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Prologue It has been crazy the past couple of years since Covid 19 struck the world as a global pandemic. This made the plans of many become cancelled as the virus spread like wild fire throughout the world. In 2021, I had plans on going to Ichiban Con in Concord, NC. The convention was cancelled due to the pandemic, which rightfully so was the smart thing to do by the convention organizer. Things have cleared a bit in 2021 where I was able to go to Queen City Anime Convention and they had very strict covid 19 protocols which made the convention feel very safe. Time to leap forward to January 2022 and Ichiban Con made its comeback appearance in the convention scene and this is my story of what happened at the convention through my perspective. Now, the convention journey was standard. Working on my cosplay, making small improvements, and getting ready for the convention. On January 12, 2022 I packed up my car with my gear and my friend Ventus and I drove up to the Embassy Suites in Concord, NC at around 2:30 P.M. We arrived at the hotel around 3:30 P.M just before the normal check in. I was smart and I performed the Check in online making sure I was able to choose a room on the 2nd floor as I knew we would have roommates who would have mobility needs and being on the 2nd floor would be the easiest to get on and off the elevators and if we those who needed to use the stairs they would be able to do so. Ventus and I get to the hotel to grab the key cards. There was a bit of a snafu with my bank card and I had to use Ventus’s Card in order to secure the room for the reservation because I didn’t get paid till the 13th. After checking in, we grabbed a cart and packed it up to bring our gear to the hotel room. This is where we stood for a bit and then went out for dinner. We hit up the Iron Dish Korean BBQ restaurant that is literally 10 minutes away from the hotel. We partook in one of the best dining experiences I have had in quite a long time. 45 dollars per person, all you can eat food, with a 2-hour time limit cant be beat. We enjoyed every minute of it. Once dinner was completed, we slogged our way back to the hotel with our stomach’s full of great food and retired for the night at the hotel resting for the long weekend ahead of ourselves. Day 1: The next day, we woke up, stopped at the front desk, changed the bank card to my bank card and then had breakfast. The hotel has a decent continental breakfast where we enjoyed things from eggs, bacon, cereals, coffee, tea, juices, and variety of other breakfast staples. Now that breakfast was completed, we went back to the hotel room and relaxed until around noon where we went to stand in line to get our badges and get age verified. The line was already forming and we waited till 1 pm for the line to open. While waiting for the line to start we chatted with some artists from the artist alley and craft fair who was in line with us and I found out I bought some merchandise from one of them last year at Queen City. Talk about a small world. About 10 minutes in line we grabbed our passes, got age verified and then I went to get my staff of Ainz Ooal Gown Prop Checked. The staff said it’s a propped and its checked without looking at it or inquiring anything about it. I asked if I could at least get the zip tie to commemorate that it was check in at a con for posterity and they did. While walking back to the room to drop the prop off I met up with my buddy Cam who we went up to the hotel room, dropped the staff and helped bring his stuff up. This occurred several times through out the day with various of our roomies and when the last roomie made it our convention trip started to get going full swing. Since this was the first day, nothing was really going on, the convention was light on participants as it was a Thursday and the time the convention started was at 3pm. We all hung out, took our tours of the dealer room, check out panels and met other friends throughout the day. We had pizza for dinner and drank the finest alcohol we could bring to get the convention part started. We ate, drank, and we were merry until we called it quits to get ready for the next day. Day 2: Friday was the next day of the convention We woke up early, went to the lobby had breakfast and got ready for the convention. I cosplayed as TeruTeru from Danganronpa, Cam cosplayed as Endeavor from My Hero academia, and our other friends either cosplayed or went in weeb attire. We hit the cosplay floor and Cam, Camilla, and I went around chatted with several peeps, went outside, took some photos, started to enjoy the festivities within the convention. We hit up the dealers room, we hit up the game room, and what not. Highlight of the game room was when Cam and I played some Rock band. He took guitar and they forced me to be vocals after the first song Cam played. I choose Crazy Train for the song and needless to say, I nailed it and blew Cams mind. He wasn’t expecting me to go ham with it, but then again, Ozzy is one of my favorite artists so I knew I could sing it quite well. My cosplay for teru teru got some weird looks, some people called me chef boyardi, another called me barry the slasher from FMA, and another said I looked like a chef form the hotel. I was ready to be asked that because this was a dry run of this cosplay, I am hoping to get more items set up correctly for it, like the mini chef’s hat, the symbol on the apron, and the wok. The highlight of the cosplay was getting a plastic ladle prop checked from the security department. I thought that was pretty funny. We all met up several times throughout the day and we attended panels, met with friends and what not. The best thing that happened was Cam and Josh were asked to be roasted in the Cosplay Roast. IT was hilarious and we all had a good time. After the panels were done, we came back up to the room hung out with friends and retired for the night to get ready for