Anime, Manga, and Music to a Higher Power 2012

I didn’t hear about Anime, Manga, and Music to a Higher Power (AM2) at the Anaheim Convention Center (ACC) in 2011 until it was too late.  What’s worse was that it conflicted with Anime Expo (AX).  Fortunately, AM2 2012 took place in the middle of June instead of the end or in July.  For all three days, I picked up a friend on my way there and back.
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Friday, June 15

We mostly just walked around, met friend and new people, and took pictures.  It seemed as if we arrived too early, but we were unsure of things.  We spent most of the time in the Exhibit Hall and Artist Alley after they opened at noon.  Unfortunately, none of the panels or events were interesting, so we left early.
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Saturday, June 16

We met up with friends when we at the ACC.  After hanging out, we attended the HetaStuck Dating Game, which consisted of cosplayers for Hetalia and Homestuck.  It was funny, and I was glad to have attended it though I’m not interested in Homestuck.

We had a Hetalia Cosplay Gathering at 2:00 P.M.  To our surprise, we didn’t have cosplayers for America or Russia, and only one for England. these characters are usually the most popular.  I pretty much just wore dressier mornal clothes for Taiwan: a pink shirt with unbuttoned sleeves, knee-length white skirt, reddish-brown dress shoes, and pink flower hair clip.

After the gathering, we hung out, and I wandered the Exhibit hall again.  I had some pictures taken for my costumes.  The Pokemon Cosplay Gathering was at 4:00 P.M.  I just put on my white coat with a Pokeball nametag and took off my flower clip to cosplay a random Pokemon professor.  The Pokedex was my DS with a Pokedex design taped on it, and I had bought a plastic Pokeball a few months ago.  We didn’t have many people either, but not many people attended AM2.  I met back up with my friend, and we hung out some more before leaving.
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Sunday, Father’s Day

I had some things to take care of after dropping off my friend at the ACC.  I returned later for Hetalia Cosplay Gathering.  Once again, not many people showed up.  Fortunately, I also brought along my Pokemon professor costume because right after, someone was videotaping cosplayers for a Pokemon rap.  Before and after the gathering, I wandered the Exhibit Hall, but there was nothing to buy, especially with everything so expensive.

Unfortunately, we were never able to find an America or England cosplayer for the Hetalia: Ask a Nation panel at 2:00 P.M. though we managed to find a Russia one yesterday.  What an irony: those three are usually the easiest to find.  Even worse, one of the panel member’s car overheated, so our Germany and Italy cosplayers couldn’t show up.  This meant we didn’t have half the main characters.  Still, they managed to make it work, and it was fun.

We had trouble leaving the ACC area due to crowds and heavy traffic.  Almost everywhere was unreasonably crowded.  I then heard that it was due to Father’s Day, graduation, and the opening of Cars Land at Disney’s CA Adventure.
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Though AM2 was interesting, I didn’t find it to be as fun as the other anime conventions I attended.  I guess it wasn’t well developed yet due to it only being the second year.  At least it was free, but I still had to pay for parking.  Starting next year, they will start charging people.