Well, AX is all well and done. I just got back after helping out to clean my friend's garage from all our cosplay materials, especially for the Thousand Sunny, so you'll all have to bear with me. This'll be a long-winded post. And no pictures in this one, because I'm exhausted. Not so much to ramble and rant though.
OP Cosplayers – This had to be one of the best yet. There was a lot more variety this year compared to previous years. Sadly, some of the awesome cosplayers were unable to attend the gathering, like Rayleigh and Franky with "Strong Right" and "Weapons Left" (and I don't even think I got a pic of that Franky...doh). The gathering was great fun, although, I wasn't exactly prepared to host the gathering! That was quite the shocker. Hope that it wasn't too boring, and I hope I didn't leave any cosplayers out.
Davy Back Fight -- Thanks to all who attended the games. I really hope that you guys had as much fun as I had helping host and organize. There are a lot of things we'd like to work out with the games, especially the Buggy Balls. Painted rubber balls will NEVER be used again. I apologize to any participant who's cosplay got ruined because of it. My Beckman sash got ruined as well, but luckily I was able to just wrap over the part that got paint on it. Here's hoping we can do it again next year, or even at another convention (coughFanimecough).
Trivia Contest -- Trivia contest was a double edged sword. I guess I need to do a better poll of questions because apparently everyone thought they were too tough. I guess it was kind of skewed since Suupaa Kaizoku members were polled to the difficulty. I just have to say that I LOVED all of your reactions to the first question you received that was really hard, even if it wasn't labeled "hard." Generally, the first statement was, "That's a Medium/Easy Question?!" I just loved the fact that I can shake your fandom knowledge to it's core. =p It was especially fun during the Davy Back Fight, specifically the 3rd to last question. "Name four current...Vice-Admirals. No one? Three Vice-Admirals? Okay...TWO Vice-Admirals?" That was the best.
Scavenger Hunt -- Looks like I'll have to remedy the hardest part about it...finding us a second time. Hahahaha... My original idea was to have my own and one other SK member's cell numbers on the flier. That would've worked well. However, next year, we're hoping to have an artist alley booth for kudos to you/Hanshi. That'll make it way easier to find us. Probably would list my cell phone anyway.
Masquerade -- Terrible terrible experience. We were forced to go first. Our lighting cue was off, so our dialogue started in the dark. Our intro was lost, so our skit didn't make any sense. The intro was supposed to help set up the Out of Character skit. Also, back stage, we couldn't hear ANYTHING. All the sound was muffled, so we could barely make out any other skit. We weren't the only ones with terrible technical experience either. Thumbs down. Boo-urns.
God, this post is long. Lastly are shoutouts.
To AP members: Sorry I didn't have a chance to hang out some more with you all, especially to firecrouch, LC_"Lapen", and Toshiya. After the Viz panel, we pretty much left that day in order to do more masquerade prep (which obviously didn't help). And to AP cosplayers, keep up the great work with your costumes. I love seeing side/obscure characters, and original designs on a familiar thing.
To Gomu Gomu no Cosplay people: I don't know if any members actually read this board, but thanks again for making it another fun convention. Sorry for taking time away from your selling stuff, but it's just so fun talking with all of you! Wish I could've seen the Edo era OP costumes, but I'm glad I got to see your Impel Down and Hetalia costumes, and especially the Kamabakka costumes. Great stuff! See you guys at Comic-Con.
To Mr. 13: Check your PM box later. You and your friends are getting those ribbons.
Lastly, to e1n: What can I say, man. I purchased my first ever OP fanart from you way back at AX07. You already hooked me this year with your Buggy poster a few months back. The Supernovae Double Poster was just icing on the cake. And when you unveiled that table cloth...Like I said after, I'm hoping that I'm not going to make it a collection of your table cloths, because I probably won't have enough tables for them! Seriously, it's an infinitely awesome piece of work, and I'm just glad I was able to get the first of what I'm sure will be a successful line of your works. I'll definitely take care of it and display it with pride. Thanks again for your sponsorship of our Davy Back Fight, and for just being plain awesome.