Armageddon Expo Day 1

Hello again.

I'm currently up in Auckland (for those unaware, I do not live in Auckland) attending the Armageddon Expo for the weekend. It's a bigger event than Overload, but less anime/art focused. It's pretty much an event for nerd culture, so a lot of stuff ranging from Doctor Who, to Marvel to Love Live. Oh how I wish it were just Love Live.

Anyway, it's late and I'm tired, so I'll spare everyone the long-winded run-down, but in short it's been surprising. The audience is very different to that of Overload, with it being more general the attendees were also more casual anime fans, if they even watched it.

Despite this, we sold far beyond our expectations, crushing our Overload sales by a fair margin, which was surprising because I felt like we were going to bomb after seeing all the other tables and the fact most people seemed to be selling plushies and merchandise, not posters/prints.

The downside to this event, and the reason I probably won't attend another Armageddon next year, is the fact that the Artist Alley's location is smack-bang between the League of Legends tournament broadcast... and a Wrestling arena. Both had very loud announcers. Both had large crowds screaming and chanting wildly. And both had very large microphones and speakers with which to blast their sounds into yonder. Yonder being where we were sitting.

I foolishly thought at the start of the day there was no way they could run a tournament from 9am until 6pm continuously... but they proved me wrong. The amout of noise actually started to give me a headache after a few hours, and it became very uncomfortable. It's not their fault, and I totally get that you need to hype the crowd and get people excited. It's more the fact that the organizers decided that inbetween these two boom boxes is where the Artist Alley should be.

My only solice from the noise was in drawing Nozomi. Lots of Nozomi. I think my frustrations began to manifest themselves by increasing the lewdness of the drawings as I proceeded.

Looking back it should have been obvious from the first picture. It always starts with lifting the skirt...

Goodbye, clothing.

Hello, bra.

At this rate, by tomorrow she'll be stark naked and surrounded by dicks. Goodbye, my reputation.

Also, I saw a cute Nozomi cosplay and took a really bad photo of her.

There were actually quite a few Love Live cosplayers, 2 Honoka, a Kotori, Umi and Rin. No Eli, sadly. Oh well. Time to head back to Comiket, I guess.

I also met a cool dude called William (at least I think that's his name, it was so loud in that hall I can't be sure) and he actually reads this blog. He told me I should "be more confident" which was really encouraging to hear in person. Thanks man! If you're going to be there the next 2 days drop by and I'll draw you Honoka! (He mentioned Honoka being his favorite rabu raibu).

Anyway, it's getting late and I have to be up early again tomorrow to set up. Ohhh it's going to be another long day of loud noises. The League of Legends area has been playing so many Imagine Dragons songs that I actually think I'm beginning to hate the band now. I sound like a grumpy old man...