Disclaimer: The latter part of this article contains a lot of speculation, of which a good chunk of it is actually baseless. Given the Internet’s ability to blow things up, I felt like I had to at least put this out there.

On August 26, Puente Hills Mall of (heyyy, whaddya know) Puente Hills, California began playing host to the first Round One store outside of Japan (pictured above).

You’re probably asking what a Round One is, at this point. Round One happens to be a big brand for entertainment in Japan; think Dave and Buster’s — with its nifty arcade setup, its food selections, and its illusion of grandeur — meets bowling, and by ‘bowling’, I mean not the college-student-union-yeah-we’re-bored-let’s-go-bowling-it’s-only-$2-because-we’re-students variety of bowling, but more along the lines of AMF’s pricey-premium “300″ brand.

Even in the US, Round One’s got a couple of Japanese touches here and there. Crane games and purikura line the arcade; non-redemption games, if they’re not in dedicated cabinets, reside in sit-down “candy” cabinets. They’ve got a couple of karaoke boxes; not the kind of karaoke where you sing your heart out to everyone in the audience, open-mic style, but the kind of karaoke where you and a group of friends gather around a screen and sing your heart out in a private booth. A person experienced in the nuances of Asian graphic design would be able to tell you the company isn’t American just by looking at the poster advertising their VIP pricing structure.

The presence of Round One came to the Bemani community’s attention when it was revealed that they were in possession of not only the US redemption version of pop’n music, but also fully-equipped GuitarFreaks and DrumMania XG cabinets — the first reported on the entire continent, with English translations of everything in-game excluding the song titles. I’ve been told that these cabinets are permanent.

This is a Big Deal, for six reasons:

1. Konami has trusted Round One with location tests before — ones that personally come to mind are pop’n location tests at their (if I’m not mistaken) now-closed Umeda shop;
2. This supposed altered version of GFdm XG is trying to tailor itself to a Western audience, as not only has it been translated (this only happens in special situations like location tests), its default songlist starts with the Western songs they have available;
3. The last permanent location test for Bemani here in the US was beatmaniaIIDX 14 GOLD, offered by Tokyo Game Action before weather drowned it beyond repair;
4. As mentioned before, this is the first GFdm XG setup available in the US — GFdm XG, being the newest version of the game, is very hard to acquire outside of Asia;
5. Round One is another attempt at reviving the arcade scene by means of taking it seriously, bringing exclusive games that, for the most part, are not available on consoles;
6. The struggling but famous Arcade Infinity is a five-minute drive away from Round One.

I’m in love with the first four points, with one caveat. Round One makes it seem as though Konami is okay with the importing of their machines, even going so far as to allow for permanent location tests of software (albeit modified) at a brand-new location. The potential problem is that if Round One’s tests (and potential expansion?) prove successful, the only way to play official releases of Bemani games (or, perhaps, even Konami arcade games in general) could solely be through Round One locations – giving them an edge that other arcades could not easily replicate.

However, in the case of points 5 and 6, Round One’s new presence can be a good or bad thing. The ideal thing that can happen is that the two businesses can live in harmony and help the Southern California arcade scene grow, but the more likely scenario is that, now that Round One is in direct competition versus AI, that AI is more likely to close its doors — and perhaps sooner! — as mentioned in the article linked above. Not only do Round One’s machines overlap somewhat with AI, especially in the case of the presence of data card-dependent racing games like Initial D and Maximum Tune, but Round One is arguably placed better (a mall setting definitely has its pros and cons!), does not completely rely on its arcade business in order to turn a profit, and has the financial backing that comes from being a branch, a part of a bigger company.

That’s kinda scary — of all the places Round One could’ve picked (the San Gabriel Valley Tribune notes in the aforementioned article that executives did take a look at several spots), it had to be within easily drivable range of Arcade Infinity.

Of course, it’s too early to tell how Round One and AI will do, but it’s definitely something to think about. It’s certainly something I’ll think about the next time I take a trip down to SoCal — I want to support and keep both ventures alive, and I wonder whether that’s possible.

On a brighter note, I’m working on a Technika gathering sometime in January, when it’s the most convenient for college students like myself to take a break without fear of failing grades breathing down our backs. The idea is that, at the very least, NorCal goes down to invade SoCal and we’ll have a Technika gathering, if not a full-on tourney or something, on what should be Technika 2 cabinets by that point. It’s sounding more and more hype the more I think about it, so hopefully that’ll come to pass.

