merch booth, right next to a big sticker "8"
I saw it yesterday while I was there.

but from the pic, seems like they finally noticed and took it down.
*edit, from the caption on the pic, the stickers must have peeled off and fell on the floor.

[immo]

Red Carpet near the entrance to the Nokia Theater.

OMG. The shouting girl you hear all the time is me. -_-;

[SakuraTheShadow]

Does anyone know if they plan to release the concert on dvd?
I saw camera's in the front so I'm just guessing.

[IANF826]

OMG. The shouting girl you hear all the time is me. -_-;

Haha...thats you alright. You can hear a couple of other Stage48 members too, actually I think it was only Stage48 members shouting out to the girls. Reinyan is so pretty.

[MaikuBano]

Reports of AKB48 CD sales from AX:
Kamikyoku Tachi - 1,633
Ponytail to shushu - 2,276
Sakura no Shiori - ????
River - 1,501
Iiwake Maybe - 1,292
Namida Surprise - 1,411
10nen Zakura - ????
Oogoe Diamond - ????

Reports are from a lady I was interviewed by. She works as a reporter for a Japanese newspaper (Couldn't remember the name >.<). I don't know if they're accurate or not, but she showed me ID, so I'm guessing they are.

[Kamei11]

Quik points of interest from AKB in LA

Day Zero Line: My brother and I arrived first, and met gideon an hour later around 6am in line. By 3pm, there were about 20-30? stage48 people in one spot haha.

Meet and greet: Even though it was raffeld, alot of stage48 people got in!

My Experience:

Table 1- Sashhi and Rie Kitihara: I asked sashhihara who her favorite idol is, she said momoclo?? i think. Than they asked her who her favorite AKB48 member was, and I think she said Acchan? they asked Rie and she said Mariko! Than they asked me who my favorite member was, and i said, " sasshi now!" After I asked her if she could do her wotagei dance, and she and rie started to do it, than the entire table started to do the wotagei by putting thier fingers in the air from left to right, it was so awesome because she had so much energy. Later, I think every table did it as well. At the end i asked about Japan in the world cup, they said they were sad, but it wasnt that guys fault. Than I said, it was the poles fault, and they agreed and laughed.

Table 2- Reina Fujie and Maeda Ami: Gideon was asking alot of questions here about fashion and music, but i remember what was said. But I asked Reina to Please do her moo moo dance from this commericial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2cCd0S2vR8

She did it for a couple seconds, but she was so imberessed, but so cute haha. I told her it was my favorite japanese commercial, some more questions were asked, than i asked them what thier favorite song was, and if they could sing it. Dang, i forget what song they sang, but everyone clapped for a beat and they sang it. I think it was Maybe? after they finished I told the translator to tell them in a group its hard to tell what they sound like, but individualy they have very nice voices. They blushed and smiled.

Table 3: Sayaka and Aji

I asked sayaka what her favorite filipino food was, and she didnt have a name, but she described it as a sour soup, and me and another guy said, " sinigang!" and she said thats it ! haha. They asked sayaka if filipino culture is in her household, she said no, but just the food sometimes. Than they asked her what sayaka liked to do for fun or something. It was funny because she wanted to know where the Duane Reade ( a drug store in NY), so basically for fun they wanted to go to a drug store and shop. Than they asked Aji where she wanted to shop...SHE SED VICTORIA SECRET ! haha. oohh, also when sayaka was talking about shopping, Aji starting to scratch at the table like a kitten, and everyone was like, wat is she doing? but the translator said it was her way of showing she was axious to shop haha.

The funniest part was there was this nervous guy at the table, and sayaka was actualling picking on him, cuz she kept saying, " are you okay?" in english to him. It was soo funny because the whole time the guy was trying to give them directions to CVS and victoria secret. and the translator was trying to tell them what streets to drive down etc haha. The guy was so nervous, i apologize if he read these forums, i just found it funny how sayaka was concerned about him and asking him questions.

I missed the first autograph session: Alot of people thought it would be the top girls, but it was the same girls from the Meet and Greet. ALOT of people were waiting in line for it, and they were able to sell like 100 american CD's of AKB48 to people waiting in line. Alot of new and causal fans bought it, so good for them !

I knew in advanced they werent giving autograph tickets at the focus panel, but I didnt want to tell anyone because no one would attend the panel, so a few seconds before the panel endded I ran as fast as i could to the exhibithall, it was great because I was about 10 seconds ahead of everyone and i could hear behind me a huge rumble of people haha, with regular AX attendees starting to get scared.


Second autograph session: I gave sasshihara my glow stick cuz she saw me waveing it to her, the managment yelled, if thats a gift u have to give it to me !, than sasshi was like, " its okay" and like kept it on the table. When she was signing my autograph she paused before writing LA, and i showed her my badge, so my autograph says, " AKB IN JEREMY" haha. At the end, i know it was against the rules, but i reached my hand out and she shook it ! Id really have to say Sashhihara stood out the most. Luckily I was able to get all the girls to sign thier autographs in the gold metalic ink. ill post a pic sometime,

Going to both concerts in NY and LA, id say it was way different. In NY it was all about the top girls and the venue was more intimate. I was in the front row for NY as well, and the girls could really look at you and make direct eyecontact with you. It felt more personal in Newyork.

LA was on a bigger scale. but im really happy they featured the undergirls more, it made me a fan of them more and exposed new comers to them, at the concert I was in the front row as well, and it looked like the girls were looking straight the entire time, most likely because all they could see where the glowsticks.

Anyways both experiences were great, till next time guys,

[xl3lueazndragonx]

Does anyone know if they plan to release the concert on dvd?
I saw camera's in the front so I'm just guessing.

Yes i wanna know about this too!

[MaikuBano]

There was also cameras filming the audience which was not shown on the screens.