Back from Anime North
periperi is visiting town this weekend, so she and I and linuxspice all went to Anime North. Wow. I've never been to a con with a five digit membership size before. It wasn't quite as bad as the ComiFes scenes in Genshiken, but it was still a huge mass of humanity, with a totally different feel to any con I had been to before. Everyone seemed to stick to close-knit circles of friends, and didn't generally interact with anyone outside their in-group -- there were just too many people milling about to manage it. (Exception: I met shinigamishimai at the shoujo-ai panel, and we had a nice long chat afterwards, but that was it.)
A ridiculously large percentage of the attendees were cosplaying, which made the huge crowds kind of neat for people-watching. Among others, I saw
* a Haruhi Suzumiya,
* the entire Ouran High School Host Club,
* the entire cast of Kujibiki Unbalance,
* three different complete casts of Final Fantasy X,
* at least two dozen spare Yunas, in both the FFX and FFX-2 costumes, and two or three spare Lulus,
* five Soras,
* a dozen or more Cloud Strifes with enormous and extremely cheesy-looking tinfoil Buster Swords,
* one Aerith, four Sephiroths, and a collection of Moogles,
* five Utenas and three Anthys, including one Movie Utena,
* dozens of Naruto characters who I can't name since I don't watch the show,
* lots of people in a blue space navy-looking uniform that I ought to recognize but don't,
* one rather well-done female Captain Harlock,
* three or four Gundams (but no Valkyries),
* one Lavie Head,
* a dozen assorted Sailor Senshi, including one extremely sharp-looking Usagi/Mamoru couple,
* half a dozen Sakuras in battle costumes, and one in a rather well-done winter school uniform,
* Ranma and Shampoo,
* Miaka and Yui,
* three Lillian Jogakuen girls -- I think one was supposed to have been Sachiko, but the other two looked to have been just wearing the uniform,
* a dozen instances of a specific joshikousei character in a blue sailor fuku with a blue Haruhi-style ribbon, but I don't recognize the character in question,
* a truly enormous number of other unidentified joshikousei whose uniforms I didn't recognize,
* one Imperial Stormtrooper,
* three rather incongruous Jedi who broke out into an impromptu lightsaber duel in the hallways,
* one V for Vendetta,
* three Phantoms of the Opera,
* the Ghostbusters,
* an assortment of uniformed NERV personnel,
* lots of MIBs with katanas,
* lots of samurai and other assorted jidai geki characters (presumably from Ruroken, Inu Yasha, and other shounen series that I haven't seen),
* a whole pack of Inu Yashas,
* a pantheon of Belldandys and assorted winged angels,
* two rather impressive spirits from Spirited Away,
* more gothloli girls than you could shake a parasol at,
* lots of bunny girls and random fans in street clothes with nekomimi,
* two crossplayers who might have been graduates of the J. Thompson Academy,
* nobody at all from Kashimashi, and
* nobody at all from Simoun.
I had been mulling over the idea of trying to cosplay Aaeru from Simoun, but I couldn't figure out how to tie my hair in odango. If I can sort that out, I might try it for some hypothetical smaller future con that we attend. I've never really had the costuming bug before, but the huge numbers this weekend were infectious. linuxspice and I also discussed possibly doing Haruhi and Mikuru -- she has the bunny girl costume already -- but I don't think I'd look good in that uniform. Besides, episode 1 and 2 Aaeru is dead easy -- the costume is just a flight suit with a leather bustier and two simple accents sewn onto it, plus a silk blouse and a Tempus Spatium pendant. And I'd suspect that the pendant will be available off the shelf before too long.
Later, linuxspice and I ran into danaeris, rbowspryte, and tocityguy. We people-watched for a while, then went back to arcadiahouse for dinner and general hanging out. rbowspryte was the heroine of the evening for breaking out sarongs, and we had a delightful time until midnight or so.
A ridiculously large percentage of the attendees were cosplaying, which made the huge crowds kind of neat for people-watching. Among others, I saw
* a Haruhi Suzumiya,
* the entire Ouran High School Host Club,
* the entire cast of Kujibiki Unbalance,
* three different complete casts of Final Fantasy X,
* at least two dozen spare Yunas, in both the FFX and FFX-2 costumes, and two or three spare Lulus,
* five Soras,
* a dozen or more Cloud Strifes with enormous and extremely cheesy-looking tinfoil Buster Swords,
* one Aerith, four Sephiroths, and a collection of Moogles,
* five Utenas and three Anthys, including one Movie Utena,
* dozens of Naruto characters who I can't name since I don't watch the show,
* lots of people in a blue space navy-looking uniform that I ought to recognize but don't,
* one rather well-done female Captain Harlock,
* three or four Gundams (but no Valkyries),
* one Lavie Head,
* a dozen assorted Sailor Senshi, including one extremely sharp-looking Usagi/Mamoru couple,
* half a dozen Sakuras in battle costumes, and one in a rather well-done winter school uniform,
* Ranma and Shampoo,
* Miaka and Yui,
* three Lillian Jogakuen girls -- I think one was supposed to have been Sachiko, but the other two looked to have been just wearing the uniform,
* a dozen instances of a specific joshikousei character in a blue sailor fuku with a blue Haruhi-style ribbon, but I don't recognize the character in question,
* a truly enormous number of other unidentified joshikousei whose uniforms I didn't recognize,
* one Imperial Stormtrooper,
* three rather incongruous Jedi who broke out into an impromptu lightsaber duel in the hallways,
* one V for Vendetta,
* three Phantoms of the Opera,
* the Ghostbusters,
* an assortment of uniformed NERV personnel,
* lots of MIBs with katanas,
* lots of samurai and other assorted jidai geki characters (presumably from Ruroken, Inu Yasha, and other shounen series that I haven't seen),
* a whole pack of Inu Yashas,
* a pantheon of Belldandys and assorted winged angels,
* two rather impressive spirits from Spirited Away,
* more gothloli girls than you could shake a parasol at,
* lots of bunny girls and random fans in street clothes with nekomimi,
* two crossplayers who might have been graduates of the J. Thompson Academy,
* nobody at all from Kashimashi, and
* nobody at all from Simoun.
I had been mulling over the idea of trying to cosplay Aaeru from Simoun, but I couldn't figure out how to tie my hair in odango. If I can sort that out, I might try it for some hypothetical smaller future con that we attend. I've never really had the costuming bug before, but the huge numbers this weekend were infectious. linuxspice and I also discussed possibly doing Haruhi and Mikuru -- she has the bunny girl costume already -- but I don't think I'd look good in that uniform. Besides, episode 1 and 2 Aaeru is dead easy -- the costume is just a flight suit with a leather bustier and two simple accents sewn onto it, plus a silk blouse and a Tempus Spatium pendant. And I'd suspect that the pendant will be available off the shelf before too long.
Later, linuxspice and I ran into danaeris, rbowspryte, and tocityguy. We people-watched for a while, then went back to arcadiahouse for dinner and general hanging out. rbowspryte was the heroine of the evening for breaking out sarongs, and we had a delightful time until midnight or so.