YasumiCon held in F.I.U.(Florida International University) is on its seventh year and is one of South Florida’s biggest Free anime conventions. We were able to see comedian Aaron Pabon. He hosted the Costume contest along side character Mario and did a stand up show later in the evening that was both funny and entertaining.
This was our first Free anime convention we have been to, I was curious to see what a group of volunteers from the Japanese Animation and Film Club at FIU have put together in order to form an event for anime lovers to come together to enjoy and share their common interests.
They had a game room and room panels showing interesting information about anime. For example, anime of the 80’s, bad anime titles and Yuri 101. They also had Costume Contests, Vendors such as our favorite Tate’s Comics, Artists Alley, a small dealer room and a Maids Cafe.
We started out by walking down the Artist Alley and saw some interesting drawings then headed towards the costume contest that was about to start and was a little over crowded for the small auditorium being held at. Luckily we had found a spot close to the stage. they even closed the doors to stop others from coming in. The costumes were interesting and there were several that we had already seen from previous conventions.
We then headed towards the game room but they were not letting anyone in of how crowded it was. So we decided to try the panel rooms to see what they were giving but it was also crowded and some people were left standing. On one panel they were giving Yuri 101 and the other panel info. on bad anime titles.
We also tried getting into the Maids Cafe but there was a waiting line since there were already people seated inside eating. They had waiters dressed as maids and the food they had to offer was Miso soup, rice balls, sweets and etc. Our last stop was at the dealer room and bought some Pocky sticks from Tate’s Comics and looked around at what other vendors had.
Overall, we thought the convention was good, there was a lot more people than we had anticipated and enough entertainment to believe it to be a true anime convention.
-Pictures taken at the Costume Contest event and others were taken while we walked around
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-Both videos were recorded before the Contestants came up the stage