CNAnime 2005

So I missed CNAnime 2004 last year because I couldn't afford missing 3 days of work. I wanted to skip CNAnime this year too, for the same reason, but all work and no play is very unhealthy. I needed a mini-vacation from the drudgery of work. Especially when your girlfriend wants to go with you.. It wasn't a "maybe" or "kinda", it was a definite "YESH! Let's go to CNAnime!!"

From that point on, it was decided: CNAnime, here we come!
It wasn't just an anime convention, more precisely, it's called The Canadian National Expo, which includes the comic book, science fiction, horror and gaming expos. The more, the merrier =)

CELEBRITIES
It's not an expo without all the famous people. The most famous person there would have been Elijah Wood. However, it costs $80 just for a ticket to see him and to get his autograph. Sold out tickets only tells you that A LOT of people love Elijah Wood. Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) was there too. I took a picture of my gf standing beside her hunk. (Then I tore up that life sized cardboard cutout of Kevin Sorbo after it tried to flirt with her). Ok, so it's not the real Hercules, that would have cost $25 >=(. My idols at the convention would be the Red vs Blue crew. Here they are, holding a little Q/A conference before showing episode 58. You sure as hell can't miss the giant walking Pikachu, so we took a picture with him too. PIKACHU! I CHOOSE YOU!

COSPLAY
As with all anime/gaming/comic book/sci fi/horror conventions, a lot of people dress up as characters. I would never dress up as anyone, although people have noted that I look like Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina such that I don't even have to dress up. Here's my friend Kevin, dressed up as a Jedi Knight, may the force be with you.. As in, good luck, cause I think this other Jedi is about to kick your ass. Sub Zero and Kitana from Mortal Kombat were at the convention too, picking some fights. Scorpion, however, trying to pick up some girls. There was even someone who dressed up as a Listerine bottle!! He looks ready to kick badbreath's ass. My favorite would be the Metal Gear Solid Guard. He was carrying a stick with two signs on his back, one with the an ! (exclaimation mark) alerting everyone that he sees Solid Snake, and the other with a "ZZZzzzz..." sign, signifying that he really needs his sleep, even in the middle of an anime convention.

MONEY SPENT WELL
The dealer's room at CNAnime is the whole second floor. Anime North can never compete with the Metro Toronto Convention Centre's massive space. Let's see, first off, I bought a few plush toys to add to my collection of sleeping pals (ok that sounded very girlish and kiddish, but they're really cool, like Kakashi Hatake). I also bought a Naruto wallscroll, it's so colourful!! And for the dark side of me, I bought a bunch of figruines (they were really heavy). A complete set of spawn figurines (the Spawn variants and the villans), Glitch Bob and Megabyte (from Reboot), and Revolver Ocelot. To support Red vs Blue, I bought all 3 seasons DVDs, they signed them for free too =).

SATURDAY NIGHT
Saturday is the day two of the biggest attractions are shown: the music video contest and the masquerade. My two favourite music videos would be: Mood Rings / Mood Rings V2 (Award for Best Comedy) and A Hunter's Requiem (WARNING: very dark and graphic, you may get nightmares from watching it). If you want to watch them but too lazy to sign up for an account, just ask me to send them to you, (you lazy bastard). Every year, the Masquerade never fails to entertain. It was 3 hours long yet I only took a few pictures. Here's one of the Rayment twins from The Matrix: Reloaded. There were 3 Joker and Harlequin couples. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the first couple, but here's the second, and the third couple, who did a little dance together before he proposed to her on stage. Teminator and T1000 from Terminator 2 were battling on stage.. you can already guess who won (just watch the movie if you haven't already). Solid Snake is pictured here, planting a porn magazine to distract guards as he walks around them in his little box, but his instincts take over and he goes back for the magazines.

THE END
At the end of the last day, everything was taken down, everyone packed their bags and said goodbye. Within an hour after the end of the expo, the dealer's room became nothing but a big empty room with forklifts carrying stuff away. Everything disappeared like a ghostly image, kind of like this picture of Keitaro and Su as they're leaving the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. CNAnime was so cool, we had lots of fun and spent lots of money. Never again will I spend so much in the span of 3 days... Until next year =)