The nightlife was settling in. Anime Expo had promised more nightlife and more events to cater to the 21+ crowd. While there were plenty of 18+ panels on Sunday evening, our group decided to partake in masquerade.

Lounge 21 by Jared

Lounge 21 closed early on Sunday in order to have a press only meet and greet. It was a nice opportunity to meet other members of the press. Stan's puppet and Jared's puppet aroused many questions from others at the lounge. There was a small buffet and drinks available for the members of press who took up the invitation. It was a nice way to relax and get fed before the upcoming masquerade competition.

Masquerade Pre Show by Victoria

Masquerade is the big cosplay contest. Anime Expo has had a longtime reputation of being one of the most competitive cosplay contests in the country. The Gleek in me even nicknamed masquerade "Nationals" as we were rehearsing and preparing for masquerade. For our presentation, Jared and I went as characters from Heart Catch Pretty Cure. I went as Cure Marine and he was a puppeteer for Coffret. The costumes were completed in less than one month's time. We started on our projects shortly after Fanime.

Masqueraders checked in by 6:30PM. We were able to get a feel for the stage, but no time for tech rehearsal for lighting and audio cues. The other nice thing about Anime Expo masquerade is that they provide changing rooms. However, there was not many last minute repair supplies. I do have to commend the masquerade team for providing last minute repair supplies in the forms of safety pins. It would have been nice to have a last minute glue gun station. It was not as nice as Anime Los Angeles' backstage repair station, but at least it was something. Hopefully, this can be figured out in future masquerades.

The nice thing about being backstage at masquerade is that it's like an advanced cosplayers conference. Cosplayers were asked by their peers on how they made the costume and shared ideas. This is one of my favorite parts of participating in masquerade; exchanging ideas and creative solutions for upcoming projects.

Masquerade Show by Victoria

Masquerade opened with a showing of classic anime music videos. People were being seated into Hall G. The backstage talent were able to see what was being shown while the show was starting up. The show started around 8:25PM. We had some amazing hosts this year: Kyle Hebert, Mario Bueno, and Victoria Holden. I really want to see these guys do more masquerade hosting on the West Coast. This gang was really fun and entertaining. They did not rely on cliches or the same old schtick; it was nice to see a variety of humor.

We had some really good acts at this year's masquerade. We had Umineko, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, hack // Guu, Marvel vs. Capcom, Internet memes, original designs, and others. The show started off with the walk ons and proceeded to the masquerade acts. We had Brock croon to "Ladies Choice" from Hairspray and a Roger (Big O) play the trumpet live.

Our act was number 26 in the run order. The story behind our act was that Cure Marine, the most fashionable of all the Pretty Cures, wants to show off her runaway attitude. However, her guardian fairy, Coffret, tries to get her focused on the duties of being a Pretty Cure.

Video courtesy of American Cosplay Paradise:

Masquerade Post Show by Victoria

Masquerade ended at approximately 10PM-ish. We were treated to a surprise act for halftime. We were teased that a guest of honor would be doing a 30 minute concert during halftime. Most of us agreed that it would most likely be Yuki Kajiura. However, while I was snapping photos with the press, I started to hear the opening chords of the Saint Seiya theme. Ryo Horikawa was performing live on stage and he wanted cosplayers to go on stage to dance with him. I immediately wrapped up taking photos and joined the rest of my cosplay compatriots just as he was about to sing the Lupin III theme.

Video courtesy of Ryan Molina

Ryo Horikawa sang songs from Dragonball Z, Ashita no Joe, and other shonen classics. These were classic titles that we grew up watching. For a moment, it felt great to be an otaku. Following Ryo Horikawa's performance, we were treated to the winners of the amv contest. Though the cosplayers were still herded backstage, we were able to watch the winning music videos. It was finally nice to see the amv winners displayed at halftime. This was definately a step up from last year's halftime show.

In addition to anime music videos, we were also shown cosplay music videos (better known as cmv's). Though I have made cmvs as early as 2003, it was nice to see some high quality grade cosplay music videos. One of them was set to "Let Me Entertain You" and it feautured Brittish cosplayers. The other video that was shown was a shot by shot recreation of Asuka's best moments in Evangelion. The announcer also mentioned that this will be a part of a new contest for Anime Expo 2013 - cosplay themed music videos.

The awards were revealed after an hour of the the halftime show. The top honors went to Umineko, Bioshock, and Dama Tequilla. At the end of the day, we still felt like we got something out of masquerade - the chance to dance Ryo Horikawa.

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