Anime Midwest 2013

Fair warning: this is a long post.

A lot of my friends are of the anime-watching, Japanese-pop-loving, cosplaying variety. 

I am not.

So one might wonder why someone like myself would venture into an Anime Convention.

I will confess that I went to Anime Midwest because my friends were begging me to join them.  I figured there would be no harm, and I ended up having a lot more fun in the long run.

First off, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare hotel.  I've never been in an airport hotel before, nor nothing quite as fancy.  The place was . . . huge, to put it simply.

 

 ^The bed I slept in.  It was very fluffy.  The art on the wall was different than your usual stereotypical hotel wall art (sailboats, anyone?) 

There was also a very curious sign in the room:

 

The rest of the hotel gave a spaceship vibe.  The stark concrete walls contrasted with the real plants that bordered the walls.  The carpet reminded me of "The Shining."  But that's just me and my mind . . .

Our room had a window that gave a dreamy view of trees as well as the skyline of Chicago (very hard to tell from this picture).  We were technically in Rosemont, not Chicago, so at night you could see the city of Chicago light up.  We had the misfortune of having a room on the 10th floor (tippy-top), but this gave us the advantage of seeing this view.

Now, I kind of regret not taking as many pictures.  I won't post all the pictures I did take, because a lot of them were blurry and low-quality.  But I will share some of the adventures I had, and supplement with pictures when I can ;-)

First off, I was mildly curious to see if anyone would cosplay as a character that I knew.  I don't read manga or watch anime, so I was clueless about 90% of the time.  However, right before we even went to our room, I found Eric Draven!

Ignore my derpy face, this was right before we went to our room, so I'm not wearing any makeup.  It was kind of funny to run right into my favorite vigilante, though!

When we were waiting to get our badges, we saw a lot of interesting characters in the long line.  I was able to capture this moment of a friend placing his laptop on their head, so that way the other friend could do some gaming.  (At least, that's how I interpret this.  LOL!)

Once we got back to our hotel room, I did my makeup and took some shameless selfies.  The hotel lighting is horrendous and makes me look old, but here we go:

 After attending some panels and the Fantasy Ball (which I don't have any pictures of, sadly), my friends and I went to the Main Events Room to watch Steam Powered Giraffe live . . . my first "steampunk" concert!

Later than night, my friends and I went to see Steam Powered Giraffe live.  I knew they'd be preforming live at the con, so I looked up a couple of their videos on Youtube so I could anticipate the concert.  Their performance was mind-blowing!  I'm not usually into the type of music that they preform, but the theatrics were stunning.  You could only imagine how much these guys practice.

Thus concludes Friday . . .

I should mention that one of the reasons why my friends wanted me to join them at Anime Midwest was that there was a Jesus cosplay last year.  My friends weren't sure if Jesus was going to be there this year, but it would be fun to try and hunt him down.  We aren't religious but the idea of a Jesus cosplay amused us.  My friends never found him, however . . . not only did I find him . . . I got my picture with him!

I understand that my eyes are closed, I must have been really blissed-out by the fact that I found Jesus.  *chuckle*

I don't really have any other "share-worthy" pictures from Saturday, so to wrap things up, here are the few pictures I took on Sunday:

Yes, I did bring along my plush bat Gloom.  This is him saying goodbye to the Anime Midwest convention!

Other things that happened that I don't have pictures of/have poor-quality pictures of:

• I met a Ghostbuster cosplay
• I danced with some cute steampunk boys at the Fantasy Ball
• I met a lot of Castiel cosplayers (which is funny, because I was thinking about going as Castiel)
• One of my friends and I met an 11th Doctor cosplayer that looked more like PeeWee Herman than Matt Smith
• The steampunk and Samurai panels were cool
• I got several free hugs from the people wandering around with "Free Hugs" taped to their shirts.
• So. Many. Homestuck. Trolls.
• Because of attending the "Traditional Japanese board games" panel, I downloaded a "Go Board" app on my phone.  Read about the game here.
• I had people take pictures of me even though I wasn't cosplaying, because I apparently look interesting.  One lady in particular wanted my picture because she claimed I looked "just like her sister-in-law."  So, apparently I have a doppelgänger.

I know I'm leaving out a ton more, but here you go!  While I was gone, I got a package in the mail, plus I bought some things at the Dealer's Room, so I think my next post will revolve around my new goodies.   If you guys have any questions about this con, you have leave a comment.  There were some bad parts, of course, but overall I loved the experience, and would try it again.