AX Day 1 started with johpan and I arriving at the LA Convention Centre at around 8:30am. We met up with CatchFiveBats in the West Hall Lobby and waited for OpsMonkey to meet up with us. As we were waiting, I stood watching all the people entering the convention centre (as I was looking for OpsMonkey).

All of a sudden, I see this group coming towards us. In the midst of this group, I see a tall girl in a gold dress and a facemask on. I had the biggest idiot moment in the world where I paused and thought to myself, “Hey, that’s a pretty good Koha cosplay!” … I don’t know why I kept looking, but I did. And a few seconds later, it all fell in to place… “OMG!!! GUYS!!!! IT’S MORNING MUSUME!!!”

I nearly had a heart attack. I started fumbling around in my bag, and pulled out my camera. I was able to get the following video:

Risa looked very different at first sight. I didn’t recognize her at first, actually (johpan says it was the bangs). The girls all looked absolutely gorgeous. It’s amazing what seeing them in person, just a few feet away from you can do. When they eventually went into Main Hall A where the Opening Ceremonies were being held, my hands were shaking, as were my legs. I felt really unstable and I processed the fact that I had just seen Morning Musume in real life for the first time.

I also started laughing at myself for the Koharu cosplayer thought I had when I first saw them. But really now, can you blame me? I was at an anime convention, surrounded by cosplayers. Even knowing that Morning Musume were guests of honour, I assumed they’d get to places by entering through a back door. Not just walking straight through the front door of the convention. However, I don’t think many Hello! Project fans were around at the time, for most people just seemed really confused as Morning Musume walked by.

If you listen to the video, there were some guys that I passed by who were wondering who Morning Musume was. One guy said, “Oh, they must be some VIPs or something.” It made me laugh. XD I’m sure the reason why not many Morning Musume fans were in the hall at that time was because a lot of fans skipped out on opening ceremonies to line up for merchandise. Only 300 guaranteed autograph tickets certainly made for a massive line to get in to the exhibition halls. Edit: It was confirmed by Japanfiles that only 200 guaranteed autograph tickets were distributed.

For the opening ceremonies, johpan, OpsMonkey and I sat in the press section while poor CFB had to sit by his lonesome. The opening ceremonies started about a half hour late, and Morning Musume’s introduction was quite short. However, that didn’t stop the crowd from going nuts. I’m assuming that this was Morning Musume’s first anime convention, and seeing as they were the second guests of honour (GOH) to be called up, and seeing how the first GOH, Kari Wahlgren, had a really short introduction, they followed her example and gave a short introduction as well. What was a little bit upsetting was that from the press seating, Ai-chan was blocked by the podium, so I didn’t get to see her much, except when she leaned forward. However, I had a clear view of Risa the entire time.

My clear view of Risa

I didn’t really know who the other GOHs were, as I don’t follow anime very closely, and even with the anime that I do watch, I’ve never really looked into the technical side of them (with the exception of Sailor Moon way back in the day where I knew all the seiyuu – both English and Japanese).

Some of the GOHs were quite funny and easy going. I’d have to say the main highlights of the opening ceremonies were Morning Musume coming out (of course), seeing Morning Musume sit next to Moi dix Mois. That’s a funny pair of groups to put next to one another… The squeaky clean, super genki Morning Musume next to this gothic Visual Kei group. And finally, seeing Ai-chan’s reaction when Toshiyuki Morikawa (the voice of Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth) came up and spoke. She had a complete fangirl moment. The whole time he was talking she hand her hands holding her face in shock. It was the most adorable thing ever. Basically, the kind of reaction Ai-chan was having to Morikawa as the kind that all the Morning Musume fans were having to them being there.

