Having been delayed a good couple of months from it’s normal occurrence in May, Anime North returned on July 15-17 in the post-pandemic world. Having just being a few weeks after coming back from Anime Expo in LA, it’s hard to not compare conventions, after all, AN is the biggest Fan run convention in Canada, for better or worse (mainly worse) and with it comes with growing pains of a convention of this size. Without further delay, let’s see how my AN 2022 experience went.
We arrived pretty damn early. We had decided months in advance that we were going to AN on Sunday, a single day as we usually have done for the past couple of years as going all days was frankly not worth it. News of lines to get covid verification stamps, badge pickup and general admission on Friday and Saturday were pretty bad with some people waiting for 4 or 5 hours in various lines before going in. Sitting in our car, the parking lot is like empty dead, I think the time was like just after 7 or 8 I think. I can’t remember.
Despite us being so early, there were some early peeps just chilling in the line with chairs. Hmm..
My sister brought the full May clothes set from Arc System Works booth at AX. Might as well wear it for a cheap and easy cosplay effort. Despite it being in the middle of July and this is technically a hoodie and a hat, she says it wasn’t that hot to wear.
Hmm early lines forming for badge pickup. That person in yellow was giving out stamps for covid checks.
Witness this sight. Do you know realize how early we really were? There is literally no one else here except us mad lads who arrived so early to pick up badges.
Our wonderful covid stamp. It comes off so easily and can easily be bootlegged/forged if you have a collection of happy face stamps. Not that anyone bothered to care checking much.
Proof of existence. Still got a supply of those noice KN95 masks.
When you are outside and you see people still wearing masks, especially when it’s hot, it looks a bit silly to be honest. Look how empty this place is.
After about an hour or so waiting in our spot, the area finally populates how I usually see AN lining up.
Some cosplay folks in the background and some dude with kinda weird foot posture.
“Chillin with da boiz, waiting for nothing.”
Proof of existence, no mask edition. My shirt is actually from guilty gear but no one would know that unless you watch GG Strive’s story mode. Why is the words reversed? I am dumb. Shit, nice pimple forming in the middle of my forehead.
Once you get inside to pick up your badge, it’s just a matter of going through the usual motions.
Some modifications were made to Mr. Dolphin. I guess the recent nerfs to May have forced him to seek alternative means of power via getting swole and full six pack abs. Swole-sogeki.
Once you get your badge and shit they kick you out to line up again to actually get inside. They have a decent amount of food trucks and things to eat, now better parked far away from the normal traffic flow.
Got the Canadian staples, poutine, tiny tom doughnuts and beaver tails. I appreciate the traffic cones and yellow tape.
Some nice itasha cars started to park around here too. Nice oni car.
Some bullshit setup for acrobatics and show I think.
Walking along the area when Mark and his friend Maggie appear to greet us. Been a long time since the last AN, but it’s nice to see some familiar faces.
Continuing to scout the area we see this nice car “GMSTEVEN” huh. I wonder what he’s GM of. He has some questionable tastes with that monster girl lamia as the prime girl on his car but then again, everyone has trash tastes so whatever. Do what you want bro, not bad.
Another SUV with a nice girl on it. I have no idea who this is though. I think he can do alot more than this. If you are going to make an itasha car, you better commit to it, otherwise your just putting stickers on your shit, get some better wheels son and more decals.
The crowds to line up are picking up. Good to see that some people still bother to cosplay on Sunday. Nice yellow suit thing too, probably pikachu or whatever.
I overheard these staff talking to each other basically trying to figure out if they should create another line or just continue with the one that exists now. In the end I have no idea if whatever they said made any difference.
After arriving pretty damn early for badges and covid buffer time, we are finally inside on our way.
Mask mandate in effect, lots of people doing their shit.
After the main checkpoint you enter the dealers area.
Looking back at the checkpoint, they only care about if you have a badge or not, no covid checks here cause it’s assumed if you have a badge already, you also got a covid check, which is kind of flawed logic but whatever.
An initial scan of the dealers hall and you can immediately tell that it’s a lot more spacious with more room, meaning that ultimately there are significantly less vendors than in previous years.
These big displays are still here selling all sort of fabric merch.
Interestingly enough, they even allowed some 18+ pillows to be displayed out in the open, granted the private parts and nipples are covered with tape or something. I suppose this is a good thing overall for relaxation of rules but maybe not so much for parents and little kids in attendance.
Much like AX, it seems that people, even in the dealers room have upped their fabric and material goods game. Nice shirts and plush things.
They had these signs posted up on walls periodically, this one near the washroom. Got it.
Panda Hobby. Guess they sell gundams and shit. I don’t recall them ever being around, not that I noticed them before.
