This was the second year I’ve attended Anime Central in Rosemont, IL (Chicago, for all purposes), and I must say, I love ACen. It has it’s problems, but then again, all conventions do. And anyways, any event is only as good as you make it yourself. So despite my many complaints about this year’s panel programming (lack of signs the biggest one), I had a ton of fun.
With only one of me to run around for all of my obligations, I didn’t get to go to all of the JRock panels, so unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to many JRock fans while I was at the convention. However, I did see a decent amount of JRock cosplay, and some really spectacular ones, at that! My personal favorite was this complete set of five Malice Mizer cosplayers. Sorry I didn’t get your names! If any of these are you, please leave a comment with your name, and I’ll put you up there.
I also ran into a Kirito, a Toshiya, three Rukis, a Kyo, a Miyavi, a Tatsuro, a set of Peelander-Z cosplayers, another Mana, and another Kami. I’m sad to say that I wasn’t able to get photos of all of them, but I at least got a few! ^^
This year was definitely more fun than last year, I can say that much! I got to see a lot of the cool people that I’ve met at concerts over the past few years, and I even met a few new people, including Simon from The Slants. The Slants haven’t really come by this way before, so this was my first time meeting him, and he was really fun to hang out with. He had a bunch of pictures that he drew on the back of Slants flyers while he was sitting at his table in Artist Alley. If you still haven’t checked out The Slants, you should! They aren’t Japanese, but they still make great music, and they’ve been hitting up the convention circuit more and more, so you might see them at a convention near you!
Besides all the JRock and anime, ACen had some other fun things going on. I was walking in the lobby of the Hyatt on Saturday I think, and I saw something that I think anyone can appreciate: a real-life re-enactment of Where’s Waldo.
But definitely, one of the highlights at ACen this year was the JRock cosplay. There was a lot of it, and a lot of what there was was GOOD cosplay. Kudos to all of you who did cosplay!
I hope all of you in the midwest area will also make it out to Chicago for Ayabie in a couple weeks, too. I really like talking to fans that are in line for concerts, and I’d be more than happy to hang out with people for a while. If you are going, then see you then!
(Simon photo macro’d up by Seven)
