The second Kitacon anime convention took place 26th to 28th March 2010 in Northampton. My girlfriend and I went, having been last year to the first Kitacon myself and enjoying it. Although I didn't get many pictures (I'm a bit shy to ask!), I'd like to share them and my experiences from the convention.
Our cosplays between my girlfriend and I over the weekend included Ribbons Almark from Gundam 00, two different versions of genderbent Mio Akiyama and Ritsu Tanaka from K-On!, Asuka Langley Soryuu from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Misty from Pokemon. The Misty cosplay naturally attracted the most attention, although wearing the K-On! outfits was the most fun. Would love to get a larger group of K-On! cosplayers together.
Highlights from the Friday for us included singing Cruel Angel's Thesis in the karaoke room, watching the HITT concert and enjoying the evening's rock party. It was a shame more people weren't dancing to HITT - put your cameras down and enjoy the music! Found the Pikachu and Totoro stickers a little worrying though, if you were there you'll know what I'm on about!
We got up early on Saturday in order to hit the dealers room as soon as it opened. A lot of familiar dealers were present and as we'd been to the Midlands MCM Expo a month beforehand, there wasn't much new that caught our eye. Afterwards we joined the queue for the bring and buy - took a whole hour to get in! I picked up the original Japanese version of Otsu! Tatakae! Oendan but didn't find any figures to get apart from an Asuka Langley Soryuu figure for my girlfriend.
In the afternoon we went away from the convention to find a local comic shop, which resulted in a retro figure buy of Kei from Dirty Pair flash. It also resulted in a not too pleasant lunch from British Home Stores. Not recommended! Later on we took part in the para para lessons and the pub quiz. Various random questions were asked and answered, although seeking clarification on which series of shinkansen they wanted the fastest speed of resulted in a comically long expression from Scrowny! Later on we went to some of the Harajuku night but were pretty worn out by then, so took an early night.
After a lay-in on Sunday and a lazy morning, we took part in the live anime dub. We dubbed a clip from Hetalia along the lines of "Daddy! I saw a girl in this anime!" and introducing him to women through the borrowing of 'special' material... would make a good Youtube video, shame it wasn't recorded! After more chilling, random Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band games and the closing ceremony we dressed up for the prom.
It was a shame that a lot of the events weren't on time and some randomly moved. Missed the mahjong tutorial, the anime in Fance panel and Gothika who couldn't come. Despite this, we had a great time and loved talking to people familiar and unfamiliar. If you were one of those people, we hope to see you again at some point in the future!