Wow, quite a lot of walking room indeed. This is one of the few vendors selling manga still, not sure if it’s even the latest shit. Probably not.
Nice chairs and cups to drink water station on the right. Nice Anya cosplay sitting too.
Looks like Anime North are Hydro Homies. Cute little illustration too.
Holy shit look at this space! From back in the day, I’m pretty sure this entire wall used to be populated with multiple vendors selling books and whatnot. Today there is nothing. Wow, it’s certainly evident that they have much less vendors selling this year. Nice Nico cosplay and some midget ghost I think.
No shortage of plushies from Demon Slayers and easy cosplay hairbands and cat ears that’s for sure.
They have some really small vendor booths this year for some reason, so small that it’s hardly worth putting stuff in there. Then again, this seller herself appears to be an author selling her fantasy books, sure I guess but you know this is supposed to be Anime North right? Not Fan Expo? Out of place kinda.
A classic mainstay of AN is apparently this plushie vendor according to my sister. They have good shit she says.
I guess she was right about that. Nice ebi fry. Buy that small bitch.
This was a common sight throughout the vendors area, empty or un-taken spots left for nothing. I mean, the spots themselves are so small, what are you going to sell with that amount of room? Sad.
The exit out of the vendors hall leads to the artist alley as usual. As per usual, most people don’t go to artists yet at least until a brief scan of vendors.
Wow. Look at this shit. So much room and empty looking vendor spaces on the wall. The wall is usually prime space but this year I guess AN made too many vendors angry or whatever or not enough interest to do this in July.
Looks like this usual videogame seller is here with both domestic and imported games.
Extra plastic cover to do protect that shit from covid I guess.
Japanese imported games. While cool, these days you would largely be better off just buying your imported games online yourself.
Wow, I am still in awe at how much walking room there is in the vendors hall.
Cute City indeed, filled with cute things I guess.
Our resident weapons and sword prop seller. I like how they have like plastic guns in like green and shit now. Like, is anyone really going to buy these green guns? I can only assume they are produced this way so that you can spray paint them black yourself or do other kinds of weathering or retro metal looking finishing.
Lots of love live prize figures. Comparative speaking, I suppose these prices are marked up about like 20-30% but considering the Canada to Japan shipping situation, hard to complain really.
Some of these booths are pretty small yes but smaller sellers find creative ways in trying to carry as much stuff as possible.
Wow, not sure if AN is desperate or they fully don’t give a shit anymore but AN is allowing weed vendors and such? Wow, times certainly have changed over the past couple of years. Like this is not even remotely related to anime but they somehow bullshitted their way in.
Nice plush and Demon Slayer Merch. This table in the past used to have lots of figures and shit displayed.
Can’t remember the booth but they had some nice display cases to show off some nice Gundams and shit. This strike Freedom is pretty boss for sure.
And of course they have this Nu gundam as well. I am not entirely sure how I feel about the clear parts thing, looks cheap to me but I’m sure there’s a reason and way to make everything look cool.
This open space, man wow.
A decently sized collection of wall scrolls and posters for the average consumer.
Very sad looking small vendor booth that just acts as an artists booth for someone. Sad. In my mind, people who do this are completely ruined and would never make back the money they spent for the spot and never would sell ever again. Either ignorance or desperation, either way this artist is ruined.
Wow, so sexy pillows. Nice RWBY Weiss pillow on the bottom right. Nice boobage and covering of their private parts on the top left but something seems out of place on the bottom left…
Yo, what the fuck is this shit? lol My Hero Academic Midorya pillow simping for All Might? Yooo this is so gay and in bad terrible trash taste, at least the top right is proper gay shit.
We got some shit that would normally be considered “crafters” in the artist alley but for one reason or another, they are here selling jewelry and shit and clothes.
Sad, nothing beside the other vendor besides them just using it as trash space.
Further out there is an area of smaller single small vendors. All largely empty filled with bullshit content like animation schools or conventions promoting their own stuff.
Otakuthon in Quebec trying to promote their shit. Nice effort and display itself but so sad.
These guys selling metal plate art had like two different big display areas, one in the dealers and another in the artist alley. Mad lads.
Hmmm, collection of some gacha machines. Seems probably bootleg shit from pacific mall. Speaking of pacific mall, I legitimately haven’t been to pacific mall in like 2 years.
Nice looking weeb gear looking on here. Common trend I suppose among the youth, what can I say, the youth want Drip.
Interesting enough they brought these claw machines into this space. I don’t know how I feel about this. Once again, feels like I am in pacific mall with shit like this here.
Kokoro selling some shit, more hats and fabric/material goods.
