Tuesday, June 10, 2014

AnimeNext 2014: ALL THE COSPLAYS

I am guilt ridden. Always. It's part of my genetic anxieties..and my charm. For AnimeNext, I am guilt ridden because I feel I could cover the show more completely, and so with this thought driving me, I created a schedule that included cosplay meet-ups, pannels, time in the vendor room and live music...and as I exited my vehicle to dive into the day's activities, I left that lil schedule shoved into my air vent.

You see, while I fully intended wider coverage of AnimeNext, my ADHD addled brains are assaulted with a SEA of cosplayers on a beautiful lawn, surrounded by twisting trees, on a cloudless summer day with the tiniest breeze to kiss our sweaty faces...and so all dissolved away and I wanted to take ALL THE COSPLAYER PEEEECTURES. You could not blame me. AnimeNext boasts a range of skill level across the board when it comes to cosplaying, with zero attitude from anyone, anywhere, and so it's all great fun. What did I have to compete with this spectacle?


- A vendors room full of stuff...toys, manga, awesomely hilarious T shirts, swords (SWORDS!) and art prints. Happily, the booth pushing boyfriend/girlfriend sized pillows with popular cosplayer pictures printed on them was absent this year.



- An artist's alley filled with killer crafts you aren't allowed to take pictures of. This point was so beaten into my head, I passed up shooting a pic of a kid dressed as Steven Universe for fear pulling out my camera would get me tackled by 6 100lb Homestuck anti-photography assassins. It would surely take 6 to bring me down.

- A boat load of panel and event options so vast I could not hope to choose one, printed on a schedule so brain damaging I got 3 bloody noses trying to navigate through it.

And so..while my new friend (from Steampunk World's Fair) Amanda insisted there was so much to do outside of gawking at costumes and wandering the grounds freaking people out in my half possessed-by-the-Lich Finn costume (from Adventure Time, natch), I accomplished only that. No regrets. I managed to spend some time chatting with Amanda and her friends, gathering intel on what Anime I'm missing out on (video to come soon) and the rest of the day devoted to laughing like the dorkiest of 12 year olds with the Ink and Paint Burlesque ladies. These are some of my favorite people on the planet, so adding them to a convention setting that is already overstimulating just about did me in. Of course the heat didn't help, as I sweated through 2 T shirts. Lilly consoled me with the thought that it would look less like lactation when the wet spots all joined together. She was right.










And so..Vodka and a massive burger and more Vodka and laughing and Lilly's cat butt and watching Lilly grab another butt and the other Lilly's excellent, random dance moves capped off my night. I decided to call it quits before hitting the rave, as I was going to attempt to bump up my costume the following day, for a few short hours. The rave did seem tempting since I'd never been, but one woman assured me "Honey..this won't be a real rave." She seemed trustworthy..and so I was off.

SO! Best moments of AnimeNext..aside from cat butts and whatnot...

The Laziest Battle of Sparta


The Undeniable Power of Picachu Crotch


The Ursula Selfie

The Annual Animated Custodial Picnic




ALL The Attack on Titan


Billy Mays Vs Tough Blood Stains


THIS Grass Sword


The Ink and Paint Ladies


Just Hangin' Out

A Full gallery can be found HERE. Note: I seem to have an aversion to both Homestuck and now Frozen, so don't expect many pics from those universes. Thanks to the AnimeNext crew for taking care of me, the Ink and Paint ladies for much ridiculousness and all the great cosplayers who made my camera happy. Til Next year...


Stay tuned for Part 2 with pics from the Adventure Time and Pokemon Meet-Ups!

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