My first con was A-kon in 2001. I remember a few things about it. It was in two little tiny hotels, and you had to walk across a big courtyard to get to the main hotel. I went with a bunch of my high school friends, and dressed up in a costume -- a lot of them teased me, and thought it was stupid. When they saw I was getting pictures taken, they stopped. Now most of them cosplay. Haha.

The first day, everyone had gathered in the hallway to get into the dealer's room. There were so many people, they made us all walk in a big circle so we wouldn't violate the fire code.

During the costume contest, someone pulled the fire alarm and everyone had to evacuate out into the parking lot. The hotel was right on a freeway, so we got a lot of people honking as they drove by and saw a parade of people in goofy costumes filing out. Haha.

Bad memory: Next to the elevators on each floor of the hotel, there was a table with water. We walked out early one morning to go to some panel, and sitting on the table was a cup with a bit of white crap in it, and a post-it on it that said, "From Hentai Fest". No telling if it was fake or not, the idea was gross enough, especially to a 14 year old.

I was 14 at my first con, it was right in my home town, so I went on Saturday only. I dont remember a whole lot except for getting my picture with a giant kodama.
It was a tiny con, probably less than 400 people back then.

First con: Sakura Con '01.

It was held in a little Holiday Inn. My friend and I were so excited; I must've spent around $500 or so in the dealer's room - mostly on CDs and art books. We were in awe at some Angel Sanctuary cosplayers, who got me into the series that I became (and still am) obsessed with.

Bad part: My friend borrowed my favorite pair of flat, knee high boots. She lost one of them. I don't even know how she did that. I was so upset.

a bit OT - could someone provide me with a higher res of pic in op?
like wallpaper res?

Funny you should use that image OP. ACen was my first con. However my first con was in 04, however, due to a family incident, I had to leave while I already waited in line for 4 hours for my badge. I did however get back in time for closing ceremonies.

So, my first REAL con exp was at ACen in 05. Pre-reged this time. I left school early on thursday (I'm 22 now) so I could pick up my badge at ACen and have time to enjoy the con without waiting in line while all the good stuff was going on. As I was coming near the lot near the grand ballrooms of the hyatt, I saw a few people having a problem offloading some PODs. I seen ACen on some of the shirts and figured I'd help them out and maybe get my badge sooner with a bit of work. Didn't quite work out that way. I asked if they needed a hand, and they replied, "Are you a gofer?" I'm like, "What's that?"
"If you wanna help, go over by the pool and look for the gofer hole. They'll fill you in there." And so I went and became a gofer, and been doing so since then. If you go to ACen, within the past few years, you might have seen me here or there. That year was the best lack of sleep I ever had. I'll be writing a bit more on my first year, just need to remember it.

I walked into the gofer hole and saw someone tinkering with a computer. He looks up from the monitor and said, "Are you here to gofer?" I responded, "What does a gofer do exactly." "It's just like what it sounds like. Gofer this, gofer that, gofer my aspirin." I just had to laugh a bit because he kept a straight face when he told me this. "What are the perks," I inquired. He shuffled through a few papers and found a list. If you work 8 hours a day, you get free crash space. After you work 16 hours, you get a refund on your badge and a t-shirt." I thought for a moment and said, "Where do I sign?" He took down my information and gave me a gofer badge to take over to registration to get it printed up. The next year up until now, they just use marker for the name. I dropped off my bag, headed to reg, got the badge printed, and headed back over to the parking lot to help haul some boxes to live programming. When I returned after a few trips, I went back to the gofer hole and relaxed. A little while later, someone peaked into the room and asked if there was a gofer available. I was the only one there at the time. "You ready for more work?" "Why not, I need something to do while I wait." "While you wait for what?" "For when I get my real badge." He chuckled a bit when I said this then informed me, since I was a gofer, I could go over to reg then to get my badge then. I decided to go and get my badge, only to return to the gofer hole thinking, "Maybe I'll stick around a bit longer. This might just be interesting."

I'll post more in a bit, I need to buy some smokes. And if you complain about this being so long OP, just remember, you ask about stories from our first cons.

AWA 1998. Got there Saturday morning, decided to walk from to hotel we were staying at (which wasn't the con hotel) and was a few blocks away because no one knew better. Got up before everyone else because I wanted to see what was up, it was like 7 or 8am which may as well be the crack of dawn at a con.

So there I am, dressed in my crappy first costume. As I walk past a Waffle House, an enormous woman wearing some kind of anime shirt and fanny pack bursts out shrieking the name of my character, (yeah, I cosplayed, it was crap, woo) and I stop half-flattered, half uncomfortable but she quickly takes a picture and shambles back to the restaurant.

