Yama-Con 2015: A Pirates Life Fore Me!!! Saturday!

                                       Saturday!
        At most 3-day cons all the big stuff goes down on Saturday, Yama-con is no different. There was concerts and gaming tournaments, photo shoots galore! Anything you wanted to do while at Yama-con probably happened on Saturday.
Ok enough build up. How was my Saturday? 
Why thank you for asking I would love to tell you ^_^ 
We had planned to spend pretty much our entire day in Fan Panel A. The schedules I had printed out had our first panel (Con Crash Course) at 11:15 however we soon realized that wasn't going to happen since we got out of our hotel room at 10:30 and still had to eat and get through Pigeon Forge traffic. (Backed up 1 mile for Krispy Kream doughnuts, we didnt even want doughnuts -_-)
So sadly we missed the Con Crash Course, I am certain somewhere in there the host probably says "Leave your hotel with plenty of time to get to the con!" but hey, stuff happens.
Next up was the always charming Sword Art Online panel, because who doesn't want to sit in a room full of Kirito and Asuna cospayers? I didn't see a Klein though :'(
Anyways, as soon as we got to the door we saw the schedule had changed. SAO got switched with Welcome To Anteiku which I am sure would have made more sense if I knew what that was. We ending up not staying for the entire SAO panel after all of that, I was feeling a little claustrophobic.  
After that we went to the Cosplay Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wanted to get a clear shot so unfortunately I was standing in the back of the room with my camera on zoom so sorry if the pictures aren't as clean as they could have been. I am still an amateur but I feel really bad. These cosplayers were so good! 

 The way that her wings sparkled when the light hit them was amazing! I wish I had gotten a picture of it for you :/

 The twirl was perfect, her skirt and cape both spun out in a gorgeous manor.

 Where oh where is the wolf at?

 I personally love all forms of Jack Frost so this got a thumbs up from me. Not to mention a Pikachu and an Apple Jack!

 I dont even know what she is but I know she had some awesome poses.

 I had a different picture I was gonna use but I love the scythes shadow in this one, very character accurate.

 My fellow FMA fans! Take me with you! I heard that she hand drafted the patterns. I copied some and that was hard, I can only imagined how skilled she is. :)

 This guy. His costume was amazing!!! The armor was detailed very nicely and the sword was huge! I am just sitting here thinking, "Walking around Walmart dressed like that would be fun.".

 This girl somehow got her friends to be zombies and chase/shamble(?) around after her.  It was adorable.

 Spirited Away cosplays... The stage crew really impressed me with this, they helped the duck (Sorry if thats not what you are ) on and off of the stage.

 And naturally we have a few wonderful HomeStuckians :D

 I don't know what this is but I am pretty sure she can fly... Sewing those sleeves would have confused me so mad respect for the maker! And sadly I recorded the rest of the contest so no more pictures.... I know, its sad... Don't cry! I have other pictures!

Like these ;)

 That time when I fangirled in the hallway because someone represented one of my fandoms.
(Seraph of The End, The one is "Yuu" and I cannot remember the other ones name. I know he is a well known vampire though."

I am going to explain something real fast, k?
Alright. So Saturday night is the concert night, which is awesome if thats your thing. It isn't my thing, in fact I had never been to a concert because of how much they scared me. All of that changed thanks to The Slants.
Earlier that day in a bit of our down time we went to the dealers room, during that time there was a big panel going on so it was pretty dead. We saw two of The Slants band members sitting at their table just chilling so I thought "Hey, that would make a cool picture!" so I went over to their booth. I asked if I could take their picture and they were totally cool with it, which sadly I can't seen to find the photos I took which is really depressing.
After that they kinda just had a normal conversation with Heiwa and I. They asked if we were gonna go to their concert and all I could say was "Maybe." and to my surprise they asked why so I got to tell them about my fear of being surrounded by people, dark rooms, loud noises, strangers, talking in front of people etc. At the end of the conversation they said that if there was only like fifteen people in the room I should definitely come or that I should try going on stage because no one would be up there.
To me that meant a ton. They were human and they were really cool guys to just talk to. I know it probably wasn't as important to them but it helped me grow as a person. So Saturday night I went to my first concert, because they had invited me and I wanted to support them. I was in a dark room with loud music surrounded by people and lights and I survived! In fact, I thrived.
Glad I ended up loving their music!  So here are my favorite pictures from the concert. No lie I took over 200 pictures and a few videos.

                                     He was on our side of the stage playing Guitar, I think. (Right corner for me, left side for them)

                               I got a lot of pictures of the lead singer because he was very energetic and interactive, which makes for great photo opportunities.

 I ended up having a hard time getting photo's because the lights were constantly moving which would blind the camera or wash out the band. I still got a few good ones though.

 I love how you can literally see the emotion(?) in the music even through a picture.

 Stage dive time!!! This was really exciting, and a little scary for me because everyone had to squish in together. (There was maybe 50-60 of us) It was worth it though because he enjoyed himself :P
Also sorry to who ever was standing behind me when this happened! I didn't mean to step on you as I was backing away!

                                           A guitar over the head because hey, why not?

                                         This one looks divine. (See what I did there?)

 I adore this picture! I feel like it properly caught the essence of that moment. Which is really hard to explain if you weren't there.

 And this is the last picture, I got at least 20 pictures of him but this was one of the best ones. I wish the others had turned out better :/

Now you know why The Slants are my favorite band. They were my first concert and that will always make them special for me :)


That was pretty much the end of our Saturday, we checked out the rave a bit but we were pretty danced out already so we didn't stay. We did get to do another Conga line though!
Here are a few random pictures to end the post with :D

                                            Kitty!

                                       Tails and ears oh my!

                                               Definition of Kawaii?

                                                      Deadpool say what?

 

These guys were awesome  to see around the con. Always friendly and just so sweet towards eachother :)

 

 Aki signing off! Thanks for the read!!!!
Woof*
~Aki Ame Okami

  

Yama-Con 2015: A Pirates Life For Me!!!! (Friday)

                     My adventures started on Friday.

Early Friday morning I jumped out of bed, terrified and excited, not knowing what the weekend would hold. I am writing this to tell you what has happened and how it has changed me as a person. For the better :P

For starters I would just like to say that this was my first time cosplaying and I was terrified and unsure as to how it would turn out. This is what I went as on Friday. (It is my version of the Yama-Con mascot Yami (Fox pirate this year))

So sadly we got to Yama-Con late because our dear Heiwa had to go to her college class... I despise college -_-
We missed opening ceremonies but that was alright. I had gone through and made a color coded schedule for us so that no matter what happened we would know where everyone was.
After opening ceremonies we went to the Pokemon photo shoot.

 Now let me tell ya, I scheduled an hour for photo shoots. They took about five minutes... Because of this unplanned free time (I was so glad that we ended up having frequent down time.) I spent more time in the Merchants Room than when planned.

                        Oh Bassy O.O And a Ciel dressed as a cow!!!!! I almost started fangirling in the Merchants room XD

 We almost lost all our money on the first day, And by lost I mean spent.

It was a real struggle.... They had Ouran HighSchool Host Club posters that I wanted to get so badly... The only problem is I wanted to keep my money and I didn't want to explain why I had a poster of twins cuddling on my wall....

The other thing I really wanted was a bag, a sling bag, messenger bag, it didn't matter to me. I just wanted a cool bag that showed my love for anime. Sadly I have big plans for Christmas and couldn't afford anything. However I found something that was far better than any bag. (keep reading)

SHIZUO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did fangirl this time :P This cosplayer made my Friday.  Look at that stop sign! The craftsmanship! I didn't get a picture of it but shortly after we took the picture an Izaya ran up to him... The fact that I missed that photo-op will haunt me. Shizuo... <3

We also found this one in the Merchants Room. Kirito!!!!!! The sword was wonderfully made, I actually wish we had gotten a better picture of it. I felt really embarrassed asking for a picture  because for some reason my voiced squeaked. I guess I was aww struck :P A Shizuo, Izaya and a Kirito... Why wouldn't I be?

