So here I am again, at Anime North 2019 Sunday May 26 Edition, cause Sunday is best day. I’ve been to alot of conventions since coming back to AN; AX, FanExpo, KimiKon and IFFY, that’s four conventions since coming back home to the OG anime convention so let’s see how it stacks up. I’m not really expecting much from this day other than to stroll around and look at cosplay and buy some shit, specifically art prints cause that’s what I do. I bless artists with my money so they can get motivated to draw more shit and sell things to me, that’s how I roll. Anyways, let’s see what we got this year at AN.

Here we are again, AN 2019 making the wall to the hall in the early morning.

Looks like they smartened up and decided to move the food trucks away from the main walkway, makes sense really.

Hmm so they have pizza and shawarma now huh. Nice.

I wasn’t quite sure what this fool was doing but is appears that he is doing commissions using spray paint. Cool I guess, not anime tho.

Ah yes, the line up and the standard 2b and 9s chilling around. I’m still quite surprised that nier is still going strong after like more than 2 years since being released.

Under the shade and in the line up to buy the sunday tickets. In front of us was a black women and some white women in cosplay, not sure what the cosplay was but the black women had some serious BO problem man, she stunk like something I had no idea about.

After enduring the silent stench for about half an hour or so we got the daily pass. Of course “The Legend” convention guy was around maintaining the line as per usual.

In line now to get into main dealers hall. Some interesting thor cosplay by some brown guy, this is canada, we diverse.

Some DBZ goku clothes, not sure if this counts as cosplay but it works I guess.

Wow, haven’t seen this one around for awhile. Rikku from FFX2. Shit man, did they do a HD remaster edition again? That’s the only reason I think.

Hmm, nice drawing for the booklet. I remember when they used to be bigger vertically and had nicer artwork for the cover. Huh, times changing I guess. Goku butt I guess?

Here we are, inside the place, these days you enter into the dealers. I can’t remember if this was always like this but only the past few years now. I remember back in the day people used to enter into the artists alley, which I prefer honestly.

Standard corner plush shop.

Hmm, making our way to the artists alley and this area seems awfully spacious and empty. There used to be lots of manga and shit being sold up to the walls, just art books now mainly.

Empty chairs for bullshit acrobatics, I miss the old wrestling guys.

Alright then, first blurry shot of some artists work. Hmm, kinda gay mix with heroes. Ok.

Pretty nice artwork, good selection of games shows that I watch. I ended up buying one of these guys prints. Two friends sharing a table, standard. The art on the left is by a brown guy, on the right is his Asian friend.

Wow, league fanart of that shit they did for some korean kpop group featuring all the girls. Not bad by not my thing.

Empty chair. Flat content Why would anyone draw fanart of that pink girl from heroes? Blaehh.

Some more pokemon stuff and other colorful things.

Some koreans on the left and some questionable gay on the right.

Interesting on point recent artwork on the right. Got Miku from the quintuplet show, Bocchhi and friends, Yuru Camp. Good shit. Too bad it’s not good enough for me to buy tho.

Got some girls frontline fan artwork on the right, pretty good with the canada flag one but yea. If I played maybe I would buy, but I don’t so no.

Interesting artwork of a random selection of various things. Interesting style on the right. The artist is dressed as dragon lady from game of thrones so that’s something.

Pokemon byrds and stuff. Kinda shit.

Shit, now that I look at these guys I feel like I should have brought from these guys. They had azurlane starter keychains and some pretty decent azurlane and even jalter artwork. Ahwell. Maybe next time if they are around.

Wow, time for mini story time. When I looked at this guy on the left I was like, wait a second, isn’t that Admiral Graf Spee cooking artwork from one of the loading screens in Azur Lane? I went up to the guy and i was like, “Hay, did you draw this one” as I pointed it out with my finger, guy was all like “yea, I drew that”, I’m like, “it was one of the loading screens in boats”, guy is like, “I know, i won the fantart contest for valentines day”, and I’m like “Oh shit boy, now I have to buy from you now!” so yea, that happened. I thought maybe the guy bootlegged the loading screen and sold it as his own but it was actually his work and he won the contest. Wow. Small world. It just reminds me of my conversion with the initial d guy back in Kimikon last year, “Yea, for some reason Toronto has a lot of good artists.” Pretty true here. So yea, after some jolly laughter by both of us and some minor discussion about boats and about recently pulling Bismarck, I brought his shit.

He also made these very nice FGO keychains of the triple white hair loli crew. I mentioned that people who play fate also end up playing other games like boats and epic seven and he was like, for real. Then he mentioned if I played Bang Dream, I have heard of it but no. Then he was like, I know man, everyone who plays Bang Dream is isolated, a isolated community that keeps to themselves, no overlap in fandom whatsoever. lol Pretty jokes. I came back later and ended up buy all three from him as well. Keychain meta is real.

All of the other table mates were laughing at the discussion and I mentioned to him that he’s so dumb because no one would believe that it is his art, that he drew that work that made it into the game. So I suggested that he put a sticky note or something on it to say something like “I drew this, for real” lol. This friends and stablemates also suggested that he autograph it and i was like hell yea why not lol. Then he was like, yo can I take some time to practice first and I was like lol sure man. So so he did practice his autograph before signing his masterpieces. Lol jokes story, probably best experience this AN. Here is the dude’s Twitter

After my little sidestory with azurlane loading screen boi, let’s continue on to more even fate work and failed zero two artwork sales.

More failed zero two artwork sales. So many people were banking on the success of the show they forgot to wait until the end to see if it ended good before committing on drawing so much zero two artwork. Now everyone is just stuck with it. Sad. Nice shield boy girl art tho.

Very interesting unique style, traditional hand drawn black and white is cool. But I wouldn’t spend money on it.

Assortment of stuff and a strange plushie combo. Girl is like saying “damn man, my sales are sloww”

Do I want my own custom child? Maybe not. I can’t really see how anyone could like Muhummad Avodol as a best boy in JoJo when there is so many other characters.

Art that does not deserve to be seen.

Early opening morning has some display malfunctions. It can be fixed.

Seen this art before, it’s been around. Nice nier and red saber art.

An assortment of artworks that is everywhere. From FGO, to Zero Two to Kizuna Ai, yea.

Not really my thing but it’s a thing.

Lolololol fan art work of Thunderbolt Fantasy? Wow, can’t believe someone did this one. It appears that the man is getting desperate as well. $12 and $10 for this work? Shouldn’t undercharge your shit if everyone around you is doing 15 and 20 but you do you man. The art is decent, could be better.

Mix of strange things that I am not sure about.

Animal art, closet furry fans.

Some pokemon and some birds. Is this clone?

Seen this art before, nice metal slug and kana from dragon maid together.

Nice wide alleys for more people to navigate through.

Pretty good selection of art and quality. Wide range of subject manner. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this one at Fax Expo before. Good shit but I didn’t’ buy. Girl looks so tired.

Pokemon try hard artsy base.

Oh look, it’s our favorite cool artist that we’ve seen many times before on the right. Good shit but nothing that I haven’t seen before already. Maybe a couple new art but doesn’t really appeal to me.

Fate is everywhere, as well as failed zero two artwork. so sad, so very sad. Nice Tamamo and Scatchach tho.

I’m a little surprised at how little goblin slayer art there is. Such as shame. This artist had the right idea but just no.

A pretty good artist on the left and right. Thought about buying that Prinz print holding the beer but it was a bit too expensive for the size and asking price, I think it was like 15 or 20 for what is essentially slightly bigger 8.5 x 11 paper. Nice dangerous breasts mashu but I already have alot of her.

Just no. Probability of this artist being white is 99%

Oh yes, our favorite anime was a mistake print boi. Is it just me or are displays just overall shorter this year?

On point with the meta shows. Holy shit on point. Even got Chinaboats Nagato too and Senko-san from the current season. I guess this guy just likes fox girls and bb. I came back later in the day and I think these prints on the side were gone, someone brought them all.

That same artist I think. Nice selection of shows. Even Erased on the left. Boat it up bitch.

More FGO art, just two I think.

Wide array of styles and shit. I think I’ve seen this artist before, at least the one on the right.

A mix of art and style. There’s a little bit of league in there but yea, whatever shit.

Oh wow, at least someone has been keeping track of the anime trends. Nice new art of Chika and Kaguya sama from love is war and even some bunny girl and rikka ssss gridman shit. Another failed zero two hopeful.

Pretty expensive just for a head shaped keychains. People who play fate also play china boats.

Stuff that does not belong here at AN.

Nice beautiful men artwork, got some jojo, trigun, winter gold and some vampire wahtevers. The guy in front dressed up as irregular magic main protag is gay. Why would you do that.

Nice watercolor style works, too small prints for anyone really. If they were 10 times bigger then maybe.

Everyone plays fate, everyone loves saber. Not sure about those ones with the clock prints. I think it was that show about orphanage and monster farm world eating them.

Nice Jeanne and fate artwork. Combo with some heroes and we have a strange combination.

Lots of random things. Is it just me or does everyone started selling smaller sized prints and shit? Why no bigger paper?

Nice background conceptual art. Nice but I’ve seen better, brought better stuff like this at AX last year.

Oh boy is blue sky artist background again. See these guys everywhere, even at IFF and Kimikon I think.

Really nice artwork with backgrounds and shit. Thought about buying that top leftmost one in blue in a woodblock print style. Thought about it, but decided against because it’s two separate pieces combined into one to make a larger scene. If it was just one big print I would, but it’s not so yea. Too bad.

Wow, this is a really good concept. Pokemon and food. Holy shit they probably made some money. Good art too.

Everyone draws food and sushi and ramen. Nice but not for me.

After a long artist alley run we kinda flow into crafters area. Whatever people, whatever.

Decided to check back on our Azurlane loading screen boy after about an hour or so. Looks like he took my advice and put a sticky note. “Azur Lane Loading Winner!” yes boi, you did it. Hope he made lots of sales.

Inside the gaming area, which really just means tabletop board games and such. They are really getting busy in here. Soon it will be populated with just card game shit in general which is cool.

Just the kids playing beyblade.

A most appropriate framing of assets.

Oh wow, dolly’s decided to show up here. First time I think, at least with a banner thing at least. Good Jamaican patty place in their plaza.

Looks like another trading card game or boardgame booth? Hm.

Nice flat creatures.

Bunch of kids. Holy shit, I think these guys are like pre-high school for sure. Weird that they had a boy dressed up as Merlin and a girl as a random schoolgirl in their crew, maybe bleach rukia?. So strange.

Oh wow, it’s the new Tenryuu remodel kai II from kancolle. I guess some people still keeping the admirals dream alive in OG boats. If I am not mistaken I am pretty sure this is a dude and not a woman, I seriously couldn’t tell and it’s voice was kinda deep shit man not sure. Not sure if the boobs were balloons or real, I can’t tell on this one. Fukkk.

Finally making our rounds the main dealers hall. Standard Navito world selling their figure goods. Bigger and bigger each year it gets. Figures and keychains are the new merch meta.

Lots of good stuff but overpriced for the con and Canadian exchange rate/shipping. I still prefer to buy online from amiami or hobbysearch because everything is in yen and I can feign ignorance when the price totals about the same as these but don’t feel so bad because it’s online and digital and ships right to my door.

Soft things. No ebi fri however. Fail. Picked up a crispy slave regardless cause yes boss.

Been going to AN for many years and these guys have been around for awhile, these soft cuddling plush store.