And at the tail-end of Manabi’s bassuday, @cowboybibimbop tweeted: “If the Manabi Straight Blu-ray rumours turn out to be true, doushio…”

That’s certainly the first I’ve heard of it, so I figured I’d FANBOY obsess investigate. A quick Google search popped up this thread, which linked to this blog post, roughly translated below.

–

739 Name: Anonymous@My Belly Is Full. [sage] Date: 2010/08/17 (T) 23:13:55
somehow, the topic came up on NHK radio.
ufo president called it his masterpiece
there was also talk of a BD release
anyone who listened in, details please

741 Name: Anonymous@My Belly Is Full. [sage] Date: 2010/08/19 (Th) 01:42:08
>>739
Q: Are there plans for a Manabi Straight sequel?

There was a time when we talked about that
but really, producing it, we’d ended in a very clean way
I think producing a sequel would be out of the question
As for a BD release, we did make HD episodes, I’d like to see it happen someday

742 Name: Anonymous@My Belly Is Full. [sage] Date: 2010/08/19 (Th) 11:43:35
saying it that way just makes me expect it to happen idiot

743 Name: Anonymous@My Belly Is Full. [sage] Date: 2010/08/19 (Th) 22:42:46
uhyoooooooooo

760 Name: Anonymous@My Belly Is Full. [sage] Date: 2010/08/27 (F) 00:31:36

The Rakkyo* BD happened so I expect Manabi too, ufo-san

A BD release would definitely be a victory forall of us

* “Rakkyo” = Kara no Kyoukai.

–

Of course, I’m crossing my fingers. I mean, do you know how hard it is to type a post with fingers crossed? It’s certainly harder than doing other mundane things like pouring myself a glass of juice or munching on a bag of potato chips…I’d ask you, dear readers, to do it, but I wouldn’t want to burden you.

Unless you’ve gotten used to crossing your fingers ever since you’ve dreamed of an R1 release that all of the above is a piece of cake, of course. In the meantime, as an alternative, I suggest rewatching the series (again!!) and reliving it like it’s 2007 like I’ve mentioned I’ve been doing for too long…

Here in America, a cycle repeats: a new school year is starting, and the hopes of millions of students ride on the wind in pursuit of their dreams, myself among them. In the meantime, before I bury myself in trying to become The World’s Next Great Addition To Anyone’s Japanese-to-English Localization/Translation Team (who am I kidding – I’m taking Japanese 1A again despite having cleared 3-kyu because I have reason to believe that even though I might know a handful of words and I can listen and read a bit, my ability to form sentences with proper grammar seems not to exist), here I am, obsessing, once again, over Manabi Straight instead of writing real blog posts!

It’s true. I’m too lazy to develop my tweet thought process into full blog posts, so they stay on Twitter as chains of three or four or nine tweets-in-a-row. Apparently, though, I’m down for taking pictures of, cutting, pasting, and translating choice panels of the third Manabi manga tankoubon in order to pay even more homage than I already do.

I’ve at least got an excuse just for today: it’s sorta Manabi’s birthday.

I’m not hardcore enough to separate the pages of my precious bound volume* in order to bring you this fine piclation, but the point stands: I think a bit too much about Manabi. Maybe I should consider actually watching more anime than just Amagami SS (a horribly enjoyable show) this season. Or any other season, natch. Maybe I should get back into K-ON!! in anticipation of that one Sega music game that’s coming out.

For the time being, though — happy birthday, Manami Amamiya, and, as always, まっすぐゴー‼

* That said, if there are raw scans of the Manabi manga floating around on the Internet and OpenManga can support a potential translation of it, I am absolutely down for translating it!!

This summer, I haven’t had to break out my window fan setup too much, and this is why. I love it.

Remember the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad Taiko no Tatsujin Plus?  Now it’s actually got something added to it in the form of a collaboration with infamous Kanagawa hiphopping group Rip Slyme.

In addition to that, several DLC packs beyond the first three have been released, all at Y600 apiece –

• RS Pack: Taiyou to Bikini / Funkastic / Joint / Rakuen Baby / Speed King
• Kids’ Songs Pack 1: Omocha no Cha-Cha-Cha / Detective Conan Main Theme / Yuuki 100% / Ningentte Ii na / Mori no Kuma-san
• Popular Songs Pack 3: Ai Uta / Yume wo Kanaete Doraemon / Lum no Love Song / Linda Linda / Love Story wa Totsuzen ni

There used to be a J-Pop Pack (Kibun Jou Jou↑↑ / Train-Train / Daite Senorita / Age♂Age♂Every☆Knight / Sunao ni Naretara), but supposedly due to licensing issues, they had to pull it off the App Store shelves momentarily.

