Sadaharu is too cute for you not to read this.

I had the pleasure of getting to go to my first ever anime convention today; a 35 dollar pleasure. The annual Dallas A-Kon event took place May 30th (yesterday) and May 31th (today) and will end end June 1st (tomorrow). I won’t deny that people from all over the country probably came to this thing since it’s popularity was high enough to have people from different conventions in other places handing out fliers for events that would start next year.

I must admit that this event was nothing more than a glorified anime market. This may sound like a bad thing, but it totally isn’t. When I was in Ireland I was overjoyed to find an anime stand hidden in a back street market in Dublin, but this was like that stand X1000. I near crapped myself! The event snuck up on me because, on a whim, I checked the A-Kon Website last night (er, this morning at 1) and saw that it was starting at 8 am. So I suppressed my excitement and willed myself to sleep. At 9:30 am, I woke up and realized that I didn’t have anybody to go with, so I called up berkles and had him meet me there. I knew that it was too late to get an outfit. I could have sworn that the A-Kon was the following weekend, but since I was was wrong I knew I wouldn’t get to go as Luffy. So, fortunately enough, ya’ll won’t get to see me in cosplay.

I arrived ahead of him, waited in line for the longest time, and purchased both our tickets so I didn’t have to wait on him waiting in line (he paid me back of course). During this time in line and separate from anyone that I knew, I saw many cosplayers and rubbed shoulders with strangers in Bleach shinigami outfits. I must say that I hate being close to strangers, I don’t deal well with them, but when a tall black mad clad in Ichigo Bankai is standing behind you with a released Zanpakuto you just can’t help but feel at home. I got through the long line and was surprised to catch a glimpse of Death the Kid, a moderately attractive Yoko, and the most beatiful Eureka I have ever seen. If I could have claimed anyone as a soul mate it would have been this Coralian cutey. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of these three and some others because I was either in line, the costume wasn’t good enough, I didn’t like the show, or I was too nervous to approach them.

Elizabeth from Gintama

Probably one of the most shocking cosplays that I saw was this Elizabeth. I was confused as to how the person made this costume but more so impressed that somebody other than me is awesome enough to watch Gintama. Berkles turned to me later and agreed that the Elizabeth cosplay was the coolest thing by far. (That was before he found a model kit of Aznable Char’s “Red Comet” Zaku.) He did point out that he was pretty sure that there was a Katsura with the Elizabeth, but since I didn’t notice I can only assume that the costume sucked. The entire time I was staring at her, I wondered whether the cosplayer had hairy legs. (lol, Elizabeth joke!)

Mitsukuni Haninozuka from Ouran High School Host Club

Yes, I’m aware that this is a girl, but this was the only Host Club member I saw. I recognized the jacket and almost had to pinch myself and ask ‘Is that Ouran High School Host Club?” At first I thought that this was Suou, but when she handed her handful of purchases to her friend so that she could take the picture, she held on to the bunny. I immediately was so excited that I had grabbed a Honey-sempai out of the gaggle of people. I could care less that this is a girl. Ouran High School Host Club was awesome and Honey was my favorite of all time. I just had to get a picture of Honey because I knew blizzy would be overjoyed. I sure hope she is. This cosplayer is adorable!

Maka from Soul Eater

Yes, It’s Maka. I mentioned that I saw Death the Kid (he was like 10 years old). I let Kid slip away so I was not going to let Maka get through my fingers. I wasn’t a big fan of the wig, but the scythe sure made up for it. That is a pretty accurate lookin’ Soul in scythe form if you ask me. I should have asked questions of these people like “Omfg! Did did you make that scythe?” or “You wanna Resonate with me?” I’m a fool for having let these opportunities pass.

All in all, that Soul Eater is a great anime; therefore, great cosplay! Since I am co-blogging the anime with blissmo I felt obligated to take a picture of her for you all. I kind of place ownership over her.

San from Princess Mononoke

This picture was a must. A classic Miyazaki film, my favorite anime movie of all times, and one of the first animes that got me interested. I first saw this movie in theaters with my dad and brother actually. They aren’t really into anime as much as they used to, but when I showed my dad the shot he recognized it and said “Mononoke!”

That wolf with her had a guy in it. I could tell he was getting hot, but anytime a person with camera in hand came up to the two of them, she’d slam his wolf head down over his human face and get into a Mononoke pose. She was very into her character down to the eyes.

These are just the people that I took pictures of. Sorry that I didn’t get one of C.C. or Zero, but they both had an entourage. All the Lights and L’s traveled in groups most of the time too, so I was not about to challenge a chocolate eating super detective or a mass murdering Death Note user with my puny camera.

Of course, I didn’t go home empty handed. I bought the Sadaharu plushy (Gintama) that you see in the post header, an Ayanami Rei nurse figure (Neon Genesis Evangelion), a Konata chibi (Lucky ☆ Star), and a Euphemia / Zero / Kaguya doujin (Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch). I was pretty please in the end, except the guy at the doujin stand cheated me out. He acted like he was an expert on hentai and such, commenting on how certain models were superior to others due to perfected shape of boobs, but when it came down to it he sells me an untranslated and censored doujin. He lied to be about being a Britanian fan. I got my ID out and suffered public embarrassment around weeaboos only to get cheated out of my money. Oh well, I’m still slightly proud of my very first doujin.

So, a great experience and 107 dollars later, here I am writing up what I can only say was a great day for an anime geek. I wanted to tell you all about my fun time and hopefully ya’ll can tell me about a convention you might have gone too.