Dear Chibi,

My Moon Stick Proplica signed by voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi

Autographed by Toshihiro Kawamoto

SMASH! Sailor Moon Themed

When I first found out Kotono Mitsuishi was attending SMASH! this year I was super ecstatic! THE VOICE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER OF ALL TIME WAS COMING TO SYDNEY!! If you haven’t figured it out yet, she’s the Japanese voice actress for Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon :D!! I usually go to conventions on Saturdays (being the more popular day and all) but this year I felt like “less” was going to be more, since I really only want to meet her and get her autograph ^^” More people = more competition = less chances. Sunday also collides with City2Surf so Sunday it is! The only problem with going on Sunday was that if I missed out on an autograph, there wouldn’t be another chance (can’t come back the next day!) So I decided quite early on that I would be waking up really early on the day and start lining up JUST IN CASE! For the entire week leading up to the day, I was so nervous about the whole thing >.< I didn’t know how early I should go (whether 5am was overkill or 7am too late?!) This year’s SMASH was held at Rosehill Racecourse, and we were told the “gates” open at 8am, but the convention doesn’t open til 10am. After much dilemma, I decided I’ll arrive at the venue at 6.30am. I woke up at 5am to get ready. Boy..was it dark and cold! I had a really hard time keeping my eyes opened. I also didn’t get much sleep last night (being too nervous/excited?) XD

ANYHOWSSSS…

6.30am is actually quite pretty *_* Best part is, no traffic or cars on the road!!

Originally I was going to park at the Rosehill Garden parking areas, but because gates don’t open until 8am, and I wanted to be there earlier, I resorted to finding some free street parking a few hundred metres away. It wasn’t too bad, easy parking and I had time :)

When I finally arrived at the venue, I realised not a single person was there. The gates were open and so were the doors to the convention venue. It was quite cold outside, so I walked in and saw a couple of crew members and some security guards. They didn’t seem to mind that I was there, so I took the chance to walk around the Artist Alley and took some photos :) There were a ton of really nice art, but I’m just sharing some Sailor Moon ones that I saw ^^

The race course looks nice outside :) I’ve never been here before.

The empty venue early in the morning

It was now around 7.45am, so I headed back out to see if anyone was at the main gates. Strangely enough, it was getting colder and colder, the later the day became O_o At about 8.15am, they finally let us in, only for us to be waiting in line again outside the building ^^” I was first in line at the J.R Fleming Stand, which is where we collect the tokens for Mitsuishi’s autograph :3 This wait was painful because it was freeeeezzzzing! Oh my… I couldn’t feel my legs or fingers!

The queue…

The good part about waiting at the front was that I SAW KOTONO MITSUISHI FOR 2 SECONDS!! X33333 She was walking into the building and wearing a beautiful purple kimono and a sweet smile on her face :D :D~ I squealed. XD

At 9.30am, they finally let us in! We ran inside and picked up a token (wrist band). These tokens ran out within 5 minutes! I heard they only had 100 of them. SO HAPPY I GOT MINE :D I also dropped by next door and picked up a token for Toshihiro Kawamoto (Japanese Animation Director). I don’t think there was as much demand for him since his queue was quite empty (everyone probably at Mitsuishi’s or Reika’s booth)

So… what now? Breakfast of course! :D

8 takoyaki for $8~ but the guy sold it to me for $5 ^.^

At 11am, I headed to the main stage for Kotono Mitsuishi’s panel :D MITSUISHI-SAN IS ADORABLE :3 Unfortunately, no photography or video recording was allowed >.< She really spoiled us with some AWESOME live dubbing though! She did live dubbing for several of her characters/series, including Evangelion, Gundam Seed, One Piece and lucky last SAILOR MOON :D :D :D She dubbed episode 1 of the classic anime when Usagi first meets Luna and goes to rescue Naru-chan. “MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!” Wow. Her voice is so intense and powerful *___* It basically sent chills down my spine. I really enjoyed the panel! She even sang Moonlight Densetsu in Usagi’s voice! IT WAS SO CUTE XDDD (I actually recorded the audio, but silly me forgot to silence my phone so you keep hearing my phone vibrate from all the Twitter notifications OTL) Some fans got to ask her questions and got prizes too! So lucky!!

I live tweeted what Mitsuishi-san said during the panel. You can check them out on my Twitter :)

Photo posted by Kotono Mitsuishi on her blog

Photo by Japan Foundation Australia

And at last… at 1.30pm I lined up for her autograph!! :D :D :D I was so nervous and exciteddd!!! I was getting butterflies in my stomach (or maybe that was due to hunger XD) After much dilemma, I decided to have her sign my Moon Stick Proplica base so I can display it :D But first, I took the opportunity to personally hand her a present I made for her. It’s a print out of a MoonSticks comic “The Naked Truth“, translated into Japanese by the lovely Elly. She also helped me translate a message into Japanese which I hand wrote. SHE LOOKED SO DELIGHTED AND SURPRISED :D  I hope she likes it! Her translator asked if I made the comic and I told her I did. She passed on the message to Mitsuishi-san who had a big smile on her face <3

We were allowed to have our item personalised, so I asked her to put down “Chibi”. Mitsuishi-san giggled and made a comment about it being like Chibiusa! XDDD Her translator asked me if it was a co-incidence, and I told her it was based off Sailor Moon ^.^

MISSION COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!

Time to explore the convention!

All the Sailor Moon cosplays I saw:

I got a lot of comments on my Moon Stick Proplica (which I was carrying around) and my Crisis Moon Compact necklace (Kumacrafts version) ~ HELLO FELLOW MOONIES :D

Graffiti Wall:

Some Sailor Moon merch for sale~

All in all, I had a blast :D Meeting Kotono Mitsuishi was obviously the highlight of my day, but I also had a good time checking out all the Sailor Moon cosplay and enjoying the moonie presence! I’ve never been to a Sydney con before with such a Sailor Moon focus, so that was great ^_^ Lovely helpful crew and friendly attendees :) The venue is great too, very spacious. I didn’t get to check out everything, but from what I saw I thought they did a fine job. My only complaint would be making us line up outside in the cold, instead of inside the building ^^” But hey, sometimes you need to make some sacrifices~ For me, I think it was worth the early wake up and long wait :) Thanks SMASH! and in particular Japan Foundation for sponsoring Mitsuishi-san!