Recap of #AnimateFlorida 2016

It's been two weeks since Animate Florida happened and so I thought I had mourned enough time to finally be able to do a recap.

Animate Florida, formerly known as Animate Miami, this year moved the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. At first I was apprehensive about this, but once I was there I understood why: it's gorgeous up there, cleaner, MUCH better parking system, and also way more space. When I walked in on Saturday (I couldn't make it on Friday, the actual first day), the first thing I noticed was that I actually had room to walk around! If you've been to a con before, you know how incredibly and overwhelmingly packed a Saturday can be, due to it being the day the majority of the people go, the day most celebrities are present, and the day with the most panels, shows, contests, etc. Yet, I walked in on Saturday and was able to walk around with room, not bumping into anyone, and able to see all the booths' merchandise clearly and easier.

With that being said, though, I don't know why, but this year Animate was WAY emptier than last year. Yes, there is more space, but even so, it didn't come close to how many people there was last year. It could've been because a lot of other things were happening that weekend, not everyone could make it out to Ft. Lauderdale, or what it was, but I was sad to see it be so empty. I am hoping the next con (Paradise City Comic Con in December), or just this one next year, will be fuller, like it should be.

Even with there being less people, I managed to have lots of fun and see some incredibly amazing cosplays! Y'all know how much I love cosplaying AND seeing other's cosplays. Here are some of the best ones I saw:

This is my friend Quills cosplaying as Ash Ketchum 

I LOVED this Joker cosplay! Came out amazing!

Here you have Dark Ahsoka from Star Wars: Clone Wars in the middle of Misty (me) and Slowbro (Kenny from The Talking Geek Podcast) from Pokemon. Talk about fandom mashups!

Front view of Slowbro

Incredible gender bend cosplay of Kylo Ren (you can catch her and Ahsoka from previous picture at Magic City Jedi Academy where you can learn how to be a Jedi!)

Metroid is one amazing game and this cosplay is AMAZING!

We also got to attend the Costume Contest and here are some of the best cosplays we saw competing (It was hard to chose these pics, there were SO many awesome costumes competing!)

Of course a Joker and Harley couldn't be absent here!

The amount of work, time, effort, and money these very talented geeks put into their cosplay is admirable and deserves to be recognized! If I would've been a judge, I wouldn't have been able to chose just 3!

We also attended the Sailor Moon Q&A panel with Stephanie Sheh (Sailor Moon), Amanda C. Miller (Sailor Jupiter), Erica Mendez (Sailor Uranus), and Lauren Landa (Sailor Neptune), in which they not only answered questions from the audience, but sang the Japanese version of the Sailor Moon theme song, talked about other projects they're involved in, and what it takes to be a voice actress/actor. These girls were so much fun and cool that I couldn't believe their panel sped through! 

Another panel I loved that we attended (but unfortunately the memory card of our camera corrupted some of the pics, so I don't have any of those to show you ::insert sad face here::) was the cosplaying panels: one was on tips on how to build things from PVC pipes, cardboard, etc. and the other one was tips of what I love doing, cosplaying from your closet. I get creative with my cosplays, if I do say so myself, but I loved hearing tips on more ideas.

And then we also attended the "Practice O.W.L.s" panel. It was all Harry Potter trivia, which I am a HUGE fan of! Some of the questions were really difficult and even I had a hard time remembering some of the answers (which I would sometimes remember too late lol), and I only did not know the answer to one of the questions. It was so much fun being to be the Hermione that I am shooting my hand in the air constantly and answering questions with a big smile on my face. We answered so many questions correctly that we won a wand! It looks like a real one, it's made out of real wood!

All in all, I did have a good time and would do it all over again! See ya next year Animate!

And of course I couldn't pass the chance to take a pic with the TARDIS (and hope 11th comes out to take me away!). Outfit was Poison Ivy inspired: Poison Ivy tank with military green lace shorts, forest green tights, and a Poison Ivy hair pin; completed with lots of green eye shadow, of course!