PAN'S CN ANIME 2003 CON REPORT

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd, 2003

Another con report started two months after the fact. ><; I hate school.

This year, to get to CN we decided to take the subway part of the way there. So, there we were in the subway, costumes and all, getting strange looks from all the "normal" people, but then again, this is us, so we’re more than used to it by now.

I was dressed as Jeanne from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Amanda was dressed as Eriol from Card Captor Sakura, Eddy was dressed as Reki from Haibane Renmei, and Becky was dressed as Sora from Digimon. When we arrived at Union Station, we spent a few minutes looking for the bank machine. Seeing anime characters take out money was apparently very amusing since many people decided to stop to watch.

Soon afterwards, we left and started walking down the street to the convention center where CN Anime was taking place. On the way, a white van pulled up next to us. The door flung open and someone in a cow suit jumped out. Apparently they we're selling yogurt or something. I screamed, "COW!" and glomped the poor soul trapped in the suit. People stopped to watch. Some people thought it was part of an act or something. I guess this is what I get for going downtown in costume. *heh* After posing for our photos, we continued on our way to CN. CN Anime had officially begun.

Soon after arriving, we all broke up into groups. Amanda and I signed in and begun taking pictures. There were so many wonderful costumes. I wanted to get pictures of as many of them as possible. ^^

One of the first cosplayers I can across was a male Youji from Weiss Kreuz and he looked just like Youji to boot! ^^ I also ran into Reenin who was dressed as Evil Fin from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. Her friend was dressed as second season Jeanne. We talked about getting together to take some Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne pics later in the weekend. Then I was off taking more pictures. There was an awesome Meryl and Mille from Trigun. Meryl looked just like Meryl, and the Millie even had the giant gun. ^^

There were so many great cosplayers I could go on forever. Naruto was very popular this year. Apparently they were selling the headbands in the dealer's room and they sold out in twenty minutes. Yu-Gi-Oh was also very popular. Kira was dressing up as Malik again, and was one of the main organizers of a Yu-Gi-Oh photo shoot for Friday night. It scares me how many of the cosplayers I know from somewhere. I've had little conversations here and there at cons. It's nice. *smiles*

One thing I like to do at cons is try and remember other costumes the same cosplayer had done in the past. I can't remember the periodic table to save my life, but most of the time I have no problem keeping a mental record of cosplayers. For example, Amanda and I ran into a Chi in the Dealer's Room with an awesome costume. She was one of the Black Magician Girls at Anime North earlier this year. ^^

One neat thing about CN is that it is not entirely an anime convention. It's an anime, sci-fi and comic convention all rolled into one. Many cosplayers make non-anime costumes. There were Klingons and Lord of the Rings characters running around with their favorite superheroes. Heck, there were even some Nightmare Before Christmas cosplayers.

Chapel, Mike, Kenney and Bianco were running around dressed as the Turks from Final Fantasy VII. I think "character introductions" are in order. Chapel you know. Mike has been attending cons in the Toronto area. I know him through a few people. How I know them all is well... I went away in the summer, and when I came back I found out that a bunch of my friends were planning a cosplay group for the anime Get Backers. This was the first time I met Kenney and Bianco. Kenney goes to the same school as Mike. Both of them know Bianco through one of the University of Toronto's anime clubs.

Mike and Kenney organized the Turks cosplay group. Mike was Tseng, Kenney was Reno, and Chapel was Rude. Their Elena fell ill so Bianco took her place. Who knew he could walk in heels? ^^;;; Anyway, they looked really good. ^^

In the classic tradition of CN, they were selling weapons upstairs. Amanda and I played with them for a while and took a look around.

Amanda and I took more photos, and then headed to Brian Drummond's autograph session. At the very front of the autograph line we found Kira (Yami Malik), Kelsi (Yami Yugi), Ash (Yami Bakura), and Kira's friend Jen (Rare Hunter). We talked until Brian showed up. I took some photos.

Ash went first getting a picture autographed by Brian. Brian gave her a kiss on the cheek. I wasn't fast enough to take a picture, so I made them do it again. ^^; Needless to say, Ash was very happy.

