My anime con experiences started last year when I drove up to New Jersey (from Missouri, now that's devotion for you =P) for Shoujocon 2002 with some friends. Although it was not as well known as, say, Otakon or Anime Central, it was still a great con! I attended Shoujocon 2003 as well and maybe next year (edit: nope, no vacation time to spare ;_;) So, enjoy the pictures and the descriptions and look for more con experiences in the future ^_^
Shoujocon 2002Ohayocon 2003
Shoujocon 2003
~Shoujocon 2002~
East Brunswick, NJ
What could be more fun to otaku than surrounding themselves with all things anime for three days? Not much =P
Workshops
Reading and Writing Japanese showed some tips and tricks to remembering the
kana. Then we tried to read kana off of some bags of snacks. Then we ate the snacks ^_^
In the plushie workshop, we got a basic plushie pattern on paper and some squares of felt. Seems
pretty self-explanatory, but putting the head together was more confusing than expected.
In cel-painting, we got inked cels of the Shoujocon mascot, Toby, and got a chance to color them.
Painting on acrelate is harder than I would have thought since the paint looks really streaky and
uneven if you paint the usual way.
Karaoke
The songs had to be shoujo, but other than that, if we had the music, we could sing
our choice. I sang Toki Ni Ai Wa and my friend MJ sang Forever, from Jubei-chan. The finals were
interesting. Each contestant had to spin the 'wheel of death' where a song would be selected for
them. MJ got 'judges choice' in the finals and got Sakura Saku from Love Hina *ouch* That is one
of the fastest anime songs I know x_x.
MJ as Jubei-chan singing Forever from the same series
Karaoke finals. See the 'Wheel of Death' in the background?
Games
This was one of the best parts. First was a new idea for Shoujocon: Anime Parliament. Anyone
could bring up an issue from the anime world before three judges and argue their opinion just
like in a court. I brought Celestin to trial because Celestin was one of the judges, I knew him, and why not?
The best game was the Whack-A-Thon. Various anime characters than have a
reputation for being disliked were made into pinatas and people could line up to hit them with a
big pole. >=DDD There were, among others, Chibi-usa (which had to be canceled ;_;), Miaka, Nakago,
Relena, and the Akio-car. I had fun taking swings at Miaka and the Akio-Car.
Cosplay
What really brings an anime convention alive are the cosplayers. There were so many great costumes,
and I wanted to take a picture of them all... but I only had two small disposable cameras, so
I had to limit myself ^^;;; Also, I am not the greatest photographer, and I was not used to how
small the disposable cameras are, so sometimes my finger kinda was in the lens.. but you can
only see it on the edges, so no big deal ^_^
Enjoy!
Laura as Ranma-chan is resting for a moment
grep sailormoon* members rule the convention =D
Li Shaoron from Card Captor Sakura with his sword drawn
Its Ranma-chan AND Ranma-kun
Two persocons from Chobits pose with a funny banner
Di Gi Charat and Petit Charat pose with Gemma (too cute!)
Shiori, as a black rose duelist, poses with her black rose
Touga from Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Utena in her duelist outfit
Sailor Mars with a Sera Myu style outfit from the musicals
A great Sailor Galaxia costume
Sailor Star Fighter from Sailor Moon strikes a pose
Rubymoon from Card Captor Sakura
Hinoto the dream seeker from X1999
Deedlit the high elf from Record of Lodoss Wars
Pirotess the dark elf poses with Ashram from Record of Lodoss Wars
Celestin in his robes from the Ah! My Goddess movie
Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu pose with plushies from Magic Knights Rayearth
Suzaku No Miko poses with three of her seishi from Fushigi Yuugi
the god Suzaku from Fushigi Yuugi descends to shoujocon
The mysterious Wolfwood with his cross and mini-confessional from Trigun
'Drunk' Vash the Stampede from Trigun
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~Ohayocon 2003~
Columbus, OH
I was actually in Ohio for a friend's graduation. Capitol University has their fall term graduation right before the start of the winter/spring semester, not right after the fall semester, so the timing worked out great. I was only able to attend Ohayocon for an afternoon but it was still lots of fun. Probably the highlight was getting the autographs of 'Piro', 'Dom' and 'Asmodeous' from MegaTokyo *_* I had bought one of the 'Capture the B34r' posters and had it signed. Dom even drew a 'shirt guy dom' figure being shot out of Largo's gun on the poster =DDD
Cosplay
I also was able to take a few pictures of some great cosplayers. Film was also severely limited since I had to borrow
my boyfriend's camera and he wasn't really prepared for my request, but I selected the ones I thought were the best that I saw.
