Conventions Big and Small: Sac Anime

Hello everyone! So I've been going to various conventions since I was 12 or 13, but only recently have I started going to a wider variety of conventions other than a biannual local anime convention that I've been going to for years and it's smaller spin-off cons (comic books based usually). So, since I've been to more type and sized conventions, I thought it would be fun to do some comparing and contrasting of the different ones I've been to. Today I'm going to be talking about one of my first cons. Let's go!


Sac Anime
 Sac Anime was my first convention and has grown a lot since I started going. Unfortunately, I've had to stop going since work has caused me to change coasts, so I haven't been in a few years. Sac Anime has become one of the larger conventions on the West coast and has changed locations multiple times as it continued to grow over the years. When I first started going it was a smaller, more family oriented convention that was beginning to outgrow it's location. I remember my mom talking to some of the staff there and they were all super nice and looking to make the con more fun for everyone. Shortly after I started going to Sac Anime, it had to change its location to a hotel due to size. After a few years of going though, the family friendly aspect started to drop and the staff stopped being as nice and "what would you like to see" about the con than when I first started going. While it's still a fun con to go to, it has definitely grown in size and popularity, causing it to become a bit less fan and family oriented.


Here's some of the features of the con:

• Vendor's room
• Artist's alley
• J-Fashion show
• J-Rock and Japanese inspired bands
• Anime viewing room
• Trading card game tournaments
• Video game room
• Popular/famous voice actor and cosplayer guests
• Various panels (voice actors, cosplayers, games, etc.)
• Cosplay masquerade
• Rave with live DJs
• Cosplay contests

I've been introduced to a lot of cool animes at Sac Anime including Fairy Tail and Black Butler thanks to the anime viewing room. The vendor's room always had a good variety of sellers with anime merch, J-fashion, corsets, and various accessories. I only got to attend the cosplay masquerade a few times since it was a big event and often had super long lines that started an hour or two before the actual event. There were also lines for the voice actors and other guests, but I usually wouldn't wait in line for autographs as I never was really that into getting autographs (though I do have several I got when I ran across people of interest outside of their signing time). There were some good bands over the years that I heard, the ones I remember the most being Akai Sky (I follow their bassist on Twitter) and Buranden (I haven't been able to find anything on them, so I'm not sure if they're still together).


 I've had a lot of fun at Sac Anime over the years and am sad I can't really make it anymore, but I'm looking forward to checking out more of the con scene here on the East coast!


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My First Convention Experience

So, even though I've been going to conventions for a few years now, I thought it'd be nice to write about my first time ever going to a convention. It was a fairly small Anime convention not especially far from where I lived (from my perspective at least). When I first started going to anime conventions, I wasn't very much into anime. Sure I'd seen some anime episodes and read some mangas, but I wasn't totally banzai fangirl over it. I'd never really dressed up in costume outside of Halloween and dance performances that I'd been doing for a major part of my life at that point. Maybe it was because of my dance career, but I felt that it was necessary to dress up for the convention, even if it wasn't cosplay. I appreciate that not everybody feels comfortable wearing costumes outside of Halloween, so I've never felt the need to force everyone to dress up for conventions. I personally just feel it makes it more fun.

Another thing that I've done since I started attending conventions is wear different outfits every day that I go to the con. In previous years I've gone so far as to wear two to three different costumes in a day. My fist time going to a convention wasn't quite that elaborate though. I went to the con two different days, so I wore two different outfits. The first one was a cute China dress I'd gotten to wear for a birthday party a few years prior along with a sash and a shirt underneath. The second day I wore a Lolita-like outfit I'd put together. It consisted of a black A-line skirt I'd hemmed to knee length, a white polo shirt, some lace and roses I had lying around, some quickly made wrist cuffs, and a cute teddy bear that I had wearing a Gothic Lolita like dress. (The bear can be seen modeling my Mini Cherry Tophat here.) Unfortunately, I don't know where any pictures of either of my outfits are at this point in time, but I'll be sure to post them when I get the chance.

As you can probably guess, I didn't really get any compliments on my outfits, no one recognized me from such and so an anime, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed seeing everyone else's cosplays and outfits and had fun despite my lack of experience cosplaying. So this is to anyone who's never been to a convention before and is unsure if they have to dress up: Do whatever you want. If you feel comfortable dressing up in a costume in public, go for it. If not, don't worry. There's plenty of people who wear a anime themed T-shirt or a colorful wig and call it good. There's nothing wrong with that. There's also plenty of low quality cosplays. You don't have to look like Yaya Han to have fun cosplaying, just go for it and have fun. Have fun at any future conventions you choose to attend, Anime, Sci-fi, fantasy, or what have you and don't feel like you have to have an amazing costume to have fun.

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