Anime Convention Guide For Beginners!

I had to got my cat cuz she won't stop meowing sorry hey what's up guys it's Micha today we're gonna be doing our convention Survival Guide for all of you beginner cosplayers and new con go Aries I'm gonna apologize in advance if you can hear my fan running it's really hot in my house so you don't have a/c so before we get into our concert viable guide I do want to talk about something I have talked about before but really do enjoy and wanna talk about again and that is amino apps amino is a social media app where people can create and share content on a variety of different topics it all just depends on what you're into their best feature is their stories these are like stories on other social media except they're way more interactive they're categorized by topic and they don't disappear from your page so you can always go back and see them again if you go up into the search bar and hit the topics tag you can look up things that interest you this is a great way of finding stories that pertain to things that fit in your interests I looked at wig styling and learned some really great tips from creators just like other social media you can like and comment on people's posts and also follow them and hit the notification bell so you can always see when they post speaking of follow either follow the link in the description or in the search bar on Amino type in micah the ideas velocity and make sure to follow me and hit the notification bell I hope you'll continue to support me and my smaller videos over on amino as well as on here so I know a lot of you guys are super new into like cosplay and conventions and a lot of you just don't know what to do when you get to a con like the big picture sounds super great super easy but then when you actually get there you just kind of don't know what to do I remember my first convention walking in going what do I do but I have been attending conventions several times a year for six years now so I think I've gotten like the con life down to a tee cons always seem scary but there's lots of things you can do to make the whole thing easier for yourself and reduce stress and make the experience like the best when it can possibly be what a lot of people don't realize is that before you even get to the con there's tons of things to do to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible and the first one is packing properly I don't know how many times I have gotten to a convention and realized I've forgotten maybe half of a cosplay or a full cosplay that has happened before I've forgotten wigs I've forgotten makeup pieces I've forgotten just pieces of cosplay I've forgotten shoes all sorts of different things and sometimes you can just run to a store and grab something but a lot of times you can't so the first proper thing to do is always make sure you pack properly I will tell you some different ways to ease packing and make it more efficient and save you space always make a list for everything you need to bring make this days in advance you know you already probably know what cosplay is you're going to be bringing to this convention so what I like to do is either on a piece of paper or on Google Spreadsheets or something like that I list every single character that I will be cosplaying and then under each character I start listing off every single little thing that cosplay has belts gloves shirt does it have a jacket do I need specific shoes with it do I need specific undergarments to go with it do I need tights with it you know what wig do I need to bring what contacts is there a specific makeup item that I don't normally have in my normal makeup bag that I need to make sure I bring like liquid latex face paint anything like that even if you think you won't forget it put it down on the list and do that for every single character you have then I make another little column of makeup items I want to bring and make sure that I have and don't forget and then basic clothes necessities things I need like medications you know make sure I actually bring regular clothes because I have forgotten pajamas so many times and I've slept in cosplays because I had nothing else you know do you need to bring a hot glue gun with you do you need to bring you know an extra pair of shoes do you need to bring something for something somebody else you know that they're borrowing you know write it all down then when you get to the actual packing for one I highly recommend you get vacuum-seal bags this is gonna save you space they are in like where you buy like laundry baskets and like Walmart or Target and you can get ones that you roll the air out they're super easy to use they're not very expensive you could put quite a bit of stuff in them it's gonna save you so much space and you can organize really well so then when you get to packing I like to start cosplay by cosplay that way I can keep all the clothing items kind of together and in one bag if I'm using my vacuum bags or just in one area so I'm not constantly digging through my suitcase at Khan trying to find one specific item of clothing I don't remember when I stuck it in the bag and then as you put things into the suitcase check it off your list just make sure you check everything off I will not put the next thing into the bag until I've checked it off that way I make sure everything gets in the bag and I know I have absolutely everything I need with me the next thing I super make sure to have is like some sort of first-aid kit when I say first aid kit I typically mean I have a ziplock baggie full of a bunch of things I might need or just items here and there throughout my bag things like I bring a full bottle of ibuprofen I started bringing like airborne or immune booster tabs with me because you're constantly around a lot of people and I get sick really easily at conventions so I started bringing those band-aids antiseptic feminine products for my friends if they need them I bring you know anything that could be useful if not for me for someone else allergy medication don't ever forget allergy medication because somebody like me who's allergic to a bunch of stuff could really really really use it even if it's just