I got up bright and early, dressed myself up in one of my Alice-inspired outfits, and headed off to meet Cienna, Ontogenesis and Reppu. I think we arrived at about 9:15. There seemed to be a different route for entry today, and we ended up standing around in line for a long time. The heat was pretty intense, and it got difficult at times. I think we were finally able to go in a 11:30.
I went straight to the corporate booths, thinking that I could beat the crowds if I went early. O how wrong I was. It was
packed. I had planned on checking out the Nitro+ booth, but I gave up on that as I didn't know exactly where it was and it was just too hard to wade through the masses of people trying to find it. I did manage to get to the Hanayoi Romanesque booth, which fortunately was not very crowded and didn't have much of a line. I asked about Kakkii's akushu event, and the staff told me that all I have to do is show up at 10, and I could get a ticket. However, the website seems to say I have to preorder his CD to get one, so I'm a bit confused. I guess I'll get the CD anyway, even if it does look like a rather dull boys' school series. Hopefully it'll at least be somewhat cute and amusing.
After that I headed down to Angel's Feather. There wasn't much there, as usual, but there were a few cute books. But then, imagine my surprise when I saw Yamamoto Kazue behind one of the tables! In fact, she saw me before I saw her and made a sort of 'Oh, it's you!' comment, and since I wasn't expecting to see her it took me a moment to actually register who she was. And then everyone hanging around started talking about my outfit, which was flattering but got me flustered! I wish I'd made more conversation, but all I could seem to manage was 'Arigatou gozaimasu.' I really hope living in the guesthouse improves my conversation skills. Ms Yamamoto was selling a very interesting book - it contained sketches of various men from her hentai games in BL poses! The only ones I was familiar with were the two main guys from Izumo 2, but I've got to say, in the anime they were pretty darn slashy. It's nice to get some endorsement from the creator! It amused me to see that there was a note on the book saying that depite being drawn by Yamamoto Kazue, the book wasn't actually endorsed by Studio e.go.
At the next table was someone who I believe is Ms Yamamoto's assistant. I think her name was Kutsuki Ichii, but I'll have to check that. (OK, I've checked and it was Kuzuki Ichii. So I was close.) She had an absolutely adorable and beautifully drawn Kai/Nagi book that I'm enamoured of. I really can't get enough of Kai/Nagi cuteness.
I'd decided to avoid Lamento and Kyo Kara Maoh to save money, but I did take a look at Shonen Onmyoji. It wasn't a big section, but I was surprised by the amount of Masahiro/Akiko there. There must be something about her that I don't see, I guess. There was a good amount of Guren x Masahiro too, of course, but I couldn't find anything I really liked. However, I did find one Masahiro x Guren! It wasn't very well drawn, but it was sweet, and how could I pass up Masahiro-seme?
At this point I was starting to think, 'There are
way more people here than usual.' I met up with Ontogenesis and she agreed. She speculated that it was because the categories had been rearranged, and now there was more dansei-muke stuff on the first day, so we had both the women and men crowds. Whatever the reason, it became obvious as the day wore on that the crowds were bigger than they ever have been in all my time going to Comiket.
The four of us met up again, and after lunch we went to look at the cosplayers. Earlier that day I'd seen a Kamina and a
male Bardo cosplayer, complete with open shirt. I was hoping to see them again, but no such luck. I braved the cosplay area for a while, but like everywhere else it was packed, and it was open to the elements so there was no protection from the sun. I soon gave up and went to sit down for a while.
Pretty much everything I wanted to look at was today. Tomorrow there's a few things I'm interested in, but I'm going to avoid buying much. I want to look at Eyeshield 21 (though no one seems to write Sena/Monta so I probably won't even want to buy anything) and Hayate Cross Blade (though I'm not familiar enough with the characters yet to ship anyone). There might be a few other things but I can't remember them at the moment. I'll have to check the catalogue. I certainly hope it's not as packed as today.
tired