Ah yea, here we are, that nice vendor that always displays a buttload of prize figures and small gacha figures.
Some french fools from Quebec selling some Korean clothes or whatever.
I like the name of this place, 1% talent sounds like an accurate assessment of this vendors art skills.
Wow, maybe it’s just me but they really did relax some of the rules on bringing in furniture and other shit into the convention. First time I’ve seen full Ikea Detolfs setup to display figures. Curious if any of these are for sale or if the vendor is just flexing. I see a few here that I also own too.
Lol twin table fails.
I mean, pretty nice name for a booth, decent merch too. Too bad noone is going to bother since they are right beside a huge empty spot.
lol triple table fail.
We all Enter The Battlefield of life I suppose. Generic boring white people merch at initial glance, like pop figures and shit.
I have no idea what these guys are selling, I think candles or some soap shit? Plates and home cookingware?
Yea, the emptiness is deafening. So much so that these guys just decided to chillax in front of the invisible vendors booth.
BEEG yoshi huh. Hard fail. I don’t even know what the hell these guys are selling anymore.
I’ve never before seen the vendors hall so empty and barren in all my years of attending AN, this is probably comparable to like the first year EVER I went, which was like late high school or some shit. Crazy.
For some reason Funko got tricked into thinking this might be a good place to sell their pop figures. Don’t they know that their shit is so mainstream and easily available that I can literally go into a rando toystore, music or edgestore like hot topic and it would have walls filled with their shit.
This mad lad still holding the fort on just selling and trading cards. When you don’t even sell fresh packs, it just seems like someones garage sale or flea market shit.
Some pool filled with crazy dice and shit. Pick a few for like 5 or 10 dollars I think.
Wow, picture says a thousand words about the vendors hall. Nothing in the corner, unheard of.
Ah yes, our customary doujishi seller at AN, the exact same one that appeared in AN in the 18+ area. At least they seem to be doing fine on business. Nice covered pillows.
Very special covering of body parts, not just tape but whole pieces of cloth to cover boobs and under areas. Sure.
My sister said that in previous days someone on instagram said that a real Initial D 86 was parked outside. This is a photo, of a photo on a phone of a tofu car. Nice. Really good shit.
One of the few bigger vendor booths was as per usual the Beguiling that still bothered to bring artbooks and manga. Their deal displayed here was like one of the only deals around, but it only applied to old discount stuff nobody really wanted anymore.
Nice Rengoku and Demon Slayer women who I can’t remember her name but is all about poison and butterflies.
Effort was made indeed. The shoes not so much however. I would go on to see this Rengoku around the con like 3 or 4 times today again alone in various other places.
I once considered and had this figure on pre-order for myself, it’s best girl Natsuro Minami from 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim. I ultimately decided to cancel because her pose, expression and cost to value ratio did not meet my standards; it was also by kotobukiya so the quality was going to be suspect. If I could get her for cheap I might consider getting her again. It looks like it ultimately turned out decent but I think another company is making a figure of her too, so we’ll see how that one turns out. Figures getting so expensive man, this would be the cost of a 1/4 scale maybe 3 or 4 years ago.
I don’t even know what this person is selling anymore but it sucks to be besides two empty spots.
Booth with nice FGO fate prize figures. I only want the higher quality shit.
“So I heard that AN is having trouble filling up it’s vendors hall.” “You think?”
Motherfuckers, 420 weed store again? Like, they had multiple vendor spots in the hall, so desperate for cash AN would like anyone in as long as they have money.
Slightly retarded Pikachu that I think we saw the bottom half of during line up. Nice effort, especially on a Sunday.
This cosplay certainly came out of the blue. FGO Anastasia huh. Wow, definitely one of the more elaborate and clothing heavy cosplays for today, must be really hot with that getup. Good shit.
<Insert proud American Guile SFII Theme> except with hello kitty sitting inside of the cockpit of the fighter jets.
At least some of the merch is up to date with the latest trends like Spy Family and this big boob Demon Slayer girl.
Noms had some pretty attractive shirts and shit that appealed to me.
Nice banner and shit. I actually asked them if they went to AX and apparently they were also there, just that we didn’t see/find them. It was pretty big I suppose so something like these guys would be hard to find unless you are looking for them.
It’s apparently a real company with employees in several locations which is pretty interesting to me. On their way to OmO Cat level I suppose. Nice food clothes and plushies.
These shirts here are ultimately too colorful for my tastes but I did end up buying a shirt from them, the more black and white ones. Good shit. Maybe i’ll keep buying from them online or whatever if they have more cool stuff.
After having seen enough of the vendors area we decided to check out what’s up in the artist alley. It seems at least much more busy now that it is closer to noon. Masks still in full effect.
