After a two year hiatus due to the pandemic, Anime Expo (AX) was finally back this past 4th of July weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown LA. I only went for one day and will be doing a separate recap of that overall experience but first wanted to do a separate post (as I did in 2019) for Cybird.
To see what Cybird did back in 2019 for Anime Expo, click HERE.
It feels so weird writing one of these posts as it has been SO long since I’ve been to a convention or done a con recap, but it felt SO good to be back! I’ll go into more detail in my AX post, but it especially felt good to be back at the Cybird booth. Getting to see Hiro and friends I had made at that booth years earlier was so special and honestly my favorite part of being back. I’ve said it before, but the Cybird booth is my AX home. A con this big can feel so chaotic but here, I can relax and feel comfortable, have fun, and hang out with friends.
With my sweet Cybird friends, Brenda and Cion
What is Cybird?
Cybird is one of the most popular free to play otome game app companies. (Otome games are story-based games that are generally targeted towards women.) In most of their games, the player chooses a romantic interest from a selection of male characters and their choices throughout the game lead to either a romantic or dramatic ending. Outside of simply reading the main story, there are plenty of things to keep you engaged and logging in every day such as gacha lotteries to win special items, competitive limited time events, and your own character avatars you can “dress up” among other things. You can also “friend” other players in the game. Once you start playing, it’s very easy to get hooked. It’s no wonder why Cybird’s Ikemen (pronounced ee-kay-men) Series titles have over 17 million downloads worldwide.
It’s so hard to pick a favorite title, but I think if I had to choose, I’d say Ikemen Vampire
The Booth
The set up this year reminded me a lot of how it looked in 2019. There was a raised stage area with a large TV screen against a backdrop of various art from the games. Off to the side, there were tables to purchase merchandise, turn in your raffle tickets, and collect the freebies (see further below). In the center was a big open area that was completely carpeted – a perfect place to line up for events, sit a large crowd for announcements, hang out with friends, or sort/trade merch items.
The merch/raffle/freebies tables
My favorite place to “camp out” at Anime Expo
The convention and most vendors don’t really allow attendees to sit on the floor and seating around the convention center can be sparse or hard to find with so many people. That’s one thing that really makes the Cybird booth stand apart. They really care about their fans, giving them this space to relax and hangout away from the crowds and chaos. Also, say you’ve just bought a bunch of blind pick items (ahem) and want to open them all to see what you have and trade with others. This is the perfect space to do that.
Little would you know that a super busy convention crowd is just a few feet away
The outer edges of the booth area were lined with beautiful character standees that were up for raffle. The art for the games is always gorgeous, but I’m always so impressed when I see the special designs they release. This year, the theme was “All For Love!” and the character outfits were all very high fashion. Some I liked more than others but you can’t deny how creative and artistic all the designs are. I could totally see all these looks in a fashion show!
They had 7 characters standees (including each Heroine!), 28 total from four of their games: Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Revolution, Ikemen Vampire, and Ikemen Prince. I honestly can’t remember why I don’t have any photos of the Revolution characters. Not only are these nice to look at, but they also create a really nice barrier between the booth and the rest of the convention crowds, creating a nice, relaxing atmosphere in the center.
Characters from Cybird’s latest game, Ikemen Prince, is inspired by Beauty and the Beast
Characters from Ikemen Sengoku – scroll down this post to see which of these is my favorite
Yep, you read those names right – this game’s characters are vampire versions of historical figures
Love, love, love that they had the Heroine standees! This MC is my favorite!
Cybird’s Event Schedule
Friday’s Schedule
I only went to AX for one day, Friday, this year. I was a guest of a friend so I couldn’t camp out at the booth all day as in years past. However, I still got to do WAY more than I expected under the circumstances. I seriously would’ve been grateful to have just gotten a chance to buy some merch and see the booth after a two year dryspell.
Hiro dressed as Mitsunari from Ikemen Sengoku
I got to take a photo with Hiro during the Photo Time/Cosplay Gathering who said “I remember you! All the alumni are here!” – he was so sweet. I also got to participate in the Quiz Battle with some of those alumni (Go Team A!). We didn’t win for whatever reason but we did have the highest score so I’ll take that as a win. All participants got to randomly pick cute mini buttons from a box at the end.
