Anime North 2011
While living in Tokyo, my son and I had a chance to attend the Tokyo Anime Fair last year. This year, we attended Anime North 2011 held annually in Toronto, held on May 27-29.
This event was held at the Toronto Congress Center, Doubletree and Sheridan Hotels near the Toronto airport.
Attendance last year was about 17,000 and entrance fee is $40 (about 5,000 yen).
Inside near the entrance, a weapons check was setup for cosplayers.
There were many different types of activities during the event including panels, anime movies, games, idol singing contents, maid cafe, Japanese art gallery, etc. There was even anime pro wrestling, only in Canada ….
There were Japanese sword demonstrations which allowed participants to learn some basic (Kendo) moves …
There was also live cosplay chess challenge.
Speaking of cosplay, unlike the Tokyo Anime Fair where there were only a small number of cosplayers, over half the attendees were cosplayers.
There were many impressive costumes from anime, video games, movies, TV shows, etc.
The rest of this blog post will be pictures of cosplayers. Enjoy!
From the Assassin’s Creed video game …
Another game –Bioshock.
From the movie Avatar?
Black Rock Shooter.
The Last Airbender
It’s a lovely Supergirl.
Final Fantasy character.
Gundam girl.
I think this is Liane K, a local Toronto TV personality and well-known cosplayer.
Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.
Compared to the Tokyo Anime Fair, Anime North is much smaller, but is more expensive, though has a lot more different types of activities. The Tokyo Anime Fair booths and displays were certainly much nicer. Finally, cosplayers rule the Anime North convention.
Please visit this week’s issue (#29) of Show Me Japan hosted by Anna at budgettrouble.com.
Konnichiwa 
I kinda like the Avatar kid the best. 🙂
Yes, great costume.
Lots of good photos here. Naturally, the cosplayers that look best within their costumes are the ones that look Asian. I’ve rarely seen a western cosplayer that does more than just put on an outfit, some makeup and a wig. Although, Supergirl does seen to have gotten it right (it does help if you already look the part, first).
There were good and bad costumes, whether Asian or not. Actually, I was quite impressed by the number of very good costumes during this convention.
I’ve never been to an Anime convention, so thank you for showing it. Some of those costumes were really cool!
You’re welcome. Yes, there were some great costumes.
I only recognized Superman (Supergirl), Alice in Wonderland, and Avatar. The rest were foreign to me. I couldn’t even tell that was Gundam until I read the caption. I feel old.
Thanks for commenting.
These are great shots! It’s quite difficult to compare North American Conventions with TAF, as they’re quite different beasts–for example, TAF actually specifically discourages Cosplay, and has even banned it in recent years. Apparently the companies presenting don’t want anything taking away from the booth babes! There are plenty of other cosplay friendly and focused events Japan side though, and lots of other ways that TAF differs from cons as well 🙂
Thanks for commenting. Anime North is actually a fan organized convention so i probably should have compared it with WonderfFest or Comiket instead of TAF.
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