I was finally able to debut my long awaited Eva Friedel (Memories: Magnetic Rose) costume. It was two years in the making. I still need to add trim. But because my sewing machine broke down days before the con, I decided to hold it off for now. Saturday, like any other anime convention, was the busiest and most bustling day. The courtyard was packed with cosplayer gatherings, even so much from a photographer's point of view, it was touch getting a decent vantage point for group shots.

I went to the con suite for a little bit. I was surprised to find that there were Spring Awakening fangirls (Guilty Ones, much?). We sang a few songs from the Duncan Sheik musical. For once, it was refreshing to sing music from a Tony Award winning musical that is not Avenue Q. Branch out, otaku! I want to hear more Sondheim that's not the Tim Burton Sweeney Todd.

At 11AM, it was the masquerade meeting. We were introduced to our lovely neighborhood judges. Chaz stopped by briefly to applaud our efforts participating in masquerade. In short, he said we were all winners. We had a brief meeting with our group when to rehearse and when to meet up. We had tech rehearsal at 2PM.

To kill time between the end of the meeting and then, Tom decided to talk to people. How often is it that Tom talks to people? After all, he is not properly socialized. Stan says he is a personal nightmare to room with. We found a few of our Bay Area friends around the convention area - Chris, Vic II, Tog, Jonas, Diana, and Brendan.

Tom's account of his socializing attempts are online here, as well as his photos of Saturday morning.

Tom and I also posed with the Fansview cosplay portraits that were posted in the Anime Los Angeles hallways. We had Mad Hatter and Mulan from Anime Expo 2007 and Lupin III and Fujiko from Anime Expo 2006.

It was time to go grab food. We tried the hotel restaurant Latitude. Tom and I compared convention notes. In the middle of a filling lunch, we ran into the Proctor twins and their terrorist entourage. Nothing like catching up with good friends over a hearty meal. That's always been my favorite part about going to conventions.

.Of course, there were more cosplayers around on Saturday. We were waiting for our turn for our tech rehearsal time slot.

There were a few gatherings at the courtyard poolside in the afternoon. I missed out on the Pokemon gathering, but it seems like there were plenty of gijinka characters and classic trainers.

Personal favorite? Elecktra's Dawn of the Dead motif.

And then we took a few shots of my Eva Friedel debut. Many thanks to my friends who helped me take the shots. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery mid way through the shoot. I went to the hotel lobby gift shop to find out they ran out of double A batteries. Luckily, I ran into someone at artist alley who had spare double A batteries. Whomever you are, you are blessing in disguise! Thank you.

Despite not having the trim done before Anime Los Angeles, I am very proud with how Eva Friedel turned out, even though people did not remember Memories: Magnetic Rose. Nothing like dressing up like an opera singer belting out them high C's! I'm not too surprised that not many convention attendees knew what I was cosplaying from, had I worn this at an ancient con like Anime Expo in the 90s, it would have been better received. Ah well, I have always wanted to dress up as Eva Friedel and I had a great time in it!

Thanks to Livengood for helping me out with the photos.

Pictures are copyright by Traveling Valentine. If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Dance Club. Many thanks to Chaz Boston Baden for the image resizing and watermarking program.