My first convention ever, I originally had no intentions of going. However my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to drop by to take a quick look. With no other anime loving friends to go with, I resorted to dragging my father along with me. Fortunately, my father is also one of my closest friends so I did not in the slightest feel out of place.

It was Saturday at around 1pm and freezing since it was wintertime in Australia, after a few minutes of searching for the correct building we finally found the registration desk, paid up and went in. To be completely honest, I was very disappointed, but it was only because I had seen so many photos of huge conventions like Otakon and Anime Expo and attending a tiny convention (which happens to be the largest in Australia) such as Manifest felt quite depressing.

There was a small corridor solely devoted to dealers, naturally very crowded and hard to move through but we managed. Having dealt with the dealers in my own time, there was no need to buy anything, but it was fun to just sift through all the merchandise and hear other people gasp and cheer when they found the item they were looking for.

The corridor lead to several small theaters that featured mainly "westernised" anime, another disappointment, only because they were re-runs of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin etc. No recent series were being played. I suppose, I was and still am a very obsessed anime fan, my expectation were a little too high. It is unfortunate that Australia has always been very behind it comes to anime or manga, even video games.

And hour passed, I ended up spending most of that time just walking around and listening to my father complaining about what a bad decision it was to come to Manifest. Soon the time came for the cosplay competition and that was something I definitely wouldn't miss.

I dragged my father up the stairs and through the halls until we finally reached a nice small room with a panel of judges chatting away as the room filled. I was so upset when I realised I had forgotten to bring my camera, hence no photos for this report.

Soon the cosplayers came out one by one, I was happy to learn that some of these cosplayers were dressed as characters of lesser known series, which proved that there are some obsessed anime fans in Australia *^^*. I enjoyed all the performance by the cosplayers, it was wonderful to witness how much light was brought into the room with just one person singing, dancing, and cheering. There was even an entire FFVIII group that came in that had prepared a beautiful dance and act.

We left before the winners were announced, trying to avoid the rush of the crowd. With nothing else to do, we left at around 3:30pm, while the weather was still freezing, but the traffic was clear.

Overall, although various aspects disappointed me, I shall be attending next year. Hopefully this time in a costume of my own, although I truly doubt I will enter any competitions, having any attention brought to me would surly be very unnerving. And hopefully next year a few of my anime obsessed friends will join me? *^^*