Black Sword

So, after my gushing love letter to Kajiura-sama, I thought I should deal with the things Beast's Lair wants to know, like the colors of Iri's panties. Oh wait...

ANYWAY, on Day 0, it was me and Theo hanging out. The Bear is smaller in person, only 6'2 and maybe 200 pounds of pure killing strength. I expected him to be around 6'6 or 6'8. Either way, he's one totally chill mofo. If anyone is ever in the LA area for any reason, hit up Theo. It's awesome to hang out with the bear.

Day 1, the Fate/Zero finale screening occurred. As I mentioned in my post on Kajiura-sama, the guests were a distinguished group, with LiSa and Kajiura-sama as surprise visitors that drove the crowd wild. I cannot tell you how unbearably awesome it was to watch Kiritsugu and Kirei go at it on a projector screen in surround sound stereo. I don't care if you have a 60 inch HD TV, it STILL wasn't good enough. That finale blew everyone out of the water.

After the episodes were broadcast, there was a question and answer panel. For the most part, there were quite a number of dodges on the questions. The two most relevant, in order, were asked of Koyama and the UFOtable execs. The guy asking the question was so nervous he called Koyama "sama" instead of "san." Audience laughed at that, and Koyama, bless his soul, just rolled with it in a great way. He leaned back a bit in his chair, and made a "yeah, that's me, and what" gesture that was so exaggerated everyone cracked up. The question was about how he felt about voicing Kiritsugu. Koyama discussed his experience with the character, how they brought him in for his handful of lines in fate/stay night and pretty much sliced off a pound of flesh to make sure his performance was perfect. He didn't understand at the time why it was so important, but as he did the sound drama and the anime, he felt he finally understood the character.

The last question of the panel was asked by a dude who fit my exact mental image of Mike: blond, British accent, slightly overweight, fussy, and wearing glasses. He asked if there were any plans to adapt Heaven's Feel into an anime.

There was a significant silence as the ufotable execs exchanged glances. Their answer was this, more or less: "Fate/zero was a very exhausting work to adapt. There was a great deal of information to absorb, so much to animate, so much to make decisions on, storyboard, and so much work to do to create a good anime. Heaven's Feel has a great deal of information as well that would also require a great deal of work. It's unfortunate, but our Command Spells are exhausted. It's possible that in the future we may form another contract, but for now, we do not have such a thing."

I met alf on Day 1. Another totally chill mofo. Endlessly amusing, too.

Maridah was also there, but I only managed to snap one picture of her. I had to skip both her cosplay events.

Day 2 was autograph day. I went after LiSa, UFOtable director and producer, and Koyama. I am glad to report that I succeeded in getting all of their autographs, despite cutting it very close on LiSa. LiSa was a total sweetheart. She was very enthused by the Fate/Zero print I brought her to sign.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to have that print signed by the others, as it was fanart, not official. Still, I managed to get all three of them on a postcard. The best part was Koyama's session. The AX stuff ranted at us not to hug him, take pictures, shake hands, etc. They wanted us to get our autograph and go. He completely blew them off. He got up, he hugged the fans, he shook hands, he took pictures, he was a total boss.

alf, Seraph, usandru, and I adjourned to Little Tokyo for dinner, where we bullshitted for hours before we went back to our hotels and crashed.

Day 3 was LiSa's concert. She's a very energetic performer, got the whole crowd on its feet and jumping up and down. I took my goddaughter to the concert that day, and I think I just created a new otaku thanks to the convention and the concert.

Day 4 was a BL group picture before we all went to shop and do whatever we needed to do.

The end result was that the whole trip was a huge success, and that Beast's Lair needs to hold its own convention. So party at alf's house!