Hmm, cyber city comix is here now huh. Space seems a lot more open in general and not as much vendors at previous years.

Some meme of the past year which I totally don’t’ give a shit about. For the kids I suppose.

Oh shit it’s the lying down sum game with Jeanne putting Tanya in her place. Get down bitchhh.

Pretty good soft things. Nice and round.

If you buy one of these you have to get both. Why would anyone buy star platinum stand by itself.

Does anyone ever buy these korean pillows?

Had some interesting fate mini gatcha figures but way overpriced because of course it is. I think those mini ones that had jeanne on it were going for 20 bucks. For like 60 bucks I could have brought the entire box if I brought them on release at amiami or something online.

Hmm once again Shilin booth but she herself is nowhere to be seen, maybe taking a day off? I thought AN had a policy of no helpers and shit? Who knows.

Nice cat shirts, not sure if I’ve seen before at AN.

Ah yes, our standard doujin booth selling imported goods from the far away nippon. There booth have gotten smaller and smaller as each year goes by. I guess they still make enough business to come back to AN tho every year.

The type of dealers and merchandise that they are allowing into AN is increasingly becoming more abstract. Swarowaski crystal craft key chains?

I still don’t understand the deal with these soap guys. Why?

Here we are again, at the Begulilng section, one of the only vendors left that focuses on selling print media to the masses and because of that it has done them quite well.

Stacks and stacks of books indeed.

Wow, last year was the first year that they decided to sell FAKKU books out in the open, from what I remember it was only like 8 or so stacks of books, this year they expanded greatly in obtaining many other different titles for the sake of research. Good for them, although I can’t remember if their bulk buying deal was the same or if it’s different now. I think it’s the same girl manning the station as well, the one who dressed up as a maid last year too. lol jokes, I guess she’s still the expert in this category.

Anime extreme doing it’s thing as per usual. I remember buying wallscrolls from them many many years ago, the old days. I don’t think anybody buys wall scrolls now, it’s not meta enough; keychain and figure meta is real.

Same corner shop that sells goods. That guy sitting on the bottom right looks awfully surprised at taking a photo. Why the shock bro?

Been around for awhile, good to see that these guys are still doing well. Ebi fri has no face, no buy ._.

Alright then, that wraps up the bulk of the dealers area and now we heading on our way to get some food while checking out the cosplay for the day.

A fantastic group of fate cosplays. The Ozzymandias is especially on point cause he’s brown, accurate representation. The EMIYA on the right, not so much, not brown enough.

Must be hot in the cape thing for the leftmost saber tho. I’m surprised there is not very many red sabers or mashuus floating around.

A new take on a old costume. Raptor riding a t rex with yugioh duel disk thing. Not baddddd.

I think this is the first year that they had ice cream and sundaes, or maybe i’m blind and they have always been there.

It’s smokin hot indeed. They are so much smarter in regard to this food truck game than previous years.What the hell were they thinking before having them so close to the main building?

Pretty good Samus cosplay. Must suck to be in high-heals all day though.

Great princess peach, must be hot in that dress. Ace on point hair, fantastic wig.

Hmm one of the few touhou cosplays that I’ve seen, still around, will never die but will never be mainstream.

Went into the little corner of grassy area to check out the cosplay photo shoot area. Last year this was the place for kancolle cosplay, this year it has fully committed itself to Azurlane. The label changes but the boats stay the same. Will come back at like 3pm for the boats, kinda funny how it’s the very last one and kingdom hearts has sessions on all three days.

Darkness cosplay is alright, needs to have the full crew to make it complete tho.

Holy shit I have no idea what this is. SunWuKong money king bullshit? Journey to the west LuBu not? why? but nice.

Lolol shitttttt. I have no idea man.

There is a guy in this plant moving around. Very creative, pretty dangerous tho. Not anime however.

Nice combination of cosplay from Fate. Especially good scathach and casual clothes jalter. Scathach cosplay is always good for some reason.

