Anime Central 2010 marks my return to Rosemont after skipping out on Anime Central 2009. Due to the recession, there were only was a certain amount of traveling I could financially handle. During Anime Los Angeles 2010, the Scarlet Rhapsody team interviewed the MidWest music group, The Spoony Bards. After getting to know front man, Stephen Poon, a little bit more, I was persuaded to return to Anime Central in 2010. After Anime Los Angeles was over, I booked my flight to Chicago for another year at my favorite anime convention.

I took an early morning flight from LAX to ORD on Thursday. I made last minute photo shoot arrangements with Fullerton (Consplayers) for my Mistress Nine (Sailor Moon) cosplay. I took a very long nap on the three hour flight to ORD. I arrived early in the afternoon. My hotel party also had to wait on another person to arrive at the airport. We decided to grab a late lunch at Giordano's. I always look forward eating at Giordano's for their epic deep dish pizza. You cannot find anything like this in California.

After dinner, we went to the local Dominick's to grab hotel room supplies. Right around 6PM, we checked into our room at the Hyatt Regency. I met a few people in the lobby getting ready for the convention before heading to our room. Fullerton was running late for the photo shoot, so I decided to take it easy. I went the Asian Ball Joint Doll gathering in the lobby where I met some really cool doll owners.

I only brought one doll to the con. I brought my unnamed Dollfie Dream girl, Marian. Marian also got rather friendly with a Williams (Kuroshitsuji) dollfie. It was great meeting all of the MidWest doll people. Unfortunately, this was the only doll event I went to through the course of the weekend. I would have loved to show up to more, but my schedule was all over the place.

Day Zero had its share of cosplayers.

One of most interesting findings at Anime Central 2010 was a life sized Chii (Chobits) doll. The owner had purchased her through a Japanese dealer. It was pretty cool to see a persocom in the flesh (well, not really flesh, but you get the idea).

Fullerton was still running late for the photo shoot. So, I did some exploring of my own. While I was getting a good grasp of the lay of the land, I ran into Shinichi Watanabe, the director of Excel Saga. I told him that I was planning to cosplay as Fujiko Mine (Lupin III) and I told him to stop by the Lupin III gathering on Sunday.

At around 11PM, I had my photoshoot with Fullerton. We had some cool night shots of of the Sailor Moon villainess. Fullerton took a few sample shots of the shoot with my camera. It was getting close to 1AM, and I was running on four hours of sleep through most of the day. I went back to my hotel room and called it a night.

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