I also got better at taking pictures, so my finger doesn't appear in any picture (yay!)
the '4th' goddess, Peorth, from Ah! My Goddess
Ferio from Magic Knights Rayearth
Two characters from Final Fantasy(X?)
Red Mantle from Haunted Junction
The cast from Hellsing
Lum from Urusei Yatsura
Sailor Saturn and Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon
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~Shoujocon 2003~
Rye Brook, NY
We're back at Shoujocon for 2003! This time around, a bunch of friends that were supposed to go last year, but ended up not being able to, we able to make it, so we had a huuuuge group. Yay for lots of people! Again, the con was three anime filled days of fun. Since I wasn't doing as many workshops this year, I was able to go to a lot more panels and games. Ooooh, also, I got a nifty new digital camera for the trip. It has auto-focus and a whole bunch of lighting adjustment features which I wsas experimenting with, but they work differently if you're using the LCD screen or the standard viewfinder to take the picture, so some of the pictures ended up a little hazy or dark (things like focus and lighting are hard to see in the tiny little preview picture). But not of the pictures have my finger obscuring part of the picture, so that's an improvement over last year, ne? ^^;;;
Workshops
This year I only did the cel-painting workshop. Mostly for lack of money =P Cel-painting is super fun as a hobby or a one-cel-an-afternoon kind of thing, but I can't imaging doing it as a 9-5 job x_x Those people must REALLY love doing it ^_^ Yay for them! I think I did better at painting it than last year. Well, last year had more highlights and dimension to it, but this year the cel was hardly streaky at all. I didn't quite get it finished either, because unfortuneately check out time for the hotel came during the workshop and I had to leave, but I got it about 75% done so I'm happy with it ^_^
Games
They had some new games this year, in addition to the favorites from last year ^_^ I didn't do the karaoke contest this year, but our group did have fun at the open-mike karaoke. Claire and I sang one of my favorite Slayers songs "Give A Reason" and a bunch of crazy people ~_^ went up on stage and sang 'Ultra Relax' from Kodomo no Omocha.
Claire and I singing 'Give a Reason'
The Whack-A-Thon took out many a 'deserving' anime character. Among the destroyed were Nanami, Ebichu, Shigure, and the list goes on
Ding Dong the Nanami is dead!
A new game this year was a cross between anime and Taboo! This was a lot of fun, especailly since I loooove the game Taboo! The game was close but my team lost ;_; Oh well, it was still super fun. It was especially fun to watch people try to get their team to say the 'keyword' when they hadn't even seen the anime it was from >=D!!! Luckily, I didn't run into that problem.
I have to get people to say 'Clow' (from Card Captor Sakura)
waiting for our team to start the next round
Cosplay
There were a lot of great costumes again this year. There was even someone dressed as a tentacle monster! Well, enough chit-chat, let's get to the pictures!
Claire poses as Bantaro from Jubei-chan. Her shirt actually changes kanji too (with the help of safety pins)!
Beth is in a battle for her life as a character from the live action movie Battle Royale
Belldandy descends to earth for Shoujocon =D
Amanda makes the cutest Chii in her bakery shop outfit
Another Chii buys some 'pantsu' for Hideki
A really good Di Gi Charat costume
Inu-Yasha and Kagome pose together
Princess Kakyuu was at Shoujocon, why didn't the startlights look there?
Me, as the mighty sorceress Lina Inverse, from The Slayers
Mink, from Dragon Half
Nanami from Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Naru, from Love Hina, takes a study break and goes to Shoujocon
Sailor Neptune poses with her Deep Aqua Mirror
Nuriko, from Fushigi Yuugi, shows off his magical arm bands
Rabi~en~Rose from Di Gi Charat
...it's a pimpin' tentacle monster... there is nothing else to say...
Urd from Ah, My Goddess!
Urd's angel...where's Urd? =P
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