Got pretty good mileage out of my premier badge this year. Bless indoor panel lines.

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Day 0

• Flew in around noon as usual. Pretty uneventful afternoon until we went for a late lunch at Lawry’s and set up mahjong there w
• Glad I’m not a heavy Aqours fan, because that merch line was straight out of hell lol. (Their tablets got fried in the sun apparently and payments had to be processed manually)

Aqours

Set List:

1. Mirai no Bokura wa Shitteru yo
2. Kimi no Hitomi wo Meguru Bouken
3. Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai?
4. Mirai Ticket
5. Genki Zenkai DAY! DAY! DAY!
6. Kaigandoori de Matteru yo
7. Torikoriko PLEASE!!
8. LONELY TUNING
9. Strawberry Trapper
10. Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss!
11. Taiyou wo Oikakero!
12. Yuuki wa Doko ni? Kimi no Mune ni!
13. Sunshine Pikkapika Ondo

• I never watched S2 or listened past the first set of unit singles, so I didn’t know half of the songs w
• Love that they did unit songs. That said, I still don’t like CYaRon music-wise, although Kaigandoori was pretty fun. AZALEA is alright but doesn’t really grab me. But…
• Guilty Kiss is LIT omg. This alone made the concert for me! Absolutely glorious.
• The rainbow was a success! I didn’t even know the song so I didn’t realize it was rainbow time until I saw everyone scrambling to change penlight colours w… but I’m glad it worked out (I was convinced that it wouldn’t)
• You can’t mess up Yousoroad or Kananrail if they never sing Aquarium or HPT!
• I wore a WUG shirt to this.

Day 1

• Pretty chill day for me (also the only day I cosplayed, since Fri/Sat temps scared me off)
• Steins;Gate panel was nice. I’d been really skeptical of Steins;Gate Elite since it looked like a total cash grab while ruining the aesthetic, but they managed to get some sympathy from me since the process of modifying every scene to incorporate the VN-only content was apparently a huge clusterfuck, taking longer than it took to write the original script itself. That said, I highly doubt I’ll buy it myself w (doesn’t help that I already played all of the original VN)
• I got an autograph ticket from the S;G panel and had a mild crisis because I didn’t bring any of my S;G stuff (I didn’t even know they were doing autographs). I did have my Vita on me though, so I got that signed instead! (And had to miss the Tsunako panel because it overlapped with the autograph session ;;)
• Stopped by Atlus booth in Exhibit Hall with zero expectations since last year the line was capped 24/7, but this time I managed to step in at the end! Bought the ultra-precious chibi Jack Frost plush and bag. Whoever designed chibi Jack Frost deserves a medal.
• Went to the Uchikoshi panel where they revealed the name and premise of his new game, AI (pronounced ‘eye’). It definitely looks interesting, although hopefully it’s not too graphic because I’m very squeamish w. They also announced YU-NO and a release date for 428!
• Ramen for dinner at Little Tokyo, and then more mahjong w

Day 2

• Had to miss Shikioriori premiere for Uchikoshi autograph session (where I again got my Vita signed, because what is merch w). Both of the people in front of me brought Pepsiman to get signed–his reaction upon seeing a second Pepsiman in a row was hilarious www
• Hurried to Hocchan panel which was just as great as last year’s. Hocchan is just too good.
• Had to miss the Liz screening :(
• The P5A panel was OK. No announcements or anything aside from the English trailers for P3D/P5D which I don’t care about. Most of the Q&A was not new information either… a lot of those questions were already asked in previous JP interviews–some of which I translated so it felt even more repetitive w. I loved the video message from Fukujun at the start though ;_; please come to AX Fukujunnnn
• Had to miss Aksys panel to get food :(
• JSL overlapping with the SAO event should be illegal
• JSL overlapping with the Xseed panel should also be illegal
• Mogra was pretty hype, too bad my legs were jello so I was sitting down most of the time w
• Missed Denpasoft panel since it overlapped with Mogra (guaranteed ticket only works for re-entry until 11pm) but their announcements were amazing! Harumade Kururu! Majo Koi Nikki! O_O

Japan Super Live

May’n – Chase the world / One In A Billion -May’n Solo Ver.- / Northern Cross / You / Belief / Diamond Crevasse

• I basically flipped my shit the moment I heard the intro to One In A Billion. I already had my penlight set to white since the beginning because that’s May’n’s colour in WUM, but switched it to green before long for the sake of repping WUG. Thank you May’n for singing One In A Billion ;_____; She also did the WUG sign at the end ;______;
• Macross songs are hype too.

