my 1st anime convention! AM2. v(^_^)v lotsss of pics! xD

[tomas_room2]

(nice shot of the artist alley side)


(1 of the winning entries for the AM2 t-shirt design contest)

i wasn't able to take many good pictures of cosplayers because i didn't feel comfortable going up to them to ask them if i could take a picture of them. xD i just took pics from a distance, so a lot came out blurry. the only real pic where the person knew i was taking their pic and posed for it was the black dog/bear person in the bottom of the 2nd group of pics. lol. that was as i was leaving, too. xD 

i think the best costumes are the ones with a really nice wig...like sometimes just having that really nice quality, pretty colored hair makes the whole costume look better! *__*

this is the official website of Am2, btw:

http://am2con.org/

i only am kind of interested in manga, so i went mainly to see cosplayers and cute japan stuff. xD it's my 1st time going to an anime convention and i know it's a small one and there wouldn't be much going on, but it was still quite disappointing. =/ well, it is a free convention and this is only it's second year after all, so i guess it was pretty good, considering the circumstances. we only had to pay for parking. 

i went last saturday evening and only stayed there for 2 hours, and there weren't a lot of people there. (from what other people said, i think it was most crowded on saturday, during the afternoon. wish i had gone earlier! >_<) of course i didn't cosplay xD, but i think about half of the people there were in costume or wearing something special at least, which was pretty cool! i spent most of my time taking pics of cosplayers or cute things or of the huge convention center itself. 

there really were not a lot of things to do, if you're not going to certain panels or movies or doing some kinda special activity that requires a "passport" that costs $25 for 1 day (the convention was 3 days long). but it seems like there were very few special events/activities/movies that people were excited about and a lot of people complained that it wasn't worth it to buy the passport this year.

i wandered around the "exhibit hall" and look at various manga/anime/cosplay goods, and then wandered around the artist alley to look at deviantart ppl's art. and i went to the 2nd floor and wandered around some more. you could watch some anime in one of the rooms. and there were other rooms like karaoke, maid cafe, game

tournaments, but i wasn't interested in those and they require passports. 

i know this is a small convention and they can't afford big guests or plan a lot of exciting activities/events, but i hate how they hyped things up and tried to mislead people at their website. T___T they promised certain things but in the end canceled them. they promised concerts, an arcade, purikura machines, etc., but in the end there were none. O__O seems like there are a lot of negative reviews for the convention this year, and i wonder if next year will be better or will it get worse?? >.< i don't think i'll be coming back next year. =/ i do hope that they read all the reviews and make changes to improve next year, though. it's rare to have a free anime convention, and i'd like to come back some time if they manage to make it a lot better than it was this year. 

but still, i'm glad i went. it was an interesting, fun experience to see so many cosplayers walking around!! ^_^ 

and it was also nice to see the artists drawing and sketching. i am pretty good at drawing and i used to draw a lot when i was in high school, but i somehow lost interest in it. i used to draw sailor moon or ranma 1/2 characters back then. xD

ok, so here are a bunch of pictures that i took!!!!! :D :D :D
i'll use several spoiler cuts so you don't have to load all the pics at once! xD

the way inside, lined with palm trees was very nice!! i was getting hyperrr!! xD



the convention room was huge, but AM2 stuff only filled up about half of the room...oh well, at least there are lots of cosplayers all around! ^o^ and a lot of cute (but kinda pricey) anime/japanese goods for sale...



 these lolita dresses are crazy expensive, but they look so pretty!! ~__~



a boat from the ONE PIECE manga. toma's favorite manga! hehe.


a lot of cosplay stuff on sale, like swords, wigs...




so i went to the 2nd floor....



and there weren't a lot of people around...the rooms were pretty empty too... =/ 
some people hanging around with friends and posing in their costumes...



this white-haired guy!! i kinda recognize the character and my brother said he's cosplaying a character from Naruto. it was the 1st really cool, authentic costume person that i saw!! ^__^

the maid cafe girls. hehe. 


right across from the maid cafe & a dark room with a DJ playing really super loud techno music was a bunch of business people in suits, waiting to go inside their room. xDDDD they couldn't be more out of place and they seemed annoyed. LOL! well, there were other things going on at the convention. there was a volleyball tournament too, i think. no wonder i saw some young guys in their team uniform walked by. 


that naruto guy again! xD 


this lady walked out of the karaoke room with her little boy. hehehe. nice to see family members cosplaying together! xD

the anaheim convention center is so huge!! we wandered around cuz there was nothing much to do.
if only they had nicer carpets, though. xD




last pic of him. i think he was leaving... so blurry. >.<


NYAN CAT was there!!!! hahahaha. xD



couldn't get a clear pic of this final fantasy guy, but at my tumblr, i reblogged a clear pic of him. ^_^
and there were a lot of maid girls and lolita girls there...lots of girls with bear backpacks, too! xD









1 of the artists wore a really nice black kimono! ~__~ 




the colorful pics on the right side...are game characters art from http://www.zeiva.net/. i bought a print here! ~__~


there was a lot of talented artists there, but i didn't like their drawings enough to buy... i felt sorry for them though, cuz seemed like most people were only browsing, not much people buying. and the stupid AM2 ppl had the little stage so close to the artist alley and it was a jrock band, luCiD, that was super loud. o_O


an artist inking his drawing....cool!







this was the super loud jrock band that was on stage. their music was just so loud and i don't know if it's good or not in jrock standards cuz i'm not into jrock, but it was just noisy to me. the guys looked pretty cool though. 







more artist alley pics.......



i wanted to buy some bookmarks but the artist already left. -__-

some cool cosplayers...from the back. xD 



these girls' schoolgirl uniforms looked so cool!! i couldn't get a good pic of them, though i tried so many times. lol.


i guess AM2 only rented half or 1/3 of the room...the rest of the space was empty... 



by the time we left it was around 7pm. the nice palm trees path out front was a really popular place with the cosplayers, to take pictures and hang out with their friends. 



things i bought:a print of a mysterious/ethereal girl & a cute miku hatsune pin! ~___~

_____________________ AND HERE'S SOME MORE AM2 COSPLAY STUFF + art-related/DEVIANART PEOPLE LINKS IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CGEhAOudYs&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-qv58rW0Ew&feature=related

cosplaying videos/slideshow from AM2!! ^_^ there were a lot of awesome costumes, actually!

________________

http://tomaroom.tumblr.com/tagged/AM2

i reblogged some pics of cosplayers/AM2 related pics from AM2 at my tumblr. ^^

_______________________

i went through most of the long list of artists that were at Artist Alley to find out who made the print i bought and found a lot of great deviantart people whose artwork is awesome! ~___~ you should check them out:

http://cartoongirl7.deviantart.com/gallery/

and some others...i'll just list their usernames: 

jamuko, kamuikaoru, kumagoropower (bought a miku pin from her! xD). 

------------

http://www.zeiva.net/base/shop/AB002_preview.jpg

finally found the drawing i bought, here!

turns out the girl in the print is 1 of the anime game characters. they are a small group of people that make anime games. ~__~

http://www.zeiva.net/

---------------

i wanted 2 buy some of these bookmarks, but the person selling them was gone by the time i was there. if anyone is interested, you can buy these bookmarks on her/his website, here:

http://zeldacw.com/aa/index.html

____________________________________________