Anime Weekend Atlanta 2015

Bit behind about publishing this post.... I got a little busy with work and setting up plans to attend Anime Matsuri 2016. On September 23-27, I attended Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) in Georgia. Its one of the top ten largest anime events in the United States. My mother and one of my best friends, Kayla, went with me. The layout of the event was very nice and there were plenty of areas for photos and finding a place to rest. Convent part was the food place in the convention center, which was a little over priced, but I did not feel like walking across the road to the mall for food especially since it was raining on and off all weekend (-_-); . Also we were not able to attend all of the event, just Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Since it was a last minute booking a hotel, we did not get one of the main hotel and had a lot of issues with taxi service which were very slow and took an hour to have one arrive. That was one of the negatives that I experienced from this trip, but easily fixed if you book a hotel early.

Thursday:
Kayla and I cosplayed together from Akatsuki no Yona (Yona of the Dawn). I made both cosplays and Kayla just look so cute as Yun! My Shin-ah grabbed a lot of attention again <3. We both ended up in two cosplay videos, which was a first for me, and had a dozen people ask for our photos!!!!

Photo by Anicon_pics (facebook)

Photo by Damian Daniel

Friday:
For Friday, I dressed as Undertake from Black Butler for the first half of the day and Ai Mikaze for the second half of the day. I was able to bring my Death Scythe to the event. First time testing the scythe at a convention!!!! I didn't knock anyone out with it!!!!! A lot of people stopped be for photos and a lot of fans loved the scythe.

Kayla and I attended the grand opening ceremony and got to see famous cosplayer Reika (you all should know she is my idol) come on stage dressed as Prince Soma from Black Butler!!!! I was excited and couldn't wait to go to her booth in the vendor hall to get a photo with her <3.

The vendor hall wasn't so big and very crowded. Hard to walk around without running into someone. It kind of reminded me of Anime Central 2014. Thought the artist alley was a bit more spacious, lots of breathing room. This is where the second issue I had with the convention came up. The placed Reika's booth right near the entrance to the vendor hall which was a horrible idea. Any time you went to her booth she had long lines that went out the front door and was causing all kinds of safety issues and confusing people who wanted into the vendor hall. The should have placed her booth at the back of the vendor hall so not to cause these issues. Overall, the rest of the hall was pretty good! I did soooooo much shopping there. A lot of the vendors were the same people from Anime Central...... which meant my wallet was crying by the end of the weekend lol.

After a very long wait I got my first photo with Reika as Prince Soma, and I told her about 1,000% Boyz and meeting them. We ended up doing a photo to share with the Boyz! I was so happy she remembered them and that she was ok with me sending it to them :D!!!!

Reika!!!!!!

Saturday:
I was dressed as Noiz from Dramatical Murder and Kayla was dressed as Levy from Fairy Tail. Both costumes were made by me as well. Kayla was stopped a lot by people saying she looked so cute and I was all kinds of happy since they love her costume (since I made it). During the Fairy Tail photo meet-up, a very hot Gajeel cosplayer swooped her off her feet!!! She was surprised and laughing. Then finally calmed down to take a flirty photo with him. You go girl!

 After that, we had lunch and went to the vendors hall. During the walk around, I ended up meeting a fan from my facebook fanpage! It was so awesome to hear her call out to me! Her female Shin-ah was soooo cute!!!!I also ended up running into a beautiful Aoba dressed up in a wedding dress.... and as Noiz my instincts took over and I started to flirt, but the rest of that story will be for later in this blog ;).

REIKA!!!!!
They look so cute while I look scary lol

Once again, we went to Reika's booth where I bought more photo books and together took a selfie with Reika. My best friend got to meet Reika!!!! I was so happy to share my love for Reika with my close friend.

A lot of the panels they had were not of interest, but I attend the Eir Aoi concert, which was amazing! I like her music and she sang my favorite song, Lapis Lazurli, the ending song for Arslan Senki (The Heroic Legend of Arslan). Hearing it live was so magical!

Another down side about the panels was that, Reika only had one panel the entire weekend. The had it on Sunday which I thought was a horrible idea. A lot of people cant stay Sunday at event (like me this time) and I was so sad that I had to miss it. They should of made it Saturday and I know a lot of other fans were super disappointed.

Also this convention had a lot of very attractive male cosplayers from Free!, that I kind of was drooling a bit.........so was Kayla....

My new friend Kathryn and myself.

Bride Aoba:
Back to the Aoba Bride. I have to say besides Reika, this was my favorite part of AWA. In character, I ended up courting a beautiful Aoba cosplayer. Kathryn and other Dmmd fans complimented me on my acting skills and how in character I was. I ended up running into her after the Eir Aoi concert and spent a good five hours chatting, flirting, and posing for fans with her. A lot of the fans seemed to needed CPR after certain photos XD. I do enjoy making fans happy.

 A convention can be soooooo much more enjoyable when you make friends with the right person and hit it off so well that you forget you just met.

It made me wish I had brought my other version of Noiz (the suit version) so that I could have matched with her costume, but oh well. I still loved these five hours.





It was sad that Saturday was my last day at AWA, hanging out with Kathryn and her friends was sooooooo much fun. We even had a Grell (Black Butler) drop in and asked if he was going to be invited as entertainment for the wedding XD. The guy was epic and I really wanted his red and black trench coat. Very much in character during the whole time and he even tried stealing me from my Bride lol, but I was dedicated ^_^ .

I defiantly would attend Anime Weekend Atlanta again depending on guest stars and who can do with me. I also know to bring more shopping money next time and maybe next time I can go with Kathryn, who knows. My next event is Anime Matsuri 2016 at the end of February, I am looking forward to that party!!!!!