Where is the child in this stroller? Missing, that’s what.
Some not Lego build thing making some space shit. Nice, but not Lego so who cares.
Mark was chillin with us for a while in the vendors area into the artist alley but dropped off after seeing some folks from back in the day. Later Mark.
Pretty good Mona cosplay from Genshin Impact, looks like I am beginning to learn the characters themselves boi!
It’s kind of interesting to me that every cosplayer that decides to do a Mona Genshin Impact cosplay is non-asian, usually white. Interesting since the character herself has like long-black-purple hair and is most easily done by asians, hmm. Asians tend to go with the blonde or more color hair characters it seems for some reason.
Nice material goods but more importantly a proud initial d fan. Initial D fans still live. Hope MF Ghost isn’t too shit.
The crafters corner has basically become clothing corner. Not that I am complaining. In many ways, they shouldn’t even give a shit anymore about what are artists and crafters, it’s pure bullshit excuse to just force people selling other shit to pay more for table space.
Clothes and stationary indeed. Not sure who will buy that cat shirt. Ugly.
Looks like Apricots from AX is here indeed. Noice food key-chains and shit, looks like she is doing business. Gud shit.
I suppose this gundam statue that the gunpla store brought over is an accurate representation for scale comparison in terms of how big AX is compared to AN. Considering that AX had a gundam several times larger on display this this, you get the idea.
Regardless of scale however, it’s still quite an impressive thing to look at with nice details and paintwork.
Finally, now we are getting into some of the artists. Looks like the trends in AN are up to date, just like AX. Noice.
Not my cup of tea art but whatever.
Oh yes, here they are again, Initial D man and or his crew mates with the same art. I’d say it again, for some reason Toronto has lots of good artists that go around internationally.
Vtubers and hololive are the meta for sure. Nice art and scrolls but a little too expensive for my tastes.
Initial D man and friends second outpost. I couldn’t tell if he was there himself, don’t want to become a stalker of sorts after all.
Everyone has various levels of hololive art, HAVE CONFIDENCE After all as Korone says.
Hololive and some others. I think Pidjin for some reason has some art on this artist booth, maybe they are friends and since he couldn’t get a table himself, his or her friend decided to allow him and a few others some room to sell. Noice. Nice emo Fauna art too.
I have seen you before, in previous AN’s or maybe this is a imposter of the old gods of the past. Not sure.
Questionable artists in the background but for sure black people like anime too, that’s for sure.
Quite a stand out display here, for this Puglie Mart filled with dogs and Pug shit. Whatever.
Now that’s more like it. It seems like the sentiment that that artist alley is where the ‘real’ merch is located is looking to hold true. Lots of people here, far more than in the vendors that’s for sure. That, or maybe everyone else has the same idea and made their way into artists by now. Or maybe because for some reason, even though they have alot of space, they made the corridors narrows for no reason. Whatever.
Not my thing but at least lots of the latest shows and meta are being shown like Demon Slayers and Hololive.
Hololive, Spy Family and some Genshin. Looks like this artist is taking cues for AX or the general anime culture meta gauge right now.
Lots of hololive art, as everyone does now and even some chainsaw man, even though the anime has not started yet.
I am gundam Banager Unicorn jokes. It must say something I suppose when I consider that these gundam artwork is mediocre yet all are still sold out. Wow. Initial D man gotta get in on this Gundam legacy train man. Gundam is the only mecha anime franchise worth paying attention to.
To the left of Gundam man, there is some more Genshin art and a bit of Doki Doki Lit club I think too.
Not really my style but I can respect it I suppose.
And here we have our classic “Anime was a mistake” print that has been seen for several years now. Nice to see that the artist is still alive, just milking that shit still.
I would never buy portrait artwork, it just seems like a waste to me but maybe some people might, maybe edgelords and some girls maybe.
Pretty tall display with a wide variety of stuff. From Sonic to Digimon to FGO. My guess is that it’s a combined table with 2 or 3 artists.
Very nice illustrated works here, very well done and artistic. Worthy of putting on a wall, even for non-anime fans maybe. Not for me however, I like my art more bold and less painterly generally speaking.
Ah yes, the crowds in the artists alley get quite filled. It doesn’t have to be this way but it is nevertheless. Like, they have alot of room but they don’t use it in the space, makes no sense.
Another very fine artist worthy of putting on the wall and kinda anime hidden look at feel. Nice, but not for me.
Nice to see some Yakuza art and Tifa stuff from FF7 Remake, it’s hard to believe it’s already been like 2 damn years since part 1 was released. Covid has messed with my sense of time and scale.
