Anime Central 2003

Another year, another ACen. This year the con went back to it's typical mid-May weekend and it was still being held at the Hyatt O'Hare. My same group of friends was attending, but nobody else but myself decided to cosplay at all.

Friday

Friday Elon and I met Kelli and Tara at the latter's apartment. I was wearing a Mikage Souji (Utena) t-shirt I had made with fanart I had Kelli draw for me. We also made a Kenshin and Kaoru t-shirt together, which we gave to Tara and she promptly put it on. We went out to breakfast and then headed down to Rosemont. We arrived in plenty of time to make it through the pre-reg line and mill around before opening ceremonies. After that, Kelli, Tara and I stayed for the Yoko Ishida concert, which was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. While waiting for the concert to start, we chatted with some nice girls behind us who were dressed as Koga and Sesshomaru (Inu Yasha) and she let us pet her fluffy. In the afternoon, we visited a couple of panels and the dealer's room. We eventually got checked into our 2 joining hotel rooms after much badgering of the hotel staff and few hours. For dinner, we went out to Mitsuwa Marketplace, where we also picked up some Japanese snacks. When we came back, we threw a surprise "party" for Kelli's birthday (1 month late) and Chris' birthday (1 month early). We had cupcakes, presents, and Chris got a life-size picture of naked Zelda. (There is a strange tradition among my friends of drawing giant naked anime characters for birthdays...)

Saturday

Saturday morning I got up as early as possible and donned by Yukino costume and headed off to the music video contest. The rest of the group were all wearing their disturbing Neko Bus t-shirts that Kelli had made for us all. We broke down into smaller groups for most of the day and did our own things. I went to some panels, looked around the art show and such. In the evening we went out to Steak N Shake for dinner and I felt a little bit silly in my schoolgirl cosplay, especially since it's far enough away from the con that no other cosplayers were there. In the evening we all went to the Iron Guest Unsanctioned Battles that a staff member had started up. Elon, Kelli and Chris drew, while Tara, Kevin and I cheered them on. Tara and I went to bed pretty early, considering it was at a con, but were woken up by a fire alarm. We went outside the room for bit, but not much was happening so Tara and I went back in the room. From what I was told, at this point Kevin went looking for parties and Chris, Kelli and Elon went out and ended up going to Krispy Kreme and they brought back a dozen doughnuts.

Sunday

Woke up and had those doughnuts for breakfast. I wore my own Neko Bus t-shirt today, and we all did our last-minute con shopping in the dealer's room. After we checked out of the hotel room, I grabbed a latte and we enjoyed the beginning of the anime music video contest at the replay, since we had missed the first section when it first played. Kelli picked up her remaining works from the art show and we all pretty much ended up taking off a bit early.

Yoko Ishida dancing during her concert	Yoko Ishida doing Para Para during her concert	The girls we chatted with, dressed as Sesshomaru and Koga	People dressed as Dreamcast players; consoles were strapped to their backs	DBZ cosplayers	Very tall No Face cosplay
At a VA panel: Tiffany Grant, Monica Rial, Chris Patton and Laura Bailey	The further adventures of the VA panel	Never too many Chris and Monica photos	Eating cupcakes that evening	Zelda as the naked anime character drawing for Chris	Nabeshin cosplayer
Sailor Moon cosplayer	Really nice Princess Peach cosplay	Everyone wearing their Neko Bus shirts	Elon during the Unsanctioned Battles	Kelli during the Unsanctioned Battles	Doughnut Vash has Krispy Kremes!
Princess Zelda and Link cosplayers	Seeing double with Link cosplayers (love the shields)	Pimp Ash and the Pika-ho	Kodama cosplayer	Impressive Mecha King Chidora cosplay	Tara, myself and Kelli on Sunday morning

All photos on this page taken by Beth and Kelli.

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