Saturday. Day 3: We started Saturday the same as Friday. We ate breakfast and went back to the hotel room. Cameron got into his cosplay for this 10:15 judging slot, I walked around the convention while pushing Camilla around in her wheelchair as she has limited mobility. We hit up the dealers room, did our laps of the Con Floor, She had many photos taken of her cosplay which many people loved. Around 1 pm, I went up to the room and got into my cosplay. This is the first time getting the cosplay together with the boots, sabatons, knee armor, and new gloves. Ventus was my handler, we walked around, I was stopped many times for photos and video opportunities. Had my photos taken by the variant and I paid for the thumb drive with the photos on it. I retired to the bar for a bit to wait till the photo shoot with my fried Imiicie. At 3:50 I suited up, met with Imiicie and we did the photo shoot. The shoot was outside. It lasted an hour, And took many photos. Some of the basic photos are going to be used for my portfolio that I will be putting together for my entry into Queen City Anime Convention in August. Once the shoot was over, I walked around for a bit, took more photos and then got out of the cosplay so that we could attend the cosplay masquerade. Ventus and I were lucky we got on line when we did. The filled up fast. The masquerade was good. The MC’s had good chemistry but the organization was poor. There was too many skits and not enough time for the craftmanship run way walks because they ran out of time. On the bright side, Cam won 3rd place in the masters division even though he entered the journeyman version. After the cosplay Masquerade, Cam, Camilla, and 2 of our other roomies, left the convention as they had long trips back home and the weather was going to be bad for Sunday as there was a winter storm watch in affect where there would be snow and ice. The Rest of us couldn’t check out due to 2 others in our group were a bit drunk and were in no way safe to drive. I made the decision to pack the car out so it was easy to get ready to leave in the morning. Ventus and I had Chinese food for dinner, while Josh and Jason did their own things. We went to bed around 12 or 1 am. Day 4: Day 4, we woke up and say there was about 2 – 3 inches of snow on the ground. We all woke up, ate breakfast and we cleaned the hotel room. Once we were all done, we checked out and Josh and Jason did their own thing while Ventus and I did out our thing and left. The drive home from Concord to charlotte was a pain in the ass due to the snow and ice on the ground. IT was sleeting and For some reason there was no plows on the road. We were able to make it home safe with no incidents. I would like to thank my many years of living and driving in winter conditions in New York. It kind of sucks we had to end our convention short. But It happens. I am hoping year will be better and we can stay the entire time. Epilogue and Rants. Overall, I had a great time at the convention, It was great to hang out with my friends and enjoy their company. We met so many people and made some new friends. Our cosplays were a hit and despite having to cut the trip short, I rate the convention this year a 8 out of 10. There were some things that could have been done better. The covid 19 protocols in place were a bit too laxed. They didn’t have any information posted until a week or so before the convention. They required all attendees wear a mask, yet the staff was allowed not to if they were vaccinated. There were some people who didn’t wear masks inside the convention sections and people weren’t enforcing the mask rules. I am not going to say how the convention policy differed from the policy of the hotel, which was fully vaccinated you could be mask less, while not vaccinated you would need a mask. Other issues I seen was the snafu with lines and queuing. It seems like it was inconsistent, and some staffers couldn’t make the lines correctly. This caused some arguments and contention between staff and congoers. I think they would need to think of queuing more seriously next year and come up with better solution. My final rant doesn’t have to do with the convention, but it has to do with certain congoers. This issue focuses on cosplayers who are disabled, who need use of mobility aides, who are different body type/gender from their cosplay source, or just human in general. My main rant was hearing some of the stories stemming around the fact that some people are cruel. People who will openly say that “you shouldn’t cosplay x person because your body type doesn’t match.”, or the cosplay would look great if you didn’t have crutches or if you weren’t in a wheelchair.”. This makes me angry. Everyone has the right to be able to cosplay who they like regardless of who they are, if they are fit, unfit, disabled, or have a different body type, gender, or skin color from the sourced material. You know how bad that makes people feel. It makes them feel like shit. This community is awesome. Cosplaying is fun and everyone has the right to experience that. Just because a cosplayer isn’t accurate to the source for what ever reason, doesn’t mean they didn’t do their best to do so. They put their time and effort into the cosplay to get the Dopamine Hit for getting asked to have their photo taken with a fellow fan of the fandom. A hit of dopamine to see that people like their work. Saying things that hurt people’s feeling is a dick move and isn’t tolerated. If I would have heard those statements from the people saying them, I would have given them choice words. They have no right to say things like that especially when it can hurt the feels who are affected by the words. Cosplay is meant to be an outlet for fans to dress up as their favorite character. There is no room for hatred and I do hope those people who say things like that, I hope they question their life decisions as it is wrong. This ends my experience from Ichiban Con 2022 convention.

Gotta love those fun up beat funky jams.

This is my 3rd mainstream pokemon game. I played pokemon go but thats mobile. I played lets go pikachu, followed by sword and sheild. This one is the same yet different. Still trying to get used to it.

Those are pretty good. I have been enjoying those in addition to Tak Op. Destiny. Mashouko Tensei.

I have to agree he is an awesome character. That is why I decided to do a cosplay of him.

Wow, I haven't heard those names in a long time. Dirty Pair and Dirty Pair Flash is pretty good. haven't seen them in a long time. It looks like crunchy roll has them now.

Thats a conventional single player card game. do you play other card games like poker, spades, MTG?

Oh both of them are yummy if done right.

Galaxy

Welcome to the Site Mamonga. Hope you have a fun time.

I know I will be there with My Ainz Cosplay. I hope to see you all there!.

Ichiban 2022 will be the 12th year for the convention since the pandemic cancelled it in 2021. With that aside, the conevention has a tenative date of 1/13/22 - 1/16/22. According to the About Us Page of Ichiban. About Us Ichibancon is a four-day event that features a variety of entertainment in a diverse, multi-function, crowd-friendly environment. One ticket price gives you access to all Concerts, Live Acts, and Performers to industry and media guests, DJs, artists, and vendors. Ichibancon is held annually in Concord, North Carolina. It currently is a four-day event that features a variety of entertainment in a diverse, multi-function, crowd-friendly environment. One ticket price gives you access to all Concerts, Live Acts, and Performers to industry and media guests, DJs, artists, and vendors. Fans from all over the world make plans to attend yearly. Tickets are available in advance or at the door. Notable musical guests have included local, national, and international bands and musicians such as TJunko Fujiyama, My Parents Favorite Music, Triforce Quartet, Taylor Davis, Professor Shyguy, Ghost in Blue, Super Guitar Bros, Kaminari A Capella, Drop Team Epic, Kazha, Kohei Hattori, Triforce Quartet, Symphonic Anime Orchestra, Sana, Double Experience, David Liebe Hart, Chii Sakurabi, Jennifer Cihi. Actors and Media Guests who have attended and hosted audience panels have included Phil Lamarr, Sgt Slaughter, Monica Rial, Chris Sabat, Mela Lee, Tiffany Grant, Caitlin Martin, Christina Marie Cabanos, Vic Mignogna, Jessica Dicicco, Jad Saxton, Cherami Leigh, Chuck Huber, J Michael Tatum, Bryce Papenbrook, Eric Vale, Karen Strassman, Martin Billany, Marianne Miller, Spike Spencer, David Vincent, Tyson Rinehart, Lisle Wilkerson, Richard Epcar, Ellyn Stern, Josh Martin, Chris Rager, Quinton Flynn, Dante Basco, Kristen McGuire, Xanthe Huynh, Michele Knotz, James Carter Cathcart, Todd Haberkorn, Bri Knickerbocker, Ryan Bartley, Steve Prince, Alejandro Saab, Steve Blum, Brian Donovan, Christopher Wehkamp, Billy West, Hayden Daviau, Giancarlo Volpe, Faye Mat, Nao Yazawa, David Gerstein, Samurai Dan, Chalk Twins, Looney Ballooney, Charles Dunbar, Cosplay Inc, Ronald Seaman, Manly Battleships, Carolina Manga Library, Marie Pouler, Laugh Out Loud and On the Spot Improv among others. https://ichibancon.com/information/about-us/ Admission information is as followed as noted from their admission page https://ichibancon.com/admission/ Advance purchase admission Advance purchase admission will now be offered at tiered pricing. Buying your passes earlier will save you the most! We will be selling passes online up until January 8th at midnight EST. Once that deadline has passed, passes will also be available at the door. We accept cash, credit, and debit cards. Purchase your pass(es) now! Tier 1: This rate expires on Nov 15th at midnight EST 4day: $52 Thursday: $23 Friday: $32 Saturday: $39 Sunday: $20 Tier 2: Nov 16th- Dec 15th at midnight EST: 4day: $65 Thursday: $29 Friday: $39 Saturday: $45 Sunday: $20 Tier 3: Dec 16th -Jan 8th at midnight Est as well as at the door of the convention: 4day: $75 Thursday: $35 Friday: $45 Saturday: $50 Sunday: $25 Children 10 and under are free with purchase of a pass. Please note: 4-day pass will be available for sale at the door Thursday-Saturday. Admission hours: Thursday: 1:30pm – midnight Friday: 9am – midnight Saturday: 9am – midnight Sunday: 9am – 4pm

