MY ACG Mini-Con
After I finally found where I was supposed to be (which took quite a while, I felt like the real life Ryoga from Ranma 1/2) I was directed to the area where the mini con was to take place. I was impressed, the amount of cosplayers exceeded my expectations and the turnout I would say was pretty impressive. Not at all like a Convention, this had the setup of an Otaku super-party; contests, karaoke, video games, etc. It made me wish I had done three things, 1. cosplay (and I usually do) 2.learned some Japanese to be able to sing some of the songs and 3. Brought an extra TV and system, maybe some Soul Calibur or Street Fighter to go with the DDR, Ultimate Ninja and Smash Bros.

Originally I wish I had brought some friends, but it takes a lot of persuasion and either way I met plenty of new and old acquaintances/friends. I would also next time have arrived earlier to enjoy the event for longer. The Buffet people consistently brought in more food, which I thought was a nice touch, being hungry, myself, and if we were to party anyways, we would need the food. The space we had was great for the amount of people that arrived, if anything just perfect.

At the dealer's corner, there was a store from First Markham place, stocked with really cool figurines, and I got to talk to the guy who was helping out. Beside them, artists selling these stand-up anime/movie characters, done evenly on both sides. I really, really wanted the Neji, hopefully for FanExpo, both the artists' at the table were really nice too. Of course then there were artists selling key chains, stickers, and beside them really well done fan-art, including the racy-looking Neji. Needless to say, if I was more well-prepared I would have left with more than a Sake key chain, but I like it, so all is well.

I felt I took a lot of cosplayer pictures, but then it never feels like enough. T_T Personally I would think it would be great if there was an Mtg. Or UFS tournament (or Yugi-Oh), but of course that would depend on the amount of interested participants (and I would probably be running it myself).

The people I met and interacted with were really nice, and the amount of people present, although plenty wasn’t so much as to make it overwhelming, kind of like one really big Otaku house. The contests at the end were very interesting, fair, and I felt had pretty awesome prizes. I mean, who doesn’t have a cosplay waiting in their closet for the opportune moment to be used or reused? All in all it was a great time, I would like to thank everyone who made it so awesome, the dealers, the cosplayers, the organizers, and everyone there.

- Fernando Cruz

- Images by John Kim / Lu Lou