Then I get in the con and am looking for where to buy a badge, only to find that reg isn't open yet. I decide to sit among a group of hardcore up-early-otaku because it's better than wandering around and I didn't know better.

After a few moments a girl, 3x larger than the first one, and wearing at least a tail and collar , but maybe ears too, and noisily eating a container of fettucini alfredo, comes shuffling over and sits down right next to me, but doesn't talk. After like 10 minutes of just her sitting there slurping she finally just blurts out "My name is (whatever)" without even looking at me.

The rest of the con was uneventful really. I completely ditched my IRL friends because non of them were cosplaying or even into cosplay (most of us made costumes but I think only one other person wore theirs for more than a minute) and I met all these people I just, I dunno, bonded with. Or something.

Oh, and one of my friends decided to sleep in a video room, complete with a sleeping bag, for some insane reason.

You know, I might be mixing together memories from Nekocon and AWA. I'm not sure, but it was 10+ years ago, so sue me.

>>2279224
I remember my first con. Anime Expo 2005.

The only story I have from it was being at the bandai booth and them throwing free things out to the audience. I had an ice cream cone in my hand at the time and i tried catching a GITS CD with my free hand, and in the process of doing so this guy jutted his arm straight into mine trying to swat my hand away and ended up putting his elbow into my ice cream. we both caught the CD and I stared him down till he let go of it.

fucker ruined my ice cream.

Crazy that you use that image. Acen 05 was my first... and so far only con.

>>2279287
nigger stole my cd

>>2279307
<--- Cept it was a CD too >:|

My first con was Anime Central 2005. Geez, I can't believe it's been 4 years since I started going to cons. Everything was so new to me, anime, cosplay, the world of nerdy people, it was just an eye opener for me.

I only went on a Saturday because I felt I wouldn't handle 3-4 days worth of conning. I went to 1-2 panels and then watched the masquerade. It was pretty good from my standpoint of seeing it for the first time.

I was very confused since I didn't know anything about anime or cosplay. I'm pretty happy going to cons because there's always something to look forward to no matter how big or small the con is.

Thread needs more stories.

Comic-com 1994. f-ink 1994. shit... my first con was 15 years ago. I was 8 and my mom decided to take me because she knew I liked all the japanese cartoons and comic-books that our next door neighbor boys my age had brought with them from Japan when they moved to the U.S. I fell in love with the convention and she made me my first costume in 1995, I went as Ryo-ohki when I was 9. Now I average 5-6 cons a year.

My first con was Youmacon 2005. I was mentally disturbed by that weekend. I saw many many many crossdressing men. and an old woman dressed as kagura from inuyasha with a creepy ass plastic baby doll.

First con, Katsu 2005... My friend passed out on Saturday night and it was only at that point we realized that we hadn't slept or eaten since Friday morning.

Demicon 2000 (I had been cosplaying for a year). Small sci-fi convention in Des Moines, Iowa. My uncle, who dresses as Boba Fett, needed one of us (us meaning myself or my siblings, I was 14 at the time) to help him with his armor. He didn't want me to be a "mundane", which is a term used in the sci-fi community for people who do not dress, so he put me in a tunic with a belt/lightsaber and said I was a Padowan. I HAPPEN to wear my hair in pigtails so everyone kept calling me Leia. So I wrote "JAINA SOLO" in huge letters on my badge. It was a lot of fun, but this creepy older guy kept stalking me and followed me all around the hotel. I also met Tadao that year, who is an actor (though I didn't believe him at the time). He's been in a lot of stuff now. He was the shake hands fan on BANZAI! and he was Hiro's translator on Heroes the first time he went to the future.

Anime Iowa 2002 was my first anime convention. I dressed as Edward from Cowboy Bebop and annoyed the fuck out of everyone. Walked on my hands a lot too. Back in my super annoying Weeaboo days. In fact, the first photo I posted on cosplay.com was myself as Edward.

Pic related, it's my and my uncle at Demicon 2001 dressed as Jedi's.

First con was KuniCon 2004. Went with my parents, who forced me and my sister into a photo of one of the costume contest winners.
Went only on Sunday, so it was pretty uneventful. I was freaking amazed though.

NYAF 2009. I was one of the Bridgets there, I traped so many f-en people at the con it was hilarious. One girl pulled up my dress to see if i was really male, and mad shop owners asked are u a boy or girl, i said boy and they would say YES he is doing it right, IM GAY FOR BRIDGET

My first con was... AX 2005


I was like 11 at the time, and I wore this Puchiko hat with a naruto headband on it and a fullmetal alchemist shirt and I thought was the shit. I didnt even know cons had panels back then, so I just went to buy stuff. Didn't go with anyone but my sister.

I didnt really know proper manners towards cosplayers, so i'd just sneak up by them and snap a photo and run away. I realized how rude this was when these great Magna Carta cosplayers got pissed off at me.

My first con was back in 1994-1995? I was a child at the time (3 or 4 years old). My dad took the family to SDCC since he favored his youngest daughter who was into comics and loved marvel comics.

I saw Stan Lee for the first time there too, I think, don't really remember besides feeling amazed and really really happy because there were all kinds of cool stuff I liked and loved.

And then I saw the playboy girls and a chick in a net dress with big boobs.

And 10x big woman undressing across from where I was waiting for my dad.

I started cosplaying in 2004.

Brothers took me to my first SDCC was back in '92. They pretty much made me a nerd like them for comics and cartoons. Also mom kinda made them take me. I don't remember much really besides being excited and it being gigantic and not knowing what or who to see first, and only went for Saturday or Sunday. Been going back nearly every year since. Still haven't cosplayed though.

What I does standout about going once was being in the Sony booth with my brother and a girl handing us her last passes to go up and try out the first Playstation. There was a Tekken tournament and free food, I'm sure I have the terribly colored release t-shirt somewhere.

>>2280547
>11 years old
>2005
>15 years old
>2009

>>2280691
>my first SDCC was back in '92
Uh, way back.

>What I does standout
...What does standout. What the fuck grammar.

Ohayocon 2008.

Ok convention with lots of people dressing up and seeing the dealers, but went alone. (Thank you Toon Zone.) Things will be different for Ohayocon 2010 since I'm going with the Anime Club at Ohio State.

Manga Next 2007.

Tiny con but it helped my friends and I get used to the entire set up once we realized most con are set up the same goddamn way.

>>2280708
You beat me to it.

>>2280727
Aawwww I thnk that was my second con

My first con was Ushi-con 3 in 2004.
I went with the anime club from my university. I was so nervous I would feel awkward that I nearly talked myself out of going. I decided I'd go anyway and I could always just leave if I needed to.

Had a ton of fun, decided I had to try this cosplay business for the next one and I've been doing it ever since.

Otakon '07, I was in the ladies room (as I am a lady) touching up my lipstick. Suddenly, in walks a trap. A not-very-convincing trap that seemed to be ripped stright from Kids in the Hall. This trap goes into a bathroom stall nearby and proceeds to take the loudest dump I have ever heard in a public facility. Thank you, trap, for ringing in my con-going career with gusto.

My first con was kinda lousy, but that's because I didn't know what to expect and I didn't plan properly, and my cosplay sucked since it was my first one. I also had pretty bad social anxiety at the time and the crowds drove me nuts. That's not to say I have no positive memories of it; my favorite will always be this:
It's the last day of the con and everything is pretty mellow, I'm standing around talking with a friend....then we're interrupted by a LOUD cackle, we turn around to see a flawless WaLuigi cosplayer running away from a Link in an extremely comical fashion. Obviously you had to be there to find it funny, but what made it is how perfectly in-character he was. We just about died. And cooler still, I met the guy a few months ago at KumoriCon; he was staying in the room next to ours and my bro invited him and his roomies over for drinks. Small world, isn't it?

AFO 2000. There was like, one guest: Steve Bennett. He talked about being Japanese, which fascinated most of the crowd. Guy is pretty fucking awesome, though.

They showed Sailor Moon movies, Gundam Wing, DBZ, Trigun and subtitled Cowboy Bebop (had recently ended its original TV release in Japan). During Endless Waltz, the audience screamed for Relena's blood.

This was back in the day before torrents and shit, so you went to anime cons to see shows that wouldn't be licensed and released in America for years, if ever.

Uh, I think I bought all five Gundam Wing CDs, pins with all the pilots, and a bootleg trigun shirt. Shitty by my standards now, that con was a fantastic experience.

Sakura-con '05 was my first and I did the same thing I did at every con up through 2008. I followed whatever girl I was currently obsessed with around and did everything she did. No wonder they all wanted nothing to do with me eventually. Now I just go so I can walk around in my favorite costume and have people tell me how awesome I look.

