paraelle:

I’ve seen a few posts on the Anime North tag complaining about Homestuck…What’s so wrong with it exactly? I mean, I’d like your opinions on the subject.

My own is that it is simply another fandom- it has it’s ups and downs like everything else and people should respect that and not throw bitch…

Yeah, I’ve seen the Homestuck fandom draw lots of flak for whatever reason. One complaint that people have is that Homestuck isn’t anime and shouldn’t be at an anime convention. But Avatar and Legend of Korra aren’t anime, but people still cosplay them. What about League of Legends? Or Legend of Zelda? Or Doctor Who? And what of the huge My Little Pony following this year? I’ve seen lots of those cosplays and they never get any grief.

So Homestuck is popular. Who cares? So there were a lot of Homestuck cosplayers this year. Who cares? It’s just a fandom. Fandoms have both good fans and obnoxious fans, and with really big fandoms you’re bound to get some bad eggs. And besides, it’s not fair to paint the entire fandom in an unfavourable light.

No one fandom can ruin a convention. A convention is about celebrating fandoms, attending events, buying merch, and having fun.

A bit delayed, but I was just too exhausted on Saturday or Sunday to post a con report. Anyway, here goes.

Saturday

* Left the house at roughly 10 AM. Took roughly 2 hours to get to the convention using the TTC.

* Hoped to see the J. Michael Tatum, Brina Palencia, and Monica Rial panel going on at noon. Got there at 12:10 to find that the room was already full and there was still a long line of people hoping to get in. I went “Yeah, nope” and decided to go see other stuff instead.

* Went to the World-building writing panel with the Anime North guest authors at 1 PM. The panel was unusually popular. The room was filled to capacity (granted, it was a small room) and there were still a bunch of people who had wanted to sit in. There were a lot of great questions fielded to the panelists, and the panelists themselves had a lot of great answers and advice to aspiring writers. It also made me kind of happy seeing that all of the panelists were female authors.

* Went to the Dealer’s Room. My brother bought the compass he’d been eyeing since the previous day. I finally caved and bought a pair of goggles (which I wore for the rest of the convention), a sushi plushie/pillow thing despite saying I wouldn’t buy any plushies, and a blue and black lolita hat to go with the dress I’ll be wearing to a wedding in July. That brings my total swag expenditure up to roughly $100. >.<

* Caught the League of Legends photoshoot on the way back to the Doubletree and snapped a lot of pictures. My favourite had to be the Bloodstone Taric, but all of the cosplays were really awesome. Makes me sad that there wasn’t a classic Graves. :<

* Went to the Writing Strong Women panel. Again, very informative and interesting panel.

* Attended the Women and Children First panel, which addressed the common portrayal of women and children in the military. I found it really interesting and informative, but I was kind of disappointed by the lack of attendance and the lack of questions. It was a really fascinating subject.

* Attempted to get into another 404s show. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The line was already pretty long and the room hit capacity pretty quick.

* Got in line for the Masquerade 2 hours early. Ended up getting a seat roughly around the middle. The Masquerade wasn’t as impressive this year as it was in previous years, but there were a few costumes that I really liked. Was a little disappointed at the lack of Master Division entries.

Sunday

* Left the house early this time and arrived in time to catch most of the Fan to Pro to Guest panel. The crowd wasn’t so big considering how early it was, but I got to hear interesting stories from the relatively newer voice actors in the industry, which were funny, but also quite heartening. Lesson learned? Never give up on your dreams, even if it’s hard.

* Attended the Hetalia Voice Actor panel with J. Michael Tatum, Brina Palencia, Monica Rial, and Akira Sasanuma. This time the room was actually possible to get into. And the panel was hilarious. J. Michael Tatum and Akira Sasanuma definitely stole the show, but my favourite part was when Monica Rial broke out the green ‘Flying Mint Bunny’ marshmallow peeps.

* Attended the Hetalia Ask A Nation panel. Hilarious as usual XD. I recognized the Australia and Germany from last year, and I think the France was the same too. I really loved the Canada this year - so snarky! Prussia was AWESOME too. And so was the America. And also. The running gag throughout the latter half of the panel involving Prussia trying to protect the yellow marshmallow peeps from being eaten.

* Trekked over to the Sheraton to briefly watch the League of Legends tournament going on. Most of the matches were slaughters and weren’t quite as exciting as the pro LoL tournaments I’d watched on streams before.

* Attended the Homestuck panel - one of the last panels of the day. It was really fun to sit in and listen to the stories everyone had to tell. I kind of wish the room had been bigger; I can imagine the panel would’ve been even more fun. An interesting thing to hear about was how much flak the Homestuck fandom tends to get at conventions, which kind of boggles me, really, but that’ll be something I’ll probably address in a later post.

All in all? Anime North was fun this year. I kind of wish I could’ve been able to see everything I had wanted to, but enh. Can’t do everything. Can’t wait until next year. I think maybe I’ll cosplay next time.

51634:

Great time @ AN 2012! Found all the League cosplayers and had a huge photoshoot that took us from the Doubletree hotel plaza, across the street, into the field and out in the brush. No teemos were harmed in the making of this image.

And yes, this was the only time Garen was not in a bush.

(Btw, I’m the Ezreal with the yellower hair) 

More to come! :D

more-desu:

BEAUTIFUL

I’m pretty sure this guy’s cosplayed Hughes at Anime North every year for the past few years or so. He’s awesome and seriously looks and plays the part well. I’m sad I didn’t snap a picture of him this year. :<

So, I just got home from Day 1 of Anime North. It wasn’t entirely flawless, and there were a few frustrations, but for the most part I had a ton of fun and got to see a lot of really awesome costumes.