 We got to see this awesome guy with his awesome booth and its something we are looking into going to, I have never been fond of big cities so Atlanta is a little intimidating to me.

After the dealers room we went to the Iron Cosplay: Davy Back Boat Race
This event was really cool. It appears to be a Yama-Con original event (The iron cosplay part, I think :P ).
The took 3 teams of 4 and gave them random items, Some items that I recognized included tin foil, duct tape, wrapping paper, cardboard and I am sure that there were other items that I just didnt see. The winners got dealers room bucks (The lucky cosplayers...) and the not winners got donuts!!!! Sadly the only picture I got is of the announcer (Who also cosplayed) then I got caught up in the competition and forgot about the camera :P oopsie.

 

 After that we had another photo shoot, Noragami, which sadly we must have been in the wrong spot because we never saw them so we left to get dinner. We ate at Bellacino's as always :) It was delicious and filling. I did get funny looks though, my guess is they didnt recognize my cosplay. We ended up skipping the rave that evening cause of a "No bags" rule and we needed to keep ours with us. Since we skipped we did get to see some of the Con staff in action, I must say that I was very impressed with them. They kept to their rules and they were always around if you needed something and they were always so kind to us, even if we were hopelessly lost :P
A big thanks to the Con staff!!!! (Also please bring The Slants back next year! )
 
 
Any who, On to the Cosplay Highlights!!!
There were so many good cosplayers I think I will be putting together a seperate post about them :)
 
                      


                         They had their Black Butler cosplays on point!
There will be a seperate post about all the cosplayers so my favorites of the day will be featured here..... (Drum roll!!!!)  

  The Black Butler group!!!!!

 Shizuo takes second place.... Sorry about this photo, meant to ask but then we got mobbed by a group moving through the halls and then he was gone...

 To top off the post I am going to show you some of our glamour shots!!! These were taken on Saturday evening but I am just dying to post them :)
Heiwa as Hinata Hyuuga

 And me as Kiba Inuzuka.

I really enjoyed my Friday and it gave me a lot of confidence going into Saturday. It proved to me that this fandom is truly and accepting and loving family.

~Aki Ame Okami

Aki's Taste In Anime: The Do's and Don'ts

     **These are my opinions and guide lines**

Anime. It can be a lot of things, lets take a look at all the genre's available. 

• Comedy

The name sort of explains it. These anime usually have a light hearted plot that can kinda be unpredictable. They draw in other genres to keep things interesting sometimes.  
Examples: Ouran Highschool Host club

• Drama

This genre features lots of emotion and is commonly paired with romance and adventure. The plot is generally well developed and the characters have a lot of "Personal growth" throughout the anime. Meaning they realize their faults and grow stronger for the one they love etc.
Examples: Vampire Knight, Seraph of The End 

• Action

These anime usually lack a strong plot line and character development, however they make up for it by being overwhelmingly exciting and constantly drawing in other genres.
Examples: Naruto, Bleach, One Piece 

• Adventure (There is a difference between action and adventure)

First thing that comes to my mind is...(drum roll)... FILLERS!!!
Sadly yes, Adventure series seem to go on forever! They are well worth the wait though! Adventure series usually give a sense of fulfillment at the end that is hard to find in some shorter one season animes. ( I Am talking to you, makers of Ouran HighSchool Host Club!)
Examples: FullMetal Alchemist, Pokemon (When is Ash going to grow up?), Attack on Titan

• Love/Romance

I don't watch a lot of Romance anime mostly because it ruins my expectations of real people, this is what I have gathered though.
Romance anime features a lot of complicated emotion that usually isn't tackled in other animes. You end up becoming emotionally attached to one character or another and you find yourself cheering on your favorite couple and feel a sense of achievement when they finally end up together! (Or totally crushed when you find out the ship has sailed.)
Examples: Again, Ouran HighSchool Host Club(Remember all those sub genres that comedy has? Yeah.)
Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy Wa Machigatteiru

• Josei

This genre is very new to me, I haven't seen anything that is in this genre however I hear it is supposed to portray the realist side of relationships and life as apposed to the Shojo glittery eyes and fairytale themes.

