AX Recap and CLAMP

Pictures later, because my lazy streak continues. Outlined version. Sorry if things are hard to understand, and if information is incorrect.

Day 1:

My cousin left our house at about 4:40 AM.
We arrived at hayakuneko’s house at about 5 AM.
We got to the Anaheim convention center at 5:45 AM.
I met a friend that I made on a tour bus trip some 3 to 4 years ago.
We ended up chatting on hayakuneko’s 2 DS’s until 8:20 AM when the line finally started moving. Luckily, we were in the front, so it didn’t take more than a couple of minutes to get our badges.
Kittachu and Hayakuneko ended up leaving us because I planned on waiting the full 6 hours until CLAMP.
Anywho, my cousin and I ended up going to the 3rd floor only to discover that the CLAMP line started on the first floor. (Hall D)
I think we were within the first 100 people, but people ended up cutting in fron and behind us. I hate people like that. =\ Heck, even Hayakuneko and Kittachu cut in front of some friends behind me. >>; They only waited 2 hours or less compared to my overall 7 hour wait.
Well, by the time they were ready to move the lines, there were probably ten times as many people.

Overall, we got into the first row of center seats, which I think were the best seats in the house, even if we didn’t win autographs. (How was I supposed to know there were 60 unclaimed tickets and all I had to do was go to the Del Ray booth the day after?! *fume* I was mad/depressed the whole 4 days of the con. I mean, the autographs were personalized! T_T)

Random things I was able to jot down from thet panel: (No recording, no pictures ~_~;)

The panel started at 3:21 PM.
The English VA for Riza (Hagaren) was the (what do you call the person that introduces everyone?). Anyways, she will be thet director of Funimation’s dub of the Tsubasa anime.
She asked a few people how they became interested in CLAMP.
Many people mentioned Cardcaptor Sakura and Mixxzine. (sp? — before the Tokyopop days)
22 series in 18 countries.
They showed a video that basically introduced all of CLAMP’s works, starting with RG Veda. (Seiden)
They changed their names and decided to make more public appearances because of their 15th anniversary.
They showed pictures of their studio (like the video on ANN), of themselves working, and of their supplies.
They said they wrote their scripts with a play style rather than a novel style.
Mokona’s storyboard.
Preview of them working on a page of the Tsubasa manga. (if you’re following the Japanese manga, you know that Fai’s in a bit of a predicament *cough* >>; I’m not following, but yeah, I’ve seen it)
They showed their Copic markers and other pens.
Nekoi is more of the neat and photogenic studio.
Mokona is uber messy.
They don’t have assistants.
(Didn’t get the number) were high school classmates and friends. They eventually began publishing doujinshi.
The endings to all their manga are predetermined.
Tsubasa script takes about 8 hours.
Storyboard 12 hours.
2 days for 20 pages of art.
With X, it takes 4-5 days for art.
The roles they play depend on the title.
They wanted a consistency in the art because of the Tsubasa/Holic crrossover. The Holic art is based off of a Japanese art form. (I couldn’t spell it)
They almost never mess up on their color works, so they are generally not discarded.
They have the pencil on one sheet and the final drawing on another. They toss the pencil sketch if they’re not satisfied.
When Nekoi tosses her “doodles”, others pick them up and they end up being placed on the CLAMP website.
Deadlines are the best inspiration, but there’s nothing fun about deadlines.
One (I forget who) said that it was Cardcaptor Sakura, because it was more fun and most of the other works had dead characters.
Because all of their non-fantasy works are in the same world, thus there are crossovers.
Fantasy titles are also in the same universe.
They decided on Sakura and Syaoran as characters for Tsubasa because they wanted Tsubasa’s main characters to be from a series with a happy ending.
Kobato will be continued in the Japanese Newtype.
Yuuko is represented by the butterfly because it represents the soul and transformation.
There was a question on Fai and Kurogane, and how Kurogane could represent black and Fai represented white (yin and yang). (Fanservice j/k)
Yeah, so they are like Syaoran’s assistants. Fai’s mysterious while Kurogane’s straightforward.

http://anime.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=2909&pg=1&comments= (for press conference info, different from above)

I went shopping day 2. Bought 2 Cardcaptor Sakura cels. I think I spent nearly $200 on merchandise and food. x_x;

I got the Eureka Seven director’s (Tomoki Kyoda)autograph on day 3. And I bought 6 High Grade 1/144 Gundam model kits. (Strike Freedom, Infinte Justice, Destiny, SD Destiny, Wing Zero custom, and the I think it was Aegis)

And on the final day, I was lucky enough to get Seiji Mizushima’s autograph. (director of Hagaren!) >o< They closed off the open autograph session before we were allowed to enter the room (even though I waited an hour + in line… I woke up late and my parents had to get ready for a mini fishing trip =.=) but he was kind enough to autograph my FMA postcard. *took a picture with him too*