Thomas Cardwell, known for his cross-dressing Shampoo, also is rarely seen without his laptop PC, which he put to use registering people for the inaugural Neko-Con. Cardwell was one of the dozens of people who were determined to being an anime convention back to Virginia Beach after Katsucon moved to the Washington D.C. area. |
The first guest spotted at Neko-Con was Tristan MacAvery, voice actor and director for ADV Films, who took a weekend off from a new dubbing project. He quickly found the hotel pool and managed to stay dry (unlike other con guests at other events). David Williams and Matt Greenfield of ADV arrived at the convention later in the day. |
Proudly wearing her Hello Kitty shirt, Elin Winkler of Radio Comix greeted the early arrivals at the new con... |
...while her Radio comix partner, Pat Duke, lugged merchandise into the hotel. |
Toshifumi Yoshida of Viz Communications rarely misses an anime convention, usually to do his imitation of Hong Kong action movie star Chow Yun Fat. However, this time Yoshida had something special... |
...one of the rare Nintendo Pocket Pikachu virtual pets, not yet released in the U.S. With this toy, the more you walk, the more "electricity" you generate to feed the electric mouse from Pocket Monsters. |
A basketball-sized Pikachu was on hand at the registration desk to meet the early arrivals... |
...while a few feet away, his cousins in several sizes were being readied for sale in the dealer room. Neko-Con attendees seemed to have a hard time being patient enough for the room to open so they could spend all of their money on the first day. |
Kayt Robarts, former comic editor and constant cosplayer, promised to bring back the Dai-Con costume for the Saturday night masquerade. But who is that slipping into the picture to Robarts' left? |
It's Megan and Heather, fresh from their cat girl triumph at Otakon, ready to dazzle convention goers with a fresh supply of costumes...and maybe some older ones (the sword looked like it came from their Mamono Hunter Yohko costumes of a couple of years back). |
This guy was a great cosplay MC at Katsucon when he dressed as Lupin III - his face is a perfect match for the angular anime character. So why was he wearing a white yutaka instead of a Lupin jacket? It turned out he was saving the jacket for the karaoke contest. |
A group of people surrounded this gentleman in the hall, complimenting him on this costume and trying to guess what character he was playing. "It's not a costume," he replied. "I always dress this way. I'm from New York." |
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