ANIME NORTH 2003
PAN'S CON REPORT

SATURDAY MAY 17th, 2003


At six in the morning, our wake-up call sounded, and we were all forced awake. I had slept for maybe twenty minutes, so at this point, I had been awake for almost forty eight hours. And I felt like I had been awake for forty eight hours. I was so tired, but too excited to sleep.

When I got out of the shower, the girls were watching the hotel’s channel on the TV which gave the times for every con event as “4:00am-4:00am”. It was odd.

Saturday was Saiyuki day. Blue Rose, Aggie, Rem and I made costumes of the four main characters of Saiyuki (Sanzo, Gojyo, Hakkai, and Goku, respectfully). It took me about fifteen minutes to get my Goku costumes on. Fitting my hair under the wig wasn’t as much of a pain as it could be. I love my Goku wig. ^^

Anyway, half the reason I wanted to be up bright and early was to catch YTV filming, so after eating some sort of snack, I headed downstairs. My camera was being evil and kept taking blurry pictures, so I had to stop and fix it. They were filming Vortex segments live with Paula (the Vortex host). It was fun to watch. ^^

Afterwards, I headed downstairs and I took pictures of some cosplayers. It’s a fact that Saturday it the main day of the convention and when the most people cosplay. The first pic I took was of a Sailor Moon cosplayer. Her costume was amazing, and I stopped to ask her when she started making it. She started it a few weeks after the Anime North the year before. Whoa.

I also ran into a Farfie (Weiss) cosplayer and talked to her about Weiss a bit. She paid a lot of attention to detail in her costume and it was correct down to the letter. ^^

In the lobby, I ran into more Weiss cosplayers. I was so busy taking pictures of an Aya and Youji cosplay pair that I almost missed the Tot behind me. >< Weiss was, yet again, very popular this year. I’m not complaining. I adore Weiss. ^^

Also in the lobby were very interesting Vash and Wolfwood cosplayers who were doing yaoi-ish poses. Umm... yeah. I also ran into another Saiyuki cosplayer—a girl dressed as Lirin. Since Lirin and Goku get character building together in the series, I got a picture of us. ^^;

I went back upstairs to pick up my Yugi wig, and then proceeded to go to YTV’s office at the convention. I had talked to a nice lady who worked there the day before, and volunteered my Yugi wig to them since it looked really cool and I was only using it for Friday night.

Sugar was there and I said hello to her and the nice lady from the night before. I handed her the wig and the puzzle. She thought they were really cool. ^^ Sugar tried them on and commented on my costume. I got a photo, and noticed that my high-healed boots for my Goku costume made me look taller than her. *heh* She asked me a few questions about cosplaying, and I explained I had five costume at this particular convention.

Sugar is a really cool person. I’m serious. I was expecting her to be nice, but not that nice. ^^ She’s a genuinely wonderful person. That’s rare these days, you know? I’m glad she was able to make some use of the costume I was only wearing for a few hours. ^^

After taking a bunch of pictures, I headed back upstairs to check on everyone. Sakuma-san and Psi had arrived and were sitting on what passed as my “bed” the night before and were talking. I handed Sakuma-san the completed pink bunny Ryuichi costume I made for him and prayed the top (which he never had a chance to try on) would fit him. It did, and he looked great. A perfect Ryuichi! ^^

Yui was also there. She was going to wear my old Bulma (DBZ) costume, and Eddy was dressed as Kikyo wondering in and out of the room. Becky was dressed as Cooro from the manga +Anima and was somewhere. With Rem and Blue Rose there, the only person we were missing was Aggie.

When Aggie knocked on the door and walked in, we knew we’d be a hit. ^^ All our costumes worked out beautifully. Yay for Saiyuki! And so, Blue Rose, Rem, Aggie and I left our overcrowded room and headed downstairs. The second we got out of the elevator, we were stopped for pictures.

We wandered around for a while and headed towards the dealer’s room. I kept stopping to take pictures though. *heh* We also kept running into people from my anime club at school. I don’t know how it happened, but at some point, a guy named Matt showed up. He eats lunch with us at school, and he followed us around and helped me carry me stuff. *glomps* Thank you! ^^ I called him “Selcuk” all day, but that’s a different story.

And, as I said before, we kept being stopped for pictures. Every three feet someone would scream “Saiyuki!” and we’d pose and have our pictures taken. I think the record I counted was thirteen flash bulbs at one time. Eep? Security kept asking us to move out of crowed areas since we kept obstructing traffic. *heh*

After we got to the dealer’s room, I started my search for Weiss stuff. Becky has informed me that they had pins and posters of the seiyuu and Zazel. I found the pins, but they weren’t very interesting. I did find two Weiss seiyuu posters that I was going to order off eBay. The first one is of Koyasu and Yuuki, and the second is of Miki and Seki. Very pretty indeed. ^^

Blue Rose still wasn’t feeling well, so she went back upstairs, and I told her I’d join her eventually. I was worried about her health.