something as much as a stuffy nose no one should have to suffer through con if they don't have to do you know make sure you bring all of that stuff a lot of people don't think to bring these things I like to be prepared for other people even if it's not something I think I'll ever need but you know you never know when somebody else is gonna need it and it's always good to have on hand I also go pre con grocery shopping I either do this at home at the store before I even leave for the convention or once I get to the convention hotel if I drove there or if one of my friends drove there if we happen to be able to go to the store or walk to the store and just get some things we need that's what we do I always recommend getting a pack of water if you don't already have reusable water bottle you know and we get snacks to keep in the room and I don't mean junk food snacks you can have some of those too I do like to get myself some chips but things like cereal granola if we know we have a microwave we'll bring things we can microwave like soups and stuff like that you know get yourself some sandwich making stuff like you could get peanut butter and bread and keep that out because that doesn't need refrigeration but if you have a mini fridge you can also get like sandwich meats and stuff like that you know make sure you have things to eat on top of going out and getting food during the convention but we'll talk about that more later before you even go to convention I also recommend looking online and looking at the cons con program guide every convention will list this usually a week or two before the convention the program guide is going to tell you everything you need to know about the con what panels there are what guests there are what photoshoots there are different events that you can go see it's gonna tell you what time they are and what day they are so you can kind of get in your head oh I want to go to this thing that's at this time so I can make sure I have free time you know what you do is totally dependent on you I will talk about that a little bit more in a bit right now we're gonna finally get to what to do when you're at con so the very first thing when you walk into a convention is you're gonna probably be overwhelmed take a deep breath keep it all locked in you got it and you're gonna go get your badge most the time I heavily recommend pre-ordering a badge if you know for sure you will be going to the convention it always ends up being weight cheaper and that way you don't have to wait in a SuperDuper long line but yeah so you have to go get your badge if you can't ever find a badging station because honestly I've been at cons were in there in weird locations like you have to go deep into the convention center just to find them if you can find a staff member they're usually wearing bright orange or bright yellow like construction jackets kind of to be easily spotted amongst the cosplayers if you can find one of them just say hey I don't know where to go and they'll easily point you in the right direction you know at batch pick up make sure you have your ID ready whether it be a student ID a driver's license passport make sure you have it ready to go you do have to have one of these in order to pick up your badge once you get your badge you will go grab your lanyard and that's when you can pick up a physical copy of your program book it's the same thing that was online but it's just in a physical copy so after you get your badge you know you're gonna be kind of wondering what do I do now like where should I go what should I see and that's kind of up to you so I'll talk about the different things you can go and see I'm talking about my favorite one and that's the dealers hall and artists alley the place where you're gonna spend all the money that you don't have on merch you don't need i heavily recommend that you wait until sunday or whatever day that you're their last to go into the dealers hall and artists alley don't spend all of your money right away so artist alley is filled with independent artists these people applied to be at these tables and they're selling their own original art worker creations some people self-pay made plushies some people sell like cool crafting things they've like handmade jewelry but most of the time you're gonna find art prints buttons pins and keychains usually they're all fandom related so most the time you're gonna see whatever's popular like I saw tons and tons of my hero merch at my last con cuz that's what's popular now but it really just depends on the artists dealers Hall is where you find officially licensed merch you know this is where you gonna find your figures your anime your manga your CDs your general merch I guess like lanyards pins key chains that are officially licensed by brands this is the area you're probably gonna get scanned out of the most money there's something we like to call con price the price of this merch is going to be inflated heavily for what you can find it online however it is legit authentic merch some of this merch is out of print and you can't just go and buy it now so that also plays into the price but there has been times where figures that maybe retails for around $70 and you can still get pretty cheap other places might be selling for a hundred and fifty dollars but you can usually find different prices online you know research your figures before you buy them but that's a whole other story once you've wormed your way through Artist Alley and dealers Hall then what do you do so next I want to talk about panels panels are at every convention there are panels run by the actual convention convention guests but mostly they're all convention goers on panels these things can range from a variety of topics some of them are informational ones like I've seen intro to Lolita fashion you'll see interactive panels that are like game panels panels run by guests might be like intro to voice acting how I got started in voice acting or things they're interested in you know there's all sorts of different panels read through the panel names the program guide lists and if there's something that catches your eye go read the description and see you know is that something