all HTML, thumbnailing & some pic comments, by ever wonderful Anna-neko

on to the pics >>> FRIDAY     >>> SATURDAY    >>> SUNDAY
Welcome, minna-san, to ANFCP: Anime Ng's Freestyle Cosplay Photographs coverage of Fanime 2001! I attended the local Bay Area convention in San Jose, CA from Friday Mrach 30th to Sunday April 1st. Since I had a lot of fun at Katsucon in February, I was expecting Fanime to be just as good if not better, but after the weekend's events at Fanime, I survived the weekend having mixed thoughts about it. It was a great convention in terms of meeting some cosplayers for the 1st time, like Claudia whom you see in the picture with me, seeing my friends whom I haven't seen since Anime Expo or Animagic, like iPlay and Phoenix Seed, and I was able to take some really nice pictures as you'll soon see.. And there were some memorable moments like the skits my friends put on for the Saturday nite masquerade. But despite the cosplays, photographs, and masquerade, the con had some issues that made it not live up to the expectations that myself and a lot of people had hoped..

Friday started off good in that I got to the Westin Hotel around 8am and the pre-reg. line didn't take too long. After pre-reg. I had to leave the con to pick up my friend Margaret (whom I had not seen since Animagic) at the SJ airport, and got back in time w/o missing too many events and cosplayers. hehe The Westin was nice enuf to let me check into my room around 10:30am, rather than wait until 3pm. That allowed me to change into Shinji and wait in line for the dealers' room. The line for the dealers' room wasn't too bad, although before noon on that Friday it was REALLY hot, so it was kinda uncomfortable waiting in the blazing sun for over an hour (or more.) But when I got in, I was able to find the items I was looking for: some artbooks, Initial D CD's, and certain gifts for friends ^_~

Friday evening was the time for our convention-tradition of the King of Fighters Cosplay, and we had a few new costumes join our group, including my friends Tiffany as Kula & Matt as Orochi, AND my older brother Tom had his debut as a cosplayer by dressing as Ralf to go with Fernando's Clark. But overall our group was a lot smaller than anticipated, even though we had about 10 people we were hoping to top the # of cosplayers at Animagic 2k. And somehow we didn't take too many pictures of our group like pairs, teams, and even individual pictures. Hopefully at AnimeExpo we'll recover and get as many people to participate in it so it'll be really big. :) Afterwards came the annual dinner at the "Sushi Lovers" restaurant in costume, and once again we turned heads and made the music stop when we went in dressed as KOFers, Final Fantasy, and Evangelion characters.. heehee But it was fun, and I took some nice (and silly) pics of us eating, along with a great group shot of us afterwards which you'll see..

Saturday was more of the same, but the air-conditioning was really stuffy inside the hotel and convention center, and I was able to wear Trowa for a few hours before having to change out of it, because it was unbearable! (You Trowa fans will see more of Trowa at AnimeExpo, so get those cameras ready.. ^_~) The line for the dealers' room was incredibly long on Saturday, and for most of the day too! So I was able to only go in once, and visit Margaret when she was working in the d.room. :( Later in the afternoon I waited in line for the masquerade, and it was nice taking a break from all that walking around. I enjoyed playing on my boom-box the anime song remixes provided by SNM Productions & DJ Socket, along with the Initial D mixes. Somehow the other people in line didn't seem to mind.. heehee My patience paid off as I was able to get a great seat in the Convention Center auditorium, 3rd row, because I was in charge for taping the masquerade for my friends. The Mari Ijima concert came first, and it was nice as usual, but that now makes it 4 times I've seen Mari in concert.. Sure it's good for fans of old-school anime like Macross, but Fanime needs something new in terms of concerts..

The masquerade was really good overall, although 5 mins max. time for some skits worked and for others not so well. The best skits which I enjoyed the most were the ones provided by my friends, such as iPlay with their Guilty Gear X skit, Phoenix Seed and their Para Para Paradise skit, Wayne & AGSMA for his Card Captor Sakura skit, (Kero-Kelly!), Tenchi gang with their No Need for Tenchi-bumpkins, and my fave: the Malice Mizer Jamboree skit which shocked me and most of the audience with their performance.. (J-Rock is taking over conventions! hehe) Credit to Sailor Jamboree also for their always-nice Sailor-Myu-style performance, with a Vegas-style illusion effect! Took some nice pictures afterwards of the Malice Mizer group, but didn't get any individual shots of the Guilty Gear X group.. I'm only one person! And later on that nite I had a good time showing my friends the Masquerade tape which they all enjoyed. (When that happens, you know they'll want copies.. heehee)

Sunday slowed down, but the line in the dealers' room was shorter so I was able to look for stuff to buy one last time, and in the process took pictures of what remaining cosplayers there were. Some good ones, actually.. Then came the hard part of saying bye to all my friends, taking Margaret back to the San Jose airport, and then heading home. ;_; Fanime had to end eventually, and part of me was glad it was. Overall I had a fun time, even though I missed out on taking some really good pics, missed out on watching some anime (like the Card Captor Sakura Movie 2 subtitled!), the problems with the hotel & convention center staff, and other minor problems.. But it was a good weekend to escape work, see friends, and take pictures.

My thanks go out to Mack, Tiff, Gina, Henry, Wayne, Kelly, Allie, Ashley, Lily & Kie, Aaron, Alma, Ace, Ralph, Fernando, Tony C., Tony L., Fiona, Kimi & Phoenix Seed, Karrie & iPlay, World of Anime, Otaku Outpost, Michael G., Justin, Christina, Mana-Justin, Kiyoshi, Coley, Samantha, Van, Claudine, and my big brother Tom. Special thanks go out to Claudia for taking the nice pictures together (must do it again!), and to Margaret for coming out here for the weekend. Wanted to take more pictures of your great costumes, but that opportunity will come again soon enuf. I guess the Kimono pic to the left will suffice for now. :) And of course, X-tra special thanks goes out to Anna-neko, for helping me with this page and doing a lovely job as usual. If only you could've made it out here for Fanime, Anna.. *sigh* But as usual, you're here in spirit, and we will soon meet.. Otakon for sure.. :)

And now, here are the Fanime 2001 pics you've been waiting for.. I hope you like them, and email me at animeng@msn.com to send me comments and suggestions. If you'd me to remove a picture, change a caption, or if you see yourself but I didn't put your name up, email me so I may add you on there to give you credit if you so desire. Also, check out my old website at: members.nbci.com/anfcp/cosplay.htm to see the cosplay photographs I took at conventions back in 2000.

Up next for ANFCP will be the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in mid-April, a mini 1-day event, followed by Anime Central in Chicago, May 11th-13th. Looking further ahead, Anime Expo will then be the next one 4th of July weekend, followed by Otakon in August, Yaoi-con (since it's local) in September, and Animagic in October to finish 2001. Hope to see you at any or all of these events, and keep in touch. CIAO!

Albert AKA Trowa Al

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