• Horror/Gore

This doesn't actually mean scary, what it really means is blood and lots of it. Have you ever watched Sci Fi's Halloween line up? Yeah.
There is usually a good plot and decent characters however when they get in a fight and die they don't come back like in most anime.
In fact their death statement probably says "They found most of him".
Examples: Attack On Titan, Tokyo Ghoul (haven't watched), Death Note(More on the mystery side)

• Demons   

This may seem like it is a minor theme, which I suppose it is a sub plot but eh, its on the list! This sub plot genre is seen a lot in anime, everything from good ole Inuyasha to Black Butler. It just ends up being a plus to have a Demon with infinite powers that is really hard to kill, apparently. 

• Examples: Blue Exorcist, Soul Eater, The Devil is a Part-Timer

That is all I am going to cover for Genre's because I won't really be covering much else. I know that there are some more intense genres like Yaoi, Yuri, Harem and that type of stuff but I see no need for those. Sorry if that's your favorite type of anime, its just not my cup of tea.

Ok, Now for my anime standards!!! Yay, you get to look inside my brain! Be careful O.o

Do's

• Do have interesting characters and a good plot line.
• Do continuously show improvement in either the status of the problem or the characters.
• Do give me something to ship, it's not needed but it makes things a little more fun in the fandom.
• Do have a good ending.
• Do teach me something. I don't care if its something about myself that I didn't know before or if its some fun fact about Japan.
• Do be something that I am proud to talk about no matter where I am.

Don'ts

• Don't be cussing. I don't respect it or put up with it, I usually look for subbers who don't sub the cuss words but dubbing is getting worse and worse with it.
• Don't have trashy dressed characters. I expect people to have practical clothing. No one wins a battle in high heels and a mini skirt. If its all about accentuating the wrong things then I am NOT  interested.
• Don't go off and kill characters all willy nilly, (One word. Neji) If you kill off 20 characters and then bring them back how am I supposed to cope when you actually kill someone! Its like whack a mole. He's over there! Nope he is gone, Wait he is back. Nope gone again.
• Don't give me a bad ending. If its only had one season and that ended with a cliff hanger, you better finish it. I am an Otaku and I need closure!
• Don't play for the fans. If your heart isn't in it than don't do it. We love it because you love it.

So by now if you are wondering "What does this person watch?!" Here is your answer. I watch good wholesome anime, occasionally I might watch something that breaks one of these rules but that will usually be because I am cleaning and just turned something on. Or if I am doing a sponsored review and I have to watch it. Trust me, I don't always enjoy myself. :P

No matter what I hold myself accountable. So here are some of my sideline animes, Where I watched some but didn't finish because they broke to many rules.

• Blue Exorcist

This anime was good starting out, it was so entertaining and kept me on my toes. Then the red headed swordswoman got added to the show and they just pushed it to far. I love my twins, but that I would not watch.

• Naruto Shippuden

They didn't cuss in the early Naruto because it was aired on Cartoon Network and other kids stations. At the end and into Shippuden it grew into an unneeded and overused form of communication.

• Parasyte. Lets just say that one didn't last long at all -_-

• Tokyo Ghoul, Episode one and its already a failure.

• Psycho Pass really pushed its limits and something tells me if I go back and watch some of the episodes I missed, it would be at the top of my list of sidelines.

• Soul Eater, I love the art style **but** Tsubaki and Black Star really ran my standards into the ground.

• Deadman Wonderland, I have always had a fascination with prison/ camp related themes so I was interested in this anime. However Shiro's morph suit (given it is more covering than some, its just tighter than some) and the language swiftly doused the flame of fascination. 

• Durarara!!! is pending, its not even the language. Its Celty. Her jumpsuit is somewhat tight as well. There are slightly more suggestive themes (which is a no-no) and it is breaking the "Don't write for the fans" rule. IMO.