Oh shit it’s the same Merlin girl that we saw lining up at IFF, this time with a Gudao friend with a nice google play card to fuel that gatcha.

On point guys, on point. Gotta reuse that cosplay man, it’s what you have to do.

Very nice Ishtar cosplay wow. It must suck that when every time someone asks her for a photo she takes off her sandals and goes barefoot. I guess that’s the reason why she’s hanging around in the relatively more clean pavement near the doors for shelter and shade.

Wide angle shot because why not. I find myself taking both horizontal and vertical shots these days just in case i fuck up the photo and I have at least another one to go back to.

I have seen this guy before in the past couple of years but oh man this time I got him in the most perfect of poses holding the bag. When I asked him for a photo he was going to put the bag down but I told him to not and just hold it, run with it. The results are amazing, with the wind blowing his cape and the bag just showing him that he’s out shopping or something. The fact that there is no one else in the frame adds to how incredible this photo is. Shit, it’s good. One of the best cosplay photos of today.

An here we have some Tanya and other army military guy from the same show. Nice effort, probably one of the only Tanya cosplays that I could have recognized.

Nice ahri. Too bad that league is kinda dead yet still around in the background. It’s kinda like a zombie, undying but always there. It’s kinda like a touhou thing now.

This one Levi attack on titan cosplay is having shoe malfunctions. The amount of Titan cosplays has decreased significantly over the years, it’s a long running franchise but still surprised at how little there is since the show is still airing this season.

Inside the hotel whatever it’s name is, doing the thing.

The standard food fare for a sunday lunch. I think the deal was like 3 items for 10 bucks, and items included such things like onigiri, gyoza(x5?), croquettes. Didn’t take a picture when eating this time tho, it was below average. Ate while watching some AMV re-runs again, sammeee.

This boi doing it right and brave with this gilamesh cosplay. Fate is everywhere.

Really good on point crow man guy from Heroes, nice suit and everything. Really captures the moment in that sports festival episode where he catches the headband and shit.

Wow, nice collection of shield hero boys and Raphtalias I suppose just circling around and discussing tips and tricks for better cosplay enhancement. I think of the three boys the center one is best. Of the two girls I think the one on the right is better, but just slightly because she is white.

Some more girls just dress up in nice dresses and gothic lolita clothes and a crowd surrounds.

This is a pretty nice dress but I think she should have went with a pure white wig instead of the off pink one.

Oh shit it’s race queen saber with a fantastic Excalibur umbrella, perfect for blocking out the sun. Good shit.

Holy shit this guy is meta on point with one of the most recent top shows of the moment, Kimetsu no Yaiba. Good job man, and great work on the box. He needs a sword however.

I’m not sure what this is but it’s pretty badass. Really cool. I think maybe it’s samurai skeleton. Good shit there.

This is DBZ Freiza right? Looks kinda off but it should be alright. I think it’s one of the lower forms before he got small swole with a round face.

Nier crew with no duplicates. Good shit, we got A2, Adam, 2B and 9S. There is generally more nier cosplays but I don’t go out of my way to take photos of them now, only if there are in a group like this and shit. Look at the guy/girl on the far left tho, holy shit, doesn’t that look so hoodlum gangster? Fuckkk.

When i asked this beast for a photo, he said “No, fuck you!” then proceed to pose anyways. Alright man, thanks I guess. I think he was just trying to get to the washroom or something. Space marine wut I guess.

Wow. Cup noodle cosplay. Super creative and attracts a lot of attention. Are those ribbons on the right? Did she win some masquerade contest and shit? Probably, I’m not surprised, fully deserved.

Inside the north building for some sweet sweet anime north idol final singing time. The guys sitting on the back with the pitchfork I think are Cells at work cosplay. The girl in pink was one of them I remember. The guy on the left wanted to be the last samurai but forgot his helmet, he also forgot that he isn’t tom cruise so that didn’t turn out so well for him.