So far my primary goal for my cosplay is Ainz Ooal Gown from Overloard. He is a very technical cosplay and it has come out nicely. I still have some work to do. but It will get done eventually. You can see my Cosplay of Ainz in the Cosplay PhotoGalley

Queen City Anime Convention 2021 Return of the Cons! The year 2020 was a total pain in the rear end with the world coming to an end because of the Novel Coronavirus 19. It killed the plans of so many people and basically put the world into utter chaos. With the vaccination becoming readily available and places opening back up after the lock downs. It was great to see that Conventions were able to start to occur. As many people are aware, conventions are a place where people within a given fandom can attend to enjoy their fandom with like minded individuals in a single place. This is where the Return of the Cons come into place. For me, the return of the Conventions is Queen City Anime Convention 2021. It’s been 2 years since I attended this convention as it had to have gone virtual last year. The prior Convention was Ichibancon 2020 which was a great time before the world decided to implode upon itself. But I digress. Queen City Anime convention 2021 was a great time for me. I am sure it was a great time for all the other attendees attending the event. In 2021, Queen City Anime convention has become a volunteer run Non-Profit organization being committed to donating 10% of the ticket sales revenue to the Greater Charlotte Rise (GCR).[1] This is cool as it is the first time that I have heard of a local convention donating back to the community and I feel this is a great change that will help everyone involved through the organization of a Non-Profit Organization. Kudos to Queen City on making that leap. Moving on, I was quick to reserve a hotel room as soon as I received notification that the convention was still being held. The convention quickly posted their COVID-19 precautions and advised that Fully Vaccinated Individuals just needed to show proof of being fully vaccinated with the second dose a week before to convention. If you weren’t vaccinated, you would have had to have a negative Test done several days before the convention or take a rapid test at the convention halls. At the beginning masks weren’t required as there was no mask mandate. This changed about 2 weeks before the convention and Masks were required to be worn. I had no issues with this as the convention was following local ordinances and making sure the safety of its attendees. Again, another Kudos to the convention organizers. I didn’t have to worry about my ticket as I purchased a Lifetime VIP pass back in 2018. This allows me to get a ticket every year as long as the convention still exists. My friends weren’t as lucky as they had to either purchase a pass this year or have their 2020 pass rolled over. Either way I was able to get in and enjoy the company of good convention friends. I had two of my friends show up to my house on the 19th. We packed up my car and we carpooled down to the Sheraton Charlotte in downtown Charlotte. We checked in and walked around the convention space to get the lay of the land. Basically, I wanted to know exactly where each of the panel rooms were, the Main Events Hall as well as the registration, cosplay judging room and prop check. This was to ensure that we knew were we needed to go if there was a panel or event we wanted to go to. At 6:15P PM. We headed out to SOSU Charlotte for some tasty Ramen and to enter their cosplay contest. We enjoyed their food and met some cool people. Sadly, we didn’t win the contest, however, the food and atmosphere was good. 10 out of 10 I would recommend this ramen shop for some tasty food. After eating, we stopped at Target to try to get some sewing supplies for a last minute fix but they were sold out. So Instead I bought a 12 pack of Truly Hard Seltzers and we retired back to the hotel room to watch some movies and get ready for the first day of the convention. DAY 1: Friday, August 20th arrived and it was time to get ready for some convention shenanigans. We woke up early and promptly went down to the registration area. We were first in line as we were waiting for our other Roomie to arrive. My friend had to go and get his Covid 19 Test done in the convention. There was some confusion about the Take at home Test. There was no indication it needed to be done at the convention. After speaking with the convention staff, the reasoning was the BiNax Test kit results only lasted for 30 minutes before they were invalidated. That makes sense, but it would have been nice if it was noted beforehand. Overall, Our registration went smoothly. Our other friend arrived shortly, we unpacked his car and brought his gear up to the hotel room. We waited around for our friend to go through registration to pick up his badge and then He and I suited up for our cosplay. He Cosplayed as Endeavor from My Hero Academia and I Cosplayed as Ainz Ooal Gown. I didn’t have all my cosplay bits and bobs on because I was saving it for Judging and the cosplay contest. We made our way down to the convention hall where we were promptly stopped for some videography by iShinobiStudios. After getting some footage. We walked down to the game room area where I was stopped again for more videography. Next, I walked around where the vendor hall was going to be and was stopped again for more videography and photos. We went around for a couple of hours in cosplay until it got too hot, and we got out of the cosplay. My friend and I went to the vendor hall and found out the lines were long. While waiting online I got something to eat. I asked con staff how the VIP worked this year, and we were escorted the front of the Vendor hall line as My friend and I had Vip Passes. We walked around the vendor hall to see what they had. To be honest, I wasn’t fully impressed with the vendor hall as it felt