Anime North 08
… was awesome!
I took a fair amount of pictures, but not nearly as many as I hoped to. I went to this Canadian convention in 2003 and it wasn’t nearly as large as it is now. There were SO many people all over the place. It must have been very overwhelming for older folks and anime-clueless people. “Why are all these youngin’s dressed in costume?!”. 
The Costumes!
Like usual there were tons of people cosplaying as a plethora of characters. This year I saw a billion “L”s (Death Note). The costume isn’t exactly difficult to pull off either. If you have black, medium-length hair and a white shirt - you’re set. Just slouch a lot and don’t wear shoes. And suck on candy. Moving from the simplistic costumes, there were many that were absolutely gorgeous. You can really tell who puts the effort in/enjoys it rather than throw something together last minute. The Lolita-attire was impressive as always. I snapped a shot of the back of a really elaborate white dress outside a Harvey’s and the front was amazing as I remember. Look below for my Flickr pictures or go see them.
Seeing all these costumes really motivated me to do something for next time. Next year I will definitely at least finish my costume that has been a WIP for 4 years (it’s been four years!?) or make something new. At the moment I’m leaning toward a Soul Linker (Ragnarok Online). The costume will probably be immensely difficult but it’s so neat! Lovely. I have a work term in the Fall so that will give me the time to work on it. I could have done something this past work term but I didn’t even think about it…
Yummy goodies
Aside from cosplay/panels/talks at the convention, there is of course: The Dealer’s Room. From the last time I remember, the Dealer’s Room also expanded. Many tables of goodies. What did I buy?
- Chobits Art Book <3
- #1 Card Captor Sakura - Master of the Clow (looking for these forever)
- More Inuyasha manga… they were on sale!
- 2 Random Yaoi manga. Apparently they’re good.
- Pocky!
- More 1″ buttons to add to my huge collection.
- Sesshoumaru x Rin (cute) Doujin.
- 4 Posters. Ranma/Inuyasha/Bleach/L.
- Art prints! By people on DA! Avatar mainly. Two bookmarks as well.
I haven’t calculated the total for all this yet, but I can tell you that it would be many times more expensive getting it somewhere else. Especially the manga. They charged either US cover price or lower for all of these. There were only two or three doujinshi stands/tables and only one had HPDM material on Friday. It sold out after that! I was unhappy about that… Oh well - there’s still eBay.
Food?
… came at weird intervals. On Friday night I ate subway for dinner at 23:30. :\ On Saturday evening my sister and her friends (who I was staying in a room with) plus two adults and I went to Tucker’s Marketplace. It’s a Canadian-style buffet with more dessert than non. I guess I was trying to make up for lack of eat-age during the day since I ate so much I nearly exploded. Sister + friends felt similar. Today for lunch I had subway again then drove back to Waterloo. That was definitely a plus - only being an hour away.
In conclusion it was awesome and I discovered many things that I didn’t know existed at this con before. I only ever thought it was dealer’s room + cosplay. There was always something to do in both of the sponsoring hotels and the TCC. I’m definitely going back next year with a costume!
