Anime Fest 2015 Aftermath

by Gaby

A Tina fan and I

Anime Fest this year was pretty good as usual.  It has actually become my favorite convention that I've attended so far, there is great organization by the staff and the panel variety is great with a huge array of voice over panels, artists panels, and a good amount of workshops.

On Day , 1 Friday Sept 4th, I arrived in the morning with a lot of energy, mostly there was a lot of cosplay viewing and taking pictures of people with their fresh cosplay ready for the con. I wore my Tina Belcher from Bob's Burger's outfit as you see in the previous blog post, I got some pretty good feedback on it actually. 
The first panels didn't begin until around 1pm so there was mostly cosplay and people watching.   In my opinion Friday and early Saturday would be the best times for taking pictures because people tend to wear their cosplays more on those days. Because they are excited to show them off and they are fresh off the press, not been stained or messed up or have fallen apart yet.

For Lunch a friend and I walked to a place called Tanoshii Ramen in Deep Ellum, only a 20 minute walk but it was way worth it!
Around 5:30  I went to the Ani-Idol auditions where I auditioned to sing. I was very nervous since last year I competed and placed Third in the traditional singing competition, this year I was told I had to compete in the Advanced competition.  So I sang "I Am" the 2nd opening of InuYasha.
The other panel I went to was a 'how to' panel put on my Vitamin H a pair of professional panelists showing people how to do a panel.  It was quite informative actually.
The Friday night dance was so, so, and I didn't stay for long.

Me as Bulma

On Day 2, Saturday Sept 5th.  Woke up to have breakfast at the Plaza of the Americas where I successfully managed to spill milk all over my MLP shirt, very sad times. Anyway on Saturday I decided to wear my DragonBall Bulma outfit because I had advanced to the second round of Ani-Idol and I wanted to use my cosplay as my visual prop to sing the song. "Romantic Ageru
Yo" the original ending to the DragonBall series.  I mostly hung out with friends until my performance at 3:30 of Ani-Idol.  There were some real good performers on stage, so good in fact that I did not make the cut for the 3rd round.

Saturday DJ

After Ani-Idol I helped demonstrate with the Eks-D ParaPara Workshop, where participants learned a couple of popular ParaPara dances.  The workshop ran a bit long but after I basically rushed to the Semi-Formal Ball.

Rilakkuma and I

The Ball was great! The music was actually pretty decent, and the atmosphere was lovely.  I actually ended dancing with some people trying to save a friend and just used the opportunity for networking.
After the Ball I went to the Healthy Otaku panel where they discussed ways to
stay healthy and in shape in order to feel great and look great in cosplay and all year round! I wanted to go to Hot Dad's of Anime but I was so hungry from running around that I had to take a dinner break. I went to the dance Saturday night as well but someone was flailing too much and I got smacked so I left before I got hit again.

Kristen McGuire and Morgan Berry

On Day 3, Sunday Sept 6th. I woke up late but managed to get down to Voice Over Idol where Grant George and Jessica Gee-George judged contestants on their ability to interpret scripts. It was very interesting actually. I was going to cosplay my Luffy/Bulma outfit but I had a wardrobe malfunction and decided to just re-do Tina Belcher.
What I noticed here is that on Friday, I had a load of people stop me to take a picture, and on Sunday..yeah not so much.  I think people where already tired of taking cosplay pictures by Sunday, and people are already starting to get worn out.
The Voice Actor Roulette was completely filled up so I did not manage to go to that panel, but I did make it to the Breaking Into Voice Acting panel with Kristen McGuire and Morgan Berry. They discussed their experiences about how they got into voice acting and gave people advice on how they could also get into the voice acting industry. It was very honest and they were great ladies to speak with.
After this myself and Jenny checked out the Panda Werk Dance Workshop, we saw some pretty intense Kpop dance moves.  They really should have made more room or had more room in the panel because it was very crowded.
My friends wanted to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show, so we had our own private viewing in our hotel room and that was pretty fun, I had actually never seen it so I enjoyed.
The dance on Sunday was probably the best one in my opinion, the music was recognizable and it wasn't overcrowded to where you were afraid to get smacked by someone.  We even got hit on, but of course I used it as a networking opportunity, hehehe.   Then Jenny and I went to the arcade and hung
out there until they closed. Managed to wow a couple of people with my mad Dance Dance Revolution skills.

Day 4, Monday Sept 7th.  Basically the cleanup day, bought anything that needed to be bought at the Dealers Room, did a final walk through, checked out of the hotel and then stopped at Daiso Japan on the way home.

Good Con was good.

I look forward to another great Anime Fest next year

Enjoy my gallery of pictures below.