Saturday was the busiest day of the convention. The halls were very crowded. It felt like Day One of Anime Expo 2006! For the most part, we window shopped through the Exhibit Hall and chatted with the folks at the Anime Los Angeles booth.

Anime Expo 2008 also had an unexpected Guest of Honor - Rick Astley. Here's a clip.

Time to grab dinner! Tom and I went to La Bella Cucina. This time, they raised the prices on food. What was once a $12 bowl of pasta became $18. La Bella Cucina was well aware of the anime event happening a few blocks down as Serial Experiments Lain played on the screen. I was totally surprised to run into an old friend from my amateur voice acting days, Michelle Ann! Wow...it only took a good ten years to finally meet! Otherwise, Tom and I stuck with the soup. $7 for a bowl, not bad.

Originally, we thought about going to masquerade when the press was escorted in at 5:30PM, but they would not let the press or anyone for that matter out of the Nokia Theater. It was a smart idea to grab food first. Tom had to check things in at convention concierge before going in. Nokia Theater had strict regulations. Aside from that, Nokia Theater also have comfortable seating. I was able to nap through the pre-show sit down entertainment - Kyo Kara Maoh and Uncle Marty's Dub Shack.

And get this, masquerade started on time! The 2008 masquerade was hosted by AX's own three stooges of entertainment - Matt Miller, Kyle Hebert, and Brad DeMoss. The trio did a great job making sure the show ran smoothly. Yet, my concern was that Brad DeMoss pointed out that the masquerade audience was smaller than the AMV contest audience. There were a few empty seats in the theater when the show began.

Many series were represented - Pet Shop of Horrors, Princess Mononoke, Fist of the North Star, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, Fate Stay Night, Odin Sphere, Neon Genesis Evangelion, an all star Super Smash Bros. cast, Black Lagoon, and more! So how was it? From the audience perspective, it was great seeing the costumes up close on the huge screens. There were 36 acts on stage. Most of which were not masquerade regulars. This could be due to some cosplayers boycotting AX. It still was a good show and it was refreshing to see new talent. Surprisingly enough, the skit portion ended at 9:30PM!

Personal favorites? I loved the Black Lagoon and Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei skits, not just for the costumes, but for the great comedic writing. It's often cliche to use Internet jokes in masquerade skits, but Black Lagoon integrated /cgl and 4-chan memes to where it seemed to fit the respective series and still made the audience go lulz.

Halftime was comprised of the Anime Expo Idol winners. Tom and I left afterwards. The best part of masquerade? No cliche yaoi skits!

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