Anime North was a blast this year with way more people and events than I had imagined. The show was big last year, but this year it was huge! The line-up on Saturday morning, the second day of the convention went all the way around the Toronto Congress Center!There were many good costumes and I didn’t get them all but I have a few here for you to see.
As well there were 3 Dance Dance Revolution type game booths, an area to play cards, a dealer’s room where you could buy merchandise, the artist’s alley, the auction and much more. That only counts for one building! Across from the Congress Center there is the Doubletree Hotel where half of the convention was held.
There were pannel discussions on various topics from types of anime to how to get a (and how not to get) a ‘con girlfriend’ (meaning a girlfriend at the convention).
There were many impromptu photoshoots such as this Yaoi Photoshoot which was more yuri than yaoi.
Camera crews scoured the event looking for interesting tidbits here and there. News agencies and YTV were seen wandering about taking interviews from the various convention goers.
In the Doubletree Hotel there were video games of various genres being played. Board games and games of ‘go’ were being played in the side lobby as well. In many of the rooms there were videos showing of various anime with some rooms showing themes such as, “Anime Hell” or “The first 40 years of anime.”
The streets were pretty much taken over by people in costume durring the event much to the chagrin of commuters. Thankfuly I didn’t see any ambulances so I assume noone was hit whilst bolting across the streets. Some of the fans took to crossing where there were no crosswalks, even though the traffic can be quick and dangerous in this area.
