Con Piece: Hanging with the Peeps at Anime Matsuri

Four years ago, a young anime fan went to his first anime convention. He made his first cosplay two days before the convention with glued on buttons. Four years later, this fan attended the same convention as a member of the media and is some what more knowledgeable about anime. His cosplay was much better prepare compare to the last first one. That anime fan was me and that anime convention was....

ANIME MATSURI!

This con holds a special place in my heart. Even though none of my friends liked this convention the first two years it was held, I just love this convention so much. Maybe it was because Anime Matsuri was my first con or maybe  because I actually love it. Still we all left this convention liking our experience this year and having fun. I only went for a full day and a few hours on Friday but it was really fun. I love all the One Piece fans that were here from the dealers room to the cosplayers.

Still enough of me doing all this reflecting, let just go to the stuff!

One Piece and Anime Matsuri
There was some One Piece love at Anime Matsuri alright! I got a good handful of One Piece cosplayers here. Well it also help that there was a One Piece cosplay group at Anime Matsuri too. I got so many One Piece cosplay pictures that I don't know what to do with them.

Still maybe the main reason why I took so many One Piece cosplay pictures was because I happen to stumble upon all the One Piece cosplayers right before they were about to do a photo meet up. I was looking for the ATM and instead found the cosplayers that I met about thirty minutes before. So as they say: "When in Rome! Do as the Romans do." So we took pictures! We all got in awesome poses and took picture of each other. Cameras were shared. Hats were shared. We talk some One Piece and got to know each other a bit.

 

 

I met the Shanks from Kamikaze Con and we did some catch up on what we have been doing since then. He is currently working on finishing up his Crocodile cosplay. So you may see him as Croc in the upcoming future. Also found out that the One Piece cosplay group that organized this little meet up were the same people that did the One Piece skit from Oni Con. So that was really cool to know. It was nice to see these guys again since we kind of all share the same con experience when it comes to One Piece in some form or way.

I may have mention this before but I rarely get to geek out about One Piece in real life due to my friends not being One Piece fans. So it was cool to just get together and talk some One Piece even though most of it was just us taking pictures and saying bits and pieces here and there.

Props to the Zoro cosplayer there for being the mastermind for this event

It was fun to watch some of the things we reenacted like what you see above. Apparently Shanks can not learn Santoryu due to the fact that he can't hold a third sword. haha Well there goes that idea for cool things Shanks can do.

We also did things like reenacted the scene at the gallows for Roger's death and I took part in doing a piece of Luffy and Usopp's fight. There are more that you can see in the pictures that I am about to post here in thumbnails.

Those two above are my top picks for One Piece cosplayers.

The reason why I think the Conis cosplayer was great has nothing to do with her being a fan of the blog. She did get the Strong World figure from Kamikaze Con though. haha I just really like her cosplay. It isn't everyday that you see a Conis cosplay especially right now since a lot of people that I see are just cosplaying somebody from the StrawHat Crew. So seeing a Conis is really cool. She even did the harp which is beyond just a regular cosplay. Also got to love the rose design that ran up the side of the outfit. That had to take some time to do that kind of detail. So good job there!

As in the other...Well it is Afro Luffy for goodness sakes! What there isn't to like! The guy just pwns all over for doing that one. I would so love to do this cosplay one day if I didn't have that thing where I don't like to be bare-chested and showing my armpits for long periods. haha Still awesome cosplay.

Now back to the rest of the thumbnails!




Props to all the One Piece cosplayers at Anime Matsuri! You all looked great in your outfits! Also I promise that I fix the thumbnail issue in time for the next con so it won't be so crudific! 

Also to make this event even cooler, there were two people with professional looking cameras at the meet up. I am not sure if they were congoers, people from the con or just One Piece/Cosplay fans but cool to know that we got some attention. There was also some sort of river thing next to us and every so often a boat would sail by and we would wave to them. They may not have known what was going on but we enjoyed them sailing by. More attention is always good for a cosplayer. haha It was windy as heck and we were afraid to fall into the water but it was cool overall.

Then to the One Piece stuff at the convention! There was a good amount of One Piece stuff which I am happy to see since I remember attending Anime Matsuri two years ago and got a good amount of One Piece stuff there. Above is everybody favorite One Piece marketing tool on a lovely towel. I had to fight the temptation from my lovely friend to not buy this towel since really...I don't want to dry myself with Chopper's face. That is kind of wrong! haha There was also another towel with all the jolly rogers of the StrawHats but I didn't take a picture of that one.

