Anime Weekend Atlanta 2013 — Convention Review

Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) has been a go-to fan-favorite since it first opened its doors in 1995. Although hot on Dragon Con’s heels, AWA has boasted a large attendance rate and continues to draw crowds.

Location
Anime Weekend Atlanta is nested inside three closely-linked spaces: The Renaissance Waverly Hotel, the Cobb Galleria Mall, and the Sheraton Galleria. The Renaissance Waverly and the Galleria Mall are connected by both air-conditioned enclosed walkways and an outside walk around. The Sheraton, across the street, connects to the Galleria Mall via an outdoor skywalk. Despite these connections, the entry and exit ways can get crowded on Friday and Saturday, as the skywalk serves as the only entry and exit toward the Sheraton and the Mall, and the Waverly is the only exit toward the small park that serves as a huge base for outdoor cosplay photography and cosplay meetups.

Perhaps the best thing about AWA’s premier location is its connection with the Cumberland Mall, which provides a host of restaurants and fast-food options.

Food Options
Food options abound around Anime Weekend Atlanta. Cumberland Mall holds lots of options for con-goers. Inside of the mall’s food court are fast-food restaurants like Sbarro, Subway, Chik-Fil-A, Cinnabon, and Great Wraps. If one is in the mood for a sit-down dinner, the Cheesecake Factory, P.F Chang’s, or Maggiano’s Little Italy will be more than willing to serve one’s needs. Moving outside of the immediate venue space, con-goers can grab breakfast at the Waffle House (which is always ridiculously busy on Sunday) or the McDonalds a few streets down.

The Cobb Galleria also holds several restaurants. Subway added a second food stand this year which not only made getting lunch extremely easy but was also much faster than previous years, leading to happier attendees. In addition to Subway, the Galleria hosts Big Chow Grill, Jocks and Jills, Buckhead Pizza, China Sun, an Espresso Bar, and a Chik-Fil-A (The author attempted to find this mysterious Chik-Fil-A inside the Galleria, with no success.).

This year, Anime Weekend Atlanta opened up food trucks to con-goers. Not only were there food-trucks situated inside of the Artist Alley, but also outside of the Waverly hotel. Despite this great improvement, the food trucks seems rather overwhelmed by the amount of people at their stands and often were behind, with one attendee stating that at one truck, she’d waited a half an hour before she asked the truck what had happened to her food. The truck in question admitted they had lost her order and simple refunded her. She eventually did get food at another stand.

AWA Main Events & Programming
Main events sported the typical lineup for an anime convention. Guest stars on Friday were Chris Sabat, Johnny Young Bosch and, the girls’ favorite, Vic Mignogna. However, con-goers were given a special treat to view the world premiere of the “One Piece” movie. Perhaps the highlight of Friday evening was “Midnight Madness” in which Ryan Gavigan presented fans with the worst of the worst dubbing goofs. After all, who doesn’t like to poke fun of mistranslations?

Saturday’s main events consisted of the two most anticipated events: the VAT Music Video Awards and the ever popular Costume Contest. Once again hosted by Yaya Han, audience members were dazzled with great (and often funny) costumes. However, after three years of emceeing the contest, one might wonder if AWA might want to share the emcee spotlight with any other brilliant, but less recognized, costumers. The most refreshing thing about AWA’s Costume Contest is that the contest is focused exclusively on costumes and does not allow any sort of skit or performance. This refreshing approach allows the audience to really appreciate the work and dedication of the participants.

Anime Weekend Atlanta also debuted a special treat for con-goers this year: The Cosplay Gallery. Featuring past Costume Contest winners’ costumes, viewers could step in and view the outfits in full, detailed glory. From “Assassin’s Creed” to “Monster Hunter,” the outfits ranged in size, detail, and genre providing a little bit of something to everyone. The only downside to the showcase is that on each day there were only four or five outfits were presented and in such a large room, it made the entire presentation look rather dismal. One of the best parts however, were that viewers could get as close to the costumes as the velvet ropes would allow and then take photographs. This provided a great opportunity for new or intermediate cosplayers to see how to step up their game.

Regular costuming panels were few and far between this year, with a few exceptions. Notably, the enormously talented God Save the Queen Fashions presented three panels: “Patterning 101,” “Patterning 102” and “Sewing with Leather.” Yaya Han presented on Sunday, with “Intro to Worbla Armor.” Even better, AWA had a panel on Saturday evening, “Cosfluff 101: Plus Sized Cosplay.” This is a fantastic move for the community and the first panel that this author has seen at any convention.

Despite all of these great panels, AWA did a rather poor job of scheduling them at more appropriate times. While GSTQF’s panels were on Friday, two of her panels were scheduled against AWA’s Ball, which meant that con-goers could only go to one or the other. Furthermore, having them in the evening and during dinner times meant less people were likely to attend these wonderful and informative panels. The “Cosfluff” panel was at 8:30 p.m. on a Saturday. AWA could have done a much better job and probably attracted more people had the panel been in the afternoon, when more people are at the convention and not at the Costume Contest.

Perhaps the worst mistake (and the most frustrating) was the scheduling of Yaya Han’s panel at 4 p.m. on a Sunday. Since con-goers check out of the hotels on Sunday, having her panel be in the very last slot on the last day meant some people were not going to be able to attend. That being said, the panel was extremely informative for those not familiar with the new material, Worbla and what Ms. Han didn’t have in terms of experience with the material, she made up for with experimentation and sharing those mistakes. The late time slot also did not deter those from attending and the panel had a full house. Perhaps, AWA, should you want an even more experienced Worbla guest and a more intermediate Worbla panel, you should invite the great Kamui Cosplay, who has years of extensive experience with Worbla and other heated plastics like Wonderflex.

AWA Dealer’s Hall and Artist Alley
Both the Dealer’s Hall and the Artists Alley were continual hits this year. Unlike last year, which seemed to have a swath of no-shows in the Artist’s Alley leading to a rather empty room, this year’s Alley was filled with great artists. AWA also added food trucks inside of the Alley, allowing the artists to get a continual flow of traffic of con-goers they might not otherwise get.

The Dealer’s Hall was also suitably filled. While filled with more trivial storefronts, AWA did have some hidden gems buried in the Hall. The vast amount of great and reasonably priced T-Shirt companies was a great addition this year. Although some of the T-shirts could be found at multiple booths, many stalls were filled with unique merchandise, like those at Aardvark Tees, who were then paired with fan favorites, like the Sanshee company. Also found, a dice, card, and board game stand, who (since it was the launch weekend of the Magic the Gathering: Theros set) sold out of nearly all of its Theros supplies. Also featured was the popular Pikachu car, surrounded with all the differently styled Pikachu. Fans could spot their respective Pikachu and snap a photo (A Sailor Moon Pikachu! An Attack on Titan Pikachu!).

Overall, Anime Weekend Atlanta was once again a treat to attend. The staff was generally very friendly, helpful, and informative. The events good and the panels were informative but also entertaining. If you were thinking about attending Anime Weekend Atlanta, it’s definitely worth going at least once.