Sayuri – Heikousen / Sore wa Chiisana Hikari no You na / Tsuki to Hanataba / Furaregai Girl / Mikazuki

• I only knew Heikousen and Mikazuki but Sayuri has a nice voice.

Aimer – StarRingChild / Brave Shine / Ref:rain / broKen NIGHT / LAST STARDUST

• Aimer is so good…
• This is where the penlights became awkward since she only had piano backing w… Someone in the AWM Line chat phrased it best: Don’t people’s arms get tired from only doing kecha? (I know mine do!!!) But I guess America doesn’t know they’re supposed to turn them off for acoustic stuff.

Kajiura Yuki – the beginning of the end / Lancer and Assassin / longing / key of the twilight / Yasashii Yoake / luminous sword

• A lot of Fate and SAO.
• Solid performances from her vocalists and band entourage.
• People are still penlighting for some reason lmfao

Kajiura Yuki & Aimer – Hana no Uta

• The Heaven’s Feel movie theme. This was a really nice treat.
• Sad that we didn’t get any collabs aside from this (which is not really a collab since they are the original artists), although I guess it was to be expected with this lineup.

Day 3

• Zanki Zero panel was also good. Combined with the S;G and Uchikoshi panels, Spike Chunsoft’s first AX appearance was a killer success IMO.
• Tokyo Chronos panel was also good. Definitely got me interested in the project even though I don’t have any VR hardware.
• Rounded out my Vita autographs with the Zanki Zero session! The rest of the trip was spent protecting my Vita at all costs w
• I spent so much time at Spike Chunsoft booth for autographs that I ended up getting more exposure to vtubers at AX than I have in my entire life (it was across from TOM booth which was showing vtubers on both screens)
• Sekai Project panel was good stuff. I’m ready for Idol Connect. The latter half of the panel was a talk about Tokyo Chronos and VR for VNs, featuring surprise guest Yoshimune (Muv-Luv director) who is enthralled with the concept. It was a hilarious talk session but I didn’t take notes so I don’t feel confident writing quotes here ;;
• MangaGamer panel was good as always. It’s amazing that they’ve caught up with the Rance licenses! (Whoever left the room when MIN-NARAKEN’s Q&A began should be ashamed of themselves.)

Japan Kawaii Live

Cinderella Girls – Shine!! / SUN♡FLOWER / Love∞Destiny / Tulip / Onegai! Cinderella

• As someone who doesn’t play the mobage I only knew 3 of these songs w (I listened to Tulip a few times last year since it was speculated to be in JKL2017)
• I’m glad they learned from last year and didn’t do the voice acting segment again.
• They kept pushing us to go to 6th dome but foreigners can’t even apply lol

i☆Ris – Fantasia WONDERLAND / Changing point / Pri-Para Medley (Make it!~Miracle☆Paradise~Realize!) / Dream Parade / We Are!

• I used JKL as my excuse to get into iRis last month and they are pretty great. Seeing them live solidified Saki-sama as my fav.
• Random One Piece cover at the end w

AKB48 Team 8 – Aitakatta / Kibouteki Refrain / Everyday, Katyusha / Iiwake Maybe / Hachinosu Dance / Koisuru Fortune Cookie / 365-nichi no Kamihikouki / 47 no Suteki na Machi e

• Longest set list but they were shortened versions of the songs. Fairly predictable choices.
• AKB is definitely very professional. Their dancing was super on-point.

Nakagawa Shoko – Doridori / Tsuzuku Sekai / RAY OF LIGHT / magical circle / Pegasus Fantasy / Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis / Sorairo Days

• Shoko-tan was the outlier in this concert but she still closed it out with a bang!
• Saint Seiya and Zankoku covers were lit!
• Sorairo Days was LIT!!! (Literally–in a concert with CG, iRis, and AKB, the song that got BY FAR the most UO cycloning was Sorairo Days! At least half of the audience in front of me was UOing w)

Day 4

• Nothing scheduled for the day so first I stopped by Exhibit Hall to try the Tokyo Chronos demo (it’s cool) and buy otome games from Aksys (the 3-game special was down $5 each, making it $85! Insta-bought wwww)
• Got a solid 3.5 hours of karaoke in. Writing this blog post made me realize I forgot to sing Sorairo Days :(
• Had some fancy shaved ice.

Day 5

• Bought my premier badge for AX2019 while waiting for my flight. The cycle continues…
• As it turns out, I didn’t eat at Yardhouse a single time this entire AX. I have officially graduated from Yardhouse.

Stuff I bought

• Much less than last year.
• Aksys – 7’scarlet, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
• Atlus – Chibi Jack Frost plush and tote bag
• MangaGamer – Rance VI + 5D, Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome
• Uh… that might actually be it.