Fandom Snowflake 2022: Challenge #13

[scrubjayspeaks]

Challenge 13: In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, wild times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I went to my first convention in 2003, which was Anime Expo L.A. I went almost every year for a decade. I no longer live so near to it and so haven't been since I moved in 2014. I would truly love to go back. I'm not even that actively engaged in anime fandom anymore, but it always felt like home all the same. My second year there, 2004, I cosplayed for the first time.



(screencap via YuYuCaps)

I went as Koto, a fox youkai and the cheerfully bloodthirsty MC of the Dark Tournament in Yu Yu Hakusho. It was almost a closet cosplay, using a lot of premade clothing items. But I made the little neckline-and-tie thing and the mysteriously-unattached-to-anything coattails. And the ears and tail, of course. I still have the tail, too, oddly enough. I wasn't there to compete or anything, just to have a bit of fun as an obsessive fan of the series. When I went by the Funimation booth, though, they gave my a shiny Koto from the card game in appreciation.

I cosplayed four more times at that con--Rinku from YYH, B.T. and Macha from the .hack games and series, and No-Face from Spirited Away. They got more elaborate over the years and more thoroughly handmade. No-Face got a lot of requests for hugs, and Macha (who looks like this) was the most impressive overall. But nothing will ever quite compare to the fannish glee of cosplaying for the first time, dressed up as someone I loved from something that was the most thrilling thing I had in my head back then.