Anime USA 2014

This weekend past, was Anime USA. A local anime/manga enthusiast convention held in the Washington, D.C area. Having lived in the area, this was my first year ever attending. But what I can say.. This was the most fun I've had at a con yet.

Thursday night, it took me forever to get my con bag packed and ready to go. I was going to ride metro for the first time ever in cosplay and it just so happened to be Sailor Moon.

On Friday, I arrived their pretty early and to my surprise it was in a really nice hotel. The con is held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, literally down the street from the National Zoo. It was fairly close to metro (which was a plus) and once again the hotel was fantastic.

I picked up my badge (like at any other con) which looked like this:

After picking up my badge I walked around a bit (after adjusting my cosplay) trying to see if I could find anyone I knew. Because it was still early nothing was open yet, not even the dealer hall. I didn't want to go outside as it was pretty chilly (and a short skirt + chill = no bueno) so I stopped by a little cafe they had and got some pineapples and juice and plopped back down on a couch and took a selfie. 

By this time people were beginning to pour into the convention. I decided to wander around a bit more and that's when I wandered into this wonderful person!

Meet Tara! She completely made her costume and did the make-up and everything and boy did she look cool. She was basically wandering the con alone while her friends were still sleeping so we decided to adventure together.

And here's my Sailor Moon! 

She was there for the Schwarz Stein concert (as was I and my 15 year old self.) So she basically dressed in Visual Kei style the whole weekend.

They had a Q & A panel Friday and Saturday was the concert. We basically walked around the whole con together Friday before the Q & A panel. Since the panel wasn't until 7pm, we decided to stop at the maid cafe. Didn't get photos (as photos weren't allowed unless you were paying) but I did sneak a cute video of one of the maids getting up and dancing! 

They were all so adorable. Our maid's name was Ayu and she was just super cute~ I would definitely come back. Honestly, Maid Cafe's should be a thing in the US, I would definitely work at one~

Finally came the panel. I swear Hora and Kaya of Schwarz Stein were the cutest ever! There were no photos allowed their either unless you were official press, but the memories from that session are definitely enough. I swear I think me and Hora made eye contact alot. (fangirls inside) And I still can't believe someone asked them "Boxers or briefs?" I even built up the courage to ask a question, but it sort of bombed (wasn't that great) and I'm still sad.

After their Q&A came a autograph session and omg, I'm so glad I was able to. I wish I had more money to actually buy something, cause I felt terrible handing them a piece of paper like here! But either way I was just glad to get their autograph and shake their hands. Hora told me he liked my Sailor Moon cosplay, so I got a feeling he likes magical girls!

I left shortly after that on Friday because I was exhausted. I think I slept super hard that night after breaking down my costume and make-up and sadly, I didn't wake up as super early on Satuday since the boyfriend and I were going to ride together.

On Saturday I was going to be Harley Quinn, so I woke up at 11am showered, and began to the delicate (and horrible) process of applying cheap white face paint in preparation for my Harley face. Even though the face paint was cheap and I had to set it with a shit load of white eye shadow, I think it turned out pretty nice.

I even found and took a selfie with another Harley!

And I met with Tara again that day (way later after a hour of looking because I lost my boyfriend somewhere lol).

We went to the Schwarz Stein concert at 6pm that night and OMG, it was amazing! I held my composure because I was pretty beat after walking around the con all day, but inside I was flailing and screaming like a loco woman. I missed a song at the beginning of the concert, and apparently Kaya fell and broke a heel but I came in as Hora was "entertaining" the crowd. Lol he is such a dork, but so cool!

The concert went on and was so amazing, I even got to high-five Hora's hand! I jumped (to jump over a crowd) to high-five him, and missed but he saw that and waited for me and I swear I almost fainted. lol It was so awesome! Definitely a memory for the ages.

After the con, I met up with my BF again, got food, then lost him again and wandered around the con some more. I went down to the game room finally and whooped at least 4 guys in Marvel vs. Capcom. I met up with Tara again in her room and drank some wine (wound up spilling half of it, sadly) but nonetheless drank more and we wandered around the con for 2 hours pretty drunk. It was fun, but sadly a few people got some drunken photos haha.

Anyways, I wound up not going Sunday as I wound up spraining my ankle, but apparently I didn't miss too much. But overall that was a great and fun con! 

Not too many complaints~ 10/10 would recommend people to come to.

Now, I'm just preparing myself for Katsucon in February 2015.

Here's my entire Anime USA gallery: 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin