Alright, here we go! Anime Expo, which has quickly become my favorite con of the year was this past July 4th weekend. Instead of recapping each day I attended, this year I’m breaking down my AX experience into four posts. There will be one each highlighting the otome companies Cybird and Voltage, one on the Otome Game Localization Panel, and, finally, an overall AX roundup post.
Today, I’m kicking off my series of AX posts with Cybird!
During last year’s Anime Expo, the Cybird booth was my home away from home. It was my “base” in between panels and events, a place I could sit down and rest. A place where I made new friends and met many I had made online in person for the first time! It truly was the highlight of my AX 2018 experience.
This year, I divided up my main focuses between the Cybird and Voltage booths. I still spent the majority of my time at the Cybird booth and it was still my favorite place to sit down, rest, and talk with friends but I didn’t quite set up camp there like I did the previous year.
Characters from Cybird’s latest game, Ikemen Vampire
The stage area (took this near the end of the con, otherwise this area was usually pretty busy)
Booth Layout
The set up this year reminded me a lot of the year before. There was a stage area with a large TV screen; a booth to purchase merchandise; and a big open line up/sitting area in front of the stage. The outer area was again lined with character standees that were up for raffle. The majority of the standees were from their newest game, Ikemen Vampire, but they also had characters from the popular Ikemen Sengoku and last year’s Ikemen Revolution. All three of the characters I had won last year (Hideyoshi, Harr, and Oliver) were not there this year.
Cybird’s Event Schedule
Friday
I had Fourth of July plans so I wasn’t able to attend the first day of the convention. This meant I missed out on the Ikemen Sengoku Quiz Battle and the Scavenger Hunt activity as they ran out of all the forms needed on the first day. I also missed out on the Utako Yukihiro (character design of the hugely popular B-Project) autograph tickets as apparently, they only had 40 and they sold out very quickly.
People waiting for the kabedon ticket distribution to begin.
I stopped by the booth a little before they began Kabedon ticket distribution. There were already several people sitting around waiting for the line to start. Once I secured a ticket, I purchased my merch. If you know me, you know I am an otome merch collecting queen. I pretty much always buy at least one of everything. At least there were no wall scrolls this year so my wallet was spared somewhat. It wasn’t ideal carrying around all that merch all day, but I was afraid of things selling out as they usually do (and they did).
Cybird’s Merchandise List
Merch
This year, Cybird had quite a nice selection of merchandise to purchase. I especially loved the illustration plates even if they were on the higher end of the price range. The designs are gorgeous and the quality great so I definitely think they were worth it. The only downside were the many random “blind picks.” That’s fine with $4 buttons but with $14 acrylic stands? Seems a bit much to me, but as most of those stands sold out the next day, I guess fans didn’t mind too much. Luckily, besides the Utako Yukihiro autograph set and a few blind pick items (*please let me know if you got anything Harr or the Masamune stand, I am willing to trade or buy*), I was able to purchase everything I wanted.
I also usually have terrible luck with blind picks and while my luck still wasn’t great this time, I was so excited when I actually got a Masamune button! I was then able to score a second one by trading with a friend!
A staff member told the top row was the most popular while 5,9, and 10 were the least.
As I mentioned earlier, Cybird was once again raffling off standees. For every $30 you spent, you got one ticket that you could put towards whatever character standee you wanted to take home with you. I honestly wanted to put my tickets on the same guys I won last year (plus maybe Sasuke) but since none of them were options, I wasn’t sure who to focus my handful tickets on. I ended up spreading out my tickets (not a great strategy to win), but I really couldn’t decide at the time since I barely had played the new game. Looking back, I probably should’ve thrown them all at Sebastian from Ikemen Vampire as I think he’s going to be a favorite of mine.
They handed out these awesome bags to those who subscribed to Sora’s YouTube channel.
I’m Sora Project
After purchasing my merch, I went around to the other side of the booth to get a free bag for subscribing to the “I’m Sora Project” YouTube channel. These were pretty popular. I came back the next day to pick one up for a friend but they were already all out.
Speaking of the “I’m Sora Project”, it’s really pretty nifty and interesting. The channel features Aimu Sora, a bilingual virtual Youtuber (character design by Utako Yukihiro) in fun videos intended to introduce Japanese culture to Western women and Western culture to Japan.
Sora made his first “appearance” during this con and even did a “talk show” before the Kabedon time where he interacted with the crowd answering their questions and asking his own in many instances. He really showed off his fun, adorable, goofy personality. It was during the talk show that I saw my friend Cion who I had met last year. Up until that point, I’d been on my own so it was good to see a familiar face and have a friend to hang out with at the con.
Hiro as Sora! (This photo was from Sunday)
Kabedon
Finally, it was time to start the Kabedons! Today, Hiro came dressed as Isaac Newton from Ikemen Vampire. As usual, he looked amazing and spot on as the character.
Before I go further, I’m sure there are some that are wondering, “What in the world is a kabedon?” To put it simply, it’s (usually) an action popular in Japanese media of someone expressing romantic interest. Most often, it’s a man placing one or both of his hands on a wall, pinning a woman with her back against the wall in the process. Sometimes they’ll whisper something in her ear. The act usually causes the girl to feel shy/nervous and excited, making her heart race.
Now that we all know what a kabedon is, let’s continue… Cion and I were right at the front of the kabedon line. However, she wanted to know if she could kabedon Hiro, pinning him against the wall instead, and asked a staff member. It’s something that happens every year, and we were sure he’d be fine with it but she wanted to be polite. They said they wanted to stay on schedule and if others saw her do that, they might all try to do the same thing and their time might run long. They said it’d probably be okay if we went to the end of the line though. We did just that, moving to the back and letting many people ahead of us.
Then the kabedons began. The very FIRST person in line kabedons Hiro -__- They definitely didn’t ask the staff and a handful of others did the same thing but for the most part, the line still moved pretty quickly so it was fine. It looked like we could’ve stayed at the front of the line after all but we didn’t mind (I really just found it funny). Watching all the different reactions was really entertaining. Cion went before me, and I took a couple photos of her while a staff member took a video. She did the same for me but the angle wasn’t the best due to the crowd so I’m sharing screenshots from my video.
Getting kabedoned by Hiro (sorry for the quality, these are video screenshots)
This is my third year getting kabedoned by Hiro at the Cybird booth so it’s become a bit of an Anime Expo tradition. He is usually pretty gentle when he backs you against the wall, but this year he was slightly more forceful. It didn’t seem like any of the girls (or guys) minded though.
After our kabedons, Cion and I waited for the Quiz Battle ticket distribution. The team colors were given out randomly, but we were able to trade to be on the same team. With an hour before the game would start, we sat down, and I started to open my blind picks. It didn’t take long before some girls approached me about trading items. Since I actually managed to get most of who I wanted, I was happy to help out others if I could.
Ikemen Quiz Battle
For the Quiz Battle, they lined up the five teams of five in front of the stage. Teams were much smaller this year, half the size of last year. This was probably a good decision as some people just joined in hopes of getting a prize with no intention of participating or contributing to their team’s efforts knowing with a team so large they wouldn’t need to. With only five members in a team, it was very important for everyone to contribute.
As I somewhat feared, the theme of the day’s Quiz Battle was Ikemen Vampire. I was kicking myself for only having read the prologue at the time. Unfortunately, as a result, I wasn’t able to contribute much, I was THAT person. I felt like such a dead weight for not being able to help my team out more *cries* There *was* a valuable bonus question I actually knew the answer for (but was too scared to answer). It apparently was too confusing though and they ended up throwing out the question since no one was getting it right. My team ended up making an incredible comeback after sitting at 0 points for the majority of the game and ended up in second place. As a reward for participating, we each got to pull one random button while the winners got five.
