Animazement! 2011!

One of my favorite local conventions here in Raleigh is Animazement, which was just this weekend!

Black Butler Cosplay Group - My Ciel costume is one of my faves! (Friday)

This year was the first year I reprised an old role at the same con (Ciel Phantomhive - but I had a new costume), AND the first time I'd made a huge part of my costume (sewing my Eruka Frog dress). Exciting! People were still excited about Black Butler, but they were *mostly* excited about the fact that we had a Tanaka. Ciel Phantomhive costumes are pretty common, but having a collection of most of the servants AND a male Sebastian - still pretty exciting for people. Michelle just started calling us "Tanaka and the Pips."


Soul Eater Costume Group (Saturday)
I'm not sure what it is about conventions, maybe it's just knowing you're surrounded by other geeks, or maybe it's having your picture taken and taking pictures, wearing costumes and checking out everyone else's ... I don't know what it is, but it's SO FUN.

Highlights include Stormtroopers dancing to Lady Gaga at the Saturday dance, watching Nick's face during the KuroPop panel, getting free photoshoots with Frost Photography - AND my friends Ruth, Alan and Stephanie won the Face-Off challenge - WINNING PICTURE!

Face-Off like the show! With a random bag of supplies they had an hour to do that. Awesome!

Other favorite costumes (in order): Ron Weasley (Very Potter Musical), Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony), Yotsuba & Cardbo (Yotsuba), and adorable Star Wars family and King Boomy (Avatar: The Last Airbender).







Well, I think I've finally recovered from the convention. Now to get back to making non-convention related stuff - like jewelry and quilts and whatever else!

Animazement 2009: Sunday

Rozen Maiden Cosplay with (L-R) Suigintou (Alison), Souseiseki (Leah/me), Suiseiseki (Michelle) and Hina-Ichigo (Annie)

Sunday was the slowest and shortest day at the con - it was kind of nice, as the other two days seemed non-stop (I'm pretty sure there were teens staying at the hotel across the street that didn't sleep at all). We used the last day to buy the things we'd had our eyes on in the Dealer room, like new dice, heart-shaped eye patches, lolita detachable sleeves and Buddha #5.

Overall, Animazement is a good anime con, and now that it's moved into the new Raleigh Convention Center, it's got lots of room to expand and improve, which I'm hoping will happen.

Kyoshi Warriors & The Cabbage Guy (from Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Remember a bit ago, when I was talking about well-done side characters? Well, here we have from Animazement a coterie of "side characters" that won hearts all over the convention - the Kyoshi Warriors and the Cabbage Salesman from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Yay!

Animazement 2009: Saturday

Light Yagami (Alison), Near, Mello, Misa Amane (me) - this is what we call the Deathnote Album Cover Pose

Saturday at the convention was a whirlwind. It was by far the most crowded day at the convention, even with the gigantic Raleigh Convention Center swallowing most of the con-goers into various hideaways like panels and the Dealer's Room. Alison and I reprised our roles as Light Yagami and Misa Amamen from Deathnote. Nick and Will reprised their roles as Tamaki Suoh and Kyoya Ootori from Ouran High School Host Club. They were popular.


Kyoya (Will) as Dr. Zarkov during the Anime Radio Show

By far my favorite panel we went to at Animazement was the Anime Radio Show - professional voice actors like Christina Vee and Caitlin Glass performed a Flash Gordon radio show from the 1930's. With audience participants! Caitlin Glass, being the English director for Ouran High School Host Club, as well as the voice of Haruhi on the show, had a weakness for our Ouran-dressed compatriots Will and Nick. Which meant that both of them ended up onstage at different points (yay!). Will as Dr. Zarkov, and Nick as Flash Gordon himself.


Tamaki (Nick) as Flash Gordon during the Anime Radio Show

Most of Saturday we were in and out of different parts of the convention - leaving to eat, or just rest. We did come back later for the Steampunk Gadgetry panel that started at something like 10 or 11pm. It was a three hour panel, and we left after the first 30 minutes (which were taken up describing the different steampunk characters the panel participants were playing, as well as a description of their imaginary ship). I was hoping for more soldering suggestion, and/or cold-join solutions for dealing with attaching plastics and metals. Perhaps that came later, but I think I was too tired to care by then.



L-R: Michelle, Christy, Mike (as Sokka), Annie & Katie - Michelle and Katie made the costumes
Ahhh, the awesomest group costume! Our friends planned this months in advance. I must say that I think the hard work paid off in terms of attention at least, as they could only make it about three steps before someone else wanted their photo. Yay, Kyoshi warriors! I also hope they wear these again sometime!


Kyoya (Will) and Hunny from Ouran High School Host Club

I don't know if you can see Will's face here, so you may need to click on the picture to get a closeup, but his expression is the one of disbelief at the sheer amount of cuteness that is being thrown at him by the young woman (!) dressed as Hunny. I couldn't resist posting it, because it is a ridiculously good costume. And expression.


Sunday coming tomorrow, and then hopefully I can show you parts of my studio!

Animazement 2009: Friday

Our Black Butler (Kuroshitsugi) Group from Animazement 2009: (L-R) Ciel Phantomhive (Michelle), Ciel Phantomhive (me, Leah), Sebastian (Will), Meirin/Mayleen (Katie), and Bard (Michael)

Since I have so many costumes... I mean details about the convention, I was thinking of doing a post for each day to keep it easier. Friday was a good day at Animazement.

Ladies Love Sebastian
It turns out that Black Butler is one of those animes / mangas that is still coming into the U.S. (not officially translated and distributed yet) which apparently means the fans are MORE rabid and excited.

This works out in a good way, because you can usually tell who's going to want your picture, as they start pogoing around the 25 yard radius (p.s. pogoing means jumping up and down).


Alison & Nick as Aido & Zero from Vampire Knight
The "Travel to Japan" panel was very informational and good, and we went to the AMV's (meh - I thought it would be a showing of just random good AMV's from everywhere on the internet, and instead it was just videos from contestant who had entered the Animazement AMV contest). We checked out the NOIZ concert (they were excitingly costumed, and their songs were good, but it was incredibly warm, and the acoustics were funky, so that it was easier to hear the songs outside of the ballroom).


Then, a small break and we returned for the dance later that night. Conga lines kept happening, which makes sense, I guess, with the teenage demographic. I feel that I was probably one of the older people in the room, and it was more like a rave than a dance (which is fine with me). It was endearing to watch all kinds of geeky kids dance, probably for the first time in public. I believe Nick and Will developed a game that involved trying to stop the conga line so that they all fell into each other like dominos. It was a late night, and I was exhausted by the time we got home. Saturday seemed so short in comparison!

Also, there are tons more pictures on my flickr and I started a flickr Animazement group too.