My first complaint of the day would have to be with the pre-registration line-up this year. For the past year or two I’ve pre-ordered my convention tickets and picked them up on the Friday afternoon of the convention. Last year, I had no problems and didn’t have to wait in line very long to get my badge. This year, though… I arrived at the TCC at a little before 2pm. I didn’t get my badges until around 4pm. This might have had something to do with membership being capped this year and all of the full weekend passes being completely sold out in pre-reg.

Despite the long wait, I powered through it like a trooper - drinking water and listening to music. Wish I could say the same about the guys who were in line behind me. All they did for the entire two hours was complain. And even after turning up the volume on my Ipod, I could still hear them over the music. I seriously considered punching them or something. Anyway, lesson learned: either pick up pre-reg badges on the Thursday, or arrive much earlier on Friday.

I wasn’t able to catch either of the 404s comedy shows this evening, though I really wanted to. Oh well. More opportunities to catch em this weekend. Instead of watching the 404s, I was in the Dealer’s Room with my bro. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from last year, it’s that if you really want to buy something, buy it on the Friday because there’s no guarantee it’ll still be there on Saturday or Sunday.  For some reason navigating through the Dealer’s Room this year wasn’t as much of a hassle as last year.

Lots of new, interesting items for sale too. Bought the Baccano DVD, which I missed out on last year. My bro bought a new pocketwatch. I’m debating buying one of those fancy-looking compasses. I don’t reallyneedone, but it just looks so cool! I’m also thinking about buying a pair of steampunk goggles. Again, I don’t really need them - I just think they look extremely cool. Also considering buying one of those really cute sushi pillows/plushies.

My last event of the day was the Friday night Skit Contest. Every skit contest I’ve attended has usually been a mixed bag. There’s some really awesome ones, some good ones, and ones that are subpar and forgettable. This year there weren’t very many great ones; there were only a handful that I really enjoyed watching. The Reboot skit was awesome, though I wish I had been able to hear all of the audio. Dr. Holocaust was entertaining as always. The Black Butler skits were unusually entertaining this year.

I’ll probably receive a lot of flak for this, but I’m not a huge fan of skits that feature a lot of dancing. Most of the time it’s just the characters dancing as if they were on a talent show with little more substance than that. And a lot of the time the dancing is bad or looks poorly rehearsed. Dancing can be great and entertaining in a skit, but it’s often very poorly executed to the point where I’m so bored that I just want the skit to end. Anyway, here’s hoping that tomorrow night’s Masquerade will produce some utterly jaw-dropping costumes. :3

Random note: I think I’m addicted to the onigiri that the Japanese restaurant sells. I had two today, and I’m craving more. >.<

Random interesting trends I’ve noticed this year:

* Superheroes are the in-thing. Lots of vendors this year selling more superhero t-shirts, hats, and cosplay items. Even saw a replica of Captain America’s shield for sale.

* Not as many Team Fortress 2 cosplays this year compared to last year or the year before.

* There’s also been a noticeable decrease in Naruto and Bleach cosplays. One Piece is still very popular, as is Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. Hetalia is still going strong as well.

* The number of Homestuck cosplayers has increased dramatically from last year. I can’t go anywhere without seeing someone dressed up as a Homestuck character, particularly the Trolls.

*Panty and Stocking also seems popular this year. I’ve caught a number of Assassin’s Creed costumes about as well.

* My Little Pony has unexpectedly popped up as a trend this year. People have also begun cosplaying League of Legends characters a lot more this year when there were hardly any last year. Today I saw a few Garens, a few Katarina’s, a bunch of Ezreals, a Shyvana, and a Talon. If I see someone cosplaying Graves well, I’m glomping them. If I see any Demacian characters, I will scream out ‘DEMACIA!’ as loud as I possibly can.

* I’ve also noticed a few Skyrim cosplays here and there, and they’re very well-done. Also saw a really good Commander Sheppard from Mass Effect wandering around.

* Didn’t notice very many Touhou cosplays today. Spotted a Reimu, Marisa, Remillia, Shikeiki, and Sakuya. No Aya or Yukari as of yet.

moomoomegan:

Best cosplay EVER!

Every year for the past four or five years or so I’ve gone to an anime convention in Toronto called Anime North. Last year I ended up missing a bit of the convention because of work, but this year, I should be able to attend every event I want. With the convention happening at the end of this week, I’m really excited.

While I haven’t exactly come up with a list of everything I want to see or buy, I have a very rough idea:

* Spending limit of $150.

* Take pictures of good cosplays.

* No buying of plushies unless its a souvenir for my sister (who’s not going this year).

* Buy nice art prints/posters.

* Buy cell phone charm for sister.

* Buy Baccano DVD set.

* Attend Skit Contest and Masquerade. I really hope there aren’t a ton of dance-heavy skits this year. Every year it seems like there’s more and more. It’s not that they’re bad. Some are really well-done, but most are terrible.

* Go to the Hetalia Ask A Nation Panel. One of my favourite events. Always hilarious and entertaining. :3

* Attend the various Homestuck events going on. This is the first year they’ve had Homestuck events, so I’m interested in seeing what’ll happen in them.

* Watch at least one 404s show. I missed all of them last year so I need my fix of geek-themed comedy.

*Ogle over the various weapons/weapon replicas for sale in the Dealer’s Room. I really want a daisho set, but I’d have no use for it other than decoration. And possibly self-defense in the event of a home invasion.

* Buy cute accessories. I…have no excuse for this one. I have a weakness for cute things.

thericericerice:

The Iron Throne. in cake form. WANT. Please?

A good League of Legends cosplay that isn’t Ahri.

kawaiiitems:

Supersized Sushi Plushie!! 28 inches~

$180 shipped each

Please let us know which one you would like in the order form~

OMG. So cute! >w<