Anime North 2015: Friday

After a year without going to fan conventions and skipping the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, I was excited about going to Anime North. It was my first time going to the event with hotel and a badge: the whole package. True to its brand, Anime North was the same as always.

Friday started with a long early morning bus ride with my big-ass cosplay in a bag and 2 good friends. We took the longer way from Kipling station because there are less people on that route. When we arrived at the location, we went to eat at Sushi Dragon. FYI: most of the eateries in the area had an "Anime Menu" for the weekend. Even Tim Hortons! That was new for me.

We were later greeted with the pre-registration line. One of my friends was a first time anime convention attendee: we warned her about the long line-ups at fan conventions. She was impressed with the line, I know it. It didn't take long for us to get the badge, check into the hotel, count our rations, freshen up, then head back to the Toronto Congress Centre (TCC) to get into the dealer's room and artist alley. That's when we were greeted with another line, but this time it was 5 times longer. The dealer's room line stretched across the whole TCC property and probably could have done so three times over. What sucked most was how cold it was that day.


Our rations



Half of the troops



What I can see without lifting the mouth of the costume



Lo Po Bia Ren cosplay from Tower of God

There was a random panel on Climate Change-- one of the least attended panels I've seen. There were only 5 people in the audience when I arrived and people left halfway through it. It didn't help that the presentation was exactly like an university lecture with the technical numbers. I was excited about it at first because I expected a brief Climate Change 101 and a Q&A session with a climate change expert with some geek twists to it. I left 10 minutes after I arrived. I'm already familiar with most of the information and I had the feeling that most of the people in the room were too. I think the presentation style of the Climate Change panel should have been catered towards the theme of the convention. It has so much potential! (If you were the panel host and you're reading this, give me a holler and we can work something out for next year.)

I didn't take many pictures on Friday because I was on a mission to buy things and to chill as much as possible. Most of my time was spent watching Elmo wrestle (heck ya) and standing in lines for my registration card, entering buildings, and buying food.

At the end of the day, we relaxed in the hotel.

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Anime North 2015 Album