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Every year when Anime Expo comes around, I know it’s anniversary time. Yep, my anniversary falls on the weekend of anime expo!
Five years ago Alcuin and I met, and then the next day I ditched him for Anime Expo, so this year Alcuin and I decided to actually celebrate by going to Anime Expo together.

Since my hair was still freshly pastel from IMATS, I decided to just give it a curl and go simple in black and white.

After years (okay maybe a decade!) of attending AX, you know what my favourite thing to do is?

COSPLAY WATCH.

‘cosplay’ has really grown and evolved over the years. Though I’m always a fan of the big, detailed, and extremely accurate costumes; I also love the more fashion friendly and “inspired” versions too.

Ari for example, came as a very cool Harley. I assume she’s wearing the infamous limited edition Black Milk Harley leggings. I do love that she integrated the entire red and black scheme into her hair and makeup too.

Cute little Julie Doll came as a goth Sailor Moon! I love the wig.

Julie and Ari were also models in the Galaxxxy fashion show on Sunday, however I didn’t get to see the show. I only went to AX on Saturday. I heard it was brilliant!

Sandy was looking lovely in her classic black and white lolita outfit. I absolutely love that the lolita community is moving back towards this color scheme.

After catching up with them, I decided to check out the exhibit hall.

AX is a lot bigger than I remember. We sort of just jumped in without a plan.

The first item that caught our eye was this booth. They were demo-ing the new Miyazaki video game ‘Ni no kuni’. The line to play it was hideous so we just carried on.

Alcuin and I also checked out a lot of the vendors at AX. Most of them had the usual goods of manga, collectibles, posters, nic-nacs…

This shirt however gave us a good laugh.

I really wish I had purchased this shirt! It’s one of the more witty Street Fighter shirts I’ve seen.

Seeing as the 25th Anniversary Street Fighter show “Combo Attack” is opening at Iam8bit this Friday, it would have been perfect.

There were a lot of funny patches as well. I’ll admit I really wanted the Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek patches.

Then we made our way over to artist alley in search of Zambicandy.

Gaze upon this glory:

Bishounen Loki!

How I wish I could have justified this for a purchase. I, like so many out there, am overly-obsessed with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.

Artist alley has definitely come up in the past years. There is more that just gorgeous (exceptionally gorgeous fan art these days. There is also a lot of amazing hand-made crafts.

Above all though, I love the absolute wit:

SLAP SLAP SLAP!

Whenever I see something Game of Thrones related, I am reminded of how far away 2013 is.

After Artist’s Alley we headed back to the chaos. We happened upon this amazing amazing Portal gun!!!
Okay, I’ve never even played portal because I really suck at ‘first person’ games. I do however love the fan culture behind it.

Gundam Unicorn!

I never cease to be amazed at epic and well-lit Gundams in cases.

I remember seeing this figure in Japan a few years ago too. I think I’m mostly attracted to it because it’s gold.

As we were turning a corner, I saw this machine! You know I had to take a picture of it.

Booth babes/dudes! I love’d their costumes. I wish I could have taken a standing shot. I do appreciate video game cosplay.

Queen’s Blade!
I love that there was nothing in this booth except these cut outs from Queen’s Blade.

You think these are risque, you should see the REST of the characters.

 

Alcuin and I pretty much failed at finding anybody at the con. It’s the golden rule of conventions, you either see the same people 20 times or you spend an entire day never finding someone.

We got pretty hungry and tire so we decided to cosplayer watch in the lobby before going out to the food truck lot for some eats.

Lookie here! It’s Jenny, Vani, Manzi, and Chloe!
Aren’t my friends awesome?
I aspire to be as good of a cosplayer as they are one day. In fact, next year, I am hoping to  cosplay more!

After eating Alcuin and I decided to head home.

That’s how you celebrate 5 years