Kelsi, Kira and Jen got their autographs soon after and we agreed to meet up at the Yu-Gi-Oh photo shoot being held at six o'clock. Amanda and I stopped to talk to some of the people in line waiting for to get autographs from Brian. One girl dressed as Bakura was selling Yu-Gi-Oh bookmarks, so I bought a Bakura one. ^^

After a quick trip past the MegaTokyo guests, we went back to wandering around taking pics of cosplayers. I said hi to a young Ray from Beyblade cosplayer. He was happy that someone recognized him. Apparently I was the first, but I was by no means the last. The poor kid was attacked by the obsessive Beyblade fans throughout the weekend. ^^;

We stopped to take pictures of the Slayers guests -- Tommy Ohtsuka and Yoshihiro Komada. They were signing autographs and drawing pictures for their fans.

Ever since I got my hands on it, I wanted to make the outfits of the assassins from Ragnarok Online. Maybe that's why I was thrilled to see a little Ragnarok Online cosplay group running around. I feel so sorry for their male assassin. I glomped him ever chance I got. His friends kept teasing him about it. *sweatdrops*

Nearby I stopped the Japanese translator from last year's CN Anime. He was talking on a pay phone. I took his picture. He recognized me. ><; Eep?

After more photo taking, Amanda and I ended up at the Yu-Gi-Oh photo shoot. There were a ton of Yu-Gi-Oh cosplayers! My friend GLAY was dressed as Malik, P-chan was Mokuba, and the nice Kaiba from Anime North was there. There was an Anzu, Honda, and even an Esper Roba!

Needless to say, much photo taking occurred. There was lots of posing and yelling of rather cheesy Yu-Gi-Oh dub quotes. At some point, Kira (Yami Malik) started chasing P-chan (Mokuba) around with her Millennium Rod. To add to the Yu-Gi-Oh fun, Kelsi brought the plushies. It was Yu-Gi-Oh heaven! ^^

I ended up annoying the guy that owns StillVisions.com and Amanda got in a staring contest with Kira's Millennium rod. Yep, normal...

Then Amanda and I ran off to take more photos. We ran into a really awesome Team Rocket and Sakura from The Anime Archives before we headed upstairs. I ran into Raith (Stephen) and Michael, who I met here. We talked for a bit and they introduced me to a guy playing the Yu Yu Hakusho TCG (trading card game). We talked about the Yu Yu Hakusho TCG for a bit. It sounded really interesting. All you Yu Yu Hakusho fans out there may want to check it out sometime. ^^

Amanda and I ended up where Neil and Adrain Rayment (they played the "Twins" in Matrix: Reloaded) were signing autographs. I took a picture of a Vash cosplayer with them. I guess Vash likes the Matrix too. ^^

While running around taking more pictures, we spotted Heero and Duo cosplayers from Gundam Wing. Instead of wearing the normal outfits, they were wearing outfits from a doujinshi. Both Amanda and I are huge Gundam Wing fans, so we stopped to talk to them. They were awesome and the detailing in their costumes was amazing. ^^

Running around the lobby, I ran into "Harry and Draco" (two cosplayers I run into everywhere whose names I can't remember and therefore call them "Harry and Draco" since those were the costume they were wearing the first time I stopped to talk to them ^^;). They were dressed as Bakura and Malik from Yu-Gi-Oh. Just like all of the costume they make, these were very well done. ^^

I talked to Micheru-chan from Anime North (she's the one who "osuwaried" me like crazy) and Shinji. They were dressed as Tamahome and Miaka. Micheru glomped me and I almost fell over. ^^;

I've seen lots of Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers in my day. Lots and lots of them, both nothing -- and I mean nothing -- could prepare me for the Fushigi Yuugi explosion at CN. There was a massive group of Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers that spoke French running around, and they kept multiplying. I have never seen so many Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers in my life! If you add on top of that the Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers that weren't part of that group, that's a lot of Fushigi Yuugi!