Nice chairs and shit for screens. Last time I was here they had water to drink in the back, not this time however.

Mashuu cosplay singer I think? She was ok.

Sailor moon cosplay singer? She was decent.

First dude singer cosplaying as a street thug/kpop band? I have no idea what he was trying to achieve with this clothing setup.

Really good singer but started out singing sitting on a chair, like what the hell bad prop. Not sure of the clothes tho.

One of the youngest contestants ever, the announcement guy said she started when she was 13 and this is her third year trying for it. Kinda weak song and presentation.

Nice cosplay although I can’t remember if the singing was good. Nice wig.

Oh shit looks like Okita managed to get out of bed and not be sick today. Good shit, fate is everywhere. Some league character in the background too, can’t remember her name.

Oh look it’s Milim from slime. Pretty good shit. Nice self made plushie too I think. I’m a bit surprised that there isn’t very man slime cosplays, maybe I just didn’t see them or they all showed up on Saturday. Good shit.

Some effort was made but in the end: it was inevitable. That mask is pretty good tho I must admit.

So here we are at the Azurlane/Kancolle boats photo session. Looks like lots of the same people are here again, probably because they organize this thing.

Enterprise and Washington do the whole deal with it routine.

Fuck yea, this is America. Deal with it long island ice tea.

Kinda weird pose, not sure if it had the intended effect that they were looking for.

Got some more Sakura empire ships now with some kancolle shimakaze and friends on the right.

Pretty sure one of the most jokes parts of this is that like half of these are dudes. lol.

Admirals and Commanders join the shot. Same sitting routine as last year I think. Mostly the same people but overall less turnout and cosplayers in general. Last year was pretty good and I stayed the full hour. This time I was there for like 15 minutes, they didn’t’ have much turnout so it’s no fun seeing the same cosplayers just rotate out every so often. No ship rigging either. Ahwell, hopefully with the onset of the China boats anime and kancolle movie/new series featuring Shigure the boat cosplay will increase.

Pretty good Genos, he even went so far as to have contacts to match the role. Good shit, nice wig.

Nice Da Vinci cosplay. I am not sure but this may be the same one that sold us gatcha keychains and shit at kimikon and at IFF. Not sure, if I dig back at my old posts I can surely figure it out.

Standard protesters as per usual. Kinda sad that this has become a routine at AN these past couple of years.

Not sure but this armor is really big and huge. She looks so uncomfortable, maybe because there was a dude trying to solicit her in buying his “professional” cosplay pictures of her. Why would you do that.

Probably not accurate but I’m calling this Goblin Slayer’s Cousin: Goblin Fighter. Great shit tho.

Caught the back of Chika and Maid friend from Love is War. I wanted to ask them for a photo but they always looked so busy so I didn’t’ want to bother especially since they were navigating the artist alley.

Hmm, clearing out near the end of the day. Pretty sparse.

Nice lego setup of Stan lee.

Distance shot of chairs. Neoclassical hipster title: “Awaiting the end of the harvest”

Pop Team Epic was a good meta show. Crazy shit man.

So we just chilling now, sitting down on the chairs and I see this BB in the distance. Fate is everywhere. I’m too lazy to ask for a photo and plus it’s the end of the day, everybody is tired and done, ready to reflect upon the day.

Making our way to the rallypoint, see this Wii fit man, nice.

The collection of today’s combined loots. Not very much shit this year compared to previous AN’s. Maybe because I’ve been to 2 other conventions since Fan Expo and that really messes up my buying drive. I usually end up with much more prints coming out of AN since I consider it the place to buy artists work but this year not so much. Maybe because I went to AX too and I’m still trying to savor that loot as well. I decided to pick up that summer Jalter print in the center since it was pretty good and the left and right most prints are from pidjun, that boi who drew that nice ironblood graf spee valentines loading artwork. The crispy brown plush is mine and the pokemon thing on the right is my sister’s haul. Also got the keychains from pidjun and she brought a fate plushie which turns out to be an archer screen cleaner thing. lol funny shit, clean my screen archer, you little bitch.

