6 Things I Learned at AWA 2011

I spent the weekend at AWA this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I came back so jazzed on awesome fun-time energy that my roller derby coach asked me last night if I'd had a lot of caffeine before practice. I said yes, but really I was just hardcore nerding out, still.

I learned a lot this year and I'm already preregistered for next year. So here it is. 6 Things I Learned at AWA 2011.

1. Get an early judging or you'll wait in line FOREVER.
Last year we were super rushed and running between hotels in uber-hot Cosplay to make judging, so we decided to get the latest judging time possible. Bad idea. They were so far behind at 1:45 that we didn't get out of judging until almost 3:30. We lost so much of our day. Here is a photo Kyle took of Kain, Rydia, and Rosa (me) texting and primping because we were so bored and tired of standing.

2. More people know Team Fortress 2 than Eden of the East.
My husband was dressed as a character that would have been obscure if he was not standing next to me, it's true. The show we cosplayed Friday, Eden of the East, is new. The 2nd movie JUST came out in English and the 3rd isn't even out in Japan. Still, a few people knew I was Diana Kuroha and someone even said "Poor Johnny," indicating that our joke wasn't too niche to be understood by anyone.

Kyle was "Johnny", otherwise known as my victim. I was Kuroha, a side character in EotE who is a serial killer. That said, far more people screamed "SPY!" at Kyle and he was dragged into photos with Team Fortress 2 Cosplays. He went along with it and found out from our friend Ryan what kinds of things he could say. Kyle gave up on making sure people knew who he was and just shouted "GENTLEMAN!" in reply. He was a good sport.

3. Adventure Time gender-bent is way more popular than the rest of the show in its entirety.
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake had ONE gender-swap episode. It starred Neil Patrick Harris and was amazingly funny. I saw far more Fionnas than Finns and 2 Prince Bubblegums, compared to the one Princess Bubblegum. This group pictured won my heart because they had a Monochromicorn.

4. Speaking of Adventure Time, if you can't sew, make giant cardboard costumes of beloved cartoon characters and you will be just as epic!
We ran into a super-cute pair of Peppermint Butler (who I suspect is a secret badass) and Beamo (the adorable portable game system) from Adventure Time with Finn and Jake.

They had to have a handler to make sure that doors were not a problem and to make sure that lack of peripheral vision and auditory perception did not take away photo ops, but I saw TONS of pics of them in people's albums on the AWA boards. They were amazing and epic and I give them mad props for thinking of these characters to Cosplay.

6. Yaya Han is Appearance 5, Charisma 5.

We met Yaya Han last year at her booth on Sunday. Some time since then, my friend Anna ran into Yaya and some friends at Eddie's Trick Shop in ATL. She suggested a bakery to her, because the ice cream place was closed, and so Anna got to go have cupcakes with Yaya Han. She gushed about how friendly and nice she was. This year we were winners in the Cosplay contest and had our picture taken with her. She was incredibly friendly, answered my question about her light-up wings, and the guys with us were rendered nearly speechless.

Yaya Han is an AMAZING costumer. If you are unfamiliar with her work, you need to go check it out. What brings her above and beyond other epic Cosplayers is that she not only has the figure to carry off anime proportions, but a personality that shines through every costume. You can't help but like her. 

Of course there are some immature girls on boards that hate on her out of jealousy. I say that if you have met her in person, it is impossible to not like her.

6. Dr. Who is really popular. OMG.

For an anime convention I saw a heck of a lot of Doctors. I also saw a metal, mobile K9 unit being dragged about by a classic Doctor, an Angel, and a few companions. This one was a pretty good resemblance to the current (11th) Doctor. We assume he was there to flirt with girls.

I'll leave you with one last picture...
We had the opportunity to have some great photos taken by Ken AD at AWA. He offered his services to Cosplayers for free. We are going to have a mass of epic, beautiful photos of our Saturday Cosplay for Anna Heim's costuming portfolio.

Check out his work at his DeviantArt and check out a photoshop I did of one of his images, below. I am Rosa; Rydia is played by Anna Heim.