Friday, November 20, 2009

Izumicon 2009

IZUMICON, 2009 = UH-MAY-ZING.
for real.

If you've never been to an anime convention, it surely is a wild ride.

Probably one of the most fun, nerdiest weekends of the year, but it's entirely worth it. : )

Izumicon was actually last weekend (13th - 15th), but, I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. 

I attended this year only on Friday and Saturday, but, it was more than enough (even though it's sad to know it's over). I went with my close knit anime-lovin' friends: Cheryl, Ethan, Becky, Daryl, Andrew and Tiger. We had a BLAST together. It all went by way too fast sadly. :(

They met at my house Friday around 2-ish, and we hit the convention at 3 PM, there for opening ceremonies and all. The convention was filled with eager cosplayers, both advanced and wise and new and amateur, plus tons of excited fans and some of the best staff. The guests were very well known too - the one I most looked forward to speaking to was Vic Mignogna, who plays the role of some of my favorite anime characters: Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club, Dark Mousy from DNAngel, Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist, to name a few. Plus, Vic is an astounding Christian and uses his work - voice acting in anime - as his ministry. It's great, because in the sort of work he does, Christianity and witnessing is hardly "accepted" or at least attempted. I ended up getting to hear his panel on Friday night, get his autograph, tell him how much I admire him and his strong faith, AND get an adorable picture taken with him!


It's VIC! :D

That was probably the highlight of my convention, just getting to meet and talk with him. It's hard to say a "highlight" of anything though, just because the entire convention itself was so GREAT!

Cheryl, Ethan and I competed in the Cosplay Contest, for the first time. Considering I didn't really make my cosplay - I was Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender - I wasn't really being judged, but I got to be one of the first premiered and could walk on stage anyway. It was such a rush posing and hearing the crowd cheer and be excited about your character! Ethan ended up winning 2nd overall with his Link cosplay (though, a lot of us believed he should've gotten 2nd), and Cheryl just rocked the girl power and cuteness being Sora. 

Me as Katara. Waterbending poses are so fun and look so graceful. :)

Ethan with his 2nd place winning cosplay. He earned it!


Cheryl was such a perfect Sora. :) 

Goodness, what else was there ... I felt like there's way too much a girl can possibly blog about. Another big thing we did was enter the Sidwalk Drawing Competition, Cheryl and I. That was really an experience, sitting down in the lobby and doodling away with other artists, seeing such amazing work in different styles, shapes and sizes. We chatted with some of the other artist's, and took pictures like crazy, so here are some of them!

Cheryl's completed piece :D


A lot of us drawing - there was a really good turn-out!


Such beautiful artwork ... 


I love this picture, Sora drawing Sora! Haha!


My final piece, of course, I drew Katara. Go figure.

The winning piece - well deserved, I'd say. :) 


Me and Cheryl with our drawings! :D

There was a really fun rave later Saturday night, called "Reibu: The Dubbed Dance", but sadly, we were too busy enjoying it (and resting beforehand) that I didn't many pictures. We left the convention at about 1 in the morning, later than we thought we would - but we had no regrets, the convention was extremely fun. We still were hyped up on the way home, no sleeping for us until we all crashed in our beds Saturday night/early Sunday morning, haha.

Like I said, it's impossible to real sum up an entire experience in words. It's easier when I have pictures, so, here I go posting them. Enjoy!


Posing in my Katara cosplay. 


More posing.


I think this one explains itself.


Cute!


Cheryl found some ice cream Craig tried to steal D:


Close up of Ethan and some of the other winners in the cosplay contest.


Some of our friends on stage acting a skit!


FMA group!


Vic and his patchy pants :D


He made a really great Tidus!


And she made a very beautiful Yuna!


Princess Peach <3


Me and Becky :D


Goofing off before cosplay pre-judging XD


Link playing the ocarina (attempting to, I suppose).


Tiger in his original character cosplay :D


Cheryl as Sora from Digimon!


GLOMPED.


Ethan as Riku from Kingdom Hearts II.


Classic :D


Waiting in line to get Vic's autograph.


Vic's panel! Haha, I love his face. xD


Tiger and BILLYYY.


Ethan as Riku (we made him pose a lot outside xD)

I realized after looking through my pictures, our entire group never got one together. I hope to fix that so we can meet and take some pictures or something, scenic, goofy, serious and group shots of course.

Thanks for reading!

I can't wait for the next Izumicon, and Tokyo in Tulsa is this summer, aha ... *smiles*

3 comments:

Cheryl said...

That was so much fun. ^^ I can't wait till Tokyo in Tulsa!! X3

Meghan said...

Oh man, me EITHER! D:

Anonymous said...

where did u get the shoes(or did u make them