Last week Scout and I went to Anime Iowa for the second time. It is an Anime Convention held in Corallville Iowa every year.
Friday
We were not at all happy to hear the alarm go off at 6:30am. It is a 5 hour drive to our hotel and we didn’t get in until about 12:30am. Once we realized that we would be going to the con we hopped out of bed! We would be cosplaying as Deidara and Tobi again this year!
Deidara and Tobi!
We decided to walk to the con, which was only about 4 blocks away. As we were leaving the hotel we heard someone yell out, “Hey look, it’s Spiderman!” That made us both giggle. I don’t think Tobi looks like Spiderman but Scout thought it was funny so she called me Spiderman the rest of the day. (Jerk) We got some pretty strange looks as we walked, and we had to cross a pretty busy street, people just stopped their cars and stared, LOL!
That Friday we did the regular con stuff:
- Wait in line for our badges (About 2-3 hours)
- Walk around and look at everyone in their cosplay
- Meet up with people we know from the forums or meet last year
- Forget to eat
- Randomly get glomped
- Pose for about 837,564,837,465 pictures
- Wait all day for the DEALERS ROOM to open
By 5pm I had a killer headache from being Tobi and wearing my mask all day. I could only see out of one eye, and I could barely breath. So, Scout and I decided to go to the dealers room and see if we could find some cheap cosplay for me to be on Saturday and Sunday….
…Once we got the cosplay it was time to find a WalMart. We needed hair dye, safety pins, and FOOD! I had seen a WalMart just off the interstate on the way to our hotel…and after missing our exit, turning around, driving along some side streets, and going in a few circles, we found it! We got our supplies and then it was time to go and get some gas in my car. I had some trouble finding a gas station. I don’t know the area AT ALL. I did eventually find one, however, now I was all disorientated. I had lost all sense of direction so I just sort of guessed the direction I needed to go to get back to the interstate.
I guessed wrong, very, very wrong. We ended up in some residential area. I had never been this lost before. It was dark out side so I didn’t know if I was going North, East, South, or West, and I didn’t know which direction I should have been going. I had no atlas, only the tiny map that printed with my MapQuest directions. I just kept driving looking for ANYTHING that looked familiar or trying to follow the flow of traffic (when there was traffic) hoping they would bring me to the interstate.
While we were lost we got a call, Scout’s friends from school had made it to the con and wanted to meet us in the lobby. We told them we were completely lost but we would be there asap.
Deidara (Scout), Tobi (Me!), Hidan(Scout's friend Emily), Kakuzu (Scout's friend Crystal)
Somehow, I really have no idea how, we made it to the interstate and from there I found our exit to our hotel. We were lost for about 3 or 4 hours. We called Scout’s friends and told them we wouldn’t make it tonight. We made it to the hotel at about 11:30pm, Scout dyed her hair, I decided I would dye mine in the morning.
Saturday
I woke up early, dyed my hair jet black, took some black mail pics of Scout sleeping, then woke her up! She said she was pretty sore from wearing her wig all day and walking in her freaky Deidara shoes, so I threw some pain pills at her. Today she would be cosplaying as Rukia Kuchiki and I would be Soi Fong, both characters from Bleach! I was really really nervous to be cosplaying a character with out a mask.
Scout as Rukia!
This time when we were walking to the con we heard someone yell out, “Oh look, Samurai!” We once again both giggled.
Me as Soi Fong!
When we got to the con we made our way to the Bleach Photo shoot. Scout was the only Rukia. There was one other Soi Fong. My pictures from the Bleach Photo shoot (and most of my other pictures) are on my phone, I will post them once I get them on my PC. (Which is a pain in the butt!)
At the photo shoot Scout saw Grimmjow and instantly had a HUGE crush on him. She wanted to give him a hug so BAD. When I got home I found all sorts of pics of him on my camera. (She did eventually get the courage and ask for a hug…awww, LOL)
Scout's crush! Awwww!
After the Bleach Photo shoot we made our way to the dealers room, I got a sword and some tasty snacks!