Up close shot of the loli FGO keychain friends. Pretty funny and cute, on the backside their faces change to like circles and shit. Funny shit, good quality and acrylic key chain meta is real.

I call this guy “Yes Boss” because he looks like a slave. He’s the only one that is not a ebi fry plush in my little mountain collection of yellow thus he is an outsider to their way of life and environment. Suitable suspenders for a field worker truly.

Ah yes, the most famous art print that I brought today and the jokes conversation with the man who drew it. Azurlane loading screen get. Nice autograph bro, I have no idea what it says tho. Good shit. Best art and story of the convention.

So, that sums up my experience of AN 2019 Sunday, which honestly is probably more or less what I expected but in some regards even less so than my expectations. In terms of Sunday cosplay, it did alright, of course Saturday is the main game for cosplay but it was raining that day so I don’t know if that effects the cosplayers much, probably did. In terms of my photos, I enable a considerable amount of selection bias when taking photos of cosplayers, what you see is what I found interesting or cool, cute, or shit that I know of obviously; what you didn’t see are the numerous Heroes, League, Overwatch, Naruto, Sailor Moon, Dragon Maid, Kingdom Hearts and other core mainstays of cosplay for the last few years. What I can tell however is that there is a huge drop-off of Attack on Titan, Love Live, Kancolle, Darling in the Franxx and general game cosplay; Miku is pretty much non-existent at this point which is a bit sad but understood considering it’s been over 12 years since Miku came out and sports themed cosplays in general. What I did see however is an increase of FGO and fate in general cosplay which is great. What I didn’t see at all was any Epic Seven cosplay which means it has not gained any legitimacy as a real cosplay anime/game thing to do yet. Maybe time well tell. Cosplay was ok, no real trends but then again, I feel that they are hurting for a trend badly.

The same can be said about the artists in artists alley, overall the quality of the art has declined considerably over last years and it’s showing based off my art purchases this year. Alot of the old corruption gang of pro artists didn’t make any appearance today, spiky hair dude, initial d man, sakimichan etc, they were all absent this time. Not sure if they fully committed to banning attending AN but the hole in artists certainly means opening the door to new ones. The new artists this year are OK, but not to the level where it will wow me or drive me to buy prints from them. With the exception of the Azurlane Pidjun and his friends on the left, which I regret not buying key chains from because I didn’t’ see them, the new artists this year are mediocre.

In terms of event programming, it was pretty shit, no doubt this year. I looked at the schedule of events and there was like way less panels and things to go to. I read on the AN subreddit that there was some drama and a huge falling out of the people who organized all the contests and game shows at AN, so all of their shit got cancelled or they bailed due to corruption, laziness and strict rules that benefit no one coming out from AN organizers. Which brings me to the dealers room, this year was pretty bad, so much empty space and a lot less dealers than in previous years, even less than last year. While I can browse and move around easier, the lack of more dealers hurts. There was a very clear absence of longtime convention dealer Hairy Tarantula and other dealers which have been there for ages. The lack of manga and paper media being more or less limited to art books and whatever is sold at the beguiling is pretty noticeable. But hey they stock tons of FAKKU books now which is great, so there’s that going for it I guess.

I went into AN Sunday with fairly low expectations but ultimately it was how I expected it, fairly mediocre, maybe it’s because I’ve been to AX which is like 10x bigger with industry presence and I’ve been to IFF that has industry presence autograph game, I feel that AN seriously has to step up their game and really try to attract industry and be more accommodating for artists and fans/contributors. If they piss off everyone, soon everyone might find themselves skipping out on AN and migrating to more promising enterprises such as IFF, not Fan Expo however, they are fucked either way. Overall, mediocre expected experience, same ol same ol.