Alright then, so we had this thing called IFF, aka “International Fan Festival 2019” happen on Easter weekend April 19-21 which was a new con that nobody has heard about. Only through word of mouth was it made possible to happen and the fact that it was run from a organization based in Vancouver makes it rather interesting and eye catching. What’s more, or rather the only reason why this convention was even a thing was they had high profile guests from the Fate type-moon franchise, most notably the voice actors of Saber (Ayako Kawasumi), Rin (Kana Ueda) and Sakura (Noriko Shitaya). They also had the voice actor for Emiya/Saksuke but whatever, he’s not important to me. All in basically it was an unofficial Fate convention, which is pretty much a given granted the guests. So let’s take a look again and reflect what I saw on my Saturday there.

Oh boy, it’s the Metro Convention Center, home of Fan Expo. Wow, looking pretty empty in the early morning.

The infamous overlooking bridge of the North building.

Hmm. So this is it huh. Well, ok, I somewhat expected this. cool cool.

I suppose these are the barrier and line formations to get autographs from the voice actors.

Another angle of the main convention space. Honestly, it’s already better than Kimikon.

When you take into consideration that the time now is like 9ish you have to wonder why they don’t open this shit sooner. The main hall actually only opens at 11am, which is pretty what the fuck. On the website they say shit that it starts at 10am but really it’s like 2 panels that nobody cares about so why even bother, commit to saying shit opens at 11am.

Nice booth displaying the official convention merch, which unfortunately is unavailable at this time.

And so here it is, the line to get into this thing. With some nice Cosplay Merlin and China Red Umu Saber camping out. Oh there’s a Sakura from behind too.

They have really nice paper booklet thing. Rare and limited cause from what I understand they quickly ran out of them.

Nice printout of the convention space and booths/spaces. Also a rare item due to running out shortly after.

I asked some volunteer fool about the times and operation dates and asked him if I could take a picture of his badge for the sake of privilege record.

Pretty nice Merlin and Red Saber. They know what’s up. This is an unofficial fate convention.

So after about waiting in line for like 10 minutes like a fool I said to my sister, yo imma gonna get some breakfast food or coffee and shit, so I was like, ok latre, come back with food, hold the line. So I left.

Right across the street there is the simcoe place with a food court. Luckily there is a McDonalds. Yay, perfect.

Aww yea, this is the shit here, like nothing else is open, just McD pretty much.

Lining up I noticed this particularly interesting crew of dudes just chilling and eating their McDs as well. Then I realised it, AWWW SHITTTT, it’s SHOTGUN SHOGUN, a well known FGO/Azurlane youtuber and streamer. What a small world.

After collecting my own McD goods I decided to walk up to this guy and his crew and say what up boi. I was all like, hay, I know you. He be all like, yea, I’m Shotgun Shogun, on youtube and on switch. I was like, oh yea, that cool boi, I watch your videos and guides for fate shit. Cool man. I asked him, so wut brings you up here today, he be all like, well I here for the Heavens Feel Movie II on Friday and shit, shit was dope. I didn’t watch any of the movies so I couldn’t say anything to that but yea, I’ll get around to it on my own time. He like, yea, cool man, tru dat. Asked him where’s he from originally, dem bois from Michigan, just drove on up here for the weekend. Cool. I asked for a photo with him and one of his crew take the photo. Nice. Dat was cool. Nice Experience with not really local legend. Fame is relative. Cool.

Anyways, heading back to the convention line with coffee and EggMcMuffins in hand, I see that the line has grown considerably in that short 20 minute span.

Merin still be camping. Not sure if it’s just me or camera but that guy on the right has a really freaky squished face. FUck.

Fantastic Fate cosplay of Sabers and Nightingale. No doubt I have probably taken photos of them elsewhere but yea, they did a great job.

Same peeps, different vertical angle. Gotta appreciate those shoes and swords yo.

Then we have this fool cosplay of Edmund Dantes. Well, it was a valiant effort but in the end, I don’t think anybody should be cos-playing as him anyways.

Line grows and Archer mobes.

HOLY Shit these guys are usually happy and smily. I guess they just met Shotgun Shogun as well.

Hm, looks like this jojo Mista cosplayer be lining up too. Not sure if this is the right place for this cosplay but ok. Kaquin kinda short there too but nice effort.

