Matthew's Anime Expo 2013 Report: Part 6 - Day Four

For most people, the last day of the covention meant that you were checking out of the hotel meaning that you're in that mad dash to get everything out of the room while experiencing the last day. I remember back at Fanime when I had my rooms cleared out early to avoid the rush of attendees checking out, but now we all had the luxury of enjoying the last day without the rush.

For today, we all took a break from shooting that morning as we went to the last day of the convention to obtain last-second autographs or merchandise as well as to soak in the finale of the convention.

I went to go my go-to breakfast food: a Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato, stirred with extra caramel, and a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks. Finally, a decent breakfast if I want to call it one.

The last day saw me cosplaying as Jonah from Jormungand, a cosplay that I thought I wasn't going to get ready in time for Anime Expo. It was more of a trial run to see how well wearing a sweater in summer heat would translate, although I finally was able to wear shorts as part of my cosplay. I visited the FUNimation booth to check out and see that status on the dub since they were working on it; someone recognized me and told me that they were either rapping up recording and/or in post-production. For me, I'm very excited to see this anime come to the States especially when my inner "gun otaku" is unleashed.

After all these events and gatherings that I attended, I finally attended a panel in the upstairs portion of West Hall. I sat down and watched some AMVs before attending the Con Gripe Session, a chance to your voice heard about issues surrounding the convention. I laid out mine about Access Control and the misallocation of room usage, but I came out of that with more questions than answers that hopefully will be answered in the coming months.

With the little amount of money that I had left for the convention, I went over to the Charity Auction. The Charity Auction is a staple of mine when it comes to attending events, and I never like to miss a minute of the action. I got front-row seats to all the limited-edition signed merchandise and a couple of items intrigued me. As the auction started, a signed snap back had my early interest then the price went too high for my value. Then a signed Porno Graffiti towel came up on the block, and as I placed a bid of $60 I noticed an eerie silence and no one else wanted to top me. A couple of counts later, I was the proud owner of a signed Porno Graffiti towel. I found out later that these towels were rare as they weren't selling these at the booth; the ones selling told me that they didn't think the towels wouldn't sell here in America. Please, we invented the rally towel and waving the towel, so they would of sold them just as much as their tour t-shirts.

I went to Exhibit Hall in the final hours to pick up me a portfolio bag that would carry my towel to Sacramento before I could get it framed. Then I came back to see if I could get more steals, and I almost got away with getting a tour t-shirt signed for $40. People looked at me for not going over the response bid of $45, but I was happy with the towel.

Apparently, the row that I was sitting in was "Winner's Row" as most of us were winning the auctions. I got to see one signed poster go for $750, and I wish I had saw the Fate/Zero chalk piece go up for auction but I had other business to take care of.

I did come back to the hotel to pick up the camera to do some final afternoon shoots of the convention before everything started to break down. We were going to stay for Closing Ceremonies but then we found out that Hillary and Alex were going home sooner than we expected, so all of us came back to the hotel to see them off. One of my goals was to stay for Closing Ceremonies at Anime Expo, but seeing family off trumps a ceremony.

We rested up a bit and watched myself on TV before heading out to Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles in Hollywood. Like our travels to and from the convention, we used the subway to head out to Hollywood. When we got off at the Hollywood/Vine station, we were surprised that we were that close to both Roscoe's and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At Roscoe's, we had our first legit meal since Philippe's The Original. Except for Ryan and I, this was their first visit and after eating their signature dishes as well as dishes that was brand new to the menu we were excited that we made it this far. We survived Anime Expo, and we all deserved this food.

We spent the rest of the night walking towards Hollywood and Highland along the Walk of Fame, checking out the different stars, nightlife and tourist traps. I got to see Mann's Chinese Theatre (now known as TCL Chinese Theatre) up close although some construction got in our way. Regardless, it was a fun excursion especially when we didn't have to drive up there.

We arrived back at the hotel before it got too late to call it a night. While Anime Expo had ended, we still had things to do...

-Day Four End-