I’ve currently got just the RS pack for now — the cuts are alright (especially given Funkastic and how I’m used to listening to the long version all the time thanks to Neil Cicierega), the charts are pretty difficult, and the new free song (via an update that also adds Auto Mode by tapping on the nameplate) is icing on the cake.

Now, how about them boss songs, huh? Fun fact: when I was reading the reviews, two out of every three reviews gave iTaiko a low score either because the song packs were too expensive or there needed to be 2000-series songs added; the latter was more common. I want them, too!

Either that or a 500-yen pack consisting of only Wonder Momoi. I’d buy it.

Spoilers for the second season of Ookiku Furikabutte beyond the cut.

You know, Angel Beats! was awesome and all, but that show definitely was not as tense as the final moments of the game that transpired between Bijou Dai-sayama High and Nishiura High. For that, I commend the second season of Ookiku Furikabutte — it delivered a pretty damn solid showing in half its original run. The best part is that even though the second season was more fast-paced than the original season (ANN made a pretty good point about how Nishiura vs. Tousei in the first season took longer than what a regular baseball game would), it didn’t let up on the tension; in fact, it’s twice as exciting.

Admittedly, it’s probably because they’re sorta top 16 by the time they face off against Bijou, in a tournament with 100+ schools registered. It might also be because of the fact that both teams are on an even playing field (due to the fact that Nishiura now has data for Bijou to study, as per episode 1).

But perhaps most of all is the fact that the Nishiura team is the star of the show; they’re presented as an underdog team for us, the viewers, to follow, to cheer on, to root. It certainly didn’t matter to me that they were at a five-run deficit by the time the least experienced batter is up to hit — I gave myself to the show, screaming with the team, believing that somehow, Nishihiro could do it, maybe even crack a home run, keep the game going. Delusional? Sure. Maybe it’s the Gurren-Lagann influence: to hell with the odds, we’ve got this.

I do hope the series gets picked up for a third cour. I mean, sure, I could read the manga, but a good chunk of the pacing and the effect thereof would be lost on me.

Oh, and Nishihiro wouldn’t have epic music in the background as he stepped up to the plate, which totally killed me. As though Mihashi’s ridiculous character growth spurt wasn’t enough!

Maybe I should just sit down and watch — how many seasons of Major exist now, six…? Or maybe I should watch Giant Killing. I hear that’s good, too…

Speaking of Anime Expo, I figure now would be a good time to figure out what I should actually be doing while I’m down in LA. I’m arriving on Friday (mostly because work’s keeping me on Thursday and I totally was oblivious of the fact that it was a Thursday-through-Sunday con — I’m used to this thing called Fanime, yaknaamean?).

Here’s my schedule, as it stands right now:

Friday, July 2, 2010

12:00 PMish: Arrive at the LACC.
3:00 PM: Danny Choo panel. (I’m familiar with Danny, but it’s more like his panel comes right before a panel featuring…)
4:30-7:30 PM: Horie Yui panel and signing ♥
10:30 PM: Hardcore Synergy (AX Edition)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

10:00 AM-1:30 PM: Toradora! US Debut / Kitamura Eri and Horie Yui signing ♥
6:00-8:00 PM: Nihongo de OK
8:30-9:30 PM: Shira Oka panel

Sunday, July 4, 2010

9:00 AM: Danny Choo panel (Black★Rock Shooter unveiling!)
10:00 AM: General Guest of Honor autograph session (feat. Horie Yui, of course)
3:00 PM: Return back to NorCal.

“But Spiritsnare,” you might ask, “What about the gaps inbetween events, like 12~3 on Friday and 1:30~6 on Saturday? I think I did mention MangaGamer and how many guests they have and how none of their events seem to have a schedule yet. So those blocks are basically currently devoted to lunch, the Exhibit Hall in general, and whatever events from MangaGamer pique my interest.

To people I already know (you know who you are ♥), and to people I haven’t met up with in a while (SoCal peeps, holla!), and to people I’ll be seeing for the first time (Mid-Atlantic Technika “Shoreline Crew” and a couple of bloggers), I look forward to seeing you!!