My first con was technically Big Apple Anime Fest, the last year it happened, 2004? 2005? I spent months making my friend a Lilith (Darkstalkers) costume, that looked really great, considering I was 17, and barely knew how to sew. But I spent so much time on hers, I tried to scramble mine out in 3 days, (Miaka from Fushigi Yugi) and it looked awful. I went with my Lilth, and her boyfriend at the time, who spent the day whineing about how we dragged him to this stupid Japanese thing. We then got on the wrong train home, and had to catch a ride with the boyfriend's creepy cousin. Generally it sucked. I didn't go to another convention until Manga Next 2008, which was awesome. It was small, so I wasn't overwhelmed by my first weekend con. I dressed as Lenn from FFX2, and my brother was AC Cloud, and we pretty much spent the weekend totally smashed, and people kept asking me where I got my wig, and contacts (both are real).

My first con was Baka Con 98. It was a small con with a lot of heart. The anime scene wasn't much because the mainstream commercialism of anime hadn't kicked in yet. It was just a handful of anime nerds in whatever costumes they could cobble together. The dealer's room was there to provide. The events mostly went off without a hitch; entertaining all. There wasn't an artist alley, but fuck-damn the model show blew my mind.

My first convention was in the last century, when the Internet was still relatively new, when cameras still used film, when anime was still on tape and fansubs were acquired through club trades. Thinking back, going to an anime con at that time was like going to a rock n' roll concert in the1950's: it was new, it was wild, yet there were still those who didn't know nor care and the parents weren't all approving yet. It was indeed a golden age.

My first con was Akon 18, I was 21.
Had terrible cosplays, that were done in less then a week. (A kung fu jacket, a terrible Tendo Souji, and Jason from PR) After waiting in line for 4 hours, I went back annd waited again with the girl i liked at the time for another 3, got her number becuase of that line. Then spent most of the time that day in the dealers room, and wandering the artist alley. Next day woke up and lost my voice, and walked around with a notebook as my only means of communcation. Went around from pannel to pannel and didn't really do anything, watch the cosplay show on the tv in a friends room, then raved a little. Sunday was complete waste.

My first con experience was Nekocon '03. The reg price was too expensive for an eighth grader who was new to this whole con thing, but my dad paid $10 for a pass to let me wander the dealer's room for a couple minutes. I remember being really excited to see a Miroku cosplayer with a hand print on "his" cheek -- and totally shocked that it was actually a girl. Ah, the naïveté of youth.

My first REAL con was Otakon '04. My mom drove a friend and me up to Baltimore, and we got there midnight of Friday night. Saturday morning we left the hotel (we hadn't reserved one near the con center in time and were about twenty minutes away) at 11:30, got lost and got there sometime after noon. We got our badges, saw L'Arc, checked out a few panels and left. Sunday we went straight home without going to the con center. Suffice to say the next year we reserved our room eight months early and left home on Thursday.

>>2281257
is dat sum nadesico?

My first con was actually KumoriCon 2007. Only went for one day, costume was shit, yadda yadda yadda.

I think that was the one con I spent the most money at, though. I have bought absolutely jack shit at the four cons I've been to since then.

>>2281308

You bet your ass. When I first started going to cons, Nadesico cosplay was off the chain. Mostly Ruris, but I do remember one Yurika, whom I hit on. Didn't get too far, but we were friends for a while. Shit was SO cash.

Come to think of it, I vaguely remember an Akito.

>>2281257
Shame I was only 7 at the time and still preoccupied with Powerpuff Girls and Pokemon.

>>2281328

>Powerpuff Girls and Pokemon.

Back then, there were people who seriously thought those shows were all anime was.

>>2281340
...what fucking tards thought PPG was Japanese?

Oh and there are still just as many people out there who think all anime is like Pokemon and Dragonball Z. I've met them.

>>2281340
Was that supposed to be an FMA reference?

But yeah, everyone thinks anime? Is that like pokemons? (Sometimes older folks will remember Speed Racer)

Sakura Con 2003. I was 16. My mom woke up at 6am (after getting about 4 hours of sleep) to drive me (female) and two ex-boyfriends down to Seattle (3 hour drive) from Vancouver. (Best mom evar, btw)
I was dressed as Sango, and one of my friends was dressed as Sesshomaru. There are still a few god-awful pictures of us floating around on the internet.
I was a hardcore weeaboo when I was 16, and there were few people that shared my enthusiasm in my hometown. We were all so excited when we got to the con because we were like "omg people like US". I bonded with some semi-fat girl dressed as Lulu while we waited in line for registration. My mom gave me $80 for the dealers room (at the time the CAD vs. USD was really bad....I think the conversion was $1USD=$0.60CAD? So $80 USD was a pretty big chunk of money) and there was one of those cheap sword booths set up right next to the Dealers room entrance and as soon as I saw it I dropped $40 on some crappy sword.
There was the dance/rave later that night and it was so friendly and I begged my mom to let us stay for another hour.
Around midnight we finally left, and she drove us allllll the way back to Vancouver.

