Sakura-con 2009 Event Report
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 16, 2009 05:32 JST
- Tags: Cosplay, Crossdressing, Events, Haruhi, Hatsune Miku, Sakura-con, USA, Vocaloid
Sakura-con 2009, a major US anime convention held from April 10th through 12th in Seattle, has come and gone, attracting over 15,000 visitors and occupying six floors of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.
What follows is an outline of the events that I attended, to be followed up in more detail in subsequent posts:
Friday
- Registration
- 4chan /cgl/ Meetup
- Anime Swimsuit Contest
Saturday
- Cosplay Contest
- Touhou Project Panel
- Karaoke Idol
Sunday
- Exhibitors’ Hall
It is rumored that the GIRUGAMESH kid from the now-infamous Sakura-con commercial, who spawned a minor meme, never showed up for the actual convention.
There was a pony-man at the swimsuit contest who showed (and took) off his coat to the audience and a bearded guy joining the girls on stage, but unfortunately I was too busy shrieking in terror to snap photos or videos of the event.
If anyone has photos or videos of the lovely ladies and scandalous men from the swimsuit contest, please send me a message via e-mail.
I will be going through my convention photos over the next few days to cull through them and uploading the rest into a Sakura-con gallery. Most of my photos were taken during Friday, so if you’d like to contribute, too, please let me know.
The above photo was snapped in the Exhibitors’ Hall on Sunday, featuring two fine gentlemen crossplaying ultra-popular characters and doubtlessly capturing the hearts and minds of many…
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The GIRUGAMESH-kid was supposed to show up, SakuraCon was ready to pay for his flight and hotel, but..
he was grounded by his parents for his poor grades.
One of the visitors of the Touhou Panel wrote that on /jp/, so no idea if it's true or not.
i can see his hair inside the pantsu >_<
Stiil don't get why this meme is so famous.
Sakura-con ikimasu!
Argh -- my eyes! This is why I don't go to cons.
If guys want to do this, that's fine, I don't care -- but I just don't want to see it.
What was seen
cannot be unseen...
*My eyezzz >_<*
Your avatar made your post a lot whole lot funnier :)
I find the con environment a bit overwhelming, but since I live very close to Seattle, what I like to do is go to the nearby Starbucks - of COURSE there's a nearby Starbucks! It's Seattle! - and people watch. Great fun.
Haruhi here; and good god some of you take this shit waaay too seriously :3 Anon, tell Michael he's awesome for being so carefree, and I think I'll just leave this here....
http://tinyurl.com/c86xed
Is it so wrong that I just wanted to be loved :<
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Got the right face to make me laugh there.
For a moment, I thought the one on the left is from Chou-Aniki...
that dude is totally checking out the the bikini XD
Those men have nasty legs.
If I'm expected to shave my legs, they need to shave theirs. My boyfriend has shaved legs, trimmed underarms, and trimmed pubes. His arms aren't hairy either.
Just the way I like them. I'd never date a guy that looked that pig disgustingly hairy.
Pretty sure you can't tell what their legs look like unless they don't have pants on, are you implying your date always has his pants off on the first night? God forbid I'd ever date a girl that loose.
Nice job putting words in my mouth, now go suck more cock.
I'm saying guys with hairy legs are nasty, and if I saw he had hairy legs while we were dating I'd have him shave or dump his ass.
I don't know why you people are so damn serious but this just gave me teh lolz! XD
The best cosplaying is crossplaying.
GIRUGAMESH
Didn't go to the Nico Nico Douga panel? I am still waiting on Shinji's uploaded video of the Live feed.
The touhou panel was kinda slow and unorganized, but it was pretty informative (wow at the graph).
Hope you don't mind me dumping some videos I took there.
Touhou Panel photoop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eQYdak7-Uw
Nico Nico Douga panel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWDJK7c3Q9Q
Vocaloids dancing to Haruhi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9x5PIN2HTo
This actually was one of the funnest cons i've been to in a while. There was a surge in Vocaloid cosplays and it's great to see the same with Touhou~~
Oh god... I saw that Miku SIX times that the con.
Some images you just can't un-see...
What about the woman in the background?
GIRUGAMESH!
And ROFL at the Man-Miku and Manruhi cosplay. Bloody hilarious.
hey, those guys look hot, for gay.........
I wish to kick giguramesh ass
hahaha!
that is a epic photo!
the look on the guy behind them is priceless
One of my e-buddies was the winner of the karaoke idol. There's only one video up, and unfortunately it's only one of the preliminary performances. :(
Sucks to be them
i need konata healing
HAHAHA dude in the back with the hats all like "aye gurllll!!!"
y'all need to have some humor. that shit is hilarious!
neither one can beat Man-Faye
Holy Macaroni, God of Messiah, Jesus Christ~!! My eyes!! Argh~!!! My eyes!!! Argh!!!
Dude...I'm scared....hold me.....
I'd tap that...
AND GAYMEN!
The guy in the back with the hat is looking at them like, "Not sure if want..."
Not gonna lie - when I saw the bikini Miku out of the corner of my eye, I thought "sweet, naked girl!"
The double look scarred me forever.
Hooray, you've joined the ranks of those of us who post on SC Suika~
Ah yes, it was only a matter of time. A girl can only lurk for so long before she sticks her nose in something.
╔╗
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╚╝
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║║╔═╦╦╦═╗
║╚╣║║║║╩╣
╚═╩═╩═╩═╝
╔══╗
║╔╗║
║╚╝╠══╦╦══╦═╗
║╔╗║╔╗║║║║║╩╣
╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╩╩╩╩═╝
AAAAAAAAND MANGAAAAAAAAAAAAH~~~~
MY EYES..it burns...it burns ....