We didn’t take a photo this year so here’s one from our winning Quiz Battle team in 2018!
I’m just OBSESSED with this Ikemen Vampire group cosplay!
Arthur from Ikemen Vampire and Kyle from Ikemen Revolution
After the Quiz Battle, I had some time before Hiro’s signing so Cion and I went over to the Voltage booth to make some merch purchases. I’ll be covering my Voltage booth experience in it’s own post so look out for that over the next week!
My autograph from Hiro this year
Hiroto Autograph Time
To get an autograph from Hiro, you had to purchase his photo set. He would then sign one of the photos of your choice. Since he was dressed as Isaac, I decided to have him sign that photo. Most of the line had already gone when Cion and I returned so the wait wasn’t long at all. Staff asked that we write our name down on our phone so he would know how to quickly spell it. When it was my turn, he was very sweet and asked if I was having a good time at the convention and we got to talk for a bit.
I finished up my first day of Anime Expo at the Cybird booth organizing my merch and doing some trading before leaving to meet up with friends to see Spider-Man: Far From Home.
With Hiro as Isaac Newton from Ikemen Vampire
Saturday
I returned the next day for the Utako Yukihiro interview and bought a few more pieces of merch, earning me a a few more raffle tickets. Then I learned that they wanted everyone to turn in their raffle tickets that day. I panicked a bit since I was planning on giving them all on Sunday since I still hadn’t made up my mind who I wanted to put them on and had left my 30 tickets from the day before at home. Luckily, they said if I could come straight to the booth in the morning, it would be fine – they just didn’t want everyone to submit them last minute and overwhelm the staff right before the drawing which is understandable. Crisis averted!
Sunday
The next and final day, I was able to get to the booth early to give them my tickets then immediately booked it to the Otome Game Localization panel – I’ll also be writing a post on that which will hopefully be up next week!
The massive crowd at the Cybird booth during the Standee Raffle
Standee Raffle
I came back to the Cybird booth in time for the drawing at 2pm and there a HUGE crowd of people! I only had about half the amount of tickets I had last year and quickly accepted the fact that I probably wasn’t going to win anything due to spreading them out on so many different characters. My favorite Cybird guy is Masamune, but I just couldn’t put them all down on him knowing how crazy popular he is. Usually this isn’t an issue for me as I tend to like less popular characters (definitely worked out well for me the year before). Even though I left empty-handed, I wasn’t devastated. I used up all my luck winning big last year, glad others got to experience that same happiness – no complaints here!
It was really nice to watch how happy some people were winning their stands especially my friend Brenda who finally won her love, Yukimura from Ikemen Sengoku. She was the first Cybird friend I made and truly made my experience the year before a wonderful one. I was heartbroken for her last year when she didn’t win him as there is probably no bigger Yuki fan out there than her. She’s also probably done more for the Cybird online fan community than anyone I know, and she absolutely deserved to bring her man home with her. The crowd was so dense I couldn’t quite tell who had won him initially, but when I heard Hiro make a comment about tears I knew the winner must’ve been Brenda. I couldn’t help cheering out her name and started crying a bit myself I was so happy for her. Once the crowd cleared a little, I went over to give her a hug and congratulations. I only wish I had a photo to share of the happy couple! >.<
Yuki (left) went home with his #1 fan / Oh, Masa (right), why must you be so popular?
It was announced that 2019 was going to be Cybird’s 5 Year Anniversary in the English market. For it, they recorded fans saying what Cybird and their games mean to them. I joined Cion in line but wasn’t sure what I was going to say till I literally had the microphone in hand. I rambled a bit about my chronic illness and how their stories helped me escape and was my happy place during that time. Not going to lie, I was super awkward so I doubt they’ll use any of what I said but just saying everything out loud – it was a good reminder why these games mean so much to me in the first place.
That wraps up my experience at this year’s Cybird booth at Anime Expo!
