Anime North 2009

[Mel]

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 2, Issue 12 (June 2009).

Anime North 2009
By Nat (Strider)

It’s not every day you see Super Obama, blood-sucking vampires, and teenagers wielding ten foot long weapons roaming the streets, but it happens for a weekend every year in Toronto, Ontario at one of North America’s biggest anime conventions. Hosting over ten thousand people, Anime North stretches over two hotels and the Toronto Congress Center, no individual building able to support the masses. Now why do over ten thousand people get together in goofy costumes for a weekend? Well, it’s a load of fun! Hosting a dealer’s room, artist’s alley, a Masquerade, raves every day, and a bunch of famous voice actors, there is an endless supply of activities. And, of course, they are all Otakus.

If you still don’t quite understand why anyone would spend their weekend this way, and think the word ‘Otaku’ sounds like something you’d say while waving a magic wand, don’t worry! Anime conventions are just a way for people who share a common interest to come together and have some fun―almost like a club, except super sized.

But, seriously, what’s an ‘Otaku’?

An ‘otaku’ is a Japanese word that is used to describe someone with a manic obsession, commonly used to refer to a wildly obsessed fan of anime, manga, and video games (in other words, just about everyone at the convention). On the various badges given out at the convention, they each had a label that referred to the kind of pass you bought. Mine had the label ‘Weekend Otaku’ on it.

Walking down the parking lot of the Toronto Congress Center, it was evident that the atmosphere had the same feel to it as a Disney theme park―except everyone was in a costume! It was nearly impossible to walk ten steps without someone asking for a picture or a hug. ‘FREE HUGS’ signs were held up by many a hand and glomps were given out like free candy. But no one seemed weirded out by the cheery mood. There was no judgment at the convention, and everyone fit in no matter what they were wearing or how they acted.

The main guests at the convention were Nobuyuki Hiyama, Jessie Flower, Vic Mignogna, and Mark Hildreth, all voice actors for various animes and comic based TV shows. When they were there, not only did they speak individually to groups, but also sang in a concert and signed autographs for fans. One of the most famous was Vic Mignogna, the actor who does the voice of Edward Elric in the FullMetal Alchemist English dub. Also a singer, songwriter, and musician, he put on quite a show at the concert. Even more interesting was his work as an actor and director, as he showed a short film he wrote and directed entitled FullMetal Fantasy, in which a large number of the voice actors for FullMetal Alchemist, including himself, cosplayed as their characters from the anime.

‘Cosplaying’ is the term for when people dress up as a character from a manga, anime, video game, or movie. Nearly everyone at the convention cosplayed, some even dressing up as more than one character over the span of the weekend. Some popular costumes were the characters from Naruto, L from Death Note, the teams from Team Fortress 2, the group from Ouran High School Host Club, and the characters from D-Gray Man. Others included ninjas, large fluffy animals, furries, Pokemon, random objects, and, of course, any character with a ten foot long gun or sword.

Anime is well known and obsessed-over art style all over the world, and many cities host conventions. It still may seem a little weird to travel miles to dress up as a fictional character, but it’s really a lot of fun, and it is an experience you’d never forget.