AKon 25 – 2014

AKon celebrated it’s 25th anniversary this year at the Hilton Anatole Hotel. It’s one of the longest running anime conventions in the US. I have been 3 years in a row now, and this year I arrived extra early to pick up my badge on Thursday.

The calm before the storm! The hotel is beautiful so it was nice seeing it before it was swarmed with cosplayers. There are some amazing pieces of art throughout the building including a piece of the Berlin Wall.

This was about 9:30 am on Thursday and the registration room was already PACKED with people waiting to pick up their badges. It took me nearly 3 hours to get through the line. Next year I am going to pay extra to just buy my badge on site because that line was nearly empty.

Photo by The Geeky Seamstress (Ms Marvel)

After I got my badge that morning I went home to prepare for the masquerade ball that evening. I figured why not check it out since it was included in the badge price. It was fun dressing up in something more original rather than a cosplay. I wore a black skirt with a lace shirt and my black corset. I got my mask at the mall and felt very Victorian!

The next morning I put on my Princess Celestia cosplay and headed back to the hotel. My dad drove me and my mom since the parking was so expensive. We got there pretty early so my mom took a few photos of me in the courtyard.

Once the dealer’s room opened we made our way up and down the aisles. Anime conventions have some amazing merchandise. I prefer them over comic conventions personally. There’s just more of a variety of trinkets and treasures. Like this booth in the photo!

Last AKon I met Yaya Han for the first time. She even complimented my Fiona from Shrek cosplay. Her line was super long this year so I didn’t get to talk to her, but my mom got this good photo at her booth.

While walking through the dealers room I met this wonderful Princess Anna cosplayer! She looked just like her!

I also spotted Ejen from Cosplay in America. His next book will be coming out soon, and I can’t wait to see his hard work published!

The next day I wore my Sailor Ariel cosplay and met up with the other Disney Sailor Scouts. We had been planning this since February so it was awesome seeing it finally come together.

I’ve admired photographer Aperture Ashley and was so excited to have a shoot scheduled with her. She took this great picture of my Sailor Ariel!

Some of the loot I came home with from AKon was a Korilakkuma Kigurumi, Sailor Moon Moonstick, and a Sylveon postcard by one of my favorite artists – Octopie.

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I normally upload all my photos to Facebook, but since a whole days worth didn’t transfer to my new computer I won’t be able to make an album. If I figure out how to retrieve them I will update this post! 🙂

My next convention will be Anime Fest which is just a smaller version of AKon. It’s grown a lot over the years, though, so I expect it won’t be much smaller for long!

You can read last year’s AKon post here!