After several stressful hardships I DID single-handedly make it to Anime North this year (If I can survive a weekend solo in Toronto, I can survive almost anywhere right?) The weather was hot, the cosplay was phenomenal and the crow was fun! Also my AirB&B hosts were secret nerds and marveled in my different cosplays everyday - their dog Oliver was cute too! I was very excited to see some recurring friends & cosplayers from previous years along with finally meeting some friends & cosplayers that I had been following and befriending on social media also!
Friday was a mix of last minute cosplay fixing, UBER rides turn to train rides, an exhaustion nap and finally making it for the Evening opening of Anime North.
#KingstonStorm from
PROheros came with me to start off the weekend. I did not know Toronto would LOVE her soooo much!? I was greatly surprised - people love the 90's white version of her suit as opposed to others apparently. I also was able to attend some panels, workshops and browse some of the Merchandise and Artist galleries.
Out of all three of the cosplays (4 costumes in total) I brought with me think #KingstonStorm was definitely 2nd in the Fan Favourites and she will definitely come back for 2019.
Saturday was a double feature cosplay wise; after sleeping in because of my Friday journey I started the day as a member the Inflatable Dinosaur squad! There were around 7 of us in total throughout the entire day (that I saw) and it was a blast! Although the heat was not kind and I had to stop every 40min and rest for half an hour I did manage to entertain everyone until around 3pm in the afternoon.
It was alot of fun scaring people, eating people, posing for photos and shaking my tail for videos. Some people take cosplay and conventions so seriously that I was glad I could bring so many smiles and so much laughter for a day.
Once the dinosaur had to retire for the evening - and I think I lost 50lbs in pure sweat and willpower alone #KingstonSpiderwoman attended the rest of night with me. It was nice to see some of my other fellow Spideys from the universe along with other Deadpool's and superheroes/comic book characters.
#KingstonSpiderwoman from PROheros was also able to attend some panels & workshops with me along with some great performances by
Nagata Shachu - the most amazing Japanese taiko drumming and music group ever!
The Inflatable Dinosaur was for sure 1st in the Fan Favourites this year! The best purchase ever from my beloved workplace Spirit Halloween Kingston!
On Sunday I got to partner with my coworker Sarah as Japanese City mascots. I was Shinjokun and Sarah was Funassyi. I think we made a great pair and our costumers were pretty darn cute! I was most excited for this cosplay the entire weekend - I even made 2 new friends with some Japanese cosplayers who LOVED who we were! Those girls were great!
While I attended some other demonstrations while shopping for cosplay supplies I was even applauded by the fact I proudly had a bowl of ramen with fried egg included, as a hat on my head.
This lead to an amusing explanation and some advice and tips from one of the masters at the
Arda Wigs booth! They had sponsored to sell & demonstrate some of
Lumin's Workshop Foam Clay! It was alot of fun and I got to play with samples! This stuff has a clay-putty like consistency and dries cured to a foam lightness and flexibility!?
Overall I'm proud of myself for surviving the weekend, had a great time, and cannot wait to start planning already for next year! Some of the more notable panels I attended, I will be later blogging about here:
- Convention Survival: Solo Weekends
- POC: People of Colour in Cosplay
