With a convenient room at the Hilton, food was never too far away, and Caitlin and I spent most of Friday night hanging out with our roommates and getting some dinner. The Hilton had a food-court (or slightly classier version of a food-court) inside, so easy eating was at the ready.

The first thing we noticed about the location (besides the food, of course – food always being a priority) was who we were sharing it with. Next door to Hall B, the hall of AM2, was Hall A, where the Moose Lodge annual convention was being held. That’s right – a bunch of senior citizens in mustard yellow and periwinkle blue jackets FILLED the hotel to capacity. Every night, the bars were packed with the Moose Lodgers. Strangely enough, these Meese would prove to be the sweetest pack of “others” I have ever shared a convention with. Most of them came up to us complimenting our costumes and saying how we were making things “so much more exciting!”. The elevators were always fun.

Saturday morning, Caitlin and I really dove into the convention, signing up for Masquerade and getting our Vision of Escaflowne costumes judged. Masquerade staff was very attentive, and the judges were extremely thorough in their diagnosis of our craftsmanship – always nice to see.

After the judging, Caitlin and I perused the main hall of AM2, where there was the typical dealer’s hall (small, but not diminutive – plenty of awesome booths selling majorly old-school merchandise, for the record), and an artist alley where Caitlin and I found a PERFECT replica of Hitomi’s necklace from Escaflowne. Included amongst the regulars were some unique attractions, including a tiny Japanese summer festival with carnival style games you could buy tickets to play. If you won enough tickets from the games, you could exchange them for fabulous prizes over at the redeeming table.

As luck would have it, I turned out to be pretty epic at the ring-toss game and won around eighty-seven tickets off of a fifteen ticket run. That was enough tickets to snag me a DVD box set of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Well, at least now I can’t say carnival games never did anything nice for me.

Masquerade took up most of our time, and despite being tiny and fledging, it was an impressive set up. However, the tech crew and the Masquerade team obviously didn’t have any rapport, as we were informed an hour before we were supposed to go on that there would be NO tech whatsoever. No light cues, no sound cues – nothing. That was enough to send Caitlin into a bit of a rage, and to be honest, I don’t blame her. In my opinion, it’s sort of “theater 101” to be in constant contact with your tech crew, and going to them an hour before the show with tech cues, only to be told “sorry, nope” is only going to hurt the people on stage in the end. I hope they’ll improve on that next year.

The show itself was pretty impressive, all things considered, with some very nice craftsmanship and fun skits. I won “Best Advanced Craftsmanship” for my Allen Schezar costume, and afterwards, Caitlin and I were so worn out, we went straight to bed, ignoring a couple requests to party afterwards. Apparently there was a nightlife at AM2, we were just too exhausted to enjoy it.

Sunday we picked up our prizes from the Masquerade office and thanked them all for their hard work. With a con this new and this small, you get to intimately know the staff for any event you participate in. We talked at length about the show, how we thought it went, and what the coordinator wants to improve on for next year.

Afterwards was possibly the most anticipated event of AM2 – the World Cosplay Summit American Preliminaries. For those not aware, World Cosplay summit is equivalent to the Olympics of cosplay. This year, over sixteen countries will be traveling to Nagoya Japan to participate in a week-long international cosplay event, with three countries being officially recognized after a Masquerade-style contest.

We had two friends, fandom names Pannon and Zelda, participating in WCS, and we were asked to tag along as stage ninjas.

From the second we stepped in the room, Caitlin and I could tell the level of competition was going to be fierce. Each group displayed excellent craftsmanship and even amazing set-pieces. This was Masquerade brought to a whole other level. Only seven pairs were participating, but each pair really showed the potential to win.

The performances were also spectacular, although the tech was abysmal – florescent lights. Seriously, a better stage was necessary for an event like this. It was amateurish on the part of AM2. However, the performers made up for it.

In the end, team Fox Gloves performing as Yuuko and Watanuki from xxxHolic were the winners and would represent America in Nagoya. Congratulations to everyone who participated in WCS.

After AM2 officially closed its doors, we all went out to IHOP for the worst meal I’ve ever had. Word to the wise, restaurant owners: don’t serve salads on warm plates. Just don’t.

Overall, AM2 proved pretty unmemorable for me. The convention was well run to a point, but it appeared as if the fledging con bit off more than it could chew for its first year. There were a surprising amount of people there for a first-year event, but the space still seemed cavernous. Perhaps a smaller venue might have made the con feel more alive.

There weren’t many panels I was interested in attending, but spending time with friends made up for that. The staff seemed a little disorganized – although I wasn’t able to attend cosplay chess this year, I heard the time was changed on the organizers and that the staff weren’t helpful whatsoever.

I’m not sure if we’ll return to AM2 next year. We’ll have to see how this con favors against its big brother, AX, who seems to have survived yet another year. Still, the effort to create a fan-friendly alternative to the industry giant that is AX was certainly appreciated.

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