Anime Central 2001

I had previously attended a couple of the Wizard World Chicago comic book cons before, and the dealer's room had enough anime merchandise to keep me happy. But, after graduating college, Kelli and I felt our anime fandom had grown enough to warrant an entire con dedicated to it. After some research we found one of the biggest cons in the midwest was practically in our backyard, so we sent in our pre-registration and rounded up a group to go along for the ride.

For some reason I had a notion in my head that at conventions, all of the costumes worn would be professional quality, at least. My Halloween costume quality costumes just wouldn't cut it. So, I made no plans to cosplay all weekend. But, as soon as we got there I noticed there was a wide range of costuming skills displayed and I would have fit right in. Made mental note to come in costume the next year.

Friday

Only took a half day off of work since I had no vacation time yet, and Kelli and I ate lunch and then met Tara down at the hotel. By the time we found each other and the pre-registration table we were well into the afternoon, but that turned out alright. There was no line to get in at that time and we soon had our bags and badges and were attempting to navigate the Sheraton in Arlington Heights, where the con was held that year. That afternoon we went around the dealer's room and ended up watching the Anime Match Game. Kelli got chosen to be a contestant in the first round, and although she lost, they still gave her a box of Japanese snacks, which we all enjoyed later.

That evening we met up with the boys who couldn't take off as much time at work and school. We also attended the meet the guests time in the tent outside and though we mostly just sat around eating snacks, Tara got to meet Scott McNeil and Kirby Marrow and had them sign the Gundam Wing CD she had purchased in the dealer's room. We all went back to crash at my parent's house that night, thinking the 45 minute commute to the con would be nothing.

Saturday

The next morning, we drove back to the con and enjoyed the Scott McNeil and Kirby Marrow panel, which is still one of my favorite voice actor panels to date. Tara cosplayed as Duo for the day. Besides more random panels, dealer's room trips, watching anime in the video rooms, and generally trying to figure out what was going on, we ventured out of the convention area to visit nearby Mitsuwa Marketplace, which is like a small Japanese mall. We had dinner there and I bought an Utena artbook at the bookstore. We went back to the con and drove back to my parent's house when we were exhausted.

Because we were so tired and worn out, none of us decided to go back at all on Sunday, but we sat around and decided to stay in the hotel the next year. We also got a chance to read our program books and found out we had totally missed a wonderful thing called a "con suite." Live and learn, ne? ^^;;

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We arrived at the Sheraton for our first anime con!	Some Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers with a Vash	Kel playing the Anime Match Game	Kelli surrounded by her delicious snacks	Some cosplayers from Slayers Try	Lovely Sailormoon cosplay from the musicals
The ACen gang	Tara cosplaying as Duo	Another pic of Tara cosplaying as Duo	Scott gives hug after a proposal at his panel	First Iron Guest art competition	First Iron Guest art competition

All photos on this page taken by Beth and Kelli.

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