Event             Tokyo Game Show 2004
Location          Makuhari Messe
Date              2004.09.24 - 2004.09.26
Time              10:00 - 17:00
Cost              1000 yen
Seiyuu Guests     [many]

This was my first Tokyo Game Show in three years.
Instead of going to watch the seiyuu events, I went to take pictures of
some cosplayers I knew.

I only went on 9/25 (the first day open to the public).
It was raining in the morning and cloudy all day, so the weather wasn't
too good.  I arrived at around 12:30, and the train to Makuhari wasn't
that crowded.  I was able to sit down from Tokyo Station.
It was pretty cool (below 25 degrees) outside, but inside the TGS
it was pretty warm and humid.

When I got inside, I went to the SNK booth (which happened to be closest
to the entrance), and checked out their stage schedule.
I found out that the Cosplay Contest was going to start at 13:00.
Good thing I arrived early enough!

Since I had 30 minutes, I walked around a little bit looking at the
booths near SNK.  I'm not interested in games that much so I didn't
look too closely at the games.  I was paying attention to the companion
girls to see if there was somebody I know. (^_^;

Just before 13:00, I went to the SNK stage and waited for the
King of Fighters Cosplay Contest.
I spotted Saaya and Sagiri Shion waiting too.
Saaya was wearing a red Asamiya Athena outfit (2003 version),
that she had just finished making the night before.
Shion was wearing a pink Shiranui Mai outfit (I don't know which version).

The Cosplay Contest started, and each contestant was called onto the stage
individually.  There were around 20 contestants.  There were four judges,
people from SNK, Cospa, and also a cosplayer called Chapu.
Saaya was definitely the cutest, but she didn't win any prize.
Shion won second place, and got a silver medal.

After the Cosplay Contest, Saaya, Shion, and some others went to the
cosplay area (in the open space between buildings).
So I took some pics of Saaya there.

I also walked around the entire Game Show, and glanced at some of the
seiyuu events that were being held.
Overall there weren't as many people as I have seen in past years,
and there was much more space between the booths, so it didn't seem
very crowded.  All of the seiyuu events seems to have enough space
to watch even if you didn't line up for them.
I saw Enomoto Atsuko, Momoi Haruko, and Nakamura Chie.

As for the games, there seemed to be a lot of driving games.
There were race cars and race queens at various booths.
(It seemed just about everyone has a DSLR these days..)

There weren't any cute games (games with cute character designs).
I think the TGS has gone too mainstream so all the cute games have
disappeared into the "18 kin" (not allowed for anyone under 18) category.

Most of the companions at the booths wore race queen type or
swimsuit-like or some other sexy outfits.
There weren't any wearing cute, frilly, idol-ish outfits.

--
Pics at
  http://photos.usagi.org/game/2004/

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