Connecticon 2010 Program Cover

Connecticon 2010 was a particularly awesome Connecticon for Senpai Magazine! We went to panels, got interviews, and of course took many many pictures. For those who don’t know, Connecticon is an anime convention in Hartford Connecticut that takes place in Hartford’s own Convention Center. We tend to love this con more than any other because not only is it based in our home state, it is also a small convention that is not too small to be boring but not too large as to be impossible to do everything you want.

One thing we truly love about Connecticon is the sheer diversity that you see. There is everything from the Animaniacs to Sailor Moon.

Animaniacs

From left to right: Sailor Pluto, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mercury

Connecticon also caters to video game and movie lovers. There is a huge room devoted to video gaming and multiple tournaments are held for various fighting and first person shooters. We saw tons of Star Wars cosplayers along the way and Mike from our staff donned his best Colonial Marine gear. We also had Jim and Jen give their take on the Tim Burton inspired  goth version of Alice in Wonderland.

Star Wars Cosplay. Love the female Boba Fett!

Colonial Marine from Aliens

Link and Zelda

Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts with Sorcerer Mickey

A group of truffles from Kingdom Hearts

A blood elf from Warcraft

I'ma Luigi, number one!

Jim and Jen as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter

Connecticon is also home to many cosplay events such as the Masquerade, Cosplay Contests, and various skits. It’s a great time to see how much creativity went into everyone’s outfits and how the cosplayer can really bring their character to life. My favorite event and one that was originally a Connecticon exclusive is Cosplay Chess. Basically a bunch of cosplayers gather together on a “board” and play the roles of chess pieces on the both sides. When one piece takes the other a battle insues and these battles never fail to be utterly hilarious given the random characters that show up in this event.

A Connecticon Cosplay Chess battle

And of course you can’t have an anime convention without the anime! Connecticon offers 24 hour screenings for a vast variety of anime series. I managed to sit in for screenings of Heroman and Giant Killer as I have not gotten a chance to watch those yet. Both of these animes will be featured in the Anime Review section of our magazine. Given that anime makes up a large part of Connecticon, we came across many anime cosplayers.

A bunch of Genes surround Hilda from Outlaw Star. One of my favorites.

Witch Hunter Robin and C.C. from Code Geass

Sakura and Syaoran from Tsubasa Chronicles

Tuxedo Mask, classic

Wolfwood from Trigun, another one of my favorites

This is me as a Ghostbuster next to Yoko from Toppa Gurren Lagann

As always with anime conventions there was a lot of randomness to be had. It was really amazing to see just what people came up with as cosplay outfits this year! And of course we ourselves had a little fun as well.

Gingy from Shrek

Yes, even Hello Kitty was there

Cobra decided to start giving autographs, what a guy!

Me showing everyone how a dwarf parties at the rave

At the end we chilled at the nearby pub after a weekend of fun. Looks like Dumpling was having a lot of fun!

And so ends our Connecticon weekend. We’ll definately be going back next year and I would recommend this convention to anyone who lives in Connecticut or is willing to travel there during the summer. We’ll be posting full convention coverage in Senpai Magazine for any conventions that we attend. There will of course be more pictures in there as well so if you didn’t see yourself here, it’s possible you’ll be in our first issue! If you want any of the pictures you saw here in hi res you can contact us and we’ll email it to you. See you next year Connecticon!