So another year has come and gone for us here in Calgary. Typically, my life of working is punctuated only by video games, trying to get the courage to ask a girl out, or collecting toys. Another big distraction is Otafest, Calgary's own little anime convention. Obviously, being a comparatively tiny city, it's not as grand in scope as something like Sakuracon, or Otacon. It is a lot of fun, however, and I never have gone a year and not felt fulfilled in at least some small way.

Definitely one of the highlights this year was the cosplay competition. In the beginning, one of the coordinators got up on stage and gave a big speech about how he met the girl of his dreams about 2 years ago at Otafest, and all that. He ended it with calling her up, getting down on one knee, and asking her "the question" right there. She, of course, was crying, covering her mouth to hide a smile, and gave him the most genuine kiss I've seen in a long time. It brought me to tears, too, and made the proceeding events seem all the more special.

The vendor booths were nothing to sneeze at, either. Having reserved the biggest room in the building (it was held at the U of C), the vendors were afforded a great deal of space to store more merchandise. Of particular note was the video game vendor booth, selling rare games and systems. Of particular note, Suikoden 2 was selling at nearly $200, while a sealed copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga (!) was going for nearly $400 (!!!). Me, I picked up Megaman Zero 2 through 4, for the GBA, and walked away happy.

A sword company had also rooted their shop there, selling replicas of Cloud's Buster Sword and Sephiroth's Masamune. Surprisingly, neither were sold until the final hours of the vendor showing.

The actual cosplay was great, though. One female actually made a f---ing bubble tea outfit, complete with tapioca pearls. We also saw a girl dress up as a goddamn katamari. Other than that, there was the usual Squalls, Clouds, other FF characters. But by far, the most we saw of was Naruto. A good 60% of the cosplay were characters from Naruto. We've dubbed these people, "Narutards".

DDR was a terribly fun experience this year. Playing in the University's own little arcade, I had somehow attracted a gathering who were watching me play. I was getting comments like, "He's a miracle worker!" and "Whoa! Amazing!", but I soon fell at the hands of Exotic Ethnic on "Heavy" mode. Having played for four hours straight, this was expected. It also doesn't help that I CANNOT do crossovers.

So, yeah. We had fun. I wish I took pictures!!