Anime Weekend Atlanta

So this weekend, on Saturday, I took my eldest daughter Kylie down to the Cobb Galleria Center just outside Atlanta for the convention called Anime Weekend Atlanta. My daughter is obsessed with all things Japanese, but especially Anime (animated films from Japan) and Manga (graphic novels from Japan).

Personally I love Japanese culture, and even incorporate some of it into my current WIP (like Aikido, a martial art, Kenjutsu, another martial art, Calligraphy, the ancient form of writing known as Kanji, and Zen Buddhism). However, this kind of nerd fest would not normally be my thing (I rock my nerd card proudly, I'm just shy and afraid dork overload), but I went anyway, because I love my daughter, she had been planning on attending for weeks, and her friend and friend's mother had bailed on her.

So we gathered our cash, printed our registration forms, loaded the Honda and hit the road. We drove 30 minutes or so to Atlanta, found the convention, parked at the top of a huge garage and headed in. Things got weird pretty quickly.

I'll share some photos we took at the event with you all. It won't be quite as awesome as Shannon Shame, but it will have to do.

This was taken soon after we arrived. That's Kylie standing next to a young man dressed up as Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hopefully he's the kid from the show, because she hated the film.

Sorry for the blurriness but our camera is not the best. This is a young lady and another person of unknown gender dressed up as Naruto and Kakashi from the Anime TV show: Naruto: Shippuden. Naruto is Kylie's favorite show and she loved these characters, even though neither one is her absolute favorite.

This was just really creepy. Apparently these costumes have something to do with the video game Silent Hill. To me they're just gross.

This one has a great story behind it. The guy in white is from the video game Assasin's Creed. I'm not positive but I believe he is Altair from the first game, rather than Ezio from the second. The story is that we noticed him in the hall, and I pointed him out to Kylie (this was when she was still being really nervous and shy, and wouldn't let me take any photos). So he apparently heard me point him out, because he snuck up behind us and followed us like an assassin for a while. He freaked Kylie out a little, but then she laughed and let me take the picture.

The kid is another one of hundreds of Naruto.

This one really creeps me out. That's Kylie. She's wearing the color contacts that she bought at the convention which make her eyes look like cat's eyes. It is really freaky.

Kylie writes a lot of fan fiction. Her favorite stories are based on the Naruto universe but include an original character she made up: Mononoke Tsumami. She is a female ninja who turns into a demon when she grows angry. I wish she would write more completely original stories, but I must say I'm happy that she writes at all. Kylie spent her own money to get these things, and she scared the crap out of mom at home later.

Here she is with a woman dressed up as Gaara from Naruto. I bought Kylie a cheap knock off Kimono with a fake Obi, but she loved it and it was a great leverage device to get her to pose for more photos.

This one is my all time favorite. I'm not sure what these two dudes were doing at the Anime convention but I loved their costumes so much I HAD to share. For those who don't know that's Hunter S. Thompson and his psychotic attorney from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the film which stars two of my favorite actors: Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Great novel, great film, great writer. Hunter S. Thompson was probably not a very good person, but he was a great writer and you can't deny his impact on popular culture.

We left the convention as the sun began to slip toward the horizon, and guess what? We (I) had left the headlights on (the poor Honda no longer has a headlight alarm) and the battery was dead. Luckily we were saved shortly after by a young man who had his own original character. He was some kind of Wizard with an awesome staff, but we loved him mostly for his kind heart, and his car battery.

So that's all the photos and stories I have to share. I didn't get much writing done this weekend. I need to get on that. How did you all spend your time away from the daily grind?