Masquerade Pre Show

Masquerade started seating around 6PM. Per usual, I took my press seats up front. This year, there were about 25 or so entries that graced the masquerade stage. The pre-show festitivites got the audience pumped for the cosplay show. Once the Pokemon theme song started playing, the whole audience erupted into song. An Ash Ketchum even went up on stage.

After a few classics from the first Pokemon soundtrack and a conga line to Hakuna Matata, the whole hall started blasting out “Gangnam Style.” Much like New York Comic Con, this was everywhere. Everyone who knew the dance mobbed the stage. After that bit, the show began to start. We were entertained by our masquerade hosts: Videl, Gohan, and Krillan. To go with AAC’s Year of the Dragon theme, Dragonball characters took care of the show. It was really funny because they were acting in character and improvising as things rolled along. The basic story was Gohan and Videl having a love hate relationship while Krillan is like, “I exist too!”

Masquerade

The show opened up with Project Cosplay competition. Project Cosplay is very much like Iron Cosplay – cosplayers are given less than an hour to create a costume from limited materials. The construction took place early on. The models graced the stage to kick off the masquerade show. There were a handful of entries this year – about ten or so. The Enjolaras from Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette took home first place.

There were about 25 or so cosplay acts for the 2012 masquerade. Very few entries went in for craftsmanship judging. There was a separate category for beginning level costume competitors. A few highlights were the Zelda ballet, Zelda Gangnam Style, Metal Gear, Digimon, Soul Eater, and of course, the one that took home the grand prize, Black Jack. What was nice about this masquerade, it kept it family friendly and even gave forewarning if there were racy / gory acts that were about to take place. The Black Jack one was one of the better dramatic masquerade acts that I have seen in a while – there was live surgery done on stage. Overall, I thought the masquerade acts were very well executed and the writing and performances were pretty good. However, my favorite part is seeing all the Dragonball characters interact with each other.

Once the acts were done, the show had a non-competitive walk-on section for non-anime costumes. Then iit came time to reveal the AMV winners. I decided to grab dinner at this point. After grabbing New England clam chowder at the hotel dive bar, I decided to go panel hopping. Alongside the masquerade results, there were a ton of night time panels.

Cosplay Truth or Dare

Another Anime Convention is definitely a cosplayers convention. While there were not as many gatherings and photoshoots for specific series, there are convention sanctioned events and activities for cosplayers. From Cosplay Chess to Cosplay Death Match, there are events that cater to having fun in character. I never actually have heard of a Cosplay Truth or Dare until my curiosity was piqued. Essentially, it is your standard game of Truth or Dare. The audience gets to write various truths and dares for cosplayers to do. Everyone can participate and it’s just really fun seeing everyone make a fool of themselves all in good fun. The room was packed for this event and everyone was just having a good time.

Volunteering and Staffing: You're Doing it Wrong

When I was reading the program guide, I thought this would be a panel about a veteran staffer talking about horror stories from the volunteering and staffing side. It’s one thing to make a fool of yourself for the sake of fun, but it’s another thing to over deliver and under perform. I think I can count on my hand the number of stories that was told at this panel. Essentially, it was a Reno cosplayer who was rambling on and on about staffing and volunteer experiences. If it was named Live from Midgar, It's Late Night with Reno, it would have been a more honest name. You know a panel gets bad when the panelist’s better half scolds said panelist for not even sticking to telling a story.

And Even More Late Night Madness

There were plenty of night life options at Another Anime Convention. I popped into the CTRL ALT DEL Q&A by one of the artist guests, Tim Buckley. After that, I went into the AMV room where they were showing nonstop comedy music videos such as Mello eying after Misa’s shoes, Shinji being emo, and the cast of Lucky Star talks about how it’s a piece of cake to make a cake. Like Friday night, there were several adult themed events such as Hentai Iron Editor (in which the winner won a dildo) and Effed Up Hentai. The late night rave was also a popular evening event where it was going on until 4AM in the morning. I decided to check out the WTF Youtube panel where I was introduced to the likes of Splendor Man, Brodyquest, and A Story from North America.

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 Poornut. Many thanks to Dream Host, Adobe Bridge, MS Photodraw, Picasa, and Dreamweaver for making this site design possible.