Anime Banzai '10

It's about time I finally write about Anime Banzai. We went on Saturday, October 9th instead of doing the whole weekend. Things that we wanted to do were on that day and money-wise it was the better choice. The day before was a long one. I had to make sure that I finished my cosplay as well as temporary dye my hair. (Gma can tell you all how crazy that was.) Encase you all didn't know: I was Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII, Tay was Batgirl, Danny was a Venetian Plague Doctor, and Nett wore her Steampunk gear (as seen in this post).

Learning from last year, we all decided to get there as soon as we could. Last year I missed the deadline for the Cosplay Sign-ups because the registration took so long. We got there early and found out that the sign-up times were a little later than I though they were. (Whoops.) We ended up wandering around a bit and waiting for the Dealer's Room/Artist Alley to open. We had planned on going to a panel so that Tay could make some kitty ears but we missed that barely.

Upon first getting there, we immediately noticed that the cosplays this year were more thought out. You could definitely see the effort in construction and overall appearance. I even noticed a few Vincent Valentines walking around; we ended up getting to know one of them. Walking around the Artist Alley I met up with a friend from college when I was in Idaho. She was selling some of her drawings there. (Here's her deviantART.) It was super fun to talk to her again.

We finally ate up all the time leading up to the Cosplay sign-ups got our butts in the room. Small room + lots of people + me in pleather = REALLY hot. We were able to get Tay into the Children's Expo and me into the Beginner's Class. After that we decided it was lunch time and got some Crown Burger. Holy crap. People really need to learn not to stare. That's the one thing about living here is that if you look different you get stared at. The same thing happened walking around a K-Mart because we needed some things.

We still had a couple hours until Tay and I needed to show up for the Cosplay Contest. Danny stayed behind at the convention (originally to get tickets to the show but he missed out on that) and the rest of us went to Gma and Gpa's to rest. I'm glad that we did. Laying down helped my chest feel a lot better after being bound for a few hours.

We headed back around 4:30 because they wanted us to check-in for the contest. Waiting in that line also meant me being really hot but they had water there for us so it was better. 6:00 slowly came and Tay ended up being the first to go on the stage. Only she and a little boy were the only children. You should have seen her on stage. She had stage fright at the beginning and slowly warmed up. After the kids went up then they went up again to win their 'prize.' Finally after the kids they had the rest of us go. Eventually it was my turn and as the stage was getting closer and closer I had some butterflies. When I got on the stage though I did the best I could. I walked on the stage holding my cape, dramatically flinging it to my side. Then I did my signature pose, turned around, and exited the other side of the stage. We only had 45 sec. and I didn't want to overdo it on accident.

Afterwards we waited, and waited, and waited. The show ended on time but the judging took about an hour or so. They deliberated so much for the Categories (like Beginner's, Intermediate, Master, Best in Show, Best Group) that the Judges forgot to do their picks right there. They said that they would announce them in the closing ceremonies and if you weren't able to make it then they would e-mail you. About a week ago I got an e-mail saying that I was one of the Judge's Picks! They want to give me my prize but I haven't heard back since the initial e-mail. I'll tell you all when I get my prize what it is and such.

We had a really good time this year. The Davis Conference Center was so much nicer than the hotel the year before. I think we all agree that we want to go again next year. And what's more awesome? The theme's Steampunk. Heck yes.