Here’s a carol dedicated to the guests that are making it over to Anime Expo, courtesy of MangaGamer. (Because if I made a carol about guests in general, I’d get stuck on Horie Yui and never be able to stop massugu go massugu go massugu go massugu go. Start singing after the break. Oh, and some of these links aren’t work-safe (this is sorta a carol about MangaGamer, who publishes eroge). You’ve been warned.

せー

のー

On the first day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
The prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the second day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the third day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the fourth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the fifth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the sixth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the seventh day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the eighth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Kuribayashi Minami,
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the ninth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Kase Aina,
Kuribayashi Minami,
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the tenth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Takano Yuki,
Kase Aina,
Kuribayashi Minami,
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the eleventh day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
rino (aka CooRie),
Takano Yuki,
Kase Aina,
Kuribayashi Minami,
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

On the twelfth day of AX, MangaGamer gave to me:
Frontwing (lolnottypemoon),
Rino (aka CooRie),
Takano Yuki,
Kase Aina,
Kuribayashi Minami,
Fujimaru-san,
Kirari Shiino,
ア・ジュ・ソ・フ・ト～
Kayura Yuka,
Katakura Shinji,
Tororo-danchou,
and the prez of @overdrive_jp!

HAPPY RIDICULOUSLY EARLY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE

Something that caught my eye on a repeat watching of Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆…Yuno wasn’t supposed to ace that test.

So I’d been looking forward to this year’s Fanime for a couple of reasons. The first two are tied to my birthday, which is May 30. Since 2004, Fanime has always positioned itself relatively close to Memorial Day weekend, if not on the actual weekend of Memorial Day — among other things, Memorial Day, always being on Monday, would enable them to cap off the convention with a cooldown day after a weekend of excitement.

However, from 2006 to 2009, the May Thirties of those respective years weren’t con days. 2010 saw a return to that: my birthday would coincide with Sunday, the third day of the event, and I would turn 21. It was for this reason that I decided to take this year off from staffing (last year, I staffed E-Gaming and everything was very hectic mostly due to being a bit understaffed.)

The second reason — just as important — was the fact that I share a birthday with Panda, who I had gotten to know more and more over the past year. We’d made a promise to break in my freshly-minted two-one with a couple of (responsibly-taken) shots.

The third reason was the fact that Halko Momoi was announced to show up again. Having enjoyed the previous year with her (once again, drftgy), I looked forward to attending her autograph session(s), panel(s), the fan-run call panel, and concert — and Fanime had said that she would be interacting more closely with attendees this year.

And then they announced Momoi Quest. Momoi Quest was a stamp rally: collect stamps on a card at all six events for something special. It sounded really hype, so I looked forward to that.

In the midst of finals and finishing up the semester, Fanime snuck up on me really quick, but not before I got in a rush order to ExtremeGlow for 10 green, 10 aqua, and 13 Cyalume orange 5-minute ultra glowsticks for use in Momoi’s lives; they were all 5-minute glowsticks because Paranda did note that the performances would probably be indoors and I didn’t want to risk using low-powered glowsticks in a potential battle against the sunlight.

Day 0

Arriving at the convention at 4, I made my way to the pre-registration line, where I bumped into a couple of friends. The pre-reg line this year was interesting — sometimes, the line would shrink into itself, giving the illusion that the line was going even though registration wasn’t open (and because I was far back enough in line, I didn’t realize reg wasn’t open until Tom from Traveling Valentine tweeted about it!). It took about thirty minutes per “section” of the line to clear, which means that once Registration finally did open at 5, it took my group about an hour and thirty minutes to finish.

E-Gaming was open; I spotted a couple of people at the Technika cabinet that was set up in the arcade and said hi before helping out Tina at her Swap Meet booth. This gave me the unexpected side benefit of people I hadn’t seen in a while visiting me while I was helping.

At 11, I started to get lightheaded, mostly from thirst and the fact that I’d been standing quite a while hawking Tina’s stuff out — and I wasn’t about to pay $4 for a single bottle of Dasani water, so I left the convention.