There were even people cosplaying some of the rarely cosplayed characters, like Tomo and NyanNyan and even Taiitskun! One of the few characters they were missing was my precious Amiboshi. Their Mitsukake reminded me of Amiboshi, so I glomped him and Suboshi, of course, every chance I got. Every time I did, they'd look at each and say something in French. Amiboshi and Mitsukake walked around together all the time and I glomped them all the time since they reminded me of Amiboshi and Suboshi. *sweatdrops*

Somehow the giant Fushigi Yuugi photo shoot turned into a massive random cosplay photo shoot that I ended up being dragged into. Meh. 'Twas fun. ^^

I ran into Animerag and Peter. I had ran into both of them earlier, but I didn't recognize Animerag at first. *sweatdrops* I also saw the super uber nice anime guy I talked to at Anime North throughout the day. He's a pleasure to speak to. ^^ We talked about all sorts of things.

I spotted the male Youji cosplayer again, and well, running-tackle-glomped him. ^^;;;;;;; I love Youji!

Oh and before I forget, there was a Dark cosplayer! WAI! ^^ DN Angel rules!

I found Becky and took her picture. As previously mentioned, she was dressed as Sora from Digimon. A group of us were going to do Digimon cosplay (I was going to be Tai), but at the last minute, things fell apart. Most of the Digimon cosplay group members couldn't make it on Friday and there were a bunch of time-related issues. Brave Becky was the only one of our numbers to finish. ^^; On a semi-related note, Taina and Tomoyo from Nona happened to be dressed as Tai and Matt from Digimon.

I ran into Reenin again. She took off her wig because the green coloring was coming out all over her back. ><; Meh. I got a picture of me and the other Jeanne.

Exploring upstairs, Amanda and I ran into a girl cosplaying as the Digimon Emperor. I first met Amanda when she was cosplaying as the Digimon Emperor, so we stopped to talk. On the way back downstairs, I found Mitsukake and Suboshi and glomped them yet again. ^^;;;

Amanda and I stopped to talk to a girl sitting on the floor wearing a hoodie with cat ears attached to it. It turns out that she was going to dress up as Ayane from Dead or Alive 2 on Saturday. Ayane is a costume that I'll (eventually) do, and it explained the girl's purple hair. ^^

Throughout the day, we kept passing by a guy wearing an Invader Zim T-shirt. Rem and I realized that he was the Vash from the Friday of Anime North 2002 that was chased into an elevator. *sweatdrops* What are the odds? We weren't sure, so I shouted his real name and waited to see if he would turn around. He did. We took his picture and the poor soul was slightly frightened to see us again. Can you honestly blame him?

Speaking of Vash from Trigun, a bunch of Vash cosplayers in the lobby, including Zero, posed for some photos. ^^ Moreover, Amanda bought a Vash figure earlier in the day, so it was Vash heaven.

Near the exit, I spotted a Trunks cosplayer. Not only that -- a good Trunks cosplayer! I nearly knocked him off his feet when I ran up and glomped him. ^^; The only other Trunks cosplayer in my recent memory was the nice kid at Anime North earlier in the year. He was SSJ Trunks though. This guy was future Trunks. WAI! ^^ I even gave him little kiss on the cheek. Uh... He turned out to be Becky's friend Grace's boyfriend. Grace is gonna kill me. ><;;;

As the night began to wind down, Amanda, Kira and I sat in the lobby with Saffi and a random guy. You may remember Saffi as the cat from "Cats" at Anime North. The ransom guy might have been her brother. He didn't want to give us his name, so we named him "Bob". ^^; I spotted Animerag sitting nearby and asked him to sit with us. He refused, but a few minutes later, Amanda offered and he came. ^^

We talked about a bunch of things and killed time. Saffi told us about some of Cats-related experiences. Turns out she's pretty big in the Cats fandom. Awesome! ^^

Amanda and I were playing with weapons we bought earlier. Amanda bought two little knives. She took her Vash figure out of its box and by some chance of fate, the little knives fit into its hands. Vash and knives. Get it? Get it?

Errr...

We met up with Eddy, and some of the others. We talked for a bit before going through the ceremony of goodbye hugs and heading out the door.

Anti-climatic ending, I know. Meh. If you thought Friday was interesting, wait until you see what happened less than twelve hours later on Saturday.