As you all know from the thread of absence I made, I went to Amecon (or Amechibi) in Nottingham for the weekend. From Friday Morning to Sunday Evening, I was in Nottingham attending a small but long-running regional convention dedicated solely to anime and the sort.
I can talk endlessly about the events and mishaps at the con and in Nottingham but it'd be too much for me to type. But let's just say that the con was worth it. Needed some work with the whole smaller con formula but overall a great experience. Makes me wanna attend it next year and go to other regional/national anime cons (Comic Con is great and all but it's harder to find like-minded individuals there compared to Amecon).
I saw a whole bunch of cosplayers and attended a fair share panels there. In regards to cosplayers, the list of ones I saw included (but were not limited to):
- Mami Tomoe, Madoka, and Homura.
- The obligatory Goku and a Super Saiyan Goku (none of the other characters though. Seriously, no Vegeta? Krillin? Trunks? Cell? Freiza? The Androids? The f*ck?!)
- The Scout from TF2
- Klonoa (yes, Klonoa was there!)
- Lucy, Natsu, and Erza from Fairy Tail
- Little Sisters from Bioshock
- Flareon, Vapereon, Pikachu, Ash, and several others from Pokémon
- Yang from RWBY (But no Ruby... :( )
- Gene Simmons of KISS
- Panty from Panty and Stocking
- And many others...
No con experience is without photos but, unfortunately, I didn't take many. This was to adhere to the wishes of cosplayers who did not wish to have a photo taken and for the respect of private property. Despite it being a con, the venue is a more reserved and posh one. And I didn't want to get into too much trouble over taking photos of the place. Same deal with my hotel room too.
But photos are still photos. And thou shalt receive photos from my sh*tty iPhone camera!
Pics! With a large resolution but sh*tty quality!
My con badge. There were several kinds of these. One for con attendees, one for staff, one for senior staff, and then some odd ones like a Podcaster badge. And there was even a badge that a senior staff member wore which had an image of Amu on it with gold text printed on it.
The badge you see is, of course, the regular one that has an image of the Amecon mascot, Ame-chan, and her younger sister who is this year's mascot. Very adorable, if you ask me.
This was the first photo and only one of the two photos I took in Nottingham. This was a photo of me in my hotel room telling you all that... I did not cosplay! (Leon, you guessed wrong! -1 point to you.) But, speaking of cosplay, there was one cosplay that I did snap a photo of. With her permission of course.
Yes, I managed to find an Amu at the con on Saturday. When I saw her, I was so shocked to see her next to me. Rarely do I expect any hint of SC (Shugo Chara) at cons like these. But, the last few cons have been VERY fruitful. And this year's had to be the biggest. While she was a bit rushed in her cosplay, her's was a neat one nonetheless. She may have not had the appropriate leggings nor the hairpiece but that was quickly made up for the fact that she possessed a WORKING Humpty Lock and Ran, Miki, and Su (no Dia though... :( ). Oh, and those eggs? They are more than just show. They do actually open up and also work with the Lock.
Amu was really nice to me, and she and I had quite the discussions together. Unfortunately though, fate had other plans for the two of us and I did not see her again after the Saturday Evening's cosplay showcase. Nor did I even catch her real name or any contact details.
Now, onto LOOT! I didn't get a large quantity of loot this time but it was still quite substantial nonetheless. First up, the most mundane piece of loot. Manga!
I got an omnibus that contains the first 3 volumes of Genshiken. A manga about an otaku who wishes to find like-minded people by joining a club and a girl whose boyfriend is an overly dedicated otaku. The boyfriend, too, wants to join a club and the girl gets roped into it all. I have yet to read it, considering my backlog of anime and manga is already very large, but I'm interested in reading it nonetheless.
Next up is the Humpty Lock.
In honour of the Amu cosplayer from Saturday and one of my favourite shows ever, I decided to buy my own replica of the Lock. Inside the box contains both the Lock and the Key. While the Lock is quite different from the real Lock in several ways, it is quite true to size and tries to replicate the real thing while adding its own twist to the mix (The Lock is a bit smaller than the real thing, imo, but it's hard to actually tell 'cause Amu looks like a 14-16 or so year old and proportions are kinda messed up).
The Key is something quite similar to the Lock. Unfortunately, the Key is less accurate than the Lock because of the fact that it is even smaller compared to its real counterpart. And, yes, the Key can actually be used to open the Lock. And now you know.
Oh, and before you ask, I am actually wearing the Lock. Right now, while I'm typing, as a matter of fact. The thing is really kinda awesome to wear. Really is.
Last up is... the one, the only, the quite large and inconvenient Sealing Wand from Cardcaptor Sakura!
Yes, and when I thought I had already outdone myself in acquiring anime merchandise as of late, I buy this thing. A near 1:1 scale officially made Sealing Wand that is battery operated and ready to use. Here's the thing in my hands:
Pretty freaking big. In some ways, I have no regrets in buying it. I love Cardcaptor Sakura and I wanna express that love through buying merch. But in other ways, it is embarrassingly cumbersome and was a pain in the ass to lug around. Also doesn't help that this is one of the more expensive pieces of my merch collection at a substantial £70 (or just over $100)! For people who don't know, I also own a deck of Clow Cards (currently located in my apartment) so, now, I can perform magic! ;)
Overall, had a lot of fun and had a great time. Got a lot to talk about but few people to talk about it with. I was intending on discussing it the Sunday Evening I got back but everyone was either busy, uninterested, or more interesting in talking to me about Nintendo, of all things, than the con.
