See you, space cowboy...

The weekend is over, everyone has gone home, and I can't wait for a good night of catchin' Z's. Sleep deprivation aside, it was a lot of fun.
The Saturday at the MCM expo was quite different from last time, with the most notable addition being the hour long queue for a ticket, the MCM staff seemingly unable to summon more than the barest of recourses to man the ticket booth. But it wasn't such a tragic wait and once we were in things progressed as you'd expect, wandering around aimlessly dodging cosplayers as we check out the goods. The whole experience was significantly less exciting than last time, probably because we all knew exactly what to expect, and the repetition of some kids marauding around shouting "Free hugs!" did begin to irritate.
As much as the popularity of anime and manga is growing in the UK far too much of it centers purely on Naruto and Bleach, and as enjoyable as both the titles are too many of their die hard fans dedicate themselves to them and ignore all of the many superior anime and manga titles available, which is a shame for them and an annoyance for me. I did see a reasonable amount of people wearing Laughing Man related products, but as most of these people were in the more mature looking types in the age range of 20 to 35 years old, and the vast majority of the hardcore Naruto and Bleach fans are in their teens, you can guess which is going to get shoved in my face at every corner. I'm not really bitter about it or anything, I just wish there was a little more 'proper' anime at MCM, I guess I'm thankful for the ever increasing popularity of titles such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and Gurren Lagann, introducing the scope of possibility and the breadth of variety to many of these people.
Anyway, that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the experience, the weather was great and we were all there so it was lulz tiems for all. And thankfully I didn't spend a huge amount of money this time round, with the entire day costing me £45. The only item I bought was the extremely well made Revoltech EVA-02 for a bargain £10, in the future if they make Rei's blue unit 00 to go with Asuka's 02 I'll definitely buy it for a pair.
After MCM we were off to Leicester Square for the mandatory meal at Wagamama, as always featuring the delicious and expertly prepared chicken katsu curry for me. I thought after that things were going to start winding down, but I was wrong.
We had left the restaurant and were heading back through the square towards the train station when we saw a large group of people walking along with an assortment of drums centered around a man with an amp on his back, a microphone attached to his head and a ukulele in his hands. People flooded to join them and we ran over to do the same, the mini-carnival was being lead by a group of Hindus reciting the Hare Krishna mantra and things were getting religiously off the chain. I was glad to see Haku totally had my back as we got in the thick of the dancing and chanting, completely forgetting about going home we followed the group around partying for a good long while, and the night was absolutely revitalized.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching anime and playing games, I gave Colin, Haku and Neil a proper introduction to Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann and My Otome, but most of the time was spent revisiting Naruto 3, Mashed and Puzzle Fighter.
We played Naruto 3 enough for me to finally unlock Itachi the final character, just in time for the new Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, which -soon to be released on the 360- had playable demos at MCM. While it is an attractive game that holds a lot of potential it had one fatal flaw in freezing for a split second on every hit, which is going to be sure to drive everyone insane and absolutely slaughter playability. I pray it is removed from the retail version, but so close to launch I realize that is basically an impossibility.
I was also able to hone my skills on Puzzle Fighter after playing opponents of a similar aptitude, almost all the challengers I have met online have been ridiculously skilled and have absolutely smashed me. So now I've learnt some tricks I might hope to withstand worldwide adversaries once again, and for the rest of the time I'll have Neil to play online, who has been converted unto the puzzling sensation.

Otherwise, back to the same old job hunting for me.
Although I may spend some of the money I've saved on a few manga tankobon...