ACen 2013 was only my second time capturing cosplay in photo form (C2E2 2013 being my first) and I feel the same now as I did then; it is essentially a meta game of the convention. Think of it as being a bit like Pokémon Snap. You have to stay constantly alert because you never know where and when these strange creatures (I say this lovingly!) will appear, and when you see one pop out, you need to act fast or you may lose your chance.

Two of my biggest failures (which would definitely have made my list had I gotten the photos) were a pretty wicked Viewtiful Joe that strolled right past me and disappeared into the crowd before I had time to react, and a huge Koffing that I saw from a distance, figured I would run into again, and... never ran into again.

Still, I managed to do a pretty decent job of it, I believe.

This isn’t simply a top 10 list, however. I decided to make it a combination top 10 list and general cosplay photo feature, so I’m throwing in a bunch more photos at the bottom, including non-Nintendo and even non-video game stuff.

Enjoy! And make sure to let me know in the comments which ones are your favorites!

As stated above, here are a bunch more of the cosplay photos that I took, all in one place. Bam!

Video Game Cosplay
Three of the cast of the Phoenix Wright games


One of the many Silent Hill Pyramid Heads that I saw


A pretty solid Jack from the Mass Effect series


Yep, there was even someone representing Catherine there!


And I saw this elderly woman who turned her walker into a kart to be Peach from Mario Kart


Proto Man from the Mega Man games + a hilarious photo bomber


Hector? from the Fire Emblem series


A bunch of Halo Spartans (be still, Stephen’s heart...)


One of the many, many pairs of Mario and Luigi


Morrigan from Darkstalkers (or Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, to make her Nintendo-relevant)


A closer shot of the “Nintendo Power” panel, including a pretty wicked Captain Falcon


Dante from the Devil May Cry games posing with some fans


The Castle Crashers again (trying to get all of my cosplay in one place here)


Other Assorted Cosplay
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers heck yeah!


Iron Woman, although the lighting in this one didn't turn out so well


Yep, this guy again, who I have been informed is Sailor Bubba and he has his own Bobble Head!


Full Metal Alchemist, one of my favorite animes


The obvious question can be asked... why not Zoidberg?


The Little Mermaid, which seemed kind of random


Some guy in a chicken head, no clue if this is from something or just a random chicken head


Not really sure what she is from, she was just sitting there in the middle of the floor


Because Stache seems to think I’m the only fan... a guy from The Aquabats!


L from Death Note being all L-like


No idea what these are from, to be honest. Anyone?


And that is pretty much all that I have for cosplay photos. Remember to tell me in the comments who your favorites were, whether Nintendo-related or not!

You can check out the rest of my ACen 2013 coverage right here! And if you're new to the site and it seems like a fun place, why not join us?

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Spartans are Halo 3 era. Back when the series was good I approve. The last picture is of a guy cosplaying as someone from Adventure Time.

AWESOME. Haha!

As for the last two, one is The Earl of Lemongrab, and I assume it's Lumpy Space Princess next to him. Both are from Adventure Time (HOORAY!).

Is this safe for-- Oh my God, Little Mermaid chick..

The girl in the middle of the floor; did you offer to help her up? There is a slight chance she fell down..


PS- Nearly every single one of your pictures has a hot babe in the background. Geez, did I take these??

@ploot I see! I have never seen that show, I suppose that someday I should.

@Mr_Mustache Rest assured I was only interested in capturing the people that I was taking pictures of, I wasn't even paying attention to the background. But there are, of course, attractive women anywhere that you go, so they will end up in the backgrounds of the photos from time to time.

@Zero

Sooo...middle of the floor girl? Was she Miss Muffet some how?

You are quite the cosplayer photographer, Andrew, nice job!

Not sure why those Pokemon are boxes either, but they're pretty good all the same!

I really like Deku Scrub Link. Majora's Mask representation, awww yeaaahh.

Two Travis Touchdowns is awesome.

Chef Kirby looks like a difficult costume to pull off effectively; surely that would require some strong leg strength!

I would have loved to see Mr. Game & Watch interact with the crowd.

I think it's really cool how the lady turned her walker into a Mario Kart!

I do wonder about that chicken head myself.

I think I would be very fascinated to be surrounded by so much cosplay. I only experienced a little of it when I went to the Zelda symphony in Dallas.

Oh, I have to give props to the guy who dressed "up" as Vincent Brooks from Catherine. Pretty dang great!

@Stephen
Wahhhh! Halo Reach was totally awesome!
If you liked this cosplay, you would love some of the cosplay we get over here. Will have to take some pictures when I go to the next convention.

