FANdom Anime Con in Pensacola

It felt SO GOOD to be back into the nerdy scene with my handsome husband, and this time we had our little nerdling in tow! This was Tessa’s very first convention, and we dressed her in her pink Superman onesie that one of our Ani-Jam overlords back home bought for her baby shower. Jonathan and I threw together some Closet Cosplays (cosplays we could just pull out of our regular wardrobe), and went as Spike and Dark Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Since Dark Willow wears black pants, black top and a dark denim jacket, and her only iconic feature is black veins on her face, I doubted anyone would recognize me. So I was very surprised when not only did people recognize my character, but one gal had even dressed as Dark Willow the day before! Cra-za-zee! We spent today doing a photoshoot of our Buffy cosplays, so I’ll be posting those once I’m done touching them up.

Anyhoo, at the risk of sounding like a convention snob, Jonathan and I were not terribly impressed with this anime con – it was extremely small (the smallest con we’ve ever been to) and there really wasn’t much to do outside of hanging out with friends – and having just moved to the area, those weren’t exactly in abundance for us. The Pensacola Costume Guild were kind enough to let us troll their booth and let me get my photography jollies out and snap some pictures of their shenanigans, but I think knowing dozens upon dozens of people at mega cons back in California has spoiled us.

Regardless, we had a really fun time. We met some new people, bought some fun shwag, and got to spend a fun outing with our daughter. Here are some photos from the convention!

The Cosplay Couple Is Back

My friend Khristine posted this link on my Facebook wall yesterday… it’s a little collection of 15 Great Disney Cosplays on likes.com and our TRON cosplay is featured as #2!

Every once in awhile we stumble upon our cosplay photos being featured on various websites, or reblogged, or occasionally mistaken for screen caps from the movie, or mashed up into desktop backgrounds… it’s fun to occasionally do Google image searches of the costumes we’ve done and find whats out there and the comments our photos get. Sometimes we find some really interesting results. For instance, just a couple of weeks ago I found these photos on polyvore.com of people using our Princess Bride cosplay kissing photo:

 

 

I really miss cosplaying as much as we used to! We churned out 33 costumes in just four years of cosplaying together.. and that’s not counting generic pirate and Renaissance and miscellaneous costumes for parties.

This past week, Jonathan and I whipped up some last minute cosplays for Pensacola’s FANdom Con and went as Spike and Dark Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer today. We plan on recruiting one of Jonathans friends from the base and taking some photos of the costumes sometime soon. Even though these costumes were “Closet Cosplays” as we like to call them – mostly clothes we pulled out of our closet – it feels good to be “the cosplay couple” again.

I’ll be posting our next cosplay photoshoot and photos from our anime convention weekend – Tessa’s FIRST EVER convention! – soon! It’s been 10 months, but Everythingman and AnimeWench are finally back. ^_^

Ani-Me Con at Fresno Manchester Mall

I spent the majority of yesterday snapping photos at the Ani-Me Con at Fresno’s Manchester Mall yesterday while helping at the Ani-Jam booth. And by “helping” I mean wandering by every few minutes complaining about my back aching and sitting on the floor by the table. Being pregnant and puffy and unable to squeeze into my cosplays, I wore my Think Geek “Now Loading… Please Wait” maternity shirt that my mum got me so I could self-identify as a fellow geekling. But there’s always a frustrating “naked” feeling with being at a con and not in cosplay.

So! I got my cosplay jollies out by taking pictures of friends and con-goers in costume. Since I don’t charge for my photos and I don’t really care to be one of the “cosplay photographers” that lurks around a pretty or neutral background, I tend to be rather timid about approaching cosplayers to pose for me when the photo bug bites. So I mostly just grabbed my friends Will, Dani, (Neeka Cosplay) and Kelly and made them pose for me so I could enjoy an evening of photoshopping cosplay photos while watching High School Musical.

Also, my good friend Will – who cosplays Captain Jack Sparrow – took first place in the cosplay contest! Check out our Pirates of the Caribbean photoshoot at Cypress Cove, California here.

I can’t wait for Ani-Jam this August 17 + 18th. With so many things being up in the air with Jonathan in the Navy- (we don’t even know where we’ll be after this August!) – Ani-Jam will be my last convention of the year. I’ve really enjoyed being adopted into the AJ family. Ever since they took me on as Cosplay Coordinator last year, I’ve made some amazing friends and adopted family, and I can’t imagine my convention year being complete without the delightful madness of Ani-Jam, my AJ Overlords and the rest of the gang. If you haven’t pre-registered for this convention (and the Cosplay Masquerade being organized by yours truly) DO SO NOW!

Fresno Ani-Jams “Cosplay de Mayo” picnic in Fresno, California.

Yesterday Fresno Ani-Jam’s annual cosplay picnic was held at Woodward Park. And this years theme was “Cosplay de Mayo”. The picnic was potluck style, so after our little Eta Aquarids (but not really) and sunrise stint, Jonathan and I made a 5 pound batch of Bonito Onigiri and Shiso Onigiri to take to the park! (Here is the recipe, with photos!)

Ani-Jam is basically the Central Valley’s sole anime convention and it’s got a great selection of guests, panels and booths that focuses on Japanese animation, manga, gaming and music. The cosplay picnic serves as a kind of get-the-word-out pre-party for the convention in August. There was lots of yummy food, music, yard sale tables set up, contests, a pinata and of course, otaku running amok in cosplay everywhere!

I served on staff with Ani-Jam as the Cosplay Coordinator last year, and even though I did a rather bumbling job as a novice in organizing the Cosplay Masquerade, I’ve somehow found myself on the 2013 staff as coordinator once again. And even though Jonathan will be in boot camp / A school during this years show, he is lending his services as part of security.

Since we were bringing onigiri, Jonathan went as Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket and I wore a Kyo t-shirt (since my Tohru Honda doesn’t fit my 20 week pregnant belly, *sobs*). I was pleasantly surprised to see that in most of the photos from the day, I actually look pregnant! Wonder of wonders! My friend Eliza had the camera most of the time, so I was blissfully camera-free for the most part and now I have some sweet photos of me and my honey.

Part of the fun of the day included a three legged race (always hilarious watching people in self-imposed bondage strain not to break a femur whilst running for no real reason other than to possibly break a femur), the piñata (“Who wants to beat Hello Kitty with a stick?!” *Otaku’s go wild*) and the staff signature scavenger hunt. My clue was, “Find the cosplay coordinator” and Jonathans was, “Find a member of WING who is married to member of staff.”

Then there was the cosplay contest that Belle, Tony and I judged. I have a lot more fun judging otaku in costume than I should have, so apparently I’m really good at being judgmental? There were some great costumes out and about and I’m excited to see what’s brought to the actual convention masquerade.

The closer it gets to Jonathan leaving for boot camp – only 4 weeks now – the more we run into events and plans that Jonathan won’t be around for. Ani-Jam being one of them. I’m trying not to let these get me down and instead view them as things to keep my busy while he’s off getting a mega hot military body and some spunky Gene Kelly-esque sailor suits. But still. We’ve never really been apart. I’m going to need as many distractions as possible in the coming months.

Here’s the Ani-Jam banner for those of you in the California area. It’s the place to be this August. ^_^