Anime Expo 2012: What I Got

Due to ALA being the week before AX and SDCC coming up in a week, I really restricted my spending this year.

I only allowed myself to buy manga if it was a fair deal, or if I found any OOP manga on my most-wanted list.  I didn’t find any of those.  But Vertical had a booth, and I like Vertical (even if they don’t get the manga that I really really want, like license rescues).  Ed Chavez takes the time to interact with the fans, and I totally appreciate and respect that.  And he has a knack of getting manga that I will like, but not know about, like Twin Spica.  I picked up GTO the Early Years 12 and 13 from his table.

Animal Land was pushed really hard by the Kodansha guy at ALA, so I picked that up too.  This better be good.  I know nothing about this, but he swore that the entire office loves it, and he threw Fairy Tail under the bus to push this one.

Polterguys is a self-published graphic novel/webcomic created by Laurianne Uy (@laurbits on twitter).  She started following me a while ago, and I followed her back, and she was really friendly, so I started reading her webcomic and liked it.  It’s about a college girl who discovers she has very spiritual roommates… literally.  They’re guy ghosts, five of them.  She has a kickstarter for her first volume, and met her goal, plus received a grant award while the kickstarter was going, so yay!  She said she had a table in Artists’ Alley at AX, so I tracked her down and bought her first book (I also pledged money for the digital version on kickstarter).  She was just as friendly in person, as online.  She’s the first person I’ve bought a book from after meeting them in twitter.  She also drew a cute picture for me.

She signed it to my twitter name, since that’s how she knows me.  (This is what happens when you use a twitter handle that sounds like a real name.) I love graphic novel artists.

There was this booth that had the CUTEST One Piece merchandise.  I bought the bento box on Saturday, and then went back on Sunday and got the water bottle holder.  I love that this stuff is totally useful, too.  I use bento boxes, and my water bottle was clipless before.

Closeup of the cuteness.

With every purchase, the booth gave out these gashapon (large plastic balls, the sort you find in gumball machines) with these mini Wanted posters.  I’m pretty stoked about the Nami one.  Except it promptly fell off my keychain.  So now I’m paranoid I’m going to lose it.

While looking for Kuroko phone charms, I found a bunch of Moyashimon ones instead.  So I bought a Hiochi phone charm.  He makes sake go bad.

And that’s it!  Meager!  Well, I plan on fixing that at SDCC with all their ridiculous exclusives.

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Part 1:  Anime Expo 2012:  What I Watched is here.

Part 2:  Anime Expo 2012:  What I Saw is here.

Part 4:  Anime Expo 2012:  What I Ate/Drank is here.

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