Hello everybody! Koda Kazar here with a special article. This past weekend was Izumicon, the biggest Japanese anime and manga convention in the central Oklahoma area. I was in attendance and here is my report from the trenches where I dodged glomps and lethal clouds of con funk.
As like many previous Izumicons the bulk of the guests were people from the American side of the anime industry and included people such as; Samantha Inoue-Harte, a voice actress and special effects expert who can most recently be heard as the voice to Isis in DC Universe Online, Christine Auten, a voice actress who has voiced roles in several high profile anime series but is probably most well known and recognized as the voice of Izumi Curtis in the dubs of both Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, and Doug Smith, a voice actor and freelance artist who has voiced multiple roles with his most prominent one probably being Kintaro Oe, the main character in the extremely racy series Goldenboy.
The headline guest, however, was Vic Mignogna, a well known and highly praised voice actor who has voiced characters such as Edward Elric in both Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, Tamaki Suou in Ouran High School Host Club, Yoshimori in Kekkaishi, and Broly from Dragon Ball Z just to name a very short amount of his roles.
Vic addressing the crowd at an autograph session.
Vic Mignogna signing autographs for his fans.
But enough about all that! You guys came into this article probably expecting to see pics of people in outfits, silly or otherwise, didn’t you? Well then, let’s get started!
As per usual at anime conventions where some of the guests were Fullmetal Alchemist voice actors, there was a healthy supply of FMA cosplayers on hand.
Wait . . . there's something familiar about that guy, but I can't quite put my finger on it . . .
It isn’t an anime convention without some Inuyasha cosplayers.
I could have went with one of the numerous Luffy cosplayers to represent One Piece, but I decided to go with the man with the awesome mustache.
Go ahead, try telling Whitebeard his name doesn't make sense. I dare you.
This Marcus Fenix was one of the better video game related cosplays at the event.
Looks like this guy pre-ordered his costume at GameStop.
Soul Eater was decently represented at Izumicon, and none were better than this amazingly well made Shinigami-sama.
Perhaps the most perplexing thing about Izumicon 2011 was the shockingly plentiful amount of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cosplayers, and this Pinkie Pie takes the cake.
Hetalia: Axis Powers was one of the more popular series in terms of cosplayers at Izumicon.
There was a massive explosion in the amount of Vocaloid cosplayers this year over the last, so much so that Vocaloid was one of the most represented franchises this year and you could barely go anywhere without seeing someone as Miku Hatsune or one of her many cohorts.
However, in terms of the number of cosplays, the most popular series was not an anime, or a manga, nor even a video game, but rather a webcomic. Homestuck, the latest series in the MS Paint Adventures franchise had by far the most cosplayers at the convention.
And I’ll leave you guys with some pics of my spoils of war from the convention.
I have actually lost count of how many times I have gotten Vic's signature . . . oh well what's two more going to hurt?
(All pictures from the convention floor in this article were taken by Ranee McBride. You can see more of her work at Ravenhawk Photography.)