After the opening ceremonies, we (johpan, CFB, OpsMonkey and I) made our way over the South Hall where the exhibit hall was located. We got a text message from Kirarin☆Snow ☃ letting us know that the line up for the exhibit hall was going around the block, so after meeting up with Bryan, we decided to head out for some lunch. The day before, johpan and I didn’t eat from 5:30am PST until 9pm PST just because of all the waiting throughout the day. I didn’t want a repeat of that, for I didn’t want to be passing out during any of Morning Musume’s events. XD

We got back to the Convention Centre and decided to head straight to the room where Morning Musume’s Q&A panel would be. It was just about noon, and Morning Musume’s panel wasn’t until 2 pm. Actually, there was another panel (Morikawa’s, actually) from 12:30-1:30 prior to Morning Musume’s. We actually listened in on the start of Morikawa’s panel, but soon realized that johpan didn’t have anything for Morning Musume to sign. After the Morning Musume panel, tickets were going to be handed out to fans to get them a priority spot in line for Morning Musume autographs. We figured it’d be pointless for him to get one of those but not have anything to get signed if we could get to the front of the line in time.

So johpan and I went off to the exhibit hall to try and buy something. However, the line was ridiculously long… There were only a few guaranteed autograph tickets left, and I was standing next to the guy who was next in line in the JapanFiles line when it was announced that the JapanFiles booth was out of autograph tickets. That must have been a massive bummer.

I kept watching the time, and it kept getting closer to the Morning Musume Q&A panel, and we were still pretty far back in line, so I gave johpan my order and ran to the panel to make sure I got a good seat (and was ready to take notes so I could transcribe the panel for IW later). johpan actually got back to the room just before the panel started and was able to get a seat in the row behind me, so it was all good.

The panel was quite fun, and you can check out the transcript of the Morning Musume Q&A panel on International Wota. Since I don’t understand Japanese that well, I watched the girls as questions were being translated for them, and as they answered the questions. I scribbled like crazy as the questions were asked and as the translator translated the answers.

When questions opened up for the audience, there was a mad rush to the microphone. The H!P Translator (H!P T in the transcript) had to tell everyone not to run. The girls’ answers were cute, as one would expect. None were particularly in depth, but then again, there are 9 girls in the group and it did seem as though the translator was trying to be fair and let as many fans get their questions in to the girls.

The highlights for me were Risa apologizing (even before she knew what she was apologizing for) about not being able to take a picture with the fans, the Atto pose (and Risa’s enthusiasm over the parody DVD question), MAYUGE BEAM!!!!, LinLin’s English (it was awesome), Eri counting out how long she slept for and Koharu asking the fan to repeat their question (she was so enthusiastic to answer it XD).

Another highlight was Reina… She was hilarious throughout, for many fans came up and said that she was her favourite. However, I think she was tuned out when English was being spoken, ’cause whent he question was translated and her name was mentioned “in Japanese”, her head shot up like “what?! o_O” then a quick look at the questioner and “THANK YOU! ”

Something that was slightly disappointing was that neither LinLin or Aika directly answered a question in the entire panel (except at the start where H!P T asked each of the girls a question). Aika at least got to talk a little bit as she helped clarify JunJun’s answer about the movie she had watched recently. LinLin didn’t join in on anyone else’s answer, and she was the one who actually spoke full English sentences at the panel. It would have been nice to get more LinLin English at the panel.

After the panel, 500 tickets were given out for the chance to get Morning Musume’s autographs. They gave some instructions on how to get to the signing, but the directions confused the majority of fans. Most of us went to Exhibit Hall K. I’m sure I heard them say that it was in Hall K, past the Artist Alley. In reality, it was ABOVE Hall K… o_O It took us about half an hour to find the line. After about an hour of waiting, we were sent to a second room to wait. There, we were given place holders and johpan and I got #236 and #235. Unfortunately, the door was shut on us at around 4:45 pm… No more autographs for the day.

However, the tickets were still good a priority spot in line for Saturday morning’s autograph session (though the place holders were no good). Leaving Day 1 without autographs was a little disappointing, but the Q&A panel was great. And seriously, I was still amazed that Morning Musume walked right past me and that I took Koharu for a cosplayer. XD All in all, it was still an awesome day.

Coming up next will be the concert. ^_^ Here’s a quick summary: … EPIC! Stay tuned!