I walked around with Matt as everyone else managed to scatter themselves all over the dealer’s room. I kept seeing Aggie’s staff and Sakuma-san’s pink outfit as they really stood out in a crowd. ^^; Matt and I ran into Homura cosplayer and we stopped to take some Homura and Goku photos. ^^; (When Eddy found out later that there was a Homura cosplayer, she freaked out and tried to find her. ^^)

I spent the next hour or so chasing after cosplayers with Matt and random other people that decided to come along for the ride. Looking at all the costumes made me wonder how much time in total it took for every costume at the con to be made. Seeing all the detail work there was, the figure must me huge.

Matt somehow became my assistant. He’d go around and get people to sign the clipboard after I took their pictures. But like the day before, the clipboard was used less and less.

At some point around here (I can’t remember when exactly), someone from my message center named Animerag showed up. ^^ I was busy running around, but he followed me around and interviewed me. ^^ ‘Twas nice of him. I was really sorry that I couldn’t sit down and do it, but being a con, I was constantly on the move. ^^;

At some point, Sakuma-san was with us, and we ran into Buru dressed as Tohma! ^^ So, of course, the customary “TOHMA!” was shouted followed by a glomp. ^^; Since Sakuma-san was also dressed as a Gravitation character, I got a picture of the both of them together. ^^;

I think it was some point around here that I was tapped on the shoulder and turned around to be introduced to Saruki. She even bowed to me. ^^; She’s on my LJ friend’s list and I was aware she’d be there. I didn’t know what she looked like, so I was very happy she said hi. I didn’t talk to her for very long though, as I was trying to figure out which way Buru went. (Now that I think about it, I must of come across to her as some sort of stalker Oo;) I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture of her or something. Pan no baka!

I did keep an eye out for Saruki for the rest of the day, but I couldn’t find her. ><

We went upstairs to check on Blue Rose. She was feeling better, but after a few phone calls, there was medicine for her on the way.

I’m not really sure what happened next, but somehow, a group of us ended up in the main lobby. We ran into Shinji who was carrying around “waka-baka” (his giant mallet of doom!) and I pretended to fight him with my staff. I think Shinji could tell that I was tired and hungry, because he offered me food. Yay for muffins! *glomps Shinji* Thank you, but from now on, I am no aloud to eat your food, k? You need to eat too!

I forgot to mention the other Hakkai cosplayer. She was Hakkai last year too, and her costume was really good. She even made her own Hakuryu (the white dragon Hakkai carries around). ^^ I talked to her a bit since I kept running into her over and over again. Her and Rem were both dressed as Hakkai and I got a picture of the two of them together.

We ran into a Ranma cosplayer I had met the day before hanging out with a really cool (and rather nice) Kai (Beyblade) cosplayer. ^^ He hung out with us, and since, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember his name no matter how many times he repeated it, I called him “Random Guy”. I think his name was also “Matt”. ^^;

After taking a few more pictures, we went upstairs. In the center of the elevator there was someone sitting down dressed in black, wearing a mask and a Chichiri like hat (can’t remember what they’re really called). We dubbed them the “Elevator Troll”. After annoying the Elevator Troll for awhile, we somehow ended up in Random Guy’s room while he got stuff. Then, we went back to our room with Random Guy in tow. Random Guy had food! *glomps him* Err...

When we got there, Blue Rose’s stuff had come and she had a box of forty-eight spoons so that she could eat applesauce. So, before we went back downstairs, we each grabbed a spoon. The troll was still in the elevator, so we annoyed him/her(?) some more and showed them our wonderful collection of random spoons! Mwhahahahahaha! We love you, Elevator Troll!

Errr...

We walked around and took more pictures of cosplayers. Kira has informed me that there was a complete Weiss unit running around, and I was looking for them. When I finally found them, they were in their flower shop outfits eating lunch. ^^; I think I scared them. I love Weiss!!!

Afterwards, we ran around taking more pictures of cosplayers, and stopped by into a panel room for some reason. I think someone there wanted to see our costumes or something. I no longer remember. *sweatdrops*

We did run into Scott McNeil in one of the hotel hallways. Don’t ask me what he was doing there, but he had a little procession of fans flowing him around. He asked about our costumes, and about the use of Aggie’s staff. I videotaped him pretending to have a low battery before we ran off again. ^^

I saw an Amiboshi cosplayer (not my Amiboshi, but still) and scared him half to death. I also took a picture of some really good Shrek cosplayers. ^^ In the lobby, I took more photos and some of a cabbit from Tenchi. PA was in love with the cabbit and was chasing it around all day, but that’s another story...

