Con Report: Anime Matsuri 2013
Anime Matsuri began in 2007 and celebrated its 7th year this past Easter Weekend at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston May 29-31st in 2013. This was the convention’s first year at the Hyatt and it attracted more than 14,000 attendees, the largest yet for Anime Matsuri.
I started my Friday with a few shoots. There were some decent shooting locations including a tiny park and church courtyard within walking distance which were the setting to most of my shoots, but the choices were limited due to the many corporate buildings that surrounded the hotel that prohibit photography on their property.
The Marvel Contest AKA The World’s Mightiest Cosplayers Contest took place Friday afternoon and featured Marvel’s photographer, Judy Stephens, who judged the contest alongside Bill Winans, and Becky Young. There were a lot of impressive entries in the contest and it was different in the sense that after each entry did there runway walk, they approached the judges tables and were questioned on stage about various aspects of their costume.
I had one last photoshoot of a fantastic group of Gurren Lagann cosplayers that took place at sunset.
Friday night ended with the J-Fashion Contest. The designers from Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates returned for another year at Anime Matsuri.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get photos of the main cosplay contest Saturday due to my participation in it, but I made that up Sunday by covering the event of the World Cosplay Summit Gulf Preliminaries and the World Cosplay Summit Finals. The event was so fun to shoot and it was really inspiring to see the performances on stage of the cosplayers.
With an about a 30 minute break, the WCS Finals started soon after that. Eight teams performed, including the winners who had just performed in the Gulf Preliminaries. The judges for the finals included Kathryn Griffin, Krystal Stoner, Katie George, Al Squall, and Bill Winans.
A partial group shot of the WCS Finals participants. Congrats to Wild Garden Cosplay as the Runner-up winners and Cupcake Cosplay for being the WCS 2013 USA Representatives!
Anime Matsuri has yet to announce the dates for 2014, but their website is currently in the works. Click here for a gallery of my most favorite pics from the con. If you are interested in following my work, you can watch me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/FallingFeathers.net or visit my site at www.fallingfeathers.net.