I so wanted that Strong World Luffy figure. It would have been nice to own it but I also like to be able to eat for the next month. Dropping $70 dollars is a big amount of money for a con. Still there were other figures as you can see like a nice Brook and Hawkeye one. I wanted to get one of the smaller figures but I wasn't sure. Would have helped that I went to the con on Sunday too since I didn't get much from the con as in merchandise.  Kept telling myself I would return to the dealers room but in the end by the time I got there it was closed.

It also seem like there is more Funimation stuff out at cons now. Beside that Sanji armbands there was also a Luffy, Chopper and StrawHat Jolly Roger keychains. So I feel that Funimation is pushing more stuff to be on sale. I am happy and hope to see more in the future. Just maybe where I don't have to go to a conventions to buy it and instead can buy them at stores.

For a future contest...As soon as I think of it

I so want to wear that shirt myself. I should have gotten two of them. One for myself and one for the contest. Still that is my lost and your win. Now I just need to find out how to make you guys win it. haha

Con Overview
All I did on Friday was pick up my pass, take pictures and attended the One Piece photo meet up. Had to leave early to work on my cosplay for the next day. Still that was fun. So now to Saturday!

So I didn't went to any panels unless you count the Cosplay Contest and the AMV Contest. They were in a panel room but they are not really panels I think. The panels were not really that interesting from what I remember. I think the only ones that were of interest were the ones hosted by Leah Clark and Mike McFarland. Still they were about voice acting and script adopting so nothing big as in Funimation stuff. Maybe there were some Funimation information there but I didn't go to them. I should have but really I don't have a strong interest in either to push myself there. I know there was one interesting one that I wanted to go to that was improv acting but I had interviews to attend to. I am sorry guys for not having much on the panels.

The AMV contest took forget to start. It seems like the people running the panel were having a hard time figuring out the sound system. The contest was almost two hours late so that isn't a good thing. It pushed back everything else in that was happening in the room. The AMVs were not that good though. They were okay but nothing too mind blowing. It also didn't help that some of them had subs in them while you were watching the AMV. I have seen better but it was a good watch for what it's worth.

The maids were really nice. Anime Matsuri had a maid and butler cafe. The butlers weren't that great looking from what I was told (I mean not like I would know). I was able to talk to these girls and they liked me. Still maybe it was because I got two boxes of (overpriced) Giant Pockey. haha

I didn't go to the main Maid Cafe event but from what I saw of them it seems like they had some good things there. The butlers could use some improvement and two of them need to not wear tennis shoes. The maids were nice looking but that could be me being bias. Still I bet right now I sound like a creepy nerd so we will now walk away from this subject. And we are walking!

I bet it seems like I didn't went to much of anything....Trust me. I did went to things but not to the panels.

There was more people on that stage then you think

The cosplay contest was great though. The people who ran the contest played music depending on the characters that the cosplayers cosplayed as. So if a One Piece cosplayer went on the stage, they played the first One Piece opening theme (We Are) then changed songs for the next cosplayer. The hosts for the cosplay contest were great too since it seems they had to buy time even though the contest was running late. They gave out stuff and said some funny things.

Still things got crazy during the intermission that was before the announcement of the results of the cosplay contest. They started to sing and let anybody on to the stage. I mean people who weren't in the cosplay contest were allow to come up stage to sing and as you can see from the image above, it was packed with people. Some of the songs they sang was the first opening theme of the Pokemon dub and there was some dancing. A fun thing to watch overall and great way to past the time.

The skits! Now there were some great skits but the best of the skits was the One Piece skit. The people in the skit were great and funny. I was able to meet with the people who did this skit the day before since they organize the One Piece photo meet up and it turns out that they did the funny One Piece skit that won at Oni Con's contest. The cosplay group had two Choopers too. One was Brain Point Chopper and the other was Human Point Chopper and they played it up pretty good. Everybody in the crowd was laughing at the skit. It was kind of like watching an episode of One Piece but while on crack. haha I think everybody in the audience enjoyed the skit and had a great time watching it.

The award winning skit. Yes, all of them were in the skit.

The rest of the skits were good too. There was a Code Geass and two other animes/video game skits. They were funny. I kind of like the Code Geass one better compare to the other two. I was a bit worried that the one video game skit was going to win the best skit since it was artsy and serious but they didn't. I think they won a judge's award because I remember them getting some sort of award but it wasn't best skit.

Remember at cons to always eat two meals a day!

Do you know what I love about anime cons? The fact that for one weekend you get to see other people that share the same interest as yourself all together in one place.

All areas around the convention, you can see an invasion of anime fans. All the regular people can do is watch and stare as there is some guy wearing a skirt in the table next to them eating fried rice in the mall's food court. It is amazing to tell the truth. A place that normally does have anime fans is just filled with them. After the cosplay contest we went to Which Wich restaurant and on the wall next to the bathrooms was a place to hang your brownbag and most of them had something anime related drawn on them. You can tell that anime fans were here (Well it was one of the closest places to eat to the convention center haha). I remember hearing that people went to the mall that was across the street to get something to eat. I didn't went to the mall but I can only imagine how that went.

