Back from Anime North
Anime North was a lot of fun this year. In retrospect, I didn't really do much. Panel/event-wise, there wasn't much of interest to me which was kind of a dissapointment. However, the weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend long, and it was great hanging out with everyone!
Anyone interested in the pictures I took, they are all located at my cosplay site:
http://hoshikage.net/cosplay/animenorth10/main.php
FRIDAY
hamano_ayumi came to pick me up at around 5:45 AM, and her mom drove us down to Concordia to catch the bus we were taking. We met up with littlewolfstar and co. Unfortuntately, we kind of failed at making sure we were all on the same bus, so Ayu and I were together, while Yue ended up on bus 2.
We got to the hotel at around 2:30ish if I remember correctly, and then proceeded to get ready to go down to get our badges and whatnot. I got dressed as Lady MARIA from Umineko, Ayu got dressed as Chekov from Star Trek, and Yue got dressed as Mokona from CLAMP's works.
hamano_ayumi as an adorable Chekov with an Avatar cosplayer.
After getting our badges, Yue went off with some friends for food. Ayu and I weren't terribly hungry, so we decided to just walk around and take some pictures for a while.
An awesome Bakura cosplayer we found.
There was actually a person inside the Poring! The person was walking around with the Poring over their head. When we asked for a picture, the suddenly dropped to the ground and tucked themselves inside of it! I totally wasn't expecting that, but it was really cool.
Ayu was getting a bit hungry and wanted to change out of Chekov, so we made our way back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. After munching on some fruit and ice cubes, we made our way back downstairs.
While walking past the registration line, there were a bunch of Umineko cosplayers that were calling my name out (which I totally didn't hear until Ayu told me to turn around). I was super excited to find other Umineko cosplayers, and they looked great, so I had to get a picture with them!
We did a quick tour of Artist's Alley and the Dealer's Room. I really wasn't in a big shopping mood, nor was there a lot of interest in the Dealer's Room, so I only ended up buying a Pichu keychain in Artist's Alley. There wasn't much else we wanted to do that evening, so we decided to have a mini photoshoot of our costumes.
Ayu as Merlin from BBC Merlin.
We later met back up with Yue, and headed back to the hotel to get some pics of my Lady MARIA costume. While scouting out locations, we ran into one of Yue's friends, Jess.
Lighting was crap, so the picture isn't the best of quality. Jess cosplaying Kaidou from Prince of Tennis.
The four of us ended up going up to our room and just chilling for the rest of the night. A lot of it was spent reminiscing about Tenipuri and Tenimyu and just being goofy, which was fun.
SATURDAY
There was a panel that Yue wanted to go at around 10 AM, so we were up and out of the hotel room by around a quarter-to. I was dressed as Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ayu went as Yolei from Digimon, and Yue went as Mokona again.
Me as Yugi on the left with a Kaiba and a Bandit Keith with a Canadian flag headband (which amused me greatly).
Ayu as Yolei with a Matt and a Sora cosplayer.
We walked around a bit. While doing so, we came across a group of Baccano! cosplayers! They made me so happy!
At around 11, Ayu went to go help a friend repair his costume, while I headed off to the Yu-Gi-Oh! gathering. I met a bunch of cool people, and had a lot of fun. Towards the end of it, my boot buckles were starting to come apart. The Dark Magician Girl had tape though, and the Marik help me fix it. Thanks guys!
A little after the gathering, I ran into Maggie, Karine, Kathy and their friends who I was going to be cosplaying Tales of the Abyss with later that day. Ayu ran off somewhere, although I can't remember at the moment as to where exactly. It might have been the Dealer's Room. Anyway, the rest of us sat around in the grassy patches in front of the TCC before I went back to the hotel to change into Anise.
After I came back, it was just Karine, Kathy and I left. We lounged around on the grass for a while.
We got slushies to quench our thirst, and Kathy wanted to take a picture of me drinking it. Lol. I'm so glad I decided to wear a pair of short shorts. It was uncomfortable enough trying to sit down. At least I didn't have to worry about flashing anyone. >.>
I found a full Digimon Adventures group! The TK and Matt were so freakin' cute. <3
I nearly died inside of happy when I saw this Rail Tracer. He looked fantastic!