• Fairy Tail 

The first episode of this anime is an awful representation of this anime. For it to be focused on the guild and how much of a family they are the first episode really focuses on all the wrong things -_- 

Basically what I am trying to say is, don't think you have to watch the same anime as everyone else! You have options! There are classy anime out there. I recommend Howl's Moving Castle and Wolf Children, even though they are movies. They will give you the right feeling for what anime should feel like.

I am always here to help you find something new to watch, or to help you make what you watch now, better. 

I hope you learned something new today and that it got you thinking.

Also if I offended you, don't take it personally. I am really a nice person. (Sarcasm)
Honestly though, I didn't mean any harm.

Sincerely
            ~ Aki Ame Okami

Morganton-Con 2015!!!!!!!

                      Its Con time again!!

First I would like to say, when people tell you to not wait till last minute, LISTEN TO THEM! Sorry didn't mean to yell....

I stayed up until 2 A.M. (the morning of the Con) trying to finish my Kiba cosplay. I made 2 shoes (Traditional ninja sandal things), A kunai pouch (Turned out way to big because I couldn't find any good patterns. Winged it :P ) and a Ninja forehead protector. I did some minor things like attaching fur to a coat and sharpening nails, making fangs, etc.  I did all of that on Friday. What a day :P

Back on topic.
Morganton Comic Con   Is a smaller local con that really has that small town charm that was kinda lacking at Hickory-Con. Sadly my late night made me a bit forgetful this morning and I forgot my camera, I only have after pictures. Sorry :(
Any who I still can tell you about the vendors!!

• Zexainia Sutcliff

This was an art table that had some really cool pieces. The vendor herself cosplayed an original character of hers based off of the anime Bleach. She looked really awesome and had a real zanpakuto sword! (Long sword used by soul reapers)
Her art was on point, I saw a many of my favorite characters in her work. She also does commission work. (At least I think that's what her sign said, I was super busy looking at her art.. She draws Sebastian Michaelis very well. o.o)

• Baby Rabiez 

I was weak. I bought 2 awesome bracelets from this vendor. (One of the newer SAO bracelets and one of the newer Sebastian bracelets.)  The vendor was very fun to talk to and she had a great selection of merchandise, everything from sling bags (Those draw string bags that are great to use at conventions) to the most adorable dog tags. They are the fix for every fandom seeing as they carry a little of something for everyone. It made me so happy to see they had some Ouran HighSchool Host Club stuff.
You should really check them out!
I am going to link their FB page here- Baby Rabiez
Also I can't wait to see their booth at Yama-Con!!!! 

• Yarn Alchemy

This vendor has some of the coolest Crocheted items I have ever seen! It was really tempting to buy something but I had already spent all my money.. Bring more than $18 to a con. She had the most adorable poke-balls. Here is a link to her Deviant Art where she has some more details. Also seems like she might be planning on going to Ichibancon    Which is a convention I have looked at for a while.. Who knows maybe I will finally get my Poke ball at Ichibancon!!!

I got to see some good repeat vendors like Lindee and Chris wands, The magic within. Plenty of Comic vendors and Ding Bat Cosplay  made an appearance with their own booth/table. ( I never know what to call those *-*) She had some awesome stuff for sale! Not to mention a wonderful cosplay.

That is about all I can report from Morganton, there would have been more if I had my camera with me... 

Last but not least, a picture of me. I never could get the fangs to sit just right so I decided to leave them out.
I got 2 compliments from strangers, the first from a man and his friends. "I like your Shikamaru cosplay.".... Yeah, I guess the way I put my hair up under my jacket did look like Shikamaru. Fudge. 
A compliment is a compliment!
The second wasn't actually said to me but I over heard it, a girl when we first walked in, kinda had a fan girl moment over Kiba.. Which I am totally cool with because I would have to :P I hated being a disappointment to her, seeing as I am female and all O.o  But I think she was their with her boyfriend so it was ok anyways

 Glad I washed the jacket cause it ended up shrinking so that's why the zipper does that annoying independent thing.

