This year at J1 con 2018 I was invited as a cosplay guest. I jumped on the opportunity but, instead of being a booth babe like most. I opted to mix and mingle with the fans and snap pictures with my Nikon D3400. I honestly wanted to see what J1 2018 had to offer especially because Jason Richardson put everything he had into creating this con. I wanted to be where the people are and it was the best decision I had ever made.
I started day 1 of J1 walking into the Atlantic City showboat hotel where I was immediately baited into the Moe Maid Cafe. I was greeted and seated by 2 cute maids who quickly took our orders before coming to chat with us. When most people go to cons the maid cafe usually isn’t talked about but I’m making a big deal out of this one because this maid cafe its own soda. In fact we were lucky to be the first ones to try it that weekend and I wasn’t at all disappointed. We sat for a half hour chatting about our fandoms with the head maid and enjoying all that they had to offer for the weekend. We indulged in Cheese cake, Red velvet, and Chocolate lava cake all home made by the head maid of the café. As a culinary arts student I had no choice but to comment on her the deliciousness of her dessert lineup, if you were lucky enough to be seated at the café at any time during the weekend you know exactly what I mean.
The rest of the weekend was one that I’ll remember for a while. Saturday’s activities included the Costume contest which I got to take part in as a judge. The cosplay community has its days but I am absolutely overjoyed when I’m in a space where people can dress up and show love to their fandom in a fun and creative way. There were so many costumes Saturday night and they were all well done. I could see the blood, sweat, and determination people put into these outfits for J1 weekend and I’m proud of all the people who competed. Since I opted to walk around as a guest I got to fill my camera with pictures of attendees and the exhibitors something I am still happy I did ( Because hooray for blog content LOL).
To top off my magical weekend I met the voice of Whis ( DBZ Super) and I did Q&A, and had a conversation with Steve Conte. That name should always be remembered because he’s one of the Musical Gods who worked on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. I’m not even going to talk about Cowboy bebop and how it’s a cult classic, how you’re not really an anime fan if you haven’t watched it/ aren’t in love with it, how your life has no meaning if you’ve never heard “call me, call me, call me”, and how you just need to get with the winning team if any of what I said applies. Moving on Steve is a musical genius and I was so happy to not only be able to get a picture with him inside my Faye costume. I also got to ask him questions in his Q&A panel, one of my questions prompted a musical response in which he played a song for us (It was a beautiful track by the way and if you didn’t go to J1 con you missed out on hearing it because I don’t think the track was ever really released so yeaaaaaaaaaah it was a dope experience)
J1 con 2018 was small but because of this it was easy for fans to connect and interact with the voice actors , creatives, and most importantly each other. I cannot wait to see what the J1 team have in store for next years con!
Kasually Kia 