Went to OtakuFest — My First Anime Convention In Like…10 Years…

Hello, hello friendssss~ Posting this kinda late cuz I’m been stuck with a cold (not COVID, YAY~). Anyway, if y’all didn’t know, I’ve kinda been on “vacation” for the past like month. Meaning we closed up shop and went back to SoFL to spend time with my sis for the holidays. Anyway, I got to reunite with my bestie and her kids for a bit and ended up catching a cold from the kiddos. I was doing better though…kinda sorta Basically just had a dry cough and soreness in my chest/diaphragm from said cough. Got a last minute invite to join my sis and her boyfriend at an anime convention. I hadn’t been to one in like almost 10 years. So yeah…I went~ Anyway, here’s a storytime~ But you can also just skip to our goodies from the con too if you want [clicky here]. I am still kinda out of it from my cold so been writing this bit by bit, sporadically… So forgive me y’all… Anyway, let’s go~

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Again, I haven’t been to an anime convention in a long ass time. I went to a couple since high school and college. Like I also always went to Megacon. Actually, Megacon 2014 was the last convention that I’d ever been to. And I went with Nick (@rokutsu ) and Marc (@cmdrcluckcluck )~ I definitely was more into anime and stuff during my younger and teen years. Although I definitely have not been as deep into anime and manga over the past couple of years (as y’all know). Again, as y’all know… my life and hobbies are more dominated by music, dramas/films (though not as much lately), and now manhwa and novels.

Still, I’ve always enjoyed going to cons~ There are always fun things to see and do. It’s always fun with friends, and sometimes you make interesting friends too~ Went to my first one during my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I also even had a table in artist alley with a friend for Megacon 2009~ Yes, I used to love drawing (I don’t draw anymore though). Now you know a new fact about me… Yes, I dead ass searched through 15 years worth of photos on my FB for these… This when I lowkey regretted being so involved in college activities, cuz being involved with student associations meant there be a whole shit ton of tagged photos than average during my college years LOLOL Also, when you be like “Oh wow! I don’t even remember this!” to “CRINGE. NOPE. I DON’T WANNA REMEMBER THIS!!!” while looking through old photos…

Our OtakuFest Experience

Anyway, back to OtakuFest. My sis and her boyfriend (Jarrett) had been invited by Jarett’s brother and his friends to go to OtakuFest like months ago. My sis said they actually forgot until like a few days before LOL. Honestly, I was super surprised my sis was gonna go??? Like my sis was never a big otaku or nothing and cons were never her thing. At most, I think she considers herself a casual normie. Although she has gotten more into anime lately (specifically One Piece) cuz of Jarrett. At this point, my sis watches more anime than me. But out of the two of us, I’m more otaku cuz I also read more and am generally more knowledgeable lol (We’ll get to this in a bit). My sis was also just like, “Aiight. Leggo.” cuz one of her besties was working as a volunteer for OtakuFest. She then mentioned it to me the night before and was like, “Wanna go?” Then when Jarrett got home, she was like, “Hey, babe. Can Mindy come too?” And he was like, “YEAH!” He’s a sweet dude. I got excited cuz it was my first con in 10 years. But got extra excited cuz apparently it was Jarrett’s first con?! But yeah, we went on Saturday y’all.

Anyway, Jarrett’s brother said they were gonna meet up at 10 am. Meanwhile, we (me, my sis, and Jarrett) were gonna leave at 10 am. I’m like thinking that’s kinda late to leave and head all the way down to Miami. Like Miami traffic already sucks. Our house is like 45 min to an hour away from Miami when traffic isn’t awful. But again, Miami traffic sucks ass. It’s gonna suck more cuz there’s an event. And I remember that parking generally sucks unless you’re early… But I wasn’t in charge of planning and I wasn’t driving. I just wanna note that I was a literally last-minute addition. I woke my ass up at like 8 am, did my make up and was done and ready by like 9-9:30 am~ We left kinda late at like 10:30 am. Drove down to Miami. Bad traffic as I expected. Jarrett calls his brother at like 11:30… They haven’t even left the house yet. We still in traffic. It’s like 12-12:30. We’re technically at the convention center, but there’s no traffic… We get redirected to park elsewhere. Elsewhere meaning parking at the loanDepot Park (baseball park) parking, then having to take the free shuttle to the venue. We get there, but like don’t know where the fuck to park?? Like the police who were guiding people at the venue gave us flyers, but the flyers didn’t have details. It literally just said to park at the loanDepot Park address for $20 all day parking and to take the shuttle. So we’re like trying to find out which garage is open and parkable??? Also trying to find out where the shuttle is. End up parking at a garage next to the shuttle. But weren’t sure? Cuz we realized there were lots across the street and maybe that’s where we were ‘sposed to park. We saw a cop car parked on the other end of the garage. So my sister went to approach and ask the cop. Turns out the cop was on a lunch break and my sister caught her off guard while she had a mouthful of food…lolol But yeah, she said we could park in the garage. Turned out to be a hella lot cheaper too. Like $3 for 3 hours. Also, Jarrett’s brother and friend (just the one, the rest bailed) finally left Sunrise and were on their way LMAO. At this point it’s like 1-1:30 pm?? BTW when we left at like 10:30 am we told my mom that we planned on being back home by 3 pm. Yeah, that wasn’t happening LMAO

