Cosplay Everyday!: AnimeNext 2013: The Third & Final Day

THE CONCLUSION

Ah, we come to the end of another con...

I was the first one up Sunday because I did not feel well for reasons you can assume from the night before. And lets be honest: who does feel 100% at the end of a con? It's like you are on high the whole weekend and all the preparation leading up to it and then it's over.

I began gathering my things while I waited for Lauren and Kareshi to awake. I swear, those two can SLEEP. I envy them. When they woke up, we all finished packing and loaded up the car. I was kinda nagging at them to come on, let's do this because I kinda freak out when its time to check out. I mean, we bring so much stuff to cons!!! The costumes, wigs, shoes, make up, props, accessories, our regular clothes, ETC. It's banana rama ding dong checking out too. It's like the mass exodus of otaku at the check out line. And also, making sure everything is perfect in the hotel room...don't make a bad name for otaku and trash your con hotel room. Really, it's not cool. We will talk about that in another post.

I checked out and we sat down for our last breakfast together. It was also Lauren's b-day and it was a gloriously beautiful day. It was perfect cosplay weather too. Bright and sunny and a little warm, but not OMG I'm gonna pass out in my cosplay warm. It was a shame it was the last day and it was this lovely out.

I was dressed as Ururu from Bleach and Kareshi was Urahara again so we could pair up. Lauren decided to go in regular clothes. We walked over to the Garden State Exhibit Center and began to head to the dealer's room. The Kareshi realizes he doesn't know where his camera is. I literally thought: "are you kidding me now? This weekend is psychotic. First, the chinchilla problems, the monsoon, Lauren losing [she found it, yay] her badge, and now this?" We went to lost and found and another kind otaku had turned in his camera. Thank goodness. I swear I thought I was gonna have a nervous breakdown after all of this!

After the quickly solved camera drama, we continued onto the dealer's room. Of course, being the last day, it was packed. However, I prefer to go to the dealer's room and artist's alley on Sunday because sometimes you can get good deals ;) I bought a Dr. Who poster for my brother in the dealer's room and that was it from there. I got a cute Hello Kitty head wrap from artist's alley and a little poster of a cupcake screaming "I AM THE DELICIOUS!" And that was it. I know, God it is so disappointing I did not buy more things. Don't worry though, Lauren and Kareshi bought tons of stuff. Lotsa posters and geek swag (the pins lolz) to go around!

We decided to leave the con at 2pm after Kareshi fell asleep in a chair while Lauren and I were playing Find Mii on our 3DSes. Also, Lauren had a bus to catch back home at 5:30pm. We took one last long look at the Garden State Exhibit Center and bid it farewell til next year's AnimeNext. We piled into the Chinchilla and drove back to Philly listening to Billy Mays commercials and Epic Rap on YouTube. We were laughing so hard we were crying. Our little con trio listened to Jack Nicholson prank phone calls when we drove from DC to Katsucon 2013. So I guess we have a tradition of listening to hilarious YouTube videos on the way to cons. Ha to the ha ha. Lauren wanted to go back to Wong Wong...best Peking Duck in Philadelphia, I tell you...and she was the birthday girl so we went! It was delicious as it was on Thursday. NOM! So good! Then it was time to say good-bye to Lauren. It breaks my heart when she leaves...she is truly one of my closest and oldest (I've known her since freshmen year of HS) friends. She got home safely as did the Kareshi and I.

So, what did I think of AnimeNext 2013? Well, apart from the Chinchilla issues, badge being lost and then found along with a camera, and the monsoon from hell, it was a good time! First off, the weather cannot be helped. It was unfortunate that it was not just a regular storm but a storm of epic proportions that soaked everything and everyone in its wake. But, it kinda made it memorable. The AnimeNext 2013 Monsoon will go down in history as ruining cosplays everywhere. OK, luckily ours weren't ruined. We were just soaked. I feel just awful for any otaku whose cosplay did get messed up. Or their regular clothes. Or both. Moving on...

The lost and found at AnimeNext was great as was the staff. I cannot express what a great job they did. Everyone and everything was kept in line and organized. Badges were checked as well as IDs and all went smoothly. HUGE thanks to the staffers!

The dealer's room was quite large and had everything from colored contacts to props to posters to manga and everything in between. It was not as big as Otakon's dealer's room, which I find to be overwhelming (who doesn't from it's awesomeness?!?), but it was damn bigger than I expected. Artist's alley (support the artists!) could have been a little bigger and spread out. I found it to be very cramped. Other than that, they had great artist's that were very talented and friendly!

The rave was excellent. The best I've been to so far. The DJs played not only anime and game music but also mixed in current pop music which was fun. I do not really like just the pulsating music, so this was a cool and different rave! I mean, they DID have rave music, but whatever it was they were spinning, I was dancing and loving it with my trio!

I did not go to any panels. Shame on me. I did go to two video showings...18+ ahem...and the Saturday night hentai chosen was hilarious compared to the yaoi that was chosen for Friday night.

The cosplays I came upon were excellent as you could tell from my pictures. Otaku did a great job really putting everything together down to the tiniest detail. One thing I liked was that some cosplayers even went as far as to be in character! I love to see that and like to do that sometimes, perhaps it is because I am in theatre....but it is fun nonetheless! We had some funny run ins with cosplayers who were depicting their characters so well.

Let's see...was there any con drama...nope. Not from what I saw. I didn't see anyone having words with each other or a fight. Maybe there was drama, but my trio didn't see it. The staff should be thanked again for that.

The food at the con was plentiful and readily available. There was a mini cafeteria in the Garden State Exhibit Center as well as a two restaurants (one a pub) in my hotel, and in the hotel connected to the con, there was a pub, a regular restaurant, and a small convenience store. The hotel convenience stores (I forgot to mention there was one in my hotel as well) were ridiculously over priced, but that is to be expected from hotel stores. I noticed a lot of people were gathering in the main hotel lobby and ordering pizza and Chinese food. We considered doing that but decided against it. How the heck will you find them? It would be too chaotic. There were no restaurants that were really in walking distance as this convention center was little off the beaten road.

OH, how could I forget. In my hotel, people were getting rowdy and damn loud in the hotel hallways after hours. It was so bad Friday night ahem morning around 3am that we called downstairs to get these people to shut uppppp! It was unbelievable! Seriously, I am all for having fun at cons, but go in your room. Do not linger in the hallways. Us otaku need sleep for cons! And please keep in mind that there are muggles in the hotel! Not everyone is there for the con...be considerate and I repeat, do not give the otaku a bad name. People will dread us coming to their hotels and worst case scenario would be the convention center turning a beloved con away because of people's out of control behavior. Ahem, anyways...

All in all, AnimeNext 2013 was a blast and a great way to celebrate Lauren's b-day! I am definitely going back next year and can't wait to see what is in store for the next one ^_^ My next con is Otakon and and you can count on me that I will definitely be reviewing that convention as well!

Here are a few piccies from Sunday: