Anime Central 2003

These have been taken down in size a bit.  If you would like original size photos, please e-mail me at zhana@hotmail.com 

Anime Central 2003 was quite a unique convention for me.  Being a Denver-based cosplayer, I had never gone East to a convention before.  I was able to meet up with quite a few friends that I had met online via cosplaylab or other online chat services.  A friend and I (she was cosplaying Sango from Inuyasha at the convention) drove my Honda Civic out to St. Louis first to pick up two friends, one of whom would be borrowing my retired Selphie Tilmitt (Final Fantasy VIII) costume.  This meant we didn't get to the convention until Friday afternoon, as the drive up from St. Louis to Chicago was filled with exciting construction.  Wheee!  Thanks, State of Illinois!  But once we got there, the fun started.  Other friends from Colorado were also driving out.  One was running a table in the artist's hallway, so we were able to cruise by and see him quite a bit!

Friday was filled with long registration lines.  Despite that I had pre-registered, I spent over an hour waiting in the registration line - a disgusting amount of time.  I truly hope that Acen gets this problem resolved, fast.  If you were at Acen, I know you agree.  After that, however, since I had missed the J-Rock panel, which was one of my big things I had planned for Friday, I wandered around, visited with friends, and overall just enjoyed the night not having anything to do.  A couple of nice men helped me up when I managed to totally eat it on the ground.  Early Friday I wore my Gekka Kozi costume, and my feet got pretty sore in the shoes.  Me and the two girls we had picked up in St. Louis ended up in the hotel hot tub on Friday evening, resting our poor, sore feet.

The hotel!  We got an excellent room.  We were across the street from the convention center, so it was quite the hike to actually get anywhere, especially with sore feet.  But our room could have fit another 5 people on the floor with very little problem.  Amazing.  And I think we got a great deal on it too.  Some friends of mine were staying in the hotel the con was in, and their room didn't seem to fit 2 people comfortably.  Sucks to be them!  I hope the rest of you all had good rooms.

After the hot tub, I changed into my Christmas Mana costume, sans the very high heels, and went back to the convention, where a friend and I met up and went to Midway Airport to pick up the last member of the Colorado group that was arriving into town.  I don't know about anyone else, but toll roads are annoying!  I didn't realize what a huge issue it was, since Colorado doesn't have main toll roads.  Forget those.  >.<  We got back from the airport and found that the convention was winding down for the evening, so we partied a bit and went to bed.

Saturday was Masquerade day.  I was presenting my Ayane from Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore costume, so I was going to wear it all day long.  You don't notice how cold convention centers are until you are in a short dress!  Anyway, I hit the dealer's room straight away.  It was nice and big, though not much compared to AX, but much bigger than Colorado's Nan Desu Kan.  Seemed like there was plenty there.  I attended the video game panel, which was nicely put together, and after that didn't have much time to go to panels.  The Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore group met up.  There were five of us, including a Zack, 2 Ayanes, 1 Jann Lee, and a Bayman.  Everyone looked fantastic!  Good photos all around.

After that, the Masquerade.  The green room was freezing, but the chance to sit backstage and get a quiet view of the Masquerade was nice.  I also enjoyed the costume judging.  NDK doesn't have anything like it; they just have industry guests who judge, and that way you can tend to miss a lot, or overlook a cosplayer who has a simple-looking costume, but in reality it's quite elaborate.  They went over my Ayane costume, inspected the plumbing tubing I have running through the bow, and I told them how I dyed my own tights, etc.  I hoped something would come of it, and yep, I finally achieved a costuming award - Judge's choice.  It was a wonderful honor.

Other Masquerade costumes were adorable as well.  I think Masquerades are getting much better at keeping the plainclothes costumers out of the way, and letting those people who have done a lot of work really get on the stage and show off.  I liked all the skits, though 40 seemed a bit long, even for my attention span.  Saturday night was celebratory partying.  Being over 21 at conventions is quite fun.  I highly recommend it.

Sunday was short.  I went as Christmas Mana again, said goodbye to some friends, and we headed back to St. Louis. 

All in all Anime Central was filled with incredible costumes.  There were many highlights that I didn't expect to see, and everyone seemed to have done a good job.