Anyway, we get on the shuttle. I shit you not, I started having flashbacks of my not fun taxi ride from when I was stranded in Houston. You can find that storytime at the bottom of [this post]. Anyway, yeah, crazy Hispanic bus driver just yelling at everyone in Spanish. Driving crazy. Again, I had flashbacks of that scary taxi drive. Then we came across an accident that basically blocked the road. Our bus driver opened the window, yelled at them in Spanish (I don’t even remember WTF he said). Then proceeds to drive on the sidewalk…. But like…continued to drive on the sidewalk for a long ass time until basically a pole was in the way. I only took one photo on the bus. It was of my sis and Jarrett looking all cute. But honestly, the whole time we were like, “Bruh, WTF??” Also, to kill time, whenever the driver was cussing at other drivers, we were live dubbing it into Thai. Jarrett had no idea WTF was going on but he just nodded and laughed along LMAO. Anyways, we finally arrived at like 2 pm or some shit. Explored a bit and met up with my sis’ friend. Also, we ran into a guy she knew from middle school while we were in line to get our wristbands?? Dude was also working as a volunteer and was handing out the booklets. IDK how the dude recognized her cuz we were wearing masks too lolol

Anyway, we explored a bit before Jarrett’s brother finally made it and met up with us. Then we finally got to fully look around. We did the trusty and true method of starting from an outer part of the hall and working our way in to explore everything. All 3 boys are really in Funko figures. So we stopped at all the Funko booths lol I was lowkey interested in Q posket figures and even saw a BTS Nendoroid. Wanted them…especially the RM one. Didn’t get them though… Cuz they too expensive and out of my budget LOL The boys all had a blast though. Jarrett was definitely like a little kid in a candy store.

But yeah, everyone had specific things they were eyeing. I don’t remember what Jarrett’s bro and his friend were really looking into cuz we did kinda get separated a few times. But my sis and Jarrett were focused on One Piece stuff and some Pokemon stuff. I was just looking around feeling nostalgic and like “Weeee~” But I guess I was also just really into a Ghibli vibe, so I was unconsciously drawn to alot of Ghibli stuff. I was also wearing my Totoro cardigan too haha. Random note: my look was random AF. It was like punk with my black One Ok Rock concert t-shirt, punk asymmetrical steel earrings, punk belt, shorts, boots, and hella think eyeliner… but I also had a cute oversized green Totoro cardigan and my cute little white/green Pikachu electric-type backpack with my Under the Oak Tree keychains, my cute boba cup straw keychain, and my BT21 strap keychain LOLOL But anyways we all found nifty stuffs. More on those a bit later…

We did a lot of exploring and buying. Also, yeah…we def weren’t gonna get home by 3 pm LOLOL Pretty sure we were only done with 2 aisles for the main vendor hall at 3 pm… But funny enough as we were walking up and down these crowded AF aisles, my sis and I suddenly heard, “MONICA!!! MINDY!!!” And we were like, “??????” Confused as heck. I lowkey panicked in that split second at first. Unlike my sis, I didn’t wanna run into people I knew. Moreso I was worried about running into specific people that I’ve avoided for years, but keep randomly running into over the years… (One time I ran into them at a boba shop back in SoFL…another time I ran into them at a concert in Orlando…). Thank god it wasn’t that person lolol Turns out it was one of our childhood friends. I saw her and literally screamed, “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK???” And the people around us were like, “WTF??” Like she was one of our few fellow Thai-American friends we knew (I knew like 3-4 while growing up…) cuz our parents knew each other. But also cuz the Thai community in Florida was so small back then that everyone knew each other. We hadn’t seen or really talked to each other in years though. Like we follow each other on our socials, but don’t really keep in touch often. We just send casual greetings every now and then. But yeah, it was a surprise and a WTF moment. Cuz again, sis and I were wearing masks. But also, apparently, our friend wasn’t the first one to recognize us. It was actually her boyfriend who did and pointed us out to her. Bruh, we met the dude like only once when they joined us for my birthday dinner like 8 years ago! Literally, those 2 hours were our only interaction with him ever LOLOL But it was cool haha. We kept our greetings short though cuz we got separated from the dudes, but also cuz it was crowded AF.