I also nearly died of happy inside when I saw this Goat. I am so happy I ran into him. Goat cosplays always make me laugh. It's just too bad I wasn't wearing Lady Maria when I found him.
I met back up with Ayu and Yue briefly. They were both headed off to the Digimon shoot, while I had a private shoot to head off to with my ToA group. The shoot went relatively well I think, despite a bit of miscommunication with my group members, in which I felt terrible about. Either way, I can't wait to see the pics from it.
After the shoot, we all headed back to the hotel to get changed. I was originially going to stay in Anise until later that night, but it was started to get really uncomfortable. I debated just wearing regular clothes or switching into Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein won out.
I met Yue and Ayu outside, and we headed off to JackAsters for supper. We were going to meet up with a bunch of Ayu's friends there, but their table was full, so we got one to ourselves. Our waiter was super cool, and the food was amazing.
After dinner, it was so nice outside that I had just wanted to walk around for a bit. Once it started to get dark, and Ayu and Yue started getting cold, Ayu and I went back to the hotel, while Yue went off to meet friends at the dance. Ayu and I chilled for a while and started packing.
While hanging out in our room, we both ended up discovering how beat up my legs look at the end of the day. I had two bruises mid calf from Anise's shoes, and two long pink-ish purple-ish lines going down the front and the back of both legs from the tissue paper that was inside Yugi's pants.
The picture doesn't do it justice, but it looked like someone had attacked my legs. Haha.
At around 11ish, we decided to go down and check out the 404s Late Show. I was a bit skeptical about it, just because the last couple I went to weren't great, but I was plesantly surprised that they put on a good show. They didn't devolve into making yaoi jokes every five seconds, and I was quite entertained. I wanted to stay for the entire show, but we ended up leaving at around 12:30ish in order to be able to get up bright and early the next morning.
SUNDAY
Sunday was an early day for us, just because I didn't want to wait forever for an elevator like last year. We ended up in the lobby and checked out by around 9:30, leaving us an hour and a half before the buses were going to come and pick up our luggage. I bought a deck of cards and we passed the time playing Gin Rummy.
At 11, I wanted to go to the Umineko panel, while Yue wanted to go to another panel. We all ended up parting ways for the time being.
So the funny/not-so-funny story of the day was, a bunch of people showed up for the Umineko panel. At about ten-after, we all started to trickle in the room to wait for the panelists. We waited, and waited, and waited... Until the panelists happen to stop by and tell us that the panel had been cancelled.... Whoops? I was kind of dissapointed, and slightly amused just because it felt like Beatrice was trolling all of us. I snapped a few pics of the cosplayers that came before taking off.
Anyway, I figured I'd head off to the Ask a Nation Hetalia panel and just wait for that to start.
The panel itself wasn't nearly as bad or as cringe worthy as I thought it would be. I think part of that was due to the fact that they had to keep it PG-13, which prevented it from becoming a giant yaoi shipfest. Although, there were moments where they slipped up and it certainly wasn't PG-13. Regardless, I was fairly amused and entertained.
I managed to snap a few pictures of the panelists. My favorites were the Belarus, Japan, France, Finland, Rome, and Germania. The Chibitalia and Holy Roman Empire were super adorable too.
After the panel, there was a Hetalia shoot outside, which I attended briefly.
This France was amazing! I loved her costume so much. There was another France doing the same outfit, but I didn't get a chance to snap her picture. =(
This Hungary was so adorable!
I went to go find Ayu after the shoot. She was relaxing, reading some manga, so I decided to walk around a bit while she finished the book.
We then went to take a small photoshoot of my Liechtenstein cosplay. These are some of my favorite shots from the shoot.
After the shoot, we went to relax under the shade for a while, since it was super hot where we shot. At around 4, Ayu and I headed off the the Posing for Cosplay panel held by Elemental. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for the first half of it. At around 4:30, we had to head for the buses, and by around 5, we were headed back to Montreal.