I remembered before leaving that there was this one person who wasn't an anime fan had wonder into the convention center. She was dressed as if she was going out but was asking around random congoers about what was going on, why were there people dressed up and what was anime. We tried to give her answers that we think she could understand. After that I think she went around a bit longer and asked other people the same questions. 

Once again Anime Matsuri got the Japanese band Back-on to perform for the concert on Saturday night. This was the main reason why I was reminded of my first con (Anime Matsuri) from four years ago. These guys played at the first Anime Matsuri and now they are playing at Anime Matsuri four years later. Both times I was there jumping up and down at the con like a crazy fan. I haven't watch the two animes (Eyeshield 21 and  Air Gear) they perform openings for but they can put on a great show.

Back-On played some of their new and old stuff including all of their anime related songs. The audience was into the concert and we had to because this concert was special. Turns out that Back-On is going to release a DVD in Japan of their performances which will include some of their Anime Matsuri performance. Got to represent if you know what I mean. haha So any of my Japanese readers (or just huge Back-On fans) who going to get the DVD, keep an eye out for a guy in the back waving a straw hat because that guy is me.

Also words of advice, don't wear heavy (possibility wool) jacket when going to a concert. You are going to get hot wearing it after a few jumps.

Still the concert was great! The music was loud! The people were great! My ears were ringing for two days straight afterwards.

Cosplay

I forgot to take a solo picture of my Luffy cosplay

So for the first time in years I decided to use my Luffy cosplay on the first day. It wasn't because I was returning back to Anime Matsuri and wanted to make this all memorable since I haven't been here for two years. It was because my Luffy cosplay is a quick and easy cosplay to get into since I was thinking I was going to be rushed since originally I thought my interviews were on Friday. haha

Still it was nice that I was able to wear my Luffy cosplay on a day that wasn't Sunday. I been feeling bad that I had pushed my Luffy cosplay to Sundays since this it is really close to my heart.

Still this time the cosplay got more love then usual since there was the One Piece photo shoot on Friday afternoon. Got some good pictures taken in this cosplay. The girl with the good camera got some pictures of my good side. haha

Also I know I keep saying this but one half of me wants to get a small straw hat but the other half of me likes this one. My current straw hat has feelings attached to it since we been together for so long.

Here is a new cosplay that I 'debuted' at Anime Matsuri. Strong World (Movie 10) Luffy! (Not Pirate King Luffy. haha) The cosplay isn't complete since I wasn't able to place the gold rings on the side of the jacket but at least I have a jacket now.

I was really excited for this cosplay. The jacket sucks since it is so thick (I think it is made out of wool) but it was nice since during the cosplay and AMV contest, the panel rooms were cold. So it was nice that I had a warm jacket on me.

One of the main reason why the gold rings are not on the side is because the fabric that I had gotten for the gold was no good. It would come apart when it was cut. The fabric would unravel after cutting and we (my mom and me) didn't think it would last long if we sew it on. Some tricky sewing had to be done to the gold on the sleeves and even then I think I saw it coming a bit off at the end of the day. I am going to get the jacket done for Akon though. That means getting some good fabric. I am not sure if I am going to have time to make the gun. I spoke with another cosplayer and he suggested something so I may try that. Still my first priority is the jacket. Once I get that done then I move on to the bigger things.

And like always, the rest of the pictures that I took from the con.

A good amount of pictures taken from Anime Matsuri even though I was only there for mostly a day. The One Piece photo meet really help me out in getting a lot of pictures. Still a good pool of cosplayers since there are some characters from Gintama, Hetalia (normal and genderswap), Soul Eater, Blazeblu and Full Moon O Sagashite. The last two I named were surprises for me since Full Moon is such an old anime and the image on my badge were two Blazeblu characters. So those were cool.

So that is Anime Matsuri! A con that had came a long way since it's first year. A con that I enjoy going to year after year and I am planing to come back again next year. May it be a member of the press (because I do have plans to keep blogging for many years) or just a regular con goer (That be cool too), I will be there.  One thing that I won't miss though is walking up those long (turned off) escalators. I swear that I lost about a good ten pounds on those things!

Anime Matsuri was fun and I had a great time! Got myself a con shirt Still I got more then just that like interviews with Leah Clark and Mike McFarland! Some great information in those like Leah's future in One Piece and Mike's experience as Buggy. So look forward to them as soon as I get them transcribed!

Once again, I had a fun time at Anime Matsuri and I sure hope that others did too. May I come again and have fun!