Any who, Loved blogging with ya :D

~Aki Ame Okami

Morganton Comic-Con

Aki and I will be wearing home-made cosplays to the Morganton, NC Con tomorrow! We are very excited and will definitely be posting pictures soon!

My character is a version of myself-- Heiwa Kibo Hane-- and Aki is going as Aki Inozuka (Kiba's clan from Naruto). This is our first time totally creating our own cosplays! We are excited to share our experiences with our followers! Definitely more to come tomorrow afternoon, but thought I would give you the heads-up :)

If you plan on going, look for us there!

~Heiwa Kibo Hane

Halloween 2015

           Halloween means many things to many different people.
To some its a chance for candy, to others its a chance to scare your neighbors (or strangers) senseless. Whatever your idea of Halloween is I can promise you it isn't how my Halloween went.

I woke up real early (super late) to help finish a friends steam punk cosplay, we had decided last minute that sleeves would be useful seeing as it was freezing out. Sadly I got up to late to help her before she went off to her charity Trunk or Treat, she was handing out candy.
That was a disappointing way to start the day however it gets better.
The charity event I was volunteering at was already started so there was no way I could get in costume and get there (Live 30 minutes from anything) in time so I missed that.
That's ok, there is still plenty of day to spend with my family...
Haha no. Just no. Between the cleaning, gaming, watching anime, and work that I had to do that just wasn't happening. As evening neared I just happened to think of somewhere we might have lost something of Heiwa's so the family heads in town.
Well now,  Kuruma had a car he just fixed so of course we had to take it to town!
So its late and here we are peaking in the windows of a church van.
Just as another car starts to pull up we notice that our car is smoking and stinks of coolant. Thank goodness the car that pulled up was one of the pastors.
We ended up fixing our car with some PVC pipe and thankfully there was some clamps in the pastors garage so we didn't have to use any duct tape from my bug home bag.

So I wish you all a belated Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you will have an even better November :D Expect a many blog posts ;)
Don't forget to go like my personal page Aki Ame Okami  .
And our page for this blog Ani-Maze-Me 


See you soon
                     ~Aki Ame Okami

Charting our course to Yama-Con 2015!!!!

                            The start of something awesome.

Heiwa, Mikata, and I decided we should know how to get to Yama-Con If we are able to go in Dec. So all three of us set out for a grand adventure just after noon on Friday.
We headed for Tennessee!

I am sure you will notice at some point but I love taking pictures.  This was one of the views we saw when we first set out.

On the way there we ran into terrible traffic, at least 4 accidents. When we stopped at the rest station we were delayed because they had to land a helicopter there so they could air lift someone to the hospital. Now if you are thinking "That would have made a great picture!" No. It would have made a nice picture but it would be really disrespectful to the family and I couldn't do that to them.

When we get near Sevierville  we take some crazy back roads usually and we pass the Bushes Beans Co.

 And there are these fantastic hills that look like we went to Ireland. I always adore them.

Sadly I didn't realize that most of the pictures ended up blurry.
Once we were near the main strip we stopped for lunch at our favorite place, Bellacino's

The pizza is fantastic and so are the bread sticks. Never tried the subs but they are on the list!

My hair is a mess and I argued against the picture but Heiwa and Mikata out voted me :P

On the road again we found that traffic was... Busy. We eventually located The LeConte center and whoa! This place is intimidating. I am even more excited now that I have seen the size of this place!

 So we found our location and didn't know what to do next.
Well its Pigeon Forge! There is so much to do! Like some of the following.

This instantly caught my eye however we weren't sure if we could go in with the late hour. It's on the list for next time!

This, we decided, is the beast the Heiwa's knight in shining armor fights.
The later it gets the crazier we get and the next thing didn't help.

The Three Bears Country Store has amazing funnel cake ^-^ and the decorations were very impressive.

The picture is sideways but I am sure you can see the beauty.

My keepsakes from this adventure.

I always get a turtle when I do something important or special so this is my little Jurassic turtle ^-^
So after a ton of traffic and some really, really bad rain we got home around 2 A.M but the trip was SO worth it! Can't wait for
Yama-Con 2015!!!

~Aki Ame Okami