Banzaicon 2012

Another Saturday has come and gone and I have come back from another anime convention. Banzaicon was a small first year con that happened in Columbia, SC. I managed to snag the day off and made my way up for 1 day of the convention.







Originally I had no plans to make it to this con. It was a small, first year con and I knew I had to work that weekend. In addition, I had just gone to AWA. But AWA's less-than-stellar experience left me needing another convention. So I put in to have off for that Saturday. And almost unbelievably got the day off. I was then able to set up being in a hotel with a friend. Once work ended that Friday, I made my way up to Columbia and spent the night there.

Saturday came and I arrived the con rather early, around 9. I had plans to do two outfits but due to the distance of the hotel, I was gonna have to do a mid-day change at the con. Where, I did not know that yet since I knew of no one who had a room at the con hotel. My first outfit was my beloved Aqua Princess. Having debuted it AWA and getting positive responses to it, I figured I would wear it again.

Photo taken by: Bahumat Gundam Photography

Essentially the same as my AWA outfit, except that I changed out the tiara.

As a first year con, I was not expecting much from the Dealer's room. And honestly, it was essentially what I expected. 5-6 dealers selling the usual jazz THOUGH there was a vendor selling some H. Naoto stuff. Rather unexpected at a con this small. Still I did not purchase anything. Artist Alley was slightly interesting. I had a friend who was part of Artist Alley so I spent good chunks of my day there. And I did finally get to meet a lolita who I had only known via FB.

Hard at work setting up her table :3

Meeting Tora-Tora for the first time in person

The panels I went to were, for the most part, ok. 2 of them were amazing and you will see why soon enough. The first panel I went to was a lolita panel but it was not the usual budget or 101 panel you see at most cons. It was more of a.... "here's what is wrong with lolita people"... type of panel. I did not really pay much attention and like MOST lolita panels I have ever been to, I left. Went to a few more panels, like cosplay 101 and whose line is it anime and improv bootcamp. All weren't really that exciting. The 2 panels I had been waiting for though were the improv panels with Laugh Out Loud, a group that I was seeing for the third time. Absolutely hilarious. I cannot tell you how much I love these guys.

Just one of the many skits that they did during their panels

O I have not forgotten to post my 2nd outfit. Just got a bit sidetracked. So. If you read my AWA report, you probably can guess my 2nd outfit. If you said female Ciel, you are right. The midday change was interesting, using a bathroom to get the dress on then walking across Artist Alley to finish putting everything else on. That was a fun experience. But it was so worth it. I was the only female Ciel at the con and I probably had more pictures taken of me in that first hour than Otakon, D*con, and AWA combined.

Ok, so maybe I'm lying about the D*con part. Walking in the parade gets your picture taken thousands of times XD

Anywho, here it is:

Unlike AWA, I actually wore a bra to try and keep this dress up w/o having to use the straps as shoulder straps. It worked... for awhile. Eventually my lack of boobs, and weight of the dress, forced me to use the straps as shoulder straps.

Aside from Laugh Out Loud, I met quite a few new people at this con. Here are some of them and their awesome cosplays:

Arieana in her beautiful Elven cosplay

I found an Alois

An Alice group! Pretty sure the girl on the right was not in the mood to talk to me or take a pic.

Ouran High School Host Club :D

Just an amazing Sherlock. And her badge said "Stay calm and blame Anderson"

Ah so rather uniquely amusing story that took place this weekend. I had been walking around the con as Aqua Princess. And several times I passed this Alice looking character. I thought, "she has a cute cosplay". Well after my 3rd or so pass, she caught up to me and wo and behold, it was actually a crossplayer. She told me that I had fooled her too and we took a pic together.

Crossplayers, doing it so well they fool each other

Here is where things get amusing. Midway through the day, I changed into female Ciel. What I did not know is that she had changed into her next cosplay, Sailor Cosmos. When we passed each other again, we ended up fooling each other again. In my case, I did not even recognize her the 2nd time until my friend in AA informed me it was a guy.

Just. Amazing!

So that was pretty much my Banzaicon in a nutshell. I went back to the hotel to rest saturday night and proceeded back home sunday morning. Overall, the con was fun. There was a good bit of downtime, which was to be expected from a first year con of this size. But I did meet an awesome new friend, Arieana, who I sung karoake with. And if you know me, I hardly sing karoake. And the various Black Butler characters whom I found and interacted with made for a rather fun experience.