that you would be interested in going in just check out a couple of them even if you're not sure 100% of it's something you would enjoy just peep take a peek in you can always leave if it's something you're not into later in the night there's always 18 plus panels maybe if you're 18 plus Hey some of those are hilarious and honestly my favorite panels I've ever been to along with panels there's also an amazing there's rooms dedicated to just screening different episodes of different anime they'll be listed on the program guide of what they're playing they'll play quite a few episodes you know I Jasha Magica my hero academia they'll play anime movies from time to time and these play really late into the night I'm talking like whenever like everything else convention wise is done like the rave ends that's when the viewing ends there's also the tabletop room and the videogame room the tabletop room is obviously for like tabletop games I really can't talk about it much because I don't tabletop game but like you can play all sorts of different card games you can go play yu-gi-oh with people you could go play pokemon with people you could go play Magic the Gathering with people you know it's like tabletop gaming is for you and it's stuff you really like doing head over there the video game room is also super cool they usually have just a lot of consoles set up to different TVs so you can play all sorts different aims bigger conventions have like a lot more selection they'll have like really old retro games that are really fun and they also bring in a lot of like Japanese arcade machines like rhythm games are the biggest one and they're always like there's always like a super big line for these but they're my favorite I absolutely love playing these games it's really cool to go in there and check it out you play all these games for free like and you can sit in there for basically as long as you want just be respectful don't hug machines because I absolutely hate when I'm waiting for one person to play there's seven round of ddr and haven't let anyone else try next is the cosplay masquerade I love masquerades this is the cosmic contest where people enter for their craftsmanship or enter different performances to perform in front of an audience this is always held on Saturday night if you can manage to get inside to watch because for some of them they fill up super fast people line up literally like an hour or two beforehand you know I really recommend going and watching it they're always super duper exciting and super duper hype you get to see all the cool cosplays people have made like some of the things people can do is wild so I definitely recommend going in and checking that out once we get to the late night we have usually two options most cons have karaoke it's exactly what it sounds like and then the other thing is the rave raves are you either like though or you don't there's really not too much of an in-between I absolutely love going into raves I'm usually not somebody that likes being in loud crowded spaces but if you stand off on like the corner it's really really fun there are some people that go to cons only for the raves you're gonna see tons of people with Flo ones poi hoops pixel whips that's me and my friends we stand off in the corner and play with Flo toys because they're super duper fun and everyone always gets really mesmerized by flashing lights but if you like dancing it's always really really fun to go in there as long as you're not a super young one I definitely remind users usually pretty good they always have some really good djs you know so definitely check it out if that's something you're super into you the last really big thing that I can think of future editing micah here i said this was the last big thing i could think of but i completely forgot about guest autographs that's pretty self-explanatory and can be easily searched on I'm still sorry for forgetting is meetups so meetups are what they sound like their meet up for a certain fandom at a certain time at a certain location and you take pics it can be really really fun I almost always go to meetups if I can I will literally move my cosplay schedule around just to go to meetups you know you can meet so many new people and the best part is they all like the same thing you do because you're all cosplaying from the same thing even if you're not cosplaying still go to those meetups take some pics talk to the cosplayers it's a really really good way to make friends so definitely go if you're not a part of it because you know making friends is a really really fun aspect and that's what I want to talk about next make friends you know I'm a very shy person like actually terrified of speaking to people at all I kind of just like hide away in a corner somewhere you know it's actually really easy to make friends at cons I have made almost all of my friends at cons like I said the best ways meetups you're finding people that all have the same interests as you like that's right they're a perfect way to break the ice talk about something you know discuss like parts of the anime discuss characters like you're gonna find things to talk about know if you see a cosplayer you like you know as long as they're not busy go ahead up go and say something to them you know tell them you like you their cosplay you know maybe ask them how they made it or if they bought it or you know just just strike up a friendly conversation you know as long as you're not like impeding on them most the time most people are really really friendly you know don't get sad if some people are kind of like dismissive you know you can't win everyone over and if they're like that those are not the people you want to be friends with that's just all I have to say along with making friends take pictures I used to be so bad at this and I'm really sad that I just don't have a lot of pictures from my early con days I just can take a lot you know take those selfie get your friends in those pictures take pictures of other cosplayers that you think are super cool take pictures with other cosplayers that you think are super cool that's always really fun too don't take pictures of people without their consent though