Nice Guilty Gear artwork, probably the only one I’ve seen all day and some hololive stuff too. The two sellers, I can only assume boyfriend and girlfriend were both wearing the exact same pre-made May Cosplay that you can get from Arc System Works. It is unclear if these guys were at AX too to get it or if they brought it online because I know for a fact that the May Hat and Hoodie were available online earlier in the year for a short amount of time before selling out.
They certainly had quite alot of stuff for hololive and guilty gear, which is great. Despite it’s rarity, the style wasn’t exactly my thing. It might seem strange to some that I would pass on these seemingly decent to good keychains of guilty gear and instead brought those chibi joke ones with words on the back at AX, but I dunno, that’s just me I guess. I value the funney. 5$ for stickers is so high though, but I guess with inflation it’s just a big “Okay”
Alot of varying shows and media featured in this booth but the art itself is just mediocre.
Very nice art indeed, got some Genshin, some cars and some spy family.
The general sentiment of this artist can be seen with her body language and hand on her head. Nuff said.
Yo, that’s some dedication right there, coming to a convention with a busted leg and using crutches. Good shit man, mad lad.
Very wide selection of art and pretty decent at that. Not any of my interests really however.
This reminds me of AX crowds in artists.
Simon didn’t even show up yet, either he didn’t bother to wake up for Sunday or he’s just about derping around.
Lots of shit different shit here, stickers galore. I am beginning to get a bit tired of the Spy Family art however, like yes, I know it’s easy wins because the character designs are so simple but at what point does it become lost with everything else. Very nice Hololive Pekora art however. Almost all artists knows whats up with the anime culture meta.
I was very close to buying some of these prints but I opted not to. They had a good style that I like and stuff from Hololive and Kaguya and even Marin Dress up Doll. This artist was BORN and optimized to be in AX, maybe they were and I forgot already.
I have seen this sky art in AX and in the canals of AN history. When will they retire? Probably never, at this point they have become a staple of convention circuits, much like Sakimichan has, which curiously is completely absent from this AN. I suppose her bad blood with AN and it’s organizers continues still.
The bag of charms all so common in AX makes its appearance in AN, I am not sure what the character or theme is however.
Not sure what this cosplay character is but the most surprising thing here is that someone drew fanart of Enkidu or Kingu from FGO. Like, people actually like him? Why?
Aki Zero was here and I ended up buying a few of her prints. It’s good shit. I think I forgot to take a picture of the bigger booth itself which is a bit of a fail on my part but ah well. Good shit.
Gonna enter the Gaming Hall huh, which usually just means tabletop board games and cards.
Sitting in the very corner of this space we take a rest after having been on our feet for like 4 or 5 hours already. I have no idea what these guys are doing on their laptops but it seems important.
Fairly spacious and lots of room in this place for sure.
I know these card and hobby guys set up shop here but part of me always thinks why even bother making the difference between card shit and other merch. I will never know.
Let it rip boiz.
Once again, grown ass men beating down little kids. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It may be the perfect card fighting game but the artwork is certainly far far away from that ideal.
Damn, could it get any more cringe and edgy than this? The bottom text is especially suspect not to mention hard to read.
Wow Dolly’s is here. I hope that not too much of their merch got damaged in the Fahmee fire. RIP Fahmee.
I’d figure, only about 20% of the people in this room or sitting were actually playing card games. This entire place is just an unofficial rest area.
More tired souls just resting from the hardships of walking.
I wonder what this paramedic guy is in here for. For a second I thought he was in cosplay.
Some Pins thing. I only remember them because they were at Kimicon back in 2018. I have no idea what this company does.
Decided to head outside around noon time to go over to the other building. I believe the girl on the left is a Genshin cosplay.
I am not sure if this is cosplay or there was some health incident or whatever.
No face makes his appearance. The shoes bro man the shoes…you gotta make them at least pure black or at least hide them.
Walking it certainly does seem like a lot less people today, even outside including cosplay numbers.
That gymnastic poll thing had people doing flips and shit I think. I couldn’t tell nor did I really care. The crowd seems a bit pitiful really.
A decent sized and reasonable lineup for food trucks.
A bit expensive but the novelty of eating a margarita or pepperoni pizza with Goku or Luffy theme is intriguing.
I was actually trying to head to that little tree area to check out cosplay photoshoots. For some reason everything that I like is always in this little corner, in previous years it was the place for Kancolle/Azurlane cosplay area. This year it just so happens to be Hololive. I suppose the meta shift has been confirmed. This bro Gura and nice Marisa cosplay are good shit. Nice Ame cutout too.