Day 1/Day 2 (Friday/Saturday)

I arrived at 1, after passing by Home Depot to get a couple of LED glowsticks, picking up a friend, and doing a food run. The problem: opening ceremonies were at 2. Momoi’s event was at 3. My sister’s graduation commencement was also at 3. Thus, from 2:30 to 6, I wasn’t at Fanime, and so missed the first two events and stamps. There wasn’t much else to do during Day 1, so what I ended up doing was playing a bit of Technika and wandering the halls for a bit.

Day 2 was a bit better: I started the day off with some Momoi at 11 in the morning — then it was announced that makeup stamps were possible by telling staffers where the first two stamps were. (These makeup stamps would continue up until Momoi Quest 5.) I didn’t have a card on me — I had left my Fanime bag at home after Day 0 — but asking around if anyone had an extra card produced one, of which I was really thankful for (you know who you are!!). I got the three stamps, and a lime-green L-size Momoi 2010 shirt from the merch booth, then I headed back to my room and, while resting a bit more, ended up entranced by 2008 J-drama Osen, which my roommates were watching. (As an aside: the opening theme is really good and is probably the song I associate most with the convention.)

I went to the panel at 2 pm. Although it was titled “Momoi Halko and the Industry”, most of the questions asked weren’t industry questions at all. After thinking about it for a while, I went up in line and asked Momoi* how she ended up collaborating with Namco for Wonder Momo-i (a Taiko no Tatsujin song, of which its Oni chart is AMAZINGLY fun).

After the panel, the announcement was made that the next Quest checkpoint was at 12 noon in the karaoke room tomorrow. I got my fourth stamp and went to the Momoists’ call panel — which, although not as well-organized as last year, was still pretty fun and was a needed refresher for otagei — and I was finally able to securely put faces to names (namely catsspat and Paranda). Then, I went back to my room to rest up for Masquerade.

Masquerade, this year, was a so-so affair. There weren’t too many outstanding skits. Many of the cosplays were great, but some of the performances were questionable; at something like 45 entries, it became an issue of quantity over quality.

I came back to the room at midnight and celebrated my birthday with Panda. Three shots and a Tokyo iced tea tossed me into unconsciousness.

Day 3 (Sunday)

I woke up, Sunday early morning (I had to use that pun!), with a slight hangover. That could’ve gone better. My friends were quick to point out it could’ve been worse. I prepped up (realizing and remembering that “L”-size in Japan is not “L”-size in America, despite it fitting perfectly anyway), and, meeting with a friend at 10 in the morning, attempted to head to the Fanimaid Café for brunch. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we went through the dealers’ hall. I decided I’d search for Manabi stuff — a search that expectedly came up empty-handed.

We split up after I saw a tweet from Matthew Miranda announcing that Momoi Quest 5 was to be at 11 — it was 10:45 when I saw that, so he went on ahead to check while another friend of mine on dealer’s staff told me to wait because she’d head out to buy a present for me — a 1/8th scale Puppy Fuuko Ibuki (Clannad) figure. I thanked her, and, having not recieved a text from my friend who had gone ahead, went to the Karaoke room.

Turns out Miranda’s tweet was an edited version of the tweet he sent the day before, so I tossed out a tweet myself, which he did reply to, rectifying the information. Going back up to my room to get my remaining glowsticks, I went to Momoi Quest 5 and distributed glowsticks to everyone, assuming that this would be her last performance and maybe the sixth stamp would be at the autograph session tomorrow. It really seemed that way, as she ended this particular live with LOVE.EXE, which I’d always thought opened or closed her concerts — and then she revealed that the final stamp would reside in Ballroom J, right before the Black and White Ball took over the venue.

After the concert, I purchased an sweatband from the Momoi goods table, then went to the Fanimaid Café. The moment I finished paying for the food, however, I realized that most of the maids were performing at the second Fanimaid★LIVE performance, so for the time being, the Fanimaid Café had little service; the maid who initially served me noted my Momoi shirt and talked to me about that for a bit before taking care of the prep for a party of 30-something (can’t remember the number, but it was 30-something, which blew my mind!) I finished my food quickly and left.

As I did on Saturday, I went up to my room to rest for a bit, have some more food (the portions served by the SJCC are frickin’ tiny for the price!), and nurse my hangover…I was completely knocked out for an hour or two. I passed by the Artist’s Alley for a bit to take a more thorough look at their offerings (and to say hi to Panda and Lisu — the former had told me that Momoi had passed by her booth to thank her for a Tokunaga** plush she gave her).

Passing by my car to retrieve my last two UOs, I went and got in line for the last event. Entering the ballroom, I saw a stage and no chairs: the perfect setup for a final live performance.

