Kumoricon is officially my favorite out-of-state Anime convention, bar none. That said I probably can't afford to return for Kumoricon 2024 because I'm already committed to 1) SakuraCon 2024 2) MomoCon 2024 and 3) Anime Revolution (AniRevo) in Vancouver, British Columba, Canada! Plus I'm visiting my friend in Washington DC in January for his promotion to Captain in the US Naval Reserve, though he actually works full time at the Pentagon these days.
At any rate, my Seattle friends drove down to Portland for Kumoricon 2023 and I enjoyed their company. I flew in on Thursday....my inbound leg was a bit of a fiasco, with multiple delays, change of planes and change of departure terminal. Luckily I was in NO hurry whatsoever. I had lunch in PDX at the same place as last year ("Hopworks") and had the same bartender/waitress too, which I pointed out to her. She welcomed me back to PDX. Good ol' Concourse E.
After that, I claimed my checked luggage downstairs and rode the Red MAX Train light rail into downtown Portland. I got off at the Convention Center stop and went inside to claim my Kumoricon badge at Early Badge Pickup. It was so late in the day by that point I was able to check into my hotel room immediately after. Once I dropped off my things, I headed back downstairs to ride the next TriMet bus to Safeway for a beer and distilled water run.
Made it back to my hotel after dark and stowed my beer away. I started binging Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix on my iPad. I had eaten such a late and filling lunch I honestly wasn't hungry. I got a snack from the hotel convenience store of cheese and thin sliced sausage. Still feeling peckish, I later came down to the lobby/bar for a late night Poke bowl of Tuna & veggies! It was delish! I then returned to my room and kept binging Blue Eye Samurai until 4am!
Next Day I did convention stuff waiting for my friends to arrive. They got stuck in Seattle traffic and were delayed until past lunch. I had lunch at Red Robin then met them at the hotel and escorted them to the Registration line. I then went to the first seating for the AMV contest, which my friends missed most of but my friend Debby joined me for the final category. We later attended the Sunday encore screening to catch up on what she missed while standing in line to pick up her badge. Debby really enjoyed the AMV contest and so did I.
The AMV contest was really great this year and I loved it. I attended the AMV Contest Winners screening on Sunday and was pleased by the results as well.
I was especially happy "Run, Makoto, Run" won best in show.....that AMV was INSANE! and I definitely voted for it for Best in Show!
I also did some COSPLAY of my own, for Friday, as Lum's Dad, aka Mr. INVADER, from Urusei Yatsura! Here I am with the lovely and talented voice actress Dani Chambers! Voice of Chise from Ancient Magus Bride and many other notable roles!
So many other, more talented COSPLAYERS this year too! We had old school Vash the Stampede and the reboot version of Vash!
I also got to meet J. Michael Tatum, veteran anime voice actor and my GOSH this man is TALL!
And still happy to see RWBY cosplay in the wild....Ruby Rose & Blake Belladonna!
and
I happened to catch sight of Brittney Karbowski in the convention center but since I've met her before at previous events I did not get in her line at her booth.
All in all, Kumoricon 2023 was a blast and I highly recommend this convention as it is pretty much "Goldilocks Size" for me....not too big, not too small, really just RIGHT for me.