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CN ANIME 2005
PAN'S CON REPORT
Because school starts in a few days, I present to you a point-form poor excuse for a con report:
FRIDAY
I don't remember much about Friday and I'm not sure why.
On Friday and Saturday I cosplayed Anbu Naruto from Naruto. Some of my friends and I had a little Anbu Naruto cosplay group. I was Anbu Naruto, Blue Rose was Anbu Kakashi, Sakura was Anbu Sakura, Becky was Anbu Sasuke (Saturday only), and Amanda was Anbu Iruka (Friday only). Only Anbu Kakashi exists in canon (so far), so the rest of us had to make up much of the character designs. ^^;
I arrived CN around 3pm with some friends, got Jen to draw "whiskers" on me, and then went with Blue Rose to check in and get our passes. It was then that I learned that although I had announced that my cosplay panel was at 6pm, it was really at 8pm. ><;
I went straight to taking photos of shiny cosplayers and greeting people I knew. There were a lot of cosplayers in the lobby, so I spent the next few hours taking photos, and also having my photo taken with my Anbu group.
Since Becky didn't cosplay Sasuke with us on Friday, every time we ran into her, we shouted, "Becky! You traitor!" There's a bit of story behind this and it was a re-occurring theme all weekend.
I ran into Andriana and talked to her for a bit. I also met a girl named Jenny(?) and her friend. They were cool.
I ran into some wFL fans and talked to them. It was about this time that I ran into Kerrie and her friend dressed as Alice 19th characters. They offered me timbits. ^^ I didn't recognize them right away though since I was: a) distracted, and b) slow. But when I noticed a moment later, it was cool. I hope I run into them again so I can actually talk to them. ^^
At some point, I went up to the dealer's room with Blue Rose and Sakura. We walked around and took some photos. The dealer's room was twice the size it has been in previous years. It was HUGE. This was great, since it meant there was more things to see and more room to do it in. Also, after how crowded it was last year, it was great to be able to move around a little freer. It was still crowed this year, but I didn't feel like I was being crushed like last year. ^^;;
We went back to the lobby and I stopped to talk and fangirl some cosplayers. Some girls I see at every convention (whose names I still don't know ^^;) did awesome Beyblade cosplay. There was also a great DragonBall Z group with an amazing Freeza cosplayer. I also ran into Pam, who was cosplaying Naruto at the time. I've met her at cons before and she's a pleasure to talk to. She's one of the few people I know that, like me, grew up worshipping Akira Toriyama. ^^
There was also a huge Kenshin group, which did a great job on their costumes. They were stuck in the same position posing for photos for what must have been twenty minutes. I remember that I got some photos of them and went off. When I came back ten minutes later, they were still there. I think I might have asked them if I should order them a pizza. X3
Around 6pm, I headed to Amanda's panel on entering the masquerade. I came in late. ^^; Amanda and White Mage were great in explaining the dos and don'ts of masquerades. And as an added bonus, we could hear James Marster's $625 concert through the walls. Yay!
Speaking of panels, Amanda and I held our Cosplay 101 panel at 8pm. It was basically the same panel we held last year, with a few added things and a different audience. We rambled on about how to get into cosplaying, and neat tips and tricks to make your costume look the way you want it to. We also answered questions and gave some advice. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to probably doing it again next year. ^^
After the panel, I met some interesting people, and wandered around a bit, before it was time to head home and prepare for what Saturday would bring.
SATURDAY
We had a late start on Saturday morning and three out of four of our Team 7 Anbu group only woke up when Becky started talking at us for long periods of time. After we got into costume, we headed downtown for Saturday of CN Anime. Blue Rose had fun scaring people with her sharingan and Sakura and I played gameboy on the subway.
When we got there, we were stopped photos left and right, but I managed to run off to take photos of shiny cosplayers.
About three and a half years ago, I asked Tom Felton for a Krim cosplayer to come to Anime North and there wasn't one. It became this running joke, but at CN this year, sure enough, there was a Krim cosplayer. I laughed and asked for a photo with him. He was confused.
At some point in the afternoon, while I was taking photos, I was interviewed by a guy wearing a cardboard box made to look kinda like a Transformer. He'd been interviewing people all day, and was actually rather entertaining. Who knows who he was though.