I will say I wasn’t really familiar with the guests at OtakuFest. The only ones I honestly knew and would be interested in was Grey DeLise. She’s Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender. She’s also Daphne from Scooby-Doo, Vicky from The Fairly Odd Parents, Sam from Danny Phantom, and Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. They also had Greg Baldwin, the voice actor who voiced Uncle Iroh in Avatar after Mako passed away. Dude also voiced Aku from Samurai Jack, also originally voiced by Mako. There was also Jason Paige who sang the English Pokemon theme song… NGL, if not for his huge sign saying so, I would’ve just thought he was another random vendor though lol There were also voice actors from series like Spy x Family, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, and Demon Slayer. I still need to watch Spy x Family and Demon Slayer though…

The con was fun though~ There were alot of amazing cosplays. A surprising amount of Demon Slayer cosplays though haha. I’m from the era where the majority of cosplayers were always cosplaying as characters from Bleach, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts. So I was feeling a bit of the generational gap (even though I did see a couple of cosplayers from those series). I had fun trying to recall the characters and series everyone was cosplaying from. Again, I can’t say I’m as into anime as I used to be. I’m behind on all the series (obviously). But I’m good at observing what my friends like. So I can still recognize things really well haha~ My sis kept looking at me to be like her guide and tell her what series a thing was from too haha. She’d be like, “What series is that from?” I’d answer her and she’d then be like, “What’s it about?” I was then like, “Bruh…I have no fucking clue.” lolol It was kinda funny to think of how cons have changed from how I last remembered them. I will say, looking at old pictures…old cons were kinda cringey at times… still fun though… Jarrett had a blast. Although dude was also confused AF. I also forgot that cons have some weird shit. Yo…too many “I’ll step on you for $__” signs and people… My sis considers herself a normie so she was also like, “WTF??” We also didn’t really explore the upstairs with the gaming shit cuz that floor got hella weird… Also it was fucking dirty AF. There was trash and people laying down randomly everywhere, but the horror was the floor was just fucking nasty AF. Too many of the “I’ll step on you for ___” people too. But the con still had cool stuff. There were some cool anime cars and stuff. Although I was thinking they hella low and I was wondering how they don’t get damaged driving over speed bumps and shit. I think there was also a maid cafe, but we didn’t do that. There was an outdoor area with some cool displays and a stage with a DJ. That was kinda cool. Although, I personally found the DJ sets to be random af?? Maybe it was just the ones that we happened to come across, but I just felt like they were super random for an anime convention lol I expected more like anime tracks, gaming tracks, J-Pop, J-Rock, and maybe K-Pop tracks getting mixed into sets and things. But they were like normal stuffs, alot of like 80s stuff too. So I was confused LOL But again, haven’t been to a con in a decade, so maybe I am the weird one now lol

I will say though that I was surprised at the lack of K-Pop stuff? lol Although one of the vendor halls did play some K-Pop for a bit. I’m guessing they a BlackPink Blink though cuz they played nothing but BP mvs when I was there LOLOL Apparently they did have some Kpop-related events like a random dances in one of the rooms. We didn’t go to see any of the events though. I only found out about this later on. There were some K-Pop stuffs, but not alot. Like alot of them were just generic stuff like the basic “K-Pop” face masks that just say “BTS” on them or have a kaomoji on it. Or they were like low-quality, sketch looking, and definitely not official merch. Like some of the posters and shit were no bueno. Although I did see this one nifty booth with some BTS stuff. They had a whole ass Jin Super Tuna doll LOLOLOL I was like, “I kinda wanna get it.” But I also knew I had no need for it and no money for it LMAO But yeah, I was just def surprised, cuz considering the huge boom of K-Pop and how it’s basically mainstream now, I just expected to see some more K-Pop merch and things. But I think I literally only saw like 4-5 things (not including like Artist Alley prints). Most of the K-Pop related stuff I saw were K-Pop (mostly BTS) sketches in Artist Alley. It’s surprising cuz I remember at previous cons, I’d seen some whole-ass booths of K-Pop stuff. Sometimes I’d see K-Pop cosplays too back then. And that was before K-Pop really blew up. But that wasn’t the case this time. Unexpected for me since it’s a con that claims to be South Florida’s largest con. Lowkey was hoping to run into another ARMY or fellow K-Pop fan. Cuz literally had that happen at previous cons I’ve been to, and I actually did form some cool friendships too. But yeah, didn’t happen this time lol I literally randomly run into ARMY in random ass places like IKEA, Brandsmart, and randomly on the fucking street…but no one at a con LMAO