After running into Becky and stalking seeing Midorikawa-san, we went back to taking photos. I did recognize two DN Angel cosplayers and talked to them about the show. Then I got some pics of the three girls dressed as clow cards. Their costumes were... whoa. Just whoa! Ditto for the Angel Sanctuary group we ran into.

I ran into Tohma and Ian by the dealer’s room. One of my friends took some pictures. I didn’t know until I looked at my photos. I know I didn’t take them since I’m in the corners of the pictures. *heh* Ian made an excellent Horohoro. That he did... ^^

In the dealer’s room, I talked to one of the dealer’s about something I can no longer remember and took more photos of cosplayers. ^^ We ran into Laura and Butterfly who were dressed as Tasuki and Kouji from Fushigi Yuugi. They “bandit danced” for us. It was great. ^^

I stopped to watch some of the Beyblade-related events near the YTV booth, but I had trouble seeing over the crowd. *heh* I’m so short...

I ran into the cosplayers I will probably forever call “Harry and Draco”. They were dressed as Witch Hunter Robin character. Every costume they do comes out great...

It was sometimes around here that I ran into Amiboshi (as in the guy I chase around at every con *sweatdrops*). I talked to him briefly. He wasn’t in costume and explained that his new costume wasn’t completed yet. He also introduced me to the person next to him. ^^ Like Tohma, he’s such a great sport. ^^

I took some photos of Random Guy fighting another Ranma cosplayer, and then, by the elevator, I took a picture of a couple that weren’t cosplaying, but had just come from the swimming pool. *heh* I also took a photo of the Gravitation wall scroll everyone seemed to be pinning after.

Don’t ask me why, but our room keys stopped working. Thank goodness there always seemed to be people in the room. ^^; Rem, Blue Rose and I went down to get it straightened out. I found it funny that they asked for ID that was inside the locked room. *twitch* On well. In line, a girl came up to us, freaked out and hugged us. She loved Sanzo (Blue Rose) the most. Actually, everyone did. She really did look like Sanzo. ^^

Afterwards, we all headed back upstairs to rest for a little while. Blue Rose and I, however, soon came back downstairs to see if YTV was done with my wig and puzzle yet. I knew the voice actor question and answers were coming up, and since I was expecting to videotape it, I wouldn’t have much of a chance to retrieve it later.

When we got to the YTV office, we found out that they were still using them. Then something rather surprising happened. The nice lady and Sugar asked me if I’d like to talk about cosplay and if we’d display our costumes in front of the camera. I have to admit I was shocked, and we agreed. I mean, how could we refuse. ^^; They wanted us downstairs in about fifteen minutes.

Blue Rose and I went back upstairs to tell everyone what was going on. Since they said they wanted to see our costumes, we grabbed our Saiyuki cosplay group. We also shoved my Inuyasha costume on Yui, and Sakuma-san was already wearing the pink bunny outfit I made. My Nuriko costume doesn’t look good unless someone is wearing it, and we were out of bodies as small as mine. Blue Rose’s Hotohori outfit, however, looked great on a hanger, so we grabbed it, our stuff, collected ourselves and headed downstairs.

On the way, I ran into Laura. She was going to attend the voice actor question and answer session, so I asked her if she’d be willing to film it for me and handed her my camcorder. She did. WAI! Thank you, Laura! *glomps* Now I have footage of Brad taking a pic of Kirby taking off his shirt! ^^;

Anyway, back to YTV. Waiting outside their office, we realized that we could put Random Guy into Blue Rose’s Hotohori outfit. So we did. He had no idea what Fushigi Yuugi was, but hey, it worked. I gave Eddy my camera so she could take pictures. Then Sugar came out and talked to us for awhile. My goodness was a tired and excited. Those are two things that don’t mix well with me, but it was Anime North, so what can I say?

We went out to the area of the con where the registration desks were the year before and then the camera started rolling. Sugar asked me questions about cosplay, then talked to each member of our little group about their costumes and how they were made. ^^ It was fun, and when I turned around, I found that a swarm of people were gathered around us. *heh*

I stuttered while Sugar was interviewing me. Curse you, lack of sleep! I don’t normally sound like that. Meh. It was still a wonderful experience. ^^ WAI!

I think what I find so cool about it is not the fact that I was on TV. I’ve been on TV many times in the past doing many different things. I think it’s the fact that it was YTV that made all the difference. I’ve been watching YTV for years. I grew up watching it, and in doing so, I’ve seen it evolve while I, myself, have grown older. I’m not really sure how to put this into words, but... it was a wonderful feeling to know that I was on YTV, even if it would only been for a minute or so. ^^

After the interview, we headed back to the room to relax. Sakuma-san has bought a Fushigi Yuugi artbook even though he hadn’t seen the series. I had fun looking at pics of Amiboshi. ^^; Hmm... we did random stuff for awhile. I think we were shoving parts of our Saiyuki costumes on Sakuma-san. *heh*

I was sooo tired at this point. I took off much of my costumes and went and got a cloth, rinsed it with cold water, and used it to cover my eyes. I then found a nice spot on the floor in our overcrowded and messy room and attempted to fall asleep. Of course, when I took of the cloth to look around, I found a camcorder in my face, but that’s another story...