I ran into the wFL girls again and found out some interesting information just as Blue Rose dragged me away for a photo. I found them again later.
While in the lobby, I got stopped a few times by people. You know, I need to start taking photos of everyone who comes to talk to me. I should also get some sort of book for people to sign because: a) it would be really cool to have, and b) I would have a chance at remembering names. ^^; While taking some photos with some Naruto cosplayers in the lobby, I got three girls to sign a sheet of paper in my bag. They were cool, but I was too distracted to really talk to them. ._____. Dammit. ><;
Amanda was wearing her Pirogoith and looked great. Also, there was a large Ragnarok cosplay group in the lobby. They were all so wonderful. *_______* Lainey made a Sara Irine costume from the Ragnarok manga, "Into the Abyss", and I fangirled her a bit.
Actually, on Friday, Blue Rose and I met two girls in Ragnarok costumes: Caitlin and Zuza. We saw them everywhere, and this happened on Saturday too. We saw them here and there and stopped to talk to them too. ^^
Our Team 7 group went upstairs at some point. After wandering around the dealer's room for a bit, we found the giant Nintendo booth. There was a guy in a giant Pikachu outfit there, so like everyone else around, we stopped for photos. We then ended up at the other side of the booth where they were teaching people how to play the Pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game). Sakura, Blue Rose and I sat down to rest for a bit at one of the tables. Sakura and I started to play gameboy (Tetris is an addiction) and Blue Rose began to watch episodes of Naruto on her PSP. Sasuke Becky was a traitor and left.
While we were at the table, a guy asked if we wanted to play the card game and then left us alone. A Nami cosplayer named Chris that I met at the Cosplay Picnic showed up and I talked to her for a bit. ^^ And at some point, randomly, we were filmed playing gameboy by some TV camera. o___O;
I ran into an awesome Lupin cosplayer, and after I took his photo, I found out he came to our cosplay panel the day before. He was a pleasure to talk to. ^^
As Saturday was winding down and people began heading for the masquerade, someone brought out their remote control R2D2 in the main lobby. Everyone loved it. It was awesome.
I ended up hanging out with a group of I met at NAF earlier in the summer. They're soooo cool... and entertaining. I actually spent quite a bit of time with them. :3
I sat with nancieboynoire for a bit. She pointed out that one of the Darth Vader cosplayers was wearing giant platforms, so she nicknamed him, "Disco Darth". This entertained us for a very long time. (Also, ironically, the most photos taken of our cosplay group was when we posed with Darth Vader. XD)
A lot of people had these really cool $200 lightsabers that lit up. They were really shiny. *______* I should probably also mention a Dilandau cosplayer that was there. He was awesome, and he helped us moo at Sasuke! Bwhahahahahahaha! Also, I saw some great cosplayers heading for the masquerade. One of which (who I recognized from previous cons) was dressed as the Hope card from Card Captor Sakura. She was really something.
Before we left (we were waiting for Becky), I ran off to explore the masquerade line and take some photos. I ran into the wFL girls and a bunch of other people. I ran into Adriana again, and she and her friends had renamed all the Gundam Seed characters and explained the new names to me with the help of posters. It was really amusing. X3
We didn't stay for the masquerade since we were dead tired, but I hear it was good this year. I shall try very hard to attend the one next year.
I left with my Team 7 Anbu cosplay group. On the way back to Union Station, it became clear that a baseball game had just let out, as baseball fans flooded the Skywalk. They gave us a ton of weird looks and comments. Heh. On the Skywalk, a Japanese tourist asked us for a photo. When we posed, it become really clear by her reaction that she recognized it from an official Naruto image. ^^ Awesome!
Union Station itself was amusing. Besides the large number of baseball fans, we ran into a few other people in costume like us -- one of which was a father pushing a baby carriage. ^^ In the area by the trains, some random baseball fans asked us for photos. Some more people recognized our costumes as from Naruto. And let's just say the trip home was just as entertaining -- especially when it started to rain. Ha ha ha...
