A-Kon report

[rachelmanija]

Page down telophase to hear several phone post updates from me. I will not again describe the Texas-kitsch restaurant with the delicious hush puppies (aka "chicken fried grits) or deep-fried pork-chops, which were quite luscious.

The con was pretty fun. I especially enjoyed cosplay-watching. My favorite cosplayers were a trio of Ls-- same height, same build, same body language. They wandered about like triplet clones. They were awesome. Other excellent ones included Sokka (with a perfect headpalm), Hazel, several Mellos, a shirtless tattooed Renji with a truly shounen manga-worthy six-pack, a steampunk aviator with gears drawn on her cheek, a butterfly-bedecked Soi Fon, an adorable teeny Gaara and Sasuke, an even more adorable and even teenier Jack Sparrow with a bottle labeled "RUM," two sets of Kurogane and Fais (one with a beautiful dragon sword), and a great many men whose Very Large Weapons prompted me to call them over to point out to them the keychain we were selling, of Ichigo with the tag "Totally Not Compensating."

The Bleach cosplayers were out in force, but sometimes hard to identify due to the same uniforms, unless they did a good version of the hair. I did see an excellent grand captain whose name I blanked on, but I got him to come over by shrieking, "TAISHOU!!!" Thank you, anime: I can't hold a decent conversation in Japanese, but I can do military ranks and "I will kill you."

Our manga did not sell that well. It was disappointing. Almost everyone who's bought the first one bought the sequel, but nowhere near as many bought for the first time as had in previous years. I blame the economy, and our bad table position. Though I did sell a ton of keychains to Bleach and Death Note cosplayers.

Stephanie will post photos and video later.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

The hush puppies I have had were cornmeal mush (with pieces of actual corn), then with honey. They were very very good and I have not had them in a long time.

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

awww, teeny Captain Jack! I would have loved to see that. There was a Captain Jack Sparrow at Anime North last year, but this year there was a severe lack of ANYTHING non-anime. (With the exception of the Klingon staff in sensible footwear. They are a con tradition. ^_^)

There needs to be a word for Bleach cosplayers. Like Narutards. And Avatards. But Bleachtards just doesn't work. *scratches head*

Did any of the over-compensating men buy Ichigo keychains? ^_^

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

Okay, the three Ls would have had me gleeful for a week. That's awesome. Also, I admire your approach to Japanese learning... It's amazing how effective all that repetition can be, ne?

[digitalshepherd.livejournal.com]

My little brother attended this weekend as well and said just because of the Cosplayers he would become a regular. He said he had more than a 150 pictures to show me.

Can't want to see yours :)

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Mmm, hushpuppies! One of the few things I miss about Florida.

My only real venue for seeing costumes seems to be Anime Boston, but when I tried to go this year I found that the registration line had hundreds of people in it, and wasn't moving, and even though I'd pre-registered I was going to have to wait, so I punted. Maybe they'll be better organized next year.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Re: Bleach cosplay: I am hoping that the introduction of the Vaizards & Arrancar this year in the U.S. edition will result in some much-needed variety among Bleach cosplayers at Anime Expo. My hopes are probably in vain.

(Not that I have any sort of moral ground to stand on, in criticizing lazy cosplay.)