That Protoman was awesome!

This is a pretty awesome feature. My favorites were: Deku Shrub, Travis, Midna, and Mr. Game & Watch.

That Jack is too perfect.

Be still, my beating heart.

The chicken might be a Hotline Miami reference. Or it might be a chicken reference.

Not mine, didn't see them at the show, but saw this picture of ACen 2013 elsewhere. Pretty sick.

For you and your readers unfamiliar with ACen:

Sailor Bubba. He's a fixture, a treasure, of our humble convention. There are probably many more stories than I know about him. Here is a short one.


Anime Central is held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, and at the adjacent Donald E. Stevens Convention Center. These are massive structures, built to house professional conventions, trade shows, and seminars. Today, the Hyatt Regency O'Hare has a broad flight of stairs leading from its ground floor to its atrium lobby level. The stairs are made of frosted glass.

They weren't always. Originally, that staircase was fully transparent glass. There are two flights, one going down to the ambiguously named "International" level below ground, and one going up to the atrium lobby. They're oriented the same way and they're in a perfect column, which means that as you descend to the basement, the people walking up to the atrium lobby are directly overhead.

Fandom conventions like Anime Central attract cosplayers. All sorts of people wear all sorts of costumes--not always matching their gender, sex, personality, or body type. The common theme, of course, is that the costumes are from some media or game that's an element of geek culture, particularly anime and video games. And what element of visual character design is ubiquitous, in a patriarchal world society, and especially in sexually frustrated Japan? Skirts.

So, the inevitable was obvious. Less scrupulous types, or perhaps unfortunates who had not had the social adjustment and education to know their boundaries, would gather on the lower flight, and gaze at the upper. It was a problem; ACen is a family convention, and regardless it's important that congoers feel safe and secure so they can enjoy their time there.

Today's ACen is kept safe and efficient by the Incident Response Team, or IRT. We take our jobs seriously. We strive to uphold standards of professionalism, respecting the boundaries of our role, the need for oversight and restraint, and the congoers' legal rights. Our procedure would have been simple: post a pair of guards under the stairs and have them politely talk to the voyeurs, escalating any noncompliant persons to the hotel's security force.

Today's ACen, like today's Hyatt staircase, has changed since then. What became IRT was then "Security Division", or SecDiv. Now, for all its "jack-booted thug" reputation, I haven't experienced SecDiv firsthand, so I won't try to make a comparison between IRT and its predecessor. But evidently, they were both creative and twisted.

Sailor Bubba. An overweight, bearded man in a heroically stylized schoolgirl costume a la Sailor Moon. A curiosity? A freak, set out in the open like a gargoyle to frighten evil spirits away? A travesty against femininity? A shining exemplar in defiance of gender boundaries? All of this, perhaps. But to SecDiv, he was one more thing. A living weapon.

He was not a member of the team, but he was all too happy to cooperate with their plan. And once Sailor Bubba had exercised his shapely, shaven legs on the Hyatt's upper lobby stairs a bit, ACen found that its voyeur problem had been allayed, and a special, savory kind of justice had been served.

The hotel learned its lesson. One hopes the voyeurs learned theirs. But Sailor Bubba, like the gods, is unchanging, pure, iconic. Beyond learning. Inevitably, his mortal frame will die, and a piece of our culture will be ungently torn from our hearts ... but he will take his place in the night sky, and there, fastened (too) tight by song and fable, he will live, forever.

That was a beautiful story.

Oh, Z, you didn't even tell us who YOU dressed up as!


I'm gonna guess....hipster with a turtle t-shirt.

The girl who is sitting down is Alice Margatroid from the Touhou series. Touhou is a vertical bullet shooter, and the fans think that Alice and the character of the doll she is holding (Marisa Kirisame) like each other. At least Alice does. :P Check it out on wikipedia to know more about touhou~

Oh thanks! Also hello. Where did you arrive from?

Do you mean for Acen? I am from Illinois. :3 I had a may cosplay on. First time, and it was freaking awesome!

@rini

Hmm. Is Magician / Doll usage prevalent in Anime? I haven't had much experience with it, but Shukufuko no Campanella had a girl in there who also had control of dolls. Intriguing!

and Welcome!

rini said:

Touhou is a vertical bullet shooter,

Oh, of course!... (EEP!)


Question: How does Alice (or any other characters) really tie in to the "bullet hell" side of things? Seems like characters like these would be much better suited for an RPG of sorts. For instance, the guys in Contra don't really have elaborate backstories.