Will I head back next year? Maybe, maybe not. It depends when my friends and I plan on going to Japan. It also depends on what else is going on at that time. So I guess, we'll see.
Anyone interested in the pictures I took, they are all located at my cosplay site:
http://hoshikage.net/cosplay/animenorth10/main.php
FRIDAY
hamano_ayumi came to pick me up at around 5:45 AM, and her mom drove us down to Concordia to catch the bus we were taking. We met up with littlewolfstar and co. Unfortuntately, we kind of failed at making sure we were all on the same bus, so Ayu and I were together, while Yue ended up on bus 2.
We got to the hotel at around 2:30ish if I remember correctly, and then proceeded to get ready to go down to get our badges and whatnot. I got dressed as Lady MARIA from Umineko, Ayu got dressed as Chekov from Star Trek, and Yue got dressed as Mokona from CLAMP's works.
hamano_ayumi as an adorable Chekov with an Avatar cosplayer.
After getting our badges, Yue went off with some friends for food. Ayu and I weren't terribly hungry, so we decided to just walk around and take some pictures for a while.
An awesome Bakura cosplayer we found.
There was actually a person inside the Poring! The person was walking around with the Poring over their head. When we asked for a picture, the suddenly dropped to the ground and tucked themselves inside of it! I totally wasn't expecting that, but it was really cool.
Ayu was getting a bit hungry and wanted to change out of Chekov, so we made our way back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. After munching on some fruit and ice cubes, we made our way back downstairs.
While walking past the registration line, there were a bunch of Umineko cosplayers that were calling my name out (which I totally didn't hear until Ayu told me to turn around). I was super excited to find other Umineko cosplayers, and they looked great, so I had to get a picture with them!
We did a quick tour of Artist's Alley and the Dealer's Room. I really wasn't in a big shopping mood, nor was there a lot of interest in the Dealer's Room, so I only ended up buying a Pichu keychain in Artist's Alley. There wasn't much else we wanted to do that evening, so we decided to have a mini photoshoot of our costumes.
Ayu as Merlin from BBC Merlin.
We later met back up with Yue, and headed back to the hotel to get some pics of my Lady MARIA costume. While scouting out locations, we ran into one of Yue's friends, Jess.
Lighting was crap, so the picture isn't the best of quality. Jess cosplaying Kaidou from Prince of Tennis.
The four of us ended up going up to our room and just chilling for the rest of the night. A lot of it was spent reminiscing about Tenipuri and Tenimyu and just being goofy, which was fun.
SATURDAY
There was a panel that Yue wanted to go at around 10 AM, so we were up and out of the hotel room by around a quarter-to. I was dressed as Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ayu went as Yolei from Digimon, and Yue went as Mokona again.
Me as Yugi on the left with a Kaiba and a Bandit Keith with a Canadian flag headband (which amused me greatly).
Ayu as Yolei with a Matt and a Sora cosplayer.
We walked around a bit. While doing so, we came across a group of Baccano! cosplayers! They made me so happy!
At around 11, Ayu went to go help a friend repair his costume, while I headed off to the Yu-Gi-Oh! gathering. I met a bunch of cool people, and had a lot of fun. Towards the end of it, my boot buckles were starting to come apart. The Dark Magician Girl had tape though, and the Marik help me fix it. Thanks guys!
A little after the gathering, I ran into Maggie, Karine, Kathy and their friends who I was going to be cosplaying Tales of the Abyss with later that day. Ayu ran off somewhere, although I can't remember at the moment as to where exactly. It might have been the Dealer's Room. Anyway, the rest of us sat around in the grassy patches in front of the TCC before I went back to the hotel to change into Anise.
After I came back, it was just Karine, Kathy and I left. We lounged around on the grass for a while.
We got slushies to quench our thirst, and Kathy wanted to take a picture of me drinking it. Lol. I'm so glad I decided to wear a pair of short shorts. It was uncomfortable enough trying to sit down. At least I didn't have to worry about flashing anyone. >.>
I found a full Digimon Adventures group! The TK and Matt were so freakin' cute. <3
I nearly died inside of happy when I saw this Rail Tracer. He looked fantastic!