GIRUGAMESH!
BALARANTO!!
GIRUGAMESH!!!
HANGRY AND ANGRY
The men checking them out in the background: "uuuu~~ he has a nice butt~~ <3"
Aw fuck man wtf is this shit I'm not gonna even read the damn article.
Oh, sup /b/, dammit.
This looks so much like our local anime-con.
At least we have lots of lesbian cosplayers.
Those guys in the pic. sure got balls! Respect.
Huh. Now I remember why I have never, and will never go to a con. Just viewing this on the internet has stricken me with grief and anger.
Why so serious?
I feel like I wanted to vomit, seriously.
This too cruel. You first give us a nice gallery of sexy Asian girls you made our eyes open up and then you throw this at us trying to completely blind us.
Really you have no shame.
Never thought Haruhi's legs were THAT hairy, lol.
HEY. SOCKOORACAWN IKIMA.
GIRUGAMESH!
Epic lool.
Haruhi is sexy no matter what, men, women, the only difference is the way you bend :D
OMG. that miku is my friend. LMFAO. michael got his ass on sankaku complex
This is awsome, wish i was there!
I'm scared of the guy in the background, he's looking at Miku with a "Mmmmh nice ass" look on his face.
same :X
The 2 horribad crossplayers are to be expected, and at least they show that they are trying to make a joke out of it.
i'm scarred for life now....need some loli dose to cleanse myself.
Why are "you" scared, DHYohko?
Maybe, by any chance....
Woah! This feels like a blog now!
Love Flirtatious Haruhi's face xD
I volunteered at SakCon for 2 years. Never again.
is it that bad?
nope, its EPIC !!!!
The Touhou Panel~ My baby.
And yes, the reason GIRUGAMESH guy didn't show up was that, despite Sakura-con offering to give him a free hotel, fight, and everything so he could open up the convention, his parents had grounded him due to poor grades.
I highly suspect that you didn't make this up.
Gods, what a way to end your fifteen minutes of fame.
oh god i lol'd
Ohhhh.
Thus ends a promising career.
He'll make other cons.
Well, if he can make it next year, he might be able to manage something, but yeah. He wasn't able to capitalize on his internet fame at its peak. I do hope he shows up next year though. Wouldn't mind shaking his hand as the man who helped start all this.
Hahahaha blue haired one in blue bikkini XD
No GIRUGAMESH?
For shame.
we want GIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESHGIRUGAMESH!
YES! WE WANT GIRGAMESHU
See my comment below to learn why he wasn't there. Atashi knew about it, but since she had read it on 4chan, she wasn't sure of it.
Oddly enough, I'm the reason 4chan learned of the commercial and the one who made it so they knew what had happened to him.
My deepest regrets to your family.
girugamesh isnt funny. just fucking gay
nah. J-ROCK! GIRUGAMESH!
*screams GIRUGAMESH!! at anon2*
Oh my god, thats.. horrific.. my eyes.. i can't see.. is this the end? do i die here?.... AHHHHHHH!H!HH!!H!H!HHLSHG;DGHDKJFVNDKJB
This is what I loath about 'certain people' who go out an make a mockery or need to be a 'spoiler' at Cons and such. There's Fetish cons, Furry cons, Erotic/Adult expos and such - why make an ass out of yourself.
It's like Man-Faye or anything else- It's a PERVERSION of the 'standard' - now anyone who cries tolerance or 'Open mindedness' - F*ck Off! You know they're trying to be 'Shocking' and it's not legit. The promoters should have "rules or conduct codes" so 'certain people' don't repulse others or exploit the Con just for their own agenda.
It would be in 'poor taste' for a hairy guy with a giant gut hanging out to cosplay as Superman or Flash - there are just things NO ONE wants to see
I simply hate these kind of people. If you are going to crossdress, do it seriously AND SHAVE THAT DAMN DISGUSTING HAIR. Looks like some damn bears.
0/10
what's the point of cross-dressing ''seriously'' when it's meant not to be serious?
Cosplay is serious business.
Who says it's not meant to be serious?
Hahahahah, isn't that the whole point of crossplaying? Destroying the idols people know and love.
@ Narcissist, lol maybe what your thinking of is a gender blender, not cross-dressing. I dont see how crossdressing has anything to do with shaving or not, as far as i know its just dressing up in clothing of the opposite sex.
@Atashi: Nooooo~! *is disappointed*
@Evolve.60: Read what Atashi wrote, cross*playing*. Then go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossplay
Regardless of what was said, shaving and whatnot is *entirely* relevant to the topic; it'd be disingenuous to take the term literally as merely "wearing clothes generally considered to be for the opposite sex".
@Anon: It's not a sense of humour that I lack, this is just Do Not Want.
Narcissist is a fucking moron.
I,m missing one word (having "fun").
No! The point is that it should twist genders and sexuality and make something not usually hot into hot.
Some people were born without a sense of humor. At least the guys in the pic are having fun. Fuck what everyone else thinks.
Anons is right the point is having and enjoying you're doing.Oh ya, GOD BLESS AMERICA!
For once I have to agree with you Narcissist, I'm not voting for a single option, not even as a joke, it's all burned into my vision...
Thank you Atashi, you'll get my surgery bill in the mail.
HOLY HELL THIS IS DISGUSTING! I would only vote for one of them if hell froze over and accepted no more lost souls!
MY EYES ARE BURNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*watches moar ikkitousen to suppress burning*
Schedule an appointment for me too cause that's just fucked up, plainly fucked up.
take your faggotry with you elsewhere Anon2
Wow you guys cant be serious? I think this is pretty hot. I would threesome with both of them any day.
Point
You <----
amen to that