please don't like don't just like go up to some money and take a picture that's rude don't sneak a picture of someone if you want a picture of someone just ask but all in all you know make a photo album online on your phone you know even if you don't have a smartphone I can guarantee you one of your friends probably does you know take pics get those pics if you have a customer you're proud of book those photo shoots you know get those nice edited photos like it's so worth that in the end you might not think it's worth it now but in the long run it really really is worth it to have that's all for like what to do at conventions but you know there's still more things to be wary of and one of them is staying hydrated for one make sure you're constantly drinking water cons usually have nowadays safe water that you can't take take the top off that you can just go and grab a drink from time to time if you don't have a water bottle you know make sure you drink and then make sure you eat please I am begging you please eat I know so many people that say oh I just won't eat or I don't have the money to eat I'm gonna spend it on this other thing food is far more important than whatever you want to buy I'm gonna tell you that now eat at least one real meal a day even if that's going to McDonald's and getting something there eat a real meal you know that's also why we buy food to keep in the room is so you can eat that on top of a real meal and have enough energy throughout the day you can eat a real meal in your hotel room you know you can have soups and sandwiches and stuff like that and that's a real meal I just want to make sure you actually spend the time to sit down and eat something it's very very important and a lot of people skip out on it hygiene is SuperDuper important shower every single two if not showered twice daily if you're some like me that changes cosplay at least twice to three times a day I will shower in between those cosplays even if you shower at night that's fine if you shower in the morning that's fine just shower at least once a day where do you do it it's not that expensive you can buy cheap stuff I don't want to hear anyone's excuses for that if you can afford to go to an anime con you can afford deodorant and something a lot of people don't think about is don't spray heavy perfumes in a con that goes with hygiene because a lot of people think they could just cover up sense with like perfumes but the thing is some of us a Kay people like me are heavily allergic to perfumes I use ones that I'm not allergic to but I'm allergic to so many of them and I really would like to be able to breathe at a convention you know just be wary you know go outside and spray your perfume if you're gonna use it you know just be mindful of others with that kind of thing no one ever talks about that so I have to the last real thing I want to talk about is like being safe cons can be a really friendly place but they can be scary at times there are bad people in this world it's not just that anime conventions but you know it happens there and so there are things you can do to help keep yourself and potentially others safe from these people that really should just not be doing half the things they do number one is never be alone if you can help it it's just not good just don't be alone always keep a buddy with you keep a friend with you you know I hate saying stranger danger but stranger danger be very wary of strangers you know if you ever get a weird vibe from anyone please go just leave walk away from them don't stay near them you know you're probably getting that vibe for a reason if you're younger I just i heavily recommend not going out into con nightlife honestly it's much more fun to stay in your room with your and maybe watch movies play games you know do that kind of thing then go out with a bunch of drunk people it's just not a good place to be sometimes another thing is if you ever see something severely concerning please please please report it to a staff member right away so staff is just going to start keeping an eye on them and make sure they do nothing wrong there have just been not good instances at cons you know be safe take care of yourself stay with people that's the biggest thing I just I always worry about bad things happening if I can prevent things that have happened to me and my friends from happening to younger people I would really really love to have like really loved for that to be I want conventions to be a fun safe space for kids and adults and anybody who goes you know they're supposed to be fun and they're not supposed to end with lawsuits and actual policemen and hospital visits and all sorts of things that have happened the last not so dramatic an angsty note you know when I get home from a con make sure you rest up please you know get yourself that extra sleep because I know at conventions even though we try to get all the sleep we need we're never gonna we're full of excitement you know make sure you take lots of vitamins when you get home make sure you don't get sick cuz chances are I can guarantee you after like a convention or two you're probably gonna get sick it's just bound to happen there's so many people you touch doors handrails all sorts of different things mentions like I said are super fun and there's so much worth going to because my happiest times are always at conventions even if I do dump things end up crying at some point over something stupid usually an anime boy let's be real you know you know it's just it's a lot of fun so hopefully this gets you excited and ready for your next con or if you've been to a few cons maybe you learn things to make life a little bit easier for you with that I will see you guys next time and have a really wonderful day love you all bye

Channel: Majka Ren

Views: 76,747

Rating: 4.9840746 out of 5

Keywords: anime, manga, con, convention, cosplay, cosplayer, newbies, noobs, video games, katsucon, anime central, daishocon, dragon con, momocon, yeti con, anime expo, fanime, san diego, comic con, comicon, wizard world, san japan, akon, holmat, holdiay matsuri

Id: tCTACyrtZqs

Length: 26min 22sec (1582 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019