I also nearly died of happy inside when I saw this Goat. I am so happy I ran into him. Goat cosplays always make me laugh. It's just too bad I wasn't wearing Lady Maria when I found him.
I met back up with Ayu and Yue briefly. They were both headed off to the Digimon shoot, while I had a private shoot to head off to with my ToA group. The shoot went relatively well I think, despite a bit of miscommunication with my group members, in which I felt terrible about. Either way, I can't wait to see the pics from it.
After the shoot, we all headed back to the hotel to get changed. I was originially going to stay in Anise until later that night, but it was started to get really uncomfortable. I debated just wearing regular clothes or switching into Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein won out.
I met Yue and Ayu outside, and we headed off to JackAsters for supper. We were going to meet up with a bunch of Ayu's friends there, but their table was full, so we got one to ourselves. Our waiter was super cool, and the food was amazing.
After dinner, it was so nice outside that I had just wanted to walk around for a bit. Once it started to get dark, and Ayu and Yue started getting cold, Ayu and I went back to the hotel, while Yue went off to meet friends at the dance. Ayu and I chilled for a while and started packing.
While hanging out in our room, we both ended up discovering how beat up my legs look at the end of the day. I had two bruises mid calf from Anise's shoes, and two long pink-ish purple-ish lines going down the front and the back of both legs from the tissue paper that was inside Yugi's pants.
The picture doesn't do it justice, but it looked like someone had attacked my legs. Haha.
At around 11ish, we decided to go down and check out the 404s Late Show. I was a bit skeptical about it, just because the last couple I went to weren't great, but I was plesantly surprised that they put on a good show. They didn't devolve into making yaoi jokes every five seconds, and I was quite entertained. I wanted to stay for the entire show, but we ended up leaving at around 12:30ish in order to be able to get up bright and early the next morning.
SUNDAY
Sunday was an early day for us, just because I didn't want to wait forever for an elevator like last year. We ended up in the lobby and checked out by around 9:30, leaving us an hour and a half before the buses were going to come and pick up our luggage. I bought a deck of cards and we passed the time playing Gin Rummy.
At 11, I wanted to go to the Umineko panel, while Yue wanted to go to another panel. We all ended up parting ways for the time being.
So the funny/not-so-funny story of the day was, a bunch of people showed up for the Umineko panel. At about ten-after, we all started to trickle in the room to wait for the panelists. We waited, and waited, and waited... Until the panelists happen to stop by and tell us that the panel had been cancelled.... Whoops? I was kind of dissapointed, and slightly amused just because it felt like Beatrice was trolling all of us. I snapped a few pics of the cosplayers that came before taking off.
Anyway, I figured I'd head off to the Ask a Nation Hetalia panel and just wait for that to start.
The panel itself wasn't nearly as bad or as cringe worthy as I thought it would be. I think part of that was due to the fact that they had to keep it PG-13, which prevented it from becoming a giant yaoi shipfest. Although, there were moments where they slipped up and it certainly wasn't PG-13. Regardless, I was fairly amused and entertained.
I managed to snap a few pictures of the panelists. My favorites were the Belarus, Japan, France, Finland, Rome, and Germania. The Chibitalia and Holy Roman Empire were super adorable too.
After the panel, there was a Hetalia shoot outside, which I attended briefly.
This France was amazing! I loved her costume so much. There was another France doing the same outfit, but I didn't get a chance to snap her picture. =(
This Hungary was so adorable!
I went to go find Ayu after the shoot. She was relaxing, reading some manga, so I decided to walk around a bit while she finished the book.
We then went to take a small photoshoot of my Liechtenstein cosplay. These are some of my favorite shots from the shoot.
After the shoot, we went to relax under the shade for a while, since it was super hot where we shot. At around 4, Ayu and I headed off the the Posing for Cosplay panel held by Elemental. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for the first half of it. At around 4:30, we had to head for the buses, and by around 5, we were headed back to Montreal.
Will I head back next year? Maybe, maybe not. It depends when my friends and I plan on going to Japan. It also depends on what else is going on at that time. So I guess, we'll see.