We spent a half hour trying to pin point the location of a tapping noise. It was coming from one of the room above us. I think Random Guy or Psi went to investigate and found out it was from someone hammering together their costume in their room. ><;

After about an hour of resting, talking and snacking, Blue Rose and I headed back downstairs. We took more photos of cosplayers. In the hallway by the dealer’s room, we ran into the guy from Fata. He scares me sometimes... errr...

Anyway, we ended up running into a group of four girls. They knew me from LELOLA and we talked for a little while. They were really nice. It was a pleasure to meet them. ^^

Somehow, the YTV interview came up and while we were talking about it, Carlos came up to us, and told me they had put my stuff in the con office and that I should pick it up. I thanked him and went back to the conversation. ^^ Since Blue Rose and I had to go get ready for the masquerade, we had to go. I said thank you and took a picture of the girls before we left. They were really cool. ^^

We headed back up to the room to get battery packs. On the way, we ran into a guy that was trying to get girls to hug him. I think he got a little more than what he bargained for when he asked me. *heh*

By the elevator, I saw Vicki in her Ceres costume. It was very impressive. I couldn’t believe someone attempted that costume, and better yet, pulled it off so well. ^^ Amazing!

Anyway, long story short, we went to get ready for the masquerade. I was planning to videotape it and take pictures with Blue Rose. We got seats near the front and began setting up. By this time, my voice was going and I could barely talk.

Tohma, Ian and their friends were sitting nearby. They were so cute. ^^ I saw a girl reading some manga. If I’m not mistaken, she was reading Naruto, and I talked to her about it for a little bit. ^^ I also talked to a girl dressed as Kikyo and a few other people. ^^ I also (I use the word “also” way too much...) got more photos of cosplayers. ^^

I found my friends sitting a little way back from where I was. Something happened and we were screaming things. I can’t remember what, but I remember that I couldn’t scream since my voice has gone. *heh*

Due to where the judges were sitting, the lights were messing up my equipment, so I had to move to the end of the isle to film the masquerade properly. The masquerade started late (like it does every year) and I started videotaping it. About five minutes in, by brand new battery pack died, as did my other one. I snuck out as quietly as I could to rescue my backup equipment from upstairs.

On the way I ran into my beloved Weiss cosplayers! WAI! ^^ They were in their assassin uniforms now, and had a Weiss banner. I got some photos of them and told them they were my heroes. ^^ I took very few photos as I ran back upstairs. On the way back, I ran into Eddy wandering around the halls. She didn’t look too happy. I grabbed her and ran back towards the masquerade.

On the way, we passed YTV’s con office. There were two purple post-its on the door that caught my eye. They read, “Pan! We left your stuff at the con office. Thank you so much!”. WAI! ^^ Eddy found them amusing too. Of all the things to find. ^^

We headed back to the masquerade after that. My camcorder still refused to work, so I gave up on it and used my camera to take photos. Due to the fact that I turned off the flash and the fact that all the photos were of movement, most of them came our really blurry. Meh. You win some; you lose some.

Oh, and before I forget, there was a kid there dressed as Trunks from Dragon Ball Z. I recognized him right away and liked his costume. I saw him throughout the day. Just before the masquerade began, he came and sat down next to me. I’m not sure how old he was. Maybe eleven or so. I don’t think he knew about LELOLA or anything, since he thought my name was “Goku”. *heh* He told me that I was cool, and said that he wanted to sign up in the masquerade to go on stage and say “Goku! I know you’re out there!” *blushes* What a sweet kid. ^^;;;

The masquerade was really cool. Some people have since complained about it, but I thought it was all right. The host was amusing in his own way, and Gordie and his gang of Stage Ninjas were once again a big hit. ^^

After the masquerade, I got some more cosplayer photos, and then went upstairs to my hotel room with the rest of the gang. Random Guy, Matt, Psi and a few other people tagged along. Some people were waiting for rides to go home. Somehow, they ended up ordering a pizza. I was too out of it at this point to notice.

After the masquerade, there was a JPOP dance. I decided to go. I changed into the Sakuma-san outfit I made (which was rigged to fit both Sakuma-san and me with only a few minor adjustments. ^^) So, around midnight Kira showed up in her Night Kid’s shirt, and we went downstairs to the dance.

I stayed at the dance until around three. Although it was around three thirty in the morning by the time I fell asleep, and it was the only real sleep I got all weekend.

Of course, we were up bright and early the next day...