Anime Central is by far my favorite anime convention. Hands down. I am very fortunate to be able to fly out from Los Angeles to Chicago for this convention. Anime Central is breath of fresh air from the usual California scene. I felt no sense of high school clique-ism between groups. Overall, I felt friendly vibes from the attendees. That's how the atmosphere of an anime convention should be. We are all here with one common interest, and let's celebrate our fandom together. I like that Anime Central encourages this. It also helps that Anime Central's local attendees are very friendly. This alone separates Anime Central from the rest. I have been to California events where you can feel the tension between groups, but Anime Central is a great place to meet new people and to make new friends. I like that about this con.

I found the hotel and convention staff to be friendly and helpful. The restaurant staff at the O'H took care of me very well that they deserved a generous tip. I had no problems with Incident Resposne Team (IRT). Most of them were helpful and I appreciated that they asked attendees if they were enjoying their stay at Anime Central. In fact, I told them it would be great if they would give out chocolate to attendees. Anime Los Angeles has a simillar system (Fairy Godfathers), but they give out chocolate. The IRT said they they plan to one up Anime Los Angeles by giving out Skittles next year. Let's see if they deliver.

Though I enjoyed Anime Central, the con did have a few flaws. The website could have had a better layout and look to it. I miss the layouts from 2006-2008. It was easier to navigate and you got a sense of what Anime Central was all about. My other main gripe was the programming guide and schedule. It would have been better and convienient if the program guide included a schedule of the panels. I heard many complaints about attendees having to cross reference both. It also would have been nice if the cosplay gathering schedule was also included in the program guide as it has been previously.

The Anime Music Video contest could have been run so much better. I have heard Anime Central's music video contest is supposedly one of the country's best run shows. The set up felt so amateur. The contest was better off being shown at main events or combining LP1 and LP2 in the Hyatt. I was also surprised there was no audience voting when this is typical in a contest. Staff members and judges who observe audience reaction is subjective. I was rather dissapointed with how this was run. To a certain extent, I was glad that our videos did not make it into contest because I would not want to be associated with a contest who claims to have high standards, but fails at retaining their audience numbers and has a shoddy set up.

My other gripe is with how the X Japan / Yoshiki appearance was handled. It would have been better if Yoshiki had made his appearance and showed the X Japan promotional at the Aural Vampire concert or a special J-rock event. Not everyone who is into watching a cosplay contest is into J-rock. For Anime Central to reach a better audience that can better appreciate a special appearance by Yoshiki. I felt bad for the masquerade contestants who had to follow intermission.

However, I am very grateful that Anime Central had a wonderful press department. I truly appreciated the number of conferences being offered to us. I also liked the fact that they actually had a press room appropriate for said conferences. I wish I had a print out of the conferences prior to con so I could have planned in advance which conferences I wanted to attend. A week's notice would be ideal. Otherwise, I have to congratulate Vic Walter and the press department for making the conferences and badge pick up to go really smooth. Keep it up, guys!

Anime Central had a number of fun panels to attend. I normally don't go to many panels, but these were fun to explore. I loved Sailor Moon Squares, the late night programming, and Vic Mignogna's Star Trek panel the best. I really hope Vic brings his Star Trek panel to a West Coast con. If I could request an event to make a comeback, it would be the charity ball. This is all for a good cause and so many people enjoyed dressing up and dancing the night away to the Spoony Bards. Bring it back, please!

I am happy to come home with several things from the dealer's hall that I could not have purchased at a California convention. I bought a few wigs from Arda Wigs. These are high quality wigs and you are getting what you pay for. I highly reccomend these for any cosplayer. I also bought Sailor Moon cat hats from Alcera. Those are the cutest things ever! I also picked up a few Fate Stay Night figures that were given to me at a discounted price because I cosplayed as Rin. I also picked up some free Sailor Mars cosplay accessories should I decide to dress up as my favorite sailor senshi.

What I like about Anime Central is that they have appreciation for anime new and old. There are plenty of cosplayers from different series and you do not feel like something is overdone. There is a fallacy passing through "the boards" where people have said the cosplay was not great this year. I digress. I was very glad to see everyone's hard work and I appreciated it when people told me how they constructed their costumes.

I truly hope to return to Anime Central in 2011. It would make a great graduation present. Chicago is one of my top choices to relocate to (third next to San Francisco and Boston) once I get my master's degree. Though it would be at the expense I may have to miss Fanime. It boils down whether I want to say goodbye or start a new beginning. Many of my friends have expressed that they wanted to go to Anime Central. If you have the means, I highly reccomend it.

I have to thank my hotelmates for being great sports. I know I tend to stay up at an anime convention and not returning until 2AM in the morning. Thank you for your hospitality and everything. I apprecaited the homemade bacon and eggs and beef stew. It was great to eat healthy and not to eat out so much during Anime Central. Thanks for keeping my diet healthy. It was truly a pleasure to have photoshoots with Fullerton and Pat. I look forward to your photos. The Hyatt is one of my favorite locations for a con. It was nice seeing old time friends again, there's too many to name, but if I talked to you this weekend, thank you for being you. In addition, I'm truly blessed to make new friends in the MidWest. Thank you for being sweet and down to earth. Let's stay in touch.

Here's to Anime Central 2011. I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll have an answer by January 2011. If you would like to contact me or stay in touch, I am available on the following social networks:

And to the new chair person, everything's coming up Rosa!

Pictures are copyright by Scarlet Rhapsody . If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Andes. Many thanks to Chaz Boston Baden for the image resizing and watermarking program.