Today me and my friends attended a fledgling quasi-anime-oriented convention since it was the only one that had full-fledged cosplay events and big crowds and stalls with decent amount of stock with anime-related stuff. This is the third time its been held here in Christchurch. I wrote a short post on the one last year too.

The anime scene here in Christchurch is small and is mainly composed of Bleach and Naruto fans. A large number of cosplayers who participated in this event were also girls, which is a very good thing indeed. The reason why I call this convention quasi-anime-oriented is because a sizeable amount of it is also dedicated to other hobbyist groups such as WWE fans, american cartoon merchandise, medevial costumes and trekkies and star wars fans. But since only the anime part is relevant to my interests, I'll only be touching the anime side of the convention from a visitor's perspective.

About the only exciting things in this small convention are the cosplayers and the few stalls selling figurines, DVDs and manga. The cosplayers this year were far more decent than the ones last year, and many of them now have costumes made with passion and flare for the very souls of the characters they are supposed to reflect. Take Kon for example.

Many of the cosplayers were very decent girls too, among them were cosplaying Chrome Dokuro from Hitman Reborn. Not only the costume was excellent, the chromacity of the hair was just right for her face, truly a diamond in the rough. I think Dokuro is very good looking don't you? Makes me want to watch it.

Honestly I think coloured hair suits westerners more than asians. Somehow, Asians just look weird and fugly when they have hair that's not black on their heads. Not to mention that it just turns out really wiggy and stuff.

However, for all rules there must be exceptions. Also present are some of my favorite characters from Suzumiya Haruhi, Nagato and Kyon. These Japanese cosplayers have come down to provide us with an example of the right way to cosplay, and I must admit, Nagato, really looks like Nagato. Kudos to them for not making the purple hair look like a wig.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.astrobunny.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/luckystar.flv width=500 height=375 /]

Also, we got treated to a Lucky Star OP dance. Twas just very amusing to watch. It started a bit into the music because my failcam somehow had a delay when it started. It never used to before...

Cosplaying aside, this time the stalls actually had something that resembled what one would find in an anime convention. Decent Figurines. A few of the figurines that were on display today are from Kotobukiya. It sure looks like I chopped off the head of Ayanami here, but that's only because I was too busy at the time debating on whether or not to get it. I got the Fraulein Asuka and Rei instead.

I only bought them because they looked awesome.

Also present was a character from ToHeart. Also from Kotobukiya. All the time I was keeping my eyes peeled for something from Max Factory or Goodsmile Company, or Alter. Unfortunately there were none.

They also sold lots of Final Fantasy character figurines here. But I wasn't interested. I'm going to set up a gallery and you guys can see the rest of the stuff that was on display there.

Also present were the usual breed of Star Wars cosplayers.

Hentai being sold out in the open too. They weren't extremely provocative though, from just a glance, so I guess everyone just felt its alright because "they are just cartoons"

There were also gun enthusiasts showing off their life-sized models.

Loads of DVDs with anime that most of the people at the convention would've already watched through "other" means.

... And lots of manga on sale too. I would've got Rozen Maiden if not for the fact that they were missing volume 3.

Oh and "I AM YOUR FATHER". "YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE"

When we decided that we had enough, we left and were greeted by the nightman with a huge-ass gatling gun saying "We are programmed to recieve. You can check out anytime you like, But you can NEVER leave"

And all of us went out and saw a Nice Boat. The End.

Gallery is here

written by astrobunny \\ armaggeddon, bleach, christchurch, chrome dokuro, convention center, cosplay, expo, final fantasy, fraulein, gatling, guns, hentai, hitman reborn, kyon, manga, nagato, naruto, new zealand, nice boat, nz, pulp, rei ayanami, revoltech, sakura, star wars, toheart, vader