like it was more artist alley than vendor. I think it could have been better if it was better separated, but, it was decent enough to buy some items later in the weekend. After browsing, we left the hall, I finished my lunch, and we check out other cosplays, and checked out game hall, hung out with friends. I as able to get in line with VA Tiffany Grant and buy some awesome Merchandise which I got signed. She also signed 2 dvds and a funko pop I brought. She was very impressed that I had some dvd’s from series other Than Neon Genesis Evangelion. Its funny I wound up spending about 200 bucks on merchandise. It was money Well Spent. After walking around, I Saw another buddy of mine who was cosplaying as Albedo. I asked her to stay where she was, and I went back to the hotel room to get dressed back into Ainz Ooal Gown. We had out photos taken. I gave her one of the spare rings I made, and we went on our ways. After that I went back to my room and I ordered some Pizza for Dinner for us, and we ate dinner. I went and saw the Burlesque show with my buddy Cam. It was a good time and done very tastefully. After the Burlesque show, we retired back to the hotel room and enjoyed the company of some additional friends. We told stories while drinking and enjoying snacks. Around 2 am we went to sleep to get ready for the next Day’s events. DAY 2: On the Dawn of Day 2 we woke up and relaxed. Cam and I got into our cosplays, and we had to go down to the judging room as we entered the cosplay contest. We went and did our judging. When the judging was completed, we went around the convention floor for a bit. I wound up having a 5-minute conversation in character with the CWF Skeletor Wrestler. It was pretty bunny. Next, we walked around and had our photos taken. Scared some Kids and just chatted with people before getting out of our bulky cosplays and enjoyed lunch. We walked around the convention some more and wasted time until we needed to be at main events for the cosplay contest. Around 5 pm, we got dressed and then went back to the room to get ready. We robed up and went to main events. WE had to go to several places as the main events hall as running longer than expected. We had to run to the Lounge and wait. There we got lined up and went to the Contest. After some moving around, following instructions the contest went without a hitch. I was up after Cam in his WOW cosplay. I got onto the stage. I walked up to the main part of the stage with the swagger of Ainz Ooal Gown Holding his Staff and belted out. “ALL HAIL AINZ OOAL GOWN!” before whipping my cape behind me and walking off stage. I didn’t place into the contest, but Cam got 2nd place in Journeyman. That was cool. I was disappointed there was no other categories like best in show, best prop, best technical skill, etc. But Its all good. We got out of our cosplays. Had dinner and I walked around the convention after enjoying a good chunk of adult beverages. We went to sleep and woke up for the final day. Dawn of the final day DAY 3: We woke up early to get ready for check out. By 10 am we were completely out of our room and our stuff was in the cars ready to go. We checked out of the hotel and stood for the rest of the convention. We walked around checked the vendor hall. Bought stuff and took a lot of photos of the cosplayers. I did my judging feedback. And was told my finishing work is what caused me not to place. I am taking the advise and I will work on my finishing. Overall my cosplay was good from a far, but far from good. I have already bought some tools to help me with my finishing work and I will make sure to make it look better for next year’s contest. After the judging panel I walked con, hung out with friends and just took tons of photos with what time I had available. We left the convention around 2 pm as there wasn’t any panels or guests that I wanted to attend and that marked the end of Queen City Anime 2021 for me. Overall Thoughts and opinions. Overall, it was fun to be back at conventions. I think the convention did a great job considering the hurdles that COVID-19 has brought. I believe there will be some adjustments made to make next years convention to operate smoothly. Communication was a bit lacking, but I think that is going to be address. I think the main issue was people not having their vaccinations or having a negative test before going to the convention. From what I have seen is the registration lines was empty, the time was spend having people doing the testing on site. But, as I said, this is a new experience event organizers must go through. The Event space was set up much better than it was in 2019. There were a few times where the lines caused issues moving around the convention. The only time this was a problem was when Main Events went longer than expected. I think it will run better next year with the feedback the convention will receive. I also believe there were some staffing issues that was causing some issues, but I think the convention organizers will learn from this year and make improvements next year. The Event Hall was way too hot. It felt like the HVAC system wasn’t working properly. Couple that with a ton of WEEBS, you can tell thing were going to get gross quickly. Again, I think that is something that is up to the Hotel to deal with. Perhaps their system wasn’t working correctly since they were doing renovations to the building. In the end the convention was a good convention considering the hurdles the organizers and hotel had to deal with. I think next year it will be better. I think this convention may outgrow this venue and may need to find a bigger venue. But I think they have several years to go if they continue on their trajectory. Bibliography Queen City Anime Convention. (n.d.). Queen City Anime Convention. Retrieved from Community Service: https://queencityanimecon.com/community-service/ [1] (Queen City Anime Convention, n.d.)