So as the gates finally opened at 11am the result was pretty much expected, everyone who was in line, remained in line as like 80% of the people went straight to line up for the voice actors autographs which also happen to start at exactly at 11am.

Hmm..looks line Merlin got in line for Sakura voice actor autograph. Like in Anime Expo they have like tiered passes so those with super fan or gold whatever passes have a separate line to basically get priority over everyone else that has the normal 3 day pass and single passes.

After a few minutes of insanity and confusion, one of the organizers started saying that “If you are here for Kana, come over here” which implies there was 2 lines for the 2 guests signing autographs. People were lining up in one big line and weren’t sure where one line ends and where the other started so some people jumped ahead while others got shafted for some reason, confusing times. I left the line a bit to see where Sakura’s voice actor line up started but by the time I got there they were already saying that if your this far back, you’ll probably won’t make it since the session is only for 1 hour. Shit. Well that already messed up my plans. Decided to cut my losses and start lining up for Kana Ueda’s session, even though it starts a half hour later.

Nice photo banner of Kana Ueda, voice actor of Rin from Fate series and Rachel from BlazBlue, Hayate from Nanoha series, IFF from Neptune series. Probably one of my favorite voice actors and honestly, the VA that I care about the most among the three main female voice actor guests.

The line for autographs pretty much is the same line to get into the place.

So in front of me of the Kana Ueda line is the jojo Mista cosplayer guy I saw, spoke with him and this other guy beside him for awhile, alright guys; can’t talk for shit though, heavy accent of something. Discussed that Rin is best girl and other things.

Sakura voice actor Noriko Shitaya in the distance on the other side of where I am dealing out them sweet sweet autograph and words. The guy reciving the autograph looks so humble, must be Japanese guy.

After waiting around for a bit in line, we finally got our autographs from Kana Ueda. White board one with gold ink. Very interesting spiral tornado autograph from Kana, it doesn’t really make much sense but it’s probably fun for her to draw it so yea.

And the horizontal black board with silver ink. Couldn’t find anybody selling proper kishiki autograph boards so the day before I went around downtown looking for places that sell them. These black and white boards are the closest next best thing I could find in an art supply store near OCAD, Above Ground. They were pretty cheap, like 50 cents for the white and a dollar something for the black. They will do.

Going up to the official merch booth/display they have all these keychain mascot characters spread out. Cool, too bad they are from the Osaka convention that already past are are outdated. Still brought one anyways cause they cute.

Acrylic stand game on point. Once again, too bad they are from the old convention, not the latest characters meant for Toronto.

Hmm, got your tote bags and branded pen lights going on here. Nice.

A very sad and bored store keeper keeping watch on old merch that largely nobody really wants.

I asked the girl what it means by “Coming Soon..” and she told me that all the Toronto goods were stuck in customs. So yea, that pretty much means it won’t come in time. What a waste, all of the stuff they had are pretty good and they had to have it made, such a shame and waste.

A pitiful crunchyrool booth, laughable and sad compared to what they had going on at AX last year.

The sad sad state of affairs for dealers and booksellers in general at this con is  pretty bad. No stock, no traffic. Small display.

Just a bunch of randoms doing their thing.

Not sure who this guy is supposed to be but he’s checking out some sweet figures. Oh look, Kimikon is still around in the background. Yea, whatever.

They probably sold 0 weapons today. This is an unofficial Fate convention, they should know better and sell replica Excaliburs and shit.

Pretty cute mascots. Too bad they never came through with that merch.

Having more or less given up on the dream of getting all three fate girl voice actor autographs we decided to swing by the line. I think this is the line up, maybe unofficially for Emiya/Sasuke. Yea, don’t give a shit about Emiya, so pass.

Woo woo, here we go let’s take a look at today’s fine artists in Toronto.

Same shirt guys in Kimikon, sameee.

Oh look, same artist in every convention. She has good work but if you see it every time it gets a bit old.

Same peeps but no Sakimichan today, just her lackeys.

Brought alot from this artists in the past, the holder of boat kancolle buttons and grab bags full of random button shit. Not bad, good to see that they are getting some attention.

Hm, it’s Sugar from YTV doing some panel in the open stage. Kinda ghetto but yea, good place to sit down and watch random shit they have on show.

Wow, the fact that they had a display for Detective Pikachu is pretty impressive. I don’t know how this movie will be but the baseline is that it’s bad, and even if it’s decent it would be considered a win.

