I have many event reports to write up..
(I'm doing them way out of order.)

Anime Expo took place in Tokyo for the first time in January 2004.
It was a three day event (from 1/16 to 1/18), and it was held in the
Bunka Kaikan in Ikebukuro.  Some of the events were also held in the
Toshima Koukaidou.

I only went on Sunday (1/18), and I spent most of the time in the
Toshima Koukaidou to watch the Unity and Cutie Pai mini lives.

I took a quick look around the corporate booth area, but there were hardly
any people.  There was a cosplay cafe near that area, but it was almost
totally deserted.  One girl I knew was working there on Saturday,
but she wasn't there on Sunday.  I tried to look for another girl,
but I couldn't find her, so I didn't go in.

I heard that the people who ate/drank there were allowed to take 5 photos
of the waitresses.  Since they usually don't allow photos in the cosplay
cafes in Akihabara, this was a nice system.

I went to the Toshima Koukaidou about 30 minutes before the events were
supposed to begin, but the doors were locked, and there was no sign of
staff anywhere.  No fans waiting in line either!
Then I wondered around in the game centers for a while, and returned
a little later.  The doors were open and there was a little table with
three staff members, who were checking the badges.

I went inside and saw only 10 to 20 people inside!
This is a large, multi-level hall that can seat almost 1000.
For both of the events that I watched, there were only about 30 people
watching the events.

I think holding these events in the Koukaidou was a mistake.
It's too far away from the main events in the Bunka Kaikan, so only the
fans would attend.  If they would have held these somewhere in the Bunka
Kaikan, it would have attracted a much larger crowd, as the people who
just happened to pass by would have watched.

Actually I don't know why Unity and Cutie Pai were invited to do events.
They are almost unknown outside of Japan, so none of the foreign guests
were going to show up anyway.  If they thought they might attract some
new fans, they needed to have the event on the main stage, not at the
Koukaidou.


Unity mini live (13:00 - 13:45)
-------------------------------
The Unity mini live was around 45 minutes long, and flowed as follows.

  -  2 songs
  -  [talk]
  -  Tokimeki no Door
  -  [talk]
  -  Sakasama Mermaid
  -  Kagami no Naka no Dia
  -  [encore] Kagami no Naka no Dia

This was the first time that I saw Unity, so I didn't know any of the songs.
They wore a sailor-fuku type outfit, which was nice.


Cutie Pai mini live (14:00 - 14:45)
-----------------------------------
The Cutie Pai mini live was around 45 minutes long, and flowed as follows.

  -  Hello Cutie Pai
  -  Koi no Kisetsu to Kimi to Boku
  -  Life
  -  [talk]
  -  Reflection Love
  -  [talk]
  -  ?
  -  Jenny ha Gokigen Naname
  -  Tamaniha Konna Koino Hajimari
  -  [talk]
  -  Atarashii Hi
  -  Yell
  -  [encore] Yell

Cutie Pai wore their yellow (Makky) and red (Mayu-chan) one-piece outfit,
with the big ribbon in front.
Then they rushed off stage and changed into their future retro
orange (Makky) and red (Mayu-chan) outfits.
Actually they had been wearing the future retro outfits underneath the
one-piece outfits.

Since I hadn't gone to a Cutie Pai event over 4 months, there was one
song that I didn't recognize.

--
Hitoshi Doi               "this space also for rent"
                           " this space for rent "
http://www.usagi.org/~doi/                                    doi@usagi.org