Something New

I am a big believer that people should try new things, shake things up, explore the world around them.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to do just that, and it was something I never thought I would ever do.  I spent the day at Ohayocon, the Anime convention in Columbus.

My friend Lora is a comic book author.  She writes and illustrates the Dreamer (a link to her web comic is on this site) a story about a normal teenage girl who wakes up in the American Revolution every time she falls asleep.

I love her comic and was so excited when she invited me to help her at her booth at Ohayocon.  Well excited and terrified all at once.

On Friday night, Lora called to confirm all the details of time and place for the following day.  Her husband, who had spent a few hours at the convention that night, yelled into the phone "You're not ready!"

He was right. No one can be prepared for their first Anime Convention.  Here are some pictures of the experience.

This is a view from Artist Alley (where Lora's booth was) down to where the exhibitor's were.  Now multiply this by a hundred, imagine yourself in the midst of costumed people carrying swords and gun replicas and you can almost understand what it was like.

More people wore costumes than didn't.  The halls of the convention center were packed with costumed people taking pictures of the best costumes or favorite characters.  The food court, oh the food court.  I wish I had taken my camera down there.  It was filled wall-to-wall with characters (and a few cheerleaders whose thoughts of "OMG, where am I?" were easily heard over the ruckus) waiting in line for pizza and Chinese food.  A few held wooden axes that were taller than they were.

Here are the costumes that made me jump out of my seat and sometimes yell (well, not so much yell as calmly ask) if I could take their picture.

This kid made the armor for his costume with real metal.

The wings of this dragon costume collapsed when he needed to walk through the crowd.

Lora explained to me that this is one of the more popular trends right now in anime.  It's called Steampunk and it was my favorite.  Goggles with a top hat and gears as accessories, what could be more fashion forward than that?

Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder were by far the cutest thing I saw and they played their parts perfectly.

Here's Lora at her booth surrounded by her awesome comics!  I got some magnets and I can't wait to put them on my fridge.

Here's us with our best "anime pose" at the end of the night.  By the end of the day I was exhausted, but exhilarated, and I hope she'll invite me next year. I think I'll start working on my Steampunk costume ASAP!