I have been reading the Overlord Manga. Its pretty good. I am almost completed to the current volume. Once that is done, I will start to read the Graphic novels.

I will be attending the 2021 Queen City Anime Convention in Charlotte, NC later this month. I am looking forward to getting back into the convention scene after a year and a half of uncertainty due to the pandemic. Below is additional information about the convention. Queen City Anime Con Inc, is a nonprofit organization that exists to promote Japanese culture and cultural education throughout the Charlotte NC area through live fandom events with an emphasis on inclusivity and diversity among fans. Queen City Anime Convention is an annual event in Charlotte NC produced by Queen City Anime Con Inc. that promotes and celebrates Japanese/global popular culture and fandom including but not limited to animation, manga and comics, video gaming, cosplay, and performance arts. https://queencityanimecon.com/ Pre-Registration Ticket Pricing: Online pre registration ends at 11:59PM August 19th 2021. Adults Age 13+: Weekend Pass: $60 Friday Only: $30 Saturday Only: $40 Sunday Only: $20 VIP: $120 VIP members get to skip the line at registration, priority seating during main events, and priority access to guest autograph sessions. Kids Age 6-12: Friday Only: $15 Saturday Only: $20 Sunday Only: FREE Admission is free for kids 0-5 At the Door Ticket Pricing: Adults Age 13+: Weekend Pass: $65 Friday Only: $35 Saturday Only: $45 Sunday Only: $25 VIP: Not Available Kids Age 6-12: Friday Only: $15 Saturday Only: $20 Sunday Only: FREE Admission is free for kids 0-5 For more details about our COVID-19 policies, please see our COVID-19 Policies and FAQ page