Animazement 2011!
Animazement was this week in Raleigh! Yay! They had changed things around a bit, and some things were better, and some were worse. I think I like the numbering system best for the cosplay, but found it frustrating that the registration hours were not listed anywhere. The programs were, once again, aimed mostly for people who wanted autographs, but they had very useful inserts for the rest of us. Here is my suggestion. Just make a *useful* program, and then sell the pretty autograph books separately. I've thrown mine out already (would've thrown it away right away, except that it had the map in it.), or I would take pictures to show you. Basically, it's just a page per guest with signature spot. There were a few pages dedicated to the weapons policy,and one page telling you that you'd need a sticker to get into the cosplay viewing (but didn't tell you where to get the sticker), the map, and a page of advertisements. The inserts were the actual schedules and panel descriptions.
But! Anyway! You know I'm mostly going to talk about the costumes! Let me tell you the best, first! The AZ2011 Michelle's Favorite Costume award goes to King Boomy! His bald cap might've been less than stellar, but he made up for it with personality! And I'm not just saying that because he gave me some rock candy when I complimented him on being so complete in his costume! Man, people love the minor characters! (This picture was stolen from Leah's photos. I was too busy swooning to take a photo!
On Friday, we did a Black Butler group. I thought that Finny would be the main draw, but I hadn't taken Tanaka into account. No one *ever* cosplays Tanaka, so Eric was super popular! Also, hair! So silly! We will be triply awesome when we get our Bard and Madame Red for Dragon Con!
Let's see, what did we do on Friday, other than wait for everyone to take Eric's picture? We went to a lousy panel that we thought was going to be about Stormtrooper costuming in the 501st, but was actually about some guy making jokes he thought were funny and telling us how cool he is and how close he is to George Lucas. Any costuming question was quickly dismissed. Bleah. Then we watched some AMVs. There were a couple of good ones, but none worth looking up. Although I did look up an anime because of one of the music videos, so it's worth it.
And then there was Kuropop. Well. The less said about that, the better.
Saturday, we broke out the Soul Eater group. Marie was our big draw there, again, not someone who gets cosplayed a lot. It was fun, though, and we saw a bunch of other Soul Eater Cosplayers.
There was a hard choice to make that evening. The cosplay competition was being held at about the same time as the Face-off competition. One hour with a bag of random surprise materials, and you see who ends up with the best makeup. Ruth was competing! But we really like the cosplay competition. So, we went to the cosplay competition, and it was mercifully short (although there was another proposal! So sweet!), so we rushed out before the winners were announced and watched the end of the Face-off competition! And Ruth's Team (Ruth, Alan's girlfriend, and Alan as the victi-- model!) won! First place! They were all awesome!
It would've been fun to have stayed for the dance, but I'm old, so we went home. The next morning, I pinked my hair again, then went off to see what the final day of AZ would hold! Well, it held hanging out with the Birthday girl, more AMVs, lunch at the Pit, and cruising the Artists Alley one last time.
And I found enthroned! She had all new art up, and we'd gone by while she wasn't at her booth earlier, so I didn't even realize she was there! Or, really, I could've walked right by her, because I totally did on Sunday, and only her shout turned me around! She was a redhead this weekend! Anyway, her new art is amazing! I bought a picture of Ciel in a dress. How can I resist? I will have to take a picture of my new prints. There's only three. That's really holding back. There were so many great artists there!
And then we hung around while they closed up shop. It was pretty sad watching everyone leave and everything come down. A guy came by in a really cool scarf crocheted like a Guitar Hero riff, and showed us contact juggling for awhile. Ruth just attracts all the interesting people!
And that was the weekend! We had people over for gaming yesterday, and then we fed them. I made a delicious pie. Now I'm all excited about the next convention. I have so much work to do before September!