I took the five minutes of prep time I had to bug Tenton, asking him how to do Thunder Snake just in case any songs called for it.

I used up my final UOs on Wonder Momo-i, which happened to be her second song (of four) in this last live, not expecting LOVE.EXE to come up again — so when the UO portion of LOVE.EXE came up, my green LED sticks were completely eclipsed by the sea of orange that suddenly filled the stage.

On the flip side, because it was LOVE.EXE, that thundersnake practice was instantly put to good use!

After that, we deposited our stamp slips into the drawing box and got a bigger “Limited Edition” stamp card in return, filing back into Ballroom J to perform the drawing. I went up to the front to take video of all the winners.

The first twelve drawings were for the stamps. There were two sets of six unique stamps, so twelve winners were raffled off first. Then, four people were to be drawn to have cake with Momoi at the Fanimaid Café.

I was the first one chosen. With trembling hands, I screamed as I went up to the stage while the next three winners were chosen. That concluded the raffle — people asked if the box itself — a box decorated by Toshimichi Mori of Arc System Works (the person responsible for BlazBlue) could be raffled; unfortunately, it wasn’t allowed. Rome won one of the stamps, and offered it to me as a birthday present; I refused, because I had won the grand prize, but he refused my refusal and I sheepishly accepted.

Bumping into Priz for the first time on the way out of Ballroom J (and having a nice short conversation with him), us four winners were directed by Yang, the staff member in charge, to enter the elevator in the Hilton, which took us up to Floor 18, the highest floor. The elevator opened up into a small lobby with two couches and two double doors. We were told to have a seat and wait a moment; Yang went into the set of doors that was open. We sat down on the couches and proceeded to make small talk — mostly, what the hell just happened this is amazing etc.

Turns out Momoi was getting ready, so Yang told us that we were going to wait down by the maid café. While killing time with more small talk and checking Twitter, I found out that part of Momoi’s “prep” meant “posting updates to Twitter for those who couldn’t make it”, which was amusingly awesome. We also took a picture with the Momoists from the forums.

Momoi came shortly thereafter and we followed her into the Fanimaid Café. Since this an after-hours private event, the entire place was set aside for our group, and, unlike that unfortunate time earlier in the day, was fully staffed; we were greeted and seated. Given a choice of cakes (if I recall correctly, they were ordered from Satura), I jumped at caramel mousse.

I usually have a tendency to eat fast. Apparently, according to some people, I don’t even chew. For this moment, however, I paced myself, hoping to time myself to finish just as Momoi did, but as it turns out, Momoi didn’t eat too much of her plate (a fruit cup and and two chocolate-dipped strawberries). Turns out that one of the winners was a friend of a friend, and I’d bumped into him several times during the convention — he had known it was my birthday, and so while talking about how many times we’d come to Fanime, just before it hit my turn, he stopped me and told Momoi that it was my birthday, something I was hoping to keep hidden from her until the signing the next day. Cheers were made; the birthday song was sung; I was left speechless for a bit (repeatedly thinking oh my god you just had to come out and say it) as Momoi started talking about how American strawberries were huge compared to Japanese ones.

At this time, the maids had noticed that we had finished our cakes and brought out the entire gamut of games to play. Momoi was curious about Operation, but settled for a quicker game, first: Crocodile Doctor, which ended in three turns. Then, Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, in which both players — Momoi and that aforementioned friend-of-friend — played just by mashing frantically on the buttons, not moving the ‘bots at all. Momoi won that.

Then there was Pop-Up Pirate. Truth be told, I’d known it existed in Japan, but not in America. For this, I’ll let the YouTube video show you what happened — some pretty tense matches were made!

The last game was a game I don’t remember the name of (and it’s not listed on their menu, either!), in which there was a bee (I think?) spinning around and four players had three honeycomb discs they needed to protect by hitting the bee up right before it hit the disc. Three games of that were played.

Then, the maids treated us to a performance; there were four or five acts, I can’t remember. Of particular note was Mail Me to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Momoi’s debut, performed by thirteen of the maids.

After the performance, we were supposedly in a bit of a hurry to leave (the convention center wanted to clean up the café area), but maid café head Jun took the time to present Momoi with two gifts: a bottle of Salmiakki Korsenkova (because she would visit Finland for Desucon two weeks later!) — and the Fanimaid Café sign, which was revealed to have been signed on the back by most of the maids. A couple of the maids that didn’t get to sign it before, as well as us, also ended up signing it before we gave it to Momoi, before we parted.