I feel kind of awful because my mom must've been bored out of her mind; she sat in the "quiet room" all day with nothing to do, not even a book to read. I still thank her for taking me to my first con once in a while and it's like....6 years later. She's so awesome.

...She let me go on my own with some friends next year.

Acen 2002. It was pretty uneventful upon reflection.
There was some IRL friend drama with "who was going out with who", but what else can you expect from high schoolers? I did have a very bad Tomoyo costume, where the only part you could potentially recognize me from was with the video camera I was carrying.

I do miss the earlier days of ACEN. That con has changed so much.

With all the mainstreaming and commercialism of anime these days, figgered people would know more now. Heh.

Back in 98, though, it was still a simpler time. Cartoon Network hadn't yet wrapped it's tentacles around anime like it were a 17-year-old virgin in seifuku. Mixx Zine (whose co-founders, Stu Levy and Ron Scoville, were GOH's) had yet to morph into the Tokyopop media empire. There was neither a Coscom nor a Cosfu, the only people who gave a fuck about Gothic Lolita were probably some weird kids wandering the streets of Harajuku, and Gwen Stefani was known as the girl who sang "Don't Speak" and "I'm Just a Girl".

Now if you'll excuse me, it's sponge-bath time at this assisted living facility. Afterwards, it's tapioca pudding and "Matlock".

>>2281432
>Sakura con 2003
>Seattle

...

No?

First con was Janicon 2007. Small con was craptastically craptacular. Though...I did get to fangirl over Hime no Toki's Nuriko. THAT WAS AWESOME.

>>2281528
...Yes? It was at the Hilton by the Airport or whatever. Is that not Seattle? I'm not really familiar with the area. :|

>>2281461
hey hey hey. now don't forget about COSP. (if it didn't start in 98, definitely 99)
it may have been just a mailing list, but it had it's scandals and drama of the day galore.

ahh, mailing lists. how 90s. how nostalgic.

>went to janicon
I'm...I'm so sorry

Gotta Love Acen.

>>2281461
....You know, anime is a lot more popular, but it's far from mainstream. Most people at my high school barely even knew what Naruto was, and if I said "You know those emo freshman who wear those orange coats and blue headbands?" then they might know what I was talking about.

It was Dragon*Con 1999...went the Saturday and gravitated towards the anime room. i loved scifi but anime was at the top of my list...oh how things have shifted...
later that year I went to AWA 5 that year...
costuming since AWA 6

ACEN 2003...Wore a shitty costume and still haven't been able to sew correctly, after all these years.

But it was much more fun than this year's ACEN, that's for fucking sure.

the first con i attended - got tired of standing up for such a long time and didn't get the autograph of the Mangaka-guest (Yuu Watase) after buying a notebook and a pen from my already reduced pocket money. It's a miracle we got home.

My first convention was Fanime '02. My mom decided to chaperone my friend and I, even though she hates anime/manga/video games. We rode in the elevator with some cosplayers and when we got out, my mom hissed over to me, "These people think they're anime characters!!" I told her they were just in characters, but she wouldn't believe me. I was amazed though, I felt like I had "found my people." I spent a ton of money in the dealer's room and spent most of the time in the viewing rooms. It was great.

I stopped my dump because after that firsst day, I got so wasted I only remember few snippets from each day.

Damn, too long til ACen. If Opening cerimonies are at 10am like they usually are,and you consider them the official start, it's roughly 6 monthes, 9 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes til ACen.

Anime Expo 2007 for me. Despite all the technical problems, me and my friend who was a Cowboy bebop character had lots of fun just running around.

My first con was JACON 2004 (back when it was still in UCF's student union), when I was 14 around the end of eighth grade. I went with a neighborhood friend, and didn't cosplay because my parents wouldn't let me for no valid reason other than "You'll thank us when you're older." I spited them later when I got to college and started cosplaying. :)

I ogled at cosplayers, wasted my money on weeaboo stuff, and watched Full Metal Panic Fumoffu (sp?) in one of the viewing rooms. All in all, a fun time. I could only stay for a few hours on Saturday because my parents wouldn't let me pay for anything more than that.

Also, my parents and my friends parents contacted JACON security and UCF's campus police to keep an extra eye on us to make sure we didn't get ~abducted~.