Sword!
Tasty Snacks!
Then it was time to rush back to our hotel and change back into Deidara and Tobi. The Naruto Panel and Naruto Photo shoot were going to take place in about an hour. We made it back to the con…a little late for the panel. We had to sneak in the back. All the chairs were taken, so we stood against the wall. I had my Tobi mask on so it was no surprise when I leaned back and hit the light switch. Turning all the lights off and making the room pitch black, LOL! I tried to find it, but in a black room, with one eye and black gloves on, it was nearly impossible. I wanted to die, I was so happy I had my mask on so no one could see how red my face was!
It was really hot in the room, with all those people and we had cloaks on. We decided to wait in the hall until the panel was over and just join in on the Photo shoot. We ended up going to the Gamer Girls Panel. It was a panel about gamer girls, how they are treated, why, and what could be done to get rid of some of the stereotypes. It was a really good panel. I was surprised to see just as many boys showed up as girls. We were talking about lead female characters in video games when I mentioned Beyond Good and Evil, it was funny how surprised everyone was when they realised Tobi was a GIRL, hahaha! We also got to see some trailers for upcoming games with female leads, including FFXIII, on a HUGE screen. It was awesome.
We were having such a good time at the Girl Gamers panel we forgot about the Naruto Photo shoot….darn. We were a little bummed. (We went put Tobi and Deidara on for no reason, GRRR!) Then we remembered it was Saturday and the Cosplay Mascaraed was tonight! OH YEAH!
This guy was just awesome!
The Mascaraed is the highlight of the entire Convention. It is just a bunch of cosplays skits, or just walk ons showing off your cosplay. All the really good cosplayers come out Saturday night! Scout was supposed to be in one of the skits, but her group had not turned in their paper work on time so their skit was cancelled. She was relived, cause she would rather watch the mascarde, then be in it and miss it all. It was a good mascaraed, there were some very odd coplays…such as the Dogtato and some amazingly good ones like the Zidane from FFIX. The best moment of the Mascaraed was when we all got Rick Roll’d. No one saw that coming! It is posted on youtube somewhere and once I find it I will post it here!
After the Mascaraed we headed back to our hotel room, stayed up too late watching a really stupid movie and then went to bed.
Captain Jack! Bow Chicka Bow Wow!
Sunday
The last day of the con! Today Scout went to the con as Uryu Ishida and I was once again Soi Fong.
Soi Fong and Uryu Ishida
We woke up a little later, but had all our stuff shoved in my car and were ready for check out by 10:30am.
Less Blurry then the other one
We didn’t have much to do so we headed to the dealers room to check for some last minute deals…on the way there we realized that the Rock Band Competition was going on! OH YEAH! We had really really wanted to enter, but you had to have at least 3 band mates and we only had 2. We watched the last two bands preform. One of the bands had this guy who was doing VOCALS and GUITAR. He was awesome. He walked around the crowd while doing his Guitar Solos, I was pretty impressed! His band ended up winning the competition!
Scout Randomly Dancing in the Hall!
After the competition we remembered there was the forum meet and greet. So instead of heading to the dealers room we went there. It was pretty cool meeting the people behind the forums. I am not very active on those forums but Scout is and she knew everyone there. They had a snack table, with all sorts of Japanese snack foods. I tried this Jello type thing…it tasted the way I would imagine shampoo and Vaseline to taste if you roll them into a ball. It was so gross, LOL. I decided to stick to the pockey, cookies, and cakes. MMMmmmMMMMmmm!
We finally made our way to the dealers room. Scout got a few things. There were so many things I wanted to buy! MGS Action Figures, FF Action Figures, SO MANY WALL SCROLLS, T-Shirts, weapons, plushies, EVERYTHING. I ended up buying nothing, because I could not decide!
After saying good bye to a few people it was time for us to leave. We drove home in our cosplay, it was so funny when we had to stop for gas! LOL! Overall it was awesome spending some time with Scout, hopefully we will be able to go again next year!