Nice Pekora cosplay and for some reason has a gun, probably given to her by that group of suspicious military cosplay guys in the background. I believe the guys in the back from the left: Ogata from Golden Kamuy, generic Japanese WWII solider, modern blue camo solider with touhou plushies.
Full body suit Kiara cosplay. For some reason it just seems right that they would choose Kiara to be a full body suit and mask.
Chibi Gura trying to setup with a OG Subaru dude trying to get their shit together. Props and so much work.
As per tradition, if no one is going to cosplay my waifu, i’ll fucking do it myself. Good Cali and Suisei cosplay. Why is this always the case in the shit that I like. It was mainly the same for kancolle and azurlane with a lot of dudes taking the initiave to cosplay their favorite boat girls.
The gura chibi got their shit together and is ballin.
Pretty good effort Ame cosplay. Too bad no hat.
Wow, I have no idea what this is but it’s interesting.
Someone gave the Pekora cosplayer a sword and glasses and now we all war criminal like. Not bad, pretty gud shit.
Nice ball thing in the background. I still am not sure what that thing is after all these years.
This is a pretty good Asuka cosplay even though it’s just a wig and brought body suit, it really helps if you are fit and slim. Too bad she didn’t go the extra effort to do at like like red shoes or something and just doing the converse thing.
Popes here, ready to kill. Guess were all gonna die.
This is a decent Mandalorian cosplay attempt but his helmet and armor just are not shiny enough, needs metallic paint, not just grey. Nice dark saber tho.
Female JoJo Josuke I believe. Pretty good.
Pretty good JoJo Giornio cosplay i believe too. I guess it works the other way around too. No dude is going to cosplay my husbando? Fuck it, I’ll do it myself!
This Touhou Marisa cosplay is probably the best cosplay that I’ve seen this entire day. I took a few more pictures of her but this one was the best. Really outstanding all around. A+ effort, execution and final product. Probably helps that she wasn’t wearing a mask too.
Very good FF7 Remake Cloud. Good shit. Mask wearing sucks so much for cosplay but what can you do.
I have no idea what this is but my guess is that’s in Digimon something. Nice armor, are you sure that’s enough Armour?
Too far away and too lazy to walk back some guy in a knight armor appeared. Wow, is medieval times nearby or something?
While not as abundant as they were in AX, Spy Family Yor is an easy and effective cosplay that largely depends on the individual themselves.
Very empty and spacious inside here, strange.
It really is something when you are wearing orange cosplay and you are the one that stands out in the area cause there is not that many others around.
Dayum it’s spacious indeed.
I believe further up is where incline happened.
As per usual we go to that Japanese restaurant to pick up some shit to eat. There is like…no line whatsoever, it’s like just over 12pm I think.
There is usually more tables here but it yea, way less people than in the past.
They had a separate line just for onigiri and another with hot foods and everything else. Interesting.
I can’t recall but I think the price has increased a bit. I can’t say but it’s still probably comparable to food from the food trucks.
Getting these onigiri at this point is almost a tradition for AN for me and my sister.
The hot food looks the same/decent as usual. Good shit.
I wonder what’s inside the box that she is holding. I can only think that it’s a sword but you never know.
All of the rooms just had video playing of anime last season and or dub anime of last season and such. As per usual, they are just rest places really. On a Sunday they usually do anime AMV’s in the biggest room, which is what we usually end up sitting in on while we eat our food.
They gave me this little sample bottle of some Calpico after I brought my food. I’m not a huge fan of it but it’s literally just one gulp.
Standard eats.
It came to my realization that I didn’t put any toppings or sauce on all of our stuff, damn, so I decided to go back and get some, it’s not like it’s crowded or anything.
Saw this pretty cute cosplay girl. I believe this is Klee from Genshin Impact. Pretty good shit, too bad for mask tho.
Yea boi, now that’s looking more like it, tastes more like it too. Not exactly Japan or LA little Tokyo food experience but you get the idea.
After watching some AMV for like an hour or so we headed back outside to make our way back to the action area. Nice evee suit, much effort, must be super heavy.
The crowds that attract said pokemon full body suit. Still masked even when outside, such dedication.
Spider boy, or at least one of them and his women.
I am surprised people still like and watch bleach, must be some legacy thing, especially so when black guys cosplay it too.
JoJo Joylyne and her stand which I can’t remember. Stone Ocean part 1 was good but I kinda wish it wasn’t all released at once from netflix.
A somewhat strange arrangement of the player guy from Demon Slayers and his 3 wives but they couldn’t find a dude to be the dude. Not bad still.
Very cultured Yakuza cosplay with all the main boiz I believe.
Hmm Tokyo Hot Nashville Hot chicken I suppose. I wonder why these guys were not in a food truck. That guy going shirtless is kinds sus. Same for the guy on the left with the water bottle.
