One of the things I love about anime conventions (or any convention for that matter) are the invasion of cosplayers. It was awesome seeing Downtown San Jose being infested and taken over by cosplayers and my fellow geeks and weebs. People might have been pissed by the traffic we caused and the endless lines we induced at restaurants, but we felt dominant! Made the city as “nigiyaka” (so to say) as San Fransisco is every night. It just made those four days and three nights so fun, and now that everything’s quieted down and returned to normal, I’m having post-con depression. 😛 I want Downtown Weebland again, dammit!

That being said, there were many great cosplays this year. I stopped to take a picture of almost every one of my favorite characters and shows whenever I came across them, but this is basically a list of my very favorite ones during the weekend. To those who didn’t make it into this blog post, I’d like to say that you definitely all made it to my Facebook albums. Just very wonderful memories overall.

First up on the list is a very stunning Black Magician Girl cosplay from Yuu☆gi☆ou. The cosplayer was absolutely adorable (and to be completely honest I was trying to not make it obvious that she sent my heart aflutter; didn’t help that BMG is basically mai waifu of YGO, so that added to it) but was clearly tired from walking around all day, so I took a photo of her sitting down. Wanted a pose of BMG holding her hat, but apparently that thing was wired to her wig. LOL

Wonder if she read the manga? Either way, this was one of the best cosplays of Black Magician Girl I’ve seen in person.

And this! To be honest, I didn’t see this one coming. I was just taking a picture of a cosplay of Satoshi from Pocket Monsters while Mr. Lex was talking to someone about VNs near MangaGamer’s booth, when suddenly I see Rikka, Shinka, and Dekomori walking along the Dealer’s Hall.

I absolutely love the fact that they were in-character. I’ve seen a picture of them with a sleeping Kumin, but unfortunately I caught them without their fourth friend. Either way, I took a picture of something great. Mr. Lex has a better quality photo (not having to take pictures on a 3DS), so I might post it on the Twitter sometime in the future.

It’s not like I like you or anything!

Taiga Aisaka from Toradora!. That tsundere pose was just so perfect.

Automatic 10/10. Kind of wished the second shot didn’t have the other photographers’ hands in them though.

NYAA~

This cute girl was cosplaying as Azunyan Azusa Nakano from K-ON! She totally has the nyan~ part down. Overall, it was a great outfit and her nyaning poses almost gave me a heart attack.

nyan

After spending days at the convention not seeing a single Sanosuke Sagara cosplay from Rurouni Kenshin, I found the best thing ever. Not only was this guy chill, he was totally in-character, coincidence or not. I asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the rave, “wherever that is“.

I’m calling it. This guy’s the real fcking Sanosuke. No lies.

お前のドリルで天を突け!

This man cosplaying as Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann might possibly be the coolest guy I’ve ever met. Never have I taken an inspiring photo such as this one. Even with the crappy 3DS quality, I feel like piercing the heavens with my drill.

Walking the path to heaven

And here we have someone that is simply just walking the path to heaven, rather than piercing it. This is seriously a sweet cosplay of Kabuto’s Hyper Form from Kamen Rider Kabuto. It’s not everyday I get to shake hands with a Kamen Rider. Almost tops me seeing Batman take a piss in the bathroom and having a conversation with him. Only at cons, only at cons…

I’ve seen photos of Kamen Rider Kuuga wandering around the con, but unfortunately I didn’t run into him. It’s a shame. He was probably one cool gu- *shot*

C’mon. Try to tell me that isn’t kickass.

I approve of IRL Gendebent Mario. Though I’m pretty sure she’d be Italian!

While Final Fantasy XIII may have been the least enjoyable game for me in the series by far and my personal non-favorite, this is admittedly some pretty damn good cosplay.

Happy from Fairy Tail

This was seriously the only cosplay of Haruhi from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya that I saw at the con. It was pretty good, so I give the cosplayers props for that – I really wanted to see it.

Here’s some Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt for you guys. Probably one of the best ones of their regular outfits, in my opinion.

Madoka x Homura forever!!!

It’s Mei and Bel from Pocket Monsters Black & White 2. God bless the girl on the right for cosplaying as Mei, the most adorable Pokemon protagonist ever. She was seriously the only one that was cosplaying as Mei at the con, at least from what I saw. Everyone else cosplayed as her predecessor, Touko, from the original Pocket Monsters Black & White.

Here’s something for the Persona fans.

I personally think that this girl was the only cosplayer that captured the innocence of Cardcaptor Sakura without being an anime fan’s toddler.

Bonus points for making Sakura caramel.

Enjoy

Not cosplay, but I found this amusing.

Oogle to your eyes content! It’s Juliet from Lollipop Chainsaw. Truth be told, earlier at the con (like, on Friday), I saw an absolutely adorable girl cosplaying as the same character and I regretted not getting a photo simply because hnnnng. Though, honestly, this cosplay is a lot more faithful to the character than that one was.

Last but not least – something that made my heart melt.

Stay tuned for coverage on our experiences at the convention itself – the ups and the downs.

OH, WAIT:

THE ZELDA MEN!

DAT EPONA

How could I forget to mention the ZELDA MEN? You guys remember the Poke Men, right? Well, either these are the Zelda Men formally known as the Poke Men, or some other group is trying to upstage the Poke Men!

I love how the Postman from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess looks exactly the same as he did in the game. He was already half-naked and… tight. That’s so bad. xD