I was completely exhausted. Heading back up to the room, my roommates were thinking of cleaning up right then and there, before the swarms of Monday congoers rendered the elevators useless; one of them actually tried, and decided that it was already futile — many congoers had the same idea, so we called it quits; shortly thereafter, I went to sleep.

Day 4 (Monday)

I woke up early Monday morning to prep for the Momoi signing, which was to take place at 9. I had planned for her to sign the sketchbook that went with my Mutsuki costume, but on second thought (persuaded by a couple of people) I figured I should probably get a shikishi instead.

The problem: the dealers’ hall, the closest place the get a shikishi, would be open at 10. Also, the shikishi would be $5 – a premium slightly skin to the $4 bottled water problem I had on Day 0.

The solution: Deal with paying $5, and ask a friend of mine on Dealer’s Hall staff to do me a favor. By the time I got to the line, it was 9:20.

Momoi had tweeted that she was streaming the signing live from her iPhone. Amused by anything meta, I tuned in on my iPhone, which supported the playback of the stream. The sentiment was apparently shared by Momoi, as she laughed when I showed her what I’d been doing. I had her sign the shikishi — she had recognized me as “the birthday person” from the last night, and appropriately labelled it “2010.5.30″ instead of the 31st, which was the real date. I also brought out the stamp from yesterday and had it made out to Mandi, who designed the stamps and cards for this year; this stamp I passed on to Paranda, who also had a couple of items signed for her. (Coincidentally, four days ago from this post would be her birthday, so I hope it got to her safe and sound in time!)

I waited around, hanging out with a couple of the Momoists (but being shy, I didn’t talk too much). At about 10:30, Momoi was finally done with the signing, and was heading back to her hotel room when Paranda asked her if she would take a picture with us, and she agreed!

I packed and loaded stuff up into my car until noon; at noon, I went back to the arcade to hang out with a couple of the Technika players who had come from out of town again, and we had lunch at Hydration.

Talking with people at the tables near the Marriott side of the convention center, we realized that it was 3, and that closing ceremonies had already wrapped up. Plans were made to have a post-con celebratory dinner, and the group split up at 4, to regroup back at 6 at Curry House, in Cupertino. (Coincidentally, what I had at Hydration was curry rice, among other things.) Opting for chicken katsu, one of our group pointed out, once again, the fact that yesterday was Panda’s and my birthday, and so on top of the rather filling curry dish, we were also treated to ice cream on the house.

Then we went home. Upon arriving home, I went straight to bed, having survived another Fanime.

Shoutouts

By an amazing amount of luck and coincidence, this year’s Fanime completely eclipsed 2009 as the best Fanime I’ve been to. It wouldn’t have been a Fanime without good friends around, and so I’ve got a couple of shoutouts –

• Thanks to Panda, first and foremost, for helping in making my costumes and for being a birthday buddy. Twin power~☆
• Thanks to Tenton and catsspat for hosting the Momoists’ Call panel this year. Also, double thanks to Tenton for the aforementioned Thundersnake 101!
• Thanks to Mandi and ochawan for working on this year’s call book — and happy birthday, Mandi!
• Thanks to those who gave me presents — namely, Rome, Tina, and Skuld — despite my incessant whining about how I didn’t deserve presents
• Thanks to the Fanime staff for coordinating the event! Special props to Yang and company for helping out with and coordinating Momoi Quest!
• Thanks to the Fanimaids for delivering a wonderful evening with Momoi
• Thanks to the Technika players — you know who you are! Special shoutout to the Claremont crew — we should hang out again sometime, somehow!
• Thanks to all my roommates — I unabashedly admit to sharing a room with up to 13 other people this year, the way hotel rooms at anime conventions are supposed to be!!
• Lastly, thank you, Momoi Halko, for making my 21st birthday very memorable. 来年も出会いましょう!

Speaking of Momoi stuff, I’m posting this as she’s in Las Vegas right now. To all the fans in Vegas and to Momoi herself, have fun!!

* Watch the end of that video. It’s so good.
** Tokunaga is the name of the doll that Anise Tatlin (from Tales of the Abyss) uses as a weapon. Anise is voiced by Momoi; in fact, Momoi cosplayed as Anise at Fanime ’09.