About a month ago, my friend, Samantha Butler, told me about an anime convention in Nashville, Tennessee called AkaiCon.  She asked me if I was willing to go with her, and with a smug face, I said ‘yes’ (assuming that my mom would let me go). Three weeks of constant procrastination later, I finally asked my parents if I could go, and luckily, they gave me their blessing.  With only a week left until the convention, I had a lot to do, from preparing my Pocahontas cosplay to packing my things.

One week later, I had everything together in time to leave for the convention.  With a heavy heart, my mother sent me off, and my sister drove me over to Samantha’s house so her parents could drive us to Nashville. One hour later,we were at the Millennium Maxwell Hotel in Tennessee, where the convention was to take place.

DAY ONE

Right after we arrived, Sam and I headed up to our hotel room. Sam began putting together her cosplay, as I just sat and took a bunch of useless pictures. After Sam got ready, we ran down to the elevator and headed to the panel hallway, amongst us was a sea of beautiful, well-dressed cosplayers, greeting us with nice words and compliments.

Soon after, we dashed to the panel room hosted by Tiffany Grant (the voice actor most known for her role as Asaka from the well-known anime program, Neon Genesis Evangilion).  Not only was she super funny and really nice, but she also signed my dollar bill (which was really nice considering that defacing US currency may be illegal).

Shortly after that panel ended, Sam and I were wandering around looking for a new place to go, considering the Tiffany Grant panel was the only one she’d really planned on seeing that day. In the midst of our thoughts, we heard heavenly music that soon took us to the Music Room, and low and behold, it was Professor Shyguy, self described as the “poor nerd’s Justin Timberlake,” which rang surprisingly true.  His vocals and guitar skills were admirable, and his rendition of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” (per MY request)  gave me goose bumps.  Since we came late to the panel, we only had time to listen to about five songs until the performance ended, and we slowly found our way back upstairs.

From there, we attended other panels like Akaicon News and a Creepy Pasta event until well after midnight, when we realized it was time for bed.

DAY TWO

After our whirlwind of a first day, Sam and I decided to start our second morning off by preparing our cosplays. Sam went as  Saki from Kakumeiki  Valvrave, and I went as Pocahontas.  My nerves were on edge.  This was the first cosplay I’d ever completed, and I was nervous about a number of things–the most important being that I left my eyelash glue at home, and I was afraid that the wood glue I used in its place would rip my eyelids off (luckily it didn’t).

We headed downstairs with no time to spare in an effort to start off with the dealer’s room. Walking in, I was easily over-stimulated  by the many things that were being sold– endless amounts of Asian snacks, mass quantities of homemade goodies, and unreal merch. I bought so many things from food to key chains.  I instantly felt a wave of happiness.

Floating from the dealer’s room, Sam and I waltzed into the Adventure Time panel.  It started out with a general discussion of the show with questions asked/answered, to watching one of my favorite episodes (Card Wars), to everyone gathering in the center of the room while Chris Davis performed “Oh Marceline” while we all clapped and sang along. Looking back, the whole thing feels like a dream filled happy people, smiling faces and Lemongrab impressions– and overall, it was my favorite panel. Next on the agenda was the “Naruto: Ask a Ninja” panel, and it proved exceptional.  The panel run by knowledgeable fans of the show, and they were hilarious.  Their cosplays were definitely en pointe.

In between, Sam and I probably ran in and out of the dealer’s room four or five times– so much that we got acquainted with many of the sellers there.  One being Brittany Molnar– a brilliant cosplayer as well as an artist who runs an Etsy shop called “The Obsidian Arrow” that specializes in Lolita fashion!  She was super nice, funny and cool to be around, and the phone case I purchased from her is the cutest thing I’ve ever had in my possession (and that says a lot).

Moving from there within the dealer’s room, we stumbled our way into a very lovely lady named Jessica.  She was donning probably one of the best Miley Cyrus cosplays we had ever seen. She was manning a booth for the band “The Man Power” (who we didn’t get to see live because we had to leave early).  At the booth we had a quick chat with Jessica and Chris (from the Adventure Time Panel earlier), and they were both so nice and willing to speak to us.  We were stunned by how cool they were, and we’d only talked to them for about ten minutes.

After another hour or so of walking around from panel to panel, we soon realized that it was time to leave the convention  and head back to Alabama, which we weren’t too happy about.  And, in comparison to the other conventions we’d been to, we agreed that this one was the best.  The cosplays and the panels great, but the overwhelming sense of community at this convention was higher than any other we’ve seen. Everyone seemed to welcome each other with open arms– creating a bond that was unimaginable!

Akaicon, overall, was a convention to be remembered and we’re definitely returning next year.

Links to the cool people we got to meet:

Akaicon Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AkaiCon.go?directed_target_id=0

The Man Power (band): https://www.facebook.com/TheManPower

Professor Shyguy: https://www.facebook.com/ProfessorShyGuyMusic

Brittany Molnar: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheObsidianArrow?ref=shop_sugg

Lady D: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LolitaDreamland?ref=shop_sugg