Walking around this area seems alot more spacious than from the past.
Wow. A+ for effort but man, this is pretty jokes still. Never thought of trying to make a Dark Knight Trilogy batmobile with cardboard on a jeep.
While this car has no stickers or decals, it’s presence speaks for itself as a R34 Skyline GTR. Initial D peeps and Japanese import car people know what’s up.
This civic is supposed to be pokemon Vaporeaon theme but it’s not enough, just having a blue car is not enough, needs more waifu stickers and add-ons.
Oh shit this boi is running a FGO Scathach mercedes benz. Rich mothefucker indeed.
We were trying to catch the finals of the AN Idol contest in the north building and we saw this Kongming in the right place. Gotta check out those idols you kno.
Not particularly empty, but far from full too.
This girl who was cosplaying a Umamusme horse girl, Tokai Teio is extremely cultured simply by even cosplaying as this character to begin with. She was one of the best singers and had the most hype fun performance at that.
We spent almost an hour in this nice air conditioned place and the room began to slowly populate as the show dragged on.
This women in the dress was probably the best singer today, very professional and high quality voice. Can really reach the high notes and has a very robust voice. One of the judges was interning under a music producer and said that he wanted to work with her after this in producing some songs since she was so good. Wow.
This black guy cosplaying with the Demon slayer Tanjiro was apparently the 2019 AN idol champ. When you win this you apparently can’t enter again anymore cause you won. Sure.
The final group before they announce the top 3 winners.
The girl cosplaying as Tokai Teio horse girl got second place and the winner was that women with the white dress as expected. Very well deserved. Good shit.
As the lights come up, these are the people that are making their way out of here. Not exactly Main Events in AX but still pretty decent turn out.
We headed back into the main vendors hall for a final run of shit and saw these nice crew of cosplay suits.
Truly a wide array of franchises represented and shown. I still wonder the appeal of doing this, it’s just a few steps away from furry but yet still not as bad as furry, although one of the participants is furry.
Final hour or so before the end and the emptiness persists.
This looks pretty jokes, it’s a spider bad guy from Demon Slayers. He looks like he is on drugs but yea, that’s how he is I guess.
Walking past this vendor again with the lewd books, we see our favorite man here again, just like he was in AX and many years before.
These are pretty cute looking things, I wonder if they are hand made. It would be cool if they were.
Another deal that I spotted which is kind of similar to the same shit that we saw in the past. 5 or more us cover price. 12 to get 1 free is pretty steep.
One of the few places that still stock manga, I have no idea anymore if it’s worth buying unless it’s already something you like.
The Beguiling they still carry Fakku books with some minor tape censorship on the covers. Noice, in previous years they had a big bigger display but I guess they are more discrete now.
Going back to that artist booth that had the two May cosplayers and guilty gear art/keychains. My sister decided to buy some shit from them. Interesting enough, they had taken off their cosplay clothes, I guess it was getting too hot.
As I mentioned, these are pretty well made but ultimately not for me, not really my style. My sister brought a Sol one of course.
Finally a Genshin Impact Mona cosplay that is done by an asian. Good shit, doing it right.
Wow, I would have never figured that that work on the left would sell out. I have no idea what this is but yea, husbando/waifu and rarity factors I suppose.
Having done the main vendors and artists hall a final pass, we decided to leave and make our way out. Since we parked so close to the location, didn’t really have time to scroll and see any other last minute cosplays so whatever other than these two guys with interesting shirts. Whatever.
We decided to end off our long day with a trip to good old Midland Korean Grill House KBBQ. Hmm.. shit their prices have increased considerbly since I had last came here years ago. At these price points, might as well try going to the Matsuda Grill near me with far more variety.
Because we live in the future, they had also adopted a wifi/phone only menu personal food ordering system similar to what i’ve recently seen at some all you can eat sushi places.
The meat arrives in all it’s familiar raw glory.
The famous potatoes side dishes and kimchi. Back in the day this was the shit for like late night special, these days, not so much as there are much more options for KBBQ.
Because we were too busy eating, we didn’t have any pictures of actual cooked food, all that remains is a ruined charred grill, empty dirty plates and dirty table. Just like that way it should be.
Back at my family’s house we inspect our collective goods. Not exactly the greatest of hauls but still not bad considering what I spent on AX goods. As can be seen, on the bottom right are two identical sushi shirts one for myself and the other for my sister. On the far left is Ebi Fry, my boi. Top left is some cat plush my sister brought from an old mobile game. Art at the top.
Brought this nice art book from one of the vendors that I mentioned that sold at Comiket in Japan and a few nice key chains. Below is my sister’s sol key chain, I myself brought a hololive Irys charm. Noice.