On a random note… I was thrown off by this girl that stopped me as we were walking back and passing by those anime cars though. I just heard a girl behind me go, “Excuse me…” I just assumed I was in her way, so I like slid a bit to the side and was like, “Oh! Of course, my bad!” But she was like, “Your bag is really cute…would it be ok if I took a picture?” So yeah that happened lolol It was unexpected haha. I’m glad someone liked my bag haha. BTW, Target. My sis got me this bag from Target. But yeah, we finally left at like 6:30 pm?? Made our way to the shuttle. Made our way back to the cars, and finally made our way home by like 8-9 pm. We were dead tired AF LOLOL Also, I was supposed to leave and head back in the morning cuz vacation over… Still, it was fun. I’m glad I got to experience a con again, and that I got to experience it with my sis and her bf was especially fun~ I tried to take some pics, but they all potato quality. Cuz honestly, I feel weird taking pics at events… The only thing I’m good at taking pics is like food and vacation photos lolol Also, I was tired and still sick with a cold… I tried though…lol

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The Spoils
(aka all the shit we bought)

Look, I went there not really expecting to buy anything. I brought a bunch of money with me in case there was the rare chance of something super interesting catching my eye. But it was also more for in case my sis or Jarrett wanted anything. I literally wasn’t planning on buying any merch. I also don’t usually buy much from the Artists’ Alley either. So yeah, wasn’t expecting to bring anything home. At most, I thought maybe I’d go back home with 1-2 things…but we actually ended up buying a shit ton of things LMAO. I thought if I did buy stuff, I wouldn’t go over like $50-80… About that…we def spent way more than that LMAO Again, my sis and Jarrett were really on the lookout for One Piece and Pokemon stuff, mainly One Piece though. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, but unconsciously gravitated towards Ghibli stuff. But we ended up with some really cool shit~ I’ll try to link what I can cuz I did try to collect their business cards and socials when I could~

I got this nifty little wooden box. This booth was from [StarInMyPocket]. They were one of the first booths to catch me and my sis’ eyes. At first we noticed these hella cute couple keyholder sets. My sis loved the One Piece one and obvi wanted to get one for her and her boyfriend. I loved the Howl’s Moving Castle one and thought it was cute AF. My sis was like, “Min~ Do you want it? Get it?~” And I’m like, “Bruh, WTF is my solo ass gonna need a couple keyholder for???” But the people running the booth were super sweet and friendly. They showed that they also have these wooden display standees too. I was tempted to get the Howl’s one. But my sis also pointed out this cute box that I ended up getting. I needed a legit box for my earrings so it was a win for me~ I absolutely love the box~ And yeah, definitely put in all the earrings I bought that day in there too haha~

I also got a nifty Kiki’s Delivery Service breadshop sign~ This one is from [Arcanic Artistry]. Yo this one of the ones I forgot to get a business card for… But I remembered exactly where his booth was in the Artist Alley and was able to find his name in the pamphlet~ He had all sorts of nifty things from coasters to decorative wall displays. There was an impressive 4 Nations map from Avatar: The Last Airbender. They also had a cool map for Lord of the Rings too. I’m absolutely in love with my Kiki’s one though~ I saw it and was like, “WAAANT~” My sister and Jarrett got a really cool one for One Piece. Again, I don’t know One Piece, but I just know they were hella psyched for it. I also thought it looked pretty sick too~ Theirs was definitely much larger than mine too. But yeah, I loved both pieces. I’m actually just still struggling on where to hang this up LOL

I also got some cute earrings~ Some of the first couple of earrings I got was from [Peachade]. These are super cute, but look really nice for everyday wear or if you want to dress up a bit. I struggled to pick what I wanted cuz they were all so cute and I legit wanted to buy them all. I will say that they are more like girly/feminine vibes. Like they weren’t my sis’ kinda vibe. But they were perfect for me~ They also had hella cute asymmetric earrings. If y’all know me, I love my asymmetric earrings~ I ended up with 2 pairs of earrings and a necklace. Although I am kinda sad cuz I guess I kinda smooshed the spiral-y crystal ball earrings in the bag and didn’t notice til I got home. I tried to fix them, but it don’t look the same lol It still pretty though. I also got a Sailor Moon -esque pair of earrings~ They also super cute, even though yellow isn’t really my fave color. I would’ve preferred like purple, blue, or pink. But it still cute and I loved wearing these~ My sis helped me pick the necklace though. Cuz I like purple~ But yeah, loved all of these cuz they’re exactly my kinda aesthetic hehe~

