12 Days of Anime: #1: My First Anime Con

Every anime fan would kill to go to a con. Or they can join a local anime club. Up to them, really. I don't condone violence, just FYI.  But I'm getting off-track again.  The important part is that everyone wants to go to at least one anime convention in their life.  I had the opportunity to do so over Memorial Day weekend, at FanimeCon 2011, and boy did I ever have fun.




This being my first con ever, I was overloaded with excitement.  I didn't want to leave the con center, and for one night, I didn't.  I looked at the screening schedule and saw that there was a Dirty Pair screening at 6 AM.  I realized that I had a knack for waking up at 8 AM or so, which meant I'd miss the screening if I went back to the hotel as usual.  So what did I do?  I stayed up all night.  From 10 PM to 7 AM, I was at the con center, subsiding on caffiene.  I must have spent $30 just on sodas that night, and I discovered that it was not even close to worth it, and I'm never doing that again.

The other fun part of conventions is the dealer's room.  Here is where the big money is spent.  There are dealers selling everything, from figures to towels to manga to drugs DVDs.  I also found some Tokyo Mew Mew merch, which meant a lot to me.  In total, I spent around $300, having to go to the ATM twice in the same day.  I hope to be a bit more restrained in my spending at Anime Boston.

You cannot discuss a convention without mentioning the cosplayers.  Oh, boy, the cosplayers.  I saw everything from Touhou to the Burger King.  Yeah, that's right. Someone was cosplaying The Burger King at an anime convention.  There were also ponies cosplayers, which made me really happy.  Granted, I'm pretty easy to please.  Either way, I took a lot of photos, which you can find here.  Sure, one of the club members called me a stalker for chasing down a Taiga cosplayer.  But aren't all cosplay photographers stalkers, under that logic?

I had tons of fun at Fanime, and I didn't even cosplay.  Yet, somehow, I got interviewed for a cosplay DVD.  Funny how things turn out, huh?  I was actually pretty bummed when the con ended.  Then I remembered that there's always next year, provided I can afford it.  After all, Anime Boston's going to put a heavy dent in my wallet.  Ah, well.  I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.