Went outside to start lining up for the Kana Ueda QA session which is also the same place where you like up to enter the main hall. It’s also where all the cosplayers lurk about and chill. This Astolfo and MHX saber face dude are all right. Goo shit.

Wow, more Fate cosplay of Ereshkigal and Saber Alter, shinjuku edition. Pretty good.

Another crew of green jesus, edgelord gilamesh, man MHX again and a mordred. Hmm, quality is lacking on this one but their efforts are commendable.

Lining up, getting a scope on the view of fans. I am not sure if that guy on the right is cosplaying but he’s got some lazy eye sleep face going on there. Weird.

Inside the Kana Ueda QA panel. That’s not her but her translator. No official pictures or video after this point as requested but overall it was a really good panel with just a bunch of fans lining up and asking her questions relating to her role in the industry and how if feels voicing Rin and Rin faces for like over 10+ years now. She’s pretty nice and chill and tries to play the mobile games that she’s voiced in like Fate and Grand Blue. Some of the questions people asked are kind of super hard Fate lore and shit so yea, those were kinda hard to answer but some were cool. Lots of fan requests for lines and a few surprising questions about other roles she’s voiced like Hayate from Nanoha and Saki, from Cute Girl Mahjong show, Saki. Actually, now that I think about it, there was more than one question about her being Saki, which is really jokes, lots of “Rin-shan Kai-ho!” line requests and “Ron!”, “Tsumo!” stuff. All in all lots of Japanese fans who just so happen to be here for study or whatever asking her questions, good shit and great translator girl too.

Wow, a fantastic Elizabeth cosplay. Probably one of the best I’ve seen today and probably ever. I like Elizabeth, I am a Elizabeth collector, along with probably like 80% else of the other people who play FGO.

Even better with that nice smile and vertical orientation. You can really see that she spent alot of time with those pointy ass shoes, spear and even tail. Good shit.

Wow, pretty good Max level Jalter, flag and all. Must have took so much work to make all the accessories and shit.

And her beautiful and not to be forget about Gilles de Rais cosplay, with googly eyes and all. Lol jokes shit.

Wow. Probably one of the most revealing and brave cosplays of the day and in recent memory. This Shuten Douji cosplay has her pretty much almost naked with clothing garments that can easily come off and are unreliable, possibly exposing her bare boobs and a butt to the public if she walked too fast or bumped into people. I know this for a fact because I heard her friend say something like “ohhh raheelll yourr ta-tas are showing again” just before I asked her to take a photo. As evidenced by her right boob, you can kinda see the edge of her areola before it was adjusted. So brave, only for indoor cosplay I guess. Nice fuzzy pink slippers.

Most likely boat girl and admiral doing their thing.

I’ve seen this kind of routine before, maybe I’ll see them again at AN. Really nice thigh highs.

Funny shit. Once again, I THINK she is a boat? Maybe generic school girl with boat-like design and sword? Not sure but if anything Azurlane, I still can’t remember all the boats and if anything, she’s probably one of the newer ones that I don’t know about. Nice.

A fantastic Scathach cosplay. Top tier props, costume and body/face to do it right. I think she was with some guy who co splayed archer. Bad taste there.

While chilling for lunch our boy Mark came along and came back with the fruits of his labor and amazing luck, ended up with Saber and Emiya autograph here. Such amazing dedication and luck. Good on him. Damn.

Should thing he went with black ink for Emiya autograph, boi doesn’t deserve to have gold ink.

Our autograph hero showcasing his wealth of riches and prizes after a hard day of standing around and luck.

Inside the convention booklet. That top row on the left and right pages are the best guests and autograph guys. They say ProZD was supposed to be here, didn’t see shit. Probably bailed like a faggot.

Nice Tamamo and Rin race queen cosplay. Gotta be pretty brave to do cosplay exposing your mid section.

A nice artist booth selling stickers of things and shows that I like. Good shit.

Nice spread of mobile game art and relevant topics of interest to me. I spoke to the dude if he was the artist and he gave me a mini story about how they are from Vancouver and that they are a circle of artists drawing similar stuff and shit. Dude is actually like their manager/co-coordinator and as he says “because of me, all the artists have gotten lazy and hardly come to conventions to sell stuff anymore, they just send me.” Alright boy, alright.

They have some pretty good shit here, even pillow covers. It’s kind of a shame that they have such good shit but the convention attendees don’t care that much cause the guest game is just too strong here.

