I went to Anime Expo to help promote the upcoming "Like a Dragon Gaiden" video game for Sega and RGG Studio!
They tasked me to cosplay one of the characters from the game and OF COURSE I chose the Mad Dog of Shimano - Majima Goro! My favorite character in the Yakuza game franchise and such a fun cosplay to put together!
What followed was 🐉Yakuza Chaos!!🐉 On Sunday at Anime Expo I had the most fun and frantic day of being Majima in the Like a Dragon Gaiden Battle Arena in the South Hall atrium! They brought in the castle background from the end of the Trailer and a REAL BATTLE ARENA along with prop weapons and a neat ring light camera set up!
I kept thinking what a fun photo set up this was! I was stationed in the arena as Majima from 10am to nearly 4pm and there was a line of folks waiting to take photos and to get the exclusive pins the entire time! It was truly awesome to meet so many Yakuza fans, appreciators and cosplayers! I legit have never seen so many Yakuza cosplays at one con before! Even Yong Yea, the English voice of Kiryu, showed up in full Kiryu cosplay! 👏👏👏
The team at Sega took great care of me and I took so so many hilarious photos with everyone! It truly was too much fun to cosplay Majima and he is just an endless wealth for memable pictures 😂.
Also big smooches to my friends who showed up for a snap, and to my fellow official Yakuza cosplayers Alicia Marie (Ichiban) and Wes IRL (Kiryu)!! I really wish we could have all cosplayed together on at least one day! Maybe Sega will do this promo set up again one day and we could reprise the characters at the same time...
I was only obligated to cosplay for one day so I decided to go casual on the other days and properly check out the convention! It's honestly such a rarity for me to be able to roam around at a big con, I think the last time I got to have some free time at AX specifically was over 10 years ago LMAO,
I mean, going to cons is part of my job and I'm forever grateful for it, but as a bonafide weeb, I do miss the days of just attending a show for fun. So this time, I chose to spend most of my free time in the Artist Alley and checking out both halls. And AX is crowded enough that just doing that took 3 full days!
Here are some pics from the Exhibit Hall and South Hall:
And here is my Artist Alley haul, where I spent the most time and money hahaha! No regrets!
And here are some photos from the Entertainment Hall and West Hall! The catbus was SUCH a great surprise!! And I was happy to see the photo sets again!
Because Anime Expo is such a crowded madhouse, I didn't go out of my way to meet a lot of friends. I was grateful for the time I got and miss everyone already!
Thank you @rggstudiowest and Sega for giving me this amazing opportunity to cosplay from Like a Dragon and to experience Anime Expo this year!