I saw some hella cute Ghibli earrings from so many different vendors and artists. But I ended up getting 3 pairs from [Meowitsmari]~ They’re acrylic earrings. Nice for like if I’m in the mood to fit a cute aesthetic while also being a nerd about shit I like~ I got Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service, Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle, and Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro~ I love that they’re light, cute, and casual~

We also got some foil trading cards from [Shibe.Ink]. Warning, before you click the link: alot of their art is NSFW. They had some cool art and we were obvi more interested in their art that wasn’t NSFW. My sis and Jarrett got One Piece cards, and I got Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service again~ Honestly, they were super pretty and I loved them so much that I actually wanted to get the prints. But again, my budget was tight. Is it worth the $40 a piece? Sure. But I broke, so I had to say no this time… But I settled for the foil cards when my sis pointed them out~

We also got some nifty acrylic displays (?). I think you’d call them displays cuz IDK what to call them. I believe these were from [V1 Tech]. They’re not posters cuz they think acrylic slabs lol But again, my sis and Jarrett went for a One Piece one. I got Animal Crossing~ Cuz my sis saw it and was like, “That’s totally you.” We also bought one as a surprise gift for my bestie. Her’s was an octopus with “Takoyaki” in Japanese. Cuz she’s half Japanese and octopus and squids be her favorite animal (cuz she wanted to be a marine biologist when she was younger). But funnily, she does not like takoyaki lolol Again, I don’t even know where the fuck to display this lolol I literally have no room in my room or walls LMAO

Lastly, we got some cool posters~ I actually really loved these, but sadly couldn’t remember the name of the vendor cuz my dumb ass already threw the bag away Q~Q Tried asking my sis, but she couldn’t remember. And now I just literally Google searched the image of what I got and after some digging, I finally found it! It’s by [Ruby Art]. Pretty sure my dumb ass was thinking, “Ruby Art is easy enough to remember”. Yeah, but then I spent 2 weeks trying to find it LOLOL I was using my super memory to remember where the booth was and cross-referenced it with the pamphlet to find the booth number. But the name I got wasn’t it. Turns out the booth number listed was a typo and they put the wrong number… So I wasn’t wrong! But yeah, thanks Google~ Anyway, these posters were gorgeous! They had these gorgeous metal posters. And they gave us a really good deal. Like because everyone in our group was getting something, they gave all of us a discount and a free paper poster for each one. Even though we were 3 separate transactions haha. They were super nice~Again, I went Ghibli~ I got a metal version of Howl’s Moving Castle and a paper version of Totoro~ My sis and Jarrett went metal One Piece and paper Full Metal Alchemist~ I don’t remember what Jarrett’s bro and friend got though lol But yeah, these are soooo pretty and I wanna hang them up. But again, I have no idea where to put them in my little shoe box-sized room LMAO If y’all want one of the metal posters, you can find them at [Displate].

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Anyway, that’s it~ That was my OtakuFest experience and my goodies~ It was alot of fun~ I definitely missed going to conventions. I kinda missed working at one too haha~ Although I will say, all the people buying Asian snacks like Pocky and Ramune were getting scammed… Y’all, don’t buy Asian snacks at a con. Go to your local Asian grocery store. Hell, even the regular grocery store like Walmart has Pocky. It’s much cheaper lol Like my sis and I legit felt bad people be paying like $5-7 for ONE LITTLE BOX of Pocky. Y’all were heavily ripped off… Go to your local Asian grocery store fam… I guarantee they have all, if not most, of the same stuff and it’s way cheaper. But yeah, I def had alot of fun. I also got way more stuff than expected haha~ And I went like 6 times by budget… Although, my cold sadly also got worse when I got home?? Like I was doing better with my cold…until while we were driving up… Then my cold got hella worse. Like everyone was afraid I got COVID. I didn’t though. Tested negative twice. So that’s why I’m still sick??? It’s been like 2-3 weeks for a damn cold! Hence one of the main reasons why I’ve been quiet on SNS and everything lately. But I am getting over the cold now so yay! Anyway, yeah… I’d love to do more cons again~ I actually hope I can one day go to a con with BAYOG~ Cuz that would be so much fun~ What are your favorite cons to go to? Favorite things to do? Let me know in the comments, my socials, or Discord~ Until next time~ Take care, stay safe, and stay healthy friends~ Also, Happy Lunar New Year~ 新年快乐~ 恭喜发财~ ✨🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧✨🐇 (Cuz I’m Thai-Chinese~)

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