Hiro hosting the Quiz Battle
The cute buttons my friend and I got for being in the Quiz Battle
This year’s freebies
All For Love! (& Freebies)
The theme this year was “All for Love!” They had cute little whiteboards that you could fill in with your own words and then post a photo of it on social media – once you did, you could get a free sticker of choice. Even if I only get one sticker, I still had fun writing in various names of my favorite guys. Below, I wrote in Itaru (my favorite otome guy, from the game Liar!), Luke (my husband, although there is a character in Cybird’s newest game, Ikemen Prince, that’s also named Luke), and Masamune (my overall favorite Cybird guy). They also gave out a free bag if you followed them on Instagram. As you can see from the phone above, one side of the bag was pretty spicy.
A few of my favorite guys: Itaru, Luke and Masamune
If you only read one Cybird route, make it Masaume from Ikemen Sengoku – it’s soooo good!
How adorable are the Heroine chibis?
The Merch
This year, Cybird had a really nice selection of merchandise. The main games of focus were Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Vampire and their newest, Ikemen Prince. They did have some Ikemen Revolution items in there as well. This year was the first time they introduced merch for the four heroines or “MCs” (main character) of the games. The MC designs were beautiful, and I was just as excited to finally have some merch of the ladies as well as my favorite guys.
Speaking of my favorite guys, several of them were noticeably absent (Hideyoshi, Harr, Oliver, Sebastian, Jin, Luke, Sariel). Sigh, I know they can’t have everyone but I still missed them – I guess that’s what I get for liking less popular characters. I’m also a bit behind on some of the games (due to my old phone suddenly dying and losing all my game data for Revolution and Vampire) so there were also several new characters with merch I wasn’t very familiar with.
Cybird’s Merchandise List
Order sheet with prices and purchase limits
My favorite items were the three group illustration acrylic plates. Absolutely gorgeous and great quality – so worth the $25. My second favorite items were the acrylic character stands shown below.
A Closer Look at the Merch
I can’t get over how beautiful these acrylic stands are!
Some of my “blind pick” buttons
There were the usual “blind picks” for character buttons and bromides. These can be a little annoying if you just want one character or end up getting a bunch of doubles, but trading with others can be a fun activity. I’m very glad they didn’t do these with the acrylic stands like they did in 2019. I feel like I got pretty lucky with my blind picks getting just about all my favorite characters (Masa, Leo, Leon). I only ended up doing one trade – an extra Jonah button I had for a 2019 Theo button I didn’t have.
I love that there was a Heroine button set!
All the character standees up for raffle
Standee Raffle
Just as they did in 2018 and 2019, Cybird was once again raffling off standees. For every $50 you spent, you received one ticket that you could put towards whichever of the 28 characters you wanted to take home with you. Just write the corresponding number of the character you want from the sheet above on the back of your ticket and turn it in. I spread out my tickets among a couple favorites of mine including all the heroines. Not usually a great strategy, but I wasn’t dead set on anyone (besides Masamune but he’s so popular there’s no way I’ll ever win him) nor was I desperate to win knowing my husband wouldn’t be thrilled so better to give their more hardcore fans a chance.
The raffle winners are announced on the final day of the convention – which happened to be Monday, July 4th. My friend Brenda who I’ve written about previously kindly offered to hold my tickets since she would be there. I was busy hosting a get together when I got several excited messages that I had won multiple standees! Four total – even more than the unbelievable 3 I had won in 2018! (Later, we realized one was a mistake so I really had *only* won three).
I had won both the Ikemen Prince and Vampire Heroines as well as, most surprisingly, the super popular character, Leonardo, from Ikemen Vampire! As much as I wanted to bring them all home with me, I knew that would be very difficult. Brenda so kindly helped me arrange new homes for all three standees, and they all ended up with people who would love and take great care of them. Happy ending for all – talk about a great way to wrap up my Cybird Anime Expo experience!
Look out for my post on my one day experience at Anime Expo 2022!