Closer inspection of pillow covers and other random misc stuff. I said you guys would make a lot of money if you could get into Anime Expo, he made an audible chuckle, and tells me “yes, I know we would, but for legacy reasons, it’s almost impossible to get a table at AX because artists are grandfathered in for eternity. If you have a table and intend to come back next year, your in. And almost nobody forfeits tables so it’s almost impossible without connections.” Yea, we know all about that here too boi, all too well. He also mentioned that some of their art is too erotic or racy for some conventions and they get into trouble sometimes, trying to break into the East coast convention scene he says. Hope them the best of luck with money.

Oh boy looks like we are going in for some FGO keychain pulls again. For a small $5 you too could get a nice Green jesus keychain or Arash.

Nice business card, simple and straight to the point.

So these were some things. Kinda cute I guess. Once again the boi sitting there is not the artist or creator of these fine creatures. Apparently he tells me 2 of the showcase cosplayers are the ones that designed and produced these plushies. Looking at the convention book again, I believe he is referring to Phil Mizuno and Grey Cosplay, cosplaying as Lancer and Gilamesh. Heh, they know what’s up. Probably gay.

Initial D man was there again, cause apparently Toronto has good artists but unfortunately he was not at his station. Probably too busy lining up for Saber autograph or something too.

Oh hay it’s our boy again. DRAKE TSUI with a new haircut and look, not bad boi, not bad. This is one of these pictures if you zoom in on his face you gotta kinda say “Why am I here?” or “Why do I do this?” Yea, cause your not getting any business today bitch.

I love the open concept and spacious walking paths. Good for usability.

More random black artist here, sad. Probably even less business than usual.

Walking by the gaming area where they hosted a bunch of fighting game tournaments and other animu favorites like some music games and smash I guess. Yea, ok.

So here we are again, lining up to go into the last real event of Saturday, the official QA session with all 4 main cast members of the Fate Heavens Feel movie II. I think like more than 70% of the convention attendees are waiting here.

More shots from around.

At a distance you see the same mordred cosplayers and groups of other cosplay guys.

Oh look, it’s Da Vinci again that sold us the FGO keychains and the nightingale, saber, Persona girl again. 100% sure these guys were at Kimikon but this time they are doing it right for the most part all due to being an unofficial Fate convention after all.

Tamamo race queen again and some serious cosplayer photographers with box lights and equipment to get the perfect shots.

Wrong place Ezio. Wrong place…

Yay we got inside and were able to get seats. Lucky shit. Alot of people didn’t make it so we cool.

Oh look, it’s the Scathach and her Emiya/Archer boy with her, cool. Kinda funny.

Once again no photos or video in the panel. It was nice seeing and hearing all of the voice actors but this one was conducted very by the book and to script, with pre screened questions and the like. Because there was so many of them, it honestly got kinda boring since the questions usually fell on the line of “So, how do you feel about your character?” or shit like “Is there anything different about fate fans in Canada vs other places?” bullshit generic stuff. The personal Kana Ueda panel was alot more entertaining and fun, authentic in my opinion but whatever. Had nice video casts of voice actors of Gilamesh and Archer since they weren’t available.

After the panel, heading out of this place. Sakura is all like, yep, I guess it’s done time to go home. I’m sure everyone is thinking that too.

So at the end of the day this is the loot we brought home. I ended up buying some prints from that dude from Vancouver, pretty sexy shit. Dangerous Breasts Mashu, Ishtar and Tamamo, all characters that I possess on my FGO account, muahahah. Sister ended up buying some blue ball thing from those gay cosplayers, nice. I ended up picking up some official convention keychains, even tho they are for Osaka. And of course the main prize, two Kana Ueda autographs, black and white. Good shit. If I didn’t get at least her I would consider this convention an ultimate fail and waste of time but because I did, it’s not, so that’s cool. I’ve heard some people waited in line for a total of 6 hours and didn’t get ANY of the guests autographs so that must suck. Getting all three girls would have been nice but ah well, autograph meta is pretty hard.

All in all IFF was a pretty good experience, purely because of the Fate voice actors and the fact that the entire convention is just one whole big Fate fest basically, which is fine. If they didn’t have the high profile guests, this thing would be dead in the water already. Hopefully they continue this kind of convention in the future, but not sure if this is a one time thing or they plan to make it yearly event. Overall good shit, I had an experience today.