SUNDAY
On Sunday, we were going to have a +Anima group for Becky, which is why Amanda and I had made +Anima costumes earlier in the summer. But Becky didn't wear her +Anima costume, so Sakura did instead. May I just say now that although my Husky costume might be blue and pretty, it includes no pants. At all. And that really really sucks. ><;
Anyway, the first people I ran into on Sunday was Ceri and Ritchie. We discussed Lead shiny and then Batman arrived. o___O;
Blue Rose went upstairs and checked out Artist's Alley. I swear, sometimes Artist's Alley has more shiny things than the Dealer's Room. (It's where local artists can display and sell some of their artwork.) A lot of tables caught our eye -- especially one table with really pretty Naruto art. We ended up getting some Naruto postcards, bookmarks and really shiny tarot cards. I also got a pink Sasuke t-shirt (because nothing says "Sasuke" like "pink").
I ran into Cameron, who wanted us to buy buttons. We asked if they could make us custom buttons, so Blue Rose and I had some "Becky, you traitor" buttons made. We also made one for Becky.
In Artist's Alley, I found Tokiyoh, who I hadn't seen or heard from since Anime North. After screaming, "You're alive", I bought some Lead shiny from her. A little birdie told me it was Ceri's birthday, so I picked her up a little something while I was at it. ^^
At some point after this, Sakura, Blue Rose and I went for lunch. After taking a photo with a CBC worker on strike, doing a little photoshoot, attacking some pigeons and bothering Glay's Beyblade cosplay group, we ended up in line for lunch. I ran into the wFL girls there. Actually, I kept running into them all day. I saw them when I went for lunch, when I went to find photoshoots, when I was chasing a guy wearing construction paper down the hall... heh.
We ate lunch with Kels, Hikari Light and Seed-chan. They also watched over my staff for large amounts of the day. Bwah~!
After lunch, I ran back and forth between various things taking photos. I walked up and down the line for Johnen Vasquez, and then headed to a Bleach photoshoot Ritchie told me about.
The Bleach photoshoot was by two escalators that were off at that moment. I got the cosplayers to stand on it, so I could take photos. After some group photos, I started to take some individual shots. I was taking them without the flash, so I had to take a ton to try and get them not to be blurry. (Next time, I should just use flash. ^^;) At some point, some professional photographer guy made me pose on the escalator with a Bleach cosplayer. It was weird. o___O;
After taking photos for about an hour, I ran into a cosplay friend of mine and took some photos of her. She's so cute. :3
I ended up back with Blue Rose (who waited for me the entire time... sorry Blue Rose! ^^;;;), and we sat down with Ritchie, Caitlin and Zuza. Ritchie showed me footage from the karaoke contest at Anime North where a guy sung a Lead song really well. After fangirling the tons of wFL CDs Ritchie had bought at the con, we all ended up just chilling, talking and telling stories. It was nice and relaxing and with good company. Caitlin and Zuza -- it was nice to hang out with you guys! ^^
I was ambushed by Chris at some point, and soon after I headed back to the lobby. After some photos with Amanda and Sakura, I managed to sneak off to change and put on street clothing. I left the wig since it was too much trouble to take off (so many bobby pins cutting into my skull). For some reason, I had more photos taken of me in street clothing than I did when I was in costume. o___O; Also on the weird side of things, more people asked if I was a guy when I was wearing Husky than when I was wearing Naruto. o_____O;;;
Blue Rose, Sakura and I went upstairs and I visited Zero just as the Dealer's Room was closing. It was the only time I saw him all weekend. Actually, because of the size of the con this year, there were a lot of people I only got to see briefly or didn't get to see at all this year. ;___;
Back downstairs, I ran into Super Uber Amine Guy, and after talking to him a bit, I hung out with the kids from NAF. I somehow ended up marrying a Sanji cosplayer named Jessie and then asked one of the kids from NAF -- a guy named Matt -- if he'd marry me too. And that's how I got husbands 57 and 58. Huzzah!
All day, the Scorpion (Mortal Combat) and Beaker (Muppet Show) cosplayers were asking for people to be in a short film. Since I was now in comfortable clothing, I asked them about this, and next thing I knew, I was with a group of girls chasing Beaker down a hallway. It was amusing and awesome. XD
After that, the day began to wind down. More and more people began to leave, and soon it came time for us to leave too.
Although this year's CN was really random, it was a truckload of fun. I'm already looking forward to next year. ^^
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