Anime Blues Con 9

It's now time to talk about my favorite time of the year; Anime Blues Con! I have made so many good friends here, and a ton of good memories as well. It's like three days of Christmas in Memphis with booze, imported Godzilla toys, and without terrible family members weighing you down. So it's actually not a whole lot like Christmas, at least not in my current living situation, but whatever. It's fun as hell, and that's what matters.

Despite the name, Anime Blues Con isn't only about anime or Japanese culture. Far from it. You can find just about anything "geeky" or "nerdy" here. Indeed, this even extends to horror-related stuff, which is what a lot of this blog post will be focusing on! Really, just about anything I find monster-related I'm putting here. Why not?

We're already off to a great start with this cosplay of a Splicer and Little Sister from Bioshock! Bioshock is definitely one of my favorite games and would probably be my favorite FPS period had it not been for Doom or Quake.

On a semi-unrelated note, I'm kind of interested on hosting a panel next year about retro FPS games like those; although I have social anxiety really bad so maybe not????

I'm actually not sure if this cosplay is from anything in particular, or if it's just a really cool original character the cosplayer came up with. Either way, this is an excellent costume. Crows/ravens/corvids are always cool as heck, and corvid monsters are even better!

Not only is this costume masterfully put-together, it even makes a "cawing" sound! I unfortunately didn't get a video of it, but I really should have. I recall the beak even moving with the sound it made, syncing up really well!

Also pictured: giant guitars! Memphis loves their guitars.

Michael Myers! A pretty great costume all around. Also, when I asked for a picture, he started to slowly follow me. So uh.....yeah! Points for accuracy too!

Is it just me though, or does the mask's neck look kinda off? I'm not complaining, I actually think that's a pretty cool effect, intentional or otherwise, but still.

I don't know anything about this movie other than the fact I really want to see it just going off this DVD box art alone.

This is another cosplay I'm not 100% of what it's supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure it's the Projectionist from Bendy and The Ink Machine, an entry on the embarrassingly long list of games I need to play.

Again, whatever it's from, this is a cool as hell costume!

These Godzilla figures are way the hell more expensive than I'm willing to pay for, but they look pretty rad nonetheless. If I had a more expendable budget I might have honestly considered these.

On the other hand, these Godzilla posters are quite reasonably priced, especially given how huge they are. Although that's kind of why I didn't buy them; I probably wouldn't be able to carry them home with me or put them on my wall, and my bedroom already has extremely limited space as-is.

Ah well, maybe next time.

This is another item I didn't buy....but I really, really should have just for the novelty alone. I've always wanted my toast to taste like chronic depression and childhood trauma!

Honestly, it's pretty shocking to me just how much merchandise you can find of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Like yeah, there's toys and manga and basic stuff like that, but I mean.....well, just look at this.

Yeesh. I'm not even bothered by this, just.....baffled. It's not even the amount of merchandise that Evangelion has that weirds me out, it's the fact a franchise like this has so much merchandise at all. Evangelion is an extremely dark, surreal, weird, and downright depressing show. This, to me, is like having a shit load of merch for Italian Giallo movies or David Lynch's even less mainstream stuff.

Although I can't say I wouldn't want a plush doll of that bleeding penis monster from Lynch's Alphabet short.

And now for something I actually did buy! I've been wanting to see this anime for a while, being both a fan of the Darkstalkers games and its characters. Especially Morrigan. For......reasons.

....uh, anyway!

HELL. YES. Ash Williams cosplay!!! I was not at all expecting to see this, so this is was a wonderful surprise. This entire costume is fantastic, but I think my favorite part might be that Necronomicon he's carrying.

Side note: I now want Ash Williams to show up in a future Darkstalkers game. If there ever is one.

As good as that Ash costume is though, I think this costume of K. Round from Deltarune might be my favorite cosplay that I saw this year. This is truly a work of art.

Wait a minute, now there's a SKELETAL version of those T-rex costumes?! Oh my god, as if I didn't love those goofy costumes enough, now they had to go and make a spooky version of it. This is incredible.

That's right, Anime Blues this year had not one, but two excellent Pyramid Head cosplays! Silent Hill is yet another game you can put on the list of stuff I need to actually play, but I've always admired the extremely unsettling monster designs, so this is really cool.

It's also kind of difficult to tell from the photo, but the first Pyramid Head cosplayer I posted is also tall as hell, fittingly enough.

Anime Blues Con of this and last year had a panel on the history of slasher movies! Pretty interesting stuff all around, but probably my favorite part was that I was introduced to a movie called "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon".

I really need to see this movie now.

Last, and most certainly not least, the Boos and Booze panel! It's exactly what it sounds like. Hosted by my friend Macy (who also hosts a Twitch stream of the same name!), they basically just get drunk and talk about spooky stuff. Aliens, serial killers, conspiracy theories, playing "fuck/marry/kill" with the options being monsters; fun for the whole family! As long as your family is 21 or older.

One of the highlights was a cryptid creation contest, where three audience members would work together to create their own spooky monster! As you can see above, it's absolutely gorgeous. Breathtaking, really.

If I remember correctly, the contestants have said that it's actually made out of spiders, and can summon even more spiders if people are mean to spiders.

I think I might be in love.

Images sources:

• Twitter
• All other photos taken by me!