Focus on the art at the top from AkiZero, the artist that apparently had her art bootlegged extensively from vendors at AX. The left is Genshin Impact, middle is from The Quintessential Quintuplets anime, right I am not sure but is probably either original or vtuber that I don’t know about. Very nice art.
With that, ends my general overview of Anime North 2022.
So then, how do I feel about my experiences of AN Sunday? Well, honestly, it’s largely the same as it has been in previous years going back to 2019, which is rather mediocre at best. Having been the first AN back from pandemic times the expectations were kind of high for others, but for me, I knew it was going to be like this. What I didn’t expect was how poorly the line management was in the past two days prior on Friday and Saturday, which was quite a shit show from what I see online. While the problems were largely resolved by Sunday, it’s kind of a moot point since it’s the last day and by nature, less people in general. The hype overall was less and most noticeable and quite sad is the lack of quality vendors in the dealers hall. I’ve never seen the AN dealers room so barren and empty with so much walking space before, probably over 10 years ago since it’s been this empty. Big dealers just didn’t show up or weren’t coming to AN anymore probably due to past experiences, grudges, problems and whatnot with how the convention has been conducted in the past. The lack of wall vendors is deafening. The fact that rando weed shops have multiple booths and so many small booths remain completely empty just tells the lack of interest in the dealers room. On the other hand, despite it’s abundance of space, the artist alley remains somewhat small in scale compared to previous years, which is unfortunate. Despite AN being a so called fan run convention, the one area where they should and could have expanded, the artist area, they failed to give them more space, despite excess space available to them. Despite being Toronto, which apparently has all the artists, failed to attract even Sakimichan or one of her proxies to sell her art, probably having permanently soured her relationship with AN organizers. The cosplay game was sad considering it was Saturday and in the middle of July, shit was hot so it’s not really the best conditions for cosplay. While there was still a decent amount, it’s clearly lacking, which is understandable.
As for guests, they have some RWBY English voice actors but most are largely whatever and no one cares. I was looking at one of the guidebooks for AN and I saw that they listed all of the English voice actors in attendance, but instead of specifically saying they voiced “X” character from “X” show, they showed a shitty fan art of the character which has derived so much from the original art, it’s barely recognizable as the same character. After years of going to AN, it had finally occurred to me. AN is a fan run convention right. They have no license or power. They are not allowed to say franchise or anime title names because they don’t have copyright or official permission to do so. That is why in the guidebook instead of saying characters that this voice actor worked on or whatever anime show they were in, they could only IMPLY said character or show, with fan art that barely resembles the actual character. Everything makes sense now. In previous years one of the rules for artists alley was that you were not allowed to put labels of characters or anime series on their prints or goods, which seems so utterly bizarre, but in this context of being a fan run convention, completely makes sense. AN were trying to protect their asses from potentially getting sued since they were having a convention without proper blessings from the big guys in the industry like Aniplex, Disney, Crunchyroll, Funimation and etc or rather, in the recently past, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, they got into shit and actually got in trouble. Everything makes sense now. AN will never get better as long as it remains a fan run convention, there are limitations and that is called money and industry presence/sponsors in which it has neither apparently.
However, with that said and my considerable criticism of AN, would I continue to go to AN next year? You bet your ass I will. I will continue to go as long as they continue to exist because I want and hope to see and experience it, the eventual demise and ruin of AN. I want to say that I went to the last AN, the last AN where it was so shit and terrible, that there was never another one in the future. I already saw the ruin of the first and last Kimikon in 2018 and regrettably; IFF in 2019. I want to see the end of days for Anime North as well. I had hopes that IFF would grow to become the real industry convention in Toronto, they brought real Japanese voice actors and was basically a FGO convention with real industry backing and clout, a step in the right direction. But alas, it seems that organization is dead and that hope has burnt out. Toronto wants and needs a real industry backed anime convention, and it desperately wants it so badly, but for some reason it just hasn’t panned out despite being the biggest city in Canada. The hunger and desire for a industry backed anime convention is so strong that I feel bad for all the people that go to Fan Expo at the end of August for anime or are cosplaying as anime characters, cause shit, that’s just not the place for anime man. Lining up for a free paper bag and poster at the Genshin Impact booth at Fan Expo is just sad, with no other merch or things to buy from them. Absolute travesty and insult to the people who actually want to buy merch and shit.
I long for the day when Anime North finally is finished and a real industry backed convention takes it’s place. Toronto, actually all of Canada deserves a better anime convention, not just some fan run circus that doesn’t even allow voice actors to print the name of the anime or the characters that they voiced. What a shame.